No More Learning

For some time indeed the novelist had evinced premonitory symp-
toms of a certain evolution. In the new cycle of Trois Villes'
(Three Cities), he does not show himself in absolute contradiction
with himself. But it seems as if a kind of candid optimism had
attenuated his former black pessimism, as if some vague belated
sensibility had come to him. «Perhaps,” he murmurs, “all is right! »
At least he does not seem far from the belief that all will become
“Let nature work,” he counsels, «let us live! ) And henceforth
he seems to wish to apply himself to disengaging the factors of
a better future. Lourdes) is the cry of eternal suffering, wringing
(
from the heart of ignorant man a pitiful appeal to hopes hidden in
mystery: it is the phase of superstition. Rome' is the appeal to the
supernatural, the second state of human evolution; the age of faith
hardened into routine, into convention, under the administrative genius
of a pontificate which seems to have inherited from ancient Rome
the dream of a universal empire. This dream will never be realized.
The future will not belong to a church. To scientific investigation
only is assured the promise of indefinite duration, and to Zola that
remains the sole guardian and sole mistress of all truth. (Paris,'
the third novel of the series, will be the proclamation of the arrival
of the positive and universal reign of science. In the “Trois Villes,'
as in the Rougon-Macquarts,' the usual faults of the author are seen
side by side with his least disputed merits. Into the mass of hastily
gathered technical details, into the confusion of notions generated by
a superficial vulgarization of knowledge, he has known how to put
order and movement. He sketches with an alert touch; and above
all he succeeds in giving wing to his hyperbolical imagination, bound-
less and eager for the abnormal and fantastic.
The whole is massively but firmly established in this same spirit
of simplification which inspires him in composing an action or in
delineating a type. To a vast and ample outline, usually in sombre
atmosphere, where are thrown up distorted silhouettes, he contributes
numerous reiterated touches, often heavy additions. Accumulation,
repetition — therein lies his whole method. Unlike the Goncourts,
he has not the word or epithet for overruling preoccupation. His
style, at the beginning rather hesitating, afterward surer and richer,
is now both vigorous and careless, often monotonous, — with a fre-
quent mixture of trivial locutions and sonorous adjectives. In short,
the heavy rhythm of the sentences, the crude violence of the colors,
correspond with the inspiration of his great melodramatic frescoes,
of his swarming dioramas. At a distance, the falseness of detail
appears less; the exaggeration less shocking. There is visible a
mass animated with a dense collective life, like a monstrous organ-
ism. The masses, the crowd, have always found in Zola an almost


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EMILE ZOLA
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Homeric singer of their tumults and furies. Their elementary and
quite instinctive psychology puts him at ease. The unacknowledged
romanticism within him evokes them with a sombre lyricism. He
contemplates them with a visionary eye, he makes them stir and
move in compact phalanxes with their outcries and their way of
behavior. In Germinal,' the novel of the proletariat and of social-
ism, and in 'La Débâcle,' the novel of the army and of war, he
has in this respect exercised a powerful mastery. Elements, natural
forces, even material objects, receive from him an obscure and mys-
terious vitality. Under his pen the Sea, the Tavern, the Cathedral,
the Store, the Machine, become real and redoubtable existences.
They rule the creatures of flesh, they devour them in their anger or
break them in their catastrophes. Thus one is brought back to the
pure personification of savages.
And we return at the same time to that diminution of man, to
that degradation of the reasonable and reflecting being, which haunts
all Zola's work. He has often found a way to degrade even his
humblest heroes still more by calumniating them. Under pretext of
a new civilization, he denies violently all the past, destroys all that
is most precious in the human patrimony. Under color of science, he
persists in outraging those inseparable allies, the True, the Good, and
the Beautiful. « Woe,” exclainned Bossuet, woe to the science which
does not turn to love. " One may apply the same sentence with still
more justice to literature and art. Certainly it would not be just not
to render homage to the persevering and courageous patience which
attests a work ample and vast in its barbarity. The more bitterly
must one deplore the too common application of this faith, this ardor,
this force, to sickly exceptions, to unjustifiable vulgarities, to a con-
ception so arbitrary, and when all is said, so insignificant.
«The victory of the idea kills the sect which propagates it,”
Zola has written. We can bear witness that the naturalistic sect is
dead; but the idea it advanced has not conquered. Hatched in a
period of crisis and transition, it responded to an abasement of taste
and morals! Hence the reason of its vogue. As a whole, the work of
its inventor and prophet remains isolated. Instead of showing ency-
clopædic and definitive, like a majestic synthesis of modern times,
it appears only as a factitious edifice both apocalyptic and sordid;
valuable only for some merits of imagination and composition,
superficial merits which will preserve but a few fragments of it, and
those discredited by the recollection of a still-echoing scandal.
.
»
Robert Vallier,


