Joseph Balsamo (58 page)

” Oh, heavens I” said Gilbert, ” I feel bewildered when I think of what has happened me ! “

” What has happened you is very simple and very natural, my child. You were flying I know not whence, for I did not seek to know your secret ; and in your flight you met a man gathering plants in a wood. He had bread, you had none ; he shared his with you. You did not know where to seek an asylum for the night ; he offered you the shelter of his roof. The man might have been called by any name ; he happened to be called Rousseau. That is the whole affair. This man said to you, the first precept of philosophy is man, suffice for thyself. Now, my friend, when you have copied your rondeau, you will have gained your bread for this day. Copy your rondeau, therefore.”

” Oh, sir, what kindness !”

” As for your lodging, that is yours into the bargain ; only no reading at night, or if you must have a candle, let it be your own ; otherwise, Therese will scold. In the meantime, are you hungry ? “

” Oh, no, sir,” replied Gilbert, in a choking voice.

” There is enough left from our supper of last night to serve for this morning’s breakfast. Do not stand on ceremony ; this repast is the last you will get at my table, un-less by invitation, if we remain friends.”

Gilbert made a movement as if to speak, but Rousseau interrupted him.

” There is in the Rue Plastriere,” continued he, ” a modest eating-house for mechanics ; you can dine there on moderate terms, for I shall recommend you to the pro-prietor. In the meantime, come and breakfast.”

Gilbert followed Rousseau without daring to reply. He was completely subdued ; but at least it was by a man superior to most other men.

After a few mouthfuls he left the table and returned to his task. He spoke truly ; his emotion was so great that

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it had taken away his appetite. During the whole day he never raised his eyes from the paper, and at eight iu the evening, after having torn three sheets, he bad succeeded in copying legibly and neatly a rondean of four pages.

” I will not flatter you,” said Rousseau, “it is not yet well done, but it is legible ; what you have done is worth ten sous ; here is the money.”

Gilbert took it with a low bow.

” There is some bread in the cupboard, Monsieur Gilbert,” said Therese, on whom the young man’s modest demeanor, mildness, and industry had produced a favorable impression.

” Thank yon, ma’am,” replied Gilbert ; ” believe me I shall never forget your kindness.”

” Here,” said she, holding the bread out to him.

He was about to refuse, 1 but, looking at Rousseau, he saw by the slight frown which contracted his piercing eye and the curl which hovered on his delicately formed lips, that the refusal would wound him.

“I accept your kind offer,” said he.

He then withdrew to his little chamber, holding in his hand the six silver sous and the four copper ones he had just received.

” At last,” said he, on entering his garret, ” I am my own master. But stay not yet, since I hold in my hand the bread of charity.”

And although he felt hungry, he laid down the piece of bread on the sill of the skylight, and did not eat it. Then, fancying that sleep would enable him to forget his hunger, he blew out his candle and stretched himself on his straw pallet.

He was awake before daybreak on the following morning, for, in truth, he had slept very little during the night. Recollecting what Rousseau had said about the gardens, he leaned out of the skylight, and saw below him the trees and shrubs of a very beautiful garden, and beyond the trees the hotel to which the garden belonged, the entrance to which was from the Rue Jussienne.

In one corner of the garden, quite surrounded by shrubs

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and flowers, there stood a little summer-house, the windows of which were closed. Gilbert at first thought that the windows were closed on account of the earliness of the hour ; but observing that the foliage of the trees had grown up against the shutters, he was convinced that the summer-house must have been unoccupied since the preceding winter at least. He returned, therefore, to his admiring contemplation of the noble lime-trees, which partially concealed from view the main body of the hotel.

Two or three times during his survey, Gilbert’s eyes had turned toward the piece of bread which Therese had cut from the evening before ; but although hunger pleaded loudly, he was so much the master of himself that he refrained from touching it.

Five o’clock struuk. Gilbert was persuaded that the door of the passage must now be open; and washed, brushed, and combed, for Rousseau had furnished his garret with all that was necessary for his modest toilet, he descended the stairs, with his piece of bread under his arm.

