Devil Stories Part 14

A soldier named Briones had obtained permission for a few days' leave to enable him to visit his native place, which was Villagananes. He took the road which led to the lofty mountain upon whose summit the son-in-law of Mother Holofernes was cursing all mothers-in-law, past, present, and future, promising as soon as ever he regained his power to put an end to that cla.s.s of vipers, and by a very simple method--the abolition of matrimony. Much of his time was spent in composing and reciting satires against the invention of washing linen, the primal cause of his present trouble.

Arrived at the foot of the mountain, Briones did not care to go round the mountain like the road, but wished to go straight ahead, a.s.suring the carriers who were with him, that if the mountain would not go to the right-about for him he would pa.s.s over its summit, although it were so high that he should knock his head against the sky.

When he reached the summit, Briones was struck with amazement on seeing the phial borne like a pimple on the nose of the mountain. He took it up, looked through it, and on perceiving the demon, who with years of confinement and fasting, the sun's rays, and sadness, had dwindled and become as dried as a prune, exclaimed in surprise:--

"Whatever vermin is this? What a phenomenon!"

"I am an honourable and meritorious demon," said the captive, humbly and courteously. "The perversity of a treacherous mother-in-law, into whose clutches I fell, has held me confined here during the last ten years; liberate me, valiant warrior, and I will grant any favour you choose to solicit."

"I should like my demission from the army," said Briones.

"You shall have it; but uncork, uncork quickly, for it is a most monstrous anomaly to have thrust into a corner, in these revolutionary times, the first revolutionist in the world."

Briones drew the cork out slightly, and a noxious vapour issued from the bottle and ascended to his brain. He sneezed, and immediately replaced the stopper with such a violent blow from his hand that the cork was suddenly depressed, and the prisoner, squeezed down, gave a shout of rage and pain.

"What are you doing, vile earthworm, more malicious and perfidious than my mother-in-law?" he exclaimed.

"There is another condition," responded Briones, "that I must add to our treaty; it appears to me that the service I am going to do you is worth it."

"And what is this condition, tardy liberator?" inquired the demon.

"I should like for thy ransom four dollars daily during the rest of my life. Think of it, for upon that depends whether you stay in or come out."

"Miserable avaricious one!" exclaimed the demon, "I have no money."

"Oh!" replied Briones, "what an answer from a great lord like you!

Why, friend, that is the Minister of War's answer! If you can't pay me I cannot help you."

"Then you do not believe me," said the demon, "only let me out, and I will aid you to obtain what you want as I have done for many others.

Let me out, I say, let me out."

"Gently," responded the soldier, "there is nothing to hurry about.

Understand me that I shall have to hold you by the tail until you have performed your promise to me; and if not, I have nothing more to say to you."

"Insolent, do you not trust me then!" shouted the demon.

"No," responded Briones.

"What you desire is contrary to my dignity," said the captive, with all the arrogance that a being of his size could express.

"Now I must go," said Briones.

"Good-bye," said the demon, in order not to say _adieu_.

But seeing that Briones went off, the captive made desperate jumps in the phial, shouting loudly to the soldier.

"Return, return, dear friend," he said; and muttered to himself, "I should like a four-year-old bull to overtake you, you soulless fool!"

and then he shouted, "Come, come, beneficent fellow, liberate me, and hold me by the tail, or by the nose, valiant warrior;" and then muttered to himself, "Some one will avenge me, obstinate soldier; and if the son-in-law of Mother Holofernes is not able to do it, there are those who will burn you both, face to face, in the same bonfire, or I have little influence."

On hearing the demon's supplications Briones returned and uncorked the bottle. Mother Holofernes's son-in-law came forth like a chick from its sh.e.l.l, drawing out his head first and then his body, and lastly his tail, which Briones seized; and the more the demon tried to contract it the firmer he held it.

After the ex-captive, who was somewhat cramped, had occasionally stopped to stretch his arms and legs, they took the road to court, the demon grumbling and following the soldier, who carried the tail well secured in his hands.

On their arrival they went to court, and the demon said to his liberator:--

"I am going to put myself into the body of the princess, who is extremely beloved by her father, and I shall give her pains that no doctor will be able to cure; then you present yourself and offer to cure her, demanding for your recompense four dollars daily, and your discharge. I will then leave her to you, and our accounts will be settled."

