Part 17

“When I awoke, my head was still heavy and vacant, and in fact I was feeling extremely ill; I was in the same place, but had been robbed of everything. I thought at first that it was the evening twilight, and that I had been asleep six hours; but when I saw the sun rising through the fog, and the dew glittering on the grass, the certainty was forced upon me that I had slept straight through a day and night. My ass had disappeared as well as my baggage, my pockets were empty; nothing had been left but the clothes on my back. While looking about, I observed one valueless object which the thieves had overlooked, or thought not worth taking. This was a little cocoa-nut cup which I always used in travelling, to avoid the vulgar habit of drinking from a bottle. It was this squeamishness that had cost me so dear; at a moment when my back was turned, Guido had thrown a narcotic into my cup. Even now, the bottom was lined with some kind of salt, crystallized. Guido was evidently no beggar, but the captain of a band of robbers. The footmarks all around me showed that a number of persons had been on the spot.

“I examined the immediate vicinity closely, and at last espied something written with chalk upon a rock near by. It was in Latin, and to the following effect:

“‘My friend, I could have killed you, and it was my duty to do so; but I pardon you. Sleep well.’

“It was the handwriting of Guido Massarelli. Why was it his duty to have killed me? In return for the blows I had given him with my cane at Paris? That is possible, for it is certainly true that the Italian retains his revengeful disposition, and never forgets an injury, even when his mind and character have been utterly corrupted. But what could I do to revenge myself in my turn? There was nothing that would not require time, money, and investigation, and I was without a sou, and was beginning to feel hungry.

“‘Well,’ I thought, as I set out once more on my journey, ‘it was written that one day or other I should beg. But in spite of bad luck, I swear that I will not be a beggar long. I must find some new business, and get on my feet again.’

“I made my way out of the mountains, and found a hospitable reception with a family of kind peasants, who even obliged me to accept some provisions for the road. They told me that a band of robbers infested the country, and that their chief was called the ‘The Italian.’

“Still pushing on, I reached the province of Silesia. It was my intention to enter a complaint in the first town I came to, and put the authorities on the track of the robbers. As I walked along, thoughtful, and absorbed in a thousand plans, all equally impracticable, for once more filling my purse without appealing to public charity, I heard a short, uneven gallop behind me, and, turning round, was astonished to recognize my ass, my poor Jean, coming after me as well as he could, for he was wounded. People usually despise the ass! They are welcome to do so; but this animal, in my opinion, is almost as intelligent as the dog. I had already had many convincing proofs that it is so, while travelling with this faithful servant; and, on this occasion, he showed that he was capable of feeling a reasonable attachment, and was endowed with a mysterious and truly extraordinary instinct. Stolen and carried off, he had undoubtedly run away, as soon as he had been relieved of his load. The robbers had fired on him, but he had kept on, disregarding their shots; he had found and followed my track, and now rejoined me with a bullet in his thigh.

“I confess that we had a scene worthy of Sancho Panza and his ass; nay, even more pathetic, for I had a wounded friend to assist. I extracted the ball which had lodged in the thigh of my interesting companion, and washed the wound with the most touching care. The poor beast submitted to be treated and bandaged with the stoicism of his own species, and with an intelligent confidence that is apparently not confined to ours. Now that I had recovered my ass, I was not entirely without resources. When the ball was extracted, he stopped limping. He was an uncommonly handsome animal, large and strong, and would be worth--. But I did not go so far as to embody in precise figures this cowardly and detestable idea! To my honor, I would state that I rejected it with indignation. There could be no question of selling my friend; the only problem was to feed two stomachs instead of one.

“I advanced towards Troppau as I best could. Jean ate thistles along the road, and I deprived myself of part of my allowance of bread, so as to supply him with a delicacy in his convalescence. At Troppau the common people took pity on me, and provided me with food and lodging, with that charity which is so highly valued and so meritorious among the poor. The authorities of the town gave but little credit to my story. My coarse garments were those of a pedestrian, and I had no documents whatever to prove that I was a person of studious pursuits, and entitled to confidence. I talked well, it is true: too well for a rustic; but these frontier countries are overrun by innumerable dexterous adventurers. Only a little while before, they informed me, an Italian, claiming to be a great nobleman, had given out that he had been robbed in the mountains, and it was afterwards discovered that he was the chief of the very band he had pretended to denounce.

“I thought it best not to press the matter; for, from the recollection of Guido Massarelli, to the suspicion that I was associated with him, there was but a step. So I returned to my poor entertainers. They received me very kindly, blamed the conduct of their magistrates, and looking covetously at Jean, added:

“‘Fortunately your ass is left, and you can sell him.’

