The Country Doctor ............................................................................................................................................1

Honore de Balzac .....................................................................................................................................1

CHAPTER I. THE COUNTRYSIDE AND THE MAN.........................................................................1

CHAPTER II. A DOCTOR'S ROUND.................................................................................................36

CHAPTER III. THE NAPOLEON OF THE PEOPLE.........................................................................70

CHAPTER IV. THE COUNTRY DOCTOR'S CONFESSION ............................................................96

CHAPTER V. ELEGIES.....................................................................................................................115

On a lovely spring morning in the year 1829, a man of fifty or thereabouts was wending his way on

horseback along the mountain road that leads to a large village near the Grande Chartreuse. This village is the

market town of a populous canton that lies within the limits of a valley of some considerable length. The

melting of the snows had filled the boulderstrewn bed of the torrent (often dry) that flows through this

valley, which is closely shut in between two parallel mountain barriers, above which the peaks of Savoy and

All the scenery of the country that lies between the chain of the two Mauriennes is very much alike; yet here

in the district through which the stranger was traveling there are soft undulations of the land, and varying

effects of light which might be sought for elsewhere in vain. Sometimes the valley, suddenly widening,

spreads out a soft irregularlyshaped carpet of grass before the eyes; a meadow constantly watered by the

mountain streams that keep it fresh and green at all seasons of the year. Sometimes a roughlybuilt sawmill

appears in a picturesque position, with its stacks of long pine trunks with the bark peeled off, and its mill

stream, brought from the bed of the torrent in great square wooden pipes, with masses of dripping filament

issuing from every crack. Little cottages, scattered here and there, with their gardens full of blossoming fruit

trees, call up the ideas that are aroused by the sight of industrious poverty; while the thought of ease, secured

after long years of toil, is suggested by some larger houses farther on, with their red roofs of flat round tiles,

shaped like the scales of a fish. There is no door, moreover, that does not duly exhibit a basket in which the

cheeses are hung up to dry. Every roadside and every croft is adorned with vines; which here, as in Italy, they

train to grow about dwarf elm trees, whose leaves are stripped off to feed the cattle.

Nature, in her caprice, has brought the sloping hills on either side so near together in some places, that there

is no room for fields, or buildings, or peasants' huts. Nothing lies between them but the torrent, roaring over

its waterfalls between two lofty walls of granite that rise above it, their sides covered with the leafage of tall

beeches and dark fir trees to the height of a hundred feet. The trees, with their different kinds of foliage, rise

up straight and tall, fantastically colored by patches of lichen, forming magnificent colonnades, with a line of

straggling hedgerow of guelder rose, briar rose, box and arbutus above and below the roadway at their feet.

The subtle perfume of this undergrowth was mingled just then with scents from the wild mountain region and

with the aromatic fragrance of young larch shoots, budding poplars, and resinous pines.

Here and there a wreath of mist about the heights sometimes hid and sometimes gave glimpses of the gray

crags, that seemed as dim and vague as the soft flecks of cloud dispersed among them. The whole face of the

country changed every moment with the changing light in the sky; the hues of the mountains, the soft shades

of their lower slopes, the very shape of the valleys seemed to vary continually. A ray of sunlight through the

treestems, a clear space made by nature in the woods, or a landslip here and there, coming as a surprise to

make a contrast in the foreground, made up an endless series of pictures delightful to see amid the silence, at

the time of year when all things grow young, and when the sun fills a cloudless heaven with a blaze of light.

The traveler was a tall man, dressed from head to foot in a suit of blue cloth, which must have been brushed

just as carefully every morning as the glossy coat of his horse. He held himself firm and erect in the saddle

like an old cavalry officer. Even if his black cravat and doeskin gloves, the pistols that filled his holsters, and

the valise securely fastened to the crupper behind him had not combined to mark him out as a soldier, the air

of unconcern that sat on his face, his regular features (scarred though they were with the smallpox), his

determined manner, selfreliant expression, and the way he held his head, all revealed the habits acquired

through military discipline, of which a soldier can never quite divest himself, even after he has retired from

Any other traveler would have been filled with wonder at the loveliness of this Alpine region, which grows so

bright and smiling as it becomes merged in the great valley systems of southern France; but the officer, who

no doubt had previously traversed a country across which the French armies had been drafted in the course of

Napoleon's wars, enjoyed the view before him without appearing to be surprised by the many changes that

swept across it. It would seem that Napoleon has extinguished in his soldiers the sensation of wonder; for an

impassive face is a sure token by which you may know the men who served erewhile under the shortlived

yet deathless Eagles of the great Emperor. The traveler was, in fact, one of those soldiers (seldom met with

nowadays) whom shot and shell have respected, although they have borne their part on every battlefield

There had been nothing unusual in his life. He had fought valiantly in the ranks as a simple and loyal soldier,

doing his duty as faithfully by night as by day, and whether in or out of his officer's sight. He had never dealt

a sabre stroke in vain, and was incapable of giving one too many. If he wore at his buttonhole the rosette of

an officer of the Legion of Honor, it was because the unanimous voice of his regiment had singled him out as

He belonged to that small minority of undemonstrative retiring natures, who are always at peace with

themselves, and who are conscious of a feeling of humiliation at the mere thought of making a request, no

matter what its nature may be. So promotion had come to him tardily, and by virtue of the slowlyworking

laws of seniority. He had been made a sublieutenant in 1802, but it was not until 1829 that he became a

major, in spite of the grayness of his moustaches. His life had been so blameless that no man in the army, not

even the general himself, could approach him without an involuntary feeling of respect. It is possible that he

was not forgiven for this indisputable superiority by those who ranked above him; but, on the other hand,

there was not one of his men that did not feel for him something of the affection of children for a good

mother. For them he knew how to be at once indulgent and severe. He himself had also once served in the

ranks, and knew the sorry joys and gailyendured hardships of the soldier's lot. He knew the errors that may

be passed over and the faults that must be punished in his men"his children," as he always called

themand when on campaign he readily gave them leave to forage for provision for man and horse among

His own personal history lay buried beneath the deepest reserve. Like almost every military man in Europe,

he had only seen the world through cannon smoke, or in the brief intervals of peace that occurred so seldom

during the Emperor's continual wars with the rest of Europe. Had he or had he not thought of marriage? The

question remained unsettled. Although no one doubted that Commandant Genestas had made conquests

during his sojourn in town after town and country after country where he had taken part in the festivities

given and received by the officers, yet no one knew this for a certainty. There was no prudery about him; he

would not decline to join a pleasure party; he in no way offended against military standards; but when

questioned as to his affairs of the heart, he either kept silence or answered with a jest. To the words, "How are

you, commandant?" addressed to him by an officer over the wine, his reply was, "Pass the bottle, gentlemen."

M. Pierre Joseph Genestas was an unostentatious kind of Bayard. There was nothing romantic nor

picturesque about himhe was too thoroughly commonplace. His ways of living were those of a welltodo

man. Although he had nothing beside his pay, and his pension was all that he had to look to in the future, the

major always kept two years' pay untouched, and never spent his allowances, like some shrewd old men of

business with whom cautious prudence has almost become a mania. He was so little of a gambler that if,

when in company, some one was wanted to cut in or to take a bet at ecarte, he usually fixed his eyes on his

boots; but though he did not allow himself any extravagances, he conformed in every way to custom.

His uniforms lasted longer than those of any other officer in his regiment, as a consequence of the sedulously

careful habits that somewhat straitened means had so instilled into him, that they had come to be like a

second nature. Perhaps he might have been suspected of meannesss if it had not been for the fact that with

wonderful disinterestedness and all a comrade's readiness, his purse would be opened for some harebrained

boy who had ruined himself at cards or by some other folly. He did a service of this kind with such thoughtful

tact, that it seemed as though he himself had at one time lost heavy sums at play; he never considered that he

had any right to control the actions of his debtor; he never made mention of the loan. He was the child of his

company; he was alone in the world, so he had adopted the army for his fatherland, and the regiment for his

family. Very rarely, therefore, did any one seek the motives underlying his praiseworthy turn for thrift; for it

pleased others, for the most part, to set it down to a not unnatural wish to increase the amount of the savings

that were to render his old age comfortable. Till the eve of his promotion to the rank of lieutenantcolonel of

cavalry it was fair to suppose that it was his ambition to retire in the course of some campaign with a

If Genestas' name came up when the officers gossiped after drill, they were wont to classify him among the

men who begin with taking the goodconduct prize at school, and who, throughout the term of their natural

lives, continue to be punctilious, conscientious, and passionlessas good as white bread, and just as insipid.

Thoughtful minds, however, regarded him very differently. Not seldom it would happen that a glance, or an

expression as full of significance as the utterance of a savage, would drop from him and bear witness to past

storms in his soul; and a careful study of his placid brow revealed a power of stifling down and repressing his

passions into inner depths, that had been dearly bought by a lengthy acquaintance with the perils and

disastrous hazards of war. An officer who had only just joined the regiment, the son of a peer of France, had

said one day of Genestas, that he would have made one of the most conscientious of priests, or the most

"Add, the least of a courtier among marquises," put in Genestas, scanning the young puppy, who did not

There was a burst of laughter at the words, for the lieutenant's father cringed to all the powers that be; he was

a man of supple intellect, accustomed to jump with every change of government, and his son took after him.

Men like Genestas are met with now and again in the French army; natures that show themselves to be

wholly great at need, and relapse into their ordinary simplicity when the action is over; men that are little

mindful of fame and reputation, and utterly forgetful of danger. Perhaps there are many more of them than

the shortcomings of our own characters will allow us to imagine. Yet, for all that, any one who believed that

Genestas was perfect would be strangely deceiving himself. The major was suspicious, given to violent

outbursts of anger, and apt to be tiresome in argument; he was full of national prejudices, and above all

things, would insist that he was in the right, when he was, as a matter of fact, in the wrong. He retained the

liking for good wine that he had acquired in the ranks. If he rose from a banquet with all the gravity befitting

his position, he seemed serious and pensive, and had no mind at such times to admit any one into his

Finally, although he was sufficiently acquainted with the customs of society and with the laws of politeness,

to which he conformed as rigidly as if they had been military regulations; though he had real mental power,

both natural and acquired; and although he had mastered the art of handling men, the science of tactics, the

theory of sabre play, and the mysteries of the farrier's craft, his learning had been prodigiously neglected. He

knew in a hazy kind of way that Caesar was a Roman Consul, or an Emperor, and that Alexander was either a

Greek or a Macedonian; he would have conceded either quality or origin in both cases without discussion. If

the conversation turned on science or history, he was wont to become thoughtful, and to confine his share in

it to little approving nods, like a man who by dint of profound thought has arrived at scepticism.

When, at Schonbrunn, on May 13, 1809, Napoleon wrote the bulletin addressed to the Grand Army, then the

masters of Vienna, in which he said that like Medea, the Austrian princes had slain their children with their

own hands; Genestas, who had been recently made a captain, did not wish to compromise his newly

conferred dignity by asking who Medea was; he relied upon Napoleon's character, and felt quite sure that the

Emperor was incapable of making any announcement not in proper form to the Grand Army and the House of

Austria. So he thought that Medea was some archduchess whose conduct was open to criticism. Still, as the

matter might have some bearing on the art of war, he felt uneasy about the Medea of the bulletin until a day

arrived when Mlle. Raucourt revived the tragedy of Medea. The captain saw the placard, and did not fail to

repair to the Theatre Francais that evening, to see the celebrated actress in her mythological role, concerning

A man, however, who as a private soldier had possessed sufficient force of character to learn to read, write,

and cipher, could clearly understand that as a captain he ought to continue his education. So from this time

forth he read new books and romances with avidity, in this way gaining a halfknowledge, of which he made

a very fair use. He went so far in his gratitude to his teachers as to undertake the defence of PigaultLebrun,

This officer, whose acquired practical wisdom did not allow him to make any journey in vain, had just come

from Grenoble, and was on his way to the Grande Chartreuse, after obtaining on the previous evening a

week's leave of absence from his colonel. He had not expected that the journey would be a long one; but

when, league after league, he had been misled as to the distance by the lying statements of the peasants, he

thought it would be prudent not to venture any farther without fortifying the inner man. Small as were his

chances of finding any housewife in her dwelling at a time when every one was hard at work in the fields, he

stopped before a little cluster of cottages that stood about a piece of land common to all of them, more or less

The surface of the soil thus held in conjoint ownership was hard and carefully swept, but intersected by open

drains. Roses, ivy, and tall grasses grew over the cracked and disjointed walls. Some rags were drying on a

miserable currant bush that stood at the entrance of the square. A pig wallowing in a heap of straw was the

first inhabitant encountered by Genestas. At the sound of horse hoofs the creature grunted, raised its head,

and put a great black cat to flight. A young peasant girl, who was carrying a bundle of grass on her head,

suddenly appeared, followed at a distance by four little brats, clad in rags, it is true, but vigorous, sunburned,

picturesque, boldeyed, and riotous; thorough little imps, looking like angels. The sun shone down with an

indescribable purifying influence upon the air, the wretched cottages, the heaps of refuse, and the unkempt

The soldier asked whether it was possible to obtain a cup of milk. All the answer the girl made him was a

hoarse cry. An old woman suddenly appeared on the threshold of one of the cabins, and the young peasant

girl passed on into a cowshed, with a gesture that pointed out the aforesaid old woman, towards whom

Genestas went; taking care at the same time to keep a tight hold on his horse, lest the children who were

already running about under his hoofs should be hurt. He repeated his request, with which the housewife

flatly refused to comply. She would not, she said, disturb the cream on the pans full of milk from which

butter was to be made. The officer overcame this objection by undertaking to repay her amply for the wasted

The four children belonging to the woman all appeared to be of the same agean odd circumstance which

struck the commandant. A fifth clung about her skirts; a weak, pale, sicklylooking child, who doubtless

needed more care than the others, and who on that account was the best beloved, the Benjamin of the family.

Genestas seated himself in a corner by the fireless hearth. A sublime symbol met his eyes on the high

mantelshelf above hima colored plaster cast of the Virgin with the Child Jesus in her arms. Bare earth

made the flooring of the cottage. It had been beaten level in the first instance, but in course of time it had

grown rough and uneven, so that though it was clean, its ruggedness was not unlike that of the magnified rind

of an orange. A sabot filled with salt, a fryingpan, and a large kettle hung inside the chimney. The farther

end of the room was completely filled by a fourpost bedstead, with a scalloped valance for decoration. The

walls were black; there was an opening to admit the light above the wormeaten door; and here and there

were a few stools consisting of rough blocks of beechwood, each set upon three wooden legs; a hutch for

bread, a large wooden dipper, a bucket and some earthen milkpans, a spinningwheel on the top of the

breadhutch, and a few wicker mats for draining cheeses. Such were the ornaments and household furniture

The officer, who had been absorbed in flicking his ridingwhip against the floor, presently became a witness

to a piece of byplay, all unsuspicious though he was that any drama was about to unfold itself. No sooner

had the old woman, followed by her scaldheaded Benjamin, disappeared through a door that led into her

dairy, than the four children, after having stared at the soldier as long as they wished, drove away the pig by

way of a beginning. This animal, their accustomed playmate, having come as far as the threshold, the little

brats made such an energetic attack upon him, that he was forced to beat a hasty retreat. When the enemy had

been driven without, the children besieged the latch of a door that gave way before their united efforts, and

slipped out of the worn staple that held it; and finally they bolted into a kind of fruitloft, where they very

soon fell to munching the dried plums, to the amusement of the commandant, who watched this spectacle.

The old woman, with the face like parchment and the dirty ragged clothing, came back at this moment, with a

She ran to the children, clutched an arm of each child, bundled them into the room, and carefully closed the

door of her storeroom of plenty. But she did not take their prunes away from them.

"Now, then, be good, my pets! If one did not look after them," she went on, looking at Genestas, "they would

Then she seated herself on a threelegged stool, drew the little weakling between her knees, and began to

comb and wash his head with a woman's skill and with motherly assiduity. The four small thieves hung

about. Some of them stood, others leant against the bed or the bread hutch. They gnawed their prunes

without saying a word, but they kept their sly and mischievous eyes fixed upon the stranger. In spite of grimy

countenances and noses that stood in need of wiping, they all looked strong and healthy.

"Asking your pardon, sir, they are charity children. They give me three francs a month and a pound's weight

"That is just what M. Benassis tells me, sir; but if other folk will board the children for the same money, one

has to make it do. Nobody wants the children, but for all that there is a good deal of performance to go

through before they will let us have them. When the milk we give them comes to nothing, they cost us

scarcely anything. Besides that, three francs is a great deal, sir; there are fifteen francs coming in, to say

nothing of the five pounds' weight of soap. In our part of the world you would simply have to wear your life

"No, sir. I had some land once when my husband was alive; since he died I have done so badly that I had to

"Why, how do you reach the year's end without debts?" Genestas went on, "when you bring up children for a

"Well, we never go to St. Sylvester's Day without debt, sir," she went on without ceasing to comb the child's

hair. "But so it isProvidence helps us out. I have a couple of cows. Then my daughter and I do some

gleaning at harvesttime, and in winter we pick up firewood. Then at night we spin. Ah! we never want to

see another winter like this last one, that is certain! I owe the miller seventyfive francs for flour. Luckily he

is M. Benassis' miller. M. Benassis, ah! he is a friend to poor people. He has never asked for his due from

anybody, and he will not begin with us. Besides, our cow has a calf, and that will set us a bit straighter."

The four orphans for whom the old woman's affection represented all human guardianship had come to an

end of their prunes. As their fostermother's attention was taken up by the officer with whom she was

chatting, they seized the opportunity, and banded themselves together in a compact file, so as to make yet

another assault upon the latch of the door that stood between them and the tempting heap of dried plums.

They advanced to the attack, not like French soldiers, but as stealthily as Germans, impelled by frank animal

The old woman rose, caught the strongest of the four, administered a gentle slap on the back, and flung him

out of the house. Not a tear did he shed, but the others remained breathless with astonishment.

"Oh! no, sir, but they can smell the prunes, the little dears. If I were to leave them alone here for a moment,

The old woman raised her head at this, and looked at him with gentle malice in her eyes.

"Fond of them!" she said. "I have had to part with three of them already. I only have the care of them until

"How old are you?" Genestas asked, to efface the impression left by his last question.

"I am thirtyeight years old, sir. It will be two years come next St. John's Day since my husband died."

She finished dressing the poor sickly mite, who seemed to thank her by a loving look in his faded eyes.

Beneath a roof worthy of the stable wherein Jesus Christ was born, the hardest duties of motherhood were

fulfilled cheerfully and without consciousness of merit. What hearts were these that lay so deeply buried in

neglect and obscurity! What wealth, and what poverty! Soldiers, better than other men, can appreciate the

element of grandeur to be found in heroism in sabots, in the Evangel clad in rags. The Book may be found

elsewhere, adorned, embellished, tricked out in silk and satin and brocade, but here, of a surety, dwelt the

spirit of the Book. It was impossible to doubt that Heaven had some holy purpose underlying it all, at the

sight of the woman who had taken a mother's lot upon herself, as Jesus Christ had taken the form of a man,

who gleaned and suffered and ran into debt for her little waifs; a woman who defrauded herself in her

reckonings, and would not own that she was ruining herself that she might be a Mother. One was constrained

to admit, at the sight of her, that the good upon earth have something in common with the angels in heaven;

"It seems to me that this is a man and no mistake!" he went on, speaking to himself.

"Oh! yes, sir, and a good man too! There is scarcely any one hereabouts that does not put his name in their

"That is for you, mother," said the soldier, as he gave her several coins, "and that is for the children," he went

on, as he added another crown. "Is M. Benassis' house still a long way off?" he asked, when he had mounted

The commandant set out, fully persuaded that two leagues remained ahead of him. Yet after all he soon

caught a glimpse through the trees of the little town's first cluster of houses, and then of all the roofs that

crowded about a conical steeple, whose slates were secured to the angles of the wooden framework by sheets

of tin that glittered in the sun. This sort of roof, which has a peculiar appearance, denotes the nearness of the

borders of Savoy, where it is very common. The valley is wide at this particular point, and a fair number of

houses pleasantly situated, either in the little plain or along the side of the mountain stream, lend human

interest to the welltilled spot, a stronghold with no apparent outlet among the mountains that surround it.

It was noon when Genestas reined in his horse beneath an avenue of elmtrees halfway up the hillside, and

only a few paces from the town, to ask the group of children who stood before him for M. Benassis' house. At

first the children looked at each other, then they scrutinized the stranger with the expression that they usually

wear when they set eyes upon anything for the first time; a different curiosity and a different thought in every

little face. Then the boldest and the merriest of the band, a little brighteyed urchin, with bare, muddy feet,

He walked along in front of the horse, prompted quite as much by a wish to gain a kind of importance by

being in the stranger's company, as by a child's love of being useful, or the imperative craving to be doing

something, that possesses mind and body at his age. The officer followed him for the entire length of the

principal street of the country town. The way was paved with cobblestones, and wound in and out among the

houses, which their owners had erected along its course in the most arbitrary fashion. In one place a

bakehouse had been built out into the middle of the roadway; in another a gable protruded, partially

obstructing the passage, and yet farther on a mountain stream flowed across it in a runnel. Genestas noticed a

fair number of roofs of tarred shingle, but yet more of them were thatched; a few were tiled, and some seven

or eight (belonging no doubt to the cure, the justice of the peace, and some of the wealthier townsmen) were

covered with slates. There was a total absence of regard for appearances befitting a village at the end of the

world, which had nothing beyond it, and no connection with any other place. The people who lived in it

seemed to belong to one family that dwelt beyond the limits of the bustling world, with which the collector of

When Genestas had gone a step or two farther, he saw on the mountain side a broad road that rose above the

village. Clearly there must be an old town and a new town; and, indeed, when the commandant reached a spot

where he could slacken the pace of his horse, he could easily see between the houses some wellbuilt

dwellings whose new roofs brightened the oldfashioned village. An avenue of trees rose above these new

houses, and from among them came the confused sounds of several industries. He heard the songs peculiar to

busy toilers, a murmur of many workshops, the rasping of files, and the sound of falling hammers. He saw the

thin lines of smoke from the chimneys of each household, and the more copious outpourings from the forges

of the vanbuilder, the blacksmith, and the farrier. At length, at the very end of the village towards which his

guide was taking him, Genestas beheld scattered farms and welltilled fields and plantations of trees in

thorough order. It might have been a little corner of Brie, so hidden away in a great fold of the land, that at

first sight its existence would not be suspected between the little town and the mountains that closed the

The officer dismounted and passed his arm through the bridle. Then, thinking that the laborer is worthy of his

hire, he drew a few sous from his waistcoat pocket, and held them out to the child, who looked astonished at

this, opened his eyes very wide, and stayed on, without thanking him, to watch what the stranger would do

"Civilization has not made much headway hereabouts," thought Genestas; "the religion of work is in full

His guide, more from curiosity than from any interested motive, propped himself against the wall that rose to

the height of a man's elbow. Upon this wall, which enclosed the yard belonging to the house, there ran a

black wooden railing on either side of the square pillars of the gates. The lower part of the gates themselves

was of solid wood that had been painted gray at some period in the past; the upper part consisted of a grating

of yellowish spearshaped bars. These decorations, which had lost all their color, gradually rose on either

half of the gates till they reached the centre where they met; their spikes forming, when both leaves were

shut, an outline similar to that of a pinecone. The wormeaten gates themselves, with their patches of velvet

lichen, were almost destroyed by the alternate action of sun and rain. A few aloe plants and some

chancesown pellitory grew on the tops of the square pillars of the gates, which all but concealed the stems

of a couple of thornless acacias that raised their tufted spikes, like a pair of green powderpuffs, in the yard.

The condition of the gateway revealed a certain carelessness of its owner which did not seem to suit the

officer's turn of mind. He knitted his brows like a man who is obliged to relinquish some illusion. We usually

judge others by our own standard; and although we indulgently forgive our own shortcomings in them, we

condemn them harshly for the lack of our special virtues. If the commandant had expected M. Benassis to be

a methodical or practical man, there were unmistakable indications of absolute indifference as to his material

concerns in the state of the gates of his house. A soldier possessed by Genestas' passion for domestic

economy could not help at once drawing inferences as to the life and character of its owner from the gateway

before him; and this, in spite of his habits of circumspection, he in nowise failed to do. The gates were left

Encouraged by this countrified trust in all comers, the officer entered the yard without ceremony, and

tethered his horse to the bars of the gate. While he was knotting the bridle, a neighing sound from the stable

caused both horse and rider to turn their eyes involuntarily in that direction. The door opened, and an old

servant put out his head. He wore a red woolen bonnet, exactly like the Phrygian cap in which Liberty is

As there was room for several horses, this worthy individual, after inquiring whether Genestas had come to

see M. Benassis, offered the hospitality of the stable to the newlyarrived steed, a very fine animal, at which

he looked with an expression of admiring affection. The commandant followed his horse to see how things

were to go with it. The stable was clean, there was plenty of litter, and there was the same peculiar air of

sleek content about M. Benassis' pair of horses that distinguished the cure's horse from all the rest of his tribe.

A maidservant from within the house came out upon the flight of steps and waited. She appeared to be the

proper authority to whom the stranger's inquiries were to be addressed, although the stableman had already

"The master has gone to the flourmill," said he. "If you like to overtake him, you have only to go along the

Genestas preferred seeing the country to waiting about indefinitely for Benassis' return, so he set out along

the way that led to the flourmill. When he had gone beyond the irregular line traced by the town upon the

hillside, he came in sight of the mill and the valley, and of one of the loveliest landscapes that he had ever

The mountains bar the course of the river, which forms a little lake at their feet, and raise their crests above it,

tier on tier. Their many valleys are revealed by the changing hues of the light, or by the more or less clear

outlines of the mountain ridges fledged with their dark forests of pines. The mill had not long been built. It

stood just where the mountain stream fell into the little lake. There was all the charm about it peculiar to a

lonely house surrounded by water and hidden away behind the heads of a few trees that love to grow by the

waterside. On the farther bank of the river, at the foot of a mountain, with a faint red glow of sunset upon its

highest crest, Genestas caught a glimpse of a dozen deserted cottages. All the windows and doors had been

taken away, and sufficiently large holes were conspicuous in the dilapidated roofs, but the surrounding land

was laid out in fields that were highly cultivated, and the old garden spaces had been turned into meadows,

watered by a system of irrigation as artfully contrived as that in use in Limousin. Unconsciously the

How is it that men can never behold any ruins, even of the humblest kind, without feeling deeply stirred?

Doubtless it is because they seem to be a typical representation of evil fortune whose weight is felt so

differently by different natures. The thought of death is called up by a churchyard, but a deserted village puts

us in mind of the sorrows of life; death is but one misfortune always foreseen, but the sorrows of life are

The officer reached the stony path by the millpond before he could hit upon an explanation of this deserted

village. The miller's lad was sitting on some sacks of corn near the door of the house. Genestas asked for M.

"M. Benassis went over there," said the miller, pointing out one of the ruined cottages.

"Ah! how?" the miller answered, as he shrugged his shoulders and went indoors; "M. Benassis will tell you

The officer went over a rough sort of bridge built up of boulders taken from the torrent bed, and soon reached

the house that had been pointed out to him. The thatched roof of the dwelling was still entire; it was covered

with moss indeed, but there were no holes in it, and the door and its fastenings seemed to be in good repair.

Genestas saw a fire on the hearth as he entered, an old woman kneeling in the chimneycorner before a sick

man seated in a chair, and another man, who was standing with his face turned toward the fireplace. The

house consisted of a single room, which was lighted by a wretched window covered with linen cloth. The

floor was of beaten earth; the chair, a table, and a trucklebed comprised the whole of the furniture. The

commandant had never seen anything so poor and bare, not even in Russia, where the moujik's huts are like

the dens of wild beasts. Nothing within it spoke of ordinary life; there were not even the simplest appliances

for cooking food of the commonest description. It might have been a dogkennel without a drinkingpan.

But for the trucklebed, a smockfrock hanging from a nail, and some sabots filled with straw, which

composed the invalid's entire wardrobe, this cottage would have looked as empty as the others. The aged

peasant woman upon her knees was devoting all her attention to keeping the sufferer's feet in a tub filled with

a brown liquid. Hearing a footstep and the clank of spurs, which sounded strangely in ears accustomed to the

plodding pace of country folk, the man turned to Genestas. A sort of surprise, in which the old woman shared

"There is no need to ask if you are M. Benassis," said the soldier. "You will pardon me, sir, if, as a stranger

impatient to see you, I have come to seek you on your field of battle, instead of awaiting you at your house.

Pray do not disturb yourself; go on with what you are doing. When it is over, I will tell you the purpose of my

Genestas half seated himself upon the edge of the table, and remained silent. The firelight shone more

brightly in the room than the faint rays of the sun, for the mountain crests intercepted them, so that they

seldom reached this corner of the valley. A few branches of resinous pinewood made a bright blaze, and it

was by the light of this fire that the soldier saw the face of the man towards whom he was drawn by a secret

motive, by a wish to seek him out, to study and to know him thoroughly well. M. Benassis, the local doctor,

heard Genestas with indifference, and with folded arms he returned his bow, and went back to his patient,

quite unaware that he was being subjected to a scrutiny as earnest as that which the soldier turned upon him.

Benassis was a man of ordinary height, broadshouldered and deep chested. A capacious green overcoat,

buttoned up to the chin, prevented the officer from observing any characteristic details of his personal

appearance; but his dark and motionless figure served as a strong relief to his face, which caught the bright

light of the blazing fire. The face was not unlike that of a satyr; there was the same slightly protruding

forehead, full, in this case, of prominences, all more or less denoting character; the same turnedup nose,

with a sprightly cleavage at the tip; the same high cheekbones. The lines of the mouth were crooked; the

lips, thick and red. The chin turned sharply upwards. There was an alert, animated look in the brown eyes, to

which their pearly whites gave great brightness, and which expressed passions now subdued. His irongray

hair, the deep wrinkles in his face, the bushy eyebrows that had grown white already, the veins on his

protuberant nose, the tanned face covered with red blotches, everything about him, in short, indicated a man

of fifty and the hard work of his profession. The officer could come to no conclusion as to the capacity of the

head, which was covered by a close cap; but hidden though it was, it seemed to him to be one of the

squareshaped kind that gave rise to the expression "squareheaded." Genestas was accustomed to read the

indications that mark the features of men destined to do great things, since he had been brought into close

relations with the energetic natures sought out by Napoleon; so he suspected that there must be some mystery

in this life of obscurity, and said to himself as he looked at the remarkable face before him:

When he had made a careful study of this countenance, that, in spite of its resemblance to other human faces,

revealed an inner life nowise in harmony with a commonplace exterior, he could not help sharing the doctor's

interest in his patient; and the sight of that patient completely changed the current of his thoughts.

Much as the old cavalry officer had seen in the course of his soldier's career, he felt a thrill of surprise and

horror at the sight of a human face which could never have been lighted up with thoughta livid face in

which a look of dumb suffering showed so plainlythe same look that is sometimes worn by a child too

young to speak, and too weak to cry any longer; in short, it was the wholly animal face of an old dying cretin.

The cretin was the one variety of the human species with which the commandant had not yet come in contact.

At the sight of the deep, circular folds of skin on the forehead, the sodden, fishlike eyes, and the head, with

its short, coarse, scantilygrowing haira head utterly divested of all the faculties of the senseswho

would not have experienced, as Genestas did, an instinctive feeling of repulsion for a being that had neither

the physical beauty of an animal nor the mental endowments of man, who was possessed of neither instinct

nor reason, and who had never heard nor spoken any kind of articulate speech? It seemed difficult to expend

any regrets over the poor wretch now visibly drawing towards the very end of an existence which had not

been life in any sense of the word; yet the old woman watched him with touching anxiety, and was rubbing

his legs where the hot water did not reach them with as much tenderness as if he had been her husband.

Benassis himself, after a close scrutiny of the dull eyes and corpselike face, gently took the cretin's hand and

"The bath is doing no good," he said, shaking his head; "let us put him to bed again."

He lifted the inert mass himself, and carried him across to the trucklebed, from whence, no doubt, he had

just taken him. Carefully he laid him at full length, and straightened the limbs that were growing cold

already, putting the head and hand in position, with all the heed that a mother could bestow upon her child.

"It is all over, death is very near," added Benassis, who remained standing by the bedside.

The old woman gazed at the dying form, with her hands on her hips. A few tears stole down her cheeks.

Genestas remained silent. He was unable to explain to himself how it was that the death of a being that

concerned him so little should affect him so much. Unconsciously he shared the feeling of boundless pity that

these hapless creatures excite among the dwellers in the sunless valleys wherein Nature has placed them. This

sentiment has degenerated into a kind of religious superstition in families to which cretins belong; but does it

not spring from the most beautiful of Christian virtuesfrom charity, and from a belief in a reward hereafter,

that most effectual support of our social system, and the one thought that enables us to endure our miseries?

The hope of inheriting eternal bliss helps the relations of these unhappy creatures and all others round about

them to exert on a large scale, and with sublime devotion, a mother's ceaseless protecting care over an

apathetic creature who does not understand it in the first instance, and who in a little while forgets it all.

Wonderful power of religion! that has brought a blind beneficence to the aid of an equally blind misery.

Wherever cretins exist, there is a popular belief that the presence of one of these creatures brings luck to a

familya superstition that serves to sweeten lives which, in the midst of a town population, would be

condemned by a mistaken philanthropy to submit to the harsh discipline of an asylum. In the higher end of

the valley of Isere, where cretins are very numerous, they lead an outofdoor life with the cattle which they

are taught to herd. There, at any rate, they are at large, and receive the reverence due to misfortune.

A moment later the village bell clinked at slow regular intervals, to acquaint the flock with the death of one of

their number. In the sound that reached the cottage but faintly across the intervening space, there was a

thought of religion which seemed to fill it with a melancholy peace. The tread of many feet echoed up the

road, giving notice of an approaching crowd of peoplea crowd that uttered not a word. Then suddenly the

chanting of the Church broke the stillness, calling up the confused thoughts that take possession of the most

sceptical minds, and compel them to yield to the influence of the touching harmonies of the human voice.

The Church was coming to the aid of a creature that knew her not. The cure appeared, preceded by a

choirboy, who bore the crucifix, and followed by the sacristan carrying the vase of holy water, and by some

fifty women, old men, and children, who had all come to add their prayers to those of the Church. The doctor

and the soldier looked at each other, and silently withdrew to a corner to make room for the kneeling crowd

within and without the cottage. During the consoling ceremony of the Viaticum, celebrated for one who had

never sinned, but to whom the Church on earth was bidding a last farewell, there were signs of real sorrow on

most of the rough faces of the gathering, and tears flowed over the rugged cheeks that sun and wind and labor

in the fields had tanned and wrinkled. The sentiment of voluntary kinship was easy to explain. There was not

one in the place who had not pitied the unhappy creature, not one who would not have given him his daily

bread. Had he not met with a father's care from every child, and found a mother in the merriest little girl?

The words struck his hearers with the most unfeigned dismay. The tall candles were lighted, and several

people undertook to watch with the dead that night. Benassis and the soldier went out. A group of peasants in

"Ah! if you have not saved his life, sir, it was doubtless because God wished to take him to Himself."

When they had come a few paces from the deserted village, whose last inhabitant had just died, the doctor

"You would not believe, sir, what real solace is contained for me in what those peasants have just said. Ten

years ago I was very nearly stoned to death in this village. It is empty today, but thirty families lived in it

Genestas' face and gesture so plainly expressed an inquiry, that, as they went along, the doctor told him the

"When I first settled here, sir, I found a dozen cretins in this part of the canton," and the doctor turned round

to point out the ruined cottages for the officer's benefit. "All the favorable conditions for spreading the

hideous disease are there; the air is stagnant, the hamlet lies in the valley bottom, close beside a torrent

supplied with water by the melted snows, and the sunlight only falls on the mountaintop, so that the valley

itself gets no good of the sun. Marriages among these unfortunate creatures are not forbidden by law, and in

this district they are protected by superstitious notions, of whose power I had no conceptionsuperstitions

which I blamed at first, and afterwards came to admire. So cretinism was in a fair way to spread all over the

valley from this spot. Was it not doing the country a great service to put a stop to this mental and physical

contagion? But imperatively as the salutary changes were required, they might cost the life of any man who

endeavored to bring them about. Here, as in other social spheres, if any good is to be done, we come into

collision not merely with vested interests, but with something far more dangerous to meddle withreligious

ideas crystallized into superstitions, the most permanent form taken by human thought. I feared nothing.

"In the first place, I sought for the position of mayor in the canton, and in this I succeeded. Then, after

obtaining a verbal sanction from the prefect, and by paying down the money, I had several of these

unfortunate creatures transported over to Aiguebelle, in Savoy, by night. There are a great many of them

there, and they were certain to be very kindly treated. When this act of humanity came to be known, the

whole countryside looked upon me as a monster. The cure preached against me. In spite of all the pains I took

to explain to all the shrewder heads of the little place the immense importance of being rid of the idiots, and

in spite of the fact that I gave my services gratuitously to the sick people of the district, a shot was fired at me

"I went to the Bishop of Grenoble and asked him to change the cure. Monseigneur was good enough to allow

me to choose a priest who would share in my labors, and it was my happy fortune to meet with one of those

rare natures that seemed to have dropped down from heaven. Then I went on with my enterprise. After

preparing people's minds, I made another transportation by night, and six more cretins were taken away. In

this second attempt I had the support of several people to whom I had rendered some service, and I was

backed by the members of the Communal Council, for I had appealed to their parsimonious instincts,

showing them how much it cost to support the poor wretches, and pointing out how largely they might gain

by converting their plots of ground (to which the idiots had no proper title) into allotments which were

"All the rich were on my side; but the poor, the old women, the children, and a few pigheaded people were

violently opposed to me. Unluckily it so fell out that my last removal had not been completely carried out.

The cretin whom you have just seen, not having returned to his house, had not been taken away, so that the

next morning he was the sole remaining example of his species in the village. There were several families

still living there; but though they were little better than idiots, they were, at any rate, free from the taint of

cretinism. I determined to go through with my work, and came officially in open day to take the luckless

creature from his dwelling. I had no sooner left my house than my intention got abroad. The cretin's friends

were there before me, and in front of his hovel I found a crowd of women and children and old people, who

"In the midst of the uproar I should perhaps have fallen a victim to the frenzy that possesses a crowd excited

by its own outcries and stirred up by one common feeling, but the cretin saved my life! The poor creature

came out of his hut, and raised the clucking sound of his voice. He seemed to be an absolute ruler over the

fanatical mob, for the sight of him put a sudden stop to the clamor. It occurred to me that I might arrange a

compromise, and thanks to the quiet so opportunely restored, I was able to propose and explain it. Of course,

those who approved of my schemes would not dare to second me in this emergency, their support was sure to

be of a purely passive kind, while these superstitious folk would exert the most active vigilance to keep their

last idol among them; it was impossible, it seemed to me, to take him away from them. So I promised to leave

the cretin in peace in his dwelling, with the understanding that he should live quite by himself, and that the

remaining families in the village should cross the stream and come to live in the town, in some new houses

which I myself undertook to build, adding to each house a piece of ground for which the Commune was to

"Well, my dear sir, it took me fully six months to overcome their objection to this bargain, however much it

may have been to the advantage of the village families. The affection which they have for their wretched

hovels in country districts is something quite unexplainable. No matter how unwholesome his hovel may be,

a peasant clings far more to it than a banker does to his mansion. The reason of it? That I do not know.

Perhaps thoughts and feelings are strongest in those who have but few of them, simply because they have but

few. Perhaps material things count for much in the lives of those who live so little in thought; certain it is that

the less they have, the dearer their possessions are to them. Perhaps, too, it is with the peasant as with the

prisoner he does not squander the powers of his soul, he centres them all upon a single idea, and this is

how his feelings come to be so exceedingly strong. Pardon these reflections on the part of a man who seldom

exchanges ideas with any one. But, indeed, you must not suppose, sir, that I am much taken up with these

"Alas! the fewer ideas these poor folk have in their heads, the harder it is to make them see where their real

interests lie. There was nothing for it but to give my whole attention to every trifling detail of my enterprise.

One and all made me the same answer, one of those sayings, filled with homely sense, to which there is no

possible reply, 'But your houses are not yet built, sir!' they used to say. 'Very good,' said I, 'promise me that as

"Luckily, sir, I obtained a decision to the effect that the whole of the mountain side above the now deserted

village was the property of the township. The sum of money brought in by the woods on the higher slopes

paid for the building of the new houses and for the land on which they stood. They were built forthwith; and

when once one of my refractory families was fairly settled in, the rest of them were not slow to follow. The

benefits of the change were so evident that even the most bigoted believer in the village, which you might

call soulless as well as sunless, could not but appreciate them. The final decision in this matter, which gave

some property to the Commune, in the possession of which we were confirmed by the Council of State, made

me a person of great importance in the canton. But what a lot of worry there was over it!" the doctor

remarked, stopping short, and raising a hand which he let fall againa gesture that spoke volumes. "No one

knows, as I do, the distance between the town and the Prefecturewhence nothing comes outand from the

"Well, after all," he resumed, "peace be to the powers of this world! They yielded to my importunities, and

that is saying a great deal. If you only knew the good that came of a carelessly scrawled signature! Why, sir,

two years after I had taken these momentous trifles in hand, and had carried the matter through to the end,

every poor family in the Commune had two cows at least, which they pastured on the mountain side, where

(without waiting this time for an authorization from the Council of State) I had established a system of

irrigation by means of cross trenches, like those in Switzerland, Auvergne, and Limousin. Much to their

astonishment, the townspeople saw some capital meadows springing up under their eyes, and thanks to the

improvement in the pasturage, the yield of milk was very much larger. The results of this triumph were great

indeed. Every one followed the example set by my system of irrigation; cattle were multiplied; the area of

meadow land and every kind of outturn increased. I had nothing to fear after that. I could continue my

efforts to improve this, as yet, untilled corner of the earth; and to civilize those who dwelt in it, whose minds

"Well, sir, folk like us, who live out of the world, are very talkative. If you ask us a question, there is no

knowing where the answer will come to an end; but to cut it shortthere were about seven hundred souls in

the valley when I came to it, and now the population numbers some two thousand. I had gained the good

opinion of every one in that matter of the last cretin; and when I had constantly shown that I could rule both

mildly and firmly, I became a local oracle. I did everything that I could to win their confidence; I did not ask

for it, nor did I appear to seek it; but I tried to inspire every one with the deepest respect for my character, by

the scrupulous way in which I always fulfilled my engagements, even when they were of the most trifling

kind. When I had pledged myself to care for the poor creature whose death you have just witnessed, I looked

after him much more effectually than any of his previous guardians had done. He has been fed and cared for

as the adopted child of the Commune. After a time the dwellers in the valley ended by understanding the

service which I had done them in spite of themselves, but for all that, they still cherish some traces of that old

superstition of theirs. Far be it from me to blame them for it; has not their cult of the cretin often furnished

me with an argument when I have tried to induce those who had possession of their faculties to help the

unfortunate? But here we are," said Benassis, when after a moment's pause he saw the roof of his own house.

Far from expecting the slightest expression of praise or of thanks from his listener, it appeared from his way

of telling the story of this episode in his administrative career, that he had been moved by an unconscious

desire to pour out the thoughts that filled his mind, after the manner of folk that live very retired lives.

"I have taken the liberty of putting my horse in your stable, sir," said the commandant, "for which in your

goodness you will perhaps pardon me when you learn the object of my journey hither."

"Ah! yes, what is it?" asked Benassis, appearing to shake off his preoccupied mood, and to recollect that his

companion was a stranger to him. The frankness and unreserve of his nature had led him to accept Genestas

"I have heard of the almost miraculous recovery of M. Gravier of Grenoble, whom you received into your

house," was the soldier's answer. "I have come to you, hoping that you will give a like attention to my case,

although I have not a similar claim to your benevolence; and yet, I am possibly not undeserving of it. I am an

old soldier, and wounds of long standing give me no peace. It will take you at least a week to study my

"Very good, sir," Benassis broke in; "M. Gravier's room is in readiness. Come in."

They went into the house, the doctor flinging open the door with an eagerness that Genestas attributed to his

"If you are wealthy, you will repay me amply," Benassis replied; "and if you are not, I will take nothing

"Nothing whatever seems to me to be too dear," said Genestas. "But, rich or poor, will ten francs a day (not

"Nothing could be less acceptable to me than payment for the pleasure of entertaining a visitor," the doctor

answered, knitting his brows; "and as to my advice, you shall have it if I like you, and not unless. Rich people

shall not have my time by paying for it; it belongs exclusively to the folk here in the valley. I do not care

about fame or fortune, and I look for neither praise or gratitude from my patients. Any money which you may

pay me will go to the druggists in Grenoble, to pay for the medicine required by the poor of the

Any one who had heard the words flung out, abruptly, it is true, but without a trace of bitterness in them,

would have said to himself with Genestas, "Here is a man made of good human clay."

"Well, then, I will pay you ten francs a day, sir," the soldier answered, returning to the charge with wonted

pertinacity, "and you will do as you choose after that. We shall understand each other better, now that the

question is settled," he added, grasping the doctor's hand with eager cordiality. "In spite of my ten francs, you

After this passage of arms, in which Benassis showed not the slightest sign of a wish to appear generous or to

pose as a philanthropist, the supposed invalid entered his doctor's house. Everything within it was in keeping

with the ruinous state of the gateway, and with the clothing worn by its owner. There was an utter disregard

for everything not essentially useful, which was visible even in the smallest trifles. Benassis took Genestas

Had the kitchen belonged to an inn, it could not have been more smoke begrimed; and if there was a

sufficiency of cooking pots within its precincts, this lavish supply was Jacquotte's doingJacquotte who had

formerly been the cure's housekeeperJacquotte who always said "we," and who ruled supreme over the

doctor's household. If, for instance, there was a brightly polished warmingpan above the mantelshelf, it

probably hung there because Jacquotte liked to sleep warm of a winter night, which led her incidentally to

warm her master's sheets. He never took a thought about anything; so she was wont to say.

It was on account of a defect, which any one else would have found intolerable, that Benassis had taken her

into his service. Jacquotte had a mind to rule the house, and a woman who would rule his house was the very

person that the doctor wanted. So Jacquotte bought and sold, made alterations about the place, set up and took

down, arranged and disarranged everything at her own sweet will; her master had never raised a murmur.

Over the yard, the stable, the manservant and the kitchen, in fact, over the whole house and garden and its

master, Jacquotte's sway was absolute. She looked out fresh linen, saw to the washing, and laid in provisions

without consulting anybody. She decided everything that went on in the house, and the date when the pigs

were to be killed. She scolded the gardener, decreed the menu at breakfast and dinner, and went from cellar to

garret, and from garret to cellar, setting everything to rights according to her notions, without a word of

opposition of any sort or description. Benassis had made but two stipulationshe wished to dine at six

o'clock, and that the household expenses should not exceed a certain fixed sum every month.

A woman whom every one obeys in this way is always singing, so Jacquotte laughed and warbled on the

staircase; she was always humming something when she was not singing, and singing when she was not

humming. Jacquotte had a natural liking for cleanliness, so she kept the house neat and clean. If her tastes had

been different, it would have been a sad thing for M. Benassis (so she was wont to say), for the poor man was

so little particular that you might feed him on cabbage for partridges, and he would not find it out; and if it

were not for her, he would very often wear the same shirt for a week on end. Jacquotte, however, was an

indefatigable folder of linen, a born rubber and polisher of furniture, and a passionate lover of a perfectly

religious and ceremonial cleanliness of the most scrupulous, the most radiant, and most fragrant kind. A

The condition of the gateway caused her acute distress. On the first day of every month for the past ten years,

she had extorted from her master a promise that he would replace the gate with a new one, that the walls of

the house should be limewashed, and that everything should be made quite straight and proper about the

place; but so far, the master had not kept his word. So it happened that whenever she fell to lamenting over

Benassis' deeplyrooted carelessness about things, she nearly always ended solemnly in these words with

"You cannot say that he is a fool, because he works such miracles, as you may say, in the place; but, all the

same, he is a fool at times, such a fool that you have to do everything for him as if he were a child."

Jacquotte loved the house as if it had belonged to her; and when she had lived in it for twentytwo years, had

she not some grounds for deluding herself on that head? After the cure's death the house had been for sale;

and Benassis, who had only just come into the country, had bought it as it stood, with the walls about it and

the ground belonging to it, together with the plate, wine, and furniture, the old sundial, the poultry, the horse,

and the womanservant. Jacquotte was the very pattern of a working housekeeper, with her clumsy figure,

and her bodice, always of the same dark brown print with large red spots on it, which fitted her so tightly that

it looked as if the material must give way if she moved at all. Her colorless face, with its double chin, looked

out from under a round plaited cap, which made her look paler than she really was. She talked incessantly,

and always in a loud voicethis short, active woman, with the plump, busy hands. Indeed, if Jacquotte was

silent for a moment, and took a corner of her apron so as to turn it up in a triangle, it meant that a lengthy

expostulation was about to be delivered for the benefit of master or man. Jacquotte was beyond all doubt the

happiest cook in the kingdom; for, that nothing might be lacking in a measure of felicity as great as may be

known in this world below, her vanity was continually gratifiedthe townspeople regarded her as an

authority of an indefinite kind, and ranked her somewhere between the mayor and the parkkeeper.

