Vítězslav Nezval
Valerie and Her Week of Wonders
A GOTHIC NOVEL
Translated from the Czech by David Short
Twisted Spoon Press
Prague
Copyright © 1945, 2005 by Estate of Vítězslav Nezval
English translation copyright © 2005 by David Short
Illustration copyright © 1945, 2005 by Estate of Kamil Lhoták
This edition copyright © 2005 by Twisted Spoon Press
All rights reserved. This book, or parts thereof, may not be used or reproduced in any form, except in the context of reviews, without written permission from the Publisher.
Originally published in Czech as Valerie a týden divů, illustrated by Kamil Lhoták (Prague: F.J. Müller, 1945)
The translation was made possible by a grant from the Ministry of Culture of the Czech Republic.
Cover and frontispiece image by Kamil Lhoták
Design by Jed Slast
First published in English in 2005 by Twisted Spoon Press
P.O. Box 21—Preslova 12, 150 21 Prague 5, Czech Republic
www.twistedspoon.com
ISBN 978-80-86264-19-6 (paperback)
ISBN 978-80-86264-69-1 (e-book)
FOREWORD
I wrote this novel out of a love of the mystique in those ancient tales,
superstitions and romances, printed in Gothic script, which used to flit before my
eyes and declined to convey to me their content. It strikes me that the poetic art
is no more and no less than the repayment of old debts to life and to the mystery
of life. Not wishing to lead anyone astray by my “Gothic novel” (least of all
those who are afraid to look beyond the boundaries of “the present”), I am
appealing to those who, like myself, gladly pause at times over the secrets of
certain old courtyards, vaults, summer houses and those mental loops which
gyrate around the mysterious. If, with this book, I will have given them an
evocation of the rare and tenuous sensations which compelled me to write a
story that borders on the ridiculous and trite, I shall be satisfied.
The Author
Chapter I
A MAGICAL YARD
Valerie, an oil lamp in her hand, entered the yard. The moon was full ... Her bare
feet touched the moonlight. She could also detect the scent of the garden. The
noise from the poultry was unceasing. With her right hand she clasped her bed
jacket to her.
“Who’s up there?” she called and took a step towards the henhouse.
A moth circled the lamp. Then a second, and a third.
“It’s a polecat,” she told herself.
But suddenly she noticed that the yard was unrecognizable.
“Where’s my apple tree?”
But the woodshed had also disappeared, and the wall was twice as high as
usual. She thought she heard the well winch squeak.
Then she heard the following conversation:
“Have pity on me.”
“Where did you put her earrings?”
“But you know I’ve been with you the whole time.”
“I’m warning you again.”
“When did you stop trusting me, Constable?”
“Don’t mock me.”
“I’m innocent.”
“We’ll see who’s master!”
“For God’s sake, surely you don’t mean to ... ?”
“You’ll be put to the water torture.”
“Tyrant!”
Valerie thought she heard a groan. Involuntarily, she put her right hand to her
ear as if to check that her earrings were in place. Both were gone. She stepped up
close to the henhouse from where the two arguing voices and the terrified
cheeping of the birds were coming. Suddenly a hand reached out towards her
lamp, and before she could cry out in horror she felt someone fixing her lost
earrings back in place. At once she saw the apple tree and woodshed and the
voices fell silent. Her hand fell to her breast. Beneath its gentle curve her heart
pounded as if she had run a long way. Why was she holding a lamp when there
were so many stars overhead? Not that the lamp could be recognized: swirling
about it were moths from all the surrounding gardens. She set it down on the step
and sat down herself. Her ears still rang with the voice that had uttered that
desperate word: “Tyrant.” And the words about a water torture still clung to her
mind.
She took off her right earring and toyed with it. The silence was so intense she
could hear the brook running. Somewhere water was dripping. The sound was
intolerable, and she shuddered. The hens were sleeping again.
“I’m not going back to bed now,” she said aloud, and leaving the lamp in the
doorway, she went to the other end of the yard. The carriage stood there with its
hood clipped in place. She sat in it and looked at the sky.
The moon played with her earrings. She saw a ray of light jetting off them
onto the carriage hood. She wished she could hear the two bickering voices.
“I wonder what will happen if I take my earrings off.”
“Constable,” she heard the moment the golden ray of light stopped playing in
the carriage. “Constable, I confess everything.”
“Who would have thought,” the other man growled, “that Orlík would one day
become my sworn enemy.”
“You’re wrong, Constable. Orlík knows he is bound to you by a debt of
gratitude.”
“Some gratitude!”
“I didn’t know those trinkets meant so much to you.”
“Liar!”
“You’ve made me pay for it!”
“Next time I’ll double the torture.”
Terrified of hearing more, Valerie put her earrings back in.
“So, it’s Orlík!”
At that moment, the frightened cries of the chickens came again from the
henhouse and the voices continued talking.
“Get down, Orlík, and hold the ladder for me.”
“You’re acting like a right old man, Constable.”
“Silence, you seventeen-year-old cub!”
“My age exactly,” thought Valerie.
“There’s no ladder here, Constable.”
“Don’t go hoping I’ll break my neck!”
“Fine things you suspect me of, guardian.”
In disbelief Valerie could hear the conversation despite having her earrings in.
It made no difference whether she had them in or out, the voices were clearly
audible either way.
“Oh well, I’ll get down then, Constable.”
The girl huddled under the carriage hood, and although she was afraid they
would find her there, she tilted her head out a little to observe what was
happening at the foot of the henhouse. The story was not long in unfolding. A
young man, a few inches taller than Valerie, jumped down and donned a straw
boater.
“Orlík,” came a voice from above, “stoop over so I can climb down your
back.”
“Are you really so weak, Constable?”
“Are you asking for the water torture again?”
That seemed to strike fear in the young man. He stooped, presenting his back
to the huge boots of his superior. Then, gradually and gently, he bent lower and
Valerie saw a stout man emerge, borne aloft on Orlík’s back beneath the opening
of the henhouse. Orlík’s face was concealed from sight, leaving Valerie ample
opportunity to inspect the other, who, to judge from what she had heard said,
enjoyed unlimited power over the younger man. The moon shone straight into
the face of the man descending from the henhouse. It was not a human face. It
was the face of a polecat.
“Constable,” said Orlík, “where have you left the birds you strangled?”
But just then the Polecat gave a tug on a string he was holding and, as if it
were a truss of partridges, several strangled chickens sprang into Valerie’s sight.
“My speckled hen with the crest is dead,” the girl sighed. She wanted to shout
“Thieves!” but her voice stuck in her throat.
The man who let himself be addressed as “Constable” and Orlík strolled
across the yard towards the gate, impervious to anything.
“Thieves!” the girl shouted.
But it was too late. The gate had closed and the nocturnal visitors had
disappeared among the gardens.
In the distance a cock crowed. Then a second, and a third.
“Orlík,” Valerie said to herself.
She stretched out in the carriage as if on a bed and began to inspect her bare
feet in the moonlight.
As she was examining them, she felt that a tiny spider was spinning a thread
down the inner side of her thigh. She raised her eyes to the sky and thought no
more of the unusual sensation.
“Orlík is seventeen,” she said in spite of herself. But at once added:
“My poor hen.”
Another cock chimed up, answered by two others from far away. But the night
remained unchanging. When the girl glanced back towards the door, she saw
about ten moths obstinately circling the lamp. She felt the little spider had
reached the ankle of her left foot. She glanced down at it and saw to her great
dismay a thin stream of blood trickling over her ankle.
“The Polecat,” she shrieked in horror and, leaping out of the carriage, she
dashed towards the door.
The moths flew after the lamp as she took it with her to light the way down
the long corridor leading to her room.
Somewhere close by a cock crowed.
Valerie flung herself into bed and clamped her fists over her ears to block out
the sounds of the vanishing night.
Chapter II
A TALK WITH GRANDMOTHER
“Good morning,” Valerie said next morning to her grandmother, who was back
from church and getting breakfast ready in the old dining room, where the table
was laid for two.
“Missionaries are coming,” Grandmother replied tersely.
“When?” the girl asked abstractedly.
“Tomorrow or the day after.”
Grandmother dropped into thought. Then, having consumed a gulp of coffee,
she uttered a sentence that seemed to cause her some embarrassment:
“The archpriest is thinking of quartering one of the missionaries with us since
there’s not enough room at the rectory.”
Valerie did not reply. She played with an earring until she unhooked it from
her ear and, looking at it against the sun, decided the time had come to ask her
grandmother a few questions.
“Grandma,” she said timidly.
“You’re not fiddling with your earring, are you, my child?”
“It came undone.”
“Do be careful!”
“They were a christening present, weren’t they, Grandma?”
“No, silly, they were your mother’s,” the old woman said in consternation.
“I don’t remember ever seeing her wear them.”
“Of course not, she didn’t wear them.”
“Might I know why, Grandma?”
“I don’t know whether you’re old enough for me to tell you.”
“Grandma!”
“Just be grateful you’re still a child.”
“Not any more, Grandma. Just last night ...”
Grandmother stood up and gazed silently towards the window.
Then she said in agitation:
“At seventeen. Just like your mother.”
“It came in the night.”
“All right, let’s not talk about it.”
The old lady was picking up non-existent crumbs from the table. Then, pulling
herself together, she said in a trembling voice:
“At last, it is my duty to warn you.”
Valerie blushed.
“Your mother set the earrings aside the day she entered the convent.”
“Do you mean a convent school for girls?”
“No. Your mother entered the convent to become a nun.”
Valerie turned pale. She felt as if her throat were contracting and she could
not utter a sound.
“It wasn’t just my wish, you know. It was her own decision to make the
sacrifice.”
Valerie was amazed she had been born.
“Your father was the Bishop of –. Surely you remember the day he died; we
went to his funeral.”
Valerie finally understood the upheaval surrounding the funeral of the Bishop
of –, which had turned Grandma’s house upside down. How could she forget the
magnificent ceremony, which she had been permitted to attend ten years ago?
“But my mother wasn’t alive by then. I remember that well.”
“No. Nor was your stepfather, the colonel, whose name you bear.”
“I remember him dying suddenly.”
“After a bout of uremia.”
“And Mother?”
“She died of pernicious anemia.”
The old lady stared at her granddaughter with the words:
“God be praised that you are a young woman at last. I’d been so afraid that
you would die. You know, the only reason your mother entered the convent was
that we expected her to die, as I’ve been expecting you to. If it weren’t for last
night, it would have been my wish that a missionary prepare you for the same
path your mother was unable to keep to.”
“Did she take her vows?”
“I cannot tell a lie. She was truly a nun.”
“Is there some special story attached to my earrings?”
“Your grandfather bought them when they were auctioning off the property of
a certain constable who used to own this house.”
Valerie paled.
“Who was that constable?”
“I don’t know much about his story. He seems to have squandered his
wealth.”
“Look, Grandma, what a funny parade!” Valerie cried and rushed to the
window.
“It’s a wedding,” said the old lady, not deeming the performance that had so
surprised her granddaughter worthy of her attention. “It’s the wedding of a
miserly old landowner from R., and his farmhands hope to soften him up by
putting on this party with masks and all.”
“Who’s he marrying?”
“The daughter of our former neighbor, the one with the corn chandler
husband.”
“Not the little girl I sometimes played with in the yard?”
“Yes, Hedviga.”
“But you say the landowner is old and miserly.”
“He is indeed.”
“Neither one nor the other makes sense with this wedding.”
“How do you mean?”
“If he’s old, why is he marrying a bride so young?”
“Few young girls would spurn the chance of becoming a landowner’s wife.”
“So why’s he marrying a poor girl, if he’s so greedy?”
“She’s young. That explains everything.”
Valerie continued looking out the window, every now and then bursting into
laughter.
“One of them has draped himself in a flag. This wedding’s a regular carnival.”
“I expect they’re making fun of their master.”
“One’s on stilts and he’s twitching his ears like a little donkey,” said her
granddaughter.
“Don’t let them see you. The devil’s gotten into them and they might start
making a commotion outside our windows. That would hardly befit the house a
missionary is due to enter tomorrow or the day after.”
Valerie realized she was the daughter of a bishop. Because she relished words
that struck her as in any way odd, she said to herself: “I’m the daughter of a
bishop and a nun.” But the gravity that these words should have produced
dissipated against the backdrop of the ludicrous wedding procession.
“I wonder what old hat shop they plundered. I’m amazed at the number of
funny-shaped top hats that a good third of the wedding party have got on. But
where are the bride and groom?”
“What you see,” Grandmother said, still sitting with her back to the window,
“are just the young men making the rounds of the town with an earthenware jug
of wine and drinking to the couple’s health.”
Valerie suddenly stepped back from the window. Whether her eyes were
deceiving her or not, she felt she was looking straight into the ugly face of the
Polecat. Rather than a real human face, it reminded her of some horrid maggot
for frightening children.
“Grandma, look, Grandma, I’ve just seen a real monster.”
The old woman turned. She even stood up and took two steps towards the
window. The blood drained from her features.
“Step back from the window. Don’t be seen ...”
“Who by?” the girl asked.
“Oh, any of them,” her grandmother gestured in resignation.
“How can it be?” she said, sitting back down at the table.
“It’s the very image of the constable. Yet he died long ago. No one can live
for a hundred years, and more, and not change. Run along, Valerie, and practice
the fingering of your flat scales.”
Chapter III
A LETTER
The nun’s daughter has still not recovered from all the horrendous news of the
last two days when she is delivered a large letter written in a tiny hand. Valerie
does not know whether she should dare open it, or whether to entrust its secrets
to her grandmother. Lost in thought, she paces down one side of the jumbled
room two maids are converting into a missionary’s cell. In the corridor there is a
draft. Inside the apartment there is practically no escaping Grandmother’s
quizzical looks. The carriage is risky, as it is laden with memories. The garden is
too vast. So Valerie opts for the cellar as the place to investigate her secret. She
breaks the seal. One last time she closes her eyes as if making up her mind. Then
she reads:
Fair maiden, who overwhelms the Prince of Darkness with her grace,
please accept these few words of mine in total trust. Who am I? Before I answer
that question, permit me a few digressions. First I wish to tell you what my poor
father confided to me on his deathbed. It was five years ago in a certain small
town in Italy. To this day I can see the blanket beneath which the old man lay
shivering as he recounted the dreadful hardships he had to endure on account of
his uncle, the constable, who, incidentally, is my guardian to this day. My father
was dying, his conscience burdened with the numerous crimes he had had to
commit at the behest of that one-hundred-twenty-year-old monster who had
known every oak tree in its infancy. But that is not all. This good man had to
watch as his spouse, my mother, faded away, just to provide that fiend with all
that he required for his vile spells. Neither my father nor I ever learned what
was happening to that beautiful creature, why some days she was as pale as
chalk and why, for all the gnashing of my father’s teeth, she would obediently
take herself off to see my uncle, whence she would return as insubstantial as a
shadow. No, I do not have the courage to contemplate what befell her there, at
his seat in Italy, which he sold shortly after my mother’s death. No one ever
discovered the secret of his house, and it was not just one house – God only
knows how many times he has moved in the course of his squalid life, which even
now is evidently far from reaching its end.
And now comes the most distressing part. One of the houses to have witnessed
his secret is the one where you now live. Oh yes, he knows its every stone, and
better than any of its current inhabitants. He knows everything, from how the
door locks work right down to your earrings. But that’s not all. You have
probably gathered from what I have said that I am as subject to the constable’s
will as my poor father was. I am as young as fish milt and though several times I
have been ready to commit a crime, some stroke of fortune has kept my hands
clean. And two days ago, by his agency, I saw something so entrancing that I
cannot view the days to come but with fear and trepidation. By the light of the
moon I saw you sleeping close by the open window; it was from here you would
have been able to see a ladder the following morning, had it not slid to the
ground under a sudden gust of wind. Thus were you robbed of your earrings,
and I had the good fortune, as the monster’s accomplice, to know you. Was not
my father similarly granted the same good fortune, which in the fullness of time
was to become twisted into misfortune? I am fearful of the future, and this fear
guides my hand as I write to you. I know not why the monster seized the
earrings, but I am afraid it was not just from greed. No matter what the case, the
jewels are back in your hands. From the fact that my uncle’s favorite food is
fresh chicken blood, you may deduce how his mind works. I do not wish to
frighten you with the assurance that he is an extraordinary man who has, so it
would seem, thoroughly covered the learning of several centuries. I suspect he is
equally schooled as a doctor and as a priest, and I have personally witnessed his
remarkable skills as a veterinarian. But let me not overestimate the role of the
earrings; what concerns me far more is the immediate fate of their wearer.
Maybe he wanted to sniff them as he might the last wind-torn petal of a rose he
hankers for. Once I was witness to how he ran a hind through with a massive
knife, and only because he wanted to sniff its blood. And yet the worst of it is that
at that moment my eyes gleamed, although my heart had nearly stopped beating
in disgust at the heinous stroke of fate which I was powerless to avert. I suspect
the constable of having many unwitting allies, but I’ve never been able to
determine in advance which of those who affect more innocence than little vetch
flowers belong to his gang. Then again, do they even realize it themselves? I’m
afraid they do not. And so for many a long year, with never a twinge of
conscience and no suspicion of following in the worst possible footsteps, I have
carried out his errands with a measure of glee. Once you have read this letter,
destroy it without delay. The man with the polecat face would exact terrible
vengeance on me if the letter were to fall into his hands one day, even years
later. But what if I were only acting as his instrument even now? What if I were
just the snare that was to entrap you? Although in writing these words I am
plunging a knife into my very heart, I cannot but warn you against myself, since
I truly do not know what I am. You have my promise that I shall be on guard
against my own deeds – and that I would rather break my own neck than become
the cause of your misfortune.
So finally I come to the entreaty that I would wish from the bottom of my soul
not to go unheeded.
Tomorrow, as I expect you know, the missionaries who are at this very
moment entering the town will give their first divine service. I do not doubt that
you, like all the daughters of reputable families, will also be attending the
service. Everything, as I see it, is going our way. I doubt your aged relative will
accompany you to church, since the first service of the missionaries is intended
for maiden girls. I do not know if I have told you, but I am barely seventeen and
no razor has yet touched my chin. So then, if you were to leave a set of your
clothes for me in the garden arbor, I might be able to escape the town’s notice
and attend the service by your side. This I urgently beseech you, since by
whispering between the prayers I will be able to reveal more to you than can be
committed to paper. Believe me when I say that I have few opportunities to be
alone. That I am able to put these few lines on paper I owe to the constable’s
attendance at some crazy wedding, the noise from which shows no sign of
abating as I write. My constable enjoys a party every now and then, since at any
sort of masquerade his scarred face blends in better than at other times, so he
has no need to conceal it by sundry devices of his own making. As the old saying
goes, the Devil always makes a good companion.
I have not been granted the gift of writing poetically, but how could I have
been when I am doomed to spend my days at the side of such an unsavory
character as my dubious uncle. And yet I do not know whether I should suspect
him so totally of a lack of decent conduct. He remembers times when gallantry
was not in such absolutely short supply as today, and who can tell what this
revolting polecat, this chicken-sucker, might be capable of? I can feel my face
beginning to burn, and several beads of sweat have appeared on my brow. My
blood boils at the thought that I must make you witness things which would make
even the most hardened blush, while I would prefer to speak to you, without
witnesses, of things not so utterly devoid of grace as these lines of mine. So, once
more, even if it may sound like an order: Before dusk falls, you shall find a way
to lend me some of your clothes. At least this will give you the sensation of
standing next to yourself. Let the missionary thunder, our whispers shall be loud
enough to drown out not just the prayers, but his fulminations as well.
In eschewing all the usual courtesies, I do not mean to banish courtesy from
the discourse of men and women. The paper runs out here, barely permitting me
to sign, as legibly as possible, my hapless name
Orlík
Having read for the tenth or twentieth time the words which made her
completely forget about her grandmother, Valerie sensed the onset of dusk. This
was because the sun no longer cast its rays directly into the cellar through two
openings the size of two bricks. Exposed so long to the cold, Valerie felt like a
stalactite illuminated by the twilight. She stared at the winding potato haulms
that crawled over the floor and up the walls of the cellar. Standing there, she felt
as if the cellar floor were shaking with the monotonous blows of a battering ram.
But then she hurled herself back on the trail, marked out with lines now
running straight, now meandering, and read, she lost count of how many times,
the tale of someone who had already lived through more than the heroes of the
stories she enjoyed reading at the end of the day.
Then she repeated the whole letter from memory, and only after making sure
she would not forget a single word of it in the future, she went and burned it bit
by bit in the flame of a candle.
No sooner had she completed this act of piety than her grandmother came to
tell her it was time to dress for the service, which was to be dedicated to the
instruction and exhortation of virgins. Running into the garden to gather some
rosemary, Valerie placed her most beautiful clothes in the arbor.
Chapter IV
THE SERMON
That evening, there were so many young girls in the church that it looked like a
congress of angels. Valerie was standing opposite the pulpit. She gazed
downwards and listened tensely to the background noise in the church. Her
cheeks blazed and she was so on edge she did not notice the missionary
mounting the pulpit steps. It took the silence that spread throughout the church to
make her look up.
In the pulpit stood the missionary with the head of a polecat and he stared her
straight in the eye. She withstood his stare, but the longer it lasted, the more she
felt herself paling. Her head drooped and she fixed her eyes on the ground. And
then the missionary’s voice rang out:
“I, a servant of the Lord and missionary of Christ, have come among you,
virgins all, to afford you vital instruction and fortification. All that I shall say to
you is strictly confidential and will be heard by neither your fathers nor your
mothers, by neither your married sisters nor your grandparents. Forget, virgin,
that you are one of many and take this act of worship as if I were coming to you
alone, to your own virginal little room in order to speak to you in God’s place
about things that are your secret. Oh virgin, do you know who you are? You are
an alabaster hand extended in a house of plague, infested with flies. You are a
vessel whose neck I bless with my thumb. You are an as yet uncleft
pomegranate. You are a shell in which the future ages will ring. You are a bud
which will burst when the time is ripe. You are a little rose-petal boat floating on
the tempestuous ocean. You are a peach oozing red blood ...”
