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diff --git a/old/frwll10.txt b/old/frwll10.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..1b60fd0 --- /dev/null +++ b/old/frwll10.txt @@ -0,0 +1,2225 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Farewell, by Honore de Balzac +#97 in our series by Honore de Balzac + +Copyright laws are changing all over the world. Be sure to check the +copyright laws for your country before downloading or redistributing +this or any other Project Gutenberg eBook. + +This header should be the first thing seen when viewing this Project +Gutenberg file. Please do not remove it. Do not change or edit the +header without written permission. + +Please read the "legal small print," and other information about the +eBook and Project Gutenberg at the bottom of this file. Included is +important information about your specific rights and restrictions in +how the file may be used. You can also find out about how to make a +donation to Project Gutenberg, and how to get involved. + + +**Welcome To The World of Free Plain Vanilla Electronic Texts** + +**eBooks Readable By Both Humans and By Computers, Since 1971** + +*****These eBooks Were Prepared By Thousands of Volunteers!***** + + +Title: Farewell + +Author: Honore de Balzac + +Release Date: June, 2004 [EBook #5873] +[Yes, we are more than one year ahead of schedule] +[This file was first posted on September 15, 2002] + +Edition: 10 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK FAREWELL *** + + + + +Etext prepared by Dagny, dagnypg@yahoo.com + and John Bickers, jbickers@ihug.co.nz + + + + + + + + FAREWELL + + BY + + HONORE DE BALZAC + + Translated By + Ellen Marriage + + + + DEDICATION + + To Prince Friedrich von Schwarzenberg + + + + + + FAREWELL + + + +"Come, Deputy of the Centre, come along! We shall have to mend our +pace if we mean to sit down to dinner when every one else does, and +that's a fact! Hurry up! Jump, Marquis! That's it! Well done! You are +bounding over the furrows just like a stag!" + +These words were uttered by a sportsman seated much at his ease on the +outskirts of the Foret de l'Isle-Adam; he had just finished a Havana +cigar, which he had smoked while he waited for his companion, who had +evidently been straying about for some time among the forest +undergrowth. Four panting dogs by the speaker's side likewise watched +the progress of the personage for whose benefit the remarks were made. +To make their sarcastic import fully clear, it should be added that +the second sportsman was both short and stout; his ample girth +indicated a truly magisterial corpulence, and in consequence his +progress across the furrows was by no means easy. He was striding over +a vast field of stubble; the dried corn-stalks underfoot added not a +little to the difficulties of his passage, and to add to his +discomforts, the genial influence of the sun that slanted into his +eyes brought great drops of perspiration into his face. The uppermost +thought in his mind being a strong desire to keep his balance, he +lurched to and fro like a coach jolted over an atrocious road. + +It was one of those September days of almost tropical heat that +finishes the work of summer and ripens the grapes. Such heat forebodes +a coming storm; and though as yet there were wide patches of blue +between the dark rain-clouds low down on the horizon, pale golden +masses were rising and scattering with ominous swiftness from west to +east, and drawing a shadowy veil across the sky. The wind was still, +save in the upper regions of the air, so that the weight of the +atmosphere seemed to compress the steamy heat of the earth into the +forest glades. The tall forest trees shut out every breath of air so +completely that the little valley across which the sportsman was +making his way was as hot as a furnace; the silent forest seemed +parched with the fiery heat. Birds and insects were mute; the topmost +twigs of the trees swayed with scarcely perceptible motion. Any one +who retains some recollection of the summer of 1819 must surely +compassionate the plight of the hapless supporter of the ministry who +toiled and sweated over the stubble to rejoin his satirical comrade. +That gentleman, as he smoked his cigar, had arrived, by a process of +calculation based on the altitude of the sun, to the conclusion that +it must be about five o'clock. + +"Where the devil are we?" asked the stout sportsman. He wiped his brow +as he spoke, and propped himself against a tree in the field opposite +his companion, feeling quite unequal to clearing the broad ditch that +lay between them. + +"And you ask that question of /me/!" retorted the other, laughing from +his bed of tall brown grasses on the top of the bank. He flung the end +of his cigar into the ditch, exclaiming, "I swear by Saint Hubert that +no one shall catch me risking myself again in a country that I don't +know with a magistrate, even if, like you, my dear d'Albon, he happens +to be an old schoolfellow." + +"Why, Philip, have you really forgotten your own language? You surely +must have left your wits behind you in Siberia," said the stouter of +the two, with a glance half-comic, half-pathetic at the guide-post +distant about a hundred paces from them. + +"I understand," replied the one addressed as Philip. He snatched up +his rifle, suddenly sprang to his feet, made but one jump of it into +the field, and rushed off to the guide-post. "This way, d'Albon, here +you are! left about!" he shouted, gesticulating in the direction of +the highroad. "/To Baillet and l'Isle-Adam!/" he went on; "so if we go +along here, we shall be sure to come upon the cross-road to Cassan." + +"Quite right, Colonel," said M. d'Albon, putting the cap with which he +had been fanning himself back on his head. + +"Then /forward/! highly respected Councillor," returned Colonel +Philip, whistling to the dogs, that seemed already to obey him rather +than the magistrate their owner. + +"Are you aware, my lord Marquis, that two leagues yet remain before +us?" inquired the malicious soldier. "That village down yonder must be +Baillet." + +"Great heavens!" cried the Marquis d'Albon. "Go on to Cassan by all +means, if you like; but if you do, you will go alone. I prefer to wait +here, storm or no storm; you can send a horse for me from the chateau. +You have been making game of me, Sucy. We were to have a nice day's +sport by ourselves; we were not to go very far from Cassan, and go +over ground that I knew. Pooh! instead of a day's fun, you have kept +me running like a greyhound since four o'clock this morning, and +nothing but a cup or two of milk by way of breakfast. Oh! if ever you +find yourself in a court of law, I will take care that the day goes +against you if you were in the right a hundred times over." + +The dejected sportsman sat himself down on one of the stumps at the +foot of the guide-post, disencumbered himself of his rifle and empty +game-bag, and heaved a prolonged sigh. + +"Oh, France, behold thy Deputies!" laughed Colonel de Sucy. "Poor old +d'Albon; if you had spent six months at the other end of Siberia as I +did . . ." + +He broke off, and his eyes sought the sky, as if the story of his +troubles was a secret between himself and God. + +"Come, march!" he added. "If you once sit down, it is all over with +you." + +"I can't help it, Philip! It is such an old habit in a magistrate! I +am dead beat, upon my honor. If I had only bagged one hare though!" + +Two men more different are seldom seen together. The civilian, a man +of forty-two, seemed scarcely more than thirty; while the soldier, at +thirty years of age, looked to be forty at the least. Both wore the +red rosette that proclaimed them to be officers of the Legion of +Honor. A few locks of hair, mingled white and black, like a magpie's +wing, had strayed from beneath the Colonel's cap; while thick, fair +curls clustered about the magistrate's temples. The Colonel was tall, +spare, dried up, but muscular; the lines in his pale face told a tale +of vehement passions or of terrible sorrows; but his comrade's jolly +countenance beamed with health, and would have done credit to an +Epicurean. Both men were deeply sunburnt. Their high gaiters of brown +leather carried souvenirs of every ditch and swamp that they crossed +that day. + +"Come, come," cried M. de Sucy, "forward! One short hour's march, and +we shall be at Cassan with a good dinner before us." + +"You never were in love, that is positive," returned the Councillor, +with a comically piteous expression. "You are as inexorable as Article +304 of the Penal Code!" + +Philip de Sucy shuddered violently. Deep lines appeared in his broad +forehead, his face was overcast like the sky above them; but though +his features seemed to contract with the pain of an intolerably bitter +memory, no tears came to his eyes. Like all men of strong character, +he possessed the power of forcing his emotions down into some inner +depth, and, perhaps, like many reserved natures, he shrank from laying +bare a wound too deep for any words of human speech, and winced at the +thought of ridicule from those who do not care to understand. M. +d'Albon was one of those who are keenly sensitive by nature to the +distress of others, who feel at once the pain they have unwillingly +given by some blunder. He respected his friend's mood, rose to his +feet, forgot his weariness, and followed in silence, thoroughly +annoyed with himself for having touched on a wound that seemed not yet +healed. + +"Some day I will tell you my story," Philip said at last, wringing his +friend's hand, while he acknowledged his dumb repentance with a heart- +rending glance. "To-day I cannot." + +They walked on in silence. As the Colonel's distress passed off the +Councillor's fatigue returned. Instinctively, or rather urged by +weariness, his eyes explored the depths of the forest around them; he +looked high and low among the trees, and gazed along the avenues, +hoping to discover some dwelling where he might ask for hospitality. +They reached a place where several roads met; and the Councillor, +fancying that he saw a thin film of smoke rising through the trees, +made a stand and looked sharply about him. He caught a glimpse of the +dark green branches of some firs among the other forest trees, and +finally, "A house! a house!" he shouted. No sailor could have raised a +cry of "Land ahead!" more joyfully than he. + +He plunged at once into undergrowth, somewhat of the thickest; and the +Colonel, who had fallen into deep musings, followed him unheedingly. + +"I would rather have an omelette here and home-made bread, and a chair +to sit down in, than go further for a sofa, truffles, and Bordeaux +wine at Cassan." + +This outburst of enthusiasm on the Councillor's part was caused by the +sight of the whitened wall of a house in the distance, standing out in +strong contrast against the brown masses of knotted tree-trunks in the +forest. + +"Aha! This used to be a priory, I should say," the Marquis d'Albon +cried once more, as they stood before a grim old gateway. Through the +grating they could see the house itself standing in the midst of some +considerable extent of park land; from the style of the architecture +it appeared to have been a monastery once upon a time. + +"Those knowing rascals of monks knew how to choose a site!" + +This last exclamation was caused by the magistrate's amazement at the +romantic hermitage before his eyes. The house had been built on a spot +half-way up the hillside on the slope below the village of Nerville, +which crowned the summit. A huge circle of great oak-trees, hundreds +of years old, guarded the solitary place from intrusion. There +appeared to be about forty acres of the park. The main building of the +monastery faced the south, and stood in a space of green meadow, +picturesquely intersected by several tiny clear streams, and by larger +sheets of water so disposed as to have a natural effect. Shapely trees +with