WEBVTT

1
00:00:00.240 --> 00:00:06.440
<v Speaker 1>Caterpillars by E. F. Benson. I saw a month or

2
00:00:06.440 --> 00:00:10.519
<v Speaker 1>two ago in an Italian paper that the Villa Cascana

3
00:00:10.960 --> 00:00:14.400
<v Speaker 1>in which I once stayed had been pulled down, and

4
00:00:14.439 --> 00:00:17.359
<v Speaker 1>that a manufactory of some sort was in process of

5
00:00:17.399 --> 00:00:22.039
<v Speaker 1>erection at sight. There is therefore no longer any reason

6
00:00:22.079 --> 00:00:24.839
<v Speaker 1>for refraining from writing of those things which I myself

7
00:00:24.920 --> 00:00:30.399
<v Speaker 1>saw or imagined I saw in a certain room and

8
00:00:31.000 --> 00:00:34.200
<v Speaker 1>on a certain landing of the villa in question, nor

9
00:00:34.280 --> 00:00:37.840
<v Speaker 1>from mentioning the circumstances which followed, which may or may not,

10
00:00:38.000 --> 00:00:41.079
<v Speaker 1>according to the opinion of the reader, throw some light

11
00:00:41.159 --> 00:00:45.920
<v Speaker 1>on or be somehow connected with this experience. The Villa

12
00:00:46.000 --> 00:00:50.920
<v Speaker 1>Cascana was, in all ways but one a perfectly delightful house.

13
00:00:51.560 --> 00:00:54.520
<v Speaker 1>Yet if it were standing now, nothing in the world

14
00:00:54.840 --> 00:00:57.880
<v Speaker 1>I used a phrase in its literal sense would induce

15
00:00:57.960 --> 00:01:00.359
<v Speaker 1>me to set foot in it again, for I believe

16
00:01:00.359 --> 00:01:02.759
<v Speaker 1>it to have been haunted in a very terrible and

17
00:01:02.880 --> 00:01:08.280
<v Speaker 1>practical manner. Most ghosts, when all is said and done,

18
00:01:08.359 --> 00:01:12.040
<v Speaker 1>do not do much harm. They may perhaps terrify, but

19
00:01:12.159 --> 00:01:14.959
<v Speaker 1>the person whom they visit usually gets over their visitation.

20
00:01:15.920 --> 00:01:18.760
<v Speaker 1>They may, on the other hand, be entirely friendly and beneficent,

21
00:01:19.680 --> 00:01:22.799
<v Speaker 1>but the appearances in the Villa Cascana were not beneficent,

22
00:01:23.400 --> 00:01:26.359
<v Speaker 1>and had they made their visit in a very slightly

23
00:01:26.400 --> 00:01:29.640
<v Speaker 1>different manner, I do not suppose I should have got

24
00:01:29.640 --> 00:01:33.359
<v Speaker 1>over it any more than Arthur Inglis did. The house

25
00:01:33.400 --> 00:01:36.359
<v Speaker 1>stood on an alex clad hill, not far from the

26
00:01:36.400 --> 00:01:40.680
<v Speaker 1>Sestri di Levante on the Italian Riviera, looking out over

27
00:01:40.719 --> 00:01:44.400
<v Speaker 1>the iridescent blues of that enchanted sea, while behind it

28
00:01:44.480 --> 00:01:46.959
<v Speaker 1>rose the pale green chestnut woods that climb up the

29
00:01:47.040 --> 00:01:50.760
<v Speaker 1>hillsides till they give place to the pines that black,

30
00:01:50.799 --> 00:01:54.879
<v Speaker 1>in contrast with them, crown the slopes all round. At

31
00:01:54.879 --> 00:01:57.560
<v Speaker 1>the garden in the luxuriance of mid spring, bloomed and

32
00:01:57.719 --> 00:02:01.760
<v Speaker 1>was fragrant, and the scent of magnolia and rose borne

33
00:02:01.760 --> 00:02:03.840
<v Speaker 1>on the salt freshness of the winds from the sea

34
00:02:04.439 --> 00:02:09.400
<v Speaker 1>flowed like a stream through the cool vaulted rooms. On

35
00:02:09.439 --> 00:02:12.560
<v Speaker 1>the ground floor, a broad pillared loggia ran round three

36
00:02:12.560 --> 00:02:15.240
<v Speaker 1>sides of the house, the top of which formed a

37
00:02:15.240 --> 00:02:19.280
<v Speaker 1>balcony for certain rooms of the first floor. The main staircase,

38
00:02:19.360 --> 00:02:22.240
<v Speaker 1>broadened of gray marble steps, led up from the hall

39
00:02:22.280 --> 00:02:25.120
<v Speaker 1>to the landing. Outside these rooms, which were three in number,

40
00:02:25.520 --> 00:02:29.039
<v Speaker 1>namely two big sitting rooms and a bedroom arranged on suite.

41
00:02:29.840 --> 00:02:33.080
<v Speaker 1>The latter was unoccupied, the sitting rooms were in use.

