"I say she is dead."
"You do right; it is as if I were, for I renounce you, dastard! Your brother is at the galleys; your grandfather and your father finished their lives daringly on the scaffold, mocking the priest and the executioner! Instead of avenging them you tremble!"
"Avenging them?"
"Yes, by showing yourself a real Martial, spitting at the headsman"s knife and the red ca.s.sock, and ending like father, mother, brother, sister--"
Accustomed as he was to the savage excitement of his mother, Martial could not forbear shuddering. The countenance of the widow as she uttered the last words was fearful. She continued, with increasing wrath:
"Oh, coward! and even worse than coward! You wish to be honest! Honest?
Why, won"t you ever be despised, repulsed, as the son of an a.s.sa.s.sin or the brother of a felon? But you, instead of rousing your revenge and wrath, this makes you frightened! Instead of biting, you run away! When they guillotined your father, you left us,--coward! And you knew we could not leave the island to go into the city, because they call after us, and pelt us with stones, like mad dogs. Oh, they shall pay for it, I can tell you,--they shall pay for it!"
"A man?--ten men would not make me afraid! But to be called after by all the world as the son and brother of criminals! Well, I could not endure it. I preferred going into the woods and poaching with Pierre, who sells game."
"Why didn"t you remain in the woods?"
"I returned because I got into trouble with a keeper, and besides on the children"s account, because they are of an age to take to evil from example."
"And what is that to you?"
"To me? Why, I will not allow them to become depraved like Ambroise, Nicholas, and Calabash."
"Indeed!"
"And if they were left with you, then they would not fail to become so.
I went apprentice to try and gain a livelihood, so that I might take them into my own care and leave the island with the children; but in Paris everything was known, and it was always, "You son of the guillotined!" or, "You brother of the felon!" I had battles daily, and I grew tired of it."
"But you didn"t grow tired of being honest,--that answered so well!
Instead of having the pluck to come to us, and do as we do,--as the children will do, in spite of you,--yes, in spite of you! You think to cajole them with your preaching! But we are always here. Francois is already one of us, or nearly. Let the occasion serve, and he"ll be one of the band."
"I tell you, no!"
"You will see,--yes! I know what I say. He has vice in him; but you spoil him. As to Amandine, as soon as she is fifteen she will begin on her own account! Ah, they throw stones at us! Ah, they pursue us like mad dogs! They shall see what our family is made of! Except you, dastard; for here you are the only one who brings down shame upon us!"[5]
[5] These frightful facts are, unfortunately, not exaggerated.
The following is from the admirable report of M. de Bretigneres on the Penitentiary Colony of Mettray (March 12, 1843):
"The civil condition of our colonists it is important to state. Amongst them we count thirty-two natural children; thirty-four whose fathers and mothers are re-married; fifty-one whose parents are in prison; 124 whose parents have not been pursued by justice, but are in the utmost distress. These figures are eloquent, and full of instruction. They allow us to go from effects to causes, and give us the hope of arresting the progress of an evil whose origin is thus arrived at. The number of parents who are criminals enable us to appreciate the education which the children have received under the tutelage of such instructors.
Taught evil by their fathers, the sons have become wicked by their orders, and have believed they were acting properly in following their example. Arrested by the hand of the law, they resign themselves to share the destiny of their family in prison, to which they only bring the emulation of vice; and it is absolutely necessary that a ray of divine light should still exist within these rude and coa.r.s.e natures, in order that all the germs of honesty should not be utterly destroyed."
"That"s a pity!"
"And as you may be spoiled amongst us, why, to-morrow you shall leave this place, and never return to it."
Martial looked at his mother with surprise, then, after a moment"s silence, said, "Was it for this that you tried to get up a quarrel with me at supper?"
"Yes, to show you what you might expect if you would stay here in spite of us,--a h.e.l.l upon earth,--I tell you, a h.e.l.l! Every day a quarrel and blows--struggles. And we shall not be alone as we were this, evening; we shall have friends who will help us. And you will not hold out for a week."
"Do you think to frighten me?"
"I only tell you what will happen."
"I don"t heed it. I shall stay!"
"You will stay?"
"Yes."
"In spite of us?"
"In spite of you, of Calabash, of Nicholas, and all blackguards like him."
"Really, you make me laugh."
From the lips of this woman, with her repulsive and ferocious look, these words were horrible.
"I tell you I will remain here until I find the means of gaining my livelihood elsewhere with the children. Alone, I should not long be unemployed, for I could return to the woods; but, on their account, I may be some time in finding what I am seeking for. In the meanwhile, here I remain."
"Oh, you remain until the moment when you can take away the children?"
"Exactly as you say."
"Take away the children?"
"When I say to them "Come!" they will come; and quickly too, I promise you."
The widow shrugged her shoulders, and replied:
"Listen! I told you a short time since that, even if you were to live for a hundred years, you should recollect this night. I will explain those words. But, before I do so, have you quite made up your mind?"
"Yes! Yes! Yes! A thousand times over, yes!"
"In a little while, however, you will say "No! No! No! A thousand times, no!" Listen to me attentively! Do you know the trade your brother follows?"
"I have my suspicions; but I do not wish to know."
"You shall know. He steals!"
"So much the worse for him!"
"And for you!"
"For me?"
"He commits robberies at night, with forcible entry,--burglary; a case of the galleys. We receive what he plunders. If we are discovered, we shall be sentenced to the same punishment as he is, as receivers, and you too. They will sweep away the whole family, and the children will be turned out into the streets, where they will learn the trade of their father and grandfather as well as here."
"I apprehended as a receiver,--as your accomplice? Where"s the proofs?"