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diff --git a/24350.txt b/24350.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6dbf23b --- /dev/null +++ b/24350.txt @@ -0,0 +1,1324 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Kerfol, by Edith Wharton + +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: Kerfol + 1916 + +Author: Edith Wharton + +Release Date: January 17, 2008 [EBook #24350] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK KERFOL *** + + + + +Produced by David Widger + + + + + +KERFOL + +By Edith Wharton + +Copyright, 1916, By Charles Scribner's Sons + + + + + +I + +"You ought to buy it," said my host; "its Just the place for a +solitary-minded devil like you. And it would be rather worth while to +own the most romantic house in Brittany. The present people are dead +broke, and it's going for a song--you ought to buy it." + +It was not with the least idea of living up to the character my friend +Lanrivain ascribed to me (as a matter of fact, under my unsociable +exterior I have always had secret yearnings for domesticity) that I took +his hint one autumn afternoon and went to Kerfol. My friend was motoring +over to Quimper on business: he dropped me on the way, at a cross-road +on a heath, and said: "First turn to the right and second to the left. +Then straight ahead till you see an avenue. If you meet any peasants, +don't ask your way. They don't understand French, and they would pretend +they did and mix you up. I'll be back for you here by sunset--and don't +forget the tombs in the chapel." + +I followed Lanrivain's directions with the hesitation occasioned by the +usual difficulty of remembering whether he had said the first turn +to the right and second to the left, or the contrary. If I had met a +peasant I should certainly have asked, and probably been sent astray; +but I had the desert landscape to myself, and so stumbled on the right +turn and walked across the heath till I came to an avenue. It was so +unlike any other avenue I have ever seen that I instantly knew it must +be _the_ avenue. The grey-trunked trees sprang up straight to a great +height and then interwove their pale-grey branches in a long tunnel +through which the autumn light fell faintly. I know most trees by name, +but I haven't to this day been able to decide what those trees were. +They had the tall curve of elms, the tenuity of poplars, the ashen +colour of olives under a rainy sky; and they stretched ahead of me for +half a mile or more without a break in their arch. If ever I saw an +avenue that unmistakably led to something, it was the avenue at Kerfol. +My heart beat a little as I began to walk down it. + +Presently the trees ended and I came to a fortified gate in a long wall. +Between me and the wall was an open space of grass, with other grey +avenues radiating from it. Behind the wall were tall slate roofs mossed +with silver, a chapel belfry, the top of a keep. A moat filled with +wild shrubs and brambles surrounded the place; the drawbridge had been +replaced by a stone arch, and the portcullis by an iron gate. I stood +for a long time on the hither side of the moat, gazing about me, and +letting the influence of the place sink in. I said to myself: "If I wait +long enough, the guardian will turn up and show me the tombs--" and I +rather hoped he wouldn't turn up too soon. + +I sat down on a stone and lit a cigarette. As soon as I had done it, it +struck me as a puerile and portentous thing to do, with that great blind +house looking down at me, and all the empty avenues converging on me. It +may have been the depth of the silence that made me so conscious of my +gesture. The squeak of my match sounded as loud as the scraping of a +brake, and I almost fancied I heard it fall when I tossed it onto +the grass. But there was more than that: a sense of irrelevance, +of littleness, of futile bravado, in sitting there puffing my +cigarette-smoke into the face of such a past. + +I knew nothing of the history of Kerfol--I was new to Brittany, and +Lanrivain had never mentioned the name to me till the day before--but +one couldn't as much as glance at that pile without feeling in it a +long accumulation of history. What kind of history I was not prepared +to guess: perhaps only that sheer weight of many associated lives and +deaths which gives a majesty to all old houses. But the aspect of Kerfol +suggested something more--a perspective of stern and cruel memories +stretching away, like its own grey avenues, into a blur of darkness. + +Certainly no house had ever more completely and finally broken with the +present. As it stood there, lifting its proud roofs and gables to the +sky, it might have been its own funeral monument. "Tombs in the chapel? +The whole place is a tomb!" I reflected. I hoped more and more that the +guardian would not come. The details of the place, however striking, +would seem trivial compared with its collective impressiveness; and I +wanted only to sit there and be penetrated by the weight of its silence. + +"It's the very place for you!" Lanrivain had said; and I was overcome by +the almost blasphemous frivolity of suggesting to any living being that +Kerfol was the place for him. "Is it possible that any one could _not_ +See--?" I wondered. I did not finish the thought: what I meant was +undefinable. I stood up and wandered toward the gate. I was beginning to +want to know more; not to _see_ more--I was by now so sure it was not +a question of seeing--but to feel more: feel all the place had to +communicate. "But to get in one will have to rout out the keeper," I +thought reluctantly, and hesitated. Finally I crossed the bridge and +tried the iron gate. It yielded, and I walked through the tunnel formed +by the thickness of the _chemin de ronde_. At the farther end, a wooden +barricade had been laid across the entrance, and beyond it was a court +enclosed in noble architecture. The main building faced me; and I now +saw that one half was a mere ruined front, with gaping windows through +which the wild growths of the moat and the trees of the park were +visible. The rest of the house was still in its robust beauty. One end +abutted on the round tower, the other on the small traceried chapel, +and in an angle of the building stood a graceful well-head crowned +with mossy urns. A few roses grew against the walls, and on an upper +window-sill I remember noticing a pot of