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diff --git a/old/ramun10.txt b/old/ramun10.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..7e4d28a --- /dev/null +++ b/old/ramun10.txt @@ -0,0 +1,6200 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Ramuntcho, by Pierre Loti +#12 in our series by Pierre Loti + +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: Ramuntcho + +Author: Pierre Loti + +Release Date: January, 2006 [EBook #9616] +[Yes, we are more than one year ahead of schedule] +[This file was first posted on October 10, 2003] + +Edition: 10 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK RAMUNTCHO *** + + + + +Produced by Dagny, dagnypg@yahoo.com +and David Widger, widger@cecomet.net + + + + + RAMUNTCHO + + BY + + PIERRE LOTI + + + + Translated by + + Henri Pene du Bois + + + + RAMUNTCHO + + + + PART I. + + + +CHAPTER I. + +The sad curlews, annunciators of the autumn, had just appeared in a mass +in a gray squall, fleeing from the high sea under the threat of +approaching tempests. At the mouth of the southern rivers, of the Adour, +of the Nivelle, of the Bidassoa which runs by Spain, they wandered above +the waters already cold, flying low, skimming, with their wings over the +mirror-like surfaces. And their cries, at the fall of the October night, +seemed to ring the annual half-death of the exhausted plants. + +On the Pyrenean lands, all bushes and vast woods, the melancholy of the +rainy nights of declining seasons fell slowly, enveloping like a shroud, +while Ramuntcho walked on the moss-covered path, without noise, shod with +rope soles, supple and silent in his mountaineer's tread. + +Ramuntcho was coming on foot from a very long distance, ascending the +regions neighboring the Bay of Biscay, toward his isolated house which +stood above, in a great deal of shade, near the Spanish frontier. + +Around the solitary passer-by, who went up so quickly without trouble and +whose march in sandals was not heard, distances more and more profound +deepened on all sides, blended in twilight and mist. + +The autumn, the autumn marked itself everywhere. The corn, herb of the +lowlands, so magnificently green in the Spring, displayed shades of dead +straw in the depths of the valleys, and, on all the summits, beeches and +oaks shed their leaves. The air was almost cold; an odorous humidity came +out of the mossy earth and, at times, there came from above a light +shower. One felt it near and anguishing, that season of clouds and of +long rains, which returns every time with the same air of bringing the +definitive exhaustion of saps and irremediable death,--but which passes +like all things and which one forgets at the following spring. + +Everywhere, in the wet of the leaves strewing the earth, in the wet of +the herbs long and bent, there was a sadness of death, a dumb resignation +to fecund decomposition. + +But the autumn, when it comes to put an end to the plants, brings only a +sort of far-off warning to man, a little more durable, who resists +several winters and lets himself be lured several times by the charm of +spring. Man, in the rainy nights of October and of November, feels +especially the instinctive desire to seek shelter at home, to warm +himself at the hearth, under the roof which so many thousand years +amassed have taught him progressively to build.--And Ramuntcho felt +awakening in the depths of his being the old ancestral aspirations for +the Basque home of the country, the isolated home, unattached to the +neighboring homes. He hastened his steps the more toward the primitive +dwelling where his mother was waiting for him. + +Here and there, one perceived them in the distance, indistinct in the +twilight, the Basque houses, very distant from one another, dots white or +grayish, now in the depth of some gorge steeped in darkness, then on some +ledge of the mountains with summits lost in the obscure sky. Almost +inconsequential are these human habitations, in the immense and confused +entirety of things; inconsequential and even annihilated quite, at this +hour, before the majesty of the solitude and of the eternal forest +nature. + +Ramuntcho ascended rapidly, lithe, bold and young, still a child, likely +to play on his road as little mountaineers play, with a rock, a reed, or +a twig that one whittles while walking. The air was growing sharper, the +environment harsher, and already he ceased to hear the cries of the +curlews, their rusty-pulley cries, on the rivers beneath. But Ramuntcho +was singing one of those plaintive songs of the olden time, which are +still transmitted in the depths of the distant lands, and his naive voice +went through the mist or the rain, among the wet branches of the oaks, +under the grand shroud, more and more sombre, of isolation, of autumn and +of night. + +He stopped for an instant, pensive, to see a cart drawn by oxen pass at a +great distance above him. The cowboy who drove the slow team sang also; +through a bad and rocky path, they descended into a ravine bathed in +shadows already nocturnal. + +And soon they disappeared in a turn of the path, masked suddenly by +trees, as if they had vanished in an abyss. Then Ramuntcho felt the grasp +of an unexpected melancholy, unexplained like most of his complex +impressions, and, with an habitual gesture, while he resumed his less +alert march, he brought down like a visor on his gray eyes, very sharp +and very soft, the crown of his woolen Basque cap. + +Why?--What had to do with him this cart, this singing cowboy whom he did +not even know? Evidently nothing--and yet, for having seen them disappear +into a lodging, as they did doubtless every night, into some farm +isolated in a lowland, a more exact realization had come to him of the +humble life of the peasant, attached to the soil and to the native field, +of those human lives as destitute of joy as beasts of burden, but with +declines more prolonged and more lamentable. And, at the same time, +through his mind had passed the intuitive anxiety for other places, for +the thousand other things that one may see or do in this world and which +one may enjoy; a chaos of troubling half thoughts, of atavic +reminiscences and of phantoms had furtively marked themselves in the +depths of his savage child's mind-- + +For Ramuntcho was a mixture of two races very different and of two beings +separated, if one may say it, by an abyss of several generations. Created +by the sad fantasy of one of the refined personages of our dazzled epoch, +he had been inscribed at his birth as the "son of an unknown father" and +he bore no other name than that of his mother. So, he did not feel that +he was quite similar to his companions in games and healthy fatigues. + +Silent for a moment, he walked less quickly toward his house, on the +deserted paths winding on the heights. In him, the chaos of other things, +of the luminous "other places", of the splendors or of the terrors +foreign to his own life, agitated itself confusedly, trying to +disentangle itself--But no, all this, being indistinct and +incomprehensible, remained formless in the darkness + +At last, thinking no more of it, he began to sing his song again. The +song told, in monotonous couplets, the complaint of a linen weaver whose +lover in a distant war prolonged his absence. It was written in that +mysterious Euskarian language, the age of which seems incalculable and +the origin of which remains unknown. And little by little, under the +influence of the ancient melody, of the wind and of the solitude, +Ramuntcho found himself as he was at the beginning of his walk, a simple +Basque mountaineer, sixteen or seventeen years old, formed like a man, +but retaining the ignorance and the candor of a little boy. + +Soon he perceived Etchezar, his parish, its belfry massive as the dungeon +of a fortress; near the church, some houses were grouped; others, more +numerous, had preferred to be disseminated in the surroundings, among +trees, in ravines or on bluffs. The night fell entirely, hastily that +evening, because of the sombre veils hooked to the great summits. + +Around this village, above or in the valleys, the Basque country +appeared, at that moment, like a confusion of gigantic, obscure masses. +Long mists disarranged the perspectives; all the distances, all the +depths had become inappreciable, the changing mountains seemed to have +grown taller in the nebulous phantasmagoria of night. The hour, one knew +not why, became strangely solemn, as if the shade of past centuries was +to come out of the soil. On the vast lifting-up which is called the +Pyrenees, one felt something soaring which was, perhaps, the finishing +mind of that race, the fragments of which have been preserved and to +which Ramuntcho belonged by his mother-- + +And the child, composed of two essences so diverse, who was walking alone +toward his dwelling, through the night and the rain, began again in the +depth of his double being to feel the anxiety of inexplicable +reminiscences. + +At last he arrived in front of his house,--which was very elevated, in +the Basque fashion, with old wooden balconies under narrow windows, the +glass of which threw into the night the light of a lamp. As he came near +the entrance, the light noise of his walk became feebler in the thickness +of the dead leaves: the leaves of those plane-trees shaped like vaults +which, according to the usage of the land, form a sort of atrium before +each dwelling. + +She recognized from afar the steps of her son, the serious Franchita, +pale and straight in her black clothes,--the one who formerly had loved +and followed the stranger; then, who, feeling her desertion approaching, +had returned courageously to the village in order to inhabit alone the +dilapidated house of her deceased parents. Rather than to live in the +vast city, and to be troublesome and a solicitor there, she had quickly +resolved to depart, to renounce everything, to make a simple Basque +peasant of that little Ramuntcho, who, at his entrance in life, had worn +gowns embroidered in white silk. + +It was fifteen years ago, fifteen years, when she returned, +clandestinely, at a fall of night similar to this one. In the first days +of this return, dumb and haughty to her former companions from fear of +their disdain, she would go out only to go to church, her black cloth +mantilla lowered on her eyes. Then, at length, when curiosity was +appeased, she had returned to her habits, so valiantly and so +irreproachably that all had forgiven her. + +To greet and embrace her son she smiled with joy and tenderness, but, +silent by nature and reserved as both were, they said to each other only +what it was useful to say. + +He sat at his accustomed place to eat the soup and the smoking dish which +she served to him without speaking. The room, carefully kalsomined, was +made gay by the sudden light of a flame of branches in the tall and wide +chimney ornamented with a festoon of white calico. In frames, hooked in +good order, there were images of Ramuntcho's first communion and +different figures of saints with Basque legends; then the Virgin of +Pilar, the Virgin of Anguish, and rosaries, and blessed palms. The +kitchen utensils shone, in a line on shelves sealed to the walls; every +shelf ornamented with one of those pink paper frills, cut in designs, +which are manufactured in Spain and on which are printed, invariably, +series of personages dancing with castanets, or scenes in the lives of +the toreadors. In this white interior, before this joyful and clear +chimney, one felt an impression of home, a tranquil welfare, which was +augmented by the notion of the vast, wet, surrounding night, of the grand +darkness of the valleys, of the mountains and of the woods. + +Franchita, as every evening, looked long at her son, looked at him +embellishing and growing, taking more and more an air of decision and of +force, as his brown mustache was more and more marked above his fresh +lips. + +When he had supped, eaten with his young mountaineer's appetite several +slices of bread and drunk two glasses of cider, he rose, saying: + +"I am going to sleep, for we have to work tonight." + +"Ah!" exclaimed the mother, "and when are you to get up?" + +"At one o'clock, as soon as the moon sets. They will whistle under the +window." + +"What is it?" + +"Bundles of silk and bundles of velvet." + +"With whom are you going?" + +"The same as usual: Arrochkoa, Florentino and the Iragola brothers. It +is, as it was the other night, for Itchoua, with whom I have just made an +engagement. Good-night, mother--Oh, we shall not be out late and, sure, I +will be back before mass." + +Then, Franchita leaned her head on the solid shoulder of her son, in a +coaxing humor almost infantile, different suddenly from her habitual +manner, and, her cheek against his, she remained tenderly leaning, as if +to say in a confident abandonment of her will: "I am still troubled a +little by those night undertakings; but, when I reflect, what you wish is +always well; I am dependent on you, and you are everything--" + +On the shoulder of the stranger, formerly, it was her custom to lean and +to abandon herself thus, in the time when she loved him. + +When Ramuntcho had gone to his little room, she stayed thinking for a +longer time than usual before resuming her needlework. So, it became +decidedly his trade, this night work in which one risks receiving the +bullets of Spain's carbineers!--He had begun for amusement, in bravado, +like most of them, and as his friend Arrochkoa was beginning, in the same +band as he; then, little by little, he had made a necessity of this +continual adventure in dark nights; he deserted more and more, for this +rude trade, the open air workshop of the carpenter where she had placed +him as an apprentice to carve beams out of oak trunks. + +And that was what he would be in life, her little Ramuntcho, so coddled +formerly in his white gown and for whom she had formed naively so many +dreams: a smuggler! Smuggler and pelota player,--two things which go well +together and which are essentially Basque. + +She hesitated still, however, to let him follow that unexpected vocation. +Not in disdain for smugglers, oh, no, for her father had been a smuggler; +her two brothers also; the elder killed by a Spanish bullet in the +forehead, one night that he was swimming across the Bidassoa, the second +a refugee in America to escape the Bayonne prison; both respected for +their audacity and their strength. No, but he, Ramuntcho, the son of the +stranger, he, doubtless, might have had pretensions to lead a less harsh +life than these men if, in a hasty and savage moment, she had not +separated him from his father and brought him back to the Basque +mountains. In truth, he was not heartless, Ramuntcho's father; when, +fatally, he had wearied of her, he had made some efforts not to let her +see it and never would he have abandoned her with her child if, in her +pride, she had not quitted him. Perhaps it would be her duty to-day to +write to him, to ask him to think of his son-- + +And now the image of Gracieuse presented itself naturally to her mind, as +it did every time she thought of Ramuntcho's future. She was the little +betrothed whom she had been wishing for him for ten years. (In the +sections of country unacquainted with modern fashions, it is usual to +marry when very young and often to know and select one another for +husband and wife in the first years of life.) A little girl with hair +fluffed in a gold mist, daughter of a friend of her childhood, of a +certain Dolores Detcharry, who had been always conceited--and who had +remained contemptuous since the epoch of the great fault. + +Certainly, the father's intervention in the future of Ramuntcho would +have a decisive influence in obtaining the hand of that girl--and would +permit even of asking it of Dolores with haughtiness, after the ancient +quarrel. But Franchita felt a great uneasiness in her, increasing as the +thought of addressing herself to that man became more precise. And then, +she recalled the look, so often sombre, of the stranger, she recalled his +vague words of infinite lassitude, of incomprehensible despair; he had +the air of seeing always, beyond her horizon, distant abysses and +darkness, and, although he was not an insulter of sacred things, never +would he pray, thus giving to her this excess of remorse, of having +allied herself to some pagan to whom heaven would be closed forever. His +friends were similar to him, refined also, faithless, prayerless, +exchanging among themselves in frivolous words abysmal thoughts.--Oh, if +Ramuntcho by contact with them were to become similar to them +all!--desert the churches, fly from the sacraments and the mass!--Then, +she remembered the letters of her old father,--now decomposed in the +profound earth, under a slab of granite, near the foundations of his +parish church--those letters in Euskarian tongue which he wrote to her, +after the first months of indignation and of silence, in the city where +she had dragged her fault. "At least, my poor Franchita, my daughter, are +you in a country where the men are pious and go to church regularly?--" +Oh! no, they were hardly pious, the men of the great city, not more the +fashionable ones who were in the society of Ramuntcho's father than the +humblest laborers in the suburban district where she lived hidden; all +carried away by the same current far from the hereditary dogmas, far from +the antique symbols.--And Ramuntcho, in such surroundings, how would he +resist?-- + +Other reasons, less important perhaps, retained her also. Her haughty +dignity, which in that city had maintained her honest and solitary, +revolted truly at the idea that she would have to reappear as a solicitor +before her former lover. Then, her superior commonsense, which nothing +had ever been able to lead astray or to dazzle, told her that it was too +late now to change anything; that Ramuntcho, until now ignorant and free, +would not know how to attain the dangerous regions where the intelligence +of his father had elevated itself, but that he would languish at the +bottom, like one outclassed. And, in fine, a sentiment which she hardly +confessed to herself, lingered powerfully in the depths of her heart: the +fear of losing her son, of guiding him no longer, of holding him no +longer, of having him no longer.--And so, in that instant of decisive +reflection, after having hesitated for years, she inclined more and more +to remain stubborn in her silence with regard to the stranger and to let +pass humbly near her the life of her Ramuntcho, under the protecting +looks of the Virgin and the saints.--There remained unsolved the question +of Gracieuse Detcharry.--Well, she would marry, in spite of everything, +her son, smuggler and poor though he be! With her instinct of a mother +somewhat savagely loving, she divined that the little girl was enamoured +enough not to fall out of love ever; she had seen this in her fifteen +year old black eyes, obstinate and grave under the golden nimbus of her +hair. Gracieuse marrying Ramuntcho for his charm alone, in spite of and +against maternal will!--The rancor and vindictiveness that lurked in the +mind of Franchita rejoiced suddenly at that great triumph over the pride +of Dolores. + +Around the isolated house where, under the grand silence of midnight, she +decided alone her son's future, the spirit of the Basque ancestors +passed, sombre and jealous also, disdainful of the stranger, fearful of +impiety, of changes, of evolutions of races;--the spirit of the Basque +ancestors, the old immutable spirit which still maintains that people +with eyes turned toward the anterior ages; the mysterious antique spirit +by which the children are led to act as before them their fathers had +acted, at the side of the same mountains, in the same villages, around +the same belfries.-- + +The noise of steps now, in the dark, outside!--Someone walking softly in +sandals on the thickness of the plane-tree leaves strewing the +soil.--Then, a whistled appeal.-- + +What, already!--Already one o'clock in the morning!-- + +Quite resolved now, she opened the door to the chief smuggler with a +smile of greeting that the latter had never seen in her: + + "Come in, Itchoua," she said, "warm yourself--while I go wake up my +son." + +A tall and large man, that Itchoua, thin, with a thick chest, clean +shaven like a priest, in accordance with the fashion of the old time +Basque; under the cap which he never took off, a colorless face, +inexpressive, cut as with a pruning hook, and recalling the beardless +personages archaically drawn on the missals of the fifteenth century. +Above his hollow cheeks, the breadth of the jaws, the jutting out of the +muscles of the neck gave the idea of his extreme force. He was of the +Basque type, excessively accentuated; eyes caved-in too much under the +frontal arcade; eyebrows of rare length, the points of which, lowered as +on the figures of tearful madonnas, almost touched the hair at the +temples. Between thirty and fifty years, it was impossible to assign an +age to him. His name was Jose-Maria Gorosteguy; but, according to the +custom he was known in the country by the surname of Itchoua (the Blind) +given to him in jest formerly, because of his piercing sight which +plunged in the night like that of cats. He was a practising Christian, a +church warden of his parish and a chorister with a thundering voice. He +was famous also for his power of resistance to fatigue, being capable of +climbing the Pyrenean slopes for hours at racing speed with heavy loads +on his back. + +Ramuntcho came down soon, rubbing his eyelids, still heavy from a +youthful sleep, and, at his aspect, the gloomy visage of Itchoua was +illuminated by a smile. A continual seeker for energetic and strong boys +that he might enroll in his band, and knowing how to keep them in spite +of small wages, by a sort of special point of honor, he was an expert in +legs and in shoulders as well as in temperaments, and he thought a great +deal of his new recruit. + +Franchita, before she would let them go, leaned her head again on her +son's neck; then she escorted the two men to the threshold of her door, +opened on the immense darkness,--and recited piously the Pater for them, +while they went into the dark night, into the rain, into the chaos of the +mountains, toward the obscure frontier. + + + +CHAPTER II. + +Several hours later, at the first uncertain flush of dawn, at the instant +when shepherds and fisherman awake, they were returning joyously, the +smugglers, having finished their undertaking. + +Having started on foot and gone, with infinite precautions to be silent, +through ravines, through woods, through fords of rivers, they were +returning, as if they were people who had never anything to conceal from +anybody, in a bark of Fontarabia, hired under the eyes of Spain's custom +house officers, through the Bidassoa river. + +All the mass of mountains and of clouds, all the sombre chaos of the +preceding night had disentangled itself almost suddenly, as under the +touch of a magic wand. The Pyrenees, returned to their real proportions, +were only average mountains, with slopes bathed in a shadow still +nocturnal, but with peaks neatly cut in a sky which was already clearing. +The air had become lukewarm, suave, exquisite, as if the climate or the +season had suddenly changed,--and it was the southern wind which was +beginning to blow, the delicious southern wind special to the Basque +country, which chases before it, the cold, the clouds and the mists, +which enlivens the shades of all things, makes the sky blue, prolongs the +horizons infinitely and gives, even in winter, summer illusions. + +The boatman who was bringing the smugglers back to France pushed the +bottom of the river with his long pole, and the bark dragged, half +stranded. At this moment, that Bidassoa by which the two countries are +separated, seemed drained, and its antique bed, excessively large, had +the flat extent of a small desert. + +The day was decidedly breaking, tranquil and slightly pink. It was the +first of the month of November; on the Spanish shore, very distant, in a +monastery, an early morning bell rang clear, announcing the religious +solemnity of every autumn. And Ramuntcho, comfortably seated in the bark, +softly cradled and rested after the fatigues of the night, breathed the +new breeze with well-being in all his senses. With a childish joy, he saw +the assurance of a radiant weather for that All-Saints' Day which was to +bring to him all that he knew of this world's festivals: the chanted high +mass, the game of pelota before the assembled village, then, at last, the +dance of the evening with Gracieuse, the fandango in the moon-light on +the church square. + +He lost, little by little, the consciousness of his physical life, +Ramuntcho, after his sleepless night; a sort of torpor, benevolent under +the breath of the virgin morning, benumbed his youthful body, leaving his +mind in a dream. He knew well such impressions and sensations, for the +return at the break of dawn, in the security of a bark where one sleeps, +is the habitual sequel of a smuggler's expedition. + +And all the details of the Bidassoa's estuary were familiar to him, all +its aspects, which changed with the hour, with the monotonous and regular +tide.--Twice every day the sea wave comes to this flat bed; then, between +France and Spain there is a lake, a charming little sea with diminutive +blue waves--and the barks float, the barks go quickly; the boatmen sing +their old time songs, which the grinding and the shocks of the cadenced +oars accompany. But when the waters have withdrawn, as at this moment, +there remains between the two countries only a sort of lowland, uncertain +and of changing color, where walk men with bare legs, where barks drag +themselves, creeping. + +They were now in the middle of this lowland, Ramuntcho and his band, half +dozing under the dawning light. The colors of things began to appear, out +of the gray of night. They glided, they advanced by slight jerks, now +through yellow velvet which was sand, then through a brown thing, striped +regularly and dangerous to walkers, which was slime. And thousands of +little puddles, left by the tide of the day before, reflected the dawn, +shone on the soft extent like mother-of-pearl shells. On the little +yellow and brown desert, their boatman followed the course of a thin, +silver stream, which represented the Bidassoa at low tide. From time to +time, some fisherman crossed their path, passed near them in silence, +without singing as the custom is in rowing, too busy poling, standing in +his bark and working his pole with beautiful plastic gestures. + +While they were day-dreaming, they approached the French shore, the +smugglers. On the other side of the strange zone which they were +traversing as in a sled, that silhouette of an old city, which fled from +them slowly, was Fontarabia; those highlands which rose to the sky with +figures so harsh, were the Spanish Pyrenees. All this was Spain, +mountainous Spain, eternally standing there in the face of them and +incessantly preoccupying their minds: a country which one must reach in +silence, in dark nights, in nights without moonlight, under the rain of +winter; a country which is the perpetual aim of dangerous expeditions; a +country which, for the men of Ramuntcho's village, seems always to close +the southwestern horizon, while it changes in appearance according to the +clouds and the hours; a country which is the first to be lighted by the +pale sun of mornings and which masks afterward, like a sombre screen the +red sun of evenings.-- + +He adored his Basque land, Ramuntcho,--and this morning was one of the +times when this adoration penetrated him more profoundly. In his after +life, during his exile, the reminiscence of these delightful returns at +dawn, after the nights of smuggling, caused in him an indescribable and +very anguishing nostalgia. But his love for the hereditary soil was not +as simple as that of his companions. As in all his sentiments, as in all +his sensations, there were mingled in it diverse elements. At first the +instinctive and unanalyzed attachment of his maternal ancestors to the +native soil, then something more refined coming from his father, an +unconscious reflection of the artistic admiration which had retained the +stranger here for several seasons and had given to him the caprice of +allying himself with a girl of these mountains in order to obtain a +Basque descendance.-- + + + +CHAPTER III. + +It is eleven o'clock now, and the bells of France and Spain mingle above +the frontier their religious festival vibrations. + +Bathed, rested, and in Sunday dress, Ramuntcho was going with his mother +to the high mass of All-Saints' Day. On the path, strewn with reddish +leaves, they descended toward their parish, under a warm sun which gave +to them the illusion of summer. + +He, dressed in a manner almost elegant and like a city denizen, save for +the traditional Basque cap, which he wore on the side and pulled down +like a visor over his childish eyes. She, straight and proud, her head +high, her demeanor distinguished, in a gown of new form; having the air +of a society woman, except for the mantilla; made of black cloth, which +covered her hair and her shoulders. In the great city formerly she had +learned how to dress--and anyway, in the Basque country, where so many +ancient traditions have been preserved, the women and the girls of the +least important villages have all taken the habit of dressing in the +fashion of the day, with an elegance unknown to the peasants of the other +French provinces. + +They separated, as etiquette ordains, in the yard of the church, where +the immense cypress trees smelled of the south and the Orient. It +resembled a mosque from the exterior, their parish, with its tall, old, +ferocious walls, pierced at the top only by diminutive windows, with its +warm color of antiquity, of dust and of sun. + +While Franchita entered by one of the lower doors, Ramuntcho went up a +venerable stone stairway which led one from the exterior wall to the high +tribunes reserved for men. + +The extremity of the sombre church was of dazzling old gold, with a +profusion of twisted columns, of complicated entablements, of statues +with excessive convolutions and with draperies in the style of the +Spanish Renaissance. And this magnificence of the tabernacle was in +contrast with the simplicity of the lateral walls, simply kalsomined. But +an air of extreme old age harmonized these things, which one felt were +accustomed for centuries to endure in the face of one another. + +It was early still, and people were hardly arriving for this high mass. +Leaning on the railing of his tribune, Ramuntcho looked at the women +entering, all like black phantoms, their heads and dress concealed under +the mourning cashmere which it is usual to wear at church. Silent and +collected, they glided on the funereal pavement of mortuary slabs, where +one could read still, in spite of the effacing of ages, inscriptions in +Euskarian tongue, names of extinguished families and dates of past +centuries. + +Gracieuse, whose coming preoccupied Ramuntcho, was late. But, to distract +his mind for a moment, a "convoy" advanced slowly; a convoy, that is a +parade of parents and nearest neighbors of one who had died during the +week, the men still draped in the long cape which is worn at funerals, +the women under the mantle and the traditional hood of full mourning. + +Above, in the two immense tribunes superposed along the sides of the +nave, the men came one by one to take their places, grave and with +rosaries in their hands: farmers, laborers, cowboys, poachers or +smugglers, all pious and ready to kneel when the sacred bell rang. Each +one of them, before taking his seat, hooked behind him, to a nail on the +wall, his woolen cap, and little by little, on the white background of +the kalsomine, came into line rows of innumerable Basque headgear. + +Below, the little girls of the school entered at last, in good order, +escorted by the Sisters of Saint Mary of the Rosary. And, among these +nuns, wrapped in black, Ramuntcho recognized Gracieuse. She, too, had her +head enveloped with black; her blonde hair, which to-night would be +flurried in the breeze of the fandango, was hidden for the moment under +the austere mantilla of the ceremony. Gracieuse had not been a scholar +for two years, but was none the less the intimate friend of the sisters, +her teachers, ever in their company for songs, novenas, or decorations of +white flowers around the statues of the Holy Virgin.--Then, the priests, +in their most sumptuous costumes, appeared in front of the magnificent +gold of the tabernacle, on a platform elevated and theatrical, and the +mass began, celebrated, in this distant village, with excessive pomp as +in a great city. There were choirs of small boys chanting in infantile +voices with a savage ardor. Then choruses of little girls, whom a sister +accompanied at the harmonium and which the clear and fresh voice of +Gracieuse guided. From time to time a clamor came, like a storm, from the +tribunes above where the men were, a formidable response animated the old +vaults, the old sonorous wainscoting, which for centuries have vibrated +with the same song.-- + +To do the same things which for numberless ages the ancestors have done +and to tell blindly the same words of faith, are indications of supreme +wisdom, are a supreme force. For all the faithful who sang there came +from this immutable ceremony of the mass a sort of peace, a confused but +soft resignation to coming destruction. Living of the present hour, they +lost a little of their ephemeral personality to attach themselves better +to the dead lying under the slabs and to continue them more exactly, to +form with them and their future descendants only one of these resisting +entireties, of almost infinite duration, which is called a race. + + + +CHAPTER IV. + +"Ite missa est!" The high mass is finished and the antique church is +emptying. Outside, in the yard, among the tombs, the assistants scatter. +And all the joy of a sunny noon greets them, as they come out of the +sombre nave where each, according to his naive faculties, had caught more +or less a glimpse of the great mystery and of the inevitable death. + +Wearing all the uniform national cap, the men come down the exterior +stairway; the women, slower to be captivated by the lure of the blue sky, +retaining still under the mourning veil a little of the dream of the +church, come out of the lower porticoes in black troops; around a grave +freshly closed, some stop and weep. + +The southern wind, which is the great magician of the Basque country, +blows softly. The autumn of yesterday has gone and it is forgotten. +Lukewarm breaths pass through the air, vivifying, healthier than those of +May, having the odor of hay and the odor of flowers. Two singers of the +highway are there, leaning on the graveyard wall, and they intone, with a +tambourine and a guitar, an old seguidilla of Spain, bringing here the +warm and somewhat Arabic gaieties of the lands beyond the frontiers. + +And in the midst of all this intoxication of the southern November, more +delicious in this country than the intoxication of the spring, Ramuntcho, +having come down one of the first, watches the coming out of the sisters +in order to greet Gracieuse. + +The sandal peddler has come also to this closing of the mass, and +displays among the roses of the tombs his linen foot coverings ornamented +with woolen flowers. Young men, attracted by the dazzling embroideries, +gather around him to select colors. + +The bees and the flies buzz as in June; the country has become again, for +a few hours, for a few days, for as long as this wind will blow, luminous +and warm. In front of the mountains, which have assumed violent brown or +sombre green tints, and which seem to have advanced to-day until they +overhang the church, houses of the village appear in relief, very neat, +very white under their coat of kalsomine,--old Pyrenean houses with their +wooden balconies and on their walls intercrossings of beams in the +fashion of the olden time. In the southwest, the visible portion of +Spain, the denuded and red peak familiar to smugglers, stands straight +and near in the beautiful clear sky. + +Gracieuse does not appear yet, retarded doubtless by the nuns in some +altar service. As for Franchita, who never mingles in the Sunday +festivals, she takes the path to her house, silent and haughty, after a +smile to her son, whom she will not see again until to-night after the +dances have come to an end. + +A group of young men, among whom is the vicar who has just taken off his +golden ornaments, forms itself at the threshold of the church, in the +sun, and seems to be plotting grave projects.--They are the great players +of the country, the fine flower of the lithe and the strong; it is for +the pelota game of the afternoon that they are consulting, and they make +a sign to Ramuntcho who pensively comes to them. Several old men come +also and surround them, caps crushed on white hair and faces clean shaven +like those of monks: champions of the olden time, still proud of their +former successes, and sure that their counsel shall be respected in the +national game, which the men here attend with pride as on a field of +honor.--After a courteous discussion, the game is arranged; it will be +immediately after vespers; they will play the "blaid" with the wicker +glove, and the six selected champions, divided into two camps, shall be +the vicar, Ramuntcho and Arrochkoa, Gracieuse's brother, against three +famous men of the neighboring villages: Joachim of Mendiazpi; Florentino +of Espelette, and Irrubeta of Hasparren-- + +Now comes the "convoy", which comes out of the church and passes by them, +so black in this feast of light, and so archaic, with the envelope of its +capes, of its caps and of its veils. They are expressive of the Middle +Age, these people, while they pass in a file, the Middle Age whose shadow +the Basque country retains. And they express, above all, death, as the +large funereal slabs, with which the nave is paved, express it, as the +cypress trees and the tombs express it, and all the things in this place, +where the men come to pray, express it: death, always death.--But a death +very softly neighboring life, under the shield of the old consoling +symbols--for life is there marked also, almost equally sovereign, in the +warm rays which light up the cemetery, in the eyes of the children who +play among the roses of autumn, in the smile of those beautiful brown +girls who, the mass being finished, return with steps indolently supple +toward the village; in the muscles of all this youthfulness of men, alert +and vigorous, who shall soon exercise at the ball-game their iron legs +and arms.--And of this group of old men and of boys at the threshold of a +church, of this mingling, so peacefully harmonious, of death and of life, +comes the benevolent lesson, the teaching that one must enjoy in time +strength and love; then, without obstinacy in enduring, submit to the +universal law of passing and dying, repeating with confidence, like these +simple-minded and wise men, the same prayers by which the agonies of the +ancestors were cradled.