Carabas's Story by Bernard Capes

Name: Carabas's Story
Author: Bernard Capes

Carabas recounts a life seemingly ruled by misfortune. Born to naturalized Huguenot parents in an English village, he falls in love at nineteen but is attacked in a flooded river by his powerful, unscrupulous rival. Swept into a mill-race, he is rescued by the drunken miller, who, mad with drink, tries to drag him back into the water as a companion for the devil. Carabas throws the miller off, hears the wheel seize him, and flees in terror, fearing he will be accused of murder. After reaching London under an assumed name, Carabas learns that he has been reported drowned. His rival has received a Royal Humane Society testimonial for supposedly trying to save him and has married the girl they both loved. Though grieving for her, Carabas accepts that his presumed death protects him from suspicion. He survives for years by working and using his aptitude for languages, but prosperity never comes. Later, on the underground railway, a fellow passenger leaves a handbag behind at Blackfriars. Carabas throws it onto the platform to return it, just as it explodes. Realizing that the bag contained a dynamite machine and that its owner has been killed, Carabas fears he will be thought responsible, since no one can prove what happened. He escapes from the train and flees London, taking a steward’s post on an outgoing steamer. He tells his history to Mr. G-- and Campaspe, believing his long persecution by ill-luck may be ending. Mr. G--, a lawyer connected with the dynamite case, reveals that the dynamiter confessed before dying: Carabas was the missing witness whose evidence was needed. Campaspe tells him that others owe him a debt and asks him to live long enough to receive a kiss from her on her wedding day. Revived by her kindness, Carabas vows to live for ever. He becomes their loved and trusted servant, healthy and convinced that the disasters which brought him to them were kindnesses of luck in disguise.

By Bernard Capes · First published 1895 · Genre: Short Story, Adventure Fiction, Melodrama · 1,464 words

First lines

"There is no doubt," he said "that as truly as some men are born without a palate, so some men are born without luck. It is no use trying to remedy the deficiency; it is well, rather, to study to reconcile oneself to it.

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Carabas's Story is listed on Textopian as a short story by Bernard Capes, dated 1895 CE.

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Work type: Short story
Author: Bernard Capes
Date: 1895 CE
Language: English
Genres: Short Story, Adventure Fiction, Melodrama, Tragicomedy, Victorian Fiction
Length: 1,464 words
Structure: 1 section, 19 paragraphs
Reading fit: Fairly Easy (7th Grade)

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Genres

Short Story — The work is a compact, self-contained prose narrative centered on Carabas's retrospective account of the extraordinary misfortunes that shaped his life.
Adventure Fiction — Its plot proceeds through physical peril and escape: attempted drowning, flight from a mill, assumed identities, urban survival, a railway explosion, and departure by ship.
Melodrama — The narrative employs extreme reversals of fortune, apparent death, false criminal suspicion, perilous coincidence, emotional revelation, and a restorative ending.
Tragicomedy — Carabas's seemingly relentless bad luck is narrated with darkly comic irony, while events that appear ruinous ultimately lead to his security, affection, and redemption.