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diff --git a/3347.txt b/3347.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..c606c30 --- /dev/null +++ b/3347.txt @@ -0,0 +1,5776 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Wandering Jew, Book IX., by Eugene Sue + +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: The Wandering Jew, Book IX. + +Author: Eugene Sue + +Release Date: October 25, 2004 [EBook #3347] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE WANDERING JEW, BOOK IX. *** + + + + +Produced by David Widger and Pat Castevens + + + + +THE WANDERING JEW + +By Eugene Sue + + + + +BOOK IX. + + +XV. The Constant Wanderer +XVI. The Luncheon +XVII. Rendering the Account +XVIII. The Square of Notre Dame +XIX. The Cholera Masquerade +XX. The Defiance +XXI. Brandy to the Rescue +XXII. Memories +XXIII. The Poisoner +XXIV. In the Cathedral +XXV. The Murderers +XXVI. The Patient +XXVII. The Lure +XXVIII. Good News +XXIX. The Operation +XXX. The Torture +XXXI. Vice and Virtue +XXXII. Suicide + + + + +CHAPTER XV. + +THE CONSTANT WANDERER. + +It is night. The moon shines and the stars glimmer in the midst of a +serene but cheerless sky; the sharp whistlings of the north wind, that +fatal, dry, and icy breeze, ever and anon burst forth in violent gusts. +With its harsh and cutting breath, it sweeps Montmartre's Heights. On the +highest point of the hills, a man is standing. His long shadow is cast +upon the stony, moon-lit ground. He gazes on the immense city, which lies +outspread beneath his feet. PARIS--with the dark outline of its towers, +cupolas, domes, and steeples, standing out from the limpid blue of the +horizon, while from the midst of the ocean of masonry, rises a luminous +vapor, that reddens the starry azure of the sky. It is the distant +reflection of the thousand fires, which at night, the hour of pleasures, +light up so joyously the noisy capital. + +"No," said the wayfarer; "it is not to be. The Lord will not exact it. Is +not twice enough? + +"Five centuries ago, the avenging hand of the Almighty drove me hither +from the uttermost confines of Asia. A solitary traveller, I had left +behind me more grief, despair, disaster, and death, than the innumerable +armies of a hundred devastating conquerors. I entered this town, and it +too was decimated. + +"Again, two centuries ago, the inexorable hand, which leads me through +the world, brought me once more hither; and then, as the time before, the +plague, which the Almighty attaches to my steps, again ravaged this city, +and fell first on my brethren, already worn out with labor and misery. + +"My brethren--mine?--the cobbler of Jerusalem, the artisan accursed by +the Lord, who, in my person, condemned the whole race of workmen, ever +suffering, ever disinherited, ever in slavery, toiling on like me without +rest or pause, without recompense or hope, till men, women, and children, +young and old, all die beneath the same iron yoke--that murderous yoke, +which others take in their turn, thus to be borne from age to age on the +submissive and bruised shoulders of the masses. + +"And now, for the third time in five centuries, I reach the summit of one +of the hills that overlook the city. And perhaps I again bring with me +fear, desolation, and death. + +"Yet this city, intoxicated with the sounds of its joys and its nocturnal +revelries, does not know--oh! does not know that I am at its gates. + +"But no, no! my presence will not be a new calamity. The Lord, in his +impenetrable views, has hitherto led me through France, so as to avoid +the humblest hamlet; and the sound of the funeral knell has not +accompanied my passage. + +"And, moreover, the spectre has left me--the green, livid spectre, with +its hollow, bloodshot eyes. When I touched the soil of France, its damp +and icy hands was no longer clasped in mine--and it disappeared. + +"And yet--I feel that the atmosphere of death is around me. + +"The sharp whistlings of that fatal wind cease not, which, catching me in +their whirl, seem to propagate blasting and mildew as they blow. + +"But perhaps the wrath of the Lord is appeased, and my presence here is +only a threat--to be communicated in some way to those whom it should +intimidate. + +"Yes; for otherwise he would smite with a fearful blow, by first +scattering terror and death here in the heart of the country, in the +bosom of this immense city! + +"Oh! no, no! the Lord will be merciful. No! he will not condemn me to +this new torture. + +"Alas! in this city, my brethren are more numerous and miserable than +elsewhere. And should I be their messenger of death?" + +"No! the Lord will have pity. For, alas! the seven descendants of my +sister have at length met in this town. And to them likewise should I be +the messenger of death, instead of the help they so much need? + +"For that woman, who like me wanders from one border of the earth to the +other, after having once more rent asunder the nets of their enemies, has +gone forth upon her endless journey. + +"In vain she foresaw that new misfortunes threatened my sister's family. +The invisible hand, that drives me on, drives her on also. + +"Carried away, as of old, by the irresistible whirlwind, at the moment of +leaving my kindred to their fate, she in vain cried with supplicating +tone: 'Let me at least, O Lord, complete my task!'--'GO ON!--'A few days, +in mercy, only a few poor days!'--'GO ON'--'I leave those I love on the +brink of the abyss!'--'GO ON! GO ON!' + +"And the wandering star--again started on its eternal round. And her +voice, passing through space, called me to the assistance of mine own. + +"When that voice readied me, I knew that the descendants of my sister +were still exposed to frightful perils. Those perils are even now on the +increase. + +"Tell me, O Lord! will they escape the scourge, which for so many +centuries has weighed down our race? + +"Wilt thou pardon me in them? wilt thou punish me in them? Oh, that they +might obey the last will of their ancestor! + +"Oh, that they might join together their charitable hearts, their valor +and their strength, their noble intelligence, and their great riches! + +"They would then labor for the future happiness of humanity--they would +thus, perhaps, redeem me from my eternal punishment! + +"The words of the Son of Man, LOVE YE ONE ANOTHER, will be their only +end, their only means. + +"By the help of those all-powerful words, they will fight and conquer the +false priests, who have renounced the precepts of love, peace, and hope, +for lessons of hatred, violence, and despair. + +"Those false priests, who, kept in pay by the powerful and happy of this +world, their accomplices in every age, instead of asking here below for +some slight share of well-being for my unfortunate brethren, dare in thy +name, O Lord God, to assert that the poor are condemned to endless +suffering in this world--and that the desire or the hope to suffer less +is a crime in thine eyes--because the happiness of the few, and the +misery of nearly the whole human race, is (O blasphemy!) according to thy +will. Is not the very contrary of those murderous words alone worthy of +divinity! + +"In mercy, hear me, Lord! Rescue from their enemies the descendants of my +sister--the artisan as the king's son. Do not let them destroy the germ +of so mighty and fruitful an association, which, with thy blessing, would +make an epoch in the annals of human happiness! + +"Let me unite them, O Lord, since others would divide them--defend them, +since others attack; let me give hope to those who have ceased to hope, +courage to those who are brought low with fear--let me raise up the +falling, and sustain those who persevere in the way of the righteous! + +"And, peradventure, their struggles, devotion, virtue, and grief, may +expiate my fault--that of a man, whom misfortune alone rendered unjust +and wicked. + +"Oh! since Thy Almighty hand hath led me hither--to what end I know +not--lay aside Thy wrath, I beseech Thee--let me be no longer the +instrument of Thy vengeance! + +"Enough of woe upon the earth! for the last two years, Thy creatures have +fallen by thousands upon my track. The world is decimated. A veil of +mourning extends over all the globe. + +"From Asia to the icy Pole, they died upon the path of the wanderer. Dost +Thou not hear the long-drawn sigh that rises from the earth unto Thee, O +Lord? + +"Mercy for all! mercy for me!--Let me but unite the descendants of my +sister for a single day, and they will be saved!" + +As he pronounced these words, the wayfarer sank upon his knees, and +raised to heaven, his supplicating hands. Suddenly, the wind blew with +redoubled violence; its sharp whistlings were changed into the roar of a +tempest. + +The traveller shuddered; in a voice of terror he exclaimed: "The blast of +death rises in its fury--the whirlwind carries me on--Lord! Thou art then +deaf to my prayer?" + +"The spectre! oh, the spectre! it is again here! its green face twitching +with convulsive spasms--its red eyes rolling in their orbits. Begone! +begone!--its hand, oh! its icy hand has again laid hold of mine. Have +mercy, heaven!" + +"GO ON!" + +"Oh, Lord! the pestilence--the terrible plague--must I carry it into this +city?--And my brethren will perish the first--they, who are so sorely +smitten even now! Mercy!" + +"GO ON!" + +"And the descendants of my sister. Mercy! Mercy!" + +"GO ON!" + +"Oh, Lord, have pity!--I can no longer keep my ground; the spectre drags +me to the slope of the hill; my walk is rapid as the deadly blast that +rages behind me; already do I behold the city gates. Have mercy, Lord, on +the descendants of my sister! Spare them; do not make me their +executioner; let them triumph over their enemies!" + +"GO ON! GO ON!" + +"The ground flies beneath my feet; there is the city gate. Lord, it is +yet time! Oh, mercy for that sleeping town! Let it not waken to cries of +terror, despair, and death! Lord, I am on the threshold. Must it +be?--Yes, it is done. Paris, the plague is in thy bosom. The curse--oh, +the eternal curse!" + +"GO ON! GO ON! GO ON!" + + + + +CHAPTER XVI. + +THE LUNCHEON. + +The morning after the doomed traveller, descending the heights of +Montmartre, had entered the walls of Paris, great activity reigned in St. +Dizier House. Though it was hardly noon, the Princess de St. Dizier, +without being exactly in full dress (she had too much taste for that), +was yet arrayed with more care than usual. Her light hair, instead of +being merely banded, was arranged in two bunches of curls, which suited +very well with her full and florid cheeks. Her cap was trimmed with +bright rose-colored ribbon, and whoever had seen the lady in her tight +fitting dress of gray-watered silk would have easily guessed that Mrs. +Grivois, her tirewoman, must have required the assistance and the efforts +of another of the princess's women to achieve so remarkable a reduction +in the ample figure of their mistress. + +We shall explain the edifying cause of this partial return to the +vanities of the world. The princess, attended by Mrs. Grivois, who acted +as housekeeper, was giving her final orders with regard to some +preparations that were going on in a vast parlor. In the midst of this +room was a large round table, covered with crimson velvet, and near it +stood several chairs, amongst which, in the place of honor, was an arm +chair of gilded wood. In one corner, not far from the chimney, in which +burned an excellent fire, was a buffet. On it were the divers materials +for a most dainty and exquisite collation. Upon silver dishes were piled +pyramids of sandwiches composed of the roes of carp and anchovy paste, +with slices of pickled tunny-fish and Lenigord truffles (it was in Lent); +on silver dishes, placed over burning spirits of wine, so as to keep them +very hot, tails of Meuse crawfish boiled in cream, smoked in golden +colored pastry, and seemed to challenge comparison with delicious little +Marennes oyster-patties, stewed in Madeira, and flavored with a seasoning +of spiced sturgeon. By the side of these substantial dishes were some of +a lighter character, such as pineapple tarts, strawberry-creams (it was +early for such fruit), and orange-jelly served in the peel, which had +been artistically emptied for that purpose. Bordeaux, Madeira, and +Alicant sparkled like rubies and topazes in large glass decanters, while +two Sevres ewers were filled, one with coffee a la creme, the other with +vanilla chocolate, almost in the state of sherbet, from being plunged in +a large cooler of chiselled silver, containing ice. + +But what gave to this dainty collation a singularly apostolic and papal +character were sundry symbols of religious worship carefully represented. +Thus there were charming little Calvaries in apricot paste, sacerdotal +mitres in burnt almonds, episcopal croziers in sweet cake, to which the +princess added, as a mark of delicate attention, a little cardinal's hat +in cherry sweetmeat, ornamented with bands in burnt sugar. The most +important, however, of these Catholic delicacies, the masterpiece of the +cook, was a superb crucifix in angelica, with a crown of candied berries. +These are strange profanations, which scandalize even the least devout. +But, from the impudent juggle of the coat of Triers, down to the +shameless jest of the shrine at Argenteuil, people, who are pious after +the fashion of the princess, seem to take delight in bringing ridicule +upon the most respectable traditions. + +After glancing with an air of satisfaction at these preparations for the +collation, the lady said to Mrs. Grivois, as she pointed to the gilded +arm-chair, which seemed destined for the president of the meeting: "Is +there a cushion under the table, for his Eminence to rest his feet on? He +always complains of cold." + +"Yes, your highness," said Mrs. Grivois, when she had looked under the +table; "the cushion is there." + +"Let also a pewter bottle be filled with boiling water, in case his +Eminence should not find the cushion enough to keep his feet warm." + +"Yes, my lady." + +"And put some more wood on the fire." + +"But, my lady, it is already a very furnace. And if his Eminence is +always too cold, my lord the Bishop of Halfagen is always too hot. He +perspires dreadfully." + +The princess shrugged her shoulders, and said to Mrs. Grivois: "Is not +his Eminence Cardinal Malipieri the superior of his Lordship the Bishop +of Halfagen?" + +"Yes, your highness." + +"Then, according to the rules of the hierarchy, it is for his Lordship to +suffer from the heat, rather than his Eminence from the cold. Therefore, +do as I tell you, and put more wood on the fire. Nothing is more natural; +his Eminence being an Italian, and his Lordship coming from the north of +Belgium, they are accustomed to different temperatures." + +"Just as your highness pleases," said Mrs. Grivois, as she placed two +enormous logs on the fire; "but in such a heat as there is here his +Lordship might really be suffocated." + +"I also find it too warm; but does not our holy religion teach us lessons +of self-sacrifice and mortification?" said the princess, with a touching +expression of devotion. + +We have now explained the cause of the rather gay attire of the princess. +She was preparing for a reception of prelates, who, along with Father +d'Aigrigny and other dignitaries of the Church, had already held at the +princely house a sort of council on a small scale. A young bride who +gives her first ball, an emancipated minor who gives his first bachelor's +dinner, a woman of talent who reads aloud for the first time her first +unpublished work, are not more joyous and proud, and, at the same time, +more attentive to their guests, than was this lady with her prelates. To +behold great interests discussed in her house, and in her presence, to +hear men of acknowledged ability ask her advice upon certain practical +matters relating to the influence of female congregations, filled the +princess with pride, as her claims to consideration were thus sanctioned +by Lordships and Eminences, and she took the position, as it were, of a +mother of the Church. Therefore, to win these prelates, whether native or +foreign, she had recourse to no end of saintly flatteries and sanctified +coaxing. Nor could anything be more logical than these successive +transfigurations of this heartless woman, who only loved sincerely and +passionately the pursuit of intrigue and domination. With the progress of +age, she passed naturally from the intrigues of love to those of +politics, and from the latter to those of religion. + +At the moment she finished inspecting her preparations, the sound of +coaches was heard in the courtyard, apprising her of the arrival of the +persons she had been expecting. Doubtless, these persons were of the +highest rank, for contrary to all custom, she went to receive them at the +door of her outer saloon. It was, indeed, Cardinal Malipieri, who was +always cold, with the Belgian Bishop of Halfagen, who was always hot. +They were accompanied by Father d'Aigrigny. The Roman cardinal was a tall +man, rather bony than thin, with a yellowish puffy countenance, haughty +and full of craft; he squinted a good deal, and his black eyes were +surrounded by a deep brown circle. The Belgian Bishop was short, thick, +and fat, with a prominent abdomen, an apoplectic complexion, a slow, +deliberate look, and a soft, dimpled, delicate hand. + +The company soon assembled in the great saloon. The cardinal instantly +crept close to the fire, whilst the bishop, beginning to sweat and blow, +cast longing glances at the iced chocolate and coffee, which were to aid +him in sustaining the oppressive heat of the artificial dog-day. Father +d'Aigrigny, approaching the princess, said to her in a low voice: "Will +you give orders for the admittance of Abbe Gabriel de Rennepont, when he +arrives?" + +"Is that young priest then here?" asked the princess, with extreme +surprise. + +"Since the day before yesterday. We had him sent for to Paris, by his +superiors. You shall know all. As for Father Rodin, let Mrs. Grivois +admit him, as the other day, by the little door of the back stairs." + +"He will come to-day?" + +"He has very important matters to communicate. He desires that both the +cardinal and the bishop should be present for they have been informed of +everything at Rome by the Superior General, in their quality of +associates." + +The princess rang the bell, gave the necessary orders, and, returning +towards the cardinal, said to him, in a tone of the most earnest +solicitude: "Does your Eminence begin to feel a little warmer? Would your +Eminence like a bottle of hot water to your feet? Shall we make a larger +fire for your Eminence?" + +At this proposition, the Belgian bishop, who was wiping the perspiration +from his forehead, heaved a despairing sigh. + +"A thousand thanks, princess," answered the cardinal to her, in very good +French, but with an intolerable Italian accent; "I am really overcome +with so much kindness." + +"Will not your Lordship take some refreshment?" said the princess to the +bishop, as she turned towards the sideboard. + +"With your permission, madame, I will take a little iced coffee," said +the prelate, making a prudent circuit to approach the dishes without +passing before the fire. + +"And will not your Eminence try one of these little oyster-patties? They +are quite hot," said the princess. + +"I know them already, princess," said the cardinal, with the air and look +of an epicure; "they are delicious, and I cannot resist the temptation." + +"What wine shall I have the honor to offer your Eminence?" resumed the +princess, graciously. + +"A little claret, if you please, madame;" and as Father d'Aigrigny +prepared to fill the cardinal's glass, the princess disputed with him +that pleasure. + +"Your Eminence will doubtless approve what I have done," said Father +d'Aigrigny to the cardinal, whilst the latter was gravely despatching the +oyster-patties, "in not summoning for to-day the Bishop of Mogador, the +Archbishop of Nanterre, and our holy Mother Perpetue, the lady-superior +of St. Mary Convent, the interview we are about to have with his +Reverence Father Rodin and Abbe Gabriel being altogether private and +confidential." + +"Our good father was perfectly right," said the cardinal; "for, though +the possible consequences of this Rennepont affair may interest the whole +Church, there are some things that are as well kept secret." + +"Then I must seize this opportunity to thank your Eminence for having +deigned to make an exception in favor of a very obscure and humble +servant of the Church," said the princess to the cardinal, with a very +deep and respectful curtsey. + +"It is only just and right, madame," replied the cardinal, bowing as he +replaced his empty glass upon the table; "we know how much the Church is +indebted to you for the salutary direction you give to the religious +institutions of which you are the patroness." + +"With regard to that, your Eminence may be assured that I always refuse +assistance to any poor person who cannot produce a certificate from the +confessional." + +"And it is only thus, madame," resumed the cardinal, this time allowing +himself to be tempted by the attractions of the crawfish's tails, "it is +only thus that charity has any meaning. I care little that the +irreligious should feel hunger, but with the pious it is different;" and +the prelate gayly swallowed a mouthful. "Moreover," resumed he, "it is +well known with what ardent zeal you pursue the impious, and those who +are rebels against the authority of our Holy Father." + +"Your Eminence may feel convinced that I am Roman in heart and soul; I +see no difference between a Gallican and a Turk," said the princess, +bravely. + +"The princess is right," said the Belgian bishop: "I will go further, and +assert that a Gallican should be more odious to the church than a pagan. +In this respect I am of the opinion of Louis XIV. They asked him a favor +for a man about the court. 'Never,' said the great king; 'this person is +a Jansenist.'--'No, sire; he is an atheist.'--'Oh! that is different; I +will grant what he asks,' said the King." + +This little episcopal jest made them all laugh. After which Father +d'Aigrigny resumed seriously, addressing the cardinal: "Unfortunately, as +I was about to observe to your Eminence with regard to the Abbe Gabriel, +unless they are very narrowly watched, the lower clergy have a tendency +to become infected with dissenting views, and with ideas of rebellion +against what they call the despotism of the bishops." + +"This young man must be a Catholic Luther!" said the bishop. And, walking +on tip-toe, he went to pour himself out a glorious glass of Madeira, in +which he soaked some sweet cake, made in the form of a crozier. + +Led by his example, the Cardinal, under pretence of warming his feet by +drawing still closer to the fire, helped himself to an excellent glass of +old Malaga, which he swallowed by mouthfuls, with an air of profound +meditation; after which he resumed: "So this Abbe Gabriel starts as a +reformer. He must be an ambitious man. Is he dangerous?" + +"By our advice his superiors have judged him to be so. They have ordered +him to come hither. He will soon be here, and I will tell your Eminence +why I have sent for him. But first, I have a note on the dangerous +tendencies of the Abbe Gabriel. Certain questions were addressed to him, +with regard to some of his acts, and it was in consequence of his answers +that his superiors recalled him." + +So saying, Father d'Aigrigny, took from his pocket-book a paper, which he +read as follows: + +"'Question.--Is it true that you performed religious rites for an +inhabitant of your parish who died in final impenitence of the most +detestable kind, since he had committed suicide? + +"'Answer of Abbe Gabriel.--I paid him the last duties, because, more than +any one else, because of his guilty end, he required the prayers of the +church. During the night which followed his interment I continually +implored for him the divine mercy. + +"'Q.--Is it true that you refused a set of silver-gilt sacramental +vessels, and other ornaments, with which one of the faithful, in pious +zeal, wished to endow your parish? + +"'A.--I refused the vessels and embellishments, because the house of the +Lord should be plain and without ornament, so as to remind the faithful +that the divine Saviour was born in a stable. I advised the person who +wished to make these useless presents to my parish to employ the money in +judicious almsgiving, assuring him it would be more agreeable to the +Lord.'" + +"What a bitter and violent declamation against the adorning of our +temples!" cried the cardinal. "This young priest is most dangerous. +Continue, my good father." + +And, in his indignation, his Eminence swallowed several mouthfuls of +strawberry-cream. Father d'Aigrigny continued. + +"'Q.--Is it true that you received in your parsonage, and kept there for +some days, an inhabitant of the village, by birth a Swiss, belonging to +the Protestant communion? Is it true that not only you did not attempt to +convert him to the one Catholic and Apostolic faith, but that you carried +so far the neglect of your sacred duties as to inter this heretic in the +ground consecrated for the repose of true believers? + +"'A.--One of my brethren was houseless. His life had been honest and +laborious. In his old age his strength had failed him, and sickness had +come at the back of it; almost in a dying state, he had been driven from +his humble dwelling by a pitiless landlord, to whom he owed a year's +rent. I received the old man in my house, and soothed his last days. The +poor creature had toiled and suffered all his life; dying, he uttered no +word of bitterness at his hard fate; he recommended his soul to God and +piously kissed the crucifix. His pure and simple spirit returned to the +bosom of its Creator. I closed his eyes with respect, I buried him, I +prayed for him; and, though he died in the Protestant faith, I thought +him worthy of a place in consecrated ground.'" + +"Worse and worse!" said the cardinal. "This tolerance is monstrous. It is +a horrible attack on that maxim of Catholicism: 'Out of the pale of the +Church there is no salvation.'" + +"And all this is the more serious, my lord," resumed Father d'Aigrigny, +"because the mildness, charity, and Christian devotion of Abbe Gabriel +have excited, not only in his parish, but in all the surrounding +districts, the greatest enthusiasm. The priests of the neighboring +parishes have yielded to the general impulse, and it must be confessed +that but for his moderation a wide-spread schism would have commenced." + +"But what do you hope will result from bringing him here?" said the +prelate. + +"The position of Abbe Gabriel is complicated; first of all, he is the +heir of the Rennepont family." + +"But has he not ceded his rights?" asked the cardinal. + +"Yes, my lord; and this cession, which was at first informal, has lately, +with his free consent, been made perfectly regular in law; for he had +sworn, happen what might, to renounce his part of the inheritance in +favor of the Society of Jesus. Nevertheless, his Reverence Father Rodin +thinks, that if your Eminence, after explaining to Abbe Gabriel that he +was about to be recalled by his superiors, were to propose to him some +eminent position at Rome, he might be induced to leave France, and we +might succeed in arousing within him those sentiments of ambition which +are doubtless only sleeping for the present; your Eminence, having +observed, very judiciously, that every reformer must be ambitious." + +"I approve of this idea," said the cardinal, after a moment's reflection; +"with his merit and power of acting on other men, Abbe Gabriel may rise +very high, if he is docile; and if he should not be so, it is better for +the safety of the Church that he should be at Rome than here--for you +know, my good father, we have securities that are unfortunately wanting +in France."[36] + +After some moments of silence, the cardinal said suddenly to Father +d'Aigrigny: "As we were talking of Father Rodin, tell me frankly what you +think of him." + +"Your Eminence knows his capacity," said Father d'Aigrigny, with a +constrained and suspicious air; "our reverend Father-General--" + +"Commissioned him to take your place," said the cardinal; "I know that. +He told me so at Rome. But what do you think of the character of Father +Rodin? Can one have full confidence in him?" + +"He has so complete, so original, so secret, and so impenetrable a mind," +said Father d'Aigrigny, with hesitation, "that it is difficult to form +any certain judgment with respect to him." + +"Do you think him ambitious?" said the cardinal, after another moment's +pause. "Do you not suppose him capable of having other views than those +of the greater glory of his Order?--Come, I have reasons for speaking +thus," added the prelate, with emphasis. + +"Why," resumed Father d'Aigrigny, not without suspicion, for the game is +played cautiously between people of the same craft, "what should your +Eminence think of him, either from your own observation, or from the +report of the Father-General?" + +"I think--that if his apparent devotion to his Order really concealed +some after-thought--it would be well to discover it--for, with the +influence that he has obtained at Rome (as I have found out), he might +one day, and that shortly, become very formidable." + +"Well!" cried Father d'Aigrigny, impelled by his jealousy of Rodin; "I +am, in this respect, of the same opinion as your Eminence; for I have +sometimes perceived in him flashes of ambition, that were as alarming as +they were extraordinary--and since I must tell all to your Eminence--" + +Father d'Aigrigny was unable to continue; at this moment Mrs. Grivois, +who had been knocking at the door, half-opened it, and made a sign to her +mistress. The princess answered by bowing her head, and Mrs. Grivois +again withdrew. A second afterwards Rodin entered the room. + +[36] It is known that, in 1845, the Inquisition, solitary confinement, +etc., still existed at Rome. + + + + +CHAPTER XVII. + +RENDERING THE ACCOUNT. + +At sight of Rodin, the two prelates and Father d'Aigrigny rose +spontaneously, so much were they overawed by the real superiority of this +man; their faces, just before contracted with suspicion and jealousy, +suddenly brightened up, and seemed to smile on the reverend father with +affectionate deference. The princess advanced some steps to meet him. + +Rodin, badly dressed as ever, leaving on the soft carpet the muddy track +of his clumsy shoes, put his umbrella into one corner, and advanced +towards the table--not with his accustomed humility, but with slow step, +uplifted head, and steady glance; not only did he feel himself in the +midst of his partisans, but he knew that he could rule them all by the +power of his intellect. + +"We were speaking of your reverence, my dear, good father," said the +cardinal, with charming affability. + +"Ah!" said Rodin, looking fixedly at the prelate; "and what were you +saying?" + +"Why," replied the Belgian bishop, wiping his forehead, "all the good +that can be said of your reverence." + +"Will you not take something, my good father?" said the princess to +Rodin, as she pointed to the splendid sideboard. + +"Thank you, madame, I have eaten my radish already this morning." + +"My secretary, Abbe Berlini, who was present at your repast, was, indeed, +much astonished at your reverence's frugality," said the prelate: "it is +worthy of an anchorite." + +"Suppose we talk of business," said Rodin, abruptly, like a man +accustomed to lead and control the discussion. + +"We shall always be most happy to hear you," said the prelate. "Your +reverence yourself fixed to-day to talk over this great Rennepont affair. +It is of such importance, that it was partly the cause of my journey to +France; for to support the interests of the glorious Company of Jesus, +with which I have the honor of being associated, is to support the +interests of Rome itself, and I promised the reverend Father-General that +I would place myself entirely at your orders." + +"I can only repeat what his Eminence has just said," added the bishop. +"We set out from Rome together, and our ideas are just the same." + +"Certainly," said Rodin, addressing the cardinal, "your Eminence may +serve our cause, and that materially. I will tell you how presently." + +Then, addressing the princess, he continued: "I have desired Dr. +Baleinier to come here, madame, for it will be well to inform him of +certain things." + +"He will be admitted as usual," said the princess. + +Since Rodin's arrival Father d'Aigrigny had remained silent; he seemed +occupied with bitter thoughts, and with some violent internal struggle. +At last, half rising, he said to the prelate, in a forced tone of voice: +"I will not ask your Eminence to judge between the reverend Father Rodin +and myself. Our General has pronounced, and I have obeyed. But, as your +Eminence will soon see our superior, I should wish that you would grant +me the favor to report faithfully the answers of Father Rodin to one or +two questions I am about to put to him." + +The prelate bowed. Rodin looked at Father d'Aigrigny with an air of +surprise, and said to him, dryly: "The thing is decided. What is the use +of questions?" + +"Not to justify myself," answered Father d'Aigrigny, "but to place +matters in their true light before his Eminence." + +"Speak, then; but let us have no useless speeches," said Rodin, drawing +out his large silver watch, and looking at it. "By two o'clock I must be +at Saint-Sulpice." + +"I will be as brief as possible," said Father d'Aigrigny, with repressed +resentment. Then, addressing Rodin, he resumed: "When your reverence +thought fit to take my place, and to blame, very severely perhaps, the +manner in which I had managed the interests confided to my care, I +confess honestly that these interests were gravely compromised." + +"Compromised?" said Rodin, ironically; "you mean lost. Did you not order +me to write to Rome, to bid them renounce all hope?" + +"That is true," said Father d'Aigrigny. + +"It was then a desperate case, given up by the best doctors," continued +Rodin, with irony, "and yet I have undertaken to restore it to life. Go +on." + +And, plunging both hands into the pockets of his trousers, he looked +Father d'Aigrigny full in the face. + +"Your reverence blamed me harshly," resumed Father d'Aigrigny, "not for +having sought, by every possible means, to recover the property odiously +diverted from our society--" + +"All your casuists authorize you to do so," said the cardinal; "the texts +are clear and positive; you have a right to recover; per fas aut nefas +what has been treacherously taken from you." + +"And therefore," resumed Father d'Aigrigny, "Father Rodin only reproached +me with the military roughness of my means. 