said Olivier, smiling bitterly, "Desgrais is waking up his myrmidons,
as though I could make my escape _here_. But to continue--I led a hard
life with my master, albeit I soon got to be the best workman, and at
last even surpassed my master himself. One day a stranger happened to
come into our shop to buy some jewellery. And when he saw a beautiful
necklace which I had made he clapped me on the shoulder in a friendly
way and said, eyeing the ornament, 'Ha! i' faith, my young friend,
that's an excellent piece of work. To tell you the truth, I don't know
who there is who could beat you, unless it were René Cardillac, who,
you know, is the first goldsmith in the world. You ought to go to him;
he would gladly take you into his workshop; for nobody but you could
help him in his artistic labours; and on the other hand he is the only
man from whom you could learn anything.' The stranger's words sank into
my heart and took deep root there. I hadn't another moment's ease in
Geneva; I felt a violent impulse to be gone. At last I contrived to get
free from my master. I came to Paris. René Cardillac received me coldly
and churlishly. I persevered in my purpose; he must give me some work,
however insignificant it might be. I got a small ring to finish. On my
taking the work to him, he fixed his keen glittering eyes upon me as if
he would read the very depths of my soul. Then he said, 'You are a good
clever journeyman; you may come to me and help me in my shop. I will
pay you well; you shall be satisfied with me.' Cardillac kept his word.
I had been several weeks with him before I saw Madelon; she was at that
time, if I mistake not, in the country, staying, with a female relative
of Cardillac's; but at length she came. O Heaven! O God! what did I
feel when I saw the sweet angel? Has any man ever loved as I do? And
now--O Madelon!"
Olivier was so distressed he could not go on. Holding both hands before
his face, he sobbed violently, But at length, fighting down with an
effort the sharp pain that shook him, he went on with his story.
"Madelon looked upon me with friendly eyes. Her visits into the
workshop grew more and more frequent. I was enraptured to perceive that
she loved me. Notwithstanding the strict watch her father kept upon us
many a stolen pressure of the hand served as a token of the mutual
understanding arrived at between us; Cardillac did not appear to notice
anything. I intended first to win his favour, and, if I could gain my
mastership, then to woo for Madelon. One day, as I was about to begin
work, Cardillac came to me, his face louring darkly with anger and
scornful contempt 'I don't want your services any longer,' he began,
'so out you go from my house this very hour; and never show yourself in
my sight again. Why I can't do with you here any longer, I have no need
to tell you. For you, you poor devil, the sweet fruit at which you are
stretching out your hand hangs too high.' I attempted to speak, but he
laid hold upon me with a powerful grasp and threw me out of doors, so
that I fell to the floor and severely wounded my head and arm. I left
the house hotly indignant and furious with the stinging pain; at last I
found a good-natured acquaintance in the remotest corner of the
Faubourg St. Martin, who received me into his garret. But I had neither
ease nor rest. Every night I used to lurk about Cardillac's house
deluding myself with the fancy that Madelon would hear my sighing and
lamenting, and that she would perhaps find a way to speak to me out of
the window unheard. All sorts of confused plans were revolving in my
brain, which I hoped to persuade her to carry out.
"Now joining Cardillac's house in the Rue Nicaise there is a high wall,
with niches and old stone figures in them, now half crumbled away. One
night I was standing close beside one of these stone images and looking
up at those windows of the house which looked out upon the court
enclosed by the wall. All at once I observed a light in Cardillac's
workshop. It was midnight; Cardillac never used to be awake at that
hour; he was always in the habit of going to rest on the stroke of
nine. My heart beat in uncertain trepidation; I began to think
something might have happened which would perhaps pave the way for me
to go back into the house once more. But soon the light vanished again.
I squeezed myself into the niche close to the stone figure; but I
started back in dismay on feeling a pressure against me, as if the
image had become instinct with life. By the dusky glimmer of the night
I perceived that the stone was slowly revolving, and a dark form
slipped out from behind it and went away down the street with light,
soft footsteps. I rushed towards the stone figure; it stood as before,
close to the wall. Almost without thinking, rather as if impelled by
some inward prompter, I stealthily followed the figure. Just beside an
image of the Virgin he turned round; the light of the street lamp
standing exactly in front of the image fell full upon his face. It was
Cardillac.
