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Paul and Virginia from the French of J.B.H. de Saint Pierre

Page 19

by Bernardin de Saint-Pierre

funeralprocession, with their muskets reversed, their drums muffled, and sendingforth slow dismal sounds. Eight young ladies of the most considerablefamilies of the island, dressed in white, and bearing palms in their hands,supported the pall of their amiable companion, which was strewed withflowers. They were followed by a band of children chanting hymns, and bythe governor, his field officers, all the principal inhabitants of theisland, and an immense crowd of people.

  "This funeral solemnity had been ordered by the administration of thecountry, who were desirous of rendering honours to the virtue of Virginia.But when the progression arrived at the foot of this mountain, at the sightof those cottages, of which she had long been the ornament and happiness,and which her loss now filled with despair, the funeral pomp wasinterrupted, the hymns and anthems ceased, and the plain resounded withsighs and lamentations. Companies of young girls ran from the neighbouringplantations to touch the coffin of Virginia with their scarfs, chaplets,and crowns of flowers, invoking her as a saint. Mothers asked of heaven achild like Virginia; lovers, a heart as faithful; the poor, as tender afriend; and the slaves, as kind a mistress.

  "When the procession had reached the place of interment, the negresses ofMadagascar, and the caffres of Mosambiac, placed baskets of fruit aroundthe corpse, and hung pieces of stuff upon the neighbouring trees, accordingto the custom of their country. The Indians of Bengal, and of the coast ofMalabar, brought cages filled with birds, which they set at liberty uponher coffin. Thus did the loss of this amiable object affect the natives ofdifferent countries, and thus was the ritual of various religions breathedover the tomb of unfortunate virtue.

  "She was interred near the church of the Shaddock Grove, upon the westernside, at the foot of a copse of bamboos, where, in coming from mass withher mother and Margaret, she loved to repose herself, seated by him whomshe called her brother.

  "On his return from the funeral solemnity, Monsieur de la Bourdonnais camehither, followed by part of his numerous train. He offered Madame de laTour and her friend all the assistance which it was in his power to bestow.After expressing his indignation at the conduct of her unnatural aunt, headvanced to Paul, and said every thing which he thought most likely tosoothe and console him. 'Heaven is my witness,' said he, 'that I wished toensure your happiness, and that of your family. My dear friend, you must goto France: I will obtain a commission for you, and during your absence willtake the same care of your mother as if she were my own.' He then offeredhim his hand; but Paul drew away, and turned his head, unable to bear hissight.

  "I remained at the plantation of my unfortunate friends, that I mightrender to them and Paul those offices of friendship which soften, thoughthey cannot cure, calamity. At the end of three weeks Paul was able towalk, yet his mind seemed to droop in proportion as his frame gatheredstrength. He was insensible to every thing; his look was vacant; and whenspoken to, he made no reply. Madame de la Tour, who was dying, said to himoften, 'My son, while I look at you, I think I see Virginia.' At the nameof Virginia he shuddered, and hastened from her, notwithstanding theentreaties of his mother, who called him back to her friend. He used towander into the garden, and seat himself at the foot of Virginia's cocoatree, with his eyes fixed upon the fountain. The surgeon to the governor,who had shown the most humane attention to Paul, and the whole family, toldus that, in order to cure that deep melancholy which had taken possessionof his mind, we must allow him to do whatever he pleased, withoutcontradiction, as the only means of conquering his inflexible silence.