contrasting foliage grew here and there. Grottos had been +ingeniously contrived; and broad terraced walks, now in ruin, though +the steps were broken and the balustrades eaten through with rust, +gave to this sylvan Thebaid a certain character of its own. The art of +man and the picturesqueness of nature had wrought together to produce +a charming effect. Human passions surely could not cross that boundary +of tall oak-trees which shut out the sounds of the outer world, and +screened the fierce heat of the sun from this forest sanctuary. + +"What neglect!" said M. d'Albon to himself, after the first sense of +delight in the melancholy aspect of the ruins in the landscape, which +seemed blighted by a curse. + +It was like some haunted spot, shunned of men. The twisted ivy stems +clambered everywhere, hiding everything away beneath a luxuriant green +mantle. Moss and lichens, brown and gray, yellow and red, covered the +trees with fantastic patches of color, grew upon the benches in the +garden, overran the roof and the walls of the house. The window-sashes +were weather-worn and warped with age, the balconies were dropping to +pieces, the terraces in ruins. Here and there the folding shutters +hung by a single hinge. The crazy doors would have given way at the +first attempt to force an entrance. + +Out in the orchard the neglected fruit-trees were running to wood, the +rambling branches bore no fruit save the glistening mistletoe berries, +and tall plants were growing in the garden walks. All this forlornness +shed a charm across the picture that wrought on the spectator's mind +with an influence like that of some enchanting poem, filling his soul +with dreamy fancies. A poet must have lingered there in deep and +melancholy musings, marveling at the harmony of this wilderness, where +decay had a certain grace of its own. + +In a moment a few gleams of sunlight struggled through a rift in the +clouds, and a shower of colored light fell over the wild garden. The +brown tiles of the roof glowed in the light, the mosses took bright +hues, strange shadows played over the grass beneath the trees; the +dead autumn tints grew vivid, bright unexpected contrasts were evoked +by the light, every leaf stood out sharply in the clear, thin air. +Then all at once the sunlight died away, and the landscape that seemed +to have spoken grew silent and gloomy again, or rather, it took gray +soft tones like the tenderest hues of autumn dusk. + +"It is the palace of the Sleeping Beauty," the Councillor said to +himself (he had already begun to look at the place from the point of +view of an owner of property). "Whom can the place belong to, I +wonder. He must be a great fool not to live on such a charming little +estate!" + +Just at that moment, a woman sprang out from under a walnut tree on +the right-hand side of the gateway, and passed before the Councillor +as noiselessly and swiftly as the shadow of a cloud. This apparition +struck him dumb with amazement. + +"Hallo, d'Albon, what is the matter?" asked the Colonel. + +"I am rubbing my eyes to find out whether I am awake or asleep," +answered the magistrate, whose countenance was pressed against the +grating in the hope of catching a second glimpse of the ghost. + +"In all probability she is under that fig-tree," he went on, +indicating, for Philip's benefit, some branches that over-topped the +wall on the left-hand side of the gateway. + +"She? Who?" + +"Eh! how should I know?" answered M. d'Albon. "A strange-looking woman +sprang up there under my very eyes just now," he added, in a low +voice; "she looked to me more like a ghost than a living being. She +was so slender, light and shadowy that she might be transparent. Her +face was as white as milk, her hair, her eyes, and her dress were +black. She gave me a glance as she flitted by. I am not easily +frightened, but that cold stony stare of hers froze the blood in my +veins." + +"Was she pretty?" inquired Philip. + +"I don't know. I saw nothing but those eyes in her head." + +"The devil take dinner at Cassan!" exclaimed the Colonel; "let us stay +here. I am as eager as a boy to see the inside of this queer place. +The window-sashes are painted red, do you see? There is a red line +round the panels of the doors and the edges of the shutters. It might +be the devil's own dwelling; perhaps he took it over when the monks +went out. Now, then, let us give chase to the black and white lady; +come along!" cried Philip, with forced gaiety. + +He had scarcely finished speaking when the two sportsmen heard a cry +as if some bird had been taken in a snare. They listened. There was a +sound like the murmur of rippling water, as something forced its way +through the bushes; but diligently as they lent their ears, there was +no footfall on the path, the earth kept the secret of the mysterious +woman's passage, if indeed she had moved from her hiding-place. + +"This is very strange!" cried Philip. + +Following the wall of the path, the two friends reached before long a +forest road leading to the village of Chauvry; they went along this +track in the direction of the highway to Paris, and reached another +large gateway. Through the railings they had a complete view of the +facade of the mysterious house. From this point of view, the +dilapidation was still more apparent. Huge cracks had riven the walls +of the main body of the house built round three sides of a square. +Evidently the place was allowed to fall to ruin; there were holes in +the roof, broken slates and tiles lay about below. Fallen fruit from +the orchard trees was left to rot on the ground; a cow was grazing +over the bowling-green and trampling the flowers in the garden beds; a +goat browsed on the green grapes and young vine-shoots on the trellis. + +"It is all of a piece," remarked the Colonel. "The neglect is in a +fashion systematic." He laid his hand on the chain of the bell-pull, +but the bell had lost its clapper. The two friends heard no sound save +the peculiar grating creak of the rusty spring. A little door in the +wall beside the gateway, though ruinous, held good against all their +efforts to force it open. + +"Oho! all this is growing very interesting," Philip said to his +companion. + +"If I were not a magistrate," returned M. d'Albon, "I should think +that the woman in black is a witch." + +The words were scarcely out of his mouth when the cow came up to the +railings and held out her warm damp nose, as if she were glad of human +society. Then a woman, if so indescribable a being could be called a +woman, sprang up from the bushes, and pulled at the cord about the +cow's neck. From beneath the crimson handkerchief about the woman's +head, fair matted hair escaped, something as tow hangs about a +spindle. She wore no kerchief at the throat. A coarse black-and-gray +striped woolen petticoat, too short by several inches, left her legs +bare. She might have belonged to some tribe of Redskins in Fenimore +Cooper's novels; for her neck, arms, and ankles looked as if they had +been painted brick-red. There was no spark of intelligence in her +featureless face; her pale, bluish eyes looked out dull and +expressionless from beneath the eyebrows with one or two straggling +white hairs on them. Her teeth were prominent and uneven, but white as +a dog's. + +"Hallo, good woman," called M. de Sucy. + +She came slowly up to the railing, and stared at the two sportsmen +with a contorted smile painful to see. + +"Where are we? What is the name of the house yonder? Whom does it +belong to? Who are you? Do you come from hereabouts?" + +To these questions, and to a host of others poured out in succession +upon her by the two friends, she made no answer save gurgling sounds +in the throat, more like animal sounds than anything uttered by a +human voice. + +"Don't you see that she is deaf and dumb?" said M. d'Albon. + +"/Minorites/!" the peasant woman said at last. + +"Ah! she is right. The house looks as though it might once have been a +Minorite convent," he went on. + +Again they plied the peasant woman with questions, but, like a wayward +child, she colored up, fidgeted with her sabot, twisted the rope by +which she held the cow that had fallen to grazing again, stared at the +sportsmen, and scrutinized every article of clothing upon them; she +gibbered, grunted, and clucked, but no articulate word did she utter. + +"Your name?" asked Philip, fixing her with his eyes as if he were +trying to bewitch the woman. + +"Genevieve," she answered, with an empty laugh. + +"The cow is the most intelligent creature we have seen so far," +exclaimed the magistrate. "I shall fire a shot, that ought to bring +somebody out." + +D'Albon had just taken up his rifle when the Colonel put out a hand to +stop him, and pointed out the mysterious woman who had aroused such +lively curiosity in them. She seemed to be absorbed in deep thought, +as she went along a green alley some little distance away, so slowly +that the friends had time to take a good look at her. She wore a +threadbare black satin gown, her long hair curled thickly over her +forehead, and fell like a shawl about her shoulders below her waist. +Doubtless she was accustomed to the dishevelment of her locks, for she +seldom put back the hair on either side of her brows; but when she did +so, she shook her head with a sudden jerk that had not to be repeated +to shake away the thick veil from her eyes or forehead. In everything +that she did, moreover, there was a wonderful certainty in the working +of the mechanism, an unerring swiftness and precision, like that of an +animal, well-nigh marvelous in a woman. + +The two sportsmen were amazed to see her spring up into an apple-tree +and cling to a bough lightly as a bird. She snatched at the fruit, ate +it, and dropped to the ground with the same supple grace that charms +us in a squirrel. The elasticity of her limbs took all appearance of +awkwardness or effort from her movements. She played about upon the +grass, rolling in it as a young child might have done; then, on a +sudden, she lay still and stretched out her feet and hands, with the +languid natural grace of a kitten dozing in the sun. + +There was a threatening growl of thunder far away, and at this she +started up on all fours and listened, like a dog who hears a strange +footstep. One result of this strange attitude was to separate her +thick black hair into two masses, that fell away on either side of her +face and left her shoulders bare; the two witnesses of this singular +scene wondered at the whiteness of the skin that shone like a meadow +daisy, and at the neck that indicated the perfection of the rest of +her form. + +A wailing cry broke from her; she rose to her feet, and stood upright. +Every successive movement was made so lightly, so gracefully, so +easily, that she seemed to be no human being, but one of Ossian's +maids of the mist. She went across the grass to one of the pools of +water, deftly shook off her shoe, and seemed to enjoy dipping her +foot, white as marble, in the spring; doubtless it pleased her to make +the circling ripples, and watch them glitter like gems. She knelt down +by the brink, and played there like a child, dabbling her long tresses +in the water, and flinging them loose again to see the water drip from +the ends, like a string of pearls in the sunless light. + +"She is mad!" cried the Councillor. + +A hoarse cry rang through the air; it came from Genevieve, and seemed +to be meant for the mysterious woman. She rose to her feet in a +moment, flinging back the hair from her face, and then the Colonel and +d'Albon could see her features distinctly. As soon as she saw the two +friends she bounded to the railings with the swiftness of a fawn. + +"/Farewell/!" she said in low, musical tones, but they could not +discover the least trace of feeling, the least idea in the sweet +sounds that they had awaited impatiently. + +M. d'Albon admired the long lashes, the thick, dark eyebrows, the +dazzling fairness