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diff --git a/1427-0.txt b/1427-0.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..df2f283 --- /dev/null +++ b/1427-0.txt @@ -0,0 +1,832 @@ +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 1427 *** + +A DRAMA ON THE SEASHORE + + +By Honore De Balzac + + +Translated By Katharine Prescott Wormeley + + + + + DEDICATION + + To Madame la Princesse Caroline Galitzin de Genthod, nee Comtesse + Walewska. Homage and remembrances of + + The Author. + + + + + +A DRAMA ON THE SEASHORE + + +Nearly all young men have a compass with which they delight in measuring +the future. When their will is equal to the breadth of the angle at +which they open it the world is theirs. But this phenomenon of the inner +life takes place only at a certain age. That age, which for all men lies +between twenty-two and twenty-eight, is the period of great thoughts, of +fresh conceptions, because it is the age of immense desires. After that +age, short as the seed-time, comes that of execution. There are, as it +were, two youths,--the youth of belief, the youth of action; these are +often commingled in men whom Nature has favored and who, like Caesar, +like Newton, like Bonaparte, are the greatest among great men. + +I was measuring how long a time it might take a thought to develop. +Compass in hand, standing on a rock some hundred fathoms above the +ocean, the waves of which were breaking on the reef below, I surveyed my +future, filling it with books as an engineer or builder traces on vacant +ground a palace or a fort. + +The sea was beautiful; I had just dressed after bathing; and I awaited +Pauline, who was also bathing, in a granite cove floored with fine +sand, the most coquettish bath-room that Nature ever devised for her +water-fairies. The spot was at the farther end of Croisic, a dainty +little peninsula in Brittany; it was far from the port, and so +inaccessible that the coast-guard seldom thought it necessary to pass +that way. To float in ether after floating on the wave!--ah! who would +not have floated on the future as I did! Why was I thinking? Whence +comes evil?--who knows! Ideas drop into our hearts or into our heads +without consulting us. No courtesan was ever more capricious nor more +imperious than conception is to artists; we must grasp it, like fortune, +by the hair when it comes. + +Astride upon my thought, like Astolphe on his hippogriff, I was +galloping through worlds, suiting them to my fancy. Presently, as I +looked about me to find some omen for the bold productions my wild +imagination was urging me to undertake, a pretty cry, the cry of a woman +issuing refreshed and joyous from a bath, rose above the murmur of the +rippling fringes as their flux and reflux marked a white line along the +shore. Hearing that note as it gushed from a soul, I fancied I saw among +the rocks the foot of an angel, who with outspread wings cried out to +me, "Thou shalt succeed!" I came down radiant, light-hearted; I bounded +like a pebble rolling down a rapid slope. When she saw me, she said,-- + +"What is it?" + +I did not answer; my eyes were moist. The night before, Pauline had +understood my sorrows, as she now understood my joy, with the magical +sensitiveness of a harp that obeys the variations of the atmosphere. +Human life has glorious moments. Together we walked in silence along +the beach. The sky was cloudless, the sea without a ripple; others might +have thought them merely two blue surfaces, the one above the other, but +we--we who heard without the need of words, we who could evoke between +these two infinitudes the illusions that nourish youth,--we pressed each +other's hands at every change in the sheet of water or the sheets of +air, for we took those slight phenomena as the visible translation of +our double thought. Who has never tasted in wedded love that moment of +illimitable joy when the soul seems freed from the trammels of flesh, +and finds itself restored, as it were, to the world whence it came? +Are there not hours when feelings clasp each other and fly upward, like +children taking hands and running, they scarce know why? It was thus we +went along. + +At the moment when the village roofs began to show like a faint gray +line on the horizon, we met a fisherman, a poor man returning to +Croisic. His feet were bare; his linen trousers ragged round the bottom; +his shirt of common sailcloth, and his jacket tatters. This abject +poverty pained us; it was like a discord amid our harmonies. We looked +at each other, grieving mutually that we had not at that moment the +power to dip into the treasury of Aboul Casem. But we saw a splendid +lobster and a crab fastened to a string which the fisherman was dangling +in his right hand, while with the left he held his tackle and his net. + +We accosted him with the intention of buying his haul,--an idea which +came to us both, and was expressed in a smile, to which I responded by +a slight pressure of the arm I held and drew toward my heart. It was one +of those nothings of which memory makes poems when we sit by the fire +and recall the hour when that nothing moved us, and the place where +it did so,--a mirage the effects