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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of La Grande Bretèche, by Honoré de Balzac
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: La Grande Bretèche
+
+Author: Honoré de Balzac
+
+Translator: Ellen Marriage and Clara Bell
+
+Release Date: February 28, 2010 [EBook #1710]
+Last Updated: October 22, 2016
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: UTF-8
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK LA GRANDE BRETÈCHE ***
+
+
+
+Produced by John Bickers, and Dagny, and David Widger
+
+
+
+
+
+LA GRANDE BRETÈCHE (Sequel to “Another Study of Woman.”)
+
+
+
+By Honoré De Balzac
+
+
+
+Translated by Ellen Marriage and Clara Bell
+
+
+
+
+
+LA GRANDE BRETÈCHE
+
+ADDENDUM
+
+
+
+LA GRANDE BRETÈCHE
+
+
+“Ah! madame,” replied the doctor, “I have some appalling stories in
+my collection. But each one has its proper hour in a conversation—you
+know the pretty jest recorded by Chamfort, and said to the Duc de
+Fronsac: ‘Between your sally and the present moment lie ten bottles of
+champagne.’”
+
+“But it is two in the morning, and the story of Rosina has prepared
+us,” said the mistress of the house.
+
+“Tell us, Monsieur Bianchon!” was the cry on every side.
+
+The obliging doctor bowed, and silence reigned.
+
+“At about a hundred paces from Vendôme, on the banks of the Loir,”
+ said he, “stands an old brown house, crowned with very high roofs, and
+so completely isolated that there is nothing near it, not even a fetid
+tannery or a squalid tavern, such as are commonly seen outside small
+towns. In front of this house is a garden down to the river, where the
+box shrubs, formerly clipped close to edge the walks, now straggle
+at their own will. A few willows, rooted in the stream, have grown
+up quickly like an enclosing fence, and half hide the house. The
+wild plants we call weeds have clothed the bank with their beautiful
+luxuriance. The fruit-trees, neglected for these ten years past,
+no longer bear a crop, and their suckers have formed a thicket. The
+espaliers are like a copse. The paths, once graveled, are overgrown
+with purslane; but, to be accurate there is no trace of a path.
+
+“Looking down from the hilltop, to which cling the ruins of the old
+castle of the Dukes of Vendôme, the only spot whence the eye can
+see into this enclosure, we think that at a time, difficult now to
+determine, this spot of earth must have been the joy of some country
+gentleman devoted to roses and tulips, in a word, to horticulture, but
+above all a lover of choice fruit. An arbor is visible, or rather
+the wreck of an arbor, and under it a table still stands not entirely
+destroyed by time. At the aspect of this garden that is no more, the
+negative joys of the peaceful life of the provinces may be divined as
+we divine the history of a worthy tradesman when we read the epitaph
+on his tomb. To complete the mournful and tender impressions which
+seize the soul, on one of the walls there is a sundial graced with
+this homely Christian motto, ‘Ultimam cogita.’
+
+“The roof of this house is dreadfully dilapidated; the outside
+shutters are always closed; the balconies are hung with swallows’
+nests; the doors are for ever shut. Straggling grasses have outlined
+the flagstones of the steps with green; the ironwork is rusty. Moon
+and sun, winter, summer, and snow have eaten into the wood, warped
+the boards, peeled off the paint. The dreary silence is broken only by
+birds and cats, polecats, rats, and mice, free to scamper round, and
+fight, and eat each other. An invisible hand has written over it all:
+‘Mystery.’
+
+“If, prompted by curiosity, you go to look at this house from the
+street, you will see a large gate, with a round-arched top; the
+children have made many holes in it. I learned later that this door
+had been blocked for ten years. Through these irregular breaches you
+will see that the side towards the courtyard is in perfect harmony
+with the side towards the garden. The same ruin prevails. Tufts of
+weeds outline the paving-stones; the walls are scored by enormous
+cracks, and the blackened coping is laced with a thousand festoons of
+pellitory. The stone steps are disjointed; the bell-cord is rotten;
+the gutter-spouts broken. What fire from heaven could have fallen
+there? By what decree has salt been sown on this dwelling? Has God
+been mocked here? Or was France betrayed? These are the questions we
+ask ourselves. Reptiles crawl over it, but give no reply. This empty
+and deserted house is a vast enigma of which the answer is known to
+none.
+
+“It was formerly a little domain, held in fief, and is known as La
+Grande Bretèche. During my stay at Vendôme, where Despleins had left
+me in charge of a rich patient, the sight of this strange dwelling
+became one of my keenest pleasures. Was it not far better than a ruin?
+Certain memories of indisputable authenticity attach themselves to a
+ruin; but this house, still standing, though being slowly destroyed
+by an avenging hand, contained a secret, an unrevealed thought. At the
+very least, it testified to a caprice. More than once in the evening I
+boarded the hedge, run wild, which surrounded the enclosure. I braved
+scratches, I got into this ownerless garden, this plot which was no
+longer public or private; I lingered there for hours gazing at the
+disorder. I would not, as the price of the story to which this strange
+scene no doubt was due, have asked a single question of any gossiping
+native. On that spot I wove delightful romances, and abandoned myself
+to little debauches of melancholy which enchanted me. If I had known
+the reason—perhaps quite commonplace—of this neglect, I should have
+lost the unwritten poetry which intoxicated me. To me this refuge
+represented the most various phases of human life, shadowed by
+misfortune; sometimes the peace of the graveyard without the dead,
+who speak in the language of epitaphs; one day I saw in it the home
+of lepers; another, the house of the Atridae; but, above all, I found
+there provincial life, with its contemplative ideas, its hour-glass
+existence. I often wept there, I never laughed.
