Raymon was amazed at what seemed to take place in Indiana's being as
soon as the hounds were away. Her eyes gleamed, her cheeks flushed, the
dilation of her nostrils betrayed an indefinable thrill of fear or
pleasure, and suddenly, driving her spurs into her horse's side, she
left him and galloped after Ralph. Raymon did not know that hunting was
the only passion that Ralph and Indiana had in common. Nor did he
suspect that in that frail and apparently timid woman there abode a more
than masculine courage, that sort of delirious intrepidity which
sometimes manifests itself like a nervous paroxysm in the feeblest
creatures. Women rarely have the physical courage which consists in
offering the resistance of inertia to pain or danger; but they often
have the moral courage which attains its climax in peril or suffering.
Indiana's delicate fibres delighted above all things in the tumult, the
rapid movement and the excitement of the chase, that miniature image of
war with its fatigues, its stratagems, its calculations, its hazards and
its battles. Her dull, ennui-laden life needed this excitement; at such
times she seemed to wake from a lethargy and to expend in one day all
the energy that she had left to ferment uselessly in her blood for a
whole year.
Raymon was terrified to see her ride away so fast, abandoning herself
fearlessly to the impetuous spirit of a horse that she hardly knew,
rushing him through the thickets, avoiding with amazing skill the
branches that lashed at her face as they sprang back, leaping ditches
without hesitation, venturing confidently on clayey, slippery ground,
heedless of the risk of breaking her slender limbs, but eager to be
first on the smoking scent of the boar. So much determination alarmed
him and nearly disgusted him with Madame Delmare. Men, especially
lovers, are addicted to the innocent fatuity of preferring to protect
weakness rather than to admire courage in womankind. Shall I confess it?
Raymon was terrified at the promise of high spirit and tenacity in love
which such intrepidity seemed to afford. It was not like the resignation
of poor Noun, who preferred to drown herself rather than to contend
against her misfortunes.
[Illustration 03: _THE BOAR HUNT_
_Raymon was terrified to see her ride away so
fast, abandoning herself fearlessly to the impetuous
spirit of a horse that she hardly knew, rushing him
through the thickets, avoiding with amazing skill
the branches that lashed at her face as they sprang
back, leaping ditches without hesitation, venturing
confidently on clayey, slippery ground, heedless of the
risk of breaking her slender limbs, but eager to be
first on the smoking scent of the boar._]
"If there's as much vigor and excitement in her tenderness as there is
in her diversions," he thought; "if her will clings to me, fierce and
palpitating, as her caprice clings to that boar's quarters, why society
will impose no fetters on her, the law will have no force; my destiny
will have to succumb and I shall have to sacrifice my future to her
present."
Cries of terror and distress, among which he could distinguish Madame
Delmare's voice, roused Raymon from these reflections. He anxiously
urged his horse forward and was soon overtaken by Ralph, who asked him
if he had heard the outcries.
At that moment several terrified whippers-in rode up to them, crying out
confusedly that the boar had charged and overthrown Madame Delmare.
Other huntsmen, in still greater dismay, appeared, calling for Sir
Ralph, whose surgical skill was required by the injured person.
"It's of no use," said a late arrival. "There is no hope, your help will
be too late."
In that moment of horror, Raymon's eyes fell upon the pale, gloomy
features of Monsieur Brown. He did not cry out, he did not foam at the
mouth, he did not wring his hands; he simply took out his hunting-knife
and with a _sang-froid_ truly English was preparing to cut his own
throat, when Raymon snatched the weapon from him and hurried him in the
direction from which the cries came.
Ralph felt as if he were waking from a dream when he saw Madame Delmare
rush to meet him and urge him forward to the assistance of her husband,
who lay on the ground, apparently lifeless. Sir Ralph made haste to
bleed him; for he had speedily satisfied himself that he was not dead;
but his leg was broken and he was taken to the château.
As for Madame Delmare, in the confusion her name had been substituted by
accident for that of her husband, or perhaps Ralph and Raymon had
erroneously thought that they heard the name in which they were most
interested.
Indiana was uninjured, but her fright and consternation had almost taken
away her power of locomotion. Raymon supported her in his arms and was
reconciled to her womanly heart when he saw how deeply affected she was
by the misfortune of a husband whom she had much to forgive before
pitying him.
Sir Ralph had already recovered his accustomed tranquillity; but an
extraordinary pallor revealed the violent shock he had experienced; he
had nearly lost one of the two human beings whom he loved.
