THE COUNT DE SAINTE-HERMINE
The supper was excellent, the night calm, and, either because he did not
wish to disturb his friends, or because he feared to miss the departure
of the two boys, Augereau did not return to the barracks.
The next morning at six o'clock a conveyance stopped at the door of the
Hôtel de la Lanterne.
Madame Teutch had declared that her little Charles was not strong enough
to travel twenty-four miles in one day, and that the sergeant-major and
she would drive him as far as Bischwiller, which was more than
two-thirds of the way. At Bischwiller they would breakfast; and then, as
the distance to Auenheim would only be about seven miles, Charles could
do it on foot.
As we have already said, the general's headquarters were at Auenheim. On
the way they would leave Eugene at the diligence, which at that period
took four days and two nights to go from Strasbourg to Paris.
Madame Teutch and Augereau got in behind, Charles and Eugene in the
front, and, with Sleepy-head on the driver's seat, they started. The
carriage stopped at the diligence office, as had been arranged, where
the diligence was all ready to start. Eugene got off the carriage; and
as Charles, Madame Teutch, and the sergeant-major did not wish to leave
him until the last moment, they also got out. Five minutes later the
conductor gave the signal, and Eugene embraced each in turn. Madame
Teutch thrust some cakes into his pocket, Charles pressed his hand
tearfully, and Augereau explained to him for the hundredth time a secret
thrust which he had learned from one of the best fencing-masters in
Naples. At last they were obliged to part. Eugene disappeared into the
immense vehicle; the door closed, the horses started, and they saw
Eugene's profile pressed against the window, and heard his voice crying,
"Farewell!" then the diligence rumbled into the street and vanished from
sight. For some seconds they could hear the creaking of the wheels, the
galloping of the horses, and the cracking of the postilion's whip, then
the sounds gradually grew fainter, and finally ceased altogether.
Nothing is sadder than a departure; those who remain do not seem to have
done so voluntarily, but to have been forgotten. Madame Teutch,
Augereau, and Charles looked at each other sadly.
"He is gone," said Charles, wiping his eyes.
"And it will be your turn in two hours, my poor little Charles," said
citizeness Teutch.
"Pooh!" said Augereau, who represented the courage of the company; "as
the proverb says, mountains do not meet, but men sometimes do."
"Alas!" said Madame Teutch, "the proverb speaks of men, but it says
nothing about women."
They re-entered the carriage. In spite of his heroic resistance, Madame
Teutch took Charles upon her knee and kissed him for himself and Eugene.
Augereau filled his pipe and lighted it. Then they awakened Coclès, who,
in order not to lose completely his right to his old name, had fallen
asleep.
The carriage started, but at the gate the itinerary was changed. When
they inquired of the gate-keeper as to which was the shorter and better
road to Auenheim, that of Bischwiller or that of Offendorf, he replied
that they need not hesitate to choose the latter, which was a government
road, while the other was only a provincial one. They therefore took the
one to Offendorf.
This road is charming; it skirts the Rhine, and travellers have
constantly before them the isles, which are so varied in form, and the
broad majestic river, along which runs the road to Offendorf.
The travellers stopped a moment to breathe the horse, and to inquire
for a place to breakfast; for the brisk morning air and the breeze that
shook the white frost from its wings had sharpened their appetites.
They were directed to Rohwillers. One hour later they halted at the inn
of the Golden Lion, and inquired the distance from Rohwillers to
Auenheim. It was only nine short miles, which a good walker could cover
in two hours and a half. Charles declared that they should not come any
further and that he would be ashamed to tell Pichegru that he had only
walked nine miles. How would he feel if they should go as far as
Auenheim? He would die of shame. Perhaps, if she had been alone, Madame
Teutch would have insisted, but the sergeant-major, who doubtless had
good reasons for wishing to be alone with her, took sides with Charles.
It was half-past ten o'clock; they ordered breakfast, and arranged that
they should separate at noon, the traveller to continue on his way to
Auenheim, Pierre Augereau, citizeness Teutch, and "Sleepy-head" to
return to Strasbourg.
