THE PUNISHMENT.
The scene we are about to describe took place in a room hung with red,
and brilliantly lighted. Rodolph, clothed in a long dressing-gown of
black velvet, which increased the pallor of his features, was seated
before a large table covered with a green cloth. On this table was the
Schoolmaster's pocketbook, the pinchbeck chain of the Chouette (to which
was suspended the little Saint Esprit of lapis lazuli), the
blood-stained stiletto with which Murphy had been stabbed, the crowbar
with which the door had been forced, and the five notes of a thousand
francs each, which the Chourineur had fetched out of the next apartment.
The negro doctor was seated at one side of the table, the Chourineur on
the other. The Schoolmaster, tightly bound with cords, and unable to
move a limb, was placed in a large armchair on casters, in the middle of
the salon. The people who had brought in this man had withdrawn, and
Rodolph, the doctor, the Chourineur, and the assassin were left alone.
Rodolph was no longer out of temper, but calm, sad, and collected; he
was about to discharge a solemn, self-imposed, and important duty. The
doctor was lost in meditation. The Chourineur felt an indescribable
fear; he could not take his eyes off Rodolph. The Schoolmaster's
countenance was ghastly; he was in an agony of fear. The most profound
silence reigned within; nothing was heard but the splash, splash of the
rain without, as it fell from the roof on to the pavement. Rodolph
addressed the Schoolmaster:
"Anselm Duresnel, you have escaped from the Bagne at Rochefort, where
you were condemned for life for forgery, robbery, and murder!"
"It's false!" said the Schoolmaster, in a hollow voice, and looking
about him with his restless and glaring glance.
"You are Anselm Duresnel, and you murdered and robbed a cattle-dealer on
the road to Poissy--"
"It's a lie!"
"You shall confess it presently."
The scoundrel looked at Rodolph with an air of astonishment.
"This very night you came here to rob, and you have stabbed the master
of this house--"
"It was you who suggested this robbery!" assuming an air of assurance.
"I was attacked, and I defended myself."
"The man you stabbed did not attack you,--he was unarmed. True, I did
suggest this robbery to you,--I'll tell you why. Last night only, after
having robbed a man and woman in the Cité, you offered to kill me for a
thousand francs--"
"I heard him," said the Chourineur.
The Schoolmaster darted at him a glance of deadliest hate.
Rodolph continued:
"You see there was no occasion to tempt you to do mischief."
"You are not my judge, and I will not answer you another question."
[Illustration: "_Rodolph Addressed the Schoolmaster_"
Etching by Mercier, after the drawing by Frank T. Merrill]
"I'll tell you why I proposed this robbery to you. I knew you were a
runaway convict,--you know the parents of the unfortunate girl, all
whose misfortunes have been caused by your miserable accomplice, the
Chouette. I wished to draw you here by the temptation of a robbery,
because this was the only temptation that could avail with you. Once in
my power, I leave you the choice of being handed over to the hands of
justice, which will make you pay with your head the assassination of the
cattle-dealer--"
"It is false! I did not commit that crime."
"Or of being conducted out of France, under my direction, to a place of
perpetual confinement, where your lot will be less painful than at the
Bagne; but I will only allow you this relaxation of punishment on
condition that you give me the information which I desire to acquire.
Condemned for life, you have broken away from your confinement, and by
seizing upon you and placing you hereafter beyond the possibility of
doing injury, I serve society; and from your confession I may, perhaps,
find the means of restoring to her family a poor creature much more
unfortunate than guilty. This was my first intention,--it was not legal;
but your escape and your fresh crimes forbid any such course on my part
now, and place you beyond all law. Yesterday, by a remarkable
revelation, I discovered that you are Anselm Duresnel--"
"It's false! I am not called Duresnel."
Rodolph took from the table the chain of the Chouette, and pointing to
the little Saint Esprit of lapis lazuli said, in a threatening voice:
"Sacrilege! You have prostituted to an infamous wretch this holy
relic,--thrice holy, for your infant boy had this pious gift from his
mother and grandmother!"
The Schoolmaster, dumfounded at this discovery, lowered his head and
made no response.