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16292
EMILE ZOLA
GLIMPSES OF NAPOLEON III.
From (La Débâcle) (The Downfall). Copyright 1892, by Cassell Publishing
Company
"no more than sat
T" burning to" relieve himself of the subject that filled his
((
mind, began to relate his experiences of the day before.
“You know I saw the Emperor at Baybel. ”
He was fairly started, and nothing could stop him. He began
by describing the farm-house; a large structure with an interior
court, surrounded by an iron railing, and situated on a gentle
eminence overlooking Mouzon, to the left of the Carignan road.
Then he came back to the Twelfth Corps, whom he had visited
in their camp among the vines on the hillsides; splendid troops
they were, with their equipments brightly shining in the sunlight,
and the sight of them had caused his heart to beat with patriotic
ardor.
"And there I was, sir, when the Emperor, who had alighted
to breakfast and rest himself a bit, came out of the farm-house.
He wore a general's uniform and carried an overcoat across
his arm, although the sun was very hot. He was followed by a
servant bearing a camp-stool. He did not look to me like a well
man; ah no, far from it: his stooping form, the sallowness of his
complexion, the feebleness of his movements, all indicated him to
be in a very bad way. I was not surprised; for the druggist at
Mouzon, when he recommended me to drive on to Baybel, told
me that an aide-de-camp had just been in his shop to get some
medicine — you understand what I mean - medicine for — »
I -
The
presence of his wife and mother prevented him from alluding
more explicitly to the nature of the Emperor's complaint, which
was an obstinate diarrhæa that he had contracted at Chêne, and
which compelled him to make those frequent halts at houses
along the road. "Well, then the attendant opened the camp-
stool and placed it in the shade of a clump of trees at the edge
of a field of wheat, and the Emperor sat down on it. Sitting
there in a limp, dejected attitude, perfectly still, he looked for
all the world like a small shopkeeper taking a sun-bath for his
rheumatism. His dull eyes wandered over the wide horizon,
the Meuse coursing through the valley at his feet, before him the
range of wooded heights whose summits recede and are lost in
the distance, on the left the waving tree-tops of Dieulet forest,


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ÉMILE ZOLA
16293
on the right the verdure-clad eminence of Sommanthe.
He was
surrounded by his military family, aides and officers of rank; and
a colonel of dragoons, who had already applied to me for infor-
mation about the country, had just motioned me not to go away,
when all at once — ” Delaherche rose from his chair, for he had
reached the point where the dramatic interest of his story culmi-
nated, and it became necessary to reinforce words by gestures.
"All at once there was a succession of sharp reports; and right
in front of us, over the wood of Dieulet, shells are seen circling
through the air. It produced on me no more effect than a dis-
play of fireworks in broad daylight, sir, upon my word it didn't!
The people about the Emperor, of course, showed a good deal
of agitation and uneasiness. The colonel of dragoons comes run-
ning up again to ask if I can give them an idea whence the
firing proceeds. I answer him off-hand: 'It is at Beaumont;
there is not the slightest doubt about it. He returns to the Em-
peror, on whose knees an aide-de-camp was unfolding a map.
The Emperor was evidently of opinion that the fighting was
not at Beaumont, for he sent the colonel back to me a third time.
But I couldn't well do otherwise than stick to what I had said
before, could I, now ? - the more that the shells kept flying
through the air, nearer and nearer, following the line of the Mou-
zon road.
And then, sir, as sure as I see you standing there,
,
I saw the Emperor turn his pale face toward me. Yes, sir, he
looked at me a moment with those dim eyes of his, that were
filled with an expression of melancholy and distrust. And then
his face declined upon his map again, and he made no further
movement. »
Delaherche, although he was an ardent Bonapartist at the
time of the plébiscite, had admitted after our early defeats that
the government was responsible for some mistakes; but he stood
up for the dynasty, compassionating and excusing Napoleon III. ,
deceived and betrayed as he was by every one. It was his firm
opinion that the men at whose door should be laid the responsi-
bility for all our disasters, were none other than those Repub-
lican deputies of the Opposition who had stood in the way of
voting the necessary men and money.
"And did the Emperor return to the farm-house ? ” asked
Captain Beaudoin.
“That's more than I can say, my dear sir: I left him sitting
on his stool. It was midday, the battle was drawing nearer, and


