Sketcher. A DRUNKARD'S DEATH, IN THE ASYLUM OF SAINTE-ANNE. (From the "Assomoir.")

Waikato Times, Volume XXV, Issue 2033, 18 July 1885, Page 6 (Supplement)

Sketcher. A DRUNKARD'S DEATH, IN THE ASYLUM OF SAINTE-ANNE. (From the "Assomoir.")

* By EMILE ZOLA,

One of the keepers escorted Gorvaise. She w:w ascending u sta'rcaae, when she heard hoi\ lings which made her ehiver to her very boiJfri. " Eh ! he's playing a nice music, isn't he ? " observrd the keeper. " Who is ? " asked she. " "Why, your old man 1 Ho's been yelling like that ever sincp the day before yesterday ; and he dances, you'll just see." Ah, good heavens 1 what a sight ! She stood at one transfixed. The cell was padded from the floor to the ceiling. On the floor theie were two straw inat3, one above the other ; and in a corner were spread a mattress and ii bolsier, nothing more. Inside there, Cotjpeau was dancing and veiling. A regular guy of the outskirts, with his blouse in tatters and his limbs beating the air ; bus not a funny guy — oh, no I — a guy whose terrible capers marie eve^p hair of your head stand en end. He wore the mask of one about to die. By Jove I what a breakdown J He hnrnpad up against the window, then retired backwards, boating time with his arms, «nd Bhaking his hands as though he were trying to wrench them off and fling them in somebody's face. One meets with jokers in the dancing places, who imitate that, only they imitate it badly. One must see this drunkard's rigadoon danced if one wishes to know what it is like when gone through in earnest. Tne cong also has its merits, a continuous yell worthy of carniv»l-time, a mouth wide open uttering the same hoarse trombone notes for hours together. Coupeau had the howl of a beast with a crushed paw. Strike up, mueio I Gentlemen, choose your partners 1 " Good Lord ! what is the matter with him ? what is the matter with him ? " repeated Gcrvaise, seized with fear. A house surgeon, a big fair fellow with a ropy countenance, and wearing a white apron, was quietly sitting taking notes. The case was a, curious one ; the doctor did not leave the patient. " Stay a while if you like," fluid he to the laundress; but keep quiet. Try and apeak to him, he will not recognize you." Coupeau, indeed, did not even appear to see hist wife. She had only had a h\& view of him on entering, he was wriggling about bo much. When sho looked him full in toe face, she stood aghast. Good heavens ! was it possible hp had a countenance like that, his ejes full of blood and his lips covered with scabs ? She would certainly never have known him. To begin with, he was making too many grimaces, withoat saying why, his mouth suddenly out of all Hhape, his nose curled up, hia cheeks diawn in, a perfect animal's muzzle. Ilia skin was to hot, the air steamed around him ; and his hide waß as though varnished, covered with a heavy sweat which trickled off him. In his mad dance, one could see all the same that he wa3 not at his ease, hia head wan heavy and his limbs ached. > Gervaiae drew near to the house surgeon, who was strumming a tuna with the tipd of his fingers on the back of his chair. " I ?uy, eir, it's serious then, this time ?" The house surgeon nodded hi 3 head without answering. " 1 nay, isn't he jabbering to himself ? Eli 1 don't you hear ? what's it about ?" " About things he seea," murmured the young man. " Keep quiet, let me lijten." Coupßiui was speaking in a jarky voice. A gliEumor of fun lit up his eyes. H9 looked on the door, to the right, to tho left, aud turned about, as though he had been st/olhng in the Bois do, Vmcennes, conversing with himself. " Ah 1 that's nice, that's grand ! — There're cottages, a regular fair. Aad some jolly fine music! What a Balthazar's feast 1 They're smashing the crockery in there— Awfully