The Lady or the Tiger Audiobook short story by Frank R. Stockton Learn English through Story

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the lady or the tiger

by frank r stockton

in the very old olden time there lived a

semi-barbaric king

whose ideas though somewhat polished and

sharpened by the progressiveness of

distant latin neighbors

were still large florid and untrammeled

as became the half of him which was

barbaric

he was a man of exuberant fancy and with

all of an authority so irresistible that

at his will he turned his varied fancies

into facts

he was greatly given to self-communing

and when he and himself agreed upon

anything the thing was done

when every member of his domestic and

political systems moves smoothly in its

appointed course his nature was bland

and genial

but whenever there was a little hitch

and some of his orbs got out of their

orbits

he was blander and more genial still

for nothing pleased him so much as to

make the crooked straight and crush down

uneven places

among the borrowed notion by which his

barbarism had become simified

was that of the public arena

in which by exhibitions of manly and

beastly valor the minds of his subjects

were refined and cultured

but even here the exuberant in barbaric

fancy asserted itself

the arena of the king was built not to

give the people an opportunity of

hearing the rhapsodies of dying

gladiators nor to enable them to view

the inevitable conclusion of a conflict

between religious opinions and hungry

jaws

but for the purposes far better adapted

to widen and develop the mental energies

of the people

this vast amphitheater with its

encircling galleries its mysterious

vaults and its unseen passages was an

agent of poetic justice in which crime

was punished or virtue rewarded by the

decrees of an impartial and

incorruptible chance

when a subject was accused of a crime of

sufficient importance to interest the

king

public notice was given that on a

pointed day the fate of the accused

person would be decided in the king’s

arena

a structure which well deserved its name

for although its form and plan were

borrowed from afar

its purpose emanated solely from the

brain of this man

who every barlikorn king knew no

tradition to which he owed more

allegiance than pleased his fancy and

who engrafted on every adopted form of

human thought in action the rich growth

of his barbaric idealism

when all the people had assembled in the

galleries and the king surrounded by his

court sat high on his throne of royal

state on one side of the arena he gave a

signal

a door beneath him opened and the

accused subject stepped out into the

amphitheater

directly opposite him

on the other side of the enclosed space

were two doors exactly alike and side by

side

it was the duty and the privilege of the

person on trial to walk directly to

these doors and open one of them

he could open either door he pleased

he was subject to no guidance or

influence but that of the aforementioned

impartial and incorruptible chance if he

opened one there came out of it a hungry

tiger the fiercest and most cruel that

could be procured which immediately

sprang upon him and tore him to pieces

as a punishment for his guilt

the moment that the case of the criminal

was thus decided

doleful iron bells were clanged

great wells went up from the hired

mourners posted on the outer rim of the

arena and the vast audience with bowed

heads and downcast hearts

winded slowly their homeward way

mourning greatly that one so young and

fair or so old and respected should have

merited so dire a fate

but if the accused person opened the

other door

there came forth from it a lady

the most suitable to his years in

station that his majesty could select

among his fair subjects

and to this lady he was immediately

married as a reward of his innocence

it mattered not that he might already

possess a wife and family or that his

affections might be engaged upon an

object of his own selection

the king allowed no such subordinate

arrangements to interfere with his great

scheme of retribution and reward

the exercise is as in the other instance

took place immediately and in the arena

another door opened beneath the king and

a priest followed by a band of

choristers and dancing maidens blowing

joyous heirs on golden horns and

treading an epithalamic measure advanced

to where the pair stood side by side and

the wedding was promptly and cheerily

solomonized

then the gay brass bells rang forth

their merry peels the people shouted

glad haras and the innocent man preceded

by children strewing flowers on his path

led his bride to his home

this was the king’s semi-barbaric method

of administering justice

its perfect fairness is obvious

the criminal could not know out of which

door would come the lady

he opened either he pleased without

having the slightest idea whether in the

next instant he was to be devoured or

married

on some occasions the tiger came out of

one door

and on some out of the other

