Ninety-Three
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They were startled, but not crushed. The results of conquest have sometimes proved more fatal.
Like all glories, it was accompanied by a loud noise and a cloud of dust.
Having upset the book, René-Jean now came down from the chair.
For a moment, silence and dismay prevailed; for victory has its terrors. The three children clung to one another's hands and gazed from a distance upon the ruins of this monstrous volume.
After a brief pause, However, Gros-Alain went up to it with an air of determination and gave it a kick.
This was quite enough; the appetite for destruction is never sated. René-Jean gave it a kick too, and Georgette gave it another, which landed her on the floor, but in a sitting position, of which she at once took advantage to throw herself on Saint Bartholomew. All respect was now at an end. René-Jean and Gros-Alain pounced upon it, jubilant, wild with excitement, triumphant, and pitiless, tearing the prints, slashing the leaves, tearing out the markers, scratching the binding, detaching the gilded leather, pulling the nails from the silver corners, breaking the parchment, defacing the noble text, – working with hands, feet, nails, and teeth; rosy, laughing, and fierce, they fell upon the defenceless evangelist like three angels of prey.
They annihilated Armenia, Judea, and Benevento, where the relics of the saint are to be found; Nathanael, who is supposed by some authorities to be the same as Bartholomew; Pope Gelasius, who declared the Gospel of Nathanael-Bartholomew apocryphal; and every portrait and map. Indeed, they were so utterly engrossed in their pitiless destruction of the old book, that a mouse ran by unobserved.
It might well be called extermination.
To cut to pieces history, legend, science, miracles true or false, ecclesiastical Latin, superstition, fanaticism, and mysteries, – thus to tear a whole religion to tatters, – might be considered a work of time for three giants. And even for three children it was no small matter; they labored for hours, but at last they conquered, and nothing remained of Saint-Bartholomew.
When they came to the end, when the last page was detached and the last print thrown on the floor, when all that was left in the skeleton binding were fragments of text and tattered portraits, René-Jean rose to his feet, looked at the floor all strewn with scattered leaves, and clapped his hands in triumph.
Gros-Alain immediately did the same.
Georgette rose, picked up a leaf from the floor, leaned against the window-sill, that was just on a level with her chin, and began to tear the big page into tiny bits and throw them out of the window.
When René-Jean and Gros-Alain saw what she was doing, they were at once eager to follow her example; and picking up the pages, they tore them over and over again, page by page, and threw the fragments outside the window as she had done. Thus almost the whole of that ancient book, torn by those destructive little fingers, went flying to the winds. Georgette dreamily watched the fluttering groups of tiny white papers blown about by every wind, and cried, —
"Butterflies."
And here ended the massacre, its last traces vanishing in thin air.
VII
Thus for the second time was Saint Bartholomew put to death, – he who had already suffered martyrdom in the year of our Lord 49.
Meanwhile the evening was drawing on, and as the heat increased a certain drowsiness pervaded the atmosphere. Georgette's eyes were growing heavy; René-Jean went to his crib, pulled out the sack of straw that served him for a mattress, dragged it to the window, and stretching himself out upon it, said, "Let us go to bed."
Gros-Alain leaned his head against René-Jean, Georgette laid hers on Gros-Alain, and thus the three culprits fell sound asleep.
Warm breezes stole in at the open windows; the scent of wild-flowers borne upon the wind from the ravines and hills mingled with the breath of evening; Nature lay calm and sympathetic; radiance, peace, and love pervaded the world; the sunlight touched each object with a soft caress; and one felt in every pore of his being the harmony that springs from the profound tenderness of inanimate things. Infinity holds within itself the essence of motherhood; creation is a miracle in full bloom, whose magnitude is perfected by its benevolence. One seemed to be conscious of an invisible presence exercising its mysterious influence in the dread conflict between created beings, protecting the helpless against the powerful; beauty meanwhile on every side, its splendor only to be equalled by its tenderness. The landscape, calm and peaceful, displayed the enchanting hazy effects of light and shade over the fields and river; the smoke rose upwards to the clouds, like reveries melting into dreams; flocks of birds circled above the Tourgue; the swallows peeped in at the windows, as much as to say, "We have come to see if the children are sleeping comfortably." And pure and lovable they looked as they lay motionless, prettily grouped, like little half-naked Cupids, their united ages amounting to less than nine years. Vague smiles hovered round their lips, reflecting dreams of Paradise. Perchance Almighty God was whispering in their ears, since they were of those whom all human tongues unite to call the weak and the blessed. Theirs was the innocence that commands veneration. All was silent, as if the breath that stirred those tender bosoms were the business of the universe, and all creation paused to listen; not a leaf rustled, not a blade of grass quivered. It seemed as if the wide starry universe held its breath lest these three lowly but angelic slumberers should be disturbed; and nothing could be more sublime than the impressive reverence of Nature in the presence of this insignificance.
