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

by Émile Erckmann

  Then I could not help sobbing and exclaiming:

  “Ah, tell me! What can I do? If I could give my life for my children, it would all be well! But what can I do?”

  “To-morrow, Father Moses, I will bring you my portion of meat, and you shall have soup made of it for your children. Madame Sorlé may take the piece at the market, or, if you prefer, I will bring it myself. You shall have all my portions of fresh meat till the blockade is over, Father Moses.”

  I was so moved by this, that I went to him and took his hand, saying:

  “Sergeant, you are a noble man! Forgive me, I have thought evil of you.”

  “What about?” said he, scowling.

  “About the landwehr at the tile-kiln!”

  “Ah, good! That is a different thing! I do not care about that,” said he. “If you knew all the kaiserlichs that I have despatched these ten years, you would have thought more evil of me. But that is not what we are talking about; you accept, Father Moses?”

  “And you, sergeant,” said I, “what will you have to eat?”

  “Do not be troubled about that; Sergeant Trubert has never been in want!”

  I wanted to thank him. “Good!” said he, “that is all understood. I cannot give you a pike, or a fat goose, but a good soup in blockade times is worth something, too.”

  He laughed and shook hands with me. As for myself I was quite overcome, and my eyes were full of tears.

  “Let us go; good-night!” said he, as he led me to the door. “It will all come out right! Tell Madame Sorlé that it will all come out right!”

  I blessed that man as I went out, and I told it all to Sorlé, who was still more affected by it than myself. We could not refuse; it was for the children! and during the last week there had been nothing but horse-meat in the market.

  So the next morning we had fresh meat to make soup for those poor little ones. But the dreadful malady was already upon us, Fritz! Now, when I think of it, after all these years, I am quite overcome. However, I cannot complain; before going to take the bit of meat, I had consulted our old rabbi about the quality of this meat according to the law, and he had replied:

  “The first law is to save Israel; but how can Israel be saved if the children perish?”

  But after a while I remembered that other law:

  “The life of the flesh is in the blood, therefore I said unto the children of Israel: Ye shall eat the blood of no manner of flesh, for the life of all flesh is the blood thereof; whosoever eateth it shall be cut off; and whosoever eateth of any sick beast shall be unclean.”

  In my great misery the words of the Lord came to me, and I wept.

  All these animals had been sick for six weeks; they lived in the mire, exposed to the snow and wind, between the arsenal and guard bastions.

  The soldiers, almost all of whom were sons of peasants, ought to have known that they could not live in the open air, in such cold weather; a shelter could easily have been made. But when officers take the whole charge, nobody else thinks of anything; they even forget their own village trades. And if, unfortunately, their commanders do not give the order, nothing is done.

  This is the reason that the animals had neither flesh nor fat; this is the reason that they were nothing but miserable, trembling carcasses, and their suffering, unhealthy flesh had become unclean, according to the law of God.

  Many of the soldiers died. The wind brought to the city the bad air from the bodies, scattered by hundreds around the tile-kiln, the Ozillo farm, and in the gardens, and this also caused much sickness.

  The justice of the Lord is shown in all things; when the living neglect their duties toward the dead, they perish.

  I have often remembered these things when it was too late, so that I think of them only with grief.

  CHAPTER XVIII

  DEATH OF LITTLE DAVID

  The most painful of all my recollections, Fritz, is the way in which that terrible disease came to our family.

  On the twelfth of March we heard of a large number of men, women, and children who were dying. We dared not listen; we said:

  “No one in our house is sick, the Lord watches over us!”

  After David had come, after supper, to cuddle in my arms, with his little hand on my shoulder, I looked at him; he seemed very drowsy, but children are always sleepy at night. Esdras was already asleep, and Sâfel had just bidden us good-night.

  At last Zeffen took the child, and we all went to bed.

  That night the Russians did not fire; perhaps the typhus was among them, too. I do not know.

  About midnight, when by God’s goodness we were asleep, I heard a terrible cry.

  I listened, and Sorlé said to me:

  “It is Zeffen!”

