BLUEBEARD
Once upon a time there was a man who was very rich. He had fine houses, both in town and in the country; in them he had a great deal of gold and silver plate; his furniture was richly embroidered and his coaches were all gilded over. But this man had the misfortune to have a blue beard, which made him so ugly and terrible that there was not a woman nor a girl who did not shun and avoid him.
One of his neighbors, a lady of quality, had two daughters who were perfect beauties. He asked her for one of them in marriage, leaving to her the choice of which she would bestow on him. They would neither of them have him, but sent him backwards and forwards from one to the other, for neither could make up her mind to marry a man who had a blue beard. Another thing which made them object to him was that he had been married several times already, and nobody knew what had ever become of his wives.
As Bluebeard was very anxious to become better acquainted with them, he took them, with their mother and three or four of their best friends, and some other young people of the neighborhood, to one of his country seats, where they spent a week. The whole time was given up to pleasure parties,—to excursions, to hunting and fishing, to dancing, banqueting, and feasting. No one even thought of going to bed, but the nights were passed in merrymaking of all kinds. In short, all went off so well that the younger daughter began to think that the beard of the master of the house was not so very blue, after all, and that he was a very civil gentleman. So as soon as they returned home the marriage was concluded.
About a month afterward Bluebeard told his wife that he was obliged to take a journey into the country, for six weeks at least, upon business of importance. He desired her to amuse herself and have a good time in his absence, to send for her friends, to take them into the country if she wished, and to live bountifully wherever she was.
“Here,” he said, “are the keys of the two great storerooms for furniture; these smaller ones are for the chests which contain my silver and gold plate which is not in everyday use; these open my strong boxes which hold my money, both gold and silver; these, my caskets of jewels; and this is the master key to all the rooms. But this little one here is the key of the closet at the end of the great gallery on the ground floor. Open them all; go everywhere else; but into this little closet I forbid you to enter, and I forbid you so strictly that if you do open it, there is nothing you may not expect from my anger.”
She promised to obey all his orders exactly; and Bluebeard, after having embraced her, got into his coach and set out on his journey.
The neighbors and friends of the young wife did not wait to be sent for, so eager were they to see all the riches of her house; for they had not dared to come while her husband was there because of his blue beard, which frightened them. As soon as they were inside the house they ran about from room to room, and even through all the closets and wardrobes, saying that each one seemed finer and richer than the last. They went up into the storerooms, where they could not say enough in admiration of the number and beauty of the tapestry, beds, couches, cabinets, stands, tables, and looking-glasses in which you might see yourself from head to foot.
Some of these mirrors were framed with glass, others with silver, plain and gilded; they were the most beautiful and most magnificent ever seen.
The visitors never stopped admiring and envying the happiness of their friend, who meanwhile was not at all entertained in looking at all these rich things because of her impatience to go and open the closet on the ground floor. She was so beside herself with curiosity that, without once thinking that it was rude to leave her guests, she slipped away down a little back staircase with such excessive haste that two or three times she came near falling and breaking her neck. When she reached the closet door she stood still for some moments, thinking of her husband’s orders and considering how unhappiness might come upon her if she were disobedient; but the temptation was so strong that she could not overcome it. She took the little key and, trembling, opened the door.
At first she could not see anything because the windows were shut. After some moments she began to see that there was blood on the floor, and that the bodies of several dead women were lying there. (These were the wives whom Bluebeard had married and murdered one after another.) She thought she would surely die of fear, and the key, which she had pulled out of the lock, fell from her hand.
When she had recovered a little from the shock she picked up the key, locked the door, and went upstairs into her chamber to compose herself; but she could not do it, for she was too much upset by her fright.
As she noticed that the key of the closet was stained with blood, she tried two or three times to wipe it off, but the stain remained. It did no good to wash it, or even to rub it with soap and sand. The stain was still there, for the key was a magic key, and she could never make it quite clean; when the stain was gone from one side, it came on the other.