The declining sun had nearly reached the horizon, when suddenly, amid this profound peace, lightning flashed from the forest, followed by a savage report. A cannon had just been fired. The echoes seized this sound, and magnified it to a dreadful din, and so frightful was the prolonged reverberation from hill to hill that it roused Georgette.
She raised her head a little, lifted her finger, listened, then said, —
"Boom!"
The noise ceased, and silence returned again. Georgette put her head back on Gros-Alain, and fell asleep again.
BOOK IV
THE MOTHER
I
DEATH PASSES
That evening the mother, whom we have seen wandering onward with no settled plan, had walked all day long. This was, to be sure, a matter of every-day occurrence. She kept on her way without pause or rest; for the sleep of exhaustion in some chance corner could no more be called rest than could the stray crumbs that she picked up here and there like the birds be considered nourishment. She ate and slept just enough to keep her alive.
She had spent the previous night in a forsaken barn, – a wreck such as civil wars leave behind them. In a deserted field she had found four walls, an open door, a little straw, and the remains of a roof, and on this straw beneath the roof she threw herself down, feeling the rats glide under as she lay there, and watching the stars rise through the roof. She slept several hours; then waking in the middle of the night, she resumed her journey, so as to get over as much ground as possible before the excessive heat of the day came on. For the summer pedestrian midnight is more favorable than noon.
She followed as best she could the brief directions given her by the Vautortes peasant, and kept as far as possible toward the west. Had there been any one near, he might have heard her incessantly muttering half aloud, "La Tourgue." She seemed to know no other word, save the names of her children.
And as she walked she dreamed. She thought of the adventures that had befallen her, of all she had suffered and endured, of the encounters, the indignities, the conditions imposed, the bargains offered and accepted, now for a shelter, now for a bit of bread, or simply to be directed on her way. A wretched woman is more unfortunate than a wretched man, inasmuch as she is the instrument of pleasure. Terrible indeed was this wandering journey! But all this would count for nothing if she could but find her children.
On that day her first adventure was in a village through which her route lay; the dawn was barely breaking, and the dusk of night still shrouded all the surrounding objects; but in the principal village street a few doors were half open, and curious faces peeped out of the windows. The inhabitants seemed restless like a startled hive of bees, – a disturbance due to the noise of wheels and the clanking of iron, which had reached their ears.
On the square in front of the church, a frightened group was staring at some object that was descending the hill towards the village. It was a four-wheeled wagon drawn by five horses, whose harness was composed of chains, and upon which could be seen something that looked like a pile of long joists, in the middle of which lay an object whose vague outlines were hidden by a large canvas resembling a pall. Ten horsemen rode in front of the wagon, and ten behind. They wore three-cornered hats, and above their shoulders rose what seemed like the points of naked sabres. The whole procession advanced slowly, its dark outlines sharply defined against the horizon; everything looked black, – the wagon, the harness, and the riders. On entering the village they approached the square with the pale glimmer of the dawn behind them.
It had grown somewhat lighter while the wagon was descending the hill, and now the escort was plainly to be seen, – a procession of ghosts to ail intents, for no man uttered a word.
The horsemen were gendarmes; they really were carrying drawn sabres, and the canvas that covered the wagon was black.
The wretched wandering mother, entering the village from the opposite direction, just as the wagon and the gendarmes reached the square, approached the crowd of peasants and heard voices whispering the following questions and answers, —
"What is that?"
"It's the guillotine."