"You carried off your child from his mother fifteen years ago, and you
alone possess the secret of his existence. I had in this an additional
motive for laying hands on you when I had detected who you were. I seek
no revenge for what you have done to me personally, but to-night you
have again shed blood without provocation. The man you have assassinated
came to you in full confidence, not suspecting your sanguinary purpose.
He asked you what you wanted: 'Your money or your life!' and you stabbed
him with your poniard."
"So M. Murphy said when I first came to his aid," said the doctor.
"It's false! He lied!"
"Murphy never lies," said Rodolph, calmly. "Your crimes demand a
striking reparation. You came into this garden forcibly; you stabbed a
man that you might rob him; you have committed another murder; you ought
to die on this spot; but pity, respect for your wife and son, they shall
save you from the shame of a scaffold. It will be said that you were
killed in a brawl with weapons in your hand. Prepare, the means for your
punishment are at hand."
Rodolph's countenance was implacable. The Schoolmaster had remarked in
the next room two men, armed with carbines. His name was known; he
thought they were going to make away with him and bury in the shade his
later crimes, and thus spare his family the new opprobrium. Like his
fellows, this wretch was as cowardly as he was ferocious. Thinking his
hour was come, he trembled, and cried "Mercy!"
"No mercy for you," said Rodolph. "If your brains are not blown out
here, the scaffold awaits you--"
"I prefer the scaffold,--I shall live, at least, two or three months
longer. Why, why should I be punished at once? Mercy! mercy!"
"But your wife--your son--they bear your name--"
"My name is dishonoured already. If only for eight days, let me live! in
mercy do!"
"Not even that contempt of life which is sometimes displayed by the
greatest criminals!" said Rodolph, with disgust.
"Besides, the law forbids any one to take justice into their own hands,"
said the Schoolmaster, with assurance.
"The law! the _law!_" exclaimed Rodolph. "Do you dare to invoke the
law? you, who have always lived in open revolt and constant enmity
against society?"
The ruffian bowed his head and made no answer; then added, in a more
humble tone:
"At least, for pity's sake, spare my life!"
"Will you tell me where your son is?"
"Yes, yes, I will tell you all I know."
"Will you tell me who are the parents of the young girl whose childhood
the Chouette made one scene of torture?"
"In my pocketbook there are papers which will put you on the track of
the persons who gave her to the Chouette."
"Where is your son?"
"Will you let me live?"
"First make a full confession."
"And then, when I have told you all--" said the Schoolmaster with
hesitation.
"You have killed him!"
"No, no! I have confided him to one of my accomplices, who, when I was
apprehended, effected his escape."
"What did he do with him?"
"He brought him up, and gave him an education which fitted him to enter
into a banking-house at Nantes, so that we might get information, manage
an introduction to the banker, and so facilitate our plans. Although at
Rochefort, and preparing for my escape, I arranged this plan and
corresponded in cipher with my friend--"
"Oh, _mon Dieu!_ his child! his son! This man appals me!" cried Rodolph,
with horror, and hiding his head between his hands.
"But it was only of forgery that we thought," exclaimed the scoundrel;
"and when my son was informed what was expected of him, he was
indignant, told all to his employer, and quitted Nantes. You will find
in my pocketbook notes of all the steps taken to discover his traces.
The last place we ascertained he had lived in was the Rue du Temple,
where he was known under the name of François Germain; the exact address
is also in my pocketbook. You see I do not wish to conceal anything,--I
have told you everything I know. Now keep your promise. I only ask you
to have me taken into custody for _this_ night's robbery."
"And the cattle-merchant at Poissy?"
"That affair can never be brought to light,--there are no proofs. I own
it to _you_, in proof of the sincerity with which I am speaking, but
before any other person I should deny all knowledge of the business."
"You confess it, then, do you?"
"I was destitute, without the smallest means of living,--the Chouette
instigated me to do it; but now I sincerely repent ever having listened
to her. I do, indeed. Ah! would you but generously save me from the
hands of justice, I would promise you most solemnly to forsake all such
evil practices for the future."
"Be satisfied, your life shall be spared; neither will I deliver you
into the hands of the law."
"Do you, then, pardon me?" exclaimed the Schoolmaster, as though
doubting what he heard. "Can it be? Can you be so generous as to
forgive?"
"I both judge you and award your sentence," cried Rodolph, in a solemn
tone. "I will not surrender you to the power of the laws, because they
would condemn you to the galleys or the scaffold; and that must not be.
