Frankenstein, or The Modern Prometheus - Part 18: Chapter 14

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Part eighteen of Frankenstein The Modern Prometheus. Frankenstein The Modern
Prometheus by Mary Shelley, Chapter fourteen. Some time elapsed before
I learned the history of my friends. It was one
which could not fail to impress itself deeply on my mind,
unfolding as it did, a number of circumstances, each interesting

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and wonderful to one so utterly inexperienced as I was.
The name of the old man was de Lacey. He
was descended from a good family in France, where he
had lived for many years in affluence, respected by his
superiors and beloved by his equals. His son was bred
in the service of his country, and Agatha had ranked

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with ladies of the highest distinction. A few months before
my arrival. They had lived in a large and luxurious
city called Paris, surrounded by friends, and possessed of every
enjoyment which virtue refinement of intellect or taste, accompanied by
moderate fortune could afford. The father of Safie had been

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the cause of their ruin. He was a Turkish merchant
and had inhabited Paris for many years, when, for some
reason which I could not learn, he became obnoxious to
the government. He was seized and cast into prison. The
very day that Safie arrived from Constantinople to join him.
He was tried and condemned to death. The injustice of

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his sentence was very flagrant. All Paris was indignant, and
it was judged that his religion and wealth, rather than
the crime alleged against him, had been the cause of
his condemnation. Felix had accidentally been present at the trial.
His horror and indignation were uncontrollable when he heard the
decision of the court. He made at that moment a

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solemn vow to deliver him, and then looked around for
the means. After many fruitless attempts to gain admittance to
the prison, he found a strongly grated window in an
unguarded part of the building, which lighted the dungeon of
the unfortunate Mahammedan, who loaded with chains, waited in despair
the execution of the barbarous sentence. Felix visited the Great

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at night and made known to the prisoner his intentions
in his favor. The Turk amazed, delighted, endeavored to kindle
the zeal of his deliverer by promises of reward and wealth.
Felix rejected his offers with contempt. Yet when he saw
the lovely Safie, who was allowed to visit her father,

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and who, by her gestures expressed her lively gratitude, the
youth could not help only to his own mind that
the captive possessed a treasure which would fully reward his
toil and hazard. The Turk quickly perceived the impression that
his daughter had made on the heart of Felix, and
endeavored to secure him more entirely in his interests by

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the promise of her hand in marriage, so soon as
he should be conveyed to a place of safety. Felix
was too delicate to accept this offer, yet he looked
forward to the probability of the event as to the
consummation of his happiness. During the ensuing days, while the
preparations were going forward for the escape of the merchant,

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the zeal of Felix was warmed by several letters that
he received from this lovely girl, who found means to
express her thoughts in the language of her lover by
the aid of an old man, a servant of her father,
who understood French. She thanked him in the most ardent
terms for his intended services towards her parent, and at
the same time she gently deplored her own fate. I

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have copies of these letters, for I found means during
my residence in the hovel to procure the implements of writing,
and the letters were often in the hands of Felix
and Agatha. Before I depart, I will give them to you.
They will prove the truth of my tale. But at present,
as the sun is already far declined, I shall only
have time to repeat the substance of her to you.

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Safie related that her mother was a Christian Arab, seized
and made a slave by the Turks. Recommended by her beauty,
she had won the heart of the father of Safie,
who married her. The young girl spoke in high and
enthusiastic terms of her mother, who born in freedom, spurned
the bondage to which she was now reduced. She instructed

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her daughter in the tenets of a religion and taught
her to aspire to higher powers of intellect and an
independence of spirit forbidden to the female followers of Mahammed.
This lady died, but her lessons were indelibly impressed on
the mind of Safi, who sickened at the prospect of
again returning to Asia and being immured within the walls

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of a harem, allowed only to occupy herself with infantile amusements,
ill suited to the temper of her soul. Now accustomed
to grand ideas and a noble emulation of virtue, the
prospect of marrying in Christian and remaining in a country
where women were allowed to take a rank in society

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was enchanting to her. The day for the execution of
the Turk was fixed, but on the night previous to
it he quitted his prison, and before morning was distant
many leagues from Paris. Felix had procured passports in the
name of his father, sister, and himself. He had previously
communicated his plan to the former, who aided the deceit

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by quitting his house under the pretense of a journey
and concealed himself with his daughter in an obscure part
of Paris. Felix conducted the fugitives through France to Leon
and across Monsigney to Leghorn, where the merchant had decided
to wait a favorable opportunity of passing into some part
of the Turkish dominions Safire resolved to remain with her

