Fabiola : or, The church of the catacombs - Digital Repository Services

THE PORTRAIT IN MY UNCLE'S DINING-ROOM.
IPSS illustrious writers, who have devoted their time to t'.c
study
of our n
:
1 into tho midst of these huge 1'olios, and their goi
tiered here and thereon the dusky shelves. The
wns adorned with several paintings, and a curious old
set of engravings, much prized by my uncle. Ou the -walnutwood
sideboard stood some ancient pieces of plate of exquisite
workmanship. But I must own that none of these curiosities
attracted me half aa much as a portrait which Dom Gei-usac
had hung up over the pieivglass of the chimney-piece. It was
a drawing in colored pencils, faded by time, and set in a frame,
once a handsome one, but now damaged in several ]
This picture represented a woman in tho full bloom of the
like bracelets, encircled her beautiful arms, which were bare up
to the elbow, and her powdered hair was tied up with bows of
a pale blue. There was something wonderfully captivating
about that face a mixture of softness and brilliancy in those
tender and slightly prominent blue eyes. A half smile seemed
to hover over lips which disclosed teeth of the purest enamel ;
that little mouth was like a pomegranate flower, into whose
chalice jasmine blossoms had fallen.
My place at the table was jast opposite the chimney, and I
could not raise my eyes without seeing this enchanting crea-
parish of Malpeire, on the confines of which my uncle's property
was situated, and I would venture to affirm that this
worthy man was the poorest priest in France. His parishioners
were scattered over a vast tract of thickly-wooded laud,
intersected by deep valleys and often impassable torrents.
The village of Malpeire, situated nearly in the centre of the
parish, contained scarcely more than a hundred inhabitants,
but from the size of the surrounding walls, and the nunil >er
of houses crumbling into ruins, it was easy to see that its population
must have formerly been far more considerable. The
li, which, with its Gothic spire, still tow( red over all the
Coring country, was a vast building, bearing tr:WB mlorned
hancel, and mutila' -:id pictures
denoted the places where works oi' art had once existed.
. The village of f Mnl] from St.
on the other side of a. hi;
Minday on our .
had long since given up tl.
,M,
i-d all the ordinary duties of a >
for a!l ;
pens in these Alpine countries, we on the southern slope of
the mountain enjoyed an equable temperature, whereas frequent
storms burst upon the higher lands, and the cold was
sensibly felt in that part of the parish. We accordingly took
precautionary measures before ascending to tho-
Marian went on before us, carrying our cloaks, and waited for
us at the entrance of a gorge which divided the summit of the
n-.oniitaiu, and acioss which a current of icy air was almost always
blowing.
The old servant carried also in a basket our breakfast, and in
most radiant youth and beauty, and dressed in the style of one
of Watteau's shepherdesses a trimming of pink ribbons ornamented
the long, stiff, painted bodice which supported her
round and slender waist. Two broad black velvet bands, worn
a wallet slung over her shoulder my uncle's offerings for the
poor. She insisted on conveying these things in this way, in
of strapping them on the back of the quiet little donkey Dom
Gerusac rode. We generally made a halt on reaching the
above mentioned gorge. The spot went by the name of the
pass of Malpeire. It had a wild, sombre aspect, which particularly
took my fancy. The rock, apparently cleft by antedi-
luvian convulsion, exhibited a rent, both sides of which were
almost perpendicular. The black jagged points of its double
crest rose overhead in sharp and clear outline against the pale
blue sky, and the bottom of the precipice was hidden by a
multitude of plants and shrubs, which under their intricate
The pathway ran be-
ture, who seemed to gaze on me with the most bewitching
sweetness but when I looked down and saw ;
Marian, with her
crabbed hideous face, standing bolt-upright behind Dom
Gerusac's arm chair, ready to change our plates and wait upon
us, I could not get over this contrast, and it served to increase
my antipathy to the old woman. I might have been more
easily reconciled to her repulsive ngliness, if I had not had so
often before my eyes the ideal beauty of that incomparable
face. As to my uncle, he looked upon most things with the
indifference of a saint and of a scholar. I am sure it had never
occurred to him to take notice of Marian's appearance. I ventured
to ask him one day if he ever remembered her loss
wrinkled and shrivelled than she then was. He thought a little,
and then
"
said. No, upon my word I don't. Do you think
she is very old ? I suppose she must be about my own age
sixty or thereabouts."
And, when I exclaimed at this, he added, " I should not be
surprised if she were younger. There are people who appear
old long before their time. It strikes me that for the last ten
years that she has been in my service she has always looked
much as she does now. At any rate, she is as strong and active
as a young girl."
Dom Ge"rusac lived quite secluded from the world, and kept
up little correspondence, except with the learned societies to
which he forwarded the results of his labors, and received at
his house only a few members of his family who from time to
time came to see him. A good old priest, the Abbfi Lambert,
was the only habitual visitor at St. Pierre de Corbie. Once a
week during the holidays I used to see him arrive, with his
worn-out cassock tucked up in his pockets, his Breviary, under
tissue,
his arm, and a thick stick in his hand. He was curC of the
concealed unfathomed abysses.
tween the bare rock on one side and these masses of verdure
on the other. Beneath the green surface roared the rapid waters
of a brawling torrent. This road became impracticable in
winter, when the snow concealed the inequalities of the ground,
but in summer nothing could be pleasanter than to walk in
the shade of those huge rocks, enjoying the delicious coolness
rising from that ocean of foliage alongside the narrow pathway.
An immense mass of rocks stood at the entrance of this defile,
and jutted like a promontory above the wild uneven t r.
land on the northern side of the mountain. On the summit of this
sort of crest, the steep and barren sides of which overshadowed
the village, rose the dilapidated walls and ruined towers of
the castle of Malpeire.
When we reached the mouth of tho gorge, Marian rose from
the seat at the foot of the road where she was in the habit of
waiting for us, and came forward to assist Dom Gerusac to dismount
then ; producing our cloaks, she threw them over our
shoulders, and forthwith proceeded on her way, leading the
donkey by the bridle.
"Beally," my uncle would say, as he followed her w.th his
eyes, "that good woman has the legs of an ostrich, which runs,
they say, at the rate of seven leagues an hour. There, see, she
is already out of sight."
" So much the better," I mentally exclaimed, for to my mind
Marian disfigured the prospect. I hated the sight of thi
tiquated shepherdess in her Sunday clothes, with her
shoes, her frightful black-straw hat cocked up on her old gray
top-knot, and her loose print gown, with the sleeves cut short
at the elbow, leaving her bare arms exposed to view.
When she had disappeared, I walked more leisurely along
the little winding path, enjoying the wild beauty of that
nificent scenery. Each time I came there I felt more struck
with the picture which met my eyes at the furthest extremity
of the defile. The ruins of the ancient feudal castle frowned
above us, and at the foot of the gigantic rocks on which they
rested stood the old church, with the houses of the village ir-
regularly grouped around it. In the midst of a large open
space in front of the sacred edifice were two elm trees, linked
: i r
by their interweaving branches, so as to form in ap-
had not
i ice a single tree with two large trunks. They
their equal for size and beaiiiy in the whole country.
the hamlet an extensive tract of undulating ground
]!
out, over which the eye wandered without taking cognizauce of
any particular details. It would ah i,
if, in
strange convulsion of nature, the haul had been thrown