42
00:02:33.919 --> 00:02:36.919
<v Speaker 1>From these the main staircase was continued to the second floor,

43
00:02:37.120 --> 00:02:40.439
<v Speaker 1>where were situated certain bedrooms, one of which I occupied,

44
00:02:41.080 --> 00:02:43.120
<v Speaker 1>while from the other side of the first floor landing,

45
00:02:43.240 --> 00:02:46.919
<v Speaker 1>some half dozen steps led to another suite of rooms, where,

46
00:02:47.039 --> 00:02:50.080
<v Speaker 1>at the time I am speaking of Arthur Inglis, the

47
00:02:50.199 --> 00:02:54.599
<v Speaker 1>artist had his bedroom and studio. Thus the landing outside

48
00:02:54.599 --> 00:02:57.120
<v Speaker 1>my bedroom at the top of the house commanded both

49
00:02:57.120 --> 00:02:59.319
<v Speaker 1>the landing of the first floor and also the steps

50
00:02:59.319 --> 00:03:03.639
<v Speaker 1>that led to England room Jim Stanley and his wife. Finally,

51
00:03:03.719 --> 00:03:06.520
<v Speaker 1>whose guest I was occupied rooms in another wing of

52
00:03:06.520 --> 00:03:12.280
<v Speaker 1>the house, where also were the servants quarters. I arrived

53
00:03:12.319 --> 00:03:14.319
<v Speaker 1>just in time for lunch on a brilliant noon of

54
00:03:14.360 --> 00:03:18.039
<v Speaker 1>mid May. The garden was shouting with color and fragrance,

55
00:03:18.560 --> 00:03:21.120
<v Speaker 1>and not less delightful after my broiling walk up from

56
00:03:21.120 --> 00:03:23.560
<v Speaker 1>the marina. Should have been the coming from the reverberating

57
00:03:23.599 --> 00:03:26.319
<v Speaker 1>heat and blaze of the day into the marble coolness

58
00:03:26.319 --> 00:03:30.120
<v Speaker 1>of the villa. Only the reader has my bare word

59
00:03:30.199 --> 00:03:33.360
<v Speaker 1>for this, and nothing more. The moment I set foot

60
00:03:33.400 --> 00:03:37.159
<v Speaker 1>in the house, I felt that something was wrong. This feeling,

61
00:03:37.199 --> 00:03:41.159
<v Speaker 1>I may say, was quite vague, though very strong. And

62
00:03:41.240 --> 00:03:43.360
<v Speaker 1>I remember that when I saw letters waiting for me

63
00:03:43.400 --> 00:03:45.520
<v Speaker 1>on the table in the hall, I felt certain that

64
00:03:45.599 --> 00:03:49.039
<v Speaker 1>the explanation was here. I was convinced that there was

65
00:03:49.159 --> 00:03:52.199
<v Speaker 1>bad news of some sort for me. Yet when I

66
00:03:52.240 --> 00:03:55.120
<v Speaker 1>opened them, I found no such explanation of my premonition.

67
00:03:55.879 --> 00:04:01.080
<v Speaker 1>My correspondence all reeked of prosperity. Yet clear miscarriage of

68
00:04:01.080 --> 00:04:05.039
<v Speaker 1>a presentiment did not dissipate my uneasiness in that cool,

69
00:04:05.120 --> 00:04:10.159
<v Speaker 1>fragrant house. There was something wrong. I am at pains

70
00:04:10.199 --> 00:04:12.520
<v Speaker 1>to mention this, because to the general view, it may

71
00:04:12.560 --> 00:04:15.680
<v Speaker 1>explain that, though I am, as a rule so excellent

72
00:04:15.719 --> 00:04:17.800
<v Speaker 1>a sleep, or that the extinction of my light on

73
00:04:17.879 --> 00:04:21.879
<v Speaker 1>getting into bed is apparently contemporaneous with being called on

74
00:04:21.959 --> 00:04:25.360
<v Speaker 1>the following morning, I slept very badly on my first

75
00:04:25.439 --> 00:04:28.680
<v Speaker 1>night at the Villa Cascana. It may also explain the

76
00:04:28.680 --> 00:04:31.079
<v Speaker 1>fact that when I did sleep, if it was indeed

77
00:04:31.120 --> 00:04:33.279
<v Speaker 1>in sleep that I saw what I thought I saw,

78
00:04:34.480 --> 00:04:38.079
<v Speaker 1>I dreamed in a very vivid and original manner. Original,

79
00:04:38.199 --> 00:04:40.480
<v Speaker 1>that is to say, in the sense that something that,

80
00:04:40.839 --> 00:04:44.160
<v Speaker 1>as far as I knew, had never previously entered into

81
00:04:44.160 --> 00:04:48.199
<v Speaker 1>my consciousness usurped it then. But since in addition to

82
00:04:48.319 --> 00:04:51.759
<v Speaker 1>this evil premonition, certain words and events occurring during the

83
00:04:51.800 --> 00:04:54.519
<v Speaker 1>rest of the day might have suggested something of what

84
00:04:54.600 --> 00:04:57.480
<v Speaker 1>I thought happened that night, it will be well to

85
00:04:57.560 --> 00:05:01.839
<v Speaker 1>relate them after lunch. Then I went round the house

86
00:05:01.879 --> 00:05:04.879
<v Speaker 1>with Missus Stanley, and during our tour she referred, it

87
00:05:04.920 --> 00:05:07.560
<v Speaker 1>is true to the unoccupied bedroom on the first floor,

88
00:05:08.079 --> 00:05:10.319
<v Speaker 1>which opened out of the room where we had lunched.

