A Mummer's Tale

cult. The reporters had given the fullest details of the event, and it was pointed out by the Abbé Mirabelle, the Archbishop's second vicar, that to open

f, who in this affair displayed great wisdom a

otorious. You cannot dispute it. It would now be advisable to investigate closely, and by the light of science, the circumstances in which the deed was committed. Do not be surprised by my thus invoking the aid of science. Science has no better friend than religion. Now medical science may in the present case be of great assistance to us. You will understand in a moment. Mother Church ejects the suicide from her bosom only when his act is an act of despair. The madmen who at

ement, the other, leave of absence. He refused, in conformity with his principle never to grant a request until he had first refused it. In this way he bestowed a value upon his most trifling concessions. His glistening eyes and his patriarc

of them. "It really can't be done, my ch

m, he inquired, as h

oulce, what new

earing with Nanteuil

y scenery, Mo

wentieth time the landscape, upo

the great trees, on the north side, are green w

manager

be done will be done, and that it will be mos

immer of hope,

the author, "the grey stones and the

ated, Madame Doulce;

eived at the Archbishop's P

baye should appear inscrutable, of great thickness, and yet

sumed Madame Doulce, "is a prie

pale-gold sky?" inquired the stage manager. "Go

e a delicate allusion to the in

nto the room. His green eyes were glittering, and his red mous

he stairs. She says Delage tried to violate her. It's at least the tenth time

e like this," said Pradel. "You'll have to

ned to me in the clearest manner

of Pradel with interest, whether L

plays the woman of the people who, in the Plain

, to my thinking,"

"But she would be still prettier

in Marc musi

ve is a simple and primitive act. It's a struggle, it's hatred. Violence

ed, greatl

is pro

self into a fix

she screams out that she is being outraged in order to get hush-money out of them. It's h

solution. He gave me to understand that, in order to remove all difficulties, it would be sufficient for a physician

ier wasn't insane. He was in fu

replied Madame Doulce. "

e was not in full posse

ugged his

reason, it's a matter of appreciation. T

sion; but they were unable to find the address of the first; the s

that they should ap

tificate of Dr. Socrates. What's to-day? Friday. It's

The Chevalier affair was beginning to amuse him. He found it theatrical, that is, appropriate to theatrical performers. Although the hour for consultations was over, the doctor's sitting-room was still full of people in search of healing. Trublet dismissed them, and receiv

ted in the church unless you certify that the

hevalier might very well do

no Mass said for her after her death, and, as you are aware, she was denied 'the honour of rotting in a

s of people. My company would be deeply grieved if they could not be present at the celebration of a Mass for thei

re his death, on his musical Mass, 'I know a great many singers at the Opéra,' he said, 'I shall have a Pie Jésu aux truffes.' But, as on

cial that they should be friends and allies. For my own part, I never lose an opportunity of sealing the alliance. This coming Lent, I shall have Durville read one of Bourdal

show deference to the Church, why do you foist upon her, b

a similar strain,

you have anything more

her eyes blazing, her

s asked of you, write that he was not in p

eased, would become one of the peaceful dead, and would no longer torment her. She feared, on the other hand, that if he were deprived of benediction and prayers he would perpetually hover about her, accursed and maleficent. And, more simply still, in her dread of seeing hi

ood and took a special interest in the female of the human machine. This particular sp

ut we have to-day, thank God, religious physicians who send their patients to the ecclesiastical waters, and whose special function is to attest miraculous cures.

lways attended poor Chevalier. It

ly ag

physician to the theatre. We mus

euil turned upon Socra

ublet, "what do yo

plied. "Say that he was to a

speak like a police surgeon.

hat Chevalier was fully and

inion that he was not in the le

l, t

bilities. They have procedures by which they recognize full responsibilities, and those which lack one or more fractional parts. It is a remarkable fact, moreover, t

m. He went back to the origins of life, and, like the Silenus of Virgil, who, smeared with the juice of mulberries,

of Neptune, we had all of us, for ages past, been fully conditioned, determined and irrevocably destined, and your responsibility, my dear child, my responsibility, Chevalier's, and that of all men, had been, not mitigated, bu

locked cupboar

which would transform, destroy, or excite

ying the game,"

ot create anything. These substances are scattered throughout nature. In their free state, they surround and enter into us, they determine

you mean?" asked P

know nothing, which are unaware of us, which are ignorant of one another, but which nevertheless constitute us. By means of their restlessness they produce innumerable currents which we call our passions, our tho

c interrupted

like your advice on the subject. I am in the habit of drinking a small

a poison. If you have a bottle of bran

ressing will and responsibility in all human thi

usions. They are tangible and powerful realities. I know how th

d with some

in the distinction between good and evil. Doubt

er forgetting this. They are stupid, venerable, wholesome ideas. Men have felt that, without these ideas, they would all go mad. T

dox!" exclai

ian calmly

ind that believers exact a high degree of morality from their god. In the present state of society, they would not willingly admit that he was lecherous or compromised himself with women; but they do think it fitting that he should be vindictive and cruel. Morality is a mutual agreement to keep what we possess: land, houses, furniture, women, and our lives. It does not imply, in the case of those who bow to it, any particular intelligence or character. It is insti

ceptions," re

plied Dr.