At these words something impelled Valerie to glance up. The missionary with
the head of a polecat was accompanying his words with grand gestures and flash
after flash fell from his eyes onto the field of virginal flowers. Valerie trembled.
The ode to virginity, which the preacher sought to embellish with ever new
images, touched the girl’s very body. Having completed his litany on virginity,
he continued his sermon in a different tone:
“How much longer are virgins to be undone by a callous hand? How much
longer will virgins submit to any random plunderer of their beauty? If you knew,
virgin, that the callous hand which touches your breast would leave an indelible
imprint upon it, how ashamed you would be! Ah, you will say. No one can see
the imprint, and yet ... I shall prove that you are in error, that the blemish cannot
be concealed, that the stain shrieks. You, virgin, whose eyes have met mine, not
only your breasts, your entire belly is plastered with shame. Weep now, that the
tears might at least wash away your degradation. And you whom I have in mind,
veil your thighs in skirts as you will, and still you would not deceive me. They
are sullied as if having been fondled by a chimneysweep, and how can you not
be ashamed! And how is it that among you there is one who, calling herself a
virgin, is a sinner, whose womb yields at the touch of a vulgar right hand? Oh
wretched womb! You are like a magnificent apple riddled with maggots and you
evoke my pity. How withered you are. Angels weep at the sight of you. What
grief, base virgin, you bring to your guardian angel! As you sleep, when he, pure
as the disk of the sun, turns back your shift in order to breathe upon your
abdomen, with what horror he averts his gaze from your fingered loins.”
The church echoed to the sound of weeping. Several girls had broken down
and sunk their heads in their handkerchiefs.
But the missionary went on:
“How beautiful you are, virgin, having shunned all human baseness. I see
your body, for the fabrics recede in respect before its radiance. I see it – as if the
cold had breathed upon it or as if the dew had breathed upon it. Your nipples are
like Bohemian garnets sending out alluring flashes of lightning through your
garments. Your throat is a long bladdernut rosary, twisted over and over, with
whose beads I count my prayers. Your breasts are the purest of husked barley.
Your belly is an excited bell, pure as the matinal bellflower. Your womb is an
alabaster bowl, which I bless with forefinger and thumb ...”
Once more Valerie had to look up, against her will, into the eyes of him who
was now touching her. Those eyes were large and ablaze, and their dazzling light
meant that she could not see the missionary’s face. Those eyes blinded her eyes,
and Valerie gazed into them as the missionary said:
“I am with you, virgin, in the role of a guardian angel who rejoices in
heavenly bliss at your chastity. I am with you. I bend down over your bed and
with the most sacred unguents my fingers make the sign of the Cross on your
lips, the tips of your breasts and your loins, which have yet to know sin.”
And in tones borrowed from Solomon the missionary ended his homily with
the words:
“Maidens and daughters of mercy, marry, lest the great city of the Lord perish.
Yea marry, and may the whole world be present at the wedding. Marry, so that
the Devil shall depart from your beds thwarted.”
Then the missionary gave the virgins his blessing and left the pulpit.
Valerie turned around. But the one to whom she had lent her clothes had not
come.
The girls were leaving the church flushed and with their eyes downcast. If
with friends they left in twos, not daring to speak. Valerie stood as if rooted to
the floor tiles of the church. A strange dream descended onto her eyelids, despite
her being awake. And only when the church was nearly empty did she leave, the
last to go.
Chapter V
LOSING THE WAY
Valerie had lost her way. For the third time, without knowing how, she had
entered a deserted square that seemed to be enchanted. When she glanced at one
of the locked gates, a missionary appeared to her standing in front of it. She left
the square and entered the square. Her legs were tired and were leading her on
their own, while her spirit wandered like that of someone sleeping. Over one
doorway she noticed a cluster of grapes held in the beak of a dove. Then she was
alarmed by four windows that seemed to have been forged from a storm. She
thought she heard a groan. Her eyes settled on a tall gas lamp with moths
fluttering around it. But the groan came again. Having circled the square, she
suddenly found herself just a few steps from the lamp and saw to her amazement
a terrifying image: tied to the lamp’s base was a girl, emitting plaints from deep
in her throat. As Valerie stepped up closer, she recognized her clothes, which
were torn in several places.
“Orlík,” escaped from her lips. But then the head of the victim sank, and
Valerie rightly surmised that he had fainted. She rushed towards him and started
to unravel the ropes that bound him to the lamppost. It required strenuous effort.
The coarse fibers of the ropes cut into her fingers. Yet despite the difficulties
impeding her from untying the bonds, she persevered in her rescue. When she
thought that the rope binding Orlík’s hands had slackened, she bent down to his
feet and tried to free them from their fetters. Finally she succeeded. The young
man was sleeping on his feet and his face was blanched. His pink mouth wore a
smile and a number of fair curls tumbled across his brow. Only after Valerie
touched his brow for a third time did his eyes open.
“I was waiting for you,” the girl said.
“That monster,” Orlík replied, as if still semiconscious.
“His beautiful sermon nearly had us in tears.”
“What? He even invaded the pulpit? Now I understand why he cleared me out
of the way for the evening.”
“These knots are his handiwork?”
“Far from it. He didn’t lay a finger on me himself.”
Orlík was reviving. He blushed at the sudden realization that he was wearing a
dress.
“I’m like your sister,” he said.
“True, I’m not the least embarrassed to be standing here with you.”
Orlík bit his lips and his eyes flashed.
“I’m not a girl, do you hear? I’m not a girl.”
He began to take off his girl’s garments and handed them to Valerie one by
one. Without a hint of a blush he was emboldened to stand before her naked.
“That’s my revenge on him,” he said.
But Valerie averted her gaze and looked towards the doorway at the grapes in
the bird’s beak.
“He had his henchmen attack me.”
“You were attacked?” Valerie asked in surprise.
“Because I didn’t want to enter the church until just before the start of the
service, I hung back in this square, which has been, or so it seems to me,
deserted practically all day long. Just as I had resolved to set off towards the
church, I was approached by a pack of drunken men, who had probably attended
that wild wedding, and with all the brutality they could muster they bound and
tied me to this lamppost.”
“Why didn’t you shout for help?”
“I simply could not cause you any trouble by calling for help while wearing
your clothes.”
“And if anyone were to see me with you now, as inadequately attired as I
imagine you to be?”
“I will make sure that no one sees us together like this.”
“Farewell then.”
“You can’t leave just yet. I was about to give you some sound advice.”
“I’m worried that it’s not entirely proper to be taking the advice of a naked
man on a public square.”
“Five paces from us there is an allegorical sculpture of Peace. Before you turn
to look at me I will change myself, to the best of my ability, into a sixth figure
wrestling with the serpent. So now you can turn your head without fear.”
Valerie glanced back. Her eyes could barely detect which of the men in the
sculpture was Orlík. Under her arm she gripped the torn clothes that had been
returned to her in such a strange way.
“I’m impatient to hear your advice, since I’m sure they’ll be coming to look
for me.”
“First,” said Orlík, but he did not finish the sentence. Like a deluge, or a black
cloud, a swarm of hands rolled in from somewhere and hurtled up towards the
allegory of Peace. In the darkness, Valerie counted five men brandishing belts,
whips, and switches. A furious struggle ensued before her eyes. As she herself
could not discern the real figures from the false, the assailants, too, were unsure
whether they were lashing marble or a human body. During the fight this or that
assailant was suddenly swept to the ground and this or that weapon wrenched
from his grip.
When most of the thugs were on the ground, Orlík detached himself from the
statue with a leap and fled, pursued by those he had duped and fooled. Only now
did Valerie dare to fix her gaze wholly on his fleeing silhouette, and with
anxious heart she measured the shrinking distance between the youth and his
pursuers. Everything now depended on who would be the more agile at the low
wall they were approaching. Orlík leapt over it effortlessly. His pursuers were
held up for a time until they had managed to scramble up onto the wall.
Valerie heaved a sigh of relief, since she could assume that the nimble Orlík
was now safe. She thought it was now all right for her to go home, but hardly
had she taken the first step when she couldn’t help but notice a figure walking at
some distance behind her. She turned and froze. Marching towards her, as if the
church tower itself were on the move, was the missionary.
Chapter VI
A VISIT
Valerie stood motionless as if she, too, were now tied to some invisible
lamppost. But as the missionary passed by, a Christian greeting slipped, as if
involuntarily, from her lips.
“I need you, young woman, to assist me with something,” the missionary said,
without deigning to stop.
“What is your wish, Father?”
“I need to visit the most wretched people of the town, and I don’t know how
to find them.”
Valerie said nothing.
“Surely you know,” the Polecat continued, “where the parish poorhouse is.”
“Oh, yes. It’s not far from here.”
The missionary walked beside the girl with majestically long, monotonous
strides that echoed round the square.
“If I am not mistaken,” said Valerie, “the only man who lived in the
poorhouse was an old organ grinder; he died recently.”
“We shall see. Or would you rather not take me there?”
“Oh no, Father.”
“You are performing an act of mercy.”
“We’ll reach the poorhouse down this street here.”
Indeed, in no time at all, a low, very long, yellow building appeared before
their eyes.
“Here we are, Father.”
“You go first,” said the strange man, “I want to inspect everything closely.”
Valerie wanted to say that her grandmother was expecting her, but speech
failed her.
She opened the door and entered the house, of which she had the most somber
impression. But inside it was dark and empty.
“I don’t know whether to go left or right, Father.”
“To the right,” he said peremptorily.
“I’m afraid, Father.”
“God is with us.”
“How dark it is!”
“Just proceed.”
“That way? Or that way?”
“No, no!”
The moon was just coming out and the rooms they were passing through
began to take on contours. They were not rooms, but unfurnished spaces with
several partitions. In one such primitive chamber, on the ground next to the wall,
was a tattered straw mattress, brought to life by the moonlight. The stench was
unbearable.
“Father, what will Grandma say if I’m back late?”
“Let’s go down,” said the priest, “you’ll be home before you know it.”
The missionary raised a floorboard and a hole appeared.
“Go on now, and fear nothing.”
Valerie could tell from the damp and cold that they were underground. She
walked down a corridor, barely wide enough for two. Her heart pounded. She
was moving as if in a dream.
“Any minute now we will be beneath your grandmother’s house. Haven’t you
ever noticed there are several loose bricks in the cellar?” asked he about whom
for the past two days Valerie had had a very doubtful opinion.
“No, I never noticed them.”
At certain points the corridor widened out. And sure enough after a few steps
Valerie noticed she was no longer walking on the sodden earth of a cellar. It
even seemed to her that she was walking on carpet.
“We’ve reached the spot,” said the missionary.
Valerie heard several strikes of a match. Then before her eyes appeared a
high-arched room, furnished in the style of the nineteenth century. She was
amazed. On the lumpy walls hung magnificent pictures in ancient frames.
Several armchairs stood in a semicircle. A chandelier hung from the ceiling.
“Where are we?” the girl asked.
“Don’t concern yourself. Actually, you’re only a wall’s thickness away from
your grandmother’s.”
The Polecat sat down in one of the armchairs and toyed with a small metal
figurine which had been standing on the edge of the table next to an inkwell.
“There is something I must tell you,” he said quietly.
Blood rushed into Valerie’s face, which till now had been pale.
“Sit down opposite me.”
“Why can’t I listen to you standing up?”
“This is going to require more than five sentences.”
Valerie remained standing.
“I am sure you know a missionary is going to be lodging with you.”
“I think he’s already moved in.”
“We shall see,” said the man in disguise.
He stepped onto a short, sturdy ladder and climbed up to the ceiling. Giving
some kind of bolt several turns, he removed it and peered through the hole thus
created.
“Yes, he is there. Climb up behind me and take a look.”
Drawn as by some unknown force, Valerie obeyed her guide. She recognized
at first sight the room the maids had converted into the missionary’s cell. Close
to the hole sat the missionary and at his feet her grandmother was kneeling with
her head in the priest’s lap.
“What does it mean, Father?”
“You don’t need to address me like that. And anyway, I shall be taking my
frock off as soon as possible.”
“Is that really Grandma?”
“Listen!”
From above came the following conversation:
“Gratian, I had begun to believe you had been clawed to death by wild
animals.”
“Not at all. I’m still far from letting death gnaw my bones.”
“You haven’t changed a bit, Gratian.”
“Vino nero is an excellent means of rejuvenation.”
“It’s a pity I haven’t taken some myself. I’m an old woman now, Gratian. Five
years ago, when we parted, everything was different. I can have no appeal for
you now. It’s all over.”
The old lady again laid her head in the missionary’s lap and appeared to be
sleeping. But suddenly she raised her head with the words:
“Watch me though. I’m going to scourge myself.”
Gratian stood up, leaned against the door, and folded his arms. Valerie
thought he looked twenty years younger. She wanted to cover her eyes with her
hand so as not to witness her grandmother’s humiliation. But her guide wanted
her to miss nothing of the strange spectacle that was about to unfold right above
them. Then Valerie heard the swishing of the scourge and saw her grandmother,
hair flying, mercilessly torturing herself. Her eyes took on an unusual gleam, and
out of the old woman’s painfully clenched lips came words that Valerie could
not understand. The man she had called Gratian sternly watched her selfmortification. Suddenly he shouted: “Enough!” He raised his head convulsively
as if looking into heaven, and let himself be embraced by the kneeling woman,
her body visibly bearing welts of blood.
Eyes staring wide, Valerie gazed upwards and felt that at any moment she
would fall to the ground in a faint. But suddenly, as if the expression of a
fainting spell overtaking her, she perceived that the light in the room she found
herself in had been extinguished – and at that instant she felt deft arms carrying
her away. As the distance between her and that place increased, she also heard a
thud and the shout of a man’s voice.
She supposed she was asleep.
Chapter VII
SAFE
“We’re safe,” Valerie heard above her when her inexplicable flight had come to
an end. Uncertain, she half-opened her eyes. Orlík, now immaculately attired,
right down to his straw boater, was bending over her.
“Where are we?” she asked, dropping her eyelids again. Strange, softly
droning voices echoed around her. Valerie recognized the voices of her hens.
She stood up. They actually were in the henhouse.
“Forgive me, my dear, for failing to save you sooner. But I had my hands full
with escaping my pursuers.”
“Are we really in our yard?”
“Yes, just ten or fifteen steps from your back door.”
“Thank you for freeing me.”
“You now know much of what I wanted to tell you there in the square.”
“Yes, I’ve seen with my own eyes that my house has a mysterious vault.”
“It’s the constable’s hideout. He built it in the last century.”
“Is he really a missionary?”
Orlík laughed:
“A man like him has had all kinds of adventures.”
“So how is it he gets to deliver a homily?”
“He can manage far tougher jobs than deceiving a handful of priests. Besides,
he’s in league with all sorts of rogues.”
“Will he find us here?”
“His vengeance is only directed at me.”
“I’d like to know why he was so intent on taking me down there into the vault,
as I can swear on my honor he made no attempt to harm me, although ...”
Valerie fell silent. Before her eyes again appeared the image of her
grandmother’s humiliation as she had witnessed it.
“His motive could not be simpler ...”
“I would like to hear it.”
“He wants you to like him.”
“I wouldn’t consider the terror he inspired in me as likely to win the favor of a
girl as timid as I,” said Valerie, touching her inflamed forehead.
“He knows people better than they know themselves.”
“What does he have in mind for me?”
“He wants you to love him of your own volition.”
“Then I don’t think I’m in any kind of peril.”
“You’re wrong, my dear ...”
“I was expecting you to tell me something more definite.”
“Don’t forget, I know him and I know the kind of women who have fallen
victim to his blandishments. I need only recall my own mother. That is reason
enough for me to want to strangle him.”
“And what about his nonhuman appearance?”
“Even like that he can win over human hearts. I confess that even I, in some
sense, am attached to him. Though I will do whatever is in my power to prevent
his gaining power over your spirit.”
“A quite unwarranted concern!”
At that moment, the hens began clucking in fright. Even the chicks looked
unsettled. Their piteous chirping stirred Valerie’s heart to horror.
“It isn’t by chance that I chose this rather unfitting place as somewhere safe to
hide you,” said Orlík. “I want you to see for yourself just what my uncle is.
Behind these few planks, there is space enough for you to observe the Polecat’s
true face with ease.”
“Spare me any sight that could make me unhappy. I’ve been through enough
ordeals already.”
“You need to stay here – to see everything, to hear with your own ears that
which is difficult to communicate.”
The hens were growing more and more restless. At Orlík’s request, Valerie
hid behind a piece of crate that may once have held a piano.
“Well, I’m waiting for you, Constable,” said Orlík, leaning out of the
henhouse window.
“You damned schemer!” the man below unloaded.
“You’re the schemer, you crock of spite.”
“Time will tell who’s master.”
“Valerie,” came from the stoop. “Valerie!”
It was Grandmother calling.
Then the old lady let out a shriek of terror:
“Hands up, thief, or I’ll shoot!”
But then the constable said:
“Elsa, it’s me.”
Chapter VIII
ELSA
Valerie trembled at the thought that the Polecat could address her grandmother
with such familiarity.
“Elsa, don’t you recognize me?” the man’s voice continued.
“I don’t know you.”
“Just come a step closer.”
“I really don’t know who you’re pretending to be,” the old lady said timidly.
“In that case I’ll show myself to you in the light.”
“Ahh!”
From the frightened tone of this exclamation Valerie was certain that the
constable and her grandmother were no more than a foot away from each other.
“Are you surprised, Elsa?”
“In all honesty, yes, Richard.”
“It’s been a long time since you’ve called me by that name. Not many people
remember me from my youth.”
“What do you call your youth?”
“You probably know better than I how old I was when we met.”
“You were just short of fifty.”
“Add ten years.”
“It’s not possible that you were the same age then as I am today.”
“Do not doubt it, Elsa.”
“You’re the ultimate wonder of wonders, Richard.”
“Unless I’m mistaken, you were nearly seventeen.”
“Your memory serves you well.”
“That was exactly forty-three years ago.”
“So that would make you now a hundred and four years old ...”
“I feel much older.”
“You haven’t changed over these last forty years.”
“You distress me. To my mind I’ve grown younger.”
“Why have you come, Richard?”
“I missed my former home.”
“Is that all?”
“How has life been treating you?”
“How should it treat me when it’s been shattered?”
“You’re not suggesting I was the one who shattered your life, are you?”
“I certainly am. I’ve never recovered from your lechery ...”
“So in a certain sense you’re grateful to me, or aren’t you, Elsa?”
“You’re making fun of an old woman.”
“Do you want me to pity you?”
“Since the time you seduced and then abandoned me I haven’t found any man
yet who could satisfy me.”
“You really are old, Elsa.”
Valerie shuddered in horror, for her grandmother had burst into a loud
weeping.
“The offspring I brought into the world were afflicted with anemia. It is surely
your fault, Richard. Your kisses drained me. I am the world’s most deceived
woman.”
The old lady was sobbing bitterly.
“What wouldn’t I give to grow young like you, even for a week, believe me! I
would give the entire remainder of my life. I want to know your secret, Richard.
Take pity on me! I’ll give you anything you want.”
“You’re speaking like a virgin in love.”
“I don’t deserve your mockery.”
“You did just say you would give me anything I ask if I make you into a
young woman for a week, didn’t you?”
“I’m prepared to sacrifice everything for a week of pleasure.”
Valerie understood less and less of what was happening around her. What
could pleasure be if a woman of such stern moral fiber, as she considered her
grandmother to be, could beg for it in such humiliating fashion?
Valerie heard the loud laughter of the man who was persecuting her. She was
on tenterhooks to hear what reward he would demand for the magic he seemed
to have at his command.
“Let me have back, Elsa, this house I once lost at auction,” said the Polecat.
“Giving it to you, Richard, would mean robbing my granddaughter.”
“I believe you intend to commit worse deeds.”
“Richard, you are speaking to a woman who can no longer control her
senses.”
“Well then, are you willing to give me the house that belonged to me?”
“If you wish, I’ll alter my will and bequeath it to you.”
“That will do. Let’s draw up a little contract of purchase.”
“Is this not just your making fun of an old woman?” asked Grandmother.
“You know I always mean what I say.”
“And you really will give me your elixir?”
“There are no elixirs of the kind you would like to believe in.”
“So how can you work the miracle of giving me back my lost youth?”
“You’ll see for yourself.”
“Oh Richard, I wish it could be this very day. The thought that I’ll no longer
be disfigured by old age is driving me mad.”
“Before the sun rises, you shall be beautiful, Elsa.”
“And where will you perform this magical transformation of me?”
“At the wedding of the landowner from ...”
“The whole town will be on their toes when they see me among the guests.”
“I advise you to arrive there as a peasant woman. Then you will leave as the
prettiest girl.”
“Really, Richard?”
“You have my word.”
“But can’t the operation be carried out somewhere else than in a house of
marriage?”
“Rest assured that everything I think up has its purpose. This wedding has
come at just the right moment. Without it, the task would not be so easy.”
“You’re a devil,” the old lady whispered.
“Not at all. Don’t credit me with magical powers. I do no more than put my
experience to good use.”
“Command me what to do, Richard. You know that I will obey you in
everything.”
“I would like to know the direct cause of your sudden craving for youth. Are
you in love?”
“I’ve been swept off my feet.”
“Who is this handsome man, for whom you’re prepared to give up your life in
a week’s time?”
“A missionary by the name of Gratian. He isn’t young, but, apart from you,
he’s the only man to have held me in his sway.”
“I hope he will find you a faithful mistress,” smirked the Polecat.
“I am sacrificing this house for him.”
“Good-bye, then. We will meet in an hour at the wedding house.”
“Good-bye, Richard. This next hour will be an eternity for me.”
Valerie heard her grandmother’s footsteps grow distant as she re-crossed the
yard to the stoop.
“Drink this,” she heard behind her.
Orlík leaned towards her across the crate and handed her a small stoppered
phial.