of which have never been noted down, +though it appears on the objects that surround us in moments when life +sits lightly and our hearts are full. The loveliest scenery is that we +make ourselves. What man with any poesy in him does not remember some +mere mass of rock, which holds, it may be, a greater place in his memory +than the celebrated landscapes of other lands, sought at great cost. +Beside that rock, tumultuous thoughts! There a whole life evolved; there +all fears dispersed; there the rays of hope descended to the soul! At +this moment, the sun, sympathizing with these thoughts of love and of +the future, had cast an ardent glow upon the savage flanks of the rock; +a few wild mountain flowers were visible; the stillness and the silence +magnified that rugged pile,--really sombre, though tinted by the +dreamer, and beautiful beneath its scanty vegetation, the warm +chamomile, the Venus' tresses with their velvet leaves. Oh, lingering +festival; oh, glorious decorations; oh, happy exaltation of human +forces! Once already the lake of Brienne had spoken to me thus. The rock +of Croisic may be perhaps the last of these my joys. If so, what will +become of Pauline? + +"Have you had a good catch to-day, my man?" I said to the fisherman. + +"Yes, monsieur," he replied, stopping and turning toward us the swarthy +face of those who spend whole days exposed to the reflection of the sun +upon the water. + +That face was an emblem of long resignation, of the patience of a +fisherman and his quiet ways. The man had a voice without harshness, +kind lips, evidently no ambition, and something frail and puny about +him. Any other sort of countenance would, at that moment, have jarred +upon us. + +"Where shall you sell your fish?" + +"In the town." + +"How much will they pay you for that lobster?" + +"Fifteen sous." + +"And the crab?" + +"Twenty sous." + +"Why so much difference between a lobster and a crab?" + +"Monsieur, the crab is much more delicate eating. Besides, it's as +malicious as a monkey, and it seldom lets you catch it." + +"Will you let us buy the two for a hundred sous?" asked Pauline. + +The man seemed petrified. + +"You shall not have it!" I said to her, laughing. "I'll pay ten francs; +we should count the emotions in." + +"Very well," she said, "then I'll pay ten francs, two sous." + +"Ten francs, ten sous." + +"Twelve francs." + +"Fifteen francs." + +"Fifteen francs, fifty centimes," she said. + +"One hundred francs." + +"One hundred and fifty francs." + +I yielded. We were not rich enough at that moment to bid higher. Our +poor fisherman did not know whether to be angry at a hoax, or to go mad +with joy; we drew him from his quandary by giving him the name of our +landlady and telling him to take the lobster and the crab to her house. + +"Do you earn enough to live on?" I asked the man, in order to discover +the cause of his evident penury. + +"With great hardships, and always poorly," he replied. "Fishing on the +coast, when one hasn't a boat or deep-sea nets, nothing but pole and +line, is a very uncertain business. You see we have to wait for the +fish, or the shell-fish; whereas a real fisherman puts out to sea for +them. It is so hard to earn a living this way that I'm the only man in +these parts who fishes along-shore. I spend whole days without getting +anything. To catch a crab, it must go to sleep, as this one did, and a +lobster must be silly enough to stay among the rocks. Sometimes after a +high tide the mussels come in and I grab them." + +"Well, taking one day with another, how much do you earn?" + +"Oh, eleven or twelve sous. I could do with that if I were alone; but I +have got my old father to keep, and he can't do anything, the good man, +because he's blind." + +At these words, said simply, Pauline and I looked at each other without +a word; then I asked,-- + +"Haven't you a wife, or some good friend?" + +He cast upon us one of the most lamentable glances that I ever saw as he +answered,-- + +"If I had a wife I must abandon my father; I could not feed him and a +wife and children too." + +"Well, my poor lad, why don't you try to earn more at the salt marshes, +or by carrying the salt to the harbor?" + +"Ah, monsieur, I couldn't do that work three months. I am not strong +enough, and if I died my father would have to beg. I am forced to take a +business which only needs a little knack and a great deal of patience." + +"But how can two persons live on twelve sous a day?" + +"Oh, monsieur, we eat cakes made of buckwheat, and barnacles which I get +off the rocks." + +"How old are you?" + +"Thirty-seven." + +"Did you ever leave Croisic?" + +"I went once to Guerande to draw for the conscription; and I went to +Savenay to the messieurs who measure for the army. If I had been half +an inch taller they'd have made me a soldier. I should have died of my +first march, and my poor father would to-day be begging his bread." + +I had thought out many dramas; Pauline was accustomed to great emotions +beside a man so suffering as myself; well, never had either of +us listened to words so moving as these. We walked on in silence, +measuring, each of us, the silent depths of that obscure life, admiring +the