Chapter XXVI The End of the Ghost's Love Story
The previous chapter marks the conclusion of the written narrative
which the Persian left behind him.
Notwithstanding the horrors of a situation which seemed definitely to
abandon them to their deaths, M. de Chagny and his companion were saved
by the sublime devotion of Christine Daae. And I had the rest of the
story from the lips of the daroga himself.
When I went to see him, he was still living in his little flat in the
Rue de Rivoli, opposite the Tuileries. He was very ill, and it
required all my ardor as an historian pledged to the truth to persuade
him to live the incredible tragedy over again for my benefit. His
faithful old servant Darius showed me in to him. The daroga received
me at a window overlooking the garden of the Tuileries. He still had
his magnificent eyes, but his poor face looked very worn. He had
shaved the whole of his head, which was usually covered with an
astrakhan cap; he was dressed in a long, plain coat and amused himself
by unconsciously twisting his thumbs inside the sleeves; but his mind
was quite clear, and he told me his story with perfect lucidity.
It seems that, when he opened his eyes, the daroga found himself lying
on a bed. M. de Chagny was on a sofa, beside the wardrobe. An angel
and a devil were watching over them.
After the deceptions and illusions of the torture-chamber, the
precision of the details of that quiet little middle-class room seemed
to have been invented for the express purpose of puzzling the mind of
the mortal rash enough to stray into that abode of living nightmare.
The wooden bedstead, the waxed mahogany chairs, the chest of drawers,
those brasses, the little square antimacassars carefully placed on the
backs of the chairs, the clock on the mantelpiece and the
harmless-looking ebony caskets at either end, lastly, the whatnot
filled with shells, with red pin-cushions, with mother-of-pearl boats
and an enormous ostrich-egg, the whole discreetly lighted by a shaded
lamp standing on a small round table: this collection of ugly,
peaceable, reasonable furniture, AT THE BOTTOM OF THE OPERA CELLARS,
bewildered the imagination more than all the late fantastic happenings.
And the figure of the masked man seemed all the more formidable in this
old-fashioned, neat and trim little frame. It bent down over the
Persian and said, in his ear:
"Are you better, daroga? ... You are looking at my furniture? ... It
is all that I have left of my poor unhappy mother."
Christine Daae did not say a word: she moved about noiselessly, like a
sister of charity, who had taken a vow of silence. She brought a cup
of cordial, or of hot tea, he did not remember which. The man in the
mask took it from her hands and gave it to the Persian. M. de Chagny
was still sleeping.
Erik poured a drop of rum into the daroga's cup and, pointing to the
viscount, said:
"He came to himself long before we knew if you were still alive,
daroga. He is quite well. He is asleep. We must not wake him."
Erik left the room for a moment, and the Persian raised himself on his
elbow, looked around him and saw Christine Daae sitting by the
fireside. He spoke to her, called her, but he was still very weak and
fell back on his pillow. Christine came to him, laid her hand on his
forehead and went away again. And the Persian remembered that, as she
went, she did not give a glance at M. de Chagny, who, it is true, was
sleeping peacefully; and she sat down again in her chair by the
chimney-corner, silent as a sister of charity who had taken a vow of
silence.
Erik returned with some little bottles which he placed on the
mantelpiece. And, again in a whisper, so as not to wake M. de Chagny,
he said to the Persian, after sitting down and feeling his pulse:
"You are now saved, both of you. And soon I shall take you up to the
surface of the earth, TO PLEASE MY WIFE."
Thereupon he rose, without any further explanation, and disappeared
once more.
The Persian now looked at Christine's quiet profile under the lamp.
She was reading a tiny book, with gilt edges, like a religious book.
There are editions of THE IMITATION that look like that. The Persian
still had in his ears the natural tone in which the other had said, "to
please my wife." Very gently, he called her again; but Christine was
wrapped up in her book and did not hear him.
Erik returned, mixed the daroga a draft and advised him not to speak to
"his wife" again nor to any one, BECAUSE IT MIGHT BE VERY DANGEROUS TO
EVERYBODY'S HEALTH.
Eventually, the Persian fell asleep, like M. de Chagny, and did not
wake until he was in his own room, nursed by his faithful Darius, who
told him that, on the night before, he was found propped against the
door of his flat, where he had been brought by a stranger, who rang the
bell before going away.
