This general satisfaction continued for five or six days. The old
mayors and their assistants were replaced as well as the field-guards,
and all those who had been displaced a few months before. The whole
city, even the women, wore little tri-colored cockades, and all the
seamstresses were busily at work making them, of red, white, and blue
ribbon; and those who railed so bitterly against the "ogre of Corsica,"
never spoke of Louis XVIII. except as the "Panada King." On the 25th
of March a Te Deum was sung, the garrison and all the civil authorities
joining in the service with great ceremony. After the Te Deum, the
authorities gave a grand dinner to the officers of the garrison at the
"Ville de Metz." The weather was fine and the windows were open, and
the hall was lighted by clusters of lamps hanging from the ceiling.
Catherine and I went out in the evening to enjoy the spectacle. We
could see the uniforms and the black coats sitting side by side around
the long tables, and first the mayor would rise, and then his
assistants, or the new commandant of the post, Mr. Brandon, to drink to
the health of the Emperor or of his ministers, of France, to peace or
to victory, etc., etc., and this they kept up till midnight.
Inside the glasses jingled, and outside the children fired crackers.
They had erected a climbing pole before the church, and wooden horses
and organ-grinders had come from Saverne, and there was a holiday at
the college. In Klein's Court, at the "Ox," there was a fight between
dogs and donkeys; in short, it was just as it was in 1830 and in 1848,
and afterward. The people never invent anything new to glorify those
who rise, or to express their contempt for those who fall.
But they soon found out that the Emperor had no time to lose in
rejoicings. The gazette said that "his Majesty wished for peace, that
he made no demands, that he was on good terms with his father-in-law
the Emperor Francis, that Marie Louise and the King of Rome were to
return, they were daily expected," etc.
But meanwhile the order arrived to arm the place. Two years before
Pfalzbourg was a hundred leagues from the frontier. The ramparts were
in ruins, the ditches filled up, and there was nothing in the arsenal
but miserable old muskets of the time of Louis XIV., which were
discharged with matches; and the guns were so unwieldy on their heavy
carriages, that horses were required to move them. The arsenals were
really at Dresden and Hamburg and Erfurt; but though we had not
stirred, we were ten leagues from Rhenish Bavaria, and it was upon us
that the first shower of bombs and bullets would fall. So, day after
day, we received orders to restore the earthworks and to clear out the
ditches and to put the old ordnance in good condition. At the
beginning of April a great workshop was established at the arsenal for
repairing the arms, and skilful engineers and artillerists arrived from
Metz to repair the earthworks of the bastions and make terraces around
the embrasures. The activity was very great--greater than in 1805 and
in 1813, and I thought more than once that these extensive frontiers
had their good side, because we might in the interior live in peace,
while they took the blows and bombardments.
But we had great anxiety, for naturally when the palisades were newly
planted on the glacis, and the half-moons filled with fascines, when
cannon were placed in every nook and corner, we knew that there must be
soldiers to guard and serve them.
Often as we heard these decrees read at night, Catherine and I looked
at each other in mute apprehension. I felt beforehand that instead of
remaining quietly at home, cleaning and mending clocks, I would be
obliged to be again on the march, and that always made me sad; and this
melancholy increased from day to day. Sometimes Father Goulden, seeing
this, would say cheerfully:
"Come! Joseph, courage! all will come right at last."
He wished to raise my spirits, but I thought: "Yes, he says that to
encourage me, but any one who is not blind can see what turn affairs
will take."
Events followed each other so rapidly, that the decrees came like hail,
always with sounding phrases and grand words to embellish them.
And we learned too that the regiments were to take their old numbers,
"illustrious in so many glorious campaigns." Without being very
malicious, we could understand that the old numbers which had no
regiments would soon find them again. And not only that, but we
learned that the skeletons of the third, fourth, and fifth battalions
of infantry, the fourth and fifth squadrons of cavalry, and thirty
battalions of artillery trains were to be filled up, and twenty
regiments of the Young Guard, ten battalions of military equipages, and
twenty regiments of marines were to be formed, ostensibly to give
employment to all the half-pay officers of both arms of the service,
land and naval. That was very well to say; but when they are created
they are to be filled up, and when they are full the soldiers must go.
