The Erckmann-Chatrian Megapack: 20 Classic Novels and Short Stories

by Émile Erckmann

  And then he asked those old men if they had not a son, if they were sure that, even at that moment, that son were not committing an offence which was liable to the punishment of death. He said to them:

  “Plead for him! What would you say? You would say, ‘I am an old soldier. For thirty years I have shed my blood for France. I have grown gray upon the battle-fields, I am riddled with wounds, I have gained every rank at the point of the sword. Ah, well! take my epaulettes, take my decorations, take everything; but save my child! Let my blood be the ransom for his offence! He does not know the greatness of his crime; he is too young; he is a conscript; he loved us; he longed to embrace us, and then go back again—he loved a maiden. Ah! you, too, have been young! Pardon him. Do not disgrace an old soldier in his son.’

  “Perhaps you could say, too, ‘I had other sons. They died for their country. Let their blood answer for his, and give me back this one—the last that I have left!’

  “This is what you would say, and far better than I, because you would be the father, the old soldier speaking of his own services! Well, the father of this youth could speak like you! He is an old soldier of the Republic! He went with you, perhaps, when the Prussians entered Champagne! He was wounded at Fleurus! He is an old comrade in arms! His oldest son was left behind in Russia!”

  And Burguet turned pale as he spoke. It seemed as if grief had robbed him of his strength, and he were about to fall. The silence was so great that we heard the breathing throughout the court-room. The deserter sobbed. Everybody thought, “It is done! Burguet need say no more! It must be that he has gained his cause!”

  But all at once he began again in another and more tender manner. Speaking slowly, he described the life of a poor peasant and his wife, who had but one comfort, one solitary hope on earth—their child! As we listened we saw these poor people, we heard them talk together, we saw over the door the old chapeau of the time of the Republic. And when we were thinking only of this, suddenly Burguet showed us the old man and his wife learning that their son had been killed, not by Russians or Germans, but by Frenchmen. We heard the old man’s cry!

  But it was terrible, Fritz! I wanted to run away. The officers of the council, several of whom were married men, looked before them with fixed eyes, and clinched hands; their gray mustaches shook. The major had raised his hand two or three times, as if to signify that it was enough, but Burguet had always something still more powerful, more just, more grand to add. His plea lasted till nearly eleven, when he sat down. There was not a murmur to be heard in the three rooms nor outside. And the judge-advocate on the other side began again, saying that all that signified nothing, that it was unfortunate for the father that his son was unworthy, that every man clung to his children, that soldiers must be taught not to desert in face of the enemy; that, if the court yielded to such arguments, nobody would ever be shot, discipline would be utterly destroyed, the army could not exist, and that the army was the strength and glory of the country.

  Burguet replied almost immediately. I cannot recall what he said; my head could not hold so many things at once: but I shall never forget this, that about one o’clock, the council having sent us away that they might deliberate—the prisoner meanwhile having been taken back to his cell—after a few minutes we were allowed to return, and the major, standing on the platform where conscriptions were drawn, declared that the accused Jean Balin was acquitted, and gave the order for his immediate release.

  It was the first acquittal since the departure of the Spanish prisoners before the blockade; the rowdies, who had come in crowds to see a man condemned and shot, could not believe it; several of them exclaimed: “We are cheated!”

  But the major ordered Brigadier Descarmes to take the names of these brawlers, so that they should be seen to; then the whole mass trampled down the stairs in five minutes, and we, in our turn, were able to descend.

  I had taken Burguet by the arm, my eyes full of tears.

  “Are you satisfied, Moses?” said he, already quite his own joyous self again.

  “Burguet!” said I, “Aaron himself, the own brother of Moses, and the greatest orator of Israel, could not have spoken better than you did; it was admirable! I owe my peace of mind to you! Whatever you may ask for so great a service I am ready to give to the extent of my means.”

  We went down the stairs; the members of the council following us thoughtfully, one by one. Burguet smiled.

  “Do you mean it, Moses?” said he, stopping under the arch.

  “Yes, here is my hand.”

  “Very well!” said he, “I ask you to give me a good dinner at the Ville-de-Metz.”