As soon as the daroga recovered his strength and his wits, he sent to
Count Philippe's house to inquire after the viscount's health. The
answer was that the young man had not been seen and that Count Philippe
was dead. His body was found on the bank of the Opera lake, on the
Rue-Scribe side. The Persian remembered the requiem mass which he had
heard from behind the wall of the torture-chamber, and had no doubt
concerning the crime and the criminal. Knowing Erik as he did, he
easily reconstructed the tragedy. Thinking that his brother had run
away with Christine Daae, Philippe had dashed in pursuit of him along
the Brussels Road, where he knew that everything was prepared for the
elopement. Failing to find the pair, he hurried back to the Opera,
remembered Raoul's strange confidence about his fantastic rival and
learned that the viscount had made every effort to enter the cellars of
the theater and that he had disappeared, leaving his hat in the prima
donna's dressing-room beside an empty pistol-case. And the count, who
no longer entertained any doubt of his brother's madness, in his turn
darted into that infernal underground maze. This was enough, in the
Persian's eyes, to explain the discovery of the Comte de Chagny's
corpse on the shore of the lake, where the siren, Erik's siren, kept
watch.
The Persian did not hesitate. He determined to inform the police. Now
the case was in the hands of an examining-magistrate called Faure, an
incredulous, commonplace, superficial sort of person, (I write as I
think), with a mind utterly unprepared to receive a confidence of this
kind. M. Faure took down the daroga's depositions and proceeded to
treat him as a madman.
Despairing of ever obtaining a hearing, the Persian sat down to write.
As the police did not want his evidence, perhaps the press would be
glad of it; and he had just written the last line of the narrative I
have quoted in the preceding chapters, when Darius announced the visit
of a stranger who refused his name, who would not show his face and
declared simply that he did not intend to leave the place until he had
spoken to the daroga.
The Persian at once felt who his singular visitor was and ordered him
to be shown in. The daroga was right. It was the ghost, it was Erik!
He looked extremely weak and leaned against the wall, as though he were
afraid of falling. Taking off his hat, he revealed a forehead white as
wax. The rest of the horrible face was hidden by the mask.
The Persian rose to his feet as Erik entered.
"Murderer of Count Philippe, what have you done with his brother and
Christine Daae?"
Erik staggered under this direct attack, kept silent for a moment,
dragged himself to a chair and heaved a deep sigh. Then, speaking in
short phrases and gasping for breath between the words:
"Daroga, don't talk to me ... about Count Philippe ... He was dead ...
by the time ... I left my house ... he was dead ... when ... the siren
sang ... It was an ... accident ... a sad ... a very sad ... accident.
He fell very awkwardly ... but simply and naturally ... into the lake!
..."
"You lie!" shouted the Persian.
Erik bowed his head and said:
"I have not come here ... to talk about Count Philippe ... but to tell
you that ... I am going ... to die..."
"Where are Raoul de Chagny and Christine Daae?"
"I am going to die."
"Raoul de Chagny and Christine Daae?"
"Of love ... daroga ... I am dying ... of love ... That is how it is
... loved her so! ... And I love her still ... daroga ... and I am
dying of love for her, I ... I tell you! ... If you knew how beautiful
she was ... when she let me kiss her ... alive ... It was the first
... time, daroga, the first ... time I ever kissed a woman ... Yes,
alive ... I kissed her alive ... and she looked as beautiful as if she
had been dead!"
The Persian shook Erik by the arm:
"Will you tell me if she is alive or dead."
"Why do you shake me like that?" asked Erik, making an effort to speak
more connectedly. "I tell you that I am going to die... Yes, I kissed
her alive ..."
"And now she is dead?"
"I tell you I kissed her just like that, on her forehead ... and she
did not draw back her forehead from my lips! ... Oh, she is a good
girl! ... As to her being dead, I don't think so; but it has nothing to
do with me ... No, no, she is not dead! And no one shall touch a hair
of her head! She is a good, honest girl, and she saved your life,
daroga, at a moment when I would not have given twopence for your
Persian skin. As a matter of fact, nobody bothered about you. Why
were you there with that little chap? You would have died as well as
he! My word, how she entreated me for her little chap! But I told her
that, as she had turned the scorpion, she had, through that very fact,
and of her own free will, become engaged to me and that she did not
need to have two men engaged to her, which was true enough.
"As for you, you did not exist, you had ceased to exist, I tell you,
and you were going to die with the other! ... Only, mark me, daroga,
when you were yelling like the devil, because of the water, Christine
came to me with her beautiful blue eyes wide open, and swore to me, as
she hoped to be saved, that she consented to be MY LIVING WIFE! ...
Until then, in the depths of her eyes, daroga, I had always seen my
dead wife; it was the first time I saw MY LIVING WIFE there. She was
sincere, as she hoped to be saved. She would not kill herself. It was
a bargain ... Half a minute later, all the water was back in the lake;
and I had a hard job with you, daroga, for, upon my honor, I thought
you were done for! ... However! ... There you were! ... It was
understood that I was to take you both up to the surface of the earth.
When, at last, I cleared the Louis-Philippe room of you, I came back
alone ..."
"What have you done with the Vicomte de Chagny?" asked the Persian,
interrupting him.
"Ah, you see, daroga, I couldn't carry HIM up like that, at once. ...
