My Memoirs, Vol. III, 1826 to 1830Dumas, Alexandre
General
My Memoirs, Vol. III, 1826 to 1830
Dumas, Alexandre
Dumas, Alexandre, 1802-1870
I made haste to awake her, but she did not remember anything when
she was awakened; I asked her a few questions about Lamartine,
Ledru-Rollin, Grenoble, Henri V. and Léon I., and she burst out
laughing. I passed two thumbs across her forehead to will her to
remember, and she remembered instantly; I begged her to begin the story
over again, and she repeated it faithfully, in exactly the same terms,
so that the person who had written down my questions and her answers
while she uttered them was able to correct the first narration by the
second.
I have since, upon several occasions, carried out other experiments on
this child; there seemed to be no limits to the power which mesmerism
had in or, rather, upon her; I could make her dumb, blind, or deaf
at will; and, by a word, I could give her back all her faculties and
excite them to a degree of perfection which seemed to exceed the limits
of mortal knowledge. For instance, if I sent her to the piano--asleep
or awake, it mattered little--she would begin a sonata; some person
present would hum in a low voice to me an air that the child was
desired to play, instead of the sonata; the sonata would instantly
cease, and directly I stretched out my hand towards her the child would
play the required tune. We tried this experiment a score of times
before the most incredulous people, and she never failed.
Marie's father's house was built on the site of an old cemetery;
several burial inscriptions could be deciphered even on the stones of
the garden wall; and, because of these, when night fell, the poor
child dared not stir out, but trembled with fear. The night I left,
Madame D---- spoke to me of this terror, and so great was my influence
over the child, that she asked me if I could not do anything in the
matter. I was so accustomed to working miracles that I replied that
nothing could be easier and that we would at once make the experiment.
So I called the child, and, putting both my hands on her head, willing
that all fear should be taken away from her, I said--
"Marie, your mother has just given me some peaches for my journey; go
and fetch me a few vine leaves from the garden to wrap them in."
It was nine o'clock at night, and very dark. The child went out and
returned singing; she brought back the vine leaves which she had
gathered from the very spot where the tombstones were which caused her
such terror by day. From that hour, she showed no hesitation in going
into the garden or to any other part of the house, at any time of the
night and even without a light.
I returned to Auxerre three months later; I had not announced my
journey to anyone. Two days before my arrival, they wanted little Marie
to have a tooth drawn.
"No, mother dear," she said, "wait; M. Dumas will be here the day after
to-morrow: he will take hold of my little finger, while they take out
my tooth, and then I shall not feel the pain."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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