  I rose at once, and tried to light the lamp; but I was so much agitated that I could not find anything.

  Sorlé struck a light, I drew on my pantaloons and ran to the door. But I was hardly in the passage-way when Zeffen came out of her room like an insane person, with her long black hair all loose.

  “The child!” she screamed.

  Sorlé followed me. We went in, we leaned over the cradle. The two children seemed to be sleeping; Esdras all rosy, David as white as snow.

  At first I saw nothing, I was so frightened, but at last I took up David to waken him; I shook him, and called, “David!”

  And then we first saw that his eyes were open and fixed.

  “Wake him! wake him!” cried Zeffen.

  Sorlé took my hands and said:

  “Quick! make a fire! heat some water!”

  And we laid him across the bed, shaking him and calling him by name. Little Esdras began to cry.

  “Light a fire!” said Sorlé again to me. “And, Zeffen, be quiet! It does no good to cry so! Quick, quick, a fire!”

  But Zeffen cried out incessantly, “My poor child!”

  “He will soon be warm again,” said Sorlé; “only, Moses, make haste and dress yourself, and run for Doctor Steinbrenner.”

  She was pale and more alarmed than we, but this brave woman never lost her presence of mind or her courage. She had made a fire, and the fagots were crackling in the chimney.

  I ran to get my cloak, and went down, thinking to myself:

  “The Lord have mercy upon us! If the child dies I shall not survive him! No, he is the one that I love best, I could not survive him!”

  For you know, Fritz, that the child who is most unhappy, or in the greatest danger, is always the one that we love best; he needs us the most; we forget the others. The Lord has ordered it so, doubtless for the greatest good.

  I was already running in the street.

  A darker night was never known. The wind blew from the Rhine, the snow blew about like dust; here and there the lighted windows showed where people were watching the sick.

  My head was uncovered, yet I did not feel the cold. I cried within myself:

  “The last day had come! That day of which the Lord has said: ‘Afore the harvest, when the bud is perfect, and the sour grape is ripening in the flower, he shall both cut off the sprigs with pruning-hooks, and take away and cut down the branches.”

  Full of these fearful thoughts, I went across the large market-place, where the wind was tossing the old elms, full of frost.

  As the clock struck one, I pushed open Doctor Steinbrenner’s door; its large pulley rattled in the vestibule. As I was groping about, trying to find the railing, the servant appeared with a light at the top of the stairs.

  “Who is there?” she asked, holding the lantern before her.

  “Ah!” I replied, “tell the doctor to come immediately; we have a child sick, very sick.”

  I could not restrain my sobs.

  “Come up, Monsieur Moses,” said the girl: “the doctor has just come in, and has not gone to bed. Come up a moment and warm yourself!”

  But Father Steinbrenner had heard it all.

  “Very well, Theresa!” said he, coming out of his room; “keep the fire burning. I shall be bac
k in an hour at latest.”

  He had already put on his large three-cornered cap, and his goat’s-hair great-coat.

  We walked across the square without speaking. I went first; in a few minutes we ascended our stairs.

  Sorlé had placed a candle at the top of the stairs; I took it and led M. Steinbrenner to the baby’s room.

  All seemed quiet as we entered. Zeffen was sitting in an arm-chair behind the door, with her head on her knees, and her shoulders uncovered; she was no longer crying but weeping. The child was in bed. Sorlé, standing at its side, looked at us.

  The doctor laid his cap on the bureau.

  “It is too warm here,” said he, “give us a little air.”

  Then he went to the bed. Zeffen had risen from her chair, as pale as death. The doctor took the lamp, and looked at our poor little David; he raised the coverlet and lifted out the little round limbs; he listened to the breathing. Esdras having begun to cry, he turned round and said: “Take the other child away from this room—we must be quiet! and besides, the air of a sick-room is not good for such small children.”

  He gave me a side look. I understood what he meant to say. It was the typhus! I looked at my wife; she understood it all.