fuchsias. + +My sense of the pressure of the invisible began to yield to my +architectural interest. The building was so fine that I felt a desire +to explore it for its own sake. I looked about the court, wondering in +which corner the guardian lodged. Then I pushed open the barrier and +went in. As I did so, a dog barred my way. He was such a remarkably +beautiful little dog that for a moment he made me forget the splendid +place he was defending. I was not sure of his breed at the time, but +have since learned that it was Chinese, and that he was of a rare +variety called the "Sleeve-dog." He was very small and golden brown, +with large brown eyes and a ruffled throat: he looked like a large tawny +chrysanthemum. I said to myself: "These little beasts always snap and +scream, and somebody will be out in a minute." + +The little animal stood before me, forbidding, almost menacing: there +was anger in his large brown eyes. But he made no sound, he came no +nearer. Instead, as I advanced, he gradually fell back, and I noticed +that another dog, a vague rough brindled thing, had limped up on a lame +leg. "There'll be a hubbub now," I thought; for at the same moment a +third dog, a long-haired white mongrel, slipped out of a doorway and +joined the others. All three stood looking at me with grave eyes; but +not a sound came from them. As I advanced they continued to fall back on +muffled paws, still watching me. "At a given point, they'll all charge +at my ankles: it's one of the jokes that dogs who live together put up +on one," I thought. I was not alarmed, for they were neither large +nor formidable. But they let me wander about the court as I pleased, +following me at a little distance--always the same distance--and always +keeping their eyes on me. Presently I looked across at the ruined +facade, and saw that in one of its empty window-frames another dog +stood: a white pointer with one brown ear. He was an old grave dog, much +more experienced than the others; and he seemed to be observing me with +a deeper intentness. "I'll hear from _him_," I said to myself; but he +stood in the window-frame, against the trees of the park, and continued +to watch me without moving. I stared back at him for a time, to see if +the sense that he was being watched would not rouse him. Half the width +of the court lay between us, and we gazed at each other silently across +it. But he did not stir, and at last I turned away. Behind me I found +the rest of the pack, with a newcomer added: a small black greyhound +with pale agate-coloured eyes. He was shivering a little, and his +expression was more timid than that of the others. I noticed that he +kept a little behind them. And still there was not a sound. + +I stood there for fully five minutes, the circle about me--waiting, as +they seemed to be waiting. At last I went up to the little golden-brown +dog and stooped to pat him. As I did so, I heard myself give a nervous +laugh. The little dog did not start, or growl, or take his eyes from +me--he simply slipped back about a yard, and then paused and continued +to look at me. "Oh, hang it!" I exclaimed, and walked across the court +toward the well. + +As I advanced, the dogs separated and slid away into different corners +of the court. I examined the urns on the well, tried a locked door or +two, and looked up and down the dumb facade; then I faced about toward +the chapel. When I turned I perceived that all the dogs had disappeared +except the old pointer, who still watched me from the window. It was +rather a relief to be rid of that cloud of witnesses; and I began to +look about me for a way to the back of the house. "Perhaps there'll +be somebody in the garden," I thought. I found a way across the moat, +scrambled over a wall smothered in brambles, and got into the garden. +A few lean hydrangeas and geraniums pined in the flower-beds, and the +ancient house looked down on them indifferently. Its garden side was +plainer and severer than the other: the long granite front, with its few +windows and steep roof, looked like a fortress-prison. I walked around +the farther wing, went up some disjointed steps, and entered the deep +twilight of a narrow and incredibly old box-walk. The walk was just wide +enough for one person to slip through, and its branches met overhead. It +was like the ghost of a box-walk, its lustrous green all turning to +the shadowy greyness of the avenues. I walked on and on, the branches +hitting me in the face and springing back with a dry rattle; and at +length I came out on the grassy top of the _chemin de ronde_. I walked +along it to the gate-tower, looking down into the court, which was just +below me. Not a human being was in sight; and neither were the dogs. I +found a flight of steps in the thickness of the wall and went down them; +and when I emerged again into the court, there stood the circle of dogs, +the golden-brown one a little ahead of the others, the black greyhound +shivering in the rear. + +"Oh, hang it--you uncomfortable beasts, you!" I exclaimed, my voice +startling me with a sudden echo. The dogs stood motionless, watching me. +I knew by this time that they would not try to prevent my approaching +the house, and the knowledge left me free to examine them. I had a +feeling that they must be horribly cowed to be so silent and inert. Yet +they did not look hungry or ill-treated. Their coats were smooth and +they were not thin, except the shivering greyhound. It was more as if +they had lived a long time with people who never spoke to them or looked +at them: as though the silence of the place had gradually benumbed their +busy inquisitive natures. And this strange passivity, this almost human +lassitude, seemed to me sadder than the misery of starved and beaten +animals. I should have liked to rouse them for a minute, to coax them +into a game or a scamper; but the longer I looked into their fixed and +weary eyes the more preposterous the idea became. With the windows of +that house looking down on us, how could I have imagined such a thing? +The dogs knew better: _they_ knew what the house would tolerate and what +it would not. I even fancied that they knew what was passing through +my mind, and pitied me for my frivolity. But even that feeling probably +reached them through a thick fog of listlessness. I had an idea that +their distance from me was as nothing to my remoteness from them. The +impression