"An unaccountable feeling of apprehension--an unearthly dread fell upon
me. Like one subject to the power of magic, I had to go on--on--in the
track of the spectre-like somnambulist. For that was what I took my
master to be, notwithstanding that it was not the time of full moon,
when this visitation is wont to attack the sleeper. Finally Cardillac
disappeared into the deep shade on the side of the street. By a sort of
low involuntary cough, which, however, I knew well, I gathered that he
was standing in the entry to a house. 'What is the meaning of that?
What is he going to do?' I asked myself, utterly astounded, pressing
close against a house-wall. It was not long before a man came along
with fluttering plumes and jingling spur, singing and gaily humming an
air. Like a tiger leaping upon his prey, Cardillac burst out of his
lurking-place and threw himself upon the man, who that very same
instant fell to the ground, gasping in the agonies of death. I rushed
up with a cry of horror; Cardillac was stooping over the man, who lay
on the floor. 'Master Cardillac, what are you doing?' I shouted.
'Cursed fool!' growled Cardillac, running past me with lightning-like
speed and disappearing from sight.
"Quite upset and hardly able to take a step, I approached the man who
had been stabbed. I knelt down beside him. 'Perhaps,' thought I, 'he
still may be saved;' but there was not the least sign of life. In my
fearful agitation I had hardly noticed that the _Maréchausée_ had
surrounded me. 'What? already another assassinated by these demons! Hi!
hi! Young man, what are you about here?--Are you one of the band?--Away
with him!' Thus they cried one after another, and they laid hold of me.
I was scarcely able to stammer out that I should never be capable of
such an abominable deed, and that they might therefore let me go my way
in peace. Then one of them turned his lamp upon my face and said
laughing, 'Why, it's Olivier Brusson, the journeyman goldsmith, who
works for our worthy honest Master René Cardillac. Ay, I should think
so!--_he_ murder people in the street--he looks like it indeed! It's
just like murderous assassins to stoop lamenting over their victim's
corpse till somebody comes and takes them into custody. Well, how was
it, youngster? Speak out boldly?' 'A man sprang out immediately in
front of me,' I said, 'and threw himself upon this man and stabbed him,
and then ran away as quick as lightning when I shouted out. I only
wanted to see if the stabbed man might still be saved.' 'No, my son,'
cried one of those who had taken up the corpse; 'he's dead enough; the
dagger has gone right through the heart as usual.' 'The Devil!' said
another; 'we have come too late again, as we did yesterday.' Thereupon
they went their way, taking the corpse with them.
"What my feelings were I cannot attempt to describe. I felt myself to
make sure whether I were not being mocked by some hideous dream; I
fancied I must soon wake up and wonder at the preposterous delusion.
Cardillac, the father of my Madelon, an atrocious murderer! My strength
failed me; I sank down upon the stone steps leading up to a house. The
morning light began to glimmer and was stronger and stronger; an
officer's hat decorated with feathers lay before me on the pavement. I
saw again vividly Cardillac's bloody deed, which had been perpetrated
on the spot where I sat. I ran off horrified.
"I was sitting in my garret, my thoughts in a perfect whirl, nay, I was
almost bereft of my senses, when the door opened, and René Cardillac
came in. 'For God's sake, what do you want?' I exclaimed on seeing him.
Without heeding my words, he approached close to me, smiling with
calmness and an air of affability which only increased my inward
abhorrence. Pulling up a rickety old stool and taking his seat upon it
close beside me, for I was unable to rise from the heap of straw upon
which I had thrown myself, he began, 'Well, Olivier, how are you
getting on, my poor fellow? I did indeed do an abominably rash thing
when I turned you out of the house; I miss you at every step and turn.
I have got a piece of work on hand just now which I cannot finish
without your help. How would it be if you came back to work in my shop?
Have you nothing to say? Yes, I know I have insulted you. I will not
attempt to conceal it from you that I was angry on account of your love
making to my Madelon. But since then I have ripely reflected upon the
matter, and decided that, considering your skill and industry and
faithful honesty, I could not wish for any better son-in-law than you.
So come along with me, and see if you can win Madelon to be your
bride.'
