Part 31 (2/2)
XXVI
Although the haste with which the trial had been conducted and the severity of the sentence were iniquitous, and filled those who were most bitter against me with amazement, I received the blow with supreme indifference; I no longer felt an interest in anything on earth. I commended my soul and the vindication of my memory to G.o.d. I said to myself that if Edmee died I should find her again in a better world; that if she survived me and recovered her reason, she would one day succeed in discovering the truth, and that then I should live in her heart as a dear and tender memory. Irritable as I am, and always inclined to violence in the case of anything that is an obstacle or an offence to me, I am astonished at the philosophical resignation and the proud calm I have shown on the momentous occasions of life, and above all on this one.
It was two o'clock in the morning. The case had lasted for fourteen hours. A silence as of death reigned over the court, which was as full and as attentive as at the beginning, so fond are mortals of anything in the nature of a show. That offered by the criminal court at this moment was somewhat dismal. Those men in red robes, as pale and stern and implacable as the Council of Ten at Venice; those ghosts of women decked with flowers, who, by the dim light of the tapers, looked like mere reflections of life hovering in the galleries above the priests of death; the muskets of the guard glittering in the gloom in the back of the court; the heart-broken att.i.tude of my poor sergeant, who had fallen at my feet; the silent but vast delight of the Trappist, still standing unwearied near the bar; the mournful note of some convent bell in the neighbourhood beginning to ring for matins amid the silence of the a.s.sembly--was not all this enough to touch the nerves of the wives of the farmers-general and to send a thrill through the brawny b.r.e.a.s.t.s of the tanners in the body of the court?
Suddenly, just as the court was about to disperse, a figure like that of the traditional peasant of the Danube--squat, rugged, barefooted, with a long beard, dishevelled hair, a broad, grave brow, and a stern, commanding glance--rose in the midst of the flickering reflections by which the hall was half lighted, and standing erect before the bar, said in a deep, striking voice:
”I, Jean le Houx, known as Patience, oppose this judgment as iniquitous in substance and illegal in form. I demand that it be revised, so that I may give my evidence, which is necessary, may be of sovereign importance, and should have been waited for.”
”If you had anything to say,” cried the King's advocate, in a pa.s.sion, ”why did you not present yourself when you were summoned. You are imposing on the court by pretending that you have important evidence to give.”
”And you,” answered Patience, more slowly and in an even deeper tone than before, ”you are imposing on the public by pretending that I have not. You know well enough that I must have.”
”Remember where you are, witness, and to whom you are speaking.”
”I know too well, and I shall not say too much. I hereby declare that I have some important things to say, and that I should have said them at the right time, if you had not done violence to the time. I wish to say them, and I shall; and, believe me, it is better that I should make them known while it is still possible to revise these proceedings. It is even better for the judges than the prisoner; for the one comes to life again in honour, as soon as the others die in infamy.”
”Witness,” said the irritated magistrate, ”the virulence and impertinence of your language will be prejudicial rather than advantageous to the prisoner.”
”And who says that I am favourable to the prisoner?” said Patience in a voice of thunder. ”What do you know about me? What if it pleases me to change an illegal and worthless verdict into one which is legal and irrevocable?”
”But how can you reconcile this desire to see the laws respected,” said the magistrate, genuinely moved by Patience's powerful personality, ”with your own breach of them in not appearing when summoned by the public prosecutor?”
”I did not wish to appear.”
”Severe penalties may be inflicted on those whose wishes are not in harmony with the laws of the land.”
”Possibly.”
”Have you come here to-day with the intention of submitting to them?”
”I have come to see that you respect them.”
”I warn you that, if you do not change your tone, I shall have you taken off to prison.”
”And I warn you that, if you love justice and serve G.o.d, you will listen to me and suspend the execution of this sentence. It is not for him who brings truth to humble himself before those who should be seeking it.
But you who are listening to me now, you men of the people, whom I will not accuse the great of wis.h.i.+ng to dupe, you whose voice is called 'the voice of G.o.d,' side with me; embrace the cause of truth, that truth which is in danger of being stifled under false outward shows, or else is about to triumph by unfair means. Go down on your knees, you men of the people, my brothers, my children; pray, implore, require that justice be done and anger repressed. It is your duty, it is your right, and to your own interest; for it is you who are insulted and threatened when laws are violated.”
Patience spoke with so much warmth, and his sincerity was so strikingly manifest, that a thrill of sympathy ran through the whole audience. At that time, philosophy was too fas.h.i.+onable with the young men of quality for these not to be among the first to respond to an appeal, though addressed to others than themselves. They rose with chivalrous enthusiasm and turned round to the people, who, carried away by their n.o.ble example, rose likewise. There was a wild uproar, and one and all, conscious of their dignity and power, cast away personal prejudices in order to combine for their common rights. Thus, a n.o.ble impetuosity and a true word are sometimes sufficient to bring back the ma.s.ses who have long been led astray by sophism.
A respite was granted, and I was led back to my prison amid the applause of the people. Marca.s.se followed me. Patience disappeared without giving me a chance to thank him.
The revision of the sentence could not be made without an order from the high court. For my own part, before the verdict was given I had resolved to make no appeal to this court of ca.s.sation of the old jurisprudence.
But Patience's bearing and words had had as much effect on my mind as on the minds of the spectators. The spirit of resistance and the sense of human dignity, dulled in me and paralyzed, as it were, by grief, suddenly awoke again, and in this hour I realized that man is not made for that selfish concentration of despair which is known as resignation or stoicism. No man can cease to have a regard for his own honour without at the same time ceasing to feel the respect due to the principle of honour. If it is grand to sacrifice personal glory and life to the mysterious decrees of conscience, it is cowardly to abandon both to the fury of an unjust persecution. I felt that I had risen in my own estimation, and I pa.s.sed the rest of this momentous night in devising means of vindicating myself, with as much persistence as I had previously displayed in abandoning myself to fate. With this feeling of energy I could feel hope springing up anew. Edmee, perhaps, was neither mad nor mortally wounded. She might acquit me; she might recover.
”Who knows?” I said to myself. ”Perhaps she has already done me justice.
Perhaps it was she who sent Patience to my rescue. Undoubtedly I shall best please her by taking courage again, and not letting myself be crushed by a set of knaves.”
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