"Where the devil are they all gone?" he asked. "Pardon me for bringing you in this way," he went on, turning

to Genestas. "The front entrance opens into the garden, but I am so little accustomed to receive visitors

A woman's voice answered to the name from the interior of the house. A moment later Jacquotte, assuming

the offensive, called in her turn to Benassis, who forthwith went into the diningroom.

"Just like you, sir!" she exclaimed; "you never do like anybody else. You always ask people to dinner without

telling me beforehand, and you think that everything is settled as soon as you have called for Jacquotte! You

are not going to have the gentleman sit in the kitchen, are you? Is not the salon to be unlocked and a fire to be

lighted? Nicolle is there, and will see after everything. Now take the gentleman into the garden for a minute;

that will amuse him; if he likes to look at pretty things, show him the arbor of hornbeam trees that the poor

dear old gentleman made. I shall have time then to lay the cloth, and to get everything ready, the dinner and

"Yes. But, Jacquotte," Benassis went on, "the gentleman is going to stay with us. Do not forget to give a look

"Now you are not going to interfere about the sheets, are you?" asked Jacquotte. "If he is to sleep here, I

know what must be done for him perfectly well. You have not so much as set foot in M. Gravier's room these

ten months past. There is nothing to see there, the place is as clean as a new pin. Then will the gentleman

"What does it matter to me, sir? Oh! very well, what does it matter to me? Did any one ever hear the like!

At any other time she would have overwhelmed her master with reproaches for his breach of trust, but now

she followed him into the kitchen before the torrent of words had come to an end. She had guessed that there

was a prospect of a boarder, and was eager to see Genestas, to whom she made a very deferential courtesy,

while she scanned him from head to foot. A thoughtful and dejected expression gave a harsh look to the

soldier's face. In the dialogue between master and servant the latter had appeared to him in the light of a

nonentity; and although he regretted the fact, this revelation had lessened the high opinion that he had formed

of the man whose persistent efforts to save the district from the horrors of cretinism had won his admiration.

"If you are not tired, sir," said the doctor to his supposed patient, "we will take a turn round the garden before

They went through the diningroom, and reached the garden by way of a sort of vestibule at the foot of the

staircase between the salon and the diningroom. Beyond a great glass door at the farther end of the vestibule

lay a flight of stone steps which adorned the garden side of the house. The garden itself was divided into four

large squares of equal size by two paths that intersected each other in the form of a cross, a box edging along

their sides. At the farther end there was a thick, green alley of hornbeam trees, which had been the joy and

pride of the late owner. The soldier seated himself on a wormeaten bench, and saw neither the trelliswork

nor the espaliers, nor the vegetables of which Jacquotte took such great care. She followed the traditions of

the epicurean churchman to whom this valuable garden owed its origin; but Benassis himself regarded it with

The commandant turned their talk from the trivial matters which had occupied them by saying to the doctor:

"How comes it, sir, that the population of the valley has been trebled in ten years? There were seven hundred

souls in it when you came, and today you say that they number more than two thousand."

"You are the first person who has put that question to me," the doctor answered. "Though it has been my aim

to develop the capabilities of this little corner of the earth to the utmost, the constant pressure of a busy life

has not left me time to think over the way in which (like the mendicant brother) I have made 'broth from a

flint' on a large scale. M. Gravier himself, who is one of several who have done a great deal for us, and to

whom I was able to render a service by re establishing his health, has never given a thought to the theory,

though he has been everywhere over our mountain sides with me, to see its practical results."

There was a moment's silence, during which Benassis followed his own thoughts, careless of the keen glance

"You ask how it came about, my dear sir?" the doctor resumed. "It came about quite naturally through the

working of the social law by which the need and the means of supplying it are correlated. Herein lies the

whole story. Races who have no wants are always poor. When I first came to live here in this township, there

were about a hundred and thirty peasant families in it, and some two hundred hearths in the valley. The local

authorities were such as might be expected in the prevailing wretchedness of the population. The mayor

himself could not write, and the deputymayor was a small farmer, who lived beyond the limits of the

Commune. The justice of the peace was a poor devil who had nothing but his salary, and who was forced to

relinquish the registration of births, marriages, and deaths to his clerk, another hapless wretch who was

scarcely able to understand his duties. The old cure had died at the age of seventy, and his curate, a quite

uneducated man, had just succeeded to his position. These people comprised all the intelligence of the district

"Those who dwelt amidst these lovely natural surroundings groveled in squalor and lived upon potatoes,

milk, butter, and cheese. The only produce that brought in any money was the cheese, which most of them

carried in small baskets to Grenoble or its outskirts. The richer or the more energetic among them sowed

buckwheat for home consumption; sometimes they raised a crop of barley or oats, but wheat was unknown.

The only trader in the place was the mayor, who owned a sawmill and bought up timber at a low price to sell

again. In the absence of roads, his tree trunks had to be transported during the summer season; each log was

dragged along one at a time, and with no small difficulty, by means of a chain attached to a halter about his

horse's neck, and an iron hook at the farther end of the chain, which was driven into the wood. Any one who

went to Grenoble, whether on horseback or afoot, was obliged to follow a track high up on the mountain side,

for the valley was quite impassable. The pretty road between this place and the first village that you reach as

you come into the canton (the way along which you must have come) was nothing but a slough at all seasons

"Political events and revolutions had never reached this inaccessible countryit lay completely beyond the

limits of social stir and change. Napoleon's name, and his alone, had penetrated hither; he is held in great

veneration, thanks to one or two old soldiers who have returned to their native homes, and who of evenings

tell marvelous tales about his adventures and his armies for the benefit of these simple folk. Their coming

back is, moreover, a puzzle that no one can explain. Before I came here, the young men who went into the

army all stayed in it for good. This fact in itself is a sufficient revelation of the wretched condition of the

"This, then, was the state of things when I first came to the canton, which has several contented, welltilled,

and fairly prosperous communes belonging to it upon the other side of the mountains. I will say nothing

about the hovels in the town; they were neither more nor less than stables, in which men and animals were

indiscriminately huddled together. As there was no inn in the place, I was obliged to ask the curate for a bed,

he being in possession, for the time being, of this house, then offered for sale. Putting to him question after

question, I came to have some slight knowledge of the lamentable condition of the country with the pleasant

climate, the fertile soil, and the natural productiveness that had impressed me so much.

"At that time, sir, I was seeking to shape a future for myself that should be as little as possible like the

troubled life that had left me weary; and one of those thoughts came into my mind that God gives us at times,

to enable us to take up our burdens and bear them. I resolved to develop all the resources of this country, just

as a tutor develops the capacities of a child. Do not think too much of my benevolence; the pressing need that

I felt for turning my thoughts into fresh channels entered too much into my motives. I had determined to give

up the remainder of my life to some difficult task. A lifetime would be required to bring about the needful

changes in a canton that Nature had made so wealthy, and man so poor; and I was tempted by the practical

difficulties that stood in the way. As soon as I found that I could secure the cure's house and plenty of waste

land at a small cost, I solemnly devoted myself to the calling of a country surgeon the very last position

that a man aspires to take. I determined to become the friend of the poor, and to expect no reward of any kind

from them. Oh! I did not indulge in any illusions as to the nature of the country people, nor as to the

hindrances that lie in the way of every attempt to bring about a better state of things among men or their

surroundings. I have never made idyllic pictures of my people; I have taken them at their just worthas poor

peasants, neither wholly good nor wholly bad, whose constant toil never allows them to indulge in emotion,

though they can feel acutely at times. Above all things, in fact, I clearly understood that I should do nothing

with them except through an appeal to their selfish interests, and by schemes for their immediate wellbeing.

The peasants are one and all the sons of St. Thomas, the doubting apostlethey always like words to be

"Perhaps you will laugh at my first start, sir," the doctor went on after a pause. "I began my difficult

enterprise by introducing the manufacture of baskets. The poor folks used to buy the wicker mats on which

they drain their cheeses, and all the baskets needed for the insignificant trade of the district. I suggested to an

intelligent young fellow that he might take a lease on a goodsized piece of land by the side of the torrent.

Every year the floods deposited a rich alluvial soil on this spot, where there should be no difficulty in

growing osiers. I reckoned out the quantity of wickerwork of various kinds required from time to time by

the canton, and went over to Grenoble, where I found a young craftsman, a clever worker, but without any

capital. When I had discovered him, I soon made up my mind to set him up in business here. I undertook to

advance the money for the osiers required for his work until my osierfarmer should be in a position to

supply him. I induced him to sell his baskets at rather lower prices than they asked for them in Grenoble,

while, at the same time, they were better made. He entered into my views completely. The osierbeds and the

basketmaking were two business speculations whose results were only appreciated after a lapse of four

years. Of course, you know that osiers must be three years old before they are fit to cut.

"At the commencement of operations, the basketmaker was boarded and lodged gratuitously. Before very

long he married a woman from Saint Laurent du Pont, who had a little money. Then he had a house built, in a

healthy and very airy situation which I chose, and my advice was followed as to the internal arrangements.

Here was a triumph! I had created a new industry, and had brought a producer and several workers into the

"For the first few days after my basketmaker had set up his business, I never went past his shop but my heart

beat somewhat faster. And when I saw the newlybuilt house, with the greenpainted shutters, the vine

beside the doorway, and the bench and bundles of osiers before it; when I saw a tidy, neatlydressed woman

within it, nursing a plump, pink and white baby among the workmen, who were singing merrily and busily

plaiting their wickerwork under the superintendence of a man who but lately had looked so pinched and

pale, but now had an atmosphere of prosperity about him; when I saw all this, I confess that I could not

forego the pleasure of turning basketmaker for a moment, of going into the shop to hear how things went

with them, and of giving myself up to a feeling of content that I cannot express in words, for I had all their

happiness as well as my own to make me glad. All my hopes became centered on this house, where the man

dwelt who had been the first to put a steady faith in me. Like the basket maker's wife, clasping her first

nursling to her breast, did not I already fondly cherish the hopes of the future of this poor district?

"I had to do so many things at once," he went on, "I came into collision with other people's notions, and met

with violent opposition, fomented by the ignorant mayor to whose office I had succeeded, and whose

influence had dwindled away as mine increased. I determined to make him my deputy and a confederate in

my schemes of benevolence. Yes, in the first place, I endeavored to instil enlightened ideas into the densest of

all heads. Through his selflove and cupidity I gained a hold upon my man. During six months as we dined

together, I took him deeply into my confidence about my projected improvements. Many people would think

this intimacy one of the most painful inflictions in the course of my task; but was he not a tool of the most

valuable kind? Woe to him who despises his axe, or flings it carelessly aside! Would it not have been very

inconsistent, moreover, if I, who wished to improve a district, had shrunk back at the thought of improving

"A road was our first and most pressing need in bringing about a better state of things. If we could obtain

permission from the Municipal Council to make a hard road, so as to put us in communication with the

highway to Grenoble, the deputymayor would be the first gainer by it; for instead of dragging his timber

over rough tracks at a great expense, a good road through the canton would enable him to transport it more

easily, and to engage in a traffic on a large scale, in all kinds of wood, that would bring in moneynot a

miserable six hundred francs a year, but handsome sums which would mean a certain fortune for him some

"Through the whole of one winter the exmayor got into the way of explaining to our citizens that a good

road for wheeled traffic would be a source of wealth to the whole country round, for it would enable every

one to do a trade with Grenoble; he held forth on this head at the tavern while drinking with his intimates.

When the Municipal Council had authorized the making of the road, I went to the prefect and obtained some

money from the charitable funds at the disposal of the department, in order to pay for the hire of carts, for the

Commune was unable to undertake the transport of road metal for lack of wheeled conveyances. The ignorant

began to murmur against me, and to say that I wanted to bring the days of the corvee back again; this made

me anxious to finish this important work, that they might speedily appreciate its benefits. With this end in

view, every Sunday during my first year of office I drew the whole population of the township, willing or

unwilling, up on to the mountain, where I myself had traced out on a hard bottom the road between our

village and the highway to Grenoble. Materials for making it were fortunately to be had in plenty along the

"The tedious enterprise called for a great deal of patience on my part. Some who were ignorant of the law

would refuse at times to give their contribution of labor; others again, who had not bread to eat, really could

not afford to lose a day. Corn had to be distributed among these last, and the others must be soothed with

friendly words. Yet by the time we had finished twothirds of the road, which in all is about two leagues in

length, the people had so thoroughly recognized its advantages that the remaining third was accomplished

with a spirit that surprised me. I added to the future wealth of the Commune by planting a double row of

poplars along the ditch on either side of the way. The trees are already almost worth a fortune, and they make

our road look like a king's highway. It is almost always dry, by reason of its position, and it was so well made

that the annual cost of maintaining it is a bare two hundred francs. I must show it to you, for you cannot have

seen it; you must have come by the picturesque way along the valley bottom, a road which the people decided

to make for themselves three years later, so as to connect the various farms that were made there at that time.

In three years ideas had rooted themselves in the common sense of this township, hitherto so lacking in

intelligence that a passing traveler would perhaps have thought it hopeless to attempt to instil them. But to

"The establishment of the basketmaker was an example set before these povertystricken folk that they

might profit by it. And if the road was to be a direct cause of the future wealth of the canton, all the primary

forms of industry must be stimulated, or these two germs of a better state of things would come to nothing.

My own work went forward by slow degrees, as I helped my osier farmer and wickerworker and saw to the

"I had two horses, and the timber merchant, the deputymayor, had three. He could only have them shod

whenever he went over to Grenoble, so I induced a farrier to take up his abode here, and undertook to find

him plenty of work. On the same day I met with a discharged soldier, who had nothing but his pension of a

hundred francs, and was sufficiently perplexed about his future. He could read and write, so I engaged him as

secretary to the mayor; as it happened, I was lucky enough to find a wife for him, and his dreams of

"Both of these new families needed houses, as well as the basketmaker and twentytwo others from the

cretin village, soon afterwards twelve more households were established in the place. The workers in each of

these families were at once producers and consumers. They were masons, carpenters, joiners, slaters,

blacksmiths, and glaziers; and there was work enough to last them for a long time, for had they not their own

houses to build when they had finished those for other people? Seventy, in fact, were build in the Commune

during my second year of office. One form of production demands another. The additions to the population of

the township had created fresh wants, hitherto unknown among these dwellers in poverty. The wants gave

rise to industries, and industries to trade, and the gains of trade raised the standard of comfort, which in its

"The various workmen wished to buy their bread ready baked, so we came to have a baker. Buckwheat could

no longer be the food of a population which, awakened from its lethargy, had become essentially active. They

lived on buckwheat when I first came among them, and I wished to effect a change to rye, or a mixture of rye

and wheat in the first instance, and finally to see a loaf of white bread even in the poorest household.

Intellectual progress, to my thinking, was entirely dependent on a general improvement in the conditions of

life. The presence of a butcher in the district says as much for its intelligence as for its wealth. The worker

feeds himself, and a man who feeds himself thinks. I had made a very careful study of the soil, for I foresaw a

time when it would be necessary to grow wheat. I was sure of launching the place in a very prosperous

agricultural career, and of doubling the population, when once it had begun to work. And now the time had

"M. Gravier, of Grenoble, owned a great deal of land in the commune, which brought him in no rent, but

which might be turned into corn growing land. He is the head of a department in the Prefecture, as you

know. It was a kindness for his own countryside quite as much as my earnest entreaties that won him over.

He had very benevolently yielded to my importunities on former occasions, and I succeeded in making it

clear to him that in so doing he had wrought unconsciously for his own benefit. After several days spent in

pleadings, consultation, and talk, the matter was thrashed out. I undertook to guarantee him against all risks

in the undertaking, from which his wife, a woman of no imagination, sought to frighten him. He agreed to

build four farmhouses with a hundred acres of land attached to each, and promised to advance the sums

required to pay for clearing the ground, for seeds, ploughing gear, and cattle, and for making occupation

"I myself also started two farms, quite as much for the sake of bringing my waste land into cultivation as with

a view to giving an objectlesson in the use of modern methods in agriculture. In six weeks' time the

population of the town increased to three hundred people. Homes for several families must be built on the six

farms; there was a vast quantity of land to be broken up; the work called for laborers. Wheelwrights,

drainmakers, journeymen, and laborers of all kinds flocked in. The road to Grenoble was covered with carts

that came and went. All the countryside was astir. The circulation of money had made every one anxious to

"The story of M. Gravier, one of those who did so much for this canton, can be concluded in a few words. In

spite of cautious misgivings, not unnatural in a man occupying an official position in a provincial town, he

advanced more than forty thousand francs, on the faith of my promises, without knowing whether he should

ever see them back again. Today every one of his farms is let for a thousand francs. His tenants have thriven

so well that each of them owns at least a hundred acres, three hundred sheep, twenty cows, ten oxen, and five

"But to resume. Our farms were ready by the end of the fourth year. Our wheat harvest seemed miraculous to

the people in the district, heavy as the first crop off the land ought to be. How often during that year I

trembled for the success of my work! Rain or drought might spoil everything by diminishing the belief in me

that was already felt. When we began to grow wheat, it necessitated the mill that you have seen, which brings

me in about five hundred francs a year. So the peasants say that 'there is luck about me' (that is the way they

put it), and believe in me as they believe in their relics. These new undertakingsthe farms, the mill, the

plantations, and the roads have given employment to all the various kinds of workers whom I had called

in. Although the buildings fully represent the value of the sixty thousand francs of capital, which we sunk in

the district, the outlay was more than returned to us by the profits on the sales which the consumers

occasioned. I never ceased my efforts to put vigor into this industrial life which was just beginning. A

nurseryman took my advice and came to settle in the place, and I preached wholesome doctrine to the poor

concerning the planting of fruit trees, in order that some day they should obtain a monopoly of the sale of

" 'You take your cheeses there as it is,' I used to tell them, 'why not take poultry, eggs, vegetables, game, hay

and straw, and so forth?' All my counsels were a source of fortune; it was a question of who should follow

them first. A number of little businesses were started; they went on at first but slowly, but from day to day

their progress became more rapid; and now sixty carts full of the various products of the district set out every

Monday for Grenoble, and there is more buckwheat grown for poultry food than they used to sow for human

consumption. The trade in timber grew to be so considerable that it was subdivided, and since the fourth year

of our industrial era, we have had dealers in firewood, squared timber, planks, bark, and later on, in charcoal.

In the end four new sawmills were set up, to turn out the planks and beams of timber.

"When the exmayor had acquired a few business notions, he felt the necessity of learning to read and write.

He compared the prices that were asked for wood in various neighborhoods, and found such differences in his

favor, that he secured new customers in one place after another, and now a third of the trade in the

department passes through his hands. There has been such a sudden increase in our traffic that we find

constant work for three wagonbuilders and two harnessmakers, each of them employing three hands at

least. Lastly, the quantity of ironware that we use is so large that an agricultural implement and toolmaker

"The desire of gain develops a spirit of ambition, which has ever since impelled our workers to extend their

field from the township to the canton, and from the canton to the department, so as to increase their profits by

increasing their sales. I had only to say a word to point out new openings to them, and their own sense did the

rest. Four years had been sufficient to change the face of the township. When I had come through it first, I did

not catch the slightest sound; but in less than five years from that time, there was life and bustle everywhere.

The gay songs, the shrill or murmuring sounds made by the tools in the workshops rang pleasantly in my

ears. I watched the comings and goings of a busy population congregated in the clean and wholesome new

town, where plenty of trees had been planted. Every one of them seemed conscious of a happy lot, every face

"I look upon these five years as the first epoch of prosperity in the history of our town," the doctor went on

after a pause. "During that time I have prepared the ground and sowed the seed in men's minds as well as in

the land. Henceforward industrial progress could not be stayed, the population was bound to go forward. A

second epoch was about to begin. This little world very soon desired to be better clad. A shoemaker came,

and with him a haberdasher, a tailor, and a hatter. This dawn of luxury brought us a butcher and a grocer, and

a midwife, who became very necessary to me, for I lost a great deal of time over maternity cases. The stubbed

wastes yielded excellent harvests, and the superior quality of our agricultural produce was maintained

through the increased supply of manure. My enterprise could now develop itself; everything followed on

"When the houses had been rendered wholesome, and their inmates gradually persuaded to feed and clothe

themselves better, I wanted the dumb animals to feel the benefit of these beginnings of civilization. All the

excellence of cattle, whether as a race or as individuals, and, in consequence, the quality of the milk and

meat, depends upon the care that is expended upon them. I took the sanitation of cowsheds for the text of my

sermons. I showed them how an animal that is properly housed and well cared for is more profitable than a

lean neglected beast, and the comparison wrought a gradual change for the better in the lot of the cattle in the

Commune. Not one of them was ill treated. The cows and oxen were rubbed down as in Switzerland and

Auvergne. Sheepfolds, stables, byres, dairies, and barns were rebuilt after the pattern of the roomy,

wellventilated, and consequently healthy steadings that M. Gravier and I had constructed. Our tenants

became my apostles. They made rapid converts of unbelievers, demonstrating the soundness of my doctrines

by their prompt results. I lent money to those who needed it, giving the preference to hardworking poor

people, because they served as an example. Any unsound or sickly cattle or beasts of poor quality were

quickly disposed of by my advice, and replaced by fine specimens. In this way our dairy produce came, in

time, to command higher prices in the market than that sent by other communes. We had splendid herds, and

"This step forward was of great importance, and in this wise. In rural economy nothing can be regarded as

trifling. Our hides used to fetch scarcely anything, and the leather we made was of little value, but when once

our leather and hides were improved, tanneries were easily established along the waterside. We became

"Wine, properly speaking, had been hitherto unknown; a thin, sour beverage like verjuice had been their only

drink, but now wineshops were established to supply a natural demand. The oldest tavern was enlarged and

transformed into an inn, which furnished mules to pilgrims to the Grand Chartreuse who began to come our

"The justice of the peace died just as our second prosperous epoch began, and luckily for us, his successor

had formerly been a notary in Grenoble who had lost most of his fortune by a bad speculation, though enough

of it yet remained to cause him to be looked upon in the village as a wealthy man. It was M. Gravier who

induced him to settle among us. He built himself a comfortable house and helped me by uniting his efforts to

mine. He also laid out a farm, and broke up and cleaned some of the waste land, and at this moment he has

three chalets up above on the mountain side. He has a large family. He dismissed the old registrar and the

clerk, and in their place installed bettereducated men, who worked far harder, moreover, than their

predecessors had done. One of the heads of these two new households started a distillery of potatospirit, and

the other was a woolwasher; each combined these occupations with his official work, and in this way two

"Now that the Commune had some revenues of its own, no opposition was raised in any quarter when they

were spent on building a townhall, with a free school for elementary education in the building and

accommodation for a teacher. For this important post I had selected a poor priest who had taken the oath, and

had therefore been cast out by the department, and who at last found a refuge among us for his old age. The

schoolmistress is a very worthy woman who had lost all that she had, and was in great distress. We made up a

nice little sum for her, and she has just opened a boardingschool for girls to which the wealthy farmers

"If so far, sir, I have been entitled to tell you the story of my own doings as the chronicle of this little spot of

earth, I have reached the point where M. Janvier, the new parson, began to divide the work of regeneration

with me. He has been a second Fenelon, unknown beyond the narrow limits of a country parish, and by some

secret of his own has infused a spirit of brotherliness and of charity among these folk that has made them

almost like one large family. M. Dufau, the justice of the peace, was a late comer, but he in an equal degree

"I will put the whole position before you in figures that will make it clearer than any words of mine. At this

moment the Commune owns two hundred acres of woodland, and a hundred and sixty acres of meadow.

Without running up the rates, we give a hundred crowns to supplement the cure's stipend, we pay two

hundred francs to the rural policeman, and as much again to the schoolmaster and schoolmistress. The

maintenance of the roads costs us five hundred francs, while necessary repairs to the townhall, the parsonage,

and the church, with some few other expenses, also amount to a similar sum. In fifteen years' time there will

be a thousand francs worth of wood to fell for every hundred francs' worth cut now, and the taxes will not

cost the inhabitants a penny. This Commune is bound to become one of the richest in France. But perhaps I

am taxing your patience, sir?" said Benassis, suddenly discovering that his companion wore such a pensive

"Our trade, handicrafts, and agriculture so far only supplied the needs of the district," the doctor went on. "At

a certain point our prosperity came to a standstill. I wanted a postoffice, and sellers of tobacco, stationery,

powder and shot. The receiver of taxes had hitherto preferred to live elsewhere, but now I succeeded in

persuading him to take up his abode in the town, holding out as inducements the pleasantness of the place and

of the new society. As time and place permitted I had succeeded in producing a supply of everything for

which I had first created a need, in attracting families of hardworking people into the district, and in

implanting a desire to own land in them all. So by degrees, as they saved a little money, the waste land began

to be broken up; spade husbandry and small holdings increased; so did the value of property on the mountain.

"Those struggling folk who, when I knew them first, used to walk over to Grenoble carrying their few

cheeses for sale, now made the journey comfortably in a cart, and took fruit, eggs, chickens and turkeys, and

before they were aware of it, everyone was a little richer. Even those who came off worst had a garden at any

rate, and grew early vegetables and fruit. It became the children's work to watch the cattle in the fields, and at

last it was found to be a waste of time to bake bread at home. Here were signs of prosperity!

"But if this place was to be a permanent forge of industry, fuel must be constantly added to the fire. The town

had not as yet a renascent industry which could maintain this commercial process, an industry which should

make great transactions, a warehouse, and a market necessary. It is not enough that a country should lose

none of the money that forms its capital; you will not increase its prosperity by more or less ingenious

devices for causing this amount to circulate, by means of production and consumption, through the greatest

possible number of hands. That is not where your problem lies. When a country is fully developed and its

production keeps pace with its consumption, if private wealth is to increase as well as the wealth of the

community at large, there must be exchanges with other communities, which will keep a balance on the right

side of the balancesheet. This thought has let states with a limited territorial basis like Tyre, Carthage,

Venice, Holland, and England, for instance, to secure the carrying trade. I cast about for some such notion as

this to apply to our little world, so as to inaugurate a third commercial epoch. Our town is so much like any

other, that our prosperity was scarcely visible to a passing stranger; it was only for me that it was astonishing.

The folk had come together by degrees; they themselves were a part of the change, and could not judge of its

"Seven years had gone by when I met with two strangers, the real benefactors of the place, which perhaps

some day they will transform into a large town. One of them is a Tyrolese, an exceedingly clever fellow, who

makes rough shoes for country people's wear, and boots for people of fashion in Grenoble as no one can

make them, not even in Paris itself. He was a poor strolling musician, who, singing and working, had made

his way through Italy; one of those busy Germans who fashion the tools of their own work, and make the

instrument that they play upon. When he came to the town he asked if any one wanted a pair of shoes. They

sent him to me, and I gave him an order for two pairs of boots, for which he made his own lasts. The

foreigner's skill surprised me. He gave accurate and consistent answers to the questions I put, and his face and

manner confirmed the good opinion I had formed of him. I suggested that he should settle in the place,

undertaking to assist him in business in every way that I could; in fact, I put a fairly large sum of money at

his disposal. He accepted my offer. I had my own ideas in this. The quality of our leather had improved; and

why should we not use it ourselves, and before very long make our own shoes at moderate prices?

"It was the basketmaker's business over again on a larger scale. Chance had put an exceedingly clever

hardworking man in my way, and he must be retained so that a steady and profitable trade might be given to

the place. There is a constant demand for footgear, and a very slight difference in price is felt at once by the

"This was my reasoning, sir, and fortunately events have justified it. At this time we have five tanyards, each

of which has its barkmill. They take all the hides produced in the department itself, and even draw part of

their supply from Provence; and yet the Tyrolese uses more leather than they can produce, and has forty

"I happened on the other man after a fashion no whit less strange, but you might find the story tedious. He is

just an ordinary peasant, who discovered a cheaper way of making the great broadbrimmed hats that are

worn in this part of the world. He sells them in other cantons, and even sends them into Switzerland and

Savoy. So long as the quality and the low prices can be maintained, here are two inexhaustible sources of

wealth for the canton, which suggested to my mind the idea of establishing three fairs in the year. The

prefect, amazed at our industrial progress, lent his aid in obtaining the royal ordinance which authorized

them, and last year we held our three fairs. They are known as far as Savoy as the Shoe Fair and the Hat Fair.

"The head clerk of a notary in Grenoble heard of these changes. He was poor, but he was a welleducated,

hardworking young fellow, and Mlle. Gravier was engaged to be married to him. He went to Paris to ask for

an authorization to establish himself here as a notary, and his request was granted. As he had not to pay for

his appointment, he could afford to build a house in the market square of the new town, opposite the house of

the justice of the peace. We have a market once a week, and a considerable amount of business is transacted

"Next year a druggist surely ought to come among us, and next we want a clockmaker, a furniture dealer, and

a bookseller; and so, by degrees, we shall have all the desirable luxuries of life. Who knows but that at last

we shall have a number of substantial houses, and give ourselves all the airs of a small city? Education has

made such strides that there has never been any opposition made at the councilboard when I proposed that

we should restore our church and build a parsonage; nor when I brought forward a plan for laying out a fine

open space, planted with trees, where the fairs could be held, and a further scheme for a survey of the

township, so that its future streets should be wholesome, spacious, and wisely planned.

"This is how we came to have nineteen hundred hearths in the place of a hundred and thirtyseven; three

thousand head of cattle instead of eight hundred; and for a population of seven hundred, no less than two

thousand persons are living in the township, or three thousand, if the people down the valley are included.

There are twelve houses belonging to wealthy people in the Commune, there are a hundred welltodo

families, and two hundred more which are thriving. The rest have their own exertions to look to. Every one

knows how to read and write, and we subscribe to seventeen different newspapers.

"We have poor people still among usthere are far too many of them, in fact; but we have no beggars, and

there is work enough for all. I have so many patients that my daily round taxes the powers of two horses. I

can go anywhere for five miles round at any hour without fear; for if any one was minded to fire a shot at me,

his life would not be worth ten minutes' purchase. The undemonstrative affection of the people is my sole

gain from all these changes, except the radiant 'Goodday, M. Benassis,' that every one gives me as I pass.

You will understand, of course, that the wealth incidentally acquired through my model farms has only been a

"If every one followed your example in other places, sir, France would be great indeed, and might laugh at

"But I have kept you out here for half an hour," said Benassis; "it is growing dark, let us go in to dinner."

The doctor's house, on the side facing the garden, consists of a ground floor and a single story, with a row of

five windows in each, dormer windows also project from the tiled mansardroof. The green painted shutters

are in startling contrast with the gray tones of the walls. A vine wanders along the whole side of the house, a

pleasant strip of green like a frieze, between the two stories. A few struggling Bengal roses make shift to live

as best they may, half drowned at times by the drippings from the gutterless eaves.

As you enter the large vestibule, the salon lies to your right; it contains four windows, two of which look into

the yard, and two into the garden. Ceiling and wainscot are paneled, and the walls are hung with seventeenth

century tapestrypathetic evidence that the room had been the object of the late owner's aspiration, and that

he had lavished all that he could spare upon it. The great roomy armchairs, covered with brocaded damask;

the old fashioned, gilded candlesconces above the chimneypiece, and the window curtains with their heavy

tassels, showed that the cure had been a wealthy man. Benassis had made some additions to this furniture,

which was not without a character of its own. He had placed two smaller tables, decorated with carved

wooden garlands, between the windows on opposite sides of the room, and had put a clock, in a case of

tortoise shell, inlaid with copper, upon the mantelshelf. The doctor seldom occupied the salon; its

atmosphere was damp and close, like that of a room that is always kept shut. Memories of the dead cure still

lingered about it; the peculiar scent of his tobacco seemed to pervade the corner by the hearth where he had

been wont to sit. The two great easychairs were symmetrically arranged on either side of the fire, which had

not been lighted since the time of M. Gravier's visit; the bright flames from the pine logs lighted the room.

"The evenings are chilly even now," said Benassis; "it is pleasant to see a fire."

Genestas was meditating. He was beginning to understand the doctor's indifference to his everyday

"It is surprising to me, sir, that you, who possess real public spirit, should have made no effort to enlighten

"You mean that I should draw up some sort of memorial on various ways of civilizing France? You are not

the first to suggest it, sir; M. Gravier has forestalled you. Unluckily, Governments cannot be enlightened, and

a Government which regards itself as a diffuser of light is the least open to enlightenment. What we have

done for our canton, every mayor ought, of course, to do for his; the magistrate should work for his town, the

subprefect for his district, the prefect for the department, and the minister for France, each acting in his own

sphere of interest. For the few miles of country road that I persuaded our people to make, another would

succeed in constructing a canal or a highway; and for my encouragement of the peasants' trade in hats, a

minister would emancipate France from the industrial yoke of the foreigner by encouraging the manufacture

of clocks in different places, by helping to bring to perfection our iron and steel, our tools and appliances, or

"In commerce, 'encouragement,' does not mean protection. A really wise policy should aim at making a

country independent of foreign supply, but this should be effected without resorting to the pitiful shifts of

customs duties and prohibitions. Industries must work out their own salvation, competition is the life of trade.

A protected industry goes to sleep, and monopoly, like the protective tariff, kills it outright. The country upon

which all others depend for their supplies will be the land which will promulgate free trade, for it will be

conscious of its power to produce its manufactures at prices lower than those of any of its competitors. France

is in a better position to attain this end than England, for France alone possesses an amount of territory

sufficiently extensive to maintain a supply of agricultural produce at prices that will enable the worker to live

on low wages; the Administration should keep this end in view, for therein lies the whole modern question. I

have not devoted my life to this study, dear sir; I found my work by accident, and late in the day. Such simple

things as these are too slight, moreover, to build into a system; there is nothing wonderful about them, they

do not lend themselves to theories; it is their misfortune to be merely practically useful. And then work

cannot be done quickly. The man who means to succeed in these ways must daily look to find within himself

the stock of courage needed for the day, a courage in reality of the rarest kind, though it does not seem hard

to practise, and meets with little recognitionthe courage of the schoolmaster, who must say the same things

over and over again. We all honor the man who has shed his blood on the battlefield, as you have done; but

we ridicule this other whose life fire is slowly consumed in repeating the same words to children of the

same age. There is no attraction for any of us in obscure welldoing. We know nothing of the civic virtue that

led the great men of ancient times to serve their country in the lowest rank whenever they did not command.

Our age is afflicted with a disease that makes each of us seek to rise above his fellows, and there are more

"This is how it has come to pass. The monarchy fell, and we lost Honor, Christian Virtue faded with the

religion of our forefathers, and our own ineffectual attempts at government have destroyed Patriotism. Ideas

can never utterly perish, so these beliefs linger on in our midst, but they do not influence the great mass of the

people, and Society has no support but Egoism. Every individual believes in himself. For us the future means

egoism; further than that we cannot see. The great man who shall save us from the shipwreck which is

imminent will no doubt avail himself of individualism when he makes a nation of us once more; but until this

regeneration comes, we bide our time in a materialistic and utilitarian age. Utilitarianismto this conclusion

we have come. We are all rated, not at our just worth, but according to our social importance. People will

scarcely look at an energetic man if he is in shirtsleeves. The Government itself is pervaded by this idea. A

minister sends a paltry medal to a sailor who has saved a dozen lives at the risk of his own, while the deputy

"Woe to a people made up of such men as these! For nations, like men, owe all the strength and vitality that is

in them to noble thoughts and aspirations, and men's feelings shape their faith. But when self interest has

taken the place of faith and each one of us thinks only of himself, and believes in himself alone, how can you

expect to find among us much of that civil courage whose very essence consists in selfrenunciation? The

same principle underlies both military and civil courage, although you soldiers are called upon to yield your

lives up once and for all, while ours are given slowly drop by drop, and the battle is the same for both,

"The man who would fain civilize the lowliest spot on earth needs something besides wealth for the task.

Knowledge is still more necessary; and knowledge, and patriotism, and integrity are worthless unless they are

accompanied by a firm determination on his part to set his own personal interests completely aside, and to

devote himself to a social idea. France, no doubt, possesses more than one welleducated man and more than

one patriot in every commune; but I am fully persuaded that not every canton can produce a man who to

these valuable qualifications unites the unflagging will and pertinacity with which a blacksmith hammers out

"The Destroyer and the Builder are two manifestations of Will; the one prepares the way, and the other

accomplishes the work; the first appears in the guise of a spirit of evil, and the second seems like the spirit of

good. Glory falls to the Destroyer, while the Builder is forgotten; for evil makes a noise in the world that

rouses little souls to admiration, while good deeds are slow to make themselves heard. Selflove leads us to

prefer the more conspicuous part. If it should happen that any public work is undertaken without an interested

motive, it will only be by accident, until the day when education has changed our ways of regarding things in

"Yet suppose that this change had come to pass, and that all of us were publicspirited citizens; in spite of

our comfortable lives among trivialities, should we not be in a fair way to become the most wearied,

"I am not at the helm of State, the decision of great questions of this kind is not within my province; but,

setting these considerations aside, there are other difficulties in the way of laying down hard and fast rules as

to government. In the matter of civilization, everything is relative. Ideas that suit one country admirably are

fatal in anothermen's minds are as various as the soils of the globe. If we have so often been ill governed, it

is because a faculty for government, like taste, is the outcome of a very rare and lofty attitude of mind. The

qualifications for the work are found in a natural bent of the soul rather than in the possession of scientific

formulae. No one need fear, however, to call himself a statesman, for his actions and motives cannot be justly

estimated; his real judges are far away, and the results of his deeds are even more remote. We have a great

respect here in France for men of ideasa keen intellect exerts a great attraction for us; but ideas are of little

value where a resolute will is the one thing needful. Administration, as a matter of fact, does not consist in

forcing more or less wise methods and ideas upon the great mass of the nation, but in giving to the ideas,

good or bad, that they already possess a practical turn which will make them conduce to the general welfare

of the State. If old established prejudices and customs bring a country into a bad way, the people will

renounce their errors of their own accord. Are not losses the result of economical errors of every kind? And is

"Luckily I found a tabula rasa in this district. They have followed my advice, and the land is well cultivated;

but there had been no previous errors in agriculture, and the soil was good to begin with, so that it has been

easy to introduce the fiveply shift, artificial grasses, and potatoes. My methods did not clash with people's

prejudices. The faultily constructed plowshares in use in some parts of France were unknown here, the hoe

sufficed for the little field work that they did. Our wheelwright extolled my wheeled plows because he

wished to increase his own business, so I secured an ally in him; but in this matter, as in all others, I sought to

"Then I turned my attention to another kind of production, that should increase the welfare rather than the

wealth of these poor folk. I have brought nothing from without into this district; I have simply encouraged the

people to seek beyond its limits for a market for their produce, a measure that could not but increase their

prosperity in a way that they felt immediately. They had no idea of the fact, but they themselves were my

apostles, and their works preached my doctrines. Something else must also be borne in mind. We are barely

five leagues from Grenoble. There is plenty of demand in a large city for produce of all kinds, but not every

commune is situated at the gates of a city. In every similar undertaking the nature, situation, and resources of

the country must be taken into consideration, and a careful study must be made of the soil, of the people

themselves, and of many other things; and no one should expect to have vines grow in Normandy. So no

tasks can be more various than those of government, and its general principles must be few in number. The

law is uniform, but not so the land and the minds and customs of those who dwell in it; and the administration

of the law is the art of carrying it out in such a manner that no injury is done to people's interests. Every place

"On the other side of the mountain at the foot of which our deserted village lies, they find it impossible to use

wheeled plows, because the soil is not deep enough. Now if the mayor of the commune were to take it into

his head to follow in our footsteps, he would be the ruin of his neighborhood. I advised him to plant

vineyards; they had a capital vintage last year in the little district, and their wine is exchanged for our corn.

"Then, lastly, it must be remembered that my words carried a certain weight with the people to whom I

preached, and that we were continually brought into close contact. I cured my peasants' complaints; an easy

task, for a nourishing diet is, as a rule, all that is needed to restore them to health and strength. Either through

thrift, or through sheer poverty, the country people starve themselves; any illness among them is caused in

"When I first decided to devote myself to this life of obscure renunciation, I was in doubt for a long while

whether to become a cure, a country doctor, or a justice of the peace. It is not without reason that people

speak collectively of the priest, the lawyer, and the doctor as 'men of the black robe'so the saying goes.

They represent the three principal elements necessary to the existence of societyconscience, property, and

health. At one time the first, and at a later period the second, was allimportant in the State. Our predecessors

on this earth thought, perhaps not without reason, that the priest, who prescribed what men should think,

ought to be paramount; so the priest was king, pontiff, and judge in one, for in those days belief and faith

were everything. All this has been changed in our day; and we must even take our epoch as we find it. But I,

for one, believe that the progress of civilization and the welfare of the people depend on these three men.

They are the three powers who bring home to the people's minds the ways in which facts, interests, and

principles affect them. They themselves are three great results produced in the midst of the nation by the

operation of events, by the ownership of property, and by the growth of ideas. Time goes on and brings

changes to pass, property increases or diminishes in men's hands, all the various readjustments have to be

duly regulated, and in this way principles of social order are established. If civilization is to spread itself, and

production is to be increased, the people must be made to understand the way in which the interests of the

individual harmonize with national interests which resolve themselves into facts, interests, and principles. As

these three professions are bound to deal with these issues of human life, it seemed to me that they must be

the most powerful civilizing agencies of our time. They alone afford to a man of wealth the opportunity of

"The peasant is always more willing to listen to the man who lays down rules for saving him from bodily ills

than to the priest who exhorts him to save his soul. The first speaker can talk of this earth, the scene of the

peasant's labors, while the priest is bound to talk to him of heaven, with which, unfortunately, the peasant

nowadays concerns himself very little indeed; I say unfortunately, because the doctrine of a future life is not

only a consolation, but a means by which men may be governed. Is not religion the one power that sanctions

social laws? We have but lately vindicated the existence of God. In the absence of a religion, the Government

was driven to invent the Terror, in order to carry its laws into effect; but the terror was the fear of man, and it

"When a peasant is ill, when he is forced to lie on his pallet, and while he is recovering, he cannot help

himself, he is forced to listen to logical reasoning, which he can understand quite well if it is put clearly

before him. This thought made a doctor of me. My calculations for the peasants were made along with them.

I never gave advice unless I was quite sure of the results, and in this way compelled them to admit the

wisdom of my views. The people require infallibility. Infallibility was the making of Napoleon; he would

have been a god if he had not filled the world with the sound of his fall at Waterloo. If Mahomet founded a

permanent religion after conquering the third part of the globe, it was by dint of concealing his deathbed from

the crowd. The same rules hold good for the great conqueror and for the provincial mayor, and a nation or a

commune is much the same sort of crowd; indeed, the great multitude of mankind is the same everywhere.

"I have been exceedingly firm with those whom I have helped with money; if I had not been inflexible on this

point, they all would have laughed at me. Peasants, no less than worldlings, end by despising the man that

they can deceive. He has been cheated? Clearly, then, he must have been weak; and it is might alone that

governs the world. I have never charged a penny for my professional advice, except to those who were

evidently rich people; but I have not allowed the value of my services to be overlooked at all, and I always

make them pay for medicine unless the patient is exceedingly poor. If my peasants do not pay me in money,

they are quite aware that they are in my debt; sometimes they satisfy their consciences by bringing oats for

my horses, or corn, when it is cheap. But if the miller were to send me some eels as a return for my advice, I

should tell him that he is too generous for such a small matter. My politeness bears fruit. In the winter I shall

have some sacks of flour for the poor. Ah! sir, they have kind hearts, these people, if one does not slight

"Not at all," answered Benassis. "It was no more trouble to say something useful than to chatter about trifles;

and whether I chatted or joked, the talk always turned on them and their concerns wherever I went. They

would not listen to me at first. I had to overcome their dislikes; I belonged to the middle classesthat is to

say, I was a natural enemy. I found the struggle amusing. An easy or an uneasy consciencethat is all the

difference that lies between doing well or ill; the trouble is the same in either case. If scoundrels would but

behave themselves properly, they might be millionaires instead of being hanged. That is all."

"I have only one comment to offer on what I have just heard," he remarked. "I am not acquainted with any

account of the wars of Mahomet, so that I can form no opinions as to his military talents; but if you had only

watched the Emperor's tactics during the campaign in France, you might well have taken him for a god; and if

he was beaten on the field of Waterloo, it was because he was more than mortal, it was because the earth

found his weight too heavy to bear, and sprang from under his feet! On every other subject I entirely agree

The walls of the diningroom were paneled from floor to ceiling, and painted gray. The furniture consisted of

a few strawbottomed chairs, a sideboard, some cupboards, a stove, and the late owner's celebrated clock;

there were white curtains in the window, and a white cloth on the table, about which there was no sign of

luxury. The dinner service was of plain white earthenware; the soup, made after the traditions of the late cure,

was the most concentrated kind of broth that was ever set to simmer by any mortal cook. The doctor and his

guest had scarcely finished it when a man rushed into the kitchen, and in spite of Jacquotte, suddenly invaded

"It is this, sir. The mistress, our Mme. Vigneau, has turned as white as white can be, so that we are frightened

"Oh, well, then," Benassis said cheerfully, "I must leave the table," and he rose to go.

In spite of the doctor's entreaties, Genestas flung down his table napkin, and swore in a soldierly fashion

that he would not finish his dinner without his host. He returned indeed to the salon; and as he warmed

himself by the fire, he thought over the troubles that no man may escape, the troubles that are found in every

"Taboureau has just come up to speak to you," said Jacquotte to her master, as she brought in the dishes that

"No one is ill, sir. I think from what he said that it is some matter of his own that he wants to ask you about;

"Very good. This Taboureau," Benassis went on, addressing Genestas, "is for me a whole philosophical

treatise; take a good look at him when he comes, he is sure to amuse you. He was a laborer, a thrifty,

hardworking man, eating little and getting through a good deal of work. As soon as the rogue came to have

a few crowns of his own, his intelligence began to develop; he watched the progress which I had originated in

this little district with an eye to his own profit. He had made quite a fortune in eight year's time, that is to say,

a fortune for our part of the world. Very likely he may have a couple of score thousand francs by now. But if

I were to give you a thousand guesses, you would never find out how he made the money. He is a usurer, and

his scheme of usury is so profoundly and so cleverly based upon the requirements of the whole canton, that I

should merely waste my time if I were to take it upon myself to undeceive them as to the benefits which they

reap, in their own opinion, from their dealings with Taboureau. When this devil of a fellow saw every one

cultivating his own plot of ground, he hurried about buying grain so as to supply the poor with the requisite

seed. Here, as everywhere else, the peasants and even some of the farmers had no ready money with which to

pay for seed. To some, Master Taboureau would lend a sack of barley, for which he was to receive a sack of

rye at harvest time, and to others a measure of wheat for a sack of four. At the present day the man has

extended this curious business of his all over the department; and unless something happens to prevent him,

he will go on and very likely make a million. Well, my dear sir, Taboureau the laborer, an obliging,

hardworking, goodnatured fellow, used to lend a helping hand to any one who asked him; but as his gains

have increased MONSIEUR Taboureau has become litigious, arrogant, and somewhat given to sharp

practice. The more money he makes, the worse he grows. The moment that the peasant forsakes his life of

toil pure and simple for the leisured existence of the landowning classes, he becomes intolerable. There is a

certain kind of character, partly virtuous, partly vicious, halfeducated, halfignorant, which will always be

the despair of governments. You will see an example of it in Taboureau. He looks simple, and even doltish;

Thus forewarned by the doctor, the commandant scrutinized the peasant in the doorway. Taboureau was

decidedly thin, and stooped a little. He had a bulging forehead, covered with wrinkles, and a cavernous face,

in which two small gray eyes with a dark spot in either of them seemed to be pierced rather than set. The lines

of the miser's mouth were close and firm, and his narrow chin turned up to meet an exaggeratedly hooked

nose. His hair was turning gray already, and deep furrows which converged above the prominent

cheekbones spoke of the wily shrewdness of a horsedealer and of a life spent in journeying about. He wore

a blue coat in fairly clean condition, the square sidepocket flaps stuck out above his hips, and the skirts of

the coats hung loose in front, so that a whiteflowered waistcoat was visible. There he stood firmly planted

on both feet, leaning upon a thick stick with a knob at the end of it. A little spaniel had followed the

Taboureau gave a suspicious glance at the stranger seated at the doctor's table, and said:

"It is not a case of illness, M. le Maire, but you understand how to doctor the ailments of the purse just as

well as those of the body. We have had a little difficulty with a man over at SaintLaurent, and I have come

"Oh, because you are so much cleverer, sir, and I shall feel more sure about my case if I can have your

"My good Taboureau, I am willing to give medical advice to the poor without charging for it; but I cannot

look into the lawsuits of a man who is as wealthy as you are for nothing. It costs a good deal to acquire that

"If you want my advice, in order to save the hard coin you would have to pay to the lawyer folk over in

Grenoble, you must send a bag of rye to the widow Martin, the woman who is bringing up the charity

"DAME! I will do it with all my heart, sir, if you think it necessary. Can I talk about this business of mine

"Well, then, sir, two months ago a man from SaintLaurent came over here to find me. 'Taboureau,' said he to

me, 'could you sell me a hundred and thirtyseven measures of barley?' 'Why not?' say I, 'that is my trade. Do

you want it immediately?' 'No,' he says, 'I want it for the beginning of spring, in March.' So far, so good.

