The spectacle which met the eyes of Father Elzear was both frightful and
solemn.
The chamber, which was very small, and lighted only by two narrow
windows, was hung with black.
A coffin of white wood, filled with ashes, and fastened to the floor by
screws, served as a bed for Commander Pierre des Anbiez.
Above this funereal bed was suspended the portrait of a young man
wearing a cuirass, and leaning on a helmet. An aquiline nose, a delicate
and gracefully chiselled mouth, and large, sea-green eyes gave to this
face an expression which was, at the same time, proud and benevolent.
Below the frame, on a tablet, was written distinctly the date December
25,1613; a black curtain hanging near the picture could be drawn over it
at pleasure.
Weapons of war, attached to a rack, constituted the sole ornaments of
this gruesome habitation.
Pierre des Anbiez had not observed the entrance of his brother. On his
knees before his praying-desk, the commander was half covered with a
coarse haircloth, which he wore night and day; his shoulders were bare.
By the drops of coagulated blood, and by the furrows which veined his
flesh, it could be seen that he had just inflicted upon himself a bloody
discipline. His bowed head rested on his two hands, and now and then
convulsive shudders shook his lacerated shoulders, as if his breast
heaved under the agony of suppressed sobs. The praying-desk, where he
was kneeling, was placed below the two small windows, which admitted an
occasional and doubtful light into this chamber.
In the midst of this dim light the pale face and long white vestments of
Father Elzear contrasted strangely with the wainscoting hung with black;
he looked like a spectre. He stood there as if petrified; he had never
believed his brother capable of such mortifications, and, lifting his
hands to Heaven, he uttered a profound sigh.
The commander started. He turned around quickly, and, seeing in the
shadow the immovable figure of Father Elzear, cried, in terror:
“Are you a spirit? Do you come to ask account of the blood I have
shed?” His countenance was frightful. Never remorse, never despair,
never terror impressed its seal more terribly upon the brow of guilt!
His eyes, red with weeping, were fixed and haggard; his gray, closely
shaven hair seemed to bristle upon his brow; his bluish lips trembled
with fear, and his scraggy, muscular arms were extended before him as if
they entreated a supernatural vision.
“My brother! my brother!” exclaimed Elzear, throwing himself upon
the commander. “My brother, it is I; may God be with you!”
Pierre des Anbiez stared at the good brother as if he did not recognise
him; then, sinking down before his praying-desk, he let his head fall on
his breast, and cried, in a hollow voice:
“The Lord is never with a murderer, and yet,” added he, raising
his head half-way and looking at the portrait in terror, “and yet, to
expiate my crime, I have placed the face of my victim always under my
eyes! There, on my bed of ashes, where I seek a repose which flies from
me, at every hour of the day, at every hour of the night, I behold
the unrelenting face of him who says to me unceasingly, ‘Murderer!
Murderer! You have shed my blood! Be accursed!’”
“My brother, oh, my brother, come back to your senses,” whispered
the father. He feared the voice of the commander might be heard outside.
Without replying to his brother, the commander withdrew himself from his
arms, rose to the full height of his tall stature, and approached the
portrait.
“For twenty years there has not passed a day in which I have not wept
my crime! For twenty years have I not tried to expiate this murder by
the most cruel austerities? What more do you wish, infernal memory?
What more do you ask? You, also,--you, my victim, have you not shed
blood,--the blood of my accomplice? But alas! alas! this blood, you
could shed it, you,--vengeance gave you the right, while I am the
infamous assassin! Oh, yes, vengeance is just! Strike, strike, then,
without pity! Soon the hand of God will strike me eternally!”
Overcome by emotion, the commander, almost deprived of consciousness,
again fell on his knees, half recumbent upon the coffin which served him
as bed.
Father Elzear had never discovered his brother’s secret. He knew him
to be a prey to profound melancholy, but was ignorant of the cause, and
now was frightened and distressed at the dreadful confidence betrayed in
a moment of involuntary excitement.