He was a hostage ... But I could not keep him in the house on the
lake, either, because of Christine; so I locked him up comfortably, I
chained him up nicely--a whiff of the Mazenderan scent had left him as
limp as a rag--in the Communists' dungeon, which is in the most
deserted and remote part of the Opera, below the fifth cellar, where no
one ever comes, and where no one ever hears you. Then I came back to
Christine, she was waiting for me."
Erik here rose solemnly. Then he continued, but, as he spoke, he was
overcome by all his former emotion and began to tremble like a leaf:
"Yes, she was waiting for me ... waiting for me erect and alive, a
real, living bride ... as she hoped to be saved ... And, when I ...
came forward, more timid than ... a little child, she did not run away
... no, no ... she stayed ... she waited for me ... I even believe ...
daroga ... that she put out her forehead ... a little ... oh, not much
... just a little ... like a living bride ... And ... and ... I ...
kissed her! ... I! ... I! ... I! ... And she did not die! ... Oh, how
good it is, daroga, to kiss somebody on the forehead! ... You can't
tell! ... But I! I! ... My mother, daroga, my poor, unhappy mother
would never ... let me kiss her ... She used to run away ... and throw
me my mask! ... Nor any other woman ... ever, ever! ... Ah, you can
understand, my happiness was so great, I cried. And I fell at her
feet, crying ... and I kissed her feet ... her little feet ... crying.
You're crying, too, daroga ... and she cried also ... the angel cried!
..." Erik sobbed aloud and the Persian himself could not retain his
tears in the presence of that masked man, who, with his shoulders
shaking and his hands clutched at his chest, was moaning with pain and
love by turns.
"Yes, daroga ... I felt her tears flow on my forehead ... on mine,
mine! ... They were soft ... they were sweet! ... They trickled under
my mask ... they mingled with my tears in my eyes ... yes ... they
flowed between my lips ... Listen, daroga, listen to what I did ... I
tore off my mask so as not to lose one of her tears ... and she did not
run away! ... And she did not die! ... She remained alive, weeping
over me, with me. We cried together! I have tasted all the happiness
the world can offer!"
And Erik fell into a chair, choking for breath:
"Ah, I am not going to die yet ... presently I shall ... but let me
cry! ... Listen, daroga ... listen to this ... While I was at her feet
... I heard her say, 'Poor, unhappy Erik!' ... AND SHE TOOK MY HAND!
... I had become no more, you know, than a poor dog ready to die for
her ... I mean it, daroga! ... I held in my hand a ring, a plain gold
ring which I had given her ... which she had lost ... and which I had
found again ... a wedding-ring, you know ... I slipped it into her
little hand and said, 'There! ... Take it! ... Take it for you ... and
him! ... It shall be my wedding-present a present from your poor,
unhappy Erik ... I know you love the boy ... don't cry any more! ...
She asked me, in a very soft voice, what I meant ... Then I made her
understand that, where she was concerned, I was only a poor dog, ready
to die for her ... but that she could marry the young man when she
pleased, because she had cried with me and mingled her tears with mine!
..."
Erik's emotion was so great that he had to tell the Persian not to look
at him, for he was choking and must take off his mask. The daroga went
to the window and opened it. His heart was full of pity, but he took
care to keep his eyes fixed on the trees in the Tuileries gardens, lest
he should see the monster's face.
"I went and released the young man," Erik continued, "and told him to
come with me to Christine ... They kissed before me in the
Louis-Philippe room ... Christine had my ring ... I made Christine
swear to come back, one night, when I was dead, crossing the lake from
the Rue-Scribe side, and bury me in the greatest secrecy with the gold
ring, which she was to wear until that moment. ... I told her where
she would find my body and what to do with it... Then Christine kissed
me, for the first time, herself, here, on the forehead--don't look,
daroga!--here, on the forehead ... on my forehead, mine--don't look,
daroga!--and they went off together... Christine had stopped crying
... I alone cried ... Daroga, daroga, if Christine keeps her promise,
she will come back soon! ..."
The Persian asked him no questions. He was quite reassured as to the
fate of Raoul Chagny and Christine Daae; no one could have doubted the
word of the weeping Erik that night.
The monster resumed his mask and collected his strength to leave the
daroga. He told him that, when he felt his end to be very near at
hand, he would send him, in gratitude for the kindness which the
Persian had once shown him, that which he held dearest in the world:
all Christine Daae's papers, which she had written for Raoul's benefit
and left with Erik, together with a few objects belonging to her, such
as a pair of gloves, a shoe-buckle and two pocket-handkerchiefs. In
reply to the Persian's questions, Erik told him that the two young
people, at soon as they found themselves free, had resolved to go and
look for a priest in some lonely spot where they could hide their
happiness and that, with this object in view, they had started from
"the northern railway station of the world." Lastly, Erik relied on
the Persian, as soon as he received the promised relics and papers, to
inform the young couple of his death and to advertise it in the EPOQUE.
