"And so it will be as long as I choose! The great difficulty is that the worthy gendarmes ride their horses along one bank of the Creuse, while I ply my legs along the other! They are very sick, poor fellows! being paid to take the air and make reports as to what they don't do. Don't pity them so deeply, Monsieur Cardonnet, the government pays them, and the government is rich enough for me to dodge the payment of a thousand francs—for it's the truth that I am sentenced to pay a thousand francs or go to prison! It surprises you, doesn't it, young man, that a poor devil who has always obliged his neighbor instead of injuring him should be hunted like an escaped convict? You haven't a bad heart yet, although you are rich, because you are young. Let me tell you what my crime was. For sending three bottles of wine from my vineyard to a friend who was sick, I was arrested by the excisemen for selling wine without paying the taxes on it; and as I could not lie and humiliate myself for the sake of compromising, as I told the truth, which is that I did not sell a drop of wine, and consequently could not be punished, I was sentenced to pay what they call the minimum fine, five hundred francs. The minimum, if you please! five hundred francs, my year's wages, for a gift of three bottles of wine! To say nothing of the fact that my poor comrade was sentenced too, and that was what made me angriest. And as I could not pay such an amount, they seized everything, ransacked everything, sold everything I had, even my carpentering tools. After that, where was the use of paying for a license to carry on a trade that wouldn't support me? I stopped doing it; and one day, when I was working as a journeyman away from home, there was another prosecution and a quarrel with the deputy, when I almost forgot myself and struck him. What was to become of me? There was no bread in my chest, so I took my gun and went out into the furze and killed a hare. Formerly, in this country, poaching had become a custom and a privilege. The nobles in the old days didn't keep such close watch, just after the Revolution; they even poached with us when they had a fancy to do so."
"Witness Monsieur de Châteaubrun, who does it still," said Monsieur de Cardonnet, ironically.
"As long as he doesn't trespass on your estates, what harm does that do you?" retorted the peasant in an irritated tone. "However, for shooting a hare and catching two rabbits in a trap I was taken again and sentenced to pay a fine, and to imprisonment. But I escaped from the claws of the gendarmes as they were taking me to the government inn, and since then I have lived as I choose, and haven't chosen to hold out my arm for the chain to be put on."
"Everyone knows very well how you live, Jean," said Monsieur Cardonnet. "You wander about night and day, poaching everywhere and at all seasons, never sleeping two nights in succession in the same place, but generally in the open air; sometimes accepting hospitality at Châteaubrun, whose châtelain was nursed by your mother. I do not blame him for assisting you, but he would act more wisely, from the point of view of your own interests, to preach work and a regular life to you. But come, we have had enough of these useless words, and now you must listen to me. I am sorry for your lot, and I am going to restore your liberty by becoming surety for you. You will get off with a few days' imprisonment, just for form's sake. I will pay all your fines, and then you can hold up your head once more. Isn't that clear?"
"Oh! you are right, father," cried Emile; "you are kind and just. Well, Jean, did I deceive you?"
"It seems that you have met before," said Monsieur Cardonnet.
"Yes, father," replied Emile warmly. "Jean rendered me a great service last night; and what draws me to him even more strongly is that I saw him this morning risk his life seriously to pull a child out of the water, and he saved him. Jean, accept my father's offer and let his generosity triumph over misplaced pride."
"That is very well, Monsieur Emile," replied the carpenter. "You love your father; that is as it should be. I respected mine. But let us see, Monsieur Cardonnet, on what conditions will you do all this for me?"
"That you work on my buildings," replied the manufacturer. "You shall have the superintendence of the carpentering."
"Work on your factory, which will be the ruin of so many people!"