Isabella Mueller Baroness of Stainton le Vale
Once upon a time, there lived a wealthy man in the French port city of Le Havre who possessed every material possession his heart desired. But despite his wealth and the fact that he was a handsome man, he lacked a loving wife by his side. This was partly because, for some inexplicable reason, he had a blue beard, which not only earned him the nickname Bluebeard among the locals, but also made him so terrifying that all women fled from him. As a result, his wives disappeared after only a short time and were never seen again. As he longed for a wife and his neighbor had two lovely daughters named Anne and Josefine, he asked for the hand of one of the two daughters. In return, he promised her a lot of money and a carefree life for one of her daughters. The woman agreed only on the condition that one of the two daughters had to choose him voluntarily. Of course, neither daughter wanted Bluebeard as a husband. So he invited the daughters, along with their mother and friends, to his country estate. There they celebrated, danced, and laughed for a whole week. During this time, Josefine developed tender feelings for Bluebeard, who no longer seemed so terrible to her. She agreed to marry him. Once home, she married Bluebeard shortly thereafter. After a month of happy marriage, Bluebeard had to travel on business. He gave his wife all the keys to the house, but warned her not to go into the cabinet in the basement; if she did, she would have to face his bitter wrath upon his return. Otherwise, she was free to do whatever she wanted, and her friends and sister were also welcome to visit. Josefine promised Bluebeard that she would obey everything he had said. When he had driven away in his carriage, she invited all her friends and her sister over. They enjoyed themselves throughout the house and had a wonderful time. But Josefine simply could not get the thought of the cabinet out of her mind. She was so terribly plagued by curiosity that, in an unobserved moment, she went down to the cabinet and unlocked it with a trembling hand. When she entered, she saw that all the windows in the room were boarded up with wooden planks and the floor was covered in blood. Then her gaze fell on the walls, where women’s bodies were hanging. She suddenly realized that the dead women were once Bluebeard’s wives, whom he had killed in a brutal manner. Pale as chalk and full of fear, she closed the door to the cabinet and returned to the illustrious gathering. There she was told that Bluebeard would return today, as he had been able to settle his business affairs more quickly than expected. Everyone left the house, except for her sister Anne. Josefine didn’t tell her about the cabinet and acted as if nothing had happened. She desperately tried to wipe the blood off the key to the cabinet, but she couldn’t. Miraculously, it kept reappearing. When Bluebeard arrived home, Josefine pretended to be the delighted wife and ended the evening together with her sister in convivial company with an opulent meal and fine red wine. The next morning, Bluebeard asked his wife for the keys to the house. She reluctantly gave them to him, and he immediately noticed that the key to the cabinet was missing. At that moment, he realized that Josefine had been in the forbidden room. Beside himself with rage, he shouted that Josefine must now take her place down there with the other women. Josephine begged Bluebeard not to hurt her, but Bluebeard took out his saber and was about to cut her throat with it. Josephine then asked him for 10 minutes so that she could at least say goodbye to her sister, who was sleeping upstairs in her room. He granted her this last request. Josefine rushed to her sister and asked her to look out for two horsemen, because her brothers wanted to come and see her and her sister today. But apart from the blue sky and the sea, Anne could see nothing. Bluebeard shouted for Josefine, who hurried back to him. She kept calling out to Anne to ask if she could see anything yet. But apart from a flock of sheep, there was nothing to be seen. The little time they had was running out, and Josephine had almost lost hope. One last time, she called out to her sister, who could see two horsemen in the distance. At that moment, Bluebeard raised his saber, and Josephine knelt at his feet. She begged him one last time, fervently, to spare her. But this only made Bluebeard even angrier, and he shouted so loudly that the whole house shook. After Bluebeard’s terrible roar, there was a loud knock at the door that made Bluebeard pause for a moment. Anne ran to the door and opened it. Her two brothers rushed at Bluebeard with drawn swords, who tried to flee. But the young men were faster and thrust their swords into Bluebeard’s body, leaving him to die. Meanwhile, Josephine lay crying in her sister Anne’s arms. Since Bluebeard had no heirs, Josephine inherited his entire fortune. She bequeathed part of it to her sister, used another part to buy military honors for her brothers, and kept the rest for herself. Shortly afterwards, she married a man of her choice with whom she lived happily ever after. Over the years, she forgot about the cabinet of horrors, whose door she had bricked up after Bluebeard’s death, and took her sister’s advice to heart: never let the pain of the past punish your present and paralyze your future.
