initial commit of ebook 1940HEADmain

1 files changed, 1020 insertions, 0 deletions

diff --git a/old/flndr10.txt b/old/flndr10.txt
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..e4796a4
--- /dev/null
+++ b/old/flndr10.txt
@@ -0,0 +1,1020 @@
+Project Gutenberg Etext Christ in Flanders, by Honore de Balzac
+#83 in our series by Honore de Balzac
+
+
+Copyright laws are changing all over the world, be sure to check
+the copyright laws for your country before posting these files!!
+
+Please take a look at the important information in this header.
+We encourage you to keep this file on your own disk, keeping an
+electronic path open for the next readers.  Do not remove this.
+
+
+**Welcome To The World of Free Plain Vanilla Electronic Texts**
+
+**Etexts Readable By Both Humans and By Computers, Since 1971**
+
+*These Etexts Prepared By Hundreds of Volunteers and Donations*
+
+Information on contacting Project Gutenberg to get Etexts, and
+further information is included below.  We need your donations.
+
+
+Christ in Flanders
+
+by Honore de Balzac
+
+Translated by Ellen Marriage
+
+October, 1999  [Etext #1940]
+
+
+Project Gutenberg Etext Christ in Flanders, by Honore de Balzac
+******This file should be named flndr10.txt or flndr10.zip******
+
+Corrected EDITIONS of our etexts get a new NUMBER, flndr11.txt
+VERSIONS based on separate sources get new LETTER, flndr10a.txt
+
+
+Etext prepared by Dagny, dagnyj@hotmail.com
+and John Bickers, jbickers@templar.actrix.gen.nz
+
+
+Project Gutenberg Etexts are usually created from multiple editions,
+all of which are in the Public Domain in the United States, unless a
+copyright notice is included.  Therefore, we do NOT keep these books
+in compliance with any particular paper edition, usually otherwise.
+
+
+We are now trying to release all our books one month in advance
+of the official release dates, for time for better editing.
+
+Please note:  neither this list nor its contents are final till
+midnight of the last day of the month of any such announcement.
+The official release date of all Project Gutenberg Etexts is at
+Midnight, Central Time, of the last day of the stated month.  A
+preliminary version may often be posted for suggestion, comment
+and editing by those who wish to do so.  To be sure you have an
+up to date first edition [xxxxx10x.xxx] please check file sizes
+in the first week of the next month.  Since our ftp program has
+a bug in it that scrambles the date [tried to fix and failed] a
+look at the file size will have to do, but we will try to see a
+new copy has at least one byte more or less.
+
+
+Information about Project Gutenberg (one page)
+
+We produce about two million dollars for each hour we work.  The
+fifty hours is one conservative estimate for how long it we take
+to get any etext selected, entered, proofread, edited, copyright
+searched and analyzed, the copyright letters written, etc.  This
+projected audience is one hundred million readers.  If our value
+per text is nominally estimated at one dollar then we produce $2
+million dollars per hour this year as we release thirty-six text
+files per month, or 432 more Etexts in 1999 for a total of 2000+
+If these reach just 10% of the computerized population, then the
+total should reach over 200 billion Etexts given away this year.
+
+The Goal of Project Gutenberg is to Give Away One Trillion Etext
+Files by the December 31, 2001.  [10,000 x 100,000,000=Trillion]
+This is ten thousand titles each to one hundred million readers,
+which is only ~5% of the present number of computer users.
+
+At our revised rates of production, we will reach only one-third
+of that goal by the end of 2001, or about 3,333 Etexts unless we
+manage to get some real funding; currently our funding is mostly
+from Michael Hart's salary at Carnegie-Mellon University, and an
+assortment of sporadic gifts; this salary is only good for a few
+more years, so we are looking for something to replace it, as we
+don't want Project Gutenberg to be so dependent on one person.
+
+We need your donations more than ever!
+
+
+All donations should be made to "Project Gutenberg/CMU": and are
+tax deductible to the extent allowable by law.  (CMU = Carnegie-
+Mellon University).
+
+For these and other matters, please mail to:
+
+Project Gutenberg
+P. O. Box  2782
+Champaign, IL 61825
+
+When all other email fails try our Executive Director:
+Michael S. Hart <hart@pobox.com>
+
+We would prefer to send you this information by email.
+
+******
+
+To access Project Gutenberg etexts, use any Web browser
+to view http://promo.net/pg.  This site lists Etexts by
+author and by title, and includes information about how
+to get involved with Project Gutenberg.  You could also
+download our past Newsletters, or subscribe here.  This
+is one of our major sites, please email hart@pobox.com,
+for a more complete list of our various sites.
+
+To go directly to the etext collections, use FTP or any
+Web browser to visit a Project Gutenberg mirror (mirror
+sites are available on 7 continents; mirrors are listed
+at http://promo.net/pg).
+
+Mac users, do NOT point and click, typing works better.
+
+Example FTP session:
+
+ftp sunsite.unc.edu
+login: anonymous
+password: your@login
+cd pub/docs/books/gutenberg
+cd etext90 through etext99
+dir [to see files]
+get or mget [to get files. . .set bin for zip files]
+GET GUTINDEX.??  [to get a year's listing of books, e.g., GUTINDEX.99]
+GET GUTINDEX.ALL [to get a listing of ALL books]
+
+***
+
+**Information prepared by the Project Gutenberg legal advisor**
+
+(Three Pages)
+
+
+***START**THE SMALL PRINT!**FOR PUBLIC DOMAIN ETEXTS**START***
+Why is this "Small Print!" statement here?  You know: lawyers.
+They tell us you might sue us if there is something wrong with
+your copy of this etext, even if you got it for free from
+someone other than us, and even if what's wrong is not our
+fault.  So, among other things, this "Small Print!" statement
+disclaims most of our liability to you.  It also tells you how
+you can distribute copies of this etext if you want to.
