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diff --git a/1433-0.txt b/1433-0.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..f0dc5b0 --- /dev/null +++ b/1433-0.txt @@ -0,0 +1,1414 @@ +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 1433 *** + +THE RED INN + + +By Honore De Balzac + + + +Translated by Katharine Prescott Wormeley + + + + + DEDICATION + + To Monsieur le Marquis de Custine. + + + + + +THE RED INN + + +In I know not what year a Parisian banker, who had very extensive +commercial relations with Germany, was entertaining at dinner one of +those friends whom men of business often make in the markets of the +world through correspondence; a man hitherto personally unknown to him. +This friend, the head of a rather important house in Nuremburg, was a +stout worthy German, a man of taste and erudition, above all a man +of pipes, having a fine, broad, Nuremburgian face, with a square open +forehead adorned by a few sparse locks of yellowish hair. He was the +type of the sons of that pure and noble Germany, so fertile in honorable +natures, whose peaceful manners and morals have never been lost, even +after seven invasions. + +This stranger laughed with simplicity, listened attentively, and drank +remarkably well, seeming to like champagne as much perhaps as he liked +his straw-colored Johannisburger. His name was Hermann, which is that +of most Germans whom authors bring upon their scene. Like a man who does +nothing frivolously, he was sitting squarely at the banker's table and +eating with that Teutonic appetite so celebrated throughout Europe, +saying, in fact, a conscientious farewell to the cookery of the great +Careme. + +To do honor to his guest the master of the house had invited a few +intimate friends, capitalists or merchants, and several agreeable and +pretty women, whose pleasant chatter and frank manners were in harmony +with German cordiality. Really, if you could have seen, as I saw, this +joyous gathering of persons who had drawn in their commercial claws, and +were speculating only on the pleasures of life, you would have found +no cause to hate usurious discounts, or to curse bankruptcies. Mankind +can't always be doing evil. Even in the society of pirates one might +find a few sweet hours during which we could fancy their sinister craft +a pleasure-boat rocking on the deep. + +"Before we part, Monsieur Hermann will, I trust, tell one more German +story to terrify us?" + +These words were said at dessert by a pale fair girl, who had read, no +doubt, the tales of Hoffmann and the novels of Walter Scott. She was the +only daughter of the banker, a charming young creature whose education +was then being finished at the Gymnase, the plays of which she adored. +At this moment the guests were in that happy state of laziness and +silence which follows a delicious dinner, especially if we have presumed +too far on our digestive powers. Leaning back in their chairs, their +wrists lightly resting on the edge of the table, they were indolently +playing with the gilded blades of their dessert-knives. When a dinner +comes to this declining moment some guests will be seen to play with a +pear seed; others roll crumbs of bread between their fingers and thumbs; +lovers trace indistinct letters with fragments of fruit; misers count +the stones on their plate and arrange them as a manager marshals his +supernumeraries at the back of the stage. These are little gastronomic +felicities which Brillat-Savarin, otherwise so complete an author, +overlooked in his book. The footmen had disappeared. The dessert was +like a squadron after a battle: all the dishes were disabled, pillaged, +damaged; several were wandering around the table, in spite of the +efforts of the mistress of the house to keep them in their places. +Some of the persons present were gazing at pictures of Swiss scenery, +symmetrically hung upon the gray-toned walls of the dining-room. Not +a single guest was bored; in fact, I never yet knew a man who was sad +during his digestion of a good dinner. We like at such moments to remain +in quietude, a species of middle ground between the reverie of a thinker +and the comfort of the ruminating animals; a condition which we may call +the material melancholy of gastronomy. + +So the guests now turned spontaneously to the excellent German, +delighted to have a tale to listen to, even though it might prove of +no interest. During this blessed interregnum the voice of a narrator +is always delightful to our languid senses; it increases their negative +happiness. I, a seeker after impressions, admired the faces about +me, enlivened by smiles, beaming in the light of the wax candles, and +somewhat flushed by our late good cheer; their diverse expressions +producing piquant effects seen among the porcelain baskets, the fruits, +the glasses, and the candelabra. + +All of a sudden my imagination was caught by the aspect of a guest who +sat directly in front of me. He was a man of medium height, rather fat +and smiling, having the air and manner of a stock-broker, and apparently +endowed with a very ordinary mind. Hitherto I had scarcely noticed him, +but now his face, possibly darkened by a change in the lights, seemed to +me to have altered its character; it had certainly grown ghastly; violet +tones were spreading over it; you might have thought it the cadaverous +head of a dying man. Motionless as the personages painted on a diorama, +his stupefied eyes were fixed on the sparkling facets of a cut-glass +stopper, but certainly without observing them; he seemed to be engulfed +in some weird contemplation of the future or the past. When I had long +examined that puzzling face I began to reflect about it. "Is he ill?" I +said to myself. "Has he drunk too much wine? Is he ruined by a drop in +the Funds? Is he thinking how to cheat his creditors?" + +"Look!" I said to my neighbor, pointing out to her the face of the +unknown man, "is that an embryo bankrupt?" + +"Oh, no!" she answered, "he would be much gayer." Then, nodding her head +gracefully, she added, "If that man ever ruins himself I'll tell it in +Pekin! He possesses a million in real estate. That's a former purveyor +to the imperial armies; a good sort of man, and rather original. He +married a second time by way of speculation; but for all that he makes +his wife extremely happy. He has a pretty daughter, whom he refused for +many years to recognize; but the death of his son, unfortunately +killed in a duel, has compelled him to take her home, for he could not +otherwise have children. The poor girl has suddenly become one of the +richest heiresses in Paris. The death of his son threw the poor man into +an agony of grief, which sometimes reappears on the surface." + +At that instant the purveyor raised his eyes and rested them upon +me; that glance made me quiver, so full was it of gloomy thought. But +suddenly his face grew lively; he picked up the cut-glass stopper and +put it, with a mechanical movement, into a decanter full of water that +was near his plate, and then he turned to Monsieur Hermann and smiled. +After all, that man, now beatified by gastronomical enjoyments, +hadn't probably two ideas in his brain, and was thinking of nothing. +Consequently I felt rather ashamed of wasting my powers of divination +"in anima vili,"--of a doltish financier. + +While I was thus making, at a dead loss, these phrenological +observations, the worthy German had lined his nose with a good pinch of +snuff and was now beginning his tale. It would be difficult to reproduce +it in his own language, with his frequent interruptions and wordy +digressions. Therefore, I now write it down in my own way; leaving out +the faults of the Nuremburger, and taking only what his tale may have +had of interest and poesy with the coolness of writers who forget to put +on the title pages of their books: "Translated from the German." + + + + +THOUGHT AND ACT + +Toward the end of Venemiaire, year VII., a republican period which in +the present day corresponds to October 20, 1799, two young men, leaving +Bonn in the early morning, had reached by nightfall the environs of +Andernach, a small town standing on the left bank of the Rhine a few +leagues from Coblentz. At that time the French army, commanded by +Augereau, was manoeuvring before the Austrians, who then occupied the +right bank of the river. The headquarters of the Republican division was +at Coblentz, and one of the demi-brigades belonging to Augereau's corps +was stationed at Andernach. + +The two travellers were Frenchmen. At sight of their uniforms, blue +mixed with white and faced with red velvet, their sabres, and above +all their hats covered with a green varnished-cloth and adorned with a +tricolor plume, even the German peasants had recognized army surgeons, +a body of men of science and merit liked, for the most part, not only +in our own army but also in the countries invaded by our troops. At this +period many sons of good families taken from their medical studies +by the recent conscription law due to General Jourdan, had naturally +preferred to continue their studies on the battle-field rather than be +restricted to mere military duty, little in keeping with their early +education and their peaceful destinies. Men of science, pacific yet +useful, these young men did an actual good in the midst of so much +misery, and formed a bond of sympathy with