That Pierre des Anbiez, a man of iron character, of invincible courage,
should fall into such remorseful melancholy and weakness and despair,
argued a cause that was terrible indeed!
The intrepidity of the commander was proverbial; in the midst of the
most frightful perils, his cool daring had been the wonder of all who
beheld it. His gloomy impassibility had never forsaken him before, even
amid the awful combats a seaman is compelled to wage with the elements.
His courage approached ferocity. Once engaged in battle, once in the
thick of the fight, he never gave quarter to the pirates. But this fever
of massacre ceased when the battle-cries of the combatants and the sight
of the blood excited him no longer. Then he became calm and humane,
although pitiless toward the least fault of discipline. He had sustained
the most brilliant engagements with Barbary pirates. His black galley
was tie terror as well as the constant aim of attack among the pirates,
but, thanks to the superiority of equipment, _Our Lady of Seven Sorrows_
had never been captured, and her defeats had cost the enemy dear.
Father Elzear, seated on the edge of the coffin, sustained the head
of his brother on his knees. The commander, as pale as a ghost, lay
unconscious, his brow wet with a cold sweat At last he regained his
consciousness, and looked around him with a sad and astonished air;
then, throwing a glance upon his arms and naked shoulders, scarcely
covered by the haircloth, he asked the priest, abruptly:
“How came you here, Elzear?”
“Although there was crape on your door, Pierre, I thought I could
enter. The matter which brought me to you is a very important one.”
An expression of keen dissatisfaction was depicted on the commander’s
countenance, as he cried:
“And I have been talking, no doubt?”
“The Lord has been moved to pity by your words, but I have not
understood them, my brother. Besides, your mind was distracted; you were
under the domination of some fatal illusion.”
Pierre smiled bitterly. “Yes, it was an illusion,--a dream,” said
he. “You know, I am sometimes overcome by dreadful imaginations, and
become delirious,--that is why I wish to be alone in these periods of
madness. Believe me, Elzear, then the presence of any human being is
intolerable to me, for I fear even you.”
As he said these words, the commander entered a closet adjoining his
chamber, and soon came out dressed in a long robe of black woollen
cloth, on which was quartered the white cross of his order.
The figure of Pierre des Anbiez was tall, erect, and robust. His thin,
nervous limbs showed, in spite of age, an uncommon vigour. His features
were severe and warlike; thick, black eyebrows shaded his deep-set,
hollow, burning eyes, which seemed always to glow with the sombre fire
of a fever; a deep scar divided his brow, and furrowed his cheek until
it was lost in his gray, short, and bushy beard.
Returning to his chamber, he walked back and forth, his hands crossed
behind his back, without saying a word to his brother.
Finally he paused and extended to the priest his hand, which had been
painfully torn by a gunshot, and said:
“The sign which I had attached to my door ought to have assured my
solitude. From the first officer to the last soldier on my galley, no
one dares enter here after seeing that sign. I thought myself alone, as
much alone as in the depth of a cloister, or the most hidden cell of the
great penitentiary of our order. So, my brother, although you have seen,
although you have heard, permit me to ask you never to say a word on
this subject. Let what has passed here be forgotten,--as sacred as a
confession made by a dying man under the seal of the confessional.”
“It shall be as you desire, Pierre,” replied Father Elzear, sadly.
“I think of it only with pain that I cannot help you in the sorrows
which have burdened you so long.”
“Reassure yourself. It is not given to the power of man to console
me,” replied the commander. Then, as if he feared to wound the
affection of his brother, he added:
“Yet your fraternal friendship and that of Raimond Digiare very dear
to me; but, alas, although the dews of May and the sweet rains of June
may fall in the sea, they can never sweeten the bitterness of its deep
waters. But what did you come to ask me?”
“Pardon for a poor Moor condemned this morning to the chase-gun.”
“That sentence has been executed, and it could not be, my brother,
that I should ever grant you this pardon.” “Thank God, the sentence
has not been executed; there is still some hope left me, Pierre.”
