Memoirs of a Physician (3 page)

“Well? “cried he.

” What ! has my sister not returned ? ” asked the young man.

“Alas !” cried with one voice, the baron, Nicole, and La Brie.

“Nothing no news no information no hope ?”

” Nothing ! “

Philip fell upon the stone bench of the hotel ; the baron uttered a savage exclamation.

At this very moment a hackney coach appeared at the end of the street ; it approached slowly, and stopped in

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front of the hotel. A woman’s head was seen through the door, resting on her shoulders as if she had fainted. Philip, roused by this sight, hastened toward the vehicle. The door of the coach opened, and a man alighted, bearing the senseless form of Andre in his arms.

” Dead ! dead ! They bring us a corpse ! ” cried Philip, falling on his knees.

“Dead ! ” stammered the baron, “oh, sir, is she indeed dead?”

“I think not, gentlemen,” calmly replied the man who carried Andre ; ” Mademoiselle de Taverney, I hope, is only in a swoon.”

” Oh ! the sorcerer, the sorcerer ! ” cried the baron.

” The Count de Balsamo !.” murmured Philip.

“The same, sir, and truly happy to have recognized Mademoiselle de Taverney in this frightful melee.”

” In what part of it, sir ? ” asked Philip.

“Near the Garde Meuble.”

” Yes,” said Philip. Then, his expression of joy changing suddenly to one of gloomy distrust :

” You bring her back very late, count,” said he.

“Sir,” replied Balsamo, without seeming in the least surprised, “you may easily comprehend my embarrassing situation. I did not know your sister’s address, and I had no resource but to take her to the Marchioness de Sevigny’s, a friend of mine who lives near the royal stables. Then this honest fellow whom you see, and who assisted me to rescue the young lady come hither, Courtois.” Balsamo accompanied these last words by a sign, and a man in the royal livery appeared from the coach. ” Then,” continued Balsamo, ” this worthy fellow, who belongs to the royal stables, recognized the young lady as having one evening drove her from Muette to your hotel. Mademoiselle de Taverney owes this lucky recognition to her marvelous beauty. I made him accompany me in the coach, and I have the honor to restore Mademoiselle de Taverney to you, with all the respect due to her, and less injured than you think.” And as he concluded he gave the young girl into the care of her father and Nicole.

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For the first time, the baron felt a tear trembling on his eyelids, and though, no doubt, inwardly surprised at this mark of feeling, he permitted it to roll unheeded down his wrinkled cheeks. Philip held out the only hand he hud at liberty to Balsamo.

” Sir,” he said, ” you know my name and address. Give me an opportunity of showing my gratitude for the service you have rendered us.”

” I have only fulfilled a duty ‘ replied Balsamo. ” Do I not owe you a hospitality ? ” And, bowing low, he made a few steps to retire, without replying to the baron’s invitation to enter. But returning :

” Excuse me ‘ said he, *’ but I omitted to give you the exact address of the Marchioness de Sevigny. She lives in the Eue St. Honore, near the Fueillants. I thought it necessary to give you this information, in case Mademoiselle de Taverney should think proper to call on her.”

There was in this precision of details, in this accumu-lation of proofs, a deHcacy which touched Philip deeply, and affected even the baron.

” Sir,” said the baron, ” my daughter owes her life to you.”

“I know it, sir, and I feel proud and happy at the thought ‘ replied Balsamo.

And this time, followed by Courtois, who refused Philip’s proffered purse, he entered the fiacre, which drove off rapidly.

Almost at the same moment, and as if Balsamo’s departure had put an end to her swoon, Andre opened her eyes, but she remained for some minutes mute, bewildered, and with a wild and staring look.

“Oh, heavens!” murmured Philip; “has Providence only half restored her to us ? Has her reason fled?”

Andre seemed to comprehend these words, and shook her head ; but she remained silent and-as if under the influence of a sort of ecstasy. She was still standing, and one of her arms was extended in the direction of the street by which Balsamo had disappeared.

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” Come, come,” said the baron ; ” it is time to end all this. Assist your sister into the house, Philip.”

The young man supported Andre with his uninjured arm. Nicole sustained her on the other side ; and, walking on, but after the manner of a sleeping person, she entered the hotel and gained her apartments. There, for the first time, the power of speech returned.

