The Headsman - James Fenimore Cooper
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"We have had a joyous day, my friends" he said; "one whose excellent
ceremonies ought to recall to every one of us our dependence on
Providence, our frail and sinful dispositions, and particularly our
duties to the councils. By the types of plenty and abundance, we see the
bounty of nature, which is a gift from Heaven; by the different little
failures that have been, perhaps, unavoidably made in some of the nicer
parts of the exhibition--and I would here particularly mention the
besotted drunkenness of Antoine Giraud, the man who has impudently
undertaken to play the part of Silenus, as a fit subject of your
attention, for it is full of profit to all hard-drinking knaves--we may
see our own awful imperfections; while, in the order of the whole, and the
perfect obedience of the subordinates, do we find a parallel to the beauty
of a vigilant and exact police and a well-regulated community. Thus you
see, that though the ceremony hath a Heathen exterior, it hath a Christian
moral; God grant that we all forget the former, and remember the latter,
as best becomes our several characters and our common country. And now,
having done with the divinities and their legends--with the exception of
that varlet Silenus, whose misconduct, I promise you, is not to be so
easily overlooked--we will give some attention to mortal affairs. Marriage
is honorable before God and man, and although I have never had leisure to
enter into this holy state myself, owing to a variety of reasons, but
chiefly from my being wedded, as it were, to the State, to which we all
owe quite as much, or even greater duty, than the most faithful wife owes
to her husband, I would not have you suppose that I have not a high
veneration for matrimony. So far from this, I have looked on no part of
this day's ceremonies with more satisfaction than these of the nuptials,
which we are now called upon to complete in a manner suitable to the
importance of the occasion. Let the bridegroom and the bride stand forth,
that all may the better see the happy pair."
At the bidding of the bailiff, Jacques Colis led Christine upon the little
stage prepared for their reception, where both were more completely in
view of the spectators than they had yet been. The movement, and the
agitation consequent on so public an exposure, deepened the bloom on the
soft cheeks of the bride, and another and a still less equivocal murmur of
applause arose in the multitude. The spectacle of youth, innocence, and
feminine loveliness, strongly stirred the sympathies of even the most
churlish and rude; and most present began to feel for her fears, and to
participate in her hopes.
"This is excellent!" continued the well-pleased Peterchen, who was never
half so happy as when he was officially providing for the happiness of
others; "it promises a happy _menage_. A loyal, frugal, industrious, and
active groom, with a fair and willing bride, can drive discontent up any
man's chimney. That which is to be done next, being legal and binding,
must be done with proper gravity and respect. Let the notary advance--not
him who hath so aptly played this character, but the commendable and
upright officer who is rightly charged with these respectable
functions--and we will listen to the contract. I recommend a decent
silence, my friends, for the true laws and real matrimony are at the
bottom--a grave affair at the best, and one never to be treated with
levity; since a few words pronounced now in haste may be repented of for a
whole life hereafter."
Every thing was conducted according to the wishes of the bailiff, and with
great decency of form. A true and authorized notary read aloud the
marriage-contract, the instrument which contained the civic relations and
rights of the parties, and which only waited for the signatures to be
complete. This document required, of course, that the real names of the
contracting parties, their ages, births, parentage, and all those facts
which are necessary to establish their identity, and to secure the rights
of succession, should be clearly set forth in a way to render the
instrument valid at the most remote period, should there ever arrive a
necessity to recur to it in the way of testimony. The most eager attention
pervaded the crowd as they listened to these little particulars, and
Adelheid trembled in this delicate part of the proceedings, as the
suppressed but still audible breathing of Sigismund reached her ear, lest
something might occur to give a rude shock to his feelings. But it would
seem the notary had his cue. The details touching Christine were so
artfully arranged, that while they were perfectly binding in law, they
were so dexterously concealed from the observation of the unsuspecting,
that no attention was drawn to the point most apprehended by their
exposure. Sigismund breathed freer when the notary drew near the end of
his task, and Adelheid heard the heavy breath he drew at the close, with
the joy one feels at the certainty of having passed an imminent danger.
Christine herself seemed relieved, though hor inexperience in a great
degree prevented her from foreseeing all that the greater practice of
Sigismund had led him to anticipate.
