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<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_i" id="Page_i">[Pg i]</a></span></p>

<h3>EVERYMAN'S LIBRARY<br /></h3>

<h3>EDITED BY ERNEST RHYS<br /><br /><br /></h3>

<h3>FICTION<br /><br /><br /><br /><br /></h3>

<h2>HUGO'S TOILERS OF THE SEA<br /><br /><br /><br /></h2>

<h3>NOW NEWLY COMPLETED FROM<br /></h3>
<h3>W. MOY THOMAS'S TRANSLATION<br /></h3>
<h3>INTRODUCTION BY ERNEST RHYS<br /><br /><br /></h3>
<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_ii" id="Page_ii">[Pg ii]</a></span></p>



<table border="1" cellpadding="15" cellspacing="0" summary="">
<tr align="center"><td>THIS IS NO. 509 OF <i>EVERYMAN'S<br />
LIBRARY</i>. THE PUBLISHERS WILL<br />
BE PLEASED TO SEND FREELY TO ALL<br />
APPLICANTS A LIST OF THE PUBLISHED<br />
AND PROJECTED VOLUMES ARRANGED<br />
UNDER THE FOLLOWING SECTIONS:</td></tr>


<tr align="center"><td>TRAVEL&nbsp;&middot;&nbsp;SCIENCE&nbsp;&middot;&nbsp;FICTION<br />
THEOLOGY &amp; PHILOSOPHY<br />
HISTORY&nbsp;&middot;&nbsp;CLASSICAL<br />
FOR YOUNG PEOPLE<br />
ESSAYS&nbsp;&middot;&nbsp;ORATORY<br />
POETRY &amp; DRAMA<br />
BIOGRAPHY<br />
REFERENCE<br />
ROMANCE</td></tr>

<tr align="center"><td>THE ORDINARY EDITION IS BOUND<br />
IN CLOTH WITH GILT DESIGN AND<br />
COLOURED TOP. THERE IS ALSO A<br />
LIBRARY EDITION IN REINFORCED CLOTH</td></tr>

<tr align="center"><td>J.M. DENT &amp; SONS LTD.
<h5>ALDINE HOUSE, BEDFORD STREET, LONDON. W.C.2</h5>
E.P. DUTTON &amp; CO.
<h5>681 FIFTH AVENUE, NEW YORK</h5></td></tr></table>

<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_iii" id="Page_iii">[Pg iii-iv]</a></span><br /><br /></p>


<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_v" id="Page_v">[Pg v]</a></span></p>

<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_vi" id="Page_vi">[Pg vi]</a></span></p>

<p class="center"><i>First Issue of this Edition 1911<br/>
Reprinted 1913, 1917, 1920, 1928<br /><br /><br />

Printed in Great Britain</i></p>

<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_vii" id="Page_vii">[Pg vii]</a></span></p>



<hr style="width: 65%;" />
<h2>INTRODUCTION</h2>


<p>Victor Hugo was thinking much of &AElig;schylus and his Prometheus
at the time he conceived the figure of Gilliatt, heroic
warrer with the elements. But it is to a creature of the
Gothic mind like Byron's Manfred, and not to any earlier, or
classic, type of the eternal rebellion against fate or time or
circumstance, that Hugo's readers will be tempted to turn for
the fellow to his Guernsey hero:</p>

<p style="margin-left: 16em">
"My joy was in the wilderness&mdash;to breathe<br />
The difficult air of the iced mountain's top,<br />
Where the birds dare not build&mdash;nor insects wing<br />
Flit o'er the herbless granite; or to plunge<br />
Into the torrent, and to roll along<br />
On the swift whirl of the new-breaking wave<br />
Of river-stream, or ocean, in their flow."<br />
</p>

<p>The island of Guernsey was Gilliatt's Alp and sea-solitude,
where he, too, had his avalanches waiting to fall "like foam
from the round ocean of old Hell." And as Byron figured his
own revolt against the bonds in Manfred, so Hugo, being in
exile, put himself with lyrical and rhetorical impetuosity into
the island marcou and child of destiny that he concocted
with "a little sand and a little blood and a deal of fantasy" in
the years 1864 and 1865. There is a familiar glimpse of the
Hugo household to be had in the first winter of its transference
to the Channel Islands, years before <i>Les Travailleurs</i>
was written, which betrays the mood from which finally sprang
this concrete fable of the man-at-odds. It was the end of
November 1852, and a father and his younger son sat in a
room of a house of Marine Terrace, Jersey&mdash;a plain, unpicturesque
house; square, hard in outline, and newly whitewashed,&mdash;Methodism,
said Hugo, in stones and mortar.
Outside its windows the rain fell and the wind blew: the
house was like a thing benumbed by the angry noise. The
two inmates sat plunged in thought, possibly thinking of the
sad significance of these beginnings of winter and of exile
which had arrived together. At length the son (Fran&ccedil;ois<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_viii" id="Page_viii">[Pg viii]</a></span>
Hugo) asked the father what he meant to do during their
exile, which he had already predicted would be long? The
father said, "I shall look at the sea." Then came a silence,
broken by a question as to what the son would do? To
which he replied that he would translate Shakespeare.</p>

<p>Victor Hugo's own study or eulogy of Shakespeare was
written as a preamble to his son's translation of the plays. It
is not too much to connect the new and ample creative work
that followed, including his great novel of Revolution, <i>Les
Mis&eacute;rables</i>, and his poems in <i>La L&eacute;gende des Si&egrave;cles</i> (first
series) with the double artistic stimulus gained from this conditioned
solitude and his closer acquaintance with the dramatic
mind of that "giant of the great art of the ages," as he termed
our English poet in the book already quoted from.</p>

<p>The Shakespeare book is dated from Hauteville House,
1864. <i>Les Travailleurs</i> from the same quarters, March 1866.
The Hugos had perforce suddenly left Jersey for Guernsey in
1855, owing to the gibes and flouts of an unlucky revolutionary
Jersey journal, <i>L'Homme</i>, at the two governments: Victor
Hugo being already a marked man for his pains. The
Guernsey house he inhabited for so many years had a spacious
study in its upper story, with a large window, free to the sun
and to the sea. Here he wrote, tirelessly, tremendously, as
his custom was: beginning betimes in the early morning, and
writing on till the time for his <i>d&eacute;jeuner</i>: standing at a tall
desk to write in his sea-tower. You must turn to certain
of his poems and to the pages of <i>Les Mis&eacute;rables</i> and <i>Les
Travailleurs</i> for the mental colours and phantasmagoria of
those days and years.</p>

<p>It would be easy to point out, resuming an immense amount
of criticism of his romances and of this story in particular, the
defects on the side of dramatic and true life-likeness to be
found in Hugo's prose-narrative. But it is more helpful in
turning to a story-book to know what has been said unreservedly
in its favour. Hugo's greatest appreciator was
superlative in his praise, and it need hardly be explained that
it was Swinburne who brought his tribute to the romance of
Gilliatt also, after positing the parallel claims of Hugo's five
chief romances. Of the five, they were not, he said, to be
comparatively classified in order of merit. "But I may
perhaps be permitted to say without fear of deserved rebuke
that none is to me personally a treasure of greater price than
<i>Les Travailleurs de la Mer</i>. The splendid energy of the book<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_ix" id="Page_ix">[Pg ix]</a></span>
makes the superhuman energy of the hero seem not only
possible but natural, and his triumph over all physical impossibilities
not only natural but inevitable." Swinburne's
love for the Channel Islands, and his poems inspired by them,
were mainly due as we know to Hugo's life and his books lived
and written there.</p>

<p style="text-align:right">E.R.</p>

<p>The following is a list of the chief publications of Victor
Hugo:&mdash;</p>

<div class="blockquot"><p><span class="smcap">Poetical Works:</span>&mdash;Nouvelles Odes, 1824; Odes et Po&eacute;sies Diverses,
1822; Odes et Ballades, 1826; Les Orientales, 1829; Feuilles d'Automne,
1831; Les Chants du Cr&eacute;puscule, 1835; Les Voix Int&eacute;rieures, 1837; Les
Rayons et les Ombres, 1840; Odes sur Napol&eacute;on, 1840; Les Ch&acirc;timents,
1853; Les Contemplations, 1856; La L&eacute;gende des Si&egrave;cles (1st part),
1859; Les Chansons des Rues et des Bois, 1865; L'Ann&eacute;e Terrible, 1872;
La L&eacute;gende des Si&egrave;cles (2nd part), 1877; L'Art d'&ecirc;tre Grand-p&egrave;re, 1877;
Le Pape, 1878; La Piti&eacute; Supr&ecirc;me, 1879; L'&Acirc;ne, 1880; Religion et
Religions, 1880; Les Quatre Vents de l'Esprit, 1881; La L&eacute;gende des
Si&egrave;cles (3rd part), 1883.</p>

<p><span class="smcap">Dramatic Works:</span>&mdash;Cromwell, 1827; Amy Robsart, 1828; Hernani,
1830; Marion Delorme, 1831; Le Roi s'amuse, 1832; Lucr&egrave;ce Borgia,
1833; Marie Tudor, 1833; Angelo, Tyran de Padoue, 1835; La Esmeralda
(libretto for Opera), 1836; Ruy Blas, 1838; Burgraves, 1843; Torquemada,
1882.</p>

<p><span class="smcap">Novels and other Prose Works:</span>&mdash;Hans d'Islande, 1823; Bug-Jargal
(enlarged for book form), 1826; Le Dernier Jour d'un Condamn&eacute;, 1829;
Notre-Dame de Paris, 1831; &Eacute;tude sur Mirabeau, 1834; Claude Gueux,
1834; Le Rhin, 1842; Napol&eacute;on le Petit, 1852; Les Mis&eacute;rables, 1862;
Litt&eacute;rature et Philosophie m&eacute;l&eacute;es, 1864; William Shakespeare, 1864; Les
Travailleurs de la Mer, 1866; L'Homme qui rit, 1869; Actes et Paroles,
1872; Quatre-Vingt-Treize, 1873; Histoire d'un Crime, 1877; Discours
pour Voltaire, 1878; Le Domaine public payant, 1878; L'Archipel de
la Manche, 1883.</p>

<p>Hugo left a mass of manuscripts, of which some have been published
since his death:&mdash;Le Th&eacute;atre en Libert&eacute;, La Fin de Satan, Dieu, Choses
Vues, Tonte la Lyre, Oc&eacute;an, En Voyage, Postscriptum de ma Vie.</p>

<p>An Edition D&eacute;finitive of his works in 48 volumes was published 1880-5.</p>

<p><span class="smcap">Translations:</span>&mdash;Of novels, 28 vols., 1895, 1899, etc.; of dramas, by
I.G. Burnham, 1895. Separate translations of prose and poetical works.</p>

<p><span class="smcap">Life:</span>&mdash;Among the biographies and appreciations are:&mdash;Sainte-Beuve,
Biographie des Contemporains, vol. iv., 1831; Portraits Contemporains, vol.
i., 1846; Victor Hugo racont&eacute; par un t&eacute;moin de sa vie (Madame Hugo), 1863;
A. Barbou, 1880 (trans. 1881); E. Bir&eacute;, Victor Hugo avant 1830, 1883;
apr&egrave;s 1830, 1891; apr&egrave;s 1852, 1894; F.W.H. Myers, Essays, 1883; Paul
de Saint Victor, 1885, 1892; Alfred Asseline, Victor Hugo intime, 1885;
G.B. Smith, 1885; J. Cappon, A Memoir and a Study, 1885; A.C. Swinburne,
A Study of Victor Hugo, 1886; E. Dupuy, Victor Hugo, l'homme et le
po&egrave;te, 1886; F.T. Marzials (Great Writers), 1888; Charles Renouvier,
Victor Hugo le Po&egrave;te, 1892; L. Mabilleau, 1893; J.P. Nichol, 1893; C.
Renouvier, Victor Hugo le Philosophe, 1900; E. Rigal, 1900; G.V.
Hugo, Mon Grand-p&egrave;re, 1902; Juana Lesclide, Victor Hugo intime, 1902;
Theophile Gautier, 1902; F. Gregh, &Eacute;tude sur Victor Hugo, 1905; P.
Stapfers, Victor Hugo &agrave; Guernsey, 1905.</p></div><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_x" id="Page_x">[Pg x-xi]</a></span></p>


<hr style="width: 65%;" />
<h2>PREFACE</h2>


<p>Religion, Society, and Nature! these are the three struggles
of man. They constitute at the same time his three needs.
He has need of a faith; hence the temple. He must create;
hence the city. He must live; hence the plough and the ship.
But these three solutions comprise three perpetual conflicts.
The mysterious difficulty of life results from all three. Man
strives with obstacles under the form of superstition, under the
form of prejudice, and under the form of the elements. A triple
&#7937;&#957;&#945;&#947;&#954;&#951; weighs upon us. There is the fatality of dogmas, the
oppression of human laws, the inexorability of nature. In
<i>Notre Dame de Paris</i> the author denounced the first; in the
<i>Mis&eacute;rables</i> he exemplified the second; in this book he indicates
the third. With these three fatalities mingles that inward
fatality&mdash;the supreme &#7937;&#957;&#945;&#947;&#954;&#951;, the human heart.</p>

<p>
<span class="smcap">Hauteville House,</span></p>
<p style="margin-left: 1em"><i>March, 1866</i>.<br />
<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_xii" id="Page_xii">[Pg xii]</a></span></p>

<hr style="width: 65%;" />

<p style="text-align:center">
I DEDICATE THIS BOOK<br />
TO THE<br />
ROCK OF HOSPITALITY AND LIBERTY<br />
TO THAT PORTION OF OLD NORMAN GROUND<br />
INHABITED BY<br />
THE NOBLE LITTLE NATION OF THE SEA<br />
TO THE ISLAND OF GUERNSEY<br />
SEVERE YET KIND, MY PRESENT ASYLUM<br />
PERHAPS MY TOMB</p>

<p style="margin-left: 32em">V.H.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_xiii" id="Page_xiii">[Pg xiii]</a></span></p>



<hr style="width: 65%;" />
<h2>CONTENTS</h2>


<div class='center'>
<table border="0" cellpadding="4" cellspacing="0" summary="">
<tr><td align='center' colspan="3">PART I</td></tr>
<tr><td align='center' colspan="3">SIEUR CLUBIN</td></tr>

<tr><td align='center' colspan="3"><span class="smcap">Book I.&mdash;The History of a Bad Reputation</span></td></tr>
<tr><td align='right'>CHAP.</td><td>&nbsp;</td><td align='left'>PAGE</td></tr>
<tr><td align='right'>I.</td><td align='left'>A Word written on a White Page</td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_1">1</a></td></tr>
<tr><td align='right'>II.</td><td align='left'>The B&ucirc; de la Rue</td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_3">3</a></td></tr>
<tr><td align='right'>III.</td><td align='left'>For your Wife: when you Marry</td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_7">7</a></td></tr>
<tr><td align='right'>IV.</td><td align='left'>An Unpopular Man</td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_9">9</a></td></tr>
<tr><td align='right'>V.</td><td align='left'>More Suspicious Facts about Gilliatt</td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_18">18</a></td></tr>
<tr><td align='right'>VI.</td><td align='left'>The Dutch Sloop</td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_20">20</a></td></tr>
<tr><td align='right'>VII.</td><td align='left'>A Fit Tenant for a Haunted House</td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_25">25</a></td></tr>
<tr><td align='right'>VIII.</td><td align='left'>The Gild-Holm-'Ur Seat</td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_27">27</a></td></tr>

<tr><td align='center' colspan="3"><span class="smcap"><br />Book II.&mdash;Mess Lethierry</span></td></tr>
<tr><td align='right'>I.</td><td align='left'>A Troubled Life, but a Quiet Conscience</td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_30">30</a></td></tr>
<tr><td align='right'>II.</td><td align='left'>A Certain Predilection</td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_32">32</a></td></tr>
<tr><td align='right'>III.</td><td align='left'>The Old Sea Language</td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_33">33</a></td></tr>
<tr><td align='right'>IV.</td><td align='left'>One is Vulnerable where one Loves</td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_35">35</a></td></tr>

<tr><td align='center' colspan="3"><span class="smcap"><br />Book III.&mdash;Durande and D&eacute;ruchette</span></td></tr>
<tr><td align='right'>I.</td><td align='left'>Prattle and Smoke</td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_37">37</a></td></tr>
<tr><td align='right'>II.</td><td align='left'>The Old Story of Utopia</td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_39">39</a></td></tr>
<tr><td align='right'>III.</td><td align='left'>Rantaine</td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_41">41</a></td></tr>
<tr><td align='right'>IV.</td><td align='left'>Continuation of the Story of Utopia</td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_44">44</a></td></tr>
<tr><td align='right'>V.</td><td align='left'>The Devil Boat</td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_46">46</a></td></tr>
<tr><td align='right'>VI.</td><td align='left'>Lethierry's Exaltation</td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_50">50</a></td></tr>
<tr><td align='right'>VII.</td><td align='left'>The same Godfather and the same Patron Saint</td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_52">52</a></td></tr>
<tr><td align='right'>VIII.</td><td align='left'>"Bonnie Dundee"</td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_54">54</a></td></tr>
<tr><td align='right'>IX.</td><td align='left'>The Man who discovered Rantaine's Character</td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_57">57</a></td></tr>
<tr><td align='right'>X.</td><td align='left'>Long Yarns</td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_58">58</a></td></tr>
<tr><td align='right'>XI.</td><td align='left'>Matrimonial Prospects</td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_60">60</a></td></tr>
<tr><td align='right'>XII.</td><td align='left'>An Anomaly in the Character of Lethierry</td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_61">61</a></td></tr>
<tr><td align='right'>XIII.</td><td align='left'>Thoughtlessness adds a Grace to Beauty</td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_65">65</a></td></tr>

<tr><td align='center' colspan="3"><span class="smcap"><br />Book IV.&mdash;The Bagpipe</span></td></tr>
<tr><td align='right'>I.</td><td align='left'>Streaks of Fire on the Horizon</td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_67">67</a></td></tr>
<tr><td align='right'>II.</td><td align='left'>The Unknown unfolds itself by Degrees</td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_69">69</a></td></tr>
<tr><td align='right'>III.</td><td align='left'>The Air "Bonnie Dundee" finds an Echo on the Hill</td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_71">71</a></td></tr>
<tr><td align='right' valign="top">IV.</td><td align='left'>"A serenade by night may please a lady fair,<br />
But of uncle and of guardian let the troubadour beware."<br />
<span style="margin-left: 15em;"><i>Unpublished Comedy</i></span></td><td align='right' valign="top"><a href="#Page_72">72</a></td></tr>

<tr><td align='right'>V.</td><td align='left'>A Deserved Success has always its Detractors</td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_74">74</a></td></tr>
<tr><td align='right'>VI.</td><td align='left'>The Sloop <i>Cashmere</i> saves a Shipwrecked Crew</td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_75">75</a></td></tr>
<tr><td align='right'>VII.</td><td align='left'>How an Idler had the Good Fortune to be seen by a Fisherman</td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_77">77</a></td></tr>

<tr><td align='center' colspan="3"><span class="smcap"><br />Book V.&mdash;The Revolver</span></td></tr>
<tr><td align='right'>I.</td><td align='left'>Conversations at the Jean Auberge</td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_80">80</a></td></tr>
<tr><td align='right'>II.</td><td align='left'>Clubin observes Someone</td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_86">86</a></td></tr>
<tr><td align='right'>III.</td><td align='left'>Clubin carries away Something and brings back Nothing</td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_88">88</a></td></tr>
<tr><td align='right'>IV.</td><td align='left'>Pleinmont</td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_91">91</a></td></tr>
<tr><td align='right'>V.</td><td align='left'>The Birds'-nesters</td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_96">96</a></td></tr>
<tr><td align='right'>VI.</td><td align='left'>The Jacressade</td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_108">108</a></td></tr>
<tr><td align='right'>VII.</td><td align='left'>Nocturnal Buyers and Mysterious Sellers</td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_114">114</a></td></tr>
<tr><td align='right'>VIII.</td><td align='left'>A "Cannon" off the Red Ball and the Black</td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_117">117</a></td></tr>
<tr><td align='right'>IX.</td><td align='left'>Useful Information for Persons who expect or fear the Arrival of Letters from beyond Sea</td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_125">125</a></td></tr>

<tr><td align='center' colspan="3"><span class="smcap"><br />Book VI.&mdash;The Drunken Steersman and the Sober Captain</span></td></tr>
<tr><td align='right'>I.</td><td align='left'>The Douvres</td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_130">130</a></td></tr>
<tr><td align='right'>II.</td><td align='left'>An Unexpected Flask of Brandy</td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_132">132</a></td></tr>
<tr><td align='right'>III.</td><td align='left'>Conversations interrupted</td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_135">135</a></td></tr>
<tr><td align='right'>IV.</td><td align='left'>Captain Clubin displays all his great Qualities</td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_142">142</a></td></tr>
<tr><td align='right'>V.</td><td align='left'>Clubin reaches the Crowning-point of Glory</td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_147">147</a></td></tr>
<tr><td align='right'>VI.</td><td align='left'>The Interior of an Abyss suddenly revealed</td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_151">151</a></td></tr>
<tr><td align='right'>VII.</td><td align='left'>An Unexpected D&eacute;nouement</td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_158">158</a></td></tr>

<tr><td align='center' colspan="3"><span class="smcap"><br />Book VII.&mdash;The Danger of Opening a Book at Random</span></td></tr>
<tr><td align='right'>I.</td><td align='left'>The Pearl at the Foot of a Precipice</td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_162">162</a></td></tr>
<tr><td align='right'>II.</td><td align='left'>Much Astonishment on the Western Coast</td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_169">169</a></td></tr>
<tr><td align='right'>III.</td><td align='left'>A Quotation from the Bible</td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_173">173</a></td></tr>
<tr><td align='center' colspan="3">PART II</td></tr>
<tr><td align='center' colspan="3">MALICIOUS GILLIATT</td></tr>
<tr><td align='center' colspan="3"><span class="smcap">Book I.&mdash;The Rock</span></td></tr>
<tr><td align='right'>I.</td><td align='left'>The Place which is difficult to reach, and difficult to leave</td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_181">181</a></td></tr>
<tr><td align='right'>II.</td><td align='left'>A Catalogue of Disasters</td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_186">186</a></td></tr>
<tr><td align='right'>III.</td><td align='left'>Sound; but not Safe</td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_188">188</a></td></tr>
<tr><td align='right'>IV.</td><td align='left'>A Preliminary Survey</td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_190">190</a></td></tr>
<tr><td align='right'>V.</td><td align='left'>A Word upon the Secret Co-operations of the Elements</td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_192">192</a></td></tr>
<tr><td align='right'>VI.</td><td align='left'>A Stable for the Horse</td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_196">196</a></td></tr>
<tr><td align='right'>VII.</td><td align='left'>A Chamber for the Voyager</td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_198">198</a></td></tr>
<tr><td align='right'>VIII.</td><td align='left'>Importun&aelig;que Volucres</td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_205">205</a></td></tr>
<tr><td align='right'>IX.</td><td align='left'>The Rock, and how Gilliatt used it</td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_207">207</a></td></tr>
<tr><td align='right'>X.</td><td align='left'>The Forge</td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_210">210</a></td></tr>
<tr><td align='right'>XI.</td><td align='left'>Discovery</td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_214">214</a></td></tr>
<tr><td align='right'>XII.</td><td align='left'>The Interior of an Edifice under the Sea</td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_217">217</a></td></tr>
<tr><td align='right'>XIII.</td><td align='left'>What was seen there; and what perceived dimly</td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_219">219</a></td></tr>

<tr><td align='center' colspan="3"><span class="smcap"><br />Book II.&mdash;The Labour</span></td></tr>
<tr><td align='right'>I.</td><td align='left'>The Resources of one who has nothing</td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_225">225</a></td></tr>
<tr><td align='right'>II.</td><td align='left'>Wherein Shakespeare and &AElig;schylus meet</td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_227">227</a></td></tr>
<tr><td align='right'>III.</td><td align='left'>Gilliatt's Masterpiece comes to the Rescue of that of Lethierry</td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_229">229</a></td></tr>
<tr><td align='right'>IV.</td><td align='left'>Sub Re</td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_232">232</a></td></tr>
<tr><td align='right'>V.</td><td align='left'>Sub Umbra</td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_237">237</a></td></tr>
<tr><td align='right'>VI.</td><td align='left'>Gilliatt places the Sloop in readiness</td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_242">242</a></td></tr>
<tr><td align='right'>VII.</td><td align='left'>Sudden Danger</td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_244">244</a></td></tr>
<tr><td align='right'>VIII.</td><td align='left'>Movement rather than Progress</td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_247">247</a></td></tr>
<tr><td align='right'>IX.</td><td align='left'>A Slip between Cup and Lip</td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_250">250</a></td></tr>
<tr><td align='right'>X.</td><td align='left'>Sea-warnings</td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_252">252</a></td></tr>
<tr><td align='right'>XI.</td><td align='left'>A Word to the Wise is enough</td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_255">255</a></td></tr>

<tr><td align='center' colspan="3"><span class="smcap"><br />Book III.&mdash;The Struggle</span></td></tr>
<tr><td align='right'>I.</td><td align='left'>Extremes meet</td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_258">258</a></td></tr>
<tr><td align='right'>II.</td><td align='left'>The Ocean Winds</td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_259">259</a></td></tr>
<tr><td align='right'>III.</td><td align='left'>The Noises explained</td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_262">262</a></td></tr>
<tr><td align='right'>IV.</td><td align='left'>Turba Turma</td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_265">265</a></td></tr>
<tr><td align='right'>V.</td><td align='left'>Gilliatt's Alternatives</td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_267">267</a></td></tr>
<tr><td align='right'>VI.</td><td align='left'>The Combat</td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_268">268</a></td></tr>

<tr><td align='center' colspan="3"><span class="smcap"><br />Book IV.&mdash;Pitfalls in the Way</span></td></tr>
<tr><td align='right'>I.</td><td align='left'>He who is Hungry is not Alone</td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_280">280</a></td></tr>
<tr><td align='right'>II.</td><td align='left'>The Monster</td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_296">296</a></td></tr>
<tr><td align='right'>III.</td><td align='left'>Another Kind of Sea-combat</td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_297">297</a></td></tr>
<tr><td align='right'>IV.</td><td align='left'>Nothing is hidden; Nothing lost</td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_299">299</a></td></tr>
<tr><td align='right'>V.</td><td align='left'>The Fatal Difference between Six Inches and Two Feet</td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_302">302</a></td></tr>
<tr><td align='right'>VI.</td><td align='left'>De Profundis ad Altum</td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_306">306</a></td></tr>
<tr><td align='right'>VII.</td><td align='left'>The Appeal is heard</td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_311">311</a></td></tr>

<tr><td align='center' colspan="3">PART III</td></tr>
<tr><td align='center' colspan="3">D&Eacute;RUCHETTE</td></tr>
<tr><td align='center' colspan="3"><span class="smcap">Book I.&mdash;Night and the Moon</span></td></tr>
<tr><td align='right'>I.</td><td align='left'>The Harbour Bell</td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_315">315</a></td></tr>
<tr><td align='right'>II.</td><td align='left'>The Harbour Bell again</td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_327">327</a></td></tr>

<tr><td align='center' colspan="3"><span class="smcap"><br />Book II.&mdash;Gratitude and Despotism</span></td></tr>
<tr><td align='right'>I.</td><td align='left'>Joy surrounded by Tortures</td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_335">335</a></td></tr>
<tr><td align='right'>II.</td><td align='left'>The Leathern Trunk</td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_343">343</a></td></tr>

<tr><td align='center' colspan="3"><span class="smcap"><br />Book III.&mdash;The Departure of the "Cashmere"</span></td></tr>
<tr><td align='right'>I.</td><td align='left'>The Havelet near the Church</td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_346">346</a></td></tr>
<tr><td align='right'>II.</td><td align='left'>Despair confronts Despair</td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_348">348</a></td></tr>
<tr><td align='right'>III.</td><td align='left'>The Forethought of Self-sacrifice</td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_355">355</a></td></tr>
<tr><td align='right'>IV.</td><td align='left'>For your Wife: when you Marry</td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_359">359</a></td></tr>
<tr><td align='right'>V.</td><td align='left'>The Great Tomb</td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_362">362</a></td></tr>
</table></div>


<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_1" id="Page_1">[Pg 1]</a></span></p>



<hr style="width: 65%;" />
<h2>TOILERS OF THE SEA</h2>

<h3>PART I.&mdash;SIEUR CLUBIN</h3>

<h3>BOOK I</h3>

<h4>THE HISTORY OF A BAD REPUTATION</h4>

<h4>I</h4>

<h5>A WORD WRITTEN ON A WHITE PAGE</h5>


<p>Christmas Day in the year 182- was somewhat remarkable
in the island of Guernsey. Snow fell on that day. In the
Channel Islands a frosty winter is uncommon, and a fall of
snow is an event.</p>

<p>On that Christmas morning, the road which skirts the seashore
from St. Peter's Port to the Vale was clothed in white.
From midnight till the break of day the snow had been falling.
Towards nine o'clock, a little after the rising of the wintry sun,
as it was too early yet for the Church of England folks to go to
St. Sampson's, or for the Wesleyans to repair to Eldad Chapel,
the road was almost deserted. Throughout that portion of the
highway which separates the first from the second tower, only
three foot-passengers could be seen. These were a child, a man,
and a woman. Walking at a distance from each other, these
wayfarers had no visible connection. The child, a boy of about
eight years old, had stopped, and was looking curiously at the
wintry scene. The man walked behind the woman, at a distance
of about a hundred paces. Like her he was coming from
the direction of the church of St. Sampson. The appearance of
the man, who was still young, was something between that of
a workman and a sailor. He wore his working-day clothes&mdash;a
kind of Guernsey shirt of coarse brown stuff, and trousers partly
concealed by tarpaulin leggings&mdash;a costume which seemed to
indicate that, notwithstanding the holy day, he was going to no
place of worship. His heavy shoes of rough leather, with their<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_2" id="Page_2">[Pg 2]</a></span>
soles covered with large nails, left upon the snow, as he walked,
a print more like that of a prison lock than the foot of a man.
The woman, on the contrary, was evidently dressed for church.
She wore a large mantle of black silk, wadded, under which she
had coquettishly adjusted a dress of Irish poplin, trimmed
alternately with white and pink; but for her red stockings, she
might have been taken for a Parisian. She walked on with a
light and free step, so little suggestive of the burden of life that
it might easily be seen that she was young. Her movements
possessed that subtle grace which indicates the most delicate
of all transitions&mdash;that soft intermingling, as it were, of two
twilights&mdash;the passage from the condition of a child to that of
womanhood. The man seemed to take no heed of her.</p>

<p>Suddenly, near a group of oaks at the corner of a field, and at
the spot called the Basses Maisons, she turned, and the movement
seemed to attract the attention of the man. She stopped,
seemed to reflect a moment, then stooped, and the man fancied
that he could discern that she was tracing with her finger some
letters in the snow. Then she rose again, went on her way at
a quicker pace, turned once more, this time smiling, and disappeared
to the left of the roadway, by the footpath under the
hedges which leads to the Ivy Castle. When she had turned for
the second time, the man had recognised her as D&eacute;ruchette, a
charming girl of that neighbourhood.</p>

<p>The man felt no need of quickening his pace; and some
minutes later he found himself near the group of oaks. Already
he had ceased to think of the vanished D&eacute;ruchette; and if, at
that moment, a porpoise had appeared above the water, or a
robin had caught his eye in the hedges, it is probable that he
would have passed on his way. But it happened that his eyes
were fixed upon the ground; his gaze fell mechanically upon
the spot where the girl had stopped. Two little footprints were
there plainly visible; and beside them he read this word,
evidently written by her in the snow&mdash;</p>

<p class="center">"GILLIATT."</p>

<p>It was his own name.</p>

<p>He lingered for awhile motionless, looking at the letters, the
little footprints, and the snow; and then walked on, evidently
in a thoughtful mood.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_3" id="Page_3">[Pg 3]</a></span></p>



<hr style="width: 65%;" />
<h4>II</h4>

<h5>THE B&Ucirc; DE LA RUE</h5>


<p>Gilliatt lived in the parish of St. Sampson. He was not liked
by his neighbours; and there were reasons for that fact.</p>

<p>To begin with, he lived in a queer kind of "haunted" dwelling.
In the islands of Jersey and Guernsey, sometimes in the country,
but often in streets with many inhabitants, you will come upon
a house the entrance to which is completely barricaded. Holly
bushes obstruct the doorway, hideous boards, with nails, conceal
the windows below; while the casements of the upper stories
are neither closed nor open: for all the window-frames are
barred, but the glass is broken. If there is a little yard, grass
grows between its stones; and the parapet of its wall is crumbling
away. If there is a garden, it is choked with nettles, brambles,
and hemlock, and strange insects abound in it. The chimneys
are cracked, the roof is falling in; so much as can be seen from
without of the rooms presents a dismantled appearance. The
woodwork is rotten; the stone mildewed. The paper of the
walls has dropped away and hangs loose, until it presents a
history of the bygone fashions of paper-hangings&mdash;the scrawling
patterns of the time of the Empire, the crescent-shaped draperies
of the Directory, the balustrades and pillars of the days of
Louis XVI. The thick draperies of cobwebs, filled with flies,
indicate the quiet reign long enjoyed by innumerable spiders.
Sometimes a broken jug may be noticed on a shelf. Such
houses are considered to be haunted. Satan is popularly believed
to visit them by night. Houses are like the human beings
who inhabit them. They become to their former selves what
the corpse is to the living body. A superstitious belief among
the people is sufficient to reduce them to this state of death.
Then their aspect is terrible. These ghostly houses are common
in the Channel Islands.</p>

<p>The rural and maritime populations are easily moved with
notions of the active agency of the powers of evil. Among the
Channel Isles, and on the neighbouring coast of France, the
ideas of the people on this subject are deeply rooted. In their
view, Beelzebub has his ministers in all parts of the earth. It
is certain that Belphegor is the ambassador from the infernal
regions in France, Hutgin in Italy, Belial in Turkey, Thamuz
in Spain, Martinet in Switzerland, and Mammon in England.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_4" id="Page_4">[Pg 4]</a></span>
Satan is an Emperor just like any other: a sort of Satan C&aelig;sar.
His establishment is well organised. Dagon is grand almoner,
Succor Benoth chief of the Eunuchs; Asmodeus, banker at the
gaming-table; Kobal, manager of the theatre, and Verdelet,
grand-master of the ceremonies. Nybbas is the court-fool;
Wierus, a savant, a good strygologue, and a man of much learning
in demonology, calls Nybbas the great parodist.</p>

<p>The Norman fishermen, who frequent the Channel, have many
precautions to take at sea, by reason of the illusions with which
Satan environs them. It has long been an article of popular
faith, that Saint Maclou inhabited the great square rock called
Ortach, in the sea between Aurigny and the Casquets; and
many old sailors used to declare that they had often seen him
there, seated and reading in a book. Accordingly the sailors,
as they passed, were in the habit of kneeling many times before
the Ortach rock, until the day when the fable was destroyed,
and the truth took its place. For it has been discovered, and
is now well established, that the lonely inhabitant of the rock
is not a saint, but a devil. This evil spirit, whose name is
Jochmus, had the impudence to pass himself off, for many
centuries, as Saint Maclou. Even the Church herself is not
proof against snares of this kind. The demons Raguhel, Oribel,
and Tobiel, were regarded as saints until the year 745; when
Pope Zachary, having at length exposed them, turned them
out of saintly company. This sort of weeding of the saintly
calendar is certainly very useful; but it can only be practised
by very accomplished judges of devils and their ways.</p>

<p>The old inhabitants of these parts relate&mdash;though all this
refers to bygone times&mdash;that the Catholic population of the
Norman Archipelago was once, though quite involuntarily, even
in more intimate correspondence with the powers of darkness
than the Huguenots themselves. How this happened, however,
we do not pretend to say; but it is certain that the people
suffered considerable annoyance from this cause. It appears
that Satan had taken a fancy to the Catholics, and sought their
company a good deal; a circumstance which has given rise to
the belief that the devil is more Catholic than Protestant. One
of his most insufferable familiarities consisted in paying nocturnal
visits to married Catholics in bed, just at the moment when the
husband had fallen fast asleep, and the wife had begun to doze;
a fruitful source of domestic trouble. Patouillet was of opinion
that a faithful biography of Voltaire ought not to be without
some allusion to this practice of the evil one. The truth of all<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_5" id="Page_5">[Pg 5]</a></span>
this is perfectly well known, and described in the forms of excommunication
in the rubric <i>de erroribus nocturnis et de semine
diabolorum</i>. The practice was raging particularly at St. Helier's
towards the end of the last century, probably as a punishment
for the Revolution; for the evil consequences of revolutionary
excesses are incalculable. However this may have been, it is
certain that this possibility of a visit from the demon at night,
when it is impossible to see distinctly, or even in slumber,
caused much embarrassment among orthodox dames. The idea
of giving to the world a Voltaire was by no means a pleasant
one. One of these, in some anxiety, consulted her confessor
on this extremely difficult subject, and the best mode for timely
discovery of the cheat. The confessor replied, "In order to be
sure that it is your husband by your side, and not a demon,
place your hand upon his head. If you find horns, you may
be sure there is something wrong." But this test was far from
satisfactory to the worthy dame.</p>

<p>Gilliatt's house had been haunted, but it was no longer in
that condition; it was for that reason, however, only regarded
with more suspicion. No one learned in demonology can be
unaware of the fact that, when a sorcerer has installed himself
in a haunted dwelling, the devil considers the house sufficiently
occupied, and is polite enough to abstain from visiting there,
unless called in, like the doctor, on some special occasion.</p>

<p>This house was known by the name of the B&ucirc; de la Rue.
It was situated at the extremity of a little promontory, rather
of rock than of land, forming a small harbourage apart in the
creek of Houmet Paradis. The water at this spot is deep.
The house stood quite alone upon the point, almost separated
from the island, and with just sufficient ground about it for a
small garden, which was sometimes inundated by the high tides.
Between the port of St. Sampson and the creek of Houmet
Paradis, rises a steep hill, surmounted by the block of towers
covered with ivy, and known as Vale Castle, or the Ch&acirc;teau de
l'Archange; so that, at St. Sampson, the B&ucirc; de la Rue was
shut out from sight.</p>

<p>Nothing is commoner than sorcerers in Guernsey. They
exercise their profession in certain parishes, in profound indifference
to the enlightenment of the nineteenth century.
Some of their practices are downright criminal. They set gold
boiling, they gather herbs at midnight, they cast sinister looks
upon the people's cattle. When the people consult them they
send for bottles containing "water of the sick," and they are<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_6" id="Page_6">[Pg 6]</a></span>
heard to mutter mysteriously, "the water has a sad look." In
March, 1857, one of them discovered, in water of this kind,
seven demons. They are universally feared. Another only
lately bewitched a baker "as well as his oven." Another had
the diabolical wickedness to wafer and seal up envelopes "containing
nothing inside." Another went so far as to have on a
shelf three bottles labelled "B." These monstrous facts are
well authenticated. Some of these sorcerers are obliging, and
for two or three guineas will take on themselves the complaint
from which you are suffering. Then they are seen to roll upon
their beds, and to groan with pain; and while they are in these
agonies the believer exclaims, "There! I am well again."
Others cure all kinds of diseases, by merely tying a handkerchief
round the patient's loins, a remedy so simple that it is astonishing
that no one had yet thought of it. In the last century, the
Cour Royale of Guernsey bound such folks upon a heap of fagots
and burnt them alive. In these days it condemns them to eight
weeks' imprisonment; four weeks on bread and water, and the
remainder of the term in solitary confinement. <i>Amant alterna
caten&aelig;.</i></p>

<p>The last instance of burning sorcerers in Guernsey took place
in 1747. The city authorities devoted one of its squares, the
Carrefour du Bordage, to that ceremony. Between 1565 and
1700, eleven sorcerers thus suffered at this spot. As a rule the
criminals made confession of their guilt. Torture was used to
assist their confession. The Carrefour du Bordage has indeed
rendered many other services to society and religion. It was
here that heretics were brought to the stake. Under Queen
Mary, among other Huguenots burnt here, were a mother and
two daughters. The name of this mother was Perrotine Massy.
One of the daughters was <i>enceinte</i>, and was delivered of a child
even in the midst of the flames. As the old chronicle expresses
it, "<i>Son ventre &eacute;clata</i>." The new-born infant rolled out of the
fiery furnace. A man named House took it in his arms; but
Helier Gosselin the bailli, like a good Catholic as he was, sternly
commanded the child to be cast again into the fire.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_7" id="Page_7">[Pg 7]</a></span></p>



<hr style="width: 65%;" />
<h4>III</h4>

<h5>FOR YOUR WIFE: WHEN YOU MARRY</h5>


<p>We must return to Gilliatt.</p>

<p>The country people told how, towards the close of the great
Revolution, a woman, bringing with her a little child, came to
live in Guernsey. She was English, or perhaps French. She
had a name which the Guernsey pronunciation and the country
folks' bad spelling had finally converted into "Gilliatt." She
lived alone with the child, which, according to some, was a
nephew; according to others, a son or grandson; according to
others, again, a strange child whom she was protecting. She
had some means; enough to struggle on in a poor way. She
had purchased a small plot of ground at La Sergent&eacute;e, and
another at La Roque Crespel, near Rocquaine. The house of
the B&ucirc; de la Rue was haunted at this period. For more than
thirty years no one had inhabited it. It was falling into ruins.
The garden, so often invaded by the sea, could produce nothing.
Besides noises and lights seen there at night-time, the house
had this mysterious peculiarity: any one who should leave there
in the evening, upon the mantelpiece, a ball of worsted, a few
needles, and a plate filled with soup, would assuredly find, in
the morning, the soup consumed, the plate empty, and a pair
of mittens ready knitted. The house, demon included, was
offered for sale for a few pounds sterling. The stranger woman
became the purchaser, evidently tempted by the devil, or by
the advantageous bargain.</p>

<p>She did more than purchase the house; she took up her
abode there with the child; and from that moment peace reigned
within its walls. The B&ucirc; de la Rue has found a fit tenant, said
the country people. The haunting ceased. There was no
longer any light seen there, save that of the tallow candle of
the new comer. "Witch's candle is as good as devil's torch."
The proverb satisfied the gossips of the neighbourhood.</p>

<p>The woman cultivated some acres of land which belonged
to her. She had a good cow, of the sort which produces yellow
butter. She gathered her white beans, cauliflowers, and
"Golden drop" potatoes. She sold, like other people, her
parsnips by the tonneau, her onions by the hundred, and her
beans by the denerel. She did not go herself to market, but
disposed of her crops through the agency of Guilbert Falliot, at<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_8" id="Page_8">[Pg 8]</a></span>
the sign of the Abreveurs of St. Sampson. The register of
Falliot bears evidence that Falliot sold for her, on one occasion,
as much as twelve bushels of rare early potatoes.</p>

<p>The house had been meanly repaired; but sufficiently to
make it habitable. It was only in very bad weather that the
rain-drops found their way through the ceilings of the rooms.
The interior consisted of a ground-floor suite of rooms, and a
granary overhead. The ground-floor was divided into three
rooms; two for sleeping, and one for meals. A ladder connected
it with the granary above. The woman attended to the kitchen
and taught the child to read. She did not go to church or chapel,
which, all things considered, led to the conclusion that she must
be French not to go to a place of worship. The circumstance
was grave. In short, the new comers were a puzzle to the
neighbourhood.</p>

<p>That the woman was French seemed probable. Volcanoes
cast forth stones, and revolutions men, so families are removed
to distant places; human beings come to pass their lives far
from their native homes; groups of relatives and friends disperse
and decay; strange people fall, as it were, from the clouds&mdash;some
in Germany, some in England, some in America. The
people of the country view them with surprise and curiosity.
Whence come these strange faces? Yonder mountain, smoking
with revolutionary fires, casts them out. These barren a&euml;rolites,
these famished and ruined people, these footballs of destiny,
are known as refugees, &eacute;migr&eacute;s, adventurers. If they sojourn
among strangers, they are tolerated; if they depart, there is a
feeling of relief. Sometimes these wanderers are harmless,
inoffensive people, strangers&mdash;at least, as regards the women&mdash;to
the events which have led to their exile, objects of persecution,
helpless and astonished at their fate. They take root again
somewhere as they can. They have done no harm to any one,
and scarcely comprehend the destiny that has befallen them.
So thus I have seen a poor tuft of grass uprooted and carried
away by the explosion of a mine. No great explosion was ever
followed by more of such strays than the first French Revolution.</p>

<p>The strange woman whom the Guernsey folks called
"Gilliatt" was, possibly, one of these human strays.</p>

<p>The woman grew older; the child became a youth. They
lived alone and avoided by all; but they were sufficient for
each other. <i>Louve et louveteau se pourl&egrave;chent.</i> This was
another of the generous proverbs which the neighbourhood
applied to them. Meanwhile, the youth grew to manhood;<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_9" id="Page_9">[Pg 9]</a></span>
and then, as the old and withered bark falls from the tree, the
mother died. She left to her son the little field of Sergent&eacute;e,
the small property called La Roque Crespel, and the house
known as the B&ucirc; de la Rue; with the addition, as the official
inventory said, of "one hundred guineas in gold in the <i>pid
d'une cauche</i>," that is to say, in the foot of a stocking. The
house was already sufficiently furnished with two oaken chests,
two beds, six chairs and a table, besides necessary household
utensils. Upon a shelf were some books, and in the corner a
trunk, by no means of a mysterious character, which had to
be opened for the inventory. This trunk was of drab leather,
ornamented with brass nails and little stars of white metal, and
it contained a bride's outfit, new and complete, of beautiful
Dunkirk linen&mdash;chemises and petticoats, and some silk dresses&mdash;with
a paper on which was written, in the handwriting of the
deceased,&mdash;</p>

<p>"For your wife: when you marry."</p>

<p>The loss of his mother was a terrible blow for the young man.
His disposition had always been unsociable; he became now
moody and sullen. The solitude around him was complete.
Hitherto it had been mere isolation; now his life was a blank.
While we have only one companion, life is endurable; left alone,
it seems as if it is impossible to struggle on, and we fall back in
the race, which is the first sign of despair. As time rolls on,
however, we discover that duty is a series of compromises; we
contemplate life, regard its end, and submit; but it is a submission
which makes the heart bleed.</p>

<p>Gilliatt was young; and his wound healed with time. At
that age sorrows cannot be lasting. His sadness, disappearing
by slow degrees, seemed to mingle itself with the scenes around
him, to draw him more and more towards the face of nature,
and further and further from the need of social converse; and,
finally, to assimilate his spirit more completely to the solitude
in which he lived.</p>



<hr style="width: 65%;" />
<h4>IV</h4>

<h5>AN UNPOPULAR MAN</h5>


<p>Gilliatt, as we have said, was not popular in the parish.
Nothing could be more natural than that antipathy among his
neighbours. The reasons for it were abundant. To begin with,
as we have already explained, there was the strange house he
lived in; then there was his mysterious origin. Who could that<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_10" id="Page_10">[Pg 10]</a></span>
woman have been? and what was the meaning of this child?
Country people do not like mysteries, when they relate to strange
sojourners among them. Then his clothes were the clothes of
a workman, while he had, although certainly not rich, sufficient
to live without labour. Then there was his garden, which he
succeeded in cultivating, and from which he produced crops of
potatoes, in spite of the stormy equinoxes; and then there were
the big books which he kept upon a shelf, and read from time to
time.</p>

<p>More reasons: why did he live that solitary life? The B&ucirc; de
la Rue was a kind of lazaretto, in which Gilliatt was kept in a
sort of moral quarantine. This, in the popular judgment, made
it quite simple that people should be astonished at his isolation,
and should hold him responsible for the solitude which society
had made around his home.</p>

<p>He never went to chapel. He often went out at night-time.
He held converse with sorcerers. He had been seen, on one
occasion, sitting on the grass with an expression of astonishment
on his features. He haunted the druidical stones of the Ancresse,
and the fairy caverns which are scattered about in that part.
It was generally believed that he had been seen politely saluting
the Roque qui Chante, or Crowing Rock. He bought all birds
which people brought to him, and having bought them, set them
at liberty. He was civil to the worthy folks in the streets of
St. Sampson, but willingly turned out of his way to avoid them
if he could. He often went out on fishing expeditions, and
always returned with fish. He trimmed his garden on Sundays.
He had a bagpipe which he had bought from one of the Highland
soldiers who are sometimes in Guernsey, and on which he played
occasionally at twilight, on the rocks by the seashore. He had
been seen to make strange gestures, like those of one sowing
seeds. What kind of treatment could be expected for a man
like that?</p>

<p>As regards the books left by the deceased woman, which he
was in the habit of reading, the neighbours were particularly
suspicious. The Reverend Jaquemin H&eacute;rode, rector of St.
Sampson, when he visited the house at the time of the woman's
funeral, had read on the backs of these books the titles <i>Rosier's
Dictionary</i>, <i>Candide</i>, by Voltaire, <i>Advice to the People on Health</i>,
by Tissot. A French noble, an &eacute;migr&eacute;, who had retired to St.
Sampson, remarked that this Tissot, "must have been the
Tissot who carried the head of the Princess de Lamballe upon
a pike."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_11" id="Page_11">[Pg 11]</a></span></p>

<p>The Reverend gentleman had also remarked upon one of
these books, the highly fantastic and terribly significant title,
<i>De Rhubarbaro</i>.</p>

<p>In justice to Gilliatt, however, it must be added that this
volume being in Latin&mdash;a language which it is doubtful if he
understood&mdash;the young man had possibly never read it.</p>

<p>But it is just those books which a man possesses, but does
not read, which constitute the most suspicious evidence against
him. The Spanish Inquisition have deliberated on that point,
and have come to a conclusion which places the matter beyond
further doubt.</p>

<p>The book in question, however, was no other than the treatise
of Doctor Tilingius upon the rhubarb plant, published in
Germany in 1679.</p>

<p>It was by no means certain that Gilliatt did not prepare
philters and unholy decoctions. He was undoubtedly in
possession of certain phials.</p>

<p>Why did he walk abroad at evening, and sometimes even at
midnight, on the cliffs? Evidently to hold converse with the
evil spirits who, by night, frequent the seashores, enveloped
in smoke.</p>

<p>On one occasion he had aided a witch at Torteval to clean
her chaise: this was an old woman named Moutonne
Gahy.</p>

<p>When a census was taken in the island, in answer to a question
about his calling, he replied, "Fisherman; when there are fish
to catch." Imagine yourself in the place of Gilliatt's neighbours,
and admit that there is something unpleasant in
answers like this.</p>

<p>Poverty and wealth are comparative terms. Gilliatt had
some fields and a house, his own property; compared with those
who had nothing, he was not poor. One day, to test this, and
perhaps, also as a step towards a correspondence&mdash;for there are
base women who would marry a demon for the sake of riches&mdash;a
young girl of the neighbourhood said to Gilliatt, "When are
you going to take a wife, neighbour?" He answered, "I will
take a wife when the Roque qui Chante takes a husband."</p>

<p>This Roque qui Chante is a great stone, standing in a field
near Mons. Lem&eacute;zurier de Fry's. It is a stone of a highly suspicious
character. No one knows what deeds are done around
it. At times you may hear there a cock crowing, when no cock
is near&mdash;an extremely disagreeable circumstance. Then it is
commonly asserted that this stone was originally placed in the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_12" id="Page_12">[Pg 12]</a></span>
field by the elfin people known as <i>Sarregousets</i>, who are the same
as the <i>Sins</i>.</p>

<p>At night, when it thunders, if you should happen to see men
flying in the lurid light of the clouds, or on the rolling waves of
the air, these are no other than the Sarregousets. A woman
who lives at the Grand Mielles knows them well. One evening,
when some Sarregousets happened to be assembled at a crossroad,
this woman cried out to a man with a cart, who did not
know which route to take, "Ask them your way. They are
civil folks, and always ready to direct a stranger." There can
be little doubt that this woman was a sorceress.</p>

<p>The learned and judicious King James I. had women of this
kind boiled, and then tasting the water of the cauldron, was
able to say from its flavour, "That was a sorceress;" or "That
was not one."</p>

<p>It is to be regretted that the kings of these latter days no
longer possess a talent which placed in so strong a light the
utility of monarchical institutions.</p>

<p>It was not without substantial grounds that Gilliatt lived in
this odour of sorcery. One midnight, during a storm, Gilliatt
being at sea alone in a bark, on the coast by La Sommeilleuse,
he was heard to ask&mdash;</p>

<p>"Is there a passage sufficient for me?"</p>

<p>And a voice cried from the heights above:</p>

<p>"Passage enough: steer boldly."</p>

<p>To whom could he have been speaking, if not to those who
replied to him? This seems something like evidence.</p>

<p>Another time, one stormy evening, when it was so dark that
nothing could be distinguished, Gilliatt was near the Catiau
Roque&mdash;a double row of rocks where witches, goats, and other
diabolical creatures assemble and dance on Fridays&mdash;and here,
it is firmly believed, that the voice of Gilliatt was heard mingling
in the following terrible conversation:&mdash;</p>

<p>"How is Vesin Brovard?" (This was a mason who had
fallen from the roof of a house.)</p>

<p>"He is getting better."</p>

<p>"Ver dia! he fell from a greater height than that of yonder
peak. It is delightful to think that he was not dashed to
pieces."</p>

<p>"Our folks had a fine time for the seaweed gathering last
week."</p>

<p>"Ay, finer than to-day."</p>

<p>"I believe you. There will be little fish at the market to-day."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_13" id="Page_13">[Pg 13]</a></span></p>

<p>"It blows too hard."</p>

<p>"They can't lower their nets."</p>

<p>"How is Catherine?"</p>

<p>"She is charming."</p>

<p>Catherine was evidently the name of a Sarregouset.</p>

<p>According to all appearance, Gilliatt had business on hand at
night: at least none doubted it.</p>

<p>Sometimes he was seen with a pitcher in his hand, pouring
water on the ground. Now water, cast upon the ground, is
known to make a shape like that of devils.</p>

<p>On the road to St. Sampson, opposite the Martello tower,
number 1, stand three stones, arranged in the form of steps.
Upon the platform of those stones, now empty, stood anciently
a cross, or perhaps a gallows. These stones are full of evil
influences.</p>

<p>Staid and worthy people, and perfectly credible witnesses,
testified to having seen Gilliatt at this spot conversing with a
toad. Now there are no toads at Guernsey. The share of
Guernsey in the reptiles of the Channel Isles consisting exclusively
of the snakes. It is Jersey that has all the toads. This
toad, then, must have swum from the neighbouring island, in
order to hold converse with Gilliatt. The converse was of a
friendly kind.</p>

<p>These facts were clearly established; and the proof is that
the three stones are there to this day. Those who doubt it
may go and see them; and at a little distance, there is also a
house on which the passer-by may read this inscription:&mdash;</p>

<p>"<span class="smcap">Dealer in cattle, alive and dead, old cordage, iron,
bones, and tobacco for chewing, prompt payment for
goods, and every attention given to orders.</span>"</p>

<p>A man must be sceptical indeed to contest the existence of
those stones, and of the house in question. Now both these
circumstances were injurious to the reputation of Gilliatt.</p>

<p>Only the most ignorant are unaware of the fact that the
greatest danger of the coasts of the Channel Islands is the King
of the Auxcriniers. No inhabitant of the seas is more redoubtable.
Whoever has seen him is certain to be wrecked between
one St. Michel and the other. He is little, being in fact a
dwarf; and is deaf, in his quality of king. He knows the names
of all those who have been drowned in the seas, and the spots
where they lie. He has a profound knowledge of that great
graveyard which stretches far and wide beneath the waters of
the ocean. A head, massive in the lower part and narrow in<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_14" id="Page_14">[Pg 14]</a></span>
the forehead; a squat and corpulent figure; a skull, covered
with warty excrescences; long legs, long arms, fins for feet,
claws for hands, and a sea-green countenance; such are the
chief characteristics of this king of the waves. His claws have
palms like hands; his fins human nails. Imagine a spectral
fish with the face of a human being. No power could check his
career unless he could be exorcised, or mayhap, fished up from
the sea. Meanwhile he continues his sinister operations. Nothing
is more unpleasant than an interview with this monster:
amid the rolling waves and breakers, or in the thick of the mist,
the sailor perceives, sometimes, a strange creature with a beetle
brow, wide nostrils, flattened ears, an enormous mouth, gap-toothed
jaws, peaked eyebrows, and great grinning eyes. When
the lightning is livid, he appears red; when it is purple, he looks
wan. He has a stiff spreading beard, running with water, and
overlapping a sort of pelerine, ornamented with fourteen shells,
seven before and seven behind. These shells are curious to
those who are learned in conchology. The King of the Auxcriniers
is only seen in stormy seas. He is the terrible harbinger
of the tempest. His hideous form traces itself in the fog, in the
squall, in the tempest of rain. His breast is hideous. A coat
of scales covers his sides like a vest. He rises above the waves
which fly before the wind, twisting and curling like thin shavings
of wood beneath the carpenter's plane. Then his entire form
issues out of the foam, and if there should happen to be in the
horizon any vessels in distress, pale in the twilight, or his face
lighted up with a sinister smile, he dances terrible and uncouth
to behold. It is an evil omen indeed to meet him on a voyage.</p>

<p>At the period when the people of St. Sampson were particularly
excited on the subject of Gilliatt, the last persons who
had seen the King of the Auxcriniers declared that his pelerine
was now ornamented with only thirteen shells. Thirteen! He
was only the more dangerous. But what had become of the
fourteenth? Had he given it to some one? No one would say
positively; and folks confined themselves to conjecture. But
it was an undoubted fact that a certain Mons. Lupin Mabier,
of Godaines, a man of property, paying a good sum to the land
tax, was ready to depose on oath, that he had once seen in the
hands of Gilliatt a very remarkable kind of shell.</p>

<p>It was not uncommon to hear dialogues like the following
among the country people:&mdash;</p>

<p>"I have a fine bull here, neighbour, what do you say?"</p>

<p>"Very fine, neighbour?"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_15" id="Page_15">[Pg 15]</a></span></p>

<p>"It is a fact, tho' 'tis I who say it; he is better though for
tallow than for meat."</p>

<p>"Ver dia!"</p>

<p>"Are you sure that Gilliatt hasn't cast his eye upon it?"</p>

<p>Gilliatt would stop sometimes beside a field where some
labourers were assembled, or near gardens in which gardeners
were engaged, and would perhaps hear these mysterious words:</p>

<p>"When the <i>mors du diable</i> flourishes, reap the winter rye."</p>

<p>(The <i>mors du diable</i> is the scabwort plant.)</p>

<p>"The ash tree is coming out in leaf. There will be no more
frost."</p>

<p>"Summer solstice, thistle in flower."</p>

<p>"If it rain not in June, the wheat will turn white. Look out
for mildew."</p>

<p>"When the wild cherry appears, beware of the full moon."</p>

<p>"If the weather on the sixth day of the new moon is like
that of the fourth, or like that of the fifth day, it will be the
same nine times out of twelve, in the first case, and eleven
times out of twelve in the second, during the whole month."</p>

<p>"Keep your eye on neighbours who go to law with you.
Beware of malicious influences. A pig which has had warm
milk given to it will die. A cow which has had its teeth rubbed
with leeks will eat no more."</p>

<p>"Spawning time with the smelts; beware of fevers."</p>

<p>"When frogs begin to appear, sow your melons."</p>

<p>"When the liverwort flowers, sow your barley."</p>

<p>"When the limes are in bloom, mow the meadows."</p>

<p>"When the elm-tree flowers, open the hot-bed frames."</p>

<p>"When tobacco fields are in blossom, close your greenhouses."</p>

<p>And, fearful to relate, these occult precepts were not without
truth. Those who put faith in them could vouch for the fact.</p>

<p>One night, in the month of June, when Gilliatt was playing
upon his bagpipe, upon the sand-hills on the shore of the Demie
de Fontenelle, it had happened that the mackerel fishing had
failed.</p>

<p>One evening, at low water, it came to pass that a cart filled
with seaweed for manure overturned on the beach, in front of
Gilliatt's house. It is most probable that he was afraid of
being brought before the magistrates, for he took considerable
trouble in helping to raise the cart, and he filled it again
himself.</p>

<p>A little neglected child of the neighbourhood being troubled<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_16" id="Page_16">[Pg 16]</a></span>
with vermin, he had gone himself to St. Peter's Port, and had
returned with an ointment, with which he rubbed the child's
head. Thus Gilliatt had removed the pest from the poor
child, which was an evidence that Gilliatt himself had originally
given it; for everybody knows that there is a certain charm for
giving vermin to people.</p>

<p>Gilliatt was suspected of looking into wells&mdash;a dangerous
practice with those who have an evil eye; and, in fact, at
Arculons, near St. Peter's Port, the water of a well became
unwholesome. The good woman to whom this well belonged
said to Gilliatt:</p>

<p>"Look here, at this water;" and she showed him a glassful.
Gilliatt acknowledged it.</p>

<p>"The water is thick," he said; "that is true."</p>

<p>The good woman, who dreaded him in her heart, said, "Make
it sweet again for me."</p>

<p>Gilliatt asked her some questions: whether she had a stable?
whether the stable had a drain? whether the gutter of the
drain did not pass near the well? The good woman replied
"Yes." Gilliatt went into the stable; worked at the drain;
turned the gutter in another direction; and the water became
pure again. People in the country round might think what they
pleased. A well does not become foul one moment and sweet
the next without good cause; the bottom of the affair was
involved in obscurity; and, in short, it was difficult to escape
the conclusion that Gilliatt himself had bewitched the water.</p>

<p>On one occasion, when he went to Jersey, it was remarked
that he had taken a lodging in the street called the Rue des
Alleurs. Now the word <i>alleurs</i> signifies spirits from the other
world.</p>

<p>In villages it is the custom to gather together all these little
hints and indications of a man's career; and when they are
gathered together, the total constitutes his reputation among
the inhabitants.</p>

<p>It happened that Gilliatt was once caught with blood issuing
from his nose. The circumstances appeared grave. The
master of a barque who had sailed almost entirely round the
world, affirmed that among the Tongusians all sorcerers were
subject to bleeding at the nose. In fact, when you see a man
in those parts bleeding at the nose, you know at once what is
in the wind. Moderate reasoners, however, remarked that the
characteristics of sorcerers among the Tongusians may possibly
not apply in the same degree to the sorcerers of Guernsey.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_17" id="Page_17">[Pg 17]</a></span></p>

<p>In the environs of one of the St. Michels, he had been seen
to stop in a close belonging to the Huriaux, skirting the highway
from the Videclins. He whistled in the field, and a moment
afterwards a crow alighted there; a moment later, a magpie.
The fact was attested by a worthy man who has since been
appointed to the office of Douzenier of the Douzaine, as those
are called who are authorised to make a new survey and register
of the fief of the king.</p>

<p>At Hamel, in the Vingtaine of L'Epine, there lived some old
women who were positive of having heard one morning a
number of swallows distinctly calling "Gilliatt."</p>

<p>Add to all this that he was of a malicious temper.</p>

<p>One day, a poor man was beating an ass. The ass was
obstinate. The poor man gave him a few kicks in the belly
with his wooden shoe, and the ass fell. Gilliatt ran to raise
the unlucky beast, but he was dead. Upon this Gilliatt administered
to the poor man a sound thrashing.</p>

<p>Another day, Gilliatt seeing a boy come down from a tree
with a brood of little birds, newly hatched and unfledged, he
took the brood away from the boy, and carried his malevolence
so far as even to take them back and replace them in the tree.</p>

<p>Some passers-by took up the boy's complaint; but Gilliatt
made no reply, except to point to the old birds, who were
hovering and crying plaintively over the tree, as they looked
for their nest. He had a weakness for birds&mdash;another sign by
which the people recognise a magician.</p>

<p>Children take a pleasure in robbing the nests of birds along
the cliff. They bring home quantities of yellow, blue, and
green eggs, with which they make rosaries for mantelpiece
ornaments. As the cliffs are peaked, they sometimes slip and
are killed. Nothing is prettier than shutters decorated with
sea-birds' eggs. Gilliatt's mischievous ingenuity had no end.
He would climb, at the peril of his own life, into the steep
places of the sea rocks, and hang up bundles of hay, old hats,
and all kinds of scarecrows, to deter the birds from building
there, and, as a consequence, to prevent the children from
visiting those spots.</p>

<p>These are some of the reasons why Gilliatt was disliked
throughout the country. Perhaps nothing less could have
been expected.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_18" id="Page_18">[Pg 18]</a></span></p>



<hr style="width: 65%;" />
<h4>V</h4>

<h5>MORE SUSPICIOUS FACTS ABOUT GILLIATT</h5>


<p>Public opinion was not yet quite settled with regard to Gilliatt.</p>

<p>In general he was regarded as a <i>Marcou</i>: some went so far
as to believe him to be a <i>Cambion</i>. A cambion is the child of
a woman begotten by a devil.</p>

<p>When a woman bears to her husband seven male children
consecutively, the seventh is a marcou. But the series must
not be broken by the birth of any female child.</p>

<p>The marcou has a natural fleur-de-lys imprinted upon some
part of his body; for which reason he has the power of curing
scrofula, exactly the same as the King of France. Marcous
are found in all parts of France, but particularly in the Orl&eacute;anais.
Every village of G&acirc;tinais has its marcou. It is sufficient
for the cure of the sick that the marcou should breathe upon
their wounds, or let them touch his fleur-de-lys. The night of
Good Friday is particularly favourable to these ceremonies.
Ten years ago there lived, at Ormes in G&acirc;tinais, one of these
creatures who was nicknamed the Beau Marcou, and consulted
by all the country of Beauce. He was a cooper, named Foulon,
who kept a horse and vehicle. To put a stop to his miracles,
it was found necessary to call in the assistance of the gendarmes.
His fleur-de-lys was on the left breast; other marcous have it
in different parts.</p>

<p>There are marcous at Jersey, Auvigny, and at Guernsey.
This fact is doubtless in some way connected with the rights
possessed by France over Normandy: or why the fleur-de-lys?</p>

<p>There are also, in the Channel Islands, people afflicted with
scrofula; which of course necessitates a due supply of these
marcous.</p>

<p>Some people, who happened to be present one day when
Gilliatt was bathing in the sea, had fancied that they could
perceive upon him a fleur-de-lys. Interrogated on that subject
he made no reply, but merely burst into laughter. For he
laughed sometimes like other men. From that time, however,
no one ever saw him bathe: he bathed thenceforth only in
perilous and solitary places; probably by moonlight: a thing
in itself somewhat suspicious.</p>

<p>Those who obstinately regarded him as a cambion, or son of
the devil, were evidently in error. They ought to have known<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_19" id="Page_19">[Pg 19]</a></span>
that cambions scarcely exist out of Germany. But The Vale
and St. Sampson were, fifty years ago, places remarkable for the
ignorance of their inhabitants.</p>

<p>To fancy that a resident of the island of Guernsey could be
the son of a devil was evidently absurd.</p>

<p>Gilliatt, for the very reason that he caused disquietude among
the people, was sought for and consulted. The peasants came
in fear, to talk to him of their diseases. That fear itself had in it
something of faith in his powers; for in the country, the more
the doctor is suspected of magic, the more certain is the cure.
Gilliatt had certain remedies of his own, which he had inherited
from the deceased woman. He communicated them to all who
had need of them, and would never receive money for them.
He cured whitlows with applications of herbs. A liquor in one
of his phials allayed fever. The chemist of St. Sampson, or
<i>pharmacien</i>, as they would call him in France, thought that this
was probably a decoction of Jesuits' bark. The more generous
among his censors admitted that Gilliatt was not so bad a
demon in his dealings with the sick, so far as regarded his
ordinary remedies. But in his character of a marcou, he would
do nothing. If persons afflicted with scrofula came to him to
ask to touch the fleur-de-lys on his skin, he made no other answer
than that of shutting the door in their faces. He persistently
refused to perform any miracles&mdash;a ridiculous position for a
sorcerer. No one is bound to be a sorcerer; but when a man is
one, he ought not to shirk the duties of his position.</p>

<p>One or two exceptions might be found to this almost universal
antipathy. Sieur Landoys, of the Clos-Land&eacute;s, was clerk and
registrar of St. Peter's Port, custodian of the documents,
and keeper of the register of births, marriages, and deaths.
This Landoys was vain of his descent from Peter Landoys,
treasurer of the province of Brittany, who was hanged in
1485. One day, when Sieur Landoys was bathing in the sea,
he ventured to swim out too far, and was on the point of drowning:
Gilliatt plunged into the water, narrowly escaping drowning
himself, and succeeded in saving him. From that day
Landoys never spoke an evil word of Gilliatt. To those who
expressed surprise at this change, he replied, "Why should I
detest a man who never did me any harm, and who has rendered
me a service?" The parish clerk and registrar even came at
last to feel a sort of friendship for Gilliatt. This public functionary
was a man without prejudices. He had no faith in
sorcerers. He laughed at people who went in fear of ghostly<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_20" id="Page_20">[Pg 20]</a></span>
visitors. As for him, he had a boat in which he amused himself
by making fishing excursions in his leisure hours; but he had
never seen anything extraordinary, unless it was on one occasion
&mdash;a woman clothed in white, who rose about the waters in the
light of the moon&mdash;and even of this circumstance he was not
quite sure. Moutonne Gahy, the old witch of Torteval, had given
him a little bag to be worn under the cravat, as a protection
against evil spirits: he ridiculed the bag, and knew not what it
contained, though, to be sure, he carried it about him, feeling
more security with this charm hanging on his neck.</p>

<p>Some courageous persons, emboldened by the example of
Landoys, ventured to cite, in Gilliatt's favour, certain extenuating
circumstances; a few signs of good qualities, as his sobriety,
his abstinence from spirits and tobacco; and sometimes they
went so far as to pass this elegant eulogium upon him: "He
neither smokes, drinks, chews tobacco, or takes snuff."</p>

<p>Sobriety, however, can only count as a virtue when there are
other virtues to support it.</p>

<p>The ban of public opinion lay heavily upon Gilliatt.</p>

<p>In any case, as a marcou, Gilliatt had it in his power to render
great services. On a certain Good Friday, at midnight, a day
and an hour propitious to this kind of cure, all the scrofulous
people of the island, either by sudden inspiration, or by concerted
action, presented themselves in a crowd at the B&ucirc; de la
Rue, and with pitiable sores and imploring gestures, called on
Gilliatt to make them clean. But he refused; and herein the
people found another proof of his malevolence.</p>



<hr style="width: 65%;" />
<h4>VI</h4>

<h5>THE DUTCH SLOOP</h5>


<p>Such was the character of Gilliatt.</p>

<p>The young women considered him ugly.</p>

<p>Ugly he was not. He might, perhaps, have been called
handsome. There was something in his profile of rude but
antique grace. In repose it had some resemblance to that of
a sculptured Dacian on the Trajan column. His ears were
small, delicate, without lobes, and of an admirable form for
hearing. Between his eyes he had that proud vertical line
which indicates in a man boldness and perseverance. The
corners of his mouth were depressed, giving a slight expression<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_21" id="Page_21">[Pg 21]</a></span>
of bitterness. His forehead had a calm and noble roundness.
The clear pupils of his eyes possessed a steadfast look, although
troubled a little with that involuntary movement of the eyelids
which fishermen contract from the glitter of the waves.
His laugh was boyish and pleasing. No ivory could be of a
finer white than his teeth; but exposure to the sun had made
him swarthy as a moor. The ocean, the tempest, and the darkness
cannot be braved with impunity. At thirty he looked
already like a man of forty-five. He wore the sombre mask of
the wind and the sea.</p>

<p>The people had nicknamed him "Malicious Gilliatt."</p>

<p>There is an Indian fable to the effect that one day the god
Brahma inquired of the Spirit of Power, "Who is stronger than
thee?" and the spirit replied "Cunning." A Chinese proverb
says, "What could not the lion do, if he was the monkey also?"
Gilliatt was neither the lion nor the monkey; but his actions
gave some evidence of the truth of the Chinese proverb, and
of the Hindoo fable. Although only of ordinary height and
strength, he was enabled, so inventive and powerful was his
dexterity, to lift burdens that might have taxed a giant, and to
accomplish feats which would have done credit to an athlete.</p>

<p>He had in him something of the power of the gymnast. He
used, with equal address, his left hand and his right.</p>

<p>He never carried a gun; but was often seen with his net. He
spared the birds, but not the fish. Ill-luck to these dumb
creatures! He was an excellent swimmer.</p>

<p>Solitude either develops the mental powers, or renders men
dull and vicious. Gilliatt sometimes presented himself under
both these aspects. At times, when his features wore that air
of strange surprise already mentioned, he might have been
taken for a man of mental powers scarcely superior to the savage.
At other moments an indescribable air of penetration lighted
up his face. Ancient Chaldea possessed some men of this stamp.
At certain times the dullness of the shepherd mind became
transparent, and revealed the inspired sage.</p>

<p>After all, he was but a poor man; uninstructed, save to the
extent of reading and writing. It is probable that the condition
of his mind was at that limit which separates the dreamer
from the thinker. The thinker wills, the dreamer is a passive
instrument. Solitude sinks deeply into pure natures, and
modifies them in a certain degree. They become, unconsciously,
penetrated with a kind of sacred awe. The shadow in which
the mind of Gilliatt constantly dwelt was composed in almost<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_22" id="Page_22">[Pg 22]</a></span>
equal degrees of two elements, both obscure, but very different.
Within himself all was ignorance and weakness; without,
infinity and mysterious power.</p>

<p>By dint of frequent climbing on the rocks, of escalading the
rugged cliffs, of going to and fro among the islands in all
weathers, of navigating any sort of craft which came to hand,
of venturing night and day in difficult channels, he had become,
without taking count of his other advantages, and merely in
following his fancy and pleasure, a seaman of extraordinary
skill.</p>

<p>He was a born pilot. The true pilot is the man who navigates
the bed of the ocean even more than its surface. The waves
of the sea are an external problem, continually modified by the
submarine conditions of the waters in which the vessel is making
her way. To see Gilliatt guiding his craft among the reefs and
shallows of the Norman Archipelago, one might have fancied that
he carried in his head a plan of the bottom of the sea. He was
familiar with it all, and feared nothing.</p>

<p>He was better acquainted with the buoys in the channels
than the cormorants who make them their resting-places. The
almost imperceptible differences which distinguish the four
upright buoys of the Creux, Alligande, the Tr&eacute;mies, and the
Sardrette, were perfectly visible and clear to him, even in misty
weather. He hesitated neither at the oval, apple-headed buoy
of Anfr&eacute;, nor at the triple iron point of the Rousse, nor at the
white ball of the Corbette, nor at the black ball of Longue Pierre;
and there was no fear of his confounding the cross of Goubeau
with the sword planted in earth at La Platte, nor the hammer-shaped
buoy of the Barb&eacute;es with the curled-tail buoy of the
Moulinet.</p>

<p>His rare skill in seamanship showed itself in a striking manner
one day at Guernsey, on the occasion of one of those sea tournaments
which are called regattas. The feat to be performed was
to navigate alone a boat with four sails from St. Sampson to the
Isle of Herm, at one league distance, and to bring the boat back
from Herm to St. Sampson. To manage, without assistance, a
boat with four sails, is a feat which every fisherman is equal to,
and the difficulty seemed little; but there was a condition
which rendered it far from simple. The boat, to begin with,
was one of those large and heavy sloops of bygone times which
the sailors of the last century knew by the name of "Dutch
Belly Boats." This ancient style of flat, pot-bellied craft,
carrying on the larboard and starboard sides, in compensation<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_23" id="Page_23">[Pg 23]</a></span>
for the want of a keel, two wings, which lowered themselves,
sometimes the one, sometimes the other, according to the wind,
may occasionally be met with still at sea. In the second place,
there was the return from Herm, a journey which was rendered
more difficult by a heavy ballasting of stones. The conditions
were to go empty, but to return loaded. The sloop was the prize
of the contest. It was dedicated beforehand to the winner.
This "Dutch Belly Boat" had been employed as a pilot-boat.
The pilot who had rigged and worked it for twenty years was
the most robust of all the sailors of the channel. When he died
no one had been found capable of managing the sloop; and it
was, in consequence, determined to make it the prize of the
regatta. The sloop, though not decked, had some sea qualities,
and was a tempting prize for a skilful sailor. Her mast was
somewhat forward, which increased the motive-power of her
sails; besides having the advantage of not being in the way of
her pilot. It was a strong-built vessel, heavy, but roomy, and
taking the open sea well; in fact, a good, serviceable craft.
There was eager anxiety for the prize; the task was a rough one,
but the reward of success was worth having. Seven or eight
fishermen, among the most vigorous of the island, presented
themselves. One by one they essayed; but not one could
succeed in reaching Herm. The last one who tried his skill was
known for having crossed, in a rowing-boat, the terrible narrow
sea between Sark and Brecq-Hou. Sweating with his exertions,
he brought back the sloop, and said, "It is impossible."
Gilliatt then entered the bark, seized first of all the oar, then the
mainsail, and pushed out to sea. Then, without either making
fast the boom, which would have been imprudent, or letting it
go, which kept the sail under his direction, and leaving the boom
to move with the wind without drifting, he held the tiller with
his left hand. In three quarters of an hour he was at Herm.
Three hours later, although a strong breeze had sprung up and
was blowing across the roads, the sloop, guided by Gilliatt,
returned to St. Sampson with its load of stones. He had, with
an extravagant display of his resources, even added to the cargo
the little bronze cannon at Herm, which the people were in the
habit of firing off on the 5th of November, by way of rejoicing
over the death of Guy Fawkes.</p>

<p>Guy Fawkes, by the way, has been dead two hundred and
sixty years; a remarkably long period of rejoicing.</p>

<p>Gilliatt, thus burdened and encumbered, although he had the
Guy Fawkes'-day cannon in the boat and the south wind in his<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_24" id="Page_24">[Pg 24]</a></span>
sails, steered, or rather brought back, the heavy craft to St.
Sampson.</p>

<p>Seeing which, Mess Lethierry exclaimed, "There's a bold
sailor for you!"</p>

<p>And he held out his hand to Gilliatt.</p>

<p>We shall have occasion to speak again of Mess Lethierry.</p>

<p>The sloop was awarded to Gilliatt.</p>

<p>This adventure detracted nothing from his evil reputation.</p>

<p>Several persons declared that the feat was not at all astonishing,
for that Gilliatt had concealed in the boat a branch of wild
medlar. But this could not be proved.</p>

<p>From that day forward, Gilliatt navigated no boat except
the old sloop. In this heavy craft he went on his fishing avocation.
He kept it at anchor in the excellent little shelter which
he had all to himself, under the very wall of his house of the
B&ucirc; de la Rue. At nightfall, he cast his nets over his shoulder,
traversed his little garden, climbed over the parapet of dry
stones, stepped lightly from rock to rock, and jumping into the
sloop, pushed out to sea.</p>

<p>He brought home heavy takes of fish; but people said that
his medlar branch was always hanging up in the boat. No one
had ever seen this branch, but every one believed in its existence.</p>

<p>When he had more fish than he wanted, he did not sell it, but
gave it away.</p>

<p>The poor people took his gift, but were little grateful, for
they knew the secret of his medlar branch. Such devices cannot
be permitted. It is unlawful to trick the sea out of its treasures.</p>

<p>He was a fisherman; but he was something more. He had,
by instinct, or for amusement, acquired a knowledge of three
or four trades. He was a carpenter, worker in iron, wheelwright,
boat-caulker, and, to some extent, an engineer. No one could
mend a broken wheel better than he could. He manufactured,
in a fashion of his own, all the things which fishermen use. In
a corner of the B&ucirc; de la Rue he had a small forge and an anvil;
and the sloop having but one anchor, he had succeeded, without
help, in making another. The anchor was excellent. The ring
had the necessary strength; and Gilliatt, though entirely uninstructed
in this branch of the smith's art, had found the exact
dimensions of the stock for preventing the over-balancing of the
fluke ends.</p>

<p>He had patiently replaced all the nails in the planks by rivets;
which rendered rust in the holes impossible.</p>

<p>In this way he had much improved the sea-going qualities of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_25" id="Page_25">[Pg 25]</a></span>
the sloop. He employed it sometimes when he took a fancy
to spend a month or two in some solitary islet, like Chousey or
the Casquets. People said, "Ay! ay! Gilliatt is away;" but
this was a circumstance which nobody regretted.</p>



<hr style="width: 65%;" />
<h4>VII</h4>

<h5>A FIT TENANT FOR A HAUNTED HOUSE</h5>


<p>Gilliatt was a man of dreams, hence his daring, hence also his
timidity. He had ideas on many things which were peculiarly
his own.</p>

<p>There was in his character, perhaps, something of the visionary
and the transcendentalist. Hallucinations may haunt the poor
peasant like Martin, no less than the king like Henry IV. There
are times when the unknown reveals itself in a mysterious way
to the spirit of man. A sudden rent in the veil of darkness will
make manifest things hitherto unseen, and then close again
upon the mysteries within. Such visions have occasionally the
power to effect a transfiguration in those whom they visit.
They convert a poor camel-driver into a Mahomet; a peasant
girl tending her goats into a Joan of Arc. Solitude generates a
certain amount of sublime exaltation. It is like the smoke
arising from the burning bush. A mysterious lucidity of mind
results, which converts the student into a seer, and the poet
into a prophet: herein we find a key to the mysteries of Horeb,
Kedron, Ombos; to the intoxication of Castilian laurels, the
revelations of the month Busion. Hence, too, we have Peleia
at Dodona, Phemonoe at Delphos, Trophonius in Lebadea,
Ezekiel on the Chebar, and Jerome in the Thetais.</p>

<p>More frequently this visionary state overwhelms and stupefies
its victim. There is such a thing as a divine besottedness. The
Hindoo fakir bears about with him the burden of his vision,
as the Cretin his go&icirc;tre. Luther holding converse with devils
in his garret at Wittenburg; Pascal shutting out the view of
the infernal regions with the screen of his cabinet; the African
Obi conversing with the white-faced god Bossum; are each and
all the same phenomenon, diversely interpreted by the minds
in which they manifest themselves, according to their capacity
and power. Luther and Pascal were grand, and are grand
still; the Obi is simply a poor half-witted creature.</p>

<p>Gilliatt was neither so exalted nor so low. He was a dreamer:
nothing more.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_26" id="Page_26">[Pg 26]</a></span></p>

<p>Nature presented itself to him under a somewhat strange
aspect.</p>

<p>Just as he had often found in the perfectly limpid water of
the sea strange creatures of considerable size and of various
shapes, of the Medusa genus, which out of the water bore a
resemblance to soft crystal, and which, cast again into the
sea, became lost to sight in that medium by reason of their
identity in transparency and colour, so he imagined that other
transparencies, similar to these almost invisible denizens of
the ocean, might probably inhabit the air around us. The
birds are scarcely inhabitants of the air, but rather amphibious
creatures passing much of their lives upon the earth. Gilliatt
could not believe the air a mere desert. He used to say,
"Since the water is filled with life, why not the atmosphere?"
Creatures colourless and transparent like the air would escape
from our observation. What proof have we that there are
no such creatures? Analogy indicates that the liquid fields
of air must have their swimming habitants, even as the waters
of the deep. These aerial fish would, of course, be diaphanous;
a provision of their wise Creator for our sakes as well as their
own. Allowing the light to pass through their forms, casting
no shadow, having no defined outline, they would necessarily
remain unknown to us, and beyond the grasp of human sense.
Gilliatt indulged the wild fancy that if it were possible to
exhaust the earth of its atmosphere, or if we could fish the air
as we fish the depths of the sea, we should discover the existence
of a multitude of strange animals. And then, he would add in
his reverie, many things would be made clear.</p>

<p>Reverie, which is thought in its nebulous state, borders
closely upon the land of sleep, by which it is bounded as by a
natural frontier. The discovery of a new world, in the form
of an atmosphere filled with transparent creatures, would be
the beginning of a knowledge of the vast unknown. But beyond
opens up the illimitable domain of the possible, teeming with
yet other beings, and characterised by other phenomena. All
this would be nothing supernatural, but merely the occult continuation
of the infinite variety of creation. In the midst of
that laborious idleness, which was the chief feature in his existence,
Gilliatt was singularly observant. He even carried his
observations into the domain of sleep. Sleep has a close
relation with the possible, which we call also the <i>invraisemblable</i>.
The world of sleep has an existence of its own. Night-time,
regarded as a separate sphere of creation, is a universe in itself.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_27" id="Page_27">[Pg 27]</a></span>
The material nature of man, upon which philosophers tell us
that a column of air forty-five miles in height continually presses,
is wearied out at night, sinks into lassitude, lies down, and finds
repose. The eyes of the flesh are closed; but in that drooping
head, less inactive than is supposed, other eyes are opened.
The unknown reveals itself. The shadowy existences of the
invisible world become more akin to man; whether it be that
there is a real communication, or whether things far off in the
unfathomable abyss are mysteriously brought nearer, it seems
as if the impalpable creatures inhabiting space come then to
contemplate our natures, curious to comprehend the denizens
of the earth. Some phantom creation ascends or descends to
walk beside us in the dim twilight: some existence altogether
different from our own, composed partly of human consciousness,
partly of something else, quits his fellows and returns again,
after presenting himself for a moment to our inward sight; and
the sleeper, not wholly slumbering, nor yet entirely conscious,
beholds around him strange manifestations of life&mdash;pale spectres,
terrible or smiling, dismal phantoms, uncouth masks, unknown
faces, hydra-headed monsters, undefined shapes, reflections of
moonlight where there is no moon, vague fragments of monstrous
forms. All these things which come and go in the troubled
atmosphere of sleep, and to which men give the name of
dreams, are, in truth, only realities invisible to those who walk
about the daylight world. The dream-world is the Aquarium
of Night.</p>

<p>So, at least, thought Gilliatt.</p>



<hr style="width: 65%;" />
<h4>VIII</h4>

<h5>THE GILD-HOLM-'UR SEAT</h5>


<p>The curious visitor, in these days, would seek in vain in the
little bay of Houmet for the house in which Gilliatt lived, or
for his garden, or the creek in which he sheltered the Dutch
sloop. The B&ucirc; de la Rue no longer exists. Even the little
peninsula on which his house stood has vanished, levelled by
the pickaxe of the quarryman, and carried away, cart-load by
cart-load, by dealers in rock and granite. It must be sought
now in the churches, the palaces, and the quays of a great
city. All that ridge of rocks has been long ago conveyed to
London.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_28" id="Page_28">[Pg 28]</a></span></p>

<p>These long lines of broken cliffs in the sea, with their frequent
gaps and crevices, are like miniature chains of mountains. They
strike the eye with the impression which a giant may be supposed
to have in contemplating the Cordilleras. In the language of
the country they are called "Banques." These banques vary
considerably in form. Some resemble a long spine, of which
each rock forms one of the vertebr&aelig;; others are like the backbone
of a fish; while some bear an odd resemblance to a crocodile
in the act of drinking.</p>

<p>At the extremity of the ridge on which the B&ucirc; de la Rue was
situate, was a large rock, which the fishing people of Houmet
called the "Beast's Horn." This rock, a sort of pyramid,
resembled, though less in height, the "Pinnacle" of Jersey.
At high water the sea divided it from the ridge, and the Horn
stood alone; at low water it was approached by an isthmus of
rocks. The remarkable feature of this "Beast's Horn" was a
sort of natural seat on the side next the sea, hollowed out by
the water, and polished by the rains. The seat, however, was
a treacherous one. The stranger was insensibly attracted to
it by "the beauty of the prospect," as the Guernsey folks said.
Something detained him there in spite of himself, for there is
a charm in a wide view. The seat seemed to offer itself for his
convenience; it formed a sort of niche in the peaked <i>fa&ccedil;ade</i> of
the rock. To climb up to it was easy, for the sea, which had
fashioned it out of its rocky base, had also cast beneath it, at
convenient distances, a kind of natural stairs composed of flat
stones. The perilous abyss is full of these snares; beware,
therefore, of its proffered aids. The spot was tempting: the
stranger mounted and sat down. There he found himself at
his ease; for his seat he had the granite rounded and hollowed
out by the foam; for supports, two rocky elbows which seemed
made expressly for him; against his back, the high vertical wall
of rock which he looked up to and admired, without thinking of
the impossibility of scaling it. Nothing could be more simple
than to fall into reverie in that convenient resting-place. All
around spread the wide sea; far off the ships were seen passing
to and fro. It was possible to follow a sail with the eye, till
it sank in the horizon beyond the Casquets. The stranger was
entranced: he looked around, enjoying the beauty of the scene,
and the light touch of wind and wave. There is a sort of bat
found at Cayenne, which has the power of fanning people to
sleep in the shade with a gentle beating of its dusky wings.
Like this strange creature the wind wanders about, alternately<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_29" id="Page_29">[Pg 29]</a></span>
ravaging or lulling into security. So the stranger would
continue contemplating the sea, listening for a movement in
the air, and yielding himself up to dreamy indolence. When
the eyes are satiated with light and beauty, it is a luxury to
close them for awhile. Suddenly the loiterer would arouse;
but it was too late. The sea had crept up step by step; the
waters surrounded the rock; the stranger had been lured on
to his death.</p>

<p>A terrible rock was this in a rising sea.</p>

<p>The tide gathers at first insensibly, then with violence; when
it touches the rocks a sudden wrath seems to possess it, and
it foams. Swimming is difficult in the breakers: excellent
swimmers have been lost at the Horn of the B&ucirc; de la Rue.</p>

<p>In certain places, and at certain periods, the aspect of the
sea is dangerous&mdash;fatal; as at times is the glance of a woman.</p>

<p>Very old inhabitants of Guernsey used to call this niche,
fashioned in the rock by the waves, "Gild-Holm-'Ur" seat, or
Kidormur; a Celtic word, say some authorities, which those who
understand Celtic cannot interpret, and which all who understand
French can&mdash;"<i>Qui-dort-meurt:</i>"<a name="FNanchor_1_1" id="FNanchor_1_1"></a><a href="#Footnote_1_1" class="fnanchor">[1]</a> such is the country
folks' translation.</p>

<p>The reader may choose between the translation, <i>Qui-dort-meurt</i>,
and that given in 1819, I believe in <i>The Armorican</i>, by
M. Athenas. According to this learned Celtic scholar, Gild-Holm-'Ur
signifies "The resting-place of birds."</p>

<p>There is, at Aurigny, another seat of this kind, called the
Monk's Chair, so well sculptured by the waves, and with steps
of rock so conveniently placed, that it might be said that the
sea politely sets a footstool for those who rest there.</p>

<p>In the open sea, at high water, the Gild-Holm-'Ur was no
longer visible; the water covered it entirely.</p>

<p>The Gild-Holm-'Ur was a neighbour of the B&ucirc; de la Rue.
Gilliatt knew it well, and often seated himself there. Was it
his meditating place? No. We have already said he did not
meditate, but dream. The sea, however, never entrapped him
there.</p>
<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_30" id="Page_30">[Pg 30]</a></span></p>
<div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3>

<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_1_1" id="Footnote_1_1"></a><a href="#FNanchor_1_1"><span class="label">[1]</span></a> He who sleeps must die.</p></div>
</div>


<hr style="width: 65%;" />
<h3>BOOK II</h3>

<h4>MESS LETHIERRY</h4>

<h4>I</h4>

<h5>A TROUBLED LIFE, BUT A QUIET CONSCIENCE</h5>


<p>Mess Lethierry, a conspicuous man in St. Sampson, was a
redoubtable sailor. He had voyaged a great deal. He had
been a cabin-boy, seaman, topmast-man, second mate, mate,
pilot, and captain. He was at this period a ship-owner. There
was not a man to compare with him for general knowledge of
the sea. He was brave in putting off to ships in distress. In
foul weather he would take his way along the beach, scanning
the horizon. "What have we yonder?" he would say; "some
craft in trouble?" Whether it were an interloping Weymouth
fisherman, a cutter from Aurigny, a bisquine from Courseulle, the
yacht of some nobleman, an English craft or a French one&mdash;poor
or rich, mattered little. He jumped into a boat, called together
two or three strong fellows, or did without them, as the case
might be, pushed out to sea, rose and sank, and rose again on
rolling waves, plunged into the storm, and encountered the
danger face to face. Then afar off, amid the rain and lightning,
and drenched with water, he was sometimes seen upright in his
boat like a lion with a foaming mane. Often he would pass
whole days in danger amidst the waves, the hail, and the wind,
making his way to the sides of foundering vessels during the
tempest, and rescuing men and merchandise. At night, after
feats like these, he would return home, and pass his time in
knitting stockings.</p>

<p>For fifty years he led this kind of life&mdash;from ten years of age
to sixty&mdash;so long did he feel himself still young. At sixty, he
began to discover that he could no longer lift with one hand
the great anvil at the forge of Varclin. This anvil weighed
three hundredweight. At length rheumatic pains compelled
him to be a prisoner; he was forced to give up his old struggle
with the sea, to pass from the heroic into the patriarchal stage,
to sink into the condition of a harmless, worthy old fellow.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_31" id="Page_31">[Pg 31]</a></span></p>

<p>Happily his rheumatism attacks happened at the period when
he had secured a comfortable competency. These two consequences
of labour are natural companions. At the moment when
men become rich, how often comes paralysis&mdash;the sorrowful
crowning of a laborious life!</p>

<p>Old and weary men say among themselves, "Let us rest and
enjoy life."</p>

<p>The population of islands like Guernsey is composed of men
who have passed their lives in going about their little fields or
in sailing round the world. These are the two classes of the
labouring people; the labourers on the land, and the toilers of
the sea. Mess Lethierry was of the latter class; he had had a
life of hard work. He had been upon the continent; was for
some time a ship carpenter at Rochefort, and afterwards at
Cette. We have just spoken of sailing round the world; he had
made the circuit of all France, getting work as a journeyman
carpenter; and had been employed at the great salt works of
Franche-Comte. Though a humble man, he had led a life of
adventure. In France he had learned to read, to think, to have
a will of his own. He had had a hand in many things, and in
all he had done had kept a character for probity. At bottom,
however, he was simply a sailor. The water was his element;
he used to say that he lived with the fish when really at home.
In short, his whole existence, except two or three years,
had been devoted to the ocean. Flung into the water, as he
said, he had navigated the great oceans both of the Atlantic and
the Pacific, but he preferred the Channel. He used to exclaim
enthusiastically, "That is the sea for a rough time of it!" He
was born at sea, and at sea would have preferred to end his days.
After sailing several times round the world, and seeing most
countries, he had returned to Guernsey, and never permanently
left the island again. Henceforth his great voyages were to
Granville and St. Malo.</p>

<p>Mess Lethierry was a Guernsey man&mdash;that peculiar amalgamation
of Frenchman and Norman, or rather English. He had
within himself this quadruple extraction, merged and almost
lost in that far wider country, the ocean. Throughout his life
and wheresoever he went, he had preserved the habits of a
Norman fisherman.</p>

<p>All this, however, did not prevent his looking now and then
into some old book; of taking pleasure in reading, in knowing
the names of philosophers and poets, and in talking a little now
and then in all languages.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_32" id="Page_32">[Pg 32]</a></span></p>



<hr style="width: 65%;" />
<h4>II</h4>

<h5>A CERTAIN PREDILECTION</h5>


<p>Gilliatt was a child of Nature. Mess Lethierry was the same.</p>

<p>Lethierry's uncultivated nature, however, was not without
certain refinements.</p>

<p>He was fastidious upon the subject of women's hands. In
his early years, while still a lad, passing from the stage of cabin-boy
to that of sailor, he had heard the Admiral de Suffren say,
"There goes a pretty girl; but what horrible great red hands."
An observation from an admiral on any subject is a command,
a law, an authority far above that of an oracle. The exclamation
of Admiral de Suffren had rendered Lethierry fastidious and
exacting in the matter of small and white hands. His own
hand, a large club fist of the colour of mahogany, was like a
mallet or a pair of pincers for a friendly grasp, and, tightly closed,
would almost break a paving-stone.</p>

<p>He had never married; he had either no inclination for
matrimony, or had never found a suitable match. That, perhaps,
was due to his being a stickler for hands like those of a
duchess. Such hands are, indeed, somewhat rare among the
fishermen's daughters at Portbail.</p>

<p>It was whispered, however, that at Rochefort, on the Charente,
he had, once upon a time, made the acquaintance of a certain
grisette, realising his ideal. She was a pretty girl with graceful
hands; but she was a vixen, and had also a habit of scratching.
Woe betide any one who attacked her! yet her nails, though
capable at a pinch of being turned into claws, were of a cleanliness
which left nothing to be desired. It was these peculiarly
bewitching nails which had first enchanted and then disturbed
the peace of Lethierry, who, fearing that he might one day
become no longer master of his mistress, had decided not to
conduct that young lady to the nuptial altar.</p>

<p>Another time he met at Aurigny a country girl who pleased
him. He thought of marriage, when one of the inhabitants of
the place said to him, "I congratulate you; you will have for
your wife a good fuel maker." Lethierry asked the meaning of
this. It appeared that the country people at Aurigny have a
certain custom of collecting manure from their cow-houses,
which they throw against a wall, where it is left to dry and fall
to the ground. Cakes of dried manure of this kind are used for<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_33" id="Page_33">[Pg 33]</a></span>
fuel, and are called <i>coipiaux</i>. A country girl of Aurigny has no
chance of getting a husband if she is not a good fuel maker;
but the young lady's especial talent only inspired disgust in
Lethierry.</p>

<p>Besides, he had in his love matters a kind of rough country
folks' philosophy, a sailor-like sort of habit of mind. Always
smitten but never enslaved, he boasted of having been in his
youth easily conquered by a petticoat, or rather a <i>cotillon</i>; for
what is now-a-days called a crinoline, was in his time called a
<i>cotillon</i>; a term which, in his use of it, signifies both something
more and something less than a wife.</p>

<p>These rude seafaring men of the Norman Archipelago, have
a certain amount of shrewdness. Almost all can read and write.
On Sundays, little cabin-boys may be seen in those parts, seated
upon a coil of ropes, reading, with book in hand. From all
time these Norman sailors have had a peculiar satirical vein,
and have been famous for clever sayings. It was one of these
men, the bold pilot Qu&eacute;ripel, who said to Montgomery, when he
sought refuge in Jersey after the unfortunate accident in killing
Henry II. at a tournament, with a blow of his lance, "<i>T&ecirc;te folle
a cass&eacute; t&ecirc;te vide</i>." Another one, Touzeau, a sea-captain at St.
Br&eacute;lade, was the author of that philosophical pun, erroneously
attributed to Camus, "<i>Apr&egrave;s la mort, les papes deviennent
papillons, et les sires deviennent cirons</i>."</p>



<hr style="width: 65%;" />
<h4>III</h4>

<h5>THE OLD SEA LANGUAGE</h5>


<p>The mariners of the Channel are the true ancient Gauls.
The islands, which in these days become rapidly more and
more English&mdash;preserved for many ages their old French character.
The peasant in Sark speaks the language of Louis XIV.
Forty years ago, the old classical nautical language was to be
found in the mouths of the sailors of Jersey and Aurigny. When
amongst them, it was possible to imagine oneself carried back
to the sea life of the seventeenth century. From that speaking
trumpet which terrified Admiral Hidde, a philologist might
have learnt the ancient technicalities of man&oelig;uvring and giving
orders at sea, in the very words which were roared out to his
sailors by Jean Bart. The old French maritime vocabulary is
now almost entirely changed, but was still in use in Jersey in<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_34" id="Page_34">[Pg 34]</a></span>
1820. A ship that was a good plyer was <i>bon boulinier</i>; one that
carried a weather-helm in spite of her foresails and rudder was
<i>un vaisseau ardent</i>; to get under way was <i>prendre aire</i>; to lie
to in a storm, <i>capeyer</i>; to make fast running rigging was <i>faire
dormant</i>; to get to windward, <i>faire chapelle</i>; to keep the cable
tight, <i>faire teste</i>; to be out of trim, <i>&ecirc;tre en pantenne</i>; to keep
the sails full, <i>porter plain</i>. These expressions have fallen out
of use. To-day we say <i>louvoyer</i> for to beat to windward, they
said <i>leauvoyer</i>; for <i>naviguer</i>, sail, they said <i>naviger</i>; for <i>virer
vent devant</i>, to tack, <i>donner vent devant</i>; for <i>aller de l'avant</i>, to
make headway, <i>tailler de l'avant</i>; for <i>tirez d'accord</i>, haul
together, <i>halez d'accord</i>; for <i>d&eacute;rapez</i>, to weigh anchor, <i>deplantez</i>;
for <i>embraquez</i>, to haul tight, <i>abraquez</i>; for <i>taquets</i>, cleats,
<i>bittons</i>; for <i>burins</i>, toggles, <i>tappes</i>; for <i>balancine</i>, fore-lift,
main-lift, etc., <i>valancine</i>; for <i>tribord</i>, starboard, <i>stribord</i>; for
<i>les hommes de quart &agrave; b&acirc;bord</i>, men of the larboard watch, <i>les
basbourdis</i>. Tourville wrote to Hocquincourt: <i>nous avons singl&eacute;t</i>
(sailed), for <i>cingl&eacute;</i>. Instead of <i>la rafale</i>, squall, <i>le raffal</i>;
instead of <i>bossoir</i>, cat-head, <i>boussoir</i>; instead of <i>drosse</i>, truss,
<i>drousse</i>; instead of <i>loffer</i>, to luff, <i>faire une olof&eacute;e</i>; instead of
<i>elonger</i>, to lay alongside, <i>alonger</i>; instead of <i>forte brise</i>, stiff
breeze, <i>survent</i>; instead of <i>jouail</i>, stock of an anchor, <i>jas</i>;
instead of <i>soute</i>, store-room, <i>fosse</i>.</p>

