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diff --git a/23216-8.txt b/23216-8.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..e4c82d9 --- /dev/null +++ b/23216-8.txt @@ -0,0 +1,1503 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Sac-Au-Dos, by Joris Karl Huysmans + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Sac-Au-Dos + 1907 + +Author: Joris Karl Huysmans + +Release Date: October 27, 2007 [EBook #23216] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK SAC-AU-DOS *** + + + + +Produced by David Widger + + + + + + +SAC-AU-DOS + +By Joris Karl Huysmans + +Translated by L. G. Meyer. + +Copyright, 1907, by P. F. Collier & Son + + +As soon as I had finished my studies my parents deemed it useful to my +career to cause me to appear before a table covered with green cloth +and surmounted by the living busts of some old gentlemen who interested +themselves in knowing whether I had learned enough of the dead languages +to entitle me to the degree of Bachelor. + +The test was satisfactory. A dinner to which all my relations, far +and near, were invited, celebrated my success, affected my future, and +ultimately fixed me in the law. Well, I passed my examination and got +rid of the money provided for my first year's expenses with a blond girl +who, at times, pretended to be fond of me. + +I frequented the Latin Quarter assiduously and there I learned many +things; among others to take an interest in those students who blew +their political opinions into the foam of their beer, every night, then +to acquire a taste for the works of George Sand and of Heine, of Edgard +Quinet, and of Henri Murger. + +The psychophysical moment of silliness was upon me. + +That lasted about a year; gradually I ripened. The electoral struggles +of the closing days of the Empire left me cold; I was the son neither of +a Senator nor a proscript and I had but to outlive, no matter what the +régime, the traditions of mediocrity and wretchedness long since adopted +by my family. The law pleased me but little. I thought that the _Code_ +had been purposely maldirected in order to furnish certain people with +an opportunity to wrangle, to the utmost limit, over the smallest +words; even today it seems to me that a phrase clearly worded can not +reasonably bear such diverse interpretation. + +I was sounding my depths, searching for some state of being that I might +embrace without too much disgust, when the late Emperor found one for +me; he made me a soldier through the maladroitness of his policy. + +The war with Prussia broke out. To tell the truth I did not understand +the motives that made that butchery of armies necessary. I felt neither +the need of killing others nor of being killed by them. However that +may be, enrolled in the _Garde mobile_ of the Seine, I received orders, +after having gone in search of an outfit, to visit the barber and to be +at the barracks in the Rue Lourcine at seven o'clock in the evening. + +I was at the place punctually. After roll-call part of the regiment +swarmed out of the barrack gates and emptied into the street. Then the +sidewalks raised a shout and the gutters ran. + +Crowding one against another, workmen in blouses, workmen in tatters, +soldiers strapped and gaitered, without arms, they scanned to the clink +of glasses the Marseillaise over which they shouted themselves hoarse +with their voices out of time. Heads geared with képis {1} of incredible +height and ornamented with vizors fit for blind men and with tin +cockades of red, white and blue, muffled in blue-black jackets with +madder-red collars and cuffs, breached in blue linen pantaloons with a +red stripe down the side, the militia of the Seine kept howling at the +moon before going forth to conquer Prussia. That was a deafening uproar +at the wine shops, a hubbub of glasses, cans and shrieks, cut into here +and there by the rattling of a window shaken by the wind. Suddenly the +roll of the drum muffled all that clamor; a new column poured out of the +barracks; there was carousing and tippling indescribable. Those soldiers +who were drinking in the wine shops shot now out into the streets, +followed by their parents and friends who disputed the honor of carrying +their knapsacks; the ranks were broken; it was a confusion of soldiers +and citizens; mothers wept, fathers, more contained, sputtered wine, +children frisked for joy and shrieked patriotic songs at the top of +their shrill voices. + + 1 Military hats. + +They crossed Paris helter-skelter by the flashes of lightning +that whipped the storming clouds into white zigzags. The heat was +overpowering, the knapsack was heavy; they drank at every corner of the +street; they arrived at last at the railway station of Aubervilliers. +There was a moment of silence broken by the sound of sobbing, dominated +again by a burst of the Marseillaise, then they stalled us like cattle +in the cars. "Good night, Jules! may we meet soon again! Be good! +Above all write to me!" They squeezed hands for a last time, the train +whistled, we had left the station. We were a regular shovelful of fifty +men in that box that rolled away with us. Some were weeping freely, +jeered at by the others who, completely lost in drink, were sticking +lighted candles into their provisions and bawling at the top of their +voices: "Down with Badinguet! and long live Rochefort!" {2} + + 2 "Badinguet, nickname given to Napoleon III; Henri + Rochefort, anti-Napoleon journalist and agitator. + +Others, in a corner by themselves, stared silently and sullenly at the +broad floor that kept vibrating in the dust. All at once the convoy +makes a halt--I got out. Complete darkness--twenty-five minutes after +midnight. + +On all sides stretch the fields, and in the distance lighted up by sharp +flashes of lightning, a cottage, a tree sketch their silhouette against +a sky swollen by the tempest. Only the grinding and rumbling of the +engine is heard, whose clusters of sparks flying from the smokestack +scatter like a bouquet of fireworks the whole length of the train. Every +one gets out, goes forward as far as the engine, which looms up in the +night and becomes huge. The stop lasted quite two hours. The signal +disks flamed red, the engineer was waiting for them to reverse. They +turn; again we get back into the wagons, but a man who comes up on the +run and swinging a lantern, speaks a few words to the conductor, who +immediately backs the train into a siding where we remain motionless. +Not one of us knows where we are. I descend again from the carriage, and +sitting on an embankment, I nibble at a bit of bread and drink a drop or +two, when the whirl of a hurricane whistles in the distance, approaches, +roaring and vomiting fire, and an interminable train of artillery passed +at full speed, carrying along horses, men, and cannon whose bronze necks +sparkle in a confusion of light. Five minutes after we take up our slow +advance, again interrupted by halts that grow longer and longer. The +journey ends with daybreak, and leaning from the car window, worn out by +the long watch of the night, I look out upon the country that surrounds +us: a succession of chalky plains, closing in the horizon, a band of +pale green like the color of a sick turquoise, a flat country, gloomy, +meagre, the beggarly Champagne Pouilleuse! + +Little by little the sun brightens, we, rumbling on the while, end, +however, by getting there! Leaving at eight o'clock in the evening, we +were delivered at three o'clock of the afternoon of the next day. Two of +the militia had dropped by the way, one who had taken a header from the +top of the car into the river, the other who had broken his head on the +ledge of a bridge. The rest, after having pillaged the hovels and the +gardens, met along the route wherever the train stopped, either yawned, +their lips puffed out with wine, and their eyes swollen, or amused +themselves by throwing from one side of the carriage to the other +branches of shrubs and hencoops which they had stolen. + +The disembarking was managed after the same fashion as the departure. +Nothing was ready; neither canteen, nor straw, nor coats, nor arms, +nothing, absolutely nothing. Only tents full of manure and of insects, +just left by the troops off for the frontier. For three days we live at +the mercy of Mourmelon.