No, for many reasons. The galleys would but open a fresh field for the
development of your brutal strength and villainy, which would soon be
exercised in endeavouring to obtain domination over the guilty or
unfortunate beings you would be associated with, to render yourself a
fresh object of horror or of dread; for even crime has its ambition, and
yours has long consisted in a preëminence in vicious deeds and monstrous
vices, while your iron frame would alike defy the labours of the oar or
the chastisement of those set over you. And the strongest chains may be
broken, the thickest wall pierced through,--steep ramparts have been
scaled before now,--and you might one day burst your yoke and be again
let loose upon society, like an infuriated beast, marking your passage
with murder and destruction; for none would be safe from your Herculean
strength, or from the sharpness of your knife; therefore such
consequences must be avoided. But since the galleys might fail to stop
your infamous career, how is society to be preserved from your brutal
violence? The scaffold comes next in consideration--"
"It is my life, then, you seek!" cried the ruffian. "My life! Oh, spare
it!"
"Peace, coward! Hope not that I mean so speedy a termination to your
just punishment. No; your eager craving after a wretched existence would
prevent you from suffering the agony of anticipated death, and, far from
dwelling upon the scaffold and the block, your guilty soul would be
filled with schemes of escape and hopes of pardon; neither would you
believe you were truly doomed to die till in the very grasp of the
executioner; and even in that terrible moment it is probable that,
brutalised by terror, you would be a mere mass of human flesh, offered
up by justice as an expiatory offering to the manes of your victims.
That mode of settling your long and heavy accounts will not half pay the
debt. No; poor, wretched, trembling craven! we must devise a more
terrific method of atonement for you. At the scaffold, I repeat, you
would cling to hope while one breath remained within you; wretch that
you are, you would dare to hope! you, who have denied all hope and mercy
to so many unhappy beings! No, no! unless you repent, and that with all
your heart, for the misdeeds of your infamous life, I would (in this
world, at least) shut out from you the faintest glimmer of hope--"
"What man is this? What have I ever done to injure _him_?--whence comes
he thus to torture me?--where am I?" asked the Schoolmaster, in almost
incoherent tones, and nearly frantic with terror.
Rodolph continued:
"If even you could meet death with a man's courage, I would not have you
ascend the scaffold; for you it would be merely the arena in which, like
many others, you would make a disgusting display of hardened ferocity;
or, dying as you have lived, exhale your last sigh with an impious scoff
or profane blasphemy. That must not be permitted. It is a bad example to
set before a gazing crowd the spectacle of a condemned being making
sport of the instrument of death, swaggering before the executioner, and
yielding with an obscene jest the divine spark infused into man by the
breath of a creating God. To punish the body is easily done; to save the
soul is the great thing to be laboured for and desired. 'All sin may be
forgiven,' said our blessed Saviour, but from the tribunal to the
scaffold the passage is too short,--time and opportunity are required to
repent and make atonement; this leisure you shall have. May God grant
that you turn it to the right purpose!"
The Schoolmaster remained utterly bewildered; for the first time in his
life a vague and confused dread of something more horrible far than
death itself crossed his guilty mind,--he trembled before the
suggestions of his own imagination.
Rodolph went on:
"Anselm Duresnel, I will not sentence you to the galleys, neither shall
you die--"
"Then do you intend sending me to hell? or what are you going to do with
me?"
"Listen!" said Rodolph, rising from his seat with an air of menacing
authority. "You have wickedly abused the great bodily strength bestowed
upon you,--I will paralyse that strength; the strongest have trembled
before you,--I will make you henceforward shrink in the presence of the
weakest of beings. Assassin! murderer! you have plunged God's creatures
into eternal night; your darkness shall commence even in this life.
