Jacques Bonneval Part 3

The commissioner, perceiving that the bishop was getting the worst of it, broke in with--

"All this is beside the mark. The king is determined that you, Monsieur Chambrun, should be a good Catholic; so it is no good begging off. You had much better accept the good offer made you, which I trust you will do on thinking it over."

"The only offer I desire," replied my uncle, "is of a pa.s.sport, to enable me, as soon as I am well enough, to follow my brother ministers to Holland. My reason tells me--"

"A truce with your reason," interrupted the bishop, rising to go away.

"You have too much rhetoric by half. I advise you to reflect and to obey."

"Monseigneur, I am sure you think you are giving me the best advice,"

said my uncle, feebly. "Nephew, see the n.o.ble and reverend gentlemen out."

CHAPTER IV.

MY UNCLE CHAMBRUN.

Having done so, I returned to my uncle, and said to him,--"Uncle, the bishop has gone away in great wrath, vowing that you shall repent of your conduct."

"And when I would have made way for him," said my aunt, indignantly, "he called me a bad name, and looked as if I were the very sc.u.m of the earth."

"Ah, he does not recognize marriages among the clergy," said my uncle, calmly. "Never mind him, my good Dorothee; he'd be glad enough to have a wife of his own, and seeing me so much better off than he is, makes him captious and querulous. Come and shake up my pillow, for my poor head aches sadly. I will try to get a little sleep."

At that instant, a loud trampling of horses' feet was heard, together with the jingling of spurs and the clanking of armor.

"What's that?" cried Aunt Dorothee, running from the bed to the window, and pulling back the little curtain, "Ah, le beau spectacle! Look out, Jacques!"

It was indeed a fine spectacle, as far as mere outward splendor went, to see a troup of cavalry in blue and burnished steel, on powerful black horses, ride proudly by, making the very earth shake under them; and many children, attracted by the sight, ran towards them, shouting and throwing up their caps; but when I looked at the ferocious faces of these men, seamed with many an ugly scar--their lowering brows, their terrible eyes, their sour aspect--I felt they might be as dreadful to face in peace as in war. I watched them out of sight, and then placed myself beside my uncle, who, with closed eyes and folded hands, was endeavoring to sleep. My aunt went below to baste the poulet for his dinner. The house was very still; nothing was to be heard but the ticking of the clock.

All at once I heard heavy feet tramping towards the house, and a confused medley of rough voices. The next instant, the house door was battered as if to break it in, which, being of solid oak, was no easy matter. The door being opened, I heard a faint cry of terror from my aunt, and a brawling and trampling impossible to describe. I looked down from the stair-head and counted forty-two dragoons, trampling in one after another, till, the house being of moderate size, there was hardly room for them to stand. Yet they continued to pour in, jostling, pus.h.i.+ng, and elbowing one another, each trying to shout louder than his comrades, "Hola! hola! House! house!--Give us to eat! Give us to drink!"

with frightful oaths and curses.

"Good sirs, a moment's patience, and you shall be waited on," cried my terrified aunt.

"To Jericho with your patience! We wait for n.o.body. I decide for this poulet," said one, taking it up hot in his hands, and bawling because they were burnt; "dress two dozen more--cook all you have in the poultry-yard, or we will cook you."

"I claim my share of that poulet," says one.

"Why not have one apiece?" said another. "Who would make two bites of a cherry? He has gnawn off all the best mouthfuls already. Come, be quick, mistress housewife! Where are the cellar keys?"

"I've mislaid them, good sirs," said the poor terrified woman.

"We'll kick the door open, then. Here's a ham! here are two hams! Ha!

ha! ham is good--we will heat the copper and boil them."

"No, slice them and fry them," says another; "they take too long to boil. Bread!--where's the bread? Where's the oven? If it were big enough, goody, we'd put you into it."

"Ha! ha! what have I found here!--a bag of money."

"Divide! divide!" shouted two dozen voices.

"It's mine, I found it!" cried the first. Then they fell to blows, and some of them fell sprawling to the ground, and were kicked, the bag was s.n.a.t.c.hed from the finder, and the money scattered on the floor; then they scrambled for it, as many as could get near it, laughing and cursing; while others ransacked drawers, cupboards, and shelves, and others broke open the cellar door, and began to drink.

