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Edgar Allan Poe: Hop-Frog Or the Eight Chained Ourang-Outangs
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Poe
HOP-FROG OR THE EIGHT CHAINED OURANG-OUTANGS
by Edgar Allan Poe
1850
I NEVER knew anyone so keenly alive to a joke as the king was. He seemed
to live only for joking. To tell a good story of the joke kind, and to tell
it well, was the surest road to his favor. Thus it happened that his seven
ministers were all noted for their accomplishments as jokers. They all took
after the king, too, in being large, corpulent, oily men, as well as
inimitable jokers. Whether people grow fat by joking, or whether there is
something in fat itself which predisposes to a joke, I have never been quite
able to determine; but certain it is that a lean joker is a rara avis in
terris.
About the refinements, or, as he called them, the 'ghost' of wit, the
king troubled himself very little. He had an especial admiration for breadth
in a jest, and would often put up with length, for the sake of it.
Over-niceties wearied him. He would have preferred Rabelais' 'Gargantua' to
the 'Zadig' of Voltaire: and, upon the whole, practical jokes suited his
taste far better than verbal ones.
At the date of my narrative, professing jesters had not altogether gone
out of fashion at court. Several of the great continental 'powers' still
retain their 'fools,' who wore motley, with caps and bells, and who were
expected to be always ready with sharp witticisms, at a moment's notice, in
consideration of the crumbs that fell from the royal table.
Our king, as a matter of course, retained his 'fool.' The fact is, he
required something in the way of folly–if only to counterbalance the heavy
wisdom of the seven wise men who were his ministers–not to mention
himself.
His fool, or professional jester, was not only a fool, however. His value
was trebled in the eyes of the king, by the fact of his being also a dwarf
and a cripple. Dwarfs were as common at court, in those days, as fools; and
many monarchs would have found it difficult to get through their days (days
are rather longer at court than elsewhere) without both a jester to laugh
with, and a dwarf to laugh at. But, as I have already observed, your
jesters, in ninety-nine cases out of a hundred, are fat, round, and
unwieldy–so that it was no small source of self-gratulation with our king
that, in Hop-Frog (this was the fool's name), he possessed a triplicate
treasure in one person.
I believe the name 'Hop-Frog' was not that given to the dwarf by his
sponsors at baptism, but it was conferred upon him, by general consent of
the several ministers, on account of his inability to walk as other men do.
In fact, Hop-Frog could only get along by a sort of interjectional
gait–something between a leap and a wriggle–a movement that afforded
illimitable amusement, and of course consolation, to the king, for
(notwithstanding the protuberance of his stomach and a constitutional
swelling of the head) the king, by his whole court, was accounted a capital
figure.
But although Hop-Frog, through the distortion of his legs, could move
only with great pain and difficulty along a road or floor, the prodigious
muscular power which nature seemed to have bestowed upon his arms, by way of
compensation for deficiency in the lower limbs, enabled him to perform many
feats of wonderful dexterity, where trees or ropes were in question, or any
thing else to climb. At such exercises he certainly much more resembled a
squirrel, or a small monkey, than a frog.
I am not able to say, with precision, from what country Hop-Frog
originally came. It was from some barbarous region, however, that no person
ever heard of–a vast distance from the court of our king. Hop-Frog, and a
young girl very little less dwarfish than himself (although of exquisite
proportions, and a marvellous dancer), had been forcibly carried off from
their respective homes in adjoining provinces, and sent as presents to the
king, by one of his ever-victorious generals.
Under these circumstances, it is not to be wondered at that a close
intimacy arose between the two little captives. Indeed, they soon became
sworn friends. Hop-Frog, who, although he made a great deal of sport, was by
no means popular, had it not in his power to render Trippetta many services;
but she, on account of her grace and exquisite beauty (although a dwarf),
was universally admired and petted; so she possessed much influence; and
never failed to use it, whenever she could, for the benefit of Hop-Frog.
On some grand state occasion–I forgot what–the king determined to have a
masquerade, and whenever a masquerade or any thing of that kind, occurred at
our court, then the talents, both of Hop-Frog and Trippetta were sure to be
called into play. Hop-Frog, in especial, was so inventive in the way of
getting up pageants, suggesting novel characters, and arranging costumes,
for masked balls, that nothing could be done, it seems, without his
assistance.