swell 1 Now it's being lit up ; red balls in the air, and it jumps, and it fliea 1 Oh 1 oh I what a lot of lanterns in the treetv I— lt'u confoundedly pleasant I There's water flowing everywhere, fountains, cascade?, water which sings, oh I with the voico of a ohorißter— The cascades are grand 1" And he drew himself up, as though the bottor to hear tha delicious son» of the water 1 he sucked in forcibly, fancying he was drinking the fresh spray blown from tho fountains. But, little by little, hia face resumed an agonised expred j ion. Then he crouched down, and flaw quicker than ever around the walla of tVn cell, uttering low menaces. 11 Moie traps, all that ! — I thought as much — Silence, you eet of swindlers 1 Yqs, you're making a fool of me. It's for that that you're drinking and bawling inside theie with your etrumpets — I'll demolish you, you aud jour cottage I—Damnation1 — Damnation 1 will you leave me in peace ?" lie clenched his fists ; then he uttered a hoarse cry, stooping as ho ran. And he stuttered, hia teeth chattering with fright. "It's so that I may kill myself. No, I won't throw myself in ! — All that water means that I've no heart. No, I won't tlnow myself in ! " Tho cascades, whioh fled at his approach, advanced when he retired. And, all on a sudden, he looked stupidly around him, mumbling, in a voice whioh was scarcely audible : "It isn't possible, they've set conjurers against me ! " "I'm off, sir, good-night !" said Gervaise to tli^a house surgeon. "It upsets me too much ; I'll come again." She was quite white. Coupeau was continuing hia break-down from the window to the mattress, and from the mattress to the window, perspiring, toiling, beating the same time. Then she hurried away. But though she scrambled down the stairs, she still hem d her husband's confounded jig until she reached the bottom. Ah ! good heavens 1 how pleas ant it was out of doors, one could breathe there I On getting up the next morning, Gtrvaise promised herself she would not return to Sttinte-Anne again. What vee would it be ? She did not want to go off her chump also. However, every ten minutes, she fell to musing, bec:ime absent-minded. It would be curious though, if he were still throwing his legs about. When twelve o'clock struck, ehe could no longer resist ; she started off and did not notice how long the walk waa, her brain was so full of her desire to go and the dread of what awaited her. Oh 1 there was was no occasion for her to ask for news. She hoard Coupeau's song the moment she reached the foot of the staircase. Just the same tune, just the same dauoe. She might have thought herself going up again after having been down for a minute. _The attendant of the day before, who was "carrying some jugs of infusion along the corridor, winked his eyo as he met her, by way of doing the amiable. " Still the same, then ? " said she. " Oh ! still the sumo 1 " he replied without stopping. She entered, but sho remained near the door, because there were some people with Coupeau. The fair, rosy, house surgeon was standing up, having given hii chair to a bald old gentleman who was decorated and had a face like a martin. lie was no doubt the head doctor, for his glance was as sharp and piercing as a gimlet. All the dealers in sudden death have a glance like that. Gervaiso, however, had not come to look at this gentleman, and she stood on tiptoo behind his bald pale, devouring Coup&nu with her eyes. This maniac was dancing and yelling still louder than the day before. Sho remembered having seen in former days, at the balls in mid Lent, sturdy men ftoni the wash-house out capers for a whole night ; but never, no never, would she have imagined that a man could tako pleasure in it so long ; when she talked of pleasure, it was merely a figure

