The Charterhouse of Parma by Stendhal Read Free Book Online Page A

scorn of the well-spoken young Parisians, left to join the army, about which he knew nothing except that troops were mustering near Maubeuge. No sooner had he reached the frontier than he found it demeaning to stay indoors, with nothing better to do than warming himself in front of a good fire, while soldiers were in bivouac outside. Ignoring the words of his servant, a sensible man, he rashly set off for the camps that lined the road to Belgium. No sooner had he reached the first battalion bivouacked there than the soldiers began staring at this young civilian about whose clothes there was nothing to suggest a uniform. Night was falling, and a cold wind blowing. Fabrizio approached a campfire and offered to pay for hospitality. The soldiers exchanged astonished glances at the notion of payment, and kindly granted him a place at the fire; his servant made a shelter for him. But an hour later, when the regimental adjutant happened to pass by, the soldiers reported the arrival of this stranger speaking bad French. The adjutant questioned Fabrizio, who described his enthusiasm for the Emperor in his extremely noticeable accent; whereupon the adjutant requested our hero to accompany him to the colonel, billeted in a farmhouse nearby. Fabrizio’s servant followed with the two horses, the sight of which struck the adjutant so forcibly that he immediately changed his mind and began interrogating Fabrizio’s servant as well. The latter, an old soldier, instantly guessing his questioner’s intentions, alluded to his master’s influential protectors, adding that of course no one would
pinch
his fine horses. Immediately a soldier summoned by the adjutant collared the servant while another soldier seized the horses, and with a stern glance the adjutant ordered Fabrizio to follow him without a speaking a word.
    After making him cover a good league on foot, in a night made even darker by the campfires which illuminated the horizon on all sides, the adjutant handed Fabrizio over to an officer of the
gendarmerie
who gave him a hard look and asked for his papers. Fabrizio produced the passport which described him as a dealer in barometers
bearing merchandise
.
    “How stupid do they think we are?” the officer exclaimed. “This is too much!” He questioned our hero, who spoke of the Emperor and ofliberty in terms of the liveliest enthusiasm; whereupon the officer burst into uncontrollable laughter.
    “Now I’ve heard everything!” he exclaimed. “Who could believe they’d send us such fools!”
    And though Fabrizio made every effort to explain that in reality he wasn’t a barometer dealer at all, the officer sent him to prison in B——, a nearby town our hero reached at about three in the morning, beside himself with anger and tired to death.
    Fabrizio, first astounded, then enraged, understanding absolutely nothing of what was happening to him, spent thirty-three long days in that wretched jail; he wrote letter after letter to the commandant of the place, and it was his jailer’s wife, a handsome Flemish woman of thirty-six, who promised to deliver them. But since she had no desire to see such a handsome fellow shot, and since moreover he paid well, she never failed to toss every one into the fire. Late in the evening she deigned to come in and listen to the prisoner’s complaints; she had told her husband that the young fool had money, whereupon the prudent jailer had given her carte blanche. She availed herself of this advantage and received several gold napoleons, for the adjutant had stolen only the horses, and the officer of the
gendarmerie
had confiscated nothing at all. One June afternoon, Fabrizio heard a burst of distant cannon-fire. So they were fighting at last! His heart leaped with impatience. He also heard a lot of commotion in the town; as a matter of fact a considerable maneuver was under way, three divisions passing through B——. When, around eleven at night, the jailer’s wife came to share his woes,