The night appointed for the fete had arrived. A gorgeous hall had been
fitted up, under Trippetta's eye, with every kind of device which could
possibly give eclat to a masquerade. The whole court was in a fever of
expectation. As for costumes and characters, it might well be supposed that
everybody had come to a decision on such points. Many had made up their
minds (as to what roles they should assume) a week, or even a month, in
advance; and, in fact, there was not a particle of indecision
anywhere–except in the case of the king and his seven minsters. Why they
hesitated I never could tell, unless they did it by way of a joke. More
probably, they found it difficult, on account of being so fat, to make up
their minds. At all events, time flew; and, as a last resort they sent for
Trippetta and Hop-Frog.
When the two little friends obeyed the summons of the king they found him
sitting at his wine with the seven members of his cabinet council; but the
monarch appeared to be in a very ill humor. He knew that Hop-Frog was not
fond of wine, for it excited the poor cripple almost to madness; and madness
is no comfortable feeling. But the king loved his practical jokes, and took
pleasure in forcing Hop-Frog to drink and (as the king called it) 'to be
merry.'
"Come here, Hop-Frog," said he, as the jester and his friend entered the
room; "swallow this bumper to the health of your absent friends, [here
Hop-Frog sighed,] and then let us have the benefit of your invention. We
want characters–characters, man–something novel–out of the way. We are
wearied with this everlasting sameness. Come, drink! the wine will brighten
your wits."
Hop-Frog endeavored, as usual, to get up a jest in reply to these
advances from the king; but the effort was too much. It happened to be the
poor dwarf's birthday, and the command to drink to his 'absent friends'
forced the tears to his eyes. Many large, bitter drops fell into the goblet
as he took it, humbly, from the hand of the tyrant.
"Ah! ha! ha!" roared the latter, as the dwarf reluctantly drained the
beaker.–"See what a glass of good wine can do! Why, your eyes are shining
already!"
Poor fellow! his large eyes gleamed, rather than shone; for the effect of
wine on his excitable brain was not more powerful than instantaneous. He
placed the goblet nervously on the table, and looked round upon the company
with a half–insane stare. They all seemed highly amused at the success of
the king's 'joke.'
"And now to business," said the prime minister, a very fat man.
"Yes," said the King; "Come lend us your assistance. Characters, my fine
fellow; we stand in need of characters–all of us–ha! ha! ha!" and as this
was seriously meant for a joke, his laugh was chorused by the seven.
Hop-Frog also laughed although feebly and somewhat vacantly.
"Come, come," said the king, impatiently, "have you nothing to
suggest?"
"I am endeavoring to think of something novel," replied the dwarf,
abstractedly, for he was quite bewildered by the wine.
"Endeavoring!" cried the tyrant, fiercely; "what do you mean by that? Ah,
I perceive. You are Sulky, and want more wine. Here, drink this!" and he
poured out another goblet full and offered it to the cripple, who merely
gazed at it, gasping for breath.
"Drink, I say!" shouted the monster, "or by the fiends-"
The dwarf hesitated. The king grew purple with rage. The courtiers
smirked. Trippetta, pale as a corpse, advanced to the monarch's seat, and,
falling on her knees before him, implored him to spare her friend.
The tyrant regarded her, for some moments, in evident wonder at her
audacity. He seemed quite at a loss what to do or say–how most becomingly to
express his indignation. At last, without uttering a syllable, he pushed her
violently from him, and threw the contents of the brimming goblet in her
face.
The poor girl got up the best she could, and, not daring even to sigh,
resumed her position at the foot of the table.
There was a dead silence for about half a minute, during which the
falling of a leaf, or of a feather, might have been heard. It was
interrupted by a low, but harsh and protracted grating sound which seemed to
come at once from every corner of the room.
"What–what–what are you making that noise for?" demanded the king,
turning furiously to the dwarf.
The latter seemed to have recovered, in great measure, from his
intoxication, and looking fixedly but quietly into the tyrant's face, merely
ejaculated:
"I–I? How could it have been me?"
"The sound appeared to come from without," observed one of the courtiers.
"I fancy it was the parrot at the window, whetting his bill upon his
cage-wires."
"True," replied the monarch, as if much relieved by the suggestion; "but,
on the honor of a knight, I could have sworn that it was the gritting of
this vagabond's teeth."
Hereupon the dwarf laughed (the king was too confirmed a joker to object
to any one's laughing), and displayed a set of large, powerful, and very
repulsive teeth. Moreover, he avowed his perfect willingness to swallow as
much wine as desired. The monarch was pacified; and having drained another
bumper with no very perceptible ill effect, Hop-Frog entered at once, and
with spirit, into the plans for the masquerade.