{3} Eating a sausage one day and drinking a +bowl of café-au-lait the next, exploited to the utmost by the natives, +sleeping, no matter how, without straw and without covering. Truly such +a life was not calculated to give us a taste for the calling they had +inflicted on us. + + 3 A suburb of Chalons. + +Once in camp, the companies separated; the laborers took themselves +to the tents of their fellows; the bourgeois did the same. The tent in +which I found myself was not badly managed, for we succeeded in driving +out by argument of wine the two fellows, the native odor of whose feet +was aggravated by a long and happy neglect. + +One or two days passed. They made us mount guard with the pickets, we +drank a great deal of eau-de-vie, and the drink-shops of Mourmelon were +full without let, when suddenly Canrobert {4} passed us in review along +the front line of battle. I see him now on his big horse, bent over the +saddle, his hair flying, his waxed mustaches in a ghastly face. A mutiny +was breaking out. Deprived of everything, and hardly convinced by that +marshal that we lacked nothing, we growled in chorus when he talked of +repressing our complaints by force: "Ran, plan, plan, a hundred thousand +men afoot, to Paris, to Paris!" + + 4 Canrobert, a brave and distinguished veteran, head of + the Sixth Corps of the Army of the Rhine. + +Canrobert grew livid, and shouted, planting his horse in the midst of +us. "Hats off to a marshal of France!" Again a howl goes up from the +ranks; then turning bridle, followed in confusion by his staff officers, +he threatened us with his finger, whistling between his separated teeth. +"You shall pay dear for this, gentlemen from Paris!" + +Two days after this episode, the icy water of the camp made me so +sick that there was urgent need of my entering the hospital. After the +doctor's visit, I buckle on my knapsack, and under guard of a corporal, +here I am going limping along, dragging my legs and sweating under my +harness. The hospital is gorged with men; they send me back. I then +go to one of the nearest military hospitals; a bed stands empty; I am +admitted. I put down my knapsack at last, and with the expectation that +the major would forbid me to move, I went out for a walk in the little +garden which connected the set of buildings. Suddenly there issued from +the door a man with bristling beard and bulging eyes. He plants his +hands in the pockets of a long dirt-brown cloak, and shouts out from the +distance as soon as he sees me: + +"Hey you, man! What are you doing over here?" I approach, I explain to +him the motive that brings me. He thrashes his arms about and bawls: + +"Go in again! You have no right to walk about in this garden until they +give you your costume." + +I go back into the room, a nurse arrives and brings me a great military +coat, pantaloons, old shoes without heels, and a cap like a nightcap. I +look at myself, thus grotesquely dressed, in my little mirror. Good +Heavens, what a face and what an outfit! With my haggard eyes and my +sallow complexion, with my hair cut short, and my nose with the bumps +shining; with my long mouse-gray coat, my pants stained russet, my great +hedless shoes, my colossal cotton cap, I am prodigiously ugly. I could +not keep from laughing. I turn my head toward the side of my bed +neighbor, a tall boy of Jewish type, who is sketching my portrait in a +notebook. We become friends at once; I tell him to call me Eugène +Lejantel; he responds by telling me to call him Francis Emonot; we +recall to each other this and that painter; we enter into a discussion +of esthetics and forget our misfortune. Night arrives; they portion out +to us a dish of boiled meat dotted black with a few lentils, they pour +us out brimming cups of coco-clairet, and I undress, enchanted at +stretching myself out in a bed without keeping my clothes and my shoes +on. + +The next morning I am awakened at about six o'clock by a great fracas at +the door and a clatter of voices. I sit up in bed, I rub my eyes, and +I see the gentleman of the night before, still dressed in his wrapper, +brown the color of cachou, who advances majestically, followed by a +train of nurses. It was the major. Scarcely inside, he rolls his dull +green eyes from right to left and from left to right, plunges his hands +in his pockets and bawls: + +"Number One, show your leg--your dirty leg. Eh, it's in a bad shape, +that leg, that sore runs like a fountain; lotion of bran and water, +lint, half-rations, a strong licorice tea. Number Two, show your +throat--your dirty throat. It's getting worse and worse, that throat; +the tonsils will be cut out to-morrow." + +"But, doctor--" + +"Eh, I am not asking anything from you, am I? Say one word and I'll put +you on a diet." + +"But, at least--" + +"Put that man on a diet. Write: diet, gargles, strong licorice tea." + +In that vein he passed all the sick in review, prescribing for all, the +syphilitics and the wounded, the fevered and the dysentery patients his +strong licorice tea. He stopped in front of me, stared into my face, +tore off my covering, punched my stomach with his fist, ordered +albuminated water for me, the inevitable tea; and went out snorting and +dragging his feet. + +Life was difficult with the men who were about us. There were twenty-one +in our sleeping quarters. At my left slept my friend, the painter; on +my right, a great devil of a trumpeter, with face pocked like a sewing +thimble and yellow as a glass of bile. He combined two professions, that +of cobbler by day and a procurer of girls by night. He was, in other +respects, a comical fellow who frisked about on his hands, or on his +head, telling you in the most naïve way in the world the manner in which +he expedited at the toe of his boot the work of his menials, or intoned +in a touching voice sentimental songs: + + "I have cherished in my sorrow--ow + But the friendship of a swallow--ow." + +I conquered his good graces by giving him twenty sous to buy a liter of +wine with, and we did well in not being on bad terms with him, for +the rest of our quarters--composed in part of attorneys of the Rue +Maubuée--were well disposed to pick a quarrel with us. + +One night, among others, the 15th of August, Francis Emonot threatened +to box the ears of two men who had taken his towel. There was a +formidable hubbub in the dormitory. Insults rained, we were treated to +"roule-en-coule et de duchesses." Being two against nineteen, we were +in a fair way of getting a regular drubbing, when the bugler interfered, +took aside the most desperate and coaxed them into giving up the stolen +object. To celebrate the reconciliation which followed this scene, +Francis and I contributed three francs each, and it was arranged that +the bugler with the aid of his comrades should try to slip out of the +hospital and bring back some meat and wine. + +The light had disappeared from the major's window, the druggist at last +extinguished his, we climb over the thicket, examine our surroundings, +caution the men who are gliding along the walls not to encounter the +sentinels on the way, mount on one another's shoulders and jump off into +the field. An hour later they came back laden with victuals; they pass +them over and reenter the dormitory with us; we suppress the two night +lamps, light candle-ends stuck on the floor, and around my bed in our +shirts we form a circle. We had absorbed three or four liters of wine +and cut up the best part of a leg of mutton, when a great clattering of +shoes is heard; I blow out the candle stubbs, by the grace of my shoe, +and every one escapes under the beds. The door opens; the major appears, +heaves a formidable "Good