Taking the Bastile (4 page)

‘I will lay them to-morrow,’ said Pitou, ‘but it will only be the next morning that I shall know whether I have caught any.’

‘Well, be it so; but go and buy the wire.’

Brass wire was cheaper at Villers-Cotterftts than in the country, seeing that the grocers at Haramont purchased their supplies in the town; Pitou, therefore, bought wire enough for twenty-four snares for three sous. He took the remaining penny back to his aunt. This unexpected probity in her nephew almost touched the heart of the old maid. For a moment she had the idea, the intention, of bestowing upon her nephew the penny which he had not expended; unfortunately for Pitou, it was one that had been beaten out with a hammer, and which, in the dusk, might be passed for a two-sous piece. Mademoiselle Angelique thought it would never do to dispossess herself of a coin by which she could make cent, per cent., and she let it drop again into her pocket. Pitou had remarked

ANGE PITOU AT HIS AUNT’S 3

this hesitation, but had not analysed it; he never could have imagined that his aunt would give him a penny. He at once set to work to make his wires. The next day he asked his aunt for a bag.

‘What for?’ inquired Mademoiselle Angelique.

‘Because I want it,’ replied Pitou mysteriously.

Mademoiselle Angelique gave him the required bag, put into it the provision of bread and cheese which was to serve for breakfast and dinner to her nephew, who set out very early for the Bruyere-aux-Loups. As to Aunt Angelique, she set to work to pick the twelve redbreasts which she had destined for her own breakfast and dinner. She carried tw thrushes to the Abb Fortier, and sold the remaining four to the host of the Golden Ball, who paid her three sous apiece for them, promising her to take as many as she would bring him at the same price. Aunt Angelique returned home transported with joy. The blessing of heaven had entered beneath her roof with Ange Pitou.

In the evening Ange returned; his bag, which was magnificently rounded, he carried on his shoulders. On this occasion Aunt Angelique did not waylay him behind the door, but waited for him on the threshold, and instead of giving him a box on the ear, she received the lad with a grimace which very much resembled a smile.

‘Here I am I’ cried Pitou, on entering the room with all that firmness which denotes a conviction of having well employed one’s time.

‘You and your bag,’ said Aunt Angelique.

‘I and my bag,’ said Pitou.

‘And what have you in your bag?’ inquired Aunt Angelique, stretching forth her hand with curiosity.

‘ Beech-mast,’ said Pitou.

‘Beech-mast 1’

‘Undoubtedly; you must understand, Aunt Angelique, that if old Father la Jeunesse, the game keeper at the Bruyere-aux-Loups, had seen me prowling over his grounds without my bag, he would have said to me, ” What do you come here after, you little vagabond?’ while having my bag, were he to ask me what I was doing there, I should say to him, ” Why, I am come to gather mast is it forbidden to gather mast? ” ” No.” ” Well, then, if it is not forbidden, you have nothing to say.” And, indeed, should he say anything, Father la Jeunesse would be in the wrong.’

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“Then you have spent your whole day in gathering mast instead ot laying your wires, you idle fellow I’ exclaimed Aunt Angelique angrily, who, amidst all the cunning of her nephew, thought that the rabbits were escaping her.

‘On tile contrary, I laid my snares while gathering the mast, so that he saw me at work at it.’

‘ And did he aay nothing to you ? ‘

‘Oh, yes; he laid to me, you will present my compliments to your aunt, Pitou. Hey 1 la not Father la Jeunesoe a kind, good man?’

‘But the rabbits?’ again repeated the old devotee, whom nothing could divert from her fixed idea.

‘The rabbits ? Why, the moon will rise at midnight, and at one o’clock I will go and see if there are any caught.’

‘How I would yon go into the woods at one o’clock in the morning?’

‘To be sure.’

Angelique was as much astounded at Pitou’s courage as she had been astonished at his calculations. The fact is, that Pitou, as simple as a child of nature, knew nothing of those fictitious dangers which terrify children born in cities. Therefore at midnight he went his way, walking along the churchyard wall without once looking back. The innocent youth who had never offended, at least according to his idea* of independence, either God or man, feared not the dead more than he did the living.