<p>Such, at the beginning of this century, was the maritime
dialect of the Channel Islands. Ango would have been
startled had he heard the speech of a Jersey pilot. Whilst
everywhere else the sails <i>faseyaient</i> (shivered), in these islands
they <i>barbeyaient</i>. A <i>saute de vent</i>, sudden shift of wind, was a
<i>folle-vente</i>. The old methods of mooring known as <i>la valture</i>
and <i>la portugaise</i> were alone used, and such commands as
<i>jour-et-chaque!</i> and <i>bosse et vilte!</i> might still be heard. While a
sailor of Granville was already employing the word <i>clan</i> for
sheave-hold, one of St. Aubin or of St. Sampson still stuck to
his <i>canal de pouliot</i>. What was called <i>bout d'alonge</i> (upper
fultock) at St. Malo, was <i>oreille d'&acirc;ne</i> at St. Helier. Mess
Lethierry, as did the Duke de Vibonne, called the sheer of the
decks <i>la tonture</i>, and the caulker's chisel <i>la patarasse</i>.</p>

<p>It was with this uncouth sea dialect in his mouth that
Duquesne beat De Ruyter, that Duguay Trouin defeated
Wasnaer, and that Tourville, in 1681, poured a broadside into
the first galley which bombarded Algiers. It is now a dead
language. The idiom of the sea is altogether different.
Duperr&eacute; would not be able to understand Suffren.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_35" id="Page_35">[Pg 35]</a></span></p>

<p>The language of French naval signals is not less transformed;
there is a long distance between the four pennants, red, white,
yellow, and blue, of Labourdonnaye, and the eighteen flags of
these days, which, hoisted two and two, three and three, or four
and four, furnish, for distant communication, sixty-six thousand
combinations, are never deficient, and, so to speak, foresee the
unforeseen.</p>



<hr style="width: 65%;" />
<h4>IV</h4>

<h5>ONE IS VULNERABLE WHERE ONE LOVES</h5>


<p>Mess Lethierry's heart and hand were always ready&mdash;a large
heart and a large hand. His failing was that admirable one,
self-confidence. He had a certain fashion of his own of undertaking
to do a thing. It was a solemn fashion. He said, "I
give my word of honour to do it, with God's help." That said,
he went through with his duty. He put his faith in God&mdash;nothing
more. His rare churchgoing was merely formal. At
sea he was superstitious.</p>

<p>Nevertheless, the storm had never yet arisen which could
daunt him. One reason of this was his impatience of opposition.
He could tolerate it neither from the ocean nor anything else.
He meant to have his way; so much the worse for the sea if it
thwarted him. It might try, if it would, but Mess Lethierry
would not give in. A refractory wave could no more stop him
than an angry neighbour. What he had said was said; what
he planned out was done. He bent neither before an objection
nor before the tempest. The word "no" had no existence for
him, whether it was in the mouth of a man or in the angry
muttering of a thunder-cloud. In the teeth of all he went on in
his way. He would take no refusals. Hence his obstinacy in
life, and his intrepidity on the ocean.</p>

<p>He seasoned his simple meal of fish soup for himself, knowing
the quantities of pepper, salt, and herbs which it required, and
was as well pleased with the cooking as with the meal. To
complete the sketch of Lethierry's peculiarities, the reader must
conjure a being to whom the putting on of a surtout would
amount to a transfiguration; whom a landsman's greatcoat
would convert into a strange animal; one who, standing with
his locks blown about by the wind, might have represented old
Jean Bart, but who, in the landsman's round hat, would have
looked an idiot; awkward in cities, wild and redoubtable at sea;<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_36" id="Page_36">[Pg 36]</a></span>
a man with broad shoulders, fit for a porter; one who indulged
in no oaths, was rarely in anger, whose voice had a soft accent,
which became like thunder in a speaking-trumpet; a peasant
who had read something of the philosophy of Diderot and
D'Alembert; a Guernsey man who had seen the great Revolution;
a learned ignoramus, free from bigotry, but indulging in
visions, with more faith in the White Lady than in the Holy
Virgin; possessing the strength of Polyphemus, the perseverance
of Columbus, with a little of the bull in his nature, and a little
of the child. Add to these physical and mental peculiarities a
somewhat flat nose, large cheeks, a set of teeth still perfect, a
face filled with wrinkles, and which seemed to have been
buffeted by the waves and subjected to the beating of the winds
of forty years, a brow in which the storm and tempest were
plainly written&mdash;an incarnation of a rock in the open sea. Add
to this, too, a good-tempered smile always ready to light up his
weather-beaten countenance, and you have before you Mess
Lethierry.</p>

<p>Mess Lethierry had two special objects of affection only.
Their names were Durande and D&eacute;ruchette.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_37" id="Page_37">[Pg 37]</a></span></p>



<hr style="width: 65%;" />
<h3>BOOK III</h3>

<h4>DURANDE AND D&Eacute;RUCHETTE</h4>

<h4>I</h4>

<h5>PRATTLE AND SMOKE</h5>


<p>The human body might well be regarded as a mere simulacrum;
but it envelopes our reality, it darkens our light, and broadens
the shadow in which we live. The soul is the reality of our
existence. Strictly speaking, the human visage is a mask. The
true man is that which exists under what is called man. If that
being, which thus exists sheltered and secreted behind that
illusion which we call the flesh, could be approached, more than
one strange revelation would be made. The vulgar error is to
mistake the outward husk for the living spirit. Yonder maiden,
for example, if we could see her as she really is, might she not
figure as some bird of the air?</p>

<p>A bird transmuted into a young maiden, what could be more
exquisite? Picture it in your own home, and call it D&eacute;ruchette.
Delicious creature! One might be almost tempted to say,
"Good-morning, Mademoiselle Goldfinch." The wings are
invisible, but the chirping may still be heard. Sometimes, too,
she pipes a clear, loud song. In her childlike prattle, the
creature is, perhaps, inferior; but in her song, how superior to
humanity! When womanhood dawns, this angel flies away;
but sometimes returns, bringing back a little one to a mother.
Meanwhile, she who is one day to be a mother is for a long while
a child; the girl becomes a maiden, fresh and joyous as the lark.
Noting her movements, we feel as if it was good of her not to fly
away. The dear familiar companion moves at her own sweet
will about the house; flits from branch to branch, or rather from
room to room; goes to and fro; approaches and retires; plumes
her wings, or rather combs her hair, and makes all kinds of
gentle noises&mdash;murmurings of unspeakable delight to certain
ears. She asks a question, and is answered; is asked something
in return, and chirps a reply. It is delightful to chat with her
when tired of serious talk; for this creature carries with her
something of her skyey element. She is, as it were, a thread of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_38" id="Page_38">[Pg 38]</a></span>
gold interwoven with your sombre thoughts; you feel almost
grateful to her for her kindness in not making herself invisible,
when it would be so easy for her to be even impalpable; for the
beautiful is a necessary of life. There is, in this world, no
function more important than that of being charming. The
forest-glade would be incomplete without the humming-bird.
To shed joy around, to radiate happiness, to cast light upon
dark days, to be the golden thread of our destiny, and the very
spirit of grace and harmony, is not this to render a service?
Does not beauty confer a benefit upon us, even by the simple fact
of being beautiful? Here and there we meet with one who possesses
that fairy-like power of enchanting all about her; sometimes
she is ignorant herself of this magical influence, which is,
however, for that reason, only the more perfect. Her presence
lights up the home; her approach is like a cheerful warmth; she
passes by; and we are content; she stays awhile, and we are
happy. To behold her is to live: she is the Aurora with a
human face. She has no need to do more than simply to be:
she makes an Eden of the house; Paradise breathes from her;
and she communicates this delight to all, without taking any
greater trouble than that of existing beside them. Is it not a
thing divine to have a smile which, none know how, has the
power to lighten the weight of that enormous chain which all
the living, in common, drag behind them? D&eacute;ruchette possessed
this smile: we may even say that this smile was D&eacute;ruchette
herself. There is one thing which has more resemblance
to ourselves than even our face, and that is our expression:
but there is yet another thing which more resembles us than
this, and that is our smile. D&eacute;ruchette smiling was simply
D&eacute;ruchette.</p>

<p>There is something peculiarly attractive in the Jersey and
Guernsey race. The women, particularly the young, are remarkable
for a pure and exquisite beauty. Their complexion
is a combination of the Saxon fairness, with the proverbial
ruddiness of the Norman people&mdash;rosy cheeks and blue eyes;
but the eyes want brilliancy. The English training dulls them.
Their liquid glances will be irresistible whenever the secret is
found of giving them that depth which is the glory of the
Parisienne. Happily Englishwomen are not yet quite transformed
into the Parisian type. D&eacute;ruchette was not a Parisian;
yet she was certainly not a Guernesiaise. Lethierry had
brought her up to be neat and delicate and pretty; and so she
was.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_39" id="Page_39">[Pg 39]</a></span></p>

<p>D&eacute;ruchette had, at times, an air of bewitching langour, and
a certain mischief in the eye, which were altogether involuntary.
She scarcely knew, perhaps, the meaning of the word love, and
yet not unwillingly ensnared those about her in the toils. But
all this in her was innocent. She never thought of marrying.</p>

<p>D&eacute;ruchette had the prettiest little hands in the world, and
little feet to match them. Sweetness and goodness reigned
throughout her person; her family and fortune were her uncle
Mess Lethierry; her occupation was only to live her daily life;
her accomplishments were the knowledge of a few songs; her
intellectual gifts were summed up in her simple innocence; she
had the graceful repose of the West Indian woman, mingled at
times with giddiness and vivacity, with the teasing playfulness
of a child, yet with a dash of melancholy. Her dress was somewhat
rustic, and like that peculiar to her country&mdash;elegant,
though not in accordance with the fashions of great cities; for
she wore flowers in her bonnet all the year round. Add to all
this an open brow, a neck supple and graceful, chestnut hair, a
fair skin slightly freckled with exposure to the sun, a mouth
somewhat large, but well-defined, and visited from time to
time by a dangerous smile. This was D&eacute;ruchette.</p>

<p>Sometimes in the evening, a little after sunset, at the moment
when the dusk of the sky mingles with the dusk of the sea, and
twilight invests the waves with a mysterious awe, the people
beheld, entering the harbour of St. Sampson, upon the dark
rolling waters, a strange, undefined thing, a monstrous form
which puffed and blew; a horrid machine which roared like a
wild beast, and smoked like a volcano; a species of Hydra
foaming among the breakers, and leaving behind it a dense
cloud, as it rushed on towards the town with a frightful beating
of its fins, and a throat belching forth flame. This was Durande.</p>



<hr style="width: 65%;" />
<h4>II</h4>

<h5>THE OLD STORY OF UTOPIA</h5>


<p>A steamboat was a prodigious novelty in the waters of the
Channel in 182-. The whole coast of Normandy was long
strangely excited by it. Now-a-days, ten or a dozen steam
vessels, crossing and recrossing within the bounds of the
horizon, scarcely attract a glance from loiterers on the shore.
At the most, some persons, whose interest or business it is to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_40" id="Page_40">[Pg 40]</a></span>
note such things, will observe the indications in their smoke of
whether they burn Welsh or Newcastle coal. They pass, and
that is all. "Welcome," if coming home; "a pleasant passage,"
if outward bound.</p>

<p>Folks were less calm on the subject of these wonderful inventions
in the first quarter of the present century; and the new
and strange machines, and their long lines of smoke regarded
with no good-will by the Channel Islanders. In that Puritanical
Archipelago, where the Queen of England has been censured
for violating the Scriptures<a name="FNanchor_2_2" id="FNanchor_2_2"></a><a href="#Footnote_2_2" class="fnanchor">[2]</a> by using chloroform during her
accouchments, the first steam-vessel which made its appearance
received the name of the "Devil Boat." In the eyes of these
worthy fishermen, once Catholics, now Calvinists, but always
bigots, it seemed to be a portion of the infernal regions which
had been somehow set afloat. A local preacher selected for his
discourse the question of "Whether man has the right to make
fire and water work together when God had divided them.<a name="FNanchor_3_3" id="FNanchor_3_3"></a><a href="#Footnote_3_3" class="fnanchor">[3]</a>
This beast, composed of iron and fire, did it not resemble
Leviathan? Was it not an attempt to bring chaos again into
the universe? This is not the only occasion on which the progress
of civilisation has been stigmatised as a return to chaos.</p>

<p>"A mad notion&mdash;a gross delusion&mdash;an absurdity!" Such
was the verdict of the Academy of Sciences when consulted by
Napoleon on the subject of steamboats, early in the present
century. The poor fishermen of St. Sampson may be excused
for not being, in scientific matters, any wiser than the mathematicians
of Paris; and in religious matters, a little island like
Guernsey is not bound to be more enlightened than a great
continent like America. In the year 1807, when the first
steamboat of Fulton, commanded by Livingston, furnished
with one of Watt's engines, sent from England, and man&oelig;uvred,
besides her ordinary crew, by two Frenchmen only, Andr&eacute;
Michaux and another, made her first voyage from New York to
Albany, it happened that she set sail on the 17th of August.
The Methodists took up this important fact, and in numberless
chapels, preachers were heard calling down a malediction on
the machine, and declaring that this number 17 was no other
than the total of the ten horns and seven heads of the beast of
the Apocalypse. In America, they invoked against the steamboats
the beast from the book of Revelation; in Europe, the
reptile of the book of Genesis. This was the simple difference.</p>

<p>The savants had rejected steamboats as impossible; the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_41" id="Page_41">[Pg 41]</a></span>
priests had anathematised them as impious. Science had condemned,
and religion consigned them to perdition. Fulton
was a new incarnation of Lucifer. The simple people on the
coasts and in the villages were confirmed in their prejudice by
the uneasiness which they felt at the outlandish sight. The
religious view of steamboats may be summed up as follows:
Water and fire were divorced at the creation. This divorce was
enjoined by God himself. Man has no right to join what his
Maker has put asunder; to reunite what he has disunited. The
peasants' view was simply, "I don't like the look of this thing."</p>

<p>No one but Mess Lethierry, perhaps, could have been found
at that early period daring enough to dream of such an enterprise
as the establishment of a steam-vessel between Guernsey
and St. Malo. He, alone, as an independent thinker, was
capable of conceiving such an idea, or, as a hardy mariner, of
carrying it out. The French part of his nature, probably, conceived
the idea; the English part supplied the energy to put it
in execution.</p>

<p>How and when this was, we are about to inform the reader.</p>

<div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3>

<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_2_2" id="Footnote_2_2"></a><a href="#FNanchor_2_2"><span class="label">[2]</span></a> Genesis, chap. iii. v. 16.</p></div>

<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_3_3" id="Footnote_3_3"></a><a href="#FNanchor_3_3"><span class="label">[3]</span></a> Genesis, chap. i. v. 4.</p></div>
</div>


<hr style="width: 65%;" />
<h4>III</h4>

<h5>RANTAINE</h5>


<p>About forty years before the period of the commencement of
our narrative, there stood in the suburbs of Paris, near the city
wall, between the Fosse-aux-Loups and the Tombe-Issoire, a
house of doubtful reputation. It was a lonely, ruinous building,
evidently a place for dark deeds on an occasion. Here lived,
with his wife and child, a species of town bandit; a man who
had been clerk to an attorney practising at the Ch&acirc;telet&mdash;he
figured somewhat later at the Assize Court; the name of this
family was Rantaine. On a mahogany chest of drawers in the
old house were two china cups, ornamented with flowers, on
one of which appeared, in gilt letters, the words, "A souvenir of
friendship;" on the other, "A token of esteem." The child
lived in an atmosphere of vice in this miserable home. The
father and mother having belonged to the lower middle class,
the boy had learnt to read, and they brought it up in a fashion.
The mother, pale and almost in rags, gave "instruction," as she
called it, mechanically, to the little one, heard it spell a few
words to her, and interrupted the lesson to accompany her<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_42" id="Page_42">[Pg 42]</a></span>
husband on some criminal expedition, or to earn the wages of
prostitution. Meanwhile, the book remained open on the
table as she had left it, and the boy sat beside it, meditating in
his way.</p>

<p>The father and mother, detected one day in one of their
criminal enterprises, suddenly vanished into that obscurity in
which the penal laws envelop convicted malefactors. The
child, too, disappeared.</p>

<p>Lethierry, in his wanderings about the world, stumbled, one
day, on an adventurer like himself; helped him out of some
scrape; rendered him a kindly service, and was apparently
repaid with gratitude. He took a fancy to the stranger, picked
him up, and brought him to Guernsey, where, finding him intelligent
in learning the duties of a sailor aboard a coasting vessel,
he made him a companion. This stranger was the little Rantaine,
now grown up to manhood.</p>

<p>Rantaine, like Lethierry, had a bull neck, a large and powerful
breadth of shoulders for carrying burdens, and loins like
those of the Farnese Hercules. Lethierry and he had a remarkable
similarity of appearance: Rantaine was the taller. People
who saw their forms behind as they were walking side by side
along the port, exclaimed, "There are two brothers." On
looking them in the face the effect was different: all that was
open in the countenance of Lethierry was reserved and cautious
in that of Rantaine. Rantaine was an expert swordsman,
played on the harmonica, could snuff a candle at twenty paces
with a pistol-ball, could strike a tremendous blow with the fist,
recite verses from Voltaire's <i>Henriade</i>, and interpret dreams;
he knew by heart <i>Les Tombeaux de Saint Denis</i>, by Treneuil.
He talked sometimes of having had relations with the Sultan of
Calicut, "whom the Portuguese call the Zamorin." If any one
had seen the little memorandum-book which he carried about
with him, he would have found notes and jottings of this kind:
"At Lyons in a fissure of the wall of one of the cells in the
prison of St. Joseph, a file." He spoke always with a grave
deliberation; he called himself the son of a Chevalier de Saint
Louis. His linen was of a miscellaneous kind, and marked
with different initials. Nobody was ever more tender than he
was on the point of honour; he fought and killed his man.
The mother of a pretty actress could not have an eye more
watchful for an insult.</p>

<p>He might have stood for the personification of subtlety under
an outer garb of enormous strength.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_43" id="Page_43">[Pg 43]</a></span></p>

<p>It was the power of his fist, applied one day at a fair, upon a
<i>cabeza de moro</i>, which had originally taken the fancy of
Lethierry. No one in Guernsey knew anything of his adventures.
They were of a chequered kind. If the great theatre
of destiny had a special wardrobe, Rantaine ought to have
taken the dress of harlequin. He had lived, and had seen the
world. He had run through the gamut of possible trades and
qualities; had been a cook at Madagascar, trainer of birds at
Honolulu, a religious journalist at the Galapagos Islands, a
poet at Oomrawuttee, a freeman at Haiti. In this latter character
he had delivered at Grand Goave a funeral oration, of
which the local journals have preserved this fragment: "Farewell,
then, noble spirit. In the azure vault of the heavens,
where thou wingest now thy flight, thou wilt, no doubt, rejoin
the good Abb&eacute; Leander Crameau, of Little Goave. Tell him
that, thanks to ten years of glorious efforts, thou hast completed
the church of the <i>Ansa-&agrave;-Veau</i>. Adieu! transcendent
genius, model mason!" His freemason's mask did not prevent
him, as we see, wearing a little of the Roman Catholic. The
former won to his side the men of progress, and the latter the
men of order. He declared himself a white of pure caste, and
hated the negroes; though, for all that, he would certainly
have been an admirer of the Emperor Soulouque. In 1815, at
Bordeaux, the glow of his royalist enthusiasm broke forth in
the shape of a huge white feather in his cap. His life had been
a series of eclipses&mdash;of appearances, disappearances, and reappearances.
He was a sort of revolving light upon the coasts of
scampdom. He knew a little Turkish: instead of "guillotined,"
would say "<i>n&eacute;bo&iuml;ss&eacute;</i>." He had been a slave in Tripoli, in the
house of a Thaleb, and had learnt Turkish by dint of blows with
a stick. His employment had been to stand at evenings at the
doors of the mosque, there to read aloud to the faithful the
Koran inscribed upon slips of wood, or pieces of camel leather.
It is not improbable that he was a renegade.</p>

<p>He was capable of everything, and something worse.</p>

<p>He had a trick of laughing loud and knitting his brows at the
same time. He used to say, "In politics, I esteem only men
inaccessible to influences;" or, "I am for decency and good
morals;" or, "The pyramid must be replaced upon its base."
His manner was rather cheerful and cordial than otherwise.
The expression of his mouth contradicted the sense of his words.
His nostrils had an odd way of distending themselves. In the
corners of his eyes he had a little network of wrinkles, in which all<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_44" id="Page_44">[Pg 44]</a></span>
sorts of dark thoughts seemed to meet together. It was here
alone that the secret of his physiognomy could be thoroughly
studied. His flat foot was a vulture's claw. His skull was low
at the top and large about the temples. His ill-shapen ear,
bristled with hair, seemed to say, "Beware of speaking to the
animal in this cave."</p>

<p>One fine day, in Guernsey, Rantaine was suddenly missing.</p>

<p>Lethierry's partner had absconded, leaving the treasury of
their partnership empty.</p>

<p>In this treasury there was some money of Rantaine's, no
doubt, but there were also fifty thousand francs belonging to
Lethierry.</p>

<p>By forty years of industry and probity as a coaster and ship
carpenter, Lethierry had saved one hundred thousand francs.
Rantaine robbed him of half the sum.</p>

<p>Half ruined, Lethierry did not lose heart, but began at once
to think how to repair his misfortune. A stout heart may be
ruined in fortune, but not in spirit. It was just about that time
that people began to talk of the new kind of boat to be moved
by steam-engines. Lethierry conceived the idea of trying
Fulton's invention, so much disputed about; and by one of these
fire-boats to connect the Channel Islands with the French coast.
He staked his all upon this idea; he devoted to it the wreck of
his savings. Accordingly, six months after Rantaine's flight,
the astonished people of St. Sampson beheld, issuing from the
port, a vessel discharging huge volumes of smoke, and looking
like a ship a-fire at sea. This was the first steam-vessel to
navigate the Channel.</p>

<p>This vessel, to which the people in their dislike and contempt
for novelty immediately gave the nickname of "Lethierry's
Galley," was announced as intended to maintain a constant
communication between Guernsey and St. Malo.</p>



<hr style="width: 65%;" />
<h4>IV</h4>

<h5>CONTINUATION OF THE STORY OF UTOPIA</h5>


<p>It may be well imagined that the new enterprise did not prosper
much at first. The owners of cutters passing between the
Island of Guernsey and the French coast were loud in their
outcries. They denounced this attack upon the Holy Scriptures
and their monopoly. The chapels began to fulminate against<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_45" id="Page_45">[Pg 45]</a></span>
it. One reverend gentleman, named Elihu, stigmatised the
new steam-vessel as an "atheistical construction," and the
sailing-boat was declared the only orthodox craft. The people
saw the horns of the devil among the beasts which the fireship
carried to and fro. This storm of protest continued a considerable
time. At last, however, it began to be perceived that
these animals arrived less tired and sold better, their meat being
superior; that the sea risk was less also for passengers; that
this mode of travelling was less expensive, shorter, and more
sure; that they started at a fixed time, and arrived at a fixed
time; that consignments of fish travelling faster arrived fresher,
and that it was now possible to find a sale in the French markets
for the surplus of great takes of fish so common in Guernsey.
The butter, too, from the far-famed Guernsey cows, made the
passage quicker in the "Devil Boat" than in the old sailing
vessels, and lost nothing of its good quality, insomuch that
Dinan, in Brittany, began to become a customer for it, as well
as St. Brieuc and Rennes. In short, thanks to what they called
"Lethierry's Galley," the people enjoyed safe travelling,
regular communication, prompt and easy passages to and fro,
an increase of circulation, an extension of markets and of
commerce, and, finally, it was felt that it was necessary to
patronise this "Devil Boat," which flew in the face of the Holy
Scriptures, and brought wealth to the island. Some daring
spirits even went so far as to express a positive satisfaction at it.
Sieur Landoys, the registrar, bestowed his approval upon the
vessel&mdash;an undoubted piece of impartiality on his part, as he did
not like Lethierry. For, first of all, Lethierry was entitled to
the dignity of "Mess," while Landoys was merely "Sieur
Landoys." Then, although registrar of St. Peter's Port,
Landoys was a parishioner of St. Sampson. Now, there was
not in the entire parish another man besides them devoid of
prejudices. It seemed little enough, therefore, to indulge
themselves with a detestation of each other. Two of a trade,
says the proverb, rarely agree.</p>

<p>Sieur Landoys, however, had the honesty to support the
steamboat. Others followed Landoys. By little and little,
these facts multiplied. The growth of opinion is like the rising
tide. Time and the continued and increasing success of the
venture, with the evidence of real service rendered and the
improvement in the general welfare, gradually converted the
people; and the day at length arrived when, with the exception
of a few wiseacres, every one admired "Lethierry's Galley."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_46" id="Page_46">[Pg 46]</a></span></p>

<p>It would probably win less admiration now-a-days. This
steamboat of forty years since would doubtless provoke a smile
among our modern boat-builders; for this marvel was ill-shaped;
this prodigy was clumsy and infirm.</p>

<p>The distance between our grand Atlantic steam-vessels of the
present day and the boats with wheel-paddles which Denis
Papin floated on the Fulda in 1707, is not greater than that
between a three-decker, like the <i>Montebello</i>, 200 feet long,
having a mainyard of 115 feet, carrying a weight of 3000 tons,
1100 men, 120 guns, 10,000 cannon-balls, and 160 packages of
canister, belching forth at every broadside, when in action,
3300 pounds of iron, and spreading to the wind, when it moves,
5600 square m&egrave;tres of canvas, and the old Danish galley of the
second century, discovered, full of stone hatchets, and bows and
clubs, in the mud of the seashore, at Wester-Satrup, and preserved
at the Hotel de Ville at Flensburg.</p>

<p>Exactly one hundred years&mdash;from 1707 to 1807&mdash;separate
the first paddle-boat of Papin from the first steamboat of Fulton.
"Lethierry's Galley" was assuredly a great improvement upon
those two rough sketches; but it was itself only a sketch. For
all that, it was a masterpiece in its way. Every scientific discovery
in embryo presents that double aspect&mdash;a monster in
the f&oelig;tus, a marvel in the germ.</p>



<hr style="width: 65%;" />
<h4>V</h4>

<h5>THE DEVIL BOAT</h5>


<p>"Lethierry's Galley" was not masted with a view to sailing
well; a fact which was not a defect; it is, indeed, one of the laws
of naval construction. Besides, her motive power being steam,
her sails were only accessory. A paddle steamboat, moreover,
is almost insensible to sails. The new steam-vessel was too
short, round, and thick-set. She had too much bow, and too
great a breadth of quarter. The daring of inventors had not
yet reached the point of making a steam-vessel light; Lethierry's
boat had some of the defects of Gilliatt's Dutch sloop. She
pitched very little, but she rolled a good deal. Her paddle-boxes
were too high. She had too much beam for her length.
The massive machinery encumbered her, and to make her
capable of carrying a heavy cargo, her constructors had raised
her bulwarks to an unusual height, giving to the vessel the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_47" id="Page_47">[Pg 47]</a></span>
defects of old seventy-fours, a bastard model which would have
to be cut down to render them really seaworthy, or fit to go into
action. Being short, she ought to have been able to veer
quickly&mdash;the time employed in a man&oelig;uvre of that kind being
in proportion to the length of the vessel&mdash;but her weight deprived
her of the advantage of her shortness. Her midship-frame was
too broad, a fact which retarded her; the resistance of the sea
being proportioned to the largest section below the water-line,
and to the square of the speed. Her prow was vertical, which
would not be regarded as a fault at the present day, but at that
period this portion of the construction was invariably sloped at
an angle of forty-five degrees. All the curving lines of the hull
agreed well together, but it was not long enough for oblique
sailing, or for lying parallel with the water displaced, which
should always be thrown off laterally. In rough weather she
drew too much water, sometimes fore, sometimes aft, which
showed that her centre of gravity was not rightly adjusted.
Owing to the weight of the engine, the cargo shifted, so that the
centre of gravity was often aft of the mainmast, and then
steam power had to be resorted to, for at such times the mainsail
had to be furled as it only made the vessel fall off. If close
to the wind, very careful man&oelig;uvring was required. The
rudder was the old-fashioned bar-rudder, not the wheeled one of
the present time. Two skiffs, a species of <i>you-yous</i>, were suspended
to the davits. The vessel had four anchors; the sheet-anchor,
the second or working anchor, and two bower-anchors.
These four anchors, slung by chains, were moved, according to
the occasion, by the great capstan of the poop, or by the small
capstan at the prow. At that period the pump windlass had
not superseded the intermitting efforts of the old handspike.
Having only two bower-anchors, one on the starboard and the
other on the larboard side, the vessel could not move conveniently
in certain winds, though she could aid herself at such
times with the second anchor. Her buoys were normal, and so
constructed that they carried the weight of the buoy-ropes
without dipping. The launch was of a useful size, of service in
all cases of need, and able to raise the main anchor. A novelty
about her was that she was rigged with chains, which in no way
detracted, however, from the mobility of the running rigging,
or from the firmness of the standing rigging. The masts,
yards, etc., although not of first-rate quality, were not in any
way amiss, and the rigging at the mast-head was not very
noticeable. The ribs were solid, but coarse, less delicacy of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_48" id="Page_48">[Pg 48]</a></span>
wood being required for steam than for sail. Her speed was
six knots an hour. When lying-to she rode well. Take her as
she was, "Lethierry's Galley" was a good sea boat; but people
felt, that in moments of danger from reefs or waterspouts, she
would be hardly manageable. Unhappily her build made her
roll about on the waves, with a perpetual creaking like that of
a new shoe.</p>

<p>She was, above all, a merchandise boat, and, like all ships built
more for commerce than for fighting, was constructed exclusively
with a view to stowage. She carried few passengers. The
transport of cattle rendered stowage difficult and very peculiar.
Vessels carried bullocks at that time in the hold, which was a
complication of the difficulty. At the present day they are
stowed on the fore-deck. The paddle-boxes of Lethierry's
"Devil Boat" were painted white, the hull, down to the water-line,
red, and all the rest of the vessel black, according to the
somewhat ugly fashion of this century. When empty she drew
seven feet of water, and when laden fourteen.</p>

<p>With regard to the engine, it was of considerable power. To
speak exactly, its power was equal to that of one horse to every
three tons burden, which is almost equal to that of a tugboat.
The paddles were well placed, a little in advance of the centre of
gravity of the vessel. The maximum pressure of the engine
was equal to two atmospheres. It consumed a great deal of
coal, although it was constructed on the condensation and
expansion principles. It had no fly-wheel on account of the
instability of the point of support, but this was then, as now,
compensated for by two cranks at the extremities of the revolving
shaft, so arranged that one was always at right angles when
the other was at dead-point. The whole rested on a single
sheet of cast-iron, so that even in case of any serious damage,
no shock of the waves could upset its equilibrium, and even if
the hull were injured the engine would remain intact. To
render it stronger still, the connecting-rod had been placed near
the steam-cylinders, so that the centre of oscillation of the
working-beam was transferred from the middle to the end.
Since then oscillating cylinders have been invented which do
away with the necessity of connecting-rods, but in those days
the placing of the connecting-rod near the cylinder was thought
a triumph of engineering. The boiler was in sections and
provided with a salt-water pump. The wheels were very large,
which lessened the loss of power; the smoke-stack was lofty,
which increased the draught. On the other hand, the size of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_49" id="Page_49">[Pg 49]</a></span>
the wheels exposed them to the force of the waves, and the
height of the smoke-stack to the violence of the wind. Wooden
paddle-floats, iron clamps, bosses of cast-iron&mdash;such were the
wheels, which, well constructed, could, strange though it may
seem, be taken to pieces. Three floats were always under
water. The speed of the centre of the floats only exceeded by
a sixth the speed of the vessel itself; this was the chief defect
of the wheels. Moreover, the cranks were too long, and the
slide-valve caused too much friction in the admission of steam
into the cylinder. For that period the engine seemed, and
indeed was, admirable. It had been constructed in France, at
the works at Bercy. Mess Lethierry had roughly sketched it:
the engineer who had constructed it in accordance with his
diagram was dead, so that the engine was unique, and probably
could not have been replaced. The designer still lived, but the
constructor was no more.</p>

<p>The engine had cost forty thousand francs.</p>

<p>Lethierry had himself constructed the "Devil Boat" upon
the great covered stocks by the side of the first tower between
St. Peter's Port and St. Sampson. He had been to Br&ecirc;me to
buy the wood. All his skill as a shipwright was exhausted in
its construction; his ingenuity might be seen in the planks, the
seams of which were straight and even, and covered with
sarangousti, an Indian mastic, better than resin. The sheathing
was well beaten. To remedy the roundness of the hull,
Lethierry had fitted out a boom at the bowsprit, which allowed
him to add a false spritsail to the regular one. On the day of
the launch, he cried aloud, "At last I am afloat!" The vessel
was successful, in fact, as the reader has already learnt.</p>

<p>Either by chance or design she had been launched on the 14th
of July, the anniversary of the taking of the Bastille. On that
day, mounted upon the bridge between the two paddle-boxes,
looked Lethierry upon the sea, and exclaimed, "It is your turn
now! The Parisians took the Bastille, now science takes the
sea."</p>

<p>Lethierry's boat made the voyage from Guernsey to St. Malo
once a week. She started on the Tuesday morning, and returned
on the Friday evening, in time for the Saturday market. She
was a stronger craft than any of the largest coasting sloops in
all the Archipelago, and her capacity being in proportion to her
dimensions, one of her voyages was equal to four voyages of an
ordinary boat in the same trade; hence they were very profitable.
The reputation of a vessel depends on its stowage, and Lethierry<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_50" id="Page_50">[Pg 50]</a></span>
was an admirable stower of cargo. When he was no longer able
to work himself, he trained up a sailor to undertake this duty.
At the end of two years, the steamboat brought in a clear seven
hundred and fifty pounds sterling a year, or eighteen thousand
francs. The pound sterling of Guernsey is worth twenty-four
francs only, that of England twenty-five, and that of Jersey
twenty-six. These differences are less unimportant than they
seem: the banks, at all events, know how to turn them to
advantage.</p>



<hr style="width: 65%;" />
<h4>VI</h4>

<h5>LETHIERRY'S EXALTATION</h5>


<p>The "Devil Boat" prospered. Mess Lethierry began to look
forward to the time when he should be called "Monsieur." At
Guernsey, people do not become "Monsieurs" at one bound.
Between the plain man and the gentleman, there is quite a scale
to climb. To begin with, we have the simple name, plain
"Peter," let us suppose; the second step is "Neighbour
Peter;" the third, "Father Peter;" the fourth, "Sieur Peter;"
the fifth, "Mess Peter;" and then we reach the summit in
"Monsieur Peter."</p>

<p>This scale ascending thus from the ground is carried to still
greater heights. All the upper classes of England join on and
continue it. Here are the various steps, becoming more and
more glorious. Above the Monsieur, or "Mr.," there is the
"Esquire;" above the squire, the knight; above the knight,
still rising, we have the baronet, the Scotch laird, the baron, the
viscount, the earl (called count in France, and jarl in Norway);
the marquis, the duke, the prince of the blood royal, and the
king: so, by degrees, we ascend from the people to the middle
class, from the middle class to the baronetage, from the
baronetage to the peerage, from the peerage to royalty.</p>

<p>Thanks to his successful ingenuity, thanks to steam, and his
engines, and the "Devil Boat," Mess Lethierry was fast becoming
an important personage. When building his vessel he had
been compelled to borrow money. He had become indebted
at Br&ecirc;me, he had become indebted at St. Malo; but every
year he diminished his obligations.</p>

<p>He had, moreover, purchased on credit, at the very entrance
to the port of St. Sampson, a pretty stone-built house, entirely
new, situate between the sea and a garden. On the corner of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_51" id="Page_51">[Pg 51]</a></span>
this house was inscribed the name of the "Brav&eacute;es." Its
front formed a part of the wall of the port itself, and it was remarkable
for a double row of windows: on the north, alongside
a little enclosure filled with flowers, and on the south commanding
a view of the ocean. It had thus two <i>fa&ccedil;ades</i>, one open to
the tempest and the sea, the other looking into a garden filled
with roses.</p>

<p>These two frontages seemed made for the two inmates of the
house&mdash;Mess Lethierry and D&eacute;ruchette.</p>

<p>The "Brav&eacute;es" was popular at St. Sampson, for Mess
Lethierry had at length become a popular man. This popularity
was due partly to his good nature, his devotedness, and
his courage; partly to the number of lives he had saved; and a
great deal to his success, and to the fact that he had awarded to
St. Sampson the honour of being the port of the departure and
arrival of the new steamboat. Having made the discovery that
the "Devil Boat" was decidedly a success, St. Peter's, the
capital, desired to obtain it for that port, but Lethierry held
fast to St. Sampson. It was his native town. "It was there
that I was first pitched into the water," he used to say; hence
his great local popularity. His position as a small landed
proprietor paying land-tax, made him, what they call in
Guernsey, an <i>unhabitant</i>. He was chosen douzenier. The
poor sailor had mounted five out of six steps of the Guernsey
social scale; he had attained the dignity of "Mess"; he was
rapidly approaching the Monsieur; and who could predict
whether he might not even rise higher than that? who could
say that they might not one day find in the almanack of
Guernsey, under the heading of "Nobility and Gentry," the
astonishing and superb inscription,&mdash;<i>Lethierry, Esq.</i>?</p>

<p>But Mess Lethierry had nothing of vanity in his nature, or
he had no sense of it; or if he had, disdained it: to know that
he was useful was his greatest pleasure; to be popular touched
him less than being necessary; he had, as we have already said,
only two objects of delight, and consequently only two ambitions:
the Durande and D&eacute;ruchette.</p>

<p>However this may have been, he had embarked in the lottery
of the sea, and had gained the chief prize.</p>

<p>This chief prize was the Durande steaming away in all her
pride.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_52" id="Page_52">[Pg 52]</a></span></p>



<hr style="width: 65%;" />
<h4>VII</h4>

<h5>THE SAME GODFATHER AND THE SAME PATRON SAINT</h5>


<p>Having created his steamboat, Lethierry had christened it: he
had called it Durande&mdash;"La Durande." We will speak of her
henceforth by no other name; we will claim the liberty, also,
in spite of typographical usage, of not italicising this name
Durande; conforming in this to the notion of Mess Lethierry,
in whose eyes La Durande was almost a living person.</p>

<p>Durande and D&eacute;ruchette are the same name. D&eacute;ruchette is
the diminutive.</p>

<p>This diminutive is very common in France.</p>

<p>In the country the names of saints are endowed with all these
diminutives as well as all their augmentatives. One might
suppose there were several persons when there is, in fact, only
one. This system of patrons and patronesses under different
names is by no means rare. Lise, Lisette, Lisa, Elisa, Isabelle,
Lisbeth, Betsy, all these are simply Elizabeth. It is probable
that Mahout, Maclou, Malo, and Magloire are the same saint:
this, however, we do not vouch for.</p>

<p>Saint Durande is a saint of l'Angoumois, and of the Charente;
whether she is an orthodox member of the calendar is a question
for the Bollandists: orthodox or not, she has been made the
patron saint of numerous chapels.</p>

<p>It was while Lethierry was a young sailor at Rochefort that
he had made the acquaintance of this saint, probably in the
person of some pretty Charantaise, perhaps in that of the
grisette with the white nails. The saint had remained sufficiently
in his memory for him to give the name to the two things
which he loved most&mdash;Durande to the steamboat, D&eacute;ruchette
to the girl.</p>

<p>Of one he was the father, of the other the uncle.</p>

<p>D&eacute;ruchette was the daughter of a brother who had died: she
was an orphan child: he had adopted her, and had taken the
place both of father and mother.</p>

<p>D&eacute;ruchette was not only his niece, she was his godchild; he
had held her in his arms at the baptismal font; it was he who
had chosen her patron saint, Durande, and her Christian name,
D&eacute;ruchette.</p>

<p>D&eacute;ruchette, as we have said, was born at St. Peter's Port.
Her name was inscribed at its date on the register of the parish.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_53" id="Page_53">[Pg 53]</a></span></p>

<p>As long as the niece was a child, and the uncle poor, nobody
took heed of her appellation of D&eacute;ruchette; but when the little
girl became a miss, and the sailor a gentleman, the name of
D&eacute;ruchette shocked the feelings of Guernsey society. The uncouthness
of the sound astonished every one. Folks asked
Mess Lethierry "why D&eacute;ruchette?" He answered, "It is a
very good name in its way." Several attempts were made to
get him to obtain a change in the baptismal name, but he would
be no party to them. One day, a fine lady of the upper circle of
society in St. Sampson, the wife of a rich retired ironfounder,
said to Mess Lethierry, "In future, I shall call your daughter
Nancy."</p>

<p>"If names of country towns are in fashion," said he, "why
not Lons le Saulnier?" The fine lady did not yield her point,
and on the morrow said, "We are determined not to have it
D&eacute;ruchette; I have found for your daughter a pretty name&mdash;<i>Marianne</i>."
"A very pretty name, indeed," replied Mess
Lethierry, "composed of two words which signify&mdash;a husband
and an ass."<a name="FNanchor_4_4" id="FNanchor_4_4"></a><a href="#Footnote_4_4" class="fnanchor">[4]</a> He held fast to D&eacute;ruchette.</p>

<p>It would be a mistake to infer from Lethierry's pun that he
had no wish to see his niece married. He desired to see her
married, certainly; but in his own way: he intended her to have
a husband after his own heart, one who would work hard, and
whose wife would have little to do. He liked rough hands in a
man, and delicate ones in a woman. To prevent D&eacute;ruchette
spoiling her pretty hands he had always brought her up like a
young lady; he had provided her with a music-master, a piano,
a little library, and a few needles and threads in a pretty work-basket.
She was, indeed, more often reading than stitching;
more often playing than reading. This was as Mess Lethierry
wished it. To be charming was all that he expected of her.
He had reared the young girl like a flower. Whoever has studied
the character of sailors will understand this: rude and hard in
their nature, they have an odd partiality for grace and delicacy.
To realise the idea of the uncle, the niece ought to have been
rich; so indeed felt Mess Lethierry. His steamboat voyaged
for this end. The mission of Durande was to provide a marriage
portion for D&eacute;ruchette.</p>
<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_54" id="Page_54">[Pg 54]</a></span></p>
<div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3>

<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_4_4" id="Footnote_4_4"></a><a href="#FNanchor_4_4"><span class="label">[4]</span></a> A play upon the French words, <i>mari</i> and <i>ane</i>.</p></div>
</div>


<hr style="width: 65%;" />
<h4>VIII</h4>

<h5>"BONNIE DUNDEE"</h5>


<p>D&eacute;ruchette occupied the prettiest room at the Brav&eacute;es. It
had two windows, was furnished with various articles made of
fine-grained mahogany, had a bed with four curtains, green and
white, and looked out upon the garden, and beyond it towards
the high hill, on which stands the Vale Castle. Gilliatt's house,
the B&ucirc; de la Rue, was on the other side of this hill.</p>

<p>D&eacute;ruchette had her music and piano in this chamber; she accompanied
herself on the instrument when singing the melody
which she preferred&mdash;the melancholy Scottish air of "Bonnie
Dundee." The very spirit of night breathes in this melody;
but her voice was full of the freshness of dawn. The contrast
was quaint and pleasing; people said, "Miss D&eacute;ruchette is at
her piano."</p>

<p>The passers-by at the foot of the hill stopped sometimes
before the wall of the garden of the Brav&eacute;es to listen to that
sweet voice and plaintive song.</p>

<p>D&eacute;ruchette was the very embodiment of joy as she went to
and fro in the house. She brought with her a perpetual spring.
She was beautiful, but more pretty than beautiful; and still
more graceful than pretty. She reminded the good old pilots,
friends of Mess Lethierry, of that princess in the song which the
soldiers and sailors sing, who was so beautiful:</p>

<p class="center">"Qu'elle passait pour telle dans le regiment."</p>

<p>Mess Lethierry used to say, "She has a head of hair like a ship's
cable."</p>

<p>From her infancy she had been remarkable for beauty. The
learned in such matters had grave doubts about her nose, but
the little one having probably determined to be pretty, had
finally satisfied their requirements. She grew to girlhood without
any serious loss of beauty; her nose became neither too
long nor too short; and when grown up, her critics admitted
her to be charming.</p>

<p>She never addressed her uncle otherwise than as father.</p>

<p>Lethierry allowed her to soil her fingers a little in gardening,
and even in some kind of household duties: she watered her
beds of pink hollyhocks, purple foxgloves, perennial phloxes,
and scarlet herb bennets. She took good advantage of the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_55" id="Page_55">[Pg 55]</a></span>
climate of Guernsey, so favourable to flowers. She had, like
many other persons there, aloes in the open ground, and, what
is more difficult, she succeeded in cultivating the Nepaulese
cinquefoil. Her little kitchen-garden was scientifically arranged;
she was able to produce from it several kinds of rare
vegetables. She sowed Dutch cauliflower and Brussels cabbages,
which she thinned out in July, turnips for August, endive for
September, short parsnip for the autumn, and rampions for
winter. Mess Lethierry did not interfere with her in this, so
long as she did not handle the spade and rake too much, or
meddle with the coarser kinds of garden labour. He had provided
her with two servants, one named Grace, and the other
Douce, which are favourite names in Guernsey. Grace and
Douce did the hard work of the house and garden, and they had
the right to have red hands.</p>

<p>With regard to Mess Lethierry, his room was a little retreat
with a view over the harbour, and communicating with the
great lower room of the ground floor, on which was situated the
door of the house, near which the various staircases met.</p>

<p>His room was furnished with his hammock, his chronometer,
and his pipe: there were also a table and a chair. The ceiling
had been whitewashed, as well as the four walls. A fine marine
map, bearing the inscription <i>W. Faden</i>, 5 Charing Cross, Geographer
to His Majesty, and representing the Channel Islands,
was nailed up at the side of the door, and on the left, stretched
out and fastened with other nails, appeared one of those large
cotton handkerchiefs on which are printed, in colours, the
signals of all countries in the world, having at the four corners
the standards of France, Russia, Spain, and the United States,
and in the centre the union-jack of England.</p>

<p>Douce and Grace were two faithful creatures within certain
limits. Douce was good-natured enough, and Grace was
probably good-looking. Douce was unmarried, and had secretly
"a gallant." In the Channel Islands the word is common, as
indeed is the fact itself. The two girl's regarded as servants
had something of the Creole in their character, a sort of slowness
in their movements, not out of keeping with the Norman
spirit pervading the relations of servant and master in the
Channel Islands. Grace, coquettish and good-looking, was
always scanning the future with a nervous anxiety. This arose
from the fact of her not only having, like Douce, "a gallant,"
but also, as the scandal-loving averred, a sailor husband, whose
return one day was a thing she dreaded. This, however, does<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_56" id="Page_56">[Pg 56]</a></span>
not concern us. In a household less austere and less innocent,
Douce would have continued to be the servant, but Grace would
have become the <i>soubrette</i>. The dangerous talents of Grace
were lost upon a young mistress so pure and good as D&eacute;ruchette.
For the rest, the intrigues of Douce and Grace were cautiously
concealed. Mess Lethierry knew nothing of such matters, and
no token of them had ever reached D&eacute;ruchette.</p>

<p>The lower room of the ground floor, a hall with a large fireplace
and surrounded with benches and tables, had served in
the last century as a meeting-place for a conventicle of French
Protestant refugees. The sole ornament of the bare stone wall
was a sheet of parchment, set in a frame of black wood, on which
were represented some of the charitable deeds of the great
Bossuet, Bishop of Meaux. Some poor diocesans of this famous
orator, surnamed the "Eagle," persecuted by him at the time
of the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes, and driven to take
shelter at Guernsey, had hung this picture on the wall to preserve
the remembrance of those facts. The spectator who had
the patience to decipher a rude handwriting in faded ink might
have learnt the following facts, which are but little known:&mdash;"29th
October, 1685, Monsieur the Bishop of Meaux, appeals
to the king to destroy the temples of Morcef and Nanteuil"&mdash;"2nd
April, 1686, Arrest of Cochard, father and son, for their
religious opinions, at the request of Monsieur the Bishop of
Meaux. Released: the Cochards having recanted."&mdash;"28th
October, 1699, Monsieur the Bishop of Meaux sent to Mde.
Pontchartrain a petition of remonstrance, pointing out that it
will be necessary to place the young ladies named Chalandes
and de Neuville, who are of the reformed religion, in the House
of the 'New Catholics' at Paris."&mdash;"7th July, 1703, the
king's order executed as requested by Monsieur the Bishop of
Meaux, for shutting up in an asylum Baudouin and his wife,
two bad Catholics of Fublaines."</p>

<p>At the end of the hall, near the door of Mess Lethierry's
room, was a little corner with a wooden partition, which had
been the Huguenot's sanctum, and had become, thanks to its
row of rails and a small hole to pass paper or money through,
the steamboat office; that is to say, the office of the Durande,
kept by Mess Lethierry in person. Upon the old oaken reading-desk,
where once rested the Holy Bible, lay a great ledger with
its alternate pages headed Dr. and Cr.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_57" id="Page_57">[Pg 57]</a></span></p>



<hr style="width: 65%;" />
<h4>IX</h4>

<h5>THE MAN WHO DISCOVERED RANTAINE'S CHARACTER</h5>


<p>As long as Mess Lethierry had been able to do duty, he had
commanded the Durande, and had had no other pilot or captain
but himself; but a time had come, as we have said, when he
had been compelled to find a successor. He had chosen for
that purpose Sieur Clubin, of Torteval, a taciturn man. Sieur
Clubin had a character upon the coast for strict probity. He
became the <i>alter ego</i>, the double, of Mess Lethierry.</p>

<p>Sieur Clubin, although he had rather the look of a notary
than of a sailor, was a mariner of rare skill. He had all the
talents which are required to meet dangers of every kind. He
was a skilful stower, a safe man aloft, an able and careful boatswain,
a powerful steersman, an experienced pilot, and a bold
captain. He was prudent, and he carried his prudence sometimes
to the point of daring, which is a great quality at sea.
His natural apprehensiveness of danger was tempered by a
strong instinct of what was possible in an emergency. He was
one of those mariners who will face risks to a point perfectly
well known to themselves, and who generally manage to come
successfully out of every peril. Every certainty which a man
can command, dealing with so fickle an element as the sea, he
possessed. Sieur Clubin, moreover, was a renowned swimmer;
he was one of that race of men broken into the buffeting of the
waves, who can remain as long as they please in the water&mdash;who
can start from the Havre-des-Pas at Jersey, double the
Colettes, swim round the Hermitage and Castle Elizabeth, and
return in two hours to the point from which they started. He
came from Torteval, where he had the reputation of often having
swum across the passage so much dreaded, from the Hanway
rocks to the point of Pleinmont.</p>

<p>One circumstance which had recommended Sieur Clubin to
Mess Lethierry more than any other, was his having judged
correctly the character of Rantaine. He had pointed out to
Lethierry the dishonesty of the man, and had said "Rantaine
will rob you." His prediction was verified. More than once&mdash;in
matters, it is true, not very important&mdash;Mess Lethierry had
put his ever-scrupulous honesty to the proof; and he freely
communicated with him on the subject of his affairs. Mess
Lethierry used to say, "A good conscience expects to be treated
with perfect confidence."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_58" id="Page_58">[Pg 58]</a></span></p>



<hr style="width: 65%;" />
<h4>X</h4>

<h5>LONG YARNS</h5>


<p>Mess Lethierry, for the sake of his own ease, always wore his
seafaring clothes, and preferred his tarpaulin overcoat to his
pilot jacket. D&eacute;ruchette felt vexed, occasionally, about this
peculiarity. Nothing is prettier than a pouting beauty. She
laughed and scolded. "My dear father," she would say, "what
a smell of pitch!" and she would give him a gentle tap upon his
broad shoulders.</p>

<p>This good old seaman had gathered from his voyages many
wonderful stories. He had seen at Madagascar birds' feathers,
three of which sufficed to make a roof of a house. He had seen
in India, field sorrel, the stalks of which were nine inches high.
In New Holland he had seen troops of turkeys and geese led
about and guarded by a bird, like a flock by a shepherd's dog;
this bird was called the Agami. He had visited elephants'
cemeteries. In Africa, he had encountered gorillas, a terrible
species of man-monkey. He knew the ways of all the ape tribe,
from the wild dog-faced monkey, which he called the Macaco-bravo,
to the howling monkey or <i>Macaco-barbado</i>. In Chili,
he had seen a pouched monkey move the compassion of the
huntsman by showing its little one. He had seen in California
a hollow trunk of a tree fall to the ground, so vast that a man
on horseback could ride one hundred paces inside. In Morocco,
he had seen the Mozabites and the Bisskris fighting with matraks
and bars of iron&mdash;the Bisskris, because they had been called
<i>kelbs</i>, which means dogs; and the Mozabites, because they had
been treated as <i>khamsi</i>, which means people of the fifth sect.
He had seen in China the pirate Chanh-thong-quan-larh-Quoi cut
to pieces for having assassinated the Ap of a village. At Thu-dan-mot,
he had seen a lion carry off an old woman in the open
market-place. He was present at the arrival of the Great
Serpent brought from Canton to Saigon to celebrate in the
pagoda of Cho-len the f&ecirc;te of Quan-nam, the goddess of navigators.
He had beheld the great Quan-S&ucirc; among the Moi. At
Rio de Janeiro, he had seen the Brazilian ladies in the evening
put little balls of gauze into their hair, each containing a beautiful
kind of firefly; and the whole forming a head-dress of little
twinkling lights. He had combated in Paraguay with swarms
of enormous ants and spiders, big and downy as an infant's head,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_59" id="Page_59">[Pg 59]</a></span>
and compassing with their long legs a third of a yard, and attacking
men by pricking them with their bristles, which enter the
skin as sharp as arrows, and raise painful blisters. On the river
Arinos, a tributary of the Tocantins, in the virgin forests to the
north of Diamantina, he had determined the existence of the
famous bat-shaped people, the Murcilagos, or men who are
born with white hair and red eyes, who live in the shady solitudes
of the woods, sleep by day, awake by night, and fish and hunt
in the dark, seeing better then than by the light of the moon.
He told how, near Beyrout, once in an encampment of an expedition
of which he formed part, a rain gauge belonging to one of
the party happened to be stolen from a tent. A wizard, wearing
two or three strips of leather only, and looking like a man having
nothing on but his braces, thereupon rang a bell at the end of
a horn so violently, that a hyena finally answered the summons
by bringing back the missing instrument. The hyena was, in
fact, the thief. These veritable histories bore a strong resemblance
to fictions; but they amused D&eacute;ruchette.</p>

<p>The <i>poup&eacute;e</i> or "doll" of the Durande, as the people of the
Channel Islands call the figure-head of a ship, was the connecting
link between the vessel and Lethierry's niece. In the
Norman Islands the figure-head of a ship, a roughly-carved
wooden statue, is called the Poup&eacute;e. Hence the local saying,
meaning to sail, "<i>&ecirc;tre entre poupe et poup&eacute;e</i>."</p>

<p>The <i>poup&eacute;e</i> of the Durande was particularly dear to Mess
Lethierry. He had instructed the carver to make it resemble
D&eacute;ruchette. It looked like a rude attempt to cut out a face
with a hatchet; or like a clumsy log trying hard to look like a
girl.</p>

<p>This unshapely block produced a great effect upon Mess
Lethierry's imagination. He looked upon it with an almost
superstitious admiration. His faith in it was complete. He
was able to trace in it an excellent resemblance to D&eacute;ruchette.
Thus the dogma resembles the truth, and the idol the deity.</p>

<p>Mess Lethierry had two grand f&ecirc;te days in every week; one
was Tuesday, the other Friday. His first delight consisted in
seeing the Durande weigh anchor; his second in seeing her enter
the port again. He leaned upon his elbows at the window contemplating
his work, and was happy.</p>

<p>On Fridays, the presence of Mess Lethierry at his window
was a signal. When people passing the Brav&eacute;es saw him lighting
his pipe, they said, "Ay! the steamboat is in sight." One
kind of smoke was the herald of the other.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_60" id="Page_60">[Pg 60]</a></span></p>

<p>The Durande, when she entered the port, made her cable
fast to a huge iron ring under Mess Lethierry's window, and
fixed in the basement of the house. On those nights Lethierry
slept soundly in his hammock, with a soothing consciousness of
the presence of D&eacute;ruchette asleep in her room near him, and of
the Durande moored opposite.</p>

<p>The moorings of the Durande were close to the great bell of
the port. A little strip of quay passed thence before the door
of the Brav&eacute;es.</p>

<p>The quay, the Brav&eacute;es and its house, the garden, the alleys
bordered with edges, and the greater part even of the surrounding
houses, no longer exist. The demand for Guernsey granite
has invaded these too. The whole of this part of the town is now
occupied by stone-cutters' yards.</p>



<hr style="width: 65%;" />
<h4>XI</h4>

<h5>MATRIMONIAL PROSPECTS</h5>


<p>D&eacute;ruchette was approaching womanhood, and was still unmarried.</p>

<p>Mess Lethierry in bringing her up to have white hands had
also rendered her somewhat fastidious. A training of that kind
has its disadvantages; but Lethierry was himself still more
fastidious. He would have liked to have provided at the same
time for both his idols; to have found in the guide and companion
of the one a commander for the other. What is a
husband but the pilot on the voyage of matrimony? Why not
then the same conductor for the vessel and for the girl? The
affairs of a household have their tides, their ebbs and flows, and
he who knows how to steer a bark, ought to know how to guide
a woman's destiny, subject as both are to the influences of the
moon and the wind. Sieur Clubin being only fifteen years
younger than Lethierry, would necessarily be only a provisional
master for the Durande. It would be necessary to find a young
captain, a permanent master, a true successor of the founder,
inventor, and creator of the first channel steamboat. A
captain for the Durande who should come up to his ideal, would
have been, already, almost a son-in-law in Lethierry's eyes.
Why not make him son-in-law in a double sense? The idea
pleased him. The husband <i>in posse</i> of D&eacute;ruchette haunted his
dreams. His ideal was a powerful seaman, tanned and browned<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_61" id="Page_61">[Pg 61]</a></span>
by weather, a sea athlete. This, however, was not exactly the
ideal of D&eacute;ruchette. Her dreams, if dreams they could even
be called, were of a more ethereal character.</p>

<p>The uncle and the niece were at all events agreed in not being
in haste to seek a solution of these problems. When D&eacute;ruchette
began to be regarded as a probable heiress, a crowd of suitors
had presented themselves. Attentions under these circumstances
are not generally worth much. Mess Lethierry felt
this. He would grumble out the old French proverb, "<i>A
maiden of gold, a suitor of brass</i>." He politely showed the
fortune-seekers to the door. He was content to wait, and so
was D&eacute;ruchette.</p>

<p>It was, perhaps, a singular fact, that he had little inclination
for the local aristocracy. In that respect Mess Lethierry
showed himself not entirely English. It will hardly be believed
that he even refused for D&eacute;ruchette a Ganduel of Jersey, and a
Bugnet Nicolin of Sark. People were bold enough to affirm,
although we doubt if this were possible, that he had even declined
the proposals of a member of the family of Edou, which
is evidently descended from "Edou-ard" (Anglic&egrave; Edward)
the Confessor.</p>



<hr style="width: 65%;" />
<h4>XII</h4>

<h5>AN ANOMALY IN THE CHARACTER OF LETHIERRY</h5>


<p>Mess Lethierry had a failing, and a serious one. He detested
a priest; though not as an individual, but as an institution.
Reading one day&mdash;for he used to read&mdash;in a work of Voltaire&mdash;for
he would even read Voltaire&mdash;the remark, that priests
"have something cat-like in their nature," he laid down the
book and was heard to mutter, "Then, I suppose, I have
something dog-like in mine."</p>

<p>It must be remembered that the priests&mdash;Lutheran and
Calvinist, as well as Catholic&mdash;had vigorously combated the
new "Devil Boat," and had persecuted its inventor. To be a
sort of revolutionist in the art of navigation, to introduce a
spirit of progress in the Norman Archipelago, to disturb the
peace of the poor little island of Guernsey with a new invention,
was in their eyes, as we have not concealed from the reader, an
abominable and most condemnable rashness. Nor had they
omitted to condemn it pretty loudly. It must not be forgotten
that we are now speaking of the Guernsey clergy of a bygone<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_62" id="Page_62">[Pg 62]</a></span>
generation, very different from that of the present time, who in
almost all the local places of worship display a laudable sympathy
with progress. They had embarrassed Lethierry in a
hundred ways; every sort of resisting force which can be
found in sermons and discourses had been employed against
him. Detested by the churchmen, he naturally came to detest
them in his turn. Their hatred was the extenuating circumstance
to be taken into account in judging of his.</p>

<p>But it must be confessed that his dislike for priests was, in
some degree, in his very nature. It was hardly necessary for
them to hate him in order to inspire him with aversion. As he
said, he moved among them like the dog among cats. He had
an antipathy to them, not only in idea, but in what is more
difficult to analyse, his instincts. He felt their secret claws,
and showed his teeth; sometimes, it must be confessed, a little
at random and out of season. It is a mistake to make no distinctions:
a dislike in the mass is a prejudice. The good
Savoyard cur&eacute; would have found no favour in his eyes. It is
not certain that a worthy priest was even a possible thing in
Lethierry's mind. His philosophy was carried so far that his
good sense sometimes abandoned him. There is such a thing
as the intolerance of tolerants, as well as the violence of
moderates. But Lethierry was at bottom too good-natured to
be a thorough hater. He did not attack so much as avoid.
He kept the church people at a distance. He suffered evil at
their hands; but he confined himself to not wishing them any
good. The shade of difference, in fact, between his aversion
and theirs, lay in the fact that they bore animosity, while he
had only a strong antipathy. Small as is the island of Guernsey,
it has, unfortunately, plenty of room for differences of religion;
there, to take the broad distinction, is the Catholic faith and
the Protestant faith; every form of worship has its temple or
chapel. In Germany, at Heidelberg, for example, people are
not so particular; they divide a church in two, one half for
St. Peter, the other half for Calvin, and between the two is a
partition to prevent religious variances terminating in fisticuffs.
The shares are equal; the Catholics have three altars, the
Huguenots three altars. As the services are at the same hours,
one bell summonses both denominations to prayers; it rings, in
fact, both for God and for Satan, according as each pleases to
regard it. Nothing can be more simple.</p>

<p>The phlegmatic character of the Germans favours, I suppose,
this peculiar arrangement, but in Guernsey every religion has<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_63" id="Page_63">[Pg 63]</a></span>
its own domicile; there is the orthodox parish and the heretic
parish; the individual may choose. "Neither one nor the
other" was the choice of Mess Lethierry.</p>

<p>This sailor, workman, philosopher, and parvenu trader,
though a simple man in appearance, was by no means simple
at bottom. He had his opinions and his prejudices. On the
subject of the priests he was immovable; he would have entered
the lists with Montlosier.</p>

<p>Occasionally he indulged in rather disrespectful jokes upon
this subject. He had certain odd expressions thereupon peculiar
to himself, but significant enough. Going to confession he
called "combing one's conscience." The little learning that
he had&mdash;a certain amount of reading picked up here and there
between the squalls at sea&mdash;did not prevent his making blunders
in spelling. He made also mistakes in pronunciation, some of
which, however, gave a double sense to his words, which might
have been suspected of a sly intention. After peace had been
brought about by Waterloo between the France of Louis XVIII.
and the England of Wellington, Mess Lethierry was heard to
say, "Bour mont a &eacute;t&eacute; le tra&icirc;tre d'union entre les deux camps."
On one occasion he wrote <i>pape &ocirc;t&eacute;</i> for <i>papaut&eacute;</i>. We do not
think these puns were intentional.</p>

<p>Though he was a strong anti-papist, that circumstance was
far from conciliating the Anglicans. He was no more liked by
the Protestant rectors than by the Catholic cur&eacute;s. The enunciation
of the greatest dogmas did not prevent his anti-theological
temper bursting forth. Accident, for example, having once
brought him to hear a sermon on eternal punishment, by the
Reverend Jaquemin H&eacute;rode&mdash;a magnificent discourse, filled
from one end to the other with sacred texts, proving the everlasting
pains, the tortures, the torments, the perditions, the
inexorable chastisements, the burnings without end, the inextinguishable
maledictions, the wrath of the Almighty, the
celestial fury, the divine vengeance, and other incontestable
realities&mdash;he was heard to say as he was going out in the midst
of the faithful flock, "You see, I have an odd notion of my own
on this matter; I imagine God as a merciful being."</p>

<p>This leaven of atheism was doubtless due to his sojourn in
France.</p>

<p>Although a Guernsey man of pure extraction, he was called
in the island "the Frenchman;" but chiefly on account of his
"improper" manner of speaking. He did not indeed conceal
the truth from himself. He was impregnated with ideas sub<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_64" id="Page_64">[Pg 64]</a></span>versive
of established institutions. His obstinacy in constructing
the "Devil Boat" had proved that. He used to
say, "I was suckled by the '89"&mdash;a bad sort of nurse. These
were not his only indiscretions. In France "to preserve appearances,"
in England "to be respectable," is the chief condition
of a quiet life. To be respectable implies a multitude of
little observances, from the strict keeping of Sunday down to
the careful tying of a cravat. "To act so that nobody may
point at you;" this is the terrible social law. To be pointed at
with the finger is almost the same thing as an anathematisation.
Little towns, always hotbeds of gossip, are remarkable for that
isolating malignancy, which is like the tremendous malediction
of the Church seen through the wrong end of the telescope.
The bravest are afraid of this ordeal. They are ready to confront
the storm, the fire of cannon, but they shrink at the glance
of "Mrs. Grundy." Mess Lethierry was more obstinate than
logical; but under pressure even his obstinacy would bend.
He put&mdash;to use another of his phrases, eminently suggestive of
latent compromises, not always pleasant to avow&mdash;"a little
water in his wine." He kept aloof from the clergy, but he did
not absolutely close his door against them. On official occasions,
and at the customary epochs of pastoral visits, he received
with sufficiently good grace both the Lutheran rector and the
Papist chaplain. He had even, though at distant intervals,
accompanied D&eacute;ruchette to the Anglican parish church, to
which D&eacute;ruchette herself, as we have said, only went on the
four great festivals of the year.</p>

<p>On the whole, these little concessions, which always cost
him a pang, irritated him; and far from inclining him towards
the Church people, only increased his inward disinclination to
them. He compensated himself by more raillery. His nature,
in general so devoid of bitterness, had no uncharitable side
except this. To alter him, however, was impossible.</p>

<p>In fact, this was in his very temperament, and was beyond
his own power to control.</p>

<p>Every sort of priest or clergyman was distasteful to him.
He had a little of the old revolutionary want of reverence. He
did not distinguish between one form of worship and another.
He did not do justice to that great step in the progress of ideas,
the denial of the real presence. His shortsightedness in these
matters even prevented his perceiving any essential difference
between a minister and an abb&eacute;. A reverend doctor and a
reverend father were pretty nearly the same to him. He used<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_65" id="Page_65">[Pg 65]</a></span>
to say, "Wesley is not more to my taste than Loyola." When
he saw a reverend pastor walking with his wife, he would turn
to look at them, and mutter, "a married priest," in a tone
which brought out all the absurdity which those words had in
the ears of Frenchmen at that time. He used to relate how, on
his last voyage to England, he had seen the "Bishop<i>ess</i>" of
London. His dislike for marriages of that sort amounted
almost to disgust. "Gown and gown do not mate well," he
would say. The sacerdotal function was to him in the nature
of a distinct sex. It would have been natural to him to have
said, "Neither a man nor a woman, only a priest;" and he had
the bad taste to apply to the Anglican and the Roman Catholic
clergy the same disdainful epithets. He confounded the two
cassocks in the same phraseology. He did not take the trouble
to vary in favour of Catholics or Lutherans, or whatever they
might be, the figures of speech common among military men
of that period. He would say to D&eacute;ruchette, "Marry whom
you please, provided you do not marry a parson."</p>



<hr style="width: 65%;" />
<h4>XIII</h4>

<h5>THOUGHTLESSNESS ADDS A GRACE TO BEAUTY</h5>


<p>A word once said, Mess Lethierry remembered it: a word once
said, D&eacute;ruchette soon forgot it. Here was another difference
between the uncle and the niece.</p>

<p>Brought up in the peculiar way already described, D&eacute;ruchette
was little accustomed to responsibility. There is a latent
danger in an education not sufficiently serious, which cannot be
too much insisted on. It is perhaps unwise to endeavour to
make a child happy too soon.</p>

<p>So long as she was happy, D&eacute;ruchette thought all was well.
She knew, too, that it was always a pleasure to her uncle to
see her pleased. The religious sentiment in her nature was
satisfied with going to the parish church four times in the year.
We have seen her in her Christmas-day toilet. Of life, she was
entirely ignorant. She had a disposition which one day might
lead her to love passionately. Meanwhile she was contented.</p>

<p>She sang by fits and starts, chatted by fits and starts, enjoyed
the hour as it passed, fulfilled some little duty, and was gone
again, and was delightful in all. Add to all this the English
sort of liberty which she enjoyed. In England the very infants<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_66" id="Page_66">[Pg 66]</a></span>
go alone, girls are their own mistresses, and adolescence is
almost wholly unrestrained. Such are the differences of
manners. Later, how many of these free maidens become
female slaves? I use the word in its least odious sense; I
mean that they are free in the development of their nature,
but slaves to duty.</p>

<p>D&eacute;ruchette awoke every morning with little thought of her
actions of the day before. It would have troubled her a good
deal to have had to give an account of how she had spent her
time the previous week. All this, however, did not prevent
her having certain hours of strange disquietude; times when
some dark cloud seemed to pass over the brightness of her joy.
Those azure depths are subject to such shadows! But clouds
like these soon passed away. She quickly shook off such moods
with a cheerful laugh, knowing neither why she had been sad,
nor why she had regained her serenity. She was always at
play. As a child, she would take delight in teasing the passers-by.
She played practical jokes upon the boys. If the fiend
himself had passed that way, she would hardly have spared
him some ingenious trick. She was pretty and innocent; and
she could abuse the immunity accorded to such qualities. She
was ready with a smile, as a cat with a stroke of her claws. So
much the worse for the victim of her scratches. She thought
no more of them. Yesterday had no existence for her. She
lived in the fullness of to-day. Such it is to have too much
happiness fall to one's lot! With D&eacute;ruchette impressions
vanished like the melted snow.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_67" id="Page_67">[Pg 67]</a></span></p>



<hr style="width: 65%;" />
<h3>BOOK IV</h3>

<h4>THE BAGPIPE</h4>

<h4>I</h4>

<h5>STREAKS OF FIRE ON THE HORIZON</h5>


<p>Gilliatt had never spoken to D&eacute;ruchette; he knew her from
having seen her at a distance, as men know the morning star.</p>

<p>At the period when D&eacute;ruchette had met Gilliatt on the road
leading from St. Peter's Port to Vale, and had surprised him by
tracing his name in the snow, she was just sixteen years of age.
Only the evening before Mess Lethierry had said to her, "Come,
no more childish tricks; you are a great girl."</p>

<p>That word "Gilliatt," written by the young maiden, had sunk
into an unfathomed depth.</p>

<p>What were women to Gilliatt? He could not have answered
that question himself. When he met one he generally inspired
her with something of the timidity which he felt himself. He
never spoke to a woman except from urgent necessity. He had
never played the part of a "gallant" to any one of the country
girls. When he found himself alone on the road, and perceived
a woman coming towards him, he would climb over a fence, or
bury himself in some copse: he even avoided old women.
Once in his life he had seen a Parisian lady. A <i>Parisienne</i> on
the wing was a strange event in Guernsey at that distant epoch;
and Gilliatt had heard this gentle lady relate her little troubles
in these words: "I am very much annoyed; I have got some
spots of rain upon my bonnet. Pale buff is a shocking colour
for rain." Having found, some time afterwards, between the
leaves of a book, an old engraving, representing "a lady of the
Chauss&eacute;e d'Antin" in full dress, he had stuck it against the wall
at home as a souvenir of this remarkable apparition.</p>

<p>On that Christmas morning when he had met D&eacute;ruchette,
and when she had written his name and disappeared laughing,
he returned home, scarcely conscious of why he had gone out.
That night he slept little; he was dreaming of a thousand
things: that it would be well to cultivate black radishes in the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_68" id="Page_68">[Pg 68]</a></span>
garden; that he had not seen the boat from Sark pass by; had
anything happened to it? Then he remembered that he had
seen the white stonecrop in flower, a rare thing at that season.
He had never known exactly who was the woman who had
reared him, and he made up his mind that she must have been
his mother, and thought of her with redoubled tenderness. He
called to mind the lady's clothing in the old leathern trunk.
He thought that the Reverend Jaquemin H&eacute;rode would probably
one day or other be appointed dean of St. Peter's Port and
surrogate of the bishop, and that the rectory of St. Sampson
would become vacant. Next, he remembered that the morrow
of Christmas would be the twenty-seventh day of the moon,
and that consequently high water would be at twenty-one
minutes past three, the half-ebb at a quarter past seven, low
water at thirty-three minutes past nine, and half flood at thirty-nine
minutes past twelve. He recalled, in the most trifling
details, the costume of the Highlander who had sold him the
bagpipe; his bonnet with a thistle ornament, his claymore, his
close-fitting short jacket, his philabeg ornamented with a
pocket, and his snuff-horn, his pin set with a Scottish stone, his
two girdles, his sash and belts, his sword, cutlass, dirk, and
skene-dhu&mdash;his black-sheathed knife, with its black handle
ornamented with two cairngorms&mdash;and the bare knees of the
soldier; his socks, gaiters, and buckled shoes. This highly-equipped
figure became a spectre in his imagination, which
pursued him with a sense of feverishness as he sunk into oblivion.
When he awoke it was full daylight, and his first thought was
of D&eacute;ruchette.</p>

<p>The next night he slept more soundly, but he was dreaming
again of the Scottish soldier. In the midst of his sleep he remembered
that the after-Christmas sittings of the Chief Law
Court would commence on the 21st of January. He dreamed
also about the Reverend Jaquemin H&eacute;rode. He thought of
D&eacute;ruchette, and seemed to be in violent anger with her. He
wished he had been a child again to throw stones at her windows.
Then he thought that if he were a child again he should have
his mother by his side, and he began to sob.</p>

<p>Gilliatt had a project at this time of going to pass three
months at Chousey, or at the Miriquiers; but he did not go.</p>

<p>He walked no more along the road to St. Peter's Port.</p>

<p>He had an odd fancy that his name of "Gilliatt" had remained
there traced upon the ground, and that the passers-by
stopped to read it.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_69" id="Page_69">[Pg 69]</a></span></p>



<hr style="width: 65%;" />
<h4>II</h4>

<h5>THE UNKNOWN UNFOLDS ITSELF BY DEGREES</h5>


<p>On the other hand, Gilliatt had the satisfaction of seeing the
Brav&eacute;es every day. By some accident he was continually passing
that way. His business seemed always to lead him by the
path which passed under the wall of D&eacute;ruchette's garden.</p>

<p>One morning, as he was walking along this path, he heard a
market-woman who was returning from the Brav&eacute;es, say to
another: "Mess Lethierry is fond of sea-kale."</p>

<p>He dug in his garden of the B&ucirc; de la Rue a trench for sea-kale.
The sea-kale is a vegetable which has a flavour like
asparagus.</p>

<p>The wall of the garden of the Brav&eacute;es was very low; it would
have been easy to scale it. The idea of scaling it would have
appeared, to him, terrible. But there was nothing to hinder
his hearing, as any one else might, the voices of persons talking
as he passed, in the rooms or in the garden. He did not listen,
but he heard them. Once he could distinguish the voices of
the two servants, Grace and Douce, disputing. It was a sound
which belonged to the house, and their quarrel remained in his
ears like a remembrance of music.</p>

<p>On another occasion, he distinguished a voice which was
different, and which seemed to him to be the voice of D&eacute;ruchette.
He quickened his pace, and was soon out of hearing.</p>

<p>The words uttered by that voice, however, remained fixed in
his memory. He repeated them at every instant. They were,
"Will you please give me the little broom?"</p>

<p>By degrees he became bolder. He had the daring to stay
awhile. One day it happened that D&eacute;ruchette was singing at
her piano, altogether invisible from without, although her
window was open. The air was that of "Bonnie Dundee." He
grew pale, but he screwed his courage to the point of listening.</p>

<p>Springtide came. One day Gilliatt enjoyed a beatific vision.
The heavens were opened, and there, before his eyes, appeared
D&eacute;ruchette, watering lettuces in her little garden.</p>

<p>Soon afterwards he look to doing more than merely listening
there. He watched her habits, observed her hours, and waited
to catch a glimpse of her.</p>

<p>In all this he was very careful not to be seen.</p>

<p>The year advanced; the time came when the trellises were<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_70" id="Page_70">[Pg 70]</a></span>
heavy with roses, and haunted by the butterflies. By little
and little, he had come to conceal himself for hours behind her
wall, motionless and silent, seen by no one, and holding his
breath as D&eacute;ruchette passed in and out of her garden. Men
grow accustomed to poison by degrees.</p>

<p>From his hiding-place he could often hear the sound of
D&eacute;ruchette conversing with Mess Lethierry under a thick arch
of leaves, in a spot where there was a garden-seat. The words
came distinctly to his ears.</p>

<p>What a change had come over him! He had even descended
to watch and listen. Alas! there is something of the character
of a spy in every human heart.</p>

<p>There was another garden-seat, visible to him, and nearer
D&eacute;ruchette would sit there sometimes.</p>

<p>From the flowers that he had observed her gathering he had
guessed her taste in the matter of perfumes. The scent of the
bindweed was her favourite, then the pink, then the honeysuckle,
then the jasmine. The rose stood only fifth in the
scale. She looked at the lilies, but did not smell them.</p>

<p>Gilliatt figured her in his imagination from this choice of
odours. With each perfume he associated some perfection.</p>

<p>The very idea of speaking to D&eacute;ruchette would have made
his hair stand on end. A poor old rag-picker, whose wandering
brought her, from time to time, into the little road leading
under the inclosure of the Brav&eacute;es, had occasionally remarked
Gilliatt's assiduity beside the wall, and his devotion for this
retired spot. Did she connect the presence of a man before
this wall with the possibility of a woman behind it? Did she
perceive that vague, invisible thread? Was she, in her decrepit
mendicancy, still youthful enough to remember something of
the old happier days? And could she, in this dark night and
winter of her wretched life, still recognise the dawn? We know
not: but it appears that, on one occasion, passing near Gilliatt
at his post, she brought to bear upon him something as like a
smile as she was still capable of, and muttered between her
teeth, "It is getting warmer."</p>

<p>Gilliatt heard the words, and was struck by them. "It
warms one," he muttered, with an inward note of interrogation.
"It is getting warmer." What did the old woman mean?</p>

<p>He repeated the phrase mechanically all day, but he could
not guess its meaning.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_71" id="Page_71">[Pg 71]</a></span></p>



<hr style="width: 65%;" />
<h4>III</h4>

<h5>THE AIR "BONNIE DUNDEE" FINDS AN ECHO ON THE HILL</h5>


<p>It was in a spot behind the enclosure of the garden of the
Brav&eacute;es, at an angle of the wall, half concealed with holly and
ivy, and covered with nettles, wild mallow, and large white
mullen growing between the blocks of stone, that he passed the
greater part of that summer. He watched there, lost in deep
thought. The lizards grew accustomed to his presence, and
basked in the sun among the same stones. The summer was
bright and full of dreamy indolence: overhead the light clouds
came and went. Gilliatt sat upon the grass. The air was full
of the songs of birds. He held his two hands up to his forehead,
sometimes trying to recollect himself: "Why should she write
my name in the snow?" From a distance the sea breeze came
up in gentle breaths, at intervals the horn of the quarrymen
sounded abruptly, warning the passers-by to take shelter, as
they shattered some mass with gunpowder. The Port of St.
Sampson was not visible from this place, but he could see the
tips of masts above the trees. The sea-gulls flew wide and
afar. Gilliatt had heard his mother say that women could
love men; that such things happened sometimes. He remembered
it; and said within himself, "Who knows, may not
D&eacute;ruchette love me?" Then a feeling of sadness would come
upon him; he would say, "She, too, thinks of me in her turn.
It is well." He remembered that D&eacute;ruchette was rich, and that
he was poor: and then the new boat appeared to him an execrable
invention. He could never remember what day of the month
it was. He would stare listlessly at the great bees, with their
yellow bodies and their short wings, as they entered with a
buzzing noise into the holes in the wall.</p>

<p>One evening D&eacute;ruchette went in-doors to retire to bed. She
approached her window to close it. The night was dark.
Suddenly, something caught her ear, and she listened. Somewhere
in the darkness there was a sound of music. It was
some one, perhaps, on the hill-side, or at the foot of the towers
of Vale Castle, or, perhaps, further still, playing an air upon
some instrument. D&eacute;ruchette recognised her favourite melody,
"Bonnie Dundee," played upon the bagpipe. She thought
little of it.</p>

<p>From that night the music might be heard again from time<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_72" id="Page_72">[Pg 72]</a></span>
to time at the same hours, particularly when the nights were
very dark.</p>

<p>D&eacute;ruchette was not much pleased with all this.</p>



<hr style="width: 65%;" />
<h4>IV</h4>

<p><span style="margin-left: 8em;">"A serenade by night may please a lady fair,</span><br />
<span style="margin-left: 8em;"> the troubadour beware."</span><br />
<span style="margin-left: 20em;"><i>Unpublished Comedy</i></span><br />
</p>


<p>Four years passed away.</p>

<p>D&eacute;ruchette was approaching her twenty-first year, and was
still unmarried. Some writer has said that a fixed idea is a sort
of gimlet; every year gives it another turn. To pull out the
first year is like plucking out the hair by the roots; in the second
year, like tearing the skin; in the third, like breaking the bones;
and in the fourth, like removing the very brain itself.</p>

<p>Gilliatt had arrived at this fourth stage.</p>

<p>He had never yet spoken a word to D&eacute;ruchette. He lived
and dreamed near that delightful vision. This was all.</p>

<p>It happened one day that, finding himself by chance at St.
Sampson, he had seen D&eacute;ruchette talking with Mess Lethierry
at the door of the Brav&eacute;es, which opens upon the roadway of
the port. Gilliatt ventured to approach very near. He fancied
that at the very moment of his passing she had smiled. There
was nothing impossible in that.</p>

<p>D&eacute;ruchette still heard, from time to time, the sound of the
bagpipe.</p>

<p>Mess Lethierry had also heard this bagpipe. By degrees he
had come to remark this persevering musician under D&eacute;ruchette's
window. A tender strain, too; all the more suspicious. A
nocturnal gallant was a thing not to his taste. His wish was
to marry D&eacute;ruchette in his own time, when she was willing and
he was willing, purely and simply, without any romance, or
music, or anything of that sort. Irritated at it, he had at last
kept a watch, and he fancied that he had detected Gilliatt. He
passed his fingers through his beard&mdash;a sign of anger&mdash;and
grumbled out, "What has that fellow got to pipe about? He
is in love with D&eacute;ruchette, that is clear. You waste your time,
young man. Any one who wants D&eacute;ruchette must come to me,
and not loiter about playing the flute."</p>

<p>An event of importance, long foreseen, occurred soon afterwards.
It was announced that the Reverend Jaquemin<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_73" id="Page_73">[Pg 73]</a></span>
H&eacute;rode was appointed surrogate of the Bishop of Winchester,
dean of the island, and rector of St. Peter's Port, and that he
would leave St. Sampson for St. Peter's immediately after his
successor should be installed.</p>

<p>It could not be long to the arrival of the new rector. He
was a gentleman of Norman extraction, Monsieur Ebenezer
Caudray.</p>

<p>Some facts were known about the new rector, which the
benevolent and malevolent interpreted in a contrary sense. He
was known to be young and poor, but his youth was tempered
with much learning, and his poverty by good expectations.
In the dialect specially invented for the subject of riches and
inheritances, death goes by the name of "expectations." He
was the nephew and heir of the aged and opulent dean of St.
Asaph. At the death of this old gentleman he would be a rich
man. M. Caudray had distinguished relations. He was almost
entitled to the quality of "Honourable." As regarded his
doctrine, people judged differently. He was an Anglican, but,
according to the expression of Bishop Tillotson, a "libertine"&mdash;that
is, in reality, one who was very severe. He repudiated
all pharisaism. He was a friend rather of the Presbytery than
the Episcopacy. He dreamed of the Primitive Church of the
days when even Adam had the right to choose his Eve, and when
Frumentinus, Bishop of Hierapolis, carried off a young maiden
to make her his wife, and said to her parents, "Her will is such,
and such is mine. You are no longer her mother, and you
are no longer her father. I am the Bishop of Hierapolis, and
this is my wife. Her father is in heaven." If the common
belief could be trusted, M. Caudray subordinated the text,
"Honour thy father and thy mother," to that other text, in
his eyes of higher significance, "The woman is the flesh of
the man. She shall leave her father and mother to follow
her husband." This tendency, however, to circumscribe the
parental authority and to favour religiously every mode of
forming the conjugal tie, is peculiar to all Protestantism, particularly
in England, and singularly so in America.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_74" id="Page_74">[Pg 74]</a></span></p>



<hr style="width: 65%;" />
<h4>V</h4>

<h5>A DESERVED SUCCESS HAS ALWAYS ITS DETRACTORS</h5>


<p>At this period the affairs of Mess Lethierry were in this position:&mdash;The
Durande had well fulfilled all his expectations. He had
paid his debts, repaired his misfortunes, discharged his obligations
at Br&ecirc;me, met his acceptances at St. Malo. He had paid
off the mortgage upon his house at the Brav&eacute;es, and had bought
up all the little local rent charges upon the property. He was
also the proprietor of a great productive capital. This was the
Durande herself. The net revenue from the boat was about a
thousand pounds sterling per annum, and the traffic was constantly
increasing. Strictly speaking, the Durande constituted
his entire fortune. She was also the fortune of the island. The
carriage of cattle being one of the most profitable portions of her
trade, he had been obliged, in order to facilitate the stowage,
and the embarking and disembarking of animals, to do away
with the luggage-boxes and the two boats. It was, perhaps,
imprudent. The Durande had but one boat&mdash;namely, her
long-boat; but this was an excellent one.</p>

<p>Ten years had elapsed since Rantaine's robbery.</p>

<p>This prosperity of the Durande had its weak point. It inspired
no confidence. People regarded it as a risk. Lethierry's
good fortune was looked upon as exceptional. He was considered
to have gained by a lucky rashness. Some one in the
Isle of Wight who had imitated him had not succeeded. The
enterprise had ruined the shareholders. The engines, in fact,
were badly constructed. But people shook their heads. Innovations
have always to contend with the difficulty that few wish
them well. The least false step compromises them.</p>

<p>One of the commercial oracles of the Channel Islands, a
certain banker from Paris, named Jauge, being consulted upon
a steamboat speculation, was reported to have turned his back,
with the remark, "An investment is it you propose to me?
Exactly; an investment in smoke."</p>

<p>On the other hand, the sailing vessels had no difficulty in
finding capitalists to take shares in a venture. Capital, in fact,
was obstinately in favour of sails, and as obstinately against
boilers and paddle-wheels. At Guernsey, the Durande was
indeed a fact, but steam was not yet an established principle.
Such is the fanatical spirit of conservatism in opposition to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_75" id="Page_75">[Pg 75]</a></span>
progress. They said of Lethierry, "It is all very well; but he
could not do it a second time." Far from encouraging, his
example inspired timidity. Nobody would have dared to risk
another Durande.</p>



<hr style="width: 65%;" />
<h4>VI</h4>

<h5>THE SLOOP "CASHMERE" SAVES A SHIPWRECKED CREW</h5>


<p>The equinoctial gales begin early in the Channel. The sea
there is narrow, and the winds disturb it easily. The westerly
gales begin from the month of February, and the waves are
beaten about from every quarter. Navigation becomes an
anxious matter. The people on the coasts look to the signal-post,
and begin to watch for vessels in distress. The sea is
then like a cut-throat in ambush for his victim. An invisible
trumpet sounds the alarm of war with the elements, furious
blasts spring up from the horizon, and a terrible wind soon begins
to blow. The dark night whistles and howls. In the depth of
the clouds the black tempest distends its cheeks, and the storm
arises.</p>

<p>The wind is one danger; the fogs are another.</p>

<p>Fogs have from all time been the terror of mariners. In
certain fogs microscopic prisms of ice are found in suspension,
to which Mariotte attributes halos, mock suns, and paraselenes.
Storm-fogs are of a composite character; various gases of unequal
specific gravity combine with the vapour of water, and
arrange themselves, layer over layer, in an order which divides
the dense mist into zones. Below ranges the iodine; above the
iodine is the sulphur; above the sulphur the brome; above the
brome the phosphorus. This, in a certain manner, and making
allowance for electric and magnetic tension, explains several
phenomena, as the St. Elmo's Fire of Columbus and Magellan,
the flying stars moving about the ships, of which Seneca speaks;
the two flames, Castor and Pollux, mentioned by Plutarch; the
Roman legion, whose spears appeared to C&aelig;sar to take fire;
the peak of the Chateau of Duino in Friuli which the sentinel
made to sparkle by touching it with his lance; and perhaps
even those fulgurations from the earth which the ancients called
Satan's terrestrial lightnings. At the equator, an immense
mist seems permanently to encircle the globe. It is known as
the cloud-ring. The function of the cloud-ring is to temper
the heat of the tropics, as that of the Gulf-stream is to mitigate<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_76" id="Page_76">[Pg 76]</a></span>
the coldness of the Pole. Under the cloud-ring fogs are fatal.
These are what are called <i>horse latitudes</i>. It was here that
navigators of bygone ages were accustomed to cast their horses
into the sea to lighten the ship in stormy weather, and to
economise the fresh water when becalmed. Columbus said,
"<i>Nube abaxo ex muerte</i>," death lurks in the low cloud. The
Etruscans, who bear the same relation to meteorology which the
Chaldeans did to astronomy, had two high priests&mdash;the high
priest of the thunder, and the high priest of the clouds. The
"fulgurators" observed the lightning, and the weather sages
watched the mists. The college of Priest-Augurs was consulted
by the Syrians, the Ph&oelig;nicians, the Pelasgi, and all the primitive
navigators of the ancient <i>Mare Internum</i>. The origin of
tempests was, from that time forward, partially understood.
It is intimately connected with the generation of fogs, and is,
properly speaking, the same phenomenon. There exist upon
the ocean three regions of fogs, one equatorial and two polar.
The mariners give them but one name, the <i>pitch-pot</i>.</p>

<p>In all latitudes, and particularly in the Channel, the equinoctial
fogs are dangerous. They shed a sudden darkness over
the sea. One of the perils of fogs, even when not very dense,
arises from their preventing the mariners perceiving the change
of the bed of the sea by the variations of the colour of the water.
The result is a dangerous concealment of the approach of sands
and breakers. The vessel steers towards the shoals without
receiving any warning. Frequently the fogs leave a ship no
resource except to lie-to, or to cast anchor. There are as many
shipwrecks from the fogs as from the winds.</p>

<p>After a very violent squall succeeding one of these foggy days,
the mail-boat <i>Cashmere</i> arrived safely from England. It
entered at St. Peter's Port as the first gleam of day appeared
upon the sea, and at the very moment when the cannon of
Castle Cornet announced the break of day. The sky had
cleared: the sloop <i>Cashmere</i> was anxiously expected, as she
was to bring the new rector of St. Sampson.</p>

<p>A little after the arrival of the sloop, a rumour ran through
the town that she had been hailed during the night at sea by a
long-boat containing a shipwrecked crew.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_77" id="Page_77">[Pg 77]</a></span></p>



<hr style="width: 65%;" />
<h4>VII</h4>

<h5>HOW AN IDLER HAD THE GOOD FORTUNE TO BE SEEN BY A FISHERMAN</h5>


<p>On that very night, at the moment when the wind abated,
Gilliatt had gone out with his nets, without, however, taking
his famous old Dutch boat too far from the coast.</p>

<p>As he was returning with the rising tide, towards two o'clock
in the afternoon, the sun was shining brightly, and he passed
before the Beast's Horn to reach the little bay of the B&ucirc; de la
Rue. At that moment he fancied that he saw, in the projection
of the "Gild-Holm-'Ur" seat a shadow, which was not that of
the rock. He steered his vessel nearer, and was able to perceive
a man sitting in the "Gild-Holm-'Ur." The sea was already
very high, the rock encircled by the waves, and escape entirely
cut off. Gilliatt made signs to the man. The stranger remained
motionless. Gilliatt drew nearer; the man was asleep.</p>

<p>He was attired in black. "He looks like a priest," thought
Gilliatt. He approached still nearer, and could distinguish the
face of a young man.</p>

<p>The features were unknown to him.</p>

<p>The rock, happily, was peaked; there was a good depth.
Gilliatt wore off, and succeeded in skirting the rocky wall.
The tide raised the bark so high that Gilliatt, by standing upon
the gunwale of the sloop, could touch the man's feet. He
raised himself upon the planking, and stretched out his hands.
If he had fallen at that moment, it is doubtful if he would have
risen again on the water; the waves were rolling in between the
boat and the rock, and destruction would have been inevitable.
He pulled the foot of the sleeping man. "Ho! there. What
are you doing in this place?"</p>

<p>The man aroused, and muttered&mdash;</p>

<p>"I was looking about."</p>

<p>He was now completely awake, and continued&mdash;</p>

<p>"I have just arrived in this part. I came this way on a
pleasure trip. I have passed the night on the sea: the view
from here seemed beautiful. I was weary, and fell asleep."</p>

<p>"Ten minutes later, and you would have been drowned."</p>

<p>"Ha!"</p>

<p>"Jump into my bark."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_78" id="Page_78">[Pg 78]</a></span></p>

<p>Gilliatt kept the bark fast with his foot, clutched the rock
with one hand, and stretched out the other to the stranger in
black, who sprang quickly into the boat. He was a fine young
man.</p>

<p>Gilliatt seized the tiller, and in two minutes his boat entered
the bay of the B&ucirc; de la Rue.</p>

<p>The young man wore a round hat and a white cravat; and his
long black frock-coat was buttoned up to the neck. He had
fair hair, which he wore <i>en couronne</i>. He had a somewhat
feminine cast of features, a clear eye, a grave manner.</p>

<p>Meanwhile the boat had touched the ground. Gilliatt passed
the cable through the mooring-ring, then turned and perceived
the young man holding out a sovereign in a very white hand.</p>

<p>Gilliatt moved the hand gently away.</p>

<p>There was a pause. The young man was the first to break
the silence.</p>

<p>"You have saved me from death."</p>

<p>"Perhaps," replied Gilliatt.</p>

<p>The moorings were made fast, and they went ashore.</p>

<p>The stranger continued&mdash;</p>

<p>"I owe you my life, sir."</p>

<p>"No matter."</p>

<p>This reply from Gilliatt was again followed by a pause.</p>

<p>"Do you belong to this parish?"</p>

<p>"No," replied Gilliatt.</p>

<p>"To what parish, then?"</p>

<p>Gilliatt lifted up his right hand, pointed to the sky, and
said&mdash;</p>

<p>"To that yonder."</p>

<p>The young man bowed, and left him.</p>

<p>After walking a few paces, the stranger stopped, felt in his
pocket, drew out a book, and returning towards Gilliatt, offered
it to him.</p>

<p>"Permit me to make you a present of this."</p>

<p>Gilliatt took the volume.</p>

<p>It was a Bible.</p>

<p>An instant after, Gilliatt, leaning upon the parapet, was
following the young man with his eyes as he turned the angle of
the path which led to St. Sampson.</p>

<p>By little and little he lowered his gaze, forgot all about
the stranger&mdash;knew no more whether the "Gild-Holm-'Ur"
existed. Everything disappeared before him in the bottomless
depth of a reverie.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_79" id="Page_79">[Pg 79]</a></span></p>

<p>There was one abyss which swallowed up all his thought.
This was D&eacute;ruchette.</p>

<p>A voice calling him, aroused him from this dream.</p>

<p>"Ho there, Gilliatt!"</p>

<p>He recognised the voice and looked up.</p>

<p>"What is the matter, Sieur Landoys?"</p>

<p>It was, in fact, Sieur Landoys, who was passing along the
road about one hundred paces from the B&ucirc; de la Rue in his
phaeton, drawn by one little horse. He had stopped to hail
Gilliatt, but he seemed hurried.</p>

<p>"There is news, Gilliatt."</p>

<p>"Where is that?"</p>

<p>"At the Brav&eacute;es."</p>

<p>"What is it?"</p>

<p>"I am too far off to tell you the story."</p>

<p>Gilliatt shuddered.</p>

<p>"Is Miss D&eacute;ruchette going to be married?"</p>

<p>"No; but she had better look out for a husband."</p>

<p>"What do you mean?"</p>

<p>"Go up to the house, and you will learn."</p>

<p>And Sieur Landoys whipped on his horse.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_80" id="Page_80">[Pg 80]</a></span></p>



<hr style="width: 65%;" />
<h3>BOOK V</h3>

<h4>THE REVOLVER</h4>

<h4>I</h4>

<h5>CONVERSATIONS AT THE JEAN AUBERGE</h5>


<p>Sieur Clubin was a man who bided his time. He was short
in stature, and his complexion was yellow. He had the strength
of a bull. His sea life had not tanned his skin; his flesh had a
sallow hue; it was the colour of a wax candle, of which his eyes,
too, had something of the steady light. His memory was
peculiarly retentive. With him, to have seen a man once, was
to have him like a note in a note-book. His quiet glance took
possession of you. The pupil of his eye received the impression
of a face, and kept it like a portrait. The face might grow old,
but Sieur Clubin never lost it; it was impossible to cheat that
tenacious memory. Sieur Clubin was curt in speech, grave in
manner, bold in action. No gestures were ever indulged in by
him. An air of candour won everybody to him at first; many
people thought him artless. He had a wrinkle in the corner of
his eye, astonishingly expressive of simplicity. As we have
said, no abler mariner existed; no one like him for reefing a sail,
for keeping a vessel's head to the wind, or the sails well set.
Never did reputation for religion and integrity stand higher
than his. To have suspected him would have been to bring
yourself under suspicion. He was on terms of intimacy with
Monsieur R&eacute;buchet, a money-changer at St. Malo, who lived
in the Rue St. Vincent, next door to the armourer's; and
Monsieur R&eacute;buchet would say, "I would leave my shop in
Clubin's hands."</p>

<p>Sieur Clubin was a widower; his wife, like himself, had
enjoyed a high reputation for probity. She had died with a
fame for incorruptible virtue. If the bailli had whispered
gallant things in her ear, she would have impeached him before
the king. If a saint had made love to her, she would have told
it to the priest. This couple, Sieur and Dame Clubin, had
realised in Torteval the ideal of the English epithet "respect<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_81" id="Page_81">[Pg 81]</a></span>able."
Dame Clubin's reputation was as the snowy whiteness
of the swan; Sieur Clubin's like that of ermine itself&mdash;a spot
would have been fatal to him. He could hardly have picked
up a pin without making inquiries for the owner. He would
send round the town-crier about a box of matches. One day
he went into a wine-shop at St. Servan, and said to the man who
kept it, "Three years ago I breakfasted here; you made a
mistake in the bill;" and he returned the man thirteen sous.
He was the very personification of probity, with a certain
compression of the lips indicative of watchfulness.</p>

<p>He seemed, indeed, always on the watch&mdash;for what? For
rogues probably.</p>

<p>Every Tuesday he commanded the Durande on her passage
from Guernsey to St. Malo. He arrived at St. Malo on the
Tuesday evening, stayed two days there to discharge and take
in a new cargo, and started again for Guernsey on Friday
morning.</p>

<p>There was at that period, at St. Malo, a little tavern near the
harbour, which was called the "Jean Auberge."</p>