of skin untinged by any trace of red. Only the +delicate blue veins contrasted with that uniform whiteness. + +But when the Marquis turned to communicate his surprise at the sight +of so strange an apparition, he saw the Colonel stretched on the grass +like one dead. M. d'Albon fired his gun into the air, shouted for +help, and tried to raise his friend. At the sound of the shot, the +strange lady, who had stood motionless by the gate, fled away, crying +out like a wounded wild creature, circling round and round in the +meadow, with every sign of unspeakable terror. + +M. d'Albon heard a carriage rolling along the road to l'Isle-Adam, and +waved his handkerchief to implore help. The carriage immediately came +towards the Minorite convent, and M. d'Albon recognized neighbors, M. +and Mme. de Grandville, who hastened to alight and put their carriage +at his disposal. Colonel de Sucy inhaled the salts which Mme. de +Grandville happened to have with her; he opened his eyes, looked +towards the mysterious figure that still fled wailing through the +meadow, and a faint cry of horror broke from him; he closed his eyes +again, with a dumb gesture of entreaty to his friends to take him away +from this scene. M. and Mme. de Grandville begged the Councillor to +make use of their carriage, adding very obligingly that they +themselves would walk. + +"Who can the lady be?" inquired the magistrate, looking towards the +strange figure. + +"People think that she comes from Moulins," answered M. de Grandville. +"She is a Comtesse de Vandieres; she is said to be mad; but as she has +only been here for two months, I cannot vouch for the truth of all +this hearsay talk." + +M. d'Albon thanked M. and Mme. de Grandville, and they set out for +Cassan. + +"It is she!" cried Philip, coming to himself. + +"She? who?" asked d'Albon. + +"Stephanie. . . . Ah! dead and yet living still; still alive, but her +mind is gone! I thought the sight would kill me." + +The prudent magistrate, recognizing the gravity of the crisis through +which his friend was passing, refrained from asking questions or +exciting him further, and grew impatient of the length of the way to +the chateau, for the change wrought in the Colonel's face alarmed him. +He feared lest the Countess' terrible disease had communicated itself +to Philip's brain. When they reached the avenue at l'Isle-Adam, +d'Albon sent the servant for the local doctor, so that the Colonel had +scarcely been laid in bed before the surgeon was beside him. + +"If Monsieur le Colonel had not been fasting, the shock must have +killed him," pronounced the leech. "He was over-tired, and that saved +him," and with a few directions as to the patient's treatment, he went +to prepare a composing draught himself. M. de Sucy was better the next +morning, but the doctor had insisted on sitting up all night with him. + +"I confess, Monsieur le Marquis," the surgeon said, "that I feared for +the brain. M. de Sucy has had some very violent shock; he is a man of +strong passions, but, with his temperament, the first shock decides +everything. He will very likely be out of danger to-morrow." + +The doctor was perfectly right. The next day the patient was allowed +to see his friend. + +"I want you to do something for me, dear d'Albon," Philip said, +grasping his friend's hand. "Hasten at once to the Minorite convent, +find out everything about the lady whom we saw there, and come back as +soon as you can; I shall count the minutes till I see you again." + +M. d'Albon called for his horse, and galloped over to the old +monastery. When he reached the gateway he found some one standing +there, a tall, spare man with a kindly face, who answered in the +affirmative when he was asked if he lived in the ruined house. M. +d'Albon explained his errand. + +"Why, then, it must have been you, sir, who fired that unlucky shot! +You all but killed my poor invalid." + +"Eh! I fired into the air!" + +"If you had actually hit Madame la Comtesse, you would have done less +harm to her." + +"Well, well, then, we can neither of us complain, for the sight of the +Countess all but killed my friend, M. de Sucy." + +"The Baron de Sucy, is it possible?" cried the doctor, clasping his +hands. "Has he been in Russia? was he in the Beresina?" + +"Yes," answered d'Albon. "He was taken prisoner by the Cossacks and +sent to Siberia. He has not been back in this country a twelvemonth." + +"Come in, monsieur," said the other, and he led the way to a drawing- +room on the ground-floor. Everything in the room showed signs of +capricious destruction. + +Valuable china jars lay in fragments on either side of a clock beneath +a glass shade, which had escaped. The silk hangings about the windows +were torn to rags, while the muslin curtains were untouched. + +"You see about you the havoc wrought by a charming being to whom I +have dedicated my life. She is my niece; and though medical science is +powerless in her case, I hope to restore her to reason, though the +method which I am trying is, unluckily, only possible to the wealthy." + +Then, like all who live much alone and daily bear the burden of a +heavy trouble, he fell to talk with the magistrate. This is the story +that he told, set in order, and with the many digressions made by both +teller and hearer omitted. + + + +When, at nine o'clock at night, on the 28th of November 1812, Marshal +Victor abandoned the heights of Studzianka, which he had held through +the day, he left a thousand men behind with instructions to protect, +till the last possible moment, the two pontoon bridges over the +Beresina that still held good. This rear guard was to save if possible +an appalling number of stragglers, so numbed with the cold, that they +obstinately refused to leave the baggage-wagons. The heroism of the +generous band was doomed to fail; for, unluckily, the men who poured +down to the eastern bank of the Beresina found carriages, caissons, +and all kinds of property which the Army had been forced to abandon +during its passage on the 27th and 28th days of November. The poor, +half-frozen wretches, sunk almost to the level of brutes, finding such +unhoped-for riches, bivouacked in the deserted space, laid hands on +the military stores, improvised huts out of the material, lighted +fires with anything that would burn, cut up the carcasses of the +horses for food, tore out the linings of the carriages, wrapped +themselves in them, and lay down to sleep instead of crossing the +Beresina in peace under cover of night--the Beresina that even then +had proved, by incredible fatality, so disastrous to the Army. Such +apathy on the part of the poor fellows can only be understood by those +who remember tramping across those vast deserts of snow, with nothing +to quench their thirst but snow, snow for their bed, snow as far as +the horizon on every side, and no food but snow, a little frozen +beetroot, horseflesh, or a handful of meal. + +The miserable creatures were dropping down, overcome by hunger, +thirst, weariness, and sleep, when they reached the shores of the +Beresina and found fuel and fire and victuals, countless wagons and +tents, a whole improvised town, in short. The whole village of +Studzianka had been removed piecemeal from the heights of the plain, +and the very perils and miseries of this dangerous and doleful +habitation smiled invitingly to the wayfarers, who beheld no prospect +beyond it but the awful Russian deserts. A huge hospice, in short, was +erected for twenty hours of existence. Only one thought--the thought +of rest--appealed to men weary of life or rejoicing in unlooked-for +comfort. + +They lay right in the line of fire from the cannon of the Russian +left; but to that vast mass of human creatures, a patch upon the snow, +sometimes dark, sometimes breaking into flame, the indefatigable +grapeshot was but one discomfort the more. For them it was only a +storm, and they paid the less attention to the bolts that fell among +them because there were none to strike down there save dying men, the +wounded, or perhaps the dead. Stragglers came up in little bands at +every moment. These walking corpses instantly separated, and wandered +begging from fire to fire; and meeting, for the most part, with +refusals, banded themselves together again, and took by force what +they could not otherwise obtain. They were deaf to the voices of their +officers prophesying death on the morrow, and spent the energy +required to cross the swamp in building shelters for the night and +preparing a meal that often proved fatal. The coming death no longer +seemed an evil, for it gave them an hour of slumber before it came. +Hunger and thirst and cold--these were evils, but not death. + +At last wood and fuel and canvas and shelters failed, and hideous +brawls began between destitute late comers and the rich already in +possession of a lodging. The weaker were driven away, until a few last +fugitives before the Russian advance were obliged to make their bed in +the snow, and lay down to rise no more. + +Little by little the mass of half-dead humanity became so dense, so +deaf, so torpid,--or perhaps it should be said so happy--that Marshal +Victor, their heroic defender against twenty thousand Russians under +Wittgenstein, was actually compelled to cut his way by force through +this forest of men, so as to cross the Beresina with the five thousand +heroes whom he was leading to the Emperor. The miserable creatures +preferred to be trampled and crushed to death rather than stir from +their places, and died without a sound, smiling at the dead ashes of +their fires, forgetful of France. + +Not before ten o'clock that night did the Duc de Belluno reach the +other side of the river. Before committing his men to the pontoon +bridges that led to Zembin, he left the fate of the rearguard at +Studzianka in Eble's hands, and to Eble the survivors of the +calamities of the Beresina owed their lives. + +About midnight, the great General, followed by a courageous officer, +came out of his little hut by the bridge, and gazed at the spectacle +of this camp between the bank of the Beresina and the Borizof road to +Studzianka. The thunder of the Russian cannonade had ceased. Here and +there faces that had nothing human about them were lighted up by +countless fires that seemed to grow pale in the glare of the +snowfields, and to give no light. Nearly thirty thousand wretches, +belonging to every nation that Napoleon had hurled upon Russia, lay +there hazarding their lives with the indifference of brute beasts. + +"We have all these to save," the General said to his subordinate. +"To-morrow morning the Russians will be in Studzianka. The moment they +come up we shall have to set fire to the bridge; so pluck up heart, my +boy! Make your way out and up yonder through them, and tell General +Fournier that he has barely time to evacuate his post and cut his way +through to the bridge. As soon as you have seen him set out, follow +him down, take some able-bodied men, and set fire to the tents, +wagons, caissons, carriages, anything and everything, without pity, +and drive these fellows on to the bridge. Compel everything that walks +on two legs to take refuge on the other bank. We must set fire to the +camp; it is our last resource. If Berthier had let me burn those +d----d wagons sooner, no lives need have been lost in the river except +my poor pontooners, my fifty heroes, who saved the Army, and will be +forgotten." + +The General passed his hand over his forehead and said no more. He +felt that Poland would be his tomb, and foresaw that afterwards no +voice would be raised to speak for the noble fellows who had plunged +into the stream--into the waters of the Beresina!