The Manuscript Found in Saragossa (24 page)

I was ten years old… or rather, I meant to say, the prince's only daughter was ten years old when her mother died. At that time, too, the Spinaverdes left the prince's household. The marchese took charge of the administration of his fiefs and the marchesa took charge of my education. They left behind them in Naples their elder daughter, Laura, who occupied a somewhat irregular place in the prince's household. Her mother and the young princess came to live at Monte Salerno.

Little attention was paid to Elfrida's upbringing, but a great deal was lavished on training those around her. They were taught to anticipate my every whim.

‘I asked you not to interrupt me,' she replied angrily. Then she continued:

While all this was going on, my father fell ill and we travelled to Naples. I did not see much of him but the Marchese di Spinaverde and his wife never left his side. Eventually he died, having drawn up a will in which Spinaverde was made the sole guardian of his daughter and the administrator of his estates and other possessions.

The arrangements for the funeral took up several weeks, after which we returned to Monte Salerno, where I resumed pinching my ladies-in-waiting. Four years went by in these innocent pastimes, which were all the sweeter to me because the Marchesa di Spinaverde assured me that I was right; it was the duty of everyone to obey me, and those who were slow to do so or did not carry out my orders well enough deserved to be punished in every way.

Eventually, however, all my ladies left me one after the other, and one night I found that I had almost reached the point of having to undress myself. I wept with rage and ran to the Marchesa di Spinaverde, who said, ‘Dear, sweet princess, dry your pretty eyes. Tonight I will undress you and tomorrow I will bring you six more ladies-in-waiting, whom you will, I am sure, find satisfactory.'

When I awoke the next morning, the marchesa presented six beautiful young girls to me. The sight of them moved me in a strange way, and they also seemed to be affected. I was the first to recover, and leapt from my bed, dressed only in my nightgown. I embraced them one after the other and assured them that they would never be scolded or pinched. And, indeed, even if they were clumsy in dressing me or dared to contradict me, I never lost my temper with them.

The princess said with a majestic air, ‘Signor Romati, I have asked you not to interrupt me.'

Then she resumed her story.

That evening it was suggested that we might like to stroll in the grounds of the castle. We had scarcely set out when a mad bull rushed out of a clump of trees and charged directly at us. The duke ran towards it, his cloak in one hand and a sword in the other. The bull hesitated a second, then charged the duke, impaled itself on his sword and fell dead at his feet. I believed that I owed my life to the duke's courage and skill. But the next day I learned that the bull had been deliberately planted there by the duke's equerry, and that his master had arranged the whole episode to pay me a gallant compliment in the manner of his country. Far from being grateful for this, I found it impossible to forgive him for having caused me such a fright and I refused to marry him.

The Marchesa di Spinaverde was grateful that I had refused. She took the opportunity to make me aware of the advantages I possessed and to stress how much I would lose if I changed my state and gave myself to a lord and master. Some time after that, the same secretary of state came to see me again in the company of another ambassador and the reigning prince of Noudel-Hansberg. This ruler was a fat, podgy, pale, fair-skinned, pasty-faced grandee, who wanted to tell me about his entailed estates in the lands of the Holy Roman Empire, but when he spoke Italian, he did so with the accent of the Tyrol. I began to mimic his accent and as I did so I assured him that his presence was indispensable in his entailed estates. He went away somewhat miffed. The Marchesa di Spinaverde covered me with kisses, and to make sure of keeping me at Monte Salerno she made all of the improvements which you have seen.

And then she began to laugh, a convulsive, horrible laugh, saying again and again, ‘Oh yes, paradise, paradise. It's all very well for him to talk of paradise.'

The scene was becoming distressing. Eventually the princess recovered herself, threw me a severe glance and ordered me to follow her.