other men of science in the +various countries through which the cruel civilization of the Republic +passed. + +The two young men were each provided with a pass and a commission as +assistant-surgeon signed Coste and Bernadotte; and they were on their +way to join the demi-brigade to which they were attached. Both belonged +to moderately rich families in Beauvais, a town in which the gentle +manners and loyalty of the provinces are transmitted as a species of +birthright. Attracted to the theatre of war before the date at which +they were required to begin their functions, they had travelled by +diligence to Strasburg. Though maternal prudence had only allowed them +a slender sum of money they thought themselves rich in possessing a few +louis, an actual treasure in those days when assignats were reaching +their lowest depreciation and gold was worth far more than silver. +The two young surgeons, about twenty years of age at the most, yielded +themselves up to the poesy of their situation with all the enthusiasm +of youth. Between Strasburg and Bonn they had visited the Electorate and +the banks of the Rhine as artists, philosophers, and observers. When a +man's destiny is scientific he is, at their age, a being who is truly +many-sided. Even in making love or in travelling, an assistant-surgeon +should be gathering up the rudiments of his fortune or his coming fame. + +The two young had therefore given themselves wholly to that deep +admiration which must affect all educated men on seeing the banks of the +Rhine and the scenery of Suabia between Mayenne and Cologne,--a strong, +rich, vigorously varied nature, filled with feudal memories, ever fresh +and verdant, yet retaining at all points the imprints of fire and sword. +Louis XIV. and Turenne have cauterized that beautiful land. Here and +there certain ruins bear witness to the pride or rather the foresight of +the King of Versailles, who caused to be pulled down the ancient castles +that once adorned this part of Germany. Looking at this marvellous +country, covered with forests, where the picturesque charm of the +middle ages abounds, though in ruins, we are able to conceive the German +genius, its reverie, its mysticism. + +The stay of the two friends at Bonn had the double purpose of science +and pleasure. The grand hospital of the Gallo-Batavian army and of +Augereau's division was established in the very palace of the Elector. +These assistant-surgeons of recent date went there to see old comrades, +to present their letters of recommendation to their medical chiefs, and +to familiarize themselves with the first aspects of their profession. +There, as elsewhere, they got rid of a few prejudices to which we cling +so fondly in favor of the beauties of our native land. Surprised by the +aspect of the columns of marble which adorn the Electoral Palace, they +went about admiring the grandiose effects of German architecture, and +finding everywhere new treasures both modern and antique. + +From time to time the highways along which the two friends rode at +leisure on their way to Andernach, led them over the crest of some +granite hill that was higher than the rest. Thence, through a clearing +of the forest or cleft in the rocky barrier, they caught sudden glimpses +of the Rhine framed in stone or festooned with vigorous vegetation. The +valleys, the forest paths, the trees exhaled that autumnal odor which +induced to reverie; the wooded summits were beginning to gild and +to take on the warm brown tones significant of age; the leaves were +falling, but the skies were still azure and the dry roads lay like +yellow lines along the landscape, just then illuminated by the oblique +rays of the setting sun. At a mile and a half from Andernach the two +friends walked their horses in silence, as if no war were devastating +this beautiful land, while they followed a path made for the goats +across the lofty walls of bluish granite between which foams the Rhine. +Presently they descended by one of the declivities of the gorge, at +the foot of which is placed the little town, seated coquettishly on the +banks of the river and offering a convenient port to mariners. + +"Germany is a beautiful country!" cried one of the two young men, who +was named Prosper Magnan, at the moment when he caught sight of the +painted houses of Andernach, pressed together like eggs in a basket, +and separated only by trees, gardens, and flowers. Then he admired for +a moment the pointed roofs with their projecting eaves, the wooden +staircases, the galleries of a thousand peaceful dwellings, and the +vessels swaying to the waves in the port. + +[At the moment when Monsieur Hermann uttered the name of Prosper Magnan, +my opposite neighbor seized the decanter, poured out a glass of +water, and emptied it at a draught. This movement having attracted my +attention, I thought I noticed a slight trembling of the hand and a +moisture on the brow of the capitalist. + +"What is that man's name?" I asked my neighbor. + +"Taillefer," she replied. + +"Do you feel ill?" I said to him, observing that this strange personage +was turning pale. + +"Not at all," he said with a polite gesture of thanks. "I am listening," +he added, with a nod to the guests, who were all simultaneously looking +at him. + +"I have forgotten," said Monsieur Hermann, "the name of the other young +man. But the confidences which Prosper Magnan subsequently made to me +enabled me to know that his companion was dark, rather thin, and jovial. +I will, if you please, call him Wilhelm, to give greater clearness to +the tale I am about to tell you." + +The worthy German resumed his narrative after having, without the +smallest regard for romanticism and local color, baptized the young +French surgeon with a Teutonic name.] + +By the time the two young men reached Andernach the night was dark. +Presuming that they would lose much time in looking for their chiefs +and obtaining from them a military billet in a town already full of +soldiers, they resolved to spend their last night of freedom at an inn +standing some two or three hundred feet from Andernach, the rich color +of which, embellished by the fires of the setting sun, they had greatly +admired from the summit of the hill above the town. Painted entirely +red, this inn produced a most piquant effect in the landscape, whether +by detaching itself from the general background of the town, or by +contrasting its scarlet sides with the verdure of the surrounding +foliage, and the gray-blue tints of the water. This house owed its name, +the Red Inn, to this external decoration, imposed upon it, no doubt +from time immemorial by the caprice of its founder. A mercantile +superstition, natural enough to the different possessors of the +building, far-famed among the sailors of the Rhine, had made them +scrupulous to preserve the title. + +Hearing the sound of horses' hoofs, the master of the Red Inn came out +upon the threshold of his door. + +"By heavens! gentlemen," he cried, "a little later and you'd have had to +sleep beneath the stars, like a good many more of your compatriots +who are bivouacking on the other side of Andernach. Here every room is +occupied. If you want to sleep in a good bed I have only my own room to +offer you. As for your horses I can litter them down in a corner of the +courtyard. The stable is full of people. Do these gentlemen come from +France?" he added after a slight pause. + +"From Bonn," cried Prosper, "and we have eaten nothing since morning." + +"Oh! as to provisions," said the innkeeper, nodding his head, "people +come to the Red Inn for their wedding feast from thirty miles round. You +shall have a princely meal, a Rhine fish! More, I need not say." + +After confiding their weary steeds to the care of the landlord, who +vainly called to his hostler, the two young men entered the public room +of the inn. Thick white clouds exhaled by a numerous company of smokers +prevented them from at first recognizing the persons with whom they +were thrown; but after sitting awhile near the table, with the patience +practised by philosophical travellers who know the inutility of making +a fuss, they distinguished through the vapors of tobacco the inevitable +accessories of a German inn: the stove, the clock, the pots of beer, the +long pipes, and here and there the eccentric physiognomies of Jews, +or Germans, and the weather-beaten faces of mariners. The epaulets of +several French officers were glittering through the mist, and the clank +of spurs and sabres echoed incessantly from the brick floor. Some were +playing cards, others argued, or held their tongues and ate, drank, or +walked about. One stout little woman, wearing a black velvet cap, blue +and silver stomacher, pincushion, bunch of keys, silver buckles, braided +hair,--all distinctive signs of the mistress of a German inn (a costume +which has been so often depicted in colored prints that it is too +common to describe here),--well, this wife of the innkeeper kept the two +friends alternately patient and impatient with remarkable ability. + +Little by little the noise decreased, the various travellers retired to +their rooms, the clouds of smoke dispersed. When places were set for +the two young men, and the classic carp of the Rhine appeared upon the +table, eleven o'clock was striking and the room was empty. The silence +of night enabled the young surgeons to hear