Now--this very hour--your punishment shall be proportioned to your
crimes. But," added Rodolph, with an accent of mournful pity, "the
terrible judgment I am about to pronounce will, at least, leave the
future open to your efforts for pardon and for peace. I should be guilty
as you are were I, in punishing you, to seek only for vengeance, just as
is my right to demand it; far from being unrelenting as death, your
sentence shall bring forth good fruits for hereafter; far from
destroying your soul, it shall help you to seek its salvation. If, to
prevent you from further violating the commandments of your Maker, I for
ever deprive you of the beauties of this outer world, if I plunge you
into impenetrable darkness, with no other companion than the remembrance
of your crimes, it is that you may incessantly contemplate their
enormity. Yes, separated for ever from this external world, your
thoughts must needs revert to yourself, and your vision dwell internally
upon the bygone scenes of your ill-spent life; and I am not without hope
that such a mental and constantly presented picture will send the blush
of shame even upon your hardened features, that your soul, deadened as
it now is to every good and holy impulse, will become softened and
tender by repentance. Your language, too, will be changed, and good and
prayerful words take place of those daring and blasphemous expressions
which now disgrace your lips. You are brutal and overbearing, because
you are strong; you will become mild and gentle when you are deprived of
that strength. Now your heart scoffs at the very mention of repentance,
but the day will come when, bowed to the earth with deep contrition, you
will bewail your victims in dust and ashes. You have degraded the
intelligence placed within you by a supreme power,--you have reduced it
to the brutal instincts of rapine and murder; from a man formed after
the image of his Creator, you have made yourself a beast of prey: one
day, as I trust and believe, that intelligence will be purified by
remorse and rendered again guiltless through divine expiation. You, more
inhuman than the beast which perisheth, have trampled on the tender
feelings by which even animals are actuated,--you have been the
destroyer of your partner and your offspring. After a long life,
entirely devoted to the expiation of your crimes, you may venture to
implore of the Almighty the great though unmerited happiness of
obtaining the pardon of your wife and son, and dying in their presence."
As Rodolph uttered these last words his voice trembled with emotion, and
he was obliged to conclude.
The Schoolmaster's terrors had, during this long discourse, entirely
yielded to an opinion that he was only to be subjected to a long lecture
on morality, and so forth, and then discharged upon his own promise of
amendment; for the many mysterious words uttered by Rodolph he looked
upon as mere vague expressions intended to alarm him,--nothing more.
Still further reassured by the mild tone in which Rodolph had addressed
him, the ruffian assumed his usually insolent air and manner as he said,
bursting into a loud and vulgar laugh:
"Well done, upon my word! A very good sermon, and very well spoken! Only
we must recollect where we leave off in our moral catechism, that we may
begin all right next lesson day. Come, let us have something lively now.
What do you say, master; will you guess a charade or two, just to
enliven us a bit?"
Instead of replying, Rodolph addressed the black doctor:
"Proceed, David! And if I do wrong, may the Almighty punish me alone!"
The negro rang; two men entered. David pointed to a side door, which
opened into an adjoining closet.
The chair in which the Schoolmaster remained bound, so as to be
incapable of the smallest movement, was then rolled into the anteroom.
"Are you going to murder me, then? Mercy! mercy!" shrieked the wretched
man, as he was being removed.
"Gag him!" cried the negro, entering the closet.
Rodolph and the Chourineur were left alone.
"M. Rodolph," said the Chourineur, pale and trembling, "M. Rodolph, what
is going to be done? I never felt so frightened. Pray speak; I must be
dreaming, surely. What have they done to the Schoolmaster? He does not
cry out,--all is so silent; it makes me more fearful still!"
At this moment David issued from the cabinet; his complexion had that
livid hue peculiar to the negro countenance, while his lips were ashy
pale.
The men who had conveyed the Schoolmaster into the closet now replaced
him, still bound in his chair, on the spot he had previously occupied in
Rodolph's presence.
"Unbind him, and remove the gag!" exclaimed David.
There was a moment of fearful silence while the two attendants relieved
the Schoolmaster of his gag and untied the cords which bound him to the
chair. As the last ligature gave way, he sprang up, his hideous
countenance expressing rage, horror, and alarm. He advanced one step
with extended hands, then, falling back into the chair, he uttered a cry
of unspeakable agony, and, raising his hands towards the ceiling,
exclaimed, with maddened fury:
"Blind, by heaven!"
"Give him this pocketbook, David," said Rodolph.
The negro placed a small pocketbook in the trembling hands of the
Schoolmaster.
"You will find in that pocketbook wherewithal to provide yourself with
a home and the means of living for the remainder of your days. Go, seek
out some safe and solitary dwelling, where, by humble repentance, you
may seek to propitiate an offended God! You are free! Go and repent; the
Lord is merciful, and his ears are ever open to such as truly repent."