There was only one portion of whom he felt any sort of apprehension, and this was Father la Jeunesse; and therefore did he take the precaution to go somewhat out of his way to pass by his house. As the doors and shutters were all closed, and there was no light to be perceived, Pitou, in order to assure himself that the keeper was really at home and not upon the watch, began to imitate the barking of a dog, and so perfectly that Ronflot, the keeper’s terrier, was deceived by it, and answered it by giving tongue with all his might, and by sniffing the air under the door. From that moment Pitou was perfectly reassured; aa Ronflot was at home. Father la Jeunesse must be there also; Ronnot and Father la Jeunesse were inseparable. Pitou, being perfectly satisfied of this fact, went on the Bruyere-aux-Loupe. The snares had done their work; two rabbits had been caught and strangled. Pitou put them into the capacious pocket of that coat.

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which, then too long for him. was destined within a year to become too short, and then returned to his aunt’s house. The old maid had gone to bed but her cupidity had kept her awake With nervous tr emulation she asked the boy what success he had had.

‘A couple, said he. ‘Ah I the deuce. Aunt Angelique, it is not my fault that I have not brought more, but it appears that Father Jeunesse’s rabbits are of a cunning sort.’

The hopes of Aunt Angelique were fulfilled, and even more. She seized, trembling with joy, the two unlucky quadrupeds and examined their skins, which had remained intact, and locked them up in her meat-safe, which never had seen such provisions as those it had contained since Pitou had hit upon the idea of supplying it. Two days after this Pitou renewed his attempts, and on this occasion was more fortunate than the first. He brought home three rabbits. Two of them took the road to the Golden Ball, and the third that of the presbytery. Aunt Angelique was very attentive to the Abbe Fortier, who on his side strongly recommended her to the pious souls of the parish.

Thing! went on in this manner during three or four months. Aunt Angelique was enchanted, and Pitou found his position somewhat supportable. In fact, with the exception of the tender cares of his mother, Pitou led nearly the same life at Villers-Cotterets which he had done at Haramont. But an unexpected circumstance, which, however, might have been foreseen, at once dashed to the ground the milk pitcher of the aunt, and put a stop to the excursions of the nephew. A letter had been received from Doctor Gilbert, dated from New York; the philosophic traveller had not forgotten his protege. He had written to Master Niguet, the notary, to inquire whether his instructions had oeen carried into effect, and to claim the execution of the agreement if they had not been, or to cancel it altogether, if the old aunt would not abide by her engagements. The case was a serious one; the responsibility of the public officer was at stake; he presented himself at the house of Aunt Pitou, and with the doctor’s letter in his hand, called upon her to perform the promise she had made. There was no backing out; all allegations as to ill-health were at once belied by the physical appearance of Pitou. Mademoiselle Angelique asked for a delay of eight days.

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in order to make up her mind as to the trade or occupation in which she should place her nephew. Pitou was quite as sorrowful as his aunt. The mode of lift he led appeared to him a very excellent one, and he did not desire any other.

As the day for the important decision approached, the temper of the old maid became more and more crabbed, and to such a degree that, about the fifth day, Pitou sincerely desired that his aunt would immediately decide upon some trade, be it what it might, provided it should no longer be that of the scolded drudge which he had been filling in the old maid’s house. Suddenly a sublime idea struck the mind of the old woman who had been so cruelly agitated. This idea restored her equanimity, which for six days had altogether abandoned her. This idea consisted in entreating the Abbe Fortier to receive into his school, and this without any remuneration whatever, poor Pitou, and enable him to obtain the purse for entering the seminary, founded by his highness the Duke of Orleans. This was an apprenticeship which would cost Aunt Angelique nothing; and M. Fortier, without taking into calculation the thrushes, blackbirds, and rabbits with which the old devotee had so abundantly supplied him for the last month, was bound to do something, more than for any other, for the nephew of the chair-letter of his own church.

Consequently, Ange was received into the Abbe Fortier’s school, without any charge for his education. This abbe was a worthy man, and not in any way interested, giving his knowledge to the poor in mind, and his money to the poor in body. He was, however, intractable on one single point : solecisms rendered him altogether furious, barbarisms would send him almost out of his mind; on these occasions he considered neither friends nor foes, neither poor nor rich, nor paying pupils, nor gratuitous scholars. This was well known to the parents, and it was for them to decide whether they would or would not send their sons to the Abbe Fortier’s school. If they did send them there, they knew they must abandon them entirely to his mercy, for when any maternal complaint was made to him, tile abbe always replied to it by this device, which he had engraved on the handle of his cane, and on that of his cat-o’-nine-tails, ‘ Who loves well chastises well.’