Well, we drive our bargain, and we drink a glass, and we agree that he is to pay me the price that the barley

fetched at Grenoble last market day, and I am to deliver it in March. I am to warehouse it at owner's risk, and

no allowance for shrinkage of course. But barley goes up and up, my dear sir; the barley rises like boiling

milk. Then I am hard up for money, and I sell my barley. Quite natural, sir, was it not?"

"No," said Benassis, "the barley had passed out of your possession, you were only warehousing it. And

suppose the barley had gone down in value, would you not have compelled your buyer to take it at the price

"But very likely he would not have paid me, sir. One must look out for oneself! The seller ought to make a

good profit when the chance comes in his way; and, after, all the goods are not yours until you have paid for

them. That is so, Monsieur l'Officier, is it not? For you can see that the gentleman has been in the army."

"Taboureau," Benassis said sternly, "ill luck will come to you. Sooner or later God punishes ill deeds. How

can you, knowing as much as you do, a capable man moreover, and a man who conducts his business

honorably, set examples of dishonesty to the canton? If you allow such proceedings as this to be taken against

you, how can you expect that the poor will remain honest people and will not rob you? Your laborers will

cheat you out of part of their working hours, and every one here will be demoralized. You are in the wrong.

Your barley was as good as delivered. If the man from SaintLaurent had fetched it himself, you would not

have gone there to take it away from him; you have sold something that was no longer yours to sell, for your

barley had already been turned into money which was to be paid down at the stipulated time. But go on."

Genestas gave the doctor a significant glance, to call his attention to Taboureau's impassive countenance. Not

a muscle had stirred in the usurer's face during this reprimand; there was no flush on his forehead, and no

"Well, sir, I am called upon to supply the barley at last winter's price. Now _I_ consider that I am not bound

"Look here, Taboureau, deliver that barley and be very quick about it, or make up your mind to be respected

by nobody in the future. Even if you gained the day in a case like this, you would be looked upon as an

unscrupulous man who does not keep to his word, and is not bound by promises, or by honor, or"

"Go on, there is nothing to be afraid of; tell me that I am a scamp, a scoundrel, a thief outright. You can say

things like that in business without insulting anybody, M. le Maire. 'Tis each for himself in business, you

"Well, then, why deliberately put yourself in a position in which you deserve to be called by such names?"

"Are you quite sure about it, sir? Certain sure? For you see it is an important matter."

"Certainly I am. Quite sure. If I were not at dinner, I would have down the code, and you should see for

yourself. If the case comes on, you will lose it, and you will never set foot in my house again, for I do not

wish to receive people whom I do not respect. Do you understand? You will lose your case."

"Oh! no, not at all, I shall not lose it, sir," said Taboureau. "You see, sir, it is this way; it is the man from

SaintLaurent who owes ME the barley; I bought it of him, and now he refuses to deliver it. I just wanted to

make quite certain that I should gain my case before going to any expense at court about it."

Genestas and the doctor exchanged glances; each concealed his amazement at the ingenious device by which

"Very well, Taboureau, your man is a swindler; you should not make bargains with such people."

"Well, now," remarked Benassis, when the usurer had gone, "if that fellow were in Paris, do you not think

After dinner, the doctor and his visitor went back to the salon, and all the rest of the evening until bedtime

they talked about war and politics; Genestas evincing a most violent dislike of the English in the course of

"May I know whom I have the honor of entertaining as a guest?" asked the doctor.

"My name is Pierre Bluteau," answered Genestas; "I am a captain stationed at Grenoble."

"Very well, sir. Do you care to adopt M. Gravier's plan? In the morning after breakfast he liked to go on my

rounds with me. I am not at all sure that you would find anything to interest you in the things that occupy

methey are so very commonplace. For, after all, you own no land about here, nor are you the mayor of the

place, and you will see nothing in the canton that you cannot see elsewhere; one thatched cottage is just like

another. Still you will be in the open air, and you will have something to take you out of doors."

"No proposal could give me more pleasure. I did not venture to make it myself, lest I should thrust myself

Commandant Genestas (who shall keep his own name in spite of the fictitious appellation which he had

thought fit to give himself) followed his host to a room on the first floor above the salon.

"That is right," said Benassis, "Jacquotte has lighted a fire for you. If you want anything, there is a bellpull

"I am not likely to want anything, however small, it seems to me," exclaimed Genestas. "There is even a

bootjack. Only an old trooper knows what a bootjack is worth! There are times, when one is out on a

campaign, sir, when one is ready to burn down a house to come by a knave of a bootjack. After a few

marches, one on the top of another, or above all, after an engagement, there are times when a swollen foot

and the soaked leather will not part company, pull as you will; I have had to lie down in my boots more than

The commandant's wink gave a kind of profound slyness to his last utterance; then he began to make a

survey. Not without surprise, he saw that the room was neatly kept, comfortable, and almost luxurious.

"Come and see," said the doctor; "I am your neighbor, there is nothing but the staircase between us."

Genestas was again surprised when he entered the doctor's room, a barelooking apartment with no

adornment on the walls save an old fashioned wallpaper of a yellowish tint with a pattern of brown roses

over it; the color had gone in patches here and there. There was a roughly painted iron bedstead, two gray

cotton curtains were suspended from a wooden bracket above it, and a threadbare strip of carpet lay at the

foot; it was like a bed in a hospital. By the bedhead stood a rickety cupboard on four feet with a door that

continually rattled with a sound like castanets. Three chairs and a couple of straw bottomed armchairs stood

about the room, and on a low chest of drawers in walnut wood stood a basin, and a ewer of obsolete pattern

with a lid, which was kept in place by a leaden rim round the top of the vessel. This completed the list of the

The grate was empty. All the apparatus required for shaving lay about in front of an old mirror suspended

above the painted stone chimney piece by a bit of string. The floor was clean and carefully swept, but it was

worn and splintered in various places, and there were hollows in it here and there. Gray cotton curtains

bordered with a green fringe adorned the two windows. The scrupulous cleanliness maintained by Jacquotte

gave a certain air of distinction to this picture of simplicity, but everything in it, down to the round table

littered with stray papers, and the very pens on the writingdesk, gave the idea of an almost monastic lifea

life so wholly filled with thought and feeling of a wider kind that outward surroundings had come to be

matters of no moment. An open door allowed the commandant to see the smaller room, which doubtless the

doctor seldom occupied. It was scarcely kept in the same condition as the adjoining apartment; a few dusty

books lay strewn about over the no less dusty shelves, and from the rows of labeled bottles it was easy to

guess that the place was devoted rather to the dispensing of drugs than scientific studies.

"Why this difference between your room and mine, you will ask?" said Benassis. "Listen a moment. I have

always blushed for those who put their guests in the attics, who furnish them with mirrors that distort

everything to such a degree that any one beholding himself might think that he was smaller or larger than

nature made him, or suffering from apoplectic stroke or some other bad complaint. Ought we not to do our

utmost to make a room as pleasant as possible during the time that our friend can be with us? Hospitality, to

my thinking, is a virtue, a pleasure, and a luxury; but in whatever light it is considered, nay, even if you

regard it as a speculation, ought not our guest or our friend to be made much of? Ought not every refinement

"So the best furniture is put into your room, where a thick carpet is laid down; there are hangings on the

walls, and a clock and wax candles; and for you Jacquotte will do her best, she has no doubt brought a

nightlight, and a pair of new slippers and some milk, and her warmingpan too for your benefit. I hope that

you will find that luxurious armchair the most comfortable seat you have ever sat in, it was a discovery of the

late cure's; I do not know where he found it, but it is a fact that if you wish to meet with the perfection of

comfort, beauty, or convenience, you must ask counsel of the Church. Well, I hope that you will find

everything in your room to your liking. You will find some good razors and excellent soap, and all the trifling

details that make one's own home so pleasant. And if my views on the subject of hospitality should not at

once explain the difference between your room and mine, tomorrow, M. Bluteau, you will arrive at a

wonderfully clear comprehension of the bareness of my room and the untidy condition of my study, when

you see all the continual comings and goings here. Mine is not an indoor life, to begin with. I am almost

always out of the house, and if I stay at home, peasants come in at every moment to speak to me. My body

and soul and house are all theirs. Why should I worry about social conventions in these matters, or trouble

myself over the damage unintentionally done to floors and furniture by these worthy folk? Such things cannot

be helped. Luxury properly belongs to the boudoir and the guestchamber, to great houses and chateaux. In

short, as I scarcely do more than sleep here, what do I want with superfluities of wealth? You do not know,

They wished each other a friendly goodnight with a warm shake of the hand, and went to bed. But before

the commandant slept, he came to more than one conclusion as to the man who hour by hour grew greater in

The first thing next morning Genestas went to the stable, drawn thither by the affection that every man feels

for the horse that he rides. Nicolle's method of rubbing down the animal was quite satisfactory.

"Up already, Commandant Bluteau?" cried Benassis, as he came upon his guest. "You hear the drum beat in

"Are you all right?" replied Genestas, holding out his hand with a friendly gesture.

Jacquotte's face beamed as she followed her master and his guest, and when she had seen them seat

"We will begin today by calling at two places where there have been deaths," Benassis said to his visitor as

they left the diningroom. "Although doctors seldom deign to confront their supposed victims, I will take you

round to the two houses, where you will be able to make some interesting observations of human nature; and

the scenes to which you will be a witness will show you that in the expression of their feelings our folk

among the hills differ greatly from the dwellers in the lowlands. Up among the mountain peaks in our canton

they cling to customs that bear the impress of an older time, and that vaguely recall scenes in the Bible.

Nature has traced out a line over our mountain ranges; the whole appearance of the country is different on

either side of it. You will find strength of character up above, flexibility and quickness below; they have

larger ways of regarding things among the hills, while the bent of the lowlands is always towards the material

interests of existence. I have never seen a difference so strongly marked, unless it has been in the Val d'Ajou,

where the northern side is peopled by a tribe of idiots, and the southern by an intelligent race. There is

nothing but a stream in the valley bottom to separate these two populations, which are utterly dissimilar in

every respect, as different in face and stature as in manners, customs, and occupation. A fact of this kind

should compel those who govern a country to make very extensive studies of local differences before passing

laws that are to affect the great mass of the people. But the horses are ready, let us start!"

In a short time the two horsemen reached a house in a part of the township that was overlooked by the

mountains of the Grande Chartreuse. Before the door of the dwelling, which was fairly clean and tidy, they

saw a coffin set upon two chairs, and covered with a black pall. Four tall candles stood about it, and on a

stool near by there was a shallow brass dish full of holy water, in which a branch of green boxwood was

steeping. Every passerby went into the yard, knelt by the side of the dead, said a Pater noster, and sprinkled

a few drops of holy water on the bier. Above the black cloth that covered the coffin rose the green sprays of a

jessamine that grew beside the doorway, and a twisted vine shoot, already in leaf, overran the lintel. Even the

saddest ceremonies demand that things shall appear to the best advantage, and in obedience to this

vaguelyfelt requirement a young girl had been sweeping the front of the house. The dead man's eldest son, a

young peasant about twentytwo years of age, stood motionless, leaning against the doorpost. The tears in

his eyes came and went without falling, or perhaps he furtively brushed them away. Benassis and Genestas

saw all the details of this scene as they stood beyond the low wall; they fastened their horses to one of the

row of poplar trees that grew along it, and entered the yard just as the widow came out of the byre. A woman

"Ah! my dear, after twentyfive years of life together, it is very hard to lose your man," and her eyes

brimmed over with tears. "Will you pay the two sous?" she added, after a moment, as she held out her hand to

"There, now! I had forgotten about it," said the other woman, giving her the coin. "Come, neighbor, don't take

"DAME!" she said, as the tears fell fast, "we must go on, all the same, that is certain. I tell myself that my

man is out of pain now. He suffered so terribly! But come inside, sir. Jacques, set some chairs for these

gentlemen. Come, stir yourself a bit. Lord bless you! if you were to stop there for a century, it would not

bring your poor father back again. And now, you will have to do the work of two."

"No, no good woman, leave your son alone, we will not sit down. You have a boy there who will take care of

"Go and change your clothes, Jacques," cried the widow; "you will be wanted directly."

"Here, you see, death is looked upon as an event for which every one is prepared," said the doctor; "it brings

no interruption to the course of family life, and they will not even wear mourning of any kind. No one cares

to be at the expense of it; they are all either too poor or too parsimonious in the villages hereabouts, so that

mourning is unknown in country districts. Yet the custom of wearing mourning is something better than a law

or a usage, it is an institution somewhat akin to all moral obligations. But in spite of our endeavors neither M.

Janvier nor I have succeeded in making our peasants understand the great importance of public

demonstrations of feeling for the maintenance of social order. These good folk, who have only just begun to

think and act for themselves, are slow as yet to grasp the changed conditions which should attach them to

these theories. They have only reached those ideas which conduce to economy and to physical welfare; in the

future, if some one else carries on this work of mine, they will come to understand the principles that serve to

uphold and preserve public order and justice. As a matter of fact, it is not sufficient to be an honest man, you

must appear to be honest in the eyes of others. Society does not live by moral ideas alone; its existence

"In most country communes, out of a hundred families deprived by death of their head, there are only a few

individuals capable of feeling more keenly than the others, who will remember the deaths for very long; in a

year's time the rest will have forgotten all about it. Is not this forgetfulness a sore evil? A religion is the very

heart of a nation; it expresses their feelings and their thoughts, and exalts them by giving them an object; but

unless outward and visible honor is paid to a God, religion cannot exist; and, as a consequence, human

ordinances lose all their force. If the conscience belongs to God and to Him only, the body is amenable to

social law. Is it not therefore, a first step towards atheism to efface every sign of pious sorrow in this way, to

neglect to impress on children who are not yet old enough to reflect, and on all other people who stand in

need of example, the necessity of obedience to human law, by openly manifested resignation to the will of

Providence, who chastens and consoles, who bestows and takes away worldly wealth? I confess that, after

passing through a period of sneering incredulity, I have come during my life here to recognize the value of

the rites of religion and of religious observances in the family, and to discern the importance of household

customs and domestic festivals. The family will always be the basis of human society. Law and authority are

first felt there; there, at any rate, the habit of obedience should be learned. Viewed in the light of all their

consequences, the spirit of the family and paternal authority are two elements but little developed as yet in

our new legislative system. Yet in the family, the commune, the department, lies the whole of our country.

"In my opinion, marriages, the birth of infants, and the deaths of heads of households cannot be surrounded

with too much circumstance. The secret of the strength of Catholicism, and of the deep root that it has taken

in the ordinary life of man, lies precisely in thisthat it steps in to invest every important event in his

existence with a pomp that is so naively touching, and so grand, whenever the priest rises to the height of his

mission and brings his office into harmony with the sublimity of Christian doctrine.

"Once I looked upon the Catholic religion as a cleverly exploited mass of prejudices and superstitions, which

an intelligent civilization ought to deal with according to its desserts. Here I have discovered its political

necessity and its usefulness as a moral agent; here, moreover, I have come to understand its power, through a

knowledge of the actual thing which the word expresses. Religion means a bond or tie, and certainly a

cultor, in other words, the outward and visible form of religion is the only force that can bind the various

elements of society together and mould them into a permanent form. Lastly, it was also here that I have felt

the soothing influence that religion sheds over the wounds of humanity, and (without going further into the

subject) I have seen how admirably it is suited to the fervid temperaments of southern races.

"Let us take the road up the hillside," said the doctor, interrupting himself; "we must reach the plateau up

there. Thence we shall look down upon both valleys, and you will see a magnificent view. The plateau lies

three thousand feet above the level of the Mediterranean; we shall see over Savoy and Dauphine, and the

mountain ranges of the Lyonnais and Rhone. We shall be in another commune, a hill commune, and on a

farm belonging to M. Gravier you will see the kind of scene of which I have spoken. There the great events of

life are invested with a solemnity which comes up to my ideas. Mourning for the dead is vigorously

prescribed. Poor people will beg in order to purchase black clothing, and no one refuses to give in such a

case. There are few days in which the widow does not mention her loss; she always speaks of it with tears,

and her grief is as deep after ten days of sorrow as on the morning after her bereavement. Manners are

patriarchal: the father's authority is unlimited, his word is law. He takes his meals sitting by himself at the

head of the table; his wife and children wait upon him, and those about him never address him without using

certain respectful forms of speech, while every one remains standing and uncovered in his presence. Men

brought up in this atmosphere are conscious of their dignity; to my way of thinking, it is a noble education to

be brought up among these customs. And, for the most part, they are upright, thrifty, and hardworking people

in this commune. The father of every family, when he is old and past work, divides his property equally

among his children, and they support him; that is the usual way here. An old man of ninety, in the last

century, who had divided everything he had among his four children, went to live with each in turn for three

months in the year. As he left the oldest to go to the home of a younger brother, one of his friends asked him,

'Well, are you satisfied with the arrangement?' 'Faith! yes,' the old man answered; 'they have treated me as if I

had been their own child.' That answer of his seemed so remarkable to an officer then stationed at Grenoble,

that he repeated it in more than one Parisian salon. That officer was the celebrated moralist Vauvenargues,

and in this way the beautiful saying came to the knowledge of another writer named Chamfort. Ah! still more

forcible phrases are often struck out among us, but they lack a historian worthy of them."

"I have come across Moravians and Lollards in Bohemia and Hungary," said Genestas. "They are a kind of

people something like your mountaineers, good folk who endure the sufferings of war with angelic patience."

"Men living under simple and natural conditions are bound to be almost alike in all countries. Sincerity of life

takes but one form. It is true that a country life often extinguishes thought of a wider kind; but evil

propensities are weakened and good qualities are developed by it. In fact, the fewer the numbers of the

human beings collected together in a place, the less crime, evil thinking, and general bad behavior will be

The two horsemen, who had been climbing the stony road at a foot pace, now reached the level space of

which Benassis had spoken. It is a strip of land lying round about the base of a lofty mountain peak, a bare

surface of rock with no growth of any kind upon it; deep clefts are riven in its sheer inaccessible sides. The

gray crest of the summit towers above the ledge of fertile soil which lies around it, a domain sometimes

narrower, sometimes wider, and altogether about a hundred acres in extent. Here, through a vast break in the

line of the hills to the south, the eye sees French Maurienne, Dauphine, the crags of Savoy, and the faroff

mountains of the Lyonnais. Genestas was gazing from this point, over a land that lay far and wide in the

"Let us go on," said Benassis; "the wail for the dead has begun, that is the name they give to this part of the

On the western slope of the mountain peak, the commandant saw the buildings belonging to a farm of some

size. The whole place formed a perfect square. The gateway consisted of a granite arch, impressive in its

solidity, which added to the oldworld appearance of the buildings with the ancient trees that stood about

them, and the growth of plant life on the roofs. The house itself lay at the farther end of the yard. Barns,

sheepfolds, stables, cowsheds, and other buildings lay on either side, and in the midst was the great pool

where the manure had been laid to rot. On a thriving farm, such a yard as this is usually full of life and

movement, but today it was silent and deserted. The poultry was shut up, the cattle were all in the byres,

there was scarcely a sound of animal life. Both stables and cowsheds had been carefully swept across the

yard. The perfect neatness which reigned in a place where everything as a rule was in disorder, the absence of

stirring life, the stillness in so noisy a spot, the calm serenity of the hills, the deep shadow cast by the

Genestas was accustomed to painful scenes, yet he could not help shuddering as he saw a dozen men and

women standing weeping outside the door of the great hall. "THE MASTER IS DEAD!" they wailed; the

unison of voices gave appalling effect to the words which they repeated twice during the time required to

cross the space between the gateway and the farmhouse door. To this wailing lament succeeded moans from

"I always go to visit a bereaved family," the doctor answered, "either to certify the death, or to see that no

mischance caused by grief has befallen the living. You need not hesitate to come with me. The scene is

impressive, and there will be such a great many people that no one will notice your presence."

As Genestas followed the doctor, he found, in fact, that the first room was full of relations of the dead. They

passed through the crowd and stationed themselves at the door of a bedroom that opened out of the great hall

which served the whole family for a kitchen and a sittingroom; the whole colony, it should rather be called,

for the great length of the table showed that some forty people lived in the house. Benassis' arrival interrupted

the discourse of a tall, simply dressed woman, with thin locks of hair, who held the dead man's hand in hers

The dead master of the house had been arrayed in his best clothes, and now lay stretched out cold and stiff

upon the bed. They had drawn the curtains aside; the thought of heaven seemed to brood over the quiet face

and the white hairit was like the closing scene of a drama. On either side of the bed stood the children and

the nearest relations of the husband and wife. These last stood in a line on either side; the wife's kin upon the

left, and those of her husband on the right. Both men and women were kneeling in prayer, and almost all of

them were in tears. Tall candles stood about the bed. The cure of the parish and his assistants had taken their

places in the middle of the room, beside the bier. There was something tragical about the scene, with the head

of the family lying before the coffin, which was waiting to be closed down upon him forever.

"Ah!" cried the widow, turning as she saw Benassis, "if the skill of the best of men could not save you, my

dear lord, it was because it was ordained in heaven that you should precede me to the tomb! Yes, this hand of

yours, that used to press mine so kindly, is cold! I have lost my dear helpmate for ever, and our household has

lost its beloved head, for truly you were the guide of us all! Alas! there is not one of those who are weeping

with me who has not known all the worth of your nature, and felt the light of your soul, but I alone knew all

the patience and the kindness of your heart. Oh! my husband, my husband! must I bid you farewell for ever?

Farewell to you, our stay and support! Farewell to you, my dear master! And we, your children,for to each

of us you gave the same fatherly love,all we, your children, have lost our father!"

The widow flung herself upon the dead body and clasped it in a tight embrace, as if her kisses and the tears

with which she covered it could give it warmth again; during the pause, came the wail of the servants:

"Yes," the widow went on, "he is dead! Our beloved who gave us our bread, who sowed and reaped for us,

who watched over our happiness, who guided us through life, who ruled so kindly among us. NOW, I may

speak in his praise, and say that he never caused me the slightest sorrow; he was good and strong and patient.

Even while we were torturing him for the sake of his health, so precious to us, 'Let it be, children, it is all no

use,' the dear lamb said, just in the same tone of voice with which he had said, 'Everything is all right,

friends,' only a few days before. Ah! grand Dieu! a few days ago! A few days have been enough to take away

the gladness from our house and to darken our lives, to close the eyes of the best, most upright, most revered

of men. No one could plow as he could. Night or day, he would go about over the mountains, he feared

nothing, and when he came back he had always a smile for his wife and children. Ah! he was our beloved! It

was dull here by the fireside when HE was away, and our food lost all its relish. Oh! how will it be now,

when our guardian angel will be laid away under the earth, and we shall never see him any more? Never any

more, dear kinsfolk and friends; never any more, my children! Yes, my children have lost their kind father,

our relations and friends have lost their good kinsman and their trusty friend, the household has lost its

She took the hand of the dead again, and knelt, so that she might press her face close to his as she kissed it.

Just then the eldest son came to his mother to say, "The people from SaintLaurent have just come, mother;

"Take the keys," she said in a low tone, and in a different voice from that in which she had just expressed her

grief; "you are the master of the house, my son; see that they receive the welcome that your father would

"Let me have one more long look," she went on. "But alas! my good husband, you do not feel my presence

now, I cannot bring back warmth to you! I only wish that I could comfort you still, could let you know that so

long as I live you will dwell in the heart that you made glad, could tell you that I shall be happy in the

memory of my happiness that the dear thought of you will live on in this room. Yes, as long as God spares

me, this room shall be filled with memories of you. Hear my vow, dear husband! Your couch shall always

remain as it is now. I will sleep in it no more, since you are dead; henceforward, while I live, it shall be cold

and empty. With you, I have lost all that makes a woman: her master, husband, father, friend, companion, and

"THE MASTER IS DEAD!" the servants wailed. Others raised the cry, and the lament became general. The

widow took a pair of scissors that hung at her waist, cut off her hair, and laid the locks in her husband's hand.

"That act means that she will not marry again," said Benassis; "this determination was expected by many of

"Take it, dear lord!" she said; her emotion brought a tremor to her voice that went to the hearts of all who

heard her. "I have sworn to be faithful; I give this pledge to you to keep in the grave. We shall thus be united

for ever, and through love of your children I will live on among the family in whom you used to feel yourself

young again. Oh! that you could hear me, my husband! the pride and joy of my heart! Oh! that you could

know that all my power to live, now you are dead, will yet come from you; for I shall live to carry out your

Benassis pressed Genestas' hand as an invitation to follow him, and they went out. By this time the first room

was full of people who had come from another mountain commune; all of them waited in meditative silence,

as if the sorrow and grief that brooded over the house had already taken possession of them. As Benassis and

the commandant crossed the threshold, they overheard a few words that passed between one of the

"Oh!" exclaimed the eldest son, a man of fiveandtwenty years of age, "I did not see him die. He asked for

me, and I was not there!" His voice was broken with sobs, but he went on: "He said to me the night before,

'You must go over to the town, my boy, and pay our taxes; my funeral will put that out of your minds, and we

shall be behindhand, a thing that has never happened before.' It seemed the best thing to do, so I went; and

while I was gone, he died, and I never received his last embrace. I have always been at his side, but he did not

"Alas! he is dead, and I was not there to receive his last words and his latest sigh. And what did the taxes

matter? Would it not have been better to lose all our money than to leave home just then? Could all that we

have make up to me for the loss of his last farewell. No. MON DIEU! If YOUR father falls ill, Jean, do not

"My friend," said Genestas, "I have seen thousands of men die on the battlefield; death did not wait to let

"The funeral oration will only cease when the body has been laid in its coffin," said the doctor, "and the

weeping woman's language will grow more vivid and impassioned all the while. But a woman only acquires

the right to speak in such a strain before so imposing an audience by a blameless life. If the widow could

reproach herself with the smallest of shortcomings, she would not dare to utter a word; for if she did, she

would pronounce her own condemnation, she would be at the same time her own accuser and judge. Is there

not something sublime in this custom which thus judges the living and the dead? They only begin to wear

mourning after a week has elapsed, when it is publicly worn at a meeting of all the family. Their near

relations spend the week with the widow and children, to help them to set their affairs in order and to console

them. A family gathering at such a time produces a great effect on the minds of the mourners; the

consideration for others which possesses men when they are brought into close contact acts as a restraint on

violent grief. On the last day, when the mourning garb has been assumed, a solemn banquet is given, and

their relations take leave of them. All this is taken very seriously. Any one who was slack in fulfilling his

duties after the death of the head of a family would have no one at his own funeral."

The doctor had reached the cowhouse as he spoke; he opened the door and made the commandant enter, that

"All our cowhouses have been rebuilt after this pattern, captain. Look! Is it not magnificent?"

Genestas could not help admiring the huge place. The cows and oxen stood in two rows, with their tails

towards the side walls, and their heads in the middle of the shed. Access to the stalls was afforded by a fairly

wide space between them and the wall; you could see their horned heads and shining eyes through the lattice

work, so that it was easy for the master to run his eyes over the cattle. The fodder was placed on some staging

erected above the stalls, so that it fell into the racks below without waste of labor or material. There was a

wide paved space down the centre, which was kept clean, and ventilated by a thorough draught of air.

"In the winter time," Benassis said, as he walked with Genestas down the middle of the cowhouse, "both men

and women do their work here together in the evenings. The tables are set out here, and in this way the people

keep themselves warm without going to any expense. The sheep are housed in the same way. You would not

believe how quickly the beasts fall into orderly ways. I have often wondered to see them come in; each

knows her proper place, and allows those who take precedence to pass in before her. Look! there is just room

enough in each stall to do the milking and to rub the cattle down; and the floor slopes a little to facilitate

"One can judge of everything else from the sight of this cowhouse," said Genestas; "without flattery, these are

"We have had some trouble to bring them about," Benassis answered; "but then, see what fine cattle they

"They are splendid beasts certainly; you had good reason to praise them to me," answered Genestas.

"Now," said the doctor, when he had mounted his horse and passed under the gateway, we are going over

some of the newly cleared waste, and through the corn land. I have christened this little corner of our

For about an hour they rode at a foot pace across fields in a state of high cultivation, on which the soldier

complimented the doctor; then they came down the mountain side into the township again, talking whenever

the pace of their horses allowed them to do so. At last they reached a narrow glen, down which they rode into

"I promised yesterday," Benassis said to Genestas, "to show you one of the two soldiers who left the army

and came back to us after the fall of Napoleon. We shall find him somewhere hereabouts, if I am not

mistaken. The mountain streams flow into a sort of natural reservoir or tarn up here; the earth they bring

down has silted it up, and he is engaged in clearing it out. But if you are to take any interest in the man, I

must tell you his history. His name is Gondrin. He was only eighteen years old when he was drawn in the

great conscription of 1792, and drafted into a corps of gunners. He served as a private soldier in Napoleon's

campaigns in Italy, followed him to Egypt, and came back from the East after the Peace of Amiens. In the

time of the Empire he was incorporated in the Pontoon Troop of the Guard, and was constantly on active

"We are brothersinarms then, to some extent," said Genestas; "I have made the same campaigns. Only an

iron frame would stand the tricks played by so many different climates. My word for it, those who are still

standing on their stumps after marching over Italy, Egypt, Germany, Portugal, and Russia must have applied

"Just so, you will see a solid fragment of a man," answered Benassis. "You know all about the Retreat from

Moscow; it is useless to tell you about it. This man I have told you of is one of the pontooners of the

Beresina; he helped to construct the bridge by which the army made the passage, and stood waistdeep in

water to drive in the first piles. General Eble, who was in command of the pontooners, could only find

fortytwo men who were plucky enough, in Gondrin's phrase, to tackle that business. The general himself

came down to the stream to hearten and cheer the men, promising each of them a pension of a thousand

francs and the Cross of the Legion of Honor. The first who went down into the Beresina had his leg taken off

by a block of ice, and the man himself was washed away; but you will better understand the difficulty of the

task when you hear the end of the story. Of the fortytwo volunteers, Gondrin is the only one alive today.

Thirtynine of them lost their lives in the Beresina, and the two others died miserably in a Polish hospital.

"The poor fellow himself only returned from Wilna in 1814, to find the Bourbons restored to power. General

Eble (of whom Gondrin cannot speak without tears in his eyes) was dead. The pontooner was deaf, and his

health was shattered; and as he could neither read nor write, he found no one left to help him or to plead his

cause. He begged his way to Paris, and while there made application at the War Office, not for the thousand

francs of extra pension which had been promised to him, nor yet for the Cross of the Legion of Honor, but

only for the bare pension due to him after twentytwo years of service, and I do not know how many

campaigns. He did not obtain his pension or his traveling expenses; he did not even receive his arrears of pay.

He spent a year in making fruitless solicitations, holding out his hands in vain to those whom he had saved;

and at the end of it he came back here, sorely disheartened but resigned to his fate. This hero unknown to

fame does draining work on the land, for which he is paid ten sous the fathom. He is accustomed to working

in a marshy soil, and so, as he says, he gets jobs which no one else cares to take. He can make about three

francs a day by clearing out ponds, or draining meadows that lie under water. His deafness makes him seem

surly, and he is not naturally inclined to say very much, but there is a good deal in him.

"We are very good friends. He dines with me on the day of Austerlitz, on the Emperor's birthday, and on the

anniversary of the disaster at Waterloo, and during the dessert he always receives a napoleon to pay for his

wine very quarter. Every one in the Commune shares in my feeling of respect for him; if he would allow

them to support him, nothing would please them better. At every house to which he goes the people follow

my example, and show their esteem by asking him to dine with them. It is a feeling of pride that leads him to

work, and it is only as a portrait of the Emperor that he can be induced to take my twentyfranc piece. He has

been deeply wounded by the injustice that has been done to him; but I think regret for the Cross is greater

"He has one great consolation. After the bridges had been constructed across the Beresina, General Eble

presented such of the pontooners as were not disabled to the Emperor, and Napoleon embraced poor

Gondrin perhaps but for that accolade he would have died ere now. This memory and the hope that some

day Napoleon will return are all that Gondrin lives by. Nothing will ever persuade him that Napoleon is dead,

and so convinced is he that the Emperor's captivity is wholly and solely due to the English, that I believe he

would be ready on the slightest pretext to take the life of the bestnatured alderman that ever traveled for

"Let us go on as fast as possible!" cried Genestas. He had listened to the doctor's story with rapt attention, and

now seemed to recover consciousness of his surroundings. "Let us hurry! I long to see that man!"

"The other soldier that I spoke of," Benassis went on, "is another of those men of iron who have knocked

about everywhere with our armies. His life, like that of all French soldiers, has been made up of bullets, sabre

strokes, and victories; he has had a very rough time of it, and has only worn the woolen epaulettes. He has a

fanatical affection for Napoleon, who conferred the Cross upon him on the field of Valontina. He is of a

jovial turn of mind, and like a genuine Dauphinois, has always looked after his own interests, has his pension,

and the honors of the Legion. Goguelat is his name. He was an infantry man, who exchanged into the Guard

in 1812. He is Gondrin's better half, so to speak, for the two have taken up house together. They both lodge

with a peddler's widow, and make over their money to her. She is a kind soul, who boards them and looks

"In his quality of local postman, Goguelat carries all the news of the countryside, and a good deal of practice

acquired in this way has made him an orator in great request at upsittings, and the champion teller of stories

in the district. Gondrin looks upon him as a very knowing fellow, and something of a wit; and whenever

Goguelat talks about Napoleon, his comrade seems to understand what he is saying from the movement of his

lips. There will be an upsitting (as they call it) in one of my barns tonight. If these two come over to it, and

we can manage to see without being seen, I shall treat you to a view of the spectacle. But here we are, close

The doctor and the commandant looked everywhere about them; Gondrin's soldier's coat lay there beside a

heap of black mud, and his wheelbarrow, spade, and pickaxe were visible, but there was no sign of the man

himself along the various pebbly watercourses, for the wayward mountain streams had hollowed out channels

Genestas first saw the curling smoke from a tobacco pipe rise among the brushwood on a bank of rubbish not

far away. He pointed it out to the doctor, who shouted again. The old pontooner raised his head at this,

"Well, old friend," said Benassis, making a sort of speakingtrumpet with his hand. "Here is a comrade of

Gondrin raised is face at once and gave Genestas a swift, keen, and searching look, one of those glances by

which old soldiers are wont at once to take the measure of any impending danger. He saw the red ribbon that

"If the Little Corporal were alive," the officer cried, "you would have the Cross of the Legion of Honor and a

handsome pension besides, for every man who wore epaulettes on the other side of the river owed his life to

you on the 1st of October 1812. But I am not the Minister of War, my friend," the commandant added as he

The old pontooner drew himself up at the words, he knocked the ashes from his pipe, and put it in his pocket.

"I only did my duty, sir," he said, with his head bent down; "but others have not done their duty by me. They

asked for my papers! Why, the Twentyninth Bulletin, I told them, must do instead of my papers!"

"But you must make another application, comrade. You are bound to have justice done you in these days, if

"Justice!" cried the veteran. The doctor and the commandant shuddered at the tone in which he spoke.

In the brief pause that followed, both the horsemen looked at the man before them, who seemed like a

fragment of the wreck of great armies which Napoleon had filled with men of bronze sought out from among

three generations. Gondrin was certainly a splendid specimen of that seemingly indestructible mass of men

which might be cut to pieces but never gave way. The old man was scarcely five feet high, wide across the

shoulders, and broadchested; his face was sunburned, furrowed with deep wrinkles, but the outlines were

still firm in spite of the hollows in it, and one could see even now that it was the face of a soldier. It was a

roughhewn countenance, his forehead seemed like a block of granite; but there was a weary expression

about his face, and the gray hairs hung scantily about his head, as if life were waning there already.

Everything about him indicated unusual strength; his arms were covered thickly with hair, and so was the

chest, which was visible through the opening of his coarse shirt. In spite of his almost crooked legs, he held

"Justice," he said once more; "there will never be justice for the like of us. We cannot send bailiffs to the

Government to demand our dues for us; and as the wallet must be filled somehow," he said, striking his

stomach, "we cannot afford to wait. Moreover, these gentry who lead snug lives in government offices may

talk and talk, but their words are not good to eat, so I have come back here again to draw my pay out of the

"Things must not be left in that way, old comrade," said Genestas. "I owe my life to you, and it would be

ungrateful of me if I did not lend you a hand. I have not forgotten the passage over the bridges in the

Beresina, and it is fresh in the memories of some brave fellows of my acquaintance; they will back me up,

"You will be called a Bonapartist! Please do not meddle in the matter, sir. I have gone to the rear now, and I

have dropped into my hole here like a spent bullet. But after riding on camels through the desert, and drinking

my glass by the fireside in Moscow, I never thought that I should come back to die here beneath the trees that

"Poor old man!" said Genestas, as they turned to go. "I should do the same if I were in his place; we have lost

our father. Everything seems dark to me now that I have seen that man's hopelessness," he went on,

addressing Benassis; "he does not know how much I am interested in him, and he will think that I am one of

He turned quickly and went back, grasped the veteran's hand, and spoke loudly in his ear:

"I swear by the Cross I wearthe Cross of Honor it used to bethat I will do all that man can do to obtain

your pension for you; even if I have to swallow a dozen refusals from the minister, and to petition the king

Old Gondrin quivered as he heard the words. He looked hard at Genestas and said, "Haven't you served in the

ranks?" The commandant nodded. The pontooner wiped his hand and took that of Genestas, which he grasped

"I made the army a present of my life, general, when I waded out into the river yonder, and if I am still alive,

it is all so much to the good. One moment! Do you care to see to the bottom of it? Well, then, ever since

SOMEBODY was pulled down from his place, I have ceased to care about anything. And, after all," he went

on cheerfully, as he pointed to the land, "they have made over twenty thousand francs to me here, and I am

"Well, then, comrade," said Genestas, touched by the grandeur of this forgiveness, "at least you shall have the

only thing that you cannot prevent me from giving to you, here below." The commandant tapped his heart,

looked once more at the old pontooner, mounted his horse again, and went his way side by side with

"Such cruelty as this on the part of the government foments the strife between rich and poor," said the doctor.

"People who exercise a little brief authority have never given a serious thought to the consequences that must

follow an act of injustice done to a man of the people. It is true that a poor man who needs must work for his

daily bread cannot long keep up the struggle; but he can talk, and his words find an echo in every sufferer's

heart, so that one bad case of this kind is multiplied, for every one who hears of it feels it as a personal

wrong, and the leaven works. Even this is not so serious, but something far worse comes of it. Among the

people, these causes of injustice bring about a chronic state of smothered hatred for their social superiors. The

middle class becomes the poor man's enemy; they lie without the bounds of his moral code, he tells lies to

them and robs them without scruple; indeed, theft ceases to be a crime or a misdemeanor, and is looked upon

"When an official, who ought to see that the poor have justice done them, uses them ill and cheats them of

their due, how can we expect the poor starving wretches to bear their troubles meekly and to respect the

rights of property? It makes me shudder to think that some understrapper whose business it is to dust papers

in a government office, has pocketed Gondrin's promised thousand francs of pension. And yet there are folk

who, never having measured the excess of the people's sufferings, accuse the people of excess in the day of

their vengeance! When a government has done more harm than good to individuals, its further existence

depends on the merest accident, the masses square the account after their fashion by upsetting it. A statesman

ought always to imagine Justice with the poor at her feet, for justice was only invented for the poor."

When they had come within the compass of the township, Benassis saw two people walking along the road in

front of them, and turned to his companion, who had been absorbed for some time in thought.

"You have seen a veteran soldier resigned to his life of wretchedness, and now you are about to see an old

agricultural laborer who is submitting to the same lot. The man there ahead of us has dug and sown and toiled

Genestas looked and saw an old laborer making his way along the road, in company with an aged woman. He

seemed to be afflicted with some form of sciatica, and limped painfully along. His feet were encased in a

wretched pair of sabots, and a sort of wallet hung over his shoulder. Several tools lay in the bottom of the

bag; their handles, blackened with long use and the sweat of toil, rattled audibly together; while the other end

of the wallet behind his shoulder held bread, some walnuts, and a few fresh onions. His legs seemed to be

warped, as it were, his back was bent by continual toil; he stooped so much as he walked that he leaned on a

long stick to steady himself. His snowwhite hair escaped from under a battered hat, grown rusty by

exposure to all sorts of weather, and mended here and there with visible stitches of white thread. His clothes,

made of a kind of rough canvas, were a mass of patches of contrasting colors. This piece of humanity in ruins

lacked none of the characteristics that appeal to our hearts when we see ruins of other kinds.

His wife held herself somewhat more erect. Her clothing was likewise a mass of rags, and the cap that she

wore was of the coarsest materials. On her back she carried a rough earthen jar by means of a thong passed

through the handles of the great pitcher, which was round in shape and flattened at the sides. They both

looked up when they heard the horses approaching, saw that it was Benassis, and stopped.

The man had worked till he was almost past work, and his faithful helpmate was no less broken with toil. It

was painful to see how the summer sun and the winter's cold had blackened their faces, and covered them

with such deep wrinkles that their features were hardly discernible. It was not their life history that had been

engraven on their faces; but it might be gathered from their attitude and bearing. Incessant toil had been the

lot of both; they had worked and suffered together; they had had many troubles and few joys to share; and

now, like captives grown accustomed to their prison, they seemed to be too familiar with wretchedness to

heed it, and to take everything as it came. Yet a certain frank lightheartedness was not lacking in their faces;

and on a closer view, their monotonous life, the lot of so many a poor creature, wellnigh seemed an enviable

one. Trouble had set its unmistakable mark on them, but petty cares had left no traces there.

"Well, my good Father Moreau, I suppose there is no help for it, and you must always be working?"

"Yes, M. Benassis, there are one or two more bits of waste that I mean to clear for you before I knock off

work," the old man answered cheerfully, and light shone in his little black eyes.

"Is that wine that your wife is carrying? If you will not take a rest now, you ought at any rate to take wine."

"I take a rest? I should not know what to do with myself. The sun and the fresh air put life into me when I am

out of doors and busy grubbing up the land. As to the wine, sir, yes, that is wine sure enough, and it is all

through your contriving I know that the Mayor at Courteil lets us have it for next to nothing. Ah, you

"Oh! come, come! Goodday, mother. You are going to work on that bit of land of Champferlu's today of

"Capital!" said Benassis. "It must be a satisfaction to you, at times, to see this hillside. You two have broken

"Lord! yes, sir," answered the old woman, "it has been our doing! We have fairly earned our bread."

"Work, you see, and land to cultivate are the poor man's consols. That good man would think himself

disgraced if he went into the poorhouse or begged for his bread; he would choose to die pickaxe in hand, out

in the open, in the sunlight. Faith, he bears a proud heart in him. He has worked until work has become his

very life; and yet death has no terrors for him! He is a profound philosopher, little as he suspects it. Old

Moreau's case suggested the idea to me of founding an almshouse for the country people of the district; a

refuge for those who, after working hard all their lives, have reached an honorable old age of poverty.

"I had by no means expected to make the fortune which I have acquired here; indeed, I myself have no use

for it, for a man who has fallen from the pinnacle of his hopes needs very little. It costs but little to live, the

idler's life alone is a costly one, and I am not sure that the unproductive consumer is not robbing the

community at large. There was some discussion about Napoleon's pension after his fall; it came to his ears,

and he said that five francs a day and a horse to ride was all that he needed. I meant to have no more to do

with money when I came here; but after a time I saw that money means power, and that it is in fact a

necessity, if any good is to be done. So I have made arrangements in my will for turning my house into an

almshouse, in which old people who have not Moreau's fierce independence can end their days. Part of the

income of nine thousand francs brought in by the mill and the rest of my property will be devoted to giving

"This foundation will be under the control of the Municipal Council, with the addition of the cure, who is to

be president; and in this way the money made in the district will be returned to it. In my will I have laid down

the lines on which this institution is to be conducted; it would be tedious to go over them, it is enough to say

that I have a fund which will some day enable the Commune to award several scholarships for children who

show signs of promise in art or science. So, even after I am gone, my work of civilization will continue.

When you have set yourself to do anything, Captain Bluteau, something within you urges you on, you see,

and you cannot bear to leave it unfinished. This craving within us for order and for perfection is one of the

signs that point most surely to a future existence. Now, let us quicken our pace, I have my round to finish,

They cantered on for some time in silence, till Benassis said laughingly to his companion, "Come now,

Captain Bluteau, you have drawn me out and made me chatter like a magpie, and you have not said a syllable

about your own history, which must be an interesting one. When a soldier has come to your time of life, he

"Why, my history has been simply the history of the army," answered Genestas. "Soldiers are all after one

pattern. Never in command, always giving and taking sabrecuts in my place, I have lived just like anybody

else. I have been wherever Napoleon led us, and have borne a part in every battle in which the Imperial

Guard has struck a blow; but everybody knows all about these events. A soldier has to look after his horse, to

endure hunger and thirst at times, to fight whenever there is fighting to be done, and there you have the whole

history of his life. As simple as saying goodday, is it not? Then there are battles in which your horse casts a

shoe at the outset, and lands you in a quandary; and as far as you are concerned, that is the whole of it. In

short, I have seen so many countries, that seeing them has come to be a matter of course; and I have seen so

"But you yourself must have been in danger at times, and it would be interesting to hear you tell of your

"Well, then, tell me about the adventure that made the deepest impression upon you. Come! do not hesitate. I

shall not think that you are wanting in modesty even if you should tell me of some piece of heroism on your

part; and when a man is quite sure that he will not be misunderstood, ought he not to find a kind of pleasure

"Very well, then, I will tell you about something that gives me a pang of remorse from time to time. During

fifteen years of warfare it never once happened that I killed a man, save in legitimate defence of self. We are

drawn up in a line, and we charge; and if we do not strike down those before us, they will begin to draw

blood without asking leave, so you have to kill if you do not mean to be killed, and your conscience is quite

easy. But once I broke a comrade's back; it happened in a singular way, and it has been a painful thing to me

to think of afterwardsthe man's dying grimace haunts me at times. But you shall judge for yourself.

"It was during the retreat from Moscow," the commandant went on. "The Grand Army had ceased to be itself;

we were more like a herd of over driven cattle. Goodbye to discipline! The regiments had lost sight of their

colors, every one was his own master, and the Emperor (one need not scruple to say it) knew that it was

useless to attempt to exert his authority when things had gone so far. When we reached Studzianka, a little

place on the other side of the Beresina, we came upon human dwellings for the first time after several days.

There were barns and peasants' cabins to destroy, and pits full of potatoes and beetroot; the army had been

without vitual, and now it fairly ran riot, the first comers, as you might expect, making a clean sweep of

"I was one of the last to come up. Luckily for me, sleep was the one thing that I longed for just then. I caught

sight of a barn and went into it. I looked round and saw a score of generals and officers of high rank, all of

them men who, without flattery, might be called great. Junot was there, and Narbonne, the Emperor's

aidedecamp, and all the chiefs of the army. There were common soldiers there as well, not one of whom

would have given up his bed of straw to a marshal of France. Some who were leaning their backs against the

wall had dropped off to sleep where they stood, because there was no room to lie down; others lay stretched

out on the floorit was a mass of men packed together so closely for the sake of warmth, that I looked about

in vain for a nook to lie down in. I walked over this flooring of human bodies; some of the men growled, the

others said nothing, but no one budged. They would not have moved out of the way of a cannon ball just

then; but under the circumstances, one was not obliged to practise the maxims laid down by the Child's Guide

to Manners. Groping about, I saw at the end of the barn a sort of ledge up above in the roof; no one had

thought of scrambling up to it, possibly no one had felt equal to the effort. I clambered up and ensconced

myself upon it; and as I lay there at full length, I looked down at the men huddled together like sheep below.

It was a pitiful sight, yet it almost made me laugh. A man here and there was gnawing a frozen carrot, with a

kind of animal satisfaction expressed in his face; and thunderous snores came from generals who lay muffled

up in ragged cloaks. The whole barn was lighted by a blazing pine log; it might have set the place on fire, and

"I lay down on my back, and, naturally, just before I dropped off, my eyes traveled to the roof above me, and

then I saw that the main beam which bore the weight of the joists was being slightly shaken from east to west.

The blessed thing danced about in fine style. 'Gentlemen,' said I, 'one of our friends outside has a mind to

warm himself at our expense.' A few moments more and the beam was sure to come down. 'Gentlemen!

gentlemen!' I shouted, 'we shall all be killed in a minute! Look at the beam there!' and I made such a noise

that my bedfellows awoke at last. Well, sir, they all stared up at the beam, and then those who had been

sleeping turned round and went off to sleep again, while those who were eating did not even stop to answer

"Seeing how things were, there was nothing for it but to get up and leave my place, and run the risk of finding

it taken by somebody else, for all the lives of this heap of heroes were at stake. So out I go. I turn the corner

of the barn and come upon a great devil of a Wurtemberger, who was tugging at the beam with a certain

enthusiasm. 'Aho! aho!' I shouted, trying to make him understand that he must desist from his toil. 'Gehe mir

aus dem Gesicht, oder ich schlag dich todt!Get out of my sight, or I will kill you,' he cried. 'Ah! yes, just

so, Que mire aous dem guesit,' I answered; 'but that is not the point.' I picked up his gun that he had left on

the ground, and broke his back with it; then I turned in again, and went off to sleep. Now you know the whole

"But that was a case of selfdefence, in which one man suffered for the good of many, so you have nothing to

"The rest of them thought that it had only been my fancy; but fancy or no, a good many of them are living

comfortably in fine houses today, without feeling their hearts oppressed by gratitude."