Heavens!" stumbles in the darkness, goes out +and comes back with a lantern and the inevitable train of nurses. I +profit by the moment to disperse the remains of the feast; the major +crosses the dormitory at a quick step, swearing, threatening to take us +all into custody and to put us in stocks. + +We are convulsed with laughter under our coverings; a trumpet-flourish +blazes from the other side of the dormitory. The major puts us all under +diet; then he goes out, warning us that we shall know in a few minutes +what metal he is made of. + +Once gone, we vie with each other in doing our worst; flashes of +laughter rumble and crackle. The trumpeter does a handspring in the +dormitory, one of his friends joins him, a third jumps on his bed as +on a springboard and bounces up and down, his arms balancing, his shirt +flying; his neighbor breaks into a triumphant cancan; the major enters +abruptly, orders four men of the line he has brought with him to seize +the dancers, and announces to us that he is going to draw up a report +and send it to whom it may concern. + +Calm is restored at last; the next day we get the nurses to buy us some +eatables. The days run on without further incident. We are beginning to +perish of ennui in this hospital, when, one day, at five o'clock, the +doctor bursts into the room and orders us to put on our campaign clothes +and to buckle on our knapsacks. + +We learn ten minutes later that the Prussians are marching on Chalons. + +A gloomy amazement reigns in the quarters. Until now we have had no +doubts as to the outcome of passing events. We knew about the too +celebrated victory of Sarrebrück, we do not expect the reverses which +overwhelm us. The major examines every man; not one is cured, all +had been too long gorged with licorice water and deprived of care. +Nevertheless, he returns to their corps the least sick, he orders others +to lie down completely dressed, knapsack in readiness. Francis and I are +among these last. The day passes, the night passes. Nothing. But I have +the colic continually and suffer. At last, at about nine o'clock in the +morning, appears a long train of mules with "cacolets,"{5} and led by +"tringlots."{6} + + 5 Panier seats used in the French army to + transport the wounded. + + 6 Tringlots are the soldiers detailed for this duty. + +We climb two by two into the baskets. Francis and I were lifted onto +the same mule, only, as the painter was very fat and I very lean, the +arrangement see-sawed; I go up in the air while he descends under the +belly of the mule, who, dragged by the head, and pushed from behind, +dances and flings about furiously. We trot along in a whirlwind of dust, +blinded, bewildered, jolted, we cling to the bar of the cacolet, shut +our eyes, laugh and groan. We arrive at Chalons more dead than alive; +we fall to the gravel like jaded cattle, then they pack us into the cars +and we leave Chalons to go--where? No one knows. + +It is night; we fly over the rails. The sick are taken from the cars and +walked up and down the platforms. The engine whistles, slows down and +stops in a railway station--that of Reims, I suppose, but I can not be +sure. We are dying of hunger, the commissary forgot but one thing: to +give us bread for the journey. I get out. I see an open buffet, I run +for it, but others are there before me. They are fighting as I come +up. Some were seizing bottles, others meat, some bread, some cigars. +Half-dazed but furious, the restaurant-keeper defends his shop at the +point of a spit. Crowded by their comrades, who come up in gangs, the +front row of militia throw themselves onto the counter, which gives +way, carrying in its wake the owner of the buffet and his waiters. Then +followed a regular pillage; everything went, from matches to toothpicks. +Meanwhile the bell rings and the train starts. Not one of us disturbs +himself, and while sitting on the walk, I explain to the painter how +the tubes work, the mechanism of the bell. The train backs down over the +rails to take us aboard. We ascend into our compartments again and we +pass in review the booty we had seized. To tell the truth, there +was little variety of food. Pork-butcher's meat and nothing but +pork-butcher's meat! We had six strings of Bologna sausages flavored +with garlic, a scarlet tongue, two sausages, a superb slice of Italian +sausage, a slice in silver stripe, the meat all of an angry red, mottled +white; four liters of wine, a half-bottle of cognac, and a few candle +ends. We stick the candle ends into the neck of our flasks, which swing, +hung by strings to the sides of the wagon. There was, thus, when the +train jolted over a switch, a rain of hot grease which congealed almost +instantly into great platters, but our coats had seen many another. + +We began our repast at once, interrupted by the going and coming of +those of the militia who kept running along the footboards the whole +length of the train, and knocked at our window-panes and demanded +something to drink. We sang at the top of our voices, we drank, we +clinked glasses. Never did sick men make so much noise or romp so on a +train in motion! + +One would have said that it was a rolling Court of Miracles; the +cripples jumped with jointed legs, those whose intestines were burning +soaked them in bumpers of cognac, the one-eyed opened their eyes, the +fevered capered about, the sick throats bellowed and tippled; it was +unheard of! + +This disturbance ends in calming itself. I profit by the lull to put my +nose out of the window. There was not a star there, not even a tip of +the moon; heaven and earth seem to make but one, and in that intensity +of inky blackness, the lanterns winked like eyes of different colors +attached to the metal of the disks. The engineer discharged his whistle, +the engine puffed and vomited its sparks without rest. I reclose the +window and look at my companions. Some were snoring, others disturbed by +the jolting of the box, gurgled and swore in their sleep, turning over +incessantly, searching for room to stretch their legs, to brace their +heads that nodded at every jolt. + +By dint of looking at them, I was beginning to get sleepy when the +train stopped short and woke me up. We were at a station; and the +station-master's office flamed like a forge fire in the darkness of the +night. I had one leg numbed, I was shivering from cold, I descend to +warm up a bit. I walk up and down the platform, I go to look at the +engine, which they uncouple, and which they replace by another, and +walking by the office I hear the bills and the tic-tac of the telegraph. +The employee, with back turned to me, was stooping a little to the right +in such a way that from where I was placed, I could see but the back of +his head and the tip of his nose, which shone red and beaded with sweat, +while the rest of his figure disappeared in the shadow thrown by the +screen of a gas-jet. + +They invite me to get back into the carriage, and I find my comrades +again, just as I had left them. That time I went to sleep for good. For +how long did my sleep last? I don't know--when a great cry woke me up: +"Paris! Paris!" I made a dash for the doorway. At a distance, against a +band of pale gold, stood out in black the smokestacks of factories and +workshops. We were at Saint-Denis; the news ran from car to car. Every +one was on his feet. The engine quickened its pace. The Gare du Nord +looms up in the distance. We arrive there, we get down, we throw +ourselves at the gates. One part of us succeeds in escaping, the others +are stopped by the employees of the railroad and by the troops; by force +they make us remount into a train that is getting up steam, and here we +are again, off for God knows where! + +We roll onward again all day long. I am weary of looking at the rows +of houses and trees that spin by before my eyes; then, too, I have the +colic continually and I suffer. About four o'clock of the afternoon, the +engine slackens its speed, and stops at a landing-stage where