Admiral de la Vallee, who seemed to be half asleep in his armchair, said
in a voice which sounded like an old woman's:
"I had a very singular little love adventure once; would you like to
hear it?"
He spoke from the depths of his great chair, with that everlasting dry,
wrinkled smile on his lips, that smile _à la Voltaire_, which made
people take him for a terrible skeptic.
I
I was thirty years of age and first lieutenant in the navy, when I was
intrusted with an astronomical expedition to Central India. The English
Government provided me with all the necessary means for carrying out my
enterprise, and I was soon busied with a few followers in that strange,
surprising, prodigious country.
It would take me ten volumes to relate that journey. I went through
wonderfully magnificent regions, and was received by strangely handsome
princes, who entertained me with incredible magnificence. For two months
it seemed to me as if I were walking in a poem, and that I was going
about in a fairy kingdom, on the back of imaginary elephants. In the
midst of wild forests I discovered extraordinary ruins, delicate and
chiseled like jewels, fine as lace and enormous as mountains, those
fabulous, divine monuments which are so graceful that one falls in love
with their form like one falls in love with a woman, and that one feels
a physical and sensual pleasure in looking at them. As Victor Hugo says,
"_Whilst wide-awake, I was walking in a dream_."
Towards the end of my journey I reached Ganhard, which was formerly one
of the most prosperous towns in Central India, but is now much decayed
and governed by a wealthy, arbitrary, violent, generous, and cruel
prince. His name is Rajah Maddan, a true Oriental potentate, delicate
and barbarous, affable and sanguinary, combining feminine grace with
pitiless ferocity.
The city lies at the bottom of a valley, on the banks of a little lake
which is surrounded by pagodas, which bathe their walls in the water.
At a distance the city looks like a white spot which grows larger as one
approaches it, and by degrees one discovers the domes and spires, all
the slender and graceful summits of Indian monuments.
At about an hour's distance from the gates, I met a superbly caparisoned
elephant, surrounded by a guard of honor which the sovereign had sent
me, and I was conducted to the palace with great ceremony.
I should have liked to have taken the time to put on my gala uniform,
but royal impatience would not admit of it. He was anxious to make my
acquaintance, to know what he might expect from me, and then he would
see.
I was introduced into a great hall surrounded by galleries, in the midst
of bronze-colored soldiers in splendid uniforms, while all about were
standing men dressed in striking robes studded with precious stones.
I saw a shining mass, a kind of sitting sun reposing on a bench like
our garden benches, without a back; it was the rajah who was waiting for
me, motionless, in a robe of the purest canary color. He had some ten or
fifteen million francs worth of diamonds on him, and by itself, on his
forehead glistened the famous star of Delhi, which has always belonged
to the illustrious dynasty of the Pariharas of Mundore, from whom my
host was descended.
He was a man of about five-and-twenty, who seemed to have some negro
blood in his veins, although he belonged to the purest Hindoo race. He
had large, almost motionless, rather vague eyes, fat lips, a curly
beard, low forehead, and dazzling sharp white teeth, which he frequently
showed with a mechanical smile. He got up and gave me his hand in the
English fashion, and then made me sit down beside him on a bench which
was so high that my feet hardly touched the ground, and I was very
uncomfortable on it.
He immediately proposed a tiger hunt for the next day; war and hunting
were his chief occupations, and he could hardly understand how one could
care for anything else. He was evidently fully persuaded that I had only
come all that distance to amuse him a little, and to be the companion of
his pleasures.
As I stood greatly in need of his assistance, I tried to flatter his
tastes, and he was so pleased with me that he immediately wished to show
me how his trained boxers fought, and he led the way into a kind of
arena situated within the palace.
At his command two naked men appeared, their hands covered with steel
claws. They immediately began to attack each other, trying to strike one
another with this sharp weapon, which left long cuts, from which the
blood flowed freely down their dark skin.
It lasted for a long time, till their bodies were a mass of wounds, and
the combatants were tearing each other's flesh with this sort of rake
made of pointed blades. One of them had his jaw smashed, while the ear
of the other was split into three pieces.
The prince looked on with ferocious pleasure, uttered grunts of delight,
and imitated all their movements with careless gestures, crying out
constantly:
"Strike, strike hard!"
One fell down unconscious, and had to be carried out of the arena,
covered with blood, while the rajah uttered a sigh of regret because it
was over so soon.
He turned to me to know my opinion; I was disgusted, but I congratulated
him loudly. He then gave orders that I was to be conducted to
Couch-Mahal (the palace of pleasure), where I was to be lodged.
This bijou palace was situated at the extremity of the royal park, and
one of its walls was built into the sacred lake of Vihara. It was
square, with three rows of galleries with colonnades of most beautiful
workmanship. At each angle there were light, lofty or low towers,
standing either singly or in pairs: no two were alike, and they looked
like flowers growing out of that graceful plant of Oriental
architecture. All were surmounted by fantastic roofs, like coquettish
ladies' caps.
In the middle of the edifice a large dome raised its round cupola like a
large white woman's breast, beside a beautiful clock-tower.
The whole building was covered with sculpture from top to bottom, with
those exquisite arabesques which delight the eye, of motionless
processions of delicate figures whose attitudes and gestures in stone
told the story of Indian manners and customs.
The rooms were lighted by windows with dentelated arches, looking on to
the gardens. On the marble floor were designs of graceful bouquets in
onyx, lapis-lazuli, and agate.
I had scarcely had time to finish my toilet when Haribada, a court
dignitary who was specially charged to communicate between the prince
and me, announced his sovereign's visit.
The saffron-colored rajah appeared, again shook hands with me, and began
to tell me a thousand different things, constantly asking me for my
opinion, which I had great difficulty in giving him. Then he wished to
show me the ruins of the former palace at the other extremity of the
gardens.