That was all. The Persian saw Erik to the door of his flat, and Darius
helped him down to the street. A cab was waiting for him. Erik
stepped in; and the Persian, who had gone back to the window, heard him
say to the driver:
"Go to the Opera."
And the cab drove off into the night.
The Persian had seen the poor, unfortunate Erik for the last time.
Three weeks later, the Epoque published this advertisement:
"Erik is dead."
Epilogue.
I have now told the singular, but veracious story of the Opera ghost.
As I declared on the first page of this work, it is no longer possible
to deny that Erik really lived. There are to-day so many proofs of his
existence within the reach of everybody that we can follow Erik's
actions logically through the whole tragedy of the Chagnys.
There is no need to repeat here how greatly the case excited the
capital. The kidnapping of the artist, the death of the Comte de
Chagny under such exceptional conditions, the disappearance of his
brother, the drugging of the gas-man at the Opera and of his two
assistants: what tragedies, what passions, what crimes had surrounded
the idyll of Raoul and the sweet and charming Christine! ... What had
become of that wonderful, mysterious artist of whom the world was
never, never to hear again? ... She was represented as the victim of a
rivalry between the two brothers; and nobody suspected what had really
happened, nobody understood that, as Raoul and Christine had both
disappeared, both had withdrawn far from the world to enjoy a happiness
which they would not have cared to make public after the inexplicable
death of Count Philippe ... They took the train one day from "the
northern railway station of the world." ... Possibly, I too shall take
the train at that station, one day, and go and seek around thy lakes, O
Norway, O silent Scandinavia, for the perhaps still living traces of
Raoul and Christine and also of Mamma Valerius, who disappeared at the
same time! ... Possibly, some day, I shall hear the lonely echoes of
the North repeat the singing of her who knew the Angel of Music! ...
Long after the case was pigeonholed by the unintelligent care of M. le
Juge d'Instruction Faure, the newspapers made efforts, at intervals, to
fathom the mystery. One evening paper alone, which knew all the gossip
of the theaters, said:
"We recognize the touch of the Opera ghost."
And even that was written by way of irony.
The Persian alone knew the whole truth and held the main proofs, which
came to him with the pious relics promised by the ghost. It fell to my
lot to complete those proofs with the aid of the daroga himself. Day
by day, I kept him informed of the progress of my inquiries; and he
directed them. He had not been to the Opera for years and years, but
he had preserved the most accurate recollection of the building, and
there was no better guide than he possible to help me discover its most
secret recesses. He also told me where to gather further information,
whom to ask; and he sent me to call on M. Poligny, at a moment when the
poor man was nearly drawing his last breath. I had no idea that he was
so very ill, and I shall never forget the effect which my questions
about the ghost produced upon him. He looked at me as if I were the
devil and answered only in a few incoherent sentences, which showed,
however--and that was the main thing--the extent of the perturbation
which O. G., in his time, had brought into that already very restless
life (for M. Poligny was what people call a man of pleasure).
When I came and told the Persian of the poor result of my visit to M.
Poligny, the daroga gave a faint smile and said:
"Poligny never knew how far that extraordinary blackguard of an Erik
humbugged him."--The Persian, by the way, spoke of Erik sometimes as a
demigod and sometimes as the lowest of the low--"Poligny was
superstitious and Erik knew it. Erik knew most things about the public
and private affairs of the Opera. When M. Poligny heard a mysterious
voice tell him, in Box Five, of the manner in which he used to spend
his time and abuse his partner's confidence, he did not wait to hear
any more. Thinking at first that it was a voice from Heaven, he
believed himself damned; and then, when the voice began to ask for
money, he saw that he was being victimized by a shrewd blackmailer to
whom Debienne himself had fallen a prey. Both of them, already tired
of management for various reasons, went away without trying to
investigate further into the personality of that curious O. G., who had
forced such a singular memorandum-book upon them. They bequeathed the
whole mystery to their successors and heaved a sigh of relief when they
were rid of a business that had puzzled them without amusing them in
the least."
I then spoke of the two successors and expressed my surprise that, in
his Memoirs of a Manager, M. Moncharmin should describe the Opera
ghost's behavior at such length in the first part of the book and
hardly mention it at all in the second. In reply to this, the Persian,
who knew the MEMOIRS as thoroughly as if he had written them himself,
observed that I should find the explanation of the whole business if I
would just recollect the few lines which Moncharmin devotes to the
ghost in the second part aforesaid. I quote these lines, which are
particularly interesting because they describe the very simple manner
in which the famous incident of the twenty-thousand francs was closed:
"As for O. G., some of whose curious tricks I have related in the first
part of my Memoirs, I will only say that he redeemed by one spontaneous
fine action all the worry which he had caused my dear friend and
partner and, I am bound to say, myself. He felt, no doubt, that there
are limits to a joke, especially when it is so expensive and when the
commissary of police has been informed, for, at the moment when we had
made an appointment in our office with M. Mifroid to tell him the whole
story, a few days after the disappearance of Christine Daae, we found,
on Richard's table, a large envelope, inscribed, in red ink, "WITH O.