awaits +us there an old general, around whom sports a flock of young men, with +headgear of red képis, breached in red and shod with boots with yellow +spurs. The general passes us in review and divides us into two squads; +the one for the seminary, the other is directed toward the hospital. We +are, it seems, at Arras. Francis and we form part of the first squad. +They tumble us into carts stuffed with straw, and we arrive in front +of a great building that settles and seems about to collapse into the +street. We mount to the second story to a room that contains some thirty +beds; each one of us unbuckles his knapsack, combs himself, and sits +down. A doctor arrives. + +"What is the trouble with you?" he asks of the first. + +"A carbuncle." + +"Ah! and you?" + +"Dysentery." + +"Ah! and you?" + +"A bubo." + +"But in that case you have not been wounded during the war?" + +"Not the least in the world." + +"Very well! You can take up your knapsacks again. The archbishop gives +up the beds of his seminarists only to the wounded." + +I pack into my knapsack again all the knick-knacks that I had taken out, +and we are off again, willy-nilly, for the city hospital. There was no +more room there. In vain the sisters contrive to squeeze the iron beds +together, the wards are full. Worn out by all these delays, I seize one +mattress, Francis takes another, and we go and stretch ourselves in the +garden on a great glass-plot. + +The next day I have a talk with the director, an affable and charming +man. I ask permission for the painter and for me to go out into the +town. He consents; the door opens; we are free! We are going to dine at +last! To eat real meat, to drink real wine! Ah, we do not hesitate; we +make straight for the best hotel in town. They serve us there with +a wholesome meal. There are flowers there on the table, magnificent +bouquets of roses and fuchias that spread themselves out of the glass +vases. The waiter brings in a roast that drains into a lake of butter; +the sun himself comes to the feast, makes the covers sparkle and the +blades of the knives, sifts his golden dust through the carafes, and +playing with the pomard that gently rocks in the glasses, spots with a +ruby star the damask cloth. + +Oh, sacred joy of the guzzlers! My mouth is full and Francis is drunk! +The fumes of the roast mingle with the perfume of the flowers; the +purple of the wine vies in gorgeousness with the red of the roses. +The waiter who serves us has the air of folly and we have the air of +gluttons, it is all the same to us! We stuff down roast after roast, we +pour down bordeaux upon burgundy, chartreuse upon cognac. To the devil +with your weak wines and your thirty-sixes, {7} which we have been +drinking since our departure from Paris! To the devil with those +whimsicalities without name, those mysterious pot-house poisons with +which we have been so crammed to leanness for nearly a month! We are +unrecognizable; our once peaked faces redden like a drunkard's, we get +noisy, with noise in the air we cut loose. We run all over the town that +way. + + 7 Brandy of thirty-six degrees. + +Evening arrives; we must go back, however. The sister who is in charge +of the old men's ward says to us in a small flute-like voice: + +"Soldiers, gentlemen, you were very cold last night, but you are going +to have a good bed." + +And she leads us into a great room where three night lamps, dimly +lighted, hang from the ceiling. I have a white bed, I sink with delight +between the sheets that still smell fresh with the odor of washing. +We hear nothing but the breathing or the snoring of the sleepers. I am +quite warm, my eyes close, I know no longer where I am, when a prolonged +chuckling awakes me. I open one eye and I perceive at the foot of my bed +an individual who is looking down at me. I sit up in bed. I see before +me an old man, tall, lean, his eyes haggard, lips slobbering into a +rough beard. I ask what he wants of me. No answer! I cry out: "Go away! +Let me sleep!" + +He shows me his fist. I suspect him to be a lunatic. I roll up my towel, +at the end of which I quietly twist a knot; he advances one step; I leap +to the floor; I parry the fisticuff he aims at me, and with the towel I +deal him a return blow full in the left eye. He sees thirty candles, +he throws himself at me; I draw back and let fly a vigorous kick in +the stomach. He tumbles, carrying with him a chair that rebounds; +the dormitory is awakened; Francis runs up in his shirt to lend me +assistance; the sister arrives; the nurses dart upon the madman, whom +they flog and succeed with great difficulty in putting in bed again. The +aspect of the dormitory was eminently ludicrous; to the gloom of faded +rose, which the dying night lamps had spread around them, succeeded the +flaming of three lanterns. The black ceiling, with its rings of light +that danced above the burning wicks, glittered now with its tints of +freshly spread plaster. The sick men, a collection of Punch and Judies +without age, had clutched the piece of wood that hung at the end of a +cord above their beds, hung on to it with one hand, and with the other +made gestures of terror. At that sight my anger cools, I split with +laughter, the painter suffocates, it is only the sister who preserves +her gravity and succeeds by force of threats and entreaties in restoring +order in the room. + +Night came to an end, for good or ill; in the morning at six o'clock +the rattle of a drum assembled us, the director called off the roll. We +start for Rouen, Arrived in that city, an officer tells the unfortunate +man in charge of us that the hospital is full and can not take us in. +Meanwhile we have an hour to wait. I throw my knapsack down into a +corner of the station, and though my stomach is on fire, we are off, +Francis and I, wandering at random, in ecstasies before the church of +Saint-Ouen, in wonder before the old houses. We admire so much and +so long that the hour had long since passed before we even thought of +looking for the station again. "It's a long time since your comrades +departed," one of the employees of the railroad said to us; "they are in +Evreux." "The devil! The next train doesn't go until nine o'clock--Come, +let's get some dinner!" + +When we arrived at Evreux, midnight had come. We could not present +ourselves at a hospital at such an hour; we would have the appearance +of malefactors. The night is superb, we cross the city and we find +ourselves in the open fields. It was the time of haying, the piles were +in stacks. We spy out a little stack in a field, we hollow out there two +comfortable nests, and I do not know whether it is the reminiscent odor +of our couch or the penetrating perfume of the woods that stirs us, but +we feel the need of airing our defunct love affairs. The subject was +inexhaustible. Little by little, however, words become fewer, enthusiasm +dies out, we fall asleep. + +"Sacre bleu!" cries my neighbor, as he stretches himself. "What time +can it be?" I awake in turn. The sun will not be late in rising, for the +great blue curtain is laced at the horizon with a fringe of rose. +What misery! It will be necessary now to go knock at the door of the +hospital, to sleep in wards impregnated with that heavy smell through +which returns, like an obstinate refrain, the acrid flower of powder of +iodoform! All sadly we take our way to the hospital again. They open to +us but alas! one only of us is admitted, Francis;--and I, they send me +on to the lyceum. This life is no longer possible, I meditate an escape, +the house surgeon on duty comes down into the courtyard. I show him my +law-school diploma; he knows Paris, the Latin Quarter. I explain to him +my situation. "It has come to an absolute necessity." I tell him "that +either Francis comes to the lyceum or that I go to rejoin him at the +hospital." He thinks it over, and in the evening, coming close to my +bed, he slips these words into my ear! "Tell them tomorrow morning +that your sufferings