MADAME LEFEVRE
While Hullin was learning the disaster of our armies, and was walking
slowly, his head bent, and an anxious expression on his face, toward
the village of Charmes, everything went on as usual at the farm of
Bois-de-Chenes. No one thought of Yegof's wonderful stories, or of the
war: old Duchene led his oxen to their drinking-place, the herdsman
Robin turned over their litter; Annette and Jeanne skimmed their
curdled milk. Only Catherine Lefevre was silent and gloomy--thinking
of days gone by--all the while superintending with an impassible face
the occupations of her domestics. She was too old and too serious to
forget from one day to another what had so much troubled her. When
night came on, after the evening's repast, she entered the great room,
where her servants could hear her drawing the large register-book from
the closet and putting it on the table, to sum up her accounts, as she
was in the habit of doing.
They soon began to load the cart with corn, vegetables, and poultry:
for the next day there was a market at Sarrebourg, and Duchene had to
start early.
Picture to yourself the great kitchen, and all these worthy folks
hurrying to finish their work before going to rest: the black kettle,
full of beetroot and potatoes destined for the cattle, boiling on an
immense pinewood fire; the plates, dishes, and soup-tureens shining
like suns on the shelves; the bunches of garlic and of reddish-brown
onions hung up in rows to the beams of the ceiling, among the hams and
flitches of bacon; Jeannie, in her blue cap and little red petticoat,
stirring up the contents of the kettle with a big wooden spoon; the
wicker cages, with the cackling fowls and great cock, who pushed his
head through the bars and looked at the flames with a wondering eye and
raised crest; the bull-dog Michel, with his flat head and hanging jowl,
in search of some forgotten dish; Dubourg coming down the creaking
staircase to the left, his back bent with a sack on his shoulder; while
outside, in the dark night, old Duchene, upright on the cart, lifted
his lantern and called out, "That makes the fifteenth, Dubourg; two
more." One could see also, hanging against the wall, an old hare,
brought by the hunter Heinrich to be sold at the market, and a fine
grouse, with its purple and green plumage, dimmed eye, and a drop of
blood at the end of its beak.
It was about half-past seven when the sound of footsteps was heard at
the entrance to the yard. The bull-dog went toward the door growling.
He listened, sniffed the night air, then went back quietly, and began
licking his dish again.
"It is some one belonging to the farm," said Annette. "Michel does not
move."
Nearly at the same time, old Duchene from outside called,--"Good-night,
Master Jean-Claude. Is it you?"
"Yes. I come from Phalsbourg; and I am going to rest myself a minute
before going down to the village. Is Catherine here?"
And then the good man came forward to the light, his hat pushed off his
face, and his roll of sheepskins on his back.
"Good-night, my children," said he; "good-night! Always at work!"
"Yes, Monsieur Hullin, as you see," replied Jeanne, laughing. "If one
had nothing to do, life would be very wearisome."
"True, my pretty girl, true. It is only work which gives you your
roses and brilliant eyes."
Jeanne was going to answer, when the door of the great room opened, and
Catherine Lefevre advanced, looking piercingly at Hullin, as though to
guess beforehand what news he brought.
"Well, Jean-Claude, you have returned."
"Yes, Catherine; with good tidings and bad."
They entered the large room--a high and spacious apartment wainscoted
with wood to the ceiling, with its oak closets and their shining
clasps, its iron stove opening into the kitchen, its old clock counting
the seconds in its walnut-wood case, and the leathern arm-chair, worn
and used by ten generations of aged men. Jean-Claude never went into
this room without its bringing back to his remembrance Catherine's
grandfather, whom he seemed still to see, with his white head, sitting
behind the oven in the dark.
"Well?" demanded the old dame, offering a chair to the old shoemaker,
who was just putting his pack down on the table.
"Well, from Gaspard the tidings are good; the boy is in good health.
He has had hardships. All the better: it will be the making of him.
But for the rest, Catherine, it is bad. The war! the war!"
He shook his head, and the old woman, her lips pressed, sat down facing
him, upright in the armchair, her eyes attentively fastened on him.
"So things look badly--decidedly--we shall have the war among us?"
"Yes, Catherine, from day to day we may expect to see the allies in our
mountains."
"I thought so. I was sure of it; but speak, Jean-Claude."
Hullin, then, his elbows on his knees, his red ears between his hands,
and lowering his voice, began to relate all he had seen: the clearing
of everything around the town, the placing of batteries on the
ramparts, the proclamation of the state of siege, the cart-loads of
wounded on the great square, his meeting with the old sergeant at
Wittmann's, and the story of the campaign. From time to time he
paused, and the old mistress of the farm blinked her eyes slowly, as
though to impress more deeply the various circumstances on her mind.
