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diff --git a/6571.txt b/6571.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..688c080 --- /dev/null +++ b/6571.txt @@ -0,0 +1,8593 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Queen Pedauque, by Anatole France + +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: The Queen Pedauque + +Author: Anatole France + + +Release Date: September, 2004 [EBook #6571] +This file was first posted on December 28, 2002 +Last Updated: April 15, 2013 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE QUEEN PEDAUQUE *** + + + + +Produced by Charles Franks and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team + + + + + + + +THE QUEEN PEDAUQUE + +By Anatole France + + +Translated By Jos. A. V. Stritzko + + +Introduction By James Branch Cabell + + + +Contents: + + I. Why I recount the singular Occurrences of my Life + + II. My Home at the Queen Pedauque Cookshop--I turn the Spit and + learn to read--Entry of Abbe Jerome Coignard + + III. The Story of the Abbe's Life + + IV. The Pupil of M. Jerome Coignard--I receive Lessons in Latin, + Greek and Life + + V. My Nineteenth Birthday--Its Celebration and the Entrance of + M. d'Asterac + + VI. Arrival at the Castle of M. d'Asterac and Interview with the + Cabalist + + VII. Dinner and Thoughts on Food + + VIII. The Library and its Contents + + IX. At Work on Zosimus the Panopolitan--I visit my Home and hear + Gossip about M. d'Asterac + + X. I see Catherine with Friar Ange and reflect--The Liking of + Nymphs for Satyrs--An Alarm of Fire--M. d'Asterac in his Laboratory + + XI. The Advent of Spring and its Effects--We visit Mosaide + + XII. I take a Walk and meet Mademoiselle Catherine + + XIII. Taken by M. d'Asterac to the Isle of Swans I listen to his + Discourse on Creation and Salamanders + + XIV. Visit to Mademoiselle Catherine--The Row in the Street and + my Dismissal + + XV. In the Library with M. Jerome Coignard--A Conversation on + Morals--Taken to M. d'Asterac's Study-Salamanders again-- + The Solar Powder--A Visit and its Consequences + + XVI. Jahel comes to my Room--What the Abbe saw on the Stairs--His + Encounter with Mosaide + + XVII. Outside Mademoiselle Catherine's House--We are invited in by + M. d'Anquetil--The Supper--The Visit of the Owner and the + horrible Consequences + + XVIII. Our return--We smuggle M. d'Anquetil in--M. d'Asterac on + Jealousy--M. Jerome Coignard in Trouble-What happened while + I was in the Laboratory--Jahel persuaded to elope + + XIX. Our last Dinner at M. d'Asterac's Table--Conversation of M. + Jerome Coignard and M. d'Asterac--A Message from Home--Catherine + in the Spittel--We are wanted for Murder-Our Flight--Jahel + causes me much Misery--Account of the Journey-The Abbe Coignard + on Towns--Jahel's Midnight Visit--We are followed--The Accident + --M. Jerome Coignard is stabbed + + XX. Illness of M. Jerome Coignard + + XXI. Death of M. Jerome Coignard + + XXII. Funeral and Epitaph + + XXIII. Farewell to Jahel--Dispersal of the Party. + + XXIV. I am pardoned and return to Paris--Again at the Queen + Pedauque--I go as Assistant to M. Blaizot--Burning of the + Castle of Sablons--Death of Mosaide and of M. d'Asterac. + + XXV. I become a Bookseller--I have many learned and witty + Customers but none to equal the Abbe Jerome Coignard, D.D., M. A + + + + +INTRODUCTION + +What one first notes about _The Queen Pedauque_ is the fact that in this +ironic and subtle book is presented a story which, curiously enough, is +remarkable for its entire innocence of subtlety and irony. Abridge the +"plot" into a synopsis, and you will find your digest to be what is +manifestly the outline of a straightforward, plumed romance by the elder +Dumas. + +Indeed, Dumas would have handled the "strange surprising adventures" of +Jacques Tournebroche to a nicety, if only Dumas had ever thought to +have his collaborators write this brisk tale, wherein d'Astarac and +Tournebroche and Mosaide display, even now, a noticeable something in +common with the Balsamo and Gilbert and Althotas of the _Memoires d'un +Medecin_. One foresees, to be sure, that, with the twin-girthed Creole +for guide, M. Jerome Coignard would have waddled into immortality not +quite as we know him, but with somewhat more of a fraternal resemblance +to the Dom Gorenflot of _La Dame de Monsoreau;_ and that the blood of +the abbe's death-wound could never have bedewed the book's final pages, +in the teeth of Dumas' economic unwillingness ever to despatch any +character who was "good for" a sequel. + +And one thinks rather kindlily of _The Queen Pedauque_ as Dumas would +have equipped it... Yes, in reading here, it is the most facile and +least avoidable of mental exercises to prefigure how excellently Dumas +would have contrived this book,--somewhat as in the reading of Mr. +Joseph Conrad's novels a many of us are haunted by the sense that the +Conrad "story" is, in its essential beams and stanchions, the sort of +thing which W. Clark Russell used to put together, in a rather different +way, for our illicit perusal. Whereby I only mean that such seafaring +was illicit in those aureate days when, Cleveland being consul for +the second time, your geography figured as the screen of fictive +reading-matter during school-hours. + +One need not say that there is no question, in either case, of +"imitation," far less of "plagiarism"; nor need one, surely, point out +the impossibility of anybody's ever mistaking the present book for a +novel by Alexandre Dumas. Ere Homer's eyesight began not to be what it +had been, the fact was noted by the observant Chian, that very few sane +architects commence an edifice by planting and rearing the oaks which +are to compose its beams and stanchions. You take over all such supplies +ready hewn, and choose by preference time-seasoned timber. Since Homer's +prime a host of other great creative writers have recognised this axiom +when they too began to build: and "originality" has by ordinary been, +like chess and democracy, a Mecca for little minds. + +Besides, there is the vast difference that M. Anatole France has +introduced into the Dumas theatre some preeminently un-Dumas-like +stage-business: the characters, between assignations and combats, toy +amorously with ideas. That is the difference which at a stroke dissevers +them from any helter-skelter character in Dumas as utterly as from any +of our clearest thinkers in office. + +It is this toying, this series of mental _amourettes_, which +incommunicably "makes the difference" in almost all the volumes of M. +France familiar to me, but our affair is with this one story. Now in +this vivid book we have our fill of color and animation and gallant +strangenesses, and a stir of characters who impress us as living with a +poignancy unmastered as yet by anybody's associates in flesh and blood. +We have, in brief, all that Dumas could ever offer, here utilised not +to make drama but background, all being woven into a bright undulating +tapestry behind an erudite and battered figure,--a figure of odd +medleys, in which the erudition is combined with much of Autolycus, and +the unkemptness with something of a Kempis. For what one remembers of +_The Queen Pedauque_ is l'Abbe Jerome Coignard; and what one remembers, +ultimately, about Coignard is not his crowded career, however opulent in +larcenous and lectual escapades and fisticuffs and broached wineflasks; +but his religious meditations, wherein a merry heart does, quite +actually, go all the way. + +Coignard I take to be a peculiarly rare type of man (there is no female +of this species), the type that is genuinely interested in religion. +He stands apart. He halves little with the staid majority of us, who +sociably contract our sacred tenets from our neighbors like a sort +of theological measles. He halves nothing whatever with our more +earnest-minded juniors who--perennially discovering that all religions +thus far put to the test of nominal practice have, whatever their +paradisial _entree_, resulted in a deplorable earthly hash--perennially +run yelping into the shrill agnosticism which believes only that one's +neighbors should not be permitted to believe in anything. + +The creed of Coignard is more urbane. "Always bear in mind that a sound +intelligence rejects everything that is contrary to reason, except +in matters of faith, where it is necessary to believe blindly." Your +opinions are thus all-important, your physical conduct is largely +a matter of taste, in a philosophy which ranks affairs of the mind +immeasurably above the gross accidents of matter. Indeed, man can win to +heaven only through repentance, and the initial step toward repentance +is to do something to repent of. There is no flaw in this logic, and in +its clear lighting such abrogations of parochial and transitory human +laws as may be suggested by reason and the consciousness that nobody is +looking, take on the aspect of divinely appointed duties. + +Some dullard may here object that M. France--attestedly, indeed, since +he remains unjailed-cannot himself believe all this, and that it is with +an ironic glitter in his ink he has recorded these dicta. To which the +obvious answer would be that M. France (again like all great creative +writers) is an ephemeral and negligible person beside his durable +puppets; and that, moreover, to reason thus is, it may be precipitately, +to disparage the plumage of birds on the ground that an egg has no +feathers... Whatever M. France may believe, our concern is here with +the conviction of M. Coignard that his religion is all-important and +all-significant. And it is curious to observe how unerringly the +abbe's thoughts aspire, from no matter what remote and low-lying +starting-point, to the loftiest niceties of religion and the high thin +atmosphere of ethics. Sauce spilt upon the good man's collar is but a +reminder of the influence of clothes upon our moral being, and of how +terrifyingly is the destiny of each person's soul dependent upon such +trifles; a glass of light white wine leads not, as we are nowadays +taught to believe, to instant ruin, but to edifying considerations +of the life and glory of St. Peter; and a pack of cards suggests, +straightway, intransigent fine points of martyrology. Always this +churchman's thoughts deflect to the most interesting of themes, to the +relationship between God and His children, and what familiary etiquette +may be necessary to preserve the relationship unstrained. These problems +alone engross Coignard unfailingly, even when the philosopher has +had the ill luck to fall simultaneously into drunkenness and a public +fountain, and retains so notably his composure between the opposed +assaults of fluidic unfriends. + +What, though, is found the outcome of this philosophy, appears a +question to be answered with wariness of empiricism. None can deny +that Coignard says when he lies dying: "My son, reject, along with the +example I gave you, the maxims which I may have proposed to you during +my period of lifelong folly. Do not listen to those who, like myself, +subtilise over good and evil." Yet this is just one low-spirited moment, +as set against the preceding fifty-two high-hearted years. And the +utterance wrung forth by this moment is, after all, merely that +sentiment which seems the inevitable bedfellow of the moribund,--"Were I +to have my life over again, I would live differently." The sentiment is +familiar and venerable, but its truthfulness has not yet been attested. + +To the considerate, therefore, it may appear expedient to dismiss +Coignard's trite winding-up of a half-century of splendid talking, +as just the infelicitous outcropping, in the dying man's enfeebled +condition, of an hereditary foible. And when moralising would approach +an admonitory forefinger to the point that Coignard's manner of living +brought him to die haphazardly, among preoccupied strangers at a casual +wayside inn, you do, there is no questioning it, recall that a more +generally applauded manner of living has been known to result in a +more competently arranged-for demise, under the best churchly and legal +auspices, through the rigors of crucifixion. + +So it becomes the part of wisdom to waive these mundane riddles, and to +consider instead the justice of Coignard's fine epitaph, wherein we +read that "living without worldly honors, he earned for himself eternal +glory." The statement may (with St. Peter keeping the gate) have been +challenged in paradise, but in literature at all events the unhonored +life of Jerome Coignard has clothed him with glory of tolerably longeval +looking texture. It is true that this might also be said of Iago and +Tartuffe, but then we have Balzac's word for it that merely to be +celebrated is not enough. Rather is the highest human desideratum +twofold,--_D'etre celebre et d'etre aime_. And that much Coignard +promises to be for a long while. + +James Branch Cabell + +Dumbarton Grange, + +July, 1921, + + + + +THE QUEEN PEDAUQUE + + + + +CHAPTER I + +Why I recount the singular Occurrences of my Life + + +I intend to give an account of some odd occurrences in my life. Some +have been exquisite, some queer Recollecting them, I am myself in doubt +if I have not dreamed them. I have known a Gascon cabalist, of whom I +could not say that he was wise, because he perished miserably, but he +delivered sublime discourses to me, on a certain night on the Isle of +Swans, speeches [Footnote: The original manuscript, written in a fine +hand, of the eighteenth century, bears the sub-heading "Vie et Opinions +de M. l'Abbe Jerome Coignard" [_The Editor_].] I was happy enough +to keep in my memory, and careful enough to put into writing. Those +speeches referred to magic and to occult sciences, with which people +were very much infatuated in my days. + +Everyone speaks of naught else but Rosicrucian mysteries.[Footnote: +This writing dates from the second half of the eighteenth century [_The +Editor_]]. Besides I do not myself expect to gain great honour by these +revelations. Some will say that everything is of my own invention, and +that it is not the true doctrine, others that I only said what one had +already known. I own that I am not very learned in cabalistic lore, my +master having perished at the beginning of my initiation. But, little as +I have learned of his craft, it makes me vehemently suspect that all of +it is illusion, deception and vanity. + +I think it quite sufficient to repudiate magic with all my strength, +because it is contrary to religion. But still I believe myself to be +obliged to explain concerning one point of this false science, so that +none may judge me to be more ignorant than I really am. I know that +cabalists generally think that Sylphs, Salamanders, Elves, Gnomes and +Gnomides are born with a soul perishable like their bodies and that they +acquire immortality by intercourse with the magicians. [Footnote: This +opinion is especially supported in a little book of the Abbe Montfaucon +de Villars, "Le Comte de Gabalis au Entretiens sur les sciences secretes +et mysterieuses suivant les principes des anciens mages ou sages +cabbalistes," of which several editions are extant. I only mention +the one published at Amsterdam (Jacques Le Jeune, 1700, 18mo, with +engravings), which contains a second part not included in the original +edition [_The Editor_]] On the contrary my cabalist taught me that +eternal life does not fall to the lot of any creature, earthly or +aerial. I follow his sentiment without presuming myself to judge it. + +He was in the habit of saying that the Elves kill those who reveal their +mysteries, and he attributes the death of M. l'Abbe Coignard, who was +murdered on the Lyons road, to the vengeance of those spirits. But I +know very well that this much lamented death had a more natural cause. I +shall speak freely of the air and fire spirits. One has to run some risk +in life and that with Elves is an extremely small one. + +I have zealously gathered the words of my good teacher M. l'Abbe Jerome +Coignard, who perished as I have said. He was a man full of knowledge +and godliness. Could his soul have been less troubled he would have been +the equal in virtue of M. l'Abbe Rollin, whom he far surpassed in extent +of knowledge and penetration of intellect. + +He had at least the advantage over M. Rollin that he had not fallen into +Jansenism during the agitation of a troubled life, because the soundness +of his mind was not to be shaken by the violence of reckless doctrines, +and before Him I can attest to the purity of his faith. He had a wide +knowledge of the world, obtained by the frequentation of all sorts of +companies. This experience would have served him well with the Roman +histories he, like M. Rollin, would doubtless have composed should +he have had time and leisure, and if his life could have been better +matched to his genius. What I shall relate of this excellent man will +be the ornament of these memoirs. And like Aulus Gellius, who culled the +most beautiful sayings of the philosophers into his "Attic Nights," and +him who put the best fables of the Greeks into the "Metamorphoses," I +will do a bee's work and gather exquisite honey. But I do not flatter +myself to be the rival of those two great authors, because I draw all +my wealth from my own life's recollections and not from an abundance of +reading. What I furnish out of my own stock is good faith. Whenever some +curious person shall read my memoirs he will easily recognise that +a candid soul alone could express itself in language so plain and +unaffected. Where and with whomsoever I have lived I have always been +considered to be entirely artless. These writings cannot but confirm it +after my death. + + + + +CHAPTER II + +My Home at the Queen Pedauque Cookshop--I turn the Spit and learn to +read--Entry of Abbe Jerome Coignard. + + +My name is Elme Laurent Jacques Menetrier. My father, Leonard Menetrier, +kept a cookshop at the sign of _Queen Pedauque,_ who, as everyone knows, +wag web-footed like the geese and ducks. + +His penthouse was opposite Saint Benoit le Betourne between Mistress +Gilles the haberdasher at the _Three Virgins_ and M. Blaizot, the +bookseller at the sign of _Saint Catherine,_ not far from the _Little +Bacchus,_ the gate of which, decorated with vine branches, was at the +corner of the Rue des Cordiers. He loved me very much, and when, after +supper, I lay in my little bed, he took my hand in his, lifted one after +the other of my fingers, beginning with the thumb, and said: + +"This one has killed him, this one has plucked him, this one has +fricasseed him and that one has eaten him, and the little _Riquiqui_ +had nothing at all. Sauce, sauce, sauce," he used to add, tickling the +hollow of my hand with my own little finger. + +And mightily he laughed, and I laughed too, dropping off to sleep, and +my mother used to affirm that the smile still remained on my lips on the +following morning. + +My father was a good cookshop-keeper and feared God. For this he carried +on holidays the banner of the Cooks' Guild, on which a fine-looking St +Laurence was embroidered, with his grill and a golden palm. He used to +say to me: + +"Jacquot, thy mother is a holy and worthy woman." + +He liked to repeat this sentence frequently. True, my mother went to +church every Sunday with a prayer-book printed in big type. She could +hardly read small print, which, as she said, drew the eyes out of her +head. + +My father used to pass an hour or two nightly at the tavern of the +_Little Bacchus_; there also Jeannetae the hurdy-gurdy player and +Catherine the lacemaker were regular frequenters. And every time he +returned home somewhat later than usual he said in a soft voice, while +pulling his cotton night-cap on: + +"Barbe, sleep in peace; as I have just said to the limping cutler: 'You +are a holy and worthy woman.'" + +I was six years old when, one day, readjusting his apron, with him +always a sign of resolution, he said to me: + +"Miraut, our good dog, has turned my roasting-spit during these last +fourteen years. I have nothing to reproach him with. He is a good +servant, who has never stolen the smallest morsel of turkey or goose. He +was always satisfied to lick the roaster as his wage. But he is getting +old. His legs are getting stiff; he can't see, and is no more good to +turn the handle. Jacquot, my boy, it is your duty to take his place. +With some thought and some practice, you certainly will succeed in doing +as well as he." + +Miraut listened to these words and wagged his tail as a sign of +approbation. My father continued: + +"Now then, seated on this stool, you'll turn the spit. But to form your +mind you'll con your horn-book, and when, afterwards, you are able to +read type, you'll learn by heart some grammar or morality book, or +those fine maxims of the Old and New Testaments. And that because the +knowledge of God and the distinction between good and evil are also +necessary in a working position, certainly of but trifling importance +but honest as mine is, and which was my father's and also will be yours, +please God." + +And from this very day on, sitting from morn till night, at the corner +of the fireplace, I turned the spit, the open horn-book on my knees. +A good Capuchin friar, who with his bag came a-begging to my father, +taught me how to spell. He did so the more willingly as my father, who +had a consideration for knowledge, paid for his lesson with a savoury +morsel of roast turkey and a large glass of wine, so liberally that +by-and-by the little friar, aware that I was able to form syllables and +words tolerably well, brought me a fine "Life of St Margaret," wherewith +he taught me to read fluently. + +On a certain day, having as usual laid his wallet on the counter, he +sat down at my side, and, warming his naked feet on the hot ashes of the +fireplace, he made me recite for the hundredth time: + + "Pucelle sage, nette et fine, + Aide des femmes en gesine + Ayez pitie de nous." + +At this moment a man of rather burly stature and withal of noble +appearance, clad in the ecclesiastical habit, entered the shop and +shouted out with an ample voice: + +"Hello! host, serve me a good portion!" With grey hair, he still looked +full of health and strength. His mouth was laughing and his eyes were +sprightly, his cheeks were somewhat heavy and his three chins dropped +majestically on a neckband which, maybe by sympathy, had become as +greasy as the throat it enveloped. + +My father, courteous by profession, lifted his cap and bowing said: + +"If your reverence will be so good as to warm yourself near the fire, +I'll soon serve you with what you desire." + +Without any further preamble the priest took a seat near the fire by the +side of the Capuchin friar. + +Hearing the good friar reading aloud: + + "Pucelle sage, nette et fine, + Aide des femnies en gesine," + +he clapped his hands and said: + +"Oh, the rare bird! The unique man! A Capuchin who is able to read! Eh, +little friar, what is your name?" + +"Friar Ange, an unworthy Capuchin," replied my teacher. + +My mother, hearing the voices from the upper room descended to the shop, +attracted by curiosity. + +The priest greeted her with an already familiar politeness and said: + +"That is really wonderful, mistress; Friar Ange is a Capuchin and knows +how to read." + +"He is able to read all sorts of writing," replied my mother. + +And going near the friar, she recognised the prayer of St Margaret by +the picture representing the maiden martyr with a holy-water sprinkler +in her hand. + +"This prayer," she added, "is difficult to read because the words of it +are very small and hardly divided, but happily it is quite sufficient, +when in labour-pains, to apply it like a plaster on the place where the +most pain is felt and it operates just as well, and rather better, than +when it is recited. I had the proof of it, sir, when my son Jacquot was +born, who is here present." + +"Do not doubt about it, my good dame," said Friar Ange. "The orison of +St Margaret is sovereign for what you mentioned, but under the special +condition that the Capuchins get their Maundy." + +In saying so, Friar Ange emptied the goblet of wine which my mother had +filled up for him and, throwing his wallet over his shoulder, went off +in the direction of the _Little Bacchus_. + +My father served a quarter of fowl to the priest, who took out of his +pocket a piece of bread, a flagon of wine and a knife, the copper handle +of which represented the late king on a column in the costume of a Roman +emperor, and began to have his supper. + +But having hardly taken the first morsel in his mouth he turned round on +my father and asked for some salt, rather surprised that no salt cellar +had been presented to him offhand. + +"So did the ancients use it," he said, "they offered salt as a sign +of hospitality. They also placed salt cellars in the temples on the +tablecloths of the gods." + +My father presented him with some bay salt out of the wooden shoe which +was hung on the mantelpiece. The priest took what he wanted of it and +said: + +"The ancients considered salt to be a necessary seasoning of all +repasts, and held it in so high esteem that they metaphorically called +salt the wit which gives flavour to conversation." + +"Ah!" said my father, "high as the ancients may have valued it, the +excise of our days puts it still higher." + +My mother, listening the while she knitted a woollen stocking, was glad +to say a word: + +"It must be believed that salt is a good thing, because the priests put +a grain of it on the tongues of the babies held over the christening +font. When my Jacques felt the salt on his tongue he made a grimace; as +tiny as he was he already had some sense. I speak, Sir Priest, of my son +Jacques here present." + +The priest looked on me and said: + +"Now he is already a grown-up boy. Modesty is painted on his features +and he reads the 'Life of St Margaret' with attention." + +"Oh!" exclaimed my mother, "he also reads the prayer for chilblains and +that of 'St Hubert,' which Friar Ange has given him, and the history +of that fellow who has been devoured, in the Saint Marcel suburb, by +several devils for having blasphemed the holy name of our Lord." + +My father looked admiringly on me, and then he murmured into the +priest's ear that I learned anything I wanted to know with a native and +natural facility. + +"Wherefore," replied the priest, "you must form him to become a man of +letters, which to be, is one of the honours of mankind, the consolation +of human life and a remedy against all evils, actually against those of +love, as it is affirmed by the poet Theocritus." + +"Simple cook as I am," was my father's reply, "I hold knowledge in +high esteem, and am quite willing to believe that it also is, as your +reverence says, a remedy for love. But I do not think that it is a +remedy against hunger." + +"Well, perhaps it is not a sovereign ointment," replied the priest; "but +it gives some solace, like a sweet balm, although somewhat imperfect." + +As he spoke Catherine the lacemaker appeared on the threshold, with +her bonnet sideways over her ear and her neckerchief very much creased. +Seeing her, my mother frowned and let slip three meshes of her knitting. + +"Monsieur Menetrier," said Catherine to my father, "come and say a word +to the sergeants of the watch. If you do not, they doubtless will lock +up Friar Ange. The good friar came to the _Little Bacchus_, where +he drank two or three pots without paying for them, so as not to go +contrary to the rules of St Francis, he said. But the worst of it is, +that he, seeing me in company under the arbour, came near me to teach +me a new prayer. I told him it was not the right moment to do so, and +he insisting on it, the limping cutler, who was sitting by me, tore his +beard rather roughly. Friar Ange threw himself on the cutler, who fell +to the ground, and by his fall upset the table and pitchers. + +"The taverner, running up, seeing the table knocked over, the wine +spilt, and Friar Ange with one foot on the cutler's head, swinging a +stool with which he struck anyone approaching him, this vile taverner +swore like a real devil and called for the watch. Monsieur Menetrier, do +come at once and take the little friar out of the watch's clutches. He +is a holy man, and quite excusable in this affair." + +My father was inclined to oblige Catherine, but for this once the +lacemaker's words had not the effect she expected. He said plainly that +he could not find any excuse for the Capuchin, and that he wished him +to get a good punishment by bread and water in the darkest corner of the +cellars of the convent, of which he was the shame and disgrace. + +He warmed up in talking: + +"A drunkard and a dissipated fellow, to whom I give daily good wine +and good morsels and who goes to the tavern to play the deuce with some +ill-famed creatures, depraved enough to prefer the company of a hawking +cutler and a Capuchin friar to that of honest sworn tradesmen of the +quarter. Fie! fie!" + +Therewith he suddenly stopped his scoldings and looked sideways on +my mother, who, standing up at the entry to the staircase, pushed her +knitting needles with sharp little strokes. + +Catherine, surprised by this unfriendly reception, said drily: + +"Then you don't want to say a good word to the taverner and the +sergeant?" + +"If you wish it, I'll tell them to take the cutler and the friar." + +"But," she replied, and laughed, "the cutler is your friend." + +"Less mine than yours," said my father sharply. "A ragamuffin and a +humbug, who hops about----" + +"Oh!" she exclaimed, "that's true, really true, that he hops. He hops, +hops, hops!" + +And she left the shop, shaking with laughter. + +My father turned round to the priest, who was picking a bone: + +"It is as I had the honour to say to your reverence! For each reading +and writing lesson that Capuchin friar gives to my child, I pay him with +a goblet of wine and a fine piece of meat, hare, rabbit, goose, or a +tender poulet or a capon. He is a drunkard and evil liver!" + +"Don't doubt about that," said the priest. + +"But if ever he dares to come over my threshold again, I'll drive him +out with a broomstick." + +"And you'll do well by it," said the priest; "that Capuchin is an ass, +and he taught your son rather to bray than to talk. You'll act wisely by +throwing into the fire that 'Life of St Catherine,' that prayer for the +cure of chilblains and that history of the bugbear, with which that monk +poisoned your son's mind. For the same price you paid for Friar Ange's +lessons, I'll give him my own; I'll teach him Latin and Greek, and +French also, that language which Voiture and Balzac have brought to +perfection. And in such way, by a luck doubly singular and favourable, +this Jacquot Tournebroche will become learned and I shall eat every +day." + +"Agreed!" said my father. "Barbara, bring two goblets. No business is +concluded without the contracting parties having a drink together as +a token of agreement. We will drink here. I'll never in my life put my +legs into the _Little Bacchus_ again, so repugnant have that cutler and +that monk become to me." + +The priest rose and, putting his hands on the back of his chair, said in +a slow and serious manner: + +"Before all, I thank God, the Creator and Conserver of all things, for +having guided me into this hospitable house. It is He alone who governs +us and we are compelled to recognise His providence in all matters +human, notwithstanding that it is foolhardy and sometimes incongruous to +follow Him too closely. Because being universal He is to be found in all +sorts of encounters, sublime by the conduct which He keeps, but obscene +or ridiculous for the part man takes in it and which is the only part +where they appear to us. And therefore one must not shout, in the manner +of Capuchin monks and goody-goody women, that God is to be seen in +every trifle. Let us praise the Lord; pray to Him to enlighten me in the +teachings I'll give to that child, and for the rest let us rely on His +holy will, without searching to understand it in all its details." + +And raising his goblet, he drank deeply. + +"This wine," he said, "infilters into the economy of the human body a +sweet and salutary warmth. It is a liquor worthy to be sung at Teos and +at the Temple by the princes of bacchic poets, Anacreon and Chaulieu. I +will anoint with it the lips of my young disciple." + +He held the goblet under my chin and exclaimed: + +"Bees of the Academy, come, come and place yourselves in harmonious +swarms on the mouth of Jacobus Tournebroche, henceforth consecrated to +the Muses." + +"Oh! Sir Priest," said my mother, "it is a truth that wine attracts the +bees, particularly sweet wine. But it is not to be wished that those +nefarious flies should place themselves on the mouth of my Jacquot, as +their sting is cruel. One day in biting into a peach a bee stung me on +the tongue, and I had to suffer fiendish pains. They would be calmed +only by a little earth, mixed up with spittle, which Friar Ange put into +my mouth in reciting the prayer of St Comis." + +The priest gave her to understand that he spoke of bees in an +allegorical sense only. And my father said reproachfully: "Barbe, you're +a holy and worthy woman, but many a time I have noticed that you have a +peevish liking to throw yourself thoughtlessly into serious conversation +like a dog into a game of skittles." + +"Maybe," replied my mother. "But had you followed my counsels better, +Leonard, you would have done better. I may not know all the sorts of +bees, but I know how to manage a home and understand the good manners +a man of a certain age ought to practise, who is the father of a family +and standard-bearer of his guild." + +My father scratched his ear, and poured some wine for the priest, who +said with a sigh: + +"Certainly, in our days, knowledge is not as much honoured in our +kingdom of France, as it had been by the Romans, although degenerated at +the time when rhetoric brought Eugenius to the Emperor's throne. It is +not a rarity in our century to find a clever man in a garret without +fire or candle. _Exemplum ut talpa_--I am an example." + +Thereafter he gave us a narration of his life, which I'll report just as +it came out of his own mouth--that is, as near it as the weakness of +my age allowed me to hear distinctly and hereafter keep in my memory. I +believe I have been able to restore it after the confidences he gave me +at a later time, when he honoured me with his friendship. + + + + +CHAPTER III + +The Story of the Abbe's Life + + +"As you see me," he said, "or rather as you do not see me, young, +slender, with ardent eyes and black hair, I was a teacher of liberal +arts at the College of Beauvais under Messrs Dugue, Guerin, Coffin +and Baffier. I had been ordained, and expected to make a big name in +letters. But a woman upset my hopes. Her name was Nicole Pigoreau and +she kept a bookseller's shop at the _Golden Bible_ on the square near +the college. I went there frequently to thumb the books she received +from Holland and also those bipontic editions illustrated with notes, +comments and commentaries of great erudition. I was amiable and Mistress +Pigoreau became aware of it, which was my misfortune. + +"She had been pretty, and still knew how to be pleasing. Her eyes spoke. +One day the Cicero, Livy, Plato and the Aristotle, Thucydides, Polybius +and Varro, the Epictetus, Seneca, Boethius and Cassiodorus, the Homer, +AEschylus. Sophocles, Euripides, Plautus and Terence, the Diodorus of +Sicily and Dionysius of Halicarnassus, St John Chrysostom and St Basil, +St Jerome and St Augustine, Erasmus, Saumaise, Turnebe and Scaliger, St +Thomas Aquinas, St Bonaventure, Bossuet dragging Ferri with him, Lenain, +Godefroy, Mezeray, Maimbourg, Fabricius, Father Lelong and Father Pitou, +all the poets, all the historians, all the fathers, all the doctors, all +the theologians, all the humanists, all the compilers, assembled high +and low on the walls, became witnesses to our kisses. + +"'I could not resist you,' she said to me; 'don't conceive a bad opinion +of me.' + +"She expressed her love for me in singular raptures. Once she made me +try on neck and wrist bands of fine lace, and finding them suit me +well she insisted on my accepting them. I did not want to. But on +her becoming irritated by my refusal, which she considered an offence +against love, I finally consented to accept them, afraid to offend her. + +"My good fortune lasted till I was to be replaced by an officer. I +became spiteful over it, and in the ardour of avenging myself I informed +the College Regents that I did not go any longer to the _Golden Bible_, +for fear of seeing there expositions rather offensive to the modesty of +a young clerical. To say the truth, I had not to congratulate myself +on this contrivance. Madame Pigoreau, becoming aware of my sayings, +publicly accused me of having robbed her of a set of lace neck and wrist +bands. Her false complaint reached the ears of the College Regents, +who had my boxes searched; therein was found the garment, a matter of +considerable value. I was expelled from college and had, like Hippolyte +and Bellerophon, to put up with the wiles and wickedness of woman. + +"Finding myself in the streets with my few rags and my copybooks, I ran +great risk of starving, when, dressed in my clerical suit, I recommended +myself to a Huguenot gentleman, who employed me as secretary and +dictated to me libels on our religion." + +"Ah!" exclaimed my father, "that was wrong of your reverence. An honest +man ought not to lend his hand to such abominations. And as far as I am +concerned, although ignorant, and of a working condition, I cannot bear +the smell of Colas' cow." + +"You're quite right, my host," continued the priest. "It is the worst +point in my life. The very one I am most sorry for. But my man was a +Calvinist. He employed me to write against Lutherans and Socinians only; +these he could not stand at all, and, I assure you, he compelled me to +treat them worse than ever it was done at the Sorbonne." + +"Amen," said my father. "Lambs graze together while wolves devour one +the other." + +The priest continued his narrative: + +"Besides, I did not remain for long with that gentleman, who made more +fuss about the letters of Ulric von Hutten than of the harangues of +Demosthenes, and in whose house water was the only drink. Afterwards I +followed various callings, but all without success. I became a pedlar, a +strolling player, a monk, a valet, and at last, by resuming my clerical +garb, I became secretary to the Bishop of Seez and edited the catalogue +of the precious MSS. contained in his library. This catalogue consists +of two volumes in folio, which were placed in his gallery, bound in red +morocco, with his crest on and the edges gilded. I venture to say it was +a good work. + +"It would have depended on myself alone to get old and grey in studies +and peace with the right reverend prelate, but I became enamoured of the +waiting-maid of the bailiff's lady. Do not blame me severely. Dark she +was, buxom, vivacious, fresh. St Pacomus himself would have loved her. +One day she took a seat in the stage coach to travel to Paris in quest +of luck. I followed her. But I did not succeed as well as she did. On +her recommendation I entered the service of Mistress de Saint Ernest, +an opera dancer, who, aware of my talents, ordered me to write after +her dictation a lampoon on Mademoiselle Davilliers, against whom she +had some grievance. I was a pretty good secretary, and well deserved the +fifty crowns she had promised me. The book was printed at Amsterdam +by Marc-Michel Key, with an allegoric frontispiece, and Mademoiselle +Davilliers received the first copy of it just when she went on the stage +to sing the great aria of Armida. + +"Anger made her voice hoarse and shaky. She sang false and was hooted. +Her song ended, she ran as she was, in powder and hoop petticoats, to +the Intendant of the Privy Purse, who could not refuse her anything. +She fell on her knees before him, shed abundant tears and shouted for +vengeance. And soon it became known that the blow was struck by Mistress +de Saint Ernest. + +"Questioned, hard pressed, sharply threatened, she denounced me as the +author, and I was put into the Bastille, where I remained four years. +There I found some consolation in reading Boethius and Cassiodorus. + +"Since then I have kept a public scrivener's stall at the Cemetery of +the Saints Innocent, and lend to servant girls in love a pen, which +should rather have described the illustrious men of Rome and commented +on the writings of the holy fathers. I earn two farthings for every love +letter, and it is a trade by which I rather die than live. But I do not +forget that Epictetus was a slave and Pyrrho a gardener. + +"Just now, unexpectedly, I have been paid a whole crown for an anonymous +letter. I have not had anything to eat for two days. Therefore I at once +looked out for a cook-shop. From outside in the street I perceived your +illuminated sign and the fire of your chimney throwing joyful flaming +lights on the windows. On your threshold I smelt delicious odours. I +came in, and now, my dear host, you have the history of my life." + +"I have become aware that it is the life of a good man," said my father, +"and with the exception of Colas' cow there is hardly anything to +complain of. Give me your hand! We are friends, what's your name?" + +"Jerome Coignard, doctor of divinity, master of arts." + + + + +CHAPTER IV + +The Pupil of M. Jerome Coignard--I receive Lessons in Latin Greek and +Life. + + +The marvellous in the affairs of mankind is the concatenation of effects +and causes. M. Jerome Coignard was quite right in saying: "To consider +that strange following of bounds and rebounds wherein our destinies +clash, one is obliged to recognise that God in His perfection is in want +neither of mind nor of imagination nor comic force; on the contrary He +excels in imbroglio as in everything else, and if after having inspired +Moses, David and the Prophets He had thought it worth while to inspire +M. le Sage or the interluders of a fair, He would dictate to them the +most entertaining harlequinade." And in a similar way it occurred that I +became a Latinist because Friar Ange was taken by the watch and put into +ecclesiastical penance for having knocked down a cutler under the arbour +of the _Little Bacchus_. M. Jerome Coignard kept his promise. He gave me +lessons and, finding me tractable and intelligent, he took pleasure in +instructing me in the ancient languages. + +In but a few years he made me a tolerably good Latinist. + +In memory of him I have conceived a gratitude which will not come to an +end but with my life. The obligation I am under to him is easily to be +conceived when I say that he neglected nothing to shape my heart and +soul, together with my intellect. He recited to me the "Maxims of +Epictetus," the "Homilies of St Basil" and the "Consolations of +Boethius." By beautiful extracts he opened to me the philosophy of the +Stoics, but he did not make it appear in its sublimity without showing +its inferiority to Christian philosophy. He was a subtle theologian +and a good Catholic. His faith remained whole on the ruins of his most +beloved illusions, of his most cherished hopes. His weaknesses, his +errors, his faults, none of which he ever tried to dissemble or to +colour, have never shaken his confidence in the Divine goodness. And +to know him well, it must be known that he took care of his eternal +salvation on occasions when, to all appearance, he cared the least about +it. He imbued me with the principles of an enlightened piety. He also +endeavoured to attach me to virtue as such, and to render it to me, so +to say, homely and familiar by examples drawn from the life of Zeno. + +To make me acquainted with the dangers of vice, he went for arguments +to the nearest fountain-head, confessing to me that by having loved wine +and women too much, he had lost the honour of taking the professor's +chair of a college in long gown and square cap. + +To these rare merits he joined constancy and assiduity, and he gave his +lessons with an exactitude hardly to be expected of a man given as he +was to the freaks of a strolling life, and always carried away by a luck +less doctoral than picaresque. This zeal was the effect of his kindness +and also of his liking of that good St James's Street, where he found +occasion to satisfy equally the appetites of his body and intellect. +After having given me, during a succulent repast, some profitable +lesson, he indulged in a stroll to the _Little Bacchus_ and the _Image +of St Catherine_, finding in that narrow piece of ground that which was +his paradise--fresh wine and books. + +He became a constant visitor of M. Blaizot the bookseller, who received +him well, notwithstanding that he only used to thumb the books without +ever making the smallest purchase. And it was quite marvellous to see +my good teacher in the most remote part of the shop, his nose closely +buried in some little book recently arrived from Holland, suddenly +raising his head to discourse, as it might happen, with the same +abundant and laughing knowledge, on the plans of an universal monarchy +attributed to the late king, or, it may be, to the _aventures galantes_ +of a financier with a ballet girl. M. Blaizot was never tired of +listening to him. This M. Blaizot was a little old man, dry and neat, +in flea-coloured coat and breeches and grey woollen stockings. I admired +him very much, and could not think of anything more glorious than, like +him, to sell books at the _Image of St Catherine_. + +One recollection of mine gave to M. Blaizot's shop quite a mysterious +charm. It was there, I was still very young, I saw for the first time +the nude figure of a female. I can see her now. It was an Eve in an +illustrated Bible. Her stomach was rather big, her legs were rather +short, and she held converse with a serpent in a Dutch landscape. The +proprietor of this engraving inspired me with a consideration which grew +afterwards when I took, thanks to M. Coignard, a great liking for books. + +At the age of sixteen I knew Latin pretty well, and also a little Greek. +My good teacher said to my father: + +"Do you not think, my dear host, that it is rather an indecency to let a +young Ciceronian go about dressed as a scullion?" + +"I never thought of it," replied my father. + +"It is true," said mother, "that it would be suitable to give our son a +dimity vest. He is of an agreeable appearance, has good manners and is +well taught. He will do honour to his dress." + +For a moment my father remained thoughtful and then he asked if it would +be quite suitable for a cook to wear a dimity vest. But M. Coignard +reminded him that, being suckled by the Muses, I would never become a +cook, and that the time was not far off when I should wear a clerical +neckband. + +My father sighed, thinking that never would I be the banner-bearer of +the Guild of Parisian Cooks, and my mother became quite glittering with +pleasure and pride at the idea of her son belonging to the Church. + +The first effect my dimity vest produced was to give me a certain +confidence in myself, and to encourage me to get a more complete idea +of women than the one I had from the Eve of M. Blaizot. I reasonably +thought first on Jeannette the hurdy-gurdy player, and on Catherine the +lacemaker, both of whom I saw pass our shop twenty times a day, showing +when it rained, a fine ankle and a tiny foot, the toes of which turned +from one stone to the other. Jeannette was not so pretty as Catherine. +She was somewhat older and less well dressed. She came from Savoy and +did her hair _en marmotte_, with a checked kerchief covering her head. +But her merit was, not to stick to ceremony and to understand what was +wanted of her without being spoken to. This character agreed well with +my timidity. One evening under the porch of St Benoit le Betourne, where +there are stone seats all round, she taught me what till then I had not +known, but which she had known for a long time. + +But I was not so grateful to her as it should have been my duty to be, +and thought of nothing else but to bring the science she had taught me +to others, prettier ones. As an excuse for my ingratitude I ought to +say that Jeannette the hurdy-gurdy player did not value her lessons +any higher than I did myself, and that she willingly gave them to every +ragamuffin of the district. + +Catherine was of more reserved manners. I stood in awe of her and did +not dare to tell her how pretty I considered her to be. She made me +doubly uncomfortable by making game of me and not losing a single +occasion of jeering at me. She teased me by reproaching my chin for +being hairless. I blushed over it and wished to be swallowed by the +earth. On seeing her I affected a sullen mien and chagrin. I pretended +to scorn her. But she was really too pretty for my scorn to be true. + + + + +CHAPTER V + +My Nineteenth Birthday--Its Celebration and the Entrance of M. +d'Asterac. + + +On that night, the night of Epiphany and the nineteenth anniversary of +my birth, the sky poured down with the melting snow a cold ill-humour, +penetrating to the bone, while an icy wind made the signboard of the +_Queen Pedauque_ grate, a clear fire, perfumed by goose grease, sparkled +in the shop and the soup steamed in the tureen on the table; round which +M. Jerome Coignard, my father and myself were seated. My mother, as was +her habit, stood behind her husband's chair, ready to serve him. He had +already filled the priest's dish when, through the suddenly open door, +we saw Friar Ange, very pale, the nose red, the beard soaked. In his +surprise my father elevated the soup ladle up to the smoked beams of the +ceiling. + +My father's surprise was easily explained. Friar Ange, after his fight +with the cutler, had at first disappeared for a lapse of six months, and +now two whole years had passed without his giving any sign of life. On a +certain day in spring he went off with a donkey laden with relics, and, +worse still, he had taken with him Catherine dressed as a nun. Nobody +knew what had become of them, but there was a rumour at the _Little +Bacchus_ that the little friar and the little sister had had some sort +of difference with the authorities between Tours and Orleans. Without +forgetting that one of the vicars of St Benoit shouted everywhere, +and like one possessed, that that rascal of a Capuchin had stolen his +donkey. + +"What," exclaimed my father, "this rogue does not lie in a dungeon? +There is then no more justice in this kingdom." + +But Friar Ange recited the _Benedicite_ and made the sign of the cross +over the soup-tureen. + +"Hola!" continued my father. "Peace to all cant, my beautiful monk! +Confess that you have passed in an ecclesiastical prison at least one of +the two years that your Beelzebub-face has not been seen in our parish. +James Street has been more honest for your absence and the whole quarter +of the town more respectable. Look on that fine Olibrius, who goes into +the fields with the donkey of someone and the girl of everyone." + +"Maybe," replied Friar Ange, eyes on the ground and hands in his +sleeves. "Maybe, Master Leonard, you have Catherine in mind. I have had +the happiness to convert her to a better life, so much and so well that +she ardently wished to follow me, and the relics I was carrying, and to +go with me on some nice pilgrimage, especially to the Black Virgin +of Chartres! I consented under the condition that she clad herself in +ecclesiastical dress, which she did without a murmur." + +"Hold your tongue!" replied my father, "you are a dissipated fellow. You +have no respect for your cloth. Return to where you came from and +look, if you please, in the street, if Queen Pedauque is suffering from +chilblains." + +But my mother made the friar a sign to sit down under the +chimney-mantel, which he softly did. + +"One has to forgive much to Capuchins," said the abbe, "because they sin +without malice." + +My father begged of M. Coignard not to speak any more of the breed, the +name alone of which burnt his ears. + +"Master Leonard," said the priest, "philosophy conducts the soul to +clemency. As far as I am concerned I willingly give absolution to +knaves, rogues and rascals and all the wretched. And more, I owe no +grudge to good people, though in their case there is much insolence. +And if, Master Leonard, like myself, you should have been familiar with +respectable people, you would know that they are not a rap better than +the others, and are often of a less agreeable companionship. I have been +seated at the third table of the Bishop of Seez and two attendants, both +clad in black, were at my sides: constraint and weariness." + +"It must be acknowledged," said my mother, "that the servants of his +Grace had some queer names. Why did he not call them Champagne, Olive or +Frontin as is usual?" + +The priest continued: + +"It's true, certain persons get easily accustomed to the inconveniences +to be borne by living with the great. There was at the second table +of the bishop a very polite canon who kept on ceremony till his last +moment. When the news of his bodily decline reached the bishop he went +to his room and found him dying. 'Alas,' said the canon, 'I beg your +Grace's pardon to be obliged to die before your eyes.' 