CHAPTER III.

LA CORRIVEAU.

Sganarelle.--Seigneur commandeur, mon maitre, Don Juan, vous demande

si vous voulez lui faire l'honneur de venir souper avec lui.

Le même.--La statue m'a fait signe.

+Le Festin de Pierre.+

What? the ghosts are growing ruder,

How they beard me....

To-night--why this is Goblin Hall,

Spirits and specters all in all.

+Faustus.+

José, after having unbridled the horse and given him what he called

a mouthful of hay, made haste to open a box which he had ingeniously

arranged on the sled to serve, as needs might be, both for seat and

larder. He brought out a great napkin in which were wrapped up two

roast chickens, a tongue, a ham, a little flask of brandy, a good big

bottle of wine. He was going to retire when Jules said to him:

"Come along and take a bite with us, José."

"Yes, indeed, come and sit here by me," said Archie.

"Oh, gentlemen," said José, "I know my place too well--"

"Come now, no affectations," said Jules. "We are here like three

soldiers in camp; will you be so good as to come, you obstinate fellow?"

"Since you say so, gentlemen, I must obey my officers," answered Jules.

The two young men seated themselves on the box which served them also

for a table. José took his place very comfortably on a bundle of hay,

and all three began to eat and drink with a hearty appetite.

Archie, naturally abstemious, had soon finished his meal. Having

nothing better to do, he began to philosophize. In his lighter moods he

loved to propound paradoxes for the pleasure of the argument.

"Do you know, brother mine, what it was that interested me most in my

friend's story?"

"No," exclaimed Jules, attacking another drumstick; "and what's more,

for the next quarter of an hour I don't care. The hungry stomach has no

ears."

"Oh, that's no matter," said Archie. "It was those devils, goblins,

spirits, or whatever you choose to call them, with only one eye; I

wish that the fashion could be adopted among men; there would be fewer

hypocrites, fewer rogues, and therefore fewer dupes. Assuredly, it

is some consolation to see that virtue is held in honor even among

hobgoblins. Did you notice with what respect those one-eyed fellows

were treated by the other imps?"

"That may be," said Jules, "but what does it prove?"

"It proves," answered Lochiel, "that the one-eyed fellows deserved the

special attentions that were paid them; they are the _haute noblesse_

among hobgoblins. Above all they are not hypocrites."

"Nonsense," said Jules, "I begin to be afraid your brain is softening."

"Oh, no, I'm not so crazy as you think," answered Archie. "Just watch

a hypocrite with somebody he wants to deceive. With what humility he

keeps one eye half shut while the other watches the effect of his

words. If he had but one eye he would lose this immense advantage,

and would have to give up his _rôle_ of hypocrite which he finds

so profitable. There, you see, is one vice the less. My Cyclops of

a hobgoblin has probably many other vices, but he is certainly no

hypocrite; whence the respect to which he is treated by a class of

beings stained with all the vices in the category."

"Here's your health, my Scottish philosopher," exclaimed Jules, tossing

off a glass of wine. "Hanged if I understand a word of your reasoning

though."

"But it's clear as day," answered Archie. "The heavy and indigestible

stuff with which you are loading down your stomach must be clogging

your brains. If you ate nothing but oatmeal, as we Highlanders do, your

ideas would be a good deal clearer."

"That oatmeal seems to stick in your throat, my friend," said Jules;

"it ought to be easy enough to digest, however, even without the help

of sauce."

"Here's another example," said Archie. "A rogue who wishes to cheat an

honest man in any kind of a transaction always keeps one eye winking

or half shut, while the other watches to see whether he is gaining

or losing in the trade. One eye is plotting while the other watches.

That is a vast advantage for the rogue. His antagonist, on the other

hand, seeing one eye clear, frank, and honest, can not suspect what

is going on behind the eye which blinks, and plots, and calculates,

while its fellow keeps as impenetrable as fate. Now let us reverse the

matter," continued Archie. "Let us suppose the same rogue in the same

circumstances, but blind of one eye. The honest man watching his face

may often read in his eye his inmost thoughts; for my Cyclops, being

himself suspicious, is constrained to keep his one eye wide open."