When I saw that, my confidence vanished, but yet everybody cried,
"Peace, peace, peace! We accept the treaty of Paris. The kings and
emperors convened at Vienna are our friends. Marie Louise and the King
of Rome are coming."
The more I heard of these things, the more my distrust increased. In
vain Mr. Goulden would say, "He has taken Carnot into his counsels.
Carnot is a good patriot; Carnot will prevent him from going to war, or
if we are forced to go to war, he will show him that the enemy must
come here to find us, the nation must be roused, declare the country in
danger, etc."
In vain did he tell me these things, I always said to myself, "all
these new regiments are to be filled; that is certain." We heard also
that ten thousand picked men were to be added to the Old Guard, and
that the light artillery was to be reorganized. Everybody knows that
light artillery follows the army. To remain behind the ramparts or for
defence at home, it is useless.
I came to this conclusion at once, and though I was generally careful
to conceal my anxiety from Catherine, yet this night I could not help
telling her so. She said nothing, which shows plainly that she had
good sense and that she thought so too.
All these things diminished my enthusiasm for the Emperor very much
indeed, and I sometimes said to myself as I was at work, "I would
rather see processions going past my windows, than to go and fight
against people whom I never saw." At least the sight would cost me
neither leg nor arm, and if it annoyed me too much I could make an
excursion to Quatre Vents. My vexation increased the more, as since
the dispute with Mr. Goulden, Aunt Gredel did not come to see us. She
was a very wilful woman and would not listen to reason, and would hold
resentment against a person for years and years. But she was our
mother, and it was our duty to yield something to her as she wished us
only good. But how could we be reconciled to her ideas and those of
Mr. Goulden?
This was what embarrassed us, for if we were bound to love Aunt Gredel,
we owed also the most profound respect to him, who looked upon us as
his own children, and who loaded us every day with his benefits.
These thoughts made us sad, and I had resolved to tell Mr. Goulden,
that Catherine and I were Jacobins like himself, but without doing
injustice to Jacobin ideas, or abandoning them, we ought to honor our
mother, and go and inquire after her health.
I did not know how he would receive this declaration, when one Sunday
morning, as we went down about eight o'clock, we found him dressed, and
in excellent humor. He said to us, "Children, here it is more than a
month since Aunt Gredel has been to see us. She is obstinate. I wish
to show her that I can yield. Between friends like us, there should
not be even a shadow of difference. After breakfast we will go to
Quatre Vents, and tell her that she is prejudiced, and that we love her
in spite of her faults. You will see how ashamed she will be." He
laughed, but we were quite touched by his generosity.
"Ah! Mr. Goulden, how good and kind you are," said Catherine, "they
who do not love you, must have very bad hearts."
"Ha!" he exclaimed, "is not what I have done quite natural? must we let
a few words separate us? Thank God! age teaches us to be more
reasonable and to be willing to take the first step,--that you know is
one of the principles of the Rights of Man,--in order to maintain
concord between reasonable persons."
Everything was summed up, when he had quoted the "Rights of Man." You
can hardly imagine our satisfaction. Catherine could hardly wait till
breakfast was over, she was here and there and everywhere, to bring his
hat and cane and his shoes and the box which held his beautiful peruke.
She helped him on with his brown coat, while he laughed as he watched
her, and at last he kissed her saying, "I knew this would make you
happy, so do not let us lose a minute, let us go."
We all set off together, Father Goulden gravely giving his arm to
Catherine, as he always did in the street, and I marched on behind as
happy as possible. Those I loved best in the world were here before my
eyes, and as I went on I thought of what I should say to Aunt Gredel.
The weather was splendid, and on we went beyond the wall and the
glacis, and in twenty minutes, without hurrying, we stood before Aunt
Gredel's door. It might have been ten o'clock, and as I had gained a
little on them at the "Roulette" I went in by the alley of elders that
ran along the side of the house, and looked into the little window to
see what aunt was doing. She was seated right opposite me near the
fireplace, in which a little fire was smouldering, she had on her short
skirt, striped with blue, with great pockets on the outside, and her
linen corsage with shoulder-straps, and her old shoes. She was
spinning away, with her eyes cast down, looking very sober, her great
thin arms naked to the elbow, and her gray hair twisted up in her neck
without any cap. "Poor Aunt Gredel," thought I, "she is thinking of us
no doubt--and she is so obstinate in her vexation. It is sad though,
all the same, to live alone and never see her children." It made me
sad to see her.