+
+*BEFORE!* YOU USE OR READ THIS ETEXT
+By using or reading any part of this PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm
+etext, you indicate that you understand, agree to and accept
+this "Small Print!" statement.  If you do not, you can receive
+a refund of the money (if any) you paid for this etext by
+sending a request within 30 days of receiving it to the person
+you got it from.  If you received this etext on a physical
+medium (such as a disk), you must return it with your request.
+
+ABOUT PROJECT GUTENBERG-TM ETEXTS
+This PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm etext, like most PROJECT GUTENBERG-
+tm etexts, is a "public domain" work distributed by Professor
+Michael S. Hart through the Project Gutenberg Association at
+Carnegie-Mellon University (the "Project").  Among other
+things, this means that no one owns a United States copyright
+on or for this work, so the Project (and you!) can copy and
+distribute it in the United States without permission and
+without paying copyright royalties.  Special rules, set forth
+below, apply if you wish to copy and distribute this etext
+under the Project's "PROJECT GUTENBERG" trademark.
+
+To create these etexts, the Project expends considerable
+efforts to identify, transcribe and proofread public domain
+works.  Despite these efforts, the Project's etexts and any
+medium they may be on may contain "Defects".  Among other
+things, Defects may take the form of incomplete, inaccurate or
+corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other
+intellectual property infringement, a defective or damaged
+disk or other etext medium, a computer virus, or computer
+codes that damage or cannot be read by your equipment.
+
+LIMITED WARRANTY; DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES
+But for the "Right of Replacement or Refund" described below,
+[1] the Project (and any other party you may receive this
+etext from as a PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm etext) disclaims all
+liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including
+legal fees, and [2] YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE OR
+UNDER STRICT LIABILITY, OR FOR BREACH OF WARRANTY OR CONTRACT,
+INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE
+OR INCIDENTAL DAMAGES, EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE
+POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGES.
+
+If you discover a Defect in this etext within 90 days of
+receiving it, you can receive a refund of the money (if any)
+you paid for it by sending an explanatory note within that
+time to the person you received it from.  If you received it
+on a physical medium, you must return it with your note, and
+such person may choose to alternatively give you a replacement
+copy.  If you received it electronically, such person may
+choose to alternatively give you a second opportunity to
+receive it electronically.
+
+THIS ETEXT IS OTHERWISE PROVIDED TO YOU "AS-IS".  NO OTHER
+WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, ARE MADE TO YOU AS
+TO THE ETEXT OR ANY MEDIUM IT MAY BE ON, INCLUDING BUT NOT
+LIMITED TO WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY OR FITNESS FOR A
+PARTICULAR PURPOSE.
+
+Some states do not allow disclaimers of implied warranties or
+the exclusion or limitation of consequential damages, so the
+above disclaimers and exclusions may not apply to you, and you
+may have other legal rights.
+
+INDEMNITY
+You will indemnify and hold the Project, its directors,
+officers, members and agents harmless from all liability, cost
+and expense, including legal fees, that arise directly or
+indirectly from any of the following that you do or cause:
+[1] distribution of this etext, [2] alteration, modification,
+or addition to the etext, or [3] any Defect.
+
+DISTRIBUTION UNDER "PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm"
+You may distribute copies of this etext electronically, or by
+disk, book or any other medium if you either delete this
+"Small Print!" and all other references to Project Gutenberg,
+or:
+
+[1]  Only give exact copies of it.  Among other things, this
+     requires that you do not remove, alter or modify the
+     etext or this "small print!" statement.  You may however,
+     if you wish, distribute this etext in machine readable
+     binary, compressed, mark-up, or proprietary form,
+     including any form resulting from conversion by word pro-
+     cessing or hypertext software, but only so long as
+     *EITHER*:
+
+     [*]  The etext, when displayed, is clearly readable, and
+          does *not* contain characters other than those
+          intended by the author of the work, although tilde
+          (~), asterisk (*) and underline (_) characters may
+          be used to convey punctuation intended by the
+          author, and additional characters may be used to
+          indicate hypertext links; OR
+
+     [*]  The etext may be readily converted by the reader at
+          no expense into plain ASCII, EBCDIC or equivalent
+          form by the program that displays the etext (as is
+          the case, for instance, with most word processors);
+          OR
+
+     [*]  You provide, or agree to also provide on request at
+          no additional cost, fee or expense, a copy of the
+          etext in its original plain ASCII form (or in EBCDIC
+          or other equivalent proprietary form).
+
+[2]  Honor the etext refund and replacement provisions of this
+     "Small Print!" statement.
+
+[3]  Pay a trademark license fee to the Project of 20% of the
+     net profits you derive calculated using the method you
+     already use to calculate your applicable taxes.  If you
+     don't derive profits, no royalty is due.  Royalties are
+     payable to "Project Gutenberg Association/Carnegie-Mellon
+     University" within the 60 days following each
+     date you prepare (or were legally required to prepare)
+     your annual (or equivalent periodic) tax return.
+
+WHAT IF YOU *WANT* TO SEND MONEY EVEN IF YOU DON'T HAVE TO?
+The Project gratefully accepts contributions in money, time,
+scanning machines, OCR software, public domain etexts, royalty
+free copyright licenses, and every other sort of contribution
+you can think of.  Money should be paid to "Project Gutenberg
+Association / Carnegie-Mellon University".
+
+*END*THE SMALL PRINT! FOR PUBLIC DOMAIN ETEXTS*Ver.04.29.93*END*
+
+
+
+
+
+Etext prepared by Dagny, dagnyj@hotmail.com
+and John Bickers, jbickers@templar.actrix.gen.nz
+
+
+
+
+
+Christ in Flanders
+
+by Honore de Balzac
+
+Translated by Ellen Marriage
+
+
+
+
+DEDICATION
+
+  To Marcelline Desbordes-Valmore, a daughter of Flanders, of whom
+  these modern days may well be proud, I dedicate this quaint legend
+  of old Flanders.
+
+DE BALZAC.