they produced was that of having in common one memory so deep +and dark that nothing that had happened since was worth either a growl +or a wag. + +"I say," I broke out abruptly, addressing myself to the dumb circle, "do +you know what you look like, the whole lot of you? You look as if you'd +seen a ghost--that's how you look! I wonder if there _is_ a ghost here, +and nobody but you left for it to appear to?" The dogs continued to gaze +at me without moving.... + +***** + +It was dark when I saw Lanrivain's motor lamps at the cross-roads--and I +wasn't exactly sorry to see them. I had the sense of having escaped from +the loneliest place in the whole world, and of not liking loneliness--to +that degree--as much as I had imagined I should. My friend had brought +his solicitor back from Quimper for the night, and seated beside a fat +and affable stranger I felt no inclination to talk of Kerfol.... + +But that evening, when Lanrivain and the solicitor were closeted in the +study, Madame de Lanrivain began to question me in the drawing-room. + +"Well--are you going to buy Kerfol?" she asked, tilting up her gay chin +from her embroidery. + +"I haven't decided yet. The fact is, I couldn't get into the house," I +said, as if I had simply postponed my decision, and meant to go back for +another look. + +"You couldn't get in? Why, what happened? The family are mad to sell the +place, and the old guardian has orders--" + +"Very likely. But the old guardian wasn't there." + +"What a pity! He must have gone to market. But his daughter--?" + +"There was nobody about. At least I saw no one." + +"How extraordinary! Literally nobody?" + +"Nobody but a lot of dogs--a whole pack of them--who seemed to have the +place to themselves." + +Madame de Lanrivain let the embroidery slip to her knee and folded her +hands on it. For several minutes she looked at me thoughtfully. + +"A pack of dogs--you _saw_ them?" + +"Saw them? I saw nothing else!" + +"How many?" She dropped her voice a little. "I've always wondered--" + +I looked at her with surprise: I had supposed the place to be familiar +to her. "Have you never been to Kerfol?" I asked. + +"Oh, yes: often. But never on that day." + +"What day?" + +"I'd quite forgotten--and so had Herve, I'm sure. If we'd remembered, we +never should have sent you to-day--but then, after all, one doesn't half +believe that sort of thing, does one?" + +"What sort of thing?" I asked, involuntarily sinking my voice to +the level of hers. Inwardly I was thinking: "I _knew_ there was +something...." + +Madame de Lanrivain cleared her throat and produced a reassuring smile. +"Didn't Herve tell you the story of Kerfol? An ancestor of his was mixed +up in it. You know every Breton house has its ghost-story; and some of +them are rather unpleasant." + +"Yes--but those dogs?" + +"Well, those dogs are the ghosts of Kerfol. At least, the peasants say +there's one day in the year when a lot of dogs appear there; and that +day the keeper and his daughter go off to Morlaix and get drunk. The +women in Brittany drink dreadfully." She stooped to match a silk; then +she lifted her charming inquisitive Parisian face. "Did you _really_ see +a lot of dogs? There isn't one at Kerfol." she said. + + + + +II + +Lanrivain, the next day, hunted out a shabby calf volume from the back +of an upper shelf of his library. + +"Yes--here it is. What does it call itself? _A History of the Assizes +of the Duchy of Brittany. Quimper, 1702_. The book was written about a +hundred years later than the Kerfol affair; but I believe the account +is transcribed pretty literally from the judicial records. Anyhow, it's +queer reading. And there's a Herve de Lanrivain mixed up in it--not +exactly _my_ style, as you'll see. But then he's only a collateral. +Here, take the book up to bed with you. I don't exactly remember the +details; but after you've read it I'll bet anything you'll leave your +light burning all night!" + +I left my light burning all night, as he had predicted; but it was +chiefly because, till near dawn, I was absorbed in my reading. The +account of the trial of Anne de Cornault, wife of the lord of Kerfol, +was long and closely printed. It was, as my friend had said, probably an +almost literal transcription of what took place in the court-room; and +the trial lasted nearly a month. Besides, the type of the book was very +bad.... + +At first I thought of translating the old record. But it is full of +wearisome repetitions, and the main lines of the story are forever +straying off into side issues. So I have tried to disentangle it, and +give it here in a simpler form. At times, however, I have reverted to +the text because no other words could have conveyed so exactly the sense +of what I felt at Kerfol; and nowhere have I added anything of my own. + + + + +III + +It was in the year 16-- that Yves de Cornault, lord of the domain +of Kerfol, went to the _pardon_ of Locronan to perform his religious +duties. He was a rich and powerful noble, then in his sixty-second year, +but hale and sturdy, a great horseman and hunter and a pious man. So all +his neighbours attested. In appearance he was short and broad, with a +swarthy face, legs slightly bowed from the saddle, a hanging nose and +broad hands with black hairs on them. He had married young and lost his +wife and son soon after, and since then had lived alone at Kerfol. Twice +a year he went to Morlaix, where he had a handsome house by the river, +and spent a week or ten days there; and occasionally he rode to Rennes +on business. Witnesses were found to declare that during these absences +he led a life different from the one he was known to lead at Kerfol, +where he busied himself with his estate, attended mass daily, and found +his only amusement in hunting the wild boar and water-fowl. But these +rumours are not particularly relevant, and it is certain that among +people of his own class in the neighbourhood he passed for a stern and +even austere man, observant of his religious obligations, and keeping +strictly to himself. There was no talk of any familiarity with the women +on his estate, though at that time the nobility were very free with +their peasants. Some people said he had never looked at a woman since +his wife's death; but such things are hard to prove, and the evidence on +this point was not worth much. + +Well, in his sixty-second year, Yves de Cornault went to