'Do, do! Don't +mind me,' said the bishop with the utmost kindness." + +At this moment my mother brought the roast and put it on the table with +a movement of homely gravity which caused my father some emotion; with +his mouth full he shouted: + +"Barbe, you're a holy and worthy woman." + +"Mistress," said my dear teacher, "is as a fact to be compared to the +strong women of the scripture. She is a godly wife." + +"Thank God!" said my mother, "I have never been a traitor to the +faithfulness I owe unto Leonard Menetrier, my husband, and I reckon +well, now that the most difficult part is passed, not to fail him till +my last hour is come. I wish he would keep his faith to me as I keep +mine to him." + +"Madam, when first I looked on you I could see you to be an honest +woman," replied the priest, "because I have experienced near you a +quietude more connected with heaven than with this world." + +My mother, who was simple-minded, but not stupid, understood very well +what he wanted to say, and replied that if he had known her twenty years +ago, he would have found her to be quite another than she had become in +this cookshop, where her good looks had vanished with the fire of the +spit and the fumes of the dishes. And as she was touched she mentioned +that the baker at Auneau had found her to be so much to his liking that +he had offered her cakes every time she passed his shop. "Besides," +she added angrily, "there is neither girl nor woman ugly enough to be +incapable of doing wrong if she had a fancy to do it." + +"This good woman is right," said my father. "I remember when I was a +prentice at the cookshop of the _Royal Goose_ near the Gate of St Denis, +my master, who was then the banner-bearer of the guild, as I myself am +to-day, said to me: 'I'll never be a cuckold, my wife is too ugly.' This +saying gave me the idea to attempt what he thought to be impossible. I +succeeded at my first attempt, one morning when he went to La Vallee. +He spoke the truth, his wife was very ugly, but high spirited and +grateful." + +At this anecdote my mother broke out and said that such things ought not +to be told by a father to his wife and son, if he wanted to have their +respect. + +M. Jerome Coignard, seeing her become red with anger, changed the +conversation with kindly meant ability. He addressed himself abruptly to +Friar Ange, who, hands in his sleeves, sat humbly at the corner of the +fireside: + +"Little friar, what kind of relics did you carry on the second vicar's +donkey's back in company with Sister Catherine? Was it your small +clothes you gave the devotees to kiss, in the manner of some grey +friars, of whom Henry Estienne has narrated the adventures?" + +"Ah! your reverence," meekly said Friar Ange with the expression of a +martyr suffering for truth, "it was not my small clothes, it was a foot +of St Eustache." + +"I should have taken my oath on it, if it would not be a sin to do +so," exclaimed the priest, brandishing the drumstick of a fowl. "Those +Capuchins turn out saints utterly ignored by good authors, who work on +ecclesiastical history. Neither Tillemont nor Fleury speak of that St +Eustache to whom a church is consecrated, very wrongly, at Paris, when +so many saints recognised by writers well deserving to be believed, +are still waiting for a similar honour. The 'Life of St Eustache' is +a tissue of ridiculous fables; the same is the case of that of St +Catherine, who has never existed except in the imagination of some +wicked Byzantine monk. But I do not want to attack her too hardly, as +he is the patroness of men of letters, and serves as a signboard to the +bookshop of that good M. Blaizot, which is the most delectable abode in +this world." + +"I also had," continued quickly the little friar, "a rib of St Mary the +Egyptian." + +"Ah! Ah!'" shouted the priest, throwing the chicken bone across the +room, "concerning this one, I do consider her to be very, very holy, as +during her lifetime she gave a fine example of humility." + +"You know, madam," he said and took mother's sleeve, "that St Mary the +Egyptian, going on pilgrimage to the sepulchre of our Lord, was stopped +by a deep flowing river, and not possessing a single farthing to pay for +the passage on the ferry-boat she offered to the boatmen her own body as +a payment. What do you say to that, my good mistress?" + +First of all my mother asked if the story was quite true. After she had +been assured that the matter had been printed in a book and painted on a +stained window in the Church of La Jussienne she believed it. + +"I think," she said, "that one has to be as holy as she was to do the +like without committing a sin. I must say that I should not like to do +it." + +"As far as I am concerned," said the priest, "I approve of the conduct +of that saint, quite in accord with the most subtle doctors. It is a +lesson for honest women stubborn in too much pride of their haughty +virtue. Thinking well over it there is some sensuality in prizing too +highly the flesh and guarding excessively what one ought to despise. +There are some matrons to be met with who believe they have a treasure +and who visibly exaggerate the interest God and the angels may have in +them. They believe themselves to be a kind of natural Holy Sacrament. St +Mary the Egyptian was a better judge. Pretty and divinely shaped as she +was, she considered that it would be all too proud of her flesh to stop +in the course of a holy pilgrimage for a paltry indifferent reason which +is no more than a piece of mortification and far from being a precious +jewel. She humbled herself, madam, and entered by using so admirable +a humility the road of penitence, where she accomplished marvellous +works." + +"Your reverence," said my mother, "I do not understand you. You are too +learned for me." + +"That grand saint." said Friar Ange, "is painted in a state of nature +in the chapel of my convent, and by the grace of God all her body is +covered with long and thick hair. Reproductions of this picture have +been printed, and I'll bring you a fully blessed one, my dear madam." + +Tenderly touched, my mother passed the soup-tureen to him, behind the +back of my teacher. And the holy friar, seated on the cinder board, +silently soaked his bread in the savoury liquid. + +"Now is the moment," said my father, "to uncork one of those bottles +which I keep in reserve for the great feasts, which are Christmas, +Twelfth Night, and St Laurence's Day. Nothing is more agreeable than to +drink a good wine quietly at home secure of unwelcome intruders." + +Hardly had these words been uttered when the door was opened and a tall +man in black entered the shop in a squall of snow and wind exclaiming: + +"A Salamander! A Salamander!" + +And without taking notice of anyone he bent over the grate, rummaging +in the cinders with the end of his walking stick, very much to +the detriment of Friar Ange, who coughed fit to give up the ghost, +swallowing the ashes and coal-dust thrown into his soup plate. And +the man in black still continued to rummage in the fire, shouting, "A +Salamander! I see a Salamander!" while the stirred-up flames made the +shadow of his bodily form tremble on the ceiling like a large bird of +prey. + +My father was surprised and rather annoyed by the manners of the +visitor. But he knew how to restrain himself. And so he rose, his napkin +under his arm, and went to the fireplace, bending to the hearth, both +his fists on his thighs. + +When he had sufficiently considered the disordered fireplace, and Friar +Ange covered with ashes, he said: + +"Your lordship will excuse me. I cannot see anything but this paltry +monk, and no Salamander. + +"Besides," my father went on, "I have but little regret over it. I have +it from hearsay that it is an ugly beast, hairy and horned, with big +claws." + +"What an error!" replied the man in black. "Salamanders resemble women, +or, to speak precisely, nymphs, and they are perfectly beautiful! But +I feel myself rather a simpleton to ask you if you're able to see this +one. One has to be a philosopher to see a Salamander, and I do not think +philosophers could be found in this kitchen." + +"You may be mistaken, sir," said the Abbe Coignard. "I am a Doctor of +Divinity and Master of Arts. I have also studied the Greek and Latin +moralists, whose maxims have strengthened my soul in the vicissitudes of +my life, and I have particularly applied Boethius as an antidote for +the evils of existence. And here near me is Jacobus Tournebroche, my +disciple, who knows the sentences of Publius Syrus by heart." + +The stranger turned his yellow eyes on the priest, eyes strangely marked +over a nose like the beak of an eagle, and excused himself with more +courtesy than his fierce mien led one to expect, for not having at once +recognised a person of merit, and further he said: + +"It is very likely that this Salamander has come for you or your +pupil. I saw it very distinctly in passing along the street before this +cookshop. She would appear better if the fire were fiercer; for this +reason it is necessary to stir the fire vigorously when you believe A +Salamander to be in it." + +At the first movement the stranger made to rummage again in the fire, +Friar Ange anxiously covered the soup-tureen with a flap of his frock +and shut his eyes. + +"Sir," said the Salamander-man, "allow your young pupil to approach +the fireplace to say if he does not see something resembling a woman +hovering over the flames." + +At this very moment the smoke rising under the slab of the chimney bent +itself with a peculiar gracefulness, and formed rotundities quite +likely to be taken for well-arched loins by a rather strangely strained +imagination. Therefore I did not tell an absolute lie by saying that, +maybe, I saw something. + +No sooner had I given this reply than the stranger, raising his huge +arm, gave me a straight hander on the shoulder so powerful that I +thought my collar-bone was broken. But at once he said to me, with a +very sweet voice and a benevolent look: + +"My child, I have been obliged to give you so strong an impression that +you may never forget that you have seen a Salamander, which is a sign +that your destiny is to become a learned man, perhaps a magician. Your +face also made me surmise favourably of your intelligence." + +"Sir," said my mother, "he learns anything he wants to know and he'll be +a priest if it pleases our Lord." + +M. Jerome Coignard added that I had profited in a certain way by his +lessons, and my father asked the stranger if his lordship would not be +disposed to eat a morsel. + +"I am not in want of anything," said the stranger, "and it's easy for me +to go without any food for a year or longer because of a certain elixir +the composition of which is known only to the philosophical. This +faculty is not confined to myself alone, it is the common property of +all wise men, and it is known that the illustrious Cardan went without +food during several years without being incommoded by it. On the +contrary his mind became singularly vivacious. But still I'll eat what +it pleases you to offer me, simply to please you." + +And he took a seat at our little table without any ceremony. At once +Friar Ange also noiselessly pushed his stool between mine and that of +my teacher and sat on it to receive his portion of the partridge pie my +mother was dishing up. + +The philosopher having thrown his cape over the back of his seat, +we could see that he wore diamond buttons on his coat. He remained +thoughtful. The shadow of his nose fell on his mouth and his hollow +cheeks went deep into his jaws. His gloomy humour took possession of the +whole company. No other noise was audible but the one made by the little +friar munching his pie. + +Suddenly the philosopher said: + +"The more I think it over, the more I am convinced that yonder +Salamander came for this lad." And he pointed his knife at me. + +"Sir," I replied, "if the Salamanders are really as you say, this one +honours me very much, and I am truly obliged to her. But, to say the +truth, I have rather guessed than seen her, and this first encounter has +only awakened my curiosity without giving me full satisfaction." + +Unable to speak at his ease, my good teacher was suffocating. Suddenly, +breaking out very loud, he said to the philosopher: + +"Sir, I am fifty-one years old, a master of arts and a doctor of +divinity. I have read all the Greek and Latin authors, who have not been +annihilated either by time's injury or by man's malice, and I have never +seen a Salamander, wherefrom I conclude that no such thing exists." + +"Excuse me," said Friar Ange, half suffocated by partridge pie and half +by dismay; "excuse me! Unhappily some Salamanders do exist and a learned +Jesuit father, whose name I have forgotten, has discoursed on their +apparition. I myself have seen, at a place called St Claude, at a +cottager's, a Salamander in a fireplace close to a kettle. She had a +cat's head, a toad's body and the tail of a fish. I threw a handful of +holy water on the beast, and it at once disappeared in the air, with a +frightful noise like sudden frying and I was enveloped in acrid fumes, +which very nearly burnt my eyes out. And what I say is so true that for +at least a whole week my beard smelt of burning, which proves better +than anything else the maliciousness of the beast." + +"You want to make game of us, little friar," said the abbe. "Your toad +with a cat's head is no more real than the Nymph of that gentleman, and +it is quite a disgusting invention." + +The philosopher began to laugh, and said Friar Ange had not seen the +wise man's Salamander. When the Nymphs of the fire meet with a Capuchin +they turn their back on him. + +"Oh! Oh!" said my father, bursting out laughing, "the back of a Nymph is +still too good for a Capuchin." + +And being in a good humour, he sent a mighty slice of the pie to the +little friar. + +My mother placed the roast in the middle of the table, and took +advantage of it to ask if the Salamanders are good Christians, of which +she had her doubts, as she had never heard that the inhabitants of fire +praised the Lord. + +"Madam," replied my teacher, "several theologians of the Society of +Jesus have recognised the existence of a people of incubus and succubus +who are not properly demons, because they do not let themselves be +routed by an aspersion of holy water and who do not belong to the Church +Triumphant; glorified spirits would never have attempted, as has been +the case at Perouse, to seduce the wife of a baker. But if you wish for +my opinion, they are rather the dirty imaginations of a sneak than the +views of a doctor. + +"You must hate and bewail that sons of the Church, born in light, could +conceive of the world and of God a less sublime idea than that formed +by a Plato or a Cicero in the night of ignorance and of paganism. God is +less absent, I dare say, from the Dream of Scipio than from those black +tractates of demonology the authors of which call themselves Christians +and Catholics." + +"Sir," replied the priest, "I found a very old MS. of Cicero spoke with +effluence and facility, but he was but a commonplace intellect, and +not very learned in holy sciences. Have you ever heard of Hermes +Trismegistus and of the Emerald Table?" + +"Sir," replied the priest, "I found a very old MS. of the Emerald Table +in the library of the Bishop of Seez, and I should have marvelled over +it one day or another, but for the chamber-maid of the bailiff's lady +who went to Paris to make her fortune and who made me ride in the coach +with her. There was no witchcraft used, Sir Philospher, and I only +succumbed to natural charms: + + 'Non facit hoc verbis; facie tenerisque lacertis + Devovet et flavis nostra puella comis.'" + +"That's a new proof," said the philosopher, "women are great enemies of +science, and the wise man ought to keep himself aloof from them." + +"In legitimate marriage also?" inquired my father. + +"Especially in legitimate marriage," replied the philosopher. + +"Alas!" my father continued to question, "what remains to your poor wise +men when they feel disposed for a little fun?" + +The philosopher replied: + +"There remains for them the Salamanders." + +At these words Friar Ange raised a frightened nose over his plate and +murmured: + +"Don't speak like that, my good sir; in the name of all the saints of my +order, do not speak like that! And do not forget that the Salamander is +naught but the devil, who assumes, as everyone knows, the most divergent +forms, pleasant now and then when he succeeds in disguising his natural +ugliness, hideous sometimes when he shows his true constitution." + +"Take care on your part, Friar Ange," replied the philosopher, "and as +you're afraid of the devil, don't offend him too much and do not excite +him against you by inconsiderate tittle-tattle. You know that this old +Adversary, this powerful Contradictor, has kept, in the spiritual world, +such a power, that God Almighty Himself reckons with him. I'll say +more, God, who was in fear of him, made him His business man. Be on your +guard, little friar, the two understand one another." + +In listening to this speech, the poor Capuchin thought he heard and +saw the devil himself, whom the stranger resembled, pretty near, by his +fiery eyes, his hooked nose, his black complexion and his long and thin +body. His soul, already astonished, became engulfed in a kind of holy +terror, feeling on him the claws of the Malignant, he began to tremble +in all his limbs, hastily put in his wide pockets all the decent +eatables he could get hold of, rose gently and reached the door by +backward steps, muttering exorcisms all the while. + +The philosopher did not take any notice of this. He took from his +pocket a little book covered with horny parchment, which he opened and +presented to my dear teacher and myself. It contained an old Greek text, +full of abbreviations and ligatures which at first gave me the effect +of an illegible scrawl. But M. Coignard, having put on his barnacles and +placed the book at the necessary distance, began to read the characters +easily; they looked more like balls of thread that had been unrolled by +a kitten than the simple and quiet letters of my St John Chrysostom, out +of which I studied the language of Plato and the New Testament. Having +come to the end of his reading he said: + +"Sir, this passage is to be translated as: _Those of the Egyptians who +are well informed study first the writings called epistolographia, then +the hieratic, of which the hierogrammatists make use, and finally the +hieroglyphics._" + +And then taking off his barnacles and shaking them triumphantly he +continued: + +"Ah! Ah! Master Philosopher, I am not to be taken as a greenhorn. This +is an extract of the fifth book of the _Stromata_, the author of +which, Clement of Alexandria, is not mentioned in the martyrology, for +different reasons, which His Holiness Benedict XI. has indicated, the +principal of which is, that this Father was often erroneous in matters +of faith. It may be supposed that this exclusion was not sensibly felt +by him, if one takes into consideration what philosophical estrangement +had during his lifetime inspired this martyr. He gave preference to +_exile_ and took care to save his persecutors a crime, because he was +a very honest man. His style of writing was not elegant; his genius was +lively, his morals were pure, even austere. He had a very pronounced +liking for allegories and for lettuces." + +The philosopher extended his arm, which seemed to me to be remarkably +elongated as it reached right over the whole of the table, to take back +the little book from the hands of my learned tutor. + +"It is sufficient," he said, pushing the _Stromata_ back into his +pocket. "I see, reverend sir, that you understand Greek, You have well +translated this passage, at least in a vulgar and literal sense. I +intend to make your and your pupil's fortune; I'll employ both of you to +translate at my house the Greek texts I have received from Egypt." + +And turning towards my father, he continued: + +"I think, Master Cook, you will consent to let me have your son to +make him a learned man and a great one. Should it be too much for your +fatherly love to give him entirely to me, I would pay out of my own +pocket for a scullion as his substitute in your cookshop." + +"As your lordship understands it like that," replied my father, "I shall +not prevent you doing good to my son." + +"Always under the condition," said my mother, "that it is not to be at +the expense of his soul. You'll have to affirm on your oath to me that +you are a good Christian." + +"Barbe," said my father, "you are a holy and worthy woman, but you +oblige me to make my excuses to this gentleman for your want of +politeness, which is caused less, to say the truth, by the natural +disposition, which is a good one, than by your neglected education." + +"Let the good woman have her say," remarked the philosopher, "and let +her be reassured; I am a very religious man." + +"That's right!" exclaimed my mother. "One has to worship the holy name +of God." + +"I worship all His names, my good lady. He has more than one. He is +called Adonai, Tetragrammaton, Jehovah, Otheres, Athanatos and Schyros. +And there are many more names." + +"I did not know," said my mother. "But what you say, sir, does not +surprise me; I have remarked that people of condition have always more +names than the lower people. I am a native of Auneau, near the town of +Chartres, and I was but a child when the lord of our village left this +world for another. I remember very well when the herald proclaimed the +demise of the late lord, he gave him nearly as many names as you find in +the All Saints litany. I willingly believe that God has more names than +the Lord of Auneau had, as His condition is a much higher one. Learned +people are very happy to know them all, and if you will advance my son +Jacques in this knowledge I shall, my dear sir, be very much obliged to +you." + +"Well, the matter is understood," said the philosopher, "and you, +reverend sir, I trust it will please you to translate from the Greek, +for salary, let it be understood." + +My good tutor, who was collecting all this while the few thoughts in +his brain which were not already desperately mixed up with the fumes of +wine, refilled his goblet, rose and said: + +"Sir Philosopher, I heartily accept your generous offer. You are one of +the splendid mortals; it is an honour, sir, for me to be yours. If there +are two kinds of furniture I hold in high esteem, they are the bed +and the table. The table, filled up by turns with erudite books and +succulent dishes, serves as support to the nourishment both of body and +spirit; the bed propitious for sweet repose as well as for cruel love. +He certainly was a divine fellow who gave to the sons of Deucalion +bed and table. If I find with you, sir, those two precious pieces +of furniture, I'll follow your name, as that of my benefactor, with +immortal praise, and I'll celebrate you in Greek and Latin verses of all +sorts of metres." + +So he said, and drank deeply. + +"That's well," replied the philosopher. "I'll expect both of you +to-morrow morning at my house. You will follow the road to St Germain +till you come to the Cross of the Sablons, from that cross you'll count +one hundred paces, going westward, and you'll find a small green door in +a garden wall. You'll use the knocker which represents a veiled figure +having a finger in her mouth. An old follower will open the door to you; +you'll ask to see M. d'Asterac." + +"My son," said my good tutor, pulling my coat sleeve, "put all that in +your memory, put cross, knocker, and the rest, so that we'll be able to +find, to-morrow, the enchanted door. And you, Sir Maecenas----" + +But the philosopher was gone. No one had seen him leaving. + + + + +CHAPTER VI + +Arrival at the Castle of M. d'Asterac and Interview with the Cabalist. + + +On the following day at an early hour we walked, my tutor and I, on the +St Germain road. The snow which covered the earth under the russet +light of the sky, rendered the atmosphere dull and heavy. The road +was deserted. We walked in wide furrows between the walls of +orchards, tottering fences and low houses, the windows of which +looked suspiciously on us. And, after having left behind two or three +tumbledown huts built of clay and straw, we saw in the middle of a +disconsolate heath the Cross of the Sablons. At fifty paces farther +commenced a very large park, closed in by a ruined wall, wherein was +the little door, and on it the knocker representing a horrible-looking +figure with a finger in her mouth. We recognised it easily as the one +the philosopher had described, and used the knocker. + +After some rather considerable time, an old servant opened it and made +us a sign to follow him across the untidy park. Statues of nymphs, who +must have seen the boyhood of the late king, secreted under tree ivy +their gloominess and mutilations. At the end of an alley, the sloughs +of which were covered with snow, stood a castle of stone and brick, as +morose as the one of Madrid, which, oddly covered by a high slate roof, +looked like the castle of the Sleeping Beauty in the wood. + +Following the silent valet, M. Coignard whispered to me: + +"I confess, my son, that this lodging has no smiling appearance. It +shows the ruggedness wherein the customs of Frenchmen were still immured +in the time of King Henry IV., and it drives the soul to gloom and +nearly to melancholy by the state of forlornness in which unhappily +it has been left. How much sweeter it would be to climb the enchanted +hillocks of Tusculum with the hope of hearing Cicero discourse +of virtue, under the firs and pines of his villa so dear to the +philosopher! And have you not observed, my boy, that all along yonder +road neither taverns nor hostels are to be met with, and that it would +be necessary to cross the bridge and go up the hill to the Bergeres +to get a drink of fresh wine? There is thereabout a hostel of the _Red +Horse_, where, if I remember well, Madame de St Ernest took me once to +dinner in the company of her monkey and her lover. You can't imagine, +Tournebroche, how excellent the victuals are there. The _Red Horse_ is +as well known for its morning dinners as for the abundance of horses and +carriages which it has on hire. I convinced myself of it when I followed +to the stables a certain wench who seemed to be rather pretty. But she +was not; it would be a truer saying to call her ugly. But I illuminated +her with the colours of my longings. Such is the condition of men when +left to themselves; they err wretchedly. We are all abused by empty +images; we go in chase of dreams and embrace shadows. In God alone is +truth and stability." + +Meanwhile we ascended, behind the old servant, the disjointed flight of +steps. + +"Alas!" said my tutor, "I begin to regret your father's cookshop, where +we ate such good morsels while explaining Quintilian." + +After having scaled the first flight of large stone stairs, we were +introduced into a saloon, where M. d'Asterac was occupied with writing +near a big fire, in the midst of Egyptian coffins of human form raised +against the walls, their lids painted with sacred figures and golden +faces with long glossy eyes. + +Politely M. d'Asterac invited us to be seated and said: + +"Gentlemen, I expected you. And as you have both kindly consented to do +me the favour of staying with me, I beg of you to consider this house as +your own. You'll be occupied in translating Greek texts I have brought +back with me from Egypt. I have no doubt you will do your best to +accomplish this task when you know that it is connected with the work +I have undertaken, to discover the lost science by which man will +be re-established in his original power over the elements. I have no +intention of raising the veil of nature and showing you Isis in her +dazzling nudity; but I will entrust you with the object of my studies +without fear that you'll betray the mystery, because I have confidence +in your integrity and also in the power I have to guess and to forestall +all that may be attempted against me and to dispose for my vengeance of +secret and terrible forces. From the defaults of a fidelity, of which I +do not doubt; my power, gentlemen, assures me of your silence. + +"Know then that man came out of Jehovah's hands with that perfect +knowledge he has since lost. He was very powerful and very wise when he +was created, that's to be seen in the books of Moses. But it's necessary +to understand them. Before all it is clear that Jehovah is not God, but +a grand Demon, because he has created this world. The idea of a God +both perfect and creative is but a reverie of a barbarity worthy of a +Welshman or a Saxon. As little polished as one's mind may be one cannot +admit that a perfect being tags anything to his own perfection, be it +a hazelnut. That's common sense; God has no understanding, as he is +endless how could he understand? He does not create, because he ignores +time and space, which are conditions indispensable to all constructions. +Moses was too good a philosopher to teach that the world was created by +God. He took Jehovah for what he really is--for a powerful Demon, or if +he is to be called anything, for the Demiurgos. + +"It follows that Jehovah, creating man, gave him knowledge of the +visible and the invisible world. The fall of Adam and Eve, which I'll +explain to you another day, had not fully destroyed that knowledge of +the first man and the first woman, who passed their teachings on to +their children. Those teachings, on which the domination of nature +relies, have been consigned to the book of Enoch. The Egyptian priests +have kept the tradition which they fixed with mysterious signs on the +walls of the temples and the coffins of the dead. Moses, brought up in +the sanctuary of Memphis, was one of the initiated. His books, numbering +five, perhaps six, contain like very precious archives the treasures of +divine knowledge. You'll discover there the most beautiful secrets if +you have cleared them of the interpolations which dishonour them; one +scorns the literal and coarse sense, to attach oneself to the most +subtle. I have penetrated to the largest part, as it will appear to you +also later on. Meanwhile, the truth, kept like virgins in the temples of +Egypt, passed to the wizards of Alexandria, who enriched them still +more and crowned them with all the pure gold bequeathed to Greece by +Pythagoras and his disciples, with whom the forces of the air conversed +familiarly. Wherefore, gentlemen, it is convenient to explore the books +of the Hebrews, the hieroglyphics of the Egyptians and those treatises +of the Greeks which are called Gnostic precisely because they possessed +knowledge. I reserve for myself, as is quite equitable, the most +arduous part of this extensive work. I apply myself to decipher those +hieroglyphics which the Egyptians used to inscribe in the temples of +their gods and on the graves of their priests. Having brought over from +Egypt a great number of those inscriptions, I fathom their sense by +means of a key I was able to discover with Clement of Alexandria. + +"The Rabbi Mosaide, who lives in retirement with me, works on the +re-establishment of the true sense of the Pentateuch. He is an old man +very well versed in magic, who has lived seventeen years shut up in the +crypt of the Great Pyramid, where he read the books of Toth. Concerning +yourselves, gentlemen, I intend to employ your knowledge, in reading the +Alexandrian MSS. which I have collected myself in great numbers. There +you'll find, no doubt, some marvellous secrets, and I do not doubt that +with the help of these three sources of light-the Egyptian, the Hebrew +and the Greek--I'll soon acquire the means I still want, to command +absolutely nature, visible as well as invisible. Believe me I shall know +how to reward your services by making you in some way participators of +my power. + +"I do not speak to you of a more vulgar means to recognise them. At the +point I have reached in my philosophical labours, money is for me but a +trifle." + +Arrived at this part of M. d'Asterac's discourse my good tutor +interrupted by saying: + +"Sir, I'll not conceal from you that this very money, which seems to +be a trifle to you, is for myself a smarting anxiety, because I have +experienced that it is not easy to earn some and remain an honest man +or even otherwise. Therefore I should be thankful for the assurance you +would kindly give on that subject." + +M. d'Asterac, with a movement which seemed to remove an invisible +object, gave M. Jerome Coignard the wished-for assurance; for myself, +curious as I was of all I saw, I did not wish for anything better than +to enter into a new life. + +At his master's call, the old servant who had opened the door to us +appeared in the study. + +"Gentlemen," said our host, "I give you your liberty till dinner at +noon. Meanwhile I should be very much obliged to you for ascending to +the rooms I have had prepared for you, and let me know that there is +nothing wanting for your comfort. Criton will conduct you." + +Having assured himself that we were following him, silent Criton went +out and began to ascend the stairs. He went up to the roof timbers, +then, having taken some steps down a long passage, he indicated to us +two very clean rooms where fires sparkled. I could never have believed +that a castle as shattered on the outside, the front of which showed +nothing but cracked walls and dark windows, was as habitable in some of +its inner parts. My first care was to know where I was. Our rooms looked +on the fields, the view from them embraced the marshy slopes of +the Seine, extending up to the Calvary of Mont Valerien. Eyeing our +furniture, I could see, laid out on my bed, a grey coat, breeches to +match and a sword. On the carpet were buckle shoes neatly coupled, the +heels joined and the points separated just as if they had of themselves +the sentiment of a fine deportment. + +I augured favourably of the liberality of our master, To do him honour, +I dressed very carefully and spread abundantly on my hair the powder a +box full of which I found on a small table. And very welcome were the +laced shirt and white stockings I discovered in one of the drawers of +the chest. + +Having put on shirt, stockings, breeches, vest and coat, I walked up +and down my room with hat under the arm, hand on the guard of my +sword, thinking all the time on the looking-glass, and regretting that +Catherine, the lace-maker, could not see me in such finery. + +In this way I was occupied for a little while, when M. Jerome Coignard +came into my room with a new neckband and very respectable clerical +garb. + +"Tournebroche," he exclaimed, "is it you, my boy? Never forget that you +owe these fine clothes to the knowledge I have given you. They fit a +humanist like yourself, as who says humanities says also elegance. +But look on me and say if I have a good mien. In this dress I consider +myself to be a very honest man. This M. d'Asterac seems to be tolerably +magnificent. It's a pity he's mad. Wise he is in one way, as he calls +his valet Criton, which means judge. And it's very true that our valets +are the witnesses of all our actions. When Lord Verulam, Chancellor of +England, whose philosophy I esteem but little, entered the great hall +to be tried, his lackeys, who were clad with an opulence by which the +copiousness of the Chancellor's household could be judged, rose to +render him due honour. Lord Verulam said to them: 'Sit down, your rising +is my falling.' As a fact, those knaves, by their extravagance, had +pushed him to ruin and compelled him to do things for which he was +indicted as a peculator. Tournebroche, my boy, always remember this +misfortune of Lord Verulam, Chancellor of England and author of the +'Novum Organum.' But to return to that Sire d'Asterac, in whose service +we are; it is a great pity that he is a sorcerer and given to cursed +science. You know, my boy, I pride myself on my delicacy in matters of +faith I find it hard to serve a cabalist who turns our Holy Scriptures +upside down under the pretext to understand them better that way. +However, if he is, as his name and speech indicate, a Gascon nobleman, +we have nothing to be afraid of. A Gascon may make a contract with the +devil and you may be sure that the devil will be done." + +The dinner bell interrupted our conversation. + +But while descending the stairs, my kind tutor said: "Tournebroche, my +boy, remember, during the whole meal, to follow all my movements, to +enable you to imitate them. Having dined at the third table of the +Bishop of Seez, I know how to do it. It's a difficult art. It's harder +to dine than to speak like a gentleman." + + + + +CHAPTER VII + +Dinner and Thoughts on Food + + +We found in the dining-room a table laid for three, where M. d'Asterac +made us take our places. + +Criton, who acted as butler, served us with jellies, and thick soup +strained a dozen times. But we could not see any joints. As well as we +could, my kind tutor and myself tried to hide our surprise. M. d'Asterac +guessed it and said: + +"Gentlemen, this is only an attempt, and may seem to you an unfortunate +one. I shall not persist in it. I'll have some more customary dishes +served for you and I shall not disdain to partake of them. If the dishes +I offer you to-day are badly prepared, it is less the fault of my cook +than that of chemistry, which is still in its infancy. But they will at +all events give you an idea of what will be in the future. At present +men eat without philosophy. They do not nourish themselves like +reasonable beings. They do not think of such. But of what are they +thinking? Most of them live in stupidity and actually those who +are capable of reflection occupy their minds with silly things like +controversies and poetry. Consider mankind, gentlemen, at their meals +since the far-away times when they ceased their intercourse with Sylphs +and Salamanders. Abandoned by the genii of the air they grew heavy and +dull in ignorance and barbarity Without policy and without art they +lived, nude and miserable, in caverns, on the border of torrents or in +the trees of the forest. The chase was their only industry. After having +surprised or captured by quickness a timid animal, they devoured that +prey still palpitating. + +"They also fed on the flesh of their companions and infirm relatives; +the first sepulchres of human beings were living graves, famished and +insensible intestines. After long fierce centuries a divine man made his +appearance: the Greeks call him Prometheus. It cannot be doubted that +this sage had intercourse in the homes of the Nymphs with the Salamander +folks. He learnt of them and showed to the unhappy mortals the art of +producing and conserving fire. Of all the innumerable advantages that +men have drawn from this celestial present, one of the happiest was the +possibility of cooking food, and by this treatment, to render it +lighter and more subtle. And it's in a large part due to the effect of +a nourishment submitted to the action of the flame that slowly and by +degrees mankind became intelligent, industrious, meditative and apt to +cultivate the arts and sciences. But that was only a first step, and it +is grievous to think that so many millions of years had to pass before +a second step was made. From the time when our ancestors toasted beasts' +quarters on fires of brambles in the shelter of a rock, we have not +made any true progress in cooking, for sure, gentlemen, you cannot put +a higher value on the inventions of Lucullus and that gross pie to +which Vitellius gave the name of Shield of Minerva than on our roasts, +patties, stews, our stuffed meats and all the fricassees which still +suffer from the ancient barbarity. + +"At Fontainebleau, the king's table, where a whole stag is dished up +in his skin and his antlers, presents to the eye of the philosopher a +spectacle as rude as that of the troglodytes, cowering round the smoking +cinders, gnawing horse bones. The brilliant paintings of the hall, the +guards, the richly clad officers, the musicians playing the melodies of +Lambert and Lulli in the gallery, the golden goblets, the silver plate, +the silken tablecloth, the Venetian glass, the chased epergnes full of +rare flowers, the heavy candlesticks--they cannot change, cannot lend +a dissimulating charm to the true nature of this unclean charnel-house, +where men and women assemble over animal bodies, broken bones and torn +meats to gloat greedily over them. Oh, what unphilosophical nourishment! +We swallow with stupid gluttony muscle, fat and intestines of beasts +without discerning in those substances such parts as are truly adapted +to our nourishment and those much more abundant which we ought to +reject; and we fill our stomach indiscriminately with good and bad, +useful and injurious. That's the very point, where a separation is to +be made, and, if the whole medical faculty could boast of a chemist +and philosopher, we should no more be compelled to partake of such +disgusting feasts. + +"They would prepare for us, gentlemen, distilled meats, containing +nothing but what is in sympathy and affinity with our body. Nothing +would be used but the quintessence of oxen and pigs, the elixir of +partridges and capons, and all that is swallowed could be digested. I do +not give up all hope, gentlemen, of obtaining such results by thinking +somewhat deeper over chemistry and medicine than I have had leisure to +do up till now." + +At these words of our host, M. Jerome Coignard, raising his eyes over +the thin black broth in his plate, looked uneasily at M. d'Asterac, who +continued to say: + +"But that would still be quite insufficient progress. No honest man +can eat animal flesh without disgust, and people cannot call themselves +refined as long as they keep slaughter-houses and butchers' shops +in their towns. But the day will come when we shall know exactly the +nourishing elements contained in animal carcasses, and it will become +possible to extract those very same elements from bodies without life, +and which will furnish an abundance of them. Those bodies without life +contain, as a fact, all that is to be found in living beings, because +the animal has been built up by the vegetable, which has itself drawn +the substance out of the inert ground. + +"Then people will feed on extracts of metal and mineral conveniently +treated by physicians. I have no doubt but that the taste of them +will be exquisite and the absorption salutary. Cookery will be done +in retorts and stills and alchemists will be our cooks. Are you not +impatient, gentlemen, to see such marvels? I promise them to you at a +very near time. But you are not able at present to unravel the excellent +effects that they will produce." + +"In truth, sir, I do not unravel them," said my kind tutor, and had a +long draught of wine. + +"If such is the case," said M. d'Asterac, "listen to me for a moment. +No more burdened with slow digestions, mankind will become marvellously +active, their sight will become singularly piercing, and they will see +the ships gliding on the seas of the moon. Their understanding will be +clearer, their ways softer. They will greatly advance in their knowledge +of God and nature. + +"But it also seems necessary to look forward on all the changes which +cannot fail to occur. Even the structure of the human body will be +modified. It is an uncontradictable fact that without exercise all +organs flatten and end by disappearing altogether. It has been observed +that fishes deprived of light become blind. I myself have seen in Valais +that shepherds who fed on curdled milk lost their teeth very early; some +of them never had any at all, When men feed on the balms I have spoken +of, their intestines will be shortened by ells and the volume of the +stomach will shrink considerably." + +"For once, sir," said my tutor, "you go too quickly and risk making a +mess of it. I never considered it to be disagreeable when women get a +little corporation, especially if all the remainder of her body is +well proportioned. It's a kind of beauty I'm rather partial to. Do not +transform it inconsiderately." + +"No matter, we'll leave woman's body and flanks formed after the canons +of the Greek sculptors. That will be to give you pleasure, reverend sir, +and also in due consideration of the labours of maternity. It is true, I +intend in that case also, to make several changes of which I'll speak to +you on a future day. But to return to our subject. I have to acknowledge +that all I have till now predicted is nothing but a preparatory measure +for the real nourishment, which is that of the Sylphs and all aerial +spirits. They drink light, which is sufficient to give to their bodies +marvellous strength and subtility. It is their only potion, one day it +will be ours also. Nothing more is to be done than to render the rays of +the sun drinkable. I confess that I do not see with sufficient clearness +the means to arrive at it, and I do foresee many encumbrances and great +obstacles on the road. But whensoever some sage shall be able to do it, +mankind will be the equal of Sylphs and Salamanders in intelligence and +beauty." + +My good tutor listened to these words, folded in himself, his head sadly +lowered. He seemed to contemplate the changes to himself from the kind +of food imagined by our host. + +"Sir," he said after a while, "did you not speak at yonder cookshop of +an elixir which dispenses with all kinds of food?" + +"True, I did," replied M. d'Asterac, "but that liquor is only good for +philosophers, and by that you may understand how restricted is the use +of it. It will be better not to mention it." + +One doubt tormented me. I asked leave of our host to submit it to him, +certain that he would enlighten me at once. He allowed me to speak and I +said: + +"Sir, those Salamanders, who you say are so beautiful, and of whom, +after your relation, I have conceived a charming idea, have they +unhappily spoiled their teeth by light drinking, as the shepherds at +Valais lost theirs by feeding only on milk diet? I confess I am rather +uneasy about it." + +"My son," replied M. d'Asterac, "your curiosity pleases me and I will +satisfy it. The Salamanders have no teeth that we should call such. But +their gums are furnished with two ranges of pearls, very white and very +brilliant, lending to their smiles an inconceivable gracefulness. You +should know that these pearls are light-hardened." + +I said to M. d'Asterac that I was glad it was so and he continued: + +"Men's teeth are a sign of ferocity. Once people are properly fed, +their teeth will give way to some ornament similar to the pearls of the +Salamander. Then it will become incomprehensible that a lover could, +without horror and disgust, contemplate dogs' teeth in the mouth of his +beloved." + + + + +CHAPTER VIII + +The Library and its Contents + + +After dinner our host conducted us to a vast gallery adjoining his +study; it was the library. There were to be seen ranged on oaken shelves +an innumerable army, or rather a grand assembly, of books in duodecimo, +in octavo, in quarto, in folio, clad in calf, sheep, morocco leather, +in parchment and in pigskin. The light fell through six windows on this +silent assembly extended from one end of the hall to the other, +all along the high walls. Large tables, alternated with globes and +astronomical apparatus, occupied the middle of the gallery. M. d'Asterac +told us to make choice of the place most convenient for our work. + +My dear tutor, his head high, with look and breath inhaled all these +books drivelling with joy. + +"By Apollo!" he exclaimed, "what a splendid library! The Bishop of +Seez's, over rich in works of canonical law, is not to be compared to +this. There is no pleasanter abode in my opinion, actually the Elysian +Fields as described by Virgil. At first sight I can discover such rare +books and precious collections that I have my doubts, sir, if any other +private library prevails over this, which is inferior in France only to +the Mazarin and the Royal. I dare say, seeing all these Greek and Latin +MSS. closely pressed together in this single corner, one may, after the +Bodleian, the Ambrosian, the Laurentinian and the Vatican also name, +sir, the Asteracian. Without flattering myself I may say that I smell +truffles and books at a long distance and I consider myself from now, +to be the equal of Peiresc, of Grolier and of Canevarius, who are the +princes of bibliophiles." + +"I consider myself to be over them," said M. d'Asterac quietly, "as this +library is a great deal more precious than all those you have named. The +King's Library is but an old bookshop in comparison with mine--that +is, if you do not consider the number of books only and the quantity of +blackened paper. Gabriel Naude and your Abbe Bignon, both librarians +of fame, are, compared to me, indolent shepherds of a vile herd of +sheep-like books. I concede that the Benedictines are diligent, but they +have no high spirit and their libraries reveal the mediocrity of the +souls by whom they have been collected. My gallery, sir, is not on the +pattern of others. The works I have got together form a whole which +doubtless will procure me knowledge. My library is gnostic, oecumenic +and spiritual. If all the lines traced on those numberless sheets of +paper and parchment could enter in good order into your brain, you, +sir, would know all, could do all, would be the master of Nature, the +plasmator of things, you would hold the whole world between the two +fingers of your hand as I now hold these grains of tobacco." + +With these words he offered his snuff-box to my tutor. + +"You are very polite," said M. Jerome Coignard. + +Letting his transported looks wander over the learned walls he +continued: + +"Between these third and fourth windows are shelves bearing an +illustrious burden. There is the meeting place of Oriental MSS., who +seem to converse together. I see ten or twelve venerable ones under +shreds of purple and gold figured silks, their vestments. Like a +Byzantine emperor, some of them wear jewelled clasps on their mantles, +others are mailed in ivory plates." + +"They are the writings of Jewish, Arabian and Persian cabalists," said +M. d'Asterac. "You have just opened 'The Powerful Hand.' Close to it +you'll find 'The Open Table,' 'The Faithful Shepherd,' 'The Fragments +of the Temple' and 'The Light of Darkness.' One place is empty, that of +'Slow Waters,' a precious treatise, which Mosaide studies at present. +Mosaide, as I have already said to you, gentlemen, is in my house, +occupied with the discovery of the deepest secrets contained in the +scriptures of the Hebrews, and, over a century old as he is, the rabbi +consents not to die, before penetrating into the sense of all cabalistic +symbols. I owe him much gratitude, and beg of you gentlemen, when you +see him, to show him the same regard as I do myself. + +"But let us pass that over and come to what is your special concern. +I thought of you, reverend sir, to transcribe and put into Latin some +Greek MSS. of inestimable value. I confide in your knowledge and in your +zeal, and have no doubt that your young disciple cannot but be of great +help to you." + +And addressing me specially he said: + +"Yes, my son, I lay great hopes on you. They are based for a large part +on the education you have received. For, you have been brought up, so +to say, in the flames, under the mantel of the chimney haunted by +Salamanders. That is a very considerable circumstance." + +Without interrupting his speech, he took up an armful of MSS. and +deposited them on the table. + +"This," he said, showing a roll of papyrus, "comes from Egypt. It is a +book of Zosimus the Panopolitan, which was thought to be lost and which +I found myself in a coffin of a priest of Serapis. + +"And what you see here," he added, showing us some straps of glossy and +fibrous leaves on which Greek letters traced with a brush were hardly +visible, "are unheard-of revelations, due, one to Gophar the Persian, +the other to John, the arch-priest of Saint Evagia. + +"I should be very glad if you would occupy yourselves with these +works before any others. Afterwards we will study together the MSS. +of Synesius, Bishop of Ptolemy, of Olympiodorus and Stephanus, which I +discovered at Ravenna, in a vault where they have been locked up since +the reign of that ignoramus Theodosius who has been surnamed the Great." + +As soon as M. d'Asterac was gone, my tutor sat down over the papyrus of +Zosimus and, with the help of a magnifying glass commenced to decipher +it. I asked him if he was not surprised by what he had just heard. + +Without raising his head he replied: + +"My dear boy, I have known too many kinds of persons and traversed +fortunes too various to be surprised at anything. This gentleman seems +to be demented, less because he really is so, but from his thoughts +differing in excess from those of the vulgar. But if one listened to +discourses commonly held in this world, there would be found still less +sense than in those of that philosopher. Left to itself, the sublimest +human reason builds its castles and temples in the air and, truly, M. +d'Asterac is a pretty good gatherer of clouds. Truth is in God alone, +never forget it, my boy. But this is really the book 'Jmoreth' written +by