  “With all my heart!”

  Several citizens, Father Parmentier, Cochois the tax-gatherer, and Adjutant Muller, were waiting for Burguet at the foot of the mayoralty steps, to congratulate him. As they were surrounding and shaking hands with him, Sâfel came and rushed into my arms; Zeffen had sent him to learn the news. I embraced him, and said joyously: “Go, tell your mother that we have won! Take your dinner. I am going to dine at the Ville-de-Metz with Burguet. Make haste, my child!”

  He started running.

  “You dine with me, Burguet,” said Father Parmentier.

  “Thank you, Mr. Mayor, I am engaged to dine with Moses; I will go at another time.”

  And, with our arms around each other, we entered Mother Barrière’s large corridor, where there was still the odor of good roasts, in spite of the blockade.

  “Listen, Burguet,” said I; “we are going to dine alone, and you shall choose whatever wines and dishes you like best; you know them better than I do.”

  I saw his eyes sparkle.

  “Good! good!” said he, “it is understood.”

  In the large dining-hall the war-commissioner and two officers were dining together; they turned round, and we saluted them.

  I sent for Mother Barrière, who came at once, her apron on her arm, as smiling and chubby as usual. Burguet whispered a couple of words in her ear, and she instantly opened the door at the right, and said:

  “Walk in, gentlemen, walk in! You will not have to wait long.”

  We went into the square room at the corner of the square, a small, high room, with two large windows covered with muslin curtains, and the porcelain stove well heated, as it should be in winter.

  A servant came to lay the table, while we warmed our hands upon the marble.

  “I have a good appetite, Moses; my pleading is going to cost you dear,” said Burguet, laughing.

  “So much the better; it cannot be too dear for the gratitude I owe you.”

  “Come,” said he, putting his hand on my shoulder, “I won’t ruin you, but we must have a good dinner.”

  When the table was ready, we sat down, opposite each other, in soft, comfortable arm-chairs; and Burguet, fastening his napkin in his button-hole, as was his custom, took up the bill of fare. He pondered over it a long time; for you know, Fritz, that though nightingales are good singers, they have the sharpest beaks in the world. Burguet was like them, and I was delighted at seeing him thus meditating.

  At last he said to the servant, slowly and solemnly:

  “This and that, Madeleine, cooked so and so. And such a wine to begin with, and such another at the end.”

  “Very well, M. Burguet,” replied Madeleine, as she went out.

  Two minutes afterward she brought us a good toast soup. During a blockade this was something greatly to be desired; three weeks later we should have been very fortunate to have got one.

  Then she brought us some Bordeaux wine, warmed in a napkin. But you do not suppose, Fritz, that I am going to tell you all the details of this dinner? although I remember it all, with great pleasure, to this day. Believe me, there was nothing wanting, meats nor fresh vegetables, nor the large well-smoked ham, nor any of the things which are dreadfully scarce in a shut-up city. We had even salad! Madame Barrière had kept it in the cellar, in earth, and Burguet wished to dress it himself with olive oil. We had, too, th
e last juicy pears which were seen in Phalsburg, during that winter of 1814.

  Burguet seemed happy, especially when the bottle of old Lironcourt was brought, and we drank together.

  “Moses,” said he with softened eyes, “if all my pleas had as good pay as you give, I would resign my place in college; but this is the first fee I have received.”

  “And if I were in your place, Burguet,” I exclaimed, “instead of staying in Phalsburg, I would go to a large city. You would have plenty of good dinners, good hotels, and the rest would soon follow.”

  “Ah! twenty years ago this might have been good advice,” said he, rising, “but it is too late now. Let us go and take our coffee, Moses.”

  Thus it is that men of great talents often bury themselves in small places, where nobody values them at their true worth; they fall gradually into their own ruts, and disappear without notice.

  Burguet never forgot to go to the coffee-house at about five o’clock, to play a game of cards with the old Jew Solomon, whose trade it was. Burguet and five or six citizens fully supported this man, who took his beer and coffee twice a day at their expense, to say nothing of the crowns he pocketed for the support of his family.

