XXIII
A DESCENT INTO THE ENFER DU PLOGOFF--MY FIRST APPEARANCE AS PHeDRE--THE DECORATION OF MY NEW MANSION
After the death of my sister I fell seriously ill. I had tended her day and night, and this, in addition to the grief I was suffering, made me anaemic. I was ordered to the South for two months. I promised to go to Mentone, and I turned immediately towards Brittany, the country of my dreams.
I had with me my little boy, my steward and his wife. My poor Guerard, who had helped me to tend my sister, was in bed ill with phlebitis. I would much have liked to have her with me.
Oh, the lovely holiday that we had there! Thirty-five years ago Brittany was wild, inhospitable, but as beautiful--perhaps more beautiful than at present, for it was not furrowed with roads; its green slopes were not dotted with small white villas; its inhabitants--the men--were not dressed in the abominable modern trousers, and the women did not wear miserable little hats with feathers. No! The Bretons proudly displayed their well-shaped legs in gaiters or rough stockings, their feet shod with buckled shoes; their long hair was brought down on the temples, hiding any awkward ears and giving to the face a n.o.bility which the modern style does not admit of. The women, with their short skirts, which showed their slender ankles in black stockings, and with their small heads under the wings of the headdress, resembled sea-gulls. I am not speaking, of course, of the inhabitants of Pont l"Abbe or of Bourg de Batz, who have entirely different aspects.
I visited nearly the whole of Brittany, but made my chief stay at Finistere. The Pointe du Raz enchanted me. I remained twelve days at Audierne, in the house of Father Batifoule, who was so big and so fat that they had been obliged to cut a piece out of the table to let in his immense abdomen. I set out every morning at ten o"clock. My steward Claude himself prepared my lunch, which he packed up very carefully in three little baskets, then climbing into the comical vehicle of Father Batifoule, my little boy driving, we set out for the Baie des Trepa.s.ses.
Ah, that beautiful and mysterious sh.o.r.e, all bristling with rocks! The lighthouse keeper would be looking out for me, and would come to meet me. Claude gave him my provisions, with a thousand recommendations as to the manner of cooking the eggs, warming up the lentils, and toasting the bread. He carried off everything, then returned with two old sticks in which he had stuck nails to make them into picks, and we commenced the terrifying ascent of the Pointe du Raz, a kind of labyrinth full of disagreeable surprises, of creva.s.ses across which we had to jump over the gaping and roaring abyss, of arches and tunnels through which we had to crawl on all fours, having overhead--touching us even--a rock which had fallen there in unknown ages and was only held in equilibrium by some inexplicable cause. Then all at once the path became so narrow that it was impossible to walk straight forward; we had to turn and put our backs against the cliff and advance with both arms spread out and fingers holding on to the few asperities of the rock.
When I think of what I did in those moments, I tremble, for I have always been, and still am, subject to dizziness; and I went over this path along a steep precipitous rock, 30 metres high, in the midst of the infernal noise of the sea, at this place eternally furious, and which raged fearfully against this indestructible cliff. And I must have taken a mad pleasure in it, for I accomplished this journey five times in eleven days.
After this challenge thrown down to reason we descended, and installed ourselves in the Baie des Trepa.s.ses. After a bath we had lunch, and I painted till sunset.
The first day there was n.o.body there. The second day a child came to look at us. The third day about ten children stood around asking for sous. I was foolish enough to give them some, and the following day there were twenty or thirty boys, some of them from sixteen to eighteen years old. Seeing near my easel something not particularly agreeable, I begged one of them to take it away and throw it into the sea, and for that I gave, I think, fifty centimes. When I came back the following day to finish my painting the whole population of the neighbouring village had chosen this place to relieve their corporal necessities, and as soon as I arrived the same boys, but in increased numbers, offered, if properly paid, to take away what they had put there.
I had the ugly band routed by Claude and the lighthouse keeper, and as they took to throwing stones at us, I pointed my gun at the little group. They fled howling. Only two boys, of six and ten years of age, remained there. We did not take any notice of them, and I installed myself a little farther on, sheltered by a rock which kept the wind away. The two boys followed. Claude and the keeper Lucas were on the look out to see that the band did not come back.
They were stooping down over the extreme point of the rock which was above our heads. They seemed peaceful, when suddenly my young maid jumped up: "Horrors! Madame! Horrors! They are throwing lice down on us!" And in fact the two little good-for-nothings had been for the last hour searching for all the vermin they could find on themselves, and throwing it on us.
I had the two little beggars caught, and they got a well-deserved correction.