"This is quite in rule, and naught now remains but to receive the
signatures of the respective parties and their friends," resumed the
bailiff. "A happy menage is like a well-ordered state, a foretaste of the
joys and peace of Heaven; while a discontented household and a turbulent
community may be likened at once to the penalties and the pains of hell!
Let the friends of the parties step forth, in readiness to sign when the
principals themselves shall have discharged this duty."
A few of the relatives and associates of Jacques Colis moved out of the
crowd and placed themselves at the side of the bridegroom, who immediately
wrote his own name, like a man impatient to be happy. A pause succeeded,
for all were curious to see who claimed affinity to the trembling girl on
this the most solemn and important event of her life. An interval of
several minutes elapsed, and no one appeared. The respiration of Sigismund
became more difficult; he seemed about to choke, and then yielding to a
generous impulse, he arose.
"For the love of God!--for thine own sake!--for mine! be not too hasty!"
whispered the terrified Adelheid; for she saw the hot glow that almost
blazed on his brow.
"I cannot desert poor Christine to the scorn of the world, in a moment
like this! If I die of shame, I must go forward and own myself."
The hand of Mademoiselle de Willading was laid upon his arm, and he
yielded to this silent but impressive entreaty, for just then he saw that
his sister was about to be relieved from her distressing solitude. The
throng yielded, and a decent pair, attired in the guise of small but
comfortable proprietors, moved doubtingly towards the bride. The eyes of
Christine filled with tears, for terror and the apprehension of disgrace
yielded suddenly to joy. Those who advanced to support her in that moment
of intense trial were her father and mother. The respectable-looking pair
moved slowly to the side of their daughter, and, having placed themselves
one on each side of her, they first ventured to cast furtive and subdued
glances at the multitude.
"It is doubtless painful to the parents to part with so fair and so
dutiful a child," resumed the obtuse Peterchen, who rarely saw in any
emotion more than its most common-place and vulgar character; "Nature
pulls them one way, while the terms of the contract and the progress of
our ceremonies pull another. I have often weaknesses of this sort myself,
the most sensitive hearts being the most liable to these attacks. But my
children are the public, and do riot admit of too much of what I may call
the detail of sentiment, else, by the soul of Calvin! were I but an
indifferent bailiff for Berne!--Thou art the father of this fair and
blushing maiden, and thou her mother?"
"We are these," returned Balthazar mildly.
"Thou art not of Vevey, or its neighborhood, by thy speech?"
"Of the great canton, mein Herr;" for the answer was in German, these
contracted districts possessing nearly as many dialects as there are
territorial divisions. "We are strangers in Vaud."
"Thou hast not done the worse for marrying thy daughter with a Vevaisan,
and, more especially, under the favor of our renowned and liberal Abbaye.
I warrant me thy child will be none the poorer for this compliance with
the wishes of those who lead our ceremonies!"
"She will not go portionless to the house of her husband," returned the
father, coloring with secret pride; for to one to whom the chances of life
left so few sources of satisfaction, those that were possessed became
doubly dear.
"This is well! A right worthy couple! And I doubt not, a meet companion
will your offspring prove. Monsieur le Notaire, call off the names of
those good people aloud, that they may sign, at least, with a decent
parade."
"It is settled otherwise." hastily answered the functionary of the quill,
who was necessarily in the secret of Christine's origin, and who had been
well bribed to observe discretion. "It would altogether derange the order
and regularity of the proceedings."
"As thou wilt; for I would have nothing illegal, and least of all, nothing
disorderly. But o' Heaven's sake! let us get through with our penmanship,
for I hear there are symptoms that the meats are likely to be overbaked.
Canst thou write, good man?"
"Indifferently, mein Herr: but in a way to make what I will binding before
the law."
"Give the quill to the bride, Mr. Notary, and let us protract the happy
event no longer."
The bailiff here bent his head aside and whispered to an attendant to
hurry towards the kitchens and to look to the affairs of the banquet.
Christine took the pen with a trembling hand and pallid cheek, and was
about to apply it to the paper, when a sudden cry from the throng diverted
the attention of all present to a new matter of interest.
"Who dares thus indecently interrupt this grave scene, and that, too, in
so great a presence?" sternly demanded the bailiff.
Pippo, who with the other prisoners had unavoidably been inclosed in the
space near the estrade by the pressure of the multitude, staggered more
into view, and removing his cap with a well-managed respect, presented
himself humbly to the sight of Peterchen.