"I cannot tell what was the association of idea," observed he, very
tranquilly, and as if he had never tasted wine in his life, "but just after
your majesty, had struck the girl and thrown the wine in her face–just after
your majesty had done this, and while the parrot was making that odd noise
outside the window, there came into my mind a capital diversion–one of my
own country frolics–often enacted among us, at our masquerades: but here it
will be new altogether. Unfortunately, however, it requires a company of
eight persons and-"
"Here we are!" cried the king, laughing at his acute discovery of the
coincidence; "eight to a fraction–I and my seven ministers. Come! what is
the diversion?"
"We call it," replied the cripple, "the Eight Chained Ourang-Outangs, and
it really is excellent sport if well enacted."
"We will enact it," remarked the king, drawing himself up, and lowering
his eyelids.
"The beauty of the game," continued Hop-Frog, "lies in the fright it
occasions among the women."
"Capital!" roared in chorus the monarch and his ministry.
"I will equip you as ourang-outangs," proceeded the dwarf; "leave all
that to me. The resemblance shall be so striking, that the company of
masqueraders will take you for real beasts–and of course, they will be as
much terrified as astonished."
"Oh, this is exquisite!" exclaimed the king. "Hop-Frog! I will make a man
of you."
"The chains are for the purpose of increasing the confusion by their
jangling. You are supposed to have escaped, en masse, from your keepers.
Your majesty cannot conceive the effect produced, at a masquerade, by eight
chained ourang-outangs, imagined to be real ones by most of the company; and
rushing in with savage cries, among the crowd of delicately and gorgeously
habited men and women. The contrast is inimitable!"
"It must be," said the king: and the council arose hurriedly (as it was
growing late), to put in execution the scheme of Hop-Frog.
His mode of equipping the party as ourang-outangs was very simple, but
effective enough for his purposes. The animals in question had, at the epoch
of my story, very rarely been seen in any part of the civilized world; and
as the imitations made by the dwarf were sufficiently beast-like and more
than sufficiently hideous, their truthfulness to nature was thus thought to
be secured.
The king and his ministers were first encased in tight-fitting stockinet
shirts and drawers. They were then saturated with tar. At this stage of the
process, some one of the party suggested feathers; but the suggestion was at
once overruled by the dwarf, who soon convinced the eight, by ocular
demonstration, that the hair of such a brute as the ourang-outang was much
more efficiently represented by flu. A thick coating of the latter was
accordingly plastered upon the coating of tar. A long chain was now
procured. First, it was passed about the waist of the king, and tied, then
about another of the party, and also tied; then about all successively, in
the same manner. When this chaining arrangement was complete, and the party
stood as far apart from each other as possible, they formed a circle; and to
make all things appear natural, Hop-Frog passed the residue of the chain in
two diameters, at right angles, across the circle, after the fashion
adopted, at the present day, by those who capture Chimpanzees, or other
large apes, in Borneo.
The grand saloon in which the masquerade was to take place, was a
circular room, very lofty, and receiving the light of the sun only through a
single window at top. At night (the season for which the apartment was
especially designed) it was illuminated principally by a large chandelier,
depending by a chain from the centre of the sky-light, and lowered, or
elevated, by means of a counter-balance as usual; but (in order not to look
unsightly) this latter passed outside the cupola and over the roof.
The arrangements of the room had been left to Trippetta's
superintendence; but, in some particulars, it seems, she had been guided by
the calmer judgment of her friend the dwarf. At his suggestion it was that,
on this occasion, the chandelier was removed. Its waxen drippings (which, in
weather so warm, it was quite impossible to prevent) would have been
seriously detrimental to the rich dresses of the guests, who, on account of
the crowded state of the saloon, could not all be expected to keep from out
its centre; that is to say, from under the chandelier. Additional sconces
were set in various parts of the hall, out of the war, and a flambeau,
emitting sweet odor, was placed in the right hand of each of the Caryatides
that stood against the wall–some fifty or sixty altogether.
The eight ourang-outangs, taking Hop-Frog's advice, waited patiently
until midnight (when the room was thoroughly filled with masqueraders)
before making their appearance. No sooner had the clock ceased striking,
however, than they rushed, or rather rolled in, all together–for the
impediments of their chains caused most of the party to fall, and all to
stumble as they entered.