“Seeing that I was not inclined to take their hint, they proceeded to make me a proposition, in the guise of advice. I might remain with them, they said, for two or three months, if I could be contented with their way of living. During this time I could look for work, if there was anything I was able to do; and if I could pay my expenses at the end of the term agreed upon, I would not be obliged to leave Jean as an equivalent. This was good advice, and I accepted it; resolving, however, that I would dig in the earth, if necessary, so as to release my pledge, poor Jean, who was still useful to his master.

“My landlord was a shoemaker. In order to show that I was not idle, I asked whether I could help him in any way, though I did not know his trade.

“‘I see that you are a good fellow,’ he said, ‘for you have an honest face. There’s a fair to-morrow in a village two leagues from here, to which I shall not be able to go. Load your ass with my goods, go in my stead, and sell all the shoes you can. You shall have ten per cent. of the profits.’

“The next morning I was at my post selling shoes, as if I had never done nothing else in my whole life. I knew nothing at all about the tricks peculiar to this sort of business, whether conducted on a small or grand scale, but it occurred to me to pay all the women compliments on their little feet; and the people were so amused by my extravagant nonsense, that my entire load was disposed of in a few hours. In the evening I returned gayly home to my employer, who was surprised at my success, and obstinately refused to let me deduct the price of my board from my share of the profits.

“Once more, therefore, I was provided with a trade, and a supply of pocket-money sufficient for the necessities of my new position. Hans, my employer, now sent me on a three days’ tour through the neighborhood, and I succeeded in selling off some old stock that had been on his hands a long time. On my return, he paid me more than he had agreed, but when I said something about leaving him, he flew into a tremendous passion, and then shed tears; he treated me, in short, like an ungrateful son, and ended by offering to give me his daughter in marriage, if I would remain. The girl was pretty, and threw me artless and tender glances. I behaved like a fool, or so my former gay companions would have said. It is certain that I did not even attempt to kiss her, and that I made my escape in the night, taking with me Jean and two rix dollars, and leaving an equal sum behind me to pay my board at the house of the good shoemaker of Troppau.

“It was quite indifferent to me where I went, provided only that I could obtain sufficient means to continue my journey without being obliged to confide to the persons in the various towns of Germany and Poland to whom I had brought letters of introduction, a story of disaster, of which I could furnish no proof, except my destitution. The suspicions of the burgomasters of Troppau had cured me of the idea of relating my misfortunes. My testimonials were lost, and I had nothing but probable assertions with which to replace them. Now, no story ever seems probable when you are asking assistance. However, this did not make me at all unhappy. I was already accustomed to my situation, and had one more occasion in my life to observe that to-morrow always comes for those who have patience with to-day.

“Two days later, I entered a poor tavern, and sat down at a table. Opposite me was a short, strong-built young fellow, who was seated with his elbows leaning on the table, and who seemed to be asleep. They brought me a pot of beer and some bread and cheese, for which I paid a half-zwanziger. On this allowance I had money enough to last eight days. When the landlady spoke to the young man at the other side of the table he made no reply, and a little after, as he raised his head, I saw that he had been crying.

“‘You are hungry,’ I said to him, ‘and have no money to pay for your supper.’

“‘Fact!’ he answered, laconically.

“‘Very well,’ I replied, ‘where there’s enough for one, there’s enough for two. Help yourself.’

“Without answering a word, he drew a knife from his pocket and cut into my bread and cheese. When he had eaten in silence, he thanked me briefly, and with an appearance of sincerity, and I had the curiosity to ask him the cause of his distress. He told me his name--I forget what it was--but the name he was travelling under was Puffo. He was from Leghorn--a rather poor recommendation, at least in Italy, for persons of a certain class. In the opinion of the sailors all along the Mediterranean coast, to call a man a _Livornese_ is almost equivalent to calling him a pirate. My friend probably would have justified the prejudice; he had been a sailor, and a little of a freebooter. At present he was a strolling mountebank.

“I listened to him without much interest, for he did not narrate well, and it is only the way in which they are told that gives any value to the stories of such adventurers; in substance they are all pretty much the same. However, when this man began to speak about his unprofitable theatre, I pricked up my ears and asked him what sort of representations he gave.

“‘_Mon Dieu!_’ he cried, ‘that’s the kind, and it’s the worst business I ever had anything to do with. The devil take the man who put it into my head!’

“As he spoke, he pulled a marionette from his bag, and threw it angrily on the table.

“An exclamation of surprise escaped me. This marionette, frightfully dirty and worn out, was my own handiwork. It was a _burattino_ of my own make! Yes, indeed, it was my leading character, the chief of my company, my own witty and charming Stentarello, the ornament of all my performances in the towns of the Apennines, the darling of the pretty Genoese women, the child of my scissors and my fancy, the very pillar of my theatre.

“‘What!’ I cried, ‘you wretched fellow! You own Stentarello, and can’t make money with him?’