increase." The next day, in fact, at about seven +o'clock, the doctor makes his appearance; a good, an excellent man, +who had but two faults; that of odorous teeth and that of desiring to +get rid of his patients at any cost. Every morning the follow-ing scene +took place: + +"Ah, ha! the fine fellow," he cries, "what an air he has! good color, +no fever. Get up and go take a good cup of coffee; but no fooling, +you know! don't go running after the girls; I will sign for you your +_Exeat_; you will return to-morrow to your regiment." + +Sick or not sick, he sent back three a day. That morning he stops in +front of me and says: + +"Ah! saperlotte, my boy, you look better!" + +I exclaim that never have I suffered so much. + +He sounds my stomach. "But you are better," he murmurs; "the stomach is +not so hard." I protest--he seems astonished, the interne then says to +him in an undertone: + +"We ought perhaps to give him an injection; and we have here neither +syringe nor stomach-pump; if we send him to the hospital--?" + +"Come, now, that's an idea!" says the good man, delighted at getting rid +of me, and then and there he signs the order for my admission. Joyfully +I buckle on my knapsack, and under guard of one of the servants of the +lyceum I make my entrance at the hospital. I find Francis again! By +incredible good luck the St. Vincent corridor, where he sleeps, in +default of a room in the wards, contains one empty bed next to his. We +are at last reunited! In addition to our two beds, five cots stretch, +one after the other, along the yellow glazed walls. For occupants they +have a soldier of the line, two artillerymen, a dragoon, and a hussar. +The rest of the hospital is made up of certain old men, crack-brained +and weak-bodied, some young men, rickety or bandy-legged, and a great +number of soldiers--wrecks from MacMahon's army--who, after being +floated on from one military hospital to another, had come to be +stranded on this bank. Francis and I, we are the only ones who wear +the uniform of the Seine militia; our bed neighbors were good enough +fellows; one, to tell the truth, quite as insignificant as another; they +were, for the most part, the sons of peasants or farmers called to serve +under the flag after the declaration of war. + +While I am taking off my vest, there comes a sister, so frail, so pretty +that I can not keep from looking at her; the beautiful big eyes! the +long blond lashes! the pretty teeth! She asks me why I have left the +lyceum; I explain to her in roundabout phrases how the absence of a +forcing pump caused me to be sent back from the college. She smiles +gently and says to me: "Ah, sir soldier, you could have called the thing +by its name; we are used to everything." I should think she was used to +everything, unfortunate woman, for the soldiers constrained themselves +but little in delivering themselves of their indiscreet amenities before +her. Yet never did I see her blush. She passed among them mute, her eyes +lowered, seeming not to hear the coarse jokes retailed around her. + +Heavens! how she spoiled me! I see her now in the morning, as the sun +breaks on the stone floor the shadows of the window bars, approaching +slowly from the far end of the corridor, the great wings of her bonnet +flapping At her face-She comes close to my bed with a dish that smokes, +and on the edge of which glistens her well-trimmed finger nail. "The +soup is a little thin to-day," she says with her pretty smile, "so I +bring you some chocolate. Eat it quick while it's hot!" + +In spite of the care she lavished upon me, I was bored to death in that +hospital. My friend and I, we had reached that degree of brutishness +that throws you on your bed, trying to kill in animal drowsiness the +long hours of insupportable days. The only distractions offered +us consisted in a breakfast and a dinner composed of boiled beef, +watermelon, prunes, and a finger of wine--the whole of not sufficient +quantity to nourish a man. + +Thanks to my ordinary politeness toward the sisters and to the +prescription labels that I wrote for them, I obtained fortunately a +cutlet now and then and a pear picked in the hospital orchard. I was, +then, on the whole, the least to be pitied of all the soldiers packed +together, pell-mell, in the wards, but during the first days I could not +succeed even in swallowing the meagre morning dole. It was inspection +hour, and the doctor chose that moment to perform his operations. The +second day after my arrival he ripped a thigh open from top to bottom; +I heard a piercing cry; I closed my eyes, not enough, however, to avoid +seeing a red stream spurt in great jets on to the doctor's apron. +That morning I could eat no more. Little by little, however, I grew +accustomed to it; soon I contented myself by merely turning my head away +and keeping my soup. + +In the mean while the situation became intolerable. We tried, but in +vain, to procure newspapers and books; we were reduced to masquerading, +to donning the hussar's vest for fun. This puerile fooling quickly wore +itself out, and stretching ourselves every twenty minutes, exchanging a +few words, we dive our heads into the bolsters. + +There was not much conversation to be drawn from our comrades. The two +artillerymen and the hussar were too sick to talk. The dragoon swore by +the name of heaven, saying nothing, got up every instant, enveloped +in his great white mantle, and went to the wash-bowls, whose sloppy +condition he reported by means of his bare feet. There were some old +saucepans lying about in which the convalescents pretended to cook, +offering their stew in jest to the sisters. + +There remained, then, only the soldier of the line: an unfortunate +grocer's clerk, father of a child, called to the army, stricken +constantly by fever, shivering under his bedclothes. + +Squatting, tailor-fashion, on our bed, we listen to him recount the +battle in which he was picked up. Cast out near Froeschwiller, on a +plain surrounded with woods, he had seen the red flashes shoot by in +bouquets of white smoke, and he had ducked, trembling, bewildered by the +cannonading, wild with the whistling of the balls. He had marched, +mixed in with the regiments, through the thick mud, not seeing a single +Prussian, not knowing in what direction they were, hearing on all sides +groans, cut by sharp cries, then the ranks of the soldiers placed in +front of him, all at once turned, and in the confusion of flight he had +been, without knowing how, thrown to the ground. He had picked himself +up and had fled, abandoning his gun and knapsack, and at last, worn +out by the forced marches endured for eight days, undermined by fear, +weakened by hunger, he had rested himself in a trench. He had remained +there dazed, inert, stunned by the roar of the bombs, resolved no longer +to defend himself, to move no more; then he thought of his wife, and, +weeping, demanded what he had done that they should make him suffer so; +he picked up, without knowing why, the leaf of a tree, which he kept, +and which he had about him now, for he showed it to us often, dried and +shriveled at the bottom of his pockets. + +An officer had passed meanwhile, revolver in hand, had called him +"coward," and threatened to break his head if he did not march. He had +replied: "That would please me above all things. Oh, that this would +end!" But the officer at the very moment he was shaking him on to his +feet was stretched out, the blood bursting, spurting from his neck. Then +fear took possession of him; he fled and succeeded in reaching a +road far off, overrun with the flying, black with troops, furrowed by +gun-carriages whose dying horses broke and crushed the ranks. + +They succeeded at last in putting themselves under shelter. The cry of +treason arose from the groups. Old soldiers seemed once more resolved, +but the recruits refused to go on. "Let them go and be killed," they +said, indicating the officers; "that's their profession. As for me I +have