+
+
+
+
+CHRIST IN FLANDERS
+
+
+
+At a dimly remote period in the history of Brabant, communication
+between the Island of Cadzand and the Flemish coast was kept up by a
+boat which carried passengers from one shore to the other. Middelburg,
+the chief town in the island, destined to become so famous in the
+annals of Protestantism, at that time only numbered some two or three
+hundred hearths; and the prosperous town of Ostend was an obscure
+haven, a straggling village where pirates dwelt in security among the
+fishermen and the few poor merchants who lived in the place.
+
+But though the town of Ostend consisted altogether of some score of
+houses and three hundred cottages, huts or hovels built of the
+driftwood of wrecked vessels, it nevertheless rejoiced in the
+possession of a governor, a garrison, a forked gibbet, a convent, and
+a burgomaster, in short, in all the institutions of an advanced
+civilization.
+
+Who reigned over Brabant and Flanders in those days? On this point
+tradition is mute. Let us confess at once that this tale savors
+strongly of the marvelous, the mysterious, and the vague; elements
+which Flemish narrators have infused into a story retailed so often to
+gatherings of workers on winter evenings, that the details vary widely
+in poetic merit and incongruity of detail. It has been told by every
+generation, handed down by grandames at the fireside, narrated night
+and day, and the chronicle has changed its complexion somewhat in
+every age. Like some great building that has suffered many
+modifications of successive generations of architects, some sombre
+weather-beaten pile, the delight of a poet, the story would drive the
+commentator and the industrious winnower of words, facts, and dates to
+despair. The narrator believes in it, as all superstitious minds in
+Flanders likewise believe; and is not a whit wiser nor more credulous
+than his audience. But as it would be impossible to make a harmony of
+all the different renderings, here are the outlines of the story;
+stripped, it may be, of its picturesque quaintness, but with all its
+bold disregard of historical truth, and its moral teachings approved
+by religion--a myth, the blossom of imaginative fancy; an allegory
+that the wise may interpret to suit themselves. To each his own
+pasturage, and the task of separating the tares from the wheat.
+
+
+
+The boat that served to carry passengers from the Island of Cadzand to
+Ostend was upon the point of departure; but before the skipper loosed
+the chain that secured the shallop to the little jetty, where people
+embarked, he blew a horn several times, to warn late lingerers, this
+being his last journey that day. Night was falling. It was scarcely
+possible to see the coast of Flanders by the dying fires of the
+sunset, or to make out upon the hither shore any forms of belated
+passengers hurrying along the wall of the dykes that surrounded the
+open country, or among the tall reeds of the marshes. The boat was
+full.
+
+"What are you waiting for? Let us put off!" they cried.
+
+Just at that moment a man appeared a few paces from the jetty, to the
+surprise of the skipper, who had heard no sound of footsteps. The
+traveler seemed to have sprung up from the earth, like a peasant who
+had laid himself down on the ground to wait till the boat should
+start, and had slept till the sound of the horn awakened him. Was he a
+thief? or some one belonging to the custom-house or the police?
+
+As soon as the man appeared on the jetty to which the boat was moored,
+seven persons who were standing in the stern of the shallop hastened
+to sit down on the benches, so as to leave no room for the newcomer.
+It was the swift and instinctive working of the aristocratic spirit,
+an impulse of exclusiveness that comes from the rich man's heart. Four
+of the seven personages belonged to the most aristocratic families in
+Flanders. First among them was a young knight with two beautiful
+greyhounds; his long hair flowed from beneath a jeweled cap; he
+clanked his gilded spurs, curled the ends of his moustache from time
+to time with a swaggering grace, and looked round disdainfully on the
+rest of the crew. A high-born damsel, with a falcon on her wrist, only
+spoke with her mother or with a churchman of high rank, who was
+evidently a relation. All these persons made a great deal of noise,
+and talked among themselves as though there were no one else in the
+boat; yet close beside them sat a man of great importance in the
+district, a stout burgher of Bruges, wrapped about with a vast cloak.
+His servant, armed to the teeth, had set down a couple of bags filled
+with gold at his side. Next to the burgher came a man of learning, a
+doctor of the University of Louvain, who was traveling with his clerk.
+This little group of folk, who looked contemptuously at each other,
+was separated from the passengers in the forward part of the boat by
+the bench of rowers.
+
+The belated traveler glanced about him as he stepped on board, saw
+that there was no room for him in the stern, and went to the bows in
+quest of a seat. They were all poor people there. At first sight of
+the bareheaded man in the brown camlet coat and trunk-hose, and plain
+stiff linen collar, they noticed that he wore no ornaments, carried no
+cap nor bonnet in his hand, and had neither sword nor purse at his
+girdle, and one and all took him for a burgomaster sure of his
+authority, a worthy and kindly burgomaster like so many a Fleming of
+old times, whose homely features and characters have been immortalized
+by Flemish painters. The poorer passengers, therefore, received him
+with demonstrations of respect that provoked scornful tittering at the
+other end of the boat. An old soldier, inured to toil and hardship,
+gave up his place on the bench to the newcomer, and seated himself on
+the edge of the vessel, keeping his balance by planting his feet
+against one of those traverse beams, like the backbone of a fish, that
+hold the planks of a boat together. A young mother, who bore her baby
+in her arms, and seemed to belong to the working class in Ostend,
+moved aside to make room for the stranger. There was neither servility
+nor scorn in her manner of doing this; it was a simple sign of the
+goodwill by which the poor, who know by long experience the value of a
+service and the warmth that fellowship brings, give expression to the
+open-heartedness and the natural impulses of their souls; so artlessly
+do they reveal their good qualities and their defects. The stranger
+thanked her by a gesture full of gracious dignity, and took his place
+between the young mother and the old soldier. Immediately behind him
+sat a peasant and his son, a boy ten years of age. A beggar woman,
+old, wrinkled, and clad in rags, was crouching, with her almost empty
+wallet, on a great coil of rope that lay in the prow. One of the
+rowers, an old sailor, who had known her in the days of her beauty and
+prosperity, had let her come in "for the love of God," in the
+beautiful phrase that the common people use.