## p. 16294 (#648) ##########################################

16294
ÉMILE ZOLA
- SO
»
it occurred to me that it was time to be thinking of my own
return. All that I can tell you besides is, that a general to whom
I pointed out the position of Carignan in the distance, in the
plain to our rear, appeared greatly surprised to learn that the
Belgian frontier lay in that direction, and was only a few miles
away. Ah, that the poor Emperor should have to rely on such
servants ! »
While Delaherche was raising himself on tiptoe, and trying to
peer through the windows of the rez-de-chaussée, an old woman at
his side, some poor day-worker of the neighborhood, with shape-
less form, and hands calloused and distorted by many years of
toil, was mumbling between her teeth:-
"An emperor — I should like to see one once — just once
I could say I had seen him. ”
Suddenly Delaherche exclaimed, seizing Maurice by the arm:-
“See, there he is! at the window to the left. I had a good
view of him yesterday; I can't be mistaken. There, he has just
raised the curtain; see, that pale face, close to the glass. ”
The old woman had overheard him, and stood staring with
wide-open mouth and eyes; for there, full in the window, was an
apparition that resembled a corpse more than a living being: its
eyes were lifeless, its features distorted; even the mustache had
assumed a ghastly whiteness in the final agony. The old woman
was dumbfounded; forthwith she turned her back and marched off
with a look of supreme contempt.
« That thing an emperor! a likely story. ”
A zouave was standing near,- one of those fugitive soldiers
who were in no haste to rejoin their commands. Brandishing
his chassepot and expectorating threats and maledictions, he said
to his companion :-
“Wait! see me put a bullet in his head! ”
Delaherche remonstrated angrily; but by that time the Em-
peror had disappeared. The hoarse murmur of the Meuse con-
tinued uninterruptedly; a wailing lament, inexpressibly mournful,
seemed to pass above them through the air, where the darkness
was gathering intensity. Other sounds rose in the distance, like
the hollow muttering of the rising storm: were they the March!
march! » — that terrible order from Paris which had driven that
ill-starred man onward day by day, dragging behind him along
the roads of his defeat the irony of his imperial escort, until now
he was brought face to face with the ruin he had foreseen and


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ÉMILE ZOLA
16295
.
-
come forth to meet ? What multitudes of brave men were to lay
down their lives for his mistakes; and how complete the wreck,
in all his being, of that sick man,- that sentimental dreamer,
awaiting in gloomy silence the fulfillment of his destiny!
“O M. Delaherche! isn't this dreadful! Here, quick! this
way, if you would like to see the Emperor. ”
On the left of the corridor a door stood ajar; and through the
narrow opening a glimpse could be had of the sovereign, who
had resumed his weary, anguished tramp between the fireplace
and the window. Back and forth he shuffled with heavy, drag-
ging steps, and ceased not, despite his unendurable suffering.
An aide-de-camp had just entered the room, - it was he who had
-
failed to close the door behind him,- and Delaherche heard the
Emperor ask him in a sorrowfully reproachful voice:-
«What is the reason of this continued firing, sir, after I gave
orders to hoist the white flag ? »
The torture to him had become greater than he could bear,-
this never-ceasing cannonade, that seemed to grow more furious
with every minute. Every time he approached the window it
pierced him to the heart. More spilling of blood, more useless
squandering of human life! At every moment the piles of
corpses were rising higher on the battle-field, and his was the re-
sponsibility. The compassionate instincts that entered so largely
into his nature revolted at it, and more than ten times already
he had asked that question of those who approached him.
"I gave orders to raise the white flag: tell me, why do they
continue firing ?
The aide-de-camp made answer in a voice so low that Dela-
herche failed to catch its purport. The Emperor, moreover,
seemed not to pause to listen, drawn by some irresistible attrac-
tion to that window; at which, each time he approached it, he
was greeted by that terrible salvo of artillery that rent and tore
his being. His pallor was greater even than it had been before;
his poor, pinched, wan face, on which were still visible traces
of the rouge which had been applied that morning, bore witness
to his anguish.
At that moment a short, quick-motioned man in dust-soiled
uniform, whom Delaherche recognized as General Lebrun, hur-
riedly crossed the corridor and pushed open the door, without
waiting to be announced. And scarcely was he in the room
when again was heard the Emperor's so oft repeated question:


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16296
ÉMILE ZOLA
“Why do they continue to fire, General, when I have given
orders to hoist the white flag? ”
The aide-de-camp left the apartment, shutting the door behind
him, and Delaherche never knew what was the general's answer.
The vision had faded from his sight.
THE ATTACK ON THE MILL
Reprinted by permission of Copeland & Day, publishers
I
LD Merlier's mill was in high feather that fine summer even-
-
to end, ready for the guests. All the country knew that
on that day Merlier's daughter Françoise was to be betrothed
to Dominique, - a fellow who had the name of being an idle
loafer, but whom the women for eight miles round looked at
with glistening eyes, so well-favored was he.
This mill of old Merlier's was a real delight. It stood just in
the middle of Rocreuse, at the point where the highway makes
a sharp turn. The village has only one street, -two rows of
hovels, one row on each side of the road: but there at the corner
the fields spread out wide; great trees, following the course of the
Morelle, cover the depths of the valley with a magnificent shade.
There is not in all Lorraine a more lovely bit of nature. To the
right and left, thick woods of century-old trees rise up the gentle
slopes, filling the horizon with a sea of verdure; while towards
the south the plain stretches out marvelously fertile, unfolding
without end its plots of land divided by live hedges. But what
above all else gives Rocreuse its charm, is the coolness of this
green nook in the hottest days of July and August. The Mo-
relle comes down from the Gagny woods, and it seems as if it
brought with it the coolness of the foliage beneath which it flows
for miles: it brings the murmuring sounds, the icy and seques-
tered shade, of the forests. And it is not the only source of
coolness: all sorts of running water babble beneath the trees;
at every step, springs gush forth; you feel, while following the
narrow paths, as if subterranean lakes were forcing their way
through the moss, and taking advantage of the smallest fissures,
at the foot of the trees, between rocks, to overflow in crystal-
line fountains. The whispering voices of these brooks rise so


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ÉMILE ZOLA
16297
multitudinous and high that they drown the bullfinches' song.
You would think yourself in some enchanted park, with water-
falls on every hand.
Below, the meadows are soaking wet. Gigantic chestnuts cast
their black shadows. Along the edge of the fields, long lines of
poplars spread out their rustling drapery. There are two avenues
of huge sycamore maples rising across the fields, up toward the
old château of Gagny, now in ruins. In this perpetually watered
soil the weeds grow rank. It is like a flower-garden lying be-
tween two wooded hillsides; but a natural garden, in which the
lawns are fields, and giant trees trace out colossal flower-beds.
When the sun at noon casts its rays straight down, the shadows
turn blue, the scorched weeds slumber in the heat, while an icy
shudder runs along beneath the foliage.
It was there that old Merlier's mill enlivened a nook of rank
green growth with its clacking. The building, of planks and
mortar, seemed as old as the world. Half of it dipped into the
Morelle, which at this point widens out into a clear, rounded
basin. A dam was contrived to let the water fall from a height
of several metres upon the mill-wheel, which turned creaking
with the asthmatic cough of a faithful servant grown old in the
household. When people advised old Merlier to change it for a
new one, he would shake his head, saying that a young wheel
would be lazier and not so well up in its business; and he
mended the old one with everything that came to hand, - staves
of casks, bits of rusty iron, zinc, lead. The wheel seemed all the
gayer for it, - its outline grown strange, all beplumed with weeds
and moss. When the water beat against it with its silver stream,
it would cover itself with beads; you saw it deck out its strange
carcass with a sparkling bedizenment of mother-of-pearl necklaces.
The part of the mill that thus dipped into the Morelle looked
like a barbarous ark stranded there. A good half of the struct-
ure was built on piles. The water ran in under the board floor;
there too were holes, well known in the country for the eels and
enormous crawfish caught there. Above the fall, the basin was
as clear as a mirror; and when the wheel did not cloud it with
its foam, you could see shoals of large fish swimming there with
the deliberateness of a naval squadron. A broken flight of steps
led down to the river, near a stake to which a boat was moored.
A wooden balcony ran above the wheel. Windows opened upon


