"
"What matters fortune when one has health, and when the
Virgin can read our intentions?
"What matters fortune when one has health, and when the
Virgin can read our intentions?
Warner - World's Best Literature - v23 - Sha to Sta
"
"Why, 'twas a very wicked thing! "
Said little Wilhelmine.
"Nay, nay, my little girl," quoth he:
"It was a famous victory,
"And everybody praised the Duke,
Who this great fight did win. "
"But what good came of it at last? "
Quoth little Peterkin.
"Why, that I cannot tell," said he;
"But 'twas a famous victory. "
## p. 13687 (#513) ##########################################
ROBERT SOUTHEY
13687
THE OLD WOMAN OF BERKELEY
A BALLAD, SHOWING HOW AN OLD WOMAN RODE DOUBLE, AND WHO
RODE BEFORE HER
THE
HE Raven croaked as she sate at her meal,
And the Old Woman knew what he said·
And she grew pale at the Raven's tale,
And sickened, and went to her bed.
"Now fetch me my children, and fetch them with speed,"
The Old Woman of Berkeley said;
"The Monk my son, and my daughter the Nun,
Bid them hasten, or I shall be dead. ”
The Monk her son, and her daughter the Nun,
Their way to Berkeley went;
And they have brought, with pious thought,
The holy sacrament.
The Old Woman shrieked as they entered her door,
And she cried with a voice of despair,
"Now take away the sacrament,
For its presence I cannot bear! "
Her lip it trembled with agony;
The sweat ran down her brow:
"I have tortures in store for evermore;
But spare me, my children, now! "
Away they sent the sacrament:
The fit it left her weak;
She looked at her children with ghastly eyes,
And faintly struggled to speak.
"All kind of sin I have rioted in,
And the judgment now must be;
But I secured my children's souls:
Oh, pray, my children, for me!
"I have 'nointed myself with infants' fat;
The fiends have been my slaves;
From sleeping babes I have sucked the breath;
And breaking by charms the sleep of death,
I have called the dead from their graves.
## p. 13688 (#514) ##########################################
13688
ROBERT SOUTHEY
"And the Devil will fetch me now in fire,
My witchcrafts to atone;
And I, who have troubled the dead man's grave,
Shall never have rest in my own.
"Bless, I entreat, my winding-sheet,
My children, I beg of you;
And with holy-water sprinkle my shroud,
And sprinkle my coffin too.
"And let me be chained in my coffin of stone;
And fasten it strong, I implore,
With iron bars, and with three chains
Chain it to the church-floor.
"And bless the chains, and sprinkle them;
And let fifty Priests stand round,
Who night and day the Mass may say
Where I lie on the ground.
"And see that fifty Choristers
Beside the bier attend me,
And day and night, by the tapers' light,
With holy hymns defend me.
"Let the church-bells all, both great and small,
Be tolled by night and day,
To drive from thence the fiends who come
To bear my body away.
"And ever have the church-door barred
After the even-song;
And I beseech you, children dear,
Let the bars and bolts be strong.
"And let this be three days and nights,
My wretched corpse to save;
Till the fourth morning keep me safe,
And then I may rest in my grave. "
The Old Woman of Berkeley laid her down,
And her eyes grew deadly dim;
Short came her breath, and the struggle of death
Did loosen every limb.
They blest the Old Woman's winding-sheet
With rites and prayers due;
## p. 13689 (#515) ##########################################
ROBERT SOUTHEY
13689
With holy-water they sprinkled her shroud,
And they sprinkled her coffin too.
And they chained her in her coffin of stone,
And with iron barred it down,
And in the church with three strong chains
They chained it to the ground.
And they blest the chains, and sprinkled them;
And fifty Priests stood round,
By night and day the Mass to say
Where she lay on the ground.
And fifty sacred Choristers
Beside the bier attend her,
Who day and night, by the tapers' light,
Should with holy hymns defend her.
To see the Priests and Choristers
It was a goodly sight,
Each holding, as it were a staff,
A taper burning bright.
And the church-bells all, both great and small,
Did toll so loud and long;
And they have barred the church-door hard,
After the even-song.
And the first night the tapers' light
Burnt steadily and clear;
But they without a hideous rout
Of angry fiends could hear;
;-
-
A hideous roar at the church-door,
Like a long thunder-peal;
And the Priests they prayed, and the Choristers sung
Louder, in fearful zeal.
Loud tolled the bell; the Priests prayed well;
The tapers they burnt bright:
The Monk her son, and her daughter the Nun,
They told their beads all night.
The cock he crew; the Fiends they flew
From the voice of the morning away:
Then undisturbed the Choristers sing,
And the fifty Priests they pray;
## p. 13690 (#516) ##########################################
13690
ROBERT SOUTHEY
As they had sung and prayed all night,
They prayed and sung all day.
The second night the tapers' light
Burnt dismally and blue,
And every one saw his neighbor's face
Like a dead man's face to view.
And yells and cries without arise,
That the stoutest heart might shock,
And a deafening roaring like a cataract pouring
Over a mountain rock.
The Monk and Nun they told their beads
As fast as they could tell;
And aye as louder grew the noise,
The faster went the bell.
Louder and louder the Choristers sung,
As they trembled more and more;
And the Priests, as they prayed to Heaven for aid,
They smote their breasts full sore.
The cock he crew; the Fiends they flew
From the voice of the morning away:
Then undisturbed the Choristers sing,
And the fifty Priests they pray;
As they had sung and prayed all night,
They prayed and sung all day.
The third night came, and the tapers' flame
A frightful stench did make;
And they burnt as though they had been dipped
In the burning brimstone lake.
And the loud commotion, like the rushing of ocean,
Grew momently more and more;
And strokes as of a battering-ram
Did shake the strong church-door.
The bellmen they for very fear
Could toll the bell no longer;
And still, as louder grew the strokes,
Their fear it grew the stronger.
The Monk and Nun forgot their beads;
They fell on the ground in dismay;
## p. 13691 (#517) ##########################################
ROBERT SOUTHEY
13691
There was not a single Saint in heaven
To whom they did not pray.
And the Choristers' song, which late was so strong,
Faltered with consternation;
For the church did rock as an earthquake shock
Uplifted its foundation.
And a sound was heard like the trumpet's blast
That shall one day wake the dead;-
The strong church-door could bear no more,
And the bolts and bars they fled;
And the tapers' light was extinguished quite;
And the Choristers faintly sung;
And the Priests, dismayed, panted and prayed,
And on all Saints in heaven for aid
They called with trembling tongue.
And in He came with eyes of flame,
The Devil, to fetch the dead;
And all the church with his presence glowed
Like a fiery furnace red.
He laid his hand on the iron chains,
And like flax they moldered asunder;
And the coffin lid, which was barred so firm,
He burst with his voice of thunder.
And he bade the Old Woman of Berkeley rise,
And come with her Master away:
A cold sweat started on that cold corpse,
At the voice she was forced to obey.
She rose on her feet in her winding-sheet;
Her dead flesh quivered with fear;
And a groan like that which the Old Woman gave
Never did mortal hear.
She followed her Master to the church-door
There stood a black horse there;
His breath was red like furnace smoke,
His eyes like a meteor's glare.
The Devil he flung her on the horse,
And he leaped up before·
## p. 13692 (#518) ##########################################
13692
ROBERT SOUTHEY
And away like the lightning's speed they went,
And she was seen no more.
They saw her no more: but her cries
For four miles round they could hear;
And children at rest at their mother's breast
Started, and screamed with fear.
THE CURSE
From The Curse of Kehama'
CHARM thy life
I
From the weapons of strife,
From stone and from wood,
From fire and from flood,
From the serpent's tooth,
And the beasts of blood;
From Sickness I charm thee,
And Time shall not harm thee:
But Earth, which is mine,
Its fruits shall deny thee;
And Water shall hear me,
And know thee and fly thee;
And the Winds shall not touch thee
When they pass by thee,
And the Dews shall not wet thee
When they fall nigh thee:
And thou shalt seek Death
To release thee, in vain;
Thou shalt live in thy pain,
While Kehama shall reign,
With a fire in thy heart,
And a fire in thy brain;
And Sleep shall obey me,
And visit thee never,
And the Curse shall be on thee
Forever and ever.
## p. 13693 (#519) ##########################################
13693
ÉMILE SOUVESTRE
(1806-1854)
N 1854, the year of Émile Souvestre's death in Paris, the French
Academy awarded to his widow the Lambert prize,— a tes-
timonial to the memory of the most useful writer. The
principal work to win him this distinction-'Le Philosophe sous les
Toits,' was not a piece of brilliant creation, not a learned treatise,
but a sweet-spirited little volume of reflections upon daily life. Upon
its appearance in 1851 the Academy crowned it; and in translation,
'The Attic Philosopher' has long been esteemed by English readers.
The philosopher was Souvestre himself, who knew poverty and hard
work all his life; and accepting both with contagious courage and
cheerfulness, advised his readers to make the best of whatever came.