+
+“More than once I felt involuntary terrors as I heard overhead the
+dull hum of the wings of some hurrying wood-pigeon. The earth is dank;
+you must be on the watch for lizards, vipers, and frogs, wandering
+about with the wild freedom of nature; above all, you must have no
+fear of cold, for in a few moments you feel an icy cloak settle on
+your shoulders, like the Commendatore’s hand on Don Giovanni’s neck.
+
+“One evening I felt a shudder; the wind had turned an old rusty
+weathercock, and the creaking sounded like a cry from the house, at
+the very moment when I was finishing a gloomy drama to account for
+this monumental embodiment of woe. I returned to my inn, lost in
+gloomy thoughts. When I had supped, the hostess came into my room with
+an air of mystery, and said, ‘Monsieur, here is Monsieur Regnault.’
+
+“‘Who is Monsieur Regnault?’
+
+“‘What, sir, do you not know Monsieur Regnault?—Well, that’s odd,’
+said she, leaving the room.
+
+“On a sudden I saw a man appear, tall, slim, dressed in black, hat
+in hand, who came in like a ram ready to butt his opponent, showing a
+receding forehead, a small pointed head, and a colorless face of the
+hue of a glass of dirty water. You would have taken him for an usher.
+The stranger wore an old coat, much worn at the seams; but he had a
+diamond in his shirt frill, and gold rings in his ears.
+
+“‘Monsieur,’ said I, ‘whom have I the honor of addressing?’—He took
+a chair, placed himself in front of my fire, put his hat on my
+table, and answered while he rubbed his hands: ‘Dear me, it is very
+cold.—Monsieur, I am Monsieur Regnault.’
+
+“I was encouraging myself by saying to myself, ‘Seek!’
+
+“‘I am,’ he went on, ‘notary at Vendôme.’
+
+“‘I am delighted to hear it, monsieur,’ I exclaimed. ‘But I am not in
+a position to make a will for reasons best known to myself.’
+
+“‘One moment!’ said he, holding up his hand as though to gain silence.
+‘Allow me, monsieur, allow me! I am informed that you sometimes go to
+walk in the garden of la Grande Bretèche.’
+
+“‘Yes, monsieur.’
+
+“‘One moment!’ said he, repeating his gesture. ‘That constitutes a
+misdemeanor. Monsieur, as executor under the will of the late Comtesse
+de Merret, I come in her name to beg you to discontinue the practice.
+One moment! I am not a Turk, and do not wish to make a crime of it.
+And besides, you are free to be ignorant of the circumstances which
+compel me to leave the finest mansion in Vendôme to fall into ruin.
+Nevertheless, monsieur, you must be a man of education, and you should
+know that the laws forbid, under heavy penalties, any trespass on
+enclosed property. A hedge is the same as a wall. But, the state in
+which the place is left may be an excuse for your curiosity. For my
+part, I should be quite content to make you free to come and go in the
+house; but being bound to respect the will of the testatrix, I have
+the honor, monsieur, to beg that you will go into the garden no more.
+I myself, monsieur, since the will was read, have never set foot in
+the house, which, as I had the honor of informing you, is part of the
+estate of the late Madame de Merret. We have done nothing there but
+verify the number of doors and windows to assess the taxes I have to
+pay annually out of the funds left for that purpose by the late Madame
+de Merret. Ah! my dear sir, her will made a great commotion in the
+town.’
+
+“The good man paused to blow his nose. I respected his volubility,
+perfectly understanding that the administration of Madame de Merret’s
+estate had been the most important event of his life, his reputation,
+his glory, his Restoration. As I was forced to bid farewell to my
+beautiful reveries and romances, I was to reject learning the truth on
+official authority.
+
+“‘Monsieur,’ said I, ‘would it be indiscreet if I were to ask you the
+reasons for such eccentricity?’
+
+“At these words an expression, which revealed all the pleasure which
+men feel who are accustomed to ride a hobby, overspread the lawyer’s
+countenance. He pulled up the collar of his shirt with an air, took
+out his snuffbox, opened it, and offered me a pinch; on my refusing,
+he took a large one. He was happy! A man who has no hobby does not
+know all the good to be got out of life. A hobby is the happy medium
+between a passion and a monomania. At this moment I understood the
+whole bearing of Sterne’s charming passion, and had a perfect idea of
+the delight with which my uncle Toby, encouraged by Trim, bestrode his
+hobby-horse.
+
+“‘Monsieur,’ said Monsieur Regnault, ‘I was head-clerk in Monsieur
+Roguin’s office, in Paris. A first-rate house, which you may have
+heard mentioned? No! An unfortunate bankruptcy made it famous.—Not
+having money enough to purchase a practice in Paris at the price
+to which they were run up in 1816, I came here and bought my
+predecessor’s business. I had relations in Vendôme; among others, a
+wealthy aunt, who allowed me to marry her daughter.—Monsieur,’ he went
+on after a little pause, ‘three months after being licensed by the
+Keeper of the Seals, one evening, as I was going to bed—it was before
+my marriage—I was sent for by Madame la Comtesse de Merret, to her
+Chateau of Merret. Her maid, a good girl, who is now a servant in this
+inn, was waiting at my door with the Countess’ own carriage. Ah! one
+moment! I ought to tell you that Monsieur le Comte de Merret had gone
+to Paris to die two months before I came here. He came to a miserable
+end, flinging himself into every kind of dissipation. You understand?