Upon the recommendation of his aunt, Ange Pitou

ANGE PITOU AT HIS AUNT’S 29

was therefore received by the Abb6 Fortier. The old devotee, quite proud of this reception, presented herself to Master Niguet, and told him that she had not only conformed to her agreement with Dr Gilbert, but had even gone beyond it. In fact, Dr Gilbert had demanded for Ange Pitou an honourable means of living, and she gave him much more than this, since she gave him an excellent education. And where was it that she gave him this education? Why, in the very academy in which Sebastian Gilbert had received his, and for which Master Niguet, by the doctor’s orders, paid fifty livres per month. It was indeed true that Ange Pitou received his education gratis; but there was no necessity whatever for letting Dr Gilbert into this secret.

The new scholar made his entrance into the schoolroom with an old trunk under his arm, a horn inkstand in his hand, and two or three stumps of pens stuck behind his ears. The old trunk was intended to supply, as it best migjht, the absence of a regular desk. The inkstand was a gift from the grocer, and Mademoiselle Angelique had picked up the stumps of pens at M. Niguet, the notary’s, when she had paid him a visit the evening before. Ange Pitou was welcomed with that fraternal gentleness which is born in children and perpetuated in grown men, that is to say, with hootings. The whole time devoted to the morning class was passed in making game of him. Two of the scholars were kept for laughing at his yellow hair, and two others for ridiculing his marvellous knees, of which we have already slightly made mention. The two latter had said that Pitou’s legs looked like a well rope in which a knot had been tied. This jest was attended with great success, had gone round the room and excited general hilarity, and consequently the susceptibility of the Abbe Fortier. Therefore, the account being made up at noon when about to leave the school, that is to say, after having remained four hours in class, Pitou, without having addressed a single word to any one, without having done anything but gape behind his trunk, Pitou had made six enemies in the school.

Pitou was altogether ignorant of their hostile feelings. As he was going out he asked a boy near him, why six of their comrades remained in school, when all the rest were leaving it. The boy looked askance at Pitou; called him a shabby tale-bearer, and went away, unwilling

30 TAKING THE BASTILLE

to enter into conversation with him. Pltou asked himself how it could have happened that he, not having uttered a single word during the whole time, could be called a shabby tale-bearer. But while the clasa had laated he had heard so many things said, either by the pupils or by the Abbe Fortier, which he could in no way comprehend, that he classed thin accusation of his schoolfellow with those things which were too elevated for him to understand.

The new scholar returned to school at one o’clock without too much repugnance. The hours of study in the morning had been passed by the pupils in examining the physical appearance of Pi too; those of the afternoon were employed by the professor in examining his moral capa-bilities. This examination being made, the Abbe Fortier remained convinced that Pitou had every possible disposition to become a Robinson Crusoe, but very little chance of ever becoming a Fontenelle or a Bonnet. During the whole time that the class lasted, and which was much more fatiguing to the future seminarist than that of the morning, the scholars who had been punished on account of him repeatedly held op their fists to him. In all countries, whether blessed with civilisation or not, this demonstration is considered as a sign of threat. Pitou therefore determined to be on his guard. Our hero was not mistaken. On leaving, or rather when he had left, and got clear away from all the dependencies of the collegiate house, it was notified to Pitou, before the six scholars who had been kept in the morning, that he would have to pay for the two hours of arbitrary detention, with damages, interest, and capital. Pitou at once understood that he would have to fight a pugilistic duel. He knew something of this species of recreation, to which the country people in his village were not altogether strangers. He therefore declared that he was ready to enter the lists with either of his adversaries who might wish to begin, and to combat, successively, with all his six enemies. This demonstration began to raise the last comer in the consideration otf his schoolfellows. The conditions were agreed on as Pitou had proposed. A circle was soon formed round the place of combat, and the champions, the one having thrown ofl his jacket, the other his coat, advanced towards each other.