the _pardon_ at +Locronan, and saw there a young lady of Douarnenez, who had ridden over +pillion behind her father to do her duty to the saint. Her name was Anne +de Barrigan, and she came of good old Breton stock, but much less +great and powerful than that of Yves de Cornault; and her father had +squandered his fortune at cards, and lived almost like a peasant in his +little granite manor on the moors.... I have said I would add nothing +of my own to this bald statement of a strange case; but I must interrupt +myself here to describe the young lady who rode up to the lych-gate +of Locronan at the very moment when the Baron de Cornault was also +dismounting there. I take my description from a faded drawing in red +crayon, sober and truthful enough to be by a late pupil of the Clouets, +which hangs in Lanrivain's study, and is said to be a portrait of Anne +de Barrigan. It is unsigned and has no mark of identity but the initials +A. B., and the date 16--, the year after her marriage. It represents a +young woman with a small oval face, almost pointed, yet wide enough for +a full mouth with a tender depression at the corners. The nose is +small, and the eyebrows are set rather high, far apart, and as lightly +pencilled as the eyebrows in a Chinese painting. The forehead is high +and serious, and the hair, which one feels to be fine and thick and +fair, is drawn off it and lies close like a cap. The eyes are neither +large nor small, hazel probably, with a look at once shy and steady. A +pair of beautiful long hands are crossed below the lady's breast.... + +The chaplain of Kerfol, and other witnesses, averred that when the Baron +came back from Locronan he jumped from his horse, ordered another to +be instantly saddled, called to a young page to come with him, and +rode away that same evening to the south. His steward followed the next +morning with coffers laden on a pair of pack mules. The following week +Yves de Cornault rode back to Kerfol, sent for his vassals and tenants, +and told them he was to be married at All Saints to Anne de Barrigan of +Douarnenez. And on All Saints' Day the marriage took place. + +As to the next few years, the evidence on both sides seems to show that +they passed happily for the couple. No one was found to say that Yves +de Cornault had been unkind to his wife, and it was plain to all that +he was content with his bargain. Indeed, it was admitted by the chaplain +and other witnesses for the prosecution that the young lady had a +softening influence on her husband, and that he became less exacting +with his tenants, less harsh to peasants and dependents, and less +subject to the fits of gloomy silence which had darkened his widowhood. +As to his wife, the only grievance her champions could call up in her +behalf was that Kerfol was a lonely place, and that when her husband was +away on business at Bennes or Morlaix--whither she was never taken--she +was not allowed so much as to walk in the park unaccompanied. But no +one asserted that she was unhappy, though one servant-woman said she +had surprised her crying, and had heard her say that she was a woman +accursed to have no child, and nothing in life to call her own. But +that was a natural enough feeling in a wife attached to her husband; and +certainly it must have been a great grief to Yves de Cornault that +she bore no son. Yet he never made her feel her childlessness as a +reproach--she admits this in her evidence--but seemed to try to make her +forget it by showering gifts and favours on her. Rich though he was, he +had never been openhanded; but nothing was too fine for his wife, in +the way of silks or gems or linen, or whatever else she fancied. Every +wandering merchant was welcome at Kerfol, and when the master was +called away he never came back without bringing his wife a handsome +present--something curious and particular--from Morlaix or Rennes +or Quimper. One of the waiting-women gave, in cross-examination, an +interesting list of one year's gifts, which I copy. From Morlaix, a +carved ivory junk, with Chinamen at the oars, that a strange sailor had +brought back as a votive offering for Notre Dame de la Clarte, above +Ploumanac'h; from Quimper, an embroidered gown, worked by the nuns of +the Assumption; from Rennes, a silver rose that opened and showed an +amber Virgin with a crown of garnets; from Morlaix, again, a length +of Damascus velvet shot with gold, bought of a Jew from Syria; and for +Michaelmas that same year, from Rennes, a necklet or bracelet of round +stones--emeralds and pearls and rubies--strung like beads on a fine gold +chain. This was the present that pleased the lady best, the woman said. +Later on, as it happened, it was produced at the trial, and appears to +have struck the Judges and the public as a curious and valuable jewel. + +The very same winter, the Baron absented himself again, this time as far +as Bordeaux, and on his return he brought his wife something even odder +and prettier than the bracelet. It was a winter evening when he rode up +to Kerfol and, walking into the hall, found her sitting by the hearth, +her chin on her hand, looking into the fire. He carried a velvet box +in his hand and, setting it down, lifted the lid and let out a little +golden-brown dog. + +Anne de Cornault exclaimed with pleasure as the little creature bounded +toward her. "Oh, it looks like a bird or a butterfly!" she cried as she +picked it up; and the dog put its paws on her shoulders and looked at +her with eyes "like a Christian's." After that she would never have +it out of her sight, and petted and talked to it as if it had been a +child--as indeed it was the nearest thing to a child she was to know. +Yves de Cornault was much pleased with his purchase. The dog had been +brought to him by a sailor from an East India merchantman, and the +sailor had bought it of a pilgrim in a bazaar at Jaffa, who had stolen +it from a nobleman's wife in China: a perfectly permissible thing to do, +since the pilgrim was a Christian and the nobleman a heathen doomed to +hell-fire. + +Yves de Cornault had paid a long price for the dog, for they were +beginning to be in demand at the French court, and the sailor knew he +had got hold of a good thing; but Anne's pleasure was so great that, +to see her laugh and play with the little animal, her husband would +doubtless have given twice the sum. + +***** + +So far, all the evidence