A TERRIBLE EXPERIENCE

At dawn a clamor of voices shook the mill.  Pere Merlier opened the door of Francoise’s chamber.  She went down into the courtyard, pale and very calm.  But there she could not repress a shiver as she saw the corpse of a Prussian soldier stretched out on a cloak beside the well.

Around the body troops gesticulated, uttering cries of fury.  Many of them shook their fists at the village.  Meanwhile the officer had summoned Pere Merlier as the mayor of the commune.

“Look!” he said to him in a voice almost choking with anger.  “There lies one of our men who was found assassinated upon the bank of the river.  We must make a terrible example, and I count on you to aid us in discovering the murderer.”

“As you choose,” answered the miller with his usual stoicism, “but you will find it no easy task.”

The officer stooped and drew aside a part of the cloak which hid the face of the dead man.  Then appeared a horrible wound.  The sentinel had been struck in the throat, and the weapon had remained in the cut.  It was a kitchen knife with a black handle.

“Examine that knife,” said the officer to Pere Merlier; “perhaps it will help us in our search.”

The old man gave a start but recovered control of himself immediately.  He replied without moving a muscle of his face: 

“Everybody in the district has similar knives.  Doubtless your man was weary of fighting and put an end to his own life.  It looks like it!”

“Mind what you say!” cried the officer furiously.  “I do not know what prevents me from setting fire to the four corners of the village!”

Happily in his rage he did not notice the deep trouble pictured on Francoise’s countenance.  She had been forced to sit down on a stone bench near the well.  Despite herself her eyes were fixed upon the corpse stretched our on the ground almost at her feet.  It was that of a tall and handsome man who resembled Dominique, with flaxen hair and blue eyes.  This resemblance made her heart ache.  She thought that perhaps the dead soldier had left behind him in Germany a sweetheart who would weep her eyes out for him.  She recognized her knife in the throat of the murdered man.  She had killed him.

The officer was talking of striking Rocreuse with terrible measures, when soldiers came running to him.  Dominique’s escape had just been discovered.  It caused an extreme agitation.  The officer went to the apartment in which the prisoner had been confined, looked out of the window which had remained open, understood everything and returned, exasperated.

Pere Merlier seemed greatly vexed by Dominique’s flight.

“The imbecile!” he muttered.  “He has ruined all!”

Francoise heard him and was overcome with anguish.  But the miller did not suspect her of complicity in the affair.  He tossed his head, saying to her in an undertone: 

“We are in a nice scrape!”

“It was that wretch who assassinated the soldier!  I am sure of it!” cried the officer.  “He has undoubtedly reached the forest.  But he must be found for us or the village shall pay for him!”

Turning to the miller, he said: 

“See here, you ought to know where he is hidden!”

Pere Merlier laughed silently, pointing to the wide stretch of wooden hills.

“Do you expect to find a man in there?” he said.

“Oh, there must be nooks there with which you are acquainted.  I will give you ten men.  You must guide them.”

“As you please.  But it will take a week to search all the wood in the vicinity.”

The old man’s tranquillity enraged the officer.  In fact, the latter comprehended the asburdity of this search.  At that moment he saw Francoise, pale and trembling, on the bench.  The anxious attitude of the young girl struck him.  He was silent for an instant, during which he in turn examined the miller and his daughter.

At length he demanded roughly of the old man: 

“Is not that fellow your child’s lover?”

Pere Merlier grew livid and seemed about to hurl himself upon the officer to strangle him.  He stiffened himself but made no answer.  Francoise buried her face in her hands.

“Yes, that’s it!” continued the Prussian.  “And you or your daughter helped him to escape!  One of you is his accomplice!  For the last time, will you give him up to us?”

The miller uttered not a word.  He turned away and looked into space with an air of indifference, as if the officer had not addressed him.  This brought the latter’s rage to a head.

“Very well!” he shouted.  “You shall be shot in his place!”

And he again ordered out the platoon of execution.  Pere Merlier remained as stoical as ever.  He hardly even shrugged his shoulders; all this drama appeared to him in bad taste.  Without doubt he did not believe that they would shoot a man so lightly.  But when the platoon drew up before him he said gravely: 

“So it is serious, is it?  Go on with your bloody work then!  If you must have a victim I will do as well as another!”