"Where does it come from?"
"From Fougères."
"Where is it going?"
"I don't know. They say it is going to some castle near Parigné."
"Parigné!"
"Let it go wherever it will, so that it does not stop here."
There was something ghostlike in the combination of this great wagon with its shrouded burden, the gendarmes, the clanking chains of the team, and the silent men, in the early dawn.
The group crossed the square and passed out from the village, which lay in a hollow between two hills. In a quarter of an hour the peasants who had stood there like men petrified saw the funereal procession reappear on the summit of the western hill. The great wheels jolted in the ruts, the chains of the harness rattled as they were shaken by the early morning wind, the sabres shone; the sun was rising, and at a bend of the road all vanished from the sight.
It was at this very moment that Georgette woke up in the library beside her still sleeping brothers, and wished her rosy feet good-morning.
II
DEATH SPEAKS
The mother had watched this dark object as it passed by, but she neither understood nor tried to understand it, absorbed as she was in the vision that pictured her children lost in the darkness.
She too left the village soon after the procession which had just passed, and followed the same road at some distance behind the second squad of gendarmes. Suddenly the word "guillotine" came back to her, and she repeated it to herself; now, this untaught peasant woman, Michelle Fléchard, had no idea of its meaning, but her instinct warned her; she shuddered involuntarily, and it seemed dreadful to her to be walking behind it, – so she turned to the left, quitting the highway, and entered a wood, which was the Forest of Fougères.
After roaming about for some time she spied a belfry and the roofs of houses, – evidently a village on the edge of the forest; and she went towards it, for she was hungry.
It was one of those hamlets where the Republicans had established a military outpost.
She went as far as the square in front of the mayoralty-house.
Here, too, there was agitation and anxiety. A crowd had gathered in front of the flight of steps leading to the hall, and here, standing on one of these steps was a man accompanied by soldiers, who held in his hand a large unfolded placard. A drummer stood on his right, and on his left a bill-sticker, with his brush and paste-pot. Upon the balcony, over the door, stood the mayor, wearing a tricolored scarf over his peasant's dress.
The man with the placard was a public crier.
He wore a shoulder-belt from which hung a small wallet, in token that he was going from village to village proclaiming certain news throughout the district.
Just as Michelle Fléchard arrived, he had unfolded the placard and was beginning to read in a loud voice, —
"THE FRENCH REPUBLIC ONE AND INDIVISIBLE."
The drum beat. There was a stir in the crowd. A few took off their caps, others jammed their hats more firmly on their heads; in those times one could almost recognize a man's political views, throughout that district, by the fashion of his head-gear; hats were worn by Royalists, caps by Republicans. The confused murmur of voices ceased, and all listened as the crier proceeded to read: —
"By virtue of the orders given to as, and of the authority vested in us by the Committee of Public Safety, – "
Again the drum beat, and again the crier continued: —
" – and in execution of the decree of the National Convention, that outlaws all rebels taken with arms in their hands, and declares that capital punishment shall be inflicted on any man who harbors them or aids and abets in their escape, – "
One peasant whispered to his neighbor, —
"What does capital punishment mean?"
"I don't know," the neighbor replied.
The crier waved the placard: —
" – in accordance with Article 17 of the law of the 30th of April, that gives to the delegates and sub-delegates full authority over the rebels, – "
Here he made a pause, then resumed: —
" – the individuals designated under the following names and surnames are declared outlawed: – "
The audience listened with a close attention.
The voice of the crier sounded like thunder: —
" – Lantenac, brigand, – "
"That's Monseigneur," muttered a peasant.
And the whisper ran through the crowd, "It's Monseigneur."
And the crier pursued, —
" – Lantenac, ci-devant Marquis, brigand; the Imânus, brigand; – "
Two peasants looked askance at each other.
"That's Gouge-le-Bruant."
"Yes; that's Brise-Bleu."
The crier went on reading the list: —
"Grand-Francoeur, brigand; – "
A murmur-ran through the crowd.
"He's a priest."
"Yes, – the Abbé Turmeau."
"I know; he is a curé somewhere near the forest of La Chapelle."
"And a brigand," added a man in a cap.
