Batiste and his family did not realize how the unheard-of, unexpected
event began; who was the first who decided to pass the bridge that
joined the road to the hated fields.
In the farm-house they were in no condition to notice such details.
Exhausted with suffering, they saw that the people of the _huerta_ had
suddenly begun to come to them, and they did not protest, for misfortune
needs counsel, nor did they offer thanks for the unexpected impulse to
approach.
The news of the little boy's death had been transmitted through all the
neighbourhood with the strange swiftness with which all news spreads in
the _huerta_, flying from farm to farm on the wings of scandal, which is
the swiftest of all telegraphs.
Many slept poorly that night. It seemed as though the little boy, as he
departed, had left a thorn fixed in the consciences of the neighbours.
More than one woman tossed about in bed, disturbing with her
restlessness her husband's sleep, making him protest indignantly. "But
curse you! will you go to sleep?..." No, she couldn't; that child
prevented her from sleeping. Poor little fellow! What would he tell the
Lord when he reached Heaven?
All shared the responsibility of that death, but each one with
hypocritical egotism attributed to his neighbour the chief blame for the
bitter persecution whose consequences had fallen on the little fellow's
head; each gossiping woman blamed her enemy for the deed. And at last
she went to sleep with the intention of undoing all the evil done, of
going in the morning to offer her aid to the family, of weeping over the
poor child; and amid the mists of sleep they thought they saw Pascualet,
as white and resplendent as an angel, looking with reproachful eyes at
those who had been so hard with him and his family.
All the people of the neighbourhood rose meditating as to how they could
approach and enter Batiste's house. It was an examination of conscience,
an explosion of repentance which burst on the poor farm-house from every
end of the plain.
It had scarcely dawned when two old women who lived in a neighbouring
farm-house entered Batiste's home. The family, crushed with grief, felt
almost no wonder at seeing those two women appear in the house which no
one had entered for more than six months. They wanted to see the child,
the poor little "Bishop," and entering the bedroom they gazed at him
still lying there in the bed; the edge of the sheet pulled up to his
chin scarcely outlining the shape of his body, his blond head inert and
heavy on the pillow. The mother could only weep in her corner, all
shrunken and crouched together, as small as a child, as though she were
trying to annihilate herself and disappear.
After these women came others and still others; it was a stream of
weeping old women who arrived from all parts of the plain; surrounding
the bed, they kissed the little corpse and seemed to take possession of
him as their own, leaving Teresa and her daughter aside; the latter,
exhausted by lack of sleep and weeping, seemed imbecile as they hung
their red and tear-wet faces on their breasts.
Batiste, seated in a rush-chair, in the middle of the farm-house, gazed
stupidly at that procession of people who had so ill-treated him. He
did not hate them, but neither did he feel gratitude. He had come forth
from the crisis of the day before crushed, and he gazed at all this with
indifference, as though the farm-house were not his, as though the poor
little fellow on the bed were not his son.
Only the dog curling up at his feet seemed to remember and feel hatred:
he sniffed hostilely at all the procession of petticoats that came and
went, and growled as though he wanted to bite and only refrained from
doing so in order not to displease his masters.
The young people shared the dog's resentment. Batistet scowled at all
those old women who had made fun of him so often when he passed before
their houses, and he took refuge in the stable so as not to lose sight
of the poor horse, whom he was curing according to the instructions of
the veterinary, called in the night before. He was very fond of his
little brother; but death has no remedy, and what he was anxious about
now was that the horse should not be permanently lame.
The two little ones, pleased in their hearts at a misfortune which
attracted to their house the attention of the whole plain, kept watch
over the door, barring the way to the small boys who like bands of
sparrows arrived by all roads and paths with morbid and excited
curiosity to see the little body of the dead child. Now _their_ turn had
come; now _they_ were the masters. And with the courage of those who are
in their own homes, they threatened and drove away some and let others
enter, giving them their favour according to the treatment they had
received from them in the bloody vicissitudes of their peregrinations on
their way home from school.... Rascals! There were even some who
insisted on entering after having played a part in the battle during
which poor Pascualet had fallen into the canal, thus catching the
illness which had been his death.
The appearance of a weak, pale little woman seemed to bring suddenly on
the whole family a host of painful recollections. It was Pepeta,
Pimentó's wife! Even she came!
