THE BLACK DYNASTY.
Don Pierrot de Navarre, being a native of Havana, needed a very warm
temperature. This temperature was provided for him in our rooms; but
about the house lay extensive gardens, separated by wire fences which
offered no difficulties to a cat, and which were planted with large
trees, in whose branches innumerable birds twittered and sang. Not
infrequently Pierrot, profiting by an open door, would make his escape
of evenings for the enjoyment of a private hunt over the lawns and the
flower-beds wet with dew. Sometimes he had to wait till daylight before
he could re-enter the house; for, though he mewed under the windows, his
signal did not always rouse the sleepers within. His chest had always
been delicate, and one chilly night he took a cold, which speedily
developed into consumption. Poor Pierrot! he became painfully thin after
a year of coughing. His fur, once so silky, lost its gloss, and reminded
one of the dull, opaque whiteness of a winding-sheet. His great
transparent eyes looked enormous by contrast with his poor little face.
His pink nose grew pale, and he dragged his feet slowly along his
favorite sunshiny wall, watching the yellow autumn leaves whirled along
in spiral flights by the wind, and looking as though he were repeating
to himself the elegy of Millevoye.
There is nothing in the world more touching than a sick animal. It
submits to its sufferings with such a sweet, sad resignation. Everything
possible was done to save Pierrot. He had a skilful doctor, who
stethoscoped him and felt his pulse. Asses’ milk was ordered, and the
poor thing lapped it willingly enough from his little porcelain saucer.
He would lie for long hours on our knees, stretched out, and immovable
as the shadow of a sphinx. We could number his vertebræ with our
fingers, like the beads of a rosary. When he tried to respond to our
caresses by a feeble mew, it sounded like a death-rattle. On the day of
his death, as he lay panting upon his side, he raised himself with a
supreme effort and crept toward us, opening wide his dilated eyes with a
look which seemed to claim our help with an intense supplication. It
said plainly as words could say, “Come, save me, thou who art a man!”
Then he staggered; his eyes became fixed; and he fell with a cry so
desperate, so lamentable, so full of anguish, that we sat transfixed
with silent horror. He was buried at the bottom of the garden, under a
white-rose tree which still marks the place of his grave.
Two or three years later Seraphita died also, of a mysterious disease
against which all the resources of science proved unavailing. She is
buried not far from Pierrot.
With them the _Dynastie Blanche_ became extinct, but not the family. For
of this couple, white as snow, were born three kittens as black as ink.
Explain, who can, this mystery. The great excitement of the day was
Victor Hugo’s novel “Les Miserables.” No one spoke of anything else, and
the names of its heroes and heroines were in every mouth. Naturally,
therefore, the two male kittens were christened Enjolras and Gavroche,
while their sister received the title of Eponine. When very young they
acquired a number of pretty tricks. Among the rest they were taught to
run like a dog after a ball made of rolled-up paper, and to fetch it
back when thrown to a distance. Even though the ball were tossed up to
the cornices of the wardrobes, hidden behind piles of sheets on a shelf,
or dropped into a deep vase, they would always discover and fetch it
safely in their paws. Later in life they learned to despise these
frivolous amusements, and acquired that calm and dreamy philosophy which
is the true characteristic of the cat nature.
When people first land in one of the Southern States of America, the
negroes they see are to them simply negroes; they cannot tell one from
another. So to careless eyes three black cats are three black cats, and
nothing more. Observant persons, however, do not make such mistakes. The
physiognomies of animals differ from each other like those of men; and
we never had the least difficulty in distinguishing between these three
faces, all black as the mask of Harlequin, and lighted by emerald disks
with reflections of gold.
Enjolras, by far the prettiest of the three cats, could be identified by
his large and lion-like head, his well-whiskered cheeks, strong
shoulders, long back, and a superb tail which expanded like a plume.
There was something theatrical and emphatic about him, and he was
addicted to _poses_ like a favorite actor. His slow and undulating
movements were full of majesty. He could be trusted to walk over
consoles loaded with treasures in china and Venice glass, so
circumspectly did he order his footsteps. He was not much of a Stoic in
character, and his taste for dainties would have horrified his namesake
Enjolras, that sober and pure young man, who would doubtless have said
to him, as the angel did to Swedenborg, “Thou eatest too much.” This
gluttonous turn, which was as droll as that of a gastronomic monkey, was
indulged; and Enjolras attained a size and weight most unusual in a
domestic cat. The idea occurred to us to have him shaved like a poodle,
in order to complete his resemblance to a lion. A mane was left to him,
and one thick tuft of hair at the end of his tail. We will not swear
that it was not part of the original design to furnish him with
leg-of-mutton whiskers like those in the portrait of Munito. Thus
accoutred, he looked, it must be confessed, less like a lion of the
jungle or of the Cape than like a Japanese chimera. Never was a more
absurd whim carried out upon the body of a living animal. His hair was
shaved so closely that it showed the skin, which exhibited odd bluish
tones, and contrasted in the most extraordinary way with the blackness
of his mane.