The breakfast was sad at first; but the sergeant-major was in no wise
inclined to melancholy, and, little by little, the Moselle and Rhine
wine enlivened the guests. They drank to Augereau's promotion, to Madame
Teutch's continued good health, since they could not wish it to be
better; to Eugene's safe journey, to the successful termination of his
father's trial, to Charles's future; and, as a result of these toasts,
sadness yielded to an illimitable trust in Providence.
France believed neither in the ancient God who had been dethroned, nor
in the new God who had just been proclaimed; the Eternal Father was too
old, the Supreme Being was too young. Providence, of whom these
destroyers of altars had not thought, made a fair compromise.
Noon struck. The sergeant-major rose first.
"Honest men," said he, "have but one word. We agreed to say good-by at
noon, and it has just struck. Besides, if we were to stay together an
hour longer, or even two, we would still have to part; therefore let us
do so now. Come, Charles, my boy, show us that you are a man."
Charles, without replying, slung his little bag across his shoulders,
took his walking-stick in one hand and his hat in the other, embraced
first the fencing-master, then Madame Teutch, and tried to thank her,
but his voice failed him.
He could only say "Au revoir!" slip a twenty-franc note into Coclès'
hand, and rush out into the road.
After he had gone fifty paces, he stopped just where the road made a
bend, and saw that citizeness Teutch and the sergeant-major had gone up
to a room on the first floor which overlooked the road to Auenheim.
Mistrusting her weakness, the good landlady of the Hôtel de la Lanterne
was leaning upon the sergeant-major's arm, and, with the hand that was
free, was waving her handkerchief to Charles. Charles drew out his
handkerchief and answered her signals.
Another turn in the road hid the window from him. He retraced his steps
for a last wave of the hand to his two good friends. But the window was
closed, and the curtain was drawn so carefully that it was impossible to
see whether they had gone downstairs or not. Charles breathed a deep
sigh, hastened his steps, and was soon beyond the village.
December was half gone. The winter had been severe. For three days, a
most unusual occurrence in that village, the snow had fallen and had
melted as fast as it fell. But in the open country, where it was seldom
trampled, it had accumulated and was hardened by a temperature of ten
degrees. The road was dazzling; it seemed as if the night had spread a
carpet of white velvet, spangled with silver stars, beneath the feet of
the traveller. The trees, adorned with icicles, looked like immense
chandeliers. The birds fluttered along the road, anxiously seeking the
accustomed food with which God provided them, but which, during the last
three days, it had been so difficult to find. Shivering, and fluffing
their feathers, they looked twice their natural size, and when they
perched on the flexible branches, or left them to fly away, they
scattered a shower of diamonds.
Charles, who in after-life was so impressionable to the beauties of
Nature, and who described them so perfectly, lost his sad thoughts in
the picturesque scene; and, proud of this his first liberty of mind and
body, with which he was entering the world, walked on without noticing
the road or feeling fatigue.
He had already accomplished three-quarters of the way, when, just beyond
Sessersheim, he was overtaken by a little squad of foot-soldiers, about
twenty in all, commanded by a mounted captain who was smoking a cigar.
The twenty men were marching in two files. In the middle of the road,
like Charles, a horseman--easily identified as such by his boots and
spurs--was walking. A large white cloak covered his shoulders and fell
to his feet, leaving only a youthful head visible, in which intelligence
seemed to combine with carelessness and gayety. He wore a foraging cap
of a style not in vogue in the French army.
The captain, seeing Charles on the road near the man with the white
cloak, looked sharply at him for a moment, and then, seeing that he was
only a boy, smiled pleasantly to him.
"Where are you going, my young citizen?" he asked.
"Captain," replied the boy, believing that he must give a lengthy
explanation, "I have come from Strasbourg, and I am on my way to General
Pichegru's headquarters at Auenheim. Is that very far off?"
"About two hundred paces," replied the man in the white cloak; "see, you
may get a glimpse of the first houses of Auenheim at the end of that
avenue of trees which we are just about to enter."