Rousseau, who this time was not the first afoot, and who from a lingering suspicion, perhaps, and the better to watch his guest, had left his door open, heard him descend and narrowly observed his movements. He saw Gilbert leave the house with the bread under his arm ; a poor man came up to him, and he saw Gilbert give him the bread, and then enter a baker’s shop which was just opened, and buy some more.

” Now,” said Rousseau, ” he will go to a tavern, and his poor ten sous will soon vanish.”

But he was mistaken. Gilbert eat his bread as he walked along, then, stopping at a fountain at the corner of the street, he took a long draught, eat the rest of the bread, drank again, rinsed his mouth, washed his hands, and returned towai’d the house.

” Ha ! ” said Rousseau, ” I fancy that I am luckier than Diogenes, and have found a man ! ” And hearing Gilbert’s footsteps on the stairs, he hastened to open the door.

The entire day was spent in uninterrupted labor. Gilbert brought to his monotonous task activity, intelligence,

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and unshrinking assiduity. What he did not perfectly comprehend he guessed, and his hand, the slave of his iron will, traced the notes without hesitation and without mistake. By evening he had copied seven pages, if not elegantly, at least with scrupulous correctness.

Eousseau examined his work with the eye both of a critical judge and a philosopher. As a critical judge, he criticized the form of the notes, the fineness of the joinings, the spaces for the rests and dots ; but he acknowledged that there was a decided improvement since the day before, and he gave Gilbert twenty-five sous.

As a philosopher, he admired the strength of resolution which could bend the ardent temperament and active and athletic frame of a young man of eighteen to such constant and unceasing labor. For Rousseau had discovered that in that young heart there lurked an ardent passion ; but whether ambition or love, he had not yet ascertained.

Gilbert gazed thoughtfully at the money which he had received it was a piece of twenty-four sous and a single son. He put the sou in his pocket, probably with the other sous which were remaining from the little sum of the day before, and grasping the silver with evident satisfaction in his right hand, he said :

” Sir, you are my master, since you give me work and also lodge me in your house gratis, I think it only right, therefore, that I should communicate to you all my intentions, otherwise I might lose your regard.”

Rousseau looked at him with a lowering eye. ” What are you going to do ? ” said he. ” Have you any other intention than that of working to-morrow ? “

” Sir, for to-morrow, yes. With your permission, I should like to be at liberty to-morrow.”

” What to do ? ” said Rousseau, ” to idle ? “

“Sir,” said Gilbert, ” I wish to go to St. Denis.”

” To St. Denis ? “

” Yes ; her highness the dauphiness is to arrive there to-morrow.”

” Ah ! true ; there are to be festivities in honor of her arrival.”

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“That is it, sir.”

” I thought you less of a sight-seer, my young friend * said Eousseau. ” I gave you credit, at first, on the contrary, for despising the pomps of absolute power ‘

” Sir “

” Look at me me, whom you pretend to take for a model. Yesterday one of the royal princes came to invite me to court. Well, observe, citizen as I am, I refused his invitation ; not to go as you would go, my poor lad, on foot, and standing on tiptoe to catch a glimpse over the shoulder of a guardsman of the king’s carriage as it passes, but to appear before princes to be honored by a smile from princesses.”

Gilbert nodded his approbation.

“And why did J ; refuse?” continued Kousseau, with vehemence. “Because a man ought not to have two faces ; because the man who has written that royalty is an abuse ought not to be seen bending before a king. Because I who know that every festivity of the great robs the people of some portion of that comfort which is now scarcely sufficient to keep them from revolt I protest by my absence against all such festivities.”

” Sir,” said Gilbert, ” believe me, I comprehend all the sublimity of your philosophy.”

” Doubtless ; and yet since you do not practise it, per-mit me to tell you “

” Sir,” said Gilbert, ” I am not a philosopher.”

” Tell me, at least, what you are going to do at St. Denis.”

“Sir, I am discreet.”

Eousseau was struck by these words ; he saw that there was some mystery concealed under this obstinate desire, and he looked at this young man with a sort of admiration which his character inspired.

” Oh, very well ! ” said he. ” I see you have a motive ; I like that better.”