  I felt at that moment as if my heart were torn; I wanted to groan, but Zeffen was there leaning over, behind us, and I said nothing; nor did Sorlé.

  The doctor asked for paper to write a prescription, and we went out together. I led him to our room, and shut the door, and began to sob.

  “Moses,” said he, “you are a man, do not weep! Remember that you ought to set an example of courage to two poor women.”

  “Is there no hope?” I asked him in a low voice, afraid of being heard.

  “It is the typhus!” said he. “We will do what we can. There, that is the prescription; go to Tribolin’s; his boy is up at night now, and he will give you the medicine. Be quick! And then, in heaven’s name, take the other child out of that room, and your daughter too, if possible. Try to find some one out of the family, accustomed to sickness; the typhus is contagious.”

  I said nothing.

  He took his cap and went.

  Now what can I say more? The typhus is a disease engendered by death itself; the prophet speaks of it, when he says:

  “Hell from beneath is moved for thee, to meet thee at thy coming!”

  How many have I seen die of the typhus in our hospitals, on the Saverne hill, and elsewhere!

  When men tear each other to pieces, without mercy, why should not death come to help them? But what had this poor babe done that it must die so soon? This, Fritz, is the most dreadful thing, that all must suffer for the crimes of a few. Yes, when I think that my child died of this pestilence, which war had brought from the heart of Russia to our homes, and which ravaged all Alsace and Lorraine for six months, instead of accusing God, as the impious do, I accuse men. Has not God given them reason? And when they do not use it—when they let themselves rage against each other like brutes—is He to blame for it?

  But of what use are right ideas, when we are suffering!

  I remember that the sickness lasted for six days, and those were the cruelest days of my life. I feared for my wife, for my daughter, for Sâfel, for Esdras. I sat in a corner, listening to the babe’s breathing. Sometimes he seemed to breathe no longer. Then a chill passed over me; I went to him and listened. And when, by chance, Zeffen came, in spite of the doctor’s prohibition, I went into a sort of fury; I pushed her out by the shoulders, trembling.

  “But he is my child! He is my child!” she said.

  “And art thou not my child too?” said I. “I do not want you all to die!”

  Then I burst into tears, and fell into my chair, looking straight before me, my strength all gone; I was exhausted with grief.

  Sorlé came and went, with firm-closed lips; she prepared everything, and cared for everybody.

  At that time musk was the remedy for typhus; the house was full of musk. Often the idea seized me that Esdras, too, was going to be sick. Ah, if having children is the greatest happiness in the world, what agony is it to see them suffer! How fearful to think of losing them!—to be there, to hear their labored breathing, their delirium, to watch their sinking from hour to hour, from minute to minute, and to exclaim from the depths of the soul:

  “Death is near at hand! There is nothing, nothing more that can be done to save thee, my child! I cannot give thee my life! Death does not wish for it!”

  What heart-rending and what anguish, till the last moment when all is over!

  Then, Fritz, money, the blockade, the famine, the general desolation—all were forgotten. I hardly saw the sergeant open our door every morning, and look in, asking:

  “Well, Father Moses, well?”

  I did not know what he said; I paid no attention to him.

  But, what I always think of with pleasure, what I am always proud of, is that, in the midst of all this trouble, when Sorlé, Zeffen, myself, and everybody were beside ourselves, when we forgot all about our business, and let everything go, little Sâfel at once took charge of our shop. Every morning we heard him rise at six o’clock, go down, open, the warehouse, take up one or two pitchers of brandy, and begin to serve the customers.

  No one had said a word to him about it, but Sâfel had a genius for trade. And if anything could console a father in such troubles, it would be to see himself, as it were, living over again in so young a child, and to say to himself: “At least the good race is not extinct; it still remains to preserve common-sense in the world.” Yes, it is the only consolation which a man can have.

  Our schabesgoïé did the work in the kitchen, and old Lanche helped us watch, but Sâfel took the charge of the shop; his mother and I thought of nothing but our little David.

  He died in the night of the eighteenth of March, the day when the fire broke out in Captain Cabanier’s house.