nobility of a devotion which was ignorant of itself. The strength +of that feebleness amazed us; the man's unconscious generosity belittled +us. I saw that poor being of instinct chained to that rock like a +galley-slave to his ball; watching through twenty years for shell-fish +to earn a living, and sustained in his patience by a single sentiment. +How many hours wasted on a lonely shore! How many hopes defeated by +a change of weather! He was hanging there to a granite rock, his arm +extended like that of an Indian fakir, while his father, sitting in +their hovel, awaited, in silence and darkness, a meal of the coarsest +bread and shell-fish, if the sea permitted. + +"Do you ever drink wine?" I asked. + +"Three or four times a year," he replied. + +"Well, you shall drink it to-day,--you and your father; and we will send +you some white bread." + +"You are very kind, monsieur." + +"We will give you your dinner if you will show us the way along the +shore to Batz, where we wish to see the tower which overlooks the bay +between Batz and Croisic." + +"With pleasure," he said. "Go straight before you, along the path you +are now on, and I will follow you when I have put away my tackle." + +We nodded consent, and he ran off joyfully toward the town. This meeting +maintained us in our previous mental condition; but it lessened our gay +lightheartedness. + +"Poor man!" said Pauline, with that accent which removes from the +compassion of a woman all that is mortifying in human pity, "ought we +not to feel ashamed of our happiness in presence of such misery?" + +"Nothing is so cruelly painful as to have powerless desires," I +answered. "Those two poor creatures, the father and son, will never know +how keen our sympathy for them is, any more than the world will know +how beautiful are their lives; they are laying up their treasures in +heaven." + +"Oh, how poor this country is!" she said, pointing to a field enclosed +by a dry stone wall, which was covered with droppings of cow's dung +applied symmetrically. "I asked a peasant-woman who was busy sticking +them on, why it was done; she answered that she was making fuel. Could +you have imagined that when those patches of dung have dried, human +beings would collect them, store them, and use them for fuel? During the +winter, they are even sold as peat is sold. And what do you suppose the +best dressmaker in the place can earn?--five sous a day!" adding, after +a pause, "and her food." + +"But see," I said, "how the winds from the sea bend or destroy +everything. There are no trees. Fragments of wreckage or old vessels +that are broken up are sold to those who can afford to buy; for costs +of transportation are too heavy to allow them to use the firewood with +which Brittany abounds. This region is fine for none but noble souls; +persons without sentiments could never live here; poets and barnacles +alone should inhabit it. All that ever brought a population to this rock +were the salt-marshes and the factory which prepares the salt. On one +side the sea; on the other, sand; above, illimitable space." + +We had now passed the town, and had reached the species of desert which +separates Croisic from the village of Batz. Imagine, my dear uncle, a +barren track of miles covered with the glittering sand of the seashore. +Here and there a few rocks lifted their heads; you might have thought +them gigantic animals couchant on the dunes. Along the coast were reefs, +around which the water foamed and sparkled, giving them the appearance +of great white roses, floating on the liquid surface or resting on the +shore. Seeing this barren tract with the ocean on one side, and on the +other the arm of the sea which runs up between Croisic and the rocky +shore of Guerande, at the base of which lay the salt marshes, denuded of +vegetation, I looked at Pauline and asked her if she felt the courage to +face the burning sun and the strength to walk through sand. + +"I have boots," she said. "Let us go," and she pointed to the tower of +Batz, which arrested the eye by its immense pile placed there like +a pyramid; but a slender, delicately outlined pyramid, a pyramid so +poetically ornate that the imagination figured in it the earliest ruin +of a great Asiatic city. + +We advanced a few steps and sat down upon the portion of a large rock +which was still in the shade. But it was now eleven o'clock, and the +shadow, which ceased at our feet, was disappearing rapidly. + +"How beautiful this silence!" she said to me; "and how the depth of it +is deepened by the rhythmic quiver of the wave upon the shore." + +"If you will give your understanding to the three immensities which +surround us, the water, the air, and the sands, and listen exclusively +to the repeating sounds of flux and reflux," I answered her, "you will +not be able to endure their speech; you will think it is uttering a +thought which will annihilate you. Last evening, at sunset, I had that +sensation; and it exhausted me." + +"Oh! let us talk, let us talk," she said, after a long pause. "I +understand it. No orator was ever more terrible. I think," she +continued, presently, "that I perceive the causes of the harmonies which +surround us. This