"Blind! quite blind!" repeated the Schoolmaster, mechanically grasping
the pocketbook.
"Open the doors,--let him depart!" said Rodolph.
"Blind! blind!" repeated the bewildered and discomfited ruffian.
"You are free; you have the means of providing for yourself; begone!"
"And whither am I to go?" exclaimed he, with the most unbounded rage.
"You have taken away my sight; how, then, do I know in which direction
to go? Call you not this a crime thus to abuse your power over one
unhappily in your hands? Thus to--"
"To abuse my power!" repeated Rodolph, in a solemn voice. "And how have
you employed the power granted to you? How used _your_ superior
strength?"
"O Death! how gladly would I now accept you!" cried the wretched man.
"To be henceforward at every one's mercy,--to fear the weakest, the
smallest object!--a child might now master me! Gracious God! what will
become of me?"
"You have plenty of money."
"It will be taken from me!" cried the ruffian.
"Mark those words,--'It will be taken from me!' See how they fill you
with fear and dread! You have plundered so many, unmindful of their
helpless, destitute condition,--begone!"
"For the love of God," cried the Schoolmaster, in a suppliant tone, "let
some person lead me forth! What will become of me in the streets? Oh, in
mercy kill me! take my miserable life! but do not turn me out thus
wretched, thus helpless! Kill, for pity's sake, and save me from being
crushed beneath the first vehicle I encounter!"
"No! Live and repent."
"Repent!" shouted the Schoolmaster, in a fearful voice. "Never! I will
live for vengeance,--for deep and fearful vengeance!" And again he threw
himself from the chair, holding his clenched fists in a menacing
attitude towards the ceiling, as though calling upon Heaven to witness
the fixedness of his resolve. In an instant his step faltered; he again
hesitated, as though fearful of a thousand dangers.
"Alas! alas! I cannot proceed,--I dare not move! And I, lately so strong
and so dreaded by all,--look at me now! Yet no one pities me,--no one
cares for me,--no hand is stretched out to help the wretched blind upon
his lonely way!"
It is impossible to express the stupefaction and alarm expressed by the
countenance of the Chourineur during this terrible scene. His rough
features exhibited the deepest compassion for his fallen foe, and
approaching Rodolph, he said, in a low tone:
"M. Rodolph, he was an accomplished villain, and has only got what he
richly deserves; he wanted to murder me a little while ago, too. But he
is now blind,--he does not even know how to find his way out of the
house, and he may be crushed to death in the streets; may I lead him to
some safe place, where, at least, he may remain quiet for a time?"
"Nobly said!" replied Rodolph, kindly pressing the hand of the
Chourineur. "Go, my worthy fellow! Go with him, by all means!"
The Chourineur approached the Schoolmaster and laid his hand on his
shoulder; the miserable villain started.
"Who touches me?" asked he, in a husky voice.
"It is I."
"I? Who? Who are you,--friend or foe?"
"The Chourineur."
"And you have come to avenge yourself now you find I am incapable of
protecting myself, I suppose?"
"Nothing of the sort. Here, take my arm; you cannot find the way out by
yourself; let me lead you--there--"
"You, Chourineur? You!"
"Yes, for all you doubt it; but you vex me by not seeming to like my
help. Come, hold tight by me; I will see you all right before I leave
you."
"Are you quite sure you do not mean me some harm? that you are only
laying a trap to ensnare me?"
"I am not such a scoundrel as to take advantage of your misfortune. But
let us begone. Come on, old fellow; it will be daylight directly."
"Day! which I shall never more behold! Day and night to me are
henceforward all the same!" exclaimed the Schoolmaster, in such piteous
tones that Rodolph, unable longer to endure this scene, abruptly
retired, followed by David, who first dismissed his two assistants.
The Chourineur and the Schoolmaster remained alone. After a lengthened
silence the latter spoke first, by inquiring whether it were really true
that the pocketbook presented to him contained money.
"Yes, I can positively speak to its containing five thousand francs,"
replied the Chourineur, "since I put them in it with my own hand. With
that sum you could easily place yourself to board with some quiet, good
sort of people, who would look to you,--in some retired spot in the
country, where you might pass your days happily. Or would you like me to
take you to the ogress's?"
