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The Phantom of the Opera Chapter XXII - In the Torture Chamber · The Gaston Leroux Library

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  Speaker 1: Chapter twenty two of The Phantom of the Opera by
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  Speaker 1: Gaston LaRue, translated by Alexander to Zara Dematos. This LibriVox
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  Speaker 1: recording is in the public domain. Chapter twenty two, in
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  Speaker 1: the torture Chamber, the persian's narrative continued. We were in
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  Speaker 1: the middle of a little six cornered room, the sides
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  Speaker 1: of which were covered with mirrors from top to bottom.
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  Speaker 1: In the corners we could clearly see the joins in
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  Speaker 1: the glasses, the segments intended to turn on their gear. Yes,
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  Speaker 1: I recognized them, and I recognized the iron tree in
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  Speaker 1: the corner at the bottom of one of those segments,
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  Speaker 1: the iron tree with its iron branch for the hanged men.
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  Speaker 1: I seized my companion's arm. The Vicomte de Chenille was
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  Speaker 1: all a quiver, eager to shout to his betrothed that
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  Speaker 1: he was bringing her help. I feared that he would
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  Speaker 1: not be able to contain himself. Suddenly we heard a
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  Speaker 1: noise on our left. It sounded at first like a
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  Speaker 1: door opening and shutting in the next room, and then
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  Speaker 1: there was a dull moan. I clutched Monsieur de Chonnie's
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  Speaker 1: arm more firmly still, and then we distinctly heard these words,
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  Speaker 1: You must make your choice, the wedding Mass or the
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  Speaker 1: requiem Mass. I recognized the voice of the monster. There
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  Speaker 1: was another moan, followed by a long silence. I was
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  Speaker 1: persuaded by now that the monster was unaware of our
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  Speaker 1: presence in his house, for otherwise he would certainly have
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  Speaker 1: managed not to let us hear him. He would only
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  Speaker 1: have had to close the little invisible window through which
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  Speaker 1: the torture lovers looked down into the torture chamber. Besides,
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  Speaker 1: I was certain that if he had known of our presence,
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  Speaker 1: the tortures would have begun at once. The important thing
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  Speaker 1: was not to let him know, And I dreaded nothing
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  Speaker 1: so much as the impulsiveness of the Vicomte de Chonnie,
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  Speaker 1: who wanted to rush through the walls to Christine Day,
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  Speaker 1: whose moans we continued to hear at intervals. The requiem
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  Speaker 1: Mass is not at all gay. Eric's voice resumed, whereas
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  Speaker 1: the wedding Mass, you can take my word for it
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  Speaker 1: is magnificent. You must take a resolution and know your
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  Speaker 1: own mind. I can't go on living like this, like
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  Speaker 1: a mole in a burrow. Don Juan Triumphant is finished.
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  Speaker 1: And now I want to live like everybody else. I
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  Speaker 1: want to have a wife like everybody else, and to
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  Speaker 1: take her out on Sundays. I have invented a mask
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  Speaker 1: that makes me look like anybody. People will not even
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  Speaker 1: turn round in the streets. You will be the happiest
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  Speaker 1: of women, and we will sing all by ourselves till
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  Speaker 1: we swoon away delight. You are crying. You are afraid
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  Speaker 1: of me, and yet I am not really wicked. Love me,
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  Speaker 1: and you shall see. All I wanted was to be
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  Speaker 1: loved for myself. If you loved me, I should be
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  Speaker 1: as gentle as a lamb, and you could do anything
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  Speaker 1: with me that you pleased. Soon, the moans that accompanied
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  Speaker 1: this sort of love's litany increased and increased. I have
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  Speaker 1: never heard anything more despairing, and Monsieur de Chaignie, and
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  Speaker 1: I recognized that this terrible lamentation came from Eric himself.
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  Speaker 1: Christine seemed to be standing dumb with horror, without the
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  Speaker 1: strength to cry out, while the monster was on his
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  Speaker 1: knees before her. Three times over, Eric fiercely bewailed his fate.
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  Speaker 1: You don't love me, you don't love me, You don't
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  Speaker 1: love me, And then, more gently why do you cry?
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  Speaker 1: You know it gives me pain to see you cry
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  Speaker 1: a silence. Each silence gave us fresh hope. We said
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  Speaker 1: to ourselves, perhaps he has left Christine behind the wall,
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  Speaker 1: and we thought only of the possibility of warning Christine
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  Speaker 1: day of our presence unknown to the monster. We were
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  Speaker 1: unable to leave the torture chamber now unless Christine opened
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  Speaker 1: the door to us, and it was only on this
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  Speaker 1: condition that we could hope to help her, for we
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  Speaker 1: did not even know where the door might be. Suddenly,
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  Speaker 1: the silence in the next room was disturbed by the
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  Speaker 1: ringing of an electric bell. There was a bound on
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  Speaker 1: the other side of the wall, and Eric's voice of thunder.