There was a creva.s.se which was called the "Enfer du Plogoff." I had a wild desire to go down this creva.s.se, but the guardian dissuaded me, constantly giving as objections the danger of slipping, and his fear of responsibility in case of accident. I persisted nevertheless in my intention, and after a thousand promises, in addition to a certificate to testify that, notwithstanding the supplications of the guardian and the certainty of the danger that I ran, I had persisted all the same, &c., and after having made a small present of ten louis to the good fellow, I obtained facilities for descending the Enfer du Plogoff--that is to say, a wide belt to which a strong rope was fastened. I buckled this belt round my waist, which was then so slender--43 centimetres--that it was necessary to make additional holes in order to fasten it.
Then the guardian put on each of my hands a wooden shoe the sole of which was bordered with big nails jutting out two centimetres. I stared at these wooden shoes, and asked for an explanation before putting them on.
"Well," said the guardian Lucas, "when I let you down, as you are no fatter than a herring bone, you will get shaken about in the creva.s.se, and will risk breaking your bones, while if you have the "sabots" on your hands you can protect yourself against the walls by putting out your arms to the right and the left, according as you are shaken up against them. I do not say that you will not have a few bangs, but that is your own fault; you will go. Now listen, my little lady. When you are at the bottom, on the rock in the middle, mind you don"t slip, for that is the most dangerous of all; if you fall in the water I will pull the rope, for sure, but I don"t answer for anything. In that cursed whirlpool of water you might be caught between two stones, and it would be no use for me to pull: I should break the rope, and that would be all."
Then the man grew pale and made the sign of the cross; he leaned towards me, murmuring in a dreamy voice, "It is the shipwrecked ones who are there under the stones, down there. It is they who dance in the moonlight on the "sh.o.r.e of the dead." It is they who put the slippery sea-weed on the little rock down there, in order to make travellers slip, and then they drag them to the bottom of the sea." Then, looking me in the eyes, he said, "Will you go down all the same?"
"Yes, certainly, Pere Lucas; I will go down at once."
My little boy was building forts and castles on the sand with Felicie.
Only Claude was with me. He did not say a word, knowing my unbridled desire to meet danger. He looked to see if the belt was properly fastened, and asked my permission to tie the tongue of the belt to the belt itself; then he pa.s.sed a strong cord several times around to strengthen the leather, and I was let down, suspended by the rope in the blackness of the creva.s.se. I extended my arms to the right and the left, as the guardian had told me to do, and even then I got my elbows sc.r.a.ped. At first I thought that the noise I heard was the reverberation of the echo of the blows of the wooden shoes against the edges of the creva.s.se, but suddenly a frightful din filled my ears: successive firings of cannons, strident ringings, crackings of a whip, plaintive howls, and repeated monotonous cries as of a hundred fishermen drawing up a net filled with fish, sea-weed, and pebbles. All the noises mingled under the mad violence of the wind. I became furious with myself, for I was really afraid.
The lower I went, the louder the howlings became in my ears and my brain, and my heart beat the order of retreat. The wind swept through the narrow tunnel and blew in all directions round my legs, my body, my neck. A horrible fear took possession of me.
I descended slowly, and at each little shock I felt that the four hands holding me above had come to a knot. I tried to remember the number of knots, for it seemed to me that I was making no progress.
Then I opened my mouth to call out, "Draw me up!" but the wind, which danced in mad folly around me, filled my mouth and drove back the words.
I was nearly suffocated. Then I shut my eyes and ceased to struggle. I would not even put out my arms. A few instants after I pulled up my legs in unspeakable terror. The sea had just seized them in a brutal embrace which had wet me through. However, I recovered courage, for now I could see clearly. I stretched out my legs, and found myself upright on the little rock. It is true it was very slippery.
I took hold of a large ring fixed in the vault which overhung the rock, and I looked round. The long and narrow creva.s.se grew suddenly wider at its base, and terminated in a large grotto which looked out over the open sea; but the entrance of this grotto was protected by a quant.i.ty of both large and small rocks, which could be seen for a distance of a league in front on the surface of the water--which explains the terrible noise of the sea dashing into the labyrinth and the possibility of standing upright on a stone, as the Bretons say, with the wild dance of the waves all around.
However, I saw very plainly that a false step might be fatal in the brutal whirl of waters, which came rushing in from afar with dizzy speed and broke against the insurmountable obstacle, and in receding dashed against other waves which followed them. From this cause proceeded the perpetual fusillade of waters which rushed into the creva.s.se without danger of drowning me.