"Thank you," said Charles, making ready to hurry on.
"Faith, young man," continued the man in the white cloak, "if you are
not in too much of a hurry you might go along with us. Then I could ask
you for some news from home."
"What home, citizen?" asked Charles in astonishment, looking for the
first time at the fine noble countenance which was for a moment veiled
in sadness.
"Come," said the latter, "you are from Besançon, or at least from the
Franche-Comté. Can our national accent be disguised? I, too, come from
the Franche-Comté, and I am proud of it."
Charles pondered a moment; this recognition of the accent awakened a
college memory in his mind.
"Well," asked the young man, "do you wish to be unknown?"
"No, citizen; I was only thinking that Theophrastus, who was first
called Tyrtamus, and whom the Athenians, as his name indicates, had
surnamed the 'fine speaker,' was recognized as a Lesbian by his accent,
after fifty years sojourn at Athens, by a dealer in herbs."
"You are learned, sir," replied the young man, smiling. "That is a
luxury in these days."
"No, for I am on my way to General Pichegru, who is very learned
himself. I hope to become his secretary, thanks to my letter of
recommendation. And you, citizen, do you belong to the army?"
"Not exactly."
"Then," said Charles, "you are attached to the administration?"
"Attached--that's the word. Only I am not attached to the
administration; I am attached to myself."
"But," said Charles, lowering his voice, "you called me monsieur out
loud. Are you not afraid that you will lose your place?"
"Oh! I say, captain," laughed the young man, "here is a young citizen
who is afraid that I shall lose my place for calling him monsieur! Do
you know any one who wants my place? I will do him the honor of giving
it to him instantly."
The captain replied only by a sad smile and a shrug; but Charles thought
he heard him murmur, "Poor devil!"
"Tell me," continued the young man in the white cloak, "since you are
from Besançon--for you do come from there, do you not?"
"I do not deny it," replied Charles.
"You must know a family there named Sainte-Hermine."
"Yes, a widowed mother whose husband was guillotined eight months ago."
"That is the one," said the young man, lifting his eyes to heaven.
"And three sons."
"Three sons! yes, there are still three," murmured the other with a
sigh.
"The eldest, the Comte de Sainte-Hermine, who emigrated, and two others
younger than he; one is about twenty and the other is not more than
fourteen or fifteen."
"Thank you; how long is it since you left Besançon?"
"About eight days."
"Then you can give me some recent news about this family?"
"Yes, but it is sad news."
"Tell it nevertheless."
"The night before I left, my father and I attended the funeral of the
countess."
"Ah!" exclaimed the young man, as if he had received an unexpected blow;
"then the countess is dead?"
"Yes."
"So much the better," said he with a sigh, as he raised his eyes wet
with tears to heaven.
"What do you mean?" exclaimed Charles.
"Yes," replied the young man, "it is better that she should die of
sickness than through grief when she learns that her son has been shot."
"What? has the Comte de Sainte-Hermine been shot?"
"No, but he is going to be."
"When?"
"Why, as soon as we reach the fortress of Auenheim; that is where the
executions usually take place."
"Then the count is at the fortress?"
"No, they are taking him there."
"And they will shoot him?"
"As soon as I get there."
"Then you have charge of the execution?"
"No, but I hope they will let me give the order to fire. That is a favor
that is seldom refused to any brave soldier taken with his arms in his
hand, even if he has emigrated."
"Oh, heavens!" exclaimed Charles, catching a glimpse of the truth.
"Are--"
"Exactly, my young friend. That is why I laughed when you recommended
prudence, and why I offered to give my place to any one who wanted it,
for I have no fear of losing it. As you said, I am attached."
And shaking aside his cloak with a movement of his shoulders, he showed
the boy that his hands were fastened in front and his arms bound behind.
"Then," cried Charles, with a movement of terror, "you are--"
"The Comte de Sainte-Hermine, my child. You see I was right when I said
that it is well my poor mother is dead."
"Oh!" exclaimed Charles.
"Luckily," he continued between his teeth, "my brothers still live!"