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  Speaker 1: Somebody ringing, walk in, please, a sinister chuckle, who has
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  Speaker 1: come bothering? Now wait for me here, I am going
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  Speaker 1: to tell the siren to open the door. Steps moved away,
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  Speaker 1: A door closed. I had no time to think of
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  Speaker 1: the fresh horror that was preparing. I forgot that the
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  Speaker 1: monster was only going out, perhaps to perpetrate a fresh crime.
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  Speaker 1: I understood, but one thing. Christine was alone behind the wall.
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  Speaker 1: The Vicomte de chen Ye was already calling to her. Christine. Christine,
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  Speaker 1: as we could hear what was said in the next room.
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  Speaker 1: There was no reason why my companion should not be
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  Speaker 1: heard in his turn. Nevertheless, the Viscount had to repeat
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  Speaker 1: his cry time after time. At last, a faint voice
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  Speaker 1: reached us. I am dreaming, it said Christine. Christine, it
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  Speaker 1: is I Raoul. A silence, but answer me, Christine, in
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  Speaker 1: Heaven's name, if you are alone, answer me. Then Christine's
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  Speaker 1: voice whispered Raoul's name. Yes, yes, it is I. It
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  Speaker 1: is not a dream, Christine. Trust me. We are here
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  Speaker 1: to save you. But be prudent when you hear the
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  Speaker 1: monster warn us. Then Christine gave way to fear. She
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  Speaker 1: trembled lest Eric should discover where Raoul was hidden. She
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  Speaker 1: told us in a few hurried words that Eric had
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  Speaker 1: gone quite mad with love, and that he had decided
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  Speaker 1: to kill everybody and himself with everybody if she did
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  Speaker 1: not consent to become his wife. He had given her
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  Speaker 1: till eleven o'clock the next evening for reflection. It was
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  Speaker 1: the last respite she must choose, as he said, between
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  Speaker 1: the wedding mass and the requiem. And Erik had then
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  Speaker 1: uttered a phrase which Christine did not quite understand. Yes
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  Speaker 1: or no, if your answer is no, everybody will be
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  Speaker 1: dead and buried. But I understood the sentence perfectly, for
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  Speaker 1: it corresponded in a terrible manner with my own dreadful thought.
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  Speaker 1: Can you tell us where Eric is, i asked. She
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  Speaker 1: replied that he must have left the house. Could you
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  Speaker 1: make sure? No, I am fastened. I cannot stir a limb.
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  Speaker 1: When we heard this, Monsieur de Chenille and I gave
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  Speaker 1: a yell of fury. Our safety, the safety of all
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  Speaker 1: three of us, depended on the girl's liberty of movement.
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  Speaker 1: But where are you, asked Christine. There are only two
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  Speaker 1: doors in my room, the Louis Philippe room, of which
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  Speaker 1: I told you Raoul, a door through which Eric comes
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  Speaker 1: and goes, and another which he has never opened before me,
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  Speaker 1: and which he has forbidden me ever to go through,
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  Speaker 1: because he says it is the most dangerous of the doors,
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  Speaker 1: the door of the torture chamber. Christine, that is where
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  Speaker 1: we are. You are in the torture chamber. Yes, but
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  Speaker 1: we cannot see the door. Oh, if I could only
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  Speaker 1: drag myself so far, I would knock at the door,
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  Speaker 1: and that would tell you where it is. Is it a
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  Speaker 1: door with a lock to it, I asked, Yes, with
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  Speaker 1: a lock, Mademoiselle, I said, it is absolutely necessary that
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  Speaker 1: you should open that door to us. But how asked
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  Speaker 1: the poor girl? Tearfully. We heard her straining, trying to
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  Speaker 1: free herself from the bonds that held her. I know
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  Speaker 1: where the key is, she said, in a voice that
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  Speaker 1: seemed exhausted by the effort she had made. But I
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  Speaker 1: am fastened so tight, oh the wretch, And she gave
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  Speaker 1: a sob. Where is the key, I asked, signing to
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  Speaker 1: Monsieur de Chonnie not to speak and to leave the
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  Speaker 1: business to me, for we had not a moment to lose.
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  Speaker 1: In the next room, near the organ, with another little
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  Speaker 1: bronze key, which he also forbade me to touch, they
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  Speaker 1: are both in a little leather bag, which he calls
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  Speaker 1: the bag of life and death. Raoul, Raoul fled, Everything
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  Speaker 1: is mysterious and terrible here and Eric will soon have
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  Speaker 1: gone quite mad, and you are in the torture chamber.
