Soon the moans that accompanied this sort of love's litany increased
and increased. I have never heard anything more despairing; and M. de
Chagny and I recognized that this terrible lamentation came from Erik
himself. Christine seemed to be standing dumb with horror, without the
strength to cry out, while the monster was on his knees before her. Three times over, Erik fiercely bewailed his fate:

"You don't love me! You don't love me! You don't love me!" And then, more gently:

"Why do you cry? You know it gives me pain to see you cry!" A silence. Each silence gave us fresh hope. We said to ourselves:

"Perhaps he has left Christine behind the wall." And we thought only of the possibility of warning Christine Daae of our
presence, unknown to the monster. We were unable to leave the
torture-chamber now, unless Christine opened the door to us; and it was
only on this condition that we could hope to help her, for we did not
even know where the door might be. Suddenly, the silence in the next room was disturbed by the ringing of
an electric bell. There was a bound on the other side of the wall and
Erik's voice of thunder:

"Somebody ringing! Walk in, please!" A sinister chuckle. "Who has come bothering now? Wait for me here ... I AM GOING TO TELL
THE SIREN TO OPEN THE DOOR." Steps moved away, a door closed. I had no time to think of the fresh
horror that was preparing; I forgot that the monster was only going out
perhaps to perpetrate a fresh crime; I understood but one thing:
Christine was alone behind the wall! The Vicomte de Chagny was already calling to her:

"Christine! Christine!" As we could hear what was said in the next room, there was no reason
why my companion should not be heard in his turn. Nevertheless, the
viscount had to repeat his cry time after time. At last, a faint voice reached us. "I am dreaming!" it said. "Christine, Christine, it is I, Raoul!" A silence. "But answer me, Christine! ... In Heaven's name, if you are alone,
answer me!" Then Christine's voice whispered Raoul's name. "Yes! Yes! It is I! It is not a dream! ... Christine, trust me! ...
We are here to save you ... but be prudent! When you hear the monster,
warn us!" Then Christine gave way to fear. She trembled lest Erik should
discover where Raoul was hidden; she told us in a few hurried words
that Erik had gone quite mad with love and that he had decided TO KILL
EVERYBODY AND HIMSELF WITH EVERYBODY if she did not consent to become
his wife. He had given her till eleven o'clock the next evening for
reflection. It was the last respite. She must choose, as he said,
between the wedding mass and the requiem. And Erik had then uttered a phrase which Christine did not quite
understand:

"Yes or no! If your answer is no, everybody will be dead AND BURIED!" But I understood the sentence perfectly, for it corresponded in a
terrible manner with my own dreadful thought. "Can you tell us where Erik is?" I asked. She replied that he must have left the house. "Could you make sure?" "No. I am fastened. I can not stir a limb." When we heard this, M. de Chagny and I gave a yell of fury. Our
safety, the safety of all three of us, depended on the girl's liberty
of movement. "But where are you?" asked Christine. "There are only two doors in my
room, the Louis-Philippe room of which I told you, Raoul; a door
through which Erik comes and goes, and another which he has never
opened before me and which he has forbidden me ever to go through,
because he says it is the most dangerous of the doors, the door of the
torture-chamber!" "Christine, that is where we are!" "You are in the torture-chamber?" "Yes, but we can not see the door." "Oh, if I could only drag myself so far! I would knock at the door and
that would tell you where it is." "Is it a door with a lock to it?" I asked. "Yes, with a lock." "Mademoiselle," I said, "it is absolutely necessary, that you should
open that door to us!" "But how?" asked the poor girl tearfully. We heard her straining, trying to free herself from the bonds that held
her. "I know where the key is," she said, in a voice that seemed exhausted
by the effort she had made. "But I am fastened so tight ...  Oh, the
wretch!" And she gave a sob. "Where is the key?" I asked, signing to M. de Chagny not to speak and
to leave the business to me, for we had not a moment to lose. "In the next room, near the organ, with another little bronze key,
which he also forbade me to touch. They are both in a little leather
bag which he calls the bag of life and death...  Raoul! Raoul! Fly! Everything is mysterious and terrible here, and Erik will soon have
gone quite mad, and you are in the torture-chamber! ... Go back by the
way you came. There must be a reason why the room is called by that
name!" "Christine," said the young man. "We will go from here together or die
together!" "We must keep cool," I whispered. "Why has he fastened you,
mademoiselle? You can't escape from his house; and he knows it!" "I tried to commit suicide! The monster went out last night, after
carrying me here fainting and half chloroformed. He was going TO HIS
BANKER, so he said! ... When he returned he found me with my face
covered with blood ... I had tried to kill myself by striking my
forehead against the walls." "Christine!" groaned Raoul; and he began to sob. "Then he bound me ... I am not allowed to die until eleven o'clock
to-morrow evening." "Mademoiselle," I declared, "the monster bound you ... and he shall
unbind you. You have only to play the necessary part! Remember that
he loves you!" "Alas!" we heard. "Am I likely to forget it!" "Remember it and smile to him ... entreat him ... tell him that your
bonds hurt you." But Christine Daae said:

"Hush! ... I hear something in the wall on the lake! ... It is he! ...
Go away! Go away! Go away!" "We could not go away, even if we wanted to," I said, as impressively
as I could. "We can not leave this! And we are in the
torture-chamber!" "Hush!" whispered Christine again. Heavy steps sounded slowly behind the wall, then stopped and made the
floor creak once more. Next came a tremendous sigh, followed by a cry
of horror from Christine, and we heard Erik's voice:

"I beg your pardon for letting you see a face like this! What a state
I am in, am I not? It's THE OTHER ONE'S FAULT! Why did he ring? Do I
ask people who pass to tell me the time? He will never ask anybody the
time again! It is the siren's fault." [Illustration: two page color illustration]

Another sigh, deeper, more tremendous still, came from the abysmal
depths of a soul. "Why did you cry out, Christine?" "Because I am in pain, Erik." "I thought I had frightened you." "Erik, unloose my bonds ...  Am I not your prisoner?" "You will try to kill yourself again." "You have given me till eleven o'clock to-morrow evening, Erik." The footsteps dragged along the floor again. "After all, as we are to die together ... and I am just as eager as you
... yes, I have had enough of this life, you know...