<p>The construction of the modern quays swept away this
house. At this period, the sea came up as far as the St. Vincent
and Dinan gates. St. Merlan and St. Servan communicated
with each other by covered carts and other vehicles, which
passed to and fro among vessels lying high and dry, avoiding
the buoys, the anchors, and cables, and running the risk now
and then of smashing their leathern hoods against the lowered
yards, or the end of a jibboom. Between the tides, the coachmen
drove their horses over those sands, where, six hours afterwards,
the winds would be beating the rolling waves. The
four-and-twenty carrying dogs of St. Malo, who tore to pieces
a naval officer in 1770, were accustomed to prowl about this
beach. This excess of zeal on their part led to the destruction
of the pack. Their nocturnal barkings are no longer heard
between the little and the great Talard.</p>

<p>Sieur Clubin was accustomed to stay at the Jean Auberge.
The French office of the Durande was held there.</p>

<p>The custom-house officers and coast-guardmen came to take
their meals and to drink at the Jean Auberge. They had their
separate tables. The custom-house officers of Binic found it
convenient for the service to meet there with their brother
officers of St. Malo.</p>

<p>Captains of vessels came there also; but they ate at another
table.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_82" id="Page_82">[Pg 82]</a></span></p>

<p>Sieur Clubin sat sometimes at one, sometimes at the other
table, but preferred the table of the custom-house men to that
of the sea captains. He was always welcome at either.</p>

<p>The tables were well served. There were strange drinks
especially provided for foreign sailors. A dandy sailor from
Bilboa could have been supplied there with a <i>helada</i>. People
drank stout there, as at Greenwich; or brown <i>gueuse</i>, as at
Antwerp.</p>

<p>Masters of vessels who came from long voyages and privateersmen
sometimes appeared at the captains' table, where they
exchanged news. "How are sugars? That commission is
only for small lots.&mdash;The brown kinds, however, are going off.
Three thousand bags of East India, and five hundred hogsheads
of Sagua.&mdash;Take my word, the opposition will end by defeating
Vill&egrave;le.&mdash;What about indigo? Only seven serons of Guatemala
changed hands.&mdash;The <i>Nanino-Julia</i> is in the roads; a pretty
three-master from Brittany.&mdash;The two cities of La Plata are at
loggerheads again.&mdash;When Monte Video gets fat, Buenos Ayres
grows lean.&mdash;It has been found necessary to transfer the cargo
of the <i>Regina-C&oelig;li</i>, which has been condemned at Callao.&mdash;Cocoas
go off briskly.&mdash;Caraque bags are quoted at one hundred
and thirty-four, and Trinidad's at seventy-three.&mdash;It appears
that at the review in the Champ de Mars, the people cried,
'Down with the ministers!'&mdash;The raw salt Saladeros hides are
selling&mdash;ox-hides at sixty francs, and cows' at forty-eight.&mdash;Have
they passed the Balkan?&mdash;What is Diebitsch about?&mdash;Aniseed
is in demand at San Francisco. Plagniol olive oil is
quiet.&mdash;Gruy&egrave;re cheese, in bulk, is thirty-two francs the quintal.&mdash;Well,
is Leon XII. dead?" etc., etc.</p>

<p>All these things were talked about and commented on aloud.
At the table of the custom-house and coast-guard officers they
spoke in a lower key.</p>

<p>Matters of police and revenue on the coast and in the ports
require, in fact, a little more privacy, and a little less clearness
in the conversation.</p>

<p>The sea-captains' table was presided over by an old captain
of a large vessel, M. Gertrais-Gaboureau. M. Gertrais-Gaboureau
could hardly be regarded as a man; he was rather a
living barometer. His long life at sea had given him a surprising
power of prognosticating the state of the weather. He seemed
to issue a decree for the weather to-morrow. He sounded the
winds, and felt the pulse, as it were, of the tides. He might be
imagined requesting the clouds to show their tongue&mdash;that is to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_83" id="Page_83">[Pg 83]</a></span>
say, their forked lightnings. He was the physician of the wave,
the breeze, and the squall. The ocean was his patient. He had
travelled round the world like a doctor going his visits, examining
every kind of climate in its good and bad condition. He
was profoundly versed in the pathology of the seasons.
Sometimes he would be heard delivering himself in this fashion&mdash;"The
barometer descended in 1796 to three degrees below
tempest point." He was a sailor from real love of the sea. He
hated England as much as he liked the ocean. He had carefully
studied English seamanship, and considered himself to have
discovered its weak point. He would explain how the <i>Sovereign</i>
of 1637 differed from the <i>Royal William</i> of 1670, and from the
<i>Victory</i> of 1775. He compared their build as to their forecastles
and quarter-decks. He looked back with regret to the
towers upon the deck, and the funnel-shaped tops of the <i>Great
Harry</i> of 1514&mdash;probably regarding them from the point of
view of convenient lodging-places for French cannon-balls. In
his eyes, nations only existed for their naval institutions. He
indulged in some odd figures of speech on this subject. He
considered the term "The Trinity House" as sufficiently indicating
England. The "Northern Commissioners" were in
like manner synonymous in his mind with Scotland; the
"Ballast Board," with Ireland. He was full of nautical information.
He was, in himself, a marine alphabet and almanack,
a tariff and low-water mark, all combined. He knew by heart
all the lighthouse dues&mdash;particularly those of the English coast&mdash;one
penny per ton for passing before this; one farthing before
that. He would tell you that the Small Rock Light which once
used to burn two hundred gallons of oil, now consumes fifteen
hundred. Once, aboard ship, he was attacked by a dangerous
disease, and was believed to be dying. The crew assembled
round his hammock, and in the midst of his groans and agony
he addressed the chief carpenter with the words, "You had
better make a mortise in each side of the main caps, and put in
a bit of iron to help pass the top ropes through." His habit
of command had given to his countenance an expression of
authority.</p>

<p>It was rare that the subjects of conversation at the captains'
table and at that of the custom-house men were the same.
This, however, did happen to be the case in the first days of
that month of February to which the course of this history has
now brought us. The three-master <i>Tamaulipas</i>, Captain Zuela,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_84" id="Page_84">[Pg 84]</a></span>
arrived from Chili, and bound thither again, was the theme of
discussion at both tables.</p>

<p>At the captains' table they were talking of her cargo; and
at that of the custom-house people, of certain circumstances
connected with her recent proceedings.</p>

<p>Captain Zuela, of Copiapo, was partly a Chilian and partly a
Columbian. He had taken a part in the War of Independence
in a true independent fashion, adhering sometimes to Bolivar,
sometimes to Morillo, according as he had found it to his interest.
He had enriched himself by serving all causes. No man in the
world could have been more Bourbonist, more Bonapartist,
more absolutist, more liberal, more atheistical, or more devoutly
catholic. He belonged to that great and renowned party which
may be called the Lucrative party. From time to time he
made his appearance in France on commercial voyages; and if
report spoke truly, he willingly gave a passage to fugitives of
any kind&mdash;bankrupts or political refugees, it was all the same
to him, provided they could pay. His mode of taking them
aboard was simple. The fugitive waited upon a lonely point of
the coast, and at the moment of setting sail, Zuela would detach
a small boat to fetch him. On his last voyage he had assisted
in this way an outlaw and fugitive from justice, named Berton;
and on this occasion he was suspected of being about to aid the
flight of the men implicated in the affair of the Bidassoa. The
police were informed, and had their eye upon him.</p>

<p>This period was an epoch of flights and escapes. The Restoration
in France was a reactionary movement. Revolutions
are fruitful of voluntary exile; and restorations of wholesale
banishments. During the first seven or eight years which
followed the return of the Bourbons, panic was universal&mdash;in
finance, in industry, in commerce, men felt the ground tremble
beneath them. Bankruptcies were numerous in the commercial
world; in the political, there was a general rush to escape.
Lavalette had taken flight, Lefebvre Desnouettes had taken
flight, Delon had taken flight. Special tribunals were again in
fashion&mdash;<i>plus</i> Treetaillon. People instinctively shunned the
Pont de Saumur, the Esplanade de la R&eacute;ole, the wall of the
Observatoire in Paris, the tower of Taurias d'Avignon&mdash;dismal
landmarks in history where the period of reaction has left its
sign-spots, on which the marks of that blood-stained hand are
still visible. In London the Thistlewood affair, with its ramifications
in France: in Paris the Trogoff trial, with its ramifications
in Belgium, Switzerland, and Italy, had increased the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_85" id="Page_85">[Pg 85]</a></span>
motives for anxiety and flight, and given an impetus to that
mysterious rout which left so many gaps in the social system of
that day. To find a place of safety, this was the general care.
To be implicated was to be ruined. The spirit of the military
tribunals had survived their institution. Sentences were
matters of favour. People fled to Texas, to the Rocky Mountains,
to Peru, to Mexico. The men of the Loire, traitors then,
but now regarded as patriots, had founded the <i>Champ d'Asile</i>.
B&eacute;ranger in one of his songs says&mdash;</p>

<p><span style="margin-left: 8em;">"Barbarians! we are Frenchmen born;</span><br />
<span style="margin-left: 8em;">Pity us, glorious, yet forlorn."</span></p>

<p>Self-banishment was the only resource left. Nothing, perhaps,
seems simpler than flight, but that monosyllable has a
terrible significance. Every obstacle is in the way of the man
who slips away. Taking to flight necessitates disguise. Persons
of importance&mdash;even illustrious characters&mdash;were reduced to
these expedients, only fit for malefactors. Their independent
habits rendered it difficult for them to escape through the
meshes of authority. A rogue who violates the conditions of
his ticket-of-leave comports himself before the police as innocently
as a saint; but imagine innocence constrained to act a
part; virtue disguising its voice; a glorious reputation hiding
under a mask. Yonder passer-by is a man of well-earned celebrity;
he is in quest of a false passport. The equivocal proceedings
of one absconding from the reach of the law is no proof
that he is not a hero. Ephemeral but characteristic features of
the time of which our so-called regular history takes no note,
but which the true painter of the age will bring out into relief.
Under cover of these flights and concealments of honest men,
genuine rogues, less watched and suspected, managed often to
get clear off. A scoundrel, who found it convenient to disappear,
would take advantage of the general pell-mell, tack
himself on to the political refugees, and, thanks to his greater
skill in the art, would contrive to appear in that dim twilight
more honest even than his honest neighbours. Nothing looks
more awkward and confused sometimes than honesty unjustly
condemned. It is out of its element, and is almost sure to
commit itself.</p>

<p>It is a curious fact, that this voluntary expatriation, particularly
with honest folks, appeared to lead to every strange turn
of fortune. The modicum of civilisation which a scamp brought
with him from London or Paris became, perhaps, a valuable
stock in trade in some primitive country, ingratiated him with<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_86" id="Page_86">[Pg 86]</a></span>
the people, and enabled him to strike into new paths. There
is nothing impossible in a man's escaping thus from the laws,
to reappear elsewhere as a dignitary among the priesthood.
There was something phantasmagorial in these sudden disappearances;
and more than one such flight has led to events like
the marvels of a dream. An escapade of this kind, indeed,
seemed to end naturally in the wild and wonderful; as when
some broken bankrupt suddenly decamps to turn up again
twenty years later as Grand Vizier to the Mogul, or as a king in
Tasmania.</p>

<p>Rendering assistance to these fugitives was an established
trade, and, looking to the abundance of business of that kind,
was a highly profitable one. It was generally carried on as a
supplementary branch of certain recognised kinds of commerce.
A person, for instance, desiring to escape to England, applied
to the smugglers; one who desired to get to America, had recourse
to sea-captains like Zuela.</p>



<hr style="width: 65%;" />
<h4>II</h4>

<h5>CLUBIN OBSERVES SOMEONE</h5>


<p>Zuela came sometimes to take refreshment at the Jean Auberge.
Clubin knew him by sight.</p>

<p>For that matter Clubin was not proud. He did not disdain
even to know scamps by sight. He went so far sometimes as to
cultivate even a closer acquaintance with them; giving his hand
in the open street, or saying good-day to them. He talked
English with the smugglers, and jabbered Spanish with the <i>contrebandistas</i>.
On this subject he had at command a number of
apologetic phrases. "Good," he said, "can be extracted out
of the knowledge of evil. The gamekeeper may find advantage
in knowing the poacher. The good pilot may sound the depths
of a pirate, who is only a sort of hidden rock. I test the quality
of a scoundrel as a doctor will test a poison." There was no
answering a battery of proverbs like this. Everybody gave
Clubin credit for his shrewdness. People praised him for not
indulging in a ridiculous delicacy. Who, then, should dare to
speak scandal of him on this point? Everything he did was
evidently "for the good of the service." With him, all was
straightforward. Nothing could stain his good fame. Crystal
might more easily become sullied. This general confidence in<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_87" id="Page_87">[Pg 87]</a></span>
him was the natural reward of a long life of integrity, the crowning
advantage of a settled reputation. Whatever Clubin might
do, or appear to do, was sure to be interpreted favourably. He
had attained almost to a state of impeccability. Over and
above this, "he is very wary," people said: and from a situation
which in others would have given rise to suspicion, his integrity
would extricate itself, with a still greater halo of reputation
for ability. This reputation for ability mingled harmoniously
with his fame for perfect simplicity of character. Great simplicity
and great talents in conjunction are not uncommon.
The compound constitutes one of the varieties of the virtuous
man, and one of the most valuable. Sieur Clubin was one of
those men who might be found in intimate conversation with
a sharper or a thief, without suffering any diminution of respect
in the minds of their neighbours.</p>

<p>The <i>Tamaulipas</i> had completed her loading. She was ready
for sea, and was preparing to sail very shortly.</p>

<p>One Tuesday evening the Durande arrived at St. Malo while
it was still broad daylight. Sieur Clubin, standing upon the
bridge of the vessel, and superintending the man&oelig;uvres necessary
for getting her into port, perceived upon the sandy beach
near the Petit-Bey, two men, who were conversing between the
rocks, in a solitary spot. He observed them with his sea-glass,
and recognised one of the men. It was Captain Zuela. He
seemed to recognise the other also.</p>

<p>This other was a person of high stature, a little grey. He
wore the broad-brimmed hat and the sober clothing of the
Society of Friends. He was probably a Quaker. He lowered
his gaze with an air of extreme diffidence.</p>

<p>On arriving at the Jean Auberge, Sieur Clubin learnt that the
<i>Tamaulipas</i> was preparing to sail in about ten days.</p>

<p>It has since become known that he obtained information on
some other points.</p>

<p>That night he entered the gunsmith's shop in the St. Vincent
Street, and said to the master:</p>

<p>"Do you know what a revolver is?"</p>

<p>"Yes," replied the gunsmith. "It is an American weapon."</p>

<p>"It is a pistol with which a man can carry on a conversation."</p>

<p>"Exactly: an instrument which comprises in itself both the
question and the answer."</p>

<p>"And the rejoinder too."</p>

<p>"Precisely, Monsieur Clubin. A rotatory clump of barrels."</p>

<p>"I shall want five or six balls."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_88" id="Page_88">[Pg 88]</a></span></p>

<p>The gunmaker twisted the corner of his lip, and made that
peculiar noise with which, when accompanied by a toss of the
head, Frenchmen express admiration.</p>

<p>"The weapon is a good one, Monsieur Clubin."</p>

<p>"I want a revolver with six barrels."</p>

<p>"I have not one."</p>

<p>"What! and you a gunmaker!"</p>

<p>"I do not keep such articles yet. You see, it is a new thing.
It is only just coming into vogue. French makers, as yet,
confine themselves to the simple pistol."</p>

<p>"Nonsense."</p>

<p>"It has not yet become an article of commerce."</p>

<p>"Nonsense, I say."</p>

<p>"I have excellent pistols."</p>

<p>"I want a revolver."</p>

<p>"I agree that it is more useful. Stop, Monsieur Clubin!"</p>

<p>"What?"</p>

<p>"I believe I know where there is one at this moment in St.
Malo; to be had a bargain."</p>

<p>"A revolver?"</p>

<p>"Yes."</p>

<p>"For sale?"</p>

<p>"Yes."</p>

<p>"Where is that?"</p>

<p>"I believe I know; or I can find out."</p>

<p>"When can you give me an answer?"</p>

<p>"A bargain; but of good quality."</p>

<p>"When shall I return?"</p>

<p>"If I procure you a revolver, remember, it will be a good one."</p>

<p>"When will you give me an answer?"</p>

<p>"After your next voyage."</p>

<p>"Do not mention that it is for me," said Clubin.</p>



<hr style="width: 65%;" />
<h4>III</h4>

<h5>CLUBIN CARRIES AWAY SOMETHING AND BRINGS BACK NOTHING</h5>


<p>Sieur Clubin completed the loading of the Durande, embarked
a number of cattle and some passengers, and left St. Malo for
Guernsey, as usual, on the Friday morning.</p>

<p>On that same Friday, when the vessel had gained the open,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_89" id="Page_89">[Pg 89]</a></span>
which permits the captain to absent himself a moment from
the place of command, Clubin entered his cabin, shut himself
in, took a travelling bag which he kept there, put into one of its
compartments some biscuit, some boxes of preserves, a few
pounds of chocolate in sticks, a chronometer, and a sea telescope,
and passed through the handles a cord, ready prepared
to sling it if necessary. Then he descended into the hold, went
into the compartment where the cables are kept, and was seen
to come up again with one of those knotted ropes heavy with
pieces of metal, which are used for ship caulkers at sea and by
robbers ashore. Cords of this kind are useful in climbing.</p>

<p>Having arrived at Guernsey, Clubin repaired to Torteval.
He took with him the travelling bag and the knotted cord, but
did not bring them back again.</p>

<p>Let us repeat once for all, the Guernsey which we are describing
is that ancient Guernsey which no longer exists, and of
which it would be impossible to find a parallel now anywhere
except in the country. There it is still flourishing, but in the
towns it has passed away. The same remarks apply to Jersey.
St. Helier's is as civilised as Dieppe, St. Peter's Port as L'Orient.
Thanks to the progress of civilisation, thanks to the admirably
enterprising spirit of that brave island people, everything has
been changed during the last forty years in the Norman Archipelago.
Where there was darkness there is now light. With
these premises let us proceed.</p>

<p>At that period, then, which is already so far removed from us
as to have become historical, smuggling was carried on very
extensively in the Channel. The smuggling vessels abounded,
particularly on the western coast of Guernsey. People of that
peculiarly clever kind who know, even in the smallest details,
what went on half a century ago, will even cite you the names of
these suspicious craft, which were almost always Austrians or
Guiposeans. It is certain that a week scarcely ever passed
without one or two being seen either in Saint's Bay or at Pleinmont.
Their coming and going had almost the character of a
regular service. A cavern in the cliffs at Sark was called then,
and is still called, the "Shops" ("Les Boutiques"), from its
being the place where these smugglers made their bargains with
the purchasers of their merchandise. This sort of traffic had
in the Channel a dialect of its own, a vocabulary of contraband
technicalities now forgotten, and which was to the Spanish
what the "Levantine" is to the Italian.</p>

<p>On many parts of the English coast smuggling had a secret<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_90" id="Page_90">[Pg 90]</a></span>
but cordial understanding with legitimate and open commerce.
It had access to the house of more than one great financier, by
the back-stairs it is true; and its influence extended itself
mysteriously through all the commercial world, and the intricate
ramifications of manufacturing industry. Merchant on one side,
smuggler on the other; such was the key to the secret of many
great fortunes. S&eacute;guin affirmed it of Bourgain, Bourgain of
S&eacute;guin. We do not vouch for their accusations; it is possible
that they were calumniating each other. However this may
have been, it is certain that the contraband trade, though
hunted down by the law, was flourishing enough in certain financial
circles. It had relations with "the very best society."
Thus the brigand Mandrin, in other days, found himself occasionally
<i>t&ecirc;te-&agrave;-t&ecirc;te</i> with the Count of Charolais; for this underhand
trade often contrived to put on a very respectable appearance;
kept a house of its own with an irreproachable exterior.</p>

<p>All this necessitated a host of man&oelig;uvres and connivances,
which required impenetrable secrecy. A contrabandist was
entrusted with a good many things, and knew how to keep
them secret. An inviolable confidence was the condition of his
existence. The first quality, in fact, in a smuggler was strict
honour in his own circle. No discreetness, no smuggling.
Fraud has its secrets like the priest's confessional.</p>

<p>These secrets were indeed, as a rule, faithfully kept. The
contrabandist swore to betray nothing, and he kept his word;
nobody was more trustworthy than the genuine smuggler.
The Judge Alcade of Oyarzun captured a smuggler one day,
and put him to torture to compel him to disclose the name of
the capitalist who secretly supported him. The smuggler
refused to tell. The capitalist in question was the Judge
Alcade himself. Of these two accomplices, the judge and the
smuggler, the one had been compelled, in order to appear in
the eyes of the world to fulfil the law, to put the other to the
torture, which the other had patiently borne for the sake of
his oath.</p>

<p>The two most famous smugglers who haunted Pleinmont at
that period were Blasco and Blasquito. They were <i>Tocayos</i>.
This was a sort of Spanish or Catholic relationship which consisted
in having the same patron saint in heaven; a thing, it
will be admitted, not less worthy of consideration than having
the same father upon earth.</p>

<p>When a person was initiated into the furtive ways of the
contraband business, nothing was more easy, or, from a certain<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_91" id="Page_91">[Pg 91]</a></span>
point of view, more troublesome. It was sufficient to have no
fear of dark nights, to repair to Pleinmont, and to consult the
oracle located there.</p>



<hr style="width: 65%;" />
<h4>IV</h4>

<h5>PLEINMONT</h5>


<p>Pleinmont, near Torteval, is one of the three corners of the
island of Guernsey. At the extremity of the cape there rises
a high turfy hill, which looks over the sea.</p>

<p>The height is a lonely place. All the more lonely from there
being one solitary house there.</p>

<p>This house adds a sense of terror to that of solitude.</p>

<p>It is popularly believed to be haunted.</p>

<p>Haunted or not, its aspect is singular.</p>

<p>Built of granite, and rising only one story high, it stands in
the midst of the grassy solitude. It is in a perfectly good condition
as far as exterior is concerned; the walls are thick and
the roof is sound. Not a stone is wanting in the sides, not a tile
upon the roof. A brick-built chimney-stack forms the angle
of the roof. The building turns its back to the sea, being on
that side merely a blank wall. On examining this wall, however,
attentively, the visitor perceives a little window bricked up.
The two gables have three dormer windows, one fronting the
east, the others fronting the west, but both are bricked up in
like manner. The front, which looks inland, has alone a door
and windows. This door, too, is walled in, as are also the two
windows of the ground-floor. On the first floor&mdash;and this is the
feature which is most striking as you approach&mdash;there are two
open windows; but these are even more suspicious than the
blind windows. Their open squares look dark even in broad
day, for they have no panes of glass, or even window-frames.
They open simply upon the dusk within. They strike the
imagination like hollow eye-sockets in a human face. Inside
all is deserted. Through the gaping casements you may mark
the ruin within. No panellings, no woodwork; all bare stone.
It is like a windowed sepulchre, giving liberty to the spectres to
look out upon the daylight world. The rains sap the foundations
on the seaward side. A few nettles, shaken by the breeze,
flourish in the lower part of the walls. Far around the horizon
there is no other human habitation. The house is a void; the
abode of silence: but if you place your ear against the wall and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_92" id="Page_92">[Pg 92]</a></span>
listen, you may distinguish a confused noise now and then, like
the flutter of wings. Over the walled door, upon the stone which
forms its architrave, are sculptured these letters, "<span class="smcap">Elm-Pbilg</span>,"
with the date "1780."</p>

<p>The dark shadow of night and the mournful light of the
moon find entrance there.</p>

<p>The sea completely surrounds the house. Its situation is
magnificent; but for that reason its aspect is more sinister.
The beauty of the spot becomes a puzzle. Why does not a
human family take up its abode here? The place is beautiful,
the house well-built. Whence this neglect? To these questions,
obvious to the reason, succeed others, suggested by the
reverie which the place inspires. Why is this cultivatable
garden uncultivated? No master for it; and the bricked-up
doorway? What has happened to the place? Why is it
shunned by men? What business is done here? If none, why
is there no one here? Is it only when all the rest of the world
are asleep that some one in this spot is awake? Dark squalls,
wild winds, birds of prey, strange creatures, unknown forms, present
themselves to the mind, and connect themselves somehow
with this deserted house. For what class of wayfarers can this
be the hostelry? You imagine to yourself whirlwinds of rain
and hail beating in at the open casements, and wandering
through the rooms. Tempests have left their vague traces upon
the interior walls. The chambers, though walled and covered
in, are visited by the hurricanes. Has the house been the scene
of some great crime? You may almost fancy that this spectral
dwelling, given up to solitude and darkness, might be heard
calling aloud for succour. Does it remain silent? Do voices
indeed issue from it? What business has it on hand in this
lonely place? The mystery of the dark hours rests securely
here. Its aspect is disquieting at noonday; what must it be
at midnight? The dreamer asks himself&mdash;for dreams have their
coherence&mdash;what this house may be between the dusk of evening
and the twilight of approaching dawn? Has the vast supernatural
world some relation with this deserted height, which
sometimes compels it to arrest its movements here, and to
descend and to become visible? Do the scattered elements of
the spirit world whirl around it? Does the impalpable take
form and substance here? Insoluble riddles! A holy awe is
in the very stones; that dim twilight has surely relations with
the infinite Unknown. When the sun has gone down, the song
of the birds will be hushed, the goatherd behind the hills will go<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_93" id="Page_93">[Pg 93]</a></span>
homeward with his goats; reptiles, taking courage from the
gathering darkness, will creep through the fissures of rocks; the
stars will begin to appear, night will come, but yonder two blank
casements will still be staring at the sky. They open to welcome
spirits and apparitions; for it is by the names of apparitions,
ghosts, phantom faces vaguely distinct, masks in the lurid light,
mysterious movements of minds, and shadows, that the popular
faith, at once ignorant and profound, translates the sombre
relations of this dwelling with the world of darkness.</p>

<p>The house is "haunted;" the popular phrase comprises
everything.</p>

<p>Credulous minds have their explanation; common-sense
thinkers have theirs also. "Nothing is more simple," say the
latter, "than the history of the house. It is an old observatory
of the time of the revolutionary wars and the days of smuggling.
It was built for such objects. The wars being ended, the house
was abandoned; but it was not pulled down, as it might one
day again become useful. The door and windows have been
walled to prevent people entering, or doing injury to the interior.
The walls of the windows, on the three sides which face the sea,
have been bricked up against the winds of the south and south-west.
That is all."</p>

<p>The ignorant and the credulous, however, are not satisfied.
In the first place, the house was not built at the period of the
wars of the Revolution. It bears the date "1780," which was
anterior to the Revolution. In the next place it was not built
for an observatory. It bears the letters "<span class="smcap">Elm-Pbilg</span>," which
are the double monogram of two families, and which indicate,
according to usage, that the house was built for the use of a
newly-married couple. Then it has certainly been inhabited:
why then should it be abandoned? If the door and windows
were bricked up to prevent people entering the house only, why
were two windows left open? Why are there no shutters, no
window-frames, no glass? Why were the walls bricked in on
one side if not on the other? The wind is prevented from entering
from the south; but why is it allowed to enter from the
north?</p>

<p>The credulous are wrong, no doubt; but it is clear that the
common-sense thinkers have not discovered the key to the
mystery. The problem remains still unsolved.</p>

<p>It is certain that the house is generally believed to have been
more useful than inconvenient to the smugglers.</p>

<p>The growth of superstitious terror tends to deprive facts of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_94" id="Page_94">[Pg 94]</a></span>
their true proportions. Without doubt, many of the nocturnal
phenomena which have, by little and little, secured to the
building the reputation of being haunted, might be explained by
obscure and furtive visits, by brief sojourns of sailors near the
spot, and sometimes by the precaution, sometimes by the daring,
of men engaged in certain suspicious occupations concealing
themselves for their dark purposes, or allowing themselves to
be seen in order to inspire dread.</p>

<p>At this period, already a remote one, many daring deeds were
possible. The police&mdash;particularly in small places&mdash;was by no
means as efficient as in these days.</p>

<p>Add to this, that if the house was really, as was said, a resort
of the smugglers, their meetings there must, up to a certain
point, have been safe from interruptions precisely because the
house was dreaded by the superstitious people of the country.
Its ghostly reputation prevented its being visited for other
reasons. People do not generally apply to the police, or officers
of customs, on the subject of spectres. The superstitious rely
on making the sign of the cross; not on magistrates and indictments.
There is always a tacit connivance, involuntary it may
be, but not the less real, between the objects which inspire fear
and their victims. The terror-stricken feel a sort of culpability
in having encountered their terrors; they imagine themselves
to have unveiled a secret; and they have an inward fear,
unknown even to themselves, of aggravating their guilt, and
exciting the anger of the apparitions. All this makes them
discreet. And over and above this reason, the very instinct of
the credulous is silence; dread is akin to dumbness; the terrified
speak little; horror seems always to whisper, "Hush!"</p>

<p>It must be remembered that this was a period when the
Guernsey peasants believed that the Mystery of the Holy
Manger is repeated by oxen and asses every year on a fixed day;
a period when no one would have dared to enter a stable at
night for fear of coming upon the animals on their knees.</p>

<p>If the local legends and stories of the people can be credited,
the popular superstition went so far as to fasten to the walls
of the house at Pleinmont things of which the traces are still
visible&mdash;rats without feet, bats without wings, and bodies of
other dead animals. Here, too, were seen toads crushed
between the pages of a Bible, bunches of yellow lupins, and
other strange offerings, placed there by imprudent passers-by
at night, who, having fancied that they had seen something,
hoped by these small sacrifices to obtain pardon, and to appease<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_95" id="Page_95">[Pg 95]</a></span>
the ill-humours of were-wolves and evil spirits. In all times,
believers of this kind have flourished; some even in very high
places. C&aelig;sar consulted Saganius, and Napoleon Mademoiselle
Lenormand. There are a kind of consciences so tender, that
they must seek indulgences even from Beelzebub. "May God
do, and Satan not undo," was one of the prayers of Charles the
Fifth. They come to persuade themselves that they may
commit sins even against the Evil One; and one of their
cherished objects was, to be irreproachable even in the eyes of
Satan. We find here an explanation of those adorations sometimes
paid to infernal spirits. It is only one more species of
fanaticism. Sins against the devil certainly exist in certain
morbid imaginations. The fancy that they have violated the
laws of the lower regions torments certain eccentric casuists;
they are haunted with scruples even about offending the demons.
A belief in the efficacy of devotions to the spirits of the Brocken
or Armuyr, a notion of having committed sins against hell,
visionary penances for imaginary crimes, avowals of the truth to
the spirit of falsehood, self-accusation before the origin of all
evil, and confessions in an inverted sense&mdash;are all realities, or
things at least which have existed. The annals of criminal
procedure against witchcraft and magic prove this in every page.
Human folly unhappily extends even thus far: when terror
seizes upon a man he does not stop easily. He dreams of
imaginary faults, imaginary purifications, and clears out his
conscience with the old witches' broom.</p>

<p>Be this as it may, if the house at Pleinmont had its secrets, it
kept them to itself; except by some rare chance, no one went
there to see. It was left entirely alone. Few people, indeed,
like to run the risk of an encounter with the other world.</p>

<p>Owing to the terror which it inspired, and which kept at a
distance all who could observe or bear testimony on the subject,
it had always been easy to obtain an entrance there at night by
means of a rope ladder, or even by the use of the first ladder
coming to hand in one of the neighbouring fields. A consignment
of goods or provisions left there might await in perfect
safety the time and opportunity for a furtive embarkation.
Tradition relates that forty years ago a fugitive&mdash;for political
offences as some affirm, for commercial as others say&mdash;remained
for some time concealed in the haunted house at Pleinmont;
whence he finally succeeded in embarking in a fishing-boat for
England. From England a passage is easily obtained to
America.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_96" id="Page_96">[Pg 96]</a></span></p>

<p>Tradition also avers that provisions deposited in this house
remain there untouched, Lucifer and the smugglers having an
interest in inducing whoever places them there to return.</p>

<p>From the summit of the house, there is a view to the south
of the Hanway Rocks, at about a mile from the shore.</p>

<p>These rocks are famous. They have been guilty of all the
evil deeds of which rocks are capable. They are the most ruthless
destroyers of the sea. They lie in a treacherous ambush
for vessels in the night. They have contributed to the enlargement
of the cemeteries at Torteval and Rocquaine.</p>

<p>A lighthouse was erected upon these rocks in 1862. At the
present day, the Hanways light the way for the vessels which they
once lured to destruction; the destroyer in ambush now bears a
lighted torch in his hand; and mariners seek in the horizon, as
a protector and a guide, the rock which they used to fly as a
pitiless enemy. It gives confidence by night in that vast space
where it was so long a terror&mdash;like a robber converted into a
gendarme.</p>

<p>There are three Hanways: the Great Hanway, the Little
Hanway, and the Mauve. It is upon the Little Hanway that
the red light is placed at the present time.</p>

<p>This reef of rocks forms part of a group of peaks, some beneath
the sea, some rising out of it. It towers above them all; like a
fortress, it has advanced works: on the side of the open sea, a
chain of thirteen rocks; on the north, two breakers&mdash;the High
Fourqui&eacute;s, the Needles, and a sandbank called the H&eacute;rou&eacute;e. On
the south, three rocks&mdash;the Cat Rock, the Perc&eacute;e, and the Herpin
Rock; then two banks&mdash;the South Bank and the Muet: besides
which, there is, on the side opposite Pleinmont, the Tas de
Pois d'Aval.</p>

<p>To swim across the channel from the Hanways to Pleinmont
is difficult, but not impossible. We have already said that this
was one of the achievements of Clubin. The expert swimmer
who knows this channel can find two resting-places, the Round
Rock, and further on, a little out of the course, to the left, the
Red Rock.</p>



<hr style="width: 65%;" />
<h4>V</h4>

<h5>THE BIRDS'-NESTERS</h5>


<p>It was near the period of that Saturday which was passed by
Sieur Clubin at Torteval that a curious incident occurred, which
was little heard of at the time, and which did not generally tran<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_97" id="Page_97">[Pg 97]</a></span>spire
till a long time afterwards. For many things, as we have
already observed, remain undivulged, simply by reason of the
terror which they have caused in those who have witnessed
them.</p>

<p>In the night-time between Saturday and Sunday&mdash;we are
exact in the matter of the date, and we believe it to be correct&mdash;three
boys climbed up the hill at Pleinmont. The boys
returned to the village: they came from the seashore. They
were what are called, in the corrupt French of that part, "d&eacute;niquoiseaux,"
or birds'-nesters. Wherever there are cliffs and
cleft-rocks overhanging the sea, the young birds'-nesters abound.
The reader will remember that Gilliatt interfered in this matter
for the sake of the birds as well as for the sake of the children.</p>

<p>The "d&eacute;niquoiseaux" are a sort of sea-urchins, and are not a
very timid species.</p>

<p>The night was very dark. Dense masses of cloud obscured
the zenith. Three o'clock had sounded in the steeple of Torteval
which is round and pointed like a magician's hat.</p>

<p>Why did the boys return so late? Nothing more simple.
They had been searching for sea-gulls' nests in the Tas de Pois
d'Aval. The season having been very mild, the pairing of the
birds had begun very early. The children watching the fluttering
of the male and female about their nests, and excited by
the pursuit, had forgotten the time. The waters had crept up
around them; they had no time to regain the little bay in which
they had moored their boat, and they were compelled to wait
upon one of the peaks of the Tas de Pois for the ebb of the tide.
Hence their late return. Mothers wait on such occasions in
feverish anxiety for the return of their children, and when they
find them safe, give vent to their joy in the shape of anger, and
relieve their tears by dealing them a sound drubbing. The boys
accordingly hastened their steps, but in fear and trembling.
Their haste was of that sort which is glad of an excuse for
stopping, and which is not inconsistent with a reluctance to
reach their destination; for they had before them the prospect
of warm embraces, to be followed with an inevitable thrashing.</p>

<p>One only of the boys had nothing of this to fear. He was an
orphan: a French boy, without father or mother, and perfectly
content just then with his motherless condition; for nobody
taking any interest in him, his back was safe from the dreaded
blows. The two others were natives of Guernsey, and belonged
to the parish of Torteval.</p>

<p>Having climbed the grassy hill, the three birds'-nesters<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_98" id="Page_98">[Pg 98]</a></span>
reached the tableland on which was situate the haunted
house.</p>

<p>They began by being in fear, which is the proper frame of
mind of every passer-by; and particularly of every child at
that hour and in that place.</p>

<p>They had a strong desire to take to their heels as fast as
possible, and a strong desire, also, to stay and look.</p>

<p>They did stop.</p>

<p>They looked towards the solitary building.</p>

<p>It was all dark and terrible.</p>

<p>It stood in the midst of the solitary plain&mdash;an obscure block,
a hideous but symmetrical excrescence; a high square mass
with right-angled corners, like an immense altar in the darkness.</p>

<p>The first thought of the boys was to run: the second was to
draw nearer. They had never seen this house before. There is
such a thing as a desire to be frightened arising from curiosity.
They had a little French boy with them, which emboldened
them to approach.</p>

<p>It is well known that the French have no fear.</p>

<p>Besides, it is reassuring to have company in danger; to be
frightened in the company of two others is encouraging.</p>

<p>And then they were a sort of hunters accustomed to peril.
They were children; they were used to search, to rummage, to
spy out hidden things. They were in the habit of peeping into
holes; why not into this hole? Hunting is exciting. Looking
into birds' nests perhaps gives an itch for looking a little into a
nest of ghosts. A rummage in the dark regions. Why not?</p>

<p>From prey to prey, says the proverb, we come to the devil.
After the birds, the demons. The boys were on the way to
learn the secret of those terrors of which their parents had told
them. To be on the track of hobgoblin tales&mdash;nothing could
be more attractive. To have long stories to tell like the good
housewives. The notion was tempting.</p>

<p>All this mixture of ideas, in their state of half-confusion,
half-instinct, in the minds of the Guernsey birds'-nesters, finally
screwed their courage to the point. They approached the
house.</p>

<p>The little fellow who served them as a sort of moral support
in the adventure was certainly worthy of their confidence. He
was a bold boy&mdash;an apprentice to a ship-caulker; one of those
children who have already become men. He slept on a little
straw in a shed in the ship-caulker's yard, getting his own
living, having red hair, and a loud voice; climbing easily up<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_99" id="Page_99">[Pg 99]</a></span>
walls and trees, not encumbered with prejudices in the matter
of property in the apples within his reach; a lad who had
worked in the repairing dock for vessels of war&mdash;a child of
chance, a happy orphan, born in France, no one knew exactly
where; ready to give a centime to a beggar; a mischievous
fellow, but a good one at heart; one who had talked to Parisians.
At this time he was earning a shilling a day by caulking the
fishermen's boats under repair at the P&ecirc;queries. When he felt
inclined he gave himself a holiday, and went birds'-nesting.
Such was the little French boy.</p>

<p>The solitude of the place impressed them with a strange feeling
of dread. They felt the threatening aspect of the silent
house. It was wild and savage. The naked and deserted
plateau terminated in a precipice at a short distance from its
steep incline. The sea below was quiet. There was no wind.
Not a blade of grass stirred.</p>

<p>The birds'-nesters advanced by slow steps, the French boy
at their head, and looking towards the house.</p>

<p>One of them, afterwards relating the story, or as much of it
as had remained in his head, added, "It did not speak."</p>

<p>They came nearer, holding their breath, as one might approach
a savage animal.</p>

<p>They had climbed the hill at the side of the house which
descended to seaward towards a little isthmus of rocks almost
inaccessible. Thus they had come pretty near to the building;
but they saw only the southern side, which was all walled up.
They did not dare to approach by the other side, where the
terrible windows were.</p>

<p>They grew bolder, however; the caulker's apprentice
whispered, "Let's veer to larboard. That's the handsome
side. Let's have a look at the black windows."</p>

<p>The little band accordingly "veered to larboard," and came
round to the other side of the house.</p>

<p>The two windows were lighted up.</p>

<p>The boys took to their heels.</p>

<p>When they had got to some distance, the French boy, however,
returned.</p>

<p>"Hillo!" said he, "the lights have vanished."</p>

<p>The light at the windows had, indeed, disappeared. The
outline of the building was seen as sharply defined as if stamped
out with a punch against the livid sky.</p>

<p>Their fear was not abated, but their curiosity had increased.
The birds'-nesters approached.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_100" id="Page_100">[Pg 100]</a></span></p>

<p>Suddenly the light reappeared at both windows at the same
moment.</p>

<p>The two young urchins from Torteval took to their heels and
vanished. The daring French boy did not advance, but he
kept his ground.</p>

<p>He remained motionless, confronting the house and watching
it.</p>

<p>The light disappeared, and appeared again once more.
Nothing could be more horrible. The reflection made a vague
streak of light upon the grass, wet with the night dew. All of
a moment the light cast upon the walls of the house two huge
dark profiles, and the shadows of enormous heads.</p>

<p>The house, however, being without ceilings, and having
nothing left but its four walls and roof, one window could not
be lighted without the other.</p>

<p>Perceiving that the caulker's apprentice kept his ground,
the other birds'-nesters returned, step by step, and one after
the other, trembling and curious. The caulker's apprentice
whispered to them, "There are ghosts in the house. I have
seen the nose of one." The two Torteval boys got behind their
companion, standing tiptoe against his shoulder; and thus
sheltered, and taking him for their shield, felt bolder and
watched also.</p>

<p>The house on its part seemed also to be watching them.
There it stood in the midst of that vast darkness and silence,
with its two glaring eyes. These were its upper windows.
The light vanished, reappeared, and vanished again, in the
fashion of these unearthly illuminations. These sinister intermissions
had, probably, some connection with the opening and
shutting of the infernal regions. The air-hole of a sepulchre
has thus been seen to produce effects like those from a dark
lantern.</p>

<p>Suddenly a dark form, like that of a human being, ascended to
one of the windows, as if from without, and plunged into the
interior of the house.</p>

<p>To enter by the window is the custom with spirits.</p>

<p>The light was for a moment more brilliant, then went out,
and appeared no more. The house became dark. The noises
resembled voices. This is always the case. When there was
anything to be seen it is silent. When all became invisible
again, noises were heard.</p>

<p>There is a silence peculiar to night-time at sea. The repose
of darkness is deeper on the water than on the land. When<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_101" id="Page_101">[Pg 101]</a></span>
there is neither wind nor wave in that wild expanse, over which,
in ordinary time, even the flight of eagles makes no sound, the
movement of a fly could be heard. This sepulchral quiet gave
a dismal relief to the noises which issued from the house.</p>

<p>"Let us look," said the French boy.</p>

<p>And he made a step towards the house.</p>

<p>The others were so frightened that they resolved to follow
him. They did not dare even to run away alone.</p>

<p>Just as they had passed a heap of fagots, which for some
mysterious reason seemed to inspire them with a little courage
in that solitude, a white owl flew towards them from a bush.
The owls have a suspicious sort of flight, a sidelong skim which
is suggestive of mischief afloat. The bird passed near the boys,
fixing upon them its round eyes, bright amidst the darkness.</p>

<p>A shudder ran through the group behind the French boy.</p>

<p>He looked up at the owl and said:</p>

<p>"Too late, my bird; I <i>will</i> look."</p>

<p>And he advanced.</p>

<p>The crackling sound made by his thick-nailed boots among
the furze bushes did not prevent his hearing the noise in the
house, which rose and fell with the continuousness and the
calm accent of a dialogue.</p>

<p>A moment afterwards the boy added:</p>

<p>"Besides, it is only fools who believe in spirits."</p>

<p>Insolence in the face of danger rallies the cowardly, and
inspirits them to go on.</p>

<p>The two Torteval lads resumed their march, quickening their
steps behind the caulker's apprentice.</p>

<p>The haunted house seemed to them to grow larger before their
eyes. This optical illusion of fear is founded in reality. The
house did indeed grow larger, for they were coming nearer to it.</p>

<p>Meanwhile the voices in the house took a tone more and
more distinct. The children listened. The ear, too, has its
power of exaggerating. It was different to a murmur, more
than a whispering, less than an uproar. Now and then one or
two words, clearly articulated, could be caught. These words,
impossible to be understood, sounded strangely. The boys
stopped and listened; then went forward again.</p>

<p>"It's the ghosts talking," said the caulker's apprentice; "but
I don't believe in ghosts."</p>

<p>The Torteval boys were sorely tempted to shrink behind the
heap of fagots, but they had already left it far behind; and
their friend the caulker continued to advance towards the house.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_102" id="Page_102">[Pg 102]</a></span>
They trembled at remaining with him; but they dared not
leave him.</p>

<p>Step by step, and perplexed, they followed. The caulker's
apprentice turned towards them and said&mdash;</p>

<p>"You know it isn't true. There are no such things."</p>

<p>The house grew taller and taller. The voices became more
and more distinct.</p>

<p>They drew nearer.</p>

<p>And now they could perceive within the house something
like a muffled light. It was a faint glimmer, like one of those
effects produced by dark lanterns, already referred to, and
which are common at the midnight meetings of witches.</p>

<p>When they were close to the house they halted.</p>

<p>One of the two Torteval boys ventured on an observation:</p>

<p>"It isn't spirits: it is ladies dressed in white."</p>

<p>"What's that hanging from the window?" asked the other.</p>

<p>"It looks like a rope."</p>

<p>"It's a snake."</p>

<p>"It is only a hangman's rope," said the French boy, authoritatively.
"That's what they use. Only I don't believe in
them."</p>

<p>And in three bounds, rather than steps, he found himself
against the wall of the building.</p>

<p>The two others, trembling, imitated him, and came pressing
against him, one on his right side, the other on his left. The
boys applied their ears to the wall. The sounds continued.</p>

<p>The following was the conversation of the phantoms:&mdash;</p>

<hr style='width: 45%;' />

<p>"Asi, entendido esta?"</p>

<p>"Entendido."</p>

<p>"Dicho?"</p>

<p>"Dicho."</p>

<p>"Aqui esperara un hombre, y podra marcharse en Inglaterra
con Blasquito."</p>

<p>"Pagando?"</p>

<hr style='width: 45%;' />

<p>"So that is understood?"</p>

<p>"Perfectly."</p>

<p>"As is arranged?"</p>

<p>"As is arranged."</p>

<p>"A man will wait here, and can accompany Blasquito to
England."</p>

<p>"Paying the expense?"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_103" id="Page_103">[Pg 103]</a></span></p>

<hr style='width: 45%;' />

<p>"Pagando."</p>

<p>"Blasquito tomara al hombre en su barca."</p>

<p>"Sin buscar para conocer a su pais?"</p>

<p>"No nos toca."</p>

<p>"Ni a su nombre del hombre?"</p>

<p>"No se pide el nombre, pero se pesa la bolsa."</p>

<p>"Bien: esperara el hombre en esa casa."</p>

<p>"Tenga que comer."</p>

<p>"Tendra."</p>

<p>"Onde?"</p>

<p>"En este saco que he llevado."</p>

<p>"Muy bien."</p>

<p>"Puedo dexar el saco aqui?"</p>

<p>"Los contrabandistas no son ladrones."</p>

<p>"Y vosotros, cuando marchais?"</p>

<p>"Ma&ntilde;ana por la ma&ntilde;ana. Si su hombre de usted parado
podria venir con nosotros."</p>

<p>"Parado no esta."</p>

<p>"Hacienda suya."</p>

<p>"Cuantos dias esperara alli?"</p>

<hr style='width: 45%;' />

<p>"Paying the expense."</p>

<p>"Blasquito will take the man in his bark."</p>

<p>"Without seeking to know what country he belongs
to?"</p>

<p>"That is no business of ours."</p>

<p>"Without asking his name?"</p>

<p>"We do not ask for names; we only feel the weight of the
purse."</p>

<p>"Good: the man shall wait in this house."</p>

<p>"He must have provisions."</p>

<p>"He will be furnished with them."</p>

<p>"How?"</p>

<p>"From this bag which I have brought."</p>

<p>"Very good."</p>

<p>"Can I leave this bag here?"</p>

<p>"Smugglers are not robbers."</p>

<p>"And when do you go?"</p>

<p>"To-morrow morning. If your man was ready he could
come with us."</p>

<p>"He is not prepared."</p>

<p>"That is his affair."</p>

<p>"How many days will he have to wait in this house?"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_104" id="Page_104">[Pg 104]</a></span></p>

<hr style='width: 45%;' />

<p>"Dos, tres, quatro dias; menos o mas."</p>

<p>"Es cierto que el Blasquito vendra?"</p>

<p>"Cierto."</p>

<p>"En est Plainmont?"</p>

<p>"En est Plainmont."</p>

<p>"A qual semana?"</p>

<p>"La que viene."</p>

<p>"A qual dia?"</p>

<p>"Viernes, o sabado, o domingo."</p>

<p>"No peuede faltar?"</p>

<p>"Es mi tocayo."</p>

<p>"Por qualquiera tiempo viene?"</p>

<p>"Qualquiera. No tieme. Soy el Blasco, es el Blasquito."</p>

<p>"Asi, no puede faltar de venir en Guernesey?"</p>

<p>"Vengo a un mes, y viene al otro mes."</p>

<p>"Entiendo."</p>

<p>"A cuentar del otro sabado, desde hoy en ocho, no se parasan
cinco dias sin que venga el Blasquito."</p>

<p>"Pero un muy malo mar?"</p>

<p>"Egurraldia gaiztoa."</p>

<hr style='width: 45%;' />

<p>"Two, three, or four days; more or less."</p>

<p>"Is it certain that Blasquito will come?"</p>

<p>"Certain."</p>

<p>"Here to Pleinmont?"</p>

<p>"To Pleinmont."</p>

<p>"When?"</p>

<p>"Next week."</p>

<p>"What day?"</p>

<p>"Friday, Saturday, or Sunday."</p>

<p>"May he not fail?"</p>

<p>"He is my Tocayo."</p>

<p>"Will he come in any weather?"</p>

<p>"At any time. He has no fear. My name is Blasco, his
Blasquito."</p>

<p>"So he cannot fail to come to Guernsey?"</p>

<p>"I come one month&mdash;he the other."</p>

<p>"I understand."</p>

<p>"Counting from Saturday last, one week from to-day, five
days cannot elapse without bringing Blasquito."</p>

<p>"But if there is much sea?"</p>

<p>"Bad weather?"</p>

<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_105" id="Page_105">[Pg 105]</a></span></p><hr style='width: 45%;' />

<p>"Si."</p>

<p>"No vendria el Blasquito tan pronto, pero vendria."</p>

<p>"Donde vendra?"</p>

<p>"De Vilvao."</p>

<p>"Onde ira?"</p>

<p>"En Portland."</p>

<p>"Bien."</p>

<p>"O en Tor Bay."</p>

<p>"Mejor."</p>

<p>"Su humbre de usted puede estarse quieto."</p>

<p>"No traidor sera, el Blasquito?"</p>

<p>"Los cobardes son traidores. Somos valientes. El mar es
la iglesia del invierno. La traicion es la iglesia del infierno."</p>

<p>"No se entiende a lo que dicemos?"</p>

<p>"Escuchar a nosotros y mirar a nosotros es imposible. La
espanta hace alli el desierto."</p>

<p>"Lo s&egrave;."</p>

<p>"Quien se atravesaria a escuchar?"</p>

<p>"Es verdad."</p>

<p>"Y escucharian que no entiendrian. Hablamos a una</p>

<hr style='width: 45%;' />

<p>"Yes."</p>

<p>"Blasquito will not come so quickly, but he will come."</p>

<p>"Whence will he come?"</p>

<p>"From Bilbao."</p>

<p>"Where will he be going?"</p>

<p>"To Portland."</p>

<p>"Good."</p>

<p>"Or to Torbay."</p>

<p>"Better still."</p>

<p>"Your man may rest easy."</p>

<p>"Blasquito will betray nothing?"</p>

<p>"Cowards are the only traitors. We are men of courage.
The sea is the church of winter. Treason is the church of
hell."</p>

<p>"No one hears what we say?"</p>

<p>"It is impossible to be seen or overheard. The people's
fear of this spot makes it deserted."</p>

<p>"I know it."</p>

<p>"Who is there who would dare to listen here?"</p>

<p>"True."</p>

<p>"Besides, if they listened, none would understand. We<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_106" id="Page_106">[Pg 106]</a></span></p>

<hr style='width: 45%;' />

<p>lengua fiera y nuestra que no se conoce. Despues que la sabeis,
eries con nosotros."</p>

<p>"Soy viendo para componer las haciendas con ustedes."</p>

<p>"Bueno."</p>

<p>"Y allora me voy."</p>

<p>"Mucho."</p>

<p>"Digame usted, hombre. Si el pasagero quiere que el
Blasquito le lleven en unguna otra parte que Portland o Tor
Bay?"</p>

<p>"Tenga onces."</p>

<p>"El Blasquito hara lo que querra el hombre?"</p>

<p>"El Blasquito hace lo que quieren las onces."</p>

<p>"Es menester mucho tiempo para ir en Tor Bay?"</p>

<p>"Como quiere el viento."</p>

<p>"Ocho horas?"</p>

<p>"Menos, o mas."</p>

<p>"El Blasquito obedecera al pasagero?"</p>

<p>"Si le obedece el mar al Blasquito."</p>

<p>"Bien pagado sera."</p>

<p>"El oro es el oro. El viento es el viento."</p>

<p>"Mucho."</p>

<hr style='width: 45%;' />

<p>speak a wild language of our own, which nobody knows hereabouts.
As you know it, you are one of us."</p>

<p>"I came only to make these arrangements with you."</p>

<p>"Very good."</p>

<p>"I must now take my leave."</p>

<p>"Be it so."</p>

<p>"Tell me; suppose the passenger should wish Blasquito to
take him anywhere else than to Portland or Torbay?"</p>

<p>"Let him bring some gold coins."</p>

<p>"Will Blasquito consult the stranger's convenience?"</p>

<p>"Blasquito will do whatever the gold coins command."</p>

<p>"Does it take long to go to Torbay?"</p>

<p>"That is as it pleases the winds."</p>

<p>"Eight hours?"</p>

<p>"More or less."</p>

<p>"Will Blasquito obey the passenger?"</p>

<p>"If the sea will obey Blasquito."</p>

<p>"He will be well rewarded."</p>

<p>"Gold is gold; and the sea is the sea."</p>

<p>"That is true."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_107" id="Page_107">[Pg 107]</a></span></p>

<hr style='width: 45%;' />

<p>"El hombre hace lo que puede con el oro. Dios con el viento
hace lo que quiere."</p>

<p>"Aqui sera viernes el que desea marcharse con Blasquito."</p>

<p>"Pues."</p>

<p>"A qual momento llega Blasquito."</p>

<p>"A la noche. A la noche se llega, a la noche se marcha.
Tenemos una muger quien se llama el mar, y una quien se
llama la noche."</p>

<p>"La muger puede faltar, la hermana no."</p>

<p>"Todo dicho esta. Abour, hombres."</p>

<p>"Buenas tardes. Un golpe de aquardiente?"</p>

<p>"Gracias."</p>

<p>"Es mejor que xarope."</p>

<p>"Tengo vuestra palabra."</p>

<p>"Mi nombre es Pundonor."</p>

<p>"Sea usted con Dios."</p>

<p>"Ereis gentleman, y soy caballero."</p>

<hr style='width: 45%;' />

<p>"Man with his gold does what he can. Heaven with its
winds does what it will."</p>

<p>"The man who is to accompany Blasquito will be here on
Friday."</p>

<p>"Good."</p>

<p>"At what hour will Blasquito appear?"</p>

<p>"In the night. We arrive by night; and sail by night.
We have a wife who is called the sea, and a sister called night.
The wife betrays sometimes; but the sister never."</p>

<p>"All is settled, then. Good-night, my men."</p>

<p>"Good-night. A drop of brandy first?"</p>

<p>"Thank you."</p>

<p>"That is better than a syrup."</p>

<p>"I have your word."</p>

<p>"My name is Point-of-Honour."</p>

<p>"Adieu."</p>

<p>"You are a gentleman: I am a caballero."</p>

<hr style='width: 45%;' />

<p>It was clear that only devils could talk in this way. The
children did not listen long. This time they took to flight in
earnest; the French boy, convinced at last, running even
quicker than the others.</p>

<p>On the Tuesday following this Saturday, Sieur Clubin returned
to St. Malo, bringing back the Durande.</p>

<p>The <i>Tamaulipas</i> was still at anchor in the roads.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_108" id="Page_108">[Pg 108]</a></span></p>

<p>Sieur Clubin, between the whiffs of his pipe, said to the landlord
of the Jean Auberge:</p>

<p>"Well; and when does the <i>Tamaulipas</i> get under way?"</p>

<p>"The day after to-morrow&mdash;Thursday," replied the landlord.</p>

<p>On that evening, Clubin supped at the coast-guard officers'
table; and, contrary to his habit, went out after his supper.
The consequence of his absence was, that he could not attend to
the office of the Durande, and thus lost a little in the matter of
freights. This fact was remarked in a man ordinarily punctual.</p>

<p>It appeared that he had chatted a few moments with his
friend the money-changer.</p>

<p>He returned two hours after Noguette had sounded the
Curfew bell. The Brazilian bell sounds at ten o'clock. It was
therefore midnight.</p>



<hr style="width: 65%;" />
<h4>VI</h4>

<h5>THE JACRESSADE</h5>


<p>Forty years ago, St. Malo possessed an alley known by the
name of the "Ruelle Coutanchez." This alley no longer exists,
having been removed for the improvements of the town.</p>

<p>It was a double row of houses, leaning one towards the other,
and leaving between them just room enough for a narrow
rivulet, which was called the street. By stretching the legs,
it was possible to walk on both sides of the stream, touching
with head or elbows, as you went, the houses either on the right
or the left. These old relics of medi&aelig;val Normandy have
almost a human interest. Tumbledown houses and sorcerers
always go together. Their leaning stories, their overhanging
walls, their bowed penthouses, and their old thick-set irons,
seem like lips, chin, nose, and eyebrows. The garret window
is the blind eye. The walls are the wrinkled and blotchy cheeks.
The opposite houses lay their foreheads together as if they were
plotting some malicious deed. All those words of ancient
villany&mdash;like cut-throat, "slit-weazand," and the like&mdash;are
closely connected with architecture of this kind.</p>

<p>One of these houses in the alley&mdash;the largest and the most
famous, or notorious&mdash;was known by the name of the Jacressade.</p>

<p>The Jacressade was a lodging-house for people who do not
lodge. In all towns, and particularly in sea-ports, there is
always found beneath the lowest stratum of society a sort of
residuum: vagabonds who are more than a match for justice;
rovers after adventures; chemists of the swindling order, who<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_109" id="Page_109">[Pg 109]</a></span>
are always dropping their lives into the melting-pot; people
in rags of every shape, and in every style of wearing them;
withered fruits of roguery; bankrupt existences; consciences
that have filed their schedule; men who have failed in the house-breaking
trade (for the great masters of burglary move in a
higher sphere); workmen and workwomen in the trade of
wickedness; oddities, male and female; men in coats out at
elbows; scoundrels reduced to indigence; rogues who have
missed the wages of roguery; men who have been hit in the
social duel; harpies who have no longer any prey; petty
larceners; <i>queux</i> in the double and unhappy meaning of that
word. Such are the constituents of that living mass. Human
nature is here reduced to something bestial. It is the refuse of
the social state, heaped up in an obscure corner, where from
time to time descends that dreaded broom which is known by the
name of police. In St. Malo, the Jacressade was the name of
this corner.</p>

<p>It is not in dens of this sort that we find the high-class criminals&mdash;the
robbers, forgers, and other great products of ignorance
and poverty. If murder is represented here, it is generally in
the person of some coarse drunkard; in the matter of robbery,
the company rarely rise higher than the mere sharper. The
vagrant is there; but not the highwayman. It would not,
however, be safe to trust this distinction. This last stage of
vagabondage may have its extremes of scoundrelism. It was
on an occasion, when casting their nets into the Epi-sci&eacute;&mdash;which
was in Paris what the Jacressade was in St. Malo&mdash;that the
police captured the notorious Lacenaire.</p>

<p>These lurking-places refuse nobody. To fall in the social
scale has a tendency to bring men to one level. Sometimes
honesty in tatters found itself there. Virtue and probity have
been known before now to be brought to strange passes. We
must not judge always by appearances, even in the palace or at
the galleys. Public respect, as well as universal reprobation,
requires testing. Surprising results sometimes spring from this
principle. An angel may be discovered in the stews; a pearl in
the dunghill. Such sad and dazzling discoveries are not altogether
unknown.</p>

<p>The Jacressade was rather a courtyard than a house; and
more of a well than a courtyard. It had no stories looking on
the street. Its fa&ccedil;ade was simply a high wall, with a low gateway.
You raised the latch, pushed the gate, and were at once
in the courtyard.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_110" id="Page_110">[Pg 110]</a></span></p>

<p>In the midst of this yard might be perceived a round hole,
encircled with a margin of stones, and even with the ground.
The yard was small, the well large. A broken pavement surrounded
it.</p>

<p>The courtyard was square, and built on three sides only. On
the side of the street was only the wall; facing you as you
entered the gateway stood the house, the two wings of which
formed the sides to right and left.</p>

<p>Any one entering there after nightfall, at his own risk and
peril, would have heard a confused murmur of voices; and, if
there had been moonlight or starlight enough to give shape to
the obscure forms before his eyes, this is what he would have
seen.</p>

<p>The courtyard: the well. Around the courtyard, in front of
the gate, a lean-to or shed, in a sort of horse-shoe form, but with
square corners; a rotten gallery, with a roof of joists supported
by stone pillars at unequal distances. In the centre, the well;
around the well, upon a litter of straw, a kind of circular chaplet,
formed of the soles of boots and shoes; some trodden down at
heel, some showing the toes of the wearers, some the naked heels.
The feet of men, women, and children, all asleep.</p>

<p>Beyond these feet, the eye might have distinguished, in the
shadow of the shed, bodies, drooping heads, forms stretched out
lazily, bundles of rags of both sexes, a promiscuous assemblage,
a strange and revolting mass of life. The accommodation of this
sleeping chamber was open to all, at the rate of two sous a week.
On a stormy night the rain fell upon the feet, the whirling snow
settled on the bodies of those wretched sleepers.</p>

<p>Who were these people? The unknown. They came there
at night, and departed in the morning. Creatures of this kind
form part of the social fabric. Some stole in during the darkness,
and paid nothing. The greater part had scarcely eaten
during the day. All kinds of vice and baseness, every sort of
moral infection, every species of distress were there. The same
sleep settled down upon all in this bed of filth. The dreams of
all these companions in misery went on side by side. A dismal
meeting-place, where misery and weakness, half-sobered
debauchery, weariness from long walking to and fro, with evil
thoughts, in quest of bread, pallor with closed eyelids, remorse,
envy, lay mingled and festering in the same miasma, with faces
that had the look of death, and dishevelled hair mixed with the
filth and sweepings of the streets. Such was the putrid heap of
life fermenting in this dismal spot. An unlucky turn of the wheel<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_111" id="Page_111">[Pg 111]</a></span>
of fortune, a ship arrived on the day before, a discharge from
prison, a dark night, or some other chance, had cast them here,
to find a miserable shelter. Every day brought some new
accumulation of such misery. Let him enter who would, sleep
who could, speak who dared; for it was a place of whispers. The
new comers hastened to bury themselves in the mass, or tried
to seek oblivion in sleep, since there was none in the darkness of
the place. They snatched what little of themselves they could
from the jaws of death. They closed their eyes in that confusion
of horrors which every day renewed. They were the
embodiment of misery, thrown off from society, as the scum is
from the sea.</p>

<p>It was not every one who could even get a share of the straw.
More than one figure was stretched out naked upon the flags.
They lay down worn out with weariness, and awoke paralysed.
The well, without lid or parapet, and thirty feet in depth, gaped
open night and day. Rain fell around it; filth accumulated
about, and the gutters of the yard ran down and filtered through
its sides. The pail for drawing the water stood by the side.
Those who were thirsty drank there; some, disgusted with life,
drowned themselves in it&mdash;slipped from their slumber in the
filthy shed into that profounder sleep. In the year 1819, the body
of a boy, of fourteen years old, was taken up out of this well.</p>

<p>To be safe in this house, it was necessary to be of the "right
sort." The uninitiated were regarded with suspicion.</p>

<p>Did these miserable wretches, then, know each other? No;
yet they scented out the genuine guest of the Jacressade.</p>

<p>The mistress of the house was a young and rather pretty
woman, wearing a cap trimmed with ribbons. She washed
herself now and then with water from the well. She had a
wooden leg.</p>

<p>At break of day, the courtyard became empty. Its inmates
dispersed.</p>

<p>An old cock and some other fowls were kept in the courtyard,
where they raked among the filth of the place all day long. A
long horizontal beam, supported by posts, traversed the yard&mdash;a
gibbet-shaped erection, not out of keeping with the associations
of the place. Sometimes on the morrow of a rainy-day,
a silk dress, mudded and wet, would be seen hanging out to dry
upon this beam. It belonged to the woman with the wooden
leg.</p>

<p>Over the shed, and like it, surrounding the yard, was a story,
and above this story a loft. A rotten wooden ladder, passing<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_112" id="Page_112">[Pg 112]</a></span>
through a hole in the roof of the shed, conducted to this story;
and up this ladder the woman would climb, sometimes staggering
while its crazy rounds creaked beneath her.</p>

<p>The occasional lodgers, whether by the week or the night,
slept in the courtyard; the regular inmates lived in the house.</p>

<p>Windows without a pane of glass, door-frames with no door,
fireplaces without stoves; such were the chief features of the
interior. You might pass from one room to the other, indifferently,
by a long square aperture which had been the door, or
by a triangular hole between the joists of the partitions. The
fallen plaster of the ceiling lay about the floor. It was difficult
to say how the old house still stood erect. The high winds
indeed shook it. The lodgers ascended as they could by the
worn and slippery steps of the ladder. Everything was open to
the air. The wintry atmosphere was absorbed into the house,
like water into a sponge. The multitude of spiders seemed
alone to guarantee the place against falling to pieces immediately.
There was no sign of furniture. Two or three
paillasses were in the corner, their ticking torn in parts, and
showing more dust than straw within. Here and there were a
water-pot and an earthen pipkin. A close, disagreeable odour
haunted the rooms.</p>

<p>The windows looked out upon the square yard. The scene
was like the interior of a scavenger's cart. The things, not to
speak of the human beings, which lay rusting, mouldering, and
putrefying there, were indescribable. The fragments seemed
to fraternise together. Some fell from the walls, others from the
living tenants of the place. The d&eacute;bris were sown with their
tatters.</p>

<p>Besides the floating population which bivouacked nightly in
the square yard, the Jacressade had three permanent lodgers&mdash;a
charcoal man, a rag-picker, and a "gold-maker." The charcoal
man and the rag-picker occupied two of the paillasses of
the first story; the "gold-maker," a chemist, lodged in the loft,
which was called, no one knew why, the garret. Nobody knew
where the woman slept. The "gold-maker" was a poet in a
small way. He inhabited a room in the roof, under the tiles&mdash;a
chamber with a narrow window, and a large stone fireplace
forming a gulf, in which the wind howled at will. The garret
window having no frame, he had nailed across it a piece of iron
sheathing, part of the wreck of a ship. This sheathing left
little room for the entrance of light and much for the entrance
of cold. The charcoal-man paid rent from time to time in the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_113" id="Page_113">[Pg 113]</a></span>
shape of a sack of charcoal; the rag-picker paid with a bowl of
grain for the fowls every week; the "gold-maker" did not pay
at all. Meanwhile the latter consumed the very house itself for
fuel. He had pulled down the little woodwork which remained;
and every now and then he took from the wall or the roof a lath
or some scantling, to heat his crucible. Upon the partition,
above the rag-picker's mattress, might have been seen two
columns of figures, marked in chalk by the rag-picker himself
from week to week&mdash;a column of threes, and a column of
fives&mdash;according
as the bowl of grain had cost him three liards or
five centimes. The gold-pot of the "chemist" was an old
fragment of a bomb-shell, promoted by him to the dignity of a
crucible, in which he mixed his ingredients. The transmutation
of metals absorbed all his thoughts. He was determined before
he died to revenge himself by breaking the windows of orthodox
science with the real philosopher's stone. His furnace consumed
a good deal of wood. The hand-rail of the stairs had disappeared.
The house was slowly burning away. The landlady
said to him, "You will leave us nothing but the shell." He
mollified her by addressing her in verses.</p>

<p>Such was the Jacressade.</p>

<p>A boy of twelve, or, perhaps, sixteen&mdash;for he was like a
dwarf, with a large wen upon his neck, and always carrying a
broom in his hand&mdash;was the domestic of the place.</p>

<p>The habitu&eacute;s entered by the gateway of the courtyard; the
public entered by the shop.</p>

<p>In the high wall, facing the street, and to the right of the
entrance to the courtyard, was a square opening, serving at
once as a door and a window. This was the shop. The square
opening had a shutter and a frame&mdash;the only shutter in all the
house which had hinges and bolts. Behind this square aperture,
which was open to the street, was a little room, a compartment
obtained by curtailing the sleeping shed in the courtyard. Over
the door, passers-by read the inscription in charcoal, "Curiosities
sold here." On three boards, forming the shop front, were
several china pots without ears, a Chinese parasol made of goldbeater's
skin, and ornamented with figures, torn here and there,
and impossible to open or shut; fragments of iron, and shapeless
pieces of old pottery, and dilapidated hats and bonnets,
three or four shells, some packets of old bone and metal buttons,
a tobacco-box with a portrait of Marie-Antoinette, and a dog's-eared
volume of Boisbertrand's <i>Algebra</i>. Such was the stock
of the shop; this assortment completed the "curiosities." The<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_114" id="Page_114">[Pg 114]</a></span>
shop communicated by a back door with the yard in which was
the well. It was furnished with a table and a stool. The
woman with a wooden leg presided at the counter.</p>



<hr style="width: 65%;" />
<h4>VII</h4>

<h5>NOCTURNAL BUYERS AND MYSTERIOUS SELLERS</h5>


<p>Clubin had been absent from the Jean Auberge all the evening
of Tuesday. On the Wednesday night he was absent again.</p>

<p>In the dusk of that evening, two strangers penetrated into
the mazes of the Ruelle Coutanchez. They stopped in front of
the Jacressade. One of them knocked at the window; the
door of the shop opened, and they entered. The woman with
the wooden leg met them with the smile which she reserved for
respectable citizens. There was a candle on the table.</p>

<p>The strangers were, in fact, respectable citizens. The one
who had knocked said, "Good-day, mistress. I have come
for that affair."</p>

<p>The woman with the wooden leg smiled again, and went out by
the back-door leading to the courtyard, and where the well was.
A moment afterwards the back-door was opened again, and a
man stood in the doorway. He wore a cap and a blouse. It
was easy to see the shape of something under his blouse. He
had bits of old straw in his clothes, and looked as if he had just
been aroused from sleep.</p>

<p>He advanced and exchanged glances with the strangers. The
man in the blouse looked puzzled, but cunning; he said&mdash;</p>

<p>"You are the gunsmith?"</p>

<p>The one who had tapped at the window replied&mdash;</p>

<p>"Yes; you are the man from Paris?"</p>

<p>"Known as Redskin. Yes."</p>

<p>"Show me the thing."</p>

<p>The man took from under his blouse a weapon extremely rare
at that period in Europe. It was a revolver.</p>

<p>The weapon was new and bright. The two strangers
examined it. The one who seemed to know the house, and whom
the man in the blouse had called "the gunsmith," tried the
mechanism. He passed the weapon to the other, who appeared
less at home there, and kept his back turned to the light.</p>

<p>The gunsmith continued&mdash;</p>

<p>"How much?"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_115" id="Page_115">[Pg 115]</a></span></p>

<p>The man in the blouse replied&mdash;</p>

<p>"I have just brought it from America. Some people bring
monkeys, parrots, and other animals, as if the French people
were savages. For myself I brought this. It is a useful
invention."</p>

<p>"How much?" inquired the gunsmith again.</p>

<p>"It is a pistol which turns and turns."</p>

<p>"How much?"</p>

<p>"Bang! the first fire. Bang! the second fire. Bang! the
third fire. What a hailstorm of bullets! That will do some
execution."</p>

<p>"The price?"</p>

<p>"There are six barrels."</p>

<p>"Well, well, what do you want for it?"</p>

<p>"Six barrels; that is six Louis."</p>

<p>"Will you take five?"</p>

<p>"Impossible. One Louis a ball. That is the price."</p>

<p>"Come, let us do business together. Be reasonable."</p>

<p>"I have named a fair price. Examine the weapon, Mr.
Gunsmith."</p>

<p>"I have examined it."</p>

<p>"The barrel twists and turns like Talleyrand himself. The
weapon ought to be mentioned in the <i>Dictionary of Weathercocks</i>.
It is a gem."</p>

<p>"I have looked at it."</p>

<p>"The barrels are of Spanish make."</p>

<p>"I see they are."</p>

<p>"They are twisted. This is how this twisting is done. They
empty into a forge the basket of a collector of old iron. They
fill it full of these old scraps, with old nails, and broken horseshoes
swept out of farriers' shops."</p>

<p>"And old sickle-blades."</p>

<p>"I was going to say so, Mr. Gunsmith. They apply to all
this rubbish a good sweating heat, and this makes a magnificent
material for gun-barrels."</p>

<p>"Yes; but it may have cracks, flaws, or crosses."</p>

<p>"True; but they remedy the crosses by little twists, and
avoid the risk of doublings by beating hard. They bring their
mass of iron under the great hammer; give it two more good
sweating heats. If the iron has been heated too much, they
re-temper it with dull heats, and lighter hammers. And then
they take out their stuff and roll it well; and with this iron
they manufacture you a weapon like this."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_116" id="Page_116">[Pg 116]</a></span></p>

<p>"You are in the trade, I suppose?"</p>

<p>"I am of all trades."</p>

<p>"The barrels are pale-coloured."</p>

<p>"That's the beauty of them, Mr. Gunsmith. The tint is
obtained with antimony."</p>

<p>"It is settled, then, that we give you five Louis?"</p>

<p>"Allow me to observe that I had the honour of saying six."</p>

<p>The gunsmith lowered his voice.</p>

<p>"Hark you, master. Take advantage of the opportunity.
Get rid of this thing. A weapon of this kind is of no use to a
man like you. It will make you remarked."</p>

<p>"It is very true," said the Parisian. "It is rather conspicuous.
It is more suited to a gentleman."</p>

<p>"Will you take five Louis?"</p>

<p>"No, six; one for every shot."</p>

<p>"Come, six Napoleons."</p>

<p>"I will have six Louis."</p>

<p>"You are not a Bonapartist, then. You prefer a Louis to a
Napoleon."</p>

<p>The Parisian nicknamed "Redskin" smiled.</p>

<p>"A Napoleon is greater," said he, "but a Louis is worth
more."</p>

<p>"Six Napoleons."</p>

<p>"Six Louis. It makes a difference to me of four-and-twenty
francs."</p>

<p>"The bargain is off in that case."</p>

<p>"Good: I keep the toy."</p>

<p>"Keep it."</p>

<p>"Beating me down! a good idea! It shall never be said
that I got rid like that of a wonderful specimen of ingenuity."</p>

<p>"Good-night, then."</p>

<p>"It marks a whole stage in the progress of making pistols,
which the Chesapeake Indians call Nortay-u-Hah."</p>

<p>"Five Louis, ready money. Why, it is a handful of gold."</p>

<p>"'Nortay-u-Hah,' that signifies 'short gun.' A good many
people don't know that."</p>

<p>"Will you take five Louis, and just a bit of silver?"</p>

<p>"I said six, master."</p>

<p>The man who kept his back to the candle, and who had not
yet spoken, was spending his time during the dialogue in turning
and testing the mechanism of the pistol. He approached
the armourer's ear and whispered&mdash;</p>

<p>"Is it a good weapon?"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_117" id="Page_117">[Pg 117]</a></span></p>

<p>"Excellent."</p>

<p>"I will give the six Louis."</p>

<p>Five minutes afterwards, while the Parisian nicknamed
"Redskin" was depositing the six Louis which he had just
received in a secret slit under the breast of his blouse, the
armourer and his companion carrying the revolver in his
trousers pocket, stepped out into the straggling street.</p>



<hr style="width: 65%;" />
<h4>VIII</h4>

<h5>A "CANNON" OFF THE RED BALL AND THE BLACK</h5>


<p>On the morrow, which was a Thursday, a tragic circumstance
occurred at a short distance from St. Malo, near the peak of
the "D&eacute;coll&eacute;," a spot where the cliff is high and the sea deep.</p>

<p>A line of rocks in the form of the top of a lance, and connecting
themselves with the land by a narrow isthmus, stretch out
there into the water, ending abruptly with a large peak-shaped
breaker. Nothing is commoner in the architecture of the sea.
In attempting to reach the plateau of the peaked rock from the
shore, it was necessary to follow an inclined plane, the ascent of
which was here and there somewhat steep.</p>

<p>It was upon a plateau of this kind, towards four o'clock in
the afternoon, that a man was standing, enveloped in a large
military cape, and armed; a fact easy to be perceived from
certain straight and angular folds in his mantle. The summit
on which this man was resting was a rather extensive platform,
dotted with large masses of rock, like enormous paving-stones,
leaving between them narrow passages. This platform, on
which a kind of thick, short grass grew here and there, came to
an end on the sea side in an open space, leading to a perpendicular
escarpment. The escarpment, rising about sixty feet
above the level of the sea, seemed cut down by the aid of a
plumb-line. Its left angle, however, was broken away, and
formed one of those natural staircases common to granite cliffs
worn by the sea, the steps of which are somewhat inconvenient,
requiring sometimes the strides of a giant or the leaps of an
acrobat. These stages of rock descended perpendicularly to
the sea, where they were lost. It was a break-neck place.
However, in case of absolute necessity, a man might succeed in
embarking there, under the very wall of the cliff.</p>

<p>A breeze was sweeping the sea. The man wrapped in his<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_118" id="Page_118">[Pg 118]</a></span>
cape and standing firm, with his left hand grasping his right
shoulder, closed one eye, and applied the other to a telescope.
He seemed absorbed in anxious scrutiny. He had approached
the edge of the escarpment, and stood there motionless, his
gaze immovably fixed on the horizon. The tide was high;
the waves were beating below against the foot of the cliffs.</p>

<p>The object which the stranger was observing was a vessel in
the offing, and which was man&oelig;uvring in a strange manner.
The vessel, which had hardly left the port of St. Malo an hour,
had stopped behind the Banquetiers. It had not cast anchor,
perhaps because the bottom would only have permitted it to
bear to leeward on the edge of the cable, and because the ship
would have strained on her anchor under the cutwater. Her
captain had contented himself with lying-to.</p>

<p>The stranger, who was a coast-guardman, as was apparent
from his uniform cape, watched all the movements of the three-master,
and seemed to note them mentally. The vessel was
lying-to, a little off the wind, which was indicated by the backing
of the small topsail, and the bellying of the main-topsail.
She had squared the mizen, and set the topmast as close as
possible, and in such a manner as to work the sails against each
other, and to make little way either on or off shore. Her
captain evidently did not care to expose his vessel much to the
wind, for he had only braced up the small mizen-topsail. In
this way, coming crossway on, he did not drift at the utmost
more than half a league an hour.</p>

<p>It was still broad daylight, particularly on the open sea, and
on the heights of the cliff. The shores below were becoming
dark.</p>

<p>The coast-guardman, still engaged in his duty, and carefully
scanning the offing, had not thought of observing the rocks at
his side and at his feet. He turned his back towards the difficult
sort of causeway which formed the communication between
his resting-place and the shore. He did not, therefore, remark
that something was moving in that direction. Behind a fragment
of rock, among the steps of that causeway, something like
the figure of a man had been concealed, according to all appearances,
since the arrival of the coast-guardman. From time to
time a head issued from the shadow behind the rock; looked
up and watched the watcher. The head, surmounted by a
wide-brimmed American hat, was that of the Quaker-looking
man, who, ten days before, was talking among the stones of the
Petit-Bey to Captain Zuela.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_119" id="Page_119">[Pg 119]</a></span></p>

<p>Suddenly, the curiosity of the coast-guardman seemed to be
still more strongly awakened. He polished the glass of his
telescope quickly with his sleeve, and brought it to bear closely
upon the three-master.</p>

<p>A little black spot seemed to detach itself from her side.</p>

<p>The black spot, looking like a small insect upon the water,
was a boat.</p>

<p>The boat seemed to be making for the shore. It was manned
by several sailors, who were pulling vigorously.</p>

<p>She pulled crosswise by little and little, and appeared to be
approaching the Pointe du D&eacute;coll&eacute;.</p>

<p>The gaze of the coast-guardman seemed to have reached its
most intense point. No movement of the boat escaped it. He
had approached nearer still to the verge of the rock.</p>

<p>At that instant a man of large stature appeared on one of
the rocks behind him. It was the Quaker. The officer did not
see him.</p>

<p>The man paused an instant, his arms at his sides, but with
his fists doubled; and with the eye of a hunter, watching for his
prey, he observed the back of the officer.</p>

<p>Four steps only separated them. He put one foot forward,
then stopped; took a second step, and stopped again. He
made no movement except the act of walking; all the rest of
his body was motionless as a statue. His foot fell upon the
tufts of grass without noise. He made a third step, and paused
again. He was almost within reach of the coast-guard, who
stood there still motionless with his telescope. The man
brought his two closed fists to a level with his collar-bone, then
struck out his arms sharply, and his two fists, as if thrown from
a sling, struck the coast-guardman on the two shoulders. The
shock was decisive. The coast-guardman had not the time to
utter a cry. He fell head first from the height of the rock into
the sea. His boots appeared in the air about the time occupied
by a flash of lightning. It was like the fall of a stone in the sea,
which instantly closed over him.</p>

<p>Two or three circles widened out upon the dark water.</p>

<p>Nothing remained but the telescope, which had dropped
from the hands of the man, and lay upon the turf.</p>

<p>The Quaker leaned over the edge of the escarpment a moment,
watched the circles vanishing on the water, waited a few
minutes, and then rose again, singing in a low voice:</p>

<p><span style="margin-left: 8em;">"The captain of police is dead,</span><br />
<span style="margin-left: 8em;">Through having lost his life."</span>
<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_120" id="Page_120">[Pg 120]</a></span></p>

<p>He knelt down a second time. Nothing reappeared. Only
at the spot where the officer had been engulfed, he observed
on the surface of the water a sort of dark spot, which became
diffused with the gentle lapping of the waves. It seemed
probable that the coast-guardman had fractured his skull
against some rock under water, and that his blood caused the
spot in the foam. The Quaker, while considering the meaning
of this spot, began to sing again:</p>

<p><span style="margin-left: 8em;">"Not very long before he died,</span><br />
<span style="margin-left: 8em;">The luckless man was still alive."</span>
</p>

<p>He did not finish his song.</p>

<p>He heard an extremely soft voice behind him, which said:</p>

<p>"Is that you, Rantaine? Good-day. You have just killed
a man!"</p>

<p>He turned. About fifteen paces behind him, in one of the
passages between the rocks, stood a little man holding a revolver
in his hand.</p>

<p>The Quaker answered:</p>

<p>"As you see. Good-day, Sieur Clubin."</p>

<p>The little man started.</p>

<p>"You know me?"</p>

<p>"You knew me very well," replied Rantaine.</p>

<p>Meanwhile they could hear a sound of oars on the sea. It
was the approach of the boat which the officer had observed.</p>

<p>Sieur Clubin said in a low tone, as if speaking to himself:</p>

<p>"It was done quickly."</p>

<p>"What can I do to oblige you?" asked Rantaine.</p>

<p>"Oh, a trifling matter! It is very nearly ten years since I
saw you. You must have been doing well. How are you?"</p>

<p>"Well enough," answered Rantaine. "How are you?"</p>

<p>"Very well," replied Clubin.</p>

<p>Rantaine advanced a step towards Clubin.</p>

<p>A little sharp click caught his ear. It was Sieur Clubin who
was cocking his revolver.</p>

<p>"Rantaine, there are about fifteen paces between us. It is a
nice distance. Remain where you are."</p>

<p>"Very well," said Rantaine. "What do you want with
me?"</p>

<p>"I! Oh, I have come to have a chat with you."</p>

<p>Rantaine did not offer to move again. Sieur Clubin continued:</p>

<p>"You assassinated a coast-guardman just now."</p>

<p>Rantaine lifted the flap of his hat, and replied:<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_121" id="Page_121">[Pg 121]</a></span></p>

<p>"You have already done me the honour to mention it."</p>

<p>"Exactly; but in terms less precise. I said a man: I say
now, a coast-guardman. The man wore the number 619. He
was the father of a family; leaves a wife and five children."</p>

<p>"That is no doubt correct," said Rantaine.</p>

<p>There was a momentary pause.</p>

<p>"They are picked men&mdash;those coast-guard people," continued
Clubin; "almost all old sailors."</p>

<p>"I have remarked," said Rantaine, "that people generally
do leave a wife and five children."</p>

<p>Sieur Clubin continued:</p>

<p>"Guess how much this revolver cost me?"</p>

<p>"It is a pretty tool," said Rantaine.</p>

<p>"What do you guess it at?"</p>

<p>"I should guess it at a good deal."</p>

<p>"It cost me one hundred and forty-four francs."</p>

<p>"You must have bought that," said Rantaine, "at the shop
in the Ruelle Coutanchez."</p>

<p>Clubin continued:</p>

<p>"He did not cry out. The fall stopped his voice, no doubt."</p>

<p>"Sieur Clubin, there will be a breeze to-night."</p>

<p>"I am the only one in the secret."</p>

<p>"Do you still stay at the Jean Auberge?"</p>

<p>"Yes: you are not badly served there."</p>

<p>"I remember getting some excellent sour-krout there."</p>

<p>"You must be exceedingly strong, Rantaine. What
shoulders you have! I should be sorry to get a tap from you.
I, on the other hand, when I came into the world, looked so
spare and sickly, that they despaired of rearing me."</p>

<p>"They succeeded though; which was lucky."</p>

<p>"Yes: I still stay at the Jean Auberge."</p>

<p>"Do you know, Sieur Clubin, how I recognised you? It was
from your having recognised me. I said to myself, there is
nobody like Sieur Clubin for that."</p>

<p>And he advanced a step.</p>

<p>"Stand back where you were, Rantaine."</p>

<p>Rantaine fell back, and said to himself:</p>

<p>"A fellow becomes like a child before one of those weapons."</p>

<p>Sieur Clubin continued:</p>

<p>"The position of affairs is this: we have on our right, in the
direction of St. Enogat, at about three hundred paces from
here, another coast-guardman&mdash;his number is 618&mdash;who is still
alive; and on our left, in the direction of St. Lunaire&mdash;a customs<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_122" id="Page_122">[Pg 122]</a></span>
station. That makes seven armed men who could be here, if
necessary, in five minutes. The rock would be surrounded;
the way hither guarded. Impossible to elude them. There is
a corpse at the foot of this rock."</p>

<p>Rantaine took a side-way glance at the revolver.</p>

<p>"As you say, Rantaine, it is a pretty tool. Perhaps it is
only loaded with powder; but what does that matter? A
report would be enough to bring an armed force&mdash;and I have
six barrels here."</p>

<p>The measured sound of the oars became very distinct. The
boat was not far off.</p>

<p>The tall man regarded the little man curiously. Sieur Clubin
spoke in a voice more and more soft and subdued.</p>

<p>"Rantaine, the men in the boat which is coming, knowing
what you did here just now, would lend a hand and help to
arrest you. You are to pay Captain Zuela ten thousand francs
for your passage. You would have made a better bargain, by
the way, with the smugglers of Pleinmont; but they would only
have taken you to England; and besides, you cannot risk going
to Guernsey, where they have the pleasure of knowing you. To
return, then, to the position of affairs&mdash;if I fire, you are arrested.
You are to pay Zuela for your passage ten thousand francs.
You have already paid him five thousand in advance. Zuela
would keep the five thousand and be gone. These are the facts.
Rantaine, you have managed your masquerading very well.
That hat&mdash;that queer coat&mdash;and those gaiters make a wonderful
change. You forgot the spectacles; but did right to let
your whiskers grow."</p>

<p>Rantaine smiled spasmodically. Clubin continued:</p>

<p>"Rantaine, you have on a pair of American breeches, with
a double fob. In one side you keep your watch. Take care
of it."</p>

<p>"Thank you, Sieur Clubin."</p>

<p>"In the other is a little box made of wrought iron, which
opens and shuts with a spring. It is an old sailor's tobacco-box.
Take it out of your pocket, and throw it over to me."</p>

<p>"Why, this is robbery."</p>

<p>"You are at liberty to call the coast-guardman."</p>

<p>And Clubin fixed his eye on Rantaine.</p>

<p>"Stay, Mess Clubin," said Rantaine, making a slight forward
movement, and holding out his open hand.</p>

<p>The title "Mess" was a delicate flattery.</p>

<p>"Stay where you are, Rantaine."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_123" id="Page_123">[Pg 123]</a></span></p>

<p>"Mess Clubin, let us come to terms. I offer you half."</p>

<p>Clubin crossed his arms, still showing the barrels of his
revolver.</p>

<p>"Rantaine, what do you take me for? I am an honest man."</p>

<p>And he added after a pause:</p>

<p>"I must have the whole."</p>

<p>Rantaine muttered between his teeth, "This fellow's of a
stern sort."</p>

<p>The eye of Clubin lighted up, his voice became clear and
sharp as steel. He cried:</p>

<p>"I see that you are labouring under a mistake. Robbery
is your name, not mine. My name is Restitution. Hark you,
Rantaine. Ten years ago you left Guernsey one night, taking
with you the cash-box of a certain partnership concern, containing
fifty thousand francs which belonged to you, but forgetting
to leave behind you fifty thousand francs which were
the property of another. Those fifty thousand francs, the
money of your partner, the excellent and worthy Mess Lethierry,
make at present, at compound interest, calculated for ten years,
eighty thousand six hundred and sixty-six francs. You went
into a money-changer's yesterday. I'll give you his name&mdash;R&eacute;buchet,
in St. Vincent Street. You counted out to him
seventy-six thousand francs in French bank-notes; in exchange
for which he gave you three notes of the Bank of England for
one thousand pounds sterling each, plus the exchange. You
put these bank-notes in the iron tobacco-box, and the iron
tobacco-box into your double fob on the right-hand side. On
the part of Mess Lethierry, I shall be content with that. I start
to-morrow for Guernsey, and intend to hand it to him. Rantaine,
the three-master lying-to out yonder is the <i>Tamaulipas</i>.
You have had your luggage put aboard there with the other
things belonging to the crew. You want to leave France. You
have your reasons. You are going to Arequipa. The boat is
coming to fetch you. You are awaiting it. It is at hand. You
can hear it. It depends on me whether you go or stay. No
more words. Fling me the tobacco-box."</p>

<p>Rantaine dipped his hand in the fob, drew out a little box,
and threw it to Clubin. It was the iron tobacco-box. It fell
and rolled at Clubin's feet.</p>

<p>Clubin knelt without lowering his gaze; felt about for the
box with his left hand, keeping all the while his eyes and the
six barrels of the revolver fixed upon Rantaine.</p>

<p>Then he cried:<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_124" id="Page_124">[Pg 124]</a></span></p>

<p>"Turn your back, my friend."</p>

<p>Rantaine turned his back.</p>

<p>Sieur Clubin put the revolver under one arm, and touched
the spring of the tobacco-box. The lid flew open.</p>

<p>It contained four bank-notes; three of a thousand pounds,
and one of ten pounds.</p>

<p>He folded up the three bank-notes of a thousand pounds each,
replaced them in the iron tobacco-box, shut the lid again, and
put it in his pocket.</p>

<p>Then he picked up a stone, wrapped it in the ten-pound note,
and said:</p>

<p>"You may turn round again."</p>

<p>Rantaine turned.</p>

<p>Sieur Clubin continued:</p>

<p>"I told you I would be contented with three thousand
pounds. Here, I return you ten pounds."</p>

<p>And he threw to Rantaine the note enfolding the stone.</p>

<p>Rantaine, with a movement of his foot, sent the bank-note
and the stone into the sea.</p>

<p>"As you please," said Clubin. "You must be rich. I am
satisfied."</p>

<p>The noise of oars, which had been continually drawing nearer
during the dialogue, ceased. They knew by this that the boat
had arrived at the base of the cliff.</p>

<p>"Your vehicle waits below. You can go, Rantaine."</p>

<p>Rantaine advanced towards the steps of stones, and rapidly
disappeared.</p>

<p>Clubin moved cautiously towards the edge of the escarpment,
and watched him descending.</p>

<p>The boat had stopped near the last stage of the rocks, at the
very spot where the coast-guardman had fallen.</p>

<p>Still observing Rantaine stepping from stone to stone, Clubin
muttered:</p>

<p>"A good number 619. He thought himself alone. Rantaine
thought there were only two there. I alone knew that there
were three."</p>

<p>He perceived at his feet the telescope which had dropped from
the hands of the coast-guardman.</p>

<p>The sound of oars was heard again. Rantaine had stepped
into the boat, and the rowers had pushed out to sea.</p>

<p>When Rantaine was safely in the boat, and the cliff was
beginning to recede from his eyes, he arose again abruptly.
His features were convulsed with rage; he clenched his fist and
cried:<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_125" id="Page_125">[Pg 125]</a></span></p>

<p>"Ha! he is the devil himself; a villain!"</p>

<p>A few seconds later, Clubin, from the top of the rock, while
bringing his telescope to bear upon the boat, heard distinctly
the following words articulated by a loud voice, and mingling
with the noise of the sea:</p>

<p>"Sieur Clubin, you are an honest man; but you will not be
offended if I write to Lethierry to acquaint him with this
matter; and we have here in the boat a sailor from Guernsey,
who is one of the crew of the <i>Tamaulipas</i>; his name is Ahier-Tostevin,
and he will return to St. Malo on Zuela's next voyage,
to bear testimony to the fact of my having returned to you, on
Mess Lethierry's account, the sum of three thousand pounds
sterling."</p>

<p>It was Rantaine's voice.</p>

<p>Clubin rarely did things by halves. Motionless as the coast-guardman
had been, and in the exact same place, his eye still
at the telescope, he did not lose sight of the boat for one moment.
He saw it growing less amidst the waves; watched it disappear
and reappear, and approach the vessel, which was lying-to;
finally he recognised the tall figure of Rantaine on the deck of
the <i>Tamaulipas</i>.</p>

<p>When the boat was raised, and slung again to the davits, the
<i>Tamaulipas</i> was in motion once more. The land-breeze was
fresh, and she spread all her sails. Clubin's glass continued
fixed upon her outline growing more and more indistinct; until
half an hour later, when the <i>Tamaulipas</i> had become only a
dark shape upon the horizon, growing smaller and smaller
against the pale twilight in the sky.</p>



<hr style="width: 65%;" />
<h4>IX</h4>

<h5>USEFUL INFORMATION FOR PERSONS WHO EXPECT OR FEAR THE
ARRIVAL OF LETTERS FROM BEYOND SEA</h5>


<p>On that evening, Sieur Clubin returned late.</p>

<p>One of the causes of his delay was, that before going to his
inn, he had paid a visit to the Dinan gate of the town, a place
where there were several wine-shops. In one of these wine-shops,
where he was not known, he had bought a bottle of
brandy, which he placed in the pocket of his overcoat, as if he
desired to conceal it. Then, as the Durande was to start on
the following morning, he had taken a turn aboard to satisfy
himself that everything was in order.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_126" id="Page_126">[Pg 126]</a></span></p>

<p>When Sieur Clubin returned to the Jean Auberge, there was
no one left in the lower room except the old sea-captain, M.
Gertrais-Gaboureau, who was drinking a jug of ale and smoking
his pipe.</p>

<p>M. Gertrais-Gaboureau saluted Sieur Clubin between a whiff
and a draught of ale.</p>

<p>"How d'ye do, Captain Clubin?"</p>

<p>"Good evening, Captain Gertrais."</p>

<p>"Well, the <i>Tamaulipas</i> is gone."</p>

<p>"Ah!" said Clubin, "I did not observe."</p>

<p>Captain Gertrais-Gaboureau expectorated, and said:</p>

<p>"Zuela has decamped."</p>

<p>"When was that?"</p>

<p>"This evening."</p>

<p>"Where is he gone?"</p>

<p>"To the devil."</p>

<p>"No doubt; but where is that?"</p>

<p>"To Arequipa."</p>

<p>"I knew nothing of it," said Clubin.</p>

<p>He added:</p>

<p>"I am going to bed."</p>

<p>He lighted his candle, walked towards the door, and returned.</p>

<p>"Have you ever been at Arequipa, Captain?"</p>

<p>"Yes; some years ago."</p>

<p>"Where do they touch on that voyage?"</p>

<p>"A little everywhere; but the <i>Tamaulipas</i> will touch
nowhere."</p>

<p>M. Gertrais-Gaboureau emptied his pipe upon the corner of
a plate and continued:</p>

<p>"You know the lugger called the <i>Trojan Horse</i>, and that
fine three-master, the <i>Trentemouzin</i>, which are gone to Cardiff?
I was against their sailing on account of the weather. They
have returned in a fine state. The lugger was laden with turpentine;
she sprang a leak, and in working the pumps they
pumped up with the water all her cargo. As to the three-master,
she has suffered most above water. Her cutwater, her
headrail, the stock of her larboard anchor are broken. Her
standing jibboom is gone clean by the cap. As for the jib-shrouds
and bobstays, go and see what they look like. The
mizenmast is not injured, but has had a severe shock. All the
iron of the bowsprit has given way; and it is an extraordinary
fact that, though the bowsprit itself is not scratched, it is completely
stripped. The larboard-bow of the vessel is stove in<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_127" id="Page_127">[Pg 127]</a></span>
a good three feet square. This is what comes of not taking
advice."</p>

<p>Clubin had placed the candle on the table, and had begun to
readjust a row of pins which he kept in the collar of his overcoat.
He continued:</p>

<p>"Didn't you say, Captain, that the <i>Tamaulipas</i> would not
touch anywhere?"</p>

<p>"Yes; she goes direct to Chili."</p>

<p>"In that case, she can send no news of herself on the voyage."</p>

<p>"I beg your pardon, Captain Clubin. In the first place, she
can send any letters by vessels she may meet sailing for Europe."</p>

<p>"That is true."</p>

<p>"Then there is the ocean letter-box."</p>

<p>"What do you mean by the ocean letter-box?"</p>

<p>"Don't you know what that is, Captain Clubin?"</p>

<p>"No."</p>

<p>"When you pass the straits of Magellan&mdash;&mdash;"</p>

<p>"Well."</p>

<p>"Snow all round you; always bad weather; ugly down-easters,
and bad seas."</p>

<p>"Well."</p>

<p>"When you have doubled Cape Monmouth&mdash;&mdash;"</p>

<p>"Well, what next?"</p>

<p>"Then you double Cape Valentine."</p>

<p>"And then?"</p>

<p>"Why, then you double Cape Isidore."</p>

<p>"And afterwards?"</p>

<p>"You double Point Anne."</p>

<p>"Good. But what is it you call the ocean letter-box?"</p>

<p>"We are coming to that. Mountains on the right, mountains
on the left. Penguins and stormy petrels all about. A terrible
place. Ah! by Jove, what a howling and what cracks you get
there! The hurricane wants no help. That's the place for
holding on to the sheer-rails; for reefing topsails. That's
where you take in the mainsail, and fly the jibsail; or take in
the jibsail and try the stormjib. Gusts upon gusts! And then,
sometimes four, five, or six days of scudding under bare poles.
Often only a rag of canvas left. What a dance! Squalls
enough to make a three-master skip like a flea. I saw once a
cabin-boy hanging on to the jibboom of an English brig, the
<i>True Blue</i>, knocked, jibboom and all, to ten thousand nothings.
Fellows are swept into the air there like butterflies. I saw the
second mate of the <i>Revenue</i>, a pretty schooner, knocked from<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_128" id="Page_128">[Pg 128]</a></span>
under the forecross-tree, and killed dead. I have had my sheer-rails
smashed, and come out with all my sails in ribbons.
Frigates of fifty guns make water like wicker baskets. And the
damnable coast! Nothing can be imagined more dangerous.
Rocks all jagged-edged. You come, by and by, to Port Famine.
There it's worse and worse. The worst seas I ever saw in my
life. The devil's own latitudes. All of a sudden you spy the
words, painted in red, 'Post Office.'"</p>

<p>"What do you mean, Captain Gertrais?"</p>

<p>"I mean, Captain Clubin, that immediately after doubling
Point Anne you see, on a rock, a hundred feet high, a great
post with a barrel suspended to the top. This barrel is the
letter-box. The English sailors must needs go and write up
there 'Post Office.' What had they to do with it? It is the
ocean post-office. It isn't the property of that worthy gentleman,
the King of England. The box is common to all. It
belongs to every flag. <i>Post Office!</i> there's a crack-jaw word
for you. It produces an effect on me as if the devil had
suddenly offered me a cup of tea. I will tell you now how
the postal arrangements are carried out. Every vessel which
passes sends to the post a boat with despatches. A vessel
coming from the Atlantic, for instance, sends there its letters
for Europe; and a ship coming from the Pacific, its letters for
New Zealand or California. The officer in command of the
boat puts his packet into the barrel, and takes away any packet
he finds there. You take charge of these letters, and the ship
which comes after you takes charge of yours. As ships are
always going to and fro, the continent whence you come is that
to which I am going. I carry your letters; you carry mine.
The barrel is made fast to the post with a chain. And it rains,
snows and hails! A pretty sea. The imps of Satan fly about
on every side. The <i>Tamaulipas</i> will pass there. The barrel
has a good lid with a hinge, but no padlock. You see, a fellow
can write to his friends this way. The letters come safely."</p>