--to drive in the +piles for the bridges. And, indeed, only one of them is living now, +or, to be more accurate, starving, utterly forgotten in a country +village![*] The brave officer had scarcely gone a hundred paces +towards Studzianka, when General Eble roused some of his patient +pontooners, and began his work of mercy by setting fire to the camp on +the side nearest the bridge, so compelling the sleepers to rise and +cross the Beresina. Meanwhile the young aide-de-camp, not without +difficulty, reached the one wooden house yet left standing in +Studzianka. + +[*] This story can be found in /The Country Parson/.--eBook preparers. + +"So the box is pretty full, is it, messmate?" he said to a man whom he +found outside. + +"You will be a knowing fellow if you manage to get inside," the +officer returned, without turning round or stopping his occupation of +hacking at the woodwork of the house with his sabre. + +"Philip, is that you?" cried the aide-de-camp, recognizing the voice +of one of his friends. + +"Yes. Aha! is it you, old fellow?" returned M. de Sucy, looking round +at the aide-de-camp, who like himself was not more than twenty-three +years old. "I fancied you were on the other side of this confounded +river. Do you come to bring us sweetmeats for dessert? You will get a +warm welcome," he added, as he tore away a strip of bark from the wood +and gave it to his horse by way of fodder. + +"I am looking for your commandant. General Eble has sent me to tell +him to file off to Zembin. You have only just time to cut your way +through that mass of dead men; as soon as you get through, I am going +to set fire to the place to make them move --" + +"You almost make me feel warm! Your news has put me in a fever; I have +two friends to bring through. Ah! but for those marmots, I should have +been dead before now, old fellow. On their account I am taking care of +my horse instead of eating him. But have you a crust about you, for +pity's sake? It is thirty hours since I have stowed any victuals. I +have been fighting like a madman to keep up a little warmth in my body +and what courage I have left." + +"Poor Philip! I have nothing--not a scrap!-- But is your General in +there?" + +"Don't attempt to go in. The barn is full of our wounded. Go up a bit +higher, and you will see a sort of pig-sty to the right--that is where +the General is. Good-bye, my dear fellow. If ever we meet again in a +quadrille in a ballroom in Paris--" + +He did not finish the sentence, for the treachery of the northeast +wind that whistled about them froze Major Philip's lips, and the +aide-de-camp kept moving for fear of being frost-bitten. Silence soon +prevailed, scarcely broken by the groans of the wounded in the barn, +or the stifled sounds made by M. de Sucy's horse crunching on the +frozen bark with famished eagerness. Philip thrust his sabre into the +sheath, caught at the bridle of the precious animal that he had +managed to keep for so long, and drew her away from the miserable +fodder that she was bolting with apparent relish. + +"Come along, Bichette! come along! It lies with you now, my beauty, to +save Stephanie's life. There, wait a little longer, and they will let +us lie down and die, no doubt;" and Philip, wrapped in a pelisse, to +which doubtless he owed his life and energies, began to run, stamping +his feet on the frozen snow to keep them warm. He was scarce five +hundred paces away before he saw a great fire blazing on the spot +where he had left his carriage that morning with an old soldier to +guard it. A dreadful misgiving seized upon him. Many a man under the +influence of a powerful feeling during the Retreat summoned up energy +for his friend's sake when he would not have exerted himself to save +his own life; so it was with Philip. He soon neared a hollow, where he +had left a carriage sheltered from the cannonade, a carriage that held +a young woman, his playmate in childhood, dearer to him than any one +else on earth. + +Some thirty stragglers were sitting round a tremendous blaze, which +they kept up with logs of wood, planks wrenched from the floors of the +caissons, and wheels, and panels from carriage bodies. These had been, +doubtless, among the last to join the sea of fires, huts, and human +faces that filled the great furrow in the land between Studzianka and +the fatal river, a restless living sea of almost imperceptibly moving +figures, that sent up a smothered hum of sound blended with frightful +shrieks. It seemed that hunger and despair had driven these forlorn +creatures to take forcible possession of the carriage, for the old +General and his young wife, whom they had found warmly wrapped in +pelisses and traveling cloaks, were now crouching on the earth beside +the fire, and one of the carriage doors was broken. + +As soon as the group of stragglers round the fire heard the footfall +of the Major's horse, a frenzied yell of hunger went up from them. "A +horse!" they cried. "A horse!" + +All the voices went up as one voice. + +"Back! back! Look out!" shouted two or three of them, leveling their +muskets at the animal. + +"I will pitch you neck and crop into your fire, you blackguards!" +cried Philip, springing in front of the mare. "There are dead horses +lying up yonder; go and look for them!" + +"What a rum customer the officer is!-- Once, twice, will you get out +of the way?" returned a giant grenadier. "You won't? All right then, +just as you please." + +A woman's shriek rang out above the report. Luckily, none of the +bullets hit Philip; but poor Bichette lay in the agony of death. Three +of the men came up and put an end to her with thrusts of the bayonet. + +"Cannibals! leave me the rug and my pistols," cried Philip in +desperation. + +"Oh! the pistols if you like; but as for the rug, there is a fellow +yonder who has had nothing to wet his whistle these two days, and is +shivering in his coat of cobwebs, and that's our General." + +Philips looked up and saw a man with worn-out shoes and a dozen rents +in his trousers; the only covering for his head was a ragged foraging +cap, white with rime. He said no more after that, but snatched up his +pistols. + +Five of the men dragged the mare to the fire, and began to cut up the +carcass as dexterously as any journeymen butchers in Paris. The scraps +of meat were distributed and flung upon the coals, and the whole +process was magically swift. Philip went over to the woman who had +given the cry of terror when she recognized his danger, and sat down +by her side. She sat motionless upon a cushion taken from the +carriage, warming herself at the blaze; she said no word, and gazed at +him without a smile. He saw beside her the soldier whom he had left +mounting guard over the carriage; the poor fellow had been wounded; he +had been overpowered by numbers, and forced to surrender to the +stragglers who had set upon him, and, like a dog who defends his +master's dinner till the last moment, he had taken his share of the +spoil, and had made a sort of cloak for himself out of a sheet. At +that particular moment he was busy toasting a piece of horseflesh, and +in his face the major saw a gleeful anticipation of the coming feast. + +The Comte de Vandieres, who seemed to have grown quite childish in the +last few days, sat on a cushion close to his wife, and stared into the +fire. He was only just beginning to shake off his torpor under the +influence of the warmth. He had been no more affected by Philip's +arrival and danger than by the fight and subsequent pillaging of his +traveling carriage. + +At first Sucy caught the young Countess' hand in his, trying to +express his affection for her, and the pain that it gave him to see +her reduced like this to the last extremity of misery; but he said +nothing as he sat by her side on the thawing heap of snow, he gave +himself up to the pleasure of the sensation of warmth, forgetful of +danger, forgetful of all things else in the world. In spite of himself +his face expanded with an almost fatuous expression of satisfaction, +and he waited impatiently till the scrap of horseflesh that had fallen +to his soldier's share should be cooked. The smell of charred flesh +stimulated his hunger. Hunger clamored within and silenced his heart, +his courage, and his love. He coolly looked round on the results of +the spoliation of his carriage. Not a man seated round the fire but +had shared the booty, the rugs, cushions, pelisses, dresses,--articles +of clothing that belonged to the Count and Countess or to himself. +Philip turned to see if anything worth taking was left in the berline. +He saw by the light of the flames, gold, and diamonds, and silver +lying scattered about; no one had cared to appropriate the least +particle. There was something hideous in the silence among those human +creatures round the fire; none of them spoke, none of them stirred, +save to do such things as each considered necessary for his own +comfort. + +It was a grotesque misery. The men's faces were wrapped and disfigured +with the cold, and plastered over with a layer of mud; you could see +the thickness of the mask by the channel traced down their cheeks by +the tears that ran from their eyes, and their long slovenly-kept +beards added to the hideousness of their appearance. Some were wrapped +round in women's shawls, others in horse-cloths, dirty blankets, rags +stiffened with melting hoar-frost; here and there a man wore a boot on +one foot and a shoe on the other, in fact, there was not one of them +but wore some ludicrously odd costume. But the men themselves with +such matter for jest about them were gloomy and taciturn. + +The silence was unbroken save by the crackling of the wood, the +roaring of the flames, the far-off hum of the camp, and the sound of +sabres hacking at the carcass of the mare. Some of the hungriest of +the men were still cutting tidbits for themselves. A few miserable +creatures, more weary than the others, slept outright; and if they +happened to roll into the fire, no one pulled them back. With +cut-and-dried logic their fellows argued that if they were not dead, a +scorching ought to be sufficient warning to quit and seek out more +comfortable quarters. If the poor wretch woke to find himself on fire, +he was burned to death, and nobody pitied him. Here and there the men +exchanged glances, as if to excuse their indifference by the +carelessness of the rest; the thing happened twice under the Countess' +eyes, and she uttered no sound. When all the scraps of horseflesh had +been broiled upon the coals, they were devoured with a ravenous +greediness that would have been disgusting in wild beasts. + +"And now we have seen thirty infantrymen on one horse for the first +time in our lives!" cried the grenadier who had shot the mare, the one +solitary joke that sustained the Frenchmen's reputation for wit. + +Before long the poor fellows huddled themselves up in their clothes, +and lay down on planks of timber, on anything but the bare snow, and +slept--heedless of the morrow. Major de Sucy having warmed himself and +satisfied his hunger, fought in vain against the drowsiness that +weighed upon his eyes. During this brief struggle he gazed at the +sleeping girl who had turned her face to the fire, so that he could +see her closed eyelids and part of her forehead. She was wrapped round +in a furred pelisse and a coarse horseman's cloak, her head lay on a +blood-stained cushion; a tall astrakhan cap tied over her head by a +handkerchief knotted under the chin protected her face as much as +possible from the cold, and she had tucked up her feet in the cloak. +As she lay curled up in this fashion, she bore no likeness to any +creature. + +Was this the lowest of camp-followers? Was this the charming woman, +the pride of her lover's heart, the queen of many a Parisian ballroom? +Alas! even for the eyes of this most devoted friend, there was no +discernible trace of womanhood in that bundle of rags and linen, and +the cold was mightier than the love in a woman's heart. + +Then for the major the husband and wife came to be like two distant +dots seen through the thick veil that the most irresistible kind of +slumber spread over his eyes. It all seemed to be part of a dream--the +leaping flames, the