Part 6 (2/2)
All looked with surprise at the stranger, who with somber and severe mien began his story with these words:
”Once upon a time, as far back as two or three thousand years, there lived a family here in Gaul. Whence did it come, to fill the vast solitudes that to-day are so populous? It doubtlessly came from the heart of Asia, that ancient cradle of the human races, now, however, hidden in the night of antiquity. That family ever preserved a type peculiar to itself, and found with no other people of the world. Loyal, hospitable, generous, vivacious, gay, inclined to humor, loving to tell, above all, to hear stories, intrepid in battle, daring death more heroically than any other nation, because its religion taught it what death was--such were that family's virtues. Giddy-headed, vagabond, presumptuous, inconsistent, curious after novelty, and greedier yet of seeing than of conquering unknown countries, as easily uniting as falling apart, too proud and too fickle to adjust its opinions to those of its neighbors, or if consenting thereto, incapable of long marching in concert with them, although common and vital interests be at stake--such are that family's vices. In point of its virtues and in point of its vices, thus has it always been since the remotest centuries; thus is it to-day; thus will it be to-morrow.”
”Oh, oh! If I am not much mistaken,” broke in the brenn smiling, ”all of us, Gauls though we may be, must have some cousin red with that family.”
”Yes,” said the stranger, ”to its own misfortune--and to the joy of its enemies--such has been and such is to-day the character of our own people!”
”But at least admit, despite such a character, the dear Gallic people has made its way well through the world. Few are the countries where the inquisitive vagabond, as you call it, did not promenade his shoes, with his nose in the air, his sword at his side--”
”You are right. Such is its spirit of adventure: always marching ahead towards the unknown, rather than to stop and build. Thus, to-day, one-third of Gaul is in the hands of the Romans, while some centuries ago the Gallic race occupied through its headlong conquests, besides Gaul, England, Ireland, upper Italy, the banks of the Danube, and the countries along the sea border as far east and north as Denmark. Nor yet was that enough. It looked as if our race was to spread itself over the whole world. The Gauls of the Danube went into Macedonia, into Thrace, into Thessaly. Others of them crossed the Bosphorus and the h.e.l.lespont, reached Asia Minor, founded New Gaul, and thus became the arbiters of all the kingdoms of the East.”
”So far, meseems,” rejoined the brenn, ”we have nothing to regret over our character that you so severely judge.”
”And what is left of those senseless battles, undertaken by the pride of the kings who then reigned over the Gauls?” the stranger proceeded looking around. ”Have not the distant conquests slipped from us? Have not our implacable and ever more powerful enemies, the Romans, raised all the peoples against us? Have we not been compelled to abandon those useless possessions--Asia, Greece, Germany, Italy? That is the net result of so much heroism and so much blood! That is the pa.s.s to which we have been brought by the ambition of the kings, who usurped the power of the druids!”
”To that I have nothing to say. You are right. There was no need of promenading so far away only to soil the soles of our shoes with the blood and the dust of foreign lands. But if I am not mistaken, it was at about that time that the sons of the brave Ritha Gaur, who had a blouse made for himself of the beards of the kings whom he shaved, seeing in these the butchers of the people and not its shepherds, overthrew the royalty.”
”Yes, thanks to the G.o.ds, an epoch of real grandeur, of peace and of prosperity succeeded the barren and b.l.o.o.d.y conquests of the kings.
Disembara.s.sed of its useless possessions, reduced to rational limits--its natural frontiers--the Rhine, the Alps, the Pyrenees and the Ocean--the republic of the Gauls became the queen and envy of the world.
Its fertile soil, cultivated as we so well know how, produced everything in abundance; the rivers were covered with merchant vessels; gold, silver and copper mines increased its wealth every day; large cities rose everywhere. The druids, spreading light in all directions, preached union to the provinces, and set the example by convoking once a year in the center of Gaul solemn a.s.semblies, at which the general interests of the country were considered. Each tribe, each canton, each town, elected its own magistrates; each province was a republic which, according to the druid plan, merged into the great Republic of the Gauls, and thus const.i.tuted one powerful body through the union of all.”
”The fathers of our grandfathers saw those happy days, friend guest.”
”And their sons saw only ruins and misfortune! What has happened? The accursed stock of dethroned kings joins the stock of their former and no less accursed clients or seigneurs, and all of them, irritated at having been deposed of their authority, hope for restoration from the public misfortunes, and exploit with infamous perfidy our innate pride and lack of discipline, which, under the powerful influence of the druids, were being steadily corrected. The rivalries between province and province, long allayed, re-awakened; jealousies and hatreds sprang up anew; everywhere the structure of union began to crumble. For all this the kings do not re-ascend the throne. Many of their descendants are even judicially executed. But they have unchained internal feud. Civil war flares up. The more powerful provinces seek to subjugate the weaker.