"It is I, illustrious and excellent governor," returned the wily
Neapolitan, who retained just enough of the liquor he had swallowed to
render him audacious, without weakening his means of observation. "It is
I, Pippo; an artist of humble pretensions, but, I hope, a very honest man
and, as I know, a great reverencer of the laws and a true friend to
order."
"Let the good man speak up boldly. A man of these principles has a right
to be heard. We live in a time of damnable innovations, and of most
atrocious attempts to overturn the altar, the state, and the public
trusts, and the sentiments of such a man are like dew to the parched
grass."
The reader is not to imagine, from the language of the bailiff, that Vaud
stood on the eve of any great political commotion, but, as the Government
was in itself an usurpation, and founded on the false principle of
exclusion, it was quite as usual then, as now, to cry out against the
moral throes of violated right, since the same eagerness to possess, the
same selfishness in grasping, however unjustly obtained, and the same
audacity of assertion with a view to mystify, pervaded the Christian world
a century since as exist to-day. The cunning Pippo saw that the bait had
taken, and, assuming a still more respectful and loyal mien, he
continued:--
"Although a stranger, illustrious governor, I have had great delight in
these joyous and excellent ceremonies. Their fame will be spread far and
near, and men will talk of little less for the coming year but of Vevey
and its festival. But a great scandal hangs over your honorable heads
which it is in my power to turn aside, and San Gennaro forbid! that I, a
stranger, that hath been well entertained in your town, should hesitate
about raising his voice on account of any scruples of modesty. No doubt,
great governor, your eccellenza believes that this worthy Vevaisan is
about to wive a creditable maiden, whose name could be honorably mentioned
with those of the ceremonies and your town, before the proudest company in
Europe?"
"What of this, fellow? the girl is fair, and modest enough, at least to
the eye, and if thou knowest aught else, whisper thy secret to her husband
or her friends, but do not come in this rude manner to disturb our harmony
with thy raven throat, just as we are ready to sing an epithalamium in
honor of the happy pair. Your excessive particularity is the curse of
wedlock, my friends, and I have a great mind to send this knave, in spite
of all this profession of order, which is like enough to produce disorder,
for a month or two into our Vevey dungeon for his pains."
Pippo was staggered, for, just drunk enough to be audacious, he had not
all his faculties at his perfect command, and his usual acumen was a
little at fault. Still, accustomed to brave public opinion, and to carry
himself through the failures of his exhibitions by heavier drafts on the
patience and credulity of his audience, he determined to persevere as the
most likely way of extricating himself from the menaced consequences of
his indiscretion.
"A thousand pardons, great bailiff;" he answered. "Naught, but a burning
desire to do justice to your high honor, and to the reputation of the
abbaye's festival, could have led me so far, but--"
"Speak thy mind at once, rogue, and have done with circumlocution."
"I have little to say, Signore, except that the father of this illustrious
bride, who is about to honor Vevey by making her nuptials an occasion for
all in the city to witness and to favor, is the common headsman of
Berne--a wretch who lately came near to prove the destruction of more
Christians than the law has condemned, and who is sufficiently out of
favor with Heaven to bring the fate of Gomorrah upon your town!"
Pippo tottered to his station among the prisoners with the manner of one
who had delivered himself of an important trust, and was instantly lost to
view. So rapid and unlooked for had been the interruption, and so vehement
the utterance of the Italian while delivering his facts, that, though
several present saw their tendency when it was too late, none had
sufficient presence of mind to prevent the exposure. A murmur arose in the
crowd, which stirred like a vast sheet of fluid on which a passing gust
had alighted, and then became fixed and calm. Of all present, the bailiff
manifested the least surprise or concern, for to him the last minister of
the law was an object, if not precisely of respect, of politic good-will
rather than of dishonor.
"What of this!" he answered, in the way of one who had expected a far more
important revelation. "What of this, should it be true! Harkee,
friend,--art thou, in sooth, the noted Balthazar, he to whose family the
canton is indebted for so much fair justice?"