  So far as the others were concerned, I was not surprised at this, for they were fools! but for a man like Burguet I was always astonished at it; for, out of twenty deals, Solomon did not let them win more than one or two, with the risk before his eyes of losing his best practice, by discouraging them altogether.

  I had explained this fifty times to Burguet; he assented, and kept on all the same.

  When we reached the coffee-house, Solomon was already there, in the corner of a window at the left—his little dirty cap on his nose, and his old greasy frock hanging at the foot of the stool. He was shuffling the cards all by himself. He looked at Burguet out of the corner of his eye, as a bird-catcher looks at larks, as if to say:

  “Come! I am here! I am expecting you!”

  But Burguet, when with me, dared not obey the old man; he was ashamed of his weakness, and merely made a little motion of his head while he seated himself at the opposite table, where coffee was served to us.

  The comrades came soon, and Solomon began to fleece them. Burguet turned his back to them; I tried to divert his attention, but his heart was with them; he listened to all the throws, and yawned in his hand.

  About seven o’clock, when the room was full of smoke, and the balls were rolling on the billiard tables, suddenly a young man, a soldier, entered, looking round in all directions.

  It was the deserter.

  He saw us at last, and approached us with his foraging cap in his hand. Burguet looked up and recognized him; I saw him turn red; the deserter, on the contrary, was very pale; he tried to speak, but could not say a word.

  “Ah! my friend!” said Burguet, “here you are, safe!”

  “Yes, sir,” replied the conscript, “and I have come to thank you for myself, for my father, and for my mother!”

  “Ah!” said Burguet, coughing, “it is all right! it is all right!”

  He looked tenderly at the young man, and asked him softly, “You are glad to live?”

  “Oh! yes, sir,” replied the conscript, “very glad.”

  “Yes,” said Burguet, in a low voice, looking at the clock; “it would have been all over now! Poor child!”

  And suddenly beginning to use the thou he said, “Thou hast had nothing with which to drink my health, and I have not another sou. Moses, give him a hundred sous.”

  I gave him ten francs. The deserter tried to thank me.

  “That is good!” said Burguet, rising. “Go and take a drink with thy comrades. Be happy, and do not desert again.”

  He made as if he would follow Solomon’s playing; but when the deserter said, “I thank you, too, for her who is expecting me!” he looked at me sideways, not knowing what to answer, so much was he moved. Then I said to the conscript, “We are very glad that we have been of assistance to you; go and drink the health of your advocate, and behave yourself well.”

  He looked at us for a moment longer, as if he were unable to move; we saw his thanks in his face, a thousand times better than he had been able to utter them. At length he slowly went out, saluting us, and Burguet finished his cup of coffee.

  We meditated for some minutes upon what had passed. But soon the thought of seeing my family seized me.

  Burguet was like a soul in purgatory. Every minute he got up to look on, as one or another played, with his hands crossed behind his back; then he sat down with a melancholy look. I should have been very sorry to plague him longer, and, as the clock struck eight, I bade him good-evening, which evidently pleased him.

  “Good-night, Moses,” said he, leading me to the door. “My compliments to Madame Sorlé, and Madame Zeffen.”

  “Thank you! I shall not forget it.”

  I went, very glad to return home, where I arrived in a few minutes. Sorlé saw at once that I was in good spirits, for, meeting her at the door of our little kitchen, I embraced her joyfully.

  “It is all right, Sorlé,” said I, “all just right!”

  “Yes,” said she, “I see that it is all right!”

  She laughed, and we went into the room where Zeffen was undressing David. The poor little fellow, in his shirt, came and offered me his cheek to kiss. Whenever I dined in the city, I used to bring him some of the dessert, and, in spite of his sleepy eyes, he soon found his way to my pockets.

  You see, Fritz, what makes grandfathers happy is to find out how bright and sensible their grandchildren are.

  Even little Esdras, whom Sorlé was rocking, understood at once that something unusual was going on; he stretched out his little hands to me, as if to say, “I like cake too!”

