Page:Dumas - Tales of Strange adventure (Methuen, 1907).djvu/86

74 promising her that when I got to Monnikendam I would go to the Burgomaster Vancliefs and borrow his daughter's finest frock to give her. She said nothing and I thought it was shame kept her dumb, and I signed to the others to say nothing, only telling them to bend to their oars with a will.

"Suddenly the cloaks were lifted, she springs up to leap overboard. What an idiot I was ever to have stopped her!"

"You held her back?"

"Exactly so, by her green hair. What followed ought to have opened my eyes; all alone as she was, she all but mastered the whole six of us. The Parisian for his part got a clout in the eye of her . . . He told me solemnly he had never seen a finer bit of boxing at the Courtille in Paris.

"For my part I thought she was a madwoman bent upon drowning herself. I seized her round the body and though her skin was as slippery as an eel's, I managed to hold her while my companions tied her hand and foot. Once securely bound she gave in, and after uttering a scream or two and shedding a few tears, made up her mind to lie quiet,

"There was not a man amongst us but had got his gruel, but the Parisian was in the worst case; every five minutes he kept bathing his eye with sea-water. If ever you get a bit of a whack, 'tis a sovereign remedy, look you, is sea-water. Soon we landed and as the news spread of the treasure trove we had picked up, the whole village came running to the waterside. We carried the woman into the house and I sent to ask Burgomaster Vancliefs daughter if she would be so good as to lend one of her dresses to the shipwrecked girl. Ignorance is bliss, you know.

"The Burgomaster's daughter soon appeared bringing a complete costume with her. I introduced her into the room where our prisoner lay on a bed still tied and bound. The latter recognised her, it would seem, as a being of her own sex, for after motioning to the girl to untie her hands, and the latter having quickly done her this service, she began to scrutinize her with much curiosity, fingering her clothes as if to see whether or no they were part of her body and peeping under her dress. This the Burgomaster's daughter very obligingly allowed her to do, pointing out the difference between skin and clothes, and undressing and dressing again to teach her the resemblance there was between them when they were naked and the difference when they were clothed.

"Coquetry, look you, is a vice that comes as natural to the savage as to the civilized woman, to the civilized woman as to the mermaid; our prisoner, instead of trying to escape, instead of any more cries and tears, began to examine with interest the gowns and bodices, the cap and gilt ornaments of the head-dress. Next she signified that she wanted to put them on. She had only once seen how all these articles were adjusted and fastened and unfastened; but there, she was almost as clever about it as if she had never done anything else all her life but dress and undress. When her toilet was complete she looked about for water to see her reflection in it. The Burgomaster's daughter handed her a mirror; she looked at herself, uttered a cry of surprise, and burst out laughing like a mad thing.

"It was at that moment the Cure came in and insisted, come what might, on baptizing her. Only when the Cure wanted to remove her cap she very nearly tore the good man's eyes out of his head. He had to explain to her that it was only for a moment her head was to be bared; all the same she never let go either cap or gold ornaments, which she carefully put on again without anybody's help directly the Priest was out of the room.

"I was dying to see her. So I went upstairs and asked the Burgomaster's daughter if I might come in; whereupon she threw open the door. My five comrades were at my back, craning their necks in the passage; the Parisian brought up the rear with a compress of salt and water over his eye.

"I looked about for the Mermaid, but I did not recognise her. What I saw was a pretty Frisian girl; her hair was a trifle green, but what of that? green and gold, you know, go very well together.

"The Burgomaster's daughter dropped me a sweeping curtsey. The Mermaid marked how she did it and followed suit. What things women are, sir, what actresses, v/hat hypocrites, to be sure! It w^as barely two hours since she had made acquaintance with human beings and there she was laughing and crying,