” Philip ! My father ! ” said she.

” She recognizes us ! she knows us again ! ” exclaimed Philip.

” Of course I know you again ; but, oh, heavens ! what has happened ? “

And Andre closed her eyes, but this time not in a swoon, but in a calm and peaceful slumber.

Nicole, left alone with her young mistress, undressed her and put her in bed.

When Philip returned to his apartments, he found there” a physician whom the thoughtful La Brie had run to sum-mon, as soon as the anxiety on Andre’s account had subsided.

The doctor examined Philip’s arm. It was not broken, but only dislocated, and a skilful compression replaced the shoulder in the socket from which it had been removed. After the operation, Philip, who was still uneasy on his sister’s account, conducted the doctor to her bedside.

The doctor felt her pulse, listened to her breathing, and smiled.

” Your sister sleeps as calmly as an infant,” said he. ” Let her sleep, chevalier ; there is nothing else necessary to be done.”

As for the baron, sufficiently reassured on his children’s account, he had long been sound asleep.

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CHAPTER III.

M. DE JUSSIEU.

WE must again transport the reader to the house in the Rue Plastriere, where M. de Sartines had sent his agent, and there, on the morning of the thirty-first of May, we shall once more find Gilbert stretched upon a mattress in Therese’s room, and, standing around him, Therese and Rousseau, with several of their neighbors, contemplating this specimen of the dreadful event at the remembrance of which all Paris still shuddered.

Gilbert, pale and bleeding, opened his eyes ; and as soon as he regained his consciousness, he endeavored to raise himself and look round, as if he were still in the Place Louis XV. An expression of profound anxiety, followed by one of triumphant joy, was pictured in his features ; then a second cloud flitted across his countenance, which resumed its somber hue.

‘ ‘ Are you suffering, my dear child ? ” inquired Rousseau, taking his hand affectionately.

” Oh ! who has saved me ? ” asked Gilbert. ” Who thought of me, lonely and friendless being that I am ? “

” What saved you, my child, was the happy chance that yon were not yet dead. He who thought of you was the same Almighty Being who thinks of all.”

” No matter ; it is very imprudent,” grumbled Therese, ” to go among such a crowd.”

” Yes, yes, it is very imprudent,” repeated all the neighbors, with one voice.

“Why, ladies,” interrupted Rousseau, “there is no imprudence when there is no manifest danger, and there is no manifest danger in going to see fireworks. When danger arrives under such circumstances,, you do not call the sufferer imprudent, but unfortunate. Any of us present would have done the same.”

Gilbert looked round, and seeing himself in Rousseau’s

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apartment, endeavored to speak, but the effort was too much for him ; the blood gushed from his mouth and nostrils, and he sank back insensible. Kousseau had been warned by the surgeon of the Place Louis XV., and therefore was not alarmed. In expectation of a similar event, he had placed the invalid on a temporary mattress without sheets.

” In the meantime ‘ said he to Therese, “you may put the poor lad to bed.”

” Where ? “

“Why here, in my bed.”

Gilbert heard these words. Extreme weakness alone prevented his replying immediately, but he made a violent effort, and, opening his eyes, said, slowly and painfully, “No, no ; upstairs.”

‘ ‘ You wish to return to your own room ? “

” Yes, yes, if you please ;” and he completed with his eyes, rather than with his tongue, this wish, dictated by a recollection still more powerful than pain, and which with him seemed to survive even his consciousness.

Eousseau, whose own sensibility was so extreme, doubtless understood him, for he added :

” It is well, my child ; we will carry you up. He does not wish to inconvenience us,” sai’d he to Therese, who had warmly applauded the resolution. It was therefore decided that Gilbert should be instantly installed in the attic he preferred.

Toward the middle of the day, Eousseau came to pass the hours he usually spent in collecting his favorite plants, by the bedside of his disciple ; and the young man, feeling a little better, related to him, in a low and almost inaudible voice, the details of the catastrophe. But he did not mention the real cause why he went to see the fireworks. Curiosity alone, he said, led him to the Place Louis XV. Eousseau could not suspect anything further, unless he had been a sorcerer, and he therefore expressed no surprise at Gilbert’s story, but contented himself with the questions he had already put, and only recommended patience. He did not speak either of the fragment of rnus-MEMOIRS OF A PHYSICIAN. 21

lin which-had been found in Gilbert’s hand, and of which Philip had taken possession.