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  Speaker 1: Go back by the way you came. There must be
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  Speaker 1: a reason why the room is called by that name, Christine,
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  Speaker 1: said the young man. We will go from here together
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  Speaker 1: or die together. We must keep cool. I whispered, Why
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  Speaker 1: has he fastened you, mademoiselle. You can't escape from his house,
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  Speaker 1: and he knows it. I tried to commit suicide. The
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  Speaker 1: monster went out last night after carrying me here, fainting
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  Speaker 1: and half chloroformed. He was going to his banker, so
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  Speaker 1: he said. When he returned, he found me with my
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  Speaker 1: face covered with blood. I had tried to kill myself
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  Speaker 1: by striking my forehead against the walls. Christine groaned, Raoul,
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  Speaker 1: and he began to sob. Then he bound me. I
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  Speaker 1: am not allowed to die untill eleven o'clock to morrow evening, ma'amselle,
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  Speaker 1: I declared. The monster bound you, and he shall unbind you.
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  Speaker 1: You have only to play the necessary part. Remember that
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  Speaker 1: he loves you. Alas we heard, am I likely to
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  Speaker 1: forget it? Remember it and smile to him, entreat him,
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  Speaker 1: Tell him that your bonds hurt you. But Christine day said, hush,
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  Speaker 1: I hear something in the wall on the lake. It
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  Speaker 1: is he. Go away, Go away, go away. We could
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  Speaker 1: not go away even if we wanted to, I said,
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  Speaker 1: as impressively as I could. We cannot leave this, and
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  Speaker 1: we are in the torture chamber. Hush, whispered Christine. Again,
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  Speaker 1: heavy steps sounded slowly behind the wall, then stopped and
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  Speaker 1: made the floor creak once more. Next came a tremendous sigh,
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  Speaker 1: followed by a cry of horror from Christine, and we
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  Speaker 1: heard Eric's voice. I beg your pardon for letting you
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  Speaker 1: see a face like this? What a state I am in?
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  Speaker 1: Am I not? It's the other one's fault. Why did
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  Speaker 1: he ring? Do I ask people who pass to tell
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  Speaker 1: me the time? He will never ask anybody the time? Again?
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  Speaker 1: It is the siren's fault. Another sigh, deeper, more tremendous
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  Speaker 1: still came from the abysmal depths of a soul. Why
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  Speaker 1: did you cry out Christine? Because I am in pain? Eric,
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  Speaker 1: I thought I had frightened you, Eric, and loose my bonds.
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  Speaker 1: Am I not your prisoner? You will try to kill
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  Speaker 1: yourself again. You have given me till eleven o'clock to
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  Speaker 1: morrow evening. Eric. The footsteps dragged along the floor again,
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  Speaker 1: after all, as we are to die together, And I
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  Speaker 1: am just as eager as you. Yes, I have had
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  Speaker 1: enough of this life. You know. Wait, don't move. I
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  Speaker 1: will release you. You have only one word to say no,
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  Speaker 1: and it will at once be over with everybody. You
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  Speaker 1: are right, you are right? Why wait till eleven o'clock
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  Speaker 1: tomorrow evening? True it would have been grander, finer, but
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  Speaker 1: that is childish nonsense. We should only think of ourselves
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  Speaker 1: in this life, of our own death. The rest doesn't matter.
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  Speaker 1: You're looking at me because I am all wet. Oh
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  Speaker 1: my dear, it's raining cats and dogs outside. Apart from that, Christine,
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  Speaker 1: I think I am subject to hallucinations. You know the
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  Speaker 1: man who rang at the siren's door. Just now go
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  Speaker 1: and look if he's ringing at the bottom of the lake.
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  Speaker 1: Well he was rather like there, turn round? Are you glad?
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  Speaker 1: You're free? Now? Oh my poor Christine, look at your wrists.
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  Speaker 1: Tell me have I heard them? That alone deserves death?
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  Speaker 1: Talking of death, I must sing his requiem. Hearing these
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  Speaker 1: terrible remarks, I received an awful presentiment. I too, had
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  Speaker 1: once rung at the monster's door, and without knowing, it
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  Speaker 1: must have set some warning current in motion. And I
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  Speaker 1: remembered the two arms that had emerged from the inky waters.
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  Speaker 1: What poor wretch had strayed to that shore this time?
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  Speaker 1: Who was the other one? The one whose requiem we
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  Speaker 1: now heard sung? Eric sang like the god of thunder
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  Speaker 1: sang a dias sirae that enveloped us as in a storm.
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  Speaker 1: The elements seemed to rage around us. Suddenly, the organ
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  Speaker 1: and the boy ceased, so suddenly that Monsieur de Chonnie
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  Speaker 1: sprang back on the other side of the wall with
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  Speaker 1: a motion, and the voice changed and transformed, distinctly, grated
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  Speaker 1: out these metallic syllables. What have you done with my bag?
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  Speaker 1: End of chapter twenty two.