MOTHER AND SON.
Ignorant of these evil designs, Martial slowly entered into the
kitchen.
A few words of La Louve, in her conversation with Fleur-de-Marie, have
already informed us of the singular life of this man. Endowed with
good natural instincts, incapable of an action positively bad or
wicked, Martial did not conduct himself as he should have done. He
fished contrary to law, and his strength and audacity inspired so much
terror in the river-keepers, that they shut their eyes on his
proceedings.
The lover of La Louve resembled Francois and Amandine very much; he
was of middling stature, but robust and broad-shouldered; his thick,
red hair, cut short, laid in points on his open forehead; his thick,
heavy beard, his large cheeks, square nose, bold blue eyes, gave to
him a singularly resolute expression.
He wore an old tarpaulin glazed hat; and, notwithstanding the cold,
had nothing on but a wretched blouse over his well-worn vest and
coarse velveteen trousers. He held in his hand an enormous knotty
stick, which he placed alongside of him on the table.
A large dog, with crooked legs, came in with Martial; but he remained
near the door, not daring to approach the fire, or the people at the
table; experience had proved to old Miraut, that he was, as well as
his master, not in very good odor with the family.
"Where are the children?" were the first words of Martial, as he took
his seat at the table.
"They are where they are," answered Calabash, sharply.
"Where are the children, mother?" repeated Martial, without paying any
attention to his sister.
"Gone to bed," answered the widow, dryly.
"Have they supped, mother?"
"What's that to you?" cried Nicholas, brutally, after having swallowed
a large glass of wine, to augment his audacity.
Martial as indifferent to the attacks of Nicholas as he was to
Calabash's, said to his mother, "I am sorry the children have already
gone to bed, for I like to have them alongside of me when I sup."
"And we, as they trouble us, packed them off," cried Nicholas; "if it
don't please you, go and look for them!"
Martial, much surprised, looked fixedly at his brother. Then, as if
reflecting on the folly of a quarrel, he shrugged his shoulders, cut a
piece of bread with his knife, and helped himself to a slice of meat.
The terrier had drawn nearer to Nicholas, although still at a very
respectful distance; the bandit, irritated at the contemptuous
indifference of his brother, and hoping to make him lose his patience
by striking the dog, gave Miraut a furious kick, which made him howl
piteously. Martial became purple, pressed in his contracted hands the
knife which he held, and struck violently on the table; but, still
containing himself, he called his dog, and said gently, "Here,
Miraut." The terrier came and laid down at his master's feet. This
moderation defeated the projects of Nicholas, who wished to push his
brother to extremities to bring about a rupture. So he added, "I don't
like dogs--I won't have your dog here." For answer, Martial poured out
a glass of wine, and drank it slowly.
Exchanging a rapid glance with Nicholas, the widow encouraged him by a
sign to continue his hostilities, hoping that a violent quarrel would
bring about a rupture and a complete separation.
Nicholas went and took the willow switch which stood in the corner,
and, approaching the terrier, struck him, crying, "Get out of this,
Miraut!" Up to this time, Nicholas had often shown his animosity
toward Martial, but never before had he dared to provoke him with so
much audacity and perseverance. At the yelp from his dog, Martial
rose, opened the door, put the terrier outside, and returned to
continue his supper. This incredible patience, little in harmony with
the ordinary character of Martial, confounded his aggressors. They
looked at each other, very much surprised. He, appearing completely a
stranger to what was passing, ate heartily, and kept profound silence.
"Calabash, take away the wine," said the widow to her daughter. She
hastened to obey, when Martial said, "Stop! I have not finished my
supper."
"So much the worse!" said the widow, taking away the bottle.
"Ah! as you like," answered he, and pouring out a large glass of
water, he drank it, and smacking his lips, cried, "That's famous
water!" This imperturbable coolness still more irritated Nicholas,
already much excited by his frequent libations; nevertheless, he
recoiled before a direct attack, knowing the superior strength of his
brother; suddenly he cried:
"You have done well to knock under, with your dog, Martial; it is a
good habit to get into; for you must expect to see La Louve kicked
out, just as we have kicked out your dog."
"Oh, yes--for if she has the misfortune to come to the island when she
comes out of prison," said Calabash, comprehending the intention of
Nicholas, "I will box her soundly."
"And I'll give her a ducking in the mud, near the hovel at the other
end of the island," added Nicholas; "and if she comes up again, I'll
put her under again with a kick--the hussy."