+
+"Thank you kindly, Thomas," the old woman had said. "I will say two
+/Paters/ and two /Aves/ for you in my prayers to-night."
+
+The skipper blew his horn for the last time, looked along the silent
+shore, flung off the chain, ran along the side of the boat, and took
+up his position at the helm. He looked at the sky, and as soon as they
+were out in the open sea, he shouted to the men: "Pull away, pull with
+all your might! The sea is smiling at a squall, the witch! I can feel
+the swell by the way the rudder works, and the storm in my wounds."
+
+The nautical phrases, unintelligible to ears unused to the sound of
+the sea, seemed to put fresh energy into the oars; they kept time
+together, the rhythm of the movement was still even and steady, but
+quite unlike the previous manner of rowing; it was as if a cantering
+horse had broken into a gallop. The gay company seated in the stern
+amused themselves by watching the brawny arms, the tanned faces, and
+sparkling eyes of the rowers, the play of the tense muscles, the
+physical and mental forces that were being exerted to bring them for a
+trifling toll across the channel. So far from pitying the rowers'
+distress, they pointed out the men's faces to each other, and laughed
+at the grotesque expressions on the faces of the crew who were
+straining every muscle; but in the fore part of the boat the soldier,
+the peasant, and the old beggar woman watched the sailors with the
+sympathy naturally felt by toilers who live by the sweat of their brow
+and know the rough struggle, the strenuous excitement of effort. These
+folk, moreover, whose lives were spent in the open air, had all seen
+the warnings of danger in the sky, and their faces were grave. The
+young mother rocked her child, singing an old hymn of the Church for a
+lullaby.
+
+"If we ever get there at all," the soldier remarked to the peasant,
+"it will be because the Almighty is bent on keeping us alive."
+
+"Ah! He is the Master," said the old woman, "but I think it will be
+His good pleasure to take us to Himself. Just look at that light down
+there . . ." and she nodded her head as she spoke towards the sunset.
+
+Streaks of fiery red glared from behind the masses of crimson-flushed
+brown cloud that seemed about to unloose a furious gale. There was a
+smothered murmur of the sea, a moaning sound that seemed to come from
+the depths, a low warning growl, such as a dog gives when he only
+means mischief as yet. After all, Ostend was not far away. Perhaps
+painting, like poetry, could not prolong the existence of the picture
+presented by sea and sky at that moment beyond the time of its actual
+duration. Art demands vehement contrasts, wherefore artists usually
+seek out Nature's most striking effects, doubtless because they
+despair of rendering the great and glorious charm of her daily moods;
+yet the human soul is often stirred as deeply by her calm as by her
+emotion, and by silence as by storm.
+
+For a moment no one spoke on board the boat. Every one watched that
+sea and sky, either with some presentiment of danger, or because they
+felt the influence of the religious melancholy that takes possession
+of nearly all of us at the close of the day, the hour of prayer, when
+all nature is hushed save for the voices of the bells. The sea gleamed
+pale and wan, but its hues changed, and the surface took all the
+colors of steel. The sky was almost overspread with livid gray, but
+down in the west there were long narrow bars like streaks of blood;
+while lines of bright light in the eastern sky, sharp and clean as if
+drawn by the tip of a brush, were separated by folds of cloud, like
+the wrinkles on an old man's brow. The whole scene made a background
+of ashen grays and half-tints, in strong contrast to the bale-fires of
+the sunset. If written language might borrow of spoken language some
+of the bold figures of speech invented by the people, it might be said
+with the soldier that "the weather has been routed," or, as the
+peasant would say, "the sky glowered like an executioner." Suddenly a
+wind arose from the quarter of the sunset, and the skipper, who never
+took his eyes off the sea, saw the swell on the horizon line, and
+cried:
+
+"Stop rowing!"
+
+The sailors stopped immediately, and let their oars lie on the water.
+
+"The skipper is right," said Thomas coolly. A great wave caught up the
+boat, carried it high on its crest, only to plunge it, as it were,
+into the trough of the sea that seemed to yawn for them. At this
+mighty upheaval, this sudden outbreak of the wrath of the sea, the
+company in the stern turned pale, and sent up a terrible cry.
+
+"We are lost!"
+
+"Oh, not yet!" said the skipper calmly.
+
+As he spoke, the clouds immediately above their heads were torn
+asunder by the vehemence of the wind. The gray mass was rent and
+scattered east and west with ominous speed, a dim uncertain light from
+the rift in the sky fell full upon the boat, and the travelers beheld
+each other's faces. All of them, the noble and the wealthy, the
+sailors and the poor passengers alike, were amazed for a moment by the
+appearance of the last comer. His golden hair, parted upon his calm,
+serene forehead, fell in thick curls about his shoulders; and his
+face, sublime in its sweetness and radiant with divine love, stood out
+against the surrounding gloom. He had no contempt for death; he knew
+that he should not die. But if at the first the company in the stern
+forgot for a moment the implacable fury of the storm that threatened
+their lives, selfishness and their habits of life soon prevailed
+again.
+
+"How lucky that stupid burgomaster is, not to see the risks we are all
+running! He is just like a dog, he will die without a struggle," said
+the doctor.
+
+He had scarcely pronounced this highly judicious dictum when the storm
+unloosed all its legions. The wind blew from every quarter of the
+heavens, the boat span round like a top, and the sea broke in.
+
+"Oh! my poor child! my poor child! . . . Who will save my baby?" the
+mother cried in a heart-rending voice.
+
+"You yourself will save it," the stranger said.
+
+The thrilling tones of that voice went to the young mother's heart and
+brought hope with them; she heard the gracious words through all the
+whistling of the wind and the shrieks of the passengers.