landscape, which has but three marked colors,--the +brilliant yellow of the sands, the blue of the sky, the even green +of the sea,--is grand without being savage; it is immense, yet not +a desert; it is monotonous, but it does not weary; it has only three +elements, and yet it is varied." + +"Women alone know how to render such impressions," I said. "You would be +the despair of a poet, dear soul that I divine so well!" + +"The extreme heat of mid-day casts into those three expressions of the +infinite an all-powerful color," said Pauline, smiling. "I can here +conceive the poesy and the passion of the East." + +"And I can perceive its despair." + +"Yes," she said, "this dune is a cloister,--a sublime cloister." + +We now heard the hurried steps of our guide; he had put on his Sunday +clothes. We addressed a few ordinary words to him; he seemed to think +that our mood had changed, and with that reserve that comes of misery, +he kept silence. Though from time to time we pressed each other's hands +that we might feel the mutual flow of our ideas and impressions, +we walked along for half an hour in silence, either because we were +oppressed by the heat which rose in waves from the burning sands, or +because the difficulty of walking absorbed our attention. Like children, +we held each other's hands; in fact, we could hardly have made a dozen +steps had we walked arm in arm. The path which led to Batz was not so +much as traced. A gust of wind was enough to efface all tracks left by +the hoofs of horses or the wheels of carts; but the practised eye of our +guide could recognize by scraps of mud or the dung of cattle the road +that crossed that desert, now descending towards the sea, then rising +landward according to either the fall of the ground or the necessity of +rounding some breastwork of rock. By mid-day, we were only half way. + +"We will stop to rest over there," I said, pointing to a promontory of +rocks sufficiently high to make it probable we should find a grotto. + +The fisherman, who heard me and saw the direction in which I pointed, +shook his head, and said,-- + +"Some one is there. All those who come from the village of Batz to +Croisic, or from Croisic to Batz, go round that place; they never pass +it." + +These words were said in a low voice, and seemed to indicate a mystery. + +"Who is he,--a robber, a murderer?" + +Our guide answered only by drawing a deep breath, which redoubled our +curiosity. + +"But if we pass that way, would any harm happen to us?" + +"Oh, no!" + +"Will you go with us?" + +"No, monsieur." + +"We will go, if you assure us there is no danger." + +"I do not say so," replied the fisherman, hastily. "I only say that he +who is there will say nothing to you, and do you no harm. He never so +much as moves from his place." + +"Who is it?" + +"A man." + +Never were two syllables pronounced in so tragic a manner. At this +moment we were about fifty feet from the rocky eminence, which extended +a long reef into the sea. Our guide took a path which led him round the +base of the rock. We ourselves continued our way over it; but Pauline +took my arm. Our guide hastened his steps in order to meet us on the +other side, where the two paths came together again. + +This circumstance excited our curiosity, which soon became so keen that +our hearts were beating as if with a sense of fear. In spite of the +heat of the day, and the fatigue caused by toiling through the sand, +our souls were still surrendered to the softness unspeakable of our +exquisite ecstasy. They were filled with that pure pleasure which cannot +be described unless we liken it to the joy of listening to enchanting +music, Mozart's "Audiamo mio ben," for instance. When two pure +sentiments blend together, what is that but two sweet voices singing? +To be able to appreciate properly the emotion that held us, it would +be necessary to share the state of half sensuous delight into which the +events of the morning had plunged us. Admire for a long time some pretty +dove with iridescent colors, perched on a swaying branch above a spring, +and you will give a cry of pain when you see a hawk swooping down upon +her, driving its steel claws into her breast, and bearing her away with +murderous rapidity. When we had advanced a step or two into an open +space which lay before what seemed to be a grotto, a sort of esplanade +placed a hundred feet above the ocean, and protected from its fury +by buttresses of rock, we suddenly experienced an electrical shudder, +something resembling the shock of a sudden noise awaking us in the dead +of night. + +We saw, sitting on a vast granite boulder, a man who looked at us. His +glance, like that of the flash of a cannon, came from two bloodshot +eyes, and his stoical immobility could be compared only to the immutable +granite masses that surrounded him. His eyes moved slowly, his body +remaining rigid as though he were petrified. Then, having cast upon us +that look which struck us like a blow, he turned his eyes once more to +the limitless ocean, and gazed upon it, in spite of its dazzling +light, as eagles gaze at the sun, without lowering his eyelids. Try to +remember, dear uncle, one of those old