An impulse of protestation came over both Batiste and his wife. But to
what purpose? Welcome, and if she entered to enjoy their misfortune, she
could laugh as much as she wished. There they were all inert, crushed by
grief. God, the all-seeing, would give to every one his deserts.
But Pepeta went straight to the bed, pushing the other women aside. She
bore in her arms an enormous bunch of flowers and leaves which she
spread out upon the bed. The first perfumes of the nascent springtime
spread through the room which smelled of medicine, and in whose heavy
atmosphere insomnia and sighs of desperation seemed to be inhaled.
Pepeta, the poor beast of burden, dead for maternity though married with
the hope of becoming a mother, lost her calm on seeing that little
marble face, framed in the turned-back hair as in a nimbus of gold.
"My son!... my poor little boy!"
And she wept with all her soul, as she bent over the little corpse,
barely grazing with her lips the pale, cold brow, as though she feared
to awaken him.
On hearing her sobs, Batiste and his wife raised their heads in
astonishment. They knew now that she was a good woman: _he_ was the bad
one. And a mother's and father's gratitude shone in their eyes.
Batiste even trembled when he saw how poor Pepeta embraced Teresa and
her daughter, and mingled her tears with theirs. No; here was no
duplicity. She herself was a victim; that was why she could understand
the misfortunes of others who were also victims.
The little woman wiped away her tears, and became again the brave,
strong woman accustomed to the labour of a beast of burden to keep up
her house. She cast an amazed glance around. Things could not stay like
that. The child in the bed and everything in disorder! The "Bishop" must
be laid out for his last journey, he must be dressed in white, pure and
resplendent as the dawn, whose name he bore.
And with the instinct of a superior being born for practical life, with
the power of imposing obedience on others, she began to give orders to
all the women who vied in doing some service for the family they had
hitherto cursed so vehemently.
She would go to Valencia with two companions to buy the shroud and the
coffin. Others went to the village, or scattered about among the
neighbouring farm-houses in search of the objects which Pepeta charged
them to procure.
Even the hateful Pimentó who remained invisible, had to contribute to
these preparations. His wife met him on the road and ordered him to look
for some musicians for the evening. They were, like himself, vagabonds
and drunkards; he would certainly find them at Copa's. And the bully,
who seemed preoccupied that day, listened to his wife's words without
reply and endured the imperious tone in which she spoke to him, gazing
down at the ground as though ashamed.
Since the previous night he felt himself transformed. That man who had
defied and insulted him and kept him shut up in his own house like a
timid hen; his wife, who for the first time had imposed her will upon
him and taken his musket away; his lack of courage to face his victim,
who was wholly in the right; all these reasons kept him confused and
crushed.
He was no longer the Pimentó of other days; he began to know himself and
even to suspect that all the things done against Batiste and his family
amounted to a crime. There even came a moment when he despised himself.
What a man he was!... All the mean tricks of himself and the other
neighbours had served only to take the life of a poor child. And as was
his custom in dark days, when some trouble made him frown, he marched
off to the tavern, seeking the consolations that Copa kept in his famous
wine-barrel in the corner.
At ten in the morning, when Pepeta and her two companions returned from
the city, the house was filled with people.
Some men who were very slow and heavy and domestic, who had taken little
part in the crusade against the strangers, formed a group with Batiste
in the door of the farm-house; some squatting, in Moorish fashion,
others seated in rush-chairs, smoking and speaking slowly of the weather
and the crops.
Inside, women and more women, pressing around the bed, deafening the
mother with their talk; some speaking of the sons they had lost, others
installed in corners as though they were in their own homes, gossiping
about all the rumours of the neighbourhood. That day was extraordinary;
it made no difference that their houses were dirty and that dinner must
be cooked; there was an excuse. The children clinging to their skirts
wept and deafened everybody with their cries, some wanting to return
home, others begging to be shown the "Bishop."
Some old women took possession of the cupboard and every moment prepared
big glasses of sugared wine and water, offering them to Teresa and her
daughter so they could weep more comfortably, and when the poor
creatures, swollen by this sugary inundation, declined to drink, the
officious old gossips took turns in swallowing the refreshments
themselves, for they also needed to recover from their sorrow.
Pepeta began to shout, desirous of inspiring respect in this confusion.
"Go away, all of you!" Instead of staying here and bothering people,
they ought to take the two poor women away with them, for they were
exhausted with sorrow and driven crazy by so much noise.
