Father and SonE sara mia colpa, Se cosi e?
MACHIAVELLI'My wife certainly has a head on her shoulders!' the Mayor of Verrieresremarked to himself the following morning at six o'clock, as he made hisway down to Pere Sorel's sawmill. 'Although I said so to her, to maintainmy own superiority, it had never occurred to me that if I do not take thislittle priest Sorel, who, they tell me, knows his Latin like an angel, thegovernor of the poorhouse, that restless spirit, might very well have thesame idea, and snatch him from me, I can hear the tone of conceit withwhich he would speak of his children's tutor! ... This tutor, once I've secured him, will he wear a cassock?'
M. de Renal was absorbed in this question when he saw in the distancea peasant, a man of nearly six feet in height, who, by the first dawninglight, seemed to be busily occupied in measuring pieces of timber lyingby the side of the Doubs, upon the towpath. The peasant did not appearany too well pleased to see the Mayor coming towards him; for hispieces of wood were blocking the path, and had been laid there in contravention of the law.
Pere Sorel, for it was he, was greatly surprised and even more pleasedby the singular offer which M. de Renal made him with regard to his sonJulien. He listened to it nevertheless with that air of grudging-melancholy and lack of interest which the shrewd inhabitants of those mountains know so well how to assume. Slaves in the days of Spanish rule,they still retain this facial characteristic of the Egyptian fellahin.
Sorel's reply was at first nothing more than a long-winded recital of allthe formal terms of respect which he knew by heart. While he was repeating these vain words, with an awkward smile which enhanced theair of falsehood and almost of rascality natural to his countenance, theold peasant's active mind was seeking to discover what reason could be inducing so important a personage to take his scapegrace of a son intohis establishment. He was thoroughly dissatisfied with Julien, and it wasfor Julien that M. de Renal was offering him the astounding wage of 300francs annually, in addition to his food and even his clothing. This lastcondition, which Pere Sorel had had the intelligence to advance on thespur of the moment, had been granted with equal readiness by M. deRenal.
This demand impressed the Mayor. 'Since Sorel is not delighted andoverwhelmed by my proposal, as he ought naturally to be, it is clear,' hesaid to himself, 'that overtures have been made to him from anotherquarter; and from whom can they have come, except from Valenod?' Itwas in vain that M. de Renal urged Sorel to conclude the bargain thereand then: the astute old peasant met him with an obstinate refusal; hewished, he said, to consult his son, as though, in the country, a rich father ever consulted a penniless son, except for form's sake.
A sawmill consists of a shed by the side of a stream. The roof is heldup by rafters supported on four stout wooden pillars. Nine or ten feetfrom the ground, in the middle of the shed, one sees a saw which movesup and down, while an extremely simple mechanism thrusts forwardagainst this saw a piece of wood. This is a wheel set in motion by the milllade which drives both parts of the machine; that of the saw whichmoves up and down, and the other which pushes the piece of woodgently towards the saw, which slices it into planks.
As he approached his mill, Pere Sorel called Julien in his stentorianvoice; there was no answer. He saw only his two elder sons, young giants who, armed with heavy axes, were squaring the trunks of fir whichthey would afterwards carry to the saw. They were completely engrossed in keeping exactly to the black line traced on the piece of wood,from which each blow of the axe sent huge chips flying. They did nothear their father's voice. He made his way to the shed; as he entered it,he looked in vain for Julien in the place where he ought to have beenstanding, beside the saw. He caught sight of him five or six feet higherup, sitting astride upon one of the beams of the roof. Instead of payingcareful attention to the action of the machinery, Julien was reading abook. Nothing could have been less to old Sorel's liking; he might perhaps have forgiven Julien his slender build, little adapted to hard work,and so different from that of his elder brothers; but this passion for reading he detested: he himself was unable to read.
It was in vain that he called Julien two or three times. The attention theyoung man was paying to his book, far more than the noise of the saw,prevented him from hearing his father's terrifying voice. Finally, despitehis years, the father sprang nimbly upon the trunk that was being cut bythe saw, and from there on to the cross beam that held up the roof. A violent blow sent flying into the mill lade the book that Julien was holding;a second blow no less violent, aimed at his head, in the form of a box onthe ear, made him lose his balance. He was about to fall from a height oftwelve or fifteen feet, among the moving machinery, which would havecrushed him, but his father caught him with his left hand as he fell.
'Well, idler! So you keep on reading your cursed books, when youought to be watching the saw? Read them in the evening, when you goand waste your time with the cure.'
Julien, although stunned by the force of the blow, and bleeding profusely, went to take up his proper station beside the saw. There weretears in his eyes, due not so much to his bodily pain as to the loss of hisbook, which he adored.
'Come down, animal, till I speak to you.' The noise of the machineagain prevented Julien from hearing this order. His father who hadstepped down not wishing to take the trouble to climb up again on to themachine, went to find a long pole used for knocking down walnuts, andstruck him on the shoulder with it. No sooner had Julien reached theground than old Sorel, thrusting him on brutally from behind, drove himtowards the house. 'Heaven knows what he's going to do to me!' thoughtthe young man. As he passed it, he looked sadly at the mill lade intowhich his book had fallen; it was the one that he valued most of all, theMemorial de Sainte-Helene.
His cheeks were flushed, his eyes downcast. He was a slim youth ofeighteen or nineteen, weak in appearance, with irregular but delicate features and an aquiline nose. His large dark eyes, which, in moments ofcalm, suggested a reflective, fiery spirit, were animated at this instantwith an expression of the most ferocious hatred. Hair of a dark chestnut,growing very low, gave him a narrow brow, and in moments of anger awicked air. Among the innumerable varieties of the human countenance,there is perhaps none that is more strikingly characteristic. A slim andshapely figure betokened suppleness rather than strength. In his childhood, his extremely pensive air and marked pallor had given his fatherthe idea that he would not live, or would live only to be a burden uponhis family. An object of contempt to the rest of the household, he hated his brothers and father; in the games on Sundays, on the public square,he was invariably beaten.
It was only during the last year that his good looks had begun to winhim a few supporters among the girls. Universally despised, as a feeblecreature, Julien had adored that old Surgeon-Major who one day ventured to speak to the Mayor on the subject of the plane trees.
This surgeon used now and then to pay old Sorel a day's wage for hisson, and taught him Latin and history, that is to say all the history thathe knew, that of the 1796 campaign in Italy. On his death, he had bequeathed to him his Cross of the Legion of Honour, the arrears of hispension, and thirty or forty volumes, the most precious of which had justtaken a plunge into the public lade, diverted by the Mayor's influence.
As soon as he was inside the house, Julien felt his shoulder gripped byhis father's strong hand; he trembled, expecting to receive a shower ofblows.
'Answer me without lying,' the old peasant's harsh voice shouted inhis ear, while the hand spun him round as a child's hand spins a lead soldier. Julien's great dark eyes, filled with tears, found themselves startinginto the little grey eyes of the old peasant, who looked as though hesought to penetrate to the depths of his son's heart.