89
00:05:11.680 --> 00:05:15.279
<v Speaker 1>We left that unoccupied, she said, because Jim and I

90
00:05:15.360 --> 00:05:17.879
<v Speaker 1>have a charming bedroom and dressing room, as you saw

91
00:05:18.000 --> 00:05:20.560
<v Speaker 1>in the wing, and if we used it ourselves, we

92
00:05:20.600 --> 00:05:22.560
<v Speaker 1>should have to turn the dining room into a dressing

93
00:05:22.639 --> 00:05:26.240
<v Speaker 1>room and have our meals downstairs. As it is, however,

94
00:05:26.279 --> 00:05:29.319
<v Speaker 1>we have our little flat there. Arthur Inglis has his

95
00:05:29.519 --> 00:05:33.240
<v Speaker 1>little flat in the other passage. And I remembered our

96
00:05:33.360 --> 00:05:36.800
<v Speaker 1>Tyke extraordinary that you once said that the higher up

97
00:05:36.800 --> 00:05:38.959
<v Speaker 1>you were in a house, the better you were pleased.

98
00:05:39.439 --> 00:05:41.240
<v Speaker 1>So I put you at the top of the house

99
00:05:41.480 --> 00:05:44.920
<v Speaker 1>instead of giving you that room. It is true that

100
00:05:45.040 --> 00:05:48.480
<v Speaker 1>a doubt, vague as my uneasy premonition, crossed my mind

101
00:05:48.519 --> 00:05:51.759
<v Speaker 1>at this I did not see why Missus Stanley should

102
00:05:51.759 --> 00:05:54.399
<v Speaker 1>have explained all this if there had been not been

103
00:05:54.439 --> 00:05:57.680
<v Speaker 1>more to explain. I allow therefore that the thought that

104
00:05:57.680 --> 00:06:01.240
<v Speaker 1>there was something to explain about the unoccupied bedroom was

105
00:06:01.319 --> 00:06:05.680
<v Speaker 1>momentarily present to my mind. The second thing that may

106
00:06:05.720 --> 00:06:10.079
<v Speaker 1>have borne on my dream was this. At dinner, the

107
00:06:10.120 --> 00:06:14.160
<v Speaker 1>conversation turned for a moment on ghosts. Anglis, with the

108
00:06:14.519 --> 00:06:17.639
<v Speaker 1>certainty of conviction, expressed his belief that anybody who could

109
00:06:17.680 --> 00:06:22.240
<v Speaker 1>possibly believe in the existence of supernatural phenomena was unworthy

110
00:06:22.279 --> 00:06:25.759
<v Speaker 1>of the name of an ass The subject instantly dropped.

111
00:06:26.240 --> 00:06:28.839
<v Speaker 1>As far as I can recollect, nothing else occurred or

112
00:06:28.920 --> 00:06:33.120
<v Speaker 1>was said that could bear on what follows. We all

113
00:06:33.160 --> 00:06:35.920
<v Speaker 1>went to bed rather early, and personally I yawned my

114
00:06:36.000 --> 00:06:40.839
<v Speaker 1>way upstairs, feeling hideously sleepy. My room was rather hot,

115
00:06:40.879 --> 00:06:44.399
<v Speaker 1>and I threw all the windows wide, and from without

116
00:06:44.439 --> 00:06:46.680
<v Speaker 1>poured in the white light of the moon and the

117
00:06:46.720 --> 00:06:50.720
<v Speaker 1>love song of many nightingales. I undressed quickly and got

118
00:06:50.759 --> 00:06:53.800
<v Speaker 1>into bed. But though I had felt so sleepy before,

119
00:06:53.920 --> 00:06:57.879
<v Speaker 1>I now felt extremely wide awake. But I was quite

120
00:06:57.879 --> 00:07:00.319
<v Speaker 1>content to be awake. I did not toss or turn.

121
00:07:01.000 --> 00:07:04.079
<v Speaker 1>I felt perfectly happy listening to the song and seeing

122
00:07:04.079 --> 00:07:07.439
<v Speaker 1>the light. Then it is possible I may have gone

123
00:07:07.439 --> 00:07:11.199
<v Speaker 1>to sleep, and what follows may have been a dream.

124
00:07:11.639 --> 00:07:15.920
<v Speaker 1>I thought, anyhow, that after a time, the nightingales ceased singing,

125
00:07:15.959 --> 00:07:19.399
<v Speaker 1>and the moon sank. I thought also that if for

126
00:07:19.439 --> 00:07:23.000
<v Speaker 1>some unexplained reason, I was going to lie awake all night,

127
00:07:23.319 --> 00:07:25.839
<v Speaker 1>I might as well read. And I remembered that I

128
00:07:25.839 --> 00:07:27.759
<v Speaker 1>had left a book in which I was interested in

129
00:07:27.800 --> 00:07:30.720
<v Speaker 1>the dining room on the first floor. So I got

130
00:07:30.759 --> 00:07:34.399
<v Speaker 1>out of bed, lit a candle, and went downstairs. I

131
00:07:34.480 --> 00:07:36.759
<v Speaker 1>went into the room, saw on a side table the

132
00:07:36.800 --> 00:07:40.360
<v Speaker 1>book I had come to look for, and then simultaneously

133
00:07:41.319 --> 00:07:44.360
<v Speaker 1>saw that the door into the unoccupied bedroom was open.

