"Sit down, Anna-Marie, and give me your stick."
"Well, I must listen to you, I suppose, but I cannot stay long, I will
only take a mouthful and then go."
"Yes, yes, that is settled, Anna-Marie," said Mr. Goulden; "we will not
hinder you long."
We sat down, and Mr. Goulden served us at once. Catherine looked at me
and smiled, and I said to myself, "Women are more ingenious than we,"
and I was very happy. What more could a man wish for than to have a
wife with sense and spirit? It is a real treasure, and I have often
seen that men are happy when they allow themselves to be guided by such
a woman. You can easily believe that when once seated at the table
near the fire, instead of being out in the mud, with the sharp November
wind whistling in her thin skirts, she no longer thought of her
journey. She was a good creature sixty years old, who still supported
two children of her son who died some years before. To travel round
the country at that age, with the sun and rain and snow on your back,
to sleep in barns and stables on straw, and three-quarters of the time
have only potatoes to eat and not enough of them, does not make one
despise a plate of good hot soup, a piece of smoked bacon and cabbage,
with two or three glasses of wine to warm the heart. No, you must look
at things as they are, the life of these poor people is very hard,
every one would do well to try a pilgrimage on his own account.
Anna-Marie understood the difference between being at table and on the
road, she ate with a good appetite, and she took real pleasure in
telling us what she had seen during her last round.
"Yes," said she, "everything is going on well now. All the processions
and expiations which you have seen are nothing, they will grow larger
and more imposing from day to day. And you know there are missionaries
coming among us, as they used to do among the savages, to convert us.
They are coming from Mr. de Forbin-Janson and Mr. de Ranzan, because
the corruption of the times is so great. And the convents are to be
rebuilt, and the gates along the roads restored, as they were before
the twenty-five years' rebellion. And when the pilgrims arrive at the
convents, they will only have to ring and they will be admitted at
once, when the brothers who serve, will bring them porringers of rich
soup with meat on ordinary days, and vegetable soup with fish on
Fridays and Saturdays and during Lent. In that way piety will
increase, and everybody will make pilgrimages. But the pious women of
Bischoffsheim say, that only those who have been pilgrims from father
to son, like us, ought to go; that each one ought to attend to his
work, that the peasants should belong to the soil, and that the lords
should have their chateaux again, and govern them. I heard this with
my own ears from these pious women, who are to have their properties
again because they have returned from exile, and that they must have
their estates in order to build their chapels is very certain. Oh! if
that were only done now, so I could profit by it in my old age! I have
fasted long enough, and my little grandchildren also. I would take
them with me, and the priests would teach them, and when I die I should
have the consolation of seeing them in a good way."
On hearing her recount all these things so contrary to reason we were
much moved, for she wept as she imagined her little girls begging at
the door of the convent and the brother bringing them soup.
"And you know, too, that Mr. de Ranzan and the Reverend Father Tarin
want the chateaux rebuilt, and the woods and meadows and fields given
up to the nobles, and in the meantime that the ponds are to be put in
good condition, because they belong to the reverend fathers, who have
no time to plough or sow or reap. Everything must come to them of
itself."
"But tell us, Anna-Marie, is all this quite certain? I can hardly
believe that such great happiness is in store for us."
"It is quite certain, Mr. Goulden. The Count d'Artois wishes to secure
his salvation, and in order to do that everything must be set in order.
Mons. le Vicar Antoine of Marienthal said the same things last week.
They come from above,--these things,--and the hearts of the people must
be accustomed to them by the sermons and expiations. Those who will
not submit, like the Jews and Lutherans, will be forced to do so, and
the Jacobins"--in speaking of the Jacobins Anna-Marie looked suddenly
at Mr. Goulden and blushed up to her ears, for he was smiling.
But she recovered herself, and went on:
"Among the Jacobins there are some very good people, but the poor must
live. The Jacobins have taken the property of the poor and that is not
right."
"When and where have they taken the property of the poor?"
"Listen, Mr. Goulden, the monks and the Capuchins had the estates of
the poor, and the Jacobins have divided them amongst themselves."
"Ah! I understand, I understand, the monks and Capuchins had your
property, Anna-Marie; I never should have guessed that."
