“comme on est heureux quand on sait ce qu'on veut!”
it was the dinner hour at the hotel clément at bastia; and the event was of greater importance than the outward appearance of the house would seem to promise. for there is no promise at all about the house on the left-hand side of bastia's one street, the boulevard du palais, which bears, as its only sign, a battered lamp with the word “clément” printed across it. the ground floor is merely a rope and hemp warehouse. a small corsican donkey, no bigger than a newfoundland dog, lives in the basement, and passes many of his waking hours in what may be termed the entrance hall of the hotel, appearing to consider himself in some sort a concierge. the upper floors of the huge genoese house are let out in large or small apartments to mysterious families, of which the younger members are always to be met carrying jugs carefully up and down the greasy, common staircase.
the first floor is the hotel clément, or, to be more correct, one is “chez clément” on the first floor.
“you stay with clément,” will be the natural remark of any on board the marseilles or leghorn steamer, on being told that the traveller disembarks at bastia.
“we shall meet to-night chez clément,” the officers say to each other on leaving the parade ground at four o'clock.
“déjeuner chez clément,” is the usual ending to a notice of a marriage, or a first communion, in the petit bastiais, that greatest of all foolscap-size journals.
it is comforting to reflect, in these times of hurried changes, that the traveller to bastia may still find himself chez clément—may still have to kick at the closed door of the first-floor flat, and find that door opened by clément himself, always affable, always gentlemanly, with the same crumbs strewed carelessly down the same waistcoat, or, if it is evening time, in his spotless cook's dress. one may be sure of the same grave welcome, and the easy transition from grave to gay, the smiling, grand manner of conducting the guest to one of those vague and darksome bedrooms, where the jug and the basin never match, where the floor is of red tiles, with a piece of uncertain carpet sliding hither and thither, with the shutters always shut, and the mustiness of the middle ages hanging heavy in the air. for bastia has not changed, and never will. and it is not only to be fervently hoped, but seems likely, that clément will never grow old, and never die, but continue to live and demonstrate the startling fact that one may be born and live all one's life in a remote, forgotten town, and still be a man of the world.
the soup had been served precisely at six, and the four artillery officers were already seated at the square table near the fireplace, which was and is still exclusively the artillery table. the other habitués were in their places at one or other of the half-dozen tables that fill the room—two gentlemen from the prefecture, a civil engineer of the projected railway to corte, a commercial traveller of the old school, and, at the corner table, farthest from the door, colonel gilbert of the engineers. a clever man this, who had seen service in the crimea, and had invariably distinguished himself whenever the opportunity occurred; but he was one of those who await, and do not seek opportunities. perhaps he had enemies, or, what is worse, no friends; for at the age of forty he found himself appointed to bastia, one of the waste places of the war office, where an inferior man would have done better.
colonel gilbert was a handsome man, with a fair moustache, a high forehead, surmounted by thin, receding, smooth hair, and good-natured, idle eyes. he lunched and dined chez clément always, and was frankly, good naturedly bored at bastia. he hated corsica, had no sympathy with the corsican, and was a northern frenchman to the tips of his long white fingers.
“your bastia, my good clément,” he said to the host, who invariably came to the dining-room with the roast and solicited the opinion of each guest upon the dinner in a few tactful, easy words—“your bastia is a sad place.”
this evening colonel gilbert was in a less talkative mood than usual, and exchanged only a nod with his artillery colleagues as he passed to his own small table. he opened his newspaper, and became interested in it at once. it was several days old, and had come by way of nice and ajaccio from paris. all france was at this time eager for news, and every frenchman studied the journal of his choice with that uneasiness which seems to foreshadow in men's hearts the approach of any great event. for this was the spring of 1870, when france, under the hitherto iron rule of her adventurer emperor, suddenly began to plunge and rear, while the nations stood around her wondering who should receive the first kick. the emperor was ill; the cheaper journals were already talking of his funeral. he was uneasy and restless, turning those dull eyes hither and thither over europe—a man of inscrutable face and deep hidden plans—perhaps the greatest adventurer who ever sat a throne. condemned by a french court of peers in 1840 to imprisonment for life, he went to ham with the quiet question, “but how long does perpetuity last in france?” and eight years later he was absolute master of the country.
corsica in particular was watching events, for corsica was cowed. she had come under the rule of this despot, and for the first time in her history had found her master. instead of being numbered by hundreds, as they were before and are again now at the end of the century, the outlaws hiding in the mountains scarce exceeded a score. the elections were conducted more honestly than had ever been before, and the continental newspapers spoke hopefully of the dawn of civilization showing itself among a people who have ever been lawless, have ever loved war better than peace.
