The Rebellion in the Cevennes/Volume 2/Chapter II
CHAPTER II.
They proceeded with the troop in silence. In order to elude the king’s soldiers, who were in the neighbourhood, they were compelled to make a circuit. Catinat with his band conducted the prisoners that they might be delivered up to Roland, to pronounce sentence on them in the lonely mountains, and Cavalier and Edmond separated from their companions in order to reach the distant height by a footpath. through the wood.
They walked together in silence for a long time. In Edmond’s mind all that had appeared to him solid was by the late crowding events thrown confusedly together. The wound and the weakness that it occasioned, the wandering in the night and the emotions which alternately shook him, had at first wonderfully raised his mental and physical strength, and now almost entirely exhausted it. As they advanced farther into the obscurity of the wood, he thought of himself and his concerns as of a stranger; what he had experienced, what desired and effected flitted in his memory as a strange tale of by-gone times, and Cavalier appeared either to respect his silence, or to be himself too much occupied with weighty thoughts to require any conversation. On issuing from the wood, the light of the moon broke forth from behind heavy, lowering clouds. As the silvery light with its calm brightness spread over the rocks, the venerable head of his father presented itself to the imagination of the youth, and a refreshing and reviving flood of tears gushed from his eyes. He turned to his companion to excuse his long protracted silence.
"Brother," replied the latter, "the spirit has also visited me and shewn me visions in which I viewed a consoling futurity. Oh that that, which I know will and must take place, would soon happen, to spare the blood and sorrow of the poor people."
"What has been revealed to thee beloved brother," asked Edmond.
They seated themselves on a flat piece of rock which bordered on a precipice, and Cavalier began: "I imagined myself transported far, far from hence, beyond our mountains, our plains and rivers. I quitted my native mountains reluctantly. I saw foreign cities, I heard the various tones of different men. As I was carried away through the immensity of space, a beautiful, a very beautiful garden opened to my view, many cascades were throwing their waters up in the warm summer air, and beneath them there were strange figures of men and fish, and naked women, and marine animals, artificially hewn out of brilliant stone, every thing, such as I had never before seen, and I know not if I ever heard of them. A large and very extensive palace shone and dazzled with its innumerable columns and windows. While I was viewing all in amazement, I suddenly felt a conviction that I should immediately see our king, our Louis, descend from the great steps before which I stood, that I should speak to him, that he had already been waiting for me; and thus it happened, in all the splendour of majesty, surrounded by his whole court, he descended. He did not embarrass me, it was merely dazzling, as when the sun upon his journey suddenly darts through a vapour, and we still retain and know all our ideas and purposes. Now then was the moment upon which the fate of our country hung, in which to say all to him, who had requested to speak to me, and to move his humane, his kingly heart. This hour will come, in which the salvation of many, many thousands will repose on my tongue, and the Lord will then lay his fiery flame upon it, that its brand may also light his spirit; then will our brethren and our faith be free, then will all our foes fall powerless to the ground, and the sword be no more required; I will pray that this glorious day may only soon arrive, soon be sent by the Lord; that there may be an end to this unhappy warfare. When, just as I intended to address the King, we issued from the wood, thou spakest to me, and the prophetic vision disappeared." "How camest thou lately, my friend and brother, into our house?" asked Edmond, "a multiplicity of events has prevented me until this moment from asking you about it."
"That was a very, very disastrous day," replied Cavalier, as they proceeded onwards. "We were surrounded on all sides, by the treachery of a few faithless brethren, we were enticed down into the plain, the spirit was silent within us and we thought ourselves secure. A part of my people had gone to encounter the hermit and I heard (a false report as I afterwards learned) that he had been entirely routed, when, suddenly, another new army was in our rear. The fugitives before us rallied again and faced round. We were compelled to fight our way through in order to find the mountain footpath, where the heavy horse of the royal party could not follow; with great loss, it is true, but, still fortunately, I led my people through, I succeeded in turning the enemy, so that we had them only on one side of us. Fighting and flying we reached the wood and being one of the last that I might secure the retreat of my party, I found myself suddenly cut off. My horse carried me at full galop as far as it could, I shot dead two dragoons, who were pursuing me, but the noble beast fell down; I lost sword, hat, and fire-arms, while I was disengaging myself from the saddle scarcely quick enough, I changed clothes with a peasant in a field; soldiers were scouring in every direction, at the risk of being recognised, I was forced to seek a shelter, and moreover the storm burst forth, and thus the Lord conducted me to the house of your venerable father. A few days after, things would have been much worse with me, if my younger brother, who is now a prisoner at Nismes, had not liberated me."
"With what admiration I must look upon thee, brother," resumed Edmond, "thou who younger than I, hast already done such great things, who hast had so much success, that the whole country speaks of thee. From whence proceeds this daring, yet circumspect courage, this experience, this skill to deceive the enemy, to conquer them, or to escape their artful snares! where couldst thou have learned all this?"