“The hour-glass stands at two. I gave order to the captain of the mast
to tie the Moor to the chase-gun at one o’clock; the slave ought to be
now in the hands of the surgeon and chaplain,--may God save the soul of
this pagan, if his body has not been able to endure the punishment.”
“At my earnest request, the captain of the mast suspended the
execution, my brother.”
“You cannot say what is not true, Elzear, but this moment you have
made a fatal gift to the captain of the mast.”
“Pierre, remember that I alone am responsible. Pardon, I pray--”
“Holy Cross!” cried the commander, impetuously, “for the first
time since I have commanded this galley, shall I pardon, in the same
day, two of the gravest faults that can be committed: the revolt of a
slave against a subordinate officer, and the want of discipline in the
subordinate officer toward his chief? No, no, that is impossible!” The
commander took a whistle from his belt and blew a shrill note through
the little silver tube.
A page clothed in black appeared at the door.
“The captain of the mast!” said the commander, abruptly. The page
went out.
“Ah, my brother, will you be altogether without pity?” cried Elzear,
in a tone of sad reproach.
“Without pity?” and the commander smiled bitterly, “yes, without
pity for the faults of others, as for my own faults.”
The priest, remembering the terrible chastisement that his brother had
just inflicted upon himself, realised that such a man must be inexorable
in the observance of discipline, and bowed his head, renouncing all
hope.
The captain of the mast entered.
“You will remain eight nights in irons on the rambade,” said the
commander.
The sailor bowed respectfully, without uttering a word.
“Let the chaplain and surgeon be informed that the Moor is to be
chastised on the chase-gun.”
The captain of the mast bowed more profoundly still and disappeared.
“I, at least, will not abandon this poor wretch!” cried Father
Elzear, rising hurriedly in order to accompany him.
The good brother went out, and Pierre des Anbiez resumed his slow
promenade in his chamber.
From time to time his eyes were attracted, in spite of himself, by the
fatal portrait of the man for whose murder he suffered such remorse.
Then his steps became irregular and his face became sad and gloomy
again.
For the first time perhaps in many years, he felt a thrill of pain at
the thought of the cruel suffering the Moor was about to undergo.
This punishment was just and deserved, but he remembered that the
unhappy captive had been, up to that time, gentle, submissive, and
industrious. Yet such was the inflexibility of his character that he
reproached himself for this involuntary pity, as a culpable weakness.
Finally the solemn flourishes of the trumpets of the galley announced
that the execution was finished. He heard the slow and regular step of
the soldiers and sailors, who were breaking ranks after having assisted
at the punishment.
Soon Father Elzear entered, pale, dismayed, his eyes bathed in tears,
and his cassock stained with blood.
“Ah, my brother! my brother! if you assisted at these executions,
never in your life could you have the heart to order them.”
“And the Moor?” asked the commander, without replying otherwise to
his brother.
“I held his poor hands in mine; he endured the first blows with heroic
resignation, closing his eyes to arrest the tears, and saying nothing
but, ‘My good father, do not abandon me’. But when the pain became
intolerable, when the blood began to gush out under the thongs, the
unhappy man seemed to concentrate all his powers upon one thought, which
might give him courage to endure this martyrdom. His face took on an
expression of painful ecstasy; then he seemed to conquer pain, even to
defy it, and cried, with an accent which came from the very depths of
his paternal heart, ‘My son! my son! Acoub, my beloved child!’”
As he told of the punishment and last words of the Moor, Father Elzear
could no longer restrain his tears; he wept as he continued:
“Ah, Pierre, if you had heard him--if you only knew with what
passionate feeling he uttered those words, ‘My son! my beloved child,’
you would have had pity on this poor father, whom they have carried off
in a state of unconsciousness.”
What was the astonishment of Father Elzear, when he saw the commander,
overwhelmed with emotion, hide his head in his hands and cry, sobbing
convulsively:
“A son! a son! I, too, have a son!”