“but it is a false dawn,” said the abbé susini of olmeta, himself an insatiable reader of newspapers, a keen and ardent politician. like the majority of corsicans, he was a staunch bonapartist, and held that the founder of that marvellous dynasty was the greatest man to walk this earth since the days of direct divine inspiration.
it was only because napoleon iii was a bonaparte that corsica endured his tyranny; perhaps, indeed, tyranny and an iron rule suited better than equity or tolerance a people descended from the most ancient of the fighting races, speaking a tongue wherein occur expressions of hate and strife that are tuscan, sicilian, greek, spanish, and arabic.
now that the emperor's hand was losing its grip on the helm, there were many in corsica keenly alive to the fact that any disturbance in france would probably lead to anarchy in the turbulent island. there were even some who saw a hidden motive in the appointment of colonel gilbert as engineer officer to a fortified place that had no need of his services.
gilbert himself probably knew that his appointment had been made in pursuance of the emperor's policy of road and rail. for corsica was to be opened up by a railway, and would have none of it. and though to-day the railway from bastia to ajaccio is at last open, the station at corte remains a fortified place with a loopholed wall around it.
but colonel gilbert kept his own counsel. he sat, indeed, on the board of the struggling railway—a gift of the french government to a department which has never paid its way, has always been an open wound. but he never spoke there, and listened to the fierce speeches of the local members with his idle, easy smile. he seemed to stand aloof from his new neighbours and their insular interests. he was, it appeared, a cultured man, and perhaps found none in this wild island who could understand his thoughts. his attitude towards his surroundings was, in a word, the usual indifferent attitude of the frenchman in exile, reading only french newspapers, fixing his attention only on france, and awaiting with such patience as he could command the moment to return thither.
“any news?” asked one of the artillery officers—a sub-lieutenant recently attached to his battery, a penniless possessor of an historic name, who perhaps had dreams of carving his way through to the front again.
the colonel shrugged his shoulders.
“you may have the papers afterwards,” he said; for it was not wise to discuss any news in a public place at that time. “see you at the réunion, no doubt.”
and he did not speak again except to clément, who came round to take the opinion of each guest upon the fare provided.
“passable,” said the colonel—“passable, my good clément. but do you know, i could send you to prison for providing this excellent leveret at this time of year. are there no game laws, my friend?”
but clement only laughed and spread out his hands, for corsica chooses to ignore the game laws. and the colonel, having finished his coffee, buckled on his sword, and went out into the twilight streets of what was once the capital of corsica. bastia, indeed, has, like the majority of men and women, its history written on its face. on the high land above the old port stands the citadel, just as the genoese merchant-adventurers planned it five hundred years ago. beneath the citadel, and clustered round the port, is the little old genoese town, no bigger than a village, which served for two hundred and fifty years as capital to an island in constant war, against which it had always to defend itself.
it would seem that some hundred years ago, just before the island became nominally a french possession, bastia, for some reason or another, took it into its municipal head to grow, and it ran as it were all down the hill to that which is now the new harbour. it built two broad streets of tall genoese houses, of which one somehow missed fire, and became a slum, while the other, with its great houses but half inhabited, is to-day the boulevard du palais, where fashionable bastia promenades itself—when it is too windy, as it almost always is, to walk on the place st. nicholas—where all the shops are, and where the modern european necessities of daily life are not to be bought for love or money.