This insult, addressed to La Louvs whom he loved with unqualified
passion, triumphed over the pacific resolutions of Martial; he knit
his brows, his blood rushed to his face, the veins on his forehead and
neck swelled like ropes; yet he still had command over himself to say
to Nicholas, in a voice altered by suppressed rage. "Take care--you
seek a quarrel, and you will find a new trick that you do not look
for."
"A trick--to me?"
"Yes, better than the last."
"How? Nicholas," said Calabash, with well-feigned attachment, "has
Martial beat you? I say, mother, do you hear? I am no more astonished
that Nicholas is afraid of him."
"He whipped me, because he took me unawares," cried Nicholas, becoming
pale with rage.
"You lie! You attacked me slyly, I kicked you, and I took pity on you,
but if you undertake to speak again of La Louve--understand well, of
my Louve--then I'll have no mercy--you shall carry my marks for a long
time."
"And if I wish to speak of La Louve, I?" said Calabash.
"I will give you a couple of boxes just to warm you; and if you go on,
I'll go on to warm you."
"And if I speak of her?" said the widow, slowly.
"You?"
"Yes, me!"
"You?" said Martial, making a violent effort to contain himself,
"you?"
"You will beat me also, is it not so?"
"No! but if you speak of La Louve I'll thrash Nicholas; now go on, it
is your affair, and his also."
"You," cried the enraged bandit, raising his dangerous knife, "you
thrash me?"
"Nicholas, no knife!" cried the widow, endeavoring to seize the arm of
her son. But he, drunk with wine and anger, pushed his mother rudely
on one side, and rushed at his brother. Martial fell back quickly,
seized his heavy knotted stick, and put himself on the defensive.
"Nicholas, no knife!" repeated the widow.
"Let him alone!" cried Calabash, arming herself with a hatchet.
Nicholas, brandishing his formidable knife, watched a favorable moment
to throw himself on his brother. "I tell you," he cried, "that I'll
crush you and your Louve, both. Now, mother--now, Calabash! let us
cool him; this has lasted too long!" And, believing the time favorable
for his attack, the brigand rushed toward his brother with his knife
raised.
Martial, very expert with a club, retreated quickly, lifted his stick,
made a quick turn with it in the air, describing the figure eight, and
let it fall heavily on the arm of Nicholas, who, hurt severely,
dropped his knife. "Brigand, you have broken my arm!" cried he, taking
hold of his arm with his left hand.
"No, I felt my club rebound," answered Martial, kicking the knife
under the table. Then, profiting by the situation of Nicholas, he took
him by the collar, pushed him roughly backward toward the door of the
little cellar, opened it with one hand, and with the other threw him
in and shut the door.
Returning afterward to the two women, he took Calabash by the
shoulders, and, in spite of her resistance, her cries, and a blow from
the hatchet which wounded him slightly in the hand, he locked her in
the lower room of the tavern, which was adjoining the kitchen; then,
addressing the widow, still stupefied at this maneuver, as skillful as
it was unexpected, he said, coldly, "Now, mother, for us two."
"Well! yes; for us two," cried the widow, and her stoical face became
animated, her wan complexion became suffused, her eyes sparkled, anger
and hatred gave a terrible character to her features. "Yes; now for us
two!" said she, in a threatening tone; "I expected this moment--you
shall know at last what I have on my heart."
"And I also will tell you."
"If you live a hundred years you shall recollect this night."
"I shall remember it! My brother and sister wished to murder me; you
did nothing to prevent it. But come, speak: what have you against me?"
"What's my grudge?"
"Yes."
"Since the death of your father, you have done nothing but cowardly
acts."
"I?"
"Yes, coward! Instead of staying with us to sustain us, you fled to
Rambouillet, to poach in the woods with the game-peddler you knew at
Bercy."
"If I remained here, I should now have been at the galleys, like
Ambrose, or fit to go, like Nicholas; I did not wish to be a robber
like the others. Hence your hatred."
"And what was your trade? You stole game; you stole fish; no danger in
that, coward!"
"Fish, as well as game, belong to no one; to-day in one place, to-morrow
in another; it is for who can get it. I do not steal; as for being a
coward---"
"You fight for money men who are weaker than you are!"
"Because they have beaten those who are weaker than they are!"
"Trade of a coward! Trade of a coward!"
"There are more honest, it is true; it is not for you to tell me of
it."
"Why have you not followed these honest callings, instead of lounging
here and living at my expense?"
