The Man With The Broken Ear | Page 9

principle--the
source of all functions of the body, or if life be not merely the result of

the regular play of the organs? The vital principle, in the eyes of Meiser
and his disciple, does not exist; if it really existed, they say, one could
not understand how it can leave a man and a tardigrade when they are
desiccated, and return to them again when they are soaked.' Now, if
there be no vital principle, all the metaphysical and moral theories
which have been hypothecated on its existence, must be reconstructed.
These ladies have listened to you patiently, it is but justice to them to
admit; but all that they have been able to gather from your slightly
Latinish discourse, is that you have given them a dissertation instead of
the romance you promised. But we all forgive you for the sake of the
mummy you are going to show us. Open the colonel's box."
"We've well earned the sight!" cried Clementine, laughing.
"But suppose you were to get frightened?"
"I'd have you know, sir, that I'm not afraid of anybody, not even of live
colonels!"
Leon took his bunch of keys and opened the long oak box on which he
had been seated. The lid being raised, they saw a great leaden casket
which enclosed a magnificent walnut box carefully polished on the
outside, and lined on the inside with white silk, and padded. The others
brought their lamps and candles near, and the colonel of the 23d of the
line appeared as if he were in a chapel illuminated for his lying in state.
One would have said that the man was asleep. The perfect preservation
of the body attested the paternal care of the murderer. It was truly a
remarkable preparation, and would have borne comparison with the
finest European mummies described by Vicq d'Azyr in 1779, and by
the younger Puymaurin in 1787.
The part best preserved, as is always the case, was the face. All the
features had maintained a proud and manly expression. If any old
friend of the colonel had been present at the opening of the third box,
he would have recognized him at first sight.
Undoubtedly the point of the nose was a little sharper, the nostrils less

expanded and thinner, and the bridge a little more marked than in the
year 1813. The eyelids were thinned, the lips pinched, the corners of
the mouth drawn down, the cheek bones too prominent, and the neck
visibly shrunken, which exaggerated the prominence of the chin and
larynx. But the eyelids were closed without contraction, and the sockets
much less hollow than one could have expected; the mouth was not at
all distorted like the mouth of a corpse; the skin was slightly wrinkled
but had not changed color; it had only become a little more transparent,
showing, after a fashion, the color of the tendons, the fat and the
muscles, wherever it rested directly upon them. It also had a rosy tint
which is not ordinarily seen in embalmed corpses. Doctor Martout
explained this anomaly by saying that if the colonel had actually been
dried alive, the globules of the blood were not decomposed, but simply
collected in the capillary vessels of the skin and subjacent tissues where
they still preserved their proper color, and could be seen more easily
than otherwise, on account of the semi-transparency of the skin.
The uniform had become much too large, as may be readily understood;
though it did not seem, at a casual glance, that the members had
become deformed. The hands were dry and angular, but the nails,
although a little bent inward toward the root, had preserved all their
freshness. The only very noticeable change was the excessive
depression of the abdominal walls, which seemed crowded downward
toward the posterior side; at the right, a slight elevation indicated the
place of the liver. A tap of the finger on the various parts of the body,
produced a sound like that from dry leather. While Leon was pointing
out these details to his audience and doing the honors of his mummy he
awkwardly broke off the lower part of the right ear, and a little piece of
the Colonel remained in his hand.
This trifling accident might have passed unnoticed, had not Clementine,
who followed with visible emotion all the movements of her lover,
dropped her candle and uttered a cry of affright. All gathered around
her. Leon took her in his arms and carried her to a chair. M. Renault ran
after salts. She was as pale as death, and seemed on the point of
fainting.

She soon recovered, however, and reassured them all by a charming
smile.
"Pardon me," she said, "for such a ridiculous exhibition of terror; but
what Monsieur Leon was saying