there are, however, two excellent knife-shops in the boulevard du palais, where every description of stiletto may be purchased, where, indeed, the enterprising may buy a knife which will not only go shrewdly into a foe, but come right out on the other side—in front, that is to say, for no true corsican is so foolish as to stab anywhere but in the back—and, protruding thus, will display some pleasing legend, such as “vendetta,” or “i serve my master,” or “viva corsica,” roughly engraved on the long blade. there is a macaroni warehouse. there are two of those mysterious mediterranean provision warehouses, with some ancient dried sausages hanging in the window, and either doorpost flanked by a tub of sardines, highly, and yet, it would seem, insufficiently, cured. there is a tiny book-shop displaying a choice of religious pamphlets and a fly-blown copy of a treatise on viniculture. and finally, an ironmonger will sell you anything but a bath, while he thrives on a lively trade in percussion-caps and gunpowder.
colonel gilbert did not pause to look at these bewildering shop-windows, for the simple reason that he knew every article there displayed.
he was, it will be remembered, a leisurely frenchman, than whom there are few human beings of a more easily aroused attention. any small street incident sufficed to make him pause. he had the air of one waiting for a train, who knows that it will not come for hours yet. he strolled down the boulevard, smoking a cigarette, and presently turned to the right, emerging with head raised to meet the sea-breeze upon that deserted promenade, the place st. nicholas.
here he paused, and stood with his head slightly inclined to one side—an attitude usually considered to be indicative of the artistic temperament, and admired the prospect. the “place” was deserted, and in the middle the great statue of napoleon stood staring blankly across the sea towards elba. there is, whether the artist intended it or not, a look of stony amazement on this marble face as it gazes at the island of elba lying pink and hazy a few miles across that rippled sea; for on this side of corsica there is more peace than in the open waters of the gulf of lyons.
“surely,” that look seems to say, “the world could never expect that puny island to hold me.”
colonel gilbert stood and looked dreamily across the sea. it was plain to the most incompetent observer that the statue represented one class of men—those who make their opportunities; while gilbert, with his high and slightly receding forehead, his lazy eyes and good-natured mouth, was a fair type of that other class which may take advantage of opportunities that offer themselves. the majority of men have not even the pluck to do that, which makes it easy for mediocre people to get on in this world.
colonel gilbert turned on his heel and walked slowly back to the reunion des officiers—the military club which stands on the place st. nicholas immediately behind the statue of napoleon—a not too lively place of entertainment, with a billiard-room, a reading-room, and half a dozen iron tables and chairs on the pavement in front of the house. here the colonel seated himself, called for a liqueur, and sat watching a clear moon rise from the sea beyond the islet of capraja.
it was the month of february, and the southern spring was already in the air. the twilight is short in these latitudes, and it was now nearly night. in corsica, as in spain, the coolest hour is between sunset and nightfall. with complete darkness there comes a warm air from the ground. this was now beginning to make itself felt; but gilbert had not only the pavement, but the whole place st. nicholas to himself. there are two reasons why corsicans do not walk abroad at night—the risk of a chill and the risk of meeting one's enemy.
colonel gilbert gave no thought to these matters, but sat with crossed legs and one spurred heel thrown out, contentedly waiting as if for that train which he must assuredly catch, or for that opportunity, perhaps, which was so long in coming that he no longer seemed to look for it. and while he sat there a man came clanking from the town—a tired man, with heavy feet and the iron heels of the labourer. he passed colonel gilbert, and then, seeming to have recognized him by the light of the moon, paused, and came back.
“monsieur le colonel,” he said, without raising his hand to his hat, as a frenchman would have done.
“yes,” replied the colonel's pleasant voice, with no ring of recognition in it.
“it is mattei—the driver of the st. florent diligence,” explained the man, who, indeed, carried his badge of office, a long whip.
“of course; but i recognized you almost at once,” said the colonel, with that friendliness which is so noticeable in the republic to-day.
“you have seen me on the road often enough,” said the man, “and i have seen you, monsieur le colonel, riding over to the casa perucca.”
“of course.”
“you know perucca's agent, pietro andrei?”
“yes.”
“he was shot in the back on the olmeta road this afternoon.”
colonel gilbert gave a slight start.
“is that so?” he said at length, quietly, after a pause.
“yes,” said the diligence-driver; and without further comment he walked on, keeping well in the middle of the road, as it is wise to do when one has enemies.