+
+“‘On the day when he left, Madame la Comtesse had quitted la Grand
+Bretèche, having dismantled it. Some people even say that she had
+burnt all the furniture, the hangings—in short, all the chattels and
+furniture whatever used in furnishing the premises now let by the
+said M.—(Dear, what am I saying? I beg your pardon, I thought I was
+dictating a lease.)—In short, that she burnt everything in the meadow
+at Merret. Have you been to Merret, monsieur?—No,’ said he, answering
+himself, ‘Ah, it is a very fine place.’
+
+“‘For about three months previously,’ he went on, with a jerk of his
+head, ‘the Count and Countess had lived in a very eccentric way; they
+admitted no visitors; Madame lived on the ground-floor, and Monsieur
+on the first floor. When the Countess was left alone, she was never
+seen excepting at church. Subsequently, at home, at the chateau, she
+refused to see the friends, whether gentlemen or ladies, who went to
+call on her. She was already very much altered when she left la Grande
+Bretèche to go to Merret. That dear lady—I say dear lady, for it was
+she who gave me this diamond, but indeed I saw her but once—that kind
+lady was very ill; she had, no doubt, given up all hope, for she died
+without choosing to send for a doctor; indeed, many of our ladies
+fancied she was not quite right in her head. Well, sir, my curiosity
+was strangely excited by hearing that Madame de Merret had need of
+my services. Nor was I the only person who took an interest in the
+affair. That very night, though it was already late, all the town knew
+that I was going to Merret.
+
+“‘The waiting-woman replied but vaguely to the questions I asked her
+on the way; nevertheless, she told me that her mistress had received
+the Sacrament in the course of the day at the hands of the Curé of
+Merret, and seemed unlikely to live through the night. It was about
+eleven when I reached the chateau. I went up the great staircase.
+After crossing some large, lofty, dark rooms, diabolically cold and
+damp, I reached the state bedroom where the Countess lay. From the
+rumors that were current concerning this lady (monsieur, I should
+never end if I were to repeat all the tales that were told about
+her), I had imagined her a coquette. Imagine, then, that I had great
+difficulty in seeing her in the great bed where she was lying. To be
+sure, to light this enormous room, with old-fashioned heavy cornices,
+and so thick with dust that merely to see it was enough to make you
+sneeze, she had only an old Argand lamp. Ah! but you have not been
+to Merret. Well, the bed is one of those old world beds, with a high
+tester hung with flowered chintz. A small table stood by the bed, on
+which I saw an “Imitation of Christ,” which, by the way, I bought for
+my wife, as well as the lamp. There were also a deep armchair for her
+confidential maid, and two small chairs. There was no fire. That was
+all the furniture, not enough to fill ten lines in an inventory.
+
+“‘My dear sir, if you had seen, as I then saw, that vast room, papered
+and hung with brown, you would have felt yourself transported into a
+scene of a romance. It was icy, nay more, funereal,’ and he lifted his
+hand with a theatrical gesture and paused.
+
+“‘By dint of seeking, as I approached the bed, at last I saw Madame de
+Merret, under the glimmer of the lamp, which fell on the pillows.
+Her face was as yellow as wax, and as narrow as two folded hands. The
+Countess had a lace cap showing her abundant hair, but as white as
+linen thread. She was sitting up in bed, and seemed to keep upright
+with great difficulty. Her large black eyes, dimmed by fever, no
+doubt, and half-dead already, hardly moved under the bony arch of her
+eyebrows.—There,’ he added, pointing to his own brow. ‘Her forehead
+was clammy; her fleshless hands were like bones covered with soft
+skin; the veins and muscles were perfectly visible. She must have been
+very handsome; but at this moment I was startled into an indescribable
+emotion at the sight. Never, said those who wrapped her in her shroud,
+had any living creature been so emaciated and lived. In short, it was
+awful to behold! Sickness so consumed that woman, that she was no more
+than a phantom. Her lips, which were pale violet, seemed to me not to
+move when she spoke to me.
+
+“‘Though my profession has familiarized me with such spectacles, by
+calling me not infrequently to the bedside of the dying to record
+their last wishes, I confess that families in tears and the agonies
+I have seen were as nothing in comparison with this lonely and silent
+woman in her vast chateau. I heard not the least sound, I did not
+perceive the movement which the sufferer’s breathing ought to have
+given to the sheets that covered her, and I stood motionless, absorbed
+in looking at her in a sort of stupor. In fancy I am there still. At
+last her large eyes moved; she tried to raise her right hand, but it
+fell back on the bed, and she uttered these words, which came like a
+breath, for her voice was no longer a voice: “I have waited for you
+with the greatest impatience.” A bright flush rose to her cheeks. It
+was a great effort to her to speak.
+
+“‘“Madame,” I began. She signed to me to be silent. At that moment
+the old housekeeper rose and said in my ear, “Do not speak; Madame la
+Comtesse is not in a state to bear the slightest noise, and what you
+say might agitate her.”
