CAST DOWN, BUT NOT DESTROYED.
The moon had now risen, and shone full on our road, which was completely
exposed; but happily we met with no hindrance. The motion of the cart
now made me very drowsy, and I fell into deep dreamless sleep. When I
woke, feeling stiff and chilled, I wondered where I was. The cart had
stopped, I was alone, the gray light of morning was forcing its way
through the chinks of my little lodging-house, but the door was locked.
I thought my position a curious one, and wondered whether La Croissette
was going to give me up after all, to my enemies, but could not readily
distrust a fellow apparently so kind-hearted. I lay still and listened
to the sounds about me; the clucking of hens, gobbling of turkeys,
stamping of horses, and lowing of calves, told me I was in a farm-yard.
Then I heard voices, including that of La Croissette, and presently a
sharp cry and then a laugh. By-and-by, the key turned in the lock and
he looked in on me.
"So ho, you are awake after a famous long nap," said he. "Do you want
your breakfast?"
"If I do, want must be my master," said I, returning his smile. "We gave
away our only loaf."
"But what if I have earned another, and a good bowl of milk?" rejoined
La Croissette, producing both as he spoke. "There, sit up and eat your
fill; I've had my share in the house."
"Where are we?" said I, readily obeying his instructions.
"At a wayside farm-house, where the honest people have given my horse
a good feed, and you and me a good breakfast."
"How did you earn it, then?"
"By pulling out a tooth for a great lubberly boy, whose cheek had
swollen enormously with toothache. Did you not hear him cry out? You
might almost have heard him from here to Nismes."
"Yes, I heard him cry and then laugh."
"Because he was so glad to have got rid of it."
"Can you draw teeth, then?"
"I never drew one before, but I went at it as if it was a regular thing
with me."
"How could you venture?"
"Psha! it is good to show confidence; and every one must have a
beginning. Which of us would let a doctor try his hand on us, if we knew
it was for the first time?"
I smiled and shook my head at him, but said no more. When I had
swallowed the delicious milk, he said,
"Now I will return the bowl, and bring out my horse. I told them I had a
sick brother in the cart, recovering from a burning fever, or you would
have had some visitors. To make doubly sure, I locked you up."
"Would not that have been enough without the other?" I said, grieved at
his want of truth.
"No, I think not, and I'm not as particular as you are."
Presently we were driving off again, and for a mile or so in silence.
Then La Croissette, looking back at me, said,
"There are certainly good people on both sides. That poor wretch to
whom we gave the loaf was undoubtedly a good Huguenot; she would rather
starve and die than abjure her faith. But here, again, are a family of
Catholics, who are good, too, and believed every word I said, and
liberally supplied my wants."
"Doubtless there are good people on both sides," said I; "and if the
Catholics would believe it of us, we might yet live in peace and
quietness together. We have not harmed them--it is they who harm us."
"For your good, they will tell you."
"They may tell us, but we cannot believe it. Their compulsions are not
in the spirit of love."
La Croissette softly whistled, and presently talked of other things.
By-and-by he said,
"Now we are coming to a town, and you shall see some fun."
"Will it be quite safe?"
"Safer than anything else. It is a fair-day; I shall drive straight
into the market-place, blow my horn, and play the quack doctor. Nay,
you shall be my accomplice and blow the horn. Let me put you in costume
at once."
Saying which, he fished out a soiled scarlet cloak, gaily spangled,
which he threw over my shoulders, produced a half-mask with an enormous
red nose, with which he concealed the upper part of my face, covered my
head with a Spanish hat and feather, and gave me a horn.
"Now blow as much as you like," said he; "be as brazen as your trumpet."
I laughed, and entered into the joke; no one would suspect me for a
Huguenot.
La Croissette then disguised himself in Dr. Jameray's long black gown,
and added a pair of green spectacles, which certainly heightened the
effect. Having driven into the market-place, he placed a little table
before him and spread it with boxes and phials, I blowing the horn from
time to time in a way which he called quite original, and which speedily
drew people about us. Then, with wonderful self-possession, he harangued
them on the merits of his medicines. For instance, taking up a phial
which contained a pink-colored fluid, he descanted on its virtues in
this style:
"My friends, this small bottle contains a famous specific, for those who
know how to use it prudently. When I say prudently, I mean that there
are certain things it will do and others it will not. This remedy is for
increasing the strength, improving the appetite, and clearing the head.
Will it, therefore, set a broken arm or draw a tooth? Most certainly
not. I can draw a tooth for you, if you like it (by-the-by, some think
I have a gift that way, but self-praise is no recommendation); I can
draw a tooth, I say, no matter with how many fangs; but this medicine
cannot. Does it follow, then, that it will cure a cough or sore throat?