He tested this philosophy. Born at Morlaix in Finisterre in 1806,
he passed his childhood and youth there; and grew intimately famil-
iar with Breton life and scenery. Next he studied law at Rennes,
where he tried unsuccessfully to practice. He was about twenty-four
when he went to Paris, hoping to make his way in literature. It has
been said that in Paris every would-be author is forced to discover his
own value; and after a stay there, many retire in sad self-knowledge.
Souvestre was stimulated by the richer intellectual life. His individ-
uality was too strong to be submerged. He remained a thorough
Breton, distance giving him a more definite appreciation of his
early home.
The sudden death of his brother, a sea captain, made him the
only support of his family; and he was obliged to return to Brittany,
where he became clerk in a large publishing-house at Nantes. During
the next uncertain years he wrote short articles for local journals.
For a time he was associated with a M. Papot in the management of
a school. He then became editor of a Brest newspaper. In 1835 he
returned to Paris, where his Breton tales soon made him a name.
During his comparatively short life of forty-eight years he wrote
more than forty books, comprising plays, short stories, and historical
works.
Like his great compatriot, the early realist Le Sage, one of Sou-
vestre's primary qualities was clear common-sense. Usual, universal
sentiments appealed to him more than romantic eccentricities. Like
another great Breton, Ernest Renan, he was deeply occupied with the
## p. 13694 (#520) ##########################################
13694
ÉMILE SOUVESTRE
question of religion. His stories, most of which reflect Breton life,
are often true tales told him by the peasants; and all have the quali-
ties of reality and religious feeling.
His greatest work, 'Les Derniers Bretons,' was an exposition of
Breton life, with all its traditions, sentiments, and modes of thought
and action. He felt that many tales traditionary among the poor
were in danger of being lost; and he hated to see them die from the
people's memory. He felt too that this folk-lore was of historical
value as a spontaneous revelation of a mental and moral attitude.
As he points out, the Eastern fairy tale, full of gorgeous color and
material delight, has little in common with the Breton tales, with
their curious mingling of shrewdness and sentiment, their positive
concern over and belief in the reward of virtue and retribution of
Both compositions reflect their authors. In his 'Le Foyer Bre-
ton,' a collection of folk-lore tales, - he preserved as far as possible
the traditional form of expression. They are full of local saws and
allusions; many are genuine fairy tales, in which kindly and prac-
tical fairies, by removing a series of obstacles, render young lovers
happy. Others evince a true Breton delight in the weird and gro-
tesque, and narrate the horrible fate of those who brave evil spirits
in accursed spots at midnight.
sin.
THE WASHERWOMEN OF NIGHT
From 'Le Foyer Breton'
HE Bretons are children of transgression like the rest, but
they love their dead; they pity those who burn in Purga-
tory, and try to ransom them from the fire of probation.
Every Sunday after mass, they pray for their souls on the spot
where their poor bodies perished.
It is especially in the black month [November] that they per-
form this Christian act. When the forerunner of winter comes
[All-Saints' Day], every one thinks of those who have gone to the
judgment of God. They have masses said at the altar of the
dead, they light candles to them, they confide them to the best
saints, they take the little children to their tombs; and after
vespers, the rector comes out of church to bless their graves.
It is also upon this night that Christ grants some solace to
the dead, and permits them to revisit the homes in which they
lived. There are then as many dead in the houses of the living
## p. 13695 (#521) ##########################################
ÉMILE SOUVESTRE
13695
as there are yellow leaves in the rough roads. Therefore true
Christians leave the table-cloth spread and the fire lighted, that
the dead may take their meals, and warm the limbs stiffened by
the cold of cemeteries.
But if there are true adorers of the Virgin and her Son,
there are also the children of the Black Angel [the Devil], who
forget those who have been nearest their hearts. Wilherm Pos-
tik was one of the latter. His father had quitted life without
having received absolution; and as the proverb says, "Kadion
is always the son of his father. " Therefore he cared only for
forbidden pleasures, danced during church-time when he could,
and drank during mass with beggarly horse-jockeys. Yet God
had not failed to send him warnings. In one year he had seen an
ill wind strike his mother, his sisters, and his wife; but he had
consoled himself for their deaths by inheriting their property.
The rector vainly warned him in sermon, that he was a
subject of scandal to all the parish. Far from correcting Wil-
herm, this public advice had only the result of making him give
up church, as might easily have been foreseen; for it is not by
snapping the whip one brings back a runaway horse. So he set
about living more as he chose than ever,- as faithless and law-
less as a fox in the brush.
Now it happened in that time that the fine days came to
an end, and the feast of the dead arrived. All baptized folk put
on their mourning-garments, and went to church to pray for the
dead; but Wilherm dressed himself in his best, and took the road
to the neighboring town.
All the time the others spent in relieving souls in pain, he
passed there drinking brandy with the sailors, and singing verses
composed by the millers [i. e. , coarse songs]. He did this until
nearly midnight; and did not think of returning until the others.
grew weary of wrong-doing. He had an iron constitution for
pleasure; and he left the inn the last one, as steady and active
as when he had entered.
But his heart was hot with drink. He sang aloud along the
road, songs which usually even the boldest would only whisper;
he passed the crucifixes without lowering his voice or lifting his
hat; and he struck the thickets of broom with his stick right and
left, without fear of wounding the souls which fill the ways upon
that day.
## p. 13696 (#522) ##########################################
13696
ÉMILE SOUVESTRE
He thus reached a crossway from which there were two paths
to his village. The longer was under the protection of God,
while the shorter was haunted by the dead. Many people cross-
ing it by night had heard noises and seen things of which they
did not speak, except when with others and within reach of holy-
water. But Wilherm feared only thirst; therefore he took the
shortest path, where his clogs clattered on the pebbles.
Now the night was moonless; the wind rattled down the leaves,
the springs rolled sadly along the bank, the bushes shivered like
a man in fear; and in the silence, Wilherm's steps sounded like
those of giants: but nothing frightened him, and he kept on.
As he passed the old ruined manor, he heard the weather-
cock, which said to him:—
"Go back, go back, go back! >>
Wilherm went on his way. He reached the cascade, and the
water murmured:
"Do not pass, do not pass, do not pass! "
He set his foot on the stones polished by the stream, and
crossed. As he reached a worm-eaten oak, the wind whistling
through the branches repeated: -
"Stay here, stay here, stay here! "
But Wilherm struck the dead tree with his stick, and hurried on.
At last he entered the haunted valley. Midnight sounded
from three parishes. Wilherm began to whistle the tune of
'Marionnik. ' But just as he was whistling the fourth verse, he
heard the sound of a cart, and saw it coming towards him cov-
ered with a pall.
Wilherm recognized the hearse. It was drawn by six black
horses, and driven by the "Ankon" [phantom of death], who held
an iron whip and repeated ceaselessly:-
――
-
"Turn aside, or I will overturn you. "
Wilherm made way for him without being disconcerted.
"What are you doing here, Paleface? " he demanded boldly.
"I seize and I surprise," answered the Ankon.
"So you are a robber and a traitor? " went on Wilherm.
"I strike without look or thought. "
"That is, like a fool or a brute. But why are you in such a
hurry to-day? "
"I am seeking Wilherm Postik," answered the phantom, pass-
ing by.
## p. 13697 (#523) ##########################################
ÉMILE SOUVESTRE
13697
The merry Wilherm burst out laughing, and went on.
As he reached the little hedge of blackthorn which led to the
washing-place, he saw two women in white who were hanging
linen on the bushes.
"Upon my life! here are some girls who are not afraid of
the dew," said he. "Why are you out so late, little doves? "
"We are washing, we are drying, we are sewing," answered
the two women at once.
"But what? " asked the young man.
"The shroud of a dead man who still talks and walks. "
"A dead man! My faith! What is his name? "
"Wilherm Postik. "
The fellow laughed louder than at first, and went on down
the rough little path. But as he advanced, he heard more and
more distinctly the blows of wooden beetles against the stones;
and soon he could see the washerwomen of night pounding their
grave-clothes, as they sang the sad refrain:-
"Unless a Christian our doom can stay,
Until Judgment Day we must wash away;
To the sound of the wind, in the moon's pale light,
We must wash and wash our grave-clothes white. "
As soon as they saw the merry fellow, all cried out and ran
up to him, offering him their winding-sheets and asking him to
wring them out.
"That's too trifling a service to be refused among friends,"
answered Wilherm gayly: "but one at a time, fair washerwomen;
a man has only two hands for wringing as well as for embracing. "
Then he set down his stick, and took the end of the shroud
which one of the dead women offered him; being careful to twist
the same way she did, for he had learned from old people that
thus only could he escape being broken to pieces.
But as the shroud was thus turning, behold, the other washer-
women surrounded Wilherm; and he recognized his aunt, his
wife, his mother, and his sisters. They all cried, "A thousand
curses on him who lets his people burn in hell! A thousand
curses! " And they shook their thin hair, lifting their white
beetles; and from all the washing-places of the valley, from the
moors above, from all the hedges, voices repeated, "A thousand
curses! a thousand curses! "
XXIII-857
## p. 13698 (#524) ##########################################
13698
ÉMILE SOUVESTRE
Wilherm, frightened out of his wits, felt his hair standing up
on his head. In his dismay, he forgot the precaution he had
taken until then, and began to wring the other way. At the very
same instant, the shroud pressed his hands like a vise, and he
fell crushed by the iron arms of the washerwoman.
