M. le Maire having requested me, on his entrance into Semur, to lose no
time in drawing up an account of my residence in the town, to be placed
with his own narrative, I have promised to do so to the best of my
ability, feeling that my condition is a very precarious one, and my time
for explanation may be short. Many things, needless to enumerate, press
this upon my mind. It was a pleasure to me to see my neighbours when I
first came out of the city; but their voices, their touch, their
vehemence and eagerness wear me out. From my childhood up I have shrunk
from close contact with my fellow-men. My mind has been busy with other
thoughts; I have desired to investigate the mysterious and unseen. When
I have walked abroad I have heard whispers in the air; I have felt the
movement of wings, the gliding of unseen feet. To my comrades these have
been a source of alarm and disquiet, but not to me; is not God in the
unseen with all His angels? and not only so, but the best and wisest of
men. There was a time indeed, when life acquired for me a charm. There
was a smile which filled me with blessedness, and made the sunshine more
sweet. But when she died my earthly joys died with her. Since then I
have thought of little but the depths profound, into which she has
disappeared like the rest.
I was in the garden of my house on that night when all the others left
Semur. I was restless, my mind was disturbed. It seemed to me that I
approached the crisis of my life. Since the time when I led M. le Maire
beyond the walls, and we felt both of us the rush and pressure of that
crowd, a feeling of expectation had been in my mind. I knew not what I
looked for--but something I looked for that should change the world.
The 'Sommation' on the Cathedral doors did not surprise me. Why should
it be a matter of wonder that the dead should come back? the wonder is
that they do not. Ah! that is the wonder. How one can go away who loves
you, and never return, nor speak, nor send any message--that is the
miracle: not that the heavens should bend down and the gates of Paradise
roll back, and those who have left us return. All my life it has been a
marvel to me how they could be kept away. I could not stay in-doors on
this strange night. My mind was full of agitation. I came out into the
garden though it was dark. I sat down upon the bench under the
trellis--she loved it. Often had I spent half the night there thinking
of her.
It was very dark that night: the sky all veiled, no light anywhere a
night like November. One would have said there was snow in the air. I
think I must have slept toward morning (I have observed throughout that
the preliminaries of these occurrences have always been veiled in
sleep), and when I woke suddenly it was to find myself, if I may so
speak, the subject of a struggle. The struggle was within me, yet it was
not I. In my mind there was a desire to rise from where I sat and go
away, I could not tell where or why; but something in me said stay, and
my limbs were as heavy as lead. I could not move; I sat still against my
will; against one part of my will--but the other was obstinate and would
not let me go. Thus a combat took place within me of which I knew not
the meaning. While it went on I began to hear the sound of many feet,
the opening of doors, the people pouring out into the streets. This gave
me no surprise; it seemed to me that I understood why it was; only in my
own case, I knew nothing. I listened to the steps pouring past, going on
and on, faintly dying away in the distance, and there was a great
stillness. I then became convinced, though I cannot tell how, that I was
the only living man left in Semur; but neither did this trouble me. The
struggle within me came to an end, and I experienced a great calm.
I cannot tell how long it was till I perceived a change in the air, in
the darkness round me. It was like the movement of some one unseen. I
have felt such a sensation in the night, when all was still, before now.
I saw nothing. I heard nothing. Yet I was aware, I cannot tell how, that
there was a great coming and going, and the sensation as of a multitude
in the air. I then rose and went into my house, where Leocadie, my old
housekeeper, had shut all the doors so carefully when she went to bed.
They were now all open, even the door of my wife's room of which I kept
always the key, and where no one entered but myself; the windows also
were open. I looked out upon the Grande Rue, and all the other houses
were like mine. Everything was open, doors and windows, and the streets
were full. There was in them a flow and movement of the unseen, without
a sound, sensible only to the soul. I cannot describe it, for I neither
heard nor saw, but felt. I have often been in crowds; I have lived in
Paris, and once passed into England, and walked about the London
streets. But never, it seemed to me, never was I aware of so many, of so
great a multitude. I stood at my open window, and watched as in a dream.
M. le Maire is aware that his house is visible from mine. Towards that a
stream seemed to be always going, and at the windows and in the doorways
was a sensation of multitudes like that which I have already described.
Gazing out thus upon the revolution which was happening before my eyes,
I did not think of my own house or what was passing there, till
suddenly, in a moment, I was aware that some one had come in to me. Not
a crowd as elsewhere; one. My heart leaped up like a bird let loose; it
grew faint within me with joy and fear. I was giddy so that I could not
stand. I called out her name, but low, for I was too happy, I had no
voice. Besides was it needed, when heart already spoke to heart?