"Cardillac's words cut me to the very heart; I trembled with dread at
his wickedness; I could not utter a word. 'Do you hesitate?' he
continued in a sharp tone, piercing me through and through with his
glittering eyes; 'do you hesitate? Perhaps you can't come along with me
just to-day--perhaps you have some other business on hand! Perhaps you
mean forsooth to pay a visit to Desgrais or get yourself admitted to an
interview with D'Argenson or La Regnie. But you'd better take care,
boy, that the claws which you entice out of their sheaths to other
people's destruction don't seize upon you yourself and tear you to
pieces!' Then my swelling indignation suddenly found vent 'Let those
who are conscious of having committed atrocious crimes,' I cried,--'let
them start at the names you just named. As for me, I have no reason to
do so--I have nothing to do with them.' 'Properly speaking,' went on
Cardillac, 'properly speaking, Olivier, it is an honour to you to work
with me--with me, the most renowned master of the age, and highly
esteemed everywhere for his faithfulness and honesty, so that all
wicked calumnies would recoil upon the head of the backbiter. And as
far as concerns Madelon, I must now confess that it is she alone to
whom you owe this compliance on my part. She loves you with an
intensity which I should not have credited the delicate child with.
Directly you had gone she threw herself at my feet, clasped my knees,
and confessed amid endless tears that she could not live without you. I
thought she only fancied so, as so often happens with young and love-
sick girls; they think they shall die at once the first time a milky-
faced boy looks kindly upon them. But my Madelon did really become ill
and begin to pine away; and when I tried to talk her out of her foolish
silly notions, she only uttered your name scores of times. What on
earth could I do if I didn't want her to die away in despair? Last
evening I told her I would give my consent to her dearest wishes, and
would come and fetch you to-day. And during the night she has blossomed
up like a rose, and is now waiting for you with all the longing
impatience of love.'
"May God in heaven forgive me! I don't know myself how it came about,
but I suddenly found myself in Cardillac's house; and Madelon cried
aloud with joy, 'Olivier! my Olivier! my darling! my husband!' as she
rushed towards me and threw both her arms round my neck, pressing me
close to her bosom, till in a perfect delirium of passionate delight I
swore by the Virgin and all the saints that I would never, never leave
her."
Olivier was so deeply agitated by the recollection of this fateful
moment, that he was obliged to pause. De Scudéri, struck with horror at
this foul iniquity in a man whom she had always looked upon as a model
of virtue and honest integrity, cried, "Oh! it is horrible! So René
Cardillac belongs to the murderous band which has so long made our good
city a mere bandits' haunt?" "What do you say, Mademoiselle, to the
_band_?" said Olivier. "There has never been such a band. It was
Cardillac _alone_ who, active in wickedness, sought for his victims and
found them throughout the entire city. And it was because he acted
alone that he was enabled to carry on his operations with so much
security, and from the same cause arose the insuperable difficulty of
getting a clue to the murderer. But let me go on with my story; the
sequel will explain to you the secrets of the most atrocious but at the
same time of the most unfortunate of men.
"The situation in which I now found myself fixed at my master's may be
easily imagined. The step was taken; I could not go back. At times I
felt as though I were Cardillac's accomplice in crime; the only thing
that made me forget the inner anguish that tortured me was Madelon's
love, and it was only in her presence that I succeeded in totally
suppressing all external signs of the nameless trouble and anxiety I
had in my heart. When I was working with the old man in the shop, I
could never look him in the face; and I was hardly able to speak a
word, owing to the awful dread with which I trembled whenever near the
villain, who fulfilled all the duties of a faithful and tender father,
and of a good citizen, whilst the night veiled his monstrous iniquity.
Madelon, dutiful, pure, confiding as an angel, clung to him with
idolatrous affection. The thought often struck like a dagger to my
heart that, if justice should one day overtake the reprobate and unmask
him, she, deceived by the diabolical arts of the foul Fiend, would
assuredly die in the wildest agonies of despair. This alone would keep
my lips locked, even though it brought upon me a criminal's death.
Notwithstanding that I picked up a good deal of information from the
talk of the _Maréchaussée_ yet the motive for Cardillac's atrocities,
as well as his manner of accomplishing them, still remained riddles to
me; but I had not long to wait for the solution.