“Don’t forget to drink it,” he urged anxiously. “I beg you with all my heart.”
But at that moment she heard the Polecat’s voice, filled with hate, say to
Orlík:
“Where’s the girl?”
“I’ve taken her away.”
“Where to?”
“The tower!”
“Wretch! Will you stop at nothing to bring about my downfall? But you are
mistaken to think I will give up the ghost before I mount the tower’s steep stairs.
If need be, I’ll have you carry me there like a pack mule. I order you to jump
down from your roost this minute and follow me.”
“Aren’t you even going to fortify yourself?”
“If my strength gives out, you will pay for it with your aorta,” said the Polecat
with such venom that Valerie thought the strange creature would execute his
threat there and then.
“Are you going to jump down?”
“For the villainy you’ve committed against me, Constable, I should send you
to hell.”
“I have acted as moderately as I could, you scoundrel,” said the constable, and
he was preparing to spout another stream of abuse when Orlík, who understood
the old man very well, jumped to the ground.
“Your punishment awaits you,” the centenarian snarled.
“Did you not pull the ladder out from under me in the vault so that I would
break my neck?”
“You always talk too much,” the young man remarked.
“If you foil my plans once more with your infamy, believe me, I will have
absolutely no mercy on you.”
After this exchange the men left.
Chapter IX
THE WORK OF DEATH
Valerie heaved a sigh of relief. She thought she was out of any immediate
danger. Though what she had seen and heard weighed on her like a boulder. She
clasped the cold phial and repeated to herself what Orlík had whispered. Yet as
she had noted several times during the course of that fateful evening, the boy
was beginning to lose his peculiar power over her, a power that had compelled
her to utter his name over and over after she had read his letter. She was fairly
certain she would not obey him, nor would she drink the liquid whose effect she
feared.
She finally decided to abandon her hiding place behind the crate and step over
it.
Yet when she looked around the henhouse, she was overcome with horror. By
the light of the moon she saw one bird, for whom she had scattered grain only
that morning, writhing in convulsions. The spasm was short-lived. The hen
stretched out its neck, twitched its legs desperately one last time and was dead.
The girl’s heart filled with pity and her eyes with tears.
“Who did this to you, my poor innocent creature?” she said and looked away
from the dead bird.
Suddenly she saw the full extent of the destruction. There were so many dead
hens in the henhouse that she shrieked in terror and covered her eyes.
It appeared the Polecat was not the one to blame for this work of death; after
all, he hadn’t even climbed inside.
Valerie fled in fright from the strange poultry graveyard, where Orlík had
claimed she was safe. Under her arm she gripped the clothes she had so
imprudently, as if suffering from blindness, lent the young man, and timidly
followed her grandmother’s footsteps, a woman she no longer saw as a kindly,
virtuous woman, but as a grasping monster. Now she was supposed to meet her.
She would not know how to look at her. Her face flushed red at the thought that
she would have to call the old woman “Grandma.” She felt the victim of a
conspiracy.
The stars were shining brightly. How wonderful it would be to sit in a carriage
and have it take her far away, to someplace without these strange beings who
terrified her!
As she reached the steps, she thought she heard a noise like a piece snapping
off the metallic firmament. She held her breath and listened intently. The noise
came again. Only then did she realize that it was the sound of bells set swinging
by some inept person’s unsteady hand.
“They’re looking for me in the tower,” she thought, and though her shame
would not permit her to view her home as affording solace, she crossed the
threshold and went into the house, which the old lady had resolved to transfer to
the superhuman old brute, whose gaze Valerie was unable to shake.
“Oh, Miss Valerie,” said the maid, “your grandmother’s expecting you, she’s
in the dining room. Though I think you ought to get changed first,” she added
with a hint of mockery, glancing sideways at the cobwebs clinging to the girl’s
sleeves.
Chapter X
DINNER
Grandmother threw Valerie a hateful look. At the table sat the missionary,
fingering his rosary.
“This is my granddaughter,” she said dryly.
“Sit down, my dear,” said the cleric.
“Where have you been?” Grandmother asked.
“I lost my way coming back from church.”
“She never goes out on her own,” the old lady observed by way of
explanation.
“You are so like your mother.”
“I’ve never noticed. But her mother was dark-haired.”
The serving maids brought in several bowls of food.
“What’s going on in the tower today?” said the missionary, helping himself
from one of the bowls. “That’s the third time the bells have started ringing and
then stopped.”
“I expect it’s the drunken wedding guests unsettling the town.”
“Let us pray,” said the man, his nostrils having been tickled by the smell of
soup.
They all rose and started to move their lips.
Then they began to eat.
Neither Grandmother nor Valerie had any appetite.
The cleric ate quickly and never stopped chattering.
He told them about the missions he had been on among the cannibals.
“It was in a region,” he said, “where no white man had ever set foot. Our
expedition was accompanied by a native; he had previously been taken into
captivity by a neighboring tribe, who already knew the name of Christ. From
him we learned the most essential expressions in the cannibals’ dialect and,
armed with revolvers, we entered their village. I will never forget our arrival
there. The cannibals were in the middle of a ceremony during which they were
going to sacrifice a black girl they had managed to capture in a battle with a
civilized tribe. She was tied to a tree and, since she was a Christian, she was
praying aloud. God complied with her soul’s desire. When she spotted us, she
pleaded with us to save her.
“ ‘We bring you peace,’ I cried, but suddenly some cannibals charged towards
us. We had to use our weapons.
“As the first shot rang out and one of the cannibals fell to the ground bleeding,
the tribe was seized with an indescribable panic. Then the native who was
accompanying us, and thus far he had remained hidden, stepped forward and
addressed his brothers, telling them we were agents of God. We stood a little
way off from him, waiting for the right moment to raise the cross. We had
several gold crosses with us. As soon as they blazed and glittered above our
heads, the cannibals threw themselves face down on the ground. The girl was
saved. But the cannibals were not converted at once. The made several attempts
at attacking our tent, but only after many of them fell did they give up trying to
attack us.”
“What became of the girl?” asked Valerie, captivated by the story.
“We took her into our tent, gave her more instruction in the true faith and
prepared her mind for entry into a convent.”
“Did she actually become a nun?”
“Regrettably no. One day, after we arrived in the port of Marseilles, we lost
her, never to see her again.”
“Do help yourself, Father. Mutton goes cold quickly,” Grandmother said.
“And where is that other wine? Wretched servants, they don’t know how to do
things properly.”
Grandmother rose and went to berate the serving maids. The missionary
wiped his lips with a napkin and whispered to Valerie:
“I’ll tell you later what happened at Marseilles to the black girl we saved.
Incidentally, it strikes me that you are interested in the cloistered life, so it will
be good if I give you some instruction to this effect one day.”
Valerie said nothing. Her eyes were fixed meekly on the ground. She still had
not eaten a single bite. She was trying to locate the hole through which she had
been looking up into this room a few hours before. Then she realized that she
had not been looking from the cellar into the dining room, but into the room
adapted as the missionary’s cell. This somewhat restored her calm, as she feared
she was being observed by the eyes of him who was likely to deprive her of this
house.
“Do you know your mother’s story?” the missionary asked.
“Grandma has told me some things about her.”
“Your father was a remarkable man,” said the missionary, returning to his
meal.
“Your real father,” he added, tapping his finger meaningfully on the table.
“In his diocese,” he went on, “there was never any harassing of the priests.
The bishop was a man of the most delicate taste and considerable erudition. He
was handsome and never put on weight. Truth to tell, you bear a great
resemblance to him. My impression is that his greatest love was for the arts, and
his library contained the rarest works of poetry. His delicacy was such that he
would faint if, in his presence, the priests sprinkled too much incense onto the
burner. He was adored by all the most beautiful women, even way back as a
theology student in Rome. He was a most unusual man. But I’ll tell you more
another time.”
“Father, I’d like to know how many children he had,” said Valerie as if in a
dream.
“At the same time you were born, a certain very beautiful woman gave birth
to a baby boy, sired by the bishop. That is what led your mother to leave the
convent.”
“Do you happen to know the boy’s name?”
“How could I not know? At the time we drank a toast to the bishop’s son at a
rectory somewhere. He was christened Orlík.”
“Orlík?” said the girl, and the blood rushed to her face. But at that moment
Grandmother came back in, carrying a pitcher of red wine.
“I’ve developed a headache, Grandma,” said Valerie. “May I leave the table to
go lie down?”
“No! Dinner is not over yet.”
Her grandmother frowned with the same severity as when the girl had come
into the dining room from the twilight of her adventures.
“Oh, forgive me. I didn’t know ...”
“Drink a toast with us,” said the missionary. He poured the girl a glass of the
red wine himself.
“I’ve never tasted wine.”
“It’s tart, but sweetens on the tongue like contrition,” said the tall man.
“Make today an exception,” said Grandmother, her gaze straying up to the
clock.
“So then, to the late bishop!”
Valerie touched the glass with her lips. She could not fail to see the throat of
the man who had revealed to her a secret she had not suspected, and she could
not fail to see that throat, monstrous with a bulging Adam’s apple, joggle as the
drink was swallowed. And suddenly, as if acting under someone’s suggestion,
she drained her entire glass.
“Now dinner is over,” said Grandmother. “You may leave.”
Valerie made a curtsy to the missionary. Then, fearful lest she never see her
grandmother ever again, she tried to catch her eye. But Grandmother was staring
sternly at the ground.
Valerie curtsied once more and left the dining room.
Chapter XI
ALARM
Valerie stood at the high Gothic window of her bedroom and, gripping the long
curtains, looked towards the church tower. The wine she had taken pounded at
her temples and sharpened her senses. The clock was floating up there on the
tower, glowing in the moonlight and showing nine.
“Poor Orlík, I wonder what’s happening to him,” the girl whispered. Then
from her pocket she produced the phial he had given her. Thanks to him she was
alone in her room. Raising the liquid against the moonlight, she thought it
looked like that very evening, thin and volatile.
“Perhaps I should have obeyed him,” occurred to her.
“But no, no, there’s no reason why I should drink it. After all, I’m safe here.”
The window was ajar and quite high above the ground, so Valerie did feel
safe. The room was stifling and the girl saw no danger in opening the window
wide and breathing in the garden.
A soothing noise in the distance colored her voiceless dream. Every now and
then the errant tones of the wedding guests’ singing reached her ear.
“I don’t expect I’ll get any sleep tonight,” she thought. Before long, she saw
the housemaids leaving. They were bare-headed and chattering away.
She caught the following snatch of conversation:
“I happened to enter his cell just as he was washing his feet. I’ve never seen
anyone so hairy. I wouldn’t want to be his housekeeper.”
“You silly, just the opposite, I bet he’s quite the devil,” the other one replied.
“I wouldn’t care to find out.”
“I expect he could floor our boyfriends.”
At that point the talk disappeared under the arcade.
Talk of the missionary’s hairiness reminded Valerie vividly of the Polecat.
She tried to give his animal face something human, but her imagination refused
to oblige, and all she could see before her were the fiend’s eyes.
“What was he trying to tell me? Why did he take me down there? How did
Orlík discover where I had been taken to, and what’s happening to him now?”
But the bells slept and there seemed to be no reason to gaze out in
consternation towards the square, where the boy had been tied up like the
damned.
The quarter-hour struck. As cleanly as at any other time, it left its bell and
spun over the little town.
Almost at once, Valerie heard several voices approaching, growing ever more
menacing. Then she made out a number of people gesticulating wildly and
coming ever closer to her window.
“Believe me.”
“You drank too much at the wedding and you’re seeing things.”
“And not just at one house.”
“You’ll soon see.”
The knot of speakers was joined by a man who came running up coatless and
shouting for all the town to hear:
“Fowl pest! Fowl pest!”
“See, another witness!” said one of those who had been arguing.
“Fowl pest,” shouted the running man, and he hurried past as if in a relay race.
Valerie again imagined the poultry graveyard and her hands trembled.
“Fowl pest,” echoed from the part of the town that lay beyond the arcade.
A number of windows opened, and people came running out of their houses,
seized with panic. The one phrase that terrified Valerie was these endlessly
reverberating words about the fowl pest.
Fortunately, the frightened citizenry did not stop at talk. They rushed about
the town, spreading the alarm about the plague. In a moment all was quiet
beneath the windows. When the clock struck the half-hour, the front door rattled
and Valerie saw an old woman in a headscarf leaving their house.
“Grandma,” she said to herself.
The girl was so agitated that she feared she would faint.
She closed the window. She stood there a while longer, her forehead pressed
to the cold pane. Her hand gripped the phial given by the boy who was likely her
brother. She felt the blood pounding her temples.
“I’m tired,” she thought and started to undress. As she was setting aside the
last garment, there was a knock at the door. Valerie clasped her shift to her
breasts and shuddered.
Chapter XII
HELP AT HAND
In the doorway stood the monk with a candle in his hand.
“I’ve come to see you, my child, so that I might speak to you without
witnesses.”
“At this hour, Father?” said the frightened maiden.
“There is no better time for meditation.”
“I was just getting ready to go to bed.”
“I want to tell you about your marvelous father.”
“What I have already learned of him I think has caused me enough concern.”
“Sit down, my child, and continue as if I were not here.”
“You know, Father, shame will not allow me to bear your visit without tears.”
“I have seen virtually the entire world. I have seen many things on this earth.”
“While I approach it with the deepest misgiving.”
“What lovely breasts you have!”
“Leave, Father.”
“I suspect we have the house entirely to ourselves.”
“So much the worse for my anxiety.”
“Do you really not know what a man is?”
“I don’t have the housemaids’ experience.”
“You are a wicked child!”
“I am obliged by respect for you not to be one.”
“Feel free to be!”
The missionary looked around for a place to stand the candle.
“Leave, Father.”
“You are beautiful.”
“Leave.”
Valerie fell to her knees and looked imploringly heavenward.
“Oh, those knees,” the cleric growled.
“I beg you once more.”
“It is for me to do the begging.”
“What do you want from me?” she asked and stepped back towards the high
Gothic window.
“I want to see you in all your virginal glory.”
“God will never forgive the crime you are committing against me.”
“Let that last garment fall,” said the priest, his hand that held the candle
shaking. At that point Valerie, fighting for her last solace, took the crucifix down
from the wall and, holding it out towards the missionary, whose chin was
aquiver, said in a heartrending voice:
“In the name of Christ, leave!”
The missionary laughed aloud and attempted to seize Valerie by the hand that
was gripping the cross. But she stepped back and her eyes lighted on the
window.
“You will have my death on your conscience, Father,” she said.
“What I desire from you is sweet.”
“Never! Never!”
“You are ever more ravishing.”
“Go away, you devil!”
“You look as if you’d like to slap my face.”
“You disgust me.”
“You are proud.”
“I will defend myself against you, coward.”
Valerie dropped the crucifix and took a few quick steps towards the door. The
priest would have stopped her, but in self-defense she pushed him away so hard
that the candle fell from his hand. Now he had both hands free and tried to grab
her in an embrace. He failed. As the girl fought, the shift fell from her breasts
and she stood there naked.
“What a miracle, a miracle!” the priest exclaimed, and now he flung himself
on his knees.
“Get away from me!”
“Do not drive me away. Never have I seen such beauty ...”
Valerie had a crazy idea. She lunged towards the window-ledge where the
phial Orlík had given her stood. Come what may, she thought, if only I may be
rid of this fiend from hell.
She opened the phial and drank its contents so quickly the missionary could
not prevent her. Then she cast the phial aside and waited for something to
happen.
“What have you done?” asked the priest, and a look of horror broke out on his
face.
“You have me on your conscience,” Valerie replied, grabbing the curtains as
she felt the ground shake beneath her.
“Murderer!”
“I wished you no harm,” the missionary stuttered.
“I will surely be avenged,” said the girl. She thought she could see the great
fiery eyes of the Polecat approaching.
“God have mercy on me,” cried the missionary, for Valerie had staggered and
fallen to the ground.
The missionary picked up the candlestick with the burning candle and knelt
down over the beautiful naked body, which showed no signs of life. He opened
the window since he was the one now gasping for breath. Shouting drifted in
from outside, though at first he did not understand it. Then he recognized
terrified voices shouting:
“Fowl pest! Fowl pest!”
He fell to his knees and touched the girl’s arm. It was cold and stiff.
“What have I done, what have I done?” he lamented in a quavering voice.
Once more he touched the lifeless girl and, having assured himself that she
was cold and stiff, clasped his hands together and said:
“I absolve you of your sins in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy
Spirit.”
“Amen,” sounded quite loud somewhere in the room.
The missionary yelped: “Help!” and dashed out of the room so fast that the
candle in his hand went out.
Chapter XIII
DENSE SMOKE
After having drunk its contents, Valerie had tossed the phial into a corner of the
room. It now released a dense smoke that crawled across the carpet, past the
bizarre legs of the bed and touched the body of the girl where she lay motionless
next to the Gothic window. It crawled over her, and the denser it became the less
distinct became the figure of the prostrate girl.
The missionary sat in his cell and hung his head. His hands clawed at the table
as if to crumple it like paper. That “Amen” still rang in his ears and he was
afraid to raise his head lest he see the man who had uttered it.
As he sat there with his horror, with neither thought nor prayer, it seemed he
heard the click of the door handle close-by. He looked in terror towards the door
and for a moment his heart stopped beating. The door opened slowly and into the
room crept a shadow. Yet it was not a shadow, more a haze, even more precise, a
broad, tall column of smoke.
“Mercy,” cried the missionary and sank to his knees.
The smoke floated lazily about the room and, having completed a circuit of it,
left by the way it came.
This horrified the missionary more than if some avenger had come and forced
him to look down the barrel of a rifle.
At the very brink of despair, he said “mercy” once more and began to recite
from his breviary.
Chapter XIV
THE CONTRACT
“A fine place you’ve chosen, Richard,” said the grandmother as they entered the
stable of the landowner who was celebrating his wedding.
“Don’t pester me with your moods, Elsa,” the Polecat replied. “We certainly
cannot spread out our papers in the banquet hall.”
“We could have settled the matter in my house.”
“You might not feel so bad about the house if we do it here.”
“Well, let’s get to work then!”
“It seems you can hardly wait to see yourself in the mirror.”
“What a mess this farm is! They’ve got smoke coming all the way into the
stables,” said the old lady, staring at the column of thick smoke swirling in the
doorway.
“You are an oversensitive woman, Elsa. Just concentrate for now on the points
of the contract instead of the state of the landowner’s chimneys,” said the
Polecat, not deeming the cause of the woman’s complaints worth investigating
for himself.
“Write!”
“By this deed I transfer house No. 27, of which I am the legal owner, along
with its adjacent buildings, to its previous owner, and I agree that it should be reentered under his name in the land registry,” the constable dictated.
“You have forgotten to put in: ‘at my death,’ ” said the grandmother.
“No, Elsa, that is not the way to phrase it. The authorities might consider me
your murderer.”
“But that means I lose the house as of this moment, without even being sure
that you will honor your promise.”
“The contract is not finished yet. Be patient. I believe you’ll be entirely
satisfied with its wording.
“So continue writing.
“For as long as I am alive,” the Polecat continued, “I am entitled to enjoy the
use of the property and take from it any profit with the sole proviso that its
former owner shall be able to have free access to it.”
“You are forgetting that I have a granddaughter.”
“As you will, I am prepared to make some allowance for her,” said the man.
“My selfishness is causing me more and more pangs of conscience.”
“We will never get the contract written like this. Would you mind keeping
quiet?”
“Finish it, Richard. I feel very ill at ease here.”
“In the event of the death of the person into whose ownership I am
transferring my house, it shall pass to my sole granddaughter, Valerie,” the
constable dictated, accenting each word in turn.
“So, are you satisfied, Elsa?”
“I think I might sign your paper.”
“Read it through.”
“I’m not so distrustful of my old friends,” said the old lady and put her
signature under the contract.
“But now,” she said, “it’s your turn to act.”
“The moment when I’ll be able to return to you your former beauty does not
depend entirely on me.”
“How so, sir?”
“Everything depends on when the bride and groom take to their nuptial bed.”
“Ah, more delays! The anxiety will age me completely,” she said, handing
him the signed paper.
“It is customary for newlyweds to take to their bed at the stroke of twelve.
And it is not long now to midnight.”
“So am I still condemned to be stuck here in this stable?”
“No. We have to be in the nuptial bedroom before the newlyweds.”
“I can scarcely imagine sneaking into a bedroom in someone else’s house.”
“It’s necessary, my dear.”
“So let’s move quickly!”
“I’m dying of hunger,” said the Polecat.
“You aren’t going to leave me, are you?” the old lady asked.
“Never fear.”
Before the Polecat and the old lady left the stable, the smoke, which had been
standing in the door, could be seen withdrawing towards a shed, and if the
grandmother had not been in such a hurry, she would have heard Valerie’s voice
saying:
“Oh God, I wonder what’s happened to Orlík.”
Chapter XV
THE WEDDING
The wedding guests were drunk. Several were still seated at the table where the
food had been served, but most of them were watching the dancing. The groom
was observing, with half-closed eyes, the actions of those he employed on his
estates. The bride was sad, but took care not to let it show. Her father, the corn
chandler, was standing next to the band and, in high spirits thanks to the beer,
was chatting to the musicians and beating time with his foot.
“Your father,” the groom said to the bride, “isn’t acting like one of the
family.”
“Let him enjoy chatting to the musicians,” his bride replied.
“I’d much rather be in bed now,” said the landowner.
“I’m also tired. But we must observe custom and sit here until midnight.”
“Do you love me?” asked the miser.
“I told you so today in front of a host of witnesses,” Hedviga replied and
smiled.
“My wedding will be remembered for a long time.”
“Indeed. It’s very lively.”
“Though I don’t know why the windows aren’t open. The smoke is choking.”
“It’s burning my eyes.”
“As groom, I can’t give too many orders today.”
They had just finished dancing a galop. One dancer, who was sweating more
than the others, opened the door and wiped his brow with his handkerchief.