Zosimus the Panopolitan for his sister Theosebia. What a glory +and what a delight to read this unique MS. rediscovered by a kind of +prodigy! I'll give it my days and night watches. How I pity, my boy, the +ignorant fellows whom idleness drives into debauchery! What a miserable +life they lead! What is a woman in comparison with an Alexandrian +papyrus? Compare, if you please, this noble library with the tavern of +the _Little Bacchus_ and the entertainment of this precious MS. with the +caresses given to a wench under the bower; and tell me, my boy, where +true contentment is to be found. For me, a companion of the Muses, +and admitted to the silent orgies of meditation of which the rhetor of +Madama speaks with so much eloquence, I thank God for having made me a +respectable man." + + + + +CHAPTER IX + +At Work on Zosimus the Panopolitan--I visit my Home and hear Gossip +about M. d'Asterac. + + +During all the next month or six weeks, M. Coignard applied himself, +day and night, just as he had promised, to the reading of Zosimus the +Panopolitan. During the meals we partook of at the table of M. d'Asterac +the conversation turned on the opinions of the gnostics and on the +knowledge of the ancient Egyptians. Being only an ignorant scholar I was +of little use to my good master. I did my best by making such researches +as he wanted me to make; I took no little pleasure in it. Truly, we +lived happily and quietly. At about the seventh week, M. d'Asterac gave +me leave to go and see my parents at their cookshop. The shop appeared +strangely smaller to me. My mother was there alone and sad. She cried +aloud on seeing me fitted out like a prince. + +"My Jacques," she said, "I am very happy!" + +And she began to cry. We embraced, then wiping her eyes with a corner of +her canvas apron she said: + +"Your father is at the _Little Bacchus_. Since you left he often goes +there; in your absence the house is less pleasant for him. He'll be glad +to see you again. But say, my Jacques, are you satisfied with your new +position? I regretted letting you go with that nobleman; I even accused +myself in confession to the third vicar of giving preference to your +bodily well-being over that of your soul and not having thought of God +in establishing you. The third vicar reproved me kindly over it, and +exhorted me to follow the example of the pious women in the Scriptures, +of whom he named several to me; but there are names there that I'll +never be able to remember. He did not explain his meaning minutely as it +was a Saturday evening and the church was full of penitents." + +I reassured my good mother as well as I could and told her that M. +d'Asterac made me work in Greek, which was the language in which the New +Testament was written; this pleased her, but she remained pensive. + +"You'll never guess, my dear Jacquot," she said, "who spoke to me of M. +d'Asterac. It was Cadette Saint-Avit, the serving-woman of the Rector of +St Benoit. She comes from Gascony, and is a native of a village called +Laroque-Timbaut, quite near Saint Eulalie, of which M. d'Asterac is the +lord. You know that Cadette Saint-Avit is elderly, as the waiting-woman +of a rector ought to be. In her youth she knew, in her country, the +three Messieurs d'Asterac, one of whom was captain of a man-of-war and +has since been drowned. He was the youngest. The second was colonel of a +regiment, went to war and was killed. The eldest, Hercules d'Asterac, +is the sole survivor of the three brothers. It is the same one in +whose service you are for your good, at least I hope so. He dressed +magnificently in his youth, was liberal in his manners but of a sombre +humour. He kept aloof from all public business and was not anxious to go +into the king's service, as his two brothers had done and found in it an +honourable end. He was accustomed to say that it was no glory to carry +a sword at one's side, that he did not know of a more ignoble thing than +the calling of arms, and that a village scavenger was, in his opinion, +high over a brigadier or a marshal of France. Those were his sayings. +I confess it does not seem to me either bad or malicious, rather daring +and whimsical. But in some way they must be blameable, as Cadette +Saint-Avit said that the rector of her parish considered them to be +contrary to the order established by God in this world and opposed to +that part of the Bible where God is given a name which means Lord of +Hosts, and that would be a great sin. + +"This M. Hercules had so little sympathy with the court that he refused +to travel to Versailles to be presented to his Majesty according to his +birthright. He said, 'The king does not come to me and I do not go to +him,' and anyone of sense, my Jacquot, can understand that such is not a +natural saying." + +My good mother looked inquiringly and anxiously at me and went on: + +"What more I have to inform you about, my dear Jacquot, is still less +believable. However, Cadette Saint-Avit spoke of it as of a certainty. +And so I will tell you that M. Hercules d'Asterac, when he lived on his +estate, had no other care but to bottle the rays of the sun. Cadette +Saint-Avit does not know how he managed it, but she is sure that after a +time, in the flagons well corked and heated in water baths, tiny little +women took form, charming figures and dressed like theatre princesses. +You laugh, Jacquot; however, one ought not to joke over such things when +one can see the consequence. It is a great sin to create in such a way +creatures who cannot be baptised and who never could have a part in the +eternal blessings. You cannot suppose that M. d'Asterac carried those +grotesque figures to a priest in their bottles to hold them over the +christening font. No godmother could have been found for them." + +"But, my dear mamma," I replied, "the dolls of M. d'Asterac were not in +want of christening, they had no participation in original sin." + +"I never thought of that," said my mother. "And Cadette Saint-Avit +herself did not mention it, although she was the servant of a rector. +Unhappily she left Gascony when quite young, came to France and had no +more news of M. d'Asterac, of his bottles and his puppets. I sincerely +hope, my dear Jacquot, that he renounced his wicked works, which could +not be accomplished without the help of the devil." + +I asked: + +"Tell me, my dear mother, did Cadette Saint-Avit, the rector's servant, +see the bodies in the bottles with her own eyes?" + +"No, my dear child; M. d'Asterac kept his dolls very secret and did not +show them to anybody. But she heard of them from a churchman of the name +of Fulgence, who haunted the castle, and swore he had seen those little +creatures step out of their glass prisons and dance a minuet. And she +had every reason to believe it. It is possible to doubt of what one +sees, but you cannot doubt the word of an honest man, especially when +he belongs to the Church. There is another misfortune with such secret +practices, they are extremely costly and it is hard to imagine, as +Cadette Saint-Avit said, what money M. Hercules spent to procure all +those bottles of different forms, those furnaces and conjuring books +wherewith he filled his castle. But after the death of his brothers he +became the richest gentleman of his province, and while he dissipated +his wealth in follies, his good lands worked for him. Cadette Saint-Avit +rates him, with all his expenses, as still a very rich man." + +These last words spoken, my father entered the shop. He embraced +me tenderly and confided to me that the house had lost half its +pleasantness in consequence of my departure and that of M. Jerome +Coignard, who was honest and jovial. He complimented me on my dress and +gave me a lesson in deportment, assuring me that trade had accustomed +him to easy manners by the continuous obligation he was under to +greet his customers like gentlemen, if as a fact they were only vile +riff-raff. He gave me, as a precept, to round off the elbows and to turn +my toes outward and counselled me, beyond this, to go and see Leandre at +the fair of Saint Germain and to adjust myself exactly on him. + +We dined together with a good appetite, and we parted shedding floods of +tears. I loved them well, both of them, and what principally made me cry +was that, after an absence of six weeks only, they had already become +somewhat strange to me. And I verily believe that their sadness was +caused by the same sentiment. + + + + +CHAPTER X + +I see Catherine with Friar Ange and reflect--The Liking of Nymphs for +Satyrs--An Alarm of Fire--M. d'Asterac in his Laboratory. + + +When I came out of the cookshop, the night was black. At the corner of +the Rue des Ecrivains I heard a fat and deep voice singing: + + "Si ton honneur elle est perdue + La bell', c'est tu l'as bien voulu." + +And soon I could see on the other side, whence the voice sounded, +Friar Ange, with wallet dangling on his shoulder, holding Catherine the +lacemaker round the waist, walking in the shadow with a wavering +and triumphal step, spouting the gutter water under his sandals in a +magnificent spirit of mire which seemed to celebrate his drunken glory, +as the basins of Versailles make their fountains play in honour of the +king. I put myself out of the way against the post in the corner of +a house door, so as not to be seen by them, which was a needless +precaution as they were too much occupied with one another. With her +head lying on the monk's shoulder, Catherine laughed. A moonray +trembled on her moist lips and in her eyes, like the water sparkles in +a fountain; and I went my way, with my soul irritated and my heart +oppressed, thinking on the provoking waist of that fine girl pressed by +the arm of a dirty Capuchin. + +"Is it possible," I said to myself, "that such a pretty thing could be +in such ugly hands? And if Catherine despises me need she render her +despisal more cruel by the liking she has for that naughty Friar Ange?" + +This preference appeared singular to me and I conceived as much surprise +as disgust at it. But I was not the disciple of M. Jerome Coignard for +nothing. This incomparable teacher had formed my mind to meditate. +I recalled to myself the satyrs one can see in gardens carrying off +nymphs, and reflected that if Catherine was made like a nymph, those +satyrs, at least as they are represented to us, are as horrible as +yonder Capuchin. And I concluded that I ought not to be so very much +astonished by what I had just seen. My vexation, however, was not +dissipated by my reason, doubtless because it had not its source there. +These meditations got me along through the shadows of the night and +the mud of the thaw to the road of Saint Germain, where I met M. Jerome +Coignard, who was returning home to the Cross of the Sablons after +having supped in town. + +"My boy," he said, "I have conversed of Zosimus and the gnostics at the +table of a very learned ecclesiastic, quite another Peiresc. The wine +was coarse and the fare but middling, but nectar and ambrosia floated +through the discourse." + +Then my dear tutor spoke of the Panopolitan with an inconceivable +eloquence. Alas! I listened badly, thinking of that drop of moonlight +which had this very night fallen on the lips of Catherine the lacemaker. + +At last he came to a stop and I asked on what foundation the Greeks +had established the liking of the nymphs for satyrs. My teacher was so +widely learned that he was always ready to reply to all questions. He +told me: + +"That liking is based on a natural sympathy. It is lively but not +so ardent as the liking of the satyrs for the nymphs, with which +it corresponds. The poets have observed this distinction very well. +Concerning it I'll narrate you a singular adventure I have read in a MS. +belonging to the library of the Bishop of Seez. It was (I still have it +before my eyes) a collection in folio, written in a good hand of last +century. This is the singular fact reported in it. A Norman gentleman +and his wife took part in a public entertainment, disguised, he as a +satyr, she as a nymph. By Ovid it is known with what ardour the satyrs +pursue the nymphs; that gentleman had read the 'Metamorphoses.' He +entered so well into the spirit of his disguise that nine months after, +his wife presented him with a baby whose forehead was horned and whose +feet were those of a buck. It is not known what became of the father +beyond that he had the common end of all creatures, to wit, that he +died, and that beside that capriped he left another younger child, a +Christian one and of human form. This younger son went to law claiming +that his brother should not get a part of the deceased father's +inheritance for the reason that he did not belong to the species +redeemed by the blood of Jesus Christ. The Parliament of Normandy, +sitting at Rouen, gave a verdict in his favour, which was duly +recorded." + +I asked my teacher if it was possible that a disguise could have such +an effect on nature and if the shape of the child could follow that of a +garment. M. Jerome Coignard advised me not to believe it. + +"Jacques Tournebroche, my son," he said, "remember always that a good +mind repels all that is contrary to reason, except in matters of faith, +wherein it is convenient to believe implicitly. Thank God! I have never +erred about the dogmas of our very holy religion, and I trust to find +myself in the same disposition in the article of death." + +Conversing in this manner we arrived at the castle. The roof seemed in +a red glow in the dark. Out of one in dark shadows. We heard the roaring +of the fire, like fiery rain under the dense smoke wherewith the sky +was veiled. We both believed the flames to be devouring the building. My +good tutor tore his hair and moaned: + +"My Zosimus, my papyrus, my Greek MSS.! Help! Help! my Zosimus!" + +Running up the great lane over puddles of water reflecting the glare +of the fire, we crossed the park buried in dark shadows. We heard the +roaring of the fire, which filled the sombre staircase. Two at a time +we ran up the steps, stopping now and again to listen whence came that +appalling noise. + +It appeared to us to come from a corridor on the third floor where we +had never been. In that direction we fumbled our way, and seeing through +the slits of a door the red brightness, we knocked with all our might on +the panel. It opened at once. + +M. d'Asterac, who opened the door, stood quietly before us. His long +black figure seemed to be enveloped in flaming air. He asked quietly on +what pressing business we were looking for him at so late an hour. There +was no conflagration but a terrible fire, burning in a big furnace with +reflectors, which as I have since learned are called athanors. The +whole of the rather large room was full of glass bottles with long +necks twined round glass tubes of a duck-beak shape, retorts, resembling +chubby cheeks out of which came noses like trumpets, crucibles, cupels, +matrasses, cucurbits and vases of all forms. + +My dear old tutor wiping his face shining like live coals said: + +"Oh, sir, we were afraid that the castle was alight like straw. Thank +God, the library is not burning. But are you practising the spagyric +art, sir?" + +"I do not want to conceal from you," said M. d'Asterac, "that I have +made great progress in it, but withal I have not found the theorem +capable of rendering my work perfect. At the moment you knocked at the +door I was picking up the Spirit of the World, and the Flower of Heaven, +which are the veritable Fountains of Youth. Have you some understanding +of alchemy, Monsieur Coignard?" + +The abbe replied that he had got some notions of it from certain books, +but that he considered the practice of it to be pernicious and contrary +to religion. M. d'Asterac smiled and said: + +"You are too knowing a man, M. Coignard, not to be acquainted with the +Flying Eagle, the Bird of Hermes, the Fowl of Hermogenes, the Head of a +Raven, the Green Lion and the Phoenix." + +"I have been told," said my good master, "that by these names are +distinguished the philosopher's stone in its different states. But I +have doubts about the possibility of a transmutation of metals." + +With the greatest confidence M. d'Asterac replied: + +"Nothing is easier, my dear sir, than to bring your uncertainty to an +end." + +He opened an old rickety chest standing in the wall and took out of it +a copper coin, bearing the effigy of the late king, and called our +attention to a round stain crossing the coin from side to side. + +"That," he said, "is the effect of the stone, which has transmuted the +copper into silver, but that's only a trifle." + +He went back to the chest and took out of it a sapphire the size of +an egg, an opal of marvellous dimensions and a handful of perfect fine +emeralds. + +"Here are some of my doings," he said, "which are proof enough that the +spagyric art is not the dream of an empty brain." + +At the bottom of the small wooden bowl lay five or six little diamonds, +of which M. d'Asterac made no mention. My tutor asked him if they also +were of his make, and, the alchemist having acknowledged it: + +"Sir," said the abbe, "I should counsel you to show the curious those +diamonds prior to the other stones by way of caution. If you let them +look first at the sapphire, opal and the emeralds, you run the risk of a +persecution for sorcery, because everyone will say that the devil alone +was capable of producing such stones. Just as the devil alone could lead +an easy life in the midst of these furnaces, where one has to breathe +flames. As far as I am concerned, having stayed a single quarter of an +hour, I am already half baked." + +Letting us out, with a friendly smile M. d'Asterac spoke as follows: + +"Well knowing what to think of the devil and the Other, I willingly +consent to speak of them with persons who believe in them. The devil and +the Other are, as it were, characters; one may speak of them just as of +Achilles and Thersites. Be assured, gentlemen, if the devil is like what +he is said to be, he does not live in so subtle an element as fire. It +is wholly wrong to place so villainous a beast in the sun. But as I had +the honour to say, Master Tournebroche, to the Capuchin so dear to your +mother, I reckon that the Christians slander Satan and his demons. That +in some unknown world there may exist beings still worse than man is +possible, but hardly conceivable. Certainly, if such exist, they inhabit +regions deprived of light, and if they are burning, it would be in ice, +which, as a fact, causes the same smarting pain, and not in illustrious +flames among the fiery daughters of the stars. They suffer because they +are wicked, and wickedness is an evil; but they can only suffer from +chilblains. With regard to your Satan, gentlemen, who is a horror for +your theologians, I do not consider him to be despicable, if I judge him +by all you say of him, and, should he peradventure exist, I would think +him to be, not a nasty beast, but a little Sylph, or at least a Gnome, +and a metallurgist a trifle mocking but very intelligent." + +My tutor stopped his ears with his fingers and took to flight so as not +to hear anything more. + +"What impiety, Tournebroche, my boy," he exclaimed, when we reached the +staircase. "What blasphemies! Have you felt all the odium in the maxims +of that philosopher? He pushes atheism to a joyous frenzy, which makes +me wonder. But this indeed renders him almost innocent, for being apart +from all belief, he cannot tear up the Holy Church like those who remain +attached to her by some half-severed, still bleeding limb. Such, my +son, are the Lutherans and the Calvinists, who mortify the Church till a +separation occurs. On the contrary, atheists damn themselves alone, and +one may dine with them without committing a sin. That's to say, that we +need not have any scruple about living with M. d'Asterac, who believes +neither in God nor devil. But did you see, Tournebroche, my boy, the +handful of little diamonds at the bottom of the wooden bowl?--the number +of which apparently he did not know, and which seemed to be of pure +water. I have my doubts about the opal and the sapphires, but those +diamonds looked genuine." When we reached our chambers we wished each +other a very good-night. + + + + +CHAPTER XI + +The Advent of Spring and its Effects--We visit Mosaide + + +Up till springtime my tutor and myself led a regular and secluded life. +All the mornings we were at work shut up in the gallery, and came back +here after dinner as if to the theatre. Not as M. Jerome Coignard used +to say, to give ourselves in the manner of gentlemen and valets a paltry +spectacle, but to listen to the sublime, if contradictory, dialogues of +the ancient authors. + +In this way the reading and translating of the Panopolitan advanced +quickly. I hardly contributed to it. Such kind of work was above my +knowledge and I had enough to do to learn the figure that the Greek +letters make on papyrus. Sometimes I assisted my tutor by consulting +the authors who could enlighten him in his researches, and foremost +Olympiodorus and Plotinus, with whom since then I have remained +familiar. The small services I was able to render him increased +considerably my self-esteem. + +After a long sharp winter I was on the way to become a learned person, +when the spring broke in suddenly with her gallant equipage of light, +tender green and singing birds; the perfume of the lilacs coming into +the library windows caused me vague reveries, out of which my tutor +called me by saying: + +"Jacquot Tournebroche, please climb up that ladder and tell me if +that rascal Manethon does not mention a god Imhotep, who by his +contradictions tortures one like a devil." + +And my good master filled his nose with tobacco and looked quite +content. + +On another occasion he said: + +"My boy, it is remarkable how great an influence our garments have on +our moral state. Since my neckband has become spotted with different +sauces I have dropped upon it I feel a less honest man. Now that you are +dressed like a marquis, Tournebroche, does not the desire tickle you +to assist at the toilet of an opera girl, and to put a roll of spurious +gold pieces on a faro-table--in one word, do you not feel yourself to be +a man of quality? Do not take what I say amiss, and remember that it +is sufficient to give a coward a busby to make him hasten to become a +soldier and be knocked on the head in the king's service. Tournebroche, +our sentiments are composed of a thousand things we cannot detect for +their smallness, and the destiny of our immortal soul depends sometimes +on a puff too light to bend a blade of grass. We are the toy of the +winds. But pass me, if you please, 'The Rudiments of Vossius,' the red +edges of which I see stand out under your left arm." + +On this same day, after dinner at three o'clock, M. d'Asterac led us, +my teacher and myself, to walk in the park. He conducted us to the west, +where Rueil and Mont Valerien are visible. It was the deepest and most +desolate part. Ivy and grass, cropped by the rabbits, covered the +paths, now and then obstructed by large trunks of dead trees. The marble +statues on both sides of the way smiled, unconscious of their ruin. A +nymph, with her broken hand near her mouth, made a sign to a shepherd to +remain silent. A young faun, his head fallen to the ground, still tried +to put his flute to his lips. And all these divine beings seemed to +teach us to despise the injuries inflicted by time and fortune. We +followed the banks of a canal where the rainwater nourished the tree +frogs. Round a circus rose sloping basins where pigeons went to drink. +Arrived there we went by a narrow pathway driven through a coppice. + +"Walk with care," said M. d'Asterac. "This pathway is somewhat +dangerous, as it is lined by mandrakes which at night-time sing at the +foot of the trees. They hide in the earth. Take care not to put your +feet on them; you will get love sickness or thirst after wealth, and +would be lost, because the passions inspired by mandrakes are unhappy." + +I asked how it was possible to avoid the invisible danger. M. d'Asterac +replied that one could escape it by means of intuitive divination, and +in no other way. + +"Besides," he added, "this pathway is fatal." + +It went on in a direct line to a brick pavilion, hidden under ivy, which +no doubt had served in time gone by as a guard house. There the park +came to an end close to the monotonous marshes of the Seine. + +"You see this pavilion," said M. d'Asterac; "in it lives the most +learned of men. Therein Mosaide, one hundred and twenty years old, +penetrates, with majestic self-will, the mysteries of nature. He has +left Imbonatus and Bartoloni far behind. I wanted to honour myself, +gentlemen, by keeping under my roof the greatest cabalist since Enoch, +son of Cain. Religious scruples have prevented Mosaide taking his place +at my table, which he supposes to be a Christian's, by which he does me +too much honour. You cannot conceive the violence of hate, of this sage, +of everything Christian. I had the greatest difficulty to make him dwell +in the pavilion, where he lives alone with his niece, Jahel. Gentlemen, +you shall not wait longer before becoming acquainted with Mosaide and I +will at once present both of you to this divine man." + +And having thus spoken, M. d'Asterac pushed us inside the pavilion, +where between MSS. strewn all round was seated in a large arm-chair an +old man with piercing eyes, a hooked nose, and a couple of thin streams +of white beard growing from a receding chin; a velvet cap, formed like +an imperial crown, covered his bald skull, and his body, of an inhuman +emaciation, was wrapped up in an old gown of yellow silk, resplendent +but dirty. + +Right piercing looks were turned on us, but he gave no sign that he +noticed our arrival. His face had an expression of painful stubbornness, +and he slowly rolled between his rigid fingers the reed which served him +for writing. + +"Do not expect idle words from Mosaide," said M. d'Asterac to us. "For +a long time this sage does not communicate with anyone but the genii and +myself. His discourses are sublime. As he will never converse with you, +gentlemen, I'll endeavour to give you in a few words an idea of his +merits. First he has penetrated into the spiritual sense of the books of +Moses, after that into the value of the Hebrew characters, which depends +on the order of the letters of the alphabet. This order has been +thrown into confusion from the eleventh letter forward. Mosaide has +re-established it, which Atrabis, Philo, Avicenne, Raymond Lully, P. de +la Mirandola, Reuchlin, Henry More and Robert Flydd have been unable to +do. Mosaide knows the number of the gold which corresponds to Jehovah +in the world of spirits, and you must agree, gentlemen, that that is of +infinite consequence." + +My dear tutor took his snuff-box in hand, presented it civilly to us, +took a pinch himself and said: + +"Do you not believe, M. d'Asterac, that this sort of knowledge is the +very kind to bring one to the devil at the end of this transient life? + +"After all, this sire Mosaide plainly errs in his interpretation of the +Holy Scriptures. When our Lord expired on the cross for the salvation of +mankind the synagogue felt a bandage slip over her eyes, she staggered +like a drunken woman and the crown fell from her head. Since then the +interpretation of the Old Testament is confined to the Catholic Church, +to which in spite of my many iniquities I belong." + +At these words Mosaide, like a goat god, smiled in a hideous manner, and +said to my dear tutor, in a slow and musty voice sounding as from far +away: + +"The Masorah has not confided to thee her secrets and the Mischna has +not revealed to thee her mysteries." + +"Mosaide," continued M. d'Asterac, "not only interprets the books of +Moses but also that of Enoch, which is much more important, and which +has been rejected by the Christians, who were unable to understand it; +like the cock of the Arabian fable, who disdained the pearl fallen in +his grain. That book of Enoch, M. Abbe Coignard, is the more precious +because therein are to be seen the first talks the daughters of man had +with the Sylphs. You must understand that those angels which as Enoch +shows us had love connection with women were Sylphs and Salamanders." + +"I will so understand, sir," replied my good master, "not wishing to +gainsay you. But from what has been conserved of the book of Enoch, +which is clearly apocryphal, I suspect those angels to have been not +Sylphs but simply Phoenician merchants." + +"And on what do you found," asked M. d'Asterac, "so singular an +opinion?" + +"I found it, sir, on what is said in that very book that the angels +taught the women how to use bracelets and necklaces, to paint the +eyebrows and to employ all sorts of dyes. It is further said in the same +book, that the angels taught the daughters of men the peculiar qualities +of roots and trees, enchantments, and the art of observing the stars. +Truly, sir, have not those angels the appearance of Syrians or Sidonians +gone ashore on some half-deserted coast and unpacking in the shadow +of rocks their trumpery wares to tempt the girls of the savage tribes? +These traffickers gave them copper necklaces, armlets and medicines in +exchange for amber, frankincense and furs. And they astonished these +beautiful but ignorant creatures by speaking to them of the stars with +a knowledge acquired by seafaring. That's clear, I think, and I should +like to know in what M. Mosaide could contradict me." + +Mosaide kept mute and M. d'Asterac, smiling again, said: + +"M. Coignard, you do not reason so badly, ignorant as you still are of +gnosticism and the Cabala. And what you say makes me think that there +may have been some metallurgistic and gold-working Gnomes among the +Sylphs who joined themselves in love with the daughters of men. The +Gnomes, and that is a fact, occupied themselves willingly with the +goldsmith's art, and it is probable that those ingenious demons forged +the bracelets you believe to have been of Phoenician manufacture. + +"But I warn you, you'll be at some disadvantage, sir, to compete with +Mosaide in the knowledge of human antiquities. He has rediscovered +monuments which were believed to have been lost; among others, the +column of Seth and the oracles of Sambethe the daughter of Noah and the +most ancient of the sybils." + +"Oh!" exclaimed my tutor as he stamped on the powdery floor so that a +cloud of dust whirled up. "Oh! what dreams! It is too much, you make fun +of me! And M. Mosaide cannot have so much foolery in his head, under his +large bonnet, resembling the crown of Charlemagne; that column of Seth +is a ridiculous invention of that shallow Flavius Josephus, an absurd +story by which nobody has been imposed upon before you. And the +predictions of Sambethe, Noah's daughter, I am really curious to know +them; and M. Mosaide, who seems to be pretty sparing of his words, would +oblige by uttering a few by words of mouth, because it is not possible +for him, I am quite pleased to recognise it, to pronounce them by the +more secret voice in which the ancient sybils habitually gave their +mysterious responses." + +Mosaide, who seemed to hear nothing, said suddenly: + +"Noah's daughter has spoken; Sambethe has said: 'The vain man who laughs +and mocks will not hear the voice which goes forth from the seventh +tabernacle, the infidel walketh miserably to his ruin.'" + +After this oracular pronouncement all three of us took leave of Mosaide. + + + + +CHAPTER XII + +I take a Walk and visit Mademoiselle Catherine + + +In that year the summer was radiant, and I had a longing to go walking. +One day, strolling under the trees of the Cours-la-Reine with two little +crowns I had found that very morning in the pocket of my breeches, and +which were the first by which my goldmaker had shown his munificence, I +sat down at the door of a small coffee-house, at a table so small that +it was quite appropriate to my solitude and modesty. Then I began to +think of the oddness of my destiny, while at my side some musketeers +were drinking Spanish wine with girls of the town. I was not quite sure +that Croix-des-Sablons, M. d'Asterac, Mosaide, the papyrus of Zosimus +and my fine clothes were not dreams, out of which I should wake to +find myself clad in the dimity vest, back again turning the spit at the +_Queen Pedauque_. + +I came out of my reverie on feeling my sleeve pulled, and saw standing +before me Friar Ange, his face nearly hidden by his beard and cowl. + +"Monsieur Jacques Menetrier," he said in a very low voice, "a lady, who +wishes you well, expects you in her carriage on the highway, between the +river and the Porte de la Conference." + +My heart began to beat violently. Afraid and charmed by this adventure, +I went at once to the place indicated by the Capuchin, but at a quiet +pace, which seemed to me to be more becoming. Arrived at the embankment +I saw a carriage and a tiny hand on the door. + +This door was opened at my coming, and very much surprised I was to find +inside the coach Mam'selle Catherine, dressed in pink satin, her head +covered with a hood of black lace, underneath which her fair hair seemed +to sport. + +Confused I remained standing on the step. + +"Come in," she said, "and sit down near me. Shut the door if you please; +you must not be seen. Just now in passing on the Cours I saw you sitting +at the cafe. Immediately I had you fetched by the good friar, whom I +had attached to me for the Lenten exercises, and whom I have kept since, +because, in whatever position one may be, it is necessary to have piety. +You looked very well, M. Jacques, sitting before your little table, your +sword across your thighs and with the sad look of a man of quality. I +have always been friendly disposed towards you and I am not of that kind +of women who in their prosperity disregard their former friends." + +"Eh! What? Mam'selle Catherine," I exclaimed, "this coach, these +lackeys, this satin dress----" + +"They are the outcome," she replied, "of the kindness of M. de la +Gueritude, who is of the best set and one of the richest financiers. He +has lent money to the king. He is an excellent friend whom, for all the +world, I should not wish to offend. But he is not as amiable as you, M. +Jacques. He has also given me a little house at Grenelle, which I will +show you from the cellar to the garret. M. Jacques, I am mighty glad to +see you on the road to fortune. Real merit is always discovered. You'll +see my bedroom, which is copied from that of Mademoiselle Davilliers. It +is covered all over with looking-glass and there are lots of grotesque +figures. How is the old fellow your father? Between ourselves, he +somewhat neglects his wife and his cook-shop. It is very wrong of a man +in his position. But let us speak of yourself." + +"Let us speak of you, Mam'selle Catherine," said I. "You are so very +pretty and it is a great pity you love the Capuchin." Nothing could be +said against a government contractor. + +"Oh!" she said, "do not reproach me with Friar Ange. I have him for +my salvation only and if I would give a rival to M. de la Gueritude it +would be----" + +"Would be?" + +"Don't ask me, M. Jacques; you're an ungrateful man, for you know that I +always singled you out, but you do not care about me." + +"Quite the contrary, Mam'selle Catherine. I smarted under your mockery. +You sneered at my beardless chin. Many a time you have told me that I am +but a ninny." + +"And that was true, M. Jacques, truer than you believed it to be. Why +could you not see that I had a liking for you?" + +"Why, Catherine, you are so pretty as to make one fear. I did not dare +to look at you. And one day I clearly Law that you were thoroughly +offended with me." + +"I had every reason for it, M. Jacques; you took that Savoyard in +preference to me, that scum of the Port Saint Nicolas." + +"Ah! be quite sure, Catherine, that I did not do so by wish or +inclination, but only because she found ways and means energetic enough +to vanquish my timidity." + +"Oh! my friend, you may believe me, as I am the elder of us two, +timidity is a great sin against love. But did you not see that +that beggar had holes in her stockings and a seam of filth and mud, +half-an-ell high, on the bottom of her petticoat?" + +"I saw it, Catherine." + +"Have you not seen, Jacques, how badly she is made and that really she +is skinny?" + +"I saw it, Catherine." + +"And withal you loved that Savoyard she-monkey, you who have a white +skin and distinguished manners!" + +"I cannot understand it myself, Catherine. It must have been that at +that moment my imagination was full of you. And it was your image only +gave me the pluck and strength you reproach me with to-day. Imagine +yourself, Catherine, my rapture to press you in my arms, yourself +or only a girl who resembled you a little. Because I loved you +desperately." + +She took my hand and sighed, and in a tone of sadness I continued to +say: + +"Yes, I did love you, Catherine, and I could still love you except for +that disgusting monk." + +She cried out: + +"What a suspicion! You offend me. It is a folly." + +"Then you do not love the Capuchin?" + +"Fie!" + +As I did not consider it to be any use to press the subject further, +I took her round the waist, we embraced, our lips met and all my being +seemed to melt in voluptuousness. + +After a short moment of luxurious confusion, she disentangled herself, +her cheeks rosy, her eyes moistened, her lips half separated. It is from +that day that I knew how much a woman is embellished and adorned by a +kiss lovingly pressed on her mouth. Mine had made roses of the sweetest +hue bloom on Catherine's cheeks and strewn into the flowery blue of her +eyes drops of diamantine dew. + +"You are a baby," she said, readjusting her hood. "Go! you cannot remain +a moment longer. M. de la Gueritude will be here at once. He loves me +with an impatience which continually runs ahead of the meeting time." + +Reading in my face how upset I was by this saying she spoke again with a +quick vivacity: + +"Listen, Jacques, he returns every night at nine to his old woman, +who shrewish by age, cannot bear his infidelities since she herself is +unable to pay him in the same coin and has become awfully jealous. Come +to-night at half-past nine. I'll receive you. My house is at the corner +of the Rue du Bac. You'll recognise it by its three windows on every +floor and by its balcony covered with roses; you know I always did like +flowers. Good-bye till to-night." + +Caressingly she pushed me back, hardly able to hide the wish to keep me +with her, then placing one finger over her mouth she whispered again: + +"Till to-night." + + + + +CHAPTER XIII + +Taken by M. d'Asterac to the Isle of Swans I listen to his Discourse on +Creation and Salamanders. + + +I really do not know how it was possible to tear myself out of +Catherine's arms. But it is a fact that in jumping out of her carriage +I nearly fell on M. d'Asterac, whose tall figure leant against a tree on +the roadside. Courteously I saluted him and showed the surprise I felt +at this pleasant encounter. + +"Chance," he said, "lessens as knowledge grows; for me it is suppressed. +I knew, my son, that I had to meet you at this place. It is necessary +for me to have a conversation with you already too long delayed. Let's +go, if you please, in quest of solitude and quietness required by what +I wish to tell you. Do not become anxious. The mysteries I desire to +unveil before you are sublime, it is true, but pleasant also." + +Having so spoken he conducted me to the bank of the Seine opposite the +Isle of Swans, which rose out of the middle of the river like a ship +built of foliage. There he made a sign to a ferryman, whose boat brought +us quickly to the green isle, frequented only by invalids, who on fine +days play there at bowls and drink their pint of wine. Night lit her +first stars in the sky and lent a humming voice to the myriads of +insects in the grass. The isle was deserted. M. d'Asterac sat down on a +wooden bench at the end of an alley of walnut-trees, invited me to sit +close to him and spoke: + +"There are three sorts of people, my son, from whom the philosopher has +to hide his secrets. They are princes, because it would be imprudent to +enlarge their power; the ambitious, whose pitiless genius must not be +armed, and the debauchees, who would find in hidden sciences the means +to satiate their evil passions. But I can talk freely to you, who are +neither debauched--for I quite overlook the error you nearly gave way to +in the arms of yonder girl--nor ambitious, having lived, till recently, +contented to turn the paternal spit. Therefore I may disclose to you the +hidden laws of the universe. + +"It must not be believed that life is limited by narrow rules wherein +it is manifested to the eyes of the profane. When they teach +that creation's object and end was man, your theologians and your +philosophers reason like the multiped of Versailles or the Tuileries, +who believe the humidity of the cellars is made for their special use +and that the remainder of the castle is uninhabitable. The system of +the world, as Canon Copernicus taught in the last century, following +the doctrines of Aristarchus of Samos and Pythagorean philosophers, +is doubtless known to you, as there have actually been prepared some +compendiums of them for the urchins of village schools and dialogues +abstracted from them for the use of town children. You have seen at my +house a kind of machine which shows it distinctly by means of a kind of +clockwork. + +"Raise your eyes, my son, and you'll see over your head David's chariot, +drawn by Mizar and her two illustrious companions, circling round the +pole; Arcturus, Vega of the Lyre, the Virgin's Sword, the Crown of +Ariadne and its charming pearls. Those are suns. One single look on that +world will make it clear to you that the whole of creation is the work +of fire and that life, in its finest forms, is fed on flames. + +"And what are the planets? Drops of a mixture of mind, a little mire and +plenty of moisture. Behold the august choir of the stars, the assembly +of the suns; they equal or excel ours in magnitude and power and after I +have shown you on a clear winter's night, through my telescope, Sirius, +your eyes and soul will be dazzled. + +"Do you in good faith believe that Sirius Altair, Regulus, Aldebaran, +all these suns are luminary only? Do you believe that this old Phoebus, +who incessantly forces into space, wherein we are swimming, his +inordinate surge of heat and light, has no other function but to light +the earth and some other paltry and imperceptible planets? What a +candle! A million times greater than the dwelling. + +"I have to present to you first of all the idea that the universe is +composed of suns and that the planets which may be in it are less than +nothing. But as I foresee your wish to make an objection, I'll reply +to it beforehand. The suns, you want to say, put themselves out in the +course of centuries and by that also change into mud. No! is my reply; +they keep themselves alive by means of comets which they attract and +which fall on them. It is the dwelling of true life. The planets and +this our earth are but the abode of ghosts. Such are the verities of +which I have to convince you. + +"Now that you understand, my son, that fire is the principal element, +you'll easier comprehend what I wish to teach you and which is of +greater importance than anything you may have learned up to now, or +was even known to Erasmus, Turnebe or Scaliger. I do not speak of +theologians like Quesnel or Bossuet who, between ourselves, I consider +as the lees of human spirit, and who have no better understanding than +a simple captain of guards. Don't let us hamper ourselves by despising +those brains comparable in volume, as well as in construction, to wrens' +eggs, but let us at once enter fully into the object of our conference. + +"Whilst those earth-born creatures do not surpass a degree of perfection +which, by beauty of form, has been attained by Antinoues and by Madame de +Parabere, and at which they alone have arrived by the faculty known to +Democritus and myself; the beings formed by fire enjoy a wisdom and an +intelligence of which we cannot possibly conceive the limit. + +"Such is, my son, the nature of the glorious children of the suns; they +know the laws of the universe just as we know the rules of chess, and +the course of the stars does not trouble them any more than the moves +on the chessboard of the king and the other men trouble us. Those genii +create worlds in such spaces of the infinite where none at present +exist, and organise them at their will. It distracts them momentarily +from their principal business, which is to unite among themselves in +unspeakable love. Only last night I turned my telescope on the Sign of +the Virgin and saw on it a far-away vortex of light. No doubt, my son, +that was the still unfinished work of one of those fire beings. + +"Truly the universe has no other origin; far from being the effect of +a single will, it is the result of the sublime freaks of a great many +genii, recreating themselves by working on it each in his own turn and +on his own side. That's what explains the diversity, the splendour and +the imperfection. For the force and foresight of those genii, immense +as they were, had still their limits. I should deceive you were I to say +that a man, philosopher or magician, can have familiar intercourse with +them. + +"None of them gave me a direct manifestation of himself, and what I tell +you of them is known to me by induction only, and by hearsay. Certain +as their existence is, I should not attempt to describe their habits and +their character. It is necessary to know when not to know, my son, and I +make it a point not to bring forward other than perfectly well-observed +facts. + +"Let those genii, or rather demiurguses, abide in their glory, and let +us treat of illustrious beings who stand nearer to us. Here, my son, is +where one has to lend an open ear. + +"If in speaking of the planets I have given vent to a feeling of +disdain, it was that I only took into consideration the solid surface +and shell of those little balls or tops and the animals who sadly crawl +on them. I should have spoken in quite another tone, if in my mind I +had included with the planets the air and the vapours wherein they are +enveloped. For the air is an element in no way of lesser nobility than +fire, whence it follows that the dignity and importance of the planets +is in the air wherein they are bathed. Those clouds, soft vapours, puffs +of wind, transparencies, blue waves, moving islets of purple and gold +which pass over our heads, are the abode of adorable people. They are +called Sylphs and Salamanders, and are creatures infinitely amiable and +lovely. It is possible for us, and convenient, to form with them unions, +the delights of which are hardly conceivable. + +"The Salamanders are such that in comparison with them the prettiest +person at court or in the city is but an ugly woman. They surrender +themselves willingly to philosophers. Doubtless you have heard of that +marvel by which M. Descartes was accompanied on his travels. Some +say that she was a natural daughter of his, that he took with him +everywhere; others think that she was an automaton manufactured with +inimitable art. As a fact she was a Salamander, whom that clever man had +taken as his lady love. He never left her. During a voyage in the Dutch +Sea he took her with him on board, shut in a box of precious wood lined +with the softest satin. The form of this box, and the precaution with +which M. Descartes took care of it, drew the attention of the captain, +who, while the philosopher was asleep, raised the cover and discovered +the Salamander. This ignorant, rude fellow imagined that such a +marvellous creature was the creation of the devil. In his dismay, he +threw it into the sea. But you will easily believe that the beautiful +little person was not drowned, and that it was no trouble to her to +rejoin M. Descartes. She remained faithful to him during his natural +life, and when he died she left this world never more to return. + +"I give you this example, chosen from many, to make you acquainted with +the loves between philosophers and Salamanders. These loves are +too sublime to be in need of contracts, and you will agree that the +ridiculous display usual at human weddings would be entirely out of +place at such unions. It would be indeed fine, if a proctor in a wig and +a fat priest put their noses together over it! That sort of gentleman is +good only to join vulgar man to woman. The marriages of Salamanders and +sages have witnesses more august. The aerial people celebrate them in +ships which, moved by celestial breath, glide, their sterns crowned with +roses, to the sound of harps, on invisible waves. But do not believe +that, not being entered in a dirty register in a shabby vestry, they +would be of little solidity and could be easily torn asunder. They have +for guarantors the spirits who gambol on the clouds whence flashes the +lightning and roars the thunder. I reveal matters to you, my son, which +be useful to you to know, because I conclude from certain indications +that your destiny is the bed of a Salamander." + +"Alas! monsieur," I exclaimed, "this destiny alarms me, and I have +nearly as many scruples as the Dutch captain who threw the lady love of +Descartes into the sea. I cannot help thinking these aerial dames are +demons. I should fear to lose my soul with them, for after all, sir, +such marriages are against nature and in opposition to the divine law. +Oh! why is not M. Jerome Coignard, my good tutor, present to hear you! +I am sure he would strengthen me by his valuable arguments against the +delights of your Salamanders, sir, and your eloquence." + +"The Abbe Coignard," said M. d'Asterac, "is an admirable translator of +Greek. But you must not want anything from him beyond his books. He has +no philosophy. As far as you are in question, my son, you reason with +the infirmity of ignorance, and the weakness of your arguments afflicts +me. You say, those unions are against nature. What do you know about it? +What means have you to gain knowledge of it? How is it possible to make +a distinction between what is natural and what is not? Is the universal +Isis known enough to discriminate between what is assisting her and +what thwarts her? But to speak better still; nothing thwarts her and +everything assists her, because nothing exists which does not enter into +the functions of her organs and does not follow the numberless attitudes +of her body. I beg of you to say, whence could enemies come to offend +her? Nothing acts against her nor outside of her; the forces which seem +to fight against her are nothing else but movements of her own life. + +"The ignorant alone have assurance enough to decide if an action is +natural or not. Let's admit their illusions for a moment and their +prejudice, and let us feign to recognise the possibility of committing +acts against nature. These acts, are they for that reason worse and +condemnable? On this point I cannot but remember the vulgar opinion +of moralists who represent virtue as an effort over instincts, as an +enterprise on the inclinations we carry within us, as a fight with the +original man. They own themselves that virtue is against nature, and +going further on that opinion they cannot condemn an action of whatever +kind, for what is common to it and virtue alike. + +"I have made this digression, my son, to call your attention to the +contemptible lightness of your reason. I should offend you by believing +you still have any doubts of the innocence of the sensual intercourse +men may have with Salamanders. Know then, now, that such marriages, far +from being interdicted by religious law, are commanded by that law to +the exclusion of all others I will give you some conclusive evidence for +it." + +He stopped talking, took his snuff-box from his pocket, and filled his +nose with a pinch. + +The night was densely dark. The moon shed her limpid light over the +river, and tremblingly enlaced with the reflections of the street lamps. +The flying ephemerides enveloped us like a vaporous eddy. The shrill +voice of insects rose into the world's silence. Such a sweetness fell +slowly down from the sky that it seemed as if milk had been mixed with +the sparkling of the stars. + +M. d'Asterac spoke again: + +"The Bible, my son, and especially the books of Moses, contains grand +and useful verities. Such an opinion may appear absurd and unreasonable, +in consequence of the treatment the theologians have inflicted on what +they call the Scriptures, and of which they have made, by means of +their commentaries, explications, and meditations, a manual of errors, +a library of absurdities, a magazine of foolery, a cabinet of lies, a +gallery of stupidities, a lyceum of ignorance, a museum of silliness, +and a repository of human imbecility and wickedness. Know, my son, that +at its origin it was a temple filled with celestial radiance. + +"I have been fortunate enough to re-establish it in its primal +splendour. Truth obliges me to acknowledge that Mosaide has very much +assisted me with his deep comprehension of the language and the alphabet +of the Hebrews. But let us not lose