Les Misérables
CHAPTER II—FAUCHELEVENT IN THE PRESENCE OF A DIFFICULTY
It is the peculiarity of certain persons and certain professions,
notably priests and nuns, to wear a grave and agitated air on critical
occasions. At the moment when Fauchelevent entered, this double form of
preoccupation was imprinted on the countenance of the prioress, who was
that wise and charming Mademoiselle de Blemeur, Mother Innocente, who
was ordinarily cheerful.
The gardener made a timid bow, and remained at the door of the cell.
The prioress, who was telling her beads, raised her eyes and said:—
“Ah! it is you, Father Fauvent.”
This abbreviation had been adopted in the convent.
Fauchelevent bowed again.
“Father Fauvent, I have sent for you.”
“Here I am, reverend Mother.”
“I have something to say to you.”
“And so have I,” said Fauchelevent with a boldness which caused him
inward terror, “I have something to say to the very reverend Mother.”
The prioress stared at him.
“Ah! you have a communication to make to me.”
“A request.”
“Very well, speak.”
Goodman Fauchelevent, the ex-notary, belonged to the category of
peasants who have assurance. A certain clever ignorance constitutes a
force; you do not distrust it, and you are caught by it. Fauchelevent
had been a success during the something more than two years which he
had passed in the convent. Always solitary and busied about his
gardening, he had nothing else to do than to indulge his curiosity. As
he was at a distance from all those veiled women passing to and fro, he
saw before him only an agitation of shadows. By dint of attention and
sharpness he had succeeded in clothing all those phantoms with flesh,
and those corpses were alive for him. He was like a deaf man whose
sight grows keener, and like a blind man whose hearing becomes more
acute. He had applied himself to riddling out the significance of the
different peals, and he had succeeded, so that this taciturn and
enigmatical cloister possessed no secrets for him; the sphinx babbled
all her secrets in his ear. Fauchelevent knew all and concealed all;
that constituted his art. The whole convent thought him stupid. A great
merit in religion. The vocal mothers made much of Fauchelevent. He was
a curious mute. He inspired confidence. Moreover, he was regular, and
never went out except for well-demonstrated requirements of the orchard
and vegetable garden. This discretion of conduct had inured to his
credit. Nonetheless, he had set two men to chattering: the porter, in
the convent, and he knew the singularities of their parlor, and the
grave-digger, at the cemetery, and he was acquainted with the
peculiarities of their sepulture; in this way, he possessed a double
light on the subject of these nuns, one as to their life, the other as
to their death. But he did not abuse his knowledge. The congregation
thought a great deal of him. Old, lame, blind to everything, probably a
little deaf into the bargain,—what qualities! They would have found it
difficult to replace him.
The goodman, with the assurance of a person who feels that he is
appreciated, entered into a rather diffuse and very deep rustic
harangue to the reverend prioress. He talked a long time about his age,
his infirmities, the surcharge of years counting double for him
henceforth, of the increasing demands of his work, of the great size of
the garden, of nights which must be passed, like the last, for
instance, when he had been obliged to put straw mats over the melon
beds, because of the moon, and he wound up as follows: “That he had a
brother”—(the prioress made a movement),—“a brother no longer young”—(a
second movement on the part of the prioress, but one expressive of
reassurance),—“that, if he might be permitted, this brother would come
and live with him and help him, that he was an excellent gardener, that
the community would receive from him good service, better than his own;
that, otherwise, if his brother were not admitted, as he, the elder,
felt that his health was broken and that he was insufficient for the
work, he should be obliged, greatly to his regret, to go away; and that
his brother had a little daughter whom he would bring with him, who
might be reared for God in the house, and who might, who knows, become
a nun some day.”
When he had finished speaking, the prioress stayed the slipping of her
rosary between her fingers, and said to him:—
“Could you procure a stout iron bar between now and this evening?”
“For what purpose?”
“To serve as a lever.”
“Yes, reverend Mother,” replied Fauchelevent.
The prioress, without adding a word, rose and entered the adjoining
room, which was the hall of the chapter, and where the vocal mothers
were probably assembled. Fauchelevent was left alone.
CHAPTER III—MOTHER INNOCENTE
About a quarter of an hour elapsed. The prioress returned and seated
herself once more on her chair.
The two interlocutors seemed preoccupied. We will present a
stenographic report of the dialogue which then ensued, to the best of
our ability.
“Father Fauvent!”
“Reverend Mother!”
“Do you know the chapel?”
“I have a little cage there, where I hear the mass and the offices.”
“And you have been in the choir in pursuance of your duties?”
“Two or three times.”
“There is a stone to be raised.”
“Heavy?”
“The slab of the pavement which is at the side of the altar.”
“The slab which closes the vault?”
“Yes.”
“It would be a good thing to have two men for it.”
“Mother Ascension, who is as strong as a man, will help you.”
“A woman is never a man.”
“We have only a woman here to help you. Each one does what he can.
Because Dom Mabillon gives four hundred and seventeen epistles of Saint
Bernard, while Merlonus Horstius only gives three hundred and
sixty-seven, I do not despise Merlonus Horstius.”
“Neither do I.”
“Merit consists in working according to one’s strength. A cloister is
not a dock-yard.”
“And a woman is not a man. But my brother is the strong one, though!”