-- + +It is improbably radiant, the sun of noon in this yard of the dead. The +air is exquisite and one becomes intoxicated by breathing it. The +Pyrenean horizons have been swept of their clouds, their least vapors, +and it seems as if the wind of the south had brought here the limpidities +of Andalusia or of Africa. + +The Basque guitar and tambourine accompany the sung seguilla, which the +beggars of Spain throw, like a slight irony into this lukewarm breeze, +above the dead. And boys and girls think of the fandango of to-night, +feel ascending in them the desire and the intoxication of dancing.-- + +At last here come the sisters, so long expected by Ramuntcho; with them +advance Gracieuse and her mother, Dolores, who is still in widow's weeds, +her face invisible under a black cape closed by a crape veil. + +What can this Dolores be plotting with the Mother Superior?--Ramuntcho, +knowing that these two women are enemies, is astonished and disquiet +to-day to see them walk side by side. Now they even stop to talk aside, +so important and secret doubtless is what they are saying; their similar +black caps, overhanging like wagon-hoods, touch each other and they talk +sheltered under them; a whispering of phantoms, one would say, under a +sort of little black vault.--And Ramuntcho has the sentiment of something +hostile plotted against him under these two wicked caps. + +When the colloquy comes to an end, he advances, touches his cap for a +salute, awkward and timid suddenly in presence of this Dolores, whose +harsh look under the veil he divines. This woman is the only person in +the world who has the power to chill him, and, never elsewhere than in +her presence, he feels weighing upon him the blemish of being the child +of an unknown father, of wearing no other name than that of his mother. + +To-day, however, to his great surprise, she is more cordial than usual, +and she says with a voice almost amiable: "Good-morning, my boy!" Then he +goes to Gracieuse, to ask her with a brusque anxiety: "To-night, at eight +o'clock, say if you will be on the square to dance with me?" + +For some time, every Sunday had brought to him the same fear of being +deprived of dancing with her in the evening. In the week he hardly ever +saw her. Now that he was becoming a man, the only occasion for him to +have her company was this ball on the green of the square, in the light +of the stars or of the moon. + +They had fallen in love with each other five years ago, Ramuntcho and +Gracieuse, when they were still children. And such loves, when by chance +the awakening of the senses confirms instead of destroying them, become +in young heads something sovereign and exclusive. + +They had never thought of saying this to each other, they knew it so +well; never had they talked together of the future which did not appear +possible to one without the other. And the isolation of this mountain +village where they lived, perhaps also the hostility of Dolores to their +naive, unexpressed projects, brought them more closely together-- + +"To-night, at eight o'clock, say if you will be on the square to dance +with me?" + +"Yes--" replies the little girl, fixing on her friend eyes of sadness, a +little frightened, as well as of ardent tenderness. + +"Sure?" asked Ramuntcho again, whom these eyes make anxious. + +"Yes, sure!" + +So, he is quieted again this time, knowing that if Gracieuse has said and +decided something one may count on it. And at once the weather seems to +him more beautiful, the Sunday more amusing, life more charming-- + +The dinner hour calls the Basques now to the houses or to the inns, and, +under the light, somewhat gloomy, of the noon sun, the village seems +deserted. + +Ramuntcho goes to the cider mill which the smugglers and pelota players +frequent. There, he sits at a table, his cap still drawn over his eyes, +with his friends: Arrochkoa, two or three others of the mountains and the +somber Itchoua, their chief. + +A festive meal is prepared for them, with fish of the Nivelle, ham and +hares. In the foreground of the hall, vast and dilapidated, near the +windows, are the tables, the oak benches on which they are seated; in the +background, in a penumbra, are the enormous casks filled with new cider. + +In this band of Ramuntcho, which is there entire, under the piercing eye +of its chief, reigns an emulation of audacity and a reciprocal, fraternal +devotion; during their night expeditions especially, they are all one to +live or to die. + +Leaning heavily, benumbed in the pleasure of resting after the fatigues +of the night and concentrated in the expectation of satiating their +robust hunger, they are silent at first, hardly raising their heads to +look through the window-panes at the passing girls. Two are very young, +almost children like Ramuntcho: Arrochkoa and Florentino. The others +have, like Itchoua, hardened faces, eyes in ambuscade under the frontal +arcade, expressing no certain age; their aspect reveals a past of +fatigues, in the unreasonable obstinacy to pursue this trade of +smuggling, which hardly gives bread to the less skilful. + +Then, awakened little by little by the smoking dishes, by the sweet +cider, they talk; soon their words interlace, light, rapid and sonorous, +with an excessive rolling of the /r/. They talk in their mysterious +language, the origin of which is unknown and which seems to the men of +the other countries in Europe more distant than Mongolian or Sanskrit. +They tell stories of the night and of the frontier, stratagems newly +invented and astonishing deceptions of Spanish carbineers. Itchoua, the +chief, listens more than he talks; one hears only at long intervals his +profound voice of a church singer vibrate. Arrochkoa, the most elegant of +all, is in striking contrast with his comrades of the mountain. (His name +was Jean Detcharry, but he was known only by his surname, which the +elders of his family transmitted from father to son for centuries.) A +smuggler for his pleasure, he, without any necessity, and possessing +beautiful lands in the sunlight; the face fresh and pretty, the blonde +mustache turned up in the fashion of cats, the eye feline also, the eye +caressing and fleeting; attracted by all that succeeds, by all that +amuses, by all that shines; liking Ramuntcho for his triumphs in the +ball-game, and quite disposed to give to him the hand of his sister, +Gracieuse, even if it were only to oppose his mother, Dolores. And +Florentino, the other great friend of Ramuntcho is, on the contrary, the +humblest of the band; an athletic, reddish fellow, with wide and low +forehead, with good eyes of resignation, soft as those of beasts of +burden; without father or mother, possessing nothing in the world except +a threadbare costume and three pink cotton shirts; unique lover of a +little fifteen year old orphan, as poor as he and as primitive. + +At last Itchoua deigns to talk in his turn. He relates, in a tone of +mystery and of confidence, a certain tale of the time of his youth, in a +black night, on the Spanish territory, in the gorges of Andarlaza. Seized +by two carbineers at the turn in a dark path, he had disengaged himself +by drawing his knife to stab a chest with it: half a second, a resisting +flesh, then, crack! the blade entering brusquely, a jet of warm blood on +his hand, the man fallen, and he, fleeing in the obscure rocks-- + +And the voice which says these things with implacable tranquility, is the +same which for years sings piously every Sunday the liturgy in the old +sonorous church,--so much so that it seems to retain a religious and +almost sacred character!-- + +"When you are caught"--adds the speaker, scrutinizing them all with his +eyes, become piercing again--"When you are caught--What is the life of a +man worth in such a case? You would not hesitate, either, I suppose, if +you were caught--?" + +"Sure not," replied Arrochkoa, in a tone of infantile bravado, "Sure not! +In such a case to take the life of a carabinero no one would hesitate!--" + +The debonair Florentino, turned from Itchoua his disapproving eyes. +Florentino would hesitate; he would not kill. This is divined in the +expression of his face. + +"You would not hesitate," repeated Itchoua, scrutinizing Ramuntcho this +time in a special manner; "you would not hesitate, either, I suppose, if +you were caught, would you?" + +"Surely," replied Ramuntcho, submissively. "Oh, no, surely--" + +But his look, like that of Florentino, has turned from Itchoua. A terror +comes to him of this man, of this imperious and cold influence, so +completely felt already; an entire soft and refined side of his nature is +awakened, made disquiet and in revolt. + +Silence has followed the tale, and Itchoua, discontented with the effect +of it, proposes a song in order to change the course of ideas. + +The purely material well-being which comes after dinner, the cider which +has been drunk, the cigarettes which are lighted and the songs that +begin, bring back quickly confident joy in these children's heads. And +then, there are in the band the two brothers Iragola, Marcos and Joachim, +young men of the mountain above Mendiazpi, who are renowned extemporary +speakers in the surrounding country and it is a pleasure to hear them, on +any subject, compose and sing verses which are so pretty. + +"Let us see", says Itchoua, "you, Marcos, are a sailor who wishes to pass +his life on the ocean and seek fortune in America; you, Joachim, are a +farm hand who prefers not to quit his village and his soil here. Each of +you will discuss alternately, in couplets of equal length, the pleasures +of his trade to the tune--to the tune of the 'Iru Damacho'. Go on." + +They looked at each other, the two brothers, half turned toward each +other on the oak bench where they sit; an instant of reflection, during +which an imperceptible agitation of the eyelids alone betrays the working +of their minds; then, brusquely Marcos, the elder, begins, and they will +never stop. With their shaven cheeks, their handsome profiles, their +chins which advance somewhat imperiously above the powerful muscles of +the neck, they recall, in their grave immobility, the figures engraved on +the Roman medals. They sing with a certain effort of the throat, like the +muezzins in the mosques, in high tones. When one has finished his +couplet, without a second of hesitation or silence, the other begins; +more and more their minds are animated and inflamed. Around the +smugglers' table many other caps have gathered and all listen with +admiration to the witty or sensible things which the two brothers know +how to say, ever with the needed cadence and rhyme. + +At the twentieth stanza, at last, Itchoua interrupts them to make them +rest and he orders more cider. + +"How have you learned?" asked Ramuntcho of the Iragola brothers. "How did +the knack come to you?" + +"Oh!" replies Marcos, "it is a family trait, as you must know. Our +father, our grandfather were extemporary composers who were heard with +pleasure in all the festivals of the Basque country, and our mother also +was the daughter of a grand improvisator of the village of Lesaca. And +then, every evening in taking back the oxen or in milking the cows, we +practice, or at the fireside on winter nights. Yes, every evening, we +make compositions in this way on subjects which one of us imagines, and +it is our greatest pleasure--" + +But when Florentino's turn to sing comes he, knowing only the old +refrains of the mountain, intones in an Arabic falsetto voice the +complaint of the linen weaver; and then Ramuntcho, who had sung it the +day before in the autumn twilight, sees again the darkened sky of +yesterday, the clouds full of rain, the cart drawn by oxen going down +into a sad and closed valley, toward a solitary farm--and suddenly the +unexplained anguish returns to him, the one which he had before; the fear +of living and of passing thus always in these same villages, under the +oppression of these same mountains; the notion and the confused desire +for other places; the anxiety for unknown distances--His eyes, become +lifeless and fixed, look inwardly; for several strange minutes he feels +that he is an exile, from what country he does not know, disinherited, of +what he does not know, sad in the depths of his soul; between him and the +men who surround him have come suddenly irreducible, hereditary +barriers-- + +Three o'clock. It is the hour when vespers, the last office of the day, +comes to an end; the hour when leave the church, in a meditation grave as +that of the morning, all the mantillas of black cloth concealing the +beautiful hair of the girls and the form of their waists, all the woolen +caps similarly lowered on the shaven faces of men, on their eyes piercing +or somber, still plunged in the old time dreams. + +It is the hour when the games are to begin, the dances, the pelota and +the fandango. All this is traditional and immutable. + +The light of the day becomes more golden, one feels the approach of +night. The church, suddenly empty, forgotten, where persists the odor of +incense, becomes full of silence, and the old gold of the background +shines mysteriously in the midst of more shade; silence also is scattered +around on the tranquil enclosure of the dead, where the folks this time +passed without stopping, in their haste to go elsewhere. + +On the square of the ball-game, people are beginning to arrive from +everywhere, from the village itself and from the neighboring hamlets, +from the huts of the shepherds or of the smugglers who perch above, on +the harsh mountains. Hundreds of Basque caps, all similar, are now +reunited, ready to judge the players, to applaud or to murmur; they +discuss the chances, comment upon the relative strength of the players +and make big bets of money. And young girls, young women gather also, +having nothing of the awkwardness of the peasants in other provinces of +France, elegant, refined, graceful in costumes of the new fashions; some +wearing on their hair the silk kerchief, rolled and arranged like a small +cap; others bareheaded, their hair dressed in the most modern manner; +most of them pretty, with admirable eyes and very long eyebrows--This +square, always solemn and ordinarily somewhat sad, is filled to-day, +Sunday, with a lively and gay crowd. + +The most insignificant hamlet in the Basque country has a square for the +ball-game, large, carefully kept, in general near the church, under oaks. + +But here, this is a central point and something like the Conservatory of +French ball-players, of those who become celebrated, in South America as +well as in the Pyrenees, and who, in the great international games, +oppose the champions of Spain. So the place is particularly beautiful and +pompous, surprising in so distant a village. It is paved with large +stones, between which grass grows expressing its antiquity and giving to +it an air of being abandoned. On the two sides are extended, for the +spectators, long benches--made of the red granite of the neighboring +mountain and, at this moment, all overgrown with autumn scabwort. + +And in the back, the old monumental wall rises, against which the balls +will strike. It has a rounded front which seems to be the silhouette of a +dome and bears this inscription, half effaced by time: "Blaidka haritzea +debakatua." (The blaid game is forbidden.) + +Still, the day's game is to be the blaid; but the venerable inscription +dates from the time of the splendor of the national game, degenerated at +present, as all things degenerate. It had been placed there to preserve +the tradition of the "rebot", a more difficult game, exacting more +agility and strength, and which has been perpetuated only in the Spanish +province of Guipuzcoa. + +While the graded benches are filling up, the paved square, which the +grass makes green, and which has seen the lithe and the vigorous men of +the country run since the days of old, remains empty. The beautiful +autumn sun, at its decline, warms and lights it. Here and there some tall +oaks shed their leaves above the seated spectators. Beyond are the high +church and the cypress trees, the entire sacred corner, from which the +saints and the dead seem to be looking at a distance, protecting the +players, interested in this game which is the passion still of an entire +race and characterises it-- + +At last they enter the arena, the Pelotaris, the six champions among whom +is one in a cassock: the vicar of the parish. With him are some other +personages: the crier, who, in an instant, will sing the points; the five +judges, selected among the experts of different villages to intervene in +cases of litigation, and some others carrying extra balls and sandals. At +the right wrist the players attach with thongs a strange wicker thing +resembling a large, curved fingernail which lengthens the forearm by +half. It is with this glove (manufactured in France by a unique +basket-maker of the village of Ascain) that they will have to catch, +throw and hurl the pelota,--a small ball of tightened cord covered with +sheepskin, which is as hard as a wooden ball. + +Now they try the balls, selecting the best, limbering, with a few points +that do not count, their athletic arms. Then, they take off their +waistcoats and carry them to preferred spectators; Ramuntcho gives his to +Gracieuse, seated in the first row on the lower bench. And all, except +the priest, who will play in his black gown, are in battle array, their +chests at liberty in pink cotton shirts or light thread fleshings. + +The assistants know them well, these players; in a moment, they shall be +excited for or against them and will shout at them, frantically, as it +happens with the toreadors. + +At this moment the village is entirely animated by the spirit of the +olden time; in its expectation of the pleasure, in its liveliness, in its +ardor, it is intensely Basque and very old,--under the great shade of the +Gizune, the overhanging mountain, which throws over it a twilight charm. + +And the game begins in the melancholy evening. The ball, thrown with much +strength, flies, strikes the wall in great, quick blows, then rebounds, +and traverses the air with the rapidity of a bullet. + +This wall in the background, rounded like a dome's festoon on the sky, +has become little by little crowned with heads of children,--little +Basques, little cats, ball-players of the future, who soon will +precipitate themselves like a flight of birds, to pick up the ball every +time when, thrown too high, it will go beyond the square and fall in the +fields. + +The game becomes gradually warmer as arms and legs are limbered, in an +intoxication of movement and swiftness. Already Ramuntcho is acclaimed. +And the vicar also shall be one of the fine players of the day, strange +to look upon with his leaps similar to those of a cat, and his athletic +gestures, imprisoned in his priest's gown. + +This is the rule of the game: when one of the champions of the two camps +lets the ball fall, it is a point earned by the adverse camp,--and +ordinarily the limit is sixty points. After each point, the titled crier +chants with a full voice in his old time tongue: "The but has so much, +the refil has so much, gentlemen!" (The but is the camp which played +first, the refil is the camp opposed to the but.) And the crier's long +clamor drags itself above the noise of the crowd, which approves or +murmurs. + +On the square, the zone gilt and reddened by the sun diminishes, goes, +devoured by the shade; more and more the great screen of the Gizune +predominates over everything, seems to enclose in this little corner of +the world at its feet, the very special life and the ardor of these +mountaineers--who are the fragments of a people very mysteriously unique, +without analogy among nations--The shade of night marches forward and +invades in silence, soon it will be sovereign; in the distance only a few +summits still lighted above so many darkened valleys, are of a violet +luminous and pink. + +Ramuntcho plays as, in his life, he had never played before; he is in one +of those instants when one feels tempered by strength, light, weighing +nothing, and when it is a pure joy to move, to extend one's arms, to +leap. But Arrochkoa weakens, the vicar is fettered two or three times by +his black cassock, and the adverse camp, at first distanced, little by +little catches up, then, in presence of this game so valiantly disputed, +clamor redoubles and caps fly in the air, thrown by enthusiastic hands. + +Now the points are equal on both sides; the crier announces thirty for +each one of the rival camps and he sings the old refrain which is of +tradition immemorial in such cases: "Let bets come forward! Give drink to +the judges and to the players." It is the signal for an instant of rest, +while wine shall be brought into the arena at the cost of the village. +The players sit down, and Ramuntcho takes a place beside Gracieuse, who +throws on his shoulders, wet with perspiration, the waistcoat which she +was keeping for him, Then he asks of his little friend to undo the thongs +which hold the glove of wood, wicker and leather on his reddened arm. And +he rests in the pride of his success, seeing only smiles of greeting on +the faces of the girls at whom he looks. But he sees also, on the side +opposed to the players' wall, on the side of the approaching darkness, +the archaic assemblage of Basque houses, the little square of the village +with its kalsomined porches and its old plane-trees, then the old, +massive belfry of the church, and, higher than everything, dominating +everything, crushing everything, the abrupt mass of the Gizune from which +comes so much shade, from which descends on this distant village so hasty +an impression of night--Truly it encloses too much, that mountain, it +imprisons, it impresses--And Ramuntcho, in his juvenile triumph, is +troubled by the sentiment of this, by this furtive and vague attraction +of other places so often mingled with his troubles and with his joys-- + +The game continues and his thoughts are lost in the physical intoxication +of beginning the struggle again. From instant to instant, clack! the snap +of the pelotas, their sharp noise against the glove which throws them or +the wall which receives them, their same noise giving the notion of all +the strength displayed--Clack! it will snap till the hour of twilight, +the pelota, animated furiously by arms powerful and young. At times the +players, with a terrible shock, stop it in its flight, with a shock that +would break other muscles than theirs. Most often, sure of themselves, +they let it quietly touch the soil, almost die: it seems as if they would +never catch it: and clack! it goes off, however, caught just in time, +thanks to a marvellous precision of the eye, and strikes the wall, ever +with the rapidity of a bullet--When it wanders on the benches, on the +mass of woolen caps and of pretty hair ornamented with silk kerchiefs, +all the heads then, all the bodies, are lowered as if moved by the wind +of its passage: for it must not be touched, it must not be stopped, as +long as it is living and may still be caught; then, when it is really +lost, dead, some one of the assistants does himself the honor to pick it +up and throw it back to the players. + +The night falls, falls, the last golden colors scatter with serene +melancholy over the highest summits of the Basque country. In the +deserted church, profound silence is established and antique images +regard one another alone through the invasion of night--Oh! the sadness +of ends of festivals, in very isolated villages, as soon as the sun +sets!-- + +Meanwhile Ramuntcho is more and more the great conqueror. And the +plaudits, the cries, redouble his happy boldness; each time he makes a +point the men, standing now on the old, graded, granite benches, acclaim +him with southern fury. + +The last point, the sixtieth--It is Ramuntcho's and he has won the game! + +Then there is a sudden crumbling into the arena of all the Basque caps +which ornamented the stone amphitheatre; they press around the players +who have made themselves immovable, suddenly, in tired attitudes. And +Ramuntcho unfastens the thongs of his glove in the middle of a crowd of +expansive admirers; from all sides, brave and rude hands are stretched to +grasp his or to strike his shoulder amicably. + +"Have you asked Gracieuse to dance with you this evening?" asks +Arrochkoa, who in this instant would do anything for him. + +"Yes, when she came out of the high mass I spoke to her--She has +promised." + +"Good! I feared that mother--Oh! I would have arranged it, in any case; +you may believe me." + +A robust old man with square shoulders, with square jaws, with a +beardless, monkish face, before whom all bowed with respect, comes also: +it is Haramburu, a player of the olden time who was celebrated half a +century ago in America for the game of rebot, and who earned a small +fortune. Ramuntcho blushes with pleasure at the compliment of this old +man, who is hard to please. And beyond, standing on the reddish benches, +among the long grasses and the November scabwort, his little friend, whom +a group of young girls follows, turns back to smile at him, to send to +him with her hand a gentle adios in the Spanish fashion. He is a young +god in this moment, Ramuntcho; people are proud to know him, to be among +his friends, to get his waistcoat for him, to talk to him, to touch him. + +Now, with the other pelotaris, he goes to the neighboring inn, to a room +where are placed the clean clothes of all and where careful friends +accompany them to rub their bodies, wet with perspiration. + +And, a moment afterward, elegant in a white shirt, his cap on the side, +he comes out of the door, under the plane-trees shaped like vaults, to +enjoy again his success, see the people pass, continue to gather +compliments and smiles. + +The autumnal day has declined, it is evening at present. In the lukewarm +air, bats glide. The mountaineers of the surrounding villages depart one +by one; a dozen carriages are harnessed, their lanterns are lighted, +their bells ring and they disappear in the little shady paths of the +valleys. In the middle of the limpid penumbra may be distinguished the +women, the pretty girls seated on benches in front of the houses, under +the vaults of the plane-trees; they are only clear forms, their Sunday +costumes make white spots in the twilight, pink spots--and the pale blue +spot which Ramuntcho looks at is the new gown of Gracieuse.--Above all, +filling the sky, the gigantic Gizune, confused and sombre, is as if it +were the centre and the source of the darkness, little by little +scattered over all things. And at the church, suddenly the pious bells +ring, recalling to distracted minds the enclosure where the graves are, +the cypress trees around the belfry, and the entire grand mystery of the +sky, of prayer, of inevitable death. + +Oh! the sadness of ends of festivals in very isolated villages, when the +sun ceases to illuminate, and when it is autumn-- + +They know very well, these men who were so ardent a moment ago in the +humble pleasures of the day, that in the cities there are other festivals +more brilliant, more beautiful and less quickly ended; but this is +something separate; it is the festival of the country, of their own +country, and nothing can replace for them these furtive instants whereof +they have thought for so many days in advance--Lovers who will depart +toward the scattered houses flanking the Pyrenees, couples who to-morrow +will begin over their monotonous and rude life, look at one another +before separating, look at one another under the falling night, with +regretful eyes that say: "Then, it is finished already? Then, that is +all?--" + + + +CHAPTER V. + +Eight o'clock in the evening. They have dined at the cider mill, all the +players except the vicar, under the patronage of Itchoua; they have +lounged for a long time afterward, languid in the smoke of smuggled +cigarettes and listening to the marvellous improvisations of the two +Iragola brothers, of the Mendiazpi mountain--while outside, on the +street, the girls in small groups holding one another's arms, looked at +the windows, found pleasure in observing on the smoky panes the round +shadows of the heads of the men covered with similar caps-- + +Now, on the square, the brass band plays the first measures of the +fandango, and the young men, the young girls, all those of the village +and several also of the mountain who have remained to dance, arrive in +impatient groups. There are some dancing already on the road, not to lose +anything. + +And soon the fandango turns, turns, in the light of the new moon the +horns of which seem to pose, lithe and light, on the enormous and heavy +mountain. In the couples that dance without ever touching each other, +there is never a separation; before one another always and at an equal +distance, the boy and the girl make evolutions with a rhythmic grace, as +if they were tied together by some invisible magnet. + +It has gone into hiding, the crescent of the moon, fallen, one would +think, in the black mountain; then lanterns are brought and hooked to the +trunks of the plane-trees and the young men can see better their partners +who, opposite them swing with an air of fleeing continually, but without +increasing their distance ever: almost all pretty, their hair elegantly +dressed, a kerchief on the neck, and wearing with ease gowns in the +fashion of to-day. The men, somewhat grave always, accompany the music +with snaps of their fingers in the air: shaven and sunburnt faces to +which labor in the fields, in smuggling or at sea, has given a special +thinness, almost ascetic; still, by the ampleness of their brown necks, +by the width of their shoulders, one divines their great strength, the +strength of that old, sober and religious race. + +The fandango turns and oscillates, to the tune of an ancient waltz. All +the arms, extended and raised, agitate themselves in the air, rise or +fall with pretty, cadenced motions following the oscillations of bodies. +The rope soled sandals make this dance silent and infinitely light; one +hears only the frou-frou of gowns, and ever the snap of fingers imitating +the noise of castanets. With a Spanish grace, the girls, whose wide +sleeves expand like wings, swing their tightened waists above their +vigorous and supple hips-- + +Facing one another, Ramuntcho and Gracieuse said nothing at first, +captivated by the childish joy of moving quickly in cadence, to the sound +of music. It is very chaste, that manner of dancing without the slightest +touch of bodies. + +But there were also, in the course of the evening, waltzes and +quadrilles, and even walks arm-in-arm during which the lovers could touch +each other and talk. + +"Then, my Ramuntcho," said Gracieuse, "it is of that game that you expect +to make your future, is it not?" + +They were walking now arm-in-arm, under the plane-trees shedding their +leaves in the night of November, lukewarm as a night of May, during an +interval of silence when the musicians were resting. + +"Yes," replied Ramuntcho, "in our country it is a trade, like any other, +where one may earn a living, as long as strength lasts--and one may go +from time to time to South America, you know, as Irun and Gorosteguy have +done, and bring back twenty, thirty thousand francs for a season, earned +honestly at Buenos Ayres." + +"Oh, the Americas--" exclaimed Gracieuse in a joyful enthusiasm--"the +Americas, what happiness! It was always my wish to go across the sea to +those countries!--And we would look for your uncle Ignacio, then go to my +cousin, Bidegaina, who has a farm on the Uruguay, in the prairies--" + +She ceased talking, the little girl who had never gone out of that +village which the mountains enclose; she stopped to think of these +far-off lands which haunted her young head because she had, like most +Basques, nomadic ancestors--folks who are called here Americans or +Indians, who pass their adventurous lives on the other side of the ocean +and return to the cherished village only very late, to die. And, while +she dreamed, her nose in the air, her eyes in the black of the clouds and +of the summits, Ramuntcho felt his blood running faster, his heart +beating quicker in the intense joy of what she had just said so +spontaneously. And, inclining his head toward her, he asked, as if to +jest, in a voice infinitely soft and childish: + + "We would go? Is that what you said: we would go, you with me? This +signifies therefore that you would consent, a little later, when we +become of age, to marry me?" + +He perceived through the darkness the gentle black light of Gracieuse's +eyes, which rose toward him with an expression of astonishment and of +reproach. + +"Then--you did not know?" + +"I wanted to make you say it, you see--You had never said it to me, do +you know?--" + +He held tighter the arm of his little betrothed and their walk became +slower. It is true that they had never said it, not only because it +seemed to them that it was not necessary to say, but especially because +they were stopped at the moment of speaking by a sort of terror--the +terror of being mistaken about each other's sentiment--and now they knew, +they were sure. Then they had the consciousness of having passed together +the grave and solemn threshold of life. And, leaning on one another, they +faltered, almost, in their slackened promenade, like two children +intoxicated by youthfulness, joy and hope. + +"But do you think your mother will consent?" said Ramuntcho timidly, +after the long, delightful silence-- + +"Ah, that is the trouble", replied the little girl with a sigh of +anxiety--"Arrochkoa, my brother, will be for us, it is probable. But +mother?--Will mother consent?--But, it will not happen soon, in any +case--You have to serve in the army." + +"No, if you do not want me to! No, I need not serve! I am a Guipuzcoan, +like my mother; I shall be enrolled only if I wish to be--Whatever you +say, I'll do--" + +"My Ramuntcho, I would like better to wait for you longer and that you +become naturalized, and that you become a soldier like the others. I tell +you this, since you ask--" + +"Truly, is it what you wish? Well, so much the better. Oh, to be a +Frenchman or a Spaniard is indifferent to me. I shall do as you wish. I +like as well one as the other: I am a Basque like you, like all of us; I +care not for the rest! But as for being a soldier somewhere, on this side +of the frontier or on the other, yes, I prefer it. In the first place, +one who goes away looks as if he were running away; and then, it would +please me to be a soldier, frankly." + +"Well, my Ramuntcho, since it is all the same to you, serve as a soldier +in France, to please me." + +"It is understood, Gatchutcha!--You will see me wearing red trousers. I +shall call on you in the dress of a soldier, like Bidegarray, like +Joachim. As soon as I have served my three years, we will marry, if your +mother consents!" + +After a moment of silence Gracieuse said, in a low, solemn voice: + +"Listen, my Ramuntcho--I am like you: I am afraid of her--of my +mother--But listen--if she refuses, we shall do together anything, +anything that you wish, for this is the only thing in the world in which +I shall not obey her--" + +Then, silence returned between them, now that they were engaged, the +incomparable silence of young joys, of joys new and not yet tried, which +need to hush, which need to meditate in order to understand themselves +better in their profoundness. They walked in short steps and at random +toward the church, in the soft obscurity which the lanterns troubled no +longer, intoxicated by their innocent contact and by feeling that they +were walking together in the path where no one had followed them-- + +But the noise of the brass instruments suddenly arose anew, in a sort of +slow waltz, oddly rhythmic. And the two children, at the fandango's +appeal, without having consulted each other, and as if it was a +compulsory thing which may not be disputed, ran, not to lose a moment, +toward the place where the couples were dancing. Quickly, quickly placing +themselves opposite each other, they began again to swing in measure, +without talking to each other, with the same pretty gestures of their +arms, the same supple motions of their hips. From time to time, without +loss of step or distance, both ran, in a direct line like arrows. But +this was only an habitual variation of the dance,--and, ever in measure, +quickly, as if they were gliding, they returned to their starting point. + +Gracieuse had in dancing the same passionate ardor as in praying at the +white chapels,--the same ardor which later doubtless, she would have in +embracing Ramuntcho when caresses between them would not be forbidden. +And at moments, at every fifth or sixth measure, at the same time as her +light and strong partner, she turned round completely, the bust bent with +Spanish grace, the head thrown backward, the lips half open on the +whiteness of the teeth, a distinguished and proud grace disengaging +itself from her little personality, still so mysterious, which to +Ramuntcho only revealed itself a little. + +During all this beautiful evening of November, they danced before each +other, mute and charming, with intervals of promenade in which they +hardly talked--intoxicated in silence by the delicious thought with which +their minds were filled. + +And, until the curfew rang in the church, this dance under the branches +of autumn, these little lanterns, this little festival in this corner +closed to the world, threw a little light and joyful noise into the vast +night which the mountains, standing everywhere like giants of shadow, +made more dumb and more black. + + + +CHAPTER VI. + +There is to be a grand ball-game next Sunday, for the feast of Saint +Damasus, in the borough of Hasparitz. + +Arrochkoa and Ramuntcho, companions in continual expeditions through the +surrounding country, travelled for the entire day, in the little wagon of +the Detcharry family, in order to organize that ball-game, which to them +is a considerable event. + +In the first place, they had to consult Marcos, one of the Iragola +brothers. Near a wood, in front of his house in the shade, they found him +seated on a stump of a chestnut tree, always grave and statuesque, his +eyes inspired and his gesture noble, in the act of making his little +brother, still in swaddling clothes, eat soup. + +"Is he the eleventh?" they have asked, laughing. + +"Oh! Go on!" the big eldest brother has replied, "the eleventh is running +already like a hare in the heather. This is number twelve!