'Their violence,' he said, +'was in dangerous opposition to the manners of the age.' Be it so; but +first of all, I could not be exposed to any legal proceedings, and, but +for one fatal circumstance, success would have crowned the course I had +taken, however rough and brutal it may appear. Now, may I ask your +reverence what--" + +"What I have done more than you?" said Rodin to Father d'Aigrigny, giving +way to his impertinent habit of interrupting people; "what I have done +better than you?--what step I have taken in the Rennepont affair, since I +received it from you in a desperate condition? Is that what you wish to +know?" + +"Precisely," said Father d'Aigrigny, dryly. + +"Well, I confess," resumed Rodin, in a sardonic tone, "just as you did +great things, coarse things, turbulent things, I have been doing little, +puerile, secret things. Oh, heaven! you cannot imagine what a foolish +part I, who passed for a man of enlarged views, have been acting for the +last six weeks." + +"I should never have allowed myself to address such a reproach to your +reverence, however deserved it may appear," said Father d'Aigrigny, with +a bitter smile. + +"A reproach?" said Rodin, shrugging his shoulders; "a reproach? You shall +be the judge. Do you know what I wrote about you, some six weeks ago? +Here it is: 'Father d'Aigrigny has excellent qualities. He will be of +much service to me'--and from to-morrow I shall employ you very actively, +added Rodin, by way of parenthesis--'but he is not great enough to know +how to make himself little on occasion.' Do you understand?" + +"Not very well," said Father d'Aigrigny, blushing. + +"So much the worse for you," answered Rodin; "it only proves that I was +right. Well, since I must tell you, I have been wise enough to play the +most foolish part for six whole weeks. Yes, I have chatted nonsense with +a grisette--have talked of liberty, progress, humanity, emancipation of +women, with a young, excited girl; of Napoleon the Great, and all sorts +of Bonapartist idolatry, with an old, imbecile soldier; of imperial +glory, humiliation of France, hopes in the King of Rome, with a certain +marshal of France, who, with a heart full of adoration for the robber of +thrones, that was transported to Saint-Helena, has a head as hollow and +sonorous as a trumpet, into which you have only to blow some warlike or +patriotic notes, and it will flourish away of itself, without knowing why +or how. More than all this, I have talked of love affairs with a young +tiger. When I told you it was lamentable to see a man of any intelligence +descend, as I have done, to all such petty ways of connecting the +thousand threads of this dark web, was I not right? Is it not a fine +spectacle to see the spider obstinately weaving its net?--to see the ugly +little black animal crossing thread upon thread, fastening it here, +strengthening it there, and again lengthening it in some other place? You +shrug your shoulders in pity; but return two hours after--what will you +find? The little black animal eating its fill, and in its web a dozen of +the foolish flies, bound so securely, that the little black animal has +only to choose the moment of its repast." + +As he uttered those words, Rodin smiled strangely; his eyes, gradually +half closed, opened to their full width, and seemed to shine more than +usual. The Jesuit felt a sort of feverish excitement, which he attributed +to the contest in which he had engaged before these eminent personages, +who already felt the influence of his original and cutting speech. + +Father d'Aigrigny began to regret having entered on the contest. He +resumed, however, with ill-repressed irony: "I do not dispute the +smallness of your means. I agree with you, they are very puerile--they +are even very vulgar. But that is not quite sufficient to give an exalted +notion of your merit. May I be allowed to ask--" + +"What these means have produced?" resumed Rodin, with an excitement that +was not usual with him. "Look into my spider's web, and you will see +there the beautiful and insolent young girl, so proud, six weeks ago, of +her grace, mind, and audacity--now pale, trembling, mortally wounded at +the heart." + +"But the act of chivalrous intrepidity of the Indian prince, with which +all Paris is ringing," said the princess, "must surely have touched +Mdlle. de Cardoville." + +"Yes; but I have paralyzed the effect of that stupid and savage devotion, +by demonstrating to the young lady that it is not sufficient to kill +black panthers to prove one's self a susceptible, delicate, and faithful +lover." + +"Be it so," said Father d'Aigrigny; "we will admit the fact that Mdlle. +de Cardoville is wounded to the heart." + +"But what does this prove with regard to the Rennepont affair?" asked the +cardinal, with curiosity, as he leaned his elbows on the table. + +"There results from it," said Rodin, "that when our most dangerous enemy +is mortally wounded, she abandons the battlefield. That is something, I +should imagine." + +"Indeed," said the princess, "the talents and audacity of Mdlle. de +Cardoville would make her the soul of the coalition formed against us." + +"Be it so," replied Father d'Aigrigny, obstinately; "she may be no longer +formidable in that respect. But the wound in her heart will not prevent +her from inheriting." + +"Who tells you so?" asked Rodin, coldly, and with assurance. "Do you know +why I have taken such pains, first to bring her in contact with Djalma, +and then to separate her from him?" + +"That is what I ask you," said Father D'Aigrigny; "how can this storm of +passion prevent Mdlle. de Cardoville and the prince from inheriting?" + +"Is it from the serene, or from the stormy sky, that darts the destroying +thunderbolt?" said Rodin, disdainfully. "Be satisfied; I shall know where +to place the conductor. As for M. Hardy, the man lived for three things: +his workmen, his friend, his mistress. He has been thrice wounded in the +heart. I always take aim at the heart; it is legal and sure." + +"It is legal, and sure, and praiseworthy," said the bishop; "for, if I +understand you rightly, this manufacturer had a concubine; now it is well +to make use of an evil passion for the punishment of the wicked." + +"True, quite true," added the cardinal; "if they have evil passion for us +to make use of it, it is their own fault." + +"Our holy Mother Perpetue," said the princess, "took every means to +discover this abominable adultery." + +"Well, then, M. Hardy is wounded in his dearest affections, I admit," +said Father d'Aigrigny, still disputing every inch of ground; "ruined too +in his fortune, which will only make him the more eager after this +inheritance." + +The argument appeared of weight to the two prelates and the princess; all +looked at Rodin with anxious curiosity. Instead of answering he walked up +to the sideboard, and, contrary to his habits of stoical sobriety, and in +spite of his repugnance for wine, he examined the decanters, and said: +"What is there in them?" + +"Claret and sherry," said the hostess, much astonished at the sudden +taste of Rodin, "and--" + +The latter took a decanter at hazard, and poured out a glass of Madeira, +which he drank off at a draught. Just be fore he had felt a strange kind +of shivering; to this had succeeded a sort of weakness. He hoped the wine +would revive him. + +After wiping his mouth with the back of his dirty hand, he returned to +the table, and said to Father d'Aigrigny: "What did you tell me about M. +Hardy?" + +"That being ruined in fortune, he would be the more eager to obtain this +immense inheritance," answered Father d'Aigrigny, inwardly much offended +at the imperious tone. + +"M. Hardy think of money?" said Rodin, shrugging his shoulders. "He is +indifferent to life, plunged in a stupor from which he only starts to +burst into tears. Then he speaks with mechanical kindness to those about +him. I have placed him in good hands. He begins, however, to be sensible +to the attentions shown him, for he is good, excellent, weak; and ii is +to this excellence, Father d'Aigrigny, that you must appeal to finish the +work in hand." + +"I?" said Father d'Aigrigny, much surprised. + +"Yes; and then you will find that the result I have obtained is +considerable, and--" + +Rodin paused, and, pressing his hand to his forehead, said to himself: +"It is strange!" + +"What is the matter?" said the princess, with interest. + +"Nothing, madame," answered Rodin, with a shiver; "it is doubtless the +wine I drank; I am not accustomed to it. I feel a slight headache; but it +will pass." + +"Your eyes are very bloodshot, my good father, said the princess. + +"I have looked too closely into my web," answered the Jesuit, with a +sinister smile; "and I must look again, to make Father d'Aigrigny, who +pretends to be blind, catch a glimpse of my other flies. The two +daughters of Marshal Simon, for instance, growing sadder and more +dejected every day, at the icy barrier raised between them and their +father; and the latter thinking himself one day dishonored if he does +this, another if he does that; so that the hero of the Empire has become +weaker and more irresolute than a child. What more remains of this +impious family? Jacques Rennepont? Ask Morok, to what a state of +debasement intemperance has reduced him, and towards what an abyss he is +rushing!--There is my occurrence-sheet; you see to what are reduced all +the members of this family, who, six weeks ago, had each elements of +strength and union! Behold these Renneponts, who, by the will of their +heretical ancestor, were to unite their forces to combat and crush our +Society!--There was good reason to fear them; but what did I say? That I +would act upon their passions. What have I done? I have acted upon their +passions. At this hour they are vainly struggling in my web--they are +mine--they are mine--" + +As he was speaking, Rodin's countenance and voice had undergone a +singular alteration; his complexion, generally so cadaverous, had become +flushed, but unequally, and in patches; then, strange phenomenon! his +eyes grew both more brilliant and more sunken, and his voice sharper and +louder. The change in the countenance of Rodin, of which he did not +appear to be conscious, was so remarkable, that the other actors in this +scene looked at him with a sort of terror. + +Deceived as to the cause of this impression, Rodin exclaimed with +indignation, in a voice interrupted by deep gaspings for breath: "It is +pity for this impious race, that I read upon your faces? Pity for the +young girl, who never enters a church, and erects pagan altars in her +habitation? Pity for Hardy, the sentimental blasphemer, the philanthropic +atheist, who had no chapel in his factory, and dared to blend the names +of Socrates, Marcus, Aurelius, and Plato, with our Savior's? Pity for the +Indian worshipper of Brahma? Pity for the two sisters, who have never +even been baptized? Pity for that brute, Jacques Rennepont? Pity for the +stupid imperial soldier, who has Napoleon for his god, and the bulletins +of the Grand Army for his gospel? Pity for this family of renegades, +whose ancestor, a relapsed heretic, not content with robbing us of our +property, excites from his tomb, at the end of a century and a half, his +cursed race to lift their heads against us? What! to defend ourselves +from these vipers, we shall not have the right to crush them in their own +venom?--I tell you, that it is to serve heaven, and to give a salutary +example to the world, to devote, by unchaining their own passions, this +impious family to grief and despair and death!" + +As he spoke thus, Rodin was dreadful in his ferocity; the fire of his +eyes became still more brilliant; his lips were dry and burning, a cold +sweat bathed his temples, which could be seen throbbing; an icy shudder +ran through his frame. Attributing these symptoms to fatigue from writing +through a portion of the night, and wishing to avoid fainting, he went to +the sideboard, filled another glass with wine, which he drank off at a +draught, and returned as the cardinal said to him: "If your course with +regard to this family needed justification, my good father, your last +word would have victoriously justified it. Not only are you right, +according to your own casuists, but there is nothing in your proceedings +contrary to human laws. As for the divine law, it is pleasing to the Lord +to destroy impiety with its own weapons." + +Conquered, as well as the others, by Rodin's diabolical assurance, and +brought back to a kind of fearful admiration, Father d'Aigrigny said to +him: "I confess I was wrong in doubting the judgment of your reverence. +Deceived by the appearance of the means employed, I could not judge of +their connection, and above all, of their results. I now see, that, +thanks to you, success is no longer doubtful." + +"This is an exaggeration," replied Rodin, with feverish impatience; "all +these passions are at work, but the moment is critical. As the alchemist +bends over the crucible, which may give him either treasures or sudden +death--I alone at this moment--" + +Rodin did not finish the sentence. He pressed both his hands to his +forehead, with a stifled cry of pain. + +"What is the matter?" said Father d'Aigrigny. "For some moments you have +been growing fearfully pale." + +"I do not know 'what is the matter," said Rodin, in an altered voice; "my +headache increases--I am seized with a sort of giddiness." + +"Sit down," said the princess, with interest. + +"Take something," said the bishop. + +"It will be nothing," said Rodin, with an effort; "I am no milksop, thank +heaven!--I had little sleep last night; it is fatigue--nothing more. I +was saying, that I alone could now direct this affair: but I cannot +execute the plan myself. I must keep out of the way, and watch in the +shade: I must hold the threads, which I alone can manage," added Rodin, +in a faint voice. + +"My good father," said the cardinal uneasily, "I assure you that you are +very unwell. Your paleness is becoming livid." + +"It is possible," answered Rodin, courageously; "but I am not to be so +soon conquered. To return to our affair--this is the time, in which your +qualities, Father d'Aigrigny, will turn to good account. I have never +denied them, and they may now be of the greatest use. You have the power +of charming--grace--eloquence--you must--" + +Rodin paused again. A cold sweat poured from his forehead. He felt his +legs give way under him, notwithstanding his obstinate energy. + +"I confess, I am not well," he said; "yet, this morning, I was as well as +ever. I shiver. I am icy cold." + +"Draw near the fire--it is a sudden indisposition," said the bishop, +offering his arm with heroic devotion; "it will not be anything of +consequence." + +"If you were to take something warm, a cup of tea," said the princess; +"Dr. Baleinier will be here directly--he will reassure us as to +this--indisposition." + +"It is really inexplicable," said the prelate. + +At these words of the cardinal, Rodin, who had advanced with difficulty +towards the fire, turned his eyes upon the prelate, and looked at him +fixedly in a strange manner, for about a second; then, strong in his +unconquerable energy, notwithstanding the change in his features, which +were now visibly disfigured, Rodin said, in a broken voice, which he +tried to make firm: "The fire has warmed me; it will be nothing. I have +no time to coddle myself. It would be a pretty thing to fall ill just as +the Rennepont affair can only succeed by my exertions! Let us return to +business. I told you, Father d'Aigrigny, that you might serve us a good +deal; and you also, princess, who have espoused this cause as if it were +your own--" + +Rodin again paused. This time he uttered a piercing cry, sank upon a +chair placed near him, and throwing himself back convulsively, he pressed +his hands to his chest, and exclaimed: "Oh! what pain!" + +Then (dreadful sight!) a cadaverous decomposition, rapid as thought, took +place in Rodin's features. His hollow eyes were filled with blood, and +seemed to shrink back in their orbits, which formed, as it were, two dark +holes, in the centre of which blazed points of fire; nervous convulsions +drew the flabby, damp, and icy skin tight over the bony prominences of +the face, which was becoming rapidly green. From the lips, writhing with +pain, issued the struggling breath, mingled with the words: "Oh! I +suffer! I burn!" + +Then, yielding to a transport of fury. Rodin tore with his nails his +naked chest, for he had twisted off the buttons of his waistcoat, and +rent his black and filthy shirt-front, as if the pressure of those +garments augmented the violence of the pain under which he was writhing. +The bishop, the cardinal, and Father d'Aigrigny, hastily approached +Rodin, to try and hold him; he was seized with horrible convulsions; but, +suddenly, collecting all his strength, he rose upon his feet stiff as a +corpse. Then, with his garments in disorder, his thin, gray hair standing +up all around his greenish face, fixing his red and flaming eyes upon the +cardinal, he seized him with convulsive grasp, and exclaimed in a +terrible voice, half stifled in his throat: "Cardinal Malipieri--this +illness is too sudden--they suspect me at Rome--you are of the race of +the Borgias--and your secretary was with me this morning!" + +"Unhappy man! what does he dare insinuate?" cried the prelate, as amazed +as he was indignant at the accusation. So saying, the cardinal strove to +free himself from the grasp of Rodin, whose fingers were now as stiff as +iron. + +"I am poisoned!" muttered Rodin, and sinking back, he fell into the arms +of Father d'Aigrigny. + +Notwithstanding his alarm, the cardinal had time to whisper to the +latter: "He thinks himself poisoned. He must therefore be plotting +something very dangerous." + +The door of the room opened. It was Dr. Baleinier. + +"Oh, doctor!" cried the princess, as she ran pale and frightened towards +him; "Father Rodin has been suddenly attacked with terrible convulsions. +Quick! quick!" + +"Convulsions? oh! it will be nothing, madame," said the doctor, throwing +down his hat upon a chair, and hastily approaching the group which +surrounded the sick man. + +"Here is the doctor!" cried the princess. All stepped aside, except +Father d'Aigrigny, who continued to support Rodin, leaning against a +chair. + +"Heavens! what symptoms!" cried Dr. Baleinier, examining with growing +terror the countenance of Rodin, which from green was turning blue. + +"What is it?" asked all the spectators, with one voice. + +"What is it?" repeated the doctor, drawing back as if he had trodden upon +a serpent. "It is the cholera! and contagious!" + +On this frightful, magic word, Father d'Aigrigny abandoned his hold of +Rodin, who rolled upon the floor. + +"He is lost!" cried Dr. Baleinier. "But I will run to fetch the means for +a last effort." And he rushed towards the door. + +The Princess de Saint-Dizier, Father d'Aigrigny, the bishop, and the +cardinal followed in terror the flight of Dr. Baleinier. They all pressed +to the door, which, in their consternation, they could not open. It +opened at last but from without--and Gabriel appeared upon the threshold. +Gabriel, the type of the true priest, the holy, the evangelical minister, +to whom we can never pay enough of respect and ardent sympathy, and +tender admiration. His angelic countenance, in its mild serenity, offered +a striking contrast of these faces, all disturbed and contracted with +terror. + +The young priest was nearly thrown down by the fugitives, who rushed +through the now open doorway, exclaiming: "Do not go in! he is dying of +the cholera. Fly!" + +On these words, pushing back the bishop, who, being the last, was trying +to force a passage, Gabriel ran towards Rodin, while the prelate +succeeded in making his escape. Rodin, stretched upon the carpet, his +limbs twisted with fearful cramps, was writhing in the extremity of pain. +The violence of his fall had, no doubt, roused him to consciousness, for +he moaned, in a sepulchral voice: "They leave me to die--like a dog--the +cowards!--Help!--no one--" + +And the dying man, rolling on his back with a convulsive movement, turned +towards the ceiling a face on which was branded the infernal despair of +the damned, as he once more repeated: "No one!--not one!" + +His eyes, which suddenly flamed with fury, just then met the large blue +eyes of the angelic and mild countenance of Gabriel who, kneeling beside +him, said to him, in his soft, grave tones: "I am here, father--to help +you, if help be possible--to pray for you, if God calls you to him." + +"Gabriel!" murmured Rodin, with failing voice; "forgive me for the evil I +have done you--do not leave me--do not--" + +Rodin could not finish; he had succeeded in raising himself into a +sitting posture; he now uttered a loud cry, and fell back without sense +or motion. + +The same day it was announced in the evening papers: "The cholera has +broken out in Paris. The first case declared itself this day, at half +past three, P.M. in the Rue de Babylone, at Saint-Dizier House." + + + + +CHAPTER XVIII. + +THE SQUARE OF NOTRE DAME. + +A week had passed since Rodin was seized with the cholera, and its +ravages had continually increased. That was an awful time! A funeral pall +was spread over Paris, once so gay. And yet, never had the sky been of a +more settled, purer blue; never had the sun shone more brilliantly. The +inexorable serenity of nature, during the ravages of the deadly scourge, +offered a strange and mysterious contrast. The flaunting light of the +dazzling sunshine fell full upon the features, contracted by a thousand +agonizing fears. Each trembled for himself, or for those dear to him; +every countenance was stamped with an expression of feverish astonishment +and dread. People walked with rapid steps, as if they would escape from +the fate which threatened them; besides, they were in haste to return to +their homes, for often they left life, health, happiness, and, two hours +later, they found agony, death, and despair. + +At every moment, new dismal objects met the view. Sometimes carts passed +along, filled with coffins, symmetrically piled; they stopped before +every house. Men in black and gray garments were in waiting before the +door; they held out their hands, and to some, one coffin was thrown, to +some two, frequently three or four, from the same house. It sometimes +happened that the store was quickly exhausted, and the cart, which had +arrived full, went away empty, whilst many of the dead in the street were +still unserved. In nearly every dwelling, upstairs and down, from the +roof to the cellar, there was a stunning tapping of hammers: coffins were +being nailed down, and so many, so very many were nailed, that sometimes +those who worked stopped from sheer fatigue. Then broke forth laments, +heart-rending moans, despairing imprecations. They were uttered by those +from whom the men in black and gray had taken some one to fill the +coffins. + +Unceasingly were the coffins filled, and day and night did those men +work, but by day more than by night, for, as soon as it was dusk, came a +gloomy file of vehicles of all kinds--the usual hearses were not +sufficient; but cars, carts, drays, hackney-coaches, and such like, +swelled the funeral procession; different to the other conveyances, which +entered the streets full and went away empty--these came empty but soon +returned full. During that period, the windows of many houses were +illuminated, and often the lights remained burning till the morning. It +was "the season." These illuminations resembled the gleaming rays which +shine in the gay haunts of pleasure; but there were tapers instead of wax +candles, and the chanting of prayers for the dead replaced the murmur of +the ball-room. In the streets, instead of the facetious transparencies +which indicate the costumers, there swung at intervals huge lanterns of a +blood-red color, with these words in black letters: "Assistance for those +attacked with the cholera." The true places for revelry, during the +night, were the churchyards; they ran riot--they, usually so desolate and +silent, during the dark, quiet hours, when the cypress trees rustle in +the breeze, so lonely, that no human step dared to disturb the solemn +silence which reigned there at night, became on a sudden, animated, +noisy, riotous, and resplendent with light. By the smoky flames of +torches, which threw a red glare upon the dark fir-trees, and the white +tombstones, many grave-diggers worked merrily, humming snatches of some +favorite tune. Their laborious and hazardous industry then commanded a +very high price; they were in such request that it was necessary to humor +them. They drank often and much; they sang long and loud; and this to +keep up their strength and spirits good, absolute requisites in such an +employment. If, by chance, any did not finish the grave they had begun, +some obliging comrade finished it for them (fitting expression!), and +placed them in it with friendly care. + +Other distant sounds responded to the joyous strains of the grave +diggers; public-houses had sprung up in the neighborhood of the +churchyards, and the drivers of the dead, when they had "set down their +customers," as they jocosely expressed themselves, enriched with their +unusual gratuities, feasted and made merry like lords; dawn often found +them with a glass in their hands, and a jest on their lips; and, strange +to say, among these funeral satellites, who breathed the very atmosphere +of the disease, the mortality was scarcely perceptible. In the dark, +squalid quarters of the town, where, surrounded by infectious +exhalations, the indigent population was crowded together, and miserable +beings, exhausted by severe privation, were "bespoke" by the cholera, as +it was energetically said at the time, not only individuals, but whole +families, were carried off in a few hours; and yet, sometimes, oh, +merciful Providence! one or two little children were left in the cold and +empty room, after the father and mother, brother and sister, had been +taken away in their shells. + +Frequently, houses which had swarmed with hard working laborers, were +obliged to be shut up for want of tenants; in one day, they had been +completely cleared by this terrible visitation, from the cellars, where +little chimney-sweepers slept upon straw, to the garret, on whose cold +brick floor lay stretched some wan and half-naked being, without work and +without bread. But, of all the wards of Paris, that which perhaps +presented the most frightful spectacle during the progress of the +cholera, was the City; and in the City, the square before the cathedral +of Notre-Dame was almost every day the theatre of dreadful scenes: for +this locality was frequently thronged with those who conveyed the sick +from the neighboring streets to the Great Hospital. The cholera had not +one aspect, but a thousand. So that one week after Rodin had been +suddenly attacked, several events combining the horrible and the +grotesque occurred in the square of Notre Dame. + +Instead of the Rue d'Arcole, which now leads directly to the square, it +was then approached on one side, by a mean, narrow lane, like all the +other streets of the City, and terminating in a dark, low archway. Upon +entering the square the principal door of the huge Cathedral was to the +left of the spectator, and facing him were the Hospital buildings. A +little beyond, was an opening which gave to view a portion of the parapet +of the Quay Notre-Dame. A placard had been recently stuck on the +discolored and sunken wail of the archway; it contained these words, +traced in large characters.[37] + +"VENGEANCE! VENGEANCE! + +"The Working-men carried to the hospitals are poisoned, because the +number of patients is too great; every night, Boats filled with corpses, +drop down the Seine. + +"Vengeance and Death to the murderers of the People!" + +Two men, enveloped in cloaks, and half-hidden in the deep shadow of the +vault, were listening with anxious curiosity to the threatening murmur, +which rose with increasing force from among a tumultuous assembly, +grouped around the Hospital. Soon, cries of "Death to the +doctors!--Vengeance!" reached the ears of the persons who were in ambush +under the arch. + +"The posters are working," said one; "the train is on fire. When once the +populace is roused, we can set them on whom we please." + +"I say," replied the other man, "look over there. That Hercules, whose +athletic form towers above the mob, was cue of the most frantic leaders +when M. Hardy's factory was destroyed." + +"To be sure he was; I know him again. Wherever mischief is to be done, +you are sure to find those vagabonds. + +"Now, take my advice, do not let us remain under this archway," said the +other man; "the wind is as cold as ice, and though I am cased in +flannel--" + +"You are right, the cholera is confoundedly impolite. Besides, everything +is going on well here; I am likewise assured that the whole of the +Faubourg Saint-Antoine is ready to rise in the republican cause; that +will serve our ends, and our holy religion will triumph over +revolutionary impiety. Let us rejoin Father d'Aigrigny." + +"Where shall we find him?" + +"Near here, come--come." + +The two hastily disappeared. + +The sun, beginning to decline, shed its golden rays upon the blackened +sculptures of the porch of Notre-Dame, and upon its two massy towers, +rising in imposing majesty against a perfectly blue sky, for during the +fast few days, a north-east wind, dry and cold, had driven away the +lightest cloud. A considerable number of people, as we have already +stated, obstructed the approach to the Hospital; they crowded round the +iron railings that protect the front of the building, behind which was +stationed a detachment of infantry, the cries of "Death to the doctors!" +becoming every moment more threatening. The people who thus vociferated. +belonged to an idle, vagabond, and depraved populace--the dregs of the +Paris mob; and (terrible spectacle!) the unfortunate beings who were +forcibly carried through the midst of these hideous groups entered the +Hospital, whilst the air resounded with hoarse clamors, and cries of +"Death." Every moment, fresh victims were brought along in litters, and +on stretchers; the litters were frequently furnished with coarse +curtains, and thus the sick occupants were concealed from the public +gaze; but the stretchers, having no covering, the convulsive movements of +the dying patients often thrust aside the sheet, and exposed to view +their faces, livid as corpses. Far from inspiring with terror the +wretches assembled round the Hospital, such spectacles became to them the +signal for savage jests, and atrocious predictions upon the fate of these +poor creatures, when once in the power of the doctors. + +The big blaster and Ciboule, with a good many of their adherents, were +among the mob. After the destruction of Hardy's factory, the quarryman +was formally expelled from the union of the Wolves, who would have +nothing more to do with this wretch; since then, he had plunged into the +grossest debauchery, and speculating on his herculean strength, had hired +himself as the officious champion of Ciboule and her compeers. With the +exception therefore of some chance passengers, the square of Notre-Dame +was filled with a ragged crowd, composed of the refuse of the Parisian +populace--wretches who call for pity as well as blame; for misery, +ignorance, and destitution, beget but too fatally vice and crime. These +savages of civilization felt neither pity, improvement, nor terror, at +the shocking sights with which they were surrounded; careless of a life +which was a daily struggle against hunger, or the allurements of guilt, +they braved the pestilence with infernal audacity, or sank under it with +blasphemy on their lips. + +The tall form of the quarryman was conspicuous amongst the rest; with +inflamed eyes and swollen features, he yelled at the top of his voice: +"Death to the body-snatchers! they poison the people." + +"That is easier than to feed them," added Ciboule. Then, addressing +herself to an old man, who was being carried with great difficulty +through the dense crowd, upon a chair, by two men, the hag continued: +"Hey? don't go in there, old croaker; die here in the open air instead of +dying in that den, where you'll be doctored like an old rat." + +"Yes," added the quarryman; "and then they'll throw you into the water to +feast the fishes, which you won't swallow any more." + +At these atrocious cries, the old man looked wildly around, and uttered +faint groans. Ciboule wished to stop the persons who were carrying him, +and they had much difficulty in getting rid of the hag. The number of +cholera-patients arriving increased every moment, and soon neither +litters nor stretchers could be obtained, so that they were borne along +in the arms of the attendants. Several awful episodes bore witness to the +startling rapidity of the infection. Two men were carrying a stretcher +covered with a blood-stained sheet; one of them suddenly felt himself +attacked with the complaint; he stopped short, his powerless arms let go +the stretcher; he turned pale, staggered, fell upon the patient, becoming +as livid as him; the other man, struck with terror, fled precipitately, +leaving his companion and the dying man in the midst of the crowd. Some +drew back in horror, others burst into a savage laugh. + +"The horses have taken fright," said the quarryman, "and have left the +turn-out in the lurch." + +"Help!" cried the dying man, with a despairing accent; "for pity's sake +take me in." + +"There's no more room in the pit," said one, in a jeering tone. + +"And you've no legs left to reach the gallery," added another. + +The sick man made an effort to rise; but his strength failed him; he fell +back exhausted on the mattress. A sudden movement took place among the +crowd, the stretcher was overturned, the old man and his companion were +trodden underfoot, and their groans were drowned in the cries of "Death +to the body-snatchers!" The yells were renewed with fresh fury, but the +ferocious band, who respected nothing in their savage fury, were soon +after obliged to open their ranks to several workmen, who vigorously +cleared the way for two of their friends carrying in their arms a poor +artisan. He was still young, but his heavy and already livid head hung +down upon the shoulder of one of them. A little child followed, sobbing, +and holding by one of the workmen's coats. The measured and sonorous +sound of several drums was now heard at a distance in the winding streets +of the city: they were beating the call to arms, for sedition was rife in +the Faubourg Saint-Antoine. The drummers emerged from under the archway, +and were traversing the square, when one of them, a gray-haired veteran, +suddenly slackened the rolling of his drum, and stood still: his +companions turned round in surprise--he had turned green; his legs gave +way, he stammered some unintelligible words, and had fallen upon the +pavement before those in the front rank had time to pause. The +overwhelming rapidity of this attack startled for a moment the most +hardened among the surrounding spectators; for, wondering at the +interruption, a part of the crowd had rushed towards the soldiers. + +At sight of the dying man, supported in the arms of two of his comrades, +one of the individuals, who, concealed under the arch, had watched the +beginning of the popular excitement, said to the drummers: "Your comrade +drank, perhaps, at some fountain on the road?" + +"Yes, sir," replied one; "he was very thirsty; he drank two mouthfuls of +water on the Place du Chatelet." + +"Then he is poisoned," said the man. + +"Poisoned?" cried several voices. + +"It is not surprising," replied the man, in a mysterious tone; "poison is +thrown into the public fountains; and this very morning a man was +massacred in the Rue Beaubourg who was discovered emptying a paper of +arsenic into a pot of wine at a public-house."