Scarcely had he called her, when she turned, her face bathed in tears,
and threw herself into his arms. They remained clasped in a close
embrace for some time, and I thought to myself:
"All is well; my daughter is in the hands of an honest man; that is my
greatest consolation in the midst of all my misfortunes."
After that, George, in spite of our grief, we grew calm again. Merlin
and I agreed that he would go the next day to carry our answer to
Zornstadt: "No, Oberfoerster, we will not enter the service of the King
of Prussia!" I wrote my letter at once and he put it in his pocket.
It was also agreed that I should go early to Graufthal, and try to find
lodgings for ourselves, wherein we could place our furniture. The three
first-floor rooms belonging to Father Ykel, the host of the Cup Inn, had
been empty ever since the invasion, as not a traveller came to the
country. There must certainly be room in his stable, too; so I hoped to
hire them cheap.
As to Merlin, he had still to tell his mother, and he said to us that
she would go to Felsberg, where Uncle Daniel would be very glad to
receive her. The old schoolmaster and his sister had kept house
together for a long time, and it was only after Jean Merlin's
installation in the forester's house at Toementhal that he had taken his
mother to live with him. Good old Margredel had nothing to do but to
return to the village, where her little house was waiting for her. So
our final resolutions were taken.
Jean also took upon himself to go and tell M. Laroche of what had
occurred, and to say also that I would come and see him after our
flitting. Then he kissed Marie-Rose, said a few encouraging words to
the grandmother, and went out. I went with him as far as the threshold
and shook hands. The night had come; it was freezing cold; every blade
of grass in the valley was sparkling with frost, and the sky was
glittering with stars. What weather in which to leave our home and to
seek another shelter!
As I returned to the room, I saw poor Calas empty the saucepan of
potatoes on the table and place the two pots of clotted milk beside the
salad-bowl, looking at us with an amazed air; no one stirred.
"Sit down, Calas," I said; "eat alone; none of us are hungry this
evening."
So he sat down and began to peel his potatoes; having cleaned out the
stable and given forage to the cattle, he had done his duty and his
conscience was easy.
Happy are those who cannot see the morrow, and whom the Almighty only
governs, without kings, without emperors, and without ministers. They
have not one-quarter of our sorrows. The squirrel, the hare, the fox,
all the animals of the woods and the plains, receive their new fur at
the beginning of winter; the birds of the air receive finer down; those
who cannot live in the snow, for lack of insects to feed them, have
strong wings, that enable them to seek a warmer climate.
It is only man who receives nothing! Neither his labour, nor his
foresight, nor his courage can preserve him from misfortune; his fellow
beings are often his worst enemies and his old age is often the extreme
of misery. Such is our share of existence.
Some people would like to change these things, but no one has the
courage and the good sense which are necessary.
Finally, at nightfall we separated, to think over, each alone in his
corner, the terrible blow that had overwhelmed us.
*XIX*
On the following day, which was the first of November, at dawn, I set
out for Graufthal. I had put on my blouse, my thick shoes, and my felt
hat. The trees along the roadside were bending under their covering of
frost; occasionally a blackbird or a thrush would rise from under the
white brushwood, uttering its cry, as if to bid me farewell. I have
often thought of it since; I was on the path of exile, George; it was
only beginning, and extended very far.
Towards seven o'clock I arrived under the large rocks, where the most
wretched huts in the village were situated--the others were built along
the banks of the river--and I stopped before that of Father Ykel. I
went through the kitchen into the smoky little parlour of the inn.
Nothing was stirring; I thought I was alone and I was about to call,
when I saw Ykel, sitting behind the stove, his short black pipe, with a
copper cover, between his teeth, and his cotton cap pushed over one ear;
he did not move, as he had had, a few weeks before, an attack of
rheumatism, brought on by his long fishing excursions among the mountain
streams, and also at night by torchlight, amid the mists.
The valley had never known such a fisher; he sold crawfish and trout to
the great hotels of Strasbourg. Unhappily, as we all have to pay for
our imprudences, sooner or later, he had been attacked by the
rheumatism, and now all he could do was to sit and think about the best
places in the river and the great hauls he used to make.