--little John +the Baptist, you know, the latest, who, I think, will not be the last." + +And then, lowering their heads not to strike the branches, they had +traversed the woods, the forests of oaks under which extends infinitely +the reddish lace of ferns. + +And they have traversed several villages also,--Basque villages, all +grouped around these two things which are the heart of them and which +symbolize their life: the church and the ball-game. Here and there, they +have knocked at the doors of isolated houses, tall and large houses, +carefully whitewashed, with green shades, and wooden balconies where are +drying in the sun strings of red peppers. At length they have talked, in +their language so closed to strangers of France, with the famous players, +the titled champions, the ones whose odd names have been seen in all the +journals of the southwest, on all the posters of Biarritz or of +Saint-Jean-de-Luz, and who, in ordinary life, are honest country +inn-keepers, blacksmiths, smugglers, with waistcoat thrown over the +shoulder and shirt sleeves rolled on bronze arms. + +Now that all is settled and that the last words have been exchanged, it +is too late to return that night to Etchezar; then, following their +errant habits, they select for the night a village which they like, +Zitzarry, for example, where they have gone often for their smuggling +business. At the fall of night, then, they turn toward this place, which +is near Spain. They go by the same little Pyrenean routes, shady and +solitary under the old oaks that are shedding their leaves, among slopes +richly carpeted with moss and rusty ferns. And now there are ravines +where torrents roar, and then heights from which appear on all sides the +tall, sombre peaks. + +At first it was cold, a real cold, lashing the face and the chest. But +now gusts begin to pass astonishingly warm and perfumed with the scent of +plants: the southern wind, rising again, bringing back suddenly the +illusion of summer. And then, it becomes for them a delicious sensation +to go through the air, so brusquely changed, to go quickly under the +lukewarm breaths, in the noise of their horse's bells galloping playfully +in the mountains. + +Zitzarry, a smugglers' village, a distant village skirting the frontier. +A dilapidated inn where, according to custom, the rooms for the men are +directly above the stables, the black stalls. They are well-known +travelers there, Arrochkoa and Ramuntcho, and while men are lighting the +fire for them they sit near an antique, mullioned window, which overlooks +the square of the ball-game and the church; they see the tranquil, little +life of the day ending in this place so separated from the world. + +On this solemn square, the children practice the national game; grave and +ardent, already strong, they throw their pelota against the wall, while, +in a singing voice and with the needful intonation, one of them counts +and announces the points, in the mysterious tongue of the ancestors. +Around them, the tall houses, old and white, with warped walls, with +projecting rafters, contemplate through their green or red windows those +little players, so lithe, who run in the twilight like young cats. And +the carts drawn by oxen return from the fields, with the noise of bells, +bringing loads of wood, loads of gorse or of dead ferns--The night falls, +falls with its peace and its sad cold. Then, the angelus rings--and there +is, in the entire village, a tranquil, prayerful meditation-- + +Then Ramuntcho, silent, worries about his destiny, feels as if he were a +prisoner here, with his same aspirations always, toward something +unknown, he knows not what, which troubles him at the approach of night. +And his heart also fills up, because he is alone and without support in +the world, because Gracieuse is in a situation different from his and may +never be given to him. + +But Arrochkoa, very brotherly this time, in one of his good moments, +slaps him on the shoulder as if he had understood his reverie, and says +to him in a tone of light gaiety: + +"Well! it seems that you talked together, last night, sister and you--she +told me about it--and that you are both prettily agreed!--" + +Ramuntcho lifts toward him a long look of anxious and grave +interrogation, which is in contrast with the beginning of their +conversation: + +"And what do you think," he asks, "of what we have said?" + +"Oh, my friend," replied Arrochkoa, become more serious also, "on my word +of honor, it suits me very well--And even, as I fear that there shall be +trouble with mother, I promise to help you if you need help--" + +And Ramuntcho's sadness is dispelled as a little dust on which one has +blown. He finds the supper delicious, the inn gay. He feels himself much +more engaged to Gracieuse, now, when somebody is in the secret, and +somebody in the family who does not repulse him. He had a presentiment +that Arrochkoa would not be hostile to him, but his co-operation, so +clearly offered, far surpasses Ramuntcho's hope--Poor little abandoned +fellow, so conscious of the humbleness of his situation, that the support +of another child, a little better established in life, suffices to return +to him courage and confidence! + + + +CHAPTER VII. + +At the uncertain and somewhat icy dawn, he awoke in his little room in +the inn, with a persistent impression of his joy on the day before, +instead of the confused anguish which accompanied so often in him the +progressive return of his thoughts. Outside, were sounds of bells of +cattle starting for the pastures, of cows lowing to the rising sun, of +church bells,--and already, against the wall of the large square, the +sharp snap of the Basque pelota: all the noises of a Pyrenean village +beginning again its customary life for another day. And all this seemed +to Ramuntcho the early music of a day's festival. + +At an early hour, they returned, Arrochkoa and he, to their little wagon, +and, crushing their caps against the wind, started their horse at a +gallop on the roads, powdered with white frost. + +At Etchezar, where they arrived at noon, one would have thought it was +summer,--so beautiful was the sun. + +In the little garden in front of her house, Gracieuse sat on a stone +bench: + +"I have spoken to Arrochkoa!" said Ramuntcho to her, with a happy smile, +as soon as they were alone--"And he is entirely with us, you know!" + +"Oh! that," replied the little girl, without losing the sadly pensive air +which she had that morning, "oh, that!--my brother Arrochkoa, I suspected +it, it was sure! A pelota player like you, you should know, was made to +please him, in his mind there is nothing superior to that--" + +"But your mother, Gatchutcha, for several days has acted much better to +me, I think--For example, Sunday, you remember, when I asked you to +dance--" + +"Oh! don't trust to that, my Ramuntcho! you mean day before yesterday, +after the high mass?--It was because she had just talked with the Mother +Superior, have you not noticed?--And the Mother Superior had insisted +that I should not dance with you on the square; then, only to be +contrary, you understand--But, don't rely on that, no--" + +"Oh!" replied Ramuntcho, whose joy had already gone, "it is true that +they are not very friendly--" + +"Friendly, mama and the Mother Superior?--Like a dog and a cat, +yes!--Since there was talk of my going into the convent, do you not +remember that story?" + +He remembered very well, on the contrary, and it frightened him still. +The smiling and mysterious black nuns had tried once to attract to the +peace of their houses that little blonde head, exalted and willful, +possessed by an immense necessity to love and to be loved-- + +"Gatchutcha! you are always at the sisters', or with them; why so often? +explain this to me: they are very agreeable to you?" + +"The sisters? no, my Ramuntcho, especially those of the present time, who +are new in the country and whom I hardly know--for they change them +often, you know--The sisters, no--I will even tell you that I am like +mama about the Mother Superior. I cannot endure her--" + +"Well, then, what?--" + +"No, but what will you? I like their songs, their chapels, their houses, +everything--I cannot explain that to you--Anyway, boys do not understand +anything--" + +The little smile with which she said this was at once extinguished, +changed into a contemplative expression or an absent expression, which +Ramuntcho had often seen in her. She looked attentively in front of her, +although there were on the road only the leafless trees, the brown mass +of the crushing mountain; but it seemed as if Gracieuse was enraptured in +melancholy ecstasy by things perceived beyond them, by things which the +eyes of Ramuntcho could not distinguish--And during their silence the +angelus of noon began to ring, throwing more peace on the tranquil +village which was warming itself in the winter sun; then, bending their +heads, they made naively together their sign of the cross-- + +Then, when ceased to vibrate the holy bell, which in the Basque villages +interrupts life as in the Orient the song of the muezzins, Ramuntcho +decided to say: + +"It frightens me, Gatchutcha, to see you in their company always--I +cannot but ask myself what ideas are in your head--" + +Fixing on him the profound blackness of her eyes, she replied, in a tone +of soft reproach: + +"It is you talking to me in that way, after what we have said to each +other Sunday night!--If I were to lose you, yes then, perhaps--surely, +even!--But until then, oh! no--oh! you may rest in peace, my Ramuntcho--" + +He bore for a long time her look, which little by little brought back to +him entire delicious confidence, and at last he smiled with a childish +smile: + +"Forgive me," he asked--"I say silly things often, you know!--" + +"That, at least, is the truth!" + +Then, one heard the sound of their laughter, which in two different +intonations had the same freshness and the same youthfulness. Ramuntcho, +with an habitual brusque and graceful gesture, changed his waistcoat from +one shoulder to the other, pulled his cap on the side, and, with no other +farewell than a sign of the head, they separated, for Dolores was coming +from the end of the road. + + + +CHAPTER VIII. + +Midnight, a winter night, black as Hades, with great wind and whipping +rain. By the side of the Bidassoa, in the midst of a confused extent of +ground with treacherous soil that evokes ideas of chaos, in slime that +their feet penetrate, men are carrying boxes on their shoulders and, +walking in the water to their knees, come to throw them into a long +thing, blacker than night, which must be a bark--a suspicious bark +without a light, tied near the bank. + +It is again Itchoua's band, which this time will work by the river. They +have slept for a few moments, all dressed, in the house of a receiver who +lives near the water, and, at the needed hour, Itchoua, who never closes +but one eye, has shaken his men; then, they have gone out with hushed +tread, into the darkness, under the cold shower propitious to smuggling. + +On the road now, with the oars, to Spain whose fires may be seen at a +distance, confused by the rain. The weather is let loose; the shirts of +the men are already wet, and, under the caps pulled over their eyes, the +wind slashes the ears. Nevertheless, thanks to the vigor of their arms, +they were going quickly and well, when suddenly appeared in the obscurity +something like a monster gliding on the waters. Bad business! It is the +patrol boat which promenades every night. Spain's customs officers. In +haste, they must change their direction, use artifice, lose precious +time, and they are so belated already. + +At last they have arrived without obstacle near the Spanish shore, among +the large fishermen's barks which, on stormy nights, sleep there on their +chains, in front of the "Marine" of Fontarabia. This is the perilous +instant. Happily, the rain is faithful to them and falls still in +torrents. Lowered in their skiff to be less visible, having ceased to +talk, pushing the bottom with their oars in order to make less noise, +they approach softly, softly, with pauses as soon as something has seemed +to budge, in the midst of so much diffuse black, of shadows without +outlines. + +Now they are crouched against one of these large, empty barks and almost +touching the earth. And this is the place agreed upon, it is there that +the comrades of the other country should be to receive them and to carry +their boxes to the receiving house--There is nobody there, +however!--Where are they?--The first moments are passed in a sort of +paroxysm of expectation and of watching, which doubles the power of +hearing and of seeing. With eyes dilated, and ears extended, they watch, +under the monotonous dripping of the rain--But where are the Spanish +comrades? Doubtless the hour has passed, because of this accursed custom +house patrol which has disarranged the voyage, and, believing that the +undertaking has failed this time, they have gone back-- + +Several minutes flow, in the same immobility and the same silence. They +distinguish, around them, the large, inert barks, similar to floating +bodies of beasts, and then, above the waters, a mass of obscurities +denser than the obscurities of the sky and which are the houses, the +mountains of the shore--They wait, without a movement, without a word. +They seem to be ghosts of boatmen near a dead city. + +Little by little the tension of their senses weakens, a lassitude comes +to them with the need of sleep--and they would sleep there, under this +winter rain, if the place were not so dangerous. + +Itchoua then consults in a low voice, in Basque language, the two eldest, +and they decide to do a bold thing. Since the others are not coming, +well! so much the worse, they will go alone, carry to the house over +there, the smuggled boxes. It is risking terribly, but the idea is in +their heads and nothing can stop them. + +"You," says Itchoua to Ramuntcho, in his manner which admits of no +discussion, "you shall be the one to watch the bark, since you have never +been in the path that we are taking; you shall tie it to the bottom, but +not too solidly, do you hear? We must be ready to run if the carbineers +arrive." + +So they go, all the others, their shoulders bent under the heavy loads, +the rustling, hardly perceptible, of their march is lost at once on the +quay which is so deserted and so black, in the midst of the monotonous +dripping of the rain. And Ramuntcho, who has remained alone, crouches at +the bottom of the skiff to be less visible becomes immovable again, under +the incessant sprinkling of the rain, which falls now regular and +tranquil. + +They are late, the comrades--and by degrees, in this inactivity and this +silence, an irresistible numbness comes to him, almost a sleep. + +But now a long form, more sombre than all that is sombre, passes by him, +passes very quickly,--always in this same absolute silence which is the +characteristic of these nocturnal undertakings: one of the large Spanish +barks!--Yet, thinks he, since all are at anchor, since this one has no +sails nor oars--then, what?--It is I, myself, who am passing!--and he has +understood: his skiff was too lightly tied, and the current, which is +very rapid here, is dragging him:--and he is very far away, going toward +the mouth of the Bidassoa, toward the breakers, toward the sea-- + +An anxiety has taken hold of him, almost an anguish--What will he +do?--What complicates everything is that he must act without a cry of +appeal, without a word, for, all along this coast, which seems to be the +land of emptiness and of darkness, there are carbineers, placed in an +interminable cordon and watching Spain every night as if it were a +forbidden land--He tries with one of the long oars to push the bottom in +order to return backward;--but there is no more bottom; he feels only the +inconsistency of the fleeting and black water, he is already in the +profound pass--Then, let him row, in spite of everything, and so much for +the worse!-- + +With great trouble, his forehead perspiring, he brings back alone against +the current the heavy bark, worried, at every stroke of the oar, by the +small, disclosing grating that a fine ear over there might so well +perceive. And then, one can see nothing more, through the rain grown +thicker and which confuses the eyes; it is dark, dark as in the bowels of +the earth where the devil lives. He recognizes no longer the point of +departure where the others must be waiting for him, whose ruin he has +perhaps caused; he hesitates, he waits, the ear extended, the arteries +beating, and he hooks himself, for a moment's reflection, to one of the +large barks of Spain--Something approaches then, gliding with infinite +precaution on the surface of the water, hardly stirred: a human shadow, +one would think, a silhouette standing:--a smuggler, surely, since he +makes so little noise! They divine each other, and, thank God! it is +Arrochkoa; Arrochkoa, who has untied a frail, Spanish skiff to meet +him--So, their junction is accomplished and they are probably saved all, +once more! + +But Arrochkoa, in meeting him, utters in a wicked voice, in a voice +tightened by his young, feline teeth, one of those series of insults +which call for immediate answer and sound like an invitation to fight. It +is so unexpected that Ramuntcho's stupor at first immobilizes him, +retards the rush of blood to his head. Is this really what his friend has +just said and in such a tone of undeniable insult?-- + +"You said?" + +"Well!" replies Arrochkoa, somewhat softened and on his guard, observing +in the darkness Ramuntcho's attitudes. "Well! you had us almost caught, +awkward fellow that you are!--" + +The silhouettes of the others appear in another bark. + +"They are there," he continues. "Let us go near them!" + +And Ramuntcho takes his oarsman's seat with temples heated by anger, with +trembling hands--no--he is Gracieuse's brother; all would be lost if +Ramuntcho fought with him; because of her he will bend the head and say +nothing. + +Now their bark runs away by force of oars, carrying them all; the trick +has been played. It was time; two Spanish voices vibrate on the black +shore: two carbineers, who were sleeping in their cloaks and whom the +noise has awakened!--And they begin to hail this flying, beaconless bark, +not perceived so much as suspected, lost at once in the universal, +nocturnal confusion. + +"Too late, friends," laughs Itchoua, while rowing to the uttermost. "Hail +at your ease now and let the devil answer you!" + +The current also helps them; they go into the thick obscurity with the +rapidity of fishes. + +There! Now they are in French waters, in safety, not far, doubtless, from +the slime of the banks. + +"Let us stop to breathe a little," proposes Itchoua. + +And they raise their oars, halting, wet with perspiration and with rain. +They are immovable again under the cold shower, which they do not seem to +feel. There is heard in the vast silence only the breathing of chests, +little by little quieted, the little music of drops of water falling and +their light rippling. But suddenly, from this bark which was so quiet, +and which had no other importance than that of a shadow hardly real in +the midst of so much night, a cry rises, superacute, terrifying: it fills +the emptiness and rents the far-off distances--It has come from those +elevated notes which belong ordinarily to women only, but with something +hoarse and powerful that indicates rather the savage male; it has the +bite of the voice of jackals and it preserves, nevertheless, something +human which makes one shiver the more; one waits with a sort of anguish +for its end, and it is long, long, it is oppressive by its inexplicable +length--It had begun like a stag's bell of agony and now it is achieved +and it dies in a sort of laughter, sinister and burlesque, like the +laughter of lunatics-- + +However, around the man who has just cried thus in the front of the bark, +none of the others is astonished, none budges. And, after a few seconds +of silent peace, a new cry, similar to the first, starts from the rear, +replying to it and passing through the same phases,--which are of a +tradition infinitely ancient. + +And it is simply the "irrintzina", the great Basque cry which has been +transmitted with fidelity from the depth of the abyss of ages to the men +of our day, and which constitutes one of the strange characteristics of +that race whose origins are enveloped in mystery. It resembles the cry of +a being of certain tribes of redskins in the forests of America; at +night, it gives the notion and the unfathomable fright of primitive ages, +when, in the midst of the solitudes of the old world, men with monkey +throats howled. + +This cry is given at festivals, or for calls of persons at night in the +mountains, and especially to celebrate some joy, some unexpected good +fortune, a miraculous hunt or a happy catch of fish in the rivers. + +And they are amused, the smugglers, at this game of the ancestors; they +give their voices to glorify the success of their undertaking, they yell, +from the physical necessity to be compensated for their silence of a +moment ago. + +But Ramuntcho remains mute and without a smile. This sudden savagery +chills him, although he has known it for a long time; it plunges him into +dreams that worry and do not explain themselves. + +And then, he has felt to-night once more how uncertain and changing is +his only support in the world, the support of that Arrochkoa on whom he +should be able to count as on a brother; audacity and success at the +ball-game will return that support to him, doubtless, but a moment of +weakness, nothing, may at any moment make him lose it. Then it seems to +him that the hope of his life has no longer a basis, that all vanishes +like an unstable chimera. + + + +CHAPTER IX. + +It was New Year's eve. + +All the day had endured that sombre sky which is so often the sky of the +Basque country--and which harmonizes well with the harsh mountains, with +the roar of the sea, wicked, in the depths of the Bay of Biscay. + +In the twilight of this last day of the year, at the hour when the fires +retain the men around the hearths scattered in the country, at the hour +when home is desirable and delicious, Ramuntcho and his mother were +preparing to sit at the supper table, when there was a discreet knock at +the door. + +The man who was coming to them from the night of the exterior, at the +first aspect seemed unknown to them; only when he told his name (Jose +Bidegarray, of Hasparitz) they recalled the sailor who had gone several +years ago to America. + +"Here," he said, after accepting a chair, "here is the message which I +have been asked to bring to you. Once, at Rosario in Uruguay, as I was +talking on the docks with several other Basque immigrants there, a man, +who might have been fifty years old, having heard me speak of Etchezar, +came to me. + +"'Do you come from Etchezar?' he asked. + +"'No,' I replied, 'but I come from Hasparitz, which is not far from +Etchezar.' + +"Then he put questions to me about all your family. I said: + +"'The old people are dead, the elder brother was killed in smuggling, the +second has disappeared in America; there remain only Franchita and her +son, Ramuntcho, a handsome young fellow who must be about eighteen years +old today.' + +"He was thinking deeply while he was listening to me. + +"'Well,' he said at last, 'since you are going back there, you will say +good-day to them for Ignacio.' + +"And after offering a drink to me he went away--" + +Franchita had risen, trembling and paler than ever. Ignacio, the most +adventurous in the family, her brother who had disappeared for ten years +without sending any news!-- + +How was he? What face? Dressed how?--Did he seem happy, at least, or was +he poorly dressed? + +"Oh!" replied the sailor, "he looked well, in spite of his gray hair; as +for his costume, he appeared to be a man of means, with a beautiful gold +chain on his belt." + +And that was all he could say, with this naive and rude good-day of which +he was the bearer; on the subject of the exile he knew no more and +perhaps, until she died, Franchita would learn nothing more of that +brother, almost non-existing, like a phantom. + +Then, when he had emptied a glass of cider, he went on his road, the +strange messenger, who was going to his village. Then, they sat at table +without speaking, the mother and the son: she, the silent Franchita, +absent minded, with tears shining in her eyes; he, worried also, but in a +different manner, by the thought of that uncle living in adventures over +there. + +When he ceased to be a child, when Ramuntcho began to desert from school, +to wish to follow the smugglers in the mountain, Franchita would say to +him: + +"Anyway, you take after your uncle Ignacio, we shall never make anything +of you!--" + +And it was true that he took after his uncle Ignacio, that he was +fascinated by all the things that are dangerous, unknown and far-off-- + +To-night, therefore, if she did not talk to her son of the message which +had just been transmitted to them, the reason was she divined his +meditation on America and was afraid of his answers. Besides, among +country people, the little profound and intimate dramas are played +without words, with misunderstandings that are never cleared up, with +phrases only guessed at and with obstinate silence. + +But, as they were finishing their meal, they heard a chorus of young and +gay voices, coming near, accompanied by a drum, the boys of Etchezar, +coming for Ramuntcho to bring him with them in their parade with music +around the village, following the custom of New Year's eve, to go into +every house, drink in it a glass of cider and give a joyous serenade to +an old time tune. + +And Ramuntcho, forgetting Uruguay and the mysterious uncle, became a +child again, in the pleasure of following them and of singing with them +along the obscure roads, enraptured especially by the thought that they +would go to the house of the Detcharry family and that he would see +again, for an instant, Gracieuse. + + + +CHAPTER X. + +The changeable month of March had arrived, and with it the intoxication +of spring, joyful for the young, sad for those who are declining. + +And Gracieuse had commenced again to sit, in the twilight of the +lengthened days, on the stone bench in front of her door. + +Oh! the old stone benches, around the houses, made, in the past ages, for +the reveries of the soft evenings and for the eternally similar +conversations of lovers!-- + +Gracieuse's house was very ancient, like most houses in that Basque +country, where, less than elsewhere, the years change the things.--It had +two stories; a large projecting roof in a steep slope; walls like a +fortress which were whitewashed every summer; very small windows, with +settings of cut granite and green blinds. Above the front door, a granite +lintel bore an inscription in relief; words complicated and long which, +to French eyes resembled nothing known. It said: "May the Holy Virgin +bless this home, built in the year 1630 by Peter Detcharry, beadle, and +his wife Damasa Irribarne, of the village of Istaritz." A small garden +two yards wide, surrounded by a low wall so that one could see the +passers-by, separated the house from the road; there was a beautiful +rose-laurel, extending its southern foliage above the evening bench, and +there were yuccas, a palm tree, and enormous bunches of those hortensias +which are giants here, in this land of shade, in this lukewarm climate, +so often enveloped by clouds. In the rear was a badly closed orchard +which rolled down to an abandoned path, favorable to escalades of lovers. + +What mornings radiant with light there were in that spring, and what +tranquil, pink evenings! + +After a week of full moon which kept the fields till day-light blue with +rays, and when the band of Itchoua ceased to work,--so clear was their +habitual domain, so illuminated were the grand, vaporous backgrounds of +the Pyrenees and of Spain--the frontier fraud was resumed more ardently, +as soon as the thinned crescent had become discreet and early setting. +Then, in these beautiful times, smuggling by night was exquisite; a trade +of solitude and of meditation when the mind of the naive and very +pardonable defrauders was elevated unconsciously in the contemplation of +the sky and of the darkness animated by stars--as it happens to the mind +of the sea folk watching, on the nocturnal march of vessels, and as it +happened formerly to the mind of the shepherds in antique Chaldea. + +It was favorable also and tempting for lovers, that tepid period which +followed the full moon of March, for it was dark everywhere around the +houses, dark in all the paths domed with trees,--and very dark, behind +the Detcharry orchard, on the abandoned path where nobody ever passed. + +Gracieuse lived more and more on her bench in front of her door. + +It was here that she was seated, as every year, to receive and look at +the carnival dancers: those groups of young boys and of young girls of +Spain or of France, who, every spring, organize themselves for several +days in a wandering band, and, all dressed in the same pink or white +colors, traverse the frontier village, dancing the fandango in front of +houses, with castanets-- + +She stayed later and later in this place which she liked, under the +shelter of the rose-laurel coming into bloom, and sometimes even, she +came out noiselessly through the window, like a little, sly fox, to +breathe there at length, after her mother had gone to bed. Ramuntcho knew +this and, every night, the thought of that bench troubled his sleep. + + + +CHAPTER XI. + +One clear April morning, they were walking to the church, Gracieuse and +Ramuntcho. She, with an air half grave, half mocking, with a particular +and very odd air, leading him there to make him do a penance which she +had ordered. + +In the holy enclosure, the flowerbeds of the tombs were coming into bloom +again, as also the rose bushes on the walls. Once more the new saps were +awakening above the long sleep of the dead. They went in together, +through the lower door, into the empty church, where the old "benoite" in +a black mantilla was alone, dusting the altars. + +When Gracieuse had given to Ramuntcho the holy water and they had made +their signs of the cross, she led him through the sonorous nave, paved +with funereal stones, to a strange image on the wall, in a shady corner, +under the men's tribunes. + +It was a painting, impregnated with ancient mysticism, representing the +figure of Jesus with eyes closed, forehead bloody, expression lamentable +and dead; the head seemed to be cut off, separated from the body, and +placed there on a gray linen cloth. Above, were written the long Litanies +of the Holy Face, which have been composed, as everybody knows, to be +recited in penance by repentant blasphemers. The day before, Ramuntcho, +in anger, had sworn in an ugly manner: a quite unimaginable string of +words, wherein the sacraments and the most saintly things were mingled +with the horns of the devil and other villainous things still more +frightful. That is why the necessity for a penance had impressed itself +on the mind of Gracieuse. + +"Come, my Ramuntcho," she recommended, as she walked away, "omit nothing +of what you must say." + +She left him then in front of the Holy Face, beginning to murmur his +litanies in a low voice, and went to the good woman and helped her to +change the water of the white Easter daisies in front of the altar of the +Virgin. + +But when the languorous evening returned, and Gracieuse was seated in the +darkness meditating on her stone bench, a young human form started up +suddenly near her; someone who had come in sandals, without making more +noise than the silk owls make in the air, from the rear of the garden +doubtless, after some scaling, and who stood there, straight, his +waistcoat thrown over one shoulder: the one to whom were addressed all +her tender emotions on earth, the one who incarnated the ardent dream of +her heart and of her senses-- + +"Ramuntcho!" she said. "Oh! how you frightened me. Where did you come +from at such an hour? What do you want? Why did you come?" + +"Why did I come? In my turn, to order you to do penance," he replied, +laughing. + +"No, tell the truth, what is the matter, what are you coming to do?" + + "To see you, only! That is what I come to do--What will you have! We +never see each other!--Your mother keeps me at a distance more and more +every day. I cannot live in that way.--We are not doing any harm, after +all, since we are to be married! And you know, I could come every night, +if you like, without anybody suspecting it--" + +"Oh! no!--Oh! do not do that ever, I beg of you--" + +They talked for an instant, and so low, so low, with more silence than +words, as if they were afraid to wake up the birds in their nests. They +recognized no longer the sound of their voices, so changed and so +trembling they were, as if they had committed some delicious and damnable +crime, by doing nothing but staying near each other, in the grand, +caressing mystery of that night of April, which was hatching around them +so many ascents of saps, so many germinations and so many loves-- + +He had not even dared to sit at her side; he remained standing, ready to +run under the branches at the least alarm, like a nocturnal prowler. + +However, when he prepared to go, it was she who asked, hesitating, and in +a manner to be hardly heard: + +"And--you will come back to-morrow?" + +Then, under his growing mustache, he smiled at this sudden change of mind +and he replied: + +"Yes, surely.--To-morrow and every night.--Every night when we shall not +have to work in Spain.--I will come--" + + + +CHAPTER XII. + +Ramuntcho's lodging place was, in the house of his mother and above the +stable, a room neatly whitewashed; he had there his bed, always clean and +white, but where smuggling gave him few hours for sleep. Books of travel +or cosmography, which the cure of the parish lent to him, posed on his +table--unexpected in this house. The portraits, framed, of different +saints, ornamented the walls, and several pelota-players' gloves were +hanging from the beams of the ceiling, long gloves of wicker and of +leather which seemed rather implements of hunting or fishing. + +Franchita, at her return to her country, had bought back this house, +which was that of her deceased parents, with a part of the sum given to +her by the stranger at the birth of her son. She had invested the rest; +then she worked at making gowns or at ironing linen for the people of +Etchezar, and rented, to farmers of land near by, two lower rooms, with +the stable where they placed their cows and their sheep. + +Different familiar, musical sounds rocked Ramuntcho in his bed. First, +the constant roar of a near-by torrent; then, at times, songs of +nightingales, salutes to the dawn of divers birds. And, in this spring +especially, the cows, his neighbors, excited doubtless by the smell of +new-mown hay, moved all night, were agitated in dreams, making their +bells tintillate continually. + +Often, after the long expeditions at night, he regained his sleep in the +afternoon, extended in the shade in some corner of moss and grass. Like +the other smugglers, he was not an early riser for a village boy, and he +woke up sometimes long after daybreak, when already, between the +disjointed planks of his flooring, rays of a vivid and gay light came +from the stable below, the door of which remained open always to the +rising sun after the departure of the cattle to their pastures. Then, he +went to his window, pushed open the little, old blinds made of massive +chestnut wood painted in olive, and leaned on his elbows, placed on the +sill of the thick wall, to look at the clouds or at the sun of the new +morning. + +What he saw, around his house, was green, green, magnificently green, as +are in the spring all the corners of that land of shade and of rain. The +ferns which, in the autumn, have so warm a rusty color, were now, in this +April, in the glory of their greenest freshness and covered the slopes of +the mountains as with an immense carpet of curly wool, where foxglove +flowers made pink spots. In a ravine, the torrent roared under branches. +Above, groups of oaks and of beeches clung to the slopes, alternating +with prairies; then, above this tranquil Eden, toward the sky, ascended +the grand, denuded peak of the Gizune, sovereign hill of the region of +the clouds. And one perceived also, in the background, the church and the +houses--that village of Etchezar, solitary and perched high on one of the +Pyrenean cliffs, far from everything, far from the lines of communication +which have revolutionized and spoiled the lowlands of the shores; +sheltered from curiosity, from the profanation of strangers, and living +still its Basque life of other days. + +Ramuntcho's awakenings were impregnated, at this window, with peace and +humble serenity. They were full of joy, his awakenings of a man engaged, +since he had the assurance of meeting Gracieuse at night at the promised +place. The vague anxieties, the undefined sadness, which accompanied in +him formerly the daily return of his thoughts, had fled for a time, +dispelled by the reminiscence and the expectation of these meetings; his +life was all changed; as soon as his eyes were opened he had the +impression of a mystery and of an immense enchantment, enveloping him in +the midst of this verdure and of these April flowers. And this peace of +spring, thus seen every morning, seemed to him every time a new thing, +very different from what it had been in the previous years, infinitely +sweet to his heart and voluptuous to his flesh, having unfathomable and +ravishing depths. + + + +CHAPTER XIII. + +It is Easter night, after the village bells have ceased to mingle in the +air so many holy vibrations that came from Spain and from France. + +Seated on the bank of the Bidassoa, Ramuntcho and Florentino watch the +arrival of a bark. A great silence now, and the bells sleep. The tepid +twilight has been prolonged and, in breathing, one feels the approach of +summer. + +As soon as the night falls, it must appear from the coast of Spain, the +smuggling bark, bringing the very prohibited phosphorus. And, without its +touching the shore, they must go to get that merchandise, by advancing on +foot in the bed of the river, with long, pointed sticks in their hands, +in order to assume, if perchance they were caught, airs of people fishing +innocently for "platuches." + +The water of the Bidassoa is to-night an immovable and clear mirror, a +little more luminous than the sky, and in this mirror, are reproduced, +upside down, all the constellations, the entire Spanish mountain, carved +in so sombre a silhouette in the tranquil atmosphere. Summer, summer, one +has more and more the consciousness of its approach, so limpid and soft +are the first signs of night, so much lukewarm langour is scattered over +this corner of the world, where the smugglers silently manoeuvre. + +But this estuary, which separates the two countries, seems in this moment +to Ramuntcho more melancholy than usual, more closed and more walled-in +in front of him by these black mountains, at the feet of which hardly +shine, here and there, two or three uncertain lights. Then, he is seized +again by his desire to know what there is beyond, and further still.