G.'S COMPLIMENTS." It contained the large sum of money which he had
succeeded in playfully extracting, for the time being, from the
treasury. Richard was at once of the opinion that we must be content
with that and drop the business. I agreed with Richard. All's well
that ends well. What do you say, O. G.?"
Of course, Moncharmin, especially after the money had been restored,
continued to believe that he had, for a short while, been the butt of
Richard's sense of humor, whereas Richard, on his side, was convinced
that Moncharmin had amused himself by inventing the whole of the affair
of the Opera ghost, in order to revenge himself for a few jokes.
I asked the Persian to tell me by what trick the ghost had taken
twenty-thousand francs from Richard's pocket in spite of the
safety-pin. He replied that he had not gone into this little detail,
but that, if I myself cared to make an investigation on the spot, I
should certainly find the solution to the riddle in the managers'
office by remembering that Erik had not been nicknamed the trap-door
lover for nothing. I promised the Persian to do so as soon as I had
time, and I may as well tell the reader at once that the results of my
investigation were perfectly satisfactory; and I hardly believed that I
should ever discover so many undeniable proofs of the authenticity of
the feats ascribed to the ghost.
The Persian's manuscript, Christine Daae's papers, the statements made
to me by the people who used to work under MM. Richard and Moncharmin,
by little Meg herself (the worthy Madame Giry, I am sorry to say, is no
more) and by Sorelli, who is now living in retirement at Louveciennes:
all the documents relating to the existence of the ghost, which I
propose to deposit in the archives of the Opera, have been checked and
confirmed by a number of important discoveries of which I am justly
proud. I have not been able to find the house on the lake, Erik having
blocked up all the secret entrances.[1] On the other hand, I have
discovered the secret passage of the Communists, the planking of which
is falling to pieces in parts, and also the trap-door through which
Raoul and the Persian penetrated into the cellars of the opera-house.
In the Communists' dungeon, I noticed numbers of initials traced on the
walls by the unfortunate people confined in it; and among these were an
"R" and a "C." R. C.: Raoul de Chagny. The letters are there to this
day.
If the reader will visit the Opera one morning and ask leave to stroll
where he pleases, without being accompanied by a stupid guide, let him
go to Box Five and knock with his fist or stick on the enormous column
that separates this from the stage-box. He will find that the column
sounds hollow. After that, do not be astonished by the suggestion that
it was occupied by the voice of the ghost: there is room inside the
column for two men. If you are surprised that, when the various
incidents occurred, no one turned round to look at the column, you must
remember that it presented the appearance of solid marble, and that the
voice contained in it seemed rather to come from the opposite side,
for, as we have seen, the ghost was an expert ventriloquist.
The column was elaborately carved and decorated with the sculptor's
chisel; and I do not despair of one day discovering the ornament that
could be raised or lowered at will, so as to admit of the ghost's
mysterious correspondence with Mme. Giry and of his generosity.
However, all these discoveries are nothing, to my mind, compared with
that which I was able to make, in the presence of the acting-manager,
in the managers' office, within a couple of inches from the desk-chair,
and which consisted of a trap-door, the width of a board in the
flooring and the length of a man's fore-arm and no longer; a trap-door
that falls back like the lid of a box; a trap-door through which I can
see a hand come and dexterously fumble at the pocket of a swallow-tail
coat.
That is the way the forty-thousand francs went! ... And that also is
the way by which, through some trick or other, they were returned.
Speaking about this to the Persian, I said:
"So we may take it, as the forty-thousand francs were returned, that
Erik was simply amusing himself with that memorandum-book of his?"
"Don't you believe it!" he replied. "Erik wanted money. Thinking
himself without the pale of humanity, he was restrained by no scruples
and he employed his extraordinary gifts of dexterity and imagination,
which he had received by way of compensation for his extraordinary
uglinesss, to prey upon his fellow-men. His reason for restoring the
forty-thousand francs, of his own accord, was that he no longer wanted
it. He had relinquished his marriage with Christine Daae. He had
relinquished everything above the surface of the earth."
According to the Persian's account, Erik was born in a small town not
far from Rouen. He was the son of a master-mason. He ran away at an
early age from his father's house, where his ugliness was a subject of
horror and terror to his parents. For a time, he frequented the fairs,
where a showman exhibited him as the "living corpse." He seems to have
crossed the whole of Europe, from fair to fair, and to have completed
his strange education as an artist and magician at the very
fountain-head of art and magic, among the Gipsies. A period of Erik's
life remained quite obscure. He was seen at the fair of
Nijni-Novgorod, where he displayed himself in all his hideous glory.
