by Edmond About
CHAPTER IV.
THE VICTIM.
"My dear Leon," said M. Renault, "you remind me of a collegecommencement. We have listened to your dissertation just as they listento the Latin discourse of the professor of rhetoric; there are always inthe audience a majority which learns nothing from it, and a minoritywhich understands nothing of it. But every body listens patiently, onaccount of the sensations which are to come by and by. M. Martout and Iare acquainted with Meiser's works, and those of his distinguishedpupil, M. Pouchet; you have, then, said too much that is in them, if youintended to speak for our benefit; and you have not said enough that isin them for these ladies and gentlemen who know nothing of the existingdiscussions regarding the vital and organic principles.
"Is life a principle of action which animates the organs and puts theminto play? Is it not, on the contrary, merely the result oforganization--the play of various functions of organized matter? This isa problem of the highest importance, which would interest the ladiesthemselves, if one were to place it plainly before them. It would besufficient to say: 'We inquire whether there is a vital principle--thesource of all functions of the body, or if life be not merely the resultof the regular play of the organs? The vital principle, in the eyes ofMeiser and his disciple, does not exist; if it really existed, they say,one could not understand how it can leave a man and a tardigrade whenthey are desiccated, and return to them again when they are soaked.'Now, if there be no vital principle, all the metaphysical and moraltheories which have been hypothecated on its existence, must bereconstructed. These ladies have listened to you patiently, it is butjustice to them to admit; but all that they have been able to gatherfrom your slightly Latinish discourse, is that you have given them adissertation instead of the romance you promised. But we all forgive youfor the sake of the mummy you are going to show us. Open the colonel'sbox."
"We've well earned the sight!" cried Clementine, laughing.
"But suppose you were to get frightened?"
"I'd have you know, sir, that I'm not afraid of anybody, not even oflive colonels!"
Leon took his bunch of keys and opened the long oak box on which he hadbeen seated. The lid being raised, they saw a great leaden casket whichenclosed a magnificent walnut box carefully polished on the outside, andlined on the inside with white silk, and padded. The others broughttheir lamps and candles near, and the colonel of the 23d of the lineappeared as if he were in a chapel illuminated for his lying in state.
One would have said that the man was asleep. The perfect preservation ofthe body attested the paternal care of the murderer. It was truly aremarkable preparation, and would have borne comparison with the finestEuropean mummies described by Vicq d'Azyr in 1779, and by the youngerPuymaurin in 1787.
The part best preserved, as is always the case, was the face. All thefeatures had maintained a proud and manly expression. If any old friendof the colonel had been present at the opening of the third box, hewould have recognized him at first sight.
Undoubtedly the point of the nose was a little sharper, the nostrilsless expanded and thinner, and the bridge a little more marked than inthe year 1813. The eyelids were thinned, the lips pinched, the cornersof the mouth drawn down, the cheek bones too prominent, and the neckvisibly shrunken, which exaggerated the prominence of the chin andlarynx. But the eyelids were closed without contraction, and the socketsmuch less hollow than one could have expected; the mouth was not at alldistorted like the mouth of a corpse; the skin was slightly wrinkled buthad not changed color; it had only become a little more transparent,showing, after a fashion, the color of the tendons, the fat and themuscles, wherever it rested directly upon them. It also had a rosy tintwhich is not ordinarily seen in embalmed corpses. Doctor Martoutexplained this anomaly by saying that if the colonel had actually beendried alive, the globules of the blood were not decomposed, but simplycollected in the capillary vessels of the skin and subjacent tissueswhere they still preserved their proper color, and could be seen moreeasily than otherwise, on account of the semi-transparency of the skin.
The uniform had become much too large, as may be readily understood;though it did not seem, at a casual glance, that the members had becomedeformed. The hands were dry and angular, but the nails, although alittle bent inward toward the root, had preserved all their freshness.The only very noticeable change was the excessive depression of theabdominal walls, which seemed crowded downward toward the posteriorside; at the right, a slight elevation indicated the place of the liver.A tap of the finger on the various parts of the body, produced a soundlike that from dry leather. While Leon was pointing out these details tohis audience and doing the honors of his mummy he awkwardly broke offthe lower part of the right ear, and a little piece of the Colonelremained in his hand.
This trifling accident might have passed unnoticed, had not Clementine,who followed with visible emotion all the movements of her lover,dropped her candle and uttered a cry of affright. All gathered aroundher. Leon took her in his arms and carried her to a chair. M. Renaultran after salts. She was as pale as death, and seemed on the point offainting.
She soon recovered, however, and reassured them all by a charming smile.
"Pardon me," she said, "for such a ridiculous exhibition of terror; butwhat Monsieur Leon was saying to us ... and then ... that figure whichseemed sleeping ... it appeared to me that the poor man was going toopen his mouth and cry out when he was injured."