134
00:07:45.160 --> 00:07:48.560
<v Speaker 1>A curious gray light, not of dawn nor of moonshine,

135
00:07:48.720 --> 00:07:52.199
<v Speaker 1>came out of it, and I looked in the bed

136
00:07:52.240 --> 00:07:55.319
<v Speaker 1>stood just opposite the door, a big four poster hung

137
00:07:55.399 --> 00:07:58.600
<v Speaker 1>with tapestry at the head. Then I saw that the

138
00:07:58.600 --> 00:08:01.160
<v Speaker 1>grayish light of the bedroom came from the bed, or

139
00:08:01.240 --> 00:08:04.519
<v Speaker 1>rather from what was on the bed, for it was

140
00:08:04.560 --> 00:08:08.319
<v Speaker 1>covered with great caterpillars a foot or more in length,

141
00:08:08.519 --> 00:08:12.639
<v Speaker 1>which crawled over it. They were faintly luminous, and it

142
00:08:12.680 --> 00:08:14.879
<v Speaker 1>was the light from them that showed me the room,

143
00:08:16.680 --> 00:08:19.360
<v Speaker 1>instead of the sucker feet of ordinary caterpillars. They had

144
00:08:19.480 --> 00:08:23.199
<v Speaker 1>rows of pincers, like crabs, and they moved by grasping

145
00:08:23.240 --> 00:08:26.279
<v Speaker 1>what they lay on with their pincers and then sliding

146
00:08:26.279 --> 00:08:30.600
<v Speaker 1>their bodies forward. In color, these dreadful insects were yellowish gray,

147
00:08:31.240 --> 00:08:35.200
<v Speaker 1>and they were covered with irregular lumps and swellings. There

148
00:08:35.279 --> 00:08:37.639
<v Speaker 1>must have been hundreds of them, for they formed a

149
00:08:37.679 --> 00:08:41.679
<v Speaker 1>sort of writhing, crawling pyramid on the bed. Occasionally one

150
00:08:41.679 --> 00:08:44.559
<v Speaker 1>fell off onto the floor with a soft, fleshy thud,

151
00:08:45.039 --> 00:08:48.000
<v Speaker 1>and though the floor was of hard concrete, it yielded

152
00:08:48.159 --> 00:08:50.120
<v Speaker 1>to the pincer feet as if it had been putty,

153
00:08:50.799 --> 00:08:53.600
<v Speaker 1>and crawling back, the caterpillar would mount onto the bed

154
00:08:53.639 --> 00:08:57.600
<v Speaker 1>again to rejoin its fearful companions. They appeared to have

155
00:08:57.639 --> 00:09:00.440
<v Speaker 1>no faces, so to speak, but at one of them

156
00:09:00.480 --> 00:09:05.600
<v Speaker 1>there was a mouth that opened sideways and respiration. Then

157
00:09:05.919 --> 00:09:08.679
<v Speaker 1>as I looked, it seemed to me that they all

158
00:09:08.840 --> 00:09:13.559
<v Speaker 1>suddenly became conscious of my presence. All the mouths, at

159
00:09:13.559 --> 00:09:16.480
<v Speaker 1>any rate, were turned in my direction, and next moment

160
00:09:16.519 --> 00:09:19.320
<v Speaker 1>they began dropping off the bed with those soft fleshy

161
00:09:19.360 --> 00:09:23.240
<v Speaker 1>thuds onto the floor and wriggling towards me. For a second,

162
00:09:23.240 --> 00:09:25.799
<v Speaker 1>a paralysis as of a dream was on me. But

163
00:09:25.879 --> 00:09:28.039
<v Speaker 1>the next I was running upstairs again to my room,

164
00:09:28.320 --> 00:09:30.720
<v Speaker 1>and I remember feeling the cold of the marble steps

165
00:09:30.720 --> 00:09:33.840
<v Speaker 1>on my bare feet. I rushed into my bedroom and

166
00:09:33.960 --> 00:09:36.919
<v Speaker 1>slammed the door behind me, and then I was certainly

167
00:09:36.960 --> 00:09:40.080
<v Speaker 1>wide awake. Now I found myself standing by my bed,

168
00:09:40.120 --> 00:09:43.440
<v Speaker 1>with a sweat of terror pouring from me. The noise

169
00:09:43.440 --> 00:09:46.200
<v Speaker 1>of the banged door still rang in my ears. But

170
00:09:46.600 --> 00:09:49.159
<v Speaker 1>as would have been more usual if this had been

171
00:09:49.200 --> 00:09:51.840
<v Speaker 1>mere nightmare, the terror that had been mine when I

172
00:09:51.840 --> 00:09:55.480
<v Speaker 1>saw those foul beasts crawling about the bed or dropping

173
00:09:55.519 --> 00:09:59.440
<v Speaker 1>softly onto the floor, did not cease then awake. Now,

174
00:09:59.480 --> 00:10:02.639
<v Speaker 1>if dreamed before, I did not at all recover from

175
00:10:02.639 --> 00:10:05.240
<v Speaker 1>the horror of dream. It did not seem to me

176
00:10:05.320 --> 00:10:09.840
<v Speaker 1>that I had dreamed. And until dawn I sat or stood,

177
00:10:10.080 --> 00:10:13.279
<v Speaker 1>not daring to lie down, thinking that every rustle or

178
00:10:13.360 --> 00:10:16.080
<v Speaker 1>movement that I heard was the approach of the caterpillars

179
00:10:16.919 --> 00:10:19.600
<v Speaker 1>to them, and the claws that bit into the cement.