"She! she would not leave me a rap."
"Well, then, will you go to Bras Rouge?"
"No, no! He would poison me first and rob me afterwards."
"Well, then, where shall I take you?"
"I know not. Happily for both, you are no thief, Chourineur. Here, take
my pocketbook, and conceal it carefully in my waistcoat, that La
Chouette may not see it; she would plunder me of every sou."
"Oh, bless you! the Chouette is quite safe just now; she lies in the
Hôpital Beaujon. While I was struggling with you both to-night I
happened to dislocate her leg, so she's obliged to lie up for the
present."
"But what, in heaven's name, shall I do with this black curtain
continually before my eyes? In vain I try to push it away; it is still
there, fixed, immovable; and on its surface I see the pale, ghastly
features of those--"
He shuddered, and said in a low, hoarse voice, "Chourineur, did I quite
do for that man last night?"
"No."
"So much the better," observed the robber. And then, after some minutes'
silence, he exclaimed, under a fresh impulse of ungovernable fury, "And
it is you I have to thank for all this! Rascal! scoundrel! I hate you!
But for you, I should have 'stiffened' my man and walked off with his
money. My very blindness I owe to you; my curses upon you for your
meddling interference! But through you I should have had my blessed eyes
to see my own way with. How do I know what devil's trick you are
planning at this moment?"
"Try to forget all that is past,--it can't be helped now; and do not put
yourself in such a terrible way,--it is really very bad for you. Come,
come along--now, no nonsense--will you? yes or no?--because I am
regularly done up, and must get a short snooze somewhere. I can tell you
I have had a bellyful of such doings, and to-morrow I shall get back to
my timber-pile, and earn an honest dinner before I eat it. I am only
waiting to take you wherever you decide upon going, and then on goes my
nightcap and I goes to sleep."
"But how can I tell you where to take me, when I do not know myself? My
lodging--No, no, that will not do; I should be obliged to tell--"
"Well, then, hark ye. Will you, for a day or two, make shift with my
crib? I may meet with some decent sort of people, who, not knowing who
you really are, would receive you as a boarder; and we might say you
were a confirmed invalid, and required great care and perfect
retirement. Now I think of it, there is a person of my acquaintance,
living at Port St. Nicolas, has a mother, a very worthy woman, but in
humble circumstances, residing at St. Mandé: very likely she would be
glad to take charge of you. What do you say,--will you come or not?"
"One may trust you, Chourineur. I am not at all fearful of going, money
and all, to your place; happily you have kept yourself honest, amidst
all the evil example others have set you."
"Ay, and even bore the taunts and jests you used to heap upon me,
because I would not turn prig like yourself."
"Alas! who could foresee?"
"Now, you see, if I had listened to you, instead of trying to be of real
service to you, I should clean you out of all your cash."
"True, true. But you are a downright good fellow, and have neither
malice nor hatred in your heart," said the unhappy Schoolmaster, in a
tone of deep dejection and humility. "You are a vast deal better to me
than, I fear, I should have been to you under the same circumstances."
"I believe you, too. Why, M. Rodolph himself told me I had both heart
and honour."
"But who the devil is this M. Rodolph?" exclaimed the Schoolmaster,
breaking out fresh at the mention of his name. "He is not a man; he is a
monster,--a fiend,--a--"
"Hold, hold!" cried the Chourineur. "Now you are going to have another
fit, which is bad for you and very disagreeable to me, because it makes
you abuse my friends. Come, are you ready? Shall we set forth on our
journey?"
"We are going to your lodging, are we not, Chourineur?"
"Yes, yes, if you are agreeable."
"And you swear to me that you bear me no ill-will for the events of the
last twelve hours?"
"Swear it? Of course I swear it. Why, I have no ill-will against you nor
anybody."
"And you are certain that he (the man, I mean) is not dead?"
"I am as sure of it as that I am living myself."
"That will at least give me one crime the less to answer for. If they
only knew--And that little old man of the Rue du Roule--and that woman
of the Canal St. Martin--But it is useless thinking of all those things
now; I have enough to occupy my thoughts without trying to recall past
misfortunes. Blind! blind!" repeated the miserable wretch, as, leaning
on the arm of the Chourineur, he slowly took his departure from the
house in the Allée des Veuves.