"Rather," laughed Jules, "if he doesn't want to break his neck."

"Granted," replied Lochiel, "but still more for the purpose of reading

the soul of him he wants to deceive. He finds it necessary, moreover,

to give his eye an expression of candor and good-fellowship in order to

divert suspicion--which must absorb a portion of his wits. Then, since

there are few men who can follow, without the help of both their eyes,

two different trains of thought at the same time, our rogue finds that

he has lost half of his advantage. He renounces his wicked calling, and

society is the richer by one more honest man."

"My poor Archie," murmured Jules, "I see that we have exchanged

_rôles_; that I am now the Scotch philosopher, as I so courteously

entitle you, while you are the crazy Frenchman, as you irreverently

term me. For, don't you see, my new Prometheus, that this one-eyed race

of men, endowed with all the virtues which you intend to substitute,

might very readily blink, if that is an infallible recipe for

deception, and for the purpose of taking observations just open their

eye from time to time."

"Oh, you French, you frivolous French, you deluded French, no wonder

the English catch you on the hip in diplomacy!"

"It would seem to me," interrupted Jules, "that the Scotch ought to

know something by this time about English diplomacy!"

Archie's face saddened and grew pale; his friend had touched a sore

spot. Jules perceived this at once and said:

"Forgive me, dear fellow, if I have hurt you. I know the subject is one

that calls up painful memories. I spoke, as usual, without thinking.

One often thoughtlessly wounds those one best loves by a retort which

one may think very witty. But come, let us drink to a merry life! Go

on with your remarkable reasoning; that will be pleasanter for both of

us."

"The cloud has passed over, and I resume my argument," said Lochiel,

repressing his emotion. "Don't you see that my rascal could not shut

his eye for an instant without the risk of his prey escaping him? Do

you remember the squirrel that we saved last year from that great

snake, at the foot of the old maple-tree in your father's park;

remember how the snake kept its glowing eyes fixed upon the poor little

creature in order to fascinate it; how the squirrel kept springing from

branch to branch with piteous cries, unable to remove its gaze for an

instant from that of the hideous reptile? When we made it look away it

was saved. Do you remember how joyous it was after the death of its

enemy? Well, my friend, let our rogue shut his eye and his prey escapes

him."

"Verily," said Jules, "you are a mighty dialectician. I shouldn't

wonder if you would some day eclipse, if you don't do it already, such

prattlers as Socrates, Zeno, Montaigne, and other philosophers of that

ilk. The only danger is lest your logic should some day land you in the

moon."

"You think you can make fun of me," said Archie. "Very well, but only

let some pedant, with his pen behind his ear, undertake to refute my

thesis seriously, and a hundred scribblers in battle array will take

sides for and against, and floods of ink will flow. The world has been

deluged with blood itself in defense of theories about as reasonable as

mine. Why such a thing has often been enough to make a man famous."

"Meanwhile," answered Jules, "your argument will serve as one of those

after-pieces with which Sancho Panza used to put Don Quixote to sleep.

As for me, I greatly prefer the story of our friend José."

"You are easily pleased, sir," said the latter, who had been taking a

nap during the scientific discussion.

"Let us listen," said Archie; "_Conticuêre omnes, intentique ora

tenebant._"

"_Conticuêre_ ... you irrepressible pedant," cried D'Haberville.

"It's not one of the priest's stories," put in José briskly; "but it is

as true as if he had told it from the pulpit; for my late father never

lied."

"We believe you, my dear José," said Lochiel. "But now please go on

with your delightful narrative."

"Well," said José, "it happened that my late father, brave as he was,

was in such a devil of a funk that the sweat was hanging from the end

of his nose like a head of oats. There he was, the dear man, with his

eyes bigger than his head, never daring to budge. Presently he thought

he heard behind him the 'tic tac,' 'tic tac,' which he had already

heard several times on the journey; but he had too much to occupy his

attention in front of him to pay much heed to what might pass behind.