children; it's not the State that will take care of them if I die!" +And they envied the fate of those who were slightly wounded and the sick +who were allowed to take refuge in the ambulances. + +"Ah, how afraid one gets, and, then, how one holds in the ear the voices +of men calling for their mothers and begging for something to drink," +he added, shivering all over. He paused, and, looking about the corridor +with an air of content, he continued: "It's all the same, I am very +happy to be here; and then, as it is, my wife can write to me," and he +drew from his trousers pocket some letters, saying with satisfaction: +"The little one has written, look!" and he points out at the foot of +the paper under his wife's labored handwriting, some up-and-down strokes +forming a dictated sentence, where there were some "I kiss papas" in +blots of ink. + +We listened twenty times at least to that story, and we had to suffer +during mortal hours the repetitions of that man, delighted at having a +child. We ended by stopping our ears and by trying to sleep so as not to +hear him any more. + +This deplorable life threatened to prolong itself, when one morning +Francis, who, contrary to his habit, had been prowling around the whole +of the evening before in the courtyard, says to me: "I say, Eugène, come +out and breathe a little of the air of the fields." I prick my ears. +"There is a field reserved for lunatics," he continued; "that field is +empty; by climbing onto the roofs of the outhouses, and that is easy, +thanks to the gratings that ornament the windows, we can reach the +coping of the wall; we jump and we tumble into the country. Two steps +from the wall is one of the gates of Evreux. What do you say?" + +I say--I say that I am quite willing to go out, but how shall we get +back? + +"I do not know anything about that; first let us get out, we will plan +afterward. Come, get up, they are going to serve the soup; we jump the +wall after." + +I get up. The hospital lacked water, so much so that I was reduced to +washing in the seltzer water which the sister had had sent to me. I take +my siphon, I mark the painter who cries fire, I press the trigger, the +discharge hits him full in his face; then I place myself in front of +him, I receive the stream in my beard, I rub my nose with the lather, I +dry my face. We are ready, we go downstairs. The field is deserted; +we scale the wall; Francis takes his measure and jumps. I am sitting +astride the coping of the wall, I cast a rapid glance around me; below, +a ditch and some grass, on the right one of the gates of the town; in +the distance, a forest that sways and shows its rents of golden red +against a band of pale blue. I stand up; I hear a noise in the court; I +jump; we skirt the walls; we are in Evreux! + +Shall we eat? Motion adopted. + +Making our way in search of a resting-place, we perceive two little +women wagging along. We follow them and offer to breakfast with them; +they refuse; we insist; they answer no less gently; we insist again; +they say yes. We go home with them, with a meat-pie, bottles of wine, +eggs, and a cold chicken. It seems odd to us to find ourselves in a +light room hung with paper spotted with lilac blossoms and green leaves; +there are at the casements damask curtains of red currant color, a +mirror over the fireplace, an engraving representing a Christ tormented +by the Pharisees. Six chairs of cherry wood and a round table with an +oilcloth showing the kings of France, a bedspread with eiderdown of pink +muslin. We set the table, we look with greedy eye at the girls moving +about. It takes a long time to get things ready, for we stop them for a +kiss in passing; for the rest, they are ugly and stupid enough. But what +is that to us? It's so long since we have scented the mouth of woman! + +I carve the chicken; the corks fly, we drink like topers, we eat +like ogres. The coffee steams in the cups; we gild it with cognac; +my melancholy flies away, the punch kindles, the blue flames of the +Kirschwasser leap in the salad bowl, the girls giggle, their hair in +their eyes. Suddenly four strokes ring out slowly from the church tower. +It is four o'clock. And the hospital! Good heavens, we had forgotten it! +I turn pale. Francis looks at me in fright, we tear ourselves from the +arms of our hostesses, we go out at double quick. + +"How to get in?" says the painter. + +Alas! we have no choice; we shall get there scarcely in time for supper. +Let's trust to the mercy of heaven and make for the great gate! + +We get there; we ring; the sister concierge is about to open the door +for us and stands amazed. We salute her, and I say loud enough to be +heard by her: + +"I say, do you know, they are not very amiable at that commissariat; the +fat one specially received us only more or less civilly." + +The sister breathes not a word. We run at a gallop for the messroom; it +was time, I heard the voice of Sister Angèle who was distributing the +rations. I went to bed as quickly as possible, I covered with my hand a +spot my beauty had given me the length of my neck; the sister looks at +me, finds in my eyes an unwonted sparkle, and asks with interest: "Are +your pains worse?" + +I reassure her and reply: "On the contrary, sister, I am better; but +this idleness and this imprisonment are killing me." + +When I speak of the appalling ennui that is trying me, sunk in this +company, in the midst of the country, far from my own people, she does +not reply, but her lips close tight, her eyes take on an indefinable +expression of melancholy and of pity. One day she said to me in a dry +tone: "Oh, liberty's worth nothing to you," alluding to a conversation +she had overheard between Francis and me, discussing the charming +allurements of Parisian women; then she softened and added with her +fascinating little moue: "You are really not serious, Mr. Soldier." + +The next morning we agreed, the painter and I, that as soon as the soup +was swallowed, we would scale the wall again. At the time appointed we +prowl about the field; the door is closed. "Bast, worse luck!" +says Francis, "_En avant!_" and he turns toward the great door of the +hospital. I follow him. The sister in charge asks where we are going. +"To the commissariat." The door opens, we are outside. + +Arrived at the grand square of the town, in front of the church, +I perceive, as we contemplate the sculptures of the porch, a stout +gentleman with a face like a red moon bristling with white mustaches, +who stares at us in astonishment. We stare back at him, boldly, and +continue on our way. Francis is dying of thirst; we enter a café, and, +while sipping my demi-tasse, I cast my eyes over the local paper, and +I find there a name that sets me dreaming. I did not know, to tell the +truth, the person who bore it, but that name recalled to me memories +long since effaced. I remembered that one of my friends had a relation +in a very high position in the town of Evreux. "It is absolutely +necessary for me to see him," I say to the painter; I ask his address of +the café-keeper; he does not know it; I go out and visit all the bakers +and the druggists that I meet with. Every one eats bread and takes +medicine; it is impossible that one of those manufacturers should not +know the address of Monsieur de Fréchêdé. I did find it there, in fact; +I dust off my blouse, I buy a black cravat, gloves, and I go and ring +gently, in the Rue Chatrain, at the iron grating of a private residence +which rears its brick facade and slate roofs in the clearing of a sunny +park. A servant lets me in. Monsieur de Fréchêdé is absent, but Madame +is at home. I wait for a few seconds in a salon; the portière is raised +and an old lady appears. She has an air so affable that I am reassured. +I explain to her in a few words who I am. + +"Sir," she says with a kind smile, "I have often heard speak of your +family. I think, even, that I have met at Madame Lezant's, madame, your +mother, during my last journey to Paris; you are