Raymon, who alone, in that moment of confusion and excitement, had
retained sufficient presence of mind to understand what he saw, had been
able to judge of Ralph's affection for his cousin, and how little it was
balanced by his feeling for the colonel. This observation, which
positively contradicted Indiana's opinion, did not depart from Raymon's
memory as it did from that of the other witnesses of the scene.
However Raymon never mentioned to Madame Delmare the attempted suicide
of which he had been a witness. In this ungenerous reserve there was a
suggestion of selfishness and bad temper which you will forgive perhaps
in view of the amorous jealousy which was responsible for it.
After six weeks the colonel was with much difficulty removed to Lagny;
but it was more than six months thereafter before he could walk; for
before the fractured femur was fairly reduced he had an acute attack of
rheumatism in the injured leg, which condemned him to excruciating pain
and absolute immobility. His wife lavished the most loving attentions
upon him; she never left his bedside and endured without a complaint his
bitter fault-finding humor, his soldier-like testiness and his invalid's
injustice.
Despite the ennui of such a depressing life, her health became robust
and flourishing once more and happiness took up its abode in her heart.
Raymon loved her, he really loved her. He came every day; he was
discouraged by no difficulty in the way of seeing her, he bore with the
infirmities of her husband, her cousin's coldness, the constraint of
their interviews. A glance from him filled Indiana's heart with joy for
a whole day. She no longer thought of complaining of life; her heart was
full, her youthful nature had ample employment, her moral force had
something to feed upon.
The colonel gradually came to feel very friendly to Raymon. He was
simple enough to believe that his neighbor's assiduity in calling upon
him was a proof of the interest he took in his health. Madame de
Ramière also came occasionally, to sanction the liaison by her
presence, and Indiana became warmly and passionately attached to
Raymon's mother. At last the wife's lover became the husband's friend.
As a result of being thus constantly thrown together, Raymon and Ralph
perforce became intimate in a certain sense; they called each other "my
dear fellow," they shook hands morning and night. If either of them
desired to ask a slight favor of the other, the regular form was this:
"I count upon your friendship," etc. And when they spoke of each other
they said: "He is a friend of mine."
But, although they were both as frank and outspoken as a man can be in
the world, they were not at all fond of each other. They differed
essentially in their opinions on every subject; they had no likes or
dislikes in common; and, although they both loved Madame Delmare, they
loved her in such a different way that that sentiment divided them
instead of bringing them together. They found a singular pleasure in
contradicting each other and in disturbing each other's equanimity as
much as possible by reproaches which were none the less sharp and bitter
because they took the form of generalities.
Their principal and most frequent controversies began with politics and
ended with morals. It was in the evening, when they were all assembled
around Monsieur Delmare's easy-chair, that discussions arose on the most
trivial pretexts. They always maintained the external courtesy which
philosophy imposed on the one and social custom on the other: but they
sometimes said to each other, under the thin veil of allusions, some
very harsh things, which amused the colonel; for he was naturally
bellicose and quarrelsome and loved disputes in default of battles.
For my part, I believe that a man's political opinion is the whole man.
Tell me what your heart and your head are and I will tell you your
political opinions. In whatever rank or political party chance may have
placed us at our birth, our character prevails sooner or later over the
prejudice or artificial beliefs of education. You will call that a very
sweeping statement perhaps; but how could I persuade myself to augur
well of a mind that clings to certain theories which a generous spirit
rejects? Show me a man who maintains the usefulness of capital
punishment, and, however conscientious and enlightened he may be, I defy
you ever to establish any sympathetic connection between him and me. If
such a man attempts to instruct me as to facts which I do not know, he
will never succeed; for it will not be in my power to give him my
confidence.
Ralph and Raymon differed on all points, and, yet, before they knew each
other, they had no clearly defined opinions. But, as soon as they were
at odds, each of them maintained the contrary of what the other
advanced, and in that way they would form for themselves an absolute,
unassailable conviction. Raymon was on all occasions the champion of
existing society, Ralph attacked its structure at every point.
The explanation was simple: Raymon was happy and treated with the utmost
consideration, Ralph had known nothing of life but its evils and its
bitterness; one found everything very satisfactory, the other was
dissatisfied with everything. Men and things had maltreated Ralph and
heaped benefits upon Raymon; and, like two children, they referred
everything to themselves, setting themselves up as a court of last
resort in regard to the great questions of social order, although they
were equally incompetent.