"Then would you only do people a good turn in order to receive that exorbitant interest called gratitude?" said

"Oh, I know quite well that all the merit of a good deed evaporates at once if it benefits the doer in the

slightest degree," said Genestas. "If he tells the story of it, the toll brought in to his vanity is a sufficient

substitute for gratitude. But if every doer of kindly actions always held his tongue about them, those who

reaped the benefits would hardly say very much either. Now the people, according to your system, stand in

need of examples, and how are they to hear of them amid this general reticence? Again, there is this poor

pontooner of ours, who saved the whole French army, and who was never able to tell his tale to any purpose;

suppose that he had lost the use of his limbs, would the consciousness of what he had done have found him in

"Perhaps the rules of morality cannot be absolute," Benassis answered; "though this is a dangerous idea, for it

leaves the egoist free to settle cases of conscience in his own favor. Listen, captain; is not the man who never

swerves from the principles of morality greater than he who transgresses them, even through necessity?

Would not our veteran, dying of hunger, and unable to help himself, be worthy of rank with Homer? Human

life is doubtless a final trial of virtue as of genius, for both of which a better world is waiting. Virtue and

genius seem to me to be the fairest forms of that complete and constant surrender of self that Jesus Christ

came among men to teach. Genius sheds its light in the world and lives in poverty all its days, and virtue

"I quite agree with you, sir," said Genestas; "but those who dwell on earth are men after all, and not angels;

"That is quite true," Benassis answered. "And as for errors, I myself have abused the indulgence. But ought

we not to aim, at any rate, at perfection? Is not virtue a fair ideal which the soul must always keep before it, a

"Amen," said the soldier. "An upright man is a magnificent thing, I grant you; but, on the other hand, you

must admit that virtue is a divinity who may indulge in a scrap of gossip now and then in the strictest

The doctor smiled, but there was a melancholy bitterness in his tone as he said, "Ah! sir, you regard things

with the lenience natural to those who live at peace with themselves; and I with all the severity of one who

The two horsemen reached a cottage beside the bed of the torrent, the doctor dismounted and went into the

house. Genestas, on the threshold, looked over the bright spring landscape that lay without, and then at the

dark interior of the cottage, where a man was lying in bed. Benassis examined his patient, and suddenly

exclaimed, "My good woman, it is no use my coming here unless you carry out my instructions! You have

been giving him bread; you want to kill your husband, I suppose? Botheration! If after this you give him

anything besides the tisane of couchgrass, I will never set foot in here again, and you can look where you

"But, dear M. Benassis, my old man was starving, and when he had eaten nothing for a whole fortnight"

"Oh, yes, yes. Now will you listen to me. If you let your husband eat a single mouthful of bread before I give

"He shall not have anything, sir. Is he any better?" she asked, following the doctor to the door.

"Why, no. You have made him worse by feeding him. Shall I never get it into your stupid heads that you

"The peasants are incorrigible," Benassis went on, speaking to Genestas. "If a patient has eaten nothing for

two or three days, they think he is at death's door, and they cram him with soup or wine or something. Here is

"Certainly, my good woman. It amazes me that he is still alive after the mess you cooked for him. Mind that

"Oh! as to that I shall soon see. I shall come again tomorrow evening to bleed him."

"Let us walk along the side of the stream," Benassis said to Genestas; "there is only a footpath between this

cottage and the next house where I must pay a call. That man's little boy will hold our horses."

"You must admire this lovely valley of ours a little," he went on; "it is like an English garden, is it not? The

laborer who lives in the cottage which we are going to visit has never got over the death of one of his

children. The eldest boy, he was only a lad, would try to do a man's work last harvesttide; it was beyond his

strength, and before the autumn was out he died of a decline. This is the first case of really strong fatherly

love that has come under my notice. As a rule, when their children die, the peasant's regret is for the loss of a

useful chattel, and a part of their stockintrade, and the older the child, the heavier their sense of loss. A

grownup son or daughter is so much capital to the parents. But this poor fellow really loved that boy of his.

'Nothing cam comfort me for my loss,' he said one day when I came across him out in the fields. He had

forgotten all about his work, and was standing there motionless, leaning on his scythe; he had picked up his

hone, it lay in his hand, and he had forgotten to use it. He has never spoken since of his grief to me, but he

Benassis and his guest reached the little house as they talked. It stood beside a pathway that led to a

barkmill. They saw a man about forty years of age, standing under a willow tree, eating bread that had been

"I do not know, sir," he said dejectedly, "you will see; my wife is sitting with her. In spite of all your care, I

"Do not lose heart, Gasnier. Death is too busy to take up his abode in any dwelling."

Benassis went into the house, followed by the father. Half an hour later he came out again. The mother was

with him this time, and he spoke to her, "You need have no anxiety about her now; follow out my

"If you are growing tired of this sort of thing," the doctor said to the officer, as he mounted his horse, "I can

"But you will only see cottages everywhere, and they are all alike; nothing, to outward seeming, is more

They rode on in this way for several hours, and after going from one side of the canton to the other, they

"I must just go over there," the doctor said to Genestas, as he pointed out a place where a cluster of elmtrees

grew. "Those trees may possibly be two hundred years old," he went on, "and that is where the woman lives,

on whose account the lad came to fetch me last night at dinner, with a message that she had turned quite

"No," said Benassis, "an effect of pregnancy. It is the last month with her, a time at which some women

suffer from spasms. But by way of precaution, I must go in any case to make sure that there are no further

alarming symptoms; I shall see her through her confinement myself. And, moreover, I should like to show

you one of our new industries; there is a brickfield here. It is a good road; shall we gallop?"

"Will your animal keep up with mine?" asked Genestas. "Heigh! Neptune!" he called to his horse, and in a

moment the officer had been carried far ahead, and was lost to sight in a cloud of dust, but in spite of the

paces of his horse he still heard the doctor beside him. At a word from Benassis his own horse left the

commandant so far behind that the latter only came up with him at the gate of the brick field, where the

"The devil take it!" cried Genestas, after a look at the horse, that was neither sweated nor blown. "What kind

"Ah!" said the doctor, "you took him for a screw! The history of this fine fellow would take up too much time

just now; let it suffice to say that Roustan is a thoroughbred barb from the Atlas mountains, and a Barbary

horse is as good as an Arab. This one of mine will gallop up the mountain roads without turning a hair, and

will never miss his footing in a canter along the brink of a precipice. He was a present to me, and I think that

I deserved it, for in this way a father sought to repay me for his daughter's life. She is one of the wealthiest

heiresses in Europe, and she was at the brink of death when I found her on the road to Savoy. If I were to tell

you how I cured that young lady, you would take me for a quack. Aha! that is the sound of the bells on the

horses and the rumbling of a wagon; it is coming along this way; let us see, perhaps that is Vigneau himself;

In another moment the officer saw a team of four huge horses, like those which are owned by prosperous

farmers in Brie. The harness, the little bells, and the knots of braid in their manes, were clean and smart. The

great wagon itself was painted bright blue, and perched aloft in it sat a stalwart, sunburned youth, who

"No," said Benassis, "that is only the wagoner. But see how the master's prosperity in business is reflected by

all his belongings, even by the carter's wagon! Is it not a sign of a capacity for business not very often met

"Well, Vigneau has two more wagons and teams like that one, and he has a small pony besides for business

purposes, for he does trade over a wide area. And only four years ago he had nothing in the world! Stay, that

"She is out in the garden, sir; I saw her just now by the hedge down yonder; I will go and tell her that you are

Genestas followed Benassis across a wide open space with a hedge about it. In one corner various heaps of

clay had been piled up, destined for tiles and pantiles, and a stack of brushwood and logs (fuel for the kiln no

doubt) lay in another part of the enclosure. Farther away some workmen were pounding chalk stones and

tempering the clay in a space enclosed by hurdles. The tiles, both round and square, were made under the

great elms opposite the gateway, in a vast green arbor bounded by the roofs of the dryingshed, and near this

last the yawning mouth of the kiln was visible. Some longhandled shovels lay about the worn cider path. A

second row of buildings had been erected parallel with these. There was a sufficiently wretched dwelling

which housed the family, and some outbuildingssheds and stables and a barn. The cleanliness that

predominated throughout, and the thorough repair in which everything was kept, spoke well for the vigilance

"Vigneau's predecessor," said Benassis, "was a goodfornothing, a lazy rascal who cared about nothing by

drink. He had been a workman himself; he could keep a fire in his kiln and could put a price on his work, and

that was about all he knew; he had no energy, and no idea of business. If no one came to buy his wares of

him, they simply stayed on hand and were spoiled, and so he lost the value of them. So he died of want at

last. He had illtreated his wife till she was almost idiotic, and she lived in a state of abject wretchedness. It

was so painful to see this laziness and incurable stupidity, and I so much disliked the sight of the tileworks,

that I never came this way if I could help it. Luckily, both the man and his wife were old people. One fine day

the tilemaker had a paralytic stroke, and I had him removed to the hospital at Grenoble at once. The owner

of the tileworks agreed to take it over without disputing about its condition, and I looked round for new

"Mme. Gravier's waitingmaid had married a poor workman, who was earning so little with the potter who

employed him that he could not support his household. He listened to my advice, and actually had sufficient

courage to take a lease of our tileworks, when he had not so much as a penny. He came and took up his

abode here, taught his wife, her aged mother, and his own mother how to make tiles, and made workmen of

them. How they managed, I do not know, upon my honor! Vigneau probably borrowed fuel to heat his kiln,

he certainly worked by day, and fetched in his materials in basketloads by night; in short, no one knew what

boundless energy he brought to bear upon his enterprise; and the two old mothers, clad in rags, worked like

negroes. In this way Vigneau contrived to fire several batches, and lived for the first year on bread that was

"Still, he made a living. His courage, patience, and sterling worth interested many people in him, and he

began to be known. He was indefatigable. He would hurry over to Grenoble in the morning, and sell his

bricks and tiles there; then he would return home about the middle of the day, and go back again to the town

at night. He seemed to be in several places at once. Towards the end of the first year he took two little lads to

help him. Seeing how things were, I lent him some money, and since then from year to year the fortunes of

the family have steadily improved. After the second year was over the two old mothers no longer moulded

bricks nor pounded stones; they looked after the little gardens, made the soup, mended the clothes, they did

spinning in the evenings, and gathered firewood in the daytime; while the young wife, who can read and

write, kept the accounts. Vigneau had a small horse, and rode on his business errands about the

neighborhood; next he thoroughly studied the art of brick and tile making, discovering how to make excellent

square white pavingtiles, and sold them for less than the usual prices. In the third year he had a cart and a

pair of horses, and at the same time his wife's appearance became almost elegant. Everything about his

household improved with the improvement in his business, and everywhere there was the same neatness,

"At last he had work enough for six men, to whom he pays good wages; he employs a wagoner, and

everything about him wears an air of prosperity. Little by little, in short, by dint of taking pains and extending

his business, his income has increased. He bought the tile works last year, and next year he will rebuild his

house. Today all the worthy folk there are well clothed and in good health. His wife, who used to be so thin

and pale when the burden of her husband's cares and anxieties used to press so hardly upon her, has recovered

her good looks, and has grown quite young and pretty again. The two old mothers are thoroughly happy, and

take the deepest interest in every detail of the housekeeping or of the business. Work has brought money, and

the money that brought freedom from care brought health and plenty and happiness. The story of this

household is a living history in miniature of the Commune since I have known it, and of all young industrial

states. The tile factory that used to look so empty, melancholy, illkept, and useless, is now in full work, astir

with life, and well stocked with everything required. There is a good stock of wood here, and all the raw

material for the season's work: for, as you know, tiles can only be made during a few months in the year,

between June and September. Is it not a pleasure to see all this activity? My tilemaker has done his share of

the work in every building going, always busy'the devourer,' they call him in these parts."

Benassis had scarcely finished speaking when the wicket gate which gave entrance to the garden opened, and

a nicelydressed young woman appeared. She came forward as quickly as her condition allowed, though the

two horsemen hastened towards her. Her attire somewhat recalled her former quality of ladies' maid, for she

wore a pretty cap, a pink dress, a silk apron, and white stockings. Mme. Vigneau in short, was a nicelooking

woman, sufficiently plump, and if she was somewhat sunburned, her natural complexion must have been very

fair. There were a few lines still left on her forehead, traced there by the troubles of past days, but she had a

bright and winsome face. She spoke in a persuasive voice, as she saw that the doctor came no further, "Will

you not do me the honor of coming inside and resting for a moment, M. Benassis?"

"The gentleman must be very hot! Will you take a little milk or some wine? M. Benassis, please try a little of

the wine that my husband has been so kind as to buy for my confinement. You will tell me if it is good."

"We will not take anything, Mme. Vigneau; I only came round this way to see that nothing troublesome had

"Nothing," she said. "I was busy out in the garden, as you saw, turning the soil over for the sake of something

Then the two old mothers came out to speak to Benassis, and the young wagoner planted himself in the

middle of the yard, in a spot from whence he could have a good view of the doctor.

"Let us see, let me have your hand," said Benassis, addressing Mme. Vigneau; and as he carefully felt her

pulse, he stood in silence, absorbed in thought. The three women, meanwhile, scrutinized the commandant

"Yes, sir," the young wife answered; "he is hurrying about settling his business affairs, so as to be able to stay

"Well, my children, go on and prosper; continue to increase your wealth and to add to your family."

Benassis saw the officer's astonishment, and said, "There is no one like Mme. Vigneau for keeping a house

clean and tidy like this. I wish that several people in the town would come here to take a lesson."

The tilemaker's wife blushed and turned her head away; but the faces of the two old mothers beamed with

pleasure at the doctor's words, and the three women walked with them to the spot where the horses were

"Well, now," the doctor said to the two old women, "here is happiness for you both! Were you not longing to

"Oh, do not talk about it," said the young wife; "they will drive me crazy among them. My two mothers wish

for a boy, and my husband would like to have a little girl. It will be very difficult to please them all, I think."

"There! She is a mother already, you see," said the doctor to the officer, as he laid his hand on the bridle of

"Goodbye, M. Benassis; my husband will be sadly disappointed to learn that you have been here when he

"He has not forgotten to send the thousand tiles to the Grangeaux Belles for me?"

"You know quite well, sir, that he would keep all the orders in the canton waiting to serve you. Why, taking

your money is the thing that troubles him most; but I always tell him that your crowns bring luck with them,

A little group gathered about the bars across the entrance to the tileworks. The three women, the young

wagoner, and two workmen who had left off work to greet the doctor, lingered there to have the pleasure of

being with him until the last moment, as we are wont to linger with those we love. The promptings of men's

hearts must everywhere be the same, and in every land friendship expresses itself in the same gracious ways.

"There are still two hours of daylight left; and if you are not too hungry, we will go to see some one with

whom I nearly always spend the interval between the last of my visits and the hour for dinner. She is a

charming girl whom every one here calls my 'good friend.' That is the name that they usually give to an

affianced bride; but you must not imagine that there is the slightest imputation of any kind implied or

intended by the use of the word in this case. Poor child, the care that I have taken of her has, as may be

imagined, made her an object of jealousy, but the general opinion entertained as to my character has

prevented any spiteful gossip. If no one understands the apparent caprice that has led me to make an

allowance to La Fosseuse, so that she can live without being compelled to work, nobody has any doubts as to

her character. I have watched over her with friendly care, and every one knows that I should never hesitate to

marry her if my affection for her exceeded the limits of friendship. But no woman exists for me here in the

canton or anywhere else," said the doctor, forcing a smile. "Some natures feel a tyrannous need to attach

themselves to some one thing or being which they single out from among the beings and things around them;

this need is felt most keenly by a man of quick sympathies, and all the more pressingly if his life has been

made desolate. So, trust me, it is a favorable sign if a man is strongly attached to his dog or his horse! Among

the suffering flock which chance has given into my care, this poor little sufferer has come to be for me like

the pet lamb that the shepherd lasses deck with ribbons in my own sunny land of Languedoc; they talk to it

and allow it to find pasture by the side of the cornfields, and its leisurely pace is never hurried by the

Benassis stood with his hand on his horse's mane as he spoke, ready to spring into the saddle, but making no

effort to do so, as though the thoughts that stirred in him were but little in keeping with rapid movements.

"Let us go," he said at last; "come with me and pay her a visit. I am taking you to see her; does not that tell

As they rode on their way again, Genestas said to the doctor, "Will you regard it as inquisitiveness on my part

if I ask to hear more of La Fosseuse? I have come to know the story of many lives through you, and hers

Benassis stopped his horse as he answered. "Perhaps you will not share in the feelings of interest awakened in

me by La Fosseuse. Her fate is like my own; we have both alike missed our vocation; it is the similarity of

our lots that occasions my sympathy for her and the feelings that I experience at the sight of her. You either

followed your natural bent when you entered upon a military career, or you took a liking for your calling after

you had adopted it, otherwise you would not have borne the heavy yoke of military discipline till now; you,

therefore, cannot understand the sorrows of a soul that must always feel renewed within it the stir of longings

that can never be realized; nor the pining existence of a creature forced to live in an alien sphere. Such

sufferings as these are known only to these natures and to God who sends their afflictions, for they alone can

know how deeply the events of life affect them. You yourself have seen the miseries produced by long wars,

till they have almost ceased to impress you, but have you never detected a trace of sadness in your mind at

the sight of a tree bearing sere leaves in the midst of spring, some tree that is pining and dying because it has

been planted in soil in which it could not find the sustenance required for its full development? Ever since my

twentieth year, there has been something painful and melancholy for me about the drooping of a stunted

plant, and now I cannot bear the sight and turn my head away. My youthful sorrow was a vague presentiment

of the sorrows of my later life; it was a kind of sympathy between my present and a future dimly

foreshadowed by the life of the tree that before its time was going the way of all trees and men."

"You see, sir," the doctor went on without any reply to the remark made by Genestas, "that to speak of La

Fosseuse is to speak of myself. La Fosseuse is a plant in an alien soil; a human plant moreover, consumed by

sad thoughts that have their source in the depths of her nature, and that never cease to multiply. The poor girl

is never well and strong. The soul within her kills the body. This fragile creature was suffering from the

sorest of all troubles, a trouble which receives the least possible sympathy from our selfish world, and how

could I look on with indifferent eyes? for I, a man, strong to wrestle with pain, was nightly tempted to refuse

to bear the burden of a sorrow like hers. Perhaps I might actually have refused to bear it but for a thought of

religion which soothes my impatience and fills my heart with sweet illusions. Even if we were not children of

Benassis pressed his knees against his horse's sides, and swept ahead of Commandant Genestas, as if he

shrank from continuing this conversation any further. When their horses were once more cantering abreast of

each other, he spoke again: "Nature has created this poor girl for sorrow," he said, "as she has created other

women for joy. It is impossible to do otherwise than believe in a future life at the sight of natures thus

predestined to suffer. La Fosseuse is sensitive and highly strung. If the weather is dark and cloudy, she is

depressed; she 'weeps when the sky is weeping,' a phrase of her own; she sings with the birds; she grows

happy and serene under a cloudless sky; the loveliness of a bright day passes into her face; a soft sweet

perfume is an inexhaustible pleasure to her; I have seen her take delight the whole day long in the scent

breathed forth by some mignonette; and, after one of those rainy mornings that bring out all the soul of the

flowers and give indescribable freshness and brightness to the day, she seems to overflow with gladness like

the green world around her. If it is close and hot, and there is thunder in the air, La Fosseuse feels a vague

trouble that nothing can soothe. She lies on her bed, complains of numberless different ills, and does not

know what ails her. In answer to my questions, she tells me that her bones are melting, that she is dissolving

"I have sometimes come upon the poor child suddenly and found her in tears, as she gazed at the sunset

effects we sometimes see here among our mountains, when bright masses of cloud gather and crowd together

and pile themselves above the golden peaks of the hills. 'Why are you crying, little one?' I have asked her. 'I

do not know, sir,' has been the answer; 'I have grown so stupid with looking up there; I have looked and

looked, till I hardly know where I am.' 'But what do you see there?' 'I cannot tell you, sir,' and you might

question her in this way all the evening, yet you would never draw a word from her; but she would look at

you, and every glance would seem full of thoughts, or she would sit with tears in her eyes, scarcely saying a

word, apparently rapt in musing. Those musings of hers are so profound that you fall under the spell of them;

on me, at least, she has the effect of a cloud overcharged with electricity. One day I plied her with questions;

I tried with all my might to make her talk; at last I let fall a few rather hasty words; and, wellshe burst into

"At other times La Fosseuse is bright and winning, active, merry, and sprightly; she enjoys talking, and the

ideas which she expresses are fresh and original. She is however quite unable to apply herself steadily to any

kind of work. When she was out in the fields she used to spend whole hours in looking at a flower, in

watching the water flow, in gazing at the wonders in the depths of the clear, still river pools, at the

picturesque mosaic made up of pebbles and earth and sand, of water plants and green moss, and the brown

soil washed down by the stream, a deposit full of soft shades of color, and of hues that contrast strangely with

"When I first came to the district the poor girl was starving. It hurt her pride to accept the bread of others; and

it was only when driven to the last extremity of want and suffering that she could bring herself to ask for

charity. The feeling that this was a disgrace would often give her energy, and for several days she worked in

the fields; but her strength was soon exhausted, and illness obliged her to leave the work that she had begun.

She had scarcely recovered when she went to a farm on the outskirts of the town and asked to be taken on to

look after the cattle; she did her work well and intelligently, but after a while she left without giving any

reason for so doing. The constant toil, day after day, was no doubt too heavy a yoke for one who is all

independence and caprice. Then she set herself to look for mushrooms or for truffles, going over to Grenoble

to sell them. But the gaudy trifles in the town were very tempting, the few small coins in her hand seemed to

be great riches; she would forget her poverty and buy ribbons and finery, without a thought for tomorrow's

bread. But if some other girl here in the town took a fancy to her brass crucifix, her agate heart or her velvet

ribbon, she would make them over to her at once, glad to give happiness, for she lives by generous impulses.

So La Fosseuse was loved and pitied and despised by turns. Everything in her nature was a cause of suffering

to herher indolence, her kindness of heart, her coquetry; for she is coquettish, dainty, and inquisitive, in

short, she is a woman; she is as simple as a child, and, like a child, she is carried away by her tastes and her

impressions. If you tell her about some noble deed, she trembles, her color rises, her heart throbs fast, and she

sheds tears of joy; if you begin a story about robbers, she turns pale with terror. You could not find a more

sincere, openhearted, and scrupulously loyal nature anywhere; if you were to give a hundred gold pieces

into her keeping, she would bury them in some outoftheway nook and beg her bread as before."

"I once determined to put her to the proof," he said, "and I repented of it. It is like espionage to bring a test to

Here the doctor paused, as though some inward reflection engrossed him; he was quite unconscious of the

embarrassment that his last remark had caused to his companion, who busied himself with disentangling the

"I should like to find a husband for my Fosseuse. I should be glad to make over one of my farms to some

good fellow who would make her happy. And she would be happy. The poor girl would love her children to

distraction; for motherhood, which develops the whole of a woman's nature, would give full scope to her

overflowing sentiments. She has never cared for any one, however. Yet her impressionable nature is a danger

to her. She knows this herself, and when she saw that I recognized it, she admitted the excitability of her

temperament to me. She belongs to the small minority of women whom the slightest contact with others

causes to vibrate perilously; so that she must be made to value herself on her discretion and her womanly

pride. She is as wild and shy as a swallow! Ah! what a wealth of kindness there is in her! Nature meant her to

be a rich woman; she would be so beneficent: for a wellloved woman; she would be so faithful and true. She

is only twentytwo years old, and is sinking already beneath the weight of her soul; a victim to highlystrung

nerves, to an organization either too delicate or too full of power. A passionate love for a faithless lover

would drive her mad, my poor Fosseuse! I have made a study of her temperament, recognized the reality of

her prolonged nervous attacks, and of the swift mysterious recurrence of her uplifted moods. I found that they

were immediately dependent on atmospheric changes and on the variations of the moon, a fact which I have

carefully verified; and since then I have cared for her, as a creature unlike all others, for she is a being whose

ailing existence I alone can understand. As I have told you, she is the pet lamb. But you shall see her; this is

They had come about onethird of the way up the mountain side. Low bushes grew on either hand along the

steep paths which they were ascending at a foot pace. At last, at a turn in one of the paths, Genestas saw La

Fosseuse's dwelling, which stood on one of the largest knolls on the mountain. Around it was a green sloping

space of lawn about three acres in extent, planted with trees, and surrounded by a wall high enough to serve

as a fence, but not so high as to shut out the view of the landscape. Several rivulets that had their source in

this garden formed little cascades among the trees. The brickbuilt cottage with a low roof that projected

several feet was a charming detail in the landscape. It consisted of a ground floor and a single story, and

stood facing the south. All the windows were in the front of the house, for its small size and lack of depth

from back to front made other openings unnecessary. The doors and shutters were painted green, and the

underside of the penthouses had been lined with deal boards in the German fashion, and painted white. The

Climbing plants and briar roses grew about the house; a great walnut tree had been allowed to remain among

the flowering acacias and trees that bore sweetscented blossoms, and a few weeping willows had been set

by the little streams in the garden space. A thick belt of pines and beeches grew behind the house, so that the

picturesque little dwelling was brought out into strong relief by the sombre width of background. At that hour

of the day, the air was fragrant with the scents from the hillsides and the perfume from La Fosseuse's garden.

The sky overhead was clear and serene, but low clouds hung on the horizon, and the faroff peaks had begun

to take the deep rose hues that the sunset often brings. At the height which they had reached the whole valley

lay before their eyes, from distant Grenoble to the little lake at the foot of the circle of crags by which

Genestas had passed on the previous day. Some little distance above the house a line of poplars on the hill

indicated the highway that led to Grenoble. Rays of sunlight fell slantwise across the little town which

glittered like a diamond, for the soft red light which poured over it like a flood was reflected by all its

windowpanes. Genestas reined in his horse at the sight, and pointed to the dwellings in the valley, to the

"Since the victory of Wagram, and Napoleon's return to the Tuileries in 1815," he said, with a sigh, "nothing

has so stirred me as the sight of all this. I owe this pleasure to you, sir, for you have taught me to see beauty

"Yes," said the doctor, smiling as he spoke, "It is better to build towns than to storm them."

"Oh! sir, how about the taking of Moscow and the surrender of Mantua! Why, you do not really know what

that means! Is it not a glory for all of us? You are a good man, but Napoleon also was a good man. If it had

not been for England, you both would have understood each other, and our Emperor would never have fallen.

There are no spies here," said the officer, looking around him, "and I can say openly that I love him, now that

he is dead! What a ruler! He knew every man when he saw him! He would have made you a Councillor of

State, for he was a great administrator himself; even to the point of knowing how many cartridges were left in

the men's boxes after an action. Poor man! While you were talking about La Fosseuse, I thought of him, and

how he was lying dead in St. Helena! Was that the kind of climate and country to suit HIM, whose seat had

been a throne, and who had lived with his feet in the stirrups; hein? They say that he used to work in the

garden. The deuce! He was not made to plant cabbages. . . . And now we must serve the Bourbons, and

Genestas dismounted as he uttered these last words, and mechanically followed the example set by Benassis,

"Can she be away?" said the doctor, when he did not see La Fosseuse on the threshold. They went into the

"She must have heard the sound of a second horse," said Benassis, with a smile, "and has gone upstairs to put

He left Genestas alone, and went upstairs in search of La Fosseuse. The commandant made a survey of the

room. He noticed the pattern of the paper that covered the wallsroses scattered over a gray background,

and the straw matting that did duty for a carpet on the floor. The armchair, the table, and the smaller chairs

were made of wood from which the bark had not been removed. The room was not without ornament; some

flowerstands, as they might be called, made of osiers and wooden hoops, had been filled with moss and

flowers, and the windows were draped by white dimity curtains bordered with a scarlet fringe. There was a

mirror above the chimneypiece, where a plain china jar stood between two candlesticks. Some calico lay on

the table; shirts, apparently, had been cut out and begun, several pairs of gussets were finished, and a

workbasket, scissors, needles and thread, and all a needlewoman's requirements lay beside them.

Everything was as fresh and clean as a shell that the sea had tossed up on the beach. Genestas saw that a

kitchen lay on the other side of the passage, and that the staircase was at the further end of it. The upper story,

like the ground floor, evidently consisted of two rooms only. "Come, do not be frightened," Benassis was

Genestas promptly retreated into the sittingroom when he heard these words, and in another moment a

slender girl, well and gracefully made, appeared in the doorway. She wore a gown of cambric, covered with

narrow pink stripes, and cut low at the throat, so as to display a muslin chemisette. Shyness and timidity had

brought the color to a face which had nothing very remarkable about it save a certain flatness of feature

which called to mind the Cossack and Russian countenances that since the disasters of 1814 have

unfortunately come to be so widely known in France. La Fosseuse was, in fact, very like these men of the

North. Her nose turned up at the end, and was sunk in her face, her mouth was wide and her chin small, her

hands and arms were red and, like her feet, were of the peasant type, large and strong. Although she had been

used to an outdoor life, to exposure to the sun and the scorching summer winds, her complexion had the

bleached look of withered grass; but after the first glance this made her face more interesting, and there was

such a sweet expression in her blue eyes, so much grace about her movements, and such music in her voice,

that little as her features seemed to harmonize with the disposition which Benassis had praised to the

commandant, the officer recognized in her the capricious and ailing creature, condemned to suffering by a

La Fosseuse deftly stirred the fire of dry branches and turfs of peat, then sat down in an armchair and took up

one of the shirts that she had begun. She sat there under the officer's eyes, half bashful, afraid to look up, and

calm to all appearance; but her bodice rose and fell with the rapid breathing that betrayed her nervousness,

"Well, my poor child, is your work going on nicely?" said Benassis, taking up the material intended for the

"Do not scold me, sir," she entreated; "I have not touched them to day, although they were ordered by you,

and for people who need them very badly. But the weather has been so fine! I wandered out and picked a

quantity of mushrooms and white truffles, and took them over to Jacquotte; she was very pleased, for some

people are coming to dinner. I was so glad that I thought of it; something seemed to tell me to go to look for

"You have a very pretty house here, mademoiselle," said Genestas, addressing her.

"It is not mine at all, sir," she said, looking at the stranger, and her eyes seemed to grow red and tearful; "it

belongs to M. Benassis," and she turned towards the doctor with a gentle expression on her face.

"You know quite well, my child, that you will never have to leave it," he said, as he took her hand in his.

"There is something strangely touching about her," Genestas answered. "How very nicely you have fitted up

"Bah! a wallpaper at fifteen or twenty sous; it was carefully chosen, but that was all. The furniture is

nothing very much either, my basketmaker made it for me; he wanted to show his gratitude; and La

Fosseuse made the curtains herself out of a few yards of calico. This little house of hers, and her simple

furniture, seem pretty to you, because you come upon them up here on a hillside in a forlorn part of the world

where you did not expect to find things clean and tidy. The reason of the prettiness is a kind of harmony

between the little house and its surroundings. Nature has set picturesque groups of trees and running streams

about it, and has scattered her fairest flowers among the grass, her sweetscented wild strawberry blossoms,

and her lovely violets. . . . Well, what is the matter?" asked Benassis, as La Fosseuse came back to them.

"Oh! nothing, nothing," she answered. "I fancied that one of my chickens was missing, and had not been shut

Her remark was disingenuous, but this was only noticed by the doctor, who said in her ear, "You have been

"Why do you say things like that to me before some one else?" she asked in reply.

"Mademoiselle," said Genestas, "it is a great pity that you live here all by yourself; you ought to have a mate

"That is true," she said, "but what would you have? I am poor, and I am hard to please. I feel that it would not

suit me at all to carry the soup out into the fields, nor to push a handcart; to feel the misery of those whom I

should love, and have no power to put an end to it; to carry my children in my arms all day, and patch and

repatch a man's rags. The cure tells me that such thoughts as these are not very Christian; I know that

myself, but how can I help it? There are days when I would rather eat a morsel of dry bread than cook

anything for my dinner. Why would you have me worry some man's life out with my failings? He would

perhaps work himself to death to satisfy my whims, and that would not be right. Pshaw! an unlucky lot has

"And besides, she is a born donothing," said Benassis. "We must take my poor Fosseuse as we find her. But

all that she has been saying to you simply means that she has never loved as yet," he added, smiling. Then he

"Oh! yes, sir; and there are plenty of people hereabouts who feel as I dothat they would be glad to do

anything in the world for him. And yet he who cures other people has some trouble of his own that nothing

can cure. You are his friend, perhaps you know what it is? Who could have given pain to such a man, who is

the very image of God on earth? I know a great many who think that the corn grows faster if he has passed by

"I, sir? When I have seen him," she seemed to hesitate, then she went on, "I am happy all the rest of the day."

"Well, has the captain been telling you something about Napoleon?" said the doctor, as he came in again.

"Have you seen the Emperor, sir?" cried La Fosseuse, gazing at the officer's face with eager curiosity.

"Perhaps we will come to take a cup of coffee with you tomorrow, and you shall hear 'something about the

army,' dear child," said Benassis, who laid his hand on her shoulder and kissed her brow. "She is my

daughter, you see!" he added, turning to the commandant; "there is something wanting in the day, somehow,

La Fosseuse held Benassis' hand in a tight clasp as she murmured, "Oh! you are very kind!"

They left the house; but she came after them to see them mount. She waited till Genestas was in the saddle,

"Aha!" said the doctor, putting a foot in the stirrup, "a husband for you, perhaps."

She stood on the spot where they left her, absorbed in watching their progress down the steep path; and when

they came past the end of the garden, they saw her already perched on a little heap of stones, so that she

"There is something very unusual about that girl, sir," Genestas said to the doctor when they had left the

"There is, is there not?" he answered. "Many a time I have said to myself that she will make a charming wife,

but I can only love her as a sister or a daughter, and in no other way; my heart is dead."

"Oh, it is quite a long story," answered Benassis. "Neither her father nor mother nor any of her relations are

living. Everything about her down to her name interested me. La Fosseuse was born here in the town. Her

father, a laborer from Saint Laurent du Pont, was nicknamed Le Fosseur, which is no doubt a contraction of

fossoyeur, for the office of sexton had been in his family time out of mind. All the sad associations of the

graveyard hang about the name. Here as in some other parts of France, there is an old custom, dating from the

times of the Latin civilization, in virtue of which a woman takes her husband's name, with the addition of a

feminine termination, and this girl has been called La Fosseuse, after her father.

"The laborer had married the waitingwoman of some countess or other who owns an estate at a distance of a

few leagues. It was a love match. Here, as in all country districts, love is a very small element in a marriage.

The peasant, as a rule, wants a wife who will bear him children, a housewife who will make good soup and

take it out to him in the fields, who will spin and make his shirts and mend his clothes. Such a thing had not

happened for a long while in a district where a young man not unfrequently leaves his betrothed for another

girl who is richer by three or four acres of land. The fate of Le Fosseur and his wife was scarcely happy

enough to induce our Dauphinois to forsake their calculating habits and practical way of regarding things. La

Fosseuse, who was a very pretty woman, died when her daughter was born, and her husband's grief for his

loss was so great that he followed her within the year, leaving nothing in the world to this little one except an

existence whose continuance was very doubtfula mere feeble flicker of a life. A charitable neighbor took

the care of the baby upon herself, and brought her up till she was nine years old. Then the burden of

supporting La Fosseuse became too heavy for the good woman; so at the time of year when travelers are

passing along the roads, she sent her charge to beg for her living upon the highways.

"One day the little orphan asked for bread at the countess' chateau, and they kept the child for her mother's

sake. She was to be waitingmaid some day to the daughter of the house, and was brought up to this end. Her

young mistress was married five years later; but meanwhile the poor little thing was the victim of all the

caprices of wealthy people, whose beneficence for the most part is not to be depended upon even while it

lasts. They are generous by fits and startssometimes patrons, sometimes friends, sometimes masters, in this

way they falsify the already false position of the poor children in whom they interest themselves, and trifle

with the hearts, the lives, and futures of their protegees, whom they regard very lightly. From the first La

Fosseuse became almost a companion to the young heiress; she was taught to read and write, and her future

mistress sometimes amused herself by giving her music lessons. She was treated sometimes as a lady's

companion, sometimes as a waitingmaid, and in this way they made an incomplete being of her. She

acquired a taste for luxury and for dress, together with manners illsuited to her real position. She has been

roughly schooled by misfortune since then, but the vague feeling that she is destined for a higher lot has not

"A day came at last, however, a fateful day for the poor girl, when the young countess (who was married by

this time) discovered La Fosseuse arrayed in one of her ball dresses, and dancing before a mirror. La

Fosseuse was no longer anything but a waitingmaid, and the orphan girl, then sixteen years of age, was

dismissed without pity. Her idle ways plunged her once more into poverty; she wandered about begging by

the roadside, and working at times as I have told you. Sometimes she thought of drowning herself, sometimes

also of giving herself to the first comer; she spent most of her time thinking dark thoughts, lying by the side

of a wall in the sun, with her face buried in the grass, and passersby would sometimes throw a few

halfpence to her, simply because she asked them for nothing. One whole year she spent in a hospital at

Annecy after heavy toil in the harvest field; she had only undertaken the work in the hope that it would kill

her, and that so she might die. You should hear her herself when she speaks of her feelings and ideas during

"She came back to the little town at last, just about the time when I decided to take up my abode in it. I

wanted to understand the minds of the people beneath my rule; her character struck me, and I made a study of

it; then when I became aware of her physical infirmities, I determined to watch over her. Perhaps in time she

may grow accustomed to work with her needle, but, whatever happens, I have secured her future."

"No. One of my herdswomen sleeps in the house," the doctor answered. "You did not see my farm buildings

which lie behind the house. They are hidden by the pinetrees. Oh! she is quite safe. Moreover, there are no

mauvais sujets here in the valley; if any come among us by any chance, I send them into the army, where they

"Oh! the folk round about do not pity her at all," said Benassis; "on the other hand, they think her very lucky;

but there is this difference between her and the other women: God has given strength to them and weakness

The moment that the two horsemen came out upon the road to Grenoble, Benassis stopped with an air of

satisfaction; a different view had suddenly opened out before them; he foresaw its effect upon Genestas, and

wished to enjoy his surprise. As far as the eye could see, two green walls sixty feet high rose above a road

which was rounded like a garden path. The trees had not been cut or trimmed, each one preserved the

magnificent palmbranch shape that makes the Lombard poplar one of the grandest of trees; there they stood,

a natural monument which a man might well be proud of having reared. The shadow had already reached one

side of the road, transforming it into a vast wall of black leaves, but the setting sun shone full upon the other

side, which stood out in contrast, for the young leaves at the tips of every branch had been dyed a bright

golden hue, and, as the breeze stirred through the waving curtain, it gleamed in the light.

"You must be very happy here!" cried Genestas. "The sight of this must be all pleasure to you."

"The love of Nature is the only love that does not deceive human hopes. There is no disappointment here,"

said the doctor. "Those poplars are ten years old; have you ever seen any that are better grown than these of

"God is great!" said the soldier, coming to a stand in the middle of the road, of which he saw neither

"You do me good," cried Benassis. "It was a pleasure to hear you say over again what I have so often said in

the midst of this avenue. There is something holy about this place. Here, we are like two mere specks; and the

They rode on slowly and in silence, listening to their horses' hoof beats; the sound echoed along the green

"How many things have a power to stir us which towndwellers do not suspect," said the doctor. "Do you not

notice the sweet scent given off by the gum of the poplar buds, and the resin of the larches? How delightful it

"Is it a woman or a man, or is it a bird?" asked the commandant in a low voice. "Is it the voice of this

"It is something of all these things," the doctor answered, as he dismounted and fastened his horse to a branch

He made a sign to the officer to follow his example and to come with him. They went slowly along a footpath

between two hedges of blossoming hawthorn which filled the damp evening air with its delicate fragrance.

The sun shone full into the pathway; the light and warmth were very perceptible after the shade thrown by the

long wall of poplar trees; the still powerful rays poured a flood of red light over a cottage at the end of the

stony track. The ridge of the cottage roof was usually a bright green with its overgrowth of mosses and

houseleeks, and the thatch was brown as a chestnut shell, but just now it seemed to be powdered with a

golden dust. The cottage itself was scarcely visible through the haze of light; the ruinous wall, the doorway

and everything about it was radiant with a fleeting glory and a beauty due to chance, such as is sometimes

seen for an instant in a human face, beneath the influence of a strong emotion that brings warmth and color

into it. In a life under the open sky and among the fields, the transient and tender grace of such moments as

these draws from us the wish of the apostle who said to Jesus Christ upon the mountain, "Let us build a

The wide landscape seemed at that moment to have found a voice whose purity, and sweetness equaled its

own sweetness and purity, a voice as mournful as the dying light in the westfor a vague reminder of Death

is divinely set in the heavens, and the sun above gives the same warning that is given here on earth by the

flowers and the bright insects of the day. There is a tinge of sadness about the radiance of sunset, and the

melody was sad. It was a song widely known in the days of yore, a ballad of love and sorrow that once had

served to stir a national hatred of France for England. Beaumarchais, in a later day, had given it back its true

poetry by adapting it for the French theatre and putting it into the mouth of a page, who pours out his heart to

his stepmother. Just now it was simply the air that rose and fell. There were no words; the plaintive voice of

"It is the swan's song," said Benassis. "That voice does not sound twice in a century for human ears. Let us

hurry; we must put a stop to the singing! The child is killing himself; it would be cruel to listen to him any

The music ceased. Genestas stood motionless and overcome with astonishment. A cloud had drifted across

the sun, the landscape and the voice were both mute. Shadow, chillness, and silence had taken the place of the

soft glory of the light, the warm breath of the breeze, and the child's singing.

"What makes you disobey me?" asked Benassis. "I shall not bring you any more rice pudding nor snail broth!

No more fresh dates and white bread for you! So you want to die and break your poor mother's heart, do

Genestas came into a little yard, which was sufficiently clean and tidily kept, and saw before him a lad of

fifteen, who looked as delicate as a woman. His hair was fair but scanty, and the color in his face was so

bright that it seemed hardly natural. He rose up slowly from the bench where he was sitting, beneath a thick

bush of jessamine and some blossoming lilacs that were running riot, so that he was almost hidden among the

"You know very well," said the doctor, "that I told you not to talk, not to expose yourself to the chilly

evening air, and to go to bed as soon as the sun was set. What put it into your head to sing?"

"DAME! M. Benassis, it was so very warm out here, and it is so nice to feel warm! I am always cold. I felt so

happy that without thinking I began to try over Malbrouk s'en vaten guerre, just for fun, and then I began

to listen to myself because my voice was something like the sound of the flute your shepherd plays."

"Well, my poor Jacques, this must not happen again; do you hear? Let me have your hand," and the doctor

The boy's eyes had their usual sweet expression, but just now they shone with a feverish light.

"It is just as I thought, you are covered with perspiration," said Benassis. "Your mother has not come in yet?"

The young invalid went back into the cottage, followed by Benassis and the officer.

"Just light a candle, Captain Bluteau," said the doctor, who was helping Jacques to take off his rough, tattered

When Genestas had struck a light, and the interior of the room was visible, he was surprised by the extreme

thinness of the child, who seemed to be little more than skin and bone. When the little peasant had been put

to bed, Benassis tapped the lad's chest, and listened to the ominous sounds made in this way by his fingers;

then, after some deliberation, he drew back the coverlet over Jacques, stepped back a few paces, folded his

A table, with four spindle legs, stood in the room; the doctor drew it up to the bed, found a tumbler and a

phial on the mantelshelf, and composed a draught, by carefully measuring a few drops of brown liquid from

The doctor and the officer looked around them while they waited. At the foot of the bed there was a sort of

mattress made of moss, on which, doubtless, the mother was wont to sleep in her clothes, for there were

neither sheets nor coverlet. Genestas pointed out this bed to Benassis, who nodded slightly to show that he

likewise had already admired this motherly devotion. There was a clatter of sabots in the yard, and the doctor

"You will have to sit up with Jacques tonight, Mother Colas. If he tells you that his breathing is bad, you

must let him drink some of the draught that I have poured into the tumbler on the table. Take care not to let

him have more than two or three sips at a time; there ought to be enough in the tumbler to last him all through

the night. Above all things, do not touch the phial, and change the child's clothing at once. He is perspiring

"I could not manage to wash his shirts today, sir; I had to take the hemp over to Grenoble, as we wanted the

"He has been so imprudent as to sing, Mother Colas; and it is not to be expected that any good can come of it;

but do not be hard upon him, nor scold him. Do not be downhearted about it; and if Jacques complains

"Mon Dieu! yes," answered Benassis. "Science cannot save him, unless Nature works a miracle. Our

professors at the Ecole de Medecine in Paris often used to speak to us of the phenomenon which you have

just witnessed. Some maladies of this kind bring about changes in the voiceproducing organs that give the

sufferer a shortlived power of song that no trained voice can surpass. I have made you spend a melancholy

day, sir," said the doctor when he was once more in the saddle. "Suffering and death everywhere, but

everywhere also resignation. All these peasant folk take death philosophically; they fall ill, say nothing about

it, and take to their beds like dumb animals. But let us say no more about death, and let us quicken our horses'

paces a little; we ought to reach the town before nightfall, so that you may see the new quarter."

"Eh! some place is on fire over there," said Genestas, pointing to a spot on the mountain, where a sheaf of

"It is not a dangerous fire. Our limeburner is heating his kiln, no doubt. It is a newlystarted industry, which

There was the sudden report of a gun, followed by an involuntary exclamation from Benassis, who said, with

an impatient gesture, "If that is Butifer, we shall see which of us two is the stronger."

"The shot came from that quarter," said Genestas, indicating a beech wood up above them on the mountain

"Let us go there at once!" cried Benassis, and he made straight for the little wood, urging his horse at a

furious speed across the ditches and fields, as if he were riding a steeplechase, in his anxiety to catch the

"The man you are after has made off," shouted Genestas, who could scarcely keep up with him.

Benassis wheeled his horse round sharply, and came back again. The man of whom he was in search soon

appeared on the top of a perpendicular crag, a hundred feet above the level of the two horsemen.

"Butifer!" shouted Benassis when he saw that this figure carried a fowlingpiece; "come down!"

Butifer recognized the doctor, and replied by a respectful and friendly sign which showed that he had every

"I can imagine that if a man were driven to it by fear or by some overmastering impulse that he might

possibly contrive to scramble up to that point among the rocks," said Genestas; "but how will he manage to

"I have no anxiety on that score," answered Benassis; "the wild goats must feel envious of that fellow yonder!

The emergencies of warfare had accustomed the commandant to gauge the real worth of men; he admired the

wonderful quickness of Butifer's movements, the surefooted grace with which the hunter swung himself

down the rugged sides of the crag, to the top of which he had so boldly climbed. The strong, slender form of

the mountaineer was gracefully poised in every attitude which the precipitous nature of the path compelled

him to assume; and so certain did he seem of his power to hold on at need, that if the pinnacle of rock on

which he took his stand had been a level floor, he could not have set his foot down upon it more calmly. He

carried his fowlingpiece as if it had been a light walkingcane. Butifer was a young man of middle height,

thin, muscular, and in good training; his beauty was of a masculine order, which impressed Genestas on a

Evidently he belonged to the class of smugglers who ply their trade without resorting to violent courses, and

who only exert patience and craft to defraud the government. His face was manly and sunburned. His eyes,

which were bright as an eagle's, were of a clear yellow color, and his sharplycut nose with its slight curve at

the tip was very much like an eagle's beak. His cheeks were covered with down, his red lips were half open,

giving a glimpse of a set of teeth of dazzling whiteness. His beard, moustache, and the reddish whiskers,

which he allowed to grow, and which curled naturally, still further heightened the masculine and forbidding

expression of his face. Everything about him spoke of strength. He was broadchested; constant activity had

made the muscles of his hands curiously firm and prominent. There was the quick intelligence of a savage

about his glances; he looked resolute, fearless, and imperturbable, like a man accustomed to put his life in

peril, and whose physical and mental strength had been so often tried by dangers of every kind, that he no

longer felt any doubts about himself. He wore a blouse that had suffered a good deal from thorns and briars,

and he had a pair of leather soles bound to his feet by eelskin thongs, and a pair of torn and tattered blue

linen breeches through which his legs were visible, red, wiry, hard, and muscular as those of a stag.

"There you see the man who once fired a shot at me," Benassis remarked to the commandant in a low voice.

"If at this moment I were to signify to him my desire to be rid of any one, he would kill them without

scruple.Butifer!" he went on, addressing the poacher, "I fully believed you to be a man of your word; I

pledged mine for you because I had your promise. My promise to the procureur du roi at Grenoble was based

upon your vow never to go poaching again, and to turn over a new leaf and become a steady, industrious

worker. You fired that shot just now, and here you are, on the Comte de Labranchoir's estate! Eh! you

miscreant? Suppose his keeper had happened to hear you? It is a lucky thing for you that I shall take no

formal cognizance of this offence; if I did, you would come up as an old offender, and of course you have no

gun license! I let you keep that gun of yours out of tenderness for your attachment to the weapon."

"It is a beauty," said the commandant, who recognized a duck gun from Sainte Etienne.

The smuggler raised his head and looked at Genestas by way of acknowledging the compliment.

"Butifer," continued Benassis, "if your conscience does not reproach you, it ought to do so. If you are going

to begin your old tricks again, you will find yourself once more in a park enclosed by four stone walls, and no

power on earth will save you from the hulks; you will be a marked man, and your character will be ruined.