Teresa objected to abandoning her son even for a short time; she would
soon see him no more; they should not steal from her any of the time
that remained to her to look upon her treasure. And bursting out into
even greater lamentations, she threw herself on the cold corpse, wishing
to embrace it.
But the supplications of her daughter and Pepeta's will were stronger,
and Teresa, escorted by a great number of women, left the farm-house
with her apron over her face, moaning, staggering, heedless of those
who pulled her away with them, each one vying with the other as to who
should take her home.
Pepeta began to arrange the funeral ceremony. She placed in the centre
of the entrance the little white table on which the family ate, and
covered it with a sheet, fastening the ends with pins. On it they placed
a quilt which was starched and lace-trimmed, and there they placed the
little coffin brought from Valencia, a jewel of a coffin which the
neighbours admired; a white casket trimmed with gold braid, padded
inside like a baby's cradle.
Pepeta took out of a bundle the last finery of the dead child; the
shroud of gauze woven of silver thread, the sandals, the garland of
flowers, all white, whose purity was symbolic of that of the poor little
"Bishop."
Slowly, with maternal care, Pepeta shrouded the corpse. She pressed the
cold little body against her breast, introduced into the shroud, with
the greatest care, the rigid little arms, as though they were bits of
glass which might be broken at the least shock, and kissed the icy feet
before putting them into the sandals.
In her arms, like a white dove stiff with cold, she carried Pascualet
to the casket; to that altar raised in the middle of the farm-house
before which the whole _huerta_, drawn by curiosity, would defile.
Nor was this all: the best was still lacking, the garland, a bonnet of
white flowers with festoons which hung over the ears; a barbaric
adornment like those worn by savages at the opera. Pepeta's pious hand,
engaged in a terrible struggle with death, stained the pale cheeks a
rosy colour; the mouth, blackened by death, she toned up with a layer of
bright scarlet, but her efforts to open the weak eyelids wide were vain;
they kept falling, covering the dull filmed eyes, eyes without lustre,
which had the grey sadness of death.
Poor Pascualet ... unhappy little Bishop! With his grotesque garland and
his painted face, he was turned into a ridiculous scarecrow. He had
inspired more sorrowful tenderness when his pale little face had been
livid in death on his mother's pillow, adorned only with his own blond
hair.
But all this did not prevent the good women of the _huerta_ from
admiring Pepeta's work enthusiastically. Look at him, ... why, he
seemed to be asleep! So beautiful, so pinkly flushed!... never had such
a little Abbot been seen before.
And they filled the hollows of his casket with flowers; flowers on the
white vestment, scattered on the table, piled up in clusters at the
ends; the whole plain's luxuriance embraced the child's body, which it
had so often seen running along its paths like a bird; enveloped it with
a wave of colour and perfume.
The two small brothers gazed on Pascualet astonished, piously, as on a
superior being who might take flight at any time; the dog prowled around
the catafalque stretching out his muzzle to lick the cold, waxen, little
hands, and burst out into an almost human lamentation, a moan of despair
which made the women nervous and impelled them to chase the poor beast
away with kicks.
At noon, Teresa, escaping almost by main force from the captivity in
which her neighbours kept her, returned home. Her mother-love filled her
with a feeling of deep satisfaction when she beheld the little fellow's
finery; she kissed his painted mouth and redoubled her lamentations.
It was dinner-time. Batistet and the little ones, whose grief did not
succeed in killing their appetites, devoured a broken crust, hidden in
the corners. Teresa and her daughter had no thought of food. The father,
still seated in his rush-chair, smoked cigar after cigar, impassive as
an Oriental, turning his back on his dwelling as if he feared to see the
white catafalque which served as an altar for his son's body.
In the afternoon, the visitors were more numerous. The women arrived,
decked out in holiday attire, and wearing their mantillas for the
funeral; the girls disputed energetically as to who should be one of the
four to carry the poor little Bishop to the cemetery.
Walking slowly by the edge of the road and avoiding the dust as though
it were a deadly danger, some distinguished visitors arrived: Don
Joaquín and Doña Josefa, the schoolmaster and the "lady." That
afternoon, because of the unhappy event (as he declared), there was no
school, as was very evident, from the crowd of bold and sticky boys who
slipped into the farm-house, and tired of contemplating the corpse of
their erstwhile companion as they picked at their noses, came out to
run around on the nearby road or to jump over the canals.