The crier went on: —
" – Boisnouveau, brigand; the two brothers Pique-en-bois, brigands; Houzard, brigand; – "
"That's Monsieur de Quélen," said a peasant.
" – Panier, brigand; – "
"That's Monsieur Sepher."
" – Place-Nette, brigand; – "
"That's Monsieur Jamois."
Paying no heed to these remarks, the crier continued: —
" – Guinoiseau, brigand; Chatenay, called Robi, brigand; – "
One peasant whispered, "Guinoiseau is the same person we call Le Blond; Chatenay comes from Saint-Ouen."
" – Hoisnard, brigand; – " continued the crier.
"He is from Ruillé," some one in the crowd was heard to say.
"Yes, that's Branche-d'Or."
"His brother was killed at the attack of Pontorson."
"Yes, Hoisnard-Malonnière."
"A fine-looking fellow of nineteen."
"Attention!" called out the crier; "here is the end of the list: —
" – Belle-Vigne, brigand; La Musette, brigand; Sabre-tout, brigand; Brin-d'Amour, brigand; – "
Here a lad jogged the elbow of a young girl; she smiled.
The crier continued, —
" – Chante-en-hiver, brigand; Le Chat, brigand – "
"That's Moulard," said a peasant.
" – Tabouze, brigand. – "
"That's Gauffre," said another.
"There are two of the Gauffres," added some woman.
"Good fellows, both of them," muttered a lad.
The crier waved the placard, the drum beat to command silence, and then he resumed the reading:
" – And the above-named, wheresoever they may be taken, as soon as their identity is proved, will be put to death upon the spot; – "
There was a movement in the crowd.
The crier pursued, —
" – and any man who protects them, or aids them to escape, will be brought before a court-martial and forthwith put to death. Signed – "
The silence grew intense.
" – Signed: Delegate of the Committee of Public Safety,
"CIMOURDAIN.""A priest," said a peasant.
"The former curé of Parigné," remarked another.
"Turmeau and Cimourdain," added a townsman, – "a White priest and a Blue one."
"And both of them black," remarked another townsman.
The mayor, who stood on the balcony, lifted his hat as he cried, —
"Long live the Republic!"
A roll of the drum made it known that the crier had not yet finished. He waved his hand.
"Listen," he said, "to the last four lines of the Government proclamation. They are signed by the chief of the exploring column of the Côtes-du-Nord, Commander Gauvain."
"Listen," cried voices in the crowd.
The crier read, —
"Under penalty of death, – "
All were silent.
" – it is forbidden, in pursuance with the above, to lend aid or succor to the nineteen rebels herein named, who are at present shut up and besieged in the Tourgue."
"What's that?" cried a voice.
It was a woman's voice, – the voice of the mother.
III
MUTTERINGS AMONG THE PEASANTS
Michelle Fléchard had mingled with the crowd. She had not listened, but some things one may hear without listening. She had heard the word "Tourgue," and raised her head.
"What's that? Did he say La Tourgue?"
People looked at her. The ragged woman seemed like one dazed.
Voices were heard to murmur, "She looks like a brigand."
A peasant woman, carrying a basket of buckwheat cakes, went up to her and whispered, —
"Keep still."
Michelle Fléchard stared stupidly; again she had lost all power of comprehension. That name, "La Tourgue" passed like a flash of lightning, and night closed once more. Had she no right to ask for information? What made the people look at her so strangely?
Meanwhile the drum had beaten for the last time, the bill-poster pasted up the notice, the mayor went back into the house, the crier started for some other village, and the crowd dispensed.
One group was still standing in front of the notice. Michelle Fléchard drew near.
They were commenting on the names of the outlaws.
Both peasants and townsmen were there; that is to say, both Whites and Blues.
"After all, they have not caught everybody," said a peasant. "Nineteen is just nineteen, and no more. They have not got Riou, nor Benjamin Moulins, nor Goupil from the parish of Andouillé."
"Nor Lorieul, of Monjean," remarked another.
And thus they went on: —
"Nor Brice-Denys."
"Nor François Dudouet."
"Yes, they have the one from Laval."
"Nor Huet, from Launey-Villiers."
"Nor Grégis."