+
+"Holy Virgin of Good Help, who art at Antwerp, I promise thee a
+thousand pounds of wax and a statue, if thou wilt rescue me from
+this!" cried the burgher, kneeling upon his bags of gold.
+
+"The Virgin is no more at Antwerp than she is here," was the doctor's
+comment on this appeal.
+
+"She is in heaven," said a voice that seemed to come from the sea.
+
+"Who said that?"
+
+"'Tis the devil!" exclaimed the servant. "He is scoffing at the Virgin
+of Antwerp."
+
+"Let us have no more of your Holy Virgin at present," the skipper
+cried to the passengers. "Put your hands to the scoops and bail the
+water out of the boat.--And the rest of you," he went on, addressing
+the sailors, "pull with all your might! Now is the time; in the name
+of the devil who is leaving you in this world, be your own Providence!
+Every one knows that the channel is fearfully dangerous; I have been
+to and fro across it these thirty years. Am I facing a storm for the
+first time to-night?"
+
+He stood at the helm, and looked, as before, at his boat and at the
+sea and sky in turn.
+
+"The skipper always laughs at everything," muttered Thomas.
+
+"Will God leave us to perish along with those wretched creatures?"
+asked the haughty damsel of the handsome cavalier.
+
+"No, no, noble maiden. . . . Listen!" and he caught her by the waist
+and said in her ear, "I can swim, say nothing about it! I will hold
+you by your fair hair and bring you safely to the shore; but I can
+only save you."
+
+The girl looked at her aged mother. The lady was on her knees
+entreating absolution of the Bishop, who did not heed her. In the
+beautiful eyes the knight read a vague feeling of filial piety, and
+spoke in a smothered voice.
+
+"Submit yourself to the will of God. If it is His pleasure to take
+your mother to Himself, it will doubtless be for her happiness--in
+another world," he added, and his voice dropped still lower. "And for
+ours in this," he thought within himself.
+
+The Dame of Rupelmonde was lady of seven fiefs beside the barony of
+Gavres.
+
+The girl felt the longing for life in her heart, and for love that
+spoke through the handsome adventurer, a young miscreant who haunted
+churches in search of a prize, an heiress to marry, or ready money.
+The Bishop bestowed his benison on the waves, and bade them be calm;
+it was all that he could do. He thought of his concubine, and of the
+delicate feast with which she would welcome him; perhaps at that very
+moment she was bathing, perfuming herself, robing herself in velvet,
+fastening her necklace and her jeweled clasps; and the perverse
+Bishop, so far from thinking of the power of Holy Church, of his duty
+to comfort Christians and exhort them to trust in God, mingled worldly
+regrets and lover's sighs with the holy words of the breviary. By the
+dim light that shone on the pale faces of the company, it was possible
+to see their differing expressions as the boat was lifted high in air
+by a wave, to be cast back into the dark depths; the shallop quivered
+like a fragile leaf, the plaything of the north wind in the autumn;
+the hull creaked, it seemed ready to go to pieces. Fearful shrieks
+went up, followed by an awful silence.
+
+There was a strange difference between the behavior of the folk in the
+bows and that of the rich or great people at the other end of the
+boat. The young mother clasped her infant tightly to her breast every
+time that a great wave threatened to engulf the fragile vessel; but
+she clung to the hope that the stranger's words had set in her heart.
+Each time that the eyes turned to his face she drew fresh faith at the
+sight, the strong faith of a helpless woman, a mother's faith. She
+lived by that divine promise, the loving words from his lips; the
+simple creature waited trustingly for them to be fulfilled, and
+scarcely feared the danger any longer.
+
+The soldier, holding fast to the vessel's side, never took his eyes
+off the strange visitor. He copied on his own rough and swarthy
+features the imperturbability of the other's face, applying to this
+task the whole strength of a will and intelligence but little
+corrupted in the course of a life of mechanical and passive obedience.
+So emulous was he of a calm and tranquil courage greater than his own,
+that at last, perhaps unconsciously, something of that mysterious
+nature passed into his own soul. His admiration became an instinctive
+zeal for this man, a boundless love for and belief in him, such a love
+as soldiers feel for their leader when he has the power of swaying
+other men, when the halo of victories surrounds him, and the magical
+fascination of genius is felt in all that he does. The poor outcast
+was murmuring to herself:
+
+"Ah! miserable wretch that I am! Have I not suffered enough to expiate
+the sins of my youth? Ah! wretched woman, why did you leave the gay
+life of a frivolous Frenchwoman? why did you devour the goods of God
+with churchmen, the substance of the poor with extortioners and
+fleecers of the poor? Oh! I have sinned indeed!--Oh my God! my God!
+let me finish my time in hell here in this world of misery."
+
+And again she cried, "Holy Virgin, Mother of God, have pity upon me!"
+
+"Be comforted, mother. God is not a Lombard usurer. I may have killed
+people good and bad at random in my time, but I am not afraid of the
+resurrection."
+
+"Ah! master Lancepesade, how happy those fair ladies are, to be so
+near to a bishop, a holy man! They will get absolution for their
+sins," said the old woman. "Oh! if I could only hear a priest say to
+me, 'Thy sins are forgiven!' I should believe it then."
+
+The stranger turned towards her, and the goodness in his face made her
+tremble.
+
+"Have faith," he said, "and you will be saved."
+
+"May God reward you, good sir," she answered. "If what you say is
+true, I will go on pilgrimage barefooted to Our Lady of Loretto to
+pray to her for you and for me."
+
+The two peasants, father and son, were silent, patient, and submissive
+to the will of God, like folk whose wont it is to fall in
+instinctively with the ways of Nature like cattle. At the one end of
+the boat stood riches, pride, learning, debauchery, and crime--human
+society, such as art and thought and education and worldly interests
+and laws have made it; and at this end there was terror and wailing,
+innumerable different impulses all repressed by hideous doubts--at
+this end, and at this only, the agony of fear.