Doña Josefa, in a threadbare woollen dress and a large yellow mantilla,
entered the farm-house silently, and after a few pompous phrases caught
from her husband, seated her robust self in a large rope-chair and
remained as mute as if asleep, in contemplation of the coffin. The good
woman, accustomed to hearing and admiring her husband, could not carry
on a conversation by herself.
The schoolmaster, who was showing off his short green jacket which he
wore on days of ceremony, and his necktie of gigantic proportions, sat
down outside by the father's side. His big farmer's hands were encased
in black gloves which had grown grey in the course of years, till now
they were the colour of a fly's wing; he moved them constantly, desirous
of drawing attention to the garments he wore on occasions of great
solemnity.
For Batiste's benefit, he brought out the most flowery and high-sounding
phrases of his repertory. The latter was his best customer; not a single
Saturday had he failed to give his sons the two coppers for the school.
"It's life, Mr. Bautista; resignation. We never know God's plans. Often
he turns evil into good for his creatures."
And interrupting his string of commonplaces, uttered pompously as though
he were in school, he lowered his voice and added, blinking his eyes
maliciously:
"Did you notice, Mr. Batiste, all these people? Yesterday they were
cursing you and your family; and God knows how many times I have
censured them for this wickedness; today they enter your house as though
they were entering their own, and overwhelm you with manifestations of
affection. Misfortune makes them forget, brings them close to you."
And after a pause, during which he stood with lowered head, he added
with conviction, striking his breast:
"Believe me, for I know them well; at bottom they are very good people.
Very stupid, certainly. Capable of the most barbarous actions, but with
hearts which are moved by misfortune and which make them draw in their
claws.... Poor people! Whose fault is it that they were born stupid and
that no one tries to help them to overcome it?"
He was silent for some time, and then he added with the fervour of a
merchant praising his article:
"What is necessary here is education, much education. Temples of wisdom
to spread the light of knowledge over this plain; torches which ...
which.... In short, if more youngsters came to my temple, I mean to my
school, and if the fathers, instead of getting drunk paid punctually
like you, Mr. Bautista, things would be different. And I say nothing
more, for I don't like to offend."
There was danger of this, for many of the fathers who sent him pupils
unballasted by the two pennies were near.
Other farmers, those who had shown the family the most hostility, did
not dare to approach the house, and remained grouped together on the
road.
Among them was Pimentó, who had just arrived from the tavern with five
musicians, his conscience easy after remaining a few hours near Copa's
counter.
More and more people poured into the farm-house. There was no free space
left in it, and the women and children sat on the brick-benches beneath
the vine-arbour or on the slopes, waiting for the hour set for the
funeral.
Within were heard lamentations, counsels energetically uttered, the
noise of a struggle. It was Pepeta, trying to separate Teresa from her
son's body. Come!... she must be reasonable; the "Bishop" could not stay
there for ever, it was getting late, and it was better to drink the
bitter cup down and get it over with.
And she struggled with the mother to make her leave the coffin and enter
the bedroom, so as not to be present at the terrible moment of
departure, when the "Bishop" would rise and take flight on the white
wings of his shroud never to return.
"My son! his mother's darling!" moaned poor Teresa.
She would see him no more; one kiss, another; and the head, more and
more marblelike and livid despite the paint, moved from one side of the
pillow to the other, making the diadem of flowers shake in the anxious
hands of the mother and sister who disputed the last kiss.
At the end of the village the vicar would be found with the sacristan
and the acolytes: they must not be kept waiting. Pepeta was growing
impatient. Inside! Inside! And aided by other women, Teresa and her
daughter were installed almost by main force in the bedroom, and walked
up and down with dishevelled hair and eyes, red with weeping, their
breasts heaving with a protest of sorrow which expressed itself not with
moans but with howls.
Four girls with hoop-skirts, their silk mantillas falling over their
eyes, and who had a modest and nun-like expression, seized the legs of
the little table, raising all the white catafalque. Like the salvos
saluting the flag as it is raised, there resounded a strange, prolonged,
terrifying moan, which made chills run down the backs of many. It was
the dog taking leave of the poor "Bishop," uttering an interminable
lamentation, tears in his eyes and paws outstretched as if he wished
himself to follow his very cry.
