Short Stories

Prince Scheherazade: A Tale of the Terror by Eleanor M. Ingram This story, one of fourteen complete tales in the collection, is set during the French Terror. Two aristocratic prisoners—Anne Estien de Gérier, a young comte, and eighteen-year-old Rosaure d'Yvon—discover they can communicate through a ventilation pipe connecting their adjacent cells. Over three weeks, de Gérier transports Rosaure from despair through elaborate narrative escapism, recounting legends and visions of a chateau in Gascony with its gardens, mountains, and romantic history. Their bond deepens as they share this imagined world while Paris undergoes revolutionary violence outside. When liberation arrives through de Gérier's former tenant Dubois, the comte faces separation from Rosaure. However, when officials arrive seeking to release "Anne Gérier," de Gérier seizes the moment—presenting himself as female to secure Rosaure's freedom instead, sacrificing his own escape.