The excitement among the masqueraders was prodigious, and filled the
heart of the king with glee. As had been anticipated, there were not a few
of the guests who supposed the ferocious-looking creatures to be beasts of
some kind in reality, if not precisely ourang-outangs. Many of the women
swooned with affright; and had not the king taken the precaution to exclude
all weapons from the saloon, his party might soon have expiated their frolic
in their blood. As it was, a general rush was made for the doors; but the
king had ordered them to be locked immediately upon his entrance; and, at
the dwarf's suggestion, the keys had been deposited with him.
While the tumult was at its height, and each masquerader attentive only
to his own safety (for, in fact, there was much real danger from the
pressure of the excited crowd), the chain by which the chandelier ordinarily
hung, and which had been drawn up on its removal, might have been seen very
gradually to descend, until its hooked extremity came within three feet of
the floor.
Soon after this, the king and his seven friends having reeled about the
hall in all directions, found themselves, at length, in its centre, and, of
course, in immediate contact with the chain. While they were thus situated,
the dwarf, who had followed noiselessly at their heels, inciting them to
keep up the commotion, took hold of their own chain at the intersection of
the two portions which crossed the circle diametrically and at right angles.
Here, with the rapidity of thought, he inserted the hook from which the
chandelier had been wont to depend; and, in an instant, by some unseen
agency, the chandelier-chain was drawn so far upward as to take the hook out
of reach, and, as an inevitable consequence, to drag the ourang-outangs
together in close connection, and face to face.
The masqueraders, by this time, had recovered, in some measure, from
their alarm; and, beginning to regard the whole matter as a well-contrived
pleasantry, set up a loud shout of laughter at the predicament of the
apes.
"Leave them to me!" now screamed Hop-Frog, his shrill voice making itself
easily heard through all the din. "Leave them to me. I fancy I know them. If
I can only get a good look at them, I can soon tell who they are."
Here, scrambling over the heads of the crowd, he managed to get to the
wall; when, seizing a flambeau from one of the Caryatides, he returned, as
he went, to the centre of the room-leaping, with the agility of a monkey,
upon the kings head, and thence clambered a few feet up the chain; holding
down the torch to examine the group of ourang-outangs, and still screaming:
"I shall soon find out who they are!"
And now, while the whole assembly (the apes included) were convulsed with
laughter, the jester suddenly uttered a shrill whistle; when the chain flew
violently up for about thirty feet–dragging with it the dismayed and
struggling ourang-outangs, and leaving them suspended in mid-air between the
sky-light and the floor. Hop-Frog, clinging to the chain as it rose, still
maintained his relative position in respect to the eight maskers, and still
(as if nothing were the matter) continued to thrust his torch down toward
them, as though endeavoring to discover who they were.
So thoroughly astonished was the whole company at this ascent, that a
dead silence, of about a minute's duration, ensued. It was broken by just
such a low, harsh, grating sound, as had before attracted the attention of
the king and his councillors when the former threw the wine in the face of
Trippetta. But, on the present occasion, there could be no question as to
whence the sound issued. It came from the fang–like teeth of the dwarf, who
ground them and gnashed them as he foamed at the mouth, and glared, with an
expression of maniacal rage, into the upturned countenances of the king and
his seven companions.
"Ah, ha!" said at length the infuriated jester. "Ah, ha! I begin to see
who these people are now!" Here, pretending to scrutinize the king more
closely, he held the flambeau to the flaxen coat which enveloped him, and
which instantly burst into a sheet of vivid flame. In less than half a
minute the whole eight ourang-outangs were blazing fiercely, amid the
shrieks of the multitude who gazed at them from below, horror-stricken, and
without the power to render them the slightest assistance.
At length the flames, suddenly increasing in virulence, forced the jester
to climb higher up the chain, to be out of their reach; and, as he made this
movement, the crowd again sank, for a brief instant, into silence. The dwarf
seized his opportunity, and once more spoke:
"I now see distinctly." he said, "what manner of people these maskers
are. They are a great king and his seven privy-councillors,–a king who does
not scruple to strike a defenceless girl and his seven councillors who abet
him in the outrage. As for myself, I am simply Hop-Frog, the jester–and this
is my last jest."
Owing to the high combustibility of both the flax and the tar to which it
adhered, the dwarf had scarcely made an end of his brief speech before the
work of vengeance was complete. The eight corpses swung in their chains, a
fetid, blackened, hideous, and indistinguishable mass. The cripple hurled
his torch at them, clambered leisurely to the ceiling, and disappeared
through the sky-light.
It is supposed that Trippetta, stationed on the roof of the saloon, had
been the accomplice of her friend in his fiery revenge, and that, together,
they effected their escape to their own country: for neither was seen
again.