At daybreak, while passing the washing-place, a young girl
from Henvik named Fantik ar Fur, stopping to put a branch of
holly in her pitcher of fresh milk, saw Wilherm stretched on the
blue stones. She thought that brandy had overcome him there,
and plucking a rush, drew near to waken him; but seeing that
he remained motionless, she was frightened, and ran to the vil-
lage to give the alarm. The people came with the rector, the
bell-ringer, and the notary who was also the mayor. The body
was lifted and placed on an ox-cart: but every time the blessed
candles were lighted they went out, so it was evident that Wil-
herm Postik had gone to damnation; and his body was placed
outside the cemetery, under the stone wall, where dogs and un-
believers rest.
THE FOUR GIFTS
From Le Foyer Breton'
I'
F I HAD an income of three hundred crowns, I would go to
live at Quimper, where there is the finest church of Cornou-
aille, and where there are weather-vanes on the roofs of the
houses. If I had two hundred crowns, I would dwell at Carhaix,
on account of its game and the sheep on its heath. But if I had
only a hundred crowns, I should want to keep house at Pont-Aven,
for there is the greatest abundance of everything. At Pont-Aven
you may have the butter for the price of the milk, the chicken
for the price of the egg, the linen for the price of the green flax.
Thus one sees good farms there; where salt pork is served
three times a week, and where even the shepherds eat as much
bread mixed of wheat and rye as they like.
In one of these farms lived Barbaïk Bourhis,—a brave-hearted
woman, who supported her house as if she had been a man, and
who owned fields and crops enough to keep two sons at school.
Now Barbaïk had one niece who earned more than her keep
cost; so she was able to put the gains of each day with those
of the day before.
## p. 13699 (#525) ##########################################
EMILE SOUVESTRE
13699
But savings too easily won always beget some plague. By
heaping up wheat you draw rats to your barns, and by hoarding.
crowns you beget avarice in your heart. Old Bourhis had come
to care for nothing except increasing her property, and to esteem.
those only who paid a large sum to the collector every month.
So she looked angry whenever she saw Dénès, the day-laborer
from Plover, chatting with her niece behind the gable. One
morning when she had surprised them again, she cried harshly
to Téphany:-
"Isn't it a shame that you should be chatting all the time like
this, with a young man who hasn't anything, when there are so
many others who would gladly buy you a silver ring? "
"Dénès is a good worker, and a true Christian," answered the
young girl.
"Some day or other he will find a farm to rent,
where he can bring up children. "
"And you want to be their mother? " interrupted the old
woman. "God forbid! I would rather see you in the door-yard
well than this vagabond's wife. No, no: it shall never be said
that I brought up my sister's daughter only to have her marry a
man who could put his whole fortune in his tobacco pouch.
"
"What matters fortune when one has health, and when the
Virgin can read our intentions? " answered Téphany gently.
"What matters fortune! " repeated the scandalized mistress of
the farm. "Ah! So you have come to despise the goods God
gives us? May the saints take pity on us! Since this is the
way of it, you piece of effrontery, I forbid you ever to speak to
Dénès; and if he appears at the farm again, I will go to the
rector, and have him put you in his Sunday admonition. "
"Oh!
You would not do that, aunt! " cried Téphany, terri-
-
fied.
"As surely as there is a Paradise, I will do it! " answered
the old woman angrily; "but in the mean time, do you go to
the washing-place, wash the linen, and dry it on the hawthorn
bushes: for since you have had an ear for the wind from Plover,
nothing is done, and your two arms are not worth the five
fingers of a one-armed cripple. "
Téphany tried in vain to reply. Mother Bourhis pointed im-
periously to the bucket, the soap, and the washing-beetle, order-
ing her to go at once.
The young girl obeyed; but her heart swelled with grief and
resentment.
## p. 13700 (#526) ##########################################
13700
ÉMILE SOUVESTRE
"Old age is harder than the stones of the farm-house sill,"
she thought, "yes, a hundred times harder; for by continual
dropping, rain wears out the stone, but tears cannot soften the
will of old people. God knows that chatting with Dénès was
the only pleasure I had. If I cannot see him any more, I might
as well enter a convent! And yet the good angel was always
with us.
Dénès taught me only beautiful songs; talked to me
only about what we would do when we were husband and wife
together on a farm,-he cultivating the land and I taking care
of the stables. Is it forbidden then honestly to give ourselves
to each other in hope and courage? God would not have made
marriage if it was a sin to think of marrying some day; and he
would not have given us judgment if he forbade us to choose.
Ah! it is doing me a great wrong to keep me from knowing
Dénès better, for he is the only one who holds my heart. "
While thus talking to herself, Téphany had reached the wash-
ing-place. As she went to set down her bucket of linen on one
of the white stones, she saw an old woman who was not of the
parish, and who was leaning her head against a little blackthorn
staff yellowed by fire. In spite of her trouble, Téphany saluted
her.
-
"My aunt [a Breton title of respect] is enjoying the fresh air
under the alders? " she said, placing her load farther off.
"Who has only the roof of the sky for house, rests where he
may," answered the old woman in a trembling voice.
"Are you so deserted? " asked Téphany compassionately; "and
have you no relative left who can make you a place at his fire-
side? "
"All have long been dead," answered the unknown; "and I
have no other family than kind hearts. "
The young girl took the bread, spread with lard, which Bar-
baïk had wrapped in a bit of linen and placed near her beetle.
"Here, poor aunt," she said, offering it to the beggar. "To-
day at least you shall dine like a Christian, with the bread of
the good God: only remember my dead parents in your prayers. "
The old woman took the bread, then looked at Téphany.
«<
Those who aid, deserve to be aided," she said. "Your eyes
are still red because Barbaïk, the miser, has forbidden you to talk
to the young man from Plover; but he is an honest-hearted
fellow, who only wishes what is right, and I will give you a
means of seeing him every day. "
## p. 13701 (#527) ##########################################
ÉMILE SOUVESTRE
13701
"You! " exclaimed the young girl, stupefied at finding the
beggarwoman so well informed.
"Take this long brass pin," answered the old woman; “and
every time you put it on, Mother Bourhis will have to go out
and count her cabbages. As long as you wear the pin, you will
be free; and your aunt will not return until the pin is back in
its case. "
With these words the beggar rose, made a sign of farewell,
and disappeared.
Téphany remained astonished.
Evidently the old woman was
not a beggar, but a saint or a singer of truth [i. e. , a fairy
fortune-teller].
At all events, the young girl clutched the pin fast, quite
determined to test its power on the morrow.
Therefore, toward the hour when Dénès usually came, she
placed it at her collar. Barbaïk immediately took her sandals and
went into the door-yard, where she began to count her cabbages.
Then from the door-yard she went to the orchard, and from the
orchard to the other fields; so that the young girl could chat as
long as she liked with the young man from Plover.
It was the same the next day, and all the following days for
several weeks. As soon as the pin was taken from its case, the
good woman ran to her cabbages; always beginning over again
to calculate how many there were of big ones, of little ones, of
smooth ones and frizzled ones.
At first Dénès seemed charmed with this liberty; but little
by little he became less eager. He had taught Téphany all his
songs.
He had told her all his plans. Now he was obliged to
seek something to tell her, and to get it ready beforehand as
a minister does his sermon. Sometimes, even, giving his carting
and wheeling as excuse, he did not come at all; and Téphany
had her trouble for nothing. She saw that her lover's affection
had cooled, and became more sad than before.
One day when she had waited in vain for the young man,
she took her pitcher and went to the fountain, her heart heavy
with grief.
As she reached it, she saw the same old woman who had
given her the magic pin. She was standing near the spring;
and seeing Téphany, she began with a little laugh like a grass-
hopper's note:-
"Ah! Ah! The pretty girl is happier, isn't she, now that
she can converse with her lover at any hour of the day? "
## p. 13702 (#528) ##########################################
13702
EMILE SOUVESTRE
"Alas! for that I must be with him," answered Téphany
sadly, "and familiarity has rendered my company less pleasing to
him. Ah! aunt, since you gave me the means of seeing him
every day, you should have given me at the same time enough
wit to keep him. "
"Is that what my daughter would like? " asked the old wo-
man. "Then here is a feather plucked from the wing of a wise
angel. When she places it in her hair, nothing can stop her;
for she will have as much wit and cunning as Master Jean him-
self" [mischievous elf].
Téphany, red with joy, seized the feather; and the next day,
before Dénès's visit, she stuck it in her blue hair-band. At the
same instant it seemed to her that the sun was rising in her
mind. She knew all that the kloeirs take ten years to learn,
and many things that the wisest do not know at all; for with the
learning of men, she had too the cunning of women. So Dénès
was astonished at all she said to him. She spoke in verse like
the bazvalanes [matchmakers], knew more songs than the beggars
of Scaër, and repeated the local stories told at all the lime-kilns
and mills of the country.