oaks, whose knotty trunks, from +which the branches have been lopped, rise with weird power in some +lonely place, and you will have an image of this man. Here was a ruined +Herculean frame, the face of an Olympian Jove, destroyed by age, by +hard sea toil, by grief, by common food, and blackened as it were by +lightning. Looking at his hard and hairy hands, I saw that the sinews +stood out like cords of iron. Everything about him denoted strength of +constitution. I noticed in a corner of the grotto a quantity of moss, +and on a sort of ledge carved by nature on the granite, a loaf of bread, +which covered the mouth of an earthenware jug. Never had my imagination, +when it carried me to the deserts where early Christian anchorites spent +their lives, depicted to my mind a form more grandly religious nor more +horribly repentant than that of this man. You, who have a life-long +experience of the confessional, dear uncle, you may never, perhaps, +have seen so awful a remorse,--remorse sunk in the waves of prayer, the +ceaseless supplication of a mute despair. This fisherman, this mariner, +this hard, coarse Breton, was sublime through some hidden emotion. Had +those eyes wept? That hand, moulded for an unwrought statue, had it +struck? That ragged brow, where savage honor was imprinted, and on which +strength had left vestiges of the gentleness which is an attribute +of all true strength, that forehead furrowed with wrinkles, was it in +harmony with the heart within? Why was this man in the granite? Why +was the granite in the man? Which was the man, which was the granite? +A world of fancies came into our minds. As our guide had prophesied, we +passed in silence, rapidly; when he met us he saw our emotion of mingled +terror and astonishment, but he made no boast of the truth of his +prediction; he merely said,-- + +"You have seen him." + +"Who is that man?" + +"They call him the Man of the Vow." + +You can imagine the movement with which our two heads turned at once +to our guide. He was a simple-hearted fellow; he understood at once our +mute inquiry, and here follows what he told us; I shall try to give it +as best I can in his own language, retaining his popular parlance. + +"Madame, folks from Croisic and those from Batz think this man is guilty +of something, and is doing a penance ordered by a famous rector to +whom he confessed his sin somewhere beyond Nantes. Others think that +Cambremer, that's his name, casts an evil fate on those who come within +his air, and so they always look which way the wind is before they pass +this rock. If it's nor'-westerly they wouldn't go by, no, not if their +errand was to get a bit of the true cross; they'd go back, frightened. +Others--they are the rich folks of Croisic--they say that Cambremer has +made a vow, and that's why people call him the Man of the Vow. He is +there night and day, he never leaves the place. All these sayings have +some truth in them. See there," he continued, turning round to show us +a thing we had not remarked, "look at that wooden cross he has set up +there, to the left, to show that he has put himself under the protection +of God and the holy Virgin and the saints. But the fear that people have +of him keeps him as safe as if he were guarded by a troop of soldiers. +He has never said one word since he locked himself up in the open air +in this way; he lives on bread and water, which is brought to him every +morning by his brother's daughter, a little lass about twelve years old +to whom he has left his property, a pretty creature, gentle as a lamb, a +nice little girl, so pleasant. She has such blue eyes, long as _that_," +he added, marking a line on his thumb, "and hair like the cherubim. When +you ask her: 'Tell me, Perotte' (That's how we say Pierette in these +parts," he remarked, interrupting himself; "she is vowed to Saint +Pierre; Cambremer is named Pierre, and he was her godfather)--'Tell +me, Perotte, what does your uncle say to you?'--'He says nothing to me, +nothing.'--'Well, then, what does he do to you?' 'He kisses me on the +forehead, Sundays.'--'Are you afraid of him?'--'Ah, no, no; isn't he my +godfather? he wouldn't have anybody but me bring him his food.' Perotte +declares that he smiles when she comes; but you might as well say the +sun shines in a fog; he's as gloomy as a cloudy day." + +"But," I said to him, "you excite our curiosity without satisfying it. +Do you know what brought him there? Was it grief, or repentance; is it a +mania; is it crime, is it--" + +"Eh, monsieur, there's no one but my father and I who know the real +truth. My late mother was servant in the family of a lawyer to whom +Cambremer told all by order of the priest, who wouldn't give him +absolution until he had done so--at least, that's what the folks of +the port say. My poor mother overheard Cambremer without trying to; +the lawyer's kitchen was close to the office, and that's how she heard. +She's dead, and so is the lawyer. My mother made us promise, my father +and I, not to talk about the matter to the folks of the neighborhood; +but I can tell you my hair stood on end the night she told us the tale." + +"Well, my man, tell it to us now, and we won't speak