Balthazar saw that his secret was betrayed, and that it were wiser simply
to admit the facts, than to have recourse to subterfuge or denial. Nature,
moreover, had made him a man with strong and pure propensities for the
truth, and he was never without the innate consciousness of the injustice
of which he had been made the victim by the unfeeling ordinance of
society. Raising his head, he looked around him with firmness, for he too,
unhappily, had been accustomed to act in the face of multitudes, and he
answered the question of the bailiff, in his usual mild tone of voice, but
with composure.
"Herr Bailiff, I am by inheritance the last avenger of the law."
"By my office! I like the title; it is a good one! The last avenger of
the law! If rogues will offend, or dissatisfied spirits plot, there must
be a hand to put the finishing blow to their evil works, and why not thou
as well as another! Harkee, officers, shut me up yonder Italian knave for
a week on bread and water, for daring to trifle with the time and
good-nature of the public in this impudent manner. And this worthy dame is
thy wife, honest Balthazar; and that fair maiden thy child--Hast thou more
of so goodly a race?"
"God has blessed me in my offspring, mein Herr."
"Ay; God hath blessed thee!--and a great blessing it should be, as I know
by bitter experience--that is, being a bachelor, I understand the misery
of being childless--I would say no more. Sign the contract, honest
Balthazar, with thy wife and daughter, that we may have an end of this."
The family of the proscribed were about to obey this mandate, when Jacques
Colis abruptly threw down the emblems of a bridegroom, tore the contract
in fragments, and publicly announced that he had changed his intention,
and that he would not wive a headsman's child. The public mind is usually
caught by any loud declaration in favor of the ruling prejudice, and,
after the first brief pause of surprise was past, the determination of the
groom was received with a shout of applause that was immediately followed
by general, coarse, and deriding laughter. The throng pressed upon the
keepers of the limits in a still denser mass, opposing an impenetrable
wall of human bodies to the passage of any in either direction, and a dead
stillness succeeded, as if all present breathlessly awaited the result of
the singular scene.
So unexpected and sudden was the purpose of the groom, that they who were
most affected by it, did not, at first, fully comprehend the extent of
the disgrace that was so publicly heaped upon them The innocent and
unpractised Christine stood resembling the cold statue of a vestal, with
the pen raised ready to affix her as yet untarnished name to the contract,
in an attitude of suspense, while her wondering look followed the
agitation of the multitude, as the startled bird, before it takes wing,
regards a movement among the leaves of the bush. But there was no escape
from the truth. Conviction of its humiliating nature came too soon, and,
by the time the calm of intense curiosity had succeeded to the momentary
excitement of the spectators, she was standing an exquisite but painful
picture of wounded feminine feeling and of maiden shame. Her parents, too,
were stupified by the suddenness of the unexpected shock, and it was
longer before their faculties recovered the tone proper to meet an insult
so unprovoked and gross.
"This is unusual;" drily remarked the bailiff, who was the first to break
the long and painful silence.
"It is brutal!" warmly interposed the Signor Grimaldi. "Unless there has
been deception practised on the bridegroom, it is utterly without excuse."
"Your experience, Signore, has readily suggested the true points in a very
knotty case, and I shall proceed without delay to look into its merits."
Sigismund resumed his seat, his hand releasing the sword-hilt that it had
spontaneously grasped when he heard this declaration of the bailiff's
intentions.
"For the sake of thy poor sister, forbear!" whispered the terrified
Adelheid. "All will ye be well--all must be well--it is impossible that
one so sweet and innocent should long remain with her honor unavenged!"
The young man smiled frightfully, at least so it seemed to his companion:
but he maintained the appearance of composure. In the mean time Peterchen,
having secretly dispatched another messenger to the cooks, turned his
serious attention to the difficulty that had just arisen.
"I have long been intrusted by the council with honorable duties," he
said, "but never, before to-day, have I been required to decide upon a
domestic misunderstanding, before the parties were actually wedded. This
is a grave interruption of the ceremonies of the abbaye, as well as a
slight upon the notary and the spectators, and needs be well looked to.
Dost thou really persist in putting this unusual termination to a
marriage-ceremony, Herr Bridegroom?"
Jacques Colis had lost a little of the violent impulse which led him to
the precipitate and inconsiderate act of destroying an instrument he had
legally executed; but his outbreaking of feeling was followed by a sullen
and fixed resolution to persevere in the refusal at every hazard to
himself.
"I will not wive the daughter of a man hunted of society, and avoided by
all;" he doggedly answered.