The young man returned the next day, and the following
days; and Téphany always found something new to tell him.
Dénès had never seen a man or a woman with so much wit;
but after enjoying it, he grew frightened. Téphany had not
been able to keep from wearing her feather for others than him.
Her songs and malicious speeches were repeated everywhere, and
every one said:-
"She has a bad heart. Whoever marries her will be led by
the bridle.
>>
--
The young man from Plover repeated this prediction to him-
self; and as he had always thought he would rather hold the
bridle than wear it, he began to find it more difficult to laugh
at Téphany's pleasantries.
One day when he was going to a dance in a new barn, the
young girl exercised all her wit to keep him away; but Dénès,
who did not wish to be influenced, would not listen to her, and
repulsed her prayers.
"Ah! I see very well why you are so anxious about the new
barn," said Téphany, vexed. "You will meet Azilicz of Penenru
there! "
Azilicz was the prettiest girl in the canton; and according to
all her good friends, the most coquettish. Penenru was near
## p. 13703 (#529) ##########################################
ÉMILE SOUVESTRE
13703
Plover; so the pretty girl and Dénès had become acquainted from
living in the same neighborhood.
"Yes, Azilicz will be there," said Dénès, who liked to make
his sweetheart jealous; "and to see her is worth going a long
way. "
"Go then where your heart leads you," said the young girl,
wounded.
And she went back to the house, refusing to hear anything
more.
But she sat down on the hearth, overcome with sadness; and
after thinking a long time, she exclaimed as she threw down the
wonderful feather which had been given her:—
"What good does wit do young girls, since the men are drawn
by beauty as flies by the sun? Ah! what I needed, old aunt,
was not to be the most learned, but the most beautiful. "
"Be then also the most beautiful," answered a voice suddenly.
Téphany turned, astonished, and saw near the door the old
woman with the thorn staff, who said to her:-
-
"Take this necklace; and as long as you wear it around your
neck, you will seem among other women like the queen of the
fields among other wild flowers. "
Téphany could not repress a cry of joy. She hastened to
put on the necklace, ran to her little mirror, and stood there
delighted. Never was girl so pink and so white,-so charming
to look at.
Wishing to judge at once of the effect she produced upon
Dénès, she dressed in her best; put on her woolen stockings and,
her buckled shoes, and took the road toward the new barn.
But behold, when she reached the cross-road, she met a young
lord, who at sight of her made his coachman stop.
"By my life! " he cried with admiration, "I did not know
there was such a beautiful creature in the country; and if it were
to cost me my soul, she must bear my name. "
But Téphany answered him:-
«Go on, sir.
Go on your way. I am only a poor peasant
used to winnowing, and milking, and mowing. "
"And I will make you a great lady! " answered the lord, tak-
ing her hand and trying to lead her to his carriage.
The young girl hung back.
"I do not wish to marry any one but Dénès, the laborer from
Plover," she said resolutely.
## p. 13704 (#530) ##########################################
13704
ÉMILE SOUVESTRE
He wished to insist; but when he saw her approaching the
ditch in order to escape into the wheat-field, he ordered his serv-
ants to seize her and put her by force in the carriage, which
started again on a gallop.
At the end of an hour they reached the castle, which was
built of cut stones and covered with slate, as the houses of the
nobility are. The young lord sent out for a priest to marry
them; and since, while they were waiting, Téphany refused to
listen to him and tried to escape, he had her shut up in a great
room closed by three bolted doors, and ordered his servants to
guard her. But with her pin Téphany sent them all to the gar-
den to count cabbages; with her feather she discovered a fourth
door hidden in the wood-work; and she escaped. Then, fervently
recommending herself to God, she fled through the underbrush
like a hare which has heard the hounds.
She went as long as she could, until night began to fall.
Then she saw the belfry of a convent, and knocked at the little
grated door to ask for shelter; but on seeing her the porter shook
her head.
"Go on, go on," she said: "there is no place here for such
pretty girls running on the roads alone at this hour. "
And closing the gate, she went away without listening to any-
thing more.
Forced to go on, Téphany stopped at the door of a farm-
house where several women were chatting with some young fel-
lows, and made the same request as at the convent.
The mistress of the house hesitated to answer; but all the
young men, amazed at Téphany's beauty, exclaimed at once, offer-
ing to take her to their fathers' houses, and each one trying to
promise her more than the others. From promises they came
to quarrels, and from quarrels to blows; so that the frightened
women began to scold Téphany, telling her it was a great shame
to come and trouble the men with her beauty. The poor girl,
beside herself, tried to escape; but the young men pursued her.
Then she remembered her necklace; and tearing it from her
neck, she threw it around that of a sow which was browsing in
the spearwort. At the same instant the charm vanished from
her, and all the young men began to chase the frightened beast.
Téphany went on in spite of fatigue; and finally reached her
aunt's farm, very weary, and still more sad. Her wishes had suc-
ceeded so ill thus far that it was several days before she made
## p. 13705 (#531) ##########################################
ÉMILE SOUVESTRE
13705
another. However, Dénès came more and more irregularly. He
had undertaken to cultivate a warren, and worked there from
morning to night. When the young girl expressed regret at not
seeing him, he always answered that his work was their only
resource, and that one must have dowries and inheritances to
spend time chatting.
Then Téphany began to complain and to wish.
"God pardon me! " she said to herself; "but what I should
have asked was not liberty to see Dénès every day, for he is tired
of it; nor wit, for he is afraid of it; nor beauty, for it causes
trouble and distrust: but instead, money, with which one is mas-
ter of oneself and others. Ah! if I dared make one more request
of the old aunt, I should be wiser. "
"Be satisfied," said the voice of the old beggar, whom Téphany
could not see. "If you look in your right pocket you will find a
little box. Rub your eyes with the ointment it contains, and you
will have in yourself a treasure. "
The young girl quickly sought in her pocket, found the box,
opened it, and was rubbing her eyes as directed when Barbaïk
Bourhis entered.
She, who for some time had been losing whole days in spite
of herself at counting cabbages, seeing all the farm work behind-
hand, only wanted an occasion to vent her ill-temper on some
one. Finding her niece seated and idle, she clasped her hands.
"So that is the way you work when I am out! " she ex-
claimed. "Ah! I am
"Ah! I am no longer surprised to find ruin in the
house! Aren't you ashamed thus to steal the bread of a rela-
tive ? »
Téphany wanted to excuse herself, but Barbaïk's anger was
like milk heated over a brush fire: as soon as it boils, it bub-
bles up and goes over. From reproaches she passed to threats,
and from threats to a blow. Téphany, who had borne the rest
patiently enough, could not help weeping; but judge her sur-
prise when she saw that each of her tears was a beautiful pearl,
round and shining.
Mother Bourhis, who also perceived this, cried out with admi-
ration and began to gather them.
Dénès, who entered at this moment, was not less amazed.
"Pearls! genuine pearls! " he cried, taking them.
"It's a fortune! " said Barbaïk, who went on gathering them.
"Ah! what fairy has bestowed this gift? "
## p. 13706 (#532) ##########################################
13706
ÉMILE SOUVESTRE
"No one must know about it, Dénès; I will share with you,
but with no one else. Keep on, my girl, keep on. You will
profit too. "
He thought only of
She held her apron, and Dénès his hat.
the pearls, and forgot they were tears.
Téphany, choking, tried to escape; but her aunt stopped her,
reproaching her with wanting to wrong them, and repeating what-
ever would make her weep more. The young girl sought to
control herself, and wiped her eyes.
"It's over already! " cried Barbaïk. "Ah! Blessed Mary! If
I had such a gift, I would not want to stop any more than the big
spring on the green road. Can't we beat her a little to see? "
"No," interrupted Dénès: "we must not tire her too much at
first. I will go at once to town and find out how much each
pearl is worth. "
Barbaïk and he went out together, guessing the value in ad-
vance, and settling the division, in which Téphany was forgotten.
She pressed her clasped hands against her heart with a sigh,
and raised her eyes to heaven; but they fell upon the old beg-
gar, who, leaning upon her staff in the darkest corner of the
hearth, was looking at her with a mocking air. The young girl
trembled; and seizing the pin, the feather, and the box of oint-
ment-
—
"Take them back, take them all back," she cried wildly.
"Misfortune to those who are not content with what God gave!
He had endowed me according to his wisdom, which I foolishly
questioned Carry liberty, wit, beauty, and riches to others. I
am not, and I do not want to be, anything but the simple girl
I was, loving and serving as well as I could. "
"Very well, Téphany," answered the old woman. "The trial
is over: let it profit you. The Trinity sent me to give you this
lesson. I am your guardian angel: now that you understand the
truth you will live tranquilly, for God has promised peace to
well-intentioned hearts. "
With these words the beggar changed into an angel gleaming
with light, dispersing the perfume of incense and violets through
the house, then vanishing like a flash.
Téphany forgave Dénès for wanting to sell her tears. Be-
come less exacting, she accepted such happiness as one may have
upon earth; and she married the young man from Plover, who
was always a good husband and a courageous worker.