” Yes, sir, I have a motive ; one, I assure you, in no way connected with an idle love for pomp or show.”

” So much the better. Or, perhaps, I should say so

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much the worse. There is something unfathomable in your look, young man, and I seek in vain in its expression for the frankness and calm of youth.”

“I told you, sir, that I have been unhappy,” replied Gilbert, sorrowfully, “and for the unhappy there is no youth. Then, you consent to give me to-morrow to my-self ?”

“Yes.”

“Thank you, sir.”

” Kemember, however,” said Rousseau, ” that while yon are gazing at the vain pomps of the world defiling in procession before you, I shall, in one of my herbals, be passing in review the splendor and variety of nature.”

” Sir,” said Gilbert, ” would you not have left all the herbals in the world the day when you went to visit Mademoiselle Galley after having presented her with the bouquet ?”

” Good !” said Rousseau. ” True, you are young. Go to St. Denis, my child.”

Then, when Gilbert, with a joyful countenance, had left the room :

” It is not ambition,” said he ; ” it is love ! “

CHAPTER XLVII. THE SORCERER’S WIFE.

AT the moment when Gilbert, after his hard day’s labor, was munching in his loft his bread dipped in cold water, and inhaling with delight the pure air of the gardens below him, a woman mounted on a magnificent Arabian horse was advancing at full gallop toward St. Denis, along that road which was now deserted, but which on the morrow was to be crowded with so much rank and fashion. She was dressed with elegance, but in a strange and peculiar style, and her face was hidden by a thick veil. On entering the town she proceeded straight to the Carmelite Convent, and dismounting, she knocked with her deli-442 JOSEPH BALSAMO.

cately formed finger at the wicket, while her horse, which she held by the bridle, snorted and pawed the ground with impatience.

Several inhabitants of the town, struck with curiosity, gathered around her. They were attracted, in the first place, by her foreign attire, then by her perseverance in knocking.

” What is it you want, madame ? ” said one of them, at length.

” You see, sir,” she replied, with a strongly marked Italian accent, ” I wish to obtain admittance.”

”In that case, you are taking the wrong way. Thia gate is only opened once a day to the poor, and the hour is now past.”

” What must I 4o, then, to gain an audience of the superior ?”

” You must knock at that little door at the extremity of the wall, or else ring at the grand entrance.”

Another person now approached.

” Do you know, madame,” said he, ” that the present abbess is Her Eoyal Highness Madame Louise of France?’*

” I know it, sir, thank you,” she replied.

“Vetudieu! What a splendid animal!” exclaimed a dragoon, gazing in admiration at the foreigner’s steed. ” Xow, that horse, if not too old, is worth five hundred louis-d’ors, as sure as mine is worth a hundred pistoles ! “

These words produced a great effect on the crowd.

At that moment, a canon, who, unlike the dragoon, looked only at the rider, to the exclusion of her steed, made his way toward her, and by some secret known to himself alone opened the wicket of the tower.

” Enter, madame,” said he, ” and lead in your horse, if you please.”

The woman, eager to escape from the gaze of the crowd, which seemed to terrify her, hurried in, and the gate was closed behind her.

The moment the foreigner found herself alone in the large courtyard she shook the bridle loose on the horse’s neck, and the noble animal, rejoiced to feel himself at

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liberty, made his trappings clash, and pawed the ground so loudly that the portress, who happened for the moment to be off her post, hastened out from the interior of the convent.

” What do you want, madame ? ” cried she ; ” and how did you gain admittance here ? “

” A charitable canon opened the gate for me,” said the stranger. ” As for my business, I wish, if possible, to speak to the superior. “

” Madame will not receive any one this evening.”

” Yet I have been told that it is the duty of superiors of convents to admit, at any hour of the day or of the night, their sisters of the world who come to implore their succor.”

” Possibly so in ordinary circumstances ; but her royal highness, who only arrived the day before yesterday, is scarcely installed in her office yet, and holds this evening a chapter of our order.”

” Oh, madame ! ” replied the stranger, ” I come from a great distance I come from Eome. I have traveled sixty leagues on horseback, and am almost exhausted.”