THE END
Edgar Allan Poe: Hop-Frog Or the Eight Chained Ourang-Outangs
Up to the EServer | The Complete Works of Edgar Allan
Poe
HOP-FROG OR THE EIGHT CHAINED OURANG-OUTANGS
by Edgar Allan Poe
1850
I NEVER knew anyone so keenly alive to a joke as the king was. He seemed
to live only for joking. To tell a good story of the joke kind, and to tell
it well, was the surest road to his favor. Thus it happened that his seven
ministers were all noted for their accomplishments as jokers. They all took
after the king, too, in being large, corpulent, oily men, as well as
inimitable jokers. Whether people grow fat by joking, or whether there is
something in fat itself which predisposes to a joke, I have never been quite
able to determine; but certain it is that a lean joker is a rara avis in
terris.
About the refinements, or, as he called them, the 'ghost' of wit, the
king troubled himself very little. He had an especial admiration for breadth
in a jest, and would often put up with length, for the sake of it.
Over-niceties wearied him. He would have preferred Rabelais' 'Gargantua' to
the 'Zadig' of Voltaire: and, upon the whole, practical jokes suited his
taste far better than verbal ones.
At the date of my narrative, professing jesters had not altogether gone
out of fashion at court. Several of the great continental 'powers' still
retain their 'fools,' who wore motley, with caps and bells, and who were
expected to be always ready with sharp witticisms, at a moment's notice, in
consideration of the crumbs that fell from the royal table.
Our king, as a matter of course, retained his 'fool.' The fact is, he
required something in the way of folly–if only to counterbalance the heavy
wisdom of the seven wise men who were his ministers–not to mention
himself.
His fool, or professional jester, was not only a fool, however. His value
was trebled in the eyes of the king, by the fact of his being also a dwarf
and a cripple. Dwarfs were as common at court, in those days, as fools; and
many monarchs would have found it difficult to get through their days (days
are rather longer at court than elsewhere) without both a jester to laugh
with, and a dwarf to laugh at. But, as I have already observed, your
jesters, in ninety-nine cases out of a hundred, are fat, round, and
unwieldy–so that it was no small source of self-gratulation with our king
that, in Hop-Frog (this was the fool's name), he possessed a triplicate
treasure in one person.
I believe the name 'Hop-Frog' was not that given to the dwarf by his
sponsors at baptism, but it was conferred upon him, by general consent of
the several ministers, on account of his inability to walk as other men do.
In fact, Hop-Frog could only get along by a sort of interjectional
gait–something between a leap and a wriggle–a movement that afforded
illimitable amusement, and of course consolation, to the king, for
(notwithstanding the protuberance of his stomach and a constitutional
swelling of the head) the king, by his whole court, was accounted a capital
figure.
But although Hop-Frog, through the distortion of his legs, could move
only with great pain and difficulty along a road or floor, the prodigious
muscular power which nature seemed to have bestowed upon his arms, by way of
compensation for deficiency in the lower limbs, enabled him to perform many
feats of wonderful dexterity, where trees or ropes were in question, or any
thing else to climb. At such exercises he certainly much more resembled a
squirrel, or a small monkey, than a frog.
I am not able to say, with precision, from what country Hop-Frog
originally came. It was from some barbarous region, however, that no person
ever heard of–a vast distance from the court of our king. Hop-Frog, and a
young girl very little less dwarfish than himself (although of exquisite
proportions, and a marvellous dancer), had been forcibly carried off from
their respective homes in adjoining provinces, and sent as presents to the
king, by one of his ever-victorious generals.
Under these circumstances, it is not to be wondered at that a close
intimacy arose between the two little captives. Indeed, they soon became
sworn friends. Hop-Frog, who, although he made a great deal of sport, was by
no means popular, had it not in his power to render Trippetta many services;
but she, on account of her grace and exquisite beauty (although a dwarf),
was universally admired and petted; so she possessed much influence; and
never failed to use it, whenever she could, for the benefit of Hop-Frog.
On some grand state occasion–I forgot what–the king determined to have a
masquerade, and whenever a masquerade or any thing of that kind, occurred at
our court, then the talents, both of Hop-Frog and Trippetta were sure to be
called into play. Hop-Frog, in especial, was so inventive in the way of
getting up pageants, suggesting novel characters, and arranging costumes,
for masked balls, that nothing could be done, it seems, without his
assistance.
