IN LEIGOUTTE
Like so many other places, Leigoutte had risen from the ashes after the
war was over. A great sensation was caused one day by the appearance in
the village of an old gray-headed man. He said he intended to erect a
new building on the spot where the school and tavern house formerly
stood. The old man paid without any haggling the price asked for the
ground, and shortly afterward workmen were seen busily carting the ruins
away and digging a foundation.
The villagers thought a new and elegant house would replace the old one
now, but they deceived themselves. Strange to say, the new building
resembled the old one even to the smallest details. In the basement was
the kitchen from which a door led to the low narrow tavern-room, and in
the upper story were two bedrooms and the large schoolroom.
When the house was finished, a sign half destroyed by fire was fastened
to one end, and the peasants swore it was the sign of the former
innkeeper, Jules Fougeres. In the right corner the words "To the welfare
of France" could be clearly seen.
The new owner did not live in the house himself. He gave it free of
charge to the poorest family in the village, with the condition that he
be allowed to live there a few weeks each year. A schoolmaster was soon
found in the person of a former sergeant, and as Pierre Labarre--such
was the name of the new owner--undertook to look out for the teacher's
salary, the inhabitants of Leigoutte had every reason to be thankful to
him. When Pierre came to the village, which was generally in spring, the
big and little ones surrounded him, and the old man would smile at the
children, play with them, and assemble the parents at evening in the
large tavern-room, and relate stories of the Revolution.
He had come this spring to Leigoutte and the children gleefully greeted
him. On the evening of a March day he was sitting pensively at the
window of the tavern, when he suddenly saw two curious figures coming up
the road. One of the figures, apparently a young, strong girl, had her
arm about a bent old woman, who could hardly walk along, and had to be
supported by her companion.
Pierre felt his heart painfully moved when he saw the two women, and
following an indefinable impulse he left the room and seated himself on
a bench in front of the house.
The wanderers did not notice him. When they were opposite the house the
old woman raised her head, and Pierre now saw a fearfully disfigured
face. The woman whispered a few words to her companion; the young girl
nodded and began to walk in the direction of the school-house. The
paralyzed woman climbed the few steps which led into the house, and
walking along the corridor she entered the parlor.
Pierre could not sit still any more. He noiselessly arose and entered
the corridor. The parlor door was wide open, and he saw the gray-haired
woman sitting at a table and looking all around her. Her small,
fleshless lips parted, and half aloud she muttered:
"Where can Jules be? The dinner has been ready a long time, the children
are getting impatient, and still he does not come! Come here, Jacques;
father will be here soon. Louison, do not cry or I shall scold! Ah,
little fool, I did not mean it: be quiet, he will soon be here!"
Pierre Labarre felt his heart stand still. The crippled, disfigured
woman who sat there could be none other than Louise, Jules's wife! But
who could her companion be?
No longer able to control himself, he softly entered the room. The young
girl immediately perceived him, and folding her hands, she said, in a
pleading tone:
"Do not get angry, sir! We shall not trouble you long."
"Make yourselves at home," replied Pierre, cordially; "but tell me," he
continued, "who is this woman?"
Caillette, for she was the young woman, put her finger to her forehead,
and looked significantly at the old woman.
"She is crazy," she whispered.
Pierre Labarre laid his hand over his eyes to hide his tears, but he
could not prevent a nervous sob from shaking his broad frame.
"Tell me," he repeated softly, "who is the woman?"
"Ah! the poor woman has gone through a great deal of trouble," replied
Caillette, sorrowfully. "She has lost her husband and her children, and
was badly injured at a fire. Only a few weeks ago she could hardly move
a limb, but since a short time her condition has wonderfully improved,
and she can now walk, though not without assistance."
"But her name--what is she called?"
"Ah, my dear sir, I do not know her real name; the people who live in
her neighborhood in Paris call her the 'Burned Woman,' and Louison calls
her mamma or mother."
"Louison? Who is that?"
"A young girl who has taken care of her. She earns her living through
singing, and is a charming girl. Her brother is named Fanfaro. Ah! it is
a curious story, full of misfortune and crime."
Pierre was silent for a moment, and then asked:
"Who is this Fanfaro whom you just spoke about?"
Caillette did not answer immediately. Fanfaro was to her the incarnation
of all that was good and noble in the world, but of course she could not
tell the old man this.
"Fanfaro is a foundling," she finally said; "of course he is a man now,
and just as energetic and brave as any one."
"Fanfaro, Fanfaro," repeated the old man, pensively; "where have I heard
the name before?"
The maniac now raised her eyes, and, seeing Pierre, she politely said:
"Excuse the plain service, sir; it is very little, but comes from our
hearts."
Pierre Labarre uttered a cry of astonishment.
"Louise--Louise Fougeres!" he cried, beside himself.
The invalid looked sharply at Pierre, and tremblingly said:
"Who called me? Who pronounced my name just now?"
"I, Louise," replied Pierre. "Louise Fougeres, do you not recollect
your husband, Jules, and your children, Jacques and Louison?"
"Of course I remember them. Ah, how glad I would be if I could see them
again! Where can Jules be? and Jacques--Jacques--"
The maniac was silent, and ran her crippled fingers through her gray
hair, as if she were trying to recollect something.
"Yes, I know," she murmured pensively, "Louison is here, she sleeps in a
neat white bed, but she is away now--and--and--"
Expectantly Pierre gazed at the poor woman, who was palpably confounding
imagination with reality, and after a pause she continued:
"Oh, the door opens now, and Jacques enters! Welcome, my dear child. How
handsome you have become. Thank God, I have you again!"
