travels with a donkey in the cevennes-第5章
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'It is just that;' said I。
'You see;' she added to her husband; 'I understood that。'
They were both much interested by the story of my misadventures。
'In the morning;' said the husband; 'I will make you something
better than your cane。 Such a beast as that feels nothing; it is
in the proverb … DUR COMME UN ANE; you might beat her insensible
with a cudgel; and yet you would arrive nowhere。'
Something better! I little knew what he was offering。
The sleeping…room was furnished with two beds。 I had one; and I
will own I was a little abashed to find a young man and his wife
and child in the act of mounting into the other。 This was my first
experience of the sort; and if I am always to feel equally silly
and extraneous; I pray God it be my last as well。 I kept my eyes
to myself; and know nothing of the woman except that she had
beautiful arms; and seemed no whit embarrassed by my appearance。
As a matter of fact; the situation was more trying to me than to
the pair。 A pair keep each other in countenance; it is the single
gentleman who has to blush。 But I could not help attributing my
sentiments to the husband; and sought to conciliate his tolerance
with a cup of brandy from my flask。 He told me that he was a
cooper of Alais travelling to St。 Etienne in search of work; and
that in his spare moments he followed the fatal calling of a maker
of matches。 Me he readily enough divined to be a brandy merchant。
I was up first in the morning (Monday; September 23rd); and
hastened my toilette guiltily; so as to leave a clear field for
madam; the cooper's wife。 I drank a bowl of milk; and set off to
explore the neighbourhood of Bouchet。 It was perishing cold; a
grey; windy; wintry morning; misty clouds flew fast and low; the
wind piped over the naked platform; and the only speck of colour
was away behind Mount Mezenc and the eastern hills; where the sky
still wore the orange of the dawn。
It was five in the morning; and four thousand feet above the sea;
and I had to bury my hands in my pockets and trot。 People were
trooping out to the labours of the field by twos and threes; and
all turned round to stare upon the stranger。 I had seen them
coming back last night; I saw them going afield again; and there
was the life of Bouchet in a nutshell。
When I came back to the inn for a bit of breakfast; the landlady
was in the kitchen combing out her daughter's hair; and I made her
my compliments upon its beauty。
'Oh no;' said the mother; 'it is not so beautiful as it ought to
be。 Look; it is too fine。'
Thus does a wise peasantry console itself under adverse physical
circumstances; and; by a startling democratic process; the defects
of the majority decide the type of beauty。
'And where;' said I; 'is monsieur?'
'The master of the house is upstairs;' she answered; 'making you a
goad。'
Blessed be the man who invented goads! Blessed the innkeeper of
Bouchet St。 Nicolas; who introduced me to their use! This plain
wand; with an eighth of an inch of pin; was indeed a sceptre when
he put it in my hands。 Thenceforward Modestine was my slave。 A
prick; and she passed the most inviting stable door。 A prick; and
she broke forth into a gallant little trotlet that devoured the
miles。 It was not a remarkable speed; when all was said; and we
took four hours to cover ten miles at the best of it。 But what a
heavenly change since yesterday! No more wielding of the ugly
cudgel; no more flailing with an aching arm; no more broadsword
exercise; but a discreet and gentlemanly fence。 And what although
now and then a drop of blood should appear on Modestine's mouse…
coloured wedge…like rump? I should have preferred it otherwise;
indeed; but yesterday's exploits had purged my heart of all
humanity。 The perverse little devil; since she would not be taken
with kindness; must even go with pricking。
It was bleak and bitter cold; and; except a cavalcade of stride…
legged ladies and a pair of post…runners; the road was dead
solitary all the way to Pradelles。 I scarce remember an incident
but one。 A handsome foal with a bell about his neck came charging
up to us upon a stretch of common; sniffed the air martially as one
about to do great deeds; and suddenly thinking otherwise in his
green young heart; put about and galloped off as he had come; the
bell tinkling in the wind。 For a long while afterwards I saw his
noble attitude as he drew up; and heard the note of his bell; and
when I struck the high…road; the song of the telegraph…wires seemed
to continue the same music。
Pradelles stands on a hillside; high above the Allier; surrounded
by rich meadows。 They were cutting aftermath on all sides; which
gave the neighbourhood; this gusty autumn morning; an untimely
smell of hay。 On the opposite bank of the Allier the land kept
mounting for miles to the horizon: a tanned and sallow autumn
landscape; with black blots of fir…wood and white roads wandering
through the hills。 Over all this the clouds shed a uniform and
purplish shadow; sad and somewhat menacing; exaggerating height and
distance; and throwing into still higher relief the twisted ribbons
of the highway。 It was a cheerless prospect; but one stimulating
to a traveller。 For I was now upon the limit of Velay; and all
that I beheld lay in another county … wild Gevaudan; mountainous;
uncultivated; and but recently disforested from terror of the
wolves。
Wolves; alas; like bandits; seem to flee the traveller's advance;
and you may trudge through all our comfortable Europe; and not meet
with an adventure worth the name。 But here; if anywhere; a man was
on the frontiers of hope。 For this was the land of the ever…
memorable BEAST; the Napoleon Bonaparte of wolves。 What a career
was his! He lived ten months at free quarters in Gevaudan and
Vivarais; he ate women and children and 'shepherdesses celebrated
for their beauty'; he pursued armed horsemen; he has been seen at
broad noonday chasing a post…chaise and outrider along the king's
high…road; and chaise and outrider fleeing before him at the
gallop。 He was placarded like a political offender; and ten
thousand francs were offered for his head。 And yet; when he was
shot and sent to Versailles; behold! a common wolf; and even small
for that。 'Though I could reach from pole to pole;' sang Alexander
Pope; the Little Corporal shook Europe; and if all wolves had been
as this wolf; they would have changed the history of man。 M。 Elie
Berthet has made him the hero of a novel; which I have read; and do
not wish to read again。
I hurried over my lunch; and was proof against the landlady's
desire that I should visit our Lady of Pradelles; 'who performed
many miracles; although she was of wood'; and before three…quarters
of an hour I was goading Modestine down the steep descent that
leads to Langogne on the Allier。 On both sides of the road; in big
dusty fields; farmers were preparing for next spring。 Every fifty
yards a yoke of great…necked stolid oxen were patiently haling at
the plough。 I saw one of these mild formidable servants of the
glebe; who took a sudden interest in Modestine and me。 The furrow
down which he was journeying lay at an angle to the road; and his
head was solidly fixed to the yoke like those of caryatides below a
ponderous cornice; but he screwed round his big honest eyes and
followed us with a ruminating look; until his master bade him turn
the plough and proceed to reascend the field。 From all these
furrowing ploughshares; from the feet of oxen; from a labourer here
and there who was breaking the dry clods with a hoe; the wind
carried away a thin dust like so much smoke。 It was a fine; busy;
breathing; rustic landscape; and as I continued to descend; the
highlands of Gevaudan kept mounting in front of m