The Crystal City Under the Sea (23 page)

Hélène and Atlantis chatted apart.

real people, or phantoms of my disordered brain? When I fell asleep, I left thee by my couch with our young friend, and now there seem so many of you. Who is this noble lady with the stately face and soft white hair. She looks like the mother of Hector, and her black robes make the paleness of her face the more striking. Who is that charming nymph? One might take her for thy sister, child, and yet she recalls to me the picture Homer drew of Briseis.”

“She bears a name which will not sound-strange to thee, father. She is called Helen,” said Atlantis, smiling. “ She is René’s sister.”

“An innocent and pure Helen,” said the old man, kindly. “ Come nearer, maiden; let my failing eyes contemplate thy youth and the beauty that adorns thy face. Doubtless, this man with the grave face and trustworthy look will soon be thy husband? May heaven bless your union. He looks like René’s brother.”

This unexpected question brought the blood to Hélène’s cheeks and to those of the doctor, and then, without intending any malice, he inquired:

“And that man of mature age, that remarkable looking person, is he also of your race? Thy father, perhaps, René?”

And the old man did not disguise the unfavourable impression produced on him by Monte Cristo.

This latter seemed to think he had waited long enough for an opportunity of coming to the front. He understood, by the direction of Charicles’s glance, that he was making inquiries about him.

“ Really, Caoudal, you don’t seem to be in a hurry to present me,” he said, in a reproachful tone. “ Explain, I beg of you, to this venerable prince, that he may treat me quite as an equal; that my race, without flattering itself, can rival the antiquity of his, and that, in short, Monte Cristo is of quite as good a family.”

And he drew himself up in his favourite pompous manner.

René, in a few words, explained to Charicles all that had happened during his long sleep. The old man, fortified by a few drops of good old wine which the doctor administered, listened with the liveliest interest to all the details; he thought he could vaguely recall, as in a dream, hearing the deafening peal at the bell.

He thanked Patrice with dignified simplicity for the pains he had taken on his behalf, complimented Madame Caoudal on the courage she had manifested in coming with her daughter, in so flattering a manner, that she would have felt overpowered if she had been able to understand a word of it. With a feeling for the beautiful, common to all Greeks, he had not omitted praise of the gracious motherly comeliness of the poor lady. He was much pleased at recognizing Kermadec, whose open face and lithe figure he had always admired. The only people whom he did not seem happy to see were Monte Cristo and his companion, and when he had satisfied himself that the rites of hospitality towards them had been observed, troubled himself no further about them. But that state of things did not-)at all suit the irrepressible Monte Cristo. After an agitated conference with Captain Sacripanti, in the corner of the hall, they both advanced to the bedside, Monte Cristo as bland as could be, and Sacripanti more like a Maltese valet than ever.

“Prince Charicles,” stammered the Levantine in very bad Greek, “ I come in the name of the Prince of Monte Cristo, of whose genealogy you have doubtless heard, to make a request to you.”

“Speak,” said Charicles, involuntarily knitting his brows.

“ The Prince of Monte Cristo is still a bachelor, which cannot fail to surprise you, considering his age and the position he occupies in the world,” began Sacripanti, pompously, while Madame Caoudal made René explain to her what it was all about.

“Why,” continued the interpreter, “has my distinguished friend reached middle life, of which the poet says,—what was I saying?— why has he passed that time of life? Why has his ancient family ran the risk of becoming extinct, when the first duty of a man of illustrious descent is to secure the continuity of his house? Why, in a word, is he still unmarried?”

“It is not for want of asking the hand of every young girl he has met, as we very well know,” said Madame Caoudal, under her breath.

Sacripanti, having propounded this problem, stopped for a moment, rolling his eyes round to note the effect of his words upon the company. Charicles waited, with an expression of courteous resignation, for the outcome of all this preamble, while the prince nodded his head complacently.

“I will tell you the reason,” suddenly ejaculated Sacripanti. “It is that the illustrious prince, the great lord, and most noble and puissant sovereign of the Island of Monte Cristo, has never, till now, found the shoe to fit his foot, — I mean a girl of sufficiently high birth to be allied to him.”