welcome here." + +We talked a long time; I, somewhat embarrassed, covering with my képi +the spot on my neck; she trying to persuade me to accept some money, +which I refuse. + +She says to me at last: "I desire with all my heart to be useful to you. +What can I do?" I reply: "Heavens, Madame, if you could get them +to send me back to Paris, you would render me a great service; +communications will be interrupted very soon, if the newspapers are to +be believed; they talk of another _coup d'état_, or the overthrow of the +Empire; I have great need of seeing my mother again; and especially of +not letting myself be taken prisoner here if the Prussians come." + +In the mean while Monsieur de Fréchêdé enters. In two words he is made +acquainted with the situation. + +"If you wish to come with me to the doctor of the hospital," he says, +"you have no time to lose." + +To the doctor! Good heavens! and how account to him for my absence from +the hospital? I dare not breathe a word; I follow my protector, asking +myself how it will all end. We arrive; the doctor looks at me with a +stupefied air. I do not give him time to open his mouth, and I deliver +with prodigious volubility a string of jeremiads over my sad position. + +Monsieur de Fréchêdé in his turn takes up the argument, and asks him, in +my favor, to give me a convalescent's leave of absence for two months. + +"Monsieur is, in fact, sick enough," says the doctor, "to be entitled to +two months' rest; if my colleagues and if the General look at it as I do +your protégé will be able in a few days to return to Paris." + +"That's good," replies Monsieur de Fréchêdé. "I thank you, doctor; I +will speak to the General myself to-night." + +We are in the street; I heave a great sigh of relief; I press the hand +of that excellent man who shows so kindly an interest in me. I run to +find Francis again. We have but just time to get back; we arrive at the +gate of the hospital; Francis rings; I salute the sister. She stops +me: "Did you not tell me this morning that you were going to the +commissariat?" + +"Quite right, sister." + +"Very well! the General has just left here. Go and see the director and +Sister Angèle; they are waiting for you; you will explain to them, no +doubt, the object of your visits to the commissariat." + +We remount, all crestfallen, the dormitory stairs. Sister Angèle is +there, who waits for us, and who says: + +"Never could I have believed such a thing! You have been all over the +city, yesterday and to-day, and Heaven knows what kind of life you have +been leading!" + +"Oh, really!" I exclaim. + +She looked at me so fixedly that I breathed not another word. + +"All the same," she continued, "the General himself met you on the Grand +Square to-day. I denied that you had gone out, and I searched for you +all over the hospital. The General was right, you were not here. He +asked me for your names; I gave him the name of one of you, I refused +to reveal the other, and I did wrong, that is certain, for you do not +deserve it!" + +"Oh, how much I thank you, my sister!" But Sister Angèle did not listen +to me. She was indignant over my conduct! There was but one thing to do; +keep quiet and accept the downpour without trying to shelter myself. + +In the mean time Francis was summoned before the director, and since, I +do not know why, they suspected him of corrupting me; and since he was, +moreover, by reason of his foolery, in bad odor with the doctor and the +sisters, he was informed that he must leave the hospital the following +day and join his corps at once. + +"Those huzzies with whom we dined yesterday are licensed women, who +have sold us; it was the director himself who told me," he declared +furiously. + +All the time we are cursing the jades and lamenting over our uniforms +which made us so recognizable, the rumor runs that the Emperor is taken +prisoner and that the Republic has been proclaimed at Paris; I give a +franc to an old man who was allowed to go out and who brings me a copy +of the "Gaulois." The news is true. The hospital exults, Badinguet +fallen! it is not too soon; good-by to the war that is ended at last. + +The following morning Francis and I, we embrace and he departs. "Till we +meet again," he shouts to me as he shuts the gate; "and in Paris!" + +Oh, the days that followed that day! What suffering! what desolation! +Impossible to leave the hospital; a sentinel paced up and down, in my +honor, before the door. I had, however, spirit enough not to try to +sleep. I paced like a caged beast in the yard. I prowled thus for the +space of twelve hours. I knew my prison to its smallest cranny. I +knew the spots where the lichens and the mosses pushed up through the +sections of the wall which had given way in cracking. Disgust for my +corridor, for my truckle-bed flattened out like a pancake, for my linen +rotten with dirt, took hold of me. I lived isolated, speaking to no one, +beating the flint stones of the courtyard with my feet, straying, like a +troubled soul, under the arcades whitewashed with yellow ochre the same +as the wards, coming back to the grated entrance gate surmounted by a +flag, mounting to the first floor where my bed was, descending to where +the kitchen shone, flashing the sparkle of its red copper through the +bare nakedness of the scene. I gnawed my fists with impatience, watching +at certain hours the mingled coming and going of civilians and soldiers, +passing and repassing on every floor, filling the galleries with their +interminable march. + +I had no longer any strength left to resist the persecution of the +sisters, who drove us on Sunday into the chapel. I became a monomaniac; +one fixed idea haunted me; to flee as quickly as possible that +lamentable jail. With that, money worry oppressed me. My mother had +forwarded a hundred francs to me at Dunkirk, where it seems I ought to +be. The money never appeared. I saw the time when I should not have a +sou to buy either paper or tobacco. + +Meanwhile the days passed. The De Fréchêdés seemed to have forgotten +me, and I attributed their silence to my escapades, of which they had +no doubt been informed. Soon to all these anxieties were added horrible +pains: ill-cared for and aggravated by my chase after petticoats, my +bowels became inflamed. I suffered so that I came to fear I should no +longer be able to bear the journey. I concealed my sufferings, fearing +the doctor would force me to stay longer at the hospital. I keep my bed +for a few days; then, as I felt my strength diminishing, I wished to get +up, in spite of all, and I went downstairs into the yard. Sister Angèle +no longer spoke to me, and in the evening, while she made her rounds in +the corridor and in the mess, turning so as not to notice the sparks of +the forbidden pipes that glowed in the shadows, she passed before me, +indifferent, cold, turning away her eyes. One morning, however, when I +had dragged myself into the courtyard and sunk down on every bench to +rest, she saw me so changed, so pale, that she could not keep from a +movement of compassion. In the evening, after she had finished her visit +to the dormitories, I was leaning with one elbow on my bolster, and, +with eyes wide open, I was looking at the bluish beams which the moon +cast through the windows of the corridor, when the door at the farther +end opened again, and I saw, now bathed in silver vapor, now in shadow, +and as if clothed in black crepe, according as to whether she passed +before the casements or along the walls, Sister Angèle, who was coming +toward me. She was smiling gently. "To-morrow morning," she said to me, +"you are to be examined by the doctors. I saw Madame de Fréchêdé to-day; +it is probable that you will start for Paris in two or three days." I +spring up in my bed, my face brightens, I wanted to jump and sing; +never was I happier. Morning rises. I dress, and uneasy, nevertheless, I +direct my way to the room where sits a board of officers and doctors. + +One by one the soldiers