## p. 16298 (#652) ##########################################

16298
ÉMILE ZOLA
it, cut at irregular distances. This pellmell of corners, little
walls, L's added as an afterthought, beams and bits of roof, gave
the mill the appearance of an old dismantled citadel.
But ivy
had grown there; all sorts of climbing vines had stopped up the
too wide cracks and thrown a cloak of green over the old dwell-
ing. Young ladies who passed by would sketch old Merlier's
mill in their albums.
Toward the road the house was stouter. A stone gateway
opened upon the main court-yard, which was bordered on the
right by sheds and stables. Near a well a huge elm covered
half the court-yard with its shade. At the farther end, the house
showed the line of its four first-story windows, surmounted by a
pigeon-house. Old Merlier's only bit of dandyism was to have
its wall whitewashed every ten years. It had just been whitened,
and dazzled the village when the sun lighted it up in the middle
of the day.
For twenty years old Merlier had been mayor of Rocreuse.
He was esteemed for the fortune he had managed to make. He
was supposed to be worth something like eighty thousand francs,
laid up sou by sou. When he married Madeleine Guillard, who
brought him the mill as her dowry, he hardly possessed anything
but his two arms; but Madeleine never repented her choice, so
well did he manage the affairs of the household. Now that his
wife was dead, he remained a widower with his daughter Fran-
çoise. No doubt he might have taken a rest, left his mill to
sleep in the moss; but he would have been too much bored, and
the house would seem dead to him. He kept on working for the
fun of it.
Old Merlier was then a tall old man, with a long, silent face,
never laughing, but very jolly internally nevertheless. He had
been chosen for mayor on account of his money; and also for
the fine air he knew how to assume when he married a couple.
Françoise Merlier was just eighteen. She did not pass for
one of the beauties of the country-side: she was too puny. Up
to the age of eleven, she was, even ugly. No one in Rocreuse
could understand how the daughter of father and mother Merlier
-- both of them ruggedly built -- could grow up so ill, and, so to
speak, grudgingly. But at fifteen, although still delicate, she had
the prettiest little face in the world. She had black hair, black
eyes, and at the same time was all rosy; a mouth that laughed


## p. 16299 (#653) ##########################################

EMILE ZOLA
16299
-
all the time, dimpled cheeks, a clear brow on which there seemed
to rest a crown of sunshine. Although puny for the neighbor-
hood, she was not thin— far from it; people only meant that she
could not shoulder a sack of grain: but she grew very plump
with time, and stood a good chance of ending by being round and
dainty as a quail. Only her father's long spells of speechlessness
had made her thoughtful at an early age. If she was always
laughing, it was to give others pleasure. At bottom she was
serious.
Naturally all the country-side courted her,- even more for her
dollars than for her niceness. And at last she made a choice
that had just scandalized the country. On the other side of
the Morelle lived a young fellow named Dominique Penquer. He
did not belong in Rocreuse. Ten years before, he had come
there from Belgium, to take possession of a legacy from an
uncle of his who owned a little piece of property on the very
outskirts of the Gagny forest, just opposite the mill, within a
few gunshots. He came to sell this property, he said, and go
home again.
But the country fascinated him, it seems, for he
did not stir. He was seen tilling his bit of field, — picking a
few vegetables, on which he lived. He fished, he went shooting;
several times the gamekeepers just missed catching him and
reporting him to the authorities. This free life, the material
resources of which the peasants could not well account for, had
at last given him a bad name. He was vaguely spoken of as
a poacher. At all events he was lazy, for he was often found
asleep in the grass at times when he ought to have been at work.
The hut in which he lived, under the first trees of the forest,
did not look like an honest fellow's dwelling either.
had business with the wolves of the old ruins of Gagny it would
not have surprised the old women. Yet the girls would, now
and then, have the audacity to stand up for him; for this suspi-
cious man was a superb fellow, tall and supple as a poplar, with
a very white skin, fair beard, and hair that shone like gold in
the sun.
So one fine morning, Françoise declared to her father
that she loved Dominique, and that she would never consent to
marry any one else.
You can imagine what a blow old Merlier received that day.
He said nothing, as usual. He always looked thoughtful in the
face; only his internal jollity stopped sparkling in his eyes. The
two did not speak for a week. Françoise too was very grave.