The night appointed for the fete had arrived. A gorgeous hall had been
fitted up, under Trippetta's eye, with every kind of device which could
possibly give eclat to a masquerade. The whole court was in a fever of
expectation. As for costumes and characters, it might well be supposed that
everybody had come to a decision on such points. Many had made up their
minds (as to what roles they should assume) a week, or even a month, in
advance; and, in fact, there was not a particle of indecision
anywhere–except in the case of the king and his seven minsters. Why they
hesitated I never could tell, unless they did it by way of a joke. More
probably, they found it difficult, on account of being so fat, to make up
their minds. At all events, time flew; and, as a last resort they sent for
Trippetta and Hop-Frog.
When the two little friends obeyed the summons of the king they found him
sitting at his wine with the seven members of his cabinet council; but the
monarch appeared to be in a very ill humor. He knew that Hop-Frog was not
fond of wine, for it excited the poor cripple almost to madness; and madness
is no comfortable feeling. But the king loved his practical jokes, and took
pleasure in forcing Hop-Frog to drink and (as the king called it) 'to be
merry.'
"Come here, Hop-Frog," said he, as the jester and his friend entered the
room; "swallow this bumper to the health of your absent friends, [here
Hop-Frog sighed,] and then let us have the benefit of your invention. We
want characters–characters, man–something novel–out of the way. We are
wearied with this everlasting sameness. Come, drink! the wine will brighten
your wits."
Hop-Frog endeavored, as usual, to get up a jest in reply to these
advances from the king; but the effort was too much. It happened to be the
poor dwarf's birthday, and the command to drink to his 'absent friends'
forced the tears to his eyes. Many large, bitter drops fell into the goblet
as he took it, humbly, from the hand of the tyrant.
"Ah! ha! ha!" roared the latter, as the dwarf reluctantly drained the
beaker.–"See what a glass of good wine can do! Why, your eyes are shining
already!"
Poor fellow! his large eyes gleamed, rather than shone; for the effect of
wine on his excitable brain was not more powerful than instantaneous. He
placed the goblet nervously on the table, and looked round upon the company
with a half–insane stare. They all seemed highly amused at the success of
the king's 'joke.'
"And now to business," said the prime minister, a very fat man.
"Yes," said the King; "Come lend us your assistance. Characters, my fine
fellow; we stand in need of characters–all of us–ha! ha! ha!" and as this
was seriously meant for a joke, his laugh was chorused by the seven.
Hop-Frog also laughed although feebly and somewhat vacantly.
"Come, come," said the king, impatiently, "have you nothing to
suggest?"
"I am endeavoring to think of something novel," replied the dwarf,
abstractedly, for he was quite bewildered by the wine.
"Endeavoring!" cried the tyrant, fiercely; "what do you mean by that? Ah,
I perceive. You are Sulky, and want more wine. Here, drink this!" and he
poured out another goblet full and offered it to the cripple, who merely
gazed at it, gasping for breath.
"Drink, I say!" shouted the monster, "or by the fiends-"
The dwarf hesitated. The king grew purple with rage. The courtiers
smirked. Trippetta, pale as a corpse, advanced to the monarch's seat, and,
falling on her knees before him, implored him to spare her friend.
The tyrant regarded her, for some moments, in evident wonder at her
audacity. He seemed quite at a loss what to do or say–how most becomingly to
express his indignation. At last, without uttering a syllable, he pushed her
violently from him, and threw the contents of the brimming goblet in her
face.
The poor girl got up the best she could, and, not daring even to sigh,
resumed her position at the foot of the table.
There was a dead silence for about half a minute, during which the
falling of a leaf, or of a feather, might have been heard. It was
interrupted by a low, but harsh and protracted grating sound which seemed to
come at once from every corner of the room.
"What–what–what are you making that noise for?" demanded the king,
turning furiously to the dwarf.
The latter seemed to have recovered, in great measure, from his
intoxication, and looking fixedly but quietly into the tyrant's face, merely
ejaculated:
"I–I? How could it have been me?"
"The sound appeared to come from without," observed one of the courtiers.
"I fancy it was the parrot at the window, whetting his bill upon his
cage-wires."
"True," replied the monarch, as if much relieved by the suggestion; "but,
on the honor of a knight, I could have sworn that it was the gritting of
this vagabond's teeth."
Hereupon the dwarf laughed (the king was too confirmed a joker to object
to any one's laughing), and displayed a set of large, powerful, and very
repulsive teeth. Moreover, he avowed his perfect willingness to swallow as
much wine as desired. The monarch was pacified; and having drained another
bumper with no very perceptible ill effect, Hop-Frog entered at once, and
with spirit, into the plans for the masquerade.