"One day Cardillac was very grave and preoccupied over his work,
instead of being in the merriest of humours, jesting and laughing as he
usually did, and so provoking my abhorrence of him. All of a sudden he
threw aside the ornament he was working at, so that the pearls and
other stones rolled across the floor, and starting to his feet he
exclaimed, 'Olivier, things can't go on in this way between us; the
footing we are now on is getting unbearable. Chance has played into
your hands the knowledge of a secret which has baffled the most
inventive cunning of Desgrais and all his myrmidons. You have seen me
at my midnight work, to which I am goaded by my evil destiny; no
resistance is ever of any avail. And your evil destiny it was which led
you to follow me, which wrapped you in an impenetrable veil and gave
you the lightness of foot which, enabled you to walk as noiselessly as
the smallest insect, so that I, who in the blackest night see as
plainly as a tiger and hear the slightest noise, the humming of midges,
far away along the streets, did not perceive you near me. Your evil
star has brought you to me, my associate. As you are now circumstanced
there can be no thought of treachery on your part, and so you may now
know all.' 'Never, never will I be your associate, you hypocritical
reprobate,' I endeavoured to cry out, but I felt a choking sensation in
my throat, caused by the dread which came upon me as Cardillac spoke.
Instead of speaking words, I only gasped out certain unintelligible
sounds. Cardillac again sat down on his bench, drying the perspiration
from his brow. He appeared to be fearfully agitated by his
recollections of the past and to have difficulty in preserving his
composure. But at length he began.
"'Learned men say a good deal about the extraordinary impressions of
which women are capable when _enceinte_, and of the singular influence
which such a vivid involuntary external impression has upon the unborn
child. I was told a surprising story about my mother. About eight
months before I was born, my mother accompanied certain other women to
see a splendid court spectacle in the Trianon.19 There her eyes fell
upon a cavalier wearing a Spanish costume, who wore a flashing jewelled
chain round his neck, and she could not keep her eyes off it. Her whole
being was concentrated into desire to possess the glittering stones,
which she regarded as something of supernatural origin. Several years
previously, before my mother was married, the same cavalier had paid
his insidious addresses to her, but had been repulsed with indignant
scorn. My mother knew him again; but now by the gleam of the brilliant
diamonds he appeared to her to be a being of a higher race--the paragon
of beauty. He noticed my mother's looks of ardent desire. He believed
he should now be more successful than formerly. He found means to
approach her, and, yet more, to draw her away from her acquaintances to
a retired place. Then he clasped her passionately in his arms, whilst
she laid hold of the handsome chain; but in that moment the cavalier
reeled backwards, dragging my mother to the ground along with him.
Whatever was the cause--whether he had a sudden stroke, or whether it
was due to something else--enough, the man was dead. All my mother's
efforts to release herself from the stiffened arms of the corpse proved
futile. His glazed eyes, their faculty of vision now extinguished, were
fixed upon her; and she lay on the ground with the dead man. At length
her piercing screams for help reached the ears of some people passing
at a distance; they hurried up and freed her from the arms of her
ghastly lover. The horror prostrated her in a serious illness. Her
life, and mine too, was despaired of; but she recovered, and her
accouchement was more favourable than could have been expected. But the
terror of that fearful moment had left its stamp upon _me_. The evil
star of my destiny had got in the ascendant and shot down its sparks
upon me, enkindling in me a most singular but at the same time a most
pernicious passion. Even in the earliest days of my childhood there was
nothing I thought so much of as I did of flashing diamonds and
ornaments of gold. It was regarded as an ordinary childish inclination.
But the contrary was soon made manifest, for when a boy I stole all the
gold and jewellery I could anywhere lay my hands on. Like the most
experienced goldsmith I could distinguish by instinct false jewellery
from real. The latter alone proved an attraction to me; objects made of
imitated gold as well as gold coins I heeded not in the least. My
inborn propensity had, however, to give way to the excessively cruel
thrashings which I received at my father's hand.
"'I adopted the trade of a goldsmith, merely that I might be able to
handle gold and precious stones. I worked with passionate enthusiasm
and soon became the first master in the craft. But now began a period
in which my innate propensity, so long repressed, burst forth with
vehemence and grew most rapidly, imbibing nourishment from everything
about it. So soon as I had completed a piece of jewellery, and had
delivered it up to the customer, I fell into a state of unrest, of
desperate disquiet, which robbed me of sleep and health and courage for
my daily life. Day and night the person for whom I had done the work
stood before my eyes like a spectre, adorned with my jewellery, whilst
a voice whispered in my ears, "Yes, it's yours; yes it's yours. Go and
take it. What does a dead man want diamonds for?" Then I began to
practise thievish arts. As I had access to the houses of the great, I
speedily turned every opportunity to good account: no lock could baffle
my skill; and I soon had the object which I had made in my hands again.