--Oh! +to go elsewhere!--To escape, at least for a time, from the oppressiveness +of that land--so loved, however!--Before death, to escape the +oppressiveness of this existence, ever similar and without egress. To try +something else, to get out of here, to travel, to know things!-- + +Then, while watching the far-off, terrestrial distances where the bark +will appear, he raises his eyes from time to time toward what happens +above, in the infinite, looks at the new moon, the crescent of which, as +thin as a line, lowers and will disappear soon; looks at the stars, the +slow and regulated march of which he has observed, as have all the people +of his trade, during so many nocturnal hours; is troubled in the depth of +his mind by the proportions and the inconceivable distances of these +things.-- + +In his village of Etchezar, the old priest who had taught him the +catechism, interested by his young, lively intelligence, has lent books +to him, has continued with him conversations on a thousand subjects, and, +on the subject of the planets, has given to him the notion of movements +and of immensities, has half opened before his eyes the grand abyss of +space and duration. Then, in his mind, innate doubts, frights and +despairs that slumbered, all that his father had bequeathed to him as a +sombre inheritance, all these things have taken a black form which stands +before him. Under the great sky of night, his Basque faith has commenced +to weaken. His mind is no longer simple enough to accept blindly dogmas +and observances, and, as all becomes incoherence and disorder in his +young head, so strangely prepared, the course of which nobody is leading, +he does not know that it is wise to submit, with confidence in spite of +everything, to the venerable and consecrated formulas, behind which is +hidden perhaps all that we may ever see of the unknowable truths. + +Therefore, these bells of Easter which the year before had filled him +with a religious and soft sentiment, this time had seemed to him to be a +music sad and almost vain. And now that they have just hushed, he listens +with undefined sadness to the powerful noise, almost incessant since the +creation, that the breakers of the Bay of Biscay make and which, in the +peaceful nights, may be heard in the distance behind the mountains. + +But his floating dream changes again.--Now the estuary, which has become +quite dark and where one may no longer see the mass of human habitations, +seems to him, little by little, to become different; then, strange +suddenly, as if some mystery were to be accomplished in it; he perceives +only the great, abrupt lines of it, which are almost eternal, and he is +surprised to think confusedly of times more ancient, of an unprecise and +obscure antiquity.--The Spirit of the old ages, which comes out of the +soil at times in the calm nights, in the hours when sleep the beings that +trouble us in the day-time, the Spirit of the old ages is beginning, +doubtless, to soar in the air around him; Ramuntcho does not define this +well, for his sense of an artist and of a seer, that no education has +refined, has remained rudimentary; but he has the notion and the worry of +it.--In his head, there is still and always a chaos, which seeks +perpetually to disentangle itself and never succeeds.--However, when the +two enlarged and reddened horns of the moon fall slowly behind the +mountain, always black, the aspect of things takes, for an inappreciable +instant, one knows not what ferocious and primitive airs; then, a dying +impression of original epochs which had remained, one knows not where in +space, takes for Ramuntcho a precise form in a sudden manner, and +troubles him until he shivers. He dreams, even without wishing it, of +those men of the forests who lived here in the ages, in the uncalculated +and dark ages, because, suddenly, from a point distant from the shore, a +long Basque cry rises from the darkness in a lugubrious falsetto, an +"irrintzina," the only thing in this country with which he never could +become entirely familiar. But a great mocking noise occurs in the +distance, the crash of iron, whistles: a train from Paris to Madrid, +which is passing over there, behind them, in the black of the French +shore. And the Spirit of the old ages folds its wings made of shade and +vanishes. Silence returns: but after the passage of this stupid and rapid +thing, the Spirit which has fled reappears no more-- + +At last, the bark which Ramuntcho awaited with Florentino appears, hardly +perceptible for other eyes than theirs, a little, gray form which leaves +behind it slight ripples on this mirror which is of the color of the sky +at night and wherein stars are reflected upside down. It is the +well-selected hour, the hour when the customs officers watch badly; the +hour also when the view is dimmer, when the last reflections of the sun +and those of the crescent of the moon have gone out, and the eyes of men +are not yet accustomed to darkness. + +Then to get the prohibited phosphorus, they take their long fishing +sticks, and go into the water silently. + + + +CHAPTER XIV. + +There was a grand ball-game arranged for the following Sunday at +Erribiague, a far-distant village, near the tall mountains. Ramuntcho, +Arrochkoa and Florentino were to play against three celebrated ones of +Spain; they were to practice that evening, limber their arms on the +square of Etchezar, and Gracieuse, with other little girls of her age, +had taken seats on the granite benches to look at them. The girls, all +pretty; with elegant airs in their pale colored waists cut in accordance +with the most recent vagary of the season. And they were laughing, these +little girls, they were laughing! They were laughing because they had +begun laughing, without knowing why. Nothing, a word of their old Basque +tongue, without any appropriateness, by one of them, and there they were +all in spasms of laughter.--This country is truly one of the corners of +the world where the laughter of girls breaks out most easily, ringing +like clear crystal, ringing youthfulness and fresh throats. + +Arrochkoa had been there for a long time, with the wicker glove at his +arm, throwing alone the pelota which, from time to time, children picked +up for him. But Ramuntcho, Florentino, what were they thinking of? How +late they were! They came at last, their foreheads wet with perspiration, +their walk heavy and embarrassed. And, while the little, laughing girls +questioned them, in that mocking tone which girls, when they are in a +troupe, assume ordinarily to interpellate boys, these smiled, and each +one struck his chest which gave a metallic sound.--Through paths of the +Gizune, they had returned on foot from Spain, heavy with copper coin +bearing the effigy of the gentle, little King Alfonso XIII. A new trick +of the smugglers: for Itchoua's account, they had exchanged over there +with profit, a big sum of money for this debased coin, destined to be +circulated at par at the coming fairs, in different villages of the +Landes where Spanish cents are current. They were bringing, in their +pockets, in their shirts, some forty kilos of copper. They made all this +fall like rain on the antique granite of the benches, at the feet of the +amused girls, asking them to keep and count it for them; then, after +wiping their foreheads and puffing a little, they began to play and to +jump, being light now and lighter than ordinarily, their overload being +disposed of. + +Except three or four children of the school who ran like young cats after +the lost pelotas, there were only the girls, seated in a group on the +lowest one of these deserted steps, the old, reddish stones of which bore +at this moment their herbs and their flowers of April. Calico gowns, +clear white or pink waists, they were all the gaiety of this solemnly sad +place. Beside Gracieuse was Pantchika Dargaignaratz, another fifteen year +old blonde, who was engaged to Arrochkoa and would soon marry him, for +he, being the son of a widow, had not to serve in the army. And, +criticizing the players, placing in lines on the granite rows of piled-up +copper cents, they laughed, they whispered, in their chanted accent, with +ends of syllables in "rra" or in "rrik," making the "r's" roll so sharply +that one would have thought every instant sparrows were beating their +wings in their mouths. + +They also, the boys, were laughing, and they came frequently, under the +pretext of resting, to sit among the girls. These troubled and +intimidated them three times more than the public, because they mocked +so! + +Ramuntcho learned from his little betrothed something which he would not +have dared to hope for: she had obtained her mother's permission to go to +that festival of Erribiague, see the ball-game and visit that country, +which she did not know. It was agreed that she should go in a carriage, +with Pantchika and Madame Dargaignaratz; and they would meet over there; +perhaps it would be possible to return all together. + +During the two weeks since their evening meetings had begun, this was the +first time when he had had the opportunity to talk to her thus in the +day-time and before the others--and their manner was different, more +ceremonious apparently, with, beneath it, a very suave mystery. It was a +long time, also, since he had seen her so well and so near in the +daylight: she was growing more beautiful that spring; she was pretty, +pretty!--Her bust had become rounder and her waist thinner; her manner +gained, day by day, an elegant suppleness. She resembled her brother +still, she had the same regular features, the same perfect oval of the +face; but the difference in their eyes went on increasing: while those of +Arrochkoa, of a blue green shade which seemed fleeting, avoided the +glances of others, hers, on the contrary, black pupils and lashes, +dilated themselves to look at you fixedly. Ramuntcho had seen eyes like +these in no other person; he adored the frank tenderness of them and also +their anxious and profound questioning. Long before he had become a man +and accessible to the trickery of the senses, those eyes had caught, of +his little, childish mind, all that was best and purest in it.--And now +around such eyes, the grand Transformer, enigmatic and sovereign, had +placed a beauty of flesh which irresistibly called his flesh to a supreme +communion.-- + +They were made very inattentive to their game, the players, by the group +of little girls, of white and pink waists, and they laughed themselves at +not playing so well as usual. Above them, occupying only a small corner +of the old, granite amphitheatre, ascended rows of empty benches in +ruins; then, the houses of Etchezar, so peacefully isolated from the rest +of the world; then, in fine, the obscure, encumbering mass of the Gizune, +filling up the sky and mingling with thick clouds asleep on its sides. +Clouds immovable, inoffensive and without a threat of rain; clouds of +spring, which were of a turtle-dove color and which seemed tepid, like +the air of that evening. And, in a rent, much less elevated than the +summit predominating over this entire site, a round moon began to silver +as the day declined. + +They played, in the beautiful twilight, until the hour when the first +bats appeared, until the hour when the flying pelota could hardly be seen +in the air. Perhaps they felt, unconsciously, that the moment was rare +and might not be regained: then, as much as possible, they should prolong +it-- + +And at last, they went together to take to Itchoua his Spanish coins. In +two lots, they had been placed in two thick, reddish towels which a boy +and a girl held at each end, and they walked in cadence, singing the tune +of "The Linen Weaver." + +How long, clear and soft was that twilight of April!--There were roses +and all sorts of flowers in front of the walls of the venerable, white +houses with brown or green blinds. Jessamine, honeysuckle and linden +filled the air with fragrance. For Gracieuse and Ramuntcho, it was one of +those exquisite hours which later, in the anguishing sadness of +awakenings, one recalls with a regret at once heart-breaking and +charming. + +Oh! who shall say why there are on earth evenings of spring, and eyes so +pretty to look at, and smiles of young girls, and breaths of perfumes +which gardens exhale when the nights of April fall, and all this +delicious cajoling of life, since it is all to end ironically in +separation, in decrepitude and in death-- + + + +CHAPTER XV. + +The next day, Friday, was organized the departure for this village where +the festival was to take place on the following Sunday. It is situated +very far, in a shady region, at the turn of a deep gorge, at the foot of +very high summits. Arrochkoa was born there and he had spent there the +first months of his life, in the time when his father lived there as a +brigadier of the French customs; but he had left too early to have +retained the least memory of it. + +In the little Detcharry carriage, Gracieuse, Pantchita and, with a long +whip in her hand, Madame Dargaignaratz, her mother, who is to drive, +leave together at the noon angelus to go over there directly by the +mountain route. + +Ramuntcho, Arrochkoa and Florentino, who have to settle smuggling affairs +at Saint-Jean-de-Luz, go by a roundabout way which will bring them to +Erribiague at night, on the train which goes from Bayonne to Burguetta. +To-day, all three are heedless and happy; Basque caps never appeared +above more joyful faces. + +The night is falling when they penetrate, by this little train of +Burguetta, into the quiet, interior country. The carriages are full of a +gay crowd, a spring evening crowd, returning from some festival, young +girls with silk kerchiefs around their necks, young men wearing woolen +caps; all are singing, laughing and kissing. In spite of the invading +obscurity one may still distinguish the hedges, white with hawthorn, the +woods white with acacia flowers; into the open carriages penetrates a +fragrance at once violent and suave, which the country exhales. And on +all this white bloom of April, which the night little by little effaces, +the train throws in passing a furrow of joy, the refrain of some old song +of Navarre, sung and resung infinitely by these girls and these boys, in +the noise of the wheels and of the steam-- + +Erribiague! At the doors, this name, which makes all three start, is +cried. The singing band had already stepped out, leaving them almost +alone in the train, which had become silent. High mountains had made the +night very thick--and the three were almost sleeping. + +Astounded, they jump down, in the midst of an obscurity which even their +smugglers' eyes cannot pierce. Stars above hardly shine, so encumbered is +the sky by the overhanging summits. + +"Where is the village?" they ask of a man who is there alone to receive +them. + +"Three miles from here on the right." + +They begin to distinguish the gray trail of a road, suddenly lost in the +heart of the shade. And in the grand silence, in the humid coolness of +these valleys full of darkness, they walk without talking, their gaiety +somewhat darkened by the black majesty of the peaks that guard the +frontier here. + +They come, at last, to an old, curved bridge over a torrent; then, to the +sleeping village which no light indicates. And the inn, where shines a +lamp, is near by, leaning on the mountain, its base in the roaring water. + +The young men are led into their little rooms which have an air of +cleanliness in spite of their extreme oldness: very low, crushed by their +enormous beams, and bearing on their whitewashed walls images of the +Christ, the Virgin and the saints. + +Then, they go down to the supper tables, where are seated two or three +old men in old time costume: white belt, black blouse, very short, with a +thousand pleats. And Arrochkoa, vain of his parentage, hastens to ask +them if they have not known Detcharry, who was here a brigadier of the +customs eighteen years ago. + +One of the old men scans his face: + +"Ah! you are his son, I would bet! You look like him! Detcharry, do I +remember Detcharry!--He took from me two hundred lots of +merchandise!--That does not matter, here is my hand, even if you are his +son!" + +And the old defrauder, who was the chief of a great band, without rancor, +with effusion, presses Arrochkoa's two hands. + +Detcharry has remained famous at Erribiague for his stratagems, his +ambuscades, his captures of contraband goods, out of which came, later, +his income that Dolores and her children enjoy. + +And Arrochkoa assumes a proud air, while Ramuntcho lowers his head, +feeling that he is of a lower condition, having no father. + +"Are you not in the customhouse, as your deceased father was?" continued +the old man in a bantering tone. + +"Oh, no, not exactly.--Quite the reverse, even--" + +"Oh, well! I understand!--Then, shake once more--and it's a sort of +revenge on Detcharry for me, to know that his son has gone into smuggling +like us!--" + +They send for cider and they drink together, while the old men tell again +the exploits and the tricks of former times, all the ancient tales of +nights in the mountains; they speak a variety of Basque different from +that of Etchezar, the village where the language is preserved more +clearly articulated, more incisive, more pure, perhaps. Ramuntcho and +Arrochkoa are surprised by this accent of the high land, which softens +the words and which chants them; those white-haired story tellers seem to +them almost strangers, whose talk is a series of monotonous stanzas, +repeated infinitely as in the antique songs expressive of sorrow. And, as +soon as they cease talking, the slight sounds in the sleep of the country +come from peaceful and fresh darkness. The crickets chirp; one hears the +torrent bubbling at the base of the inn; one hears the dripping of +springs from the terrible, overhanging summits, carpeted with thick +foliage.--It sleeps, the very small village, crouched and hidden in the +hollow of a ravine, and one has the impression that the night here is a +night blacker than elsewhere and more mysterious. + +"In truth," concludes the old chief, "the customhouse and smuggling, at +bottom, resemble each other; it is a game where the smartest wins, is it +not? I will even say that, in my own opinion, an officer of customs, +clever and bold, a customs officer like your father, for example, is as +worthy as any of us!" + +After this, the hostess having come to say that it was time to put out +the lamp--the last lamp still lit in the village--they go away, the old +defrauders. Ramuntcho and Arrochkoa go up to their rooms, lie down and +sleep, always in the chirp of the crickets, always in the sound of fresh +waters that run or that fall. And Ramuntcho, as in his house at Etchezar, +hears vaguely during his sleep the tinkling of bells, attached to the +necks of cows moving in a dream, under him, in the stable. + + + +CHAPTER XVI. + +Now they open, to the beautiful April morning, the shutters of their +narrow windows, pierced like portholes in the thickness of the very old +wall. + +And suddenly, it is a flood of light that dazzles their eyes. Outside, +the spring is resplendent. Never had they seen, before this, summits so +high and so near. But along the slopes full of leaves, along the +mountains decked with trees, the sun descends to radiate in this valley +on the whiteness of the village, on the kalsomine of the ancient houses +with green shutters. + +Both awakened with veins full of youth and hearts full of joy. They have +formed the project this morning to go into the country, to the house of +Madame Dargaignaratz's cousins, and see the two little girls, who must +have arrived the night before in the carriage, Gracieuse and +Pantchika.--After a glance at the ball-game square, where they shall +return to practice in the afternoon, they go on their way through small +paths, magnificently green, hidden in the depths of the valleys, skirting +the cool torrents. The foxglove flowers start everywhere like long, pink +rockets above the light and infinite mass of ferns. + +It is at a long distance, it seems, that house of the Olhagarray cousins, +and they stop from time to time to ask the way from shepherds, or they +knock at the doors of solitary houses, here and there, under the cover of +branches. They had never seen Basque houses so old nor so primitive, +under the shade of chestnut trees so tall. + +The ravines through which they advance are strangely enclosed. Higher +than all these woods of oaks and of beeches, which seem as if suspended +above, appear ferocious, denuded summits, a zone abrupt and bald, sombre +brown, making points in the violent blue of the sky. But here, +underneath, is the sheltered and mossy region, green and deep, which the +sun never burns and where April has hidden its luxury, freshly superb. + +And they also, the two who are passing through these paths of foxglove +and of fern, participate in this splendor of spring. + +Little by little, in their enjoyment at being there, and under the +influence of this ageless place, the old instincts to hunt and to destroy +are lighted in the depths of their minds. Arrochkoa, excited, leaps from +right to left, from left to right, breaks, uproots grasses and flowers; +troubles about everything that moves in the green foliage, about the +lizards that might be caught, about the birds that might be taken out of +their nests, and about the beautiful trout swimming in the water; he +jumps, he leaps; he wishes he had fishing lines, sticks, guns; truly he +reveals his savagery in the bloom of his robust eighteen +years.--Ramuntcho calms himself quickly; after breaking a few branches, +plucking a few flowers, he begins to meditate; and he thinks-- + +Here they are stopped now at a cross-road where no human habitation is +visible. Around them are gorges full of shade wherein grand oaks grow +thickly, and above, everywhere, a piling up of mountains, of a reddish +color burned by the sun. There is nowhere an indication of the new times; +there is an absolute silence, something like the peace of the primitive +epochs. Lifting their heads toward the brown peaks, they perceive at a +long distance persons walking on invisible paths, pushing before them +donkeys of smugglers: as small as insects at such a distance, are these +silent passers-by on the flank of the gigantic mountain; Basques of other +times, almost confused, as one looks at them from this place, with this +reddish earth from which they came--and where they are to return, after +having lived like their ancestors without a suspicion of the things of +our times, of the events of other places-- + +They take off their caps, Arrochkoa and Ramuntcho, to wipe their +foreheads; it is so warm in these gorges and they have run so much, +jumped so much, that their entire bodies are in a perspiration. They are +enjoying themselves, but they would like to come, nevertheless, near the +two little, blonde girls who are waiting for them. But of whom shall they +ask their way now, since there is no one? + +"Ave Maria," cries at them from the thickness of the branches an old, +rough voice. + +And the salutation is prolonged by a string of words spoken in a rapid +decrescendo, quick; quick; a Basque prayer rattled breathlessly, begun +very loudly, then dying at the finish. And an old beggar comes out of the +fern, all earthy, all hairy, all gray, bent on his stick like a man of +the woods. + +"Yes," says Arrochkoa, putting his hand in his pocket, "but you must take +us to the Olhagarray house." + +"The Olhagarray house," replies the old man. "I have come from it, my +children, and you are near it." + +In truth, how had they failed to see, at a hundred steps further, that +black gable among branches of chestnut trees? + +At a point where sluices rustle, it is bathed by a torrent, that +Olhagarray house, antique and large, among antique chestnut trees. +Around, the red soil is denuded and furrowed by the waters of the +mountain; enormous roots are interlaced in it like monstrous gray +serpents; and the entire place, overhung on all sides by the Pyrenean +masses, is rude and tragic. + +But two young girls are there, seated in the shade; with blonde hair and +elegant little pink waists; astonishing little fairies, very modern in +the midst of the ferocious and old scenes.--They rise, with cries of joy, +to meet the visitors. + +It would have been better, evidently, to enter the house and salute the +old people. But the boys say to themselves that they have not been seen +coming, and they prefer to sit near their sweethearts, by the side of the +brook, on the gigantic roots. And, as if by chance, the two couples +manage not to bother one another, to remain hidden from one another by +rocks, by branches. + +There then, they talk at length in a low voice, Arrochkoa with Pantchika, +Ramuntcho with Gracieuse. What can they be saying, talking so much and so +quickly? + +Although their accent is less chanted than that of the highland, which +astonished them yesterday, one would think they were speaking scanned +stanzas, in a sort of music, infinitely soft, where the voices of the +boys seem voices of children. + +What are they saying to one another, talking so much and so quickly, +beside this torrent, in this harsh ravine, under the heavy sun of noon? +What they are saying has not much sense; it is a sort of murmur special +to lovers, something like the special song of the swallows at nesting +time. It is childish, a tissue of incoherences and repetitions. No, what +they are saying has not much sense--unless it be what is most sublime in +the world, the most profound and truest things which may be expressed by +terrestrial words.--It means nothing, unless it be the eternal and +marvellous hymn for which alone has been created the language of men and +beasts, and in comparison with which all is empty, miserable and vain. + +The heat is stifling in the depth of that gorge, so shut in from all +sides; in spite of the shade of the chestnut trees, the rays, that the +leaves sift, burn still. And this bare earth, of a reddish color, the +extreme oldness of this nearby house, the antiquity of these trees, give +to the surroundings, while the lovers talk, aspects somewhat harsh and +hostile. + +Ramuntcho has never seen his little friend made so pink by the sun: on +her cheeks, there is the beautiful, red blood which flushes the skin, the +fine and transparent skin; she is pink as the foxglove flowers. + +Flies, mosquitoes buzz in their ears. Now Gracieuse has been bitten on +the chin, almost on the mouth, and she tries to touch it with the end of +her tongue, to bite the place with the upper teeth. And Ramuntcho, who +looks at this too closely, feels suddenly a langour, to divert himself +from which he stretches himself like one trying to awake. + +She begins again, the little girl, her lip still itching--and he again +stretches his arms, throwing his chest backward. + +"What is the matter, Ramuntcho, and why do you stretch yourself like a +cat?--" + +But when, for the third time, Gracieuse bites the same place, and shows +again the little tip of her tongue, he bends over, vanquished by the +irresistible giddiness, and bites also, takes in his mouth, like a +beautiful red fruit which one fears to crush, the fresh lip which the +mosquito has bitten-- + +A silence of fright and of delight, during which both shiver, she as much +as he; she trembling also, in all her limbs, for having felt the contact +of the growing black mustache. + +"You are not angry, tell me?" + + "No, my Ramuntcho.--Oh, I am not angry, no--" + +Then he begins again, quite frantic, and in this languid and warm air, +they exchange for the first time in their lives, the long kisses of +lovers-- + + + +CHAPTER XVII. + +The next day, Sunday, they went together religiously to hear one of the +masses of the clear morning, in order to return to Etchezar the same day, +immediately after the grand ball-game. It was this return, much more than +the game, that interested Gracieuse and Ramuntcho, for it was their hope +that Pantchika and her mother would remain at Erribiague while they would +go, pressed against each other, in the very small carriage of the +Detcharry family, under the indulgent and slight watchfulness of +Arrochkoa, five or six hours of travel, all three alone, on the spring +roads, under the new foliage, with amusing halts in unknown villages-- + +At eleven o'clock in the morning, on that beautiful Sunday, the square +was encumbered by mountaineers come from all the summits, from all the +savage, surrounding hamlets. It was an international match, three players +of France against three of Spain, and, in the crowd of lookers-on, the +Spanish Basques were more numerous; there were large sombreros, +waistcoats and gaiters of the olden time. + +The judges of the two nations, designated by chance, saluted each other +with a superannuated politeness, and the match began, in profound +silence, under an oppressive sun which annoyed the players, in spite of +their caps, pulled down over their eyes. + +Ramuntcho soon, and after him Arrochkoa, were acclaimed as victors. And +people looked at the two little strangers, so attentive, in the first +row, so pretty also with their elegant pink waists, and people said: +"They are the sweethearts of the two good players." Then Gracieuse, who +heard everything, felt proud of Ramuntcho. + +Noon. They had been playing for almost an hour. The old wall, with its +summit curved like a cupola, was cracking from dryness and from heat, +under its paint of yellow ochre. The grand Pyrenean masses, nearer here +than at Etchezar, more crushing and more high, dominated from everywhere +these little, human groups, moving in a deep fold of their sides. And the +sun fell straight on the heavy caps of the men, on the bare heads of the +women, heating the brains, increasing enthusiasm. The passionate crowd +yelled, and the pelotas were flying, when, softly, the angelus began to +ring. Then an old man, all wrinkled, all burned, who was waiting for this +signal, put his mouth to the clarion--his old clarion of a Zouave in +Africa--and rang the call to rest. And all, the women who were seated +rose; all the caps fell, uncovering hair black, blonde or white, and the +entire people made the sign of the cross, while the players, with chests +and foreheads streaming with perspiration, stopped in the heat of the +game and stood in meditation with heads bent-- + +At two o'clock, the game having come to an end gloriously for the French, +Arrochkoa and Ramuntcho went in their little wagon, accompanied and +acclaimed by all the young men of Erribiague; then Gracieuse sat between +the two, and they started for their long, charming trip, their pockets +full of the gold which they had earned, intoxicated by their joy, by the +noise and by the sunlight. + +And Ramuntcho, who retained the taste of yesterday's kiss, felt like +shouting to them: "This little girl who is so pretty, as you see, is +mine! Her lips are mine, I had them yesterday and will take them again +to-night!" + +They started and at once found silence again, in the shaded valleys +bordered by foxglove and ferns-- + +To roll for hours on the small Pyrenean roads, to change places almost +every day, to traverse the Basque country, to go from one village to +another, called here by a festival, there by an adventure on the +frontier--this was now Ramuntcho's life, the errant life which the +ball-game made for him in the day-time and smuggling in the night-time. + +Ascents, descents, in the midst of a monotonous display of verdure. Woods +of oaks and of beeches, almost inviolate, and remaining as they were in +the quiet centuries.--When he passed by some antique house, hidden in +these solitudes of trees, he stopped to enjoy reading, above the door, +the traditional legend inscribed in the granite: "Ave Maria! in the year +1600, or in the year 1500, such a one, from such a village, has built +this house, to live in it with such a one, his wife." + +Very far from all human habitation, in a corner of a ravine, where it was +warmer than elsewhere, sheltered from all breezes, they met a peddler of +holy images, who was wiping his forehead. He had set down his basket, +full of those colored prints with gilt frames that represent saints with +Euskarian legends, and with which the Basques like to adorn their old +rooms with white walls. And he was there, exhausted from fatigue and +heat, as if wrecked in the ferns, at a turn of those little, mountain +routes which run solitary under oaks. + +Gracieuse came down and bought a Holy Virgin. + +"Later," she said to Ramuntcho, "we shall put it in our house as a +souvenir--" + +And the image, dazzling in its gold frame, went with them under the long, +green vaults-- + +They went out of their path, for they wished to pass by a certain valley +of the Cherry-trees, not in the hope of finding cherries in it, in April, +but to show to Gracieuse the place, which is renowned in the entire +Basque country. + +It was almost five o'clock, the sun was already low, when they reached +there. It was a shaded and calm region, where the spring twilight +descended like a caress on the magnificence of the April foliage. The air +was cool and suave, fragrant with hay, with acacia. Mountains--very high, +especially toward the north, to make the climate there softer, surrounded +it on all sides, investing it with a melancholy mystery of closed Edens. + +And, when the cherry-trees appeared, they were a gay surprise, they were +already red. + +There was nobody on these paths, above which the grand cherry-trees +extended like a roof, their branches dripping with coral. + +Here and there were some summer houses, still uninhabited, some deserted +gardens, invaded by the tall grass and the rose bushes. + +Then, they made their horse walk; then, each one in his turn, +transferring the reins and standing in the wagon, amused himself by +eating these cherries from the trees while passing by them and without +stopping. Afterward, they placed bouquets of them in their buttonholes, +they culled branches of them to deck the horse's head, the harness and +the lantern. The equipage seemed ornamented for some festival of youth +and of joy-- + +"Now let us hurry," said Gracieuse. "If only it be light enough, at +least, when we reach Etchezar, for people to see us pass, ornamented as +we are!" + +As for Ramuntcho, he thought of the meeting place in the evening, of the +kiss which he would dare to repeat, similar to that of yesterday, taking +Gracieuse's lip between his lips like a cherry-- + + + +CHAPTER XVIII. + +May! The grass ascends, ascends from everywhere like a sumptuous carpet, +like silky velvet, emanating spontaneously from the earth. + +In order to sprinkle this region of the Basques, which remains humid and +green all summer like a sort of warmer Brittany, the errant vapors on the +Bay of Biscay assemble all in this depth of gulf, stop at the Pyrenean +summits and melt into rain. Long showers fall, which are somewhat +deceptive, but after which the soil smells of new flowers and hay. + +In the fields, along the roads, the grasses quickly thicken; all the +ledges of the paths are as if padded by the magnificent thickness of the +bent grass; everywhere is a profusion of gigantic Easter daisies, of +buttercups with tall stems, and of very large, pink mallows like those of +Algeria. + +And, in the long, tepid twilights, pale iris or blue ashes in color, +every night the bells of the month of Mary resound for a long time in the +air, under the mass of the clouds hooked to the flanks of the mountains. + +During the month of May, with the little group of black nuns, with +discreet babble, with puerile and lifeless laughter, Gracieuse, at all +hours, went to church. Hastening their steps under the frequent showers, +they went together through the graveyard, full of roses; together, always +together, the little clandestine betrothed, in light colored gowns, and +the nuns, with long, mourning veils; during the day they brought bouquets +of white flowers, daisies and sheafs of tall lilies; at night they came +to sing, in the nave still more sonorous than in the day-time, the softly +joyful canticles of the Virgin Mary: + +"Ave, Queen of the Angels! Star of the Sea, ave!--" + +Oh, the whiteness of the lilies lighted by the tapers, their white petals +and their yellow pollen in gold dust! Oh, their fragrance in the gardens +or in the church, during the twilights of spring! + +And as soon as Gracieuse entered there, at night, in the dying ring of +the bells--leaving the pale half-light of the graveyard full of roses for +the starry night of the wax tapers which reigned already in the church, +quitting the odor of hay and of roses for that of incense and of the +tall, cut lilies, passing from the lukewarm and living air outside to +that heavy and sepulchral cold that centuries amass in old sanctuaries--a +particular calm came at once to her mind, a pacifying of all her desires, +a renunciation of all her terrestrial joys. Then, when she had knelt, +when the first canticles had taken their flight under the vault, +infinitely sonorous, little by little she fell into an ecstasy, a state +of dreaming, a visionary state which confused, white apparitions +traversed: whiteness, whiteness everywhere; lilies, thousands of sheafs +of lilies, and white wings, shivers of white wings of angels-- + +Oh! to remain for a long time in that state, to forget all things, and to +feel herself pure, sanctified and immaculate, under that glance, +ineffably fascinating and soft, under that glance, irresistibly +appealing, which the Holy Virgin, in long white vestments, let fall from +the height of the tabernacle!-- + +But, when she went outside, when the night of spring re-enveloped her +with tepid breezes of life, the memory of the meeting which she had +promised the day before, the day before as well as every day, chased like +the wind of a storm the visions of the church. In the expectation of +Ramuntcho, in the expectation of the odor of his hair, of the touch of +his mustache, of the taste of his lips, she felt near faltering, like one +wounded, among the strange companions who accompanied her, among the +peaceful and spectral black nuns. + +And when the hour had come, in spite of all her resolutions she was +there, anxious and ardent, listening to the least noise, her heart +beating if a branch of the garden moved in the night--tortured by the +least tardiness of the beloved one. + +He came always with his same silent step of a rover at night, his +waistcoat on his shoulder, with as much precaution and artifice as for +the most dangerous act of smuggling. + +In the rainy nights, so frequent in the Basque spring-time, she remained +in her room on the first floor, and he sat on the sill of the open +window, not trying to go in, not having the permission to do so. And they +stayed there, she inside, he outside, their arms laced, their heads +touching each other, the cheek of one resting on the cheek of the other. + +When the weather was beautiful, she jumped over this low window-sill to +wait for him outside, and their long meetings, almost without words, +occurred on the garden bench. Between them there were not even those +continual whisperings familiar to lovers; no, there were rather silences. +At first they did not dare to talk, for fear of being discovered, for the +least murmurs of voices at night are heard. And then, as nothing new +threatened their lives, what need had they to talk? What could they have +said which would have been better than the long contact of their joined +hands and of their heads resting against each other? + +The possibility of being surprised kept them often on the alert, in an +anxiety which made more delicious afterward the moments when they forgot +themselves more, their confidence having returned.