Part 6 (1/2)

The stairway was crowded with people, and we heard names called out.

And there, Fritz, you should have seen the looks of the Robinots, the Gourdiers, the Mariners, that ma.s.s of tilers, knife-grinders, house-painters, people who, every day, in ordinary times, would take off their caps to you to get a little work--you should have seen them straighten themselves up, look at you pityingly over the shoulder, blow in their cheeks, and call out:

”Ah, Moses, is it thou? Thou wilt make a comical soldier. He! he! he!

They will cut thy mustaches according to regulation!”

And such-like nonsense.

Yes, everything was changed; these former bullies had been named in advance sergeants, sergeant-majors, corporals, and the rest of us were nothing at all. War upsets everything; the first become last, and the last first. It is not good sense but discipline which carries the day.

The man who scrubbed your floor yesterday, because he was too stupid to gain a living any other way, becomes your sergeant, and if he tells you that white is black, you must let it be so.

At last, after waiting an hour, some one called out, ”Moses!” and I went up.

The great hall above was full of people. They all exclaimed:

”Moses! Wilt thou come, Moses? Ah, see him! He is the old guard!

Look now, how he is built! Thou shalt be ensign, Moses! Thou shalt lead us on to victory!”

And the fools laughed, nudging each others' elbows. I pa.s.sed on, without answering or even looking at them.

In the room at the farther end, where the names were drawn at conscriptions, Governor Moulin, Commandant Pet.i.tgenet, the mayor, Frichard, secretary of the mayoralty, Rollin, captain of apparel, and six or seven other superannuated men, crippled with rheumatism, brought from all parts of the world, were met in council, some sitting, the rest standing.

These old ones began to laugh as they saw me come in. I heard them say to one another: ”He is strong yet! Yes, he is all right.”

So they talked, one after another. I thought to myself: ”Say what you like, you will not make me think that you are twenty years old, or that you are handsome.”

But I kept silence.

Suddenly the governor, who was talking with the mayor in a corner, turned around, with his great chapeau awry, and looking at me, said:

”What do you intend to do with such a patriarch? You see very well that he can hardly stand.”

I was pleased, in spite of it all, and began to cough.

”Good, good!” said he, ”you may go home; take care of your cold!”

I had taken four steps toward the door, when Frichard, the secretary of the mayoralty, called out:

”It is Moses! The Jew Moses, colonel, who has sent his two boys off to America! The oldest should be in the service.”

This wretch of a Frichard had a grudge against me, because we had the same business of selling old clothes under the market, and the country people almost always preferred buying of me; he had a mortal grudge against me, and that is why he began to inform against me.

The governor exclaimed at once: ”Stop a minute! Ah ha, old fox! You send your boys to America to escape conscription! Very well! Give him his musket, cartridge-box, and sabre.”

Indignation against Frichard choked me. I would have spoken, but the wretch laughed and kept on writing at the desk; so I followed the gendarme Werner to a side room, which was filled with muskets, sabres, and cartridge-boxes.

Werner himself hung a cartridge-box crosswise on my back, and gave me a musket, saying:

”Go, Moses, and try always to answer to the call.”