vaguely the noise their +horses made in eating their provender, and the murmur of the waters of +the Rhine, together with those indefinable sounds which always enliven +an inn when filled with persons preparing to go to bed. Doors and +windows are opened and shut, voices murmur vague words, and a few +interpellations echo along the passages. + +At this moment of silence and tumult the two Frenchmen and their +landlord, who was boasting of Andernach, his inn, his cookery, the Rhine +wines, the Republican army, and his wife, were all three listening +with a sort of interest to the hoarse cries of sailors in a boat which +appeared to be coming to the wharf. The innkeeper, familiar no doubt +with the guttural shouts of the boatmen, went out hastily, but presently +returned conducting a short stout man, behind whom walked two sailors +carrying a heavy valise and several packages. When these were deposited +in the room, the short man took the valise and placed it beside him as +he seated himself without ceremony at the same table as the surgeons. + +"Go and sleep in your boat," he said to the boatmen, "as the inn is +full. Considering all things, that is best." + +"Monsieur," said the landlord to the new-comer, "these are all the +provisions I have left," pointing to the supper served to the two +Frenchmen; "I haven't so much as another crust of bread nor a bone." + +"No sauer-kraut?" + +"Not enough to put in my wife's thimble! As I had the honor to tell you +just now, you can have no bed but the chair on which you are sitting, +and no other chamber than this public room." + +At these words the little man cast upon the landlord, the room, and the +two Frenchmen a look in which caution and alarm were equally expressed. + +["Here," said Monsieur Hermann, interrupting himself, "I ought to tell +you that we have never known the real name nor the history of this man; +his papers showed that he came from Aix-la-Chapelle; he called himself +Wahlenfer and said that he owned a rather extensive pin manufactory in +the suburbs of Neuwied. Like all the manufacturers of that region, he +wore a surtout coat of common cloth, waistcoat and breeches of dark +green velveteen, stout boots, and a broad leather belt. His face was +round, his manners frank and cordial; but during the evening he seemed +unable to disguise altogether some secret apprehension or, possibly, +some anxious care. The innkeeper's opinion has always been that +this German merchant was fleeing his country. Later I heard that his +manufactory had been burned by one of those unfortunate chances so +frequent in times of war. In spite of its anxious expression the man's +face showed great kindliness. His features were handsome; and the +whiteness of his stout throat was well set off by a black cravat, a fact +which Wilhelm showed jestingly to Prosper." + +Here Monsieur Taillefer drank another glass of water.] + +Prosper courteously proposed that the merchant should share their +supper, and Wahlenfer accepted the offer without ceremony, like a man +who feels himself able to return a civility. He placed his valise on the +floor and put his feet on it, took off his hat and gloves and removed +a pair of pistols from his belt; the landlord having by this time set +a knife and fork for him, the three guests began to satisfy their +appetites in silence. The atmosphere of this room was hot and the flies +were so numerous that Prosper requested the landlord to open the window +looking toward the outer gate, so as to change the air. This window +was barricaded by an iron bar, the two ends of which were inserted into +holes made in the window casings. For greater security, two bolts were +screwed to each shutter. Prosper accidentally noticed the manner in +which the landlord managed these obstacles and opened the window. + +As I am now speaking of localities, this is the place to describe to you +the interior arrangements of the inn; for, on an accurate knowledge of +the premises depends an understanding of my tale. The public room in +which the three persons I have named to you were sitting, had two outer +doors. One opened on the main road to Andernach, which skirts the Rhine. +In front of the inn was a little wharf, to which the boat hired by the +merchant for his journey was moored. The other door opened upon the +courtyard of the inn. This courtyard was surrounded by very high walls +and was full, for the time being, of cattle and horses, the stables +being occupied by human beings. The great gate leading into this +courtyard had been so carefully barricaded that to save time the +landlord had brought the merchant and sailors into the public room +through the door opening on the roadway. After having opened the window, +as requested by Prosper Magnan, he closed this door, slipped the iron +bars into their places and ran the bolts. The landlord's room, where +the two young surgeons were to sleep, adjoined the public room, and +was separated by a somewhat thin partition from the kitchen, where +the landlord and his wife intended, probably, to pass the night. The +servant-woman had left the premises to find a lodging in some crib or +hayloft. It is therefore easy to see that the kitchen, the landlord's +chamber, and the public room were, to some extent, isolated from +the rest of the house. In the courtyard were two large dogs, whose +deep-toned barking showed vigilant and easily roused guardians. + +"What silence! and what a beautiful night!" said Wilhelm, looking at the +sky through the window, as the landlord was fastening the door. + +The lapping of the river against the wharf was the only sound to be +heard. + +"Messieurs," said the merchant, "permit me to offer you a few bottles +of wine to wash down the carp. We'll ease the fatigues of the day by +drinking. From your manner and the state of your clothes, I judge that +you have made, like me, a good bit of a journey to-day." + +The two friends accepted, and the landlord went out by a door through +the kitchen to his cellar, situated, no doubt, under this portion of the +building. When five venerable bottles which he presently brought back +with him appeared on the table, the wife brought in the rest of the +supper. She gave to the dishes and to the room generally the glance of +a mistress, and then, sure of having attended to all the wants of the +travellers, she returned to the kitchen. + +The four men, for the landlord was invited to drink, did not hear her go +to bed, but later, during the intervals of silence which came into their +talk, certain strongly accentuated snores, made the more sonorous by +the thin planks of the loft in which she had ensconced herself, made +the guests laugh and also the husband. Towards midnight, when nothing +remained on the table but biscuits, cheese, dried fruit, and good wine, +the guests, chiefly the young Frenchmen, became communicative. The +latter talked of their homes, their studies, and of the war. The +conversation grew lively. Prosper Magnan brought a few tears to the +merchant's eyes, when with the frankness and naivete of a good and +tender nature, he talked of what his mother must be doing at that hour, +while he was sitting drinking on the banks of the Rhine. + +"I can see her," he said, "reading her prayers before she goes to bed. +She won't forget me; she is certain to say to herself, 'My poor +Prosper; I wonder where he is now!' If she has won a few sous from +her neighbors--your mother, perhaps," he added, nudging Wilhelm's +elbow--"she'll go and put them in the great red earthenware pot, where +she is accumulating a sum sufficient to buy the thirty acres adjoining +her little estate at Lescheville. Those thirty acres are worth at least +sixty thousand francs. Such fine fields! Ah! if I had them I'd live all +my days at Lescheville, without other ambition! How my father used to +long for those thirty acres and the pretty brook which winds through +the meadows! But he died without ever being able to buy them. Many's the +time I've played there!" + +"Monsieur Wahlenfer, haven't you also your 'hoc erat in votis'?" asked +Wilhelm. + +"Yes, monsieur, but it came to pass, and now--" + +The good man was silent, and did not finish his sentence. + +"As for me," said the landlord, whose face was rather flushed, "I bought +a field last spring, which I had been wanting for ten years." + +They talked thus like men whose tongues are loosened by wine, and they +each took that friendly liking to the others of which we are never +stingy on a journey; so that when the time came to separate for the +night, Wilhelm offered his bed to the merchant. + +"You can accept it without hesitation," he said, "for I can sleep with +Prosper. It won't be the first, nor the last time either. You are our +elder, and we ought to honor age!" + +"Bah!" said the landlord, "my wife's bed has several mattresses; take +one off and put it on the floor." + +So saying, he went and shut the window, making all the noise that +prudent operation demanded. + +"I accept," said the merchant; "in fact I will admit," he added, +lowering his voice and looking at the two Frenchmen, "that I desired it. +My boatmen seem to me suspicious. I am not sorry to spend the night with +two brave young men, two French soldiers, for, between ourselves, I have +a hundred thousand francs in gold and diamonds in my valise." + +The friendly caution with which this imprudent confidence was received +by the