is at one, and the narrative plain sailing; +but now the steering becomes difficult. I will try to keep as nearly as +possible to Anne's own statements; though toward the end, poor thing.... + +Well, to go back. The very year after the little brown dog was brought +to Kerfol, Yves de Cornault, one winter night, was found dead at the +head of a narrow flight of stairs leading down from his wife's rooms to +a door opening on the court. It was his wife who found him and gave the +alarm, so distracted, poor wretch, with fear and horror--for his blood +was all over her--that at first the roused household could not make out +what she was saying, and thought she had suddenly gone mad. But there, +sure enough, at the top of the stairs lay her husband, stone dead, and +head foremost, the blood from his wounds dripping down to the steps +below him. He had been dreadfully scratched and gashed about the face +and throat, as if with curious pointed weapons; and one of his legs +had a deep tear in it which had cut an artery, and probably caused his +death. But how did he come there, and who had murdered him? + +His wife declared that she had been asleep in her bed, and hearing +his cry had rushed out to find him lying on the stairs; but this was +immediately questioned. In the first place, it was proved that from her +room she could not have heard the struggle on the stairs, owing to the +thickness of the walls and the length of the intervening passage; then +it was evident that she had not been in bed and asleep, since she was +dressed when she roused the house, and her bed had not been slept in. +Moreover, the door at the bottom of the stairs was ajar, and it was +noticed by the chaplain (an observant man) that the dress she wore was +stained with blood about the knees, and that there were traces of small +blood-stained hands low down on the staircase walls, so that it was +conjectured that she had really been at the postern-door when her +husband fell and, feeling her way up to him in the darkness on her hands +and knees, had been stained by his blood dripping down on her. Of course +it was argued on the other side that the blood-marks on her dress might +have been caused by her kneeling down by her husband when she rushed out +of her room; but there was the open door below, and the fact that the +finger-marks in the staircase all pointed upward. + +The accused held to her statement for the first two days, in spite of +its improbability; but on the third day word was brought to her that +Herve de Lanrivain, a young nobleman of the neighbourhood, had been +arrested for complicity in the crime. Two or three witnesses thereupon +came forward to say that it was known throughout the country that +Lanrivain had formerly been on good terms with the lady of Cornault; but +that he had been absent from Brittany for over a year, and people had +ceased to associate their names. The witnesses who made this statement +were not of a very reputable sort. One was an old herb-gatherer +suspected of witchcraft, another a drunken clerk from a neighbouring +parish, the third a half-witted shepherd who could be made to say +anything; and it was clear that the prosecution was not satisfied +with its case, and would have liked to find more definite proof of +Lanrivain's complicity than the statement of the herb-gatherer, who +swore to having seen him climbing the wall of the park on the night of +the murder. One way of patching out incomplete proofs in those days was +to put some sort of pressure, moral or physical, on the accused person. +It is not clear what pressure was put on Anne de Cornault; but on +the third day, when she was brought in court, she "appeared weak and +wandering," and after being encouraged to collect herself and speak +the truth, on her honour and the wounds of her Blessed Redeemer, she +confessed that she had in fact gone down the stairs to speak with Herve +de Lanrivain (who denied everything), and had been surprised there by +the sound of her husband's fall. That was better; and the prosecution +rubbed its hands with satisfaction. The satisfaction increased when +various dependents living at Kerfol were induced to say--with apparent +sincerity--that during the year or two preceding his death their master +had once more grown uncertain and irascible, and subject to the fits +of brooding silence which his household had learned to dread before his +second marriage. This seemed to show that things had not been going well +at Kerfol; though no one could be found to say that there had been any +signs of open disagreement between husband and wife. + +Anne de Cornault, when questioned as to her reason for going down at +night to open the door to Herve de Lanrivain, made an answer which must +have sent a smile around the court. She said it was because she was +lonely and wanted to talk with the young man. Was this the only reason? +she was asked; and replied: "Yes, by the Cross over your Lordships' +heads." "But why at midnight?" the court asked. "Because I could see him +in no other way." I can see the exchange of glances across the ermine +collars under the Crucifix. + +Anne de Cornault, further questioned, said that her married life had +been extremely lonely: "desolate" was the word she used. It was true +that her husband seldom spoke harshly to her; but there were days +when he did not speak at all. It was true that he had never struck or +threatened her; but he kept her like a prisoner at Kerfol, and when he +rode away to Morlaix or Quimper or Rennes he set so close a watch on +her that she could not pick a flower in the garden without having a +waiting-woman at her heels. "I am no Queen, to need such honours," she +once said to him; and he had answered that a man who has a treasure does +not leave the key in the lock when he goes out. "Then take me with you," +she urged; but to this he said that towns were pernicious places, and +young wives better off at their own firesides. + +"But what did you want to say to Herve de Lanrivain?" the court asked; +and she answered: "To ask him to take me away." + +"Ah--you confess that you went down to him with adulterous thoughts?" + +"Then why did you want him to take you away?" + +"Because I was afraid for my life." + +"Of whom were you afraid?" + +"Of my husband." + +"Why were you afraid of your husband?" + +"Because he had strangled my little dog." + +Another smile must have passed around