180
00:10:19.759 --> 00:10:23.559
<v Speaker 1>The wood of the door was child's play. Steel would

181
00:10:23.559 --> 00:10:27.000
<v Speaker 1>not keep them out. But with the sweet and noble

182
00:10:27.039 --> 00:10:30.200
<v Speaker 1>return of day, the horror vanished. The whisper of wind

183
00:10:30.200 --> 00:10:34.000
<v Speaker 1>became benignant again, the nameless fear. Whatever it was was

184
00:10:34.000 --> 00:10:38.240
<v Speaker 1>smoothed out and terrified me no longer. Dawn broke hewless

185
00:10:38.279 --> 00:10:41.960
<v Speaker 1>at first, then it grew dove colored. Then the flaming

186
00:10:42.000 --> 00:10:47.279
<v Speaker 1>pageant of light spread over the sky. The admirable rule

187
00:10:47.320 --> 00:10:50.159
<v Speaker 1>of the house was that everybody had breakfast where and

188
00:10:50.200 --> 00:10:52.639
<v Speaker 1>when he pleased, And in consequence, it was not till

189
00:10:52.720 --> 00:10:54.879
<v Speaker 1>lunch time that I met any of the other members

190
00:10:54.879 --> 00:10:57.320
<v Speaker 1>of our party, since I had breakfast on my balcony

191
00:10:57.720 --> 00:11:00.559
<v Speaker 1>and wrote letters and other things till lunch. In fact,

192
00:11:00.639 --> 00:11:02.960
<v Speaker 1>I got down to that meal rather late, after the

193
00:11:03.000 --> 00:11:06.200
<v Speaker 1>other three had begun. Between my knife and fork there

194
00:11:06.240 --> 00:11:08.720
<v Speaker 1>was a small pill box of cardboard, and as I

195
00:11:08.759 --> 00:11:13.080
<v Speaker 1>sat down, English spoke, Do look at that, he said,

196
00:11:13.519 --> 00:11:16.720
<v Speaker 1>since you are interested in natural history. I found it

197
00:11:16.840 --> 00:11:19.559
<v Speaker 1>crawling on my counterpane last night, and I don't know

198
00:11:19.720 --> 00:11:23.159
<v Speaker 1>what it is. I think that before I opened the

199
00:11:23.159 --> 00:11:25.360
<v Speaker 1>pill box I expected something of the sort which I

200
00:11:25.440 --> 00:11:29.600
<v Speaker 1>found in it. Inside, anyhow, was a small caterpillar, grayish

201
00:11:29.679 --> 00:11:33.399
<v Speaker 1>yellow in color, with curious bumps and increscences on its rings.

202
00:11:34.039 --> 00:11:36.919
<v Speaker 1>It was extremely active and hurried round the box this way,

203
00:11:36.919 --> 00:11:40.600
<v Speaker 1>and that its feet were unlike the feet of any caterpillar.

204
00:11:40.639 --> 00:11:43.120
<v Speaker 1>I ever saw. They were like the pincers of a crab.

205
00:11:44.120 --> 00:11:46.879
<v Speaker 1>I looked and shut the lid down again. No, I

206
00:11:46.919 --> 00:11:49.399
<v Speaker 1>don't know it, I said, but it looks rather unwholesome.

207
00:11:49.960 --> 00:11:52.320
<v Speaker 1>What are you going to do with it? Oh, I

208
00:11:52.360 --> 00:11:55.320
<v Speaker 1>shall keep it, said Inglis. It has begun to spin.

209
00:11:55.399 --> 00:11:57.200
<v Speaker 1>I want to see what sort of a mooth it

210
00:11:57.279 --> 00:12:00.600
<v Speaker 1>turns into. I opened the box again and saw that

211
00:12:00.639 --> 00:12:03.159
<v Speaker 1>these hurrying movements were indeed the beginning of the spinning

212
00:12:03.200 --> 00:12:06.600
<v Speaker 1>of the web of its cocoon. Then English spoke again.

213
00:12:07.879 --> 00:12:10.840
<v Speaker 1>It has got funny feet too, he said, They are

214
00:12:10.919 --> 00:12:15.399
<v Speaker 1>like crabs pincers. What's the Latin for crab? Oh? Yes, cancer?

215
00:12:15.559 --> 00:12:18.759
<v Speaker 1>So in case it is unique, let's christen it cancer

216
00:12:19.159 --> 00:12:23.679
<v Speaker 1>English senses. Then something happened to my brain, some momentary

217
00:12:24.039 --> 00:12:26.480
<v Speaker 1>piecing together of all that I had seen or dreamed.