Gavroche, as if to suit with the character of his namesake in the novel,
was a cat of a crafty and furtive disposition. Smaller than Enjolras,
his agility was most comical and surprising. His substitutes for the
jokes and slang of the Paris _gamin_ were capers, somersaults, and
ludicrous motions. We are forced to confess that, notwithstanding these
attractive qualities, Gavroche never lost an opportunity of stealing out
of the parlor in order to join in the street or courtyard with vagabond
cats,—
“Of any sort of birth, and blood unknown to fame,”
in parties of the most unrefined sort, quite forgetting his dignity as a
cat from Havana: son of the illustrious Don Pierrot de Navarre, grandee
of Spain of the first rank, and of the Marquise Seraphita, whose manners
were so lofty and disdainful. Sometimes by way of a treat he would
conduct to his porridge-plate some comrade emaciated by famine and all
skin-and-bone, whom he had picked up during his peregrinations;
introducing him with all the airs of a condescending prince. The poor
wretch, with drooping ears, sidelong glance, and tail between his legs,
fearing that his free lunch might at any moment be interrupted by the
housemaid’s broom, would gobble down double, triple, quadruple
mouthfuls, and like _Siete-Aguas_, or Seven Waters, of the Spanish
_posada_, make the plate in a few seconds as clean as though it had been
scrubbed by a Dutch housewife to serve as a model to Mieris or Gerard
Dow.
Beholding these chosen protégés of Gavroche’s, that phrase with which
Gavarni illustrates one of his caricatures frequently came into our
head: “Fine friends these are which you have selected to go about with!”
But after all they were only a proof of Gavroche’s real goodness of
heart; for he might easily have eaten up everything himself.
The cat who bore the name of the interesting Eponine was more slender
and delicately made than her brothers. Her nose was slightly longer; her
eyes set obliquely in the head like those of a Chinese, were of a green
hue like the eyes of Pallas Athene, to which Homer invariably applies
the epithet γλαυκώπις. Her nose of a velvety blackness, as finely
grained as a Perigord truffle; her moustaches perpetually waving, made
up a physiognomy full of expression. Her superb black fur was always in
a quiver, and glittered with changeful lustres. Never was there a
creature so sympathetic, nervous, and theatrical as Eponine. If you
passed your hand over her back once or twice in the dusk little blue
sparks would flash from the fur. Eponine attached herself to us as
devotedly as did the Eponine of the novel to Marius; but not being
pre-occupied with a Cosette, as was that dear young man, we were able to
respond to the affection of this tender and devoted cat, who is still
the companion of our labors and the joy of our suburban hermitage. At
the sound of the door-bell she runs out, receives the visitors, shows
them into the drawing-room, asks them to sit down, talks with them; yes,
_talks_, prattling on with murmurs and little cries which are not in the
least like those which cats use to one another, but which resemble the
speech of men. What does she say, do you ask? She says in the most
intelligible language: “Gentlemen and ladies, do not be impatient; look
at the pictures, or, if you please, converse with me. Monsieur will be
here soon.” When we enter she discreetly retires to an easy chair or the
corner of the piano, and listens to the conversation without trying to
take part in it, like a polite animal who is familiar with the habits of
good society.
This charming Eponine has given so many proofs of merit, of
intelligence, and superior social qualities, that by common consent she
has been elevated to the dignity of a _person_; for there can be no
doubt that her conduct is governed by a reason which is far superior to
instinct. This dignity gives her the right to eat at table like a human
being, and not as cats do out of a saucer set on the floor in a corner.
Eponine therefore has her chair, which is regularly placed beside our
own, at breakfast and dinner. In consideration of her shape and size,
leave is given her to place her fore-paws on the edge of the table. She
has also her own plate and her own tumbler, but not a fork or spoon. She
watches the dinner through all its courses from soup to dessert, waiting
for her turn to be helped, and altogether comporting herself with a
wisdom and decency which we wish that children would oftener imitate. At
the first tinkle of the bell she makes her appearance, and when we enter
the dining-room there she is, already seated on her chair with her paws
crossed before her on the edge of the table; and she holds up her
forehead to be kissed precisely as a nice little girl does who has been
trained to show an affectionate politeness towards her parents and other
elderly friends.