## p. 13706 (#533) ##########################################
## p. 13706 (#534) ##########################################
HERBERT SPENCER.
D.
"Why, 'twas a very wicked thing! "
Said little Wilhelmine.
"Nay, nay, my little girl," quoth he:
"It was a famous victory,
"And everybody praised the Duke,
Who this great fight did win. "
"But what good came of it at last? "
Quoth little Peterkin.
"Why, that I cannot tell," said he;
"But 'twas a famous victory. "
## p. 13687 (#513) ##########################################
ROBERT SOUTHEY
13687
THE OLD WOMAN OF BERKELEY
A BALLAD, SHOWING HOW AN OLD WOMAN RODE DOUBLE, AND WHO
RODE BEFORE HER
THE
HE Raven croaked as she sate at her meal,
And the Old Woman knew what he said·
And she grew pale at the Raven's tale,
And sickened, and went to her bed.
"Now fetch me my children, and fetch them with speed,"
The Old Woman of Berkeley said;
"The Monk my son, and my daughter the Nun,
Bid them hasten, or I shall be dead. ”
The Monk her son, and her daughter the Nun,
Their way to Berkeley went;
And they have brought, with pious thought,
The holy sacrament.
The Old Woman shrieked as they entered her door,
And she cried with a voice of despair,
"Now take away the sacrament,
For its presence I cannot bear! "
Her lip it trembled with agony;
The sweat ran down her brow:
"I have tortures in store for evermore;
But spare me, my children, now! "
Away they sent the sacrament:
The fit it left her weak;
She looked at her children with ghastly eyes,
And faintly struggled to speak.
"All kind of sin I have rioted in,
And the judgment now must be;
But I secured my children's souls:
Oh, pray, my children, for me!
"I have 'nointed myself with infants' fat;
The fiends have been my slaves;
From sleeping babes I have sucked the breath;
And breaking by charms the sleep of death,
I have called the dead from their graves.
## p. 13688 (#514) ##########################################
13688
ROBERT SOUTHEY
"And the Devil will fetch me now in fire,
My witchcrafts to atone;
And I, who have troubled the dead man's grave,
Shall never have rest in my own.
"Bless, I entreat, my winding-sheet,
My children, I beg of you;
And with holy-water sprinkle my shroud,
And sprinkle my coffin too.
"And let me be chained in my coffin of stone;
And fasten it strong, I implore,
With iron bars, and with three chains
Chain it to the church-floor.
"And bless the chains, and sprinkle them;
And let fifty Priests stand round,
Who night and day the Mass may say
Where I lie on the ground.
"And see that fifty Choristers
Beside the bier attend me,
And day and night, by the tapers' light,
With holy hymns defend me.
"Let the church-bells all, both great and small,
Be tolled by night and day,
To drive from thence the fiends who come
To bear my body away.
"And ever have the church-door barred
After the even-song;
And I beseech you, children dear,
Let the bars and bolts be strong.
"And let this be three days and nights,
My wretched corpse to save;
Till the fourth morning keep me safe,
And then I may rest in my grave. "
The Old Woman of Berkeley laid her down,
And her eyes grew deadly dim;
Short came her breath, and the struggle of death
Did loosen every limb.
They blest the Old Woman's winding-sheet
With rites and prayers due;
## p. 13689 (#515) ##########################################
ROBERT SOUTHEY
13689
With holy-water they sprinkled her shroud,
And they sprinkled her coffin too.
And they chained her in her coffin of stone,
And with iron barred it down,
And in the church with three strong chains
They chained it to the ground.
And they blest the chains, and sprinkled them;
And fifty Priests stood round,
By night and day the Mass to say
Where she lay on the ground.
And fifty sacred Choristers
Beside the bier attend her,
Who day and night, by the tapers' light,
Should with holy hymns defend her.
To see the Priests and Choristers
It was a goodly sight,
Each holding, as it were a staff,
A taper burning bright.
And the church-bells all, both great and small,
Did toll so loud and long;
And they have barred the church-door hard,
After the even-song.
And the first night the tapers' light
Burnt steadily and clear;
But they without a hideous rout
Of angry fiends could hear;
;-
-
A hideous roar at the church-door,
Like a long thunder-peal;
And the Priests they prayed, and the Choristers sung
Louder, in fearful zeal.
Loud tolled the bell; the Priests prayed well;
The tapers they burnt bright:
The Monk her son, and her daughter the Nun,
They told their beads all night.
The cock he crew; the Fiends they flew
From the voice of the morning away:
Then undisturbed the Choristers sing,
And the fifty Priests they pray;
## p. 13690 (#516) ##########################################
13690
ROBERT SOUTHEY
As they had sung and prayed all night,
They prayed and sung all day.
The second night the tapers' light
Burnt dismally and blue,
And every one saw his neighbor's face
Like a dead man's face to view.
And yells and cries without arise,
That the stoutest heart might shock,
And a deafening roaring like a cataract pouring
Over a mountain rock.
The Monk and Nun they told their beads
As fast as they could tell;
And aye as louder grew the noise,
The faster went the bell.
Louder and louder the Choristers sung,
As they trembled more and more;
And the Priests, as they prayed to Heaven for aid,
They smote their breasts full sore.
The cock he crew; the Fiends they flew
From the voice of the morning away:
Then undisturbed the Choristers sing,
And the fifty Priests they pray;
As they had sung and prayed all night,
They prayed and sung all day.
The third night came, and the tapers' flame
A frightful stench did make;
And they burnt as though they had been dipped
In the burning brimstone lake.
And the loud commotion, like the rushing of ocean,
Grew momently more and more;
And strokes as of a battering-ram
Did shake the strong church-door.
The bellmen they for very fear
Could toll the bell no longer;
And still, as louder grew the strokes,
Their fear it grew the stronger.
The Monk and Nun forgot their beads;
They fell on the ground in dismay;
## p. 13691 (#517) ##########################################
ROBERT SOUTHEY
13691
There was not a single Saint in heaven
To whom they did not pray.
And the Choristers' song, which late was so strong,
Faltered with consternation;
For the church did rock as an earthquake shock
Uplifted its foundation.
And a sound was heard like the trumpet's blast
That shall one day wake the dead;-
The strong church-door could bear no more,
And the bolts and bars they fled;
And the tapers' light was extinguished quite;
And the Choristers faintly sung;
And the Priests, dismayed, panted and prayed,
And on all Saints in heaven for aid
They called with trembling tongue.
And in He came with eyes of flame,
The Devil, to fetch the dead;
And all the church with his presence glowed
Like a fiery furnace red.
He laid his hand on the iron chains,
And like flax they moldered asunder;
And the coffin lid, which was barred so firm,
He burst with his voice of thunder.
And he bade the Old Woman of Berkeley rise,
And come with her Master away:
A cold sweat started on that cold corpse,
At the voice she was forced to obey.
She rose on her feet in her winding-sheet;
Her dead flesh quivered with fear;
And a groan like that which the Old Woman gave
Never did mortal hear.
She followed her Master to the church-door
There stood a black horse there;
His breath was red like furnace smoke,
His eyes like a meteor's glare.
The Devil he flung her on the horse,
And he leaped up before·
## p. 13692 (#518) ##########################################
13692
ROBERT SOUTHEY
And away like the lightning's speed they went,
And she was seen no more.
They saw her no more: but her cries
For four miles round they could hear;
And children at rest at their mother's breast
Started, and screamed with fear.
THE CURSE
From The Curse of Kehama'
CHARM thy life
I
From the weapons of strife,
From stone and from wood,
From fire and from flood,
From the serpent's tooth,
And the beasts of blood;
From Sickness I charm thee,
And Time shall not harm thee:
But Earth, which is mine,
Its fruits shall deny thee;
And Water shall hear me,
And know thee and fly thee;
And the Winds shall not touch thee
When they pass by thee,
And the Dews shall not wet thee
When they fall nigh thee:
And thou shalt seek Death
To release thee, in vain;
Thou shalt live in thy pain,
While Kehama shall reign,
With a fire in thy heart,
And a fire in thy brain;
And Sleep shall obey me,
And visit thee never,
And the Curse shall be on thee
Forever and ever.
## p. 13693 (#519) ##########################################
13693
ÉMILE SOUVESTRE
(1806-1854)
N 1854, the year of Émile Souvestre's death in Paris, the French
Academy awarded to his widow the Lambert prize,— a tes-
timonial to the memory of the most useful writer. The
principal work to win him this distinction-'Le Philosophe sous les
Toits,' was not a piece of brilliant creation, not a learned treatise,
but a sweet-spirited little volume of reflections upon daily life. Upon
its appearance in 1851 the Academy crowned it; and in translation,
'The Attic Philosopher' has long been esteemed by English readers.
The philosopher was Souvestre himself, who knew poverty and hard
work all his life; and accepting both with contagious courage and
cheerfulness, advised his readers to make the best of whatever came.
He tested this philosophy. Born at Morlaix in Finisterre in 1806,
he passed his childhood and youth there; and grew intimately famil-
iar with Breton life and scenery. Next he studied law at Rennes,
where he tried unsuccessfully to practice. He was about twenty-four
when he went to Paris, hoping to make his way in literature. It has
been said that in Paris every would-be author is forced to discover his
own value; and after a stay there, many retire in sad self-knowledge.
