The illustrious Dr. Mathéus

In the little woodland town of Graufthal, on the borders of the Vosges and of Alsace, there lived one of those respectable rural doctors who still wore perruques, large square-t...

When Frantz Mathéus had formed the generous resolve of illuminating the world with his own light, a strange and undefinable calm entered into the depths of his soul. It was the...

The pale rays of dawn were dimly lighting the little town of Graufthal when Frantz Mathéus opened his eyes; the red cock of his neighbour Christina Bauer awoke him with its matu...

His delight may be imagined when he saw himself safe from Jean-Claude and all the others. The distant cries of the village soon died on his ears, and gave place to the vast sile...

To see Frantz Mathéus and his disciple descending the narrow path of the Steinbach, through the tall firs, no one would ever have thought that those two extraordinary men were o...

The illustrious Dr. Mathéus, awaiting the arrival of the peasants, had emptied the bottle of wolxheim, and meditated a superb address, based on the judicious principles of the w...

That night Frantz Mathéus could not close an eye; he ceaselessly tossed and turned with a noble enthusiasm in his feather-bed, and muttered exclamations of triumph. His heroic f...

After galloping for a full half-hour, Frantz Mathéus, hearing nothing but the beating of his horse’s hoofs on the road, and the song of the birds in the free air, ventured to op...

Now the illustrious philosopher had slept for three hours when Coucou Peter cried—“Maître Frantz, wake up!—Here are the pilgrims of Haslach coming down the mountain; they outnum...

The tall houses with their jagged gables overhung the tumult, throwing the light of their little windows upon the excited crowd. All these pilgrims from Alsace, from Lorraine, a...

“Ha! ha! ha! See—see, Dame Thérèse!” cried Coucou Peter. “Look at the little rascal! Isn’t he cunning? Isn’t he? He’s born to be hanged!—ha! ha! ha!—he’s certainly born to be ha...

When Coucou Peter led Schimel to the stable, Mathéus, fatigued with walking about in the fair, entered the public-house. The illustrious philosopher was far from expecting the m...

Precisely at noon the procession was finished. The curés, the choristers, the beadles, the women, children, townspeople, and pilgrims, mingled together, re-entered Haslach—some...

“O Great Demiourgos,” he cried to himself, “I thank Thee! I thank Thee for having permitted me to live until this day! Frantz Mathéus may now die; he has seen the triumph of Ant...

“Rascally Anabaptist! rascally mayor! rascally Jacob Fischer! Ah, you scamps! if I only had you here, I’d make you dance! I would not leave a hair on your heads! To drive out so...

The nearer Frantz Mathéus approached the gipsies, the more he was struck by their joyous and truly philosophical appearance. It was easy to be seen that they cared little for th...

The gipsies, already stirring, were preparing to start on their way before daylight; they were loading themselves with their cauldron, their trombone, their French-horns, and th...

In passing up the ancient Rue des Capucins, Maître Frantz felt a real enjoyment from having changed his shirt and shaved himself; his mind was filled with invincible arguments,...

When Frantz Mathéus and the pastor reached the house, everybody there was asleep. The pastor, leaving Mathéus at the door of the sitting-room, went into the kitchen, and returne...

Maître Frantz and his disciple passed quickly through the town. The little houses scattered along the roadsides rapidly succeeded one another, with their barns, stables, and woo...

Nine o’clock was striking at the Cathedral when Frantz Mathéus and his disciple stopped in front of the Heron brewery. The great yard, shaded by lime-trees, was full of company;...

What a difference from his little village of Graufthal, so calm, so peaceful in its valley of pines!—where the vague murmur of the foliage, the carolling of the birds, and the m...

Frantz Mathéus followed the directions of Coucou Peter, stopping at the different inns he had named on his route, and paying his way, as became a man who was no longer travellin...