He already sang as nobody on this earth had ever sung before; he
practised ventriloquism and gave displays of legerdemain so
extraordinary that the caravans returning to Asia talked about it
during the whole length of their journey. In this way, his reputation
penetrated the walls of the palace at Mazenderan, where the little
sultana, the favorite of the Shah-in-Shah, was boring herself to death.
A dealer in furs, returning to Samarkand from Nijni-Novgorod, told of
the marvels which he had seen performed in Erik's tent. The trader was
summoned to the palace and the daroga of Mazenderan was told to
question him. Next the daroga was instructed to go and find Erik. He
brought him to Persia, where for some months Erik's will was law. He
was guilty of not a few horrors, for he seemed not to know the
difference between good and evil. He took part calmly in a number of
political assassinations; and he turned his diabolical inventive powers
against the Emir of Afghanistan, who was at war with the Persian
empire. The Shah took a liking to him.
This was the time of the rosy hours of Mazenderan, of which the
daroga's narrative has given us a glimpse. Erik had very original
ideas on the subject of architecture and thought out a palace much as a
conjuror contrives a trick-casket. The Shah ordered him to construct an
edifice of this kind. Erik did so; and the building appears to have
been so ingenious that His Majesty was able to move about in it unseen
and to disappear without a possibility of the trick's being discovered.
When the Shah-in-Shah found himself the possessor of this gem, he
ordered Erik's yellow eyes to be put out. But he reflected that, even
when blind, Erik would still be able to build so remarkable a house for
another sovereign; and also that, as long as Erik was alive, some one
would know the secret of the wonderful palace. Erik's death was
decided upon, together with that of all the laborers who had worked
under his orders. The execution of this abominable decree devolved
upon the daroga of Mazenderan. Erik had shown him some slight services
and procured him many a hearty laugh. He saved Erik by providing him
with the means of escape, but nearly paid with his head for his
generous indulgence.
Fortunately for the daroga, a corpse, half-eaten by the birds of prey,
was found on the shore of the Caspian Sea, and was taken for Erik's
body, because the daroga's friends had dressed the remains in clothing
that belonged to Erik. The daroga was let off with the loss of the
imperial favor, the confiscation of his property and an order of
perpetual banishment. As a member of the Royal House, however, he
continued to receive a monthly pension of a few hundred francs from the
Persian treasury; and on this he came to live in Paris.
As for Erik, he went to Asia Minor and thence to Constantinople, where
he entered the Sultan's employment. In explanation of the services
which he was able to render a monarch haunted by perpetual terrors, I
need only say that it was Erik who constructed all the famous
trap-doors and secret chambers and mysterious strong-boxes which were
found at Yildiz-Kiosk after the last Turkish revolution. He also
invented those automata, dressed like the Sultan and resembling the
Sultan in all respects,[2] which made people believe that the
Commander of the Faithful was awake at one place, when, in reality, he
was asleep elsewhere.
Of course, he had to leave the Sultan's service for the same reasons
that made him fly from Persia: he knew too much. Then, tired of his
adventurous, formidable and monstrous life, he longed to be some one
"like everybody else." And he became a contractor, like any ordinary
contractor, building ordinary houses with ordinary bricks. He tendered
for part of the foundations in the Opera. His estimate was accepted.
When he found himself in the cellars of the enormous playhouse, his
artistic, fantastic, wizard nature resumed the upper hand. Besides,
was he not as ugly as ever? He dreamed of creating for his own use a
dwelling unknown to the rest of the earth, where he could hide from
men's eyes for all time.
The reader knows and guesses the rest. It is all in keeping with this
incredible and yet veracious story. Poor, unhappy Erik! Shall we pity
him? Shall we curse him? He asked only to be "some one," like
everybody else. But he was too ugly! And he had to hide his genius OR
USE IT TO PLAY TRICKS WITH, when, with an ordinary face, he would have
been one of the most distinguished of mankind! He had a heart that
could have held the empire of the world; and, in the end, he had to
content himself with a cellar. Ah, yes, we must needs pity the Opera
ghost.
I have prayed over his mortal remains, that God might show him mercy
notwithstanding his crimes. Yes, I am sure, quite sure that I prayed
beside his body, the other day, when they took it from the spot where
they were burying the phonographic records. It was his skeleton. I
did not recognize it by the ugliness of the head, for all men are ugly
when they have been dead as long as that, but by the plain gold ring
which he wore and which Christine Daae had certainly slipped on his
finger, when she came to bury him in accordance with her promise.
The skeleton was lying near the little well, in the place where the
Angel of Music first held Christine Daae fainting in his trembling
arms, on the night when he carried her down to the cellars of the
opera-house.