It was a real forest of stones inhabited by a large tribe of apes. On
our approach the males began to run along the walls, making the most
hideous faces at us, while the females ran away, showing their bare
rumps, and carrying off their young in their arms. The rajah shouted
with laughter and pinched my arm to draw my attention, and to testify
his own delight, and sat down in the midst of the ruins, while around
us, squatting on the top of the walls, perching on every eminence, a
number of animals with white whiskers put out their tongues and shook
their fists at us.
When he had seen enough of this, the yellow rajah rose and began to walk
sedately on, keeping me always at his side, happy at having shown me
such things on the very day of my arrival, and reminding me that a grand
tiger-hunt was to take place the next day, in my honor.
I was present at it, at a second, a third, at ten, twenty in succession.
We hunted all the animals which the country produces in turn; the
panther, the bear, elephant, antelope, the hippopotamus and the
crocodile--what do I know of, half the beasts in creation I should say.
I was disgusted at seeing so much blood flow, and tired of this
monotonous pleasure.
At length the prince's ardor abated and, at my urgent request, he left
me a little leisure for work, and contented himself by loading me with
costly presents. He sent me jewels, magnificent stuffs, and well-broken
animals of all sorts, which Haribada presented to me with apparently as
grave respect as if I had been the sun himself although he heartily
despised me at the bottom of his heart.
Every day a procession of servants brought me in covered dishes, a
portion of each course that was served at the royal table; every day he
seemed to take an extreme pleasure in getting up some new entertainment
for me--dances by the Bayaderes, jugglers, reviews of the troops, and I
was obliged to pretend to be most delighted with it, so as not to hurt
his feelings when he wished to show me his wonderful country in all its
charm and all its splendor.
As soon as I was left alone for a few moments I either worked or went to
see the monkeys, whose company pleased me a great deal better than that
of their royal master.
One evening, however, on coming back from a walk, I found Haribada
outside the gate of my palace. He told me in mysterious tones that a
gift from the king was waiting for me in my room, and he said that his
master begged me to excuse him for not having sooner thought of offering
me that of which I had been deprived for such a long time.
After these obscure remarks the ambassador bowed and withdrew.
When I went in I saw six little girls standing against the wall
motionless, side-by-side, like smelts on a skewer. The eldest was
perhaps ten and the youngest eight years old. For the first moment I
could not understand why this girls' school had taken up its abode in my
rooms; then, however, I divined the prince's delicate attention: he had
made me a present of a harem, and had chosen it very young from an
excess of generosity. There, the more unripe the fruit is, in the higher
estimation it is held.
For some time I remained confused and embarrassed, ashamed in the
presence of these children, who looked at me with great grave eyes which
seemed already to divine what I should want of them.
I did not know what to say to them; I felt inclined to send them back;
but one cannot return the presents of a prince; it would have been a
mortal insult. I was obliged, therefore, to keep them, and to install
this troop of children in my rooms.
They stood motionless, looking at me, waiting for my orders, trying to
read my thoughts in my eyes. Confound such a present! How dreadfully it
was in my way. At last, thinking that I must be looking rather
ridiculous, I asked the eldest her name.
"Châli," she replied.
This little creature, with her beautiful skin, which was slightly
yellow, like old ivory, was a marvel, a perfect statue, with her face
and its long and severe lines.
I then asked, in order to see what she would reply, and also, perhaps,
to embarrass her:
"What have you come here for?"
She replied, in her soft, harmonious voice:
"I have come to be altogether at my lord's disposal, and to do whatever
he wishes."
She was evidently quite resigned.
I put the same question to the youngest, who answered immediately in her
shrill voice:
"I am here to do whatever you ask me, my master."
This one was like a little mouse, and was very taking, just as they all
were, so I took her in my arms and kissed her. The others made a
movement to go away, thinking, no doubt, that I had made my choice; but
I ordered them to stay, and sitting down in the Indian fashion, I made
them all sit round me, and began to tell them fairy-tales, for I spoke
their language tolerably well.
They listened very attentively, and trembled, wringing their hands in
agony. Poor little things, they were not thinking any longer of the
reason why they were sent to me.
When I had finished my story, I called Latchmân, my confidential
servant, and made him bring sweetmeats and cakes, of which they ate
enough to make themselves ill; then, as I began to find the adventure
rather funny, I organized games to amuse my wives.
One of these diversions had an enormous success. I made a bridge of my
legs, and the six children ran underneath, the smallest beginning and
the tallest always knocking against them a little, because she did not
stoop enough. It made them shout with laughter, and these young voices
sounding beneath the low vaults of my sumptuous palace, seemed to wake
it up and to people it with childlike gaiety, filling it with life.
Next I took great interest in seeing to the sleeping apartments of my
innocent concubines, and in the end I saw them safely locked up under
the surveillance of four female servants, whom the prince had sent me at
the same time in order to take care of my sultanas.
For a week I took the greatest pleasure in acting the papa towards
these living dolls. We had capital games of _hide-and-seek_,
_puss-in-the-corner_, &c., which gave them the greatest pleasure, for
every day I taught them a new game, to their intense delight.
My house now seemed to be one large class, and my little friends,
dressed in beautiful silk stuffs, and in materials embroidered with gold
and silver, ran up and down the long galleries and the quiet rooms like
little human animals.
At last, one evening, without my knowing exactly how it happened, the
oldest of them, the one called Châli, and who looked so like an ivory
statue, became my wife.
She was an adorable little creature, timid and gentle, who soon got to
love me ardently, with some degree of shame, with hesitation as if
afraid of European justice, with reserve and scruples, and yet with
passionate tenderness. I cherished her as if I had been her father.