Suddenly, the mysterious column of smoke that had so frightened the
missionary slipped through the door and into the room.
“Look at that,” remarked the bass player, “either my sight’s gone, or a ghost
has graced the wedding with its presence.”
“In all honesty,” said the corn chandler, “I’ve never seen a cloud come
floating into a room.”
Several of the guests noticed the peculiar cloud, which was moving about like
a living being. No one dared give voice to what he was seeing lest he were
thought drunk or scared.
“What is it?” the bride asked, standing up.
The groom took her hand and said:
“Quiet. I’ll take a closer look.”
Then suddenly someone was heard to shout:
“Fowl pest! We’ve been hit by fowl pest!”
Panic broke out. One of the guests, drunk and renowned for invariably being
the first to pick a fight, grabbed a chair and hurled it at the phantom.
The phantom dodged it.
“Kill the fowl pest!” some shouted.
Others crossed themselves and whispered that it was the Devil, and in their
minds the landowner had signed a compact with him.
The phantom resisted the attacks of the drunken revelers, steering so skillfully
around the room there was no doubt who was lurking behind it.
“Calm down!” called the groom.
“It must be the fowl pest!” one old woman shrieked.
“Strike up a fanfare,” the host ordered the band, afraid his panicky guests
might ransack his home.
“Let the fowl pest dance a polka!” someone called out.
“Stop blaspheming!”
“Come on, musicians, didn’t you hear me?” the host repeated.
The only one who made to play was the drummer. His drumstick thundered
down on the drum, and his drumming seemed to become progressively more
frightful as, rather than being a signal to the trumpets and violins to join in, it
was all that could be heard, thereby heightening the confusion.
“I’m going to get my rifle,” shouted the landowner’s neighbor.
“We’ll teach that spook a lesson in manners.”
“Stay here!” cried the bride.
But the neighbor ran out as fast as his legs could carry him.
There was a crash: someone had thrown a glass at the floating cloud and
missed. The glass had smashed against a wall. Three guests stood by the door,
guarding it to stop the cloud from slipping back out. Several of the women
started crying.
“Play! I want you to play!” said the host once more, his mood turning sour by
the beating of the drum.
Finally the band struck up a march. But no one formed a ring to dance. Only
the landowner, who was genuinely afraid of a brawl breaking out in his house,
kept his presence of mind. He asked the bride for a dance. No one joined in, so
they danced alone.
“See?” the old woman whispered. “Didn’t I say he was in league with the
Devil?”
The neighbor ran in with his rifle.
The landowner stopped dancing, rushed over to him, grabbed him by the arm
and, in a rage, said:
“Do you want to cause an accident?”
“He’s protecting the Devil,” shrieked the old woman. “He’s in league with the
Devil, that’s how he gets all his money!” she shouted for all to hear.
“Out!” bellowed the landowner.
Several of the revelers joined forces with the old woman and made offensive
remarks at the groom’s expense.
“Out!” he shouted once more.
Suddenly the cloud started moving towards the door. The men watching the
door were concentrating on their host’s confrontation with the neighbor who had
brought in the rifle. Thus the cloud, the cause of the mayhem, was able to slip
through the door and disappear.
“He’s let the Devil escape. He’s let the fowl pest escape!” several of the
guests cried in indignation.
“All out!” the landowner bellowed once more, wrenching the rifle from his
neighbor’s hands.
“Now he’s going to shoot us, the devil,” the tipsy old woman rattled on. With
each successive word she piled on the insults.
“All out,” the landowner insisted. “I won’t have you insulting me. Which one
of you has shouted down this old woman who has taken it upon herself to smear
my good name? No one! So get out, all of you!”
The guests realized that the landowner was genuinely outraged and started to
leave the room. The bride dropped her head on the shoulder of her father the
corn chandler and wept.
“I’d like to know who repays all the good I have done by making me the butt
of insults!” the groom railed. “First they get so drunk they start seeing things,
then they start being offensive!”
“Give me back my rifle! It’s my rifle!”
“Not until you sober up,” the landowner retorted.
“That’s the last time I get drunk on your gnat’s piss!” the neighbor said in
irritation.
“Out!”
“All right. But believe me, I won’t let you forget this.”
The neighbor wrenched his gun from the landowner’s hands and left, banging
the door behind him.
“Lout!” the furious groom shouted after him, and he sank onto a bench.
Only the corn chandler kept his presence of mind. To his daughter he said:
“Whatever the situation is, it’s not proper for you to seek solace in the arms of
your father. You’re married now, so do your duty. Farewell, Son-in-law.”
“Farewell,” said the landowner, wiping the sweat from his brow.
“Hedviga, your opinion of me isn’t the same as theirs, is it?”
“No. And yet I feel so sad for some reason.”
It struck twelve.
“You hear that, Hedviga?”
“Pity. Pity my hopes have come to nothing,” the girl said. But, mindful of her
father’s words, she stepped over to her husband and said softly:
“Come, it’s time for bed.”
Chapter XVI
A MIRACLE
Crouching in the corner behind the wardrobe Valerie witnessed through the
smoky haze surrounding her the following scene:
In the light of the moon the bride removes her garland and white dress.
The landowner stands next to her, kisses her hand and says:
“I love you. I love you with all my heart.”
His bride strokes his hair and stares vaguely in the direction of the window.
“Only now do I sense how old I am,” her husband says with a sigh. “I feel I
will soon die. And all this will be yours.”
“Don’t talk like that.”
“I’d like to be certain that you will come to love me. I don’t even dare to kiss
you now.”
“People hate you. They’ve told me incredible stories about you. But because
they hate you, I feel for you.”
“How beautiful you are, my wife. How beautiful you are, my darling. Look at
me. There’s no denying I’m old.”
“I, too, shall grow old,” Hedviga says tenderly.
“You will give me back a piece of my youth,” says the groom, looking into
his wife’s eyes by the light of the moon. Then he embraces her.
His bride did not resist. Her arms dropped to her sides when his lips took
possession of hers. And as he kissed her, her hands slowly rose and clung to her
husband’s shoulders. Meanwhile the groom’s hands were stroking his bride’s
shoulder. His fingers worked free his bride’s dress, and it floated off her body to
the ground. At that moment, a dark figure rose from the ground and clamped its
mouth onto the girl’s bare shoulder. A sigh slipped from the bride’s lips, though
her eyes remained closed as her husband’s trembling lips pressed tighter and
tighter to hers. As if nailed to the spot, the newlyweds stood there for a whole
hour without their lips separating.
Valerie saw clearly outlined above the bride’s shoulder the silhouette of a
face, whose throat moved greedily as it swallowed the love and sensual pleasure
streaming through the veins of the young bride, whose mind was dissolving in
the protracted kiss as if in a dream. At once Valerie saw another shadow rising
up behind the dark figure and approaching it. It was the Polecat. She clearly saw
his terrible visage, illuminated by the strange golden glow of his eyes. The
Polecat seized the outline of the ravening shade and tried to tear it from the
bride’s shoulder. Then she watched as, on tiptoes, he took the long, darkly clad
body in his arms and disappeared with it through the door.
The kiss evaporated.
“Do you love me?” the groom’s voice asked.
“Yes, I do.”
With those words the newlyweds sank onto the bed and their limbs became
entwined. Having heard the exchange about love, Valerie’s throat contracted
with an unfamiliar sense of anxiety. She crossed the room to the door, fearful
lest the love-makers suddenly register her presence. She withdrew behind the
door but left it ajar, unable to stop her eyes from feasting on the strange looking
crab writhing on the bed. The groaning grew in volume, and as Valerie began to
think that the pair’s lovemaking was their death throes, a match flared and the
light of a candle illuminated the room. The bride covered her face and wrapped
her body in the pillows, while the groom bent his head over the sheet as if
looking for something.
“Not a drop of blood,” he said, wiping his perspiring face. Then he seemed
overcome with rage and in an altered voice, like that of someone who has just
been insulted, he said:
“What does this mean?”
There was the sound of crying.
“I swear I was a virgin!”
“But, my dear, I can find not a drop of evidence.”
“Please don’t insult me,” said the girl sadly, and her hands, until now pressed
to her face, fell on the pillow.
Valerie shuddered.
Was this really Hedviga? She could barely recognize the features of her young
friend. What she saw by the glow of the candle was not the face of a fresh young
virgin. It was that of a careworn woman, who was growing older by the minute.
“Don’t cry, I believe you,” said the groom. “Don’t cry. When you cry, your
face gets all wrinkled. You don’t even look like yourself.”
Now the haze cleared from Valerie’s vision. How startled she was to see her
arms pressed tight to the door. “But I’m naked,” she said, and fled.
Chapter XVII
THE PUNISHMENT
Once more the cocks were crowing.
“The stars are fading,” Valerie realized, as she found herself beyond that
spectacle which for so many reasons had detained her.
“All I can do is roam the gardens,” she sighed. The gardens were cold. Here
and there an apple fell, or a star. Leaves dripped dew from their nocturnal folds
onto her bare shoulders.
“How magnificent it is!”
And again it was so quiet she could hear the running of the stream.
“It would be wonderful to bathe in the moonlight,” she thought.
The stream ran through the gardens. Valerie tripped towards it as to a fairy
tale. All that she had seen seemed beyond belief.
“If there were only a way to break the power of the spells that hold me in their
thrall.”
The closer she came to the stream, the safer she felt.
But at the stream a new terror lay in wait. At first she thought it was a siren
weeping. Then she heard Orlík’s voice, cursing the horrors of living.
“I’d almost completely forgotten about him. And yet he was my protector,
even when we were far apart.”
She saw the poor wretch tied and bound in the riverbed. Water was running
over his face. He was desperately raising his head to get an occasional gulp of
air, but his weakened state kept forcing his face back under the water.
“I’ve arrived in the nick of time,” Valerie thought. “If I don’t save him, he
won’t survive this terrible ordeal for long.”
The girl saw that she was naked, though her concern for her putative brother
was stronger than her modesty.
She approached the stream, dipped her bare feet in its clear, cold water and
bent over the boy.
“I’ve come to liberate you,” she said tenderly, trying to free him from his
bonds.
“I’ve been so worried about you,” the boy sighed.
“Dearest Orlík, the ropes are so knotted up I don’t know if I have the strength
to untie them.”
“Pick up two sharp stones and use them as knives.”
“You’re right, it’s easier now.”
“How grateful I am to Fate for sending a nymph to save me,” said Orlík.
“Close your eyes, dear,” said Valerie.
She struggled a little longer before managing to cut through the ropes.
“Sincere thanks,” the boy said.
“I should be the one thanking you. Were it not for your phial, I don’t know
whether we would have ever met again.”
“I was afraid you would forget it.”
Blushing, Valerie said:
“I wish I had its magic at hand right now. I would like to become invisible so I
could talk with you.”
“I’m not really looking.”
“Do you have a handkerchief?”
“Yes, but it’s soaked.”
“If you wouldn’t mind suffering a bit longer for me, I would certainly
appreciate it.”
“I don’t avoid suffering.”
“Lend me your handkerchief then.”
“Here it is.”
“And now stand in front of me.”
“Your wish is my command.”
“I hope it’s not too cold,” said Valerie, binding Orlík’s eyes.
“Are you more at ease now?”
“Yes.”
“I’m like a blind man.”
“Well then, give me your hand. I’ll lead you.”
Valerie was happy. Her heart was pounding loudly. She cast a worried look at
the fading sky.
“Where are you taking me?”
“Our house has a little used guest room. No one goes in there when we don’t
have guests. You’ve experienced enough hardship out here in the open.”
She wanted to tell Orlík that she thought him her brother, but no opportunity
presented itself and she lacked the courage. She asked him:
“Am I permitted to know what went on in the tower between you and your ...
uncle?”
Orlík gave a shudder.
“Don’t even remind me of the monster.”
“I heard the alarm sound and was beside myself with worry over you.”
“We fought furiously. When he saw I’d gotten the better of him, he wanted to
toss me from the tower. As I fell, I managed to grab the clapper of the bell and
that alone saved me. But I still failed to escape the water torture.”
“I cannot accept the idea that he intended to leave you to die.”
“Never before has his cruelty to me gone as far as this. He said expressly that
he would come to free me after I’d served my punishment. I don’t understand
why he didn’t come.”
Valerie and Orlík were now approaching her grandmother’s house.
“Shh,” she said. “I don’t want them to see us together.”
A cock crowed. But its voice quivered with despair. On the solemn high note,
which should have embraced the dawning day, it broke. No response came.
“Have you heard what has beset the town?” Valerie asked.
“I don’t know what you mean.”
“Fowl pest has broken out all over the region.”
“Fowl pest?” he asked, bursting into laughter.
“Why are you laughing?”
“If there is an outbreak of fowl pest, then I’ll finally be rid of my tyrant.”
“How so?” asked Valerie.
“If my uncle can’t get enough chicken blood, he’ll drop dead like carrion.”
“You’re being cruel.”
“With reason. You still don’t know him. Yet none of us is in such danger from
him as you. If fowl pest has broken out, you can soon consider yourself safe.”
“Despite all the atrocities he has committed, he’s still a human being.”
“His brutality is inhuman.”
“Will he really have to die?” the girl asked.
“He’s been ripe for dying for over a quarter of a century.”
“No one likes dying.”
“I had a foreboding he would gain power over you very quickly.”
“What do you mean by that?”
“That you’d fall in love with him.”
“I’m surprised you think so.”
“It’s high time he disappeared from the face of the earth.”
Valerie dropped into thought. An inexpressible melancholy took hold of her.
But she did not rebut Orlík’s words since she was afraid it might anger him.
“We’re here. I’ll take you to the guest room.”
The girl suddenly snatched the blindfold from Orlík’s eyes and directed his
gaze to the stairs. There on the landing was the missionary, hanging by the neck.
Chapter XVIII
THE RUIN
Two figures moved in the direction of the cellar, dragging a load. Valerie was
dressed now. Her eyes narrowed in terror as, with all the strength at her
command, she helped Orlík bear the hanged man’s body away.
“We can’t bury him down below just like that.”
“There’s an actual tomb there. You’ll see,” the boy replied.
“How will we get from the cellar into the vault?”
“It’s very easy.”
Orlík laid the body in a corner of the cellar and started tapping at the wall.
“The way through is here somewhere,” he said, trying to lever out a brick. As
soon as it yielded, it was child’s play to shift part of the wall and gain access to
the vault.
“You’re worn out, I’ll take him myself.”
“I think I’m going to faint.”
“Come down with me,” said Orlík, once he had managed to drag the body
down below.
“I believe we’re quite near the vaulted room I was lured into yesterday
evening.”
“Yes, but we’re on the other side of the vault.”
“I’m afraid,” said the girl.
“It is rather scary. Light the candle.”
“That’s the candle he stole into my room with. My hands are shaking and I
can’t get it to light.”
Orlík picked up the candlestick. Shortly, the little flame revealed to the
frightened girl a gruesome vision: coffins ranged along the wall of the vault.
Many coffins. She closed her eyes.
“Be brave.”
“Where are we?”
“Still close to your home.”
“It’s a cemetery.”
“A very old cemetery. More a burial ground, if we were to choose our words.”
“Who’s buried here?”
“You’ll see in a moment.”
Effortlessly, Orlík opened one of the coffins. Valerie found herself gazing on
hundreds and thousands of tiny white bones.
“Spare me the horror,” she sobbed.
“I hope you’re no longer in any doubt as to what this is.”
“No, I don’t have the courage to think anything.”
“These are the bones of all the hens whose blood he’s sucked.”
“Let’s be going.”
“Just a moment. Just let me get this sinner buried.”
“What we’re doing is wrong.”
“A little way off to the right is a crypt. All we have to do is raise the stone
cover and the body will be buried.”
“Are people also buried here?”
“I don’t wish to frighten you, but if you were a bit braver you would see
several human victims.”
“No, no, I don’t want to see.”
“Stay here then. I’ll bury the priest myself.”
“Why have you initiated me into these secrets? I’ll never be able to sleep in
peace in this house.”
Orlík lifted the corpse and dragged it through the vault. In horror Valerie
watched the shadows cast by the candle flame.
“I wonder what Grandma’s going to say when she notices her guest has
disappeared,” she thought.
Orlík was coming back. Looking exhausted, he said: “Now I’d like nothing
more than to go to bed.”
They returned to the cellar. Then they replaced the bricks in the hole leading
to the vault.
They went quietly up the stairs down which the ghastly phantom of the
missionary had disappeared.
“Careful. We’ll be passing Grandma’s door. She’s a light sleeper and I don’t
want to wake her.”
“Is my room all the way up in the attic?” Orlík asked.
“Yes, we go up these stairs.”
Dawn was breaking. Valerie had her first sight of Orlík’s face in the early
light of day. He was so exhausted his eyelids were drooping with the weight of
sleep.
“Here we are,” said Valerie, opening the door to the guest room.
But what was her surprise when a girl of exquisite beauty came forward to
meet her.
Chapter XIX
DISQUIET
“Excuse me,” said Valerie. “I didn’t know there was anyone here.”
“I arrived on the night coach,” the other woman replied.
“The night coach?”
“You seem not to recognize me.”
“I don’t know you.”
“I’m your distant cousin.”
“I see ...”
“Just call me Elsa.”
“I’m Valerie and this is my ... brother.”
“I didn’t know you had a brother.”
“Orlík,” the boy introduced himself.
“I seem to have taken your room.”
“I’m not the least bit sorry,” Orlík said.
“I can put it back at your disposal.”
“Oh, no.”
“You’ll find me a different room, won’t you?” the girl asked Valerie.
“I’ll speak to Grandma.”
“Your grandmother has left. She won’t be back for several days.”
“Really?”
“Can I move into her quarters?”
“As you like.”
“So, the room’s yours,” the young woman said.
“Thank you,” said Orlík.
“We shall meet at breakfast,” she added pointedly.
“Good-bye.”
Orlík entered the room.
“Will you see me down?” Elsa asked.
“With pleasure,” said Valerie.
The girls went down the stairs and headed for Grandmother’s part of the
house. Valerie felt tense. She couldn’t help comparing herself with this sudden
arrival and had to admit that she was not as beautiful as her cousin.
“It’s a gloomy room,” the lady said, turning back the heavy drapes of the
grandmother’s bedroom.
“Grandma likes it.”
“I trust we’ll be good friends.”
“I would truly like nothing better.”
“Your brother is young.”
“Yes, very young.”
“Won’t you miss your grandma?”
“I’m surprised she left without saying good-bye.”
“Old people have odd ways.”
“I’ll be rather helpless without her.”
“You really don’t recognize me, Valerie?”
“Not at all.”
“You swear?”
“My dear friend, you’re embarrassing me.”
Elsa laughed.
“Of course, how could you recognize me when we’ve only just met?”
“I’ve never seen you before.”
“What a glorious morning. I’d love to go for a ride.”
“I’ll lend you my horse.”
“And you?”
“I’m tired. I’m going to bed.”
“May I give orders to the maids without you?”
“Please do.”
“Sleep well then.”
“Good-bye.”
“We still haven’t embraced.”
Valerie offered her cousin her lips. Elsa first touched her lips lightly. Then she
pressed her own to them with such fervor that Valerie’s head spun. She tore
herself from her cousin’s embrace and made her way limply to her own room.
She was so exhausted she didn’t have the strength to undress. She lay down and
fell into a deep sleep.
She didn’t even observe the figure who bent over her, took her by the elbows
and carried her off.
Chapter XX
AWAKENING
Valerie came to. She was surrounded by total darkness. No matter how she tried,
she could not recognize the place where she lay. She strained to hear at least
some sound that would tell her something about the place. Beneath her, as if
underground, she distinctly heard the sound of human laughter. Then she caught
snatches of a conversation, whose general meaning she sought in vain to
comprehend. She heard these words:
“... sometime.”
“How so, Friday’s surely ...”
“... I’m not wrong to consider you ...”
“That’s not possible.”
“... when girls like that ...”
“Reason plays no ...”
“... as if ...”
“That’s delightful!”
No matter how Valerie tried, the conversation’s meaning escaped her.
“Where am I?” she shouted and pulled herself together. Her hand felt a beam
covered in cobwebs. Terrified that she might discover something even more
horrifying, she lay back down and tried to recall the last things that had
happened. Not knowing where she was at that moment, all she had witnessed
seemed even more incredible than before. Recalling the young woman and her
kiss sent a shudder through her. She had no doubt who Elsa was, and she was
afraid her grandmother, transmuted into a young woman, would take revenge on
her.
“Wherever I am,” she thought, “I’m not going to wait here idly for a miracle
to happen.”
She rose and her bare feet felt the cold, uneven brick floor. Like a blind man
groping in the dark, she cautiously advanced. After the first few steps she again
touched some cobweb-covered wood. She nearly tripped over an obstacle. It
was, she discovered, a heavy beam. She followed it all the way to the slanting of
the roof.
“I’m in the loft,” she assured herself.
Then she placed all her efforts into finding the small window that simply had
to be there.
She found it and, removing the piece of sacking covering it, managed to open
it. She was amazed. Outside it was a starry night.
How long had she been asleep?
She tried to identify any object in the starlit darkness which would confirm
where she was and give her some hope that she might eventually escape from
this strange bedchamber. But no matter how hard she tried, she could see
nothing but one corner of the sky. Yet the voices she had heard at first were
becoming more and more distinct. There was the voice of a woman and the
voice of a man.
“On Friday,” the man said. “I’m sure it was Friday.”
“It was Saturday. You’re wrong,” said the woman.
“I’ll soon show you, young lady. Here’s the calendar. Look, the full moon was
on Friday.”
“Of course,” Valerie said to herself. “I was awakened on Friday by the noise
of the hens and I remember the moon was full. But why does it matter so much
to them?”
She strained to listen.
“But that’s our coachman, Andrei,” she told herself. “He was due back from
town on Sunday evening.”
“You’re right,” said the woman.
“Pity we didn’t bet on it.”
“How much would you want to win?”
“A million.”
“My, isn’t he the greedy one!”