the courtroom: in days when any +nobleman had a right to hang his peasants--and most of them exercised +it--pinching a pet animal's wind-pipe was nothing to make a fuss about. + +At this point one of the Judges, who appears to have had a certain +sympathy for the accused, suggested that she should be allowed to +explain herself in her own way; and she thereupon made the following +statement. + +The first years of her marriage had been lonely; but her husband had +not been unkind to her. If she had had a child she would not have been +unhappy; but the days were long, and it rained too much. + +It was true that her husband, whenever he went away and left her, +brought her a handsome present on his return; but this did not make up +for the loneliness. At least nothing had, till he brought her the little +brown dog from the East: after that she was much less unhappy. Her +husband seemed pleased that she was so fond of the dog; he gave her +leave to put her jewelled bracelet around its neck, and to keep it +always with her. + +One day she had fallen asleep in her room, with the dog at her feet, as +his habit was. Her feet were bare and resting on his back. Suddenly she +was waked by her husband: he stood beside her, smiling not unkindly. + +"You look like my great-grandmother, Juliane de Cornault, lying in the +chapel with her feet on a little dog," he said. + +The analogy sent a chill through her, but she laughed and answered: +"Well, when I am dead you must put me beside her, carved in marble, with +my dog at my feet." + +"Oho--we'll wait and see," he said, laughing also, but with his black +brows close together. "The dog is the emblem of fidelity." + +"And do you doubt my right to lie with mine at my feet?" + +"When I'm in doubt I find out," he answered. "I am an old man," he +added, "and people say I make you lead a lonely life. But I swear you +shall have your monument if you earn it." + +"And I swear to be faithful," she returned, "if only for the sake of +having my little dog at my feet." + +Not long afterward he went on business to the Quimper Assizes; and while +he was away his aunt, the widow of a great nobleman of the duchy, came +to spend a night at Kerfol on her way to the _pardon_ of Ste. Barbe. +She was a woman of piety and consequence, and much respected by Yves de +Cornault, and when she proposed to Anne to go with her to Ste. Barbe no +one could object, and even the chaplain declared himself in favour of +the pilgrimage. So Anne set out for Ste. Barbe, and there for the first +time she talked with Herve de Lanrivain. He had come once or twice to +Kerfol with his father, but she had never before exchanged a dozen words +with him. They did not talk for more than five minutes now: it was under +the chestnuts, as the procession was coming out of the chapel. He said: +"I pity you," and she was surprised, for she had not supposed that any +one thought her an object of pity. He added: "Call for me when you need +me," and she smiled a little, but was glad afterward, and thought often +of the meeting. + +She confessed to having seen him three times afterward: not more. How +or where she would not say--one had the impression that she feared to +implicate some one. Their meetings had been rare and brief; and at the +last he had told her that he was starting the next day for a foreign +country, on a mission which was not without peril and might keep him for +many months absent. He asked her for a remembrance, and she had none +to give him but the collar about the little dog's neck. She was sorry +afterward that she had given it, but he was so unhappy at going that she +had not had the courage to refuse. + +Her husband was away at the time. When he returned a few days later he +picked up the animal to pet it, and noticed that its collar was missing. +His wife told him that the dog had lost it in the undergrowth of the +park, and that she and her maids had hunted a whole day for it. It was +true, she explained to the court, that she had made the maids search for +the necklet--they all believed the dog had lost it in the park.... + +Her husband made no comment, and that evening at supper he was in his +usual mood, between good and bad: you could never tell which. He talked +a good deal, describing what he had seen and done at Rennes; but now +and then he stopped and looked hard at her, and when she went to bed she +found her little dog strangled on her pillow. The little thing was +dead, but still warm; she stooped to lift it, and her distress turned to +horror when she discovered that it had been strangled by twisting twice +round its throat the necklet she had given to Lanrivain. + +The next morning at dawn she buried the dog in the garden, and hid the +necklet in her breast. She said nothing to her husband, then or later, +and he said nothing to her; but that day he had a peasant hanged for +stealing a faggot in the park, and the next day he nearly beat to death +a young horse he was breaking. + +Winter set in, and the short days passed, and the long nights, one by +one; and she heard nothing of Herve de Lanrivain. It might be that +her husband had killed him; or merely that he had been robbed of the +necklet. Day after day by the hearth among the spinning maids, night +after night alone on her bed, she wondered and trembled. Sometimes at +table her husband looked across at her and smiled; and then she felt +sure that Lanrivain was dead. She dared not try to get news of him, for +she was sure her husband would find out if she did: she had an idea that +he could find out anything. Even when a witchwoman who was a noted seer, +and could show you the whole world in her crystal, came to the castle +for a night's shelter, and the maids flocked to her, Anne held back. + +The winter was long and black and rainy. One day, in Yves de Cornault's +absence, some gypsies came to Kerfol with a troop of performing dogs. +Anne bought the smallest and cleverest, a white dog with a feathery coat +and one blue and one brown eye. It seemed to have been ill-treated by +the gypsies, and clung to her plaintively when she took it from them. +That evening her husband came back, and when she went to bed she found +the dog strangled on her pillow. + +After that she said to herself that she would never have another dog; +but one bitter cold evening a poor lean greyhound was found whining at +the castle-gate, and she took him in and forbade the maids