At that moment the door opened on the side next the street, and Father
Goulden walked in with Catherine, as happy as possible, exclaiming:
"Ha! Mother Gredel, you do not come to see us any more, therefore I
have brought your children to see you, and have come myself to embrace
you. You will have to get us a good dinner, do you hear? and that
will teach you a lesson." He seemed a little grave with all his joy.
On seeing them, aunt sprang up and embraced Catherine, and then she
fell into Mr. Goulden's arms and hung on his neck:
"Ah! Mr. Goulden, how happy I am to see you. You are a good man; you
are worth a thousand of me."
Seeing that matters had taken a pleasant turn, I ran round to the door
and found them both with their eyes full of tears. Father Goulden said:
"We will talk no more politics!"
"No! but whether one is Jacobin or anything else you will, the
principal thing is to keep in good temper."
She then came and embraced me, and said:
"My poor Joseph! I have been thinking of you from morning till night.
But all is well now and I am satisfied."
She ran into the kitchen and commenced bustling among the kettles to
prepare something to regale us with, while Mr. Goulden placed his cane
in a corner and hung his great hat upon it, and sat down with an air of
contentment near the hearth.
"What fine weather!" he exclaimed, "how green and flourishing
everything is! How happy I should be to live in the fields, to see the
hedges and apple-trees and plum-trees from my windows, covered with
their red and white blossoms!"
He was gay as a lark, and we all should have been except for the
thoughts of the war which were constantly coming into our heads.
"Leave all that, mother," said Catherine, "I will get the dinner to-day
as I used to do; go and sit down quietly with Mr. Goulden."
"But you do not know where anything is, I have disarranged everything,"
said aunt.
"Sit down, I beg you," said Catherine, "I shall find the butter and the
eggs and the flour and everything that is necessary."
"Well, well! I am going to obey you," said she, as she went down to
the cellar.
Catherine took off her pretty shawl and hung it on the back of my
chair, then she put some wood on the fire and some butter in a saucepan
and looked into the kettles to see that everything was in order. Aunt
came in at that moment with a bottle of white wine.
"You will first refresh yourselves a little before dinner, and while
Catherine looks after the kitchen I will go and put on my sacque and
give my hair a touch with the comb, for certainly it needs it, and
you--go into the orchard;--here, Joseph, take these glasses and the
bottle and go and sit in the bee-house, the weather is fine, in an hour
all will be in order and I will come and drink with you."
Father Goulden and I went out through the tall grass and the yellow
dandelions which came up to our knees. It was very warm and the air
was full of soft murmurs. We sat down in the shade and looked at the
glorious sunshine.
Mr. Goulden took off his peruke in order to be more at his ease and
hung it up behind him, and I opened the bottle and we drank some of the
good white wine.
"Well! all goes on even though man does commit follies; the Lord God
watches over all his works. Look at the grain, Joseph, how it grows!
What a harvest there will be in three or four months. And those
turnips and cabbages, and the shrubs, and the bees, how busy everything
is, how they live and grow! what a pity it is that men do not follow so
good an example! what a pity that some must labor to support the others
in idleness. What a pity that there must be always idlers of every
kind, who treat us like Jacobins because we wish for order and peace
and justice!"
There was nothing he liked so much to see as industry, not only that of
man but even of the smallest insect that runs about in the grass, as in
an endless forest, which builds and pairs and covers its eggs, heaps
them up in its places of deposit, exposes them to the sunshine,
protects them from the chills of night, and defends them from its
enemies; in short, all that great universe of life where everything
sings, everything is in its place; from the lark which fills the air
with his joyous music to the ant which goes and comes and runs and mows
and saws and pulls and is master of all trades.
This was what pleased Mr. Goulden, but he never spoke of it except in
the fields, when this grand spectacle was right under his eyes, and
naturally he then spoke of God, whom he called the "Supreme Being," as
in the time of the Republic, and he said, He was reason and wisdom and
goodness and love; justice, order, and life. The ideas of the
almanac-makers came back to him also, and it was splendid to hear him
talk of the "Pluviose" the season of rains, of "Nivose" the season of
snows, of "Ventose" season of winds, and "Floreal, Prairial, and
Fructidor." He said the ideas of men in those times were more closely
allied to God's, while July, September, and October meant nothing, and
were only invented to confuse and obscure everything. Once on this
subject it was plain that he could not exhaust it. Unfortunately I
have not the learning that that good man had, otherwise it would give
me real pleasure to recount his sayings to you. We were just here when
Mother Gredel, well washed and combed and in her Sunday dress, came
round the corner of the house toward us. He stopped instantly that she
might not be disturbed.
