You see, Fritz, what the common people had to endure in those days.
Ah, well! just as we were performing extra service, while Monborne was
commanding me at the drilling, while Sergeant Trubert was down upon me,
while we were hearing of domiciliary visits of inspection to ascertain
what provisions the citizens had--in the midst of all this, my dozen
pipes of spirits of wine were being slowly wheeled over the road.
How I repented of having ordered them! How often I could have torn my
hair as I thought that half my thirty years' gains were at the mercy of
circumstances! How I prayed for the Emperor! How I ran every morning
to the coffee-houses and ale-houses to learn the news, and how I
trembled as I read!
Nobody knew what I suffered, not even Sorle, for I kept it all from
her. She was too keen-sighted not to perceive my anxiety, and
sometimes she would say, "Come, Moses, have courage! All will come
right--patience a little longer!"
But the rumors which came from Alsace, and German Lorraine, and
Hundsruck, quite upset me: "They are coming! They will not dare to
come! We are ready for them! They will take us by surprise! Peace is
going to be made! They will pass by to-morrow! We shall have no
fighting this winter! They can wait no longer! The Emperor is still
in Paris! Marshal Victor is at Huninguen! They are impressing the
custom-house officers, the forest-keepers, and the gendarmerie! Some
Spanish dragoons went down by Saverne yesterday! The mountaineers are
to defend the Vosges! There will be fighting in Alsace!" etc., etc.
Your head would have been turned, Fritz. In the morning the wind would
blow one way and put you in good spirits; at night it would blow
another way and you would be miserable.
And my spirits of wine were coming nearer and nearer, and at last
arrived, in the midst of this conflict of news, which might any day
turn into a conflict of bullets and shells. If it had not been for my
other troubles I should have been beside myself. Fortunately, my
indignation against Monborne and the other villains diverted my mind.
We heard nothing more of Sergeant Trubert after the great dinner for
the remainder of that day, and the night following, as he was on guard;
but the next morning, as I was getting up, behold, he came up the
stairs, with his musket on his shoulder; he opened the door and began
to laugh, with his mustaches all white with frost. I had just put on
my pantaloons, and looked at him in astonishment. My wife was still in
her room.
"He! he! Father Moses," said he, in a good-natured voice, "it has been
a dreadful cold night." He did not look or speak like the same person.
"Yes, sergeant," I replied, "it is December, and that is what we must
expect."
"What we must expect," he repeated;--"all the more reason for taking a
drop. Let us see, is there any more of that old cherry-brandy?"
He looked, as he spoke, as if he could see through me. I got up at
once from my arm-chair, and ran to fetch the bottle: "Yes, yes,
sergeant," I exclaimed, "there is more, drink and enjoy it."
As I said this, his face, still a little hard, seemed to smile all
over. He placed his gun in a corner, and, standing up, handed me the
glass, saying, "Pour out, Father Moses, pour out!"
I filled it brimful. As I did so, he laughed quietly. His yellow face
puckered up in hundreds of wrinkles at the corners of his eyes, and
around his cheeks and mustaches and chin. He did not laugh so as to be
heard, but his eyes showed his good-humor.
"Famous cherry-brandy this, in truth, Father Moses!" he said as he
drank it. "A body knows who has drank it in the Black Forest, where it
cost nothing! Aren't you going to drink with me?"
"With pleasure," I answered. And we drank together. He looked at me
all the time. Suddenly he said, with a mischievous look, "Hey, Father
Moses, say, you were afraid of me yesterday?" He smiled as he spoke.
"Oh--Sergeant----"
"Come, come," said he, laying his hand upon my shoulder--"confess that
I frightened you."
He smiled so pleasantly that I could not help saying: "Well, yes, a
little!"
"He! he! he! I knew it very well," said he. "You had heard them say,
'Sergeant Trubert is a tough one!' You were afraid, and you gave me a
dinner fit for a prince to coax me!"
He laughed aloud, and I ended by laughing too. Sorle had heard all, in
the next room, and now came to the door and said, "Good-morning, Mr.
Sergeant."
He exclaimed, "Father Moses, here is what may be called a woman! You
can boast of having a spirited woman, a sly woman, slyer than you are,
Father Moses; he, he, he! That is as it should be--that is as it
should be!"
Sorle was delighted.
"Oh! Mr. Sergeant," said she, "can you really think so?"
"Bah! bah!" he exclaimed. "You are a first-rate woman! I saw you when
I first came, and said to myself, 'Take heed, Trubert! They make a
fair pretence; it is a stratagem to send you to the hotel to sleep. We
will let the enemy unmask his batteries!'
"Ha! ha! ha! You are nice folks. You gave me a dinner fit for a
Marshal of the Empire. Now, Father Moses, I invite myself to take a
small glass of cherry-brandy with you now and then. Put the bottle
aside, by itself, it is excellent! And as for the rest, the room which
you have given me is too handsome; I don't like such gewgaws; this fine
furniture and these soft beds are good for women. What I want is a
small room, like that at the side, two good chairs, a pine table, a
plain bed with a mattress, paillasse, and coverings, and five or six
nails in the wall for hanging my things. You just give me that!"
"Since you wish it, Mr. Sergeant."
"Yes, I wish it; the handsome room will be for state occasions."
"You will breakfast with us?" asked my wife, well pleased.
"I breakfast and dine at the cantine," replied the sergeant. "I do
very well there; and I don't want to have good people go to any expense
for me. When people respect an old soldier as he ought to be
respected, when they treat him kindly, when they are like
you,--Trubert, too, is what he ought to be."
"But, Mr. Sergeant!" said Sorle.
"Call me sergeant," said he, "I know you now. You are not like all the
rabble of the city; rascals who have been growing rich while we have
been off fighting; wretches who do nothing but heap up money and grow
big at the expense of the army, who live on us, who are indebted to us
for everything, and who send us to sleep in nests of vermin. Ah! a
thousand million thunders!"
His face resumed its bad look; his mustaches shook with his anger, and
I thought to myself, "What a good idea it was to treat him well!
Sorle's ideas are always good!"
But in a moment he relaxed, and laying his hand on my arm, he exclaimed:
"To think that you are Jews! a kind of abominable race; everything that
is dirty and vile and niggardly! To think that you are Jews! It is
true, is it not, that you are Jews?"
"Yes, sir," replied Sorle.
"Well, upon my word, I am surprised to hear it," said he; "I have seen
so many Jews, in Poland and Germany, that I thought to myself 'They are
sending me to some Jews; they had better look out or I'll smash
everything.'"
We kept silent in our mortification, and he added, "Come, we will say
no more about that. You are good, honest people; I should be sorry to
trouble you. Your hand, Father Moses!"