--Nobody frightened +them as much as Arrochkoa, a smart, nocturnal prowler himself, and always +so well-informed about the goings and comings of Ramuntcho--In spite of +his indulgence, what would he do, if he discovered them?-- + +Oh, the old stone benches, under branches, in front of the doors of +isolated houses, when fall the lukewarm nights of spring!--Theirs was a +real lovers' hiding place, and there was for them, every night, a music, +for, in all the stones of the neighbors' wall lived those singing +tree-toads, beasts of the south, which, as soon as night fell, gave from +moment to moment a little, brief note, discreet, odd, having the tone of +a crystal bell and of a child's throat. Something similar might be +produced by touching here and there, without ever resting on them, the +scales of an organ with a celestial voice. There were tree-toads +everywhere, responding to one another in different tones; even those +which were under their bench, close by them, reassured by their +immobility, sang also from time to time; then that little sound, brusque +and soft, so near, made them start and smile. All the exquisite, +surrounding obscurity was animated by that music, which continued in the +distance, in the mystery of the leaves and of the stones, in the depths +of all the small, black holes of rocks or walls; it seemed like chivies +in miniature, or rather, a sort of frail concert somewhat mocking--oh! +not very mocking, and without any maliciousness--led timidly by +inoffensive gnomes. And this made the night more living and more loving-- + +After the intoxicated audacities of the first nights, fright took a +stronger hold of them, and, when one of them had something special to +say, one led the other by the hand without talking; this meant that they +had to walk softly, softly, like marauding cats, to an alley behind the +house where they could talk without fear. + +"Where shall we live, Gracieuse?" asked Ramuntcho one night. + +"At your house, I had thought." + +"Ah! yes, so thought I--only I thought it would make you sad to be so far +from the parish, from the church and the square--" + +"Oh--with you, I could find anything sad?--" + +"Then, we would send away those who live on the first floor and take the +large room which opens on the road to Hasparitz--" + +It was an increased joy for him to know that Gracieuse would accept his +house, to be sure that she would bring the radiance of her presence into +that old, beloved home, and that they would make their nest there for +life-- + + + +CHAPTER XIX. + +Here come the long, pale twilights of June, somewhat veiled like those of +May, less uncertain, however, and more tepid still. In the gardens, the +rose-laurel which is beginning to bloom in profusion is becoming already +magnificently pink. At the end of each work day, the good folks sit +outside, in front of their doors, to look at the night falling--the night +which soon confuses, under the vaults of the plane-trees, their groups +assembled for benevolent rest. And a tranquil melancholy descends over +villages, in those interminable evenings-- + +For Ramuntcho, this is the epoch when smuggling becomes a trade almost +without trouble, with charming hours, marching toward summits through +spring clouds; crossing ravines, wandering in lands of springs and of +wild fig-trees; sleeping, waiting for the agreed hour, with carbineers +who are accomplices, on carpets of mint and pinks.--The good odor of +plants impregnated his clothes, his waistcoat which he never wore, but +used as a pillow or a blanket--and Gracieuse would say to him at night: +"I know where you went last night, for you smell of mint of the mountain +above Mendizpi"--or: "You smell of absinthe of the Subernoa morass." + +Gracieuse regretted the month of Mary, the offices of the Virgin in the +nave, decked with white flowers. In the twilights without rain, with the +sisters and some older pupils of their class, she sat under the porch of +the church, against the low wall of the graveyard from which the view +plunges into the valleys beneath. There they talked, or played the +childish games in which nuns indulge. + +There were also long and strange meditations, meditations to which the +fall of day, the proximity of the church, of the tombs and of their +flowers, gave soon a serenity detached from material things and as if +free from all alliance with the senses. In her first mystic dreams as a +little girl,--inspired especially by the pompous rites of the cult, by +the voice of the organ, the white bouquets, the thousand flames of the +wax tapers--only images appeared to her--very radiant images, it is true: +altars resting on mists, golden tabernacles where music vibrated and +where fell grand flights of angels. But those visions gave place now to +ideas: she caught a glimpse of that peace and that supreme renunciation +which the certainty of an endless celestial life gives; she conceived, in +a manner more elevated than formerly, the melancholy joy of abandoning +everything in order to become an impersonal part of that entirety of +nuns, white, or blue, or black, who, from the innumerable convents of +earth, make ascend toward heaven an immense and perpetual intercession +for the sins of the world-- + +However, as soon as night had fallen quite, the course of her thoughts +came down every evening fatally toward intoxicating and mortal things. +Her wait, her feverish wait, began, more impatient from moment to moment. +She felt anxious that her cold companions with black veils should return +into the sepulchre of their convent and that she should be alone in her +room, free at last, in the house fallen asleep, ready to open her window +and listen to the slight noise of Ramuntcho's footsteps. + +The kiss of lovers, the kiss on the lips, was now a thing possessed and +of which they had not the strength to deprive themselves. And they +prolonged it a great deal, not wishing, through charming scruples, to +accord more to each other. + +Anyway, if the intoxication which they gave to each other thus was a +little too carnal, there was between them that absolute tenderness, +infinite, unique, by which all things are elevated and purified. + + + +CHAPTER XX. + +Ramuntcho, that evening, had come to the meeting place earlier than +usual--with more hesitation also in his walk, for one risks, on these +June evenings, to find girls belated along the paths, or boys behind the +hedges on love expeditions. + +And by chance she was already alone, looking outside, without waiting for +him, however. + +At once she noticed his agitated demeanor and guessed that something new +had happened. Not daring to come too near, he made a sign to her to come +quickly, jump over the window-sill, and meet him in the obscure alley +where they talked without fear. Then, as soon as she was near him, in the +nocturnal shade of the trees, he put his arm around her waist and +announced to her, brusquely, the great piece of news which, since the +morning, troubled his young head and that of Franchita, his mother. + +"Uncle Ignacio has written." + +"True? Uncle Ignacio!" + +She knew that that adventurous uncle, that American uncle, who had +disappeared for so many years, had never thought until now of sending +more than a strange good-day by a passing sailor. + +"Yes! And he says that he has property there, which requires attention, +large prairies, herds of horses; that he has no children, that if I wish +to go and live near him with a gentle Basque girl married to me here, he +would be glad to adopt both of us.--Oh! I think mother will come +also.--So, if you wish.--We could marry now.--You know they marry people +as young as we, it is allowed.--Now that I am to be adopted by my uncle +and I shall have a real situation in life, your mother will consent, I +think.--And as for military service, we shall not care for that, shall +we?--" + +They sat on the mossy rocks, their heads somewhat dizzy, troubled by the +approach and the unforeseen temptation of happiness. So, it would not be +in an uncertain future, after his term as a soldier, it would be almost +at once; in two months, in one month, perhaps, that communion of their +minds and of their flesh, so ardently desired and now so forbidden, might +be accomplished without sin, honestly in the eyes of all, permitted and +blessed.--Oh! they had never looked at this so closely.--And they pressed +against each other their foreheads, made heavy by too many thoughts, +fatigued suddenly by a sort of too delicious delirium.--Around them, the +odor of the flowers of June ascended from the earth, filling the night +with an immense suavity. And, as if there were not enough scattered +fragrance, the jessamine, the honeysuckle on the walls exhaled from +moment to moment, in intermittent puffs, the excess of their perfume; one +would have thought that hands swung in silence censers in the darkness, +for some hidden festival, for some enchantment magnificent and secret. + +There are often and everywhere very mysterious enchantments like this, +emanating from nature itself, commanded by one knows not what sovereign +will with unfathomable designs, to deceive us all, on the road to death-- + +"You do not reply, Gracieuse, you say nothing to me--" + +He could see that she was intoxicated also, like him, and yet he divined +by her manner of remaining mute so long, that shadows were amassing over +his charming and beautiful dream. + +"But," she asked at last, "your naturalization papers. You have received +them, have you not?" + +"Yes, they arrived last week, you know very well, and it was you who said +that I should apply for them--" + +"Then you are a Frenchman to-day.--Then, if you do not do your military +service you are a deserter." + +"Yes.--A deserter, no; but refractory, I think it is called.--It isn't +better, since one cannot come back.--I was not thinking of that--" + +How she was tortured now to have caused this thought, to have impelled +him herself to this act which made soar over his hardly seen joy a threat +so black! Oh, a deserter, he, her Ramuntcho! That is, banished forever +from the dear, Basque country!--And this departure for America becomes +suddenly frightfully grave, solemn, similar to a death, since he could +not possibly return!--Then, what was there to be done?-- + +Now they were anxious and mute, each one preferring to submit to the will +of the other, and waiting, with equal fright, for the decision which +should be taken, to go or to remain. From the depths of their two young +hearts ascended, little by little, a similar distress, poisoning the +happiness offered over there, in that America from which they would never +return.--And the little, nocturnal censers of jessamine, of honeysuckle, +of linden, continued to throw into the air exquisite puffs to intoxicate +them; the darkness that enveloped them seemed more and more caressing and +soft; in the silence of the village and of the country, the tree-toads +gave, from moment to moment, their little flute-note, which seemed a very +discreet love call, under the velvet of the moss; and, through the black +lace of the foliage, in the serenity of a June sky which one thought +forever unalterable, they saw scintillate, like a simple and gentle dust +of phosphorus, the terrifying multitude of the worlds. + +The curfew began to ring, however, at the church. The sound of that bell, +at night especially, was for them something unique on earth. At this +moment, it was something like a voice bringing, in their indecision, its +advice, its counsel, decisive and tender. Mute still, they listened to it +with an increasing emotion, of an intensity till then unknown, the brown +head of the one leaning on the brown head of the other. It said, the +advising voice, the dear, protecting voice: "No, do not go forever; the +far-off lands are made for the time of youth; but you must be able to +return to Etchezar: it is here that you must grow old and die; nowhere in +the world could you sleep as in this graveyard around the church, where +one may, even when lying under the earth, hear me ring again--" They +yielded more and more to the voice of the bell, the two children whose +minds were religious and primitive. And Ramuntcho felt on his cheek a +tear of Gracieuse: + +"No," he said at last, "I will not desert; I think that I would not have +the courage to do it--" + +"I thought the same thing as you, my Ramuntcho," she said. "No, let us +not do that. I was waiting for you to say it--" + +Then he realized that he also was crying, like her-- + +The die was cast, they would permit to pass by happiness which was within +their reach, almost under their hands; they would postpone everything to +a future uncertain and so far off!-- + +And now, in the sadness, in the meditation of the great decision which +they had taken, they communicated to each other what seemed best for them +to do: + +"We might," she said, "write a pretty letter to your uncle Ignacio; write +to him that you accept, that you will come with a great deal of pleasure +immediately after your military service; you might even add, if you wish, +that the one who is engaged to you thanks him and will be ready to follow +you; but that decidedly you cannot desert." + +"And why should you not talk to your mother now, Gatchutcha, only to know +what she would think?--Because now, you understand, I am not as I was, an +abandoned child--" + +--Slight steps behind them, in the path--and above the wall, the +silhouette of a young man who had come on the tips of his sandals, as if +to spy upon them! + +"Go, escape, my Ramuntcho, we will meet to-morrow evening!--" + +In half a second, there was nobody: he was hidden in a bush, she had fled +into her room. + +Ended was their grave interview! Ended until when? Until to-morrow or +until always?--On their farewells, abrupt or prolonged, frightened or +peaceful, every time, every night, weighed the same uncertainty of their +meeting again-- + + + +CHAPTER XXI. + +The bell of Etchezar, the same dear, old bell, that of the tranquil +curfew, that of the festivals and that of the agonies, rang joyously in +the beautiful sun of June. The village was decorated with white cloths, +white embroideries, and the procession of the Fete-Dieu passed slowly, on +a green strewing of fennel seed and of reeds cut from the marshes. + +The mountains seemed near and sombre, somewhat ferocious in their brown +tones, above this white parade of little girls marching on a carpet of +cut leaves and grass. + +All the old banners of the church were there, illuminated by that sun +which they had known for centuries but which they see only once or twice +a year, on the consecrated days. + +The large one, that of the Virgin, in white silk embroidered with pale +gold, was borne by Gracieuse, who walked in white dress, her eyes lost in +a mystic dream. Behind the young girls, came the women, all the women of +the village, wearing black veils, including Dolores and Franchita, the +two enemies. Men, numerous enough, closed this cortege, tapers in their +hands, heads uncovered--but there were especially gray hairs, faces with +expressions vanquished and resigned, heads of old men. + +Gracieuse, holding high the banner of the Virgin, became at this hour one +of the Illuminati; she felt as if she were marching, as after death, +toward the celestial tabernacles. And when, at instants, the reminiscence +of Ramuntcho's lips traversed her dream, she had the impression, in the +midst of all this white, of a sharp stain, delicious still. Truly, as her +thoughts became more elevated from day to day, what brought her back to +him was less her senses, capable in her of being tamed, than true, +profound tenderness, the one which resists time and deceptions of the +flesh. And this tenderness was augmented by the fact that Ramuntcho was +less fortunate than she and more abandoned in life, having had no +father-- + + + +CHAPTER XXII. + +"Well, Gatchutcha, you have at last spoken to your mother of Uncle +Ignacio?" asked Ramuntcho, very late, the same night, in the alley of the +garden, under rays of the moon. + +"Not yet, I have not dared.--How could I explain that I know all these +things, since I am supposed not to talk with you ever, and she has +forbidden me to do so?--Think, if I were to make her suspicious!--There +would be an end to everything, we could not see each other again! I would +like better to wait until you left the country, then all would be +indifferent to me--" + +"It is true!--let us wait, since I am to go." + +He was going away, and already they could count the evenings which would +be left to them. + +Now that they had permitted their immediate happiness to escape, the +happiness offered to them in the prairies of America, it seemed +preferable to them to hasten the departure of Ramuntcho for the army, in +order that he might return sooner. So they had decided that he would +enlist in the naval infantry, the only part of the service where one may +elect to serve for a period as short as three years. And as they needed, +in order to be certain not to be lacking in courage, a precise epoch, +considered for a long time in advance, they had fixed the end of +September, after the grand series of ball-games. + +They contemplated this separation of three years duration with an +absolute confidence in the future, so sure they thought they were of each +other, and of themselves, and of their imperishable love. But it was, +however, an expectation which already filled their hearts strangely; it +threw an unforeseen melancholy over things which were ordinarily the most +indifferent, on the flight of days, on the least indications of the next +season, on the coming into life of certain plants, on the coming into +bloom of certain species of flowers, on all that presaged the arrival and +the rapid march of their last summer. + + + +CHAPTER XXIII. + +Already the fires of St. John have flamed, joyful and red in a clear, +blue night, and the Spanish mountain seemed to burn, that night, like a +sheaf of straw, so many were the bonfires lighted on its sides. It has +begun, the season of light, of heat and of storms, at the end of which +Ramuntcho must depart. + +And the saps, which in the spring went up so quickly, become languid +already in the complete development of the verdure, in the wide bloom of +the flowers. And the sun, more and more burning, overheats all the heads +covered with Basque caps, excites ardor and passion, causes to rise +everywhere, in those Basque villages, ferments of noisy agitation and of +pleasure. While, in Spain, begin the grand bull-fights, this is here the +epoch of so many ball-games, of so many fandangoes danced in the evening, +of so much pining of lovers in the tepid voluptuousness of nights!-- + +Soon will come the warm splendor of the southern July. The Bay of Biscay +has become very blue and the Cantabric coast has for a time put on its +fallow colors of Morocco or of Algeria. + +With the heavy rains alternates the marvellously beautiful weather which +gives to the air absolute limpidities. And there are days also when +somewhat distant things are as if eaten by light, powdered with sun dust; +then, above the woods and the village of Etchezar, the Gizune, very +pointed, becomes more vaporous and more high, and, on the sky, float, to +make it appear bluer, very small clouds of a gilded white with a little +mother-of-pearl gray in their shades. + +And the springs run thinner and rarer under the thickness of the ferns, +and, along the routes, go more slowly, driven by half nude men, the +ox-carts which a swarm of flies surrounds. + +At this season, Ramuntcho, in the day-time, lived his agitated life of a +pelotari, running with Arrochkoa from village to village, to organize +ball-games and play them. + +But, in his eyes, evenings alone existed. + +Evenings!--In the odorous and warm darkness of the garden, to be seated +very near Gracieuse; to put his arm around her, little by little to draw +her to him and hold her against his breast, and remain thus for a long +time without saying anything, his chin resting on her hair, breathing the +young and healthy scent of her body. + +He enervated himself dangerously, Ramuntcho, in these prolonged contacts +which she did not prohibit. Anyway, he divined her surrendered enough to +him now, and confident enough, to permit everything; but he did not wish +to attempt supreme communion, through childish reserve, through respect +for his betrothed, through excess and profoundness of love. And it +happened to him at times to rise abruptly, to stretch himself--in the +manner of a cat, she said, as formerly at Erribiague--when he felt a +dangerous thrill and a more imperious temptation to leave life with her +in a moment of ineffable death-- + + + +CHAPTER XXIV. + +Franchita, however, was astonished by the unexplained attitude of her +son, who, apparently, never saw Gracieuse and yet never talked of her. +Then, while was amassing in her the sadness of his coming departure for +military service, she observed him, with her peasant's patience and +muteness. + +One evening, one of the last evenings, as he was going away, mysterious +and in haste, long before the hour of the nocturnal contraband, she +straightened before him, her eyes fixed on his: + +"Where are you going, my son?" + +And seeing him turn his head, blushing and embarrassed, she acquired a +sudden certainty: + +"It is well, now I know.--Oh! I know!--" + +She was moved even more than he, at her discovery of this great +secret.--The idea had not even come to her that it was not Gracieuse, +that it might be another girl. She was too far-seeing. And her scruples +as a Christian were awakened, her conscience was frightened at the evil +that they might have done, as rose from the depth of her heart a +sentiment of which she was ashamed as if it were a crime, a sort of +savage joy.--For, in fine--if their carnal union was accomplished, the +future of her son was assured.--She knew her Ramuntcho well enough to +know that he would not change his mind and that Gracieuse would never be +abandoned by him. + +The silence between them was prolonged, she standing before him, barring +the way: + +"And what have you done together?" she decided to ask. "Tell me the +truth, Ramuntcho, what wrong have you done?--" + +"What wrong?--Oh! nothing, mother, nothing wrong, I swear to you--" + +He replied this without irritation at being questioned, and bearing the +look of his mother with eyes of frankness. It was true, and she believed +him. + +But, as she stayed in front of him, her hand on the door-latch, he said, +with dumb violence: + +"You are not going to prevent me from going to her, since I shall leave +in three days!" + +Then, in presence of this young will in revolt, the mother, enclosing in +herself the tumult of her contradictory thoughts, lowered her head and, +without a word, stood aside to let him pass. + + + +CHAPTER XXV. + +It was their last evening, for, the day before yesterday, at the Mayor's +office of Saint-Jean-de-Luz, he had, with a hand trembling a little, +signed his engagement for three years in the Second naval infantry, whose +garrison was a military port of the North. + +It was their last evening,--and they had said that they would make it +longer than usual,--it would last till midnight, Gracieuse had decided: +midnight, which in the villages is an unseasonable and black hour, an +hour after which, she did not know why, all seemed to the little +betrothed graver and guiltier. + +In spite of the ardent desire of their senses, the idea had not come to +one nor to the other that, during this last meeting, under the oppression +of parting, something more might be attempted. + +On the contrary, at the instant so full of concentration of their +farewell, they felt more chaste still, so eternal was their love. + +Less prudent, however, since they had not to care for the morrow, they +dared to talk there, on their lovers' bench, as they had never done +before. They talked of the future, of a future which was for them very +distant, because, at their age, three years seem infinite. + +In three years, at his return, she would be twenty; then, if her mother +persisted to refuse in an absolute manner, at the end of a year she would +use her right of majority, it was between them an agreed and a sworn +thing. + +The means of correspondence, during the long absence of Ramuntcho, +preoccupied them a great deal: between them, everything was so +complicated by obstacles and secrets!--Arrochkoa, their only possible +intermediary, had promised his help; but he was so changeable, so +uncertain!--Oh, if he were to fail!--And then, would he consent to send +sealed letters?--If he did not consent there would be no pleasure in +writing.--In our time, when communications are easy and constant, there +are no more of these complete separations similar to the one which theirs +would be; they were to say to each other a very solemn farewell, like the +one which the lovers of other days said, the lovers of the days when +there were lands without post-offices, and distances that frightened one. +The fortunate time when they should see each other again appeared to them +situated far off, far off, in the depths of duration; yet, because of the +faith which they had in each other, they expected this with a tranquil +assurance, as the faithful expect celestial life. + +But the least things of their last evening acquired in their minds a +singular importance; as this farewell came near, all grew and was +exaggerated for them, as happens in the expectation of death. The slight +sounds and the aspects of the night seemed to them particular and, in +spite of them, were engraving themselves forever in their memory. The +song of the crickets had a characteristic which it seemed to them they +had never heard before. In the nocturnal sonority, the barking of a +watch-dog, coming from some distant farm, made them shiver with a +melancholy fright. And Ramuntcho was to carry with him in his exile, to +preserve later with a desolate attachment, a certain stem of grass +plucked from the garden negligently and with which he had played +unconsciously the whole evening. + +A phase of their life finished with that day: a lapse of time had +occurred, their childhood had passed-- + +Of recommendations, they had none very long to exchange, so intensely was +each one sure of what the other might do during the separation. They had +less to say to each other than other engaged people have, because they +knew mutually their most intimate thoughts. After the first hour of +conversation, they remained hand in hand in grave silence, while were +consumed the inexorable minutes of the end. + +At midnight, she wished him to go, as she had decided in advance, in her +little thoughtful and obstinate head. Therefore, after having embraced +each other for a long time, they quitted each other, as if the separation +were, at this precise minute, an ineluctable thing which it was +impossible to retard. And while she returned to her room with sobs that +he heard, he scaled over the wall and, in coming out of the darkness of +the foliage, found himself on the deserted road, white with lunar rays. +At this first separation, he suffered less than she, because he was +going, because it was he that the morrow, full of uncertainty, awaited. +While he walked on the road, powdered and clear, the powerful charm of +change, of travel, dulled his sensitiveness; almost without any precise +thought, he looked at his shadow, which the moon made clear and harsh, +marching in front of him. And the great Gizune dominated impassibly +everything, with its cold and spectral air, in all this white radiance of +midnight. + + + +CHAPTER XXVI. + +The parting day, good-byes to friends here and there; joyful wishes of +former soldiers returned from the regiment. Since the morning, a sort of +intoxication or of fever, and, in front of him, everything unthought-of +in life. + +Arrochkoa, very amiable on that last day, had offered to drive him in a +wagon to Saint-Jean-de-Luz, and had arranged to go at sunset, in order to +arrive there just in time for the night train. + +The night having come, inexorably, Franchita wished to accompany her son +to the square, where the Detcharry wagon was waiting for him, and here +her face, despite her will, was drawn by sorrow, while he straightened +himself, in order to preserve the swagger which becomes recruits going to +their regiment: + +"Make a little place for me, Arrochkoa," she said abruptly. "I will sit +between you to the chapel of Saint-Bitchentcho; I will return on foot--" + +And they started at the setting sun, which, on them as on all things, +scattered the magnificence of its gold and of its red copper. + +After a wood of oaks, the chapel of Saint-Bitchentcho passed, and the +mother wished to remain. From one turn to another, postponing every time +the great separation, she asked to be driven still farther. + +"Mother, when we reach the top of the Issaritz slope you must go down!" +he said tenderly. "You hear, Arrochkoa, you will stop where I say; I do +not want mother to go further--" + +At this Issaritz slope the horse had himself slackened his pace. The +mother and the son, their eyes burned with suppressed tears, held each +other's hands, and they were going slowly, slowly, in absolute silence, +as if it were a solemn ascent toward some Calvary. + +At last, at the top of the slope, Arrochkoa, who seemed mute also, pulled +the reins slightly, with a simple little: "Ho!--" discreet as a +lugubrious signal which one hesitates to give--and the carriage was +stopped. + +Then, without a word, Ramuntcho jumped to the road, helped his mother to +descend, gave a long kiss to her, then remounted briskly to his seat: + +"Go, Arrochkoa, quickly, race, let us go!" + +And in two seconds, in the rapid descent, he lost sight of the one whose +face at last was covered with tears. + +Now they were going away from one another, Franchita and her son. In +different directions, they were walking on that Etchezar road,--in the +splendor of the setting sun, in a region of pink heather and of yellow +fern. She was going up slowly toward her home, meeting isolated groups of +farmers, flocks led through the golden evening by little shepherds in +Basque caps. And he was going down quickly, through valleys soon +darkened, toward the lowland where the railway train passes-- + + + +CHAPTER XXVII. + +At twilight, Franchita was returning from escorting her son and was +trying to regain her habitual face, her air of haughty indifference, to +pass through the village. + +But, when she arrived in front of the Detcharry house, she saw Dolores +who, instead of going in, as she intended, turned round and stood at the +door to see her pass. Something new, some sudden revelation must have +impelled her to take this attitude of aggressive defiance, this +expression of provoking irony,--and Franchita then stopped, she also, +while this phrase, almost involuntary, came through her set teeth: + +"What is the matter with that woman? Why does she look at me so--" + +"He will not come to-night, the lover, will he?" responded the enemy. + +"Then you knew that he came here to see your daughter?" + +In truth, Dolores knew this since the morning: Gracieuse had told her, +since no care needed to be taken of the morrow; Gracieuse had told it +wearily, after talking uselessly of Uncle Ignacio, of Ramuntcho's future, +of all that would serve their cause-- + +"Then you knew that he came here to see your daughter?" + +By a reminiscence of other times, they regained instinctively their +theeing and thouing of the sisters' school, those two women who for +nearly twenty years had not addressed a word to each other. Why they +detested each other, they hardly knew; so many times, it begins thus, +with nothings, with jealousies, with childish rivalries, and then, at +length, by dint of seeing each other every day without talking to each +other, by dint of casting at each other evil looks, it ferments till it +becomes implacable hatred.--Here they were, facing each other, and their +two voices trembled with rancor, with evil emotion: + +"Well," replied the other, "you knew it before I did, I suppose, you who +are without shame and sent him to our house!--Anyway, one can understand +your easiness about means, after what you have done in the past--" + +And, while Franchita, naturally much more dignified, remained mute, +terrified now by this unexpected dispute on the street, Dolores +continued: + +"No. My daughter marrying that penniless bastard, think of it!--" + +"Well, I have the idea that she will marry him, in spite of +everything!--Try to propose to her a man of your choice and see--" + +Then, as if she disdained to continue, she went on her way, hearing +behind her the voice and the insults of the other pursuing her. All her +limbs trembled and she faltered at every step on her weakened legs. + +At the house, now empty, what sadness she found! + +The reality of this separation, which would last for three years, +appeared to her under an aspect frightfully new, as if she had hardly +been prepared for it--even as, on one's return from a graveyard, one +feels for the first time, in its frightful integrity, the absence of the +cherished dead-- + +And then, those words of insult in the street, those words the more +crushing because she was cruelly conscious of her sin with the stranger! +Instead of passing by, as she should have done, how had she found the +courage to stop before her enemy and, by a phrase murmured between her +teeth, provoke this odious dispute? How could she have descended to such +a thing, forgotten herself thus, she who, for fifteen years, had imposed +herself, little by little, on the respect of all by her demeanor, so +perfectly dignified. Oh, to have attracted and to have suffered the +insult of that Dolores,--whose past was irreproachable and who had, in +effect, the right to treat her with contempt! When she reflected, she +became frightened more and more by that sort of defiance of the future +which she had had the imprudence to hurl; it seemed to her that she had +compromised the cherished hope of her son in exasperating thus the hatred +of that woman. + +Her son!--her Ramuntcho, whom a wagon was carrying away from her at this +hour in the summer night, was carrying away from her to a long distance, +to danger, to war!--She had assumed very heavy responsibilities in +directing his life with ideas of her own, with stubbornness, with pride, +with selfishness.--And now, this evening, she had, perhaps, attracted +misfortune to him, while he was going away so confident in the joy of his +return!--This would be doubtless for her the supreme chastisement; she +seemed to hear, in the air of the empty house, something like a threat of +this expiation, she felt its slow and sure approach. + +Then, she said for him her prayers, from a heart harshly revolted, +because religion, as she understood it, remained without sweetness, +without consolation, without anything confidential and tender. Her +distress and her remorse were, at this moment, of so sombre a nature that +tears, benevolent tears, came no longer to her-- + +And he, at this same instant of the night, continued to descend, through +darker valleys, toward the lowland where the trains pass--carrying away +men to a long distance, changing and upsetting all things. For about an +hour he would continue to be on Basque soil; then, it would end. Along +his route, he met some oxcarts, of indolent demeanor, recalling the +tranquillities of the olden time; or vague human silhouettes, hailing him +with the traditional goodnight, the antique "Gaou-one," which to-morrow +he would cease to hear. And beyond, at his left, in the depth of a sort +of black abyss, was the profile of Spain, Spain which, for a very long +time doubtless, would trouble his nights no longer-- + + + + PART II. + + + +CHAPTER I. + +Three years have passed, rapidly. + +Franchita is alone at home, ill and in bed, at the end of a November +day.--And it is the third autumn since her son's departure. + +In her hands, burning with fever, she holds a letter from him, a letter +which should have brought only joy without a cloud, since it announces +his return, but which causes in her, on the contrary, tormented +sentiments, for the happiness of seeing him again is poisoned now by +sadness, by worry especially, by frightful worry-- + +Oh, she had an exact presentiment of the sombre future, that night when, +returning from escorting him on the road to departure, she returned to +her house with so much anguish, after that sort of defiance hurled at +Dolores on the street: it was cruelly true that she had broken then +forever her son's life!-- + +Months of waiting and of apparent calm had followed that scene, while +Ramuntcho, far from his native land, was beginning his military service. +Then, one day, a wealthy suitor had presented himself for Gracieuse and +she, to the entire village's knowledge, had rejected him obstinately in +spite of Dolores's will. Then, they had suddenly gone away, the mother +and the daughter, pretexting a visit to relatives in the highland; but +the voyage had been prolonged; a mystery more and more singular had +enveloped this absence,--and suddenly the rumor had come that Gracieuse +was a novice among the sisters of Saint Mary of the Rosary, in a convent +of Gascony where the former Mother Superior of Etchezar was the abbess!-- + +Dolores had reappeared alone in her home, mute, with a desolate and evil +air. None knew what influence had been exercised over the little girl +with the golden hair, nor how the luminous doors of life had been closed +before her, how she had permitted herself to be walled in that tomb; but, +as soon as the period of novitiate had been accomplished, without seeing +even her brother, she had taken her vows there, while Ramuntcho, in a +far-off colonial war, ever distant from the post-offices of France, among +the forests of a Southern island, won the stripes of a sergeant and a +military medal. + +Franchita had been almost afraid that he would never return, her +son.--But at last, he was coming back. Between her fingers, thin and +warm, she held the letter which said: "I start day after to-morrow and I +will be with you Saturday night." But what would he do, at his return, +what would he make of his life, so sadly changed? In his letters, he had +obstinately refrained from writing of this. + +Anyway, everything had turned against her. The farmers, her tenants, had +left Etchezar, leaving the barn empty, the house more lonely, and +naturally her modest income was much diminished. Moreover, in an +imprudent investment, she had lost a part of the money which the stranger +had given for her son. Truly, she was too unskilful a mother, +compromising in every way the happiness of her beloved Ramuntcho,--or +rather, she was a mother upon whom justice from above fell heavily +to-day, because of her past error.