[38] + +Having said these words, the man disappeared in the crowd. This report, +no less absurd than the tales about the poisoning of the Hospital +patients, was received with a general burst of indignation. Five or six +ragged beings, regular ruffians, seized the body of the expiring drummer, +hoisted it upon their shoulders, in spite of all the efforts of his +comrades to prevent them, and paraded the square exhibiting the dismal +trophy. Ciboule and the quarryman went before, crying: "Wake way for the +corpse! This is how they poison the people!" + +A fresh incident now attracted the attention of the crowd. A travelling +carriage, which had not been able to pass along the Quai-Napoleon, the +pavement of which was up, had ventured among the intricate streets of the +city, and now arrived in the square of Notre-Dame on its way to the other +side of the Seine. Like many others, its owners were flying from Paris, +to escape the pestilence which decimated it. A man-servant and a lady's +maid were in the rumble, and they exchanged a glance of alarm as they +passed the Hospital, whilst a young man seated in the front part of the +carriage let down the glass, and called to the postilions to go slowly, +for fear of accident, as the crowd was very dense at that part of the +square. This young man was Lord Morinval, and on the back seat were Lord +Montbron and his niece, Lady Morinval. The pale and anxious countenance +of the young lady showed the alarm which she felt; and Montbron, +notwithstanding his firmness of mind, appeared to be very uneasy; he, as +well as his niece, frequently had recourse to a smelling-bottle filled +with camphor. + +During the last few minutes, the carriage had advanced very slowly, the +postilions managing their horses with great caution, when a sudden +hubbub, at first distant and undefined, but soon more distinct, arose +among the throng, as it drew near, the ringing sound of chains and metal, +peculiar to the artillery-wagons, was plainly audible, and presently one +of these vehicles came towards the travelling-carriage, from the +direction of the Quai Notre-Dame. It seemed strange, that though the +crowd was so compact, yet at the rapid approach of this wagon, the close +ranks of human beings opened as if by enchantment, but the following +words which were passed from mouth to mouth soon accounted for the +prodigy: "A wagon full of dead! the wagon of the dead!" As we have +already stated, the usual funeral conveyances were no longer sufficient +for the removal of the corpses; a number of artillery wagons had been put +into requisition, and the coffins were hastily piled in these novel +hearses. + +Many of the spectators regarded this gloomy vehicle with dismay, but the +quarryman and his band redoubled their horrible jokes. + +"Make way for the omnibus of the departed!" cried Ciboule. + +"No danger of having one's toes crushed in that omnibus," said the +quarryman. + +"Doubtless they're easy to please, the stiff-uns in there." + +"They never want to be set down, at all events." + +"I say, there's only one reg'lar on duty as postilion!" + +"That's true, the leaders are driven by a man in a smock-frock." + +"Oh! I daresay the other soldier was tired, lazy fellow! and got into the +omnibus with the others--they'll all get out at the same big hole." + +"Head foremost, you know." + +"Yes, they pitch them head first into a bed of lime." + +"Why, one might follow the dead-cart blind-fold, and no mistake. It's +worse than Montfaucon knacker-yards!" + +"Ha! ha! ha!--it's rather gamey!" said the quarryman, alluding to the +infectious and cadaverous odor which this funeral conveyance left behind +it. + +"Here's sport!" exclaimed Ciboule: "the omnibus of the dead will run +against the fine coach. Hurrah! the rich folks will smell death." + +Indeed, the wagon was now directly in front of the carriage, and at a +very little distance from it. A man in a smock-frock and wooden shoes +drove the two leaders, and an artilleryman the other horses. The coffins +were so piled up within this wagon, that its semicircular top did not +shut down closely, so that, as it jolted heavily over the uneven +pavement, the biers could be seen chafing against each other. The fiery +eyes and inflamed countenance of the man in the smock-frock showed that +he was half intoxicated; urging on the horses with his voice, his heels, +and his whip, he paid no attention to the remonstrances of the soldier, +who had great difficulty in restraining his own animals, and was obliged +to follow the irregular movements of the carman. Advancing in this +disorderly manner, the wagon deviated from its course just as it should +have passed the travelling-carriage, and ran against it. The shock forced +open the top, one of the coffins was thrown out, and, after damaging the +panels of the carriage, fell upon the pavement with a dull and heavy +sound. The deal planks had been hastily nailed together, and were +shivered in the fall, and from the wreck of the coffin rolled a livid +corpse, half enveloped in a shroud. + +At this horrible spectacle, Lady Morinval, who had mechanically leaned +forward, gave a loud scream, and fainted. The crowd fell back in dismay; +the postilions, no less alarmed, took advantage of the space left open to +them by the retreat of the multitude; they whipped their horses, and the +carriage dashed on towards the quay. As it disappeared behind the +furthermost buildings of the Hospital, the shrill joyous notes of distant +trumpets were heard, and repeated shouts proclaimed: "The Cholera +Masquerade!" The words announced one of those episodes combining +buffoonery with terror, which marked the period when the pestilence was +on the increase, though now they can with difficulty be credited. If the +evidence of eyewitnesses did not agree in every particular with the +accounts given in the public papers of this masquerade, they might be +regarded as the ravings of some diseased brain, and not as the notice of +a fact which really occurred. + +"The Masquerade of the Cholera" appeared, we say, in the square of Notre +Dame, just as Morinval's carriage gained the quay, after disengaging +itself from the death-wagon. + +[37] It is well-known that at the time of the cholera, such placards were +numerous in Paris, and were alternately attributed to opposite parties. +Among others, to the priests, many of the bishops having published +mandatory letters, or stated openly in the churches of their diocese, +that the Almighty had sent the cholera as a punishment to France for +having driven away its lawful sovereign, and assimilated the Catholic to +other forms of worship. + +[38] It is notorious, that at this unhappy period several persons were +massacred, under a false accusation of poisoning the fountains, etc. + + + + +CHAPTER XIX. + +THE CHOLERA MASQUERADE.[39] + +A stream of people, who preceded the masquerade, made a sudden irruption +through the arch into the square, uttering loud cheers as they advanced. +Children were also there, blowing horns, whilst some hooted and others +hissed. + +The quarryman, Ciboule, and their band, attracted by this new spectacle, +rushed tumultuously towards the arch. Instead of the two eating-houses, +which now (1845) stand on either side of the Rue d'Arcole, there was then +only one, situated to the left of the vaulted passage, and much +celebrated amongst the joyous community of students, for the excellence +both of its cookery and its wines. At the first blare of the trumpets, +sounded by the outriders in livery who preceded the masquerade, the +windows of the great room of the eating-house were thrown open, and +several waiters, with their napkins under their arms, leaned forward, +impatient to witness the arrival of the singular guests they were +expecting. + +At length, the grotesque procession made its appearance in the thick of +an immense uproar. The train comprised a chariot, escorted by men and +women on horseback, clad in rich and elegant fancy dresses. Most of these +maskers belonged to the middle and easy classes of society. The report +had spread that masquerade was in preparation, for the purpose of daring +the cholera, and, by this joyous demonstration, to revive the courage of +the affrighted populace. Immediately, artists, young men about town, +students, and so on, responded to the appeal, and though till now unknown +one to the other, they easily fraternized together. Many brought their +mistresses, to complete the show. A subscription had been opened to +defray the expenses, and, that morning, after a splendid breakfast at the +other end of Paris, the joyous troop had started bravely on their march, +to finish the day by a dinner in the square of Notre Dame. + +We say bravely, for it required a singular turn of mind, a rare firmness +of character, in young women, to traverse, in this fashion, a great city +plunged in consternation and terror--to fall in at every step with +litters loaded with the dying, and carriages filled with the dead--to +defy, as it were, in a spirit of strange pleasantry, the plague that was +detonating the Parisians. It is certain that, in Paris alone, and there +only amongst a peculiar class, could such an idea have ever been +conceived or realized. Two men, grotesquely disguised as postilions at a +funeral, with formidable false noses, rose-colored crape hat-bands and +large favors of roses and crape bows at their buttonholes, rode before +the vehicle. Upon the platform of the car were groups of allegorical +personages, representing WINE, PLEASURE, LOVE, PLAY. The mission of these +symbolical beings was, by means of jokes, sarcasms, and mockeries, to +plague the life out of Goodman Cholera, a sort of funeral and burlesque +Cassander, whom they ridiculed and made game of in a hundred ways. The +moral of the play was this: "To brave Cholera in security, let us drink, +laugh, game, and make love!" + +WINE was represented by a huge, lusty Silenus, thick-set, and with +swollen paunch, a crown of ivy on his brow, a panther's skin across his +shoulder, and in his hand a large gilt goblet, wreathed with flowers. +None other than Ninny Moulin, the famous moral and religious writer, +could have exhibited to the astonished and delighted spectators an ear of +so deep a scarlet, so majestic an abdomen, and a face of such triumphant +and majestic fulness. Every moment, Ninny Moulin appeared to empty his +cup--after which he burst out laughing in the face of Goodman Cholera. +Goodman Cholera, a cadaverous pantaloon, was half-enveloped in a shroud; +his mask of greenish cardboard, with red, hollow eyes, seemed every +moment to grin as in mockery of death; from beneath his powdered peruke, +surmounted by a pyramidical cotton night-cap, appeared his neck and arm, +dyed of a bright green color; his lean hand, which shook almost always +with a feverish trembling (not feigned, but natural), rested upon a +crutch-handled cane; finally, as was becoming in a pantaloon, he wore red +stockings, with buckles at the knees, and high slippers of black beaver. +This grotesque representative of the cholera was Sleepinbuff. + +Notwithstanding a slow and dangerous fever, caused by the excessive use +of brandy, and by constant debauchery, that was silently undermining his +constitution, Jacques Rennepont had been induced by Morok to join the +masquerade. The brute-tamer himself, dressed as the King of Diamonds, +represented PLAY. His forehead was adorned with a diadem of gilded paper, +his face was pale and impassible, and as his long, yellow beard fell down +the front of his parti-colored robe, Morok looked exactly the character +he personated. From time to time, with an air of grave mockery, he shook +close to the eyes of Goodman Cholera a large bag full of sounding +counters, and on this bag were painted all sorts of playing cards. A +certain stiffness in the right arm showed that the lion-tamer had not yet +quite recovered from the effects of the wound which the panther had +inflicted before being stabbed by Djalma. + +PLEASURE, who also represented Laughter, classically shook her rattle, +with its sonorous gilded bells, close to the ears of Goodman Cholera. She +was a quick, lively young girl, and her fine black hair was crowned with +a scarlet cap of liberty. For Sleepinbuff's sake, she had taken the place +of the poor Bacchanal queen, who would not have failed to attend on such +an occasion--she, who had been so valiant and gay, when she bore her part +in a less philosophical, but not less amusing masquerade. Another pretty +creature, Modeste Bornichoux, who served as a model to a painter of +renown (one of the cavaliers of the procession), was eminently successful +in her representation of LOVE. He could not have had a more charming +face, and more graceful form. Clad in a light blue spangled tunic, with a +blue and silver band across her chestnut hair, and little transparent +wings affixed to her white shoulders, she placed one forefinger upon the +other, and pointed with the prettiest impertinence at Goodman Cholera. +Around the principal group, other maskers, more or less grotesque in +appearance, waved each a banner, an which were inscriptions of a very +anacreontic character, considering the circumstances: + +"Down with the Cholera!" "Short and sweet!" "Laugh away, laugh always!" +"We'll collar the Cholera!" "Love forever!" "Wine forever!" "Come if you +dare, old terror!" + +There was really such audacious gayety in this masquerade, that the +greater number of the spectators, at the moment when it crossed the +square, in the direction of the eating-house, where dinner was waiting, +applauded it loudly and repeatedly. This sort of admiration, which +courage, however mad and blind, almost always inspires, appeared to +others (a small number, it must be confessed) a kind of defiance to the +wrath of heaven; and these received the procession with angry murmurs. +This extraordinary spectacle, and the different impressions it produced, +were too remote from all customary facts to admit of a just appreciation. +We hardly know if this daring bravado was deserving of praise or blame. + +Besides, the appearance of those plagues, which from age to age decimate +the population of whole countries, has almost always been accompanied by +a sort of mental excitement, which none of those who have been spared by +the contagion can hope to escape. It is a strange fever of the mind, +which sometimes rouses the most stupid prejudices and the most ferocious +passions, and sometimes inspires, on the contrary, the most magnificent +devotion, the most courageous actions--with some, driving the fear of +death to a point of the wildest terror--with others, exciting the +contempt of life to express itself in the most audacious bravadoes. +Caring little for the praise or blame it might deserve, the masquerade +arrived before the eating-house, and made its entry in the midst of +universal acclamations. Everything seemed to combine to give full effect +to this strange scene, by the opposition of the most singular contrasts. +Thus the tavern, in which was to be held this extraordinary feast, being +situated at no great distance from the antique cathedral, and the gloomy +hospital, the religious anthems of the ancient temple, the cries of the +dying, and the bacchanalian songs of the banqueteers, must needs mingle, +and by turns drown one another. The maskers now got down from their +chariot, and from their horses, and went to take their places at the +repast, which was waiting for them. The actors in the masquerade are at +table in the great room of the tavern. They are joyous, noisy, even +riotous. Yet their gayety has a strange tone, peculiar to itself. + +Sometimes, the most resolute involuntarily remember that their life is at +stake in this mad and audacious game with destiny. That fatal thought is +rapid as the icy fever-shudder, which chills you in an instant; +therefore, from time to time, an abrupt silence, lasting indeed only for +a second, betrays these passing emotions which are almost immediately +effaced by new bursts of joyful acclamation, for each one says to +himself: "No weakness! my chum and my girl are looking at me!" + +And all laugh, and knock glasses together, and challenge the next man, +and drink out of the glass of the nearest woman. Jacques had taken off +the mask and peruke of Goodman Cholera. His thin, leaden features, his +deadly paleness, the lurid brilliancy of his hollow eyes, showed the +incessant progress of the slow malady which was consuming this +unfortunate man, brought by excesses to the last extremity of weakness. +Though he felt the slow fire devouring his entrails, he concealed his +pain beneath a forced and nervous smile. + +To the left of Jacques was Morok, whose fatal influence was ever on the +increase, and to his right the girl disguised as PLEASURE. She was named +Mariette. By her side sat Ninny Moulin, in all his majestic bulk, who +often pretended to be looking for his napkin under the table, in order to +have the opportunity of pressing the knees of his other neighbor, +Modeste, the representative of LOVE. Most of the guests were grouped +according to their several tastes, each tender pair together, and the +bachelors where they could. They had reached the second course, and the +excellence of the wine, the good cheer, the gay speeches, and even the +singularity of the occasion, had raised their spirits to a high degree of +excitement, as may be gathered from the extraordinary incidents of the +following scene. + +[39] We read in the Constitutionnel, Saturday March 31st, 1832: "The +Parisians readily conform to that part of the official instructions with +regard to the cholera, which prescribes, as a preservation from the +disease, not to be afraid, to amuse one's self, etc. The pleasures of +Mid-Lent have been as brilliant and as mad as those of the carnival +itself. For a long time past there had not been so many balls at this +period of the year. Even the cholera has been made the subject of an +itinerant caricature." + + + + +CHAPTER XX. + +THE DEFIANCE. + +Two or three times, without being remarked by the guests, one of the +waiters had come to whisper to his fellows, and point with expressive +gesture to the ceiling. But his comrades had taken small account of his +observations or fears, not wishing, doubtless, to disturb the guests, +whose mad gayety seemed ever on the increase. + +"Who can doubt now of the superiority of our manner of treating this +impertinent Cholera? Has he dared even to touch our sacred battalion?" +said a magnificent mountebank-Turk, one of the standard-bearers of the +masquerade. + +"Here is all the mystery," answered another. "It is very simple. Only +laugh in the face of the plague, and it will run away from you." + +"And right enough too, for very stupid work it does," added a pretty +little Columbine, emptying her glass. + +"You are right, my darling; it is intolerably stupid work," answered the +Clown belonging to the Columbine; "here you are very quiet, enjoying +life, and all on a sudden you die with an atrocious grimace. Well! what +then? Clever, isn't it? I ask you, what does it prove?" + +"It proves," replied an illustrious painter of the romantic school, +disguised like a Roman out of one of David's pictures, "it proves that +the Cholera is a wretched colorist, for he has nothing but a dirty green +on his pallet. Evidently he is a pupil of Jacobus, that king of classical +painters, who are another species of plagues." + +"And yet, master," added respectfully a pupil of the great painter, "I +have seen some cholera patients whose convulsions were rather fine, and +their dying looks first-rate!" + +"Gentlemen," cried a sculptor of no less celebrity, "the question lies in +a nutshell. The Cholera is a detestable colorist, but a good draughtsman. +He shows you the skeleton in no time. By heaven! how he strips off the +flesh!--Michael Angelo would be nothing to him." + +"True," cried they all, with one voice; "the Cholera is a bad colorist, +but a good draughtsman." + +"Moreover, gentlemen," added Ninny Moulin, with comic gravity, "this +plague brings with it a providential lesson, as the great Bossuet would +have said." + +"The lesson! the lesson!" + +"Yes, gentlemen; I seem to hear a voice from above, proclaiming: 'Drink +of the best, empty your purse, and kiss your neighbor's wife; for your +hours are perhaps numbered, unhappy wretch!'" + +So saying, the orthodox Silenus took advantage of a momentary absence of +mind on the part of Modeste, his neighbor, to imprint on the blooming +cheek of LOVE a long, loud kiss. The example was contagious, and a storm +of kisses was mingled with bursts of laughter. + +"Ha! blood and thunder!" cried the great painter as he gayly threatened +Ninny Moulin; "you are very lucky that to-morrow will perhaps be the end +of the world, or else I should pick a quarrel with you for having kissed +my lovely LOVE." + +"Which proves to you, O Rubens! O Raphael! the thousand advantages of the +Cholera, whom I declare to be essentially sociable and caressing." + +"And philanthropic," said one of the guests; "thanks to him, creditors +take care of the health of their debtors. This morning a usurer, who +feels a particular interest in my existence, brought me all sorts of +anti-choleraic drugs, and begged me to make use of them." + +"And I!" said the pupil of the great painter. "My tailor wished to force +me to wear a flannel band next to the skin, because I owe him a thousand +crowns. But I answered 'Oh, tailor, give me a receipt in full, and I will +wrap myself up in flannel, to preserve you my custom!'" + +"O Cholera, I drink to thee!" said Ninny Moulin, by way of grotesque +invocation. "You are not Despair; on the contrary, you are the emblem of +Hope--yes, of hope. How many husbands, how many wives, longed for a +number (alas! too uncertain chance) in the lottery of widowhood! You +appear, and their hearts are gladdened. Thanks to you, benevolent pest! +their chances of liberty are increased a hundredfold." + +"And how grateful heirs ought to be! A cold--a heat--a trifle--and there, +in an hour, some old uncle becomes a revered benefactor!" + +"And those who are always looking out for other people's places--what an +ally they must find in the Cholera!" + +"And how true it will make many vows of constancy!" said Modeste, +sentimentally. "How many villains have sworn to a poor, weak woman, to +love her all their lives, who never meant (the wretches!) to keep their +word so well!" + +"Gentlemen," cried Ninny Moulin, "since we are now, perhaps, at the eve +of the end of the world, as yonder celebrated painter has expressed it, I +propose to play the world topsy-turvy: I beg these ladies to make +advances to us, to tease us, to excite us, to steal kisses from us, to +take all sorts of liberties with us, and (we shall not die of it) even to +insult us. Yes, I declare that I will allow myself to be insulted. So, +LOVE, you may offer me the greatest insult that can be offered to a +virtuous and modest bachelor," added the religious writer, leaning over +towards his neighbor, who repulsed him with peals of laughter; and the +proposal of Ninny Moulin being received with general hilarity, a new +impulse was given to the mirth and riot. + +In the midst of the uproar, the waiter, who had before entered the room +several times, to whisper uneasily to his comrades, whilst he pointed to +the ceiling, again appeared with a pale and agitated countenance; +approaching the man who performed the office of butler, he said to him, +in a low voice, tremulous with emotion: "They are come!" + +"Who?" + +"You know--up there"; and he pointed to the ceiling. + +"Oh!" said the butler, becoming thoughtful; "where are they?" + +"They have just gone upstairs; they are there now," answered the waiter, +shaking his head with an air of alarm; "yes, they are there!" + +"What does master say?" + +"He is very vexed, because--" and the waiter glanced round at the guests. +"He does not know what to do; he has sent me to you." + +"What the devil have I to do with it?" said the other; wiping his +forehead. "It was to be expected, and cannot be helped." + +"I will not remain here till they begin." + +"You may as well go, for your long face already attracts attention. Tell +master we must wait for the upshot." + +The above incident was scarcely perceived in the midst of the growing +tumult of the joyous feast. But, among the guests, one alone laughed not, +drank not. This was Jacques. With fixed and lurid eye, he gazed upon +vacancy. A stranger to what was passing around him, the unhappy man +thought of the Bacchanal Queen, who had been so gay and brilliant in the +midst of similar saturnalia. The remembrance of that one being, whom he +still loved with an extravagant love, was the only thought that from time +to time roused him from his besotted state. + +It is strange, but Jacques had only consented to join this masquerade +because the mad scene reminded him of the merry day he had spent with +Cephyse--that famous breakfast, after a night of dancing, in which the +Bacchanal Queen, from some extraordinary presentiment, had proposed a +lugubrious toast with regard to this very pestilence, which was then +reported to be approaching France. "To the Cholera!" had she said. "Let +him spare those who wish to live, and kill at the same moment those who +dread to part!" + +And now, at this time, remembering those mournful words, Jacques was +absorbed in painful thought. Morok perceived his absence of mind, and +said aloud to him, "You have given over drinking, Jacques. Have you had +enough wine? Then you will want brandy. I will send for some." + +"I want neither wine nor brandy," answered Jacques, abruptly, and he fell +back into a sombre reverie. + +"Well, you may be right," resumed Morok, in a sardonic tone, and raising +his voice still higher. "You do well to take care of yourself. I was +wrong to name brandy in these times. There would be as much temerity in +facing a bottle of brandy as the barrel of a loaded pistol." + +On hearing his courage as a toper called in question, Sleepinbuff looked +angrily at Morok. "You think it is from cowardice that I will not drink +brandy!" cried the unfortunate man, whose half-extinguished intellect was +roused to defend what he called his dignity. "Is it from cowardice that I +refuse, d'ye think, Morok? Answer me!" + +"Come, my good fellow, we have all shown our pluck today," said one of +the guests to Jacques; "you, above all, who, being rather indisposed, yet +had the courage to take the part of Goodman Cholera." + +"Gentlemen," resumed Morok, seeing the general attention fixed upon +himself and Sleepinbuff, "I was only joking; for if my comrade (pointing +to Jacques) had the imprudence to accept my offer, it would be an act, +not of courage, but of foolhardiness. Luckily, he has sense enough to +renounce a piece of boasting so dangerous at this time, and I--" + +"Waiter!" cried Jacques, interrupting Morok with angry impatience, "two +bottles of brandy, and two glasses!" + +"What are you going to do?" said Morok, with pretended uneasiness. "Why +do you order two bottles of brandy?" + +"For a duel," said Jacques, in a cool, resolute tone. + +"A duel!" cried the spectators, in surprise. + +"Yes," resumed Jacques, "a duel with brandy. You pretend there is as much +danger in facing a bottle of brandy as a loaded pistol; let us each take +a full bottle, and see who will be the first to cry quarter." + +This strange proposition was received by some with shouts of joy, and by +others with genuine uneasiness. + +"Bravo! the champions of the bottle!" cried the first. + +"No, no; there would be too much danger in such a contest," said the +others. + +"Just now," added one of the guests; "this challenge is as serious as an +invitation to fight to the death." + +"You hear," said Morok, with a diabolical smile, "you hear, Jacques? Will +you now retreat before the danger?" + +At these words, which reminded him of the peril to which he was about to +expose himself, Jacques started, as if a sudden idea had occurred to him. +He raised his head proudly, his cheeks were slightly flushed, his eye +shone with a kind of gloomy satisfaction, and he exclaimed in a firm +voice: "Hang it, waiter! are you deaf? I asked you for two bottles of +brandy." + +"Yes, sir," said the waiter, going to fetch them, although himself +frightened at what might be the result of this bacchanalian struggle. But +the mad and perilous resolution of Jacques was applauded by the majority. + +Ninny Moulin moved about on his chair, stamped his feet, and shouted with +all his might: "Bacchus and drink! bottles and glasses! the throats are +dry! brandy to the rescue! Largess! largess!" + +And, like a true champion of the tournament, he embraced Modeste, adding, +to excuse the liberty: "Love, you shall be the Queen of Beauty, and I am +only anticipating the victor's happiness!" + +"Brandy to the rescue!" repeated they all, in chorus. "Largess!" + +"Gentlemen," added Ninny Moulin, with enthusiasm, "shall we remain +indifferent to the noble example set us by Goodman Cholera? He said in +his pride, 'brandy!' Let us gloriously answer, 'punch!'" + +"Yes, yes! punch!" + +"Punch to the rescue!" + +"Waiter!" shouted the religious writer, with the voice of a Stentor, +"waiter! have you a pan, a caldron, a hogshead, or any other immensity, +in which we can brew a monster punch?" + +"A Babylonian punch!" + +"A lake of punch!" + +"An ocean of punch!" + +Such was the ambitious crescendo that followed the proposition of Ninny +Moulin. + +"Sir," answered the waiter, with an air of triumph, "we just happen to +have a large copper caldron, quite new. It has been used, and would hold +at least thirty bottles." + +"Bring the caldron!" said Ninny Moulin, majestically. + +"The caldron forever!" shouted the chorus. + +"Put in twenty bottles of brandy, six loaves of sugar, a dozen lemons, a +pound of cinnamon, and then--fire! fire!" shouted the religious writer, +with the most vociferous exclamations. + +"Yes, yes! fire!" repeated the chorus! + +The proposition of Ninny Moulin gave a new impetus to the general gayety; +the most extravagant remarks were mingled with the sound of kisses, taken +or given under the pretext that perhaps there would be no to-morrow, that +one must make the most of the present, etc., etc. Suddenly, in one of the +moments of silence which sometimes occur in the midst of the greatest +tumult, a succession of slow and measured taps sounded above the ceiling +of the banqueting-room. All remained silent, and listened. + + + + +CHAPTER XXI. + +BRANDY TO THE RESCUE. + +After the lapse of some seconds, the singular rapping which had so much +surprised the guests, was again heard, but this time louder and longer. + +"Waiter!" cried one of the party, "what in the devil's name is knocking?" + +The waiter, exchanging with his comrades a look of uneasiness and alarm, +stammered Out in reply: "Sir--it is--it is--" + +"Well! I suppose it is some crabbed, cross-grained lodger, some animal, +the enemy of joy, who is pounding on the floor of his room to warn us to +sing less loud," said Ninny Moulin. + +"Then, by a general rule," answered sententiously the pupil of the great +painter, "if lodger or landlord ask for silence, tradition bids us reply +by an infernal uproar, destined to drown all his remonstrances. Such, at +least," added the scapegrace, modestly, "are the foreign relations that I +have always seen observed between neighboring powers." + +This remark was received with general laughter and applause. During the +tumult, Morok questioned one of the waiters, and then exclaimed in a +shrill