218
00:12:27.039 --> 00:12:29.240
<v Speaker 1>Something in his words seemed to me to throw light

219
00:12:29.279 --> 00:12:31.440
<v Speaker 1>on it all, and my own intense horror at the

220
00:12:31.480 --> 00:12:34.840
<v Speaker 1>experience of the night before linked itself onto what he

221
00:12:34.879 --> 00:12:37.399
<v Speaker 1>had just said. In in fact, I took the box

222
00:12:37.440 --> 00:12:39.799
<v Speaker 1>and threw it, caterpillar and all out of the window.

223
00:12:40.399 --> 00:12:42.879
<v Speaker 1>There was a gravel path just outside, and beyond it

224
00:12:42.919 --> 00:12:46.679
<v Speaker 1>a fountain playing into a basin. The box fell onto

225
00:12:46.720 --> 00:12:50.879
<v Speaker 1>the middle of this English laughed. So the students of

226
00:12:50.919 --> 00:12:55.720
<v Speaker 1>the occult don't like solid facts, he said, my poor caterpillar.

227
00:12:56.960 --> 00:13:00.120
<v Speaker 1>The talk went off again at once onto other subjects.

228
00:13:00.519 --> 00:13:02.679
<v Speaker 1>And I have only given in detail as they happen,

229
00:13:02.799 --> 00:13:05.399
<v Speaker 1>these trivialities, in order to be sure myself that I

230
00:13:05.440 --> 00:13:08.840
<v Speaker 1>have recorded everything that could have borne on occult subjects,

231
00:13:08.960 --> 00:13:11.879
<v Speaker 1>or on the subject of caterpillars. But at the moment

232
00:13:11.919 --> 00:13:14.120
<v Speaker 1>when I threw the pill box into the fountain, I

233
00:13:14.200 --> 00:13:17.279
<v Speaker 1>lost my head. My only excuse is that, as is

234
00:13:17.320 --> 00:13:21.559
<v Speaker 1>probably plain, the tenant of it was in miniature exactly

235
00:13:21.559 --> 00:13:23.440
<v Speaker 1>what I had seen crowded onto the bed in the

236
00:13:23.559 --> 00:13:28.039
<v Speaker 1>unoccupied room. And though this translation of those phantoms into

237
00:13:28.039 --> 00:13:30.799
<v Speaker 1>flesh and blood or whatever it is that caterpillars are

238
00:13:30.840 --> 00:13:34.480
<v Speaker 1>made of, ought perhaps to have relieved the horror of

239
00:13:34.519 --> 00:13:36.600
<v Speaker 1>the night, as a matter of fact, it did nothing

240
00:13:36.600 --> 00:13:40.320
<v Speaker 1>of the kind. It only made the crawling pyramid that

241
00:13:40.360 --> 00:13:44.000
<v Speaker 1>covered the bed in the unoccupied room more hideously real.

242
00:13:45.200 --> 00:13:47.840
<v Speaker 1>After lunch we spent a lazy hour two strolling about

243
00:13:47.840 --> 00:13:50.159
<v Speaker 1>the garden or sitting in the loggia. And it must

244
00:13:50.200 --> 00:13:52.480
<v Speaker 1>have been about four o'clock when Stanley, and I started

245
00:13:52.519 --> 00:13:54.720
<v Speaker 1>off the bathe down the path that led by the

246
00:13:54.720 --> 00:13:57.519
<v Speaker 1>fountain into which I had thrown the pill box. The

247
00:13:57.600 --> 00:13:59.639
<v Speaker 1>water was shallow and clear, and at the bottom of

248
00:13:59.679 --> 00:14:03.000
<v Speaker 1>it I saw its white remains. The water had disintegrated

249
00:14:03.000 --> 00:14:05.480
<v Speaker 1>the cardboard, and it had become no more than a

250
00:14:05.519 --> 00:14:08.919
<v Speaker 1>few strips and shreds of sod and paper. The center

251
00:14:08.960 --> 00:14:12.039
<v Speaker 1>of the fountain was a marble Italian cupid, which squirted

252
00:14:12.039 --> 00:14:15.039
<v Speaker 1>the water out of a wine skin held under its arm,

253
00:14:15.320 --> 00:14:19.000
<v Speaker 1>and crawling up its leg was the caterpillar, strange and

254
00:14:19.039 --> 00:14:21.519
<v Speaker 1>scarcely credible, as it seemed, it must have survived the

255
00:14:21.519 --> 00:14:24.159
<v Speaker 1>falling to bits of its prison and made its way

256
00:14:24.200 --> 00:14:26.799
<v Speaker 1>to shore. And there it was out of arm's reach,

257
00:14:27.240 --> 00:14:29.759
<v Speaker 1>weaving and waving this way and that as it evolved

258
00:14:29.799 --> 00:14:33.759
<v Speaker 1>its cocoon. Then as I looked at it, it seemed

259
00:14:33.759 --> 00:14:36.440
<v Speaker 1>to me again that like the caterpillar I had seen

260
00:14:36.519 --> 00:14:39.679
<v Speaker 1>last night, it saw me, and, breaking out of the

261
00:14:39.720 --> 00:14:42.559
<v Speaker 1>threads that surrounded it, it crawled down the marble leg

262
00:14:42.639 --> 00:14:45.480
<v Speaker 1>of the cupid and began swimming like a snake across