+
+Above all these human lives stood a strong man, the skipper; no doubts
+assailed him, the chief, the king, the fatalist among them. He was
+trusting in himself rather than in Providence, crying, "Bail away!"
+instead of "Holy Virgin," defying the storm, in fact, and struggling
+with the sea like a wrestler.
+
+But the helpless poor at the other end of the wherry! The mother
+rocking on her bosom the little one who smiled at the storm; the woman
+once so frivolous and gay, and now tormented with bitter remorse; the
+old soldier covered with scars, a mutilated life the sole reward of
+his unflagging loyalty and faithfulness. This veteran could scarcely
+count on the morsel of bread soaked in tears to keep the life in him,
+yet he was always ready to laugh, and went his way merrily, happy when
+he could drown his glory in the depths of a pot of beer, or could tell
+tales of the wars to the children who admired him, leaving his future
+with a light heart in the hands of God. Lastly, there were the two
+peasants, used to hardships and toil, labor incarnate, the labor by
+which the world lives. These simple folk were indifferent to thought
+and its treasures, ready to sink them all in a belief; and their faith
+was but so much the more vigorous because they had never disputed
+about it nor analyzed it. Such a nature is a virgin soil, conscience
+has not been tampered with, feeling is deep and strong; repentance,
+trouble, love, and work have developed, purified, concentrated, and
+increased their force of will a hundred times, the will--the one thing
+in man that resembles what learned doctors call the Soul.
+
+The boat, guided by the well-nigh miraculous skill of the steersman,
+came almost within sight of Ostend, when, not fifty paces from the
+shore, she was suddenly struck by a heavy sea and capsized. The
+stranger with the light about his head spoke to this little world of
+drowning creatures:
+
+"Those who have faith shall be saved; let them follow me!"
+
+He stood upright, and walked with a firm step upon the waves. The
+young mother at once took her child in her arms, and followed at his
+side across the sea. The soldier too sprang up, saying in his homely
+fashion, "Ah! /nom d'un pipe/! I would follow /you/ to the devil;" and
+without seeming astonished by it, he walked on the water. The worn-out
+sinner, believing in the omnipotence of God, also followed the
+stranger.
+
+The two peasants said to each other, "If they are walking on the sea,
+why should we not do as they do?" and they also arose and hastened
+after the others. Thomas tried to follow, but his faith tottered; he
+sank in the sea more than once, and rose again, but the third time he
+also walked on the sea. The bold steersman clung like a remora to the
+wreck of his boat. The miser had had faith, and had risen to go, but
+he tried to take his gold with him, and it was his gold that dragged
+him down to the bottom. The learned man had scoffed at the charlatan
+and at the fools who listened to him; and when he heard the mysterious
+stranger propose to the passengers that they should walk on the waves,
+he began to laugh, and the ocean swallowed him. The girl was dragged
+down into the depths by her lover. The Bishop and the older lady went
+to the bottom, heavily laden with sins, it may be, but still more
+heavily laden with incredulity and confidence in idols, weighted down
+by devotion, into which alms-deeds and true religion entered but
+little.
+
+The faithful flock, who walked with a firm step high and dry above the
+surge, heard all about them the dreadful whistling of the blast; great
+billows broke across their path, but an irresistible force cleft a way
+for them through the sea. These believing ones saw through the spray a
+dim speck of light flickering in the window of a fisherman's hut on
+the shore, and each one, as he pushed on bravely towards the light,
+seemed to hear the voice of his fellow crying, "Courage!" through all
+the roaring of the surf; yet no one had spoken a word--so absorbed was
+each by his own peril. In this way they reached the shore.
+
+When they were all seated near the fisherman's fire, they looked round
+in vain for their guide with the light about him. The sea washed up
+the steersman at the base of the cliff on which the cottage stood; he
+was clinging with might and main to the plank as a sailor can cling
+when death stares him in the face; the MAN went down and rescued the
+almost exhausted seaman; then he said, as he held out a succoring hand
+above the man's head:
+
+"Good, for this once; but do not try it again; the example would be
+too bad."
+
+He took the skipper on his shoulders, and carried him to the
+fisherman's door; knocked for admittance for the exhausted man; then,
+when the door of the humble refuge opened, the Saviour disappeared.
+
+The Convent of Mercy was built for sailors on this spot, where for
+long afterwards (so it was said) the footprints of Jesus Christ could
+be seen in the sand; but in 1793, at the time of the French invasion,
+the monks carried away this precious relic, that bore witness to the
+Saviour's last visit to earth.
+
+
+
+There at the convent I found myself shortly after the Revolution of
+1830. I was weary of life. If you had asked me the reason of my
+despair, I should have found it almost impossible to give it, so
+languid had grown the soul that was melted within me. The west wind
+had slackened the springs of my intelligence. A cold gray light poured
+down from the heavens, and the murky clouds that passed overhead gave
+a boding look to the land; all these things, together with the
+immensity of the sea, said to me, "Die to-day or die to-morrow, still
+must we not die?" And then--I wandered on, musing on the doubtful
+future, on my blighted hopes. Gnawed by these gloomy thoughts, I
+turned mechanically into the convent church, with the gray towers that
+loomed like ghosts though the sea mists. I looked round with no
+kindling of the imagination at the forest of columns, at the slender
+arches set aloft upon the leafy capitals, a delicate labyrinth of
+sculpture. I walked with careless eyes along the side aisles that
+opened out before me like vast portals, ever turning upon their
+hinges. It was scarcely possible to see, by the dim light of the
+autumn day, the sculptured groinings of the roof, the delicate and
+clean-cut lines of the mouldings of the graceful pointed arches. The
+organ pipes were mute. There was no sound save the noise of my own
+footsteps to awaken the mournful echoes lurking in the dark chapels. I
+sat down at the base of one of the four pillars that supported the
+tower, near the choir. Thence I could see the whole of the building. I
+gazed, and no ideas connected with it arose in my mind. I saw without
+seeing the mighty maze of pillars, the great rose windows that hung
+like a network suspended as by a miracle in air above the vast
+doorways. I saw the doors at the end of the side aisles, the aerial
+galleries, the stained glass windows framed in archways, divided by
+slender columns, fretted into flower forms and trefoil by fine
+filigree work of carved stone. A dome of glass at the end of the choir
+sparkled as if it had been built of precious stones set cunningly. In
+contrast to the roof with its alternating spaces of whiteness and
+color, the two aisles lay to right and left in shadow so deep that the
+faint gray outlines of their hundred shafts were scarcely visible in
+the gloom. I gazed at the marvelous arcades, the scroll-work, the
+garlands, the curving lines, and arabesques interwoven and interlaced,
+and strangely lighted, until by sheer dint of gazing my perceptions
+became confused, and I stood upon the borderland between illusion and
+reality, taken in the snare set for the eyes, and almost light-headed
+by reason of the multitudinous changes of the shapes about me.