<p>"It is very curious," muttered Clubin thoughtfully.</p>

<p>Captain Gertrais-Gaboureau returned to his bottle of ale.</p>

<p>"If that vagabond Zuela should write (continued Clubin
aside), the scoundrel puts his scrawl into the barrel at Magellan,
and in four months I have his letter."</p>

<p>"Well, Captain Clubin, do you start to-morrow?"</p>

<p>Clubin, absorbed in a sort of somnambulism, did not notice
the question; and Captain Gertrais repeated it.</p>

<p>Clubin woke up.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_129" id="Page_129">[Pg 129]</a></span></p>

<p>"Of course, Captain Gertrais. It is my day. I must start
to-morrow morning."</p>

<p>"If it was my case, I shouldn't, Captain Clubin. The hair
of the dog's coat feels damp. For two nights past, the sea-birds
have been flying wildly round the lanthorn of the lighthouse.
A bad sign. I have a storm-glass, too, which gives
me a warning. The moon is at her second quarter; it is the
maximum of humidity. I noticed to-day some pimpernels with
their leaves shut, and a field of clover with its stalks all stiff.
The worms come out of the ground to-day; the flies sting; the
bees keep close to their hives; the sparrows chatter together.
You can hear the sound of bells from far off. I heard to-night
the Angelus at St. Lunaire. And then the sun set angry.
There will be a good fog to-morrow, mark my words. I don't
advise you to put to sea. I dread the fog a good deal more than
a hurricane. It's a nasty neighbour that."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_130" id="Page_130">[Pg 130]</a></span></p>



<hr style="width: 65%;" />
<h3>BOOK VI</h3>

<h4>THE DRUNKEN STEERSMAN AND THE SOBER CAPTAIN</h4>

<h4>I</h4>

<h5>THE DOUVRES</h5>


<p>At about five leagues out, in the open sea, to the south of
Guernsey, opposite Pleinmont Point, and between the Channel
Islands and St. Malo, there is a group of rocks, called the
Douvres. The spot is dangerous.</p>

<p>This term Douvres, applied to rocks and cliffs, is very
common. There is, for example, near the <i>C&ocirc;tes du Nord</i>, a
Douvre, on which a lighthouse is now being constructed, a
dangerous reef; but one which must not be confounded with
the rock above referred to.</p>

<p>The nearest point on the French coast to the Douvres is Cape
Br&eacute;hat. The Douvres are a little further from the coast of
France than from the nearest of the Channel Islands. The
distance from Jersey may be pretty nearly measured by the
extreme length of Jersey. If the island of Jersey could be
turned round upon Corbi&egrave;re, as upon a hinge, St. Catherine's
Point would almost touch the Douvres, at a distance of more
than four leagues.</p>

<p>In these civilised regions the wildest rocks are rarely desert
places. Smugglers are met with at Hagot, custom-house men
at Binic, Celts at Br&eacute;hat, oyster-dredgers at Cancale, rabbit-shooters
at C&eacute;sambre or C&aelig;sar's Island, crab-gatherers at
Brecqhou, trawlers at the Minquiers, dredgers at Ecr&eacute;hou, but
no one is ever seen upon the Douvres.</p>

<p>The sea birds alone make their home there.</p>

<p>No spot in the ocean is more dreaded. The Casquets, where
it is said the <i>Blanche Nef</i> was lost; the Bank of Calvados; the
Needles in the Isle of Wight; the Ronesse, which makes the
coast of Beaulieu so dangerous; the sunken reefs at Pr&eacute;el,
which block the entrance to Merquel, and which necessitates
the red-painted beacon in twenty fathoms of water, the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_131" id="Page_131">[Pg 131]</a></span>
treacherous approaches to Etables and Plouha; the two granite
Druids to the south of Guernsey, the Old Anderlo and the Little
Anderlo, the Corbi&egrave;re, the Hanways, the Isle of Ras, associated
with terror in the proverb:</p>

<p><span style="margin-left: 8em;">"<i>Si jamais tu passes le Ras</i>,</span><br />
<span style="margin-left: 8em;"><i>Si tu ne meurs, tu trembleras.</i>"</span>
</p>

<p>the Mortes-Femmes, the D&eacute;route between Guernsey and Jersey,
the Hardent between the Minquiers and Chousey, the Mauvais
Cheval between Bouley Bay and Barneville, have not so evil a
reputation. It would be preferable to have to encounter all
these dangers, one after the other, than the Douvres once.</p>

<p>In all that perilous sea of the Channel, which is the Egean of
the West, the Douvres have no equal in their terrors, except
the Paternoster between Guernsey and Sark.</p>

<p>From the Paternoster, however, it is possible to give a signal&mdash;a
ship in distress there may obtain succour. To the north
rises Dicard or D'Icare Point, and to the south Grosnez.
From the Douvres you can see nothing.</p>

<p>Its associations are the storm, the cloud, the wild sea, the
desolate waste, the uninhabited coast. The blocks of granite
are hideous and enormous&mdash;everywhere perpendicular wall&mdash;the
severe inhospitality of the abyss.</p>

<p>It is in the open sea; the water about is very deep. A rock
completely isolated like the Douvres attracts and shelters
creatures which shun the haunts of men. It is a sort of vast
submarine cave of fossil coral branches&mdash;a drowned labyrinth.
There, at a depth to which divers would find it difficult to
descend, are caverns, haunts, and dusky mazes, where monstrous
creatures multiply and destroy each other. Huge crabs devour
fish and are devoured in their turn. Hideous shapes of living
things, not created to be seen by human eyes, wander in this
twilight. Vague forms of antenn&aelig;, tentacles, fins, open jaws,
scales, and claws, float about there, quivering, growing larger,
or decomposing and perishing in the gloom, while horrible
swarms of swimming things prowl about seeking their prey.</p>

<p>To gaze into the depths of the sea is, in the imagination, like
beholding the vast unknown, and from its most terrible point of
view. The submarine gulf is analogous to the realm of night
and dreams. There also is sleep, unconsciousness, or at least
apparent unconsciousness, of creation. There, in the awful
silence and darkness, the rude first forms of life, phantom-like,
demoniacal, pursue their horrible instincts.</p>

<p>Forty years ago, two rocks of singular form signalled the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_132" id="Page_132">[Pg 132]</a></span>
Douvres from afar to passers on the ocean. They were two
vertical points, sharp and curved&mdash;their summits almost touching
each other. They looked like the two tusks of an elephant
rising out of the sea; but they were tusks, high as tall towers,
of an elephant huge as a mountain. These two natural towers,
rising out of the obscure home of marine monsters, only left a
narrow passage between them, where the waves rushed through.
This passage, tortuous and full of angles, resembled a straggling
street between high walls. The two twin rocks are called the
Douvres. There was the Great Douvre and the Little Douvre;
one was sixty feet high, the other forty. The ebb and flow of
the tide had at last worn away part of the base of the towers,
and a violent equinoctial gale on the 26th of October, 1859,
overthrew one of them. The smaller one, which still remains,
is worn and tottering.</p>

<p>One of the most singular of the Douvres is a rock known as
"The Man." This still exists. Some fisherman in the last
century visiting this spot found on the height of the rock a
human body. By its side were a number of empty sea-shells.
A sailor escaped from shipwreck had found a refuge there; had
lived some time upon rock limpets, and had died. Hence its
name of "The Man."</p>

<p>The solitudes of the sea are peculiarly dismal. The things
which pass there seem to have no relation to the human race;
their objects are unknown. Such is the isolation of the Douvres.
All around, as far as eye can reach, spreads the vast and restless
sea.</p>



<hr style="width: 65%;" />
<h4>II</h4>

<h5>AN UNEXPECTED FLASK OF BRANDY</h5>


<p>On the Friday morning, the day after the departure of the
<i>Tamaulipas</i>, the Durande started again for Guernsey.</p>

<p>She left St. Malo at nine o'clock. The weather was fine; no
haze. Old Captain Gertrais-Gaboureau was evidently in his
dotage.</p>

<p>Sieur Clubin's numerous occupations had decidedly been unfavourable
to the collection of freight for the Durande. He
had only taken aboard some packages of Parisian articles for
the fancy shops of St. Peter's Port; three cases for the
Guernsey hospital, one containing yellow soap and long candles,
and the other French shoe leather for soles, and choice Cordovan<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_133" id="Page_133">[Pg 133]</a></span>
skins. He brought back from his last cargo a case of crushed
sugar and three chests of congou tea, which the French custom-house
would not permit to pass. He had embarked very few
cattle; some bullocks only. These bullocks were in the hold
loosely tethered.</p>

<p>There were six passengers aboard; a Guernsey man, two
inhabitants of St. Malo, dealers in cattle: a "tourist,"&mdash;a
phrase already in vogue at this period&mdash;a Parisian citizen,
probably travelling on commercial affairs, and an American,
engaged in distributing Bibles.</p>

<p>Without reckoning Clubin, the crew of the Durande amounted
to seven men; a helmsman, a stoker, a ship's carpenter, and a
cook&mdash;serving as sailors in case of need&mdash;two engineers, and
a cabin boy. One of the two engineers was also a practical
mechanic. This man, a bold and intelligent Dutch negro, who
had originally escaped from the sugar plantations of Surinam,
was named Imbrancam. The negro, Imbrancam, understood and
attended admirably to the engine. In the early days of the
"Devil Boat," his black face, appearing now and then at the
top of the engine-room stairs, had contributed not a little to
sustain its diabolical reputation.</p>

<p>The helmsman, a native of Guernsey, but of a family originally
from Cotentin, bore the name of Tangrouille. The Tangrouilles
were an old noble family.</p>

<p>This was strictly true. The Channel Islands are like England,
an aristocratic region. Castes exist there still. The castes
have their peculiar ideas, which are, in fact, their protection.
These notions of caste are everywhere similar; in Hindostan, as
in Germany, nobility is won by the sword; lost by soiling the
hands with labour: but preserved by idleness. To do nothing,
is to live nobly; whoever abstains from work is honoured. A
trade is fatal. In France, in old times, there was no exception
to this rule, except in the case of glass manufacturers. Emptying
bottles being then one of the glories of gentlemen, making
them was probably, for that reason, not considered dishonourable.
In the Channel archipelago, as in Great Britain, he who
would remain noble must contrive to be rich. A working man
cannot possibly be a gentleman. If he has ever been one, he
is so no longer. Yonder sailor, perhaps, descends from the
Knights Bannerets, but is nothing but a sailor. Thirty years
ago, a real Gorges, who would have had rights over the
Seigniory of Gorges, confiscated by Philip Augustus, gathered
seaweed, naked-footed, in the sea. A Carteret is a waggoner<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_134" id="Page_134">[Pg 134]</a></span>
in Sark. There are at Jersey a draper, and at Guernsey a shoemaker,
named Gruchy, who claim to be Grouchys, and cousins
of the Marshal of Waterloo. The old registers of the Bishopric
of Coutances make mention of a Seigniory of Tangroville,
evidently from Tancarville on the lower Seine, which is identical
with Montmorency. In the fifteenth century, Johan de
H&eacute;roudeville, archer and <i>&eacute;toffe</i> of the Sire de Tangroville, bore
behind him "<i>son corset et ses autres harnois</i>." In May, 1371, at
Pontorson, at the review of Bertrand du Guesclin, Monsieur de
Tangroville rendered his homage as Knight Bachelor. In the
Norman islands, if a noble falls into poverty, he is soon eliminated
from the order. A mere change of pronunciation is
enough. Tangroville becomes Tangrouille: and the thing is
done.</p>

<p>This had been the fate of the helmsman of the Durande.</p>

<p>At the Bordag&eacute; of St. Peter's Port, there is a dealer in old
iron named Ingrouille, who is probably an Ingroville. Under
Lewis le Gros the Ingrovilles possessed three parishes in the
district of Valognes. A certain Abb&eacute; Trigan has written an
Ecclesiastical History of Normandy. This chronicler Trigan
was the cur&eacute; of the Seigniory of Digoville. The Sire of Digoville,
if he had sunk to a lower grade, would have been called
Digouille.</p>

<p>Tangrouille, this probable Tancarville, and possible Montmorency,
had an ancient noble quality, but a grave failing for
a steersman; he got drunk occasionally.</p>

<p>Sieur Clubin had obstinately determined to retain him. He
answered for his conduct to Mess Lethierry.</p>

<p>Tangrouille the helmsman never left the vessel; he slept
aboard.</p>

<p>On the eve of their departure, when Sieur Clubin came at
a late hour to inspect the vessel, the steersman was in his
hammock asleep.</p>

<p>In the night Tangrouille awoke. It was his nightly habit.
Every drunkard who is not his own master has his secret
hiding-place. Tangrouille had his, which he called his store.
The secret store of Tangrouille was in the hold. He had placed
it there to put others off the scent. He thought it certain that
his hiding-place was known only to himself. Captain Clubin,
being a sober man himself, was strict. The little rum or gin
which the helmsman could conceal from the vigilant eyes of
the captain, he kept in reserve in this mysterious corner of the
hold, and nearly every night he had a stolen interview with the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_135" id="Page_135">[Pg 135]</a></span>
contents of this store. The surveillance was rigorous, the orgie
was a poor one, and Tangrouille's nightly excesses were generally
confined to two or three furtive draughts. Sometimes it
happened that the store was empty. This night Tangrouille
had found there an unexpected bottle of brandy. His joy was
great; but his astonishment greater. From what cloud had it
fallen? He could not remember when or how he had ever
brought it into the ship. He soon, however, consumed the
whole of it; partly from motives of prudence, and partly from
a fear that the brandy might be discovered and seized. The
bottle he threw overboard. In the morning, when he took the
helm, Tangrouille exhibited a slight oscillation of the body.</p>

<p>He steered, however, pretty nearly as usual.</p>

<p>With regard to Clubin, he had gone, as the reader knows, to
sleep at the Jean Auberge.</p>

<p>Clubin always wore, under his shirt, a leathern travelling
belt, in which he kept a reserve of twenty guineas; he took
this belt off only at night. Inside the belt was his name
"Clubin," written by himself on the rough leather, with thick
lithographer's ink, which is indelible.</p>

<p>On rising, just before his departure, he put into this girdle
the iron box containing the seventy-five thousand francs in
bank-notes; then, as he was accustomed to do, he buckled the
belt round his body.</p>



<hr style="width: 65%;" />
<h4>III</h4>

<h5>CONVERSATIONS INTERRUPTED</h5>


<p>The Durande started pleasantly. The passengers, as soon as
their bags and portmanteaus were installed upon and under
the benches, took that customary survey of the vessel which
seems indispensable under the circumstances. Two of the
passengers&mdash;the tourist and the Parisian&mdash;had never seen a
steam-vessel before, and from the moment the paddles began
to revolve, they stood admiring the foam. Then they looked
with wonderment at the smoke. Then they examined one by
one, and almost piece by piece upon the upper and lower deck,
all those naval appliances such as rings, grapnels, hooks and
bolts, which, with their nice precision and adaptation, form a
kind of colossal <i>bijouterie</i>&mdash;a sort of iron jewellery, fantastically
gilded with rust by the weather. They walked round the little
signal gun upon the upper deck. "Chained up like a sporting<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_136" id="Page_136">[Pg 136]</a></span>
dog," observed the tourist. "And covered with a waterproof
coat to prevent its taking cold," added the Parisian. As they
left the land further behind, they indulged in the customary
observations upon the view of St. Malo. One passenger laid
down the axiom that the approach to a place by sea is always
deceptive; and that at a league from the shore, for example,
nothing could more resemble Ostend than Dunkirk. He completed
his series of remarks on Dunkirk by the observation that
one of its two floating lights painted red was called <i>Ruytingen</i>,
and the other <i>Mardyck</i>.</p>

<p>St. Malo, meanwhile, grew smaller in the distance, and
finally disappeared from view.</p>

<p>The aspect of the sea was a vast calm. The furrow left in
the water by the vessel was a long double line edged with foam,
and stretching straight behind them as far as the eye could see.</p>

<p>A straight line drawn from St. Malo in France to Exeter in
England would touch the island of Guernsey. The straight
line at sea is not always the one chosen. Steam-vessels, however,
have, to a certain extent, a power of following the direct
course denied to sailing ships.</p>

<p>The wind in co-operation with the sea is a combination of
forces. A ship is a combination of appliances. Forces are
machines of infinite power. Machines are forces of limited
power. That struggle which we call navigation is between
these two organisations, the one inexhaustible, the other
intelligent.</p>

<p>Mind, directing the mechanism, forms the counterbalance to
the infinite power of the opposing forces. But the opposing
forces, too, have their organisation. The elements are conscious
of where they go, and what they are about. No force is
merely blind. It is the function of man to keep watch upon
these natural agents, and to discover their laws.</p>

<p>While these laws are still in great part undiscovered, the
struggle continues, and in this struggle navigation, by the help
of steam, is a perpetual victory won by human skill every hour
of the day, and upon every point of the sea. The admirable
feature in steam navigation is, that it disciplines the very ship
herself. It diminishes her obedience to the winds, and increases
her docility to man.</p>

<p>The Durande had never worked better at sea than on that
day. She made her way marvellously.</p>

<p>Towards eleven o'clock, a fresh breeze blowing from the
nor'-nor'-west, the Durande was off the Minquiers, under little<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_137" id="Page_137">[Pg 137]</a></span>
steam, keeping her head to the west, on the starboard tack, and
close up to the wind. The weather was still fine and clear. The
trawlers, however, were making for shore.</p>

<p>By little and little, as if each one was anxious to get into port,
the sea became clear of the boats.</p>

<p>It could not be said that the Durande was keeping quite her
usual course. The crew gave no thought to such matters. The
confidence in the captain was absolute; yet, perhaps through
the fault of the helmsman, there was a slight deviation. The
Durande appeared to be making rather towards Jersey than
Guernsey. A little after eleven the captain rectified the
vessel's course, and put her head fair for Guernsey. It was only
a little time lost, but in short days time lost has its inconveniences.
It was a February day, but the sun shone brightly.</p>

<p>Tangrouille, in his half-intoxicated state, had not a very sure
arm, nor a very firm footing. The result was, that the helmsman
lurched pretty often, which also retarded progress.</p>

<p>The wind had almost entirely fallen.</p>

<p>The Guernsey passenger, who had a telescope in his hand,
brought it to bear from time to time upon a little cloud of grey
mist, lightly moved by the wind, in the extreme western horizon.
It resembled a fleecy down sprinkled with dust.</p>

<p>Captain Clubin wore his ordinary austere, Puritan-like expression
of countenance. He appeared to redouble his attention.</p>

<p>All was peaceful and almost joyous on board the Durande.
The passengers chatted. It is possible to judge of the state of
the sea in a passage with the eyes closed, by noting the <i>tremolo</i> of
the conversation about you. The full freedom of mind among
the passengers answers to the perfect tranquillity of the
waters.</p>

<p>It is impossible, for example, that a conversation like the
following could take place otherwise than on a very calm sea.</p>

<p>"Observe that pretty green and red fly."</p>

<p>"It has lost itself out at sea, and is resting on the ship."</p>

<p>"Flies do not soon get tired."</p>

<p>"No doubt; they are light; the wind carries them."</p>

<p>"An ounce of flies was once weighed, and afterwards counted;
and it was found to comprise no less than six thousand two
hundred and sixty-eight."</p>

<p>The Guernsey passenger with the telescope had approached
the St. Malo cattle dealers; and their talk was something in
this vein:</p>

<p>"The Aubrac bull has a round and thick buttock, short legs,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_138" id="Page_138">[Pg 138]</a></span>
and a yellowish hide. He is slow at work by reason of the
shortness of his legs."</p>

<p>"In that matter the Salers beats the Aubrac."</p>

<p>"I have seen, sir, two beautiful bulls in my life. The first
has the legs low, the breast thick, the rump full, the haunches
large, a good length of neck to the udder, withers of good height,
the skin easy to strip. The second had all the signs of good
fattening, a thick-set back, neck and shoulders strong, coat
white and brown, rump sinking."</p>

<p>"That's the Cotentin race."</p>

<p>"Yes; with a slight cross with the Angus or Suffolk bull."</p>

<p>"You may believe it if you please, sir, but I assure you in the
south they hold shows of donkeys."</p>

<p>"Shows of donkeys?"</p>

<p>"Of donkeys, on my honour. And the ugliest are the most
admired."</p>

<p>"Ha! it is the same as with the mule shows. The ugly ones
are considered best."</p>

<p>"Exactly. Take also the Poitevin mares; large belly, thick
legs."</p>

<p>"The best mule known is a sort of barrel upon four posts."</p>

<p>"Beauty in beasts is a different thing from beauty in men."</p>

<p>"And particularly in women."</p>

<p>"That is true."</p>

<p>"As for me, I like a woman to be pretty."</p>

<p>"I am more particular about her being well dressed."</p>

<p>"Yes; neat, clean, and well set off."</p>

<p>"Looking just new. A pretty girl ought always to appear as
if she had just been turned out by a jeweller."</p>

<p>"To return to my bulls; I saw these two sold at the market
at Thouars."</p>

<p>"The market at Thouars; I know it very well. The
Bonneaus of La Rochelle, and the Babas corn merchants at
Marans, I don't know whether you have heard of them attending
that market."</p>

<p>The tourist and the Parisian were conversing with the
American of the Bibles.</p>

<p>"Sir," said the tourist, "I will tell you the tonnage of the
civilised world. France 716,000 tons; Germany 1,000,000;
the United States, 5,000,000; England, 5,500,000; add the
small vessels. Total 12,904,000 tons, carried in 145,000 vessels
scattered over the waters of the globe."</p>

<p>The American interrupted:<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_139" id="Page_139">[Pg 139]</a></span></p>

<p>"It is the United States, sir, which have 5,500,000."</p>

<p>"I agree," said the tourist. "You are an American?"</p>

<p>"Yes, sir."</p>

<p>"I agree again."</p>

<p>There was a pause. The American missionary was considering
whether this was a case for the offer of a Bible.</p>

<p>"Is it true, sir," asked the tourist, "that you have a passion
for nicknames in America, so complete, that you confer them
upon all your celebrated men, and that you call your famous
Missouri banker, Thomas Benton, 'Old Lingot'?"</p>

<p>"Yes; just as we call Zachary Taylor 'Old Zach.'"</p>

<p>"And General Harrison, 'Old Tip;' am I right? and General
Jackson, 'Old Hickory?'"</p>

<p>"Because Jackson is hard as hickory wood; and because
Harrison beat the redskins at <i>Tippecanoe</i>."</p>

<p>"It is an odd fashion that of yours."</p>

<p>"It is our custom. We call Van Buren 'The Little Wizard;'
Seward, who introduced the small bank-notes, 'Little Billy;'
and Douglas, the democrat senator from Illinois, who is four
feet high and very eloquent, 'The Little Giant.' You may go
from Texas to the State of Maine without hearing the name of
Mr. Cass. They say the 'Great Michiganer.' Nor the name of
Clay; they say 'The miller's boy with the scar.' Clay is the
son of a miller."</p>

<p>"I should prefer to say 'Clay' or 'Cass,'" said the Parisian.
"It's shorter."</p>

<p>"Then you would be out of the fashion. We call Corwin,
who is the Secretary of the Treasury, 'The Waggoner-boy;'
Daniel Webster, 'Black Dan.' As to Winfield Scott, as his
first thought after beating the English at Chippeway, was to
sit down to dine, we call him 'Quick&mdash;a basin of soup.'"</p>

<p>The small white mist perceived in the distance had become
larger. It filled now a segment of fifteen degrees above the
horizon. It was like a cloud loitering along the water for want
of wind to stir it. The breeze had almost entirely died away.
The sea was glassy. Although it was not yet noon, the sun
was becoming pale. It lighted but seemed to give no
warmth.</p>

<p>"I fancy," said the tourist, "that we shall have a change of
weather."</p>

<p>"Probably rain," said the Parisian.</p>

<p>"Or fog," said the American.</p>

<p>"In Italy," remarked the tourist, "Molfetta is the place<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_140" id="Page_140">[Pg 140]</a></span>
where there falls the least rain; and Tolmezzo, where there
falls the most."</p>

<p>At noon, according to the usage of the Channel Islands, the
bell sounded for dinner. Those dined who desired. Some
passengers had brought with them provisions, and were eating
merrily on the after-deck. Clubin did not eat.</p>

<p>While this eating was going on, the conversations continued.</p>

<p>The Guernsey man, having probably a scent for Bibles,
approached the American. The latter said to him:</p>

<p>"You know this sea?"</p>

<p>"Very well; I belong to this part."</p>

<p>"And I, too," said one of the St. Malo men.</p>

<p>The native of Guernsey followed with a bow and continued:</p>

<p>"We are fortunately well out at sea now; I should not have
liked a fog when we were off the Minquiers."</p>

<p>The American said to the St. Malo man:</p>

<p>"Islanders are more at home on the sea than the folks of
the coast."</p>

<p>"True; we coast people are only half dipped in salt water."</p>

<p>"What are the Minquiers?" asked the American.</p>

<p>The St. Malo man replied:</p>

<p>"They are an ugly reef of rocks."</p>

<p>"There are also the Grelets," said the Guernsey man.</p>

<p>"Parblus!" ejaculated the other.</p>

<p>"And the Chouas," added the Guernsey man.</p>

<p>The inhabitant of St. Malo laughed.</p>

<p>"As for that," said he, "there are the Savages also."</p>

<p>"And the Monks," observed the Guernsey man.</p>

<p>"And the Duck," cried the St. Maloite.</p>

<p>"Sir," remarked the inhabitant of Guernsey, "you have an
answer for everything."</p>

<p>The tourist interposed with a question:</p>

<p>"Have we to pass all that legion of rocks?"</p>

<p>"No; we have left it to the sou'-south-east. It is behind
us."</p>

<p>And the Guernsey passenger continued:</p>

<p>"Big and little rocks together, the Grelets have fifty-seven
peaks."</p>

<p>"And the Minquiers forty-eight," said the other.</p>

<p>The dialogue was now confined to the St. Malo and the
Guernsey passenger.</p>

<p>"It strikes me, Monsieur St. Malo, that there are three rocks
which you have not included."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_141" id="Page_141">[Pg 141]</a></span></p>

<p>"I mentioned all."</p>

<p>"From the Der&eacute;e to the Ma&icirc;tre Ile."</p>

<p>"And Les Maisons?"</p>

<p>"Yes; seven rocks in the midst of the Minquiers."</p>

<p>"I see you know the very stones."</p>

<p>"If I didn't know the stones, I should not be an inhabitant
of St. Malo."</p>

<p>"It is amusing to hear French people's reasonings."</p>

<p>The St. Malo man bowed in his turn, and said:</p>

<p>"The Savages are three rocks."</p>

<p>"And the Monks two."</p>

<p>"And the Duck one."</p>

<p>"<i>The</i> Duck; this is only one, of course."</p>

<p>"No: for <i>the</i> Suarde consists of four rocks."</p>

<p>"What do you mean by the Suarde?" asked the inhabitant of
Guernsey.</p>

<p>"We call the Suarde what you call the Chouas."</p>

<p>"It is a queer passage, that between the Chouas and the
Duck."</p>

<p>"It is impassable except for the birds."</p>

<p>"And the fish."</p>

<p>"Scarcely: in bad weather they give themselves hard knocks
against the walls."</p>

<p>"There is sand near the Minquiers?"</p>

<p>"Around the Maisons."</p>

<p>"There are eight rocks visible from Jersey."</p>

<p>"Visible from the strand of Azette; that's correct: but not
eight; only seven."</p>

<p>"At low water you can walk about the Minquiers?"</p>

<p>"No doubt; there would be sand above water."</p>

<p>"And what of the Dirouilles?"</p>

<p>"The Dirouilles bear no resemblance to the Minquiers."</p>

<p>"They are very dangerous."</p>

<p>"They are near Granville."</p>

<p>"I see that you St. Malo people, like us, enjoy sailing in
these seas."</p>

<p>"Yes," replied the St. Malo man, "with the difference that
we say, 'We have the habit,' you, 'We are fond.'"</p>

<p>"You make good sailors."</p>

<p>"I am myself a cattle merchant."</p>

<p>"Who was that famous sailor born of St. Malo?"</p>

<p>"Surcouf?"</p>

<p>"Another?"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_142" id="Page_142">[Pg 142]</a></span></p>

<p>"Duguay-Trouin."</p>

<p>Here the Parisian commercial man chimed in:</p>

<p>"Duguay-Trouin? He was captured by the English. He
was as agreeable as he was brave. A young English lady fell
in love with him. It was she who procured him his liberty."</p>

<p>At this moment a voice like thunder was heard crying out:</p>

<p>"You are drunk, man!"</p>



<hr style="width: 65%;" />
<h4>IV</h4>

<h5>CAPTAIN CLUBIN DISPLAYS ALL HIS GREAT QUALITIES</h5>


<p>Everybody turned.</p>

<p>It was the captain calling to the helmsman.</p>

<p>Sieur Clubin's tone and manner evidenced that he was extremely
angry, or that he wished to appear so.</p>

<p>A well-timed burst of anger sometimes removes responsibility,
and sometimes shifts it on to other shoulders.</p>

<p>The captain, standing on the bridge between the two paddle-boxes,
fixed his eyes on the helmsman. He repeated, between
his teeth, "Drunkard." The unlucky Tangrouille hung his
head.</p>

<p>The fog had made progress. It filled by this time nearly
one-half of the horizon. It seemed to advance from every
quarter at the same time. There is something in a fog of the
nature of a drop of oil upon the water. It enlarged insensibly.
The light wind moved it onward slowly and silently. By little
and little it took possession of the ocean. It was coming chiefly
from the north-west, dead ahead: the ship had it before her
prow, like a line of cliff moving vast and vague. It rose from
the sea like a wall. There was an exact point where the wide
waters entered the fog, and were lost to sight.</p>

<p>This line of the commencement of the fog was still above
half-a-league distant. The interval was visibly growing less
and less. The Durande made way; the fog made way also.
It was drawing nearer to the vessel, while the vessel was drawing
nearer to it.</p>

<p>Clubin gave the order to put on more steam, and to hold off
the coast.</p>

<p>Thus for some time they skirted the edge of the fog; but
still it advanced. The vessel, meanwhile, sailed in broad
sunlight.</p>

<p>Time was lost in these man&oelig;uvres, which had little chance<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_143" id="Page_143">[Pg 143]</a></span>
of success. Nightfall comes quickly in February. The native
of Guernsey was meditating upon the subject of this fog. He
said to the St. Malo men:</p>

<p>"It will be thick!"</p>

<p>"An ugly sort of weather at sea," observed one of the St.
Malo men.</p>

<p>The other added:</p>

<p>"A kind of thing which spoils a good passage."</p>

<p>The Guernsey passenger approached Clubin, and said:</p>

<p>"I'm afraid, Captain, that the fog will catch us."</p>

<p>Clubin replied:</p>

<p>"I wished to stay at St. Malo, but I was advised to go."</p>

<p>"By whom?"</p>

<p>"By some old sailors."</p>

<p>"You were certainly right to go," said the Guernsey man.
"Who knows whether there will not be a tempest to-morrow?
At this season you may wait and find it worse."</p>

<p>A few moments later, the Durande entered the fog bank.</p>

<p>The effect was singular. Suddenly those who were on the
after-deck could not see those forward. A soft grey medium
divided the ship in two.</p>

<p>Then the entire vessel passed into the fog. The sun became like
a dull red moon. Everybody suddenly shivered. The passengers
put on their overcoats, and the sailors their tarpaulins. The
sea, almost without a ripple, was the more menacing from its
cold tranquillity. All was pale and wan. The black funnel
and the heavy smoke struggled with the dewy mist which
enshrouded the vessel.</p>

<p>Dropping to westward was now useless. The captain kept
the vessel's head again towards Guernsey, and gave orders to
put on the steam.</p>

<p>The Guernsey passenger, hanging about the engine-room
hatchway, heard the negro Imbrancam talking to his engineer
comrade. The passenger listened. The negro said:</p>

<p>"This morning, in the sun, we were going half steam on;
now, in the fog, we put on steam."</p>

<p>The Guernsey man returned to Clubin.</p>

<p>"Captain Clubin, a look-out is useless; but have we not too
much steam on?"</p>

<p>"What can I do, sir? We must make up for time lost
through the fault of that drunkard of a helmsman."</p>

<p>"True, Captain Clubin."</p>

<p>And Clubin added:<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_144" id="Page_144">[Pg 144]</a></span></p>

<p>"I am anxious to arrive. It is foggy enough by day: it
would be rather too much at night."</p>

<p>The Guernsey man rejoined his St. Malo fellow-passengers,
and remarked:</p>

<p>"We have an excellent captain."</p>

<p>At intervals, great waves of mist bore down heavily upon
them, and blotted out the sun; which again issued out of them
pale and sickly. The little that could be seen of the heavens
resembled the long strips of painted sky, dirty and smeared
with oil, among the old scenery of a theatre.</p>

<p>The Durande passed close to a cutter which had cast anchor
for safety. It was the <i>Shealtiel</i> of Guernsey. The master
of the cutter remarked the high speed of the steam-vessel. It
struck him also, that she was not in her exact course. She
seemed to him to bear to westward too much. The apparition
of this vessel under full steam in the fog surprised him.</p>

<p>Towards two o'clock the weather had become so thick that
the captain was obliged to leave the bridge, and plant himself
near the steersman. The sun had vanished, and all was fog.
A sort of ashy darkness surrounded the ship. They were navigating
in a pale shroud. They could see neither sky nor water.</p>

<p>There was not a breath of wind.</p>

<p>The can of turpentine suspended under the bridge, between
the paddle-boxes, did not even oscillate.</p>

<p>The passengers had become silent.</p>

<p>The Parisian, however, hummed between his teeth the song
of B&eacute;ranger&mdash;"<i>Un jour le bon Dieu s'&eacute;veillant</i>."</p>

<p>One of the St. Malo passengers addressed him:</p>

<p>"You are from Paris, sir?"</p>

<p>"Yes, sir. <i>Il mit la t&ecirc;te &agrave; la fen&ecirc;tre.</i>"</p>

<p>"What do they do in Paris?"</p>

<p>"<i>Leur plan&egrave;te a p&eacute;ri, peut-&ecirc;tre.</i>&mdash;In Paris, sir, things are
going on very badly."</p>

<p>"Then it's the same ashore as at sea."</p>

<p>"It is true; we have an abominable fog here."</p>

<p>"One which might involve us in misfortunes."</p>

<p>The Parisian exclaimed:</p>

<p>"Yes; and why all these misfortunes in the world? Misfortunes!
What are they sent for, these misfortunes? What use
do they serve? There was the fire at the Od&eacute;on theatre, and
immediately a number of families thrown out of employment.
Is that just? I don't know what is your religion, sir, but I am
puzzled by all this."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_145" id="Page_145">[Pg 145]</a></span></p>

<p>"So am I," said the St. Malo man.</p>

<p>"Everything that happens here below," continued the
Parisian, "seems to go wrong. It looks as if Providence, for
some reason, no longer watched over the world."</p>

<p>The St. Malo man scratched the top of his head, like one
making an effort to understand. The Parisian continued:</p>

<p>"Our guardian angel seems to be absent. There ought to
be a decree against celestial absenteeism. He is at his country-house,
and takes no notice of us; so all gets in disorder. It is
evident that this guardian is not in the government; he is
taking holiday, leaving some vicar&mdash;some seminarist angel,
some wretched creature with sparrows'-wings&mdash;to look after
affairs."</p>

<p>Captain Clubin, who had approached the speakers during this
conversation, laid his hand upon the shoulder of the Parisian.</p>

<p>"Silence, sir," he said. "Keep a watch upon your words.
We are upon the sea."</p>

<p>No one spoke again aloud.</p>

<p>After a pause of five minutes, the Guernsey man, who had
heard all this, whispered in the ear of the St. Malo passenger:</p>

<p>"A religious man, our captain."</p>

<p>It did not rain, but all felt their clothing wet. The crew took
no heed of the way they were making; but there was increased
sense of uneasiness. They seemed to have entered into a doleful
region. The fog makes a deep silence on the sea; it calms the
waves, and stifles the wind. In the midst of this silence, the
creaking of the Durande communicated a strange, indefinable
feeling of melancholy and disquietude.</p>

<p>They passed no more vessels. If afar off, in the direction of
Guernsey or in that of St. Malo, any vessels were at sea outside
the fog, the Durande, submerged in the dense cloud, must have
been invisible to them; while her long trail of smoke attached to
nothing, looked like a black comet in the pale sky.</p>

<p>Suddenly Clubin roared out:</p>

<p>"Hang-dog! you have played us an ugly trick. You will
have done us some damage before we are out of this. You
deserve to be put in irons. Get you gone, drunkard!"</p>

<p>And he seized the helm himself.</p>

<p>The steersman, humbled, shrunk away to take part in the
duties forward.</p>

<p>The Guernsey man said:</p>

<p>"That will save us."</p>

<p>The vessel was still making way rapidly.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_146" id="Page_146">[Pg 146]</a></span></p>

<p>Towards three o'clock, the lower part of the fog began to
clear, and they could see the sea again.</p>

<p>A mist can only be dispersed by the sun or the wind. By
the sun is well; by the wind is not so well. At three o'clock
in the afternoon, in the month of February, the sun is always
weak. A return of the wind at this critical point in a voyage
is not desirable. It is often the forerunner of a hurricane.</p>

<p>If there was any breeze, however, it was scarcely perceptible.</p>

<p>Clubin with his eye on the binnacle, holding the tiller and
steering, muttered to himself some words like the following,
which reached the ears of the passengers:</p>

<p>"No time to be lost; that drunken rascal has retarded us."</p>

<p>His visage, meanwhile, was absolutely without expression.</p>

<p>The sea was less calm under the mist. A few waves were distinguishable.
Little patches of light appeared on the surface
of the water. These luminous patches attract the attention of
the sailors. They indicate openings made by the wind in the
overhanging roof of fog. The cloud rose a little, and then sunk
heavier. Sometimes the density was perfect. The ship was
involved in a sort of foggy iceberg. At intervals this terrible
circle opened a little, like a pair of pincers; showed a glimpse of
the horizon, and then closed again.</p>

<p>Meanwhile the Guernsey man, armed with his spyglass, was
standing like a sentinel in the fore part of the vessel.</p>

<p>An opening appeared for a moment, and was blotted out
again.</p>

<p>The Guernsey man returned alarmed.</p>

<p>"Captain Clubin!"</p>

<p>"What is the matter?"</p>

<p>"We are steering right upon the Hanways."</p>

<p>"You are mistaken," said Clubin, coldly.</p>

<p>The Guernsey man insisted.</p>

<p>"I am sure of it."</p>

<p>"Impossible."</p>

<p>"I have just seen the rock in the horizon."</p>

<p>"Where?"</p>

<p>"Out yonder."</p>

<p>"It is the open sea there. Impossible."</p>

<p>And Clubin kept the vessel's head to the point indicated by
the passenger.</p>

<p>The Guernsey man seized his spyglass again.</p>

<p>A moment later he came running aft again.</p>

<p>"Captain!"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_147" id="Page_147">[Pg 147]</a></span></p>

<p>"Well."</p>

<p>"Tack about!"</p>

<p>"Why?"</p>

<p>"I am certain of having seen a very high rock just ahead.
It is the Great Hanway."</p>

<p>"You have seen nothing but a thicker bank of fog."</p>

<p>"It is the Great Hanway. Tack, in the name of Heaven!"</p>

<p>Clubin gave the helm a turn.</p>



<hr style="width: 65%;" />
<h4>V</h4>

<h5>CLUBIN REACHES THE CROWNING-POINT OF GLORY</h5>


<p>A crash was heard. The ripping of a vessel's side upon a
sunken reef in open sea is the most dismal sound of which man
can dream. The Durande's course was stopped short.</p>

<p>Several passengers were knocked down with the shock and
rolled upon the deck.</p>

<p>The Guernsey man raised his hands to heaven:</p>

<p>"We are on the Hanways. I predicted it."</p>

<p>A long cry went up from the ship.</p>

<p>"We are lost."</p>

<p>The voice of Clubin, dry and short, was heard above all.</p>

<p>"No one is lost! Silence!"</p>

<p>The black form of Imbrancam, naked down to the waist,
issued from the hatchway of the engine-room.</p>

<p>The negro said with self-possession:</p>

<p>"The water is gaining, Captain. The fires will soon be out."</p>

<p>The moment was terrible.</p>

<p>The shock was like that of a suicide. If the disaster had
been wilfully sought, it could not have been more terrible.
The Durande had rushed upon her fate as if she had attacked
the rock itself. A point had pierced her sides like a wedge.
More than six feet square of planking had gone; the stem was
broken, the prow smashed, and the gaping hull drank in the
sea with a horrible gulping noise. It was an entrance for wreck
and ruin. The rebound was so violent that it had shattered
the rudder pendants; the rudder itself hung unhinged and
flapping. The rock had driven in her keel. Round about the
vessel nothing was visible except a thick, compact fog, now
become sombre. Night was gathering fast.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_148" id="Page_148">[Pg 148]</a></span></p>

<p>The Durande plunged forward. It was like the effort of a
horse pierced through the entrails by the horns of a bull. All
was over with her.</p>

<p>Tangrouille was sobered. Nobody is drunk in the moment
of a shipwreck. He came down to the quarter-deck, went up
again, and said:</p>

<p>"Captain, the water is gaining rapidly in the hold. In ten
minutes it will be up to the scupper-holes."</p>

<p>The passengers ran about bewildered, wringing their hands,
leaning over the bulwarks, looking down in the engine-room,
and making every other sort of useless movement in their
terror. The tourist had fainted.</p>

<p>Clubin made a sign with his hand, and they were silent. He
questioned Imbrancam:</p>

<p>"How long will the engines work yet?"</p>

<p>"Five or six minutes, sir."</p>

<p>Then he interrogated the Guernsey passenger:</p>

<p>"I was at the helm. You saw the rock. On which bank of
the Hanways are we?"</p>

<p>"On the Mauve. Just now, in the opening in the fog, I saw
it clearly."</p>

<p>"If we're on the Mauve," remarked Clubin, "we have the
Great Hanway on the port side, and the Little Hanway on the
starboard bow; we are a mile from the shore."</p>

<p>The crew and passengers listened, fixing their eyes anxiously
and attentively on the captain.</p>

<p>Lightening the ship would have been of no avail, and indeed
would have been hardly possible. In order to throw the cargo
overboard, they would have had to open the ports and increase
the chance of the water entering. To cast anchor would have
been equally useless: they were stuck fast. Besides, with
such a bottom for the anchor to drag, the chain would probably
have fouled. The engines not being injured, and being workable
while the fires were not extinguished, that is to say, for a
few minutes longer, they could have made an effort, by help of
steam and her paddles, to turn her astern off the rocks; but if
they had succeeded, they must have settled down immediately.
The rock, indeed, in some degree stopped the breach and prevented
the entrance of the water. It was at least an obstacle;
while the hole once freed, it would have been impossible to stop
the leak or to work the pumps. To snatch a poniard from a
wound in the heart is instant death to the victim. To free the
vessel from the rock would have been simply to founder.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_149" id="Page_149">[Pg 149]</a></span></p>

<p>The cattle, on whom the water was gaining in the hold, were
lowing piteously.</p>

<p>Clubin issued orders:</p>

<p>"Launch the long boat."</p>

<p>Imbrancam and Tangrouille rushed to execute the order.
The boat was eased from her fastenings. The rest of the crew
looked on stupefied.</p>

<p>"All hands to assist," cried Clubin.</p>

<p>This time all obeyed.</p>

<p>Clubin, self-possessed, continued to issue his orders in that
old sea dialect, which French sailors of the present day would
scarcely understand.</p>

<p>"Haul in a rope&mdash;Get a cable if the capstan does not work&mdash;Stop
heaving&mdash;Keep the blocks clear&mdash;Lower away there&mdash;- Bring
her down stern and bows&mdash;Now then, all together, lads&mdash;Take
care she don't lower stern first&mdash;There's too much
strain on there&mdash;Hold the laniard of the stock tackle&mdash;Stand
by there!"</p>

<p>The long boat was launched.</p>

<p>At that instant the Durande's paddles stopped, and the
smoke ceased&mdash;the fires were drowned.</p>

<p>The passengers slipped down the ladder, and dropped
hurriedly into the long boat. Imbrancam lifted the fainting
tourist, carried him into the boat, and then boarded the vessel
again.</p>

<p>The crew made a rush after the passengers&mdash;the cabin boy
was knocked down, and the others were trampling upon him.</p>

<p>Imbrancam barred their passage.</p>

<p>"Not a man before the lad," he said.</p>

<p>He kept off the sailors with his two black arms, picked up
the boy, and handed him down to the Guernsey man, who was
standing upright in the boat.</p>

<p>The boy saved, Imbrancam made way for the others, and
said:</p>

<p>"Pass on!"</p>

<p>Meanwhile Clubin had entered his cabin, and had made up
a parcel containing the ship's papers and instruments. He
took the compass from the binnacle, handed the papers and
instruments to Imbrancam, and the compass to Tangrouille,
and said to them:</p>

<p>"Get aboard the boat."</p>

<p>They obeyed. The crew had taken their places before them.</p>

<p>"Now," cried Clubin, "push off."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_150" id="Page_150">[Pg 150]</a></span></p>

<p>A cry arose from the long boat.</p>

<p>"What about yourself, Captain?"</p>

<p>"I will remain here."</p>

<p>Shipwrecked people have little time to deliberate, and not
much for indulging in tender feeling. Those who were in the
long boat and in comparative safety, however, felt an emotion
which was not altogether selfish. All the voices shouted
together:</p>

<p>"Come with us, Captain."</p>

<p>"No: I remain here."</p>

<p>The Guernsey man, who had some experience of the sea,
replied:</p>

<p>"Listen to me, Captain. You are wrecked on the Hanways.
Swimming, you would have only a mile to cross to Pleinmont.
In a boat you can only land at Rocquaine, which is two miles.
There are breakers, and there is the fog. Our boat will not get
to Rocquaine in less than two hours. It will be a dark night.
The sea is rising&mdash;the wind getting fresh. A squall is at hand.
We are now ready to return and bring you off; but if bad
weather comes on, that will be out of our power. You are lost
if you stay there. Come with us."</p>

<p>The Parisian chimed in:</p>

<p>"The long boat is full&mdash;too full, it is true, and one more will
certainly be one too many; but we are thirteen&mdash;a bad number
for the boat, and it is better to overload her with a man than
to take an ominous number. Come, Captain."</p>

<p>Tangrouille added:</p>

<p>"It was all my fault&mdash;not yours, Captain. It isn't fair for
you to be left behind."</p>

<p>"I have decided to remain here," said Clubin. "The vessel
must inevitably go to pieces in the tempest to-night. I won't
leave her. When the ship is lost, the captain is already dead.
People shall not say I didn't do my duty to the end. Tangrouille,
I forgive you."</p>

<p>Then, folding his arms, he cried:</p>

<p>"Obey orders! Let go the rope, and push off."</p>

<p>The long-boat swayed to and fro. Imbrancam had seized
the tiller. All the hands which were not rowing were raised
towards the captain&mdash;every mouth cried, "Cheers for Captain
Clubin."</p>

<p>"An admirable fellow!" said the American.</p>

<p>"Sir," replied the Guernsey man, "he is one of the worthiest
seamen afloat."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_151" id="Page_151">[Pg 151]</a></span></p>

<p>Tangrouille shed tears.</p>

<p>"If I had had the courage," he said, "I would have stayed
with him."</p>

<p>The long-boat pushed away, and was lost in the fog.</p>

<p>Nothing more was visible.</p>

<p>The beat of the oars grew fainter, and died away.</p>

<p>Clubin remained alone.</p>



<hr style="width: 65%;" />
<h4>VI</h4>

<h5>THE INTERIOR OF AN ABYSS SUDDENLY REVEALED</h5>


<p>When Clubin found himself upon this rock, in the midst of
the fog and the wide waters, far from all sound of human life,
left for dead, alone with the tide rising around him, and night
settling down rapidly, he experienced a feeling of profound
satisfaction.</p>

<p>He had succeeded.</p>

<p>His dream was realised. The acceptance which he had
drawn upon destiny at so long a date had fallen due at last.</p>

<p>With him, to be abandoned there was, in fact, to be saved.</p>

<p>He was on the Hanways, one mile from the shore; he had
about him seventy-five thousand francs. Never was shipwreck
more scientifically accomplished. Nothing had failed. It is
true, everything had been foreseen. From his early years
Clubin had had an idea to stake his reputation for honesty at
life's gaming-table; to pass as a man of high honour, and to
make that reputation his fulcrum for other things; to bide his
time, to watch his opportunity; not to grope about blindly, but
to seize boldly; to venture on one great stroke, only one; and
to end by sweeping off the stakes, leaving fools behind him to
gape and wonder. What stupid rogues fail in twenty times, he
meant to accomplish at the first blow; and while they terminated
a career on the gallows, he intended to finish with a
fortune. The meeting with Rantaine had been a new light to
him. He had immediately laid his plan&mdash;to compel Rantaine
to disgorge; to frustrate his threatened revelations by disappearing;
to make the world believe him dead, the best of all
modes of concealment; and for this purpose to wreck the
Durande. The shipwreck was necessary to his designs. Lastly,
he had the satisfaction of vanishing, leaving behind him a great
renown, the crowning point of his existence. As he stood<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_152" id="Page_152">[Pg 152]</a></span>
meditating on these things amid the wreck, Clubin might have
been taken for some demon in a pleasant mood.</p>

<p>He had lived a lifetime for the sake of this one minute.</p>

<p>His whole exterior was expressive of the two words,
"At last." A devilish tranquillity reigned in that sallow
countenance.</p>

<p>His dull eye, the depth of which generally seemed to be impenetrable,
became clear and terrible. The inward fire of his
dark spirit was reflected there.</p>

<p>Man's inner nature, like that external world about him, has
its electric phenomena. An idea is like a meteor; at the
moment of its coming, the confused meditations which preceded
it open a way, and a spark flashes forth. Bearing within oneself
a power of evil, feeling an inward prey, brings to some
minds a pleasure which is like a sparkle of light. The triumph
of an evil purpose brightens up their visages. The success
of certain cunning combinations, the attainment of certain
cherished objects, the gratification of certain ferocious instincts,
will manifest themselves in sinister but luminous appearances
in their eyes. It is like a threatening dawn, a gleam of joy
drawn out of the heart of a storm. These flashes are generated
in the conscience in its states of cloud and darkness.</p>

<p>Some such signs were then exhibiting themselves in the
pupils of those eyes. They were like nothing else that can be
seen shining either above or here below.</p>

<p>All Clubin's pent-up wickedness found full vent now.</p>

<p>He gazed into the vast surrounding darkness, and indulged
in a low, irrepressible laugh, full of sinister significance.</p>

<p>He was rich at last! rich at last!</p>

<p>The unknown future of his life was at length unfolding; the
problem was solved.</p>

<p>Clubin had plenty of time before him. The sea was rising,
and consequently sustained the Durande, and even raised her
at last a little. The vessel kept firmly in its place among the
rocks; there was no danger of her foundering. Besides, he
determined to give the long-boat time to get clear off&mdash;to go
to the bottom, perhaps. Clubin hoped it might.</p>

<p>Erect upon the deck of the shipwrecked vessel, he folded his
arms, apparently enjoying that forlorn situation in the dark
night.</p>

<p>Hypocrisy had weighed upon this man for thirty years. He
had been evil itself, yoked with probity for a mate. He detested
virtue with the feeling of one who has been trapped into a hate<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_153" id="Page_153">[Pg 153]</a></span>ful
match. He had always had a wicked premeditation; from
the time when he attained manhood he had worn the cold and
rigid armour of appearances. Underneath this was the demon
of self. He had lived like a bandit in the disguise of an honest
citizen. He had been the soft-spoken pirate; the bond-slave of
honesty. He had been confined in garments of innocence, as
in oppressive mummy cloths; had worn those angel wings
which the devils find so wearisome in their fallen state. He
had been overloaded with public esteem. It is arduous passing
for a shining light. To preserve a perpetual equilibrium amid
these difficulties, to think evil, to speak goodness&mdash;here had
been indeed a labour. Such a life of contradictions had been
Clubin's fate. It had been his lot&mdash;not the less onerous
because he had chosen it himself&mdash;to preserve a good exterior,
to be always presentable, to foam in secret, to smile while grinding
his teeth. Virtue presented itself to his mind as something
stifling. He had felt, sometimes, as if he could have gnawed
those finger-ends which he was compelled to keep before his
mouth.</p>

<p>To live a life which is a perpetual falsehood is to suffer unknown
tortures. To be premeditating indefinitely a diabolical
act, to have to assume austerity; to brood over secret infamy
seasoned with outward good fame; to have continually to put
the world off the scent; to present a perpetual illusion, and
never to be one's self&mdash;is a burdensome task. To be constrained
to dip the brush in that dark stuff within, to produce with it a
portrait of candour; to fawn, to restrain and suppress one's
self, to be ever on the <i>qui vive</i>; watching without ceasing to
mask latent crimes with a face of healthy innocence: to transform
deformity into beauty; to fashion wickedness into the
shape of perfection; to tickle, as it were, with the point of a
dagger, to put sugar with poison, to keep a bridle on every
gesture and keep a watch over every tone, not even to have a
countenance of one's own&mdash;what can be harder, what can be
more torturing. The odiousness of hypocrisy is obscurely felt
by the hypocrite himself. Drinking perpetually of his own imposture
is nauseating. The sweetness of tone which cunning
gives to scoundrelism is repugnant to the scoundrel compelled
to have it ever in the mouth; and there are moments of disgust
when villainy seems on the point of vomiting its secret. To
have to swallow that bitter saliva is horrible. Add to this
picture his profound pride. There are strange moments in the
history of such a life, when hypocrisy worships itself. There<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_154" id="Page_154">[Pg 154]</a></span>
is always an inordinate egotism in roguery. The worm has the
same mode of gliding along as the serpent, and the same manner
of raising its head. The treacherous villain is the despot curbed
and restrained, and only able to attain his ends by resigning
himself to play a secondary part. He is summed-up littleness
capable of enormities. The perfect hypocrite is a Titan dwarfed.</p>

<p>Clubin had a genuine faith that he had been ill-used. Why
had not he the right to have been born rich? It was from no
fault of his that it was otherwise. Deprived as he had been of
the higher enjoyments of life, why had he been forced to labour&mdash;in
other words, to cheat, to betray, to destroy? Why had
he been condemned to this torture of flattering, cringing, fawning;
to be always labouring for men's respect and friendship,
and to wear night and day a face which was not his own? To
be compelled to dissimulate was in itself to submit to a hardship.
Men hate those to whom they have to lie. But now the
disguise was at an end. Clubin had taken his revenge.</p>

<p>On whom? On all! On everything!</p>

<p>Lethierry had never done him any but good services; so
much the greater his spleen. He was revenged upon Lethierry.</p>

<p>He was revenged upon all those in whose presence he had felt
constraint. It was his turn to be free now. Whoever had
thought well of him was his enemy. He had felt himself their
captive long enough.</p>

<p>Now he had broken through his prison walls. His escape
was accomplished. That which would be regarded as his death,
would be, in fact, the beginning of his life. He was about to
begin the world again. The true Clubin had stripped off the
false. In one hour the spell was broken. He had kicked
Rantaine into space; overwhelmed Lethierry in ruin; human
justice in night, and opinion in error. He had cast off all
humanity; blotted out the whole world.</p>

<p>The name of God, that word of three letters, occupied his
mind but little.</p>

<p>He had passed for a religious man. What was he now?</p>

<p>There are secret recesses in hypocrisy; or rather the hypocrite
is himself a secret recess.</p>

<p>When Clubin found himself quite alone, that cavern in which
his soul had so long lain hidden, was opened. He enjoyed a
moment of delicious liberty. He revelled for that moment in
the open air. He gave vent to himself in one long breath.</p>

<p>The depth of evil within him revealed itself in his visage. He
expanded, as it were, with diabolical joy. The features of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_155" id="Page_155">[Pg 155]</a></span>
Rantaine by the side of his at that moment would have shown
like the innocent expression of a new-born child.</p>

<p>What a deliverance was this plucking off of the old mask.
His conscience rejoiced in the sight of its own monstrous nakedness,
as it stepped forth to take its hideous bath of wickedness.
The long restraint of men's respect seemed to have given him
a peculiar relish for infamy. He experienced a certain lascivious
enjoyment of wickedness. In those frightful moral abysses so
rarely sounded, such natures find atrocious delights&mdash;they are
the obscenities of rascality. The long-endured insipidity of the
false reputation for virtue gave him a sort of appetite for shame.
In this state of mind men disdain their fellows so much that
they even long for the contempt which marks the ending of
their unmerited homage. They feel a satisfaction in the freedom
of degradation, and cast an eye of envy at baseness, sitting at
its ease, clothed in ignominy and shame. Eyes that are forced
to droop modestly are familiar with these stealthy glances at
sin. From Messalina to Marie-Alacoque the distance is not
great. Remember the histories of La Cadi&egrave;re and the nun of
Louviers. Clubin, too, had worn the veil. Effrontery had
always been the object of his secret admiration. He envied the
painted courtesan, and the face of bronze of the professional
ruffian. He felt a pride in surpassing her in artifices, and a
disgust for the trick of passing for a saint. He had been the
Tantalus of cynicism. And now, upon this rock, in the midst
of this solitude, he could be frank and open. A bold plunge
into wickedness&mdash;what a voluptuous sense of relief it brought
with it. All the delights known to the fallen angels are summed
up in this; and Clubin felt them in that moment. The long
arrears of dissimulations were paid at last. Hypocrisy is an
investment; the devil reimburses it. Clubin gave himself up
to the intoxication of the idea, having no longer any eye upon
him but that of Heaven. He whispered within himself, "I
am a scoundrel," and felt profoundly satisfied.</p>

<p>Never had human conscience experienced such a full tide of
emotions.</p>

<p>He was glad to be entirely alone, and yet would not have
been sorry to have had some one there. He would have been
pleased to have had a witness of his fiendish joy; gratified to
have had opportunity of saying to society, "Thou fool."</p>

<p>The solitude, indeed, assured his triumph; but it made it
less.</p>

<p>He was not himself to be spectator of his glory. Even to be<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_156" id="Page_156">[Pg 156]</a></span>
in the pillory has its satisfaction, for everybody can see your
infamy.</p>

<p>To compel the crowd to stand and gape is, in fact, an exercise
of power. A malefactor standing upon a platform in the market-place,
with the collar of iron around his neck, is master of all
the glances which he constrains the multitude to turn towards
him. There is a pedestal on yonder scaffolding. To be there&mdash;the
centre of universal observation&mdash;is not this, too, a
triumph? To direct the pupil of the public eye, is this not
another form of supremacy? For those who worship an ideal
wickedness, opprobrium is glory. It is a height from whence
they can look down; a superiority at least of some kind; a
pre-eminence in which they can display themselves royally. A
gallows standing high in the gaze of all the world is not without
some analogy with a throne. To be exposed is, at least, to be
seen and studied.</p>

<p>Herein we have evidently the key to the wicked reigns of
history. Nero burning Rome, Louis Quatorze treacherously
seizing the Palatinate, the Prince Regent killing Napoleon
slowly, Nicholas strangling Poland before the eyes of the
civilised world, may have felt something akin to Clubin's joy.
Universal execration derives a grandeur even from its vastness.</p>

<p>To be unmasked is a humiliation; but to unmask one's self
is a triumph. There is an intoxication in the position, an
insolent satisfaction in its contempt for appearances, a flaunting
insolence in the nakedness with which it affronts the decencies
of life.</p>

<p>These ideas in a hypocrite appear to be inconsistent, but in
reality are not. All infamy is logical. Honey is gall. A
character like that of Escobar has some affinity with that of
the Marquis de Sade. In proof, we have L&eacute;otade. A hypocrite,
being a personification of vice complete, includes in himself the
two poles of perversity. Priest-like on one side, he resembles
the courtesan on the other. The sex of his diabolical nature is
double. It engenders and transforms itself. Would you see
it in its pleasing shape? Look at it. Would you see it horrible?
Turn it round.</p>

<p>All this multitude of ideas was floating confusedly in Clubin's
mind. He analysed them little, but he felt them much.</p>

<p>A whirlwind of flakes of fire borne up from the pit of hell
into the dark night, might fitly represent the wild succession of
ideas in his soul.</p>

<p>Clubin remained thus some time pensive and motionless. He<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_157" id="Page_157">[Pg 157]</a></span>
looked down upon his cast-off virtues as a serpent on its old skin.</p>

<p>Everybody had had faith in that virtue; even he himself a
little.</p>

<p>He laughed again.</p>

<p>Society would imagine him dead, while he was rich. They
would believe him drowned, while he was saved. What a
capital trick to have played off on the stupidity of the world.</p>

<p>Rantaine, too, was included in that universal stupidity.
Clubin thought of Rantaine with an unmeasured disdain: the
disdain of the marten for the tiger. The trick had failed with
Rantaine; it had succeeded with him.&mdash;Rantaine had slunk
away abashed; Clubin disappeared in triumph. He had substituted
himself for Rantaine&mdash;stepped between him and his
mistress, and carried off her favours.</p>

<p>As to the future, he had no well-settled plan. In the iron
tobacco-box in his girdle he had the three bank-notes. The
knowledge of that fact was enough. He would change his name.
There are plenty of countries where sixty thousand francs are
equal to six hundred thousand. It would be no bad solution
to go to one of those corners of the world, and live there honestly
on the money disgorged by that scoundrel Rantaine. To
speculate, to embark in commerce, to increase his capital, to
become really a millionaire, that, too, would be no bad termination
to his career.</p>

<p>For example. The great trade in coffee from Costa Rica
was just beginning to be developed. There were heaps of gold
to be made. He would see.</p>

<p>It was of little consequence. He had plenty of time to think
of it. The hardest part of the enterprise was accomplished.
Stripping Rantaine, and disappearing with the wreck of the
Durande, were the grand achievements. All the rest was for
him simple. No obstacle henceforth was likely to stop him.
He had nothing more to fear. He could reach the shore with
certainty by swimming. He would land at Pleinmont in the
darkness; ascend the cliffs; go straight to the old haunted
house; enter it easily by the help of the knotted cord, concealed
beforehand in a crevice of the rocks; would find in the house
his travelling-bag containing provisions and dry clothing.
There he could await his opportunity. He had information. A
week would not pass without the Spanish smugglers, Blasquito
probably, touching at Pleinmont. For a few guineas he would
obtain a passage, not to Torbay&mdash;as he had said to Blasco, to
confound conjecture, and put him off the scent&mdash;but to Bilbao<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_158" id="Page_158">[Pg 158]</a></span>
or Passages. Thence he could get to Vera Cruz or New Orleans.
But the moment had come for taking to the water. The long
boat was far enough by this time. An hour's swimming was
nothing for Clubin. The distance of a mile only separated him
from the land, as he was on the Hanways.</p>

<p>At this point in Clubin's meditations, a clear opening appeared
in the fog bank, the formidable Douvres rocks stood before him.</p>



<hr style="width: 65%;" />
<h4>VII</h4>

<h5>AN UNEXPECTED DENOUEMENT</h5>


<p>Clubin, haggard, stared straight ahead.</p>

<p>It was indeed those terrible and solitary rocks.</p>

<p>It was impossible to mistake their misshapen outlines. The
two twin Douvres reared their forms aloft, hideously revealing
the passage between them, like a snare, a cut-throat in ambush
in the ocean.</p>

<p>They were quite close to him. The fog, like an artful
accomplice, had hidden them until now.</p>

<p>Clubin had mistaken his course in the dense mist. Notwithstanding
all his pains, he had experienced the fate of two
other great navigators, Gonzalez who discovered Cape Blanco,
and Fernandez, who discovered Cape Verd. The fog had bewildered
him. It had seemed to him, in the confidence of his
seamanship, to favour admirably the execution of his project;
but it had its perils. In veering to westward he had lost his
reckoning. The Guernsey man, who fancied that he recognised
the Hanways, had decided his fate, and determined him to give
the final turn to the tiller. Clubin had never doubted that he
had steered the vessel on the Hanways.</p>

<p>The Durande, stove in by one of the sunken rocks of the
group, was only separated from the two Douvres by a few
cables' lengths.</p>

<p>At two hundred fathoms further was a massive block of
granite. Upon the steep sides of this rock were some hollows
and small projections, which might help a man to climb. The
square corners of those rude walls at right angles indicated the
existence of a plateau on the summit.</p>

<p>It was the height known by the name of "The Man."</p>

<p>"The Man Rock" rose even higher still than the Douvres.
Its platform commanded a view over their two inaccessible<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_159" id="Page_159">[Pg 159]</a></span>
peaks. This platform, crumbling at its edges, had every kind
of irregularity of shape. No place more desolate or more
dangerous could be imagined. The hardly perceptible waves
of the open sea lapped gently against the square sides of that
dark enormous mass; a sort of rest-place for the vast spectres
of the sea and darkness.</p>

<p>All around was calm. Scarcely a breath of air or a ripple.
The mind guessed darkly the hidden life and vastness of the
depths beneath that quiet surface.</p>

<p>Clubin had often seen the Douvres from afar.</p>

<p>He satisfied himself that he was indeed there.</p>

<p>He could not doubt it.</p>

<p>A sudden and hideous change of affairs. The Douvres
instead of the Hanways. Instead of one mile, five leagues of
sea! The Douvres to the solitary shipwrecked sailor is the
visible and palpable presence of death, the extinction of all hope
of reaching land.</p>

<p>Clubin shuddered. He had placed himself voluntarily in
the jaws of destruction. No other refuge was left to him than
"The Man Rock." It was probable that a tempest would arise
in the night, and that the long-boat, overloaded as she was,
would sink. No news of the shipwreck then would come to
land. It would not even be known that Clubin had been left
upon the Douvres. No prospect was now before him but death
from cold and hunger. His seventy-five thousand francs would
not purchase him a mouthful of bread. All the scaffolding he
had built up had brought him only to this snare. He alone
was the laborious architect of this crowning catastrophe. No
resource&mdash;no possible escape; his triumph transformed into a
fatal precipice. Instead of deliverance, a prison; instead of the
long prosperous future, agony. In the glance of an eye, in the
moment which the lightning occupies in passing, all his construction
had fallen into ruins. The paradise dreamed of by
this demon had changed to its true form of a sepulchre.</p>

<p>Meanwhile there had sprung up a movement in the air. The
wind was rising. The fog, shaken, driven in, and rent asunder,
moved towards the horizon in vast shapeless masses. As
quickly as it had disappeared before, the sea became once more
visible.</p>

<p>The cattle, more and more invaded by the waters, continued
to bellow in the hold.</p>

<p>Night was approaching, probably bringing with it a storm.</p>

<p>The Durande, filling slowly with the rising tide, swung from<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_160" id="Page_160">[Pg 160]</a></span>
right to left, then from left to right, and began to turn upon the
rock as upon a pivot.</p>

<p>The moment could be foreseen when a wave must move her
from her fixed position, and probably roll her over on her beam-ends.</p>

<p>It was not even so dark as at the instant of her striking the
rocks. Though the day was more advanced, it was possible to
see more clearly. The fog had carried away with it some part
of the darkness. The west was without a cloud. Twilight
brings a pale sky. Its vast reflection glimmered on the sea.</p>

<p>The Durande's bows were lower than her stern. Her stern
was, in fact, almost out of the water. Clubin mounted on the
taffrail, and fixed his eyes on the horizon.</p>

<p>It is the nature of hypocrisy to be sanguine. The hypocrite
is one who waits his opportunity. Hypocrisy is nothing, in
fact, but a horrible hopefulness; the very foundation of its
revolting falsehood is composed of that virtue transformed into
a vice.</p>

<p>Strange contradiction. There is a certain trustfulness in
hypocrisy. The hypocrite confides in some power, unrevealed
even to himself, which permits the course of evil.</p>

<p>Clubin looked far and wide over the ocean.</p>

<p>The position was desperate, but that evil spirit did not yet
despair.</p>

<p>He knew that after the fog, vessels that had been lying-to or
riding at anchor would resume their course; and he thought
that perhaps one would pass within the horizon.</p>

<p>And, as he had anticipated, a sail appeared.</p>

<p>She was coming from the east and steering towards the west.</p>

<p>As it approached the cut of the vessel became visible. It
had but one mast, and was schooner-rigged. Her bowsprit
was almost horizontal. It was a cutter.</p>

<p>Before a half-hour she must pass not very far from the
Douvres.</p>

<p>Clubin said within himself, "I am saved!"</p>

<p>In a moment like this, a man thinks at first of nothing but
his life.</p>

<p>The cutter was probably a strange craft. Might it not be
one of the smuggling vessels on its way to Pleinmont? It
might even be Blasquito himself. In that case, not only life,
but fortune, would be saved; and the accident of the Douvres,
by hastening the conclusion, by dispensing with the necessity
for concealment in the haunted house, and by bringing the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_161" id="Page_161">[Pg 161]</a></span>
adventure to a d&eacute;nouement at sea, would be turned into a
happy incident.</p>

<p>All his original confidence of success returned fanatically to
his sombre mind.</p>

<p>It is remarkable how easily knaves are persuaded that they
deserve to succeed.</p>

<p>There was but one course to take.</p>

<p>The Durande, entangled among the rocks, necessarily mingled
her outline with them, and confounded herself with their
irregular shapes, among which she formed only one more mass
of lines. Thus become indistinct and lost, she would not suffice,
in the little light which remained, to attract the attention of
the crew of the vessel which was approaching.</p>

<p>But a human form standing up, black against the pale twilight
of the sky, upon "the Man Rock," and making signs of distress,
would doubtless be perceived, and the cutter would then send
a boat to take the shipwrecked man aboard.</p>

<p>"The Man" was only two hundred fathoms off. To reach it
by swimming was simple, to climb it easy.</p>

<p>There was not a minute to lose.</p>

<p>The bows of the Durande being low between the rocks, it was
from the height of the poop where Clubin stood that he had to
jump into the sea. He began by taking a sounding, and discovered
that there was great depth just under the stern of the
wrecked vessel. The microscopic shells of foraminifera which
the adhesive matter on the lead-line brought up were intact,
indicating the presence of very hollow caves under the rocks,
in which the water was tranquil, however great the agitation of
the surface.</p>

<p>He undressed, leaving his clothing on the deck. He knew
that he would be able to get clothing when aboard the cutter.</p>

<p>He retained nothing but his leather belt.</p>

<p>As soon as he was stripped he placed his hand upon this belt,
buckled it more securely, felt for the iron tobacco-box, took a
rapid survey in the direction which he would have to follow
among the breakers and the waves to gain "the Man Rock;"
then precipitating himself head first, he plunged into the sea.</p>

<p>As he dived from a height, he plunged heavily.</p>

<p>He sank deep in the water, touched the bottom, skirted for a
moment the submarine rocks, then struck out to regain the
surface.</p>

<p>At that moment he felt himself seized by one foot.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_162" id="Page_162">[Pg 162]</a></span></p>



<hr style="width: 65%;" />
<h3>BOOK VII</h3>

<h4>THE DANGER OF OPENING A BOOK AT RANDOM</h4>

<h4>I</h4>

<h5>THE PEARL AT THE FOOT OF THE PRECIPICE</h5>


<p>A few moments after his short colloquy with Sieur Landoys,
Gilliatt was at St. Sampson.</p>

<p>He was troubled, even anxious. What could it be that had
happened.</p>

<p>There was a murmur in St. Sampson like that of a startled
hive. Everybody was at his door. The women were talking
loud. There were people who seemed relating some occurrence
and who were gesticulating. A group had gathered around
them. The words could be heard, "What a misfortune!"
Some faces wore a smile.</p>

<p>Gilliatt interrogated no one. It was not in his nature to ask
questions. He was, moreover, too much moved to speak to
strangers. He had no confidence in rumours. He preferred to
go direct to the Brav&eacute;es.</p>

<p>His anxiety was so great that he was not even deterred from
entering the house.</p>

<p>The door of the great lower room opening upon the Quay,
moreover, stood quite open. There was a swarm of men and
women on the threshold. Everybody was going in, and Gilliatt
went with the rest.</p>

<p>Entering he found Sieur Landoys standing near the doorposts.</p>

<p>"You have heard, no doubt, of this event?"</p>

<p>"No."</p>

<p>"I did not like to call it out to you on the road. It makes
me like a bird of evil omen."</p>

<p>"What has happened?"</p>

<p>"The Durande is lost."</p>

<p>There was a crowd in the great room.</p>

<p>The various groups spoke low, like people in a sick chamber.</p>

<p>The assemblage, which consisted of neighbours, the first<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_163" id="Page_163">[Pg 163]</a></span>
comers, curious to learn the news, huddled together near the
door with a sort of timidity, leaving clear the bottom of the
room, where appeared D&eacute;ruchette sitting and in tears. Mess
Lethierry stood beside her.</p>

<p>His back was against the wall at the end of the room. His
sailor's cap came down over his eyebrows. A lock of grey hair
hung upon his cheek. He said nothing. His arms were
motionless; he seemed scarcely to breathe. He had the look
of something lifeless placed against the wall.</p>

<p>It was easy to see in his aspect a man whose life had been
crushed within him. The Durande being gone, Lethierry had
no longer any object in his existence. He had had a being on
the sea; that being had suddenly foundered. What could he
do now? Rise every morning: go to sleep every night. Never
more to await the coming of the Durande; to see her get under
way, or steer again into the port. What was a remainder of
existence without object? To drink, to eat, and then?&mdash;He
had crowned the labours of his life by a masterpiece: won by
his devotion a new step in civilisation. The step was lost; the
masterpiece destroyed. To live a few vacant years longer!
where would be the good? Henceforth nothing was left for
him to do. At his age men do not begin life anew. Besides,
he was ruined. Poor old man!</p>

<p>D&eacute;ruchette, sitting near him on a chair and weeping, held
one of Mess Lethierry's hands in hers. Her hands were joined:
his hand was clenched fast. It was the sign of the shade of
difference in their two sorrows. In joined hands there is still
some token of hope, in the clenched fist none.</p>

<p>Mess Lethierry gave up his arm to her, and let her do with it
what she pleased. He was passive. Struck down by a thunderbolt,
he had scarcely a spark of life left within him.</p>

<p>There is a degree of overwhelmment which abstracts the mind
entirely from its fellowship with man. The forms which come
and go within your room become confused and indistinct. They
pass by, even touch you, but never really come near you. You
are far away; inaccessible to them, as they to you. The intensities
of joy and despair differ in this. In despair, we take
cognisance of the world only as something dim and afar off:
we are insensible to the things before our eyes; we lose the
feeling of our own existence. It is in vain, at such times, that
we are flesh and blood; our consciousness of life is none the
more real: we are become, even to ourselves, nothing but a
dream.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_164" id="Page_164">[Pg 164]</a></span></p>

<p>Mess Lethierry's gaze indicated that he had reached this state
of absorption.</p>

<p>The various groups were whispering together. They exchanged
information as far as they had gathered it. This was
the substance of their news.</p>

<p>The Durande had been wrecked the day before in the fog on
the Douvres, about an hour before sunset. With the exception
of the captain, who refused to leave his vessel, the crew and
passengers had all escaped in the long-boat. A squall from
the south-west springing up as the fog had cleared, had almost
wrecked them a second time, and had carried them out to sea
beyond Guernsey. In the night they had had the good fortune
to meet with the <i>Cashmere</i>, which had taken them aboard and
landed them at St. Peter's Port. The disaster was entirely the
fault of the steersman Tangrouille, who was in prison. Clubin
had behaved nobly.</p>

<p>The pilots, who had mustered in great force, pronounced the
words "The Douvres" with a peculiar emphasis. "A dreary
half-way house that," said one.</p>

<p>A compass and a bundle of registers and memorandum-books
lay on the table; they were doubtless the compass of the
Durande and the ship's papers, handed by Clubin to Imbrancam
and Tangrouille at the moment of the departure of the long-boat.
They were the evidences of the magnificent self-abnegation
of that man who had busied himself with saving these
documents even in the presence of death itself&mdash;a little incident
full of moral grandeur; an instance of sublime self-forgetfulness
never to be forgotten.</p>

<p>They were unanimous in their admiration of Clubin; unanimous
also in believing him to be saved after all. The <i>Shealtiel</i>
cutter had arrived some hours after the <i>Cashmere</i>. It was this
vessel which had brought the last items of intelligence. She
had passed four-and-twenty hours in the same waters as the
Durande. She had lain-to in the fog, and tacked about during
the squall. The captain of the <i>Shealtiel</i> was present among
the company.</p>

<p>This captain had just finished his narrative to Lethierry as
Gilliatt entered. The narrative was a true one. Towards the
morning, the storm having abated, and the wind becoming
manageable, the captain of the <i>Shealtiel</i> had heard the lowing
of oxen in the open sea. This rural sound in the midst of the
waves had naturally startled him. He steered in that direction,
and perceived the Durande among the Douvres. The sea<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_165" id="Page_165">[Pg 165]</a></span>
had sufficiently subsided for him to approach. He hailed the
wreck; the bellowing of the cattle was the sole reply. The
captain of the <i>Shealtiel</i> was confident that there was no one
aboard the Durande. The wreck still held together well, and
notwithstanding the violence of the squall, Clubin could have
passed the night there. He was not the man to leave go his
hold very easily. He was not there, however; and therefore
he must have been rescued. It was certain that several sloops
and luggers, from Granville and St. Malo, must, after laying-to
in the fog on the previous evening, have passed pretty near the
rocks. It was evident that one of these had taken Clubin
aboard. It was to be remembered that the long-boat of the
Durande was full when it left the unlucky vessel; that it was
certain to encounter great risks; that another man aboard
would have overloaded her, and perhaps caused her to founder;
and that these circumstances had no doubt weighed with Clubin
in coming to his determination to remain on the wreck. His
duty, however, once fulfilled, and a vessel at hand, Clubin
assuredly would not have scrupled to avail himself of its aid.
A hero is not necessarily an idiot. The idea of a suicide was
absurd in connection with a man of Clubin's irreproachable
character. The culprit, too, was Tangrouille, not Clubin. All
this was conclusive. The captain of the <i>Shealtiel</i> was evidently
right, and everybody expected to see Clubin reappear very
shortly. There was a project abroad to carry him through the
town in triumph.</p>

<p>Two things appeared certain from the narrative of the
captain: Clubin was saved, the Durande lost.</p>

<p>As regarded the Durande, there was nothing for it but to
accept the fact; the catastrophe was irremediable. The captain
of the <i>Shealtiel</i> had witnessed the last moments of the wreck.
The sharp rock on which the vessel had been, as it were, nailed,
had held her fast during the night, and resisted the shock of the
tempest as if reluctant to part with its prey; but in the morning,
at the moment when the captain of the <i>Shealtiel</i> had convinced
himself that there was no one aboard to be saved, and
was about to wear off again, one of those seas which are like the
last angry blows of a tempest had struck her. The wave lifted
her violently from her place, and with the swiftness and directness
of an arrow from a bow had thrown her against the two
Douvres rocks. "An infernal crash was heard," said the
captain. The vessel, lifted by the wave to a certain height, had
plunged between the two rocks up to her midship frame. She<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_166" id="Page_166">[Pg 166]</a></span>
had stuck fast again; but more firmly than on the submarine
rocks. She must have remained there suspended, and exposed
to every wind and sea.</p>

<p>The Durande, according to the statements of the crew of
the <i>Shealtiel</i>, was already three parts broken up. She would
evidently have foundered during the night, if the rocks had not
kept her up. The captain of the <i>Shealtiel</i> had watched her a
long time with his spyglass. He gave, with naval precision,
the details of her disaster. The starboard quarter beaten in,
the masts maimed, the sails blown from the bolt-ropes, the
shrouds torn away, the cabin sky-lights smashed by the falling
of one of the booms, the dome of the cuddy-house beaten in,
the chocks of the long-boat struck away, the round-house overturned,
the hinges of the rudder broken, the trusses wrenched
away, the quarter-cloths demolished, the bits gone, the cross-beam
destroyed, the shear-rails knocked off, the stern-post
broken. As to the parts of the cargo made fast before the foremast,
all destroyed, made a clean sweep of, gone to ten thousand
shivers, with top ropes, iron pulleys, and chains. The Durande
had broken her back; the sea now must break her up piecemeal.
In a few days there would be nothing of her remaining.</p>

<p>It appeared that the engine was scarcely injured by all these
ravages&mdash;a remarkable fact, and one which proved its excellence.
The captain of the <i>Shealtiel</i> thought he could affirm
that the crank had received no serious injury. The vessel's
masts had given way, but the funnel had resisted everything.
Only the iron guards of the captain's gangway were twisted;
the paddle boxes had suffered, the frames were bruised, but
the paddles had not a float missing. The machinery was intact.
Such was the conviction of the captain of the <i>Shealtiel</i>. Imbrancam,
the engineer, who was among the crowd, had the
same conviction. The negro, more intelligent than many of his
white companions, was proud of his engines. He lifted up his
arms, opening the ten fingers of his black hands, and said to
Lethierry, as he sat there silent, "Master, the machinery is
alive still!"</p>

<p>The safety of Clubin seeming certain, and the hull of the
Durande being already sacrificed, the engines became the topic
of conversation among the crowd. They took an interest in it
as in a living thing. They felt a delight in praising its good
qualities. "That's what I call a well-built machine," said a
French sailor. "Something like a good one," cried a Guernsey
fisherman. "She must have some good stuff in her," said the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_167" id="Page_167">[Pg 167]</a></span>
captain of the <i>Shealtiel</i>, "to come out of that affair with only a
few scratches."</p>

<p>By degrees the machinery of the Durande became the absorbing
object of their thoughts. Opinions were warm for and
against. It had its enemies and its friends. More than one
who possessed a good old sailing cutter, and who hoped to get
a share of the business of the Durande, was not sorry to find
that the Douvres rock had disposed of the new invention. The
whispering became louder. The discussion grew noisy, though
the hubbub was evidently a little restrained; and now and
then there was a simultaneous lowering of voices out of respect
to Lethierry's death-like silence.</p>

<p>The result of the colloquy, so obstinately maintained on all
sides, was as follows:&mdash;</p>

<p>The engines were the vital part of the vessel. To rescue the
Durande was impossible; but the machinery might still be
saved. These engines were unique. To construct others
similar, the money was wanting; but to find the artificer would
have been still more difficult. It was remembered that the
constructor of the machinery was dead. It had cost forty
thousand francs. No one would risk again such a sum upon
such a chance: particularly as it was now discovered that
steamboats could be lost like other vessels. The accident of
the Durande destroyed the prestige of all her previous success.
Still, it was deplorable to think that at that very moment this
valuable mechanism was still entire and in good condition, and
that in five or six days it would probably go to pieces, like the
vessel herself. As long as this existed, it might almost be said
that there was no shipwreck. The loss of the engines was
alone irreparable. To save the machinery would be almost to
repair the disaster.</p>

<p>Save the machinery! It was easy to talk of it; but who
would undertake to do it? Was it possible, even? To scheme
and to execute are two different things; as different as to dream
and to do. Now if ever a dream had appeared wild and impracticable,
it was that of saving the engines then embedded
between the Douvres. The idea of sending a ship and a crew
to work upon those rocks was absurd. It could not be thought
of. It was the season of heavy seas. In the first gale the
chains of the anchors would be worn away and snapped upon the
submarine peaks, and the vessel must be shattered on the rocks.
That would be to send a second shipwreck to the relief of the
first. On the miserable narrow height where the legend of the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_168" id="Page_168">[Pg 168]</a></span>
place described the shipwrecked sailor as having perished of
hunger, there was scarcely room for one person. To save the
engines, therefore, it would be necessary for a man to go to the
Douvres, to be alone in that sea, alone in that desert, alone at
five leagues from the coast, alone in that region of terrors, alone
for entire weeks, alone in the presence of dangers foreseen and
unforeseen&mdash;without supplies in the face of hunger and nakedness,
without succour in the time of distress, without token of
human life around him save the bleached bones of the miserable
being who had perished there in his misery, without companionship
save that of death. And besides, how was it possible to
extricate the machinery? It would require not only a sailor,
but an engineer; and for what trials must he not prepare. The
man who would attempt such a task must be more than a hero.
He must be a madman: for in certain enterprises, in which
superhuman power appears necessary, there is a sort of madness
which is more potent than courage. And after all, would it
not be a folly to immolate oneself for a mass of rusted iron.
No: it was certain that nobody would undertake to go to the
Douvres on such an errand. The engine must be abandoned
like the rest. The engineer for such a task would assuredly not
be forthcoming. Where, indeed, should they look for such
a man?</p>

<p>All this, or similar observations, formed the substance of
the confused conversations of the crowd.</p>

<p>The captain of the <i>Shealtiel</i>, who had been a pilot, summed
up the views of all by exclaiming aloud:&mdash;</p>

<p>"No; it is all over. The man does not exist who could go
there and rescue the machinery of the Durande."</p>

<p>"If I don't go," said Imbrancam, "it is because nobody
could do it."</p>

<p>The captain of the <i>Shealtiel</i> shook his left hand in the air
with that sudden movement which expresses a conviction that
a thing is impossible.</p>

<p>"If he existed&mdash;" continued the captain.</p>

<p>D&eacute;ruchette turned her head impulsively, and interrupted.</p>

<p>"I would marry him," she said, innocently.</p>

<p>There was a pause.</p>

<p>A man made his way out of the crowd, and standing before
her, pale and anxious, said:</p>

<p>"You would marry him, Miss D&eacute;ruchette?"</p>

<p>It was Gilliatt.</p>

<p>All eyes were turned towards him. Mess Lethierry had just<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_169" id="Page_169">[Pg 169]</a></span>
before stood upright, and gazed about him. His eyes glittered
with a strange light.</p>

<p>He took off his sailor's cap, and threw it on the ground:
then looked solemnly before him, and without seeing any of the
persons present, said:</p>

<p>"D&eacute;ruchette should be his. I pledge myself to it in God's
name."</p>



<hr style="width: 65%;" />
<h4>II</h4>

<h5>MUCH ASTONISHMENT ON THE WESTERN COAST</h5>


<p>The full moon rose at ten o'clock on the following night; but
however fine the night, however favourable the wind and sea,
no fisherman thought of going out that evening either from
Hogue la Perre, or Bourdeaux harbour, or Houmet Benet, or
Platon, or Port Grat, or Vazon Bay, or Perrelle Bay, or Pezeries,
or the Tielles or Saints' Bay, or Little Bo, or any other port or
little harbour in Guernsey; and the reason was very simple. A
cock had been heard to crow at noonday.</p>

<p>When the cock is heard to crow at an extraordinary hour,
fishing is suspended.</p>

<p>At dusk on that evening, however, a fisherman returning to
Omptolle, met with a remarkable adventure. On the height
above Houmet Paradis, beyond the Two Brayes and the Two
Grunes, stands to the left the beacon of the Plattes Toug&egrave;res,
representing a tub reversed; and to the right, the beacon of
St. Sampson, representing the face of a man. Between these
two, the fisherman thought that he perceived for the first time
a third beacon. What could be the meaning of this beacon?
When had it been erected on that point? What shoal did it
indicate? The beacon responded immediately to these interrogations.
It moved, it was a mast. The astonishment of
the fisherman did not diminish. A beacon would have been
remarkable; a mast was still more so: it could not be a fishing-boat.
When everybody else was returning, some boat was
going out. Who could it be? and what was he about?</p>

<p>Ten minutes later the vessel, moving slowly, came within a
short distance of the Omptolle fisherman. He did not recognise
it. He heard the sound of rowing: there were evidently only
two oars. There was probably, then, only one man aboard.
The wind was northerly. The man, therefore, was evidently
paddling along in order to take the wind off Point Fontenelle.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_170" id="Page_170">[Pg 170]</a></span>
There he would probably take to his sails. He intended then
to double the Ancresse and Mount Crevel. What could that
mean?</p>

<p>The vessel passed, the fisherman returned home. On that
same night, at different hours, and at different points, various
persons scattered and isolated on the western coast of Guernsey,
observed certain facts.</p>

<p>As the Omptolle fisherman was mooring his bark, a carter of
seaweed about half-a-mile off, whipping his horses along the
lonely road from the Cl&ocirc;tures near the Druid stones, and in the
neighbourhood of the Martello Towers 6 and 7, saw far off at
sea, in a part little frequented, because it requires much knowledge
of the waters, and in the direction of North Rock and the
Jablonneuse, a sail being hoisted. He paid little attention to
the circumstance, not being a seaman, but a carter of seaweed.</p>

<p>Half-an-hour had perhaps elapsed since the carter had perceived
this vessel, when a plasterer returning from his work in
the town, and passing round Pel&eacute;e Pool, found himself suddenly
opposite a vessel sailing boldly among the rocks of the Quenon,
the Rousse de Mer, and the Gripe de Rousse. The night was
dark, but the sky was light over the sea, an effect common
enough; and he could distinguish a great distance in every
direction. There was no sail visible except this vessel.</p>

<p>A little lower, a gatherer of crayfish, preparing his fish wells
on the beach which separates Port Soif from the Port Enfer,
was puzzled to make out the movements of a vessel between
the Boue Corneille and the Moubrette. The man must have
been a good pilot, and in great haste to reach some destination
to risk his boat there.</p>

<p>Just as eight o'clock was striking at the Catel, the tavern-keeper
at Cobo Bay observed with astonishment a sail out
beyond the Boue du Jardin and the Grunettes, and very near
the Susanne and the Western Grunes.</p>

<p>Not far from Cobo Bay, upon the solitary point of the Houmet
of Vason Bay, two lovers were lingering, hesitating before they
parted for the night. The young woman addressed the young
man with the words, "I am not going because I don't care to
stay with you: I've a great deal to do." Their farewell kiss was
interrupted by a good sized sailing boat which passed very near
them, making for the direction of the Messellettes.</p>

<p>Monsieur le Peyre des Norgiots, an inhabitant of Cotillon
Pipet, was engaged about nine o'clock in the evening in examining
a hole made by some trespassers in the hedge of his property<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_171" id="Page_171">[Pg 171]</a></span>
called La Jennerotte, and his "<i>friquet</i> planted with trees."
Even while ascertaining the amount of the damage, he could
not help observing a fishing-boat audaciously making its way
round the Crocq Point at that hour of night.</p>

<p>On the morrow of a tempest, when there is always some
agitation upon the sea, that route was extremely unsafe. It
was rash to choose it, at least, unless the steersman knew all
the channels by heart.</p>

<p>At half-past nine o'clock, at L'Equerrier, a trawler carrying
home his net stopped for a time to observe between Colombelle
and the Soufleresse something which looked like a boat. The
boat was in a dangerous position. Sudden gusts of wind of a
very dangerous kind are very common in that spot. The
<i>Soufleresse</i>, or Blower, derives its name from the sudden gusts
of wind which it seems to direct upon the vessels, which by rare
chance find their way thither.</p>

<p>At the moment when the moon was rising, the tide being
high and the sea being quiet, in the little strait of Li-Hou, the
solitary keeper of the island of Li-Hou was considerably startled.
A long black object slowly passed between the moon and him.
This dark form, high and narrow, resembled a winding-sheet
spread out and moving. It glided along the line of the top of
the wall formed by the ridges of rock. The keeper of Li-Hou
fancied that he had beheld the Black Lady.</p>

<p>The White Lady inhabits the Tau de Pez d'Amont; the
Grey Lady, the Tau de Pez d'Aval; the Red Lady, the Silleuse,
to the north of the Marquis Bank; and the Black Lady, the
Grand Etacr&eacute;, to the west of Li-Houmet. At night, when the
moon shines, these ladies stalk abroad, and sometimes meet.</p>

<p>That dark form might undoubtedly be a sail. The long
groups of rocks on which she appeared to be walking, might
in fact be concealing the hull of a bark navigating behind them,
and allowing only her sail to be seen. But the keeper asked
himself, what bark would dare, at that hour, to venture herself
between Li-Hou and the P&eacute;cheresses, and the Anguilli&egrave;res and
L&eacute;r&eacute;e Point? And what object could she have? It seemed
to him much more probable that it was the Black Lady.</p>

<p>As the moon was passing the clock-tower of St. Peter in the
Wood, the serjeant at Castle Rocquaine, while in the act of
raising the drawbridge of the castle, distinguished at the end
of the bay beyond the Haute Can&eacute;e, but nearer than the Sambule,
a sailing-vessel which seemed to be steadily dropping
down from north to south.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_172" id="Page_172">[Pg 172]</a></span></p>

<p>On the southern coast of Guernsey behind Pleinmont, in the
curve of a bay composed entirely of precipices and rocky walls
rising peak-shaped from the sea, there is a singular landing-place,
to which a French gentleman, a resident of the island since
1855, has given the name of "The Port on the Fourth Floor,"
a name now generally adopted. This port, or landing-place,
which was then called the Moie, is a rocky plateau half-formed
by nature, half by art, raised about forty feet above the level
of the waves, and communicating with the water by two large
beams laid parallel in the form of an inclined plane. The
fishing-vessels are hoisted up there by chains and pulleys from
the sea, and are let down again in the same way along these
beams, which are like two rails. For the fishermen there is a
ladder. The port was, at the time of our story, much frequented
by the smugglers. Being difficult of access, it was well suited
to their purposes.</p>

<p>Towards eleven o'clock, some smugglers&mdash;perhaps the same
upon whose aid Clubin had counted&mdash;stood with their bales of
goods on the summit of this platform of the Moie. A smuggler
is necessarily a man on the look out, it is part of his business to
watch. They were astonished to perceive a sail suddenly make
its appearance beyond the dusky outline of Cape Pleinmont.
It was moonlight. The smugglers observed the sail narrowly,
suspecting that it might be some coast-guard cutter about to
lie in ambush behind the Great Hanway. But the sail left the
Hanways behind, passed to the north-west of the Boue Blondel,
and was lost in the pale mists of the horizon out at sea.</p>

<p>"Where the devil can that boat be sailing?" asked the
smuggler.</p>

<p>That same evening, a little after sunset, some one had been
heard knocking at the door of the old house of the B&ucirc; de la Rue.
It was a boy wearing brown clothes and yellow stockings, a
fact that indicated that he was a little parish clerk. An old
fisherwoman prowling about the shore with a lantern in her
hand, had called to the boy, and this dialogue ensued between
the fisherwoman and the little clerk, before the entrance to the
B&ucirc; de la Rue:&mdash;</p>

<p>"What d'ye want, lad?"</p>

<p>"The man of this place."</p>

<p>"He's not there."</p>

<p>"Where is he?"</p>

<p>"I don't know."</p>

<p>"Will he be there to-morrow?"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_173" id="Page_173">[Pg 173]</a></span></p>

<p>"I don't know."</p>

<p>"Is he gone away?"</p>

<p>"I don't know."</p>

<p>"I've come, good woman, from the new rector of the parish,
the Reverend Ebenezer Caudray, who desires to pay him a
visit."</p>

<p>"I don't know where he is."</p>

<p>"The rector sent me to ask if the man who lives at the B&ucirc;
de la Rue would be at home to-morrow morning."</p>

<p>"I don't know."</p>



<hr style="width: 65%;" />
<h4>III</h4>

<h5>A QUOTATION FROM THE BIBLE</h5>


<p>During the twenty-four hours which followed, Mess Lethierry
slept not, ate nothing, drank nothing. He kissed D&eacute;ruchette
on the forehead, asked after Clubin, of whom there was as yet
no news, signed a declaration certifying that he had no intention
of preferring a charge against anyone, and set Tangrouille at
liberty.</p>

<p>All the morning of the next day he remained half supporting
himself on the table of the office of the Durande, neither standing
nor sitting: answering kindly when anyone spoke to him.
Curiosity being satisfied, the Brav&eacute;es had become a solitude.
There is a good deal of curiosity generally mingled with the
haste of condolences. The door had closed again, and left the
old man again alone with D&eacute;ruchette. The strange light that
had shone in Lethierry's eyes was extinguished. The mournful
look which filled them after the first news of the disaster had
returned.</p>

<p>D&eacute;ruchette, anxious for his sake, had, on the advice of Grace
and Douce, laid silently beside him a pair of stockings, which
he had been knitting, sailor fashion, when the bad news had
arrived.</p>

<p>He smiled bitterly, and said:</p>

<p>"They must think me foolish."</p>

<p>After a quarter of an hour's silence, he added:</p>

<p>"These things are well when you are happy."</p>

<p>D&eacute;ruchette carried away the stockings, and took advantage
of the opportunity to remove also the compass and the ship's
papers which Lethierry had been brooding over too long.</p>

<p>In the afternoon, a little before tea-time, the door opened and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_174" id="Page_174">[Pg 174]</a></span>
two strangers entered, attired in black. One was old, the other
young.</p>

<p>The young one has, perhaps, already been observed in the
course of this story.</p>

<p>The two men had each a grave air; but their gravity appeared
different. The old man possessed what might be called state
gravity; the gravity of the young man was in his nature. Habit
engenders the one; thought the other.</p>

<p>They were, as their costume indicated, two clergymen, each
belonging to the Established Church.</p>

<p>The first fact in the appearance of the younger man which
might have first struck the observer was, that his gravity,
though conspicuous in the expression of his features, and
evidently springing from the mind, was not indicated by his
person. Gravity is not inconsistent with passion, which it
exalts by purifying it; but the idea of gravity could with difficulty
be associated with an exterior remarkable above all for
personal beauty. Being in holy orders, he must have been at
least four-and-twenty, but he seemed scarcely more than
eighteen. He possessed those gifts at once in harmony with,
and in opposition to, each other. A soul which seemed created
for exalted passion, and a body created for love. He was fair,
rosy-fresh, slim, and elegant in his severe attire, and he had the
cheeks of a young girl, and delicate hands. His movements
were natural and lively, though subdued. Everything about
him was pleasing, elegant, almost voluptuous. The beauty of
his expression served to correct this excess of personal attraction.
His open smile, which showed his teeth, regular and white as
those of a child, had something in it pensive, even devotional.
He had the gracefulness of a page, mingled with the dignity of
a bishop.</p>

<p>His fair hair, so fair and golden as to be almost effeminate,
clustered over his white forehead, which was high and well-formed.
A slight double line between the eyebrows awakened
associations with studious thought.</p>

<p>Those who saw him felt themselves in the presence of one of
those natures, benevolent, innocent, and pure, whose progress
is in inverse sense with that of vulgar minds; natures whom
illusion renders wise, and whom experience makes enthusiasts.</p>

<p>His older companion was no other than Doctor Jaquemin
H&eacute;rode. Doctor Jaquemin H&eacute;rode belonged to the High
Church; a party whose system is a sort of popery without a
pope. The Church of England was at that epoch labouring<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_175" id="Page_175">[Pg 175]</a></span>
with the tendencies which have since become strengthened and
condensed in the form of Puseyism. Doctor Jaquemin H&eacute;rode
belonged to that shade of Anglicanism which is almost a variety
of the Church of Rome. He was haughty, precise, stiff, and
commanding. His inner sight scarcely penetrated outwardly.
He possessed the letter in the place of the spirit. His manner
was arrogant; his presence imposing. He had less the appearance
of a "Reverend" than of a <i>Monsignore</i>. His frock-coat
was cut somewhat in the fashion of a cassock. His true centre
would have been Rome. He was a born Prelate of the Antechamber.
He seemed to have been created expressly to fill a
part in the Papal Court, to walk behind the Pontifical litter,
with all the Court of Rome in <i>abitto paonazzo</i>. The accident of
his English birth and his theological education, directed more
towards the Old than the New Testament, had deprived him of
that destiny. All his splendours were comprised in his preferments
as Rector of St. Peter's Port, Dean of the Island of
Guernsey, and Surrogate of the Bishop of Winchester. These
were, undoubtedly, not without their glories. These glories
did not prevent M. Jaquemin H&eacute;rode being, on the whole, a
worthy man.</p>

<p>As a theologian he was esteemed by those who were able to
judge of such matters; he was almost an authority in the Court
of Arches&mdash;that Sorbonne of England.</p>

<p>He had the true air of erudition; a learned contraction of the
eyes; bristling nostrils; teeth which showed themselves at all
times; a thin upper lip and a thick lower one. He was the
possessor of several learned degrees, a valuable prebend, titled
friends, the confidence of the bishop, and a Bible, which he
carried always in his pocket.</p>

<p>Mess Lethierry was so completely absorbed that the entrance
of the two priests produced no effect upon him, save a slight
movement of the eyebrows.</p>