Thus, towards the end of the last century, the Ma.r.s.eillians, the descendants of the exiled Greeks to whom Gaul generously a.s.signed the territory on which they built their town, sought to a.s.sume the role of sovereignty. The province rose against the town; finding herself in danger, Ma.r.s.eilles called the Romans to her aid. They came, not to sustain Ma.r.s.eilles in her contemplated iniquity, but to themselves take possession of the region, a purpose that they succeeded in, despite the prodigies of valor with which they were opposed. Established in Provence, the Romans built the town of Aix, and thus founded their first colony on our soil--”
”Oh, a curse upon the Ma.r.s.eillians!” cried Joel. ”It was thanks to those sons of Greeks that the Romans gained a foothold in Gaul!”
”By what right can we curse the people of Ma.r.s.eilles? Must not also those provinces be cursed which, since the decline of the republic, thus allowed one of their sisters to be overpowered and subjugated? But retribution was swift. Encouraged by the indifference of the Gauls, the Romans took possession of Auvergne, and later of the Dauphine, and a little later also of Languedoc and Vivarais despite the heroic defence of their peoples, who, besides being divided among themselves, were left to their own resources. Thus the Romans became masters of almost all southern Gaul; they govern it by their proconsuls and reduce its people to slavery. Do the other provinces at last take alarm at these ominous invasions of Rome that push ever forward and threaten the very heart of Gaul? No! No! Relying upon their own courage, they say as you, Joel, did shortly ago: 'The South lies far away from the North, the East lies far away from the West.' This notwithstanding, our race, which is heedless and presumptuous enough to fail to prepare in advance, and when it is still time, against foreign domination, always has the belated courage of rebelling when the yoke is actually placed upon its neck. The provinces that have been subjugated by the Romans, break out in resolute rebellion; these are smothered in their own blood. Our disasters follow swiftly upon one another. The Burgundians, incited thereto by the descendants of the old kings, take up arms against the Frank-Compte and invoke the aid of the Romans. The Frank-Compte, unable to make head against such an alliance, requests reinforcements from the Germans of the other side of the Rhine. Thus these barbarians of the North are taught the road to Gaul, and after b.l.o.o.d.y battles with the very people who invited them, remain masters of both Burgundy and Frank-Compte. Last year, the Swiss, encouraged by the example of the Germans, make an irruption into the Gallic provinces that had been conquered by the Romans. Thereupon, Julius Caesar is appointed proconsul; he hastens from Italy; owerthrows the Swiss in their mountains; drives the Germans out of Burgundy and Frank-Compte; takes possession of these provinces, now exhausted by their long struggles with the barbarians; and to the yoke of these now succeeds that of the Romans. It was a change of masters.
And finally, at the beginning of this year a portion of Gaul shakes off its lethargy and scents the dangers that threatens the still independent provinces. Brave patriots, wanting neither Romans nor Germans for their masters--Galba among the Gauls of Belgium, Boddig-nat among the Gauls of Flanders--induce the people to rise in ma.s.s against Caesar. The Gauls of Vermandois and those of Artois also rise in rebellion. Together they all march against the Romans! Oh, it was a great and terrible battle, that battle of the Sambre!” cried the unknown traveler with exaltation. ”The Gallic army awaited Caesar on the left bank of the river. Three times did the Roman army cross, and three times was it compelled to recross it, fighting up to their waists in the blood-reddened waters. The Roman is overthrown, the oldest legions are shattered. Caesar alights from his horse, swings his sword, rallies his last cohorts of veterans, that already were yielding ground, and at their head charges upon our army.
Despite Caesar's courage the battle was lost to him, when we saw a fresh body arrive to his aid.”
”You say 'We saw'?” asked Joel. ”Were you at that terrible battle?”
But the unknown visitor proceeded without answering: ”Exhausted, decimated by a seven hours' fight, we still held out against the fresh troops ... we fought to the bitter end ... we fought unto death.... And do you know,” added the stranger with an expression of profound grief, ”do you know, you who remained peacefully at home, while your brothers were dying for the liberty of Gaul, which is also yours,--do you know how many survived of the sixty thousand men in the Gallic army--in that battle of the Sambre?... _Not five hundred!_”
”Not five hundred!” cried Joel as if questioning the figures.
”I say so because I am one of the survivors,” answered the stranger proudly.
”Then the two fresh scars on your face--”
”I received them at the battle of the Sambre--”
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