  "I resolved to follow this advice. The first use which Paul made of hisreturning strength was to absent himself from the plantation. Beingdetermined not to lose sight of him, I set out immediately, and desiredDomingo to take some provisions and accompany us. Paul's strength andspirits seemed renewed as he descended the mountain. He took the road ofthe Shaddock Grove; and when he was near the church, in the Alley ofBamboos, he walked directly to the spot where he saw some new-laid earth,and there kneeling down, and raising up his eyes to heaven, he offered up along prayer, which appeared to me a symptom of returning reason; since thismark of confidence in the Supreme Being showed that his mind began toresume its natural functions. Domingo and I followed his example, fell uponour knees, and mingled our prayers with his. When he arose, he bent hisway, paying little attention to us, towards the northern part of theisland. As we knew that he was not only ignorant of the spot where the bodyof Virginia was laid, but even whether it had been snatched from the waves,I asked him why he had offered up his prayer at the foot of those bamboos.He answered, 'We have been there so often!' He continued his course untilwe reached the borders of the forest, when night came on. I prevailed withhim to take some nourishment; and we slept upon the grass, at the foot of atree. The next day I thought he seemed disposed to trace back his steps;for, after having gazed a considerable time upon the church of the ShaddockGrove with its avenues of bamboo stretching along the plain, he made amotion as if he would return; but, suddenly plunging into the forest, hedirected his course to the north. I judged what was his design, from whichI endeavoured to dissuade him in vain. At noon he arrived at that part ofthe island called the Gold Dust. He rushed to the seashore, opposite to thespot where the Saint Geran perished. At the sight of the Isle of Amber andits channel, then smooth as a mirror, he cried, 'Virginia! Oh, my dearVirginia!' and fell senseless. Domingo and myself carried him into thewoods, where we recovered him with some difficulty. He made an effort toreturn to the seashore; but, having conjured him not to renew his ownanguish and ours by those cruel remembrances, he took another direction.During eight days he sought every spot where he had once wandered with thecompanion of his childhood. He traced the path by which she had gone tointercede for the slave of the Black River. He gazed again upon the banksof the Three Peaks, where she had reposed herself when unable to walkfurther, and upon that part of the wood where they lost their way. Allthose haunts, which recalled the inquietudes, the sports, the repasts, thebenevolence of her he loved, the river of the Sloping Mountain, my house,the neighbouring cascade, the papaw tree she had planted, the mossy downswhere she loved to run, the openings of the forest where she used to sing,called forth successively the tears of hopeless passion; and those veryechoes which had so often resounded their mutual shouts of joy, now onlyrepeated those accents of despair, 'Virginia! Oh, my dear Virginia!'

  "While he led this savage and wandering life, his eyes became sunk andhollow, his skin assumed a yellow tint, and his health rapidly decayed.Convinced that present sufferings are rendered more acute by the bitterrecollection of past pleasures, and that the passions gather strength insolitude, I resolved to tear my unfortunate friend from those scenes whichrecalled the remembrance of his loss, and to lead him to a more busy partof the island. With this view, I conducted him to the inhabited heights ofWilliams, which he had never visited, and where agriculture and commerceever occasioned much bustle and variety. A crowd of carpenters wereemployed in hewing down the trees, while others were sawing planks.Carriages were passing and repassing on the roads. Numerous herds of oxenand troops of horses were feeding on those ample meadows, over which anumber of habitations were scattered. On many spots the elevation of thesoil was favourable to the culture of European trees: ripe corn waved itsyellow sheaves upon the plains: strawberry plants flourished in theopenings of the woods, and hedges of rose bushes along the roads. Thefreshness of the air, by giving a tension to the nerves, was favourable tothe Europeans. From those heights, situated near the middle of the island,and surrounded by extensive forests, you could neither discern Port Louis,the church of the Shaddock Grove, nor any other object which could recallto Paul the remembrance of Virginia. Even the mountains, which appear ofvarious shapes on the side of Port Louis, present nothing to the eye fromthose plains but a long promontory, stretching itself in a straight andperpendicular line, from whence arise lofty pyramids of rocks, on thesummits of which the clouds repose.

  "To those scenes I conducted Paul, and kept him continually in action,walking with him in
rain and sunshine, night and day, and contriving thathe should lose himself in the depths of forests, leading him over untilledgrounds, and endeavouring, by violent fatigue, to divert his mind from itsgloomy meditations, and change the course of his reflections, by hisignorance of the paths where we wandered. But the soul of a lover findseverywhere the traces of the object beloved. The night and the day, thecalm of solitude, and the tumult of crowds, time itself, while it casts theshade of oblivion over so many other remembrances, in vain would tear thattender and sacred recollection from the heart, which, like the needle, whentouched by the loadstone, however it may have been forced into agitation,it is no sooner left to repose, than it turns to the pole by which it isattracted. When I inquired of Paul, while we wandered amidst the plains ofWilliams, 'Where are we now going?' he pointed to the north and

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