It now began to grow dark, and I experienced a fearful anguish in discovering on the crest of a little rock two enormous eyes, which looked fixedly at me. Then a little farther, near a tuft of seaweed, two more of these fixed eyes. I saw no body to these beings--nothing but the eyes. I thought for a minute that I was losing my senses, and I bit my tongue till the blood came; then I pulled violently at the rope, as I had agreed to do in order to give the signal for being drawn up. I felt the trembling joy of the four hands pulling me, and my feet lost their hold as I was hauled up by my guardians. The eyes were lifted up also, uneasy at seeing me depart. And while I mounted through the air I saw nothing but eyes everywhere--eyes throwing out long feelers to reach me.
I had never seen an octopus, and I did not even know of the existence of these horrible beasts.
During the ascent, which appeared to me interminable, I imagined I saw these beasts along the walls, and my teeth were chattering when I was drawn out on to the green hillock.
I immediately told the guardian the cause of my terror, and he crossed himself, saying, "Those are the eyes of the shipwrecked ones. No one must stay there!"
I knew very well that they were not the eyes of shipwrecked ones, but I did not know what they were. For I thought I had seen some strange beasts that no one had ever seen before.
It was only at the hotel with Pere Batifoule that I learnt about the octopus.
Only five more days" holiday were left to me, and I pa.s.sed them at the Pointe du Raz, seated in a niche of rock which has been since named "Sarah Bernhardt"s Arm-chair." Many tourists have sat there since.
After my holiday I returned to Paris. But I was still very weak, and could only take up my work towards the month of November. I played all the pieces of my _repertoire_, and I was annoyed at not having any new _roles_.
One day Perrin came to see me in my sculptor"s studio. He began to talk at first about my busts; he told me that I ought to do his medallion, and asked me incidentally if I knew the _role_ of Phedre. Up to that time I had only played Aricie, and the part of Phedre seemed formidable to me. I had, however, studied it for my own pleasure.
"Yes, I know the _role_ of Phedre. But I think if ever I had to play it I should die of fright."
He laughed with his silly little laugh, and said to me, squeezing my hand (for he was very gallant), "Work it up. I think that you will play it."
In fact, eight days after I was called to the manager"s office, and Perrin told me that he had announced _Phedre_ for December 21, the _fete_ of Racine, with Mlle. Sarah Bernhardt in the part of Phedre. I thought I should have fallen.
"Well, but what about Mademoiselle Rousseil?" I asked.
"Mademoiselle Rousseil wants the committee to promise that she shall become a Societaire in the month of January, and the committee, which will without doubt appoint her, refuses to make this promise, and declares that her demand is like a threat. But perhaps Mademoiselle Rousseil will change her plans, and in that case you will play Aricie and I will change the bill."
Coming out from Perrin"s I ran up against M. Regnier. I told him of my conversation with the manager and of my fears.
"No, no," said the great artiste to me, "you must not be afraid! I see very well what you are going to make of this _role_. But all you have to do is to be careful and not force your voice. Make the _role_ rather more sorrowful than furious--it will be better for every one, even Racine."
Then, joining my hands, I said, "Dear Monsieur Regnier, help me to work up Phedre I shall not be so much afraid!"
He looked at me rather surprised, for in general I was neither docile nor apt to be guided by advice. I own that I was wrong, but I could not help it. But the responsibility which this put upon me made me timid.
Regnier accepted, and made an appointment with me for the following morning at nine o"clock.
Roselia Rousseil persisted in her demand to the committee, and _Phedre_ was billed for December 21, with Mlle. Sarah Bernhardt for the first time in the _role_ of Phedre.
This caused quite a sensation in the artistic world and in theatrical circles. That evening over two hundred people were turned away at the box office. When I was informed of the fact I began to tremble a good deal.
Regnier comforted me as best he could, saying, "Courage! Cheer up! Are you not the spoiled darling of the public? They will take into consideration your inexperience in important leading parts," &c.
These were the last words he should have said to me. I should have felt stronger if I had known that the public were come to oppose and not to encourage me.
I began to cry bitterly like a child. Perrin was called, and consoled me as well as he could; then he made me laugh by putting powder on my face so awkwardly that I was blinded and suffocated.
Everybody on the stage knew about it, and stood at the door of my dressing-room wishing to comfort me, Mounet-Sully, who was playing Hippolyte, told me that he had dreamed "we were playing _Phedre_, and you were hissed; and my dreams always go by contraries--so," he cried, "we shall have a tremendous success."