recumbent figures, the awful cold that lay in wait +for them three paces away from the warmth of the fire that glowed for +a little while. One thought that could not be stifled haunted Philip-- +"If I go to sleep, we shall all die; I will not sleep," he said to +himself. + +He slept. After an hour's slumber M. de Sucy was awakened by a hideous +uproar and the sound of an explosion. The remembrance of his duty, of +the danger of his beloved, rushed upon his mind with a sudden shock. +He uttered a cry like the growl of a wild beast. He and his servant +stood upright above the rest. They saw a sea of fire in the darkness, +and against it moving masses of human figures. Flames were devouring +the huts and tents. Despairing shrieks and yelling cries reached their +ears; they saw thousands upon thousands of wild and desperate faces; +and through this inferno a column of soldiers was cutting its way to +the bridge, between the two hedges of dead bodies. + +"Our rearguard is in full retreat," cried the major. "There is no hope +left!" + +"I have spared your traveling carriage, Philip," said a friendly +voice. + +Sucy turned and saw the young aide-de-camp by the light of the flames. + +"Oh, it is all over with us," he answered. "They have eaten my horse. +And how am I to make this sleepy general and his wife stir a step?" + +"Take a brand, Philip, and threaten them." + +"Threaten the Countess? . . ." + +"Good-bye," cried the aide-de-camp; "I have only just time to get +across that unlucky river, and go I must, there is my mother in +France! . . . What a night! This herd of wretches would rather lie +here in the snow, and most of them would sooner be burned alive than +get up. . . . It is four o'clock, Philip! In two hours the Russians +will begin to move, and you will see the Beresina covered with corpses +a second time, I can tell you. You haven't a horse, and you cannot +carry the Countess, so come along with me," he went on, taking his +friend by the arm. + +"My dear fellow, how am I to leave Stephanie?" + +Major de Sucy grasped the Countess, set her on her feet, and shook her +roughly; he was in despair. He compelled her to wake, and she stared +at him with dull fixed eyes. + +"Stephanie, we must go, or we shall die here!" + +For all answer, the Countess tried to sink down again and sleep on the +earth. The aide-de-camp snatched a brand from the fire and shook it in +her face. + +"We must save her in spite of herself," cried Philip, and he carried +her in his arms to the carriage. He came back to entreat his friend to +help him, and the two young men took the old general and put him +beside his wife, without knowing whether he were alive or dead. The +major rolled the men over as they crouched on the earth, took away the +plundered clothing, and heaped it upon the husband and wife, then he +flung some of the broiled fragments of horseflesh into a corner of the +carriage. + +"Now, what do you mean to do?" asked the aide-de-camp. + +"Drag them along!" answered Sucy. + +"You are mad!" + +"You are right!" exclaimed Philip, folding his arms on his breast. + +Suddenly a desperate plan occurred to him. + +"Look you here!" he said, grasping his sentinel by the unwounded arm. +"I leave her in your care for one hour. Bear in mind that you must die +sooner than let any one, no matter whom, come near the carriage!" + +The major seized a handful of the lady's diamonds, drew his sabre, and +violently battered those who seemed to him to be the bravest among the +sleepers. By this means he succeeded in rousing the gigantic grenadier +and a couple of men whose rank and regiment were undiscoverable. + +"It is all up with us!" he cried. + +"Of course it is," returned the grenadier; "but that is all one to +me." + +"Very well then, if die you must, isn't it better to sell your life +for a pretty woman, and stand a chance of going back to France again?" + +"I would rather go to sleep," said one of the men, dropping down into +the snow; "and if you worry me again, major, I shall stick my +toasting-iron into your body." + +"What is it all about, sir?" asked the grenadier. "The man's drunk. He +is a Parisian, and likes to lie in the lap of luxury." + +"You shall have these, good fellow," said the major, holding out a +riviere of diamonds, "if you will follow me and fight like a madman. +The Russians are not ten minutes away; they have horses; we will march +up to the nearest battery and carry off two stout ones." + +"How about the sentinels, major?" + +"One of us three--" he began; then he turned from the soldier and +looked at the aide-de-camp.--"You are coming, aren't you, Hippolyte?" + +Hippolyte nodded assent. + +"One of us," the major went on, "will look after the sentry. Besides, +perhaps those blessed Russians are also fast asleep." + +"All right, major; you are a good sort! But will you take me in your +carriage?" asked the grenadier. + +"Yes, if you don't leave your bones up yonder.-- If I come to grief, +promise me, you two, that you will do everything in your power to save +the Countess." + +"All right," said the grenadier. + +They set out for the Russian lines, taking the direction of the +batteries that had so cruelly raked the mass of miserable creatures +huddled together by the river bank. A few minutes later the hoofs of +two galloping horses rang on the frozen snow, and the awakened battery +fired a volley that passed over the heads of the sleepers; the +hoof-beats rattled so fast on the iron ground that they sounded like +the hammering in a smithy. The generous aide-de-camp had fallen; the +stalwart grenadier had come off safe and sound; and Philip himself +received a bayonet thrust in the shoulder while defending his friend. +Notwithstanding his wound, he clung to his horse's mane, and gripped +him with his knees so tightly that the animal was held as in a vise. + +"God be praised!" cried the major, when he saw his soldier still on +the spot, and the carriage standing where he had left it. + +"If you do the right thing by me, sir, you will get me the cross for +this. We have treated them to a sword dance to a pretty tune from the +rifle, eh?" + +"We have done nothing yet! Let us put the horses in. Take hold of +these cords." + +"They are not long enough." + +"All right, grenadier, just go and overhaul those fellows sleeping +there; take their shawls, sheets, anything--" + +"I say! the rascal is dead," cried the grenadier, as he plundered the +first man who came to hand. "Why, they are all dead! how queer!" + +"All of them?" + +"Yes, every one. It looks as though the horseflesh /a la neige/ was +indigestible." + +Philip shuddered at the words. The night had grown twice as cold as +before. + +"Great heaven! to lose her when I have saved her life a score of times +already." + +He shook the Countess, "Stephanie! Stephanie!" he cried. + +She opened her eyes. + +"We are saved, madame!" + +"Saved!" she echoed, and fell back again. + +The horses were harnessed after a fashion at last. The major held his +sabre in his unwounded hand, took the reins in the other, saw to his +pistols, and sprang on one of the horses, while the grenadier mounted +the other. The old sentinel had been pushed into the carriage, and lay +across the knees of the general and the Countess; his feet were +frozen. Urged on by blows from the flat of the sabre, the horses +dragged the carriage at a mad gallop down to the plain, where endless +difficulties awaited them. Before long it became almost impossible to +advance without crushing sleeping men, women, and even children at +every step, all of whom declined to stir when the grenadier awakened +them. In vain M. de Sucy looked for the track that the rearguard had +cut through this dense crowd of human beings; there was no more sign +of their passage than the wake of a ship in the sea. The horses could +only move at a foot-pace, and were stopped most frequently by +soldiers, who threatened to kill them. + +"Do you mean to get there?" asked the grenadier. + +"Yes, if it costs every drop of blood in my body! if it costs the +whole world!" the major answered. + +"Forward, then! . . . You can't have the omelette without breaking +eggs." And the grenadier of the Garde urged on the horses over the +prostrate bodies, and upset the bivouacs; the blood-stained wheels +ploughing that field of faces left a double furrow of dead. But in +justice it should be said that he never ceased to thunder out his +warning cry, "Carrion! look out!" + +"Poor wretches!" exclaimed the major. + +"Bah! That way, or the cold, or the cannon!" said the grenadier, +goading on the horses with the point of his sword. + +Then came the catastrophe, which must have happened sooner but for +miraculous good fortune; the carriage was overturned, and all further +progress was stopped at once. + +"I expected as much!" exclaimed the imperturbable grenadier. "Oho! he +is dead!" he added, looking at his comrade. + +"Poor Laurent!" said the major. + +"Laurent! Wasn't he in the Fifth Chasseurs?" + +"Yes." + +"My own cousin.-- Pshaw! this beastly life is not so pleasant that one +need be sorry for him as things go." + +But all this time the carriage lay overturned, and the horses were +only released after great and irreparable loss of time. The shock had +been so violent that the Countess had been awakened by it, and the +subsequent commotion aroused her from her stupor. She shook off the +rugs and rose. + +"Where are we, Philip?" she asked in musical tones, as she looked +about her. + +"About five hundred paces from the bridge. We are just about to cross +the Beresina. When we are on the other side, Stephanie, I will not +tease you any more; I will let you go to sleep; we shall be in safety, +we can go on to Wilna in peace. God grant that you may never know what +your life has cost!" + +"You are wounded!" + +"A mere trifle." + +The hour of doom had come. The Russian cannon announced the day. The +Russians were in possession of Studzianka, and thence were raking the +plain with grapeshot; and by the first dim light of the dawn the major +saw two columns moving and forming above the heights. Then a cry of +horror went up from the crowd, and in a moment every one sprang to his +feet. Each instinctively felt his danger, and all made a rush for the +bridge, surging towards it like a wave. + +Then the Russians came down upon them, swift as a conflagration. Men, +women, children, and horses all crowded towards the river. Luckily for +the major and the Countess, they were still at some distance from the +bank. General Eble had just set fire to the bridge on the other side; +but in spite of all the warnings given to those who rushed towards the +chance of salvation, not one among them could or would draw back. The +overladen bridge gave way, and not only so, the impetus of the frantic +living wave towards that fatal bank was such that a dense crowd of +human beings was thrust into the water as if by an avalanche. The +sound of a single human cry could not be distinguished; there was a +dull crash as if an enormous stone had fallen into the water--and the +Beresina was covered with corpses. + +The violent recoil of those in front, striving to escape this death, +brought them into hideous collision with those behind then, who were +pressing towards the bank, and many were suffocated and crushed. The +Comte and Comtesse de Vandieres owed their lives to the carriage. The +horses that had trampled and crushed so many dying men were crushed +and trampled to death in their turn by the human maelstrom which +eddied from the bank. Sheer physical strength saved the major and the +grenadier. They killed others in self-defence. That wild sea of human +faces and living bodies, surging to and fro as by one impulse, left +the bank of the Beresina clear for a few moments. The multitude had +hurled themselves back on the plain. Some few men sprang down from the +banks of the river, not so much with any hope of reaching the opposite +shore, which for them meant France, as from dread of the