of speech, for there is no pleasure in turning somersaults in spite of oneself, as though one had Hwallowed a powder niftf;a'/ine. Coupeau, sjdkefl with perspiration, smoked more, that was all. Jin mouth seemed to have grown l«rgor through i'orco of shouting. He bad walked so so often fcom the mattress to the window, that he had made quito a little path along the floor ; the matting was worn away by his old shoB3. No, really, it was not a pretty sight ; Rnd Gervaise, all in a tremble, asked herself why she had returned. To think that the evening before, they scouged her at the Bochos' of exBygerating the picture 1 Ah 1 well, she had not done half enough t Now, she saw better how Coupeau set about it, his eyes wide open looking iuto vacancy, and she would never forget it. She overheard a few words between lhe house surgeon and the head doctor. The former was giving some details of the night : her huabaod had talked »nd thrown himself about, that was what it amounted to. Then the bald-headed old gentleman, who was not very polite by the way, at length appeared to become aware of her presence; and when the house surgeon had informed him that she was the patient's wife, he began to question her, in the harsh manner of a commisuary of police. " Did this man's father drink ?" " Yes, sir, just a little, like every one. He killed himself by falling from a roof, ono day when he was tipsy." "Did hif mother drink?" • " Woll ! sir, like every one else, you know, a drop here, s drop there. Oh I the family is very respectable \ There was a brother who died very young in convulsions." The dooior looked at her with his piercing eye. He resumed in his rough voice : " And yon, do you dunk ? " Gervaise stammered, protested, and placed her hand upon her heart as though to take her solemn oath. 11 You drink ! Take care, see where drink leads to. One day or other, you will die tbne." Then, sho remained close to the wall. The dootor had turned his baok on her. He squatted down, without troubling himself as to whether his overcoat trailed in the dust of the matting; for a long while he I'udied Goupeau's trembling, waiting for its reappearance, following it with his glance. That day the legs were going in their turn, the trembling had descended from the hands to the feet ; a regular puppet with his strings ! being pulled, throwing his limbs about whilst the trunk of his body remained as stiff au a piece of wood. The disease increased little by little. It was like a musical box beneath the fell in ; it started off every three or four neconds, and rolled along for an instant; then it stopped, and thon it started off again, just tho same as the little shiver which shakes stray dogs in winter, when cold and standing in some doorway for protection. Already the middle of the body and the shoulders quivered like water on the point of boiling. It was a funny demolition all the earns, going off wriggling like a girl being tickled. Coupeau, meanwhile, was complaining in a hollow voice. He seemed to suffer a great deal more than the day before. His broken murmurs disclosed all sorts o£ ailment 3. Thoueands of pins were pricking him. He felt something heavy all about his body; some cold wot animal was crawling over his thigb.3 and digging its fangs into his flesh. Then there were other animals sticking to his shoulders, tearing his back with their clawa. " I'm thirsty, oh 1 I'm thirsty ! " groaned he continually. The houie surgeon handed him a little lemonade from a small shelf, Coupeau seized the mug in both hands, and greedily took a mouthful, spilling half the liquid over himself ; but he spat it out at once, with a furious disgust, exclaiming : " Damnation 1 it's brandy 1 " Then, on a sign from the doctor, the hoube surgeon tried to make him drink some water, without leaving go of the bottle. This time, he swallowed the mouthful, yelling as though he had swallowed tire. " It's brandy, damnation 1 it's brandy I " Since the night before, everything he had had to drink was brandy. It redoubled his thirut, and he could no longer drink, because everything burnt him. They had brought him some broth, but they were evidently trying to poison him, for the broth smelt of " vitriol." The bread was sour and mouldy. Thereiwas nothing but poison around him. The cell stank of sulphur. He even accused persons of rubbing matches under his nose to infect him. The doctor had risen and was listening to Coupeau, who was again beholding phantoms at mid-day. Was he not fanoying that ho saw cobwebs on tho walls as big an the sails of a ship ? Then these cobwebs bejame nets with meshes which grew smaller and larger, a queer sort of plaything ! Black balte passed in and out of tho meshes, regular jugglers' balls, at first us email as marbles, and then as big as cannon balls : and they increased and they decreased in size, just for the Bake of bothering him. All on a sudden' he exolaimed : " Oh ! the rats, they're the rats, now !" It was the balls changing into rats. Thcae filthy animals got fatter and fatter, passed through the net, and jumped on to the mattress where they disappeared. There was alrfo a monkey which came out of the wall, and wont baokinto the wall, and which approached so near him each time, that he drew back through fear of having his noso bitten off. Suddenly, th- re was another change, the walls were probab' f cutting capers, for he yelled out, cnoking «vilh terror and rage : " That's it, gee up 1 shake me, I doit care ! — Gee up I—shanty1 — shanty 1 gee up 1 tumble dowa 1 Yes, ring the bell, you set of crows I play the organ to prevent my calling the police ! — And they've put a machine behind the wall, the lousy scoundrels 1 I can hear it, it snorts, they're going to blow us up — Fire I damnation! lire 1 There's* a cry of fire I there it 'blazea. Oh 1 it's getting lighter 1 lighter 1 all the sky's burning, red fire 3, gioen fifes, yellow fires— Hi 1 help 1 fire 1" (To be Continued.)