Suddenly, when he was least expecting it, he felt two great bony hands,

like the claws of a bear, grip him by the shoulders. He turned around

horrified, and found himself face to face with La Corriveau, who was

climbing on his back. She had thrust her hands through the bars of her

cage and succeeded in clutching him; but the cage was heavy, and at

every leap she fell back again to the ground with a hoarse cry, without

losing her hold, however, on the shoulders of my late father, who bent

under the burden. If he had not held tight to the fence with both

hands, he would have been crushed under the weight. My poor late father

was so overwhelmed with horror that one might have heard the sweat

that rolled off his forehead dropping down on the fence like grains of

duck-shot.

"'My dear Francis,' said La Corriveau, 'do me the pleasure of taking me

to dance with my friends of Isle d'Orléans?'

"'Oh, you devil's wench!' cried my late father. That was the only oath

the good man ever used, and that only when very much tried."

"The deuce!" exclaimed Jules, "it seems to me that the occasion was a

very suitable one. For my own part, I should have been swearing like a

heathen."

"And I," said Archie, "like an Englishman."

"Isn't that much the same thing," answered D'Haberville.

"You are wrong, my dear Jules. I must acknowledge that the heathen

acquit themselves very well; but the English? Oh, my! Le Roux who, soon

as he got out of college, made a point of reading all the bad books

he could get hold of, told us, if you remember, that that blackguard

of a Voltaire, as my uncle the Jesuit used to call him, had declared

in a book of his, treating of what happened in France in the reign

of Charles VII, when that prince was hunting the islanders out of

his kingdom--Le Roux told us that Voltaire had put it on record that

'every Englishman swears.' Well, my boy, those events took place about

the year 1445--let us say, three hundred years ago. Judge, then, what

dreadful oaths that ill-tempered nation must have invented in the

course of three centuries!"

"I surrender," said Jules. "But go on, my dear José."

"'Devil's wench!' exclaimed my late father, 'is that your gratitude for

my _de profundis_ and all my other prayers? You'd drag _me_ into the

orgie, would you? I was thinking you must have been in for at least

three or four thousand years of purgatory for your pranks; and you had

only killed two husbands--which was a mere nothing. So having always a

tender heart for everything, I felt sorry for you, and said to myself

we must give you a helping hand. And this is the way you thank me, that

you want to straddle my shoulders and ride me to hell like a heretic!'

"'My dear Francis,' said La Corriveau, 'take me over to dance with my

dear friends;' and she knocked her head against that of my late father

till her skull rattled like a dry bladder filled with pebbles.

"'You may be sure,' said my late father, 'You hellish wench of Judas

Iscariot, I'm not going to be your jackass to carry you over to dance

with those pretty darlings!'

"'My dear Francis,' answered the witch, 'I can not cross the St.

Lawrence, which is a consecrated stream, except with the help of a

Christian.'

"'Get over as best you can, you devilish gallows bird,' said my late

father. 'Get over as best you can; every one to his own business. Oh,

yes, a likely thing that I'll carry you over to dance with your dear

friends; but that will be a devil of a journey you have come, the Lord

knows how, dragging that fine cage of yours, which must have torn up

all the stones on the king's highway! A nice row there'll be when the

inspector passes this way one of these days and finds the road in such

a condition! And then, who but the poor _habitant_ will have to suffer

for your frolics, getting fined for not having kept the road properly!'

"The drum-major suddenly stopped beating on his great sauce-pan. All

the goblins halted and gave three yells, three frightful whoops, like

the Indians give when they have danced that war-dance with which they

always begin their bloody expeditions. The island was shaken to its

foundation, the wolves, the bears, all the other wild beasts, and the

demons of the northern mountains took up the cry, and the echoes

repeated it till it was lost in the forests of the far-off Saguenay.

"My poor, late father thought that the end of the world had come, and

the Day of Judgment.