She opened the door and we found ourselves in underground vaults, beyond which was what looked like a silver lake, but was actually a lake of quicksilver. The princess clapped her hands, and a boat propelled by a yellow dwarf appeared. We stepped into the boat, and I saw that the dwarf's face was of gold, with diamond eyes and a coral mouth. In other words it was an automaton who rowed through the quicksilver with his little oars and skilfully made the boat skim along. This novel pilot took us to the foot of a rock which opened up to allow us to pass into another chamber, in which there was the amazing spectacle of countless other automata: peacocks spreading enamel tails which were studded with jewels, parrots with emeralds for plumage flying above our heads, negroes made of ebony proffering golden platters laden with ruby cherries and sapphire grapes. There were numerous other astonishing objects in these magical vaults which stretched further than the eye could see.

At that moment I was unaccountably tempted to repeat the word ‘paradise' to see what effect it would have on the princess. I yielded to this fatal curiosity and said, ‘Signora, one can truthfully say that you are living in paradise on earth.'

The princess smiled in the most charming manner and said, ‘So that you can better judge the delights of this place, I shall introduce you to my six ladies-in-waiting.'

She took a golden key from her belt and opened a huge chest which was covered in black velvet and decorated with solid silver.

When the chest was opened, a skeleton appeared, who came towards me in a menacing way. I drew my sword. The skeleton ripped off its left arm and, using it as a weapon, launched a furious attack on me. I put up a good fight, but a second skeleton emerged from the chest, tore a rib off the first skeleton and hit me over the head with it. I grabbed it by the throat but it clasped me in its fleshless arms and tried to throw me to the ground. I managed to get clear of it, but a third skeleton emerged from the trunk to join the
other two. Then the other three appeared. Seeing no chance of coming away alive from so unequal a combat, I fell to my knees and begged the princess to spare me.

The princess ordered the skeletons to return to the chest, then said, ‘Romati, never forget as long as you live what you have seen here.'

As she said this she grasped my arm. I felt it burn to the bone and I fainted.

I do not know how long I remained in that state. When eventually I came round, I heard chanting nearby and saw that I was in the midst of vast ruins. I tried to get out and I came to an inner courtyard where I saw a chapel, and monks singing matins. When the service was over the superior invited me into his cell. I followed him there and tried to pull my wits together and tell him what had happened to me. When I had finished my account the superior said, ‘My son, do you bear a mark on your arm where the princess grasped it?'

I drew up my sleeve and indeed saw that my arm was burnt and that it bore the marks of the princess's five fingers.

Then the superior opened a chest which was by his bed and took an old parchment from it. ‘Here is the bull of our foundation,' he said. ‘It may explain to you what you have seen.'

I rolled out the parchment scroll and read the following:

‘Perhaps that is so,' said the chief. ‘Perhaps Romati took his story from that book. He may have made it up. But what is certain is that his tale contributed greatly to giving me a taste for travel as well as a vague hope that strange adventures might befall me, which they never have. But such is the force of the impressions we receive in childhood that this unreasonable hope obsessed me for a long time, and I have never been wholly cured of it.'

‘Señor Pandesowna,' I said to the gypsy chief, ‘didn't you lead me to think that since you have been living in these mountains you have seen things which might be called marvellous?'

‘That is so,' he replied. ‘I have seen things which have reminded me of Romati's story.'

At that moment a gypsy came and interrupted us. After that, we dined, and then as the chief had other things to do I took my gun and went hunting. I climbed several peaks. From one of them I looked down into the valley which stretched out below my feet and thought
that I recognized the ill-starred gallows of Zoto's brothers. The sight of this made me curious. I hastened down and indeed came to the foot of the gallows from which the two hanged men were suspended.

I looked away and sadly climbed back up to the camp. The gypsy chief asked where I had been. I replied that I had been down to the gallows of Zoto's two brothers.

‘Were they there?' asked the gypsy.

‘What do you mean?' I replied. ‘Are they in the habit of absenting themselves?'

‘Often,' said the gypsy chief, ‘especially at night.'

These few words made me very pensive. I found myself once again in the neighbourhood of those damned ghosts and whether or not they were vampires or had been used to persecute me, I believed that I had much to fear from them. I was morose for the rest of the day, did not eat supper and went to bed, where I dreamed of vampires, phantoms, nightmares, spectres and hanged men.