+
+“‘I sat down. A few instants after, Madame de Merret collected all her
+remaining strength to move her right hand, and slipped it, not without
+infinite difficulty, under the bolster; she then paused a moment. With
+a last effort she withdrew her hand; and when she brought out a sealed
+paper, drops of perspiration rolled from her brow. “I place my will
+in your hands—Oh! God! Oh!” and that was all. She clutched a crucifix
+that lay on the bed, lifted it hastily to her lips, and died.
+
+“‘The expression of her eyes still makes me shudder as I think of it.
+She must have suffered much! There was joy in her last glance, and it
+remained stamped on her dead eyes.
+
+“‘I brought away the will, and when it was opened I found that Madame
+de Merret had appointed me her executor. She left the whole of her
+property to the hospital at Vendôme excepting a few legacies. But
+these were her instructions as relating to la Grande Bretèche: She
+ordered me to leave the place, for fifty years counting from the day
+of her death, in the state in which it might be at the time of
+her death, forbidding any one, whoever he might be, to enter the
+apartments, prohibiting any repairs whatever, and even settling a
+salary to pay watchmen if it were needful to secure the absolute
+fulfilment of her intentions. At the expiration of that term, if
+the will of the testatrix has been duly carried out, the house is to
+become the property of my heirs, for, as you know, a notary
+cannot take a bequest. Otherwise la Grande Bretèche reverts to the
+heirs-at-law, but on condition of fulfilling certain conditions set
+forth in a codicil to the will, which is not to be opened till the
+expiration of the said term of fifty years. The will has not been
+disputed, so——’ And without finishing his sentence, the lanky notary
+looked at me with an air of triumph; I made him quite happy by
+offering him my congratulations.
+
+“‘Monsieur,’ I said in conclusion, ‘you have so vividly impressed
+me that I fancy I see the dying woman whiter than her sheets; her
+glittering eyes frighten me; I shall dream of her to-night.—But you
+must have formed some idea as to the instructions contained in that
+extraordinary will.’
+
+“‘Monsieur,’ said he, with comical reticence, ‘I never allow myself
+to criticise the conduct of a person who honors me with the gift of a
+diamond.’
+
+“However, I soon loosened the tongue of the discreet notary of
+Vendôme, who communicated to me, not without long digressions, the
+opinions of the deep politicians of both sexes whose judgments are law
+in Vendôme. But these opinions were so contradictory, so diffuse,
+that I was near falling asleep in spite of the interest I felt in this
+authentic history. The notary’s ponderous voice and monotonous accent,
+accustomed no doubt to listen to himself and to make himself listened
+to by his clients or fellow-townsmen, were too much for my curiosity.
+Happily, he soon went away.
+
+“‘Ah, ha, monsieur,’ said he on the stairs, ‘a good many persons would
+be glad to live five-and-forty years longer; but—one moment!’ and he
+laid the first finger of his right hand to his nostril with a cunning
+look, as much as to say, ‘Mark my words!—To last as long as that—as
+long as that,’ said he, ‘you must not be past sixty now.’
+
+“I closed my door, having been roused from my apathy by this last
+speech, which the notary thought very funny; then I sat down in
+my armchair, with my feet on the fire-dogs. I had lost myself in a
+romance à la Radcliffe, constructed on the juridical base given me by
+Monsieur Regnault, when the door, opened by a woman’s cautious hand,
+turned on the hinges. I saw my landlady come in, a buxom, florid dame,
+always good-humored, who had missed her calling in life. She was a
+Fleming, who ought to have seen the light in a picture by Teniers.
+
+“‘Well, monsieur,’ said she, ‘Monsieur Regnault has no doubt been
+giving you his history of la Grande Bretèche?’
+
+“‘Yes, Madame Lepas.’
+
+“‘And what did he tell you?’
+
+“I repeated in a few words the creepy and sinister story of Madame de
+Merret. At each sentence my hostess put her head forward, looking at
+me with an innkeeper’s keen scrutiny, a happy compromise between
+the instinct of a police constable, the astuteness of a spy, and the
+cunning of a dealer.
+
+“‘My good Madame Lepas,’ said I as I ended, ‘you seem to know more
+about it. Heh? If not, why have you come up to me?’
+
+“‘On my word, as an honest woman——’
+
+“‘Do not swear; your eyes are big with a secret. You knew Monsieur de
+Merret; what sort of man was he?’
+
+“‘Monsieur de Merret—well, you see he was a man you never could see
+the top of, he was so tall! A very good gentleman, from Picardy, and
+who had, as we say, his head close to his cap. He paid for everything
+down, so as never to have difficulties with any one. He was
+hot-tempered, you see! All our ladies liked him very much.’
+
+“‘Because he was hot-tempered?’ I asked her.
+
+“‘Well, may be,’ said she; ‘and you may suppose, sir, that a man
+had to have something to show for a figurehead before he could marry
+Madame de Merret, who, without any reflection on others, was the
+handsomest and richest heiress in our parts. She had about twenty
+thousand francs a year. All the town was at the wedding; the bride
+was pretty and sweet-looking, quite a gem of a woman. Oh, they were a
+handsome couple in their day!’
+
+“‘And were they happy together?’
+
+“‘Hm, hm! so-so—so far as can be guessed, for, as you may suppose, we
+of the common sort were not hail-fellow-well-met with them.—Madame de
+Merret was a kind woman and very pleasant, who had no doubt sometimes
+to put up with her husband’s tantrums. But though he was rather
+haughty, we were fond of him. After all, it was his place to behave
+so. When a man is a born nobleman, you see——’
+
+“‘Still, there must have been some catastrophe for Monsieur and Madame
+de Merret to part so violently?’