tone, which rose above the clamor: "I demand a hearing!" + +"Granted!" cried the others, gayly. During the silence which followed the +exclamation of Morok, the noise was again heard; it was this time quicker +than before. + +"The lodger is innocent," said Morok, with a strange smile, "and would be +quite incapable of interfering with your enjoyment." + +"Then why does he keep up that knocking?" said Ninny Moulin, emptying his +glass. + +"Like a deaf man who has lost his ear-horn?" added the young artist. + +"It is not the lodger who is knocking" said Morok, in a sharp, quick +tone; "for they are nailing him down in his coffin." A sudden and +mournful silence followed these words. + +"His coffin no, I am wrong," resumed Morok; "her coffin, I should say, or +more properly their coffin; for, in these pressing times, they put mother +and child together." + +"A woman!" cried PLEASURE, addressing the writer; "is it a woman that is +dead?" + +"Yes, ma'am; a poor young woman about twenty years of age," answered the +waiter in a sorrowful tone. "Her little girl, that she was nursing, died +soon after--all in less than two hours. My master is very sorry that you +ladies and gents should be disturbed in this way; but he could not +foresee this misfortune, as yesterday morning the young woman was quite +well, and singing with all her might--no one could have been gayer than +she was." + +Upon these words, it was as if a funeral pall had been suddenly thrown +over a scene lately so full of joy; all the rubicund and jovial faces +took an expression of sadness; no one had the hardihood to make a jest of +mother and child, nailed down together in the same coffin. The silence +became so profound, that one could hear each breath oppressed by terror: +the last blows of the hammer seemed to strike painfully on every heart; +it appeared as if each sad feeling, until now repressed, was about to +replace that animation and gayety, which had been more factitious than +sincere. The moment was decisive. It was necessary to strike an immediate +blow, and to raise the spirits of the guests, for many pretty rosy faces +began to grow pale, many scarlet ears became suddenly white; Ninny +Moulin's were of the number. + +On the contrary, Sleepinbuff exhibited an increase of audacity; he drew +up his figure, bent down from the effects of exhaustion, and, with a +cheek slightly flushed, he exclaimed: "Well, waiter? are those bottles of +brandy coming? And the punch? Devil and all! are the dead to frighten the +living?" + +"He's right! Down with sorrow, and let's have the punch!" cried several +of the guests, who felt the necessity of reviving their courage. + +"Forward, punch!" + +"Begone, dull care!" + +"Jollity forever!" + +"Gentlemen, here is the punch," said a waiter, opening the door. At sight +of the flaming beverage, which was to reanimate their enfeebled spirits, +the room rang with the loudest applause. + +The sun had just set. The room was large, being capable of dining a +hundred guests; and the windows were few, narrow, and half veiled by red +cotton curtains. Though it was not yet night, some portions of this vast +saloon were almost entirely dark. Two waiters brought the monster-punch, +in an immense brass kettle, brilliant as gold, suspended from an iron +bar, and crowned with flames of changing color. The burning beverage was +then placed upon the table, to the great joy of the guests, who began to +forget their past alarms. + +"Now," said Jacques to Morok, in a taunting tone, "while the punch is +burning, we will have our duel. The company shall judge." Then, pointing +to the two bottles of brandy, which the waiter had brought, Jacques +added: "Choose your weapon!" + +"Do you choose," answered Morok. + +"Well! here's your bottle--and here's your glass. Ninny Moulin shall be +umpire." + +"I do not refuse to be judge of the field," answered the religious +writer, "only I must warn you, comrade, that you are playing a desperate +game, and that just now, as one of these gentlemen has said, the neck of +a bottle of brandy in one's mouth, is perhaps more dangerous than the +barrel of a loaded pistol." + +"Give the word, old fellow!" said Jacques, interrupting Ninny Moulin, "or +I will give it myself." + +"Since you will have it so--so be it!" + +"The first who gives in is conquered," said Jacques. + +"Agreed!" answered Morok. + +"Come, gentlemen, attention! we must follow every movement," resumed +Ninny Moulin. "Let us first see if the bottles are of the same +size--equality of weapons being the foremost condition." + +During these preparations, profound silence reigned in the room. The +courage of the majority of those present, animated for a moment by the +arrival of the punch, was soon again depressed by gloomy thoughts, as +they vaguely foresaw the danger of the contest between Morok and Jacques. +This impression joined to the sad thoughts occasioned by the incident of +the coffin, darkened by degrees many a countenance. Some of the guests, +indeed, continued to make a show of rejoicing, but their gayety appeared +forced. Under certain circumstances, the smallest things will have the +most powerful effect. We have said that, after sunset, a portion of this +large room was plunged in obscurity; therefore, the guests who sat in the +remote corners of the apartment, had no other light than the reflection +of the flaming punch. Now it is well known, that the flame of burning +spirit throws a livid, bluish tint over the countenance; it was therefore +a strange, almost frightful spectacle, to see a number of the guests, who +happened to be at a distance from the windows, in this ghastly and +fantastic light. + +The painter, more struck than all the rest by this effect of color, +exclaimed: "Look! at this end of the table, we might fancy ourselves +feasting with cholera-patients, we are such fine blues and greens." + +This jest was not much relished. Fortunately, the loud voice of Ninny +Moulin demanded attention, and for a moment turned the thoughts of the +company. + +"The lists are open," cried the religious writer, really more frightened +than he chose to appear. "Are you ready, brave champions?" he added. + +"We are ready," said Morok and Jacques. + +"Present! fire!" cried Ninny Moulin, clapping his hands. And the two +drinkers each emptied a tumbler full of brandy at a draught. + +Morok did not even knit his brow; his marble face remained impassible; +with a steady hand he replaced his glass upon the table. But Jacques, as +he put down his glass, could not conceal a slight convulsive trembling, +caused by internal suffering. + +"Bravely done!" cried Ninny Moulin. "The quarter of a bottle of brandy at +a draught--it is glorious! No one else here would be capable of such +prowess. And now, worthy champions, if you believe me, you will stop +where you are." + +"Give the word!" answered Jacques, intrepidly. And, with feverish and +shaking hand, he seized the bottle; then suddenly, instead of filling his +glass, he said to Morok: "Bah! we want no glasses. It is braver to drink +from the bottle. I dare you to it!" + +Morok's only answer was to shrug his shoulders, and raise the neck of the +bottle to his lips. Jacques hastened to imitate him. The thin, yellowish, +transparent glass gave a perfect view of the progressive diminution of +the liquor. The stony countenance of Morok, and the pale thin face of +Jacques, on which already stood large drops of cold sweat, were now, as +well as the features of the other guests, illuminated by the bluish light +of the punch; every eye was fixed upon Morok and Jacques, with that +barbarous curiosity which cruel spectacles seem involuntarily to inspire. + +Jacques continued to drink, holding the bottle in his left hand; +suddenly, he closed and tightened the fingers of his right hand with a +convulsive movement; his hair clung to his icy forehead, and his +countenance revealed an agony of pain. Yet he continued to drink; only, +without removing his lips from the neck of the bottle, he lowered it for +an instant, as if to recover breath. Just then, Jacques met the sardonic +look of Morok, who continued to drink with his accustomed impassibility. +Thinking that he saw the expression of insulting triumph in Morok's +glance, Jacques raised his elbow abruptly, and drank with avidity a few +drops more. But his strength was exhausted. A quenchless fire devoured +his vitals. His sufferings were too intense, and he could no longer bear +up against them. His head fell backwards, his jaws closed convulsively, +he crushed the neck of the bottle between his teeth, his neck grew rigid, +his limbs writhed with spasmodic action, and he became almost senseless. + +"Jacques, my good fellow! it is nothing," cried Morok, whose ferocious +glance now sparkled with diabolical joy. Then, replacing his bottle on +the table, he rose to go to the aid of Ninny Moulin, who was vainly +endeavoring to hold Sleepinbuff. + +This sudden attack had none of the symptoms of cholera. Yet terror seized +upon all present; one of the women was taken with hysterics, and another +uttered piercing cries and fainted away. Ninny Moulin, leaving Jacques in +the hands of Morok, ran towards the door to seek for help,--when that +door was suddenly opened, and the religious writer drew back in alarm, at +the sight of the unexpected personage who appeared on the threshold. + + + + +CHAPTER XXIL + +MEMORIES. + +The person before whom Ninny Moulin stopped in such extreme astonishment +was the Bacchanal Queen. + +Pale and wan, with, hair in disorder, hollow cheeks, sunken eyes, and +clothed almost in rags, this brilliant and joyous heroine of so many mad +orgies was now only the shadow of her former self. Misery and grief were +impressed on that countenance, once so charming. Hardly had she entered +the room, when Cephyse paused; her mournful and unquiet gaze strove to +penetrate the half-obscurity of the apartment, in search of him she +longed to see. Suddenly the girl started, and uttered a loud scream. She +had just perceived, at the other side of a long table, by the bluish +light of the punch, Jacques struggling with Morok and one of the guests, +who were hardly able to restrain his convulsive movements. + +At this sight Cephyse, in her first alarm, carried away by her affection, +did what she had so often done in the intoxication of joy and pleasure. +Light and agile, instead of losing precious time in making a long +circuit, she sprang at once upon the table, passed nimbly through the +array of plates and bottles, and with one spring was by the side of the +sufferer. + +"Jacques!" she exclaimed, without yet remarking the lion-tamer, and +throwing herself on the neck of her lover. "Jacques! it is I--Cephyse!" + +That well-known voice, that heart-piercing cry, which came from the +bottom of the soul, seemed not unheard by Sleepinbuff. He turned his head +mechanically towards the Bacchanal Queen, without opening his eyes, and +heaved a deep sigh; his stiffened limbs relaxed, a slight trembling +succeeded to the convulsions, and in a few seconds his heavy eyelids were +raised with an effort, so as to uncover his dull and wandering gaze. Mute +with astonishment, the spectators of this scene felt an uneasy curiosity. +Cephyse, kneeling beside her lover, bathed his hands in her tears, +covered them with kisses, and exclaimed, in a voice broken by sobs, "It +is I--Cephyse--I have found you again--it was not my fault that I +abandoned you! Forgive me, forgive--" + +"Wretched woman!" cried Morok, irritated at this meeting, which might, +perhaps, be fatal to his projects; "do you wish to kill him? In his +present state, this agitation is death. Begone!" So saying, he seized +Cephyse suddenly by the arm, just as Jacques, waking, as it were, from a +painful dream, began to distinguish what was passing around him. + +"You! It is you!" cried the Bacchanal Queen, in amazement, as she +recognized Morok, "who separated me from Jacques!" + +She paused; for the dim eye of the victim, as it rested upon her, grew +suddenly bright. + +"Cephyse!" murmured Jacques; "is it you?" + +"Yes, it is I," answered she, in a voice of deep emotion; "who have +come--I will tell you--" + +She was unable to continue, and, as she clasped her hands together, her +pale, agitated, tearful countenance expressed her astonishment and +despair at the mortal change which had taken place in the features of +Jacques. He understood the cause of her surprise, and as he contemplated, +in his turn, the suffering and emaciated countenance of Cephyse, he said +to her, "Poor girl! you also have had to bear much grief, much misery--I +should hardly have known you." + +"Yes," replied Cephyse, "much grief--much misery--and worse than misery," +she added, trembling, whilst a deep blush overspread her pale features. + +"Worse than misery?" said Jacques, astonished. + +"But it is you who have suffered," hastily resumed Cephyse, without +answering her lover. + +"Just now, I was going to make an end of it--your voice has recalled me +for an instant--but I feel something here," and he laid his hand upon his +breast, "which never gives quarter. It is all the same now--I have seen +you--I shall die happy." + +"You shall not die, Jacques; I am here--" + +"Listen to one, my girl. If I had a bushel of live coal in my stomach, it +could hardly burn me more. For more than a month, I have been consuming +my body by a slow fire. This gentleman," he added, glancing at Morok, +"this dear friend, always undertook to feed the flame. I do not regret +life; I have lost the habit of work, and taken to drink and riot; I +should have finished by becoming a thorough blackguard: I preferred that +my friend here should amuse himself with lighting a furnace in my inside. +Since what I drank just now, I am certain that it fumes like yonder +punch." + +"You are both foolish and ungrateful," said Morok, shrugging his +shoulders; "you held out your glass, and I filled it--and, faith, we +shall drink long and often together yet." + +For some moments, Cephyse had not withdrawn her eyes from Morok. "I tell +you, that you have long blown the fire, in which I have burnt my skin," +resumed Jacques, addressing Morok in a feeble voice, "so that they may +not think I die of cholera. It would look as if I had been frightened by +the part I played. I do not therefore reproach you, my affectionate +friend," added he, with a sardonic smile; "you dug my grave gayly--and +sometimes, when, seeing the great dark hole, into which I was about to +fall, I drew back a step--but you, my excellent friend, still pushed me +forward, saying, 'Go on, my boy, go on!'--and I went on--and here I am--" + +So saying, Sleepinbuff burst into a bitter laugh, which sent an icy +shudder through the spectators of this scene. + +"My good fellow," said Morok, coolly, "listen to me, and follow my +advice." + +"Thank you! I know your advice--and, instead of listening to you, I +prefer speaking to my poor Cephyse. Before I go down to the moles, I +should like to tell her what weighs on my heart." + +"Jacques," replied Cephyse, "do not talk so. I tell you, you shall not +die." + +"Why, then, my brave Cephyse, I shall owe my life to you," returned +Jacques, in a tone of serious feeling, which surprised the spectators. +"Yes," resumed he, "when I came to myself, and saw you so poorly clad, I +felt something good about my heart--do you know why?--it was because I +said to myself, 'Poor girl! she has kept her word bravely; she has chosen +to toil, and want, and suffer--rather than take another love--who would +have given her what I gave her as long as I could'--and that thought, +Cephyse, refreshed my soul. I needed it, for I was burning--and I burn +still," added he, clinching his fists with pain; "but that made me +happy--it did me good--thanks, my good, brave Cephyse--yes, you are good +and brave--and you were right; for I never loved any but you in the wide +world; and if, in my degradation, I had one thought that raised me a +little above the filth, and made me regret that I was not better--the +thought was of you! Thanks then, my poor, dear love," said Jacques, whose +hot and shining eyes were becoming moist; "thanks once again," and he +reached his cold hand to Cephyse; "if I die, I shall die happy--if I +live, I shall live happy also. Give me your hand, my brave Cephyse!--you +have acted like a good and honest creature." + +Instead of taking the hand which Jacques offered her, Cephyse, still +kneeling, bowed her head, and dared not raise her eyes to her lover. + +"You don't answer," said he, leaning over towards the young girl; "you +don't take my hand--why is this?" + +The unfortunate creature only answered by stifled sobs. Borne down with +shame, she held herself in so humble, so supplicating an attitude, that +her forehead almost touched the feet of her lover. + +Amazed at the silence and conduct of the Bacchanal Queen, Jacques looked +at her with increasing agitation; suddenly he stammered out with +trembling lips, "Cephyse, I know you. If you do not take my hand, it is +because--" + +Then, his voice failing, he added, in a dull tone, after a moment's +silence, "When, six weeks ago, I was taken to prison, did you not say to +me, 'Jacques, I swear that I will work--and if need be, live in horrible +misery--but I will live true!' That was your promise. Now, I know you +never speak false; tell me you have kept your word, and I shall believe +you." + +Cephyse only answered by a heart-rending sob, as she pressed the knees of +Jacques against her heaving bosom. By a strange contradiction, more +common than is generally thought--this man, degraded by intoxication and +debauchery, who, since he came out of prison, had plunged in every +excess, and tamely yielded to all the fatal incitements of Morok, yet +received a fearful blow, when he learned, by the mute avowal of Cephyse, +the infidelity, of this creature, whom he had loved in spite of +degradation. The first impulse of Jacques was terrible. Notwithstanding +his weakness and exhaustion, he succeeded in rising from his seat, and, +with a countenance contracted by rage and despair, he seized a knife, +before they had time to prevent him, and turned it upon Cephyse. But at +the moment he was about to strike, shrinking from an act of murder, he +hurled the knife far away from him, and falling back into the chair, +covered his face with his hands. + +At the cry of Ninny Moulin, who had, though late, thrown himself upon +Jacques to take away the knife, Cephyse raised her head: Jacques's woeful +dejection wrung her heart; she rose, and fell upon his neck, +notwithstanding his resistance, exclaiming in a voice broken by sobs, +"Jacques, if you knew! if you only knew--listen--do not condemn me +without hearing me--I will tell you all, I swear to you--without +falsehood--this man," and she pointed to Morok, "will not dare deny what +I say; he came, and told me to have the courage to--" + +"I do not reproach you. I have no right to reproach you. Let me die in +peace. I ask nothing but that now," said Jacques, in a still weaker +voice, as he repulsed Cephyse. Then he added, with a grievous and bitter +smile, "Luckily, I have my dose. I knew--what I was doing--when I +accepted the duel with brandy." + +"No, you shall not die, and you shall hear me," cried Cephyse, with a +bewildered air; "you shall hear me, and everybody else shall hear me. +They shall see that it is not my fault. Is it not so, gentlemen? Do I not +deserve pity? You will entreat Jacques to forgive me; for if driven by +misery--finding no work--I was forced to this--not for the sake of any +luxury--you see the rags I wear--but to get bread and shelter for my +poor, sick sister--dying, and even more miserable than myself--would you +not have pity upon me? Do you think one finds pleasure in one's infamy?" +cried the unfortunate, with a burst of frightful laughter; then she +added, in a low voice, and with a shudder, "Oh, if you knew, Jacques! it +is so infamous, so horrible, that I preferred death to falling so low a +second time. I should have killed myself, had I not heard you were here." +Then, seeing that Jacques did not answer her, but shook his head +mournfully as he sank down though still supported by Ninny Moulin, +Cephyse exclaimed, as she lifted her clasped hands towards him, "Jacques! +one word--for pity's sake--forgive me!" + +"Gentlemen, pray remove this woman," cried Morok; "the sight of her +causes my friend too painful emotions." + +"Come, my dear child, be reasonable," said several of the guests, who, +deeply moved by this scene, were endeavoring to withdraw Cephyse from it; +"leave him, and come with us; he is not in any danger." + +"Gentlemen! oh, gentlemen!" cried the unfortunate creature, bursting into +tears, and raising her hands in supplication; "listen to me--I will do +all that you wish me--I will go--but, in heaven's name, send for help, +and do not let him die thus. Look, what pain he suffers! what horrible +convulsions!" + +"She is right," said one of the guests, hastening towards the door; "we +must send for a doctor." + +"There is no doctor to be found," said another; "they are all too busy." + +"We will do better than that," cried a third; "the Hospital is just +opposite, and we can carry the poor fellow thither. They will give him +instant help. A leaf of the table will make a litter, and the table cloth +a covering." + +"Yes, yes, that is it," said several voices; "let us carry him over at +once." + +Jacques, burnt up with brandy, and overcome by his interview with +Cephyse, had again fallen into violent convulsions. It was the dying +paroxysm of the unfortunate man. They were obliged to tie him with the +ends of the cloth, so as to secure him to the leaf which was to serve for +a litter, which two of the guests hastened to carry away. They yielded to +the supplication of Cephyse, who asked, as a last favor, to accompany +Jacques to the Hospital. When the mournful procession quitted the great +room of the eating-house, there was a general flight among the guests. +Men and women made haste to wrap themselves in their cloaks, in order to +conceal their costumes. The coaches, which had been ordered in tolerable +number for the return of the masquerade, had luckily arrived. The +defiance had been fully carried out, the audacious bravado accomplished, +and they could now retire with the honors of war. Whilst a part of the +guests were still in the room, an uproar, at first distant, but which +soon drew nearer, broke out with incredible fury in the square of Notre +Dame. + +Jacques had been carried to the outer door of the tavern. Morok and Ninny +Moulin, striving to open a passage through the crowd in the direction of +the Hospital, preceded the litter. A violent reflux of the multitude soon +forced them to stop, whilst a new storm of savage outcries burst from the +other extremity of the square, near the angle of the church. + +"What is it then?" asked Ninny Moulin of one of those ignoble figures +that was leaping up before him. "What are those cries?" + +"They are making mince-meat of a poisoner, like him they have thrown into +the river," replied the man. "If you want to see the fun, follow me +close," added he, "and peg away with your elbows, for fear you should be +too late." + +Hardly had the wretch pronounced these words than a dreadful shriek +sounded above the roar of the crowd, through which the bearers of the +litter, preceded by Morok, were with difficulty making their way. It was +Cephyse who uttered that cry. Jacques (one of the seven heirs of the +Rennepont family) had just expired in her arms! By a strange fatality, at +the very moment that the despairing exclamation of Cephyse announced that +death, another cry rose from that part of the square where they were +attacking the poisoner. That distant, supplicating cry, tremulous with +horrible alarm, like the last appeal of a man staggering beneath the +blows of his murderers, chilled the soul of Morok in the midst of his +execrable triumph. + +"Damnation!" cried the skillful assassin, who had selected drunkenness +and debauchery for his murderous but legal weapons; "it is the voice of +the Abbe d'Aigrigny, whom they have in their clutches!" + + + + +CHAPTER XXIII. + +THE POISONER. + +It is necessary to go back a little before relating the adventure of +Father d'Aigrigny, whose cry of distress made so deep an impression upon +Morok just at the moment of Jacques Rennepont's death. We have said that +the most absurd and alarming reports were circulating in Paris; not only +did people talk of poison given to the sick or thrown into the public +fountains, but it was also said that wretches had been surprised in the +act of putting arsenic into the pots which are usually kept all ready on +the counters of wine-shops. Goliath was on his way to rejoin Morok, after +delivering a message to Father d'Aigrigny, who was waiting in a house on +the Place de l'Archeveche. He entered a wine-shop in the Rue de la +Calandre, to get some refreshment, and having drunk two glasses of wine, +he proceeded to pay for them. Whilst the woman of the house was looking +for change, Goliath, mechanically and very innocently, rested his hand on +the mouth of one of the pots that happened to be within his reach. + +The tall stature of this man and his repulsive and savage countenance had +already alarmed the good woman, whose fears and prejudices had previously +been roused by the public rumors on the subject of poisoning; but when +she saw Goliath place his hand over the mouth of one of her pots, she +cried out in dismay: "Oh! my gracious! what are you throwing into that +pot?" At these words, spoken in a loud voice, and with the accent of +terror, two or three of the drinkers at one of the tables rose +precipitately, and ran to the counter, while one of them rashly +exclaimed: "It is a poisoner!" + +Goliath, not aware of the reports circulated in the neighborhood, did not +at first understand of what he was accused. The men raised their voices +as they called on him to answer the charge; but he, trusting to his +strength, shrugged his shoulders in disdain, and roughly demanded the +change, which the pale and frightened hostess no longer thought of giving +him. + +"Rascal!" cried one of the men, with so much violence that several of the +passers-by stopped to listen; "you shall have your change when you tell +us what you threw in the pot!" + +"Ha! did he throw anything into the wine-pot?" said one of the passers +by. + +"It is, perhaps, a poisoner," said another. + +"He ought to be taken up," added a third. + +"Yes, yes," cried those in the house--honest people perhaps, but under +the influence of the general panic; "he must be taken up, for he has been +throwing poison into the wine-pots." + +The words "He is a poisoner" soon spread through the group, which, at +first composed of three or four persons, increased every instant around +the door of the wine-shop. A dull, menacing clamor began to rise from the +crowd; the first accuser, seeing his fears thus shared and almost +justified, thought he was acting like a good and courageous citizen in +taking Goliath by the collar, and saying to him: "Come and explain +yourself at the guard-house, villain!" + +The giant, already provoked at insults of which he did not perceive the +real meaning, was exasperated at this sudden attack; yielding to his +natural brutality, he knocked his adversary down upon the counter, and +began to hammer him with his fists. During this collision, several +bottles and two or three panes of glass were broken with much noise, +whilst the woman of the house, more and more frightened, cried out with +all her might; "Help! a poisoner! Help! murder!" + +At the sound of the breaking windows and these cries of distress, the +passers-by, of whom the greater number believed in the stories about the +poisoners, rushed into the shop to aid in securing Goliath. But the +latter, thanks to his herculean strength, after struggling for some +moments with seven or eight persons, knocked down two of his most furious +assailants, disengaged himself from the others, drew near the counter, +and, taking a vigorous spring, rushed head-foremost, like a bull about to +butt, upon the crowd that blocked up the door; then, forcing a passage, +by the help of his enormous shoulders and athletic arms, he made his way +into the street, and ran with all speed in the direction of the square of +Notre-Dame, his garments torn, his head bare, and his countenance pale +and full of rage. Immediately, a number of persons from amongst the crowd +started in pursuit of Goliath, and a hundred voices exclaimed: +"Stop--stop the poisoner!" + +Hearing these cries, and seeing a man draw near with a wild and troubled +look, a butcher, who happened to be passing with his large, empty tray on +his head, threw it against Goliath's shins, and taken by surprise, he +stumbled and fell. The butcher, thinking he had performed as heroic an +action as if he had encountered a mad dog, flung himself on Goliath, and +rolled over with him on the pavement, exclaiming: "Help! it is a +poisoner! Help! help!" This scene took place not far from the Cathedral, +but at some distance from the crowd which was pressing round the hospital +gate, as well as from the eating-house in which the masquerade of the +cholera then was. The day was now drawing to a close. On the piercing +call of the butcher, several groups, at the head of which were Ciboule +and the quarryman, flew towards the scene of the struggle, while those +who had pursued the pretended poisoner from the Rue de la Calandre, +reached the square on their side. + +At sight of this threatening crowd advancing towards him, Goliath, whilst +he continued to defend himself against the butcher, who held him with the +tenacity of a bull-dog, felt that he was lost unless he could rid himself +of this adversary before the arrival of the rest; with a furious blow of +the fist, therefore, he broke the jaw of the butcher, who just then was +above him, and disengaging himself from his hold, he rose, and staggered +a few steps forward. Suddenly he stopped. He saw that he was surrounded. +Behind him rose the walls of the cathedral; to the right and left, and in +front of him, advanced a hostile multitude. The groans uttered by the +butcher, who had just been lifted from the ground covered with blood, +augmented the fury of the populace. + +This was a terrible moment for Goliath: still standing alone in the +centre of a ring that grew smaller every second, he saw on all sides +angry enemies rushing towards him, and uttering cries of death. As the +wild boar turns round once or twice, before resolving to stand at bay and +face the devouring pack, Goliath, struck with terror, made one or two +abrupt and wavering movements. Then, as he abandoned the possibility of +flight, instinct told him that he had no mercy to expect from a crowd +given up to blind and savage fury--a fury the more pitiless as it was +believed to be legitimate. Goliath determined, therefore, at least to +sell his life dearly; he sought for a knife in his pocket, but, not +finding it, he threw out his left leg in an athletic posture, and holding +up his muscular arms, hard and stiff as bars of iron, waited with +intrepidity for the shock. + +The first who approached Goliath was Ciboule. The hag, heated and out of +breath, instead of rushing upon him, paused, stooped down, and taking off +one of the large wooden shoes that she wore, hurled it at the giant's +head with so much force and with so true an aim that it struck him right +in the eye, which hung half out of its socket. Goliath pressed his hands +to his face, and uttered a cry of excruciating pain. + +"I've made him squint!" said Ciboule, with a burst of laughter. + +Goliath, maddened by the pain, instead of waiting for the attack, which +the mob still hesitated to begin, so greatly were they awed by his +appearance of herculean strength--the only adversary worthy to cope with +him being the quarryman, who had been borne to a distance by the surging +of the crowd--Goliath, in his rage, rushed headlong upon the nearest. +Such a struggle was too unequal to last long; but despair redoubled the +Colossus's strength, and the combat was for a moment terrible. The +unfortunate man did not fall at once. For some seconds, almost buried +amid a swarm of furious assailants, one saw now his mighty arm rise and +fall like a sledge hammer, beating upon skulls and faces, and now his +enormous head, livid and bloody, drawn back by some of the combatants +hanging to his tangled hair. Here and there sudden openings and violent +oscillations of the crowd bore witness to the incredible energy of +Goliath's defence. But when the quarryman succeeded in reaching him, +Goliath was overpowered and thrown down. A long, savage cheer in triumph +announced this fall; for, under such circumstances, to "go under" is "to +die." Instantly a thousand breathless and angry voices repeated the cry +of "Death to the poisoner!" + +Then began one of those scenes of massacre and torture, worthy of +cannibals, horrible to relate, and the more incredible, that they happen +almost always in the presence, and often with the aid, of honest and +humane people, who, blinded by false notions and stupid prejudices, allow +themselves to be led into all sorts of barbarity, under the idea of +performing an act of inexorable justice. As it frequently happens, the +sight of the blood which flowed in torrents from Goliath's wounds +inflamed to madness the rage of his assailants. A hundred fists struck at +the unhappy man; he was stamped under foot, his face and chest were +beaten in. Ever and anon, in the midst of furious cries of "Death to the +poisoner!" heavy blows were audible, followed by stifled groans. It was a +frightful butchery. Each individual, yielding to a sanguinary frenzy, +came in turn to strike his blow; or to tear off his morsel of flesh. +Women--yes, women--mothers!