“‘They told me,’ he replied, ‘that he had made a great deal of money in Italy. The man who sold him to me in Paris said that he had bought him of a well-dressed Italian gentleman, who declared that he had made his fortune with him. Perhaps it was you?’

“He went on to say that he had been quite successful in France in the public streets with our theatre and actors; and that as he knew several languages, he had tried travelling abroad, but that fortune had deserted him; he had gone on from bad to worse, up to the very moment when I met him. He had now resolved to sell ‘the shop,’ as he called it, and to try and train a bear, which he intended to catch in the mountains.

“‘Come,’ said I, ‘show me your theatre, and let me see what you can do.’

“He accordingly took me to a barn, where I helped him set up his establishment; and I recognized the best members of my troupe among wretched ordinary marionettes, covered with rags and injuries. Puffo proceeded to play me a scene as a specimen of his powers. He manœuvred the _burattini_ dexterously enough, and was not without a certain coarse wit, but it really pained me to the heart to see my actors fallen into such hands, and reduced to playing such parts. But when I thought about it, I saw that Providence must have brought us together--myself and my actors--for our mutual good. I proceeded at once to give a representation in the village, and received in all a ducat for it, to the utter stupefaction of Puffo, who from that moment entirely abandoned to my guidance theatre, actors, and even the responsibility of his own destiny.

“I now felt that I was really under the protection of heaven, for I had found once more the means of prosecuting my travels with comfort, without incurring any indebtedness, and without exposing my name and my features to the caprice of the public. In a very few days all the marionettes were dismounted, cleaned, fresh painted, new clothed, and properly packed in a convenient and portable chest; the theatre was refitted in like manner, and enlarged to admit two operators. Puffo I engaged as an assistant, his duty being to keep the establishment in good order, to take charge of it, and, at the same time, to carry part of it on his stout shoulders, as he was already in the habit of doing; for I was more than ever determined to devote Jean to the service of science, and to employ him in carrying the materials and specimens which I was collecting.

“Puffo is certainly a poor assistant. He is slow-witted, and yet he never breaks down; for he has the gift of talking without saying anything. He has a bad accent in every language; but, at any rate, he can make himself understood in several, which is a great point, and his chief recommendation. In the dialogue he takes but little part, but I have succeeded in curing him of his coarse habit of swearing. I put into his hands the popular, low comedy scenes, which serve as interludes, to give me a few minutes’ rest. When three or four actors are on the stage, I make use of his hands, and carry on all the parts of the conversation myself, with sufficient skill to persuade the audience that they are listening to several different voices. But you have seen my performances, M. Goefle, and know that I succeed in amusing. However, we did nothing very remarkable in Germany, and it occurred to me that perhaps we should do better in Poland, for the Poles have the wit of the French and the taste of Italians. We accordingly traversed Poland, and at Dantzig, after a successful tour of six weeks, embarked for Stockholm, where we have done extremely well. It was while there that I received the invitation of the Baron de Waldemora. I accepted it with pleasure, knowing that it would enable me to see a country which I have found more interesting than any that I have hitherto visited. I have always loved the north, whether from the strong contrasts which it offers to southern countries, or from a patriotic instinct that has influenced me ever since my childhood. And yet nothing is less certain than the northern origin which was attributed to my childish language--altered, imperfectly spoken, or half-forgotten as it was--by the learned philologist to whom I have referred. No matter; whether dream or presentiment, I have always beheld in imagination the romantic country which is now before my eyes; and it was by way of affording myself a pleasure-trip that I lengthened my present journey. I came across Lake Malar, and thence down to Lake Wetter, so as to explore the whole region of the great lakes.

“It was, however, written that I was to be pursued by mishaps. Puffo, who has grown fat since I have supported him, and who is beginning to be afraid of fatigue, wanted to hire a sleigh to cross that mysterious Lake Wetter, whose depths are apparently troubled by volcanic disturbances. The ice broke in, and I lost my clothes and my money. Fortunately, Puffo was at that moment walking, and helped out the driver, but the horse and sleigh were lost. Fortunately also, I had followed the shore, with Jean, the theatre, my actors, and my scientific materials. So, thank heaven, all is not lost, and to-morrow I shall be in funds again, for I am to give a representation, for a sum agreed upon, at the chateau of the Snow Man.”

“Well,” said M. Goefle, as he once more took the hand of Christian Waldo, “your story has interested and amused me. I don’t know whether you told it with any particular pleasure, to yourself, but your quick way of talking while you walked about the room, your Italian gesticulation, and your face, which is certainly expressive and prepossessing, whatever country it may belong to, have made your recital very attractive. You have a fine mind and an excellent heart, and the faults of which you accuse yourself seem to me very trifling, compared with the evil courses into which you might easily have fallen, thrown, as you were, so early into the world, without advisers or resources, and with a handsome face, too--which is a real instrument of perdition for either sex, in a place so corrupt as Paris or Naples.”