of it." + +The fisherman looked at us; then he continued: + +"Pierre Cambremer, whom you have seen there, is the eldest of the +Cambremers, who from father to son have always been sailors; their name +says it--the sea bends under them. Pierre was a deep-sea fisherman. He +had boats, and fished for sardine, also for the big fishes, and sold +them to dealers. He'd have charted a large vessel and trawled for cod +if he hadn't loved his wife so much; she was a fine woman, a Brouin +of Guerande, with a good heart. She loved Cambremer so much that she +couldn't bear to have her man leave her for longer than to fish sardine. +They lived over there, look!" said the fisherman, going up a hillock to +show us an island in the little Mediterranean between the dunes where +we were walking and the marshes of Guerande. "You can see the house from +here. It belonged to him. Jacquette Brouin and Cambremer had only one +son, a lad they loved--how shall I say?--well, they loved him like an +only child, they were mad about him. How many times we have seen them at +fairs buying all sorts of things to please him; it was out of all reason +the way they indulged him, and so folks told them. The little Cambremer, +seeing that he was never thwarted, grew as vicious as a red ass. When +they told pere Cambremer, 'Your son has nearly killed little such +a one,' he would laugh and say: 'Bah! he'll be a bold sailor; he'll +command the king's fleets.'--Another time, 'Pierre Cambremer, did +you know your lad very nearly put out the eye of the little Pougard +girl?'--'Ha! he'll like the girls,' said Pierre. Nothing troubled him. +At ten years old the little cur fought everybody, and amused himself +with cutting the hens' necks off and ripping up the pigs; in fact, +you might say he wallowed in blood. 'He'll be a famous soldier,' said +Cambremer, 'he's got the taste of blood.' Now, you see," said the +fisherman, "I can look back and remember all that--and Cambremer, too," +he added, after a pause. "By the time Jacques Cambremer was fifteen or +sixteen years of age he had come to be--what shall I say?--a shark. He +amused himself at Guerande, and was after the girls at Savenay. Then he +wanted money. He robbed his mother, who didn't dare say a word to his +father. Cambremer was an honest man who'd have tramped fifty miles to +return two sous that any one had overpaid him on a bill. At last, one +day the mother was robbed of everything. During one of his father's +fishing-trips Jacques carried off all she had, furniture, pots and pans, +sheets, linen, everything; he sold it to go to Nantes and carry on his +capers there. The poor mother wept day and night. This time it couldn't +be hidden from the father, and she feared him--not for herself, you may +be sure of that. When Pierre Cambremer came back and saw furniture in +his house which the neighbors had lent to his wife, he said,-- + +"'What is all this?' + +"The poor woman, more dead than alive, replied: + +"'We have been robbed.' + +"'Where is Jacques?' + +"'Jacques is off amusing himself.' + +"No one knew where the scoundrel was. + +"'He amuses himself too much,' said Pierre. + +"Six months later the poor father heard that his son was about to be +arrested in Nantes. He walked there on foot, which is faster than by +sea, put his hands on his son, and compelled him to return home. Once +here, he did not ask him, 'What have you done?' but he said:-- + +"'If you do not conduct yourself properly at home with your mother and +me, and go fishing, and behave like an honest man, you and I will have a +reckoning.' + +"The crazy fellow, counting on his parent's folly, made a face; on which +Pierre struck him a blow which sent Jacques to his bed for six weeks. +The poor mother nearly died of grief. One night, as she was fast asleep +beside her husband, a noise awoke her; she rose up quickly, and was +stabbed in the arm with a knife. She cried out loud, and when Pierre +Cambremer struck a light and saw his wife wounded, he thought it was the +doing of robbers,--as if we ever had any in these parts, where you might +carry ten thousand francs in gold from Croisic to Saint-Nazaire without +ever being asked what you had in your arms. Pierre looked for his son, +but he could not find him. In the morning, if that monster didn't have +the face to come home, saying he had stayed at Batz all night! I +should tell you that the mother had not known where to hide her money. +Cambremer put his with Monsieur Dupotel at Croisic. Their son's follies +had by this time cost them so much that they were half-ruined, and that +was hard for folks who once had twelve thousand francs, and who owned +their island. No one ever knew what Cambremer paid at Nantes to get his +son away from there. Bad luck seemed to follow the family. Troubles fell +upon Cambremer's brother, he needed help. Pierre said, to console him, +that Jacques and Perotte (the brother's daughter) could be married. +Then, to help Joseph Cambremer to earn his bread, Pierre took him with +him a-fishing; for the poor man was now obliged to live by his daily +labor. His wife was dead of the fever, and money was owing for Perotte's +nursing. The wife of Pierre Cambremer owed about one