two young men, seemed to reassure the German. The landlord +assisted in taking off one of the mattresses, and when all was arranged +for the best he bade them good-night and went off to bed. + +The merchant and the surgeons laughed over the nature of their pillows. +Prosper put his case of surgical instruments and that of Wilhelm under +the end of his mattress to raise it and supply the place of a bolster, +which was lacking. Wahlenfer, as a measure of precaution, put his valise +under his pillow. + +"We shall both sleep on our fortune," said Prosper, "you, on your gold; +I, on my instruments. It remains to be seen whether my instruments will +ever bring me the gold you have now acquired." + +"You may hope so," said the merchant. "Work and honesty can do +everything; have patience, however." + +Wahlenfer and Wilhelm were soon asleep. Whether it was that his bed +on the floor was hard, or that his great fatigue was a cause of +sleeplessness, or that some fatal influence affected his soul, it is +certain that Prosper Magnan continued awake. His thoughts unconsciously +took an evil turn. His mind dwelt exclusively on the hundred thousand +francs which lay beneath the merchant's pillow. To Prosper Magnan one +hundred thousand francs was a vast and ready-made fortune. He began to +employ it in a hundred different ways; he made castles in the air, such +as we all make with eager delight during the moments preceding sleep, an +hour when images rise in our minds confusedly, and often, in the silence +of the night, thought acquires some magical power. He gratified his +mother's wishes; he bought the thirty acres of meadow land; he married +a young lady of Beauvais to whom his present want of fortune forbade +him to aspire. With a hundred thousand francs he planned a lifetime +of happiness; he saw himself prosperous, the father of a family, rich, +respected in his province, and, possibly, mayor of Beauvais. His brain +heated; he searched for means to turn his fictions to realities. He +began with extraordinary ardor to plan a crime theoretically. While +fancying the death of the merchant he saw distinctly the gold and +the diamonds. His eyes were dazzled by them. His heart throbbed. +Deliberation was, undoubtedly, already crime. Fascinated by that mass +of gold he intoxicated himself morally by murderous arguments. He asked +himself if that poor German had any need to live; he supposed the case +of his never having existed. In short, he planned the crime in a manner +to secure himself impunity. The other bank of the river was occupied by +the Austrian army; below the windows lay a boat and boatman; he would +cut the throat of that man, throw the body into the Rhine, and escape +with the valise; gold would buy the boatman and he could reach the +Austrians. He went so far as to calculate the professional ability he +had reached in the use of instruments, so as to cut through his victim's +throat without leaving him the chance for a single cry. + +[Here Monsieur Taillefer wiped his forehead and drank a little water.] + +Prosper rose slowly, making no noise. Certain of having waked no one, +he dressed himself and went into the public room. There, with that fatal +intelligence a man suddenly finds on some occasions within him, with +that power of tact and will which is never lacking to prisoners or +to criminals in whatever they undertake, he unscrewed the iron bars, +slipped them from their places without the slightest noise, placed them +against the wall, and opened the shutters, leaning heavily upon their +hinges to keep them from creaking. The moon was shedding its pale pure +light upon the scene, and he was thus enabled to faintly see into the +room where Wilhelm and Wahlenfer were sleeping. There, he told me, he +stood still for a moment. The throbbing of his heart was so strong, so +deep, so sonorous, that he was terrified; he feared he could not act +with coolness; his hands trembled; the soles of his feet seem planted +on red-hot coal; but the execution of his plan was accompanied by such +apparent good luck that he fancied he saw a species of predestination in +this favor bestowed upon him by fate. He opened the window, returned +to the bedroom, took his case of instruments, and selected the one most +suitable to accomplish the crime. + +"When I stood by the bed," he said to me, "I commended myself +mechanically to God." + +At the moment when he raised his arm collecting all his strength, he +heard a voice as it were within him; he thought he saw a light. He flung +the instrument on his own bed and fled into the next room, and stood +before the window. There, he conceived the utmost horror of himself. +Feeling his virtue weak, fearing still to succumb to the spell that was +upon him he sprang out upon the road and walked along the bank of the +Rhine, pacing up and down like a sentinel before the inn. Sometimes he +went as far as Andernach in his hurried tramp; often his feet led him up +the slope he had descended on his way to the inn; and sometimes he lost +sight of the inn and the window he had left open behind him. His object, +he said, was to weary himself and so find sleep. + +But, as he walked beneath the cloudless skies, beholding the stars, +affected perhaps by the purer air of night and the melancholy lapping of +the water, he fell into a reverie which brought him back by degrees to +sane moral thoughts. Reason at last dispersed completely his momentary +frenzy. The teachings of his education, its religious precepts, but +above all, so he told me, the remembrance of his simple life beneath the +parental roof drove out his wicked thoughts. When he returned to the inn +after a long meditation to which he abandoned himself on the bank of the +Rhine, resting his elbow on a rock, he could, he said to me, not have +slept, but have watched untempted beside millions of gold. At the moment +when his virtue rose proudly and vigorously from the struggle, he knelt +down, with a feeling of ecstasy and happiness, and thanked God. He felt +happy, light-hearted, content, as on the day of his first communion, +when he thought himself worthy of the angels because he had passed one +day without sinning in thought, or word, or deed. + +He returned to the inn and closed the window without fearing to make +a noise, and went to bed at once. His moral and physical lassitude was +certain to bring him sleep. In a very short time after laying his head +on his mattress, he fell into that first fantastic somnolence which +precedes the deepest sleep. The senses then grew numb, and life is +abolished by degrees; thoughts are incomplete, and the last quivering of +our consciousness seems like a sort of reverie. "How heavy the air is!" +he thought; "I seem to be breathing a moist vapor." He explained this +vaguely to himself by the difference which must exist between the +atmosphere of the close room and the purer air by the river. But +presently he heard a periodical noise, something like that made by drops +of water falling from a robinet into a fountain. Obeying a feeling +of panic terror he was about to rise and call the innkeeper and waken +Wahlenfer and Wilhelm, but he suddenly remembered, alas! to his great +misfortune, the tall wooden clock; he fancied the sound was that of +the pendulum, and he fell asleep with that confused and indistinct +perception. + +["Do you want some water, Monsieur Taillefer?" said the master of the +house, observing that the banker was mechanically pouring from an empty +decanter. + +Monsieur Hermann continued his narrative after the slight pause +occasioned by this interruption.] + +The next morning Prosper Magnan was awakened by a great noise. He seemed +to hear piercing cries, and he felt that violent shuddering of the +nerves which we suffer when on awaking we continue to feel a painful +impression begun in sleep. A physiological fact then takes place +within us, a start, to use the common expression, which has never been +sufficiently observed, though it contains very curious phenomena for +science. This terrible agony, produced, possibly, by the too sudden +reunion of our two natures separated during sleep, is usually transient; +but in the poor young surgeon's case it lasted, and even increased, +causing him suddenly the most awful horror as he beheld a pool of +blood between Wahlenfer's bed and his own mattress. The head of the +unfortunate German lay on the ground; his body was still on the bed; all +its blood had flowed out by the neck. + +Seeing the eyes still open but fixed, seeing the blood which had stained +his sheets and even his hands, recognizing his own surgical instrument +beside him, Prosper Magnan fainted and fell into the pool of Wahlenfer's +blood. "It was," he said to me, "the punishment of my thoughts." When +he recovered consciousness he was in the public room, seated on a +chair, surrounded by French soldiers, and in presence of a curious and +observing crowd. He gazed stupidly at a Republican officer engaged +in taking the testimony of several witnesses, and in writing down, no +doubt, the "proces-verbal." He recognized the landlord, his wife, the +two boatmen, and the servant of the Red Inn. The surgical instrument +which the murderer had used-- + +[Here Monsieur Taillefer coughed, drew out his handkerchief to blow +his nose, and wiped his forehead. These perfectly natural motions +were noticed by me only; the other guests sat with their