Summary
Alpine dusk drapes a garland-crowned Cora in roses the color of arterial blood; she twirls for a tribe that worships wind, until a velvet-masked aristocrat—Lord Martagne—slips into the torch-light like a wolf into incense. Desire ignites, then chills: the noble rake tramples her heart beneath his silver-buckled heel. Rebuffed at his gate, she infiltrates a masquerade armed with a stiletto of vengeance, only to find the bird flown. Martagne, now penniless, angles for the dowry of Irma, a porcelain heiress; he pens a midnight plea—five thousand dollars on St Martin’s Bridge—yet Cora intercepts the billet. Beneath a moon like a cataracted eye she duels him, sends the phantom earl spiraling into the black water. Irma stumbles upon the corpse, cradles the abandoned pistol, and her mind snaps like frost-brittle silk. Condemned for the murder she only hallucinated, she and her steadfast fiancé trudge toward the scaffold. Far away, Cora’s meteoric rise as an incendiary danseuse ends when her own firelit rite flings her into living embers. Scarred, delirious, she races death to the guillotine, gasps her confession, collapses, and trades absolution for a final exhalation.
Synopsis
Our picture opens with a beautiful mountain scene and Cora, the belle of a mountain tribe, decking herself with garlands of roses. In the evening Lord Martagne, in disguise, appears at the cave of the mountain tribe and is fascinated by Cora's weird dance. They become lovers, but Lord Martagne soon wearies of the mountain girl and discards her. She calls at his home but is repulsed. She enters secretly at a masked ball in fancy costume to kill her unfaithful lover, but is foiled by his having left the city on urgent business. Lord Martagne goes on important business of a diplomatic character, and becomes a guest at the home of Irma, an attractive young woman who is engaged to be married. Irma is fascinated by Lord Martagne. Cora, the mountain girl, starts out in search of her unfaithful lover. She discovers him seated in a box at the theater with Irma. She leaves the theater when he does and follows him to his home. On account of financial difficulties Lord Martagne writes a letter to Irma, whose father has recently died, leaving her a fortune. He leaves the letter on his desk and Cora, who enters the house, finds it. The note asks Irma to meet him on St. Martin's Bridge the next night and loan him $5,000. Cora meets Lord Martagne on the bridge and forces him to fight a pistol duel with her. She kills him and he falls from the bridge into the river below. Irma comes to keep the appointment and looking over the rail of the bridge sees the body of her lover below. Then she finds the pistol lying on the bridge and her mind gives way. She is crazed and in her delirium she imagines that she committed the murder. At her home. Albert Norton, her fiancé, listens to her story, which is overheard by a maid. He advises her to leave and escape punishment. The maid informs the police and Irma and Norton are arrested. Then Irma recovers her mind and tries to prove her innocence, but fails. She and Norton are condemned to death. In the meantime, Cora has become a famous dancer. She learns of the conviction of Norton and Irma. It worries her greatly and on account of her high strung nerves, she falls into the fire while executing a wild fire dance and is terribly burned. When lying in bed she reads that the execution is about to take place and she confesses and insists on being taken to the scene of the execution in an automobile. She arrives just in time to prevent the double execution, and after telling her story, dies of excitement and exhaustion.