Souvestre was stimulated by the richer intellectual life. His individ-
uality was too strong to be submerged. He remained a thorough
Breton, distance giving him a more definite appreciation of his
early home.
The sudden death of his brother, a sea captain, made him the
only support of his family; and he was obliged to return to Brittany,
where he became clerk in a large publishing-house at Nantes. During
the next uncertain years he wrote short articles for local journals.
For a time he was associated with a M. Papot in the management of
a school. He then became editor of a Brest newspaper. In 1835 he
returned to Paris, where his Breton tales soon made him a name.
During his comparatively short life of forty-eight years he wrote
more than forty books, comprising plays, short stories, and historical
works.
Like his great compatriot, the early realist Le Sage, one of Sou-
vestre's primary qualities was clear common-sense. Usual, universal
sentiments appealed to him more than romantic eccentricities. Like
another great Breton, Ernest Renan, he was deeply occupied with the
## p. 13694 (#520) ##########################################
13694
ÉMILE SOUVESTRE
question of religion. His stories, most of which reflect Breton life,
are often true tales told him by the peasants; and all have the quali-
ties of reality and religious feeling.
His greatest work, 'Les Derniers Bretons,' was an exposition of
Breton life, with all its traditions, sentiments, and modes of thought
and action. He felt that many tales traditionary among the poor
were in danger of being lost; and he hated to see them die from the
people's memory. He felt too that this folk-lore was of historical
value as a spontaneous revelation of a mental and moral attitude.
As he points out, the Eastern fairy tale, full of gorgeous color and
material delight, has little in common with the Breton tales, with
their curious mingling of shrewdness and sentiment, their positive
concern over and belief in the reward of virtue and retribution of
Both compositions reflect their authors. In his 'Le Foyer Bre-
ton,' a collection of folk-lore tales, - he preserved as far as possible
the traditional form of expression. They are full of local saws and
allusions; many are genuine fairy tales, in which kindly and prac-
tical fairies, by removing a series of obstacles, render young lovers
happy. Others evince a true Breton delight in the weird and gro-
tesque, and narrate the horrible fate of those who brave evil spirits
in accursed spots at midnight.
sin.
THE WASHERWOMEN OF NIGHT
From 'Le Foyer Breton'
HE Bretons are children of transgression like the rest, but
they love their dead; they pity those who burn in Purga-
tory, and try to ransom them from the fire of probation.
Every Sunday after mass, they pray for their souls on the spot
where their poor bodies perished.
It is especially in the black month [November] that they per-
form this Christian act. When the forerunner of winter comes
[All-Saints' Day], every one thinks of those who have gone to the
judgment of God. They have masses said at the altar of the
dead, they light candles to them, they confide them to the best
saints, they take the little children to their tombs; and after
vespers, the rector comes out of church to bless their graves.
It is also upon this night that Christ grants some solace to
the dead, and permits them to revisit the homes in which they
lived. There are then as many dead in the houses of the living
## p. 13695 (#521) ##########################################
ÉMILE SOUVESTRE
13695
as there are yellow leaves in the rough roads. Therefore true
Christians leave the table-cloth spread and the fire lighted, that
the dead may take their meals, and warm the limbs stiffened by
the cold of cemeteries.
But if there are true adorers of the Virgin and her Son,
there are also the children of the Black Angel [the Devil], who
forget those who have been nearest their hearts. Wilherm Pos-
tik was one of the latter. His father had quitted life without
having received absolution; and as the proverb says, "Kadion
is always the son of his father. " Therefore he cared only for
forbidden pleasures, danced during church-time when he could,
and drank during mass with beggarly horse-jockeys. Yet God
had not failed to send him warnings. In one year he had seen an
ill wind strike his mother, his sisters, and his wife; but he had
consoled himself for their deaths by inheriting their property.
The rector vainly warned him in sermon, that he was a
subject of scandal to all the parish. Far from correcting Wil-
herm, this public advice had only the result of making him give
up church, as might easily have been foreseen; for it is not by
snapping the whip one brings back a runaway horse. So he set
about living more as he chose than ever,- as faithless and law-
less as a fox in the brush.
Now it happened in that time that the fine days came to
an end, and the feast of the dead arrived. All baptized folk put
on their mourning-garments, and went to church to pray for the
dead; but Wilherm dressed himself in his best, and took the road
to the neighboring town.
All the time the others spent in relieving souls in pain, he
passed there drinking brandy with the sailors, and singing verses
composed by the millers [i. e. , coarse songs]. He did this until
nearly midnight; and did not think of returning until the others.
grew weary of wrong-doing. He had an iron constitution for
pleasure; and he left the inn the last one, as steady and active
as when he had entered.
But his heart was hot with drink. He sang aloud along the
road, songs which usually even the boldest would only whisper;
he passed the crucifixes without lowering his voice or lifting his
hat; and he struck the thickets of broom with his stick right and
left, without fear of wounding the souls which fill the ways upon
that day.
## p. 13696 (#522) ##########################################
13696
ÉMILE SOUVESTRE
He thus reached a crossway from which there were two paths
to his village. The longer was under the protection of God,
while the shorter was haunted by the dead. Many people cross-
ing it by night had heard noises and seen things of which they
did not speak, except when with others and within reach of holy-
water. But Wilherm feared only thirst; therefore he took the
shortest path, where his clogs clattered on the pebbles.
Now the night was moonless; the wind rattled down the leaves,
the springs rolled sadly along the bank, the bushes shivered like
a man in fear; and in the silence, Wilherm's steps sounded like
those of giants: but nothing frightened him, and he kept on.
As he passed the old ruined manor, he heard the weather-
cock, which said to him:—
"Go back, go back, go back! >>
Wilherm went on his way. He reached the cascade, and the
water murmured:
"Do not pass, do not pass, do not pass! "
He set his foot on the stones polished by the stream, and
crossed. As he reached a worm-eaten oak, the wind whistling
through the branches repeated: -
"Stay here, stay here, stay here! "
But Wilherm struck the dead tree with his stick, and hurried on.
At last he entered the haunted valley. Midnight sounded
from three parishes. Wilherm began to whistle the tune of
'Marionnik. ' But just as he was whistling the fourth verse, he
heard the sound of a cart, and saw it coming towards him cov-
ered with a pall.
Wilherm recognized the hearse. It was drawn by six black
horses, and driven by the "Ankon" [phantom of death], who held
an iron whip and repeated ceaselessly:-
――
-
"Turn aside, or I will overturn you. "
Wilherm made way for him without being disconcerted.
"What are you doing here, Paleface? " he demanded boldly.
"I seize and I surprise," answered the Ankon.
"So you are a robber and a traitor? " went on Wilherm.
"I strike without look or thought. "
"That is, like a fool or a brute. But why are you in such a
hurry to-day? "
"I am seeking Wilherm Postik," answered the phantom, pass-
ing by.
## p. 13697 (#523) ##########################################
ÉMILE SOUVESTRE
13697
The merry Wilherm burst out laughing, and went on.
As he reached the little hedge of blackthorn which led to the
washing-place, he saw two women in white who were hanging
linen on the bushes.
"Upon my life! here are some girls who are not afraid of
the dew," said he. "Why are you out so late, little doves? "
"We are washing, we are drying, we are sewing," answered
the two women at once.
"But what? " asked the young man.
"The shroud of a dead man who still talks and walks. "
"A dead man! My faith! What is his name? "
"Wilherm Postik. "
The fellow laughed louder than at first, and went on down
the rough little path. But as he advanced, he heard more and
more distinctly the blows of wooden beetles against the stones;
and soon he could see the washerwomen of night pounding their
grave-clothes, as they sang the sad refrain:-
"Unless a Christian our doom can stay,
Until Judgment Day we must wash away;
To the sound of the wind, in the moon's pale light,
We must wash and wash our grave-clothes white. "
As soon as they saw the merry fellow, all cried out and ran
up to him, offering him their winding-sheets and asking him to
wring them out.
"That's too trifling a service to be refused among friends,"
answered Wilherm gayly: "but one at a time, fair washerwomen;
a man has only two hands for wringing as well as for embracing. "
Then he set down his stick, and took the end of the shroud
which one of the dead women offered him; being careful to twist
the same way she did, for he had learned from old people that
thus only could he escape being broken to pieces.
But as the shroud was thus turning, behold, the other washer-
women surrounded Wilherm; and he recognized his aunt, his
wife, his mother, and his sisters. They all cried, "A thousand
curses on him who lets his people burn in hell! A thousand
curses! " And they shook their thin hair, lifting their white
beetles; and from all the washing-places of the valley, from the
moors above, from all the hedges, voices repeated, "A thousand
curses! a thousand curses! "
XXIII-857
## p. 13698 (#524) ##########################################
13698
ÉMILE SOUVESTRE
Wilherm, frightened out of his wits, felt his hair standing up
on his head. In his dismay, he forgot the precaution he had
taken until then, and began to wring the other way. At the very
same instant, the shroud pressed his hands like a vise, and he
fell crushed by the iron arms of the washerwoman.