eyes fixed on +Monsieur Hermann, to whom they were listening with a sort of avidity. +The purveyor leaned his elbow on the table, put his head into his right +hand and gazed fixedly at Hermann. From that moment he showed no other +sign of emotion or interest, but his face remained passive and +ghastly, as it was when I first saw him playing with the stopper of the +decanter.] + +The surgical instrument which the murderer had used was on the table +with the case containing the rest of the instruments, together with +Prosper's purse and papers. The gaze of the assembled crowd turned +alternately from these convicting articles to the young man, who seemed +to be dying and whose half-extinguished eyes apparently saw nothing. A +confused murmur which was heard without proved the presence of a crowd, +drawn to the neighborhood of the inn by the news of the crime, and also +perhaps by a desire to see the murderer. The step of the sentries +placed beneath the windows of the public room and the rattle of their +accoutrements could be heard above the talk of the populace; but the inn +was closed and the courtyard was empty and silent. + +Incapable of sustaining the glance of the officer who was gathering his +testimony, Prosper Magnan suddenly felt his hand pressed by a man, and +he raised his eyes to see who his protector could be in that crowd +of enemies. He recognized by his uniform the surgeon-major of the +demi-brigade then stationed at Andernach. The glance of that man was so +piercing, so stern, that the poor young fellow shuddered, and suffered +his head to fall on the back of his chair. A soldier put vinegar to his +nostrils and he recovered consciousness. Nevertheless his haggard eyes +were so devoid of life and intelligence that the surgeon said to the +officer after feeling Prosper's pulse,-- + +"Captain, it is impossible to question the man at this moment." + +"Very well! Take him away," replied the captain, interrupting the +surgeon, and addressing a corporal who stood behind the prisoner. "You +cursed coward!" he went on, speaking to Prosper in a low voice, "try at +least to walk firmly before these German curs, and save the honor of the +Republic." + +This address seemed to wake up Prosper Magnan, who rose and made a few +steps forward; but when the door was opened and he felt the fresh air +and saw the crowd before him, he staggered and his knees gave way under +him. + +"This coward of a sawbones deserves a dozen deaths! Get on!" cried the +two soldiers who had him in charge, lending him their arms to support +him. + +"There he is!--oh, the villain! the coward! Here he is! There he is!" + +These cries seemed to be uttered by a single voice, the tumultuous voice +of the crowd which followed him with insults and swelled at every step. +During the passage from the inn to the prison, the noise made by the +tramping of the crowd and the soldiers, the murmur of the various +colloquies, the sight of the sky, the coolness of the air, the aspect +of Andernach and the shimmering of the waters of the Rhine,--these +impressions came to the soul of the young man vaguely, confusedly, +torpidly, like all the sensations he had felt since his waking. There +were moments, he said, when he thought he was no longer living. + +I was then in prison. Enthusiastic, as we all are at twenty years of +age, I wished to defend my country, and I commanded a company of free +lances, which I had organized in the vicinity of Andernach. A few days +before these events I had fallen plump, during the night, into a French +detachment of eight hundred men. We were two hundred at the most. My +scouts had sold me. I was thrown into the prison of Andernach, and they +talked of shooting me, as a warning to intimidate others. The French +talked also of reprisals. My father, however, obtained a reprieve for +three days to give him time to see General Augereau, whom he knew, +and ask for my pardon, which was granted. Thus it happened that I saw +Prosper Magnan when he was brought to the prison. He inspired me with +the profoundest pity. Though pale, distracted, and covered with blood, +his whole countenance had a character of truth and innocence which +struck me forcibly. To me his long fair hair and clear blue eyes seemed +German. A true image of my hapless country. I felt he was a victim +and not a murderer. At the moment when he passed beneath my window he +chanced to cast about him the painful, melancholy smile of an insane man +who suddenly recovers for a time a fleeting gleam of reason. That smile +was assuredly not the smile of a murderer. When I saw the jailer I +questioned him about his new prisoner. + +"He has not spoken since I put him in his cell," answered the man. "He +is sitting down with his head in his hands and is either sleeping or +reflecting about his crime. The French say he'll get his reckoning +to-morrow morning and be shot in twenty-four hours." + +That evening I stopped short under the window of the prison during the +short time I was allowed to take exercise in the prison yard. We talked +together, and he frankly related to me his strange affair, replying +with evident truthfulness to my various questions. After that first +conversation I no longer doubted his innocence; I asked, and obtained +the favor of staying several hours with him. I saw him again at +intervals, and the poor lad let me in without concealment to all his +thoughts. He believed himself both innocent and guilty. Remembering the +horrible temptation which he had had the strength to resist, he feared +he might have done in sleep, in a fit of somnambulism, the crime he had +dreamed of awake. + +"But your companion?" I said to him. + +"Oh!" he cried eagerly. "Wilhelm is incapable of--" + +He did not even finish his sentence. At that warm defence, so full of +youth and manly virtue, I pressed his hand. + +"When he woke," continued Prosper, "he must have been terrified and lost +his head; no doubt he fled." + +"Without awaking you?" I said. "Then surely your defence is easy; +Wahlenfer's valise cannot have been stolen." + +Suddenly he burst into tears. + +"Oh, yes!" he cried, "I am innocent! I have not killed a man! I remember +my dreams. I was playing at base with my schoolmates. I couldn't have +cut off the head of a man while I dreamed I was running." + +Then, in spite of these gleams of hope, which gave him at times some +calmness, he felt a remorse which crushed him. He had, beyond all +question, raised his arm to kill that man. He judged himself; and he +felt that his heart was not innocent after committing that crime in his +mind. + +"And yet, I _am_ good!" he cried. "Oh, my poor mother! Perhaps at this +moment she is cheerfully playing boston with the neighbors in her +little tapestry salon. If she knew that I had raised my hand to murder +a man--oh! she would die of it! And I _am_ in prison, accused of +committing that crime! If I have not killed a man, I have certainly +killed my mother!" + +Saying these words he wept no longer; he was seized by that short and +rapid madness known to the men of Picardy; he sprang to the wall, and if +I had not caught him, he would have dashed out his brains against it. + +"Wait for your trial," I said. "You are innocent, you will certainly be +acquitted; think of your mother." + +"My mother!" he cried frantically, "she will hear of the accusation +before she hears anything else,--it is always so in little towns; and +the shock will kill her. Besides, I am not innocent. Must I tell you the +whole truth? I feel that I have lost the virginity of my conscience." + +After that terrible avowal he sat down, crossed his arms on his breast, +bowed his head upon it, gazing gloomily on the ground. At this instant +the turnkey came to ask me to return to my room. Grieved to leave my +companion at a moment when his discouragement was so deep, I pressed him +in my arms with friendship, saying:-- + +"Have patience; all may yet go well. If the voice of an honest man can +still your doubts, believe that I esteem you and trust you. Accept my +friendship, and rest upon my heart, if you cannot find peace in your +own." + +The next morning a corporal's guard came to fetch the young surgeon at +nine o'clock. Hearing the noise made by the soldiers, I stationed myself +at my window. As the prisoner crossed the courtyard, he cast his eyes up +to me. Never shall I forget that look, full of thoughts, presentiments, +resignation, and I know not what sad, melancholy grace. It was, as it +were, a silent but intelligible last will by which a man bequeathed his +lost existence to his only friend. The night must have been very +hard, very solitary for him; and yet, perhaps, the pallor of his face +expressed a stoicism gathered from some new sense of self-respect. +Perhaps he felt that his remorse had purified him, and believed that he +had blotted out his fault by his anguish and his shame. He now walked +with a firm step, and since the previous evening he had washed away the +blood with which he was, involuntarily, stained. + +"My hands must have dabbled in it while I slept, for I am always a +restless sleeper," he had said to me in tones of horrible despair. + +I learned that he was on his way to appear before the council of +war. The division was to march on the following morning, and the +commanding-officer did not wish to leave Andernach without inquiry into +the crime on the spot where it had been committed. I remained in the +utmost anxiety during the time the council lasted. At last, about +mid-day, Prosper Magnan was brought back. I was then taking my usual +walk; he saw me, and came and threw himself into my arms. + +"Lost!" he said, "lost, without hope! Here, to all the world, I am a +murderer." He raised his head proudly. "This injustice restores to me my +innocence. My life would always have been wretched; my death leaves me +without reproach. But is there a future?" + +The whole eighteenth century was in that sudden question. He remained +thoughtful. + +"Tell me," I said to him, "how you answered. What did they ask you? Did +you not relate the simple facts as you told them to me?" + +He looked at me fixedly for a moment; then, after that awful pause, he +answered with feverish excitement:-- + +"First they asked me, 'Did you leave the inn during the night?' I said, +'Yes.' 