"I have not learned it," replied Cavalier, "nor do I know if the like can be learned. You esteem me too highly, brother Edmond, if you believe, that that which I do proceeds from reflection or skill. It is true I do not lose courage, I preserve my sang froid, although I see before and around me a thousand foes with their swords and guns, but such is my nature, there is no merit or extraordinary courage in this. When I was yet a little boy, minding my good old nobleman’s sheep, I was never frightened when I perceived the wolf. I remained calm, and slew two of these bad fellows, whereupon every body admired my great courage, and I could not at all understand what they meant by it. Thus, then, my spirit was roused, and I engaged in this war, in which I soon succeeded in liberating my brethren and defeating the enemy, so that all the companions of the faith placed their full confidence in me, and expected the blessing and success of their hopes from me; but brother Roland is much wiser and more experienced, he has more penetration and I must be considered only as a learner in comparison to him, yet the Lord had not endowed him with so much success as me, on that account the combatants preferred following me. Now when I lead out the brethren, and the affair does not turn out as we have arranged and thought, the spirit suddenly directs me, I see, I remark all that which was before unknown to me, of its own accord, my mouth gives the right orders, it soars, it hovers round me. so that I know not what to say, and it leads me and my followers through the enemy's troops. Like joyous intoxication, it flies with me through the tumult, and the victory is won."
"Thou wast a shepherd then in thy childhood?" said Edmond; "how fitting if they compare thee to David."
"I grew up poor and desolate in the solitude of the mountains," replied the former: "I had forgotten myself, I could never have thought that I should at some future period have to fight for the Lord, for my faith had died within me; and I agreed to all they proposed. Until then, zealous brethren rekindled the extinguished embers into flame, so that my life was restored, and I was enabled to seek and find the Lord. Afterwards, when they had so cruelly murdered our brethren, zealous wrath drove me into their holy community. And since then, I am an humble instrument in the hand of the Most High. I could not believe, that I should have been so highly honored, when I was compelled to endure all the drudgery of an apprentice at St. Hypolite, and my master, the baker, for a slight, often for no reason at all, beat me and pulled my hair; yet he was one of our firm companions in the faith, who, however could not control his passion."
"So the priest was right after all," said Edmond with a smile, "when he would recognise you for a baker by your knees."
"Well," said Cavalier, "the singular man is not deficient in intellect and penetration. If he knew more of men than of their legs, perhaps he would be less impious, for, from the foot, he ought at length to arrive at the heart, and finally at the mind. It is true we probably stand in the same relation to great nature; and if the Lord in his mercy does not approach us personally, we cannot succeed even in loosening the thongs of his shoes, if it is indeed permitted to talk of him in such a worldly manner."
Just as daylight was extending itself over every object, and when they had turned round a projecting rock, they perceived in the valley beneath them, the Camisards marching with their prisoners. At the same moment old Favart came racing up and announced to them, that Roland had descended with a troop from the summit of that mountain, but that Colonel Julien with a considerable body of men, was now posted between them both, and that it would be very difficult to turn them. Catinat marched forward with his band and was highly exasperated on perceiving the obstacle to his further progress. "Mameluke!" exclaimed he, "this Julien whose death I have long since sworn, crosses all our undertakings. No mercy, should he once fall into our hands, nor need he expect any either, as he is an apostate brother, who has abandoned our reformed community, merely to please the government and to enjoy worldly honour·"
A loud shouting was heard, and Ravanel with a band, who had fortunately escaped the royal troops, rushed from a narrow defile. They halted upon the summit and the prisoners were brought forward. The court martial, which was quickly held, sentenced them all to death, and scarcely were the words pronounced, when the ready Ravanel shot the foremost dead with his pistol, so that the gushing blood sprinkled Edmond, who was standing close by. The fallen man expired instantly after a few struggles. Edmond drew back pale and horrified.
"Thou hast surely not seen much blood yet, young man?" cried Ravanel mockingly; "Thou oughtst to celebrate thy consecration to-day, and massacre some of those wretches thyself."
"Not now, brother Ravanel," said Catinat, "the royal troops are stationed so near and we do not know their number, therefore we must not attract them hither by our firing. It would be difficult enough to disengage ourselves from them afterwards."
"But the villains must not be suffered to live!" exclaimed Ravanel, his anger aroused anew, drawing his sword he struck the next prisoner to him, who also fell instantly weltering in his blood.
"Ought a brother to be blood thirsty?" asked Edmond.
"He ought well be so," cried Ravanel turning angrily towards him: "Oh my friend, he, who has once tasted the pleasure of stretching an enemy at his feet, becomes like a lion after the palatable sweetness, scarcely able to spare his keeper. I am feeble and weak when I am long without seeing blood; it ascends like the smoke of a lamp in the mournful twilight, as the rosy dawn after the darkness of night."
Cavalier reprimanded the enthusiast for his cruelty, and Catinat led the remaining prisoners to the brink of a precipice, when they fell under the swords of the Camisards. Their leader, the fiercest among them all, only remained alive. He now called out in a powerful voice: "Stay! far be it from me to beg for my life, I would not for once owe an obligation to such pitiable people, though, what I require, you may, grant me without prejudice to yourselves."