hundred francs to +divers persons for the little girl,--linen, clothes, and what not,--and +it so chanced that she had sewed a bit of Spanish gold into her mattress +for a nest-egg toward paying off that money. It was wrapped in paper, +and on the paper was written by her: 'For Perotte.' Jacquette Brouin had +had a fine education; she could write like a clerk, and had taught her +son to write too. I can't tell you how it was that the villain scented +the gold, stole it, and went off to Croisic to enjoy himself. Pierre +Cambremer, as if it was ordained, came back that day in his boat; as he +landed he saw a bit of paper floating in the water, and he picked it +up, looked at it, and carried it to his wife, who fell down as if dead, +seeing her own writing. Cambremer said nothing, but he went to Croisic, +and heard that his son was in a billiard room; so then he went to the +mistress of the cafe, and said to her:-- + +"'I told Jacques not to use a piece of gold with which he will pay you; +give it back to me, and I'll give you white money in place of it.' + +"The good woman did as she was told. Cambremer took the money and just +said 'Good,' and then he went home. So far, all the town knows that; +but now comes what I alone know, though others have always had some +suspicion of it. As I say, Cambremer came home; he told his wife to +clean up their chamber, which is on the lower floor; he made a fire, lit +two candles, placed two chairs on one side of the hearth, and a stool on +the other. Then he told his wife to bring him his wedding-clothes, and +ordered her to put on hers. He dressed himself. When dressed, he fetched +his brother, and told him to watch before the door, and warn him of any +noise on either of the beaches,--that of Croisic, or that of Guerande. +Then he loaded a gun, and placed it at a corner of the fireplace. +Jacques came home late; he had drunk and gambled till ten o'clock, and +had to get back by way of the Carnouf point. His uncle heard his hail, +and he went over and fetched him, but said nothing. When Jacques entered +the house, his father said to him,-- + +"'Sit there,' pointing to the stool. 'You are,' he said, 'before your +father and mother, whom you have offended, and who will now judge you.' + +"At this Jacques began to howl, for his father's face was all distorted. +His mother was rigid as an oar. + +"'If you shout, if you stir, if you do not sit still on that stool,' +said Pierre, aiming the gun at him, 'I will shoot you like a dog.' + +"Jacques was mute as a fish. The mother said nothing. + +"'Here,' said Pierre, 'is a piece of paper which wrapped a Spanish gold +piece. That piece of gold was in your mother's bed; she alone knew where +it was. I found that paper in the water when I landed here to-day. +You gave a piece of Spanish gold this night to Mere Fleurant, and your +mother's piece is no longer in her bed. Explain all this.' + +"Jacques said he had not taken his mother's money, and that the gold +piece was one he had brought from Nantes. + +"'I am glad of it,' said Pierre; 'now prove it.' + +"'I had it all along.' + +"'You did not take the gold piece belonging to your mother?' + +"'No.' + +"'Will you swear it on your eternal life?' + +"He was about to swear; his mother raised her eyes to him, and said:-- + +"'Jacques, my child, take care; do not swear if it is not true; you can +repent, you can amend; there is still time.' + +"And she wept. + +"'You are a this and a that,' he said; 'you have always wanted to ruin +me.' + +"Cambremer turned white and said,-- + +"'Such language to your mother increases your crime. Come, to the point! +Will you swear?' + +"'Yes.' + +"'Then,' Pierre said, 'was there upon your gold piece the little cross +which the sardine merchant who paid it to me scratched on ours?' + +"Jacques broke down and wept. + +"'Enough,' said Pierre. 'I shall not speak to you of the crimes you have +committed before this. I do not choose that a Cambremer should die on a +scaffold. Say your prayers and make haste. A priest is coming to confess +you.' + +"The mother had left the room; she could not hear her son condemned. +After she had gone, Joseph Cambremer, the uncle, brought in the rector +of Piriac, to whom Jacques would say nothing. He was shrewd; he knew his +father would not kill him until he had made his confession. + +"'Thank you, and excuse us,' said Cambremer to the priest, when he saw +Jacques' obstinacy. 