The Midnight Bell/Volume III/Chapter XIX

CHAPTER XIX.

Refreshed by the salutary balm of sleep, our travellers awoke to one of the most glorious mornings that ever burst from the heavens; the sun was beginning his progress towards his meridian of splendor, without a single cloud to obscure his expanding rays; the pearly drops of dew were still hanging on the dripping leaves, and studding the blades of grass; every bush resounding with the grateful notes of its feathered inhabitants, hailing the return of morn; and every flower exhaling sweets in gratitude to the rising presence of their fostering orb.

Again blessed with her Alphonsus, Lauretta's feelings harmonised in the universal gladness of nature: Alphonsus strove to be cheerful, but his efforts were ineffectual; Lauretta observed his dejectedness, and without remarking upon it, endeavoured to divert it. She was sometimes successful: again Alphonsus sunk into thought; she varied her attentions; he returned a smile of gratitude for her endeavours to please, and she was happy.

Having made a delicious repast of new milk and fruits, they again proceeded on their journey, and after a short conversation on various topics, count Byroff thus pursued his narrative—

"'Well, monsieur,' continued Jacques Perlet, 'all day long I was wishing, I hardly knew why, to come and take a peep at you; however I should not have been allowed if I had asked it, and at all events I thought it was much more prudent not. At night my uncle called me to go up with him about the same time he had done before, and, oh dear, how frightened I was all the way up stairs!—for it had just come into my head you might not be asleep yet; and then, when I found you was asleep, I was as much afraid my uncle's rough handling, or some unlucky blow in lifting you, might awake you.

"'However, Dieu merci, we got you down stairs, and into the cimetière quite safe: I trembled a little when my uncle said he thought you was very warm; but I soon recovered again when he added, that he thought nothing of that, for that he had carried away many a one before they were half cold.

"'In a few minutes I got you put into the sack, taking care to lay you with your head towards the mouth, and away I went, leaving my uncle to bury the coffin, and wait my return.

"'Instead of going to the surgeon's, I made the best of my way for la porte de Saint Jean; and being got out of the city, I looked for the first hedge I could find, and setting down my load on the side farthest from the road, I pulled you out of the sack, terrified to death for fear I should have smothered you; and pleased enough I was, when I put my hand to your side, and felt your heart heave. I directly set about putting on you this gown and petticoat, and hat, and apron, and cloak, that I had taken from the old woman in the Bastile that is kept to make my uncle's and the governor's beds. I did not rob her of them, monsieur, for I put a demi-louis into her box when I took them out; and the manner I contrived to bring them away with me, was by buttoning them in between my coat and waistcoat, and telling my uncle it was a lump of cloth I had put there to keep the weight of my load from hurting my shoulder.

"'When I had dressed you, I set about disguising myself, and having turned all my clothes inside outwards, I dyed my hands and face with some stuff I had brought in my pocket for that purpose; I then threw the clothes I had taken off you, together with the sack, over the opposite hedge, into a deep ditch, and then sat me down by your side, anxiously waiting till some cart might come past that would carry us a little farther from our old abode.

"'About day-break I heard the wheels of some carriage coming from the city; I peeped over the hedge, and saw a wagon full of luggage, in the front of which sat one man, on a bench large enough to hold three or four; I called to him, asking, 'Whither he was going?'—'To Desmartin,' he answered. Then, pretending that I was hardly able to express myself in French, I told him that I had a sick wife almost at the point of death lying behind the hedge, and that I would give him a trifle to carry us some way on our journey, which lay his road; after a short dispute about what I was to pay him, he consented to carry us, and I lifted you into the wagon and placed you upon the seat, carefully holding you, lest you should fall out.

"'We stopped several times during the day; some pitied my poor wife, some laughed at me for a black fourbe, and some were charitable enough to give me a petit sous, and bid me take care of la pauvre ame; and I directly bought the wine and bread in their presence, which I gave you under the hedge, for which they all called me a bon garçon, and one old woman doubled her charity.

"'I had not taken you out of the wagon all day, for fear, if I did, the people should crowd round you out of curiosity, and discover the imposition: evening was coming on, and you did not wake; we were within a lieue of Desmartin, and I did not know what to do; at last I remembered this little cabaret, which stands a few hundred paces from the high road, for I had once in my life travelled as far as Desmartin; and telling the wagoner I meant to pass the night there, as inns in towns were too expensive for me, I desired, when we came in sight of it, to get out. He accordingly stopped, and having taken you out, and paid him his promised fare, we wished one another bon soir, and on he drove.

"'Well, monsieur, I knew it could not be long before you woke; so I determined not to go to the cabaret till you did; so I entered the first field with you in my arms, and having spied the dry ditch where we were when you awoke, I laid you down in it, and seating myself by you, chuckled not a little to myself at the success of my plan,—and when you awoke I was just thinking how you and I should both laugh if we could see ourselves in a miroir.'