And, now, what do they mean to do with that skeleton? Surely they will
not bury it in the common grave! ... I say that the place of the
skeleton of the Opera ghost is in the archives of the National Academy
of Music. It is no ordinary skeleton.
[1] Even so, I am convinced that it would be easy to reach it by
draining the lake, as I have repeatedly requested the Ministry of Fine
Arts to do. I was speaking about it to M. Dujardin-Beaumetz, the
under-secretary for fine arts, only forty-eight hours before the
publication of this book. Who knows but that the score of DON JUAN
TRIUMPHANT might yet be discovered in the house on the lake?
[2] See the interview of the special correspondent of the MATIN, with
Mohammed-Ali Bey, on the day after the entry of the Salonika troops
into Constantinople.
THE END
The Paris Opera House
THE SCENE OF GASTON LEROUX'S NOVEL, "THE PHANTOM OF THE OPERA"
That Mr. Leroux has used, for the scene of his story, the Paris Opera
House as it really is and has not created a building out of his
imagination, is shown by this interesting description of it taken from
an article which appeared in Scribner's Magazine in 1879, a short time
after the building was completed:
"The new Opera House, commenced under the Empire and finished under the
Republic, is the most complete building of the kind in the world and in
many respects the most beautiful. No European capital possesses an
opera house so comprehensive in plan and execution, and none can boast
an edifice equally vast and splendid.
"The site of the Opera House was chosen in 1861. It was determined to
lay the foundation exceptionally deep and strong. It was well known
that water would be met with, but it was impossible to foresee at what
depth or in what quantity it would be found. Exceptional depth also
was necessary, as the stage arrangements were to be such as to admit a
scene fifty feet high to be lowered on its frame. It was therefore
necessary to lay a foundation in a soil soaked with water which should
be sufficiently solid to sustain a weight of 22,000,000 pounds, and at
the same time to be perfectly dry, as the cellars were intended for the
storage of scenery and properties. While the work was in progress, the
excavation was kept free from water by means of eight pumps, worked by
steam power, and in operation, without interruption, day and night,
from March second to October thirteenth. The floor of the cellar was
covered with a layer of concrete, then with two coats of cement,
another layer of concrete and a coat of bitumen. The wall includes an
outer wall built as a coffer-dam, a brick wall, a coat of cement, and a
wall proper, a little over a yard thick. After all this was done the
whole was filled with water, in order that the fluid, by penetrating
into the most minute interstices, might deposit a sediment which would
close them more surely and perfectly than it would be possible to do by
hand. Twelve years elapsed before the completion of the building, and
during that time it was demonstrated that the precautions taken secured
absolute impermeability and solidity.
"The events of 1870 interrupted work just as it was about to be
prosecuted most vigorously, and the new Opera House was put to new and
unexpected uses. During the siege, it was converted into a vast
military storehouse and filled with a heterogeneous mass of goods.
After the siege the building fell into the hands of the Commune and the
roof was turned into a balloon station. The damage done, however, was
slight.
"The fine stone employed in the construction was brought from quarries
in Sweden, Scotland, Italy, Algeria, Finland, Spain, Belgium and
France. While work on the exterior was in progress, the building was
covered in by a wooden shell, rendered transparent by thousands of
small panes of glass. In 1867 a swarm of men, supplied with hammers
and axes, stripped the house of its habit, and showed in all its
splendor the great structure. No picture can do justice to the rich
colors of the edifice or to the harmonious tone resulting from the
skilful use of many diverse materials. The effect of the frontage is
completed by the cupola of the auditorium, topped with a cap of bronze
sparingly adorned with gilding. Farther on, on a level with the towers
of Notre-Dame, is the gable end of the roof of the stage, a 'Pegasus',
by M. Lequesne, rising at either end of the roof, and a bronze group by
M. Millet, representing 'Apollo lifting his golden lyre', commanding
the apex. Apollo, it may here be mentioned, is useful as well as
ornamental, for his lyre is tipped with a metal point which does duty
as a lightning-rod, and conducts the fluid to the body and down the
nether limbs of the god.
"The spectator, having climbed ten steps and left behind him a gateway,
reaches a vestibule in which are statues of Lully, Rameau, Gluck, and
Handel. Ten steps of green Swedish marble lead to a second vestibule
for ticket-sellers. Visitors who enter by the pavilion reserved for
carriages pass through a hallway where ticket offices are situated.
The larger number of the audience, before entering the auditorium,
traverse a large circular vestibule located exactly beneath it. The
ceiling of this portion of the building is upheld by sixteen fluted
columns of Jura stone, with white marble capitals, forming a portico.
