Chapter 16
BLUE BEARD There lived once on a time a man who had very fine townhouses and also country residences, magnificent plate, furniture in the latest style, gilded coaches, and a cook who sent him up every day a dinner of six courses, every day different from what had been. Unfortunately for him, he had a blue beard. This made him so hideous and frightful that
there was not a woman or girl who did not run away when he appeared. One of his neighbours, a lady of quality but very poor, had two daughters of the most amiable dispositions and both The man with the blue beard asked for one in marriage and left the choice to their mother. Neither would hear of taking him because of his blue beard. Moreover, it was commonly reported that he had had several wives and no one could say exactly what had become of them.
Blue beard invited the lady with her daughters to visit him in one of his country places. He, at the same time, asked many of the neighbours there, and he gave entertainments in succession for a week. There was one uninterrupted series of dances and picnics, of hunting parties, of dinners. There was really no time for sleep. There was such splendour displayed in the house, such fertility of resource in the master for their amusement, that the company present thought they
never had enjoyed themselves more, and that after all, if the owner of the place and the giver of the festivities had a blue beard, he had wealth enough to gild it, and that a good deal might be forgiven a man who had such plate, such a cook, such furniture, and who dearly loved giving parties. The youngest of the lady's daughters considered that it would be a very pleasant thing to be mistress of so grand an establishment, and to be looked up to by all the neighbourhood as the
person of most consequence therein. She felt her aversion for blue beard decrease, and finally consented to accept him. The entertainments were now prolonged for another week, at the end of which time a magnificent wedding took place, to the great satisfaction of the young lady's mother, who thought she had disposed of her daughter to the greatest possible advantage. At the end of a month, Bluebeard told his wife that business required him to absent himself for six weeks,
or a month, and he begged her to amuse herself as best she could during his absence. She was to invite her friends to visit her, and to entertain them. Here, said he, are the keys of two large linen chests. Here are those of my plate-chest. Here are those of my money boxes, and also of all my jewels. And here is a key that opens all the doors and cupboards throughout the house. You see this little key? That pertains to the cabinet at the end of the long picture
gallery. You may open any closet and cupboard and chamber throughout my house, with the single exception of that little cabinet. I strictly forbid you to enter or look in there under pain of my extreme displeasure and of forfeiting all my love for you and all your happiness for the future. She promised exactly to observe all that he commanded, and after he had warmly embraced her, he mounted his equipage and drove away. The neighbours and friends did not wait to be
invited to come to the country house, and to relieve the dullness of the young bride, and they were extremely desirous of being shown everything in the house, and of turning out all the cupboards, a thing they had never before ventured to do. They had not even asked to be allowed to do, so great was their dread of Bluebeard. Now, however, that he was away, they scattered through the house, they ran upstairs and down, they pried into every chamber,
they explored every cupboard and searched every drawer, they examined all the furniture, they went through all the house linen, they examined and admired the tapestries, the carpets, the curtains, the coverlets, then they looked through all the plate to make sure that it was of real silver and gold and not plated wares, they turned over all the books in the library, they tried on all the family jewels, they even examined all the bottles
of preserved fruit and pots of crystallised ginger in the store room. The mistress of the house took little pleasure in seeing and showing all these treasures to her friends, for she was most inquisitive to know what there was in the cabinet at the end of the picture gallery. Indeed, so impatient was she to satisfy her curiosity that she deserted her guests, and when they were all engaged elsewhere, she slipped into the gallery by herself and put the key into the door which
she had been forbidden to open. She paused there for one moment, with a little hesitation, because she remembered her husband's threats, but her curiosity overcame all scruple of disobeying him and fears for herself, and she tremblingly opened the door of the cabinet. At first she saw nothing, for the windows were all shut, but after a while her eyes became accustomed to the gloom, and she saw that the floor was all stained with blood, and that along the walls hung the dead
bodies of a great many young women. These were the wives Bluebeard had married in succession, and had put to death one after the other. She thought she would have died of horror, and the key which she had withdrawn from the door dropped from her hand. After a while she recovered her senses, picked up the key, fastened the door, and hastened to her bedroom to throw herself on a couch and compose her mind, but she could find no rest, so violent was her agitation,
and she begged her sister, who was called Anne, to dismiss her guests on the plea that she was ill and could not entertain them further. When alone, the young wife noticed that there was a stain of blood on the key. She had once tried to wash it off, but neither soap nor water would remove it. Then she rubbed the key with sandpaper, but this was equally in vain. If she rubbed out the stain of blood on one side, it broke out on the other side of the key. Bluebeard returned from his travels
that same evening. He said that he had received letters whilst on his journey, which informed him that the business on which he had started had come to a satisfactory termination, and that his presence was no longer needed. His wife did all that she could to show him that she was delighted at his return, but she called to her a little foot-page, and said, Run, run, as fast as your feet will bear you to my home. My two brothers are there,
just returned from the wars. Bid them ride and spur and never sack rain, till they have reached this place and saved me. Next morning, Bluebeard asked for his keys, and his wife restored them to him with a hand that trembled, so that he suspected what had happened. He looked at the keys and said, I missed that of my cabinet. Where is that?