I had no answer, but I needed none. I laid myself down on the floor
where her feet would be. Her presence wrapped me round and round. It was
beyond speech. Neither did I need to see her face, nor to touch her
hand. She was more near to me, more near, than when I held her in my
arms. How long it was so, I cannot tell; it was long as love, yet short
as the drawing of a breath. I knew nothing, felt nothing but Her, alone;
all my wonder and desire to know departed from me. We said to each other
everything without words--heart overflowing into heart. It was beyond
knowledge or speech.
But this is not of public signification that I should occupy with it the
time of M. le Maire.
After a while my happiness came to an end. I can no more tell how, than
I can tell how it came. One moment, I was warm in her presence; the
next, I was alone. I rose up staggering with blindness and woe--could it
be that already, already it was over? I went out blindly following after
her. My God, I shall follow, I shall follow, till life is over. She
loved me; but she was gone.
Thus, despair came to me at the very moment when the longing of my soul
was satisfied and I found myself among the unseen; but I cared for
knowledge no longer, I sought only her. I lost a portion of my time so.
I regret to have to confess it to M. le Maire. Much that I might have
learned will thus remain lost to my fellow-citizens and the world. We
are made so. What we desire eludes us at the moment of grasping it--or
those affections which are the foundation of our lives preoccupy us, and
blind the soul. Instead of endeavouring to establish my faith and
enlighten my judgment as to those mysteries which have been my life-long
study, all higher purpose departed from me; and I did nothing but rush
through the city, groping among those crowds, seeing nothing, thinking
of nothing--save of One.
From this also I awakened as out of a dream. What roused me was the
pealing of the Cathedral bells. I was made to pause and stand still, and
return to myself. Then I perceived, but dimly, that the thing which had
happened to me was that which I had desired all my life. I leave this
explanation of my failure [Footnote: The reader will remember that the
ringing of the Cathedral bells happened in fact very soon after the
exodus of the citizens; so that the self-reproaches of M. Lecamus had
less foundation than he thought.] in public duty to the charity of M. le
Maire.
The bells of the Cathedral brought me back to myself--to that which we
call reality in our language; but of all that was around me when I
regained consciousness, it now appeared to me that I only was a dream. I
was in the midst of a world where all was in movement. What the current
was which flowed around me I know not; if it was thought which becomes
sensible among spirits, if it was action, I cannot tell. But the energy,
the force, the living that was in them, that could no one misunderstand.
I stood in the streets, lagging and feeble, scarcely able to wish, much
less to think. They pushed against me, put me aside, took no note of me.
In the unseen world described by a poet whom M. le Maire has probably
heard of, the man who traverses Purgatory (to speak of no other place)
is seen by all, and is a wonder to all he meets--his shadow, his breath
separate him from those around him. But whether the unseen life has
changed, or if it is I who am not worthy their attention, this I know
that I stood in our city like a ghost, and no one took any heed of me.
When there came back upon me slowly my old desire to inquire, to
understand, I was met with this difficulty at the first--that no one
heeded me. I went through and through the streets, sometimes I paused to
look round, to implore that which swept by me to make itself known. But
the stream went along like soft air, like the flowing of a river,
setting me aside from time to time, as the air will displace a straw, or
the water a stone, but no more. There was neither languor nor lingering.
I was the only passive thing, the being without occupation. Would you
have paused in your labours to tell an idle traveller the meaning of our
lives, before the day when you left Semur? Nor would they: I was driven
hither and thither by the current of that life, but no one stepped forth
out of the unseen to hear my questions or to answer me how this might
be.
You have been made to believe that all was darkness in Semur. M. le
Maire, it was not so. The darkness wrapped the walls as in a winding
sheet; but within, soon after you were gone, there arose a sweet and
wonderful light--a light that was neither of the sun nor of the moon;
and presently, after the ringing of the bells; the silence departed as
the darkness had departed. I began to hear, first a murmur, then the
sound of the going which I had felt without hearing it--then a faint
tinkle of voices--and at the last, as my mind grew attuned to these
wonders, the very words they said. If they spoke in our language or in
another, I cannot tell; but I understood. How long it was before the
sensation of their presence was aided by the happiness of hearing I know
not, nor do I know how the time has passed, or how long it is, whether
years or days, that I have been in Semur with those who are now there;
for the light did not vary--there was no night or day. All I know is
that suddenly, on awakening from a sleep (for the wonder was that I
could sleep, sometimes sitting on the Cathedral steps, sometimes in my
own house; where sometimes also I lingered and searched about for the
crusts that Leocadie had left), I found the whole world full of sound.
They sang going in bands about the streets; they talked to each other
as they went along every way. From the houses, all open, where everyone
could go who would, there came the soft chiming of those voices. And at
first every sound was full of gladness and hope. The song they sang
first was like this: 'Send us, send us to our father's house. Many are
our brethren, many and dear. They have forgotten, forgotten, forgotten!