  That same night two shells fell upon our house; the blindage made them roll into the court, where they both burst, shattering the laundry windows and demolishing the butcher’s door, which fell down at once with a fearful crash.

  It was the most powerful bombardment since the blockade began, for, as soon as the enemy saw the flame ascending, they fired from Mittelbronn, from the Barracks, and the Fiquet lowlands, to prevent its being extinguished.

  I stayed all the while with Sorlé, near the babe’s bed, and the noise of the bursting shells did not disturb us.

  The unhappy do not cling to life; and then the child was so sick! There were blue spots all over his body.

  The end was drawing near.

  I walked the room. Without they were crying “Fire! Fire!”

  People passed in the street like a torrent. We heard those returning from the fire telling the news, the engines hurrying by, the soldiers ranging the crowd in the line, the shells bursting at the right and left.

  Before our windows the long trails of red flame descended upon the roofs in front, and shattered the glass of the windows. Our cannon all around the city replied to the enemy. Now and then we heard the cry: “Room! Room!” as the wounded were carried away.

  Twice some pickets came up into my room to put me in the line, but, on seeing me sitting with Sorlé by our child, they went down again.

  The first shell burst at our house about eleven o’clock, the second at four in the morning; everything shook, from the garret to the cellar; the floor, the bed, the furniture seemed to be upheaved; but, in our exhaustion and despair, we did not speak a single word.

  Zeffen came running to us with Esdras and little Sâfel, at the first explosion. It was evident that little David was dying. Old Lanche and Sorlé were sitting, sobbing. Zeffen began to cry.

  I opened the windows wide, to admit the air, and the powder-smoke which covered the city came into the room.

  Sâfel saw at once that the hour was at hand. I needed only to look at him, and he went out, and soon returned by a side street, notwithstanding the crowd, with Kalmes the chanter, who be
gan to recite the prayer of the dying:

  “The Lord reigneth! The Lord reigneth! The Lord shall reign everywhere and forever!

  “Praise, everywhere and forever, the name of His glorious reign!

  “The Lord is God! The Lord is God! The Lord is God!

  “Hear, oh Israel, the Lord our God is one God!

  “Go, then, where the Lord calleth thee—go, and may His mercy help thee!

  “May the Lord, our God, be with thee; may His immortal angels lead thee to heaven, and may the righteous be glad when the Lord shall receive thee into His bosom!

  “God of mercy, receive this soul into the midst of eternal joys!”

  Sorlé and I repeated, weeping, those holy words. Zeffen lay as if dead, her arms extended across the bed, over the feet of her child. Her brother Sâfel stood behind her, weeping bitterly, and calling softly, “Zeffen! Zeffen!”

  But she did not hear; her soul was lost in infinite sorrows.

  Without, the cries of “Fire!” the orders for the engines, the tumult of the crowd, the rolling of the cannonade still continued; the flashes, one after another, lighted up the darkness.

  What a night, Fritz! What a night!

  Suddenly Sâfel, who was leaning over under the curtain, turned round to us in terror. My wife and I ran, and saw that the child was dead. We raised our hands, sobbing, to indicate it. The chanter ceased his psalm. Our David was dead!

  The most terrible thing was the mother’s cry! She lay, stretched out, as if she had fainted; but when the chanter leaned over and closed the lips, saying “Amen!” she rose, lifted the little one, looked at him, then, raising him above her head, began to run toward the door, crying out with a heart-rending voice:

  “Baruch! Baruch! save our child!”

  She was mad, Fritz! In this last terror I stopped her, and, by main force, took from her the little body which she was carrying away. And Sorlé, throwing her arms round her, with ceaseless groanings, Mother Lanche, the chanter, Sâfel, all led her away.

  I remained alone, and I heard them go down, leading away my daughter.

  How can a man endure such sorrows?

  I put David back in the bed and covered him, because of the open windows. I knew that he was dead, but it seemed to me as if he would be cold. I looked at him for a long time, so as to retain that beautiful face in my heart.