<p>M. Jaquemin H&eacute;rode advanced, bowed, alluded in a few sober
and dignified words to his recent promotion, and mentioned
that he came according to custom to introduce among the
inhabitants, and to Mess Lethierry in particular, his successor
in the parish, the new Rector of St. Sampson, the Rev. Ebenezer
Caudray, henceforth the pastor of Mess Lethierry.</p>

<p>D&eacute;ruchette rose.</p>

<p>The young clergyman, who was the Rev. Ebenezer, saluted her.</p>

<p>Mess Lethierry regarded Monsieur Ebenezer Caudray, and
muttered, "A bad sailor."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_176" id="Page_176">[Pg 176]</a></span></p>

<p>Grace placed chairs. The two visitors seated themselves near
the table.</p>

<p>Doctor H&eacute;rode commenced a discourse. It had reached his
ears that a serious misfortune had befallen his host. The
Durande had been lost. He came as Lethierry's pastor to offer
condolence and advice. This shipwreck was unfortunate, and
yet not without compensations. Let us examine our own hearts.
Are we not puffed up with prosperity? The waters of felicity
are dangerous. Troubles must be submitted to cheerfully.
The ways of Providence are mysterious. Mess Lethierry was
ruined, perhaps. But riches were a danger. You may have
false friends; poverty will disperse them, and leave you alone.
The Durande was reported to have brought a revenue of one
thousand pounds sterling per annum. It was more than enough
for the wise. Let us fly from temptations; put not our faith in
gold; bow the head to losses and neglect. Isolation is full of
good fruits. It was in solitude that Ajah discovered the warm
springs while leading the asses of his father Zibeon. Let us not
rebel against the inscrutable decrees of Providence. The holy
man Job, after his misery, had put faith in riches. Who can
say that the loss of the Durande may not have its advantages
even of a temporal kind. He, for instance, Doctor Jaquemin
H&eacute;rode had invested some money in an excellent enterprise, now
in progress at Sheffield. If Mess Lethierry, with the wealth
which might still remain to him, should choose to embark in
the same affair, he might transfer his capital to that town. It
was an extensive manufactory of arms for the supply of the Czar,
now engaged in repressing insurrection in Poland. There was
a good prospect of obtaining three hundred per cent. profit.</p>

<p>The word Czar appeared to awaken Lethierry. He interrupted
Dr. H&eacute;rode.</p>

<p>"I want nothing to do with the Czar."</p>

<p>The Reverend Jaquemin H&eacute;rode replied:</p>

<p>"Mess Lethierry, princes are recognised by God. It is
written, 'Render unto C&aelig;sar the things which are C&aelig;sar's.'
The Czar is C&aelig;sar."</p>

<p>Lethierry partly relapsed into his dream and muttered:</p>

<p>"C&aelig;sar? who is C&aelig;sar? I don't know."</p>

<p>The Rev. Jaquemin H&eacute;rode continued his exhortations. He
did not press the question of Sheffield.</p>

<p>To contemn a C&aelig;sar was republicanism. He could understand
a man being a republican. In that case he could turn his
thoughts towards a republic. Mess Lethierry might repair his<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_177" id="Page_177">[Pg 177]</a></span>
fortune in the United States, even better than in England. If
he desired to invest what remained to him at great profit, he
had only to take shares in the great company for developing the
resources of Texas, which employed more than twenty thousand
negroes.</p>

<p>"I want nothing to do with slavery," said Lethierry.</p>

<p>"Slavery," replied the Reverend H&eacute;rode, "is an institution
recognised by Scripture. It is written, 'If a man smite his
slave, he shall not be punished, for he is his money.'"</p>

<p>Grace and Douce at the door of the room listened in a sort
of ecstacy to the words of the Reverend Doctor.</p>

<p>The doctor continued. He was, all things considered, as we
have said, a worthy man; and whatever his differences, personal
or connected with caste, with Mess Lethierry, he had come very
sincerely to offer him that spiritual and even temporal aid which
he, Doctor Jaquemin H&eacute;rode, dispensed.</p>

<p>If Mess Lethierry's fortune had been diminished to that point
that he was unable to take a beneficial part in any speculation,
Russian or American, why should he not obtain some government
appointment suited to him? There were many very
respectable places open to him, and the reverend gentleman was
ready to recommend him. The office of Deputy-Vicomte was
just vacant. Mess Lethierry was popular and respected, and
the Reverend Jaquemin H&eacute;rode, Dean of Guernsey and Surrogate
of the Bishop, would make an effort to obtain for Mess
Lethierry this post. The Deputy-Vicomte is an important
officer. He is present as the representative of His Majesty at
the holding of the Sessions, at the debates of the <i>Cohue</i>, and at
executions of justice.</p>

<p>Lethierry fixed his eye upon Doctor H&eacute;rode.</p>

<p>"I don't like hanging," he said.</p>

<p>Doctor H&eacute;rode, who, up to this point, had pronounced his
words with the same intonation, had now a fit of severity; his
tone became slightly changed.</p>

<p>"Mess Lethierry, the pain of death is of divine ordination.
God has placed the sword in the hands of governors. It is
written, 'An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth.'"</p>

<p>The Reverend Ebenezer imperceptibly drew his chair nearer
to the Reverend Doctor and said, so as to be heard only by him:</p>

<p>"What this man says, is dictated to him."</p>

<p>"By whom? By what?" demanded the Reverend Jaquemin
H&eacute;rode, in the same tone.</p>

<p>The young man replied in a whisper, "By his conscience."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_178" id="Page_178">[Pg 178]</a></span></p>

<p>The Reverend Jaquemin H&eacute;rode felt in his pocket, drew out
a thick little bound volume with clasps, and said aloud:</p>

<p>"Conscience is here."</p>

<p>The book was a Bible.</p>

<p>Then Doctor H&eacute;rode's tone became softer. "His wish was
to render a service to Mess Lethierry, whom he respected much.
As his pastor, it was his right and duty to offer counsel. Mess
Lethierry, however, was free."</p>

<p>Mess Lethierry, plunged once more in his overwhelming
absorption, no longer listened. D&eacute;ruchette, seated near him,
and thoughtful, also did not raise her eyes, and by her silent
presence somewhat increased the embarrassment of a conversation
not very animated. A witness who says nothing is a species
of indefinable weight. Doctor H&eacute;rode, however, did not appear
to feel it.</p>

<p>Lethierry no longer replying, Doctor H&eacute;rode expatiated
freely. Counsel is from man; inspiration is from God. In the
counsels of the priests there is inspiration. It is good to accept,
dangerous to refuse them. Sochoh was seized by eleven devils
for disdaining the exhortations of Nathaniel. Tiburianus was
struck with a leprosy for having driven from his house the
Apostle Andrew. Barjesus, a magician though he was, was
punished with blindness for having mocked at the words of
St. Paul. Elxai and his sisters, Martha and Martena, are in
eternal torments for despising the warnings of Valentianus,
who proved to them clearly that their Jesus Christ, thirty-eight
leagues in height, was a demon. Aholibamah, who is also
called Judith, obeyed the Councils, Reuben and Peniel listened
to the counsels from on high, as their names indeed indicate.
Reuben signifies son of the vision; and Peniel, "the face of God.":</p>

<p>Mess Lethierry struck the table with his fist.</p>

<p>"Parbleu!" he cried; "it was my fault."</p>

<p>"What do you mean?" asked M. Jaquemin H&eacute;rode.</p>

<p>"I say that it is my fault."</p>

<p>"Your fault? Why?"</p>

<p>"Because I allowed the Durande to return on Fridays."</p>

<p>M. Jaquemin H&eacute;rode whispered in Caudray's ear:</p>

<p>"This man is superstitious."</p>

<p>He resumed, raising his voice, and in a didactic tone:</p>

<p>"Mess Lethierry, it is puerile to believe in Fridays. You
ought not to put faith in fables. Friday is a day just like any
other. It is very often a propitious day. Melendez founded
the city of Saint Augustin on a Friday; it was on a Friday that<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_179" id="Page_179">[Pg 179]</a></span>
Henry the Seventh gave his commission to John Cabot; the
Pilgrims of the <i>Mayflower</i> landed at Province Town on a Friday.
Washington was born on Friday, the 22nd of February 1732;
Christopher Columbus discovered America on Friday, the 12th
of October 1492."</p>

<p>Having delivered himself of these remarks, he rose.</p>

<p>Caudray, whom he had brought with him, rose also.</p>

<p>Grace and Douce, perceiving that the two clergymen were
about to take their leave, opened the folding-doors.</p>

<p>Mess Lethierry saw nothing; heard nothing.</p>

<p>M. Jaquemin H&eacute;rode said, apart to M. Caudray:</p>

<p>"He does not even salute us. This is not sorrow; it is
vacancy. He must have lost his reason."</p>

<p>He took his little Bible, however, from the table, and held it
between his hands outstretched, as one holds a bird in fear that
it may fly away. This attitude awakened among the persons
present a certain amount of attention. Grace and Douce
leaned forward eagerly.</p>

<p>His voice assumed all the solemnity of which it was capable.</p>

<p>"Mess Lethierry," he began, "let us not part without reading
a page of the Holy Book. It is from books that wise men
derive consolation in the troubles of life. The profane have
their oracles; but believers have their ready resource in the
Bible. The first book which comes to hand, opened by chance
may afford counsel; but the Bible, opened at any page, yields
a revelation. It is, above all, a boon to the afflicted. Yes,
Holy Scripture is an unfailing balm for their wounds. In the
presence of affliction, it is good to consult its sacred pages&mdash;to
open even without choosing the place, and to read with faith
the passage which we find. What man does not choose is
chosen by God. He knoweth best what suiteth us. His finger
pointeth invisibly to that which we read. Whatever be the
page, it will infallibly enlighten. Let us seek, then, no other
light; but hold fast to His. It is the word from on high. In
the text which is evoked with confidence and reverence, often
do we find a mysterious significance in our present troubles. Let
us hearken, then, and obey. Mess Lethierry, you are in affliction,
but I hold here the book of consolation. You are sick at heart,
but I have here the book of spiritual health."</p>

<p>The Reverend Jaquemin H&eacute;rode touched the spring of the
clasp, and let his finger slip between the leaves. Then he placed
his hand a moment upon the open volume, collected his thoughts,
and, raising his eyes impressively, began to read in a loud voice.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_180" id="Page_180">[Pg 180]</a></span></p>

<p>The passage which he had lighted on was as follows:</p>

<p>"And Isaac went out to meditate in the field at the eventide,
and he lifted up his eyes and saw and beheld the camels were
coming.</p>

<p>"And Rebekah lifted up her eyes, and when she saw Isaac
she lighted off the camel.</p>

<p>"For she had said unto the servant, What man is this that
walketh in the field to meet us?</p>

<p>"And Isaac brought her into his mother Sarah's tent, and
took Rebekah, and she became his wife, and he loved her; and
Isaac was comforted after his mother's death."</p>

<p>Caudray and D&eacute;ruchette glanced at each other.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_181" id="Page_181">[Pg 181]</a></span></p>



<hr style="width: 65%;" />
<h3>PART II.&mdash;MALICIOUS GILLIATT</h3>



<hr style="width: 65%;" />
<h3>BOOK I</h3>

<h4>THE ROCK</h4>

<h4>I</h4>

<h5>THE PLACE WHICH IS DIFFICULT TO REACH, AND DIFFICULT
TO LEAVE</h5>


<p>The bark which had been observed at so many points on the
coast of Guernsey on the previous evening was, as the reader
has guessed, the old Dutch barge or sloop. Gilliatt had chosen
the channel along the coast among the rocks. It was the most
dangerous way, but it was the most direct. To take the shortest
route was his only thought. Shipwrecks will not wait; the sea
is a pressing creditor; an hour's delay may be irreparable. His
anxiety was to go quickly to the rescue of the machinery in
danger.</p>

<p>One of his objects in leaving Guernsey was to avoid arousing
attention. He set out like one escaping from justice, and seemed
anxious to hide from human eyes. He shunned the eastern
coast, as if he did not care to pass in sight of St. Sampson and
St. Peter's Port, and glided silently along the opposite coast,
which is comparatively uninhabited. Among the breakers, it
was necessary to ply the oars; but Gilliatt managed them on
scientific principles; taking the water quietly, and dropping it
with exact regularity, he was able to move in the darkness with
as little noise and as rapidly as possible. So stealthy were his
movements, that he might have seemed to be bent upon some
evil errand.</p>

<p>In truth, though embarking desperately in an enterprise
which might well be called impossible, and risking his life with
nearly every chance against him, he feared nothing but the
possibility of some rival in the work which he had set before him.</p>

<p>As the day began to break, those unknown eyes which look
down upon the world from boundless space might have beheld,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_182" id="Page_182">[Pg 182]</a></span>
at one of the most dangerous and solitary spots at sea, two
objects, the distance between which was gradually decreasing,
as the one was approaching the other. One, which was almost
imperceptible in the wide movement of the waters, was a sailing
boat. In this was a man. It was the sloop. The other, black,
motionless, colossal, rose above the waves, a singular form.
Two tall pillars issuing from the sea bore aloft a sort of cross-beam
which was like a bridge between them. This bridge, so
singular in shape that it was impossible to imagine what it was
from a distance, touched each of the two pillars. It resembled
a vast portal. Of what use could such an erection be in that open
plain, the sea, which stretched around it far and wide? It might
have been imagined to be a Titanic Cromlech, planted there in
mid-ocean by an imperious whim, and built up by hands accustomed
to proportion their labours to the great deep. Its wild
outline stood well-defined against the clear sky.</p>

<p>The morning light was growing stronger in the east; the
whiteness in the horizon deepened the shadow on the sea. In
the opposite sky the moon was sinking.</p>

<p>The two perpendicular forms were the Douvres. The huge
mass held fast between them, like an architrave between two
pillars, was the wreck of the Durande.</p>

<p>The rock, thus holding fast and exhibiting its prey, was
terrible to behold. Inanimate things look sometimes as if
endowed with a dark and hostile spirit towards man. There
was a menace in the attitude of the rocks. They seemed to be
biding their time.</p>

<p>Nothing could be more suggestive of haughtiness and arrogance
than their whole appearance: the conquered vessel; the
triumphant abyss. The two rocks, still streaming with the
tempest of the day before, were like two wrestlers sweating from
a recent struggle. The wind had sunk; the sea rippled gently;
here and there the presence of breakers might be detected in the
graceful streaks of foam upon the surface of the waters. A sound
came from the sea like the murmuring of bees. All around was
level except the Douvres, rising straight, like two black columns.
Up to a certain height they were completely bearded with seaweed;
above this their steep haunches glittered at points like
polished armour. They seemed ready to commence the strife
again. The beholder felt that they were rooted deep in mountains
whose summits were beneath the sea. Their aspect was
full of a sort of tragic power.</p>

<p>Ordinarily the sea conceals her crimes. She delights in<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_183" id="Page_183">[Pg 183]</a></span>
privacy. Her unfathomable deeps keep silence. She wraps
herself in a mystery which rarely consents to give up its secrets.
We know her savage nature, but who can tell the extent of her
dark deeds? She is at once open and secret; she hides away
carefully, and cares not to divulge her actions; wrecks a vessel,
and, covering it with the waves, engulfs it deep, as if conscious
of her guilt. Among her crimes is hypocrisy. She slays and
steals, conceals her booty, puts on an air of unconsciousness,
and smiles.</p>

<p>Here, however, was nothing of the kind. The Douvres,
lifting above the level of the waters the shattered hull of the
Durande, had an air of triumph. The imagination might have
pictured them as two monstrous arms, reaching upwards from
the gulf, and exhibiting to the tempest the lifeless body of the
ship. Their aspect was like that of an assassin boasting of his
evil deeds.</p>

<p>The solemnity of the hour contributed something to the impression
of the scene. There is a mysterious grandeur in the
dawn, as of the border-land between the region of consciousness
and the world of our dreams. There is something spectral
in that confused transition time. The immense form of the
two Douvres, like a capital letter H, the Durande forming its
cross stroke, appeared against the horizon in all their twilight
majesty.</p>

<p>Gilliatt was attired in his seaman's clothing: a Guernsey
shirt, woollen stockings, thick shoes, a homespun jacket, trousers
of thick stuff, with pockets, and a cap upon his head of red
worsted, of a kind then much in use among sailors, and known
in the last century as a <i>gal&eacute;rienne</i>.</p>

<p>He recognised the rocks, and steered towards them.</p>

<p>The situation of the Durande was exactly the contrary of
that of a vessel gone to the bottom: it was a vessel suspended
in the air.</p>

<p>No problem more strange was ever presented to a salvor.</p>

<p>It was broad daylight when Gilliatt arrived in the waters
about the rock.</p>

<p>As we have said, there was but little sea. The slight agitation
of the water was due almost entirely to its confinement among
the rocks. Every passage, small or large, is subject to this
chopping movement. The inside of a channel is always more
or less white with foam. Gilliatt did not approach the Douvres
without caution.</p>

<p>He cast the sounding lead several times.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_184" id="Page_184">[Pg 184]</a></span></p>

<p>He had a cargo to disembark.</p>

<p>Accustomed to long absences, he had at home a number of
necessaries always ready. He had brought a sack of biscuit,
another of rye-meal, a basket of salt fish and smoked beef, a
large can of fresh water; a Norwegian chest painted with
flowers, containing several coarse woollen shirts, his tarpaulin
and his waterproof overalls, and a sheepskin which he was
accustomed to throw at night over his clothes. On leaving the
B&ucirc; de la Rue he had put all these things hastily into the barge,
with the addition of a large loaf. In his hurry he had brought
no other tools but his huge forge-hammer, his chopper and
hatchet, and a knotted rope. Furnished with a grappling-iron
and with a ladder of that sort, the steepest rocks become accessible,
and a good sailor will find it possible to scale the rudest
escarpment. In the island of Sark the visitor may see what
the fishermen of the Havre Gosselin can accomplish with a
knotted cord.</p>

<p>His nets and lines and all his fishing apparatus were in the
barge. He had placed them there mechanically and by habit;
for he intended, if his enterprise continued, to sojourn for some
time in an archipelago of rocks and breakers, where fishing nets
and tackle are of little use.</p>

<p>At the moment when Gilliatt was skirting the great rock the
sea was retiring; a circumstance favourable to his purpose.
The departing tide laid bare, at the foot of the smaller Douvre,
one or two table-rocks, horizontal, or only slightly inclined, and
bearing a fanciful resemblance to boards supported by crows.
These table-rocks, sometimes narrow, sometimes broad, standing
at unequal distances along the side of the great perpendicular
column, were continued in the form of a thin cornice up to a
spot just beneath the Durande, the hull of which stood swelling
out between the two rocks. The wreck was held fast there as
in a vice.</p>

<p>This series of platforms was convenient for approaching and
surveying the position. It was convenient also for disembarking
the contents of the barge provisionally; but it was necessary to
hasten, for it was only above water for a few hours. With the
rising tide the table-rocks would be again beneath the foam.</p>

<p>It was before these table-rocks, some level, some slanting,
that Gilliatt pushed in and brought the barge to a stand. A
thick mass of wet and slippery sea-wrack covered them, rendered
more slippery here and there by their inclined surfaces.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_185" id="Page_185">[Pg 185]</a></span></p>

<p>Gilliatt pulled off his shoes and sprang bare-footed on to the
slimy weeds, and made fast the barge to a point of rock.</p>

<p>Then he advanced as far as he could along the granite cornice,
reached the rock immediately beneath the wreck, looked up,
and examined it.</p>

<p>The Durande had been caught suspended, and, as it were,
fitted in between the two rocks, at about twenty feet above the
water. It must have been a heavy sea which had cast her
there.</p>

<p>Such effects from furious seas have nothing surprising for those
who are familiar with the ocean. To cite one example only:&mdash;On
the 25th January 1840, in the Gulf of Stora, a tempest
struck with its expiring force a brig, and casting it almost intact
completely over the broken wreck of the corvette <i>La Marne</i>,
fixed it immovable, bowsprit first, in a gap between the cliffs.</p>

<p>The Douvres, however, held only a part of the Durande.</p>

<p>The vessel snatched from the waves had been, as it were,
uprooted from the waters by the hurricane. A whirlwind had
wrenched it against the counteracting force of the rolling waves,
and the vessel thus caught in contrary directions by the two
claws of the tempest had snapped like a lath. The after-part
with the engine and the paddles, lifted out of the foam and
driven by all the fury of the cyclone into the defile of the
Douvres, had plunged in up to her midship beam, and remained
there. The blow had been well directed. To drive it in this
fashion between the two rocks, the storm had struck it as with
an enormous hammer. The forecastle carried away and rolled
down by the sea, had gone to fragments among the breakers.</p>

<p>The hold, broken in, had scattered out the bodies of the
drowned cattle upon the sea.</p>

<p>A large portion of the forward side and bulwarks still hung
to the riders by the larboard paddle-box, and by some shattered
braces easy to strike off with the blow of a hatchet.</p>

<p>Here and there, among beams, planks, rags of canvas, pieces
of chains, and other remains of wreck were seen lying about
among the rugged fragments of shattered rock.</p>

<p>Gilliatt surveyed the Durande attentively. The keel formed
a roofing over his head.</p>

<p>A serene sky stretched far and wide over the waters, scarcely
wrinkled with a passing breath. The sun rose gloriously in the
midst of the vast azure circle.</p>

<p>From time to time a drop of water was detached from the
wreck and fell into the sea.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_186" id="Page_186">[Pg 186]</a></span></p>



<hr style="width: 65%;" />
<h4>II</h4>

<h5>A CATALOGUE OF DISASTERS</h5>


<p>The Douvres differed in shape as well as in height.</p>

<p>Upon the Little Douvre, which was curved and pointed, long
veins of reddish-coloured rock, of a comparatively soft kind,
could be seen branching out and dividing the interior of the
granite. At the edges of these red dykes were fractures, favourable
to climbing. One of these fractures, situated a little above
the wreck, had been so laboriously worn and scooped out by
the splashing of the waves, that it had become a sort of niche,
in which it would have been quite possible to place a statue.
The granite of the Little Douvre was rounded at the surface,
and, to the feel at least, soft like touchstone; but this feeling
detracted nothing from its durability. The Little Douvre terminated
in a point like a horn. The Great Douvre, polished,
smooth, glossy, perpendicular, and looking as if cut out by the
builder's square, was in one piece, and seemed made of black
ivory. Not a hole, not a break in its smooth surface. The
escarpment looked inhospitable. A convict could not have
used it for escape, nor a bird for a place for its nest. On the
summit there was a horizontal surface as upon "The Man Rock;"
but the summit of the Great Douvre was inaccessible.</p>

<p>It was possible to scale the Little Douvre, but not to remain
on the summit; it would have been possible to rest on the
summit of the Great Douvre, but impossible to scale it.</p>

<p>Gilliatt, having rapidly surveyed the situation of affairs,
returned to the barge, landed its contents upon the largest of
the horizontal cornice rocks, made of the whole compact mass
a sort of bale, which he rolled up in tarpaulin, fitted a sling rope
to it with a hoisting block, pushed the package into a corner of
the rocks where the waves could not reach it, and then clutching
the Little Douvre with his hands, and holding on with his naked
feet, he clambered from projection to projection, and from niche
to niche, until he found himself level with the wrecked vessel
high up in the air.</p>

<p>Having reached the height of the paddles, he sprang upon the
poop.</p>

<p>The interior of the wreck presented a mournful aspect.</p>

<p>Traces of a great struggle were everywhere visible. There
were plainly to be seen the frightful ravages of the sea and wind.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_187" id="Page_187">[Pg 187]</a></span>
The action of the tempest resembles the violence of a band of
pirates. Nothing is more like the victim of a criminal outrage
than a wrecked ship violated and stripped by those terrible
accomplices, the storm-cloud, the thunder, the rain, the squall,
the waves, and the breakers.</p>

<p>Standing upon the dismantled deck, it was natural to dream
of the presence of something like a furious stamping of the
spirits of the storm. Everywhere around were the marks of
their rage. The strange contortions of certain portions of the
ironwork bore testimony to the terrific force of the winds. The
between-decks were like the cell of a lunatic, in which everything
has been broken.</p>

<p>No wild beast can compare with the sea for mangling its prey.
The waves are full of talons. The north wind bites, the billows
devour, the waves are like hungry jaws. The ocean strikes like
a lion with its heavy paw, seizing and dismembering at the same
moment.</p>

<p>The ruin conspicuous in the Durande presented the peculiarity
of being detailed and minute. It was a sort of horrible
stripping and plucking. Much of it seemed done with design.
The beholder was tempted to exclaim, "What wanton
mischief!" The ripping of the planking was edged here and
there artistically. This peculiarity is common with the ravages
of the cyclone. To chip and tear away is the caprice of the great
devastator. Its ways are like those of the professional torturer.
The disasters which it causes wear a look of ingenious punishments.
One might fancy it actuated by the worst passions of
man. It refines in cruelty like a savage. While it is exterminating
it dissects bone by bone. It torments its victim, avenges
itself, and takes delight in its work. It even appears to descend
to petty acts of malice.</p>

<p>Cyclones are rare in our latitudes, and are, for that reason,
the more dangerous, being generally unexpected. A rock in
the path of a heavy wind may become the pivot of a storm. It
is probable that the squall had thus rotated upon the point of
the Douvres, and had turned suddenly into a waterspout on
meeting the shock of the rocks, a fact which explained the casting
of the vessel so high among them. When the cyclone blows,
a vessel is of no more weight in the wind than a stone in a sling.</p>

<p>The damage received by the Durande was like the wound of
a man cut in twain. It was a divided trunk from which issued
a mass of <i>d&eacute;bris</i> like the entrails of a body. Various kinds of
cordage hung floating and trembling, chains swung chattering;<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_188" id="Page_188">[Pg 188]</a></span>
the fibres and nerves of the vessel were there naked and exposed.
What was not smashed was disjointed.</p>

<p>Fragments of the sheeting resembled currycombs bristling
with nails; everything bore the appearance of ruin; a handspike
had become nothing but a piece of iron; a sounding-lead,
nothing but a lump of metal; a dead-eye had become a mere
piece of wood; a halliard, an end of rope; a strand of cord, a
tangled skein; a bolt-rope, a thread in the hem of a sail. All
around was the lamentable work of demolition. Nothing
remained that was not unhooked, unnailed, cracked, wasted,
warped, pierced with holes, destroyed: nothing hung together
in the dreadful mass, but all was torn, dislocated, broken.
There was that air of drift which characterises the scene of all
struggles&mdash;from the mel&eacute;es of men, which are called battles, to
the mel&eacute;es of the elements, to which we give the name of chaos.
Everything was sinking and dropping away; a rolling mass of
planks, panelling, ironwork, cables, and beams had been arrested
just at the great fracture of the hull, whence the least additional
shock must have precipitated them into the sea. What remained
of her powerful frame, once so triumphant, was cracked
here and there, showing through large apertures the dismal
gloom within.</p>

<p>The foam from below spat its flakes contemptuously upon
this broken and forlorn outcast of the sea.</p>



<hr style="width: 65%;" />
<h4>III</h4>

<h5>SOUND; BUT NOT SAFE</h5>


<p>Gilliatt did not expect to find only a portion of the ship existing.
Nothing in the description, in other respects so precise, of
the captain of the <i>Shealtiel</i> had led him to anticipate this
division of the vessel in the centre. It was probable that the
"diabolical crash" heard by the captain of the <i>Shealtiel</i> marked
the moment when this destruction had taken place under the
blows of a tremendous sea. The captain had, doubtless, worn
ship just before this last heavy squall; and what he had taken
for a great sea was probably a waterspout. Later, when he drew
nearer to observe the wreck, he had only been able to see the
stern of the vessel&mdash;the remainder, that is to say, the large opening
where the fore-part had given way, having been concealed
from him among the masses of rock.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_189" id="Page_189">[Pg 189]</a></span></p>

<p>With that exception, the information given by the captain of
the <i>Shealtiel</i> was strictly correct. The hull was useless, but the
engine remained intact.</p>

<p>Such chances are common in the history of shipwreck. The
logic of disaster at sea is beyond the grasp of human science.</p>

<p>The masts having snapped short, had fallen over the side;
the chimney was not even bent. The great iron plating which
supported the machinery had kept it together, and in one piece.
The planks of the paddle-boxes were disjointed, like the leaves
of wooden sunblinds; but through their apertures the paddles
themselves could be seen in good condition. A few of their
floats only were missing.</p>

<p>Besides the machinery, the great stern capstan had resisted
the destruction. Its chain was there, and, thanks to its firm
fixture in a frame of joists, might still be of service, unless the
strain of the voyal should break away the planking. The flooring
of the deck bent at almost every point, and was tottering
throughout.</p>

<p>On the other hand, the trunk of the hull, fixed between the
Douvres, held together, as we have already said, and it appeared
strong.</p>

<p>There was something like derision in this preservation of the
machinery; something which added to the irony of the misfortune.
The sombre malice of the unseen powers of mischief
displays itself sometimes in such bitter mockeries. The
machinery was saved, but its preservation did not make it any
the less lost. The ocean seemed to have kept it only to demolish
it at leisure. It was like the playing of the cat with her prey.</p>

<p>Its fate was to suffer there and to be dismembered day by
day. It was to be the plaything of the savage amusements of
the sea. It was slowly to dwindle, and, as it were, to melt away.
For what could be done? That this vast block of mechanism
and gear, at once massive and delicate, condemned to fixity by
its weight, delivered up in that solitude to the destructive
elements, exposed in the gripe of the rock to the action of the
wind and wave, could, under the frown of that implacable spot,
escape from slow destruction, seemed a madness even to imagine.</p>

<p>The Durande was the captive of the Douvres.</p>

<p>How could she be extricated from that position?</p>

<p>How could she be delivered from her bondage?</p>

<p>The escape of a man is difficult; but what a problem was
this&mdash;the escape of a vast and cumbrous machine.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_190" id="Page_190">[Pg 190]</a></span></p>



<hr style="width: 65%;" />
<h4>IV</h4>

<h5>A PRELIMINARY SURVEY</h5>


<p>Gilliatt was pressed on all sides by demands upon his labours.
The most pressing, however, was to find a safe mooring for the
barge; then a shelter for himself.</p>

<p>The Durande having settled down more on the larboard than
on the starboard side, the right paddle-box was higher than
the left.</p>

<p>Gilliatt ascended the paddle-box on the right. From that
position, although the gut of rocks stretching in abrupt angles
behind the Douvres had several elbows, he was able to study
the ground-plan of the group.</p>

<p>This survey was the preliminary step of his operations.</p>

<p>The Douvres, as we have already described them, were like
two high gable-ends, forming the narrow entrance to a straggling
alley of small cliffs with perpendicular faces. It is not rare to
find in primitive submarine formations these singular kinds of
passages, which seem cut out with a hatchet.</p>

<p>This defile was extremely tortuous, and was never without
water even in the low tides. A current, much agitated,
traversed it at all times from end to end. The sharpness of
its turnings was favourable or unfavourable, according to the
nature of the prevailing wind; sometimes it broke the swell and
caused it to fall; sometimes it exasperated it. This latter
effect was the most frequent. An obstacle arouses the anger of
the sea, and pushes it to excesses. The foam is the exaggeration
of the waves.</p>

<p>The stormy winds in these narrow and tortuous passages
between the rocks are subjected to a similar compression, and
acquire the same malignant character. The tempest frets in
its sudden imprisonment. Its bulk is still immense, but
sharpened and contracted; and it strikes with the massiveness
of a huge club and the keenness of an arrow. It pierces even
while it strikes down. It is a hurricane contracted, like the
draught through the crevice of a door.</p>

<p>The two chains of rocks, leaving between them this kind
of street in the sea, formed stages at a lower level than the
Douvres, gradually decreasing, until they sunk together at a
certain distance beneath the waves.</p>

<p>There was another such gullet of less height than the gullet<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_191" id="Page_191">[Pg 191]</a></span>
of the Douvres, but narrower still, and which formed the
eastern entrance of the defile. It was evident that the double
prolongation of the ridge of rocks continued the kind of street
under the water as far as "The Man Rock," which stood like a
square citadel at the extremity of the group.</p>

<p>At low water, indeed, which was the time at which Gilliatt
was observing them, the two rows of sunken rock showed their
tips, some high and dry, and all visible and preserving their
parallel without interruption.</p>

<p>"The Man" formed the boundary, and buttressed on the
eastern side the entire mass of the group, which was protected
on the opposite side by the two Douvres.</p>

<p>The whole, from a bird's-eye view, appeared like a winding
chaplet of rocks, having the Douvres at one extremity and
"The Man" at the other.</p>

<p>The Douvres, taken together, were merely two gigantic
shafts of granite protruding vertically and almost touching
each other, and forming the crest of one of the mountainous
ranges lying beneath the ocean. Those immense ridges are not
only found rising out of the unfathomable deep. The surf and
the squall had broken them up and divided them like the teeth
of a saw. Only the tip of the ridge was visible; this was the
group of rocks. The remainder, which the waves concealed,
must have been enormous. The passage in which the storm
had planted the Durande was the way between these two
colossal shafts.</p>

<p>This passage, zigzag in form as the forked lightning, was of
about the same width in all parts. The ocean had so fashioned
it. Its eternal commotion produces sometimes those singular
regularities. There is a sort of geometry in the action of the sea.</p>

<p>From one extremity to the other of the defile, the two parallel
granite walls confronted each other at a distance which the
midship frame of the Durande measured exactly. Between the
two Douvres, the widening of the Little Douvre, curved and
turned back as it was, had formed a space for the paddles. In
any other part they must have been shattered to fragments.</p>

<p>The high double fa&ccedil;ade of rock within the passage was
hideous to the sight. When, in the exploration of the desert
of water which we call the ocean, we come upon the unknown
world of the sea, all is uncouth and shapeless. So much as
Gilliatt could see of the defile from the height of the wreck, was
appalling. In the rocky gorges of the ocean we may often
trace a strange permanent impersonation of shipwreck. The<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_192" id="Page_192">[Pg 192]</a></span>
defile of the Douvres was one of these gorges, and its effect was
exciting to the imagination. The oxydes of the rock showed
on the escarpment here and there in red places, like marks of
clotted blood; it resembled the splashes on the walls of an
abattoir. Associations of the charnel-house haunted the place.
The rough marine stones, diversely tinted&mdash;here by the decomposition
of metallic amalgams mingling with the rock, there by
the mould of dampness, manifested in places by purple scales,
hideous green blotches, and ruddy splashes, awakened ideas of
murder and extermination. It was like the unwashed walls of
a chamber which had been the scene of an assassination; or it
might have been imagined that men had been crushed to death
there, leaving traces of their fate. The peaked rocks produced
an indescribable impression of accumulated agonies. Certain
spots appeared to be still dripping with the carnage; here the
wall was wet, and it looked impossible to touch it without leaving
the fingers bloody. The blight of massacre seemed everywhere.
At the base of the double parallel escarpment, scattered
along the water's edge, or just below the waves, or in the
worn hollows of the rocks, were monstrous rounded masses of
shingle, some scarlet, others black or purple, which bore a
strange resemblance to internal organs of the body; they might
have been taken for human lungs, or heart, or liver, scattered
and putrefying in that dismal place. Giants might have been
disembowelled there. From top to bottom of the granite ran
long red lines, which might have been compared to oozings
from a funeral bier.</p>

<p>Such aspects are frequent in sea caverns.</p>



<hr style="width: 65%;" />
<h4>V</h4>

<h5>A WORD UPON THE SECRET CO-OPERATIONS OF
THE ELEMENTS</h5>


<p>Those who, by the disastrous chances of sea-voyages, happen
to be condemned to a temporary habitation upon a rock in
mid-ocean, find that the form of their inhospitable refuge is by
no means a matter of indifference. There is the pyramidal-shaped
rock, a single peak rising from the water; there is the
circle rock somewhat resembling a round of great stones; and
there is the corridor-rock. The latter is the most alarming of
all. It is not only the ceaseless agony of the waves between<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_193" id="Page_193">[Pg 193]</a></span>
its walls, or the tumult of the imprisoned sea; there are also
certain obscure meteorological characteristics which appear to
appertain to this parallelism of two marine rocks. The two
straight sides seem a veritable electric battery.</p>

<p>The first result of the peculiar position of these corridor-rocks
is an action upon the air and the water. The corridor-rock
acts upon the waves and the wind mechanically by its
form; galvanically, by the different magnetic action rendered
possible by its vertical height, its masses in juxtaposition and
contrary to each other.</p>

<p>This form of rock attracts to itself all the forces scattered in
the winds, and exercises over the tempest a singular power of
concentration.</p>

<p>Hence there is in the neighbourhood of these breakers a
certain accentuation of storms.</p>

<p>It must be borne in mind that the wind is composite. The
wind is believed to be simple; but it is by no means simple.
Its power is not merely dynamic, it is chemical also; but this
is not all, it is magnetic. Its effects are often inexplicable.
The wind is as much electrical as aerial. Certain winds coincide
with the <i>aurores boreales</i>. The wind blowing from the bank of
the Aiguilles rolls the waves one hundred feet high; a fact
observed with astonishment by Dumont-d'Urville. The corvette,
he says, "knew not what to obey."</p>

<p>In the south seas the waters will sometimes become inflated
like an outbreak of immense tumours; and at such times the
ocean becomes so terrible that the savages fly to escape the
sight of it. The blasts in the north seas are different. They
are mingled with sharp points of ice; and their gusts, unfit to
breathe, will blow the sledges of the Esquimaux backwards in
the snow. Other winds burn. The simoon of Africa is the
typhoon of China and the samiel of India. Simoon, typhoon,
and samiel, are believed to be the names of demons. They
descend from the heights of the mountains. A storm vitrified
the volcano of Toluca. This hot wind, a whirlwind of inky
colour, rushing upon red clouds, is alluded to in the Vedas:
"Behold the black god, who comes to steal the red cows." In
all these facts we trace the presence of the electric mystery.</p>

<p>The wind indeed is full of it; so are the waves. The sea, too,
is composite in its nature. Under its waves of water which we
see, it has its waves of force which are invisible. Its constituents
are innumerable. Of all the elements the ocean is the
most indivisible and the most profound.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_194" id="Page_194">[Pg 194]</a></span></p>

<p>Endeavour to conceive this chaos so enormous that it dwarfs
all other things to one level. It is the universal recipient,
reservoir of germs of life, and mould of transformations. It
amasses and then disperses, it accumulates and then sows, it
devours and then creates. It receives all the waste and refuse
waters of the earth, and converts them into treasure. It is
solid in the iceberg, liquid in the wave, fluid in the estuary.
Regarded as matter, it is a mass; regarded as a force, it is an
abstraction. It equalises and unites all phenomena. It may
be called the infinite in combination. By force and disturbance,
it arrives at transparency. It dissolves all differences, and
absorbs them into its own unity. Its elements are so numerous
that it becomes identity. One of its drops is complete, and
represents the whole. From the abundance of its tempests, it
attains equilibrium. Plato beheld the mazy dances of the
spheres. Strange fact, though not the less real, the ocean, in
the vast terrestrial journey round the sun, becomes, with its
flux and reflux, the balance of the globe.</p>

<p>In a phenomenon of the sea, all other phenomena are resumed.
The sea is blown out of a waterspout as from a syphon; the
storm observes the principle of the pump; the lightning issues
from the sea as from the air. Aboard ships dull shocks are
sometimes felt, and an odour of sulphur issues from the receptacles
of chain cables. The ocean boils. "The devil has
put the sea in his cauldron," said De Ruyter. In certain
tempests, which characterise the equinoxes and the return to
equilibrium of the prolific power of nature, vessels breasting the
foam seem to give out a kind of fire, phosphoric lights chase
each other along the rigging, so close sometimes to the sailors at
their work that the latter stretch forth their hands and try to
catch, as they fly, these birds of flame. After the great earthquake
of Lisbon, a blast of hot air, as from a furnace, drove
before it towards the city a wave sixty feet high. The oscillation
of the ocean is closely related to the convulsions of the earth.</p>

<p>These immeasurable forces produce sometimes extraordinary
inundations. At the end of the year 1864, one of the Maldive
Islands, at a hundred leagues from the Malabar coast, actually
foundered in the sea. It sunk to the bottom like a shipwrecked
vessel. The fishermen who sailed from it in the morning, found
nothing when they returned at night; scarcely could they
distinguish their villages under the sea. On this occasion boats
were the spectators of the wrecks of houses.</p>

<p>In Europe, where nature seems restrained by the presence of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_195" id="Page_195">[Pg 195]</a></span>
civilisation, such events are rare and are thought impossible.
Nevertheless, Jersey and Guernsey originally formed part of
Gaul, and at the moment while we are writing these lines, an
equinoctial gale has demolished a great portion of the cliff of
the Firth of Forth in Scotland.</p>

<p>Nowhere do these terrific forces appear more formidably conjoined
than in the surprising strait known as the Lyse-Fiord.
The Lyse-Fiord is the most terrible of all the gut rocks of the
ocean. Their terrors are there complete. It is in the northern
sea, near the inhospitable Gulf of Stavanger, and in the 59th
degree of latitude. The water is black and heavy, and subject
to intermitting storms. In this sea, and in the midst of this
solitude, rises a great sombre street&mdash;a street for no human
footsteps. None ever pass through there; no ship ever ventures
in. It is a corridor ten leagues in length, between two rocky
walls of three thousand feet in height. Such is the passage which
presents an entrance to the sea. The defile has its elbows and
angles like all these streets of the sea&mdash;never straight, having
been formed by the irregular action of the water. In the Lyse-Fiord,
the sea is almost always tranquil; the sky above is
serene; the place terrible. Where is the wind? Not on high.
Where is the thunder? Not in the heavens. The wind is
under the sea; the lightnings within the rock. Now and then
there is a convulsion of the water. At certain moments, when
there is perhaps not a cloud in the sky, nearly half way up the
perpendicular rock, at a thousand or fifteen hundred feet above
the water, and rather on the southern than on the northern side,
the rock suddenly thunders, lightnings dart forth, and then
retire like those toys which lengthen out and spring back again
in the hands of children. They contract and enlarge; strike the
opposite cliff, re-enter the rock, issue forth again, recommence
their play, multiply their heads and tips of flame, grow bristling
with points, strike wherever they can, recommence again, and
then are extinguished with a sinister abruptness. Flocks of
birds fly wide in terror. Nothing is more mysterious than that
artillery issuing out of the invisible. One cliff attacks the other,
raining lightning blows from side to side. Their war concerns
not man. It signals the ancient enmity of two rocks in the
impassable gulf.</p>

<p>In the Lyse-Fiord, the wind whirls like the water in an
estuary; the rock performs the function of the clouds; and the
thunder breaks forth like volcanic fire. This strange defile is
a voltaic pile; the plates of which are the double line of cliffs.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_196" id="Page_196">[Pg 196]</a></span></p>



<hr style="width: 65%;" />
<h4>VI</h4>

<h5>A STABLE FOR THE HORSE</h5>


<p>Gilliatt was sufficiently familiar with marine rocks to grapple
in earnest with the Douvres. Before all, as we have just said,
it was necessary to find a safe shelter for the barge.</p>

<p>The double row of reefs, which stretched in a sinuous form
behind the Douvres, connected itself here and there with other
rocks, and suggested the existence of blind passages and hollows
opening out into the straggling way, and joining again to the
principal defile like branches to a trunk.</p>

<p>The lower part of these rocks was covered with kelp, the upper
part with lichens. The uniform level of the seaweed marked
the line of the water at the height of the tide, and the limit of
the sea in calm weather. The points which the water had not
touched presented those silver and golden hues communicated
to marine granite by the white and yellow lichen.</p>

<p>A crust of conoidical shells covered the rock at certain points,
the dry rot of the granite.</p>

<p>At other points in the retreating angles, where fine sand had
accumulated, ribbed on its surface rather by the wind than by
the waves, appeared tufts of blue thistles.</p>

<p>In the indentations, sheltered from the winds, could be traced
the little perforations made by the sea-urchin. This shelly
mass of prickles, which moves about a living ball, by rolling on
its spines, and the armour of which is composed of ten thousand
pieces, artistically adjusted and welded together&mdash;the sea-urchin,
which is popularly called, for some unknown reason,
"Aristotle's lantern," wears away the granite with his five
teeth, and lodges himself in the hole. It is in such holes that
the samphire gatherers find them. They cut them in halves
and eat them raw, like an oyster. Some steep their bread in
the soft flesh. Hence its other name, "Sea-egg."</p>

<p>The tips of the further reefs, left out of the water by the
receding tide, extended close under the escarpment of "The
Man" to a sort of creek, enclosed nearly on all sides by rocky
walls. Here was evidently a possible harbourage. It had the
form of a horse-shoe, and opened only on one side to the east
wind, which is the least violent of all winds in that sea labyrinth.
The water was shut in there, and almost motionless.
The shelter seemed comparatively safe. Gilliatt, moreover,
had not much choice.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_197" id="Page_197">[Pg 197]</a></span></p>

<p>If he wished to take advantage of the low water, it was
important to make haste.</p>

<p>The weather continued to be fine and calm. The insolent
sea was for a while in a gentle mood.</p>

<p>Gilliatt descended, put on his shoes again, unmoored the
cable, re-embarked, and pushed out into the water. He used
the oars, coasting the side of the rock.</p>

<p>Having reached "The Man Rock," he examined the entrance
to the little creek.</p>

<p>A fixed, wavy line in the motionless sea, a sort of wrinkle, imperceptible
to any eye but that of a sailor, marked the channel.</p>

<p>Gilliatt studied for a moment its lineament, almost indistinct
under the water; then he held off a little in order to veer at ease,
and steer well into channel; and suddenly with a stroke of the
oars he entered the little bay.</p>

<p>He sounded.</p>

<p>The anchorage appeared to be excellent.</p>

<p>The sloop would be protected there against almost any of
the contingencies of the season.</p>

<p>The most formidable reefs have quiet nooks of this sort.
The ports which are thus found among the breakers are like the
hospitality of the fierce Bedouin&mdash;friendly and sure.</p>

<p>Gilliatt placed the sloop as near as he could to "The Man,"
but still far enough to escape grazing the rock; and he cast his
two anchors.</p>

<p>That done, he crossed his arms, and reflected on his position.</p>

<p>The sloop was sheltered. Here was one problem solved.
But another remained. Where could he now shelter himself?</p>

<p>He had the choice of two places: the sloop itself, with its
corner of cabin, which was scarcely habitable, and the summit
of "The Man Rock," which was not difficult to scale.</p>

<p>From one or other of these refuges it was possible at low
water, by jumping from rock to rock, to gain the passage between
the Douvres where the Durande was fixed, almost without
wetting the feet.</p>

<p>But low water lasts but a short while, and all the rest of the
time he would be cut off either from his shelter or from the
wreck by more than two hundred fathoms. Swimming among
breakers is difficult at all times; if there is the least commotion
in the sea it is impossible.</p>

<p>He was driven to give up the idea of shelter in the sloop or on
"The Man."</p>

<p>No resting-place was possible among the neighbouring rocks.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_198" id="Page_198">[Pg 198]</a></span></p>

<p>The summits of the lower ones disappeared twice a day
beneath the rising tide.</p>

<p>The summits of the higher ones were constantly swept by
the flakes of foam, and promised nothing but an inhospitable
drenching.</p>

<p>No choice remained but the wreck itself.</p>

<p>Was it possible to seek refuge there?</p>

<p>Gilliatt hoped it might be.</p>



<hr style="width: 65%;" />
<h4>VII</h4>

<h5>A CHAMBER FOR THE VOYAGER</h5>


<p>Half-an-hour afterwards, Gilliatt having returned to the
wreck, climbed to the deck, went below, and descended into the
hold, completing the summary survey of his first visit.</p>

<p>By the help of the capstan he had raised to the deck of the
Durande the package which he had made of the lading of the
sloop. The capstan had worked well. Bars for turning it
were not wanting. Gilliatt had only to take his choice among
the heap of wreck.</p>

<p>He found among the fragments a chisel, dropped, no doubt,
from the carpenter's box, and which he added to his little
stock of tools.</p>

<p>Besides this&mdash;for in poverty of appliances so complete everything
counts for a little&mdash;he had his jack-knife in his pocket.</p>

<p>Gilliatt worked the whole day long on the wreck, clearing
away, propping, arranging.</p>

<p>At nightfall he observed the following facts:</p>

<p>The entire wreck shook in the wind. The carcass trembled
at every step he took. There was nothing stable or strong
except the portion of the hull jammed between the rocks which
contained the engine. There the beams were powerfully supported
by the granite walls.</p>

<p>Fixing his home in the Durande would be imprudent. It
would increase the weight; but far from adding to her burden,
it was important to lighten it. To burden the wreck in any
way was indeed the very contrary of what he wanted.</p>

<p>The mass of ruin required, in fact, the most careful management.
It was like a sick man at the approach of dissolution.
The wind would do sufficient to help it to its end.</p>

<p>It was, moreover, unfortunate enough to be compelled to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_199" id="Page_199">[Pg 199]</a></span>
work there. The amount of disturbance which the wreck
would have to withstand would necessarily distress it, perhaps
beyond its strength.</p>

<p>Besides, if any accident should happen in the night while
Gilliatt was sleeping, he must necessarily perish with the vessel.
No assistance was possible; all would be over. In order to help
the shattered vessel, it was absolutely necessary to remain outside
it.</p>

<p>How to be outside and yet near it, this was the problem.</p>

<p>The difficulty became more complicated as he considered it.</p>

<p>Where could he find a shelter under such conditions?</p>

<p>Gilliatt reflected.</p>

<p>There remained nothing but the two Douvres. They seemed
hopeless enough.</p>

<p>From below, it was possible to distinguish upon the upper
plateau of the Great Douvre a sort of protuberance.</p>

<p>High rocks with flattened summits, like the Great Douvre
and "The Man," are a sort of decapitated peaks. They abound
among the mountains and in the ocean. Certain rocks, particularly
those which are met with in the open sea, bear marks like
half-felled trees. They have the appearance of having received
blows from a hatchet. They have been subjected, in fact, to
the blows of the gale, that indefatigable pioneer of the sea.</p>

<p>There are other still more profound causes of marine convulsions.
Hence the innumerable bruises upon these primeval
masses of granite. Some of these sea giants have their heads
struck off.</p>

<p>Sometimes these heads, from some inexplicable cause, do not
fall, but remain shattered on the summit of the mutilated trunk.
This singularity is by no means rare. The Devil's Rock, at
Guernsey, and the Table, in the Valley of Anweiler, illustrate
some of the most surprising features of this strange geological
enigma.</p>

<p>Some such phenomena had probably fashioned the summit of
the Great Douvre.</p>

<p>If the protuberance which could be observed on the plateau
were not a natural irregularity in the stone, it must necessarily
be some remaining fragment of the shattered summit.</p>

<p>Perhaps the fragment might contain some excavation&mdash;some
hole into which a man could creep for cover. Gilliatt asked for
no more.</p>

<p>But how could he reach the plateau? How could he scale
that perpendicular wall, hard and polished as a pebble, half<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_200" id="Page_200">[Pg 200]</a></span>
covered with the growth of glutinous conferv&aelig;, and having the
slippery look of a soapy surface?</p>

<p>The ridge of the plateau was at least thirty feet above the
deck of the Durande.</p>

<p>Gilliatt took out of his box of tools the knotted cord, hooked
it to his belt by the grapnel, and set to work to scale the Little
Douvre. The ascent became more difficult as he climbed.
He had forgotten to take off his shoes, a fact which increased
the difficulty. With great labour and straining, however, he
reached the point. Safely arrived there, he raised himself and
stood erect. There was scarcely room for his two feet. To
make it his lodging would be difficult. A Stylite might have
contented himself there; Gilliatt, more luxurious in his requirements,
wanted something more commodious.</p>

<p>The Little Douvre, leaning towards the great one, looked
from a distance as if it was saluting it, and the space between
the Douvres, which was some score of feet below, was only
eight or ten at the highest points.</p>

<p>From the spot to which he had climbed, Gilliatt saw more
distinctly the rocky excrescence which partly covered the
plateau of the Great Douvre.</p>

<p>This plateau rose three fathoms at least above his head.</p>

<p>A precipice separated him from it. The curved escarpment
of the Little Douvre sloped away out of sight beneath
him.</p>

<p>He detached the knotted rope from his belt, took a rapid
glance at the dimensions of the rock, and slung the grapnel up
to the plateau.</p>

<p>The grapnel scratched the rock, and slipped. The knotted
rope with the hooks at its end fell down beneath his feet, swinging
against the side of the little Douvre.</p>

<p>He renewed the attempt; slung the rope further, aiming at the
granite protuberance, in which he could perceive crevices and
scratches.</p>

<p>The cast was, this time, so neat and skilful, that the hooks
caught.</p>

<p>He pulled from below. A portion of the rock broke away, and
the knotted rope with its heavy iron came down once more,
striking the escarpment beneath his feet.</p>

<p>He slung the grapnel a third time.</p>

<p>It did not fall.</p>

<p>He put a strain upon the rope; it resisted. The grapnel was
firmly anchored.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_201" id="Page_201">[Pg 201]</a></span></p>

<p>The hooks had caught in some fracture of the plateau which
he could not see.</p>

<p>It was necessary to trust his life to that unknown support.</p>

<p>He did not hesitate.</p>

<p>The matter was urgent. He was compelled to take the
shortest route.</p>

<p>Moreover, to descend again to the deck of the Durande, in
order to devise some other step, was impossible. A slip was
probable, and a fall almost certain. It was easier to climb than
to descend.</p>

<p>Gilliatt's movements were decisive, as are those of all good
sailors. He never wasted force. He always proportioned his
efforts to the work in hand. Hence the prodigies of strength
which he executed with ordinary muscles. His biceps were
no more powerful than that of ordinary men; but his heart was
firmer. He added, in fact, to strength which is physical, energy
which belongs to the moral faculties.</p>

<p>The feat to be accomplished was appalling.</p>

<p>It was to cross the space between the two Douvres, hanging
only by this slender line.</p>

<p>Oftentimes in the path of duty and devotedness, the figure of
death rises before men to present these terrible questions:</p>

<p>Wilt thou do this? asks the shadow.</p>

<p>Gilliatt tested the cord again; the grappling-iron held firm.</p>

<p>Wrapping his left hand in his handkerchief, he grasped the
knotted cord with his right hand, which he covered with his
left; then stretching out one foot, and striking out sharply
with the other against the rock, in order that the impetus might
prevent the rope twisting, he precipitated himself from the
height of the Little Douvre on to the escarpment of the great one.</p>

<p>The shock was severe.</p>

<p>There was a rebound.</p>

<p>His clenched fists struck the rocks in their turn; the handkerchief
had loosened, and they were scratched; they had
indeed narrowly escaped being crushed.</p>

<p>Gilliatt remained hanging there a moment dizzy.</p>

<p>He was sufficiently master of himself not to let go his hold of
the cord.</p>

<p>A few moments passed in jerks and oscillations before he
could catch the cord with his feet; but he succeeded at last.</p>

<p>Recovering himself, and holding the cord at last between his
naked feet as with two hands, he gazed into the depth below.</p>

<p>He had no anxiety about the length of the cord, which had<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_202" id="Page_202">[Pg 202]</a></span>
many a time served him for great heights. The cord, in fact,
trailed upon the deck of the Durande.</p>

<p>Assured of being able to descend again, he began to climb
hand over hand, and still clinging with his feet.</p>

<p>In a few moments he had gained the summit.</p>

<p>Never before had any creature without wings found a footing
there. The plateau was covered in parts with the dung of
birds. It was an irregular trapezium, a mass struck off from
the colossal granitic prism of the Great Douvre. This block
was hollowed in the centre like a basin&mdash;a work of the rain.</p>

<p>Gilliatt, in fact, had guessed correctly.</p>

<p>At the southern angle of the block, he found a mass of superimposed
rocks, probably fragments of the fallen summit. These
rocks, looking like a heap of giant paving-stones, would have
left room for a wild beast, if one could have found its way there,
to secrete himself between them. They supported themselves
confusedly one against the other, leaving interstices like a heap
of ruins. They formed neither grottoes nor caves, but the pile
was full of holes like a sponge. One of these holes was large
enough to admit a man.</p>

<p>This recess had a flooring of moss and a few tufts of grass.
Gilliatt could fit himself in it as in a kind of sheath. The recess
at its entrance was about two feet high. It contracted towards
the bottom. Stone coffins sometimes have this form. The
mass of rocks behind lying towards the south-west, the recess
was sheltered from the showers, but was open to the cold north
wind.</p>

<p>Gilliatt was satisfied with the place.</p>

<p>The two chief problems were solved; the sloop had a harbour,
and he had found a shelter.</p>

<p>The chief merit of his cave was its accessibility from the
wreck.</p>

<p>The grappling-iron of the knotted cord having fallen between
two blocks, had become firmly hooked, but Gilliatt rendered it
more difficult to give way by rolling a huge stone upon it.</p>

<p>He was now free to operate at leisure upon the Durande.</p>

<p>Henceforth he was at home.</p>

<p>The Great Douvre was his dwelling; the Durande was his
workshop.</p>

<p>Nothing was more simple for him than going to and fro,
ascending and descending.</p>

<p>He dropped down easily by the knotted cord on to the
deck.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_203" id="Page_203">[Pg 203]</a></span></p>

<p>The day's work was a good one, the enterprise had begun
well; he was satisfied, and began to feel hungry.</p>

<p>He untied his basket of provisions, opened his knife, cut a
slice of smoked beef, took a bite out of his brown loaf, drank
a draught from his can of fresh water, and supped admirably.</p>

<p>To do well and eat well are two satisfactions. A full stomach
resembles an easy conscience.</p>

<p>This supper was ended, and there was still before him a little
more daylight. He took advantage of it to begin the lightening
of the wreck&mdash;an urgent necessity.</p>

<p>He had passed part of the day in gathering up the fragments.
He put on one side, in the strong compartment which contained
the machine, all that might become of use to him, such as wood,
iron, cordage, and canvas. What was useless he cast into the
sea.</p>

<p>The cargo of the sloop hoisted on to the deck by the capstan,
compact as he had made it, was an encumbrance. Gilliatt
surveyed the species of niche, at a height within his reach, in
the side of the Little Douvre. These natural closets, not shut
in, it is true, are often seen in the rocks. It struck him that
it was possible to trust some stores to this dep&ocirc;t, and he accordingly
placed in the back of the recess his two boxes containing
his tools and his clothing, and his two bags holding the rye-meal
and the biscuit. In the front&mdash;a little too near the edge perhaps,
but he had no other place&mdash;he rested his basket of provisions.</p>

<p>He had taken care to remove from the box of clothing his
sheepskin, his loose coat with a hood, and his waterproof
overalls.</p>

<p>To lessen the hold of the wind upon the knotted cord, he made
the lower extremity fast to one of the riders of the Durande.</p>

<p>The Durande being much driven in, this rider was bent a
good deal, and it held the end of the cord as firmly as a tight
hand.</p>

<p>There was still the difficulty of the upper end of the cord.
To control the lower part was well, but at the summit of the
escarpment at the spot where the knotted cord met the ridge of
the plateau, there was reason to fear that it would be fretted
and worn away by the sharp angle of the rock.</p>

<p>Gilliatt searched in the heap of rubbish in reserve, and took
from it some rags of sail-cloth, and from a bunch of old cables he
pulled out some strands of rope-yarn with which he filled his
pockets.</p>

<p>A sailor would have guessed that he intended to bind with<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_204" id="Page_204">[Pg 204]</a></span>
these pieces of sail-cloth and ends of yarn the part of the
knotted rope upon the edge of the rock, so as to preserve it from
all friction&mdash;an operation which is called "keckling."</p>

<p>Having provided himself with these things, he drew on his
overalls over his legs, put on his waterproof coat over his jacket,
drew its hood over his red cap, hung the sheepskin round his
neck by the two legs, and clothed in this complete panoply, he
grasped the cord, now firmly fixed to the side of the Great
Douvre, and mounted to the assault of that sombre citadel in
the sea.</p>

<p>In spite of his scratched hands, Gilliatt easily regained the
summit.</p>

<p>The last pale tints of sunset were fading in the sky. It was
night upon the sea below. A little light still lingered upon the
height of the Douvre.</p>

<p>Gilliatt took advantage of this remains of daylight to bind
the knotted rope. He wound it round again and again at the
part which passed over the edge of the rock, with a bandage of
several thicknesses of canvas strongly tied at every turn. The
whole resembled in some degree the padding which actresses
place upon their knees, to prepare them for the agonies and
supplications of the fifth act.</p>

<p>This binding completely accomplished, Gilliatt rose from his
stooping position.</p>

<p>For some moments, while he had been busied in his task,
he had had a confused sense of a singular fluttering in the
air.</p>

<p>It resembled, in the silence of the evening, the noise which an
immense bat might make with the beating of its wings.</p>

<p>Gilliatt raised his eyes.</p>

<p>A great black circle was revolving over his head in the pale
twilight sky.</p>

<p>Such circles are seen in pictures round the heads of saints.
These, however, are golden on a dark ground, while the circle
around Gilliatt was dark upon a pale ground. The effect was
strange. It spread round the Great Douvre like the aureole of
night.</p>

<p>The circle drew nearer, then retired; grew narrower, and
then spread wide again.</p>

<p>It was an immense flight of gulls, seamews, and cormorants;
a vast multitude of affrighted sea birds.</p>

<p>The Great Douvre was probably their lodging, and they were
coming to rest for the night. Gilliatt had taken a chamber in<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_205" id="Page_205">[Pg 205]</a></span>
their home. It was evident that their unexpected fellow-lodger
disturbed them.</p>

<p>A man there was an object they had never beheld before.</p>

<p>Their wild flutter continued for some time.</p>

<p>They seemed to be waiting for the stranger to leave the place.</p>

<p>Gilliatt followed them dreamily with his eyes.</p>

<p>The flying multitude seemed at last to give up their design.
The circle suddenly took a spiral form, and the cloud of sea
birds came down upon "The Man Rock" at the extremity of
the group, where they seemed to be conferring and deliberating.</p>

<p>Gilliatt, after settling down in his alcove of granite, and
covering a stone for a pillow for his head, could hear the birds
for a long time chattering one after the other, or croaking, as
if in turns.</p>

<p>Then they were silent, and all were sleeping&mdash;the birds upon
their rock, Gilliatt upon his.</p>



<hr style="width: 65%;" />
<h4>VIII</h4>

<h5>IMPORTUN&AElig;QUE VOLUCRES</h5>


<p>Gilliatt slept well; but he was cold, and this awoke him from
time to time. He had naturally placed his feet at the bottom,
and his head at the entrance to his cave. He had not taken
the precaution to remove from his couch a number of angular
stones, which did not by any means conduce to sleep.</p>

<p>Now and then he half-opened his eyes.</p>

<p>At intervals he heard loud noises. It was the rising tide
entering the caverns of the rocks with a sound like the report of
a cannon.</p>

<p>All the circumstances of his position conspired to produce
the effect of a vision. Hallucinations seemed to surround him.
The vagueness of night increased this effect; and Gilliatt felt
himself plunged into some region of unrealities. He asked
himself if all were not a dream?</p>

<p>Then he dropped to sleep again; and this time, in a veritable
dream, found himself at the B&ucirc; de la Rue, at the Brav&eacute;es, at
St. Sampson. He heard D&eacute;ruchette singing; he was among
realities. While he slept he seemed to wake and live; when
he awoke again he appeared to be sleeping.</p>

<p>In truth, from this time forward he lived in a dream.</p>

<p>Towards the middle of the night a confused murmur filled<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_206" id="Page_206">[Pg 206]</a></span>
the air. Gilliatt had a vague consciousness of it even in his
sleep. It was perhaps a breeze arising.</p>

<p>Once, when awakened by a cold shiver, he opened his eyes a
little wider than before. Clouds were moving in the zenith;
the moon was flying through the sky, with one large star following
closely in her footsteps.</p>

<p>Gilliatt's mind was full of the incidents of his dreams. The
wild outlines of things in the darkness were exaggerated by
this confusion with the impressions of his sleeping hours.</p>

<p>At daybreak he was half-frozen; but he slept soundly.</p>

<p>The sudden daylight aroused him from a slumber which
might have been dangerous. The alcove faced the rising sun.</p>

<p>Gilliatt yawned, stretched himself, and sprang out of his
sleeping place.</p>

<p>His sleep had been so deep that he could not at first recall
the circumstances of the night before.</p>

<p>By degrees the feeling of reality returned, and he began to
think of breakfast.</p>

<p>The weather was calm; the sky cool and serene. The clouds
were gone; the night wind had cleared the horizon, and the sun
rose brightly. Another fine day was commencing. Gilliatt felt
joyful.</p>

<p>He threw off his overcoat and his leggings; rolled them up in
the sheepskin with the wool inside, fastened the roll with a
length of rope-yarn, and pushed it into the cavern for a shelter
in case of rain.</p>

<p>This done, he made his bed&mdash;an operation which consisted
in removing the stones which had annoyed him in the night.</p>

<p>His bed made, he slid down the cord on to the deck of the
Durande, and approached the niche where he had placed his
basket of provisions. As it was very near the edge, the wind
in the night had swept it down, and rolled it into the sea.</p>

<p>It was evident that it would not be easy to recover it. There
was a spirit of mischief and malice in a wind which had sought
out his basket in that position.</p>

<p>It was the commencement of hostilities. Gilliatt understood
the token.</p>

<p>To those who live in a state of rude familiarity with the sea,
it becomes natural to regard the wind as an individuality, and
the rocks as sentient beings.</p>

<p>Nothing remained but the biscuit and the rye-meal, except
the shell-fish, on which the shipwrecked sailor had supported
a lingering existence upon "The Man Rock."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_207" id="Page_207">[Pg 207]</a></span></p>

<p>It was useless to think of subsisting by net or line fishing.
Fish are naturally averse to the neighbourhood of rocks. The
drag and bow net fishers would waste their labour among the
breakers, the points of which would be destructive only to their
nets.</p>

<p>Gilliatt breakfasted on a few limpets which he plucked with
difficulty from the rocks. He narrowly escaped breaking his
knife in the attempt.</p>

<p>While he was making his spare meal, he was sensible of a
strange disturbance on the sea. He looked around.</p>

<p>It was a swarm of gulls and seamews which had just alighted
upon some low rocks, and were beating their wings, tumbling
over each other, screaming, and shrieking. All were swarming
noisily upon the same point. This horde with beaks and talons
were evidently pillaging something.</p>

<p>It was Gilliatt's basket.</p>

<p>Rolled down upon a sharp point by the wind, the basket had
burst open. The birds had gathered round immediately. They
were carrying off in their beaks all sorts of fragments of provisions.
Gilliatt recognised from the distance his smoked beef
and his salted fish.</p>

<p>It was their turn now to be aggressive. The birds had taken
to reprisals. Gilliatt had robbed them of their lodging, they
deprived him of his supper.</p>



<hr style="width: 65%;" />
<h4>IX</h4>

<h5>THE ROCK, AND HOW GILLIATT USED IT</h5>


<p>A week passed.</p>

<p>Although it was in the rainy season no rain fell, a fact for
which Gilliatt felt thankful. But the work he had entered upon
surpassed, in appearance at least, the power of human hand or
skill. Success appeared so improbable that the attempt seemed
like madness.</p>

<p>It is not until a task is fairly grappled with that its difficulties
and perils become fully manifest. There is nothing like making
a commencement for making evident how difficult it will be to
come to the end. Every beginning is a struggle against resistance.
The first step is an exorable undeceiver. A difficulty
which we come to touch pricks like a thorn.</p>

<p>Gilliatt found himself immediately in the presence of obstacles.</p>

<p>In order to raise the engine of the Durande from the wreck<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_208" id="Page_208">[Pg 208]</a></span>
in which it was three-fourths buried, with any chance of success&mdash;in
order to accomplish a salvage in such a place and in such
a season, it seemed almost necessary to be a legion of men.
Gilliatt was alone; a complete apparatus of carpenters' and
engineers' tools and implements were wanted. Gilliatt had a
saw, a hatchet, a chisel, and a hammer. He wanted both a
good workshop and a good shed; Gilliatt had not a roof to cover
him. Provisions, too, were necessary, but he had not even
bread.</p>

<p>Any one who could have seen Gilliatt working on the rock
during all that first work might have been puzzled to determine
the nature of his operations. He seemed to be no longer thinking
either of the Durande or the two Douvres. He was busy
only among the breakers: he seemed absorbed in saving the
smaller parts of the shipwreck. He took advantage of every
high tide to strip the reefs of everything which the shipwreck
had distributed among them. He went from rock to rock,
picking up whatever the sea had scattered&mdash;tatters of sail-cloth,
pieces of iron, splinters of panels, shattered planking, broken
yards&mdash;here a beam, there a chain, there a pulley.</p>

<p>At the same time he carefully surveyed all the recesses of the
rocks. To his great disappointment none were habitable. He
had suffered from the cold in the night, where he lodged between
the stones on the summit of the rock, and he would gladly
have found some better refuge.</p>

<p>Two of those recesses were somewhat extensive. Although
the natural pavement of rock was almost everywhere oblique
and uneven it was possible to stand upright, and even to walk
within them. The wind and the rain wandered there at will,
but the highest tides did not reach them. They were near the
Little Douvre, and were approachable at any time. Gilliatt
decided that one should serve him as a storehouse, the other
as a forge.</p>

<p>With all the sail, rope-bands, and all the reef-earrings he
could collect, he made packages of the fragments of wreck, tying
up the wood and iron in bundles, and the canvas in parcels. He
lashed all these together carefully. As the rising tide approached
these packages, he began to drag them across the reefs to his
storehouse. In the hollow of the rocks he had found a top
rope, by means of which he had been able to haul even the large
pieces of timber. In the same manner he dragged from the sea
the numerous portions of chains which he found scattered among
the breakers.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_209" id="Page_209">[Pg 209]</a></span></p>

<p>Gilliatt worked at these tasks with astonishing activity and
tenacity. He accomplished whatever he attempted&mdash;nothing
could withstand his ant-like perseverance.</p>

<p>At the end of the week he had gathered into this granite
warehouse of marine stores, and ranged into order, all this miscellaneous
and shapeless mass of salvage. There was a corner
for the tacks of sails and a corner for sheets. Bow-lines were
not mixed with halliards; parrels were arranged according to
their number of holes. The coverings of rope-yarn, unwound
from the broken anchorings, were tied in bunches; the dead-eyes
without pulleys were separated from the tackle-blocks. Belaying-pins,
bullseyes, preventer-shrouds, down-hauls, snatch-blocks,
pendents, kevels, trusses, stoppers, sailbooms, if they
were not completely damaged by the storm, occupied different
compartments. All the cross-beams, timber-work, uprights,
stanchions, mast-heads, binding-strakes, portlids, and clamps,
were heaped up apart. Wherever it was possible, he had fixed
the fragments of planks, from the vessel's bottom, one in the
other. There was no confusion between reef-points and nippers
of the cable, nor of crow's-feet with towlines; nor of pulleys of
the small with pulleys of the large ropes; nor of fragments from
the waist with fragments from the stern. A place had been
reserved for a portion of the cat-harpings of the Durande, which
had supported the shrouds of the topmast and the futtock-shrouds.
Every portion had its place. The entire wreck was
there classed and ticketed. It was a sort of chaos in a storehouse.</p>

<p>A stay-sail, fixed by huge stones, served, though torn and
damaged, to protect what the rain might have injured.</p>

<p>Shattered as were the bows of the wreck, he had succeeded
in saving the two cat-heads with their three pulley-blocks.</p>

<p>He had found the bowsprit too, and had had much trouble
in unrolling its gammoning; it was very hard and tight, having
been, according to custom, made by the help of the windlass,
and in dry weather. Gilliatt, however, persevered until he
had detached it, this thick rope promising to be very useful to
him.</p>

<p>He had been equally successful in discovering the little anchor
which had become fast in the hollow of a reef, where the receding
tide had left it uncovered.</p>

<p>In what had been Tangrouille's cabin he had found a piece
of chalk, which he preserved carefully. He reflected that he
might have some marks to make.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_210" id="Page_210">[Pg 210]</a></span></p>

<p>A fire-bucket and several pails in pretty good condition completed
this stock of working materials.</p>

<p>All that remained of the store of coal of the Durande he carried
into the warehouse.</p>

<p>In a week this salvage of d&eacute;bris was finished; the rock was
swept clean, and the Durande was lightened. Nothing remained
now to burden the hull except the machinery.</p>

<p>The portion of the fore-side bulwarks which hung to it did
not distress the hull. The mass hung without dragging, being
partly sustained by a ledge of rock. It was, however, large and
broad, and heavy to drag, and would have encumbered his
warehouse too much. This bulwarking looked something like a
boat-builder's stocks. Gilliatt left it where it was.</p>

<p>He had been profoundly thoughtful during all this labour.
He had sought in vain for the figure-head&mdash;the "doll," as the
Guernsey folks called it, of the Durande. It was one of the
things which the waves had carried away for ever. Gilliatt
would have given his hands to find it&mdash;if he had not had such
peculiar need of them at that time.</p>

<p>At the entrance to the storehouse and outside were two heaps
of refuse&mdash;a heap of iron good for forging, and a heap of wood
good for burning.</p>

<p>Gilliatt was always at work at early dawn. Except his time
of sleep, he did not take a moment of repose.</p>

<p>The wild sea birds, flying hither and thither, watched him at
his work.</p>



<hr style="width: 65%;" />
<h4>X</h4>

<h5>THE FORGE</h5>


<p>The warehouse completed, Gilliatt constructed his forge.</p>

<p>The other recess which he had chosen had within it a species
of passage like a gallery in a mine of pretty good depth. He
had had at first an idea of making this his lodging, but the
draught was so continuous and so persevering in this passage
that he had been compelled to give it up. This current of air,
incessantly renewed, first gave him the notion of the forge.
Since it could not be his chamber, he was determined that this
cabin should be his smithy. To bend obstacles to our purposes
is a great step towards triumph. The wind was Gilliatt's
enemy. He had set about making it his servant.</p>

<p>The proverb applied to certain kinds of men&mdash;"Fit for every<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_211" id="Page_211">[Pg 211]</a></span>thing,
good for nothing"&mdash;may also be applied to the hollows
of rocks. They give no advantages gratuitously. On one side
we find a hollow fashioned conveniently in the shape of a bath;
but it allows the water to run away through a fissure. Here is
a rocky chamber, but without a roof; here a bed of moss, but
oozy with wet; here an arm-chair, but one of hard stone.</p>

<p>The forge which Gilliatt intended was roughly sketched out
by nature; but nothing could be more troublesome than to
reduce this rough sketch to manageable shape, to transform
this cavern into a laboratory and smith's shop. With three or
four large rocks, shaped like a funnel, and ending in a narrow
fissure, chance had constructed there a species of vast ill-shapen
blower, of very different power to those huge old forge bellows
of fourteen feet long, which poured out at every breath ninety-eight
thousand inches of air. This was quite a different sort
of construction. The proportions of the hurricane cannot be
definitely measured.</p>

<p>This excess of force was an embarrassment. The incessant
draught was difficult to regulate.</p>

<p>The cavern had two inconveniences; the wind traversed it
from end to end; so did the water.</p>

<p>This was not the water of the sea, but a continual little
trickling stream, more like a spring than a torrent.</p>

<p>The foam, cast incessantly by the surf upon the rocks and
sometimes more than a hundred feet in the air, had filled with
sea water a natural cave situated among the high rocks overlooking
the excavation. The overflowings of this reservoir
caused, a little behind the escarpment, a fall of water of about
an inch in breadth, and descending four or five fathoms. An
occasional contribution from the rains also helped to fill the
reservoir. From time to time a passing cloud dropped a shower
into the rocky basin, always overflowing. The water was
brackish, and unfit to drink, but clear. This rill of water fell
in graceful drops from the extremities of the long marine
grasses, as from the ends of a length of hair.</p>

<p>He was struck with the idea of making this water serve to
regulate the draught in the cave. By the means of a funnel
made of planks roughly and hastily put together to form two
or three pipes, one of which was fitted with a valve, and of
a large tub arranged as a lower reservoir, without checks or
counterweight, and completed solely by air-tight stuffing above
and air-holes below, Gilliatt, who, as we have already said, was
handy at the forge and at the mechanic's bench, succeeded in<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_212" id="Page_212">[Pg 212]</a></span>
constructing, instead of the forge-bellows, which he did not
possess, an apparatus less perfect than what is known now-a-days
by the name of a "cagniardelle," but less rude than what
the people of the Pyrenees anciently called a "trompe."</p>

<p>He had some rye-meal, and he manufactured with it some
paste. He had also some white rope, which picked out into tow.
With this paste and tow, and some bits of wood, he stopped all
the crevices of the rock, leaving only a little air passage made
of a powder-flask which he had found aboard the Durande, and
which had served for loading the signal gun. This powder-flask
was directed horizontally to a large stone, which Gilliatt
made the hearth of the forge. A stopper made of a piece of
tow served to close it in case of need.</p>

<p>After this, he heaped up the wood and coal upon the hearth,
struck his steel against the bare rock, caught a spark upon a
handful of loose tow, and having ignited it, soon lighted his
forge fire.</p>

<p>He tried the blower: it worked well.</p>

<p>Gilliatt felt the pride of a Cyclops: he was the master of air,
water, and fire. Master of the air; for he had given a kind of lungs
to the wind, and changed the rude draught into a useful blower.
Master of water, for he had converted the little cascade into a
"trompe." Master of fire, for out of this moist rock he had
struck a flame.</p>

<p>The cave being almost everywhere open to the sky, the smoke
issued freely, blackening the curved escarpment. The rocks
which seemed destined for ever to receive only the white foam,
became now familiar with the blackening smoke.</p>

<p>Gilliatt selected for an anvil a large smooth round stone, of
about the required shape and dimensions. It formed a base
for the blows of his hammer; but one that might fly and was
very dangerous. One of the extremities of this block, rounded
and ending in a point, might, for want of anything better, serve
instead of a conoid bicorn; but the other kind of bicorn of
the pyramidal form was wanting. It was the ancient stone
anvil of the Troglodytes. The surface, polished by the waves,
had almost the firmness of steel.</p>

<p>He regretted not having brought his anvil. As he did not
know that the Durande had been broken in two by the tempest,
he had hoped to find the carpenter's chest and all his tools
generally kept in the forehold. But it was precisely the fore-part
of the vessel which had been carried away.</p>

<p>These two excavations which he had found in the rock were<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_213" id="Page_213">[Pg 213]</a></span>
contiguous. The warehouse and the forge communicated with
each other.</p>

<p>Every evening, when his work was ended, he supped on a
little biscuit, moistened in water, a sea-urchin or a crab, or a
few <i>ch&acirc;taignes de mer</i>, the only food to be found among those
rocks; and shivering like his knotted cord, mounted again to
sleep in his cell upon the Great Douvre.</p>

<p>The very materialism of his daily occupation increased the
kind of abstraction in which he lived. To be steeped too deeply
in realities is in itself a cause of visionary moods. His bodily
labour, with its infinite variety of details, detracted nothing
from the sensation of stupor which arose from the strangeness of
his position and his work. Ordinary bodily fatigue is a thread
which binds man to the earth; but the very peculiarity of the
enterprise he was engaged in kept him in a sort of ideal twilight
region. There were times when he seemed to be striking blows
with his hammer in the clouds. At other moments his tools
appeared to him like arms. He had a singular feeling, as if
he was repressing or providing against some latent danger of
attack. Untwisting ropes, unravelling threads of yarn in a
sail, or propping up a couple of beams, appeared to him at such
times like fashioning engines of war. The thousand minute
pains which he took about his salvage operations produced at
last in his mind the effect of precautions against aggressions
little concealed, and easy to anticipate. He did not know the
words which express the ideas, but he perceived them. His
instincts became less and less those of the worker; his habits
more and more those of the savage man.</p>

<p>His business there was to subdue and direct the powers of
nature. He had an indistinct perception of it. A strange
enlargement of his ideas!</p>

<p>Around him, far as eye could reach, was the vast prospect of
endless labour wasted and lost. Nothing is more disturbing to
the mind than the contemplation of the diffusion of forces at
work in the unfathomable and illimitable space of the ocean.
The mind tends naturally to seek the object of these forces.
The unceasing movement in space, the unwearying sea, the
clouds that seem ever hurrying somewhere, the vast mysterious
prodigality of effort, all this is a problem. Whither does this
perpetual movement tend? What do these winds construct?
What do these giant blows build up? These howlings, shocks,
and sobbings of the storm, what do they end in? and what is
the business of this tumult? The ebb and flow of these<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_214" id="Page_214">[Pg 214]</a></span>
questionings is eternal, as the flux and reflux of the sea itself.
Gilliatt could answer for himself; his work he knew, but the
agitation which surrounded him far and wide at all times perplexed
him confusedly with its eternal questionings. Unknown
to himself, mechanically, by the mere pressure of external things,
and without any other effect than a strange, unconscious bewilderment,
Gilliatt, in this dreamy mood, blended his own toil
somehow with the prodigious wasted labour of the sea-waves.
How, indeed, in that position, could he escape the influence of
that mystery of the dread, laborious ocean? how do other than
meditate, so far as meditation was possible, upon the vacillation
of the waves, the perseverance of the foam, the imperceptible
wearing down of rocks, the furious beatings of the four winds?
How terrible that perpetual recommencement, that ocean bed,
those Dana&iuml;des-like clouds, all that travail and weariness for
no end!</p>

<p>For no end? Not so! But for what? O Thou Infinite
Unknown, Thou only knowest!</p>



<hr style="width: 65%;" />
<h4>XI</h4>

<h5>DISCOVERY</h5>


<p>A rock near the coast is sometimes visited by men; a rock
in mid-ocean never. What object could any one have there?
No supplies can be drawn thence; no fruit-trees are there, no
pasturage, no beasts, no springs of water fitted for man's use.
It stands aloft, a rock with its steep sides and summits above
water, and its sharp points below. Nothing is to be found
there but inevitable shipwreck.</p>

<p>This kind of rocks, which in the old sea dialect were called
<i>Isol&eacute;s</i>, are, as we have said, strange places. The sea is alone
there; she works her own will. No token of terrestrial life
disturbs her. Man is a terror to the sea; she is shy of his
approach, and hides from him her deeds. But she is bolder
among the lone sea rocks. The everlasting soliloquy of the
waves is not troubled there. She labours at the rock, repairs
its damage, sharpens its peaks, makes them rugged or renews
them. She pierces the granite, wears down the soft stone, and
denudes the hard; she rummages, dismembers, bores, perforates,
and grooves; she fills the rock with cells, and makes it sponge-like,
hollows out the inside, or sculptures it without. In that<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_215" id="Page_215">[Pg 215]</a></span>
secret mountain which is hers, she makes to herself caves,
sanctuaries, palaces. She has her splendid and monstrous
vegetation, composed of floating plants which bite, and of
monsters which take root; and she hides away all this terrible
magnificence in the twilight of her deeps. Among the isolated
rocks no eye watches over her; no spy embarrasses her movements.
It is there that she develops at liberty her mysterious
side, which is inaccessible to man. Here she keeps all strange
secretions of life. Here that the unknown wonders of the sea
are assembled.</p>

<p>Promontories, forelands, capes, headlands, breakers, and
shoals are veritable constructions. The geological changes of
the earth are trifling compared with the vast operations of the
ocean. These breakers, these habitations in the sea, these
pyramids, and spouts of the foam are the practicers of a
mysterious art which the author of this book has somewhere
called "the Art of Nature." Their style is known by its vastness.
The effects of chance seem here design. Its works are
multiform. They abound in the mazy entanglement of the
rock-coral groves, the sublimity of the cathedral, the extravagance
of the pagoda, the amplitude of the mountain, the
delicacy of the jeweller's work, the horror of the sepulchre.
They are filled with cells like the wasps' nest, with dens like
menageries, with subterranean passages like the haunts of moles,
with dungeons like Bastiles, with ambuscades like a camp.
They have their doors, but they are barricaded; their columns,
but they are shattered; their towers, but they are tottering;
their bridges, but they are broken. Their compartments are
unaccommodating; these are fitted for the birds only, those
only for fish. They are impassable. Their architectural style
is variable and inconsistent; it regards or disregards at will the
laws of equilibrium, breaks off, stops short, begins in the form
of an archivolt, and ends in an architrave, block on block.
Enceladus is the mason. A wondrous science of dynamics
exhibits here its problems ready solved. Fearful overhanging
blocks threaten, but fall not: the human mind cannot guess
what power supports their bewildering masses. Blind entrances,
gaps, and ponderous suspensions multiply and vary
infinitely. The laws which regulate this Babel baffle human
induction. The great unknown architect plans nothing, but
succeeds in all. Rocks massed together in confusion form a
monstrous monument, defy reason, yet maintain equilibrium.
Here is something more than strength; it is eternity. But<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_216" id="Page_216">[Pg 216]</a></span>
order is wanting. The wild tumult of the waves seems to have
passed into the wilderness of stone. It is like a tempest petrified
and fixed for ever. Nothing is more impressive than that wild
architecture; always standing, yet always seeming to fall; in
which everything appears to give support, and yet to withdraw
it. A struggle between opposing lines has resulted in the construction
of an edifice, filled with traces of the efforts of those
old antagonists, the ocean and the storm.</p>

<p>This architecture has its terrible masterpieces, of which the
Douvres rock was one.</p>

<p>The sea had fashioned and perfected it with a sinister solicitude.
The snarling waters licked it into shape. It was hideous,
treacherous, dark, full of hollows.</p>

<p>It had a complete system of submarine caverns ramifying and
losing themselves in unfathomed depths. Some of the orifices
of this labyrinth of passages were left exposed by the low tides.
A man might enter there, but at his risk and peril.</p>

<p>Gilliatt determined to explore all these grottoes, for the
purpose of his salvage labour. There was not one which was
not repulsive. Everywhere about the caverns that strange
aspect of an abattoir, those singular traces of slaughter, appeared
again in all the exaggeration of the ocean. No one who
has not seen in excavations of this kind, upon the walls of everlasting
granite, these hideous natural frescoes, can form a
notion of their singularity.</p>

<p>These pitiless caverns, too, were false and sly. Woe betide
him who would loiter there. The rising tide filled them to
their roofs.</p>

<p>Rock limpets and edible mosses abounded among them.</p>

<p>They were obstructed by quantities of shingle, heaped
together in their recesses. Some of their huge smooth stones
weighed more than a ton. They were of every proportion, and
of every hue; but the greater part were blood coloured. Some,
covered with a hairy and glutinous seaweed, seemed like large
green moles boring a way into the rock.</p>

<p>Several of the caverns terminated abruptly in the form of a
demi-cupola. Others, main arteries of a mysterious circulation,
lengthened out in the rock in dark and tortuous fissures.
They were the alleys of the submarine city; but they gradually
contracted from their entrances, and at length left no way for
a man to pass. Peering in by the help of a lighted torch, he
could see nothing but dark hollows dripping with moisture.</p>

<p>One day, Gilliatt, exploring, ventured into one of these<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_217" id="Page_217">[Pg 217]</a></span>
fissures. The state of the tide favoured the attempt. It was
a beautiful day of calm and sunshine. There was no fear of
any accident from the sea to increase the danger.</p>

<p>Two necessities, as we have said, compelled him to undertake
these explorations. He had to gather fragments of wreck and
other things to aid him in his labour, and to search for crabs
and crayfish for his food. Shell-fish had begun to fail him on
the rocks.</p>

<p>The fissure was narrow, and the passage difficult. Gilliatt
could see daylight beyond. He made an effort, contorted
himself as much as he could, and penetrated into the cave as
far as he was able.</p>

<p>He had reached, without suspecting it, the interior of the
rock, upon the point of which Clubin had steered the Durande.
Though abrupt and almost inaccessible without, it was hollowed
within. It was full of galleries, pits, and chambers, like the
tomb of an Egyptian king. This network of caverns was one
of the most complicated of all that labyrinth, a labour of the
water, the undermining of the restless sea. The branches of
the subterranean maze probably communicated with the sea
without by more than one issue, some gaping at the level of the
waves, the others profound and invisible. It was near here,
but Gilliatt knew it not, that Clubin had dived into the sea.</p>

<p>In this crocodile cave&mdash;where crocodiles, it is true, were not
among the dangers&mdash;Gilliatt wound about, clambered, struck
his head occasionally, bent low and rose again, lost his footing
and regained it many times, advancing laboriously. By
degrees the gallery widened; a glimmer of daylight appeared,
and he found himself suddenly at the entrance to a cavern of a
singular kind.</p>



<hr style="width: 65%;" />
<h4>XII</h4>

<h5>THE INTERIOR OF AN EDIFICE UNDER THE SEA</h5>


<p>The gleam of daylight was fortunate.</p>

<p>One step further, and Gilliatt must have fallen into a pool,
perhaps without bottom. The waters of these cavern pools
are so cold and paralysing as to prove fatal to the strongest
swimmers.</p>

<p>There is, moreover, no means of remounting or of hanging on
to any part of their steep walls.</p>

<p>He stopped short. The crevice from which he had just<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_218" id="Page_218">[Pg 218]</a></span>
issued ended in a narrow and slippery projection, a species of
corbel in the peaked wall. He leaned against the side and
surveyed it.</p>

<p>He was in a large cave. Over his head was a roofing not
unlike the inside of a vast skull, which might have been imagined
to have been recently dissected. The dripping ribs of the
striated indentations of the roof seemed to imitate the branching
fibres and jagged sutures of the bony cranium. A stony
ceiling and a watery floor. The rippled waters between the
four walls of the cave were like wavy paving tiles. The grotto
was shut in on all sides. Not a window, not even an air-hole
visible. No breach in the wall, no crack in the roof. The
light came from below and through the water, a strange,
sombre light.</p>

<p>Gilliatt, the pupils of whose eyes had contracted during his
explorations of the dusky corridor, could distinguish everything
about him in the pale glimmer.</p>

<p>He was familiar, from having often visited them, with the
caves of Pl&eacute;mont in Jersey, the Creux-Maill&eacute; at Guernsey, the
Boutiques at Sark; but none of these marvellous caverns could
compare with the subterranean and submarine chamber into
which he had made his way.</p>

<p>Under the water at his feet he could see a sort of drowned
arch. This arch, a natural ogive, fashioned by the waves, was
glittering between its two dark and profound supports. It was
by this submerged porch that the daylight entered into the
cavern from the open sea. A strange light shooting upward
from a gulf.</p>

<p>The glimmer spread out beneath the waters like a large fan,
and was reflected on the rocks. Its direct rays, divided into
long, broad shafts, appeared in strong relief against the darkness
below, and becoming brighter or more dull from one rock
to another, looked as if seen here and there through plates of
glass. There was light in that cave it is true; but it was the
light that was unearthly. The beholder might have dreamed
that he had descended in some other planet. The glimmer
was an enigma, like the glaucous light from the eye-pupil of a
Sphinx. The whole cave represented the interior of a death's-head
of enormous proportions, and of a strange splendour. The
vault was the hollow of the brain, the arch the mouth; the
sockets of the eyes were wanting. The cavern, alternately
swallowing and rendering up the flux and reflux through its
mouth wide opened to the full noonday without, seemed to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_219" id="Page_219">[Pg 219]</a></span>
drink in the light and vomit forth bitterness; a type of some
beings intelligent and evil. The light, in traversing this inlet
through the vitreous medium of the sea-water, became green,
like a ray of starlight from Aldebaran. The water, filled with
the moist light, appeared like a liquid emerald. A tint of
aqua-marina of marvellous delicacy spread a soft hue throughout
the cavern. The roof, with its cerebral lobes, and its
rampant ramifications, like the fibres of nerves, gave out a
tender reflection of chrysoprase. The ripples reflected on the
roof were falling in order and dissolving again incessantly, and
enlarging and contracting their glittering scales in a mysterious
and mazy dance. They gave the beholder an impression of
something weird and spectral: he wondered what prey secured,
or what expectation about to be realised, moved with a joyous
thrill this magnificent network of living fire. From the projections
of the vault, and the angles of the rock, hung lengths of
delicate fibrous plants, bathing their roots probably through
the granite in some upper pool of water, and distilling from
their silky ends one after the other, a drop of water like a pearl.
These drops fell in the water now and then with a gentle splash.
The effect of the scene was singular. Nothing more beautiful
could be imagined; nothing more mournful could anywhere be
found.</p>

<p>It was a wondrous palace, in which death sat smiling and
content.</p>



<hr style="width: 65%;" />
<h4>XIII</h4>

<h5>WHAT WAS SEEN THERE; AND WHAT PERCEIVED DIMLY</h5>


<p>A place of shade, which yet was dazzling to the eyes&mdash;such was
this surprising cavern.</p>

<p>The beating of the sea made itself felt throughout the cavern.
The oscillation without raised and depressed the level of the
waters within, with the regularity of respiration. A mysterious
spirit seemed to fill this great organism, as it swelled and subsided
in silence.</p>

<p>The water had a magical transparency, and Gilliatt distinguished
at various depths submerged recesses, and surfaces of
jutting rocks ever of a deeper and a deeper green. Certain dark
hollows, too, were there, probably too deep for soundings.</p>

<p>On each side of the submarine porch, rude elliptical arches,
filled with shallows, indicated the position of small lateral<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_220" id="Page_220">[Pg 220]</a></span>
caves, low alcoves of the central cavern, accessible, perhaps, at
certain tides. These openings had roofs in the form of inclined
planes, and at angles more or less acute. Little sandy beaches
of a few feet wide, laid bare by the action of the water, stretched
inward, and were lost in these recesses.</p>

<p>Here and there seaweeds of more than a fathom in length
undulated beneath the water, like the waving of long tresses in
the wind; and there were glimpses of a forest of sea plants.</p>

<p>Above and below the surface of the water, the wall of the
cavern from top to bottom&mdash;from the vault down to the depth
at which it became invisible&mdash;was tapestried with that prodigious
efflorescence of the sea, rarely perceived by human eyes,
which the old Spanish navigators called <i>praderias del mar</i>. A
luxuriant moss, having all the tints of the olive, enlarged and
concealed the protuberances of granite. From all the jutting
points swung the thin fluted strips of varech, which sailors
use as their barometers. The light breath which stirred in the
cavern waved to and fro their glossy bands.</p>

<p>Under these vegetations there showed themselves from time
to time some of the rarest <i>bijoux</i> of the casket of the ocean;
ivory shells, strombi, purple-fish, univalves, struthiolaires,
turriculated cerites. The bell-shaped limpet shells, like tiny
huts, were everywhere adhering to the rocks, distributed in
settlements, in the alleys between which prowled oscabrions,
those beetles of the sea. A few large pebbles found their way
into the cavern; shell-fish took refuge there. The crustacea
are the grandees of the sea, who, in their lacework and embroidery,
avoid the rude contact of the pebbly crowd. The glittering
heap of their shells, in certain spots under the wave, gave out
singular irradiations, amidst which the eye caught glimpses of
confused azure and gold, and mother-of-pearl, of every tint of
the water.</p>

<p>Upon the side of the cavern, a little above the water-line, a
magnificent and singular plant, attaching itself, like a fringe,
to the border of seaweed, continued and completed it. This
plant, thick, fibrous, inextricably intertwined, and almost
black, exhibited to the eye large confused and dusky festoons,
everywhere dotted with innumerable little flowers of the colour
of lapis-lazuli. In the water they seemed to glow like small
blue flames. Out of the water they were flowers; beneath it
they were sapphires. The water rising and inundating the
basement of the grotto clothed with these plants, seemed to cover
the rock with gems.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_221" id="Page_221">[Pg 221]</a></span></p>

<p>At every swelling of the wave these flowers increased in
splendour, and at every subsidence grew dull again. So it is
with the destiny of man; aspiration is life, the outbreathing
of the spirit is death.</p>

<p>One of the marvels of the cavern was the rock itself. Forming
here a wall, there an arch, and here again a pillar or pilaster,
it was in places rough and bare, and sometimes close beside,
was wrought with the most delicate natural carving. Strange
evidences of mind mingled with the massive stolidity of the
granite. It was the wondrous art-work of the ocean. Here a
sort of panel, cut square, and covered with round embossments
in various positions, simulated a vague bas-relief. Before this
sculpture, with its obscure designs, a man might have dreamed
of Prometheus roughly sketching for Michael Angelo. It seemed
as if that great genius with a few blows of his mallet could have
finished the indistinct labours of the giant. In other places the
rock was damasked like a Saracen buckler, or engraved like
a Florentine vase. There were portions which appeared like
Corinthian brass, then like arabesques, as on the door of a
mosque; then like Runic stones with obscure and mystic prints
of claws. Plants with twisted creepers and tendrils, crossing
and recrossing upon the groundwork of golden lichens, covered
it with filigree. The grotto resembled in some wise a Moorish
palace. It was a union of barbarism and of goldsmith's
work, with the imposing and rugged architecture of the
elements.</p>

<p>The magnificent stains and moulderings of the sea covered,
as with velvet, the angles of granite. The escarpments were
festooned with large-flowered bindweed, sustaining itself with
graceful ease, and ornamenting the walls as by intelligent design.
Wall-pellitories showed their strange clusters in tasteful arrangement.
The wondrous light which came from beneath the water,
at once a submarine twilight and an Elysian radiance, softened
down and blended all harsh lineaments. Every wave was a
prism. The outlines of things under these rainbow-tinted
undulations produced the chromatic effects of optical glasses
made too convex. Solar spectra shot through the waters.
Fragments of rainbows seemed floating in that transparent
dawn. Elsewhere&mdash;in other corners&mdash;there was discernible a
kind of moonlight in the water. Every kind of splendour
seemed to mingle there, forming a strange sort of twilight.
Nothing could be more perplexing or enigmatical than the
sumptuous beauties of this cavern. Enchantment reigned over<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_222" id="Page_222">[Pg 222]</a></span>
all. The fantastic vegetation, the rude masonry of the place
seemed to harmonise. It was a happy marriage this, between
these strange wild things. The branches seeming but to touch
one another clung closely each to each. The stern rock and the
pale flower met in a passionate embrace. Massive pillars had
capitals and entwining wreaths of delicate garlands, that
quivered through every fibre, suggestive of fairy fingers tickling
the feet of a Behemoth, and the rock upheld the plant, and the
plant clasped the rock with unnatural joy of attraction.</p>

<p>The effect produced by the mysterious reconciliation of these
strange forms was of a supreme and inexpressible beauty.</p>

<p>The works of nature, not less than the works of genius, contain
the absolute, and produce an impression of awe. Something
unexpected about them imperiously insists on our mental
submission; we are conscious of a premeditation beyond our
human scope, and at no time are they more startling than when
we suddenly become aware of the beauty that is mingled with
their terror.</p>

<p>This hidden grotto was, if we may use the expression,
siderealised. There was everything in it to surprise and overwhelm.
An apocalyptic light illuminated this crypt. One
could not tell if that which the eyes looked upon was a reality,
for reality bore the impress of the impossible. One could see,
and touch, and know that one was standing there, and yet it
was difficult to believe in it all.</p>

<p>Was it daylight which entered by this casement beneath the
sea? Was it indeed water which trembled in this dusky pool?
Were not these arched roofs and porches fashioned out of sunset
clouds to imitate a cavern to men's eyes? What stone was that
beneath the feet? Was not this solid shaft about to melt
and pass into thin air? What was that cunning jewellery of
glittering shells, half seen beneath the wave? How far away
were life, and the green earth, and human faces? What strange
enchantment haunted that mystic twilight? What blind
emotion, mingling its sympathies with the uneasy restlessness
of plants beneath the wave?</p>

<p>At the extremity of the cavern, which was oblong, rose a
Cyclopean archivolte, singularly exact in form. It was a species
of cave within a cave, of tabernacle within a sanctuary. Here,
behind a sheet of bright verdure, interposed like the veil of a
temple, arose a stone out of the waves, having square sides,
and bearing some resemblance to an altar. The water surrounded
it in all parts. It seemed as if a goddess had just<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_223" id="Page_223">[Pg 223]</a></span>
descended from it. One might have dreamed there that some
celestial form beneath that crypt or upon that altar dwelt for
ever pensive in naked beauty, but grew invisible at the approach
of mortals. It was hard to conceive that majestic chamber
without a vision within. The day-dream of the intruder might
evoke again the marvellous apparition. A flood of chaste light
falling upon white shoulders scarcely seen; a forehead bathed
with the light of dawn; an Olympian visage oval-shaped; a
bust full of mysterious grace; arms modestly drooping; tresses
unloosened in the aurora; a body delicately modelled of pure
whiteness, half-wrapped in a sacred cloud, with the glance of a
virgin; a Venus rising from the sea, or Eve issuing from chaos;
such was the dream which filled the mind.</p>

<p>It seemed improbable that no phantom figure haunted this
abode. Some woman's form, the embodiment of a star, had
no doubt but shortly left the altar. Enveloped in this atmosphere
of mute adoration the mind pictured an Amphitryon, a
Tethys, some Diana capable of passion, some idealistic figure
formed of light, looking softly down in the surrounding
dusk. It was she who had left behind in the cave this perfumed
luminosity, an emanation from her star-body. The
dazzling phantom was no longer visible, she was only revealed
by the invisible, and the sense of her presence lingered, setting
the whole being voluptuously a-quiver. The goddess had
departed, but divinity remained.</p>