Thus Ralph always upheld his visionary scheme of a republic from which
he proposed to exclude all abuses, all prejudices, all injustice; a
scheme founded entirely upon the hope of a new race of men. Raymon
upheld his doctrine of an hereditary monarchy, preferring, he said, to
endure abuses, prejudice and injustice, to seeing scaffolds erected and
innocent blood shed.
The colonel was almost always on Ralph's side at the beginning of the
discussion. He hated the Bourbons and imparted to all his opinions all
the animosity of his sentiments. But soon Raymon would adroitly bring
him over to his side by proving to him that the monarchy was in
principle much nearer the Empire than the Republic. Ralph was so lacking
in the power of persuasion, he was so sincere, so bungling, the poor
baronet! his frankness was so unpolished, his logic so dull, his
principles so rigid! He spared no one, he softened no harsh truth.
"_Parbleu!_" he would say to the colonel, when that worthy cursed
England's intervention, "what in heaven's name have you, a man of some
common sense and reasoning power, I suppose, to complain of because a
whole nation fought fairly against you?"
"Fairly?" Delmare would repeat the word, grinding his teeth together and
brandishing his crutch.
"Let us leave political questions to be decided by the powers
concerned," Sir Ralph would say, "as we have adopted a form of
government which forbids us to discuss our interests ourselves. If a
nation is responsible for the faults of its legislature, what one can
you find that is guiltier than yours?"
"And so I say, monsieur, shame upon France, which abandoned Napoléon
and submitted to a king proclaimed by the bayonets of foreigners!" the
colonel would exclaim.
"For my part, I do not say shame upon France," Sir Ralph would rejoin,
"but woe to her! I pity her because she was so weak and so diseased, on
the day she was purged of her tyrant, that she was compelled to accept
your rag of a constitutional Charter, a mere shred of liberty which you
are beginning to respect now that you must throw it aside and conquer
your liberty over again."
Thereupon Raymon would pick up the gauntlet that Sir Ralph threw down. A
knight of the Charter, he chose to be a knight of liberty as well, and
he proved to Ralph with marvelous skill that one was the expression of
the other; that, if he shattered the Charter he overturned his own idol.
In vain would the baronet struggle in the unsound arguments in which
Monsieur de Ramière entangled him; with admirable force he would argue
that a greater extension of the suffrage would infallibly lead to the
excesses of '93, and that the nation was not yet ripe for liberty, which
is not the same as license. And when Sir Ralph declared that it was
absurd to attempt to confine a constitution within a certain number of
articles, that what was sufficient at first would eventually become
insufficient, supporting his argument by the example of the
convalescent, whose needs increased every day, Raymon would reply to all
these commonplaces expressed with difficulty by Monsieur Brown that the
Charter was not an immovable circle, that it would stretch with the
necessities of France, attributing to it an elasticity which, he said,
would afford later a means of satisfying the demands of the nation, but
which in fact satisfied only those of the crown.
As to Delmare, he had not advanced a step since 1815. He was a
stationary mortal, as full of prejudices and as obstinate as the
émigrés at Coblentz, the never-failing subjects of his implacable
irony. He was like an old child and had failed utterly to comprehend the
great drama of the downfall of Napoléon. He had seen naught but the
fortune of war in that crisis when the power of public opinion
triumphed. He was forever talking of treason and of selling the country,
as if a whole nation could betray a single man, as if France would have
allowed herself to be sold by a few generals! He accused the Bourbons of
tyranny and sighed for the glorious days of the Empire, when arms were
lacking to till the soil and families were without bread. He declaimed
against Franchet's police and extolled Fouché's. He was still at the
day after Waterloo.
It was really a curious thing to listen to the sentimental idiocies of
Delmare and Monsieur de Ramière, philanthropic dreamers both, one under
the sword of Napoléon, the other under the sceptre of Saint-Louis;
Monsieur Delmare planted at the foot of the Pyramids, Raymon seated
under the monarchic shadow of the oak of Vincennes. Their Utopias, which
clashed at first, became reconciled in due time: Raymon limed the
colonel with his chivalrous sentiments; for one concession he exacted
ten, and he accustomed him little by little to the spectacle of
twenty-five years of victory ascending in a spiral column under the
folds of the white flag. If Ralph had not constantly cast his abrupt,
rough observations into the centre of Monsieur de Ramière's flowery
rhetoric, he would infallibly have won Delmare over to the throne of
1815; but Ralph irritated his self-esteem, and the bungling
outspokenness with which the Englishman strove to shake his convictions
served only to anchor him more firmly in his imperialism. Thus all
Monsieur de Ramière's efforts were wasted; Ralph trod heavily upon the
flowers of his eloquence and the colonel returned with renewed
enthusiasm to his tri-color. He swore that he would shake off the dust
from it some fine day, that he would spit on the lilies and restore the
Duc de Reichstadt to the throne of _his fathers_; he would begin anew
the conquest of the world; and he always concluded by lamenting the
disgrace that rested upon France, the rheumatism that glued him to his
chair and the ingratitude of the Bourbons to the old moustaches whom the
sun of the desert had burned and who had swarmed over the ice-floes of
the Moskowa.