## p. 16300 (#654) ##########################################

16300
ÉMILE ZOLA
What bothered old Merlier was to make out how in the world
that rascal of a poacher could have bewitched his daughter.
Dominique had never come to the mill. The miller began to
watch him, and espied the gallant on the other side of the Mo-
relle, lying in the grass and pretending to be asleep. The thing
was clear: they must have fallen in love, making sheep's-eyes at
each other across the mill-wheel.
Meanwhile another week passed by. Françoise looked more
and more solemn. Old Merlier still said nothing. Then one
evening he brought Dominique home with him, without a word.
Françoise was just setting the table. She did not seem aston-
ished; she only added another plate and knife and fork: but
the little dimples appeared once more in her cheeks, and her
laugh came back again. That morning old Merlier had gone
after Dominique to his hut on the outskirts of the wood. There
the two men had talked for three hours, with closed doors and
windows.
No one
ever knew what they found to say to each
other. What was certain was, that on coming out, old Merlier
already treated Dominique like his own son. No doubt the old
man had found the man he was after a fine fellow - in this
lazybones who lay in the grass to make the girls fall in love
with him.
All Rocreuse gossiped. The women in the doorways did not
run dry of tittle-tattle about old Merlier's folly in taking a scape-
grace into his household. He let them talk on. Perhaps he
remembered his own marriage. Neither had he a red sou, when
he married Madeleine and her mill; but that did not prevent
his making a good husband. Besides, Dominique cut the gossip
short by going to work with such a will that the whole country
marveled at it. It so happened that the miller's boy had just
been drafted; and Dominique would never hear of his hiring
another. He carried the sacks, drove the cart, struggled with
the old wheel when it had to be begged hard before it would
turn; and all with such a will that people would come to look at
him, for sheer pleasure. Old Merlier laughed his quiet laugh.
He was very proud of having scented out this fellow. There is
nothing like love for putting heart into young people.
In the midst of all this hard work, Françoise and Dominique
adored each other. They hardly ever spoke, but they looked at
each other with smiling tenderness. So far, old Merlier had not
said a single word about the marriage; and they both respected


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ÉMILE ZOLA
16301
this silence, awaiting the old man's pleasure. At last, one day
about the middle of July, he had three tables set out in the
court-yard under the big elm, inviting his friends in Rocreuse
to come and take a drink with him in the evening. When the
court-yard was full, and every one had his glass in his hand, old
Merlier raised his very high, saying: -
« This is for the pleasure of announcing to you that Fran-
çoise will marry that fellow there in a month, on St. Louis's
day. ”
Then they clinked glasses noisily. Everybody laughed. But
old Merlier, raising his voice, went on:-
Dominique, kiss your intended. That must be done. "
And they kissed each other, very red, while the crowd laughed
still louder. It was a real jollification. A small cask was emp-
tied. Then when only the intimate friends were left, they chat-
ted quietly. Night had come,-a starlit and very clear night.
Dominique and Françoise, sitting side by side on a bench, said
nothing. An old peasant spoke of the war the Emperor had
declared with Prussia. All the boys in the village were already
gone. The day before, troops had passed through. There would
be hard knocks going.
“Bah! ” said old Merlier, with a happy man's egoism.
<< Dom-
inique is a foreigner,- he won't go. And if the Prussians come,
he will be here to defend his wife. ”
This notion that the Prussians might come seemed a good
joke. They were to be given an A i thrashing, and it would be
soon over.
“I've seen 'em, I've seen 'em,” the old peasant said over and
over again.
There was a silence. Then they clinked glasses once more.
Françoise and Dominique had heard nothing; they had taken
each other softly by the hand, behind the bench, so that no one
could see them; and it seemed so good that they stayed there,
their eyes lost in the depths of the darkness.
How warm and splendid a night! The village was falling
asleep on both sides of the road, tranquil as a child.
You only
heard from time to time the crowing of some cock, waked too
From the great woods hard by came long breaths that
passed like caresses over the roofs. The meadows with their
black shadows put on a mysterious and secluded majesty, while
all the running waters that gushed forth into the darkness
I
soon.