When I discovered him, his little green eyes were already fixed upon me.
"Is it you, Father Frederick?" he said. "What is your business here
among these rascals who are robbing us? If I were you, I would stay
quietly in the forest; the wolves are much better neighbours."
"We cannot always do as we like," I answered. "Are your three upper
rooms still empty, and have you room enough in your stable for two
cows?"
"Haven't I, though!" he cried. "The Prussians have made room! They
have taken everything--straw, hay, oats, flour, and the cattle. Ah!
room; I guess so; from the garret to the cellar, we have plenty; it will
not run out for a long time!"
And he uttered a harsh laugh, gnashing his old teeth and muttering:
"Oh! the wretches! God grant that we may one day have the upper hand; I
would go there on crutches, in spite of my rheumatism, to get back what
they took from me!"
"Then," said I, "the rooms are empty?"
"Yes, and the stable, too, with the hayloft. But why do you ask me
that?"
"Because I have come to hire them."
"You!" cried he, in amazement. "Then you are not going to stay at the
forest house?"
"No, the Prussians have turned me out."
"Turned you out! And why?"
"Because I did not choose to serve under the Germans."
Then Ykel appeared touched; his long hooked nose curved itself over his
mouth, and, in a grave voice, he said:
"I always thought you were an honest man. You were a little severe in
the service, but you were always just; no one has ever been able to say
anything to the contrary."
Then he called:
"Katel! Katel!"
And his daughter, who had just lighted the fire on the hearth, entered.
"Look here, Katel," said he, pointing to me; "here is Father Frederick,
whom the Prussians have turned out of his house, with his daughter and
grandmother, because he will not join their band. That is a thousand
times worse than the requisitions; it is enough to make one's hair stand
on end."
His daughter also sided with us, crying that the heavens ought to fall
to crush such rascals. She took me up-stairs, climbing the ladder-like
stairs to show me the rooms that I wished to hire.
You cannot imagine anything more wretched; you could touch the beams of
the ceiling with your hand; the narrow windows, with lead-framed
casements, in the shadow of the rocks, gave scarcely a ray of light.
How different from our pretty cottage, so well lighted, on the slope of
the hill! Yes, it was very gloomy, but we had no choice; we had to
lodge somewhere.
I told Katel to make a small fire in the large room, so as to drive away
the damp; then, going down-stairs again. Father Ykel and I agreed that
I should have the first floor of his house, two places in the stable for
my cows, the little hayloft above, with a pig-sty, one corner of the
cellar for my potatoes, and half the shed, where I intended to put the
furniture that would not go into the rooms, at a rent of eight francs a
month--a pretty large sum at a time when no one was making a _centime_.
Two or three neighbours, the big coal man, Starck, and his wife; Sophie,
the basket-maker; Koffel, and Hulot, the old smuggler, were then
arriving at the inn, to take their glass of brandy, as usual. Ykel told
them of the new abominations of the Germans; and they were disgusted at
them. Starck offered to come with his cart and horses to help me to
move, and I accepted, thankfully.
Things were settled that way; Starck promised me again to come without
fail before noon; after which I took the road towards home. It had
begun to snow; not a soul before or behind me was on the path, and,
about nine o'clock, I was stamping my feet in the entry to get off the
snow. Marie-Rose was there. I told her briefly that I had engaged our
lodgings, that she must prepare the grandmother to leave very soon, to
empty the contents of the cupboards into baskets, and to take the
furniture to pieces. I called Calas to help me and went to work at
once, scarcely taking time enough to breakfast. The hammer resounded
through the house; we heard the grand-mother sobbing in the smaller room
and Marie-Rose trying to console her.
It all seems to come back to me. It was terrible to hear the
lamentations of the poor old woman, to hear her complain of the fate
that overwhelmed her in her old age, and then to call on her husband for
aid, good Father Burat, who had died ten years before, and all the old
people, whose bones lay in the cemetery at Dosenheim. It makes me
shudder when I think of it, and the kind words of my daughter come back
to me and touch my heart anew.