to speak of +him to her husband. She hid him in a room that no one went to, smuggled +food to him from her own plate, made him a warm bed to lie on and petted +him like a child. + +Yves de Cornault came home, and the next day she found the greyhound +strangled on her pillow. She wept in secret, but said nothing, and +resolved that even if she met a dog dying of hunger she would never +bring him into the castle; but one day she found a young sheepdog, a +brindled puppy with good blue eyes, lying with a broken leg in the snow +of the park. Yves de Cornault was at Bennes, and she brought the dog +in, warmed and fed it, tied up its leg and hid it in the castle till +her husband's return. The day before, she gave it to a peasant woman +who lived a long way off, and paid her handsomely to care for it and say +nothing; but that night she heard a whining and scratching at her door, +and when she opened it the lame puppy, drenched and shivering, jumped up +on her with little sobbing barks. She hid him in her bed, and the next +morning was about to have him taken back to the peasant woman when she +heard her husband ride into the court. She shut the dog in a chest, and +went down to receive him. An hour or two later, when she returned to her +room, the puppy lay strangled on her pillow.... + +After that she dared not make a pet of any other dog; and her loneliness +became almost unendurable. Sometimes, when she crossed the court of +the castle, and thought no one was looking, she stopped to pat the old +pointer at the gate. But one day as she was caressing him her husband +came out of the chapel; and the next day the old dog was gone.... + +This curious narrative was not told in one sitting of the court, or +received without impatience and incredulous comment. It was plain that +the Judges were surprised by its puerility, and that it did not help the +accused in the eyes of the public. It was an odd tale, certainly; but +what did it prove? That Yves de Cornault disliked dogs, and that his +wife, to gratify her own fancy, persistently ignored this dislike. +As for pleading this trivial disagreement as an excuse for her +relations--whatever their nature--with her supposed accomplice, the +argument was so absurd that her own lawyer manifestly regretted having +let her make use of it, and tried several times to cut short her story. +But she went on to the end, with a kind of hypnotized insistence, as +though the scenes she evoked were so real to her that she had forgotten +where she was and imagined herself to be re-living them. + +At length the Judge who had previously shown a certain kindness to her +said (leaning forward a little, one may suppose, from his row of dozing +colleagues): "Then you would have us believe that you murdered your +husband because he would not let you keep a pet dog?" + +"I did not murder my husband." + +"Who did, then? Herve de Lanrivain?" + +"No." + +"Who then? Can you tell us?" + +"Yes, I can tell you. The dogs--" At that point she was carried out of +the court in a swoon. + +***** + +It was evident that her lawyer tried to get her to abandon this line +of defense. Possibly her explanation, whatever it was, had seemed +convincing when she poured it out to him in the heat of their first +private colloquy; but now that it was exposed to the cold daylight of +judicial scrutiny, and the banter of the town, he was thoroughly ashamed +of it, and would have sacrificed her without a scruple to save his +professional reputation. But the obstinate Judge--who perhaps, after +all, was more inquisitive than kindly--evidently wanted to hear +the story out, and she was ordered, the next day, to continue her +deposition. + +She said that after the disappearance of the old watchdog nothing +particular happened for a month or two. Her husband was much as usual: +she did not remember any special incident. But one evening a pedlar +woman came to the castle and was selling trinkets to the maids. She had +no heart for trinkets, but she stood looking on while the women made +their choice. And then, she did not know how, but the pedlar coaxed her +into buying for herself a pear-shaped pomander with a strong scent in +it--she had once seen something of the kind on a gypsy woman. She had +no desire for the pomander, and did not know why she had bought it. The +pedlar said that whoever wore it had the power to read the future; +but she did not really believe that, or care much either. However, she +bought the thing and took it up to her room, where she sat turning it +about in her hand. Then the strange scent attracted her and she began to +wonder what kind of spice was in the box. She opened it and found a grey +bean rolled in a strip of paper; and on the paper she saw a sign she +knew, and a message from Herve de Lanrivain, saying that he was at home +again and would be at the door in the court that night after the moon +had set.... + +She burned the paper and sat down to think. It was nightfall, and her +husband was at home.... She had no way of warning Lanrivain, and there +was nothing to do but to wait.... + +At this point I fancy the drowsy court-room beginning to wake up. Even +to the oldest hand on the bench there must have been a certain relish +in picturing the feelings of a woman on receiving such a message at +nightfall from a man living twenty miles away, to whom she had no means +of sending a warning.... + +She was not a clever woman, I imagine; and as the first result of her +cogitation she appears to have made the mistake of being, that evening, +too kind to her husband. She could not ply him with wine, according to +the traditional expedient, for though he drank heavily at times he had +a strong head; and when he drank beyond its strength it was because +he chose to, and not because a woman coaxed him. Not his wife, at any +rate--she was an old story by now. As I read the case, I fancy there was +no feeling for her left in him but the hatred occasioned by his supposed +dishonour. + +At any rate, she tried to call up her old graces; but early in the +evening he complained of pains and fever, and left the hall to go up to +the closet where he sometimes slept. His servant carried him a cup +of hot wine, and brought back word that he was sleeping and not to be +disturbed; and an hour later, when Anne lifted the tapestry and listened +at his door, she heard his loud regular breathing. She thought it might +be a feint, and