Tristram of Blent | Page 3

no sympathy.) Sir R. E. did not, in fact, die on the date reported.
He fell into a collapse, mistaken for death by those about him, and even
by his medical attendant; after lying in this state for twenty-four hours
he revived and lived nearly a week longer. A second letter, apprising
Mrs F. of this fact, and announcing the correct date of his death as June
12th, reached her at Baden on the 28th. By this time she was married,
but the validity of her new union (solemnized on the 23rd) did not
appear to be affected. Nothing more was done, and the boy was born,
as I have stated, early in July. Only after this event, which naturally
engrossed the parents' attention, did the mistake into which they had
fallen come to be discovered. As a matter of form, and to avoid doubts
in the future, Captain F. wrote for the official certificate of Sir R.'s
death. When it came, it came as a thunderbolt. Sir R. had been residing
in a small Russian town near the frontier; he was interested, I
understood, in some business there. The servant to whom I have
referred was an uneducated man and could not write; he had picked up
a little French but spoke no Russian. Wishing to inform Mrs F. of what
had occurred, he had recourse to a professional letter-writer, who
perhaps knew as little French, or almost as little, as himself, and was
entirely ignorant of English. The servant gave the dates I have set
down--June 6th in the first letter, the 12th in the second. The
letter-writer put them down; and Mrs F. read and immediately accepted
them. It did not cross her mind or Captain F.'s that the dates used were
the ordinary Russian dates--were in fact 'Old Style,' and consequently
twelve days behind the reckoning of Germany or of England. They
might have been put on inquiry by the long interval between the date of
the death as it was given and the receipt of the news; in their
excitement they paid no heed to it, and it did not occur either to
Madame de Kries or to myself to raise the question. Indeed who thinks
of the 'Old Style' at this period of the world's history? Besides, I did not
know at that time, and I do not think that Madame de Kries did, where
the first letter came from; Mrs F. said nothing about it. But when the
certificate arrived--about the middle of July, as I understood--the

mistake was clear; for a note in the official's hand translated the dates
into New Style for the benefit of the foreigners to whom he was
supplying the document. Sir R. E., first reported dead on June 6th Old
Style, otherwise June 18th New Style, had actually died on the 12th
Old Style, or 24th New Style.
I have always thought this one of the most perverse little incidents
which I have met with in the course of my life, and I think it such still,
when I consider how easily it might have done no harm, and how
serious, and indeed irreparable, its actual consequences were. The
mistake as to the date of death was the first source of confusion, since it
caused Mrs F.'s wedding to take place while her husband, Sir R., had
still a day to live. But this error would not in itself have proved fatal,
since there would still have been time to repeat the ceremony and make
a valid marriage of it before the birth of the child. Here the
misapprehension about the Old Style came in. Led to believe that,
although Sir R. lived six days longer than was originally reported, yet
none the less he died on June 12th, the F.'s did not have the ceremony
repeated. But he died, in fact, on the 24th as his wife reckoned time,
and her wedding to Captain F. on the 23rd was an idle and useless form.
When the discovery was made, the boy was born--and born out of
lawful wedlock.
What did they do then? I was pardonably interested in the matter, and
inquired of Madame de Kries. She was reticent, but I extracted from
her the information that they were hurriedly married again. One could
laugh if the matter had not been so terribly serious to them and to their
boy. For by now those events had actually happened, and Mrs F. was
not indeed in possession of but next in succession to a considerable
estate and an ancient title. Marrying again could not mend the matter.
What else they did to mend or try to mend it, Madame de Kries
professed not to know. I myself do not know either. There is only one
thing to say.