The Gray Nun | Page 5

trick upon me.
The king nodded thoughtfully upon my frank declaration that, according to my researches, the enigmatical female could only have come from the royal apartments.
Said his Majesty:
"May I ask you, my dear Baron, to show me the cross you found?"
I put it into his hand.
For a moment the king stared upon it speechless. Then he turned it over, and ejaculated, roughly almost under the emotion of his violent surprise:
"Great God--why--it is--!"
And he pointed to the small, delicately engraved initials, surmounted by a crown, in the middle of the cross. Very pale and with heaving breast he went on:
"A nun, a gray nun, you say? What would the object of such a joke be? and how--how should this cross come back among the living? Baron, come with me, I must request your confidence and secrecy!"
We passed through several rooms, and then arrived at a narrow gallery whose walls were hung with portraits of royal personages. The king came abruptly to a halt, and without himself looking up indicated a certain picture:
"Observe that painting! Do you see the same Cross there that you have in your hand?"
Involuntarily I uttered the loud cry:
"Why, that is she! Holy Heavens! It is my nun!"
"The cross--compare the cross!" urged the king, his slender, white hand trembling with agitation.
A frosty current ran through my veins as I compared the pictured cross with that in my companion's hand. It was the same--not a doubt of it--and the eyes, too, were the same, as also the dress and the whole figure were unmistakably those of the gray nun I had danced with. Yet in those conspicuously large, deep black eyes lay not an expression of peacefulness and mild resignation, but a world of passionate feeling. Having assured the king of the identity of the cross, and he having informed me that it was an ancient heirloom of which no duplicate existed, he bade me accompany him further.
Arrived in the antechamber to his apartments, the king gave an order to one of the attendants on duty there. He walked up and down the room for a few moments in visible excitement, and then, stopping before me, and looking at me searchingly, he asked:
"Have you ever, in the course of your life, met with a manifestation of the supernatural?"
I was so bewildered and nervous that I scarcely could remember enough French to reply:
"May it please your Majesty, I have not."
"Do you believe in the possibility of the dead returning?"
"Not in the sense of their coming as apparitions. I always was, still am, a skeptic on the point of ghost stories in general, nevertheless I am a Christian, and I believe and know that we continue to live after death."
The king stared at me mechanically:
"You are a Protestant, and you say you are a skeptic. Curious--only you saw the apparition--it was revealed to no one else?"
"Then your Majesty is of the opinion that this is actually a case of a spectral apparition?"
"Certainly. It seems much more plausible than open theft. This very cross I myself--"
He interrupted his sentence as he turned to the door, through which, with profound obeisances, entered two ladies in waiting--probably the queen's. His Majesty addressed one of them in French, no doubt to enable me to participate in the conversation:
"You were present, Madame M., when Princess A. was laid in her coffin seventeen years ago?"
A low curtsey was the affirmative reply.
"And you also, Madame U.?"
"I had the honor, your Majesty, of rendering her royal highness the last earthly services."
"You remember perfectly what dress the deceased was buried in?"
"Quite well, your Majesty. It was the regular dress of the Order of Gray Sisters, of which her royal highness was a member."
"Do you recollect whether she took any ornaments to her last resting place?"
"Excepting the golden cross which your Majesty hung round her neck on the day she took the vow, no jewelry was put on the princess. The duchess even drew the little sapphire ring from her royal highness' finger, to keep it as a remembrance and wear it herself."
"You are absolutely certain that the cross went into the coffin? You could swear to it?"
"I could do so with fullest conviction, your Majesty."
"Would you recognize the cross?"
"To be sure I should."
"Is this it?"
"Good Heavens--it is! On the back there ought to be the initials of her royal highness!"
"Here they are," said the king, reversing the cross. The old woman shrank back appalled.
"Then, your Majesty, the vault has been broken into!"
"Possibly it has. The matter shall be investigated. I am much obliged to you, ladies, and earnestly request you will both preserve unconditional silence as to our present interview."
"Well," said the king to me, after the ladies in waiting had withdrawn, "how do you account for this cross being here in my hand, considering it was put into the