When Jean-Claude told about the wounded, the good woman murmured
softly--"Gaspard has then escaped it all!"
Then, at the end of this mournful tale, there was a long silence, and
both looked at each other without pronouncing a word.
How many reflections, how many bitter feelings filled their souls!
After some seconds, Catherine recovering from these terrible
thoughts--"You see, Jean-Claude," said she, in a serious tone. "Yegof
was not wrong."
"Certainly, certainly, he was not wrong," replied Hullin; "but what
does that prove? A madman, who goes from village to village, who
descends into Alsace, and from thence to Lorraine--who wanders from
right to left--it would be very astonishing if he saw nothing, and if
he did not sometimes tell the truth in his madness. Everything gets
muddled in his head, and others believe they understand what he does
not understand himself. But what of these wild stories, Catherine?
The Austrians are upon us. It only concerns us to know if we shall
allow them to pass, or if we shall have courage to defend ourselves."
"To defend ourselves!" cried the old woman, whose white cheeks
trembled: "if we shall have courage to defend ourselves! Surely it is
not to me that you speak, Hullin. What! are we not worthy of our
ancestors? Did they not defend themselves? Were they not
exterminated--men, women, and children?"
"Then you are for the defence, Catherine?"
"Yes, yes; so long as there remains to me a bit of skin on my bones.
Let them come! The oldest of the women is ready!"
Her masses of gray hair shook on her head, her pale rigid cheeks
quivered, and her eyes sent forth lightnings. She was beautiful to
see--beautiful, like that old Margareth of whom Yegof had spoken.
Hullin held out his hand silently, and gave an enthusiastic smile.
"Excellent," said he--"excellent! We are always the same in this
family. I know you, Catherine: you are ready now; but be calm and
listen to me. We are going to fight, and in what way?"
"In every way; all are good--axes, scythes, pitchforks."
"No doubt; but the best are muskets and the balls. We have muskets:
every mountaineer keeps his above his door; unfortunately powder and
balls are scarce."
The old dame became quieter all of a sudden; she pushed her hair back
under her cap, and looked anxiously about.
"Yes," she rejoined brusquely; "the powder and balls are wanting, it is
true, but we shall have some. Marc Dives, the smuggler, has some. You
shall go and see him to-morrow from me. You shall tell him that
Catherine Lefevre will buy all his powder and balls; that she will pay
him; that she will sell her cattle, her farm, land,
everything--everything--to have some. Do you understand, Hullin?"
"I understand. What you would do, Catherine, is noble."
"Bah! it is noble--it is noble!" replied the old dame. "It is quite
simple; I wish to revenge myself. These Austrians--these red men who
have already exterminated us--well! I hate them, I detest them, from
father to son. There! you will buy powder, and these mad ruffians
shall see if we will rebuild their castles."
Hullin then perceived that she still thought of Yegof's tale; but
seeing how exasperated she was, and that, besides, her idea contributed
to the defence of the country, made no observation on that subject, and
said calmly,--"So, Catherine, it is settled; I am to go over to Marc
Dives's to-morrow!"
"Yes! you shall buy all his powder and lead. Some one ought also to go
the round of the mountain villages, to warn the people of what is
coming, and to arrange a signal beforehand for bringing them together
in case of attack."
"Do not fear," said Jean-Claude. "I will undertake to charge myself
with that."
Both rose and turned toward the door. For about half an hour no sounds
were heard in the kitchen; the farm-servants had gone to bed. The old
dame put down her lamp on the corner of the hearth, and drew the bolts.
Outside the cold was intense, the air still and clear. All the peaks
round, and the pine-trees of the Jaegerthal, stood out against the sky
in dark or light masses. In the distance, far away behind the
hill-side, a fox giving chase could be heard yelping in the valley of
Blanru.
"Good-night, Hullin," said Catherine.
"Good-night."
Jean-Claude walked quickly away on the heath-covered slopes, and the
mistress of the farm, after watching him for a second, shut her door
again.
I leave you to imagine the joy of Louise when she learnt that Gaspard
was safe and sound. The poor child had hardly been living for two
months. Hullin took care not to show her the dark cloud which was
coming over the horizon.
Through the night he could hear her prattling in her little room,
talking as though congratulating herself, murmuring Gaspard's name,
opening her drawers and boxes, without doubt so as to hunt up some
relics in them and tell them of her love.
So the linnet drenched in the storm, will, while yet shivering, begin
to sing and hop from branch to branch with the first sunbeam.