Terrified beyond expression, I went back to my uncle, and saw, to my surprise and relief, that he had fallen into a heavy sleep, which was a restorative he particularly needed. On looking from the window, I say my aunt, almost incapacitated by her fears, attempting to catch the poultry, in which the dragoons alternately helped and hindered her, roaring with laughter when a hen flew shrieking over their heads, and then abusing my aunt. They were quickly caught and plucked, and set, some to roast, some to broil, according to their capricious mandates; and then, when everything was in as fair train for their disorderly feast as it well could be (two or three additional fires having been kindled), one of them said, "Let us divert the time with a little good music;" and began to beat a drum.

"Louder! louder!" cried his comrades. "Let's have a chorus of drums!"

How they came to have so many, I know not, except that they were brought for the special purpose of tormenting; but they produced six or eight, slung them round their necks, and began to beat them, crying,--

"Now for the tour of the house!"

"Sure my uncle must be dead!" thought I, leaning over him anxiously. But no, his breath came and went, though inaudibly, and had he been allowed to finish his sleep in peace it might have been for his healing.

Instead of this, I heard the dragoons come stamping upstairs, producing a m.u.f.fled roll on their drums that sounded like muttering thunder. They went into one room after another, and speedily reached that of my uncle, on catching sight of whom they triumphantly exclaimed, "Hah! ha! v'la notre ami! Here is he whom we seek, and for whom we prepare the reveille." And ranging themselves round his bed in a moment of time, in spite of a warning gesture from me, it being impossible for my voice to be heard, they simultaneously beat their drums with a clangor that might have waked the dead. No wonder, therefore, that my poor uncle started from his sleep bewildered, terrified, and looking as if he believed himself in some horrid dream. In vain he moved his lips, in vain he raised his clasped hands to one and another, as if in supplication; the more distress he showed the more noise they made, till it seemed to me as if my eardrums would split. In the midst of it all up came my aunt, whose fort.i.tude and presence of mind at that moment I can never sufficiently admire; and with forced smiles and courteous gestures made them to understand, in dumb show, that the first course of their meal was served. Instantly the drums ceased; one of them seized her by the shoulders, and hurried her down stairs before him, the others clattering after him. I turned, and saw my uncle raise his eyes and hands to heaven, and fall back on his pillow.

There was now a lull, while the viands were being consumed; but soon a new uproar arose--the supply was inadequate for the demand: every morsel of food in the house was consumed at one sitting, and yet there was not nearly enough. The dragoons were furious: they gathered about my aunt, pulling her hair, threatening her with their fists, threatening to boil her in her own copper, and set fire to the house, with her sick husband in it, if she did not procure an ample supply. With matchless patience she looked one after another in the face, said, "Attendez, attendez, messieurs, s'il vous plait;" and then, calling me down, bid me go forth and beg of my neighbors as much food as I could.

When wondering much at my aunt's fort.i.tude and self-possession, she afterwards told me that she lifted her heart to G.o.d in earnest prayer, and there came to her the comforting remembrance of these words.

"Blessed are they which are persecuted for righteousness' sake; for theirs is the kingdom of heaven."

Alas! what a scene presented itself out of doors. The people were running up and down in despair; a woman rushed wildly out of her house, and seized me by the arm, crying, "They are batooning my husband!"

Another shrieked from a window, 'Help, help, they are killing my father!' Children ran about the streets, crying, "Oh, my father!--oh, my mother!" It seemed a heartless task to be going from one to another begging something to eat under such piteous circ.u.mstances; and yet how knew I that as bad or worse a tragedy might be acted at my uncle's if I failed to supply what was wanted?

At length I returned, staggering under the weight of a huge cheese and a bag of chestnuts. And though I was reviled for not bringing them better cheer, yet I pacified them by smiling like my aunt, and echoing her "Attendez, messieurs, s'il vous plait;" and started forth again on my foraging expedition, though very doubtful of having anything to bring back.