“Oh! oh!” said Madame Caoudal, while Hélène pulled her gently by the sleeve to beg her to keep quiet.

“This girl he has found,” resumed Sacripanti, theatrically indicating Atlantis, who was listening, in an unconsciously graceful posture, leaning on Hélène’s shoulder. “There she is, noble prince. She is your daughter, the only person worthy, by reason of her birth, to become the mother of the sons of Monte Cristo. I have the honour, all unworthy as I am, of demanding her hand for him.”

And he swept the ground with his cap, with a magnificent bow, while Monte Cristo, as red as a tomato, and his eyes nearly falling out of his head, advanced towards the astonished Atlantis, to press upon her forehead a kiss of betrothal.

“Stop!” cried Charicles, divining his intention; “calm thy transports. Prince Monte Cristo, my daughter is certainly honoured by thy coming to make this request, and we both thank thee; but her young heart is already given away. I, her father, have already placed her hand in that of this young man, the first of the human race to come to claim if. She cannot be thy wife, for she has already promised to be René’s.”

“ Ah, ha!” said Madame Caoudal, to herself, carried away with the longing to put the unfortunate -Monte Cristo in his proper place, “that will be slightly embarrassing for you, my fine gentleman. Did any one ever hear the like? A young girl that he never set eyes on till twenty minutes ago! and less than a month ago he was deeply in love with a person who shall be nameless, but who is not very far from here. What has become of his senses?”

“My daughter and her young friend have my full consent,” continued Charicles. “The only thing they have to wait for now is the consent of the admirable mother, who, in order to see her son, was ready to brave the terrors of the deep. Can we doubt that she will give it? What objection could there be to my Atlantis? Has she not been richly endowed by the gods with youth, beauty, innocence, an enlightened and pure mind, and sweetness of disposition? Oh, Atlantis, my well-beloved child, thou hast been a model daughter! Thy old father will die without regret since he can confide thee to this new family, so worthy to receive thee. Come near, noble woman, let our hands together join those of our children. Charicles, in giving her to you, will close his eyes in peace for the eternal sleep!”

He took his daughter’s hand. René, Hélène, and Patrice drew near to Madame Caoudal, to induce her to comply. Atlantis, rather frightened, looked at her beseechingly; and one more glance in the direction of Monte Cristo, whose face expressed the most intense disgust, was sufficient to vanquish Aunt Alice. With a resolute step she advanced to the bedside, and, seizing René’s hand, joined it with that of Atlantis. Whereupon she burst into tears; but Atlantis threw her arms round her neck, and kissed her in so filial, respectful, and winning a manner, that the last remaining resistance was overcome.

“Well,” said the poor mother, returning her kisses, “ since it must be so I give up the dream I had cherished! It is absurd; no one ever heard of such a marriage; but there is no gainsaying that she is very charming. And when we have dressed her in one of your gowns, Hélène (you are about the same height), there won’t be a girl in Lorient to come anywhere near her for style. This old man, her father, seems to be quite right; she appears to be the best little girl in the world, and once we get her away from here, and teach and civilize her a little—”

“Civilize!” interrupted René, indignantly, “Why, mother, look at her! She is a goddess, an Homeric princess! Civilize!”

“Well, well, I hear,” said Madame Caoudal, somewhat piqued, “ I agree to accept your Atlantis. You have nothing to reproach me with. Agree with me, on your part, that she dresses in a rather peculiar fashion, and that she would cut a funny figure at the Prefecture Maritime.”

René was about to reply rather sharply to this, but Patrice, with a few sensible words, put the belligerents on better terms with each other; and Madame Caoudal, having undertaken, of her own accord, to examine Atlantis’s progress in French, they seated themselves side by side on a pile of cushions.

The docility and intelligence of her pupil soon won Madame Caoudal’s heart, and suggested to her the hope that, by and by, her future daughter-in-law would be quite presentable. Monte Cristo, greatly offended by the snub that had been administered to him, kept himself apart. As to Sacripanti, he had altogether disappeared for some minutes, as also did Kermadec, when, all at once, the door burst open, as if by a gust of wind, and the interpreter, with haggard face and rumpled hair, appeared in the doorway.

“Good heavens! is the house on fire?” said Madame Caoudal, starting to her feet, and quite forgetting what sort of house she was in.