--came to spend their rage on this mutilated +form. + +There was one moment of frightful terror. With his face all bruised and +covered with mud, his garments in rags, his chest bare, red, gaping with +wounds--Goliath, availing himself of a moment's weariness on the part of +his assassins, who believed him already, finished, succeeded, by one of +those convulsive starts frequent in the last agony, in raising himself to +his feet for a few seconds; then, blind with wounds and loss of blood, +striking about his arms in the air as if to parry blows that were no +longer struck, he muttered these words, which came from his mouth, +accompanied by a crimson torrent: "Mercy! I am no poisoner. Mercy!" This +sort of resurrection produced so great an effect on the crowd, that for +an instant they fell hack affrighted. The clamor ceased, and a small +space was left around the victim. Some hearts began even to feel pity; +when the quarryman, seeing Goliath blinded with blood, groping before him +with his hands, exclaimed in ferocious allusion to a well-known game: +"Now for blind-man's-bluff." + +Then, with a violent kick, he again threw down the victim, whose head +struck twice heavily on the pavement. + +Just as the giant fell a voice from amongst the crowd exclaimed: "It is +Goliath! stop! he is innocent." + +It was Father d'Aigrigny, who, yielding to a generous impulse, was making +violent efforts to reach the foremost rank of the actors in this scene, +and who cried out, as he came nearer, pale, indignant, menacing: "You are +cowards and murderers! This man is innocent. I know him. You shall answer +for his life." + +These vehement words were received with loud murmurs. + +"You know that poisoner," cried the quarryman, seizing the Jesuit by the +collar; "then perhaps you are a poisoner too. + +"Wretch," exclaimed Father d'Aigrigny, endeavoring to shake himself loose +from the grasp, "do you dare to lay hand upon me?" + +"Yes, I dare do anything," answered the quarryman. + +"He knows him: he's a poisoner like the other," cried the crowd, pressing +round the two adversaries; whilst Goliath, who had fractured his skull in +the fall, uttered a long death-rattle. + +At a sudden movement of Father d'Aigrigny, who disengaged himself from +the quarryman, a large glass phial of peculiar form, very thick, and +filled with a greenish liquor, fell from his pocket, and rolled close to +the dying Goliath. At sight of this phial, many voices exclaimed +together: "It is poison! Only see! He had poison upon him." + +The clamor redoubled at this accusation, and they pressed so close to +Abbe d'Aigrigny, that he exclaimed: "Do not touch me! do not approach +me!" + +"If he is a poisoner," said a voice, "no more mercy for him than for the +other." + +"I a poisoner?" said the abbe, struck with horror. + +Ciboule had darted upon the phial; the quarryman seized it from her, +uncorked it and presenting it to Father d'Aigrigny, said to him: "Now +tell us what is that?" + +"It is not poison," cried Father d'Aigrigny. + +"Then drink it!" returned the quarryman. + +"Yes, yes! let him drink it!" cried the mob. + +"Never," answered Father d'Aigrigny, in extreme alarm. And he drew back +as he spoke, pushing away the phial with his hand. + +"Do you see? It is poison. He dares not drink it," they exclaimed. Hemmed +in on every side, Father d'Aigrigny stumbled against the body of Goliath. + +"My friends," cried the Jesuit, who, without being a poisoner, found +himself exposed to a terrible alternative, for his phial contained +aromatic salts of extraordinary strength, designed for a preservative +against the cholera, and as dangerous to swallow as any poison, "my good +friends, you are in error. I conjure you, in the name of heaven--" + +"If that is not poison, drink it!" interrupted the quarryman, as he again +offered the bottle to the Jesuit. + +"If he does not drink it, death to the poisoner of the poor!" + +"Yes!--death to him! death to him!" + +"Unhappy men!" cried Father d'Aigrigny, whilst his hair stood on end with +terror; "do you mean to murder me?" + +"What about all those, that you and your mate have killed, you wretch?" + +"But it is not true--and--" + +"Drink, then!" repeated the inflexible quarryman; "I ask you for the last +time." + +"To drink that would be death," cried Father d'Aigrigny. + +"Oh! only hear the wretch!" cried the mob, pressing closer to him; "he +has confessed--he has confessed!" + +"He has betrayed himself!"[40] + +"He said, 'to drink that would be death!'" + +"But listen to me," cried the abbe, clasping his hands together; "this +phial is--" + +Furious cries interrupted Father d'Aigrigny. "Ciboule, make an end of +that one!" cried the quarryman, spurning Goliath with his foot. "I will +begin this one!" And he seized Father d'Aigrigny by the throat. + +At these words, two different groups formed themselves. One, led by +Ciboule, "made an end" of Goliath, with kicks and blows, stones and +wooden shoes; his body was soon reduced to a horrible thing, mutilated, +nameless, formless--a mere inert mass of filth and mangled flesh. Ciboule +gave her cloak, which they tied to one of the dislocated ankles of the +body, and thus dragged it to the parapet of the quay. There, with shouts +of ferocious joy, they precipitated the bloody remains into the river. +Now who does not shudder at the thought that, in a time of popular +commotion, a word, a single word, spoken imprudently, even by an honest +man, and without hatred, will suffice to provoke so horrible a murder. + +"Perhaps it is a poisoner!" said one of the drinkers in the tavern of the +Rue de la Calandre--nothing more--and Goliath had been pitilessly +murdered. + +What imperious reasons for penetrating the lowest depths of the masses +with instruction and with light--to enable unfortunate creatures to +defend themselves from so many stupid prejudices, so many fatal +superstitions, so much implacable fanaticism!--How can we ask for +calmness, reflection, self-control, or the sentiment of justice from +abandoned beings, whom ignorance has brutalized, and misery depraved, and +suffering made ferocious, and of whom society takes no thought, except +when it chains them to the galleys, or binds them ready for the +executioner! The terrible cry which had so startled Morok was uttered by +Father d'Aigrigny as the quarryman laid his formidable hand upon him, +saying to Ciboule: "Make an end of that one--I will begin this one!" + +[40] This fact is historical. A man was murdered because a phial full of +ammonia was found upon him. On his refusal to drink it, the populace, +persuaded that the bottle contained poison, tore him to pieces. + + + + +CHAPTER XXIV. + +IN THE CATHEDRAL. + +Night was almost come, as the mutilated body of Goliath was thrown into +the river. The oscillations of the mob had carried into the street, which +runs along the left side of the cathedral, the group into whose power +Father d'Aigrigny had fallen. Having succeeded in freeing himself from +the grasp of the quarryman, but still closely pressed by the multitude +that surrounded him, crying, "Death to the poisoner!" he retreated step +by step, trying to parry the blows that were dealt him. By presence of +mind, address, and courage, recovering at that critical moment his old +military energy, he had hitherto been able to resist and to remain firm +on his feet--knowing, by the example of Goliath, that to fall was to die. +Though he had little hope of being heard to any purpose, the abbe +continued to call for help with all his might. Disputing the ground inch +by inch, he manoeuvred so as to draw near one of the lateral walls of the +church, and at length succeeded in ensconcing himself in a corner formed +by the projection of a buttress, and close by a little door. + +This position was rather favorable. Leaning with his back against the +wall, Father d'Aigrigny was sheltered from the attacks of a portion of +his assailants. But the quarryman, wishing to deprive him of this last +chance of safety, rushed upon him, with the intention of dragging him out +into the circle where he would have been trampled under foot. The fear of +death gave Father d'Aigrigny extraordinary strength, and he was able once +more to repulse the quarryman, and remain entrenched in the corner where +he had taken refuge. The resistance of the victim redoubled the rage of +the assailants. Cries of murderous import resounded with new violence. +The quarryman again rushed upon Father d'Aigrigny, saying, "Follow me, +friends! this lasts too long. Let us make an end of it." + +Father d'Aigrigny saw that he was lost. His strength was exhausted, and +he felt himself sinking; his legs trembled under him, and a cloud +obscured his sight; the howling of the furious mob began to sound dull +upon his ear. The effects of violent contusions, received during the +struggle, both on the head and chest, were now very perceptible. Two or +three times, a mixture of blood and foam rose to the lips of the abbe; +his position was a desperate one. + +"To be slaughtered by these brutes, after escaping death so often in +war!" Such was the thought of Father d'Aigrigny, as the quarryman rushed +upon him. + +Suddenly, at the very moment when the abbe, yielding to the instinct of +self-preservation, uttered one last call for help, in a heart-piercing +voice, the door against which he leaned opened behind him, and a firm +hand caught hold of him, and pulled him into the church. Thanks to this +movement, performed with the rapidity of lightning, the quarryman, thrown +forward in his attempt to seize Father d'Aigrigny, could not check his +progress, and found himself just opposite to the person who had come, as +it were, to take the place of the victim. + +The quarryman stopped short, and then fell back a couple of paces, so +much was he amazed at this sudden apparition, and impressed, like the +rest of the crowd, with a vague feeling of admiration and respect at +sight of him who had come so miraculously to the aid of Father +d'Aigrigny. It was Gabriel. The young missionary remained standing on the +threshold of the door. His long black cassock was half lost in the +shadows of the cathedral; whilst his angelic countenance, with its border +of long light hair, now pale and agitated by pity and grief, was +illumined by the last faint rays of twilight. This countenance shone with +so divine a beauty, and expressed such touching and tender compassion, +that the crowd felt awed as, with his large blue eyes full of tears, and +his hands clasped together, he exclaimed, in a sonorous voice: "Have +mercy, my brethren! Be humane--be just!" + +Recovering from his first feeling of surprise and involuntary emotion, +the quarryman advanced a step towards Gabriel, and said to him: "No mercy +for the poisoner! we must have him! Give him up to us, or we go and take +him!" + +"You cannot think of it, my brethren," answered Gabriel; "the church is a +sacred place--a place of refuge for the persecuted." + +"We would drag our prisoner from the altar!" answered the quarryman, +roughly; "so give him up to us." + +"Listen to me, my brethren," said Gabriel, extending his arms towards +them. + +"Down with the shaveling!" cried the quarryman; "let us go in and hunt +him up in the church!" + +"Yes, yes!" cried the mob, again led away by the violence of this wretch, +"down with the black gown!" + +"They are all of a piece!" + +"Down with them!" + +"Let us do as we did at the archbishop's!" + +"Or at Saint-Germain-l'Auxerrois!" + +"What do our likes care for a church?" + +"If the priests defend the poisoners, we'll pitch them into the water +too!" + +"Yes, yes!" + +"I'll show you the lead!" cried the quarryman; and followed by Ciboule, +and a good number of determined men, he rushed towards Gabriel. + +The missionary, who for some moments had watched the increasing fury of +the crowd, had foreseen this movement; hastily retreating into the +church, he succeeded, in spite of the efforts of the assailants, in +nearly closing the door, and in barricading it by the help of a wooden +bar, which he held in such a manner as would enable the door to resist +for a few minutes. + +Whilst he thus defended the entrance, Gabriel shouted to Father +d'Aigrigny: "Fly, father! fly through the vestry! the other doors are +fastened." + +The Jesuit, overpowered by fatigue, covered with contusions, bathed in +cold sweat, feeling his strength altogether fail, and too soon fancying +himself in safety, had sunk, half fainting, into a chair. At the voice of +Gabriel, he rose with difficulty, and, with a trembling step, endeavored +to reach the choir, separated from the rest of the church by an iron +railing. + +"Quick, father!" added Gabriel, in alarm, using every effort to maintain +the door, which was now vigorously assailed. "Make haste! In a few +minutes it will be too late. All alone!" continued the missionary, in +despair, "alone, to arrest the progress of these madmen!" + +He was indeed alone. At the first outbreak of the attack, three or four +sacristans and other members of the establishment were in the church; +but, struck with terror, and remembering the sack of the archbishop's +palace, and of Saint-Germain-l'Auxerrois, they had immediately taken +flight. Some of them had concealed themselves in the organ-loft and +others fled into the vestry, the doors of which they locked after them, +thus cutting off the retreat of Gabriel and Father d'Aigrigny. The +latter, bent double by pain, yet roused by the missionary's portentive +warning, helping himself on by means of the chairs he met with on his +passage, made vain efforts to reach the choir railing. After advancing a +few steps, vanquished by his suffering, he staggered and fell upon the +pavement, deprived of sense and motion. At the same moment, Gabriel, in +spite of the incredible energy with which the desire to save Father +d'Aigrigny had inspired him, felt the door giving way beneath the +formidable pressure from without. + +Turning his head, to see if the Jesuit had at least quitted the church, +Gabriel, to his great alarm, perceived that he was lying motionless at a +few steps from the choir. To abandon the half-broken door, to run to +Father d'Aigrigny, to lift him in his arms, and drag him within the +railing of the choir, was for the young priest an action rapid as +thought; for he closed the gate of the choir just at the instant that the +quarryman and his band, having finished breaking down the door, rushed in +a body into the church. + +Standing in front of the choir, with his arms crossed upon his breast, +Gabriel waited calmly and intrepidly for this mob, still more exasperated +by such unexpected resistance. + +The door once forced, the assailants rushed in with great violence. But +hardly had they entered the church, than a strange scene took place. It +was nearly dark; only a few silver lamps shed their pale light round the +sanctuary, whose far outlines disappeared in the shadow. On suddenly +entering the immense cathedral, dark, silent, and deserted, the most +audacious were struck with awe, almost with fear in presence of the +imposing grandeur of that stony solitude. Outcries and threats died away +on the lips of the most furious. They seemed to dread awaking the echoes +of those enormous arches, those black vaults, from which oozed a +sepulchral dampness, which chilled their brows, inflamed with anger, and +fell upon their shoulders like a mantle of ice. + +Religious tradition, routine, habit, the memories of childhood, have so +much influence upon men, that hardly had they entered the church, than +several of the quarryman's followers respectfully took off their hats, +bowed their bare heads, and walked along cautiously, as if to check the +noise of their footsteps on the sounding stones. Then they exchanged a +few words in a low and fearful whisper. Others timidly raised their eyes +to the far heights of the topmost arches of that gigantic building, now +lost in obscurity, and felt almost frightened to see themselves so little +in the midst of that immensity of darkness. But at the first joke of the +quarryman, who broke this respectful silence, the emotion soon passed +away. + +"Blood and thunder!" cried he; "are you fetching breath to sing vespers? +If they had wine in the font, well and good!" + +These words were received with a burst of savage laughter. "All this time +the villain will escape!" said one. + +"And we shall be done," added Ciboule. + +"One would think we had cowards here, who are afraid of the sacristans!" +cried the quarryman. + +"Never!" replied the others in chorus; "we fear nobody." + +"Forward!" + +"Yes, yes--forward!" was repeated on all sides. And the animation, which +had been calmed down for a moment, was redoubled in the midst of renewed +tumult. Some moments after, the eyes of the assailants, becoming +accustomed to the twilight, were able to distinguish in the midst of the +faint halo shed around by a silver lamp, the imposing countenance of +Gabriel, as he stood before the iron railing of the choir. + +"The poisoner is here, hid in some corner," cried the quarryman. "We must +force this parson to give us back the villain." + +"He shall answer for him!" + +"He took him into the church." + +"He shall pay for both, if we do not find the other!" + +As the first impression of involuntary respect was effaced from the minds +of the crowd, their voices rose the louder, and their faces became the +more savage and threatening, because they all felt ashamed of their +momentary hesitation and weakness. + +"Yes, yes!" cried many voices, trembling with rage, "we must have the +life of one or the other!" + +"Or of both!" + +"So much the worse for this priest, if he wants to prevent us from +serving out our poisoner!" + +"Death to him! death to him!" + +With this burst of ferocious yells, which were fearfully re-echoed from +the groined arches of the cathedral, the mob, maddened by rage, rushed +towards the choir, at the door of which Gabriel was standing. The young +missionary, who, when placed on the cross by the savages of the Rocky +Mountains, yet entreated heaven to spare his executioners, had too much +courage in his heart, too much charity in his soul, not to risk his life +a thousand times over to save Father d'Aigrigny's--the very man who had +betrayed hire by such cowardly and cruel hypocrisy. + + + + +CHAPTER XXV. + +THE MURDERERS. + +The quarryman, followed by his gang, ran towards Gabriel, who had +advanced a few paces from the choir-railing, and exclaimed, his eyes +sparkling with rage: "Where is the poisoner? We will have him!" + +"Who has told you, my brethren, that he is a poisoner?" replied Gabriel, +with his deep, sonorous voice. "A poisoner! Where are the +proofs--witnesses or victims?" + +"Enough of that stuff! we are not here for confession," brutally answered +the quarryman, advancing towards him in a threatening manner. "Give up +the man to us; he shall be forthcoming, unless you choose to stand in his +shoes?" + +"Yes, yes!" exclaimed several voices; "they are 'in' with one another! +One or the other we will have!" + +"Very well, then; since it is so," said Gabriel, raising his head, and +advancing with calmness, resignation; and fearlessness; "he or me," added +he;--"it seems to make no difference to you--you are determined to have +blood--take mine, and I will pardon you, my friends; for a fatal delusion +has unsettled your reason." + +These words of Gabriel, his courage, the nobleness of his attitude, the +beauty of his countenance, had made an impression on some of the +assailants, when suddenly a voice exclaimed: "Look! there is the +poisoner, behind the railing!" + +"Where--where?" cried they. + +"There--don't you see?--stretched on the floor." + +On hearing this, the mob, which had hitherto formed a compact mass, in +the sort of passage separating the two sides of the nave, between the +rows of chairs, dispersed in every direction, to reach the railing of the +choir, the last and only barrier that now sheltered Father d'Aigrigny. +During this manoeuvre the quarryman, Ciboule, and others, advanced +towards Gabriel, exclaiming, with ferocious joy: "This time we have him. +Death to the poisoner!" + +To save Father d'Aigrigny, Gabriel would have allowed himself to be +massacred at the entrance of the choir; but, a little further on, the +railing, not above four feet in height, would in another instant be +scaled or broken through. The Missionary lost all hope of saving the +Jesuit from a frightful death. Yet he exclaimed: "Stop, poor deluded +people!"--and, extending his arms, he threw himself in front of the +crowd. + +His words, gesture, and countenance, were expressive of an authority at +once so affectionate and so fraternal, that there was a momentary +hesitation amongst the mob. But to this hesitation soon succeeded the +most furious cries of "Death; death!" + +"You cry for his death?" cried Gabriel, growing still paler. + +"Yes! yes!" + +"Well, let him die," cried the missionary, inspired with a sudden +thought; "let him die on the instant!" + +These words of the young priest struck the crowd with amazement. For a +few moments, they all stood mute, motionless, and as it were, paralyzed, +looking at Gabriel in stupid astonishment. + +"This man is guilty, you say," resumed the young missionary, in a voice +trembling with emotion. "You have condemned him without proof, without +witnesses--no matter, he must die. You reproach him with being a +poisoner; where are his victims? You cannot tell--but no matter; he is +condemned. You refuse to hear his defense, the sacred right of every +accused person--no matter; the sentence is pronounced. You are at once +his accusers, judges, and executioners. Be it so!--You have never seen +till now this unfortunate man, he has done you no harm, he has perhaps +not done harm to any one--yet you take upon yourselves the terrible +responsibility of his death--understand me well--of his death. Be it so +then! your conscience will absolve you--I will believe it. He must die; +the sacredness of God's house will not save him--" + +"No, no!" cried many furious voices. + +"No," resumed Gabriel, with increasing warmth; "no you have determined to +shed his blood, and you will shed it, even in the Lord's temple. It is, +you say, your right. You are doing an act of terrible justice. But why +then, so many vigorous arms to make an end of one dying man? Why these +outcries? this fury? this violence? Is it thus that the people, the +strong and equitable people, are wont to execute their judgments? No, no; +when sure of their right, they strike their enemies, it is with the +calmness of the judge, who, in freedom of soul and conscience, passes +sentence. No, the strong and equitable people do not deal their blows +like men blind or mad, uttering cries of rage, as if to drown the sense +of some cowardly and horrible murder. No, it is not thus that they +exercise the formidable right, to which you now lay claim--for you will +have it--" + +"Yes, we will have it!" shouted the quarryman, Ciboule, and others of the +more pitiless portion of the mob; whilst a great number remained silent, +struck with the words of Gabriel, who had just painted to them, in such +lively colors, the frightful act they were about to commit. + +"Yes," resumed the quarryman, "it is our right; we have determined to +kill the poisoner!" + +So saying, and with bloodshot eyes, and flushed cheek, the wretch +advanced at the head of a resolute group, making a gesture as though he +would have pushed aside Gabriel, who was still standing in front of the +railing. But instead of resisting the bandit, the missionary advanced a +couple of steps to meet him, took him by the arm, and said in a firm +voice: "Come!" + +And dragging, as it were, with him the stupefied quarryman, whose +companions did not venture to follow at the moment, struck dumb as they +were by this new incident, Gabriel rapidly traversed the space which +separated him from the choir, opened the iron gate, and, still holding +the quarryman by the arm, led him up to the prostrate form of Father +d'Aigrigny, and said to him: "There is the victim. He is condemned. +Strike!" + +"I" cried the quarryman, hesitating; "I--all alone!" + +"Oh!" replied Gabriel, with bitterness, "there is no danger. You can +easily finish him. Look! he is broken down with suffering; he has hardly +a breath of life left; he will make no resistance. Do not be afraid!" + +The quarryman remained motionless, whilst the crowd, strangely impressed +with this incident, approached a little nearer the railing, without +daring to come within the gate. + +"Strike then!" resumed Gabriel, addressing the quarryman, whilst he +pointed to the crowd with a solemn gesture; "there are the judges; you +are the executioner." + +"No!" cried the quarryman, drawing back, and turning away his eyes; "I'm +not the executioner--not I!" + +The crowd remained silent. For a few moments, not a word, not a cry, +disturbed the stillness of the solemn cathedral. In a desperate case, +Gabriel had acted with a profound knowledge of the human heart. When the +multitude, inflamed with blind rage, rushes with ferocious clamor upon a +single victim, and each man strikes his blow, this dreadful species of +combined murder appears less horrible to each, because they all share in +the common crime; and then the shouts, the sight of blood, the desperate +defence of the man they massacre, finish by producing a sort of ferocious +intoxication; but, amongst all those furious madmen, who take part in the +homicide, select one, and place him face to face with the victim, no +longer capable of resistance, and say to him, "Strike!"--he will hardly +ever dare to do so. + +It was thus with the quarryman; the wretch trembled at the idea of +committing a murder in cold blood, "all alone." The preceding scene had +passed very rapidly; amongst the companions of the quarryman, nearest to +the railing, some did not understand an impression, which they would +themselves have felt as strongly as this bold man, if it had been said to +them: "Do the office of executioner!" These, therefore, began to murmur +aloud at his weakness. "He dares not finish the poisoner," said one. + +"The coward!" + +"He is afraid." + +"He draws back." Hearing these words, the quarryman ran to the gate, +threw it wide open, and, pointing to Father d'Aigrigny, exclaimed: "If +there is one here braver than I am, let him go and finish the job--let +him be, the executioner--come!" + +On this proposal the murmurs ceased. A deep silence reigned once more in +the cathedral. All those countenances, but now so furious, became sad, +confused, almost frightened. + +The deluded mob began to appreciate the ferocious cowardice of the action +it had been about to commit. Not one durst go alone to strike the half +expiring man. Suddenly, Father d'Aigrigny uttered a dying rattle, his +head and one of his arms stirred with a convulsive movement, and then +fell back upon the stones as if he had just expired. + +Gabriel uttered a cry of anguish, and threw himself on his knees close to +Father d'Aigrigny, exclaiming: "Great Heaven! he is dead!" + +There is a singular variableness in the mind of a crowd, susceptible +alike to good or evil impressions. At the heart-piercing cry of Gabriel, +all these people, who, a moment before, had demanded, with loud uproar, +the massacre of this man, felt touched with a sudden pity. The words: "He +is dead!" circulated in low whispers through the crowd accompanied by a +slight shudder, whilst Gabriel raised with one hand the victim's heavy +head, and with the other sought to feel if the pulse still beat beneath +the ice-cold skin. + +"Mr. Curate," said the quarryman, bending towards Gabriel, "is there +really no hope?" + +The answer was waited for with anxiety, in the midst of deep silence. The +people hardly ventured to exchange a few words in whispers. + +"Blessed be God!" exclaimed Gabriel, suddenly. "His heart beats." + +"His heart beats," repeated the quarryman, turning his head towards the +crowd, to inform them of the good news. + +"Oh! his heart beats!" repeated the others, in whispers. + +"There is hope. We may yet save him," added Gabriel with an expression of +indescribable happiness. + +"We may yet save him," repeated the quarryman, mechanically. + +"We may yet save him," muttered the crowd. + +"Quick, quick," resumed Gabriel, addressing the quarryman; "help me, +brother. Let us carry him to a neighboring house, where he can have +immediate aid." + +The quarryman obeyed with readiness. Whilst the missionary lifted Father +d'Aigrigny by holding him under the arms, the quarryman took the legs of +the almost inanimate body. Together, they carried him outside of the +choir. At sight of the formidable quarryman, aiding the young priest to +render assistance to the man whom he had just before pursued with menaces +of death, the multitude felt a sudden thrill of compassion. Yielding to +the powerful influence of the words and example of Gabriel, they felt +themselves deeply moved, and each became anxious to offer services. + +"Mr. Curate, he would perhaps be better on a chair, that one could carry +upright," said Ciboule. + +"Shall I go and fetch a stretcher from the hospital?" asked another. + +"Mr. Curate, let me take your place; the body is too heavy for you." + +"Don't trouble yourself," said a powerful man, approaching the missionary +respectfully; "I can carry him alone." + +"Shall I run and fetch a coach, Mr. Curate?" said a young vagabond, +taking off his red cap. + +"Right," said the quarryman; "run away, my buck!" + +"But first, ask Mr. Curate if you are to go for a coach," said Ciboule, +stopping the impatient messenger. + +"True," added one of the bystanders; "we are here in a church, and Mr. +Curate has the command. He is at home." + +"Yes, yes; go at once, my child," said Gabriel to the obliging young +vagabond. + +Whilst the latter was making his way through the crowd, a voice said: +"I've a little wicker-bottle of brandy; will that be of any use?" + +"No doubt," answered Gabriel, hastily; "pray give it here. We can rub his +temples with the spirit, and make him inhale a little." + +"Pass the bottle," cried Ciboule; "but don't put your noses in it!" And, +passed with caution from hand to hand, the flask reached Gabriel in +safety. + +Whilst waiting for the coming of the coach, Father d'Aigrigny had been +seated on a chair. Whilst several good-natured people carefully supported +the abbe, the missionary made him inhale a little brandy. In a few +minutes, the spirit had a powerful influence on the Jesuit; he made some +slight movements, and his oppressed bosom heaved with a deep sigh. + +"He is saved--he will live," cried Gabriel, in a triumphant voice; "he +will live, my brothers!" + +"Oh! glad to hear it!" exclaimed many voices. + +"Oh, yes! be glad, my brothers!" repeated Gabriel; "for, instead of being +weighed down with the remorse of crime, you will have a just and +charitable action to remember. Let us thank God, that he has changed your +blind fury into a sentiment of compassion! Let us pray to Him, that +neither you, nor those you love, may ever be exposed to such frightful +danger as this unfortunate man has just escaped. Oh, my brothers!" added +Gabriel, as he pointed to the image of Christ with touching emotion, +which communicated itself the more easily to others from the expression +of his angelic countenance; "oh, my brothers! let us never forget, that +HE, who died upon that cross for the defence of the oppressed, for the +obscure children of the people like to ourselves, pronounced those +affectionate words so sweet to the heart; 'Love ye one another!'