The Blockade of Phalsburg: An Episode of the End of the Empire. Erckmann-Chatrian
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an hour, when suddenly Burguet appeared at my door, under the little arch, behind the crowd of country people, and said to me:
"Moses, come here a minute, I have something to say to you."
I went out.
"Let us go into your passage," said he.
I was much surprised, for he looked very grave. The peasants behind called out:
"We have no time to lose. Make haste, Moses!"
But I paid no attention. In the passage Burguet said to me:
"I have just come from the mayoralty, where they are busy in making out a report to the prefect in regard to the state of feeling among our population, and I accidentally heard that they are going to send Sergeant Trubert to your house."
This was indeed a blow for me. I exclaimed:
"I don't want him! I don't want him! I have lodged six men in the last fortnight, and it isn't my turn."
He answered:
"Be quiet, and don't talk so loud. You will only make the matter worse."
I repeated:
"Never, never shall this sergeant enter my house! It is abominable! A quiet man like myself, who has never harmed any one, and who asks nothing but peace!"
While I was speaking, Sorlé, on her way to market, with her basket on her arm, came down, and asked what was the matter.
"Listen, Madame Sorlé," said Burguet to her; "be more reasonable than your husband! I can understand his indignation, and yet for all that, when a thing is inevitable we must submit to it. Frichard dislikes you; he is secretary of the mayoralty; he distributes the billets for quartering soldiers according to a list. Very well; he sends you Sergeant Trubert, a violent, bad man, I allow, but he needs lodging as well as the others. To everything which I have said in your favor, Frichard has always replied: 'Moses is rich. He has sent away his boys to escape conscription. He ought to pay for them.' The mayor, the governor, everybody thinks he is right. So, you see, I tell you as a friend, the more resistance you make, so much the more the sergeant will affront you, and Frichard laugh at you, and there will be no help for it. Be reasonable!"
I was still more angry on finding that I owed these misfortunes to Frichard. I would have exclaimed, but my wife laid her hand on my arm, and said:
"Let me speak, Moses. Monsieur Burguet is right, and I am much obliged to him for telling us beforehand. Frichard has a spite against us. Very well; he must pay for it all, and we will settle with him by and by. Now, when is the sergeant coming?"
"At noon," replied Burguet.
"Very well," said my wife; "he has a right to lodging, fire, and candles. We can't dispute that; but Frichard shall pay for it all."
She was pale, and I listened, for I saw that she was right.
"Be quiet, Moses," she said to me afterward, "and don't say a word; let me manage it."
"This is what I had to say to you," said Burguet, "it is an abominable trick of Frichard's. I will see, by and by, if it is possible to rid you of the sergeant. Now I must go back to my post."
Sorlé had just started for the market. Burguet pressed my hand, and as the peasants grew more impatient in their cries, I had to go back to my scales.
I was full of rage. I sold that day more than two hundred francs' worth of iron, but my indignation against Frichard, and my fear of the sergeant, took away all pleasure in anything. I might have sold ten times more without feeling any better.
"Ah! the rascal!" I said to myself; "he gives me no rest. I shall have no peace in this city."
As the clock struck twelve the market closed, and people went away by the French gate. I shut up my shop and went home, thinking to myself:
"Now I shall be nothing in my own house; this Trubert is going to rule everything. He will look down upon us as if we were Germans or Spaniards."
I was in despair. But in the midst of my despair on the staircase, I suddenly perceived an odor of good things from the kitchen, and I went up in surprise, for I smelt fish and roast, as if it were a feast day.
I was going into the kitchen, when Sorlé appeared and said:
"Go into your chamber, shave yourself, and put on a clean shirt."
I saw, at the same time, that she was dressed in her Sabbath clothes, with her ear-rings, her green skirt, and her red silk neckerchief.
"But why must I shave, Sorlé?" I exclaimed.
"Go quick; you have no time to lose!" replied she.
This woman had so much good sense, she had so many times set things right by her ready wit, that I said nothing more, and went into my bedroom to shave myself and put on a clean shirt.
As I was putting on my shirt I heard little Sâfel cry out:
"Here he is, mamma! here he is!"
Then steps were heard on the stairs, and a rough voice called:
"Holla! you folks. Ho!"
I thought to myself: "It is the sergeant," and I listened.
"Ah! here is our sergeant!" cried Sâfel, triumphantly.
"Oh! that is good," replied my wife, in a cheerful tone. "Come in, Mr. Sergeant, come in! We were expecting you. I knew that we were to have the honor of having a sergeant; we were glad to hear it, because we have had only common soldiers before. Be so good as to come in, Mr. Sergeant."
She spoke in this way as if she were really pleased, and I thought to myself:
"O Sorlé, Sorlé! You shrewd woman! You sensible woman! I see through it now. I see your cunning. You are going to mollify this rascal! Ah, Moses! what a wife you have! Congratulate yourself! Congratulate yourself!"
I hastened to dress myself, laughing all the while; and I heard this brute of a sergeant say:
"Yes, yes! It is all very well. But that isn't the point! Show me my room, my bed. You can't pay me with fine speeches; people know Sergeant Trubert too well for that."
"Certainly, Mr. Sergeant, certainly," replied my wife, "here is your room and your bed. See, it is the best we have."
Then they went into the passage, and I heard Sorlé open the door of the handsome room which Baruch and Zeffen occupied when they came to Phalsburg.
I followed them softly. The sergeant thrust his fist into the bed to feel if it was soft. Sorlé and Sâfel looked on smilingly behind him. He examined every corner with a scowl. You never saw such a face, Fritz; a gray bristling mustache, a long thin nose, hooked over the mouth; a yellow skin, full of wrinkles: he dragged the butt-end of his gun on the floor, without seeming to notice anything, and muttered ill-naturedly:
"Hem! hem! What is that down there?"
"It is the wash-basin, Mr. Sergeant."
"And these chairs, are they strong? Will they bear anything?"
He knocked them rudely down. It was evident he wanted to find fault with something.
On turning round he saw me, and looking at me sideways, asked:
"Are you the citizen?"
"Yes, sergeant; I am."
"Ah!"
He put his gun in a corner, threw his knapsack on the table, and said:
"That will do! You may go."
Sâfel had opened the kitchen door, and the good smell of the roast came into the room.
"Mr. Sergeant," said Sorlé very pleasantly, "allow me to ask a favor of you."
"You!" said he, looking at her over his shoulder, "ask a favor of me!"
"Yes. It is that since you now lodge with us, and will be in some respects one of the family, you will give us the pleasure of dining with us, at least for once."
"Ah, ah!" said he, turning his nose toward the kitchen, "that is another thing!"
He seemed to