"I give you the first fish I take, and what money I have--it is not
much, but it is enough. I cost you nothing. I have tried to be a
locksmith, to gain more; but when one from his infancy has idled on
the river and in the woods, one can't do anything else; it is done for
life. And besides, I have always preferred to live alone, on the river
or in the woods; there no one questions me. Instead of that, in other
places, if any one should ask me of my father, must I not answer--
guillotined! of my brother--galley-slave! of my sister--thief!"
"And of your mother, what would you say!"
"I'd say she was dead."
"And you would do well; it is all as--I disown you, coward! Your
brother is at the galleys. Your grandfather and father have bravely
finished on the scaffold, in defying the priest and the executioner.
Instead of avenging them, you tremble!"
"Avenge them!"
"Yes, to show yourself a real Martial, spit on the knife of Jack Ketch
and his red cap, and finish like father and mother, brother and
sister."
Habituated as Martial was to the ferocious bombast of his mother, he
could not refrain from shuddering.
She resumed, with increasing fury, "Oh! coward, still more 'creatur'
than coward! You wish to be honest. Honest? is it that you shall not
always be despised, as the son of a murderer, brother of a galley-slave;
but you, instead of hugging vengeance, you are afraid; instead
of biting, you fly; when they cut off your father's head, you left us,
coward! And you knew we could not leave the island without being
hunted and howled after like mad dogs. Oh, they shall pay for it, they
shall pay for it!"
"One man--ten men can't make me afraid! but to be pointed at by
everybody as the son and brother of condemned criminals--well, no! I
could not stand it. I preferred to go and poach with Pierre the
game-seller."
"Why did you not remain in your woods?"
"I came back on account of my affair with the guard, and above all, on
account of the children, because they were of an age to be ruined by
bad example!"
"What is that to you?"
"To me? because I do not wish to see them become like Ambrose,
Nicholas, and Calabash."
"Not possible!"
"And alone with you all, they would not have failed, I made myself an
apprentice to try to earn something, to take them with me, and leave
the island; but at Paris every one knew it; it was always son of the
guillotined, brother of the galley slave. I had continual fights. It
tired me."
"And that did not tire you to be honest; that succeeded so well,
instead of having the heart to return to us, to do as we do--as the
children shall do in spite of you--yes, in spite of you. You think you
will stuff them with your preachings, but we are here. Francois
already belongs to us nearly--the first occasion, and he shall be of
the band."
"I tell you no."
"You will see. I know it. There is vice at the bottom; but you
restrain him. Amandine, when she is once fifteen, will go alone. Ah!
they have thrown stones at us, they have hunted us like mad dogs. They
shall see what our family is--except you, coward; for you alone make
us blush!"
"It is a pity."
"And as you may be spoiled here with us, to-morrow you will go from
this never to return."
Martial looked at his mother with surprise; after a moment's pause he
said, "You tried to get up a quarrel at supper to arrive at this."
"Yes, to show you what you may expect if you will stay here in spite
of us--a hell--do you understand?--a hell upon earth. Every day
disputes, blows, fights; and we shall not be alone like to-night; we
will have friends to help us; you'll not hold on a week."
"You think to frighten me?"
"I tell you what will happen to you."
"No matter. I remain."
"You will remain here?"
"Yes."
"In spite of us?"
"In spite of you, and Calabash, and Nicholas, and all others of the
same kidney."
"Stop; you make me laugh."
"I tell you I'll remain here until I find the means to earn my living
elsewhere with the children; alone, I should not be embarrassed. I
should return to the woods; but, on their account, I want more time to
find out what I want. Until then I remain."
"Ah! you remain until you can take away the children?"
"As you say!"
"Take away the children?"
"When I say to them come, they will come, and running too, I answer
for it."
The widow shrugged her shoulders, and replied, "Listen to me. I told
you, just now, if you were to live a thousand years, you would
remember this night. I am going to explain to you why; but once more,
have you well decided not to go?"
"Yes! yes! a thousand times, yes!"
"Directly you will say no! a thousand times, no! Listen to me well. Do
you know what trade your brother follows?"
"I suspect, but I do not want to know."
"You shall know. He steals."
"So much the worse for him."
"And for you."
"For me?"
"He is a burglar, a galley affair; we receive his plunder; if it is
discovered, we shall be condemned to the same punishment as receivers,
and you also; the family will be carried off, and the children will be
turned into the streets, where they will learn the trade of your
father and grandfather quite as well as here."
"I arrested as a receiver, as your accomplice! On what proof?"