  We were all of us very happy. At length, having sat down, I gave them an account of the day, setting forth the eloquence of Burguet, and the poor deserter’s happiness. They all listened attentively. Sâfel, seated on my knees, whispered to me, “We have sold three hundred francs’ worth of brandy!”

  This news pleased me greatly: when one makes an outlay, he ought to profit by it.

  About ten o’clock, after Zeffen had wished us good-night, I went down and shut the door, and put the key underneath for the sergeant, if he should come in late.

  While we were going to bed, Sorlé repeated what Sâfel had said, adding that we should be in easy circumstances when the blockade was over, and that the Lord had helped us in the midst of great calamities.

  We were happy and without fear of the future.

  CHAPTER XVI

  A SORTIE OF THE GARRISON

  Nothing extraordinary occurred for several days. The governor had the plants and bushes growing in the crevices of the ramparts torn away, to make desertion less easy, and he forbade the officers being too rough with the men, which had a good effect.

  At this time, hundreds of thousands of Austrians, Russians, Bavarians, and Wurtemburgers, by squadrons and regiments, passed around the city beyond range of our cannon, and marched upon Paris.

  Then there were terrible battles in Champagne, but we knew nothing of them.

  The uniforms changed every day outside the city; our old soldiers on top of the ramparts recognized all the different nations they had been fighting for twenty years.

  Our sergeant came regularly after the call, to take me upon the arsenal bastion; citizens were there all the time, talking about the invasion, which did not come to an end.

  It was wonderful! In the direction of St. Jean, on the edge of the forest of La Bonne-Fontaine, we saw, for hours at a time, cavalry and infantry defiling, and then convoys of powder and balls, and then cannon, and then files of bayonets, helmets, red and green and blue coats, lances, peasants’ wagons covered with cloth—all these passed, passed like a river.

  On this broad white plateau, surrounded by forests, we could see everything.

  Now and then some Cossacks or dragoons would leave the main body, and push on galloping to the very f
oot of the glacis, in the lane des Dames, or near the little chapel. Instantly one of our old marine artillerymen would stretch out his gray mustaches upon a rampart gun, and slowly take aim; the bystanders would all gather round him, even the children, who would creep between your legs, fearless of balls or shells—and the heavy rifle-gun would go off!

  Many a time I have seen the Cossack or Uhlan fall from his saddle, and the horse rush back to the squadron with his bridle on his neck. The people would shout with joy; they would climb up on the ramparts and look down, and the gunner would rub his hands and say, “One more out of the way!”

  At other times these old men, with their ragged cloaks full of holes, would bet a couple of sous as to who should bring down this sentinel or that vidette, on the Mittelbronn or Bichelberg hill.

  It was so far that they needed good eyes to see the one they designated; but these men, accustomed to the sea, can discern everything as far as the eye can reach.

  “Come, Paradis, there he is!” one would say.

  “Yes, there he is! Lay down your two sous; there are mine!”

  And they would fire. They would go on as if it were a game of ninepins. God knows how many men they killed for the sake of their two sous. Every morning about nine o’clock I found these marines in my shop, drinking “to the Cossack,” as they said. The last drop they poured into their hands, to strengthen their nerves, and started off with rounded backs, calling out:

  “Hey! good-day, Father Moses! The kaiserlich is very well!”

  I do not think that I ever saw so many people in my life as in those months of January and February, 1814; they were like the locusts of Egypt! How the earth could produce so many people I could not comprehend.

  I was naturally greatly troubled on account of it, and the other citizens also, as I need not say; but our sergeant laughed and winked.

  “Look, Father Moses!” said he, pointing from Quatre-Vents to Bichelberg—“all these that are passing by, all that have passed, and all that are going to pass, are to enrich the soil of Champagne and Lorraine! The Emperor is down there, waiting for them in a good place—he will fall upon them! The thunder-bolt of Austerlitz, of Jena, of Wagram, is all ready—it can wait no longer! Then they will file back in retreat; but our armies will follow them, with our bayonets in their backs, and we shall go out from here, and flank them off. Not one shall escape. Their account is settled. And then will be the time for you to have old clothes and other things to sell, Father Moses! He! he! he! How fat you will grow!”