"When Jacques had ended his account, having thanked him in the warmest terms for the interest he had so kindly taken in my welfare, and commended the adroitness with which he had effected our escape, I told him that it behoved us immediately to conclude on some plan for leaving the kingdom with all possible expedition; for if my being alive was not discovered, he would doubtless be sent in search of by his uncle, and that if one was taken, the other would in course share his fate, and then both, beyond a doubt, fall sacrifices to the butchers in the Bastile.

"'Why, monsieur,' replied he, 'let us set forward as fast as we can to your home, wherever it is.'

"How astonished was the poor fellow to hear I had neither home nor means of subsistence! He had expected to find me a man of rank and fortune either in Italy or Germany, he knew not which, and who would liberally repay him for his services. He, however, bore his disappointment with the most honourable fortitude, and he drew tears into my eyes by exclaiming, after a short pause of reflection—"Well, monsieur, if you had been un homme de bien, I am sure you would have taken care of pauvre Jacques; as you are not, Jacques will take care of you as well as he is able: as long as that money lasts, half of it is yours;" and so saying, he pulled from his pocket his whole worldly treasure, and threw it upon the bed.

"After much deliberation, we resolved to travel into Germany in our present disguises, for what purpose neither of us knew, except that we must leave France, and that all places were equally indifferent; for to take possession again of the mansion and estate I had once quitted, I knew to be an impossibility for me at the present moment to attempt, encumbered as it was with debts and mortgages.

"Next morning at a very early hour we set forward on our journey, and to our great satisfaction arrived in about ten days' time in Germany, without having suffered more on our journey than what was occasioned by fatigue, and our own fears. During the whole expedition, Jacques' conversation was confined to two subjects—his apprehension of being pursued and overtaken, and his wish of being acquainted in what part of the empire was his brother, who had left Paris about four years ago with a man whom nobody knew, and with whom he had only said, he was going into Germany. 'He was an idle fellow,' continued Jacques, 'and, I dare say, took to some lazy kind of life; and pardi, so was his former one, for he could not have a much easier business than valet de chambre to a marquis: it suited him, for he got fine clothes, and strutted about like a singe poudré: I might have had his place when he went away, but I preferred homeliness and hard work to such frippery; and you see how I am rewarded for my honesty; but hard fare here, better hereafter, says l'évangile; so I am never cast down, monsieur, happen what will.'

"There was something consolatory to me in the reasoning of my humble companion, and I determined to put myself under the guidance of one so cheerful amidst misfortunes, and confident in providence under its painful inflictions, and accordingly told him I was resolved to be entirely directed by him in what course to follow for gaining our future subsistence.

"After some deliberation, Jacques proposed that we should endeavour to push our way to the capital of the empire, where he said he should stand a chance of being better paid for exercising his trade, as the value of his work would there be better estimated, being, as he assured me, an excellent workman.

"On the first day of our arrival in Germany, Jacques took advantage of a pool of water somewhat sequestered from the road, again to change the complexion of his face and hands, but it was some days ere he could accomplish a perfect triumph of the ivory over the ebony; however, having turned his clothes into their proper situation, his appearance became decent; and at the next town, having purchased for me a wrapping coat and a hat, I changed the outward form of my sex behind the first hedge we came to on our again proceeding on our journey.

"The cash Jacques now had left, consisted, in all, of a louis-d'or and deux écus; accordingly, in order to housewife the money we possessed, it not appearing to us so easy a matter to acquire more when it was spent, we resolved to buy a loaf and some cheese, of which we ate, when hungry, under a tree; and, as the season was the middle of summer, we determined to sleep under hedges or in any out-houses we might meet with, thus to avoid the unnecessary expense of entering inns on the road.

"Necessity reconciles measures, which, to those who have never been reduced to adopt them, appear insurmountable; thus we experienced nothing more than accidental inconvenience from pursuing our plan. In the enjoyment of liberty I ever forgot care; and Jacques never failed to declare once every day, that he had rather sleep in a ditch with mud for a feather-bed, than on down in the Bastile.

"Journeying on one night by moonlight, the decayed castle wherein you, Lauretta, was an unfortunate prisoner, attracted our notice: its ruined condition seemed to bespeak it uninhabited; the gate stood open; we entered the hall, and without much farther observation, we determined to make it our abode for the night.

"We lay down together in a corner of the hall, where we had scarcely composed ourselves to sleep, when the sounding of a shrill tucket aroused our attention.—We listened without speaking:—In a couple of minutes a man entered the hall from a distant part of the building, and proceeding to the gate, called out, 'All's safe,' immediately we heard the trampling of horses approaching close to the gate; a number of men, who were talking confusedly, dismounted from them and entered the hall; and the first sentence I distinctly heard, and which opened to me at once the nature of this strange adventure, was, 'curse the barrenness of the road! one can find nobody to plunder,' uttered by one of the men as he vaulted from his horse.

