Шарль Перро
The Popular Story of Blue Beard
Fatima again renewed her inquiries to her sister "Do you see any one coming yet?"
Her sister replied, "There is not a human being within sight."
When the five minutes were elapsed,
"I see," said her sister, "a cloud of dust rising a little to the left."
In breathless agitation, she cried, "Do you think it is my brothers?"
The voice of Blue Beard was heard bawling out, "Are you ready yet?"
She again beseeched him to allow her only two minutes more, and then addressed her sister, "Dear Anne, do you see any one coming yet?"
"Alas! no, my dearest Fatima," returned her sister, "it is only a flock of sheep."
Again the voice of Blue Beard was heard, and she begged for one minute longer. She then called out for the last time, "Sister Anne, do you see no one coming yet?"
Her sister quickly answered, "I see two men on horseback, but they are still a great way off."
"Thank heaven," exclaimed Fatima, "I shall yet be saved, for it must be my two brothers! My dearest sister, make every signal in your power to hasten them forward, or they will be too late." Blue Beard's patience being now exhausted, he burst open the door in a rage, and made a blow at the wretched Fatima, with the intention of striking off her head; but she sprang close to him and evaded it. Furious at being foiled in his aim, he threw her from him, and then seizing her by the hair of the head, was in the act of striking her a blow with his scymetar, when the noise of persons approaching, with hasty steps, arrested the progress of his sanguinary arm. Blue Beard had not time to conjecture who the intruders might be, when the door opened, and two officers, with their swords drawn, rushed into the apartment.
Struck with terror, the guilty wretch released his wife from his grasp, and without attempting to resist, he tried to effect his escape from the resentment of her brothers; but they pursued and seized him before he had got above twenty paces from the place.
After reproaching Blue Beard with his cruelty, they dragged him back to the spot where he intended to have murdered their sister; and there, stabbing him to the heart with their swords, he expired, uttering the most horrid oaths and execrations.
Fatima, who had fallen to the ground at the time Blue Beard quitted his hold of her, still lay in the same situation insensible; for the appearance of her brothers, at the moment she expected certain death, had thrown her into a faint, which continued during the whole of the time they were engaged in despatching her husband.
The two young officers now turned their attention to their sister, whom they raised from the ground; but she could hardly be persuaded of her safety, till they pointed to where Blue Beard lay extended and lifeless.
Fatima, on recovering a little, tenderly embraced her deliverers; and the appearance of their sister Anne, who had come down from the top of the battlements, added to their happiness.
As all those horrid murders which had been committed by Blue Beard, were unknown to his domestics, on whose credulity he imposed by falsehoods, which they had no means of detecting, Fatima and her brothers thought the most prudent way to act, was to assemble them together, and then disclose the wickedness of their late master.
By the direction of Fatima, her two brothers conducted all the servants to the dreadful scene of her husband's cruelties, and then showing them his dead body, related the whole occurrences which had taken place. They all said that his punishment was not adequate to what he deserved, and begged that they might be continued in the service of their mistress.
As Blue Beard had no relations, Fatima was sole heir to the whole of his immense property, and mistress of the castle, in the possession of which she was confirmed by the laws of the country. She then sent notice to all the families in the neighbourhood of the death of her husband, and the horrid proofs of his cruelty were laid open for two days to all who chose to inspect them. He was then buried privately, along with all the bodies of the ladies he had murdered, and the fatal closet underwent a complete repair, which removed every trace of his barbarity.