--And all this had vanquished her, all +this had hastened and aggravated the malady which the physician, called +too late, did not succeed in checking. + +Now, therefore, waiting for the return of her son, she was stretched on +her bed, burning with fever. + + + +CHAPTER II. + +He was returning, Ramuntcho, after his three years of absence, discharged +from the army in that city of the North where his regiment was in +garrison. He was returning with his heart in disarray, with his heart in +a tumult and in distress. + +His twenty-two year old face had darkened under the ardent sun; his +mustache, now very long, gave him an air of proud nobility. And, on the +lapel of the civilian coat which he had just bought, appeared the +glorious ribbon of his medal. + +At Bordeaux, where he had arrived after a night of travel, he had taken a +place, with some emotion, in that train of Irun which descends in a +direct line toward the South, through the monotony of the interminable +moors. Near the right door he had installed himself in order to see +sooner the Bay of Biscay open and the highlands of Spain sketch +themselves. + +Then, near Bayonne, he had been startled at the sight of the first Basque +caps, at the tall gates, the first Basque houses among the pines and the +oaks. + +And at Saint-Jean-de-Luz at last, when he set foot on the soil, he had +felt like one drunk--After the mist and the cold already begun in +Northern France, he felt the sudden and voluptuous impression of a warmer +climate, the sensation of going into a hothouse. There was a festival of +sunlight that day; the southern wind, the exquisite southern wind, blew, +and the Pyrenees had magnificent tints on the grand, free sky. Moreover, +girls passed, whose laughter rang of the South and of Spain, who had the +elegance and the grace of the Basques--and who, after the heavy blondes +of the North, troubled him more than all these illusions of summer.--But +promptly he returned to himself: what was he thinking of, since that +regained land was to him an empty land forever? How could his infinite +despair be changed by that tempting gracefulness of the girls, by that +ironical gaiety of the sky, the human beings and the things?--No! He +would go home, embrace his mother!-- + +As he had expected, the stage-coach to Etchezar had left two hours ago. +But, without trouble, he would traverse on foot this long road so +familiar to him and arrive in the evening, before night. + +So he went to buy sandals, the foot-gear of his former runs. And, with +the mountaineer's quick step, in long, nervous strides, he plunged at +once into the heart of the silent country, through paths which were for +him full of memories. + +November was coming to an end in the tepid radiance of that sun which +lingers always here for a long time, on the Pyrenean slopes. For days, in +the Basque land, had lasted this same luminous and pure sky, above woods +half despoiled of their leaves, above mountains reddened by the ardent +tint of the ferns. From the borders of the paths ascended tall grasses, +as in the month of May, and large, umbellated flowers, mistaken about the +season; in the hedges, privets and briars had come into bloom again, in +the buzz of the last bees; and one could see flying persistent +butterflies, to whom death had given several weeks of grace. + +The Basque houses appeared here and there among the trees,--very +elevated, the roof protruding, white in their extreme oldness, with their +shutters brown or green, of a green ancient and faded. And everywhere, on +their wooden balconies were drying the yellow gold pumpkins, the sheafs +of pink peas; everywhere, on their walls, like beautiful beads of coral, +were garlands of red peppers: all the things of the soil still fecund, +all the things of the old, nursing soil, amassed thus in accordance with +old time usage, in provision for the darkened months when the heat +departs. + +And, after the mists of the Northern autumn, that limpidity of the air, +that southern sunlight, every detail of the land, awakened in the complex +mind of Ramuntcho infinite vibrations, painfully sweet. + +It was the tardy season when are cut the ferns that form the fleece of +the reddish hills. And, large ox-carts filled with them rolled +tranquilly, in the beautiful, melancholy sun, toward the isolated farms, +leaving on their passage the trail of their fragrance. Very slowly, +through the mountain paths, went these enormous loads of ferns; very +slowly, with sounds of cow-bells. The harnessed oxen, indolent and +strong,--all wearing the traditional head-gear of sheepskin, fallow +colored, which gives to them the air of bisons or of aurochs, pulled +those heavy carts, the wheels of which are solid disks, like those of +antique chariots. The cowboys, holding the long stick in their hands, +marched in front, always noiselessly, in sandals, the pink cotton shirt +revealing the chest, the waistcoat thrown over the left shoulder--and the +woolen cap drawn over a face shaven, thin, grave, to which the width of +the jaws and of the muscles of the neck gives an expression of massive +solidity. + +Then, there were intervals of solitude when one heard, in these paths, +only the buzz of flies, in the yellowed and finishing shade of the trees. + +Ramuntcho looked at them, at these rare passers-by who crossed his road, +surprised at not meeting somebody he knew who would stop before him. But +there were no familiar faces. And the friends whom he met were not +effusive, there were only vague good-days exchanged with folks who turned +round a little, with an impression of having seen him sometime, but not +recalling when, and fell back into the humble dream of the fields.--And +he felt more emphasized than ever the primary differences between him and +those farm laborers. + +Over there, however, comes one of those carts whose sheaf is so big that +branches of oaks in its passage catch it. In front, walks the driver, +with a look of soft resignation, a big, peaceful boy, red as the ferns, +red as the autumn, with a reddish fur in a bush on his bare chest; he +walks with a supple and nonchalant manner, his arms extended like those +of a cross on his goad, placed across his shoulders. Thus, doubtless, on +these same mountains, marched his ancestors, farm laborers and cowboys +like him since numberless centuries. + +And this one, at Ramuntcho's aspect, touches the forehead of his oxen, +stops them with a gesture and a cry of command, then comes to the +traveller, extending to him his brave hands.--Florentino! A Florentino +much changed, having squarer shoulders, quite a man now, with an assured +and fixed demeanor. + +The two friends embrace each other. Then, they scan each other's faces in +silence, troubled suddenly by the wave of reminiscences which come from +the depth of their minds and which neither the one nor the other knows +how to express; Ramuntcho, not better than Florentino, for, if his +language be infinitely better formed, the profoundness and the mystery of +his thoughts are also much more unfathomable. + +And it oppresses them to conceive things which they are powerless to +tell; then their embarrassed looks return absent-mindedly to the two +beautiful, big oxen: + +"They are mine, you know" says Florentino. "I was married two years +ago.--My wife works. And, by working--we are beginning to get +along.--Oh!" he adds, with naive pride, "I have another pair of oxen like +these at the house." + +Then he ceases to talk, flushing suddenly under his sunburn, for he has +the tact which comes from the heart, which the humblest possess often by +nature, but which education never gives, even to the most refined people +in the world: considering the desolate return of Ramuntcho, his broken +destiny, his betrothed buried over there among the black nuns, his mother +dying, Florentino is afraid to have been already too cruel in displaying +too much his own happiness. + +Then the silence returned; they looked at each other for an instant with +kind smiles, finding no words. Besides, between them, the abyss of +different conceptions has grown deeper in these three years. And +Florentino, touching anew the foreheads of his oxen, makes them march +again with a call of his tongue, and presses tighter the hand of his +friend: + +"We shall see each other again, shall we not?" + +And the noise of the cow-bells is soon lost in the calm of the road more +shady, where begins to diminish the heat of the day-- + +"Well, he has succeeded in life, that one!" thinks Ramuntcho +lugubriously, continuing his walk under the autumn branches-- + +The road which he follows ascends, hollowed here and there by springs and +sometimes crossed by big roots of oaks. + +Soon Etchezar will appear to him and, before seeing it, the image of it +becomes more and more precise in him, recalled and enlivened in his +memory by the aspect of the surroundings. + +Empty now, all this land, where Gracieuse is no more, empty and sad as a +beloved home where the great Reaper has passed!--And yet Ramuntcho, in +the depths of his being, dares to think that, in some small convent over +there, under the veil of a nun, the cherished black eyes still exist and +that he will be able at least to see them; that taking the veil is not +quite like dying, and that perhaps the last word of his destiny has not +been said irrevocably.--For, when he reflects, what can have changed thus +the soul of Gracieuse, formerly so uniquely devoted to him?--Oh, +terrible, foreign pressure, surely--And then, when they come face to face +again, who knows?--When they talk, with his eyes in her eyes?--But what +can he expect that is reasonable and possible?--In his native land has a +nun ever broken her eternal vows to follow one to whom she was engaged? +And besides, where would they go to live together afterward, when folks +would get out of their way, would fly from them as renegades?--To America +perhaps, and even there!--And how could he take her from these white +houses of the dead where the sisters live, eternally watched?--Oh, no, +all this is a chimera which may not be realized--All is at an end, all is +finished hopelessly!-- + +Then, the sadness which comes to him from Gracieuse is forgotten for a +moment, and he feels nothing except an outburst of his heart toward his +mother, toward his mother who remains to him, who is there, very near, a +little upset, doubtless, by the joyful trouble of waiting for him. + +And now, on the left of his route, is a humble hamlet, half hidden in the +beeches and the oaks, with its ancient chapel,--and with its wall for the +pelota game, under very old trees, at the crossing of two paths. At once, +in Ramuntcho's youthful head, the course of thoughts changes again: that +little wall with rounded top, covered with wash of kalsomine and ochre, +awakens tumultuously in him thoughts of life, of force and of joy; with a +childish ardor he says to himself that to-morrow he will be able to +return to that game of the Basques, which is an intoxication of movement +and of rapid skill; he thinks of the grand matches on Sundays after +vespers, of the glory of the fine struggles with the champions of Spain, +of all this deprivation of his years of exile. But it is a very short +instant, and mortal despair comes back to him: his triumphs on the +squares, Gracieuse shall not see them; then, what is the use!--Without +her, all things, even these, fall back discolored, useless and vain, do +not even exist-- + +Etchezar!--Etchezar, is revealed suddenly at a turn of the road!--It is +in a red light, something like a fantasmagoria image, illuminated +purposely in a special manner in the midst of grand backgrounds of shade +and of night. It is the hour of the setting sun. Around the isolated +village, which the old, heavy belfry, surmounts, a last sheaf of rays +traces a halo of the color of copper and gold, while clouds--and a +gigantic obscurity emanating from the Gizune--darken the lands piled up +above and under, the mass of brown hills, colored by the death of the +ferns-- + +Oh! the melancholy apparition of the native land, to the soldier who +returns and will not find his sweetheart!-- + +Three years have passed since he left here.--Well, three years, at his +age, are an abyss of time, a period which changes all things. And, after +that lone exile, how this village, which he adores, appears to him +diminished, small, walled in the mountains, sad and hidden!--In the depth +of his mind of a tall, uncultured boy, commences again, to make him +suffer more, the struggle of those two sentiments of a too refined man, +which are an inheritance of his unknown father: an attachment almost +maladive to the home, to the land of childhood, and a fear of returning +to be enclosed in it, when there exist in the world other places so vast +and so free. + +--After the warm afternoon, the autumn is indicated now by the hasty fall +of the day, with a coolness ascending suddenly from the valleys +underneath, a scent of dying leaves and of moss. And then the thousand +details of preceding autumns in the Basque country, of the former +Novembers, come to him very precisely; the cold fall of night succeeding +the beautiful, sunlit day; the sad clouds appearing with the night; the +Pyrenees confounded in vapors inky gray, or, in places, cut in black +silhouettes on a pale, golden sky; around the houses, the belated flowers +of the gardens, which the frost spares for a long time here, and, in +front of all the doors, the strewn leaves of the plane-trees, the yellow +strewn leaves cracking under the steps of the man returning in sandals to +his home for supper.--Oh, the heedless joy of these returns to the home, +in the nights of other times, after days of marching on the rude +mountain! Oh, the gaiety, in that time, of the first winter fires--in the +tall, smoky hearth ornamented with a drapery of white calico and with a +strip of pink paper. No, in the city, with its rows of houses one does +not have the real impression of returning home, of earthing up like +plants at night in the primitive manner, as one has it here, under those +Basque roofs, solitary in the midst of the country, with the grand, +surrounding black, the grand, shivering black of the foliage, the grand, +changing black of the clouds and the summits.--But to-day, his travels, +his new conceptions, have diminished and spoiled his mountaineer's home; +he will doubtless find it almost desolate, especially in the thought that +his mother shall not be there always--and that Gracieuse shall never be +there again. + +His pace quickens in his haste to embrace his mother; he turns around his +village instead of going into it, in order to reach his house through a +path which overlooks the square and church; passing quickly, he looks at +everything with inexpressible pain. Peace, silence soar over this little +parish of Etchezar, heart of the French Basque land and country of all +the famous pelotaris of the past who have become heavy grandfathers, or +are dead now. The immutable church, where have remained buried his dreams +of faith, is surrounded by the same dark cypresses, like a mosque. The +ball-game square, while he walks quickly above it, is still lighted by +the sun with a finishing ray, oblique, toward the background, toward the +wall which the ancient inscription surmounts,--as on the evening of his +first great success, four years ago, when, in the joyous crowd, Gracieuse +stood in a blue gown, she who has become a black nun to-day.--On the +deserted benches, on the granite steps where the grass grows, three or +four old men are seated, who were formerly the heroes of the place and +whom their reminiscences bring back here incessantly, to talk at the end +of the days, when the twilight descends from the summits, invades the +earth, seems to emanate and to fall from the brown Pyrenees.--Oh, the +folks who live here, whose lives run here; oh, the little cider inns, the +little, simple shops and the old, little things--brought from the cities, +from the other places--sold to the mountaineers of the surrounding +country!--How all this seems to him now strange, separated from him, or +set far in the background of the primitive past!--Is he truly not a man +of Etchezar to-day, is he no longer the Ramuntcho of former times?--What +particular thing resides in his mind to prevent him from feeling +comfortable here, as the others feel? Why is it prohibited to him, to him +alone, to accomplish here the tranquil destiny of his dreams, since all +his friends have accomplished theirs?-- + +At last here is his house, there, before his eyes. It is as he expected +to find it. As he expected, he recognizes along the wall all the +persistent flowers cultivated by his mother, the same flowers which the +frost has destroyed weeks ago in the North from which he comes: +heliotropes, geraniums, tall dahlias and roses with climbing branches. +And the cherished, strewn leaves, which fall every autumn from the +vault-shaped plane-trees, are there also, and are crushed with a noise so +familiar under his steps!-- + +In the lower hall, when he enters, there is already grayish indecision, +already night. The high chimney, where his glance rests at first by an +instinctive reminiscence of the fires of ancient evenings, stands the +same with its white drapery; but cold, filled with shade, smelling of +absence or death. + +He runs up to his mother's room. She, from her bed having recognized her +son's step, has straightened up, all stiff, all white in the twilight: + +"Ramuntcho," she says, in a veiled and aged voice. + +She extends her arms to him and as soon as she holds him, enlaces and +embraces him: + +"Ramuntcho!--" + +Then, having uttered this name without adding anything, she leans her +head against his cheek, in the habitual movement of surrender, in the +movement of the grand, tender feelings of other times.--He, then, +perceives that his mother's face is burning against his. Through her +shirt he feels the arms that surround him thin, feverish and hot. And for +the first time, he is frightened; the notion that she is doubtless very +ill comes to his mind, the possibility and the sudden terror that she +might die-- + +"Oh, you are alone, mother! But who takes care of you? Who watches over +you?" + +"Who watches over me?--" she replies with her abrupt brusqueness, her +ideas of a peasant suddenly returned. "Spending money to nurse me, why +should I do it?--The church woman or the old Doyamburu comes in the +day-time to give me the things that I need, the things that the physician +orders.--But--medicine!--Well! Light a lamp, my Ramuntcho!--I want to see +you--and I cannot see you--" + +And, when the clearness has come from a Spanish, smuggled match, she says +in a tone of caress infinitely sweet, as one talks to a very little child +whom one adores: + +"Oh, your mustache! The long mustache which has come to you, my son!--I +do not recognize my Ramuntcho!--Bring your lamp here, bring it here so +that I can look at you!--" + +He also sees her better now, under the new light of that lamp, while she +admires him lovingly. And he is more frightened still, because the cheeks +of his mother are so hollow, her hair is so whitened; even the expression +of her eyes is changed and almost extinguished; on her face appears the +sinister and irremediable labor of time, of suffering and of death-- + +And, now, two tears, rapid and heavy, fall from the eyes of Franchita, +which widen, become living again, made young by desperate revolt and +hatred. + +"Oh, that woman," she says suddenly. "Oh, that Dolores!" + +And her cry expresses and summarizes all her jealousy of thirty years' +standing, all her merciless rancor against that enemy of her childhood +who has succeeded at last in breaking the life of her son. + +A silence between them. He is seated, with head bent, near the bed, +holding the poor, feverish hand which his mother has extended to him. +She, breathing more quickly, seems for a long while under the oppression +of something which she hesitates to express: + +"Tell me, my Ramuntcho!--I would like to ask you.--What do you intend to +do, my son? What are your projects for the future?--" + +"I do not know, mother.--I will think, I will see.--You ask--all at +once.--We have time to talk of this, have we not?--To America, perhaps--" + +"Oh, yes," she says slowly, with the fear that was in her for days, "to +America--I suspected it. Oh, that is what you will do.--I knew it, I knew +it--" + +Her phrase ends in a groan and she joins her hands to try to pray-- + + + +CHAPTER III. + +Ramuntcho, the next morning, was wandering in the village, under a sun +which had pierced the clouds of the night, a sun as radiant as that of +yesterday. Careful in his dress, the ends of his mustache turned up, +proud in his demeanor, elegant, grave and handsome, he went at random, to +see and to be seen, a little childishness mingling with his seriousness, +a little pleasure with his distress. His mother had said to him: + +"I am better, I assure you. To-day is Sunday; go, walk about I pray +you--" + +And passers-by turned their heads to look at him, whispered the news: +"Franchita's son has returned home; he looks very well!" + +A summer illusion persisted everywhere, with, however, the unfathomable +melancholy of things tranquilly finishing. Under that impassible radiance +of sunlight, the Pyrenean fields seemed dull, all their plants, all their +grasses were as if collected in one knows not what resignation weary of +living, what expectation of death. + +The turns of the path, the houses, the least trees, all recalled hours of +other times to Ramuntcho, hours wherein Gracieuse was mingled. And then, +at each reminiscence, at each step, engraved itself and hammered itself +in his mind, under a new form, this verdict without recourse: "It is +finished, you are alone forever, Gracieuse has been taken away from you +and is in prison--" The rents in his heart, every accident in the path +renewed and changed them. And, in the depth of his being, as a constant +basis for his reflections, this other anxiety endured: his mother, his +mother very ill, in mortal danger, perhaps!-- + +He met people who stopped him, with a kind and welcoming air, who talked +to him in the dear Basque tongue--ever alert and sonorous despite its +incalculable antiquity; old Basque caps, old white heads, liked to talk +of the ball-game to this fine player returned to his cradle. And then, at +once, after the first words of greeting, smiles went out, in spite of +this clear sun in this blue sky, and all were disturbed by the thought of +Gracieuse in a veil and of Franchita dying. + +A violent flush of blood went up to his face when he caught sight of +Dolores, at a distance, going into her home. Very decrepit, that one, and +wearing a prostrate air! She had recognized him, for she turned quickly +her obstinate and hard head, covered by a mourning mantilla. With a +sentiment of pity at seeing her so undone, he reflected that she had +struck herself with the same blow, and that she would be alone now in her +old age and at her death-- + +On the square, he met Marcos Iragola who informed him that he was +married, like Florentino--and with the little friend of his childhood, he +also. + +"I did not have to serve in the army," Iragola explained, "because we are +Guipuzcoans, immigrants in France; so I could marry her earlier!" + +He, twenty-one years old; she eighteen; without lands and without a +penny, Marcos and Pilar, but joyfully associated all the same, like two +sparrows building their nest. And the very young husband added +laughingly: + +"What would you? Father said: 'As long as you do not marry I warn you +that I shall give you a little brother every year.' And he would have +done it! There are already fourteen of us, all living--" + +Oh, how simple and natural they are! How wise and humbly +happy!--Ramuntcho quitted him with some haste, with a heart more bruised +for having spoken to him, but wishing very sincerely that he should be +happy in his improvident, birdlike, little home. + +Here and there, folks were seated in front of their doors, in that sort +of atrium of branches which precedes all the houses of this country. And +their vaults of plane-trees, cut in the Basque fashion, which in the +summer are so impenetrable all open worked in this season, let fall on +them sheafs of light. The sun flamed, somewhat destructive and sad, above +those yellow leaves which were drying up-- + +And Ramuntcho, in his slow promenade, felt more and more what intimate +ties, singularly persistent, would attach him always to this region of +the earth, harsh and enclosed, even if he were there alone, abandoned, +without friends, without a wife and without a mother-- + +Now, the high mass rings! And the vibrations of that bell impress him +with a strange emotion that he did not expect. Formerly, its familiar +appeal was an appeal to joy and to pleasure-- + +He stops, he hesitates, in spite of his actual religious unbelief and in +spite of his grudge against that church which has taken his betrothed +away from him. The bell seems to invite him to-day in so special a +manner, with so peaceful and caressing a voice: "Come, come; let yourself +be rocked as your ancestors were; come, poor, desolate being, let +yourself be caught by the lure which will make your tears fall without +bitterness, and will help you to die--" + +Undecided, resisting still, he walks, however, toward the church--when +Arrochkoa appears! + +Arrochkoa, whose catlike mustache has lengthened a great deal and whose +feline expression is accentuated, runs to him with extended hands, with +an effusion that he did not expect, in an enthusiasm, perhaps sincere, +for that ex-sergeant who has such a grand air, who wears the ribbon of a +medal and whose adventures have made a stir in the land: + +"Ah, my Ramuntcho, when did you arrive?--Oh, if I could have +prevented--What do you think of my old, hardened mother and of all those +church bigots?--Oh, I did not tell you: I have a son, since two months; a +fine little fellow! We have so many things to say, my poor friend, so +many things!--" + +The bell rings, rings, fills the air more and more with its soft appeal, +very grave and somewhat imposing also. + +"You are not going there, I suppose?" asks Arrochkoa, pointing to the +church. + +"No, oh, no," replies Ramuntcho, sombrely decided. + +"Well come then, let us go in here and taste the new cider of your +country!--" + +To the smugglers' cider mill, he brings him; both, near the open window, +sit as formerly, looking outside;--and this place also, these old +benches, these casks in a line in the back, these same images on the +wall, are there to recall to Ramuntcho the delicious times of the past, +the times that are finished. + +The weather is adorably beautiful; the sky retains a rare limpidity; +through the air passes that special scent of falling seasons, scent of +woods despoiled, of dead leaves that the sun overheats on the soil. Now, +after the absolute calm of the morning, rises a wind of autumn, a chill +of November, announcing clearly, but with a melancholy almost charming, +that the winter is near--a southern winter, it is true, a softened +winter, hardly interrupting the life of the country. The gardens and all +the old walls are still ornamented with roses!-- + +At first they talk of indifferent things while drinking their cider, of +Ramuntcho's travels, of what happened in the country during his absence, +of the marriages which occurred or were broken. And, to those two rebels +who have fled from the church, all the sounds of the mass come during +their talk, the sounds of the small bells and the sounds of the organ, +the ancient songs that fill the high, sonorous nave-- + +At last, Arrochkoa returns to the burning subject: + +"Oh, if you had been here it would not have occurred!--And even now, if +she saw you--" + +Ramuntcho looks at him then, trembling at what he imagines he +understands: + +"Even now?--What do you mean?" + +"Oh, women--with them, does one ever know?--She cared a great deal for +you and it was hard for her.--In these days there is no law to keep her +there!--How little would I care if she broke her vows--" + +Ramuntcho turns his head, lowers his eyes, says nothing, strikes the soil +with his foot. And, in the silence, the impious thing which he had hardly +dared to formulate to himself, seems to him little by little less +chimerical, attainable, almost easy.--No, it is not impossible to regain +her. And, if need be, doubtless, Arrochkoa, her own brother, would lend a +hand. Oh, what a temptation and what a new disturbance in his mind!-- + +Drily he asks, "Where is she?--Far from here?" + +"Far enough, yes. Over there, toward Navarre, five or six hours of a +carriage drive. They have changed her convent twice. She lives at +Amezqueta now, beyond the oak forests of Oyanzabal; the road is through +Mendichoco; you know, we must have gone through it together one night +with Itchoua." + +The high mass is ended.--Groups pass: women, pretty girls, elegant in +demeanor, among whom Gracieuse is no more: many Basque caps lowered on +sunburnt foreheads. And all these faces turn to look at the two cider +drinkers at their window. The wind, that blows stronger, makes dance +around their glasses large, dead, plane-tree leaves. + +A woman, already old, casts at them, from under her black cloth mantilla, +a sad and evil glance: + +"Ah," says Arrochkoa, "here is mother! And she looks at us +crosswise.--She may flatter herself for her work!--She punished herself +for she will end in solitude now.--Catherine--who is at Elsagarray's, you +know--works by the day for her; otherwise, she would have nobody to talk +to in the evening--" + +A bass voice, behind them, interrupts them, with a Basque greeting, +hollow like a sound in a cavern, while a large and heavy hand rests on +Ramuntcho's shoulder as if to take possession of him: Itchoua, Itchoua +who has just finished chanting his liturgy!--Not changed at all, this +one; he has always his same ageless face, always his colorless mask which +is at once that of a monk and that of a highwayman, and his same eyes, +set in, hidden, absent. His mind also must have remained similar, his +mind capable of impassible murder at the same time as devout fetichism. + +"Ah," he says, in a tone which wishes to be that of a good fellow, "you +have returned to us, my Ramuntcho! Then we are going to work together, +eh? Business is brisk with Spain now, you know, and arms are needed at +the frontier. You are one of us, are you not?" + +"Perhaps," replies Ramuntcho. "We may talk of it--" + +For several moments his departure for America has become a faint idea in +his mind.--No!--He would rather stay in his native land, begin again his +former life, reflect and wait obstinately. Anyway, now that he knows +where she is, that village of Amezqueta, at a distance of five or six +hours from here, haunts him in a dangerous way, and he hugs all sorts of +sacrilegious projects which, until to-day, he would never have dared +hardly to conceive. + + + +CHAPTER IV. + +At noon, he returned to his isolated house to see his mother. + +The febrile and somewhat artificial improvement of the morning had +continued. Nursed by the old Doyanburu, Franchita said that she felt +better, and, in the fear that Ramuntcho might become dreamy, she made him +return to the square to attend the Sunday ball-game. + +The breath of the wind became warm again, blew from the south; none of +the shivers of a moment ago remained; on the contrary, a summer sun and +atmosphere, on the reddened woods, on the rusty ferns, on the roads where +continued to fall the sad leaves. But the sky was gathering thick clouds, +which suddenly came out from the rear of the mountains as if they had +stayed there in ambush to appear all at the same signal. + +The ball-game had not yet been arranged and groups were disputing +violently when he reached the square. Quickly, he was surrounded, he was +welcomed, designated by acclamation to go into the game and sustain the +honor of his county. He did not dare, not having played for three years +and distrusting his unaccustomed arm. At last, he yielded and began to +undress--but to whom would he trust his waistcoat now?--The image +reappeared to him, suddenly, of Gracieuse, seated on the nearest steps +and extending her hands to receive it. To whom would he throw his +waistcoat to-day? It is intrusted ordinarily to some friend, as the +toreadors do with their gilt silk mantles.--He threw it at random, this +time, anywhere, on the granite of the old benches flowered with belated +scabwort-- + +The match began. Out of practice at first, uncertain, he missed several +times the little bounding thing which is to be caught in the air. + +Then, he went to his work with a rage, regained his former ease and +became himself again superbly. His muscles had gained in strength what +they had perhaps lost in skill; again he was applauded, he knew the +physical intoxication of moving, of leaping, of feeling his muscles play +like supple and violent springs, of hearing around him the ardent murmur +of the crowd. + +But then came the instant of rest which interrupts ordinarily the long +disputed games; the moment when one sits halting, the blood in ebulition, +the hands reddened, trembling,--and when one regains the course of ideas +which the game suppresses. + +Then, he realized the distress of being alone. + +Above the assembled heads, above the woolen caps and the hair ornamented +with kerchiefs, was accentuated that stormy sky which the southern winds, +when they are about to finish, bring always. The air had assumed an +absolute limpidity, as if it had become rarified, rarified unto +emptiness. The mountains seemed to have advanced extraordinarily; the +Pyrenees were crushing the village; the Spanish summits or the French +summits were there, all equally near, as if pasted on one another, +exaggerating their burned, brown colors, their intense and sombre, violet +tints. Large clouds, which seemed as solid as terrestrial things, were +displayed in the form of bows, veiling the sun, casting an obscurity +which was like an eclipse. And here and there, through some rent, +bordered with dazzling silver, one could see the profound blue green of a +sky almost African. All this country, the unstable climate of which +changes between a morning and an evening, became for several hours +strangely southern in aspect, in temperature and in light. + +Ramuntcho breathed that dry and suave air, come from the South in order +to vivify the lungs. It was the true weather of his native land. It was +even the characteristic weather of that land of the Bay of Biscay, the +weather which he liked best formerly, and which to-day filled him with +physical comfort--as much as with disturbance of mind, for all that was +preparing, all that was amassing above, with airs of ferocious menace, +impressed him with the sentiment of a heaven deaf to prayers, without +thoughts as without master, a simple focus of storms, of blind forces +creating, recreating and destroying. And, during these minutes of halting +meditation, where men in Basque caps of a temperament other than his, +surrounded him to congratulate him, he made no reply, he did not listen, +he felt only the ephemeral plenitude of his own vigor, of his youth, of +his will, and he said to himself that he wished to use harshly and +desperately all things, to try anything, without the obstacle of vain +fears, of vain church scruples, in order to take back the young girl whom +his soul and his flesh desired, who was the unique one and the +betrothed-- + +When the game had ended gloriously for him, he returned alone, sad and +resolute,--proud of having won, of having known how to preserve his agile +skilfulness, and realizing that it was a means in life, a source of money +and of strength, to have remained one of the chief ball-players of the +Basque country. + +Under the black sky, there were still the same tints exaggerated by +everything, the same sombre horizon. And still the same breaths from the +south, dry and warm, agitors of muscles and of thought. + +However, the clouds had descended, descended, and soon this weather, +these appearances would change and finish. He knew it, as do all the +countrymen accustomed to look at the sky: it was only the announcement of +an autumn squall to close the series of lukewarm winds,--of a decisive +shake-up to finish despoiling the woods of their leaves. Immediately +after would come the long showers, chilling everything, the mists making +the mountains confused and distant. And it would be the dull rain of +winter, stopping the saps, making temporary projects languid, +extinguishing ardor and revolt-- + +Now the first drops of water were beginning to fall on the road, separate +and heavy on the strewn leaves. + +As the day before, when he returned home, at twilight, his mother was +alone. + +He found her asleep, in a bad sleep, agitated, burning. + +Rambling in his house he tried, in order to make it less sinister, to +light in the large, lower chimney a fire of branches, but it went out +smoking. Outside, torrents of rain fell. Through the windows, as through +gray shrouds, the village hardly appeared, effaced under a winter squall. +The wind and the rain whipped the walls of the isolated house, around +which, once more, would thicken the grand blackness of the country in +rainy nights--that grand blackness, that grand silence, to which he had +long been unaccustomed. And in his childish heart, came little by little, +a cold of solitude and of abandonment; he lost even his energy, the +consciousness of his love, of his strength and of his youth; he felt +vanishing, before the misty evening, all his projects of struggle and of +resistance. The future which he had formed a moment ago became miserable +or chimerical in his eyes, that future of a pelota player, of a poor +amuser of the crowds, at the mercy of a malady or of a moment of +weakness--His hopes of the day-time were going out, based, doubtless, on +unstable things, fleeing now in the night-- + +Then he felt transported, as in his childhood, toward that soft refuge +which was his mother; he went up, on tiptoe, to see her, even asleep, and +to remain there, near her bed, while she slept. + +And, when he had lighted in the room, far from her, a discreet lamp, she +appeared to him more changed than she had been by the fever of yesterday; +the possibility presented itself, more frightful to his mind, of losing +her, of being alone, of never feeling again on his cheek the caress of +her head.--Moreover, for the first time, she seemed old to him, and, in +the memory of all the deceptions which she had suffered because of him, +he felt a pity for her, a tender and infinite pity, at sight of her +wrinkles which he had not before observed, of her hair recently whitened +at the temples. Oh, a desolate pity and hopeless, with the conviction +that it was too late now to arrange life better.