"You are right, sir," he said; "I have done wrong, I have broken bounds, I am a cur. My gun ought to go to

you, but when you take it away from me, you take all that I have in the world. The last shot which my

mother's son will fire shall be through my own head. . . . What would you have? I did as you wanted me. I

kept quiet all winter; but the spring came, and the sap rose. I am not used to day labor. It is not in my nature

to spend my life in fattening fowls; I cannot stoop about turning over the soil for vegetables, nor flourish a

whip and drive a cart, nor scrub down a horse in a stable all my life, so I must die of starvation, I suppose? I

am only happy when I am up there," he went on after a pause, pointing to the mountains. "And I have been

about among the hills for the past week; I got a sight of a chamois, and I have the chamois there," he said,

pointing to the top of the crag; "it is at your service! Dear M. Benassis, leave me my gun. Listen! I will leave

the Commune, foi de Butifer! I will go to the Alps; the chamoishunters will not say a word; on the contrary,

they will receive me with open arms. I shall come to grief at the bottom of some glacier; but, if I am to speak

my mind, I would rather live for a couple of years among the heights, where there are no governments, nor

excisemen, nor gamekeepers, nor procureurs du roi, than grovel in a marsh for a century. You are the only

one that I shall be sorry to leave behind; all the rest of them bore me! When you are in the right, at any rate

"Eh! learn to read and write, my lad," said Genestas; "come and enlist in my regiment, have a horse to ride,

and turn carabineer. If they once sound 'to horse' for something like a war, you will find out that Providence

made you to live in the midst of cannon, bullets, and battalions, and they will make a general of you."

"You know our agreement," said the doctor. "At the second infraction of it, you undertook to go for a soldier.

I give you six months in which to learn to read and write, and then I will find some young gentleman who

"Oh! you shall not go to the Alps," cried Benassis. "A man like you, a man of his word, with plenty of good

stuff in him, ought to serve his country and command a brigade, and not come to his end trailing after a

chamois. The life that you are leading will take you straight to the convict's prison. After overfatiguing

yourself, you are obliged to take a long rest; and, in the end, you will fall into idle ways that will be the ruin

of any notions of orderly existence that you have; you will get into the habit of putting your strength to bad

uses, and you will take the law into your own hands. I want to put you, in spite of yourself, into the right

"So I am to pine and fret myself to death? I feel suffocated whenever I am in a town. I cannot hold out for

"We all have our whims, which we must manage to control, or turn them to account for our neighbor's

benefit. But it is late, and I am in a hurry. Come to see me tomorrow, and bring your gun along with you.

"A man in a bad way," answered Benassis. "But what help is there for it? You heard what he said. Is it not

lamentable to see such fine qualities running to waste? If France were invaded by a foreign foe, Butifer at the

head of a hundred young fellows would keep a whole division busy in Maurienne for a month; but in a time

of peace the only outlets for his energy are those which set the law at defiance. He must wrestle with

something; whenever he is not risking his neck he is at odds with society, he lends a helping hand to

smugglers. The rogue will cross the Rhone, all by himself, in a little boat, to take shoes over into Savoy; he

makes good his retreat, heavy laden as he is, to some inaccessible place high up among the hills, where he

stays for two days at a time, living on dry crusts. In short, danger is as welcome to him as sleep would be to

anybody else, and by dint of experience he has acquired a relish for extreme sensations that has totally

unfitted him for ordinary life. It vexes me that a man like that should take a wrong turn and gradually go to

the bad, become a bandit, and die on the gallows. But, see, captain, how our village looks from here!"

Genestas obtained a distant view of a wide circular space, planted with trees, a fountain surrounded by

poplars stood in the middle of it. Round the enclosure were high banks on which a triple line of trees of

different kinds were growing; the first row consisted of acacias, the second of Japanese varnish trees, and

"That is where we hold our fair," said Benassis. "That is the beginning of the High Street, by those two

handsome houses that I told you about; one belongs to the notary, and the other to the justice of the peace."

They came at that moment into a broad road, fairly evenly paved with large cobblestones. There were

altogether about a hundred new houses on either side of it, and almost every house stood in a garden.

The view of the church with its doorway made a pretty termination to this road. Two more roads had been

recently planned out halfway down the course of the first, and many new houses had already been built

along them. The townhall stood opposite the parsonage, in the square by the church. As Benassis went down

the road, women and children stood in their doorways to wish him goodevening, the men took off their

caps, and the little children danced and shouted about his horse, as if the animal's goodnature were as well

known as the kindness of its master. The gladness was undemonstrative; there was the instinctive delicacy of

all deep feeling about it, and it had the same pervasive power. At the sight of this welcome it seemed to

Genestas that the doctor had been too modest in his description of the affection with which he was regarded

by the people of the district. His truly was a sovereignty of the sweetest kind; a right royal sovereignty

moreover, for its title was engraven in the hearts of its subjects. However dazzling the rays of glory that

surround a man, however great the power that he enjoys, in his inmost soul he soon comes to a just estimate

of the sentiments that all external action causes for him. He very soon sees that no change has been wrought

in him, that there is nothing new and nothing greater in the exercise of his physical faculties, and discovers

his own real nothingness. Kings, even should they rule over the whole world, are condemned to live in a

narrow circle like other men. They must even submit to the conditions of their lot, and their happiness

depends upon the personal impressions that they receive. But Benassis met with nothing but goodwill and

"Pray, come in, sir!" cried Jacquotte. "A pretty time the gentlemen have been waiting for you! It is always the

way! You always manage to spoil the dinner for me whenever it ought to be particularly good. Everything is

The two horsemen dismounted, and went off to the salon, where the guests invited by the doctor were

"Gentlemen," he said taking Genestas by the hand, "I have the honor of introducing you to M. Bluteau,

captain of a regiment of cavalry stationed at Grenoblean old soldier, who has promised me that he will stay

Then, turning to Genestas, he presented to him a tall, thin, gray haired man, dressed in black.

"This gentleman," said Benassis, "is M. Dufau, the justice of the peace of whom I have already spoken to

you, and who has so largely contributed to the prosperity of the Commune." Then he led his guest up to a

pale, slight young man of middle height, who wore spectacles, and was also dressed in black. "And this is M.

Tonnelet," he went on, "M. Gravier's soninlaw, and the first notary who came to the village."

The doctor next turned to a stout man, who seemed to belong half to the peasant, half to the middle class, the

"This is my worthy colleague M. Cambon," he went on, the timber merchant, to whom I owe the confidence

and goodwill of the people here. He was one of the promoters of the road which you have admired. I have

no need to tell you the profession of this gentleman," Benassis added, turning to the curate. "Here is a man

There was an irresistible attraction in the moral beauty expressed by the cure's countenance, which engrossed

Genestas' attention. Yet a certain harshness and austerity of outline might make M. Janvier's face seem

unpleasing at a first glance. His attitude, and his slight, emaciated frame, showed that he was far from strong

physically, but the unchanging serenity of his face bore witness to the profound inward peace of heart.

Heaven seemed to be reflected in his eyes, and the inextinguishable fervor of charity which glowed in his

heart appeared to shine from them. The gestures that he made but rarely were simple and natural, his

appeared to be a quiet and retiring nature, and there was a modesty and simplicity like that of a young girl

about his actions. At first sight he inspired respect and a vague desire to be admitted to his friendship.

"Ah! M. le Maire," he said, bending as though to escape from Benassis' eulogium.

Something in the cure's tones brought a thrill to Genestas' heart, and the two insignificant words uttered by

"Gentlemen," said Jacquotte, who came into the middle of the room, and there took her stand, with her hands

Invited by Benassis, who summoned each in turn so as to avoid questions of precedence, the doctor's five

guests went into the diningroom; and after the cure, in low and quiet tones, had repeated a Benedicite, they

took their places at table. The cloth that covered the table was of that peculiar kind of damask linen invented

in the time of Henry IV. by the brothers Graindorge, the skilful weavers, who gave their name to the heavy

fabric so well known to housekeepers. The linen was of dazzling whiteness, and fragrant with the scent of the

thyme that Jacquotte always put into her washtubs. The dinner service was of white porcelain, edged with

blue, and was in perfect order. The decanters were of the oldfashioned octagonal kind still in use in the

provinces, though they have disappeared elsewhere. Grotesque figures had been carved on the horn handles

of the knives. These relics of ancient splendor, which, nevertheless, looked almost new, seemed to those who

scrutinized them to be in keeping with the kindly and open hearted nature of the master of the house.

The lid of the souptureen drew a momentary glance from Genestas; he noticed that it was surmounted by a

group of vegetables in high relief, skilfully colored after the manner of Bernard Palissy, the celebrated

There was no lack of character about the group of men thus assembled. The powerful heads of Genestas and

Benassis contrasted admirably with M. Janvier's apostolic countenance; and in the same fashion the elderly

faces of the justice of the peace and the deputymayor brought out the youthfulness of the notary. Society

seemed to be represented by these various types. The expression of each one indicated contentment with

himself and with the present, and a faith in the future. M. Tonnelet and M. Janvier, who were still young,

loved to make forecasts of coming events, for they felt that the future was theirs; while the other guests were

fain rather to turn their talk upon the past. All of them faced the things of life seriously, and their opinions

seemed to reflect a double tinge of soberness, on the one hand, from the twilight hues of wellnigh forgotten

joys that could never more be revived for them; and, on the other, from the gray dawn which gave promise of

"You must have had a very tiring day, sir?" said M. Cambon, addressing the cure.

"Yes, sir," answered M. Janvier, "the poor cretin and Pere Pelletier were buried at different hours."

"Now we can pull down all the hovels of the old village," Benassis remarked to his deputy. "When the space

on which the houses stand has been grubbed up, it will mean at least another acre of meadow land for us; and

furthermore, there will be a clear saving to the Commune of the hundred francs that it used to cost to keep

"For the next three years we ought to lay out the hundred francs in making a singlespan bridge to carry the

lower road over the main stream," said M. Cambon. "The townsfolk and the people down the valley have

fallen into the way of taking a short cut across that patch of land of Jean Francois Pastoureau's; before they

have done they will cut it up in a way that will do a lot of harm to that poor fellow."

"I am sure that the money could not be put to a better use," said the justice of peace. "In my opinion the abuse

of the right of way is one of the worst nuisances in a country district. Onetenth of the cases that come before

the court are caused by unfair easement. The rights of property are infringed in this way almost with impunity

in many and many a commune. A respect for the law and a respect for property are ideas too often

disregarded in France, and it is most important that they should be inculcated. Many people think that there is

something dishonorable in assisting the law to take its course. 'Go and be hanged somewhere else,' is a saying

which seems to be dictated by an unpraiseworthy generosity of feeling; but at the bottom it is nothing but a

hypocritical formulaa sort of veil which we throw over our own selfishness. Let us own to it, we lack

patriotism! The true patriot is the citizen who is so deeply impressed with a sense of the importance of the

laws that he will see them carried out even at his own cost and inconvenience. If you let the criminal go in

"It is all of a piece," said Benassis. "If the mayors kept their roads in better order, there would not be so many

footpaths. And if the members of Municipal Councils knew a little better, they would uphold the small

landowner and the mayor when the two combine to oppose the establishment of unfair easements. The fact

that chateau, cottage, field, and tree are all equally sacred would then be brought home in every way to the

ignorant; they would be made to understand that Right is just the same in all cases, whether the value of the

property in question be large or small. But such salutary changes cannot be brought about all at once. They

depend almost entirely on the moral condition of the population, which we can never completely reform

without the potent aid of the cures. This remark does not apply to you in any way, M. Janvier."

"Nor do I take it to myself," laughed the cure. "Is not my heart set on bringing the teaching of the Catholic

religion to cooperate with your plans of administration? For instance, I have often tried, in my pulpit

discourses on theft, to imbue the folk of this parish with the very ideas of Right to which you have just given

utterance. For truly, God does not estimate theft by the value of the thing stolen, He looks at the thief. That

has been the gist of the parables which I have tried to adapt to the comprehension of my parishioners."

"You have succeeded, sir," said Cambon. "I know the change you have brought about in people's ways of

looking at things, for I can compare the Commune as it is now with the Commune as it used to be. There are

certainly very few places where the laborers are as careful as ours are about keeping the time in their working

hours. The cattle are well looked after; any damage that they do is done by accident. There is no pilfering in

the woods, and finally you have made our peasants clearly understand that the leisure of the rich is the reward

"Well, then," said Genestas, "you ought to be pretty well pleased with your infantry, M. le Cure."

"We cannot expect to find angels anywhere here below, captain," answered the priest. "Wherever there is

poverty, there is suffering too; and suffering and poverty are strong compelling forces which have their

abuses, just as power has. When the peasants have a couple of leagues to walk to their work, and have to

tramp back wearily in the evening, they perhaps see sportsmen taking short cuts over ploughed land and

pasture so as to be back to dinner a little sooner, and is it to be supposed that they will hesitate to follow the

example? And of those who in this way beat out a footpath such as these gentlemen have just been

complaining about, which are the real offenders, the workers or the people who are simply amusing

themselves? Both the rich and the poor give us a great deal of trouble these days. Faith, like power, ought

always to descend from the heights above us, in heaven or on earth; and certainly in our times the upper

classes have less faith in them than the mass of the people, who have God's promise of heaven hereafter as a

reward for evils patiently endured. With due submission to ecclesiastical discipline, and deference to the

views of my superiors, I think that for some time to come we should be less exacting as to questions of

doctrine, and rather endeavor to revive the sentiment of religion in the hearts of the intermediary classes, who

debate over the maxims of Christianity instead of putting them in practice. The philosophism of the rich has

set a fatal example to the poor, and has brought about intervals of too long duration when men have faltered

in their allegiance to God. Such ascendency as we have over our flocks today depends entirely on our

personal influence with them; is it not deplorable that the existence of religious belief in a commune should

be dependent on the esteem in which a single man is held? When the preservative force of Christianity

permeating all classes of society shall have put life into the new order of things, there will be an end of sterile

disputes about doctrine. The cult of a religion is its form; societies only exist by forms. You have your

"I should very much like to know, sir," said Genestas, breaking in upon M. Janvier, "why you forbid these

"We do not quarrel with dancing in itself, captain; it is forbidden because it leads to immorality, which

troubles the peace of the countryside and corrupts its manners. Does not the attempt to purify the spirit of the

family and to maintain the sanctity of family ties strike at the root of the evil?"

"Some irregularities are always to be found in every district, I know," said M. Tonnelet, "but they very

seldom occur among us. Perhaps there are peasants who remove their neighbor's landmark without much

scruple; or they may cut a few osiers that belong to some one else, if they happen to want some; but these are

mere peccadilloes compared with the wrongdoing that goes on among a town population. Moreover, the

"But," objected Cambon, "if the people all went to mass every morning, sir, and to confession every week,

"Work is prayer," said the cure. "Doing one's duty brings a knowledge of the religious principles which are a

"Patriotism can only inspire a shortlived enthusiasm," the curate answered gravely; "religion gives it

permanence. Patriotism consists in a brief impulse of forgetfulness of self and selfinterest, while

Christianity is a complete system of opposition to the depraved tendencies of mankind."

"Yes, we worked wonders at the time of the Revolution," said Benassis, interrupting Genestas; "but only

twenty years later, in 1814, our patriotism was extinct; while, in former times, a religious impulse moved

France and Europe to fling themselves upon Asia a dozen times in the course of a century."

"Maybe it is easier for two nations to come to terms when the strife has arisen out of some question of

material interests," said the justice of the peace; "while wars undertaken with the idea of supporting dogmas

"Well, sir, you are not helping any one to fish!" put in Jacquotte, who had removed the soup with Nicolle's

assistance. Faithful to her custom, Jacquotte herself always brought in every dish one after another, a plan

which had its drawbacks, for it compelled gluttonous folk to overeat themselves, and the more abstemious,

having satisfied their hunger at an early stage, were obliged to leave the best part of the dinner untouched.

"Gentlemen," said the cure, with a glance at the justice of the peace, "how can you allege that religious wars

have had no definite aim? Religion in olden times was such a powerful binding force, that material interests

and religious questions were inseparable. Every soldier, therefore, knew quite well what he was fighting for."

"If there has been so much fighting about religion," said Genestas, "God must have built up the system very

perfunctorily. Should not a divine institution impress men at once by the truth that is in it?"

"Gentlemen," said M. Janvier, "religion is something that is felt and that cannot be defined. We cannot know

"Then, according to you, we are to believe in all your rigmaroles," said Genestas, with the easy goodhumor

"The Catholic religion, better than any other, resolves men's doubts and fears; but even were it otherwise, I

"Good! and what risks do you not run by not believing? But let us talk of the worldly aspect of the matter,

which most appeals to you. The finger of God is visible in human affairs; see how He directs them by the

hand of His vicar on earth. How much men have lost by leaving the path traced out for them by Christianity!

So few think of reading Church history, that erroneous notions deliberately sown among the people lead them

to condemn the Church; yet the Church has been a pattern of perfect government such as men seek to

establish today. The principle of election made it for a long while the great political power. Except the

Catholic Church, there was no single religious institution which was founded upon liberty and equality.

Everything was ordered to this end. The fathersuperior, the abbot, the bishop, the general of an order, and

the pope were then chosen conscientiously for their fitness for the requirements of the Church. They were the

expression of its intelligence, of the thinking power of the Church, and blind obedience was therefore their

due. I will say nothing of the ways in which society has benefited by that power which has created modern

nations and has inspired so many poems, so much music, so many cathedrals, statues, and pictures. I will

simply call your attention to the fact that your modern systems of popular election, of two chambers, and of

juries all had their origin in provincial and oecumenical councils, and in the episcopate and college of

cardinals; but there is this difference,the views of civilization held by our presentday philosophy seem to

me to fade away before the sublime and divine conception of Catholic communion, the type of a universal

social communion brought about by the word and the fact that are combined in religious dogma. It would be

very difficult for any modern political system, however perfect people may think it, to work once more such

miracles as were wrought in those ages when the Church as the stay and support of the human intellect."

"Because, in the first place, if the principle of election is to be the basis of a system, absolute equality among

the electors is a first requirement; they ought to be 'equal quantities,' things which modern politics will never

bring about. Then, great social changes can only be effected by means of some common sentiment so

powerful that it brings men into concerted action, while latterday philosophism has discovered that law is

based upon personal interest, which keeps men apart. Men full of the generous spirit that watches with tender

care over the trampled rights of the suffering poor, were more often found among the nations of past ages

than in our generation. The priesthood, also, which sprang from the middle classes, resisted material forces

and stood between the people and their enemies. But the territorial possessions of the Church and her

temporal power, which seemingly made her position yet stronger, ended by crippling and weakening her

action. As a matter of fact, if the priest has possessions and privileges, he at once appears in the light of an

oppressor. He is paid by the State, therefore he is an official: if he gives his time, his life, his whole heart, this

is a matter of course, and nothing more than he ought to do; the citizens expect and demand his devotion; and

the spontaneous kindliness of his nature is dried up. But, let the priest be vowed to poverty, let him turn to his

calling of his own free will, let him stay himself on God alone, and have no resource on earth but the hearts

of the faithful, and he becomes once more the missionary of America, he takes the rank of an apostle, he has

all things under his feet. Indeed, the burden of wealth drags him down, and it is only by renouncing

M. Janvier had compelled the attention of every one present. No one spoke; for all the guests were thoughtful.

"There is one serious error, M. Janvier, among the truths to which you have given expression," said Benassis.

"As you know, I do not like to raise discussions on points of general interest which modern authorities and

modern writers have called in question. In my opinion, a man who has thought out a political system, and

who is conscious that he has within him the power of applying it in practical politics, should keep his mind to

himself, seize his opportunity and act; but if he dwells in peaceful obscurity as a simple citizen, is it not sheer

lunacy to think to bring the great mass over to his opinion by means of individual discussions? For all that, I

am about to argue with you, my dear pastor, for I am speaking before sensible men, each of whom is

accustomed always to bring his individual light to a common search for the truth. My ideas may seem strange

to you, but they are the outcome of much thought caused by the calamities of the last forty years. Universal

suffrage, which finds such favor in the sight of those persons who belong to the constitutional opposition, as

it is called, was a capital institution in the Church, because (as you yourself have just pointed out, dear pastor)

the individuals of whom the Church was composed were all well educated, disciplined by religious feeling,

thoroughly imbued with the spirit of the same system, well aware of what they wanted and whither they were

going. But modern Liberalism rashly made war upon the prosperous government of the Bourbons, by means

of ideas which, should they triumph, would be the ruin of France and of the Liberals themselves. This is well

known to the leaders of the Left, who are merely endeavoring to get the power into their own hands. If

(which Heaven forbid) the middle classes ranged under the banner of the opposition should succeed in

overthrowing those social superiorities which are so repugnant to their vanity, another struggle would follow

hard upon their victory. It would not be very long before the middle classes in their turn would be looked

upon by the people as a sort of noblesse; they would be a sorry kind of noblesse, it is true, but their wealth

and privileges would seem so much the more hateful in the eyes of the people because they would have a

closer vision of these things. I do not say that the nation would come to grief in the struggle, but society

would perish anew; for the day of triumph of a suffering people is always brief, and involves disorders of the

worst kind. There would be no truce in a desperate strife arising out of an inherent or acquired difference of

opinion among the electors. The less enlightened and more numerous portion would sweep away social

inequalities, thanks to a system in which votes are reckoned by count and not by weight. Hence it follows that

a government is never more strongly organized, and as a consequence is never more perfect than when it has

been established for the protection of Privilege of the most restricted kind. By Privilege I do not at this

moment mean the old abuses by which certain rights were conceded to a few, to the prejudice of the many;

no, I am using it to express the social circle of the governing class. But throughout creation Nature has

confined the vital principle within a narrow space, in order to concentrate its power; and so it is with the body

politic. I will illustrate this thought of mine by examples. Let us suppose that there are a hundred peers in

France, there are only one hundred causes of offence. Abolish the peerage, and all the wealthy people will

constitute the privileged class; instead of a hundred, you will have ten thousand, instead of removing class

distinctions, you have merely widened the mischief. In fact, from the people's point of view, the right to live

without working is in itself a privilege. The unproductive consumer is a robber in their eyes. The only work

that they understand has palpable results; they set no value on intellectual laborthe kind of labor which is

the principal source of wealth to them. So by multiplying causes of offence in this way, you extend the field

of battle; the social war would be waged on all points instead of being confined within a limited circle; and

when attack and resistance become general, the ruin of a country is imminent. Because the rich will always

be fewer in number, the victory will be to the poor as soon as it comes to actual fighting. I will throw the

"The institution of Senatorial Privilege enabled the Roman Republic to conquer the world. The Senate

preserved the tradition of authority. But when the equites and the novi homines had extended the governing

classes by adding to the numbers of the Patricians, the State came to ruin. In spite of Sylla, and after the time

of Julius Caesar, Tiberius raised it into the Roman Empire; the system was embodied in one man, and all

authority was centered in him, a measure which prolonged the magnificent sway of the Roman for several

centuries. The Emperor had ceased to dwell in Rome when the Eternal City fell into the hands of barbarians.

When the conqueror invaded our country, the Franks who divided the land among themselves invented feudal

privilege as a safeguard for property. The hundred or the thousand chiefs who owned the country, established

their institutions with a view to defending the rights gained by conquest. The duration of the feudal system

was coexistent with the restriction of Privilege. But when the leudes (an exact translation of the word

GENTLEMEN) from five hundred became fifty thousand, there came a revolution. The governing power was

too widely diffused; it lacked force and concentration; and they had not reckoned with the two powers,

Money and Thought, that had set those free who had been beneath their rule. So the victory over the

monarchical system, obtained by the middle classes with a view to extending the number of the privileged

class, will produce its natural effectthe people will triumph in turn over the middle classes. If this trouble

comes to pass, the indiscriminate right of suffrage bestowed upon the masses will be a dangerous weapon in

their hands. The man who votes, criticises. An authority that is called in question is no longer an authority.

Can you imagine a society without a governing authority? No, you cannot. Therefore, authority means force,

and a basis of just judgement should underlie force. Such are the reasons which have led me to think that the

principle of popular election is a most fatal one for modern governments. I think that my attachment to the

poor and suffering classes has been sufficiently proved, and that no one will accuse me of bearing any

illwill towards them, but though I admire the sublime patience and resignation with which they tread the

path of toil, I must pronounce them to be unfit to take part in the government. The proletariat seem to me to

be the minors of a nation, and ought to remain in a condition of tutelage. Therefore, gentlemen, the word

ELECTION, to my thinking, is in a fair way to cause as much mischief as the words CONSCIENCE and

LIBERTY, which illdefined and illunderstood, were flung broadcast among the people, to serve as

watchwords of revolt and incitements to destruction. It seems to me to be a right and necessary thing that the

"This system of yours runs so clean contrary to everybody's notions nowadays, that we have some right to ask

"What is this the master is saying?" cried Jacquotte, as she went back to her kitchen. "There he is, the poor

dear man, and what is he doing but advising them to crush the people! And they are listening to him"

"If I require that the ignorant masses should be governed by a strong hand," the doctor resumed, after a brief

pause, "I should desire at the same time that the framework of the social system should be sufficiently

yielding and elastic to allow those who have the will and are conscious of their ability to emerge from the

crowd, to rise and take their place among the privileged classes. The aim of power of every kind is its own

preservation. In order to live, a government, today as in the past, must press the strong men of the nation

into its service, taking them from every quarter, so as to make them its defenders, and to remove from among

the people the men of energy who incite the masses to insurrection. By opening out in this way to the public

ambition paths that are at once difficult and easy, easy for strong wills, difficult for weak or imperfect ones, a

State averts the perils of the revolutions caused by the struggles of men of superior powers to rise to their

proper level. Our long agony of forty years should have made it clear to any man who has brains that social

superiorities are a natural outcome of the order of things. They are of three kinds that cannot be

questionedthe superiority of the thinker, the superiority of the politician, the superiority of wealth. Is not

that as much as to say, genius, power, and money, or, in yet other wordsthe cause, the means, and the

effect? But suppose a kind of social tabula rasa, every social unit perfectly equal, an increase of population

everywhere in the same ratio, and give the same amount of land to each family; it would not be long before

you would again have all the existing inequalities of fortune; it is glaringly evident, therefore, that there are

such things as superiority of fortune, of thinking capacity, and of power, and we must make up our minds to

this fact; but the masses will always regard rights that have been most honestly acquired as privileges, and as

"The SOCIAL CONTRACT founded upon this basis will be a perpetual pact between those who have and

those who have not. And acting on these principles, those who benefit by the laws will be the lawmakers, for

they necessarily have the instinct of selfpreservation, and foresee their dangers. It is even more to their

interest than to the interest of the masses themselves that the latter should be quiet and contented. The

happiness of the people should be ready made for the people. If you look at society as a whole from this point

of view, you will soon see, as I do, that the privilege of election ought only to be exercised by men who

possess wealth, power, or intelligence, and you will likewise see that the action of the deputies they may

"The maker of laws, gentlemen, should be in advance of his age. It is his business to ascertain the tendency of

erroneous notions popularly held, to see the exact direction in which the ideas of a nation are tending; he

labors for the future rather than for the present, and for the rising generation rather than for the one that is

passing away. But if you call in the masses to make the laws, can they rise above their own level? Nay. The

more faithfully an assembly represents the opinions held by the crowd, the less it will know about

government, the less lofty its ideas will be, and the more vague and vacillating its policy, for the crowd is and

always will be simply a crowd, and this especially with us in France. Law involves submission to regulations;

man is naturally opposed to rules and regulations of all kinds, especially if they interfere with his interests; so

is it likely that the masses will enact laws that are contrary to their own inclinations? No.

"Very often legislation ought to run counter to the prevailing tendencies of the time. If the law is to be shaped

by the prevailing habits of thought and tendencies of a nation, would not that mean that in Spain a direct

encouragement would be given to idleness and religious intolerance; in England, to the commercial spirit; in

Italy, to the love of the arts that may be the expression of a society, but by which no society can entirely exist;

in Germany, feudal class distinctions would be fostered; and here, in France, popular legislation would

promote the spirit of frivolity, the sudden craze for an idea, and the readiness to split into factions which has

"What has happened in the forty years since the electors took it upon themselves to make laws for France?

We have something like forty thousand laws! A people with forty thousand laws might as well have none at

all. Is it likely that five hundred mediocrities (for there are never more than a hundred great minds to do the

work of any one century), is it likely that five hundred mediocrities will have the wit to rise to the level of

these considerations? Not they! Here is a constant stream of men poured forth from five hundred different

places; they will interpret the spirit of the law in divers manners, and there should be a unity of conception in

"But I will go yet further. Sooner or later an assembly of this kind comes to be swayed by one man, and

instead of a dynasty of kings, you have a constantly changing and costly succession of prime ministers. There

comes a Mirabeau or a Danton, a Robespierre or a Napoleon, or proconsuls, or an emperor, and there is an

end of deliberations and debates. In fact, it takes a determinate amount of force to raise a given weight; the

force may be distributed, and you may have a less or greater number of levers, but it comes to the same thing

in the end: the force must be in proportion to the weight. The weight in this case is the ignorant and suffering

mass of people who form the lowest stratum of society. The attitude of authority is bound to be repressive,

and great concentration of the governing power is needed to neutralize the force of a popular movement. This

is the application of the principle that I unfolded when I spoke just now of the way in which the class

privileged to govern should be restricted. If this class is composed of men of ability, they will obey this

natural law, and compel the country to obey. If you collect a crowd of mediocrities together, sooner or later

they will fall under the dominion of a stronger head. A deputy of talent understands the reasons for which a

government exists; the mediocre deputy simply comes to terms with force. An assembly either obeys an idea,

like the Convention in the time of the Terror; a powerful personality, like the Corps Legislatif under the rule

of Napoleon; or falls under the domination of a system or of wealth, as it has done in our own day. The

Republican Assembly, that dream of some innocent souls, is an impossibility. Those who would fain bring it

to pass are either grossly deluded dupes or would be tyrants. Do you not think that there is something

ludicrous about an Assembly which gravely sits in debate upon the perils of a nation which ought to be

roused into immediate action? It is only right of course that the people should elect a body of representatives

who will decide questions of supplies and of taxation; this institution has always existed, under the sway of

the most tyrannous ruler no less than under the sceptre of the mildest of princes. Money is not to be taken by

force; there are natural limits to taxation, and if they are overstepped, a nation either rises up in revolt, or lays

itself down to die. Again, if this elective body, changing from time to time according to the needs and ideas

of those whom it represents, should refuse obedience to a bad law in the name of the people, well and good.

But to imagine that five hundred men, drawn from every corner of the kingdom, will make a good law! Is it

not a dreary joke, for which the people will sooner or later have to pay? They have a change of masters, that

"Authority ought to be given to one man, he alone should have the task of making the laws; and he should be

a man who, by force of circumstances, is continually obliged to submit his actions to general approbation.

But the only restraints that can be brought to bear upon the exercise of power, be it the power of the one, of

the many, or of the multitude, are to be found in the religious institutions of a country. Religion forms the

only adequate safeguard against the abuse of supreme power. When a nation ceases to believe in religion, it

becomes ungovernable in consequence, and its prince perforce becomes a tyrant. The Chambers that occupy

an intermediate place between rulers and their subjects are powerless to prevent these results, and can only

mitigate them to a very slight extent; Assemblies, as I have said before, are bound to become the accomplices

of tyranny on the one hand, or of insurrection on the other. My own leanings are towards a government by

one man; but though it is good, it cannot be absolutely good, for the results of every policy will always

depend upon the condition and the belief of the nation. If a nation is in its dotage, if it has been corrupted to

the core by philosophism and the spirit of discussion, it is on the highroad to despotism, from which no

form of free government will save it. And, at the same time, a righteous people will nearly always find liberty

even under a despotic rule. All this goes to show the necessity for restricting the right of election within very

narrow limits, the necessity for a strong government, the necessity for a powerful religion which makes the

rich man the friend of the poor, and enjoins upon the poor an absolute submission to their lot. It is, in fact,

really imperative that the Assemblies should be deprived of all direct legislative power, and should confine

"I know that different ideas from these exist in many minds. Today, as in past ages, there ware enthusiasts

who seek for perfection, and who would like to have society better ordered than it is at present. But

innovations which tend to bring about a kind of social topsy turvydom, ought only to be undertaken by

general consent. Let the innovators have patience. When I remember how long it has taken Christianity to

establish itself; how many centuries it has taken to bring about a purely moral revolution which surely ought

to have been accomplished peacefully, the thought of the horrors of a revolution, in which material interests

are concerned, makes me shudder, and I am for maintaining existing institutions. 'Each shall have his own

thought,' is the dictum of Christianity; 'Each man shall have his own field,' says modern law; and in this,

modern law is in harmony with Christianity. Each shall have his own thought; that is a consecration of the

rights of intelligence; and each shall have his own field, is a consecration of the right to property that has

been acquired by toil. Hence our society. Nature has based human life upon the instinct of selfpreservation,

and social life is founded upon personal interest. Such ideas as these are, to my thinking, the very rudiments

of politics. Religion keeps these two selfish sentiments in subordination by the thought of a future life; and in

this way the harshness of the conflict of interests has been somewhat softened. God has mitigated the

sufferings that arise from social friction by a religious sentiment which raises selfforgetfulness into a virtue;

just as He has moderated the friction of the mechanism of the universe by laws which we do not know.

Christianity bids the poor bear patiently with the rich, and commands the rich to lighten the burdens of the

poor; these few words, to my mind, contain the essence of all laws, human and divine!"

"I am no statesman," said the notary; "I see in a ruler a liquidator of society which should always remain in

liquidation; he should hand over to his successor the exact value of the assets which he received."

"I am no statesman either," said Benassis, hastily interrupting the notary. "It takes nothing but a little

common sense to better the lot of a commune, of a canton, or of an even wider district; a department calls for

some administrative talent, but all these four spheres of action are comparatively limited, the outlook is not

too wide for ordinary powers of vision, and there is a visible connection between their interests and the

"But in yet higher regions, everything is on a larger scale, the horizon widens, and from the standpoint where

he is placed, the statesman ought to grasp the whole situation. It is only necessary to consider liabilities due

ten years hence, in order to bring about a great deal of good in the case of the department, the district, the

canton, or the commune; but when it is a question of the destinies of a nation, a statesman must foresee a

more distant future and the course that events are likely to take for the next hundred years. The genius of a

Colbert or of a Sully avails nothing, unless it is supported by the energetic will that makes a Napoleon or a

Cromwell. A great minister, gentlemen, is a great thought written at large over all the years of a century of

prosperity and splendor for which he has prepared the way. Steadfast perseverance is the virtue of which he

stands most in need; and in all human affairs does not steadfast perseverance indicate a power of the very

highest order? We have had for some time past too many men who think only of the ministry instead of the

nation, so that we cannot but admire the real statesman as the vastest human Poetry. Ever to look beyond the

present moment, to foresee the ways of Destiny, to care so little for power that he only retains it because he is

conscious of his usefulness, while he does not overestimate his strength; ever to lay aside all personal feeling

and low ambitions, so that he may always be master of his faculties, and foresee, will, and act without

ceasing; to compel himself to be just and impartial, to keep order on a large scale, to silence his heart that he

may be guided by his intellect alone, to be neither apprehensive nor sanguine, neither suspicious nor

confiding, neither grateful nor ungrateful, never to be unprepared for an event, nor taken unawares by an

idea; to live, in fact, with the requirements of the masses ever in his mind, to spread the protecting wings of

his thought above them, to sway them by the thunder of his voice and the keenness of his glance; seeing all

the while not the details of affairs, but the great issues at stakeis not that to be something more than a mere

man? Therefore the names of the great and noble fathers of nations cannot but be household words for ever."

"Gentlemen, you have not said a word about the army!" cried Genestas. "A military organization seems to me

to be the real type on which all good civil society should be modeled; the Sword is the guardian of a nation."

"Captain," he said, "an old lawyer once said that empires began with the sword and ended with the desk; we

"And now that we have settled the fate of the world, gentlemen, let us change the subject. Come, captain, a

"Two, rather than one," said Genestas, holding out his glass. "I mean to drink them both to your healthto a

"M. le Cure has only said in a low voice what all the canton says aloud," said Cambon.

"Gentlemen, I propose that we take a walk to the parsonage by moonlight, and see M. Janvier home."

"Shall we go to the barn?" said the doctor, laying a hand on Genestas' arm. They had taken leave of the cure

and the other guests. "You will hear them talking about Napoleon, Captain Bluteau. Goguelat, the postman, is

there, and there are several of his cronies who are sure to draw him out on the subject of the idol of the

people. Nicolle, my stableman, has set a ladder so that we can climb up on to the hay; there is a place from

which we can look down on the whole scene. Come along, an upsitting is something worth seeing, believe

me. It will not be the first time that I have hidden in the hay to overhear a soldier's tales or the stories that

peasants tell among themselves. We must be careful to keep out of sight though, as these folk turn shy and

"Eh! my dear sir," said Genestas, "have I not often pretended to be asleep so as to hear my troopers talking

out on bivouac? My word, I once heard a droll yarn reeled off by an old quartermaster for some conscripts

who were afraid of war; I never laughed so heartily in any theatre in Paris. He was telling them about the

Retreat from Moscow. He told them that the army had nothing but the clothes they stood up in; that their

wine was iced; that the dead stood stockstill in the road just where they were; that they had seen White

Russia, and that they currycombed the horses there with their teeth; that those who were fond of skating had

fine times of it, and people who had a fancy for savory ices had as much as they could put away; that the

women were generally poor company; but that the only thing they could really complain of was the want of

hot water for shaving. In fact, he told them such a pack of absurdities, that even an old quartermaster who had

lost his nose with a frostbite, so that they had dubbed him Nezrestant, was fain to laugh."

Both of them scaled the ladder and hid themselves in the hay, in a place from whence they could have a good

view of the party below, who had not heard a sound overhead. Little groups of women were clustered about

three or four candles. Some of them sewed, others were spinning, a good few of them were doing nothing,

and sat with their heads strained forward, and their eyes fixed on an old peasant who was telling a story. The

men were standing about for the most part, or lying at full length on the trusses of hay. Every group was

absolutely silent. Their faces were barely visible by the flickering gleams of the candles by which the women

were working, although each candle was surrounded by a glass globe filled with water, in order to

concentrate the light. The thick darkness and shadow that filled the roof and all the upper part of the barn

seemed still further to diminish the light that fell here and there upon the workers' heads with such

picturesque effects of light and shade. Here, it shone full upon the bright wondering eyes and brown forehead

of a little peasant maiden; and there the straggling beams brought out the outlines of the rugged brows of

some of the older men, throwing up their figures in sharp relief against the dark background, and giving a

fantastic appearance to their worn and weatherstained garb. The attentive attitude of all these people and the

expression on all their faces showed that they had given themselves up entirely to the pleasure of listening,

and that the narrator's sway was absolute. It was a curious scene. The immense influence that poetry exerts

over every mind was plainly to be seen. For is not the peasant who demands that the tale of wonder should be

simple, and that the impossible should be wellnigh credible, a lover of poetry of the purest kind?

"She did not like the look of the house at all," the peasant was saying as the two newcomers took their places

where they could overhear him; "but the poor little hunchback was so tired out with carrying her bundle of

hemp to market, that she went in; besides, the night had come, and she could go no further. She only asked to

be allowed to sleep there, and ate nothing but a crust of bread that she took from her wallet. And inasmuch as

the woman who kept house for the brigands knew nothing about what they had planned to do that night, she

let the old woman into the house, and sent her upstairs without a light. Our hunchback throws herself down

on a rickety truckle bed, says her prayers, thinks about her hemp, and is dropping off to sleep. But before she

is fairly asleep, she hears a noise, and in walk two men carrying a lantern, and each man had a knife in his

hand. Then fear came upon her; for in those times, look you, they used to make pates of human flesh for the

seigneurs, who were very fond of them. But the old woman plucked up heart again, for she was so thoroughly

shriveled and wrinkled that she thought they would think her a poorish sort of diet. The two men went past

the hunchback and walked up to a bed that there was in the great room, and in which they had put the

gentleman with the big portmanteau, the one that passed for a negromancer. The taller man holds up the

lantern and takes the gentleman by the feet, and the short one, that had pretended to be drunk, clutches hold

of his head and cuts his throat, clean, with one stroke, swish! Then they leave the head and body lying in its

own blood up there, steal the portmanteau, and go downstairs with it. Here is our woman in a nice fix! First

of all she thinks of slipping out, before any one can suspect it, not knowing that Providence had brought her

there to glorify God and to bring down punishment on the murderers. She was in a great fright, and when one

is frightened one thinks of nothing else. But the woman of the house had asked the two brigands about the

hunchback, and that had alarmed them. So back they came, creeping softly up the wooden staircase. The poor

hunchback curls up in a ball with fright, and she hears them talking about her in whispers.

"Then they came in. The woman, who was no fool, shuts her eyes and pretends to be asleep. She sets to work

to sleep like a child, with her hand on her heart, and takes to breathing like a cherub. The man opens the

lantern and shines the light straight into the eyes of the sleeping old womanshe does not move an eyelash,

" 'She is sleeping like a log; you can see that quite well,' so says the tall one.

" 'Old women are so cunning!' answers the short man. 'I will kill her. We shall feel easier in our minds.

" 'Oh! it is all right, she is asleep,' says the short ruffian, when he saw that the hunchback had not stirred.

"That is how the old woman saved her life. And she may be fairly called courageous; for it is a fact that there

are not many girls here who could have breathed like cherubs while they heard that talk going on about the

pigs. Well, the two brigands set to work to lift up the dead man; they wrap him round in the sheets and chuck

him out into the little yard; and the old woman hears the pigs scampering up to eat him, and grunting, HON!

"So when morning comes," the narrator resumed after a pause, "the woman gets up and goes down, paying a

couple of sous for her bed. She takes up her wallet, goes on just as if nothing had happened, asks for the news

of the countryside, and gets away in peace. She wants to run. Running is quite out of the question, her legs

fail her for fright; and lucky it was for her that she could not run, for this reason. She had barely gone half a

quarter of a league before she sees one of the brigands coming after her, just out of craftiness to make quite

sure that she had seen nothing. She guesses this, and sits herself down on a boulder.

" 'What is the matter, good woman?' asks the short one, for it was the shorter one and the wickeder of the two

" 'Oh! master,' says she, 'my wallet is so heavy, and I am so tired, that I badly want some good man to give

me his arm' (sly thing, only listen to her!) 'if I am to get back to my poor home.'

"Thereupon the brigand offers to go along with her, and she accepts his offer. The fellow takes hold of her

arm to see if she is afraid. Not she! She does not tremble a bit, and walks quietly along. So there they are,

chatting away as nicely as possible, all about farming, and the way to grow hemp, till they come to the

outskirts of the town, where the hunchback lived, and the brigand made off for fear of meeting some of the

sheriff's people. The woman reached her house at midday, and waited there till her husband came home; she

thought and thought over all that had happened on her journey and during the night. The hempgrower came

home in the evening. He was hungry; something must be got ready for him to eat. So while she greases her

fryingpan, and gets ready to fry something for him, she tells him how she sold her hemp, and gabbles away

as females do, but not a word does she say about the pigs, nor about the gentleman who was murdered and

robbed and eaten. She holds her fryingpan in the flames so as to clean it, draws it out again to give it a wipe,

"She thinks it must have been a nonsensical piece of woman's fancy, and puts her fryingpan into the fire

" 'Oh! look! It is nothing more nor less than the dead man's head,' says the old woman. 'How he stares at me!

" 'What an idiot you are!' said the hempgrower. 'Always seeing something or other that has no sort of sense

"He takes up the head, which snaps at his finger, and pitches it out into the yard.

" 'Get on with my omelette,' he says, 'and do not bother yourself about that. 'Tis a cat.'

"She puts back her fryingpan on the fire. . . . Pouf! Down comes a leg this time, and they go through the

whole story again. The man was no more astonished at the foot than he had been at the head; he snatched up

the leg and threw it out at the door. Before they had finished, the other leg, both arms, the body, the whole

murdered traveler, in fact, came down piecemeal. No omelette all this time! The old hempseller grew very

" 'By my salvation!' said he, 'when once my omelette is made we will see about satisfying that man yonder.'

" 'So you admit, now, that it was a man?' said the hunchback wife. 'What made you say that it was not a head

"The woman breaks the eggs, fries the omelette, and dishes it up without any more grumbling; somehow this

squabble began to make her feel very uncomfortable. Her husband sits down and begins to eat. The

"So the traveler comes in, sits himself down on a threelegged stool, and says: 'Are you mindful of God, who

gives eternal peace to those who confess His Name? Woman! You saw me done to death, and you have said

nothing! I have been eaten by the pigs! The pigs do not enter Paradise, and therefore I, a Christian man, shall

go down into hell, all because a woman forsooth will not speak, a thing that has never been known before.

"The woman, who was more and more frightened every minute, cleaned her fryingpan, put on her Sunday

clothes, went to the justice, and told him about the crime, which was brought to light, and the robbers were

broken on the wheel in proper style on the Market Place. This good work accomplished, the woman and her

husband always had the finest hemp you ever set eyes on. Then, which pleased them still better, they had

something that they had wished for for a long time, towit, a man child, who in course of time became a

"I do not like stories of that sort; they make me dream at night," said La Fosseuse. "Napoleon's adventures are

"Quite true," said the keeper. "Come now, M. Goguelat, tell us about the Emperor."

"The evening is too far gone," said the postman, "and I do not care about cutting short the story of a victory."

"Never mind, let us hear about it all the same! We know the stories, for we have heard you tell them many a

"You will have it?" answered Goguelat. "Very good, but you will see that there is no sense in the story when

it is gone through at a gallop. I would rather tell you all about a single battle. Shall it be ChampAubert,

where we ran out of cartridges, and furbished them just the same with the bayonet?"

The old infantry man got up from his truss of hay and glanced round about on those assembled, with the

peculiar sombre expression in which may be read all the miseries, adventures, and hardships of an old

soldier's career. He took his coat by the two skirts in front, and raised them, as if it were a question of once

more packing up the knapsack in which his kit, his shoes, and all he had in the world used to be stowed; for a

moment he stood leaning all his weight on his left foot, then he swung the right foot forward, and yielded

with a good grace to the wishes of his audience. He swept his gray hair to one side, so as to leave his forehead

bare, and flung back his head and gazed upwards, as if to raise himself to the lofty height of the gigantic story

"Napoleon, you see, my friends, was born in Corsica, which is a French island warmed by the Italian sun; it is

like a furnace there, everything is scorched up, and they keep on killing each other from father to son for

generations all about nothing at all'tis a notion they have. To begin at the beginning, there was something

extraordinary about the thing from the first; it occurred to his mother, who was the handsomest woman of her

time, and a shrewd soul, to dedicate him to God, so that he should escape all the dangers of infancy and of his

after life; for she had dreamed that the world was on fire on the day he was born. It was a prophecy! So she

asked God to protect him, on condition that Napoleon should reestablish His holy religion, which had been

thrown to the ground just then. That was the agreement; we shall see what came of it.

"Now, do you follow me carefully, and tell me whether what you are about to hear is natural.

"It is certain sure that only a man who had had imagination enough to make a mysterious compact would be

capable of going further than anybody else, and of passing through volleys of grapeshot and showers of

bullets which carried us off like flies, but which had a respect for his head. I myself had particular proof of

that at Eylau. I see him yet; he climbs a hillock, takes his fieldglass, looks along our lines, and says, 'That is

going on all right.' One of the deep fellows, with a bunch of feathers in his cap, used to plague him a good

deal from all accounts, following him about everywhere, even when he was getting his meals. This fellow

wants to do something clever, so as soon as the Emperor goes away he takes his place. Oh! swept away in a

moment! And this is the last of the bunch of feathers! You understand quite clearly that Napoleon had

undertaken to keep his secret to himself. That is why those who accompanied him, and even his especial

friends, used to drop like nuts: Duroc, Bessieres, Lannes men as strong as bars of steel, which he cast into

shape for his own ends. And here is a final proof that he was the child of God, created to be the soldier's

father; for no one ever saw him as a lieutenant or a captain. He is a commandant straight off! Ah! yes, indeed!

He did not look more than fourandtwenty, but he was an old general ever since the taking of Toulon, when

he made a beginning by showing the rest that they knew nothing about handling cannon. Next thing he does,

he tumbles upon us. A little slip of a generalinchief of the army of Italy, which had neither bread nor

" ' Friends,' he said, 'here we all are together. Now, get it well into your pates that in a fortnight's time from

now you will be the victors, and dressed in new clothes; you shall all have greatcoats, strong gaiters, and

famous pairs of shoes; but, my children, you will have to march on Milan to take them, where all these things

"So they marched. The French, crushed as flat as a pancake, held up their heads again. There were thirty

thousand of us tatterdemalions against eighty thousand swaggerers of Germansfine tall men and well

equipped; I can see them yet. Then Napoleon, who was only Bonaparte in those days, breathed goodness

knows what into us, and on we marched night and day. We rap their knuckles at Montenotte; we hurry on to

thrash them at Rivoli, Lodi, Arcola, and Millesimo, and we never let them go. The army came to have a

liking for winning battles. Then Napoleon hems them in on all sides, these German generals did not know

where to hide themselves so as to have a little peace and comfort; he drubs them soundly, cribs ten thousand

of their men at a time by surrounding them with fifteen hundred Frenchmen, whom he makes to spring up

after his fashion, and at last he takes their cannon, victuals, money, ammunition, and everything they have

that is worth taking; he pitches them into the water, beats them on the mountains, snaps at them in the air,

"There are the troops in full feather again! For, look you, the Emperor (who, for that matter, was a wit) soon

sent for the inhabitant, and told him that he had come there to deliver him. Whereupon the civilian finds us

free quarters and makes much of us, so do the women, who showed great discernment. To come to a final

end; in Ventose '96, which was at that time what the month of March is now, we had been driven up into a

corner of the Pays des Marmottes; but after the campaign, lo and behold! we were the masters of Italy, just as

Napoleon had prophesied. And in the month of March following, in one year and in two campaigns, he brings

us within sight of Vienna; we had made a clean sweep of them. We had gobbled down three armies one after

another, and taken the conceit out of four Austrian generals; one of them, an old man who had white hair, had

been roasted like a rat in the straw before Mantua. The kings were suing for mercy on their knees. Peace had

been won. Could a mere mortal have done that? No. God helped him, that is certain. He distributed himself

about like the five loaves in the Gospel, commanded on the battlefield all day, and drew up his plans at night.