"I cannot tell what was the association of idea," observed he, very
tranquilly, and as if he had never tasted wine in his life, "but just after
your majesty, had struck the girl and thrown the wine in her face–just after
your majesty had done this, and while the parrot was making that odd noise
outside the window, there came into my mind a capital diversion–one of my
own country frolics–often enacted among us, at our masquerades: but here it
will be new altogether. Unfortunately, however, it requires a company of
eight persons and-"
"Here we are!" cried the king, laughing at his acute discovery of the
coincidence; "eight to a fraction–I and my seven ministers. Come! what is
the diversion?"
"We call it," replied the cripple, "the Eight Chained Ourang-Outangs, and
it really is excellent sport if well enacted."
"We will enact it," remarked the king, drawing himself up, and lowering
his eyelids.
"The beauty of the game," continued Hop-Frog, "lies in the fright it
occasions among the women."
"Capital!" roared in chorus the monarch and his ministry.
"I will equip you as ourang-outangs," proceeded the dwarf; "leave all
that to me. The resemblance shall be so striking, that the company of
masqueraders will take you for real beasts–and of course, they will be as
much terrified as astonished."
"Oh, this is exquisite!" exclaimed the king. "Hop-Frog! I will make a man
of you."
"The chains are for the purpose of increasing the confusion by their
jangling. You are supposed to have escaped, en masse, from your keepers.
Your majesty cannot conceive the effect produced, at a masquerade, by eight
chained ourang-outangs, imagined to be real ones by most of the company; and
rushing in with savage cries, among the crowd of delicately and gorgeously
habited men and women. The contrast is inimitable!"
"It must be," said the king: and the council arose hurriedly (as it was
growing late), to put in execution the scheme of Hop-Frog.
His mode of equipping the party as ourang-outangs was very simple, but
effective enough for his purposes. The animals in question had, at the epoch
of my story, very rarely been seen in any part of the civilized world; and
as the imitations made by the dwarf were sufficiently beast-like and more
than sufficiently hideous, their truthfulness to nature was thus thought to
be secured.
The king and his ministers were first encased in tight-fitting stockinet
shirts and drawers. They were then saturated with tar. At this stage of the
process, some one of the party suggested feathers; but the suggestion was at
once overruled by the dwarf, who soon convinced the eight, by ocular
demonstration, that the hair of such a brute as the ourang-outang was much
more efficiently represented by flu. A thick coating of the latter was
accordingly plastered upon the coating of tar. A long chain was now
procured. First, it was passed about the waist of the king, and tied, then
about another of the party, and also tied; then about all successively, in
the same manner. When this chaining arrangement was complete, and the party
stood as far apart from each other as possible, they formed a circle; and to
make all things appear natural, Hop-Frog passed the residue of the chain in
two diameters, at right angles, across the circle, after the fashion
adopted, at the present day, by those who capture Chimpanzees, or other
large apes, in Borneo.
The grand saloon in which the masquerade was to take place, was a
circular room, very lofty, and receiving the light of the sun only through a
single window at top. At night (the season for which the apartment was
especially designed) it was illuminated principally by a large chandelier,
depending by a chain from the centre of the sky-light, and lowered, or
elevated, by means of a counter-balance as usual; but (in order not to look
unsightly) this latter passed outside the cupola and over the roof.
The arrangements of the room had been left to Trippetta's
superintendence; but, in some particulars, it seems, she had been guided by
the calmer judgment of her friend the dwarf. At his suggestion it was that,
on this occasion, the chandelier was removed. Its waxen drippings (which, in
weather so warm, it was quite impossible to prevent) would have been
seriously detrimental to the rich dresses of the guests, who, on account of
the crowded state of the saloon, could not all be expected to keep from out
its centre; that is to say, from under the chandelier. Additional sconces
were set in various parts of the hall, out of the war, and a flambeau,
emitting sweet odor, was placed in the right hand of each of the Caryatides
that stood against the wall–some fifty or sixty altogether.
The eight ourang-outangs, taking Hop-Frog's advice, waited patiently
until midnight (when the room was thoroughly filled with masqueraders)
before making their appearance. No sooner had the clock ceased striking,
however, than they rushed, or rather rolled in, all together–for the
impediments of their chains caused most of the party to fall, and all to
stumble as they entered.