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seemed to be the cool and rhythmic breathing of the sleeping
country. At moments the mill-wheel, fast asleep, seemed to be
dreaming, like those old watch-dogs that bark while snoring. It
creaked, it talked all by itself, lulled by the falls of the Morelle,
whose sheet of water gave forth the sustained and musical note
of an organ-pipe. Never had more wide-spread peace fallen over
a happier corner of the earth.
II
Just a month later, day for day, on St. Louis's eve, Ro-
creuse was in dismay. The Prussians had beaten the Emperor,
and were advancing toward the village by forced marches. For
a week past, people passing along the road had announced the
Prussians,—« They are at Lormière; they are at Novelles: ” and
hearing that they were approaching so fast, Rocreuse thought
every morning to see them come down by the Gagny woods.
Still they did not come: this frightened the inhabitants still
more. They would surely fall upon the village at night, and cut
everybody's throat.
The night before, a little before daybreak, there had been an
alarm. The inhabitants had waked up, hearing a great noise
of men
on the road.
The women were just falling on their
knees and crossing themselves, when red trousers were recognized
through cracks of windows prudently opened. It was a detach-
ment of French. The captain immediately asked for the mayor
of the place, and stayed at the mill, after talking with old Mer-
lier.
The sun rose gayly that day. It would be hot at noon. Over
the woods floated a yellow light; while in the distance above the
meadows, rose white vapors. The clean, pretty village awoke in
the cool air; and the country, with its river and springs, had
the dew-sprinkled loveliness of a nosegay. But this fine weather
made no one laugh. They had just seen the captain walk round
about the mill, examine the neighboring houses, cross to the
other side of the Morelle, and from there study the country
through a spyglass; old Merlier, who was with him, seemed to
be explaining the country to him. Then the captain stationed
soldiers behind walls, behind trees, in holes in the ground. The
bulk of the detachment was stationed in the court-yard of the


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C
(
mill. So there was to be a fight? And when old Merlier came
back, he was plied with questions. He gave a long nod with his
head, without speaking. Yes, there was to be a fight.
Françoise and Dominique were in the court-yard, looking at
him. At last he took his pipe out of his mouth and said sim-
ply:--
"Ah! my poor children, there will be no wedding for you to-
morrow! »
Dominique, his lips set, a line of anger across his forehead,
raised himself up on tiptoe from time to time, with his eyes fixed
on the Gagny woods, as if he longed to see the Prussians come.
Françoise, very pale, serious, came and went, supplying the sol-
diers with what they needed. They were making their soup in
a corner of the court-yard, and joking while waiting for their
meal.
Meanwhile the captain seemed delighted. He had examined
the rooms and the great hall of the mill, looking out upon the
river. Now, sitting by the well, he was talking with old Merlier.
“You have a real fortress here,” said he. “We ought to hold
out till evening. The beggars are late. They should be here by
this time.
The miller looked serious. He saw his mill flaming like a
torch; but he did not complain, thinking it useless.
He only
opened his mouth to say:--
“ You ought to have some one hide the boat behind the wheel.
There is a hole there that will hold her. Perhaps she may be
of use. "
The captain gave an order, This captain was a handsome
man of about forty, tall and with a kindly face. The sight of
Françoise and Dominique seemed to please him. He was inter-
ested in them, as if he had forgotten the coming struggle. He
followed Françoise about with his eyes, and his look told plainly
that he found her charming. Then turning to Dominique:
“So you're not in the army, my boy? ” he asked abruptly.
"I'm a foreigner,” the young man answered.
The captain seemed only half pleased with this reason. He
winked and smiled. Françoise was pleasanter company than can-
non. Then, seeing him smile, Dominique added:-
“I'm a foreigner, but I can put a bullet into an apple at five
hundred metres. — See, my gun's there, behind you. "
>>
(


