The Corsican Brothers | Page 5

I told him that I was ready to receive Signor Lucien de Franchi, and
that all the honor of his visit would be conferred on me.
A moment after, I heard some one rapidly mounting the stairs, and my
host immediately made his appearance.



CHAPTER II.
He was, as my guide had told me, a young man, between twenty and
twenty-one years of age, with black hair and eyes, rather small, but
admirably well made.
In his anxiety to pay his compliments to me, he had come up just as he
was, that is in his riding dress, consisting of a green frock-coat, to
which a cartouchire, pressing his waist, gave a certain military air, gray
pantaloons trimmed inside with Russia leather, and boots with spurs; a
cap in the style of those worn by our chasseurs d'Afrique completed his
dress.
At his cartouchire were suspended on one side a whip, on the other a
gourd.
Besides, he held in his hand an English rifle.
Notwithstanding the youth of my host, whose upper lip was hardly
shaded by a light moustache, there was in his whole person a most
striking air of resolution and independence.

He displayed the man educated for personal combat, accustomed to live
in the midst of danger, not fearing it, but also not despising it--grave,
because he is solitary--calm, because he is strong.
In a single glance he had seen all; my traveling-case, my weapons, the
dress I had just quitted, and the one I had put on; his eye was rapid and
sure, like that of a man whose life depends often upon a moment.
"Excuse me, if I disturb you, signor," said he, "I do so with a good
intention, that of inquiring what are your wants. I always feel uneasy
when I find a gentleman arriving here from the continent, for we are yet
so uncivilized in our Corsican mountains, that it is only with trembling
we extend, especially towards Frenchmen, that old hospitality which
will soon become only a tradition preserved to us by our fathers.
"You are wrong to fear, signor," replied I; "it would be impossible to
satisfy the wants of a traveller, more fully than Signora de Franchi has
done; besides," continued I, looking round the room, "it is not here that
I could complain of this pretended want of refinement, of which, with
too much modesty, you accuse yourself; and if through these windows I
did not observe this most admirable prospect, I could fancy myself in a
chamber of the ChaussŽe d'Antin."
"Ah! it was a mania of my poor brother Louis," replied the young man;
"he loved to live ˆ la Franaise, but I doubt if after his return from Paris,
this poor parody of the refinement which he will leave behind, will
satisfy and please him as much as it did before he left us."
"Your brother left Corsica a long time ago?" inquired I from my young
interlocutor.
"About one year since, signor."
"You expect him back soon?"
"Ah! not before three or four years."
"That will be a long separation for two brothers who probably have

never before been apart from each other?"
"Yes, and especially who loved each other as we did."
"No doubt he will come to see you before he finishes his studies?"
"Probably; he promised us, at least."
"At all events, nothing can prevent you from going to visit him?"
"No, I don't leave Corsica."
There was expressed in the tone with which he gave this answer, that
love of the fatherland, which looks on the rest of the world with a
general disdain.
I smiled.
"That appears strange to you," added he after awhile, smiling also; "you
are astonished that I don't feel willing to leave a country so miserable
as ours; but I cannot help it. I am as much a production of this island as
its green oats, and its rose-laurels; I must have my atmosphere
impregnated with the perfume of the sea, and the exhalations of its
mountains. I must have my torrents to cross, my rocks to climb, and my
forests to explore; I want space--I want liberty. If I was transported to a
city, it seems to me that I should die there."
"But how then can so great a moral difference exist between you and
your brother?"
"You would add, and with so great a personal resemblance, if you only
knew him."
"You are very much alike, then?"
"So much so, that when we were children our parents found it
necessary to put some mark upon our garments in order to distinguish
us."

"And when you grew older?"
"Then our dissimilar habits and pursuits produced a slight difference in
our complexion--that's all. All the while locked up--all the time
occupied with his