The excitement among the masqueraders was prodigious, and filled the
heart of the king with glee. As had been anticipated, there were not a few
of the guests who supposed the ferocious-looking creatures to be beasts of
some kind in reality, if not precisely ourang-outangs. Many of the women
swooned with affright; and had not the king taken the precaution to exclude
all weapons from the saloon, his party might soon have expiated their frolic
in their blood. As it was, a general rush was made for the doors; but the
king had ordered them to be locked immediately upon his entrance; and, at
the dwarf's suggestion, the keys had been deposited with him.
While the tumult was at its height, and each masquerader attentive only
to his own safety (for, in fact, there was much real danger from the
pressure of the excited crowd), the chain by which the chandelier ordinarily
hung, and which had been drawn up on its removal, might have been seen very
gradually to descend, until its hooked extremity came within three feet of
the floor.
Soon after this, the king and his seven friends having reeled about the
hall in all directions, found themselves, at length, in its centre, and, of
course, in immediate contact with the chain. While they were thus situated,
the dwarf, who had followed noiselessly at their heels, inciting them to
keep up the commotion, took hold of their own chain at the intersection of
the two portions which crossed the circle diametrically and at right angles.
Here, with the rapidity of thought, he inserted the hook from which the
chandelier had been wont to depend; and, in an instant, by some unseen
agency, the chandelier-chain was drawn so far upward as to take the hook out
of reach, and, as an inevitable consequence, to drag the ourang-outangs
together in close connection, and face to face.
The masqueraders, by this time, had recovered, in some measure, from
their alarm; and, beginning to regard the whole matter as a well-contrived
pleasantry, set up a loud shout of laughter at the predicament of the
apes.
"Leave them to me!" now screamed Hop-Frog, his shrill voice making itself
easily heard through all the din. "Leave them to me. I fancy I know them. If
I can only get a good look at them, I can soon tell who they are."
Here, scrambling over the heads of the crowd, he managed to get to the
wall; when, seizing a flambeau from one of the Caryatides, he returned, as
he went, to the centre of the room-leaping, with the agility of a monkey,
upon the kings head, and thence clambered a few feet up the chain; holding
down the torch to examine the group of ourang-outangs, and still screaming:
"I shall soon find out who they are!"
And now, while the whole assembly (the apes included) were convulsed with
laughter, the jester suddenly uttered a shrill whistle; when the chain flew
violently up for about thirty feet–dragging with it the dismayed and
struggling ourang-outangs, and leaving them suspended in mid-air between the
sky-light and the floor. Hop-Frog, clinging to the chain as it rose, still
maintained his relative position in respect to the eight maskers, and still
(as if nothing were the matter) continued to thrust his torch down toward
them, as though endeavoring to discover who they were.
So thoroughly astonished was the whole company at this ascent, that a
dead silence, of about a minute's duration, ensued. It was broken by just
such a low, harsh, grating sound, as had before attracted the attention of
the king and his councillors when the former threw the wine in the face of
Trippetta. But, on the present occasion, there could be no question as to
whence the sound issued. It came from the fang–like teeth of the dwarf, who
ground them and gnashed them as he foamed at the mouth, and glared, with an
expression of maniacal rage, into the upturned countenances of the king and
his seven companions.
"Ah, ha!" said at length the infuriated jester. "Ah, ha! I begin to see
who these people are now!" Here, pretending to scrutinize the king more
closely, he held the flambeau to the flaxen coat which enveloped him, and
which instantly burst into a sheet of vivid flame. In less than half a
minute the whole eight ourang-outangs were blazing fiercely, amid the
shrieks of the multitude who gazed at them from below, horror-stricken, and
without the power to render them the slightest assistance.
At length the flames, suddenly increasing in virulence, forced the jester
to climb higher up the chain, to be out of their reach; and, as he made this
movement, the crowd again sank, for a brief instant, into silence. The dwarf
seized his opportunity, and once more spoke:
"I now see distinctly." he said, "what manner of people these maskers
are. They are a great king and his seven privy-councillors,–a king who does
not scruple to strike a defenceless girl and his seven councillors who abet
him in the outrage. As for myself, I am simply Hop-Frog, the jester–and this
is my last jest."
Owing to the high combustibility of both the flax and the tar to which it
adhered, the dwarf had scarcely made an end of his brief speech before the
work of vengeance was complete. The eight corpses swung in their chains, a
fetid, blackened, hideous, and indistinguishable mass. The cripple hurled
his torch at them, clambered leisurely to the ceiling, and disappeared
through the sky-light.
It is supposed that Trippetta, stationed on the roof of the saloon, had
been the accomplice of her friend in his fiery revenge, and that, together,
they effected their escape to their own country: for neither was seen
again.
THE END
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