The sentries always saw him coming; he neither ate nor slept. Therefore, recognizing these prodigies, the

" 'Here is a pilgrim who appears to take his instructions from Heaven above; he is uncommonly likely to lay a

hand on France. We must let him loose on Asia or America, and that, perhaps, will keep him quiet.

"The same thing was decreed for him as for Jesus Christ; for, as a matter of fact, they give him orders to go

on duty down in Egypt. See his resemblance to the Son of God! That is not all, though. He calls all his

fireeaters about him, all those into whom he had more particularly put the devil, and talks to them in this

" 'My friends, for the time being they are giving us Egypt to stop our mouths. But we will swallow down

Egypt in a brace of shakes, just as we swallowed Italy, and private soldiers shall be princes, and shall have

"So we come to Toulon on the way to Egypt. Whereupon the English put to sea with all their fleet. But when

" 'They will not see us: and it is right and proper that you should know henceforward that your general has a

"So said, so done. As we sailed over the sea we took Malta, by way of an orange to quench his thirst for

victory, for he was a man who must always be doing something. There we are in Egypt. Well and good.

Different orders. The Egyptians, look you, are men who, ever since the world has been the world, have been

in the habit of having giants to reign over them, and armies like swarms of ants; because it is a country full of

genii and crocodiles, where they have built up pyramids as big as our mountains, the fancy took them to stow

their kings under the pyramids, so as to keep them fresh, a thing which mightily pleases them all round out

" 'My children, the country which you are about to conquer worships a lot of idols which you must respect,

because the Frenchman ought to be on good terms with all the world, and fight people without giving

annoyance. Get it well into your heads to let everything alone at first; for we shall have it all by and by! and

"So far so good. But all those people had heard a prophecy of Napoleon, under the name of Kebir

Bonaberdis; a word which in our lingo means, 'The Sultan fires a shot,' and they feared him like the devil. So

the Grand Turk, Asia, and Africa have recourse to magic, and they send a demon against us, named the

Mahdi, who it was thought had come down from heaven on a white charger which, like its master was

bulletproof, and the pair of them lived on the air of that part of the world. There are people who have seen

them, but for my part I cannot give you any certain informations about them. They were the divinities of

Arabia and of the Mamelukes who wished their troopers to believe that the Mahdi had the power of

preventing them from dying in battle. They gave out that he was an angel sent down to wage war on

Napoleon, and to get back Solomon's seal, part of their paraphernalia which they pretended our general had

"Ah, just tell me now how they came to know about that compact of Napoleon's? Was that natural?

"They took it into their heads for certain that he commanded the genii, and that he went from place to place

like a bird in the twinkling of an eye; and it is a fact that he was everywhere. At length it came about that he

carried off a queen of theirs. She was the private property of a Mameluke, who, although he had several more

of them, flatly refused to strike a bargain, though 'the other' offered all his treasures for her and diamonds as

big as pigeon's eggs. When things had come to that pass, they could not well be settled without a good deal of

"Then we are drawn up before Alexandria, and again at Gizeh, and before the Pyramids. We had to march

over the sands and in the sun; people whose eyes dazzled used to see water that they could not drink and

shade that made them fume. But we made short work of the Mamelukes as usual, and everything goes down

before the voice of Napoleon, who seizes Upper and Lower Egypt and Arabia, far and wide, till we came to

the capitals of kingdoms which no longer existed, where there were thousands and thousands of statues of all

the devils in creation, all done to the life, and another curious thing too, any quantity of lizards. A confounded

country where any one could have as many acres of land as he wished for as little as he pleased.

"While he was busy inland, where he meant to carry out some wonderful ideas of his, the English burn his

fleet for him in Aboukir Bay, for they never could do enough to annoy us. But Napoleon, who was respected

East and West, and called 'My Son' by the Pope, and 'My dear Father' by Mahomet's cousin, makes up his

mind to have his revenge on England, and to take India in exchange for his fleet. He set out to lead us into

Asia, by way of the Red Sea, through a country where there were palaces for haltingplaces, and nothing but

gold and diamonds to pay the troops with, when the Mahdi comes to an understanding with the Plague, and

sends it among us to make a break in our victories. Halt! Then every man files off to that parade from which

no one comes back on his two feet. The dying soldier cannot take Acre, into which he forces an entrance

three times with a warrior's impetuous enthusiasm; the Plague was too strong for us; there was not even time

to say 'Your servant, sir!' to the Plague. Every man was down with it. Napoleon alone was as fresh as a rose;

the whole army saw him drinking in the Plague without it doing him any harm whatever.

"The Mamelukes, knowing that we were all on the sicklist, want to stop our road; but it was no use trying

that nonsense with Napoleon. So he spoke to his familiars, who had tougher skins than the rest:

"Junot, who was his devoted friend, and a firstclass fighter, only takes a thousand men, and makes a clean

sweep of the Pasha's army, which had the impudence to bar our way. Thereupon back we came to Cairo, our

"Napoleon being out of the country, France allowed the people in Paris to worry the life out of her. They kept

back the soldiers' pay and all their linen and clothing, left them to starve, and expected them to lay down law

to the universe, without taking any further trouble in the matter. They were idiots of the kind that amuse

themselves with chattering instead of setting themselves to knead the dough. So our armies were defeated,

France could not keep her frontiers; The Man was not there. I say The Man, look you, because that was how

they called him; but it was stuff and nonsense, for he had a star of his own and all his other peculiarities, it

was the rest of us that were mere men. He hears this history of France after his famous battle of Aboukir,

where with a single division he routed the grand army of the Turks, twentyfive thousand strong, and jostled

more than half of them into the sea, rrrah! without losing more than three hundred of his own men. That was

his last thunderclap in Egypt. He said to himself, seeing that all was lost down there, 'I know that I am the

"But you must clearly understand that the army did not know of his departure; for if they had, they would

have kept him there by force to make him Emperor of the East. So there we all are without him, and in low

spirits, for he was the life of us. He leaves Kleber in command, a great watchdog who passed in his checks at

Cairo, murdered by an Egyptian whom they put to death by spiking him with a bayonet, which is their way of

guillotining people out there; but he suffered so much, that a soldier took pity on the scoundrel and handed

his flask to him; and the Egyptian turned up his eyes then and there with all the pleasure in life. But there is

not much fun for us about this little affair. Napoleon steps aboard of a little cockleshell, a mere nothing of a

skiff, called the Fortune, and in the twinkling of an eye, and in the teeth of the English, who were blockading

the place with vessels of the line and cruisers and everything that carries canvas, he lands in France for he

always had the faculty of taking the sea at a stride. Was that natural? Bah! as soon as he landed at Frejus, it is

as good as saying that he has set foot in Paris. Everybody there worships him; but he calls the Government

" 'What have you done to my children, the soldiers?' he says to the lawyers. 'You are a set of

goodfornothings who make fools of other people, and feather your own nests at the expense of France. It

"Thereupon they want to put him off and to get rid of him; but not a bit of it! He locks them up in the

barracks where they used to argufy and makes them jump out of the windows. Then he makes them follow in

his train, and they all become as mute as fishes and supple as tobacco pouches. So he becomes Consul at a

blow. He was not the man to doubt the existence of the Supreme Being; he kept his word with Providence,

who had kept His promise in earnest; he sets up religion again, and gives back the churches, and they ring the

bells for God and Napoleon. So every one is satisfied: primo the priests with whom he allows no one to

meddle; segondo, the merchant folk who carry on their trades without fear of the rapiamus of the law that had

pressed too heavily on them; tertio, the nobles; for people had fallen into an unfortunate habit of putting them

"But there were enemies to be cleared out of the way, and he was not the one to go to sleep after mess; and

his eyes, look you, traveled all over the world as if it had been a man's face. The next thing he did was to turn

up in Italy; it was just as if he had put his head out of the window and the sight of him was enough; they gulp

down the Austrians at Marengo like a whale swallowing gudgeons! Haouf! The French Victories blew their

trumpets so loud that the whole world could hear the noise, and there was an end of it.

"Here is the upshot. Europe shows the white feather, England knuckles under, general peace all round, and

kings and peoples pretending to embrace each other. While then and there the Emperor hits on the idea of the

"He spoke to the whole army at Boulogne. 'In France,' so he said, 'every man is brave. So the civilian who

does gloriously shall be the soldier's sister, the soldier shall be his brother, and both shall stand together

"By the time that the rest of us who were away down there in Egypt had come back again, everything was

changed. We had seen him last as a general, and in no time we find that he is Emperor! And when this was

settled (and it may safely be said that every one was satisfied) there was a holy ceremony such as was never

seen under the canopy of heaven. Faith, France gave herself to him, like a handsome girl to a lancer, and the

Pope and all his cardinals in robes of red and gold come across the Alps on purpose to anoint him before the

"There is one thing that it would be very wrong to keep back from you. While he was in Egypt, in the desert

not far away from Syria, the Red Man had appeared to him on the mountain of Moses, in order to say,

'Everything is going on well.' Then again, on the eve of victory at Marengo, the Red Man springs to his feet

" 'You shall see the world at your feet; you shall be Emperor of the French, King of Italy, master of Holland,

ruler of Spain, Portugal, and the Illyrian Provinces, protector of Germany, saviour of Poland, first eagle of the

"That Red Man, look you, was a notion of his own, who ran on errands and carried messages, so many people

say, between him and his star. I myself have never believed that; but the Red Man is, undoubtedly, a fact.

Napoleon himself spoke of the Red Man who lived up in the roof of the Tuileries, and who used to come to

him, he said, in moments of trouble and difficulty. So on the night after his coronation Napoleon saw him for

"Then the Emperor goes straight to Milan to have himself crowned King of Italy, and then came the real

triumph of the soldier. For every one who could write became an officer forthwith, and pensions and gifts of

duchies poured down in showers. There were fortunes for the staff that never cost France a penny, and the

Legion of Honor was as good as an annuity for the rank and file; I still draw my pension on the strength of it.

In short, here were armies provided for in a way that had never been seen before! But the Emperor, who

knew that he was to be Emperor over everybody, and not only over the army, bethinks himself of the

bourgeois, and sets them to build fairy monuments in places that had been as bare as the back of my hand till

then. Suppose, now, that you are coming out of Spain and on the way to Berlin; well, you would see

triumphal arches, and in the sculpture upon them the common soldiers are done every bit as beautifully as the

"In two or three years Napoleon fills his cellars with gold, makes bridges, palaces, roads, scholars, festivals,

laws, fleets, and harbors; he spends millions on millions, ever so much, and ever so much more to it, so that I

have heard it said that he could have paved the whole of France with fivefranc pieces if the fancy had taken

him; and all this without putting any taxes on you people here. So when he was comfortably seated on his

throne, and so thoroughly the master of the situation, that all Europe was waiting for leave to do anything for

him that he might happen to want; as he had four brothers and three sisters, he said to us, just as it might be

" 'Children, is it fitting that your Emperor's relations should beg their bread? No; I want them all to be

luminaries, like me in fact! Therefore, it is urgently necessary to conquer a kingdom for each one of them, so

that the French nation may be masters everywhere, so that the Guard may make the whole earth tremble, and

France may spit wherever she likes, and every nation shall say to her, as it is written on my coins, "God

" 'All right!' answers the army, 'we will fish up kingdoms for you with the bayonet.'

"Ah! there was no backing out of it, look you! If he had taken it into his head to conquer the moon, we should

have had to put everything in train, pack our knapsacks, and scramble up; luckily, he had no wish for that

excursion. The kings who were used to the comforts of a throne, of course, objected to be lugged off, so we

had marching orders. We march, we get there, and the earth begins to shake to its centre again. What times

they were for wearing out men and shoe leather! And the hard knocks that they gave us! Only Frenchmen

could have stood it. But you are not ignorant that a Frenchman is a born philosopher; he knows that he must

die a little sooner or a litter later. So we used to die without a word, because we had the pleasure of watching

Here the soldier swung quickly round on one foot, so as to trace a circle on the barn floor with the other.

" 'There, that shall be a kingdom,' he used to say, and it was a kingdom. What fine times they were! Colonels

became generals whilst you were looking at them, generals became marshals of France, and marshals became

kings. There is one of them still left on his feet to keep Europe in mind of those days, Gascon though he may

be, and a traitor to France that he might keep his crown; and he did not blush for his shame, for, after all, a

crown, look you, is made of gold. The very sappers and miners who knew how to read became great nobles in

the same way. And I who am telling you all this have seen in Paris eleven kings and a crowd of princes all

round about Napoleon, like rays about the sun! Keep this well in your minds, that as every soldier stood a

chance of having a throne of his own (provided he showed himself worthy of it), a corporal of the Guard was

by way of being a sight to see, and they gaped at him as he went by; for every one came by his share after a

victory, it was made perfectly clear in the bulletin. And what battles they were! Austerlitz, where the army

was manoeuvred as if it had been a review; Eylau, where the Russians were drowned in a lake, just as if

Napoleon had breathed on them and blown them in; Wagram, where the fighting was kept up for three whole

days without flinching. In short, there were as many battles as there are saints in the calendar.

"Then it was made clear beyond a doubt that Napoleon bore the Sword of God in his scabbard. He had a

regard for the soldier. He took the soldier for his child. He was anxious that you should have shoes, shirts,

greatcoats, bread, and cartridges; but he kept up his majesty, too, for reigning was his own particular

occupation. But, all the same, a sergeant, or even a common soldier, could go up to him and call him

'Emperor,' just as you might say 'My good friend' to me at times. And he would give an answer to anything

you put before him. He used to sleep on the snow just like the rest of usin short, he looked almost like an

ordinary man; but I who am telling you all these things have seen him myself with the grapeshot whizzing

about his ears, no more put out by it than you are at this moment; never moving a limb, watching through his

fieldglass, always looking after his business; so we stood our ground likewise, as cool and calm as John the

Baptist. I do not know how he did it; but whenever he spoke, a something in his words made our hearts burn

within us; and just to let him see that we were his children, and that it was not in us to shirk or flinch, we used

to walk just as usual right up to the sluts of cannon that were belching smoke and vomiting battalions of balls,

and never a man would so much as say, 'Look out!' It was a something that made dying men raise their heads

"Thereupon, having fitted up all his family, and things having so turned out that the Empress Josephine (a

good woman for all that) had no children, he was obliged to part company with her, although he loved her not

a little. But he must have children, for reasons of State. All the crowned heads of Europe, when they heard of

his difficulty, squabbled among themselves as to who should find him a wife. He married an Austrian

princess, so they say, who was the daughter of the Caesars, a man of antiquity whom everybody talks about,

not only in our country, where it is said that most things were his doing, but also all over Europe. And so

certain sure is that, that I who am talking to you have been myself across the Danube, where I saw the ruins

of a bridge built by that man; and it appeared that he was some connection of Napoleon's at Rome, for the

"So, after his wedding, which was a holiday for the whole world, and when they let the people off their taxes

for ten years to come (though they had to pay them just the same after all, because the excisemen took no

notice of the proclamation)after his wedding, I say, his wife had a child who was King of Rome; a child

was born a King while his father was alive, a thing that had never been seen in the world before! That day a

balloon set out from Paris to carry the news to Rome, and went all the way in one day. There, now! Is there

one of you who will stand me out that there was nothing supernatural in that? No, it was decreed on high.

And the mischief take those who will not allow that it was wafted over by God Himself, so as to add to the

"But there was the Emperor of Russia, a friend of our Emperor's, who was put out because he had not married

a Russian lady. So the Russian backs up our enemies the English; for there had always been something to

prevent Napoleon from putting a spoke in their wheel. Clearly an end must be made of fowl of that feather.

" 'Soldiers! You have been the masters of every capital in Europe, except Moscow, which is allied to

England. So, in order to conquer London and India, which belongs to them in London, I find it absolutely

"Thereupon the greatest army that ever wore gaiters, and left its footprints all over the globe, is brought

together, and drawn up with such peculiar cleverness, that the Emperor passed a million men in review, all in

" 'Hourra!' cry the Russians, and there is all Russia assembled, a lot of brutes of Cossacks, that you never can

come up with! It was country against country, a general stramash; we had to look out for ourselves. 'It was all

Asia against Europe,' as the Red Man had said to Napoleon. 'All right,' Napoleon had answered, 'I shall be

"And there, in fact, were all the kings who came to lick Napoleon's hand. Austria, Prussia, Bavaria, Saxony,

Poland, and Italy, all speaking us fair and going along with us; it was a fine thing! The Eagles had never

cooed before as they did on parade in those days, when they were reared above all the flags of all the nations

of Europe. The Poles could not contain their joy because the Emperor had a notion of setting up their

kingdom again; and ever since Poland and France have always been like brothers. In short, the army shouts,

"We cross the frontiers, all the lot of us. We march and better march, but never a Russian do we see. At last

all our watchdogs are encamped at Borodino. That was where I received the Cross, and there is no denying

that it was a cursed battle. The Emperor was not easy in his mind; he had seen the Red Man, who said to him,

'My child, you are going a little too fast for your feet; you will run short of men, and your friends will play

"Thereupon the Emperor proposes a treaty. But before he signs it, he says to us:

"My clothes were all falling to pieces, my shoes were worn out with trapezing over those roads out there,

which are not good going at all. But it is all one. 'Since here is the last of the row,' said I to myself, 'I mean to

"We were posted before the great ravine; we had seats in the front row. The signal is given, and seven

hundred guns begin a conversation fit to make the blood spirt from your ears. One should give the devil his

due, and the Russians let themselves be cut in pieces just like Frenchmen; they did not give way, and we

"So it was. He rides past us at a gallop, and makes a sign to us that a great deal depends on our carrying the

redoubt. He puts fresh heart into us; we rush forward, I am the first man to reach the gorge. Ah! mon Dieu!

how they fell, colonels, lieutenants, and common soldiers, all alike! There were shoes to fit up those who had

none, and epaulettes for the knowing fellows that knew how to write. . . . Victory is the cry all along the line!

And, upon my word, there were twentyfive thousand Frenchmen lying on the field. No more, I assure you!

Such a thing was never seen before, it was just like a field when the corn is cut, with a man lying there for

every ear of corn. That sobered the rest of us. The Man comes, and we make a circle round about him, and he

coaxes us round (for he could be very nice when he chose), and persuades us to dine with Duke Humphrey,

when we were hungry as hunters. Then our consoler distributes the Crosses of the Legion of Honor himself,

"We take Moscow. What do the Russians do but set fire to their city! There was a blaze, two leagues of

bonfire that burned for two days! The buildings fell about our ears like slates, and molten lead and iron came

down in showers; it was really horrible; it was a light to see our sorrows by, I can tell you! The Emperor said,

"We amuse ourselves for a bit by recruiting and repairing our frames, for we really were much fatigued by

the campaign. We take away with us a gold cross from the top of the Kremlin, and every soldier had a little

fortune. But on the way back the winter came down on us a month earlier than usual, a matter which the

learned (like a set of fools) have never sufficiently explained; and we are nipped with the cold. We were no

longer an army after that, do you understand? There was an end of generals and even of the sergeants; hunger

and misery took the command instead, and all of us were absolutely equal under their reign. All we thought

of was how to get back to France; no one stooped to pick up his gun or his money; every one walked straight

"The Emperor saw nothing of his star all the time, for the weather was so bad. There was some

misunderstanding between him and heaven. Poor man, how bad he felt when he saw his Eagles flying with

their backs turned on victory! That was really too rough! Well, the next thing is the Beresina. And here and

now, my friends, any one can assure you on his honor, and by all that is sacred, that NEVER, no, never since

there have been men on earth, never in this world has there been such a fricasse of an army, caissons,

transports, artillery and all, in such snow as that and under such a pitiless sky. It was so cold that you burned

your hand on the barrel of your gun if you happened to touch it. There it was that the pontooners saved the

army, for the pontooners stood firm at their posts; it was there that Gondrin behaved like a hero, and he is the

sole survivor of all the men who were dogged enough to stand in the river so as to build the bridges on which

the army crossed over, and so escaped the Russians, who still respected the Grand Army on account of its

past victories. And Gondrin is an accomplished soldier," he went on, pointing to his friend, who was gazing

at him with the rapt attention peculiar to deaf people, "a distinguished soldier who deserves to have your very

"I saw the Emperor standing by the bridge," he went on, "and never feeling the cold at all. Was that, again, a

natural thing? He was looking on at the loss of his treasures, of his friends, and those who had fought with

him in Egypt. Bah! there was an end of everything. Women and wagons and guns were all engulfed and

swallowed up, everything went to wreck and ruin. A few of the bravest among us saved the Eagles, for the

Eagles, look you, meant France, and all the rest of you; it was the civil and military honor of France that was

in our keeping, there must be no spot on the honor of France, and the cold could never make her bow her

head. There was no getting warm except in the neighborhood of the Emperor; for whenever he was in danger

we hurried up, all frozen as we werewe who would not stop to hold out a hand to a fallen friend.

"They say, too, that he shed tears of a night over his poor family of soldiers. Only he and Frenchmen could

have pulled themselves out of such a plight; but we did pull ourselves out, though, as I am telling you, it was

with loss, ay, and heavy loss. The Allies had eaten up all our provisions; everybody began to betray him, just

as the Red Man had foretold. The rattlepates in Paris, who had kept quiet ever since the Imperial Guard had

been established, think that HE is dead, and hatch a conspiracy. They set to work in the Home Office to

overturn the Emperor. These things come to his knowledge and worry him; he says to us at parting,

"Bah! Those generals of his lose their heads at once; for when he was away, it was not like the same thing.

The marshals fall out among themselves, and make blunders, as was only natural, for Napoleon in his

kindness had fed them on gold till they had grown as fat as butter, and they had no mind to march. Troubles

came of this, for many of them stayed inactive in garrison towns in the rear, without attempting to tickle up

the backs of the enemy behind us, and we were being driven back on France. But Napoleon comes back

among us with fresh troops; conscripts they were, and famous conscripts too; he had put some thorough

notions of discipline into themthe whelps were good to set their teeth in anybody. He had a bourgeois

guard of honor too, and fine troops they were! They melted away like butter on a gridiron. We may put a bold

front on it, but everything is against us, although the army still performs prodigies of valor. Whole nations

fought against nations in tremendous battles, at Dresden, Lutzen, and Bautzen, and then it was that France

showed extraordinary heroism, for you must all of you bear in mind that in those times a stout grenadier only

"We always won the day, but the English were always on our track, putting nonsense into other nations'

heads, and stirring them up to revolt. In short, we cleared a way through all these mobs of nations; for

wherever the Emperor appeared, we made a passage for him; for on the land as on the sea, whenever he said,

"There comes a final end to it at last. We are back in France; and in spite of the bitter weather, it did one's

heart good to breathe one's native air again, it set up many a poor fellow; and as for me, it put new life into

me, I can tell you. But it was a question all at once of defending France, our fair land of France. All Europe

was up in arms against us; they took it in bad part that we had tried to keep the Russians in order by driving

them back within their own borders, so that they should not gobble us up, for those Northern folk have a

strong liking for eating up the men of the South, it is a habit they have; I have heard the same thing of them

"So the Emperor finds his own fatherinlaw, his friends whom he had made crowned kings, and the rabble

of princes to whom he had given back their thrones, were all against him. Even Frenchmen and allies in our

own ranks turned against us, by orders from high quarters, as at Leipsic. Common soldiers would hardly be

capable of such abominations; yet these princes, as they called themselves, broke their words three times a

day! The next thing they do is to invade France. Wherever our Emperor shows his lion's face, the enemy

beats a retreat; he worked more miracles for the defence of France than he had ever wrought in the conquest

of Italy, the East, Spain, Europe, and Russia; he has a mind to bury every foreigner in French soil, to give

them a respect for France, so he lets them come close up to Paris, so as to do for them at a single blow, and to

rise to the highest height of genius in the biggest battle that ever was fought, a mother of battles! But the

Parisians wanting to save their trumpery skins, and afraid for their twopenny shops, open their gates and there

is a beginning of the ragusades, and an end of all joy and happiness; they make a fool of the Empress, and fly

the white flag out at the windows. The Emperor's closest friends among his generals forsake him at last and

go over to the Bourbons, of whom no one had ever heard tell. Then he bids us farewell at Fontainbleau:

" 'Soldiers!' . . . (I can hear him yet, we were all crying just like children; the Eagles and the flags had been

lowered as if for a funeral. Ah! and it was a funeral, I can tell you; it was the funeral of the Empire; those

smart armies of his were nothing but skeletons now.) So he stood there on the flight of steps before his

" 'Children, we have been overcome by treachery, but we shall meet again up above in the country of the

"He had thought of killing himself, so that no one should behold Napoleon after his defeat; like Jesus Christ

before the Crucifixion, he thought himself forsaken by God and by his talisman, and so he took enough

poison to kill a regiment, but it had no effect whatever upon him. Another marvel! he discovered that he was

immortal; and feeling sure of his case, and knowing that he would be Emperor for ever, he went to an island

for a little while, so as to study the dispositions of those folk who did not fail to make blunder upon blunder.

Whilst he was biding his time, the Chinese and the brutes out in Africa, the Moors and whatnot, awkward

customers all of them, were so convinced that he was something more than mortal, that they respected his

flag, saying that God would be displeased if any one meddled with it. So he reigned over all the rest of the

"Then he goes on board the same nutshell of a skiff that he sailed in from Egypt, passes under the noses of

the English vessels, and sets foot in France. France recognizes her Emperor, the cuckoo flits from steeple to

steeple; France cries with one voice, 'Long live the Emperor!' The enthusiasm for that Wonder of the Ages

was thoroughly genuine in these parts. Dauphine behaved handsomely; and I was uncommonly pleased to

"It was on March 1st that Napoleon set out with two hundred men to conquer the kingdom of France and

Navarre, which by March 20th had become the French Empire again. On that day he found himself in Paris,

and a clean sweep had been made of everything; he had won back his beloved France, and had called all his

soldiers about him again, and three words of his had done it all'Here am I!' 'Twas the greatest miracle God

ever worked! Was it ever known in the world before that a man should do nothing but show his hat, and a

whole Empire became his? They fancied that France was crushed, did they? Never a bit of it. A National

Army springs up again at the sight of the Eagle, and we all march to Waterloo. There the Guard fall all as one

man. Napoleon in his despair heads the rest, and flings himself three times on the enemy's guns without

finding the death he sought; we all saw him do it, we soldiers, and the day was lost! That night the Emperor

calls all his old soldiers about him, and there on the battlefield, which was soaked with our blood, he burns

his flags and his Eaglesthe poor Eagles that had never been defeated, that had cried, 'Forward!' in battle

after battle, and had flown above us all over Europe. That was the end of the Eaglesall the wealth of

England could not purchase for her one tailfeather. The rest is sufficiently known.

"The Red Man went over to the Bourbons like the low scoundrel he is. France is prostrate, the soldier counts

for nothing, they rob him of his due, send him about his business, and fill his place with nobles who could not

walk, they were so old, so that it made you sorry to see them. They seize Napoleon by treachery, the English

shut him up on a desert island in the ocean, on a rock ten thousand feet above the rest of the world. That is the

final end of it; there he has to stop till the Red Man gives him back his power again, for the happiness of

France. A lot of them say that he is dead! Dead? Oh! yes, very likely. They do not know him, that is plain!

They go on telling that fib to deceive the people, and to keep things quiet for their tumbledown government.

Listen; this is the whole truth of the matter. His friends have left him alone in the desert to fulfil a prophecy

that was made about him, for I forgot to tell you that his name Napoleon really means the LION OF THE

DESERT. And that is gospel truth. You will hear plenty of other things said about the Emperor, but they are

all monstrous nonsense. Because, look you, to no man of woman born would God have given the power to

write his name in red, as he did, across the earth, where he will be remembered for ever! . . . Long live

"How did you manage not to die in the gorge of the redoubts at Borodino?" asked a peasant woman.

"Do I know? we were a whole regiment when we went down into it, and only a hundred foot were left

standing; only infantry could have carried it; for the infantry, look you, is everything in an army"

"But how about the cavalry?" cried Genestas, slipping down out of the hay in a sudden fashion that drew a

"He, old boy! you are forgetting Poniatowski's Red Lancers, the Cuirassiers, the Dragoons, and the whole

boiling. Whenever Napoleon grew tired of seeing his battalions gain no ground towards the end of a victory,

he would say to Murat, 'Here, you! cut them in two for me!' and we set out first at a trot, and then at a gallop,

ONE, TWO! and cut a way clean through the ranks of the enemy; it was like slicing an apple in two with a

knife. Why, a charge of cavalry is nothing more nor less than a column of cannon balls."

"There, there! my children," Genestas went on, repenting in his confusion of the sally he had made, when he

found himself in the middle of a silent and bewildered group, "there are no agents of police spying here!

"Hush! children," said the officer, concealing his own deep sorrow with an effort. "Hush! HE IS DEAD. He

died saying, GLORY, FRANCE, AND BATTLE,' So it had to be, children, he must die; but his memory

Goguelat made an incredulous gesture, then he whispered to those about him, "The officer is still in the

service, and orders have been issued that they are to tell the people that the Emperor is dead. You must not

As Genestas went out of the barn, he heard La Fosseuse say, "That officer, you know, is M. Benassis' friend,

Every soul in the barn rushed to the door to see the commandant again; they saw him in the moonlight, as he

"It was a stupid thing to do," said Genestas. "Quick! let us go into the house. Those Eagles, cannon, and

"So long as such stories are told in France, sir, she will always find the fourteen armies of the Republic within

her, at need; and her cannon will be perfectly able to keep up a conversation with the rest of Europe. That is

A few moments later they reached Benassis' dwelling, and soon were sitting on either side of the hearth in the

salon; the dying fire in the grate still sent up a few sparks now and then. Each was absorbed in thought.

Genestas was hesitating to ask one last question. In spite of the marks of confidence that he had received, he

feared lest the doctor should regard his inquiry as indiscreet. He looked searchingly at Benassis more than

once; and an answering smile, full of a kindly cordiality, such as lights up the faces of men of real strength of

character, seemed to give him in advance the favorable reply for which he sought. So he spoke:

"Your life, sir, is so different from the lives of ordinary men, that you will not be surprised to hear me ask

you the reason of your retired existence. My curiosity may seem to you to be unmannerly, but you will admit

that it is very natural. Listen a moment: I have had comrades with whom I have never been on intimate terms,

even though I have made many campaigns with them; but there have been others to whom I would say, 'Go to

the paymaster and draw our money,' three days after we had got drunk together, a thing that will happen, for

the quietest folk must have a frolic fit at times. Well, then, you are one of those people whom I take for a

friend without waiting to ask leave, nay, without so much as knowing wherefore."

Whenever the doctor had called his guest by his assumed name, the latter had been unable for some time past

to suppress a slight grimace. Benassis, happening to look up just then, caught this expression of repugnance;

he sought to discover the reason of it, and looked full into the soldier's face, but the real enigma was

wellnigh insoluble for him, so he set down these symptoms to physical suffering and went on:

"Captain, I am about to speak of myself. I have had to force myself to do so already several times since

yesterday, while telling you about the improvements that I have managed to introduce here; but it was a

question of the interests of the people and the commune, with which mine are necessarily bound up. But,

now, if I tell you my story, I should have to speak wholly of myself, and mine has not been a very interesting

"If it were as uneventful as La Fosseuse's life," answered Genestas, "I should still be glad to know about it; I

should like to know the untoward events that could bring a man of your calibre into this canton."

"Captain, for these twelve years I have lived in silence; and now, as I wait at the brink of the grave for the

stroke that will cast me into it, I will candidly own to you that this silence is beginning to weigh heavily upon

me. I have borne my sorrows alone for twelve years; I have had none of the comfort that friendship gives in

such full measure to a heart in pain. My poor sick folk and my peasants certainly set me an example of

unmurmuring resignation; but they know that I at least understand them and their troubles, while there is not

a soul here who knows of the tears that I have shed, no one to give me the handclasp of a comrade, the

noblest reward of all, a reward that falls to the lot of every other; even Gondrin has not missed that."

Genestas held out his hand, a sudden impulsive movement by which Benassis was deeply touched.

"There is La Fosseuse," he went on in a different voice; "she perhaps would have understood as the angels

might; but then, too, she might possibly have loved me, and that would have been a misfortune. Listen,

captain, my confession could only be made to an old soldier who looks as leniently as you do on the failings

of others, or to some young man who has not lost the illusions of youth; for only a man who knows life well,

or a lad to whom it is all unknown, could understand my story. The captains of past times who fell upon the

field of battle used to make their last confession to the cross on the hilt of their sword; if there was no priest at

hand, it was the sword that received and kept the last confidences between a human soul and God. And will

you hear and understand me, for you are one of Napoleon's finest swordblades, as thoroughly tempered and

as strong as steel? Some parts of my story can only be understood by a delicate tenderness, and through a

sympathy with the beliefs that dwell in simple hearts; beliefs which would seem absurd to the sophisticated

people who make use in their own lives of the prudential maxims of worldly wisdom that only apply to the

government of states. To you I shall speak openly and without reserve, as a man who does not seek to

apologize for his life with the good and evil done in the course of it; as one who will hide nothing from you,

because he lives so far from the world of today, careless of the judgements of man, and full of hope in God."

Benassis stopped, rose to his feet, and said, "Before I begin my story, I will order tea. Jacquotte has never

missed asking me if I will take it for these twelve years past, and she will certainly interrupt us. Do you care

"I was born in a little town in Languedoc," the doctor resumed. "My father had been settled there for many

years, and there my early childhood was spent. When I was eight years old I was sent to the school of the

Oratorians at Sorreze, and only left it to finish my studies in Paris. My father had squandered his patrimony

in the course of an exceedingly wild and extravagant youth. He had retrieved his position partly by a

fortunate marriage, partly by the slow persistent thrift characteristic of provincial life; for in the provinces

people pride themselves on accumulating rather than on spending, and all the ambition in a man's nature is

either extinguished or directed to moneygetting, for want of any nobler end. So he had grown rich at last,

and thought to transmit to his only son all the cutanddried experience which he himself had purchased at

the price of his lost illusions; a noble last illusion of age which fondly seeks to bequeath its virtues and its

wary prudence to heedless youth, intent only on the enjoyment of the enchanted life that lies before it.

"This foresight on my father's part led him to make plans for my education for which I had to suffer. He

sedulously concealed my expectations of wealth from me, and during the fairest years of my youth compelled

me, for my own good, to endure the burden of anxiety and hardship that presses upon a young man who has

his own way to make in the world. His idea in so doing was to instill the virtues of poverty into

mepatience, a thirst for learning, and a love of work for its own sake. He hoped to teach me to set a proper

value on my inheritance, by letting me learn, in this way, all that it costs to make a fortune; wherefore, as

soon as I was old enough to understand his advice, he urged me to choose a profession and to work steadily at

"So I left Sorreze, after ten years of almost monastic discipline of the Oratorians; and, fresh from the quiet

life of a remote provincial school, I was taken straight to the capital. My father went with me in order to

introduce me to the notice of a friend of his; and (all unknown to me) my two elders took the most elaborate

precautions against any ebullitions of youth on my part, innocent lad though I was. My allowance was rigidly

computed on a scale based upon the absolute necessaries of life, and I was obliged to produce my certificate

of attendance at the Ecole de Medecine before I was allowed to draw my quarter's income. The excuse for

this sufficiently humiliating distrust was the necessity of my acquiring methodical and businesslike habits.

My father, however, was not sparing of money for all the necessary expenses of my education and for the

"His old friend was delighted to have a young man to guide through the labyrinth into which I had entered.

He was one of those men whose natures lead them to docket their thoughts, feelings, and opinions every whit

as carefully as their papers. He would turn up last year's memorandum book, and could tell in a moment what

he had been doing a twelvemonth since in this very month, day, and hour of the present year. Life, for him,

was a business enterprise, and he kept the books after the most approved business methods. There was real

worth in him though he might be punctilious, shrewd, and suspicious, and though he never lacked specious

excuses for the precautionary measures that he took with regard to me. He used to buy all my books; he paid

for my lessons; and once, when the fancy took me to learn to ride, the good soul himself found me out a

ridingschool, went thither with me, and anticipated my wishes by putting a horse at my disposal whenever I

had a holiday. In spite of all this cautious strategy, which I managed to defeat as soon as I had any temptation

" 'My friend,' he said, as soon as he surmised that I should break away altogether from my leading strings,

unless he relaxed them, 'young folk are apt to commit follies which draw down the wrath of their elders upon

their heads, and you may happen to want money at some time or other; if so, come to me. Your father helped

me nobly once upon a time, and I shall always have a few crowns to spare for you; but never tell any lies, and

do not be ashamed to own to your faults. I myself was young once; we shall always get on well together, like

"My father found lodgings for me with some quiet, middleclass people in the Latin Quarter, and my room

was furnished nicely enough; but this first taste of independence, my father's kindness, and the self denial

which he seemed to be exercising for me, brought me but little happiness. Perhaps the value of liberty cannot

be known until it has been experienced; and the memories of the freedom of my childhood had been almost

effaced by the irksome and dreary life at school, from which my spirits had scarcely recovered. In addition to

this, my father had urged new tasks upon me, so that altogether Paris was an enigma. You must acquire some

"My real position, therefore, was quite unchanged, save that my new lycee was a much larger building, and

was called the Ecole de Medecine. Nevertheless, I studied away bravely at first; I attended lectures diligently;

I worked desperately hard and without relaxation, so strongly was my imagination affected by the abundant

treasures of knowledge to be gained in the capital. But very soon I heedlessly made acquaintances; danger

lurks hidden beneath the rash confiding friendships that have so strong a charm for youth, and gradually I was

drawn into the dissipated life of the capital. I became an enthusiastic lover of the theatre; and with my craze

for actors and the play, the work of my demoralization began. The stage, in a great metropolis, exerts a very

deadly influence over the young; they never quit the theatre save in a state of emotional excitement almost

always beyond their power to control; society and the law seem to me to be accessories to the irregularities

brought about in this way. Our legislation has shut its eyes, so to speak, to the passions that torment a young

man between twenty and fiveandtwenty years of age. In Paris he is assailed by temptations of every kind.

Religion may preach and Law may demand that he should walk uprightly, but all his surroundings and the

tone of those about him are so many incitements to evil. Do not the best of men and the most devout women

there look upon continence as ridiculous? The great city, in fact, seems to have set herself to give

encouragement to vice and to this alone; for a young man finds that the entrance to every honorable career in

which he might look for success is barred by hindrances even more numerous than the snares that are

continually set for him, so that through his weaknesses he may be robbed of his money.

"For a long while I went every evening to some theatre, and little by little I fell into idle ways. I grew more

and more slack over my work; even my most pressing tasks were apt to be put off till the morrow, and before

very long there was an end of my search after knowledge for its own sake; I did nothing more than the work

which was absolutely required to enable me to get through the examinations that must be passed before I

could become a doctor. I attended the public lectures, but I no longer paid any attention to the professors,

who, in my opinion, were a set of dotards. I had already broken my idolsI became a Parisian.

"To be brief, I led the aimless drifting life of a young, provincial thrown into the heart of a great city; still

retaining some good and true feeling, still clinging more or less to the observance of certain rules of conduct,

still fighting in vain against the debasing influence of evil examples, though I offered but a feeble, half

hearted resistance, for the enemy had accomplices within me. Yes, sir, my face is not misleading; past storms

have plainly left their traces there. Yet, since I had drunk so deeply of the pure fountain of religion in my

early youth, I was haunted in the depths of my soul, through all my wanderings, by an ideal of moral

perfection which could not fail one day to bring me back to God by the paths of weariness and remorse. Is not

he who feels the pleasures of earth most keenly, sure to be attracted, soon or late, by the fruits of heaven?

"At first I went through the experience, more or less vivid, that always comes with youththe countless

moments of exultation, the unnumbered transports of despair. Sometimes I took my vehement energy of

feeling for a resolute will, and overestimated my powers; sometimes, at the mere sight of some trifling

obstacle with which I was about to come into collision, I was far more cast down than I ought to have been.

Then I would devise vast plans, would dream of glory, and betake myself to work; but a pleasure party would

divert me from the noble projects based on so infirm a purpose. Vague recollections of these great abortive

schemes of mine left a deceptive glow in my soul and fostered my belief in myself, without giving me the

energy to produce. In my indolent selfsufficiency I was in a very fair way to become a fool, for what is a

fool but a man who fails to justify the excellent opinion which he has formed of himself? My energy was

directed towards no definite aims; I wished for the flowers of life without the toil of cultivating them. I had

no idea of the obstacles, so I imagined that everything was easy; luck, I thought, accounted for success in

science and in business, and genius was charlatanism. I took it for granted that I should be a great man,

because there was the power of becoming one within me; so I discounted all my future glory, without giving

a thought to the patience required for the conception of a great work, nor of the execution, in the course of

"The sources of my amusements were soon exhausted. The charm of the theatre does not last for very long;

and, for a poor student, Paris shortly became an empty wilderness. They were dull and uninteresting people

that I met with in the circle of the family with whom I lived; but these, and an old man who had now lost

"So, like every young man who takes a dislike to the career marked out for him, I rambled about the streets

for whole days together; I strolled along the quays, through the museums and public gardens, making no

attempt to arrive at a clear understanding of my position, and without a single definite idea in my head. The

burden of unemployed energies is more felt at that age than at any other; there is such an abundance of

vitality running to waste, so much activity without result. I had no idea of the power that a resolute will puts

into the hands of a man in his youth; for when he has ideas and puts his whole heart and soul into the work of

carrying them out, his strength is yet further increased by the undaunted courage of youthful convictions.

"Childhood in its simplicity knows nothing of the perils of life; youth sees both its vastness and its

difficulties, and at the prospect the courage of youth sometimes flags. We are still serving our apprenticeship

to life; we are new to the business, a kind of faint heartedness overpowers us, and leaves us in an almost

dazed condition of mind. We feel that we are helpless aliens in a strange country. At all ages we shrink back

involuntarily from the unknown. And a young man is very much like the soldier who will walk up to the

cannon's mouth, and is put to flight by a ghost. He hesitates among the maxims of the world. The rules of

attack and of selfdefence are alike unknown to him; he can neither give nor take; he is attracted by women,

and stands in awe of them; his very good qualities tell against him, he is all generosity and modesty, and

completely innocent of mercenary designs. Pleasure and not interest is his object when he tells a lie; and

among many dubious courses, the conscience, with which as yet he has not juggled, points out to him the

"There are men whose lives are destined to be shaped by the impulses of their hearts, rather than by any

reasoning process that takes place in their heads, and such natures as these will remain for a long while in the

position that I have described. This was my own case. I became the plaything of two contending impulses;

the desires of youth were always held in check by a fainthearted sentimentality. Life in Paris is a cruel

ordeal for impressionable natures, the great inequalities of fortune or of position inflame their souls and stir

up bitter feelings. In that world of magnificence and pettiness envy is more apt to be a dagger than a spur.

You are bound either to fall a victim or to become a partisan in this incessant strife of ambitions, desires, and

hatreds, in the midst of which you are placed; and by slow degrees the picture of vice triumphant and virtue

made ridiculous produces its effect on a young man, and he wavers; life in Paris soon rubs the bloom from

conscience, the infernal work of demoralization has begun, and is soon accomplished. The first of pleasures,

that which at the outset comprehends all the others, is set about with such perils that it is impossible not to

reflect upon the least actions which it provokes, impossible not to calculate all its consequences. These

calculations lead to selfishness. If some poor student, carried away by an impassioned enthusiasm, is fain to

rise above selfish considerations, the suspicious attitude of those about him makes him pause and doubt; it is

so hard not to share their mistrust, so difficult not to be on his guard against his own generous thoughts. His

heart is seared and contracted by this struggle, the current of life sets toward the brain, and the callousness of

the Parisian is the resultthe condition of things in which schemes for power and wealth are concealed by

the most charming frivolity, and lurk beneath the sentimental transports that take the place of enthusiasm.

The simplestnatured woman in Paris always keeps a clear head even in the intoxication of happiness.

"This atmosphere was bound to affect my opinions and my conduct. The errors that have poisoned my life

would have lain lightly on many a conscience, but we in the South have a religious faith that leads us to

believe in a future life, and in the truths set forth by the Catholic Church. These beliefs give depth and gravity

"The army were masters of society at the time when I was studying medicine. In order to shine in women's

eyes, one had to be a colonel at the very least. A poor student counted for absolutely nothing. Goaded by the

strength of my desires, and finding no outlet for them; hampered at every step and in every wish by the want

of money; looking on study and fame as too slow a means of arriving at the pleasures that tempted me; drawn

one way by my inward scruples, and another by evil examples; meeting with every facility for low

dissipation, and finding nothing but hindrances barring the way to good society, I passed my days in

wretchedness, overwhelmed by a surging tumult of desires, and by indolence of the most deadly kind, utterly

"The catastrophe which at length put an end to this crisis was commonplace enough. The thought of troubling

the peace of a household has always been repugnant to me; and not only so, I could not dissemble my

feelings, the instinct of sincerity was too strong in me; I should have found it a physical impossibility to lead

a life of glaring falsity. There is for me but little attraction in pleasures that must be snatched. I wish for full

consciousness of my happiness. I led a life of solitude, for which there seemed to be no remedy; for I shrank

from openly vicious courses, and the many efforts that I made to enter society were all in vain. There I might

have met with some woman who would have undertaken the task of teaching me the perils of every path, who

would have formed my manners, counseled me without wounding my vanity, and introduced me everywhere

where I was likely to make friends who would be useful to me in my future career. In my despair, an intrigue

of the most dangerous kind would perhaps have had its attractions for me; but even peril was out of my reach.

My inexperience sent me back again to my solitude, where I dwelt face to face with my thwarted desires.

"At last I formed a connection, at first a secret one, with a girl, whom I persuaded, half against her will, to

share my life. Her people were worthy folk, who had but small means. It was not very long before she left her

simple sheltered life, and fearlessly intrusted me with a future that virtue would have made happy and fair;

thinking, no doubt, that my narrow income was the surest guarantee of my faithfulness to her. From that

moment the tempest that had raged within me ceased, and happiness lulled my wild desires and ambitions to

sleep. Such happiness is only possible for a young man who is ignorant of the world, who knows nothing as

yet of its accepted codes nor of the strength of prejudice; but while it lasts, his happiness is as all absorbing

as a child's. Is not first love like a return of childhood across the intervening years of anxiety and toil?

"There are men who learn life at a glance, who see it for what it is at once, who learn experience from the

mistakes of others, who apply the current maxims of worldly wisdom to their own case with signal success,

and make unerring forecasts at all times. Wise in their generation are such cool heads as these! But there is

also a luckless race endowed with the impressionable, keenlysensitive temperament of the poet; these are

the natures that fall into error, and to this latter class I belonged. There was no great depth in the feeling that

first drew me towards this poor girl; I followed my instinct rather than my heart when I sacrificed her to

myself, and I found no lack of excellent reasons wherewith to persuade myself that there was no harm

whatever in what I had done. And as for hershe was devotion itself, a noble soul with a clear, keen

intelligence and a heart of gold. She never counseled me other than wisely. Her love put fresh heart into me

from the first; she foretold a splendid future of success and fortune for me, and gently constrained me to take

up my studies again by her belief in me. In these days there is scarcely a branch of science that has no bearing

upon medicine; it is a difficult task to achieve distinction, but the reward is great, for in Paris fame always

means fortune. The unselfish girl devoted herself to me, shared in every interest, even the slightest, of my

life, and managed so carefully and wisely that we lived in comfort on my narrow income. I had more money

to spare, now that there were two of us, than I had ever had while I lived by myself. Those were my happiest

days. I worked with enthusiasm, I had a definite aim before me, I had found the encouragement I needed.

Everything I did or thought I carried to her, who had not only found the way to gain my love, but above and

beyond this had filled me with sincere respect for her by the modest discretion which she displayed in a

position where discretion and modesty seemed wellnigh impossible. But one day was like another, sir; and it

is only after our hears have passed through all the storms appointed for us that we know the value of a

monotonous happiness, and learn that life holds nothing more sweet for us than this; a calm happiness in

which the fatigue of existence is felt no longer, and the inmost thoughts of either find response in the other's

"My former dreams assailed me again. They were my own vehement longings for the pleasures of wealth that

awoke, though it was in love's name that I now asked for them. In the evenings I grew abstracted and moody,

rapt in imaginings of the pleasures I could enjoy if I were rich, and thoughtlessly gave expression to my

desires in answer to a tender questioning voice. I must have drawn a painful sigh from her who had devoted

herself to my happiness; for she, sweet soul, felt nothing more cruelly than the thought that I wished for

something that she could not give me immediately. Oh! sir, a woman's devotion is sublime!"