263
00:14:45.519 --> 00:14:48.360
<v Speaker 1>the water of the fountain towards me. It came with

264
00:14:48.440 --> 00:14:51.679
<v Speaker 1>extraordinary speed, the fact of a caterpillar. Being able to

265
00:14:51.720 --> 00:14:54.679
<v Speaker 1>swim was new to me, and in another moment was

266
00:14:54.720 --> 00:14:57.639
<v Speaker 1>crawling up the marble lip of the basin. Just then

267
00:14:57.720 --> 00:15:02.480
<v Speaker 1>English joined us, why if it is an old cancer ingleciensis? Again,

268
00:15:03.000 --> 00:15:05.919
<v Speaker 1>he said, catching sight of the beast, what a tearing

269
00:15:06.000 --> 00:15:09.559
<v Speaker 1>hurry it is in We were standing side by side

270
00:15:09.559 --> 00:15:11.679
<v Speaker 1>on the path, and when the caterpillar had advanced to

271
00:15:11.720 --> 00:15:14.360
<v Speaker 1>within about a yard of us, it stopped and began

272
00:15:14.480 --> 00:15:16.840
<v Speaker 1>waving again, as if in doubt as to the direction

273
00:15:16.960 --> 00:15:19.559
<v Speaker 1>in which it should go. Then it appeared to make

274
00:15:19.639 --> 00:15:24.000
<v Speaker 1>up its mind and crawled onto English's shoe. It likes

275
00:15:24.039 --> 00:15:26.799
<v Speaker 1>me best, he said, But I don't really know that

276
00:15:26.879 --> 00:15:29.320
<v Speaker 1>I like it. And as it won't drown, I think

277
00:15:29.360 --> 00:15:33.000
<v Speaker 1>perhaps He shook it off his shoe onto the gravel

278
00:15:33.080 --> 00:15:37.919
<v Speaker 1>path and trod on it all afternoon the air got

279
00:15:37.960 --> 00:15:41.039
<v Speaker 1>heavier and heavier, with a sirocco that was, without doubt

280
00:15:41.039 --> 00:15:44.000
<v Speaker 1>coming up from the south. And that night again I

281
00:15:44.039 --> 00:15:48.039
<v Speaker 1>went up to bed feeling very sleepy, but below my drowsiness,

282
00:15:48.120 --> 00:15:51.279
<v Speaker 1>so to speak, there was the consciousness stronger than before,

283
00:15:51.799 --> 00:15:54.919
<v Speaker 1>that there was something wrong in the house, that something

284
00:15:55.080 --> 00:15:58.039
<v Speaker 1>dangerous was close at hand. But I fell asleep at

285
00:15:58.039 --> 00:16:01.720
<v Speaker 1>once and how long after I do not know either

286
00:16:02.039 --> 00:16:05.159
<v Speaker 1>woke or dreamed. I awoke feeling that I must get

287
00:16:05.240 --> 00:16:08.600
<v Speaker 1>up at once, or I should be too late. Then,

288
00:16:09.039 --> 00:16:12.279
<v Speaker 1>dreaming or awake, I lay and fought this sphere, telling

289
00:16:12.320 --> 00:16:14.799
<v Speaker 1>myself that I was but the prey of my own nerves,

290
00:16:14.840 --> 00:16:18.440
<v Speaker 1>disordered by sirocco or what not, and at the same time,

291
00:16:18.559 --> 00:16:21.000
<v Speaker 1>quite clearly knowing in another part of my mind, so

292
00:16:21.080 --> 00:16:24.240
<v Speaker 1>to speak, that every moment's delay added to the danger.

293
00:16:25.159 --> 00:16:28.039
<v Speaker 1>At last, this second feeling became irresistible, and I put

294
00:16:28.080 --> 00:16:30.159
<v Speaker 1>on coat and trousers and went out of my room

295
00:16:30.240 --> 00:16:33.000
<v Speaker 1>on to the landing. And then I saw that I

296
00:16:33.000 --> 00:16:36.039
<v Speaker 1>had already delayed too long, and that I was now

297
00:16:36.120 --> 00:16:40.240
<v Speaker 1>too late. The whole of the landing of the first

298
00:16:40.279 --> 00:16:43.159
<v Speaker 1>floor below was invisible under the swarm of caterpillars that

299
00:16:43.240 --> 00:16:46.320
<v Speaker 1>crawled there. The folding doors into the sitting room from

300
00:16:46.360 --> 00:16:48.720
<v Speaker 1>which opened the bedroom where I had seen them last night,

301
00:16:48.799 --> 00:16:51.399
<v Speaker 1>were shut, but they were squeezing through the cracks of it,

302
00:16:51.440 --> 00:16:55.440
<v Speaker 1>and dropping one by one through the keyhole, elongating themselves

303
00:16:55.480 --> 00:16:58.240
<v Speaker 1>into mere string as they passed, and growing fat and

304
00:16:58.320 --> 00:17:02.200
<v Speaker 1>lumpy again. On emerging, some as if exploring, were nosing

305
00:17:02.240 --> 00:17:04.240
<v Speaker 1>about the steps into the passage at the end of

306
00:17:04.279 --> 00:17:07.759
<v Speaker 1>which were Inglis's rooms. Others were crawling on the lowest

307
00:17:07.799 --> 00:17:10.240
<v Speaker 1>steps of the staircase that led up to where I stood.