wastes of +Siberia. For some bold spirits despair became a panoply. An officer +leaped from hummock to hummock of ice, and reached the other shore; +one of the soldiers scrambled over miraculously on the piles of dead +bodies and drift ice. But the immense multitude left behind saw at +last that the Russians would not slaughter twenty thousand unarmed +men, too numb with the cold to attempt to resist them, and each +awaited his fate with dreadful apathy. By this time the major and his +grenadier, the old general and his wife, were left to themselves not +very far from the place where the bridge had been. All four stood dry- +eyed and silent among the heaps of dead. A few able-bodied men and one +or two officers, who had recovered all their energy at this crisis, +gathered about them. The group was sufficiently large; there were +about fifty men all told. A couple of hundred paces from them stood +the wreck of the artillery bridge, which had broken down the day +before; the major saw this, and "Let us make a raft!" he cried. + +The words were scarcely out of his mouth before the whole group +hurried to the ruins of the bridge. A crowd of men began to pick up +iron clamps and to hunt for planks and ropes--for all the materials +for a raft, in short. A score of armed men and officers, under command +of the major, stood on guard to protect the workers from any desperate +attempt on the part of the multitude if they should guess their +design. The longing for freedom, which inspires prisoners to +accomplish impossibilities, cannot be compared with the hope which +lent energy at that moment to these forlorn Frenchmen. + +"The Russians are upon us! Here are the Russians!" the guard shouted +to the workers. + +The timbers creaked, the raft grew larger, stronger, and more +substantial. Generals, colonels, and common soldiers all alike bent +beneath the weight of wagon-wheels, chains, coils of rope, and planks +of timber; it was a modern realization of the building of Noah's ark. +The young Countess, sitting by her husband's side, looked on, +regretful that she could do nothing to aide the workers, though she +helped to knot the lengths of rope together. + +At last the raft was finished. Forty men launched it out into the +river, while ten of the soldiers held the ropes that must keep it +moored to the shore. The moment that they saw their handiwork floating +on the Beresina, they sprang down onto it from the bank with callous +selfishness. The major, dreading the frenzy of the first rush, held +back Stephanie and the general; but a shudder ran through him when he +saw the landing place black with people, and men crowding down like +playgoers into the pit of a theatre. + +"It was I who thought of the raft, you savages!" he cried. "I have +saved your lives, and you will not make room for me!" + +A confused murmur was the only answer. The men at the edge took up +stout poles, trust them against the bank with all their might, so as +to shove the raft out and gain an impetus at its starting upon a +journey across a sea of floating ice and dead bodies towards the other +shore. + +"/Tonnerre de Dieu/! I will knock some of you off into the water if +you don't make room for the major and his two companions," shouted the +grenadier. He raised his sabre threateningly, delayed the departure, +and made the men stand closer together, in spite of threatening yells. + +"I shall fall in! . . . I shall go overboard! . . ." his fellows +shouted. + +"Let us start! Put off!" + +The major gazed with tearless eyes at the woman he loved; an impulse +of sublime resignation raised her eyes to heaven. + +"To die with you!" she said. + +In the situation of the folk upon the raft there was a certain comic +element. They might utter hideous yells, but not one of them dared to +oppose the grenadier, for they were packed together so tightly that if +one man were knocked down, the whole raft might capsize. At this +delicate crisis, a captain tried to rid himself of one of his +neighbors; the man saw the hostile intention of his officer, collared +him, and pitched him overboard. "Aha! The duck has a mind to drink. +. . . Over with you!-- There is room for two now!" he shouted. "Quick, +major! throw your little woman over, and come! Never mind that old +dotard! he will drop off to-morrow!" + +"Be quick!" cried a voice, made up of a hundred voices. + +"Come, major! Those fellows are making a fuss, and well they may." + +The Comte de Vandieres flung off his ragged blankets, and stood before +them in his general's uniform. + +"Let us save the Count," said Philip. + +Stephanie grasped his hand tightly in hers, flung her arms about, and +clasped him close in an agonized embrace. + +"Farewell!" she said. + +Then each knew the other's thoughts. The Comte de Vandieres recovered +his energies and presence of mind sufficiently to jump on to the raft, +whither Stephanie followed him after one last look at Philip. + +"Major, won't you take my place? I do not care a straw for life; I +have neither a wife, nor child, nor mother belonging to me--" + +"I give them into your charge," cried the major, indicating the Count +and his wife. + +"Be easy; I will take as much care of them as of the apple of my eye." + +Philip stood stock-still on the bank. The raft sped so violently +towards the opposite shore that it ran aground with a violent shock to +all on board. The Count, standing on the very edge, was shaken into +the stream; and as he fell, a mass of ice swept by and struck off his +head, and sent it flying like a ball. + +"Hey! major!" shouted the grenadier. + +"Farewell!" a woman's voice called aloud. + +An icy shiver ran through Philip de Sucy, and he dropped down where he +stood, overcome with cold and sorrow and weariness. + + + +"My poor niece went out of her mind," the doctor added after a brief +pause. "Ah! monsieur," he went on, grasping M. d'Albon's hand, "what a +fearful life for a poor little thing, so young, so delicate! An +unheard-of misfortune separated her from that grenadier of the Garde +(Fleuriot by name), and for two years she was dragged on after the +army, the laughing-stock of a rabble of outcasts. She went barefoot, I +heard, ill-clad, neglected, and starved for months at a time; +sometimes confined to a hospital, sometimes living like a hunted +animal. God alone knows all the misery which she endured, and yet she +lives. She was shut up in a madhouse in a little German town, while +her relations, believing her to be dead, were dividing her property +here in France. + +"In 1816 the grenadier Fleuriot recognized her in an inn in +Strasbourg. She had just managed to escape from captivity. Some +peasants told him that the Countess had lived for a whole month in a +forest, and how that they had tracked her and tried to catch her +without success. + +"I was at that time not many leagues from Strasbourg; and hearing the +talk about the girl in the wood, I wished to verify the strange facts +that had given rise to absurd stories. What was my feeling when I +beheld the Countess? Fleuriot told me all that he knew of the piteous +story. I took the poor fellow with my niece into Auvergne, and there I +had the misfortune to lose him. He had some ascendancy over Mme. de +Vandieres. He alone succeeded in persuading her to wear clothes; and +in those days her one word of human speech--/Farewell/--she seldom +uttered. Fleuriot set himself to the task of awakening certain +associations; but there he failed completely; he drew that one +sorrowful word from her a little more frequently, that was all. But +the old grenadier could amuse her, and devoted himself to playing with +her, and through him I hoped; but--" here Stephanie's uncle broke off. +After a moment he went on again. + +"Here she has found another creature with whom she seems to have an +understanding--an idiot peasant girl, who once, in spite of her +plainness and imbecility, fell in love with a mason. The mason thought +of marrying her because she had a little bit of land, and for a whole +year poor Genevieve was the happiest of living creatures. She dressed +in her best, and danced on Sundays with Dallot; she understood love; +there was room for love in her heart and brain. But Dallot thought +better of it. He found another girl who had all her senses and rather +more land than Genevieve, and he forsook Genevieve for her. Then the +poor thing lost the little intelligence that love had developed in +her; she can do nothing now but cut grass and look after the cattle. +My niece and the poor girl are in some sort bound to each other by the +invisible chain of their common destiny, and by their madness due to +the same cause. Just come here a moment; look!" and Stephanie's uncle +led the Marquis d'Albon to the window. + +There, in fact, the magistrate beheld the pretty Countess sitting on +the ground at Genevieve's knee, while the peasant girl was wholly +absorbed in combing out Stephanie's long, black hair with a huge comb. +The Countess submitted herself to this, uttering low smothered cries +that expressed her enjoyment of the sensation of physical comfort. A +shudder ran through M. d'Albon as he saw her attitude of languid +abandonment, the animal supineness that revealed an utter lack of +intelligence. + +"Oh! Philip, Philip!" he cried, "past troubles are as nothing. Is it +quite hopeless?" he asked. + +The doctor raised his eyes to heaven. + +"Good-bye, monsieur," said M. d'Albon, pressing the old man's hand. +"My friend is expecting me; you will see him here before long." + + + +"Then it is Stephanie herself?" cried Sucy when the Marquis had spoken +the first few words. "Ah! until now I did not feel sure!" he added. +Tears filled the dark eyes that were wont to wear a stern expression. + +"Yes; she is the Comtesse de Vandieres," his friend replied. + +The colonel started up, and hurriedly began to dress. + +"Why, Philip!" cried the horrified magistrate. "Are you going mad?" + +"I am quite well now," said the colonel simply. "This news has soothed +all my bitterest grief; what pain could hurt me while I think of +Stephanie? I am going over to the Minorite convent, to see her and +speak to her, to restore her to health again. She is free; ah, surely, +surely, happiness will smile on us, or there is no Providence above. +How can you think she could hear my voice, poor Stephanie, and not +recover her reason?" + +"She has seen you once already, and she did not recognize you," the +magistrate answered gently, trying to suggest some wholesome fears to +this friend, whose hopes were visibly too high. + +The colonel shuddered, but he began to smile again, with a slight +involuntary gesture of incredulity. Nobody ventured to oppose his +plans, and a few hours later he had taken up his abode in the old +priory, to be near the doctor and the Comtesse de Vandieres. + +"Where is she?" he cried at once. + +"Hush!" answered M. Fanjat, Stephanie's uncle. "She is sleeping. Stay; +here she is." + +Philip saw the poor distraught sleeper crouching on a stone bench in +the sun. Her thick hair, straggling over her face, screened it from +the glare and heat; her arms dropped languidly to the earth; she lay +at ease as gracefully as a fawn, her feet tucked up beneath her; her +bosom rose and fell with her even breathing; there was the same +transparent whiteness as of porcelain in her skin and complexion that +we so often admire in children's faces. Genevieve sat there +motionless, holding a spray that Stephanie doubtless had brought down +from the top of one of the tallest poplars; the idiot girl was waving +the green branch above her, driving away the flies from her sleeping +companion, and gently fanning her. + +She stared at M. Fanjat and the colonel as they came up; then, like a +dumb animal that recognizes its master, she slowly turned her face +towards the countess, and watched over her as before, showing not the +slightest sign of intelligence or of astonishment. The air was +scorching. The glittering particles of the stone