--Let us +never forget it; let us love and help one another, and we poor people +shall then become better, happier, just. Love--yes, love ye one +another--and fall prostrate before that Saviour, who is the God of all +that are weak, oppressed, and suffering in this world!" + +So saying, Gabriel knelt down. All present respectfully followed his +example, such power was there in his simple and persuasive words. At this +moment, a singular incident added to the grandeur of the scene. We have +said that a few seconds before the quarryman and his band entered the +body of the church, several persons had fled from it. Two of these had +taken refuge in the organ-loft, from which retreat they had viewed the +preceding scene, themselves remaining invisible. One of these persons was +a young man charged with the care of the organ, and quite musician enough +to play on it. Deeply moved by the unexpected turn of an event which at +first appeared so tragical, and yielding to an artistical inspiration, +this young man, at the moment when he saw the people kneeling with +Gabriel, could not forbear striking the notes. Then a sort of harmonious +sigh, at first almost insensible, seemed to rise from the midst of this +immense cathedral, like a divine aspiration. As soft and aerial as the +balmy vapor of incense, it mounted and spread through the lofty arches. +Little by little the faint, sweet sounds, though still as it were +covered, changed to an exquisite melody, religious, melancholy, and +affectionate, which rose to heaven like a song of ineffable gratitude and +love. And the notes were at first so faint, so covered, that the kneeling +multitude had scarcely felt surprise, and had yielded insensibly to the +irresistible influence of that enchanting harmony. + +Then many an eye, until now dry and ferocious, became wet with +tears--many hard hearts beat gently, as they remembered the words +pronounced by Gabriel with so tender an accent: "Love ye one another!" It +was at this moment that Father d'Aigrigny came to himself--and opened his +eyes. He thought himself under the influence of a dream. He had lost his +senses in sight of a furious populace, who, with insult and blasphemy on +their lips, pursued him with cries of death even to the sanctuary of the +temple. He opened his eyes--and, by the pale light of the sacred lamps, +to the solemn music of the organ, he saw that crowd, just now so menacing +and implacable, kneeling in mute and reverential emotion, and humbly +bowing their heads before the majesty of the shrine. + +Some minutes after, Gabriel, carried almost in triumph on the shoulders +of the crowd, entered the coach, in which Father d'Aigrigny, who by +degrees had completely recovered his senses, was already reclining. By +the order of the Jesuit, the coach stopped before the door of a house in +the Rue de Vaugirard; he had the strength and courage to enter this +dwelling alone; Gabriel was not admitted, but we shall conduct the reader +thither. + + + + +CHAPTER XXVI. + +THE PATIENT. + +At the end of the Rue de Vaugirard, there was then a very high wall, with +only one small doorway in all its length. On opening this door, you +entered a yard surrounded by a railing, with screens like Venetian +blinds, to prevent your seeing between the rails. Crossing this +courtyard, you come to a fine large garden, symmetrically planted, at the +end of which stood a building two stories high, looking perfectly +comfortable, without luxury, but with all that cozy simplicity which +betokens discreet opulence. A few days had elapsed since Father +d'Aigrigny had been so courageously rescued by Gabriel from the popular +fury. Three ecclesiastics, wearing black gowns, white bands, and square +caps, were walking in the garden with a slow and measured step. The +youngest seemed to be about thirty years of age; his countenance was +pale, hollow, and impressed with a certain ascetic austerity. His two +companions, aged between fifty or sixty, had, on the contrary, faces at +once hypocritical and cunning; their round, rosy cheeks shone brightly in +the sunshine, whilst their triple chins, buried in fat, descended in soft +folds over the fine cambric of their bands. According to the rules of +their order (they belonged to the Society of Jesus), which forbade their +walking only two together, these three members of the brotherhood never +quitted each other a moment. + +"I fear," said one of the two, continuing a conversation already begun, +and speaking of an absent person, "I fear, that the continual agitation +to which the reverend father has been a prey, ever since he was attacked +with the cholera, has exhausted his strength, and caused the dangerous +relapse which now makes us fear for his life." + +"They say," resumed the other, "that never was there seen anxiety like to +his." + +"And moreover," remarked the young priest, bitterly, "it is painful to +think, that his reverence Father Rodin has given cause for scandal, by +obstinately refusing to make a public confession, the day before +yesterday when his situation appeared so desperate, that, between two +fits of a delirium, it was thought right to propose to him to receive the +last sacraments." + +"His reverence declared that he was not so ill as they supposed," +answered one of the fathers, "and that he would have the last duties +performed when he thought necessary." + +"The fact is, that for the last ten days, ever since he was brought here +dying, his life has been, as it were, only a long and painful agony; and +yet he continues to live." + +"I watched by him during the first three days of his malady, with M. +Rousselet, the pupil of Dr. Baleinier," resumed the youngest father; "he +had hardly a moment's consciousness, and when the Lord did grant him a +lucid interval, he employed it in detestable execrations against the fate +which had confined him to his bed." + +"It is said," resumed the other, "that Father Rodin made answer to his +Eminence Cardinal Malipieri, who came to persuade him to die in an +exemplary manner, worthy of a son of Loyola, our blessed founder"--at +these words, the three Jesuits bowed their heads together, as if they had +been all moved by the same spring--"it is said, that Father Rodin made +answer to his eminence: 'I do not need to confess publicly; I WANT TO +LIVE, AND I WILL LIVE.'" + +"I did not hear that," said the young priest, with an indignant air; "but +if Father Rodin really made use of such expressions, it is--" + +Here, no doubt, reflection came to him just in time, for he stole a +sidelong glance at his two silent, impassible companions, and added: "It +is a great misfortune for his soul; but I am certain, his reverence has +been slandered." + +"It was only as a calumnious report, that I mentioned those words," said +the other priest, exchanging a glance with his companion. + +One of the garden gates opened, and one of the three reverend fathers +exclaimed, at the sight of the personage who now entered: "Oh! here is +his Eminence Cardinal Malipieri, coming to pay a visit to Father Rodin." + +"May this visit of his eminence," said the young priest, calmly, "be more +profitable to Father Rodin than the last!" + +Cardinal Malipieri was crossing the garden, on his way to the apartment +occupied by Rodin. + +Cardinal Malipieri, whom we saw assisting at the sort of council held at +the Princess de Saint-Dizier's, now on his way to Rodin's apartment, was +dressed as a layman, but enveloped in an ample pelisse of puce-colored +satin, which exhaled a strong odor of camphor, for the prelate had taken +care to surround himself with all sorts of anti-cholera specifics. Having +reached the second story of the house, the cardinal knocked at a little +gray door. Nobody answering, he opened it, and, like a man to whom the +locality was well known, passed through a sort of antechamber, and +entered a room in which was a turn-up bed. On a black wood table were +many phials, which had contained different medicines. The prelate's +countenance seemed uneasy and morose; his complexion was still yellow and +bilious; the brown circle which surrounded his black, squinting eyes +appeared still darker than usual. + +Pausing a moment, he looked round him almost in fear, and several times +stopped to smell at his anti-cholera bottle. Then, seeing he was alone, +he approached a glass over the chimney-piece, and examined with much +attention the color of his tongue; after some minutes spent in this +careful investigation, with the result of which he appeared tolerably +satisfied, he took some preservative lozenges out of a golden box, and +allowed them to melt in his mouth, whilst he closed his eyes with a +sanctified air. Having taken these sanitary precautions, and again +pressed his bottle to his nose, the prelate prepared to enter the third +room, when he heard a tolerably loud noise through the thin partition +which separated him from it, and, stopping to listen, all that was said +in the next apartment easily reached his ear. + +"Now that my wounds are dressed, I will get up," said weak, but sharp and +imperious voice. + +"Do not think of it, reverend father," was answered in a stronger tone; +"it is impossible." + +"You shall see if it is impossible," replied the other voice. + +"But, reverend father, you will kill yourself. You are not in a state to +get up. You will expose yourself to a mortal relapse. I cannot consent to +it." + +To these words succeeded the noise of a faint struggle, mingled with +groans more angry than plaintive, and the voice resumed: "No, no, father; +for your own safety, I will not leave your clothes within your reach. It +is almost time for your medicine; I will go and prepare it for you." + +Almost immediately after, the door opened, and the prelate saw enter a +man of about twenty-five years of age, carrying on his arm an old olive +great-coat and threadbare black trousers, which he threw down upon a +chair. + +This personage was Ange Modeste Rousselet, chief pupil of Dr. Baleinier; +the countenance of the young practitioner was mild, humble, and reserved; +his hair, very short in front, flowed down upon his neck behind. He made +a slight start in surprise on perceiving the cardinal, and bowed twice +very low, without raising his eyes. + +"Before anything else," said the prelate, with his marked Italian accent, +still holding to his nose his bottle of camphor, "have any choleraic +symptoms returned?" + +"No, my lord; the pernicious fever, which succeeded the attack of +cholera, still continues." + +"Very good. But will not the reverend father be reasonable? What was the +noise that I just heard?" + +"His reverence wished absolutely to get up and dress himself; but his +weakness is so great, that he could not have taken two steps from the +bed. He is devoured by impatience, and we fear that this agitation will +cause a mortal relapse." + +"Has Dr. Baleinier been here this morning?" + +"He has just left, my lord." + +"What does he think of the patient?" + +"He finds him in the most alarming state, my lord. The night was so bad, +that he was extremely uneasy this morning. Father Rodin is at one of +those critical junctures, when a few hours may decide the life or death +of the patient. Dr. Baleinier is now gone to fetch what is necessary for +a very painful operation, which he is about to perform on the reverend +father." + +"Has Father d'Aigrigny been told of this?" + +"Father d'Aigrigny is himself very unwell, as your eminence knows; he has +not been able to leave his bed for the last three days." + +"I inquired about him as I came up," answered the prelate, "and I shall +see him directly. But, to return to Father Rodin, have you sent for his +confessor, since he is in a desperate state, and about to undergo a +serious operation?" + +"Dr. Baleinier spoke a word to him about it, as well as about the last +sacraments; but Father Rodin exclaimed, with great irritation, that they +did not leave him a moment's peace, that he had as much care as any one +for his salvation, and that--" + +"Per Bacco! I am not thinking of him," cried the cardinal, interrupting +Ange Modeste Rousselet with his pagan oath, and raising his sharp voice +to a still higher key; "I am not thinking of him, but of the interests of +the Company. It is indispensable that the reverend father should receive +the sacraments with the most splendid solemnity, and that his end should +not only be Christian, but exemplary. All the people in the house, and +even strangers, should be invited to the spectacle, so that his edifying +death may produce an excellent sensation." + +"That is what Fathers Grison and Brunet have already endeavored to +persuade his reverence, my lord; but your Eminence knows with what +impatience Father Rodin received this advice, and Dr. Baleinier did not +venture to persist, for fear of advancing a fatal crisis." + +"Well, I will venture to do it; for in these times of revolutionary +impiety, a solemnly Christian death would produce a very salutary effect +on the public. It would indeed be proper to make the necessary +preparations to embalm the reverend father: he might then lie in state +for some days, with lighted tapers, according to Romish custom. My +secretary would furnish the design for the bier; it would be very +splendid and imposing; from his position in the Order, Father Rodin is +entitled to have everything in the most sumptuous style. He must have at +least six hundred tapers, and a dozen funeral lamps, burning spirits of +wine, to hang just over the body, and light it from above: the effect +would be excellent. We must also distribute little tracts to the people, +concerning the pious and ascetic life of his reverence--" + +Here a sudden noise, like that of some piece of metal thrown angrily on +the floor, was heard from the next room, in which was the sick man, and +interrupted the prelate in his description. + +"I hope Father Rodin has not heard you talk of embalming him, my lord," +said Rousselet, in a whisper: "his bed touches the partition, and almost +everything is audible through it." + +"If Father Rodin has heard me," answered the cardinal, sinking his voice, +and retiring to the other end of the room, "this circumstance will enable +me to enter at once on the business; but, in any case, I persist in +believing that the embalming and the lying in state are required to make +a good effect upon the public. The people are already frightened at the +cholera, and such funeral pomp would have no small influence on the +imagination." + +"I would venture to observe to your Eminence, that here the laws are +opposed to such exhibitions." + +"The laws--already the laws!" said the cardinal, angrily; "has not Rome +also her laws? And is not every priest a subject of Rome? Is it not +time--" + +But, not choosing, doubtless, to begin a more explicit conversation with +the young doctor, the prelate resumed, "We will talk of this hereafter. +But, tell me, since my last visit, has the reverend father had any fresh +attacks of delirium?" + +"Yes, my lord; here is the note, as your Eminence commanded." So saying +Rousselet delivered a paper to the prelate. We will inform the reader +that this part of the conversation between Rousselet and the cardinal was +carried on at a distance from the partition, so that Rodin could hear +nothing of it, whilst that which related to the embalming had been +perfectly audible to him. + +The cardinal, having received the note from Rousselet, perused it with an +expression of lively curiosity. When he had finished, he crumpled it in +his hand, and said, without attempting to dissemble his vexation, "Always +nothing but incoherent expression. Not two words together, from which you +can draw any reasonable conclusion. One would really think this man had +the power to control himself even in his delirium, and to rave about +insignificant matters only." + +Then, addressing Rousselet, "You are sure that you have reported +everything that escaped from him during his delirium?" + +"With the exception of the same phrases, that he repeated over and over +again, your Eminence may be assured that I have not omitted a single +word, however unmeaning." + +"Show me into Father Rodin's room," said the prelate, after a moment's +silence. + +"But, my lord," answered the young doctor, with some hesitation, "the fit +has only left him about an hour, and the reverend father is still very +weak." + +"The more the reason," replied the prelate, somewhat indiscreetly. Then, +recollecting himself, he added, "He will the better appreciate the +consolations I have to offer. Should he be asleep, awake him, and +announce my visit." + +"I have only orders to receive from your Eminence," said Rousselet, +bowing, and entering the next room. + +Left alone, the cardinal said to himself, with a pensive air, "I always +come back to that. When he was suddenly attacked by the cholera, Father +Rodin believed himself poisoned by order of the Holy See. He must then +have been plotting something very formidable against Rome, to entertain +so abominable a fear. Can our suspicions be well founded? Is he acting +secretly and powerfully on the Sacred College? But then for what end? +This it has been impossible to penetrate, so faithfully has the secret +been kept by his accomplices. I had hoped that, during his delirium, he +would let slip some word that would put us on the trace of what we are so +much interested to discover. With so restless and active a mind, delirium +is often the exaggeration of some dominant idea; yet here I have the +report of five different fits--and nothing--no, nothing but vague, +unconnected phrases." + +The return of Rousselet put an end to these reflections. "I am sorry to +inform my lord that the reverend father obstinately refuses to see any +one. He says that he requires absolute repose. Though very weak, he has a +savage and angry look, and I should not be surprised if he overheard your +Eminence talk about embalming him." + +The cardinal, interrupting Rousselet, said to him, "Did Father Rodin have +his last fit of delirium in the night?" + +"Between three and half-past five this morning, my lord." + +"Between three and half-past five," repeated the prelate, as if he wished +to impress this circumstance on his memory, "the attack presented no +particular symptoms?" + +"No, my lord; it consisted of rambling, incoherent talk, as your Eminence +may see by this note." + +Then, as he perceived the prelate approaching Father Rodin's door, +Rousselet added, "The reverend father will positively see no one, my +lord; he requires rest, to prepare for the operation; it might be +dangerous--" + +Without attending to these observations, the cardinal entered Rodin's +chamber. It was a tolerably large room, lighted by two windows, and +simply but commodiously furnished. Two logs were burning slowly in the +fireplace, in which stood a coffee-pot, a vessel containing mustard +poultice, etc. On the chimney-piece were several pieces of rag, and some +linen bandages. The room was full of that faint chemical odor peculiar to +the chambers of the sick, mingled with so putrid a stench, that the +cardinal stopped at the door a moment, before he ventured to advance +further. As the three reverend fathers had mentioned in their walk, Rodin +lived because he had said to himself, "I want to live, and I will live." + +For, as men of timid imaginations and cowardly minds often die from the +mere dread of dying, so a thousand facts prove that vigor of character +and moral energy may often struggle successfully against disease, and +triumph over the most desperate symptoms. + +It was thus with the Jesuit. The unshaken firmness of his character, the +formidable tenacity of his will (for the will has sometimes a mysterious +and almost terrific power), aiding the skillful treatment of Dr. +Baleinier, had saved him from the pestilence with which he had been so +suddenly attacked. But the shock had been succeeded by a violent fever, +which placed Rodin's life in the utmost peril. This increased danger had +caused the greatest alarm to Father d'Aigrigny, who felt, in spite of his +rivalry and jealousy, that Rodin was the master-spirit of the plot in +which they were engaged, and could alone conduct it to a successful +issue. + +The curtains of the room was half closed, and admitted only a doubtful +light to the bed on which Rodin was lying. The Jesuit's features had lost +the greenish hue peculiar to cholera patients, but remained perfectly +livid and cadaverous, and so thin, that the dry, rugged skin appeared to +cling to the smallest prominence of bone. The muscles and veins of the +long, lean, vulture-like neck resembled a bundle of cords. The head, +covered with an old, black, filthy nightcap, from beneath which strayed a +few thin, gray hairs, rested upon a dirty pillow; for Rodin would not +allow them to change his linen. His iron-gray beard had not been shaved +for some time, and stood out like the hairs of a brush. Under his shirt +he wore an old flannel waistcoat full of holes. He had one of his arms +out of bed, and his bony hairy hand, with its bluish nails, held fast a +cotton handkerchief of indescribable color. + +You might have taken him for a corpse, had it not been for the two +brilliant sparks which still burned in the depths of his eyes. In that +look, in which seemed concentrated all the remaining life and energy of +the man, you might read the most restless anxiety. Sometimes his features +revealed the sharpest pangs; sometimes the twisting of his hands, and his +sudden starts, proclaimed his despair at being thus fettered to a bed of +pain, whilst the serious interests which he had in charge required all +the activity of his mind. Thus, with thoughts continually on the stretch, +his mind often wandered, and he had fits of delirium, from which he woke +as from a painful dream. By the prudent advice of Dr. Baleinier, who +considered him not in a state to attend to matters of--importance, Father +d'Aigrigny had hitherto evaded Rodin's questions with regard to the +Rennepont affair, which he dreaded to see lost and ruined in consequence +of his forced inaction. The silence of Father d'Aigrigny on this head, +and the ignorance in which they kept him, only augmented the sick man's +exasperation. Such was the moral and physical state of Rodin, when +Cardinal Malipieri entered his chamber against his will. + + + + +CHAPTER XXVII. + +THE LURE. + +To understand fully the tortures of Rodin, reduced to inactivity by +sickness, and to explain the importance of Cardinal Malipieri's visit, we +must remember the audacious views of the ambitious Jesuit, who believed +himself following in the steps of Sixtus V., and expected to become his +equal. By the success of the Rennepont affair, to attain to the +generalship of his Order, by the corruption of the Sacred College to +ascend the pontifical throne, and then, by means of a change in the +statutes of the Company, to incorporate the Society of Jesus with the +Holy See, instead of leaving it independent, to equal and almost always +rule the Papacy--such were the secret projects of Rodin. + +Their possibility was sanctioned by numerous precedents, for many mere +monks and priests had been suddenly raised to the pontifical dignity. And +as for their morality, the accession of the Borgias, of Julius II., and +other dubious Vicars of Christ, might excuse and authorize the +pretensions of the Jesuits. + +Though the object of his secret intrigues at Rome had hitherto been +enveloped in the greatest mystery, suspicions had been excited in regard +to his private communications with many members of the Sacred College. A +portion of that college, Cardinal Malipieri at the head of them, had +become very uneasy on the subject, and, profiting by his journey to +France, the cardinal had resolved to penetrate the Jesuit's dark designs. +If, in the scene we have just painted, the cardinal showed himself so +obstinately bent on having a conference with Rodin, in spite of the +refusal of the latter, it was because the prelate hoped, as we shall soon +see, to get by cunning at the secret, which had hitherto been so well +concealed. It was, therefore, in the midst of all these extraordinary +circumstances, that Rodin saw himself the victim of a malady, which +paralyzed his strength, at the moment when he had need of all his +activity, and of all the resources of his mind. After remaining for some +seconds motionless near the door, the cardinal, still holding his bottle +under his nose, slowly approached the bed where Rodin lay. + +The latter, enraged at this perseverance, and wishing to avoid an +interview which for many reasons was singularly odious to him, turned his +face towards the wall, and pretended to be asleep. Caring little for this +feint, and determined to profit by Rodin's state of weakness, the prelate +took a chair, and, conquering his repugnance, sat down close to the +Jesuit's bed. + +"My reverend and very dear father, how do you find yourself?" said he to +him, in a honeyed tone, which his Italian accent seemed to render still +more hypocritical. Rodin pretended not to hear, breathed hard, and made +no answer. But the cardinal, not without disgust, shook with his gloved +hand the arm of the Jesuit, and repeated in a louder voice: "My reverend +and very dear father, answer me, I conjure you!" + +Rodin could not restrain a movement of angry impatience, but he continued +silent. The cardinal was not a man to be discouraged by so little; he +again shook the arm of the Jesuit, somewhat more roughly, repeating, with +a passionless tenacity that would have incensed the most patient person +in the world: "My reverend and very dear father, since you are not +asleep, listen to me, I entreat of you." + +Irritable with pain, exasperated by the obstinacy of the prelate, Rodin +abruptly turned his head, fixed on the Roman his hollow eyes, shining +with lurid fire, and, with lips contracted by a sardonic smile, said to +him, bitterly: "You must be very anxious, my lord, to see me embalmed, +and lie in state with tapers, as you were saying just now, for you thus +to come to torment me in my last moments, and hasten my end!" + +"Oh, my good father! how can you talk so?" cried the cardinal, raising +his hands as if to call heaven to witness to the sincerity of the tender +interest he felt for the Jesuit. + +"I tell you that I heard all just now, my lord; for the partition is +thin," added Rodin, with redoubled bitterness. + +"If you mean that, from the bottom of my soul, I desired that you should +make an exemplary and Christian end, you are perfectly right, my dear +father. I did say so; for, after a life so well employed, it would be +sweet to see you an object of adoration for the faithful!" + +"I tell you, my lord," cried Rodin, in a weak and broken voice, "that it +is ferocious to express such wishes in the presence of a dying man. Yes," +he added, with growing animation, that contrasted strongly with his +weakness, "take care what you do; for if I am too much plagued and +pestered--if I am not allowed to breathe my last breath quietly--I give +you notice that you will force me to die in anything but a Christian +manner, and if you mean to profit by an edifying spectacle, you will be +deceived." + +This burst of anger having greatly fatigued Rodin, his head fell back +upon the pillow, and he wiped his cracked and bleeding lips with his old +cotton handkerchief. + +"Come, come, be calm, my very dear father," resumed the cardinal, with a +patronizing air; "do not give way to such gloomy ideas. Doubtless, +Providence reserves you for great designs, since you have been already +delivered from so much peril. Let us hope that you will be likewise saved +from your present danger." + +Rodin answered by a hoarse growl, and turned his face towards the wall. + +The imperturbable prelate continued: "The views of Providence are not +confined to your salvation, my very dear father. Its power has been +manifested in another way. What I am about to tell you is of the highest +importance. Listen attentively." + +Without turning his head, Rodin muttered in a tone of angry bitterness, +which betrayed his intense sufferings: "They desire my death. My chest is +on fire, my head racked with pain, and they have no pity. Oh, I suffer +the tortures of the damned!" + +"What! already" thought the Roman, with a smile of sarcastic malice; then +he said aloud: "Let me persuade you, my very dear father--make an effort +to listen to me; you will not regret it." + +Still stretched upon the bed, Rodin lifted his hands clasped upon his +cotton handkerchief with a gesture of despair, and then let them fall +again by his side. + +The cardinal slightly shrugged his shoulders, and laid great stress on +what follows, so that Rodin might not lose a word of it: "My dear father, +it has pleased Providence that, during your fit of raving, you have made, +without knowing it, the most important revelations." + +The prelate waited with anxious curiosity for the effect of the pious +trap he had laid for the Jesuit's weakened faculties. But the latter, +still turned towards the wall, did not appear to have heard him and +remained silent. + +"You are, no doubt, reflecting on my words, my dear father," resumed the +cardinal; "you are right, for it concerns a very serious affair. I repeat +to you that Providence has allowed you, during your delirium, to betray +your most secret thoughts--happily, to me alone. They are such as would +compromise you in the highest degree. In short, during your delirium of +last night, which lasted nearly two hours, you unveiled the secret +objects of your intrigues at Rome with many of the members of the Sacred +College." + +The cardinal, rising softly, stooped over the bed to watch the expression +of Rodin's countenance. But the latter did not give him time. As a +galvanized corpse starts into strange and sudden motion, Rodin sprang +into a sitting posture at the last words of the prelate. + +"He has betrayed himself," said the cardinal, in a low voice, in Italian. +Then, resuming his seat, he fixed on the Jesuit his eyes, that sparkled +with triumphant joy. + +Though he did not hear the exclamation of Malipieri, nor remark the +expression of his countenance, Rodin, notwithstanding his state of +weakness, instantly felt the imprudence of his start. He pressed his hand +to his forehead, as though he had been seized with a giddiness; then, +looking wildly round him, he pressed to his trembling lips his old cotton +handkerchief, and gnawed it mechanically for some seconds. + +"Your emotion and alarm confirm the sad discoveries I have made," resumed +the cardinal, still more rejoicing at the success of his trick; "and now, +my dear father," added he, "you will understand that it is for your best +interest to enter into the most minute detail as to your projects and +accomplices at Rome. You may then hope, my dear father, for the +indulgence of the Holy See--that is, if your avowals are sufficiently +explicit to fill up the chasms necessarily left in a confession made +during delirium." + +Rodin, recovered from his first surprise, perceived, but too late, that +he had fallen into a snare, not by any words he had spoken, but by his +too significant movements. In fact, the Jesuit had feared for a moment +that he might have betrayed himself during his delirium, when he heard +himself accused of dark intrigues with Rome; but, after some minutes of +reflection, his common sense suggested: "If this crafty Roman knew my +secret, he would take care not to tell me so. He has only suspicions, +confirmed by my involuntary start just now." + +Rodin wiped the cold sweat from his burning forehead. The emotion of this +scene augmented his sufferings, and aggravated the danger of his +condition. Worn out with fatigue, he could not remain long in a sitting +posture, and soon fell back upon the bed. + +"Per Bacco!" said the cardinal to himself, alarmed at the expression of +the Jesuit's face; "if he were to die before he had spoken, and so escape +the snare!" + +Then, leaning over the bed, the prelate asked: "What is the matter, my +very dear father?" + +"I am weak, my lord--I am in pain--I cannot express what I suffer." + +"Let us hope, my very dear father, that this crisis will have no fatal +results; but the contrary may happen, and it behooves the salvation of +your soul to make instantly the fullest confession. Were it even to +exhaust your strength, what is this perishable body compared to eternal +life?" + +"Of what confession do you speak, my lord?" said Rodin, in a feeble and +yet sarcastic tone. + +"What confession!" cried the amazed cardinal; "why, with regard to your +dangerous intrigues at Rome." + +"What intrigues?" asked Rodin. + +"The intrigues you revealed during your delirium," replied the prelate, +with still more angry impatience. "Were not your avowals sufficiently +explicit? Why, then, this culpable hesitation to complete them?" + +"My avowals--were explicit--you assure me?" said Rodin, pausing after +each word for want of breath, but without losing his energy and presence +of mind. + +"Yes, I repeat it," resumed the cardinal; "with the exception of a few +chasms, they were most explicit." + +"Then why repeat them?" said Rodin, with the same sardonic smile on his +violet lips. + +"Why repeat them?" cried the angry prelate. "In order to gain pardon; for +if there is indulgence and mercy for the repentant sinner, there must be +condemnation and curses for the hardened criminal!" + +"Oh, what torture! I am dying by slow fire!" murmured Rodin. "Since I +have told all," he resumed, "I have nothing more to tell. You know it +already." + +"I know all--doubtless, I know all," replied the prelate, in a voice of +thunder; "but how have I learned it? By confessions made in a state of +unconsciousness. Do you think they will avail you anything? No; the +moment is solemn--death is at hand, tremble to die with a sacrilegious +falsehood on your lips," cried the prelate, shaking Rodin violently by +the arm; "dread the eternal flames, if you dare deny what you know to be +the truth. Do you deny it?" + +"I deny nothing," murmured Rodin, with difficulty. "Only leave me alone!" + +"Then heaven inspires you," said the cardinal, with a sigh of +satisfaction; and, thinking he had nearly attained his object, he +resumed, "Listen to the divine word, that will guide you, father. You +deny nothing?" + +"I was--delirious--and cannot--(oh! how I suffer!)" added Rodin, by way +of parenthesis; "and cannot therefore--deny--the nonsense--I may have +uttered!" + +"But when this nonsense agrees with the truth," cried the prelate, +furious at being again deceived in his expectation; "but when raving is +an involuntary, providential revelation--" + +"Cardinal Malipieri--your craft is no match--for my agony," answered +Rodin, in a failing voice. "The proof--that I have not told my secret--if +I have a secret--is--that you want to make me tell it!" In spite of his +pain and weakness, the Jesuit had courage to raise himself in the bed, +and look the cardinal full in the face, with a smile of bitter irony. +After which he fell back on the pillow, and pressed his hands to his +chest, with a long sigh of anguish. + +"Damnation! the infernal Jesuit has found me out!" said the cardinal to +himself, as he stamped his foot with rage. "He sees that he was +compromised by his first movement; he is now upon his guard; I shall get +nothing more from him--unless indeed, profiting by the state of weakness +in which he is, I can, by entreaties, by threats, by terror--" + +The prelate was unable to finish. The door opened abruptly, and Father +d'Aigrigny entered the room, exclaiming with an explosion of joy: +"Excellent news!" + + + + +CHAPTER XXVIII. + +GOOD NEWS. + +By the alteration in the countenance of Father d'Aigrigny, his pale +cheek, and the feebleness of his walk, one might see that the terrible +scene in the square of Notre-Dame, had violently reacted upon his health. +Yet his face was radiant and triumphant, as he entered Rodin's chamber, +exclaiming: "Excellent news!" + +On these words, Rodin started. In spite of his weakness, he raised his +head, and his eyes shone with a curious, uneasy, piercing expression. +With his lean hand, he beckoned Father d'Aigrigny to approach the bed, +and said to him, in a broken voice, so weak that it was scarcely audible: +"I am very ill--the cardinal has nearly finished me--but if this +excellent news--relates to the Rennepont affair--of which I hear +nothing--it might save me yet!" + +"Be saved then!" cried Father d'Aigrigny, forgetting the recommendations +of Dr. Baleinier; "read, rejoice! What you foretold is beginning to be +realized!" + +So saying, he drew a paper from his pocket, and delivered it to Rodin, +who seized it with an eager and trembling hand. Some minutes before, +Rodin would have been really incapable of continuing his conversation +with the cardinal, even if prudence had allowed him to do so; nor could +he have read a single line, so dim had his sight become. But, at the +words of Father d'Aigrigny, he felt such a renewal of hope and vigor, +that, by a mighty effort of energy and will, he rose to a sitting +posture, and, with clear head, and look of intelligent animation, he read +rapidly the paper