'How?' I answered, 'By the window.' 'Then you must have taken +great precautions; the innkeeper heard no noise.' I was stupefied. +The sailors said they saw me walking, first to Andernach, then to the +forest. I made many trips, they said, no doubt to bury the gold and +diamonds. The valise had not been found. My remorse still held me dumb. +When I wanted to speak, a pitiless voice cried out to me, _'You meant +to commit that crime!'_ All was against me, even myself. They asked me +about my comrade, and I completely exonerated him. Then they said to me: +'The crime must lie between you, your comrade, the innkeeper, and +his wife. This morning all the windows and doors were found securely +fastened.' At those words," continued the poor fellow, "I had neither +voice, nor strength, nor soul to answer. More sure of my comrade than +I could be of myself, I could not accuse him. I saw that we were both +thought equally guilty of the murder, and that I was considered the most +clumsy. I tried to explain the crime by somnambulism, and so protect my +friend; but there I rambled and contradicted myself. No, I am lost. +I read my condemnation in the eyes of my judges. They smiled +incredulously. All is over. No more uncertainty. To-morrow I shall be +shot. I am not thinking of myself," he went on after a pause, "but of my +poor mother." Then he stopped, looked up to heaven, and shed no tears; +his eyes were dry and strongly convulsed. "Frederic--" + +["Ah! true," cried Monsieur Hermann, with an air of triumph. "Yes, the +other's name was Frederic, Frederic! I remember now!" + +My neighbor touched my foot, and made me a sign to look at Monsieur +Taillefer. The former purveyor had negligently dropped his hand over his +eyes, but between the interstices of his fingers we thought we caught a +darkling flame proceeding from them. + +"Hein?" she said in my ear, "what if his name were Frederic?" + +I answered with a glance, which said to her: "Silence!" + +Hermann continued:] + +"Frederic!" cried the young surgeon, "Frederic basely deserted me. He +must have been afraid. Perhaps he is still hidden in the inn, for our +horses were both in the courtyard this morning. What an incomprehensible +mystery!" he went on, after a moment's silence. "Somnambulism! +somnambulism? I never had but one attack in my life, and that was when +I was six years old. Must I go from this earth," he cried, striking the +ground with his foot, "carrying with me all there is of friendship in +the world? Shall I die a double death, doubting a fraternal love begun +when we were only five years old, and continued through school and +college? Where is Frederic?" + +He wept. Can it be that we cling more to a sentiment than to life? + +"Let us go in," he said; "I prefer to be in my cell. I do not wish to +be seen weeping. I shall go courageously to death, but I cannot play the +heroic at all moments; I own I regret my beautiful young life. All last +night I could not sleep; I remembered the scenes of my childhood; I +fancied I was running in the fields. Ah! I had a future," he said, +suddenly interrupting himself; "and now, twelve men, a sub-lieutenant +shouting 'Carry-arms, aim, fire!' a roll of drums, and infamy! that's my +future now. Oh! there must be a God, or it would all be too senseless." + +Then he took me in his arms and pressed me to him with all his strength. + +"You are the last man, the last friend to whom I can show my soul. You +will be set at liberty, you will see your mother! I don't know whether +you are rich or poor, but no matter! you are all the world to me. They +won't fight always, 'ceux-ci.' Well, when there's peace, will you go to +Beauvais? If my mother has survived the fatal news of my death, you will +find her there. Say to her the comforting words, 'He was innocent!' She +will believe you. I am going to write to her; but you must take her my +last look; you must tell her that you were the last man whose hand +I pressed. Oh, she'll love you, the poor woman! you, my last friend. +Here," he said, after a moment's silence, during which he was overcome +by the weight of his recollections, "all, officers and soldiers, are +unknown to me; I am an object of horror to them. If it were not for you +my innocence would be a secret between God and myself." + +I swore to sacredly fulfil his last wishes. My words, the emotion I +showed touched him. Soon after that the soldiers came to take him again +before the council of war. He was condemned to death. I am ignorant of +the formalities that followed or accompanied this judgment, nor do I +know whether the young surgeon defended his life or not; but he expected +to be executed on the following day, and he spent the night in writing +to his mother. + +"We shall both be free to-day," he said, smiling, when I went to see him +the next morning. "I am told that the general has signed your pardon." + +I was silent, and looked at him closely so as to carve his features, as +it were, on my memory. Presently an expression of disgust crossed his +face. + +"I have been very cowardly," he said. "During all last night I begged +for mercy of these walls," and he pointed to the sides of his dungeon. +"Yes, yes, I howled with despair, I rebelled, I suffered the most awful +moral agony--I was alone! Now I think of what others will say of me. +Courage is a garment to put on. I desire to go decently to death, +therefore--" + + + + +A DOUBLE RETRIBUTION + +"Oh, stop! stop!" cried the young lady who had asked for this history, +interrupting the narrator suddenly. "Say no more; let me remain in +uncertainty and believe that he was saved. If I hear now that he was +shot I shall not sleep all night. To-morrow you shall tell me the rest." + +We rose from table. My neighbor in accepting Monsieur Hermann's arm, +said to him-- + +"I suppose he was shot, was he not?" + +"Yes. I was present at the execution." + +"Oh! monsieur," she said, "how could you--" + +"He desired it, madame. There was something really dreadful in following +the funeral of a living man, a man my heart cared for, an innocent man! +The poor young fellow never ceased to look at me. He seemed to live only +in me. He wanted, he said, that I should carry to his mother his last +sigh." + +"And did you?" + +"At the peace of Amiens I went to France, for the purpose of taking +to the mother those blessed words, 'He was innocent.' I religiously +undertook that pilgrimage. But Madame Magnan had died of consumption. It +was not without deep emotion that I burned the letter of which I was +the bearer. You will perhaps smile at my German imagination, but I see +a drama of sad sublimity in the eternal secrecy which engulfed those +parting words cast between two graves, unknown to all creation, like the +cry uttered in a desert by some lonely traveller whom a lion seizes." + +"And if," I said, interrupting him, "you were brought face to face with +a man now in this room, and were told, 'This is the murderer!' would not +that be another drama? And what would you do?" + +Monsieur Hermann looked for his hat and went away. + +"You are behaving like a young man, and very heedlessly," said my +neighbor. "Look at Taillefer!