+
+“‘I did not say there was any catastrophe, sir. I know nothing about
+it.’
+
+“‘Indeed. Well, now, I am sure you know everything.’
+
+“‘Well, sir, I will tell you the whole story.—When I saw Monsieur
+Regnault go up to see you, it struck me that he would speak to you
+about Madame de Merret as having to do with la Grande Bretèche. That
+put it into my head to ask your advice, sir, seeming to me that you
+are a man of good judgment and incapable of playing a poor woman like
+me false—for I never did any one a wrong, and yet I am tormented by my
+conscience. Up to now I have never dared to say a word to the people
+of these parts; they are all chatter-mags, with tongues like knives.
+And never till now, sir, have I had any traveler here who stayed so
+long in the inn as you have, and to whom I could tell the history of
+the fifteen thousand francs——’
+
+“‘My dear Madame Lepas, if there is anything in your story of a nature
+to compromise me,’ I said, interrupting the flow of her words, ‘I
+would not hear it for all the world.’
+
+“‘You need have no fears,’ said she; ‘you will see.’
+
+“Her eagerness made me suspect that I was not the only person to whom
+my worthy landlady had communicated the secret of which I was to be
+the sole possessor, but I listened.
+
+“‘Monsieur,’ said she, ‘when the Emperor sent the Spaniards here,
+prisoners of war and others, I was required to lodge at the charge
+of the Government a young Spaniard sent to Vendôme on parole.
+Notwithstanding his parole, he had to show himself every day to the
+sub-prefect. He was a Spanish grandee—neither more nor less. He had a
+name in os and dia, something like Bagos de Férédia. I wrote his
+name down in my books, and you may see it if you like. Ah! he was a
+handsome young fellow for a Spaniard, who are all ugly they say. He
+was not more than five feet two or three in height, but so well made;
+and he had little hands that he kept so beautifully! Ah! you should
+have seen them. He had as many brushes for his hands as a woman
+has for her toilet. He had thick, black hair, a flame in his eye, a
+somewhat coppery complexion, but which I admired all the same. He wore
+the finest linen I have ever seen, though I have had princesses to
+lodge here, and, among others, General Bertrand, the Duc and Duchesse
+d’Abrantes, Monsieur Descazes, and the King of Spain. He did not eat
+much, but he had such polite and amiable ways that it was impossible
+to owe him a grudge for that. Oh! I was very fond of him, though he
+did not say four words to me in a day, and it was impossible to
+have the least bit of talk with him; if he was spoken to, he did not
+answer; it is a way, a mania they all have, it would seem.
+
+“‘He read his breviary like a priest, and went to mass and all the
+services quite regularly. And where did he post himself?—we found this
+out later.—Within two yards of Madame de Merret’s chapel. As he took
+that place the very first time he entered the church, no one imagined
+that there was any purpose in it. Besides, he never raised his nose
+above his book, poor young man! And then, monsieur, of an evening he
+went for a walk on the hill among the ruins of the old castle. It was
+his only amusement, poor man; it reminded him of his native land. They
+say that Spain is all hills!
+
+“‘One evening, a few days after he was sent here, he was out very
+late. I was rather uneasy when he did not come in till just on the
+stroke of midnight; but we all got used to his whims; he took the
+key of the door, and we never sat up for him. He lived in a house
+belonging to us in the Rue des Casernes. Well, then, one of our
+stable-boys told us one evening that, going down to wash the horses
+in the river, he fancied he had seen the Spanish Grandee swimming some
+little way off, just like a fish. When he came in, I told him to be
+careful of the weeds, and he seemed put out at having been seen in the
+water.
+
+“‘At last, monsieur, one day, or rather one morning, we did not find
+him in his room; he had not come back. By hunting through his things,
+I found a written paper in the drawer of his table, with fifty pieces
+of Spanish gold of the kind they call doubloons, worth about five
+thousand francs; and in a little sealed box ten thousand francs worth
+of diamonds. The paper said that in case he should not return, he left
+us this money and these diamonds in trust to found masses to thank God
+for his escape and for his salvation.
+
+“‘At that time I still had my husband, who ran off in search of
+him. And this is the queer part of the story: he brought back the
+Spaniard’s clothes, which he had found under a big stone on a sort of
+breakwater along the river bank, nearly opposite la Grande Bretèche.
+My husband went so early that no one saw him. After reading the
+letter, he burnt the clothes, and, in obedience to Count Férédia’s
+wish, we announced that he had escaped.
+
+“‘The sub-prefect set all the constabulary at his heels; but, pshaw!
+he was never caught. Lepas believed that the Spaniard had drowned
+himself. I, sir, have never thought so; I believe, on the contrary,
+that he had something to do with the business about Madame de Merret,
+seeing that Rosalie told me that the crucifix her mistress was so fond
+of that she had it buried with her, was made of ebony and silver; now
+in the early days of his stay here, Monsieur Férédia had one of ebony
+and silver which I never saw later.—And now, monsieur, do not you
+say that I need have no remorse about the Spaniard’s fifteen thousand
+francs? Are they not really and truly mine?’
+
+“‘Certainly.—But have you never tried to question Rosalie?’ said I.