sight of our principal subject. +Be informed from the outset, my son, that the sense of the Bible is +figurative, and that the capital error of the theologians was to take +it literally, whereas it is to be understood as symbolical. Follow this +truth in the whole course of my discourse. + +"When Demiurge, who is commonly called Jehovah, and by many more names, +as all terms expressing quality or quantity are generally applied to +him, had, I do not want to say 'created' the world--for such would be +an absurdity--but had laid out a small corner of the universe, as a +dwelling place for Adam and Eve, there were some subtle creatures in +space, which Jehovah had not formed, was not capable of forming. They +were the work of several other demiurges, older and more skillful. His +craft was not beyond that of a very clever potter, capable of kneading +clay beings in the manner of pots, such as we men are now. What I say is +not to slight him, because such work is still much beyond human power. + +"But it became necessary to brand the inferior character of the work of +the seven days. Jehovah worked, not in and with fire, which alone gives +birth to the masterpieces of life, but with mud, out of which he could +not produce other than the work of a clever ceramist. We are nothing, +my son, but animated earthenware. Jehovah is not to be reproached for +having illusions over the quality of his work. If he did find it well +done in the first moment, and in the ardour of composition, he did not +take long to recognise his error, the Bible is full of expressions of +his discontent, which often becomes ill-humour, sometimes actual rage. + +"Never has artisan treated the objects of his industry with more disgust +and aversion. He intended to destroy them, and, in fact, did drown the +larger part. This deluge, the memory of which has been conserved by +Jews, Greeks and Chinese alike, gave a last deception to the unhappy +demiurges, who, aware of the uselessness and ridiculousness of such +violence, became discouraged, and fell into an apathy, the progress of +which has not been stopped from Noah's time to our present day, wherein +it is extreme. But I see I have advanced too far. The inconvenience of +these extensive subjects is the impossibility of remaining within their +limits. + +"Our mind thrown into them resembles yonder sons of the suns, who cross +the whole of the universe in one single jump. + +"Let us return to the earthly paradise, wherein the demiurge had placed +the two vases formed by his hand, Adam and Eve. They did not live there +alone, between the animals and plants. The spirits of the air, created +by the demiurges of the fire, were flowing over and looking at them with +a curiosity mixed with sympathy and pity. It was exactly as Jehovah +had foreseen. Let us hasten to say, to his praise, he had relied on the +genii of the fire, to whom we may now give their true names of Elves and +Salamanders, to ameliorate and perfect his clay figures. In his prudence +he may have said to himself: 'My Adam and my Eve, opaque and cemented +in clay, are in want of air and light. I have failed to give them wings. +But united to Elves and Salamanders, the creations of a demiurge more +powerful and more subtle than myself, they will give birth to children, +equally originated by light and clay, and who in their turn will have +children still more luminous than themselves, till in the end their +issue will be equal in beauty to the sons and daughters of air and +fire.' + +"It must be said he had neglected nothing to attract the eyes of Sylphs +and Salamanders in forming Adam and Eve. He had modelled the woman in +form of an amphora, with a harmony of curved lines quite sufficient +to make him recognised as the prince of geometers, and he succeeded in +amending the coarseness of the material by the magnificent charm of +the form. For modelling Adam he made use of a less caressing, but more +energetic, hand, forming his body with such order, and in such perfect +proportions, that, applied later by the Greeks to their architecture, +those same ordinances and measures made the beauty of the temples. + +"You see, my son, that Jehovah applied his best means to render his +creatures worthy of the aerial kisses he expected for them. I shall not +insist on the care he took with a view of making these unions prolific. +The harmony between the sexes is an ample proof of his wisdom in this +regard. And surely at the outset he had reason to congratulate himself +on his shrewdness and ability. + +"I have said the Sylphs and Salamanders looked on Adam and Eve with that +curiosity, sympathy and tenderness which are the first ingredients of +love. They approached them, and fell into the clever traps Jehovah had +disposed and spread intentionally in the body and on the belly of these +two amphorae. + +"The first man and the first woman enjoyed during centuries the +delicious embraces of the genii of the air, which conserved them in +eternal youth. + +"Such was their lot, and such could still be ours. Why was it that the +parents of the human species, fatigued by celestial luxury, should try +to find criminal enjoyments with one another? + +"But what could you expect, my son? Kneaded of clay they had a taste for +mud. Alas! they became acquainted with one another in the same way as +they had known the genii. + +"And that was what the demiurge had expressly forbidden them. Afraid, +and with reason, that they would produce between them children as clumsy +as themselves, terrestrial and heavy, he forbade them, under severest +penalties, to approach each other. Such is the sense of Eve's words: +'But of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God +hath said, Ye shall not eat of it, neither shall ye touch it lest ye +die.' For you well understand, my son, that the apple which tempted +wretched Eve was not the fruit of an apple-tree; that was an allegory +the sense of which I have explained to you. Although imperfect, and +sometimes violent and capricious, Jehovah was too intelligent a demiurge +to be offended about an apple or a pomegranate. One has to be a bishop +or a Capuchin to support such extravagant imaginations. And the proof +that the apple was what I said, is that Eve was stricken by a +punishment suitable to her fault. She had not been told 'You will digest +laboriously,' but it was said to her 'You'll give birth in pain'; for +logic sake what connection can be established, I beg of you, between +an apple and difficult confinement? On the other hand, the suffering is +correctly applied if the fault has been such as I showed you. + +"That is, my son, the truthful explanation of original sin. It will +teach you your duty, which is, to keep away from women. To follow +this bent is fatal. All children born by those means are imbecile and +miserable." + +I was stupefied, and exclaimed: + +"But, sir, could children be born in another way?" + +"Happily, some are born in another way," was his reply; "a considerable +number by the union of men with genii of the air. And such are +intelligent and beautiful. By such means were born the giants of whom +Hesiod and Moses speak. Thus also Pythagoras was born, to whose bodily +formation his mother, a Salamander, had contributed a thigh of pure +gold. Such also Alexander the Great, said to have been the son of +Olympias and a serpent; Scipio Africanus, Aristomenes of Messina, Julius +Caesar, Porphyry, the Emperor Julian, who re-established the oath of +fire abolished by Constantine the Apostate, Merlin the enchanter, child +of a Sylph and a nun daughter of Charlemagne; Saint Thomas Aquinas, +Paracelsus and, but recently, M. Van Helmont." + +I promised M. d'Asterac, as such were the facts, that I would be willing +to lend myself to the friendship of a Salamander, if one were to be +found obliging enough to wish for me. He assured me that I should meet +not one but a score or more, between whom I should have my free choice. +And less by longing for the adventure than to give him pleasure, I asked +the philosopher how it is possible to enter into communication with +these aerial persons. + +"Nothing easier," he replied. "All that's wanted is a glass ball, the +use of which I'll explain to you. I have always at home a pretty good +number of such balls, and in my study I'll very soon give you all +necessary enlightenment. But, for to-day, my son, enough is said of it." + +He rose, and walked in the direction of the ferry, where the ferryman +waited for us, lying outstretched on his back and snoring at the moon. +As soon as we had reached the opposite shore he quickly went on, and was +soon lost in the darkness. + + + + +CHAPTER XIV + +Visit to Mademoiselle Catherine--The Row in the Street and my Dismissal. + + +A confused sentiment as of a dream remained with me after this long +conversation, but the thoughts of Catherine became keener. In despite +of the sublimities I had been listening to, I was overcome by a powerful +desire to see her, although I had not had any supper. The ideas of +philosophy had not sufficiently penetrated me to cause anything like a +disgust at that pretty girl. I was resolved to follow my good fortune to +its end before becoming the prey of one of those beautiful furies of the +air, who do not want any human rival. My only fear was that Catherine, +at so late an hour, had become tired of waiting for me. So running along +the river bank, and passing the royal bridge at a gallop, I stormed +into the Rue du Bac. Within a single minute I had reached the Rue de +Grenelle, where I heard shouting mixed up with the clashing of swords. +The noise came out of the very house Catherine had described to me. In +front of it, on the pavement, shadows and lanterns were visible, and +voices to be heard. + +"Help, Jesus! I'm being murdered!... fall on the Capuchin! Forward! +Spike him!... Jesus, Mary, help me!... Look on the pretty favourite +lover! On him! On him! Spike him, rascals, spike him hard!" + +The windows of the adjoining houses were opened, heads in night-caps +appeared. + +Suddenly all this noise and bustle passed before me like a hunt in the +forest, and I recognised Friar Ange running away at such a speed that +his sandals hammered on his behind, while three long devils of lackeys, +armed like Swiss guards, followed him closely, larding him with the +points of their javelins. Their master, a young gentleman, thick-set and +ruddy-faced, continued to encourage them by voice and gesture, just as +he would have done with dogs: + +"Fall on! Fall on! Spike! The beast is tough!" + +As he came close to me, I said: + +"Oh! sir, have you no pity?" + +"Sir," he replied, "it's easily seen that yonder Capuchin has not +caressed your mistress, and you have not surprised madam, whom you see +here, in the arms of this stinking beast. One cannot say anything about +her financier, because one has manners. But a Capuchin cannot be borne. +Burn the brazen-faced hussy!" + +And he showed me Catherine under the doorway, clad in nothing but +a chemise, her eyes glistening with tears, wringing her hands, more +beautiful than ever, and murmuring in a dying voice, which cut deep into +my soul: + +"Don't kill him! It's Friar Ange, the little friar!" + +The rascally lackeys returned, announcing that they had given up the +pursuit at the appearance of the watch, but not without driving half +a finger deep their pikes in the holy man's behind. The night-caps +vanished from the windows, which were closed again, and whilst the young +nobleman talked to his followers, I went up to Catherine, whose tears +began to dry in the pretty folds of her smile. She said to me: + +"The poor friar is safe, but I trembled for him. Men are terrible. When +they love you they will not listen to anything." + +"Catherine," I said, with no slight grudge, "did you make me come here +for no other purpose than to listen to the quarrels of your friends? +Alas! I have no right to take part in them." + +"You would have had, M. Jacques," she said, "you should have had, if you +had wanted." + +"But," I continued, "you are the most courted lady in Paris. You never +mentioned yonder young gentleman." + +"I had no occasion to think of him. He came quite unexpectedly." + +"And he surprised you with Friar Ange?" + +"He fancied he saw things which did not occur. He is hot-headed and does +not want to listen to any reason." + +The half-opened chemise disclosed under transparent laces a breast +swollen like a beautiful fruit and adorned like a budding rose. I took +her in my arms and covered her bosom with kisses. + +"Heavens!" she exclaimed, "in the street! Before M. d' Anquetil, who +sees us." + +"Who is M. d'Anquetil?" + +"Pardi! he is the murderer of Friar Ange. Who else do you fancy he may +be?" + +"True, Catherine, no others are wanted. Your friends surround you in +sufficient numbers." + +"M. Jacques, do not insult me, if you please." + +"I do not insult you, Catherine. I acknowledge your charms, to which I +should like to render the same homage that others do." + +"M. Jacques, what you have now said smells odiously of the cookshop, of +that old codger who is your father." + +"Not so very long ago, Mam'selle Catherine, you were mighty glad to +smell its cooking-stove." + +"Fie! the villain! the mean rascal! He outrages a woman!" + +And now she began to squeak and squeal, and M d'Anquetil left his +servants, came up to us, and pushed her into the house, calling her a +cheat and a rake, went into the passage behind her, and slammed the door +in my face. + + + + +CHAPTER XV + +In the Library with M. Jerome Coignard--A Conversation on Morals--Taken +to M. d'Asterac's Study--Salamanders again--The Solar Powder--A Visit +and its Consequences. + + +The thought of Catherine occupied my mind all the week following that +vexatious adventure. Her image glittered on the leaves of the folios +over which I bent in the library, close to my dear tutor; so much so +that Plotinus, Olympiodorus, Fabricius, Vossius spoke of nothing else to +me than a tiny damsel in a lace chemise. These visions rendered me lazy. +But, indulgent to others, as to himself, M. Jerome Coignard had a kind +smile for my trouble and distraction. + +"Jacques Tournebroche," he said to me, one day, "are you not struck by +the variations in morals during the course of the centuries? The books +in this admirable Asteracian collection witness to the uncertainties of +mankind on this subject. If I reflect upon it, my son, it is to put into +your mind that solid and salutary idea that no good morals are to be +found outside religion, and that the maxims of the philosophers, who +pretend to institute a natural morality, are nothing but whims and +babblings of foolish trash. The rationality of good morals is not to +be found in nature, which in itself is indifferent, ignorant of good or +evil. It is in the divine word, which is not to be trespassed against +without after regret. The laws of humanity are based on utility, and +that can only be an apparent and illusory utility, for nobody knows +naturally what is useful to mankind, nor what is really appropriate to +them. And we must not forget that our habits contain a good moiety +of articles which are of prejudice alone. Upheld by the menace of +chastisement, human laws may be eluded by cunning and dissimulation. +Every man capable of reflection stands above them. Really they are +nothing but booby traps. + +"It is not the same thing, my boy, with laws divine. They are +indefeasible, unavoidable and lasting. Their absurdity is in appearance +only, and hides an inconceivable wisdom. If they wound our reason, it +is because they are superior to it, and agree with the true issues of +mankind, and not with the visible ends. It is useful to observe them +when one has the good luck to know them. Yet I find no difficulty in +confessing that the observance of those laws, contained in the Decalogue +and in the commandments of the Church, is difficult at most times, +even impossible without grace, and that sometimes has to be waited +for, because it is a duty to hope. And therefore we are all miserable +sinners. + +"And that is where the dispositions of the Christian religion must be +admired, which founds salvation principally on repentance. It must not +be overlooked, my boy, that the greatest saints are penitents, and, as +repentance is proportioned to the sin, it is in the greatest sinners +that the material is found for the greatest saints. I could illustrate +this doctrine with scores of admirable examples. But I have said enough +to make you feel that the raw material of sanctity is concupiscence, +incontinencies, all impurities of flesh and mind. After having collected +the raw material nothing signifies but to fashion it according it +theologic art and to model, so to say, a figure of penitence, which is a +matter of a few years, a few days, sometimes of a single moment only, as +is to be seen in the case of a perfect contrition. Jacques Tournebroche, +if you listen well to my sayings, you will not consume yourself in +miserable cares to become an honest man in a worldly sense, and you'll +exclusively study to satisfy divine justice." + +I could not help feeling the elevated wisdom enshrined in the maxims of +my dear, good tutor; I was only afraid that these morals, should they be +exercised without discrimination, would carry man to a disorderly life. +I unfolded my doubts to M. Jerome Coignard, who reassured me in the +following terms: + +"Jacobus Tournebroche, you do not take note of what I have just +expressly told you, to wit, that what you call disorder is only such +in the opinion of laymen and judges in law--ordinary and +ecclesiastical--and in its bearing on human laws, which are arbitrary +and transitory, and, in a word, to follow these laws is the act of a +silly soul. A sensible man does not pride himself on acting according to +the rules in force at the Chatelet and at the gaol. + +"He is uneasy about his salvation, and does not think himself +dishonoured by going to heaven by indirect ways as followed by the +greatest saints. If the blessed Pelagie had not followed the same +profession by which Jeannette, the hurdy-gurdy player you know, earned +her living, under the portico of the Church of Saint Benoit le Betourne, +that saint would not have been compelled to do full and copious +penitence; and it is extremely probable that, after having lived in +indifferent and banal chastity, she would not, at this very moment speak +of her, be playing the psaltery before the tabernacle where the Holy of +Holies reposes in his glory. Do you call disorder, so fine a regulation +of a predestinated life? Certainly not! Leave such mean ways of speech +to the Superintendent of Police, who after his death will hardly +find the smallest place behind the unfortunates whom now he carries +ignominiously to the spittel. Beyond the loss of the soul and eternal +damnation there can be no other disorders, crimes or evils whatsoever +in this perishable world, where one and all is to be ruled and adjusted +with regard to a divine world. Confess, Tournebroche, my boy, that acts +the most reprehensible in the opinion of men can lead to a good end, +and do not try to reconcile the justice of men with the justice of God, +which alone is just, not in our sense but with finality. And now, +my boy, you'll greatly oblige me by looking into Vossius for the +signification of five or six rather obscure words which the Panopolitan +employs, and wherewith one has to do battle in the darkness of that +insidious manner which astonished even the willing heart of Ajax, +as reported by Homer, prince of poets and historians. These ancient +alchemists had a tough style. Manilius, may it not displease M. +d'Asterac, writes on the same subjects with more elegance." + +Hardly had my tutor said these last words when a shadow arose between +him and myself. It was that of M. d'Asterac, or rather it was M. +d'Asterac himself, thin and black like a shadow. + +It may be that he had not heard that talk, maybe he disdained it, for +certainly he did not show any kind of resentment. On the contrary, he +congratulated M. Jerome Coignard on his zeal and knowledge, and further +said that he relied on his enlightenment for the achievement of the +greatest work that man had ever attempted. And turning to me he said: + +"Be so good as to come for a moment to my study, where I intend to make +known to you a secret of consequence." + + I went with him to the same room where he had first received us, my +tutor and myself, on the day we entered his service. I found there, +exactly as on that occasion, ranged along the walls, the ancient +Egyptians with golden faces. A glass globe of the size of a pumpkin +stood on a table. M. d'Asterac sank on a sofa, and signed to me to take +a seat near him, and having twice or thrice passed a hand covered with +jewels and amulets across his forehead said: + +"My son, I do not wish to injure you by believing that, after our +conversation on the Isle of Swans, you still doubt of the existence of +Sylphs and Salamanders, who are as real as men and perhaps more so, if +one measures reality by the duration of the appearances by which it is +displayed, their existence being very much longer than ours. Salamanders +range from century to century in unalterable youth; some of them have +seen Noah, Moses and Pythagoras. The wealth of their recollections and +the freshness of their memory render their conversation attractive to +the utmost. It has been pretended that they gain immortality in the arms +of men, and that the hope of never dying led them into the beds of the +philosophers, But those are fables unfit to seduce a reflecting mind. +All union of sexes, far from ensuring immortality to lovers, is a sign +of death, and we could not know love were we to live indefinitely. It +could not be otherwise with the Salamanders, who look in the arms of the +wise for nothing else but for one single kind of immortality--that is, +of the race. It is also the only one which can be reasonably expected. +And, much as I promise myself to prolong human life in a notable +manner--that is, to extend it over at least five or six centuries--I +have never flattered myself to assure it perpetuity. It would be insane +to want to go against the established rules of nature, Therefore, my +son, reject as a vain fable the idea of immortality to be sucked in with +a kiss. It is to the shame of more than one of the cabalists to have +ever conceived such an idea. But for all that it is quite evident +that Salamanders are inclined to man's love. You'll soon experience it +yourself. I have sufficiently prepared you for a visit from them, and +as, since the night of your initiation, you have not had any impure +intercourse with a woman you will obtain the reward of your continency." + +My natural candidness suffered by receiving praise which I had merited +against my own will, and I wished to confess to M. d'Asterac my guilty +thoughts. But he did not give me time to do so, and continued with +vivacity: + +"Nothing now remains for me, my son, but to give you the key which opens +the empire of the genii. That is what I am going to do at once." + +Rising he put a hand on the globe which covered one half of the table. + +"This globe," he said, "is full of a solar powder which escapes being +visible to you by its own purity. It is much too delicate to be seen by +means of the coarse senses of men. So comes it, my son, that the finest +parts of the universe are concealed from our sight and reveal themselves +only to the learned, provided with apparatus proper for this discovery. +The rivers and the aerial landscapes, for example, remain invisible, +even as their aspect is a thousand times richer and more variegated than +the most beautiful terrestrial landscape. + +"Know, then, that in this bowl is a solar powder superlatively proper +to exalt the fire we have within us. The effect of this exaltation is +imminent. It consists of a subtlety of the senses allowing us to see and +touch the aerial figures floating around us. As soon as you have +broken the seal which locks the aperture of this globe, and inhaled +the escaping solar powder, you will in this room discover one or more +creatures resembling women by the system of curved outlines forming +their bodies, but much more beautiful than was ever any woman, and +who are in fact Salamanders. No doubt the one I saw last year in your +father's cookshop will be the first one to appear here to you, as she +has a liking for you, and I strongly counsel you to hasten to comply +with her wishes. And now make yourself easy in that arm-chair, open the +globe, and gently inhale the contents. Very soon you will see all I have +announced to you realised, point by point. I leave you. Good-bye." + +And he disappeared in a manner which was strangely sudden. I remained +alone before that glass globe, hesitating to unlock it, afraid lest some +stupefying exhalation should escape from it. I thought that perhaps M. +d'Asterac had put in it, as an artifice, some of those vapours which +benumb those who inhale them and make them dream of Salamanders. I was +still not enough of a philosopher to be desirous of becoming happy +by such means. Possibly, I said to myself, such vapours predispose to +madness; and finally I became defiant enough to think of going to the +library to ask advice of M. Jerome Coignard. But I soon became aware +that such would be a needless trouble; as soon as I began to speak +to him of solar powder and aerial genii he would start: "Jacques +Tournebroche, remember, my boy, that you must never put faith in +absurdities, but bring home to your reason all matters except those of +our holy religion. Stuff and nonsense all these globes and powders, with +all the other follies of the cabala and the spagyric art." + +I imagined I could hear him talk like that in the interval between two +pinches of snuff, and I really did not know what to reply to such a +Christian speech. On the other hand, I thought in advance how puzzled I +should be to reply to M. d'Asterac when he inquired of me after news of +the Salamander. What could I say? How was I to avow my reserve and +my abstention without betraying my defiance and fear? And after all, +without being aware of it, I was curious to try the adventure. I am not +credulous. On the contrary I am marvellously inclined to doubt, and +by this inclination to brave common-sense, as well as evidence and +everything else. Of the strangest things that may be told me, I say to +myself, "Why not?" This "Why not?" wronged my natural intelligence in +sight of that globe. This "Why not?" pushed me towards credulity, and +it may be interesting to remark, on this occasion, to believe in nothing +means to believe in everything, and that the mind is not to be kept too +free and too vacant, for fear that commodities of extravagant form and +weight should enter by a loophole, commodities of a kind which could not +find room in minds reasonably and tolerably well furnished with belief. +And while, with my hand on the wax seal, I remembered what my mother had +narrated to me of the magic bottle, my "Why not?" whispered to me that +perhaps, after all, aerial fairies may be visible through the dust of +the sun. But as soon as this idea, having entered into my mind, began to +become easy therein, I found it to be odd, absurd and grotesque. Ideas, +when they impose themselves, very soon become impudent. But few are apt +to be better than pleasant passers-by; and, decidedly, this very one had +somehow an air of madness. During the time I asked myself, "Shall I open +it?" "Shall I not?" the seal, which I had held continuously between my +pressing fingers, broke suddenly in my hand, and the flagon was open. + +I waited, I observed, I saw nothing, I felt nothing. And I was +disappointed, so much the hope of stepping out of nature is prone and +ready to glide into our souls! Nothing! Not even a vague or confused +illusion, an uncertain image! What I had foreseen occurred. What a +deception! I felt somewhat vexed. Reclined in my arm-chair I vowed to +myself, before all the black-haired Egyptians surrounding me, to close +my soul better in the future to the lies of the cabalists; and once more +recognised my dear teacher's wisdom and resolved, like him, to be +guided by reason in all matters not connected with faith, Christian and +Catholic. Expecting the visit of a lady Salamander, what silliness! Is +it possible that Salamanders exist? But what is known about it, and "Why +not?" + +Since noon the air was heavy, now it became stifling. Rendered torpid by +long days of quietness and seclusion, I felt a weight on my forehead and +eyes. The approach of a thunderstorm lay heavy on me. I let my arms hang +down, and, with head thrown back, and eyes closed, I glided into a doze +full of golden Egyptians and lustful shadows. In this uncertain state +the sense of love alone was alive in my body, like a fire in the night. +How long it had lasted I could not say, when I was awakened by a sound +of light steps and the rustling of a dress. I opened my eyes and gave a +great shout. + +A marvellous creature stood before me, clad in black satin, a lace veil +on her head--a dark woman with blue eyes, of resolute features in a +juvenile and pure skin, round cheeks and the mouth animated as by an +invisible kiss. The short skirt let little feet be seen, dancing, +jolly, spirited feet. She held herself upright, but was round, somewhat +thick-set, in her voluptuous perfection. Under the black velvet ribbon +round her throat a little square of her bosom was visible, brown, but +dazzling. She looked on me with an air of curiosity. I have said already +how sleep had rendered me amorous. I rose quickly, and stepped forward. + +"Excuse me," she said, "I am looking for M. d'Asterac." + +I said to her: + +"Madam, there is no M. d'Asterac. There is you and I. I expected you. +You are a Salamander. I have opened the crystal flagon. You have come. +You are mine." + +I took her in my arms and covered with kisses all places my lips could +find uncovered by her dress. + +She tore herself away and said: + +"You are mad." + +"That is quite natural," I replied. "Who in my place could remain sane?" + +She lowered her eyes, blushed, and smiled. I fell at her feet. + +"As M. d'Asterac is not here," she said, "I had better retire." + +"Remain!" I cried, and bolted the door. + +"Do you know if he will soon be back?" + +"No, madam! He will not return for a long time. He left me alone with +the Salamanders. But I want one only, and that one is you." + +I lifted her in my arms, carried her to the sofa, fell down on it +with her, and smothered her with kisses. I was out of my senses. She +screamed, I did not hear her; she pushed me back with outstretched +hands; her fingernails scratched me all over, and her vain defence only +excited my frenzy. I pressed, enlaced her, she fell back worn out. Her +mollified body gave way, she closed her eyes and soon, in my triumph, +her beautiful arms, reconciled, pressed me on her bosom. + +Released, alas! from that delicious embrace, we looked at one another +with surprise. Occupied to get up again decently she put her dress in +order and remained silent. + +"I love you," I said. "What is your name?" + +I did not think her to be a Salamander, and to say the truth never did +think so. + +"My name is Jahel," she said. + +"What! you're the niece of Mosaide?" + +"Yes; but keep quiet. If he should know--" + +"What would he do?" + +"Oh! nothing to me--nothing. But to you the worst. He dislikes +Christians." + +"And you?" + +"Oh! I? I dislike the Jews." + +"Jahel, do you love me a little?" + +"It seems to me, sir, that after what we have just now said to one +another, your question is an offence." + +"True, mademoiselle, but I try to obtain forgiveness for a vivacity, an +ardour, which did not take the leisure to consult your sentiments." + +"Oh! monsieur, do not make yourself out to be more guilty than you +really are. All your violence, and all your passion, would not have +served you at all, had I not found you lovable. When I saw you sleeping +in that arm-chair, I liked your looks, waited for your awakening--the +rest you know." + +As reply I gave her a kiss, she gave it me back, what a kiss! I fancied +fresh-gathered strawberries melting in my mouth. My desire revived and +passionately I pressed her on my heart. + +"This time," she said, "be less hasty, and do not think only of +yourself. You must not be selfish in love. Young men do not sufficiently +know that. But we teach them." + +And we immersed ourselves in an unfathomable depth of deliciousness. + +After that the divine Jahel asked of me: + +"Have you a comb? I look like a witch." + +"Jahel," I answered, "I have no comb. I had expected a Salamander. I +adore you." + +"Adore me, dearest, but remain secret. You do not know Mosaide." + +"What, Jahel. Is he still so terrible as that, at the age of one hundred +and thirty years, of which he has lived sixty-five inside a pyramid?" + +"I see, my friend, that stories of my uncle have been told you and that +you were simple enough to believe them. Nobody knows his age; I myself +am ignorant of it, but I have always known him as an old man. I know +only that he is robust and of uncommon strength. He has been a banker at +Lisbon, where he killed a Christian he surprised in the arms of my Aunt +Myriam. He took to flight, and carried me with him. Since then he loves +me with the tenderness of a mother. He tells me things that are told to +little children only, and he cries when he sees me asleep." + +"Do you live with him?" + +"Yes, in the keeper's lodge, at the other end of the park." + +"I know; you reach it by the lane where mandrakes are to be found. How +is it that I did not meet you before? By what sinister destiny, living +so near you, have I lived without seeing you? But what do I say, lived? +Is it to live without knowing you? Are you shut up in yonder lodge?" + +"It is true I am somewhat of a recluse, and cannot go for walks as I +wish, to the shops, to theatres. Mosaide's tenderness does not leave me +any liberty. He guards me jealously, and, besides six small gold cups +he brought with him from Lisbon, he loves but me on earth. As he is much +more attached to me than he was to my Aunt Myriam, he would kill you, +dear, with a better heart than he killed the Portuguese. I warn you so, +to impress the necessity of discretion on you, and because it is not +a consideration which could stop a brave gentleman. Are you of a good +family, my friend?" + +"Alas! no; my father applies himself to a mechanic art, and has a sort +of trade." + +"And he is not of any of the professions? Does not belong to the banking +world? No? It is a pity. Well, you're to be loved for yourself. But +speak the truth. Is M. d'Asterac to be back shortly?" + +At this name and question a terrible doubt came in my mind. I suspected +the enchanting Jahel to have been sent by the cabalist to play the part +of a Salamander with me. I went so far as to excuse her in my mind of +being the nymph of that old fool. To obtain an immediate explanation +I bluntly and coarsely asked her if she was in the habit of acting the +Salamander in the castle. + +"I don't understand you," she replied, looking at me with eyes full of +innocent surprise. "You speak like M. d'Asterac himself, and I could +believe you to be attacked by his mania also, if I had not proved that +you do not share the aversion to women that he has. He cannot stand +any female, and it is a real annoyance to me to see and speak with him. +Nevertheless I was looking for him when I found you." + +The pleasure of being reassured made me again smother her with kisses. + +She managed to let me see that she had black stockings which, over the +knees, were held up by garters ornamented with diamond buckles and +that sight brought back my mind to ideas pleasant to her. Besides she +entreated me on the welcome subject with much ability and fervour, and +I was aware that she became excited over the game at the very moment I +began to get fatigued from it, However I did my best, and was fortunate +enough to spare the beautiful girl a disgrace which she did not deserve +in the least. It seemed to me that she was not discontented with me. She +rose, very quietly, and said: + +"Do you really not know if M. d'Asterac will soon be back? I confess to +you that I came to ask him for a small amount of that pension he owes to +my uncle, a trifle only. I very badly want it just now." + +I took my purse out and handed her, with due excuses, the three crowns +it contained. It was all that remained of the too rare liberalities of +the cabalist who, professing to dislike money, unluckily forgot to pay +me my salary. + +I asked Mademoiselle Jahel if I should not have the pleasure of seeing +her again. + +"You will," she replied. + +And we agreed that she should ascend at night-time to my room whenever +she could escape from the lodge, where she was pretty nearly a prisoner. + +"Take care to remember," I told her, "that my room is the fourth on the +right of the corridor and Abbe Coignard's the fifth. The others give +access to the lofts, where two or three scullions lodge, and hundreds of +rats." + +She assured me that she would be very careful not to make a mistake, and +would scratch on my door and not on any other. + +"Besides," she continued, "your Abbe Coignard seems to be a very good +man, and I am pretty sure that we have in no way to be afraid of him. I +looked at him, through a peephole, on the day he came with you to visit +my uncle! I thought him amiable, though I could not hear what he said. +Principally his nose I thought to be really ingenious and capable. A man +with such a nose ought to be full of expedients and I very much wish +to become acquainted with him. One can but better one's mind by having +intercourse with people of high spirit. I am only sorry that my uncle +was not pleased with his words and scoffing humour. Mosaide hates him, +and of his capacity for hate no Christian can form an idea." + +"Mademoiselle," I replied, "Monsieur l'Abbe Jerome Coignard is a very +learned man, and he has in addition philosophy and kindness. He knows +the world, and you are quite right in believing him to be a good +counsellor. I regulate myself fully after his advice. But, tell me, did +you see me also, on yonder day, at the lodge, through the peephole you +spoke of?" + +"I saw you," she said to me, "and I will not hide from you that I was +pleased. But I must return to my uncle. Good-bye." + +The same evening, after supper, M. d'Asterac did not fail to ask me for +news of the Salamander. His curiosity troubled me somewhat. My answer +was that the meeting had surpassed all my expectations, but that I +thought it my duty to confine myself to a discretion due to such kind of +adventures. + +"That discretion, my son," he said, "is not of so much use in your +case as you represent. Salamanders do not want their amours to be kept +secret, they are not ashamed of them. One of those nymphs who loves me +does not know of a sweeter pastime than to engrave my initials enlaced +with hers on the bark of trees, as you can see for yourself by examining +the stems of five or six Scotch firs, the exquisite tops of which you +can see from yonder windows. But have you not, my son, learned that that +kind of amour, truly sublime, far from leaving any fatigue behind, +lends to the heart a new vigour? I am sure that after what passed to-day +you'll employ your night in translating at least sixty pages of Zosimus +the Panopolitan." + +I confessed that on the contrary I felt very sleepy, which he explained +by reason of the astonishment produced by such a first meeting. And +so the great man remained convinced that I had had intercourse with a +Salamander. I felt some scruples at deceiving him, but I was compelled +to do it and, besides, he deceived himself to such a degree that it +was hardly possible to add anything to his illusions. So I ascended +peacefully to my room, went to bed, and blew the candle out at the end +of the most glorious day of my life. + + + + +CHAPTER XVI + +Jahel comes to my Room--What the Abbe saw on the Stairs--His Encounter +with Mosaide. + + +Jahel kept her word. On the second day after, she scratched at my door. +We were a great deal more comfortable in my room than we had been in M. +d'Asterac's study, and what had taken place at our first meeting was +but child's play in comparison to what love inspired us at our second +opportunity. She tore herself out of my arms at the dawn with a thousand +oaths to join me again very soon, calling me her soul, her life, her +dearest sweetheart. + +That day I rose very late. When I reached the library, my master was +already sitting over the papyrus of Zosimus, his pen in one hand, his +magnifying-glass in the other, and worthy of the admiration of anyone +having due consideration for good literature. + +"Jacques Tournebroche," he said to me, "the principal difficulty of this +reading consists in not a few of the letters being easily confounded +with others, and it is important for the success of the deciphering to +make a list of the characters lending themselves to similar mistakes, +because by not taking such precautions we are running the risk of +employing the wrong terminations, to our eternal shame and just +vituperation. I have to-day already committed some ridiculous blunders. +It must have been because, since daybreak, my mind has been troubled by +what I saw last night, and of which I will give you an account. + +"I woke up in the morning twilight, and I felt a longing for a glass of +that light white wine about which I made yesterday my compliments to M. +d'Asterac, if you remember. For there exists, my son, between white wine +and the crowing of the cock a sympathy, doubtless dating from Noah's +time, and I am certain that if Saint Peter, in that sacred night he +passed in the yard of the great high priest, had had just a mouthful +of Moselle claret or only wine of Orleans, he never would have disowned +Jesus Christ before the cock crowed a second time. But in no sense, my +boy, have we to regret that bad action; it was of the utmost importance +that the prophecies were fulfilled, and if Peter, or Cephas, had not +committed on that very night the worst of infamies, he would not now be +the greatest saint in heaven, and the corner-stone of our holy Church, +to the confusion of honest men according to the world, who have to see +the keys of their eternal bliss held by a dastardly knave. O salutary +example, which, drawing man out of the fallacious inspirations of human +honour, leads him on the road of salvation! O masterly disposition +of religion! O divine wisdom, exalting the meek and wretched to the +humiliation of the haughty! O marvel! O mystery! To the eternal shame of +the Pharisees and lawyers, a common mariner of the Lake of Tiberias, +who by his gross cowardice had become the laughing-stock of the kitchen +wenches who warmed themselves with him in the courtyard of the high +priest, a churl and a dastard, who denied his master and his faith +before slatterns certainly not so pretty by far as the chamber-maid of +the bailiff's wife at Seez, wears the triple crown, the pontifical +ring on his finger and rules over princes and bishops, over kings +and emperors, is invested with the right to bind and loose; the most +respectable of men, the most honest dame, cannot enter heaven unless he +gives them admission. + +"But tell me, Tournebroche, my boy, at what part of my narrative had I +arrived when I got muddled over that great Saint Peter, the prince of +apostles? If I remember well I spoke to you of a glass of white wine I +drank at daybreak. I came down to the pantry in my shirt, and took out +of a certain cupboard, the key of which I had prudently kept by me the +day before, a bottle, the contents of which I emptied with no little +pleasure. Afterwards reascending the stairs I met, between the second +and third flights, a tiny damsel clad as a pierrot, who descended the +steps. She seemed to be mightily afraid, and fled into the farthest +corner of the passage. I followed her, caught her, took her in my arms, +and kissed her in a sudden and irresistible outbreak of sympathy. Don't +blame me, my boy; in my place you would have done as much, perhaps more. +It was a pretty girl, reminding me of the serving-maid of the bailiff's +wife, but with more vivacity in her looks. She did not dare to scream. +She whispered breathless in my ear: 'Leave me, leave me; you're mad!' +Look here, Tournebroche, I still have the marks of her finger nails on +my wrist. O that I could keep as vivid on my lips the impression of the +kiss she gave me!" + +"What, Monsieur Abbe," I exclaimed, "she gave you a kiss?" + +"Be sure, my boy, that in my place you would have had one too--that is +to say, if you, as I did, seized the opportunity. I believe I told you +that I held the damsel in close embrace. She tried to fly from me, she +suppressed her screams, she murmured groans. 'For heaven's sake, leave +me! It begins to be light, a moment more and I am lost.' Her fears, her +fright, her danger--who could be barbarous enough not to be affected by +them? I am not inhuman. I gave her freedom at the price of a kiss, which +she gave me quickly. On my word, I never enjoyed a more delicious one." + +At this part of his tale, my dear tutor, raising his nose to sniff a +pinch of snuff, became aware of my confusion and pain, which he thought +to be utter astonishment, and continued to say: + +"Jacques Tournebroche, all that remains for me to tell will astonish you +still more. To my regret I let the pretty girl go, but curiosity tempted +me to follow her. I went down the stairs after her, saw her cross the +lobby, go out by a little door opening on the fields in the direction +where the park extends farthest, and run up the lane. I followed +swiftly. I was quite sure that she would not go far, dressed as a +pierrot and wearing a night-cap. She took the path wherein the mandrakes +dwell. My curiosity doubled, and I followed her up to Mosaide's lodge. +At this moment the hideous Jew appeared at a window in his dressing-gown +and monstrous headgear, like one of those figures who show themselves +at the stroke of noon, outside those old clocks more Gothic and more +ridiculous than the churches wherein they are kept, for the enjoyment of +the yokels and the profit of the beadle. + +"He discovered me, hidden as I was behind the foliage, at the very +moment when that pretty girl, fleet as Galatea, slipped into the lodge. +It looked as if I had followed her up in the manner, way and habit of +those satyrs of which we have spoken of late when conferring on the +finest passages of Ovid. My dress could but add to such resemblance--did +I tell you, my boy, that I wore only a shirt? Seeing me, Mosaide's eyes +vomited fire. Out of his dirty yellow greatcoat he drew a neat little +stiletto and shook it through the window with an arm in no way weighed +down by age. He roared bilingual curses on me. Yes, Tournebroche, +my grammatical knowledge authorises me to say that his curses were +bilingual, that Spanish, or rather Portuguese, was mixed in them with +Hebrew. I went into a rage at not being able to catch their exact sense, +as I do not know these languages, although I can recognise them by +certain sounds which are frequent when they are spoken. It is very +possible that he accused me of wanting to corrupt that girl, whom I +believe to be his niece Jahel, whom, as you will remember, M. d'Asterac +has repeatedly mentioned to us. As such his invectives were rather +flattering to me, as I have become, my boy, by the progress of age and +the fatigues of an agitated life, so that I cannot aspire any longer to +the love of juvenile maidens. Alas! should I become a bishop that is a +dish of which I shall never taste. I am sorry for it. But it is no good +to be closely attached to the perishable things of this world, and we +are compelled to leave what leaves us. Accordingly Mosaide, brandishing +his stiletto, squalled out his hoarse sounds mingled with sharp yelpings +in such a manner that I felt insulted, as well as vituperated, in a +chant or song. And without flattering myself, my dear boy, I can say +that I have been treated as a rake and a seducer in a tune solemn and +ceremonious. When yonder Mosaide brought his imprecations to an end, I +endeavoured to let him have my reply in two languages also. I replied in +a mixture of Latin and French that he was a manslayer and a sacrilegist, +who murdered tiny babes and stabbed sacred hosts. The fresh morning wind +blowing between my naked legs reminded me that I wore a shirt only. I +felt somewhat embarrassed, because it is evident, my boy, that a man +without breeches is in a state highly inconvenient to speak of sacred +truth, to confound error and to prevent crime. Withal I gave him a +prodigious sketch of his outrages, and I threatened him with the terrors +of justice both human and divine." + +"What do you say, my good master?" I nearly screamed, "yonder Mosaide, +who has such a pretty niece, kills newborn babes and stabs hosts?" + +"I don't know anything about him," M. Jerome Coignard replied, "and +besides cannot know it. But those crimes are his, they are of his race, +and I can charge him with them without slandering him. I place on that +miscreant's back a long array of flagitious ancestors. You cannot +have remained ignorant of all that is said of the Jews and of their +abominable rites. You may see in an ancient cosmography of Munster in +Westphalia a drawing representing some Jews mutilating a child; they are +recognisable by the wheel or round of cloth they wear on their clothes +in sign of infamy. For all that I do not believe these misdeeds to be +of their daily and domestic use. I also doubt that the majority of +Israelites are inclined to outrage the holy wafers. To accuse them of +doing so would be to believe that they are as deeply convinced of the +divinity of our Lord Jesus Christ as we are ourselves. Sacrilege without +faith is unbelievable, and the Jew who stabbed a host rendered by that +very deed a sincere homage to the truth of transubstantiation. These are +fables, my boy, to be left to the ignorant and, if I throw them in the +face of that horrible Mosaide, I do it less by the counsels of sound +criticism than by the impressive suggestions of resentment and anger." + +"Oh! sir," I said, "you might have contented yourself with reproaching +him for the murder of the Portuguese he killed in the frenzy of his +jealousy; that certainly was a murder." + +"What!" broke out my good master. "Mosaide has killed a Christian? He +is dangerous, my dear Tournebroche. You'll have to come to the same +conclusion that I have arrived at myself about this adventure. It is +quite certain that his niece is the mistress of M. d'Asterac, whose room +she doubtless had just left when I met her on the stairs. + +"I am too religious a man not to be sorry that so amiable a person comes +of the Jewish race, who crucified Jesus Christ. Alas! do not doubt, my +dear boy, that villain Mordecai is the uncle of an Esther who does not +need to macerate six months in myrrh to become worthy of the bed of a +king. That old spagyric raven is not the man fit for such a beauty, and +I am rather inclined to take an interest in her myself. + +"Mosaide will have to hide her very secretly and carefully; should she +show herself once only at the promenade or the theatre, she would have +all the world at her feet on the following morning. Don't you wish to +see her, Tournebroche?" + +I replied that I wished it very much. And then both of us drove deeper +in our Greek. + + + + +CHAPTER XVII + +Outside Mademoiselle Catherine's House--We are invited in by M. +d'Anquetil--The Supper--The Visit of the Owner and the horrible +Consequences. + + +That evening my tutor and I happened to be in the Rue du Bac, and as it +was rather warm M. Jerome Coignard said to me: + +"Jacques Tournebroche, my son, would it be agreeable to you to turn to +the left, into the Rue de Grenelle, in quest of a tavern--that's to say, +to some place where we could get a pot of wine for two sous? I am rather +short of cash, my boy, and strongly suppose you to be no better off. +M. d'Asterac, who possibly can make gold, does not give any to his +secretaries and servants, as we well know, to our cost, you and I. He +leaves us in a lamentable state. I have never a penny in my pocket, and +it will become necessary to remedy that evil by industry and artifice. +It is a fine thing to bear poverty with an even mind, like Epictetus +of glorious memory. But it is an exercise I am tired of and which has +become tedious by habit. I feel it is high time for a change of virtue, +and to insinuate myself into the possession of wealth without being +possessed by it, which certainly is the noblest state to be reached by +the soul of a philosopher. I shall feel myself obliged, very soon, to +earn profits of some kind to show that my sagacity has not failed me +during my prosperity. I am in search of the means to reach such an +issue; my mind is occupied by it, Tournebroche." + +And as my dear tutor spoke with a noble distinction of that matter, +we came near the pretty dwelling wherein M. de la Gueritude had lodged +Mademoiselle Catherine. "You'll recognise it, she had said to me, by the +roses on the balcony." There was not light enough to see the roses, but +I fancied I could smell them. Advancing a few yards I saw her at the +window watering flowers. She recognised