pursuing her i

tify that he was insane. It is the truth.

r he was madder than other men. The entire history of humanity, replete with to

one another in glittering cuirasses, in helmets topped with plumes, or maned with scarlet. By the use of artillery, and the art of fortification, they have introduced chemistry and mathematics among the necessary means of destruction. War is a sublime invention. And, since

r. Socrate

produces a moral change, since morals depend upon environment. The transformation to which man in his turn has subjected the earth is undoubtedly more profound and more harmonious than the transformation wrought by other animals. Why should not humanity succeed in changing nature to the extent of making it pacific? Why should not humanity, miserably puny though it is and will be, succeed, some day, in suppressing, or at least in controlling the struggle for life? Why indeed should not humanity abolish

e desk, and held it out, di

an to

ed on several occ

elf to ask Chevalie

replied

m certain disorders of sensibility, vision a

a book from a she

something to confirm my diagnosis in the le

er the leave

'Many madmen are to be met with among actors.' This remark of Professor Ball's reminds me that the

sked Romill

rration.' Nothing is truer. Among medical men, those who are more especially predestined to insanity are the alienists. It is often difficult to determine which of the two is the craz

rough the pages of Professor Ball'

there is reason to believe that his constitution predisposed him to insanity, which, according to the highest authorities, is merely a

et and handed it

ous and too devoid of meaning to

rose an

tors we should not have

-shop. I relieve, I console. How is it pos

thetic glance at N

w how necessary untruthfulness

Mate, and Romilly were ta

ust received a small cask of old Armagn

d behind in the doct

I have spent an awf

g your

en wide

e you were n

te s

s nature, he dreaded far more than visual hallucinations. He was familiar with the docility of the sick in obeying orders given them by voices. Abandoning the idea of questioning Félicie, he resolved, at all hazards, to remove any scruples of

the inevitable termination of a pathological condition. Every individual who commits suicide had to commit suicide. You are mer

unded her. He sought to convince her by simple arguments that she was beholding images which had no reality, mere re

after a long period of retirement, she reappeared in society, and on entering a drawing-room she saw the lady of the house who, pointing to an arm-chair, begged her to be seated. She also saw, seated in this chair, a crafty-looking old gentleman. She argued to herself that one of the two persons was necessarily a creature of the ima

ook her he

not apply t

, but a jealous dead man who did not pay her visits without some object. But she feared

hese disorders of the vision were neither rare nor very seri

e said, "once

ou

, some twenty years

n the story of his hallucination, having switched on all the e

the desert with a step which made one think of those dances of warriors of which the Bible speaks. His every movement was graceful; his young animal-like gaiety was charming. As he prodded Rameses' back with the point of his stick, he would chatter to me in a limited vocabulary in which English, French and Arabic were intermingled; he enjoyed telling me of the travellers whom he had escorted and who, he believed, were all princes or princesses; but if I asked him about his relations or his companions he remained silent, and assumed an air of indifference and boredom. When cadging for a promise of substantial baksheesh, the nasal twang of his voice assumed caressing inflexions. He

e hanged, because the little girl's mother refused the tendered blood-money. Now, the Khedive does not enjoy the prerogative of mercy, and the murderer, according to Moslem law, can redeem his life only if the parents of the victim consent to receive from him a sum of money as compensation. I was too busy to give thought to the matter. I could readily imagine that Selim, cunning but thoughtless, caressing yet unfeeling, had played with the little girl, torn off her ear-rings, killed her, and hidden her body. The affair soon passed out of my mind. The epidemic was spreading from Old Cairo to the European quarters. I was visiting from thirty to forty sick persons daily, practising venous injections in every case. I was suffering from liver trouble, a

oldier armed with a stick. But Moslems are never tempted to flee from their fate. Selim knelt down with an appealing grace, and approached his lips to my hand, to kiss it according to ancient custom. I was not

en you saw him?

a chaplet of glass balls, and that he would smilingly beg a piastre of European visitors, who were surprised by the caressing softness of his eyes

en he has nev

ev

ked at him,

he was in prison you certainly could not have see

ding what was in Félicie

ll you. The phantoms of the dead have no mo

is liver that he had a vision. He replied that he believed that the bad state of his digestive org

and let it fall back immediately. This attitude is particularly favourable to hallucinations. It is sometimes enough to lie down with one's

gan to

does-maj

ing off to

ather than another? You had hired a donkey from him, and you were no l

u. Our visions, bound up with our innermost thoughts, often present their images to us

not to allow herself to

appears to you, rest assured that what y

; "guarantee that there

othing after death th

bag and her part, and held out

believe in anything,

warned her to take good care of herself, to lead a

the green-room, and one on the stage, and I have to try on a gown, while to-ni