"The tall devil with the sauce-pan struck three blows; and a silence

most profound succeeded the hellish hubbub. He stretched out his arm

toward my late father, and cried with a voice of thunder: 'Will you

make haste, you lazy dog? will you make haste, you cur of a Christian,

and ferry our friend across? We have only fourteen thousand four

hundred times more to prance around the island before cock-crow. Are

you going to make her lose the best of the fun?'

"'Go to the devil, where you all belong,' answered my late father,

losing all patience.

"'Come, my dear Francis,' said La Corriveau, 'be a little more

obliging. You are acting like a child about a mere trifle. Moreover,

see how the time is flying. Come, now, one little effort!'

"'No, no, my wench of Satan,' said my late father. 'Would to Heaven you

still had on the fine collar which the hangman put around your neck two

years ago. You wouldn't have so clear a wind-pipe.'

"During this dialogue the goblins on the island resumed their chorus:

"'Here we go all round,

Hands all round,

Here we go all round.'

"'My dear Francis,' said the witch, 'if your body and bones won't carry

me over, I'm going to strangle you. I will straddle your soul and ride

over to the festival.' With these words, she seized him by the throat

and strangled him."

"What," exclaimed the young men, "she strangled your poor, late father,

now dead?"

"When I said strangled, it was very little better than that," answered

José, "for the dear man lost his consciousness."

"When he came to himself he heard a little bird, which cried _Qué-tu_?

(Who art thou?)

"'Oh, ho!' said my late father, 'it's plain I'm not in hell, since I

hear the dear Lord's birds!' He opened first one eye, then the other,

and saw that it was broad daylight. The sun was shining right in his

face; the little bird, perched on a neighboring branch, kept crying

_qué-tu_?'

"'My dear child,' said my late father, 'it is not very easy to answer

your question, for I'm not very certain this morning just who I am.

Only yesterday I believed myself to be a brave, honest, and God-fearing

man; but I have had such an experience this night that I can hardly be

sure that it is I, Francis Dubé, here present in body and soul. Then

the dear man began to sing:

'Here we go all round,

Hands all round,

Here we go all round.'

"In fact, he was half bewitched. At last, however, he perceived that

he was lying full length in a ditch where, happily, there was more mud

than water; but for that my poor, late father, who now sleeps with the

saints, surrounded by all his relations and friends, and fortified by

all the holy sacraments, would have died without absolution, like a

monkey in his old tree, begging your pardon for the comparison, young

gentlemen. When he had got his face clear from the mud of the ditch,

in which he was stuck fast as in a vise, the first thing he saw was

his flask on the bank above him. At this he plucked up his courage and

stretched out his hand to take a drink. But no such luck! The flask was

empty! The witch had drained every drop."

"My dear José," said Lochiel, "I think I am about as brave as the next

one. Nevertheless, if such an adventure had happened to me, never again

would I have traveled alone at night."

"Nor I either," said D'Haberville.

"To tell you the truth, gentlemen," said José, "since you are so

discriminating, I will confess that my late father, who before this

adventure would not have turned a hair in the graveyard at midnight,

was never afterward so bold; he dared not even go alone after sunset to

do his chores in the stable."

"And very sensible he was; but finish your story," said Jules.

"It is finished," said José. "My late father harnessed his horse, who

appeared, poor brute, to have noticed nothing unusual, and made his way

home fast as possible. It was not till a fortnight later that he told

us his adventure."

"What do you say to all that, my self-satisfied skeptic who would

refuse to Canada the luxury of witches and wizards?" inquired

D'Haberville.

"I say," answered Archie, "that our Highland witches are mere infants

compared with those of New France, and, what's more, if ever I get

back to my Scottish hills, I'm going to imprison all our hobgoblins in

bottles, as Le Sage did with his wooden-legged devil, Asmodeus."

"Hum-m-m!" said José. "It would serve them just right, accursed

blackguards; but where would you get bottles big enough? There'd be the

difficulty."