“If I had a million, young lady!”
“What would you do with it?”
“I certainly wouldn’t keep it stashed under the pillow.”
“So what would you do, say, this evening, if you were a millionaire?”
“I’d get all dressed up and court you.”
“I say!”
“Imagine me in a top hat.”
“You look better in a cap. I’d want you to pick me up wearing your cap.”
“You’re so sweet.”
“And what else?”
“You’ve got fabulous eyes.”
“But you haven’t seen them.”
“How true! You came back from your ride at dusk.”
“I envy my cousin’s beautiful horse.”
“She hardly ever takes him out.”
“Now he’s mine. I love him. I’ve already been to the stable three times to
have a look at him. But the flies around here ...”
“I’ll buy some flypaper tomorrow. I didn’t know we were to be graced by a
visit from a beautiful lady.”
“A stern lady. Don’t let me find you skimping my colt.”
“He’ll live like a king.”
“I’ll give you a nice reward.”
“What?”
“A rose perhaps, or a fine tobacco pouch.”
“I’d like something better.”
“What?”
“This!”
Valerie was frozen to the spot. There could be no doubting the identity of the
woman chatting with Andrei, the coachman. And there could be no doubting
what was filling the pause in the conversation.
“You’re shameless,” said the woman’s voice after a moment.
“Are you cross?”
“I’m going indoors.”
“Not yet.”
“What a strange smell there is. I like it though.”
“I can’t smell it any more.”
“Do you usually sleep here?”
“Yes, see, in these horse blankets.”
“Aren’t they heavy?”
“Not at all. Try them!”
There was a girlish yelp.
“I banged my head.”
“No, my bed isn’t hard.”
“It’s so high! Help me down. I don’t want to bang my head again.”
“Don’t run away from me.”
“Take your hands off me.”
“Lie back, I won’t hurt you. Lie down.”
“This is awful.”
“You’re beautiful.”
“I’ll start to scream.”
“Quiet, quiet.”
“You’re wonderful.”
“Beast!”
“Quiet, quiet, or someone might hear.”
“It doesn’t matter anyway ...”
“You’re wonderful.”
“And you’re marvelous ...”
Valerie could hear the groaning. Her head was spinning.
Out loud she said:
“I want to live, too!”
Chapter XXI
A FIND
Having failed to find any opening through which she might escape from the loft,
Valerie was seized with anxiety. The metal-covered door was locked, and she
did not dare to shout out. She also noticed her earrings were missing. Although
she had opened all the little windows to the night sky, the half-light was still so
very poor that she had to move about with caution, like a blind man. After long
groping she spotted at the end of the loft a crack in which a light glittered. Yet
before she reached it the light had gone out.
“I wonder what it is,” she thought, not abandoning hope of being freed.
Having reached the spot where she had been hailed by the brief signal of light,
and having felt the wall, she found to her amazement that there was a doorway
set into it, but boarded over with some smooth wood.
She was undoubtedly standing close to the attic room, and the smooth wood
was evidently part of the back of the huge wardrobe that took up a whole third of
the wall of the room where Orlík had taken up residence that morning. The wood
was cracked, and the moment before someone must have opened the wardrobe.
Regrettably it was now closed and Valerie could not know what was happening
on the other side. And yet the awareness that she was surely close to Orlík
bolstered her spirits. “I’ll wait here, come what may,” she said to herself.
Indeed, before long she heard footsteps. Someone was pacing the room. Then
there was a knock at the door.
“Come in,” said a man’s voice.
The door squeaked and someone entered.
“I’ve come to ask you for a few matches. The maids have gone to bed.”
“Here you are, I am glad to be able to share them with you,” said Orlík.
“You seem out of sorts,” said Elsa.
“I have no reason to be particularly happy.”
“Is your sister not back yet?” asked the female voice.
“No, she’s not back yet.”
“Has she not gone in pursuit of her grandmother?”
“I doubt it.”
“Well, don’t be so grumpy.”
“I’m extremely tired.”
“Are those a man’s words?”
“You seem fresh.”
“I really don’t feel the least bit like sleeping.”
“It’s stuffy in here.”
“You’re scowling like a storm.”
“Tell me the truth: Where is Valerie?”
“How should I know?”
“You know!”
“You suspect me?”
“And what’s this?”
There was a cry.
“What does this mean?”
“You’ve stolen Valerie’s earrings.”
“She gave them to me as a present.”
“May I have a look at them?”
“On one condition.”
“Well?”
“I love you.”
“I don’t love you.”
“I’ll give you the earrings on one condition.”
“They mean nothing to me. They are worthless now. I wanted to convince
you. The contents of their jewel have been removed and are very well hidden.
See for yourself.”
“Leave, sir.”
“I am no guest of yours. Why should I leave ...”
“Leave!”
“I will not.”
“You’ll regret it. I, my dear, have little to lose. You – almost everything.”
“I’m not afraid of your threats.”
“Then I wish you a good night. Wake up well refreshed.”
Valerie heard the door click shut. Before she dared risk knocking on the
wardrobe, she thought she heard a key rattle in the door to the loft. She ran to the
mattress on which she had slept through part of the night and a whole day. She
lay down and pretended to be asleep.
Shortly, a tall figure approached her on tiptoe and bent over her. Valerie felt
its breath, her own perfume and the smell of the stables.
The figure stood upright. In the dark Valerie watched its every movement.
The woman struck several matches. Valerie smelled acrid smoke. Then the
arsonist’s footsteps moved away and the door lock squeaked. When Valerie
opened her eyes, she was blinded by a bright light. Some neatly stacked straw
had caught fire and was ablaze.
Valerie tried to extinguish it. She beat at it with a large rattrap. But the fire
spread quickly. With all the strength she could muster she grabbed the blanket
that covered the mattress and jumped into the flames. Despite all her best efforts
she succeeded in putting out only part of the fire. Since she felt that she could
not overcome it by herself, she ran towards the attic and hammered on the
wardrobe.
“What’s going on?” asked Orlík.
“Open the wardrobe and smash out its back wall.”
A light from the attic came through the crack into the blazing loft. Valerie
could see part of the room and Orlík, standing by the door of the wardrobe.
“Push the wardrobe aside or I’ll be burned to death,” she shouted and fell into
a faint.
Chapter XXII
BROTHER AND SISTER
She came to on a bed. Orlík was leaning over her and stroking her shoulder.
“Where are we?” she asked.
“The fire’s out. You’re in my room.”
“She’s gone mad. I can’t explain her behavior in any other way.”
“Just as long as you’re safe.”
“I know she loves you. I heard everything.”
“Do you really think she’s your cousin?”
“I know very well she isn’t. I witnessed her transformation.”
Valerie told Orlík how, swathed in smoke, she had observed the terrible scene
when her friend had aged by several years.
“What was in the phial?” she asked.
“Do you remember your earrings being removed on Friday, during the night?”
“Of course. If I’m not mistaken, you yourself put them back in for me.”
“But to be on the safe side I removed the mysterious contents from the jewel.
See, in each earring there was a little pellet like this.”
He showed Valerie a tiny, shiny object.
“You’ve only got one.”
“I poured the contents of the other into the phial of water.”
“So the earring saved me from the missionary?”
“Yes. We’ve only one pellet left. I only hope you won’t have to use it. Here it
is. I am giving it back to you and beg you not to lose it.”
“Did Grandma know the secret of the earrings?”
“Of that there can be no doubt. As long as she was an old woman, she lacked
the courage to steal them from you. Incidentally, it seems to me she now has
grounds for being invisible. Otherwise she wouldn’t have stolen your jewelry.”
“Poor Grandma!”
“But you must be on your guard against her. She has changed into a monster
and is capable of committing the same atrocities as the Polecat.”
“What has become of the wretch?”
“Don’t pity him.”
“What’s happened to him?”
“He’s dying slowly.”
“Where?”
“Down in that lair into which he lured you.”
“Are you sure?”
“Yes. I saw him a few hours ago. When I didn’t find you in your room at
morning, I began to suspect he’d kidnapped you ...”
“Ach, why would he kidnap me?”
“I haven’t the courage to tell you the whole truth. But with your assistance he
would definitely become rejuvenated. So I entered his den in the near certainty I
would catch him in his evil act and forestall him. I was surprised not to find you.
By then the constable must have been too weak to drag himself into the house
and seize you. Without revealing myself to him, I saw him writhing and
moaning as if he were on the rack.”
“Was your heart not stirred?”
“You are a child.”
“I feel sorry for him.”
“There was a time when I was as sensitive as you. Today, however, I am
better steeled against emotion.”
“So I have observed. You were very hard with my cousin.”
“I cannot love two women.”
“I expect your sweetheart is missing you,” said Valerie, blushing.
“I have no sweetheart,” said Orlík and hung his head.
“From what you say it follows that you’re in love.”
“I have made no secret of it.”
Being so disconcerted Valerie could not say another word.
“Don’t you know that I love you?”
“You mustn’t love me.”
“I had guessed your thoughts were with another.”
“That’s not why.”
“Why then?”
“Are we not brother and sister?”
“Where did you get that idea?”
“It was what the missionary told me. My father and yours was the Bishop of
–.”
“There’s not a jot of truth in that.”
“I did think you were my brother. I still believe we are children of one and the
same father.”
“I cannot have had two real fathers.”
“You wrote me about your father. If you wish, I can remind you; I know your
letter by heart.”
“He may well have been the husband of my mother, but he was not my father.
My father is the constable.”
“Then I don’t understand why you care so little about saving him.”
“I would rather lose him than lose you.”
“You are cruel. I didn’t think it of you.”
“Don’t be a victim of your own goodness!”
“I am not heartless, it’s true. But for now, farewell. Good night.”
“Don’t go. Something awful is bound to happen to you.”
“I will be careful.”
“Don’t go!”
“I can’t stay here until morning.”
“As long as you are alone, you’re in danger.”
“Good night.”
“Trust me, I’ll stay wide awake all night.”
“Good-bye, my friend.”
Valerie closed the door. She quickly descended the stairs. She slipped past her
room and went out into the yard.
“I’ll go through the gardens. That way no one will meet me,” she said to
herself, striking out boldly to face her next adventure.
Chapter XXIII
A COMPASSIONATE VIRGIN
Market stallholders were gathering on the square. Day had not yet dawned.
Countrywomen were dozing under the hoods of their carts or rubbing their hands
beside their stalls. Several were scurrying across to the gin joint just opening its
doors. Horses dozed.
Valerie, concealed behind a lamppost, watched the preparations for Monday’s
market. Over the meat stalls she saw plucked geese and chickens hanging head
down. The stench that spread on all sides made her press her perfumed
handkerchief to her nose. Finally she spotted a coop containing a number of live
chickens. It was not a big one and could be picked up easily by its grille. The
woman to whom it belonged had just gone to fortify herself in the gin joint.
Without thinking twice, Valerie picked up the coop and looked around the
square. The hens started squawking. The fear of being caught froze the blood in
Valerie’s veins. She started running. When, at the corner, she had the courage to
look back, she saw she was being pursued by screaming market women.
Fortunately, however, she was now right by the poorhouse. She stole inside and
wandered through the empty rooms.
She was afraid she might not recognize the floorboards that had to be lifted.
Great was her surprise when she found them already raised. She slipped beneath
the ground and placed the coop with the still squawking chickens on the damp
floor. Then, as far as her strength permitted, she started wrestling with the
planks. She blocked up the gap above her in case the costerwomen caught up
with her. The planks fell into place and Valerie set off along the dark
underground passage. She was exhausted and sat down on the edge of the
chicken coop.
“Four days now! If only these awful spells that have been victimizing me
would stop.” She took another few steps forward, but, being so worn out, she
had to sit down again.
“It’s as if I were in another’s power,” she said with a sigh. “I’m acting like a
sleepwalker.”
She picked up the coop and continued on her woeful way. Suddenly, she
spotted a light glimmering in the distance. She had reached the point where the
passage widened and the carpet began.
What she saw struck her with horror.
An old man was writhing on the floor next to the armchair. His face was skin
and bone. He now bore no resemblance to a polecat. His face was human,
though furrowed with great torment.
In the armchair sat the beautiful girl.
Valerie had never gazed at her face for so long as now. Scrutinizing her, she
saw that the girl resembled her. But she was more beautiful than she. Her eyes
blazed so wildly that Valerie shuddered.
“At last you can see what it’s like to be old,” she said to the old man, who was
starting to convulse.
“A drink,” said the old man.
“Don’t change the subject, Richard!”
“I can’t think.”
“You see, the house will be of no use to you.”
“I’ll let you have the contract back, Elsa.”
“You make me laugh. Can’t you see you’re dying? And anyway, the house is
about to collapse like a paper toy.”
“How so?”
“I started a fire in the loft.”
“Are you out of your mind? Haven’t you a thought for your granddaughter?”
“She’s just a pile of ashes.”
“How so?”
“Burned to death.”
“So I’m doomed. And you’re also doomed. Three days hence you’ll be
squirming like I am now. Who would have thought you would be the cause of
my death!”
“I, Richard?”
“Of course, you.”
“How so?”
“Your granddaughter might have saved me.”
“Why her exactly?”
“She alone.”
“Why, Richard?”
“We share the same blood.”
“How so, Richard! Surely her father was the Bishop of –.”
“I was that bishop at one stage in my life.”
“The bishop died; I was at his funeral.”
“When I tired of the role, I had the word spread that the bishop had died.
Instead of me they buried a priest, whose death mask I wore.”
“You killed him! I’m sure you killed him!”
“He imbibed some poison with his wine.”
“So then, you tortured my daughter to death!”
“I loved her.”
“You must have fathered other children.”
“For a period I thought I had a son. Unfortunately, he is not my son. The
woman who bore him confessed to me on her deathbed that she had deceived me
with her own husband. I have fathered but one child!”
The old man was assailed by another bout of pain. He writhed in agony and
cries of pain struggled up from his throat:
“I’m dying of thirst.”
“I don’t know what I could offer you.”
“There’s some wine at the far end of the cellar. Go and dig a bottle out of the
ground.”
“On one condition.”
“I don’t know if I will be able to meet it.”
“Reveal to me the means to prolong youth!”
“That’s impossible. But I will give you an agent that will keep you from dying
when you turn into an old woman.”
“I don’t want to live as an old woman.”
“I’m thirsty. If you don’t bring me some wine, I’ll die of convulsions.”
“If you cannot return to me my youth, your life means nothing to me. I won’t
waste time on you.”
The Polecat offered no response to her words. He was again convulsed into a
ball, but much more terribly than before.
Elsa looked up at the ceiling and noticed the hole.
“What’s that I see? The maid is tidying the room and she’s not acting at all as
if the house were on fire. What’s the quickest way to get up there?”
The Polecat explained to the girl the device that would enable her to pass from
the vault into the cellar.
“If my daughter’s alive, I’ll save your life.”
“And my youth?” she enquired.
“And your youth,” he replied, and a glimmer returned to his haggard eyes.
“Come back, come back soon,” he pleaded.
“I’ll bring you the strongest wine to be found in the cellar,” said Elsa and
turned the wall of the vault, which echoed with the quiet lamentation of the
dying man.
Chapter XXIV
SACRIFICE
Valerie had made up her mind. Only now, having learned that the Polecat was
her father, could she account for the emotion that this man with the terrible face
stirred in her.
“Come what may!” She picked up the coop and the chickens started
squawking.
As soon as the old man heard the chickens’ voices, he sat erect and his eyes
gleamed.
“It’s me and I bring you liberation.”
“My child,” said the Polecat, tears rushing into his eyes.
“I heard everything. I know you’re my father. I want to sacrifice myself for
you.”
“My child,” said the old man tearfully.
Valerie looked into his face. He no longer had the expression of a cruel beast
that strangles chickens and sucks their blood.
“As soon as Orlík told me you were sick and weak, I went to the market and
stole these poor creatures for you.”
The Polecat reached for a hen, brought its neck up towards his mouth, but his
nostrils quivered with revulsion.
“No, I can’t,” he said. “The smell of chickens suddenly repels me. Hand me
the mirror, my child.”
Valerie looked around the subterranean room and spotted the shiny object,
reached out for it and handed it to the old man.
“I am a man again,” he exclaimed dejectedly. “I must die.” Tears fell from his
eyes and ran down onto the hand of the girl as she caressed him.
“The curse upon me has passed. My powers are gone. I am a poor old man
who will die.”
“You will not die,” said Valerie.
“I have no strength for crime. My jaws have grown weak. I am condemned to
die.”
At those words, Valerie, acting like a madwoman, took the neck of a chicken,
bit through its gullet with her little childish teeth and pressed her bloodstained
mouth to the mouth of her dying father, who received it gratefully and started
sucking at it with a feverish motion.
“More,” he said.
Pale as a whitewashed wall, Valerie sucked again at the gushing wound on the
chicken’s neck.
Then she repeated her act of mercy over and over to terrifying effect. One by
one the wrinkles vanished from the dying man’s face to be replaced once more
by the aspect of a beast.
The revulsion Valerie had felt at first contact with the old man’s mouth
receded before a peculiar sensual delight such as she had never known before.
She grew ever more listless and looked, as if mesmerized, into his eyes, to which
the fire was returning as the mist departed.
“What is happening to me?” she asked in a tremulous voice.
He who had been convulsed with pain rose and took the girl in his arms.
“I am afraid,” she said.
Bearing her in his arms, he bent over her virginal body and inhaled its
fragrance.
Just as he was about to defile his own child there was a voice in the vault:
“Where are you, Richard? Richard? I’ve brought you some wine.”
The old man stood erect and wiped the sweat from his beastly brow.
And Valerie, who was suddenly seized with mortal anguish, swallowed the
magical pellet given her by Orlík.
Chapter XXV
BURIAL
“Richard!” the woman approaching said once more.
Then Valerie heard two screams and fell lifeless to the ground. Her limbs
went rigid. She felt stiff. She wanted to move her eyelids, but could not. Only
her hearing remained unaffected.
“Where did she come from?”
“Don’t ask about anything!” exclaimed the constable.
“But she’s dying.”
“It happened suddenly, in a flash.”
“Look, she’s dead.”
“Yes, she’s dead,” said the Polecat, touching her.
But Valerie could hear every word exchanged between these two people who
had caused her so much pain over just a few days.
“It’s all over,” said the Polecat.
“But what has happened to you, Richard? You were at death’s door, and
suddenly you’re full of vitality.”
“I’ve been rejuvenated for the last time!”
“How many times have you said that before, my dear.”
“She who might have helped me is dead.”
“And what will become of me?”
“You must reconcile yourself to your fate.”
“How? Will you not preserve my youth?”
“I cannot.”
“I don’t believe you.”
“Now there is no one who can save us.”
“I’m quite aware you are to blame for her death.”
“This time I doubt I am guilty.”
“What will you do?”
“I can no longer think of being saved.”
“Richard, you are a miracle of a man.”
“If only I were!”
“You’ve got that same look now as when you bewitched me all those years
back.”
“That was a long time ago, Elsa.”
“But am I not also young?”
“You are beautiful.”
“Keep paying me those old compliments of yours.”
“You well know your beauty is just a veneer. I love women who are genuinely
young and beautiful.”
“Forget that half a century has passed, Richard, and treat me the way you used
to.”
“On one condition.”
“I am ready to meet your every wish.”
“Just over there is a coop with two hens. Bite their necks.”
“Where did the chickens come from?”
“It doesn’t matter.”
Valerie heard the frenzied wails of the poor Plymouth Rocks.
“What you’ve asked is an abomination! The blood has fouled my whole face.”
“More, more ...”
“I can’t go on.”
“Come to me.”
“I wish I’d never met you, Richard!”
“Come, now I like you.”
“You are an animal.”
“Say it again!”
“You’re an animal, a loathsome animal!”
“And what else?”
“I love you.”
“You are magnificent. Follow me!”
“I’m afraid of you, Richard!”
“A woman’s fear gives me pleasure.”
“Why are you so cruel?”
“Undress.”
“Your eyes are driving me crazy.”
“You are beautiful.”
“I can hardly breathe.”
“I love your teeth.”
“I will burn up!”
“I am going to hurt you.”
“Ah yes, that awful thing strikes fear in me.”
There was a cry. Then Valerie heard the moaning of the woman whom she
pitied as well as envied.
“I hope you never leave me!”
“I will have to go.”
“Never go away from me.”
“I cannot remain here!”
“Will you promise me that you’ll return?”
“I will return.”
These and similarly meaningless words interrupted the moans of the lovers,
who were meeting again after half an age. Valerie tried to open her eyes, but her
rigidity was so complete that at moments she thought herself dead. When the
protracted groaning of the two monsters had come to an end, she heard:
“No one has satisfied me in fifty years. Now I’m overcome with such fatigue
I’d like to sleep. Come upstairs with me, this vault of yours frightens me.”
“First we have to bury that poor creature.”
“Of course, Richard.”
“Will you help me carry her?”
“I haven’t got the strength. I’m completely exhausted. I want to sleep.”
“I’ll carry her on my own then. Say farewell to her.”
“I haven’t the strength.”
In spite of everything, Valerie felt a cross being inscribed on her forehead by a
hand she thought familiar. She wanted to cry out that she was alive, but her
tongue would not move. She felt two strong arms pick her up and carry her
away.
“Please help me, Elsa. Take the lid off the coffin.”
“If only I didn’t have to witness this burial!”
Suddenly there was a shout and the sound of a heavy object falling, then the
grandmother’s voice said:
“Look, Richard, there’s someone sleeping here.”
The man carrying Valerie placed her on the floor of the vault.
“You must be seeing things, Elsa.”
“No, look, there’s a man asleep in the coffin.”
“You’re right,” said the Polecat. “I can’t understand how he got here.”
“The missionary. I’d quite forgotten about him. Gratian ...”
“That’s strange.”
“Let’s wake him. Look, he’s breathing. He isn’t dead. Gratian!”
“He’s sleeping like a log. Let’s let him sleep.”
“Please, Richard, help me get him up above ground to his cell.”
“First we have to bury the girl.”