Mr. Goulden was all the time in good-humor, and Anna-Marie said:
"We shall be in accord at last."
"Oh! yes, we are, we are," said he pleasantly.
I listened without saying anything, as I was naturally curious to hear
what was coming. It was easy to see that this was what she had heard
on her last journey.
She said also that miracles were coming again and that Saint Quirin,
Saint Odille, and the others would not work miracles under the usurper,
but that they had commenced already; that the little black St. John at
Kortzeroth, on seeing the ancient prior return had shed tears.
"Yes, yes, I understand," said Mr. Goulden, "that does not astonish me
in the least, after all these processions and atonements the saints
must work miracles; and it is natural, Anna-Marie, quite natural."
"Without doubt, Mr. Goulden, and when we see miracles, faith will
return. That is clear, that is certain."
The dinner was finished, and Anna-Marie seeing that nothing more was
coming, remembered that she was late, and exclaimed:
"Oh! Lord, that is one o'clock striking. The others must be near
Ercheviller; now I must leave you."
She rose and took her stick with a very important air.
"Well! _bon voyage_, Anna-Marie, don't make us wait so long next time."
"Ah! Mr. Goulden, if I do not sit every day at your table it is not my
fault."
She laughed, and as she took up her bundle she said:
"Well, good-by, and for the kindness you have shown me I will pray the
blessed Saint Quirin to send you a fine fat boy as fresh and rosy as a
lady-apple. That is the best thing, Madame Bertha, that an old woman
like me can do for you."
On hearing these good wishes, I said, "That old woman is a good soul.
There is nothing I so much wish for in the world. May God hear her
prayer!" I was touched by that good wish.
She went downstairs, and as she shut the door, Catherine began to
laugh, and said:
"She emptied her budget this time."
"Yes, my children," replied Mr. Goulden, who was quite grave, "that is
what we may call human ignorance. You would believe that poor creature
had invented all that, but she has picked it up right and left, it is
word for word what those emigres think, and what they repeat every day
in their journals, and what the preachers say every day openly in all
the churches. Louis XVIII. troubles them, he has too much good sense
for them, but the real king is Monseigneur the Duke d'Artois, who wants
to secure his salvation, and in order that this may be done everything
must be put back where it was before the 'rebellion of twenty-five
years,' and all the national property must be given up to its ancient
owners, and the nobles must have their rights and privileges as in
1788; they must occupy all the grades of the army, and the Catholic
religion must be the only religion in the state. The Sabbath and fete
days must be observed, and heretics driven from all the offices, and
the priests alone have the right to instruct the children of the
people, and this great and terrible country, which carried its ideas of
Liberty, Equality, and Fraternity everywhere by means of its good sense
and its victories, and which never would have been vanquished if the
Emperor had not made an alliance with the kings at Tilsit, this nation,
which in a few years produced so many more great captains and orators,
learned men and geniuses of all kinds, than the noble races produced in
a thousand years, must surrender everything and go back to tilling the
earth, while the others, who are not one in a thousand, will go on from
father to son, taking everything and gladdening their hearts at the
expense of the people! Oh! no doubt the fields and meadows and ponds
will be given up as Anna-Marie said, and that the convents will be
rebuilt in order to please Mons. le Comte d'Artois and help him to gain
his salvation--that is the least the country could do for so great a
prince!"
Then Father Goulden, joining his hands, looked upward saying:
"Lord God, Lord God, who hast wrought so many miracles by the little
black St. John of Kortzeroth, if thou wouldst permit even a single ray
of reason to enter the heads of Monseigneur and his friends, I believe
it would be more beautiful than the tears of the little saint! And
that other one on his island, with his clear eyes like the sparrow-hawk
who pretends to sleep as he watches the unconscious geese in a pool,--O
Lord, a few strokes of his wing and he is upon them, the birds may
escape, while we shall have all Europe at our heels again!"
He said all this very gravely, and I looked at Catherine to know
whether I should laugh or cry.
Suddenly he sat down, saying:
"Come! Joseph, this is not at all cheerful, but what can we do? It is
time to be at work. Look, and see what is the matter with Mr. Jacob's
watch."
Catherine took off the cloth, and each one went to his work.