| But alas! As yet I only know your tongue through... 673 |
[Jan. 28th, 2010|02:17 am] |
But alas! As yet I only know your tongue through booksTo you, my friend, I look that I know it to speak
"But, Count," I said, "You know and speak English thoroughly!" He bowed gravely
"I thank you, my friend, for your all too-flattering estimate, but yet I fear that I am but a little way on the road I would travelTrue, I know the grammar and the words, but yet I know not how to speak them
"Indeed," I said, "You speak excellently
"Not so," he answered"Well, I know that, did I move and speak in your London, none there are who would not know me for a strangerThat is not enough for meThe common people know me, and I am masterBut a stranger in a strange land, he is no oneMen know him not, and to know not is to care not forI am content if I am like the rest, so that no man stops if he sees me, or pauses in his speaking if he hears my words, 'Ha, ha! A stranger!' I have been so long master that I would be master still, or at least that none other should be master of meYou come to me not alone as agent of my friend Peter Hawkins, of Exeter, to tell me all about my new estate in LondonYou shall, I trust, rest here with me a while, so that by our talking I may learn the English intonationAnd I would that you tell me when I make error, even of the smallest, in my speakingI am sorry that I had to be away so long today, but you will, I know forgive one who has so many important affairs in hand
Of course I said all I could about being willing, and asked if I might come into that room when I choseHe answered, "Yes, certainly," and added
"You may go anywhere you wish in the castle, except where the doors are locked, where of course you will not wish to goThere is reason that all things are as they are, and did you see with my eyes and know with my knowledge, you would perhaps better understand I said I was sure of this, and then he went on
"We are in Transylvania, and Transylvania is not EnglandOur ways are not your ways, and there shall be to you many strange thingsNay, from what you have told me of your experiences already, you know something of what strange things there may be
This led to much conversation, and as it was evident that he wanted to talk, if only for talking's sake, I asked him many questions regarding things that had already happened to me or come within my noticeSometimes he sheered off the subject, or turned the conversation by pretending not to understand, but generally he answered all I asked most franklyThen as time went on, and I had got somewhat bolder, I asked him of some of the strange things of the preceding night, as for instance, why the coachman went to the places where he had seen the blue flamesHe then explained to me that it was commonly believed that on a certain night of the year, last night, in fact, when all evil spirits are supposed to have unchecked sway, a blue flame is seen over any place where treasure has been concealed
"That treasure has been hidden," he went on, "in the region through which you came last night, there can be but little doubtFor it was the ground fought over for centuries by the Wallachian, the Saxon, and the TurkWhy, there is hardly a foot of soil in all this region that has not been enriched by the blood of men, patriots or invadersIn the old days there were stirring times, when the Austrian and the Hungarian came up in hordes, and the patriots went out to meet them, men and women, the aged and the children too, and waited their coming on the rocks above the passes, that they might sweep destruction on them with their artificial avalanchesWhen the invader was triumphant he found but little, for whatever there was had been sheltered in the friendly soil
"But how," said I, "can it have remained so long undiscovered, when there is a sure index to it if men will but take the trouble to look?" The Count smiled, and as his lips ran back over his gums, the long, sharp, canine teeth showed out strangelyHe answered:
"Because your peasant is at heart a coward and a fool! Those flames only appear on one night, and on that night no man of this land will, if he can help it, stir without his doorsAnd, dear sir, even if he did he would not know what to doWhy, even the peasant that you tell me of who marked the place of the flame would not know where to look in daylight even for his own workEven you would not, I dare be sworn, be able to find these places again?"
"There you are right," I said"I know no more than the dead where even to look for |
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