Leon hastened to close the walnut box, while M. Martout picked up thepiece of ear and put it in his pocket. But Clementine, while continuingto smile and make apologies, was overcome by a fresh accession ofemotion and melted into tears. The engineer threw himself at her feet,poured forth excuses and tender phrases, and did all he could to consoleher inexplicable grief. Clementine dried her eyes, looked prettier thanever, and sighed fit to break her heart, without knowing why.
"Beast that I am!" muttered Leon, tearing his hair. "On the day when Isee her again after three years' absence, I can think of nothing moresoul-inspiring than showing her mummies!" He launched a kick at thetriple coffin of the Colonel, saying: "I wish the devil had theconfounded Colonel!"
"No!" cried Clementine with redoubled energy and emotion. "Do not cursehim, Monsieur Leon! He has suffered so much! Ah! poor, poor unfortunateman!"
Mlle. Sambucco felt a little ashamed. She made excuses for her niece,and declared that never, since her tenderest childhood, had shemanifested such extreme sensitiveness. M. and Mme. Renault, who had seenher grow up; Doctor Martout who had held the sinecure of physician toher; the architect, the notary, in a word, everybody present was plungedinto a state of absolute stupefaction. Clementine was no sensitiveplant. She was not even a romantic school girl. Her youth had not beennourished by Anne Radcliffe, she did not trouble herself about ghosts,and she would go through the house very tranquilly at ten o'clock atnight without a candle. When her mother died, some months before Leon'sdeparture, she did not wish to have any one share with her the sadsatisfaction of watching and praying in the death-chamber.
"This will teach us," said the aunt, "how to stay up after ten o'clock.What! It is midnight, all to quarter of an hour! Come, my child; youwill get better fast enough after you get to bed."
Clementine arose submissively, but at the moment of leaving thelaboratory she retraced her steps, and with a caprice more inexplicablethan her grief, she absolutely wished to see the mummy of the colonelagain. Her aunt scolded in vain; in spite of the remarks of Mlle.Sambucco and all the persons present, she reopened the walnut box,kneeled down beside the mummy and kissed it on the forehead.
"Poor man!" said she, rising, "How cold he is! Monsieur Leon, promise methat if he is dead you will have him laid in consecrated ground!"
"As you please, Mademoiselle. I had intended to send him to theanthropological museum, with my father's permission; but you know thatwe can refuse you nothing."
They did not separate as gaily, by a good deal, as they had met. M.Renault and his son escorted Mlle. Sambucco and her ni
ece to their door,and met the big colonel of cuirassiers who had been honoring Clementinewith his attentions. The young girl tenderly pressed the arm of herbetrothed and said: "Here is a man who never sees me without sighing.And what sighs! Gracious Heavens! It wouldn't take more than two to fillthe sails of a a ship. The race of colonels has vastly degenerated since1813. One doesn't see any more such fine looking ones as our unfortunatefriend."
Leon agreed with all she said. But he did not exactly see how he hadbecome the friend of a mummy for which he had just paid twenty-fivelouis. To divert the conversation, he said to Clementine: "I have notyet shown you all the nice things I brought. His majesty, the Emperor ofall the Russias, made me a present of a little enamelled gold starhanging at the end of a ribbon. Do you like button-hole ribbons?"
"Oh, yes!" answered she, "the red ribbon of the Legion of Honor. Did younotice? The poor colonel still has a shred of one on his uniform, butthe cross is there no longer. Those wicked Germans tore it away from himwhen they took him prisoner!"
"It's very possible," said Leon.
When they reached Mlle. Sambucco's house, it was time to separate.Clementine offered her hand to Leon, who would have been better pleasedwith her cheek.
Father and son returned home arm in arm, with slow steps, givingthemselves up to endless conjectures regarding the whimsical emotions ofClementine.
Mme. Renault was waiting to put her son to bed; a time-honored andtouching habit which mothers do not early lose. She showed him thehandsome apartment above the parlor and M. Renault's laboratory, whichhad been prepared for his future domicile.
"You will be as snug in here as a little cock in a pie," said she,showing him a bed-chamber fairly marvellous in its comfort. "All thefurniture is soft and rounded, without a single angle. A blind man couldwalk here without any fear of hurting himself. See how I understanddomestic comfort! Why, each arm-chair can be a friend! This will costyou a trifle. Penon Brothers came from Paris expressly. But a man oughtto be comfortable at home, so that he may have no temptation to goabroad."
This sweet motherly prattle stretched itself over two good hours, andmuch of it related to Clementine, as you will readily suppose. Leon hadfound her prettier than he had dreamed her in his sweetest visions, butless loving. "Devil take me!" said he, blowing out his candle; "Onemight think that that confounded stuffed Colonel had come to thrusthimself between us."