"Has she really found Jacques again?" asked Labarre, tremblingly, and
turning to Caillette. "Is he living?"
"Yes, he is the same person as Fanfaro."
"God be praised. And Louison?"
"Louison has been abducted and--"
"Abducted? By whom?"
"By the Vicomte of Talizac."
"By Talizac? O my God!" stammered Labarre, in horror.
Louise, too, had heard the name, and raising herself with difficulty,
she whispered:
"Talizac? He must know it! Jacques--the box, O God! where is the box?"
* * * * *
How did these two women get to Leigoutte?
When Fanfaro went to search for Louison, his mother had remained behind
under the protection of Caillette. The day passed, night came, but
neither Fanfaro, Girdel nor Bobichel returned. The maniac screamed and
cried. She wanted to see Jacques, and Caillette could hardly calm her.
Finally long past midnight she fell into a slumber, and Caillette, too,
exhausted by the excitement of the last few hours, closed her eyes.
When she awoke it was daylight. She glanced at the maniac's bed.
Merciful Heaven, it was empty!
Trembling with fear, Caillette hurried downstairs and asked the
janitress whether she had seen anything of the "Burned Woman." The
janitress looked at her in amazement and said she had thought at once
when she saw the old crippled woman creeping down the stairs two hours
before that all was not right in her head.
"But she cannot walk at all, how could she get out?" groaned Caillette.
"Suppose Fanfaro came now and found that his mother was gone?"
"A milk-wagon stopped in front of the door," said the janitress, "and
the driver let the old woman get in. I thought it had been arranged
beforehand and was all right."
Caillette wrung her hands and then hurried to the station house and
announced the disappearance of the "Burned Woman."
If her father and Bobichel, even Fanfaro, had come, she would have felt
at ease. But no one showed himself, and Caillette, who knew that Girdel
and Fanfaro were wanted, did not dare to make any inquiries.
She ran about in desperation. The only clew was the milkman, but where
could she find him? Caillette passed hours of dreadful anxiety, and when
a ragpicker told her that he saw a woman who answered her description
pass the Barriere d'Italie on a milk-wagon, she thought him a messenger
of God.
As quick as she could go, she ran to the place designated; a hundred
times on the way, she said to herself that the wagon must have gone on;
and yet it struck like a clap of thunder when she found it was really
so. What now? Caillette asked from house to house; every one had seen
the woman, but she had gone in a different direction; and so the poor
child wandered onward, right and left, forward and backward, always
hoping to discover them. Finally, after she had been thirty-six hours on
the way, she found the maniac in a little tavern by the roadside. She
was crouching near the threshold, and smiled when she saw Caillette.
"God be praised! I have found you," cried the young girl, sobbing; and
when the hostess, who had been standing in the background, heard these
words, she joyfully said:
"I am glad I did not leave the poor woman go; she spoke so funny, I
thought at once that she had run away from her family."
"What did she say?" asked Caillette, while the "Burned Woman" clung to
her.
"Oh, she asked for bread, and then inquired the way to the Vosges."
"Yes, to the Vosges," said the maniac, hastily.
"But, mother, what should we do in the Vosges?" asked Caillette, in
surprise.
"To Leigoutte--Leigoutte," repeated the maniac, urgently.
"Leigoutte--that is Fanfaro's home!" exclaimed the young girl, hastily.
"Not Fanfaro--Jacques," corrected the old woman.
"But what should we do in Leigoutte, mother?"
"The box--Jacques--Talizac--the papers," the woman replied.
And so we find Caillette and her patient, after weary wanderings, in
Leigoutte. The young girl had sold, on the way, a gold cross, the only
jewel she possessed, to pay the expenses of the journey. Charitable
peasants had given the women short rides at times; kind-hearted farmers'
wives had offered them food and drink, or else a night's lodging. Yet
Caillette thanked God when she arrived at Leigoutte. What would happen
now, she did not know. Nothing could induce the maniac to return, and
the young girl thought it best not to oppose her wish. Little by little,
she began to suspect herself that the journey might be important for
Fanfaro; who could tell what thoughts were agitating the mad woman's
brain; and, perhaps, the unexpected recovery of her son might have
awakened recollections of the past.
"I must speak to old Laison," said the "Burned Woman," suddenly; "he
must help me."
She arose, shoved Caillette and Pierre aside, and hobbled toward the
back door. Opening it, she reached the open field, and without looking
around, she walked on and on. Pierre and Caillette followed her
unnoticed. She had now reached the spot on which the old farmhouse of
Laison stood, and, looking timidly around her, she turned to the right.
Suddenly she uttered a loud scream, and when Caillette and Pierre
hurried in affright to her, they found the maniac deathly pale, leaning
against a hollow tree, while her crippled fingers held a box, which she
had apparently dug out of the earth; for close to the hollow tree was a
deep hole, and the box was covered with dirt and earth.
"There it is!" she cried to Pierre, and from the eyes in which madness
had shone before, reason now sparkled. "Jacques is not my son, but
Vicomte de Talizac, and Louison is the Marquise of Fougereuse--here are
the proofs."
She clutched a number of papers from the box and held them triumphantly
uplifted; but then nature demanded her right, and, exhausted by the
great excitement, she sank senseless into Caillette's arms.