The hammer did its work; the furniture, the little looking-glass by
Catherine's bed--my poor dead wife--the portraits of the grandfather and
grandmother, painted by Ricard, the same who painted the beautiful signs
in the time of Charles X; the two holy-water vessels and the old
crucifix, from the back of the alcove; the chest of drawers belonging to
Marie-Rose, and the large walnut-wood wardrobe that had come down to us
from great-grandfather Duchene; all those old things that reminded us of
people long dead, and of our quiet, peaceful life, and which, for many
years, had had their places, so that we could find them by groping in
the darkest night; everything was taken away; it was, so to speak, our
existence that we had to undo with our own hands!
And Ragot, who came and went, all astonished at the confusion; Calas,
who kept asking, "What have we done, to be obliged to run away like
thieves?" And the rest!--for I do not remember it at all, George! I
would even like to forget it all, and never to have begun this story of
the shame of humanity and the humiliation of that sort of Christians who
reduce their fellow creatures to utter misery, because they will not
kneel before their pride. However, since we have begun it, let us go on
to the end.
All that was nothing as yet. It was when big Starck came, and the
furniture was loaded on his wagon, we had at last to tell the
grandmother to leave her little room, and when, seeing all that
desolation in the road, she fell on her face, crying:
"Frederick, Frederick, kill me! let me die, but do not take me away!
Let me, at least, sleep quietly under the snow in our little garden!"
Then, George, I wished that I were dead myself. The blood seemed
curdling in my veins. And now, after four years, I would be puzzled to
tell you how the grandmother found herself placed in the cart, in the
midst of the mattresses and straw beds, under the thousands of
snow-flakes that were falling from the sky.
*XX*
The snow, which had continued to fall since morning, was by this time
quite deep. The great wagon went slowly on its way, Starck, in front,
pulling his nags by the bridle, swearing, and forcing them to advance by
blows; Calas, farther on, was driving along the pigs and cows; Ragot was
helping him; Marie-Rose and I followed, with drooping heads; and behind
us the cottage, all white with snow, among the firs, was gradually
vanishing in the distance.
We had still our potatoes, wood, and fodder to take away the next day,
so I closed the door and put the key in my pocket before leaving.
At nightfall we arrived before Ykel's house. I took the grandmother in
my arms, like a child, and carried her up-stairs to her room, where
Katel had kindled a bright fire. Marie-Rose and Katel kissed each
other; they had been schoolmates and had been confirmed together at
Felsberg. Katel burst into tears. Marie-Rose, who was deadly pale,
said nothing. They went up-stairs together, and, while Starck and Calas
and two or three of the neighbours were unloading the furniture and
putting it under the shed, I went into the parlour, to sit down for a
few minutes behind the stove and to take a glass of wine, for I could
not stand it any longer; I was exhausted.
Our first night at Graufthal, in that loft, through which poured the
draught from the garret, is the saddest that I can remember; the stove
smoked, the grandmother coughed in her bed; Marie-Rose, in spite of the
cold, got up to give her a drink; the little window-panes rattled at
every blast of the wind, and the snow drifted in upon the floor.
Ah! yes, we suffered terribly that first night! And, not being able to
close my eyes, I said to myself:
"It will be impossible to live here! We should all be dead in less than
two weeks. We must positively go somewhere else. But where shall we
go? What road can we take?"
All the villages of Alsace and Lorraine were filled with Germans, the
roads were crowded with cannon and convoys; not a hut, not even a stable
was free.
These ideas almost made my hair turn gray; I wished that I had broken my
neck in coming down the steps of the forest house, and I wished the same
thing for the grandmother and my daughter.
Happily, Jean Merlin arrived early the next morning. He had taken our
answer to the Oberfoerster, he had moved his furniture to Felsberg, and
old Margredel, his mother, was already sitting quietly beside the fire
at Uncle Daniel's house.