"Presently another man entered the hall from the interior part of the building, carrying a lamp: in an instant Jacques sprung from my side, and running to the man, threw his arms around his neck, exclaiming, 'Ah mon frère, je vous retrouve! Ah mon cher frère! mon cher frère!'

"In his eagerness to embrace his brother, Jacques had knocked the lamp out of his hand, which being extinguished by the fall, the party was left in darkness to exercise their imaginations on what they had heard; and, from what motive I cannot pretend to say, whether from surprise or any supernatural fear, a general silence prevailed till another light was brought into the hall; on the appearance of which, Jacques, regardless of surrounding objects, came running back to me, all the way introducing me to his brother as his 'très bon ami.'

"The banditti, for such, you will have perceived, were the inhabitants of this decayed mansion, immediately came round me; I rose and began to apologise for our intrusion into their dwelling, by stating to them the truth of our circumstances, which Jacques summed up by telling them we were almost penniless, having just escaped from the Bastile.

"Avowed enemies to tyranny, and plainly perceiving there was no deceit in the relationship of the brothers, the banditti invited us to enter that part of the building which they inhabited, and partake of their supper before we retired to rest, when we should be accommodated with a bed.

"I thanked them for their kindness in the warmest terms, and they conducted us into a hall where a repast had been prepared against their return. I ate in complaisance to my entertainers,—and Jacques, because variety, to which he was unaccustomed, whetted his appetite.

"After supper I was requested to relate my adventures, Jacques having awakened their curiosity by repeatedly referring to our late escape; and though I should have preferred retiring to sleep, I felt myself bound to comply with their request.

"When I had concluded my story, the leader rose, and taking my hand,—'We are your brothers in affliction,' he said; 'most of us whom you here behold, have been driven from the haunts of men, by the cruelty of man; but there is not one of us whose heart has been steeled by his misfortunes into inhumanity: never has the traveller whom we have plundered borne the marks of our violence,—never have we left the poor man destitute,—the rich and profligate alone have been our prey,—the unfortunate at all times our care;—you are unfortunate, and we are willing to receive you as a brother; will you then become one of us, and live free from the despotism of tyrants, and the malice of an envious world, enjoying perfect liberty, subject only to laws of our own, and those useless where honour presides?'

"'Well said, noble captain!' cried Jacques, starting up: 'honour amongst thieves is an old proverb of my father's: I'll make one of you with all my heart.'

"During the time I had been reciting my adventures, Jacques had been drinking pretty freely of the palatable wine the table afforded; and having taken somewhat too potent a dose, it was rather the spirit of the wine than that of his own courage which spoke for him in the last sentence. The captain perceived his situation, and commanded his brother to conduct him to bed; but he promised faithfully not to drink another drop, or speak another word, if he might but be permitted to sit up as long as his 'cher maître.'

"During this little altercation between the captain and Jacques, I had a moment of leisure to reflect on the words which had been addressed to me: I thought they appeared rather an apology for a mode of life which the speaker himself knew to be culpable, but was from necessity constrained to follow, than an eulogium which might tempt me to embrace it: I accordingly requested that I might deliberate on his proposal till the morning; a request readily granted me: Jacques and I then retired for the night,—Jacques assuring the captain he had resolved to serve under him.

"A few moments served to change the powers of the deceitful liquor which had produced Jacques's valour; for he was no sooner in bed than his boasted prowess was forgotten in a profound sleep, and I thus left to my own reflections.

"During the greatest part of the night I remained awake, undecided what plan to follow. My mind revolted from becoming a determined robber; but I felt a still greater antipathy to again mixing in the ensnaring scenes of that world from which I had already experienced so much perfidy and sorrow; and I at length resolved to accept the asylum which had been offered me.

"In the morning when Jacques awoke, all the occurrences of the preceding night had entirely fled from his memory, and he awoke me in a great fright, inquiring whether we had got into the Bastile again. Just as I had sufficiently roused myself to begin to rally his recollection, his brother entered to call us to breakfast, and his presence saved me the trouble of farther explanation, as, on sight of him, Jacques immediately recollected where he was.

"On seeing the captain, I immediately declared to him my resolution; and was welcomed by him into my new situation, as also separately by every voice of the community.

"The captain then turned to Jacques, and reminded him of his promise.

"Jacques stared vacantly, and inquired 'what it was?'

"'To become one of the fraternity over which I have the honour to preside,' returned the leader.

"'Did I promise that?'

"'You did.'

"'Well then, I'll keep my word; and if you will but feed me and clothe me, I'll be savetier to you all for nothing: and what more can you desire of me, if you will but consider that a cobbler ought to stick to his last?'

"His brother joined me in interceding for the grant of his petition; and his native mirth, rather than any other qualification, obtained for him the majority of votes in his favour.