Fig. 18.
CHAPTER VII.
SETTING OUT THE FOUNDATIONS OF THE HOUSE, AND OPERATIONS ON THE GROUND.
Next day a letter dated Naples was received from Madame Marie N——, expressing the liveliest and most patriotic apprehensions with regard to recent events. Paul’s sister wished to induce the family to join her at Naples; her husband could not return to France just at present; the business which called him to Constantinople allowed of no delay, and would oblige him to embark very shortly. The letter terminated thus: “We have received Paul’s designs; we suppose his cousin must have given him a little help. I should be delighted, and my husband too, if there was any chance of such a plan being realized; but who can think of building in the state in which our poor country is now! Rather make up your mind to come and join us.”
“Well,” said M. de Gandelau after reading the letter, “you see your plans are approved: let us set to work at once. If the Prussians should come as far as this and set our old house on fire, as their custom is, they will not burn the walls of a building only just begun, and what we have spent in its erection will not get into their pockets.”
Eugène, helped by Paul, who calculated the items—he had never undertaken such a task before—drew up the estimate, which amounted in all to 7,000l. The earthworks and masonry were expected to cost 3,400l.
Master Branchu was summoned: “A very good gentleman your father is,” said he to Paul, when it was settled that they should begin the following day; “he sets people to work when the best hands are being turned off everywhere, and old fellows like me, who cannot go soldiering, would have a hard time of it all the winter. I shall go and drink his health with Jean Godard the carpenter, who will be desperate glad like myself.”
The rest of the day was employed in marking the principal dimensions on the plan, so as to be able to set out the excavations.
Master Branchu was already on the ground next day, equipped with lines, stakes, nails, and broches, a large carpenter’s square, and a water-level, when Paul and his cousin arrived at an early hour in the morning.
“You see,” said Eugène to Paul, “that the figures indicate on this plan the distances between the centre-lines of the walls. Consulting these dimensions, we shall set out these centre-lines on the ground with the help of lines attached to what we call broches (Fig. [19]), which consist of two stakes firmly fixed in the earth, and a crosspiece. The direction of one of the centre-lines being determined according to the orientation it suits us to choose, the places of the other axes will follow according to the distance figured on the plan and the square returns.”
Eugène had soon settled the line of centre, A, for the dining and billiard-rooms, according to the desired orientation. Then on this first centre-line was set out by means of a small theodolite another at right angles, which was the centre-line of the entrance-hall. These two lines once laid down, the others were determined by means of the dimensions previously marked on the plan. The centres of the principal walls were thus traced on the ground by lines attached to the broches.