"Nor Pilon."
"Nor Filleul."
"Nor Ménicent."
"Nor Guéharrée."
"Nor the three brothers Logerais."
"Nor Monsieur Lechandellier de Pierreville."
"Idiots!" exclaimed a stern-looking, white-haired man. "They have them all, if they have Lantenac."
"They have not got him yet," muttered one of the young fellows.
"Lantenac once captured, the soul is gone. The death of Lantenac means death to the Vendée," said the old man.
"Who is this Lantenac?" asked a townsman.
"He is a ci-devant," replied another.
And another added, —
"He is one of those who shoot women."
Michelle Fléchard heard this, and said, —
"That's true."
When people turned to look at her she added, —
"Because he shot me."
It was an odd thing to say; as if a living woman were to call herself dead. People looked at her suspiciously.
And truly she was a startling object, trembling at every sound, wild-looking, shivering, with an animal-like fear; so terrified was she that she frightened other people. There is a certain weakness in the despair of a woman that is dreadful to witness. It is like looking upon a being against whom destiny has done its worst. But peasants are not analytical; they see nothing below the surface. One of them muttered, "She might be a spy."
"Keep still and go away," whispered the kind-hearted woman who had spoken to her before.
"I am doing no harm," replied Michelle Fléchard; "I am only looking for my children."
The kind woman winked at those who were starring at Michelle Fléchard, and touching her forehead with her finger, said, —
"She is a simpleton."
Then drawing her aside, she gave her a buckwheat cake.
Without even stopping to thank her, Michelle Fléchard began to devour the cake like one ravenous for food.
"You see, she eats just like an animal: she must be a simpleton;" and one by one the crowd gradually dispersed.
After she had eaten, Michelle Fléchard said to the peasant woman, —
"Well, I have finished my cake; now, where is the Tourgue?"
"There she is at it again!" cried the peasant woman.
"I must go the Tourgue. Show me the road to La Tourgue."
"Never!" cried the peasant woman. "You would like to be killed, I suppose; but whether you would or not, I don't know the way myself. You must surely be insane. Listen to me, my poor woman. You look tired; will you come to my house and rest?"
"I never test," replied the mother.
"And her feet are all torn," muttered the peasant woman.
"Didn't you hear me telling you that my children were stolen from me, one little girl and two little boys? I came from the carnichot in the forest. You can ask Tellmarch le Caimand about me, and also the man I met in the field down yonder. The Caimand cared me. It seems I had something broken. All those things really happened. Besides, there is Sergeant Radoub; you may ask him; he will tell you, for it was he who met us in the forest. Three, – I tell you there were three children, and the oldest one's name was René-Jean: I can prove it to you; and Gros-Alain and Georgette were the two others. My husband is dead; they killed him. He was a farmer at Siscoignard. You look like a kind woman. Show me the way. I am not mad, I am a mother. I have lost my children, and am looking for them. I do not know exactly where I came from. I slept last night on the straw in a barn. I am going to the Tourgue. I am not a thief. You can't help seeing that I am telling you the truth. You ought to help me to find my children. I don't belong to this neighborhood. I have been shot, but I do not know where it happened."
The peasant woman shook her head, saying, —
"Listen, traveller; in times of revolution you must not say things that cannot be understood, for you might be arrested."
"But the Tourgue," cried the mother; "madam, for the love of the Infant Jesus and of the Blessed Virgin in Paradise I pray you, I beg of you, I beseech you, madam, tell me how I can find the road to the Tourgue!"
Then the peasant woman grew angry.
"I don't know! And if I did, I would not tell you! It is a bad place. People don't go there."
"But I am going there," said the mother.
And once more she started on her way.
The woman, as she watched her depart, muttered to herself: —
"She must have something to eat, whatever she does;" and running after Michelle Fléchard, she put a dark-looking cake in her hand, saying, —
"There is something for your supper."
Michelle Fléchard took the buckwheat-cake, but she neither turned nor made reply as she pursued her way.
She went forth from the village, and just as she reached the last houses she met three little ragged and barefooted children trotting along. She went up to them and said, —
"Here are two boys and a girl;" and when she saw them looking at her bread, she gave it to them.