stayed a long time barefooted in the passage, her ear +to the crack; but the breathing went on too steadily and naturally to +be other than that of a man in a sound sleep. She crept back to her room +reassured, and stood in the window watching the moon set through the +trees of the park. The sky was misty and starless, and after the moon +went down the night was black as pitch. She knew the time had come, +and stole along the passage, past her husband's door--where she stopped +again to listen to his breathing--to the top of the stairs. There she +paused a moment, and assured herself that no one was following her; then +she began to go down the stairs in the darkness. They were so steep and +winding that she had to go very slowly, for fear of stumbling. Her one +thought was to get the door unbolted, tell Lanrivain to make his escape, +and hasten back to her room. She had tried the bolt earlier in the +evening, and managed to put a little grease on it; but nevertheless, +when she drew it, it gave a squeak... not loud, but it made her heart +stop; and the next minute, overhead, she heard a noise.... + +"What noise?" the prosecution interposed. + +"My husband's voice calling out my name and cursing me." + +"What did you hear after that?" + +"A terrible scream and a fall." + +"Where was Herve de Lanrivain at this time?" + +"He was standing outside in the court. I just made him out in the +darkness. I told him for God's sake to go, and then I pushed the door +shut." + +"What did you do next?" + +"I stood at the foot of the stairs and listened." + +"What did you hear?" + +"I heard dogs snarling and panting." (Visible discouragement of the +bench, boredom of the public, and exasperation of the lawyer for the +defense. Dogs again--! But the inquisitive Judge insisted.) + +"What dogs?" + +She bent her head and spoke so low that she had to be told to repeat her +answer: "I don't know." + +"How do you mean--you don't know?" + +"I don't know what dogs...." + +The Judge again intervened: "Try to tell us exactly what happened. How +long did you remain at the foot of the stairs?" + +"Only a few minutes." + +"And what was going on meanwhile overhead?" + +"The dogs kept on snarling and panting. Once or twice he cried out. I +think he moaned once. Then he was quiet." + +"Then what happened?" + +"Then I heard a sound like the noise of a pack when the wolf is thrown +to them--gulping and lapping." + +(There was a groan of disgust and repulsion through the court, and +another attempted intervention by the distracted lawyer. But the +inquisitive Judge was still inquisitive.) + +"And all the while you did not go up?" + +"Yes--I went up then--to drive them off." + +"The dogs?" + +"Yes." + +"Well--?" + +"When I got there it was quite dark. I found my husband's flint and +steel and struck a spark. I saw him lying there. He was dead." + +"And the dogs?" + +"The dogs were gone." + +"Gone--whereto?" + +"I don't know. There was no way out--and there were no dogs at Kerfol." + +She straightened herself to her full height, threw her arms above her +head, and fell down on the stone floor with a long scream. There was a +moment of confusion in the court-room. Some one on the bench was heard +to say: "This is clearly a case for the ecclesiastical authorities"--and +the prisoner's lawyer doubtless jumped at the suggestion. + +After this, the trial loses itself in a maze of cross-questioning and +squabbling. Every witness who was called corroborated Anne de Cornault's +statement that there were no dogs at Kerfol: had been none for several +months. The master of the house had taken a dislike to dogs, there was +no denying it But, on the other hand, at the inquest, there had been +long and bitter discussions as to the nature of the dead man's wounds. +One of the surgeons called in had spoken of marks that looked like +bites. The suggestion of witchcraft was revived, and the opposing +lawyers hurled tomes of necromancy at each other. + +At last Anne de Cornault was brought back into court--at the instance of +the same Judge--and asked if she knew where the dogs she spoke of could +have come from. On the body of her Redeemer she swore that she did not. +Then the Judge put his final question: "If the dogs you think you heard +had been known to you, do you think you would have recognized them by +their barking?" + +"Yes." + +"Did you recognize them?" + +"Yes." + +"What dogs do you take them to have been?" + +"My dead dogs," she said in a whisper.... She was taken out of court, +not to reappear there again. There was some kind of ecclesiastical +investigation, and the end of the business was that the Judges disagreed +with each other, and with the ecclesiastical committee, and that + +Anne de Cornault was finally handed over to the keeping of her husband's +family, who shut her up in the keep of Kerfol, where she is said to have +died many years later, a harmless mad-woman. + +So ends her story. As for that of Herve de Lanrivain, I had only to +apply to his collateral descendant for its subsequent details. The +evidence against the young man being insufficient, and his family +influence in the duchy considerable, he was set free, and left soon +afterward for Paris. He was probably in no mood for a worldly life, and +he appears to have come almost immediately under the influence of the +famous M. Arnauld d'Andilly and the gentlemen of Port Royal. A year or +two later he was received into their Order, and without achieving any +particular distinction he followed its good and evil fortunes till his +death some twenty years later. Lanrivain showed me a portrait of him by +a pupil of Philippe de Champaigne: sad eyes, an impulsive mouth and a +narrow brow. Poor Herve de Lanrivain: it was a grey ending. Yet as +I looked at his stiff and sallow effigy, in the dark dress of the +Janseniste, I almost found myself envying his fate. After all, in the +course of his life two great things had happened to him: he had loved +romantically, and he must have talked with Pascal.... + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Kerfol, by Edith Wharton + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK KERFOL *** + +***** This file should be named 24350.txt or 24350.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/2/4/3/5/24350/ + +Produced by David Widger + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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