+
+Imperceptibly a mist gathered about the carven stonework, and I only
+beheld it through a haze of fine golden dust, like the motes that
+hover in the bars of sunlight slanting through the air of a chamber.
+Suddenly the stone lacework of the rose windows gleamed through this
+vapor that had made all forms so shadowy. Every moulding, the edges of
+every carving, the least detail of the sculpture was dipped in silver.
+The sunlight kindled fires in the stained windows, their rich colors
+sent out glowing sparks of light. The shafts began to tremble, the
+capitals were gently shaken. A light shudder as of delight ran through
+the building, the stones were loosened in their setting, the wall-
+spaces swayed with graceful caution. Here and there a ponderous pier
+moved as solemnly as a dowager when she condescends to complete a
+quadrille at the close of a ball. A few slender and graceful columns,
+their heads adorned with wreaths of trefoil, began to laugh and dance
+here and there. Some of the pointed arches dashed at the tall lancet
+windows, who, like ladies of the Middle Ages, wore the armorial
+bearings of their houses emblazoned on their golden robes. The dance
+of the mitred arcades with the slender windows became like a fray at a
+tourney.
+
+In another moment every stone in the church vibrated, without leaving
+its place; for the organ-pipes spoke, and I heard divine music
+mingling with the songs of angels, and unearthly harmony, accompanied
+by the deep notes of the bells, that boomed as the giant towers rocked
+and swayed on their square bases. This strange Sabbath seemed to me
+the most natural thing in the world; and I, who had seen Charles X.
+hurled from his throne, was no longer amazed by anything. Nay, I
+myself was gently swaying with a see-saw movement that influenced my
+nerves pleasurably in a manner of which it is impossible to give any
+idea. Yet in the midst of this heated riot, the cathedral choir felt
+cold as if it were a winter day, and I became aware of a multitude of
+women, robed in white, silent, and impassive, sitting there. The sweet
+incense smoke that arose from the censers was grateful to my soul. The
+tall wax candles flickered. The lectern, gay as a chanter undone by
+the treachery of wine, was skipping about like a peal of Chinese
+bells.
+
+Then I knew that the whole cathedral was whirling round so fast that
+everything appeared to be undisturbed. The colossal Figure on the
+crucifix above the altar smiled upon me with a mingled malice and
+benevolence that frightened me; I turned my eyes away, and marveled at
+the bluish vapor that slid across the pillars, lending to them an
+indescribable charm. Then some graceful women's forms began to stir on
+the friezes. The cherubs who upheld the heavy columns shook out their
+wings. I felt myself uplifted by some divine power that steeped me in
+infinite joy, in a sweet and languid rapture. I would have given my
+life, I think, to have prolonged these phantasmagoria for a little,
+but suddenly a shrill voice clamored in my ears:
+
+"Awake and follow me!"
+
+A withered woman took my hand in hers; its icy coldness crept through
+every nerve. The bones of her face showed plainly through the sallow,
+almost olive-tinted wrinkles of the skin. The shrunken, ice-cold old
+woman wore a black robe, which she trailed in the dust, and at her
+throat there was something white, which I dared not examine. I could
+scarcely see her wan and colorless eyes, for they were fixed in a
+stare upon the heavens. She drew me after her along the aisles,
+leaving a trace of her presence in the ashes that she shook from her
+dress. Her bones rattled as she walked, like the bones of a skeleton;
+and as we went I heard behind me the tinkling of a little bell, a
+thin, sharp sound that rang through my head like the notes of a
+harmonica.
+
+"Suffer!" she cried, "suffer! So it must be!"
+
+We came out of the church; we went through the dirtiest streets of the
+town, till we came at last to a dingy dwelling, and she bade me enter
+in. She dragged me with her, calling to me in a harsh, tuneless voice
+like a cracked bell:
+
+"Defend me! defend me!"
+
+Together we went up a winding staircase. She knocked at a door in the
+darkness, and a mute, like some familiar of the Inquisition, opened to
+her. In another moment we stood in a room hung with ancient, ragged
+tapestry, amid piles of old linen, crumpled muslin, and gilded brass.
+
+"Behold the wealth that shall endure for ever!" said she.
+
+I shuddered with horror; for just then, by the light of a tall torch
+and two altar candles, I saw distinctly that this woman was fresh from
+the graveyard. She had no hair. I turned to fly. She raised her
+fleshless arm and encircled me with a band of iron set with spikes,
+and as she raised it a cry went up all about us, the cry of millions
+of voices--the shouting of the dead!
+
+"It is my purpose to make thee happy for ever," she said. "Thou art my
+son."
+
+We were sitting before the hearth, the ashes lay cold upon it; the old
+shrunken woman grasped my hand so tightly in hers that I could not
+choose but stay. I looked fixedly at her, striving to read the story
+of her life from the things among which she was crouching. Had she
+indeed any life in her? It was a mystery. Yet I saw plainly that once
+she must have been young and beautiful; fair, with all the charm of
+simplicity, perfect as some Greek statue, with the brow of a vestal.