But when we speak, then will they hear.' And the others answered: 'We
have come, we have come to the house of our fathers. Sweet are the
homes, the homes we were born in. As we remember, so will they remember.
When we speak, when we speak, they will hear.' Do not think that these
were the words they sang; but it was like this. And as they sang there
was joy and expectation everywhere. It was more beautiful than any of
our music, for it was full of desire and longing, yet hope and gladness;
whereas among us, where there is longing, it is always sad. Later a
great singer, I know not who he was, one going past as on a majestic
soft wind, sang another song, of which I shall tell you by and by. I do
not think he was one of them. They came out to the windows, to the
doors, into all the streets and byways to hear him as he went past.
M. le Maire will, however, be good enough to remark that I did not
understand all that I heard. In the middle of a phrase, in a word half
breathed, a sudden barrier would rise. For a time I laboured after their
meaning, trying hard and vainly to understand; but afterwards I
perceived that only when they spoke of Semur, of you who were gone
forth, and of what was being done, could I make it out. At first this
made me only more eager to hear; but when thought came, then I perceived
that of all my longing nothing was satisfied. Though I was alone with
the unseen, I comprehended it not; only when it touched upon what I
knew, then I understood.
At first all went well. Those who were in the streets, and at the doors
and windows of the houses, and on the Cathedral steps, where they seemed
to throng, listening to the sounding of the bells, spoke only of this
that they had come to do. Of you and you only I heard. They said to each
other, with great joy, that the women had been instructed, that they had
listened, and were safe. There was pleasure in all the city. The singers
were called forth, those who were best instructed (so I judged from what
I heard), to take the place of the warders on the walls; and all, as
they went along, sang that song: 'Our brothers have forgotten; but when
we speak, they will hear.' How was it, how was it that you did not hear?
One time I was by the river porte in a boat; and this song came to me
from the walls as sweet as Heaven. Never have I heard such a song. The
music was beseeching, it moved the very heart. 'We have come out of the
unseen,' they sang; 'for love of you; believe us, believe us! Love
brings us back to earth; believe us, believe us!' How was it that you
did not hear? When I heard those singers sing, I wept; they beguiled the
heart out of my bosom. They sang, they shouted, the music swept about
all the walls: 'Love brings us back to earth, believe us!' M. le Maire,
I saw you from the river gate; there was a look of perplexity upon your
face; and one put his curved hand to his ear as if to listen to some
thin far-off sound, when it was like a storm, like a tempest of music!
After that there was a great change in the city. The choirs came back
from the walls marching more slowly, and with a sighing through all the
air. A sigh, nay, something like a sob breathed through the streets.
'They cannot hear us, or they will not hear us.' Wherever I turned, this
was what I heard: 'They cannot hear us.' The whole town, and all the
houses that were teeming with souls, and all the street, where so many
were coming and going was full of wonder and dismay. (If you will take
my opinion, they know pain as well as joy, M. le Maire, Those who are
in Semur. They are not as gods, perfect and sufficing to themselves, nor
are they all-knowing and all-wise, like the good God. They hope like us,
and desire, and are mistaken; but do no wrong. This is my opinion. I am
no more than other men, that you should accept it without support; but I
have lived among them, and this is what I think.) They were taken by
surprise; they did not understand it any more than we understand when we
have put forth all our strength and fail. They were confounded, if I
could judge rightly. Then there arose cries from one to another: 'Do you
forget what was said to us?' and, 'We were warned, we were warned.'
There went a sighing over all the city: 'They cannot hear us, our voices
are not as their voices; they cannot see us. We have taken their homes
from them, and they know not the reason.' My heart was wrung for their
disappointment. I longed to tell them that neither had I heard at once;
but it was only after a time that I ventured upon this. And whether I
spoke, and was heard; or if it was read in my heart, I cannot tell.
There was a pause made round me as if of wondering and listening, and
then, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, a face suddenly turned
and looked into my face.
M. le Maire, it was the face of your father, Martin Dupin, whom I
remember as well as I remember my own father. He was the best man I ever
knew. It appeared to me for a moment, that face alone, looking at me
with questioning eyes.
There seemed to be agitation and doubt for a time after this; some went
out (so I understood) on embassies among you, but could get no hearing;
some through the gates, some by the river. And the bells were rung that
you might hear and know; but neither could you understand the bells. I
wandered from one place to another, listening and watching--till the
unseen became to me as the seen, and I thought of the wonder no more.