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ÉMILE ZOLA
(
was
« It may be of use to you,” the captain replied simply.
Françoise had come up, trembling a little. And without
minding the people there, Dominique took both the hands she
held out to him, and pressed them in his, as if to take her under
his protection. The captain smiled again, but added not a word.
He remained sitting, his sword between his legs, his eyes looking
at vacancy, as if in a dream.
It was already two o'clock. It was growing very hot. There
a dead silence. In the court-yard, under the sheds, the
soldiers had fallen to eating their soup. Not a sound came
from the village, in which the people had barricaded their houses,
doors, and windows. A dog left alone in the road was howling.
From the neighboring woods and meadows, motionless in the
heat, came a far-off voice, long sustained, made up of every sep-
arate breath of air. A cuckoo was singing. Then the silence
spread itself over the country also.
And in this slumbering air a shot suddenly burst forth. The
captain sprang up quickly; the soldiers dropped their plates of
soup, still half full.
In a few seconds every man was at his post
for the fight; the mill was occupied from top to bottom. Yet
the captain, who had gone out upon the road, could make out
nothing: to the right and left the road stretched out, empty and
all white. A second shot was heard, and still nothing, not a
shadow; but on turning round, he espied, over towards Gagny,
between two trees, a light cloudlet of smoke wafted away like
gossamer. The wood was still profoundly quiet.
« The rascals have taken to the forest,” he muttered. (They
know we are here. ”
Then the firing kept up, harder and harder, between the
French soldiers stationed round the mill and the Prussians hidden
behind the trees. The bullets whistled across the Morelle, with-
out occasioning any loss on one side or the other. The shots
were irregular, coming from every bush; and all you saw was
still the little clouds of smoke gently wafted away by the wind,
This lasted for nearly two hours. The officer hummed a tune, as
if indifferent. Françoise and Dominique, who had stayed in
the court-yard, raised themselves up on tiptoe and looked over
the wall. They were particularly interested in watching a little
soldier, stationed on the brink of the Morelle, behind the hulk of
an old boat; he was flat on his belly, watched his chance, fired


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his shot, then let himself slide down into a ditch a little behind
him, to reload his rifle; and his movements were so droll, so
cunning, so supple, that it made one smile to see him. He must
have espied the head of some Prussian, for he got up quickly
and brought his piece to his shoulder; but before he fired,
he gave a cry, turned over upon himself, and rolled into the
ditch, where his legs stiffened out with the momentary convuls-
ive jerk of those of a chicken with its neck wrung. The little
soldier had received a bullet full in the breast. He was the first
man killed.
Instinctively Françoise seized hold of Dominique's
hand and squeezed it with a nervous grip.
“Don't stay there,” said the captain. « The bullets reach
here. "
As he spoke, a little sharp stroke was heard in the old elm,
and a branch fell in zigzags through the air; but the young peo-
ple did not stir, riveted there by anxiety at the sight. On the
outskirts of the wood, a Prussian came out suddenly from behind
a tree, as from a side scene, beating the air with his arms, and
tumbling over backwards. And then nothing stirred: the two
dead men seemed to sleep in the dazzling sunshine; you saw
one in the torpid landscape. Even the crack of the shots
stopped. Only the Morelle kept up its silver-toned whispering.
Old Merlier looked at the captain in surprise, as if to ask if
it were over.
"Here it comes,” the latter muttered. “Look out! Don't stay
there. "
He had not finished speaking when there came
a terrific
volley. It was as if the great elm were mowed down; a cloud
of leaves whirled about them. Luckily the Prussians had fired
too high. Dominique dragged, almost carried Françoise away;
while old Merlier followed them, crying out:-
«Go down to the little cellar: the walls are solid. ”
But they did not mind him; they went into the great hall
where ten soldiers or so were waiting in silence, with shutters
closed, peeping through the cracks. The captain had stayed
alone in the court-yard, crouched down behind the little wall,
while the furious volleys continued. The soldiers he had sta-
tioned outside yielded ground only foot by foot. Yet they came
in, one by one, crawling on their faces, when the enemy had
dislodged them from their hiding-places. Their orders were to
no
»
XXVI-I020


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ÉMILE ZOLA
gain time, not to show themselves; so that the Prussians might
not know what numbers they had before them. Another hour
went by; and as a sergeant came up, saying that there were
only two or three men left outside, the officer looked at his
watch, muttering:-
« Half after two. Come, we must hold out four hours. ”
He had the gate of the court-yard shut, and all preparations
were made for an energetic resistance. As the Prussians were
on the other side of the Morelle, an immediate assault was not
to be feared. To be sure, there was a bridge, a little over a
mile off, but they doubtless did not know of its existence; and it
was hardly probable that they would try to ford the river. So
the officer merely had the road watched. The whole effort was
to be made on the side toward the fields,
The firing had once more ceased. The mill seemed dead
beneath the hot sun. Not a shutter was opened, not a sound
came from the inside. Little by little, meanwhile, the Prussians
showed themselves at the outskirts of the Gagny wood.