And then the voice began to sing the leading phrase, "Come! And believe in me! Whoso believes in me shall live! Walk! Whoso hath believed in me shall never die!...' I can not tell you the effect which that music had upon me.It seemed to command me, personally, to come, to stand up and come to it.It retreated and I followed.`Come! And believe in me!' I believed in it, I came....I came and--this was the extraordinary thing--my dressing-room, as I moved, seemed to lengthen out...to lengthen out....Evidently, it must have been an effect of mirrors...for I had the mirror in front of me....And, suddenly, I was outside the room without knowing how!""What! Without knowing how? Christine, Christine, you must really stop dreaming!""I was not dreaming, dear, I was outside my room without knowing how.You, who saw me disappear from my room one evening, may be able to explain it; but I can not.I can only tell you that, suddenly, there was no mirror before me and no dressing-room.
I was in a dark passage, I was frightened and I cried out.
It was quite dark, but for a faint red glimmer at a distant corner of the wall.I tried out.My voice was the only sound, for the singing and the violin had stopped.And, suddenly, a hand was laid on mine...or rather a stone-cold, bony thing that seized my wrist and did not let go.I cried out again.
An arm took me round the waist and supported me.I struggled for a little while and then gave up the attempt.I was dragged toward the little red light and then I saw that I was in the hands of a man wrapped in a large cloak and wearing a mask that hid his whole face.I made one last effort; my limbs stiffened, my mouth opened to scream, but a hand closed it, a hand which Ifelt on my lips, on my skin...a hand that smelt of death.
Then I fainted away.
"When I opened my eyes, we were still surrounded by darkness.
A lantern, standing on the ground, showed a bubbling well.
The water splashing from the well disappeared, almost at once, under the floor on which I was lying, with my head on the knee of the man in the black cloak and the black mask.He was bathing my temples and his hands smelt of death.I tried to push them away and asked, `Who are you? Where is the voice?' His only answer was a sigh.Suddenly, a hot breath passed over my face and I perceived a white shape, beside the man's black shape, in the darkness.The black shape lifted me on to the white shape, a glad neighing greeted my astounded ears and I murmured, `Cesar!' The animal quivered.Raoul, I was lying half back on a saddle and I had recognized the white horse out of the PROFETA, which I had so often fed with sugar and sweets.I remembered that, one evening, there was a rumor in the theater that the horse had disappeared and that it had been stolen by the Opera ghost.
I believed in the voice, but had never believed in the ghost.
Now, however, I began to wonder, with a shiver, whether I was the ghost's prisoner.I called upon the voice to help me, for Ishould never have imagined that the voice and the ghost were one.
You have heard about the Opera ghost, have you not, Raoul?""Yes, but tell me what happened when you were on the white horse of the Profeta?""I made no movement and let myself go.The black shape held me up, and I made no effort to escape.A curious feeling of peacefulness came over me and I thought that I must be under the influence of some cordial.I had the full command of my senses; and my eyes became used to the darkness, which was lit, here and there, by fitful gleams.
I calculated that we were in a narrow circular gallery, probably running all round the Opera, which is immense, underground.I had once been down into those cellars, but had stopped at the third floor, though there were two lower still, large enough to hold a town.
But the figures of which I caught sight had made me run away.
There are demons down there, quite black, standing in front of boilers, and they wield shovels and pitchforks and poke up fires and stir up flames and, if you come too near them, they frighten you by suddenly opening the red mouths of their furnaces....Well, while Cesar was quietly carrying me on his back, I saw those black demons in the distance, looking quite small, in front of the red fires of their furnaces:
they came into sight, disappeared and came into sight again, as we went on our winding way.At last, they disappeared altogether.
The shape was still holding me up and Cesar walked on, unled and sure-footed.I could not tell you, even approximately, how long this ride lasted; I only know that we seemed to turn and turn and often went down a spiral stair into the very heart of the earth.
Even then, it may be that my head was turning, but I don't think so:
no, my mind was quite clear.At last, Cesar raised his nostrils, sniffed the air and quickened his pace a little.I felt a moistness in the air and Cesar stopped.The darkness had lifted.A sort of bluey light surrounded us.We were on the edge of a lake, whose leaden waters stretched into the distance, into the darkness;but the blue light lit up the bank and I saw a little boat fastened to an iron ring on the wharf!""A boat!"
"Yes, but I knew that all that existed and that there was nothing supernatural about that underground lake and boat.But think of the exceptional conditions in which I arrived upon that shore! I don't know whether the effects of the cordial had worn off when the man's shape lifted me into the boat, but my terror began all over again.
My gruesome escort must have noticed it, for he sent Cesar back and I heard his hoofs trampling up a staircase while the man jumped into the boat, untied the rope that held it and seized the oars.
He rowed with a quick, powerful stroke; and his eyes, under the mask, never left me.We slipped across the noiseless water in the bluey light which I told you of; then we were in the dark again and we touched shore.And I was once more taken up in the man's arms.
I cried aloud.And then, suddenly, I was silent, dazed by the light.
...Yes, a dazzling light in the midst of which I had been put down.