Sometimes there came to me vaguely a desire to question them, to ask
whence they came and what was the secret of their living, and why they
were here? But if I had asked who would have heard me? and desire had
grown faint in my heart; all I wished for was that you should hear, that
you should understand; with this wish Semur was full. They thought but
of this. They went to the walls in bands, each in their order, and as
they came all the others rushed to meet them, to ask, 'What news?' I
following, now with one, now with another, breathless and footsore as
they glided along. It is terrible when flesh and blood live with those
who are spirits. I toiled after them. I sat on the Cathedral steps, and
slept and waked, and heard the voices still in my dream. I prayed, but
it was hard to pray. Once following a crowd I entered your house, M. le
Maire, and went up, though I scarcely could drag myself along. There
many were assembled as in council. Your father was at the head of all.
He was the one, he only, who knew me. Again he looked at me and I saw
him, and in the light of his face an assembly such as I have seen in
pictures. One moment it glimmered before me and then it was gone. There
were the captains of all the bands waiting to speak, men and women. I
heard them repeating from one to another the same tale. One voice was
small and soft like a child's; it spoke of you. 'We went to him,' it
said; and your father, M. le Maire, he too joined in, and said: 'We went
to him--but he could not hear us.' And some said it was enough--that
they had no commission from on high, that they were but permitted--that
it was their own will to do it--and that the time had come to forbear.
Now, while I listened, my heart was grieved that they should fail. This
gave me a wound for myself who had trusted in them, and also for them.
But I, who am I, a poor man without credit among my neighbours, a
dreamer, one whom many despise, that I should come to their aid? Yet I
could not listen and take no part. I cried out: 'Send me. I will tell
them in words they understand.' The sound of my voice was like a roar in
that atmosphere. It sent a tremble into the air. It seemed to rend me as
it came forth from me, and made me giddy, so that I would have fallen
had not there been a support afforded me. As the light was going out of
my eyes I saw again the faces looking at each other, questioning,
benign, beautiful heads one over another, eyes that were clear as the
heavens, but sad. I trembled while I gazed: there was the bliss of
heaven in their faces, yet they were sad. Then everything faded. I was
led away, I know not how, and brought to the door and put forth. I was
not worthy to see the blessed grieve. That is a sight upon which the
angels look with awe, and which brings those tears which are salvation
into the eyes of God.
I went back to my house, weary yet calm. There were many in my house;
but because my heart was full of one who was not there, I knew not those
who were there. I sat me down where she had been. I was weary, more
weary than ever before, but calm. Then I bethought me that I knew no
more than at the first, that I had lived among the unseen as if they
were my neighbours, neither fearing them, nor hearing those wonders
which they have to tell. As I sat with my head in my hands, two talked
to each other close by: 'Is it true that we have failed?' said one; and
the other answered, 'Must not all fail that is not sent of the Father?'
I was silent; but I knew them, they were the voices of my father and my
mother. I listened as out of a faint, in a dream.
While I sat thus, with these voices in my ears, which a little while
before would have seemed to me more worthy of note than anything on
earth, but which now lulled me and comforted me, as a child is comforted
by the voices of its guardians in the night, there occurred a new thing
in the city like nothing I had heard before. It roused me
notwithstanding my exhaustion and stupor. It was the sound as of some
one passing through the city suddenly and swiftly, whether in some
wonderful chariot, whether on some sweeping mighty wind, I cannot tell.
The voices stopped that were conversing beside me, and I stood up, and
with an impulse I could not resist went out, as if a king were passing
that way. Straight, without turning to the right or left, through the
city, from one gate to another, this passenger seemed going; and as he
went there was the sound as of a proclamation, as if it were a herald
denouncing war or ratifying peace. Whosoever he was, the sweep of his
going moved my hair like a wind. At first the proclamation was but as a
great shout, and I could not understand it; but as he came nearer the
words became distinct. 'Neither will they believe--though one rose from
the dead.' As it passed a murmur went up from the city, like the voice
of a great multitude. Then there came sudden silence.
At this moment, for a time--M. le Maire will take my statement for what
it is worth--I became unconscious of what passed further. Whether
weariness overpowered me and I slept, as at the most terrible moment
nature will demand to do, or if I fainted I cannot tell; but for a time
I knew no more. When I came to myself, I was seated on the Cathedral
steps with everything silent around me. From thence I rose up, moved by
a will which was not mine, and was led softly across the Grande Rue,
through the great square, with my face towards the Porte St. Lambert. I
went steadily on without hesitation, never doubting that the gates would
open to me, doubting nothing, though I had never attempted to withdraw
from the city before. When I came to the gate I said not a word, nor any
one to me; but the door rolled slowly open before me, and I was put
forth into the morning light, into the shining of the sun. I have now
said everything I had to say. The message I delivered was said through
me, I can tell no more. Let me rest a little; figure to yourselves, I
have known no night of rest, nor eaten a morsel of bread for--did you
say it was but three days?