Not at all. Here, if you like (taking up another bottle) is something
that will, but what is that to the purpose? Will it cure sore eyes? No;
or sprains? Far from it. No, no, my most excellent ladies and gentlemen,
let us not form unreasonable expectations; day is not night; summer is
not winter; nor is a horse-medicine a febrifuge. It is useless to assert
such trash to sensible, well-informed people, Here is an opportunity,
such as most of you may possibly never have again, of buying a most
delightful and effectual medicine, sweet, not nauseous (strongly
reminding one of cherry-brandy), gently exhilarating, and very difficult
to be procured; indeed, I have only three small doses of it--three, did
I say? I'm afraid I have only two--let me see--Oh, yes, here are three;
and the price is merely nominal--"
The extreme frankness and moderation of this harangue of course met with
great success; and purchasers speedily bought, not only his three pink
bottles, but his green ones, his blue ones, his pills, his pomades, and
his perfumed medicinal soaps that were to soften the skin, strengthen
the joints, and promote longevity. After this, he sang a comic song of
innumerable verses (with horn obligato) and delivered a discourse, in
which he said there had never been more than three great men in the
world, Louis the Fourteenth, Alexander the Great, and Hippocrates, the
father of physic.
It was surprising to me how he carried on this game hour after hour,
apparently without fatigue, and always to the delight of his audience,
new-comers continually pressing around him, and old ones lingering in
the distance with broad smiles on their faces. A little of it was well
enough, but I thought that to be always at it must be harder work than
the hardest handywork trade I knew. At last the day closed in, the
people departed, we supplied ourselves with food, and departed like
the rest.
"Now, then, have I not come off with flying colors?" said La Croissette,
complacently.
"Assuredly you have: but you must be very tired."
"Tired as can be--you know I had no sleep last night--we are coming to
a little thicket where we will roost for the night."
We had scarcely drawn up under the trees, which were thinning of leaves,
when we heard a distant hollow sound gradually growing louder as it
approached. "The dragoons," said La Croissette, in a low voice. "I trust
we shall escape their notice."
They passed by like a whirlwind, taking the direction we had just left,
and we congratulated ourselves on having quitted their path.
"These wretches, look you," said La Croissette, "know neither mercy
nor justice; they know they are let loose on the country to do all the
mischief they can, and if they find a Paradise, they leave it a howling
wilderness."
Of this we had proof next day, when we came on their track, and found
wretched women and children in tears and lamentations impossible for us
to assuage: men that had been cudgelled within an inch of their lives,
or hung up by their wrists or their heels till they swooned, lying on
the ground uncared for and dying. Ah, what wickedness! and all under
pretence of doing God service! I cannot dwell on the terrible scenes we
saw in crossing the country. Sometimes La Croissette did some trifling
act of kindness, but the evils demanded more potent remedies.
"This unfits me for my calling," said he, one day, as he scrambled into
the cart and drove off. "How can one play the merry-andrew under such
circumstances? What will become of these poor creatures as winter comes
on, even if they can last till then? It is impossible they should all
escape from the country--they will have to conform after all, and had
they not better do so now?"
I replied, "It is written, 'Fear not, little flock; for it is the
Father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom.'"
"The kingdom of France?"
"No, the kingdom of heaven."
"To whom were the words spoken?"
"To the early Christians, whose praise is in all the churches--whom the
Catholics not only reverence but worship."
"Hum. Well, if they weathered such persecution as this, perhaps these
may; but I could not stand it, I!--Do you know (with great awe) there
are dungeons called Hippocrates' Sleeves, the walls of which slope like
the inside of a funnel tapering to a point, so that those who are put
inside them can neither lie, sit, nor stand? They are let down into them
with cords, and drawn up every day to be whipped."
"And have any come forth alive from such places?"
"I grant you; but sometimes without teeth or hair."
"O, what glorious faith, to survive such a test!" exclaimed I.
"But some don't survive."
"O, what hallelujahs their freed spirits must sing as they find
themselves suddenly released and soaring upward with myriads of
rejoicing angels, to receive their welcome at the throne of God!"
"Jean, I never knew anything like you!" said La Croissette. "The worse
the stories I tell you, the greater the triumph and exultation you cap
them with."
I answered, "They overcame by the blood of the Lamb, and by the word of
their testimony; and they loved not their lives unto the death." Rev.
xii. II.
"Do you think you could bear being put into a Hippocrates' Sleeve?"
"I am not called on to think what I could bear: only to bear what is put
on me."
"Your father, every word! As the old cock crows, so does the young one.
But after all, 'tis a fearful thing to lie at the mercy of those that
can devise and carry out such tortures."