the decisions of the tribunal were not

only fair they were positively

determinant

the accused person was instantly

punished if he found himself guilty

and if innocent he was rewarded on the

spot

whether he liked it or not

there was no escape from the judgments

of the king’s arena

the institution was a very popular one

when the people gathered together on one

of the great trial days they never knew

whether they were to witness a bloody

slaughter or a hilarious wedding

this element of uncertainty lent an

interest to the occasion which it could

not otherwise have attained thus

the masses were entertained and pleased

and the thinking part of the community

could bring no charge of unfairness

against this plan

for did not the accused person have the

whole matter in his own hands

this semi-barbaric king had a daughter

as blooming as his most floored fancies

and with a soul as fervent and imperious

as his own

as is usual in such cases

she was the apple of his eye

and was loved by him above all humanity

among his courtiers was a young man of

that fineness of blood and lowness of

station common to the conventional

heroes of romance who love royal maidens

this royal maiden was well satisfied

with her lover for he was handsome and

brave to a degree unsurpassed in all

this kingdom

and she loved him with an order that had

enough of barbarism in it to make it

exceedingly warm and strong

this love affair moved on happily for

many months

until one day

the king happened to discover its

existence

he did not hesitate nor waver in regard

to his duty in the premises

the youth was immediately cast into

prison

and a day was appointed for his trial in

the king’s arena

this of course was an especially

important occasion and his majesty as

well as all the people was greatly

interested in the workings and

development of this trial

never before had such a case occurred

never before had a subject dare to love

the daughter of the king

and after years such things became

commonplace enough

but then they were in no slight degree

novel and startling

the tiger cages of the kingdom were

searched for the most savage and

relentless beast from which the fiercest

monster might be selected for the arena

and the ranks of maiden youth and beauty

throughout the land were carefully

surveyed by competent judges in order

that the young man might have a fitting

bride in case fate did not determine for

him a different destiny

of course everybody knew that the deed

with which the accused was charged had

been done

he had loved the princess

neither he she nor anyone else thought

of denying the fact

but the king would not think of allowing

any fact of this kind to interfere with

the workings of the tribunal in which he

took such great delight and satisfaction

no matter how the affair turned out the

youth would be disposed of and the king

would take an aesthetic pleasure in

watching the course of events

which would determine whether or not the

young man had done wrong in allowing

himself to love the princess

the appointed day arrived

from far and near the people gathered

and thronged the great galleries of the

arena and crowds unable to gain

admittance mass themselves against its

outside walls

the king and his court were in their

places opposite the twin doors those

fateful portals so terrible in their

similarity

all was ready

the signal was given

a door beneath the royal party opened

and the lover of the princess walked

into the arena

tall

beautiful

fair

his appearance was greeted with a low

hum of admiration and anxiety

half the audience had not known so grand

a youth had lived among them

no wonder the princes loved him

what a terrible thing for him to be

there

as the youth advanced into the arena he

turned as the custom was to bow to the

king

but he did not think at all of that

royal personage

his eyes were fixed upon the princess

who sat to the right of her father

had it not been for the moiety of

barbarism in her nature it is possible

that

lady would not have been there

but her intense and fervent soul would

not allow her to be absent on an

occasion in which she was so terribly

interested

from the moment that the decree had gone

forth that her lover should decide his

fate in the king’s arena she had thought

of nothing night or day but this great

event in the various subjects connected

with it

possessed of more power influence and

force of character than anyone who had

ever before been interested in such a

case

she had done what no other person had

done

she had possessed herself of the secret

of the doors

she knew in which of the two rooms that

lay behind those doors stood the cage of

the tiger with its open front and which

waited the lady

through these thick doors heavily

curtained with skins on the inside it

was impossible that any noise or

suggestion

should come from within to the person

who should approach to raise the latch

of one of them

but gold and the power of a woman’s will

had brought the secret to the princess