There was a sharp distress in the doctor's exclamation which seemed prompted by some recollection of his

"Well, sir," Benassis resumed, "something happened which should have concluded the marriage thus begun;

but instead of that it put an end to it, and was the cause of all my misfortunes. My father died and left me a

large fortune. The necessary business arrangements demanded my presence in Languedoc for several months,

and I went thither alone. At last I had regained my freedom! Even the mildest yoke is galling to youth; we do

not see its necessity any more than we see the need to work, until we have had some experience of life. I

came and went without giving an account of my actions to any one; there was no need to do so now unless I

wished, and I relished liberty with all the keen capacity for enjoyment that we have in Languedoc. I did not

absolutely forget the ties that bound me; but I was so absorbed in other matters of interest, that my mind was

distracted from them, and little by little the recollection of them faded away. Letters full of heartfelt

tenderness reached me; but at twoandtwenty a young man imagines that all women are alike tender; he

does not know love from a passing infatuation; all things are confused in the sensations of pleasure which

seem at first to comprise everything. It was only later, when I came to a clearer knowledge of men and of

things as they are, that I could estimate those noble letters at their just worth. No trace of selfishness was

mingled with the feeling expressed in them; there was nothing but gladness on my account for my change of

fortune, and regret on her own; it never occurred to her that I could change towards her, for she felt that she

herself was incapable of change. But even then I had given myself up to ambitious dreams; I thought of

drinking deeply of all the delights that wealth could give, of becoming a person of consequence, of making a

brilliant marriage. So I read the letters, and contented myself with saying, 'She is very fond of me,' with the

indifference of a coxcomb. Even then I was perplexed as to how to extricate myself from this entanglement; I

was ashamed of it, and this fact as well as my perplexity led me to be cruel. We begin by wounding the

victim, and then we kill it, that the sight of our cruelty may no longer put us to the blush. Late reflections

upon those days of error have unveiled for me many a dark depth in the human heart. Yes, believe me, those

who best have fathomed the good and evil in human nature have honestly examined themselves in the first

instance. Conscience is the startingpoint of our investigations; we proceed from ourselves to others, never

"When I returned to Paris I took up my abode in a large house which, in pursuance with my orders, had been

taken for me, and the one person interested in my return and change of address was not informed of it. I

wished to cut a figure among young men of fashion. I waited a few days to taste the first delights of wealth;

and when, flushed with the excitement of my new position, I felt that I could trust myself to do so, I went to

see the poor girl whom I meant to cast off. With a woman's quickness she saw what was passing in my mind,

and hid her tears from me. She could not but have despised me; but it was her nature to be gentle and kindly,

and she never showed her scorn. Her forbearance was a cruel punishment. An unresisting victim is not a

pleasant thing; whether the murder is done decorously in the drawing room, or brutally on the highway,

there should be a struggle to give some plausible excuse for taking a life. I renewed my visits very

affectionately at first, making efforts to be gracious, if not tender; by slow degrees I became politely civil;

and one day, by a sort of tacit agreement between us, she allowed me to treat her as a stranger, and I thought

that I had done all that could be expected of me. Nevertheless I abandoned myself to my new life with almost

frenzied eagerness, and sought to drown in gaiety any vague lingering remorse that I felt. A man who has lost

his selfrespect cannot endure his own society, so I led the dissipated life that wealthy young men lead in

Paris. Owing to a good education and an excellent memory, I seemed cleverer than I really was, forthwith I

looked down upon other people; and those who, for their own purposes, wished to prove to me that I was

possessed of extraordinary abilities, found me quite convinced on that head. Praise is the most insidious of all

methods of treachery known to the world; and this is nowhere better understood than in Paris, where

intriguing schemers know how to stifle every kind of talent at its birth by heaping laurels on its cradle. So I

did nothing worthy of my reputation; I reaped no advantages from the golden opinions entertained of me, and

made no acquaintances likely to be useful in my future career. I wasted my energies in numberless frivolous

pursuits, and in the shortlived love intrigues that are the disgrace of salons in Paris, where every one seeks

for love, grows blase in the pursuit, falls into the libertinism sanctioned by polite society, and ends by feeling

as much astonished at real passion as the world is over a heroic action. I did as others did. Often I dealt to

generous and candid souls the deadly wound from which I myself was slowly perishing. Yet though

deceptive appearances might lead others to misjudge me, I could never overcome my scrupulous delicacy.

Many times I have been duped, and should have blushed for myself had it been otherwise; I secretly prided

myself on acting in good faith, although this lowered me in the eyes of others. As a matter of fact the world

has a considerable respect for cleverness, whatever form it takes, and success justifies everything. So the

world was pleased to attribute to me all the good qualities and evil propensities, all the victories and defeats

which had never been mine; credited me with conquests of which I knew nothing, and sat in judgment upon

actions of which I had never been guilty. I scorned to contradict the slanders, and selflove led me to regard

the more flattering rumors with a certain complacence. Outwardly my existence was pleasant enough, but in

reality I was miserable. If it had not been for the tempest of misfortunes that very soon burst over my head,

all good impulses must have perished, and evil would have triumphed in the struggle that went on within me;

enervating selfindulgence would have destroyed the body, as the detestable habits of egotism exhausted the

"No matter how large his fortune may be, a man is sure to find some one else in Paris possessed of yet greater

wealth, whom he must needs aim at surpassing. In this unequal conquest I was vanquished at the end of four

years; and, like many another harebrained youngster, I was obliged to sell part of my property and to

mortgage the remainder to satisfy my creditors. Then a terrible blow suddenly struck me down.

"Two years had passed since I had last seen the woman whom I had deserted. The turn that my affairs were

taking would no doubt have brought me back to her once more; but one evening, in the midst of a gay circle

of acquaintances, I received a note written in a trembling hand. It only contained these few words:

" 'I have only a very little while to live, and I should like to see you, my friend, so that I may know what will

become of my child whether henceforward he will be yours; and also to soften the regret that some day

"The letter made me shudder. It was a revelation of secret anguish in the past, while it contained a whole

unknown future. I set out on foot, I would not wait for my carriage, I went across Paris, goaded by remorse,

and gnawed by a dreadful fear that was confirmed by the first sight of my victim. In the extreme neatness and

cleanliness beneath which she had striven to hid her poverty I read all the terrible sufferings of her life; she

was nobly reticent about them in her effort to spare my feelings, and only alluded to them after I had

solemnly promised to adopt our child. She died, sir, in spite of all the care lavished upon her, and all that

science could suggest was done for her in vain. The care and devotion that had come too late only served to

"To support her little one she had worked incessantly with her needle. Love for her child had given her

strength to endure her life of hardship; but it had not enabled her to bear my desertion, the keenest of all her

griefs. Many times she had thought of trying to see me, but her woman's pride had always prevented this.

While I squandered floods of gold upon my caprices, no memory of the past had ever bidden a single drop to

fall in her home to help mother and child to live; but she had been content to weep, and had not cursed me;

she had looked upon her evil fortune as the natural punishment of her error. With the aid of a good priest of

Saint Sulpice, whose kindly voice had restored peace to her soul, she had sought for hope in the shadow of

the altar, whither she had gone to dry her tears. The bitter flood that I had poured into her heart gradually

abated; and one day, when she heard her child say 'Father,' a word that she had not taught him, she forgave

my crime. But sorrow and weeping and days and nights of ceaseless toil injured her health. Religion had

brought its consolations and the courage to bear the ills of life, but all too late. She fell ill of a heart complaint

brought on by grief and by the strain of expectation, for she always thought that I should return, and her

hopes always sprang up afresh after every disappointment. Her health grew worse; and at last, as she was

lying on her deathbed, she wrote those few lines, containing no word of reproach, prompted by religion, and

by a belief in the goodness in my nature. She knew, she said, that I was blinded rather than bent on doing

wrong. She even accused herself of carrying her womanly pride too far. 'If I had only written sooner,' she

said, 'perhaps there might have been time for a marriage which would have legitimated our child.'

"It was only on her child's account that she wished for the solemnization of the ties that bound us, nor would

she have sought for this if she had not felt that death was at hand to unloose them. But it was too late; even

then she had only a few hours to live. By her bedside, where I learned to know the worth of a devoted heart,

my nature underwent a final change. I was still at an age when tears are shed. During those last days, while

the precious life yet lingered, my tears, my words, and everything I did bore witness to my heartstricken

repentance. The meanness and pettiness of the society in which I had moved, the emptiness and selfishness of

women of fashion, had taught me to wish for and to seek an elect soul, and now I had found ittoo late. I

was weary of lying words and of masked faces; counterfeit passion had set me dreaming; I had called on

love; and now I beheld love lying before me, slain by my own hands, and had no power to keep it beside me,

"The experience of four years had taught me to know my own real character. My temperament, the nature of

my imagination, my religious principles, which had not been eradicated, but had rather lain dormant; my turn

of mind, my heart that only now began to make itself felteverything within me led me to resolve to fill my

life with the pleasures of affection, to replace a lawless love by family happiness the truest happiness on

earth. Visions of close and dear companionship appealed to me but the more strongly for my wanderings in

the wilderness, my grasping at pleasures unennobled by thought or feeling. So though the revolution within

me was rapidly effected, it was permanent. With my southern temperament, warped by the life I led in Paris, I

should certainly have come to look without pity on an unhappy girl betrayed by her lover; I should have

laughed at the story if it had been told me by some wag in merry company (for with us in France a clever bon

mot dispels all feelings of horror at a crime), but all sophistries were silenced in the presence of this angelic

creature, against whom I could bring no least word of reproach. There stood her coffin, and my child, who

"She died. She died happy when she saw that I loved her, and that this new love was due neither to pity nor to

the ties that bound us together. Never shall I forget her last hours. Love had been won back, her mind was at

rest about her child, and happiness triumphed over suffering. The comfort and luxury about her, the

merriment of her child, who looked prettier still in the dainty garb that had replaced his babyclothes, were

pledges of a happy future for the little one, in whom she saw her own life renewed.

"The curate of Saint Sulpice witnessed my terrible distress. His words wellnigh made me despair. He did

not attempt to offer conventional consolation, and put the gravity of my responsibilities unsparingly before

me, but I had no need of a spur. The conscience within me spoke loudly enough already. A woman had

placed a generous confidence in me. I had lied to her from the first; I had told her that I loved her, and then I

had cast her off; I had brought all this sorrow upon an unhappy girl who had braved the opinion of the world

for me, and who therefore should have been sacred in my eyes. She had died forgiving me. Her implicit trust

in the word of a man who had once before broken his promise to her effaced the memory of all her pain and

grief, and she slept in peace. Agatha, who had given me her girlish faith, had found in her heart another faith

to give methe faith of a mother. Oh! sir, the child, HER child! God alone can know all that he was to me!

The dear little one was like his mother; he had her winning grace in his little ways, his talk and ideas; but for

me, my child was not only a child, but something more; was he not the token of my forgiveness, my honor?

"He should have more than a father's affection. He should be loved as his mother would have loved him. My

remorse might change to happiness if I could only make him feel that his mother's arms were still about him.

I clung to him with all the force of human love and the hope of heaven, with all the tenderness in my heart

that God has given to mothers. The sound of the child's voice made me tremble. I used to watch him while he

slept with a sense of gladness that was always new, albeit a tear sometimes fell on his forehead; I taught him

to come to say his prayer upon my bed as soon as he awoke. How sweet and touching were the simple words

of the Pater noster in the innocent childish mouth! Ah! and at times how terrible! 'OUR FATHER WHICH

ART IN HEAVEN,' he began one morning; then he paused'Why is it not OUR MOTHER?' he asked, and

"From the very first I had sown the seeds of future misfortune in the life of the son whom I idolized.

Although the law has almost countenanced errors of youth by conceding to tardy regret a legal status to

natural children, the insurmountable prejudices of society bring a strong force to the support of the reluctance

of the law. All serious reflection on my part as to the foundations and mechanism of society, on the duties of

man, and vital questions of morality date from this period of my life. Genius comprehends at first sight the

connection between a man's principles and the fate of the society of which he forms a part; devout souls are

inspired by religion with the sentiments necessary for their happiness; but vehement and impulsive natures

can only be schooled by repentance. With repentance came new light for me; and I, who only lived for my

"I determined from the first that he should have all possible means of success within himself, and that he

should be thoroughly prepared to take the high position for which I destined him. He learned English,

German, Italian, and Spanish in succession; and, that he might speak these languages correctly, tutors

belonging to each of these various nationalities were successively placed about him from his earliest

childhood. His aptitude delighted me. I took advantage of it to give him lessons in the guise of play. I wished

to keep his mind free from fallacies, and strove before all things to accustom him from childhood to exert his

intellectual powers, to make a rapid and accurate general survey of a matter, and then, by a careful study of

every least particular, to master his subject in detail. Lastly, I taught him to submit to discipline without

murmuring. I never allowed an impure or improper word to be spoken in his hearing. I was careful that all his

surroundings, and the men with whom he came in contact, should conduce to one endto ennoble his nature,

to set lofty ideals before him, to give him a love of truth and a horror of lies, to make him simple and natural

in manner, as in word and deed. His natural aptitude had made his other studies easy to him, and his

imagination made him quick to grasp these lessons that lay outside the province of the schoolroom. What a

fair flower to tend! How great are the joys that mothers know! In those days I began to understand how his

own mother had been able to live and to bear her sorrow. This, sir, was the great event of my life; and now I

"It is the most ordinary commonplace story imaginable; but to me it meant the most terrible pain. For some

years I had thought of nothing but my child, and how to make a man of him; then, when my son was growing

up and about to leave me, I grew afraid of my loneliness. Love was a necessity of my existence; this need for

affection had never been satisfied, and only grew stronger with years. I was in every way capable of a real

attachment; I had been tried and proved. I knew all that a steadfast love means, the love that delights to find a

pleasure in selfsacrifice; in everything I did my first thought would always be for the woman I loved. In

imagination I was fain to dwell on the serene heights far above doubt and uncertainty, where love so fills two

beings that happiness flows quietly and evenly into their life, their looks, and words. Such love is to a life

what religion is to the soul; a vital force, a power that enlightens and upholds. I understood the love of

husband and wife in nowise as most people do; for me its full beauty and magnificence began precisely at the

point where love perishes in many a household. I deeply felt the moral grandeur of a life so closely shared by

two souls that the trivialities of everyday existence should be powerless against such lasting love as theirs.

But where will the hearts be found whose beats are so nearly isochronous (let the scientific term pass) that

they may attain to this beatific union? If they exist, nature and chance have set them far apart, so that they

cannot come together; they find each other too late, or death comes too soon to separate them. There must be

some good reasons for these dispensations of fate, but I have never sought to discover them. I cannot make a

study of my wound, because I suffer too much from it. Perhaps perfect happiness is a monster which our

species should not perpetuate. There were other causes for my fervent desire for such a marriage as this. I had

no friends, the world for me was a desert. There is something in me that repels friendship. More than one

person has sought me out, but, in spite of efforts on my part, it came to nothing. With many men I have been

careful to show no sign of something that is called 'superiority;' I have adapted my mind to theirs; I have

placed myself at their point of view, joined in their laughter, and overlooked their defects; any fame I might

have gained, I would have bartered for a little kindly affection. They parted from me without regret. If you

seek for real feeling in Paris, snares await you everywhere, and the end is sorrow. Wherever I set my foot, the

ground round about me seemed to burn. My readiness to acquiesce was considered weakness though if I

unsheathed my talons, like a man conscious that he may some day wield the thunderbolts of power, I was

thought illnatured; to others, the delightful laughter that ceases with youth, and in which in later years we

are almost ashamed to indulge, seemed absurd, and they amused themselves at my expense. People may be

bored nowadays, but none the less they expect you to treat every trivial topic with befitting seriousness.

"A hateful era! You must bow down before mediocrity, frigidly polite mediocrity which you despiseand

obey. On more mature reflection, I have discovered the reasons of these glaring inconsistencies. Mediocrity is

never out of fashion, it is the daily wear of society; genius and eccentricity are ornaments that are locked

away and only brought out on certain days. Everything that ventures forth beyond the protection of the

"So, in the midst of Paris, I led a solitary life. I had given up everything to society, but it had given me

nothing in return; and my child was not enough to satisfy my heart, because I was not a woman. My life

seemed to be growing cold within me; I was bending under a load of secret misery when I met the woman

who was to make me know the might of love, the reverence of an acknowledged love, love with its teeming

"I had renewed my acquaintance with that old friend of my father's who had once taken charge of my affairs.

It was in his house that I first met her whom I must love as long as life shall last. The longer we live, sir, the

more clearly we see the enormous influence of ideas upon the events of life. Prejudices, worthy of all respect,

and bred by noble religious ideas, occasioned my misfortunes. This young girl belonged to an exceeding

devout family, whose views of Catholicism were due to the spirit of a sect improperly styled Jansenists,

"Jansenius, Bishop of Ypres, once wrote a book which was believed to contain propositions at variance with

the doctrines of the Holy See. When examined at a later date, there appeared to be nothing heretical in the

wording of the text, some authors even went so far as to deny that the heretical propositions had any real

existence. However it was, these insignificant disputes gave rise to two parties in the Gallican Churchthe

Jansenists and the Jesuits. Great men were found in either camp, and a struggle began between two powerful

bodies. The Jansenists affected an excessive purity of morals and of doctrine, and accused the Jesuits of

preaching a relaxed morality. The Jansenists, in fact, were Catholic Puritans, if two contradictory terms can

be combined. During the Revolution, the Concordat occasioned an unimportant schism, a little segregation of

ultracatholics who refused to recognize the Bishops appointed by the authorities with the consent of the

Pope. This little body of the faithful was called the Little Church; and those within its fold, like the

Jansenists, led the strictly ordered lives that appear to be a first necessity of existence in all proscribed and

persecuted sects. Many Jansenist families had joined the Little Church. The family to which this young girl

belonged had embraced the equally rigid doctrines of both these Puritanisms, tenets which impart a stern

dignity to the character and mien of those who hold them. It is the nature of positive doctrine to exaggerate

the importance of the most ordinary actions of life by connecting them with ideas of a future existence. This

is the source of a splendid and delicate purity of heart, a respect for others and for self, of an indescribably

keen sense of right and wrong, a wide charity, together with a justice so stern that it might well be called

inexorable, and lastly, a perfect hatred of lies and of all the vices comprised by falsehood.

"I can recall no more delightful moments than those of our first meeting at my old friend's house. I beheld for

the first time this shy young girl with her sincere nature, her habits of ready obedience. All the virtues

peculiar to the sect to which she belonged shone in her, but she seemed to be unconscious of her merit. There

was a grace, which no austerity could diminish, about every movement of her lissome, slender form; her quiet

brow, the delicate grave outlines of her face, and her clearly cut features indicated noble birth; her expression

was gentle and proud; her thick hair had been simply braided, the coronet of plaits about her head served, all

unknown to her, as an adornment. Captain, she was for me the ideal type that is always made real for us in the

woman with whom we fall in love; for when we love, is it not because we recognize beauty that we have

dreamed of, the beauty that has existed in idea for us is realized? When I spoke to her, she answered simply,

without shyness or eagerness; she did not know the pleasure it was to me to see her, to hear the musical

sounds of her voice. All these angels are revealed to our hearts by the same signs; by the sweetness of their

tongues, the tenderness in their eyes, by their fair, pale faces, and their gracious ways. All these things are so

blended and mingled that we feel the charm of their presence, yet cannot tell in what that charm consists, and

every movement is an expression of a divine soul within. I loved passionately. This newly awakened love

satisfied all my restless longings, all my ambitious dreams. She was beautiful, wealthy, and nobly born; she

had been carefully brought up; she had all the qualifications which the world positively demands of a woman

placed in the high position which I desired to reach; she had been well educated, she expressed herself with a

sprightly facility at once rare and common in France; where the most prettily worded phrases of many women

are emptiness itself, while her bright talk was full of sense. Above all, she had a deep consciousness of her

own dignity which made others respect her; I know of no more excellent thing in a wife. I must stop, captain;

no one can describe the woman he loves save very imperfectly, preexistent mysteries which defy analysis lie

"I very soon took my old friend into my confidence. He introduced me to her family, and gave me the

countenance of his honorable character. I was received at first with the frigid politeness characteristic of those

exclusive people who never forsake those whom they have once admitted to their friendship. As time went on

they welcomed me almost as one of the family; this mark of their esteem was won by my behavior in the

matter. In spite of my passionate love, I did nothing that could lower me in my own eyes; I did not cringe, I

paid no court to those upon whom my fate depended, before all things I showed myself a man, and not other

than I really was. When I was well known to them, my old friend, who was as desirous as I myself that my

life of melancholy loneliness should come to an end, spoke of my hopes and met with a favorable reception;

but with the diplomatic shrewdness which is almost a second nature with men of the world, he was silent with

regard to an error of my youth, as he termed it. He was anxious to bring about a 'satisfactory marriage' for me,

an expression that makes of so solemn an act a business transaction in which husband and wife endeavor to

cheat each other. In his opinion, the existence of my child would excite a moral repugnance, in comparison

with which the question of money would be as nought, and the whole affair would be broken off at once, and

" 'It is a matter which will be very easily settled between you and your wife; it will be easy to obtain her full

"In short, he tried to silence my scruples, and all the insidious arguments that worldly wisdom could suggest

were brought to bear upon me to this end. I will confess to you, sir, that in spite of my promise, my first

impulse was to act straightforwardly and to make everything known to the head of the family, but the thought

of his uncompromising sternness made me pause, and the probable consequences of the confession appalled

me; my courage failed, I temporized with my conscience, I determined to wait until I was sufficiently sure of

the affection of the girl I hoped to win, before hazarding my happiness by the terrible confession. My

resolution to acknowledge everything openly, at a convenient season, vindicated the sophistries of worldly

wisdom and the sagacity of my old friend. So the young girl's parents received me as their future soninlaw

"An infinite discretion is the distinguishing quality of pious families; they are reticent about everything, even

about matters of no importance. You would not believe, sir, how this sedate gravity and reserve, pervading

every least action, deepens the current of feeling and thought. Everything in that house was done with some

useful end in view; the women spent their leisure time in making garments for the poor; their conversation

was never frivolous; laughter was not banished, but there was a kindly simplicity about their merriment.

Their talk had none of the piquancy which scandal and illnatured gossip give to the conversation of society;

only the father and uncle read the newspapers, even the most harmless journal contains references to crimes

or to public evils, and she whom I hoped to win had never cast her eyes over their sheets. How strange it was,

at first, to listen to these orthodox people! But in a little while, the pure atmosphere left the same impression

upon the soul that subdued colors give to the eyes, a sense of serene repose and of tranquil peace.

"To a superficial observer, their life would have seemed terribly monotonous. There was something chilling

about the appearance of the interior of the house. Day after day I used to see everything, even the furniture in

constant use, always standing in the same place, and this uniform tidiness pervaded the smallest details. Yet

there was something very attractive about their household ways. I had been used to the pleasures of variety,

to the luxury and stir of life in Paris; it was only when I had overcome my first repugnance that I saw the

advantages of this existence; how it lent itself to continuity of thought and to involuntary meditation; how a

life in which the heart has undisturbed sway seems to widen and grow vast as the sea. It is like the life of the

cloister, where the outward surroundings never vary, and thought is thus compelled to detach itself from

"For a man as sincerely in love as I was, the silence and simplicity of the life, the almost conventual

regularity with which the same things are done daily at the same hours, only deepened and strengthened love.

In that profound calm the interest attaching to the least action, word, or gesture became immense. I learned to

know that, in the interchange of glances and in answering smiles, there lies an eloquence and a variety of

language far beyond the possibilities of the most magnificent of spoken phrases; that when the expression of

the feelings is spontaneous and unforced, there is no idea, no joy nor sorrow that cannot thus be

communicated by hearts that understand each other. How many times I have tried to set forth my soul in my

eyes or on my lips, compelled at once to speak and to be silent concerning my passion; for the young girl

who, in my presence, was always serene and unconscious had not been informed of the reason of my constant

visits; her parents were determined that the most important decision of her life should rest entirely with her.

But does not the presence of our beloved satisfy the utmost desire of passionate love? In that presence do we

not know the happiness of the Christian who stands before God? If for me more than for any other it was

torture to have no right to give expression to the impulses of my heart, to force back into its depths the

burning words that treacherously wrong the yet more ardent emotions which strive to find an utterance in

speech; I found, nevertheless, in the merest trifles a channel through which my passionate love poured itself

forth but the more vehemently for this constraint, till every least occurrence came to have an excessive

"I beheld her, not for brief moments, but for whole hours. There were pauses between my question and her

answer, and long musings, when, with the tones of her voice lingering in my ears, I sought to divine from

them the secret of her inmost thoughts; perhaps her fingers would tremble as I gave her some object of which

she had been in search, or I would devise pretexts to lightly touch her dress or her hair, to take her hand in

mine, to compel her to speak more than she wished; all these nothings were great events for me. Eyes and

voice and gestures were freighted with mysterious messages of love in hours of ecstasy like these, and this

was the only language permitted me by the quiet maidenly reserve of the young girl before me. Her manner

towards me underwent no change; with me she was always as a sister with a brother; yet, as my passion grew,

and the contrast between her glances and mine, her words and my utterance, became more striking, I felt at

last that this timid silence was the only means by which she could express her feelings. Was she not always in

the salon whenever I came? Did she not stay there until my visit, expected and perhaps foreseen, was over?

Did not this mute tryst betray the secret of her innocent soul? Nay, whilst I spoke, did she not listen with a

"At last, no doubt, her parents grew impatient with this artless behavior and sober lovemaking. I was almost

as timid as their daughter, and perhaps on this account found favor in their eyes. They regarded me as a man

worthy of their esteem. My old friend was taken into their confidence; both father and mother spoke of me in

the most flattering terms; I had become their adopted son, and more especially they singled out my moral

principles for praise. In truth, I had found my youth again; among these pure and religious surroundings early

"The summer was drawing to a close. Affairs of some importance had detained the family in Paris longer

than their wont; but when September came, and they were able to leave town at last for an estate in

Auvergne, her father entreated me to spend a couple of months with them in an old chateau hidden away

among the mountains of Cantal. I paused before accepting this friendly invitation. My hesitation brought me

the sweetest and most delightful unconscious confession, a revelation of the mysteries of a girlish heart.

Evelina . . . DIEU!" exclaimed Benassis; and he said no more for a time, wrapped in his own thoughts.

"Pardon me, Captain Bluteau," he resumed, after a long pause. "For twelve years I have not uttered the name

that is always hovering in my thoughts, that a voice calls in my hearing even when I sleep. Evelina (since I

have named her) raised her head with a strange quickness and abruptness, for about all her movements there

was an instinctive grace and gentleness, and looked at me. There was no pride in her face, but rather a wistful

anxiety. Then her color rose, and her eyelids fell; it gave me an indescribable pleasure never felt before that

they should fall so slowly; I could only stammer out my reply in a faltering voice. The emotion of my own

heart made swift answer to hers. She thanked me by a happy look, and I almost thought that there were tears

in her eyes. In that moment we had told each other everything. So I went into the country with her family.

Since the day when our hearts had understood each other, nothing seemed to be as it had been before;

"Love, indeed, is always the same, though our imagination determines the shape that love must assume; like

and unlike, therefore, is love in every soul in which he dwells, and passion becomes a unique work in which

the soul expresses its sympathies. In the old trite saying that love is a projection of selfan egoisme a

deuxlies a profound meaning known only to philosopher and poet; for it is ourself in truth that we love in

that other. Yet, though love manifests itself in such different ways that no pair of lovers since the world began

is like any other pair before or since, they all express themselves after the same fashion, and the same words

are on the lips of every girl, even of the most innocent, conventbred maidenthe only difference lies in the

degree of imaginative charm in their ideas. But between Evelina and other girls there was this difference, that

where another would have poured out her feelings quite naturally, Evelina regarded these innocent

confidences as a concession made to the stormy emotions which had invaded the quiet sanctuary of her

girlish soul. The constant struggle between her heart and her principles gave to the least event of her life, so

peaceful in appearance, in reality so profoundly agitated, a character of force very superior to the

exaggerations of young girls whose manners are early rendered false by the world about them. All through

the journey Evelina discovered beauty in the scenery through which we passed, and spoke of it with

admiration. When we think that we may not give expression to the happiness which is given to us by the

presence of one we love, we pour out the secret gladness that overflows our hearts upon inanimate things,

investing them with beauty in our happiness. The charm of the scenery which passed before our eyes became

in this way an interpreter between us, for in our praises of the landscape we revealed to each other the secrets

of our love. Evelina's mother sometimes took a mischievous pleasure in disconcerting her daughter.

" 'My dear child, you have been through this valley a score of times without seeming to admire it!' she

" 'No doubt it was because I was not old enough to understand beauty of this kind, mother.'

"Forgive me for dwelling on this trifle, which can have no charm for you, captain; but the simple words

brought me an indescribable joy, which had its source in the glance directed towards me as she spoke. So

some village lighted by sunrise, some ivycovered ruin which we had seen together, memories of outward

and visible things, served to deepen and strengthen the impressions of our happiness; they seemed to be

landmarks on the way through which we were passing towards a bright future that lay before us.

"We reached the chateau belonging to her family, where I spent about six weeks, the only time in my life

during which Heaven has vouchsafed complete happiness to me. I enjoyed pleasures unknown to

towndwellers all the happiness which two lovers find in living beneath the same roof, an anticipation of

the life they will spend together. To stroll through the fields, to be alone together at times if we wished it, to

look over an old watermill, to sit beneath a tree in some lovely glen among the hills, the lovers' talks, the

sweet confidences drawn forth by which each made some progress day by day in the other's heart. Ah! sir, the

outofdoor life, the beauty of earth and heaven, is a perfect accompaniment to the perfect happiness of the

soul! To mingle our careless talk with the song of the birds among the dewy leaves, to smile at each other as

we gazed on the sky, to turn our steps slowly homewards at the sound of the bell that always rings too soon,

to admire together some little detail in the landscape, to watch the fitful movements of an insect, to look

closely at a gleaming demoiselle flythe delicate creature that resembles an innocent and loving girl; in such

ways as these are not one's thoughts drawn daily a little higher? The memories of my forty days of happiness

have in a manner colored all the rest of my life, memories that are all the fairer and fill the greater space in

my thoughts because since then it has been my fate never to be understood. To this day there are scenes of no

special interest for a casual observer, but full of bitter significance for a broken heart, which recall those

"I do not know whether you noticed the effect of the sunset light on the cottage where little Jacques lives?

Everything shone so brightly in the fiery rays of the sun, and then all at once the whole landscape grew dark

and dreary. That sudden change was like the change in my own life at this time. I received from her the first,

the sole and sublime token of love that an innocent girl may give; the more secretly it is given, the closer is

the bond it forms, the sweet promise of love, a fragment of the language spoken in a fairer world than this.

Sure, therefore, of being beloved, I vowed that I would confess everything at once, that I would have no

secrets from her; I felt ashamed that I had so long delayed to tell her about the sorrows that I had brought

"Unluckily, with the morrow of this happy day a letter came from my son's tutor, the life of the child so dear

to me was in danger. I went away without confiding my secret to Evelina, merely telling her family that I was

urgently required in Paris. Her parents took alarm during my absence. They feared that there I was entangled

in some way, and wrote to Paris to make inquiries about me. It was scarcely consistent with their religious

principles; but they suspected me, and did not even give me an opportunity of clearing myself.

"One of their friends, without my knowledge, gave them the whole history of my youth, blackening my

errors, laying stress upon the existence of my child, which (said they) I intended to conceal. I wrote to my

future parents, but I received no answers to my letters; and when they came back to Paris, and I called at their

house, I was not admitted. Much alarmed, I sent to my old friend to learn the reason of this conduct on their

part, which I did not in the least understand. As soon as the good soul knew the real cause of it all, he

sacrificed himself generously, took upon himself all the blame of my reserve, and tried to exculpate me, but

all to no purpose. Questions of interest and morality were regarded so seriously by the family, their prejudices

were so firmly and deeply rooted, that they never swerved from their resolution. My despair was

overwhelming. At first I tried to deprecate their wrath, but my letters were sent back to me unopened. When

every possible means had been tried in vain; when her father and mother had plainly told my old friend (the

cause of my misfortune) that they would never consent to their daughter's marriage with a man who had upon

his conscience the death of a woman and the life of a natural son, even though Evelina herself should implore

them upon her knees; then, sir, there only remained to me one last hope, a hope as slender and fragile as the

"I ventured to think that Evelina's love would be stronger than her father's scruples, that her inflexible parents

might yield to her entreaties. Perhaps, who knows, her father had kept from her the reasons of the refusal,

which was so fatal to our love. I determined to acquaint her with all the circumstances, and to make a final

appeal to her; and in fear and trembling, in grief and tears, my first and last loveletter was written. Today I

can only dimly remember the words dictated to me by my despair; but I must have told Evelina that if she

had dealt sincerely with me she could not and ought not to love another, or how could her whole life be

anything but a lie? she must be false either to her future husband or to me. Could she refuse to the lover, who

had been so misjudged and hardly entreated, the devotion which she would have shown him as her husband,

if the marriage which had already taken place in our hearts had been outwardly solemnized? Was not this to

fall from the ideal of womanly virtue? What woman would not love to feel that the promises of the heart were

more sacred and binding than the chains forged by the law? I defended my errors; and in my appeal to the

purity of innocence, I left nothing unsaid that could touch a noble and generous nature. But as I am telling

you everything, I will look for her answer and my farewell letter," said Benassis, and he went up to his room

He returned in a few moments with a worn pocketbook; his hands trembled with emotion as he drew from it

"Here is the fatal letter," he said. "The girl who wrote those lines little knew the value that I should set upon

the scrap of paper that holds her thoughts. This is the last cry that pain wrung from me," he added, taking up a

second letter; "I will lay it before you directly. My old friend was the bearer of my letter of entreaty; he gave

it to her without her parents' knowledge, humbling his white hair to implore Evelina to read and to reply to

" 'Monsieur . . .' But lately I had been her 'beloved,' the innocent name she had found by which to express her

innocent love, and now she called me MONSIEUR! . . . That one word told me everything. But listen to the

" 'Treachery on the part of one to whom her life was to be intrusted is a bitter thing for a girl to discover; and

yet I could not but excuse you, we are so weak! Your letter touched me, but you must not write to me again,

the sight of your handwriting gives me such unbearable pain. We are parted for ever. I was carried away by

your reasoning; it extinguished all the harsh feelings that had risen up against you in my soul. I had been so

proud of your truth! But both of us have found my father's reasoning irresistible. Yes, monsieur, I ventured to

plead for you. I did for you what I have never done before, I overcame the greatest fears that I have ever

known, and acted almost against my nature. Even now I am yielding to your entreaties, and doing wrong for

your sake, in writing to you without my father's knowledge. My mother knows that I am writing to you; her

indulgence in leaving me at liberty to be alone with you for a moment has taught me the depth of her love for

me, and strengthened my determination to bow to the decree of my family, against which I had almost

rebelled. So I am writing to you, monsieur, for the first and last time. You have my full and entire forgiveness

for the troubles that you have brought into my life. Yes, you are right; a first love can never be forgotten. I am

no longer an innocent girl; and, as an honest woman, I can never marry another. What my future will be, I

know not therefore. Only you see, monsieur, that echoes of this year that you have filled will never die away

in my life. But I am in no way accusing you. . . . "I shall always be beloved!" Why did you write those

words? Can they bring peace to the troubled soul of a lonely and unhappy girl? Have you not already laid

waste my future, giving me memories which will never cease to revisit me? Henceforth I can only give

myself to God, but will He accept a broken heart? He has had some purpose to fulfil in sending these

afflictions to me; doubtless it was His will that I should turn to Him, my only refuge here below. Nothing

remains to me here upon this earth. You have all a man's ambitions wherewith to beguile your sorrows. I do

not say this as a reproach; it is a sort of religious consolation. If we both bear a grievous burden at this

moment, I think that my share of it is the heavier. He in whom I have put my trust, and of whom you can feel

no jealousy, has joined our lives together, and He puts them asunder according to His will. I have seen that

your religious beliefs were not founded upon the pure and living faith which alone enables us to bear our

woes here below. Monsieur, if God will vouchsafe to hear my fervent and ceaseless prayers, He will cause

His light to shine in your soul. Farewell, you who should have been my guide, you whom once I had the right

to call "my beloved," no one can reproach me if I pray for you still. God orders our days as it pleases Him.

Perhaps you may be the first whom He will call to himself; but if I am left alone in the world, then, monsieur,

"This letter, so full of generous sentiments, disappointed my hopes," Benassis resumed, "so that at first I

could think of nothing but my misery; afterwards I welcomed the balm which, in her forgetfulness of self, she

had tried to pour into my wounds, but in my first despair I wrote to her somewhat bitterly:

"Mademoisellethat word alone will tell you that at your bidding I renounce you. There is something

indescribably sweet in obeying one we love, who puts us to the torture. You are right. I acquiesce in my

condemnation. Once I slighted a girl's devotion; it is fitting, therefore, that my love should be rejected

today. But I little thought that my punishment was to be dealt to me by the woman at whose feet I had laid

my life. I never expected that such harshness, perhaps I should say, such rigid virtue, lurked in a heart that

seemed to be so loving and so tender. At this moment the full strength of my love is revealed to me; it has

survived the most terrible of all trials, the scorn you have shown for me by severing without regret the ties

that bound us. Farewell for ever. There still remains to me the proud humility of repentance; I will find some

sphere of life where I can expiate the errors to which you, the mediator between Heaven and me, have shown

no mercy. Perhaps God may be less inexorable. My sufferings, sufferings full of the thought of you, shall be

the penance of a heart which will never be healed, which will bleed in solitude. For a wounded

" 'No other image of love shall be engraven on my heart. Though I am not a woman, I feel as you felt that

when I said "I love you," it was a vow for life. Yes, the words then spoken in the ear of "my beloved" were

not a lie; you would have a right to scorn me if I could change. I shall never cease to worship you in my

solitude. In spite of the gulf set between us, you will still be the mainspring of all my actions, and all the

virtues are inspired by penitence and love. Though you have filled my heart with bitterness, I shall never have

bitter thoughts of you; would it not be an ill beginning of the new tasks that I have set myself if I did not

purge out all the evil leaven from my soul? Farewell, then, to the one heart that I love in the world, a heart

from which I am cast out. Never has more feeling and more tenderness been expressed in a farewell, for is it

not fraught with the life and soul of one who can never hope again, and must be henceforth as one dead? . . .

Farewell. May peace be with you, and may all the sorrow of our lot fall to me!' "

Benassis and Genestas looked at each other for a moment after reading the two letters, each full of sad

"As you see, this is only a rough copy of my last letter," said Benassis; "it is all that remains to me today of

my blighted hopes. When I had sent the letter, I fell into an indescribable state of depression. All the ties that

hold one to life were bound together in the hope of wedded happiness, which was henceforth lost to me for

ever. I had to bid farewell to the joys of a permitted and acknowledged love, to all the generous ideas that had

thronged up from the depths of my heart. The prayers of a penitent soul that thirsted for righteousness and for

all things lovely and of good report, had been rejected by these religious people. At first, the wildest

resolutions and most frantic thoughts surged through my mind, but happily for me the sight of my son

brought selfcontrol. I felt all the more strongly drawn towards him for the misfortunes of which he was the

innocent cause, and for which I had in reality only myself to blame. In him I found all my consolation.

"At the age of thirtyfour I might still hope to do my country noble service. I determined to make a name for

myself, a name so illustrious that no one should remember the stain on the birth of my son. How many noble

thoughts I owe to him! How full a life I led in those days while I was absorbed in planning out his future! I

feel stifled," cried Benassis. "All this happened eleven years ago, and yet to this day, I cannot bear to think of

The doctor was silent, and hid his face in his hands; when he was somewhat calmer he raised his head again,

"At first it seemed as if this thunderbolt had uprooted me," Benassis resumed. "It was a blow from which I

could only expect to recover after I had been transplanted into a different soil from that of the social world in

which I lived. It was not till some time afterwards that I saw the finger of God in my misfortunes, and later

still that I learned to submit to His will and to hearken to His voice. It was impossible that resignation should

come to me all at once. My impetuous and fiery nature broke out in a final storm of rebellion.

"It was long before I brought myself to take the only step befitting a Catholic; indeed, my thoughts ran on

suicide. This succession of misfortunes had contributed to develop melancholy feelings in me, and I

deliberately determined to take my own life. It seemed to me that it was permissible to take leave of life when

life was ebbing fast. There was nothing unnatural, I thought about suicide. The ravages of mental distress

affected the soul of man in the same way that acute physical anguish affected the body; and an intelligent

being, suffering from a moral malady, had surely a right to destroy himself, a right he shares with the sheep,

that, fallen a victim to the 'staggers,' beats its head against a tree. Were the soul's diseases in truth more

readily cured than those of the body? I scarcely think so, to this day. Nor do I know which is the more craven

soulhe who hopes even when hope is no longer possible, or he who despairs. Death is the natural

termination of a physical malady, and it seemed to me that suicide was the final crisis in the sufferings of a

mind diseased, for it was in the power of the will to end them when reason showed that death was preferable

to life. So it is not the pistol, but a thought that puts an end to our existence. Again, when fate may suddenly

lay us low in the midst of a happy life, can we be blamed for ourselves refusing to bear a life of misery?

"But my reflections during that time of mourning turned on loftier themes. The grandeur of pagan philosophy

attracted me, and for a while I became a convert. In my efforts to discover new rights for man, I thought that

with the aid of modern thought I could penetrate further into the questions to which those oldworld systems

"Epicurus permitted suicide. Was it not the natural outcome of his system of ethics? The gratification of the

senses was to be obtained at any cost; and when this became impossible, the easiest and best course was for

the animate being to return to the repose of inanimate nature. Happiness, or the hope of happiness, was the

one end for which man existed, for one who suffered, and who suffered without hope, death ceased to be an

evil, and became a good, and suicide became a final act of wisdom. This act Epicurus neither blamed nor

praised; he was content to say as he poured a libation to Bacchus, 'As for death, there is nothing in death to

"With a loftier morality than that of the Epicureans, and a sterner sense of man's duties, Zeno and the Stoic

philosophers prescribed suicide in certain cases to their followers. They reasoned thus: Man differs from the

brute in that he has the sovereign right to dispose of his person; take away this power of life and death over

himself and he becomes the plaything of fate, the slave of other men. Rightly understood, this power of life

and death is a sufficient counterpoise for all the ills of life; the same power when conferred upon another,

upon his fellowman, leads to tyranny of every kind. Man has no power whatever unless he has unlimited

freedom of action. Suppose that he has been guilty of some irreparable error, from the shameful

consequences of which there is no escape; a sordid nature swallows down the disgrace and survives it, the

wise man drinks the hemlock and dies. Suppose that the remainder of life is to be one constant struggle with

the gout which racks our bones, or with a gnawing and disfiguring cancer, the wise man dismisses quacks,

and at the proper moment bids a last farewell to the friends whom he only saddens by his presence. Or

another perhaps has fallen alive into the hands of the tyrant against whom he fought. What shall he do? The

oath of allegiance is tendered to him; he must either subscribe or stretch out his neck to the executioner; the

fool takes the latter course, the coward subscribes, the wise man strikes a last blow for libertyin his own

heart. 'You who are free,' the Stoic was wont to say, 'know then how to preserve your freedom! Find freedom

from your own passions by sacrificing them to duty, freedom from the tyranny of mankind by pointing to the

sword or the poison which will put you beyond their reach, freedom from the bondage of fate by determining

the point beyond which you will endure it no longer, freedom from physical fear by learning how to subdue

"After I had unearthed this reasoning from among a heap of ancient philosophical writings, I sought to

reconcile it with Christian teachings. God has bestowed freewill upon us in order to require of us an account

hereafter before the Throne of Judgment. 'I will plead my cause there!' I said to myself. But such thoughts as

these led me to think of a life after death, and my old shaken beliefs rose up before me. Human life grows

solemn when all eternity hangs upon the slightest of our decisions. When the full meaning of this thought is

realized, the soul becomes conscious of something vast and mysterious within itself, by which it is drawn

towards the Infinite; the aspect of all things alters strangely. From this point of view life is something

infinitely great and infinitely little. The consciousness of my sins had never made me think of heaven so long

as hope remained to me on earth, so long as I could find a relief for my woes in work and in the society of

other men. I had meant to make the happiness of a woman's life, to love, to be the head of a family, and in

this way my need of expiation would have been satisfied to the full. This design had been thwarted, but yet

another way had remained to me,I would devote myself henceforward to my child. But after these two

efforts had failed, and scorn and death had darkened my soul for ever, when all my feelings had been

wounded and nothing was left to me here on earth, I raised my eyes to heaven, and beheld God.

"Yet still I tried to obtain the sanction of religion for my death. I went carefully through the Gospels, and

found no passage in which suicide was forbidden; but during the reading, the divine thought of Christ, the

Saviour of men dawned in me. Certainly He had said nothing about the immortality of the soul, but He had

spoken of the glorious kingdom of His Father; He had nowhere forbidden parricide, but He condemned all

that was evil. The glory of His evangelists, and the proof of their divine mission, is not so much that they

made laws for the world, but that they spread a new spirit abroad, and the new laws were filled with this new

spirit. The very courage which a man displays in taking his own life seemed to me to be his condemnation; so

long as he felt that he had within himself sufficient strength to die by his own hands, he ought to have had

strength enough to continue the struggle. To refuse to suffer is a sign of weakness rather than of courage, and,

moreover, was it not a sort of recusance to take leave of life in despondency, an abjuration of the Christian

faith which is based upon the sublime words of Jesus Christ: 'Blessed are they that mourn.'

"So, in any case, suicide seemed to me to be an unpardonable error, even in the man who, through a false

conception of greatness of soul, takes his life a few moments before the executioner's axe falls. In humbling

himself to the death of the cross, did not Jesus Christ set for us an example of obedience to all human laws,

even when carried out unjustly? The word RESIGNATION engraved upon the cross, so clear to the eyes of

those who can read the sacred characters in which it is traced, shone for me with divine brightness.

"I still had eighty thousand francs in my possession, and at first I meant to live a remote and solitary life, to

vegetate in some country district for the rest of my days; but misanthropy is no Catholic virtue, and there is a

certain vanity lurking beneath the hedgehog's skin of the misanthrope. His heart does not bleed, it shrivels,

and my heart bled from every vein. I thought of the discipline of the Church, the refuge that she affords to

sorrowing souls, understood at last the beauty of a life of prayer in solitude, and was fully determined to

'enter religion,' in the grand old phrase. So far my intentions were firmly fixed, but I had not yet decided on

the best means of carrying them out. I realized the remains of my fortune, and set forth on my journey with an

"I felt drawn to the rule of Saint Bruno, and made the journey to the Grande Chartreuse on foot, absorbed in

solemn thoughts. That was a memorable day. I was not prepared for the grandeur of the scenery; the

workings of an unknown Power greater than that of man were visible at every step; the overhanging crags,

the precipices on either hand, the stillness only broken by the voices of the mountain streams, the sternness

and wildness of the landscape, relieved here and there by Nature's fairest creations, pine trees that have stood

for centuries and delicate rock plants at their feet, all combine to produce sober musings. There seemed to be

no end to this waste solitude, shut in by its lofty mountain barriers. The idle curiosity of man could scarcely

penetrate there. It would be difficult to cross this melancholy desert of Saint Bruno's with a light heart.

"I saw the Grand Chartreuse. I walked beneath the vaulted roofs of the ancient cloisters, and heard in the

silence the sound of the water from the spring, falling drop by drop. I entered a cell that I might the better

realize my own utter nothingness, something of the peace that my predecessor had found there seemed to

pass into my soul. An inscription, which in accordance with the custom of the monastery he had written

above his door, impressed and touched me; all the precepts of the life that I had meant to lead were there,

"My decision was made," Benassis resumed. "The cell with its deal wainscot, the hard bed, the solitude, all

appealed to my soul. The Carthusians were in the chapel, I went thither to join in their prayers, and there my

resolutions vanished. I do not wish to criticise the Catholic Church, I am perfectly orthodox, I believe in its

laws and in the works it prescribes. But when I heard the chanting and the prayers of those old men, dead to

the world and forgotten by the world, I discerned an undercurrent of sublime egoism in the life of the cloister.

This withdrawal from the world could only benefit the individual soul, and after all what was it but a

protracted suicide? I do not condemn it. The Church has opened these tombs in which life is buried; no doubt

they are needful for those few Christians who are absolutely useless to the world; but for me, it would be

better, I thought, to live among my fellows, to devote my life of expiation to their service.