'I wished to give a lesson to my son, and will ask +you to say nothing about it. As for you,' he said to Jacques, 'if you do +not amend, the next offence you commit will be your last; I shall end it +without confession.' + +"And he sent him to bed. The lad thought he could still get round his +father. He slept. His father watched. When he saw that his son was +soundly asleep, he covered his mouth with tow, blindfolded him tightly, +bound him hand and foot--'He raged, he wept blood,' my mother heard +Cambremer say to the lawyer. The mother threw herself at the father's +feet. + +"'He is judged and condemned,' replied Pierre; 'you must now help me +carry him to the boat.' + +"She refused; and Cambremer carried him alone; he laid him in the bottom +of the boat, tied a stone to his neck, took the oars and rowed out of +the cove to the open sea, till he came to the rock where he now is. When +the poor mother, who had come up here with her brother-in-law, cried +out, 'Mercy, mercy!' it was like throwing a stone at a wolf. There was +a moon, and she saw the father casting her son into the water; her son, +the child of her womb, and as there was no wind, she heard _blouf_! and +then nothing--neither sound nor bubble. Ah! the sea is a fine keeper of +what it gets. Rowing inshore to stop his wife's cries, Cambremer found +her half-dead. The two brothers couldn't carry her the whole distance +home, so they had to put her into the boat which had just served to kill +her son, and they rowed back round the tower by the channel of Croisic. +Well, well! the belle Brouin, as they called her, didn't last a week. +She died begging her husband to burn that accursed boat. Oh, he did it! +As for him, he became I don't know what; he staggered about like a man +who can't carry his wine. Then he went away and was gone ten days, and +after he returned he put himself where you saw him, and since he has +been there he has never said one word." + +The fisherman related this history rapidly and more simply than I can +write it. The lower classes make few comments as they relate a thing; +they tell the fact that strikes them, and present it as they felt it. +This tale was made as sharply incisive as the blow of an axe. + +"I shall not go to Batz," said Pauline, when we came to the upper shore +of the lake. + +We returned to Croisic by the salt marshes, through the labyrinth of +which we were guided by our fisherman, now as silent as ourselves. The +inclination of our souls was changed. We were both plunged into gloomy +reflections, saddened by the recital of a drama which explained the +sudden presentiment which had seized us on seeing Cambremer. Each of us +had enough knowledge of life to divine all that our guide had not told +of that triple existence. The anguish of those three beings rose up +before us as if we had seen it in a drama, culminating in that of the +father expiating his crime. We dared not look at the rock where sat the +fatal man who held the whole countryside in awe. A few clouds dimmed +the skies; mists were creeping up from the horizon. We walked through a +landscape more bitterly gloomy than any our eyes had ever rested on, +a nature that seemed sickly, suffering, covered with salty crust, the +eczema, it might be called, of earth. Here, the soil was mapped out in +squares of unequal size and shape, all encased with enormous ridges or +embankments of gray earth and filled with water, to the surface of which +the salt scum rises. These gullies, made by the hand of man, are again +divided by causeways, along which the laborers pass, armed with long +rakes, with which they drag this scum to the bank, heaping it on +platforms placed at equal distances when the salt is fit to handle. + +For two hours we skirted the edge of this melancholy checkerboard, where +salt has stifled all forms of vegetation, and where no one ever comes +but a few "paludiers," the local name given to the laborers of the +salt marshes. These men, or rather this clan of Bretons, wear a special +costume: a white jacket, something like that of brewers. They marry +among themselves. There is no instance of a girl of the tribe having +ever married any man who was not a paludier. + +The horrible aspects of these marshes, these sloughs, the mud of which +was systematically raked, the dull gray earth that the Breton flora held +in horror, were in keeping with the gloom that filled our souls. When we +reached a spot where we crossed an arm of the sea, which no doubt +serves to feed the stagnant salt-pools, we noticed with relief the puny +vegetation which sprouted through the sand of the beach. As we crossed, +we saw the island on which the Cambremers had lived; but we turned away +our heads. + +Arriving at the hotel, we noticed a billiard-table, and finding that +it was the only billiard-table in Croisic, we made our preparations to +leave during the night. The next day we went to Guerande. Pauline was +still sad, and I myself felt a return of that fever of the brain which +will destroy me. I was so cruelly tortured by the visions that came to +me of those three lives, that Pauline said at last,-- + +"Louis, write it all down; that will change the nature of the fever +within you." + +So I have written you this narrative, dear uncle; but the shock of such +an event has made me lose the calmness I was beginning to gain from +sea-bathing and our stay in this place. + + + + +ADDENDUM + +The following personages appear in other stories of the Human Comedy. + +Note: A Drama on the Seashore is also known as A Seaside Tragedy and is +referred to by that title in other addendums. + + Cambremer, Pierre + Beatrix + + Lambert, Louis + Louis Lambert + A Distinguished Provincial at Paris + + Lefebvre + Louis Lambert + + Villenoix, Pauline Salomon de + Louis Lambert + The Vicar of Tours + + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's A Drama on the Seashore, by Honore de Balzac + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 1427 *** |