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During the Plague Synopsis

Dr. Warren, a reserved man of a seemingly stern, cold nature, which is roused only in behalf of his loved profession, is an army surgeon, stationed in India. In the pursuit of his duties, he leaves his beautiful, pleasure-loving wife, Alice, to her own devices. Captain Richard Alston, a handsome young officer, tries to make up for the husband's neglect by paying the pretty wife decided attention. Dr. Warren's suspicions are aroused, but at this juncture he is called away by an attack of plague at the river camp, some distance away, where a serum that he has discovered is demanded to stem the death rate. Dr. Warren works heroically among the wretched huts of the natives, nursing the sick and burning down the hovels to prevent the spread of the infection. In her loneliness, Alice sends for Captain Alston. On the road he encounters a child stricken with the plague. Alston puts the little one on the saddle before him and gallops away toward the hospital. When later he arrives at the Warren villa he reels with an awful sickness; the deadly infection has overtaken him. Alice, horrified and distressed, suddenly discovers a note to her husband, advising him of the plague at the river camp. This is her first knowledge of the reason for his absence, and suddenly she realizes that it is her husband she fears for most, and loves most, after all. At this moment the Indian servant announces the approach of Dr. Warren, returning after successfully accomplishing his surgical labors. Alice drags Alston into an adjoining room and goes to meet her husband. The doctor wonders at her nervous, frightened manner, when there is a sudden crash in the next room. The doctor rushes in, his terrified wife following, and finds Captain Alston prostrate on the floor. Alice springs between the angry husband and the helpless officer. Dr. Warren pushes her aside, and going into his laboratory, selects a revolver from the wall. As he turns to go, Alice confronts him and forcefully reminds him of his duty as a soldier and a surgeon. Torn by conflicting emotions but moved by his sense of professional duty to suffering humanity, the doctor hesitates only a moment. Forgetting all other impulses, he treats and cures the stricken captain. After Alston recovers, he goes to the doctor and promises to do whatever may be asked of him as atonement. The doctor asks him to promise to leave the country forever. Then, turning to his wife, he tells her to choose whether she will go with the captain or remain with him. Alice, now awakened to the full nobility of her husband, asks him to let her remain. The doctor, too, realizes his neglect of Alice, and husband and wife are at last united on the basis of a greater understanding and a truer and more abiding bond.

The Princess's Dilemma Synopsis

The princess is presiding at a reception being given in the old castle during the absence of her venerable father. The prime minister announces that the old soldier has again overcome his warring neighbors. The princess does not appear to be over elated, because she recalls that a young captain, whom she had once met in times of peace, might be among the dead or the wounded. Sure enough he is brought to a hospital, a wounded prisoner, and Elena volunteers to act as his nurse despite the protests of the prime minister. As he regains some of his normal strength he chafes under the restraint imposed upon him, and in her efforts to ease his lot, the princess issues orders that he may have use of the castle grounds. In his walks he frequently comes in contact with the princess, and while their intimacy ripens, the prime minister arrows more jealous. At length he clearly indicates his aversion to her companionship with an avowed enemy of her country, and in the name of the king seeks to restrict the captain from exercising in the grounds of the castle. The princess dismisses him and continues to secure an occasional tete-a-tete with the captain. He persistently pleads to her to help him escape from the confinement that is so galling to him and at length she accedes. She forwards to his apartments a rope ladder and a revolver hidden beneath a consignment of books. In the silence of the night he lowers his rope and makes his perilous descent to the foot of the walls. A sentry spies him, fires a warning shot, and engages the captain in a stern struggle. The captain manages, however, to break away; but soon he has a troop of cavalry on his track. He swims a river and rushes pell-mell through woodland country, but his mounted pursuers gradually gain upon him and, still weak from his wounds, he falls panting to the ground as they reach him. A court-martial quickly follows his recapture, and the dread verdict is summarily issued. Princess Elena sends for the prime minister, who has already signed the death warrant, and pleads to him to revoke it. He says he is ready to do so, but imposes, as a condition, that she should become his (the prime minister's) wife. She returns abruptly to her apartments and determines on a course which seems to her to offer the only possible way out for her and the man she loves. Under the cover of the night and closely veiled she steals to the prison and then gains admission to the cell in which the condemned man is crouched in an attitude of hopelessness. At first he thinks she is but a vision of his disordered mind, but when he folds her in his arms he understands the depth of love which has prompted her to come to him. She tells him that the chances of escape are too forlorn to attempt, and knowing that she cannot save him, she has decreed there is only one thing to do, to die together. She takes a paper knife, from her dress and hands it to him, but he recoils, and in an outburst declares that he will not die, but must go back to his country. His country comes first, and recognizing the inevitable, and the futility of their love, the princess rushes from the cell and secures a uniform of a prison warder. The captain kisses her and makes his escape. Later she is found on the floor of the cell, a victim of her own stiletto.