<p>The beauty of the recess seemed made for this celestial
presence. It was for the sake of this deity, this fairy of the
pearl caverns, this queen of the Zephyrs, this Grace born of
the waves, it was for her&mdash;as the mind, at least, imagined&mdash;that
this subterranean dwelling had been thus religiously walled in,
so that nothing might ever trouble the reverent shadows and
the majestic silence round about that divine spirit.</p>

<p>Gilliatt, who was a kind of seer amid the secrets of nature,
stood there musing, and sensible of confused emotions.</p>

<p>Suddenly, at a few feet below him, in the delightful transparence
of that water like liquid jewels, he became sensible of
the approach of something of mystic shape. A species of long
ragged band was moving amidst the oscillation of the waves.
It did not float, but darted about of its own will. It had an
object; was advancing somewhere rapidly. The object had
something of the form of a jester's bauble with points, which
hung flabby and undulating. It seemed covered with a dust
incapable of being washed away by the water. It was more<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_224" id="Page_224">[Pg 224]</a></span>
than horrible; it was foul. The beholder felt that it was something
monstrous. It was a living thing; unless, indeed, it were
but an illusion. It seemed to be seeking the darker portion of
the cavern, where at last it vanished. The heavy shadows grew
darker as its sinister form glided into them, and disappeared.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_225" id="Page_225">[Pg 225]</a></span></p>



<hr style="width: 65%;" />
<h3>BOOK II</h3>

<h4>THE LABOUR</h4>

<h4>I</h4>

<h5>THE RESOURCES OF ONE WHO HAS NOTHING</h5>


<p>The cavern did not easily part with its explorers. The entry
had been difficult; going back was more difficult still. Gilliatt,
however, succeeded in extricating himself; but he did not
return there. He had found nothing of what he was in quest
of, and he had not the time to indulge curiosity.</p>

<p>He put the forge in operation at once. Tools were wanting;
he set to work and made them.</p>

<p>For fuel he had the wreck; for motive force the water; for
his bellows the wind; for his anvil a stone; for art his instinct;
for power his will.</p>

<p>He entered with ardour upon his sombre labours.</p>

<p>The weather seemed to smile upon his work. It continued
to be dry and free from equinoctial gales. The month of March
had come, but it was tranquil. The days grew longer. The
blue of the sky, the gentleness of all the movements of the scene,
the serenity of the noontide, seemed to exclude the idea of
mischief. The waves danced merrily in the sunlight. A Judas
kiss is the first step to treachery; of such caresses the ocean is
prodigal. Her smile, like that of woman's sometimes, cannot
be trusted.</p>

<p>There was little wind. The hydraulic bellows worked all the
better for that reason. Much wind would have embarrassed
rather than aided it. Gilliatt had a saw; he manufactured for
himself a file. With the saw he attacked the wood; with the
file the metal. Then he availed himself of the two iron hands
of the smith&mdash;the pincers and the pliers. The pincers gripe, the
pliers handle; the one is like the closed hand, the other like the
fingers. By degrees he made for himself a number of auxiliaries,
and constructed his armour. With a piece of hoop-wood he
made a screen for his forge-fire.</p>

<p>One of his principal labours was the sorting and repair of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_226" id="Page_226">[Pg 226]</a></span>
pulleys. He mended both the blocks and the sheaves of tackle.
He cut down the irregularities of all broken joists, and reshaped
the extremities. He had, as we have said, for the necessities
of his carpentry, a quantity of pieces of wood, stored away, and
arranged according to the forms, the dimensions, and the nature
of their grain; the oak on one side, the pine on the other; the
short pieces like riders, separated from the straight pieces like
binding strakes. This formed his reserve of supports and levers,
of which he might stand in great need at any moment.</p>

<p>Any one who intends to construct hoisting tackle ought to
provide himself with beams and small cables. But that is not
sufficient. He must have cordage. Gilliatt restored the cables,
large and small. He frayed out the tattered sails, and succeeded
in converting them into an excellent yarn, of which he made
twine. With this he joined the ropes. The joins, however,
were liable to rot. It was necessary, therefore, to hasten to
make use of these cables. He had only been able to make white
tow, for he was without tar.</p>

<p>The ropes mended, he proceeded to repair the chains.</p>

<p>Thanks to the lateral point of the stone anvil, which served
the part of the conoid bicorn, he was able to forge rings rude in
shape but strong. With these he fastened together the severed
lengths of chains, and made long pieces.</p>

<p>To work at a forge without assistance is something more than
troublesome. He succeeded nevertheless. It is true that he
had only to forge and shape articles of comparatively small size,
which he was able to handle with the pliers in one hand, while
he hammered with the other.</p>

<p>He cut into lengths the iron bars of the captain's bridge on
which Clubin used to pass to and fro from paddle-box to paddle-box
giving his orders; forged at one extremity of each piece a
point, and at the other a flat head. By this means he manufactured
large nails of about a foot in length. These nails, much
used in pontoon making, are useful in fixing anything in rocks.</p>

<p>What was his object in all these labours? We shall see.</p>

<p>He was several times compelled to renew the blade of his
hatchet and the teeth of his saw. For renotching the saw he
had manufactured a three-sided file.</p>

<p>Occasionally he made use of the capstan of the Durande.
The hook of the chain broke: he made another.</p>

<p>By the aid of his pliers and pincers, and by using his chisel as
a screwdriver, he set to work to remove the two paddle-wheels
of the vessel; an object which he accomplished. This was<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_227" id="Page_227">[Pg 227]</a></span>
rendered practicable by reason of a peculiarity in their construction.
The paddle-boxes which covered them served him to
stow them away. With the planks of these paddle-boxes, he
made two cases in which he deposited the two paddles, piece by
piece, each part being carefully numbered.</p>

<p>His lump of chalk became precious for this purpose.</p>

<p>He kept the two cases upon the strongest part of the wreck.</p>

<p>When these preliminaries were completed, he found himself
face to face with the great difficulty. The problem of the engine
of the Durande was now clearly before him.</p>

<p>Taking the paddle-wheels to pieces had proved practicable.
It was very different with the machinery.</p>

<p>In the first place, he was almost entirely ignorant of the
details of the mechanism. Working thus blindly he might do
some irreparable damage. Then, even in attempting to dismember
it, if he had ventured on that course, far other tools
would be necessary than such as he could fabricate with a
cavern for a forge, a wind-draught for bellows, and a stone
for an anvil. In attempting, therefore, to take to pieces the
machinery, there was the risk of destroying it.</p>

<p>The attempt seemed at first sight wholly impracticable.</p>

<p>The apparent impossibility of the project rose before him like
a stone wall, blocking further progress.</p>

<p>What was to be done?</p>



<hr style="width: 65%;" />
<h4>II</h4>

<h5>WHEREIN SHAKESPEARE AND &AElig;SCHYLUS MEET</h5>


<p>Gilliatt had a notion.</p>

<p>Since the time of the carpenter-mason of Salbris, who, in the
sixteenth century, in the dark ages of science&mdash;long before
Amontons had discovered the first law of electricity, or Lahire
the second, or Coulomb the third&mdash;without other helper than
a child, his son, with ill-fashioned tools, in the chamber of the
great clock of La Charit&eacute;-sur-Loire, resolved at one stroke five
or six problems in statics and dynamics inextricably intervolved
like the wheels in a block of carts and waggons&mdash;since the time
of that grand and marvellous achievement of the poor workman,
who found means, without breaking a single piece of wire,
without throwing one of the teeth of the wheels out of gear, to
lower in one piece, by a marvellous simplification, from the
second story of the clock-tower to the first, that massive monitor<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_228" id="Page_228">[Pg 228]</a></span>
of the hours, made all of iron and brass, "large as the room in
which the man watches at night from the tower," with its
motion, its cylinders, its barrels, its drum, its hooks, and its
weights, the barrel of its spring steel-yard, its horizontal pendulum,
the holdfasts of its escapement, its reels of large and
small chains, its stone weights, one of which weighed five
hundred pounds, its bells, its peals, its jacks that strike the
hours&mdash;since the days, I say, of the man who accomplished this
miracle, and of whom posterity knows not even the name&mdash;nothing
that could be compared with the project which Gilliatt
was meditating had ever been attempted.</p>

<p>The ponderousness, the delicacy, the involvement of the difficulties
were not less in the machinery of the Durande than in
the clock of La Charit&eacute;-sur-Loire.</p>

<p>The untaught mechanic had his helpmate&mdash;his son; Gilliatt
was alone.</p>

<p>A crowd gathered together from Meung-sur-Loire, from
Nevers, and even from Orleans, able at time of need to assist
the mason of Salbris, and to encourage him with their friendly
voices. Gilliatt had around him no voices but those of the
wind; no crowd but the assemblage of waves.</p>

<p>There is nothing more remarkable than the timidity of
ignorance, unless it be its temerity. When ignorance becomes
daring, she has sometimes a sort of compass within herself&mdash;the
intuition of the truth, clearer oftentimes in a simple mind than
in a learned brain.</p>

<p>Ignorance invites to an attempt. It is a state of wonderment,
which, with its concomitant curiosity, forms a power. Knowledge
often enough disconcerts and makes over-cautious. Gama,
had he known what lay before him, would have recoiled before
the Cape of Storms. If Columbus had been a great geographer,
he might have failed to discover America.</p>

<p>The second successful climber of Mont Blanc was the savant,
Saussure; the first the goatherd, Balmat.</p>

<p>These instances I admit are exceptions, which detract nothing
from science, which remains the rule. The ignorant man may
discover; it is the learned who invent.</p>

<p>The sloop was still at anchor in the creek of "The Man Rock,"
where the sea left it in peace. Gilliatt, as will be remembered,
had arranged everything for maintaining constant communication
with it. He visited the sloop and measured her beam
carefully in several parts, but particularly her midship frame.
Then he returned to the Durande and measured the diameter<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_229" id="Page_229">[Pg 229]</a></span>
of the floor of the engine-room. This diameter, of course,
without the paddles, was two feet less than the broadest part of
the deck of his bark. The machinery, therefore, might be put
aboard the sloop.</p>

<p>But how could it be got there?</p>



<hr style="width: 65%;" />
<h4>III</h4>

<h5>GILLIATT'S MASTERPIECE COMES TO THE RESCUE OF THAT OF LETHIERRY</h5>


<p>Any fisherman who had been mad enough to loiter in that
season in the neighbourhood of Gilliatt's labours about this
time would have been repaid for his hardihood, by a singular
sight between the two Douvres.</p>

<p>Before his eyes would have appeared four stout beams, at
equal distances, stretching from one Douvre to the other, and
apparently forced into the rock, which is the firmest of all holds.
On the Little Douvre, their extremities were laid and buttressed
upon the projections of rock. On the Great Douvre, they had
been driven in by blows of a hammer, by the powerful hand
of a workman standing upright upon the beam itself. These
supports were a little longer than the distance between the
rocks. Hence the firmness of their hold; and hence, also, their
slanting position. They touched the Great Douvre at an acute,
and the Little Douvre at an obtuse angle. Their inclination
was only slight; but it was unequal, which was a defect. But
for this defect, they might have been supposed to be prepared
to receive the planking of a deck. To these four beams were
attached four sets of hoisting apparatus, each having its pendent
and its tackle-fall, with the bold peculiarity of having the tackle-blocks
with two sheaves at one extremity of the beam, and the
simple pulleys at the opposite end. This distance, which was
too great not to be perilous, was necessitated by the operations
to be effected. The blocks were firm, and the pulleys strong.
To this tackle-gear cables were attached, which from a distance
looked like threads; while beneath this apparatus of tackle and
carpentry, in the air, the massive hull of the Durande seemed
suspended by threads.</p>

<p>She was not yet suspended, however. Under the cross beams,
eight perpendicular holes had been made in the deck, four on
the port, and four on the starboard side of the engine; eight<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_230" id="Page_230">[Pg 230]</a></span>
other holes had been made beneath them through the keel. The
cables, descending vertically from the four tackle-blocks, through
the deck, passed out at the keel, and under the machinery, re-entered
the ship by the holes on the other side, and passing again
upward through the deck, returned, and were wound round the
beams. Here a sort of jigger-tackle held them in a bunch bound
fast to a single cable, capable of being directed by one arm. The
single cable passed over a hook, and through a dead-eye, which
completed the apparatus, and kept it in check. This combination
compelled the four tacklings to work together, and acting as
a complete restraint upon the suspending powers, became a sort
of dynamical rudder in the hand of the pilot of the operation,
maintaining the movements in equilibrium. The ingenious
adjustment of this system of tackling had some of the simplifying
qualities of the Weston pulley of these times, with a
mixture of the antique polyspaston of Vitruvius. Gilliatt had
discovered this, although he knew nothing of the dead Vitruvius
or of the still unborn Weston. The length of the cables varied,
according to the unequal declivity of the cross-beams. The
ropes were dangerous, for the untarred hemp was liable to give
way. Chains would have been better in this respect, but chains
would not have passed well through the tackle-blocks.</p>

<p>The apparatus was full of defects; but as the work of one
man, it was surprising. For the rest, it will be understood that
many details are omitted which would render the construction
perhaps intelligible to practical mechanics, but obscure to others.</p>

<p>The top of the funnel passed between the two beams in the
middle.</p>

<p>Gilliatt, without suspecting it, had reconstructed, three centuries
later, the mechanism of the Salbris carpenter&mdash;a mechanism
rude and incorrect, and hazardous for him who would dare
to use it.</p>

<p>Here let us remark, that the rudest defects do not prevent
a mechanism from working well or ill. It may limp, but it
moves. The obelisk in the square of St. Peter's at Rome is
erected in a way which offends against all the principles of
statics. The carriage of the Czar Peter was so constructed that
it appeared about to overturn at every step; but it travelled
onward for all that. What deformities are there in the
machinery of Marly! Everything that is heterodox in hydraulics.
Yet it did not supply Louis XIV. any the less with
water.</p>

<p>Come what might, Gilliatt had faith. He had even anti<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_231" id="Page_231">[Pg 231]</a></span>cipated
success so confidently as to fix in the bulwarks of the
sloop, on the day when he measured its proportions, two pairs
of corresponding iron rings on each side, exactly at the same
distances as the four rings on board the Durande, to which were
attached the four chains of the funnel.</p>

<p>He had in his mind a very complete and settled plan. All
the chances being against him, he had evidently determined
that all the precautions at least should be on his side.</p>

<p>He did some things which seemed useless; a sign of attentive
premeditation.</p>

<p>His manner of proceeding would, as we have said, have
puzzled an observer, even though familiar with mechanical
operations.</p>

<p>A witness of his labour who had seen him, for example, with
enormous efforts, and at the risk of breaking his neck, driving
with blows of his hammer eight or ten great nails which he had
forged into the base of the two Douvres at the entrance of the
defile between them, would have had some difficulty in understanding
the object of these nails, and would probably have
wondered what could be the use of all that trouble.</p>

<p>If he had then seen him measuring the portion of the fore
bulwark which had remained, as we have described it, hanging
on by the wreck, then attaching a strong cable to the upper
edge of that portion, cutting away with strokes of his hatchet
the dislocated fastenings which held it, then dragging it out of
the defile, pushing the lower part by the aid of the receding tide,
while he dragged the upper part; finally, by great labour,
fastening with the cable this heavy mass of planks and piles
wider than the entrance of the defile itself, with the nails driven
into the base of the Little Douvre, the observer would perhaps
have found it still more difficult to comprehend, and might have
wondered why Gilliatt, if he wanted for the purpose of his
operations to disencumber the space between the two rocks of
this mass, had not allowed it to fall into the sea, where the tide
would have carried it away.</p>

<p>Gilliatt had probably his reasons.</p>

<p>In fixing the nails in the basement of the rocks, he had taken
advantage of all the cracks in the granite, enlarged them where
needful, and driven in first of all wedges of wood, in which he
fixed the nails. He made a rough commencement of similar
preparations in the two rocks which rose at the other extremity
of the narrow passage on the eastern side. He furnished with
plugs of wood all the crevices, as if he desired to keep these<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_232" id="Page_232">[Pg 232]</a></span>
also ready to hold nails or clamps; but this appeared to be a
simple precaution, for he did not use them further. He was
compelled to economise, and only to use his materials as he had
need, and at the moment when the necessity for them came.
This was another addition to his numerous difficulties.</p>

<p>As fast as one labour was accomplished another became necessary.
Gilliatt passed without hesitation from task to task,
and resolutely accomplished his giant strides.</p>



<hr style="width: 65%;" />
<h4>IV</h4>

<h5>SUB RE</h5>


<p>The aspect of the man who accomplished all these labours
became terrible.</p>

<p>Gilliatt in his multifarious tasks expended all his strength
at once, and regained it with difficulty.</p>

<p>Privations on the one hand, lassitude on the other, had much
reduced him. His hair and beard had grown long. He had
but one shirt which was not in rags. He went about bare-footed,
the wind having carried away one of his shoes and the
sea the other. Fractures of the rude and dangerous stone anvil
which he used had left small wounds upon his hands and arms,
the marks of labour. These wounds, or rather scratches, were
superficial; but the keen air and the salt sea irritated them
continually.</p>

<p>He was generally hungry, thirsty, and cold.</p>

<p>His store of fresh water was gone; his rye-meal was used or
eaten. He had nothing left but a little biscuit.</p>

<p>This he broke with his teeth, having no water in which to
steep it.</p>

<p>By little and little, and day by day, his powers decreased.</p>

<p>The terrible rocks were consuming his existence.</p>

<p>How to obtain food was a problem; how to get drink was
a problem; how to find rest was a problem.</p>

<p>He ate when he was fortunate enough to find a crayfish or a
crab; he drank when he chanced to see a sea-bird descend upon
a point of rock; for on climbing up to the spot he generally
found there a hollow with a little fresh water. He drank from
it after the bird; sometimes with the bird; for the gulls and
seamews had become accustomed to him, and no longer flew
away at his approach. Even in his greatest need of food he did<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_233" id="Page_233">[Pg 233]</a></span>
not attempt to molest them. He had, as will be remembered,
a superstition about birds. The birds on their part&mdash;now that
his hair was rough and wild and his beard long&mdash;had no fear of
him. The change in his face gave them confidence; he had lost
resemblance to men, and taken the form of the wild beast.</p>

<p>The birds and Gilliatt, in fact, had become good friends.
Companions in poverty, they helped each other. As long as
he had had any meal, he had crumbled for them some little bits
of the cakes he made. In his deeper distress they showed him
in their turn the places where he might find the little pools of
water.</p>

<p>He ate the shell-fish raw. Shell-fish help in a certain degree
to quench the thirst. The crabs he cooked. Having no kettle,
he roasted them between two stones made red-hot in his fire,
after the manner of the savages of the Feroe islands.</p>

<p>Meanwhile signs of the equinoctial season had begun to
appear. There came rain&mdash;an angry rain. No showers or
steady torrents, but fine, sharp, icy, penetrating points which
pierced to his skin through his clothing, and to his bones through
his skin. It was a rain which yielded little water for drinking,
but which drenched him none the less.</p>

<p>Chary of assistance, prodigal of misery&mdash;such was the character
of these rains. During one week Gilliatt suffered from
them all day and all night.</p>

<p>At night, in his rocky recess, nothing but the overpowering
fatigue of his daily work enabled him to get sleep. The great
sea-gnats stung him, and he awakened covered with blisters.</p>

<p>He had a kind of low fever, which sustained him; this fever
is a succour which destroys. By instinct he chewed the mosses,
or sucked the leaves of wild cochlearia, scanty tufts of which
grew in the dry crevices of the rocks. Of his suffering, however,
he took little heed. He had no time to spare from his work
to the consideration of his own privations. The rescue of the
machinery of the Durande was progressing well. That sufficed
for him.</p>

<p>Every now and then, for the necessities of his work, he
jumped into the water, swam to some point, and gained a footing
again. He simply plunged into the sea and left it, as a man
passes from one room in his dwelling to another.</p>

<p>His clothing was never dry. It was saturated with rain
water, which had no time to evaporate, and with sea water,
which never dries. He lived perpetually wet.</p>

<p>Living in wet clothing is a habit which may be acquired.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_234" id="Page_234">[Pg 234]</a></span>
The poor groups of Irish people&mdash;old men, mothers, girls
almost naked, and infants&mdash;who pass the winter in the open air,
under the snow and rain, huddled together, sometimes at the
corners of houses in the streets of London, live and die in this
condition.</p>

<p>To be soaked with wet, and yet to be thirsty: Gilliatt grew
familiar with this strange torture. There were times when he
was glad to suck the sleeve of his loose coat.</p>

<p>The fire which he made scarcely warmed him. A fire in open
air yields little comfort. It burns on one side, and freezes on
the other.</p>

<p>Gilliatt often shivered even while sweating over his forge.</p>

<p>Everywhere about him rose resistance amidst a terrible
silence. He felt himself the enemy of an unseen combination.
There is a dismal <i>non possumus</i> in nature. The inertia of
matter is like a sullen threat. A mysterious persecution environed
him. He suffered from heats and shiverings. The
fire ate into his flesh; the water froze him; feverish thirst
tormented him; the wind tore his clothing; hunger undermined
the organs of the body. The oppression of all these
things was constantly exhausting him. Obstacles silent,
immense, seemed to converge from all points, with the blind
irresponsibility of fate, yet full of a savage unanimity. He
felt them pressing inexorably upon him. No means were there
of escaping from them. His sufferings produced the impression
of some living persecutor. He had a constant sense of something
working against him, of a hostile form ever present, ever
labouring to circumvent and to subdue him. He could have
fled from the struggle; but since he remained, he had no choice
but to war with this impenetrable hostility. He asked himself
what it was. It took hold of him, grasped him tightly, overpowered
him, deprived him of breath. The invisible persecutor
was destroying him by slow degrees. Every day the
oppression became greater, as if a mysterious screw had received
another turn.</p>

<p>His situation in this dreadful spot resembled a duel, in which
a suspicion of some treachery haunts the mind of one of the
combatants.</p>

<p>Now it seemed a coalition of obscure forces which surrounded
him. He felt that there was somewhere a determination to be
rid of his presence. It is thus that the glacier chases the
loitering ice-block.</p>

<p>Almost without seeming to touch him this latent coalition<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_235" id="Page_235">[Pg 235]</a></span>
had reduced him to rags; had left him bleeding, distressed, and,
as it were, <i>hors de combat</i>, even before the battle. He laboured,
indeed, not the less&mdash;without pause or rest; but as the work
advanced, the workman himself lost ground. It might have
been fancied that Nature, dreading his bold spirit, adopted the
plan of slowly undermining his bodily power. Gilliatt kept his
ground, and left the rest to the future. The sea had begun by
consuming him; what would come next?</p>

<p>The double Douvres&mdash;that dragon made of granite, and
lying in ambush in mid-ocean&mdash;had sheltered him. It had
allowed him to enter, and to do his will; but its hospitality
resembled the welcome of devouring jaws.</p>

<p>The desert, the boundless surface, the unfathomable space
around him and above, so full of negatives to man's will; the
mute, inexorable determination of phenomena following their
appointed course; the grand general law of things, implacable
and passive; the ebbs and flows; the rocks themselves, dark
Pleiades whose points were each a star amid vortices, a centre
of an irradiation of currents; the strange, indefinable conspiracy
to stifle with indifference the temerity of a living being;
the wintry winds, the clouds, and the beleaguering waves
enveloped him, closed round him slowly, and in a measure shut
him in, and separated him from companionship, like a dungeon
built up by degrees round a living man. All against him;
nothing for him; he felt himself isolated, abandoned, enfeebled,
sapped, forgotten. His storehouse empty, his tools broken or
defective; he was tormented with hunger and thirst by day,
with cold by night. His sufferings had left him with wounds
and tatters, rags covering sores, torn hands, bleeding feet,
wasted limbs, pallid cheeks, and eyes bright with a strange
light; but this was the steady flame of his determination.</p>

<p>The virtue of a man is betrayed by his eyes. How much of
the man there is in us may be read in their depths. We make
ourselves known by the light that gleams beneath our brows.
The petty natures wink at us, the larger send forth flashes. If
there is no brilliancy under the lids, there is no thought in the
brain, no love in the heart. Those who love desire, and those
who desire sparkle and flash. Determination gives a fire to the
glance, a magnificent fire that consumes all timid thoughts.</p>

<p>It is the self-willed ones who are sublime. He who is only
brave, has but a passing fit, he who is only valiant has temperament
and nothing more, he who is courageous has but one
virtue. He who persists in the truth is the grand character.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_236" id="Page_236">[Pg 236]</a></span>
The secret of great hearts may be summed up in the word:
Perseverando. Perseverance is to courage what the wheel is to
the lever; it is the continual renewing of the centre of support.
Let the desired goal be on earth or in heaven, only make for the
goal. Everything is in that; in the first case one is a Columbus,
in the second a god. Not to allow conscience to argue or the
will to fail&mdash;this is the way to suffering and glory. In the world
of ethics to fall does not exclude the possibility of soaring,
rather does it give impetus to flight. The mediocrities allow
themselves to be dissuaded by the specious obstacles&mdash;the great
ones never. To perish is their perhaps, to conquer their conviction.
You may propose many good reasons to the martyr
why he should not allow himself to be stoned to death. Disdain
of every reasonable objection begets that sublime victory of
the vanquished which we call martyrdom.</p>

<p>All his efforts seemed to tend to the impossible. His success
was trifling and slow. He was compelled to expend much
labour for very little results. This it was that gave to his
struggle its noble and pathetic character.</p>

<p>That it should have required so many preparations, so much
toil, so many cautious experiments, such nights of hardship,
and such days of danger, merely to set up four beams over a
shipwrecked vessel, to divide and isolate the portion that could
be saved, and to adjust to that wreck within a wreck four tackle-blocks
with their cables was only the result of his solitary
labour. Fate had decreed him the work, and necessity obliged
him to carry it out.</p>

<p>That solitary position Gilliatt had more than accepted; he
had deliberately chosen it. Dreading a competitor, because a
competitor might have proved a rival, he had sought for no
assistance. The overwhelming enterprise, the risk, the danger,
the toil multiplied by itself, the possible destruction of the
salvor in his work, famine, fever, nakedness, distress&mdash;he had
chosen all these for himself! Such was his selfishness. He
was like a man placed in some terrible chamber which is being
slowly exhausted of air. His vitality was leaving him by little
and little. He scarcely perceived it.</p>

<p>Exhaustion of the bodily strength does not necessarily
exhaust the will. Faith is only a secondary power; the will is
the first. The mountains, which faith is proverbially said to
move, are nothing beside that which the will can accomplish.
All that Gilliatt lost in vigour, he gained in tenacity. The
destruction of the physical man under the oppressive influence<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_237" id="Page_237">[Pg 237]</a></span>
of that wild surrounding sea, and rock, and sky, seemed only to
reinvigorate his moral nature.</p>

<p>Gilliatt felt no fatigue; or, rather, would not yield to any.
The refusal of the mind to recognise the failings of the body is
in itself an immense power.</p>

<p>He saw nothing, except the steps in the progress of his
labours.</p>

<p>His object&mdash;now seeming so near attainment&mdash;wrapped him
in perpetual illusions.</p>

<p>He endured all this suffering without any other thought than
is comprised in the word "Forward." His work flew to his
head; the strength of the will is intoxicating. Its intoxication
is called heroism.</p>

<p>He had become a kind of Job, having the ocean for the scene
of his sufferings. But he was a Job wrestling with difficulty, a
Job combating and making head against afflictions; a Job conquering!
a combination of Job and Prometheus, if such names
are not too great to be applied to a poor sailor and fisher of crabs
and crayfish.</p>



<hr style="width: 65%;" />
<h4>V</h4>

<h5>SUB UMBRA</h5>


<p>Sometimes in the night-time Gilliatt woke and peered into the
darkness.</p>

<p>He felt a strange emotion.</p>

<p>His eyes were opened upon the black night; the situation
was dismal; full of disquietude.</p>

<p>There is such a thing as the pressure of darkness.</p>

<p>A strange roof of shadow; a deep obscurity, which no diver
can explore; a light mingled with that obscurity, of a strange,
subdued, and sombre kind; floating atoms of rays, like a dust
of seeds or of ashes; millions of lamps, but no illumining; a
vast sprinkling of fire, of which no man knows the secret; a
diffusion of shining points, like a drift of sparks arrested in their
course; the disorder of the whirlwind, with the fixedness of death;
a mysterious and abyssmal depth; an enigma, at once showing
and concealing its face; the Infinite in its mask of darkness&mdash;these
are the synonyms of night. Its weight lies heavily on
the soul of man.</p>

<p>This union of all mysteries&mdash;the mystery of the Cosmos and
the mystery of Fate&mdash;oppresses human reason.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_238" id="Page_238">[Pg 238]</a></span></p>

<p>The pressure of darkness acts in inverse proportion upon
different kinds of natures. In the presence of night man feels
his own incompleteness. He perceives the dark void and is
sensible of infirmity. It is like the vacancy of blindness. Face
to face with night, man bends, kneels, prostrates himself, crouches
on the earth, crawls towards a cave, or seeks for wings. Almost
always he shrinks from that vague presence of the Infinite
Unknown. He asks himself what it is; he trembles and bows
the head. Sometimes he desires to go to it.</p>

<p>To go whither?</p>

<p>He can only answer, "Yonder."</p>

<p>But what is that? and what is there?</p>

<p>This curiosity is evidently forbidden to the spirit of man;
for all around him the roads which bridge that gulf are broken
up or gone. No arch exists for him to span the Infinite. But
there is attraction in forbidden knowledge, as in the edge of the
abyss. Where the footstep cannot tread, the eye may reach;
where the eye can penetrate no further, the mind may soar.
There is no man, however feeble or insufficient his resources,
who does not essay. According to his nature he questions or
recoils before that mystery. With some it has the effect of
repressing; with others it enlarges the soul. The spectacle is
sombre, indefinite.</p>

<p>Is the night calm and cloudless? It is then a depth of
shadow. Is it stormy? It is then a sea of cloud. Its limitless
deeps reveal themselves to us, and yet baffle our gaze: close
themselves against research, but open to conjecture. Its innumerable
dots of light only make deeper the obscurity beyond.
Jewels, scintillations, stars; existences revealed in the unknown
universes; dread defiances to man's approach; landmarks of
the infinite creation; boundaries there, where there are no
bounds; sea-marks impossible, and yet real, numbering the
fathoms of those infinite deeps. One microscopic glittering
point; then another; then another; imperceptible, yet enormous.
Yonder light is a focus; that focus is a star; that star
is a sun; that sun is a universe; that universe is nothing. For
all numbers are as zero in the presence of the Infinite.</p>

<p>These worlds, which yet are nothing, exist. Through this
fact we feel the difference which separates the <i>being nothing</i>
from the <i>not to be</i>.</p>

<p>The inaccessible joined to the inexplicable, such is the universe.
From the contemplation of the universe is evolved a sublime
phenomenon: the soul growing vast through its sense of wonder.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_239" id="Page_239">[Pg 239]</a></span>
A reverent fear is peculiar to man; the beasts know no such
fear.</p>

<p>His intelligence becomes conscious in this august terror of its
own power and its own weakness.</p>

<p>Darkness has unity, hence arises horror; at the same time
it is complex, and hence terror. Its unity weighs on the spirit
and destroys all desire of resistance. Its complexity causes us
to look around on all sides; apparently we have reason to fear
sudden happenings. We yield and yet are on guard. We are
in presence of the whole, hence submission; and of the many,
hence defiance.</p>

<p>The unity of darkness contains a multiple, a mysterious
plurality&mdash;visible in matter, realised in thought. Silence rules
all; another reason for watchfulness.</p>

<p>Night&mdash;and he who writes this has said it elsewhere&mdash;is the
right and normal condition of that special part of creation to
which we belong. Light, brief of duration here as throughout
space, is but the nearness of a star. This universal, prodigious
night does not fulfil itself, without friction, and all such friction
in such a mechanism means what we call evil. We feel this
darkness to be evil, a latent denial of divine order, the implicit
blasphemy of the real rebelling against the ideal. Evil complicates,
by one knows not what hydra-headed monstrosity, the
vast, cosmic whole.</p>

<p>Everywhere it arises and resists.</p>

<p>It is the tempest, and hinders the hastening ship; it is chaos,
and trammels the birth of a world. Good is one; evil is ubiquitous.
Evil dislocates the logic of Life. It causes the bird to
devour the fly and the comet to destroy the planet. Evil is a
blot on the page of creation.</p>

<p>The darkness of night is full of vertiginous uncertainty.</p>

<p>Whoso would sound its depths is submerged, and struggles
therein.</p>

<p>What fatigue to be compared to this contemplation of
shadows. It is the study of annihilation.</p>

<p>There is no sure hold on which the soul may rest. There are
ports of departure, and no havens for arrival. The interlacing
of contradictory solutions; all the branches of doubt seen at
a glance; the ramifications of phenomena budding limitlessly
from some undefined impulse; laws intersecting each other; an
incomprehensible promiscuity causing the mineral to become
vegetable; the vegetable to rise to higher life; thought to
gather weight; love to shine and gravitation to attract; the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_240" id="Page_240">[Pg 240]</a></span>
immense range presented to view by all questions, extending
itself into the limitless obscurity; the half seen, suggesting the
unknown; the cosmic correlation appearing clearly, not to
sight but to intelligence, in the vast, dim space; the invisible
become visible&mdash;these are the great overshadowing! Man
lives beneath it. He is ignorant of detail, but he carries, in
such proportion as he is able to bear, the weight of the
monstrous whole. This obsession prompted the astronomy
of the Chaldean shepherds. Involuntary revelations flow from
creation; hints of science fall from it unconsciously and are
absorbed by the ignorant. Every solitary, impregnated in this
mysterious way, becomes, without being aware of it, a natural
philosopher.</p>

<p>The darkness is indivisible. It is inhabited. Inhabited by
the changeless absolute; inhabited also by change. Action
exists there, disquieting thought! An awful creative will
works out its phases. Premeditations, Powers, fore-ordained
Destinies, elaborate there together an incommensurable work.
A life of horror and terror is hidden therein. There are vast
evolutions of suns; the stellar family, the planetary family;
zodiacal pollen; the <i>Quid Divinum</i> of currents; effluvia, polarisations,
and attractions; there are embraces and antagonisms;
a magnificent flux and reflux of universal antithesis; the imponderable,
free-floating around fixed centres; there is the sap
of globes and light beyond globes; the wandering atom, the
scattered germ, the processes of fecundity, meetings for union
and for combat; unimagined profusion, distances which are
as a dream, vertiginous orbits, the rush of worlds into the
incalculable; marvels following each other in the obscurity.
One mechanism works throughout in the breath of fleeing
spheres, and the wheels that we know are turning. The sage
conjectures; the ignorant man believes and trembles. These
things exist and yet are hidden; they are inexpugnable, beyond
reach, beyond approach.</p>

<p>We are convinced and oppressed&mdash;we feel, we know not what
dark evidence within us; we realise nothing, but are crushed by
the impalpable.</p>

<p>All is incomprehensible, but nothing is unintelligible.</p>

<p>And add to all that, the tremendous question: Is this immanent
universe a Being?</p>

<p>We exist beneath the shadow. We look; we listen. And
meanwhile the dark earth rolls onward. The flowers are conscious
of this tremendous motion; the one opens at eleven in<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_241" id="Page_241">[Pg 241]</a></span>
the evening and the other at five in the morning. Astounding
sense of law! And in other depths of wonder, the drop of
water is a world; the infusoria breed; animalcul&aelig; display
gigantic fecundity, the imperceptible reveals its grandeur, immensity
manifests itself, in an inverse sense; there are alg&aelig;
that produce in an hour thirteen hundred millions of their kind.
Every enigma is propounded in one. The irreducible is before
us. Hence we are constrained to some kind of faith. An
involuntary belief is the result. But belief does not ensure
peace of mind. Faith has an extraordinary desire to take
shape. Hence religions. Nothing is so overwhelming as a
formless faith.</p>

<p>And despite of thought or desire or inward resistance, to look
at the darkness is to fall into profound and wondering meditation.
What can we make of these phenomena! How should
we act beneath their united forces? To divide such weight of
oppression is impossible. What reverie can follow all these
mystic vistas? What abstruse revelations arise, stammering,
and are obscure from their very mass, as a hesitating speech.
Darkness is silence, but such a silence suggests everything.
One majestic thought is the result: God&mdash;God is the irrepressible
idea that springs within man's soul. Syllogisms, feuds,
negations, systems, religions cannot destroy it. This idea is
affirmed by the whole dark universe. Yet unrest is everywhere
in fearful immanence. The wondrous correlation of forces is
manifested in the upholding of the balanced darkness. The
universe is suspended and nothing falls. Incessant and immeasurable
changes operate without accident or destruction.
Man participates in the constant changes, and in experiencing
such he names them Destiny. But where does destiny begin?
And where does nature end? What difference is there between
an event and a season? between a sorrow and a rainfall?
between a virtue and a star? An hour, is it not a rolling wave?
The wheels of creation revolve mechanically regardless of man.
The starry sky is a vision of wheels, pendulums, and counterpoise.</p>

<p>He who contemplates it cannot but ponder upon it.</p>

<p>It is the whole reality and yet the whole abstraction. And
nothing more. We are in prison and at the mercy of the darkness,
and no evasion is possible.</p>

<p>We are an integral part of the working of this unknown
whole; and we feel the mystery within us fraternising with
the mystery beyond us. Hence the sublimity of Death. What<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_242" id="Page_242">[Pg 242]</a></span>
anguish! And yet what bliss to belong to the Infinite, and
through the sense of the Infinite to recognise our inevitable
immortality, the possibility of an eternity; to grasp amid this
prodigious deluge of universal life, the persistent, imperishable
<i>Me</i>; to look at the stars and say, The living soul within me is
akin to you; to gaze into darkness and cry, I am as unfathomable
as thou! Such immensity is of night, and, added to solitude,
weighed heavily on Gilliatt's mind.</p>

<p>Did he understand it? No.</p>

<p>Did he feel it? Yes.</p>

<p>All these vague imaginings, increased and intensified by
solitude, weighed upon Gilliatt.</p>

<p>He understood them little, but he felt them. His was a
powerful intellect clouded; a great spirit wild and untaught.</p>



<hr style="width: 65%;" />
<h4>VI</h4>

<h5>GILLIATT PLACES THE SLOOP IN READINESS</h5>


<p>This rescue of the machinery of the wreck as meditated by
Gilliatt was, as we have already said, like the escape of a
criminal from a prison&mdash;necessitating all the patience and industry
recorded of such achievements; industry carried to the
point of a miracle, patience only to be compared with a long
agony. A certain prisoner named Thomas, at the Mont Saint
Michel, found means of secreting the greater part of a wall in
his paillasse. Another at Tulle, in 1820, cut away a quantity
of lead from the terrace where the prisoners walked for exercise.
With what kind of knife? No one would guess. And melted
this lead with what fire? None have ever discovered; but it is
known that he cast it in a mould made of the crumbs of bread.
With this lead and this mould he made a key, and with this key
succeeded in opening a lock of which he had never seen anything
but the keyhole. Some of this marvellous ingenuity Gilliatt
possessed. He had once climbed and descended from the cliff
at Boisros&eacute;. He was the Baron Trenck of the wreck, and the
Latude of her machinery.</p>

<p>The sea, like a jailor, kept watch over him.</p>

<p>For the rest, mischievous and inclement as the rain had been,
he had contrived to derive some benefit from it. He had in
part replenished his stock of fresh water; but his thirst was
inextinguishable, and he emptied his can as fast as he filled it.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_243" id="Page_243">[Pg 243]</a></span></p>

<p>One day&mdash;it was on the last day of April or the first of May&mdash;all
was at length ready for his purpose.</p>

<p>The engine-room was, as it were, enclosed between the eight
cables hanging from the tackle-blocks, four on one side, four
on the other. The sixteen holes upon the deck and under the
keel, through which the cables passed, had been hooped round
by sawing. The planking had been sawed, the timber cut with
the hatchet, the ironwork with a file, the sheathing with the
chisel. The part of the keel immediately under the machinery
was cut squarewise, and ready to descend with it while still
supporting it. All this frightful swinging mass was held only
by one chain, which was itself only kept in position by a filed
notch. At this stage, in such a labour and so near its completion,
haste is prudence.</p>

<p>The water was low; the moment favourable.</p>

<p>Gilliatt had succeeded in removing the axle of the paddles,
the extremities of which might have proved an obstacle and
checked the descent. He had contrived to make this heavy
portion fast in a vertical position within the engine-room itself.</p>

<p>It was time to bring his work to an end. The workman, as
we have said, was not weary, for his will was strong; but his
tools were. The forge was by degrees becoming impracticable.
The blower had begun to work badly. The little hydraulic fall
being of sea-water, saline deposits had encrusted the joints of
the apparatus, and prevented its free action.</p>

<p>Gilliatt visited the creek of "The Man Rock," examined the
sloop, and assured himself that all was in good condition, particularly
the four rings fixed to starboard and to larboard; then
he weighed anchor, and worked the heavy barge-shaped craft
with the oars till he brought it alongside the two Douvres. The
defile between the rocks was wide enough to admit it. There
was also depth enough. On the day of his arrival he had
satisfied himself that it was possible to push the sloop under the
Durande.</p>

<p>The feat, however, was difficult; it required the minute precision
of a watchmaker. The operation was all the more delicate
from the fact that, for his objects, he was compelled to force it in
by the stern, rudder first. It was necessary that the mast and
the ringing of the sloop should project beyond the wreck in the
direction of the sea.</p>

<p>These embarrassments rendered all Gilliatt's operations
awkward. It was not like entering the creek of "The Man,"
where it was a mere affair of the tiller. It was necessary here<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_244" id="Page_244">[Pg 244]</a></span>
to push, drag, row, and take soundings all together. Gilliatt
consumed but a quarter of an hour in these man&oelig;uvres; but
he was successful.</p>

<p>In fifteen or twenty minutes the sloop was adjusted under
the wreck. It was almost wedged in there. By means of his
two anchors he moored the boat by head and stern. The
strongest of the two was placed so as to be efficient against the
strongest wind that blows, which was that from the south-west.
Then by the aid of a lever and the capstan, he lowered into the
sloop the two cases containing the pieces of the paddle-wheel,
the slings of which were all ready. The two cases served as
ballast.</p>

<p>Relieved of these encumbrances, he fastened to the hook of
the chain of the capstan the sling of the regulating tackle-gear,
intending to check the pulleys.</p>

<p>Owing to the peculiar objects of this labour, the defects of the
old sloop became useful qualities. It had no deck; her burden
therefore would have greater depth, and could rest upon the
hold. Her mast was very forward&mdash;too far forward indeed for
general purposes; her contents therefore would have more
room, and the mast standing thus beyond the mass of the wreck,
there would be nothing to hinder its disembarkation. It was
a mere shell, or case for receiving it; but nothing is more stable
than this on the sea.</p>

<p>While engaged in these operations, Gilliatt suddenly perceived
that the sea was rising. He looked around to see from what
quarter the wind was coming.</p>



<hr style="width: 65%;" />
<h4>VII</h4>

<h5>SUDDEN DANGER</h5>


<p>The breeze was scarcely perceptible; but what there was came
from the west. A disagreeable habit of the winds during the
equinoxes.</p>

<p>The rising sea varies much in its effects upon the Douvres
rocks, depending upon the quarter of the wind.</p>

<p>According to the gale which drives them before it, the waves
enter the rocky corridor either from the east or from the west.
Entering from the east, the sea is comparatively gentle; coming
from the west, it is always furious. The reason of this is, that
the wind from the east blowing from the land has not had time<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_245" id="Page_245">[Pg 245]</a></span>
to gather force; while the westerly winds, coming from the
Atlantic, blow unchecked from a vast ocean. Even a very
slight breeze, if it comes from the west, is serious. It rolls the
huge billows from the illimitable space and dashes the waves
against the narrow defile in greater bulk than can find entrance
there.</p>

<p>A sea which rolls into a gulf is always terrible. It is the same
with a crowd of people: a multitude is a sort of fluid body.
When the quantity which can enter is less than the quantity
endeavouring to force a way, there is a fatal crush among the
crowd, a fierce convulsion on the water. As long as the west
wind blows, however slight the breeze, the Douvres are twice
a day subjected to that rude assault. The sea rises, the tide
breasts up, the narrow gullet gives little entrance, the waves,
driven against it violently, rebound and roar, and a tremendous
surf beats the two sides of the gorge. Thus the Douvres, during
the slightest wind from the west, present the singular spectacle
of a sea comparatively calm without, while within the rocks a
storm is raging. This tumult of waters, altogether confined and
circumscribed, has nothing of the character of a tempest. It is
a mere local outbreak among the waves, but a terrible one. As
regards the winds from the north and south, they strike the
rocks crosswise, and cause little surf in the passage. The
entrance by the east, a fact which must be borne in mind,
was close to "The Man Rock." The dangerous opening to the
west was at the opposite extremity, exactly between the two
Douvres.</p>

<p>It was at this western entrance that Gilliatt found himself
with the wrecked Durande, and the sloop made fast beneath it.</p>

<p>A catastrophe seemed inevitable. There was not much wind,
but it was sufficient for the impending mischief.</p>

<p>Before many hours, the swell which was rising would be
rushing with full force into the gorge of the Douvres. The first
waves were already breaking. This swell, and eddy of the
entire Atlantic, would have behind it the immense sea. There
would be no squall; no violence, but a simple overwhelming
wave, which commencing on the coasts of America, rolls towards
the shores of Europe with an impetus gathered over two thousand
leagues. This wave, a gigantic ocean barrier, meeting the
gap of the rocks, must be caught between the two Douvres,
standing like watch-towers at the entrance, or like pillars of the
defile. Thus swelled by the tide, augmented by resistance,
driven back by the shoals, and urged on by the wind, it would<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_246" id="Page_246">[Pg 246]</a></span>
strike the rock with violence, and with all the contortions from
the obstacles it had encountered, and all the frenzy of a sea
confined in limits, would rush between the rocky walls, where it
would reach the sloop and the Durande, and, in all probability,
destroy them.</p>

<p>A shield against this danger was wanting. Gilliatt had one.</p>

<p>The problem was to prevent the sea reaching it at one bound;
to obstruct it from striking, while allowing it to rise; to bar
the passage without refusing it admission; to prevent the compression
of the water in the gorge, which was the whole danger;
to turn an eruption into a simple flood; to extract as it were
from the waves all their violence, and constrain the furies to
be gentle; it was, in fact, to substitute an obstacle which will
appease, for an obstacle which irritates.</p>

<p>Gilliatt, with all that dexterity which he possessed, and which
is so much more efficient than mere force, sprang upon the rocks
like a chamois among the mountains or a monkey in the forest;
using for his tottering and dizzy strides the smallest projecting
stone; leaping into the water, and issuing from it again; swimming
among the shoals and clambering the rocks, with a rope
between his teeth and a mallet in his hand. Thus he detached
the cable which kept suspended and also fast to the basement
of the Little Douvre the end of the forward side of the Durande;
fashioned out of some ends of hawsers a sort of hinges, holding
this bulwark to the huge nails fixed in the granite; swung this
apparatus of planks upon them, like the gates of a great dock,
and turned their sides, as he would turn a rudder, outward to
the waves, which pushed the extremities upon the Great Douvre,
while the rope hinges detained the other extremities upon the
Little Douvre; next he contrived, by means of the huge nails
placed beforehand for the purpose, to fix the same kind of
fastenings upon the Great Douvre as on the little one; made
completely fast the vast mass of woodwork against the two
pillars of the gorge, slung a chain across this barrier like a
baldric upon a cuirass; and in less than an hour, this barricade
against the sea was complete and the gullet of the rocks closed
as by a folding-door.</p>

<p>This powerful apparatus, a heavy mass of beams and planks,
which laid flat would have made a raft, and upright formed a
wall, had by the aid of the water been handled by Gilliatt with
the adroitness of a juggler. It might almost have been said
that the obstruction was complete before the rising sea had the
time to perceive it.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_247" id="Page_247">[Pg 247]</a></span></p>

<p>It was one of those occasions on which Jean Bart would have
employed the famous expression which he applied to the sea
every time he narrowly escaped shipwreck. "We have cheated
the Englishman;" for it is well known that when that famous
admiral meant to speak contemptuously of the ocean he called
it "the Englishman."</p>

<p>The entrance to the defile being thus protected, Gilliatt
thought of the sloop. He loosened sufficient cable for the
two anchors to allow her to rise with the tide; an operation
similar to what the mariners of old called "<i>mouiller avec des
embossures</i>." In all this, Gilliatt was not taken the least by
surprise; the necessity had been foreseen. A seaman would
have perceived it by the two pulleys of the top ropes cut in the
form of snatch-blocks, and fixed behind the sloop, through
which passed two ropes, the ends of which were slung through
the rings of the anchors.</p>

<p>Meanwhile the tide was rising fast; the half flood had arrived,
a moment when the shock of the waves, even in comparatively
moderate weather, may become considerable. Exactly what
Gilliatt expected came to pass. The waves rolled violently
against the barrier, struck it, broke heavily and passed beneath.
Outside was the heavy swell; within, the waters ran quietly.
He had devised a sort of marine <i>Furcul&aelig; caudin&aelig;</i>. The sea
was conquered.</p>



<hr style="width: 65%;" />
<h4>VIII</h4>

<h5>MOVEMENT RATHER THAN PROGRESS</h5>


<p>The moment so long dreaded had come.</p>

<p>The problem now was to place the machinery in the bark.</p>

<p>Gilliatt remained thoughtful for some moments, holding the
elbow of his left arm in his right hand, and applying his left hand
to his forehead.</p>

<p>Then he climbed upon the wreck, one part of which, containing
the engine, was to be parted from it, while the other remained.</p>

<p>He severed the four slings which fixed the four chains from the
funnel on the larboard and the starboard sides. The slings
being only of cord, his knife served him well enough for this
purpose.</p>

<p>The four chains set free, hung down along the sides of the
funnel.</p>

<p>From the wreck he climbed up to the apparatus which he had<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_248" id="Page_248">[Pg 248]</a></span>
constructed, stamped with his feet upon the beams, inspected
the tackle-blocks, looked to the pulleys, handled the cables,
examined the eking-pieces, assured himself that the untarred
hemp was not saturated through, found that nothing was
wanting and nothing giving way; then springing from the
height of the suspending props on to the deck, he took up his
position near the capstan, in the part of the Durande which
he intended to leave jammed in between the two Douvres. This
was to be his post during his labours.</p>

<p>Earnest, but troubled with no impulses but what were useful
to his work, he took a final glance at the hoisting-tackle, then
seized a file and began to saw with it through the chain which
held the whole suspended.</p>

<p>The rasping of the file was audible amidst the roaring of the sea.</p>

<p>The chain from the capstan, attached to the regulating gear,
was within his reach, quite near his hand.</p>

<p>Suddenly there was a crash. The link which he was filing
snapped when only half cut through: the whole apparatus
swung violently. He had only just time sufficient to seize the
regulating gear.</p>

<p>The severed chain beat against the rock; the eight cables
strained; the huge mass, sawed and cut through, detached itself
from the wreck; the belly of the hull opened, and the iron
flooring of the engine-room was visible below the keel.</p>

<p>If he had not seized the regulating tackle at that instant it
would have fallen. But his powerful hand was there, and it
descended steadily.</p>

<p>When the brother of Jean Bart, Peter Bart, that powerful and
sagacious toper, that poor Dunkirk fisherman, who used to talk
familiarly with the Grand Admiral of France, went to the rescue
of the galley <i>Langeron</i>, in distress in the Bay of Ambleteuse,
endeavouring to save the heavy floating mass in the midst of the
breakers of that furious bay, he rolled up the mainsail, tied it
with sea-reeds, and trusted to the ties to break away of themselves,
and give the sail to the wind at the right moment. Just
so Gilliatt trusted to the breaking of the chain; and the same
eccentric feat of daring was crowned with the same success.</p>

<p>The tackle, taken in hand by Gilliatt, held out and worked
well. Its function, as will be remembered, was to moderate the
powers of the apparatus, thus reduced from many to one, by
bringing them into united action. The gear had some similarity
to a bridle of a bowline, except that instead of trimming a sail
it served to balance a complicated mechanism.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_249" id="Page_249">[Pg 249]</a></span></p>

<p>Erect, and with his hand upon the capstan, Gilliatt, so to speak,
was enabled to feel the pulse of the apparatus.</p>

<p>It was here that his inventive genius manifested itself.</p>

<p>A remarkable coincidence of forces was the result.</p>

<p>While the machinery of the Durande, detached in a mass,
was lowering to the sloop, the sloop rose slowly to receive it.
The wreck and the salvage vessel assisting each other in opposite
ways, saved half the labour of the operation.</p>

<p>The tide swelling quietly between the two Douvres raised the
sloop and brought it nearer to the Durande. The sea was more
than conquered; it was tamed and broken in. It became, in
fact, part and parcel of the organisation of power.</p>

<p>The rising waters lifted the vessel without any sort of shock,
gently, and almost with precaution, as one would handle
porcelain.</p>

<p>Gilliatt combined and proportioned the two labours, that of
the water and that of the apparatus; and standing steadfast
at the capstan, like some terrible statue obeyed by all the movement
around it at the same moment, regulated the slowness of
the descent by the slow rise of the sea.</p>

<p>There was no jerk given by the waters, no slip among the
tackle. It was a strange collaboration of all the natural forces
subdued. On one side, gravitation lowering the huge bulk, on
the other the sea raising the bark. The attraction of heavenly
bodies which causes the tide, and the attractive force of the
earth, which men call weight, seemed to conspire together to
aid his plans. There was no hesitation, no stoppage in their
service; under the dominance of mind these passive forces
became active auxiliaries. From minute to minute the work
advanced; the interval between the wreck and the sloop
diminished insensibly. The approach continued in silence, and
as in a sort of terror of the man who stood there. The elements
received his orders and fulfilled them.</p>

<p>Nearly at the moment when the tide ceased to raise it, the
cable ceased to slide. Suddenly, but without commotion, the
pulleys stopped. The vast machine had taken its place in the
bark, as if placed there by a powerful hand. It stood straight,
upright, motionless, firm. The iron floor of the engine-room
rested with its four corners evenly upon the hold.</p>

<p>The work was accomplished.</p>

<p>Gilliatt contemplated it, lost in thought.</p>

<p>He was not the spoiled child of success. He bent under the
weight of his great joy. He felt his limbs, as it were, sinking;<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_250" id="Page_250">[Pg 250]</a></span>
and contemplating his triumph, he, who had never been shaken
by danger, began to tremble.</p>

<p>He gazed upon the sloop under the wreck and at the machinery
in the sloop. He seemed to feel it hard to believe it true. It
might have been supposed that he had never looked forward to
that which he had accomplished. A miracle had been wrought
by his hands, and he contemplated it in bewilderment.</p>

<p>His reverie lasted but a short time.</p>

<p>Starting like one awakening from a deep sleep, he seized his
saw, cut the eight cables, separated now from the sloop, thanks
to the rising of the tide, by only about ten feet; sprang aboard,
took a bunch of cord, made four slings, passed them through the
rings prepared beforehand, and fixed on both sides aboard the
sloop the four chains of the funnel which only an hour before
had been still fastened to their places aboard the Durande.</p>

<p>The funnel being secured, he disengaged the upper part of
the machinery. A square portion of the planking of the
Durande was adhering to it; he struck off the nails and relieved
the sloop of this encumbrance of planks and beams; which fell
over on to the rocks&mdash;a great assistance in lightening it.</p>

<p>For the rest, the sloop, as has been foreseen, behaved well
under the burden of the machinery. It had sunk in the water,
but only to a good water-line. Although massive, the engine
of the Durande was less heavy than the pile of stones and the
cannon which he had once brought back from Herm in the
sloop.</p>

<p>All then was ended; he had only to depart.</p>



<hr style="width: 65%;" />
<h4>IX</h4>

<h5>A SLIP BETWEEN CUP AND LIP</h5>


<p>All was not ended.</p>

<p>To re-open the gorge thus closed by the portion of the Durande's
bulwarks, and at once to push out with the sloop beyond the
rocks, nothing could appear more clear and simple. On the
ocean every minute is urgent. There was little wind; scarcely
a wrinkle on the open sea. The afternoon was beautiful, and
promised a fine night. The sea, indeed, was calm, but the ebb
had begun. The moment was favourable for starting. There
would be the ebb-tide for leaving the Douvres; and the flood<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_251" id="Page_251">[Pg 251]</a></span>
would carry him into Guernsey. It would be possible to be at
St. Sampson's at daybreak.</p>

<p>But an unexpected obstacle presented itself. There was a
flaw in his arrangements which had baffled all his foresight.</p>

<p>The machinery was freed; but the chimney was not.</p>

<p>The tide, by raising the sloop to the wreck suspended in the
air, had diminished the dangers of the descent, and abridged the
labour. But this diminution of the interval had left the top of
the funnel entangled in the kind of gaping frame formed by the
open hull of the Durande. The funnel was held fast there as
between four walls.</p>

<p>The services rendered by the sea had been accompanied by
that unfortunate drawback. It seemed as if the waves, constrained
to obey, had avenged themselves by a malicious trick.</p>

<p>It is true that what the flood-tide had done, the ebb would
undo.</p>

<p>The funnel, which was rather more than three fathoms in
height, was buried more than eight feet in the wreck. The
water-level would fall about twelve feet. Thus the funnel descending
with the falling tide would have four feet of room to
spare, and would clear itself easily.</p>

<p>But how much time would elapse before that release would
be completed? Six hours.</p>

<p>In six hours it would be near midnight. What means would
there be of attempting to start at such an hour? What channel
could he find among all those breakers, so full of dangers even
by day? How was he to risk his vessel in the depth of black
night in that inextricable labyrinth, that ambuscade of shoals?</p>

<p>There was not help for it. He must wait for the morrow.
These six hours lost, entailed a loss of twelve hours at least.</p>

<p>He could not even advance the labour by opening the mouth
of the gorge. His breakwater was necessary against the next
tide.</p>

<p>He was compelled to rest. Folding his arms was almost the
only thing which he had not yet done since his arrival on the
rocks.</p>

<p>This forced inaction irritated, almost vexed him with himself,
as if it had been his fault. He thought "what would D&eacute;ruchette
say of me if she saw me thus doing nothing?"</p>

<p>And yet this interval for regaining his strength was not unnecessary.</p>

<p>The sloop was now at his command; he determined to pass
the night in it.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_252" id="Page_252">[Pg 252]</a></span></p>

<p>He mounted once more to fetch his sheepskin upon the Great
Douvre; descended again, supped off a few limpets and
<i>ch&acirc;taignes de mer</i>, drank, being very thirsty, a few draughts of
water from his can, which was nearly empty, enveloped himself
in the skin, the wool of which felt comforting, lay down like a
watch-dog beside the engine, drew his red cap over his eyes and
slept.</p>

<p>His sleep was profound. It was such sleep as men enjoy who
have completed a great labour.</p>



<hr style="width: 65%;" />
<h4>X</h4>

<h5>SEA-WARNINGS</h5>


<p>In the middle of the night he awoke suddenly and with a jerk
like the recoil of a spring.</p>

<p>He opened his eyes.</p>

<p>The Douvres, rising high over his head, were lighted up as by
the white glow of burning embers. Over all the dark escarpment
of the rock there was a light like the reflection of a fire.</p>

<p>Where could this fire come from?</p>

<p>It was from the water.</p>

<p>The aspect of the sea was extraordinary.</p>

<p>The water seemed a-fire. As far as the eye could reach,
among the reefs and beyond them, the sea ran with flame. The
flame was not red; it had nothing in common with the grand
living fires of volcanic craters or of great furnaces. There was
no sparkling, no glare, no purple edges, no noise. Long trails
of a pale tint simulated upon the water the folds of a winding-sheet.
A trembling glow was spread over the waves. It was
the spectre of a great fire, rather than the fire itself. It was in
some degree like the glow of unearthly flames lighting the inside
of a sepulchre. A burning darkness.</p>

<p>The night itself, dim, vast, and wide-diffused, was the fuel of
that cold flame. It was a strange illumination issuing out of
blindness. The shadows even formed part of that phantom-fire.</p>

<p>The sailors of the Channel are familiar with those indescribable
phosphorescences, full of warning for the navigator. They
are nowhere more surprising than in the "Great V," near Isigny.</p>

<p>By this light, surrounding objects lose their reality. A
spectral glimmer renders them, as it were, transparent. Rocks<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_253" id="Page_253">[Pg 253]</a></span>
become no more than outlines. Cables of anchors look like
iron bars heated to a white heat. The nets of the fishermen
beneath the water seem webs of fire. The half of the oar above
the waves is dark as ebony, the rest in the sea like silver. The
drops from the blades uplifted from the water fall in starry
showers upon the sea. Every boat leaves a furrow behind it
like a comet's tail. The sailors, wet and luminous, seem like
men in flames. If you plunge a hand into the water, you withdraw
it clothed in flame. The flame is dead, and is not felt.
Your arm becomes a firebrand. You see the forms of things in
the sea roll beneath the waves as in liquid fire. The foam
twinkles. The fish are tongues of fire, or fragments of the
forked lightning, moving in the depths.</p>

<p>The reflection of this brightness had passed over the closed
eyelids of Gilliatt in the sloop. It was this that had awakened
him.</p>

<p>His awakening was opportune.</p>

<p>The ebb tide had run out, and the waters were beginning to
rise again. The funnel, which had become disengaged during
his sleep, was about to enter again into the yawning hollow
above it.</p>

<p>It was rising slowly.</p>

<p>A rise of another foot would have entangled it in the wreck
again. A rise of one foot is equivalent to half-an-hour's tide.
If he intended, therefore, to take advantage of that temporary
deliverance once more within his reach, he had just half-an-hour
before him.</p>

<p>He leaped to his feet.</p>

<p>Urgent as the situation was, he stood for a few moments
meditative, contemplating the phosphorescence of the waves.</p>

<p>Gilliatt knew the sea in all its phases. Notwithstanding all
her tricks, and often as he had suffered from her terrors, he had
long been her companion. That mysterious entity which we
call the ocean had nothing in its secret thoughts which he could
not divine. Observation, meditation, and solitude, had given
him a quick perception of coming changes, of wind, or cloud, or
wave.</p>

<p>Gilliatt hastened to the top ropes and payed out some cable;
then being no longer held fast by the anchors, he seized the
boat-hook of the sloop, and pushed her towards the entrance to
the gorge some fathoms from the Durande, and quite near to
the breakwater. Here, as the Guernsey sailors say, it had
<i>du rang</i>. In less than ten minutes the sloop was withdrawn<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_254" id="Page_254">[Pg 254]</a></span>
from beneath the carcase of the wreck. There was no further
danger of the funnel being caught in a trap. The tide might
rise now.</p>

<p>And yet Gilliatt's manner was not that of one about to take
his departure.</p>

<p>He stood considering the light upon the sea once more; but
his thoughts were not of starting. He was thinking of how to
fix the sloop again, and how to fix it more firmly than ever,
though near to the exit from the defile.</p>

<p>Up to this time he had only used the two anchors of the sloop
and had not yet employed the little anchor of the Durande,
which he had found, as will be remembered, among the breakers.
This anchor had been deposited by him in readiness for any
emergency, in a corner of the sloop, with a quantity of hawsers,
and blocks of top-ropes, and his cable, all furnished beforehand
with large knots, which prevented its dragging. He now let
go this third anchor, taking care to fasten the cable to a rope,
one end of which was slung through the anchor ring, while the
other was attached to the windlass of the sloop. In this manner
he made a kind of triangular, triple anchorage, much stronger
than the moorings with two anchors. All this indicated keen
anxiety, and a redoubling of precautions. A sailor would have
seen in this operation something similar to an anchorage in bad
weather, when there is fear of a current which might carry the
vessel under the wind.</p>

<p>The phosphorescence which he had been observing, and upon
which his eye was now fixed once more, was threatening, but
serviceable at the same time. But for it he would have been
held fast locked in sleep, and deceived by the night. The strange
appearance upon the sea had awakened him, and made things
about him visible.</p>

<p>The light which it shed among the rocks was, indeed, ominous;
but disquieting as it appeared to be to Gilliatt, it had served to
show him the dangers of his position, and had rendered possible
his operations in extricating the sloop. Henceforth, whenever
he should be able to set sail, the vessel, with its freight of
machinery, would be free.</p>

<p>And yet the idea of departing was further than ever from his
mind. The sloop being fixed in its new position, he went in
quest of the strongest chain which he had in his store-cavern,
and attaching it to the nails driven into the two Douvres, he
fortified from within with this chain the rampart of planks and
beams, already protected from without by the cross chain. Far<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_255" id="Page_255">[Pg 255]</a></span>
from opening the entrance to the defile, he made the barrier
more complete.</p>

<p>The phosphorescence lighted him still, but it was diminishing.
The day, however, was beginning to break.</p>

<p>Suddenly he paused to listen.</p>



<hr style="width: 65%;" />
<h4>XI</h4>

<h5>A WORD TO THE WISE IS ENOUGH</h5>


<p>A feeble, indistinct sound seemed to reach his ear from somewhere
in the far distance.</p>

<p>At certain hours the great deeps give forth a murmuring noise.</p>

<p>He listened a second time. The distant noise recommenced.
Gilliatt shook his head like one who recognises at last something
familiar to him.</p>

<p>A few minutes later he was at the other extremity of the alley
between the rocks, at the entrance facing the east, which had
remained open until then, and by heavy blows of his hammer
was driving large nails into the sides of the gullet near "The
Man Rock," as he had done at the gullet of the Douvres.</p>

<p>The crevices of these rocks were prepared and well furnished
with timber, almost all of which was heart of oak. The rock
on this side being much broken up, there were abundant cracks,
and he was able to fix even more nails there than in the base of
the two Douvres.</p>

<p>Suddenly, and as if some great breath had passed over it, the
luminous appearance on the waters vanished. The twilight
becoming paler every moment, assumed its functions.</p>

<p>The nails being driven, Gilliatt dragged beams and cords,
and then chains to the spot; and without taking his eyes off
his work, or permitting his mind to be diverted for a moment,
he began to construct across the gorge of "The Man" with
beams fixed horizontally, and made fast by cables, one of those
open barriers which science has now adopted under the name of
breakwaters.</p>

<p>Those who have witnessed, for example, at La Rocquaine in
Guernsey, or at Bourg-d'Eau in France, the effect produced by
a few posts fixed in the rock, will understand the power of these
simple preparations. This sort of breakwater is a combination
of what is called in France <i>&eacute;pi</i> with what is known in England
as "a dam." The breakwater is the chevaux-de-frise of fortifi<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_256" id="Page_256">[Pg 256]</a></span>cations
against tempests. Man can only struggle against the
sea by taking advantage of this principle of dividing its forces.</p>

<p>Meanwhile, the sun had risen, and was shining brightly. The
sky was clear, the sea calm.</p>

<p>Gilliatt pressed on his work. He, too, was calm; but there
was anxiety in his haste. He passed with long strides from
rock to rock, and returned dragging wildly sometimes a rider,
sometimes a binding strake. The utility of all this preparation
of timbers now became manifest. It was evident that he was
about to confront a danger which he had foreseen.</p>

<p>A strong iron bar served him as a lever for moving the beams.</p>

<p>The work was executed so fast that it was rather a rapid
growth than a construction. He who has never seen a military
pontooner at his work can scarcely form an idea of this rapidity.</p>

<p>The eastern gullet was still narrower than the western.
There were but five or six feet of interval between the rocks.
The smallness of this opening was an assistance. The space to
be fortified and closed up being very little, the apparatus would
be stronger, and might be more simple. Horizontal beams,
therefore, sufficed, the upright ones being useless.</p>

<p>The first cross pieces of the breakwater being fixed, Gilliatt
mounted upon them and listened once more.</p>

<p>The murmurs had become significant.</p>

<p>He continued his construction. He supported it with the
two cat-heads of the Durande, bound to the frame of beams by
cords passed through the three pulley-sheaves. He made the
whole fast by chains.</p>

<p>The construction was little more than a colossal hurdle,
having beams for rods and chains in the place of wattles.</p>

<p>It seemed woven together, quite as much as built.</p>

<p>He multiplied the fastenings, and added nails where they
were necessary.</p>

<p>Having obtained a great quantity of bar iron from the
wreck, he had been able to make a large number of these heavy
nails.</p>

<p>While still at work, he broke some biscuit with his teeth. He
was thirsty, but he could not drink, having no more fresh water.
He had emptied the can at his meal of the evening before.</p>

<p>He added afterwards four or five more pieces of timber; then
climbed again upon the barrier and listened.</p>

<p>The noises from the horizon had ceased; all was still.</p>

<p>The sea was smooth and quiet; deserving all those complimentary
phrases which worthy citizens bestow upon it when<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_257" id="Page_257">[Pg 257]</a></span>
satisfied with a trip. "A mirror," "a pond," "like oil," and so
forth. The deep blue of the sky responded to the deep green
tint of the ocean. The sapphire and the emerald hues vied
with each other. Each were perfect. Not a cloud on high,
not a line of foam below. In the midst of all this splendour,
the April sun rose magnificently. It was impossible to imagine
a lovelier day.</p>

<p>On the verge of the horizon a flight of birds of passage formed
a long dark line against the sky. They were flying fast as if
alarmed.</p>

<p>Gilliatt set to work again to raise the breakwater.</p>

<p>He raised it as high as he could; as high, indeed, as the
curving of the rocks would permit.</p>

<p>Towards noon the sun appeared to him to give more than its
usual warmth. Noon is the critical time of the day. Standing
upon the powerful frame which he had built up, he paused
again to survey the wide expanse.</p>

<p>The sea was more than tranquil. It was a dull dead calm.
No sail was visible. The sky was everywhere clear; but from
blue it had become white. The whiteness was singular. To
the west, and upon the horizon, was a little spot of a sickly hue.
The spot remained in the same place, but by degrees grew
larger. Near the breakers the waves shuddered; but very
gently.</p>

<p>Gilliatt had done well to build his breakwater.</p>

<p>A tempest was approaching.</p>

<p>The elements had determined to give battle.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_258" id="Page_258">[Pg 258]</a></span></p>



<hr style="width: 65%;" />
<h3>BOOK III</h3>

<h4>THE STRUGGLE</h4>

<h4>I</h4>

<h5>EXTREMES MEET</h5>


<p>Nothing is more threatening than a late equinox.</p>

<p>The appearance of the sea presents a strange phenomenon,
resulting from what may be called the arrival of the ocean
winds.</p>

<p>In all seasons, but particularly at the epoch of the Syzygies,
at the moment when least expected, the sea sometimes becomes
singularly tranquil. That vast perpetual movement ceases; a
sort of drowsiness and languor overspreads it; and it seems
weary and about to rest. Every rag of bunting, from the tiny
streamer of the fishing-boat to the great flag of ships of war,
droops against the mast. The admiral's flag, the Royal and
Imperial ensigns sleep alike.</p>

<p>Suddenly all these streamers begin to flutter gently.</p>

<p>If there happen to be clouds, the moment has then come for
marking the formation of the <i>cirri</i>; if the sun is setting, for
observing the red tints of the horizon; or if it be night and
there is a moon, for looking attentively for the halo.</p>

<p>It is then that the captain or commander of a squadron, if he
happen to possess one of those storm indicators, the inventor of
which is unknown, notes his instrument carefully and takes his
precautions against the south wind, if the clouds have an
appearance like dissolved sugar; or against the north, if they
exfoliate in crystallisations like brakes of brambles, or like fir
woods. Then, too, the poor Irish or Breton fisherman, after
having consulted some mysterious gnomon engraved by the
Romans or by demons upon one of those straight enigmatical
stones, which are called in Brittany <i>Menhir</i>, and in Ireland
<i>Cruach</i>, hauls his boat up on the shore.</p>

<p>Meanwhile the serenity of sky and ocean continues. The
day dawns radiant, and Aurora smiles. It was this which filled
the old poets and seers with religious horror; for men dared to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_259" id="Page_259">[Pg 259]</a></span>
suspect the falsity of the sun. <i>Solem quis dicere falsum audeat?</i></p>

<p>The sombre vision of nature's secret laws is interdicted to
man by the fatal opacity of surrounding things. The most
terrible and perfidious of her aspects is that which masks the
convulsions of the deep.</p>

<p>Some hours, and even days sometimes, pass thus. Pilots
raise their telescopes here and there. The faces of old seamen
have always an expression of severity left upon them by the
vexation of perpetually looking out for changes.</p>

<p>Suddenly a great confused murmur is heard. A sort of
mysterious dialogue takes place in the air.</p>

<p>Nothing unusual is seen.</p>

<p>The wide expanse is tranquil.</p>

<p>Yet the noises increase. The dialogue becomes more audible.</p>

<p>There is something beyond the horizon.</p>

<p>Something terrible. It is the wind.</p>

<p>The wind; or rather that populace of Titans which we call
the gale. The unseen multitude.</p>

<p>India knew them as the Maroubs, Judea as the Keroubim,
Greece as the Aquilones. They are the invisible winged
creatures of the Infinite. Their blasts sweep over the earth.</p>



<hr style="width: 65%;" />
<h4>II</h4>

<h5>THE OCEAN WINDS</h5>


<p>They come from the immeasurable deep. Their wide wings
need the breadth of the ocean gulf; the spaciousness of desert
solitudes. The Atlantic, the Pacific&mdash;those vast blue plains&mdash;are
their delight. They hasten thither in flocks. Commander
Page witnessed, far out at sea, seven waterspouts at once.
They wander there, wild and terrible! The ever-ending yet
eternal flux and reflux is their work. The extent of their
power, the limits of their will, none know. They are the
Sphinxes of the abyss: Gama was their [OE]dipus. In that dark,
ever-moving expanse, they appear with faces of cloud. He
who perceives their pale lineaments in that wide dispersion, the
horizon of the sea, feels himself in presence of an unsubduable
power. It might be imagined that the proximity of human intelligence
disquieted them, and that they revolted against it.
The mind of man is invincible, but the elements baffle him. He
can do nothing against the power which is everywhere, and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_260" id="Page_260">[Pg 260]</a></span>
which none can bind. The gentle breath becomes a gale, smites
with the force of a war-club, and then becomes gentle again.
The winds attack with a terrible crash, and defend themselves
by fading into nothingness. He who would encounter them
must use artifice. Their varying tactics, their swift redoubled
blows, confuse. They fly as often as they attack. They are
tenacious and impalpable. Who can circumvent them? The
prow of the <i>Argo</i>, cut from an oak of Dodona's grove, that
mysterious pilot of the bark, spoke to them, and they insulted
that pilot-goddess. Columbus, beholding their approach at <i>La
Pinta</i>, mounted upon the poop, and addressed them with the
first verses of St. John's Gospel. Surcouf defied them: "Here
come the gang," he used to say. Napier greeted them with
cannon-balls. They assume the dictatorship of chaos.</p>

<p>Chaos is theirs, in which to wreak their mysterious vengeance:
the den of the winds is more monstrous than that of lions.
How many corpses lie in its deep recesses, where the howling
gusts sweep without pity over that obscure and ghastly mass!
The winds are heard wheresoever they go, but they give ear to
none. Their acts resemble crimes. None know on whom they
cast their hoary surf; with what ferocity they hover over shipwrecks,
looking at times as if they flung their impious foam-flakes
in the face of heaven. They are the tyrants of unknown
regions. "<i>Luoghi spaventosi</i>," murmured the Venetian
mariners.</p>

<p>The trembling fields of space are subjected to their fierce
assaults. Things unspeakable come to pass in those deserted
regions. Some horseman rides in the gloom; the air is full of a
forest sound; nothing is visible; but the tramp of cavalcades is
heard. The noonday is overcast with sudden night; a tornado
passes. Or it is midnight, which suddenly becomes bright as
day; the polar lights are in the heavens. Whirlwinds pass in
opposite ways, and in a sort of hideous dance, a stamping of the
storms upon the waters. A cloud overburdened opens and
falls to earth. Other clouds, filled with red light, flash and
roar; then frown again ominously. Emptied of their lightnings,
they are but as spent brands. Pent-up rains dissolve in
mists. Yonder sea appears a fiery furnace in which the rains are
falling: flames seem to issue from the waves. The white gleam
of the ocean under the shower is reflected to marvellous distances.
The different masses transform themselves into uncouth
shapes. Monstrous whirlpools make strange hollows in
the sky. The vapours revolve, the waves spin, the giddy<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_261" id="Page_261">[Pg 261]</a></span>
Naiads roll; sea and sky are livid; noises as of cries of despair
are in the air.</p>

<p>Great sheaves of shadow and darkness are gathered up,
trembling in the far depths of the sky. Now and then there is
a convulsion. The rumour becomes tumult as the wave becomes
surge. The horizon, a confused mass of strata, oscillating
ceaselessly, murmurs in a continual undertone. Strange
and sudden outbursts break through the monotony. Cold airs
rush forth, succeeded by warm blasts. The trepidation of the
sea betokens anxious expectation, agony, terror profound.
Suddenly the hurricane comes down, like a wild beast, to drink
of the ocean: a monstrous draught! The sea rises to the invisible
mouth; a mound of water is formed; the swell increases,
and the waterspout appears; the Prester of the ancients, stalactite
above, stalagmite below, a whirling double-inverted cone,
a point in equilibrium upon another, the embrace of two mountains&mdash;a
mountain of foam ascending, a mountain of vapour
descending&mdash;terrible coition of the cloud and the wave. Like
the column in Holy Writ, the waterspout is dark by day and
luminous by night. In its presence the thunder itself is silent
and seems cowed.</p>

<p>The vast commotion of those solitudes has its gamut, a
terrible crescendo. There are the gust, the squall, the storm,
the gale, the tempest, the whirlwind, the waterspout&mdash;the
seven chords of the lyre of the winds, the seven notes of the
firmament. The heavens are a clear space, the sea a vast
round; but a breath passes, they have vanished, and all is fury
and wild confusion.</p>

<p>Such are these inhospitable realms.</p>

<p>The winds rush, fly, swoop down, dwindle away, commence
again; hover above, whistle, roar, and smile; they are frenzied,
wanton, unbridled, or sinking at ease upon the raging waves.
Their howlings have a harmony of their own. They make all
the heavens sonorous. They blow in the cloud as in a trumpet;
they sing through the infinite space with the mingled tones of
clarions, horns, bugles, and trumpets&mdash;a sort of Promethean
fanfare.</p>

<p>Such was the music of ancient Pan. Their harmonies are
terrible. They have a colossal joy in the darkness. They
drive and disperse great ships. Night and day, in all seasons,
from the tropics to the pole, there is no truce; sounding their
fatal trumpet through the tangled thickets of the clouds and
waves, they pursue the grim chase of vessels in distress. They<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_262" id="Page_262">[Pg 262]</a></span>
have their packs of bloodhounds, and take their pleasure, setting
them to bark among the rocks and billows. They huddle
the clouds together, and drive them diverse. They mould and
knead the supple waters as with a million hands.</p>

<p>The water is supple because it is incompressible. It slips
away without effort. Borne down on one side, it escapes on
the other. It is thus that waters become waves, and that the
billows are a token of their liberty.</p>



<hr style="width: 65%;" />
<h4>III</h4>

<h5>THE NOISES EXPLAINED</h5>


<p>The grand descent of winds upon the world takes place at the
equinoxes. At this period the balance of tropic and pole
librates, and the vast atmospheric tides pour their flood upon
one hemisphere and their ebb upon another. The signs of
Libra and Aquarius have reference to these phenomena.</p>

<p>It is the time of tempests.</p>

<p>The sea awaits their coming, keeping silence.</p>

<p>Sometimes the sky looks sickly. Its face is wan. A thick
dark veil obscures it. The mariners observe with uneasiness
the angry aspect of the clouds.</p>

<p>But it is its air of calm contentment which they dread the
most. A smiling sky in the equinoxes is the tempest in gay
disguise. It was under skies like these that "The Tower of
Weeping Women," in Amsterdam, was filled with wives and
mothers scanning the far horizon.</p>

<p>When the vernal or autumnal storms delay to break, they
are gathering strength; hoarding up their fury for more sure
destruction. Beware of the gale that has been long delayed.
It was Angot who said that "the sea pays well old debts."</p>

<p>When the delay is unusually long, the sea betokens her impatience
only by a deeper calm, but the magnetic intensity
manifests itself by what might be called a fiery humour in the
sea. Fire issues from the waves; electric air, phosphoric water.
The sailors feel a strange lassitude. This time is particularly
perilous for iron vessels; their hulls are then liable to produce
variations of the compass, leading them to destruction. The
transatlantic steam-vessel <i>Iowa</i> perished from this cause.</p>

<p>To those who are familiar with the sea, its aspect at these
moments is singular. It may be imagined to be both desiring<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_263" id="Page_263">[Pg 263]</a></span>
and fearing the approach of the cyclone. Certain unions,
though strongly urged by nature, are attended by this strange
conjunction of terror and desire. The lioness in her tenderest
moods flies from the lion. Thus the sea, in the fire of her
passion, trembles at the near approach of her union with the
tempest. The nuptials are prepared. Like the marriages of
the ancient emperors, they are celebrated with immolations.
The f&ecirc;te is heralded with disasters.</p>

<p>Meanwhile, from yonder deeps, from the great open sea,
from the unapproachable latitudes, from the lurid horizon of
the watery waste, from the utmost bounds of the free ocean,
the winds pour down.</p>

<p>Listen; for this is the famous equinox.</p>

<p>The storm prepares mischief. In the old mythology these
entities were recognised, indistinctly moving, in the grand scene
of nature. Eolus plotted with Boreas. The alliance of element
with element is necessary; they divide their task. One has to
give impetus to the wave, the cloud, the stream: night is an
auxiliary, and must be employed. There are compasses to be
falsified, beacons to be extinguished, lanterns of lighthouses to
be masked, stars to be hidden. The sea must lend her aid.
Every storm is preceded by a murmur. Behind the horizon
line there is a premonitory whispering among the hurricanes.</p>

<p>This is the noise which is heard afar off in the darkness amidst
the terrible silence of the sea.</p>

<p>It was this significant whispering which Gilliatt had noted.
The phosphorescence on the water had been the first warning:
this murmur the second.</p>

<p>If the demon Legion exists, he is assuredly no other than the
wind.</p>

<p>The wind is complex, but the air is one.</p>

<p>Hence it follows that all storms are mixed&mdash;a principle which
results from the unity of the air.</p>

<p>The entire abyss of heaven takes part in a tempest: the entire
ocean also. The totality of its forces is marshalled for the strife.
A wave is the ocean gulf; a gust is a gulf of the atmosphere. A
contest with a storm is a contest with all the powers of sea
and sky.</p>

<p>It was Messier, that great authority among naval men, the
pensive astronomer of the little lodge at Cluny, who said, "The
wind comes from everywhere and is everywhere." He had no
faith in the idea of winds imprisoned even in inland seas. With
him there were no Mediterranean winds; he declared that<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_264" id="Page_264">[Pg 264]</a></span>
he recognised them as they wandered about the earth. He
affirmed that on a certain day, at a certain hour, the F&ouml;hn of
the Lake of Constance, the ancient Favonius of Lucretius, had
traversed the horizon of Paris; on another day, the Bora of the
Adriatic; on another day, the whirling Notus, which is supposed
to be confined in the round of the Cyclades. He indicated
their currents. He did not believe it impossible that the
"Autan," which circulates between Corsica and the Balearic
Isles, could escape from its bounds. He did not admit the
theory of winds imprisoned like bears in their dens. It was he,
too, who said that "every rain comes from the tropics, and
every flash of lightning from the pole." The wind, in fact,
becomes saturated with electricity at the intersection of the
colures which marks the extremity of the axis, and with water
at the equator; bringing moisture from the equatorial line and
the electric fluid from the poles.</p>

<p>The wind is ubiquitous.</p>

<p>It is certainly not meant by this that the winds never move
in zones. Nothing is better established than the existence
of those continuous air currents; and aerial navigation by
means of the wind boats, to which the passion for Greek terminology
has given the name of "aeroscaphes," may one day
succeed in utilising the chief of these streams of wind. The
regular course of air streams is an incontestable fact. There
are both rivers of wind and rivulets of wind, although their
branches are exactly the reverse of water currents: for in the
air it is the rivulets which flow out of the rivers, and the smaller
rivers which flow out of the great streams instead of falling into
them. Hence instead of concentration we have dispersion.</p>

<p>The united action of the winds and the unity of the atmosphere
result from this dispersion. The displacement of one
molecule produces the displacement of another. The vast body
of air becomes subject to one agitation. To these profound
causes of coalition we must add the irregular surface of the
earth, whose mountains furrow the atmosphere, contorting and
diverting the winds from their course, and determining the
directions of counter currents in infinite radiations.</p>

<p>The phenomenon of the wind is the oscillation of two oceans
one against the other; the ocean of air, superimposed upon
the ocean of water, rests upon these currents, and is convulsed
with this vast agitation.</p>

<p>The indivisible cannot produce separate action. No partition
divides wave from wave. The islands of the Channel feel the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_265" id="Page_265">[Pg 265]</a></span>
influence of the Cape of Good Hope. Navigation everywhere
contends with the same monster; the sea is one hydra. The
waves cover it as with a coat of scales. The ocean is Ceto.</p>

<p>Upon that unity reposes an infinite variety.</p>



<hr style="width: 65%;" />
<h4>IV</h4>

<h5>TURBA TURMA</h5>


<p>According to the compass there are thirty-two winds, that is
to say, thirty-two points. But these directions may be subdivided
indefinitely. Classed by its directions, the wind is incalculable;
classed by its kinds, it is infinite. Homer himself
would have shrunk from the task of enumerating them.</p>

<p>The polar current encounters the tropical current. Heat and
cold are thus combined; the equilibrium is distributed by a
shock, the wave of wind issues forth and is distended, scattered
and broken up in every direction in fierce streams. The dispersion
of the gusts shakes the streaming locks of the wind upon
the four corners of the horizon.</p>

<p>All the winds which blow are there. The wind of the Gulf
Stream, which disgorges the great fogs of Newfoundland; the
wind of Peru, in the region of silent heavens, where no man ever
heard the thunder roar; the wind of Nova Scotia, where flies
the great auk (<i>Alca impennis</i>) with his furrowed beak; the iron
whirlwinds of the Chinese seas; the wind of Mozambique, which
destroys the canoes and junks; the electric wind, which the
people of Japan denounce by the beating of a gong; the African
wind, which blows between Table Mountain and the Devil's
Peak, where it gains its liberty; the currents of the equator,
which pass over the trade winds, describing a parabola, the
summit of which is always to the west; the Plutonian wind,
which issues from craters, the terrible breath of flames; the
singular wind peculiar to the volcano Awa, which occasions a
perpetual olive tint in the north; the Java monsoon, against
which the people construct those casemates known as hurricane
houses; the branching north winds called by the English
"Bush winds;" the curved squalls of the Straits of Malacca,
observed by Horsburgh; the powerful south-west wind, called
Pampero in Chili, and Rebojo at Buenos Ayres, which carries
the great condor out to sea, and saves him from the pit where
the Indian, concealed under a bullock-hide newly stripped,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_266" id="Page_266">[Pg 266]</a></span>
watches for him, lying on his back and bending his great bow
with his feet; the chemical wind, which, according to Lemery,
produces thunder-bolts from the clouds; the Harmattan of
the Caffres; the Polar snow-driver, which harnesses itself to the
everlasting icebergs; the wind of the Gulf of Bengal, which
sweeps over a continent to pillage the triangular town of wooden
booths at Nijni-Novogorod, in which is held the great fair of
Asia; the wind of the Cordilleras, agitator of great waves and
forests; the wind of the Australian Archipelago, where the
bee-hunters take the wild hives hidden under the forks of the
branches of the giant eucalyptus; the Sirocco, the Mistral, the
Hurricane, the dry winds, the inundating and diluvian winds,
the torrid winds, which scatter dust from the plains of Brazil
upon the streets of Genoa, which both obey and revolt against
diurnal rotation, and of which Herrara said, "<i>Malo viento torna
contra el sol</i>;" those winds which hunt in couples, conspiring
mischief, the one undoing the work of the other; and those
old winds which assailed Columbus on the coast of Veragua,
and which during forty days, from the 21st of October to the
28th of November 1520, delayed and nearly frustrated Magellan's
approach to the Pacific; and those which dismasted the
Armada and confounded Philip II. Others, too, there are, of
the names of which there is no end. The winds, for instance,
which carry showers of frogs and locusts, and drive before them
clouds of living things across the ocean; those which blow in
what are called "Wind-leaps," and whose function is to destroy
ships at sea; those which at a single blast throw the cargo out
of trim, and compel the vessel to continue her course half
broadside over; the winds which construct the circum-cumuli;
the winds which mass together the circum-strati; the dark
heavy winds swelled with rains; the winds of the hailstorms;
the fever winds, whose approach sets the salt springs and sulphur
springs of Calabria boiling; those which give a glittering appearance
to the fur of African panthers, prowling among the bushes of
Cape Ferro; those which come shaking from the cloud, like the
tongue of a trigonocephal, the terrible forked lightning; and
those which bring whirlwinds of black snow. Such is the legion
of winds.</p>

<p>The Douvres rock heard their distant tramp at the moment
when Gilliatt was constructing his breakwater.</p>

<p>As we have said, the wind means the combination of all the
winds of the earth.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_267" id="Page_267">[Pg 267]</a></span></p>



<hr style="width: 65%;" />
<h4>V</h4>

<h5>GILLIATT'S ALTERNATIVES</h5>


<p>The mysterious forces had chosen their time well.</p>

<p>Chance, if chance exists, is sometimes far-seeing.</p>

<p>While the sloop had been anchored in the little creek of "The
Man Rock," and as long as the machinery had been prisoned in
the wreck, Gilliatt's position had been impregnable. The sloop
was in safety; the machinery sheltered. The Douvres, which
held the hull of the Durande fast, condemned it to slow destruction,
but protected it against unexpected accidents. In any
event, one resource had remained to him. If the engine had
been destroyed, Gilliatt would have been uninjured. He had
still the sloop by which to escape.</p>

<p>But to wait till the sloop was removed from the anchorage
where she was inaccessible; to allow it to be fixed in the defile
of the Douvres; to watch until the sloop, too, was, as it were,
entangled in the rocks; to permit him to complete the salvage,
the moving, and the final embarkation of the machinery; to
do no damage to that wonderful construction by which one man
was enabled to put the whole aboard his bark; to acquiesce, in
fact, in the success of his exploits so far; this was but the trap
which the elements had laid for him. Now for the first time
he began to perceive in all its sinister characteristics the trick
which the sea had been meditating so long.</p>

<p>The machinery, the sloop, and their master were all now within
the gorge of the rocks. They formed but a single point. One
blow, and the sloop might be dashed to pieces on the rock,
the machinery destroyed, and Gilliatt drowned.</p>

<p>The situation could not have been more critical.</p>

<p>The sphinx, which men have imagined concealing herself in
the cloud, seemed to mock him with a dilemma.</p>

<p>"Go or stay."</p>

<p>To go would have been madness; to remain was terrible.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_268" id="Page_268">[Pg 268]</a></span></p>



<hr style="width: 65%;" />
<h4>VI</h4>

<h5>THE COMBAT</h5>


<p>Gilliatt ascended to the summit of the Great Douvre.</p>

<p>From hence he could see around the horizon.</p>

<p>The western side was appalling. A wall of cloud spread
across it, barring the wide expanse from side to side, and ascending
slowly from the horizon towards the zenith. This wall,
straight lined, vertical, without a crevice in its height, without
a rent in its structure, seemed built by the square and measured
by the plumb-line. It was cloud in the likeness of granite. Its
escarpment, completely perpendicular at the southern extremity,
curved a little towards the north, like a bent sheet of iron,
presenting the steep slippery face of an inclined plane. The
dark wall enlarged and grew; but its entablature never ceased
for a moment to be parallel with the horizon line, which was
almost indistinguishable in the gathering darkness. Silently,
and altogether, the airy battlements ascended. No undulation,
no wrinkle, no projection changed its shape or moved its place.
The aspect of this immobility in movement was impressive.
The sun, pale in the midst of a strange sickly transparence,
lighted up this outline of the Apocalypse. Already the cloudy
bank had blotted out one half the space of the sky: shelving
like the fearful talus of the abyss. It was the uprising of a
dark mountain between earth and heaven.</p>

<p>It was night falling suddenly upon midday.</p>

<p>There was a heat in the air as from an oven door, coming from
that mysterious mass on mass. The sky, which from blue had
become white, was now turning from white to a slatey grey.
The sea beneath was leaden-hued and dull. There was no
breath, no wave, no noise. Far as eye could reach, the desert
ocean. No sail was visible on any side. The birds had disappeared.
Some monstrous treason seemed abroad.</p>

<p>The wall of cloud grew visibly larger.</p>

<p>This moving mountain of vapours, which was approaching the
Douvres, was one of those clouds which might be called the
clouds of battle. Sinister appearances; some strange, furtive
glance seemed cast upon the beholder through that obscure mass
up-piled.</p>

<p>The approach was terrible.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_269" id="Page_269">[Pg 269]</a></span></p>

<p>Gilliatt observed it closely, and muttered to himself, "I am
thirsty enough, but you will give me plenty to drink."</p>

<p>He stood there motionless a few moments, his eye fixed upon
the cloud bank, as if mentally taking a sounding of the tempest.</p>

<p>His <i>gal&eacute;rienne</i> was in the pocket of his jacket; he took it out
and placed it on his head. Then he fetched from the cave,
which had so long served him for a sleeping-place, a few things
which he had kept there in reserve; he put on his overalls, and
attired himself in his waterproof overcoat, like a knight who
puts on his armour at the moment of battle. He had no shoes;
but his naked feet had become hardened to the rocks.</p>

<p>This preparation for the storm being completed, he looked
down upon his breakwater, grasped the knotted cord hurriedly,
descended from the plateau of the Douvre, stepped on to the
rocks below, and hastened to his store cavern. A few moments
later he was at work. The vast silent cloud might have heard
the strokes of his hammer. With the nails, ropes, and beams
which still remained, he constructed for the eastern gullet a
second frame, which he succeeded in fixing at ten or twelve feet
from the other.</p>

<p>The silence was still profound. The blades of grass between
the cracks of the rocks were not stirred.</p>

<p>The sun disappeared suddenly. Gilliatt looked up.</p>

<p>The rising cloud had just reached it. It was like the blotting
out of day, succeeded by a mingled pale reflection.</p>

<p>The immense wall of cloud had changed its appearance. It
no longer retained its unity. It had curved on reaching the
zenith, whence it spread horizontally over the rest of the
heavens. It had now its various stages. The tempest formation
was visible, like the strata in the side of a trench. It was
possible to distinguish the layers of the rain from the beds of
hail. There was no lightning, but a horrible, diffused glare;
for the idea of horror may be attached to light. The vague
breathing of the storm was audible; the silence was broken by
an obscure palpitation. Gilliatt, silent also, watched the giant
blocks of vapour grouping themselves overhead forming the
shapeless mass of clouds. Upon the horizon brooded and
lengthened out a band of mist of ashen hue; in the zenith,
another band of lead colour. Pale, ragged fragments of cloud
hung from the great mass above upon the mist below. The
pile of cloud which formed the background was wan, dull,
gloomy. A thin, whitish transverse cloud, coming no one could
tell whither, cut the high dark wall obliquely from north to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_270" id="Page_270">[Pg 270]</a></span>
south. One of the extremities of this cloud trailed along the
surface of the sea. At the point where it touched the waters,
a dense red vapour was visible in the midst of the darkness.
Below it, smaller clouds, quite black and very low, were flying
as if bewildered or moved by opposite currents of air. The
immense cloud beyond increased from all points at once,
darkened the eclipse, and continued to spread its sombre pall.
In the east, behind Gilliatt, there was only one clear porch in the
heavens, which was rapidly being closed. Without any feeling
of wind abroad, a strange flight of grey downy particles seemed
to pass; they were fine and scattered as if some gigantic bird
had been plucked of its plumage behind the bank of cloud. A
dark compact roof had gradually formed itself, which on the
verge of the horizon touched the sea, and mingled in darkness
with it. The beholder had a vague sense of something advancing
steadily towards him. It was vast, heavy, ominous. Suddenly
an immense peal of thunder burst upon the air.</p>

<p>Gilliatt himself felt the shock. The rude reality in the midst
of that visionary region has something in it terrific. The listener
might fancy that he hears something falling in the chamber of
giants. No electric flash accompanied the report. It was a
blind peal. The silence was profound again. There was an
interval, as when combatants take up their position. Then
appeared slowly, one after the other, great shapeless flashes;
these flashes were silent. The wall of cloud was now a vast
cavern, with roofs and arches. Outlines of forms were traceable
among them; monstrous heads were vaguely shadowed forth;
rocks seemed to stretch out; elephants bearing turrets, seen
for a moment, vanished. A column of vapour, straight, round,
and dark, and surmounted by a white mist, simulated the form
of a colossal steam-vessel engulfed, hissing, and smoking beneath
the waves. Sheets of cloud undulated like folds of giant flags.
In the centre, under a thick purple pall, a nucleus of dense fog
sunk motionless, inert, impenetrable by the electric fires; a sort
of hideous f&oelig;tus in the bosom of the tempest.</p>

<p>Suddenly Gilliatt felt a breath moving his hair. Two or three
large spots of rain fell heavily around him on the rock. Then
there was a second thunder-clap. The wind was rising.</p>

<p>The terror of darkness was at its highest point. The first
peal of thunder had shaken the sea; the second rent the wall
of cloud from top to base; breach was visible; the pent-up
deluge rushed towards it; the rent became like a gulf filled
with rain. The outpouring of the tempest had begun.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_271" id="Page_271">[Pg 271]</a></span></p>

<p>The moment was terrible.</p>

<p>Rain, wind, lightnings, thunder, waves swirling upwards to
the clouds, foam, hoarse noises, whistlings, mingled together
like monsters suddenly unloosened.</p>

<p>For a solitary man, imprisoned with an overloaded vessel,
between two dangerous rocks in mid-ocean, no crisis could have
been more menacing. The danger of the tide, over which he
had triumphed, was nothing compared with the danger of the
tempest.</p>

<p>Surrounded on all sides by dangers, Gilliatt, at the last
moment, and before the crowning peril, had developed an
ingenious strategy. He had secured his basis of operations in
the enemies' territory; had pressed the rock into his service.
The Douvres, originally his enemy, had become his second in
that immense duel. Out of that sepulchre he had constructed
a fortress. He was built up among those formidable sea ruins.
He was blockaded, but well defended. He had, so to speak,
set his back against the wall, and stood face to face with the
hurricane. He had barricaded the narrow strait, that highway of
the waves. This, indeed, was the only possible course. It seemed
as if the ocean, like other despots, might be brought to reason
by the aid of barricades. The sloop might be considered secure
on three sides. Closely wedged between the two interior walls
of the rock, made fast by three anchorings, she was sheltered
from the north by the Little Douvre, on the south by the Great
one; terrible escarpments, more accustomed to wreck vessels
than to save them. On the western side she was protected by
the frame of timbers made fast and nailed to the rocks&mdash;a tried
barrier which had withstood the rude flood-tide of the sea; a
veritable citadel-gate, having for its sides the columns of the
rock&mdash;the two Douvres themselves. Nothing was to be feared
from that side. It was on the eastern side only that there was
danger.</p>

<p>On that side there was no protection but the breakwater. A
breakwater is an apparatus for dividing and distributing. It
requires at least two frames. Gilliatt had only had time to
construct one. He was compelled to build the second in the
very presence of the tempest.</p>

<p>Fortunately the wind came from the north-west. The wind
is not always adroit in its attacks. The north-west wind, which
is the ancient "galerno," had little effect upon the Douvres.
It assailed the rocks in flank, and drove the waves neither
against the one nor the other of the two gullets; so that instead<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_272" id="Page_272">[Pg 272]</a></span>
of rushing into a defile, they dashed themselves against a wall.</p>

<p>But the currents of the wind are curved, and it was probable
that there would be some sudden change. If it should veer to
the east before the second frame could be constructed the peril
would be great. The irruption of the sea into the gorge would
be complete, and all would probably be lost.</p>

<p>The wildness of the storm went on increasing. The essence
of a tempest is the rapid succession of its blows. That is its
strength; but it is also its weakness. Its fury gives the opportunity
to human intelligence, and man spies its weak points
for his defence; but under what overwhelming assaults! No
respite, no interruption, no truce, no pause for taking breath.
There seems an unspeakable cowardice in that prodigality of
inexhaustible resources.</p>