How long were these horrible men going to stay? How could we go on supplying their wants at this rate? If their orders were to eat my uncle out of house and home, and drive him and my aunt to distraction, would it not be just as well to let them do so at once, and have done with it?

One and another to whom I applied were so full of their own griefs that I had to listen to what they had to say before they would or could hear a word from me in return. One had been hung up by his feet over a chimney; another had a knife held to his throat; one had seen her little infant nearly strangled; another had been dragged along the ground by her hair. I could not help pitying them sincerely, but not so much as I should have done, but for the sad plight of my uncle. When I, with a kind of wrench, forced the talk into the subject of what was going on at his house, they, through their great love for him, forgot for a moment their own trials in thinking of his; and those who had anything to contribute brought it out, and those who had nothing to spare made up for it in pity. All this consumed so much time that when I got back it was nearly dark, and the house was all in a blaze with lights, for the dragoons had lighted candles all over the house; and some of them were stupid with drink, and lying in heaps; others were rendered quarrelsome by it, and fighting and abusing one another; but as for the drummers, they never ceased. They were at it when I set forth, they were at it while I was away, they were at it when I came back again, and stared at the good things I spread out before them without once staying their drumsticks. I was so sick of it by this time, and so unable to disguise my disgust and anger, that I persuaded myself I might as well return home, for that I could do no good where I was, and things could get no worse without me. So I went up to my aunt, who was then sitting like a stone image, without seeming able to hear or see anything, and made signs of leave-taking. She grasped my hand in both hers, and looked up so piteously at me, her lips moving as if with the words "do not go,"

that I felt I must stay by her, come what would. For was she not my mother's sister-in-law? and was not my uncle my mother's brother? I made a sign I would remain, on which she kissed my hands; and then I patted her on the shoulder, and could not help letting fall a tear. Then she got up, and bestirred herself for the men, hoping, no doubt, they would intermit their drumming if she could but conciliate them. But as soon as one relay ceased drumming another took it up; and thus, shameful to relate, they continued the whole night without intermission, crowding round my uncle's bed, making his room intolerably hot and close, and pus.h.i.+ng in and out of the room and up and down the stairs.

My uncle now lay in a kind of torpor; the expression of his face painful to witness; his wan hands lying outside the counterpane, and now and then slightly moving, which showed me he still lived. Towards daybreak I was so worn out that I dropped asleep as I sat beside him with my face on the edge of his pillow--such deep sleep that I neither heard nor dreamed of the drumming. When I woke, with a strangely confused, unrefreshed feeling, the daylight was faintly making its way into the room, which had no one in it but my uncle, my aunt, and me. She seemed to have crawled with difficulty to the foot of his bed, and there sunk and fallen asleep I went out on the landing--candles were burning in their sockets with a vile smell--the house was full of vile smells and of confusion and disorder--the house-door stood ajar--one or two dragoons lay sleeping heavily on the ground. I went up again to tell my aunt, and found her straightening my uncle like a corpse. At the same moment a dragoon came up behind me. He was going to recommence the disturbance, when I pointed to the bed, and said, sternly, "See what you have done. You may now go away satisfied with having made this lately peaceful family completely wretched. G.o.d grant you forgiveness ere you are laid out like those cold remains."

The dragoon looked confounded. He muttered something, turned on his heel, said something to his companions below, and we presently saw them run out of the house. I went and shut the door. On returning I saw my uncle was not dead. Their thinking him so was a mercy, since it gave him a little respite. He was too weak to be moved, but he begged me to return home and tell what had happened to my parents: adding, as I left him, "Do not make the affair worse than it is." I thought it would be difficult to do that.

CHAPTER V.

THE Pa.s.sPORT.

When I reached home it was some hours after sunrise. The dragoons, just recalled from the Spanish frontier, where they were no longer wanted, were spreading themselves over the country with the express commission to hara.s.s the Huguenot inhabitants as much as possible, short of death, but had not yet reached Nismes.

I entered my father's house. Contrary to custom, he was not at the factory, but awaiting my return. He rose when I appeared, and stood silently looking at me, while my mother put her hands on my shoulders, and looked piteously in my face.

"Son, thou hast been out all night."