me, laughed, and threw me kisses +with her chubby little hand. Upon that a hand passing through the open +window slapped her cheek. In her surprise she let the water jug slip out +of her hand, it fell down into the street, at a hair's breadth from my +tutor's head. The slapped beauty disappeared from the window, and the +ear-boxer appeared; he leaned out and shouted: + +"Thank God, sir, you are not the Capuchin. I cannot stand seeing my +mistress throw kisses to that stinking beast, who continually prowls +under this window. For once I have not to blush at her choice. You look +quite an honest man, and I believe I have seen you before. Do me the +honour to come up. Within a supper is prepared. You'll do me a real +favour to partake of it, as well as the abbe, who has just had a pot of +water thrown over his head, and shakes himself like a wetted dog. After +supper we'll have a game of cards, and at daybreak we'll go hence to +cut one another's throats. But that will be purely and simply an act of +civility and only to do you honour, sir, for, in truth, that girl is +not worth the thrust of a sword. She is a hussy. I'll never see her any +more." + +I recognised in the speaker, the Monsieur d'Anquetil whom I had seen a +short time ago excite his followers so vehemently to spike Friar Ange. +Now he spoke with courtesy and treated me as a gentleman. I understood +all the favour he conferred on me by his consent to cut my throat. Nor +was my dear tutor less sensible of so much urbanity, and after having +shaken himself he said to me: + +"Jacques Tournebroche, my son, we cannot say nay to such a gracious +invitation." + +Already two lackeys had come down bearing torches. They led us to a room +where a collation had been prepared on a table lit up by wax candles +burning in two silver candelabra. M. d'Anquetil invited us to be seated, +and my good master tied his napkin round his throat. He already had a +thrush on his fork when heart-rending sobs were to be heard. + +"Don't take any notice of yonder noise," said M. d'Anquetil, "it's only +Catherine, whom I have locked in that room." + +"Ah! sir; you must forgive her," said my kind-hearted tutor, looking +sadly on the gold-brown toasted little bird on his fork. "The +pleasantest meat tastes bitter when seasoned with tears and moans. Could +you have the heart to let a woman cry? Reprieve this one, I beg of you! +Is she then so blamable for having thrown a kiss to my young pupil, who +was her neighbour and companion in the days of their common mediocrity, +at a time when this pretty girl's charms were only famous under the vine +arbour of the _Little Bacchus_? It was but an innocent action, as much +so as a human, and particularly a woman's, action can ever be innocent, +and altogether free of the original stain. Allow me also to say, sir, +that jealousy is a Gothic sentiment, a sad reminder of barbaric customs, +which has no business to survive in a delicate, well-born soul." + +"Monsieur l'Abbe," inquired M. d'Anquetil, "on what grounds do you +presume me to be jealous? I am not! But I cannot stand a woman mocking +me." + +"We are playthings of the winds," said my tutor, and sighed. "Everything +laughs at us, the sky, the stars, rain and shadow, zephyr and light and +woman. Let Catherine sup with us. She is pretty and will enliven our +table. Whatever she may have done, that kiss and the rest, do not render +her the less pleasant to look at. The infidelities of women do not spoil +their beauty. Nature, pleased to adorn them, is indifferent to their +faults; follow her, and forgive Catherine." + +I seconded my tutor's entreaties, and M. d'Anquetil consented to free +the prisoner. He went to the door of the room from whence the cries +came, unlocked it, and called Catherine, whose only reply was to +redouble her wailing. + +"Gentlemen," her lover said to us, "there she is lying flat on her +belly, her head plunged in the pillows, and at every sob raising her +rump ridiculously. Look at that. It is for such we take so much trouble +and commit so many absurdities! Catherine, come to supper." + +But Catherine did not move, and continued to cry. He pulled her by +the arm, by the waist. She resisted. He became more pressing, and said +caressingly: + +"Come, darling, get up." + +But she was stubborn, would not change place, and stuck there, holding +to pillows and mattress. + +At last her lover lost patience, swore, and shouted rudely: + +"Get up, slut!" + +At once she got up, and, smiling amid her tears, took his arm and came +with him to the dining-room, looking the very picture of a happy victim. + +She sat down between M. d'Anquetil and me, her head inclined on the +shoulder of her lover the while her foot felt for mine under the table. + +"Gentlemen," said our host, "forgive my vivacity, an impulse I cannot +regret, because it gives me the honour to entertain you at this place. +To say the truth, I cannot endure all the whims of this pretty girl, and +I have been very suspicious since I surprised her with her Capuchin." + +"My dear friend," Catherine said, pressing at the sama time her foot on +mine, "your jealousy goes astray. You should know that my only liking is +for M. Jacques." + +"She jests," said M. d'Anquetil. + +"Do not doubt of it," said I. "It is quite evident that she loves you, +and you alone." + +"Without flattering myself," he replied, "I have somehow attracted her +attachment. But she is coquettish and fickle." + +"Give me something to drink," said the abbe. + +M. d'Anquetil passed him the demijohn and exclaimed: + +"By gad! abbe, you who belong to the Church, you'll tell us why women +love Capuchins." + +M. Coignard wiped his lips and said: + +"The reason is that Capuchins love humbly, and never refuse anything. +Another reason is that neither reflection nor courtesy weakens their +natural instincts. Sir, yours is a generous wine." + +"You do me too much honour," replied M. d'Anquetil. "It is M. de la +Gueritude's. I have taken his mistress. I may as well take his bottles." + +"Nothing is more equitable," said my tutor. "I see, with pleasure, that +you rise above prejudices." + +"Do not praise me, abbe, more than I deserve. My birth renders easy to +me what may be difficult for the vulgar. A commoner is compelled to have +some restraint in all his doings. He is tied down to rigid probity; but +a gentleman enjoys the honour of fighting for his king and his pleasure, +and does not need to encumber himself with foolish trifles. I have seen +active service under M. de Villars, and in the War of Succession, and +have also run the risk of being killed without any reason in the battle +of Parma. The least you can do is to leave me free to lick my servants, +to balk my creditors, and take, if it please me, the wives of my +friends--likewise their mistresses." + +"You speak nobly," said my good master, "and you are careful to maintain +the prerogatives of the nobility." + +"I have not," replied M. d'Anquetil, "those scruples which intimidate +the crowd of ordinary men, and which I consider good only to stop the +timorous and restrain the wretched." + +"Well spoken!" said my tutor. + +"I do not believe in virtue," replied the other. + +"You're right," said my master again. "With his quite peculiar shape, +the human animal could not be virtuous without being somewhat deformed. +Look, for an example, on this pretty girl supping with us; on her +beautiful bosom, her marvellously rounded form, and the rest. In what +part of her enchanting body could she lodge a grain of virtue? There +is no room for it; everything is so firm, so juicy, solid, and plump! +Virtue, like the raven, nests in ruins. Her dwellings are the cavities +and wrinkles of the human body. I myself, sir, who, since my childhood, +have meditated over the austere principles of religion and philosophy, +could not insinuate into myself a minimum of virtue otherwise than by +means of constitutional flaws produced by sufferings and age. And ever +more I absorbed less virtue than pride. In doing so I got into the habit +of addressing to the Divine Creator of this world the following prayer: +'My Lord, preserve me from virtue if it is to lead me from godliness.' +Ah! godliness; this it is possible and necessary to attain. That is +our decent ending. May we reach it some day! In the meantime, give me +something to drink." + +"I'll confess," said M. d'Anquetil, "that I do not believe in a God." + +"Now, for once, sir, I must blame you," said the abbe "One must believe +in God, and all the truths of our holy religion." + +M. d'Anquetil protested. + +"You make game of us, abbe, and take us to be worse ninnies than we +really are. As I have said, I do not believe either in God or devil, and +I never go to Mass--the king's Mass alone excepted. The sermons of the +priests are stories for old women, bearable, perhaps, in such times +as when my grandmother saw the Abbe de Choisy, dressed as a woman, +distribute the holy bread at the Church of Saint Jacques du Haut Pas. +In those times there may have been religion; to-day there is none, thank +God!" + +"By all the Saints and all the devils, don't speak like that, my +friend," exclaimed Catherine. "As sure as that pie stands on this table +God exists! And if you want a proof of it, let me say, that when, last +year, on a certain day, I was in direful distress and penury, I went, +on the advice of Friar Ange, to burn a wax candle in the Church of +the Capuchins, and on the following I met M. de la Gueritude at the +promenade, who gave me this house, with all the furniture it contains, +the cellar full of wine, some of which we enjoy to-night, and sufficient +money to live honestly." + +"Fie! fie!" said M. d'Anquetil, "the idiot makes God Almighty interfere +in dirty affairs. This shocks and wounds one's feelings, even if one is +an atheist." + +"My dear sir," said my good tutor, "it is a great deal better to +compromise God in dirty business, as does that simple-minded girl, than, +as you do, to chase Him out of the world He has created. If He has not +expressly sent that burly contractor to Catherine, His creature, He at +least suffered her to meet him. We are ignorant of His ways, and what +this simpleton says contains more truth, maybe mixed and alloyed +with blasphemy, than all the vain words a reprobate draws out of the +emptiness of his heart. Nothing is more despicable than the libertinism +of mind that the youth of our days make a show of. Your words make me +shiver. Am I to reply to them by proofs out of the Holy Scriptures and +the writings of the fathers? Shall I make you hear God speaking to the +patriarchs and to the prophets: _Si locutus est Abraham et semini ejus +in saecula?_ Shall I spread out before you the traditions of the Church? +Invoke against you the authority of both Testaments? Blind you with +Christ's miracles, and His words as miraculous as His deeds? No! I will +not arm myself with those holy weapons. I fear too much to pollute them +in such a fight, which is not at all solemn. In her prudence the Church +warns us not to risk turning edification into a scandal. Therefore I +will not speak, sir, of that wherewith I have been fed on the steps of +sanctuaries. But, without violating the chaste modesty of my soul, and +without exposing to profanation the sacred mysteries, I'll show you God +overawing human reason, I'll show you it by the philosophy of pagans, +and by the tittle-tattle of ungodly persons. Yes, sir, I'll make you +avow that you recognise Him, against your own free will. Much as you +want to pretend He does not exist you cannot but agree that, if a +certain order prevails in this world, such order is divine--flows out of +the spring and fountain of all order." + +"I agree," replied M. d'Anquetil, reclining in his armchair and fondling +his finely shaped calves. + +"Therefore, take care," said my good tutor. "When you say that God does +not exist what else are you doing but linking thought, directing reason, +and manifesting in your innermost soul, the principle of all thought, +and all reason, which is God? Is it possible only to attempt to +establish that He is not, without illuminating, by the most paltry +reasoning, which still is reasoning, some remains of the harmony He has +established in the universe?" + +"Abbe," replied M. d'Anquetil, "you are a humorous sophist. It is well +known in our days that this world is the work of chance, and it is +superfluous to speak of a providence, since natural philosophers have +discovered, by means of their telescopes, that winged frogs are living +on the moon." + +"Well, sir," replied my good master, "I am in no way angry that winged +frogs are living on the moon; such kind of marsh-birds are very worthy +inhabitants of a world which has not been sanctified by the blood of our +Lord Jesus Christ. True, we only know the minor part of the universe, +and it is quite possible, as M. d'Asterac says--who is a bit of a +fool--that this earth is no more than a spot of mud in the infinity of +worlds. Maybe the astronomer Copernicus was not altogether dreaming when +he taught that, mathematically, the earth is not the centre of creation. +I have also read that an Italian of the name of Galileo, who died +miserably, shared Copernicus' opinion, and in our days we see little M. +de Fontenelle entertaining the same ideas. But all this is but a vain +imagination, fit only to unhinge weak minds. What does it matter if +the physical world is larger or smaller, of one shape or another? It is +quite sufficient that it can be duly considered only by intelligence and +reason for God to be manifest therein. + +"If a wise man's meditations could be of some use to you, sir, I will +inform you how such proof of God's existence, better than the proof of +St. Anselm, and quite independent of that resulting from Revelation, +appeared to me suddenly in unclouded limpidity. It was at Seez, five and +twenty years ago when I was the bishop's librarian. The gallery windows +opened on a courtyard where, every morning, I saw a kitchen wench clean +the saucepans. She was young, tall, sturdy. A slight down, shadowlike, +over her lips lent irritating and proud gracefulness to her countenance. +Her entangled hair, meagre bosom, and long, naked arms were worthy of an +Adonis or a Diana. She was of a boyish beauty. I loved her for it, loved +her strong, red hands. All in all that girl evoked in me a longing as +rude and brutal as herself. You know how imperious such longings are. I +made her understand by sign and word. Without the slightest hesitation +she quickly let me know that my longings were not stronger than hers, +and appointed the very next night for a meeting, to take place in the +loft, where she slept on the hay, by gracious permission of the bishop, +whose saucepans she cleaned. Impatiently I waited for the night. When +at last her shadow covered the earth I climbed, by means of a ladder, +to the loft, where the girl expected me. My first thought was to embrace +her, my second to admire the links which brought me into her arms. For, +sir, a young ecclesiastic--a kitchen wench--a ladder--a bundle of hay. +What a train! What regulation! What a concourse of pre-established +harmonies! What a concatenation of cause and effect! What a proof of +God's existence! I was strangely struck by it, and mightily glad I am +to be able to add this profane demonstration to the reasons furnished by +theology, which are, however, amply sufficient." + +"Abbe," said Catherine, "the only weak point in your story is that the +girl had a meagre bosom. A woman without breasts is like a bed without +pillows. But don't you know, d'Anquetil, what we might do?" + +"Yes," said he, "play a game of ombre, which is played by three." + +"If you will," she said. "But, dear, have the pipes brought in. Nothing +is pleasanter than to smoke a pipe of tobacco when drinking wine." + +A lackey brought the cards and pipes, which we lit. Soon the room was +full of dense smoke, wherein our host and the Abbe Coignard played +gravely at piquet. + +Luck followed my dear tutor up to the moment when M. d'Anquetil, +fancying he saw him for the third time score fifty-five when he had only +made forty points, called him a Greek, a villainous trickster, a Knight +of Transylvania, and threw a bottle at his head, which broke on the +table, flooding it with wine. + +"Well, sir," said the abbe, "you'll have to take the trouble to open +another bottle: we are thirsty." + +"With pleasure," replied M. d'Anquetil. "But, abbe, know that a +gentleman does not mark points he has not made, and does not cheat at +cards except at the king's card-table, round which all sorts of people +are assembled, to whom one owes nothing. On any other table it is a vile +action. Abbe, say, do you want to be looked on as an adventurer?" + +"It is remarkable," said my good tutor, "that you blame at cards or dice +a practice so much commended in the art of war, politics and trade; in +each of these people glorify themselves by correcting the injuries of +fortune. It is not that I do not pique myself on honesty when playing +at cards. Thank God, I always play straight, and you must have been +dreaming, sir, when you fancied I had marked points I did not make. Had +it been otherwise, I would appeal to the example given by the blessed +Bishop of Geneva, who did not scruple to cheat at cards. But I cannot +defend myself against the reflection that at play men are much more +sensitive than in serious business, and that they employ the whole of +their probity at the backgammon board, where it incommodes them but +indifferently, whereas they put it entirely in the background in a +battle or a treaty of peace, where it would be troublesome. Polyaenus, +sir, has written, in the Greek language a book on Stratagems, wherein is +shown to what excess deceit is pushed by the great leaders." + +"Abbe," said M. d'Anquetil, "I have not read your Polyaenus, and do not +think I ever shall read him. But like every true gentleman, I have +been to the wars. I have served the king for eighteen months. It is the +noblest of all professions. I'll tell you exactly what war is. I may +tell the secret of it, as nobody is present to listen but yourself, some +bottles, yonder gentleman whom I intend to kill very shortly, and that +girl, who begins to undress herself." + +"Yes," said Catherine, "I undress, and will keep only my chemise on, +because I feel too hot." + +"Well then," M. d'Anquetil continued, "whatever may be printed of it in +the gazettes, war consists, above all things, of stealing the pigs and +chickens of peasants. Soldiers in the fields have no other occupation." + +"You are right," said M. Coignard, "and in days of yore it was the +saying in Gaul that the soldier's best friend was Madame Marauding. But +I beg of you not to kill my pupil, Jacques Tournebroche." + +"Ouf!" exclaimed Catherine, arranging the lace of her chemise on her +bosom. "Now I feel easier." + +"Abbe," replied M. d'Anquetil, "honour compels me to do it." + +But my kind-hearted tutor went on: + +"Sir, Jacques Tournebroche is very useful to me for the translation, +I have undertaken, of Zosimus the Panopolitan. I would give you many +thanks not to fight him before the finishing touch has been given to +that grand work." + +"To the deuce with your Zosimus," said M. d'Anquetil. "To the deuce with +him! Do you hear, abbe! I'll send him to the deuce, as a king would do +with his first mistress." + +And he sang: + + "Pour dresser un jeune courrier + Et l'affermir sur l'etrier + Il lui fallait une routiere + Laire lan laire." + +"What's that Zosimus?" + +"Zosimus, sir, Zosimus of Panopolis, was a learned Greek, who flourished +at Alexandria in the third century of the Christian era, and wrote +treatises on the spagyric art." + +"Do you fancy it matters to me? Why do you translate it? + + "Battons le fer quand il est chaud + Dit-elle, en faisant sonner haut + Le nom de sultan premiere + Laire lan laire." + +"Sir," said my dear tutor, "I quite agree with you; there is no +practical utility in it, and by it the course of the world will not be +changed in the slightest. But making clearer by annotations and comments +this treatise, which that Greek compiled for his sister Theosebia--" + +Catherine interrupted him by singing in a high-pitched voice: + + "Je veux en depit des jaloux + Qu'on fasse duc mon epoux + Lasse de le voir secretairev + Laire lan laire." + +And my tutor continued: + +"--I contribute to the treasure of knowledge gathered by erudite men, +and bring forward one stone of my own for a monument to true history, +which is a better one than the chronicles of war and treaties; for, sir, +the nobility of man--" + +Catherine continued to sing: + + "Je sais bien qu'on murmurera + Que Paris nous chansonnera + Mais tant pis pour le sot vulgaire + Laire lan laire." + +And my dear tutor went on: + +"--is thought. And concerning that, it is not indifferent to know what +idea the Egyptians had formed of the nature of metals and the qualities +of the primitive substance." + +The Abbe Jerome Coignard, having come to the end of his discourse, +emptied a big glass of wine, while Catherine sang: + + "Par l'epee ou par le fourreau + Devenir due est toujours beau + Il n'importe le maniere + Laire lan laire." + +"Abbe," said M. d'Anquetil, "you do not drink, and in spite of such +abstinence you lose your reason. In Italy, during the War of Succession, +I was under the orders of a brigadier who translated Polybius. But he +was an idiot. Why translate Zosimus?" + +"If you want my true reason," replied the abbe, "because I find some +sensuality in it." + +"That's something like!" protested M. d'Anquetil. "But in what can M. +Tournebroche, who at this moment is caressing my mistress, assist you?" + +"With the knowledge of Greek I have given him." + +M. d'Anquetil turned round to me and said: + +"What, sir, you know Greek! You are not then a gentleman?" + +"No, sir," I replied, "I am not. My father is the banner-bearer of the +Guild of Parisian Cooks." + +"Well, under such conditions it is impossible for me to kill you. Kindly +accept my excuses. But, abbe, you don't drink. You imposed upon me. +I believed you to be a real good tippler, and wished you to become my +chaplain as soon as I could set up my own establishment." + +However, M. Coignard did drink all that the bottle contained, and +Catherine, inclining to me, whispered in my ear: + +"Jacques, I feel that I shall never love anyone but you." + +These words, spoken by a really fine woman clad in no other wrapper than +a chemise, troubled me to the extreme. Catherine ended by fuddling me +entirely, by making me drink out of her own glass, an action passing +unobserved in the confusion of a supper which had overheated the heads +of us all. + +M. d'Anquetil knocked off the neck of a bottle on the corner of the +table and filled our bumpers; from this moment on, I cannot give a +reliable account of what was said and done around me. One incident I +remember: Catherine treacherously emptying her glass into her lover's +neck, between the nape and the collar of his coat; and M. d'Anquetil +retorting by pouring the contents of two or three bottles over the girl. +Wearing nothing beyond her chemise, it changed Catherine into a kind of +mythological figure of a humid species like nymphs and naiads. She cried +herself into a rage and twisted in convulsions. + +At that very moment, in the silence of the night, we heard knocks at +the house door. We became suddenly motionless and dumb, like people +bewitched. + +The knocks soon redoubled in strength and frequency. M. d'Anquetil was +the first to break the silence by questioning himself aloud, swearing +horribly the while, who the deuce the pesterers could be. My good tutor, +to whom the most ordinary circumstances often inspired admirable maxims, +rose and said with unction and gravity: + +"What does it matter whose hand knocks so violently at closed doors for +a vulgar, perhaps ridiculous, reason? Do not let us seek to know, and +consider them as knocking on the door of our hardened and corrupted +souls. At each knock let us say to ourselves: This one is to give us +notice to amend and think on the salvation we neglect in the turmoil of +our pleasures, that other one is to remind us of eternity. In that way +we shall draw the utmost profit out of an incident which, after all, is +as paltry as it is frivolous." + +"You're humorous, abbe," said M. d'Anquetil; "to judge by the sturdiness +of their knocks, they'll burst the door open." + +And as a fact the knocker resounded like thunder. + +"They are robbers," exclaimed the soaked girl. "Jesus! We shall be +massacred; it is our chastisement for having sent away the little friar. +Many times I have told you. M. d'Anquetil, that misfortune comes to +houses from which a Capuchin has been driven.' + +"Hear the stupid!" replied M. d'Anquetil. "That damned monk makes her +believe any imbecility he chooses to dish her up. Thieves would be more +polite, or at least more discreet. I rather think it is the watch." + +"The watch! Worse and worse," said Catherine. + +"Bah!" M. d'Anquetil exclaimed, "we'll lick them." + +My dear tutor took the precaution to put one bottle in one of his +pockets, and as an equipoise another bottle in the other pocket. The +house shook all over from the furious knocks. M. d'Anquetil, whose +military qualities were aroused by the knocker's onslaught, after +reconnoitring, exclaimed: + +"Ah! Ah! Ah! Do you know who knocks? It is M. de la Gueritude with his +full-bottomed periwig and two big flunkeys carrying lighted torches." + +"That's not possible," said Catherine, "at this very moment he is in bed +with his old woman." + +"Then it is his ghost," said M. d'Anquetil. "And the ghost also wears +his periwig, which is so ridiculous that any self-respecting spectre +would refuse to copy it." + +"Do you speak the truth, and not jeer at me?" asked Catherine. "Is it +really M. de la Gueritude?" + +"It's himself, Catherine, if I may believe my own eyes." + +"Then I am lost!" exclaimed the poor girl. "Women are indeed unhappy! +They are never left in peace. What will become of me? Would you not +hide, gentlemen, in some of the cupboards?" + +"That could be done," said M. Jerome Coignard, "as far as we are +concerned, but how are we to hide all those empty bottles, mostly +smashed, or at least broken necked; the remains of that demijohn M. +d'Anquetil threw at me; that tablecloth; those plates, candelabra and +mademoiselle's chemise, which in its soaked state is nothing but a +transparent veil encircling her beauty?" + +"It is true," said Catherine, "yonder idiot has drenched my chemise, and +I am catching cold. But listen. Perhaps M. d'Anquetil could hide in the +top room, and I would make the abbe my uncle and Jacques my brother." + +"No good at all," said M. d'Anquetil. "I'll go myself and kindly ask M. +de la Gueritude to have supper with us." + +We urged him, all of us--my tutor, Catherine and I--to keep quiet; +we entreated him, hung on his neck. It was useless. He got hold of +a candelabra and descended the stairs. Trembling we followed him. +He unlocked the door. M. de la Gueritude was there, exactly as M. +d'Anquetil had described him, with his periwig, between two flunkeys +bearing torches. M. d'Anquetil saluted with the utmost correctness and +said: + +"Accord us the favour to come in, sir. You'll find some persons as +amiable as singular. Tournebroche, to whom Mam'selle Catherine throws +kisses from the window, and a priest who believes in God." + +Wherewith he bowed respectfully. + +M. de la Gueritude was of the dry sort, very tall, and little inclined +to the enjoyment of a joke. That of M. d'Anquetil provoked him strongly, +and his anger rose when he saw my good tutor, one bottle in hand and two +peeping out of his pockets, and by the look of Catherine with her wet +chemise sticking to her body. + +"Young man," he said in an icy fit of passion to M. d'Anquetil, "I have +the honour to know your father, of whom I will inquire, not later than +to-morrow, the name of the town to which the king shall send you to +meditate over the shame of your behaviour and impertinence. That worthy +nobleman, to whom I have lent some money I do not reclaim, can refuse +me nothing. And our well-beloved Prince, who is in precisely the same +position as your father, has always a kindness for me. Consider it a +matter done. I have settled, thank God, others more difficult. Now as +to that lady yonder, of whom neither repentance nor improvement can be +expected. I'll say to-morrow before noon, two words to the Lieutenant of +Police, whom I know to be well disposed, to send her to the spittel. I +have nothing else to say to you. This house is my property, I have +paid for it and I intend to enter when I like." Then, turning to his +flunkeys, and pointing out my tutor and myself with his walking stick, +he said: + +"Throw these two drunkards out." + +M. Jerome Coignard was commonly of an exemplary forbearance, and he used +to say that he owed his gentleness to the vicissitudes of life; chance +having treated him as the sea treats the pebbles--that is, polishing +them by means of the rolling of flood and ebb. He could easily stand +insults, as much by Christian spirit as by philosophy. But what helped +him best thereto was his deep-rooted contempt of mankind, not excepting +himself. However, for once he lost all measure and forgot all prudence. + +"Hold your tongue, vile publican," he shouted and brandished a bottle +like a crowbar. "If yonder rascals dare to approach me I'll smash their +heads, to teach them respect for my cloth, which proves in an ample way +my sacred calling." + +In the faint glimmer of the torches, shiny from sweat, his eyes starting +out of their sockets, his coat unbuttoned, and his big belly half out of +his breeches, he looked a fellow not easy to be got rid of. The lackeys +hesitated. + +"Out with him, out with him," shouted M. de la Gueritude; "out with this +bag of wine! Can't you see that all you have to do is to push him in +the gutter, where he'll remain till the scavengers throw him into the +dustcart? I would throw him out myself were I not afraid to pollute my +clothes." + +My good tutor flew into a passion, and shouted in a voice worthy to +sound in a church: + +"You odious money-monger, infamous partisan, barbarous evildoer, you +pretend this house to be yours? So that everyone may know it belongs +to you, inscribe on the door the gospel word _Aceldema_, which in our +language means Bloodmoney. And then we'll let the master enter his +dwelling. Thief, robber, murderer, write with the piece of charcoal I +throw in your face, write with your own filthy hand, on the floor, your +title deed. Bloodmoney of the widow and orphans, bloodmoney of the just. +_Aceldema_. If not, out with you, man of quantities! We'll remain." + +M. de la Gueritude had never in his life heard anything of this sort, +and thought he had to deal with a madman, as one might easily suppose, +and, more for defence than attack, he raised his big stick. My good +tutor, out of his senses, threw a bottle at the head of the contractor, +who fell headlong on the floor, howling, "He has killed me!" And as he +was swimming in red wine he really looked as though murdered. Both the +flunkeys wanted to throw themselves on the murderer, and one of them, a +burly fellow, tried to grasp him, when M. Coignard gave the fellow such +a butt that he rolled in the stream beside the financier. + +Unluckily he rose quickly, and, arming himself with a still burning +torch, jumped into the passage, where bad luck awaited him. My good +master was no longer there; he had taken to his heels. But M. d'Anquetil +was still there with Catherine, and he it was who received the burning +torch on his forehead, an outrage he could not stand. He drew his sword, +and drove it to the hilt in the unlucky knave's stomach, teaching him, +at his own expense, how fatal it may be to attack a gentleman. Now M. +Coignard had not got twenty yards away from the house when the other +lackey, a tall fellow, with the limbs of a daddy-longlegs, ran after +him, shouting for the guard. + +"Stop him! Stop him!" The footman ran faster than the abbe, and we could +see him, at the corner of the Rue Saint Guillaume, extending his arms to +catch M. Coignard by the collar of his gown. But my dear tutor, who had +more than one trick, veering abruptly, got behind the fellow, tripped +him up, and sent him on to a stone post, where he got his head +broken. It was done before M. d'Anquetil and I, running to the abbe's +assistance, could reach him. We could not leave M. Coignard in this +pressing danger. + +"Abbe," said M. d'Anquetil, "give me your hand. You're a gallant man." + +"I really cannot help thinking," my good master replied, "that I have +been somewhat murderously inclined; but I am not cruel enough to be +proud of it. I am quite satisfied so long as I am not reproached too +vehemently. Such violence does not lie in my habits, and as you can +see, sir, I am better fitted to lecture from the chair of a college +on belles-lettres than I am to fight with lackeys at the corner of a +street." + +"Oh!" replied M. d'Anquetil, "that's not the worst of the whole +business. I fully believe you have knocked the Farmer-general on the +head." + +"Is it true?" questioned the abbe. + +"As true as that I have perforated with my sword yonder scoundrel's +tripes." + +"Under such circumstances we ought to ask pardon of God, to whom alone +we are responsible for the blood shed by us, and secondly to hasten to +the nearest fountain, there to wash ourselves, because I perceive that +my nose is bleeding." + +"Right you are, abbe," said M. d'Anquetil; "for the blackguard now dying +in the gutter has cut my forehead. What an impertinence!" + +"Forgive him," said the abbe, "as you wish to be forgiven yourself." + +At the place where the Rue de Bac loses itself in the fields, we +fortunately found along the wall of a hospital a little bronze Triton, +shooting a spirt of water into a stone tub. We stopped to wash and +drink, for our throats were dry. + +"What have we done," said my master, "and how could I have lost my +temper, usually so peaceable? True men must not be judged by their +deeds, which depend on circumstances, but rather, on the example of God +our Father, by their secret thoughts and their deepest intentions." + +"And Catherine," I asked, "what has become of her through this horrible +adventure?" + +"I left her," was M. d'Anquetil's answer, "breathing into the mouth of +her financier, to revive him. But she had better save her breath. I know +La Gueritude. He is pitiless. He'll send her to the spittel, perhaps to +America. I am sorry for her. She was a fine girl. I did not love her, +but she was mad after me. And, an extraordinary state of things, I am +now without a mistress." + +"Don't bother," said my good tutor. "You'll soon find another, not +different, or hardly differing in essentials, from her. What you look +for in a woman, as it appears to me, is common to all females." + +"It is clear," said M. d'Anquetil, "that we are in danger: I of being +sent to the Bastille, you, abbe, together with your pupil, Tournebroche, +who certainly has not killed anybody, of being hanged." + +"That's but too true," said my good master. "We have to look out for +safety. Perhaps it will be necessary to leave Paris, where, no doubt, we +shall be wanted; and even to fly to Holland. Alas! I foresee that there +I shall write lampoons for ballet girls with that same hand which has +been employed to annotate right amply the alchemistic treatises of +Zosimus the Panopolitan." + +"Listen to me, abbe," said M. d'Anquetil, "I have a friend who will +hide us at his country seat for any length of time. He lives within four +miles of Lyons, in a country horrid and wild, where nothing is to be +seen but poplars, grass and woods. There we must go. There we'll wait +till the storm is over. We'll pass the time hunting and shooting. But we +must at once find a post-chaise or, better still, a travelling coach." + +"I know where to get that," said the abbe. "At the _Red Horse_ hotel, +at the Circus of the Bergeres, you can have good horses, as well as all +sorts of vehicles. I made the acquaintance of the landlord at the time +I was secretary to Madame de Saint Ernest. He liked to oblige people of +quality. I am not quite sure if he is still alive, but he ought to have +a son like himself. Have you money?" + +"I have with me a rather large sum," replied M. d'Anquetil, "and I am +glad of it, as I cannot dream of going home, where the constables will +not fail to be on the lookout to arrest and conduct me to the Chatelet. +I forgot my servants, whom I left in Catherine's house, and I do not +know what has become of them. I thrashed them, and never paid their +wages, and withal I am not sure of their fidelity. In whom can you have +confidence? Let's be off at once for the Circus of the Bergeres." + +"Sir," said the abbe, "I'll make you a proposal, hoping it may be +agreeable to you. We are living, Tournebroche and I, in an alchemistic +and ramshackle castle at the Cross of the Sablons, where we can easily +stay for a dozen hours without being seen by anyone. There we will take +you and wait quietly till our carriage is ready. The advantage is that +the Sablons is very near the Circus of the Bergeres." + +M. d'Anquetil had nothing against the abbe's proposal, and so we +resolved in front of the Triton, who blew the water out of his fat +cheeks, to go first to the Cross of the Sablons, and to hire, later on, +at the _Red Horse_ hotel, a travelling coach for our journey to Lyons. + +"I want to inform you, gentlemen," said my dear tutor, "that of the +three bottles I took care to carry with me, one was broken on the head +of M. de la Gueritude, another one was smashed in my pocket during my +flight. They are both regretted. The third, against all hope, has been +preserved. Here it is!" + +Pulling it out of his pocket, he placed it on the edge of the fountain. + +"That's well," sail M, d'Anquetil. "You have some wine, I have dice and +cards in my pocket. We can play." + +"It is true," said my good master, "that is a pleasant pastime. A pack +of cards is a book of adventure, of the kind called romances. It is so +far superior to other books of a similar kind that it can be made and +read at the same time, and that it is not necessary to have brains to +make it, nor knowledge of reading to read it. It is a marvellous work, +also, in that it offers a regular and new sense every time its pages are +shuffled. It is a contrivance never to be too much admired, because out +of mathematical principles it extracts thousands on thousands of curious +combinations, and so many singular affinities that it is believed, +contrary to all truth, that in it are discoverable the secrets of +hearts, the mystery of destinies and the arcanum of the future. What +I have said is particularly applicable to the tarot of the Bohemians, +which is the finest of all games, piquet not excepted. The invention of +cards must be ascribed to the ancients, and as far as I am concerned--I +have, to speak candidly, no kind of documentary evidence for my +assertion--I believe them to be of Chaldean origin. But in their present +appearance the piquet cards cannot be traced further back than to King +Charles VII., if what is said in a learned essay, that I remember to +have read at Seez, is true, that the queen of hearts is an emblematical +likeness of the beautiful Agnes Sorel, and that the queen of spades is, +under the name of Pallas, no other than that Jeanne Dulys, better known +as Joan of Arc, who by her bravery re-established the business of the +French monarchy and was afterwards boiled to death by the English, in +a cauldron, shown for two farthings at Rouen, where I have seen it in +passing through that city. Certain historians pretend that she was burnt +alive at the stake. It is to be read in the works of Nicole Gilles and +in Pasquier that St Catherine and St Margaret appeared to her. Certainly +it was not God who sent these saints to her, because there is no person +of any learning and solid piety who does not know that Margaret and +Catherine were invented by Byzantine monks, whose abundant and barbarous +imaginations have altogether muddled up the martyrology. It is a +ridiculous impiety to pretend that God made two saints who never existed +appear to Jeanne Dulys. However, the ancient chroniclers were not afraid +to publish it. Why have they not said that God sent to the Maid of +Orleans the fair Yseult, Melusine, Berthe the Bigfooted, and all the +other heroines of the romances of chivalry the existence of whom is not +more fabulous that that of the two virgins, Catherine and Margaret? +M. de Valois, in the last century, rose with full reason against these +clumsy fables, as much opposed to religion as error is to truth. It is +desirable that an ecclesiastic learned in history undertook to show the +distinction between real saints and saints such as Margaret, Luce or +Lucie, Eustache, and perhaps Saint George, about whom I have my doubts. + +"If on a future day I should be able to retire to some beautiful abbey, +possessing a rich library, I will devote to this task the remainder of a +life, half worn out in frightful tempests and frequent shipwrecks. I am +longing for a harbour of refuge, and I have the desire and the taste for +a chaste repose suitable to my age and profession." + +While M. Coignard was holding this memorable discourse, M. d'Anquetil, +without listening to the abbe's words, was seated on the edge of the +fountain, shuffling the cards and swearing like a trooper, because it +was too dark to play a game of piquet. + +"You are right," said my good master; "it is a bad light, and I am +somewhat displeased over it, less because I cannot play cards than +because I have a desire to read a few pages of the 'Consolations' of +Boethius, of which I always carry a small edition, so as to have it +handy when something unfortunate overcomes me, as has been the case +this day. It is a cruel disgrace, sir, for a man of my calling to be +a homicide, and liable at any moment to be locked up in one of the +ecclesiastical prisons. I feel that a single page of that admirable book +would strengthen my heart, crushed by the very idea of the officer." + +Having spoken, he let himself gently slide over the edge of the basin, +so deep that the best part of his body went into the water. But not +taking the slightest notice, and hardly feeling it, he took the Boethius +out of his pocket--it was really there--and putting his spectacles on, +wherein one glass only remained, and that one cracked in three places, +he looked in the little book for the page most appropriate for his +present situation. He doubtless would have found it, and extracted from +it new strength, if the rotten state of his barnacles, the tears that +came into his eyes, and the feeble light which came from the sky, had +permitted him to search for it. Very soon he had to confess that he was +unable to see a wink, and became angry with the moon, who showed her +pointed sickle on the edge of a cloud. He reproached her and heaped +bitter invectives on her. He shouted: + +"Luminary obscene, mischievous and libidinous, you never tire of +illuminating men's wickedness, and you deny a ray of your light to him +who searches for virtuous maxims!" + +"The more so, abbe, as this bitch of a moon gives just light enough to +find our way along the streets, and not sufficient to play a game of +piquet. Let's go at once to the castle you spoke of, where I have to +slip in without being seen." + +That was good advice, and after we had drunk the wine to the last drop +we took the road, all three of us, to the Cross of the Sablons. I walked +with M. d'Anquetil. My good tutor, hindered by the water his breeches +had soaked in, followed us, crying, moaning and disgusted. + + + + +CHAPTER XVIII + +Our Return--We smuggle M. d'Anquetil in--M. d'Asterac on Jealousy--M. +Jerome Coignard in Trouble--What happened while I was in the +Laboratory--Jahel persuaded to elope. + + +The morning light already pricked our jaded eyes when we reached the +green door to the park. We had not to use the knocker, as some time ago +the porter had given us the keys of his domain. It was agreed that my +good tutor, with d'Anquetil, should cautiously advance in the shadow +of the lane, and that I should remain behind on the lookout for the +faithful Criton, and the kitchen boys who might perhaps see us coming +along. This arrangement, which was nothing but reasonable, was to turn +out rather badly for me. My two companions had gone up without being +discovered, and reached my room, where we had decided to hide M. +d'Anquetil until the moment of escape in the post-chaise, but as I was +climbing the second flight of steps I met M. d'Asterac, in a red damask +gown, carrying a silver candlestick. He put, as he habitually did, his +hand on my shoulder. + +"Hello! my son," he said, "are you not very happy, having broken off all +intercourse with women, and by that escaped all dangers of bad company? +With the august maidens of the air you need not be in fear of quarrels, +scuffles, injurious and violent rows which usually occur with creatures +following a loose life. In your solitude, which delights the fairies, +you enjoy a delicious peace." + +I thought at first that he mocked me. But I soon found out that nothing +was further from his thoughts. + +"I am pleased to have met you, my son," he continued, "and will thank +you to come with me to my studio for a moment." + +I followed him. He unlocked, with a key nearly an ell long, that +confounded room where I had seen the glare of infernal fires. When we +were inside the laboratory he asked me to kindly make up the smouldering +fire. I threw some short logs into the furnace, where I don't know what +was steaming, exhaling a suffocating odour. While he was occupied with +his black cookery, cupellating and matrassing, I remained seated on a +settle, and, against my will, closed my eyes. He made me reopen them to +admire a green earthenware vessel, with a glass top, which he had in his +hand. + +"You ought to know, my son," he said, "that this subliming pot is +called aludel. It contains a liquid to be looked at with the greatest +attention, as it is nothing less than the mercury of the philosophers. +Do not suppose that it is to keep its present dark colour for ever. Soon +it will change to white and in that state will change all metals into +silver. Hereafter, by my art and industry, it will turn red, and acquire +the virtue of transmuting silver into gold. It certainly would be of +advantage to you that, shut in this laboratory, you should not leave it +before these sublime operations have fully taken place, a process which +cannot require more than two or three months. But as to ask you to do +so would perhaps be imposing too hard a restriction on your youth, be +satisfied, for this time, to observe the preludes of the work, while +putting, if you please, as much wood on the fire as possible." + +Having said that he returned to his phials and retorts, and I could not +help thinking of the sad position wherein ill-luck and imprudence had +placed me. + +"Alas!" I said to myself, and threw logs into the fire, "at this very +moment the constables are searching for my good tutor and myself; +perhaps we shall have to go to prison, certainly we have to leave this +castle. I have in default of money, at least board and an honourable +position. I shall never again dare to stand before M. d'Asterac, who +believes me to have passed the night in the silent voluptuousness of +magic, which perhaps would have been better for me. Alas! I'll never +more see Mosaide's niece, Mademoiselle Jahel, who at night-time woke me +in my room in such a charming way. No doubt she will forget me. Perhaps +she'll love someone else, and bestow on him the same caresses as she +gave to me." The idea of such an infidelity became unbearable. But as +the world goes, one has to be ready for anything. + +"My son," M. d'Asterac began to say again, "you do not sufficiently +feed the athanor. I see that you are still not fully convinced of +the excellency of fire, which is capable of ripening this mercury and +transforming it into the wonderful fruit I expect to gather very soon. +More wood! The fire, my son, is the superior element; I have told +you enough, and now I'll show you an example. On a very cold day last +winter, visiting Mosaide in his lodge, I found him sitting, his feet +on a warming pan. I observed that the subtle particles of fire escaping +from the pan had power enough to inflate and lift up the folds of his +gown, wherefrom I inferred, that had the fire been hotter, it would have +raised Mosaide himself into the air, of which he is certainly worthy, +and that, if it should be possible to close into some kind of a vessel a +very large quantity of such fire particles, it would be possible to +sail on the clouds as easily as we sail on the sea, and to visit the +Salamanders in their aerial abodes, a problem I shall keep in mind. I do +not despair of constructing such a fireship. But let us go back to our +work of putting wood on the fire." + +He kept me for some time in the glow of the laboratory whence I wanted +to escape as quickly as possible, to join Jahel, whom I was anxious to +inform of my misfortune. At last he left me, and I thought myself free, +a hope shortly to be disappointed by his return. + +"It is rather mild this morning," he said, "but the sky is somewhat +cloudy. Would it please you to go for a walk in the park with me before +returning to the translation of Zosimus the Panopolitan, which will be a +great honour to you and your tutor if you finish it as you have begun?" + +With much regret I followed him into the park, where he said to me: + +"I am not sorry, my son, to be alone with you, to warn you, as it is +high time to do, against a great danger by which you may be threatened +one day; I reproach myself not to have thought of warning you before, as +what I shall communicate to you is of the utmost consequence." + +And speaking in this way, he led me through the grand avenue which leads +down to the marshes of the Seine, whence Rueil is to be seen and +Mont Valerien with its calvary. It was his usual walk. The alley was +practicable in spite of some dead trees which had fallen across it. + +"It is important for you to know to what you expose yourself by +betraying your Salamander. I do not want to interrogate you as to +what intercourse you have had with that superhuman person I have been +fortunate enough to make you acquainted with. I dare say you feel +somewhat reluctant to discuss it. Possibly you deserve praise for that. +If the Salamanders have not, in what concerns the discretion of their +lovers, the same ideas that court ladies and tradeswomen have, it is +not less true that it is the special quality of beautiful amours to be +unutterable, and that it would profane a grand sentiment to spread it +abroad. + +"But your Salamander (of which I could easily find the name if I had any +idle curiosity) has perhaps omitted to give you information about one of +the most violent passions--jealousy; this character is common to them. +Know well, my son, Salamanders are not to be betrayed without punishment +awaiting you. Their vengeance on the perjurer is of the cruelest. The +divine Paracelsus gives one example, which will suffice to inspire in +you a salutary fear. + +"There was in the German town of Staufen a spagyric philosopher who had, +like yourself, connection with a Salamander. He was depraved enough to +deceive her with a woman, certainly pretty, but not more beautiful than +a woman can be. One evening, having supper with his new mistress in +company with some friends, they saw a thigh of marvellous beauty shining +over their heads. The Salamander exposed it to impress on them all, that +she did not deserve the wrong inflicted by her lover; after that the +outraged celestial struck down the unfaithful lover with apoplexy. The +vulgar, who are made to be deceived, believed his to be a natural death; +the initiated knew by whose hand he was slain. I owed you this advice, +my son, and this example." + +They were less useful to me than M. d'Asterac thought. Listening to +them I mused on other subjects of alarm. Without doubt my face must +have betrayed the state of anxiety I was in; because the great cabalist, +having looked at me, asked me if I was not afraid that an engagement, +guarded by conditions so severe, would be troublesome to my youth. + +"I am able to reassure you," he added. "The jealousy of a Salamander +is awakened only by rivalry with women, and to speak truly it is more +resentment, indignation, disgust, than real jealousy. The souls of the +Salamanders are too noble, their intelligence too subtle, to envy one +another, and to give way to a sentiment pertaining to the barbarity +wherein humanity is still half plunged. On the contrary they delight to +share with their playmates the joys they taste beside a sage, and are +pleased to bring to their lovers the most beautiful of their sisters. +Very soon you'll experience that, as a fact, they push politeness to the +point I mentioned, and not a year, nay not six months, will pass before +your room will be the trysting place of five or six daughters of the +light, who will untie before you their sparkling girdles. Do not be +afraid, my son, to answer their caresses. Your own fairy love will not +take umbrage. How could she be