La Grande Breteche | Page 9

linen I have ever seen, though I have had princesses to lodge here,
and, among others, General Bertrand, the Duc and Duchesse d'Abrantes,
Monsieur Descazes, and the King of Spain. He did not eat much, but he
had such polite and amiable ways that it was impossible to owe him a
grudge for that. Oh! I was very fond of him, though he did not say four
words to me in a day, and it was impossible to have the least bit of talk
with him; if he was spoken to, he did not answer; it is a way, a mania
they all have, it would seem.
" 'He read his breviary like a priest, and went to mass and all the
services quite regularly. And where did he post himself?--we found this
out later.--Within two yards of Madame de Merret's chapel. As he took
that place the very first time he entered the church, no one imagined
that there was any purpose in it. Besides, he never raised his nose above
his book, poor young man! And then, monsieur, of an evening he went
for a walk on the hill among the ruins of the old castle. It was his only
amusement, poor man; it reminded him of his native land. They say

that Spain is all hills!
" 'One evening, a few days after he was sent here, he was out very late.
I was rather uneasy when he did not come in till just on the stroke of
midnight; but we all got used to his whims; he took the key of the door,
and we never sat up for him. He lived in a house belonging to us in the
Rue des Casernes. Well, then, one of our stable-boys told us one
evening that, going down to wash the horses in the river, he fancied he
had seen the Spanish Grandee swimming some little way off, just like a
fish. When he came in, I told him to be careful of the weeds, and he
seemed put out at having been seen in the water.
" 'At last, monsieur, one day, or rather one morning, we did not find
him in his room; he had not come back. By hunting through his things,
I found a written paper in the drawer of his table, with fifty pieces of
Spanish gold of the kind they call doubloons, worth about five
thousand francs; and in a little sealed box ten thousand francs worth of
diamonds. The paper said that in case he should not return, he left us
this money and these diamonds in trust to found masses to thank God
for his escape and for his salvation.
" 'At that time I still had my husband, who ran off in search of him.
And this is the queer part of the story: he brought back the Spaniard's
clothes, which he had found under a big stone on a sort of breakwater
along the river bank, nearly opposite la Grande Breteche. My husband
went so early that no one saw him. After reading the letter, he burnt the
clothes, and, in obedience to Count Feredia's wish, we announced that
he had escaped.
" 'The sub-prefect set all the constabulary at his heels; but, pshaw! he
was never caught. Lepas believed that the Spaniard had drowned
himself. I, sir, have never thought so; I believe, on the contrary, that he
had something to do with the business about Madame de Merret, seeing
that Rosalie told me that the crucifix her mistress was so fond of that
she had it buried with her, was made of ebony and silver; now in the
early days of his stay here, Monsieur Feredia had one of ebony and
silver which I never saw later.--And now, monsieur, do not you say that
I need have no remorse about the Spaniard's fifteen thousand francs?
Are they not really and truly mine?'
" 'Certainly.--But have you never tried to question Rosalie?' said I.
" 'Oh, to be sure I have, sir. But what is to be done? That girl is like a

wall. She knows something, but it is impossible to make her talk.'
"After chatting with me for a few minutes, my hostess left me a prey to
vague and sinister thoughts, to romantic curiosity, and a religious dread,
not unlike the deep emotion which comes upon us when we go into a
dark church at night and discern a feeble light glimmering under a lofty
vault--a dim figure glides across--the sweep of a gown or of a priest's
cassock is audible--and we shiver! La Grande Breteche, with its rank
grasses, its shuttered windows, its rusty iron-work, its locked doors, its
deserted rooms, suddenly rose before me in fantastic vividness. I tried
to get into the mysterious