--there, seated on that sofa at the corner +of the fireplace. Mademoiselle Fanny is offering him a cup of coffee. +He smiles. Would a murderer to whom that tale must have been torture, +present so calm a face? Isn't his whole air patriarchal?" + +"Yes; but go and ask him if he went to the war in Germany," I said. + +"Why not?" + +And with that audacity which is seldom lacking to women when some action +attracts them, or their minds are impelled by curiosity, my neighbor +went up to the purveyor. + +"Were you ever in Germany?" she asked. + +Taillefer came near dropping his cup and saucer. + +"I, madame? No, never." + +"What are you talking about, Taillefer"; said our host, interrupting +him. "Were you not in the commissariat during the campaign of Wagram?" + +"Ah, true!" replied Taillefer, "I was there at that time." + +"You are mistaken," said my neighbor, returning to my side; "that's a +good man." + +"Well," I cried, "before the end of this evening, I will hunt that +murderer out of the slough in which he is hiding." + +Every day, before our eyes, a moral phenomenon of amazing profundity +takes place which is, nevertheless, so simple as never to be noticed. +If two men meet in a salon, one of whom has the right to hate or despise +the other, whether from a knowledge of some private and latent fact +which degrades him, or of a secret condition, or even of a coming +revenge, those two men divine each other's souls, and are able to +measure the gulf which separates or ought to separate them. They observe +each other unconsciously; their minds are preoccupied by themselves; +through their looks, their gestures, an indefinable emanation of their +thought transpires; there's a magnet between them. I don't know which +has the strongest power of attraction, vengeance or crime, hatred or +insult. Like a priest who cannot consecrate the host in presence of an +evil spirit, each is ill at ease and distrustful; one is polite, the +other surly, but I know not which; one colors or turns pale, the other +trembles. Often the avenger is as cowardly as the victim. Few men have +the courage to invoke an evil, even when just or necessary, and men are +silent or forgive a wrong from hatred of uproar or fear of some tragic +ending. + +This introsusception of our souls and our sentiments created a +mysterious struggle between Taillefer and myself. Since the first +inquiry I had put to him during Monsieur Hermann's narrative, he had +steadily avoided my eye. Possibly he avoided those of all the other +guests. He talked with the youthful, inexperienced daughter of the +banker, feeling, no doubt, like many other criminals, a need of drawing +near to innocence, hoping to find rest there. But, though I was a long +distance from him, I heard him, and my piercing eye fascinated his. When +he thought he could watch me unobserved our eyes met, and his eyelids +dropped immediately. + +Weary of this torture, Taillefer seemed determined to put an end to it +by sitting down at a card-table. I at once went to bet on his adversary; +hoping to lose my money. The wish was granted; the player left the table +and I took his place, face to face with the murderer. + +"Monsieur," I said, while he dealt the cards, "may I ask if you are +Monsieur Frederic Taillefer, whose family I know very well at Beauvais?" + +"Yes, monsieur," he answered. + +He dropped the cards, turned pale, put his hands to his head and rose, +asking one of the bettors to take his hand. + +"It is too hot here," he cried; "I fear--" + +He did not end the sentence. His face expressed intolerable suffering, +and he went out hastily. The master of the house followed him and seemed +to take an anxious interest in his condition. My neighbor and I looked +at each other, but I saw a tinge of bitter sadness or reproach upon her +countenance. + +"Do you think your conduct is merciful?" she asked, drawing me to the +embrasure of a window just as I was leaving the card-table, having lost +all my money. "Would you accept the power of reading hearts? Why not +leave things to human justice or divine justice? We may escape one but +we cannot escape the other. Do you think the privilege of a judge of the +court of assizes so much to be envied? You have almost done the work of +an executioner." + +"After sharing and stimulating my curiosity, why are you now lecturing +me on morality?" + +"You have made me reflect," she answered. + +"So, then, peace to villains, war to the sorrowful, and let's deify +gold! However, we will drop the subject," I added, laughing. "Do you see +that young girl who is just entering the salon?" + +"Yes, what of her?" + +"I met her, three days ago, at the ball of the Neapolitan ambassador, +and I am passionately in love with her. For pity's sake tell me her +name. No one was able--" + +"That is Mademoiselle Victorine Taillefer." + +I grew dizzy. + +"Her step-mother," continued my neighbor, "has lately taken her from a +convent, where she was finishing, rather late in the day, her education. +For a long time her father refused to recognize her. She comes here for +the first time. She is very beautiful and very rich." + +These words were accompanied by a sardonic smile. + +At this moment we heard violent, but smothered outcries; they seemed to +come from a neighboring apartment and to be echoed faintly back through +the garden. + +"Isn't that the voice of Monsieur Taillefer?" I said. + +We gave our full attention to the noise; a frightful moaning reached our +ears. The wife of the banker came hurriedly towards us and closed the +window. + +"Let us avoid a scene," she said. "If Mademoiselle Taillefer hears her +father, she might be thrown into hysterics." + +The banker now re-entered the salon, looked round for Victorine, and +said a few words in her ear. Instantly the young girl uttered a cry, ran +to the door, and disappeared. This event produced a great sensation. The +card-players paused. Every one questioned his neighbor. The murmur of +voices swelled, and groups gathered. + +"Can Monsieur Taillefer be--" I began. + +"--dead?" said my sarcastic neighbor. "You would wear the gayest +mourning, I fancy!" + +"But what has happened to him?" + +"The poor dear man," said the mistress of the house, "is subject to +attacks of a disease the name of which I never can remember, though +Monsieur Brousson has often told it to me; and he has just been seized +with one." + +"What is the nature of the disease?" asked an examining-judge. + +"Oh, it is something terrible, monsieur," she replied. "The doctors know +no remedy. It causes the most dreadful suffering. One day, while the +unfortunate man was staying at my country-house, he had an attack, and +I was obliged to go away and stay with a neighbor to avoid hearing him; +his cries were terrible; he tried to kill himself; his daughter was +obliged to have him put into a strait-jacket and fastened to his bed. +The poor man declares there are live animals in his head gnawing his +brain; every nerve quivers with horrible shooting pains, and he writhes +in torture. He suffers so much in his head that he did not even feel the +moxas they used formerly to apply to relieve it; but Monsieur Brousson, +who is now his physician, has forbidden that remedy, declaring that the +trouble is a nervous affection, an inflammation of the nerves, for +which leeches should be applied to the neck, and opium to the head. As a +result, the attacks are not so frequent; they appear now only about once +a year, and always late in the autumn. When he recovers, Taillefer says +repeatedly that he would far rather die than endure such torture." + +"Then he must suffer terribly!" said a broker, considered a wit, who was +present. + +"Oh," continued the mistress of the house, "last year he nearly died in +one of these attacks. He had gone alone to his country-house on pressing +business. For want, perhaps, of immediate help, he lay twenty-two hours +stiff and stark as though he were dead. A very hot bath was all that +saved him." + +"It must be a species of lockjaw," said one of the guests. + +"I don't know," she answered. "He got the disease in the army nearly +thirty years ago. He says it was caused by a splinter of wood entering +his head from a shot on board a boat. Brousson hopes to cure him. They +say the English have discovered a mode of treating the disease with +prussic acid--" + +At that instant a still more piercing cry echoed through the house, and +froze us with horror. + +"There! that is what I listened to all day long last year," said +the banker's wife. "It made me jump in my chair and rasped my nerves +dreadfully. But, strange to say, poor Taillefer, though he suffers +untold agony, is in no danger of dying. He eats and drinks as well as +ever during even short cessations of the pain--nature is so queer! +A German doctor told him it was a form of gout in the head, and that +agrees with Brousson's opinion." + +I left the group around the mistress of the house and went away. On +the staircase I met Mademoiselle Taillefer, whom a footman had come to +fetch. + +"Oh!" she said to me, weeping, "what has my poor father ever done to +deserve such suffering?--so kind as he is!" + +I accompanied her downstairs and assisted her in getting into the +carriage, and there I saw her father bent almost double. + +Mademoiselle Taillefer tried to stifle his moans by putting her +handkerchief to his mouth; unhappily he saw me; his face became even +more distorted, a convulsive cry rent the air, and he gave me a dreadful +look as the carriage rolled away. + +That dinner, that evening exercised a cruel influence on my life and on +my feelings. I loved Mademoiselle Taillefer, precisely, perhaps, because +honor and decency forbade me to marry the daughter of a murderer, +however good a husband and father he might be. A curious fatality +impelled me to visit those houses where I knew I could meet Victorine; +often, after giving myself my word of honor to renounce the happiness +of seeing her, I found myself that same evening beside her. My struggles +were great. Legitimate love, full of chimerical remorse, assumed the +color of a criminal passion. I despised myself for bowing to Taillefer +when, by chance, he accompanied his daughter, but I bowed to him all the +same. + +Alas! for my misfortune Victorine is not only a pretty girl, she is +also educated, intelligent, full of talent and of charm, without the +slightest pedantry or the faintest tinge of assumption. She converses +with reserve, and her nature has a melancholy grace which no one can +resist. She loves me, or at least she lets me think so; she has a +certain smile which she keeps for me alone; for me, her voice grows +softer still. Oh, yes! she loves me! But she adores her father; she +tells me of his kindness, his