"My poor fellow!" Ralph would say, "for heaven's sake be fair; you
complain because the Restoration did not pay for services rendered the
Empire and because it did reimburse its _émigrés._ Tell me, if
Napoléon could come to life again to-morrow in all his power, would you
like it if he should withdraw his favor from you and bestow it on the
partisans of legitimacy? Every one for himself and his own; these are
business discussions, disputes concerning private interests, which have
little interest for France, now that you are almost all as incapacitated
as the _voltigeurs_ of the emigration, and that, whether gouty, married
or sulking, you are all equally useless to her. However, she must
support you all, and you see who can complain the loudest of her. When
the day of the Republic dawns, she will clear her skirts of all your
demands, and it will be no more than justice."
These trivial but self-evident observations offended the colonel like so
many personal affronts; and Ralph who, with all his good sense, did not
realize that the pettiness of spirit of a man whom he esteemed could go
so far, fell into the habit of irritating him without mercy.
Before Raymon's arrival there had been a tacit agreement between the two
to avoid every subject of controversy in which there might be some
clashing and wounding of delicate sensibilities. But Raymon brought into
their conversation all the subtleties of the language, all the petty
artifices of civilization. He taught them that people can say anything
to one another, indulge in all sorts of reproaches and shield themselves
behind the pretext of legitimate discussion. He introduced among them
the habit of disputation, then tolerated in the salons, because the
vindictive passions of the Hundred Days had finally become appeased, had
assumed divers milder shades. But the colonel had retained all the
vehemence of his passions, and Ralph made a sad mistake in thinking that
it was possible for him to listen to reason. Monsieur Delmare became
daily more sour toward him and drew nearer to Raymon, who, without
making too extensive concessions, knew how to assume an appearance of
graciousness in order to spare the other's self-esteem.
It is a great imprudence to introduce politics as a pastime in the
domestic circle. If there exist to-day any peaceful and happy families,
I advise them to subscribe to no newspaper; not to read a single line of
the budget, to bury themselves in the depth of their country estates as
in an oasis, and to draw between themselves and the rest of society a
line that none may pass; for, if they allow the echoes of our disputes
to meet their ears, it is all over with their union and their repose. It
is hard to imagine how much gall and bitterness political differences
cause between near kindred. Most of the time they simply afford them an
opportunity for reproaching one another for defects of character, mental
obliquities and vices of the heart.
They would not dare to call one another knave, imbecile, ambitious
villain or poltroon. They express the same idea by such names as
_jesuit, royalist, revolutionist_ and _trimmer._ These are different
words, but the insult is the same, and all the more stinging because
they may pursue and attack one another in this fashion without
restraint, without mercy. There is an end to all mutual toleration of
failings, all charitable spirit, all generous and delicate reserve;
nothing is overlooked, everything is attributed to political feeling,
and beneath that mask hatred and vengeance are freely exhaled. O ye
blessed dwellers in the country, if there still be any country in
France, shun, shun politics, and read the _Peau d'Ane_ by your
firesides! But the contagion is so great that there is no retreat
obscure enough, no solitude profound enough to hide and shelter the man
who would find a refuge for his amiable heart from the tempests of our
civil dissensions.
In vain had the little château in Brie defended itself for years
against this ill-omened invasion; it lost in time its heedlessness, its
active domestic life, its long evenings of silence and meditation. Noisy
disputes awoke its slumbering echoes; bitter and threatening words
terrified the faded cherubs who had smiled amid the dust of the hangings
for a hundred years past. The excitements of present-day life found
their way into that ancient dwelling, and all those old-fashioned
splendors, all those relics of a period of pleasure and frivolity saw
with dismay the advent of an epoch of doubt and declamation, represented
by three men who shut themselves up together every day to quarrel from
morning till night.