第96章
DAGOBERT'S WIFE.
The following scenes occur in Paris, on the morrow of the day when the shipwrecked travellers were received in Cardoville House.
Nothing can be more gloomy than the aspect of the Rue Brise-Miche, one end of which leads into the Rue Saint-Merry, and the other into the little square of the Cloister, near the church.At this end, the street, or rather alley--for it is not more than eight feet wide--is shut in between immense black, muddy dilapidated walls, the excessive height of which excludes both air and light; hardly, during the longest days of the year, is the sun able to throw into it a few straggling beams; whilst, during the cold damps of winter, a chilling fog, which seems to penetrate everything, hangs constantly above the miry pavement of this species of oblong well.
It was about eight o'clock in the evening; by the faint, reddish light of the street lamp, hardly visible through the haze, two men, stopping at the angle of one of those enormous walls, exchanged a few words together.
"So," said one, "you understand all about it.You are to watch in the street, till you see them enter No.5."
"All right!" answered the other.
"And when you see 'em enter so as to make quite sure of the game, go up to Frances Baudoin's room -"
"Under the cloak of asking where the little humpbacked workwoman lives--
the sister of that gay girl, the Queen of the Bacchanals."
"Yes--and you must try and find out her address also--from her humpbacked sister, if possible--for it is very important.Women of her feather change their nests like birds, and we have lost track of her."
"Make yourself easy; I will do my best with Hump, to learn where her sister hangs out."
"And, to give you steam, I'11 wait for you at the tavern opposite the Cloister, and we'll have a go of hot wine on your return."
"I'll not refuse, for the night is deucedly cold."
"Don't mention it! This morning the water friz on my sprinkling-brush, and I turned as stiff as a mummy in my chair at the church-door.Ah, my boy! a distributor of holy water is not always upon roses!"
"Luckily, you have the pickings--"
"Well, well--good luck to you! Don't forget the Fiver, the little passage next to the dyer's shop."
"Yes, yes--all right!" and the two men separated.
One proceeded to the Cloister Square; the other towards the further end of the street, where it led into the Rue Saint-Merry.This latter soon found the number of the house he sought--a tall, narrow building, having, like all the other houses in the street, a poor and wretched appearance.
When he saw he was right, the man commenced walking backwards and forwards in front of the door of No.5.
If the exterior of these buildings was uninviting, the gloom and squalor of the interior cannot be described.The house No.5 was, in a special degree, dirty and dilapidated.The water, which oozed from the wall, trickled down the dark and filthy staircase.On the second floor, a wisp of straw had been laid on the narrow landing-place, for wiping the feet on; but this straw, being now quite rotten, only served to augment the sickening odor, which arose from want of air, from damp, and from the putrid exhalations of the drains.The few openings, cut at rare intervals in the walls of the staircase, could hardly admit more than some faint rays of glimmering light.
In this quarter, one of the most populous in Paris, such houses as these, poor, cheerless, and unhealthy, are generally inhabited by the working classes.The house in question was of the number.A dyer occupied the ground floor; the deleterious vapors arising from his vats added to the stench of the whole building.On the upper stories, several artisans lodged with their families, or carried on their different trades.Up four flights of stairs was the lodging of Frances Baudoin, wife of Dagobert.It consisted of one room, with a closet adjoining, and was now lighted by a single candle.Agricola occupied a garret in the roof.
Old grayish paper, broken here and there by the cracks covered the crazy wall, against which rested the bed; scanty curtains, running upon an iron rod, concealed the windows; the brick floor, not polished, but often washed, had preserved its natural color.At one end of this room was a round iron stove, with a large pot for culinary purposes.On the wooden table, painted yellow, marbled with brown, stood a miniature house made of iron--a masterpiece of patience and skill, the work of Agricola Baudoin, Dagobert's son.
A plaster crucifix hung up against the wall, surrounded by several branches of consecrated box-tree, and various images of saints, very coarsely colored, bore witness to the habits of the soldier's wife.
Between the windows stood one of those old walnut-wood presses, curiously fashioned, and almost black with time; an old arm-chair, covered with green cotton velvet (Agricola's first present to his mother), a few rush-
bottomed chairs, and a worktable on which lay several bags of coarse, brown cloth, completed the furniture of this room, badly secured by a worm-eaten door.The adjoining closet contained a few kitchen and household utensils.
Mean and poor as this interior may perhaps appear, it would not seem so to the greater number of artisans; for the bed was supplied with two mattresses, clean sheets, and a warm counterpane; the old-fashioned press contained linen; and, moreover, Dagobert's wife occupied all to herself a room as large as those in which numerous families, belonging to honest and laborious workmen, often live and sleep huddled together--only too happy if the boys and girls can have separate beds, or if the sheets and blankets are not pledged at the pawnbroker's.
Frances Baudoin, seated beside the small stove, which, in the cold and damp weather, yielded but little warmth, was busied in preparing her son Agricola's evening meal.