offended, wise as she is? And on your +side, do not get irritated if your Salamander leaves you for a moment +to visit another philosopher. Consider that the proud jealousy men bring +into the union of the sexes is but a savage sentiment, founded on the +most ridiculous of illusions. It rests on the idea that a woman belongs +to you because she has given herself to you, which is nothing but a play +on words." + +While making this speech, M. d'Asterac had turned into the lane of the +mandrakes, where we could see Mosaide's cottage, half hidden by foliage, +when suddenly an appalling voice burst upon us and made my heart beat +faster--hoarse sounds, accompanied by a sharp gnashing, and on getting +nearer the sounds seemed to be modulated, and each phrase ended in +a sort of very feeble melody, which could not be listened to without +shuddering. + +Advancing a few paces we could, by listening closely, understand the +sense of the strange words. The voice said: + +"Hear the malediction with which Elisha cursed the insolent and mirthful +children. Listen to the anathema Barak flung on Meros. + +"I curse thee in the name of Archithuriel, who is also called the lord +of battles, and holds the flaming sword. I doom thee to perdition in +the name of Sardaliphonos, who presents to his master the flowers and +garlands of merit offered by the children of Israel. + +"Be cursed, hound! Anathema, swine!" + +Looking from whence the voice came, we could see Mosaide on the +threshold of his house, standing erect, his arms raised, his hands in +the form of fangs, with nails crooked, appearing inflamed by the fiery +light of the sun. His head was covered with his dirty tiara, and he +was enveloped in his gorgeous gown, showing when flying open his meagre +bow-legs in ragged breeches. He looked like some begging magician, +immortal, and very old. His eyes glared, and he said: + +"Be cursed in the name of all globes, be cursed in the name of all +wheels, be cursed in the name of the mysterious beasts Ezekiel saw." + +Out he stretched his long arms, ending in claws, and continued: + +"In the name of the globes, in the name of the wheels, in the name of +the mysterious beasts, descend among those who are no more." + +We advanced a few paces between the half-grown trees to see the object +over which Mosaide extended his arms and his anger, and discovered, to +our great surprise, M. Jerome Coignard, hanging by a lapel of his gown +on an evergreen thorn bush. The night's disorder was visible all over +his body; his collar and his shoes torn, his stockings smeared with mud, +his shirt open, all reminded me of our common misadventures, and, worse +than all, the swelling of his nose spoilt entirely the noble and smiling +expression which never left his features. + +I ran up to him and unhooked him so luckily off the thorns that only a +small piece of his breeches stuck to them. Mosaide, having had his say, +re-entered the cottage. As he wore only slippers I could observe that +his legs fitted right into the middle of his feet, so that the heel +stuck out behind pretty nearly as much as the forefoot in front, a +singular deformation, rendering his walking uncouth, which otherwise +would have been noble and full of dignity. + +"Jacques Tournebroche! my dear boy," said my tutor, with a sigh, "that +Jew must be Isaac Laquedem in person, so to blaspheme in all languages. +He vowed me to a death near and violent with an enormous abundance of +metaphors, and he called me a pig in fourteen distinct languages, if I +counted them correctly. I could believe him to be the Antichrist, and +he does not want some of the signs by which that enemy of God is to be +recognised. Under any circumstances he is a dirty Jew, and never has the +wheel as a brand of infamy been exposed on the vestments of a worse or +more rabid miscreant. As for himself, he not only deserves the wheel +formerly attached to the garments of Jews, but also that other wheel on +which scoundrels have their bones broken." + +And my good master, mightily angry in his turn, shook his fist in the +direction where Mosaide had disappeared, and accused him of crucifying +children and devouring the flesh of new-born babes. + +M. d'Asterac went up to him and touched his breast with the ruby he used +to wear on his finger. + +"It is useful," said the great cabalist, "to know the peculiar qualities +of precious stones. Rubies soothe resentments, and you'll soon see the +Abbe Coignard regain his natural suavity." + +My dear tutor smiled already, less by virtue of the stone than by the +influence of a philosophy which raised this admirable man above all +human passions, for I feel it my duty to say, at the very moment my +narrative becomes clouded and sad, that M. Jerome Coignard has given +me examples of wisdom under circumstances in which it is but rarely met +with. + +We inquired the cause of the quarrel, but easily understood by the +vagueness of his embarrassed replies that he did not intend to satisfy +our curiosity. I surmised at once that Jahel was mixed up with it in +some way, when I heard with the gnashing of Mosaide's voice the grating +of locks and bolts, and later on the noise, in the lodge, of a violent +dispute between uncle and niece. When we tried again to bring my tutor +to some explanation, he said: + +"Hate for Christians is deeply rooted in every Jew's heart, and yonder +Mosaide is an execrable example of it. I fancy I discovered in his +horrible yelpings some parts of the imprecations the Amsterdam synagogue +vomited in the last century on a little Dutch Jew called Baruch or +Benedict, but better known under the name of Spinoza, for having framed +a philosophy which has been perfectly refuted, as soon as it was brought +to public knowledge, by excellent theologians. But this old Mordecai +has added to it, so it seems to me, many and much more horrible +imprecations, and I confess to having somewhat resented them. For a +moment I thought of escaping by flight this torrent of abuse, when to my +dismay I found myself entangled in yonder thorn, and sticking to it by +different parts of my clothes and skin so fast that I really expected to +have to leave the one or the other behind me. I should still be there, +in smarting agony, if Tournebroche, my dear pupil, had not freed me." + +"The thorns count for nothing," said M. d'Asterac, "but I'm afraid, +Monsieur l'Abbe, that you have trodden on a mandrake." + +"Mandrakes," replied the abbe, "are certainly the least of my cares." + +"You're wrong," said M. d'Asterac. "It suffices to tread on a mandrake +to become involved in a love crime, and perish by it miserably." + +"Ah! sir," my dear tutor replied, "here are all sorts of dangers, and +I become aware that it was necessary to be closely shut in between the +eloquent walls of the 'Asteracian,' which is the queen of libraries. For +having left it for a moment only, I get the beasts of Ezekiel thrown at +my head, not to speak of anything else." + +"Would you kindly give me news of Zosimus the Panopolitan?" inquired M. +d'Asterac. + +"He goes on," replied my master; "goes on nicely, though slowly at the +moment." + +"Do not forget, abbe," said the cabalist, "that possession of the +greatest secrets is attached to the knowledge of those ancient texts." + +"I think of it, sir, with solicitude," said the abbe. + +M. d'Asterac, after this assurance, left us standing at the statue of +the faun, who continued to play the flute without taking any notice +of his head, fallen into the grass. He disappeared rapidly between the +trees, looking for Salamanders. + +My tutor linked his arm in mine with the air of one who can at last +speak freely. + +"Jacques Tournebroche, my son, I must not conceal from you that this +very morning, in the attics of the castle, a rather peculiar chance +meeting has taken place, while you were kept in the room of yonder mad +fire-blower. I plainly heard him ask you to assist him for a moment in +his cooking, which is a great deal less savoury and Christian than that +of Master Leonard your father. Alas! when shall I be lucky enough to +see again the cookshop of the _Queen Pedauque_ and the bookshop of M. +Blaizot, with the sign of _Saint Catherine_, where I enjoyed myself so +heartily thumbing the books newly arrived from The Hague and Amsterdam!" + +"Alas!" I exclaimed, the tears coming into my eyes, "when shall I return +to it again? When shall I return to the Rue St Jacques again, where I +was born, and see my dear parents, who'll feel burning shame when they +hear of our misfortunes? But do be so good, my dear tutor, as to explain +that strange encounter you said you had this very morning, and also the +events of the day." + +M. Jerome Coignard willingly consented to give me all the enlightenment +I wished for. He did it in the following words: + +"Know then, my dear boy, that I reached the upper storey of the castle +without hindrance in company with M. d'Anquetil, whom I like well +enough, although rude and uncultured. His mind is possessed neither +of fine knowledge nor deep curiosity. But youth's vivacity sparkleth +pleasantly with him, and the ardour of his blood results in amusing +sallies. He knows the world as well as he knows women, because he is +above them, and without any kind of philosophy. It's a great frankness +on his part to call himself an atheist. His ungodliness is without +malice, and will disappear with the exuberance of his sensuality. In his +soul God has no other enemies than horses, cards and women. In the mind +of a real libertine, like M. Bayle for example, truth has to meet more +formidable and malicious adversaries. But, my dear boy, I give you a +character sketch instead of the plain narrative you wish to have of me. + +"I'll satisfy you. Let's see. Having arrived at the top storey of the +castle in company with M. d'Anquetil, I made the young gentleman enter +your room, and wished him, in accordance with the promise we made him +at the Triton fountain, to use the room as his own. He did so willingly, +undressed, and, keeping nothing on but his boots, went into your bed, +the curtains of which he closed so as not to be incommoded by the bright +morning light, and was not long before he was sound asleep. + +"As to myself, my dear boy, having reached my room, tired as I was, I +did not want to go to rest before I had looked up in my Boethius one or +two sentences appropriate to my state of mind. I could not find the very +one fit for it. It must not be forgotten that this great thinker had not +had occasion to meditate on the disgrace of having broken the head of +a Farmer-general with a bottle out of his own cellar. But I was able +to pick up here and there, in his admirable treatise, some maxims +applicable to present conjunctures. Having done so, I drew the night-cap +over my eyes, recommended my soul to God, and quietly went to sleep. +After what seemed to me, without being able to measure it, a very short +space of time--be mindful, my son, that our actions are the only measure +for time, which, if I may say so, is suspended for us by sleep--I felt +my arm pulled, and heard a voice shouting in my ear: 'Eh! Abbe! Eh! +Abbe, wake up!' Half dozing as I was, I believed it was a constable +wanting to conduct me to the officer, and I deliberated with myself the +easiest way in which I could break his head, and rapidly came to the +conclusion that the candlestick would be the handiest weapon. It is +unhappily, too true, my dear boy, that having once stepped aside from +the road of kindness and equity, where the wise man walks with a firm +and prudent step, one becomes compelled to sustain violence by violence +and cruelty by cruelty, thereby proving that a first fault leads +invariably to other faults--evil always follows evil done. One has to be +reminded of this if one wants to fully understand the lives of the Roman +emperors, of whom M. Crevier has given such an exact account. Those +princes were not born more evilly disposed than other men. Caius, +surnamed Caligula, was wanting neither in natural spirit nor in +judgment, and was quite capable of friendship. Nero had an inborn liking +for virtue, and his temperament disposed him towards all that is grand +and sublime. Both of them were led by a first fault on the nefarious, +villainous road whereon they walked to their miserable end. Their +history is cleverly treated in M. Crevier's book. I knew that remarkable +writer when he was a teacher of literature and history at the College of +Beauvais, as I might be teaching to-day, had my life not been crossed by +a thousand impediments, and if the natural easiness of my spirit had not +drawn me into the manifold snares laid in my way. M. Crevier, my boy, +led a pure life; his morals were severe, and I have myself heard him say +that a woman who had broken her conjugal vows was capable of the crimes +of murder and incendiarism. I repeat this saying of his, to impress you +with the saintly austerity of that model priest. + +"But, once more, I digress, and I must hasten to return to my narrative. +Well, as I have said, I thought a constable had come to arrest me, and +I could see myself in one of the archbishop's dungeons, when I opened +my eyes and recognised the features and voice of M. d'Anquetil. 'Abbe,' +said that young gentleman to me, 'I have just had a singular adventure +in Tournebroche's room. During my sleep a woman entered my room, glided +into my bed, and awoke me with a shower of caresses, tender epithets, +sweet murmurings, and passionate kisses. I pushed the curtains back to +see the features of my good luck. She was dark and had ardent eyes, one +of the finest women I have ever held in my arms. But all at once she +screamed and jumped out, violently angry, but not quick enough to +prevent me catching her in the passage and pressing her closely in my +arms. She began by striking me and scratching my face. After having +lacerated it sufficiently to satisfy her outraged womanly honour, we +began to explain ourselves. She was well pleased to learn that I am +a gentleman, and none of the poorest, and sooner than I might have +expected I ceased to be odious to her, and she began to be tender with +me, when a scullion appeared in the passage; his appearance put her to +flight at once. + +"'I am quite aware,' said M. d'Anquetil, 'that that admirable girl had +come for another than myself; she must have entered the wrong room, and +the surprise frightened her. I did my best to reassure her, and should +doubtless have won her amity had not that sot of a scullion come between +us.' + +"I confirmed him in that supposition. We put our heads together to get +an idea of the man for whom that beautiful woman had ventured on such +an early morning visit, and were easily agreed that it could be no other +but that old fool d'Asterac--you know, Tournebroche, I suspected him +before--who awaits her intimacy in an adjoining room, if not, and +without your knowledge, in your own. Are you not of the same opinion?" + +"Nothing is more credible," I replied. + +"No doubt it is so. That sorcerer amuses himself when he talks to us of +his Salamanders. The truth is, he caresses that amazingly pretty girl. +He's an impostor." + +I asked my tutor to favour me with the continuance of his narrative. He +willingly complied and said: + +"Well, my dear boy, I'll briefly report the remainder of M. d'Anquetil's +discourse. I know very well that it's rather commonplace, almost vulgar, +to lay much stress on trifling circumstances. It is, on the contrary, +some sort of duty to express them in the fewest possible words, to +condense them carefully and reserve the tempting abundance of word-flow +to moral instruction and exhortation, which may be hurled as the +avalanches are hurled from the mountains. On this principle I shall have +mentioned enough of M. d'Anquetil's sayings when I have told you that +he impressed on me that yonder young girl's beauty, charms, and +accomplishments are quite extraordinary. In the end he inquired of me +if I knew her name and position. And I replied to him that, from his +description of her, I was pretty sure that she was Rabbi Mosaide's niece +Jahel, whom by a lucky accident I had embraced one night on that very +same staircase, with this difference only, that my luck occurred between +the first and second flights of steps. 'I hope and trust,' said M. +d'Anquetil, 'that there may be other differences too, for, as far as I +am concerned, I embraced her very closely. I am also sorry that, as you +say, she is a Jewess, as, without believing in God, I feel that I should +have liked better for her to be a Christian. But can anyone be sure of +his own family? Who knows if she has not been kidnapped as a child? Jews +and gypsies steal children daily. And we do not, as a rule, remember +sufficiently that the Holy Virgin was born a Jewess. But let her be +Jewess or not, she pleases me; I want her and shall have her!' Such were +that reckless youngster's words. But allow me, my boy, to sit down on +yonder moss-covered stone; last night's work, my fights, my flight, too, +have nearly broken my legs." + +He sat down, took his snuff-box out of his pocket, and looked quite +disconsolate when he found it void of tobacco. + +I took a seat at his side, agitated, crestfallen. Coignard's discourse +caused me acute pain. I cursed Fate for having given my place to a brute +at the very moment when my beloved mistress had come to bring me her +most passionate tenderness, expecting to find me in my bed, the while +I had to throw logs of wood on the fire in the alchemist's furnace. The +but too probable inconstancy of Jahel tore my heart to pieces, and I +could have wished that my dear tutor had been more discreet with my +rival. So I took the liberty to reproach him mildly for his disclosure +of Jahel's name. + +"Sir," I said, "was it not somewhat imprudent to furnish such +indications to a gentleman so luxurious and violent as M. d'Anquetil?" + +M. Coignard seemed not to hear what I said, and continued his speech: + +"My snuff-box has unfortunately opened itself in my pocket during the +fight at Catherine's house, and the tobacco it contained, mixed with the +wine of the broken bottle, has formed a quite disgusting paste. I do +not dare ask Criton to grind down a few leaves for me; the hard and cold +features of that servant and judge inspire me with awe. I suffer from +the want of snuff, as my nose is irksome in consequence of the shock I +had last night, and I am quite disconcerted by my failure to satisfy +the never-tiring wants of that nose of mine. I shall have to bear the +misfortune quietly, till M. d'Anquetil may, perhaps, let me have a few +grains out of his box. Now to return to that young gentleman, he said +expressly to me: 'I love that girl. Know, abbe, that I am resolved to +take her with us in the post-chaise should I be compelled to stay here a +week, a month, six months or longer; I will not go away without her.' I +represented all the dangers to him, which might occur through any delay +in our departure. He said he did not care a rap for those dangers, +less so as they were smaller for him than for us. 'You, abbe, you and +Tournebroche are both in danger of being hanged; my risk is the Bastille +only, where I can get cards and girls, and whence my family could, and +would, soon deliver me, as my father would interest some duchess or +some ballet dancer in my doom, and my mother, devotee as she has become, +could and would still get the assistance of one or other of the royal +princes. It is irrevocably fixed; I take Jahel with me or I remain here. +You and Tournebroche are at liberty to hire a post-chaise of your own.' + +"The cruel boy knows but too well that we have not the means to do it. +I tried to make him change his mind. I became pressing, unctuous, +parental. It was no use, and I wasted on him an eloquence which, +employed in the pulpit of a parish church, would have brought me a full +reward in honour and coin. Alas! my dear boy, it seems to be written +that none of my actions will ever produce any kind of savoury fruit, +and for me ought to have been written the following words from +Ecclesiastes:--_'Quid habet am plius homo de universe labore suo, quo +laborat sub sole?_' Far from bringing him to reason, my discourses +strengthened the young nobleman's obstinacy, and I cannot deny that he +actually counted on me for the success of his desires, and pressed me to +go to Jahel and induce her to fly with him, promising her the gift of a +trousseau of Dutch linen, of plate, jewels and a handsome annuity." + +"Oh, sir!" I exclaimed, "this M. d'Anquetil is very insolent. What do +you think will be Jahel's reply to his propositions when she knows of +them?" + +"My boy, she knows by now, and I think she will accept them." + +"If such is the case," I said, "then Mosaide must be warned." + +"That he is already," replied my tutor. "You have just assisted at the +outbreak of his rage." + +"What, sir?" said I, with much warmth, "you have informed yonder Jew +of the disgrace awaiting his family! That's nice of you! Allow me to +embrace you. But, if so, Mosaide's wrath threatened M. d'Anquetil, and +not yourself?" + +The abbe replied with an air of nobility and honesty, with a natural +indulgence for human weaknesses, an obliging sweetness, and the +imprudent kindness of an easy heart--by all of which men are often +induced to do inconsiderate things and expose themselves to the severity +of the futile judgments of mankind: + +"I will not keep it a secret from you, my dear Tournebroche, that, +giving way to the pressing solicitations of that young gentleman, I +obligingly promised to go on his errand to Jahel and to neglect nothing +to induce her to elope with him." + +"Alas!" I exclaimed, "you did, sir. I cannot fully tell how deeply your +action wounds and affects me." + +"Tournebroche," replied he sternly, "you speak like a Pharisee. One of +the fathers, as amiable as he was austere, has said: 'Turn your eyes on +yourself and take care not to judge the doings of others. Judging others +is an idle labour; usually one is erring, often sinning, by so doing, +but by examining and judging oneself your labour will always be +fruit-bearing.' It is written, 'Thou shalt not be afraid of the judgment +of men,' and the Apostle Paul said that he did not trouble himself about +being judged by men. If I refer to some of the finest texts in morals it +is to enlighten you, Tournebroche, to make you return to the humble and +sweet modesty which suits you, and not to defend my innocence, when +the multitude of my iniquities weighs on me and bears me down. It is +difficult not to glide into sin, and proper not to fall into despondency +at every step one takes on this earth, whereon everything participates, +at one and the same time, in the original curse, and the redemption +effected by the blood of the Son of God. I do not want to colour my +faults, and I freely confess that the embassy I undertook at the request +of M. d'Anquetil is an outcome of Eve's downfall, and it was, to say it +bluntly, one of the numberless consequences, on the wrong side, of the +humble and painful sentiment which I now feel, and is drawn out of the +desire and hope of my eternal welfare. You have to represent to yourself +mankind balancing between damnation and redemption to understand me +truly when I say that at the present hour I am sitting on the good end +of the seesaw after having been this very morning on the wrong end. +I freely avow that in passing through the mandrake lane, from whence +Mosaide's cottage is to be seen, I hid behind an ivy-thorn bush, waiting +for Jahel to appear at her window. Very soon she came. I showed myself, +and beckoned her to come down. She came as soon as she was able to +escape her uncle's vigilance. I gave her a brief report of the events of +the night, of which she had not known. I informed her of M. d'Anquetil's +impetuous plans, and represented to her how important it was for her own +interest, and for my and your safety, to make our escape sure by coming +with us. I made the young nobleman's promises glitter before her eyes +and said to her: 'If you consent to go with him to-night you'll have +a solid annuity, inscribed at the Hotel de Ville, and an outfit richer +than any ballet dancer or Abbess of Panthemont may get, and a cupboard +full of the finest silver.' 'He thinks me to be one of those creatures," +she said; 'he is an impudent fellow.' 'He loves you,' I replied; 'you +could not expect to be venerated?' 'I must have an olio pot,' she said, +'an olio pot, and the heaviest one. Did he mention the olio pot? Go, +Monsieur Abbe, and tell him.' 'What shall I tell him?' 'That I am an +honest girl.' 'And what else?' 'That he is very audacious!' 'Is that +all, Jahel? Think on our safety!' 'Tell him that I shall not depart +before he has given me his legally worded written promise for +everything.' 'He'll do it, consider it as done. 'Oh, monsieur, I will +not consent to anything if he does not consent to have lessons given me +by M. Couperin; I want to study music. + +"We had just reached this item of our negotiations when, unhappily, +Mosaide surprised us, and without having overheard our conversation got +the scent of its meaning. + +"He called me at once a suborner, and heaped outrageous insults on me. +Jahel went and hid herself in her own room, and I remained alone exposed +to the fury of that God-killer, in the state you found me, and out +of which you helped me, you dear boy! As a fact, I may say that the +business had been concluded, the elopement assented to, our flight +assured. The wheels and Ezekiel's beasts are of no value against a +heavy silver olio pot. I am only afraid that yonder old Mordecai has +imprisoned his niece too securely." + +"I must avow," I replied, without disguising my satisfaction, "that I +heard a loud noise of keys and bolts at the very moment I freed you from +the midst of the thorns. But is it really true, that Jahel agreed so +quickly to your propositions, which have not been quite decorous, and +which, for certain, you did not make with an easy heart? I am abashed; +and, say, my good master, did she not speak of me, not mention my name, +with a sigh or otherwise?" + +"No, my boy, she did not pronounce your name, at least not in an audible +way. Neither did I hear her mention the name of M. d'Asterac her lover, +which ought to have been nearer to her feelings than yours. But do not +be surprised by her forgetting the alchemist. It is not sufficient to +possess a woman to impress on her soul a profound and durable mark. +Souls are almost impenetrable, a fact showing the cruel emptiness +of love. The wise man ought to say to himself, I am nothing in the +nothingness which that creature is. To hope that you could leave a +remembrance in a woman's heart is equivalent to trying to impress a seal +on running water. And therefore let us never nurse the wish to establish +ourselves in what is fleeting and let us attach ourselves to that which +never dies." + +"After all," I said, "Jahel is locked and bolted up, and one may rely on +the vigilance of her guardian." + +"My son, this very evening she has to join us at the _Red Horse_. +Twilight is favourable to evasions, abductions, stealthy movements and +underhand actions. We have to trust to the cunning of that girl. As to +you, be sure to attend at the Circus of the Bergeres in the dusk. You +know M. d'Anquetil is not patient, and it quite the man to start without +you." + +When he gave me this counsel, the luncheon bell sounded. + +"Have you by chance," he said to me, "a needle and thread? My garments +are torn at more than one place, and I should like to repair them as +much as possible before going to luncheon. Especially my breeches do not +leave me without some apprehension. They are so much torn that, should I +not promptly mend them, I run the risk of losing them altogether." + + + + +CHAPTER XIX + +Our last Dinner at M. d'Asterac's Table--Conversation of M. Jerome +Coignard and M. d'Asterac--A Message from Home--Catherine in the +Spittel--We are wanted for Murder--Our Flight--Jahel causes me much +Misery--Account of the Journey--The Abbe Coignard on Towns--Jahel's +Midnight Visit--We are followed--The Accident--M. Jerome Coignard is +stabbed. + + +I took my accustomed place that day at the dining-table of the cabalist, +oppressed by the idea that I sat down at it for the last time. Jahel's +treachery had saddened my soul. Alas! thought I, my most fervent wish +had been to fly with her, a wish which looked like being granted, and +was now fulfilled in a very cruel manner. Again and again I admired my +beloved tutor's wisdom who, on a day when I desired too vivaciously +the success of some affair, answered with the following citation: _"Et +tributt eis petitionem eorum."_ My sorrows and anxieties spoilt my +appetite, and I partook sparingly of the dishes served. However, my dear +tutor had preserved the unalterable gracefulness of his soul. + +He abounded in amiable discourse, and one might have said that he was +one of those sages which Telemachus shows us conversing in the shades of +the Elysian Fields, and not a man pursued as a murderer and reduced to a +roving and miserable life. M. d'Asterac, believing that I had passed +the night at the cookshop, kindly inquired after my parents, and, as he +could not abstract himself for a single moment from his visions, said: + +"When I speak of that cook as being your father it is quite understood +that I express myself in a worldly sense, and not according to nature. +Nothing proves, my son, that you have not been begot by a Sylph. It +is the very thing I prefer to believe, in so far as your spirit, still +delicate, shall grow in strength and beauty." + +"Oh, sir! don't speak like that," replied my tutor, and smiled. "You +oblige him to hide his spirit so as not to damage his mother's good +name. But if you knew her better you could not but think with me that +she never had any intercourse with a Sylph; she is a good Christian who +has never accomplished the work of the flesh with any other man than her +husband, and who carries her virtue written distinctly on her features, +very different from the mistress of that other cookshop, Madame Quonion, +about whom they talked so much in Paris, as well as in the provinces, in +the days of my youth. Have you never heard of her, sir? Her lover was M. +Mariette, who later on became secretary to M. d'Angervilliers. He was a +stout man, who left a jewel every time he visited his beloved; one day a +Cross of Lorraine or a Holy Ghost; another day a watch or a chatelaine, +or perhaps a handkerchief, a fan, a box. For her sake he rifled the +jewellers and seamstresses of the fair of St Germain. He gave her so +much that, finding his shop decorated like a shrine, the master-cook +became suspicious that all that wealth could not have been honestly +acquired. He watched her, and very soon surprised her with her lover. It +must be said that the husband was but a jealous fellow. He flew into +a temper, and gained nothing by it, but very much the reverse. For the +amorous couple, plagued by his wrangling, swore to get rid of him. M. +Mariette had no little influence. He got a _lettre de cachet_ in the +name of that unhappy Quonion. On a certain day the perfidious woman said +to her husband: + +"Take me, I beg of you, on Sunday next out to dinner somewhere in the +country. I promise myself uncommon pleasure from such an excursion." + +She became caressing and pressing, and the husband, flattered, agreed +to all her demands. On the Sunday, he got with her into a paltry hackney +coach to go to Porcherons. But they had hardly got to Roule when a posse +of constables placed in readiness by Marietta arrested him, and took him +to Bicetre, from whence he was sent to the Mississippi, where he still +remains. Someone composed a song which finished thus: + + 'Un mari sage et commode + N'ouvre les yeux qu'a demi + Il vaut mieux etre a la mode, + Que de voir Mississippi.' + +And such is, doubtless, the most solid lesson to be derived from the +example given by Quonion the cook. + +"As to the story itself, it only needs to be narrated by a Petronius +or by an Apuleius to equal the best Milesian fables. The moderns are +inferior to the ancients in epic poetry and tragedy. But if we do not +surpass the Greeks and Latins in story-telling it is net the fault of +the ladies of Paris, who never cease enriching the material for tales +by their ingenious and graceful inventions. You certainly know, sir, the +stories of Boccaccio. I am sure that had that Florentine lived in +our days in France he would make of Quonion's misfortune one of his +pleasantest tales. As far as I am myself concerned I have been reminded +of it at this table for the sole purpose, and by the effect of contrast, +to make the virtue of Madame Leonard Tournebroche shine. She is the +honour of cookshops, of which Madame Quonion is the disgrace. Madame +Tournebroche, I dare affirm it, has never abandoned those ordinary +commonplace virtues the practice of which is recommended in marriage, +which is the only contemptible one of the seven sacraments." + +"I do not deny it," said M. d'Asterac. "But Mistress Tournebroche would +be still more estimable if she should have had intercourse with a +Sylph, as Semiramis had and Olympias and the mother of that grand pope +Sylvester II." + +"Ah, sir," said the Abbe Coignard, "you are always talking to us of +Sylphs and Salamanders. Now, in simple good faith, have you ever seen +any of them?" + +"As clearly as I see you this very moment," replied M. d'Asterac, "and +certainly closer, at least as far as Salamanders are concerned." + +"That is not sufficient, my dear sir, to make me believe in their +existence, which is against the teachings of the Church. For one may be +seduced by illusions. The eyes, and all our senses, are messengers of +error and couriers of lies. They delude us more than they teach us, and +bring us but uncertain and fugitive images. Truth escapes them, because +truth is eternal, and invisible like eternity." + +"Ah!" said M. d'Asterac, "I did not know you were so philosophical, nor +of so subtle a mind." + +"That's true," replied my good master. "There are days on which my soul +is heavier, and with preference attached to bed and table. But last +night I broke a bottle on the head of an extortioner, and my mind is +very much exalted over it. I feel myself capable of dissipating the +phantoms which are haunting you, and to blow off all that mist. For +after all, sir, these Sylphs are but vapours of your brain." + +M. d'Asterac stopped him with a kind gesture and said: + +"I beg your pardon, abbe; do you believe in demons?" + +"Without difficulty I can reply," said my good master, "that I believe +of demons all that is reported of them in the Scriptures, and that I +reject as error and superstition all and every belief in spells, charms +and exorcism. Saint Augustine teaches that when the Scriptures exhort +us to resist the demons, it requires us to resist our passions and +intemperate appetites. Nothing is more detestable than the deviltries +wherewith the Capuchins frighten old women." + +"I see," said M. d'Asterac, "you do your best to think as an honest man. +You hate as much as I do myself the coarse superstitions of the monks. +But, after all, you do believe in demons, and I have not had much +trouble to make you avow it. Know, then, that they are no other than +Sylphs and Salamanders, ignorance and fear have disfigured them in timid +imaginations. But, as a fact, they are beautiful and virtuous. I will +not lead you in the ways of the Salamanders, as I am not quite sure +of the purity of your morals; but I can see no impediment, abbe, to +a frequentation of the Sylphs, who inhabit the fields of air, and +voluntarily approach man in a spirit of friendliness and affection, so +that they have been rightly named helping genii. Far from driving us to +perdition, as the theologians believe, who change them into devils, +they protect and safeguard their terrestrial friends. I could make you +acquainted with numberless examples of the help they give. But to be +short I'll repeat to you one single case which was told to me by Madame +la Marechale de Grancey herself. She was middle-aged, and a widow for +several years, when, one night, in her bed, she received the visit of a +Sylph, who said to her: 'Madame, have a search made in the wardrobe of +your deceased husband. In the pocket of a pair of his breeches a letter +will be found, which, if it became known, would ruin M. des Roches, my +good friend and yours. Find that letter and burn it.' + +"The marechale promised not to neglect this recommendation and inquired +after news of the defunct marechal from the Sylph, who, however, +disappeared without giving any reply. On waking she summoned her women, +and bade them look if some of the late marechal's garments remained in +his wardrobe. The attendants reported that nothing was left, and that +the lackeys had sold them all to old clothes dealers. Madame de Grancey +insisted on her women trying to find at least one pair of breeches. + +"Having searched in every corner they finally discovered a very +old-fashioned pair of black satin, embroidered with carnations, and +handed them to their mistress, who found a letter in one of the pockets, +which contained more than would have been needed to incarcerate M. des +Roches in one of the state prisons. She burned the letter at once, +and so that gentleman was saved by his good friends the Sylph and the +marechale. + +"Are such, I ask you, abbe, the manners of demons? But let me give you +another startling hit on the matter, which will impress you more, and +will I am sure go to the heart of a learned man such as yourself. It is +doubtless known to you that the Academy of Dijon is rich in wits. One of +them, whose name cannot be unknown to you, living in the last century, +prepared with great labour an edition of Pindar. One night, worrying +over five verses the sense of which he could not disentangle, so much +was the text corrupt, he dozed off, quite despairing, at cockcrow. +During his sleep, a Sylph, who wished him well, transported his spirit +to Stockholm into the palace of Queen Christina, conducted him to the +library, and took from one of the shelves a manuscript of Pindar's +showing him the difficult passage. The five verses were there, as well +as two or three annotations which rendered them perfectly intelligible. + +"In the violence of his contentment, our savant woke up, struck a light, +and pencilled down the verses as they appeared to him in his sleep. +After that he went to sleep again profoundly. On the following morning, +thinking over his night's adventure, he at once resolved to try to get +a confirmation. M. Descartes happened at that very time to be in Sweden, +reading to the queen on philosophy. Our Pindarist knew him, but was on +still closer terms with M. Chanut, the Swedish ambassador in France. He +wrote requesting him to forward a letter to M. Descartes, in which he +asked him to be informed if there really was in the queen's library at +Stockholm a manuscript of Pindar containing the version he mentioned. +M. Descartes, an extremely courteous man, replied to the academician of +Dijon that, as a fact, her Majesty possessed a manuscript of Pindar, +and that he had himself read there the verses, with the various readings +contained in the letter." + +M. d'Asterac, who had been peeling an apple during his narration, looked +at M. Coignard to enjoy the success of his discourse. + +My dear tutor smiled and said: + +"Ah, sir! I clearly see that I flattered myself with an idle hope, and +that one cannot make you give up your vain imaginations. I confess +with a good grace that you have shown us an ingenious Sylph, and that +I actually wish for such an obliging secretary. His assistance would +be particularly useful to me on two or three passages in Zosimus the +Panopolitan which are very obscure. Could you not be so good as to give +me the means to evoke, if necessary, some Sylph librarian as expert as +that of Dijon?" + +M. d'Asterac replied gravely: + +"That's a secret, abbe, that I will willingly unveil to you. But be +warned that you would be a lost man should you communicate it to a +profane person." + +"Don't be uneasy," said the abbe. "I have a strong desire to know so +fine a secret, but I will not conceal from you that I do not expect +any effect from it, as I do not believe in Sylphs. Instruct me, if you +please." + +"You request me?" replied the cabalist. "Well, then, know that whenever +you want the assistance of a Sylph, you have but to pronounce the simple +word _Agla_, and the sons of the air will at once come to you. But +understand, M. Abbe, that the word must be spoken by the heart as well +as by the lips, and that faith alone gives it its virtue. Without faith +it is nothing but a useless murmur. Pronounce it as I do at this moment, +putting in it neither soul nor wish, it has, even in my own mouth, but +a very slight power, and at the utmost some of the children of light, +if they have heard it, glide into this room, the light shadows of light. +I've divined rather than seen them on yonder curtain, and they have +vanished when hardly visible. Neither you nor your pupil has suspected +their presence. But had I pronounced that magic word with real fervour +you would have seen them appear in all their splendour. They are of a +charming beauty. Now, sir, I have entrusted you with a grand and useful +secret. Let me say again, do not divulge it imprudently. And do not +sneer at the example of the Abbe de Villars, who, for having revealed +their secrets, was murdered by the Sylphs, on the road to Lyons." + +"On the Lyons road?" said my good tutor. "How strange!" + +M. d'Asterac left us suddenly. + +"I will now for the last time," said the abbe, "visit that noble library +where I have enjoyed such austere pleasures and which I shall never see +again. Do not fail, Tournebroche, to be at nightfall at the Bergeres +Circus." + +I promised to be there; it was my intention to lock myself in my room +for the purpose of writing to M. d'Asterac, and my dear parents, asking +them to kindly excuse me for not taking personal leave of them, as I had +to fly after an adventure wherein I was more unlucky than guilty. + +When I reached the door of my room, I heard heavy snoring from within. +Peeping in I saw M. d'Anquetil in my bed, sleeping, his sword at the +bedside, playing cards strewn all over the quilt. For a moment I felt +tempted to run him through with his own sword, but the temptation did +not last, and I left him sleeping. Notwithstanding my grief I could not +help laughing when I thought that Jahel, being locked and bolted in by +Mosaide, could not rejoin him. + +So I went to my tutor's room, to write my letters, where I disturbed +five or six rats, who had begun to make a meal off his Boethius, +which had remained on the night table. I wrote to my mother and to M. +d'Asterac, and I composed the most touching epistle to Jahel. My tears +fell on this when I read it over for a second time. "Perhaps," I said +to myself, "the faithless girl will cry too, and her tears will mix with +mine." + +Then, overwhelmed as I was by fatigue and sorrow, I threw myself on my +tutor's bed, and soon went off into a kind of semi-sleep, troubled by +dreams, erotic and sinister. I was awakened by the taciturn Criton, who +had entered the room and presented to me, on a silver salver, a sort +of curling paper, whereon a few badly written words were scribbled in +pencil. Someone expected me at once outside the castle. The note was +signed "Friar Ange, unworthy Capuchin." I went as quickly as I could, +and found the little friar seated on the bank of a ditch in a state of +pitiable dejection. Wanting strength to get up, he looked at me with +his big dog's eyes, nearly human and full of tears; his sighs moved his +beard and chest. In a tone which really pained me he said: + +"Alas! Monsieur Jacques, the hour of trial has come to Babylon, as it +is said in the prophets. At the request of M. de la Gueritude, the +Lieutenant of Police had Mam'selle Catherine taken by the constables to +the spittel, from whence she'll be sent to America by the next convoy. +I was informed of it by Jeannette the hurdy-gurdy player, who saw +Catherine brought in a cart to the spittel, as she left it herself after +having been cured of an evil ailment by the surgeon's art--at least I +hope so, please God! And Catherine is to be transported, and no reprieve +to be expected." + +And Friar Ange at this point in his discourse groaned and shed tears +abundantly. After doing my best to console him I asked if he had nothing +else to tell me. + +"Alas! M. Jacques," he replied. "I have intimated the essential, and +the remainder floats in my head like the Spirit of God on the waters, +without comparison if you please. The matter is dark altogether. +Catherine's misfortune has taken away my senses. It needed the necessity +of giving you important news to bring me to the threshold of this cursed +house, where you live in company with all sorts of devils, and it was +with dismay, and after having recited the prayer of Saint Francis, that +I ventured to knock at the door for the purpose of handing to a lackey +the note I wrote to you. I do not know if you have been able to read it, +as I have but little practice in forming letters, and the paper was not +of the best to write on, but you see it is the honour of our holy order +not to give way to the vanities of our century! Ah! Catherine at the +spittel! Catherine in America! Is it not enough to break the hardest +heart? Jeannette herself wept abundantly, and did so in spite of her +jealousy of Catherine, who prevails over her in youth and beauty just as +Saint Francis surpasses in holiness all the other blessed ones. Ah, M. +Jacques! Catherine in America! Such are the strange ways of Providence. +Alas! our holy religion is true, and King David was right in saying that +we are like the grass of the field--is not Catherine at the spittel? The +stones on which I am sitting are happier man I, notwithstanding that I +wear the signs of a Christian and a monk. Catherine at the spittel!" + +He sobbed again. I waited till the torrent of his sorrow had passed +away, and then asked him if he had any news of my parents. + +"M. Jacques," he replied, "'tis they who have sent me to you, bearer +of a pressing message. I must tell you that they are not very happy, +through the fault of Master Leonard, your father, who passes in drinking +and gambling all the days God has given him. And savoury fumes of +roasting geese and fowls do not now arise to the signboard of _Queen +Pedauque_ swinging sadly in the damp wind which rusts it. Where are the +times when the smell of your father's cookshop perfumed the Rue Saint +Jacques, from the _Little Bacchus_ to the _Three Maids_? Since yonder +sorcerer visited it, everything wastes away, beasts and men, in +consequence of the spell he has thrown on it. And vengeance divine is +manifest there since that fat Abbe Coignard made his entry, and I was +cast out. It was the beginning of the evil, inaugurated by M. Coignard, +who prides himself on the depths of his knowledge, and the distinction +of his manners. Pride is the spring of all evil. Your pious mother was +very wrong, M. Jacques, not to have been satisfied with such teaching as +I charitably gave you, and which would have made you fit to superintend +the cooking, to manage the larding, and to carry the banner of the guild +after the demise, the funeral service and the obsequies of your worthy +father, which cannot be very far off, as all life is transitory and he +drinks to excess." + +It may be easily understood how sorely I was afflicted by this news. My +tears and those of Friar Ange mixed freely together. However, I inquired +after my mother. + +Friar Ange replied: + +"God, who afflicted Rachel in Rama, has sent to your mother, Monsieur +Jacques, sundry tribulations for her good, and to chastise Master +Leonard for the sin he committed by maliciously expelling, in my humble +person, our Lord Jesus Christ from his cookshop. He has transferred most +of the purchasers of poultry and pies to the daughter of Madame Quonion, +who turns the spit at the other end of the Rue Saint Jacques. Your +mother sees with sorrow that the other house is blessed at the cost +of her own, and that her shop is now deserted to such a degree that, +figuratively speaking, moss covers its threshold. She is sustained in +her trials, firstly, by her devotion to Saint Francis; secondly, by the +consideration of the progress of your worldly position, which enables +you to wear a sword like a man of condition. + +"But this second consolation has been much shaken by the constables +calling this very morning at the cookshop to take you into custody, and +carry you to the Bicetre Prison, to break stones for a year or two. It +was Catherine who denounced you to M. de la Gueritude, but you must +not blame her for it; she did her duty as a Christian by confessing the +truth. She accused you and the Abbe Coignard of being M. d'Anquetil's +accomplices, and gave a faithful account of all the murder and bloodshed +perpetrated in the course of that terrible night. Alas! her truthfulness +was of no use; she was carried to the spittel. It's downright horrible +to think of it." + +At this point of his story, the little friar covered his face with his +hands and sobbed and cried anew. + +Night had come, and I was afraid to fail in my appointment. Pulling the +little friar out of the ditch, I put him on his feet, and wished him to +keep me company on my walk along the Saint Germain road to the Circus of +the Bergeres. He obeyed me willingly. Sadly walking by my side, he asked +my assistance in disentangling the mixed-up threads of his thoughts. +I put him back to where the constables came to search for me at the +cookshop. + +"As they could not find you," he continued, "they wanted to take your +father. Master Leonard pretended he did not know where you were hidden. +Your mother said the same, and took her sacred oath on it. May God +forgive her, Monsieur Jacques, as evidently she perjured herself. The +constables began to get cross. Your father reasoned well with them, +and took them to have a drink with him, after which they parted quite +friendly. Meanwhile your mother went after me to the _Three Maids_, +where I was soliciting alms according to the holy rules of my order. She +sent me to you to warn you that immediate flight is your only safety, as +the Lieutenant of Police would soon discover your retreat." + +Listening to this sad news, I walked with a quicker step, and we passed +the bridge of Neuilly. + +On the rather steep hill leading to the circus, the elms of which soon +became visible, the little friar said with a dying voice: + +"Your mother particularly asked me to warn you of the danger you are in, +and handed to me a little bag she had secreted under her dress. I cannot +find it," he added, after having felt all over his body. "How do you +expect me to find anything after losing Catherine? She was devoted to +Saint Francis, and lavish of alms, and now they have treated her like +a harlot, and will shave her head; it's heartbreaking to think that +she will look like a milliner's doll, and be shipped in that state to +America, where she runs the risk of dying by fever and being eaten by +cannibal savages." + +When he ended this discourse with a sigh we had reached the circus. To +the left, the inn of the _Red Horse_ showed its roof over a double row +of elms, its dormer windows with their pulleys, while under the foliage +the gateway was to be seen wide open. + +I slackened my walk, and the little friar sat down on the roots of a +tree. + +"Friar Ange," I said to him, "you mentioned a satchel my dear mother +handed you for me." + +"Quite right; she wished me so to do," replied the little Capuchin, "and +I have put it somewhere so safely that I cannot remember where, and you +ought to know, Monsieur Jacques, that I could not have lost it for any +other reason but from too much carefulness." + +I rather sharply said that I did not believe he had lost the satchel, +and should he not find it at once I would search for it myself. + +He understood and, sighing deeply, brought out from under his frock a +little bag made of coloured calico, and handed it to me. It contained a +crown piece and a medal with the effigy of the Black Virgin of Chartres, +which I kissed fervently, shedding tears of tenderness and repentance. +The little friar took out of his large pockets a parcel of coloured +prints and prayers, badly illuminated, made a rapid selection, and +gave me two or three of them, those he considered the most useful to +pilgrims, travellers, and all wandering people, saying: + +"They are blessed and of good effect against danger of death and +sickness. You have only to recite the text printed on them, or to lay +them on the skin of your body, I give them to you, M. Jacques, for the +love of God. Do not forget to give me an alms. Keep in mind that I beg +in the name of Saint Francis. He'll protect you, without fail, if you +assist the most unworthy of his sons, and that is precisely myself." + +Listening to his speech, I saw in the doubtful twilight a post-chaise +and four come out of the gateway of the _Red Horse_ inn, heard the whips +cracking and the horses pawing the ground when the driver stopped on +the highroad, close to the tree on the roots of which Friar Ange