--And something painful, +against which there was no possible resistance, shook his chest, +contracted his young face; objects became confused to his view, and, in +the need of imploring, of asking for mercy, he let himself fall on his +knees, his forehead on his mother's bed, weeping at last, weeping hot +tears-- + + + +CHAPTER V. + +"And whom did you see in the village, my son?" she asked, the next +morning during the improvement which returned every time, in the first +hours of the day, after the fever had subsided. + +"And whom did you see in the village, my son?--" In talking, she tried to +retain an air of gaiety, of saying indifferent things, in the fear of +attacking grave subjects and of provoking disquieting replies. + +"I saw Arrochkoa, mother," he replied, in a tone which brought back +suddenly the burning questions. + +"Arrochkoa!--And how did he behave with you?" + +"Oh, he talked to me as if I had been his brother." + +"Yes, I know, I know.--Oh, it was not he who made her do it--" + +"He said even--" + +He did not dare to continue now, and he lowered his head. + +"He said what, my son?" + +"Well, that--that it was hard to put her in prison there--that +perhaps--that, even now, if she saw me, he was not far from thinking--" + +She straightened under the shock of what she had just suspected; with her +thin hands she parted her hair, newly whitened, and her eyes became again +young and sharp, in an expression almost wicked from joy, from avenged +pride: + +"He said that, he!--" + +"Would you forgive me, mother--if I tried?" + +She took his two hands and they remained silent, not daring, with their +scruples as Catholics, to utter the sacrilegious thing which was +fomenting in their heads. In the depth of her eyes, the evil spark went +out. + +"Forgive you?" she said in a low voice, "Oh, I--you know very well that I +would.--But do not do this, my son, I pray you, do not do it; it would +bring misfortune to both of you!--Do not think of it, my Ramuntcho, never +think of it--" + +Then, they hushed, hearing the steps of the physician who was coming up +for his daily visit. And it was the only time, the supreme time when they +were to talk of it in life. + +But Ramuntcho knew now that, even after death, she would not condemn him +for having attempted, or for having committed it: and this pardon was +sufficient for him, and, now that he felt sure of obtaining it, the +greatest barrier, between his sweetheart and him, had now suddenly +fallen. + + + +CHAPTER VI. + +In the evening, when the fever returned, she seemed already much more +dangerously affected. + +On her robust body, the malady had violently taken hold,--the malady +recognized too late, and insufficiently nursed because of her +stubbornness as a peasant, because of her incredulous disdain for +physicians and medicine. + +And little by little, in Ramuntcho, the frightful thought of losing her +installed itself in a dominant place; during the hours of watchfulness +spent near her bed, silent and alone, he was beginning to face the +reality of that separation, the horror of that death and of that +burial,--even all the lugubrious morrows, all the aspects of his future +life: the house which he would have to sell before quitting the country; +then, perhaps, the desperate attempt at the convent of Amezqueta; then +the departure, probably solitary and without desire to return, for +unknown America-- + +The idea also of the great secret which she would carry with her +forever,--of the secret of his birth,--tormented him more from hour to +hour. + +Then, bending over her, and, trembling, as if he were about to commit an +impious thing in a church, he dared to say: + +"Mother!--Mother, tell me now who my father is!" + +She shuddered at first under the supreme question, realizing well, that +if he dared to question her thus, it was because she was lost. Then, she +hesitated for a moment: in her head, boiling from fever, there was a +battle; her duty, she discerned well no longer; her obstinacy which had +lasted for so many years faltered almost at this hour, in presence of the +sudden apparition of death-- + +But, resolved at last forever, she replied at once, in the brusque tone +of her bad days: + +"Your father!--And what is the use, my son?--What do you want of your +father who for twenty years has never thought of you?--" + +No, it was decided, ended, she would not tell. Anyway, it was too late +now; at the moment when she would disappear, enter into the inert +powerlessness of the dead, how could she risk changing so completely the +life of that son over whom she would no longer watch, how could she +surrender him to his father, who perhaps would make of him a disbeliever +and a disenchanted man like himself! What a responsibility and what an +immense terror!-- + +Her decision having been taken irrevocably, she thought of herself, +feeling for the first time that life was closing behind her, and joined +her hands for a sombre prayer. + +As for Ramuntcho, after this attempt to learn, after this great effort +which had almost seemed a profanation to him, he bent his head before his +mother's will and questioned no longer. + + + +CHAPTER VII. + +It went very quickly now, with the drying fevers that made her cheeks +red, her nostrils pinched, or with the exhaustion of baths of +perspiration, her pulse hardly beating. + +And Ramuntcho had no other thought than his mother; the image of +Gracieuse ceased to visit him during these funereal days. + +She was going, Franchita; she was going, mute and as if indifferent, +asking for nothing, never complaining-- + +Once, however, as he was watching, she called him suddenly with a poor +voice of anguish, to throw her arms around him, to draw him to her, lean +her head on his cheek. And, in that minute, Ramuntcho saw pass in her +eyes the great Terror--that of the flesh which feels that it is +finishing, that of the men and that of the beasts, the horrible and the +same for all.--A believer, she was that a little; practising rather, like +so many other women around her; timid in the face of dogmas, of +observances, of services, but without a clear conception of the world +beyond, without a luminous hope.--Heaven, all the beautiful things +promised after life.--Yes, perhaps.--But still, the black hole was there, +near and certain, where she would have to turn into dust.--What was sure, +what was inexorable, was the fact that never, never more would her +destroyed visage lean in a real manner on that of Ramuntcho; then, in the +doubt of having a mind which would fly, in the horror and the misery of +annihilation, of becoming powder and nothing, she wanted again kisses +from that son, and she clutched at him as clutch the wrecked who fall +into the black and deep waters-- + +He understood all this, which the poor, fading eyes said so well. And the +pity so tender, which he had already felt at seeing the wrinkles and the +white hairs of his mother, overflowed like a flood from his very young +heart; he responded to this appeal with all that one may give of desolate +clasps and embraces. + +But it did not last long. She had never been one of those who are +enervated for long, or at least, let it appear. Her arms unclasped, her +head fallen back, she closed her eyes again, unconscious now,--or +stoical-- + +And Ramuntcho, standing, not daring to touch her, wept heavy tears, +without noise, turning his head,--while, in the distance, the parish bell +began to ring the curfew, sang the tranquil peace of the village, filled +the air with vibrations soft, protective, advising sound sleep to those +who have morrows-- + +The following morning, after having confessed, she passed out of life, +silent and haughty, having felt a sort of shame for her suffering,--while +the same bell rang slowly her agony. + +And at night, Ramuntcho found himself alone, beside that thing in bed and +cold, which is preserved and looked at for several hours, but which one +must make haste to bury in the earth-- + + + +CHAPTER VIII. + +Eight days after. + +At the fall of night, while a bad mountain squall twisted the branches of +the trees, Ramuntcho entered his deserted house where the gray of death +seemed scattered everywhere. A little of winter had passed over the +Basque land, a little frost, burning the annual flowers, ending the +illusory summer of December. In front of Franchita's door, the geraniums, +the dahlias had just died, and the path which led to the house, which no +one cared for, disappeared under the mass of yellow leaves. + +For Ramuntcho, this first week of mourning had been occupied by the +thousand details that rock sorrow. Proud also, he had desired that all +should be done in a luxurious manner, according to the old usages of the +parish. His mother had been buried in a coffin of black velvet ornamented +with silver nails. Then, there had been mortuary masses, attended by the +neighbors in long capes, the women enveloped and hooded with black. And +all this represented a great deal of expense for him, who was poor. + +Of the sum given formerly, at the time of his birth, by his unknown +father, little remained, the greater part having been lost through +unfaithful bankers. And now, he would have to quit the house, sell the +dear familiar furniture, realize the most money possible for the flight +to America-- + +This time, he returned home peculiarly disturbed, because he was to do a +thing, postponed from day to day, about which his conscience was not at +rest. He had already examined, picked out, all that belonged to his +mother; but the box containing her papers and her letters was still +intact--and to-night he would open it, perhaps. + +He was not sure that death, as many persons think, gives the right to +those who remain to read letters, to penetrate the secrets of those who +have just gone. To burn without looking seemed to him more respectful, +more honest. But it was also to destroy forever the means of discovering +the one whose abandoned son he was.--Then what should he do?--And from +whom could he take advice, since he had no one in the world? + +In the large chimney he lit the evening fire: then he got from an upper +room the disquieting box, placed it on a table near the fire, beside his +lamp, and sat down to reflect again. In the face of these papers, almost +sacred, almost prohibited, which he would touch and which death alone +could have placed in his hands, he had in this moment the consciousness, +in a more heartbreaking manner, of the irrevocable departure of his +mother; tears returned to him and he wept there, alone, in the silence-- + +At last he opened the box-- + +His arteries beat heavily. Under the surrounding trees, in the obscure +solitude, he felt that forms were moving, to look at him through the +window-panes. He felt breaths strange to his own chest, as if some one +was breathing behind him. Shades assembled, interested in what he was +about to do.--The house was crowded with phantoms-- + +They were letters, preserved there for more than twenty years, all in the +same handwriting,--one of those handwritings, at once negligent and easy, +which men of the world have and which, in the eyes of the simple minded, +are an indication of great social difference. And at first, a vague dream +of protection, of elevation and of wealth diverted the course of his +thoughts.--He had no doubt about the hand which had written them, those +letters, and he held them tremblingly, not daring to read them, nor even +to look at the name with which they were signed. + +One only had retained its envelope; then he read the address: "To Madame +Franchita Duval."--Oh! yes, he remembered having heard that his mother, +at the time of her disappearance from the Basque country, had taken that +name for a while.--Following this, was an indication of street and +number, which it pained him to read without his being able to understand +why, which made the blood come to his cheeks; then the name of that large +city, wherein he was born.--With fixed eyes, he stayed there, looking no +longer.--And suddenly, he had the horrible vision of that clandestine +establishment: in a suburban apartment, his mother, young, elegant, +mistress of some rich idler, or of some officer perhaps!--In the regiment +he had known some of these establishments, which doubtless are all alike, +and he had found in them for himself unexpected adventures.--A dizziness +seized him, to catch a glimpse thus under a new aspect of the one whom he +had venerated so much; the dear past faltered behind him, as if to fall +into a desolating abyss. And his despair turned into a sudden execration +for the one who had given life to him through a caprice-- + +Oh! to burn them, to burn them as quickly as possible, these letters of +misfortune!--And he began to throw them one by one into the fire, where +they were consumed by sudden flames. + +A photograph, however, came out of them, fell on the floor; then he could +not refrain from taking it to the lamp to see it. + +And his impression was heart-rending, during the few seconds when his +eyes met the half effaced ones of the yellowed image!--It resembled +him!--He found, with profound fear, something of himself in the unknown. +And instinctively he turned round, asking himself if the spectres in the +obscure corners had not come near behind him to look also. + +It had hardly an appreciable duration, that silent interview, unique and +supreme, with his father. To the fire also, the image! He threw it, with +a gesture of anger and of terror, among the ashes of the last letters, +and all left soon only a little mass of black dust, extinguishing the +clear flames of the branches. + +Finished! The box was empty. He threw on the floor his cap which gave him +a headache, and straightened himself, with perspiration on his forehead +and a buzzing at the temples. + +Finished! Annihilated, all these memories of sin and of shame. And now +the things of life appeared to him to regain their former balance; he +regained his soft veneration for his mother, whose memory it seemed to +him he had purified, avenged also a little, by this disdainful execution. + +Therefore, his destiny had been fixed to-night forever. He would remain +the Ramuntcho of other times, the "son of Franchita," player of pelota +and smuggler, free, freed from everything, owing nothing to and asking +nothing from anybody. And he felt serene, without remorse, without +fright, either, in this mortuary house, from which the shades had just +disappeared, peaceful now and friendly-- + + + +CHAPTER IX. + +At the frontier, in a mountain hamlet. A black night, about one o'clock +in the morning; a winter night inundated by cold and heavy rain. At the +front of a sinister house which casts no light outside, Ramuntcho loads +his shoulders with a heavy smuggled box, under the rippling rain, in the +midst of a tomb-like obscurity. Itchoua's voice commands secretly,--as if +one hardly touched with a bow the last strings of a bass viol,--and +around him, in the absolute darkness, one divines the presence of other +smugglers similarly loaded, ready to start on an adventure. + +It is now more than ever Ramuntcho's life, to run almost every night, +especially on the cloudless and moonless nights when one sees nothing, +when the Pyrenees are an immense chaos of shade. Amassing as much money +as he can for his flight, he is in all the smuggling expeditions, as well +in those that bring a suitable remuneration as in those where one risks +death for a hundred cents. And ordinarily, Arrochkoa accompanies him, +without necessity, in sport and for a whim. + +They have become inseparable, Arrochkoa, Ramuntcho,--and they talk freely +of their projects about Gracieuse, Arrochkoa seduced especially by the +attraction of some fine prowess, by the joy of taking a nun away from the +church, of undoing the plans of his old, hardened mother,--and Ramuntcho, +in spite of his Christian scruples which affect him still, making of this +dangerous project his only hope, his only reason for being and for +acting. For a month, almost, the attempt has been decided upon in theory +and, in their long talks in the December nights, on the roads where they +walk, or in the corners of the village cider mills where they sit apart, +the means of execution are discussed by them, as if the question was a +simple frontier undertaking. They must act very quickly, concludes +Arrochkoa always, they must act in the surprise of a first interview +which shall be for Gracieuse a very disturbing thing; they must act +without giving her time to think or to recant, they must try something +like kidnapping-- + +"If you knew," he says, "what is that little convent of Amezqueta where +they have placed her: four old, good sisters with her, in an isolated +house!--I have my horse, you know, who gallops so quickly; once the nun +is in a carriage with you, who can catch her?--" + +And to-night they have resolved to take into their confidence Itchoua +himself, a man accustomed to suspicious adventures, valuable in assaults +at night, and who, for money, is capable of everything. + +The place from which they start this time for the habitual smuggling +expedition is named Landachkoa, and it is situated in France at ten +minutes' distance from Spain. The inn, solitary and old, assumes as soon +as the night falls, the air of a den of thieves; at this moment while the +smugglers come out of one door, it is full of Spanish carbineers who have +familiarly crossed the frontier to divert themselves here and who drink +while singing. And the hostess, accustomed to these nocturnal affairs, +has said joyfully, a moment ago, in Basque tongue to Itchoua's folks: + +"It is all right! They are all drunk, you can go out!" + +Go out! It is easier to advise than to do! You are drenched at the first +steps and your feet slip on the mud, despite the aid of your sticks, on +the stiff slopes of the paths. They do not see one another; they see +nothing, neither the walls of the hamlet along which they pass nor the +trees afterward, nor the rocks; they are like blind men, groping and +slipping under a deluge, with the music of rain in their ears which makes +them deaf. + +And Ramuntcho, who makes this trip for the first time, has no idea of the +passages which they are to go through, strikes here and there his load +against black things which are branches of beeches, or slips with his two +feet, falters, straightens up, catches himself by planting at random his +iron-pointed stick in the soil. They are the last on the march, Arrochkoa +and Ramuntcho, following the band by ear;--and those who precede them +make no more noise with their sandals than wolves in a forest. + +In all, fifteen smugglers on a distance of fifty metres, in the thick +black of the mountain, under the incessant sprinkling of the shower; they +carry boxes full of jewels, of watches, of chains, of rosaries, or +bundles of Lyons silk, wrapped in oilcloth; in front, loaded with +merchandise less valuable, walk two men who are the skirmishers, those +who will attract, if necessary, the guns of the Spaniards and will then +take flight, throwing away everything. All talk in a low voice, despite +the drumming of the rain which already stifles sounds-- + +The one who precedes Ramuntcho turns round to warn him: + +"Here is a torrent in front of us--" (Its presence would have been +guessed by its noise louder than that of the rain--) "We must cross it!" + +"Ah!--Cross it how? Wade in the water?--" + +"No, the water is too deep. Follow us. There is a tree trunk over it." + +Groping, Ramuntcho finds that tree trunk, wet, slippery and round. He +stands, advancing on this monkey's bridge in a forest, carrying his heavy +load, while under him the invisible torrent roars. And he crosses, none +knows how, in the midst of this intensity of black and of this noise of +water. + +On the other shore they have to increase precaution and silence. There +are no more mountain paths, frightful descents, under the night, more +oppressing, of the woods. They have reached a sort of plain wherein the +feet penetrate; the sandals attached to nervous legs cause a noise of +beaten water. The eyes of the smugglers, their cat-like eyes, more and +more dilated by the obscurity, perceive confusedly that there is free +space around, that there is no longer the closing in of branches. They +breathe better also and walk with a more regular pace that rests them-- + +But the bark of dogs immobilizes them all in a sudden manner, as if +petrified under the shower. For a quarter of an hour they wait, without +talking or moving; on their chests, the perspiration runs, mingled with +the rain that enters by their shirt collars and falls to their belts. + +By dint of listening, they hear the buzz of their ears, the beat of their +own arteries. + +And this tension of their senses is, in their trade, what they all like; +it gives to them a sort of joy almost animal, it doubles the life of the +muscles in them, who are beings of the past; it is a recall of the most +primitive human impressions in the forests or the jungles of original +epochs.--Centuries of civilization will be necessary to abolish this +taste for dangerous surprises which impels certain children to play hide +and seek, certain men to lie in ambush, to skirmish in wars, or to +smuggle-- + +They have hushed, the watch-dogs, quieted or distracted, their attentive +scent preoccupied by something else. The vast silence has returned, less +reassuring, ready to break, perhaps, because beasts are watching. And, at +a low command from Itchoua, the men begin again their march, slower and +more hesitating, in the night of the plain, a little bent, a little +lowered on their legs, like wild animals on the alert. + +Before them is the Nivelle; they do not see it, since they see nothing, +but they hear it run, and now long, flexible things are in the way of +their steps, are crushed by their bodies: the reeds on the shores. The +Nivelle is the frontier; they will have to cross it on a series of +slippery rocks, leaping from stone to stone, despite the loads that make +the legs heavy. + +But before doing this they halt on the shore to collect themselves and +rest a little. And first, they call the roll in a low voice: all are +there. The boxes have been placed in the grass; they seem clearer spots, +almost perceptible to trained eyes, while, on the darkness in the +background, the men, standing, make long, straight marks, blacker than +the emptiness of the plain. Passing by Ramuntcho, Itchoua has whispered +in his ear: + +"When will you tell me about your plan?" + +"In a moment, at our return!--Oh, do not fear, Itchoua, I will tell you!" + +At this moment when his chest is heaving and his muscles are in action, +all his faculties doubled and exasperated by his trade, he does not +hesitate, Ramuntcho; in the present exaltation of his strength and of his +combativeness he knows no moral obstacles nor scruples. The idea which +came to his accomplice to associate himself with Itchoua frightens him no +longer. So much the worse! He will surrender to the advice of that man of +stratagem and of violence, even if he must go to the extreme of +kidnapping and housebreaking. He is, to-night, the rebel from whom has +been taken the companion of his life, the adored one, the one who may not +be replaced; he wants her, at the risk of everything.--And while he +thinks of her, in the progressive languor of that halt, he desires her +suddenly with his senses, in a young, savage outbreak, in a manner +unexpected and sovereign-- + +The immobility is prolonged, the respirations are calmer. And, while the +men shake their dripping caps, pass their hands on their foreheads to +wipe out drops of rain and perspiration that veil the eyes, the first +sensation of cold comes to them, of a damp and profound cold; their wet +clothes chill them, their thoughts weaken; little by little a sort of +torpor benumbs them in the thick darkness, under the incessant winter +rain. + +They are accustomed to this, trained to cold and to dampness, they are +hardened prowlers who go to places where, and at hours when, other men +never appear, they are inaccessible to vague frights of the darkness, +they are capable of sleeping without shelter anywhere in the blackest of +rainy nights, in dangerous marshes or hidden ravines-- + +Now the rest has lasted long enough. This is the decisive instant when +the frontier is to be crossed. All muscles stiffen, ears stretch, eyes +dilate. + +First, the skirmishers; then, one after another, the bundle carriers, the +box carriers, each one loaded with a weight of forty kilos, on the +shoulders or on the head. Slipping here and there among the round rocks, +stumbling in the water, everybody crosses, lands on the other shore. Here +they are on the soil of Spain! They have to cross, without gunshots or +bad meetings, a distance of two hundred metres to reach an isolated farm +which is the receiving shop of the chief of the Spanish smugglers, and +once more the game will have been played! + +Naturally, it is without light, obscure and sinister, that farm. +Noiselessly and groping they enter in a file; then, on the last who +enter, enormous locks of the door are drawn. At last! Barricaded and +rescued, all! And the treasury of the Queen Regent has been frustrated, +again tonight, of a thousand francs!-- + +Then, fagots are lighted in the chimney, a candle on the table; they see +one another, they recognize one another, smiling at the success. The +security, the truce of rain over their heads, the flame that dances and +warms, the cider and the whiskey that fill the glasses, bring back to +these men noisy joy after compelled silence. They talk gaily, and the +tall, white-haired, old chief who receives them all at this undue hour, +announces that he will give to his village a beautiful square for the +pelota game, the plans of which have been drawn and the cost of which +will be ten thousand francs. + +"Now, tell me your affair," insists Itchoua, in Ramuntcho's ear. "Oh, I +suspect what it is! Gracieuse, eh?--That is it, is it not?--It is hard +you know.--I do not like to do things against my religion, you +know.--Then, I have my place as a chorister, which I might lose in such a +game.--Let us see, how much money will you give me if I succeed?--" + +He had foreseen, Ramuntcho, that this sombre aid would cost him a great +deal, Itchoua being, in truth, a churchman, whose conscience would have +to be bought; and, much disturbed, with a flush on his cheeks, Ramuntcho +grants, after a discussion, a thousand francs. Anyway, if he is piling up +money, it is only to get Gracieuse, and if enough remains for him to go +to America with her, what matters it?-- + +And now that his secret is known to Itchoua, now that his cherished +project is being elaborated in that obstinate and sharp brain, it seems +to Ramuntcho that he has made a decisive step toward the execution of his +plan, that all has suddenly become real and approaching. Then, in the +midst of the lugubrious decay of the place, among these men who are less +than ever similar to him, he isolates himself in an immense hope of love. + +They drink for a last time together, all around, clinking their glasses +loudly; then they start again, in the thick night and under the incessant +rain, but this time on the highway, in a band and singing. Nothing in the +hands, nothing in the pockets: they are now ordinary people, returning +from a natural promenade. + +In the rear guard, at a distance from the singers, Itchoua on his long +legs walks with his hands resting on Ramuntcho's shoulder. Interested and +ardent for success, since the sum has been agreed upon, Itchoua whispers +in Ramuntcho's ear imperious advices. Like Arrochkoa, he wishes to act +with stunning abruptness, in the surprise of a first interview which will +occur in the evening, as late as the rule of a convent will permit, at an +uncertain and twilight hour, when the village shall have begun to sleep. + +"Above all," he says, "do not show yourself beforehand. She must not have +seen you, she must not even know that you have returned home! You must +not lose the advantage of surprise--" + +While Ramuntcho listens and meditates in silence, the others, who lead +the march, sing always the same old song that times their steps. And thus +they re-enter Landachkoa, village of France, crossing the bridge of the +Nivelle, under the beards of the Spanish carbineers. + +They have no sort of illusion, the watching carbineers, about what these +men, so wet, have been doing at an hour so black. + + + +CHAPTER X. + +The winter, the real winter, extended itself by degrees over the Basque +land, after the few days of frost that had come to annihilate the annual +plants, to change the deceptive aspect of the fields, to prepare the +following spring. + +And Ramuntcho acquired slowly his habits of one left alone; in his house, +wherein he lived still, without anybody to serve him, he took care of +himself, as in the colonies or in the barracks, knowing the thousand +little details of housekeeping which careful soldiers practice. He +preserved the pride of dress, dressed himself well, wore the ribbon of +the brave at his buttonhole and a wide crape around his sleeve. + +At first he was not assiduous at the village cider mill, where the men +assembled in the cold evenings. In his three years of travel, of reading, +of talking with different people, too many new ideas had penetrated his +already open mind; among his former companions he felt more outcast than +before, more detached from the thousand little things which composed +their life. + +Little by little, however, by dint of being alone, by dint of passing by +the halls where the men drank,--on the window-panes of which a lamp +always sketches the shadows of Basque caps,--he had made it a custom to +go in and to sit at a table. + +It was the season when the Pyrenean villages, freed from the visitors +which the summers bring, imprisoned by the clouds, the mist, or the snow, +are more intensely as they were in ancient times. In these cider +mills--sole, little, illuminated points, living, in the midst of the +immense, empty darkness of the fields--something of the spirit of former +times is reanimated in winter evenings. In front of the large casks of +cider arranged in lines in the background where it is dark, the lamp, +hanging from the beams, throws its light on the images of saints that +decorate the walls, on the groups of mountaineers who talk and who smoke. +At times someone sings a plaintive song which came from the night of +centuries; the beating of a tambourine recalls to life old, forgotten +rhythms; a guitar reawakens a sadness of the epoch of the Moors.--Or, in +the face of each other, two men, with castanets in their hands, suddenly +dance the fandango, swinging themselves with an antique grace. + +And, from these innocent, little inns, they retire early--especially in +these bad, rainy nights--the darkness of which is so peculiarly +propitious to smuggling, every one here having to do some clandestine +thing on the Spanish side. + +In such places, in the company of Arrochkoa, Ramuntcho talked over and +commented upon his cherished, sacrilegious project; or,--during the +beautiful moon-light nights which do not permit of undertakings on the +frontier--they talked on the roads for a long time. + +Persistent religions scruples made him hesitate a great deal, although he +hardly realized it. They were inexplicable scruples, since he had ceased +to be a believer. But all his will, all his audacity, all his life, were +concentrated and directed, more and more, toward this unique end. + +And the prohibition, ordered by Itchoua, from seeing Gracieuse before the +great attempt, exasperated his impatient dream. + +The winter, capricious as it is always in this country, pursued its +unequal march, with, from time to time, surprises of sunlight and of +heat. There were rains of a deluge, grand, healthy squalls which went up +from the Bay of Biscay, plunged into the valleys, bending the trees +furiously. And then, repetitions of the wind of the south, breaths as +warm as in summer, breezes smelling of Africa, under a sky at once high +and sombre, among mountains of an intense brown color. And also, glacial +mornings, wherein one saw, at awakening, summits become snowy and white. + +The desire often seized him to finish everything.--But he had the +frightful idea that he might not succeed and might fall again, alone +forever, without a hope in life. + +Anyway, reasonable pretexts to wait were not lacking. He had to settle +with men of affairs, he had to sell the house and realize, for his +flight, all the money that he could obtain. He had also to wait for the +answer of Uncle Ignacio, to whom he had announced his emigration and at +whose house he expected to find an asylum. + +Thus the days went by, and soon the hasty spring was to ferment. Already +the yellow primrose and the blue gentian, in advance here by several +weeks, were in bloom in the woods and along the paths, in the last suns +of January-- + + + +CHAPTER XI. + +They are this time in the cider mill of the hamlet of Gastelugain, near +the frontier, waiting for the moment to go out with boxes of jewelry and +weapons. + +And it is Itchoua who is talking: + +"If she hesitates--and she will not hesitate, be sure of it--but if she +hesitates, well! we will kidnap her.--Let me arrange this, my plan is all +made. It will be in the evening, you understand?--We will bring her +anywhere and imprison her in a room with you.--If it turns out badly--if +I am forced to quit the country after having done this thing to please +you; then, you will have to give me more money than the amount agreed +upon, you understand?--Enough, at least, to let me seek for my bread in +Spain--" + +"In Spain!--What? What are you going to do, Itchoua? I hope you have not +in your head the idea to do things that are too grave." + +"Oh, do not be afraid, my friend. I have no desire to assassinate +anybody." + +"Well! You talk of running away--" + +"I said this as I would have said anything else, you know. For some time, +business has been bad. And then, suppose the thing turns out badly and +the police make an inquiry. Well, I would prefer to go, that is +sure.--For whenever these men of justice put their noses into anything, +they seek for things that happened long ago, and the inquiry never +ends--" + +In his eyes, suddenly expressive, appeared crime and fear. And Ramuntcho +looked with an increase of anxiety at this man, who was believed to be +solidly established in the country with lands in the sunlight, and who +accepted so easily the idea of running away. What sort of a bandit is he +then, to be so much afraid of justice?--And what could be these things +that happened long ago?--After a silence between them, Ramuntcho said in +a lower voice, with extreme distrust: + +"Imprison her--you say this seriously, Itchoua?--And where imprison her, +if you please? I have no castle to hide her in--" + +Then Itchoua, with the smile of a faun which no one had seen before, +tapped his shoulder: + +"Oh, imprison her--for one night only, my son!--It will be enough, you +may believe me.--They are all alike, you see: the first step costs; but +the second one, they make it all alone, and quicker than you may think. +Do you imagine that she would wish to return to the good sisters, +afterward?--" + +The desire to slap that dull face passed like an electric shock through +the arm and the hand of Ramuntcho. He constrained himself, however, +through a long habit of respectfulness for the old singer of the +liturgies, and remained silent, with a flush on his cheeks, and his look +turned aside. It revolted him to hear one talk thus of her--and surprised +him that the one who spoke thus was that Itchoua whom he had always known +as the quiet husband of an ugly and old woman. But the blow struck by the +impertinent phrase followed nevertheless, in his imagination, a dangerous +and unforeseen path.--Gracieuse, "imprisoned a room with him!" The +immediate possibility of such a thing, so clearly presented with a rough +and coarse word, made his head swim like a very violent liquor. + +He loved her with too elevated a tenderness, his betrothed, to find +pleasure in brutal hopes. Ordinarily, he expelled from his mind those +images; but now that man had just placed them under his eye, with a +diabolical crudity, and he felt shivers in his flesh, he trembled as if +the weather were cold-- + +Oh, whether the adventure fell or not under the blow of justice, well, so +much the worse, after all! He had nothing to lose, all was indifferent to +him! And from that evening, in the fever of a new desire, he felt more +boldly decided to brave the rules, the laws, the obstacles of this world. +Saps ascended everywhere around him, on the sides of the brown Pyrenees; +there were longer and more tepid nights; the paths were bordered with +violets and periwinkles.--But religious scruples held him still. They +remained, inexplicably in the depth of his disordered mind: instinctive +horror of profanation; belief, in spite of everything, in something +supernatural enveloping, to defend them, churches and cloisters-- + + + +CHAPTER XII. + +The winter had just come to an end. + +Ramuntcho,--who had slept for a few hours, in a bad, tired sleep, in a +small room of the new house of his friend Florentino, at +Ururbil,--awakened as the day dawned. + +The night,--a night of tempest everywhere, a black and troubled +night,--had been disastrous for the smugglers. Near Cape Figuier, in the +rocks where they had just landed from the sea with silk bundles, they had +been pursued with gunshots, compelled to throw away their loads, losing +everything, some fleeing to the mountain, others escaping by swimming +among the breakers, in order to reach the French shore, in terror of the +prisons of San Sebastian. + +At two o'clock in the morning, exhausted, drenched and half drowned, he +had knocked at the door of that isolated house, to ask from the good +Florentino his aid and an asylum. + +And on awakening, after all the nocturnal noise of the equinoctial storm, +of the rain, of the groaning branches, twisted and broken, he perceived +that a grand silence had come. Straining his ear, he could hear no longer +the immense breath of the western wind, no longer the motion of all those +things tormented in the darkness. No, nothing except a far-off noise, +regular, powerful, continued and formidable; the roll of the waters in +the depth of that Bay of Biscay--which, since the beginning, is without +truce and troubled; a rhythmic groan, as might be the monstrous +respiration of the sea in its sleep; a series of profound blows which +seemed the blows of a battering ram on a wall, continued every time by a +music of surf on the beaches.