The Story of The Little Mamsell | Page 4

cry

out that Mamsell had on my black suit and I wanted her to give it back,
when my Baron clapped his hand over my mouth and I nearly choked.
'Donner-wetter' how he gripped me! But only a minute, for suddenly
his strength gave out and he stood stock-still and began to tremble. He
had looked at Manon and she at him. Such a smile came over her face
and she bowed her head, and then the cart drove quickly on. My master
stood in one spot for as much as a quarter of an hour, and big tears
rolled down his cheeks. 'A horrible mistake!' he murmured, 'she told me
she was in no danger, that her father would get her free the next day--he
could not have found her! Heavenly Father, couldst thou not have pity
on her youth and beauty?' He said much more and I got impatient when
he wouldn't go on, and said, 'Herr Baron, the little Mamsell is gone for
good and all, I suppose, and my black suit too, so there's no chance of
my ever seeing that again, but if we stay here much longer they'll take
us to the "Gartine" too, and the little Mamsell wouldn't wish that, or
why should she have made all this fuss about my suit. And by this time
she's certainly in heaven, and that's a very good place they say!'
"I talked like this to my Baron, till he began to walk, and went faster
and faster, out through the city gates, and never looked back for me till
we came to some houses where English lived in a village a few miles
from Paris, where the French didn't make such a time as in the city
itself. The English were going back to their own country, as all this was
rather uncomfortable, and we traveled with them by slow stages to the
coast, and then in a small boat to England, where they eat their beef too
red for my taste; In other ways they live well enough, and I would have
had nothing to complain of if my Baron had been a little more cheerful.
He had forgotten how to laugh, had grown pale and silent, and nights
instead of sleeping he lay groaning and muttering in French and Danish
to himself. In his dreams he was always calling for Manon, a senseless
thing to do since she couldn't come!"
The old man looked thoughtfully toward the setting sun. "When I
thought over the whole affair I felt dreadfully sorry about little
Mam-sell. She was such a pretty little thing with short brown hair, and
such laughing eyes as if there were no trouble or sorrow in the world. I
was only a green lad then, and knew nothing about women, but the

memory of her smile as she sat in the cart stayed by me. Afterward I
once saw a baby lying in its coffin, that looked as content as Mamsell
Manon did that day, going to lay her white neck on the block, I grew
more reasonable as time went on and forgot my vexation over my black
suit. The Baron treated me very decently, I can't complain. Later on,
though, he decided we had better part, for I had grown too free in my
manners in Paris, He gave me a good present and if I hadn't had all
sorts of bad luck I might be a rich man now. But it's always so, there's
no 'égalité' in this country, and if we don't have a good revolution it will
never be any different. Though it doesn't always turn out well for
everyone even then, The French grocer who did such a good business
with the King's wine was one of those who could never get enough
aristocrats killed; and finally his own flesh and blood went to her death
for the sake of one of them. If misfortune is bound to come there's no
getting out of it, and it came to me the time they said I belonged to that
band of thieves there was such a talk about. I defended myself well, but
all the same I was put in gaol in Gluckstadt, and there's no knowing
how long I might have stayed there if it hadn't been for a lucky chance
that brought the Danish king to see the prison, along with a lot of fine
gentlemen. All of us convicts had to stand in rank and file while old
Friedrich inspected us. And who should be behind the King but my
Baron, with white hair and bent back, and a great star on his breast.
They were going slowly past us, when I coughed, and he started and
came close to me. 'Do I not know you?'