+
+“‘Oh, to be sure I have, sir. But what is to be done? That girl is
+like a wall. She knows something, but it is impossible to make her
+talk.’
+
+“After chatting with me for a few minutes, my hostess left me a prey
+to vague and sinister thoughts, to romantic curiosity, and a religious
+dread, not unlike the deep emotion which comes upon us when we go into
+a dark church at night and discern a feeble light glimmering under
+a lofty vault—a dim figure glides across—the sweep of a gown or of a
+priest’s cassock is audible—and we shiver! La Grande Bretèche, with
+its rank grasses, its shuttered windows, its rusty iron-work, its
+locked doors, its deserted rooms, suddenly rose before me in fantastic
+vividness. I tried to get into the mysterious dwelling to search out
+the heart of this solemn story, this drama which had killed three
+persons.
+
+“Rosalie became in my eyes the most interesting being in Vendôme. As
+I studied her, I detected signs of an inmost thought, in spite of the
+blooming health that glowed in her dimpled face. There was in her soul
+some element of ruth or of hope; her manner suggested a secret, like
+the expression of devout souls who pray in excess, or of a girl who
+has killed her child and for ever hears its last cry. Nevertheless,
+she was simple and clumsy in her ways; her vacant smile had nothing
+criminal in it, and you would have pronounced her innocent only
+from seeing the large red and blue checked kerchief that covered her
+stalwart bust, tucked into the tight-laced bodice of a lilac- and
+white-striped gown. ‘No,’ said I to myself, ‘I will not quit Vendôme
+without knowing the whole history of la Grande Bretèche. To achieve
+this end, I will make love to Rosalie if it proves necessary.’
+
+“‘Rosalie!’ said I one evening.
+
+“‘Your servant, sir?’
+
+“‘You are not married?’ She started a little.
+
+“‘Oh! there is no lack of men if ever I take a fancy to be miserable!’
+she replied, laughing. She got over her agitation at once; for every
+woman, from the highest lady to the inn-servant inclusive, has a
+native presence of mind.
+
+“‘Yes; you are fresh and good-looking enough never to lack lovers! But
+tell me, Rosalie, why did you become an inn-servant on leaving Madame
+de Merret? Did she not leave you some little annuity?’
+
+“‘Oh yes, sir. But my place here is the best in all the town of
+Vendôme.’
+
+“This reply was such an one as judges and attorneys call evasive.
+Rosalie, as it seemed to me, held in this romantic affair the place
+of the middle square of the chess-board: she was at the very centre of
+the interest and of the truth; she appeared to me to be tied into
+the knot of it. It was not a case for ordinary love-making; this girl
+contained the last chapter of a romance, and from that moment all my
+attentions were devoted to Rosalie. By dint of studying the girl, I
+observed in her, as in every woman whom we make our ruling thought, a
+variety of good qualities; she was clean and neat; she was handsome,
+I need not say; she soon was possessed of every charm that desire
+can lend to a woman in whatever rank of life. A fortnight after the
+notary’s visit, one evening, or rather one morning, in the small
+hours, I said to Rosalie:
+
+“‘Come, tell me all you know about Madame de Merret.’
+
+“‘Oh!’ she said, ‘I will tell you; but keep the secret carefully.’
+
+“‘All right, my child; I will keep all your secrets with a thief’s
+honor, which is the most loyal known.’
+
+“‘If it is all the same to you,’ said she, ‘I would rather it should
+be with your own.’
+
+“Thereupon she set her head-kerchief straight, and settled herself
+to tell the tale; for there is no doubt a particular attitude of
+confidence and security is necessary to the telling of a narrative.
+The best tales are told at a certain hour—just as we are all here at
+table. No one ever told a story well standing up, or fasting.
+
+“If I were to reproduce exactly Rosalie’s diffuse eloquence, a whole
+volume would scarcely contain it. Now, as the event of which she
+gave me a confused account stands exactly midway between the notary’s
+gossip and that of Madame Lepas, as precisely as the middle term of a
+rule-of-three sum stands between the first and third, I have only to
+relate it in as few words as may be. I shall therefore be brief.
+
+“The room at la Grande Bretèche in which Madame de Merret slept was on
+the ground floor; a little cupboard in the wall, about four feet deep,
+served her to hang her dresses in. Three months before the evening of
+which I have to relate the events, Madame de Merret had been seriously
+ailing, so much so that her husband had left her to herself, and had
+his own bedroom on the first floor. By one of those accidents which it
+is impossible to foresee, he came in that evening two hours later
+than usual from the club, where he went to read the papers and talk
+politics with the residents in the neighborhood. His wife supposed him
+to have come in, to be in bed and asleep. But the invasion of France
+had been the subject of a very animated discussion; the game of
+billiards had waxed vehement; he had lost forty francs, an enormous
+sum at Vendôme, where everybody is thrifty, and where social habits
+are restrained within the bounds of a simplicity worthy of all praise,
+and the foundation perhaps of a form of true happiness which no
+Parisian would care for.