“How awful!”
“Don’t start crying, Elsa, and take the lid off the next coffin.”
“You take it off.”
“Fine help you are!”
Valerie was picked up again by the same two arms and placed in a narrow
coffin. Then she clearly heard the coffin lid fall into place.
“What are you going to do with Gratian?”
“Let him have a good sleep.”
“You’re cruel, Richard.”
“We don’t need him getting in our way.”
“Do you have any plans he might foil?”
“I do have a plan. I want to make a last attempt to regain my youth.”
“You said it was too late.”
“Yes. But if I succeed at one small operation, I’ll be able to accomplish all
sorts of things in this world.”
“What operation?”
“I am attended by a young boy I thought was my son. His name is Orlík. Thus
far I have felt compassion for him, but now I am resolved to try an experiment
on him.”
“How? Do you want to operate on him?”
“Yes.”
“You’re not a surgeon, my dear.”
“Rare is the surgeon who can match my skill. I’ve already operated on many
people.”
“What does this operation you want to perform on the boy entail?”
“I will need to open up his chest and remove his heart.”
“You want to kill him?”
“He will continue to live.”
“How is that possible?”
“I’ll give him the missionary’s heart as a replacement.”
“You want to kill Gratian?”
“With your indulgence.”
“No, I won’t permit it.”
“You cannot stop me from executing my plan! You are powerless.”
“Sadly!”
“You will assist me during the operation.”
“What do you want to do with his heart?”
“I want to bring my daughter back to life.”
“You old sorcerer!”
“I am merely a bit more versed in the arts than other charlatans.”
“No, I will not help you perform this act of butchery.”
“The operation will only take a few minutes.”
“Do you think you can revive Valerie?”
“That is my firm belief. Otherwise I wouldn’t have put her in the coffin so
lightly.”
“Poor Gratian. I hope he wakes up.”
“Have no pity on him!”
“Richard ...”
“What now?”
“Suppose you tried the same experiment on me?”
“What experiment?”
“I know you’ll be cross with me.”
“You’re always whining about something.”
“Richard, I want to live. Suppose you transplanted the boy’s heart into my
bosom.”
“You’re being selfish.”
“I want to live, Richard, I want to stay young. We could be happy together.
After all, I do love you.”
“We’re running out of time. I must go and find Orlík.”
“He’s here, in the house. I’m sure he’ll be asleep in the little room next to the
loft that I tried to burn down. He must be there.”
“Are you going to help me, Elsa?”
“But you promised to restore my youth.”
“Valerie wasn’t dead then.”
“And if you manage to bring her back to life, will you be able to save me,
too?”
“Yes, but you and Valerie would have to split your age.”
“I don’t understand.”
“As much as you grow young she will age.”
“But we’d both be quite young. Promise me you’ll do it, Richard.”
“With a bleeding heart. I’ll be sorry for the girl.”
“And won’t Orlík age if you give him Gratian’s heart instead of his own?”
“Of course, he’ll stop being a boy.”
“That settles it, Richard, I shall help you.”
“Now we must quickly find Orlík. If we’re too late, I won’t be able to revive
the girl.”
“You go on ahead. And what about the bottle of wine?”
“I don’t need it any longer.”
Straining every sinew, Valerie tried to cry out. What she had heard seemed so
cruel, so terrible, it was driving her out of her mind. But no matter how she tried
to move within the coffin, all her efforts were in vain.
“Poor boy, I should never have left him!”
At that moment a dull thud echoed in the vault, followed quickly by a shout.
Chapter XXVI
THE PELLET
As if it had been a thump in the back, the shock dislodged the blockage in her
throat, and Valerie felt a small smooth object on her tongue. It was the pellet that
she had swallowed without removing its hard glassy coating, and it had stuck in
her throat. Everything changed. The spasm slowly began to depart from her rigid
limbs. Her breast now swelled back into its regular rhythm. She moved her lips.
The noise continued.
There was another shout.
“Help, help ...”
The girl recognized the missionary’s voice.
“Where in the name of all that’s holy am I?” he asked himself.
Valerie tried to move her arms and raise the lid of the coffin.
“Can I really be in Hell already?” the reviving priest muttered.
The girl heaved at the coffin lid for all she was worth until it fell with a crash
to the ground.
“For the love of Christ,” the missionary wailed, “I must be in the next world
already.”
Valerie took the magic pellet out of her mouth and sat up in the coffin.
“Help, help!” cried the terrified old man.
“Calm yourself,” said Valerie.
“God have mercy on me,” he screamed and fell on his knees, his teeth
chattering.
“You’ve nothing to fear.”
“Who are you?”
“I’m Valerie.”
“Why are you appearing to me?”
“Quiet now. I’m alive, I didn’t die.”
The missionary began to mumble a prayer.
“There’s no need for you to invoke your guardian angel against me. I tell you,
I didn’t die and I mean you no harm. Stand up.”
“Where am I?”
“In a crypt.”
“How did I get here?”
“You tried to commit suicide and they buried you. Luckily, you’ve come back
to life, just like me.”
“Can I trust you?”
“There’s no reason why you shouldn’t.”
“How can I return to the good Lord’s light of day? I despair at the thought of
being condemned to remain in this house of torture.”
“You shall escape, never fear.”
“Are you a woman, or a shade?”
“Do pull yourself together.”
“How long have I been asleep?”
“When did you enter this house?”
“Saturday evening.”
“Now it’s Monday.”
“Day or night?”
“Most likely night. Time flies. It seems it was morning just a moment ago.”
“On Tuesday evening I’m supposed to deliver a sermon to some widows.”
“I don’t think you’ve missed anything.”
“How did you get here?” he asked timidly.
“Also through a misunderstanding.”
“I’m hungry.”
“I suggest you go to the rectory. Everything’s so confused in this house.”
“How do you mean? Aren’t we in a cemetery?”
“We’re in the vault under my grandmother’s house. It has a crypt.”
“So I would have slept my eternal sleep in unconsecrated ground?”
“Undoubtedly.”
“I would much rather be at the rectory.”
“Help me out of this coffin and I’ll show you the way out of here.”
“I’m still not certain you really are a woman.”
“If you’re afraid, I’ll help myself.”
Valerie carefully stood up in the coffin and jumped to the ground.
“Follow me.”
“I shall really be able to boast to the brethren that I have been to Hell,” said
the missionary, surveying the strange subterranean room where the candle had
begun to gutter.
Valerie noticed that beneath the opening giving on to the room above lay a
piece of paper. She bent down and picked it up.
“So what became of the young black girl you saved and then lost sight of in
Marseilles?” the girl asked calmly, seeking to distract this poltroon from the
underworld where he felt so ill at ease.
“A pretty shameless hussy she turned out to be. She favored sailors over the
ministers of God who had instructed her in scripture and the true faith.”
“Do you condemn her for that?”
“I bet she came to a wretched end somewhere, though she could have had an
ideal life in a convent.”
“I expect she yearned for freedom.”
“Her savage’s blood asserted itself, that’s all.”
Valerie laughed.
“I keep tripping. It’s as dark down here as the gateway to Hell. Where are you
taking me?”
“Not long now and we’ll be in the light.”
“If it is Monday, I haven’t eaten for three days. My stomach’s rumbling.”
Valerie laughed again.
“A woman is indeed the Devil’s creature. She has the Devil within her,
leading us into sin.”
“Look here, you would have died without being given last rites,” she said
blithely.
“It was not God’s wish.”
“Watch out, the passage turns left here.”
“When will this hellhole come to an end?”
“Another twenty paces.”
“In all my life as a missionary I’ve never had such a shameful adventure. And
it really is a shameful adventure. If only it were soon over.”
“We’re here. Now we must carefully lift two boards and we’ll be free.”
“You have knowledge of some fine mysteries.”
“And there’s no one sorrier than I.”
Valerie climbed the steps right up to the ceiling and pushed against the planks.
The ceiling yielded. It was also twilight up above.
“Give me your hand, young woman. I am quite exhausted.”
“I haven’t much strength left either, but here’s my hand, just be careful you
don’t bang yourself.”
Thus did Valerie find herself liberated.
“We go through two rooms, and then you’ll easily get to the rectory.”
“Witch!” muttered the missionary once they were out in the street and the
danger had passed.
Valerie laughed again. She was glad to see the back of the coward, whose
parting shot was to threaten her with an Inquisition.
It was evening. Valerie walked towards the square where a few days earlier
she had been permitted to save Orlík. She paused beneath a streetlamp around
which moths were circling. It was glorious, it was delightful. Finally, she
straightened out the crumpled paper.
From the handwriting she recognized that it was a letter from Orlík.
She leaned against the lamppost and read.
Chapter XXVII
A SECOND LETTER
My dear friend, Orlík wrote, What I feared most has come to pass. Why
didn’t you listen to me and stay with me? It is a pity I do not have a weapon at
hand. I would have killed the monster that had the audacity to accept your
sacrifice. Imagine how I felt, looking down through the hole as your very life
was at stake and I was unable to help you. You should have stayed with me. The
murderer would have died like the rankest carrion and we could have been
happy. His longing for you has so crazed his wretched mind that he believes you
are his daughter. There were times when he thought I was his son and when he
would have gladly abused me as he did you despite my not being born a girl. The
story of this tyrant is as simple as it is tangled, and I think I understand it
properly now. The Polecat is an old degenerate who, regrettably, learned in his
youth all sorts of arts that he now puts to ill use. The pellets in your earrings are
his handiwork of long ago. He filled them with an essence he had managed to
acquire during the endless experiments to which he dedicated his youth. Let me
tell you why we came here. Since his memory has long played tricks on him, he
has forgotten most of what he once knew. The old man, as you know, prolongs
his life and his sensual appetite by ingesting the blood of chickens. Although he
sometimes manages to help his senses to their feet and whip himself up to the
pathological lustfulness that has him completely under its control, his brain
decayed long ago and nothing can save it. One day, he remembered the elixir he
had once succeeded in creating and concealed in the earrings, and the desire to
lay hands on it again led him to this house, which was once his property. The
underground room used to be his laboratory, where he performed experiments
with chickens’ blood. Today it is a gloomy tomb, of that there is no doubt. On
that day you first spotted us we had spent the whole afternoon lurking in the
henhouse, looking out for anyone wearing the old man’s earrings. We saw them
in your ears as you returned from a walk. Then all we had to do was wait until
you were asleep and steal them from you. But no sooner were your earrings in
the Polecat’s possession and he knew that their secret was in place than he lost
all interest in them and transferred his attention to you. The rest you know. So
notwithstanding the desire of his sick mind, he is neither my father, nor yours. I
feel bitterness. Now that you have prolonged his life, now that his lips have
defiled your beauty, and now that he may have infected you with his lust as he
infected all the women he has ever met in the course of his life of crime, I have
not the temerity to believe that I shall win your love. Why have I wandered the
world with him? Why didn’t I rebel against him long ago? Out of compassion
and habit. But then he did bring me up for so long. Was it so easy to resist his
threats and promises? Today, now that he has deprived me of you, no bond, save
that of hatred, ties me to him any longer. I should despair if I had to witness his
power over you growing day by day. Therefore, I have decided to flee as far
away as possible from this place. I wanted to be your protector, friend, and
husband. Today, it seems unlikely that you would accept even advice from me. I
shall try to earn my living far from here, no matter in what penury. Forgive me
for lacking the strength either to hope, or to take my life. I am too young to
believe that I may be able to influence you for your good. What I have seen tears
at my heart. That wound will never heal. If it were not too late, I would suggest
that together we go somewhere far away and avoid returning to this place until
the spell in whose grip we are as nothing loses its power. May my departure
bring vigilance to your mind and may you no more be seduced by compassion or
an impulse to act in a way that could prove fateful. Farewell, Valerie, I hesitate
to say “until we meet again,” since that would mean chafing my mind with
renewed hope. Be stronger than I am. Be stronger than you have been until now.
Remember that Orlík adores you and loves you with all his heart.
Chapter XXVIII
FRIENDS
The letter made up Valerie’s mind not to return to that house of snares and
intrigues. She wondered where to go. Unfortunately, she had no girlfriend,
because they had never allowed her to play with the girls from the town. She
would spend days on end with her grandmother and the domestic animals. She
didn’t know where she could go. Walking about the town like a lost soul, she
avoided people. She was missing Orlík and reproaching herself for not obeying
him. Now she came to the landowner’s house and remembered Hedviga. The
gate creaked and she entered the house where she had witnessed that
extraordinary wedding night. The landowner’s wife came to meet her. She was
sad, she had aged, and she looked at Valerie inquiringly. She welcomed her.
“To what do I owe your visit, Valerie?”
“Grandma’s gone away,” the girl lied, “and I was too sad on my own.”
“Come on in, my dear.”
The friends entered the sitting room and sat down opposite each other.
“There’s only me at home,” said Hedviga. “My husband’s gone to the stock
exchange in the city.”
“So we’re both in much the same position.”
“I’m glad you thought of me.”
“Do you remember how we used to go bird’s-nesting together?”
“Nice games I used to teach you!”
“I like to think back on them.”
“You’re looking pale.”
“I really don’t feel very well. And you? How are you?”
“Since I got married my health has been failing.”
“You’ll get used to this house.”
“I’m afraid I’ll be taken by galloping consumption. When I’m alone I can
hardly stop crying.”
“You should eat hearty soups.”
“I barely eat at all. All food turns me off. It’s as if I’ve been bewitched.”
“I’m much the same.”
“My husband is very kind. People are wrong about him. When he comes back
from the city you’ll see.”
“Will he be back tonight?”
“No, I’ll be sleeping alone. And you?”
“I’ve also been abandoned.”
“Spend the night here with me. We’ll both be the happier for it.”
Valerie was waiting for this invitation. At home she was afraid of ghosts at
night. She said:
“I’d love to accept your invitation.”
“Have you heard about the unhappy way our wedding ended?”
Valerie blushed.
“No, I haven’t, my dear.”
“I’d better not frighten you with it.”
Nonetheless, Hedviga told how a phantom had visited her wedding.
“Maybe it was just your imagination,” said Valerie.
“I’m afraid I’ll never be happy in my marriage. Look what’s happened to me.”
The landowner’s wife bared her shoulder, and on it Valerie saw a blotch that
resembled a rose.
“Does it hurt?”
“No. I don’t even know when this nasty mark appeared. I discovered it by
chance this morning. It so upset me that I’ve sent for the wise woman. She’ll be
here in a moment.”
“Should I leave then?”
“Oh no, please stay, with you here I feel better than when I’m alone.”
Thus did these two unfortunate young creatures talk about the anxieties that
had lately assailed them. The moment passed and the wise woman arrived. Her
penetrating eyes looked inquiringly from one woman to the other.
“Have you been given anything to eat or any other object by a stranger?” she
asked the landowner’s wife.
“I was married three days ago and many women did the cooking.”
“Do you have any visible mark that could have come from the evil eye?”
Hedviga showed the wise old woman her scarred shoulder.
“Vampire!” the old woman exclaimed in terror.
“I don’t believe in vampires.”
“But they exist, and it’s very hard to deal with them,” the woman said.
“What are vampires?”
“They are people endowed with special powers that come from feeding on the
blood of animals and humans.”
“Really?”
“There are vampires who attack horses, poultry, and people.”
“Aren’t they usually the cause of fowl pest?” the landowner’s wife asked.
“Yes. Poultry can sense them from a distance and die of horror as they
approach.”
“There have been rumors of fowl pest in town for several days now.”
“These aren’t just rumors, dear lady. Ask your maids how many of their
chickens have died.”
“I thought every last one was slaughtered before the wedding.”
“That’s why the vampire moved to your house: he could scent the chicken
blood. Then he didn’t spare you either.”
“For several days I haven’t been myself,” Hedviga complained.
“I can believe it, dear lady. However, I shall see to it that the vampire won’t
come near you again.”
“If only I could be well again.”
“You’ll be as right as rain.”
“Are you her friend?” the old lady asked Valerie.
Valerie coolly withstood her gaze and introduced herself.
“I knew your mother. She was a beautiful lady. Rumor has it she, too, was
done in by a vampire.”
“They’re only rumors,” said Valerie diffidently.
“Be careful, lass,” said the herb woman. “A vampire likes to return to a family
where he’s already destroyed someone. You’re very pale. I’m nearly certain
you’ve been bewitched, too.”
“How can you tell?”
“Show me your body, miss, and don’t be shy,” the old lady said unctuously.
“Come on, show me your shoulders.”
Valerie unbuttoned her dress and did as she had been bidden.
“Beautiful shoulders. Immaculate. Really, nothing anywhere.”
Valerie heaved a sigh.
“Come dear, now show me your little neck and breasts. Come, come, don’t be
afraid. I want to protect you against spells.”
Valerie bared her neck and breasts.
“Am I ever wrong?” the old lady exploded. “Look, my dear, what damage the
rogue has done.”
“Don’t get frightened, Valerie, but there are several marks on your breasts like
the ones on my shoulder,” said Hedviga.
“A vampire has fallen for you,” the old woman said. “How fortunate our paths
have crossed.”
Valerie stared sadly into space. She knew from where the suspicious marks
had come.
“We’ll soon see how deep the vampire’s claw went in.”
The herb woman wet a little handkerchief in some liquid and started wiping
several areas of the girl’s breasts.
“I thought as much. The blood is coming off. See? The handkerchief is
bloodstained. And your breasts are white as snow once more. Bless the Lord that
the vampire was scared off, otherwise you would be deathly pale to the end of
your days.”
“Try to wash off my stains as well,” said the landowner’s wife.
“I’ll certainly try, dear lady, though I’m rather afraid our attempt will
disappoint us.”
She wiped Hedviga’s shoulder with another cloth, but the wound on it
remained unaffected, unchanged.
“The vampire had time enough to complete his work.”
Valerie shuddered.
“I still can’t believe,” Hedviga said, “in the existence of vampires.”
“But they do exist, madam. Be thankful you have looked none in the face.”
“Do they take human form?”
“Human and animal, madam. There are old ones and young ones, male and
female, and even children. I wouldn’t care to be either mother or wet nurse to a
vampire.”
The old lady took a small object from her bag and said:
“But from now on the vampire will dare not persecute you, ladies. This is a
scapular, an amulet.”
She draped some object around Hedviga’s neck.
“And here is one for you, miss.”
Valerie did not dare oppose the old lady’s wish. No sooner had the scapular
barely even touched her, she felt the disgusting taste of chicken blood in her
mouth. She very nearly vomited.
“Sleep in peace, dear ladies. Now the vampire will think twice before
troubling you. But do not remove your amulet at night. For it is at night the evil
brute has the best chance of testing his powers.”
“Thank you,” said Hedviga. “Even though I don’t believe in vampires, I shall
wear the scapular. How much do I owe you?”
“I can accept nothing for the help and advice I have given you. I am a poor
woman and there may be an occasion later when you can furnish me with a bowl
of hot soup or five-dozen eggs. Today, though, I can accept nothing. I protect
people from vampires for the love of Good.”
“Thank you,” said the landowner’s wife again. “I shall be calmer now.”
“And I thank you as well,” said Valerie modestly.
The old lady placed in her bag the items she had needed for the exorcism. She
said:
“Tomorrow is the holy mission to widows. I’ll be going to church, so I must
iron my Sunday scarf. May God protect you, dear ladies.”
After the wise woman’s departure the girls’ fears vanished. Valerie regretted
she could not confide to Hedviga all that she had witnessed and that burdened
her heart. This was why she was more taciturn than her friend, who once more
looked forward with hope.
They repaired to the room where they were to sleep and opened the window
onto the garden.
Valerie felt sad. She was thinking of Orlík and reproaching herself for his
departure. She wept for him and she wept for her grandmother.
“How beautiful it is,” said Hedviga, breathing in the night-scented air.
“Let’s always be friends,” she said to Valerie, snuggling up to her shoulder.
“I’ve never had a friend and I’m so happy you’re offering me your
friendship.”
“We girls have always envied you, Valerie, your house, your wealth, your
luxury.”
“I’ve never been happy in that huge house.”
Some way off a dog howled. They heard footsteps. They were coming closer,
then stopped a little way off. Hedviga said so loudly that Valerie was frightened:
“I shall not remove the scapular from my breast until the day I die. Just let that
vampire try to come in. He has no more power over us.”
The dog howled again. And both girls heard the steps of two people running
away.
“Are you cold, Valerie?” Hedviga asked.
“I was just a bit startled. I’m always afraid when a dog howls.”
“I’m sleepy,” said Hedviga.
“And I’m tired as well.”
“So let’s close the window and go to bed.”
Valerie also took a deep breath of the night.
At that moment a cock crowed.
Several jubilant voices responded.
“Do you hear?” the girl asked. “The cocks are crowing again.”
“Now I’m not afraid of anything,” her friend replied.
They lay down on the same bed, put their arms around each other and fell fast
asleep.
Chapter XXIX
A FALSE WITNESS
Valerie stayed at Hedviga’s all the next day until evening. She was no longer as
pale as she had been the day before and was ready to go home with fortitude.
During the night Hedviga had grown several years younger and the brand on her
shoulder had lost its menacing tone.
“You were shouting in your sleep,” she said to Valerie.
“Goodness, what?”
“You called for your father. You were dreaming that he was dying and you
wanted to save his life.”
“I’ve forgotten what I dreamed.”
“Look, my husband’s coming back.”
“I’ll leave you two together.”
The landowner’s wife tried to persuade the girl not to go just yet, but Valerie
thanked her for her hospitality and set off towards the square.
A large number of people had assembled there. Many, many people were still
arriving and someone was addressing them. The girl joined the inquisitive
throng. She stood near a streetlamp. On the plinth of the group statue stood the
missionary, Gratian, and he was speaking. Valerie had missed the start of his
speech, but she soon realized what he was speaking about. The missionary kept
raising his arms to heaven, beating his bosom and with clenched fists shaking
like someone having an epileptic fit. He was plainly drunk, because he was
lurching. But those he was addressing were unaware of the fact.