and not only did she know in which room

stood the lady ready to emerge all

blushing and radiant should her door be

opened

but she knew who the lady was

it was one of the fairest and loveliest

of the damsels of the court who had been

selected as the reward of the accused

youth

should he be proved innocent of the

crime of aspiring to one so far above

him

and the princess hated her

often she had seen

or imagined that she had seen this fair

creature throwing glances of admiration

upon the person of her lover and

sometimes she thought these glances were

perceived and even returned

now and then she had seen them talking

together

it was but for a moment or two but much

can be said in a brief space

it may have been on most unimportant

topics but how could she know that the

girl was lovely but she had dared to

raise her eyes to the loved one of the

princess

and with all the intensity of the savage

blood transmitted to her through long

lines of holy barbaric ancestors

she hated the woman who blushed and

trembled behind that silent door

when her lover turned and looked at her

and his eye met hers as she sat there

paler and whiter than anyone in the vast

ocean of anxious faces about her

he saw

by that power of quick perception which

is given to those whose souls are one

that she knew behind which door crouched

the tiger and behind which stood the

lady

he had expected her to know it he

understood her nature

and his soul was assured that she would

never rest until she had made plain to

herself this thing hidden to all other

lookers on even to the king

the only hope for the youth in which

there was any element of certainty was

based upon the success of the princes

and discovering this mystery

and the moment he looked upon her he saw

she had succeeded as in his soul he knew

she would succeed

then it was that quick and anxious

glance asked the question

which

it was as plain to her as if he had

shouted it from where he stood

there was not an instant to be lost

the question was asked in a flash it

must be answered in another

her right arm lay on the cushioned

parapet before her

she raised her hand and made a slight

quick movement toward the right no one

but her lover saw her

every eye but his was fixed on the man

in the arena

he turned and with a firm and rapid step

he walked across the empty space

every heart stopped beating

every breath was held every eye was

fixed immovably upon that man

without the slightest hesitation he went

to the door on the right

and opened it

now the point of the story is this

did the tiger come out of that door or

did the lady

the more we reflect on this question the

harder it is to answer

it involves a study of the human heart

which leads us through

devious mazes of passion out of which it

is difficult to find our way

think of it fair reader not as if the

decision of the question depended upon

yourself but upon that hot-blooded

semi-barbaric princess her soul at a

white heat beneath the combined fires of

despair and jealousy

she had lost him but who should have him

how often in her waking hours and in her

dreams had she started in wild horror

and covered her face with her hands as

she thought of her lover opening the

door on the other side of which waited

the cruel things of the tiger

but how much often her had she seen him

at the other door

how in her grievous reveries had she

gnashed her teeth and torn her hair when

she saw his start of rapturous delight

as he opened the door of the lady

how her soul had burned in agony when

she had seen him rushed to meet that

woman with her flushing cheek and

sparkling eye of triumph when she had

seen him lead her forth his whole frame

kindled with the joy of recovered life

when she had heard the glad shouts from

the multitude and the wild ringing of

the happy bells when she had seen the

priest his joyous followers advanced to

the couple and make them man and wife

before her very eyes and when she had

seen them walk away together upon their

path of flowers followed by the

tremendous shouts of the hilarious

multitude in which her one despairing

shriek was lost and drowned

would it not be better for him to die at

once

and go to wait for her in the blessed

regions of semi-barbaric futurity

and yet

that awful tiger those shrieks that

blood

her decision had been indicated in an

instant

but it had been made after days and

nights of anguished deliberation

she had known she would be asked

she had decided what she would answer

and without the slightest hesitation she

had moved her hand to the right

the question of her decision

is one not to be lightly considered

and it is not for me to presume to set

myself up as the one person able to

answer it

and so i leave it with all of you

which came out of the open door

the lady

or the tiger

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end of the lady or the tiger by frank r

stockton

read by patricia hayes

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