+
+"Ah! ah!" I cried, "now I know thee! Miserable woman, why hast thou
+prostituted thyself? In the age of thy passions, in the time of thy
+prosperity, the grace and purity of thy youth were forgotten.
+Forgetful of thy heroic devotion, thy pure life, thy abundant faith,
+thou didst resign thy primitive power and thy spiritual supremacy for
+fleshly power. Thy linen vestments, thy couch of moss, the cell in the
+rock, bright with rays of the Light Divine, was forsaken; thou hast
+sparkled with diamonds, and shone with the glitter of luxury and
+pride. Then, grown bold and insolent, seizing and overturning all
+things in thy course like a courtesan eager for pleasure in her days
+of splendor, thou hast steeped thyself in blood like some queen
+stupefied by empery. Dost thou not remember to have been dull and
+heavy at times, and the sudden marvelous lucidity of other moments; as
+when Art emerges from an orgy? Oh! poet, painter, and singer, lover of
+splendid ceremonies and protector of the arts, was thy friendship for
+art perchance a caprice, that so thou shouldst sleep beneath
+magnificent canopies? Was there not a day when, in thy fantastic
+pride, though chastity and humility were prescribed to thee, thou
+hadst brought all things beneath thy feet, and set thy foot on the
+necks of princes; when earthly dominion, and wealth, and the mind of
+man bore thy yoke? Exulting in the abasement of humanity, joying to
+witness the uttermost lengths to which man's folly would go, thou hast
+bidden thy lovers walk on all fours, and required of them their lands
+and wealth, nay, even their wives if they were worth aught to thee.
+Thou hast devoured millions of men without a cause; thou hast flung
+away lives like sand blown by the wind from West to East. Thou hast
+come down from the heights of thought to sit among the kings of men.
+Woman! instead of comforting men, thou hast tormented and afflicted
+them! Knowing that thou couldst ask and have, thou hast demanded--
+blood! A little flour surely should have contented thee, accustomed as
+thou hast been to live on bread and to mingle water with thy wine.
+Unlike all others in all things, formerly thou wouldst bid thy lovers
+fast, and they obeyed. Why should thy fancies have led thee to require
+things impossible? Why, like a courtesan spoiled by her lovers, hast
+thou doted on follies, and left those undeceived who sought to explain
+and justify all thy errors? Then came the days of thy later passions,
+terrible like the love of a woman of forty years, with a fierce cry
+thou hast sought to clasp the whole universe in one last embrace--and
+thy universe recoiled from thee!
+
+"Then old men succeeded to thy young lovers; decrepitude came to thy
+feet and made thee hideous. Yet, even then, men with the eagle power
+of vision said to thee in a glance, 'Thou shalt perish ingloriously,
+because thou hast fallen away, because thou hast broken the vows of
+thy maidenhood. The angel with peace written on her forehead, who
+should have shed light and joy along her path, has been a Messalina,
+delighting in the circus, in debauchery, and abuse of power. The days
+of thy virginity cannot return; henceforward thou shalt be subject to
+a master. Thy hour has come; the hand of death is upon thee. Thy heirs
+believe that thou art rich; they will kill thee and find nothing. Yet
+try at least to fling away this raiment no longer in fashion; be once
+more as in the days of old!--Nay, thou art dead, and by thy own deed!'
+
+"Is not this thy story?" so I ended. "Decrepit, toothless, shivering
+crone, now forgotten, going thy ways without so much as a glance from
+passers-by! Why art thou still alive? What doest thou in that beggar's
+garb, uncomely and desired of none? Where are thy riches?--for what
+were they spent? Where are thy treasures?--what great deeds hast thou
+done?"
+
+At this demand, the shriveled woman raised her bony form, flung off
+her rags, and grew tall and radiant, smiling as she broke forth from
+the dark chrysalid sheath. Then like a butterfly, this diaphanous
+creature emerged, fair and youthful, clothed in white linen, an Indian
+from creation issuing her palms. Her golden hair rippled over her
+shoulders, her eyes glowed, a bright mist clung about her, a ring of
+gold hovered above her head, she shook the flaming blade of a sword
+towards the spaces of heaven.
+
+"See and believe!" she cried.
+
+And suddenly I saw, afar off, many thousands of cathedrals like the
+one that I had just quitted; but these were covered with pictures and
+with frescoes, and I heard them echo with entrancing music. Myriads of
+human creatures flocked to these great buildings, swarming about them
+like ants on an ant-heap. Some were eager to rescue books from
+oblivion or to copy manuscripts, others were helping the poor, but
+nearly all were studying. Up above this countless multitude rose giant
+statues that they had erected in their midst, and by the gleams of a
+strange light from some luminary as powerful as the sun, I read the
+inscriptions on the bases of the statues--Science, History,
+Literature.
+
+The light died out. Again I faced the young girl. Gradually she
+slipped into the dreary sheath, into the ragged cere-cloths, and
+became an aged woman again. Her familiar brought her a little dust,
+and she stirred it into the ashes of her chafing-dish, for the weather
+was cold and stormy; and then he lighted for her, whose palaces had
+been lit with thousands of wax-tapers, a little cresset, that she
+might see to read her prayers through the hours of night.
+
+"There is no faith left in the earth! . . ." she said.
+
+In such a perilous plight did I behold the fairest and the greatest,
+the truest and most life-giving of all Powers.
+
+
+
+"Wake up, sir, the doors are just about to be shut," said a hoarse
+voice. I turned and beheld the beadle's ugly countenance; the man was
+shaking me by the arm, and the cathedral lay wrapped in shadows as a
+man is wrapped in his cloak.
+
+"Belief," I said to myself, "is Life! I have just witnessed the
+funeral of a monarchy, now we must defend the church."
+
+
+
+PARIS, February 183l.
+
+
+
+
+
+End of Project Gutenberg Etext Christ in Flanders, by Honore de Balzac
+