But after a time even that did not banish my unrest. That unearthly
voice still continued to make itself heard in my ears, mocking me to
scorn, and crying, "Ho! ho! a dead man is wearing your jewellery." By
some inexplicable means, which I do not understand, I began to conceive
an unspeakable hatred of those for whom I made my ornaments. Ay, deep
down in my heart there began to stir a murderous feeling against them,
at which I myself trembled with apprehension.
"'About this time I bought this house. I had just struck a bargain with
the owner; we were sitting in this room drinking a glass of wine
together and enjoying ourselves over the settlement of our business.
Night had come; I rose to go; then the vendor of the house said, "See
here, Master René; before you go, I must make you acquainted with the
secret of the place." Therewith he unlocked that press let into the
wall there, pushed away the panels at the back, and stepped into a
little room, where, stooping down, he lifted up a trap-door. We
descended a flight of steep, narrow stairs, and came to a narrow
postern, which he unlocked, and let us out into the court-yard. Then
the old gentleman, the previous owner of the house, stepped up to the
wall and pressed an iron knob, which projected only very triflingly
from it; immediately a portion of the wall swung round, so that a man
could easily slip through the opening, and in that way gain the street.
I will show you the neat contrivance some day, Olivier; very likely it
was constructed by the cunning monks of the monastery which formerly
stood on this site, in order that they might steal in and out secretly.
It is a piece of wood, plastered with mortar and white-washed on the
outside only, and within it, on the side next the street, is fixed a
statue, also of wood, but coloured to look exactly like stone, and the
whole piece, together with the statue, moves upon concealed hinges.
Dark thoughts swept into my mind when I saw this contrivance; it
appeared to have been built with a predestined view to such deeds as
yet remained unknown to myself.
"'I had just completed a valuable ornament for a courtier, and knew
that he intended it for an opera-dancer. The ominous torture assailed
me again; the spectre dogged my footsteps; the whispering fiend was at
my ear. I took possession of my new house. I tossed sleeplessly on my
couch, bathed in perspiration, caused by the hideous torments I was
enduring. In imagination I saw the man gliding along to the dancer's
abode with my ornament. I leapt up full of fury; threw on my mantle,
went down by the secret stairs, through the wall, and into the Rue
Nicaise. He is coming along; I throw myself upon him; he screams out;
but I have seized him fast from behind, and driven my dagger right into
his heart; the ornament is mine. This done I experienced a calmness, a
satisfaction in my soul, which I had never yet experienced. The spectre
had vanished; the voice of the fiend was still. Now I knew what my evil
Destiny wanted; I had either to yield to it or to perish. And now too
you understand the secret of all my conduct, Olivier. But do not
believe, because I must do that for which there is no help, that
therefore I have entirely lost all sense of pity, of compassion, which
is said to be one of the essential properties of human nature. You know
how hard it is for me to part with a finished piece of work, and that
there are many for whom I refuse to work at all, because I do not wish
their death; and it has also happened that when I felt my spectre would
have to be exorcised on the following day by blood, I have satisfied it
with a stout blow of the fist the same day, which stretched on the
ground the owner of my jewel, and delivered the jewel itself into my
hand.'
"Having told me all this Cardillac took me into his secret vault and
granted me a sight of his jewel-cabinet; and the king himself has not
one finer. A short label was attached to each article, stating
accurately for whom it was made, when it was recovered, and whether by
theft, or by robbery from the person accompanied with violence, or by
murder. Then Cardillac said in a hollow and solemn voice, 'On your
wedding-day, Olivier, you will have to lay your hand on the image of
the crucified Christ and swear a solemn oath that after I am dead you
will reduce all these riches to dust, through means which I shall then,
before I die, disclose to you. I will not have any human creature, and
certainly neither Madelon nor you, come into possession of this blood-
bought treasure-store.' Entangled in this labyrinth of crime, and with
my heart lacerated by love and abhorrence, by rapture and horror, I
might be compared to the condemned mortal whom a lovely angel is
beckoning upwards with a gentle smile, whilst on the other hand Satan
is holding him fast in his burning talons, till the good angel's smiles
of love, in which are reflected all the bliss of the highest heaven,
become converted into the most poignant of his miseries. I thought of
flight--ay, even of suicide--but Madelon! Blame me, reproach me,
honoured lady, for my too great weakness in not fighting down by an
effort of will a passion that was fettering me to crime; but am I not
about to atone for my fault by a death of shame?