7

The Winter lingered long, but the Spring came at last in a burst of sunshine. The grey mists were rent away, as if by magic. The cold hues vanished from the landscape. The earth became all freshness; the air all warmth; the sky all light. The hedgerows caught a tint of tender green.

The crocuses came up in a single night. The woods which till now had remained bare and brown, flushed suddenly, as if the coming Summer were imprisoned in their glowing buds. The birds began to try their little voices here and there. Never once, in all the years that have gone by since then, have I seen so startling a transition. It was as if the Prince in the dear old fairy tale had just kissed the Sleeping Beauty, and all that enchanted world had sprung into life at the meeting of their lips.

But the Spring, with its sudden beauty and brightness, seems to have no charm for Monsieur Maurice. He has permission to walk in the grounds twice a week--with a sentry at his heels; but of that permission he sternly refuses to take advantage. It was not wonderful that he preferred his fireside and his books, while the sleet, and snow, and bitter east winds lasted; but it seems too cruel that he should stay there now, cutting himself off from all the warmth and sweetness of the opening season. In vain I come to him with my hands full of dewy crocuses. In vain I hang about him, pleading for just a turn or two on the terrace where the sunshine falls hottest. He shakes his head, and is immoveable.

"No, pet.i.te," he says. "Not to-day."

"That is just what you said yesterday, Monsieur Maurice."

"And it is just what I shall say to-morrow, Gretchen, if you ask me again."

"But you won't stay in for ever, Monsieur Maurice!"

"Nay--'for ever' is a big word, little Gretchen."

"I don't believe you know how brightly the sun is shining!" I say coaxingly. "Just come to the window, and see."

Unwillingly enough, he lets himself be dragged across the room--unwillingly he looks out upon the glittering slopes and budding avenues beyond.

"Yes, yes--I see it," he replies with an impatient sigh; "but the shadow of that fellow in the corridor would hide the brightest sun that ever shone! I am not a galley-slave, that I should walk about with a garde-chiourme behind me."

"What do you mean, Monsieur Maurice?" I ask, startled by his unusual vehemence.

"I mean that I go free, pet.i.te--or not at all."

"Then--then you will fall ill!" I falter, amid fast-gathering tears.

"No, no--not I, Gretchen. What can have put that idea into your wise little head?"

"It was papa, Monsieur Maurice ... he said you were"....

Then, thinking suddenly how pale and wasted he had become of late, I hesitated.

"He said I was--What?"

"I--I don't like to tell!"

"But if I insist on being told? Come, Gretchen, I must know what Colonel Bernhard said."

"He said it was wrong to stay in like this week after week, and month after month. He--he said you were killing yourself by inches, Monsieur Maurice."

Monsieur Maurice laughed a short bitter laugh.

"Killing myself!" he repeated. "Well, I hope not; for weary as I am of it, I would sooner go on bearing the burden of life than do my enemies the favour of dying out of their way."

The words, the look, the accent made me tremble. I never forgot them.

How could I forget that Monsieur Maurice had enemies--enemies who longed for his death?

So the first blush of early Spring went by; and the crocuses lived their little life and pa.s.sed away, and the primroses came in their turn, yellowing every shady nook in the scented woods; and the larches put on their crimson ta.s.sels, and the laburnum its mantle of golden fringe, and the almond-tree burst into a leafless bloom of pink--and still Monsieur Maurice, adhering to his resolve, refused to stir one step beyond the threshold of his rooms.

Sad and monotonous now to the last degree, his life dragged heavily on. He wrote no more. He read, or seemed to read, nearly the whole day through; but I often observed that his eyes ceased travelling along the lines, and that sometimes, for an hour and more together, he never turned a page.

"My little Gretchen," he said to me one day, "you are too much in these close rooms with me, and too little in the open air and sunshine."

"I had rather be here, Monsieur Maurice," I replied.

"But it is not good for you. You are losing all your roses."

"I don't think it is good for me to be out when you are always indoors," I said, simply. "I don't care to run about, and--and I don't enjoy it."

He looked at me--opened his lips as if about to speak--then checked himself; walked to the window; and looked out silently.

The next morning, as soon as I made my appearance, he said:--

"The French lesson can wait awhile, pet.i.te. Shall we go out for a walk instead?"

I clapped my hands for joy.

"Oh, Monsieur Maurice!" I cried, "are you in earnest?"

For in truth it seemed almost too good to be true. But Monsieur Maurice was in earnest, and we went--closely followed by the sentry.

It was a beautiful, sunny April day. We went down the terraces and slopes; and in and out of the flower-beds, now gaudy with Spring flowers; and on to the great central point whence the three avenues diverged. Here we rested on a bench under a lime-tree, not far from the huge stone basin where the fountain played every Sunday throughout the Summer, and the sleepy water-lilies rocked to and fro in the sunshine.

All was very quiet. A gardener went by now and then, with his wheelbarrow, or a gamekeeper followed by his dogs; a blackbird whistled low in the bushes; a cow-bell tinkled in the far distance; the wood-pigeons murmured softly in the plantations. Other pa.s.sers-by, other sounds there were none--save when a noisy party of flaxen-haired, bare-footed children came whooping and racing along, but turned suddenly shy and silent at sight of Monsieur Maurice sitting under the lime-tree.

The sentry, meanwhile, took up his position against the pedestal of a mutilated statue close by, and leaned upon his musket.

Monsieur Maurice was at first very silent. Once or twice he closed his eyes, as if listening to the gentle sounds upon the air--once or twice he cast an uneasy glance in the direction of the sentry; but for a long time he scarcely moved or spoke.

At length, as if following up a train of previous thought, he said suddenly:--

"There is no liberty. There are comparative degrees of captivity, and comparative degrees of slavery; but of liberty, our social system knows nothing but the name. That sentry, if you asked him, would tell you that he is free. He pities me, perhaps, for being a prisoner. Yet he is even less free than myself. He is the slave of discipline. He must walk, hold up his head, wear his hair, dress, eat, and sleep according to the will of his superiors. If he disobeys, he is flogged. If he runs away, he is shot. At the present moment, he dares not lose sight of me for his life. I have done him no wrong; yet if I try to escape, it is his duty to shoot me.

What is there in my captivity to equal the slavery of his condition? I cannot, it is true, go where I please; but, at least, I am not obliged to walk up and down a certain corridor, or in front of a certain sentry-box, for so many hours a day; and no power on earth could compel me to kill an innocent man who had never harmed me in his life."

In an instant I had the whole scene before my eyes--Monsieur Maurice flying--pursued--shot down--brought back to die!

"But--but you won't try to run away, Monsieur Maurice!" I cried, terrified at the picture my own fancy had drawn.

He darted a scrutinising glance at me, and said, after a moment's hesitation:--

"If I intended to do so, pet.i.te, I should hardly tell Colonel Bernhard's little daughter beforehand. Besides, why should I care now for liberty?