At daybreak, while passing the washing-place, a young girl
from Henvik named Fantik ar Fur, stopping to put a branch of
holly in her pitcher of fresh milk, saw Wilherm stretched on the
blue stones. She thought that brandy had overcome him there,
and plucking a rush, drew near to waken him; but seeing that
he remained motionless, she was frightened, and ran to the vil-
lage to give the alarm. The people came with the rector, the
bell-ringer, and the notary who was also the mayor. The body
was lifted and placed on an ox-cart: but every time the blessed
candles were lighted they went out, so it was evident that Wil-
herm Postik had gone to damnation; and his body was placed
outside the cemetery, under the stone wall, where dogs and un-
believers rest.
THE FOUR GIFTS
From Le Foyer Breton'
I'
F I HAD an income of three hundred crowns, I would go to
live at Quimper, where there is the finest church of Cornou-
aille, and where there are weather-vanes on the roofs of the
houses. If I had two hundred crowns, I would dwell at Carhaix,
on account of its game and the sheep on its heath. But if I had
only a hundred crowns, I should want to keep house at Pont-Aven,
for there is the greatest abundance of everything. At Pont-Aven
you may have the butter for the price of the milk, the chicken
for the price of the egg, the linen for the price of the green flax.
Thus one sees good farms there; where salt pork is served
three times a week, and where even the shepherds eat as much
bread mixed of wheat and rye as they like.
In one of these farms lived Barbaïk Bourhis,—a brave-hearted
woman, who supported her house as if she had been a man, and
who owned fields and crops enough to keep two sons at school.
Now Barbaïk had one niece who earned more than her keep
cost; so she was able to put the gains of each day with those
of the day before.
## p. 13699 (#525) ##########################################
EMILE SOUVESTRE
13699
But savings too easily won always beget some plague. By
heaping up wheat you draw rats to your barns, and by hoarding.
crowns you beget avarice in your heart. Old Bourhis had come
to care for nothing except increasing her property, and to esteem.
those only who paid a large sum to the collector every month.
So she looked angry whenever she saw Dénès, the day-laborer
from Plover, chatting with her niece behind the gable. One
morning when she had surprised them again, she cried harshly
to Téphany:-
"Isn't it a shame that you should be chatting all the time like
this, with a young man who hasn't anything, when there are so
many others who would gladly buy you a silver ring? "
"Dénès is a good worker, and a true Christian," answered the
young girl.
"Some day or other he will find a farm to rent,
where he can bring up children. "
"And you want to be their mother? " interrupted the old
woman. "God forbid! I would rather see you in the door-yard
well than this vagabond's wife. No, no: it shall never be said
that I brought up my sister's daughter only to have her marry a
man who could put his whole fortune in his tobacco pouch.
"
"What matters fortune when one has health, and when the
Virgin can read our intentions? " answered Téphany gently.
"What matters fortune! " repeated the scandalized mistress of
the farm. "Ah! So you have come to despise the goods God
gives us? May the saints take pity on us! Since this is the
way of it, you piece of effrontery, I forbid you ever to speak to
Dénès; and if he appears at the farm again, I will go to the
rector, and have him put you in his Sunday admonition. "
"Oh!
You would not do that, aunt! " cried Téphany, terri-
-
fied.
"As surely as there is a Paradise, I will do it! " answered
the old woman angrily; "but in the mean time, do you go to
the washing-place, wash the linen, and dry it on the hawthorn
bushes: for since you have had an ear for the wind from Plover,
nothing is done, and your two arms are not worth the five
fingers of a one-armed cripple. "
Téphany tried in vain to reply. Mother Bourhis pointed im-
periously to the bucket, the soap, and the washing-beetle, order-
ing her to go at once.
The young girl obeyed; but her heart swelled with grief and
resentment.
## p. 13700 (#526) ##########################################
13700
ÉMILE SOUVESTRE
"Old age is harder than the stones of the farm-house sill,"
she thought, "yes, a hundred times harder; for by continual
dropping, rain wears out the stone, but tears cannot soften the
will of old people. God knows that chatting with Dénès was
the only pleasure I had. If I cannot see him any more, I might
as well enter a convent! And yet the good angel was always
with us.
Dénès taught me only beautiful songs; talked to me
only about what we would do when we were husband and wife
together on a farm,-he cultivating the land and I taking care
of the stables. Is it forbidden then honestly to give ourselves
to each other in hope and courage? God would not have made
marriage if it was a sin to think of marrying some day; and he
would not have given us judgment if he forbade us to choose.
Ah! it is doing me a great wrong to keep me from knowing
Dénès better, for he is the only one who holds my heart. "
While thus talking to herself, Téphany had reached the wash-
ing-place. As she went to set down her bucket of linen on one
of the white stones, she saw an old woman who was not of the
parish, and who was leaning her head against a little blackthorn
staff yellowed by fire. In spite of her trouble, Téphany saluted
her.
-
"My aunt [a Breton title of respect] is enjoying the fresh air
under the alders? " she said, placing her load farther off.
"Who has only the roof of the sky for house, rests where he
may," answered the old woman in a trembling voice.
"Are you so deserted? " asked Téphany compassionately; "and
have you no relative left who can make you a place at his fire-
side? "
"All have long been dead," answered the unknown; "and I
have no other family than kind hearts. "
The young girl took the bread, spread with lard, which Bar-
baïk had wrapped in a bit of linen and placed near her beetle.
"Here, poor aunt," she said, offering it to the beggar. "To-
day at least you shall dine like a Christian, with the bread of
the good God: only remember my dead parents in your prayers. "
The old woman took the bread, then looked at Téphany.
«<
Those who aid, deserve to be aided," she said. "Your eyes
are still red because Barbaïk, the miser, has forbidden you to talk
to the young man from Plover; but he is an honest-hearted
fellow, who only wishes what is right, and I will give you a
means of seeing him every day. "
## p. 13701 (#527) ##########################################
ÉMILE SOUVESTRE
13701
"You! " exclaimed the young girl, stupefied at finding the
beggarwoman so well informed.
"Take this long brass pin," answered the old woman; “and
every time you put it on, Mother Bourhis will have to go out
and count her cabbages. As long as you wear the pin, you will
be free; and your aunt will not return until the pin is back in
its case. "
With these words the beggar rose, made a sign of farewell,
and disappeared.
Téphany remained astonished.
Evidently the old woman was
not a beggar, but a saint or a singer of truth [i. e. , a fairy
fortune-teller].
At all events, the young girl clutched the pin fast, quite
determined to test its power on the morrow.
Therefore, toward the hour when Dénès usually came, she
placed it at her collar. Barbaïk immediately took her sandals and
went into the door-yard, where she began to count her cabbages.
Then from the door-yard she went to the orchard, and from the
orchard to the other fields; so that the young girl could chat as
long as she liked with the young man from Plover.
It was the same the next day, and all the following days for
several weeks. As soon as the pin was taken from its case, the
good woman ran to her cabbages; always beginning over again
to calculate how many there were of big ones, of little ones, of
smooth ones and frizzled ones.
At first Dénès seemed charmed with this liberty; but little
by little he became less eager. He had taught Téphany all his
songs.
He had told her all his plans. Now he was obliged to
seek something to tell her, and to get it ready beforehand as
a minister does his sermon. Sometimes, even, giving his carting
and wheeling as excuse, he did not come at all; and Téphany
had her trouble for nothing. She saw that her lover's affection
had cooled, and became more sad than before.
One day when she had waited in vain for the young man,
she took her pitcher and went to the fountain, her heart heavy
with grief.
As she reached it, she saw the same old woman who had
given her the magic pin. She was standing near the spring;
and seeing Téphany, she began with a little laugh like a grass-
hopper's note:-
"Ah! Ah! The pretty girl is happier, isn't she, now that
she can converse with her lover at any hour of the day? "
## p. 13702 (#528) ##########################################
13702
EMILE SOUVESTRE
"Alas! for that I must be with him," answered Téphany
sadly, "and familiarity has rendered my company less pleasing to
him. Ah! aunt, since you gave me the means of seeing him
every day, you should have given me at the same time enough
wit to keep him. "
"Is that what my daughter would like? " asked the old wo-
man. "Then here is a feather plucked from the wing of a wise
angel. When she places it in her hair, nothing can stop her;
for she will have as much wit and cunning as Master Jean him-
self" [mischievous elf].
Téphany, red with joy, seized the feather; and the next day,
before Dénès's visit, she stuck it in her blue hair-band. At the
same instant it seemed to her that the sun was rising in her
mind. She knew all that the kloeirs take ten years to learn,
and many things that the wisest do not know at all; for with the
learning of men, she had too the cunning of women. So Dénès
was astonished at all she said to him. She spoke in verse like
the bazvalanes [matchmakers], knew more songs than the beggars
of Scaër, and repeated the local stories told at all the lime-kilns
and mills of the country.
The young man returned the next day, and the following
days; and Téphany always found something new to tell him.