that Father d'Aigrigny had just delivered to him. + +The cardinal, amazed at this sudden transfiguration, asked himself if he +beheld the same man, who, a few minutes before, had fallen back on his +bed, almost insensible. Hardly had Rodin finished reading, than he +uttered a cry of stifled joy, saying, with an accent impossible to +describe: "ONE gone! it works--'tis well!" And, closing his eyes in a +kind of ecstatic transport, a smile of proud triumph overspread his face, +and rendered him still more hideous, by discovering his yellow and +gumless teeth. His emotion was so violent, that the paper fell from his +trembling hand. + +"He has fainted," cried Father d'Aigrigny, with uneasiness, as he leaned +over Rodin. "It is my fault, I forgot that the doctor cautioned me not to +talk to him of serious matters." + +"No; do not reproach yourself," said Rodin, in a low voice, half-raising +himself in the bed. "This unexpected joy may perhaps cure me. Yes--I +scarce know what I feel--but look at my cheeks--it seems to me, that, for +the first time since I have been stretched on this bed of pain, they are +a little warm." + +Rodin spoke the truth. A slight color appeared suddenly on his livid and +icy cheeks; his voice though still very weak, became less tremulous, and +he exclaimed, in a tone of conviction that startled Father d'Aigrigny and +the prelate, "This first success answers for the others. I read the +future. Yes, yes; our cause will triumph. Every member of the execrable +Rennepont family will be crushed--and that soon you will see--" + +Then, pausing, Rodin threw himself back on the pillow, exclaiming: "Oh! I +am choked with joy. My voice fails me." + +"But what is it?" asked the cardinal of Father d'Aigrigny. + +The latter replied, in a tone of hypocritical sanctity: "One of the heirs +of the Rennepont family, a poor fellow, worn out with excesses and +debauchery, died three days ago, at the close of some abominable orgies, +in which he had braved the cholera with sacrilegious impiety. In +consequence of the indisposition that kept me at home, and of another +circumstance, I only received to-day the certificate of the death of this +victim of intemperance and irreligion. I must proclaim it to the praise +of his reverence"--pointing to Rodin--"that he told me, the worst enemies +of the descendants of that infamous renegade would be their own bad +passions, and that the might look to them as our allies against the whole +impious race. And so it has happened with Jacques Rennepont." + +"You see," said Rodin, in so faint a voice that it was almost +unintelligible, "the punishment begins already. One of the Renneponts is +dead--and believe me--this certificate," and he pointed to the paper that +Father d'Aigrigny held in his hand, "will one day be worth forty millions +to the Society of Jesus--and that--because--" + +The lips alone finished the sentence. During some seconds, Rodin's voice +had become so faint, that it was at last quite imperceptible. His larynx, +contracted by violent emotion, no longer emitted any sound. The Jesuit, +far from being disconcerted by this incident, finished his phrase, as it +were, by expressive pantomime. Raising his head proudly he tapped his +forehead with his forefinger, as if to express that it was to his ability +this first success was owing. But he soon fell back again on the bed, +exhausted, breathless, sinking, with his cotton handkerchief pressed once +more to his parched lips. The good news, as Father d'Aigrigny called it, +had not cured Rodin. For a moment only, he had had the courage to forget +his pain. But the slight color on his cheek soon disappeared; his face +became once more livid. His sufferings, suspended for a moment, were so +much increased in violence, that he writhed beneath the coverlet, and +buried his face in the pillow, extending his arms above his head, and +holding them stiff as bars of iron. After this crisis, intense as it was +rapid: during which Father d'Aigrigny and the prelate bent anxiously over +him, Rodin, whose face was bathed in cold sweat, made a sign that he +suffered less, and that he wished to drink of a potion to which he +pointed. Father d'Aigrigny fetched it for him, and while the cardinal +held him up with marked disgust, the abbe administered a few spoonfuls of +the potion, which almost immediately produced a soothing effect. + +"Shall I call M. Rousselet?" said Father d'Aigrigny, when Rodin was once +more laid down in bed. + +Rodin shook his head; then, with a fresh effort, he raised his right +hand, opened it, and pointed with his forefinger to a desk in a corner of +the room, to signify that, being no longer able to speak, he wished to +write. + +"I understand your reverence," said Father d'Aigrigny; "but first calm +yourself. Presently, if you require it. I will give you writing +materials." + +Two knocks at the outer door of the next room interrupted this scene. +From motives of prudence, Father d'Aigrigny had begged Rousselet to +remain in the first of the three rooms. He now went to open the door, and +Rousselet handed him a voluminous packet, saying: "I beg pardon for +disturbing you, father, but I was told to let you have these papers +instantly." + +"Thank you, M. Rousselet," said Father d'Aigrigny; "do you know at what +hour Dr. Baleinier will return?" + +"He will not be long, father, for he wishes to perform before night the +painful operation, that will have a decisive effect on the condition of +Father Rodin. I am preparing what is necessary for it," added Rousselet, +as he pointed to a singular and formidable apparatus, which Father +d'Aigrigny examined with a kind of terror. + +"I do not know if the symptom is a serious one," said the Jesuit; "but +the reverend father has suddenly lost his voice." + +"It is the third time this has happened within the last week," said +Rousselet; "the operation of Dr. Baleiner will act both on the larynx and +on the lungs." + +"Is the operation a very painful one?" asked Father d'Aigrigny. + +"There is, perhaps, none more cruel in surgery," answered the young +doctor; "and Dr. Baleinier has partly concealed its nature from Father +Rodin." + +"Please to wait here for Dr. Baleinier, and send him to us as soon as he +arrives," resumed Father d'Aigrigny: and, returning to the sick chamber, +he sat down by the bedside, and said to Rodin, as he showed him the +letter: "Here are different reports with regard to different members of +the Rennepont family, whom I have had looked after by others, my +indisposition having kept me at home for the last few days. I do not +know, father, if the state of your health will permit you to hear--" + +Rodin made a gesture, at once so supplicating and peremptory, that Father +d'Aigrigny felt there would be at least as much danger in refusing as in +granting his request; so, turning towards the cardinal, still +inconsolable at not having discovered the Jesuit's secret, he said to him +with respectful deference, pointing at the same time to the letter: "Have +I the permission of your Eminence?" + +The prelate bowed, and replied: "Your affairs are ours, my dear father. +The Church must always rejoice in what rejoices your glorious Company." + +Father d'Aigrigny unsealed the packet, and found in it different notes in +different handwritings. When he had read the first, his countenance +darkened, and he said, in a grave tone: "A misfortune--a great +misfortune." + +Rodin turned his head abruptly, and looked at him with an air of uneasy +questioning. + +"Florine is dead of the cholera," answered Father d'Aigrigny; "and what +is the worst," added he, crumpling the note between his hands, "before +dying, the miserable creature confessed to Mdlle. de Cardoville that she +long acted as a spy under the orders of your reverence." + +No doubt the death of Florine, and the confession she had made, crossed +some of the plans of Rodin, for he uttered an inarticulate murmur, and +his countenance expressed great vexation. + +Passing to another note, Father d'Aigrigny continued: "This relates to +Marshal Simon, and is not absolutely bad, but still far from +satisfactory, as it announces some amelioration in his position. We shall +see if it merits belief, by information from another source." + +Rodin made a sign of impatience, to hasten Father d'Aigrigny to read the +note, which he did as follows. "'For some days, the mind of the marshal +has appeared to be less sorrowful, anxious and agitated. He lately passed +two hours with his daughters, which had not been the case for some time +before. The harsh countenance of the soldier Dagobert is becoming +smoother--a sure sign of some amelioration in the condition of the +marshal. Detected by their handwriting, the last anonymous letters were +returned by Dagobert to the postman, without having been opened by the +marshal. Some other method must be found to get them delivered.'" + +Looking at Rodin, Father d'Aigrigny said to him: "Your reverence thinks +with me that this note is not very satisfactory?" + +Rodin held down his head. One saw by the expression of his countenance +how much he suffered by not being able to speak. Twice he put his hand to +his throat, and looked at Father d'Aigrigny with anguish. + +"Oh!" cried Father d'Aigrigny, angrily, when he had perused another note, +"for one lucky chance, to-day brings some very black ones." + +At these words turning hastily to Father d'Aigrigny, and extending his +trembling hands, Rodin questioned him with look and gesture. The +cardinal, sharing his uneasiness, exclaimed: "What do you learn by this +note, my dear father?" + +"We thought the residence of M. Hardy in our house completely unknown," +replied Father d'Aigrigny, "but we now fear that Agricola Baudoin has +discovered the retreat of his old master, and that he has even +communicated with him by letter, through a servant of the house. So," +added the reverend father, angrily, "during the three days that I have +not been able to visit the pavilion, one of my servants must have been +bought over. There is one of them, a man blind of one eye, whom I have +always suspected--the wretch! But no: I will not yet believe this +treachery. The consequences would be too deplorable; for I know how +matters stand, and that such a correspondence might ruin everything. By +awaking in M. Hardy memories with difficulty laid asleep, they might +destroy in a single day all that has been done since he inhabits our +house. Luckily, this note contains only doubts and fears; my other +information will be more positive, and will not, I hope, confirm them." + +"My dear father," said the cardinal, "do not despair. The Lord will not +abandon the good cause!" + +Father d'Aigrigny seemed very little consoled by this assurance. He +remained still and thoughtful, whilst Rodin writhed his head in a +paroxysm of mute rage, as he reflected on this new check. + +"Let us turn to the last note," said Father d'Aigrigny, after a moment of +thoughtful silence. "I have so much confidence in the person who sends +it, that I cannot doubt the correctness of the information it contains. +May it contradict the others!" + +In order not to break the chain of facts contained in this last note, +which was to have so startling an effect on the actors in this scene, we +shall leave it to the reader's imagination to supply the exclamations of +surprise, hate, rage and fear of Father d'Aigrigny, and the terrific +pantomime of Rodin, during the perusal of this formidable document, the +result of the observations of a faithful and secret agent of the reverend +fathers. Comparing this note with the other information received, the +results appeared more distressing to the reverend fathers. Thus Gabriel +had long and frequent conferences with Adrienne, who before was unknown +to him. Agricola Baudoin had opened a communication with Francis Hardy, +and the officers of justice were on the track of the authors and +instigators of the riot which had led to the burning of the factory of +Baron Tripeaud's rival. It seemed almost certain that Mdlle. de +Cardoville had had an interview with Prince Djalma. + +This combination of facts showed that, faithful to the threats she had +uttered to Rodin, when she had unmasked the double perfidy of the +reverend father, Mdlle. de Cardoville was actively engaged in uniting the +scattered members of her family, to form a league against those dangerous +enemies, whose detestable projects, once unveiled and boldly encountered, +could hardly have a chance of success. The reader will now understand the +tremendous effect of this note on Father d'Aigrigny and Rodin--on Rodin, +stretched powerless on a bed of pain at the moment when the scaffolding, +raised with so much labor, seemed to be tumbling around him. + + + + +CHAPTER XXIX. + +THE OPERATION. + +We have given up the attempt to paint the countenance, attitude, and +gesticulation of Rodin during the reading of this note, which seemed to +ruin all his most cherished hopes. Everything was failing at once, at the +moment when only superhuman trust in the success of his plans could give +him sufficient energy to strive against mortal sickness. A single, +absorbing thought had agitated him even to delirium: What progress, +during his illness, had been made in this immense affair? He had first +heard a good piece of news, the death of Jacques Rennepont; but now the +advantages of this decease, which reduced the number of the heirs from +seven to six, were entirely lost. To what purpose would be this death, if +the other members of the family, dispersed and persecuted with such +infernal perseverance, were to unite and discover the enemies who had so +long aimed at them in darkness? If all those wounded hearts were to +console, enlighten, support each other, their cause would be gained, and +the inheritance rescued from the reverend fathers. What was to be done? + +Strange power of the human will!--Rodin had one foot in the grave, he was +almost at the last gasp; his voice had failed him. And yet that obstinate +nature, so full of energy and resources, did not despair. Let but a +miracle restore his health, and that firm confidence in the success of +his projects which has given him power to struggle against disease, tells +him that he could yet save all--but then he must have health and life! +Health! life! His physician does not know if he will survive the +shock--if he can bear the pain--of a terrible operation. Health! life! +and just now Rodin heard talk of the solemn funeral they had prepared for +him. And yet--health, life, he will have them. Yes; he has willed to +live--and he has lived--why should he not live longer? He will +live--because he has willed it. + +All that we have just written passed though Rodin's mind in a second. His +features, convulsed by the mental torment he endured, must have assumed a +very strange expression, for Father d'Aigrigny and the cardinal looked at +him in silent consternation. Once resolved to live, and to sustain a +desperate struggle with the Rennepont family, Rodin acted in consequence. +For a few moments Father d'Aigrigny and the prelate believed themselves +under the influence of a dream. By an effort of unparalleled energy, and +as if moved by hidden mechanism, Rodin sprang from the bed, dragging the +sheet with him, and trailing it, like a shroud, behind his livid and +fleshless body. The room was cold; the face of the Jesuit was bathed in +sweat; his naked and bony feet left their moist print upon the stones. + +"What are you doing? It is death!" cried Father d'Aigrigny, rushing +towards Rodin, to force him to lie down again. + +But the latter, extending one of his skeleton arms, as hard as iron, +pushed aside Father d'Aigrigny with inconceivable vigor, considering the +state of exhaustion in which he had so long been. + +"He has the strength of a man in a fit of epilepsy," said Father +d'Aigrigny, recovering his balance. + +With a steady step Rodin advanced to the desk on which Dr. Baleinier +daily wrote his prescriptions. Seating himself before it, the Jesuit took +pen and paper, and began to write in a firm hand. His calm, slow, and +sure movements had in them something of the deliberateness remarked in +somnambulists. Mute and motionless, hardly knowing whether they dreamed +or not, the cardinal and Father d'Aigrigny remained staring at the +incredible coolness of Rodin, who, half-naked, continued to write with +perfect tranquillity. + +"But, father," said the Abbe d'Aigrigny, advancing towards him, "this is +madness!" + +Rodin shrugged his shoulders, stopped him with a gesture and made him a +sign to read what he had just written. + +The reverend father expected to see the ravings of a diseased brain; but +he took the note, whilst Rodin commenced another. + +"My lord," exclaimed Father d'Aigrigny, "read this!" + +The cardinal read the paper, and returning it to the reverend father with +equal amazement, added: "It is full of reason, ability, and resources. We +shall thus be able to neutralize the dangerous combination of Abbe +Gabriel and Mdlle. de Cardoville, who appear to be the most formidable +leaders of the coalition." + +"It is really miraculous," said Father d'Aigrigny. + +"Oh, my dear father!" whispered the cardinal, shaking his head; "what a +pity that we are the only witnesses of this scene! What an excellent +MIRACLE we could have made of it! In one sense, it is another Raising of +Lazarus!" + +"What an idea, my lord!" answered Father d'Aigrigny, in a low voice. "It +is perfect--and we must not give it up--" + +This innocent little plot was interrupted by Rodin, who, turning his +head, made a sign to Father d'Aigrigny to approach, and delivered to him +another sheet, with this note attached: "To be executed within an hour." + +Having rapidly perused the paper, Father d'Aigrigny exclaimed: "Right! I +had not thought of that. Instead of being fatal, the correspondence +between Agricola and M. Hardy may thus have the best results. Really," +added the reverend father in a low voice to the prelate, while Rodin +continued to write, "I am quite confounded. I read--I see--and yet I can +hardly believe my eyes. Just before, exhausted and dying--and now with +his mind as clear and penetrating as ever. Can this be one of the +phenomena of somnambulism, in which the mind alone governs and sustains +the body?" + +Suddenly the door opened, and Dr. Baleinier entered the room. At sight of +Rodin, seated half-naked at the desk, with his feet upon the cold stones, +the doctor exclaimed, in a tone of reproach and alarm: "But, my +lord--but, father--it is murder to let the unhappy man do this!--If he is +delirious from fever, he must have the strait-waistcoat, and be tied down +in bed." + +So saying. Dr. Baleinier hastily approached Rodin, and took him by the +arm. Instead of finding the skin dry and chilly, as he expected, he found +it flexible, almost damp. Struck with surprise, the doctor sought to feel +the pulse of the left hand, which Rodin resigned, to him, whilst he +continued working with the right. + +"What a prodigy!" cried the doctor, as he counted Rodin's pulse; "for a +week past, and even this morning, the pulse has been abrupt, +intermittent, almost insensible, and now it is firm, regular--I am really +puzzled--what then has happened? I can hardly believe what I see," added +the doctor, turning towards Father d'Aigrigny and the cardinal. + +"The reverend father, who had first lost his voice, was next seized with +such furious and violent despair caused by the receipt of bad news," +answered Father d'Aigrigny, "that we feared a moment for his life; while +now, on the contrary, the reverend father has gained sufficient strength +to go to his desk, and write for some minutes, with a clearness of +argument and expression, which has confounded both the cardinal and +myself." + +"There is no longer any doubt of it," cried the doctor. "The violent +despair has caused a degree of emotion, which will admirably prepare the +reactive crisis, that I am now almost certain of producing by the +operation." + +"You persist in the operation?" whispered Father d'Aigrigny, whilst Rodin +continued to write. + +"I might have hesitated this morning; but, disposed as he now is for it, +I must profit by the moment of excitement, which will be followed by +greater depression." + +"Then, without the operation--" said the cardinal. + +"This fortunate and unexpected crisis will soon be over, and the reaction +may kill him, my lord." + +"Have you informed him of the serious nature of the operation?" + +"Pretty nearly, my lord." + +"But it is time to bring him to the point." + +"That is what I will do, my lord," said Dr. Baleinier; and approaching +Rodin, who continued to write, he thus addressed him, in a firm voice: +"My reverend father, do you wish to be up and well in a week?" + +Rodin nodded, full of confidence, as much as to say: "I am up already." + +"Do not deceive yourself," replied the doctor. "This crisis is excellent, +but it will not last, and if we would profit by it, we must proceed with +the operation of which I have spoken to you--or, I tell you plainly, I +answer for nothing after such a shock." + +Rodin was the more struck with these words, as, half an hour ago, he had +experienced the short duration of the improvement occasioned by Father +d'Aigrigny's good news, and as already he felt increased oppression on +the chest. + +Dr. Baleinier, wishing to decide him, added: "In a word, father, will you +live or die?" + +Rodin wrote rapidly this answer, which he gave to the doctor: "To live, I +would let you cut me limb from limb. I am ready for anything." And he +made a movement to rise. + +"I must tell you, reverend father, so as not to take you by surprise," +added Dr. Baleinier, "that this operation is cruelly painful." + +Rodin shrugged his shoulders and wrote with a firm hand: "Leave me my +head; you may take all the rest." + +The doctor read these words aloud, and the cardinal and Father d'Aigrigny +looked at each other in admiration of this dauntless courage. + +"Reverend father," said Dr. Baleinier, "you must lie down." + +Rodin wrote: "Get everything ready. I have still some orders to write. +Let me know when it is time." + +Then folding up a paper, which he had sealed with a wafer, Rodin gave +these words to Father d'Aigrigny: "Send this note instantly to the agent +who addressed the anonymous letters to Marshal Simon." + +"Instantly, reverend father," replied the abbe; "I will employ a sure +messenger." + +"Reverend father," said Baleinier to Rodin, "since you must write, lie +down in bed, and write there, during our little preparations." + +Rodin made an affirmative gesture, and rose. But already the prognostics +of the doctor were realized. The Jesuit could hardly remain standing for +a second; he fell back into a chair, and looked at Dr. Baleinier with +anguish, whilst his breathing became more and more difficult. + +The doctor said to him: "Do not be uneasy. But we must make haste. Lean +upon me and Father d'Aigrigny." + +Aided by these two supporters, Rodin was able to regain the bed. Once +there, he made signs that they should bring him pen, ink, and paper. Then +he continued to write upon his knees, pausing from time to time, to +breathe with great difficulty. + +"Reverend father," said Baleinier to d'Aigrigny, "are you capable of +acting as one of my assistants in the operation? Have you that sort of +courage?" + +"No," said the reverend father; "in the army I could never assist at an +amputation. The sight of blood is too much for me." + +"There will be no blood," said the doctor, "but it will be worse. Please +send me three of our reverend fathers to assist me, and ask M. Rousselet +to bring in the apparatus." + +Father d'Aigrigny went out. The prelate approached the doctor, and +whispered, pointing to Rodin: "Is he out of danger?" + +"If he stands the operation--yes, my lord." + +"Are you sure that he can stand it?" + +"To him I should say 'yes,' to you 'I hope so.'" + +"And were he to die, would there be time to administer the sacraments in +public, with a certain pomp, which always causes some little delay?" + +"His dying may continue, my lord--a quarter of an hour." + +"It is short, but we must be satisfied with that," said the prelate. + +And, going to one of the windows, he began to tap with his fingers on the +glass, while he thought of the illumination effects, in the event of +Rodin's lying in state. At this moment, Rousselet entered, with a large +square box under his arm. He placed it on the drawers, and began to +arrange his apparatus. + +"How many have you prepared?" said the doctor. + +"Six, sir." + +"Four will do, but it is well to be fully provided. The cotton is not too +thick?" + +"Look, sir." + +"Very good." + +"And how is the reverend father?" asked the pupil. + +"Humph!" answered the doctor, in a whisper. "The chest is terribly +clogged, the respiration hissing, the voice gone--still there is a +change." + +"All my fear is, sir, that the reverend father will not be able to stand +the dreadful pain." + +"It is another chance; but, under the circumstances, we must risk all. +Come, my dear boy, light the--taper; I hear our assistants." + +Just then Father d'Aigrigny entered the room, accompanied by the three +Jesuits, who, in the morning, had walked in the garden. The two old men, +with their rosy cheeks, and the young one, with the ascetic countenance, +all three dressed in black, with their square caps and white bands, +appeared perfectly ready to assist Dr. Baleinier in his formidable +operation. + + + + +CHAPTER XXX. + +THE TORTURE. + +"Reverend fathers," said Dr. Baleinier, graciously, to the three, "I +thank you for your kind aid. What you have to do is very simple, and, by +the blessing of heaven, this operation will save the life of our dear +Father Rodin." + +The three black-gowns cast up their eyes piously, and then bowed +altogether, like one man. Rodin, indifferent to what was passing around +him, never ceased an instant to write or reflect. Nevertheless, in spite +of his apparent calmness, he felt such difficulty in breathing, that more +than once Dr. Baleinier had turned round uneasily, as he heard the +stifled rattling in the throat of the sick man. Making a sign to his +pupil, the doctor approached Rodin and said to him: "Come, reverend +father; this is the important moment. Courage!" + +No sign of alarm was expressed in the Jesuit's countenance. His features +remained impassible as those of a corpse. Only, his little reptile eyes +sparkled still more brightly in their dark cavities. For a moment, he +looked round at the spectators of this scene; then, taking his pen +between his teeth, he folded and wafered another letter, placed it on the +table beside the bed, and nodded to Dr. Baleinier, as if to say: "I am +ready." + +"You must take off your flannel waistcoat, and your shirt, father." Rodin +hesitated an instant, and the doctor resumed: "It is absolutely +necessary, father." + +Aided by Baleinier, Rodin obeyed, whilst the doctor added, no doubt to +spare his modesty: "We shall only require the chest, right and left, my +dear father." + +And now, Rodin, stretched upon his back, with his dirty night-cap still +on his head, exposed the upper part of a livid trunk, or rather, the bony +cage of a skeleton, for the shadows of the ribs and cartilages encircled +the skin with deep, black lines. As for the arms, they resembled bones +twisted with cord and covered with tanned parchment. + +"Come, M. Rousselet, the apparatus!" said Baleinier. + +Then addressing the three Jesuits, he added: "Please draw near, +gentlemen; what you have to do is very simple, as you will see." + +It was indeed very simple. The doctor gave to each of his four assistants +a sort of little steel tripod about two inches in diameter and three in +height; the circular centre of this tripod was filled with cotton; the +instrument was held in the left hand by means of a wooden handle. In the +right hand each assistant held a small tin tube about eighteen inches +long; at one end was a mouthpiece to receive the lips of the operator, +and the other spread out so as to form a cover to the little tripod. +These preparations had nothing alarming in them. Father d'Aigrigny and +the prelate, who looked on from a little distance, could not understand +how this operation should be so painful. They soon understood it. + +Dr. Baleinier, having thus provided his four assistants, made them +approach Rodin, whose bed had been rolled into the middle of the room. +Two of them were placed on one side, two on the other. + +"Now, gentlemen," said Dr. Baleinier, "set light to the cotton; place the +lighted part on the skin of his reverence, by means of the tripod which +contains the wick; cover the tripod with the broad part of the tube, and +then blow through the other end to keep up the fire. It is very simple, +as you see." + +It was, in fact, full of the most patriarchal and primitive ingenuity. +Four lighted cotton rocks, so disposed as to burn very slowly, were +applied to the two sides of Rodin's chest. This is vulgarly called the +moxa. The trick is done, when the whole thickness of the skin has been +burnt slowly through. It lasts seven or eight minutes. They say that an +amputation is nothing to it. Rodin had watched the preparations with +intrepid curiosity. But, at the first touch of the four fires, he writhed +like a serpent, without being able to utter a cry. Even the expression of +pain was denied him. The four assistants being disturbed by, the sudden +start of Rodin, it was necessary to begin again. + +"Courage, my dear father! offer these sufferings to the Lord!" said Dr. +Baleinier, in a sanctified tone. "I told you the operation would be very +painful; but then it is salutary in proportion. Come; you that have shown +such decisive resolution, do not fail at the last movement!" + +Rodin had closed his eyes, conquered by the first agony of pain. He now +opened them, and looked at the doctor as if ashamed of such weakness. And +yet on the sides of his chest were four large, bleeding wounds--so +violent had been the first singe. As he again extended himself on the bed +of torture, Rodin made a sign that he wished to write. The doctor gave +him the pen, and he wrote as follows, by way of memorandum; "It is better +not to lose any time. Inform Baron Tripeaud of the warrant issued against +Leonard, so that he may be on his guard." + +Having written this note, the Jesuit gave it to Dr. Baleinier, to hand it +to Father d'Aigrigny, who was as much amazed as the doctor and the +cardinal, at such extraordinary presence of mind in the midst of such +horrible pain. Rodin, with his eyes fixed on the reverend father, seemed +to wait with impatience for him to leave the room to execute his orders. +Guessing the thought of Rodin, the doctor whispered Father d'Aigrigny, +who went out. + +"Come, reverend father," said the doctor, "we must begin again. This time +do not move." + +Rodin did not answer, but clasped his hands over his head, closed his +eyes, and presented his chest. It was a strange, lugubrious, almost +fantastic spectacle. The three priests, in their long black gowns, leaned +over this body, which almost resembled a corpse, and blowing through +their tubes into the chest of the patient, seemed as if pumping up his +blood by some magic charm. A sickening odor of burnt flesh began to +spread through the silent chamber, and each assistant heard a slight +crackling beneath the smoking trivet; it was the skin of Rodin giving way +to the action of fire, and splitting open in four different parts of his +chest. The sweat poured from his livid face, which it made to shine; a +few locks of his gray hair stood up stiff and moist from his temples. +Sometimes the spasms were so violent, that the veins swelled on his +stiffened arms, and were stretched like cords ready to break. + +Enduring this frightful torture with as much intrepid resignation as the +savage whose glory consists in despising pain, Rodin gathered his +strength and courage from the hope--we had almost said the certainty--of +life. Such was the make of this dauntless character, such the energy of +this powerful mind, that, in the midst of indescribable torments, his one +fixed idea never left him. During the rare intervals of suffering--for +pain is equal even at this degree of intensity--Rodin still thought of +the Rennepont inheritance, and calculated his chances, and combined his +measures, feeling that he had not a minute to lose. Dr. Baleinier watched +him with extreme attention, waiting for the effects of the reaction of +pain upon the patient, who seemed already to breathe with less +difficulty. + +Suddenly Rodin placed his hand on his forehead, as if struck with some +new idea, and turning his head towards Dr. Baleinier, made a sign to him +to suspend the operation. + +"I must tell you, reverend father," answered the doctor, "that it is not +half finished, and, if we leave off, the renewal will be more painful--" + +Rodin made a sign that he did not care, and that he wanted to write. + +"Gentlemen, stop a moment," said Dr. Baleinier; "keep down your moxas, +but do not blow the fire." + +So the fire was to burn slowly, instead of fiercely, but still upon the +skin of the patient. In spite of this pain, less intense, but still sharp +and keen, Rodin, stretched upon his back, began to write, holding the +paper above his head. On the first sheet he traced some alphabetic signs, +part of a cipher known to himself alone. In the midst of the torture, a +luminous idea had crossed his mind; fearful of forgetting it amidst his +sufferings, he now took note of it. On another paper he wrote the +following, which was instantly delivered to Father d'Aigrigny: "Send B. +immediately to Faringhea, for the report of the last few days with regard +to Djalma, and let B. bring it hither on the instant." Father d'Aigrigny +went out to execute this new order. The cardinal approached a little +nearer to the scene of the operation, for, in spite of the bad odor of +the room, he took delight in seeing the Jesuit half roasted, having long +cherished against him the rancor of an Italian and a priest. + +"Come, reverend father," said the doctor to Rodin, "continue to be +admirably courageous, and your chest will free itself. You have still a +bitter moment to go through--and then I have good hope." + +The patient resumed his former position. The moment Father d'Aigrigny +returned, Rodin questioned him with a look, to which the reverend father +replied by a nod. At a sign from the doctor, the four assistants began to +blow through the tubes with all their might. This increase of torture was +so horrible, that, in spite of his self-control, Rodin gnashed his teeth, +started convulsively, and so expanded his palpitating chest, that, after +a violent spasm, there rose from his throat and lungs a scream of +terrific pain--but it was free, loud, sonorous. + +"The chest is free!" cried the doctor, in triumph. "The lungs have +play--the voice returns--he is saved!