But Francoise started up, terrified, stammering: 

“In pity, monsieur, do no harm to my father!  Kill me in his stead!  I aided Dominique to fly!  I alone am guilty!”

“Hush, my child!” cried Pere Merlier.  “Why do you tell an untruth?  She passed the night locked in her chamber, monsieur.  She tells a falsehood, I assure you!”

“No, I do not tell a falsehood!” resumed the young girl ardently.  “I climbed out of my window and went down the iron ladder; I urged Dominique to fly.  This is the truth, the whole truth!”

The old man became very pale.  He saw clearly in her eyes that she did not lie, and her story terrified him.  Ah, these children with their hearts, how they spoil everything!  Then he grew angry and exclaimed: 

“She is mad; do not heed her.  She tells you stupid tales.  Come, finish your work!”

She still protested.  She knelt, clasping her hands.  The officer tranquilly watched this dolorous struggle.

“Mon dieu!” he said at last.  “I take your father because I have not the other.  Find the fugitive and the old man shall be set at liberty!”

She gazed at him with staring eyes, astonished at the atrocity of the proposition.

“How horrible!” she murmured.  “Where do you think I can find Dominique at this hour?  He has departed; I know no more about him.”

“Come, make your choice ­him or your father.”

“Oh, Mon dieu!  How can I choose?  If I knew where Dominique was I could not choose!  You are cutting my heart.  I would rather die at once.  Yes, it would be the sooner over.  Kill me, I implore you, kill me!”

This scene of despair and tears finally made the officer impatient.  He cried out: 

“Enough!  I will be merciful.  I consent to give you two hours.  If in that time your lover is not here your father will be shot in his place!”

He caused Pere Merlier to be taken to the chamber which had served as Dominique’s prison.  The old man demanded tobacco and began to smoke.  Upon his impassible face not the slightest emotion was visible.  But when alone, as he smoked, he shed two big tears which ran slowly down his cheeks.  His poor, dear child, how she was suffering!

Francoise remained in the middle of the courtyard.  Prussian soldiers passed, laughing.  Some of them spoke to her, uttered jokes she could not understand.  She stared at the door through which her father had disappeared.  With a slow movement she put her hand to her forehead, as if to prevent it from bursting.

The officer turned upon his heel, saying: 

“You have two hours.  Try to utilize them.”

She had two hours.  This phrase buzzed in her ears.  Then mechanically she quitted the courtyard; she walked straight ahead.  Where should she go? ­what should she do?  She did not even try to make a decision because she well understood the inutility of her efforts.  However, she wished to see Dominique.  They could have an understanding together; they might, perhaps, find an expedient.  And amid the confusion of her thoughts she went down to the shore of the Morelle, which she crossed below the sluice at a spot where there were huge stones.  Her feet led her beneath the first willow, in the corner of the meadow.  As she stooped she saw a pool of blood which made her turn pale.  It was there the murder had been committed.  She followed the track of Dominique in the trodden grass; he must have run, for she perceived a line of long footprints stretching across the meadow.  Then farther on she lost these traces.  But in a neighboring field she thought she found them again.  The new trail conducted her to the edge of the forest, where every indication was effaced.

Francoise, nevertheless, plunged beneath the trees.  It solaced her to be alone.  She sat down for an instant, but at the thought that time was passing she leaped to her feet.  How long had it been since she left the mill?  Five minutes? ­half an hour?  She had lost all conception of time.  Perhaps Dominique had concealed himself in a copse she knew of, where they had one afternoon eaten filberts together.  She hastened to the copse, searched it.  Only a blackbird flew away, uttering its soft, sad note.  Then she thought he might have taken refuge in a hollow of the rocks, where it had sometimes been his custom to lie in wait for game, but the hollow of the rocks was empty.  What good was it to hunt for him?  She would never find him, but little by little the desire to discover him took entire possession of her, and she hastened her steps.  The idea that he might have climbed a tree suddenly occurred to her.  She advanced with uplifted eyes, and that he might be made aware of her presence she called him every fifteen or twenty steps.  Cuckoos answered; a breath of wind which passed through the branches made her believe that he was there and was descending.  Once she even imagined she saw him; she stopped, almost choked, and wished to fly.  What was she to say to him?  Had she come to take him back to be shot?  Oh no, she would not tell him what had happened.  She would cry out to him to escape, not to remain in the neighborhood.  Then the thought that her father was waiting for her gave her a sharp pain.  She fell upon the turf, weeping, crying aloud: 

“Mon dieu!  Mon dieu!  Why am I here?”