"Here I am," she said, "all in order."
"Sit down," said Father Goulden, making a place for her beside him on
the bench.
"Do you know what time it is?" said she. "Does it not seem long to
you? Listen!" and we heard the city clock slowly strike twelve.
"What! is it noon already! I would not have believed that we had been
here more than ten minutes."
"Yes, it is noon, and dinner is waiting."
"So much the better," said Mr. Goulden, offering his arm to her, "since
you have told me the hour I find I have a good appetite."
They went along the alley arm in arm, and when we were at the door a
most charming sight met our eyes, the great tureen with its red flowers
was smoking on the table, a breast of stuffed veal filled the room with
a delicious odor. A great plate of cinnamon cakes stood on the edge of
the old oak buffet, two bottles of wine, and glasses clear as crystal,
shone on the white cloth beside the plates. The very sight of it made
you feel that it is the joy of the Lord to shower blessings on His
children.
Catherine, with her rosy cheeks and white teeth, laughed to see our
satisfaction, and during the whole dinner our anxiety for the future
was forgotten. We laughed and were as happy as if the world were in
the best condition possible. But as we were taking coffee our sadness
returned, and without knowing why, we were all very grave. Nobody
wished to speak of politics, when suddenly Aunt Gredel herself asked if
there was anything new. Mr. Goulden then said that the Emperor desired
peace, and that he wished to put himself in a condition of defence, in
order to warn our enemies that we were not afraid. He said that in any
case, in spite of the ill-feeling of the allies they would not dare to
attack us, that the Emperor Francis, though he had not much heart,
would not wish to overthrow his son-in-law and his own daughter and
grandson a second time, that it would be contrary to nature, and
besides that, the nation would rise _en masse_, that they would declare
the country to be in danger, and that it would not be a war of soldiers
alone, but of all Frenchmen against those who wished to oppress them,
that this would make the allied sovereigns reflect, etc., etc.
He said many other things which I do not recall. Aunt Gredel listened
without saying a word. She rose at last, and went to a closet and took
a piece of paper from a porringer, and, giving it to Mr. Goulden, said,
"Read this; such papers are all around the country; this came to me
from the Vicar Diemer. You will see whether peace is so certain."
As Mr. Goulden had left his spectacles at home, I read the paper. I
put all those old papers aside years and years ago, they have grown
yellow and no one thinks of them or speaks of them, and still it is
well to read them. How do we know what will happen? Those old kings
and emperors died after doing us all the harm possible, but their sons
and grandsons still live, and do not wish us overmuch good, and that
which they said then they may say again now, and those who lent their
aid to the fathers might incline to help their sons. Here is the paper.
"The Allied Powers which signed the treaty of Paris, assembled in
Congress at Vienna, having been informed of the escape of Napoleon
Bonaparte, and of his entrance into France with arms in his hands, owe
it to their dignity and to the interest of social order to make a
solemn declaration of the sentiments which this event has excited. In
violating the terms of the convention which placed him at Elba,
Bonaparte destroyed his only legal title to life; and in reappearing in
France with projects for disturbing the public peace, he has deprived
himself of the protection of the laws, and made it manifest to the
universe that there can be neither truce nor peace with him."
And so they continued through two long pages, and those people who had
nothing in common with us, who had no concern with our affairs, and who
gave themselves the title of Defenders of the Peace, finished by
declaring that they united themselves to maintain the treaty of Paris
and replace Louis XVIII. on the throne.
When I had finished, aunt turned to Mr. Goulden and asked:
"What do you think of all that?"
"I think," said he, "that those sovereigns despise the people, and that
they would exterminate the human race without shame or pity in order to
maintain fifteen or twenty families in luxury. They look upon
themselves as gods, and upon us as brutes."
"Doubtless," replied Aunt Gredel. "I do not deny it, but all that will
not prevent Joseph from being compelled to go away."