gentleness, his excellent qualities. Those +praises are so many dagger-thrusts with which she stabs me to the heart. + +One day I came near making myself the accomplice, as it were, of the +crime which led to the opulence of the Taillefer family. I was on +the point of asking the father for Victorine's hand. But I fled; I +travelled; I went to Germany, to Andernach; and then--I returned! I +found Victorine pale, and thinner; if I had seen her well in health and +gay, I should certainly have been saved. Instead of which my love +burst out again with untold violence. Fearing that my scruples might +degenerate into monomania, I resolved to convoke a sanhedrim of sound +consciences, and obtain from them some light on this problem of high +morality and philosophy,--a problem which had been, as we shall see, +still further complicated since my return. + +Two days ago, therefore, I collected those of my friends to whom I +attribute most delicacy, probity, and honor. I invited two Englishmen, +the secretary of an embassy, and a puritan; a former minister, now +a mature statesman; a priest, an old man; also my former guardian, a +simple-hearted being who rendered so loyal a guardianship account that +the memory of it is still green at the Palais; besides these, there were +present a judge, a lawyer, and a notary,--in short, all social opinions, +and all practical virtues. + +We began by dining well, talking well, and making some noise; then, +at dessert, I related my history candidly, and asked for advice, +concealing, of course, the Taillefer name. + +A profound silence suddenly fell upon the company. Then the notary took +leave. He had, he said, a deed to draw. + +The wine and the good dinner had reduced my former guardian to +silence; in fact I was obliged later in the evening to put him under +guardianship, to make sure of no mishap to him on his way home. + +"I understand!" I cried. "By not giving an opinion you tell me +energetically enough what I ought to do." + +On this there came a stir throughout the assembly. + +A capitalist who had subscribed for the children and tomb of General Foy +exclaimed:-- + +"Like Virtue's self, a crime has its degrees." + +"Rash tongue!" said the former minister, in a low voice, nudging me with +his elbow. + +"Where's your difficulty?" asked a duke whose fortune is derived from +the estates of stubborn Protestants, confiscated on the revocation of +the Edict of Nantes. + +The lawyer rose, and said:-- + +"In law, the case submitted to us presents no difficulty. Monsieur le +duc is right!" cried the legal organ. "There are time limitations. Where +should we all be if we had to search into the origin of fortunes? This +is simply an affair of conscience. If you must absolutely carry the case +before some tribunal, go to that of the confessional." + +The Code incarnate ceased speaking, sat down, and drank a glass of +champagne. The man charged with the duty of explaining the gospel, the +good priest, rose. + +"God has made us all frail beings," he said firmly. "If you love the +heiress of that crime, marry her; but content yourself with the property +she derives from her mother; give that of the father to the poor." + +"But," cried one of those pitiless hair-splitters who are often to be +met with in the world, "perhaps the father could make a rich marriage +only because he was rich himself; consequently, the marriage was the +fruit of the crime." + +"This discussion is, in itself, a verdict. There are some things on +which a man does not deliberate," said my former guardian, who thought +to enlighten the assembly with a flash of inebriety. + +"Yes!" said the secretary of an embassy. + +"Yes!" said the priest. + +But the two men did not mean the same thing. + +A "doctrinaire," who had missed his election to the Chamber by one +hundred and fifty votes out of one hundred and fifty-five, here rose. + +"Messieurs," he said, "this phenomenal incident of intellectual nature +is one of those which stand out vividly from the normal condition to +which sobriety is subjected. Consequently the decision to be made ought +to be the spontaneous act of our consciences, a sudden conception, a +prompt inward verdict, a fugitive shadow of our mental apprehension, +much like the flashes of sentiment which constitute taste. Let us vote." + +"Let us vote!" cried all my guests. + +I have each two balls, one white, one red. The white, symbol of +virginity, was to forbid the marriage; the red ball sanctioned it. I +myself abstained from voting, out of delicacy. + +My friends were seventeen in number; nine was therefore the majority. +Each man put his ball into the wicker basket with a narrow throat, used +to hold the numbered balls when card-players draw for their places at +pool. We were all roused to a more or less keen curiosity; for this +balloting to clarify morality was certainly original. Inspection of the +ballot-box showed the presence of nine white balls! The result did not +surprise me; but it came into my heard to count the young men of my own +age whom I had brought to sit in judgment. These casuists were precisely +nine in number; they all had the same thought. + +"Oh, oh!" I said to myself, "here is secret unanimity to forbid the +marriage, and secret unanimity to sanction it! How shall I solve that +problem?" + +"Where does the father-in-law live?" asked one my school-friends, +heedlessly, being less sophisticated than the others. + +"There's no longer a father-in-law," I replied. "Hitherto, my conscience +has spoken plainly enough to make your verdict superfluous. If to-day +its voice is weakened, here is the cause of my cowardice. I received, +about two months ago, this all-seducing letter." + +And I showed them the following invitation, which I took from my +pocket-book:-- + + "You are invited to be present at the funeral procession, burial + services, and interment of Monsieur Jean-Frederic Taillefer, of + the house of Taillefer and Company, formerly Purveyor of + Commissary-meats, in his lifetime chevalier of the Legion of + honor, and of the Golden Spur, captain of the first company of the + Grenadiers of the National Guard of Paris, deceased, May 1st, at + his residence, rue Joubert; which will take place at, etc., etc. + + "On the part of, etc." + +"Now, what am I do to?" I continued; "I will put the question before +you in a broad way. There is undoubtedly a sea of blood in Mademoiselle +Taillefer's estates; her inheritance from her father is a vast Aceldama. +I know that. _But_ Prosper Magnan left no heirs; _but_, again, I have +been unable to discover the family of the merchant who was murdered at +Andernach. To whom therefore can I restore that fortune? And ought it +to be wholly restored? Have I the right to betray a secret surprised by +me,--to add a murdered head to the dowry of an innocent girl, to give +her for the rest of her life bad dreams, to deprive her of all her +illusions, and say, 'Your gold is stained with blood'? I have borrowed +the 'Dictionary of Cases of Conscience' from an old ecclesiastic, but +I can find nothing there to solve my doubts. Shall I found pious masses +for the repose of the souls of Prosper Magnan, Wahlenfer, and Taillefer? +Here we are in the middle of the nineteenth century! Shall I build a +hospital, or institute a prize for virtue? A prize for virtue would +be given to scoundrels; and as for hospitals, they seem to me to have +become in these days the protectors of vice. Besides, such charitable +actions, more or less profitable to vanity, do they constitute +reparation?--and to whom do I owe reparation? But I love; I love +passionately. My love is my life. If I, without apparent motive, suggest +to a young girl accustomed to luxury, to elegance, to a life fruitful +of all enjoyments of art, a young girl who loves to idly listen at the +opera to Rossini's music,--if to her I should propose that she deprive +herself of fifteen hundred thousand francs in favor of broken-down old +men, or scrofulous paupers, she would turn her back on me and laugh, or +her confidential friend would tell her that I'm a crazy jester. If in an +ecstasy of love, I should paint to her the charms of a modest life, +and a little home on the banks of the Loire; if I were to ask her to +sacrifice her Parisian life on the altar of our love, it would be, in +the first place, a virtuous lie; in the next, I might only be opening +the way to some painful experience; I might lose the heart of a girl who +loves society, and balls, and personal adornment, and _me_ for the time +being. Some slim and jaunty officer, with a well-frizzed moustache, who +can play the piano, quote Lord Byron, and ride a horse elegantly, may +get her away from me. What shall I do? For Heaven's sake, give me some +advice!" + +The honest man, that species of puritan not unlike the father of Jeannie +Deans, of whom I have already told you, and who, up to the present +moment hadn't uttered a word, shrugged his shoulders, as he looked at me +and said:-- + +"Idiot! why did you ask him if he came from Beauvais?" + + + + +ADDENDUM + +The following personages appear in other stories of the Human Comedy. + + Taillefer, Jean-Frederic + The Firm of Nucingen + Father Goriot + The Magic Skin + + Taillefer, Victorine + Father Goriot + + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Red Inn, by Honore de Balzac + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 1433 *** |