was +sitting. It was not an ordinary post-chaise, but a very large, clumsy +vehicle, having room to seat four, and a small coupe in front. I looked +at it for a minute or two, when up the hill came M. d'Anquetil, with +Jahel, carrying several parcels under her cloak and wearing a mob-cap. +M. Coignard followed them, loaded with five or six books wrapped up in +an old thesis. When they reached the carriage the post boys lowered +the carriage steps, and my beautiful mistress, raising her skirt like +a balloon, ascended into the carriage, pushed from behind by M. +d'Anquetil. + +I ran towards them and shouted: + +"Stop, Jahel! Stop, sir!" + +But the seducer only pushed the perfidious girl the more, and her +charming rounded figure quickly disappeared. Preparing himself to climb +after her, one foot on the steps, he looked at me with surprise. + +"Oh! Monsieur Tournebroche! You would then take from me all my +mistresses! Jahel after Catherine. Do you do it for a wager?" + +But I did not hear what he said, and continued to call Jahel, the while +Friar Ange, having risen from his seat under the elm-tree, came up to +the carriage door, and offered to M. d'Anquetil pictures of Saint Roch, +a prayer to be recited during the shoeing of a horse, another against +fever, and asked him for charity with a mournful voice. + +I should have stopped there the whole of the night, calling Jahel, if +my good tutor had not got hold of me and pushed me inside the large +compartment of the carriage, which he entered after me. + +"Let them have the _coupe_ by themselves," he said to me, "and let +us travel in the large compartment. I have been looking for you, +Tournebroche, and, not to withhold anything from you, had quite made up +my mind to depart without you when, happily, I discovered you in company +with the Capuchin under yonder elm-tree. We could not delay any longer, +as M. de la Gueritude has given sharp orders to look everywhere for us. +He has a long arm, having lent money to the king." + +The carriage was moving on, but Friar Ange clung to the door, with hand +outstretched, begging pitifully. + +I sank into the cushions. + +"Alas, sir," I exclaimed, "did you not tell me that Jahel was locked in +threefold?" + +"My son," replied my good master, "not too much confidence may be placed +in women, who always play their tricks on the jealous and their locks. +If the door is closed, they jump out of the window. You have no idea, my +dear Tournebroche, of the cunning of women. The ancients have reported +admirable examples of it, and many a one you'll find in Apuleius, +where they are sprinkled like salt in the 'Metamorphoses.' But the best +example is given in an Arabian tale recently brought to Europe by M. +Galand, and which I will tell you. + +"Schariar, Sultan of Tartary, and his brother, Schahzenan, walked one +day on the seashore, when they saw rise suddenly above the waves a black +column, moving towards the shore. They recognised it as a genie of the +most ferocious kind, in the form of an immensely tall giant, carrying on +his head a glass case locked with four iron locks. Both were seized +with dismay, so much so that they hid themselves in the fork of a tree +standing near. The genie however came on shore, and brought the glass +case to the tree where the two princes were hiding. Then he lay down +and soon went to sleep. His outstretched legs reached the sea, and his +breathing shook earth and heaven. During his terrifying repose the cover +of the glass case rose by itself, and out of it came a woman with a +majestic body and of the most perfect beauty. She raised her head--" + +Here I interrupted his narrative, which I had hardly-listened to, and +exclaimed: + +"Ah! sir, what do you think Jahel and M. d'Anquetil are saying at this +moment, all by themselves in the _coupe_?' + +"I don't know," replied my dear tutor: "it's their business, not ours. +But let me finish the Arabian tale, which is full of sense. You've +interrupted me inconsiderately, Tournebroche, at the very moment when +the damsel, looking up, discovered the two princes in the tree. She made +them a sign to come down; but desirous as they were to respond to the +appeal of a person of so much beauty, they were afraid to approach so +terrible a giant. Seeing that they hesitated she said to them in an +undertone: 'Come down at once, or I wake up the genie.' Her resolute and +resolved countenance made them understand that it was not a vain threat, +and that the safest, as also the most pleasant, thing to do was to go +down without delay, which they did as quietly as possible, so as not to +wake the giant. The lady, taking their hands, led them somewhat farther +away under the trees, and gave them to understand very clearly that she +was ready at once to give herself to both. Gracefully they accepted +the beauty's offer, and as they were men of courage, fear did not spoil +their enjoyment. Having obtained from both what she had wished for, +and seeing that each of the two princes wore a ring, she asked them for +their rings. Returning to the glass case where she lived, she took out +of it a chaplet of rings, and showed it to the princes. + +"Do you know what is the meaning of this chaplet of rings? They are +those of all the men for whom I have had the same kindness as for you. +Their number, all told, is ninety-eight. I keep them as souvenirs, for +that same reason, and to complete the century I have asked for yours. +And now to-day I have had a full hundred lovers, in spite of the +vigilance and care of yonder giant, who never leaves me. He may lock me +in the glass case as much as he likes, and hide me in the depths of the +sea. I deceive him as often as I please." + +"That ingenious apologue," added my good tutor, "shows you that the +women of the Orient, who are shut up and cloistered, are as cunning as +their sisters of the Occident, who are free of their movements. Whenever +a woman wants something there is no husband, lover, father, uncle, or +tutor able to prevent her carrying out her will. And therefore, my dear +boy, you ought not to be surprised that to deceive that old Mordecai was +but child's play for Jahel, whose perverse spirit is made up of all the +cuteness of our she-geldings and the perfidy of the Orient. I guess her +to be as ardent in sensual pleasure, as greedy after gold and silver; +altogether a worthy descendant of the race of Aholah and Aholibah. + +"She is of an acid and mordant beauty, and I do not deny that somehow +she excites me, although age, sublime meditations, and the miseries +of an agitated life have sufficiently mortified in me the lust of the +flesh. You're suffering over the success of M. d'Anquetil's adventure +with her, wherefore I reckon that you feel much more than I do the sharp +tooth of desire, and that jealousy is tearing you. And that's the reason +you blame an action, irregular certainly, contrary to vulgar propriety, +but withal indifferent in character, or at least not adding much to the +universal evil. Inwardly you condemn me for having had a part in it, and +you fancy you defend the principle of chaste living when you do nothing +except from the prompting of your passions. Such is the way, my dear +boy, that we colour for the use of our own eyes our worst instincts. +Human morals have no other origin. Confess, however, that it would have +been a pity to leave such a fine girl for a single day longer with that +old lunatic. Acknowledge that M. d'Anquetil, young and handsome, is a +better mate for such a delicious creature, and resign yourself to accept +what cannot be altered. Such wisdom is difficult to practise; but it +would have been more difficult still, had your own mistress been taken +from you. In such a case you'd feel the iron teeth torture your flesh, +filling your soul with images odious and precise. This consideration, +my boy, ought to ease your present sufferings. Besides, life is full +of labour and pain. It is this which evokes in us the just hope of an +eternal beatitude." + +Thus spoke my good tutor, while the elms of the king's highway passed +quickly before our eyes. I did not let him know that he irritated my +griefs in trying to soothe them, and that he, without being aware of it, +had laid his finger on my wound. + +Our first stoppage was at Juvisy, where we arrived in the rain early in +the morning. Entering the post inn I found Jahel in the corner of the +fireplace, where five or six fowls were roasting on a spit. She was +warming her feet, and showed part of a silken stocking, which was a +great trouble to me, because it brought her leg to my mind. I seemed to +see all the beauty of her satin skin, the down, and all other striking +circumstances. M. d'Anquetil was leaning on the back of the chair +whereon she was sitting, holding her cheeks with his hands. He called +her his soul and his life, asked her if she was hungry, and on her +saying yes, he went out to give the necessary orders. + +Remaining alone with the unfaithful one I looked in her eyes, which +reflected the flames of the fire. + +"Ah! Jahel," I exclaimed, "I am very unhappy; you have betrayed me, and +you no longer love me." + +"Who says that I do not love you any more?" she asked, and looked at me +with her velvety eyes of flame. + +"Alas! mademoiselle, your conduct shows it sufficiently." + +"But, Jacques, could you envy the trousseau of Dutch linen and the +godroon plate that the gentleman is to present me with! I only ask for +your forbearance till he has fulfilled his promises, and after that +you'll see that I am still to you as I was at the Croix-des-Sablons." + +"And in the meantime, Jahel? Alas! he will enjoy your favours." + +"I feel," she replied, "that that will be a trifle, and that nothing +will efface the strength of the feeling you have inspired me with. Do +not torment yourself with such mere nothings; they are only of value by +your idea of them." + +"Oh!" I exclaimed, "my idea of them is horrible, and I am really afraid +that I shall not be able to survive your treachery." + +She looked at me with a somewhat mocking sympathy, and said with a +smile: + +"Believe me, my friend, neither of us will die of it. Think, Jacques, +that I am in want of plate and linen. Be prudent, do not show the +feelings that agitate you, and I promise to reward you for your +discretion, later on." + +This hope softened somewhat my poignant grief. The innkeeper's wife laid +on the table the lavender-scented cloth, the pewter plates, goblets and +pitchers. I was very hungry, and when M. d'Anquetil, in company with the +abbe, re-entered the dining-hall, inviting us to eat a morsel with him, +I willingly sat down between Jahel and my dear old tutor. We were afraid +of being followed, so after having put away three omelets and a couple +of spring chickens we resumed our journey. We resolved, seeing the +danger of pursuit, to pass every halting place without stopping as far +as Sens, where we decided to stay the night. + +My imagination went horribly to that night at Sens, thinking that there +Jahel's treachery would be completed. And so much was I troubled by +those but too legitimate apprehensions that I listened with but half an +ear to the discourse of my good master, to whom every trifling incident +of our journey suggested the most admirable reflections. + +My jealous fears were not groundless. We alighted at the best inn at +Sens, that paltry hostelry of _The Armed Man_. Supper hardly over, M. +d'Anquetil took Jahel with him to his room, which was next to mine. You +may believe that I could not enjoy a wink of sleep. Jumping out of bed +at daybreak, I left my chamber of torture. I seated myself under the +waggoner's porch, where the postboys drank white wine and played +the deuce with the servants. I remained there two or three hours +contemplating my misery. The horses were already harnessed when Jahel +appeared under the porch, shivering all over, under her black cloak. I +could not bear the sight of her, and turned my moistened eyes away. She +came to me, sat close to me on the stone, and told me sweetly not to be +disconsolate, as what I thought monstrous was but a trifle; that one has +to be reasonable; that I was too much a man of spirit to want a +woman for myself alone; that if one wished for that one had to take a +housekeeper without brains or beauty, and even then it was a big risk to +run. + +"And now, Jacques," she added somewhat hurriedly, "I must leave you, and +quickly; I can hear the steps of M. d'Anquetil descending the stairs." + +She pressed a hasty kiss on my burning lips, giving and prolonging it +with the violent voluptuousness of fear, as the spurred boots of her +sweetheart made the wooden steps of the stairs creak, and the intriguer +was in fear of losing her Dutch linen trousseau and her godroon silver +pot. + +The postboy lowered the steps of the _coupe_, but M. d'Anquetil asked +Jahel if it would not be more pleasant to travel all four together in +the large compartment, and I recognised that that was the first effect +of his intimacy with Jahel, and that the full satisfaction of his +desires had left it less agreeable to be alone with her. My good old +tutor had taken care to provide himself with five or six bottles of +white wine from the cellar of _The Armed Man_, which he laid under the +cushions, and which we drank to overcome the monotony of the journey. + +At midday we arrived at Joigny, a neat and pretty town. Foreseeing that +my ready money would be all used before we could arrive at the end of +our journey, and finding the idea intolerable of letting M. d'Anquetil +pay my part in the travelling expenses unless I was compelled to do +so by the most unavoidable necessity, I resolved to sell a ring and a +medallion, gifts from my mother, and went about the town in quest of a +jeweller ready to buy them. I discovered one in the square opposite the +church, who sold crosses and chains in a shop under the sign of _The +Good Faith_. What was my astonishment to find in this very shop, before +the counter, my good master, showing to the jeweller five or six little +diamonds, and asking the shopman what price he would offer for those +stones. I recognised them immediately as those which M. d'Asterac had +shown us. + +The jeweller examined the stones, and looking at the abbe from under his +spectacles said: + +"Sir, these stones would be of great value if they were genuine. But +they are not, and no touchstone is needed to find that out. These are +nothing but glass beads, good only for children to play with, or to +be used in the crown of a village Holy Virgin, where they would have a +charming effect." + +Having listened to that reply, M. Coignard picked up his diamonds and +turned his back on the jeweller. In so doing he became aware of my +presence, and looked rather confused over it. I brought my business to +an end promptly, and meeting my dear old tutor at the shop door I mildly +reproached him with the wrong he had done to himself, as well as to his +companions, by taking these stones, which for his greater guilt might +have been real. + +"My son," he replied, "God, to keep me innocent of crime, willed these +stones to be false and a mere sham. I avow to you that I did wrong to +take them. You seem sorry about it; it's a leaf of my life's book I +should like to tear out, like some others not so neat and immaculate as +they ought to be. I understand deeply all that is reprehensible in my +conduct. But no man has a right to be entirely cast down when he is +faulty, and just now, and in this special case, I think I ought to say +of myself, in the words of an illustrious learned man: 'Consider your +great frailty, of which you make but too often a show; and withal it is +for your salvation that such things should rise up in the road of your +life. Not everything is lost for you if oftentimes you find yourself +afflicted and rudely tempted; and if you succumb to temptation you're +a man, not a god; you're flesh and blood, not an angel. How could you +expect to remain always in a state of virtue when the angels in heaven +and the first man in Eden could not remain faithful to virtue?' Such +are, my dear Tournebroche, the only conversations adapted to the present +state of my soul. But, after this unhappy occurrence, which I do not +wish to dwell on longer, is it not time to return to the inn, there to +drink, in company with the postboys, who are simpleminded and of easy +intercourse, one or more bottles of country wine?" + +I quite agreed, and we soon reached the hostelry, where we found M. +d'Anquetil, who, returning like ourselves from the town, had brought +some playing cards. He played a game of piquet with my tutor, and when +we resumed our journey they continued to play in the carriage. That rage +for play which occupied my rival gave me occasion for an undisturbed +conversation with Jahel, who liked very much to chat with me, since she +was left to herself. Her talk had a kind of bitter sweetness for me. +Reproaching her for her perfidy and unfaithfulness, I gave vent to my +grief in feeble or violent complaints. + +"Alas! Jahel!" I said, "the memory and the image of your tenderness, +which made but lately my dearest delight, have become a cruel torture +to me when I think that to-day you belong to another person, whereas +formerly you were mine." + +She replied: + +"A woman does not behave equally to all men." + +And when I prolonged my lamentations and reproaches to excess she said: + +"I am quite aware that I have caused you some pain. But that is no +reason for you to plague me a hundred times a day with your useless +moans." + +M. d'Anquetil when he lost was in a bad temper and molested Jahel, while +she, anything but patient, threatened to write to her Uncle Mosaide to +come and fetch her back. These quarrels were at first rather pleasant to +me, and gave me no small hopes; but after a repeated renewal of them +I became rather anxious, as they were always followed by impetuous +reconciliations, which exploded suddenly into kisses and lascivious +whisperings. M. d'Anquetil could hardly bear my presence. He had on the +other hand a vivid tenderness for my good tutor, which he well deserved +for his always joyful humour and the incomparable elegance of his mind. +They played and drank together with a daily growing sympathy. Knee to +knee, so as to steady the table whereon they played cards they laughed, +bantered, chaffed each other, and if occasionally they became angry, and +threw the cards in one another's face, and swore at each other with +such oaths as would have made the boxers of Port Saint Nicolas or the +bargemen of the Mail blush, M. d'Anquetil swore by God Almighty, the +Holy Virgin and all the saints, that in all his life he had never met +with a worse thief than the Abbe Coignard. Notwithstanding it remained +clearly evident that he liked my good tutor; and it was a real pleasure, +as soon as one of these quarrels had terminated, to listen to his +laughter as he said: + +"Abbe, you'll be my almoner and play piquet with me. You'll also have to +hunt with us. In the remotest corner of the Perche we will look out +for a horse strong enough to carry your weight, and you'll get hunting +clothes like the ones I saw worn by the Bishop of Uzes. It is, besides, +high time you had a new suit of clothes; your breeches, abbe, hardly +keep on your behind." + +Jahel also inclined towards the irresistible charm with which my +dear tutor influenced all mankind. She made up her mind to repair, if +possible, all the disorders of his dress. First she tore up one of +her gowns and used the pieces to patch up the coat and breeches of my +venerable friend; she also made him a present of a laced handkerchief +to use as a band. My good tutor accepted these little presents with a +dignity full of graciousness. More than once I had occasion to observe +that he was a gallant when talking to women. He took a lively interest +in them without ever showing the slightest indiscretion. He praised them +with the science of a connoisseur, giving them counsels out of his long +experience, diffusing over them the unlimited indulgence of a heart +always ready to forgive any kind of human weakness, and withal, never +omitted any occasion to make them understand the great and useful +truths. + +We arrived on the fourth day of our journey at Montbard, and alighted on +a hill, from which we could overlook the whole town, which appeared in +a small space as if it had been painted on canvas by a clever limner +anxious to reproduce every detail. + +"Look," my dear old tutor said, "on these steeples, towers, roofs, which +rise up out of the green. It is a town, and without actually searching +for its history and name, it is well to contemplate it as the worthiest +subject of meditation we may encounter on the surface of the world. As +a fact any town furnishes material for speculations of the spirit. The +postboys tell us that yonder is Montbard, a place utterly unknown to +me. Nevertheless I am not afraid to affirm, by analogy, that the people +living therein resemble ourselves, are egotistic cowards, perfidious +gluttons, dissolute. Otherwise they could not be human beings and +descendants of Adam, at once miserable and venerable, and in whom all +our instincts, down to the most ignoble, have their august origin. The +only possible doubtful matter with yonder people, is to know if they +are more inclined to food or to procreation. But a doubt is hardly +permissible; a philosopher will soundly opine that hunger is for these +unhappy ones a more pressing necessity than love. In the greenness of my +youth I believed that the human animal is before all things inclined to +sexual intercourse. But that was a wanton error, as it is quite clear +that human beings are more interested in conserving their own life than +in giving life to others. Hunger is the axis of humanity; but after all, +as it seems to be useless to discuss the matter any further, I'll say, +with your permission, that the life of mortals has two poles--hunger and +love. And here it is that one has to open ears and soul! These hideous +creatures who are born only to devour or to embrace furiously, one the +other, live together under the sway of laws which precisely interdict +their satisfying that double and fundamental concupiscence. These +ingenious animals, having become citizens, voluntarily impose on +themselves all sorts of privations; they respect the property of their +neighbours, which is prodigious, if you take their avaricious nature +into consideration; they observe the rules of modesty, which is an +enormous hypocrisy, but generally consists in but seldom speaking +of that of which they think without ceasing. Then, let's be true +and honest, gentlemen, when we look on a woman, we do not attach our +thoughts to the beauties of her soul or the pleasantness of her spirit; +when we approach her we have in view principally her natural form. And +the amiable creatures know it so well that they have their dresses made +by the fashionable dressmakers and take good care not only not to veil +their charms, but to exaggerate them by all sorts of artifices. And +Mademoiselle Jahel, who certainly is not a savage, would be distressed +if, on her, art had gained the advantage over nature to such a degree +as to prevent the fulness of her bosom and the roundness of her thighs +being seen. And so it is that, since Adam's fall, we see mankind +hungry and incontinent. Why do they, when assembled in towns, impose +on themselves privations of all kinds, and submit to a rule of life +contrary to their own corrupted nature? It is said that they find it +advantageous, and that they feel that their individual security depends +on such restriction. But that would be to suppose them to have too much +reasoning power, and, what's more, a false reasoning, because it is +absurd to save one's life at the expense of all that makes it reasonable +and valuable. It is further said that fear keeps them obedient, and +it is true that prison, gallows and wheels are excellent assurers of +submission to existing laws. But it is also certain that prejudice +conspires with the laws, and it is not easy to see how compulsion could +have been universally established. Laws are said to be the necessary +conformity of things; but we have become aware that that conformity +is contradictory to nature, and far from being necessary. Therefore, +gentlemen, I'll look for the source and origin of the laws not in man, +but outside man, and I should think that, being strangers to mankind, +they derive from God, who not only formed with His own mysterious hands +earth and water, plants and animals, but the people also, and human +society. I'm inclined to believe that the laws come direct from Him, +from His first decalogue, and that they are inhuman because they are +divine. It must be well understood that I here consider the codes in +their principles and in their essence, without taking note of their +ridiculous diversities and their pitiable complications. The details of +customs and prescriptions, the written as well as the oral, are man's +work, and to be despised. But do not let us be afraid to recognise that +the town is a divine institution. As a result, every government ought +to be theocratic. One priest, famous for the part he took in the +declaration of 1682, M. Bossuet, was not in error, when he wanted to +form the rules of polity after the maxims of the Scriptures; and if he +has pitiably failed in this endeavour, you have to accuse the weakness +of his genius alone, which was too narrowly attached to examples taken +from the books of Judges and Kings, without seeing that God, when He +works on this world, proportions Himself to time and space, and knows +the difference between Frenchmen and Israelites. The city established +under His true and sole legitimate authority will not be the town of +Joshua, Saul and David; it will rather be the town of the gospels, +the town of the poor, where working-man and prostitute will not be +humiliated by the Pharisee. Oh, sirs, how excellent it would be to +extract from the Scriptures a polity more beautiful and more saintly +than that which was extracted therefrom by that rocky and sterile M. +Bossuet! What a city, more harmonious than that erected by the sounds +of the lyre of Orpheus, could be built on the maxims of Jesus Christ, on +the day when His priests, no more sold to emperors and kings, manifest +themselves as the true princes of the people!" + +While, standing round my good master, we listened to his discourse, +we were, without noticing it, surrounded by a troop of beggars, who, +limping, shivering, spitting, frightening the sparrows, shook their +swellings and deformities, spreading evil smells and suffocating us +with their blessings. They struggled passionately for some small silver +pieces M. d'Anquetil threw among them, fell to the ground, and rolled in +the dust. + +"It's painful to look on these people," said Jahel with a sigh. + +"'That pity," said M. Coignard, "suits you like a jewel, Mademoiselle +Jahel; your sighs ornament your bosom heaving under them like a breath +each of us would like to respire from your lips. But allow me to +say that such tenderness, which is not less touching from being +an interested one, troubles you inwardly by a comparison of yonder +miserable beings with yourself, and by the instinctive idea that your +young body touches, so to say, this hideous, ulcerated and mutilated +flesh, as in truth it is bound and attached to them in as far as +members of Our Lord Jesus Christ. In consequence you cannot look on +such corruption of a human body without seeing it at the same time as a +possibility of your own body. And these wretches have shown themselves +to you like prophets, announcing that sickness and death are the lot +of the family of Adam in this world. For this very reason you sighed, +mademoiselle. + +"As a fact, there is not the slightest reason to believe yonder +ulcerated and verminous beggars less happy than kings and queens. It +must not be said that they are poorer, if, as it appears, that farthing +picked up by that crippled woman, and which she presses on her heart in +frantic joy, seems to her more precious than a pearl collar is to +the mistress of a prince-bishop of Cologne and Salzburg. To really +understand our spiritual and true interests we should rather envy the +life of that cripple who crawls towards us on his hands than that of the +King of France or the Emperor of Germany, Being equal before God, they +perhaps have peace in their hearts, which the other has not, and +the invaluable treasure of innocence. But hold up your petticoats, +mademoiselle, for fear that you introduce the vermin with which I see +they are covered." + +Such was my good tutor's speech, and we all listened willingly. + +At the distance of three leagues from Montbard, one of the harnesses +broke, and, the postboys having failed to bring rope with them, we were +detained on the road, as the place of the accident was far from any +human dwelling. My good master and M. d'Anquetil whiled away the time by +playing and sympathetic quarrels, of which they had made a habit. While +the young nobleman was surprised to see his opponent turn up the king +oftener than seemed possible by the laws of chance, Jahel, full of +emotion, asked me in a whisper if I could not see behind us a carriage +in one of the turnings of the road. Looking back to the place she +indicated, I could actually see a kind of Gothic vehicle of a ridiculous +and strange form. + +"Yonder carriage," said Jahel, "stopped at the same moment as ours. That +means that we are followed. I am curious to discover the features of the +people travelling in that vehicle. I feel very uneasy about it. Does not +one of the travellers wear a very narrow and high headgear? The carriage +very much resembles the one in which my uncle brought me, when a child, +to Paris after he had killed the Portuguese. It remained, I believe, in +one of the coach-houses at the Castle of Sablons. It really seems to be +the same, of horrible memory, because I remember my uncle in it, fuming +with rage. You cannot conceive, Jacques, how violent his hate is. I +myself had to bear his rage the day I came away. He locked me in my room +and vomited the most horrible curses on the Abbe Coignard. I shiver when +I think what his rage must have been when he found my room empty and the +sheets still attached to the window by which I left to fly with you." + +"You ought to say with M. d'Anquetil." + +"How punctilious you are! Did we not depart together? Yonder carriage +torments me, it is so much like my uncle's." + +"Be sure, Jahel, that it's the carriage of some honest Burgundian, who +goes about his business and does not think of us." + +"You don't know," said Jahel. "I'm afraid." + +"You cannot fear, however, that your uncle could run after you in his +state of decrepitude. He does not occupy himself with anything but +cabala and Hebraic dreams." + +"You don't know him," she replied, and sighed. "He is occupied with +naught but myself. He loves me as much as he hates the rest of the +universe. He loves me in a manner-- + +"In a manner?" + +"--In all the manners--in short he loves me." + +"Jahel, I shudder to hear you. Good heavens: that Mosaide loves you +without that disinterestedness which is so admirable in an old man, and +so well suited for an uncle? Tell me all, Jahel-all!" + +"Oh! you can tell it better than I, Jacques." + +"I remain stupid. At his age, is it possible?" + +"My dear friend, your skin is white, and your soul also. Everything +astonishes you. That candour is your most striking charm. You're +deceived by anyone who wants to deceive you. They make you believe that +Mosaide is a hundred and thirty years old; but he is hardly older than +sixty. They told you that for years he lived in the Great Pyramid, but +as a fact he has been a banker at Lisbon. And it depended only on me to +pass in your eyes as a Salamander." + +"What, Jahel, do you tell me the truth? Your uncle--" + +"Yes, and that is the secret of his jealousy. He believes the Abbe +Coignard to be his rival. He disliked him instinctively, at first sight. +But it is a great deal worse since he overheard a few words of the +conversation I had with that good abbe in the thorn bush, and I'm sure +he hates him now as the cause of my flight and my elopement. For, after +all, I've been abducted, my friend; a fact that ought to enhance my +worth in your eyes. I was certainly very ungrateful to leave so good an +uncle. But I could not endure any longer the slavery he kept me in. And +I also had an ardent wish to become rich, and it is very natural, is it +not, to wish for all the good things when one is young and pretty? We +have but one life, and that is short enough. No one has taught me all +the fine lies about the immortality of the soul." + +"Alas! Jahel," I exclaimed, in an ardour of love, provoked by her own +coolness. "Alas! I did not want anything else with you at the Chateau +des Sablons. What was wanting for your happiness?" + +She made me a sign to show that M. d'Anquetil was observing us. The +harness had been repaired and our carriage rolled on again along the +road bordered on both sides by vineyards. + +We stopped at Nuits to sup and to sleep. My dear tutor drank +half-a-dozen bottles of Burgundy, which warmed up his eloquence +marvellously. M. d'Anquetil kept him company, glass in hand, but to hold +his own in conversation also was a thing of which this nobleman was not +quite capable. + +The meat was good, the beds were bad. M. Coignard slept in the lower +chamber, under the stairs, in the same feather bed with the host and his +wife, and all three thought they would be suffocated. M. d'Anquetil +with Jahel took the upstairs room, where the bacon and the onions were +suspended on hooks driven into the ceiling. I myself climbed by means +of a ladder to a loft and stretched out on a bundle of straw. Being +awakened by the moonlight, a ray of which fell into my eyes, I suddenly +saw Jahel in her night-cap coming through the trap door. At a cry that I +gave she put her finger to her lips. + +"Hush!" she said to me, "Maurice is as drunk as a stevedore and a +marquis. He sleeps the sleep of Noah." + +"Who is Maurice?" I inquired, rubbing my eyes. + +"It's Anquetil. Who did you think it was?" + +"Nobody, but I did not know that his name was Maurice." + +"It's not long that I knew it myself, but never mind." + +"You are right, Jahel, it's of no importance." + +She was in her chemise, and the moonlight fell like drops of milk on her +naked shoulders. She slipped down at my side, called me by the sweetest +of names and by the most horrid of coarse names, in whispers sounding +out of her lips like heavenly murmurs. And then she became dumb, and +kissed me with the kisses she alone was able to give, and in comparison +with which the caresses of any other woman were but an insipidity. + +The constraint and the silence enhanced the furious tension of my +nerves. Surprise, the joy of revenge, and, perhaps, a somewhat perverse +jealousy inflamed my desires. The elastic firmness of her flesh and the +supple violence of the movements wherewith she enveloped me demanded, +promised, and deserved the most ardent caresses. We became aware, during +that wonderful night, of voluptuousness the abyss of which borders on +suffering. + +When I came down to the innyard in the morning I met M. d'Anquetil, who, +now that I had deceived him, appeared to me less odious than formerly. +On his part he felt better inclined to me than he had yet done since we +started on our travels. He talked familiarly to me, with sympathy and +confidence; his only reproach was that I did not show to Jahel all the +regard and attention she deserved, and did not give her the care an +honest man ought to bestow on every woman. + +"She complains," he said, "of your want of civility. Take care, my dear +Tournebroche; I should be sorry for a difference to arise between her +and yourself. She's a pretty girl, and loves me immensely." + +The carriage had rolled on for more than an hour when Jahel put her head +out of the coach window and said to me: + +"The other carriage has reappeared. I should like to discover the +features of the two men who occupy it, but I cannot." + +I replied that at such a distance, and in the morning mist, it would be +impossible to discern them. + +"But," she exclaimed, "those are not faces." + +"What else do you want them to be?" I questioned, and burst out +laughing. + +Now, in her turn, she inquired of me what silly idea had sprung into my +brain to laugh so stupidly and said: + +"They are not faces, they are masks. Yonder two men follow us and are +masked." + +I informed M. d'Anquetil that seemingly an ugly carriage followed us. +But he asked me to let him alone. + +"If all the hundred thousand devils were on our track," he exclaimed, "I +should not care a rap for it as I have enough to do to look after that +obese old abbe who plays his tricks with the cards in the most artful +way, and who robs me of my money. I almost suspect, Tournebroche, you +call my attention to yonder coach for the purpose of aiding and abetting +that old sharper. Cannot a carriage be on the same road as ours without +causing you anxiety?" + +Jahel whispered to me: + +"I predict, Jacques, that yonder carriage brings trouble for us. I have +a presentiment of it, and my presentiments have never failed to come +true." + +"Do you want to make me believe that you have the gift of prophecy?" + +Gravely, she replied: + +"Yes; I have." + +"What, you are a prophetess!" I cried, smiling. "Here is something +strange!" + +"You sneer and you doubt because you have never seen a prophetess so +near at hand. How did you wish them to look?" + +"I thought that they must be virgins." + +"That's not necessary," she replied, with assurance. + +The threatening carriage had disappeared at a turning of the road. +But Jahel's uneasiness had, without his acknowledging it, impressed M. +d'Anquetil, who ordered the postboys to hurry their horses, promising +them extra good tips. And by an excess of care he passed to each of them +a bottle of the wine that the abbe had placed in reserve in the bottom +of the carriage. + +The postillions made their horses feel the stimulus that the wine gave +to them. + +"You can calm yourself, Jahel," said he; "at the speed we are going that +antique coach, drawn by the horses of the Apocalypse, will never catch +us." + +"We run like cats on hot bricks," said the abbe. + +"If only it would last!" said Jahel. + +We saw the vineyards on our right disappear rapidly. On the left +the River Saone ran slowly. Like a hurricane we passed the bridge of +Tournus. The town itself rose on the other side of the river on a hill +crowned by the walls of an abbey, proud as a fortress. + +"That," said the abbe, "is one of the numberless Benedictine abbeys +which are strewn like so many gems on the robe of ecclesiastical Gaul. +If it had pleased God that my destiny should match my character I should +have lived an obscure life, gay and sweet, in one of these abodes. +There is no other religious order I hold in such high esteem, for their +doctrines as well as for their morals, as the Benedictines. They have +admirable libraries. Happy he who wears their habit and follows their +holy rules! It may be from the inconvenience I feel at this moment in +being shaken to pieces in this carriage, which no doubt will very soon +be upset by sinking into one of the many holes of this confounded road, +or it may perhaps be the effect of age, which is the time for retreat +and grave thinking; whatever be the cause I wish more ardently than ever +to seat myself at a table in one of those venerable galleries, where +books plenty and choice are assembled in quiet and silence. I prefer +their entertainment to that of men, and my dearest wish is to wait, in +the work of the spirit, for the hour in which it will please God to call +me from this earth. I shall write history, and by preference that of +the Romans at the decline of the Republic, because it is full of great +actions and examples. I'll divide my zeal between Cicero, Saint John +Chrysostom and Boethius and my modest and fruitful life would resemble +the garden of the old man of Tarentum. + +"I have experienced different manners of living, and I think the best is +to give oneself to study, to look on peacefully at the vicissitudes +of men, and to prolong, by the spectacle of centuries and empires, the +brevity of our days. But order and continuity are needed. And that's the +very thing that has always been wanting in my existence. If, as I hope, +I am able to disentangle myself from the bad position I'm in just now, +I'll do my best to find an honourable and safe asylum in some learned +abbey where _bonnes lettres_ are held in honour and respect. I can see +myself there already, enjoying the illustrious peace of science. Could +I obtain the good offices of the Sylph assistants of whom that old fool +d'Asterac speaks, and who appear, it is said, when they are invoked by +the cabalistic name of AGLA--" + +At the very moment my dear tutor spoke these words a violent shock +brought down a rain of glass on our heads, in such confusion that I felt +myself blinded, as well as suffocated under Jahel's petticoats, while +the abbe complained in a smothered voice that M. d'Anquetil's sword had +broken the remainder of his teeth, and over my head Jahel screamed fit +to tear to pieces all the air of the Burgundian valleys. M. d'Anquetil, +in rough, barrack-room style, promised to get the postboys hanged. When +at last I was able to rise, he had already jumped out through a broken +window. We followed him, my dear tutor and I, by the same exit, and then +all three of us pulled Jahel out of the overturned vehicle. No harm had +been done to her, and her first thought was to adjust her head-dress. + +"Thank God!" said my tutor, "I have not suffered any other damage than +the loss of a tooth, and that was neither whole nor white. Time had +already effected its decay." M. d'Anquetil, legs astride and arms +akimbo, examined the carriage. + +"The rascals," he said, "have put it in a nice state. If the horses are +got up they will break it all to pieces. Abbe, that carriage is no good +for anything else but to play spillikins with." + +The horses had fallen topsy-turvy, one on the other, and were kicking +furiously. In a heap of croups and legs and steaming bellies, one of the +postboys was buried, his boots in the air. The other was spitting blood +in the ditch, where he had been thrown. M. d'Anquetil shouted to them: + +"Idiots! I really don't know why I do not spit you on my sword." + +"Sir," said Abbe Coignard, "would it not be better to get that poor +fellow out of the midst of these horses wherein he is entangled?" + +We all went to work with a will, and when the horses were freed and +raised we were able to discover the extent of the damage done. One of +the springs was broken, one of the wheels also, and one of the horses +lame. + +"Fetch a smith," ordered M. d'Anquetil. + +"There is no smith in the neighbourhood," was the postboy's reply. + +"A mechanic of some kind." + +"There is none." + +"A saddler." + +"There is no saddler." + +We looked round. To the west the vineyards extended to the horizon their +long peaceful lines. On the hill smoke came out of a chimney near a +steeple. On the other side, the Saone, veiled by a light mist, lost +itself slowly in the calm running of her flowing waters. The shadows of +the poplars elongated themselves on the banks. The shrill cry of a bird +pierced the deep silence. + +"Where are we?" asked M. d'Anquetil. + +"At two full leagues from Tournus," replied the postillion, spitting +blood, "and at least four leagues from Macon." + +And, extending his arm towards the smoking chimney: + +"Up there, that village ought to be Vallars, but it's not up to much." + +"Blast you!" roared M. d'Anquetil. + +While the horses struggled we went near the carriage, which was lying +sadly on its side. + +The little postboy who had been taken out from the midst of the horses +said: + +"As to the spring, that could be mended by a strong piece of wood. It +will only make the carriage shake you more. But there is the broken +wheel! And, worst of all, my hat is under it, smashed to pieces." + +"Damn your hat!" said M. d'Anquetil. + +"Your lordship may not be aware that it was quite new," was the +postboy's meek reply. + +"And the window glasses are broken!" sighed Jahel, seated on a +portmanteau, at the side of the road. + +"If it were but the glasses," said M. Coignard, "a remedy could soon +be found by lowering the blinds, but the bottles cannot be in the same +state as the windows. I must look to it as soon as the coach can be +raised. I am also in fear for my Boethius, which I had placed under the +cushions with some other good books." + +"It does not matter," said M. d'Anquetil. "I have the cards in my +waistcoat pocket. But shall we not get any supper?" + +"I had thought of it," said the abbe. "It is not in vain that God has +given to the use of men the animals who crowd the earth, the sky and the +water. I am an excellent angler; the care necessary to allure the fish +particularly suits my meditative mind, and the River Orne has seen +me managing my line while meditating on the eternal verities. Do not +trouble over your supper. If Mademoiselle Jahel will be good enough to +give me one of the pins which keep her garments together I'll soon make +a hook of it, to enable me to fish in yonder river, and I flatter myself +I shall return before nightfall laden with two or three carp, that we +will grill over a brushwood fire." + +"I am quite aware," said Jahel, "that we are reduced to somewhat of a +savage state. But I could not give you a pin, abbe, without your giving +me something in exchange for it; otherwise our friendship would be +jeopardised. And that I do not want in any case." + +"Then I will make an advantageous exchange, mademoiselle: I'll pay for +your pin with a kiss." + +And, taking the pin out of Jahel's hand, he kissed her on both cheeks +with inconceivable courtesy, gracefulness and decency. + +After having lost plenty of time, a reasonable step was at last taken. +The big postillion, who no longer spat blood, was sent to Tournus on +one of the horses to bring back with him a blacksmith; the other boy was +ordered to light a fire, as the air became fresh, and a sharp wind was +rising. + +We discovered on the road, a hundred paces from the place of our +breakdown, a cliff of soft stone, the foot of which was quarried in +several places. We resolved to wait in one of those caves, warming +ourselves until the return of the boy sent to Tournus. The second boy +tied the three remaining horses to the trunk of a tree, near our cavern. +The abbe, who had made a fishing rod with the branch of a willow-tree, +some string, a cork and a pin, went a-fishing as much for his +philosophical and meditative inclination as for the sake of bringing +us back fish. M. d Anquetil, remaining with Jahel and me in the grotto, +proposed a game of _l'ombre,_ which is played by three, and which he +said, being a Spanish game, was the very one for persons as adventurous +as ourselves. And true it is that, in that quarry, in a deserted road, +our little company would not have been unworthy to figure in some of the +adventures of Don Quixote in which menials take such a strong interest. +And so we played _l'ombre._ I committed a great many errors, and my +impetuous partner got cross, when the noble and laughing face of my +good tutor became visible at the light of our fire. He untied his +handkerchief, and took out of it some four or five small fish, which +he opened with his knife, decorated with the image of the late king, +dressed as a Roman emperor, standing on a triumphal column; and cleaned +them with dexterity, as if he had never lived anywhere else than in the +midst of the fishwomen at the market. He excelled as much in trifles as +in matters of the greatest importance. Arranging the fish on the embers, +he said: + +"I will tell you, in all confidence, that following the river in search +of a favourable place for fishing, I perceived the apocalyptic coach +which frightens Mademoiselle Jahel. It stopped somewhat behind our +carriage. You ought to have seen it pass by while I was fishing, and +mademoiselle's soul ought to have been comforted by it." + +"We have not seen it," replied Jahel. + +"Then it may have moved on only after the night had become dark. But at +least you heard it rumbling?" + +"We have not," said Jahel. + +"It is then that this night is blind as well as deaf. It is not to be +supposed that yonder coach, which had not a wheel broken, not a horse +lamed, would have remained standing still on the road. What for?" + +"Yes, what for?" said Jahel. + +"Our supper," said my good tutor, "reminds me of the simplicity of the +repasts described in the Bible, where the pious traveller divided with +an angel, on the bank of the river, the fishes of the Tigris. But we are +in want of bread, salt and wine. I'll try to take out of our coach the +provisions put there, and look if by a fortunate chance some bottles +have remained intact. There are occasions when glass remains whole but +steel is broken. Tournebroche, my son, give me your steel; and you, +mademoiselle, do not fail to turn the grilling fish. I'll be back in a +moment." + +He left. His somewhat heavy tread sounded in a de crescendo, and soon we +could hear him no more. + +"This very night," said M. d'Anquetil, "reminds me of the night before +the battle of Parma. You may be aware that I have served under Villars +and been in the War of Succession. I was with the scouts. We could not +see anything. That's one of the best ruses of war. Men are sent out to +reconnoitre the enemy who return without having reconnoitred anything. +But reports are drawn up, after the battle, and then it is that the +tacticians are triumphant. Thus, at nine o'clock at night, I was sent +out scouting with twelve men--" + +And he gave us a narrative of the War of Succession and of his amours in +Italy; his story had lasted for well-nigh a quarter of an hour when he +exclaimed: + +"That rascal of an abbe does not come back. I bet he drinks all the wine +which remained in the coach." + +Thinking that my dear tutor might possibly be embarrassed, I rose +and went to help him. It was a moonless night, and if the sky was +resplendent in the light of thousands of stars, the earth was clad in +a darkness which my eyes, dazzled by the light of the flames, could not +pierce. + +Having walked about fifty steps on the black road. I heard a terrible +cry, which did not sound as if coming from a human breast, a cry +altogether unlike all cries I had heard before, a horrible cry. I ran in +the direction from whence came this clamour of fatal distress. But fear +and darkness checked my steps. Arrived at last at the place where our +coach lay on the road, shapeless and enlarged by the night, I found my +dear tutor seated on the side of the ditch, bent double. Trembling I +asked him: + +"What's the matter? Why did you shout?" + +"Yes; why did I shout?" he said, in a new and altered voice. "I did not +know I had cried out. Tournebroche, did you not see a man? He struck me +in the dark, very fiercely; he gave me a blow with his fist." + +"Come," I said to him, "get up, my dear master." + +Having risen he fell back heavily on the ground. + +I tried to raise him, and my hands became moist when I touched his +breast. + +"You're bleeding!" + +"Bleeding? I'm a dead man. He has killed me. I thought that it was but +a blow with the fist. But it's a wound, and I feel that I shall never +recover from it." + +"Who struck you, my dear tutor?" + +"It was the Jew. I did not see him, but I know it was he. How can I +know that it was the Jew, when I did not see him? Yes; how is it? What +strange things! It's not to be believed, is it, Tournebroche? I have the +taste of death in my mouth, which cannot be defined. It was to be, +my God! But why rather here than somewhere else? That's the mystery! +_'Adjutorium nostrum in nomine Domini--Domine exaudi orationem meam--'"_ + +For a short time he prayed in a low voice, then: + +"Tournebroche, my son," he said to me, "take the two bottles I found +in the coach and have placed here beside me. I can do no more. +Tournebroche, where do you think the wound is? It's in the back I suffer +most, and it seems to me that life runs out by the legs. My spirits are +going." + +Murmuring these words he fainted softly in my arms. I tried to carry +him, but I had only strength enough to lay him lengthwise on the ground. +Opening his shirt, I discovered the wound; it was in the breast; very +small, and bleeding little. I tore my wristbands to pieces and laid them +on the wound; I called out, shouted for help. Soon I thought I heard +help coming from the side of Tournus, and I recognised M. d'Asterac. +Unexpected as the meeting was, I did not actually feel surprised; too +deeply was I the prey of the immense sorrow I felt holding in my arms, +dying, that best of all masters. + +"What's the matter, my son?" asked the alchemist. + +"Help me, sir," I replied, "the Abbe Coignard is dying. Mosaide has +killed him." + +"It is true," said M. d'Asterac, "that Mosaide has come here in an old +chariot in pursuit of his niece, and that I have accompanied him +to exhort you, my son, to return to your employment with me. Since +yesterday we came near your coach, which we saw break down just now in