--But the air, the trees and the surrounding +things were immovable; the tempest had finished, without reasonable +cause, as it had begun, and the sea alone prolonged the complaint of it. + +To look at that land, that Spanish coast which he would perhaps never see +again, since his departure was so near, he opened his window on the +emptiness, still pale, on the virginity of the desolate dawn. + +A gray light emanating from a gray sky; everywhere the same immobility, +tired and frozen, with uncertainties of aspect derived from the night and +from dreams. An opaque sky, which had a solid air and was made of +accumulated, small, horizontal layers, as if one had painted it by +superposing pastes of dead colors. + +And underneath, mountains black brown; then Fontarabia in a morose +silhouette, its old belfry appearing blacker and more worn by the years. +At that hour, so early and so freshly mysterious, when the ears of most +men are not yet open, it seemed as if one surprised things in their +heartbreaking colloquy of lassitude and of death, relating to one +another, at the first flush of dawn, all that they do not say when the +day has risen.--What was the use of resisting the storm of last night? +said the old belfry, sad and weary, standing in the background in the +distance; what was the use, since other storms will come, eternally +others, other storms and other tempests, and since I will pass away, I +whom men have elevated as a signal of prayer to remain here for +incalculable years?--I am already only a spectre, come from some other +time; I continue to ring ceremonies and illusory festivals; but men will +soon cease to be lured by them; I ring also knells, I have rung so many +knells for thousands of dead persons whom nobody remembers! And I remain +here, useless, under the effort, almost eternal, of all those western +winds which blow from the sea-- + +At the foot of the belfry, the church, drawn in gray tints, with an air +of age and abandonment, confessed also that it was empty, that it was +vain, peopled only by poor images made of wood or of stone, by myths +without comprehension, without power and without pity. And all the +houses, piously grouped for centuries around it, avowed that its +protection was not efficacious against death, that it was deceptive and +untruthful-- + +And especially the clouds, the clouds and the mountains, covered with +their immense, mute attestation what the old city murmured beneath them; +they confirmed in silence the sombre truths: heaven empty as the churches +are, serving for accidental phantasmagoria, and uninterrupted times +rolling their flood, wherein thousands of lives, like insignificant +nothings, are, one after another, dragged and drowned.--A knell began to +ring in that distance which Ramuntcho saw whitening; very slowly, the old +belfry gave its voice, once more, for the end of a life; someone was in +the throes of death on the other side of the frontier, some Spanish soul +over there was going out, in the pale morning, under the thickness of +those imprisoning clouds--and he had almost the precise notion that this +soul would very simply follow its body in the earth which decomposes-- + +And Ramuntcho contemplated and listened. At the little window of that +Basque house, which before him had sheltered only generations of +simple-minded and confident people, leaning on the wide sill which the +rubbing of elbows had worn, pushing the old shutter painted green, he +rested his eyes on the dull display of that corner of the world which had +been his and which he was to quit forever. Those revelations which things +made, his uncultured mind heard them for the first time and he lent to +them a frightened attention. An entire new labor of unbelief was going on +suddenly in his mind, prepared by heredity to doubts and to worry. An +entire vision came to him, sudden and seemingly definitive, of the +nothingness of religions, of the nonexistence of the divinities whom men +supplicate. + +And then--since there was nothing, how simple it was to tremble still +before the white Virgin, chimerical protector of those convents where +girls are imprisoned!-- + +The poor agony bell, which exhausted itself in ringing over there so +puerilely to call for useless prayers, stopped at last, and, under the +closed sky, the respiration of the grand waters alone was heard in the +distance, in the universal silence. But the things continued, in the +uncertain dawn, their dialogue without words: nothing anywhere; nothing +in the old churches venerated for so long a time; nothing in the sky +where clouds and mists amass; but always, in the flight of times, the +eternal and exhausting renewal of beings; and always and at once, old +age, death, ashes-- + +That is what they were saying, in the pale half light, the things so dull +and so tired. And Ramuntcho, who had heard, pitied himself for having +hesitated so long for imaginary reasons. To himself he swore, with a +harsher despair, that this morning he was decided; that he would do it, +at the risk of everything; that nothing would make him hesitate longer. + + + +CHAPTER XIII. + +Weeks have elapsed, in preparations, in anxious uncertainties on the +manner of acting, in abrupt changes of plans and ideas. + +Between times, the reply of Uncle Ignacio has reached Etchezar. If his +nephew had spoken sooner, Ignacio has written, he would have been glad to +receive him at his house; but, seeing how he hesitated, Ignacio had +decided to take a wife, although he is already an old man, and now he has +a child two months old. Therefore, there is no protection to be expected +from that side; the exile, when he arrives there, may not find even a +home-- + +The family house has been sold, at the notary's money questions have been +settled; all the goods of Ramuntcho have been transformed into gold +pieces which are in his hand-- + +And now is the day of the supreme attempt, the great day,--and already +the thick foliage has returned to the trees, the clothing of the tall +grass covers anew the prairies; it is May. + +In the little wagon, which the famous fast horse drags, they roll on the +shady mountain paths, Arrochkoa and Ramuntcho, toward that village of +Amezqueta. They roll quickly; they plunge into the heart of an infinite +region of trees. And, as the hour goes by, all becomes more peaceful +around them, and more savage; more primitive, the hamlets; more solitary, +the Basque land. + +In the shade of the branches, on the borders of the paths, there are pink +foxgloves, silences, ferns, almost the same flora as in Brittany; these +two countries, the Basque and the Breton, resemble each other by the +granite which is everywhere and by the habitual rain; by the immobility +also, and by the continuity of the same religious dream. + +Above the two young men who have started for the adventure, thicken the +big, customary clouds, the sombre and low sky. The route which they +follow, in these mountains ever and ever higher, is deliciously green, +dug in the shade, between walls of ferns. + +Immobility of several centuries, immobility in beings and in things,--one +has more and more the consciousness of it as one penetrates farther into +this country of forests and of silence. Under this obscure veil of the +sky, where are lost the summits of the grand Pyrenees, appear and run by, +isolated houses, centenary farms, hamlets more and more rare,--and they +go always under the same vault of oaks, of ageless chestnut trees, which +twist even at the side of the path their roots like mossy serpents. They +resemble one another, those hamlets separated from one another by so much +forest, by so many branches, and inhabited by an antique race, disdainful +of all that disturbs, of all that changes: the humble church, most often +without a belfry, with a simple campanila on its gray facade, and the +square, with its wall painted for that traditional ball-game wherein, +from father to son, the men exercise their hard muscles. Everywhere +reigned the healthy peace of rustic life, the traditions of which in the +Basque land are more immutable than elsewhere. + +The few woolen caps which the two bold young men meet on their rapid +passage, incline all in a bow, from general politeness first, and from +acquaintance above all, for they are, Arrochkoa and Ramuntcho, the two +celebrated pelota players of the country;--Ramuntcho, it is true, had +been forgotten by many people, but Arrochkoa, everybody, from Bayonne to +San Sebastian, knows his face with healthy colors and the turned up ends +of his catlike mustache. + +Dividing the journey into two stages, they have slept last night at +Mendichoco. And at present they are rolling quickly, the two young men, +so preoccupied doubtless that they hardly care to regulate the pace of +their vigorous beast. + +Itchoua, however, is not with them. At the last moment, a fear has come +to Ramuntcho of this accomplice, whom he felt to be capable of +everything, even of murder; in a sudden terror, he has refused the aid of +that man, who clutched the bridle of the horse to prevent it from +starting; and feverishly, Ramuntcho has thrown gold into his hands, to +pay for his advice, to buy the liberty to act alone, the assurance, at +least, of not committing a crime: piece by piece, to break his +engagement, he has given to Itchoua a half of the agreed price. Then, +when the horse is driven at a gallop, when the implacable figure has +vanished behind a group of trees, Ramuntcho has felt his conscience +lighter-- + + "You will leave my carriage at Aranotz, at Burugoity, the inn-keeper's, +who understands," said Arrochkoa, "for, you understand, as soon as you +have accomplished your end I will leave you.--We have business with the +people of Buruzabal, horses to lead into Spain to-night, not far from +Amezqueta, and I promised to be there before ten o'clock--" + +What will they do? They do not know, the two allied friends; this will +depend on the turn that things take; they have different projects, all +bold and skilful, according to the cases which might present themselves. +Two places have been reserved, one for Ramuntcho and the other for her, +on board a big emigrant vessel on which the baggage is embarked and which +will start tomorrow night from Bordeaux carrying hundreds of Basques to +America. At this small station of Aranotz, where the carriage will leave +both of them, Ramuntcho and Gracieuse, they will take the train for +Bayonne, at three o'clock in the morning, and, at Bayonne afterward, the +Irun express to Bordeaux. It will be a hasty flight, which will not give +to the little fugitive the time to think, to regain her senses in her +terror,--doubtless also in her intoxication deliciously mortal-- + +A gown, a mantilla of Gracieuse are all ready, at the bottom of the +carriage, to replace the veil and the black uniform: things which she +wore formerly, before her vows, and which Arrochkoa found in his mother's +closets. And Ramuntcho thinks that it will be perhaps real, in a moment, +that she will be perhaps there, at his side, very near, on that narrow +seat, enveloped with him in the same travelling blanket, flying in the +midst of night, to belong to him, at once and forever;--and in thinking +of this too much, he feels again a shudder and a dizziness-- + +"I tell you that she will follow you," repeats his friend, striking him +rudely on the leg in protective encouragement, as soon as he sees +Ramuntcho sombre and lost in a dream. "I tell you that she will follow +you, I am sure! If she hesitates, well, leave the rest to me!" + +If she hesitates, then they will be violent, they are resolved, oh, not +very violent, only enough to unlace the hands of the old nuns retaining +her.--And then, they will carry her into the small wagon, where +infallibly the enlacing contact and the tenderness of her former friend +will soon turn her young head. + +How will it all happen? They do not yet know, relying a great deal on +their spirit of decision which has already dragged them out of dangerous +passes. But what they know is that they will not weaken. And they go +ahead, exciting each other; one would say that they are united now unto +death, firm and decided like two bandits at the hour when the capital +game is to be played. + +The land of thick branches which they traverse, under the oppression of +very high mountains which they do not see, is all in ravines, profound +and torn up, in precipices, where torrents roar under the green night of +the foliage. The oaks, the beeches, the chestnut trees become more and +more enormous, living through centuries off a sap ever fresh and +magnificent. A powerful verdure is strewn over that disturbed geology; +for ages it covers and classifies it under the freshness of its immovable +mantle. And this nebulous sky, almost obscure, which is familiar to the +Basque country, adds to the impression which they have of a sort of +universal meditation wherein the things are plunged; a strange penumbra +descends from everywhere, descends from the trees at first, descends from +the thick, gray veils above the branches, descends from the great +Pyrenees hidden behind the clouds. + +And, in the midst of this immense peace and of this green night, they +pass, Ramuntcho and Arrochkoa, like two young disturbers going to break +charms in the depths of forests. At all cross roads old, granite crosses +rise, like alarm signals to warn them; old crosses with this inscription, +sublimely simple, which is here something like the device of an entire +race: "O crux, ave, spes unica!" + +Soon the night will come. Now they are silent, because the hour is going, +because the moment approaches, because all these crosses on the road are +beginning to intimidate them-- + +And the day falls, under that sad veil which covers the sky. The valleys +become more savage, the country more deserted. And, at the corners of +roads, the old crosses appear, ever with their similar inscriptions: "O +crux, ave, spes unica!" + +Amezqueta, at the last twilight. They stop their carriage at an outskirt +of the village, before the cider mill. Arrochkoa is impatient to go into +the house of the sisters, vexed at arriving so late; he fears that the +door may not be opened to them. Ramuntcho, silent, lets him act. + +It is above, on the hill; it is that isolated house which a cross +surmounts and which one sees in relief in white on the darker mass of the +mountain. They recommend that as soon as the horse is rested the wagon be +brought to them, at a turn, to wait for them. Then, both go into the +avenue of trees which leads to that convent and where the thickness of +the May foliage makes the obscurity almost nocturnal. Without saying +anything to each other, without making a noise with their sandals, they +ascend in a supple and easy manner; around them the profound fields are +impregnated by the immense melancholy of the night. + +Arrochkoa knocks with his finger on the door of the peaceful house: + +"I would like to see my sister, if you please," he says to an old nun who +opens the door, astonished-- + +Before he has finished talking, a cry of joy comes from the dark +corridor, and a nun, whom one divines is young in spite of the +envelopment of her dissembling costume, comes and takes his hand. She has +recognized him by his voice,--but has she divined the other who stays +behind and does not talk?-- + +The Mother Superior has come also, and, in the darkness of the stairway, +she makes them go up to the parlor of the little country convent; then +she brings the cane-seat chairs and everyone sits down, Arrochkoa near +his sister, Ramuntcho opposite,--and they face each other at last, the +two lovers, and a silence, full of the beating of arteries, full of leaps +of hearts, full of fever, descends upon them-- + +Truly, in this place, one knows not what peace almost sweet, and a little +sepulchral also, envelopes the terrible interview; in the depth of the +chests, the hearts beat with great blows, but the words of love or of +violence, the words die before passing the lips.--And this peace, more +and more establishes itself; it seems as if a white shroud little by +little is covering everything, in order to calm and to extinguish. + +There is nothing very peculiar, however, in this humble parlor: four +walls absolutely bare under a coat of whitewash; a wooden ceiling; a +floor where one slips, so carefully waxed it is; on a table, a plaster +Virgin, already indistinct, among all the similar white things of the +background where the twilight of May is dying. And a window without +curtains, open on the grand Pyrenean horizons invaded by night.--But, +from this voluntary poverty, from this white simplicity, is exhaled a +notion of definitive impersonality, of renunciation forever; and the +irremediability of accomplished things begins to manifest itself to the +mind of Ramuntcho, while bringing to him a sort of peace, of sudden and +involuntary resignation. + +The two smugglers, immovable on their chairs, appear as silhouettes, of +wide shoulders on all this white of the walls, and of their lost features +one hardly sees the black more intense of the mustache and the eyes. The +two nuns, whose outlines are unified by the veil, seem already to be two +spectres all black-- + +"Wait, Sister Mary Angelique," says the Mother Superior to the +transformed young girl who was formerly named Gracieuse, "wait sister +till I light the lamp in order that you may at least see your brother's +face!" + +She goes out, leaving them together, and, again, silence falls on this +rare instant, perhaps unique, impossible to regain, when they are alone-- + +She comes back with a little lamp which makes the eyes of the smugglers +shine,--and with a gay voice, a kind air, asks, looking at Ramuntcho: + +"And this one? A second brother, I suppose?--" + +"Oh, no," says Arrochkoa in a singular tone. "He is only my friend." + +In truth, he is not their brother, that Ramuntcho who stays there, +ferocious and mute.--And how he would frighten the quiet nuns if they +knew what storm brings him here!-- + +The same silence returns, heavy and disquieting, on these beings who, it +seems, should talk simply of simple things; and the old Mother Superior +remarks it, is astonished by it.--But the quick eyes of Ramuntcho become +immovable, veil themselves as if they are fascinated by some invisible +tamer. Under the harsh envelope, still beating, of his chest, the +calmness, the imposed calmness continues to penetrate and to extend. On +him, doubtless, are acting the mysterious, white powers which are here in +the air; religious heredities which were asleep in the depths of his +being fill him now with unexpected respect and submissiveness; the +antique symbols dominate him: the crosses met in the evening along the +road and that plaster Virgin of the color of snow, immaculate on the +spotless white of the wall-- + +"Well, my children, talk of the things of Etchezar," says the Mother +Superior to Gracieuse and to her brother. "We shall leave you alone, if +you wish," she adds with a sign to Ramuntcho to follow her. + +"Oh, no," protests Arrochkoa, "Let him stay.--No, he is not the one--who +prevents us--" + +And the little nun, veiled in the fashion of the Middle Age, lowers her +head, to maintain her eyes hidden in the shade of her austere headdress. + +The door remains open, the window remains open; the house, the things +retain their air of absolute confidence, of absolute security, against +violations and sacrilege. Now two other sisters, who are very old, set a +small table, put two covers, bring to Arrochkoa and to his friend a +little supper, a loaf of bread, cheese, cake, grapes from the arbor. In +arranging these things they have a youthful gaiety, a babble almost +childish--and all this is strangely opposed to the ardent violence which +is here, hushed, thrown back into the depth of minds, as under the blows +of some mace covered with white-- + +And, in spite of themselves, they are seated at the table, the two +smugglers, opposite each other, yielding to insistence and eating +absent-mindedly the frugal things, on a cloth as white as the walls. +Their broad shoulders, accustomed to loads, lean on the backs of the +little chairs and make their frail wood crack. Around them come and go +the Sisters, ever with their discreet talk and their puerile laugh, which +escape, somewhat softened, from under their veils. Alone, she remains +mute and motionless, Sister Mary Angelique: standing near her brother who +is seated, she places her hand on his powerful shoulder; so lithe beside +him that she looks like a saint of a primitive church picture. Ramuntcho, +sombre, observes them both; he had not been able to see yet the face of +Gracieuse, so severely her headdress framed it. They resemble each other +still, the brother and the sister; in their very long eyes, which have +acquired expressions more than ever different remains something +inexplicably similar, persists the same flame, that flame which impelled +one toward adventures and the life of the muscles, the other toward +mystic dreams, toward mortification and annihilation of flesh. But she +has become as frail as he is robust; her breast doubtless is no more, nor +her hips; the black vestment wherein her body remains hidden falls +straight like a furrow enclosing nothing carnal. + +And now, for the first time, they are face to face, Gracieuse and +Ramuntcho; their eyes have met and gazed on one another. She does not +lower her head before him; but it is as from an infinite distance that +she looks at him, it is as from behind white mists that none may scale, +as from the other side of an abyss, as from the other side of death; very +soft, nevertheless, her glance indicates that she is as if she were +absent, gone to tranquil and inaccessible other places.--And it is +Ramuntcho at last who, still more tamed, lowers his ardent eyes before +her virgin eyes. + +They continue to babble, the Sisters; they would like to retain them both +at Amezqueta for the night: the weather, they say, is so black, and a +storm threatens.--M. the Cure, who went out to take communion to a +patient in the mountain, will come back; he has known Arrochkoa at +Etchezar when a vicar there; he would be glad to give him a room in the +parish house--and one to his friend also, of course-- + +But no, Arrochkoa refuses, after a questioning glance at Ramuntcho. It is +impossible to stay in the village; they will even go at once, or after a +few moments of conversation, for they are expected on the Spanish +frontier.--Gracieuse who, at first, in her mortal disturbance of mind, +had not dared to talk, begins to question her brother. Now in Basque, +then in French, she asks for news of those whom she has forever +abandoned: + +"And mother? All alone now in the house, even at night?" + +"Oh, no," says Arrochkoa, "Catherine watches over her and sleeps at the +house." + +"And how is your child, Arrochkoa, has he been christened? What is his +name? Lawrence, doubtless, like his grandfather." + +Etchezar, their village, is separated from Amezqueta by some sixty +kilometres, in a land without more means of communication than in the +past centuries: + +"Oh, in spite of the distance," says the little nun, "I get news of you +sometimes. Last month, people here had met on the market place of +Hasparren, women of our village; that is how I learned--many things.--At +Easter I had hoped to see you; I was told that there would be a ball-game +at Erricalde and that you would come to play there; then I said to myself +that perhaps you would come here--and, while the festival lasted, I +looked often at the road through this window, to see if you were +coming--" + +And she shows the window, open on the blackness of the savage +country--from which ascends an immense silence, with, from time to time, +the noise of spring, intermittent musical notes of crickets and +tree-toads. + +Hearing her talk so quietly, Ramuntcho feels confounded by this +renunciation of all things; she appears to him still more irrevocably +changed, far-off--poor little nun!--Her name was Gracieuse; now her name +is Sister Mary Angelique, and she has no relatives; impersonal here, in +this little house with white walls, without terrestrial hope and without +desire, perhaps--one might as well say that she has departed for the +regions of the grand oblivion of death. And yet, she smiles, quite serene +now and apparently not even suffering. + +Arrochkoa looks at Ramuntcho, questions him with a piercing eye +accustomed to fathom the black depths--and, tamed himself by all this +unexpected peace, he understands very well that his bold comrade dares no +longer, that all the projects have fallen, that all is useless and inert +in presence of the invisible wall with which his sister is surrounded. At +moments, pressed to end all in one way or in another, in a haste to break +this charm or to submit to it and to fly before it, he pulls his watch, +says that it is time to go, because of the friends who are waiting for +them.--The Sisters know well who these friends are and why they are +waiting but they are not affected by this: Basques themselves, daughters +and granddaughters of Basques, they have the blood of smugglers in their +veins and consider such things indulgently-- + +At last, for the first time, Gracieuse titters the name of Ramuntcho; not +daring, however, to address him directly, she asks her brother, with a +calm smile: + +"Then he is with you, Ramuntcho, now? You work together?" + +A silence follows, and Arrochkoa looks at Ramuntcho. + +"No," says the latter, in a slow and sombre voice, "no--I, I go to-morrow +to America--" + +Every word of this reply, harshly scanned, is like a sound of trouble and +of defiance in the midst of that strange serenity. She leans more heavily +on her brother's shoulder, the little nun, and Ramuntcho, conscious of +the profound blow which he has struck, looks at her and envelopes her +with his tempting eyes, having regained his audacity, attractive and +dangerous in the last effort of his heart full of love, of his entire +being of youth and of flame made for tenderness.--Then, for an uncertain +minute, it seems as if the little convent had trembled; it seems as if +the white powers of the air recoiled, went out like sad, unreal mists +before this young dominator, come here to hurl the triumphant appeal of +life. And the silence which follows is the heaviest of all the silent +moments which have interrupted already that species of drama played +almost without words-- + +At last, Sister Mary Angelique talks, and talks to Ramuntcho himself. +Really it does not seem as if her heart had just been torn supremely by +the announcement of that departure, nor as if she had just shuddered +under that lover's look.--With a voice which little by little becomes +firmer in softness, she says very simple things, as to any friend. + +"Oh, yes--Uncle Ignacio?--I had always thought that you would go to +rejoin him there.--We shall all pray the Holy Virgin to accompany you in +your voyage--" + +And it is the smuggler who lowers the head, realizing that all is ended, +that she is lost forever, the little companion of his childhood; that she +has been buried in an inviolable shroud.--The words of love and of +temptation which he had thought of saying, the projects which he had +revolved in his mind for months, all these seemed insensate, +sacrilegious, impossible things, childish bravadoes.--Arrochkoa, who +looks at him attentively, is under the same irresistible and light charm; +they understand each other and, to one another, without words, they +confess that there is nothing to do, that they will never dare-- + +Nevertheless an anguish still human appears in the eyes of Sister Mary +Angelique when Arrochkoa rises for the definite departure: she prays, in +a changed voice, for them to stay a moment longer. And Ramuntcho suddenly +feels like throwing himself on his knees in front of her; his head on the +hem of her veil, sobbing all the tears that stifle him; like begging for +mercy, like begging for mercy also of that Mother Superior who has so +soft an air; like telling both of them that this sweetheart of his +childhood was his hope, his courage, his life, and that people must have +a little pity, people must give her back to him, because, without her, +there is no longer anything.--All that his heart contains that is +infinitely good is exalted at present into an immense necessity to +implore, into an outbreak of supplicating prayer and also into a +confidence in the kindness, in the pity of others-- + +And who knows, if he had dared formulate that great prayer of pure +tenderness, who knows what he might have awakened of kindness also, and +of tenderness and of humanity in the poor, black-veiled girl?--Perhaps +this old Mother Superior herself, this old, dried-up girl with childish +smile and grave, pure eyes, would have opened her arms to him, as to a +son, understanding everything, forgiving everything, despite the rules +and despite the vows? And perhaps Gracieuse might have been returned to +him, without kidnapping, without deception, almost excused by her +companions of the cloister. Or at last, if that was impossible, she would +have bade him a long farewell, consoling, softened by a kiss of +immaterial love-- + +But no, he stays there mute on his chair. Even that prayer he cannot +make. And it is the hour to go, decidedly. Arrochkoa is up, agitated, +calling him with an imperious sign of the head. Then he straightens up +also his proud bust and takes his cap to follow Arrochkoa. They express +their thanks for the little supper which was given to them and they say +good-night, timidly. During their entire visit they were very respectful, +almost timid, the two superb smugglers. And, as if hope had not just been +undone, as if one of them was not leaving behind him his life, they +descend quietly the neat stairway, between the white walls, while the +good Sisters light the way with their little lamp. + +"Come, Sister Mary Angelique," gaily proposes the Mother Superior, in her +frail, infantile voice, "we shall escort them to the end of our avenue, +you know, near the village." + +Is she an old fairy, sure of her power, or a simple and unconscious +woman, playing without knowing it, with a great, devouring fire?--It was +all finished; the parting had been accomplished; the farewell accepted; +the struggle stifled under white wadding,--and now the two who adored +each other are walking side by side, outside, in the tepid night of +spring!--in the amorous, enveloping night, under the cover of the new +leaves and on the tall grass, among all the saps that ascend in the midst +of the sovereign growth of universal life. + +They walk with short steps, through this exquisite obscurity, as in +silent accord, to make the shaded path last longer, both mute, in the +ardent desire and the intense fear of contact of their clothes, of a +touch of their hands. Arrochkoa and the Mother Superior follow them +closely, on their heels; without talking, nuns with their sandals, +smugglers with their rope soles, they go through these soft, dark spots +without making more noise than phantoms, and their little cortege, slow +and strange, descends toward the wagon in a funereal silence. Silence +also around them, everywhere in the grand, ambient black, in the depth of +the mountains and the woods. And, in the sky without stars, sleep the big +clouds, heavy with all the water that the soil awaits and which will fall +to-morrow to make the woods still more leafy, the grass still higher; the +big clouds above their heads cover all the splendor of the southern +summer which so often, in their childhood, charmed them together, +disturbed them together, but which Ramuntcho will doubtless never see +again and which in the future Gracieuse will have to look at with eyes of +one dead, without understanding nor recognizing it-- + +There is no one around them, in the little obscure alley, and the village +seems asleep already. The night has fallen quite; its grand mystery is +scattered everywhere, on the mountains and the savage valleys.--And, how +easy it would be to execute what these two young men have resolved, in +that solitude, with that wagon which is ready and that fast horse!-- + +However, without having talked, without having touched each other, they +come, the lovers, to that turn of the path where they must bid each other +an eternal farewell. The wagon is there, held by a boy; the lantern is +lighted and the horse impatient. The Mother Superior stops: it is, +apparently, the last point of the last walk which they will take together +in this world,--and she feels the power, that old nun, to decide that it +will be thus, without appeal. With the same little, thin voice, almost +gay, she says: + +"Come, Sister, say good-bye." + +And she says that with the assurance of a Fate whose decrees of death are +not disputable. + +In truth, nobody attempts to resist her order, impassibly given. He is +vanquished, the rebellious Ramuntcho, oh, quite vanquished by the +tranquil, white powers; trembling still from the battle which has just +come to an end in him, he lowers his head, without will now, and almost +without thought, as under the influence of some sleeping potion-- + +"Come, Sister, say good-bye," the old, tranquil Fate has said. Then, +seeing that Gracieuse has only taken Arrochkoa's hand, she adds: + +"Well, you do not kiss your brother?--" + +Doubtless, the little Sister Mary Angelique asks for nothing better, to +kiss him with all her heart, with all her soul; to clasp him, her +brother, to lean on his shoulder and to seek his protection, at that hour +of superhuman sacrifice when she must let the cherished one leave her +without even a word of love.--And still, her kiss has in it something +frightened, at once drawn back; the kiss of a nun, somewhat similar to +the kiss of one dead.--When will she ever see him again, that brother, +who is not to leave the Basque country, however? When will she have news +of her mother, of the house, of the village, from some passer-by who will +stop here, coming from Etchezar?-- + +"We will pray," she says again, "to the Holy Virgin to protect you in +your long voyage--" + +--And how they go; slowly they turn back, like silent shades, toward the +humble convent which the cross protects, and the two tamed smugglers, +immovable on the road, look at their veils, darker than the night of the +trees, disappearing in the obscure avenue. + +Oh! she is wrecked also, the one who will disappear in the darkness of +the little, shady hill.--But she is nevertheless soothed by white, +peaceful vapors, and all that she suffers will soon be quieted under a +sort of sleep. To-morrow she will take again, until death, the course of +her strangely simple existence; impersonal, devoted to a series of daily +duties which never change, absorbed in a reunion of creatures almost +neutral, who have abdicated everything, she will be able to walk with +eyes lifted ever toward the soft, celestial mirage-- + +O crux, ave, spes unica!-- + +To live, without variety or truce to the end, between the white walls of +a cell always the same, now here, then elsewhere, at the pleasure of a +strange will, in one of those humble village convents to which one has +not even the leisure to become attached. On this earth, to possess +nothing and to desire nothing, to wait for nothing, to hope for nothing. +To accept as empty and transitory the fugitive hours of this world, and +to feel freed from everything, even from love, as much as by death.--The +mystery of such lives remains forever unintelligible to those young men +who are there, made for the daily battle, beautiful beings of instinct +and of strength, a prey to all the desires; created to enjoy life and to +suffer from it, to love it and to continue it-- + +O crux, ave, spes unica!--One sees them no longer, they have re-entered +their little, solitary convent. + +The two men have not exchanged even a word on their abandoned +undertaking, on the ill-defined cause which for the first time has undone +their courage; they feel, toward one another, almost a sense of shame of +their sudden and insurmountable timidity. + +For an instant their proud heads were turned toward the nuns slowly +fleeing; now they look at each other through the night. + +They are going to part, and probably forever: Arrochkoa puts into his +friends hands the reins of the little wagon which, according to his +promise, he lends to him: + +"Well, my poor Ramuntcho!" he says, in a tone of commiseration hardly +affectionate. + +And the unexpressed end of the phrase signifies clearly: + +"Go, since you have failed; and I have to go and meet my friends--" + +Ramuntcho would have kissed him with all his heart for the last +farewell,--and in this embrace of the brother of the beloved one, he +would have shed doubtless good, hot tears which, for a moment at least, +would have cured him a little. + +But no, Arrochkoa has become again the Arrochkoa of the bad days, the +gambler without soul, that only bold things interest. Absentmindedly, he +touches Ramuntcho's hand: + +"Well, good-bye!--Good luck--" + +And, with silent steps, he goes toward the smugglers, toward the +frontier, toward the propitious darkness. + +Then Ramuntcho, alone in the world now, whips the little, mountain horse +who gallops with his light tinkling of bells.--That train which will pass +by Aranotz, that vessel which will start from Bordeaux--an instinct +impels Ramuntcho not to miss them. Mechanically he hastens, no longer +knowing why, like a body without a mind which continues to obey an +ancient impulsion, and, very quickly, he who has no aim and no hope in +the world, plunges into the savage country, into the thickness of the +woods, in all that profound blackness of the night of May, which the +nuns, from their elevated window, see around them-- + +For him the native land is closed, closed forever; finished are the +delicious dreams of his first years. He is a plant uprooted from the +dear, Basque soil and which a breath of adventure blows elsewhere. + +At the horse's neck, gaily the bells tinkle, in the silence of the +sleeping woods; the light of the lantern, which runs hastily, shows to +the sad fugitive the under side of branches, fresh verdure of oaks; by +the wayside, flowers of France; from distance to distance, the walls of a +familiar hamlet, of an old church,--all the things which he will never +see again, unless it be, perhaps, in a doubtful and very distant old +age-- + +In front of his route, there is America, exile without probable return, +an immense new world, full of surprises and approached now without +courage: an entire life, very long, doubtless, during which his mind +plucked from here will have to suffer and to harden over there; his vigor +spend and exhaust itself none knows where, in unknown labors and +struggles-- + +Above, in their little convent, in their sepulchre with walls so white, +the tranquil nuns recite their evening prayers-- + +O crux, ave, spes unica!-- + +THE END. + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Ramuntcho, by Pierre Loti + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK RAMUNTCHO *** + +This file should be named ramun10.txt or ramun10.zip +Corrected EDITIONS of our eBooks get a new NUMBER, ramun11.txt +VERSIONS based on separate sources get new LETTER, ramun10a.txt + +Produced by Dagny, dagnypg@yahoo.com +and David Widger, widger@cecomet.net + +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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