+
+“For some time past Monsieur de Merret had been satisfied to ask
+Rosalie whether his wife was in bed; on the girl’s replying always in
+the affirmative, he at once went to his own room, with the good faith
+that comes of habit and confidence. But this evening, on coming in,
+he took it into his head to go to see Madame de Merret, to tell her
+of his ill-luck, and perhaps to find consolation. During dinner he had
+observed that his wife was very becomingly dressed; he reflected as he
+came home from the club that his wife was certainly much better, that
+convalescence had improved her beauty, discovering it, as husbands
+discover everything, a little too late. Instead of calling Rosalie,
+who was in the kitchen at the moment watching the cook and the
+coachman playing a puzzling hand at cards, Monsieur de Merret made his
+way to his wife’s room by the light of his lantern, which he set down
+at the lowest step of the stairs. His step, easy to recognize, rang
+under the vaulted passage.
+
+“At the instant when the gentleman turned the key to enter his wife’s
+room, he fancied he heard the door shut of the closet of which I have
+spoken; but when he went in, Madame de Merret was alone, standing in
+front of the fireplace. The unsuspecting husband fancied that Rosalie
+was in the cupboard; nevertheless, a doubt, ringing in his ears like
+a peal of bells, put him on his guard; he looked at his wife, and read
+in her eyes an indescribably anxious and haunted expression.
+
+“‘You are very late,’ said she.—Her voice, usually so clear and sweet,
+struck him as being slightly husky.
+
+“Monsieur de Merret made no reply, for at this moment Rosalie came in.
+This was like a thunder-clap. He walked up and down the room, going
+from one window to another at a regular pace, his arms folded.
+
+“‘Have you had bad news, or are you ill?’ his wife asked him timidly,
+while Rosalie helped her to undress. He made no reply.
+
+“‘You can go, Rosalie,’ said Madame de Merret to her maid; ‘I can put
+in my curl-papers myself.’—She scented disaster at the mere aspect
+of her husband’s face, and wished to be alone with him. As soon as
+Rosalie was gone, or supposed to be gone, for she lingered a few
+minutes in the passage, Monsieur de Merret came and stood facing his
+wife, and said coldly, ‘Madame, there is some one in your cupboard!’
+She looked at her husband calmly, and replied quite simply, ‘No,
+monsieur.’
+
+“This ‘No’ wrung Monsieur de Merret’s heart; he did not believe it;
+and yet his wife had never appeared purer or more saintly than she
+seemed to be at this moment. He rose to go and open the closet door.
+Madame de Merret took his hand, stopped him, looked at him sadly, and
+said in a voice of strange emotion, ‘Remember, if you should find no
+one there, everything must be at an end between you and me.’
+
+“The extraordinary dignity of his wife’s attitude filled him with deep
+esteem for her, and inspired him with one of those resolves which need
+only a grander stage to become immortal.
+
+“‘No, Josephine,’ he said, ‘I will not open it. In either event we
+should be parted for ever. Listen; I know all the purity of your soul,
+I know you lead a saintly life, and would not commit a deadly sin to
+save your life.’—At these words Madame de Merret looked at her husband
+with a haggard stare.—‘See, here is your crucifix,’ he went on. ‘Swear
+to me before God that there is no one in there; I will believe you—I
+will never open that door.’
+
+“Madame de Merret took up the crucifix and said, ‘I swear it.’
+
+“‘Louder,’ said her husband; ‘and repeat: “I swear before God that
+there is nobody in that closet.”’ She repeated the words without
+flinching.
+
+“‘That will do,’ said Monsieur de Merret coldly. After a moment’s
+silence: ‘You have there a fine piece of work which I never saw
+before,’ said he, examining the crucifix of ebony and silver, very
+artistically wrought.
+
+“‘I found it at Duvivier’s; last year when that troop of Spanish
+prisoners came through Vendôme, he bought it of a Spanish monk.’
+
+“‘Indeed,’ said Monsieur de Merret, hanging the crucifix on its nail;
+and he rang the bell.
+
+“He had to wait for Rosalie. Monsieur de Merret went forward quickly
+to meet her, led her into the bay of the window that looked on to the
+garden, and said to her in an undertone:
+
+“‘I know that Gorenflot wants to marry you, that poverty alone
+prevents your setting up house, and that you told him you would not
+be his wife till he found means to become a master mason.—Well, go and
+fetch him; tell him to come here with his trowel and tools. Contrive
+to wake no one in his house but himself. His reward will be beyond
+your wishes. Above all, go out without saying a word—or else!’ and he
+frowned.
+
+“Rosalie was going, and he called her back. ‘Here, take my latch-key,’
+said he.
+
+“‘Jean!’ Monsieur de Merret called in a voice of thunder down the
+passage. Jean, who was both coachman and confidential servant, left
+his cards and came.
+
+“‘Go to bed, all of you,’ said his master, beckoning him to come
+close; and the gentleman added in a whisper, ‘When they are all
+asleep—mind, asleep—you understand?—come down and tell me.’
+
+“Monsieur de Merret, who had never lost sight of his wife while giving
+his orders, quietly came back to her at the fireside, and began to
+tell her the details of the game of billiards and the discussion
+at the club. When Rosalie returned she found Monsieur and Madame de
+Merret conversing amiably.
+
+“Not long before this Monsieur de Merret had had new ceilings made to
+all the reception-rooms on the ground floor. Plaster is very scarce at
+Vendôme; the price is enhanced by the cost of carriage; the gentleman
+had therefore had a considerable quantity delivered to him, knowing
+that he could always find purchasers for what might be left. It was
+this circumstance which suggested the plan he carried out.
+
+“‘Gorenflot is here, sir,’ said Rosalie in a whisper.