He told us that with a good-humoured air, after having kissed Marie-Rose
and said good-morning to the grandmother.
Only to see how his confidence had already lightened my heart; and when
I complained of the cold, the smoke, and of our bad night, he cried:
"Yes! I understand all that, brigadier; I thought as much; so I hurried
to come here. It is very hard to leave your old ways and come to live
among strangers at your age; that paralyzes one's arm. Such occasions
change one's ideas. Here is the key of my cottage and the book of
estimations; you have also your register and the stamping hammer. Well,
do you know what I would do in your place? I would take everything to
our chief inspector, because the Oberfoerster of Zornstadt might ask you
for them and force you to give them up. When they are deposited with M.
Laroche no one will have anything more to say to you. While you are
away Marie-Rose will wash the windows and the floor; Calas will go with
Starck to get the wood, the fodder, and the potatoes, and I will
undertake to arrange the furniture and to put everything in order."
He spoke with so much good sense that I followed his advice. We went
down into the large room, and though it is not my habit, we took a good
glass of brandy together; after which I set out, the register under my
blouse, the hammer in my pocket, and a stout stick in my hand. It was
my last journey through the country on affairs connected with the
service. The pool of Frohmithle was frozen over; the flour-mill and the
saw-mill lower down had ceased to go. No one, since the day before, had
followed my path; all seemed desolate; for three hours I did not see a
soul.
Then, remembering the smoke from the charcoal kilns, the sound of the
wood-cutters' hatchets working in the clearings, lopping the trees,
piling up the fagots beside the forest paths, even in mid-winter, all
that formerly gay life, that profit that gave food and happiness to the
smallest hamlets, I said to myself that the robbers, who were capable of
troubling such order to appropriate wrongfully the fruit of the labour
of others, ought to be hanged.
And from time to time, in the midst of the silence, seeing a
sparrow-hawk pass on his large wings, his claws drawn up under his
stomach and uttering his war cry, I thought:
"That is like the Prussians! They have got the Germans in their claws;
they have given them officers who will cudgel them; instead of working,
those people are forced to spend their last penny in the war, and the
others have always their beaks and claws in their flesh; they pluck them
leisurely, without their being able to defend themselves. Woe to us all!
The noble Prussians will devour us; and the Badeners, the Bavarians, the
Wuertembergers, and the Hessians with us!"
Those melancholy ideas, and many others of the same kind, passed through
my mind. About ten o'clock I ascended the stairs of the old fort,
abandoned since the beginning of the war; then descending the Rue du
Faubourg, I entered the house of the chief inspector. But the office
door in the vestibule at the left was closed; I rang and tried to open
the door, but no one came. I was going out to ask one of the neighbours
what had become of M. Laroche, and whether he had been obliged to go
away, when an upper door opened, and the chief inspector himself
appeared on the stairs in his dressing-gown.
*XXI*
"Who is there?" said M. Laroche, not recognising me at first under my
broad-brimmed felt hat.
"It is I, sir," I answered.
"Ah! it is you, Father Frederick!" said he, quite rejoiced. "Well, come
up stairs. All my household has departed, I am here alone; they bring
me my meals from the Grapes Inn. Come in, come in!"
We went into a very neat little room on the first floor; a large fire
was burning in the stove. And, pushing forward an arm-chair for me:
"Take this chair, Father Frederick," said he, seating himself beside a
small table covered with books. So I sat down, and we began to talk
over our affairs. I told him about our visit to the Oberfoerster; he
knew all about that and a good many other things beside.
"I am glad to find," said he, "that all our guards, except poor Hepp,
the father of six children, have done their duty. With regard to you,
Father Frederick, I never had the least doubt about either your
son-in-law or yourself."
Then he inquired about our position; and, taking the register and the
hammer, he put them in a closet, saying that his papers were already
gone, that he would send these after them. He asked me if we were not
in pressing need. I answered that I had still three hundred francs,
that I had saved to buy a strip of meadow, beside the orchard, that that
would doubtless be sufficient.