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father until the moment of his departure, before which time
the Turk renewed his promise that she should be united
to his deliverer, and Felix remained with him in expectation
of that event, and in the meantime he enjoyed the
society of the Arabian, who exhibited towards him the simplest
and tenderest affection. They conversed with one another through the

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means of an interpreter and sometimes with the interpretation of
looks and Safi sanguine, the divine heirs for native country.
The Turk allowed this intimacy to take place and encouraged
the hopes of the youthful lovers, while in his heart
he had formed far other plans. He loathed the idea

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that his daughter should be united to a Christian, but
he feared the resentment of Felix if he should appearly warm,
for he knew that he was still in the power
of his deliverer if he should choose to betray him
to the Italian state which they inhabited. He revolved a
thousand plans by which he should be enabled to prolong
the deceit until it might be no longer necessary and

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secretly to take his daughter with him when he departed.
His plans were facilitated by the news which arrived from Paris.
The government of France were greatly enraged at the escape
of their victim and spared no pains to detect and
punish his deliverer. The plot of Felix was quickly discovered,
and Delacey and Agatha were thrown into prison. The news

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reached Felix and roused him from his dream of pleasure.
His blind and aged father and his gentle sister lay
in a noisooned dungeon while he enjoyed the free air
and the society of her, whom he loved. This idea
was torture to him. He quickly arranged with the Turk
that if the latter should find a favorable opportunity for

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escape before Felix could return to Italy, Safie should remain
as a boarder at a convent at Leghorn. And then,
quitting the lovely Arabian, he hastened to Paris and delivered
himself up to the vengeance of the law, hoping to
free de Lacey and Agatha. By this proceeding. He did
not succeed. They remained confined for five months before the

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trial took place, the result of which deprived them of
their fortune and condemned them to a perpetual exile from
their native country. They found a miserable asylum in the
cottage of Germany, where I discovered them. Felix soon learned
that the treacherous Turk, for whom he and his family
endured such unheard of oppression. On discovering that his deliverer

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was thus reduced to poverty, in Ruin became a traitor
to good feeling and honor, and had quitted Italy with
his daughter, insultingly sending Felix a pittance of money to
aid him, as he said, in some plan of future maintenance.
Such were the events that preyed on the heart of
Felix and rendered him, when I first saw him, the

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most miserable of his family. He could have endured poverty,
and while this distress had been the meed of his virtue,
he gloried in it. But the ingratitude of the Turk
and the loss of his beloved Safie were misfortunes more
bitter and irreparative. The arrival of the Arabian now infused
new life into his soul. When the news reached Leghorn

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that Felix was deprived of his wealth and braank, the
merchant commanded his daughter to think no more of her lover,
but to prepare to return to her native country. The
generous nature of Safie was outraged by this command. She
attempted to expostulate with her father, but he left her angrily,
reiterating his tyrannical mandate. A few days after, the Turk

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entered his daughter's apartment and told her hastily that he
had reason to believe that his residence at Leghorn had
been divulged, and that he should speedily be delivered up
to the French government. He had consequently hired a vessel
to convey him to Constantinople, for which city he should
sail in a few hours. He intended to leave his
daughter under the care of a confidential servant, to follow

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at her leisure with the greater part of his property,
which had not yet arrived at Leghorn. When alone, Saffor
resolved in her own mind the plan of conduct that
it would become her to pursue in this emergency a
residence in Turkey was abhorrent to her. Her religion and
her feelings were alike averse to it. By some papers

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of her father which fell into her hands, she heard
of the exile of her lover and learnt the name
of the spot where he then resided. She hesitated some time,
but at length she formed her determination, Taking with her
some jewels that belonged to her and a sum of money,
she quitted Italy with an attendant, a native of Leghorn,

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but who understood the common language of Turkey, and departed
for Germany. She arrived in safety at a town about
twenty leagues from the cottage of de Lacey. When her
attendant fell dangerously ill, Saffie nursed her with the most
devoted affection, but the poor girl died, and the Arabian
was left alone, unacquainted with the language of the country

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and utterly ignorant of the customs of the world. She fell, however,
into good hands. The Italian had mentioned the name of
the spot for which they were bound, and after her death,
the woman of the house in which they had lived,
took care that Safie should arrive in safety at the
cottage of her lover. End to part eighteen of Frankenstein