+
+“‘Tell him to come in,’ said her master aloud.
+
+“Madame de Merret turned paler when she saw the mason.
+
+“‘Gorenflot,’ said her husband, ‘go and fetch some bricks from the
+coach-house; bring enough to wall up the door of this cupboard; you
+can use the plaster that is left for cement.’ Then, dragging Rosalie
+and the workman close to him—‘Listen, Gorenflot,’ said he, in a low
+voice, ‘you are to sleep here to-night; but to-morrow morning you
+shall have a passport to take you abroad to a place I will tell you
+of. I will give you six thousand francs for your journey. You must
+live in that town for ten years; if you find you do not like it, you
+may settle in another, but it must be in the same country. Go through
+Paris and wait there till I join you. I will there give you an
+agreement for six thousand francs more, to be paid to you on your
+return, provided you have carried out the conditions of the bargain.
+For that price you are to keep perfect silence as to what you have
+to do this night. To you, Rosalie, I will secure ten thousand francs,
+which will not be paid to you till your wedding day, and on condition
+of your marrying Gorenflot; but, to get married, you must hold your
+tongue. If not, no wedding gift!’
+
+“‘Rosalie,’ said Madame de Merret, ‘come and brush my hair.’
+
+“Her husband quietly walked up and down the room, keeping an eye on
+the door, on the mason, and on his wife, but without any insulting
+display of suspicion. Gorenflot could not help making some noise.
+Madame de Merret seized a moment when he was unloading some bricks,
+and when her husband was at the other end of the room to say to
+Rosalie: ‘My dear child, I will give you a thousand francs a year if
+only you will tell Gorenflot to leave a crack at the bottom.’ Then she
+added aloud quite coolly: ‘You had better help him.’
+
+“Monsieur and Madame de Merret were silent all the time while
+Gorenflot was walling up the door. This silence was intentional on the
+husband’s part; he did not wish to give his wife the opportunity of
+saying anything with a double meaning. On Madame de Merret’s side it
+was pride or prudence. When the wall was half built up the cunning
+mason took advantage of his master’s back being turned to break one of
+the two panes in the top of the door with a blow of his pick. By this
+Madame de Merret understood that Rosalie had spoken to Gorenflot. They
+all three then saw the face of a dark, gloomy-looking man, with black
+hair and flaming eyes.
+
+“Before her husband turned round again the poor woman had nodded to
+the stranger, to whom the signal was meant to convey, ‘Hope.’
+
+“At four o’clock, as the day was dawning, for it was the month of
+September, the work was done. The mason was placed in charge of Jean,
+and Monsieur de Merret slept in his wife’s room.
+
+“Next morning when he got up he said with apparent carelessness, ‘Oh,
+by the way, I must go to the Maire for the passport.’ He put on his
+hat, took two or three steps towards the door, paused, and took the
+crucifix. His wife was trembling with joy.
+
+“‘He will go to Duvivier’s,’ thought she.
+
+“As soon as he had left, Madame de Merret rang for Rosalie, and then
+in a terrible voice she cried: ‘The pick! Bring the pick! and set to
+work. I saw how Gorenflot did it yesterday; we shall have time to make
+a gap and build it up again.’
+
+“In an instant Rosalie had brought her mistress a sort of cleaver;
+she, with a vehemence of which no words can give an idea, set to work
+to demolish the wall. She had already got out a few bricks, when,
+turning to deal a stronger blow than before, she saw behind her
+Monsieur de Merret. She fainted away.
+
+“‘Lay madame on her bed,’ said he coldly.
+
+“Foreseeing what would certainly happen in his absence, he had laid
+this trap for his wife; he had merely written to the Maire and sent
+for Duvivier. The jeweler arrived just as the disorder in the room had
+been repaired.
+
+“‘Duvivier,’ asked Monsieur de Merret, ‘did not you buy some
+crucifixes of the Spaniards who passed through the town?’
+
+“‘No, monsieur.’
+
+“‘Very good; thank you,’ said he, flashing a tiger’s glare at his
+wife. ‘Jean,’ he added, turning to his confidential valet, ‘you can
+serve my meals here in Madame de Merret’s room. She is ill, and I
+shall not leave her till she recovers.’
+
+“The cruel man remained in his wife’s room for twenty days. During
+the earlier time, when there was some little noise in the closet,
+and Josephine wanted to intercede for the dying man, he said, without
+allowing her to utter a word, ‘You swore on the Cross that there was
+no one there.’”
+
+After this story all the ladies rose from table, and thus the spell
+under which Bianchon had held them was broken. But there were some
+among them who had almost shivered at the last words.
+
+
+
+
+
+ADDENDUM The following personage appears in other stories of the Human
+Comedy.
+
+Bianchon, Horace Father Goriot The Atheist’s Mass Cesar Birotteau
+The Commission in Lunacy Lost Illusions A Distinguished Provincial
+at Paris A Bachelor’s Establishment The Secrets of a Princess The
+Government Clerks Pierrette A Study of Woman Scenes from a Courtesan’s
+Life Honorine The Seamy Side of History The Magic Skin A Second Home A
+Prince of Bohemia Letters of Two Brides The Muse of the Department The
+Imaginary Mistress The Middle Classes Cousin Betty The Country Parson
+
+In addition, M. Bianchon narrated the following: Another Study of
+Woman
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of La Grande Bretèche, by Honore de
+Balzac
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