He gushed his sentences with all the skill of a drunkard.
“You, Christians, know,” he cried, “that throughout my life I have been
exposed to danger. More than once did the barbarism of cannibals smack its lips
at the prospect of me. I have crossed all the continents and brought hundreds and
hundreds of people to the Christian faith. But the danger into which I have been
cast in recent days has been greater than being among the savages. Dear
Christians, there is living amongst you a witch. She has adopted the outward
form of a beautiful young girl of great refinement. I have seen the Devil in many
forms, but the devil whose blue eyes have smiled upon me in this little town is
that most dangerous of Lucifers. Hold your breath, dear Christians, and listen
well to what I have to say. I was invited into a house where a devil lives. The
kindly lady of the house, who suspects nothing, made me welcome, as befits a
pious old lady. Today you would seek her in vain. She has vanished, as if
swallowed up by the Earth. I know where she has probably disappeared to! She
has doubtless gone to join her ancestors. And now listen to what befell me. The
very first night, as I was praying and readying myself to sleep in the bosom of
the Lord, the Devil appeared to me. He adopted the most seductive apparel of
our first mother, Eve, and began to dance lewd dances before me. ‘Come,’ he
called to me, ‘take off your cassock, abandon God!’ He stretched his arms
towards me, grinning, and his mouth played with grotesque smiles and grotesque
words as with fire. ‘Forget you are a priest,’ the beautiful specter spoke into my
ear, ‘my embrace is the most enchanting heaven.’ I crossed myself and implored
God to drive away the artful being whom only the previous evening I had
thought the very flower of Christian maidenhood. I tore the crucifix down from
the wall and defended myself against the diabolical siren. But the fiendish
creature was resolved to go on tormenting me with its sinful words. It rubbed its
dissembling hips against the bed to which I had been about to retire and
promised me regal delights if I forgot our Lord and yielded to its blandishments.
‘Get thee behind me,’ I shouted, invoking the patron of chastity. Then the
devilish maid lay on my bed and, tossing her legs in the air, horrified me with
her obscenity. I knelt down and prayed fervently. When the demonic vestal saw
that her snares were too weak and of no avail against a believer’s will and his
trust in the mercy of God, she seized a halter, threw it around my neck and began
to strangle me. She hanged me on the stairs and watched my death struggle with
relish. When she thought I was dead, she took me and hauled me off to her
realm. How grateful I am to God that He wreathed my soul in a faint and sleep.
Otherwise I would have had to experience the anguish of death in the bottom of
the coffin into which the Devil’s niece had cast me. But divine mercy is infinite,
and so it was the Lord’s desire that I should come round and cast aside the
coffin’s lid. She who had failed to sleep with me in bed also lay down in the
coffin, so that she might have congress with me at least symbolically. However,
it seemed her failure had crushed her. When she saw me alive again and with a
prayer on my lips, she abandoned her shameful design and herself offered to lead
me out of that crypt, which is equipped for the most dissolute orgies. Thus did I
escape the Devil’s snares and now I stand here before you as a witness who
enjoins you to settle accounts with your own devils.”
“Lies, every word’s a lie!” screamed Valerie and she mounted the statue face
to face with Gratian.
“He has deceived you, he’s lying, don’t believe him!”
Panic ensued. People surged towards the statue so as not to miss the
unexpected spectacle.
“He’s lying!” Valerie repeated, her eyes filled with righteous indignation.
Gratian reeled and barely managed to keep his balance. He looked at the girl
and shouted:
“It’s her! She’s the witch!”
“Look at his face. It’s bloated with gluttony and drunkenness. All his lechery
is mirrored in it. He’s a liar and a false witness!”
“Do you wish to deny that you bared yourself before me?”
“I swear he’s lying!” screamed Valerie. “He was the one making lewd
advances to me. He’s a liar! Don’t believe a word he says.”
The missionary turned his eyes heavenward and started to mumble a prayer.
“Do you hear him? Can’t you see how he dissembles? I accuse you in public,
Gratian, of wanting to rape me and of nearly killing me.”
Up to this point the people had not ventured to say a single word. Openmouthed, they followed the dispute, and no one wished to arbitrate.
When Gratian finished his prayer, he shouted in a loud voice:
“Apage satanas.”
This had a magical effect on the assembled Christians. People crossed
themselves.
“Do not believe him. He is a false witness. He has sworn falsely. He will die
within a year,” said Valerie.
“Witch,” yelled Gratian. “To the stake with her!”
“To the stake with her!” several people in the crowd shouted.
“To the stake with her!” the missionary repeated.
“To the stake with her!” the whole assembly repeated after him.
The missionary realized that he had vanquished the beautiful girl, who stood
fearlessly facing her judges. He shouted:
“Seize her!” He himself made the first attempt to detain the maiden.
The crowd surrounded the statue from all sides. But Valerie hurled herself
down from it and, forcing her way through the first row, took to her heels. While
some pursued her, others began building a pyre in the square.
Chapter XXX
IN FLAMES
Valerie’s attempt to escape was futile. There was nowhere to flee. Hardly did
she wrench herself from the hands of one pursuer than she fell into the clutches
of another. Finally she was captured and dragged to the pyre. With straw twine
they bound her around the waist to the stake rising up out of the woodpile like a
gallows. Valerie gave up all resistance.
In front of her, protected by the crowd, stood the missionary, Gratian,
brandishing a torch someone had handed to him. He said:
“Do you repent of your sins?”
“I have done nothing wrong,” Valerie replied in a steady voice.
“Confess that you are a witch!” the missionary insisted.
“You are a devil, a real devil!”
“Tell me, do you wish to make a final confession?”
“To you? Never! I would rather be burned to a cinder than have been
dishonored by you, you vile worm!” the girl shouted.
“By all that’s holy I command the demon to leave your body.”
“You clown! Liar! Is there no crime to which you won’t stoop?”
“Repent!” said Gratian.
“Repent,” the crowd echoed.
“I am innocent!” said Valerie.
“Decide for yourselves,” said the priest to the crowd. “Does she deserve to die
in flames? Do you condemn her?”
“Burn her!”
“Pray with me, dear Christians, for the salvation of her soul. Pray with me that
when the flame touches her sinful body she may rue all her sins and stand at
least before the seat of divine judgment as a penitent.”
The missionary recited a prayer and the faithful repeated it after him.
“Orlík,” whispered Valerie, “why have you forsaken me?”
“See, her lips are moving, she’s praying,” said a man with the eyes of an
inquisitor.
“So are you confessing that you are a witch?”
“I confess nothing, you murderer. You deserve the stake more than I.”
“She’s a lost cause, an irredeemable sinner who will die unrepentant. You
shall join the denizens of Hell. But do not expect them to welcome you with
music. You shall be cast into a cauldron and your torment shall endure to the end
of days.”
Gratian stepped up to the pyre and set the torch to the dry twigs that were
closest to the ground. The flame blazed up, the twigs crackled, and thick, sooty
smoke billowed from them. Valerie felt it wrapping itself around her, stinging
her eyes and making it difficult for her to breathe. Feeling sure that she was now
concealed from the eyes of the crowd, she reached into her little bag and took
out the pellet. She quickly put it between her teeth and crunched it. The pellet
split in two like a coffee bean. Suddenly she felt her lips wet by the juice whose
taste she recognized at once. Before she could bite the other half, a spasm shot
through her body. The hand that still gripped half of the mysterious bean
dropped convulsively down by her side. Her convulsions were so strong that as
she writhed Valerie snapped the twine binding her to the stake. All who had
assisted the missionary in the murder of an innocent saw a dense, impenetrable
smoke suddenly billow from the pyre. And as if driven by a powerful wind the
column of smoke lurched and started to move.
Under its protection, Valerie ran across the square to the back alleys to find
seclusion. Before the awestruck crowd realized she had disappeared from the
fire, she was so far from the square she could think herself out of harm’s way.
The smoke, at first thick and dark, paled and thinned, so that she seemed to be
looking through a diaphanous veil. Running down streets she was seeing for the
first time in her life, she noticed a red lamp above one very old, deserted house.
Without a moment’s thought, she entered.
Chapter XXXI
PUPPETS
Valerie chose as her lookout a spot behind some heavy drapery that blended well
with the color of the thin smoke swathing her from head to foot. The place was
like some vaudeville. Walking about the large room were half-naked puppet-like
beings.
Valerie also saw some oddly dispirited men. Now and again one of them
would rise without a word and go over to a girl at whom he had been staring. In
one corner of the room someone was laughing. Valerie saw a knot of women
bent over a table where something was happening. Sitting at it was a man
performing card tricks. He would pick out two and two and wave them in front
of himself. The girls laughed out loud. Valerie could not understand what could
be so funny about this game.
“Enough of this film,” laughed one young woman. The man threw the cards
away. One landed at Valerie’s feet.
It bore an obscene picture.
“Wine!” called the man.
Valerie recognized his voice. It was the Polecat.
A woman in a white apron hurried to pour the guest a glass of wine.
“Shall we perform the scenes on the paper I’ve shown you?” the Polecat
asked.
“Fat chance, old man! The nerve of this one!” said one of the puppets.
“Shut your mouth, ginger, or you’ll be the first I choose!”
“But you’re as dry as old bread crust.”
“Yet I’ll teach you to moan!”
The girls laughed.
At that point three men came into the room. The puppets dispersed. Hissing
like geese, they ran towards the new arrivals.
The Polecat downed his wine and asked for another.
One of the girls came back to him. The others sat down with the three young
men.
“I didn’t say you could go, you hussies,” the old man shouted and pounded the
table with his fist.
“Just look at him, the old capon,” said the redhead, and she burst out laughing.
The three young men were amused.
“He’s got a face like a louse-ridden horse blanket.”
“What do you say to that?” asked the Polecat, twisting the hand of the girl
who had sat down next to him so viciously that she let out a yelp.
“Stop that!”
“Silence, you ugly bitch!”
“I’m too good for you!”
“Tell them they’re all sluts.”
“Go to hell if you’re not going to talk nicely,” she retorted and went about her
business.
“Wine!” the Polecat thundered again and thumped the table.
“You shouldn’t swear and shout like that in here,” the girl in the apron
rebuked him.
Several more men arrived. The Polecat took a deep swig and inspected the
arrivals with contempt.
“What a bunch of cripples.”
One man heard him.
“Ever had a good thrashing?” he asked and measured the old man from head
to foot.
“Thrashing?” asked the Polecat, feigning puzzlement.
He stood up, and before the man knew what hit him he was flat on the ground.
“Just so you watch your tongue next time,” said the old brawler, and he took a
drink of his wine.
The redhead came back to the old man laughing and said:
“I’m starting to like you.”
The man who had been made a fool of scowled at the redhead and muttered
something. He went and sat with his friends close to the curtain where Valerie
was standing. She managed to catch the conversation between the three men:
“He’s not going to get away with that,” said the man the Polecat had slammed
to the floor.
“Just ignore him.”
“You take me for a wimp?”
“He’s a rough customer. Don’t start anything with him.”
“What?” blustered the infuriated man, and a knife glinted in his hand.
“Put that blade away! You’ll end up in the joint again.”
“I’ll teach him a lesson.”
Valerie shuddered in terror at the sight of the glittering steel.
The Polecat sat the redhead on his lap.
“Come here!” the possessor of the knife yelled at the old man’s companion.
“He’s calling you,” said the Polecat, and he started to laugh.
The man paled. His friends tried to calm him down.
“Just watch him scream!”
Valerie was sure a scuffle was about to erupt. Suddenly, she realized that she
was still holding half of the wonder-working pellet. Moving cautiously along the
wall towards the table where the Polecat was sitting, she tossed it into his wine.
Then she stepped back behind the curtain and waited in trepidation for what
would happen next.
“Come here!” Blade called out again.
“Who do you think you’re talking to, you cripple?” said the Polecat.
The man with the knife jumped up, ready to launch himself at the old man.
His friends grabbed him by the coattails and tried to prevent the fight. The
redhead fled squealing into a corner.
“Let him come, my beauties,” said the Polecat. “I’ll make short work of him.”
The old man rose, picked up his glass, drank it down, and hurled it towards his
adversary’s table. The latter broke away from his friends and charged the old
man. The Polecat dodged, let out a yell, and sank to the ground.
“He’s stabbed him!” screamed the redhead.
“No!” said the infuriated man, staring down at the writhing old man.
“You’ve stabbed him!”
“See for yourselves,” said the youth and tossed the knife on the table.
The knife passed from hand to hand.
“There’s not a drop of blood on it,” everyone present had to admit.
“Now we’re going to have trouble with the police,” said the girl in the apron.
Valerie was dying in anguish.
“You must take him away,” someone said. “He can’t stay here.”
“Let’s go,” said the rowdy. “I don’t want anything to do with this. He must’ve
had a heart attack.”
The customers rose and paid.
“Come on then, take him out of here,” the girl in the apron repeated.
But no one seemed inclined. No one paid any more attention to the lifeless
body. The girls, disgruntled at the loss of their customers, stared dully ahead of
them and frowned.
“He didn’t even pay,” said the waitress and bent down over the prostrate
shadow. Then she suddenly cried out:
“Look! Look!”
The girls jumped up out of curiosity and went across to her.
On the ground lay clothes without a body.
“Do you see? Do you see that?”
Tensely, Valerie watched the girls’ shocked expressions.
“He’s disappeared. All that’s left are his togs.”
“How can that be?”
“Put all the lights on. We might be mistaken.”
The lights in the room came on. Now Valerie could see the pile of bodiless
clothes quite plainly.
“Where’s he gone to?”
“It defies explanation.”
“I can’t believe my eyes.”
“But I never took my eyes off him.”
“Who’s brave enough to pick this rag up?”
“There’s nothing to fear,” said the redhead.
Her friends all scattered and, as if fearing an explosion, watched in horror
from afar to see what would happen when the redhead picked up the garments.
The girl stooped and, as if it were a bit of fluff, plucked up the sorry remnants
of the man whose strong, bony hands she could still feel on her arms. But in the
same instant she jumped back as if stung. Underneath crouched a small animal
with piercing eyes.
“A polecat,” squeaked the waitress.
Valerie stood frozen to the spot. She, too, saw the piercing eyes of the
frightened creature. Suddenly, the animal broke into a run and darted from
corner to corner, looking for a hole through which to escape out of sight of the
trembling girls. None of them felt brave enough to pursue this strange phantom.
Valerie thought her strength was leaving her. She passed along the wall of the
rooms with their fantastical décor and opened a door. But what a shock she had
when she felt the polecat slip out between her feet. She shrieked and fled into the
night.
Chapter XXXII
HOMELESS
Valerie arrived back at the square where so much had befallen her already. The
spot where the stake on which she was to have been burnt had stood earlier that
evening was swept clean. Not a trace of her adventure remained. Valerie was
exhausted. She sat on the edge of the plinth of the statue and looked at the dove
with the bunch of grapes in its beak above the old palace façade. Here Orlík had
been bound, and here she had read his letter of farewell. She burst into tears. She
felt abandoned as never before. But her sorrow was not to last long. It gave way
to vigilance.
“What’s that?” she asked herself, straining her ears.
She could hear a dull thudding and a number of voices. Valerie went in the
direction of the noise and eventually reached the rectory. Three carriages and a
cart stood in front. Two men were carrying traveling bags out of the house and
tossing them onto the cart. When the job was done, the rector appeared in the
door accompanied by seven or eight men attired in canonicals.
“By morning you will be far away and out of all danger,” he said.
“We thank you for everything, Brother,” said one priest. “It is a shame
Brother Gratian committed such a folly. We would certainly have stayed several
days longer.”
“The faithful are outraged. I have my work cut out to convince them it was a
misunderstanding.”
“I was totally inebriated,” Gratian admitted.
“It was an unfortunate idea you had, Brother,” said the rector, taking leave of
him with an embrace.
The missionaries boarded the carriages and the horses set off.
The cart also moved off. The rector cast a glance around the sky and locked
the rectory with a sigh.
Valerie was exhausted and sleepy.
“This has been going on for almost a week now!”
She wanted to go home. She walked past the gardens like a sleepwalker.
The garden gate creaked. She was about to enter the yard when she suddenly
thought she could see a light glimmering in the greenhouse. In the light of a
guttering candle she saw a wide bench and a man asleep. The longer she looked,
the more definitely she made out his features. There could be no doubt that the
fellow sleeping there was Orlík.
“I have nothing to fear if he is this close-by,” she thought and fearlessly
entered the yard.
“But I’m invisible,” she was reminded.
She opened the door, went down the hallway, entered her room, lay down, and
fell fast asleep.
Chapter XXXIII
QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS
Valerie awoke beautiful and refreshed. Her room was awash with sunlight,
woven by the curtains. Her heart was buoyed by courage. The maids were
clattering the dishes and their voices sounded like a little avian opera. The
postman was walking the square and ringing doorbells. Valerie was hungry. As
if nothing had happened, she dressed and headed for the dining room.
In the dining room sat her grandmother.
“Grandma!”
“That’s no way to come in, child,” Grandmother said.
“Good morning, Grandma!”
“Good morning.”
“When did you get back?”
“Where would I come back from, child?”
Valerie could not trust her senses.
“Coffee’s on the table. Eat,” said the old lady.
The girl sensed that she would have to tread carefully. It would be better to
talk of ordinary things.
“Have the missionaries left?” she asked.
“Missionaries? What missionaries?”
“Her memory’s going,” the girl thought. “Well, I’ll just have to be very
cautious.”
“The missionaries,” she said diffidently.
“You’re all muddled.”
“I’ll ask the maids,” the girl thought and took a sip of coffee.
“What day is it, Grandma?”
“You haven’t been saying your prayers properly if you don’t know it’s
Wednesday.”
“Of course I knew it was Wednesday, I was just checking.”
In her mind Valerie asked herself if it really was Wednesday. On Friday
evening she had gone out back with a lamp and seen the fateful pair of men. On
Saturday she had received a letter, been to the service for virgins, rescued Orlík
and was rescued by him from the underground vault. Then with the aid of a
magic potion she had escaped the missionary, who had sought to defile her. She
had witnessed her grandmother’s metamorphosis and fallen asleep in her own
bed. She had slept through Saturday and Sunday in the loft, escaped from a fire,
and spent several hours with Orlík. On Monday she had stolen some chickens at
the market, saved her father’s life, almost fallen victim to her own act of charity,
and come to in a coffin along with Gratian, the missionary. She and Hedviga had
received a talisman and she had slept alongside Hedviga. On Tuesday she had
had a miraculous escape from being burned at the stake and witnessed the
transformation of the old man into an animal. Today was Wednesday.
“It really is Wednesday,” she said.
“What is the matter with you, child?” Grandmother asked anxiously.
“I’m all right.”
“Why do you keep stirring your coffee. You’ve got sugar already.”
“So Hedviga’s married.”
“Hedviga who?” the old lady asked.
“Hedviga, the corn chandler’s daughter.”
“Don’t know anything about it.”
“But on Saturday morning we saw the wedding party. Don’t you remember
that ludicrous masked procession that passed under our windows?”
“Ridiculous. You’re being silly.”
“But, Grandma, do try and remember.”
“Stop trying to frighten me.”
After her double metamorphosis a great change had come over Grandmother.
She had lost her memory and could remember nothing. What was Valerie to talk
about if she were not to scare her unnecessarily?
“Has the fowl pest passed?” she asked timidly.
“Fine books you must be reading,” said Grandmother. “I’ll have to keep a
closer eye on what you read.”
“Don’t you know about the fowl pest that’s broken out in the town?”
“Please, Valerie, do stop making fun of me,” the old lady said with severity.
None of the wonders the girl had experienced seemed so bizarre as this
conversation with her grandmother. She wanted to be alone.
Her eyes strayed to the square. But she was more than a little amazed to spot
Orlík on the pavement.
“Look, Grandma. That young man ... Oh, do have a look.”
The old lady did.
“Well, what’s caught your eye? He’s one of the actors from the troupe who’ve
been in town the past few days.”
Valerie dared say nothing to contradict her. She didn’t know whether to laugh
or cry.
“Look, Grandma, he’s coming this way.”
“Stay here. I’ll speak to him myself. It isn’t fitting for a young girl to talk to
strange men.”
Grandmother rose and went out. Valerie suspects the old lady has been
dissembling. She feels sorry for her, and afraid she will lapse back into the grip
of wonders. Only the thought of Orlík gives her courage and raises her spirits.
Shortly, Grandmother returned and said:
“Poor things. They are hungry and wretched. You can’t help but take pity on
them. I took a couple of tickets from him. If you start talking more sense than
you have been, I’ll let you come to the theater with me this evening.”
“Thank you, Grandma. It will make me very happy if you take me with you.
What’s the play?”
“Joan of Arc. It’s a play about a courageous Christian girl who sacrificed her
life and saved her nation.”
Valerie again saw the pyre to which half the town had condemned her. She
blushed at the idea that she, too, was a heroine. Because she was afraid of
alarming her grandmother by asking awkward questions, she spoke of ordinary
things. Then it again came to her that Orlík had been in the house a moment
before, and she felt certain he had brought an important message. And she began
to suspect that the tickets he sold Grandmother perhaps contained a hidden
communication. She said:
“Will you let me keep the tickets, Grandma?”
“Here they are.”
“May I go out for a walk?”
“Don’t go far.”
“Good-bye for now, Grandma,” said the girl and kissed the old lady’s hand.
She could not wait to be alone and seize the opportunity to satisfy her
curiosity as to the mystery of the theater tickets.
She locked herself in. She sat by the window and examined the pink tickets
very closely. At first sight there was nothing odd about them. They bore the date
of the performance and the seat numbers, but nothing that made them unusual.
Yet Valerie remained convinced she would find some sign from Orlík on them.
She remembered that there was a secret ink which became legible when the
paper was heated.
She lit a candle and brought the paper close to the flame, carefully so that it
did not burn. Soon some secret writing emerged. It was tiny, and she had to read
it under a magnifying glass. These were the words on the tickets:
“My dear, don’t go to the theater. After your grandmother leaves, have the
horses hitched up and drive out to the eastern forest. There all will be explained.
