第35章

"I know nothing about it; only the manner in which he pronounced those words struck me, and they were the last he spoke."

"Love one another!" repeated Rose, thoughtfully.

"How beautiful are those words!" added Blanche.

"And whither was the traveller going?"

"Far, very far into the North, as he told your mother.When she saw him depart, she said to me: 'His mild, sad talk has affected me even to tears; whilst I listened to him, I seemed to be growing better--I seemed to love my husband and my children more--and yet, to judge by the expression of his countenance, one would think that this stranger had never either smiled or wept!' She and I watched him from the door as long as we could follow him with our eyes; he carried his head down, and his walk was slow, calm, and firm; one might fancy that he counted his steps.

And, talking of steps, I remarked yet another thing."

"What was it, Dagobert?"

"You know that the road which led to our house way, always damp, because of the overflowing of the little spring."

"Yes."

"Well, then, the mark of the traveller's footsteps remained in the clay, and I saw that he had nails under his shoe in the form of a cross."

"How in the form of a cross?"

"Look!" said Dagobert, placing the tip of his finger seven times on the coverlet of the bed; "they were arrange: thus beneath his heel:

You see it forms a cross.

"What could it mean, Dagobert?"

"Chance, perhaps--yes, chance--and yet, in spite of myself, this confounded cross left behind him struck me as a bad omen, for hardly was he gone when misfortune after misfortune fell upon us."

"Alas! the death of our mother!"

"Yes--but, before that, another piece of ill-luck.You had not yet returned, and she was writing her petition to ask leave to go to France or to send you there, when I heard the gallop of a horse.It was a courier from the governor general of Siberia.He brought us orders to change our residence; within three days we were to join other condemned persons, and be removed with them four hundred leagues further north.

Thus, after fifteen years of exile, they redoubled in cruelty towards your mother."

"Why did they thus torment her?"

"One would think that some evil genius was at work against her.A few days later, the traveller would no longer have found us at Milosk; and if he had joined us further on, it would have been too far for the medal and papers to be of use--since, having set out almost immediately, we shall hardly arrive in time at Paris.'If they had some interest to prevent me and my children from going to France,' said your mother, 'they would act just as they have done.To banish us four hundred leagues further, is to render impossible this journey, of which the term is fixed.' And the idea overwhelmed her with grief."

"Perhaps it was this unexpected sorrow that was the cause of her sudden illness."

"Alas! no, my children; it was that infernal cholera, who arrives without giving you notice--for he too is a great traveller--and strikes you down like a thunderbolt.Three hours after the traveller had left us, when you returned quite pleased and gay from the forest, with your large bunches of wild-flowers for your mother, she was already in the last agony, and hardly to be recognized.The cholera had broken out in the village, and that evening five persons died of it.Your mother had only time to hang the medal about your neck, my dear little Rose, to recommend you both to my care, and to beg that we should set out immediately.When she was gone, the new order of exile could not apply to you; and I obtained permission from the governor to take my departure with you for France, according to the last wishes--"

The soldier could not finish the sentence; he covered his eyes with his hand, whilst the orphans embraced him sobbing.

"Oh! but," resumed Dagobert, with pride, after a moment of painful silence, "it was then that you showed yourselves the brave daughters of the general.Notwithstanding the danger, it was impossible to tear you from your mother's bedside; you remained with her to the last, you closed her eyes, you watched there all night, and you would not leave the village till you had seen me plant the little wooden cross over the grave I had dug for her."

Dagobert paused abruptly.A strange, wild neighing, mingled with ferocious roarings, made the soldier start from his seat.He grew pale, and cried: "It is Jovial! my horse! What are they doing to my horse?

With that, opening the door he rushed down the stairs precipitately.

The two sisters clung together, so terrified at the sudden departure of the soldier, that they saw not an enormous hand pass through the broken panes, unfasten the catch of the window, push it violently open, and throw down the lamp placed on the little table, on which was the soldiers's knapsack.The orphans thus found themselves plunged into complete darkness.