"What dost thou require, knave?" asked Cavalier, while the others clustered still closer round him, "That you unbind my arms," said the fierce, wild man with an expression of the most profound contempt: "that I may once more, and for the last time, put my flask to my parched lips, which has been a friend and comforter to me in all my sorrows, and that you will afterwards be careful to deliver me speedily from such contemptible society as yours."
The Camisards murmured and would have cut him down, but at a sign from Catinat, they drew back, he himself unloosed the arms of the prisoner, and watched him with his drawn sword in his hand, lest despair, perhaps, might at the moment of his death, impel him to some fool-hardy attempt. But the powerful old man looked round him with the greatest composure, shook his arms and shoulders that he might feel his freedom after the restraint he had endured, then took a flask of wine from his bosom and emptying it jocosely, dashed it against the rock, where it broke in pieces, then turned to the bystanders, baring his neck as he said: "Now, if it please you!" Even Ravanel measured him with a look of surprise; and Edmond, who had watched all his movements, felt himself impelled by an inexplicable feeling to save the life of so ruthless a man. "Strange as I may appear to you, beloved brethren," cried he aloud advancing into the circle, "I entreat you nevertheless by the high esteem with which you honour me to make over this luckless man to me, that his fate may rest in my hands. Shall this lost creature, so unprepared, in all the nakedness of his crimes, go before his accusing Judge? shall we not try to moderate the fierce temperament and to lead the apostate closer to his Maker? Grant me this favour ye friends, do not refuse my petition and accept my own life as a pledge, that he will not repay this deliverance by treachery and falsehood?" Cavalier, from affection to Edmond, joined his entreaties to those of the youth, and after a short opposition from Ravanel and some murmurs from the troop, all unanimously consented to pardon the robber. Cavalier informed him that his sentence was remitted, that he might, added he, feel, that mercy which exists even in an enemy and that he might also seek for mercy at the throne of justice of the Eternal. The robber looked long and searchingly with his large fire-darting eyes on Edmond. He now bowed low to the little Cavalier, and said with a laughing countenance: "Ah! my little man! from whence derivest thou thy knowledge of Him on the throne of justice, that thou chatterest about him as if one had only to go round the corner there and knock at his house, and fee the doorkeeper for admission? You think, therefore, that I shall breathe the air within me, some time longer, and look upon this light which I have done for almost these seventy years past? Be it so. But I will not deceive you, you shall not give me this wretched life in order to rejoice at my conversion, for you have just pitched on the wrong one with all your atonement, godliness, and love. I will have nothing to do with your stories and fanatacism, with prayers and singing you shall also spare me, though I should have no objection to march out with you and valiantly, because I must do something, or other, and for the present I have nothing better to do."
Again a murmour arose, but now, there was no time to pass sentence, or to dispute, for the royal troops were already seen marching by. Each leader quickly betook himself to his troop, called to them, gave the word of command, and in a short time order was restored, and all in readiness to await the attack. Edmond and the robber, whose life he had solicited, stood in the ranks together. While each ranged himself in opposition to the other, several Camisards fell at the first salvo of the small cannon, but undismayed, they marched forward, singing their psalms aloud. They soon met hand to hand, and all appeared one confused mélée, for Ravanel and his troop rushed like frantic upon the enemy, who soon gave way on that side; others tried to come to the help of the panic-striken men, and thus the mass fought confusedly on the limited space of ground. A stout officer seized Edmond, while a second raised his arm to hew down the youth, when the robber with gigantic strength, seized both the soldiers by the hair, and knocked their heads so forcibly together, that they fell senseless to the ground. But Edmond was rescued only for a moment, for he found himself directly afterwards engaged in a combat with several, and a heavy blow upon the arm disabled him. He was taken prisoner, while the king’s troops were compelled by his friends to give way. They fled with their leaders, and carried him with them. He saw himself lost, without hope of deliverance.
In the wood Colonel Julien drew near and viewed his prisoners with surprise, He sent detachments hither and thither to reconnoitre the wood; he also sent a troop backwards, to see whether the rebels would turn, or if they intended to follow them.
"Leave this single prisoner to me," cried he to the last, which he also sent forward in some minutes. "I will soon dispose of this unarmed man. Is it needful?" turned he to Edmond, when he found himself quite alone with the latter; "So young man, must we see each other again? I would not believe the reports, nay, I can scarcely trust my own eyes now! Oh thou miserable father of so degenerate a son!"
"Apostate!" bitterly exclaimed Edmond, "hast thou indeed the right to use such language?"
"Go, fly," said Julien with an expression of the most contemptuous pity; "hasten into this thick underwood, I will pretend not to have seen you. Escape ignominy and execution, before my companions return and render it impossible."
Edmond sprang into the thick wood, enraged, ashamed and vexed: he ran without stopping, and was soon in the most lonely part, and when at last he fell exhausted and breathless in the cleft of a rock, he found the stout robber reposing there, whose life he had, through pity, generously solicited, as he in return had been obliged to accept his own from the hands of a former friend, who now despised him.