Here servants are to await their masters, and spectators may remain
until their carriages are summoned. The third entrance, which is quite
distinct from the others, is reserved for the Executive. The section
of the building set aside for the use of the Emperor Napoleon was to
have included an antechamber for the bodyguards; a salon for the
aides-de-camp; a large salon and a smaller one for the Empress; hat and
cloak rooms, etc. Moreover, there were to be in close proximity to the
entrance, stables for three coaches, for the outriders' horses, and for
the twenty-one horsemen acting as an escort; a station for a squad of
infantry of thirty-one men and ten cent-gardes, and a stable for the
horses of the latter; and, besides, a salon for fifteen or twenty
domestics. Thus arrangements had to be made to accommodate in this
part of the building about one hundred persons, fifty horses, and
half-a-dozen carriages. The fall of the Empire suggested some changes,
but ample provision still exists for emergencies.
"Its novel conception, perfect fitness, and rare splendor of material,
make the grand stairway unquestionably one of the most remarkable
features of the building. It presents to the spectator, who has just
passed through the subscribers' pavilion, a gorgeous picture. From
this point he beholds the ceiling formed by the central landing; this
and the columns sustaining it, built of Echaillon stone, are
honeycombed with arabesques and heavy with ornaments; the steps are of
white marble, and antique red marble balusters rest on green marble
sockets and support a balustrade of onyx. To the right and to the left
of this landing are stairways to the floor, on a plane with the first
row of boxes. On this floor stand thirty monolith columns of
Sarrancolin marble, with white marble bases and capitals. Pilasters of
peach-blossom and violet stone are against the corresponding walls.
More than fifty blocks had to be extracted from the quarry to find
thirty perfect monoliths.
"The foyer de la danse has particular interest for the habitues of the
Opera. It is a place of reunion to which subscribers to three
performances a week are admitted between the acts in accordance with a
usage established in 1870. Three immense looking-glasses cover the
back wall of the FOYER, and a chandelier with one hundred and seven
burners supplies it with light. The paintings include twenty oval
medallions, in which are portrayed the twenty danseuses of most
celebrity since the opera has existed in France, and four panels by M.
Boulanger, typifying 'The War Dance', 'The Rustic Dance', 'The Dance of
Love' and 'The Bacchic Dance.' While the ladies of the ballet receive
their admirers in this foyer, they can practise their steps.
Velvet-cushioned bars have to this end been secured at convenient
points, and the floor has been given the same slope as that of the
stage, so that the labor expended may be thoroughly profitable to the
performance. The singers' foyer, on the same floor, is a much less
lively resort than the foyer de la danse, as vocalists rarely leave
their dressing-rooms before they are summoned to the stage. Thirty
panels with portraits of the artists of repute in the annals of the
Opera adorn this foyer.
"Some estimate ... may be arrived at by sitting before the concierge an
hour or so before the representation commences. First appear the stage
carpenters, who are always seventy, and sometimes, when L'Africaine,
for example, with its ship scene, is the opera, one hundred and ten
strong. Then come stage upholsterers, whose sole duty is to lay
carpets, hang curtains, etc.; gas-men, and a squad of firemen.
Claqueurs, call-boys, property-men, dressers, coiffeurs,
supernumeraries, and artists, follow. The supernumeraries number about
one hundred; some are hired by the year, but the 'masses' are generally
recruited at the last minute and are generally working-men who seek to
add to their meagre earnings. There are about a hundred choristers,
and about eighty musicians.
"Next we behold equeries, whose horses are hoisted on the stage by
means of an elevator; electricians who manage the light-producing
batteries; hydrauliciens to take charge of the water-works in ballets
like La Source; artificers who prepare the conflagration in Le Profeta;
florists who make ready Margarita's garden, and a host of minor
employees. This personnel is provided for as follows: Eighty
dressing-rooms are reserved for the artists, each including a small
antechamber, the dressing-room proper, and a little closet. Besides
these apartments, the Opera has a dressing-room for sixty male, and
another for fifty female choristers; a third for thirty-four male
dancers; four dressing-rooms for twenty female dancers of different
grades; a dressing-room for one hundred and ninety supernumeraries,
etc."
A few figures taken from the article will suggest the enormous capacity
and the perfect convenience of the house. "There are 2,531 doors and
7,593 keys; 14 furnaces and grates heat the house; the gaspipes if
connected would form a pipe almost 16 miles long; 9 reservoirs, and two
tanks hold 22,222 gallons of water and distribute their contents
through 22,829 2-5 feet of piping; 538 persons have places assigned
wherein to change their attire. The musicians have a foyer with 100
closets for their instruments."
The author remarks of his visit to the Opera House that it "was almost
as bewildering as it was agreeable. Giant stairways and colossal
halls, huge frescoes and enormous mirrors, gold and marble, satin and
velvet, met the eye at every turn."
In a recent letter Mr. Andre Castaigne, whose remarkable pictures
illustrate the text, speaks of a river or lake under the Opera House
and mentions the fact that there are now also three metropolitan
railway tunnels, one on top of the other.