“What’s the matter? What has happened?” was the inquiry on all sides.

For some moments .Captain Sacripanti paused, unable to speak. Rolling his terrified eyes, now raising his hand to his head as if with the intention of tearing his hair, and now pointing his finger in the direction from which he had come, he was a picture of abject terror, as grotesque as it was alarming.

“Tell us what is the matter?” cried René, running to him, and giving him a good shake, “He has gone mad, I think, Speak, you fool!”

“There, there,” said he, at last, in a stifled voice. The door; it is open!”

“What door?”

“I can’t shut it! We are prisoners! Oh, dear! Miserò di mè, to think that I should have lived to see this day! It has ruined my career!”

“Prisoners because the door is open? What a singular idea!” said Madame Caoudal, in astonishment.

“What the devil is he chattering about?” cried Patrice. “Prince, your captain seems to have lost his wits? Can you understand a word he says?”

“By my faith, not much,” said the prince, looking very uneasy; “but he certainly does seem beside himself!”

At last, by dint of repeatedly questioning him, they succeeded in getting at the cause of his fright. While poking about in corners, he came near the entrance of the house, and there he found Kermadec blustering and swearing with all his might, and, indeed, the worthy fellow had good reason to be angry! In leaving their boat, the prince and Sacripanti had wedged it side by side with that of René, which was placed just inside the entrance in the lower chamber. By an unlucky mischance, the heavy steel boat was leaning against the side of the Titania in such a way as to press against the door; so much so, that the moment it opened it barred the passage. It was impossible, owing to the weight of the thing, to move it out of the way so as to shut the door; impossible, therefore, to refill the chamber with water, and, consequently, to float either boat! Thus, as Sacripanti justly observed, the open door threatened to keep them prisoners to the end of time!

Imagine, reader, the general horror when everybody grasped the situation. Every one except Charicles and his daughter, who could not understand the general consternation, flew to the little harbour, to find out the real state of affairs. Nothing could be more true than the conclusion they came to, that unless a miracle could move the door, there was no imaginable way by which they could be extricated from this deadlock.

For the first few moments they were completely stunned by the thought; but soon they relieved their feelings, each after his own manner. While the prince gave himself up to despair as noisy as that of his captain, and each abused the other roundly for his stupidity in leaving the boat in such an awkward position, Madame Caoudal took her niece in her arms to protect her to the best of her power; Hélène forced herself to hide the fear which lay like ice upon her heart; and Patrice, René, and Kermadec rose to the occasion, and eagerly discussed the means of getting to work to set the unlucky boat afloat again.

CHAPTER XX
PRISONERS OF THE SEA.

S
ACRIPANTI’S wild words at last awoke Atlantis’s curiosity. She appeared on the scene, and, in a few minutes, was made acquainted with the disaster. Far from sharing the general agitation, she received the announcement with the utmost composure.

“What does it matter, after all?” said she. “ Since René has all his people about him, what can he desire more, and what can he fear? Are we not perfectly happy and tranquil down here? Are we not all together? For my part, I should be content to remain here forever. We shall continue the history of the Atlantes, that is all. Charicles will teach you the secrets of his art of: cultivating the soil and of living in comfort a few thousand feet below the sea-level. Phoebus, they tell me, has taken seventeen journeys round the world since I was born. During most of that time I have lived indifferent to outside things. Truth to say, curiosity succeeded in awakening in me an ardent desire to become acquainted with my kind, and for a while disturbed my tranquillity. But now my desire is satisfied. I have you with me now, and you are as dear to me as my own family. Let us all live here, since fate has willed it so,—and, believe me, it is not an unhappy life!”

“What sublime simplicity! “cried Madame Caoudal, when she had taken in the young girl’s meaning; “this poor child is gone out of her mind! Fancy my being changed into a siren, and ending my days at the bottom of this gulf! Can you imagine Hélène condemned to this prison? No, indeed! we must leave this place, if we have to swim back. For my part, I can never forgive the unlucky prince for having placed such a barrier in the way of our getting out of this hole, which we were so foolish as to thrust ourselves into. The situation is horrible, it is enough to drive one crazy.”