"So much the better!" said he. "You know, Father Frederick, that my
purse is at your service; it is not very full just now; every one has to
economize their resources, for Heaven only knows how long this campaign
may last; but if you want some money----"
I thanked him again. We talked together like real friends. He even
asked me to take a cigar from his box; but I thanked him and refused.
Then he asked me if I had a pipe, and told me to light it. I tell you
this to make you understand what a fine man our chief inspector was.
I remember that he told me after that that all was not yet over; that
doubtless our regular army had surrendered _en masse_; that all our
officers, marshals, generals, even the simple corporals had fallen into
the power of the enemy, a thing that had never been seen before since
the beginning of the history of France, or in that of any other nation;
that pained him, and even if I may say so made him indignant. He had
tears in his eyes like myself.
But after that, he said that Paris held good, that the great people of
Paris had never shown so much courage and patriotism; he added that a
large and solid army, though composed of young men, had been formed near
Orleans, and that great things were expected from it; that the republic
had been proclaimed after Sedan as the peasants go for a doctor when the
patient is dying, and that, however, this republic had had the courage
to take upon itself the burden of all the disasters, dangers that it had
not caused, while those who had drawn us into the war withdrew to a
foreign country. That a very energetic man, Gambetta, a member of the
provisory government, was at the head of this great movement; that he
was calling around him all the Frenchmen in a condition to bear arms,
without distinction of opinions, and that if the campaign lasted a few
months longer the Germans could not hold out; that all the heads of the
families being enlisted, their estates, their workshops, their
improvements were neglected. No ploughing or sowing were done, and that
the women and children, the entire population, were dying of terrible
starvation.
We have since seen, George, that those things were true; all the letters
that we found on the _landwehr_ told of the terrible poverty in Germany.
So what M. Laroche told me filled me with hope. He promised also to
have my pension paid to me as soon as it would be possible, and about
one o'clock I left him, full of confidence. He shook hands with me and
called out from the door:
"Keep up a good heart, Father Frederick; we will have happy days yet."
After I left him I felt like another man, and I walked leisurely back to
Graufthal, where a most agreeable surprise awaited me.
*XXII*
Jean Merlin had put everything in order. The cracks in the roof and in
the doors and windows were stopped up; the floor was washed, the
furniture placed and the pictures hung, as much as possible as they were
at the forest house. It was bitterly cold outside; our stove, which
Jean had put up and blackleaded, drew like a forge bellows, and the
grandmother, sitting beside it in her old arm-chair, was listening to
the crackling of the fire, and looking at the flame which was lighting
up the room. Marie-Rose, with her sleeves rolled up, seemed delighted
at my satisfaction; Jean Merlin, his pipe in his mouth and screwing up
his eyes, looked at me as if to say:
"Well, Papa Frederick, what do you think of this? Is it cold now in
this room? Is not everything clean, shining and in good order?
Marie-Rose and I did all that?"
And when I saw all that I said to them:
"All right. The grandmother is warm. Now I see that we can stay here.
You are good children!"
That pleased them very much. They set the table. Marie-Rose had made a
good soup of cabbages and bacon, for as the Germans took all the fresh
meat for their own use we were very glad to get even smoked meat;
fortunately potatoes, cabbages, and turnips did not run out and they
formed our principal resource.
That evening we all took supper together; and during the repast I
related in all its details what the chief inspector had told me about
the affairs of the republic. It was the first positive news we had had
from France for a long time; so you may guess how eagerly they all
listened to me. Jean's eyes sparkled when I spoke of approaching
battles near the Loire.
"Ah!" said he, "they call the French the old soldiers. Indeed! they
defend their country, then!"
And I cried, full of enthusiasm:
"Of course, they will defend their country! You had better believe it!
The chief inspector says that if it lasts for a few months the others
will have enough of it."
Then he twirled his mustache, seemed almost to speak; but then looking
at Marie-Rose, who was listening to us with her usual quiet aspect, he
went on eating, saying:
"Anyhow, you give me great pleasure by telling me that, Father
Frederick; yes, it is famous news."