“And can you get a lever?”
“That is the only sort of key that fits that sort of door.”
“There is a ring in the stone.”
“I will put the lever through it.”
“And the stone is so arranged that it swings on a pivot.”
“That is good, reverend Mother. I will open the vault.”
“And the four Mother Precentors will help you.”
“And when the vault is open?”
“It must be closed again.”
“Will that be all?”
“No.”
“Give me your orders, very reverend Mother.”
“Fauvent, we have confidence in you.”
“I am here to do anything you wish.”
“And to hold your peace about everything!”
“Yes, reverend Mother.”
“When the vault is open—”
“I will close it again.”
“But before that—”
“What, reverend Mother?”
“Something must be lowered into it.”
A silence ensued. The prioress, after a pout of the under lip which
resembled hesitation, broke it.
“Father Fauvent!”
“Reverend Mother!”
“You know that a mother died this morning?”
“No.”
“Did you not hear the bell?”
“Nothing can be heard at the bottom of the garden.”
“Really?”
“I can hardly distinguish my own signal.”
“She died at daybreak.”
“And then, the wind did not blow in my direction this morning.”
“It was Mother Crucifixion. A blessed woman.”
The prioress paused, moved her lips, as though in mental prayer, and
resumed:—
“Three years ago, Madame de Béthune, a Jansenist, turned orthodox,
merely from having seen Mother Crucifixion at prayer.”
“Ah! yes, now I hear the knell, reverend Mother.”
“The mothers have taken her to the dead-room, which opens on the
church.”
“I know.”
“No other man than you can or must enter that chamber. See to that. A
fine sight it would be, to see a man enter the dead-room!”
“More often!”
“Hey?”
“More often!”
“What do you say?”
“I say more often.”
“More often than what?”
“Reverend Mother, I did not say more often than what, I said more
often.”
“I don’t understand you. Why do you say more often?”
“In order to speak like you, reverend Mother.”
“But I did not say ‘more often.’”
At that moment, nine o’clock struck.
“At nine o’clock in the morning and at all hours, praised and adored be
the most Holy Sacrament of the altar,” said the prioress.
“Amen,” said Fauchelevent.
The clock struck opportunely. It cut “more often” short. It is
probable, that had it not been for this, the prioress and Fauchelevent
would never have unravelled that skein.
Fauchelevent mopped his forehead.
The prioress indulged in another little inward murmur, probably sacred,
then raised her voice:—
“In her lifetime, Mother Crucifixion made converts; after her death,
she will perform miracles.”
“She will!” replied Father Fauchelevent, falling into step, and
striving not to flinch again.
“Father Fauvent, the community has been blessed in Mother Crucifixion.
No doubt, it is not granted to every one to die, like Cardinal de
Bérulle, while saying the holy mass, and to breathe forth their souls
to God, while pronouncing these words: _Hanc igitur oblationem_. But
without attaining to such happiness, Mother Crucifixion’s death was
very precious. She retained her consciousness to the very last moment.
She spoke to us, then she spoke to the angels. She gave us her last
commands. If you had a little more faith, and if you could have been in
her cell, she would have cured your leg merely by touching it. She
smiled. We felt that she was regaining her life in God. There was
something of paradise in that death.”
Fauchelevent thought that it was an orison which she was finishing.
“Amen,” said he.
“Father Fauvent, what the dead wish must be done.”
The prioress took off several beads of her chaplet. Fauchelevent held
his peace.
She went on:—
“I have consulted upon this point many ecclesiastics laboring in Our
Lord, who occupy themselves in the exercises of the clerical life, and
who bear wonderful fruit.”
“Reverend Mother, you can hear the knell much better here than in the
garden.”
“Besides, she is more than a dead woman, she is a saint.”
“Like yourself, reverend Mother.”
“She slept in her coffin for twenty years, by express permission of our
Holy Father, Pius VII.—”
“The one who crowned the Emp—Buonaparte.”
For a clever man like Fauchelevent, this allusion was an awkward one.
Fortunately, the prioress, completely absorbed in her own thoughts, did
not hear it. She continued:—
“Father Fauvent?”
“Reverend Mother?”
“Saint Didorus, Archbishop of Cappadocia, desired that this single word
might be inscribed on his tomb: _Acarus_, which signifies, a worm of
the earth; this was done. Is this true?”
“Yes, reverend Mother.”
“The blessed Mezzocane, Abbot of Aquila, wished to be buried beneath
the gallows; this was done.”
“That is true.”
“Saint Terentius, Bishop of Port, where the mouth of the Tiber empties
into the sea, requested that on his tomb might be engraved the sign
which was placed on the graves of parricides, in the hope that
passers-by would spit on his tomb. This was done. The dead must be
obeyed.”
“So be it.”
“The body of Bernard Guidonis, born in France near Roche-Abeille, was,
as he had ordered, and in spite of the king of Castile, borne to the
church of the Dominicans in Limoges, although Bernard Guidonis was
Bishop of Tuy in Spain. Can the contrary be affirmed?”
“For that matter, no, reverend Mother.”
“The fact is attested by Plantavit de la Fosse.”
Several beads of the chaplet were told off, still in silence. The
prioress resumed:—
“Father Fauvent, Mother Crucifixion will be interred in the coffin in