There is no need for me to sign this.”
Valerie covered both tickets with kisses. The writing slowly faded away until
it vanished completely. Then, as if not fully trusting her memory, the girl
warmed it up again. But to her surprise the writing did not reappear. She sighed
and stroked the unresponsive tickets. What would she tell her grandmother, how
would she explain not wanting to go to the theater? Poor Grandma! In all
likelihood, there was no theater troupe visiting the town anyway. How could all
this have happened? As she sat there feeling helpless, there was a knock at the
door. It was a maid, who announced that Grandmother had taken ill and was
calling for her. Valerie hid the tickets and ran to Grandmother’s room.
Grandmother was lying on her bed, looking pale.
“What’s the matter with you, Grandma, let me open the window. I’ll have
Andrei go fetch the doctor!”
“No, my child, I don’t want that. The nausea will pass on its own. Give me a
drink of water.”
As Valerie poured some water into a glass, she heard Grandmother groaning
woefully. Could it be a punishment? she wondered.
Grandmother had a drink. Her eyes were drowning in vagueness and her
hands hung lifeless by her body.
Valerie remembered her amulet. If she gives it to Grandma, her pain might be
relieved. She wasn’t concerned about what might happen to herself, just as long
as she saved her poor old grandmother.
She reached into her bosom. Imagine her surprise: the scapular was gone!
Chapter XXXIV
UNCERTAINTY
Towards evening, the doctor arrived and gave Grandmother a painkiller. He said
that she was in no danger provided she avoided all excitement. The old lady felt
easier, and as evening fell she dozed off.
So the memory loss was not an illness, it was probably just a herald of the
attack of nausea. The girl was pleased not to have to consider either herself or
her grandmother mad. Although constrained at the thought of leaving her
grandmother’s bedside, she could not resist the temptation to obey the invisible
ink and drive out to the forest. She commanded the maid not to leave
Grandmother for a single moment and went into the yard. Andrei was just
feeding the horses.
“Hitch up,” she told him. “I want to go for a ride in the carriage.”
“I was hoping to mend the halters today,” he said. “But if it’s your wish, let’s
go.”
“I’m going to drive myself.”
“That’s different,” he replied and grinned.
Valerie’s ears still rang with the suspicious conversation she had heard while
in the loft.
“I’ll be back soon,” she said and left the stable.
At that moment she noticed that the chickens were clucking in fright. This is
awful, she thought. I haven’t got the amulet.
The noise of the birds kept coming from the henhouse.
“Andrei, Andrei!” she called in alarm.
Andrei came out in front of the stable.
“Can you hear it?”
“It must be a polecat!” the coachman replied. “It’s high time he got his
comeuppance. Are you in a rush?”
“No,” said Valerie.
Andrei want back into the stable. In a moment he reappeared carrying a rifle.
“What are you going to do?”
“Punish the rogue!”
“No, Andrei, please.”
“Never fear, miss,” said Andrei, opening the henhouse.
“Scram!” he shouted. He began clapping his hands and hissing.
A small animal jumped out of the henhouse.
“He almost jumped at my face,” said Andrei and put the rifle to his cheek.
“For God’s sake don’t, Andrei! Grandma’s ill. Andrei!”
At that instant a shot rang out. Then another.
“That’s the end of him!” said the coachman and ran over to the carcass.
The back door opened and the maid appeared. In a tearful voice she said:
“Come quickly, miss, quickly! Your grandmother’s dying.”
Chapter XXXV
A CRUSHING TRIFLE
As if she had not heard the maid’s appeal, Valerie stood frozen to the spot and
gazed into the dark at the outline of a dark, suspicious object.
“Andrei, drop everything and hitch the carriage!”
“I want to look at the little beast.”
“No!” said Valerie, stamping her foot.
“Surely you’re not sorry for the raider,” said Andrei. He would have liked to
inspect his quarry from up close.
“Andrei, go into the stable. I insist.”
Andrei pushed back his cap and went about his business.
By the door, the maid repeated that Grandmother had taken a turn for the
worse and was surely in the throes of death.
“Go on in,” Valerie told her. “I’ll follow.”
“Don’t you believe me, miss? If you don’t come now, I’m not sure you’ll find
your grandma still alive.”
“Go. I’ll come at once.”
The maid left.
Valerie stood motionless in the silent yard and could not gather the courage to
act.
“I haven’t got the amulet,” she sighed, and a shiver went down her spine. She
was afraid she would see lying in the blood a short distance away a human
being. This caused her to hesitate.
“Is it finally the end of that terrible creature?” she asked herself uncertainly. In
the course of the week she had witnessed so many unexpected transformations
that she could no longer presume to regard things in the way she used to.
“Poor Grandma.”
Tears trickled down Valerie’s cheeks. Although she was in anguish over her
grandmother, she was incapable of just dropping everything and going inside.
“Why did I order the carriage? I certainly can’t go off now with Grandma
dying.”
Her sole concern at the moment was to remove Andrei from the scene so that
he might not witness the miracle which filled her with so much dread. The stars
shone and the moon had so waned over the last few days that a thin crescent was
all that remained. The hens slept as if sure their murderer was dead for eternity.
“I wish I knew where my amulet’s gone,” the girl sighed
She stared at the dark spot that was causing her concern.
Gripped by anxiety, she sighed deeply, but instead of the fragrant air of the
oncoming night she inhaled a kind of scorched smell left behind in the yard by
the gunshots. She felt the blood draining from her face. The anxiety nearly made
her heart stop.
“Orlík,” she breathed.
It was all too clear that no one could assist her in the dire predicament she
now faced. And yet something had to be done quickly. She didn’t know how
long Grandma would live.
“If only it were all just a dream and if only I could wake up from it,” she
wished from the bottom of her heart.
At last, she summoned the courage to make a move.
She approached the spot that so disquieted her, expecting the worst. She
heaved a sigh of relief. Before her lay an animal in a pool of blood. An animal
like other animals, with nothing remarkable about it. There were probably many
polecats in the town, and there was no need to relate the creature that had been
shot to the diabolical ancient who had bewitched her. This thought gave her the
courage to step right up to the dead polecat and take a close look at it.
When she bent down over the corpse she was not a little surprised to find it
had an earring in its right ear.
As if acting under someone’s orders, she undid it and put it in her pocket.
“Andrei,” she called, “Andrei, bury this animal. But as quickly as possible,
Andrei!”
“Of course, miss, what else would you do with carrion,” came the reply from
the stable.
Valerie gave one last look at the dead animal, whose identity could no longer
be in doubt after the find of the earring, and hurried off to see her grandmother.
Chapter XXXVI
CONFESSION
When Valerie entered her grandmother’s room, the dying old lady pulled herself
together and ordered the maidservants to leave.
“Grandma, dear Grandma,” Valerie wept and began to kiss her grandmother’s
head. Then she saw something that horrified her: In her grandmother’s left ear
was the other earring. So she had not been dreaming over the last few days.
Since the fateful earrings filled her with bad memories and terror, she undid
this one and laid her grandmother’s head back on the pillow.
“Things will be better again, Grandma.”
“I don’t think so,” said the old lady with resignation.
“Are you in any pain?”
“Not really. I’m finding it hard to breathe, but what’s an old woman at death’s
door to expect?”
“Don’t talk like that, Grandma! Anyway, it’s stuffy in here. Would you mind
if I opened the window?”
“Please do, but come right back to me. I feel distraught.”
The girl went to the window, pulled back the curtains, and opened both
sashes. She was about to turn back to her grandmother when a sound made her
linger a moment longer by the window.
Although recent days had taught her self-control, she could not stifle a cry
when she saw the carriage and horses leaving the yard, but without the
coachman, and the horses breaking into a gallop as if on command. It was not
the galloping of runaway horses, but a disciplined canter. Valerie watched the
carriage in bewilderment as it disappeared around the corner of the street.
“What’s happening?” Grandmother asked, sitting up in bed.
Valerie went over to her and tried to reassure her.
“What happened?” the old lady asked again. “You must keep nothing from
me, my child. Tell me the truth, it is most important that I should know the signs
outside.”
“It was nothing, Grandma.”
The old lady looked saddened.
“It saddens me when you keep things you’ve seen a secret.”
“When you fell asleep, Grandma, I had the carriage hitched because I wanted
to go for a drive in the forest. It was thoughtless of me, but I was convinced you
were sleeping peacefully and wouldn’t need me.”
“Don’t reproach yourself.”
“And now I’ve just seen the carriage and horses leaving without the
coachman. It caught me by surprise and made me cry out.”
“Are you sure Andrei wasn’t on the box?”
“Yes, Grandma, I’m sure.”
Grandmother’s breathing quickened and a joyful gleam leapt to her eyes. Her
poor mouth smiled.
She said:
“Thank you for telling me. That’s wonderful. So truly wonderful.”
She lay back and a smile came to her face. Valerie did not dare ask what had
so gladdened her grandmother after being told that the carriage had left the
house without the coachman. However, Grandmother, whose anxiety had, so it
seemed to Valerie, entirely left her, began talking:
“It was shortly after you were born that I first drove your mother out of the
house.”
“I remember my mother well.”
“Listen closely, my child, and remember what I say. I have never had the
courage to tell you the truth. Now you will learn it, for everything seems to have
come to pass that was to come to pass.”
“I’m listening, Grandma,” said the girl humbly.
“After my husband’s death I had a lover. He was the most terrifying man in
the world. He was ugly, but he moved me to such great love for him I was like a
madwoman. At the time, your mother’s beauty put the beauty of all other women
to shame. She fell in love with a young gamekeeper. He seemed a good man and
he loved her ardently. When my lover, Richard, saw your mother, he fell in love
with her at first sight and sought to win her favor. She swore to me a hundred
times over that she loathed him and tried to avoid him, and I know she wasn’t
lying. But my jealousy of her grew by the day. My lover, lying to me in order to
bind my soul to him ever closer, claimed my daughter had accepted his love. I
decided she had to leave home, and in order to be rid of her for good, I had her
put away in a convent. Although I insisted she promise to forget her gamekeeper
fellow, she couldn’t, and they would meet in secret in the convent garden.
“Their love was not without consequence. My daughter conceived and gave
birth to twins. When I found out, I began to hate her madly because Richard
claimed they were his children. One day, your mother, Matilda, managed to flee
the convent with her little boy and little girl. She came home a repentant sinner.
But my jealousy was too great for me to forgive her. I took her in on condition
that she left as soon as the babies were weaned. When the children were no
longer nursed at their mother’s breast, I drove her out and kept the children.
Richard used to torment me. I would forgive him. One day, when he asked me to
let him have the boy to bring up, I acquiesced. But Richard disappeared with
Orlík and I saw no more of him. Valerie stayed with me, and there’s no need to
tell you that that’s you. Meanwhile your mother married her gamekeeper and
from time to time she would linger around the house like a beggar-woman and
plead to be allowed to hold her children in her arms. I told her Orlík had died
and allowed her to stay awhile in my house. Since my jealousy never left me, I
spoke to the Bishop of – to see if they would have mercy on my miscreant of a
daughter and take her back into the convent. Having succeeded in gaining his
consent, I urged her to return there. Matilda implored me not to force her to go.
Since she had the audacity to refuse to abide by my express wish, I drove her
from the house with these words:
“ ‘I will never take you in, unless a miracle happens and you are brought back
by horses on their own.’
“Thus you became an orphan, Valerie, and I have suffered all life long for my
obduracy.”
“Is my mother alive?” her granddaughter asked.
“I don’t recall ever hearing that she’d died.”
“And my father?”
“He was a healthy man. But I never concerned myself with their family.”
“So, Orlík is my brother,” Valerie said with a sense of gratification.
Her grandmother just nodded. The girl thought she was nodding off. Again
she asked:
“Grandma, what’s the truth behind the miracles I’ve witnessed over the past
days?”
“It was all ... ,” Grandmother said and raised herself up in bed as if wishing to
emphasize this part of her confession. But instead of words, her throat gave vent
to a crazed shriek.
“What is it, Grandma?”
Instead of words, all that came from Grandmother’s throat were inarticulate
noises. Then even they stopped. Grandmother’s speech had gone. The last thing
she did was to tear open her nightdress, fish Valerie’s scapular out from her
bosom, and hurl it into a corner. Then she went calmly to sleep.
Valerie bent over her, weeping. Then she was overcome by fatigue and fell
asleep with her head on her grandmother’s pillow.
Chapter XXXVII
FORGIVENESS
Valerie was awakened by a noise coming into the room through the open
window. She thought she was still dreaming when she saw this strange image in
the quivering air of the summer morning:
Approaching the house of wonders from the square was the carriage from
under whose hood Valerie had looked up at the starry sky a week before. On one
of the horses sat a young man. Valerie recognized him at once. It was Orlík. He
was holding onto the horse’s mane, gripping its flanks with his knees. He was
like a highwayman who had leapt out of the woods onto a horse carrying
treasure. The second horse was cantering freely. Valerie tried in vain to see who
was holding the reins. No one was sitting up on the box and the hood of the
carriage was up, preventing a view of the inside.
Once Valerie had checked that the old lady was sleeping peacefully, she ran
out of the room to the yard as the driverless team drove in. The horses came to a
halt.
Valerie waited tensely to see what would happen.
Orlík jumped down from his horse and patted its sweating back. Then with a
few turns of the hand he folded back the hood. Valerie, concealed on the porch,
saw a robust man in a gamekeeper’s outfit and hat who was very much like
Orlík. He offered a hand to a beautiful lady who was the spitting image of
Valerie.
“Mommy!” the girl cried, throwing herself into her arms.
“My child, my beautiful daughter, at last I’ve found you again,” said the
beautiful lady, weeping.
“Now embrace your father.”
Valerie blushed. She let her face be stroked by the black whiskers of the man
who so resembled her friend.
Valerie looked around for her savior to reprove him for leaving her and then
forgive him. But the boy had disappeared.
“Is it all a dream?” she asked herself, falling again into her mother’s arms.
“Is it all a dream?” the latter repeated, clinging close to her daughter.
Valerie caressed her mother, admired her beauty, pushed back her curls, and
kissed her on the forehead. She noticed that her mother had no earrings. For the
sheer joy of it and to show her love for the woman she had been separated from
for years, she took the fateful jewels from her little pocket and clipped them onto
her mother’s ears.
The lady was touched. She said:
“At last I believe that I won’t have to die a nun. May I believe that I have won
your grandmother’s forgiveness?”
No sooner had she said these words than the door opened. There in the
doorway stood Orlík, supporting Grandmother, who opened her arms wide to the
new arrivals.
Valerie witnessed the kisses of the two lost beings, their tears and their
embraces.
While the beautiful lady greeted in the most tender of terms the woman whose
implacable anger had lasted for so many long years, the old lady revealed
through her smiles that she was happy.
“Tell me you forgive me, tell me you have forgiven me.”
Grandmother just nodded and indicated with a finger that she was fated never
to speak again.
“Orlík,” said Valerie, “you’re acting as if you don’t know me.”
“You know one another?” asked the beautiful lady in surprise. “Have you met
before, my dear children?”
“Of course,” said Orlík.
Instead of greeting his sister, he picked her up by the hips and raised her high
until she shrieked with fright.
Although suspended between heaven and earth for only an instant, she could
not fail to spot, nailed high up on the door by the cellar, the skin of a polecat.
When Orlík put her back on the ground, she whispered in his ear:
“Go to the cellar and take a good look at the door.”
Orlík laughed and caressed her.
Without letting those happy people, overjoyed at being reunited, see him, he
cast a few worried glances towards the phantom.
“Go and fetch Grandma’s coat, Valerie.”
“What do you mean to do?”
“Look over there, but keep calm,” said her brother.
Valerie stared at the nailed-up skin and noticed a crack taking shape in it,
growing ever longer and wider.
“What does it mean?”
“Go and get Grandma’s coat,” her brother said sternly.
Valerie obeyed. The maids were surprised. When she took the coat from
Grandmother’s wardrobe, they asked, all speaking at once, what was going on.
Valerie told them:
“You’ll see!”
She did not neglect to cast a glance at the scapular, which lay forgotten on
Grandmother’s bed. The moment she touched it, it disintegrated in her hand as if
it were made of ash.
Valerie went back to the yard. The maids ran out after her. They saw Orlík
helping his grandmother into the carriage. The boy nodded to his parents to sit
next to the old lady, helped Valerie into the carriage, and himself mounted the
box. Andrei led the horses out of the yard and together with the maids saw the
coach off as far as the square. All at once, Valerie looked back. To her utter
amazement, she saw her grandmother’s house collapse.
Chapter XXXVIII
AND THE LAST
On a high elevation atop a cliff above a cold river, into which that evening he
had dipped his chivalric shoe, in a landscape which counted its cuckoos from
morning to night, leaning on the battlements of a well-preserved hunting lodge,
which for many a long year had been home to foresters, stood a boy and a girl
gazing at the treetops from where an exhausted sun plunged like a rosy squirrel
down into the dark depths of the forest and above which the sky melted into the
emerald of infinity.
“One week today,” said the girl. “It is Friday, isn’t it?”
“What is time here amid the centuries of Nature?” the boy responded.
A little door creaked and the children turned around.
Onto the balcony high above the pageant of Nature stepped an old lady with a
lamp shining in her hand. The lodge was so high up that not a single moth came
flying to the lamp, and if anything were to form an opulent corona around it, it
would have to be the wild birds from the bowels of this ancient wilderness,
which seemed but a dream even to the hawks.
“Good night, Grandma, sleep well,” said the girl.
The old lady nodded silently and made her way across the balcony to the door.
It clicked quietly shut and the silence was restored.
“Poor Grandma,” said Valerie.
All my readers will surely have recognized the young pair.
“Poor Grandma,” she repeated once more. “I wonder what was the sentence
she did not utter.”
“Look down there, Valerie, strain your eyes so that you, too, can see the
wonderful procession of tiny fish beneath the surface of that distant water.”
“All I can see is a thin iridescent strip.”
“Look harder, Valerie, there’s nothing so enchanting as a glimpse of the
innumerable mysteries that surround us.
“Take a good look. In a moment you will see some deer grazing in the
clearing.”
“This afternoon I looked through Father’s bookcase and found some beautiful
old volumes full of magical engravings.”
“Shh! Dreamer! Do you see the deer going down to the water? It’s beautiful.
Watch awhile.”
“It’s miraculous.”
“See, that must be their king. I can’t count how old he is, he’s got a whole
tower of branches on his head,” said Orlík.
“Tell me something about the world, about your adventures, about ... ,”
Valerie broke off.
“Imagine a storm coming,” said the boy, as if he had not heard his sister’s
question, “imagine it rumbling down there.”
“There’s not a cloud in the sky, so where’s a storm going to come from?”
“Help me count the age of the king stag.”
“No, it’s impossible,” said the girl. “I’m going cross-eyed. You’ll never be
able to count it.”
“When the stag stands erect, the tower is three times as tall. When he bends
down, it’s three times as deep. If he jumped up onto a steep cliff, you could
climb up his crown all the way to the stars.”
“You must have experienced many things, Orlík. I don’t know the world, I
don’t even know myself. I’m forever daydreaming and often can’t tell dreams
from reality.”
“One day, we’ll go to the river together and watch the deer from up close,”
said Orlík, still staring into the dark.
The ravine beneath them gradually filled with rising mist. It seemed to be
floating, sailing upwards, running with the river, which was gradually
disappearing in it.
“If I were to shout,” said the boy, “my voice would be echoed back seven
times.”
“Don’t do it,” his sister replied. “It would feel as if you really were in the
rocks and calling for help.”
“Good night,” the boy called to the forest.
“Good night,” the echo repeated, stirring the first dry leaves on the cliff.
“Good night,” sounded back from the hollows, where the stag let himself be
crowned by a firmament of stars.
“Good night,” came a dull response from the basalt figure of a man with a
cross driven into his stony chest.
“Good night,” resounded another four times from the different points of the
compass.
“It’s beautiful,” said Valerie, nuzzling up to her brother’s shoulder. “So many
unknown beings are wishing us good night.”
The magic of the echo had barely passed when from up in the lodge they
caught the sound of a muted piano, which drifted down to the twins as they
watched the stars multiply.
The old song, wrested from the tuneless piano, was so beautiful they dared not
speak. As the first verse ended, Valerie said:
“That’s Grandma playing. It’s been so long since I heard her play that song!”
The tune came again. And Valerie, snuggled up to her brother, joined in with
her own little voice, which quavered like the evening star, and sang:
Good night, my gentle magician,
hear your nymph as she sobs aloud.
Hear her weep in her dejection,
as the night weaves her a shroud.
Good night, my golden-haired maiden,
Good night and may you sweetly sleep,
and when you wake, my ladylove,
for ever and aye your secret keep.
In the distance there was a clap of thunder.
And with that thunderclap Valerie’s week of wonders came to an end.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Vítězslav Nezval was born on May 26, 1900, in Biskoupky, a small hamlet in
southern Moravia. His father was a teacher. Perhaps the most prolific Czech
writer during the interwar period, he was an original member of the avant-garde
artist’s group Devětsil and a leading figure in the Poetist movement. His output
consists of numerous poetry collections, experimental plays and novels,
memoirs, essays, and translations. Along with Karel Teige, Jindřich Štyrský, and
Toyen, Nezval frequently traveled to Paris, where he engaged with the French
Surrealists and forged friendships with André Breton and Paul Eluard. He was
instrumental in founding The Surrealist Group of Czechoslovakia in 1934 (the
first such group outside of France), serving as editor of the group’s journal
Surrealismus. He died in 1958 in Prague.
ABOUT THE TRANSLATOR
David Short teaches Czech and Slovak at the School of Slavonic and East
European Studies, University College London. He has written widely on Czech
language and literature and is the author of Teach Yourself Czech. His
translations include Pirouettes on a Postage Stamp by Bohumil Hrabal and
Everyday Spooks by Karel Michal.
Read more about the book here.