In an assembly of phantasms such as I have painted, it may well be
supposed that no ordinary appearance could have excited such sensation.
In truth the masquerade licence of the night was nearly unlimited; but the
figure in question had out-Heroded Herod, and gone beyond the bounds of
even the prince's indefinite decorum. There are chords in the hearts of
the most reckless which cannot be touched without emotion. Even with
the utterly lost, to whom life and death are equally jests, there are matters
of which no jest can be made. The whole company, indeed, seemed now
deeply to feel that in the costume and bearing of the stranger neither wit
nor propriety existed. The figure was tall and gaunt, and shrouded from
head to foot in the habiliments of the grave. The mask which concealed
the visage was made so nearly to resemble the countenance of a stiffened
corpse that the closest scrutiny must have had difficulty in detecting the
cheat. And yet all this might have been endured, if not approved, by the
mad revellers around. But the mummer had gone so far as to assume the
type of the Red Death. His vesture was dabbled in blood--and his
broad brow, with all the features of the face, was besprinkled with the
scarlet horror.
When the eyes of the Prince Prospero fell upon this spectral image
(which, with a slow and solemn movement, as if more fully to sustain its
role, stalked to and fro among the waltzers) he was seen to be convulsed,
in the first moment with a strong shudder either of terror or distaste; but,
in the next, his brow reddened with rage.
"Who dares,"--he demanded hoarsely of the courtiers who stood near
him--"who dares insult us with this blasphemous mockery? Seize him
and unmask him--that we may know whom we have to hang, at sunrise,
from the battlements!"
It was in the eastern or blue chamber in which stood the Prince
Prospero as he uttered these words. They rang throughout the seven
rooms loudly and clearly, for the prince was a bold and robust man, and
the music had become hushed at the waving of his hand.
It was in the blue room where stood the prince, with a group of pale
courtiers by his side. At first, as he spoke, there was a slight rushing
movement of this group in the direction of the intruder, who at the |