“But do you believe, Monsieur Goefle, that society is more moral or pure here at the north? I should be pleased to think that such is the case, but what I have seen at Stockholm--”

“Ah, my dear boy! if you judge of us by the intrigues, vanity, violence, and infamous venality of our nobility, whether of the cap or hat faction, you will believe us the very last of all the nations in the universe. This would be wrong, however, for as a people we are really good. It only needs a revolution, or a considerable war, to bring to the surface our great qualities--the particles of pure gold sunk to the bottom. Just now you see only the froth on the surface. But to return to yourself: you have not explained to me about your residence in Stockholm. How is it, in a place so full of intrigue and distrust, that you could wear a mask, and yet escape annoyance from the three or four different police organizations that are at work for the different parties?”

“Because I do not wear a mask, as you can see very well for yourself, Monsieur Goefle; it would be very troublesome to do that, and as soon as I am a hundred steps away from my booth, it is easy enough, with a little adroitness, and a few very simple precautions against the observation of the inquisitive, to remove it, and go with my face uncovered. I am not important enough to make anybody very determined to see me, and the slight mystery that I keep up does a good deal towards maintaining my popularity. And, after all, I have not so far retained my prejudices as a society man, that I should be much distressed to have my mask fall off some day in the street, and to be recognized by a chance passenger as a very obscure adept of science, who occupies himself about his studies at other hours, and in other portions of the city.”

“Ah! that is just what you have not told me. When you are at Stockholm you have, on occasion, another name than Christian Waldo, and another lodging besides that where Jean and Puffo live, and the rest of your troupe in their boxes?”

“Exactly, Monsieur Goefle. As to the name--do you really want to know it?”

“Certainly I do. You do not distrust me?”

“Oh, if you are afraid of that, I comply at once, with pleasure. The name is only Dulac--the French for my original fanciful name of del Lago. I assumed it at Paris, as a precaution against any accident which might draw upon me the notice and vengeance of the Neapolitan ambassador.”

“Very good. And under that name you have succeeded in establishing good connections in Stockholm?”

“I have hardly tried to do so, as I did not feel any need of haste. I wanted, in the first place, to become acquainted with the scientific and artistic riches of the city, and then to study the physiognomy of the inhabitants as well as their tastes and customs. A stranger, without friends, finds it extremely easy to study the manners and prevailing sentiments of a people by haunting their places of public resort. This is the method I adopted, and my present purpose is to become familiar with the whole of Sweden, and then to put myself in communication with the leading men of science at Stockholm and Upsal, especially M. Linnæus. By that time I must receive the testimonials for which I have written to Paris, and, at any rate, shall perhaps have something of interest to submit to that illustrious man. I may find specimens in distant localities that he has overlooked, and be able to afford him pleasure by offering them to him. There is no journey in which useful discoveries, or useful observations upon matters already recorded, may not be made. When a young man visits a great master, he is bound to bring tribute from his studies or his explorations; otherwise he only occupies valuable time in the mere gratification of his own vanity or curiosity. You said something about the police: they let me entirely alone after one brisk examination, in which my answers were frank, and seemed quite satisfactory. The good people with whom I lodged, and who treated me as kindly as if I were one of their own family, readily guaranteed my good conduct, and kept from the public the little secret of my double individuality. So you see, Monsieur Goefle, that at present I am excellently situated, and may well feel in very good spirits, having command of my own movements, a sufficiently profitable occupation, the love of science, and all the world open before me!”

“But you lost your money in Lake Wetter--”

“Oh, but the lakes, Monsieur Goefle, are certainly inhabited by good spirits, with whom I am in relations, without knowing it. Am I not Christian _del Lago_? Either the troll of Lake Wetter will return me my purse when I am least expecting it, or he will see that it comes into the hands of some poor fisherman, who will have the good of it, so that it will be a capital arrangement any way.”

“But still,--have you any money in your pocket, my boy?”

“Absolutely nothing, Monsieur Goefle,” replied the young man, laughing. “I had exactly enough to get here, by pinching my own stomach a little, so as to allow my attendant and my ass all they wanted; but I am to receive thirty six dollars this evening for my performance; and after enjoying this capital breakfast in company with yourself and this excellent stove, and in sight of the splendid landscape all set with diamonds, that I see shining out yonder, through the smoke with which our pipes have filled the room, I feel myself the richest and most fortunate of men.”

“You are decidedly an original,” said M. Goefle, rising, and knocking the ashes from his pipe. “You are a singular mixture of the man and the child, the scientist and the adventurer. It even seems to me that you are extravagantly enjoying this last phase of your experience; and that instead of finding it disagreeable, you are making your assumed and rather exaggerated pride an excuse for protracting it.”