Friday, February 7, 2014

Saki story

As I lay in bed Wednesday during the ice storm listening to the cracking of branches, I was reminded of the short story by H. H. Munro (better known as Saki) called "The Wolves of Cernogratz." The Baron and Baroness Gruebel have purchased the old Cernogratz castle in Germany, and during a Christmas dinner party a guest asks if there are any legends that came with the castle. The Baroness says there's a story that whenever anyone dies there, "all the dogs in the village and the wild beasts in the forest howl the night long."
The Baroness is quickly corrected by Amalie, the normally silent and self-effacing old governess, who reveals that she is actually a member of the now-impoverished Cernogratz family. She explains that the wolves and dogs howl only when a member of the Cernogratz family dies, not just anyone, and "as the soul of the dying one left its body a tree would crash down in the park."
The "well-fed, much too-well-dressed" Baroness doesn't believe her story about being a family member and certainly doesn't take kindly to being corrected by an underling. She vows to let the governess go after the busy holiday season, but much to her annoyance Amalie falls critically ill shortly after Christmas.
The wolves gather: "The cry of the wolves rose on the still winter air and floated round the castle walls in long-drawn piercing wails; the old woman lay back on her couch with a look of long-delayed happiness on her face."
Then "a noise of splitting and crashing was heard" as a tree fell in the park.
The Baroness hastily agrees with the prevailing wisdom that it was just the cold that caused the wolves to come out and the tree to crash down, but nonetheless writes in the old woman's obit:
"At Schloss Cernogratz, Amalie von Cernogratz, for many years the valued friend of Baron and Baroness Gruebel."

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