--Blow, gentlemen, blow; and, +reverend father, cry out as much as you please: I shall be delighted to +hear you, for it will give you relief. Courage! I answer for the result. +It is a wonderful cure. I will publish it by sound of trumpet." + +"Allow me, doctor," whispered Father d'Aigrigny, as he approached Dr. +Baleinier; "the cardinal can witness, that I claimed beforehand the +publication of this affair--as a miraculous fact." + +"Let it be miraculous then," answered Dr. Baleinier, disappointed--for he +set some value on his own work. + +On hearing he was saved, Rodin though his sufferings were perhaps worse +than ever, for the fire had now pierced the scarf-skin, assumed almost an +infernal beauty. Through the painful contraction of his features shone +the pride of savage triumph; the monster felt that he was becoming once +more strong and powerful, and he seemed conscious the evils that his +fatal resurrection was to cause. And so, of still writhing beneath the +flames, he pronounced these words, the first that struggled from his +chest: "I told you I should live!" + +"You told us true," cried the doctor, feeling his pulse; "the circulation +is now full and regular, the lungs are free. The reaction is complete. +You are saved." + +At this moment, the last shreds of cotton had burnt out. The trivets were +withdrawn, and on the skeleton trunk of Rodin were seen four large round +blisters. The skin still smoked, and the raw flesh was visible beneath. +In one of his sudden movements, a lamp had been misplaced, and one of +these burns was larger than the other, presenting as it were to the eye a +double circle. Rodin looked down upon his wounds. After some seconds of +silent contemplation, a strange smile curled his lips. Without changing +his position, he glanced at Father d'Aigrigny with an expression +impossible to describe, and said to him, as he slowly counted the wounds +touching them with his flat and dirty nail: "Father d'Aigrigny, what an +omen!--Look here! one Rennepont--two Renneponts--three Renneponts--four +Renneponts--where is then the fifth!--Ah! here--this wound will count for +two. They are twins."[41] And he emitted a little dry, bitter laugh. Father +d'Aigrigny, the cardinal, and Dr. Baleinier, alone understood the sense +of these mysterious and fatal words, which Rodin soon completed by a +terrible allusion, as he exclaimed, with prophetic voice, and almost +inspired air: "Yes, I say it. The impious race will be reduced to ashes, +like the fragments of this poor flesh. I say it, and it will be so. I +said I would live--and I do live!" + +[41] Jacques Rennepont being dead, and Gabriel out of the field, in +consequence of his donation, there remained only five persons of the +family--Rose and Blanche, Djalma, Adrienne, and Hardy. + + + + +CHAPTER XXXI. + +VICE AND VIRTUE. + +Two days have elapsed since Rodin was miraculously restored to life. The +reader will not have forgotten the house in the Rue Clovis, where the +reverend father had an apartment, and where also was the lodging of +Philemon, inhabited by Rose-Pompon. It is about three o'clock in the +afternoon. A bright ray of light, penetrating through a round hole in the +door Mother Arsene's subterraneous shop, forms a striking contrast with +the darkness of this cavern. The ray streams full upon a melancholy +object. In the midst of fagots and faded vegetables, and close to a great +heap of charcoal, stands a wretched bed; beneath the sheet, which covers +it, can be traced the stiff and angular proportions of a corpse. It is +the body of Mother Arsene herself, who died two days before, of the +cholera. The burials have been so numerous, that there has been no time +to remove her remains. The Rue Clovis is almost deserted. A mournful +silence reigns without, often broken by the sharp whistling of the north +wind. Between the squalls, one hears a sort of pattering. It is the noise +of the large rats, running to and fro across the heap of charcoal. + +Suddenly, another sound is heard, and these unclean animals fly to hide +themselves in their holes. Some one is trying to force open the door, +which communicates between the shop and the passage. It offers but little +resistance, and, in a few seconds, the worn-out lock gives way, and a +woman enters. For a short time she stands motionless in the obscurity of +the damp and icy cave. After a minute's hesitation, the woman advances +and the ray of light illumines the features of the Bacchanal Queen. +Slowly, she approached the funeral couch. Since the death of Jacques, the +alteration in the countenance of Cephyse had gone on increasing. +Fearfully pale, with her fine black hair in disorder, her legs and feet +naked, she was barely covered with an old patched petticoat and a very +ragged handkerchief. + +When she came near the bed, she cast a glance of almost savage assurance +at the shroud. Suddenly she drew back, with a low cry of involuntary +terror. The sheet moved with a rapid undulation, extending from the feet +to the head of the corpse. But soon the sight of a rat, flying along the +side of the worm-eaten bedstead, explained the movement of the shroud. +Recovering from her fright, Cephyse began to look for several things, and +collected them in haste, as though she dreaded being surprised in the +miserable shop. First, she seized a basket, and filled it with charcoal; +then, looking from side to side, she discovered in a corner an earthen +pot, which she took with a burst of ominous joy. + +"It is not all, it is not all," said Cephyse, as she continued to search +with an unquiet air. + +At last she perceived near the stove a little tin box, containing flint, +steel and matches. She placed these articles on the top of the basket, +and took it in one hand, and the earthen pot in the other. As she passed +near the corpse of the poor charcoal-dealer, Cephyse said, with a strange +smile: "I rob you, poor Mother Arsene, but my theft will not do me much +good." + +Cephyse left the shop, reclosed the door as well as she could, went up +the passage, and crossed the little court-yard which separated the front +of the building from that part in which Rodin had lodged. With the +exception of the windows of Philemon's apartment, where Rose-Pompon had +so often sat perched like a bird, warbling Beranger, the other windows of +the house were open. There had been deaths on the first and second +floors, and, like many others, they were waiting for the cart piled up +with coffins. + +The Bacchanal Queen gained the stairs, which led to the chambers formerly +occupied by Rodin. Arrived at the landing-place she ascended another +ruinous staircase, steep as a ladder, and with nothing but an old rope +for a rail. She at length reached the half-rotten door of a garret, +situated in the roof. The house was in such a state of dilapidation, +that, in many places the roof gave admission to the rain, and allowed it +to penetrate into this cell, which was not above ten feet square, and +lighted by an attic window. All the furniture consisted of an old straw +mattress, laid upon the ground, with the straw peeping out from a rent in +its ticking; a small earthenware pitcher, with the spout broken, and +containing a little water, stood by the side of this couch. Dressed in +rags, Mother Bunch was seated on the side of the mattress, with her +elbows on her knees, and her face concealed in her thin, white hands. +When Cephyse entered the room, the adopted sister of Agricola raised her +head; her pale, mild face seemed thinner than ever, hollow with +suffering, grief, misery; her eyes, red with weeping, were fixed on her +sister with an expression of mournful tenderness. + +"I have what we want, sister," said Cephyse, in a low, deep voice; "in +this basket there is wherewith to finish our misery." + +Then, showing to Mother Bunch the articles she had just placed on the +floor, she added: "For the first time in my life, I have been a thief. It +made me ashamed and frightened; I was never intended for that or worse. +It is a pity." added she, with a sardonic smile. + +After a moment's silence, the hunchback said to her sister, in a heart +rending tone: "Cephyse--my dear Cephyse--are you quite determined to +die?" + +"How should I hesitate?" answered Cephyse, in a firm voice. "Come, +sister, let us once more make our reckoning. If even I could forget my +shame, and Jacques' contempt in his last moments, what would remain to +me? Two courses only: first, to be honest, and work for my living. But +you know that, in spite of the best will in the world, work will often +fail, as it has failed for the last few days, and, even when I got it, I +would have to live on four to five francs a week. Live? that is to say, +die by inches. I know that already, and I prefer dying at once. The other +course would be to live a life of infamy--and that I will not do. +Frankly, sister, between frightful misery, infamy, or death, can the +choice be doubtful? Answer me!" + +Then, without giving Mother Bunch time to speak, Cephyse added, in an +abrupt tone: "Besides, what is the good of discussing it? I have made up +my mind, and nothing shall prevent my purpose, since all that you, dear +sister, could obtain from me, was a delay of a few days, to see if the +cholera would not save us the trouble. To please you I consented; the +cholera has come, killed every one else in the house, but left us. You +see, it is better to do one's own business," added she, again smiling +bitterly. Then she resumed: "Besides, dear sister, you also wish to +finish with life." + +"It is true, Cephyse," answered the sempstress, who seemed very much +depressed; "but alone--one has only to answer for one's self--and to die +with you," added she, shuddering, "appears like being an accomplice in +your death." + +"Do you wish, then, to make an end of it, I in one place, you in +another?--that would be agreeable!" said Cephyse, displaying in that +terrible moment the sort of bitter and despairing irony which is more +frequent than may be imagined in the midst of mortal anguish. + +"Oh, no, no!" said the other in alarm, "not alone--I will not die alone!" + +"Do you not see, dear sister, we are right not to part? And yet," added +Cephyse, in a voice of emotion, "my heart almost breaks sometimes, to +think that you will die like me." + +"How selfish!" said the hunchback, with a faint smile. "What reasons have +I to love life? What void shall I leave behind me?" + +"But you are a martyr, sister," resumed Cephyse. "The priests talk of +saints! Is there one of them so good as you? And yet you are about to die +like me, who have always been idle, careless, sinful--while you were so +hardworking, so devoted to all who suffered. What should I say? You were +an angel on the earth; and yet you will die like me, who have fallen as +low as a woman can fall," added the unfortunate, casting down her eyes. + +"It is strange," answered Mother Bunch, thoughtfully. "Starting from the +same point, we have followed different roads, and yet we have reached the +same goal--disgust of life. For you, my poor sister, but a few days ago, +life was so fair, so full of pleasure and of youth; and now it is equally +heavy with us both. After all, I have followed to the end what was my +duty," added she, mildly. "Agricola no longer needs me. He is married; he +loves, and is beloved; his happiness is secured. Mdlle. de Cardoville +wants for nothing. Fair, rich, prosperous--what could a poor creature +like myself do for her? Those who have been kind to me are happy. What +prevents my going now to my rest? I am so weary!" + +"Poor sister!" said Cephyse, with touching emotion, which seemed to +expand her contracted features; "when I think that, without informing me, +and in spite of your resolution never to see that generous young lady, +who protected you, you yet had the courage to drag yourself to her house, +dying with fatigue and want, to try to interest her in my fate--yes, +dying, for your strength failed on the Champs-Elysees." + +"And when I was able to reach the mansion, Mdlle. de Cardoville was +unfortunately absent--very unfortunately!" repeated the hunchback, as she +looked at Cephyse with anguish; "for the next day, seeing that our last +resource had failed us, thinking more of me than of yourself, and +determined at any price to procure us bread--" + +She could not finish. She buried her face in her hands, and shuddered. + +"Well, I did as so many other hapless women have done when work fails or +wages do not suffice, and hunger becomes too pressing," replied Cephyse, +in a broken voice; "only that, unlike so many others, instead of living +on my shame, I shall die of it." + +"Alas! this terrible shame which kills you, my poor Cephyse, because you +have a heart, would have been averted, had I seen Mdlle. de Cardoville, +or had she but answered the letter which I asked leave to write to her at +the porter's lodge. But her silence proves to me that she is justly hurt +at my abrupt departure from her house. I can understand it; she believes +me guilty of the blackest ingratitude--for she must have been greatly +offended not to have deigned to answer me--and therefore I had not the +courage to write a second time. It would have been useless, I am sure; +for, good and just as she is, her refusals are inexorable when she +believes them deserved. And besides, for what good? It was too late; you +had resolved to die!" + +"Oh, yes, quite resolved: for my infamy was gnawing at my heart. Jacques +had died in my arms despising me; and I loved him--mark me, sister," +added Cephyse, with passionate enthusiasm, "I loved him as we love only +once in life!" + +"Let our fate be accomplished, then!" said Mother Bunch with a pensive +air. + +"But you have never told me, sister, the cause of your departure from +Mdlle. de Cardoville's," resumed Cephyse, after a moment's silence. + +"It will be the only secret that I shall take with me, dear Cephyse," +said the other, casting down her eyes. And she thought, with bitter joy, +that she would soon be delivered from the fear which had poisoned the +last days of her sad life--the fear of meeting Agricola, informed of the +fatal and ridiculous love she felt for him. + +For, it must be said, this fatal and despairing love was one of the +causes of the suicide of the unfortunate creature. Since the +disappearance of her journal, she believed that the blacksmith knew the +melancholy secret contained in its sad pages. She doubted not the +generosity and good heart of Agricola; but she had such doubts of +herself, she was so ashamed of this passion, however pure and noble, +that, even in the extremity to which Cephyse and herself were +reduced--wanting work, wanting bread--no power on earth could have +induced her to meet Agricola, in an attempt to ask him for assistance. +Doubtless, she would have taken another view of the subject if her mind +had not been obscured by that sort of dizziness to which the firmest +characters are exposed when their misfortunes surpass all bounds. Misery, +hunger, the influence, almost contagious in such a moment, of the +suicidal ideas of Cephyse, and weariness of a life so long devoted to +pain and mortification, gave the last blow to the sewing-girl's reason. +After long struggling against the fatal design of her sister, the poor, +dejected, broken-hearted creature finished by determining to share +Cephyse's fate, and seek in death the end of so many evils. + +"Of what are you thinking, sister?" said Cephyse, astonished at the long +silence. The other replied, trembling: "I think of that which made me +leave Mdlle. de Cardoville so abruptly, and appear so ungrateful in her +eyes. May the fatality which drove me from her house have made no other +victims! may my devoted service, however obscure and powerless, never be +missed by her, who extended her noble hand to the poor sempstress, and +deigned to call me sister! May she be happy--oh, ever happy!" said Mother +Bunch, clasping her hands with the ardor of a sincere invocation. + +"That is noble, sister--such a wish in such a moment!" said Cephyse. + +"Oh," said her sister, with energy, "I loved, I admired that marvel of +genius, and heart, and ideal beauty--I viewed her with pious respect--for +never was the power of the Divinity revealed in a more adorable and purer +creation. At least one of my last thoughts will have been of her." + +"Yes, you will have loved and respected your generous patroness to the +last." + +"To the last!" said the poor girl, after a moment's silence. "It is +true--you are right--it will soon be the last!--in a few moments, all +will be finished. See how calmly we can talk of that which frightens so +many others!" + +"Sister, we are calm because we are resolved." + +"Quite resolved, Cephyse," said the hunchback, casting once more a deep +and penetrating glance upon her sister. + +"Oh, yes, if you are only as determined as I am." + +"Be satisfied; if I put off from day to day the final moment," answered +the sempstress, "it was because I wished to give you time to reflect. As +for me--" + +She did not finish, but she shook her head with an air of the utmost +despondency. + +"Well, sister, let us kiss each other," said Cephyse; "and, courage!" + +The hunchback rose, and threw herself into her sister's arms. They held +one another fast in a long embrace. There followed a few seconds of deep +and solemn silence, only interrupted by the sobs of the sisters, for now +they had begun to weep. + +"Oh, heaven! to love each other so, and to part forever!" said Cephyse. +"It is a cruel fate." + +"To part?" cried Mother Bunch, and her pale, mild countenance, bathed in +tears, was suddenly illumined with a ray of divine hope; "to part, +sister? oh, no! What makes me so calm is the deep and certain +expectation, which I feel here at my heart, of that better world where a +better life awaits us. God, so great, so merciful, so prodigal of good, +cannot destine His creatures to be forever miserable. Selfish men may +pervert His benevolent designs, and reduce their brethren to a state of +suffering and despair. Let us pity the wicked and leave them! Come up on +high, sister; men are nothing there, where God is all. We shall do well +there. Let us depart, for it is late." + +So saying, she pointed to the ruddy beams of the setting sun, which began +to shine upon the window. + +Carried away by the religious enthusiasm of her sister, whose +countenance, transfigured, as it were, by the hope of an approaching +deliverance, gleamed brightly in the reflected sunset, Cephyse took her +hands, and, looking at her with deep emotion, exclaimed, "Oh, sister! how +beautiful you look now!" + +"Then my beauty comes rather late in the day," said Mother Bunch, with a +sad smile. + +"No, sister; for you appear so happy, that the last scruples I had upon +your account are quite gone." + +"Then let us make haste," said the hunchback, as she pointed to the +chafing-dish. + +"Be satisfied, sister--it will not be long," said Cephyse. And she took +the chafing-dish full of charcoal, which she had placed in a corner of +the garret, and brought it out into the middle of the room. + +"Do you know how to manage it?" asked the sewing-girl approaching. + +"Oh! it is very simple," answered Cephyse; "we have only to close the +door and window, and light the charcoal." + +"Yes, sister; but I think I have heard that every opening must be well +stopped, so as to admit no current of air." + +"You are right, and the door shuts so badly." + +"And look at the holes in the roof." + +"What is to be done, sister?" + +"I will tell you," said Mother Bunch. "The straw of our mattress, well +twisted, will answer every purpose." + +"Certainly," replied Cephyse. "We will keep a little to light our fire, +and with the rest we will stop up all the crevices in the roof, and make +filling for our doors and windows." + +Then, smiling with that bitter irony, so frequent, we repeat, in the most +gloomy moments, Cephyse added, "I say, sister, weather-boards at our +doors and windows, to prevent the air from getting in--what a luxury! we +are as delicate as rich people." + +"At such a time, we may as well try to make ourselves a little +comfortable," said Mother Bunch, trying to jest like the Bacchanal Queen. + +And with incredible coolness, the two began to twist the straw into +lengths of braid, small enough to be stuffed into the cracks of the door, +and also constructed large plugs, destined to stop up the crevices in the +roof. While this mournful occupation lasted, there was no departure from +the calm and sad resignation of the two unfortunate creatures. + + + + +CHAPTER XXXII. + +SUICIDE. + +Cephyse and her sister continued with calmness the preparations for their +death. + +Alas! how many poor young girls, like these sisters, have been, and still +will be, fatally driven to seek in suicide a refuge from despair, from +infamy, or from a too miserable existence! And upon society will rest the +terrible responsibility of these sad deaths, so long as thousands of +human creatures, unable to live upon the mockery of wages granted to +their labor, have to choose between these three gulfs of shame and woe; a +life of enervating toil and mortal privations, causes of premature death; +prostitution, which kills also, but slowly--by contempt, brutality, and +uncleanness; suicide--which kills at once. + +In a few minutes, the two sisters had constructed, with the straw of +their couch, the calkings necessary to intercept the air, and to render +suffocation more expeditious and certain. + +The hunchback said to her sister, "You are the taller, Cephyse, and must +look to the ceiling; I will take care of the window and door." + +"Be satisfied, sister; I shall have finished before you," answered +Cephyse. + +And the two began carefully to stop up every crevice through which a +current of air could penetrate into the ruined garret. Thanks to her tall +stature, Cephyse was able to reach the holes in the roof, and to close +them up entirely. When they had finished this sad work, the sisters again +approached, and looked at each other in silence. + +The fatal moment drew near; their faces, though still calm, seemed +slightly agitated by that strange excitement which always accompanies a +double suicide. + +"Now," said Mother Bunch, "now for the fire!" + +She knelt down before the little chafing-dish, filled with charcoal. But +Cephyse took hold of her under the arm, and obliged her to rise again, +saying to her, "Let me light the fire--that is my business." + +"But, Cephyse--" + +"You know, poor sister, that the smell of charcoal gives you the +headache!" + +At the simplicity of this speech, for the Bacchanal Queen had spoken +seriously, the sisters could not forbear smiling sadly. + +"Never mind," resumed Cephyse; "why suffer more and sooner than is +necessary?" + +Then, pointing to the mattress, which still contained a little straw, +Cephyse added, "Lie down there, good little sister; when our fire is +alight, I will come and sit down by you." + +"Do not be long, Cephyse." + +"In five minutes it will be done." + +The tall building, which faced the street, was separated by a narrow +court from that which contained the retreat of the two sisters, and was +so much higher, that when the sun had once disappeared behind its lofty +roof, the garret soon became dark. The light, passing through the dirty +panes of the small window, fell faintly on the blue and white patchwork +of the old mattress, on which Mother Bunch was now stretched, covered +with rags. Leaning on her left arm, with her chin resting in the palm of +her hand, she looked after her sister with an expression of heart-rending +grief. Cephyse, kneeling over the chafing-dish, with her face close to +the black charcoal, above which already played a little bluish flame, +exerted herself to blow the newly-kindled fire, which was reflected on +the pale countenance of the unhappy girl. + +The silence was deep. No sound was heard but the panting breath of +Cephyse, and, at intervals, the slight crackling of the charcoal, which +began to burn, and already sent forth a faint sickening vapor. Cephyse, +seeing the fire completely lighted, and feeling already a little dizzy, +rose from the ground, and said to her sister, as she approached her, "It +is done!" + +"Sister," answered Mother Bunch, kneeling on the mattress, whilst Cephyse +remained standing, "how shall we place ourselves? I should like to be +near you to the last." + +"Stop!" said Cephyse, half executing the measures of which she spoke, "I +will sit on the mattress with my back against the wall. Now, little +sister, you lie there. Lean your head upon my knees, and give me your +hand. Are you comfortable so?" + +"Yes--but I cannot see you." + +"That is better. It seems there is a moment--very short, it is true--in +which one suffers a good deal. And," added Cephyse, in a voice of +emotion, "it will be as well not to see each other suffer." + +"You are right, Cephyse." + +"Let me kiss that beautiful hair for the last time," said Cephyse, as she +pressed her lips to the silky locks which crowned the hunchback's pale +and melancholy countenance, "and then--we will remain very quiet." + +"Sister, your hand," said the sewing-girl; "for the last time, your +hand--and then, as you say, we will move no more. We shall not have to +wait long, I think, for I begin to feel dizzy. And you, sister?" + +"Not yet," replied Cephyse; "I only perceive the smell of the charcoal." + +"Do you know where they will bury us?" said Mother Bunch, after a +moment's silence. + +"No. Why do you ask?" + +"Because I should like it to be in Pere-la-Chaise. I went there once with +Agricola and his mother. What a fine view there is!--and then the trees, +the flowers, the marble--do you know the dead are better lodged--than the +living--and--" + +"What is the matter, sister?" said Cephyse to her companion, who had +stopped short, after speaking in a slow voice. + +"I am giddy--my temples throb," was the answer. "How do you feel?" + +"I only begin to be a little faint; it is strange--the effect is slower +with me than you." + +"Oh! you see," said Mother Bunch, trying to smile, "I was always so +forward. At school, do you remember, they said I was before the others. +And, now it happens again." + +"I hope soon to overtake you this time," said Cephyse. + +What astonished the sisters was quite natural. Though weakened by sorrow +and misery, the Bacchanal Queen, with a constitution as robust as the +other was frail and delicate, was necessarily longer than her sister in +feeling the effects of the deleterious vapor. After a moment's silence, +Cephyse resumed, as she laid her hand on the head she still held upon her +knees, "You say nothing, sister! You suffer, is it not so?" + +"No," said Mother Bunch, in a weak voice; "my eyelids are heavy as +lead--I am getting benumbed--I feel that I speak more slowly--but I have +no acute pain. And you, sister?" + +"Whilst you were speaking, I felt giddy--and now my temples throb +violently." + +"As it was with me just now. One would think it was more painful and +difficult to die." + +Then after a moment's silence, the hunchback said suddenly to her sister, +"Do you think that Agricola will much regret me, and think of me for some +time?" + +"How can you ask?" said Cephyse, in a tone of reproach. + +"You are right," answered Mother Bunch, mildly; "there is a bad feeling +in such a doubt--but if you knew--" + +"What, sister?" + +The other hesitated for an instant, and then said, dejectedly, "Nothing." +Afterwards, she added, "Fortunately, I die convinced that he will never +miss me. He married a charming girl, who loves him, I am sure, and will +make him perfectly happy." + +As she pronounced these last words, the speaker's voice grew fainter and +fainter. Suddenly she started and said to Cephyse, in a trembling, almost +frightened tone, "Sister! Hold me in your arms--I am afraid--everything +looks dark--everything is turning round." And the unfortunate girl, +raising herself a little, hid her face in her sister's bosom, and threw +his weak arms around her. + +"Courage, sister!" said Cephyse, in a voice which was also growing faint, +as she pressed her closer to her bosom; "it will soon be over." + +And Cephyse added, with a kind of envy, "Oh! why does my sister's +strength fail so much sooner than mine? I have still my perfect senses +and I suffer less than she does. Oh! if I thought she would die +first!--But, no--I will go and hold my face over the chafing-dish +rather." + +At the movement Cephyse made to rise, a feeble pressure from her sister +held her back. "You suffer, my poor child!" said Cephyse, trembling. + +"Oh yes! a good deal now--do not leave me!" + +"And I scarcely at all," said Cephyse, gazing wildly at the chafing-dish. +"Ah!" added she, with a kind of fatal! joy; "now I begin to feel it--I +choke--my head is ready to split." + +And indeed the destructive gas now filled the little chamber, from which +it had, by degrees, driven all the air fit for respiration. The day was +closing in, and the gloomy garret was only lighted by the reflection of +the burning charcoal, which threw a red glare on the sisters, locked in +each other's arms. Suddenly Mother Bunch made some slight convulsive +movements, and pronounced these words in a failing voice: +"Agricola--Mademoiselle de Cardoville--Oh! farewell!--Agricola--I--" + +Then she murmured some unintelligible words; the convulsive moments +ceased, and her arms, which had been clasped round Cephyse, fell inert +upon the mattress. + +"Sister!" cried Cephyse, in alarm, as she raised Mother Bunch's head, to +look at her face. "Not already, sister!--And I?--and I?" + +The sewing-girl's mild countenance was not paler than usual. Only her +eyes, half-closed, seemed no longer to see anything, and a half-smile of +mingled grief and goodness lingered an instant about her violet lips, +from which stole the almost imperceptible breath--and then the mouth +became motionless, and the face assumed a great serenity of expression. + +"But you must not die before me!" cried Cephyse, in a heart-rending tone, +as she covered with kisses the cold cheek. "Wait for me, sister! wait for +me!" + +Mother Bunch did not answer. The head, which Cephyse let slip from her +hands, fell back gently on the mattress. + +"My God. It is not my fault, if we do not die together!" cried Cephyse in +despair, as she knelt beside the couch, on which the other lay +motionless. + +"Dead!" she murmured in terror. "Dead before me!--Perhaps it is that I am +the strongest. Ah! it begins--fortunately--like her, I see everything +dark-blue--I suffer--what happiness!--I can scarcely breathe. Sister!" +she added, as she threw her arms round her loved one's neck; "I am +coming--I am here!" + +At the same instant the sound of footsteps and voices was heard from the +staircase. Cephyse had still presence of mind enough to distinguish the +sound. Stretched beside the body of her sister, she raised her head +hastily. + +The noise approached, and a voice was heard exclaiming, not far from the +doer: "Good heavens! what a smell of fire!" + +And, at the same instant, the door was violently shaken, and another +voice exclaimed: "Open! open!" + +"They will come in--they will save me--and my sister is dead--Oh, no! I +will not have the baseness to survive her!" + +Such was the last thought of Cephyse. Using what little strength she had +left, she ran to the window and opened it--and, at the same instant that +the half-broken door yielded to a vigorous effort from without, the +unfortunate creature precipitated herself from that third story into the +court below. Just then, Adrienne and Agricola appeared on the threshold +of the chamber. In spite of the stifling odor of the charcoal, Mdlle. de +Cardoville rushed into the garret, and, seeing the stove, she exclaimed, +"The unhappy girl has killed herself!" + +"No, she has thrown herself from the window," cried Agricola: for, at the +moment of breaking open the door, he had seen a human form disappear in +that direction, and he now ran to the window. + +"Oh! this is frightful!" he exclaimed, with a cry of horror, as he put +his hand before his eyes, and returned pale and terrified to Mdlle. de +Cardoville. + +But, misunderstanding the cause of his terror, Adrienne, who had just +perceived Mother Bunch through the darkness, hastened to answer: "No! she +is here." + +And she pointed to the pale form stretched on the mattress, beside which +Adrienne now threw herself on her knees. Grasping the hands of the poor +sempstress, she found them as cold as ice. Laying her hand on her heart, +she could not feel it beat. Yet, in a few seconds, as the fresh air +rushed into the room from the door and window, Adrienne thought she +remarked an almost imperceptible pulsation, and she exclaimed: "Her heart +beats! Run quickly for help! Luckily, I have my smelling bottle." + +"Yes, yes! help for her--and for the other too, if it is yet time!" cried +the smith in despair, as he rushed down the stairs, leaving Mdlle. de +Cardoville still kneeling by the side of the mattress. + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's The Wandering Jew, Book IX., by Eugene Sue + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE WANDERING JEW, BOOK IX. *** + +***** This file should be named 3347.txt or 3347.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/3/3/4/3347/ + +Produced by David Widger and Pat Castevens + +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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