a +rut. At that very moment Mosaide alighted from the carriage, and it may +be that he wanted to take a walk, or perhaps he made himself invisible, +as he can do. I have not seen him again. It is possible that he has +already found his niece to curse her; such is the intention. But he has +not killed M. Coignard. It is the Elves, my son, who have killed your +master, to punish him for the disclosure of their secrets. Nothing is +surer than that." + +"Ah! sir," I exclaimed, "what does it matter, if it was the Jew or the +Elves who killed him; we must assist him." + +"On the contrary, my son," replied M. d'Asterac, "it is of the greatest +importance. For should he have been stricken by a human hand it would +be easy for me to cure him by magic operation; but having provoked the +Elves he could never escape their infallible vengeance." + +As he spoke, M. d'Anquetil and Jahel, having heard my shouts, +approached, with the postboy, who carried a lantern. + +"What," said Jahel, "is M. Coignard unwell?" + +And kneeling close to my good tutor, she raised his head and made him +inhale the smell of her salts. + +"Mademoiselle," I said to her, "you're the cause of his death, which is +the vengeance for your abduction. Mosaide has killed him." + +From my dying master she lifted up her face pale with horror and shining +with tears. + +"And you too," she said, "believe that it's easy to be a pretty girl +without causing mischief?" + +"Alas!" I replied, "what you say is but too true. But we have lost the +best of men." + +At this moment Abbe Coignard sighed deeply, opened his eyes, called for +his book of Boethius, and fainted again into unconsciousness. + +The postboy thought it would be best to carry the wounded man to the +village of Vallars, which was only half-a-league distant. + +"I'll go," he said, "to fetch the steadiest of the horses which remain. +We'll tie the poor fellow securely on it, and lead it slowly ahead. I +think him very ill. He looks exactly like the courier who was murdered +at Saint Michel on the same road, at four stages from here, near Senecy, +where my sweetheart lives. That poor devil moved his eyelids and turned +up the whites of his eyes like a bad woman, saving your presence, +gentlemen. And your abbe did the same when mam'selle tickled his nose +with her bottle. It's a bad sign with a wounded man; girls don't die of +it when they turn their eyes up in that fashion. Your lordships know it +well. And there is some distance, thank God! between the little death +and the great. But it's the same turning up of the eyes... Remain, +gentlemen, I'll go and fetch the horse." + +"This rustic is amusing," said M. d'Anquetil, "with his turned-up +eyes and his bad women. I've seen in Italy soldiers who died on the +battlefield with a fixed look and eyes starting out of their head. There +are no rules for dying of a wound, actually not even in the military +service, where exactitude is pushed to the extreme. But will you, +Tournebroche, in default of a better qualified person, present me to +yonder gentleman in black, who wears diamond studs, and whom I reckon to +be M. d'Asterac?" + +"Ah! sir," I replied, "consider the presentation to be made. I have no +other feelings but to assist my dear tutor." + +"Be it so!" said M. d'Anquetil. + +And approaching M. d'Asterac: + +"Sir, I have taken your mistress away: I'm ready to answer for my deed." + +"Sir," replied M. d'Asterac. "Grace be to heaven! I have no connection +with any woman, and do not understand what you mean." + +At this very moment the postboy returned with a horse. My dear tutor had +slightly recovered. We lifted him up, all four of us, and put him with +the greatest difficulty on the horse, where we tied him as securely as +possible. And we went off. I held him on one side, M. d'Anquetil on the +other. The postboy led the horse and carried the lantern. M. d'Asterac +had returned to his carriage. All went well as long as we kept on the +highroad; but when it became necessary to climb the small lanes of the +vineyards, my dear master, slipping at every movement of the horse, lost +the rest of his little strength, and fainted away again. We thought it +best to take him off the horse and carry him in our arms. The postboy +held him under the arms and I by the legs. The ascent was very rough, +and I expected to fall at least four times with my living cross, on the +stones of the path. At last the hill became easier. We entered a small +lane bordered by bushes, and soon discovered on our left the first roofs +of Vallars. We laid our burden softly on the turf, and for a moment took +breath. Lifting up the abbe again, we carried him into the village. + +A pink light appeared eastwards on the horizon. The morning star, in the +pale sky, shone as white and peaceful as the moon, the light crescent of +which paled away in the west The birds began to chirp; my master sighed +heavily. + +Jahel ran before us, knocking at the doors, in quest of a bed and +a surgeon. Carrying baskets and panniers the vine-growers went +grape-gathering. One of them said to Jahel that Gaulard on the market +place lodges man and beast. + +"As to the surgeon, Coquebert, you'll see him yonder under the shaving +plate which serves as his trade sign. He leaves his house to go to his +vineyard." + +He was a very polite little man. He told us that he had a bed free in +his house, as a short time ago his daughter had got married. + +By his order, his wife, a stout dame wearing a white cap covered by a +felt hat, put sheets on the bed in the lower chamber. She helped us to +undress the Abbe Coignard and to put him to bed. And then she went out +to fetch the vicar. + +In the meanwhile M. Coquebert examined the wound + +"You see," I said, "it's small, and bleeds but little." + +"That's not good at all," he replied, "and I do not like it, my dear +young gentleman. I like a large wound which bleeds freely." + +"I see," said M. d'Anquetil, "that for a leech and a village squirt +your test is not a bad one. Nothing is worse than those little but deep +wounds which look a mere nothing. Tell me of a nice cut across the face. +It's pleasant to look on, and heals in no time. But know, my good sir, +that this wounded man is my chaplain, and plays piquet with me. Are you +the man to put him on his legs again, notwithstanding your looks, which +are rather those of a vet?" + +"At your service," replied the barber-surgeon, bowing profoundly. "But I +also set broken bones and treat wounds. I'll examine this one." + +"Make haste, sir," I said. + +"Patience!" he replied. "First of all the wound must be washed, and I +must wait till the water gets warm." + +My good tutor, a little restored, said slowly, but with a fairly strong +voice: + +"Lamp in hand, he'll visit the corners of Jerusalem, and what is hidden +in darkness will be brought to light." + +"What do you mean, dear master?" + +"Don't, my son," he replied; "I'm entertaining the sentiments fit for my +state." + +"The water is hot," the barber said to me. "Hold the basin close to the +bed. I'll wash the wound." + +And while he pressed on my tutor's breast a sponge soaked in hot water, +the vicar entered the room with Madame Coquebert. He had a basket and a +pair of vine shears in his hand. + +"Here is then the poor man," said he. "I was going to my vineyard, but +that of Jesus Christ has to be attended to first; my son," he said as +he approached the stricken abbe, "offer your wound to our Lord. Perhaps +it's not so serious as it's thought to be. And for the rest, we must +obey God's will." + +Turning to the barber, he asked: + +"Is it very urgent, M. Coquebert, or could I go to my vineyard? The +white ones can wait; it's not bad if they do get a little overripe, and +a little rain would only produce more and better wine. But the red must +be gathered at once." + +"You speak the truth, Monsieur le Cure," M. Coquebert replied. "I've in +my vineyard some grapes which cover themselves with a certain moisture, +and which escape the sun only to perish by the rain." + +"Alas!" said the vicar, "humidity and drought are the two enemies of the +vine-grower." + +"Nothing is truer," said the barber, "but I'll inspect the wound." + +Having said so he pushed one of his fingers into the wound. + +"Ah! Torturer!" exclaimed the patient. + +"Remember," said the vicar, "that our Lord forgave His torturers." + +"They were not barbarous," said the abbe. + +"That's a wicked word," said the vicar. + +"You must not torment a dying man for his jokes," said my good master. +"But I suffer horribly; that man assassinates me and I die twofold. The +first time was by the hands of a Jew." + +"What does he mean?" asked the vicar. + +"It is best, reverend sir," said the barber, "not to trouble yourself +about it. You must never want to hear the talk of a patient. They are +only dreams." + +"Coquebert," said the vicar, "you don't speak well. Patients' +confessions must be listened to, and some Christians who never in all +their lives said a good word may, at the end, pronounce words which open +Paradise to them." + +"I spoke temporally only," said the barber. + +"Monsieur le Cure," I said, "the Abbe Coignard, my good master, does not +wander in his mind, and it is but too true that he has been murdered by +a Jew of the name of Mosaide." + +"In that case," replied the vicar, "he has to see a special favour of +God, who willed that he perishes by the hand of a nephew of those who +crucified His Son. The behaviour of Providence is always admirable. M. +Coquebert, can I go to my vineyard?" + +"You can, sir," replied the barber. "The wound is not a good one, but +yet not of the kind by which one dies at once. It's one of those wounds +which play with the wounded like a cat with a mouse, and with such play +time may be gained." + +"That's well," said the vicar. "Let's thank God, my son, that He lets +you live, but life is precarious and transitory. One must always be +ready to quit it." + +My good tutor replied earnestly: + +"To be on the earth without being of it, to possess without being in +possession, for the fashion of this world passes away." + +Picking up his shears and his basket, the vicar said: + +"Better than by your cloak and shoes, which I see on yonder cupboard, I +recognise by your speech that you belong to the Church and lead a holy +life. Have you been ordained?" + +"He is a priest," I said, "a doctor of divinity and a professor of +eloquence." + +"Of which diocese?" queried the vicar. + +"Of Seez in Normandy, a suffragan of Rouen." + +"An important ecclesiastical province," said the vicar, "but less +important by antiquity and fame than the diocese of Reims, of which I am +a priest." + +And he went away. M. Jerome Coignard passed the day easily. Jahel wanted +to remain the night with him. At about eleven o'clock I left the house +of M. Coquebert and went in search of a bed at the inn of M. Gaulard. +I found M. d'Asterac in the market place. His shadow in the moonlight +covered nearly all the surface. He laid his hands on my shoulder as he +was wont to do, and said with his customary gravity: + +"It's time for me to assure you, my son, that I have accompanied +Mosa'ide for nothing else than this. I see you cruelly tormented by the +goblins. Those little spirits of the earth have attacked you, deceiving +you with all sorts of phantasmagoria, seducing you by a thousand lies, +and finally forcing you to fly from my house." + +"Alas! sir," I replied, "it's quite true that I left your house in +apparent ingratitude, for which I beg your pardon. But I have been +persecuted by the constables, and not by goblins. And my dear tutor has +been murdered. That's not a phantasmagoria." + +"Do not doubt," the great man answered, "that the unhappy abbe has been +mortally wounded by the Sylphs, whose secrets he has revealed. He has +stolen from a sideboard some stones, which were the work of the Sylphs, +and which they left unfinished, and still very different from diamonds +in brilliancy as well as in purity. + +"It was that avidity, and the indiscreet pronouncing of the name +of Agla, which has angered them. You must know, my son, that it is +impossible for philosophers to arrest the vengeance of this irascible +people. + +"I have heard from a supernatural voice, and also from Criton's reports, +of the sacrilegious larceny M. Coignard committed by which he flattered +himself to find out the art by which Salamanders, Sylphs, and Gnomes +ripen the morning dew and insensibly change it into crystals and +diamonds." + +"Alas! sir, I assure you he thought of no such thing, and that it was +that horrible Mosa'ide who stabbed him with a stiletto on the road." + +My words very much displeased M. d'Asterac, who urged me in the most +pressing manner never to repeat them again. + +"Mosaide," he further said, "is a good enough cabalist to reach his +enemies without going to the trouble of running after them. Know, my +son, that, had he wanted to kill M. Coignard, he could have done it +easily from his own room by a magic operation. I see that you're still +ignorant of the first elements of the science. The truth is that this +learned man, informed by the faithful Criton of the flight of his niece, +hired post-horses to rejoin her and eventually carry her back to his +house, which he certainly would have done, had he discovered in the mind +of that unhappy girl the slightest idea of regret and repentance. But, +finding her corrupted by debauchery, he preferred to excommunicate and +curse her by the globes, the wheels and the beasts of Ezekiel. That is +precisely what he has done under my eyes in the calashr where he lives +alone, so as not to partake of the bed and table of Christians." + +I kept mute, astonished by such dreams, but this extraordinary man +talked to me with an eloquence which troubled me deeply. + +"Why," he said, "do you not let yourself be enlightened by the counsels +of philosophers? What kind of wisdom do you oppose to mine? Consider +that yours is less in quantity without differing in essence. To you as +well as to me nature appears as an infinity of figures, which have to be +recognised and classified, and which form a sequence of hieroglyphics. +You can easily distinguish some of those signs to which you attach a +sense, but you are too much inclined to be content with the vulgar +and the literal, and you do not search enough for the ideal and the +symbolic. And withal the world is comprehensible only as a symbol, and +all you see in the universe is naught but an illuminated writing, which +vulgar men spell without understanding it. Be afraid, my son, to imitate +the universal bray in the style of the learned ones who congregate in +the academies. Rather receive of me the key of all knowledge." + +For a moment he stopped speaking, and then continued in a more familiar +tone: + +"You are persecuted, my son, by enemies less terrible than Sylphs. And +your Salamander will not have any difficulty in freeing you from the +goblins as soon as you request her to do so. I repeat that I came here +with Mosa'ide for no other purpose than to give you this good advice, +and to press you to return to me and continue your work. I quite +understand that you want to assist your unhappy master till the end. You +have full license to do it. But afterwards do not fail to return to +my house. Adieu! I'll return this very night to Paris with that great +Mosaide whom you have accused so unjustly." + +I promised him all he wanted, and crawled into my miserable bed, where I +fell asleep, weighed down as I was by fatigue and suffering. + + + + +CHAPTER XX + +Illness of M. Jerome Coignard + + +The next morning, at daybreak, I returned to the surgeon's house, and +there found Jahel at the bedside of my dear tutor, sitting upright on +a straw chair, with her head wrapped up in her black cape, attentive, +grave and docile, like a sister of charity. M. Coignard, very red, +dozed. + +"The night was not a good one," she said to me in a whisper. "He has +talked, he sang, he called me Sister Germaine, and has made proposals to +me. I am not offended, but it is a proof that his mind wanders." + +"Alas!" I exclaimed, "if you had not betrayed me, Jahel, to ramble about +the country in company with a gallant, my dear master would not lie in +bed stabbed in his breast." + +"It is the misery of our friend," she replied, "that causes me bitter +regrets. As for the rest, it is not worth while to think of it, and I +cannot understand, Jacques, how you can occupy your mind with it just +now." + +"I think of it always." + +"For my part, I hardly think of it. You are the cause of three-fourths +of your own unhappiness." + +"What do you mean by that, Jahel?" + +"I mean, my friend, that I have given the cloth, but that you do the +embroidery, and that your imagination enriches far too much the plain +reality. I give you my oath that the present hour I cannot remember +the quarter of what causes you grief, and you meditate over it so +obstinately that your rival is more present to your mind than I am +myself. Do not think of it any more, and let me give the abbe a cooling +drink, for he wakes up." + +At this very moment M. Coquebert approached the bedside, his +instrument-case in hand, dressed the wound anew, and said aloud that the +wound was on the best way to heal up. But taking me aside he said: + +"I can assure you, sir, that the good abbe will not die from the wound +he has received, but to tell the truth I am afraid it will be difficult +for him to escape from a pleurisy caused by his wound. He is at present +the prey of a heavy fever. But here comes the vicar." + +My good master recognised him without any difficulty, and inquired after +his health. + +"Better than the grapes," replied the vicar. "They are all spoiled by +_fleurebers_ and vermin, against which the clergy of Dijon organised +this year a fine procession with cross and banners. Next year a still +finer one will have to be arranged, and more candles burnt. It also +will be necessary for the official to excommunicate anew the flies which +destroy the grapes." + +"Vicar," said my good master, "it is said that you seduce the girls in +your vineyards. Fie! it is not right at your age. In my youth, like you +I had a weakness for the creatures. But time has altered me very much, +and quite lately I let a nun pass without saying anything to her. You do +otherwise with the damsels and the bottles, vicar. But you do worse by +not celebrating the masses you have been paid for, and by trafficking +the goods and chattels of the Church. You are a bigamist and a +simoniac." + +Hearing this discourse the vicar was painfully surprised; his mouth +remained open, and his cheeks dropped wistfully on both sides of his big +face. And at last, with eyes on the ground, he sighed: + +"What an unworthy attack on the character of my profession! What talk +for a man so near the tribunal of God! Oh, Monsieur l'Abbe, is it for +you to speak in that way, you who have lived a holy life and studied in +so many books?" + +My dear master raised himself on his elbows. The fever gave him, +unhappily, that jovial mien of his that we had always liked so much. + +"It is true," he said, "that I have studied the ancient authors. But I +have read much less than the second vicar of the Bishop of Seez, for, as +he had the look and the mind of an ass, he was able to read two pages at +the same time, one with each eye. What do you say to that, you villain +of a vicar, you old seducer, who runs after the chicks by moonlight? +Vicar, your lady friend is built like a witch. She has hairs on her +chin, she's the barber-surgeon's wife. He is fully a cuckold, and well +he deserves it, that homunculus, whose whole medical science consists in +the art of blood-letting and giving a clyster." + +"God Almighty! What does he say?" exclaimed Madame Coquebert, "for sure +he has the devil in him." + +"I have heard the talk of many delirious patients," said M. Coquebert, +"but not one has said such wicked things." + +"I am discovering," said the vicar, "that we'll have more trouble than +we expected to conduct this unhappy man to a peaceful end. There is a +biting humour in his nature and impurities I did not find out at first. +His speech is malicious, and unfit for a priest and a patient." + +"It's the effect of the fever," said the barber-surgeon. "But," +continued the vicar, "that fever, if it's not stopped, will bring him +to hell. He has gravely offended against what is due to a priest. But +still, I'll come back to-morrow and exhort him, for I owe him, by the +example of our Lord, unlimited compassion. But I have my doubts about +it. Unhappily there is a break in my winepress, and all the labourers +are in the vineyard. Coquebert, do not fail to give word to the +carpenter, and to call me to your patient if he should suddenly get +worse. These are many troubles, Coquebert!" + +The following day was such a good one for M. Coignard that we hoped he +would remain with us. He drank meat broth, and was able to rise in his +bed. He talked to each of us with his accustomed grace and sweetness. +M. d'Anquetil, who dwelt at Gaulard's, came to see him, end rather +indiscreetly asked him to play piquet Smiling, my good master promised +to do so next week. But in the evening the fever returned. With pale +eyes swiming in unspeakable terror, and shivering and chattering teeth, +he shouted: + +"There he is, the old fornicator. He is the son of Judas Iscariot begot +on a female devil, taking the form of a goat. But hanged he will be on +his father's fig-tree, and his intestines will gush out to earth. Arrest +him. ...He kills me! I feel cold!" + +But a moment later he threw the blanket off and complained of the heat. + +"I'm very thirsty," he said. "Give me some wine! And let it be cool! +Madame Coquebert, hasten to cool it in the fountain: the day will be a +burning one." + +It was night-time, he confounded the hours in his head. + +"Be quick," he also said to Madame Coquebert, "but do not be as simple +as the bell-ringer of the Cathedral of Seez, who, going to lift out of +the fountain some bottles he had put there to cool, saw his own shadow +in ihe water and shouted: 'Hello, gentleman; come and help me. There are +on the other side some Antipodeans, who'll drink our wine if we don't +take good care.'" + +"He is jovial," said Madame Coquebert. "But just now he talked of me +in a manner quite indecent Should I have deceived Coquebert I certainly +would not have done it with the vicar, out of regard for his profession +and his age." + +This very moment the vicar entered the room and asked: + +"Well, abbe, what are your dispositions now? What is there new?" + +"Thank God," answered M. Coignard, "there is nothing new in my soul, +for, as said Saint Chrysostom, beware of new things. Don't walk in +untrodden ways, one wanders without end when one commences to wander. +I have had that sad experience, and lost myself for having followed +untrodden roads. I have listened to my own counsels, and they have +conducted me to the abyss. Vicar, I am a poor sinner, the number of my +iniquities oppresses me." + +"These are fine words," said the vicar. "'Tis God Himself who dictates +them to you. I recognise His inimitable style. Do you want to advance +somewhat the salvation of your soul?" + +"Willingly," said M. Coignard. "My impurities rise against me. I see +big ones and small. I see red ones and black. I see infinitesimals which +ride on dogs and pigs, and I see others which are fat and naked, with +breasts like leather bottles, bellies in great folds, and thighs of +enormous size." + +"Is it possible," said the vicar, "that you can see as distinctly as +that? But if your faults are such as you say, it would be better not to +describe them and to be content to detest them in your own mind." + +"Would you, then, vicar," replied the abbe, "that my sins were all made +like an Adonis? Don't let us speak of it any more. And you, barber, give +me a drink. Do you know M. de la Musardiere?" + +"Not that I know of," said M. Coquebert. + +"Then know," replied my dear master, "that he was very taken with the +ladies." + +"That's the way," interrupted the vicar, "by which the devil takes his +advantage over men. But what subject do you follow, my son?" + +"You'll soon know," said my good master. "M. de la Musardiere gave an +appointment to a virgin in a stable. She went, and he let her go away +just as she entered it. Do you know why?" + +"I do not," said the vicar, "but let us leave it." + +"Not at all," continued M. Coignard. "You ought to know that he took +good care to have no intercourse with her as he was afraid of begetting +a horse, on which account he would have been subject to criminal +prosecution." + +"Ah!" said the barber, "he ought rather to have been afraid to engender +an ass." + +"Doubtless," said the vicar. "But such talk does not advance us on the +road to heaven. It would be useful to retake the good way. But a little +while ago you spoke so edifyingly!" + +Instead of giving reply, my good master began to sing, with rather a +strong voice: + + "Pour mettre en gout le roi Louison + On a pris quinze mirlitons + Landerinette + Qui tous le balai ont roll + Landeriri." + +"If you want to sing, my son," said the vicar, "you'd better sing a fine +Burgundian Christmas carol. You'd rejoice your soul by it and sanctify +it." + +"With pleasure," replied my dear tutor. "There are some by Guy Barozai +which, I think, in their apparent rusticity, to be finer than diamonds +and more precious than gold. This one, for example: + + 'Lor qu'au lai saison qu'ai jaule + Au monde Jesu-chri vin + L'ane et le beu l'echaufin + De le leu sofle dans l'etaule. + Que d'ane et de beu je sai + Dans ce royaume de Gaule, + Que d'ane et de beu je sai + Qui n'en a rien pas tan fai.'" + +The surgeon, his wife and the vicar sang together: + + "Que d'ane et de beu je sai + Dans ce royaume de Gaule, + Que d'ane et de beu je sai + Qui n'en a rien pas tan fai." + +And my good master replied in a weaker voice: + + "Mais le pu beo de l'histoire + Ce fut que l'ane et le beu + Ainsin passire to deu + La nuit sans manger ni boire + Que d'ane et de beu je sai + Couver de pane et de moire + Que d'ane et de beu je sai + Que n'en a rien pas tan fai!" + +Then he let his head fall on the pillow and sang no more. + +"There is good in this Christian," said the vicar, "much good, and a +while ago he really edified me with his beautiful sentences. But I am +not without a certain apprehension, as everything depends on the end, +and nobody knows what's hidden at the bottom of the basket God in His +kindness wills that one single moment brings us salvation, but this +moment must be the last one, so that everything depends on a single +minute, in comparison with which the whole life does not count. That's +what makes me tremble for the patient, over whom angels and devils are +furiously quarrelling. But one must never despair of divine mercy." + + + + +CHAPTER XXI + +Death of M. Jerome Coignard + + +Two days passed in cruel alternations. After that my good master became +extremely weak. + +"There is no more hope," M. Coquebert told me. "Look how his head lies +on the pillow, how thin his nose is." + +As a fact, my good master's nose, formerly big and red, was nothing now +but a bent blade, livid like lead. + +"Tournebroche, my son," he said to me in a voice still full and strong +but of a sound quite strange to me, "I feel that I have but a short +time to live. Go and fetch that good priest, that he may listen to my +confession." + +The vicar was in his vineyard. There I went. + +"The vintage is finished," he said, "and more abundant than I had hoped +for; now let's go and help that poor fellow." + +I conducted him to my master's bedside and we left him alone with the +dying. + +An hour later he came out again and said: + +"I can assure you that M. Jerome Coignard dies in admirable sentiments +of piety and humility. At his request, and in consideration of his +fervour, I'll give him the viaticum. During the time necessary for +putting on my holy garments, you, Madame Coquebert, will do me the +favour to send to the vestry the boy who serves me at mass every morning +and make the room ready for the reception of God." + +Madame Coquebert swept the room, put a white coverlet on the bed, placed +a little table at the bedside, and covered it with a cloth; she put two +candlesticks on the table and lit the candles, and an earthenware bowl +wherein a sprig of box swam in the holy water. + +Soon we heard the tinkling of the little bell, saw the cross coming +in, carried by a child, and the priest clad in white carrying the holy +vessels. Jahel, M. d'Anquetil, Madame Coquebert and I fell on our knees. + +"_Pax huic domui_," said the priest. + +"_Et omnibus habiantibus in en_," replied the servitor. + +Then the vicar took holy water and sprayed it over the patient and the +bed. + +A moment longer he meditated and then he said with much solemnity: + +"My son, have you no declaration to make?" + +"Yes, sir," said M. Abbe Coignard, with a firm voice, "I forgive my +murderer." + +Then the priest gave him the holy wafer: + +"_Ecce Agnus Dei, qui tollit peccata mundi._" + +My good master replied with a sigh: + +"May I speak to my Lord, I who am naught but dust and ashes? How can +I dare to come unto you, I who do not feel any good in me to give me +courage? How can I introduce you into me, after having so often wounded +your eyes full of kindness?" + +And the Abbe Coignard received the holy viaticum in profound silence, +interrupted by our sobs and by the great noise Madame Coquebert made +blowing her nose. + +After having received, my good master made me a sign to come near him, +and said with a feeble but distinct voice: + +"Jacques Tournebroche, my son, reject, along with the example I gave +you, the maxims which I may have proposed to you during my period of +lifelong folly. Be in fear of women and of books for the softness and +pride accords the little ones a clearer intelligence than the wise one +takes in them. Be humble of heart and spirit. God can give them. 'Tis +He who gives all science. My boy, do not listen to those who, like me, +subtilise on the good and the evil. Do not be taken in by the beauty and +acuteness of their discourses, for the kingdom of God does not consist +of words but of virtue." + +He remained quiet, exhausted. I took his hand, lying on the sheet, and +covered it with kisses and tears. I told him that he was our master, our +friend, our father, and that I could not live without him. + +And for long hours I remained waiting at the foot of his bed. + +He passed so peaceful a night that I conceived a quite desperate hope. +In this state he remained part of the following day. But towards the +evening he became agitated and pronounced words so indistinctly that +they remained a secret between God and himself. + +At midnight he fell into a kind of swoon, and nothing could be heard +but the slight scratching of his finger nails on the sheet. He no longer +knew me. + +About two o'clock the death rattle began. The hoarse and rapid breathing +which came from his breast was loud enough to be heard far away in the +village street, and my ears were so full of it that I fancied I heard +it long after that unhappy day. At daybreak he made a sign with his hand +which we could not understand, and sighed long and deeply. It was his +last. His features took in death a majesty worthy of the genius that had +animated him, and the loss of which will never be repaired. + + + + +CHAPTER XXII + +Funeral and Epitaph + + +The Vicar of Vallars prepared a worthy funeral for M. Jerome Coignard. +He chanted the death mass and gave the benediction. + +My good master was carried to the graveyard close by the church; and +M. d'Anquetil offered supper at Gaulard's to all the people who had +assisted at the funeral. They drank new wine and sang Burgundian songs. + +Afterwards I went with M. d'Anquetil to the vicar to thank him for his +good offices. + +"Ah!" he said, "that priest has given us a grand consolation by his +edifying end. I have seldom seen a Christian die in such admirable +sentiments, and I think it fit to fix his memory by a suitable +inscription on his tombstone. Both of you, gentlemen, are learned enough +to do that successfully, and I engage myself to have the epitaph of the +defunct engraved on a large white stone, in the manner and style wherein +you compose it. But remember, in making the stone speak, to make it +proclaim nothing but the praise of God." + +I begged of him to believe that I should apply all my zeal to this work, +and M. d'Anquetil promised to give the matter a gallant and graceful +turn. + +"I will," he said, "try to write French verse in the style of M. +Chapelle." + +"That's right!" said the vicar. "But are you not curious to look at my +winepress? The wine will be good this year, and I have made enough for +my own and my servants' use. Alas! save for the _fleurebers_ we should +have had far more." + +After supper M. d'Anquetil called for ink, and began the composition of +his French verses. But he soon became impatient and threw up in the air +the pen, ink and paper. + +"Tournebroche," he said, "I've made two verses only, and I am not quite +sure that they are good. They run as follows: + + 'Ci-dessus git monsieur Coignard + II faut bien mourir tot ou tard.'" + +I replied that the best of it was, that he had noi written a third one. + +And I passed the night composing the following epitaph in Latin: + + D. O. M. + HIC JACET + + IN SPE BEATAE AETERNITATIS + DOMINUS HIERONYMUS COIGNARD + + PRESBYTER + + QUONDAM IN BELLOVACENSI COLLEGIO + ELOQUENTILE MAGISTER ELOQUENTISSIMU + SAGIENSIS EPISCOPI BIBLIOTHECARIUS SOLERTISSIMUS + ZOZIMI PANOPOLITANI INGENIOSISSIMUS + + TRANSLATOR + + OPERE TAMEN IMMATURATA MORTE INTERCEPTO + PERIIT ENIM CUM LUGDUNUM PETERET + JUDEA MANU NEFANDISSIMA + ID EST A NEPOTE CHRISTI CARNIFICUM + IN VIA TRUCIDATUS + + ANNO AET. LII + + COMITATE FUIT OPTIMA DOCTISSIMO CONVITU + INGENIO SUBLIMI + FACETIIS JUCUNDUS SENTENTTIS PLENUS + DONORUM DEI LAUDATOR + TIDE DEVOTISSIMA PER MULTAS TEMPESTATlS + CONSTANTER MUNITTJS + HUMILITATE SANCTISSIMA ORNATUS + SALUTI SUAE MAGIS INTENTUS + + + + QUAM VANO ET FALLACI HOMINUM JUDICIO + SIC HONORIBUS MUNDANIS + NUNQUAM QUIESITIS + SIBI GLORIAM SEMPITERNAM + MERUIT + +which may be translated: + + HERE SLEEPS + In the hope of a happy eternity + THE REVEREND JEROME COIGNARD + Priest + + Formerly a very eloquent professor of eloquence + At the college of Beauvais + Very zealous librarian to the Bishop of Seez + Author of a fine translation of Zosimus the Panopolitan + Which he unhappily left unfinished + When overtaken by his premature death + He was stabbed on the road to Lyons + In the 52nd year of his age + By the very villainous hand of a Jew + And thus perished the victim of a descendant of the murderer + Of Jesus Christ + + He was an agreeable companion + Of a learned conversation + Of an elevated genius + Abounding in cheerful speech and in good maxims + And praising God in his works + He preserved amid the storms of life an unshakable faith + In his truly Christian humility + More attentive to the salvation of his soul + Than to the vain and erroneous opinions of men + It was by living without honour in this world + That he walked towards eternal glory + + + + +CHAPTER XXIII + +Farewell to Jahel-Dispersal of the Party + + +Three days after the demise of my good master, M. d'Anquetil decided +to continue his journey. The carriage had been repaired. He gave the +postboys the order to be ready on the following morning. His company had +never been agreeable to me; in the state of sorrow I was in, it became +odious. I could not bear the idea of following him and Jahel. I resolved +to look for employment at Tournus or at Macon, and to remain hidden till +the storm had calmed down sufficiently to enable me to return to Paris, +where I was sure to be received with outstretched arms by my dear +parents. I imparted my intention to M. d'Anquetil, and excused myself +for not accompanying him any farther. He tried to retain me with a +gracefulness I was not prepared for, but soon willingly gave me leave to +go where I wished. With Jahel the matter was more difficult, but, being +naturally reasonable, she accepted the reasons I had for leaving her. + +On the night before my departure, while M. d'Anquetil drank and played +cards with the barber-surgeon, Jahel and I went to the market place to +get a breath of air. It was embalmed by the scent of herbs and full of +the song of crickets. + +"What a night!" I said to Jahel. "The year cannot produce another like +it, and perhaps all my life long I shall never see one so sweet." + +The flower-decked village graveyard extended before our eyes its +motionless turf, and the moonlight whitened the scattered graves on the +dark grass. The same thought came to both of us to say a last farewell +to our friend. The place where he was put to eternal rest was marked +by a tear-sprinkled cross planted deep in the mellow earth. The stone +whereon the epitaph was to be engraved had not yet been placed. We +seated ourselves very close to the grave on the grass, and there, by +an insensible but natural inclination, we fell into one another's arms +without fearing to offend by our kisses the memory of a friend whom deep +wisdom had rendered indulgent to human weakness. + +Suddenly, Jahel whispered in my ear, where her mouth was already placed: + +"I see M. d'Anquetil, who, from the top of the wall, looks eagerly +towards us." + +"Can he see us in this shadow?" I asked. + +"He certainly sees my white petticoat," she said; "it's enough, I think, +to tempt him to look for more." + +I first thought to draw my sword, and was quite decided to defend two +existences, which were at this moment still very much mixed. Jahel's +calm surprised me, neither her movements nor her voice showed any fear. + +"Go," she said to me, "fly, and don't fear for me. It's a surprise I +have rather wished for. He began to get tired of me, and this encounter +is quite efficacious to reanimate his desires and season his love. Go +and leave the alone. The first moment will be hard, for he is of a very +violent disposition. He'll strike me, but after, t shall be still dearer +to him. Farewell!" + +"Alas!" I exclaimed, "did you take me then, Jahel, for Nothing but to +sharpen the desires of my rival?" + +"I wonder that you also want to quarrel with me. Go, I say!" + +"What! leave you like this?" + +"It's necessary. Farewell! He must not meet you here, I want to make him +jealous, but in a delicate manner. I Farewell! Farewell." + +I had hardly gone a few steps between the labyrinth of tombstones +when M. d'Anquetil, having come forward to enable him to recognise his +mistress, began to shout and to curse loud enough to awaken the village +dead. I was anxious to tear Jahel away from his rage; I thought he would +kill her. I glided between the tombstones to her assistance. But after +a few minutes, observing them very closely, I saw M. d'Anquetil pulling +her out of the cemetery and leading her towards Gaulard's inn with a +remainder of fury she was easily capable of calming, alone and without +help. + +I returned to my room after they had entered theirs I could not sleep +the whole of the night, and looking out at daybreak, through an opening +in the window curtains I saw them crossing the courtyard apparently the +best of friends. + +Jahel's departure augmented my sorrow. I stretched myself full length on +my stomach on the floor of my room, and with my face in my hands cried +until the evening. + + + + +CHAPTER XXIV + +I am pardoned and return to Paris--Again at the _Queen Pedauque_--I go +as Assistant to M. Blaizot--Burning of the Castle of Sablons--Death of +Mosaide and of M. d'Asterac. + + +From now onwards my life loses the interest which events had lent it, +and my destiny, having again become in conformity with my character, +offers nothing but ordinary occurrences. If I should prolong my memoirs +my narrative would very soon become tiresome. I'll bring it to a +close with but few words. The Vicar of Vallars gave me a letter of +introduction to a wine merchant at Macon, with whom I was employed for a +couple of months, after which my father wrote to me that he had arranged +my affair and that I was free to return to Paris. + +I took coach immediately and travelled with some recruits. My heart beat +violently when I again saw the Rue Saint Jacques, the clock of Saint +Benoit le Betourne, the signboard of the _Three Virgins_ and the _Saint +Catherine_ of M. Blaizot. + +My mother cried when she saw me; I also cried, and we embraced and cried +together again. + +My father came in haste from the _Little Bacchus_ and said with a moving +dignity: + +"Jacquot, my son, I cannot and will not deny that I Was very angry when +I saw the constables enter the _Queen Pedauque_ in search of you, or, +in default of you, arresting me. They would not listen to any sort of +remonstrance, alleging that I could easily explain myself after being +taken to jail. They looked for you on a complaint of M. de la Gueritude. +I conceived a most horrible idea of your disorders. But having been +informed by letter that it was a question only of some peccadillo I +had no other thought but to see you again. Many a time I consulted the +landlord of the _Little Bacchus_ on the means to hush up your affair. He +always replied: 'Master Leonard, go to the judge with a big bag full of +crown pieces and he will give you back your lad as white as snow.' But +crown pieces are scarce with us, and there is neither hen nor goose +nor duck who lays golden eggs in my house. At present I hardly get +sufficient by my poultry to pay the expenses of the roasting. By good +luck, your saintly and worthy mother had the good idea of going to the +mother of M. d'Anquetil whom we knew to be busy in favour of her son, +who was sought after at the same time as you were, and for the identical +affair. I am quite aware, my Jacquot, that you played the man about town +in company with a nobleman, and my head is too well placed not to feel +the honour which it reflects on our whole family. Mother dressed as +if she intended to go to mass; and Madame d'Anquetil received her with +kindness. Thy mother, Jacquot, is a holy woman, but she has not the best +of society manners, and at first she talked without aim or reason. She +said: 'Madame, at our age, besides God Almighty nothing remains to us +but our children.' That was not the right thing to say to that great +lady who still has her gallants." + +"Hold your tongue, Leonard," exclaimed my mother. "The behaviour of +Madame d'Anquetil is unknown to you, and it appears that I spoke to her +in the right way, because she said to me: 'Don't be troubled, Madame +Menetrier; I will employ my influence in favour of your son; be sure of +my zeal.' And you know, Leonard, that we received before the expiration +of two months the assurance that our Jacquot could return unmolested to +Paris." + +We supped with a good appetite. My father asked me if was my intention +to re-enter the service of M. d'Asterac. I replied that after the +lamented death of my kind master I did not wish to encounter that cruel +Mosaide in the house of a nobleman who paid his servants with fine +speeches and nothing else. My father very kindly invited me to turn the +spit as in former days. + +"Latterly, Jacquot," he said, "I gave the place to Friar Ange, but he +did not do as well as Miraut or yourself. Don't you want to take your +old place at the corner of the fireside?" + +My mother, plain and simple as she was, did not want common-sense and +said: + +"M. Blaizot, the bookseller of the _Image of Saint Catherine_, is in +want of an assistant. This employment, Jacquot, ought to suit you like +a glove. Thy dispositions are sweet, thy manners are good, and that's +what's wanted to sell Bibles." + +I went at once to M. Blaizot, who took me into his service. + +My misfortunes had made me wise. I did not feel discouraged by the +humbleness of my employment, and I fulfilled my duties with exactitude, +handling the duster and broom to the satisfaction of my employer. + +One of my duties was to pay a visit to M. d'Asterac. I went to the great +alchemist on the last Sunday of November, after the midday dinner. It's +a long way from the Rue Saint Jacques to the Croix-des-Sablons, and the +almanac does not lie when it announces that in November the days are +short. "When I arrived at the Roule it was quite dark, and a black +haze covered the deserted road. And sorrowful were my thoughts in the +darkness. + +"Alas," I said to myself, "it will soon be a full year since I first +walked on this road, in the snow, in company with my dear master, who +now rests in a small village in Burgundy encircled by vineyards. He +sleeps in the hope of eternal life. And it is but right to have the same +hope as a man as wise as he. God preserve me from ever doubting of the +immortality of the soul! But, one must confess to oneself, all that is +connected with a future existence and another world is of those verities +in which one believes without being moved and which have neither taste +nor savour of any kind, so that one swallows them without perceiving it. +As for me I find no consolation in the idea of meeting again the Abbe +Coignard in Paradise. Surely I could not recognise him, and his +speeches would not contain the agreeableness which he derived from +circumstances." + +Occupied with these reflections, I saw before me a fierce light +covering one-half of the sky; the fog was reddened by it, and the light +palpitated in the centre. A heavy smoke mixed with the vapours of +the air. I at once became afraid that the fire had broken out at the +d'Asterac castle. I quickened my steps, and very soon ascertained that +my fears were but too well founded. I discovered the calvary of the +Sablons, an opaque black on a background of flame, and I saw nearly all +the windows of the castle flaring as for a sinister feast. The little +green door was broken in. Shadows gesticulated in the park and murmured +the horror they felt. They were the inhabitants of the borough of +Neuilly, who had come for curiosity's sake and to bring help. Some threw +water from a fire engine on the burning edifice, making a fiery rain of +sparks arise. A thick volume of smoke rose over the castle. A shower +of sparks and of cinders fell round me, and I soon became aware that my +garments and my hands were blackened. With much mortification I thought +that all that burning dust in the air was the end of so many fine books +and precious manuscripts, which were the joy of my dear master, the +remains, perhaps, of Zosimus the Panopolitan, on which we had worked +together during the noblest hours of my life. + +I had seen the Abbe Jerome Coignard die. Now, it was his soul, his +sparkling and sweet soul, which I fancied reduced to ashes together with +the queen of libraries. The wind strengthened the fire and the flames +roared like voracious beasts. + +Questioning a man of Neuilly still blacker than myself, and wearing only +his vest, I asked him if M. d'Asterac and his people had been saved. + +"Nobody," he said, "has left the castle except an old Jew, who was seen +running laden with packages in the direction of the swamps. He lived in +the keeper's cottage on the river, and was hated for his origin and +for the crimes of which he was suspected. Children pursued him. And +in running away he fell into the Seine. He was fished out when dead, +pressing on his heart a cup and six golden plates. You can see him on +the river bank in his yellow gown. With his eyes open he is horrible." + +"Ah!" I replied, "his end is due to his crimes. But his death does not +give me back the best of masters whom he slew. Tell me again; has nobody +seen M. d'Asterac?" + +At the very moment when I put the question I heard near me one of the +moving shadows cry out: + +"Thereof is falling in!" + +And now I recognised with unspeakable horror the great black form of +M. d'Asterac running along the gutters. The alchemist shouted with a +sounding voice: + +"I rise on wings of flame up to the seat of life divine!" + +So he said, and suddenly the roof fell in with a tremendous crash, and +the flames as high as mountains enveloped the friend of the Salamanders. + + + + +CHAPTER XXV + +I become a Bookseller--I have many learned and witty Customers but none +to equal the Abbe Jerome Coignard, D. D., M. A. + + +There is no love will stand separation. The memory of Jahel, smarting +at first, was smoothed down little by little, and nothing remained but a +vague irritation, of which she was no longer the only object. + +M. Blaizot aged quickly. He retired to Montrouge, to his cottage in the +fields, and sold me his shop against a life annuity. Having become in +his place the sworn bookseller of the _Image of Saint Catherine_, I took +with me my father and mother, whose cookshop flourished no more. I liked +my humble shop and took care to trim it up. I nailed on the doors +some old Venetian maps and some theses ornamented with allegorical +engravings, which made a decoration old and odd no doubt, but pleasant +to friends of good learning. My knowledge, taking care to hide it +cleverly, was not detrimental to my trade. It would have been worse had +I been a publisher like Marc-Michel Rey, and obliged like him to gain my +living at the expense of the stupidity of the public. + +I keep in stock, as they say, the classical authors, and that is a +merchandise in demand in that learned Rue Saint Jacques of which it +would please me one day to write an account of its antiquities and +celebrities. The first Parisian printer established his venerable +presses there. The Cramoisys, whom Guy Patin calls the kings of the Rue +Saint Jacques, published there the works of our historians. Before the +erection of the College of France, the king's readers, Pierre Danes, +Francois Votable, Ramus, gave their lectures there in a shed which +echoed with the quarrels between the street porters and the washerwomen. +And how can we forget Jean de Meung, who composed in one of the little +houses of this street the _Roman de la Rose_? [Footnote: Jacques +Tournebroche did not know that Francois Villon also dwelt in the Rue +Saint Jacques, at the Cloister Saint Benoit, in a house called the +_Porte Verte_. The pupil of M. Jerome Coignard would no doubt have had +great pleasure in recalling the memory of that ancient poet, who, like +himself, had known various sorts of people.] + +I have the whole house at my disposal: it is very old, and dates at +least from the time of the Goths, as may be seen by the wooden joists +crossed on the narrow front and by the mossy tiles. It has but one +window on each floor. The one on the first floor is all the year round +garnished with flowers, strings are attached, and all sorts of climbers +run up them in springtime. My good old mother takes care of this. + +It is the window of her room. She can be seen from the street, reading +her prayers in a book printed in big letters over the image of Saint +Catherine. Age, devotion and maternal pride have given her a grand air, +and to see her wax-coloured face under her high white cap one could take +his oath on her being a wealthy citizen's wife. + +My father, in getting old, also acquired some dignity. As he likes +exercise and fresh air I employ him to carry books about town. First +I employed Friar Ange, but he begged of my customers, made them kiss +relics, stole their wine, caressed their servant girls, and left +one-half of my books in the gutters. I soon gave him the sack. But my +good mother, whom he makes believe that he is possessed of secrets for +gaining heaven, gives him soup and wine. He is not a bad man, and in the +end I became somewhat attached to him. + +Several learned men and some wits frequent my shop And it is a great +advantage to my trade to be in daily contact with men of merit. Among +those who often come to look at new books and converse familiarly among +themselves there are historians as learned as Tillemont, sacred orators +the equals of Bossuet and Bourdaloue in eloquence, comic and tragic +poets, theologians who unite purity of morals with solidity of doctrine, +the esteemed authors of "Spanish" novels, geometers and philosophers +capable, like M. Descartes, of measuring and weighing the universe. +I admire them, I enjoy the least of their words. But not one, to +my thinking, is equal in genius to my dear master, whom I had the +misfortune to lose on the road to Lyons; not one reminds me of that +incomparable elegance of thought, that sweet sublimity, that astonishing +wealth of a soul always expanding and flowering, like the urns of rivers +represented in marble in gardens; not one gives me that never-failing +spring of science and of morals, wherein I had the happiness to quench +the thirst of my youth, none give me more than a shadow of that grace, +that wisdom, that strength of thought which shone in M. Jerome Coignard. +I hold him to be the most amiable spirit who has ever flourished on the +earth. + + + + + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Queen Pedauque, by Anatole France + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE QUEEN PEDAUQUE *** + +***** This file should be named 6571.txt or 6571.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/6/5/7/6571/ + +Produced by Charles Franks and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team + +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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