"It is written, 'I say unto you, my friends, Be not afraid of them that
kill the body, and after that have no more that they can do; but I will
forewarn you whom ye shall fear. Fear Him which after He hath killed,
hath power to cast into hell; yea, I say unto you, fear Him.'"
"You seem to have all the texts on this particular head at the tips of
your fingers. Did you learn them for this particular purpose?"
"My dear mother used to repeat to me a text every night, and expect me
to repeat it to her the next day."
"An excellent plan," said La Croissette, whipping his horse. And he
hummed a tune.
When we reached Montauban, he said,
"I must now begin my old tricks, to earn a little money;" and he drew
up in the market-place. But the people had been as heavily visited as
at Nismes, and were in no mood for jesting. When he began to vend his
nostrums, an old man of severe aspect held up his hand, and said:
"Peace, unfeeling man--you bring your senseless ribaldry to the wrong
market. Here are only lamentations, and mourning, and woe."
"My good sir, one must live," said La Croisette.
"And how? tell me that!" retorted the old man, indignantly. "They that
fed delicately are desolate in the streets; they that were clad in
scarlet are cast on dunghills; the tongue of the suckling child cleaves
to the roof of its mouth for thirst; the young children ask for bread,
and no man giveth unto them."
Then, with a wail that was almost like a howl, he tore his hair and
cried, "For this, for this mine eyes run down with water and mine
eyelids take no rest. Is it nothing to you, all ye that pass by?"
"Jean, I cannot stand this," said La Croissette, as the old man hurried
away. "All the people seem with broken hearts--it takes all spirit out
of me. I cannot even hawk needles and pins among the starving--who would
buy?"
I could only say, "How dreadful is this place! The Lord seems to have
forsaken his sanctuary."
"Let us seek another place as soon as we can--"
"You forget: I am to be met here by an agent of my father's at La Boule
d'Or."
"Ah, well, we will go thither."
When we drove into the inn-yard, however, we could hear unruly voices in
the house, and feared we might fall into bad company. A man immediately
came up to us, and said to me, in a low voice:
"Are you M. Jacques Bonneval?"
"I am. Are you Antoine Leroux?"
"Hist!--yes. There are ill-disposed people in the inn; you had better
not go in-doors. Can you walk a little way?"
"Yes."
"Come with me, then."
"I must bid my companion farewell." Turning to La Croissette, I took his
hand in both mine, and pressed it fervently, saying:
"My dear La Croissette, adieu. May God bless you in this world and the
next. I wish I could make some return for your exceeding kindness, but,
unfortunately, can give you nothing but my prayers."
"Pray say nothing of it," said he, cordially. "Your prayers are the very
thing I should like to have, for, unfortunately, I am not good at them
myself. As I pass a Calvary by the roadside I pull off my hat, in token
of respect, you know, for what it represents; and had I had a bringing
up like yours I might have had as pretty a turn for psalmody; but as the
matter stands, why, you will be Jacques Bonneval, and I Bartholomé La
Croissette to the end of the chapter. As for what I have done for you,
why, it's nothing! I was coming this way, at any rate, and I've given
you a lift; that's all."
"You may make light of it, if you will," said I, "but I know you have
continually run risks for me; and depend on it, I shall never forget
you. Adieu, my friend."
"Farewell, then," said he, "and take my best wishes with you. I hope you
will now slip safely out of the country, but a good piece of it remains
before you yet. Nor are your feet in good condition for walking."
"That has been provided for," said Antoine. "As soon as we get to the
waterside we shall find a boat awaiting us, which will carry us to
Bordeaux."
"But you are some way from the water.'
"Yes, but I have a cart."
We then parted, La Croissette kissing me on both cheeks with the utmost
kindness; and I turned away with Antoine. Looking round as we quitted
the court, I had my last glimpse of his tall, meagre figure, as he stood
with his hand on his hip, looking after me; and I thought how strange
and disproportionate a return his kindness to me had been for mine to
him, in lifting him up and saving him from a kicking horse on the way
to Beaucaire. The whole scene at once started up before me--our family
party in the wagon--the girls' blooming faces and gay dresses--the
crowded road--the music--the bustle. Then my thoughts flew on to what
followed--the humors of the fair--the crowded table at my uncle's--my
betrothal to Madeleine. What a different future then seemed to lie
before us to what awaited us now! Where was she? Should we meet soon?
Might we not be separated for ever? I cannot tell how many thoughts like
these passed through my mind as I limped after Antoine, who was himself
somewhat awkward in his gait, like many of the silk-weavers from sitting
so constantly at the loom.
Thus we passed through some of the by-ways of Montauban, and entered a
small house.