308
00:17:10.880 --> 00:17:13.640
<v Speaker 1>The landing, however, was completely covered with them. I was

309
00:17:13.680 --> 00:17:16.640
<v Speaker 1>cut off, and of the frozen horror that seized me

310
00:17:16.680 --> 00:17:19.920
<v Speaker 1>when I saw that I can give no idea in words.

311
00:17:21.119 --> 00:17:23.440
<v Speaker 1>Then at last a general movement began to take place,

312
00:17:23.720 --> 00:17:25.519
<v Speaker 1>and they grew thicker on the steps that led to

313
00:17:25.640 --> 00:17:29.880
<v Speaker 1>Ingliss's room. Gradually, like some hideous tide of flesh, they

314
00:17:29.920 --> 00:17:33.440
<v Speaker 1>advanced along the passage, and I saw, the foremost visible

315
00:17:33.480 --> 00:17:37.039
<v Speaker 1>by the pale, gray luminousness that came from them, reach

316
00:17:37.160 --> 00:17:39.759
<v Speaker 1>his door. Again and again. I tried to shout and

317
00:17:39.839 --> 00:17:42.359
<v Speaker 1>warn him in teror all the time that they would

318
00:17:42.359 --> 00:17:44.279
<v Speaker 1>turn at the sound of my voice and mount my

319
00:17:44.400 --> 00:17:47.319
<v Speaker 1>stare instead. But for all my efforts, I felt that

320
00:17:47.400 --> 00:17:50.559
<v Speaker 1>no sound came from my throat. They crawled along the

321
00:17:50.640 --> 00:17:53.880
<v Speaker 1>hingecrack of his door, passing through as they had done before,

322
00:17:54.200 --> 00:17:57.160
<v Speaker 1>and still I stood there, making impotent efforts to shout

323
00:17:57.200 --> 00:17:59.680
<v Speaker 1>to him, to bid him escape while there was time.

324
00:18:01.720 --> 00:18:05.200
<v Speaker 1>At last the passage was completely empty. They had all gone,

325
00:18:05.839 --> 00:18:07.920
<v Speaker 1>and at that moment I was conscious for the first

326
00:18:07.920 --> 00:18:10.119
<v Speaker 1>time of the cold of the marble landing on which

327
00:18:10.160 --> 00:18:13.680
<v Speaker 1>I stood barefooted. The dawn was just beginning to break

328
00:18:13.680 --> 00:18:17.680
<v Speaker 1>in the eastern sky. Six months after I met missus

329
00:18:17.680 --> 00:18:20.680
<v Speaker 1>Stanley in a country house in England. We talked on

330
00:18:20.759 --> 00:18:24.079
<v Speaker 1>many subjects, and at last she said, I don't think

331
00:18:24.119 --> 00:18:26.279
<v Speaker 1>i've seen you since I got that dreadful news about

332
00:18:26.359 --> 00:18:31.359
<v Speaker 1>Arthur Ingliss a month ago. I haven't heard, said I. No,

333
00:18:32.160 --> 00:18:35.480
<v Speaker 1>he's got cancer. They don't even advise an operation, for

334
00:18:35.559 --> 00:18:38.039
<v Speaker 1>there is no hope of a cure. He is riddled

335
00:18:38.039 --> 00:18:42.480
<v Speaker 1>with it. The doctors say. Now, during all these six months,

336
00:18:42.519 --> 00:18:44.480
<v Speaker 1>I do not think a day had passed on which

337
00:18:44.519 --> 00:18:46.960
<v Speaker 1>I had not had in my mind the dreams or

338
00:18:46.960 --> 00:18:49.480
<v Speaker 1>whatever you like to call them, which I had seen

339
00:18:49.559 --> 00:18:53.480
<v Speaker 1>in the villa Kascana. It is awful, is it not,

340
00:18:53.839 --> 00:18:57.000
<v Speaker 1>she continued, And I feel I can't help feeling that

341
00:18:57.079 --> 00:19:00.920
<v Speaker 1>he may have caught it at the villa, I asked.

342
00:19:01.880 --> 00:19:06.200
<v Speaker 1>She looked at me in blank surprise. Why did you

343
00:19:06.240 --> 00:19:11.119
<v Speaker 1>say that, she asked, How did you know? Then she

344
00:19:11.240 --> 00:19:14.759
<v Speaker 1>told me in the unoccupied bedroom, a year before there

345
00:19:14.759 --> 00:19:17.960
<v Speaker 1>had been a fatal case of cancer. She had, of course,

346
00:19:18.000 --> 00:19:20.680
<v Speaker 1>taken the best advice, and been told that the utmost

347
00:19:20.680 --> 00:19:22.880
<v Speaker 1>dictates of prudence would be obeyed as long as she

348
00:19:22.920 --> 00:19:25.880
<v Speaker 1>did not put anybody to sleep in the room, which

349
00:19:25.920 --> 00:19:29.279
<v Speaker 1>had also been thoroughly disinfected and newly whitewashed and painted,

350
00:19:30.359 --> 00:19:35.039
<v Speaker 1>but and of caterpillars.