<p>All the tumult of the wide expanse rushed towards the
Douvres. Voices were heard in the darkness. What could
they be? The ancient terror of the sea was there. At times
they seemed to speak as if some one was uttering words of
command. There were clamours, strange trepidations, and
then that majestic roar which the mariners call the "Ocean
cry." The indefinite and flying eddies of the wind whistled,
while curling the waves and flinging them like giant quoits,
cast by invisible athletes, against the breakers. The enormous
surf streamed over all the rocks; torrents above; foam below.
Then the roaring was redoubled. No uproar of men or beasts
could yield an idea of that din which mingled with the incessant
breaking of the sea. The clouds cannonaded, the hailstones
poured their volleys, the surf mounted to the assault. As far
as eye could reach, the sea was white; ten leagues of yeasty
water filled the horizon. Doors of fire were opened, clouds
seemed burnt by clouds, and showed like smoke above a nebulous
red mass, resembling burning embers. Floating conflagrations
rushed together and amalgamated, each changing the shape of
the other. From the midst of the dark roof a terrible arsenal
appeared to be emptied out, hurling downward from the gulf,
pell-mell, waterspouts, hail torrents, purple fire, phosphoric
gleams, darkness, and lightnings.</p>

<p>Meanwhile Gilliatt seemed to pay no attention to the storm.
His head was bent over his work. The second framework began
to approach completion. To every clap of thunder he replied
with a blow of his hammer, making a cadence which was audible
even amidst that tumult. He was bareheaded, for a gust had
carried away his <i>gal&eacute;rienne</i>.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_273" id="Page_273">[Pg 273]</a></span></p>

<p>He suffered from a burning thirst. Little pools of rain had
formed in the rocks around him. From time to time he took
some water in the hollow of his hand and drank. Then, without
even looking upward to observe the storm, he applied himself
anew to his task.</p>

<p>All might depend upon a moment. He knew the fate that
awaited him if his breakwater should not be completed in time.
Of what avail could it be to lose a moment in looking for the
approach of death?</p>

<p>The turmoil around him was like that of a vast bubbling
cauldron. Crash and uproar were everywhere. Sometimes
the lightning seemed to descend a sort of ladder. The electric
flame returned incessantly to the same points of the rock,
where there were probably metallic veins. Hailstones fell of
enormous size. Gilliatt was compelled to shake the folds of his
overcoat, even the pockets of which became filled with hail.</p>

<p>The storm had now rotated to the west, and was expending
its fury upon the barricades of the two Douvres. But Gilliatt
had faith in his breakwaters, and with good reason. These
barricades, made of a great portion of the fore-part of the
Durande, took the shock of the waves easily. Elasticity is a
resistance. The experiments of Stephenson establish the fact
that against the waves, which are themselves elastic, a raft of
timber, joined and chained together in a certain fashion, will
form a more powerful obstacle than a breakwater of masonry.
The barriers of the Douvres fulfilled these conditions. They
were, moreover, so ingeniously made fast, that the waves
striking them beneath were like hammers beating in nails,
pressing and consolidating the work upon the rocks. To
demolish them it would have been necessary to overthrow
the Douvres themselves. The surf, in fact, was only able to
cast over upon the sloop some flakes of foam. On that side,
thanks to the barrier, the tempest ended only in harmless insult.
Gilliatt turned his back upon the scene. He heard composedly
its useless rage upon the rocks behind him.</p>

<p>The foam-flakes coming from all sides were like flights of
down. The vast irritated ocean deluged the rocks, dashed over
them and raged within, penetrated into the network of their
interior fissures, and issued again from the granitic masses by
the narrow chinks, forming a kind of inexhaustible fountains
playing peacefully in the midst of that deluge. Here and there
a silvery network fell gracefully from these spouts in the sea.</p>

<p>The second frame of the eastern barrier was nearly completed.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_274" id="Page_274">[Pg 274]</a></span>
A few more knots of rope and ends of chains and this new rampart
would be ready to play its part in barring out the storm.</p>

<p>Suddenly there was a great brightness; the rain ceased; the
clouds rolled asunder; the wind had just shifted; a sort of
high, dark window opened in the zenith, and the lightnings
were extinguished. The end seemed to have come. It was
but the commencement.</p>

<p>The change of wind was from the north-west to the north-east.</p>

<p>The storm was preparing to burst forth again with a new
legion of hurricanes. The north was about to mount to the
assault. Sailors call this dreaded moment of transition the
"Return storm." The southern wind brings most rain, the
north wind most lightning.</p>

<p>The attack, coming now from the east, was directed against
the weak point of the position.</p>

<p>This time Gilliatt interrupted his work and looked around
him.</p>

<p>He stood erect, upon a curved projection of the rock behind
the second barrier, which was nearly finished. If the first
frame had been carried away, it would have broken down the
second, which was not yet consolidated, and must have crushed
him. Gilliatt, in the place that he had chosen, must in that
case have been destroyed before seeing the sloop, the machinery,
and all his work shattered and swallowed up in the gulf. Such
was the possibility which awaited him. He accepted it, and
contemplated it sternly.</p>

<p>In that wreck of all his hope, to die at once would have been
his desire; to die first, as he would have regarded it&mdash;for the
machinery produced in his mind the effect of a living being.
He moved aside his hair, which was beaten over his eyes by the
wind, grasped his trusty mallet, drew himself up in a menacing
attitude, and awaited the event.</p>

<p>He was not kept long in suspense.</p>

<p>A flash of lightning gave the signal; the livid opening in the
zenith closed; a driving torrent of rain fell; then all became
dark, save where the lightnings broke forth once more. The
attack had recommenced in earnest.</p>

<p>A heavy swell, visible from time to time in the blaze of the
lightning, was rolling in the east beyond "The Man Rock." It
resembled a huge wall of glass. It was green and without
foam, and it stretched across the wide expanse. It was advancing
towards the breakwater, increasing as it approached. It<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_275" id="Page_275">[Pg 275]</a></span>
was a singular kind of gigantic cylinder, rolling upon the ocean.
The thunder kept up a hollow rumbling.</p>

<p>The great wave struck "The Man Rock," broke in twain, and
passed beyond. The broken wave, rejoined, formed a mountain
of water, and instead of advancing in parallel line as before,
came down perpendicularly upon the breakwater.</p>

<p>The shock was terrific: the whole wave became a roaring surf.</p>

<p>It is impossible for those who have not witnessed them to
imagine those snowy avalanches which the sea thus precipitates,
and under which it engulfs for the moment rocks of more
than a hundred feet in height, such, for example, as the Great
Anderlo at Guernsey, and the Pinnacle at Jersey. At Saint
Mary of Madagascar it passes completely over the promontory
of Tintingue.</p>

<p>For some moments the sea drowned everything. Nothing
was visible except the furious waters, an enormous breadth of
foam, the whiteness of a winding-sheet blowing in the draught
of a sepulchre; nothing was heard but the roaring storm working
devastation around.</p>

<p>When the foam subsided, Gilliatt was still standing at his
post.</p>

<p>The barrier had stood firm. Not a chain was broken, not a
nail displaced. It had exhibited under the trial the two chief
qualities of a breakwater; it had proved flexible as a hurdle
and firm as a wall. The surf falling upon it had dissolved into
a shower of drops.</p>

<p>A river of foam rushing along the zigzags of the defile subsided
as it approached the sloop.</p>

<p>The man who had put this curb upon the fury of the ocean
took no rest.</p>

<p>The storm fortunately turned aside its fury for a moment.
The fierce attack of the waves was renewed upon the wall of
the rock. There was a respite, and Gilliatt took advantage of
it to complete the interior barrier.</p>

<p>The daylight faded upon his labours. The hurricane continued
its violence upon the flank of the rocks with a mournful
solemnity. The stores of fire and water in the sky poured out
incessantly without exhausting themselves. The undulations of
the wind above and below were like the movements of a dragon.</p>

<p>Nightfall brought scarcely any deeper night. The change
was hardly felt, for the darkness was never complete. Tempests
alternately darkening and illumining by their lightnings, are
merely intervals of the visible and invisible. All is pale glare,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_276" id="Page_276">[Pg 276]</a></span>
and then all is darkness. Spectral shapes issue forth suddenly,
and return as suddenly into the deep shade.</p>

<p>A phosphoric zone, tinged with the hue of the aurora borealis,
appeared like ghastly flames behind the dense clouds, giving to
all things a wan aspect, and making the rain-drifts luminous.</p>

<p>This uncertain light aided Gilliatt, and directed him in his
operations. By its help he was enabled to raise the forward
barrier. The breakwater was now almost complete. As he
was engaged in making fast a powerful cable to the last beam,
the gale blew directly in his face. This compelled him to raise
his head. The wind had shifted abruptly to the north-east.
The assault upon the eastern gullet recommenced. Gilliatt
cast his eyes around the horizon. Another great wall of water
was approaching.</p>

<p>The wave broke with a great shock; a second followed; then
another and another still; then five or six almost together;
then a last shock of tremendous force.</p>

<p>This last wave, which was an accumulation of forces, had a
singular resemblance to a living thing. It would not have been
difficult to imagine in the midst of that swelling mass the shapes
of fins and gill-coverings. It fell heavily and broke upon the
barriers. Its almost animal form was torn to pieces in the shape
of spouts and gushes, resembling the crushing to death of some
sea hydra upon that block of rocks and timbers. The swell
rushed through, subsiding but devastating as it went. The
huge wave seemed to bite and cling to its victim as it died. The
rock shook to its base. A savage howling mingled with the
roar; the foam flew far like the spouting of a leviathan.</p>

<p>The subsidence exhibited the extent of the ravages of the
surf. This last escalade had not been ineffectual. The breakwater
had suffered this time. A long and heavy beam, torn
from the first barrier, had been carried over the second, and
hurled violently upon the projecting rock on which Gilliatt had
stood but a moment before. By good fortune he had not
returned there. Had he done so, his death had been inevitable.</p>

<p>There was a remarkable circumstance in the fall of this beam,
which by preventing the framework rebounding, saved Gilliatt
from greater dangers. It even proved useful to him, as will be
seen, in another way.</p>

<p>Between the projecting rock and the interior wall of the
defile there was a large interval, something like the notch of an
axe, or the split of a wedge. One of the extremities of the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_277" id="Page_277">[Pg 277]</a></span>
timber hurled into the air by the waves had stuck fast into this
notch in falling. The gap had become enlarged.</p>

<p>Gilliatt was struck with an idea. It was that of bearing
heavily on the other extremity.</p>

<p>The beam caught by one end in the nook, which it had
widened, projected from it straight as an outstretched arm.
This species of arm projected parallel with the anterior wall of
the defile, and the disengaged end stretched from its resting
place about eighteen or twenty inches. A good distance for
the object to be attained.</p>

<p>Gilliatt raised himself by means of his hands, feet, and knees
to the escarpment, and then turned his back, pressing both his
shoulders against the enormous lever. The beam was long,
which increased its raising power. The rock was already
loosened; but he was compelled to renew his efforts again and
again. The sweat-drops rolled from his forehead as rapidly
as the spray. The fourth attempt exhausted all his powers.
There was a cracking noise; the gap spreading in the shape of a
fissure, opened its vast jaws, and the heavy mass fell into the
narrow space of the defile with a noise like the echo of the
thunder.</p>

<p>The mass fell straight, and without breaking; resting in its
bed like a Druid cromlech precipitated in one piece.</p>

<p>The beam which had served as a lever descended with the
rock, and Gilliatt, stumbling forward as it gave way, narrowly
escaped falling.</p>

<p>The bed of the pass at this part was full of huge round stones,
and there was little water. The monolith lying in the boiling
foam, the flakes of which fell on Gilliatt where he stood, stretched
from side to side of the great parallel rocks of the defile, and
formed a transversal wall, a sort of cross-stroke between the
two escarpments. Its two ends touched the rocks. It had
been a little too long to lie flat, but its summit of soft rock was
struck off with the fall. The result of this fall was a singular
sort of <i>cul-de-sac</i>, which may still be seen. The water behind
this stony barrier is almost always tranquil.</p>

<p>This was a rampart more invincible still than the forward
timbers of the Durande fixed between the two Douvres.</p>

<p>The barrier came opportunely.</p>

<p>The assaults of the sea had continued. The obstinacy of the
waves is always increased by an obstacle. The first frame
began to show signs of breaking up. One breach, however
small, in a breakwater, is always serious. It inevitably<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_278" id="Page_278">[Pg 278]</a></span>
enlarges, and there is no means of supplying its place, for
the sea would sweep away the workmen.</p>

<p>A flash which lighted up the rocks revealed to Gilliatt the
nature of the mischief; the beams broken down, the ends of
rope and fragments of chain swinging in the winds, and a rent
in the centre of the apparatus. The second frame was intact.</p>

<p>Though the block of stone so powerfully overturned by
Gilliatt in the defile behind the breakwater was the strongest
possible barrier, it had a defect. It was too low. The surge
could not destroy, but could sweep over it.</p>

<p>It was useless to think of building it higher. Nothing but
masses of rock could avail upon a barrier of stone; but how
could such masses be detached? or, if detached, how could
they be moved, or raised, or piled, or fixed? Timbers may be
added, but rocks cannot.</p>

<p>Gilliatt was not Enceladus.</p>

<p>The very little height of this rocky isthmus rendered him
anxious.</p>

<p>The effects of this fault were not long in showing themselves.
The assaults upon the breakwater were incessant; the heavy
seas seemed not merely to rage, but to attack with determination
to destroy it. A sort of trampling noise was heard upon
the jolted framework.</p>

<p>Suddenly the end of a binding strake, detached from the dislocated
frame, was swept away over the second barrier and
across the transversal rock, falling in the defile, where the water
seized and carried it into the sinuosities of the pass. Gilliatt
lost sight of it. It seemed probable that it would do some
injury to the sloop. Fortunately, the water in the interior of
the rocks, shut in on all sides, felt little of the commotion without.
The waves there were comparatively trifling, and the
shock was not likely to be very severe. For the rest, he had
little time to spare for reflection upon this mishap. Every
variety of danger was arising at once; the tempest was concentrated
upon the vulnerable point; destruction was imminent.</p>

<p>The darkness was profound for a moment: the lightnings
paused&mdash;a sort of sinister connivance. The cloud and the sea
became one: there was a dull peal.</p>

<p>This was followed by a terrible outburst. The frame which
formed the front of the barriers was swept away. The fragments
of beams were visible in the rolling waters. The sea was
using the first breakwater as an engine for making a breach in
the second.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_279" id="Page_279">[Pg 279]</a></span></p>

<p>Gilliatt experienced the feeling of a general who sees his
advanced guard driven in.</p>

<p>The second construction of beams resisted the shock. The
apparatus behind it was powerfully secured and buttressed.
But the broken frame was heavy, and was at the mercy of the
waves, which were incessantly hurling it forward and withdrawing
it. The ropes and chains which remained unsevered
prevented its entirely breaking up, and the qualities which
Gilliatt had given it as a means of defence made it, in the end, a
more effective weapon of destruction. Instead of a buckler, it
had become a battering-ram. Besides this, it was now full of
irregularities from breaking; ends of timbers projected from
all parts; and it was, as it were, covered with teeth and spikes.
No sort of arm could have been more effective, or more fitted
for the handling of the tempest. It was the projectile, while
the sea played the part of the catapult.</p>

<p>The blows succeeded each other with a dismal regularity.
Gilliatt, thoughtful and anxious, behind that barricaded portal,
listened to the sound of death knocking loudly for admittance.</p>

<p>He reflected with bitterness that, but for the fatal entanglement
of the funnel of the Durande in the wreck, he would have
been at that very moment, and even since the morning, once
more at Guernsey, in the port, with the sloop out of danger and
with the machinery saved.</p>

<p>The dreaded moment arrived. The destruction was complete.
There was a sound like a death-rattle. The entire
frame of the breakwater, the double apparatus crushed and
mingled confusedly, came in a whirl of foam, rushing upon the
stone barricade like chaos upon a mountain, where it stopped.
Here the fragments lay together, a mass of beams penetrable
by the waves, but still breaking their force. The conquered
barrier struggled nobly against destruction. The waves had
shattered it, and in their turn were shattered against it. Though
overthrown, it still remained in some degree effective. The
rock which barred its passage, an immovable obstacle held it
fast. The defile, as we have said, was very narrow at that
point; the victorious whirlwind had driven forward, mingled
and piled up the wreck of the breakwater in this narrow pass.
The very violence of the assault, by heaping up the mass and
driving the broken ends one into the other, had contributed to
make the pile firm. It was destroyed, but immovable. A few
pieces of timber only were swept away and dispersed by the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_280" id="Page_280">[Pg 280]</a></span>
waves. One passed through the air very near to Gilliatt. He
felt the counter current upon his forehead.</p>

<p>Some waves, however, of that kind which in great tempests
return with an imperturbable regularity, swept over the ruins
of the breakwater. They fell into the defile, and in spite of the
many angles of the passage, set the waters within in commotion.
The waters began to roll through the gorge ominously. The
mysterious embraces of the waves among the rocks were audible.</p>

<p>What means were there of preventing this agitation extending
as far as the sloop? It would not require a long time for
the blast of wind to create a tempest through all the windings
of the pass. A few heavy seas would be sufficient to stave in
the sloop and scatter her burden.</p>

<p>Gilliatt shuddered as he reflected.</p>

<p>But he was not disconcerted. No defeat could daunt his soul.</p>

<p>The hurricane had now discovered the true plan of attack,
and was rushing fiercely between the two walls of the strait.</p>

<p>Suddenly a crash was heard, resounding and prolonging itself
through the defile at some distance behind him: a crash more
terrible than any he had yet heard.</p>

<p>It came from the direction of the sloop.</p>

<p>Something disastrous was happening there.</p>

<p>Gilliatt hastened towards it.</p>

<p>From the eastern gullet where he was, he could not see the
sloop on account of the sharp turns of the pass. At the last
turn he stopped and waited for the lightning.</p>

<p>The first flash revealed to him the position of affairs.</p>

<p>The rush of the sea through the eastern entrance had been
met by a blast of wind from the other end. A disaster was near
at hand.</p>

<p>The sloop had received no visible damage; anchored as she
was, the storm had little power over her, but the carcase of
the Durande was distressed.</p>

<p>In such a tempest, the wreck presented a considerable surface.
It was entirely out of the sea in the air, exposed. The breach
which Gilliatt had made, and which he had passed the engine
through, had rendered the hull still weaker. The keelson was
snapped, the vertebral column of the skeleton was broken.</p>

<p>The hurricane had passed over it. Scarcely more than this
was needed to complete its destruction. The planking of the
deck had bent like an opened book. The dismemberment had
begun. It was the noise of this dislocation which had reached
Gilliatt's ears in the midst of the tempest.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_281" id="Page_281">[Pg 281]</a></span></p>

<p>The disaster which presented itself as he approached appeared
almost irremediable.</p>

<p>The square opening which he had cut in the keel had become
a gaping wound. The wind had converted the smooth-cut
hole into a ragged fracture. This transverse breach separated
the wreck in two. The after-part, nearest to the sloop, had
remained firm in its bed of rocks. The forward portion which
faced him was hanging. A fracture, while it holds, is a sort of
hinge. The whole mass oscillated, as the wind moved it, with
a doleful noise. Fortunately the sloop was no longer beneath it.</p>

<p>But this swinging movement shook the other portion of the
hull, still wedged and immovable as it was between the two
Douvres. From shaking to casting down the distance is not
far. Under the obstinate assaults of the gale, the dislocated
part might suddenly carry away the other portion, which almost
touched the sloop. In this case, the whole wreck, together with
the sloop and the engine, must be swept into the sea and
swallowed up.</p>

<p>All this presented itself to his eyes. It was the end of all.
How could it be prevented?</p>

<p>Gilliatt was one of those who are accustomed to snatch the
means of safety out of danger itself. He collected his ideas for
a moment. Then he hastened to his arsenal and brought his
hatchet.</p>

<p>The mallet had served him well, it was now the turn of the axe.</p>

<p>He mounted upon the wreck, got a footing on that part of the
planking which had not given way, and leaning over the precipice
of the pass between the Douvres, he began to cut away the
broken joists and the planking which supported the hanging
portion of the hull.</p>

<p>His object was to effect the separation of the two parts of the
wreck, to disencumber the half which remained firm, to throw
overboard what the waves had seized, and thus share the prey
with the storm. The hanging portion of the wreck, borne down
by the wind and by its own weight, adhered only at one or two
points. The entire wreck resembled a folding-screen, one leaf
of which, half-hanging, beat against the other. Five or six
pieces of the planking only, bent and started, but not broken,
still held. Their fractures creaked and enlarged at every gust,
and the axe, so to speak, had but to help the labour of the wind.
This more than half-severed condition, while it increased the
facility of the work, also rendered it dangerous. The whole
might give way beneath him at any moment.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_282" id="Page_282">[Pg 282]</a></span></p>

<p>The tempest had reached its highest point. The convulsion
of the sea reached the heavens. Hitherto the storm had been
supreme, it had seemed to work its own imperious will, to give
the impulse, to drive the waves to frenzy, while still preserving
a sort of sinister lucidity. Below was fury&mdash;above, anger. The
heavens are the breath, the ocean only foam, hence the authority
of the wind. But the intoxication of its own horrors had confused
it. It had become a mere whirlwind; it was a blindness
leading to night. There are times when tempests become
frenzied, when the heavens are attacked with a sort of delirium;
when the firmament raves and hurls its lightnings blindly. No
terror is greater than this. It is a hideous moment. The
trembling of the rock was at its height. Every storm has a
mysterious course, but now it loses its appointed path. It is
the most dangerous point of the tempest. "At that moment,"
says Thomas Fuller, "the wind is a furious maniac." It is at
that instant that that continuous discharge of electricity takes
place which Piddington calls "the cascade of lightnings." It
is at that instant that in the blackest spot of the clouds, none
know why, unless it be to spy the universal terror, a circle of
blue light appears, which the Spanish sailors of ancient times
called the eye of the tempest, <i>el ojo de la tempestad</i>. That
terrible eye looked down upon Gilliatt.</p>

<p>Gilliatt on his part was surveying the heavens. He raised his
head now. After every stroke of his hatchet he stood erect
and gazed upwards, almost haughtily. He was, or seemed to
be, too near destruction not to feel self-sustained. Would he
despair? No! In the presence of the wildest fury of the ocean
he was watchful as well as bold. He planted his feet only
where the wreck was firm. He ventured his life, and yet was
careful; for his determined spirit, too, had reached its highest
point. His strength had grown tenfold greater. He had become
heated with his own intrepidity. The strokes of his
hatchet were like blows of defiance. He seemed to have gained
in directness what the tempest had lost. A pathetic struggle!
On the one hand, an indefatigable will; on the other, inexhaustible
power. It was a contest with the elements for the
prize at his feet. The clouds took the shape of Gorgon masks
in the immensity of the heavens; every possible form of terror
appeared; the rain came from the sea, the surf from the cloud;
phantoms of the wind bent down; meteoric faces revealed
themselves and were again eclipsed, leaving the darkness more
monstrous: then there was nothing seen but the torrents<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_283" id="Page_283">[Pg 283]</a></span>
coming from all sides&mdash;a boiling sea; cumuli heavy with hail,
ashen-hued, ragged-edged, appeared seized with a sort of whirling
frenzy; strange rattlings filled the air; the inverse currents
of electricity observed by Volta darted their sudden flashes
from cloud to cloud. The prolongation of the lightnings was
terrible; the flashes passed near to Gilliatt. The very ocean
seemed astonished. He passed to and fro upon the tottering
wreck, making the deck tremble under his steps, striking, cutting,
hacking with the hatchet in his hand, pallid in the gleam
of the lightning, his long hair streaming, his feet naked, in rags,
his face covered with the foam of the sea, but grand still amid
that maelstrom of the thunderstorm.</p>

<p>Against these furious powers man has no weapon but his
invention. Invention was Gilliatt's triumph. His object was
to allow all the dislocated portions of the wreck to fall together.
For this reason he cut away the broken portions without entirely
separating them, leaving some parts on which they still
swung. Suddenly he stopped, holding his axe in the air. The
operation was complete. The entire portion went with a
crash.</p>

<p>The mass rolled down between the two Douvres, just below
Gilliatt, who stood upon the wreck, leaning over and observing
the fall. It fell perpendicularly into the water, struck the
rocks, and stopped in the defile before touching the bottom.
Enough remained out of the water to rise more than twelve feet
above the waves. The vertical mass of planking formed a wall
between the two Douvres; like the rock overturned crosswise
higher up the defile, it allowed only a slight stream of foam to
pass through at its two extremities, and thus was a fifth barricade
improvised by Gilliatt against the tempest in that passage
of the seas.</p>

<p>The hurricane itself, in its blind fury, had assisted in the construction
of this last barrier.</p>

<p>It was fortunate that the proximity of the two walls had prevented
the mass of wreck from falling to the bottom. This
circumstance gave the barricade greater height; the water,
besides, could flow under the obstacle, which diminished the
power of the waves. That which passes below cannot pass
over. This is partly the secret of the floating breakwater.</p>

<p>Henceforth, let the storm do what it might, there was nothing
to fear for the sloop or the machinery. The water around them
could not become agitated again. Between the barrier of the
Douvres, which covered them on the west, and the barricade<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_284" id="Page_284">[Pg 284]</a></span>
which protected them from the east, no heavy sea or wind could
reach them.</p>

<p>Gilliatt had plucked safety out of the catastrophe itself.
The storm had been his fellow-labourer in the work.</p>

<p>This done, he took a little water in the palm of his hand from
one of the rain-pools, and drank: and then, looking upward at
the storm, said with a smile, "Bungler!"</p>

<p>Human intelligence combating with brute force experiences
an ironical joy in demonstrating the stupidity of its antagonist,
and compelling it to serve the very objects of its fury, and
Gilliatt felt something of that immemorial desire to insult his
invisible enemy, which is as old as the heroes of the <i>Iliad</i>.</p>

<p>He descended to the sloop and examined it by the gleam of
the lightning. The relief which he had been able to give to his
distressed bark was well-timed. She had been much shaken
during the last hour, and had begun to give way. A hasty
glance revealed no serious injury. Nevertheless, he was certain
that the vessel had been subjected to violent shocks. As soon
as the waves had subsided, the hull had righted itself; the
anchors had held fast; as to the machine, the four chains had
supported it admirably.</p>

<p>While Gilliatt was completing this survey, something white
passed before his eyes and vanished in the gloom. It was a
sea-mew.</p>

<p>No sight could be more welcome in tempestuous weather.
When the birds reappear the storm is departing. The thunder
redoubled; another good sign.</p>

<p>The violent efforts of the storm had broken its force. All
mariners know that the last ordeal is severe, but short. The
excessive violence of the thunderstorm is the herald of the end.</p>

<p>The rain stopped suddenly. Then there was only a surly
rumbling in the heavens. The storm ceased with the suddenness
of a plank falling to the ground. The immense mass of
clouds became disorganised. A strip of clear sky appeared
between them. Gilliatt was astonished: it was broad daylight.</p>

<p>The tempest had lasted nearly twenty hours.</p>

<p>The wind which had brought the storm carried it away. A
dark pile was diffused over the horizon, the broken clouds were
flying in confusion across the sky. From one end to the other
of the line there was a movement of retreat: a long muttering
was heard, gradually decreasing, a few last drops of rain fell,
and all those dark masses charged with thunder, departed like
a terrible multitude of chariots.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_285" id="Page_285">[Pg 285]</a></span></p>

<p>Suddenly the wide expanse of sky became blue.</p>

<p>Gilliatt perceived that he was wearied. Sleep swoops down
upon the exhausted frame like a bird upon its prey. He
drooped and sank upon the deck of the bark without choosing
his position, and there slept. Stretched at length and inert,
he remained thus for some hours, scarcely distinguishable from
the beams and joists among which he lay.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_286" id="Page_286">[Pg 286]</a></span></p>



<hr style="width: 65%;" />
<h3>BOOK IV</h3>

<h4>PITFALLS IN THE WAY</h4>

<h4>I</h4>

<h5>HE WHO IS HUNGRY IS NOT ALONE</h5>


<p>When he awakened he was hungry.</p>

<p>The sea was growing calmer. But there was still a heavy
swell, which made his departure, for the present at least, impossible.
The day, too, was far advanced. For the sloop with
its burden to get to Guernsey before midnight, it was necessary
to start in the morning.</p>

<p>Although pressed by hunger, Gilliatt began by stripping himself,
the only means of getting warmth. His clothing was
saturated by the storm, but the rain had washed out the sea-water,
which rendered it possible to dry them.</p>

<p>He kept nothing on but his trousers, which he turned up
nearly to the knees.</p>

<p>His overcoat, jacket, overalls, and sheepskin he spread out
and fixed with large round stones here and there.</p>

<p>Then he thought of eating.</p>

<p>He had recourse to his knife, which he was careful to sharpen,
and to keep always in good condition; and he detached from
the rocks a few limpets, similar in kind to the <i>clonisses</i> of the
Mediterranean. It is well known that these are eaten raw:
but after so many labours, so various and so rude, the pittance
was meagre. His biscuit was gone; but of water he had now
abundance.</p>

<p>He took advantage of the receding tide to wander among the
rocks in search of crayfish. There was extent enough of rock
to hope for a successful search.</p>

<p>But he had not reflected that he could do nothing with these
without fire to cook them. If he had taken the trouble to go to
his store-cavern, he would have found it inundated with the
rain. His wood and coal were drowned, and of his store of tow,
which served him for tinder, there was not a fibre which was not
saturated. No means remained of lighting a fire.</p>

<p>For the rest, his blower was completely disorganised. The<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_287" id="Page_287">[Pg 287]</a></span>
screen of the hearth of his forge was broken down; the storm
had sacked and devastated his workshop. With what tools and
apparatus had escaped the general wreck, he could still have
done carpentry work; but he could not have accomplished any
of the labours of the smith. Gilliatt, however, never thought of
his workshop for a moment.</p>

<p>Drawn in another direction by the pangs of hunger, he had
pursued without much reflection his search for food. He wandered,
not in the gorge of the rocks, but outside among the
smaller breakers. It was there that the Durande, ten weeks
previously, had first struck upon the sunken reef.</p>

<p>For the search that Gilliatt was prosecuting, this part was
more favourable than the interior. At low water the crabs are
accustomed to crawl out into the air. They seem to like to
warm themselves in the sun, where they swarm sometimes to
the disgust of loiterers, who recognise in these creatures, with
their awkward sidelong gait, climbing clumsily from crack to
crack the lower stages of the rocks like the steps of a staircase,
a sort of sea vermin.</p>

<p>For two months Gilliatt had lived upon these vermin of the sea.</p>

<p>On this day, however, the crayfish and crabs were both wanting.
The tempest had driven them into their solitary retreats;
and they had not yet mustered courage to venture abroad.
Gilliatt held his open knife in his hand, and from time to time
scraped a cockle from under the bunches of seaweed, which he
ate while still walking.</p>

<p>He could not have been far from the very spot where Sieur
Clubin had perished.</p>

<p>As Gilliatt was determining to content himself with the sea-urchins
and the <i>ch&acirc;taignes de mer</i>, a little clattering noise at his
feet aroused his attention. A large crab, startled by his approach,
had just dropped into a pool. The water was shallow,
and he did not lose sight of it.</p>

<p>He chased the crab along the base of the rock; the crab
moved fast.</p>

<p>Suddenly it was gone.</p>

<p>It had buried itself in some crevice under the rock.</p>

<p>Gilliatt clutched the projections of the rock, and stretched
out to observe where it shelved away under the water.</p>

<p>As he suspected, there was an opening there in which the
creature had evidently taken refuge. It was more than a
crevice; it was a kind of porch.</p>

<p>The sea entered beneath it, but was not deep. The bottom<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_288" id="Page_288">[Pg 288]</a></span>
was visible, covered with large pebbles. The pebbles were
green and clothed with <i>conferv&aelig;</i>, indicating that they were
never dry. They were like the tops of a number of heads of
infants, covered with a kind of green hair.</p>

<p>Holding his knife between his teeth, Gilliatt descended, by
the help of feet and hands, from the upper part of the escarpment,
and leaped into the water. It reached almost to his
shoulders.</p>

<p>He made his way through the porch, and found himself in
a blind passage, with a roof in the form of a rude arch over his
head. The walls were polished and slippery. The crab was
nowhere visible. He gained his feet and advanced in daylight
growing fainter, so that he began to lose the power to distinguish
objects.</p>

<p>At about fifteen paces the vaulted roof ended overhead. He
had penetrated beyond the blind passage. There was here
more space, and consequently more daylight. The pupils of
his eyes, moreover, had dilated; he could see pretty clearly.
He was taken by surprise.</p>

<p>He had made his way again into the singular cavern which he
had visited in the previous month. The only difference was
that he had entered by the way of the sea.</p>

<p>It was through the submarine arch, that he had remarked
before, that he had just entered. At certain low tides it was
accessible.</p>

<p>His eyes became more accustomed to the place. His vision
became clearer and clearer. He was astonished. He found
himself again in that extraordinary palace of shadows; saw
again before his eyes that vaulted roof, those columns, those
purple and blood-like stains, that vegetation rich with gems,
and at the farther end, that crypt or sanctuary, and that altar-like
stone. He took little notice of these details, but their
impression was in his mind, and he saw that the place was
unchanged.</p>

<p>He observed before him, at a certain height in the wall, the
crevice through which he had penetrated the first time, and
which, from the point where he now stood, appeared inaccessible.</p>

<p>Near the moulded arch, he remarked those low dark grottoes,
a sort of caves within a cavern, which he had already observed
from a distance. He now stood nearer to them. The entrance
to the nearest to him was out of the water, and easily approachable.
Nearer still than this recess he noticed, above the level<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_289" id="Page_289">[Pg 289]</a></span>
of the water, and within reach of his hand, a horizontal fissure.
It seemed to him probable that the crab had taken refuge there,
and he plunged his hand in as far as he was able, and groped
about in that dusky aperture.</p>

<p>Suddenly he felt himself seized by the arm. A strange indescribable
horror thrilled through him.</p>

<p>Some living thing, thin, rough, flat, cold, slimy, had twisted
itself round his naked arm, in the dark depth below. It crept
upward towards his chest. Its pressure was like a tightening
cord, its steady persistence like that of a screw. In less than a
moment some mysterious spiral form had passed round his
wrist and elbow, and had reached his shoulder. A sharp point
penetrated beneath the armpit.</p>

<p>Gilliatt recoiled; but he had scarcely power to move! He
was, as it were, nailed to the place. With his left hand, which
was disengaged, he seized his knife, which he still held between
his teeth, and with that hand, holding the knife, he supported
himself against the rocks, while he made a desperate effort to
withdraw his arm. He succeeded only in disturbing his persecutor,
which wound itself still tighter. It was supple as leather,
strong as steel, cold as night.</p>

<p>A second form, sharp, elongated, and narrow, issued out of
the crevice, like a tongue out of monstrous jaws. It seemed
to lick his naked body. Then suddenly stretching out, it became
longer and thinner, as it crept over his skin, and wound itself
round him. At the same time a terrible sense of pain, comparable
to nothing he had ever known, compelled all his muscles
to contract. He felt upon his skin a number of flat rounded
points. It seemed as if innumerable suckers had fastened to
his flesh and were about to drink his blood.</p>

<p>A third long undulating shape issued from the hole in the
rock; seemed to feel its way about his body; lashed round his
ribs like a cord, and fixed itself there.</p>

<p>Agony when at its height is mute. Gilliatt uttered no cry.
There was sufficient light for him to see the repulsive forms
which had entangled themselves about him. A fourth ligature,
but this one swift as an arrow, darted towards his stomach, and
wound around him there.</p>

<p>It was impossible to sever or tear away the slimy bands which
were twisted tightly round his body, and were adhering by a
number of points. Each of the points was the focus of frightful
and singular pangs. It was as if numberless small mouths were
devouring him at the same time.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_290" id="Page_290">[Pg 290]</a></span></p>

<p>A fifth long, slimy, riband-shaped strip issued from the hole.
It passed over the others, and wound itself tightly around his
chest. The compression increased his sufferings. He could
scarcely breathe.</p>

<p>These living thongs were pointed at their extremities, but
broadened like a blade of a sword towards its hilt. All belonged
evidently to the same centre. They crept and glided
about him; he felt the strange points of pressure, which seemed
to him like mouths, change their places from time to time.</p>

<p>Suddenly a large, round, flattened, glutinous mass issued
from beneath the crevice. It was the centre; the five thongs
were attached to it like spokes to the nave of a wheel. On
the opposite side of this disgusting monster appeared the commencement
of three other tentacles, the ends of which remained
under the rock. In the middle of this slimy mass appeared
two eyes.</p>

<p>The eyes were fixed on Gilliatt.</p>

<p>He recognised the Devil-Fish.</p>



<hr style="width: 65%;" />
<h4>II</h4>

<h5>THE MONSTER</h5>


<p>It is difficult for those who have not seen it to believe in the
existence of the devil-fish.</p>

<p>Compared to this creature, the ancient hydras are insignificant.</p>

<p>At times we are tempted to imagine that the vague forms
which float in our dreams may encounter in the realm of the
Possible attractive forces, having power to fix their lineaments,
and shape living beings, out of these creatures of our slumbers.
The Unknown has power over these strange visions, and out
of them composes monsters. Orpheus, Homer, and Hesiod
imagined only the Chimera: Providence has created this terrible
creature of the sea.</p>

<p>Creation abounds in monstrous forms of life. The wherefore
of this perplexes and affrights the religious thinker.</p>

<p>If terror were the object of its creation, nothing could be
imagined more perfect than the devil-fish.</p>

<p>The whale has enormous bulk, the devil-fish is comparatively
small; the jararaca makes a hissing noise, the devil-fish is mute;
the rhinoceros has a horn, the devil-fish has none; the scorpion
has a dart, the devil-fish has no dart; the shark has sharp fins,
the devil-fish has no fins; the vespertilio-bat has wings with<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_291" id="Page_291">[Pg 291]</a></span>
claws, the devil-fish has no wings; the porcupine has his spines,
the devil-fish has no spines; the sword-fish has his sword, the
devil-fish has none; the torpedo has its electric spark, the devil-fish
has none; the toad has its poison, the devil-fish has none;
the viper has its venom, the devil-fish has no venom; the lion
has its talons, the devil-fish has no talons; the griffon has its
beak, the devil-fish has no beak; the crocodile has its jaws, the
devil-fish has no teeth.</p>

<p>The devil-fish has no muscular organisation, no menacing cry,
no breastplate, no horn, no dart, no claw, no tail with which to
hold or bruise; no cutting fins, or wings with nails, no prickles,
no sword, no electric discharge, no poison, no talons, no beak,
no teeth. Yet he is of all creatures the most formidably armed.</p>

<p>What, then, is the devil-fish? It is the sea vampire.</p>

<p>The swimmer who, attracted by the beauty of the spot,
ventures among breakers in the open sea, where the still waters
hide the splendours of the deep, or in the hollows of unfrequented
rocks, in unknown caverns abounding in sea plants,
testacea, and crustacea, under the deep portals of the ocean, runs
the risk of meeting it. If that fate should be yours, be not
curious, but fly. The intruder enters there dazzled; but quits
the spot in terror.</p>

<p>This frightful apparition, which is always possible among the
rocks in the open sea, is a greyish form which undulates in the
water. It is of the thickness of a man's arm, and in length
nearly five feet. Its outline is ragged. Its form resembles
an umbrella closed, and without handle. This irregular mass
advances slowly towards you. Suddenly it opens, and eight
radii issue abruptly from around a face with two eyes. These
radii are alive: their undulation is like lambent flames; they
resemble, when opened, the spokes of a wheel, of four or five
feet in diameter. A terrible expansion! It springs upon its
prey.</p>

<p>The devil-fish harpoons its victim.</p>

<p>It winds around the sufferer, covering and entangling him in
its long folds. Underneath it is yellow; above, a dull, earthy
hue: nothing could render that inexplicable shade dust coloured.
Its form is spider-like, but its tints are like those of the chamelion.
When irritated it becomes violet. Its most horrible
characteristic is its softness.</p>

<p>Its folds strangle, its contact paralyses.</p>

<p>It has an aspect like gangrened or scabrous flesh. It is a
monstrous embodiment of disease.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_292" id="Page_292">[Pg 292]</a></span></p>

<p>It adheres closely to its prey, and cannot be torn away; a
fact which is due to its power of exhausting air. The eight
antenn&aelig;, large at their roots, diminish gradually, and end in
needle-like points. Underneath each of these feelers range
two rows of pustules, decreasing in size, the largest ones near
the head, the smaller at the extremities. Each row contains
twenty-five of these. There are, therefore, fifty pustules to
each feeler, and the creature possesses in the whole four hundred.
These pustules are capable of acting like cupping-glasses.
They are cartilaginous substances, cylindrical, horny, and
livid. Upon the large species they diminish gradually from
the diameter of a five-franc piece to the size of a split pea.
These small tubes can be thrust out and withdrawn by the
animal at will. They are capable of piercing to a depth of
more than an inch.</p>

<p>This sucking apparatus has all the regularity and delicacy of
a key-board. It stands forth at one moment and disappears
the next. The most perfect sensitiveness cannot equal the
contractibility of these suckers; always proportioned to the
internal movement of the animal, and its exterior circumstances.
The monster is endowed with the qualities of the sensitive plant.</p>

<p>This animal is the same as those which mariners call Poulps;
which science designates Cephalopter&aelig;, and which ancient
legends call Krakens. It is the English sailors who call them
"Devil-fish," and sometimes Bloodsuckers. In the Channel
Islands they are called <i>pieuvres</i>.</p>

<p>They are rare at Guernsey, very small at Jersey; but near
the island of Sark are numerous as well as very large.</p>

<p>An engraving in Sonnini's edition of Buffon represents a
Cephaloptera crushing a frigate. Denis Montfort, in fact, considers
the Poulp, or Octopod, of high latitudes, strong enough
to destroy a ship. Bory Saint Vincent doubts this; but he
shows that in our regions they will attack men. Near Brecq-Hou,
in Sark, they show a cave where a devil-fish a few years
since seized and drowned a lobster-fisher. Peron and Lamarck
are in error in their belief that the "poulp" having no fins
cannot swim. He who writes these lines has seen with his own
eyes, at Sark, in the cavern called the Boutiques, a pieuvre
swimming and pursuing a bather. When captured and killed,
this specimen was found to be four English feet broad, and it
was possible to count its four hundred suckers. The monster
thrust them out convulsively in the agony of death.</p>

<p>According to Denis Montfort, one of those observers whose<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_293" id="Page_293">[Pg 293]</a></span>
marvellous intuition sinks or raises them to the level of magicians,
the poulp is almost endowed with the passions of man: it
has its hatreds. In fact, in the Absolute to be hideous is to
hate.</p>

<p>Hideousness struggles under the natural law of elimination,
which necessarily renders it hostile.</p>

<p>When swimming, the devil-fish rests, so to speak, in its
sheath. It swims with all its parts drawn close. It may be
likened to a sleeve sewn up with a closed fist within. The
protuberance, which is the head, pushes the water aside and
advances with a vague undulatory movement. Its two eyes,
though large, are indistinct, being of the colour of the water.</p>

<p>When in ambush, or seeking its prey, it retires into itself,
grows smaller and condenses itself. It is then scarcely distinguishable
in the submarine twilight.</p>

<p>At such times, it looks like a mere ripple in the water. It
resembles anything except a living creature.</p>

<p>The devil-fish is crafty. When its victim is unsuspicious, it
opens suddenly.</p>

<p>A glutinous mass, endowed with a malignant will, what can
be more horrible?</p>

<p>It is in the most beautiful azure depths of the limpid water
that this hideous, voracious polyp delights. It always conceals
itself, a fact which increases its terrible associations.
When they are seen, it is almost invariably after they have
been captured.</p>

<p>At night, however, and particularly in the hot season, it
becomes phosphorescent. These horrible creatures have their
passions; their submarine nuptials. Then it adorns itself,
burns and illumines; and from the height of some rock, it may
be seen in the deep obscurity of the waves below, expanding
with a pale irradiation&mdash;a spectral sun.</p>

<p>The devil-fish not only swims, it walks. It is partly fish,
partly reptile. It crawls upon the bed of the sea. At these
times, it makes use of its eight feelers, and creeps along in the
fashion of a species of swift-moving caterpillar.</p>

<p>It has no blood, no bones, no flesh. It is soft and flabby; a
skin with nothing inside. Its eight tentacles may be turned
inside out like the fingers of a glove.</p>

<p>It has a single orifice in the centre of its radii, which appears
at first to be neither the vent nor the mouth. It is, in fact, both
one and the other. The orifice performs a double function.
The entire creature is cold.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_294" id="Page_294">[Pg 294]</a></span></p>

<p>The jelly-fish of the Mediterranean is repulsive. Contact
with that animated gelatinous substance which envelopes the
bather, in which the hands sink, and the nails scratch ineffectively;
which can be torn without killing it, and which can be
plucked off without entirely removing it&mdash;that fluid and yet
tenacious creature which slips through the fingers, is disgusting;
but no horror can equal the sudden apparition of the devil-fish,
that Medusa with its eight serpents.</p>

<p>No grasp is like the sudden strain of the cephaloptera.</p>

<p>It is with the sucking apparatus that it attacks. The victim
is oppressed by a vacuum drawing at numberless points: it is
not a clawing or a biting, but an indescribable scarification.
A tearing of the flesh is terrible, but less terrible than a sucking
of the blood. Claws are harmless compared with the horrible
action of these natural air-cups. The talons of the wild beast
enter into your flesh; but with the cephaloptera it is you who
enter into the creature. The muscles swell, the fibres of the
body are contorted, the skin cracks under the loathsome oppression,
the blood spurts out and mingles horribly with the lymph
of the monster, which clings to its victim by innumerable hideous
mouths. The hydra incorporates itself with the man; the man
becomes one with the hydra. The spectre lies upon you: the
tiger can only devour you; the devil-fish, horrible, sucks your
life-blood away. He draws you to him, and into himself;
while bound down, glued to the ground, powerless, you feel
yourself gradually emptied into this horrible pouch, which is
the monster itself.</p>

<p>These strange animals, Science, in accordance with its habit
of excessive caution even in the face of facts, at first rejects as
fabulous; then she decides to observe them; then she dissects,
classifies, catalogues, and labels; then procures specimens, and
exhibits them in glass cases in museums. They enter then into
her nomenclature; are designated mollusks, invertebrata,
radiata: she determines their position in the animal world a
little above the calamaries, a little below the cuttle-fish; she
finds for these hydras of the sea an analogous creature in fresh
water called the argyronecte: she divides them into great,
medium, and small kinds; she admits more readily the existence
of the small than of the large species, which is, however,
the tendency of science in all countries, for she is by nature more
microscopic than telescopic. She regards them from the point
of view of their construction, and calls them Cephaloptera;
counts their antenn&aelig;, and calls them Octopedes. This done,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_295" id="Page_295">[Pg 295]</a></span>
she leaves them. Where science drops them, philosophy takes
them up.</p>

<p>Philosophy in her turn studies these creatures. She goes
both less far and further. She does not dissect, but meditate.
Where the scalpel has laboured, she plunges the hypothesis.
She seeks the final cause. Eternal perplexity of the thinker.
These creatures disturb his ideas of the Creator. They are
hideous surprises. They are the death's-head at the feast of
contemplation. The philosopher determines their characteristics
in dread. They are the concrete forms of evil. What attitude
can he take towards this treason of creation against herself?
To whom can he look for the solution of these riddles? The
Possible is a terrible matrix. Monsters are mysteries in their
concrete form. Portions of shade issue from the mass, and
something within detaches itself, rolls, floats, condenses, borrows
elements from the ambient darkness, becomes subject to unknown
polarisations, assumes a kind of life, furnishes itself
with some unimagined form from the obscurity, and with some
terrible spirit from the miasma, and wanders ghostlike among
living things. It is as if night itself assumed the forms of
animals. But for what good? with what object? Thus we
come again to the eternal questioning.</p>

<p>These animals are indeed phantoms as much as monsters.
They are proved and yet improbable. Their fate is to exist in
spite of <i>&agrave; priori</i> reasonings. They are the amphibia of the shore
which separates life from death. Their unreality makes their
existence puzzling. They touch the frontier of man's domain
and people the region of chimeras. We deny the possibility of
the vampire, and the cephaloptera appears. Their swarming
is a certainty which disconcerts our confidence. Optimism,
which is nevertheless in the right, becomes silenced in their
presence. They form the visible extremity of the dark circles.
They mark the transition of our reality into another. They
seem to belong to that commencement of terrible life which the
dreamer sees confusedly through the loophole of the night.</p>

<p>That multiplication of monsters, first in the Invisible, then in
the Possible, has been suspected, perhaps perceived by magi
and philosophers in their austere ecstasies and profound contemplations.
Hence the conjecture of a material hell. The
demon is simply the invisible tiger. The wild beast which
devours souls has been presented to the eyes of human beings
by St. John, and by Dante in his vision of Hell.</p>

<p>If, in truth, the invisible circles of creation continue inde<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_296" id="Page_296">[Pg 296]</a></span>finitely,
if after one there is yet another, and so forth in illimitable
progression; if that chain, which for our part we are
resolved to doubt, really exist, the cephaloptera at one extremity
proves Satan at the other. It is certain that the wrongdoer
at one end proves the existence of wrong at the other.</p>

<p>Every malignant creature, like every perverted intelligence,
is a sphinx. A terrible sphinx propounding a terrible riddle;
the riddle of the existence of Evil.</p>

<p>It is this perfection of evil which has sometimes sufficed to
incline powerful intellects to a faith in the duality of the Deity,
towards that terrible bifrons of the Manich&aelig;ans.</p>

<p>A piece of silk stolen during the last war from the palace of
the Emperor of China represents a shark eating a crocodile, who
is eating a serpent, who is devouring an eagle, who is preying on
a swallow, who in his turn is eating a caterpillar.</p>

<p>All nature which is under our observation is thus alternately
devouring and devoured. The prey prey on each other.</p>

<p>Learned men, however, who are also philosophers, and therefore
optimists in their view of creation, find, or believe they
find, an explanation. Among others, Bonnet of Geneva, that
mysterious exact thinker, who was opposed to Buffon, as in
later times Geoffrey St. Hilaire has been to Cuvier, was struck
with the idea of the final object. His notions may be summed
up thus: universal death necessitates universal sepulture; the
devourers are the sextons of the system of nature. All created
things enter into and form the elements of other. To decay is
to nourish. Such is the terrible law from which not even man
himself escapes.</p>

<p>In our world of twilight this fatal order of things produces
monsters. You ask for what purpose. We find the solution
here.</p>

<p>But <i>is</i> this the solution? Is this the answer to our questionings?
And if so, why not some different order of things?
Thus the question returns.</p>

<p>Let us live: be it so.</p>

<p>But let us endeavour that death shall be progress. Let us
aspire to an existence in which these mysteries shall be made
clear. Let us follow that conscience which leads us thither.</p>

<p>For let us never forget that the highest is only attained
through the high.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_297" id="Page_297">[Pg 297]</a></span></p>



<hr style="width: 65%;" />
<h4>III</h4>

<h5>ANOTHER KIND OF SEA-COMBAT</h5>


<p>Such was the creature in whose power Gilliatt had fallen for
some minutes.</p>

<p>The monster was the inhabitant of the grotto; the terrible
genii of the place. A kind of sombre demon of the water.</p>

<p>All the splendours of the cavern existed for it alone.</p>

<p>On the day of the previous month when Gilliatt had first
penetrated into the grotto, the dark outline, vaguely perceived
by him in the ripples of the secret waters, was this monster. It
was here in its home.</p>

<p>When entering for the second time into the cavern in pursuit
of the crab, he had observed the crevice in which he supposed
that the crab had taken refuge, the pieuvre was there lying in
wait for prey.</p>

<p>Is it possible to imagine that secret ambush?</p>

<p>No bird would brood, no egg would burst to life, no flower
would dare to open, no breast to give milk, no heart to love,
no spirit to soar, under the influence of that apparition of evil
watching with sinister patience in the dusk.</p>

<p>Gilliatt had thrust his arm deep into the opening; the monster
had snapped at it. It held him fast, as the spider holds the fly.</p>

<p>He was in the water up to his belt; his naked feet clutching
the slippery roundness of the huge stones at the bottom; his
right arm bound and rendered powerless by the flat coils of the
long tentacles of the creature, and his body almost hidden under
the folds and cross folds of this horrible bandage.</p>

<p>Of the eight arms of the devil-fish three adhered to the rock,
while five encircled Gilliatt. In this way, clinging to the granite
on the one hand, and with the other to its human prey, it enchained
him to the rock. Two hundred and fifty suckers were
upon him, tormenting him with agony and loathing. He was
grasped by gigantic hands, the fingers of which were each nearly
a yard long, and furnished inside with living blisters eating into
the flesh.</p>

<p>As we have said, it is impossible to tear oneself from the folds
of the devil-fish. The attempt ends only in a firmer grasp.
The monster clings with more determined force. Its effort
increases with that of its victim; every struggle produces a
tightening of its ligatures.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_298" id="Page_298">[Pg 298]</a></span></p>

<p>Gilliatt had but one resource, his knife.</p>

<p>His left hand only was free; but the reader knows with what
power he could use it. It might have been said that he had
two right hands.</p>

<p>His open knife was in his hand.</p>

<p>The antenna of the devil-fish cannot be cut; it is a leathery
substance impossible to divide with the knife, it slips under the
edge; its position in attack also is such that to cut it would be
to wound the victim's own flesh.</p>

<p>The creature is formidable, but there is a way of resisting it.
The fishermen of Sark know this, as does any one who has seen
them execute certain movements in the sea. The porpoises
know it also; they have a way of biting the cuttle-fish which
decapitates it. Hence the frequent sight on the sea of pen-fish,
poulps, and cuttle-fish without heads.</p>

<p>The cephaloptera, in fact, is only vulnerable through the
head.</p>

<p>Gilliatt was not ignorant of this fact.</p>

<p>He had never seen a devil-fish of this size. His first encounter
was with one of the larger species. Another would have been
powerless with terror.</p>

<p>With the devil-fish, as with a furious bull, there is a certain
moment in the conflict which must be seized. It is the instant
when the bull lowers the neck; it is the instant when the devil-fish
advances its head. The movement is rapid. He who loses
that moment is destroyed.</p>

<p>The things we have described occupied only a few moments.
Gilliatt, however, felt the increasing power of its innumerable
suckers.</p>

<p>The monster is cunning; it tries first to stupefy its prey. It
seizes and then pauses awhile.</p>

<p>Gilliatt grasped his knife; the sucking increased.</p>

<p>He looked at the monster, which seemed to look at him.</p>

<p>Suddenly it loosened from the rock its sixth antenna, and
darting it at him, seized him by the left arm.</p>

<p>At the same moment it advanced its head with a violent
movement. In one second more its mouth would have fastened
on his breast. Bleeding in the sides, and with his two arms
entangled, he would have been a dead man.</p>

<p>But Gillian was watchful. He avoided the antenna, and at
the moment when the monster darted forward to fasten on his
breast, he struck it with the knife clenched in his left hand.
There were two convulsions in opposite directions; that of the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_299" id="Page_299">[Pg 299]</a></span>
devil-fish and that of its prey. The movement was rapid as a
double flash of lightnings.</p>

<p>He had plunged the blade of his knife into the flat slimy substance,
and by a rapid movement, like the flourish of a whip in
the air, describing a circle round the two eyes, he wrenched the
head off as a man would draw a tooth.</p>

<p>The struggle was ended. The folds relaxed. The monster
dropped away, like the slow detaching of bands. The four
hundred suckers, deprived of their sustaining power, dropped
at once from the man and the rock. The mass sank to the
bottom of the water.</p>

<p>Breathless with the struggle, Gilliatt could perceive upon the
stones at his feet two shapeless, slimy heaps, the head on one
side, the remainder of the monster on the other.</p>

<p>Fearing, nevertheless, some convulsive return of his agony,
he recoiled to avoid the reach of the dreaded tentacles.</p>

<p>But the monster was quite dead.</p>

<p>Gilliatt closed his knife.</p>



<hr style="width: 65%;" />
<h4>IV</h4>

<h5>NOTHING IS HIDDEN, NOTHING LOST</h5>


<p>It was time that he killed the devil-fish. He was almost
suffocated. His right arm and his chest were purple. Numberless
little swellings were distinguishable upon them; the
blood flowed from them here and there. The remedy for these
wounds is sea-water. Gilliatt plunged into it, rubbing himself
at the same time with the palms of his hands. The swellings
disappeared under the friction.</p>

<p>By stepping further into the waters he had, without perceiving,
approached to the species of recess already observed by
him near the crevice where he had been attacked by the devil-fish.</p>

<p>This recess stretched obliquely under the great walls of the
cavern, and was dry. The large pebbles which had become
heaped up there had raised the bottom above the level of
ordinary tides. The entrance was a rather large elliptical arch;
a man could enter by stooping. The green light of the submarine
grotto penetrated into it and lighted it feebly.</p>

<p>It happened that, while hastily rubbing his skin, Gilliatt
raised his eyes mechanically.</p>

<p>He was able to see far into the cavern.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_300" id="Page_300">[Pg 300]</a></span></p>

<p>He shuddered.</p>

<p>He fancied that he perceived, in the furthest depth of the
dusky recess, something smiling.</p>

<p>Gilliatt had never heard the word "hallucination," but he
was familiar with the idea. Those mysterious encounters with
the invisible, which, for the sake of avoiding the difficulty of
explaining them, we call hallucinations, are in nature. Illusions
or realities, visions are a fact. He who has the gift will see
them. Gilliatt, as we have said, was a dreamer. He had, at
times, the faculty of a seer. It was not in vain that he had spent
his days in musing among solitary places.</p>

<p>He imagined himself the dupe of one of those mirages which
he had more than once beheld when in his dreamy moods.</p>

<p>The opening was somewhat in the shape of a chalk-burner's
oven. It was a low niche with projections like basket-handles.
Its abrupt groins contracted gradually as far as the extremity
of the crypt, where the heaps of round stones and the rocky
roof joined.</p>

<p>Gilliatt entered, and lowering his head, advanced towards the
object in the distance.</p>

<p>There was indeed something smiling.</p>

<p>It was a death's head; but it was not only the head. There
was the entire skeleton. A complete human skeleton was lying
in the cavern.</p>

<p>In such a position a bold man will continue his researches.</p>

<p>Gilliatt cast his eyes around. He was surrounded by a multitude
of crabs. The multitude did not stir. They were but
empty shells.</p>

<p>These groups were scattered here and there among the masses
of pebbles in irregular constellations.</p>

<p>Gilliatt, having his eyes fixed elsewhere, had walked among
them without perceiving them.</p>

<p>At this extremity of the crypt, where he had now penetrated,
there was a still greater heap of remains. It was a confused
mass of legs, antenn&aelig;, and mandibles. Claws stood wide open;
bony shells lay still under their bristling prickles; some reversed
showed their livid hollows. The heap was like a <i>m&ecirc;l&eacute;e</i> of besiegers
who had fallen, and lay massed together.</p>

<p>The skeleton was partly buried in this heap.</p>

<p>Under this confused mass of scales and tentacles, the eye perceived
the cranium with its furrows, the vertebr&aelig;, the thigh
bones, the tibias, and the long-jointed finger bones with their
nails. The frame of the ribs was filled with crabs. Some heart<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_301" id="Page_301">[Pg 301]</a></span>
had once beat there. The green mould of the sea had settled
round the sockets of the eyes. Limpets had left their slime upon
the bony nostrils. For the rest, there were not in this cave
within the rocks either sea-gulls, or weeds, or a breath of air.
All was still. The teeth grinned.</p>

<p>The sombre side of laughter is that strange mockery of expression
which is peculiar to a human skull.</p>

<p>This marvellous palace of the deep, inlaid and incrusted with
all the gems of the sea, had at length revealed and told its
secret. It was a savage haunt; the devil-fish inhabited it; it
was also a tomb, in which the body of a man reposed.</p>

<p>The skeleton and the creatures around it oscillated vaguely
in the reflections of the subterranean water which trembled
upon the roof and wall. The horrible multitude of crabs looked
as if finishing their repast. These crustacea seemed to be
devouring the carcase. Nothing could be more strange than
the aspect of the dead vermin upon their dead prey.</p>

<p>Gilliatt had beneath his eyes the storehouse of the devil-fish.</p>

<p>It was a dismal sight. The crabs had devoured the man: the
devil-fish had devoured the crabs.</p>

<p>There were no remains of clothing anywhere visible. The
man must have been seized naked.</p>

<p>Gilliatt, attentively examining, began to remove the shells
from the skeleton. What had this man been? The body was
admirably dissected; it looked as if prepared for the study of
anatomy; all the flesh was stripped; not a muscle remained;
not a bone was missing. If Gilliatt had been learned in science,
he might have demonstrated the fact. The periostea, denuded
of their covering, were white and smooth, as if they had been
polished. But for some green mould of sea-mosses here and
there, they would have been like ivory. The cartilaginous
divisions were delicately inlaid and arranged. The tomb sometimes
produces this dismal mosaic work.</p>

<p>The body was, as it were, interred under the heap of dead
crabs. Gilliatt disinterred it.</p>

<p>Suddenly he stooped, and examined more closely.</p>

<p>He had perceived around the vertebral column a sort of belt.</p>

<p>It was a leathern girdle, which had evidently been worn
buckled upon the waist of the man when alive.</p>

<p>The leather was moist; the buckle rusty.</p>

<p>Gilliatt pulled the girdle; the vertebra of the skeleton resisted,
and he was compelled to break through them in order to
remove it. A crust of small shells had begun to form upon it.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_302" id="Page_302">[Pg 302]</a></span></p>

<p>He felt it, and found a hard substance within, apparently of
square form. It was useless to endeavour to unfasten the buckle,
so he cut the leather with his knife.</p>

<p>The girdle contained a little iron box and some pieces of gold.
Gilliatt counted twenty guineas.</p>

<p>The iron box was an old sailor's tobacco-box, opening and
shutting with a spring. It was very tight and rusty. The
spring being completely oxidised would not work.</p>

<p>Once more the knife served Gilliatt in a difficulty. A pressure
with the point of the blade caused the lid to fly up.</p>

<p>The box was open.</p>

<p>There was nothing inside but pieces of paper.</p>

<p>A little roll of very thin sheets, folded in four, was fitted in
the bottom of the box. They were damp, but not injured.
The box, hermetically sealed, had preserved them. Gilliatt
unfolded them.</p>

<p>They were three bank-notes of one thousand pounds sterling
each; making together seventy-five thousand francs.</p>

<p>Gilliatt folded them again, replaced them in the box, taking
advantage of the space which remained to add the twenty
guineas; and then reclosed the box as well as he could.</p>

<p>Next he examined the girdle.</p>

<p>The leather, which had originally been polished outside, was
rough within. Upon this tawny ground some letters had been
traced in black thick ink. Gilliatt deciphered them, and read
the words, "Sieur Clubin."</p>



<hr style="width: 65%;" />
<h4>V</h4>

<h5>THE FATAL DIFFERENCE BETWEEN SIX INCHES AND TWO FEET</h5>


<p>Gilliatt replaced the box in the girdle, and placed the girdle
in the pocket of his trousers.</p>

<p>He left the skeleton among the crabs, with the remains of
the devil-fish beside it.</p>

<p>While he had been occupied with the devil-fish and the
skeleton, the rising tide had submerged the entrance to the
cave. He was only enabled to leave it by plunging under the
arched entrance. He got through without difficulty; for he
knew the entrance well, and was master of these gymnastics in
the sea.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_303" id="Page_303">[Pg 303]</a></span></p>

<p>It is easy to understand the drama which had taken place
there during the ten weeks preceding. One monster had preyed
upon another; the devil-fish had seized Clubin.</p>

<p>These two embodiments of treachery had met in the inexorable
darkness. There had been an encounter at the bottom of
the sea between these two compounds of mystery and watchfulness;
the monster had destroyed the man: a horrible fulfilment
of justice.</p>

<p>The crab feeds on carrion, the devil-fish on crabs. The
devil-fish seizes as it passes any swimming animal&mdash;an otter, a
dog, a man if it can&mdash;sucks the blood, and leaves the body at
the bottom of the water. The crabs are the spider-formed
scavengers of the sea. Putrefying flesh attracts them; they
crowd round it, devour the body, and are in their turn consumed
by the devil-fish. Dead creatures disappear in the crab, the
crab disappears in the pieuvre. This is the law which we have
already pointed out.</p>

<p>The devil-fish had laid hold of him, and drowned him. Some
wave had carried his body into the cave, and deposited it at the
extremity of the inner cavern, where Gilliatt had discovered it.</p>

<p>He returned searching among the rocks for sea-urchins and
limpets. He had no desire for crabs; to have eaten them now
would have seemed to him like feeding upon human flesh.</p>

<p>For the rest, he thought of nothing but of eating what he
could before starting. Nothing now interposed to prevent his
departure. Great tempests are always followed by a calm,
which lasts sometimes several days. There was, therefore, no
danger from the sea. Gilliatt had resolved to leave the rocks
on the following day. It was important, on account of the tide,
to keep the barrier between the two Douvres during the night,
but he intended to remove it at daybreak, to push the sloop out
to sea, and set sail for St. Sampson. The light breeze which
was blowing came from the south-west, which was precisely the
wind which he would want.</p>

<p>It was in the first quarter of the moon, in the month of May;
the days were long.</p>

<p>When Gilliatt, having finished his wanderings among the
rocks, and appeased his appetite to some extent, returned to
the passage between the two Douvres, where he had left the
sloop, the sun had set, the twilight was increased by that pale
light which comes from a crescent moon; the tide had attained
its height, and was beginning to ebb. The funnel standing
upright above the sloop had been covered by the foam during<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_304" id="Page_304">[Pg 304]</a></span>
the tempest with a coating of salt which glittered white in the
light of the moon.</p>

<p>This circumstance reminded Gilliatt that the storm had
inundated the sloop, both with surf and rain-water, and that if
he meant to start in the morning, it would be necessary to bail
it out.</p>

<p>Before leaving to go in quest of crabs, he had ascertained that
it had about six inches of water in the hold. The scoop which
he used for the purpose would, he thought, be sufficient for
throwing the water overboard.</p>

<p>On arriving at the barrier, Gilliatt was struck with terror.
There were nearly two feet of water in the sloop. A terrible
discovery; the bark had sprung a leak.</p>

<p>She had been making water gradually during his absence.
Burdened as she was, two feet of water was a perilous addition.
A little more, and she must inevitably founder. If he had
returned but an hour later, he would probably have found
nothing above water but the funnel and the mast.</p>

<p>There was not a minute to be lost in deliberation. It was
absolutely necessary to find the leakage, stop it, and then
empty the vessel, or at all events, lighten it. The pumps of
the Durande had been lost in the break-up of the wreck. He
was reduced to use the scoop of the bark.</p>

<p>To find the leak was the most urgent necessity.</p>

<p>Gilliatt set to work immediately, and without even giving
himself time to dress. He shivered; but he no longer felt
either hunger or cold.</p>

<p>The water continued to gain upon his vessel. Fortunately
there was no wind. The slightest swell would have been fatal.</p>

<p>The moon went down.</p>

<p>Bent low, and plunged in the water deeper than his waist he
groped about for a long time. He discovered the mischief at
last.</p>

<p>During the gale, at the critical moment when the sloop had
swerved, the strong bark had bumped and grazed rather
violently on the rocks. One of the projections of the Little
Douvre had made a fracture in the starboard side of the hull.</p>

<p>The leak unluckily&mdash;it might almost have been said, maliciously&mdash;had
been made near the joint of the two riders, a fact
which, joined with the fury of the hurricane, had prevented
him perceiving it during his dark and rapid survey in the height
of the storm.</p>

<p>The fracture was alarming on account of its size; but fortu<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_305" id="Page_305">[Pg 305]</a></span>nately,
although the vessel was sunk lower than usual by the
weight of water, it was still above the ordinary water-line.</p>

<p>At the moment when the accident had occurred, the waves
had rolled heavily into the defile, and had flooded through the
breach; and the vessel had sunk a few inches under the additional
weight, so that, even after the subsidence of the water, the
weight having raised the water-line, had kept the hole still
under the surface. Hence the imminence of the danger. But
if he could succeed in stopping the leak, he could empty the
sloop; the hole once staunched, the vessel would rise to its
usual water-line, the fracture would be above water, and in this
position the repair would be easy, or at least possible. He had
still, as we have already said, his carpenters' tools in good
condition.</p>

<p>But meanwhile what uncertainty must he not endure!
What perils, what chances of accidents! He heard the water
rising inexorably. One shock, and all would have perished.
What misery seemed in store for him. Perhaps his endeavours
were even now too late.</p>

<p>He reproached himself bitterly. He thought that he ought
to have seen the damage immediately. The six inches of
water in the hold ought to have suggested it to him. He had
been stupid enough to attribute these six inches of water to
the rain and the foam. He was angry with himself for having
slept and eaten; he taxed himself even with his weariness, and
almost with the storm and the dark night. All seemed to him
to have been his own fault.</p>

<p>These bitter self-reproaches filled his mind while engaged in
his labour, but they did not prevent his considering well the
work he was engaged in.</p>

<p>The leak had been found; that was the first step: to staunch
it was the second. That was all that was possible for the
moment. Joinery work cannot be carried on under water.</p>

<p>It was a favourable circumstance that the breach in the hull
was in the space between the two chains which held the funnel
fast on the starboard side. The stuffing with which it was
necessary to stop it could be fixed to these chains.</p>

<p>The water meanwhile was gaining. Its depth was now
between two and three feet; and it reached above his knees.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_306" id="Page_306">[Pg 306]</a></span></p>



<hr style="width: 65%;" />
<h4>VI</h4>

<h5>DE PROFUNDIS AD ALTUM</h5>


<p>Gilliatt had to his hand among his reserve of rigging for the
sloop a pretty large tarpaulin, furnished with long laniards at
the four corners.</p>

<p>He took this tarpaulin, made fast the two corners by the
laniards to the two rings of the chains of the funnel on the same
side as the leak, and threw it over the gunwale. The tarpaulin
hung like a sheet between the Little Douvre and the bark, and
sunk in the water. The pressure of the water endeavouring to
enter into the hold, kept it close to the hull upon the gap. The
heavier the pressure the closer the sail adhered. It was stuck
by the water itself right upon the fracture. The wound of the
bark was staunched.</p>

<p>The tarred canvas formed an effectual barrier between the
interior of the hold and the waves without. Not a drop of
water entered. The leak was masked, but was not stopped.
It was a respite only.</p>

<p>Gilliatt took the scoop and began to bale the sloop. It was
time that she were lightened. The labour warmed him a little,
but his weariness was extreme. He was forced to acknowledge
to himself that he could not complete the work of staunching
the hold. He had scarcely eaten anything, and he had the
humiliation of feeling himself exhausted.</p>

<p>He measured the progress of his work by the sinking of the
level of water below his knees. The fall was slow.</p>

<p>Moreover, the leakage was only interrupted; the evil was
moderated, not repaired. The tarpaulin pushed into the gap
began to bulge inside; looking as if a fist were under the canvas,
endeavouring to force it through. The canvas, strong and
pitchy, resisted; but the swelling and the tension increased; it
was not certain that it would not give way, and at any moment
the swelling might become a rent. The irruption of water must
then recommence.</p>

<p>In such a case, as the crews of vessels in distress know well,
there is no other remedy than stuffing. The sailors take rags
of every kind which they can find at hand, everything, in fact,
which in their language is called "service;" and with this they
push the bulging sail-cloth as far as they can into the leak.</p>

<p>Of this "service," Gilliatt had none. All the rags and tow<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_307" id="Page_307">[Pg 307]</a></span>
which he had stored up had been used in his operations, or
carried away by the storm.</p>

<p>If necessary, he might possibly have been able to find some
remains by searching among the rocks. The sloop was sufficiently
lightened for him to leave it with safety for a quarter of
an hour; but how could he make this search without a light?
The darkness was complete. There was no longer any moon;
nothing but the starry sky. He had no dry tow with which to
make a match, no tallow to make a candle, no fire to light one,
no lantern to shelter it from the wind. In the sloop and among
the rocks all was confused and indistinct. He could hear the
water lapping against the wounded hull, but he could not even
see the crack. It was with his hands that he had ascertained
the bulging of the tarpaulin. In that darkness it was impossible
to make any useful search for rags of canvas or pieces of
tow scattered among the breakers. Who could glean these
waifs and strays without being able to see his path? Gilliatt
looked sorrowfully at the sky; all those stars, he thought, and
yet no light!</p>

<p>The water in the bark having diminished, the pressure from
without increased. The bulging of the canvas became larger,
and was still increasing, like a frightful abscess ready to burst.
The situation, which had been improved for a short time, began
to be threatening.</p>

<p>Some means of stopping it effectually was absolutely necessary.
He had nothing left but his clothes, which he had
stretched to dry upon the projecting rocks of the Little Douvre.</p>

<p>He hastened to fetch them, and placed them upon the gunwale
of the sloop.</p>

<p>Then he took his tarpaulin overcoat, and kneeling in the
water, thrust it into the crevice, and pushing the swelling of the
sail outward, emptied it of water. To the tarpaulin coat he
added the sheepskin, then his Guernsey shirt, and then his
jacket. The hole received them all. He had nothing left but
his sailor's trousers, which he took off, and pushed in with the
other articles. This enlarged and strengthened the stuffing.</p>

<p>The stopper was made, and it appeared to be sufficient.</p>

<p>These clothes passed partly through the gap, the sail-cloth
outside enveloping them. The sea making an effort to enter,
pressed against the obstacle, spread it over the gap, and blocked
it. It was a sort of exterior compression.</p>

<p>Inside, the centre only of the bulging having been driven
out, there remained all around the gap and the stuffing just<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_308" id="Page_308">[Pg 308]</a></span>
thrust through a sort of circular pad formed by the tarpaulin,
which was rendered still firmer by the irregularities of the fracture
with which it had become entangled.</p>

<p>The leak was staunched, but nothing could be more precarious.
Those sharp splinters of the gap which fixed the tarpaulin
might pierce it and make holes, by which the water would
enter; while he would not even perceive it in the darkness.
There was little probability of the stoppage lasting until daylight.
Gilliatt's anxiety changed its form; but he felt it increasing
at the same time that he found his strength leaving
him.</p>

<p>He had again set to work to bale out the hold, but his arms,
in spite of all his efforts, could scarcely lift a scoopfull of water.
He was naked and shivering. He felt as if the end were now at
hand.</p>

<p>One possible chance flashed across his mind. There might
be a sail in sight. A fishing-boat which should by any accident
be in the neighbourhood of the Douvres, might come to his
assistance. The moment had arrived when a helpmate was
absolutely necessary. With a man and a lantern all might yet
be saved. If there were two persons, one might easily bale the
vessel. Since the leak was temporarily staunched, as soon as
she could be relieved of this burden, she would rise, and regain
her ordinary water-line. The leak would then be above the
surface of the water, the repairs would be practicable, and he
would be able immediately to replace the stuff by a piece of
planking, and thus substitute for the temporary stoppage a
complete repair. If not, it would be necessary to wait till daylight&mdash;to
wait the whole night long; a delay which might prove
ruinous. If by chance some ship's lantern should be in sight,
Gilliatt would be able to signal it from the height of the Great
Douvre. The weather was calm, there was no wind or rolling
sea; there was a possibility of the figure of a man being observed
moving against the background of the starry sky. A captain of
a ship, or even the master of a fishing-boat, would not be at
night in the waters of the Douvres without directing his glass
upon the rock, by way of precaution.</p>

<p>Gilliatt hoped that some one might perceive him.</p>

<p>He climbed upon the wreck, grasped the knotted rope, and
mounted upon the Great Douvre.</p>

<p>Not a sail was visible around the horizon; not a boat's
lantern. The wide expanse, as far as eye could reach, was a
desert. No assistance was possible, and no resistance possible.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_309" id="Page_309">[Pg 309]</a></span></p>

<p>Gilliatt felt himself without resources; a feeling which he
had not felt until then.</p>

<p>A dark fatality was now his master. With all his labour, all
his success, all his courage, he and his bark, and its precious
burden, were about to become the sport of the waves. He had
no other means of continuing the struggle; he became listless.
How could he prevent the tide from returning, the water from
rising, the night from continuing? The temporary stoppage
which he had made was his sole reliance. He had exhausted
and stripped himself in constructing and completing it; he
could neither fortify nor add to it. The stopgap was such that
it must remain as it was; and every further effort was useless.
The apparatus, hastily constructed, was at the mercy of the
waves. How would this inert obstacle work? It was this
obstacle now, not Gilliatt, which had to sustain the combat,
that handfull of rags, not that intelligence. The swell of a wave
would suffice to re-open the fracture. More or less of pressure;
the whole question was comprised in that formula.</p>

<p>All depended upon a brute struggle between two mechanical
quantities. Henceforth he could neither aid his auxiliary, nor
stop his enemy. He was no longer any other than a mere spectator
of this struggle, which was one for him of life or death. He
who had ruled over it, a supreme intelligence, was at the last
moment compelled to resign all to a mere blind resistance.</p>

<p>No trial, no terror that he had yet undergone, could bear
comparison with this.</p>

<p>From the time when he had taken up his abode upon the
Douvres, he had found himself environed, and, as it were,
possessed by solitude. This solitude more than surrounded, it
enveloped him. A thousand menaces at once had met him face
to face. The wind was always there, ready to become furious;
the sea, ready to roar. There was no stopping that terrible
mouth the wind, no imprisoning that dread monster the sea.
And yet he had striven, he, a solitary man, had combated hand
to hand with the ocean, had wrestled even with the tempest.</p>

<p>Many other anxieties, many other necessities had he made
head against. There was no form of distress with which he had
not become familiar. He had been compelled to execute great
works without tools, to move vast burdens without aid, without
science to resolve problems, without provisions to find food,
without bed or roof to cover it, to find shelter and sleep.</p>

<p>Upon that solitary rock he had been subjected by turns to all<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_310" id="Page_310">[Pg 310]</a></span>
the varied and cruel tortures of nature; oftentimes a gentle
mother, not less often a pitiless destroyer.</p>

<p>He had conquered his isolation, conquered hunger, conquered
thirst, conquered cold, conquered fever, conquered labour, conquered
sleep. He had encountered a mighty coalition of
obstacles formed to bar his progress. After his privations there
were the elements; after the sea the tempest, after the tempest
the devil-fish, after the monster the spectre.</p>

<p>A dismal irony was then the end of all. Upon this rock,
whence he had thought to arise triumphant, the spectre of
Clubin had only arisen to mock him with a hideous smile.</p>

<p>The grin of the spectre was well founded. Gilliatt saw himself
ruined; saw himself no less than Clubin in the grasp of death.</p>

<p>Winter, famine, fatigue, the dismemberment of the wreck,
the removal of the machinery, the equinoctial gale, the thunder,
the monster, were all as nothing compared with this small
fracture in a vessel's planks. Against the cold one could
procure&mdash;and he had procured&mdash;fire; against hunger, the shell-fish
of the rocks; against thirst, the rain; against the difficulties
of his great task, industry and energy; against the sea and the
storm, the breakwater; against the devil-fish, the knife; but
against the terrible leak he had no weapon.</p>

<p>The hurricane had bequeathed him this sinister farewell.
The last struggle, the traitorous thrust, the treacherous side
blow of the vanquished foe. In its flight the tempest had
turned and shot this arrow in the rear. It was the final and
deadly stab of his antagonist.</p>

<p>It was possible to combat with the tempest, but how could he
struggle with that insidious enemy who now attacked him.</p>

<p>If the stoppage gave way, if the leak re-opened, nothing could
prevent the sloop foundering. It would be the bursting of the
ligature of the artery; and once under the water with its heavy
burden, no power could raise it. The noble struggle, with two
months' Titanic labour, ended then in annihilation. To recommence
would be impossible. He had neither forge nor materials.
At daylight, in all probability, he was about to see all his work
sink slowly and irrecoverably into the gulf. Terrible, to feel
that sombre power beneath. The sea snatched his prize from
his hands.</p>

<p>With his bark engulfed, no fate awaited him but to perish
of hunger and cold, like the poor shipwrecked sailor on "The
Man Rock."</p>

<p>During two long months the intelligences which hover in<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_311" id="Page_311">[Pg 311]</a></span>visibly
over the world had been the spectators of these things;
on one hand the wide expanse, the waves, the winds, the lightnings,
the meteors; on the other a man. On one hand the sea,
on the other a human mind; on the one hand the infinite, on
the other an atom.</p>

<p>The battle had been fierce, and behold the abortive issue of
these prodigies of valour.</p>

<p>Thus did this heroism without parallel end in powerlessness;
thus ended in despair that formidable struggle; that struggle
of a nothing against all; that Iliad against one.</p>

<p>Gilliatt gazed wildly into space.</p>

<p>He had no clothing. He stood naked in the midst of that
immensity.</p>

<p>Then overwhelmed by the sense of that unknown infinity,
like one bewildered by a strange persecution, confronting the
shadows of night, in the presence of that impenetrable darkness,
in the midst of the murmur of the waves, the swell, the foam,
the breeze, under the clouds, under that vast diffusion of force,
under that mysterious firmament of wings, of stars, of gulfs,
having around him and beneath him the ocean, above him the
constellations, under the great unfathomable deep, he sank,
gave up the struggle, lay down upon the rock, his face towards
the stars, humbled, and uplifting his joined hands towards the
terrible depths, he cried aloud, "Have mercy."</p>

<p>Weighed down to earth by that immensity, he prayed.</p>

<p>He was there alone, in the darkness upon the rock, in the
midst of that sea, stricken down with exhaustion like one
smitten by lightning, naked like the gladiator in the circus, save
that for circus he had the vast horizon, instead of wild beasts
the shadows of darkness, instead of the faces of the crowd the
eyes of the Unknown, instead of the Vestals the stars, instead of
C&aelig;sar the All-powerful.</p>

<p>His whole being seemed to dissolve in cold, fatigue, powerlessness,
prayer, and darkness, and his eyes closed.</p>



<hr style="width: 65%;" />
<h4>VII</h4>

<h5>THE APPEAL IS HEARD</h5>


<p>Some hours passed.</p>

<p>The sun rose in an unclouded sky.</p>

<p>Its first ray shone upon a motionless form upon the Great
Douvre. It was Gilliatt.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_312" id="Page_312">[Pg 312]</a></span></p>

<p>He was still outstretched upon the rock.</p>

<p>He was naked, cold, and stiff; but he did not shiver. His
closed eyelids were wan. It would have been difficult for a
beholder to say whether the form before him was not a corpse.</p>

<p>The sun seemed to look upon him.</p>

<p>If he were not dead, he was already so near death that the
slightest cold wind would have sufficed to extinguish life.</p>

<p>The wind began to breathe, warm and animating: it was the
opening breath of May.</p>

<p>Meanwhile the sun ascended in the deep blue sky; its rays,
less horizontal, flushed the sky. Its light became warmth.
It enveloped the slumbering form.</p>

<p>Gilliatt moved not. If he breathed, it was only that feeble
respiration which could scarcely tarnish the surface of a mirror.</p>

<p>The sun continued its ascent; its rays striking less and less
obliquely upon the naked man. The gentle breeze which had
been merely tepid became hot.</p>

<p>The rigid and naked body remained still without movement;
but the skin seemed less livid.</p>

<p>The sun, approaching the zenith, shone almost perpendicularly
upon the plateau of the Douvres. A flood of light descended
from the heavens; the vast reflection from the glassy
sea increased its splendour: the rock itself imbibed the rays
and warmed the sleeper.</p>

<p>A sigh raised his breast.</p>

<p>He lived.</p>

<p>The sun continued its gentle offices. The wind, which was
already the breath of summer and of noon, approached him like
loving lips that breathed upon him softly.</p>

<p>Gilliatt moved.</p>

<p>The peaceful calm upon the sea was perfect. Its murmur
was like the droning of the nurse beside the sleeping infant.
The rock seemed cradled in the waves.</p>

<p>The sea-birds, who knew that form, fluttered above it; not
with their old wild astonishment, but with a sort of fraternal
tenderness. They uttered plaintive cries: they seemed to be
calling to him. A sea-mew, who no doubt knew him, was tame
enough to come near him. It began to caw as if speaking to
him. The sleeper seemed not to hear. The bird hopped upon
his shoulder, and pecked his lips softly.</p>

<p>Gilliatt opened his eyes.</p>

<p>The birds dispersed, chattering wildly.</p>

<p>Gilliatt arose, stretched himself like a roused lion, ran to the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_313" id="Page_313">[Pg 313]</a></span>
edge of the platform, and looked down into the space between
the two Douvres.</p>

<p>The sloop was there, intact; the stoppage had held out; the
sea had probably disturbed it but little.</p>

<p>All was saved.</p>

<p>He was no longer weary. His powers had returned. His
swoon had ended in a deep sleep.</p>

<p>He descended and baled out the sloop, emptied the hold,
raised the leakage above the water-line, dressed himself, ate,
drank some water, and was joyful.</p>

<p>The gap in the side of his vessel, examined in broad daylight,
proved to require more labour than he had thought. It was a
serious fracture. The entire day was not too much for its
repair.</p>

<p>At daybreak on the morrow, after removing the barrier and
re-opening the entrance to the defile, dressed in the tattered
clothing which had served to stop the leak, having about him
Clubin's girdle and the seventy-five thousand francs, standing
erect in the sloop, now repaired, by the side of the machinery
which he had rescued, with a favourable breeze and a good
sea, Gilliatt pushed off from the Douvres.</p>

<p>He put the sloop's head for Guernsey.</p>

<p>At the moment of his departure from the rocks, any one who
had been there might have heard him singing, in an undertone,
the air of "Bonnie Dundee."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_314" id="Page_314">[Pg 314]</a></span></p>



<hr style="width: 65%;" />
<h3>PART III.&mdash;D&Eacute;RUCHETTE</h3>



<hr style="width: 65%;" />
<h3>BOOK I</h3>

<h4>NIGHT AND THE MOON</h4>

<h4>I</h4>

<h5>THE HARBOUR BELL</h5>


<p>The St. Sampson of the present day is almost a city; the St.
Sampson of forty years since was almost a village.</p>

<p>When the winter evenings were ended and spring had come,
the inhabitants were not long out of bed after sundown. St.
Sampson was an ancient parish which had long been accustomed
to the sound of the curfew-bell, and which had a traditional
habit of blowing out the candle at an early hour. Those old
Norman villages are famous for early roosting, and the villagers
are generally great rearers of poultry.</p>

<p>The people of St. Sampson, except a few rich families among
the townsfolk, are also a population of quarriers and carpenters.
The port is a port of ship repairing. The quarrying of stone
and the fashioning of timber go on all day long; here the
labourer with the pickaxe, there the workman with the mallet.
At night they sink with fatigue, and sleep like lead. Rude
labours bring heavy slumbers.</p>

<p>One evening, in the commencement of the month of May,
after watching the crescent moon for some instants through
the trees, and listening to the step of D&eacute;ruchette, walking alone
in the cool air in the garden of the Brav&eacute;es, Mess Lethierry had
returned to his room looking on the harbour, and had retired
to rest; Douce and Grace were already a-bed. Except D&eacute;ruchette,
the whole household were sleeping. Doors and shutters
were everywhere closed. Footsteps were silent in the streets.
Some few lights, like winking eyes about to close in rest, showed
here and there in windows in the roofs, indicating the hour of
domestics going to bed. Nine had already struck in the old
Romanesque belfry, surrounded by ivy, which shares with the
church of St. Br&eacute;lade at Jersey the peculiarity of having for its<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_315" id="Page_315">[Pg 315]</a></span>
date four ones (IIII), which are used to signify eleven hundred
and eleven.</p>

<p>The popularity of Mess Lethierry at St. Sampson had been
founded on his success. The success at an end, there had come
a void. It might be imagined that ill-fortune is contagious, and
that the unsuccessful have a plague, so rapidly are they put
in quarantine. The young men of well-to-do families avoided
D&eacute;ruchette. The isolation around the Brav&eacute;es was so complete
that its inmates had not even yet heard the news of the great
local event which had that day set all St. Sampson in a ferment.
The rector of the parish, the Rev. Ebenezer Caudray, had
become rich. His uncle, the magnificent Dean of St. Asaph,
had just died in London. The news had been brought by the
mail sloop, the <i>Cashmere</i>, arrived from England that very
morning, and the mast of which could be perceived in the roads
of St. Peter's Port. The <i>Cashmere</i> was to depart for Southampton
at noon on the morrow, and, so the rumour ran, to convey
the reverend gentleman, who had been suddenly summoned to
England, to be present at the official opening of the will, not to
speak of other urgent matters connected with an important
inheritance. All day long St. Sampson had been conversing
on this subject. The <i>Cashmere</i>, the Rev. Ebenezer, his deceased
uncle, his riches, his departure, his possible preferment in the
future, had formed the foundations of that perpetual buzzing.
A solitary house, still uninformed on these matters, had remained
at peace. This was the Brav&eacute;es.</p>

<p>Mess Lethierry had jumped into his hammock, and lay down
in his clothing.</p>

<p>Since the catastrophe of the Durande, to get into his hammock
had been his resource. Every captive has recourse to
stretching himself upon his pallet, and Mess Lethierry was the
captive of his grief. To go to bed was a truce, a gain in breathing
time, a suspension of ideas. He neither slept nor watched.
Strictly speaking, for two months and a half&mdash;for so long was
it since his misfortune&mdash;Mess Lethierry had been in a sort of
somnambulism. He had not yet regained possession of his
faculties. He was in that cloudy and confused condition of
intellect with which those are familiar who have undergone
overwhelming afflictions. His reflections were not thought, his
sleep was no repose. By day he was not awake, by night not
asleep. He was up, and then gone to rest, that was all. When
he was in his hammock forgetfulness came to him a little. He
called that sleeping. Chimeras floated about him, and within<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_316" id="Page_316">[Pg 316]</a></span>
him. The nocturnal cloud, full of confused faces, traversed his
brain. Sometimes it was the Emperor Napoleon dictating to
him the story of his life; sometimes there were several D&eacute;ruchettes;
strange birds were in the trees; the streets of Lons-le-Saulnier
became serpents. Nightmares were the brief respites
of despair. He passed his nights in dreaming, and his days in
reverie.</p>

<p>Sometimes he remained all the afternoon at the window of
his room, which looked out upon the port, with his head drooping,
his elbows on the stone, his ears resting on his fists, his back
turned to the whole world, his eye fixed on the old massive iron
ring fastened in the wall of the house, at only a few feet from
his window, where in the old days he used to moor the Durande.
He was looking at the rust which gathered on the ring.</p>

<p>He was reduced to the mere mechanical habit of living.</p>

<p>The bravest men, when deprived of their most cherished idea,
will come to this. His life had become a void. Life is a voyage;
the idea is the itinerary. The plan of their course gone, they
stop. The object is lost, the strength of purpose gone. Fate
has a secret discretionary power. It is able to touch with its
rod even our moral being. Despair is almost the destitution of
the soul. Only the greatest minds resist, and for what?</p>

<p>Mess Lethierry was always meditating, if absorption can be
called meditation, in the depth of a sort of cloudy abyss.
Broken words sometimes escaped him like these, "There is
nothing left for me now, but to ask yonder for leave to go."</p>

<p>There was a certain contradiction in that nature, complex as
the sea, of which Mess Lethierry was, so to speak, the product.
Mess Lethierry's grief did not seek relief in prayer.</p>

<p>To be powerless is a certain strength. In the presence of our
two great expressions of this blindness&mdash;destiny and nature&mdash;it
is in his powerlessness that man has found his chief support in
prayer.</p>

<p>Man seeks succour from his terror; his anxiety bids him kneel.
Prayer, that mighty force of the soul, akin to mystery. Prayer
addresses itself to the magnanimity of the Shades; prayer
regards mystery with eyes themselves overshadowed by it, and
beneath the power of its fixed and appealing gaze, we feel the
possibility of the great Unknown unbending to reply.</p>

<p>The mere thought of such a possibility becomes a consolation.</p>

<p>But Mess Lethierry prayed not.</p>

<p>In the time when he was happy, God existed for him almost<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_317" id="Page_317">[Pg 317]</a></span>
in visible contact. Lethierry addressed Him, pledged his word
to Him, seemed at times to hold familiar intercourse with Him.
But in the hour of his misfortune, a phenomenon not infrequent&mdash;the
idea of God had become eclipsed in his mind. This
happens when the mind has created for itself a deity clothed
with human qualities.</p>

<p>In the state of mind in which he existed, there was for
Lethierry only one clear vision&mdash;the smile of D&eacute;ruchette.
Beyond this all was dark.</p>

<p>For some time, apparently on account of the loss of the
Durande, and of the blow which it had been to them, this
pleasant smile had been rare. She seemed always thoughtful.
Her birdlike playfulness, her childlike ways, were gone. She
was never seen now in the morning, at the sound of the cannon
which announced daybreak, saluting the rising sun with "Boom!
Daylight! Come in, please!" At times her expression was
very serious, a sad thing for that sweet nature. She made an
effort, however, sometimes to laugh before Mess Lethierry and
to divert him; but her cheerfulness grew tarnished from day to
day&mdash;gathered dust like the wing of a butterfly with a pin
through its body. Whether through sorrow for her uncle's
sorrow&mdash;for there are griefs which are the reflections of other
griefs&mdash;or whether for any other reasons, she appeared at this
time to be much inclined towards religion. In the time of the
old rector, M. Jaquemin H&eacute;rode, she scarcely went to church,
as has been already said, four times a year. Now she was, on
the contrary, assiduous in her attendance. She missed no service,
neither of Sunday nor of Thursday. Pious souls in the
parish remarked with satisfaction that amendment. For it is a
great blessing when a girl who runs so many dangers in the
world turns her thoughts towards God. That enables the poor
parents at least to be easy on the subject of love-making and
what not.</p>

<p>In the evening, whenever the weather permitted, she walked
for an hour or two in the garden of the Brav&eacute;es. She was
almost as pensive there as Mess Lethierry, and almost always
alone. D&eacute;ruchette went to bed last. This, however, did not
prevent Douce and Grace watching her a little, by that instinct
for spying which is common to servants; spying is such a
relaxation after household work.</p>

<p>As to Mess Lethierry, in the abstracted state of his mind,
these little changes in D&eacute;ruchette's habits escaped him. Moreover,
his nature had little in common with the Duenna. He<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_318" id="Page_318">[Pg 318]</a></span>
had not even remarked her regularity at the church. Tenacious
of his prejudices against the clergy and their sermons, he would
have seen with little pleasure these frequent attendances at the
parish church. It was not because his own moral condition
was not undergoing change. Sorrow is a cloud which changes
form.</p>

<p>Robust natures, as we have said, are sometimes almost overthrown
by sudden great misfortunes; but not quite. Manly
characters such as Lethierry's experience a reaction in a given
time. Despair has its backward stages. From overwhelmment
we rise to dejection; from dejection to affliction; from
affliction to melancholy. Melancholy is a twilight state; suffering
melts into it and becomes a sombre joy. Melancholy is the
pleasure of being sad.</p>

<p>These elegiac moods were not made for Lethierry. Neither
the nature of his temperament nor the character of his misfortune
suited those delicate shades. But at the moment at which
we have returned to him, the reverie of his first despair had for
more than a week been tending to disperse; without, however,
leaving him less sad. He was more inactive, was always dull;
but he was no longer overwhelmed. A certain perception of
events and circumstances was returning to him, and he began
to experience something of that phenomenon which may be
called the return to reality.</p>

<p>Thus by day in the great lower room, he did not listen to the
words of those about him, but he heard them. Grace came one
morning quite triumphant to tell D&eacute;ruchette that he had undone
the cover of a newspaper.</p>

<p>This half acceptance of realities is in itself a good symptom,
a token of convalescence. Great afflictions produce a stupor;
it is by such little acts that men return to themselves. This
improvement, however, is at first only an aggravation of the
evil. The dreamy condition of mind in which the sufferer has
lived, has served, while it lasted, to blunt his grief. His sight
before was thick. He felt little. Now his view is clear, nothing
escapes him; and his wounds re-open. Each detail that he
perceives serves to remind him of his sorrow. He sees everything
again in memory, every remembrance is a regret. All
kinds of bitter aftertastes lurk in that return to life. He is
better, and yet worse. Such was the condition of Lethierry.
In returning to full consciousness, his sufferings had become
more distinct.</p>

<p>A sudden shock first recalled him to a sense of reality.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_319" id="Page_319">[Pg 319]</a></span></p>

<p>One afternoon, between the 15th and 20th of April, a double-knock
at the door of the great lower room of the Brav&eacute;es had
signalled the arrival of the postman. Douce had opened the
door; there was a letter.</p>

<p>The letter came from beyond sea; it was addressed to Mess
Lethierry, and bore the postmark "Lisbon."</p>

<p>Douce had taken the letter to Mess Lethierry, who was in his
room. He had taken it, placed it mechanically upon the table,
and had not looked at it.</p>

<p>The letter remained an entire week upon the table without
being unsealed.</p>

<p>It happened, however, one morning that Douce said to Mess
Lethierry:</p>

<p>"Shall I brush the dust off your letter, sir?"</p>

<p>Lethierry seemed to arouse from his lethargy.</p>

<p>"Ay, ay! You are right," he said; and he opened the
letter, and read as follows:&mdash;</p>

<p><span style="margin-left: 25em;">"At Sea, <i>10th March</i>.</span><br />
</p>

<p>"To Mess Lethierry of St. Sampson.</p>

<p>"You will be gratified to receive news of me. I am aboard
the <i>Tamaulipas</i>, bound for the port of 'No-return.' Among
the crew is a sailor named Ahier-Tostevin, from Guernsey, who
will return and will have some facts to communicate to you. I
take the opportunity of our speaking a vessel, the <i>Herman
Cortes</i>, bound for Lisbon, to forward you this letter.</p>

<p>"You will be astonished to learn that I am going to be
honest.</p>

<p>"As honest as Sieur Clubin.</p>

<p>"I am bound to believe that you know of certain recent
occurrences; nevertheless, it is, perhaps, not altogether superfluous
to send you a full account of them,</p>

<p>"To proceed then.</p>

<p>"I have returned you your money.</p>

<p>"Some years ago, I borrowed from you, under somewhat
irregular circumstances, the sum of fifty thousand francs.
Before leaving St. Malo lately, I placed in the hands of your
confidential man of business, Sieur Clubin, on your account
three bank-notes of one thousand pounds each; making together
seventy-five thousand francs. You will no doubt find this reimbursement
sufficient.</p>

<p>"Sieur Clubin acted for you, and received your money, including
interest, in a remarkably energetic manner. He<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_320" id="Page_320">[Pg 320]</a></span>
appeared to me, indeed, singularly zealous. This is, in fact,
my reason for apprising you of the facts.</p>

<p>"Your other confidential man of business,</p>

<p>
<span class="smcap" style="margin-left: 35em;">"Rantaine.</span><br />
</p>

<p>"<i>Postscript</i>&mdash;Sieur Clubin was in possession of a revolver,
which will explain to you the circumstance of my having no
receipt."</p>

<hr style='width: 45%;' />

<p>He who has ever touched a torpedo, or a Leyden-jar fully
charged, may have a notion of the effect produced on Mess
Lethierry by the reading of this letter.</p>

<p>Under that envelope, in that sheet of paper folded in four, to
which he had at first paid so little attention, lay the elements of
an extraordinary commotion.</p>

<p>He recognised the writing and the signature. As to the facts
which the letter contained, at first he understood nothing.</p>

<p>The excitement of the event, however, soon gave movement
to his faculties.</p>

<p>The effective part of the shock he had received lay in the
phenomenon of the seventy-five thousand francs entrusted by
Rantaine to Clubin; this was a riddle which compelled
Lethierry's brain to work. Conjecture is a healthy occupation
for the mind. Reason is awakened: logic is called into play.</p>

<p>For some time past public opinion in Guernsey had been
undergoing a reaction on the subject of Clubin: that man of
such high reputation for honour during many years; that man
so unanimously regarded with esteem. People had begun to
question and to doubt; there were wagers pro and con. Some
light had been thrown on the question in singular ways. The
figure of Clubin began to become clearer, that is to say, he
began to be blacker in the eyes of the world.</p>

