Part 18 (1/2)
CHAPTER XIV.
THE MINUTE VIALS.
Even to the Communists, with whom he had come into such close contact, M. Dantes, the Deputy from Ma.r.s.eilles, remained as much of a mystery as ever. Marrast, though now devotedly attached to him, admitted that he was totally unable to fathom either his designs, or his methods of accomplis.h.i.+ng them, while Lamartine, who was in his company a large portion of the time, when questioned concerning him, replied that all he knew of M. Dantes was that he was a firm friend of the cause and an untiring worker in the interest of the weary and oppressed ma.s.ses.
Debray, though he had no tangible foundation for it, could not get rid of the idea that the dangerous Deputy and the Count of Monte-Cristo were one and the same individual, but Beauchamp, with the usual incredulity of journalists, scoffed at the notion, and Chateau-Renaud derided it whenever it was mentioned in his presence.
That M. Dantes had great wealth was, however, generally admitted, though whence it was derived or in what manner it was invested no one could tell. It was now no longer a secret that he had purchased and resided in the magnificent mansion formerly owned by the Count de Morcerf, in the Rue du Helder, and this circ.u.mstance, while it vastly augmented the interest attaching to him, did not in the least detract from the enthusiasm felt for him by the working cla.s.ses.
It was night. In a large chamber, richly furnished, but dimly lighted, in the mansion in the Rue du Helder, the same apartment once inhabited by the Countess de Morcerf, motionless, and seemingly lifeless, with a countenance as pale as alabaster, and as still, lay M. Dantes, the Deputy from Ma.r.s.eilles. Although, in the ashy pallor of the lips and brow, and the fixed, serene, almost stern aspect of the immovable face, might be read unmistakable evidence of an exhausting and dangerous const.i.tutional shock to the system, yet none of that emaciation, over which broods the shadow of the angel of death, resulting from protracted illness, was there to be seen. The broad white forehead--the raven hair, spa.r.s.ely sprinkled with silver--the round temples--the delicately penciled brow, encircling, like a sable arch, the large and almond-formed eye--the full calm lip, and the chiseled chin and nostril--all these were as perfect now as when last before the reader.
The cheek was, perhaps, slightly sunken, but it could not be more pallid than when last beheld; and but for that nameless quietude--that ”rapture of repose,” as Lord Byron well expresses it--that placid languor which sleeps on the features, which illness always creates and which spiritualizes and intellectualizes the most common features, the invalid might be supposed to be enjoying the most quiet slumber.
Excepting the invalid, there was no one in that chamber save the faithful Ali, who moved noiselessly about, from time to time, or sat immovably upon the floor and gazed on his master's pallid face.
As the silvery tones of the chamber clock tinkled forth the third quarter after ten, the door opened, and a small, dark, thin man, with large whiskers, keen, penetrating eyes, broad, bald forehead, thinly covered with gray hair, and apparently about fifty years of age, briskly entered. It was Dr. Orfila, a name somewhat known in medical science.
Approaching the bed, he placed his fingers upon the sick man's pulse, and gazed earnestly on his face for some time in silence.
”Strange!” he at length muttered; ”the most powerful drugs in the most unheard-of quant.i.ties are powerless! Who, then, is this man, whose nature so differs from that of every one else? Can he so have accustomed his system to poisons, that, as with the King of Pontus, they are ineffectual to help or to harm him? His const.i.tution must be iron!
The vitality of a dozen men is in him, or he'd have been dead a month ago. Well, it's plain he's no worse, if he's no better. Drugs are useless, and he must be left to nature and his amazing const.i.tution.
This stupor, this utter death of all the faculties and senses for so long a time, is wonderful. Fever, delirium, anything but this death-like trance. It seems as if this man had been sleepless all his life before, and that now his overwrought brain and heart were compensating themselves for the toil and wakefulness of years. Could I but excite the nerves!”
For some time the physician gazed in deep thought at the pale face of the unconscious slumberer. Suddenly turning to the Nubian, he said to him:
”Ali, where does your master keep the drugs he has been for years accustomed to take?”
The Nubian stared in mute amazement, but moved not from his rug.
”Ali,” said Dr. Orfila, sternly, ”unless I see and know those drugs, this night your master dies.”
The Nubian looked anxiously into the face of the physician, and then, as if satisfied with the scrutiny, rose, and, with noiseless steps, left the room. In a few moments he re-entered and placed in the physician's hands a small casket of ebony, exquisitely worked and studded with gems.
Taking it hastily to the shaded lamp upon a table at the extremity of the chamber, he attempted to open it, but his attempts were vain.
Indeed, to all appearances, it was a solid block of ebony, and its extreme heaviness, compared with its dimensions, seemed to favor the idea.
”Well?” said the doctor, returning the casket, after a close scrutiny, to the Nubian, who had followed him.
Ali took the casket, and instantly a portion of the top flew up, disclosing within the centre of the cube of ebony a cavity lined with crimson velvet, and a dazzling array of minute vials of crystal, each filled with a fluid--pink, blue, green and yellow in hue, while the contents of several were colorless. The Nubian had touched a spring concealed in the carving, and known only to his master and himself.
The physician removed the minute vials one after another from their receptacles, and held them up to the light; on each was a cipher, and on no two was the same. Most of them were quite filled with the fluid contained, but some were only half full, while one was nearly empty. Dr.
Orfila looked closely at the cipher upon each vial as he removed it from the casket. He then held it to the light to determine its particular hue or shade, and sometimes withdrew the crystal stopper ground into the deep mouth, touching it cautiously and quickly to his nostril or the tip of his tongue. ”Morphia, cinchonia, quinia, lobelia, belladonna, narcotina, bromine, a.r.s.enic.u.m, strychnos colubrina, brucoea ferruginea,” muttered the savant, as he examined one vial after the other and replaced it. ”Brucoea ferruginea--ha! brucine! I thought as much,” exclaimed he, holding up the vial, which showed, by being nearly empty, that its contents had been used more frequently than those of any of the others.
”How many drops of this is the greatest number your master has ever taken?” asked Dr. Orfila.
The Nubian, who, it will be remembered, was a mute, held up both hands with the fingers outspread, and then two other fingers of one of his hands.