"No doubt the respectability of the parent is the next thing to a good
dowry, in the choice of a wife," returned the bailiff, "but one of thy
years has not come hither, without having first inquired into the
parentage of her thou wert about to wed?"
"It was sworn to me that the secret should be kept. The girl is well
endowed, and a promise was solemnly made that her parentage should never
be known. The family of Colis is esteemed in Vaud, and I would not have it
said that the blood of the headsman of the canton hath mixed in a stream
as fair as ours."
"And yet thou wert not unwilling, so long as the circumstance was
unknown? Thy objection is less to the fact, than to its public exposure."
"Without the aid of parchments and tongues, Monsieur le Bailli, we should
all be equal in birth. Ask the noble Baron de Willading, who is seated
there at your side, why he is better than another. He will tell you that
he is come of an ancient and honorable line; but had he been taken from
his castle in infancy, and concealed under a feigned name, and kept from
men's knowledge as being that he is, who would think of him for the deeds
of his ancestors? As the Sire de Willading would, in such a case, have
lost in the world's esteem, so did Christine gain; but as opinion would
return to the baron, when the truth should be published, so does it desert
Balthazar's daughter, when she is known to be a headsman's child. I would
have married the maiden as she was, but, your pardon, Monsieur le Bailli,
if I say, I will not wive her as she is."
A murmur of approbation followed this plausible and ready apology, for,
when antipathies are active and bitter, men are easily satisfied with a
doubtful morality and a weak argument.
"This honest youth hath some reason in him," observed the puzzled bailiff,
shaking his head. "I would he had been less expert in disputation, or that
the secret had been better kept! It is apparent as the sun in the heavens,
friend Melchior, that hadst thou not been known as thy father's child,
thou wouldst not have succeeded to thy castle and lands--nay, by St Luke!
not even to the rights of the buergerschaft."
"In Genoa we are used to hear both parties," gravely rejoined the Signor
Grimaldi, "that we may first make sure that we touch the true merits of
the case. Were another to claim the Signor de Willading's honors and name,
thou wouldst scarce grant his suit, without questioning our friend here,
touching his own rights to the same."
"Better and better! This is justice, while that which fell from the
bridegroom was only argument. Harkee, Balthazar, and thou good woman, his
wife--and thou too, pretty Christine--what have ye all to answer to the
reasonable plea of Jacques Colis?"
Balthazar, who, by the nature of his office, and by his general masculine
duties, had been so much accustomed to meet with harsh instances of the
public hatred, soon recovered his usual calm exterior, even though he felt
a father's pang and a father's just resentment at witnessing this open
injury to one so gentle and deserving as his child. But the blow had been
far heavier on Marguerite, the faithful and long-continued sharer of his
fortunes. The wife of Balthazar was past the prime of her days, but she
still retained the presence, and some of the personal beauty, which had
rendered her, in youth, a woman of extraordinary mien and carriage. When
the words which announced the slight to her daughter first fell on her
ears, she paled to the hue of the dead. For several minutes she stood
looking more like one that had taken a final departure from the interests
and emotions of life, than one that, in truth, was a prey to one of the
strongest passions the human breast can ever entertain, that of wounded
maternal affection. Then the blood stole slowly to her temples, and, by
the time the bailiff put his question, her entire face was glowing under a
tumult of feeling that threatened to defeat its own wishes, by depriving
her of the power of speech.
"Thou canst answer him, Balthazar," she said huskily, motioning for her
husband to arouse his faculties; "thou art used to these multitudes and
to their scorn. Thou art a man, and canst do us justice."
"Herr Bailiff," said the headsman, who seldom lost the mild deportment
that characterized his manner, "there is much truth in what Jacques hath
urged, but all present may have seen that the fault did not come of us,
but of yonder heartless vagabond. The wretch sought my life on the lake,
in our late unfortunate passage hither; and, not content with wishing to
rob my children of their father, he comes now to injure me still more
cruelly. I was born to the office I hold, as you well know, Herr
Hofmeister, or it would never have been sought by me; but what the law
wills, men insist upon as right. This girl can never be called upon to
strike a head from its shoulders, and, knowing from childhood up the scorn
that awaits all who come of my race, I sought the means of releasing her,
at least, from some part of the curse that hath descended on us."