<p>A judicial inquiry had taken place at St. Malo, for the purpose
of ascertaining what had become of the coast-guardman, number
619. Legal perspicacity had got upon a false scent, a thing
which happens not unfrequently. It had started with the
hypothesis that the man had been enticed by Zuela, and shipped
aboard the <i>Tamaulipas</i> for Chili. This ingenious supposition
had led to a considerable amount of wasted conjecture. The
shortsightedness of justice had failed to take note of Rantaine;
but in the progress of inquiry the authorities had come upon
other clues. The affair, so obscure, became complicated.
Clubin had become mixed up with the enigma. A coincidence,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_321" id="Page_321">[Pg 321]</a></span>
perhaps a direct connection, had been found between the departure
of the <i>Tamaulipas</i> and the loss of the Durande. At
the wine-shop near the Dinan Gate, where Clubin thought himself
entirely unknown, he had been recognised. The wine-shop
keeper had talked; Clubin had bought a bottle of brandy that
night. For whom? The gunsmith of St. Vincent Street, too,
had talked. Clubin had purchased a revolver. For what
object? The landlord of the "Jean Auberge" had talked.
Clubin had absented himself in an inexplicable manner. Captain
Gertrais-Gaboureau had talked; Clubin had determined to
start, although warned, and knowing that he might expect a
great fog. The crew of the Durande had talked. In fact, the
collection of the freight had been neglected, and the stowage
badly arranged, a negligence easy to comprehend, if the captain
had determined to wreck the ship. The Guernsey passenger,
too, had spoken. Clubin had evidently imagined that he had
run upon the Hanways. The Torteval people had spoken.
Clubin had visited that neighbourhood a few days before the
loss of the Durande, and had been seen walking in the direction
of Pleinmont, near the Hanways. He had with him a travelling-bag.
"He had set out with it, and come back without it."
The birds'-nesters had spoken: their story seemed to be possibly
connected with Clubin's disappearance, if instead of ghosts they
supposed smugglers. Finally, the haunted house of Pleinmont
itself had spoken. Persons who had determined to get information
had climbed and entered the windows, and had found inside&mdash;what?
The very travelling-bag which had been seen in Sieur
Clubin's possession. The authorities of the <i>Douzaine</i> of Torteval
had taken possession of the bag and had it opened. It was
found to contain provisions, a telescope, a chronometer, a man's
clothing, and linen marked with Clubin's initials. All this in
the gossip of St. Malo and Guernsey became more and more
like a case of fraud. Obscure hints were brought together;
there appeared to have been a singular disregard of advice; a
willingness to encounter the dangers of the fog; a suspected
negligence in the stowage of the cargo. Then there was the
mysterious bottle of brandy; a drunken helmsman; a substitution
of the captain for the helmsman; a management of
the rudder, to say the least, unskilful. The heroism of remaining
behind upon the wreck began to look like roguery. Clubin
besides had evidently been deceived as to the rock he was on.
Granted an intention to wreck the vessel, it was easy to understand
the choice of the Hanways, the shore easily reached by<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_322" id="Page_322">[Pg 322]</a></span>
swimming, and the intended concealment in the haunted house
awaiting the opportunity for flight. The travelling-bag, that
suspicious preparative, completed the demonstration. By
what link this affair connected itself with the other affair of the
disappearance of the coast-guardman nobody knew. People
imagined some connection, and that was all. They had a
glimpse in their minds of the look-out-man, number 619, alongside
of the mysterious Clubin&mdash;quite a tragic drama. Clubin
possibly was not an actor in it, but his presence was visible in
the side scenes.</p>

<p>The supposition of a wilful destruction of the Durande did
not explain everything. There was a revolver in the story,
with no part yet assigned to it. The revolver, probably, belonged
to the other affair.</p>

<p>The scent of the public is keen and true. Its instinct excels
in those discoveries of truth by pieces and fragments. Still,
amidst these facts, which seemed to point pretty clearly to a
case of barratry, there were serious difficulties.</p>

<p>Everything was consistent; everything coherent; but a basis
was wanting.</p>

<p>People do not wreck vessels for the pleasure of wrecking them.
Men do not run all those risks of fog, rocks, swimming, concealment,
and flight without an interest. What could have been
Clubin's interest?</p>

<p>The act seemed plain, but the motive was puzzling.</p>

<p>Hence a doubt in many minds. Where there is no motive,
it is natural to infer that there was no act.</p>

<p>The missing link was important. The letter from Rantaine
seemed to supply it.</p>

<p>This letter furnished a motive for Clubin's supposed crime:
seventy-five thousand francs to be appropriated.</p>

<p>Rantaine was the <i>Deus ex machin&acirc;</i>. He had descended from
the clouds with a lantern in his hand. His letter was the final
light upon the affair. It explained everything, and even promised
a witness in the person of Ahier-Tostevin.</p>

<p>The part which it at once suggested for the revolver was
decisive. Rantaine was undoubtedly well informed. His letter
pointed clearly the explanation of the mystery.</p>

<p>There could be no possible palliation of Clubin's crime. He
had premeditated the shipwreck; the proofs were the preparations
discovered in the haunted house. Even supposing him
innocent, and admitting the wreck to have been accidental,
would he not, at the last moment, when he had determined to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_323" id="Page_323">[Pg 323]</a></span>
sacrifice himself with the vessel, have entrusted the seventy-five
thousand francs to the men who escaped in the long-boat. The
evidence was strikingly complete. Now what had become of
Clubin? He had probably been the victim of his blunder. He
had doubtless perished upon the Douvres.</p>

<p>All this construction of surmises, which were not far from the
reality, had for several days occupied the mind of Mess Lethierry.
The letter from Rantaine had done him the service of setting
him to think. He was at first shaken by his surprise; then he
made an effort to reflect. He made another effort more difficult
still, that of inquiry. He was induced to listen, and even seek
conversation. At the end of a week, he had become, to a certain
degree, in the world again; his thoughts had regained their
coherence, and he was almost restored. He had emerged from
his confused and troubled state.</p>

<p>Rantaine's letter, even admitting that Mess Lethierry could
ever have entertained any hope of the reimbursement of his
money, destroyed that last chance.</p>

<p>It added to the catastrophe of the Durande this new wreck
of seventy-five thousand francs. It put him in possession of
that amount just so far as to make him sensible of its loss. The
letter revealed to him the extreme point in his ruin.</p>

<p>Hence he experienced a new and very painful sensation,
which we have already spoken of. He began to take an interest
in his household&mdash;what it was to be in the future&mdash;how he was
to set things in order; matters of which he had taken no heed
for two months past. These trifling cares wounded him with a
thousand tiny points, worse in their aggregate than the old
despair. A sorrow is doubly burdensome which has to be
endured in each item, and while disputing inch by inch with
fate for ground already lost. Ruin is endurable in the mass,
but not in the dust and fragments of the fallen edifice. The
great fact may overwhelm, but the details torture. The catastrophe
which lately fell like a thunderbolt, becomes now a cruel
persecution. Humiliation comes to aggravate the blow. A
second desolation succeeds the first, with features more repulsive.
You descend one degree nearer to annihilation. The
winding-sheet becomes changed to sordid rags.</p>

<p>No thought is more bitter than that of one's own gradual
fall from a social position.</p>

<p>Ruin is simple enough. A violent shock; a cruel turn of
fate; a catastrophe once for all. Be it so. We submit, and
all is over. You are ruined: it is well; you are dead? No;<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_324" id="Page_324">[Pg 324]</a></span>
you are still living. On the morrow you know it well. By
what? By the pricking of a pin. Yonder passer-by omits to
recognise you; the tradesmen's bills rain down upon you; and
yonder is one of your enemies, who is smiling. Perhaps he is
thinking of Arnal's last pun; but it is all the same. The pun
would not have appeared to him so inimitable but for your
ruin. You read your own sudden insignificance even in looks
of indifference. Friends who used to dine at your table become
of opinion that three courses were an extravagance. Your
faults are patent to the eyes of everybody; ingratitude having
nothing more to expect, proclaims itself openly; every idiot
has foreseen your misfortunes. The malignant pull you to
pieces; the more malignant profess to pity. And then come a
hundred paltry details. Nausea succeeds to grief. You have
been wont to indulge in wine; you must now drink cider. Two
servants, too! Why, one will be too many. It will be necessary
to discharge this one, and get rid of that. Flowers in your
garden are superfluous; you will plant it with potatoes. You
used to make presents of your fruits to friends; you will send
them henceforth to market. As to the poor, it will be absurd to
think of giving anything to them. Are you not poor yourself?
And then there is the painful question of dress. To have to
refuse a wife a new ribbon, what a torture! To have to refuse
one who has made you a gift of her beauty a trifling article; to
haggle over such matters, like a miser! Perhaps she will say to
you, "What! rob my garden of its flowers, and now refuse one
for my bonnet!" Ah me! to have to condemn her to shabby
dresses. The family table is silent. You fancy that those
around it think harshly of you. Beloved faces have become
clouded. This is what is meant by falling fortunes. It is to
die day by day. To be struck down is like the blast of the
furnace; to decay like this is the torture of the slow fire.</p>

<p>An overwhelming blow is a sort of Waterloo, a slow decay, a
St. Helena. Destiny, incarnate in the form of Wellington, has
still some dignity; but how sordid in the shape of Hudson
Lowe. Fate becomes then a paltry huckster. We find the
man of Campo Formio quarrelling about a pair of stockings;
we see that dwarfing of Napoleon which makes England less.
Waterloo and St. Helena! Reduced to humbler proportions,
every ruined man has traversed those two phases.</p>

<p>On the evening we have mentioned, and which was one of
the first evenings in May, Lethierry, leaving D&eacute;ruchette to walk<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_325" id="Page_325">[Pg 325]</a></span>
by moonlight in the garden, had gone to bed more depressed
than ever.</p>

<p>All these mean and repulsive details, peculiar to worldly misfortune;
all these trifling cares, which are at first insipid, and
afterwards harassing, were revolving in his mind. A sullen load
of miseries! Mess Lethierry felt that his fall was irremediable.
What could he do? What would become of them? What
sacrifices should he be compelled to impose on D&eacute;ruchette?
Whom should he discharge&mdash;Douce or Grace? Would they
have to sell the Brav&eacute;es? Would they not be compelled to
leave the island? To be nothing where he had been everything;
it was a terrible fall indeed.</p>

<p>And to know that the old times had gone for ever! To recall
those journeys to and fro, uniting France with those numberless
islands; the Tuesday's departure, the Friday's return, the
crowd on the quay, those great cargoes, that industry, that
prosperity, that proud direct navigation, that machinery embodying
the will of man, that all-powerful boiler, that smoke,
all that reality! The steamboat had been the final crown of the
compass; the needle indicating the direct track, the steam-vessel
following it. One proposing, the other executing. Where
was she now, his Durande, that mistress of the seas, that queen
who had made him a king? To have been so long the man
of ideas in his own country, the man of success, the man
who revolutionised navigation; and then to have to give up
all, to abdicate! To cease to exist, to become a bye-word, an
empty bag which once was full. To belong to the past, after
having so long represented the future. To come down to be
an object of pity to fools, to witness the triumph of routine,
obstinacy, conservatism, selfishness, ignorance. To see the old
barbarous sailing cutters crawling to and fro upon the sea: the
outworn old-world prejudices young again; to have wasted a
whole life; to have been a light, and to suffer this eclipse. Ah!
what a sight it was upon the waves, that noble funnel, that
prodigious cylinder, that pillar with its capital of smoke, that
column grander than any in the Place Vend&ocirc;me, for on that
there was only a man, while on this stood Progress. The ocean
was subdued; it was certainty upon the open sea. And had
all this been witnessed in that little island, in that little harbour,
in that little town of St. Sampson? Yes; it had been witnessed.
And could it be that, having seen it, all had vanished to be seen
no more.</p>

<p>All this series of regrets tortured Lethierry. There is such a<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_326" id="Page_326">[Pg 326]</a></span>
thing as a mental sobbing. Never, perhaps, had he felt his misfortune
more bitterly. A certain numbness follows this acute
suffering. Under the weight of his sorrow he gradually dosed.</p>

<p>For about two hours he remained in this state, feverish, sleeping
a little, meditating much. Such torpors are accompanied
by an obscure labour of the brain, which is inexpressibly wearying.
Towards the middle of the night, about midnight, a little
before or a little after, he shook off his lethargy. He aroused,
and opened his eyes. His window was directly in front of his
hammock. He saw something extraordinary.</p>

<p>A form was before the window; a marvellous form. It was
the funnel of a steam-vessel.</p>

<p>Mess Lethierry started, and sat upright in his bed. The
hammock oscillated like a swing in a tempest. Lethierry stared.
A vision filled the window-frame. There was the harbour
flooded with the light of the moon, and against that glitter,
quite close to his house, stood forth, tall, round, and black,
a magnificent object.</p>

<p>The funnel of a steam-vessel was there.</p>

<p>Lethierry sprang out of his hammock, ran to the window,
lifted the sash, leaned out, and recognised it.</p>

<p>The funnel of the Durande stood before him.</p>

<p>It was in the old place.</p>

<p>Its four chains supported it, made fast to the bulwarks of a
vessel in which, beneath the funnel, he could distinguish a dark
mass of irregular outline.</p>

<p>Lethierry recoiled, turned his back to the window, and dropped
in a sitting posture into his hammock again.</p>

<p>Then he returned, and once more he saw the vision.</p>

<p>An instant afterwards, or in about the time occupied by a
flash of lightning, he was out upon the quay, with a lantern in
his hand.</p>

<p>A bark carrying a little backward a massive block from which
issued the straight funnel before the window of the Brav&eacute;es,
was made fast to the mooring-ring of the Durande. The bows
of the bark stretched beyond the corner of the wall of the house,
and were level with the quay.</p>

<p>There was no one aboard.</p>

<p>The vessel was of a peculiar shape. All Guernsey would have
recognised it. It was the old Dutch sloop.</p>

<p>Lethierry jumped aboard; and ran forward to the block
which he saw beyond the mast.</p>

<p>It was there, entire, complete, intact, standing square and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_327" id="Page_327">[Pg 327]</a></span>
firm upon its cast-iron flooring; the boiler had all its rivets, the
axle of the paddle-wheels was raised erect, and made fast near
the boiler; the brine-pump was in its place; nothing was
wanting.</p>

<p>Lethierry examined the machinery.</p>

<p>The lantern and the moon helped him in his examination.
He went over every part of the mechanism.</p>

<p>He noticed the two cases at the sides. He examined the axle
of the wheels.</p>

<p>He went into the little cabin; it was empty.</p>

<p>He returned to the engine, and felt it, looked into the boiler,
and knelt down to examine it inside.</p>

<p>He placed his lantern within the furnace, where the light,
illuminating all the machinery, produced almost the illusion of
an engine-room with its fire.</p>

<p>Then he burst into a wild laugh, sprang to his feet, and with
his eye fixed on the engine, and his arms outstretched towards
the funnel, he cried aloud, "Help."</p>

<p>The harbour bell was upon the quay, at a few paces distance.
He ran to it, seized the chain, and began to pull it violently.</p>



<hr style="width: 65%;" />
<h4>II</h4>

<h5>THE HARBOUR BELL AGAIN</h5>


<p>Gilliatt, in fact, after a passage without accident, but somewhat
slow on account of the heavy burden of the sloop, had
arrived at St. Sampson after dark, and nearer ten than nine
o'clock.</p>

<p>He had calculated the time. The half-flood had arrived.
There was plenty of water, and the moon was shining; so that
he was able to enter the port.</p>

<p>The little harbour was silent. A few vessels were moored
there, with their sails brailed up to the yards, their tops over,
and without lanterns. At the far end a few others were visible,
high and dry in the careenage, where they were undergoing
repairs; large hulls dismasted and stripped, with their planking
open at various parts, lifting high the ends of their timbers, and
looking like huge dead beetles lying on their backs with their
legs in the air.</p>

<p>As soon as he had cleared the harbour mouth, Gilliatt examined
the port and the quay. There was no light to be seen either<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_328" id="Page_328">[Pg 328]</a></span>
at the Brav&eacute;es or elsewhere. The place was deserted, save,
perhaps, by some one going to or returning from the parsonage-house;
nor was it possible to be sure even of this; for the night
blurred every outline, and the moonlight always gives to objects
a vague appearance. The distance added to the indistinctness.
The parsonage-house at that period was situated on the other
side of the harbour, where there stands at the present day an
open mast-house.</p>

<p>Gilliatt had approached the Brav&eacute;es quietly, and had made
the sloop fast to the ring of the Durande, under Mess Lethierry's
window.</p>

<p>He leaped over the bulwarks, and was ashore.</p>

<p>Leaving the sloop behind him by the quay, he turned the
angle of the house, passed along a little narrow street, then
along another, did not even notice the pathway which branched
off leading to the B&ucirc; de la Rue, and in a few minutes found
himself at that corner of the wall where there were wild mallows
with pink flowers in June, with holly, ivy, and nettles. Many
a time concealed behind the bushes, seated on a stone, in the
summer days, he had watched here through long hours, even
for whole months, often tempted to climb the wall, over which
he contemplated the garden of the Brav&eacute;es and the two windows
of a little room seen through the branches of the trees. The
stone was there still; the bushes, the low wall, the angle, as
quiet and dark as ever. Like an animal returning to its hole,
gliding rather than walking, he made his way in. Once seated
there, he made no movement. He looked around; saw again
the garden, the pathways, the beds of flowers, the house, the
two windows of the chamber. The moonlight fell upon this
dream. He felt it horrible to be compelled to breathe, and did
what he could to prevent it.</p>

<p>He seemed to be gazing on a vision of paradise, and was
afraid that all would vanish. It was almost impossible that all
these things could be really before his eyes; and if they were, it
could only be with that imminent danger of melting into air
which belongs to things divine. A breath, and all must be
dissipated. He trembled with the thought.</p>

<p>Before him, not far off, at the side of one of the alleys in the
garden, was a wooden seat painted green. The reader will
remember this seat.</p>

<p>Gilliatt looked up at the two windows. He thought of the
slumber of some one possibly in that room. Behind that wall
she was no doubt sleeping. He wished himself elsewhere, yet<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_329" id="Page_329">[Pg 329]</a></span>
would sooner have died than go away. He thought of a gentle
breathing moving a woman's breast. It was she, that vision,
that purity in the clouds, that form haunting him by day and
night. She was there! He thought of her so far removed, and
yet so near as to be almost within reach of his delight; he
thought of that impossible ideal drooping in slumber, and like
himself, too, visited by visions; of that being so long desired, so
distant, so impalpable&mdash;her closed eyelids, her face resting on
her hand; of the mystery of sleep in its relations with that pure
spirit, of what dreams might come to one who was herself a
dream. He dared not think beyond, and yet he did. He
ventured on those familiarities which the fancy may indulge in;
the notion of how much was feminine in that angelic being disturbed
his thoughts. The darkness of night emboldens timid
imaginations to take these furtive glances. He was vexed
within himself, feeling on reflection as if it were profanity to
think of her so boldly; yet still constrained, in spite of himself,
he tremblingly gazed into the invisible. He shuddered almost
with a sense of pain as he imagined her room, a petticoat on a
chair, a mantle fallen on the carpet, a band unbuckled, a handkerchief.
He imagined her corset with its lace hanging to the
ground, her stockings, her boots. His soul was among the stars.</p>

<p>The stars are made for the human heart of a poor man like
Gilliatt not less than for that of the rich and great. There is a
certain degree of passion by which every man becomes wrapped
in a celestial light. With a rough and primitive nature, this
truth is even more applicable. An uncultivated mind is easily
touched with dreams.</p>

<p>Delight is a fulness which overflows like any other. To see
those windows was almost too much happiness for Gilliatt.</p>

<p>Suddenly, he looked and saw her.</p>

<p>From the branches of a clump of bushes, already thickened
by the spring, there issued with a spectral slowness a celestial
figure, a dress, a divine face, almost a shining light beneath the
moon.</p>

<p>Gilliatt felt his powers failing him: it was D&eacute;ruchette.</p>

<p>D&eacute;ruchette approached. She stopped. She walked back a
few paces, stopped again, then returned and sat upon the wooden
bench. The moon was in the trees, a few clouds floated
among the pale stars; the sea murmured to the shadows in an
undertone, the town was sleeping, a thin haze was rising from
the horizon, the melancholy was profound. D&eacute;ruchette inclined
her head, with those thoughtful eyes which look attentive<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_330" id="Page_330">[Pg 330]</a></span>
yet see nothing. She was seated sideways, and had nothing on
her head but a little cap untied, which showed upon her delicate
neck the commencement of her hair. She twirled mechanically
a ribbon of her cap around one of her fingers; the half light
showed the outline of her hands like those of a statue; her dress
was of one of those shades which by night looked white: the
trees stirred as if they felt the enchantment which she shed
around her. The tip of one of her feet was visible. Her
lowered eyelids had that vague contraction which suggests a tear
checked in its course, or a thought suppressed. There was a
charming indecision in the movements of her arms, which had
no support to lean on; a sort of floating mingled with every
posture. It was rather a gleam than a light&mdash;rather a grace
than a goddess; the folds of her dress were exquisite; her face
which might inspire adoration, seemed meditative, like portraits
of the Virgin. It was terrible to think how near she was:
Gilliatt could hear her breathe.</p>

<p>A nightingale was singing in the distance. The stirring of
the wind among the branches set in movement, the inexpressible
silence of the night. D&eacute;ruchette, beautiful, divine, appeared
in the twilight like a creation from those rays and from
the perfumes in the air. That widespread enchantment seemed
to concentre and embody itself mysteriously in her; she became
its living manifestation. She seemed the outblossoming of all
that shadow and silence.</p>

<p>But the shadow and silence which floated lightly about her
weighed heavily on Gilliatt. He was bewildered; what he
experienced is not to be told in words. Emotion is always
new, and the word is always enough. Hence the impossibility
of expressing it. Joy is sometimes overwhelming. To see
D&eacute;ruchette, to see herself, to see her dress, her cap, her ribbon,
which she twined around her finger, was it possible to imagine
it? Was it possible to be thus near her; to hear her breathe?
She breathed! then the stars might breathe also. Gilliatt felt
a thrill through him. He was the most miserable and yet the
happiest of men. He knew not what to do. His delirious joy
at seeing her annihilated him. Was it indeed D&eacute;ruchette there,
and he so near? His thoughts, bewildered and yet fixed, were
fascinated by that figure as by a dazzling jewel. He gazed
upon her neck&mdash;her hair. He did not even say to himself that
all that would now belong to him, that before long&mdash;to-morrow,
perhaps&mdash;he would have the right to take off that cap, to unknot
that ribbon. He would not have conceived for a moment<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_331" id="Page_331">[Pg 331]</a></span>
the audacity of thinking even so far. Touching in idea is
almost like touching with the hand. Love was with Gilliatt
like honey to the bear. He thought confusedly; he knew not
what possessed him. The nightingale still sang. He felt as if
about to breathe his life out.</p>

<p>The idea of rising, of jumping over the wall, of speaking to
D&eacute;ruchette, never came into his mind. If it had he would have
turned and fled. If anything resembling a thought had begun
to dawn in his mind, it was this: that D&eacute;ruchette was there,
that he wanted nothing more, and that eternity had begun.</p>

<p>A noise aroused them both&mdash;her from her reverie&mdash;him from
his ecstasy.</p>

<p>Some one was walking in the garden. It was not possible to
see who was approaching on account of the trees. It was the
footstep of a man.</p>

<p>D&eacute;ruchette raised her eyes.</p>

<p>The steps drew nearer, then ceased. The person walking
had stopped. He must have been quite near. The path beside
which was the bench wound between two clumps of trees. The
stranger was there in the alley between the trees, at a few paces
from the seat.</p>

<p>Accident had so placed the branches, that D&eacute;ruchette could
see the newcomer while Gilliatt could not.</p>

<p>The moon cast on the ground beyond the trees a shadow
which reached to the garden seat.</p>

<p>Gilliatt could see this shadow.</p>

<p>He looked at D&eacute;ruchette.</p>

<p>She was quite pale; her mouth was partly open, as with a
suppressed cry of surprise. She had just half risen from the
bench, and sunk again upon it. There was in her attitude a
mixture of fascination with a desire to fly. Her surprise was
enchantment mingled with timidity. She had upon her lips
almost the light of a smile, with the fulness of tears in her eyes.
She seemed as if transfigured by that presence; as if the being
whom she saw before her belonged not to this earth. The
reflection of an angel was in her look.</p>

<p>The stranger, who was to Gilliatt only a shadow, spoke. A
voice issued from the trees, softer than the voice of a woman;
yet it was the voice of a man. Gilliatt heard these words:</p>

<p>"I see you, mademoiselle, every Sunday and every Thursday.
They tell me that once you used not to come so often. It is a
remark that has been made. I ask your pardon. I have never
spoken to you; it was my duty; but I come to speak to you to-<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_332" id="Page_332">[Pg 332]</a></span>day,
for it is still my duty. It is right that I speak to you first.
The <i>Cashmere</i> sails to-morrow. This is why I have come. You
walk every evening in your garden. It would be wrong of me
to know your habits so well, if I had not the thought that I
have. Mademoiselle, you are poor; since this morning I am
rich. Will you have me for your husband?"</p>

<p>D&eacute;ruchette joined her two hands in a suppliant attitude, and
looked at the speaker, silent, with fixed eyes, and trembling
from head to foot.</p>

<p>The voice continued:</p>

<p>"I love you. God made not the heart of man to be silent.
He has promised him eternity with the intention that he should
not be alone. There is for me but one woman upon earth. It
is you. I think of you as of a prayer. My faith is in God, and
my hope in you. What wings I have you bear. You are my
life, and already my supreme happiness."</p>

<p>"Sir," said D&eacute;ruchette, "there is no one to answer in the
house!"</p>

<p>The voice rose again:</p>

<p>"Yes, I have encouraged that dream. Heaven has not forbidden
us to dream. You are like a glory in my eyes. I love
you deeply, mademoiselle. To me you are holy innocence. I
know it is the hour at which your household have retired to
rest, but I had no choice of any other moment. Do you remember
that passage of the Bible which some one read before us; it
was the twenty-fifth chapter of Genesis. I have thought of it
often since. M. H&eacute;rode said to me, you must have a rich wife.
I replied no, I must have a poor wife. I speak to you, mademoiselle,
without venturing to approach you; I would step even
further back if it was your wish that my shadow should not
touch your feet. You alone are supreme. You will come to me
if such is your will. I love and wait. You are the living form
of a benediction."</p>

<p>"I did not know, sir," stammered D&eacute;ruchette, "that any one
remarked me on Sundays and Thursdays."</p>

<p>The voice continued:</p>

<p>"We are powerless against celestial things. The whole Law
is love. Marriage is Canaan; you are to me the promised land
of beauty."</p>

<p>D&eacute;ruchette replied, "I did not think I did wrong any more
than other persons who are strict."</p>

<p>The voice continued:</p>

<p>"God manifests his will in the flowers, in the light of dawn,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_333" id="Page_333">[Pg 333]</a></span>
in the spring; and love is of his ordaining. You are beautiful in
this holy shadow of night. This garden has been tended by
you; in its perfumes there is something of your breath. The
affinities of our souls do not depend on us. They cannot be
counted with our sins. You were there, that was all. I was
there, that was all. I did nothing but feel that I loved you.
Sometimes my eyes rested upon you. I was wrong, but what
could I do. It was through looking at you that all happened.
I could not restrain my gaze. There are mysterious impulses
which are above our search. The heart is the chief of all
temples. To have your spirit in my house&mdash;this is the terrestrial
paradise for which I hope. Say, will you be mine. As
long as I was poor, I spoke not. I know your age. You are
twenty-one; I am twenty-six. I go to-morrow; if you refuse
me I return no more. Oh, be my betrothed; will you not?
More than once have my eyes, in spite of myself, addressed to
you that question. I love you; answer me. I will speak to
your uncle as soon as he is able to receive me; but I turn first
to you. To Rebecca I plead for Rebecca; unless you love
me not."</p>

<p>D&eacute;ruchette hung her head, and murmured:</p>

<p>"Oh! I worship him."</p>

<p>The words were spoken in a voice so low, that only Gilliatt
heard them.</p>

<p>She remained with her head lowered as if by shading her face
she hoped to conceal her thoughts.</p>

<p>There was a pause. No leaf among the trees was stirred.
It was that solemn and peaceful moment when the slumber of
external things mingles with the sleep of living creatures; and
night seems to listen to the beating of Nature's heart. In the
midst of that retirement, like a harmony making the silence
more complete, rose the wide murmur of the sea.</p>

<p>The voice was heard again.</p>

<p>"Mademoiselle!"</p>

<p>D&eacute;ruchette started.</p>

<p>Again the voice spoke.</p>

<p>"You are silent."</p>

<p>"What would you have me say?"</p>

<p>"I wait for your reply."</p>

<p>"God has heard it," said D&eacute;ruchette.</p>

<p>Then the voice became almost sonorous, and at the same
time softer than before, and these words issued from the leaves
as from a burning bush:<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_334" id="Page_334">[Pg 334]</a></span></p>

<p>"You are my betrothed. Come then to me. Let the blue
sky, with all its stars, be witness of this taking of my soul to
thine; and let our first embrace be mingled with that firmament."</p>

<p>D&eacute;ruchette arose, and remained an instant motionless, looking
straight before her, doubtless in another's eyes. Then,
with slow steps, with head erect, her arms drooping, but with
the fingers of her hands wide apart, like one who leans on some
unseen support, she advanced towards the trees, and was out of
sight.</p>

<p>A moment afterwards, instead of the one shadow upon the
gravelled walk, there were two. They mingled together.
Gilliatt saw at his feet the embrace of those two shadows.</p>

<p>In certain moments of crisis, time flows from us as his sands
from the hour-glass, and we have no feeling of his flight. That
pair on the one hand, who were ignorant of the presence of a
witness, and saw him not; on the other, that witness of their
joy who could not see them, but who knew of their presence&mdash;how
many minutes did they remain thus in that mysterious
suspension of themselves? It would be impossible to say.
Suddenly a noise burst forth at a distance. A voice was heard
crying "Help!" and the harbour bell began to sound. It is
probable that in those celestial transports of delight they heard
no echo of that tumult.</p>

<p>The bell continued to ring. Any one who had sought Gilliatt
then in the angle of the wall would have found him no longer
there.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_335" id="Page_335">[Pg 335]</a></span></p>



<hr style="width: 65%;" />
<h3>BOOK II</h3>

<h4>GRATITUDE AND DESPOTISM</h4>

<h4>I</h4>

<h5>JOY SURROUNDED BY TORTURES</h5>


<p>Mess Lethierry pulled the bell furiously, then stopped
abruptly. A man had just turned the corner of the quay. It
was Gilliatt.</p>

<p>Lethierry ran towards him, or rather flung himself upon him;
seized his hand between his own, and looked him in the face
for a moment, silent. It was the silence of an explosion struggling
to find an issue.</p>

<p>Then pulling and shaking him with violence, and squeezing
him in his arms, he compelled him to enter the lower room of
the Brav&eacute;es, pushed back with his heel the door which had
remained half opened, sat down, or sank into a chair beside a
great table lighted by the moon, the reflection of which gave
a vague pallor to Gilliatt's face, and with a voice of intermingled
laughter and tears, cried:</p>

<p>"Ah! my son; my player of the bagpipe! I knew well that
it was you. The sloop, <i>parbleu</i>! Tell me the story. You
went there, then. Why, they would have burnt you a hundred
years ago! It is magic! There isn't a screw missing. I have
looked at everything already, recognised everything, handled
everything. I guessed that the paddles were in the two cases.
And here you are once more! I have been looking for you in
the little cabin. I rang the bell. I was seeking for you. I
said to myself, 'Where is he, that I may devour him?' You
must admit that wonderful things do come to pass. He has
brought back life to me. <i>Tonnerre!</i> you are an angel! Yes,
yes; it is my engine. Nobody will believe it; people will see it,
and say, 'It can't be true.' Not a tap, not a pin missing. The
feed-pipe has never budged an inch. It is incredible that there
should have been no more damage. We have only to put a
little oil. But how did you accomplish it? To think that the
Durande will be moving again. The axle of the wheels must<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_336" id="Page_336">[Pg 336]</a></span>
have been taken to pieces by some watchmaker. Give me your
word that I am not crazy."</p>

<p>He sprang to his feet, breathed a moment, and continued:</p>

<p>"Assure me of that. What a revolution! I pinched myself
to be certain I was not dreaming. You are my child, you are
my son, you are my Providence. Brave lad! To go and fetch
my good old engine. In the open sea, among those cut-throat
rocks. I have seen some strange things in my life; nothing
like that. I have known Parisians, who were veritable demons,
but I'll defy them to have done that. It beats the Bastille. I
have seen the <i>gauchos</i> labouring in the <i>Pampas</i>, with a crooked
branch of a tree for a plough and a bundle of thorn-bushes for
a harrow, dragged by a leathern strap; they get harvests of
wheat that way, with grains as big as hedgenuts. But that is
a trifle compared with your feats. You have performed a
miracle&mdash;a real one. Ah! <i>gredin!</i> let me hug you. How they
will gossip in St. Sampson. I shall set to work at once to build
the boat. It is astonishing that the crank is all right. Gentlemen,
he has been to the Douvres; I say to the Douvres. He
went alone. The Douvres! I defy you to find a worse spot.
Do you know, have they told you, that it's proved that Clubin
sent the Durande to the bottom to swindle me out of money
which he had to bring me? He made Tangrouille drunk. It's
a long story. I'll tell you another day of his piratical tricks. I,
stupid idiot, had confidence in Clubin. But he trapped himself,
the villain, for he couldn't have got away. There is a God
above, scoundrel! Do you see, Gilliatt, bang! bang! the irons
in the fire; we'll begin at once to rebuild the Durande. We'll
have her twenty feet longer. They build them longer now
than they did. I'll buy the wood from Dantzic and Br&ecirc;me.
Now I have got the machinery they will give me credit again.
They'll have confidence now."</p>

<p>Mess Lethierry stopped, lifted his eyes with that look which
sees the heavens through the roof, and muttered, "Yes, there
is a power on high!"</p>

<p>Then he placed the middle finger of his right hand between
his two eyebrows, and tapped with his nail there, an action
which indicates a project passing through the mind, and he
continued:</p>

<p>"Nevertheless, to begin again, on a grand scale, a little ready
money would have been useful. Ah! if I only had my three
bank-notes, the seventy-five thousand francs that that robber
Rantaine returned, and that vagabond Clubin stole."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_337" id="Page_337">[Pg 337]</a></span></p>

<p>Gilliatt silently felt in his pocket, and drew out something
which he placed before him. It was the leathern belt that he had
brought back. He opened, and spread it out upon the table;
in the inside the word "Clubin" could be deciphered in the
light of the moon. He then took out of the pocket of the belt
a box, and out of the box three pieces of paper, which he unfolded
and offered to Lethierry.</p>

<p>Lethierry examined them. It was light enough to read the
figures "1000," and the word "thousand" was also perfectly
visible. Mess Lethierry took the three notes, placed them on
the table one beside the other, looked at them, looked at Gilliatt,
stood for a moment dumb; and then began again, like an
eruption after an explosion:</p>

<p>"These too! You are a marvel. My bank-notes! all three.
A thousand pounds each. My seventy-five thousand francs.
Why, you must have gone down to the infernal regions. It is
Clubin's belt. Pardieu! I can read his vile name. Gilliatt
has brought back engine and money too. There will be something
to put in the papers. I will buy some timber of the finest
quality. I guess how it was; you found his carcase; Clubin
mouldering away in some corner. We'll have some Dantzic
pine and Br&ecirc;me oak; we'll have a first-rate planking&mdash;oak
within and pine without. In old times they didn't build so
well, but their work lasted longer; the wood was better seasoned,
because they did not build so much. We'll build the hull
perhaps of elm. Elm is good for the parts in the water. To
be dry sometimes, and sometimes wet, rots the timbers; the
elm requires to be always wet; it's a wood that feeds upon
water. What a splendid Durande we'll build. The lawyers
will not trouble me again. I shall want no more credit. I
have some money of my own. Did ever any one see a man like
Gilliatt. I was struck down to the ground, I was a dead man.
He comes and sets me up again as firm as ever. And all the
while I was never thinking about him. He had gone clean out
of my mind; but I recollect everything now. Poor lad! Ah!
by the way, you know you are to marry D&eacute;ruchette."</p>

<p>Gilliatt leaned with his back against the wall, like one who
staggers, and said in a tone very low, but distinct:</p>

<p>"No."</p>

<p>Mess Lethierry started.</p>

<p>"How, no!"</p>

<p>Gilliatt replied:</p>

<p>"I do not love her."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_338" id="Page_338">[Pg 338]</a></span></p>

<p>Mess Lethierry went to the window, opened and reclosed it,
took the three bank-notes, folded them, placed the iron box on
top, scratched his head, seized Clubin's belt, flung it violently
against the wall, and exclaimed:</p>

<p>"You must be mad."</p>

<p>He thrust his fists into his pockets, and exclaimed:</p>

<p>"You don't love D&eacute;ruchette? What! was it at me, then,
that you used to play the bagpipe?"</p>

<p>Gilliatt, still supporting himself by the wall, turned pale, as a
man near his end. As he became pale, Lethierry became redder.</p>

<p>"There's an idiot for you! He doesn't love D&eacute;ruchette.
Very good; make up your mind to love her, for she shall never
marry any but you. A devilish pretty story that; and you
think that I believe you. If there is anything really the matter
with you, send for a doctor; but don't talk nonsense. You
can't have had time to quarrel, or get out of temper with her.
It is true that lovers are great fools sometimes. Come now,
what are your reasons? If you have any, say. People don't
make geese of themselves without reasons. But, I have wool
in my ears; perhaps I didn't understand. Repeat to me what
you said."</p>

<p>Gilliatt replied:</p>

<p>"I said, No!"</p>

<p>"You said, No. He holds to it, the lunatic! You must be
crazy. You said, No. Here's a stupidity beyond anything
ever heard of. Why, people have had their heads shaved for
much less than that. What! you don't like D&eacute;ruchette? Oh,
then, it was out of affection for the old man that you did all
these things? It was for the sake of papa that you went to
the Douvres, that you endured cold and heat, and was half
dead with hunger and thirst, and ate the limpets off the rocks,
and had the fog, the rain, and the wind for your bedroom, and
brought me back my machine, just as you might bring a pretty
woman her little canary that had escaped from its cage. And
the tempest that we had three days ago. Do you think I don't
bear it in mind? You must have had a time of it! It was in
the midst of all this misery, alongside of my old craft, that you
shaped, and cut, and turned, and twisted, and dragged about,
and filed, and sawed, and carpentered, and schemed, and performed
more miracles there by yourself than all the saints in
paradise. Ah! you annoyed me enough once with your bagpipe.
They call it a <i>biniou</i> in Brittany. Always the same tune too,
silly fellow. And yet you don't love D&eacute;ruchette? I don't<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_339" id="Page_339">[Pg 339]</a></span>
know what is the matter with you. I recollect it all now. I
was there in the corner; D&eacute;ruchette said, 'He shall be my
husband;' and so you shall. You don't love her! Either you
must be mad, or else I am mad. And you stand there, and
speak not a word. I tell you you are not at liberty to do all
the things you have done, and then say, after all, 'I don't love
D&eacute;ruchette.' People don't do others services in order to put
them in a passion. Well; if you don't marry her, she shall be
single all her life. In the first place, I shall want you. You
must be the pilot of the Durande. Do you imagine I mean to
part with you like that? No, no, my brave boy; I don't let
you go. I have got you now; I'll not even listen to you.
Where will they find a sailor like you? You are the man I
want. But why don't you speak?"</p>

<p>Meanwhile the harbour bell had aroused the household and
the neighbourhood. Douce and Grace had risen, and had just
entered the lower room, silent and astonished. Grace had a
candle in her hand. A group of neighbours, townspeople,
sailors, and peasants, who had rushed out of their houses, were
outside on the quay, gazing in wonderment at the funnel of the
Durande in the sloop. Some, hearing Lethierry's voice in the
lower room, began to glide in by the half-opened door. Between
the faces of two worthy old women appeared that of Sieur
Landoys, who had the good fortune always to find himself where
he would have regretted to have been absent.</p>

<p>Men feel a satisfaction in having witnesses of their joys. The
sort of scattered support which a crowd presents pleases them at
such times; their delight draws new life from it. Mess Lethierry
suddenly perceived that there were persons about him; and he
welcomed the audience at once.</p>

<p>"Ah! you are here, my friends? I am very glad to see
you. You know the news? That man has been there, and
brought it back. How d'ye do, Sieur Landoys? When I woke
up just now, the first thing I spied was the funnel. It was
under my window. There's not a nail missing. They make
pictures of Napoleon's deeds; but I think more of that than
of the battle of Austerlitz. You have just left your beds, my
good friends. The Durande has found you sleeping. While
you are putting on your night-caps and blowing out your
candles there are others working like heroes. We are a set of
cowards and do-nothings; we sit at home rubbing our rheumatisms;
but happily that does not prevent there being some
of another stamp. The man of the B&ucirc; de la Rue has arrived<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_340" id="Page_340">[Pg 340]</a></span>
from the Douvres rocks. He has fished up the Durande from
the bottom of the sea; and fished up my money out of Clubin's
pocket, from a greater depth still. But how did you contrive to
do it? All the powers of darkness were against you&mdash;the wind
and the sea&mdash;the sea and the wind. It's true enough that you
are a magician. Those who say that are not so stupid after all.
The Durande is back again. The tempests may rage now; that
cuts the ground from under them. My friends, I can inform
you that there was no shipwreck after all. I have examined all
the machinery. It is like new, perfect. The valves go as easily
as rollers. You would think them made yesterday. You know
that the waste water is carried away by a tube inside another
tube, through which come the waters from the boilers; this was
to economise the heat. Well; the two tubes are there as good
as ever. The complete engine, in fact. She is all there, her
wheels and all. Ah! you shall marry her."</p>

<p>"Marry the complete engine?" asked Sieur Landoys.</p>

<p>"No; D&eacute;ruchette; yes; the engine. Both of them. He
shall be my double son-in-law. He shall be her captain. Good
day, Captain Gilliatt; for there will soon be a captain of the
Durande. We are going to do a world of business again.
There will be trade, circulation, cargoes of oxen and sheep. I
wouldn't give St. Sampson for London now. And there stands
the author of all this. It was a curious adventure, I can tell
you. You will read about it on Saturday in old Mauger's
<i>Gazette</i>. Malicious Gilliatt is very malicious. What's the
meaning of these Louis-d'ors here?"</p>

<p>Mess Lethierry had just observed, through the opening of
the lid, that there was some gold in the box upon the notes.
He seized it, opened and emptied it into the palm of his hand,
and put the handful of guineas on the table.</p>

<p>"For the poor, Sieur Landoys. Give those sovereigns from
me to the constable of St. Sampson. You recollect Rantaine's
letter. I showed it to you. Very well; I've got the bank-notes.
Now we can buy some oak and fir, and go to work at
carpentering. Look you! Do you remember the weather of
three days ago? What a hurricane of wind and rain! Gilliatt
endured all that upon the Douvres. That didn't prevent his
taking the wreck to pieces, as I might take my watch. Thanks
to him, I am on my legs again. Old 'Lethierry's galley' is
going to run again, ladies and gentlemen. A nut-shell with a
couple of wheels and a funnel. I always had that idea. I used
to say to myself, one day I will do it. That was a good long<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_341" id="Page_341">[Pg 341]</a></span>
time back. It was an idea that came in my head at Paris, at
the coffee-house at the corner of the Rue Christine and the Rue
Dauphine, when I was reading a paper which had an account of
it. Do you know that Gilliatt would think nothing of putting
the machine at Marly in his pocket, and walking about with it?
He is wrought-iron, that man; tempered steel, a mariner of
invaluable qualities, an excellent smith, an extraordinary fellow,
more astonishing than the Prince of Hohenlohe. That is what
I call a man with brains. We are children by the side of him.
Sea-wolves we may think ourselves; but the sea-lion is there.
Hurrah for Gilliatt! I do not know how he has done it; but
certainly he must have been the devil. And how can I do other
than give him D&eacute;ruchette."</p>

<p>For some minutes D&eacute;ruchette had been in the room. She
had not spoken or moved since she entered. She had glided in
like a shadow, had sat down almost unperceived behind Mess
Lethierry, who stood before her, loquacious, stormy, joyful,
abounding in gestures, and talking in a loud voice. A little
while after her another silent apparition had appeared. A man
attired in black, with a white cravat, holding his hat in his hand,
stood in the doorway. There were now several candles among
the group, which had gradually increased in number. These
lights were near the man attired in black. His profile and
youthful and pleasing complexion showed itself against the
dark background with the clearness of an engraving on a medal.
He leaned with his shoulder against the framework of the door,
and held his left hand to his forehead, an attitude of unconscious
grace, which contrasted the breadth of his forehead with the
smallness of his hand. There was an expression of anguish in
his contracted lips, as he looked on and listened with profound
attention. The standers-by having recognised M. Caudray, the
rector of the parish, had fallen back to allow him to pass; but
he remained upon the threshold. There was hesitation in his
posture, but decision in his looks, which now and then met those
of D&eacute;ruchette. With regard to Gilliatt, whether by chance
or design, he was in shadow, and was only perceived indistinctly.</p>

<p>At first Mess Lethierry did not observe Caudray, but he saw
D&eacute;ruchette. He went to her and kissed her fervently upon the
forehead; stretching forth his hand at the same time towards
the dark corner where Gilliatt was standing.</p>

<p>"D&eacute;ruchette," he said, "we are rich again; and there is your
future husband."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_342" id="Page_342">[Pg 342]</a></span></p>

<p>D&eacute;ruchette raised her head, and looked into the dusky corner
bewildered.</p>

<p>Mess Lethierry continued:</p>

<p>"The marriage shall take place immediately, if it can; they
shall have a licence; the formalities here are not very troublesome;
the dean can do what he pleases; people are married
before they have time to turn round. It is not as in France,
where you must have bans, and publications, and delays, and
all that fuss. You will be able to boast of being the wife of a
brave man. No one can say he is not. I thought so from the
day when I saw him come back from Herm with the little
cannon. But now he comes back from the Douvres with his
fortune and mine, and the fortune of this country. A man of
whom the world will talk a great deal more one day. You said
once, 'I will marry him;' and you shall marry him, and you
shall have little children, and I will be grandpapa; and you
will have the good fortune to be the wife of a noble fellow, who
can work, who can be useful to his fellow-men; a surprising
fellow, worth a hundred others; a man who can rescue other
people's inventions, a providence! At all events, you will not
have married, like so many other silly girls about here, a soldier
or a priest, that is, a man who kills or a man who lies. But
what are you doing there, Gilliatt? Nobody can see you.
Douce, Grace, everybody there! Bring a light, I say. Light
up my son-in-law for me. I betroth you to each other, my
children: here stands your husband, here my son, Gilliatt of
the B&ucirc; de la Rue, that noble fellow, that great seaman; I will
have no other son-in-law, and you no other husband. I pledge
my word to that once more in God's name. Ah! you are there,
Monsieur the Cur&eacute;. You will marry these young people for us."</p>

<p>Lethierry's eye had just fallen upon Caudray.</p>

<p>Douce and Grace had done as they were directed. Two
candles placed upon the table cast a light upon Gilliatt from
head to foot.</p>

<p>"There's a fine fellow," said Mess Lethierry.</p>

<p>Gilliatt's appearance was hideous.</p>

<p>He was in the condition in which he had that morning set
sail from the rocks; in rags, his bare elbows showing through
his sleeves; his beard long, his hair rough and wild; his eyes
bloodshot, his skin peeling, his hands covered with wounds; his
feet naked. Some of the blisters left by the devil-fish were still
visible upon his arms.</p>

<p>Lethierry gazed at him.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_343" id="Page_343">[Pg 343]</a></span></p>

<p>"This is my son-in-law," he said. "How he has struggled
with the sea. He is all in rags. What shoulders; what hands.
There's a splendid fellow!"</p>

<p>Grace ran to D&eacute;ruchette and supported her head. She had
fainted.</p>



<hr style="width: 65%;" />
<h4>II</h4>

<h5>THE LEATHERN TRUNK</h5>


<p>At break of day St. Sampson was on foot, and all the people
of St. Peter's Port began to flock there. The resurrection of
the Durande caused a commotion in the island not unlike what
was caused by the <i>Salette</i> in the south of France. There was a
crowd on the quay staring at the funnel standing erect in the
sloop. They were anxious to see and handle the machinery;
but Lethierry, after making a new and triumphant survey of
the whole by daylight, had placed two sailors aboard with
instructions to prevent any one approaching it. The funnel,
however, furnished food enough for contemplation. The crowd
gaped with astonishment. They talked of nothing but Gilliatt.
They remarked on his surname of "malicious Gilliatt;" and
their admiration wound up with the remark, "It is not pleasant
to have people in the island who can do things like that."</p>

<p>Mess Lethierry was seen from outside the house, seated at a
table before the window, writing, with one eye on the paper
and another on the sloop. He was so completely absorbed that
he had only once stopped to call Douce and ask after D&eacute;ruchette.
Douce replied, "Mademoiselle has risen and is gone out."
Mess Lethierry replied, "She is right to take the air. She was
a little unwell last night, owing to the heat. There was a crowd
in the room. This and her surprise and joy, and the windows
being all closed, overcame her. She will have a husband to be
proud of." And he had gone on with his writing. He had
already finished and sealed two letters, addressed to the most
important shipbuilders at Br&ecirc;me. He now finished the sealing
of a third.</p>

<p>The noise of a wheel upon the quay induced him to look up.
He leaned out of the window, and observed coming from the
path which led to the B&ucirc; de la Rue a boy pushing a wheelbarrow.
The boy was going towards St. Peter's Port. In the barrow
was a portmanteau of brown leather, studded with nails of
brass and white metal.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_344" id="Page_344">[Pg 344]</a></span></p>

<p>Mess Lethierry called to the boy:</p>

<p>"Where are you going, my lad?"</p>

<p>The boy stopped, and replied:</p>

<p>"To the <i>Cashmere</i>."</p>

<p>"What for?"</p>

<p>"To take this trunk aboard."</p>

<p>"Very good; you shall take these three letters too."</p>

<p>Mess Lethierry opened the drawer of his table, took a piece of
string, tied the three letters which he had just written across
and across, and threw the packet to the boy, who caught it
between his hands.</p>

<p>"Tell the captain of the <i>Cashmere</i> they are my letters, and to
take care of them. They are for Germany&mdash;Br&ecirc;me <i>vi&acirc;</i> London."</p>

<p>"I can't speak to the captain, Mess Lethierry."</p>

<p>"Why not?"</p>

<p>"The <i>Cashmere</i> is not at the quay."</p>

<p>"Ah!"</p>

<p>"She is in the roads."</p>

<p>"Ay, true; on account of the sea."</p>

<p>"I can only speak to the man who takes the things
aboard."</p>

<p>"You will tell him, then, to look to the letters."</p>

<p>"Very well, Mess Lethierry."</p>

<p>"At what time does the <i>Cashmere</i> sail?"</p>

<p>"At twelve."</p>

<p>"The tide will flow at noon; she will have it against her."</p>

<p>"But she will have the wind," answered the lad.</p>

<p>"Boy," said Mess Lethierry, pointing with his forefinger at
the engine in the sloop, "do you see that? There is something
which laughs at winds and tides."</p>

<p>The boy put the letters in his pocket, took up the handles
of the barrow again, and went on his way towards the town.
Mess Lethierry called "Douce! Grace!"</p>

<p>Grace opened the door a little way.</p>

<p>"What is it, Mess?"</p>

<p>"Come in and wait a moment."</p>

<p>Mess Lethierry took a sheet of paper, and began to write. If
Grace, standing behind him, had been curious, and had leaned
forward while he was writing, she might have read as follows:&mdash;</p>

<p>"I have written to Br&ecirc;me for the timber. I have appointments
all the morning with carpenters for the estimate. The
rebuilding will go on fast. You must go yourself to the Deanery
for a licence. It is my wish that the marriage should take<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_345" id="Page_345">[Pg 345]</a></span>
place as soon as possible; immediately would be better. I am
busy about the Durande. Do you be busy about D&eacute;ruchette."</p>

<p>He dated it and signed "Lethierry." He did not take the
trouble to seal it, but merely folded it in four, and handed it to
Grace, saying:</p>

<p>"Take that to Gilliatt."</p>

<p>"To the B&ucirc; de la Rue?"</p>

<p>"To the B&ucirc; de la Rue."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_346" id="Page_346">[Pg 346]</a></span></p>



<hr style="width: 65%;" />
<h3>BOOK III</h3>

<h4>THE DEPARTURE OF THE <i>CASHMERE</i></h4>

<h4>I</h4>

<h5>THE HAVELET NEAR THE CHURCH</h5>


<p>When there is a crowd at St. Sampson, St. Peter's Port is soon
deserted. A point of curiosity at a given place is like an air-pump.
News travel fast in small places. Going to see the
funnel of the Durande under Mess Lethierry's window had been,
since sunrise, the business of the Guernsey folks. Every other
event was eclipsed by this. The death of the Dean of St.
Asaph was forgotten, together with the question of the Rev. Mr.
Caudray, his sudden riches, and the departure of the <i>Cashmere</i>.
The machinery of the Durande brought back from the Douvres
rocks was the order of the day. People were incredulous. The
shipwreck had appeared extraordinary, the salvage seemed
impossible. Everybody hastened to assure himself of the truth
by the help of his own eyes. Business of every kind was suspended.
Long strings of townsfolk with their families, from
the "Vesin" up to the "Mess," men and women, gentlemen,
mothers with children, infants with dolls, were coming by
every road or pathway to see "the thing to be seen" at the
Brav&eacute;es, turning their backs upon St. Peter's Port. Many
shops at St. Peter's Port were closed. In the Commercial
Arcade there was an absolute stagnation in buying and selling.
The Durande alone obtained attention. Not a single shopkeeper
had had a "handsell" that morning, except a jeweller,
who was surprised at having sold a wedding-ring to "a sort of
man who appeared in a great hurry, and who asked for the
house of the Dean." The shops which remained open were
centres of gossip, where loiterers discussed the miraculous
salvage. There was not a foot-passenger at the "Hyvreuse,"
which is known in these days, nobody knows why, as Cambridge
Park; no one was in the High Street, then called the Grande
Rue; nor in Smith Street, known then only as the Rue des
Forges; nobody in Hauteville. The Esplanade itself was
deserted. One might have guessed it to be Sunday. A visit
from a Royal personage to review the militia at the Ancresse<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_347" id="Page_347">[Pg 347]</a></span>
could not have emptied the town more completely. All this
hubbub about "a nobody" like Gilliatt, caused a good deal of
shrugging of the shoulders among persons of grave and correct
habits.</p>

<p>The church of St. Peter's Port, with its three gable-ends
placed side by side, its transept and its steeple, stands at the
water's side at the end of the harbour, and nearly on the landing
place itself, where it welcomes those who arrive, and gives
the departing "God speed." It represents the capital letter
at the beginning of that long line which forms the front of the
town towards the sea.</p>

<p>It is both the parish church of St. Peter's Port and the chief
place of the Deanery of the whole island. Its officiating minister
is the surrogate of the bishop, a clergyman in full orders.</p>

<p>The harbour of St. Peter's Port, a very fine and large port at
the present day, was at that epoch, and even up to ten years ago,
less considerable than the harbour of St. Sampson. It was enclosed
by two enormous thick walls, beginning at the water's
edge on both sides, and curving till they almost joined again at
the extremities, where there stood a little white lighthouse.
Under this lighthouse, a narrow gullet, bearing still the two
rings of the chain with which it was the custom to bar the
passage in ancient times, formed the entrance for vessels. The
harbour of St. Peter's Port might be well compared with the
claws of a huge lobster opened a little way. This kind of
pincers took from the ocean a portion of the sea, which it compelled
to remain calm. But during the easterly winds the
waves rolled heavily against the narrow entrance, the port was
agitated, and it was better not to enter. This is what had
happened with the <i>Cashmere</i> that day, which had accordingly
anchored in the roads.</p>

<p>The vessels, during the easterly winds, preferred this course,
which besides saved them the port dues. On these occasions
the boatmen of the town, a hardy race of mariners whom the
new port has thrown out of employment, came in their boats to
fetch passengers at the landing-place or at stations on the shore,
and carried them with their luggage, often in heavy seas, but
always without accident, to the vessels about to sail. The east
wind blows off the shore, and is very favourable for the passage
to England; the vessel at such times rolls, but does not pitch.</p>

<p>When a vessel happened to be in the port, everybody embarked
from the quay. When it was in the roads they took
their choice, and embarked from any point of the coast near<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_348" id="Page_348">[Pg 348]</a></span>
the moorings. The "Havelet" was one of these creeks. This
little harbour (which is the signification of the word) was near
the town, but was so solitary that it seemed far off. This solitude
was owing to the shelter of the high cliffs of Fort St. George,
which overlooked this retired inlet. The Havelet was accessible
by several paths. The most direct was along the water's side.
It had the advantage of leading to the town and to the church
in five minutes' walk, and the disadvantage of being covered by
the sea twice a day. The other paths were more or less abrupt,
and led down to the creek through gaps in the steep rocks.
Even in broad daylight, it was dusk in the Havelet. Huge
blocks overhanging it on all sides, and thick bushes and brambles
cast a sort of soft twilight upon the rocks and waves below.
Nothing could be more peaceful than this spot in calm weather;
nothing more tumultuous during heavy seas. There were ends
of branches there which were always wet with the foam. In
the spring time, the place was full of flowers, of nests, of perfumes,
of birds, of butterflies, and bees. Thanks to recent
improvements, this wild nook no longer exists. Fine, straight
lines have taken the place of these wild features; masonry,
quays, and little gardens, have made their appearance; earthwork
has been the rage, and taste has finally subdued the eccentricities
of the cliff, and the irregularities of the rocks below.</p>



<hr style="width: 65%;" />
<h4>II</h4>

<h5>DESPAIR CONFRONTS DESPAIR</h5>


<p>It was a little before ten o'clock in the morning. The crowd
at St. Sampson, according to all appearance, was increasing.
The multitude, feverish with curiosity, was moving towards the
north; and the Havelet, which is in the south, was more deserted
than ever.</p>

<p>Notwithstanding this, there was a boat there and a boatman.
In the boat was a travelling bag. The boatman seemed to be
waiting for some one.</p>

<p>The <i>Cashmere</i> was visible at anchor in roads, as she did not
start till midday; there was as yet no sign of moving aboard.</p>

<p>A passer-by, who had listened from one of the ladder-paths
up the cliffs overhead, would have heard a murmur of words in
the Havelet, and if he had leaned over the overhanging cliff
might have seen, at some distance from the boat, in a corner<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_349" id="Page_349">[Pg 349]</a></span>
among the rocks and branches, where the eye of the boatman
could not reach them, a man and a woman. It was Caudray
and D&eacute;ruchette.</p>

<p>These obscure nooks on the seashore, the chosen places of
lady bathers, are not always so solitary as is believed. Persons
are sometimes observed and heard there. Those who seek
shelter and solitude in them may easily be followed through the
thick bushes, and, thanks to the multiplicity and entanglement
of the paths, the granite and the shrubs which favour the stolen
interview may also favour the witness.</p>

<p>Caudray and D&eacute;ruchette stood face to face, looking into each
other's eyes, and holding each other by the hand. D&eacute;ruchette
was speaking. Caudray was silent. A tear that had gathered
upon his eyelash hung there and did not fall.</p>

<p>Grief and strong passion were imprinted in his calm, religious
countenance. A painful resignation was there too&mdash;a resignation
hostile to faith, though springing from it. Upon that face,
simply devout until then, there was the commencement of a
fatal expression. He who had hitherto meditated only on
doctrine, had begun to meditate on Fate, an unhealthy meditation
for a priest. Faith dissolves under its action. Nothing
disturbs the religious mind more than that bending under the
weight of the unknown. Life seems a perpetual succession of
events, to which man submits. We never know from which
direction the sudden blow will come. Misery and happiness
enter or make their exit, like unexpected guests. Their laws,
their orbit, their principle of gravitation, are beyond man's
grasp. Virtue conducts not to happiness, nor crime to retribution:
conscience has one logic, fate another; and neither coincide.
Nothing is foreseen. We live confusedly, and from hand
to mouth. Conscience is the straight line, life is the whirlwind,
which creates above man's head either black chaos or the blue
sky. Fate does not practise the art of gradations. Her wheel
turns sometimes so fast that we can scarcely distinguish the
interval between one revolution and another, or the link between
yesterday and to-day. Caudray was a believer whose faith did
not exclude reason, and whose priestly training did not shut
him out from passion. Those religious systems which impose
celibacy on the priesthood are not without reason for it.
Nothing really destroys the individuality of the priest more
than love. All sorts of clouds seemed to darken Caudray's
soul. He looked too long into D&eacute;ruchette's eyes. These two
beings worshipped each other.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_350" id="Page_350">[Pg 350]</a></span></p>

<p>There was in Caudray's eye the mute adoration of despair.</p>

<p>D&eacute;ruchette spoke.</p>

<p>"You must not leave me. I shall not have strength. I
thought I could bid you farewell. I cannot. Why did you
come yesterday? You should not have come if you were going
so soon. I never spoke to you. I loved you; but knew it not.
Only that day, when M. H&eacute;rode read to us the story of Rebecca,
and when your eyes met mine, my cheeks were like fire, and I
thought only of how Rebecca's face must have burnt like mine;
and yet, if any one had told me yesterday that I loved you, I
might have laughed at it. This is what is so terrible. It has
been like a treason. I did not take heed. I went to the church,
I saw you, I thought everybody there was like myself. I do not
reproach you; you did nothing to make me love you; you did
nothing but look at me; it is not your fault if you look at
people; and yet that made me love you so much. I did not
even suspect it. When you took up the book it was a flood of
light; when others took it, it was but a book. You raised your
eyes sometimes; you spoke of archangels; oh! you were my
archangel. What you said penetrated my thoughts at once.
Before then, I know not even whether I believed in God. Since
I have known you, I have learnt to pray. I used to say to
Douce, dress me quickly, lest I should be late at the service; and
I hastened to the church. Such it was with me to love some
one. I did not know the cause. I said to myself, how devout
I am becoming. It is from you that I have learnt that I do
not go to church for God's service. It is true; I went for your
sake. You spoke so well, and when you raised your arms to
heaven, you seemed to hold my heart within your two white
hands. I was foolish; but I did not know it. Shall I tell you
your fault? It was your coming to me in the garden; it was
your speaking to me. If you had said nothing, I should have
known nothing. If you had gone, I should, perhaps, have been
sad, but now I should die. Since I know that I love you, you
cannot leave me. Of what are you thinking? You do not
seem to listen to me."</p>

<p>Caudray replied:</p>

<p>"You heard what was said last night?"</p>

<p>"Ah, me!"</p>

<p>"What can I do against that?"</p>

<p>They were silent for a moment. Caudray continued:</p>

<p>"There is but one duty left to me. It is to depart."</p>

<p>"And mine to die. Oh! how I wish there was no sea, but<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_351" id="Page_351">[Pg 351]</a></span>
only sky. It seems to me as if that would settle all, and that
our departure would be the same. It was wrong to speak to
me; why did you speak to me? Do not go. What will
become of me? I tell you I shall die. You will be far off when
I shall be in my grave. Oh! my heart will break. I am very
wretched; yet my uncle is not unkind."</p>

<p>It was the first time in her life that D&eacute;ruchette had ever said
"my uncle." Until then she had always said "my father."</p>

<p>Caudray stepped back, and made a sign to the boatman.
D&eacute;ruchette heard the sound of the boat-hook among the shingle,
and the step of the man on the gunwale of the boat.</p>

<p>"No! no!" cried D&eacute;ruchette.</p>

<p>"It must be, D&eacute;ruchette," replied Caudray.</p>

<p>"No! never! For the sake of an engine&mdash;impossible. Did
you see that horrible man last night? You cannot abandon
me thus. You are wise; you can find a means. It is impossible
that you bade me come here this morning with the idea of
leaving me. I have never done anything to deserve this; you
can have no reproach to make me. Is it by that vessel that
you intended to sail? I will not let you go. You shall not
leave me. Heaven does not open thus to close so soon. I know
you will remain. Besides, it is not yet time. Oh! how I love
you."</p>

<p>And pressing closely to him, she interlaced the fingers of each
hand behind his neck, as if partly to make a bond of her two
arms for detaining him, and partly with her joined hands to
pray. He moved away this gentle restraint, while D&eacute;ruchette
resisted as long as she could.</p>

<p>D&eacute;ruchette sank upon a projection of the rock covered with
ivy, lifting by an unconscious movement the sleeve of her dress
up to the elbow, and exhibiting her graceful arm. A pale
suffused light was in her eyes. The boat was approaching.</p>

<p>Caudray held her head between his hands. He touched her
hair with a sort of religious care, fixed his eyes upon her for
some moments, then kissed her on the forehead fervently, and
in an accent trembling with anguish, and in which might have
been traced the uprooting of his soul, he uttered the word
which has so often resounded in the depths of the human heart,
"Farewell!"</p>

<p>D&eacute;ruchette burst into loud sobs.</p>

<p>At this moment they heard a voice near them, which said
solemnly and deliberately:</p>

<p>"Why should you not be man and wife?"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_352" id="Page_352">[Pg 352]</a></span></p>

<p>Caudray raised his head. D&eacute;ruchette looked up.</p>

<p>Gilliatt stood before them.</p>

<p>He had approached by a bye-path.</p>

<p>He was no longer the same man that he had appeared on the
previous night. He had arranged his hair, shaved his beard,
put on shoes, and a white shirt, with a large collar turned over,
sailor fashion. He wore a sailor's costume, but all was new. A
gold ring was on his little finger. He seemed profoundly calm.
His sunburnt skin had become pale: a hue of sickly bronze
overspread it.</p>

<p>They looked at him astonished. Though so changed,
D&eacute;ruchette recognised him. But the words which he had
spoken were so far from what was passing in their minds at
that moment, that they had left no distinct impression.</p>

<p>Gilliatt spoke again:</p>

<p>"Why should you say farewell? Be man and wife, and go
together."</p>

<p>D&eacute;ruchette started. A trembling seized her from head to
foot.</p>

<p>Gilliatt continued:</p>

<p>"Miss Lethierry is a woman. She is of age. It depends
only on herself. Her uncle is but her uncle. You love each
other&mdash;&mdash;"</p>

<p>D&eacute;ruchette interrupted in a gentle voice, and asked, "How
came you here?"</p>

<p>"Make yourselves one," repeated Gilliatt.</p>

<p>D&eacute;ruchette began to have a sense of the meaning of his
words. She stammered out:</p>

<p>"My poor uncle!"</p>

<p>"If the marriage was yet to be," said Gilliatt, "he would
refuse. When it is over he will consent. Besides, you are going
to leave here. When you return he will forgive."</p>

<p>Gilliatt added, with a slight touch of bitterness, "And then
he is thinking of nothing just now but the rebuilding of his
boat. This will occupy his mind during your absence. The
Durande will console him."</p>

<p>"I cannot," said D&eacute;ruchette, in a state of stupor which was
not without its gleam of joy. "I must not leave him unhappy."</p>

<p>"It will be but for a short time," answered Gilliatt.</p>

<p>Caudray and D&eacute;ruchette had been, as it were, bewildered.
They recovered themselves now. The meaning of Gilliatt's
words became plainer as their surprise diminished. There was
a slight cloud still before them; but their part was not to resist.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_353" id="Page_353">[Pg 353]</a></span>
We yield easily to those who come to save. Objections to a
return into Paradise are weak. There was something in the
attitude of D&eacute;ruchette, as she leaned imperceptibly upon her
lover, which seemed to make common cause with Gilliatt's
words. The enigma of the presence of this man, and of his
utterances, which, in the mind of D&eacute;ruchette in particular,
produced various kinds of astonishment, was a thing apart. He
said to them, "Be man and wife!" This was clear; if there
was responsibility, it was his. D&eacute;ruchette had a confused feeling
that, for many reasons, he had the right to decide upon her
fate. Caudray murmured, as if plunged in thought, "An uncle
is not a father."</p>

<p>His resolution was corrupted by the sudden and happy turn
in his ideas. The probable scruples of the clergyman melted,
and dissolved in his heart's love for D&eacute;ruchette.</p>

<p>Gilliatt's tone became abrupt and harsh, and like the pulsations
of fever.</p>

<p>"There must be no delay," he said. "You have time, but
that is all. Come."</p>

<p>Caudray observed him attentively; and suddenly exclaimed:</p>

<p>"I recognise you. It was you who saved my life."</p>

<p>Gilliatt replied:</p>

<p>"I think not."</p>

<p>"Yonder," said Caudray, "at the extremity of the
Banques."</p>

<p>"I do not know the place," said Gilliatt.</p>

<p>"It was on the very day that I arrived here."</p>

<p>"Let us lose no time," interrupted Gilliatt.</p>

<p>"And if I am not deceived, you are the man whom we met
last night."</p>

<p>"Perhaps."</p>

<p>"What is your name?"</p>

<p>Gilliatt raised his voice:</p>

<p>"Boatman! wait there for us. We shall return soon. You
asked me, Miss Lethierry, how I came to be here. The answer
is very simple. I walked behind you. You are twenty-one.
In this country, when persons are of age, and depend only on
themselves, they may be married immediately. Let us take
the path along the water-side. It is passable; the tide will not
rise here till noon. But lose no time. Come with me."</p>

<p>D&eacute;ruchette and Caudray seemed to consult each other by a
glance. They were standing close together motionless. They
were intoxicated with joy. There are strange hesitations some<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_354" id="Page_354">[Pg 354]</a></span>times
on the edge of the abyss of happiness. They understood,
as it were, without understanding.</p>

<p>"His name is Gilliatt," whispered D&eacute;ruchette.</p>

<p>Gilliatt interrupted them with a sort of tone of authority.</p>

<p>"What do you linger for?" he asked. "I tell you to follow
me."</p>

<p>"Whither?" asked Caudray.</p>

<p>"There!"</p>

<p>And Gilliatt pointed with his finger towards the spire of the
church.</p>

<p>Gilliatt walked on before, and they followed him. His step
was firm; but they walked unsteadily.</p>

<p>As they approached the church, an expression dawned upon
those two pure and beautiful countenances, which was soon to
become a smile. The approach to the church lighted them up.
In the hollow eyes of Gilliatt there was the darkness of night.
The beholder might have imagined that he saw a spectre leading
two souls to Paradise.</p>

<p>Caudray and D&eacute;ruchette scarcely took count of what had
happened. The interposition of this man was like the branch
clutched at by the drowning. They followed their guide with
the docility of despair, leaning on the first comer. Those who
feel themselves near death easily accept the accident which
seems to save. D&eacute;ruchette, more ignorant of life, was more
confident. Caudray was thoughtful. D&eacute;ruchette was of age,
it was true. The English formalities of marriage are simple,
especially in primitive parts, where the clergyman has almost a
discretionary power; but would the Dean consent to celebrate
the marriage without even inquiring whether the uncle consented?
This was the question. Nevertheless, they could
learn. In any case there would be but a delay.</p>

<p>But what was this man? and if it was really he whom
Lethierry the night before had declared should be his son-in-law,
what could be the meaning of his actions? The very
obstacle itself had become a providence. Caudray yielded; but
his yielding was only the rapid and tacit assent of a man who
feels himself saved from despair.</p>

<p>The pathway was uneven, and sometimes wet and difficult to
pass. Caudray, absorbed in thought, did not observe the
occasional pools of water or the heaps of shingle. But from
time to time Gilliatt turned and said to him, "Take heed of
those stones. Give her your hand."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_355" id="Page_355">[Pg 355]</a></span></p>



<hr style="width: 65%;" />
<h4>III</h4>

<h5>THE FORETHOUGHT OF SELF-SACRIFICE</h5>


<p>It struck ten as they entered the church.</p>

<p>By reason of the early hour, and also on account of the desertion
of the town that day, the church was empty.</p>

<p>At the farther end, however, near the table which in the reformed
church fulfils the place of the altar, there were three
persons. They were the Dean, his evangelist, and the registrar.
The Dean, who was the Reverend Jaquemin H&eacute;rode, was
seated; the evangelist and the registrar stood beside him.</p>

<p>A book was open upon the table.</p>

<p>Beside him, upon a credence-table, was another book. It
was the parish register, and also open; and an attentive eye
might have remarked a page on which was some writing, of
which the ink was not yet dry. By the side of the register were
a pen and a writing-desk.</p>

<p>The Reverend Jaquemin H&eacute;rode rose on perceiving Caudray.</p>

<p>"I have been expecting you," he said. "All is ready."</p>

<p>The Dean, in fact, wore his officiating robes.</p>

<p>Caudray looked towards Gilliatt.</p>

<p>The Reverend Doctor added, "I am at your service, brother;"
and he bowed.</p>

<p>It was a bow which neither turned to right or left. It was
evident from the direction of the Dean's gaze that he did not
recognise the existence of any one but Caudray, for Caudray
was a clergyman and a gentleman. Neither D&eacute;ruchette, who
stood aside, nor Gilliatt, who was in the rear, were included in
the salutation. His look was a sort of parenthesis in which
none but Caudray were admitted. The observance of these
little niceties constitutes an important feature in the maintenance
of order and the preservation of society.</p>

<p>The Dean continued, with a graceful and dignified urbanity:</p>

<p>"I congratulate you, my colleague, from a double point of
view. You have lost your uncle, and are about to take a wife;
you are blessed with riches on the one hand, and happiness on
the other. Moreover, thanks to the boat which they are about
to rebuild, Mess Lethierry will also be rich; which is as it should
be. Miss Lethierry was born in this parish; I have verified the
date of her birth in the register. She is of age, and at her own<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_356" id="Page_356">[Pg 356]</a></span>
disposal. Her uncle, too, who is her only relative, consents.
You are anxious to be united immediately on account of your
approaching departure. This I can understand; but this
being the marriage of the rector of the parish, I should have
been gratified to have seen it associated with a little more
solemnity. I will consult your wishes by not detaining you
longer than necessary. The essentials will be soon complied
with. The form is already drawn up in the register, and it
requires only the names to be filled in. By the terms of the law
and custom, the marriage may be celebrated immediately after
the inscription. The declaration necessary for the licence has
been duly made. I take upon myself a slight irregularity; for
the application for the licence ought to have been registered
seven days in advance; but I yield to necessity and the urgency
of your departure. Be it so, then. I will proceed with the
ceremony. My evangelist will be the witness for the bridegroom;
as regards the witness for the bride&mdash;&mdash;"</p>

<p>The Dean turned towards Gilliatt. Gilliatt made a movement
of his head.</p>

<p>"That is sufficient," said the Dean.</p>

<p>Caudray remained motionless; D&eacute;ruchette was happy, but
no less powerless to move.</p>

<p>"Nevertheless," continued the Dean, "there is still an
obstacle."</p>

<p>D&eacute;ruchette started.</p>

<p>The Dean continued:</p>

<p>"The representative here present of Mess Lethierry applied
for the licence for you, and has signed the declaration on the
register." And with the thumb of his left hand the Dean
pointed to Gilliatt, which prevented the necessity of his remembering
his name. "The messenger from Mess Lethierry," he
added, "has informed me this morning that being too much
occupied to come in person, Mess Lethierry desired that the
marriage should take place immediately. This desire, expressed
verbally, is not sufficient. In consequence of having to grant
the licence, and of the irregularity which I take upon myself, I
cannot proceed so rapidly without informing myself from Mess
Lethierry personally, unless some one can produce his signature.
Whatever might be my desire to serve you, I cannot be satisfied
with a mere message. I must have some written document."</p>

<p>"That need not delay us," said Gilliatt. And he presented
a paper to the Dean. The Dean took it, perused it by a glance,
seemed to pass over some lines as unimportant, and read aloud:<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_357" id="Page_357">[Pg 357]</a></span>
"Go to the Dean for the licence. I wish the marriage to take
place as soon as possible. Immediately would be better."</p>

<p>He placed the paper on the table, and proceeded:</p>

<p>"It is signed, Lethierry. It would have been more respectful
to have addressed himself to me. But since I am called on to
serve a colleague, I ask no more."</p>

<p>Caudray glanced again at Gilliatt. There are moments when
mind and mind comprehend each other. Caudray felt that
there was some deception; he had not the strength of purpose,
perhaps he had not the idea of revealing it. Whether in
obedience to a latent heroism, of which he had begun to obtain
a glimpse; or whether from a deadening of the conscience,
arising from the suddenness of the happiness placed within his
reach, he uttered no word.</p>

<p>The Dean took the pen, and aided by the clerk, filled up the
spaces in the page of the register; then he rose, and by a gesture
invited Caudray and D&eacute;ruchette to approach the table.</p>

<p>The ceremony commenced. It was a strange moment.
Caudray and D&eacute;ruchette stood beside each other before the
minister. He who has ever dreamed of a marriage in which
he himself was chief actor, may conceive something of the feeling
which they experienced.</p>

<p>Gilliatt stood at a little distance in the shadow of the pillars.</p>

<p>D&eacute;ruchette, on rising in the morning, desperate, thinking only
of death and its associations, had dressed herself in white. Her
attire, which had been associated in her mind with mourning,
was suited to her nuptials. A white dress is all that is necessary
for the bride.</p>

<p>A ray of happiness was visible upon her face. Never had she
appeared more beautiful. Her features were remarkable for
prettiness rather than what is called beauty. Their fault, if
fault it be, lay in a certain excess of grace. D&eacute;ruchette in
repose, that is, neither disturbed by passion or grief, was graceful
above all. The ideal virgin is the transfiguration of a face like
this. D&eacute;ruchette, touched by her sorrow and her love, seemed
to have caught that higher and more holy expression. It was
the difference between the field daisy and the lily.</p>

<p>The tears had scarcely dried upon her cheeks; one perhaps
still lingered in the midst of her smiles. Traces of tears indistinctly
visible form a pleasing but sombre accompaniment of joy.</p>

<p>The Dean, standing near the table, placed his finger upon the
open book, and asked in a distinct voice whether they knew
of any impediment to their union.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_358" id="Page_358">[Pg 358]</a></span></p>

<p>There was no reply.</p>

<p>"Amen!" said the Dean.</p>

<p>Caudray and D&eacute;ruchette advanced a step or two towards the
table.</p>

<p>"Joseph Ebenezer Caudray, wilt thou have this woman to
be thy wedded wife?"</p>

<p>Caudray replied "I will."</p>

<p>The Dean continued:</p>

<p>"Durande D&eacute;ruchette Lethierry, wilt thou have this man to
be thy wedded husband?"</p>

<p>D&eacute;ruchette, in an agony of soul, springing from her excess of
happiness, murmured rather than uttered&mdash;</p>

<p>"I will."</p>

<p>Then followed the beautiful form of the Anglican marriage
service. The Dean looked around, and in the twilight of the
church uttered the solemn words:</p>

<p>"Who giveth this woman to be married to this man?"</p>

<p>Gilliatt answered, "I do!"</p>

<p>There was an interval of silence. Caudray and D&eacute;ruchette
felt a vague sense of oppression in spite of their joy.</p>

<p>The Dean placed D&eacute;ruchette's right hand in Caudray's; and
Caudray repeated after him:</p>

<p>"I take thee, Durande D&eacute;ruchette to be my wedded wife, for
better for worse, for richer for poorer, in sickness and in health,
to love and to cherish till death do us part; and thereto I plight
thee my troth."</p>

<p>The Dean then placed Caudray's right hand in that of D&eacute;ruchette,
and D&eacute;ruchette said after him:</p>

<p>"I take thee to be my wedded husband for better for worse,
for richer for poorer, in sickness or in health, to love and to
cherish till death do us part; and thereto I plight thee my
troth."</p>

<p>The Dean asked, "Where is the ring?" The question took
them by surprise. Caudray had no ring; but Gilliatt took off
the gold ring which he wore upon his little finger. It was probably
the wedding-ring which had been sold that morning by
the jeweller in the Commercial Arcade.</p>

<p>The Dean placed the ring upon the book; then handed it
to Caudray, who took D&eacute;ruchette's little trembling left hand,
passed the ring over her fourth finger, and said:</p>

<p>"With this ring I thee wed!"</p>

<p>"In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy
Ghost," continued the Dean.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_359" id="Page_359">[Pg 359]</a></span></p>

<p>"Amen," said his evangelist.</p>

<p>Then the Dean said, "Let us pray."</p>

<p>Caudray and D&eacute;ruchette turned towards the table, and knelt
down.</p>

<p>Gilliatt, standing by, inclined his head.</p>

<p>So they knelt before God; while he seemed to bend under the
burden of his fate.</p>



<hr style="width: 65%;" />
<h4>IV</h4>

<h5>FOR YOUR WIFE: WHEN YOU MARRY</h5>


<p>As they left the church they could see the <i>Cashmere</i> making
preparations for her departure.</p>

<p>"You are in time," said Gilliatt.</p>

<p>They chose again the path leading to the Havelet.</p>

<p>Caudray and D&eacute;ruchette went before, Gilliatt this time
walking behind them. They were two somnambulists. Their
bewilderment had not passed away, but only changed in form.
They took no heed of whither they were going, or of what they
did. They hurried on mechanically, scarcely remembering the
existence of anything, feeling that they were united for ever,
but scarcely able to connect two ideas in their minds. In
ecstasy like theirs it is as impossible to think as it is to swim in
a torrent. In the midst of their trouble and darkness they had
been plunged in a whirlpool of delight; they bore a paradise
within themselves. They did not speak, but conversed with
each other by the mysterious sympathy of their souls. D&eacute;ruchette
pressed Caudray's arm to her side.</p>

<p>The footsteps of Gilliatt behind them reminded them now
and then that he was there. They were deeply moved, but
could find no words. The excess of emotion results in stupor.
Theirs was delightful, but overwhelming. They were man and
wife: every other idea was postponed to that. What Gilliatt
had done was well; that was all that they could grasp. They
experienced towards their guide a deep but vague gratitude in
their hearts. D&eacute;ruchette felt that there was some mystery to
be explained, but not now. Meanwhile they accepted their
unexpected happiness. They felt themselves controlled by the
abruptness and decision of this man who conferred on them so
much happiness with a kind of authority. To question him,
to talk with him seemed impossible. Too many impressions<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_360" id="Page_360">[Pg 360]</a></span>
rushed into their minds at once for that. Their absorption was
pardonable.</p>

<p>Events succeed each other sometimes with the rapidity of
hailstones. Their effect is overpowering; they deaden the
senses. Falling upon existences habitually calm, they render
incidents rapidly unintelligible even to those whom they chiefly
concern; we become scarcely conscious of our own adventures;
we are overwhelmed without guessing the cause, or crowned
with happiness without comprehending it. For some hours
D&eacute;ruchette had been subjected to every kind of emotion: at
first, surprise and delight at meeting Caudray in the garden;
then horror at the monster whom her uncle had presented as her
husband; then her anguish when the angel of her dreams spread
his wings and seemed about to depart; and now her joy, a joy
such as she had never known before, founded on an inexplicable
enigma; the monster of last night himself restoring her lover;
marriage arising out of her torture; this Gilliatt, the evil
destiny of last night, become to-day her saviour! She could
explain nothing to her own mind. It was evident that all the
morning Gilliatt had had no other occupation than that of preparing
the way for their marriage: he had done all: he had
answered for Mess Lethierry, seen the Dean, obtained the
licence, signed the necessary declaration; and thus the marriage
had been rendered possible. But D&eacute;ruchette understood it not.
If she had, she could not have comprehended the reasons.
They did nothing but close their eyes to the world, and&mdash;grateful
in their hearts&mdash;yield themselves up to the guidance of this
good demon. There was no time for explanations, and expressions
of gratitude seemed too insignificant. They were silent
in their trance of love.</p>

<p>The little power of thought which they retained was scarcely
more than sufficient to guide them on their way&mdash;to enable
them to distinguish the sea from the land, and the <i>Cashmere</i>
from every other vessel.</p>

<p>In a few minutes they were at the little creek.</p>

<p>Caudray entered the boat first. At the moment when
D&eacute;ruchette was about to follow, she felt her sleeve held gently.
It was Gilliatt, who had placed his finger upon a fold of her
dress.</p>

<p>"Madam," he said, "you are going on a journey unexpectedly.
It has struck me that you would have need of dresses and
clothes. You will find a trunk aboard the <i>Cashmere</i>, containing
a lady's clothing. It came to me from my mother. It was<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_361" id="Page_361">[Pg 361]</a></span>
intended for my wife if I should marry. Permit me to ask your
acceptance of it."</p>

<p>D&eacute;ruchette, partially aroused from her dream, turned towards
him. Gilliatt continued, in a voice which was scarcely audible:</p>

<p>"I do not wish to detain you, madam, but I feel that I ought
to give you some explanation. On the day of your misfortune,
you were sitting in the lower room; you uttered certain words;
it is easy to understand that you have forgotten them. We
are not compelled to remember every word we speak. Mess
Lethierry was in great sorrow. It was certainly a noble vessel,
and one that did good service. The misfortune was recent;
there was a great commotion. Those are things which one
naturally forgets. It was only a vessel wrecked among the
rocks; one cannot be always thinking of an accident. But
what I wished to tell you was, that as it was said that no one
would go, I went. They said it was impossible; but it was not.
I thank you for listening to me a moment. You can understand,
madam, that if I went there, it was not with the thought
of displeasing you. This is a thing, besides, of old date. I
know that you are in haste. If there was time, if we could talk
about this, you might perhaps remember. But this is all useless
now. The history of it goes back to a day when there was
snow upon the ground. And then on one occasion that I passed
you, I thought that you looked kindly on me. This is how it
was. With regard to last night, I had not had time to go to
my home. I came from my labour; I was all torn and ragged;
I startled you, and you fainted. I was to blame; people do not
come like that to strangers' houses; I ask your forgiveness.
This is nearly all I had to say. You are about to sail. You
will have fine weather; the wind is in the east. Farewell.
You will not blame me for troubling you with these things.
This is the last minute."</p>

<p>"I am thinking of the trunk you spoke of," replied D&eacute;ruchette.
"Why do you not keep it for your wife, when you marry?"</p>

<p>"It is most likely, madam," replied Gilliatt, "that I shall
never marry."</p>

<p>"That would be a pity," said D&eacute;ruchette; "you are so good."</p>

<p>And D&eacute;ruchette smiled. Gilliatt returned her smile.</p>

<p>Then he assisted her to step into the boat.</p>

<p>In less than a quarter of an hour afterwards Caudray and
D&eacute;ruchette were aboard the <i>Cashmere</i> in the roads.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_362" id="Page_362">[Pg 362]</a></span></p>



<hr style="width: 65%;" />
<h4>V</h4>

<h5>THE GREAT TOMB</h5>


<p>Gilliatt walked along the water-side, passed rapidly through
St. Peter's Port, and then turned towards St. Sampson by the
seashore. In his anxiety to meet no one whom he knew, he
avoided the highways now filled with foot-passengers by his
great achievement.</p>

<p>For a long time, as the reader knows, he had had a peculiar
manner of traversing the country in all parts without being
observed. He knew the bye-paths, and favoured solitary and
winding routes; he had the shy habits of a wild beast who
knows that he is disliked, and keeps at a distance. When
quite a child, he had been quick to feel how little welcome men
showed in their faces at his approach, and he had gradually contracted
that habit of being alone which had since become an
instinct.</p>

<p>He passed through the Esplanade, then by the Salerie. Now
and then he turned and looked behind him at the <i>Cashmere</i> in
the roads, which was beginning to set her sails. There was
little wind; Gilliatt went faster than the <i>Cashmere</i>. He walked
with downcast eyes among the lower rocks at the water's edge.
The tide was beginning to rise.</p>

<p>Suddenly he stopped, and, turning his back, contemplated
for some minutes a group of oaks beyond the rocks which concealed
the road to Vale. They were the oaks at the spot called
the Basses Maisons. It was there that D&eacute;ruchette once wrote
with her finger the name of Gilliatt in the snow. Many a day
had passed since that snow had melted away.</p>

<p>Then he pursued his way.</p>

<p>The day was beautiful; more beautiful than any that had
yet been seen that year. It was one of those spring days when
May suddenly pours forth all its beauty, and when nature seems
to have no thought but to rejoice and be happy. Amidst the
many murmurs from forest and village, from the sea and the
air, a sound of cooing could be distinguished. The first butterflies
of the year were resting on the early roses. Everything in
nature seemed new&mdash;the grass, the mosses, the leaves, the
perfumes, the rays of light. The sun shone as if it had never
shone before. The pebbles seemed bathed in coolness. Birds
but lately fledged sang out their deep notes from the trees, or<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_363" id="Page_363">[Pg 363]</a></span>
fluttered among the boughs in their attempts to use their new-found
wings. There was a chattering all together of goldfinches,
pewits, tomtits, woodpeckers, bullfinches, and thrushes.
The blossoms of lilacs, May lilies, daphnes, and melilots mingled
their various hues in the thickets. A beautiful kind of water-weed
peculiar to Guernsey covered the pools with an emerald
green; where the kingfishers and the water-wagtails, which
make such graceful little nests, came down to bathe their
wings. Through every opening in the branches appeared the
deep blue sky. A few lazy clouds followed each other in the
azure depths. The ear seemed to catch the sound of kisses
sent from invisible lips. Every old wall had its tufts of wallflowers.
The plum-trees and laburnums were in blossom; their
white and yellow masses gleamed through the interlacing
boughs. The spring showered all her gold and silver on the
woods. The new shoots and leaves were green and fresh.
Calls of welcome were in the air; the approaching summer
opened her hospitable doors for birds coming from afar. It
was the time of the arrival of the swallows. The clusters of
furze-bushes bordered the steep sides of hollow roads in anticipation
of the clusters of the hawthorn. The pretty and the
beautiful reigned side by side; the magnificent and the graceful,
the great and the little, had each their place. No note in the
great concert of nature was lost. Green microscopic beauties
took their place in the vast universal plan in which all seemed
distinguishable as in limpid water. Everywhere a divine fulness,
a mysterious sense of expansion, suggested the unseen
effort of the sap in movement. Guttering things glittered more
than ever; loving natures became more tender. There was a
hymn in the flowers, and a radiance in the sounds of the air.
The wide-diffused harmony of nature burst forth on every side.
All things which felt the dawn of life invited others to put forth
shoots. A movement coming from below, and also from above,
stirred vaguely all hearts susceptible to the scattered and subterranean
influence of germination. The flower shadowed forth
the fruit; young maidens dreamed of love. It was nature's
universal bridal. It was fine, bright, and warm; through the
hedges in the meadows children were seen laughing and playing
at their games. The fruit-trees filled the orchards with their
heaps of white and pink blossom. In the fields were primroses,
cowslips, milfoil, daffodils, daisies, speedwell, jacinths, and
violets. Blue borage and yellow irises swarmed with those
beautiful little pink stars which flower always in groups, and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_364" id="Page_364">[Pg 364]</a></span>
are hence called "companions." Creatures with golden scales
glided between the stones. The flowering houseleek covered
the thatched roofs with purple patches. Women were plaiting
hives in the open air; and the bees were abroad, mingling their
humming with the murmurs from the sea. Nature, sensitive
to the touch of spring, exhaled delight.</p>

<p>When Gilliatt arrived at St. Sampson, the water had not yet
risen at the further end of the harbour, and he was able to cross
it dry-footed unperceived behind the hulls of vessels fixed for
repair. A number of flat stones were placed there at regular
distances to make a causeway.</p>

<p>He was not observed. The crowd was at the other end of
the port, near the narrow entrance, by the Brav&eacute;es. There his
name was in every mouth. They were, in fact, speaking about
him so much that none paid attention to him. He passed,
sheltered in some degree by the very commotion that he had
caused.</p>

<p>He saw from afar the sloop in the place where he had moored
it, with the funnel standing between its four chains; observed
a movement of carpenters at their work, and confused outlines
of figures passing to and fro; and he could distinguish the loud
and cheery voice of Mess Lethierry giving orders.</p>

<p>He threaded the narrow alleys behind the Brav&eacute;es. There
was no one there beside him. All curiosity was concentrated
on the front of the house. He chose the footpath alongside the
low wall of the garden, but stopped at the angle where the wild
mallow grew. He saw once more the stone where he used to
pass his time; saw once more the wooden garden seat where
D&eacute;ruchette was accustomed to sit, and glanced again at the
pathway of the alley where he had seen the embrace of two
shadows which had vanished.</p>

<p>He soon went on his way, climbed the hill of Vale Castle,
descended again, and directed his steps towards the B&ucirc; de la Rue.</p>

<p>The Houmet-Paradis was a solitude.</p>

<p>His house was in the same state in which he had left it in the
morning, after dressing himself to go to St. Peter's Port.</p>

<p>A window was open, through which his bagpipe might have
been seen hanging to a nail upon the wall.</p>

<p>Upon the table was the little Bible given to him in token of
gratitude by the stranger whom he now knew as Caudray.</p>

<p>The key was in the door. He approached; placed his hand
upon it; turned it twice in the lock, put the key in his pocket,
and departed.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_365" id="Page_365">[Pg 365]</a></span></p>

<p>He walked not in the direction of the town, but towards the
sea.</p>

<p>He traversed his garden diagonally, taking the shortest way
without regard to the beds, but taking care not to tread upon
the plants which he placed there, because he had heard that
they were favourites with D&eacute;ruchette.</p>

<p>He crossed the parapet wall, and let himself down upon the
rocks.</p>

<p>Going straight on, he began to follow the long ridge of rocks
which connected the B&ucirc; de la Rue with the great natural obelisk
of granite rising erect from the sea, which was known as the
Beast's Horn. This was the place of the Gild-Holm-'Ur
seat.</p>

<p>He strode on from block to block like a giant among mountains.
To make long strides upon a row of breakers is like
walking upon the ridge of a roof.</p>

<p>A fisherwoman with dredge-nets, who had been walking
naked-footed among the pools of sea-water at some distance,
and had just regained the shore, called to him, "Take care; the
tide is coming." But he held on his way.</p>

<p>Having arrived at the great rock of the point, the Horn,
which rises like a pinnacle from the sea, he stopped. It was
the extremity of the promontory.</p>

<p>He looked around.</p>

<p>Out at sea a few sailing boats at anchor were fishing. Now
and then rivulets of silver glittered among them in the sun: it
was the water running from the nets. The <i>Cashmere</i> was not
yet off St. Sampson. She had set her main-topsail, and was
between Herm and Jethou.</p>

<p>Gilliatt rounded the rock, and came under the Gild-Holm-'Ur
seat, at the foot of that kind of abrupt stairs where, less than
three months before, he had assisted Caudray to come down.
He ascended.</p>

<p>The greater number of the steps were already under water.
Two or three only were still dry, by which he climbed.</p>

<p>The steps led up to the Gild-Holm-'Ur seat. He reached the
niche, contemplated it for a moment, pressed his hand upon his
eyes, and let it glide gently from one eyelid to the other&mdash;a
gesture by which he seemed to obliterate the memory of the
past&mdash;then sat down in the hollow, with the perpendicular wall
behind him, and the ocean at his feet.</p>

<p>The <i>Cashmere</i> at that moment was passing the great round
half-submerged tower, defended by one sergeant and a cannon,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_366" id="Page_366">[Pg 366]</a></span>
which marks the half way in the roads between Herm and St.
Peter's Port.</p>

<p>A few flowers stirred among the crevices in the rock about
Gilliatt's head. The sea was blue as far as eye could reach.
The wind came from the east; there was a little surf in the
direction of the island of Sark, of which only the western side
is visible from Guernsey. In the distance appeared the coast
of France like a mist, with the long yellow strips of sand about
Carteret. Now and then a white butterfly fluttered by. The
butterflies frequently fly out to sea.</p>

<p>The breeze was very slight. The blue expanse, both above
and below, was tranquil. Not a ripple agitated those species
of serpents, of an azure more or less dark, which indicate on the
surface of the sea the lines of sunken rocks.</p>

<p>The <i>Cashmere</i>, little moved by the wind, had set her topsail
and studding-sails to catch the breeze. All her canvas was
spread, but the wind being a side one, her studding-sails only
compelled her to hug the Guernsey coast more closely. She
had passed the beacon of St. Sampson, and was off the hill of
Vale Castle. The moment was approaching when she would
double the point of the B&ucirc; de la Rue.</p>

<p>Gilliatt watched her approach.</p>

<p>The air and sea were still. The tide rose not by waves, but
by an imperceptible swell. The level of the water crept upward
without a palpitation. The subdued murmur from the
open sea was soft as the breathing of a child.</p>

<p>In the direction of the harbour of St. Sampson, faint echoes
could be heard of carpenters' hammers. The carpenters were
probably the workmen constructing the tackle, gear, and
apparatus for removing the engine from the sloop. The sounds,
however, scarcely reached Gilliatt by reason of the mass of
granite at his back.</p>

<p>The <i>Cashmere</i> approached with the slowness of a phantom.</p>

<p>Gilliatt watched it still.</p>

<p>Suddenly a touch and a sensation of cold caused him to look
down. The sea had reached his feet.</p>

<p>He lowered his eyes, then raised them again.</p>

<p>The <i>Cashmere</i> was quite near.</p>

<p>The rock in which the rains had hollowed out the Gild-Holm-'Ur
seat was so completely vertical, and there was so much
water at its base, that in calm weather vessels were able to pass
without danger within a few cables' lengths.</p>

<p>The <i>Cashmere</i> was abreast of the rock. It rose straight up<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_367" id="Page_367">[Pg 367]</a></span>wards
as if it had grown out of the water; or like the lengthening
out of a shadow. The rigging showed black against the heavens
and in the magnificent expanse of the sea. The long sails, passing
for a moment over the sun, became lighted up with a singular
glory and transparence. The water murmured indistinctly;
but no other noise marked the majestic gliding of that outline.
The deck was as visible as if he had stood upon it.</p>

<p>The steersman was at the helm; a cabin-boy was climbing
the shrouds; a few passengers leaning on the bulwarks were
contemplating the beauty of the scene. The captain was
smoking; but nothing of all this was seen by Gilliatt.</p>

<p>There was a spot on the deck on which the broad sunlight
fell. It was on this corner that his eyes were fixed. In this
sunlight were D&eacute;ruchette and Caudray. They were sitting
together side by side, like two birds, warming themselves in the
noonday sun, upon one of those covered seats with a little
awning which well-ordered packet-boats provided for passengers,
and upon which was the inscription, when it happened to be an
English vessel, "For ladies only." D&eacute;ruchette's head was
leaning upon Caudray's shoulder; his arm was around her
waist; they held each other's hands with their fingers interwoven.
A celestial light was discernible in those two faces
formed by innocence. Their chaste embrace was expressive of
their earthly union and their purity of soul. The seat was a
sort of alcove, almost a nest; it was at the same time a glory
round them; the tender aureola of love passing into a cloud.</p>

<p>The silence was like the calm of heaven.</p>

<p>Caudray's gaze was fixed in contemplation. D&eacute;ruchette's
lips moved; and, amidst that perfect silence, as the wind carried
the vessel near shore, and it glided within a few fathoms of the
Gild-Holm-'Ur seat, Gilliatt heard the tender and musical voice
of D&eacute;ruchette exclaiming:</p>

<p>"Look yonder. It seems as if there were a man upon the
rock."</p>

<p>The vessel passed.</p>

<p>Leaving the promontory of the B&ucirc; de la Rue behind, the
<i>Cashmere</i> glided on upon the waters. In less than a quarter of
an hour, her masts and sails formed only a white obelisk, gradually
decreasing against the horizon. Gilliatt felt that the water
had reached his knees.</p>

<p>He contemplated the vessel speeding on her way.</p>

<p>The breeze freshened out at sea. He could see the <i>Cashmere</i>
run out her lower studding-sails and her staysails, to take<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_368" id="Page_368">[Pg 368]</a></span>
advantage of the rising wind. She was already clear of the
waters of Guernsey. Gilliatt followed the vessel with his eyes.</p>

<p>The waves had reached his waist.</p>

<p>The tide was rising: time was passing away.</p>

<p>The seamews and cormorants flew about him restlessly, as
if anxious to warn him of his danger. It seemed as if some
of his old companions of the Douvres rocks flying there had
recognised him.</p>

<p>An hour had passed.</p>

<p>The wind from the sea was scarcely felt in the roads; but the
form of the <i>Cashmere</i> was rapidly growing less. The sloop,
according to all appearance, was sailing fast. It was already
nearly off the Casquets.</p>

<p>There was no foam around the Gild-Holm-'Ur; no wave beat
against its granite sides. The water rose peacefully. It was
nearly level with Gilliatt's shoulders.</p>

<p>Another hour had passed.</p>

<p>The <i>Cashmere</i> was beyond the waters of Aurigny. The
Ortach rock concealed it for a moment; it passed behind it, and
came forth again as from an eclipse. The sloop was veering to
the north upon the open sea. It was now only a point glittering
in the sun.</p>

<p>The birds were hovering about Gilliatt, uttering short cries.
Only his head was now visible. The tide was nearly at the full.
Evening was approaching. Behind him, in the roads, a few
fishing-boats were making for the harbour.</p>

<p>Gilliatt's eyes continued fixed upon the vessel in the horizon.
Their expression resembled nothing earthly. A strange lustre
shone in their calm and tragic depths. There was in them the
peace of vanished hopes, the calm but sorrowful acceptance of
an end far different from his dreams. By degrees the dusk of
heaven began to darken in them, though gazing still upon the
point in space. At the same moment the wide waters round the
Gild-Holm-'Ur and the vast gathering twilight closed upon them.</p>

<p>The <i>Cashmere</i>, now scarcely perceptible, had become a mere
spot in the thin haze.</p>

<p>Gradually, the spot, which was but a shape, grew paler.</p>

<p>Then it dwindled, and finally disappeared.</p>

<p>At the moment when the vessel vanished on the line of the
horizon, the head of Gilliatt disappeared. Nothing was visible
now but the sea.</p>

<p class="center"><span class="smcap">Printed in Great Britain by Richard Clay &amp; Sons, Limited,
bungay, suffolk.</span></p>
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