I must have left it upstairs, she said. Do not fail to bring it me, he said in a stern voice. There was no help for it. She was obliged to produce the key. Bluebeard looked at it with a frown. Why is there blood on this key? He asked. She was too frightened to answer. You have been in the cabinet, which I forbade you to open and enter. Very well, madam. You shall
go in again, and this time remain there, hung to the wall beside the other ladies you saw there. She threw herself at her husband's feet, weeping an entreating pardon, with all the marks of sincere repentance for her disobedience. So beautiful and distressed was she that she might have melted a heart of stone, but that of Bluebeard was harder than stone. You must die, madam, said he, and that instantly.
If I must die, she replied, looking at him with eyes bathed in tears. Give me at least time to say my prayers. Very well, he answered. I grant you a quarter of an hour, not a moment longer. When she was alone, she summoned her sister and said to her, Sister Anne, I pray you mount the tower and see if my brothers are coming.
I sent them word to come without delay. When you see them, sign to them to speed their fastest. Her sister immediately ascended to the battlements of the tower and looked away in the direction of her home. The poor, trembling and weeping bride called to her after a few minutes. Sister Anne, Sister Anne, is there anyone coming? I see nothing, answered her sister, but the sun's beams glancing and the moats dancing and the grass
is green and growing. Oh, Bluebeard in the meanwhile had got a great cutlass from the armory and he called to his wife, come down, come down or I'll draw you by the golden locks of your crown. Grant me one moment longer, answered his wife. She cried again to her sister, Sister Anne, Sister Anne, is there anyone coming? I see nothing, answered her sister, but the sun's beams glancing and the moats dancing and the grass
is green and growing. Oh, come down, come down this very moment, shouted Bluebeard. Time is up. Come down, come down or I'll draw you by the golden locks of your crown. I am coming directly. Suffer me to pull on my shoe, said the unhappy wife. Then again she called to her sister, Sister Anne, Sister Anne, do you see anyone coming? I see, said the sister, I see a cloud of dust springing and I hear a harness ringing and the
grass is green and growing. Oh, then Bluebeard roared forth, if you do not come down at once, I shall come up and fetch you. But his wife said, suffer me to pull on the other shoe and then I will come down. And now again she called, Sister Anne, Sister Anne, is there anyone coming? Sister Anne replied, I see armor glancing and two horses prancing and your brothers ride fast to the castle. Oh, Bluebeard would not tarry any longer and his wife could find no further excuse
for delaying to come down. So she slowly and tremblingly descended the stairs. With hair disheveled and with her face bathed in tears, she threw herself on her knees and begged him to spare her life. It is of no avail, answered Bluebeard, die you must and shall. Seizing her by the hair, her golden hair, with one hand and brandishing the cutlass with the other, to strike the fatal blow. Stay, stay, she said, I have on my neck the beautiful chain you gave me.
Take it off, lest it turn the edge of my sword, said he. She obeyed with fingers that shook as if she had the palsy. Again he raised the cutlass above her head. Stay, stay, she said, I'm wearing my white bridal silken dress and it will be all dappled and stained with my heart's blood. Take it off, he said. She obeyed slowly. So great was her fear. Then she knelt down again and again he raised the cutlass to strike off her head when she cried out. Stay, stay, the parrot is
in the window and he will talk and tell how you have killed me. That is true, said Bluebeard, and he removed the cage and put it in another room. Then he came back and raised the cutlass and said, I will not be put off again. But at that moment a loud knocking was heard at the gates, which made Bluebeard pause. The gates were burst open and two young men in shining steel armor with their swords drawn rushed in. They flew upon Bluebeard and pursued him as he attempted
to escape. They overtook him before he had mounted the platform on top of the castle and ran him through the heart with their swords. The poor wife, almost dead with terror, was unable for some time to find words wherewith to thank her brothers for this timely rescue. As Bluebeard left no heirs, his wife inherited all his immense fortune. She bestowed part of it as a marriage dower on her sister Anne, who was shortly after married to a young nobleman
who had long loved her. Some money she spent in buying castles and lands for her brothers. With what remained she was still vastly rich and she was soon married to a generous-minded young man, a companion in arms and friend of her brothers, and his love and courteous treatment soon made her forget the cruel usage she had received from Bluebeard. I give you the keys, said he on their marriage day, that open everything I possess and all the
secret chambers of my heart. You may look in all and where you will and you will find nothing that I desire to hide from you, for you will find nothing anywhere but love for you. And I, answered his wife, will never allow myself henceforth to peep and peer into what does not concern me. Author's Note
Bluebeard One of Perot's admirable tales, it has been supposed that the story was based on the crimes and execution of the infamous durettes, but I do not think that there is evidence that this was the case. Fatal curiosity occurs in several folktales. End of section 16