"No one knows how you live; you are a vagrant on the water--you have
the reputation of a bad man--you live with us. Who will you make
believe that you are ignorant of our doings?"
"I will prove the contrary."
"We will accuse you as our accomplice."
"Accuse me! why?"
"To reward you for remaining here in spite of us."
"Just now you wished to alarm me in one way; now it is in another;
that don't take. I shall prove that I have never stolen. I remain."
"Ah! you remain? Listen, then, once more; do you remember what
happened last Christmas night?"
"Christmas night?" said Martial, endeavoring to collect his thoughts.
"Recollect well."
"I do not recollect."
"You do not remember that Bras-Rouge brought here at night a man well
dressed, who wished to be concealed?"
"Yes, now I remember; I went upstairs to bed, and I left him at supper
with you. He passed the night here; before daylight Nicholas took him
to Saint Ouen."
"You are sure Nicholas took him to Saint Ouen."
"You told me so the next morning!"
"Christmas night you were then here?"
"Yes. Well?"
"On that night that man, who had much money with him, was killed in
this house."
"He! Here!"
"And robbed, and buried in the little wood-house."
"It is not true," cried Martial, becoming pale with alarm, and not
willing to believe in this new crime of his kindred. "You wish to
alarm me. Once more I say it is not true."
"Ask your pet, Francois, what he saw in the wood-house."
"Francois, what did he see?"
"One of the feet of the man sticking out of the ground. Take the
lantern; go there, and satisfy yourself."
"No," said Martial, wiping the cold sweat from his brow. "No, I do not
believe you. You tell me that to---"
"To prove to you that, if you live here in spite of us, you run the
risk every moment to be arrested as an accomplice in murder and
robbery. You were here Christmas night; we will say how you gave us
your aid; how can you prove the contrary?"
"Oh!" said Martial, hiding his face in his hands.
"Now will you go?" said the widow, with a sarcastic smile.
Martial was thunderstruck; he did not doubt the truth of what his
mother had said; the roving life he led, his residence with a family
so criminal, might cause heavy suspicions to fall upon him, and these
might be changed into certainties in the eyes of justice, if his
mother, his brother, his sister, pointed to him as their accomplice.
The widow enjoyed the situation of her son.
"You have the means to escape from this; denounce us!"
"I ought to do it, but I shall not; you know it well!"
"It is for this I have told you all. Now will you go?"
Martial tried to soften his mother; with a mellowed voice he said,
"Mother, I do not believe you capable of this murder."
"As you like, but go away."
"I will go on one condition."
"No conditions."
"You will place the children as apprentices far from this, in the
provinces."
"They shall remain here."
"Come now, mother; when you have made them like Nicholas, Ambrose,
father--what good will it do you?"
"To do some good business with their aid. We are not yet too many.
Calabash remains here with me to keep the tavern. Nicholas is alone;
once taught, Francois and Amandine will help him. They threw stones at
them also, children as they were; they must revenge themselves."
"Mother, you love Calabash and Nicholas, don't you?"
"What then?"
"They will go to the scaffold like father."
"What then, what then?"
"And does not their fate make you tremble?"
"Their fate shall be mine--neither better nor worse. I steal, they
steal; I kill, they kill. Who takes the mother will take the children.
We will not be separated. If our heads fall, they shall fall in the
same basket, where they will say adieu! We will not turn back; you are
the only coward in the family; we drive you away. Get out!"
"But the children--the children!"
"The children will grow up. I tell you, except for you, they would
have been already formed. Francois is almost ready; when you are gone,
Amandine shall make up for lost time."
"Mother, I entreat you, consent to send the children away as
apprentices far from here."
"How many times must I tell you that they are in apprenticeship here?"
The widow articulated these words in such a stern manner that Martial
lost all hope of softening this heart of bronze.
"Since it is thus," said he, in a resolute and brief tone, "listen to
me in your turn, mother; I remain."
"Ah, ah!"
"Not in this house. I should be murdered by Nicholas, or poisoned by
Calabash; but, as I have not the means to lodge elsewhere, the
children and I will live in the hovel at the other end of the island:
the door is strong; I will make it stronger. Once there, well
barricaded, with my gun, my dog, and my club, I fear no one. To-morrow
morning I will take away the children; they will come with me,
sometimes in my boat, sometimes on the mainland. At night they shall
sleep near me in the cabin; we will live on my fishing. This shall
continue until I find a place for them; and I will find one."
"Ah! is it so?"