Bluebeard returned from his journey that same evening, and said that he had received letters upon the road, which told him that the business on which he was called away had been settled to his advantage. His wife did all she could to convince him that she was overjoyed at his speedy return.
Next morning he asked her for the keys. She gave them to him, but with such a trembling hand that he easily guessed what had happened.
“How is it,” said he, “that the key of my closet is not here with the rest?”
“I must,” she said, “have left it upstairs on my table.”
“Do not fail,” said Bluebeard, “to bring it to me presently.”
After putting it off several times she was forced to bring him the key. Bluebeard examined it closely, and then said to his wife, “How comes this stain upon the key?”
“I do not know,” cried the poor woman, turning paler than death.
“You do not know!” replied Bluebeard. “Well, I know very well. You wanted to go into the closet, did you? Very well, madam; you shall go in and take your place among the ladies you saw there.”
She threw herself weeping at her husband’s feet, and begged his pardon with all the signs of true repentance for her disobedience. She would have melted a stone, so beautiful and sorrowful was she; but Bluebeard had a heart harder than any stone.
“You must die, madam,” said he, “and that at once.”
“Since I must die,” she answered, looking up at him through her tears, “give me a little time to say my prayers.”
“I give you,” replied Bluebeard, “half a quarter of an hour, but not one moment more.”
When she was alone she called her sister, and said: “Sister Anne,”—for that was her name,—“go up, I beg you, to the top of the tower, and see if my brothers are not coming. They promised me they would come to-day; and if you see them, give them a sign to make haste.”
Her sister Anne went up to the top of the tower, and the poor wife cried out from time to time, “Anne, sister Anne, do you see no one coming?”
And sister Anne said, “I see nothing but the sun, which makes a dust, and the grass, which looks green.”
In the meantime Bluebeard, holding a great cutlass in his hand, cried out to his wife as loud as he could, “Come down quickly, or I shall come up to you.”
“One moment longer, if you please,” said his wife; and she cried out very softly, “Anne, sister Anne, do you see no one coming?”
And sister Anne answered, “I see nothing but the sun, which makes a dust, and the grass, which looks green.”
“Come down at once,” cried Bluebeard, “or I shall come up to you.”
“I am coming,” answered his wife; and she cried, “Anne, sister Anne, do you see no one coming?”
“I see,” replied sister Anne, “a great dust, that comes from this side.”
“Is it my brothers?”
“Alas, no, my sister! I see a flock of sheep.”
“Will you not come down?” cried Bluebeard.
“One moment longer,” said his wife; and then she cried out, “Anne, sister Anne, do you see no one coming?”
“I see,” she said, “two horsemen coming, but they are yet a great way off.”
“God be praised,” replied the poor wife joyfully; “they are my brothers. I will make them a sign, as well as I can, for them to make haste.”
Then Bluebeard bawled out so loud that he made the whole house tremble. The poor wife came down and threw herself at his feet, all in tears, with her hair about her shoulders.
“All this does not help you,” said Bluebeard; “you must die.” Then, taking hold of her hair with one hand, and raising his cutlass with the other, he was going to strike off her head. The poor lady, turning toward him and looking at him with dying eyes, begged him to give her one little moment to collect her thoughts.
“No, no,” said he, “commend thyself to God,” and again lifting his arm.…
At this moment there was such a loud knocking at the gate that Bluebeard stopped suddenly. The gate was opened and presently two horsemen entered, who with their swords in their hands ran straight to Bluebeard. He saw they were his wife’s brothers, one a dragoon, the other a musketeer. He fled immediately to save himself, but the two brothers pursued so closely that they overtook him before he could gain the steps of the porch. There they ran their swords through his body, and left him dead. The poor wife was so overcome that she had not strength to rise and welcome her brothers.
Bluebeard had no heirs, and so his wife became mistress of all his estate. She made use of one portion of it to marry her sister Anne to a young gentleman who had loved her for a long while; another portion to buy captains’ commissions for her brothers; and the rest to marry herself to a very worthy gentleman who made her forget the distressing time she had passed with Bluebeard.