exhibit their bodies gouged with wounds or +bunched with hair. The General scraped one of his finger nails, the +Colonel of the Gendarmerie {8} fans himself with a newspaper; the +practitioners talk among themselves as they feel the men. My turn +comes at last. They examine me from head to foot, they press down on +my stomach, swollen and tense like a balloon, and with a unanimity of +opinion the council grants me a convalescent's leave of sixty days. + + 8 Armed police. + + +I am going at last to see my mother, to recover my curios, my books! I +feel no more the red-hot iron that burns my entrails; I leap like a kid! + +I announce to my family the good news. My mother writes me letter after +letter, wondering why I do not come. Alas! my order of absence must be +countersigned at the division headquarters at Rouen. It comes back after +five days; I am "in order"; I go to find Sister Angèle; I beg her to +obtain for me before the time fixed for my departure permission to go +into the city to thank De Fréchêdé, who have been so good to me. She +goes to look for the director and brings me back permission. I run +to the house of those kind people, who force me to accept a silk +handkerchief and fifty francs for the journey. I go in search of my +papers at the commissariat. I return to the hospital, I have but a few +minutes to spare. I go in quest of Sister Angèle, whom I find in the +garden, and I say to her with great emotion: + +"Oh, dear Sister, I am leaving; how can I ever repay you for all that +you have done for me?" + +I take her hand which she tries to withdraw, and I carry it to my lips. +She grows red. "Adieu!" she murmurs, and, menacing me with her finger, +she adds playfully, "Be good! and above all do not make any wicked +acquaintances on the journey." + +"Oh, do not fear, my Sister, I promise you!" + +The hour strikes; the door opens; I hurry off to the station; I jump +into a car; the train moves; I have left Evreux. The coach is half full, +but I occupy, fortunately, one of the corners. I put my nose out of +the window; I see some pollarded trees, the tops of a few hills that +undulate away into the distance, a bridge astride of a great pond that +sparkles in the sun like burnished glass. All this is not very pleasing. +I sink back in my corner, looking now and then at the telegraph wires +that stripe the ultramarine sky with their black lines, when the train +stops, the travellers who are about me descend, the door shuts, then +opens again and makes way for a young woman. While she seats herself and +arranges her dress, I catch a glimpse of her face under the displacing +of her veil. She is charming; with her eyes full of the blue of heaven, +her lips stained with purple, her white teeth, her hair the color of +ripe corn. I engage her in conversation. She is called Reine; embroiders +flowers; we chat like old friends. Suddenly she turns pale, and is about +to faint. I open the windows, I offer her a bottle of salts which I have +carried with me ever since my departure from Paris; she thanks me, it +is nothing, she says, and she leans on my knapsack and tries to sleep. +Fortunately we are alone in the compartment, but the wooden partition +that divides into equal parts the body of the carriage comes up only as +far as the waist, and one can see and above all hear the clamor and the +coarse laughter of the country men and women. I could have thrashed them +with hearty good will, these imbeciles who were troubling her sleep! I +contented myself with listening to the commonplace opinions which they +exchanged on politics. I soon have enough of it; I stop my ears. I too, +try to sleep; but that phrase which was spoken by the station-master of +the last station, "You will not get to Paris, the rails are torn up +at Mantes," returned in my dreams like an obstinate refrain. I open my +eyes. My neighbor wakes up, too; I do not wish to share my fears with +her; we talk in a low voice. She tells me that she is going to join her +mother at Sèvres. "But," I say to her, "the train will scarcely enter +Paris before eleven o'clock to-night. You will never have time to reach +the landing on the left bank." + +"What shall I do?" she says, "if my brother is not down at my arrival?" + +Oh, misery, I am as dirty as a comb and my stomach burns! I can not +dream of taking her to my bachelor lodgings, and then I wish before all +to see my mother. What to do? I look at Reine with distress. I take +her hand; at that moment the train takes a curve, the jerk throws her +forward; our lips approach, they touch, I press mine; she turns red. +Good heavens, her mouth moves imperceptibly; she returns my kiss; a long +thrill runs up my spine; at contact of those ardent embers my senses +fail. Oh! Sister Angèle, Sister Angèle! a man can not make himself over! +And the train roars and rolls onward, without slackening speed; we are +flying under full steam toward Mantes; my fears are vain; the track is +clear. Reine half shuts her eyes; her head falls on my shoulder; her +little waves of hair tangle with my beard and tickle my lips. I put my +arm about her waist, which yields, and I rock her. Paris is not far; we +pass the freight-depots, by the roundhouses where the engines roar in +red vapor, getting up steam; the train stops; they take up the tickets. +After reflection, I will take Reine to my bachelor rooms, provided her +brother is not waiting her arrival. We descend from the carriage; her +brother is there. "In five days," she says, with a kiss, and the pretty +bird has flown. Five days after I was in my bed, atrociously sick, and +the Prussians occupy Sèvres. Never since then have I seen her. + +My heart is heavy. I heave a deep sigh; this is not, however, the time +to be sad! I am jolting on in a fiacre. I recognize the neighborhood; I +arrive before my mother's house; I dash up the steps, four at a time. I +pull the bell violently; the maid opens the door. "It's Monsieur!" +and she runs to tell my mother, who darts out to meet me, turns pale, +embraces me, looks me over from head to foot, steps back a little, looks +at me once more, and hugs me again. Meanwhile the servant has stripped +the buffet. "You must be hungry, M. Eugène?" I should think I was +hungry! I devour everything they give me. I toss off great glasses of +wine; to tell the truth, I do not know what I am eating and what I am +drinking! + +At length I go to my rooms to rest, I find my lodging just as I left +it. I run through it, radiant, then I sit down on the divan and I +rest there, ecstatic, beatific, feasting my eyes with the view of my +knickknacks and my books. I undress, however; I splash about in a great +tub, rejoicing that for the first time in many months I am going to get +into a clean bed with white feet and toenails trimmed. I spring onto +the mattress, which rebounds. I dive my head into the feather pillow, my +eyes close; I soar on full wings into the land of dreams. + +I seem to see Francis, who is lighting his enormous wooden pipe, and +Sister Angèle, who is contemplating me with her little moue; then Reine +advances toward me, I awake with a start, I behave like an idiot, I +sink back again up to my ears, but the pains in my bowels, calmed for +a moment, awake, now that the nerves become less tense, and I rub my +stomach gently, thinking that the horrors of dysentery are at last over! +I am at home. I have my rooms to myself, and I say to myself that +one must have lived in the promiscuosity of hospitals and camps to +appreciate the value of a basin of water, to appreciate the solitude +where modesty may rest at ease. + + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Sac-Au-Dos, by Joris Karl Huysmans + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK SAC-AU-DOS *** + +***** This file should be named 23216-8.txt or 23216-8.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/2/3/2/1/23216/ + +Produced by David Widger + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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