Outside, Don Joaquín was clapping his hands to command attention. Come
now ... let the whole school form! The people on the road had approached
the farm-house. Pimentó captained the musicians; the latter prepared
their instruments to salute the "Bishop" as soon as the coffin should
pass the threshold, and amid the disorder and shouts with which the
procession formed, the clarinet trilled, the cornet played, and the
trombone blew like a fat, asthmatic old man.
The youngsters started out, raising high great bunches of sweet basil.
Don Joaquín knew how to do things properly. Afterward, breaking through
the crowd, appeared the four damsels holding the light, white altar on
which the poor "Bishop," lying in his coffin, moved his head with a
slight movement from side to side as though he were taking leave of the
farm-house.
The musicians burst forth into a playful, merry waltz, taking up their
position behind the bier, and behind them, all the curious people ran
along the little road to the farm in compact groups.
The farm-house remained mute and dark, with that melancholy atmosphere
of places over which misfortune has passed.
Batiste, alone under the vine-arbour, still in his attitude of an
impressive Arab, bit his cigar and followed the course of the procession
which began to wind along the highway, the coffin and its catafalque
looking like an enormous white dove among the black robes and green
branches which marked the cortège.
Auspiciously did the poor "Bishop" set out upon his way to the heaven of
the innocents. The plain, stretching out voluptuously under the kiss of
the springtime sun, enveloped the dead child with its fragrance,
accompanied him to the tomb, and covered him with an imperceptible
shroud of perfumes. The old trees, which had germinated, filled with the
sap of new life, seemed to greet the little corpse as they moved in the
breeze, their branches heavy-laden with flowers. Never had Death passed
over the earth so beautiful a mask.
Dishevelled and screaming like madwomen, waving their arms furiously,
the two unhappy women appeared in the door of the farm-house, their
voices prolonged like an interminable moan in the quiet atmosphere of
the plain, pervaded with soft light.
"My son!... My soul!..." moaned poor Teresa and her daughter.
Nnnnn! nnnnn! howled the dog, stretching out his muzzle in a long groan,
which set the nerves on edge and seemed to send a funereal shiver over
all the plain.
"Good-bye, Pascualet!... Good-bye!" cried the little ones, swallowing
their tears.
And from afar, among the foliage, borne over the green waves of the
fields, replied the echoes of the valley, accompanying the poor "Bishop"
to eternity, as he swayed back and forth in his white barge trimmed with
gold. The complicated scales of the cornet, with its diabolic capers,
seemed like a happy outburst of laughter from Death, who with the child
in her arms, departed amid the sunset resplendencies of the plain.
At evening-fall, the procession returned home.
The little ones, sleepy from the excitement of the preceding night, when
Death had visited them, slept in their chairs. Teresa and her daughter,
overcome by weeping, their energy exhausted after so many sleepless
nights, were prostrated. They fell on the bed which still showed signs
of the poor child's body, while Batistet snored in the stable near the
sick horse.
The father, still silent and impassive, received visitors, shook hands,
and gave thanks with movements of the head to the offers and consolatory
expressions.
When the night shut in, all had gone.
The farm-house remained dark and silent. Through the murky open door
there came, like a far-off whisper, the weary breathing of the tired
family, all of whom had fallen exhausted as though slain in the battle
of grief.
Batiste, still motionless, gazed stupefied at the stars which twinkled
in the dark blue of night.
Solitude brought him to his senses; he began to realize his situation.
The plain had its usual aspect, but to him it appeared more beautiful,
more tranquillizing, like a frowning face which unbends and smiles.
The people, whose shouts resounded in the distance in the doors of the
farm-houses, no longer hated him and would no longer persecute his
children. They had been beneath his roof and had blotted out with their
footsteps the curse that lay on the lands of old Barret. He would begin
a new life. But at what a price!
And suddenly facing the exact realization of his misfortune, thinking of
poor Pascualet, who now lay crushed by a heavy weight of damp and fetid
earth, his white vestment contaminated by the corruption of other
bodies, ambushed by the filthy worm, the beautiful boy with the delicate
skin over which his calloused hand had been wont to glide, the blond
hair which he had so often caressed, he felt a leaden wave which rose
from his stomach to his throat.
The crickets which sang on the nearby slope grew silent, frightened by
the strange hiccough which broke the stillness, and sounded in the
darkness for the greater part of the night like the stertorous breathing
of a wounded beast.