"As I returned I thought long and carefully over the various ways in which I could carry out my vow of

renunciation. Already I began, in fancy, to lead the life of a common sailor, condemning myself to serve our

country in the lowest ranks, and giving up all my intellectual ambitions; but though it was a life of toil and of

selfabnegation, it seemed to me that I ought to do more than this. Should I not thwart the designs of God by

leading such a life? If He had given me intellectual ability, was it not my duty to employ it for the good of my

fellowmen? Then, besides, if I am to speak frankly, I felt within me a need of my fellowmen, an

indescribable wish to help them. The round of mechanical duties and the routine tasks of the sailor afforded

no scope for this desire, which is as much an outcome of my nature as the characteristic scent that a flower

"I was obliged to spend the night here, as I have already told you. The wretched condition of the countryside

had filled me with pity, and during the night it seemed as if these thoughts had been sent to me by God, and

that thus He had revealed His will to me. I had known something of the joys that pierce the heart, the

happiness and the sorrow of motherhood; I determined that henceforth my life should be filled with these, but

that mine should be a wider sphere than a mother's. I would expend her care and kindness on the whole

district; I would be a sister of charity, and bind the wounds of all the suffering poor in a countryside. It

seemed to me that the finger of God unmistakably pointed out my destiny; and when I remembered that my

first serious thoughts in youth had inclined me to the study of medicine, I resolved to settle here as a doctor.

Besides, I had another reason. FOR A WOUNDED HEARTSHADOW AND SILENCE; so I had written

"So I have entered into the paths of silence and submission. The fuge, late, tace of the Carthusian brother is

my motto here, my death to the world is the life of this canton, my prayer takes the form of the active work to

which I have set my hand, and which I lovethe work of sowing the seeds of happiness and joy, of giving to

"I have grown so used to this life, completely out of the world and among the peasants, that I am thoroughly

transformed. Even my face is altered; it has been so continually exposed to the sun, that it has grown

wrinkled and weatherbeaten. I have fallen into the habits of the peasants; I have assumed their dress, their

ways of talking, their gait, their easygoing negligence, their utter indifference to appearances. My old

acquaintances in Paris, or the shecoxcombs on whom I used to dance attendance, would be puzzled to

recognize in me the man who had a certain vogue in his day, the sybarite accustomed to all the splendor,

luxury, and finery of Paris. I have come to be absolutely indifferent to my surroundings, like all those who

are possessed by one thought, and have only one object in view; for I have but one aim in lifeto take leave

of it as soon as possible. I do not want to hasten my end in any way; but some day, when illness comes, I

"There, sir, you have the whole story of my life until I came here told in all sincerity. I have not attempted

to conceal any of my errors; they have been great, though others have erred as I have erred. I have suffered

greatly, and I am suffering still, but I look beyond this life to a happy future which can only be reached

through sorrow. And yetfor all my resignation, there are moments when my courage fails me. This very

day I was almost overcome in your presence by inward anguish; you did not notice it but"

"Yes, Captain Bluteau, you were with me at the time. Do you remember how, while we were putting little

Jacques to bed, you pointed to the mattress on which Mother Colas sleeps? Well, you can imagine how

painful it all was; I can never see any child without thinking of the dear child I have lost, and this little one

"Yes, the sight of the little golden heads, the innocent beauty of children's faces always awakens memories of

my sorrows, and the old anguish returns afresh. Now and then, too, there comes the intolerable thought that

so many people here should thank me for what little I can do for them, when all that I have done has been

prompted by remorse. You alone, captain, know the secret of my life. If I had drawn my will to serve them

from some purer source than the memory of my errors, I should be happy indeed! But then, too, there would

As Benassis finished his story, he was struck by the troubled expression of the officer's face. It touched him

to have been so well understood. He was almost ready to reproach himself for having distressed his visitor.

"Do not call me Captain Bluteau," cried Genestas, breaking in upon the doctor, and springing to his feet with

sudden energy, a change of position that seemed to be prompted by inward dissatisfaction of some kind.

With no little astonishment, Benassis beheld Genestas pacing to and fro in the salon, like a bumblebee in

"Ah! there now!" the officer answered, as he turned and took his stand before the doctor, though he lacked

courage to look at his friend. "I have deceived you!" he went on (and there was a change in his voice). "I have

acted a lie for the first time in my life, and I am well punished for it; for after this I cannot explain why I

came here to play the spy upon you, confound it! Ever since I have had a glimpse of your soul, so to speak, I

would far sooner have taken a box on the ear whenever I heard you call me Captain Bluteau! Perhaps you

may forgive me for this subterfuge, but I shall never forgive myself; I, Pierre Joseph Genestas, who would

"Are you Commandant Genestas?" cried Benassis, rising to his feet. He grasped the officer's hand warmly,

and added: "As you said but a short time ago, sir, we were friends before we knew each other. I have been

very anxious to make your acquaintance, for I have often heard M. Gravier speak of you. He used to call you,

"Plutarch? Nothing of the sort!" answered Genestas. "I am not worthy of you; I could thrash myself. I ought

to have told you my secret in a straightforward way at the first. Yet, now! It is quite as well that I wore a

mask, and came here myself in search of information concerning you, for now I know that I must hold my

tongue. If I had set about this business in the right fashion it would have been painful to you, and God forbid

"Let the matter drop. I am not ill; I have spent a pleasant day, and I will go back tomorrow. Whenever you

come to Grenoble, you will find that you have one more friend there, who will be your friend through thick

and thin. Pierre Joseph Genestas' sword and purse are at your disposal, and I am yours to the last drop of my

blood. Well, after all, your words have fallen on good soil. When I am pensioned off, I will look for some

outoftheway little place, and be mayor of it, and try to follow your example. I have not your knowledge,

"You are right, sir; the landowner who spends his time in convincing a commune of the folly of some

mistaken notion of agriculture, confers upon his country a benefit quite as great as any that the most skilful

physician can bestow. The latter lessens the sufferings of some few individuals, and the former heals the

wounds of his country. But you have excited my curiosity to no common degree. Is there really something in

"Mon Dieu! I was about to ask you to do me a service which is all but impossible, M. Benassis. Just listen a

moment! I have killed a good many Christians in my time, it is true; but you may kill people and keep a good

heart for all that; so there are some things that I can feel and understand, rough as I look."

Benassis suddenly knitted his brows, but by a gesture he entreated Genestas to continue.

"A child," repeated the commandant,"whose life may yet be saved by constant watchfulness and incessant

care. Where could I expect to find a doctor capable of devoting himself to a single patient? Not in a town, that

much was certain. I had heard you spoken of as an excellent man, but I wished to be quite sure that this

reputation was well founded. So before putting my little charge into the hands of this M. Benassis of whom

"No, no, M. Benassis. To clear up the mystery, I should have to tell you a long story, in which I do not

exactly play the part of a hero; but you have given me your confidence and I can readily give you mine."

"One moment, commandant," said the doctor. In answer to his summons, Jacquotte appeared at once, and her

master ordered tea. "You see, commandant, at night when every one is sleeping, I do not sleep. . . . The

thought of my troubles lies heavily on me, and then I try to forget them by taking tea. It produces a sort of

nervous inebriation a kind of slumber, without which I could not live. Do you still decline to take it?"

"By all means. Jacquotte," said Benassis, turning to his housekeeper, "bring in some wine and biscuits. We

"It brings on horrid attacks of gout, but I cannot break myself of the habit, it is too soothing; it procures for

me a brief respite every night, a few moments during which life becomes less of a burden. . . . Come. I am

listening; perhaps your story will efface the painful impressions left by the memories that I have just

Genestas set down his empty glass upon the chimneypiece. "After the Retreat from Moscow," he said, "my

regiment was stationed to recruit for a while in a little town in Poland. We were quartered there, in fact, till

the Emperor returned, and we bought up horses at long prices. So far so good. I ought to say that I had a

friend in those days. More than once during the Retreat I had owed my life to him. He was a quartermaster,

Renard by name; we could not but be like brothers (military discipline apart) after what he had done for me.

They billeted us on the same house, a sort of shanty, a rathole of a place where a whole family lived, though

you would not have thought there was room to stable a horse. This particular hovel belonged to some Jews

who carried on their sixandthirty trades in it. The frost had not so stiffened the old father Jew's fingers but

that he could count gold fast enough; he had thriven uncommonly during our reverses. That sort of gentry

"There were cellars underneath (lined with wood of course, the whole house was built of wood); they had

stowed their children away down there, and one more particularly, a girl of seventeen, as handsome as a

Jewess can be when she keeps herself tidy and has not fair hair. She was as white as snow, she had eyes like

velvet, and dark lashes to them like rats' tails; her hair was so thick and glossy that it made you long to stroke

it. She was perfection, and nothing less! I was the first to discover this curious arrangement. I was walking up

and down outside one evening, smoking my pipe, after they thought I had gone to bed. The children came in

helterskelter, tumbling over one another like so many puppies. It was fun to watch them. Then they had

supper with their father and mother. I strained my eyes to see the young Jewess through the clouds of smoke

that her father blew from his pipe; she looked like a new gold piece among a lot of copper coins.

"I had never reflected about love, my dear Benassis, I had never had time; but now at the sight of this young

girl I lost my heart and head and everything else at once, and then it was plain to me that I had never been in

love before. I was hard hit, and over head and ears in love. There I stayed smoking my pipe, absorbed in

watching the Jewess until she blew out the candle and went to bed. I could not close my eyes. The whole

night long I walked up and down the street smoking my pipe and refilling it from time to time. I had never

felt like that before, and for the first and last time in my life I thought of marrying.

"At daybreak I saddled my horse and rode out into the country, to clear my head. I kept him at a trot for two

Genestas stopped short, looked at his new friend uneasily, and said, "You must excuse me, Benassis, I am no

orator; things come out just as they turn up in my mind. In a room full of fine folk I should feel awkward, but

"When I came back to my room I found Renard finely flustered. He thought I had fallen in a duel. He was

cleaning his pistols, his head full of schemes for fastening a quarrel on any one who should have turned me

off into the dark. . . . Oh! that was just the fellow's way! I confided my story to Renard, showed him the

kennel where the children were; and, as my comrade understood the jargon that those heathens talked, I

begged him to help me to lay my proposals before her father and mother, and to try to arrange some kind of

communication between me and Judith. Judith they called her. In short, sir, for a fortnight the Jew and his

wife so arranged matters that we supped every night with Judith, and for a fortnight I was the happiest of

men. You understand and you know how it was, so I shall not wear out your patience; still, if you do not

smoke, you cannot imagine how pleasant it was to smoke a pipe at one's ease with Renard and the girl's father

"But I ought to tell you that Renard was a Parisian, and dependent on his father, a wholesale grocer, who had

educated his son with a view to making a notary of him; so Renard had come by a certain amount of book

learning before he had been drawn by the conscription and had to bid his desk goodbye. Add to this that he

was the kind of man who looks well in a uniform, with a face like a girl's, and a thorough knowledge of the

art of wheedling people. It was HE whom Judith loved; she cared about as much for me as a horse cares for

roast fowls. Whilst I was in the seventh heaven, soaring above the clouds at the bare sight of Judith, my

friend Renard (who, as you see, fairly deserved his name) arrived at an understanding with the girl, and to

such good purpose, that they were married forthwith after the custom of her country, without waiting for

permission, which would have been too long in coming. He promised her, however, that if it should happen

that the validity of this marriage was afterwards called in question, they were to be married again according

to French law. As a matter of fact, as soon as she reached France, Mme. Renard became Mlle. Judith once

"If I had known all this, I would have killed Renard then and there, without giving him time to draw another

breath; but the father, the mother, the girl herself, and the quartermaster were all in the plot like thieves in a

fair. While I was smoking my pipe, and worshiping Judith as if she had been one of the saints above, the

worthy Renard was arranging to meet her, and managing this piece of business very cleverly under my very

"You are the only person to whom I have told this story. A disgraceful thing, I call it. I have always asked

myself how it is that a man who would die of shame if he took a gold coin that did not belong to him, does

not scruple to rob a friend of happiness and life and the woman he loves. My birds, in fact, were married and

happy; and there was I, every evening at supper, moonstruck, gazing at Judith, responding like some fellow in

a farce to the looks she threw to me in order to throw dust in my eyes. They have paid uncommonly dear for

all this deceit, as you will certainly think. On my conscience, God pays more attention to what goes on in this

"Down come the Russians upon us, the country is overrun, and the campaign of 1813 begins in earnest. One

fine morning comes an order; we are to be on the battlefield of Lutzen by a stated hour. The Emperor knew

quite well what he was about when he ordered us to start at once. The Russians had turned our flank. Our

colonel must needs get himself into a scrape, by choosing that moment to take leave of a Polish lady who

lived outside the town, a quarter of a mile away; the Cossack advanced guard just caught him nicely, him and

his picket. There was scarcely time to spring into our saddles and draw up before the town so as to engage in

a cavalry skirmish. We must check the Russian advance if we meant to draw off during the night. Again and

again we charged, and for three hours did wonders. Under cover of the fighting the baggage and artillery set

out. We had a park of artillery and great stores of powder, of which the Emperor stood in desperate need;

"Our resistance deceived the Russians, who thought at first that we were supported by an army corps; but

before very long they learned their error from their scouts, and knew that they had only a single regiment of

cavalry to deal with and the invalided foot soldiers in the depot. On finding it out, sir, they made a murderous

onslaught on us towards evening; the action was so hot that a good few of us were left on the field. We were

completely surrounded. I was by Renard's side in the front rank, and I saw how my friend fought and charged

like a demon; he was thinking of his wife. Thanks to him, we managed to regain the town, which our invalids

had put more or less in a state of defence, but it was pitiful to see it. We were the last to return he and I. A

body of Cossacks appeared in our way, and on this we rode in hot haste. One of the savages was about to run

me through with a lance, when Renard, catching a sight of his manoeuvre, thrust his horse between us to turn

aside the blow; his poor brutea fine animal it was, upon my wordreceived the lance thrust and fell,

bringing down both Renard and the Cossack with him. I killed the Cossack, seized Renard by the arm, and

" 'Not yet,' I answered; 'I must have a look at you.' We had reached the town by that time; I dismounted, and

propped him up on a little straw by the corner of the house. A wound in the head had laid open the brain, and

" 'We are quits,' he said. 'I have given you my life, and I had taken Judith from you. Take care of her and of

"I left him then and there sir, like a dog; when the first fury of anger left me, and I went back againhe was

dead. The Cossacks had set fire to the town, and the thought of Judith then came to my mind. I went in search

of her, took her up behind me in the saddle, and, thanks to my swift horse, caught up the regiment which was

effecting its retreat. As for the Jew and his family, there was not one of them left, they had all disappeared

like rats; there was no one but Judith in the house, waiting alone there for Renard. At first, as you can

"So it befell that all through the disastrous campaign of 1813 I had a woman to look after, to find quarters for

her, and to see that she was comfortable. She scarcely knew, I think, the straits to which we were reduced. I

was always careful to keep her ten leagues ahead of us as we drew back towards France. Her boy was born

while we were fighting at Hanau. I was wounded in the engagement, and only rejoined Judith at Strasburg;

then I returned to Paris, for, unluckily, I was laid up all through the campaign in France. If it had not been for

that wretched mishap, I should have entered the Grenadier Guards, and then the Emperor would have

promoted me. As it was, sir, I had three broken ribs and another man's wife and child to support! My pay, as

you can imagine, was not exactly the wealth of the Indies. Renard's father, the toothless old shark, would

have nothing to say to his daughterin law; and the old father Jew had made off. Judith was fretting herself

" 'Pshaw!' I answered, 'we will send for all the necessary papers, I will marry you; and as for the child, I will

"Ah, my dear sir, what would not one do for the look by which Judith thanked mea look of thanks from

dying eyes; I saw clearly that I had loved, and should love her always, and from that day her child found a

place in my heart. She died, poor woman, while the father and mother Jews and the papers were on the way.

The day before she died, she found strength enough to rise and dress herself for her wedding, to go through

all the usual performance, and set her name to their pack of papers; then, when her child had a name and a

father, she went back to her bed again; I kissed her hands and her forehead, and she died.

"That was my wedding. Two days later, when I had bought the few feet of earth in which the poor girl is laid,

I found myself the father of an orphan child. I put him out to nurse during the campaign of 1815. Ever since

that time, without letting any one know my story, which did not sound very well, I have looked after the little

rogue as if he were my own child. I don't know what became of his grandfather; he is wandering about, a

ruined man, somewhere or other between Russia and Persia. The chances are that he may make a fortune

"I sent the child to school. I wanted him to take a good place at the Ecole Polytechnique and to see him

graduate there with credit, so of late I have had him drilled in mathematics to such good purpose that the poor

little soul has been knocked up by it. He has a delicate chest. By all I can make out from the doctors in Paris,

there would be some hope for him still if he were allowed to run wild among the hills, if he was properly

cared for, and constantly looked after by somebody who was willing to undertake the task. So I thought of

you, and I came here to take stock of your ideas and your ways of life. After what you have told me, I could

"Commandant," said Benassis after a moment's pause, "bring Judith's child here to me. It is doubtless God's

will to submit me to this final trial, and I will endure it. I will offer up these sufferings to God, whose Son

died upon the cross. Besides, your story has awakened tender feelings; does not that auger well for me?"

Genestas took both of Benassis' hands and pressed them warmly, unable to check the tears that filled his eyes

"Good! Set out tomorrow morning and come back again. I shall wait for you in La Fosseuse's cottage, and

"Agreed," said Genestas, and the two friends as they went upstairs bade each other goodnight. When they

reached the landing that lay between their rooms, Genestas set down his candle on the window ledge and

"Tonnerre de Dieu!" he said, with outspoken enthusiasm; "I cannot let you go without telling you that you are

the third among christened men to make me understand that there is Something up there," and he pointed to

The doctor's answer was a smile full of sadness and a cordial grasp of the hand that Genestas held out to him.

Before daybreak next morning Commandant Genestas was on his way. On his return, it was noon before he

reached the spot on the highroad between Grenoble and the little town, where the pathway turned that led to

La Fosseuse's cottage. He was seated in one of the light open cars with four wheels, drawn by one horse, that

are in use everywhere on the roads in these hilly districts. Genestas' companion was a thin, delicatelooking

lad, apparently about twelve years of age, though in reality he was in his sixteenth year. Before alighting, the

officer looked round about him in several directions in search of a peasant who would take the carriage back

to Benassis' house. It was impossible to drive to La Fosseuse's cottage, the pathway was too narrow. The

parkkeeper happened to appear upon the scene, and helped Genestas out of his difficulty, so that the officer

and his adopted son were at liberty to follow the mountain footpath that led to the trysting place.

"Would you not enjoy spending a year in running about in this lovely country, Adrien? Learning to hunt and

Adrien obediently glanced over the valley with languid indifference; like all lads of his age, he cared nothing

for the beauty of natural scenery; so he only said, "You are very kind, father," without checking his walk.

The invalid listlessness of this answer went to Genestas' heart; he said no more to his son, and they reached

"You are punctual, commandant!" cried Benassis, rising from the wooden bench where he was sitting.

But at the sight of Adrien he sat down again, and seemed for a while to be lost in thought. In a leisurely

fashion he scanned the lad's sallow, weary face, not without admiring its delicate oval outlines, one of the

most noticeable characteristics of a noble head. The lad was the living image of his mother. He had her olive

complexion, beautiful black eyes with a sad and thoughtful expression in them, long hair, a head too

energetic for the fragile body; all the peculiar beauty of the Polish Jewess had been transmitted to her son.

Adrien reddened, unfastened his garters, and showed his knee to the doctor, who felt it carefully over.

The lad held them out; white, soft, and blueveined hands, like those of a woman.

As Adrien made no answer to this, Genestas spoke. "The master is a worthy priest; he advised me to take my

"Well," answered Benassis, with a clear, penetrating gaze into Adrien's frightened eyes, "there is a good

chance. Oh, we shall make a man of him yet. We will live together like a pair of comrades, my boy! We will

keep early hours. I mean to show this boy of yours how to ride a horse, commandant. He shall be put on a

milk diet for a month or two, so as to get his digestion into order again, and then I will take out a shooting

license for him, and put him in Butifer's hands, and the two of them shall have some chamoishunting. Give

your son four or five months of outdoor life, and you will not know him again, commandant! How delighted

Butifer will be! I know the fellow; he will take you over into Switzerland, my young friend; haul you over the

Alpine passes and up the mountain peaks, and add six inches to your height in six months; he will put some

color into your cheeks and brace your nerves, and make you forget all these bad ways that you have fallen

into at school. And after that you can go back to your work; and you will be a man some of these days.

Butifer is an honest young fellow. We can trust him with the money necessary for traveling expenses and

your hunting expeditions. The responsibility will keep him steady for six months, and that will be a very good

"Now, let us go in to breakfast. La Fosseuse is very anxious to see you," said Benassis, giving Adrien a gentle

Genestas took the doctor's arm and drew him a little aside. "Then he is not consumptive after all?" he asked.

La Fosseuse appeared on the threshold of the door, and Genestas noticed, not without surprise, her simple but

coquettish costume. This was not the peasant girl of yesterday evening, but a graceful and welldressed

Parisian woman, against whose glances he felt that he was not proof. The soldier turned his eyes on the table,

which was made of walnut wood. There was no tablecloth, but the surface might have been varnished, it was

so well rubbed and polished. Eggs, butter, a rice pudding, and fragrant wild strawberries had been set out, and

the poor child had put flowers everywhere about the room; evidently it was a great day for her. At the sight of

all this, the commandant could not help looking enviously at the little house and the green sward about it, and

watched the peasant girl with an air that expressed both his doubts and his hopes. Then his eyes fell on

Adrien, with whom La Fosseuse was deliberately busying herself, and handing him the eggs.

"Now, commandant," said Benassis, "you know the terms on which you are receiving hospitality. You must

"But let the gentleman first have his breakfast in peace, and then, after he has taken a cup of coffee"

"By all means, I shall be very glad," answered the commandant; "but it must be upon one condition: you will

tell us the story of some adventure in your past life, will you not, mademoiselle?"

"Why, nothing worth telling has ever happened to me, sir," she answered, as her color rose. "Will you take a

"You did not put that nicely, Genestas," said Benassis. He took La Fosseuse's hand in his and pressed it as he

went on: "Listen, my child; there is a kind heart hidden away beneath that officer's stern exterior, and you can

talk freely before him. We do not want to press you to talk, do not tell us anything unless you like: but if ever

you can be listened to and understood, poor little one, it will be by the three who are with you now at this

moment. Tell us all about your love affairs in the old days, that will not admit us into any of the real secrets

"Here is Mariette with the coffee," she answered, "and as soon as you are all served, I will tell about my 'love

affairs' very willingly. But M. le Commandant will not forget his promise?" she added, challenging the

"When I was sixteen years old," La Fosseuse began, "I had to beg my bread on the roadside in Savoy, though

my health was very bad. I used to sleep at Echelles, in a manger full of straw. The innkeeper who gave me

shelter was kind, but his wife could not abide me, and was always saying hard things. I used to feel very

miserable; for though I was a beggar, I was not a naughty child; I used to say my prayers every night and

morning, I never stole anything, and I did as Heaven bade me in begging for my living, for there was nothing

that I could turn my hands to, and I was really unfit for workquite unable to handle a hoe or to wind spools

"Well, they drove me away from the inn at last; a dog was the cause of it all. I had neither father nor mother

nor friends. I had met with no one, ever since I was born, whose eyes had any kindness in them for me.

Morin, the old woman who had brought me up, was dead. She had been very good to me, but I cannot

remember that she ever petted me much; besides, she worked out in the fields like a man, poor thing; and if

she fondled me at times, she also used to rap my fingers with the spoon if I ate the soup too fast out of the

porringer we had between us. Poor old woman, never a day passes but I remember her in my prayers! If it

might please God to let her live a happier life up there than she did here below! And, above all things, if she

might only lie a little softer there, for she was always grumbling about the palletbed that we both used to

sleep upon. You could not possibly imagine how it hurts one's soul to be repulsed by every one, to receive

nothing but hard words and looks that cut you to the heart, just as if they were so many stabs of a knife. I

have known poor old people who were so used to these things that they did not mind them a bit, but I was not

born for that sort of life. A 'No' always made me cry. Every evening I came back again more unhappy than

ever, and only felt comforted when I had said my prayers. In all God's world, in fact, there was not a soul to

care for me, no one to whom I could pour out my heart. My only friend was the blue sky. I have always been

happy when there was a cloudless sky above my head. I used to lie and watch the weather from some nook

among the crags when the wind had swept the clouds away. At such times I used to dream that I was a great

lady. I used to gaze into the sky till I felt myself bathed in the blue; I lived up there in thought, rising higher

and higher yet, till my troubles weighed on me no more, and there was nothing but gladness left.

"But to return to my 'love affairs.' I must tell you that the innkeeper's spaniel had a dear little puppy, just as

sensible as a human being; he was quite white, with black spots on his paws, a cherub of a puppy! I can see

him yet. Poor little fellow, he was the only creature who ever gave me a friendly look in those days; I kept all

my tidbits for him. He knew me, and came to look for me every evening. How he used to spring up at me!

And he would bite my feet, he was not ashamed of my poverty; there was something so grateful and so kind

in his eyes that it brought tears into mine to see it. 'That is the one living creature that really cares for me!' I

used to say. He slept at my feet that winter. It hurt me so much to see him beaten, that I broke him of the

habit of going into houses, to steal bones, and he was quite contented with my crusts. When I was unhappy,

he used to come and stand in front of me, and look into my eyes; it was just as if he said, 'So you are sad, my

"If a traveler threw me some halfpence, he would pick them up out of the dust and bring them to me, clever

little spaniel that he was! I was less miserable so long as I had that friend. Every day I put away a few

halfpence, for I wanted to get fifteen francs together, so that I might buy him of Pere Manseau. One day his

wife saw that the dog was fond of me, so she herself took a sudden violent fancy to him. The dog, mind you,

could not bear her. Oh, animals know people by instinct! If you really care for them, they find it out in a

moment. I had a gold coin, a twentyfranc piece, sewed into the band of my skirt; so I spoke to M. Manseau:

'Dear sir, I meant to offer you my year's savings for your dog; but now your wife has a mind to keep him,

although she cares very little about him, and rather than that, will you sell him to me for twenty francs? Look,

" 'No, no, little woman,' he said; 'put up your twenty francs. Heaven forbid that I should take their money

from the poor! Keep the dog; and if my wife makes a fuss about it, you must go away.'

"His wife made a terrible todo about the dog. Ah! mon Dieu! any one might have thought the house was on

fire! You never would guess the notion that next came into her head. She saw that the little fellow looked on

me as his mistress, and that she could only have him against his will, so she had him poisoned; and my poor

spaniel died in my arms. . . . I cried over him as if he had been my child, and buried him under a pinetree.

You do not know all that I laid in that grave. As I sat there beside it, I told myself that henceforward I should

always be alone in the world; that I had nothing left to hope for; that I should be again as I had been before, a

poor lonely girl; that I should never more see a friendly light in any eyes. I stayed out there all through the

night, praying God to have pity on me. When I went back to the highroad I saw a poor little child, about ten

" 'God has heard me,' I thought. I had prayed that night as I had never prayed before. 'I will take care of the

poor little one; we will beg together, and I will be a mother to him. Two of us ought to do better than one;

"At first the little boy seemed to be quite happy, and, indeed, he would have been hard to please if he had not

been content. I did everything that he wanted, and gave him the best of all that I had; I was his slave in fact,

and he tyrannized over me, but that was nicer than being alone, I used to think! Pshaw! no sooner did the

little goodfornothing know that I carried a twentyfranc piece sewed into my skirtband than he cut the

stitches, and stole my gold coin, the price of my poor spaniel! I had meant to have masses said with it. . . . A

child without hands, too! Oh, it makes one shudder! Somehow that theft took all the heart out of me. It

"One day at Echelles, I watched a fine carriage coming slowly up the hillside. There was a young lady, as

beautiful as the Virgin Mary, in the carriage, and a young man, who looked like the young lady. 'Just look,' he

"No one but you, M. Benassis, could understand how pleased I was with the compliment, the first that I had

ever had: but, indeed, the gentleman ought not to have thrown the money to me. I was in a flutter; I knew of a

short cut, a footpath among the rocks, and started at once to run, so that I reached the summit of the Echelles

long before the carriage, which was coming up very slowly. I saw the young man again; he was quite

surprised to find me there; and as for me, I was so pleased that my heart seemed to be throbbing in my throat.

Some kind of instinct drew me towards him. After he had recognized me, I went on my way again; I felt quite

sure that he and the young lady with him would leave the carriage to see the waterfall at Couz, and so they

did. When they alighted, they saw me once more, under the walnuttrees by the wayside. They asked me

many questions, and seemed to take an interest in what I told them about myself. In all my life I had never

heard such pleasant voices as they had, that handsome young man and his sister, for she was his sister, I am

sure. I thought about them for a whole year afterwards, and kept on hoping that they would come back. I

would have given two years of my life only to see that traveler again, he looked so nice. Until I knew M.

Benassis these were the greatest events of my life. Although my mistress turned me away for trying on that

horrid balldress of hers, I was sorry for her, and I have forgiven her, for candidly, if you will give me leave

to say so, I thought myself the better woman of the two, countess though she was."

"Well," said Genestas, after a moment's pause, "you see that Providence has kept a friendly eye on you, you

"Would that I was rich!" came from Genestas. The officer's exclamation was followed by profound silence.

"I will tell it at once," answered Genestas. "On the evening before the battle of Friedland," he went on, after a

moment, "I had been sent with a despatch to General Davoust's quarters, and I was on the way back to my

own, when at a turn in the road I found myself face to face with the Emperor. Napoleon gave me a look.

" 'You had better not keep to the road you are on,' he said; 'turn to the left, you will reach your division

"That was what the Emperor said, but you would never imagine how kindly he said it; and he had so many

irons in the fire just then, for he was riding about surveying the position of the field. I am telling you this

story to show you what a memory he had, and so that you may know that he knew my face. I took the oath in

1815. But for that mistake, perhaps I might have been a colonel today; I never meant to betray the

Bourbons, France must be defended, and that was all I thought about. I was a Major in the Grenadiers of the

Imperial Guard; and although my wound still gave me trouble, I swung a sabre in the battle of Waterloo.

When it was all over, and Napoleon returned to Paris, I went too; then when he reached Rochefort, I followed

him against his orders; it was some sort of comfort to watch over him and to see that no mishap befell him on

the way. So when he was walking along the beach he turned and saw me on duty ten paces from him.

" 'Well, Genestas,' he said, as he came towards me, 'so we are not yet dead, either of us?'

"It cut me to the heart to hear him say that. If you had heard him, you would have shuddered from head to

foot, as I did. He pointed to the villainous English vessel that was keeping the entrance to the Harbor. 'When I

see THAT,' he said, 'and think of my Guard, I wish that I had perished in that torrent of blood.'

"Yes," said Genestas, looking at the doctor and at La Fosseuse, "those were his very words.

" 'The generals who counseled you not to charge with the Guard, and who hurried you into your traveling

" 'I would gladly go with your Majesty, but I am not free; I have a motherless child on my hands just now.'

"And so it happened that Adrien over there prevented me from going to St. Helena.

" 'Stay,' he said, 'I have never given you anything. You are not one of those who fill one hand and then hold

out the other. Here is the snuffbox that I have used though this last campaign. And stay on in France; after

all, brave men are wanted there! Remain in the service, and keep me in remembrance. Of all my army in

Egypt, you are the last that I have seen still on his legs in France.' And he gave me a little snuffbox.

" 'Have "Honneur et patrie" engraved on it,' he said; 'the history of our last two campaigns is summed up in

"Then those who were going out with him came up, and I spent the rest of the morning with them. The

Emperor walked to and fro along the beach; there was not a sign of agitation about him, though he frowned

from time to time. At noon, it was considered hopeless for him to attempt to escape by sea. The English had

found out that he was at Rochefort; he must either give himself up to them, or cross the breadth of France

again. We were wretchedly anxious; the minutes seemed like hours! On the one hand there were the

Bourbons, who would have shot Napoleon if he had fallen into their clutches; and on the other, the English, a

dishonored race: they covered themselves with shame by flinging a foe who asked for hospitality away on a

desert rock, that is a stain which they will never wash away. Whilst they were anxiously debating, some one

or other among his suite presented a sailor to him, a Lieutenant Doret, who had a scheme for reaching

America to lay before him. As a matter of fact, a brig from the States and a merchant vessel were lying in the

" 'You will be on board the merchant vessel, Sire,' the man answered. 'I will run up the white flag and man

the brig with a few devoted followers. We will tackle the English vessel, set fire to her, and board her, and

" 'We will go with you!' I cried to the captain. But Napoleon looked at us and said, 'Captain Doret, keep

"It was the only time I ever saw Napoleon show any emotion. With a wave of his hand to us he went in again.

I watched him go on board the English vessel, and then I went away. It was all over with him, and he knew it.

There was a traitor in the harbor, who by means of signals gave warning to the Emperor's enemies of his

presence. Then Napoleon fell back on a last resource; he did as he had been wont to do on the battlefield: he

went to his foes instead of letting them come to him. Talk of troubles! No words could ever make you

"I will go over to see it, if you will let me. To think that you have something in your possession that his

"I was such a little girl in 1815. I was not tall enough to see anything but his hat, and even so I was nearly

"Your coffee and cream is very nice indeed," said Genestas. "Well, Adrien, how do you like this country?

The boy made no answer; he seemed afraid to look at La Fosseuse. Benassis never took his eyes off Adrien;

"Of course he will come to see her," said Benassis. "But let us go home again, I have a pretty long round to

make, and I shall want a horse. I daresay you and Jacquotte will manage to get on together whilst I am away."

"Willingly," she answered; "I have a lot of things to take over for Mme. Jacquotte.

They started out for the doctor's house. Her visitors had raised La Fosseuse's spirits; she led the way along

"You have told us nothing about yourself, Monsieur l'Officier," she said. "I should have liked to hear you tell

us about some adventure in the wars. I liked what you told us about Napoleon very much, but it made me feel

"Quite right!" Benassis exclaimed. "You ought to tell us about some thrilling adventure during our walk.

Come, now, something really interesting like that business of the beam in Beresina!"

"So few of my recollections are worth telling," said Genestas. "Some people come in for all kinds of

adventures, but I have never managed to be the hero of any story. Oh! stop a bit though, a funny thing did

once happen to me. I was with the Grand Army in 1805, and so, of course, I was at Austerlitz. There was a

great deal of skirmishing just before Ulm surrendered, which kept the cavalry pretty fully occupied.

Moreover, we were under the command of Murat, who never let the grass grow under his feet.

"I was still only a sublieutenant in those days. It was just at the opening of the campaign, and after one of

these affairs, that we took possession of a district in which there were a good many fine estates; so it fell out

that one evening my regiment bivouacked in a park belonging to a handsome chateau where a countess lived,

a young and pretty woman she was. Of course, I meant to lodge in the house, and I hurried there to put a stop

to pillage of any sort. I came into the salon just as my quartermaster was pointing his carbine at the countess,

his brutal way of asking for what she certainly could not give the ugly scoundrel. I struck up his carbine with

my sword, the bullet went through a lookingglass on the wall, then I dealt my gentleman a backhanded

blow that stretched him on the floor. The sound of the shot and the cries of the countess fetched all her people

" 'Stop!' she cried in German (for they were going to run me through the body), 'this officer has saved my

"They drew back at that. The lady gave me her handkerchief (a fine embroidered handkerchief, which I have

yet), telling me that her house would always be open to me, and that I should always find a sister and a

devoted friend in her, if at any time I should be in any sort of trouble. In short, she did not know how to make

enough of me. She was as fair as a wedding morning and as charming as a kitten. We had dinner together.

Next day, I was distractedly in love, but next day I had to be at my place at Guntzburg, or wherever it was.

There was no help for it, I had to turn out, and started off with my handkerchief.

"Well, we gave them battle, and all the time I kept on saying to myself, 'I wish a bullet would come my way!

"I had no wish for a ball in the thigh, for I should have had to stop where I was in that case, and there would

have been no going back to the chateau, but I was not particular; a nice wound in the arm I should have liked

best, so that I might be nursed and made much of by the princess. I flung myself on the enemy, like mad; but

I had no sort of luck, and came out of the action quite safe and sound. We must march, and there was an end

By this time they had reached Benassis' house; the doctor mounted his horse at once and disappeared.

Genestas recommended his son to Jacquotte's care, so the doctor on his return found that she had taken

Adrien completely under her wing, and had installed him in M. Gravier's celebrated room. With no small

astonishment, she heard her master's order to put up a simple campbed in his own room, for that the lad was

to sleep there, and this in such an authoritative tone, that for once in her life Jacquotte found not a single word

After dinner the commandant went back to Grenoble. Benassis' reiterated assurances that the lad would soon

Eight months later, in the earliest days of the following December, Genestas was appointed to be

lieutenantcolonel of a regiment stationed at Poitiers. He was just thinking of writing to Benassis to tell him

of the journey he was about to take, when a letter came from the doctor. His friend told him that Adrien was

"The boy has grown strong and tall," he said; "and he is wonderfully well. He has profited by Butifer's

instruction since you saw him last, and is now as good a shot as our smuggler himself. He has grown brisk

and active too; he is a good walker, and rides well; he is not in the least like the lad of sixteen who looked

like a boy of twelve eight months ago; any one might think that he was twenty years old. There is an air of

selfreliance and independence about him. In fact he is a man now, and you must begin to think about his

"I shall go over to Benassis tomorrow, of course," said Genestas to himself, "and I will see what he says

before I make up my mind what to do with that fellow," and with that he went to a farewell dinner given to

him by his brother officers. He would be leaving Grenoble now in a very few days.

As the lieutenantcolonel returned after the dinner, his servant handed him a letter. It had been brought by a

Genestas recognized Adrien's handwriting, although his head was swimming after the toasts that had been

drunk in his honor; probably, he thought, the letter merely contained a request to gratify some boyish whim,

so he left it unopened on the table. The next morning, when the fumes of champagne had passed off, he took

"Oh! you young rogue," was his comment, "you know how to coax whenever you want something."

The letter dropped from Genestas' hands; it was some time before he could read any more.

"Every one is in consternation. The trouble is all the greater because it came as a sudden shock. It was so

unexpected. M. Benassis seemed perfectly well the day before; there was not a sign of illhealth about him.

Only the day before yesterday he went to see all his patients, even those who lived farthest away; it was as if

he had known what was going to happen; and he spoke to every one whom he met, saying, 'Goodbye, my

friends,' each time. Towards five o'clock he came back just as usual to have dinner with me. He was tired;

Jacquotte noticed the purplish flush on his face, but the weather was so very cold that she would not get ready

a warm footbath for him, as she usually did when she saw that the blood had gone to his head. So she has

been wailing, poor thing, through her tears for these two days past, 'If I had ONLY given him a footbath, he

"M Benassis was hungry; he made a good dinner. I thought that he was in higher spirits than usual; we both

of us laughed a great deal, I had never seen him laugh so much before. After dinner, towards seven o'clock, a

man came with a message from Saint Laurent du Pont; it was a serious case, and M. Benassis was urgently

needed. He said to me, 'I shall have to go, though I never care to set out on horseback when I have hardly

digested my dinner, more especially when it is as cold as this. It is enough to kill a man!'

"For all that, he went. At nine o'clock the postman Goguelat, brought a letter for M. Benassis. Jacquotte was

tired out, for it was her washingday. She gave me the letter and went off to bed. She begged me to keep a

good fire in our bedroom, and to have some tea ready for M. Benassis when he came in, for I am still sleeping

in the little cot bed in his room. I raked out the fire in the salon, and went upstairs to wait for my good

friend. I looked at the letter, out of curiosity, before I laid it on the chimney piece, and noticed the

handwriting and the postmark. It came from Paris, and I think it was a lady's hand. I am telling you about it

"About ten o'clock, I heard the horse returning, and M. Benassis' voice. He said to Nicolle, 'It is cold enough

tonight to bring the wolves out. I do not feel at all well.' Nicolle said, 'Shall I go and wake Jacquotte?' And

"I said, 'I have your tea here, all ready for you,' and he smiled at me in the way that you know, and said,

'Thank you, Adrien.' That was his last smile. In a moment he began to take off his cravat, as though he could

not breathe. 'How hot it is in here!' he said and flung himself down in an armchair. 'A letter has come for you,

my good friend,' I said; 'here it is;' and I gave him the letter. He took it up and glanced at the handwriting.

'Ah! mon Dieu!' he exclaimed, 'perhaps she is free at last!' Then his head sank back, and his hands shook.

After a little while he set the lamp on the table and opened the letter. There was something so alarming in the

cry he had given that I watched him while he read, and saw that his face was flushed, and there were tears in

his eyes. Then quite suddenly he fell, head forwards. I tried to raise him, and saw how purple his face was.

" 'It is all over with me,' he said, stammering; it was terrible to see how he struggled to rise. 'I must be bled;

bleed me!' he cried, clutching my hand. . . . 'Adrien,' he said again, 'burn this letter!' He gave it to me, and I

threw it on the fire. I called for Jacquotte and Nicolle. Jacquotte did not hear me, but Nicolle did, and came

hurrying upstairs; he helped me to lay M. Benassis on my little bed. Our dear friend could not hear us any

longer when we spoke to him, and although his eyes were open, he did not see anything. Nicolle galloped off

at once to fetch the surgeon, M. Bordier, and in this way spread the alarm through the town. It was all astir in

a moment. M. Janvier, M. Dufau, and all the rest of your acquaintance were the first to come to us. But all

hope was at an end, M. Benassis was dying fast. He gave no sign of consciousness, not even when M. Bordier

cauterized the soles of his feet. It was an attack of gout, combined with an apoplectic stroke.

"I am giving you all these details, dear father, because I know how much you cared for him. As for me, I am

very sad and full of grief, for I can say to you that I cared more for him than for any one else except you. I

learned more from M. Benassis' talk in the evenings than ever I could have learned at school.

"You cannot imagine the scene next morning when the news of his death was known in the place. The garden

and the yard here were filled with people. How they sobbed and wailed! Nobody did any work that day.

Every one recalled the last time that they had seen M. Benassis, and what he had said, or they talked of all

that he had done for them; and those who were least overcome with grief spoke for the others. Every one

wanted to see him once more, and the crowd grew larger every moment. The sad news traveled so fast that

men and women and children came from ten leagues round; all the people in the district, and even beyond it,

"It was arranged that four of the oldest men of the commune should carry the coffin. It was a very difficult

task for them, for the crowd was so dense between the church and M. Benassis' house. There must have been

nearly five thousand people there, and almost every one knelt as if the Host were passing. There was not

nearly room for them in the church. In spite of their grief, the crowd was so silent that you could hear the

sound of the bell during mass and the chanting as far as the end of the High Street; but when the procession

started again for the new cemetery, which M. Benassis had given to the town, little thinking, poor man, that

he himself would be the first to be buried there, a great cry went up. M. Janvier wept as he said the prayers;

"As night came on the people dispersed, carrying sorrow and mourning everywhere with them. The next day

Gondrin and Goguelat, and Butifer, with others, set to work to raise a sort of pyramid of earth, twenty feet

high, above the spot where M. Benassis lies; it is being covered now with green sods, and every one is

"M. Dufau found M. Benassis' will lying open on the table where he used to write. When it was known how

his property had been left, affection and regret for his loss became even deeper if possible. And now, dear

father, I am writing for Butifer (who is taking this letter to you) to come back with your answer. You must

tell me what I am to do. Will you come to fetch me, or shall I go to you at Grenoble? Tell me what you wish

He ordered his horse and started out. It was one of those still December mornings when the sky is covered

with gray clouds. The wind was too light to disperse the thick fog, through which the bare trees and damp

house fronts seemed strangely unfamiliar. The very silence was gloomy. There is such a thing as a silence full

of light and gladness; on a bright day there is a certain joyousness about the slightest sound, but in such

dreary weather nature is not silent, she is dumb. All sounds seemed to die away, stifled by the heavy air.

There was something in the gloom without him that harmonized with Colonel Genestas' mood; his heart was

oppressed with grief, and thoughts of death filled his mind. Involuntarily he began to think of the cloudless

sky on that lovely spring morning, and remembered how bright the valley had looked when he passed

through it for the first time; and now, in strong contrast with that day, the heavy sky above him was a leaden

gray, there was no greenness about the hills, which were still waiting for the cloak of winter snow that invests

them with a certain beauty of its own. There was something painful in all this bleak and bare desolation for a

man who was traveling to find a grave at his journey's end; the thought of that grave haunted him. The lines

of dark pinetrees here and there along the mountain ridges against the sky seized on his imagination; they

were in keeping with the officer's mournful musings. Every time that he looked over the valley that lay before

him, he could not help thinking of the trouble that had befallen the canton, of the man who had died so lately,

Before long, Genestas reached the cottage where he had asked for a cup of milk on his first journey. The sight

of the smoke rising above the hovel where the charitychildren were being brought up recalled vivid

memories of Benassis and of his kindness of heart. The officer made up his mind to call there. He would give

some alms to the poor woman for his dead friend's sake. He tied his horse to a tree, and opened the door of

"Goodday, mother," he said, addressing the old woman, who was sitting by the fire with the little ones

"Oh! quite well, sir! You came here one fine morning last spring and gave us two crowns."

"You must not thank me, mother," said the officer; "it is all through M. Benassis that the money had come to

"Ah! sir," she said, "he has left his property to our poor countryside, and made all of us his heirs; but we have

lost him who was worth more than all, for it was he who made everything turn out well for us."

"Goodbye, mother! Pray for him," said Genestas, making a few playful cuts at the children with his

The old woman and her little charges went out with him; they watched him mount his horse and ride away.

He followed the road along the valley until he reached the bridlepath that led to La Fosseuse's cottage. From

the slope above the house he saw that the door was fastened and the shutters closed. In some anxiety he

returned to the highway, and rode on under the poplars, now bare and leafless. Before long he overtook the

old laborer, who was dressed in his Sunday best, and creeping slowly along the road. There was no bag of

"Ah! goodday, sir. . . . I mind who you are now!" the old fellow exclaimed after a moment. "You are a

friend of monsieur, our late mayor! Ah! sir, would it not have been far better if God had only taken a poor

rheumatic old creature like me instead? It would not have mattered if He had taken me, but HE was the light

"Do you know how it is that there is no one at home up there at La Fosseuse's cottage?"

"Oh! well, then, she will have gone to mass or else to the cemetery. She goes there every day. He has left her

five hundred livres a year and her house for as long as she lives, but his death has fairly turned her brain, as

"Little Jacques is to be buried today, and I am going to the funeral. He was my nephew, poor little chap; he

had been ailing for a long while, and he died yesterday morning. It really looked as though it was M. Benassis

who kept him alive. That is the way! All these younger ones die!" Moreau added, halfjestingly, halfsadly.

Genestas reined in his horse as he entered the town, for he met Gondrin and Goguelat, each carrying a

pickaxe and shovel. He called to them, "Well, old comrades, we have had the misfortune to lose him"

"There, there, that is enough, sir!" interrupted Goguelat, "we know that well enough. We have just been

"Yes," answered Goguelat, "he was the Napoleon of our valley, barring the battles."

As they reached the parsonage, Genestas saw a little group about the door; Butifer and Adrien were talking

with M. Janvier, who, no doubt, had just returned from saying mass. Seeing that the officer made as though

he were about to dismount, Butifer promptly went to hold the horse, while Adrien sprang forward and flung

his arms about his father's neck. Genestas was deeply touched by the boy's affection, though no sign of this

"Why, Adrien," he said, "you certainly are set up again. My goodness! Thanks to our poor friend, you have

"Oh! colonel," entreated Butifer, "take me away from here and put me into your regiment. I cannot trust

myself now that M. le Maire is gone. HE wanted me to go for a soldier, didn't he? Well, then, I will do what

he wished. He told you all about me, and you will not be hard on me, will you, M. Genestas?"

"Right, my fine fellow," said Genestas, as he struck his hand in the other's. "I will find something to suit you,

"Well, like every one else in the canton, colonel, I feel sorrow for his loss, but no one knows as I do how

irreparable it is. He was like an angel of God among us. Fortunately, he did not suffer at all; it was a painless

death. The hand of God gently loosed the bonds of a life that was one continual blessing to us all."

"Will it be intrusive if I ask you to accompany me to the cemetery? I should like to bid him farewell, as it

Genestas and the cure, still in conversation, walked on together. Butifer and Adrien followed them at a few

paces distance. They went in the direction of the little lake, and as soon as they were clear of the town, the

lieutenantcolonel saw on the mountainside a large piece of waste land enclosed by walls.

"That is the cemetery," the cure told him. "He is the first to be buried in it. Only three months before he was

brought here, it struck him that it was a very bad arrangement to have the churchyard round the church; so, in

order to carry out the law, which prescribes that burial grounds should be removed a stated distance from

human dwellings, he himself gave this piece of land to the commune. We are burying a child, poor little

thing, in the new cemetery today, so we shall have begun by laying innocence and virtue there. Can it be

that death is after all a reward? Did God mean it as a lesson for us when He took these two perfect natures to

Himself? When we have been tried and disciplined in youth by pain, in later life by mental suffering, are we

so much nearer to Him? Look! there is the rustic monument which has been erected to his memory."

Genestas saw a mound of earth about twenty feet high. It was bare as yet, but dwellers in the district were

already busily covering the sloping sides with green turf. La Fosseuse, her face buried in her hands, was

sobbing bitterly; she was sitting on the pile of stones in which they had planted a great wooden cross, made

from the trunk of a pinetree, from which the bark had not been removed. The officer read the inscription;

"No," answered the cure; it is simply what is said everywhere, from the heights up there above us down to

Genestas remained silent for a few moments. Then he moved from where he stood and came nearer to La

"As soon as I have my pension," he said, "I will come to finish my days here among you."

Murat, Joachim, Prince The Vendetta The Gondreville Mystery Colonel Chabert Domestic Peace