Mated from the Morgue: A Tale of the Second Empire — John Shaqi
Mated from the Morgue: A Tale of the Second EmpireO'Shea, John Augustus
History
Mated from the Morgue: A Tale of the Second Empire
O'Shea, John Augustus
France -- History -- Second Empire, 1852-1870 -- Fiction
'Ha! Then you've found out I'm a foreigner. From what country, pray?'
'From Ireland.'
The stranger in frieze started, gave an ejaculation of surprise, and,
taking out a ten-franc piece, advanced towards the woman, and said he
could understand her guessing he was a military man from his tone of
voice, and the further fact that he had served in the Legion from his
foreign accent; but he demanded in a puzzled tone that she would
explain how she had discovered his country before he redeemed his
promise.
'We show-folk travel a great deal, sir,' she said in a low voice. 'I
have been in Ireland, and I recognised the accent.'
'That explains the mystery. Like Columbus's egg, all things are easy
when they're known. Well, madame,' he continued aloud with a chuckle,
'if you've been in Ireland you know us. When we promise France we give
the Isle of St. Louis.[6] Here is a ten-sous bit for you.'
Her countenance fell until her delicate fingers conveyed to her senses
that it was, indeed, ten francs she possessed. The crowd applauded, said
he was as witty as he was generous, and the man in frieze turned on his
heel. He looked curiously towards the neat white one-storied structure
beside the footpath from the Pont d'Archevêche to the Pont St. Louis,
into which a stream of wayfarers was continually flowing, and finally
directed his steps thitherward too. It was a cheerful-looking building
that, which drew so many visitors, but, nevertheless, it was the
Morgue--half-way house between untimely death and the outcast's grave.
The stranger entered the wide door--a tall partition divided what was
inside from his view; he passed around it and was within the grisly
hall. O'Hara mechanically followed; he had no curiosity to scan the
lineaments of the naked corpses which awaited recognition within--he was
rather _blasé_ of sights of the kind, and regarded a body on a Morgue
slab as he would a carcase on a butcher's stall; but he felt a something
impelling him towards this stranger who had discovered himself to be a
countryman. As he entered, reading, perhaps for the hundredth time, the
inscriptions on the wall, which told friends who identified the deceased
that they could establish their identity with the greffier free of
charge, he caught an exclamation of surprise in English in the brusque
voice of the man in frieze.
'Hah! so you've shuffled off this mortal coil, Marguerite.'
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account