"Neither you, nor my brother, nor Calabash can prevent it. If your
thefts and your murders are discovered while I am still on the island,
so much the worse; I must run my chance. I shall explain that I
returned: that I remained on account of the children, to prevent their
becoming rogues. They can judge. But may the thunder crush me if I
leave this island, and if the children remain one day more in this
house! Yes, I defy you--defy you and yours to drive me from the
island!"
The widow knew the resolution of Martial; the children loved their
eldest brother as much as they feared him; they would follow him,
then, without hesitation, when he wished it. As to him, well armed,
resolute, always on his guard--in his boat during the day, barricaded
during the in his cabin--he had nothing to fear from any evil designs
of his family. The project of Martial could then, on all points, be
realized. But the widow had many reasons to prevent the execution.
In the first place, like as honest artisans consider sometimes the
number of their children as riches, on account of their services, so
the widow counted on Amandine and Francois to assist her in her
crimes. Then, what she had said of her desire to avenge her husband
and her son was true. Certain beings, nursed, become aged, hardened in
crime, enter into open revolt, into a murderous warfare against
society, and believe by new acts of guilt to avenge themselves for the
just punishment which has overtaken them and theirs. And then, in
fine, the wicked designs of Nicholas against Fleur-de-Marie, and still
later against the diamond broker, might be defeated by the presence of
Martial. The widow had hoped to bring about an immediate separation
between herself and Martial, either by fomenting the quarrel with
Nicholas, or by revealing to him what risk he ran by remaining on the
island. As cunning as she was acute, the widow, perceiving that she
was mistaken, felt that it was necessary to have recourse to perfidy
to entrap her son in a bloody snare. She resumed then, after a long
silence, and with affected bitterness: "I see your plan; you do not
wish to denounce us yourself--you wish to do it through the children."
"I?"
"They know now that there is a man buried here; they know that
Nicholas has stolen: once in apprenticeship, they will speak; we shall
be taken, and we shall all be executed--you, as well as we; that's
what will happen if I listen to you--if I allow you to place the
children elsewhere. And yet you say you don't wish us any harm! I do
not ask you to love me; but do not hasten the moment when we shall be
taken."
The softened tones of the widow made Martial believe that his threats
had produced a salutary effect: he fell into a frightful snare.
"I know the children," replied he. "I am sure if I tell them to say
nothing they will be quiet; besides, I shall always be with them, and
will answer for their silence."
"Can any one answer for the words of a child? at Paris, above all,
where people are so curious and talkative? It is as much to keep them
silent as to aid us that I wish to keep them here."
"Do they not go to the village and to Paris now? Who prevents them
from speaking, if they wish to speak? If they were far away from here,
so much the better: what they might say would be of no consequence."
"Far from here! and where is that?" said the widow, looking steadily
at her son.
"Let me take them away; no consequence to you."
"How would you live?"
"My old master, the locksmith, is a good man. I will tell him what is
necessary, and perhaps he will lend me something on account of the
children; with that I'll go and bind them out far away from this. We
set out in two days, and you will never hear more of us."
"No; I prefer to have them with me. I shall be more sure of them."
"Then I establish myself to-morrow at the hovel, waiting for something
better. I have a head also, and you know it."
"Yes, I know it. Oh, how I wish to see you far away from this! Why did
you not stay in your woods?"
"I offer to rid you both of myself and the children."
"You would leave La Louve, then--she whom you love so well?"
"That's my business: I know what I have to do; I have a plan."
"If I let you take them away, will you never return to Paris?"
"In three days we will be off, and like the dead for you."
"I prefer to have it so, rather than you should always be here, and be
suspicious of them. Come, since it must be so, take them away, and
clear out as soon as possible, that I may never see you again."
"Is this settled?"
"It is. Give me the key of the cellar, so that I can release
Nicholas."
"No he can sleep off his wine there."
"And Calabash?"
"It is different. You can open the door after I have gone to bed; it
makes me feel bad to see her."
"Go; and may the devil confound you!"
"Is it your good-night, mother?"
"Yes."
"Happily, it will be the last," said Martial.
"The last," replied the widow.
Her son lighted a candle, and, opening the kitchen door, whistled to
his dog, which came bounding in, and followed his master to the upper
story of the mansion.
"Go! your account is finished," muttered the mother, shaking her fist
at her son, who had just gone upstairs, "you have brought it upon
yourself." Then, assisted by Calabash, who went to look for a bunch of
false keys, the widow picked the lock of the cellar where Nicholas was
confined, and set him at liberty.