bench shone like +sparks of fire; the meadow sent up the quivering vapors that hover +above the grass and gleam like golden dust when they catch the light, +but Genevieve did not seem to feel the raging heat. + +The colonel wrung M. Fanjat's hands; the tears that gathered in the +soldier's eyes stole down his cheeks, and fell on the grass at +Stephanie's feet. + +"Sir," said her uncle, "for these two years my heart has been broken +daily. Before very long you will be as I am; if you do not weep, you +will not feel your anguish the less." + +"You have taken care of her!" said the colonel, and jealousy no less +than gratitude could be read in his eyes. + +The two men understood one another. They grasped each other by the +hand again, and stood motionless, gazing in admiration at the serenity +that slumber had brought into the lovely face before them. Stephanie +heaved a sigh from time to time, and this sigh, that had all the +appearance of sensibility, made the unhappy colonel tremble with +gladness. + +"Alas!" M. Fanjat said gently, "do not deceive yourself, monsieur; as +you see her now, she is in full possession of such reason as she has." + +Those who have sat for whole hours absorbed in the delight of watching +over the slumber of some tenderly-beloved one, whose waking eyes will +smile for them, will doubtless understand the bliss and anguish that +shook the colonel. For him this slumber was an illusion, the waking +must be a kind of death, the most dreadful of all deaths. + +Suddenly a kid frisked in two or three bounds towards the bench and +snuffed at Stephanie. The sound awakened her; she sprang lightly to +her feet without scaring away the capricious creature; but as soon as +she saw Philip she fled, followed by her four-footed playmate, to a +thicket of elder-trees; then she uttered a little cry like the note of +a startled wild bird, the same sound that the colonel had heard once +before near the grating, when the Countess appeared to M. d'Albon for +the first time. At length she climbed into a laburnum-tree, ensconced +herself in the feathery greenery, and peered out at the /strange man/ +with as much interest as the most inquisitive nightingale in the +forest. + +"Farewell, farewell, farewell," she said, but the soul sent no trace +of expression of feeling through the words, spoken with the careless +intonation of a bird's notes. + +"She does not know me!" the colonel exclaimed in despair. "Stephanie! +Here is Philip, your Philip! . . . Philip!" and the poor soldier went +towards the laburnum-tree; but when he stood three paces away, the +Countess eyed him almost defiantly, though there was timidity in her +eyes; then at a bound she sprang from the laburnum to an acacia, and +thence to a spruce-fir, swinging from bough to bough with marvelous +dexterity. + +"Do not follow her," said M. Fanjat, addressing the colonel. "You +would arouse a feeling of aversion in her which might become +insurmountable; I will help you to make her acquaintance and to tame +her. Sit down on the bench. If you pay no heed whatever to her, poor +child, it will not be long before you will see her come nearer by +degrees to look at you." + +"That /she/ should not know me; that she should fly from me!" the +colonel repeated, sitting down on a rustic bench and leaning his back +against a tree that overshadowed it. + +He bowed his head. The doctor remained silent. Before very long the +Countess stole softly down from her high refuge in the spruce-fir, +flitting like a will-o'-the-wisp; for as the wind stirred the boughs, +she lent herself at times to the swaying movements of the trees. At +each branch she stopped and peered at the stranger; but as she saw him +sitting motionless, she at length jumped down to the grass, stood a +while, and came slowly across the meadow. When she took up her +position by a tree about ten paces from the bench, M. Fanjat spoke to +the colonel in a low voice. + +"Feel in my pocket for some lumps of sugar," he said, "and let her see +them, she will come; I willingly give up to you the pleasure of giving +her sweetmeats. She is passionately fond of sugar, and by that means +you will accustom her to come to you and to know you." + +"She never cared for sweet things when she was a woman," Philip +answered sadly. + +When he held out the lump of sugar between his thumb and finger, and +shook it, Stephanie uttered the wild note again, and sprang quickly +towards him; then she stopped short, there was a conflict between +longing for the sweet morsel and instinctive fear of him; she looked +at the sugar, turned her head away, and looked again like an +unfortunate dog forbidden to touch some scrap of food, while his +master slowly recites the greater part of the alphabet until he +reaches the letter that gives permission. At length the animal +appetite conquered fear; Stephanie rushed to Philip, held out a dainty +brown hand to pounce upon the coveted morsel, touched her lover's +fingers, snatched the piece of sugar, and vanished with it into a +thicket. This painful scene was too much for the colonel; he burst +into tears, and took refuge in the drawing-room. + +"Then has love less courage than affection?" M. Fanjat asked him. "I +have hope, Monsieur le Baron. My poor niece was once in a far more +pitiable state than at present." + +"Is it possible?" cried Philip. + +"She would not wear clothes," answered the doctor. + +The colonel shuddered, and his face grew pale. To the doctor's mind +this pallor was an unhealthy symptom; he went over to him and felt his +pulse. M. de Sucy was in a high fever; by dint of persuasion, he +succeeded in putting the patient in bed, and gave him a few drops of +laudanum to gain repose and sleep. + +The Baron de Sucy spent nearly a week, in a constant struggle with a +deadly anguish, and before long he had no tears left to shed. He was +often well-nigh heartbroken; he could not grow accustomed to the sight +of the Countess' madness; but he made terms for himself, as it were, +in this cruel position, and sought alleviations in his pain. His +heroism was boundless. He found courage to overcome Stephanie's wild +shyness by choosing sweetmeats for her, and devoted all his thoughts +to this, bringing these dainties, and following up the little +victories that he set himself to gain over Stephanie's instincts (the +last gleam of intelligence in her), until he succeeded to some extent +--she grew /tamer/ than ever before. Every morning the colonel went +into the park; and if, after a long search for the Countess, he could +not discover the tree in which she was rocking herself gently, nor the +nook where she lay crouching at play with some bird, nor the roof +where she had perched herself, he would whistle the well-known air +/Partant pour la Syrie/, which recalled old memories of their love, +and Stephanie would run towards him lightly as a fawn. She saw the +colonel so often that she was no longer afraid of him; before very +long she would sit on his knee with her thin, lithe arms about him. +And while thus they sat as lovers love to do, Philip doled out +sweetmeats one by one to the eager Countess. When they were all +finished, the fancy often took Stephanie to search through her lover's +pockets with a monkey's quick instinctive dexterity, till she had +assured herself that there was nothing left, and then she gazed at +Philip with vacant eyes; there was no thought, no gratitude in their +clear depths. Then she would play with him. She tried to take off his +boots to see his foot; she tore his gloves to shreds, and put on his +hat; and she would let him pass his hands through her hair, and take +her in his arms, and submit passively to his passionate kisses, and at +last, if he shed tears, she would gaze silently at him. + +She quite understood the signal when he whistled /Partant pour la +Syrie/, but he could never succeed in inducing her to pronounce her +own name--/Stephanie/. Philip persevered in his heart-rending task, +sustained by a hope that never left him. If on some bright autumn +morning he saw her sitting quietly on a bench under a poplar tree, +grown brown now as the season wore, the unhappy lover would lie at her +feet and gaze into her eyes as long as she would let him gaze, hoping +that some spark of intelligence might gleam from them. At times he +lent himself to an illusion; he would imagine that he saw the hard, +changeless light in them falter, that there was a new life and +softness in them, and he would cry, "Stephanie! oh, Stephanie! you +hear me, you see me, do you not?" + +But for her the sound of his voice was like any other sound, the +stirring of the wind in the trees, or the lowing of the cow on which +she scrambled; and the colonel wrung his hands in a despair that lost +none of its bitterness; nay, time and these vain efforts only added to +his anguish. + +One evening, under the quiet sky, in the midst of the silence and +peace of the forest hermitage, M. Fanjat saw from a distance that the +Baron was busy loading a pistol, and knew that the lover had given up +all hope. The blood surged to the old doctor's heart; and if he +overcame the dizzy sensation that seized on him, it was because he +would rather see his niece live with a disordered brain than lose her +for ever. He hurried to the place. + +"What are you doing?" he cried. + +"That is for me," the colonel answered, pointing to a loaded pistol on +the bench, "and this is for her!" he added, as he rammed down the wad +into the pistol that he held in his hands. + +The Countess lay stretched out on the ground, playing with the balls. + +"Then you do not know that last night, as she slept, she murmured +'Philip?'" said the doctor quietly, dissembling his alarm. + +"She called my name?" cried the Baron, letting his weapon fall. +Stephanie picked it up, but he snatched it out of her hands, caught +the other pistol from the bench, and fled. + +"Poor little one!" exclaimed the doctor, rejoicing that his stratagem +had succeeded so well. He held her tightly to his heart as he went on. +"He would have killed you, selfish that he is! He wants you to die +because he is unhappy. He cannot learn to love you for your own sake, +little one! We forgive him, do we not? He is senseless; you are only +mad. Never mind; God alone shall take you to Himself. We look upon you +as unhappy because you no longer share our miseries, fools that we +are! . . . Why, she is happy," he said, taking her on his knee; +"nothing troubles her; she lives like the birds, like the deer--" + +Stephanie sprang upon a young blackbird that was hopping about, caught +it with a little shriek of glee, twisted its neck, looked at the dead +bird, and dropped it at the foot of a tree without giving it another +thought. + +The next morning at daybreak the colonel went out into the garden to +look for Stephanie; hope was very strong in him. He did not see her, +and whistled; and when she came, he took her arm, and for the first +time they walked together along an alley beneath the trees, while the +fresh morning wind shook down the dead leaves about them. The colonel +sat down, and Stephanie, of her own accord, lit upon his knee. Philip +trembled with gladness. + +"Love!" he cried, covering her hands with passionate kisses, "I am +Philip . . ." + +She looked curiously at him. + +"Come close," he added, as he held her tightly. "Do you feel the +beating of my heart? It has beat for you, for you only. I love you +always. Philip is not dead. He is here. You are sitting on his knee. +You are my Stephanie, I am your Philip." + +"Farewell!" she said, "farewell!" + +The colonel shivered. He thought that some vibration of his highly +wrought feeling had surely reached his beloved; that the heart-rending +cry, drawn from him by hope, the utmost effort of a love that must +last for ever, of passion in its ecstasy, striving to reach the soul +of the woman he loved, must awaken her. + +"Oh, Stephanie! we shall be happy yet!" + +A cry of satisfaction broke from her, a