_The same to the same._
NOIRMOUTIERS,... _December_, 1844.
You may well be astonished. The time passes more quickly than you would
believe, more quickly than I should have believed myself. The weakness
of my lord and master supports my courage through everything. Really,
men are very inferior to us. He is depressed beyond measure. He gets up
as late as he can, rides his horse or goes hunting, or else pays calls
on the dullest people imaginable--lawyers and magistrates who live in
town, that is to say, six leagues from here. He goes to see them when it
is wet! He began to read _Mauprat_ eight days ago, and he is still in
the first volume. "It is much better to be pleased with oneself than to
slander one's neighbours." This is one of your proverbs. But I will
leave him in order to talk of myself.
The country air does me incalculable good. I am magnificently well, and
when I see myself in the glass (such a glass!) I do not look thirty; but
then I walk a good deal. Yesterday I managed to get Henry to come with
me to the seashore. While he shot gulls I read the pirate's song in the
_Giaour_. On the beach, facing a rough sea, the fine verses seemed finer
than ever. Our sea cannot rival that of Greece, but it has its poetry,
as the sea everywhere has. Do you know what strikes me in Lord Byron?
--his insight and understanding of nature. He does not talk of the sea
from only having eaten turbot and oysters. He has sailed on it; he has
seen storms. All his descriptions are from life. Our poets put rhyme
first, then common sense--if there is any in verse. While I walk up and
down, reading, watching and admiring, the Abbé Aubain--I do not know
whether I have mentioned my Abbé to you; he is the village priest--came
up and joined me. He is a young priest who often comes to me. He is well
educated, and knows "how to talk with well-bred people." Besides, from
his large dark eyes and pale, melancholy look, I can very well see that
he has an interesting story, and I try to make it up for myself. We
talked of the sea, of poetry; and, what will surprise you much in a
priest of Noirmoutiers, he talked well. Then he took me to the ruins of
an old abbey upon a cliff and pointed out to me a great gateway carved
with delightful goblins. Oh! if only I had the money to restore it all!
After this, in spite of Henry's remonstrances, who wanted his dinner, I
insisted upon going to the priest's house to see a curious relic which
the curé had found in a peasant's house. It was indeed very beautiful: a
small box of Limoges enamel which would make a lovely jewel-case. But,
good gracious! what a dwelling! And we, who believe ourselves poor!
Imagine a tiny room on the ground floor, badly paved, whitewashed,
furnished with a table and four chairs, and an armchair padded with
straw, with a little flat cake of a cushion in it, stuffed, I should
think, with peachstones, and covered with small pieces of white and red
cotton. On the table were three or four large Greek and Latin folios.
These were the Fathers of the Church, and below, as though hidden, I
came upon _Jocelin_. He blushed. He was very attentive, however, in
doing the honours of his wretched lodgings without pride or false
modesty. I suspected he had had a romantic story. I soon had a proof of
it. In the Byzantine casket which he showed us there was a faded bouquet
five or six years old at least. "Is that a relic?" I asked him. "No," he
replied, with some agitation. "I do not know how it came there." Then he
took the bouquet and slipped it carefully in his table drawer. Is that
clear enough? I went back to the château saddened to have seen such
poverty, but encouraged to bear my own, which, beside his, seemed of
oriental opulence. You should have seen his surprise when Henry gave him
twenty francs for a woman whom he had introduced to our notice! I really
must make him a present. That straw armchair in which I sat is far too
hard. I will give him one of those folding iron chairs like that which I
took to Italy. You must choose me one, and send it to me as soon as
possible.