Everything happened as arranged and foreseen by the demon, but Briones did not wish to let go his hold of the tail, and he said:--

"Well devised, sir, but four dollars are a ransom unworthy of you, of me, and of the service that we have undertaken. Find some method of showing yourself more generous. To do this will give you honour in the world, where, pardon my frankness, you do not enjoy the best of characters."

"Would that I could get rid of you!" said the demon to himself, "but I am so weak and so numbed that I am not able to go alone. I must have patience! that which men call a virtue. Oh, now I understand why so many fall into my power for not having practised it. Forward then for Naples, for it is necessary to submit in order to liberate my tail. I must go and submit to the arbitration of fate for the satisfaction of this new demand."

Everything succeeded according to his wish. The princess of Naples fell a victim to convulsive pains and took to her bed. The king was greatly afflicted. Briones presented himself with all the arrogance his knowledge that he would receive the demon's aid could give him.

The king was willing to make use of his services, but stipulated that if within three days he had not cured the princess, as he confidently promised to, he should be hanged. Briones, certain of a favourable result, did not raise the slightest objection.

Unfortunately, the demon heard this arrangement made, and gave a leap of delight at seeing within his hands the means of avenging himself.

The demon's leap caused the princess such pain that she begged them to take the doctor away.

The following day this scene was repeated. Briones then knew that the demon was at the bottom of it, and intended to let him be hanged. But Briones was not a man to lose his head.

On the third day, when the pretended doctor arrived, they were erecting the gallows in front of the very palace door. As he entered the princess's apartment, the invalid's pains were redoubled and she began to cry out that they should put an end to that impostor.

"I have not exhausted all my resources yet," said Briones gravely, "deign, your Royal Highness, to wait a little while." He then went out of the room and gave orders in the princess's name that all the bells of the city should be rung.

When he returned to the royal apartment, the demon, who has a mortal hatred of the sound of bells, and is, moreover, inquisitive, asked Briones what the bells were ringing for.

"They are ringing," responded the soldier, "because of the arrival of your mother-in-law, whom I have ordered to be summoned."

Scarcely had the demon heard that his mother-in-law had arrived, than he flew away with such rapidity that not even a sun's ray could have caught him. Proud as a peac.o.c.k, Briones was left in victorious possession of the field.

THE GENEROUS GAMBLER[17]

BY CHARLES PIERRE BAUDELAIRE

[17] From _The English Review_, November 1918. By permission of the Editor and Mr. Arthur Symons.

Yesterday, across the crowd of the boulevard, I found myself touched by a mysterious Being I had always desired to know, and who I recognized immediately, in spite of the fact that I had never seen him. He had, I imagined, in himself, relatively as to me, a similar desire, for he gave me, in pa.s.sing, so significant a sign in his eyes that I hastened to obey him. I followed him attentively, and soon I descended behind him into a subterranean dwelling, astonishing to me as a vision, where shone a luxury of which none of the actual houses in Paris could give me an approximate example. It seemed to me singular that I had pa.s.sed so often that prodigious retreat without having discovered the entrance. There reigned an exquisite, an almost stifling atmosphere, which made one forget almost instantaneously all the fastidious horrors of life; there I breathed a sombre sensuality, like that of opium-smokers when, set on the sh.o.r.e of an enchanted island, over which shone an eternal afternoon, they felt born in them, to the soothing sounds of melodious cascades, the desire of never again seeing their households, their women, their children, and of never again being tossed on the decks of ships by storms.

There were there strange faces of men and women, gifted with so fatal a beauty that I seemed to have seen them years ago and in countries which I failed to remember, and which inspired in me that curious sympathy and that equally curious sense of fear that I usually discover in unknown aspects. If I wanted to define in some fashion or other the singular expression of their eyes, I would say that never had I seen such magic radiance more energetically expressing the horror of _ennui_ and of desire--of the immortal desire of feeling themselves alive.

As for mine host and myself, we were already, as we sat down, as perfect friends as if we had always known each other. We drank immeasurably of all sorts of extraordinary wines, and--a thing not less bizarre--it seemed to me, after several hours, that I was no more intoxicated than he was.