dim light of intelligence +gleamed in her eyes. + +"She knows me! . . . Stephanie! . . ." + +The colonel felt his heart swell, and tears gathered under his +eyelids. But all at once the Countess held up a bit of sugar for him +to see; she had discovered it by searching diligently for it while he +spoke. What he had mistaken for a human thought was a degree of reason +required for a monkey's mischievous trick! + +Philip fainted. M. Fanjat found the Countess sitting on his prostrate +body. She was nibbling her bit of sugar, giving expression to her +enjoyment by little grimaces and gestures that would have been thought +clever in a woman in full possession of her senses if she tried to +mimic her paroquet or her cat. + +"Oh, my friend!" cried Philip, when he came to himself. "This is like +death every moment of the day! I love her too much! I could bear +anything if only through her madness she had kept some little trace of +womanhood. But, day after day, to see her like a wild animal, not even +a sense of modesty left, to see her--" + +"So you must have a theatrical madness, must you!" said the doctor +sharply, "and your prejudices are stronger than your lover's devotion? +What, monsieur! I resign to you the sad pleasure of giving my niece +her food, and the enjoyment of her playtime; I have kept for myself +nothing but the most burdensome cares. I watch over her while you are +asleep, I-- Go, monsieur, and give up the task. Leave this dreary +hermitage; I can live with my little darling; I understand her +disease; I study her movements; I know her secrets. Some day you shall +thank me." + +The colonel left the Minorite convent, that he was destined to see +only once again. The doctor was alarmed by the effect that his words +made upon his guest; his niece's lover became as dear to him as his +niece. If either of them deserved to be pitied, that one was certainly +Philip; did he not bear alone the burden of an appalling sorrow? + +The doctor made inquiries, and learned that the hapless colonel had +retired to a country house of his near Saint-Germain. A dream had +suggested to him a plan for restoring the Countess to reason, and the +doctor did not know that he was spending the rest of the autumn in +carrying out a vast scheme. A small stream ran through his park, and +in winter time flooded a low-lying land, something like the plain on +the eastern side of the Beresina. The village of Satout, on the slope +of a ridge above it, bounded the horizon of a picture of desolation, +something as Studzianka lay on the heights that shut in the swamp of +the Beresina. The colonel set laborers to work to make a channel to +resemble the greedy river that had swallowed up the treasures of +France and Napoleon's army. By the help of his memories, Philip +reconstructed on his own lands the bank where General Eble had built +his bridges. He drove in piles, and then set fire to them, so as to +reproduce the charred and blackened balks of timber that on either +side of the river told the stragglers that their retreat to France had +been cut off. He had materials collected like the fragments out of +which his comrades in misfortune had made the raft; his park was laid +waste to complete the illusion on which his last hopes were founded. +He ordered ragged uniforms and clothing for several hundred peasants. +Huts and bivouacs and batteries were raised and burned down. In short, +he omitted no device that could reproduce that most hideous of all +scenes. He succeeded. When, in the earliest days of December, snow +covered the earth with a thick white mantle, it seemed to him that he +saw the Beresina itself. The mimic Russia was so startlingly real, +that several of his old comrades recognized the scene of their past +sufferings. M. de Sucy kept the secret of the drama to be enacted with +this tragical background, but it was looked upon as a mad freak in +several circles of society in Paris. + +In the early days of the month of January 1820, the colonel drove over +to the Forest of l'Isle-Adam in a carriage like the one in which M. +and Mme. de Vandieres had driven from Moscow to Studzianka. The horses +closely resembled that other pair that he had risked his life to bring +from the Russian lines. He himself wore the grotesque and soiled +clothes, accoutrements, and cap that he had worn on the 29th of +November 1812. He had even allowed his hair and beard to grow, and +neglected his appearance, that no detail might be lacking to recall +the scene in all its horror. + +"I guessed what you meant to do," cried M. Fanjat, when he saw the +colonel dismount. "If you mean your plan to succeed, do not let her +see you in that carriage. This evening I will give my niece a little +laudanum, and while she sleeps, we will dress her in such clothes as +she wore at Studzianka, and put her in your traveling-carriage. I will +follow you in a berline." + +Soon after two o'clock in the morning, the young Countess was lifted +into the carriage, laid on the cushions, and wrapped in a coarse +blanket. A few peasants held torches while this strange elopement was +arranged. + +A sudden cry rang through the silence of night, and Philip and the +doctor, turning, saw Genevieve. She had come out half-dressed from the +low room where she slept. + +"Farewell, farewell; it is all over, farewell!" she called, crying +bitterly. + +"Why, Genevieve, what is it?" asked M. Fanjat. + +Genevieve shook her head despairingly, raised her arm to heaven, +looked at the carriage, uttered a long snarling sound, and with +evident signs of profound terror, slunk in again. + +"'Tis a good omen," cried the colonel. "The girl is sorry to lose her +companion. Very likely she sees that Stephanie is about to recover her +reason." + +"God grant it may be so!" answered M. Fanjat, who seemed to be +affected by this incident. Since insanity had interested him, he had +known several cases in which a spirit of prophecy and the gift of +second sight had been accorded to a disordered brain--two faculties +which many travelers tell us are also found among savage tribes. + +So it happened that, as the colonel had foreseen and arranged, +Stephanie traveled across the mimic Beresina about nine o'clock in the +morning, and was awakened by an explosion of rockets about a hundred +paces from the scene of action. It was a signal. Hundreds of peasants +raised a terrible clamor, like the despairing shouts that startled the +Russians when twenty thousand stragglers learned that by their own +fault they were delivered over to death or to slavery. + +When the Countess heard the report and the cries that followed, she +sprang out of the carriage, and rushed in frenzied anguish over the +snow-covered plain; she saw the burned bivouacs and the fatal raft +about to be launched on a frozen Beresina. She saw Major Philip +brandishing his sabre among the crowd. The cry that broke from Mme. de +Vandieres made the blood run cold in the veins of all who heard it. +She stood face to face with the colonel, who watched her with a +beating heart. At first she stared blankly at the strange scene about +her, then she reflected. For an instant, brief as a lightning flash, +there was the same quick gaze and total lack of comprehension that we +see in the bright eyes of a bird; then she passed her hand across her +forehead with the intelligent expression of a thinking being; she +looked round on the memories that had taken substantial form, into the +past life that had been transported into her present; she turned her +face to Philip--and saw him! An awed silence fell upon the crowd. The +colonel breathed hard, but dared not speak; tears filled the doctor's +eyes. A faint color overspread Stephanie's beautiful face, deepening +slowly, till at last she glowed like a girl radiant with youth. Still +the bright flush grew. Life and joy, kindled within her at the blaze +of intelligence, swept through her like leaping flames. A convulsive +tremor ran from her feet to her heart. But all these tokens, which +flashed on the sight in a moment, gathered and gained consistence, as +it were, when Stephanie's eyes gleamed with heavenly radiance, the +light of a soul within. She lived, she thought! She shuddered--was it +with fear? God Himself unloosed a second time the tongue that had been +bound by death, and set His fire anew in the extinguished soul. The +electric torrent of the human will vivified the body whence it had so +long been absent. + +"Stephanie!" the colonel cried. + +"Oh! it is Philip!" said the poor Countess. + +She fled to the trembling arms held out towards her, and the embrace +of the two lovers frightened those who beheld it. Stephanie burst into +tears. + +Suddenly the tears ceased to flow; she lay in his arms a dead weight, +as if stricken by a thunderbolt, and said faintly: + +"Farewell, Philip! . . . I love you. . . . farewell!" + +"She is dead!" cried the colonel, unclasping his arms. + +The old doctor received the lifeless body of his niece in his arms as +a young man might have done; he carried her to a stack of wood and set +her down. He looked at her face, and laid a feeble hand, tremulous +with agitation, upon her heart--it beat no longer. + +"Can it really be so?" he said, looking from the colonel, who stood +there motionless, to Stephanie's face. Death had invested it with a +radiant beauty, a transient aureole, the pledge, it may be, of a +glorious life to come. + +"Yes, she is dead." + +"Oh, but that smile!" cried Philip; "only see that smile. Is it +possible?" + +"She has grown cold already," answered M. Fanjat. + +M. de Sucy made a few strides to tear himself from the sight; then he +stopped, and whistled the air that the mad Stephanie had understood; +and when he saw that she did not rise and hasten to him, he walked +away, staggering like a drunken man, still whistling, but he did not +turn again. + + + +In society General de Sucy is looked upon as very agreeable, and above +all things, as very lively and amusing. Not very long ago a lady +complimented him upon his good humor and equable temper. + +"Ah! madame," he answered, "I pay very dearly for my merriment in the +evening if I am alone." + +"Then, you are never alone, I suppose." + +"No," he answered, smiling. + +If a keen observer of human nature could have seen the look that +Sucy's face wore at that moment, he would, without doubt, have +shuddered. + +"Why do you not marry?" the lady asked (she had several daughters of +her own at a boarding-school). "You are wealthy; you belong to an old +and noble house; you are clever; you have a future before you; +everything smiles upon you." + +"Yes," he answered; "one smile is killing me--" + +On the morrow the lady heard with amazement that M. de Sucy had shot +himself through the head that night. + +The fashionable world discussed the extraordinary news in divers ways, +and each had a theory to account for it; play, love, ambition, +irregularities in private life, according to the taste of the speaker, +explained the last act of the tragedy begun in 1812. Two men alone, a +magistrate and an old doctor, knew that Monsieur le Comte de Sucy was +one of those souls unhappy in the strength God gives to them to enable +them to triumph daily in a ghastly struggle with a mysterious horror. +If for a minute God withdraws His sustaining hand, they succumb. + + + +PARIS, March 1830. + + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Farewell, by Honore de Balzac + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK FAREWELL *** + +This file should be named frwll10.txt or frwll10.zip +Corrected EDITIONS of our eBooks get a new NUMBER, frwll11.txt +VERSIONS based on separate sources get new LETTER, frwll10a.txt + +Etext prepared by Dagny, dagnypg@yahoo.com + and John Bickers, jbickers@ihug.co.nz + +Project Gutenberg eBooks are often created from several printed +editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the US +unless a copyright notice is included. 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