His
dreams were monstrous images, unattainable extravagances--full of
light, revealing invisible worlds, yet in a manner always incomplete,
for an intervening veil changes the conditions of vision.
For the next and succeeding day Henri disappeared and no one knew what
had become of him. His power only belonged to him under certain
conditions, and, happily for him, during those two days he was a
private soldier in the service of the demon to whom he owed his
talismanic existence. But at the appointed time, in the evening, he
was waiting--and he had not long to wait--for the carriage. The
mulatto approached Henri, in order to repeat to him in French a phrase
which he seemed to have learned by heart.
"If you wish to come, she told me, you must consent to have your eyes
bandaged."
And Cristemio produced a white silk handkerchief.
"No!" said Henri, whose omnipotence revolted suddenly.
He tried to leap in. The mulatto made a sign, and the carriage drove
off.
"Yes!" cried De Marsay, furious at the thought of losing a piece of
good fortune which had been promised him.
He saw, moreover, the impossibility of making terms with a slave whose
obedience was as blind as the hangman's. Nor was it this passive
instrument upon whom his anger could fall.
The mulatto whistled, the carriage returned. Henri got in hastily.
Already a few curious onlookers had assembled like sheep on the
boulevard. Henri was strong; he tried to play the mulatto. When the
carriage started at a gallop he seized his hands, in order to master
him, and retain, by subduing his attendant, the possession of his
faculties, so that he might know whither he was going.
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