Dénès had never seen a man or a woman with so much wit;
but after enjoying it, he grew frightened. Téphany had not
been able to keep from wearing her feather for others than him.
Her songs and malicious speeches were repeated everywhere, and
every one said:-
"She has a bad heart. Whoever marries her will be led by
the bridle.
>>
--
The young man from Plover repeated this prediction to him-
self; and as he had always thought he would rather hold the
bridle than wear it, he began to find it more difficult to laugh
at Téphany's pleasantries.
One day when he was going to a dance in a new barn, the
young girl exercised all her wit to keep him away; but Dénès,
who did not wish to be influenced, would not listen to her, and
repulsed her prayers.
"Ah! I see very well why you are so anxious about the new
barn," said Téphany, vexed. "You will meet Azilicz of Penenru
there! "
Azilicz was the prettiest girl in the canton; and according to
all her good friends, the most coquettish. Penenru was near
## p. 13703 (#529) ##########################################
ÉMILE SOUVESTRE
13703
Plover; so the pretty girl and Dénès had become acquainted from
living in the same neighborhood.
"Yes, Azilicz will be there," said Dénès, who liked to make
his sweetheart jealous; "and to see her is worth going a long
way. "
"Go then where your heart leads you," said the young girl,
wounded.
And she went back to the house, refusing to hear anything
more.
But she sat down on the hearth, overcome with sadness; and
after thinking a long time, she exclaimed as she threw down the
wonderful feather which had been given her:—
"What good does wit do young girls, since the men are drawn
by beauty as flies by the sun? Ah! what I needed, old aunt,
was not to be the most learned, but the most beautiful. "
"Be then also the most beautiful," answered a voice suddenly.
Téphany turned, astonished, and saw near the door the old
woman with the thorn staff, who said to her:-
-
"Take this necklace; and as long as you wear it around your
neck, you will seem among other women like the queen of the
fields among other wild flowers. "
Téphany could not repress a cry of joy. She hastened to
put on the necklace, ran to her little mirror, and stood there
delighted. Never was girl so pink and so white,-so charming
to look at.
Wishing to judge at once of the effect she produced upon
Dénès, she dressed in her best; put on her woolen stockings and,
her buckled shoes, and took the road toward the new barn.
But behold, when she reached the cross-road, she met a young
lord, who at sight of her made his coachman stop.
"By my life! " he cried with admiration, "I did not know
there was such a beautiful creature in the country; and if it were
to cost me my soul, she must bear my name. "
But Téphany answered him:-
«Go on, sir.
Go on your way. I am only a poor peasant
used to winnowing, and milking, and mowing. "
"And I will make you a great lady! " answered the lord, tak-
ing her hand and trying to lead her to his carriage.
The young girl hung back.
"I do not wish to marry any one but Dénès, the laborer from
Plover," she said resolutely.
## p. 13704 (#530) ##########################################
13704
ÉMILE SOUVESTRE
He wished to insist; but when he saw her approaching the
ditch in order to escape into the wheat-field, he ordered his serv-
ants to seize her and put her by force in the carriage, which
started again on a gallop.
At the end of an hour they reached the castle, which was
built of cut stones and covered with slate, as the houses of the
nobility are. The young lord sent out for a priest to marry
them; and since, while they were waiting, Téphany refused to
listen to him and tried to escape, he had her shut up in a great
room closed by three bolted doors, and ordered his servants to
guard her. But with her pin Téphany sent them all to the gar-
den to count cabbages; with her feather she discovered a fourth
door hidden in the wood-work; and she escaped. Then, fervently
recommending herself to God, she fled through the underbrush
like a hare which has heard the hounds.
She went as long as she could, until night began to fall.
Then she saw the belfry of a convent, and knocked at the little
grated door to ask for shelter; but on seeing her the porter shook
her head.
"Go on, go on," she said: "there is no place here for such
pretty girls running on the roads alone at this hour. "
And closing the gate, she went away without listening to any-
thing more.
Forced to go on, Téphany stopped at the door of a farm-
house where several women were chatting with some young fel-
lows, and made the same request as at the convent.
The mistress of the house hesitated to answer; but all the
young men, amazed at Téphany's beauty, exclaimed at once, offer-
ing to take her to their fathers' houses, and each one trying to
promise her more than the others. From promises they came
to quarrels, and from quarrels to blows; so that the frightened
women began to scold Téphany, telling her it was a great shame
to come and trouble the men with her beauty. The poor girl,
beside herself, tried to escape; but the young men pursued her.
Then she remembered her necklace; and tearing it from her
neck, she threw it around that of a sow which was browsing in
the spearwort. At the same instant the charm vanished from
her, and all the young men began to chase the frightened beast.
Téphany went on in spite of fatigue; and finally reached her
aunt's farm, very weary, and still more sad. Her wishes had suc-
ceeded so ill thus far that it was several days before she made
## p. 13705 (#531) ##########################################
ÉMILE SOUVESTRE
13705
another. However, Dénès came more and more irregularly. He
had undertaken to cultivate a warren, and worked there from
morning to night. When the young girl expressed regret at not
seeing him, he always answered that his work was their only
resource, and that one must have dowries and inheritances to
spend time chatting.
Then Téphany began to complain and to wish.
"God pardon me! " she said to herself; "but what I should
have asked was not liberty to see Dénès every day, for he is tired
of it; nor wit, for he is afraid of it; nor beauty, for it causes
trouble and distrust: but instead, money, with which one is mas-
ter of oneself and others. Ah! if I dared make one more request
of the old aunt, I should be wiser. "
"Be satisfied," said the voice of the old beggar, whom Téphany
could not see. "If you look in your right pocket you will find a
little box. Rub your eyes with the ointment it contains, and you
will have in yourself a treasure. "
The young girl quickly sought in her pocket, found the box,
opened it, and was rubbing her eyes as directed when Barbaïk
Bourhis entered.
She, who for some time had been losing whole days in spite
of herself at counting cabbages, seeing all the farm work behind-
hand, only wanted an occasion to vent her ill-temper on some
one. Finding her niece seated and idle, she clasped her hands.
"So that is the way you work when I am out! " she ex-
claimed. "Ah! I am
"Ah! I am no longer surprised to find ruin in the
house! Aren't you ashamed thus to steal the bread of a rela-
tive ? »
Téphany wanted to excuse herself, but Barbaïk's anger was
like milk heated over a brush fire: as soon as it boils, it bub-
bles up and goes over. From reproaches she passed to threats,
and from threats to a blow. Téphany, who had borne the rest
patiently enough, could not help weeping; but judge her sur-
prise when she saw that each of her tears was a beautiful pearl,
round and shining.
Mother Bourhis, who also perceived this, cried out with admi-
ration and began to gather them.
Dénès, who entered at this moment, was not less amazed.
"Pearls! genuine pearls! " he cried, taking them.
"It's a fortune! " said Barbaïk, who went on gathering them.
"Ah! what fairy has bestowed this gift? "
## p. 13706 (#532) ##########################################
13706
ÉMILE SOUVESTRE
"No one must know about it, Dénès; I will share with you,
but with no one else. Keep on, my girl, keep on. You will
profit too. "
He thought only of
She held her apron, and Dénès his hat.
the pearls, and forgot they were tears.
Téphany, choking, tried to escape; but her aunt stopped her,
reproaching her with wanting to wrong them, and repeating what-
ever would make her weep more. The young girl sought to
control herself, and wiped her eyes.
"It's over already! " cried Barbaïk. "Ah! Blessed Mary! If
I had such a gift, I would not want to stop any more than the big
spring on the green road. Can't we beat her a little to see? "
"No," interrupted Dénès: "we must not tire her too much at
first. I will go at once to town and find out how much each
pearl is worth. "
Barbaïk and he went out together, guessing the value in ad-
vance, and settling the division, in which Téphany was forgotten.
She pressed her clasped hands against her heart with a sigh,
and raised her eyes to heaven; but they fell upon the old beg-
gar, who, leaning upon her staff in the darkest corner of the
hearth, was looking at her with a mocking air. The young girl
trembled; and seizing the pin, the feather, and the box of oint-
ment-
—
"Take them back, take them all back," she cried wildly.
"Misfortune to those who are not content with what God gave!
He had endowed me according to his wisdom, which I foolishly
questioned Carry liberty, wit, beauty, and riches to others. I
am not, and I do not want to be, anything but the simple girl
I was, loving and serving as well as I could. "
"Very well, Téphany," answered the old woman. "The trial
is over: let it profit you. The Trinity sent me to give you this
lesson. I am your guardian angel: now that you understand the
truth you will live tranquilly, for God has promised peace to
well-intentioned hearts. "
With these words the beggar changed into an angel gleaming
with light, dispersing the perfume of incense and violets through
the house, then vanishing like a flash.
Téphany forgave Dénès for wanting to sell her tears. Be-
come less exacting, she accepted such happiness as one may have
upon earth; and she married the young man from Plover, who
was always a good husband and a courageous worker.
## p. 13706 (#533) ##########################################
## p. 13706 (#534) ##########################################
HERBERT SPENCER.
D.
