The Infant's Skull; Or, The End of the World. A Tale of the Millennium
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CHAPTER VI.
THE FLIGHT TO ANJOU.
Long, aimless, distracted, Yvon wandered about the forest. A severefrost had succeeded the fall of snow that covered every inch of theground. The moon shone brilliantly in the crisp air. The forester feltchilled; in despair he threw himself down at the foot of a tree,determined there to await death.
The torpor of death by freezing was creeping upon the mind of theheart-broken serf when, suddenly, the crackling of branches thatannounce the passage of game fell upon his ears and revived him with thepromise of life. The animal could not be more than fifty paces away.Unfortunately Yvon had left his bow and arrows in his hut. "It is thebuck! Oh, this time I shall kill him!" he murmured to himself. Hisrevived will-power now dominated the exhaustion of his forces, and itwas strong enough to cause him to lose no time in vain regrets at nothaving his hunting arms with him, now when the prey would be certain.The crackling of the branches drew nearer. Yvon found himself under aclump of large and old oaks, a little distance away was the thick copsethrough which the animal was then passing. He rose up and plantedhimself motionless close to and along the trunk of the tree at the footof which he had thrown himself down. Covered by the tree's thickness andthe shadow that it threw, with his neck extended, his eyes and ears onthe alert, the serf took his long forester's knife between his teeth andwaited. After several minutes of mortal suspense--the buck might get thewind of him or come from cover beyond his reach--Yvon heard the animalapproach, then stop an instant close behind the tree against which hehad glued his back. The tree concealed Yvon from the eyes of the animal,but it also prevented him from seeing the prey that he breathlessly layin wait for. Presently, six feet from Yvon and to the right, he sawplainly sketched upon the snow, that the light of the moon renderedbrilliant, the shape of the buck and the wide antlers that crowned hishead. Yvon stopped breathing and remained motionless so long as theshadow stood still. A moment later the shadow began to steal towardshim, and with a prodigious bound Yvon rushed at and seized the animal bythe horns. The buck was large and struggled vigorously; but clamberinghimself around the horns with his left arm, Yvon plunged his knife withhis right hand into the animal's throat. The buck rolled over him andexpired, while Yvon, with his mouth fastened to the wound, pumped up andswallowed the blood that flowed in a thick stream.
The warm and healthy blood strengthened and revivified the serf.... Hehad not eaten since the previous night.
Yvon rested a few moments; he then bound the hind legs of the buck witha flexible twig and dragging his booty, not without considerable effortby reason of its weight, he arrived with it at his hut near the Fountainof the Hinds. His family was now for a long time protected from hunger.The buck could not yield less than three hundred pounds of meat, whichcarefully prepared and smoked after the fashion of foresters, could bepreserved for many months.
Two days after these two fateful nights, Yvon learned from a woodsmanserf, that one of his fellows, a forester of the woods of Compiegne likehimself, having discovered the next morning the body of Gregory theHollow-bellied pierced with an arrow that remained in the wound, andhaving identified the weapon as Yvon's by the peculiar manner in whichit was feathered, had denounced him as the murderer. The bailiff of thedomain of Compiegne detested Yvon. Although the latter's crime deliveredthe neighborhood of a monster who slaughtered the travelers in order togorge himself upon them, the bailiff ordered his arrest. Thus notifiedin time, Yvon the Forester resolved to flee, leaving his son and familybehind. But Den-Brao as well as his wife insisted upon accompanying himwith their children.
The whole family decided to take the road and place their fate in thehands of Providence. The smoked buck's meat would suffice to sustainthem through a long journey. They knew that whichever way they took,serfdom awaited them. It was a change of serfdom for serfdom; but theyfound consolation in the knowledge that the change from the horrors theyhad undergone could not but improve their misery. The famine, althoughgeneral, was not, according to reports, equally severe everywhere.
The hut near the Fountain of the Hinds was, accordingly, abandoned.Den-Brao and his wife carried the little Jeannette by turns on theirbacks. The other child, Nominoe, being older, marched besides hisgrandfather. They reached and crossed the borders of the royal domain,and Yvon felt safe. A few days later the travelers learned from somepilgrims that Anjou suffered less of the famine than did any otherregion. Thither they directed their steps, induced thereto by thefurther consideration that Anjou bordered on Britanny, the cradle of thefamily. Yvon wished eventually to return thither in the hope of findingsome of his relatives in Armorica.
The journey to Anjou was made during the first months of the year 1034and across a thousand vicissitudes, almost always accompanied by somepilgrims, or by beggars and vagabonds. Everywhere on their passage thetraces were met of the horrible famine and not much less horribleravages caused by the private feuds of the seigneurs. Little Jeannetteperished on the road.