The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1909-10-12
THE TRUE BLUEBEARD
He Was a Cruelty and MaIevo- IentIy Maligned Frenchman.
NOT A MURDEROUS MONSTER.

The supposedly detestable Bluebeard, the monster of murderous polygamy, the very name of the ogre into whose mouth one used, if one could, in child hoods happy hour, to throw india rub Der balls, was in truth a man who has been as cruelty and malevolently ma Iigned by history as Nero. Richard III., Macbeth, tutti quanti. So says M. Anatole France-and pray who can speak with higher authority on the real facts of faery?@in "Les Sept Femmes de la Barbe-BIeu ct Autres Contes Merveilleux." One knew al- ready that Charles Perrault first wrote, in about 1860, the historical biography of Bluebeard, but one did not know until now how deeply Perrault, prob ably through false information, wrong ed the memory of an excellent and i'll treated parsonage. From M. France we learn that M. Bernard de Montra- goux, of old and noble descent, lived in 1850 or whereabouts at the ancestral Chateau Les Guillettes, on his estates between Compiegne and Pierrefonds. The castle, of frowning outward as-
 
 taste and wealth. It's owner, contrary to long existing tradition, wore no beard, only a mustache and a little tuft below the lower lip. He was known through the countryside as Bluebeard because his hair was very black. and therefore his close shaven cheeks and chin were markedly blue. He was a fine figure of man who, in spite of his manifest advantages as good match, did not get on well with women of his own rank in life. This was due to an incurable shyness on his part. Pleasant and pretty girls who had been well brought up attracted him immensely, but also filled him with an tndescribable terror.
 The first notable result of this af- fiction was that the unfortunate or plan, for such he had been since his early youth, incapable of making pro- posals for the hand of any of the at- tractive and high born ladies in the neighborhood, married a certain Co., lette Passage, fascinating girl in her way, against whose character nothing seems known, who was going round the country with a dancing bear.
 
 months, and then Colette, who had at first reveled in being lady of quail ity, began to long for her old freedom. The longing became irresistible, and at last she took her departure secretly with her justly beloved bear. It is noteworthy that they made their es- cape by way of room that had door leading to what had been water meadows, and so to open country. Perrault called this room '1e petit cab inet," but it was also known as "the wretched princesses' room," because F'lorentine painter had covered its walls with the most lifelike figures of Gree, Niobe and Procris. The tragic effect of these paintings was enhanced by the porphyry flooring of the room, which suggested bloodstains.
 Montragoux appeared inconsolable at the disappearance, which was com plete, of Colette, his first wife, and doubtless his lot would have been far less unhappy if he had never tried to console himself. This, most unfor- tunately, he did by marrying one Jeanne de la Cloche, who turned out to be a violent dipsomaniac. Blue beard was of nature so kindly and noble that, although in a fit of mad passion she nearly killed him with a kitchen knife, he continually hoped to reclaim her by kindness. But one day she strayed into the generally shut up princesses' room, took the painted fig ures for real people and was so terri fled that she rushed wildly into the open fields, tumbled into a deep pool, and so was drowned. So things went on, a new af1iction with each new wife, and in each case the final catastrophe was associated with the princesses' room. The climax to the unhappy career of the more than worthy and lovable Bernard de Montragoux came with his seventh wife, Jeanne de Lespoisse, cleverest and most fascinating of family of utterly interruptions adventurers. No one knew anything about the supposed late husband of the mother. Of the two brothers, dragoon and musket- eer, one was a low rascal and mere sponge; the other lived on gaming and on the good nature of women to whom he made love. Anne, the sister, was the incarnation of malicious cunning. Associated with this precious family was a certain Chevalier de Merlus, who had great deal to do with the final tragedy of M. de Montragouxs career The nature of this tragedy may be inferred, but it is curious that, | while Perrault represented Bluebeard as taking a, journey in order to lay trap for his wife, the fact was exactly opposite. Both before and after his marriage he had heaped benefits on all these wretches. When he was obliged to go away in the matter of an inheritance he gave all his keys without reserve to his wife, warning her out of pure love against the un- happy associations of the princesses room As soon as he was out of the way a trap was laid for him, and it was in that very room that he was most treacherously assassinated. The worst and the best of it was that M. de Merlus, after marrying the wealthy widow, became an exemplary husband and subject of the king.