At last, about eight o'clock, he went away, announcing that he would be
back on the morrow or the day after, and we went quietly to bed.
This night was as comfortable as the night before had been cold and
disagreeable; we slept soundly in spite of the frost outside.
I had recovered from my sorrow; I thought that we could live at
Graufthal till the end of the war.
*XXIII*
Once withdrawn under the rocks of Graufthal, I hoped that the Germans
would let us alone. What else could they ask from us? We had given up
everything; we lived in the most wretched village in the country, in the
midst of the forest; their squads came very seldom into this corner,
whose inhabitants were so poor that they could scarcely find a few
bundles of hay or straw to take away with them. All seemed for the
best, and we thought that we would not have anything more to do with the
accursed race.
Unfortunately we are often mistaken; things do not always turn out as we
thought they would. Soon it was rumoured that Donadien, big Kern, and
the other guards had crossed the Vosges; that they were fighting the
Germans near Belfort, and all at once the idea struck me that Jean would
also want to go. I hoped that Marie-Rose would keep him back, but I was
not sure of it. The fear haunted me.
Every morning, while my daughter arranged the rooms, and the grandmother
told her beads, I went down stairs to smoke my pipe in the large room
with Father Ykel. Koffel, Starck, and others would come dropping in, to
take a glass of brandy; they told of domiciliary visits, of orders not
to ring the bells, of the arrival of German schoolmasters to replace our
own, of the requisitions of all kinds that increased every day, of the
unhappy peasants who were compelled to work to feed the Prussians, and
of a thousand other atrocities that infuriated one against those stupid
Badeners, Bavarians, and Wuertembergers, who were allowing themselves to
be killed for the sake of King William, and warring against their own
interests. Big Starck, who was very pious, and always went to mass
every Sunday, said that they would all be damned, without hope of
redemption, and that their souls would be burned to all eternity.
That helped to make the time pass agreeably. One day Hulot brought us
his grandson, Jean Baptiste, a big boy of sixteen, in his vest and
pantaloons of coarse linen, his feet bare, winter as well as summer, in
his large shoes, his hair hanging in long, yellow locks over his face,
and a satchel hanging over his thin back. This boy, sitting in front of
the fire, told us that at Sarrebruck and Landau the _landwehr_ were
furious; that they were declaiming in all the taverns against the crazy
republicans, the cause of all the battles since Sedan, and of the
continuation of the war; that it had been reported that a battle had
been fought at Coulmiers, near Orleans; that the Germans were retreating
in disorder, and that the army of Frederick Charles was going to their
rescue; but that our young men were also learning to join the army of
the republic; and that the _hauptmaenner_ had laid a fine of fifty
francs a day upon the parents of those who had left the country, which
had not prevented him, Jean Baptiste, from going to the rescue of his
country like his comrades.
Scarcely had he ceased to speak when I ran up the stairs, four steps at
a time, to tell Marie-Rose the good news. I found her on the landing.
She went down to the laundry, and did not appear in the least
astonished.
"Yes, yes, father," she said, "I thought it would end that way; every
one must lend a hand--all the men must go. Those Germans are thieves;
they will return routed and defeated."
Her tranquility astonished me, for the idea must have occurred to her,
too, that Jean, an able-bodied man, would not stay at home at such a
time, and that he might all at once go off yonder in spite of his
promises of marriage. So I went to my room to think it over, while she
went down, and two minutes afterward I heard Jean Merlin's step upon the
stairs.
He came in quietly, his large felt hat on the back of his head, and he
said good-humouredly:
"Good morning, Father Frederick; you are alone?"
"Yes, Jean; Marie-Rose has just gone to the laundry, and the grandmother
is still in bed."
"Ah! very good," said he, putting his stick behind the door.
I suspected something was coming, from his look. He walked up and down,
with bent head, and, stopping suddenly, he said to me:
"You know what is going on near Orleans? You know that the breaking up
of the German army has begun, and that all willing men are called upon.
What do you think of it?"