Nevertheless, this conversation, which, on both sides, bordered so narrowly on the real feelings of each, was no less attractive on that account ; and they were still deeply absorbed in it, when, all at once, Therese’s step was heard upon the landing.

“Jacques ! ” said she, “Jacques.”

” Well, what is it ? “

” Some prince coming to visit me in my turn,” said Gilbert, with a feeble smile.

“Jacques ! ” cried Therese, advancing, and still calling.

” Well ! What do you want with me ? “

Therese entered.

” Monsieur de Jussieu is below,” said she ; ” he heard that you were in the crowd during that night, and he has come to see if you have been hurt.”

” The good Jussieu ! ” said Eousseau. ” Excellent man, like all those who, from taste or from necessity, commune with nature, the source of all good ! Be calm, do not move. Gilbert, I will return.”

” Yes, thank you,” said the young man.

Rousseau left the room.

But scarcely had he gone when Gilbert, raising himself as well as he could, dragged himself toward the skylight, from which AndreVs window could be seen.

It was a most painful effort for a young man without strength, almost without the power of thought, to raise himself upon the stool, lift the sash of the skylight, and prop himself upon the edge of the roof. Gilbert, nevertheless, succeeded in effecting this. But once there, his eyes swam, his hand shook, the blood rushed to his lips, and he fell heavily to the floor.

At that moment the door of the garret opened, and Rousseau entered, followed by Jussieu, to whom he was paying great civility. y-X>

“Take care, my dear philosopher, stoop a little here,” said Rousseau. ” There is a step there we are not entering a palace.”

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” Thank you ; I have good eyes and stont limbs ‘ replied the learned botanist.

” Here is some one come to visit you, my little Gilbert,” said Rousseau, looking toward the bed. ” Oh ! good heavens ! where is he ? He has got up, the unfortunate lad!”

And Rousseau, seeing the window open, commenced to vent his displeasure in affectionate grumblings. Gilbert raised himself with difficulty, and said, in an almost inaudible voice, ” I wanted air.”

It was impossible to scold him, for suffering was plainly depicted in his pale and altered features.

“In fact,” interrupted M. de Jussieu, ” it is dreadfully warm here. Come, young man, let me feel your pulse ; I am also a doctor.”

“And better than many regular physicians .’ said Rousseau, ” for you are a healer of the mind as well as of the body ‘

” It is too much honor,” murmured Gilbert, feebly, endeavoring to shroud himself from view in his humble pallet.

” Monsieur de Jussieu insisted on visiting you,” said Rousseau, ” and I accepted his offer. Well, dear doctor, what do you think of his chest ? “

The skilful anatomist felt the bones, and sounded the cavity by an attentive auscultation.

” The vital parts are uninjured,” said he. ” But who has pressed you in his arms with so much force ? “

” Alas ! sir, it was death ! ” said Gilbert.

Rousseau looked at the young man with astonishment.

” Oh ! you are bruised, my child, greatly bruised ; but tonics, air, leisure, will make all that disappear.”

” No leisure I cannot afford it,” said the young man, looking at Rousseau.

” What does he mean ?” asked Jussieu.

” Gilbert is a determined worker, my dear sir,” replied Rousseau.

” Agreed ; but he cannot possibly work for a day or two yet.”

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” To obtain a livelihood,” said Gilbert, ” one must work every day ; for every day one eats.”

‘ ‘ Oh ! you will not consume much food for a short time, and your medicines will not cost much.”

” However little they cost, sir,” said Gilbert, ” I never receive alms.”

“You are mad,” said Eousseau, “and you exaggerate. I tell you that you must be governed by Monsieur de Jussieu’s orders, who will be your doctor in spite of yourself. “Would you believe it,” continued he, addressing M. de Jussieu, “he had begged me not to send for one ?”

“Why not?”

” Because it would have cost me money, and he is proud.”

” But,” replied M. de Jussieu, gazing at Gilbert’s fine expressive features with growing interest, “no matter how proud he is, he cannot accomplish impossibilities. Do you think, yourself capable of working when you fell down with the mere exertion of going to the window ? “