[Illustration: LEAVE IS GIVEN HER TO PLACE HER FOREPAWS ON THE EDGE OF
THE TABLE.]
But there are flaws in the diamond, spots even on the sun, shadows upon
perfection, and Eponine, it must be owned, has an over-passionate love
for fish,—a passion which is shared by cats in general. In contradiction
to the Latin proverb
“Catus amat pisces, sed non vult tingere plantas,”
she will dip her paw into water without the least hesitation in order to
draw out a carp, a white bait, or a trout. Fish awake in her a sort of
frenzy; and like children who are in a state of excitement over the idea
of dessert, she sometimes looks sulkily at the soup, when preliminary
observations made in the kitchen have assured her that there is fish to
come, and that the cook has no need to expiate a failure by falling on
his sword, as did the noble Vatel. At such times she is left unserved,
and we say to her coldly, “_Mademoiselle_, a _person_ who is not hungry
for soup cannot be hungry for fish,” and the dish is carried pitilessly
past under her very nose. When matters reach this serious stage the
dainty Eponine gobbles up her soup in all haste to the very last drop,
despatches every crumb of bread or Italian paste, and then turns round
and looks at us with a proud glance as one who has done her duty, and
whose conscience is henceforth free from reproach. Her portion of fish
is then given her. She eats it with the utmost satisfaction, and having
tasted of all the other dishes, finishes her meal with a glass of water.
When a dinner-party is projected Eponine, without seeing the guests,
understands perfectly well that there is to be company that evening. She
takes a look at her usual place, and, if she notices a knife, fork, and
spoon beside the plate, she decamps without a word and seats herself on
the piano-stool, which is her chosen refuge on such occasions. I should
be glad if people who deny the possession of reason to animals, would
explain this fact, apparently so simple and yet containing such a world
of inferences. From seeing beside her plate those utensils which man
only can use, this wise and observant cat argues that, for the day, she
must yield her place to a guest, and she makes haste to do so. She never
deceives herself about the matter, but sometimes, when the visitor is
one with whom she is on familiar terms, she will climb his knee and try
to coax a few tit-bits out of him by her grace and caresses.
But enough of this; we must not weary our readers. Stories about cats
are less popular than those about dogs. Still, we feel obliged to tell
the end of Enjolras and Gavroche. In some text-books there is this
sentence: “Sua eum perdidit ambitio.” One might say of Enjolras, “Sua
eum perdidit pinguetudo”—he died of his own fat. He was mistaken for a
hare and killed by some idiotic hunters. His murderers, however,
perished within a twelvemonth, and in the most miserable manner. The
death of a black cat, that most cabalistical of creatures, never goes
unavenged!
Gavroche, seized with a fanatical love of liberty, or perhaps with
sudden madness, leaped out of a window one day, crossed the street,
climbed the high fence surrounding St. James’ Church, which stands
opposite our house, and disappeared. In spite of our anxious enquiries
no traces of him could ever be found. A mysterious shadow hovers over
his fate. Thus of the black dynasty only Eponine remains. She is
faithful still to her master, and to all intents and purposes has become
an educated cat.
She has for companion a magnificent Angora, of a silver-gray coat which
makes one think of clouded Chinese porcelain. His name is Zizi, which
means—“Too handsome to do anything.” This beautiful creature lives in a
sort of contemplative stupor like a _thekiari_ during his period of
inebriation. Looking at him one is reminded of the “Ecstasies of M.
Hochener.” Zizi’s passion is music. Not content with listening to it, he
is himself a performer. Occasionally at night when all are sleeping
there breaks upon the silence a strange, fantastic melody which Kreisler
and the musicians of the future might well envy. It is Zizi, walking up
and down the keyboard of the piano and enjoying the rapture of hearing
the notes sing under his feet.
It would be unfair not to give a passing mention to Cleopatra, the
daughter of Eponine, who is a charming animal, but of too timid a nature
to be introduced to the public. She is of a deep fawn color, like
Mummia, the shaggy companion of Atta Croll, and her dark green eyes are
just like two enormous pieces of aqua-marina. She walks habitually on
three paws, and holds the fourth in the air, like the figure of a
classical line which has lost his marble ball.
This then is the chronicle of the Black Dynasty,—Enjolras, Gavroche,
Eponine,—recalling to us the creations of a beloved master. Only, when
we now glance over “Les Miserables,” it seems as though the principal
characters in the romance are taken by black cats, but this fact does
not in the least diminish the interest of the story for us.