She was mad to have come.  And as if seized with fear, she ran; she sought to leave the forest.  Three times she deceived herself; she thought she never again would find the mill, when she entered a meadow just opposite Rocreuse.  As soon as she saw the village she paused.  Was she going to return alone?  She was still hesitating when a voice softly called: 

“Francoise!  Francoise!”

And she saw Dominique, who had raised his head above the edge of a ditch.  Just God!  She had found him!  Did heaven wish his death?  She restrained a cry; she let herself glide into the ditch.

“Are you searching for me?” asked the young man.

“Yes,” she answered, her brain in a whirl, not knowing what she said.

“What has happened?”

She lowered her eyes, stammered: 

“Nothing.  I was uneasy; I wanted to see you.”

Then, reassured, he explained to her that he had resolved not to go away.  He was doubtful about the safety of herself and her father.  Those Prussian wretches were fully capable of taking vengeance upon women and old men.  But everything was getting on well.  He added with a laugh: 

“Our wedding will take place in a week ­I am sure of it.”

Then as she remained overwhelmed, he grew grave again and said: 

“But what ails you?  You are concealing something from me!”

“No; I swear it to you.  I am out of breath from running.”

He embraced her, saying that it was imprudent for them to be talking, and he wished to climb out of the ditch to return to the forest.  She restrained him.  She trembled.

“Listen,” she said:  “it would, perhaps, be wise for you to remain where you are.  No one is searching for you; you have nothing to fear.”

“Francoise, you are concealing something from me,” he repeated.

Again she swore that she was hiding nothing.  She had simply wished to know that he was near her.  And she stammered forth still further reasons.  She seemed so strange to him that he now could not be induced to flee.  Besides, he had faith in the return of the French.  Troops had been seen in the direction of Sauval.

“Ah, let them hurry; let them get here as soon as possible,” she murmured fervently.

At that moment eleven o’clock sounded from the belfry of Rocreuse.  The strokes were clear and distinct.  She arose with a terrified look; two hours had passed since she quitted the mill.

“Hear me,” she said rapidly:  “if we have need of you I will wave my handkerchief from my chamber window.”

And she departed on a run, while Dominique, very uneasy, stretched himself out upon the edge of the ditch to watch the mill.  As she was about to enter Rocreuse, Francoise met an old beggar, Pere Bontemps, who knew everybody in the district.  He bowed to her; he had just seen the miller in the midst of the Prussians; then, making the sign of the cross and muttering broken words, he went on his way.

“The two hours have passed,” said the officer when Francoise appeared.

Pere Merlier was there, seated upon the bench beside the well.  He was smoking.  The young girl again begged, wept, sank on her knees.  She wished to gain time.  The hope of seeing the French return had increased in her, and while lamenting she thought she heard in the distance, the measured tramp of an army.  Oh, if they would come, if they would deliver them all?

“Listen, monsieur,” she said:  “an hour, another hour; you can grant us another hour!”

But the officer remained inflexible.  He even ordered two men to seize her and take her away, that they might quietly proceed with the execution of the old man.  Then a frightful struggle took place in Francoise’s heart.  She could not allow her father to be thus assassinated.  No, no; she would die rather with Dominique.  She was running toward her chamber when Dominique himself entered the courtyard.

The officer and the soldiers uttered a shout of triumph.  But the young man, calmly, with a somewhat severe look, went up to Francoise, as if she had been the only person present.

“You did wrong,” he said.  “Why did you not bring me back?  It remained for Pere Bontemps to tell me everything.  But I am here!”