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Cornell University 
 Library 
 
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 http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924027393291 
 
THE EUROPEAN LIBRARY 
 
 EDITED BY J. E. SPINGARN 
 
 THE 
 
 EUROPfA>J 
 \ LIBRARY/ 
 
THE RLIGN OF 
 THE EVIL ONE 
 
 BY 
 
 C F. RAMUZ 
 
 Authorized Translation by 
 JAMES WHITALL 
 
 With an Introduction by 
 ERNEST BOYD 
 
 Im 
 
 NEW YORK 
 
 HARCOURT. BRACE AND COMPANY 
 
 "EL 
 
iPYRIGHT, 1922, BY- / 
 
 COPYRIGHT, 
 HARCOURT, BRACE AND COMPANY, INC. 
 
 PRINTED IN THE U. 8. A. BY 
 
 THE QUINN a BOOEN COMPANY 
 RAHWAY, N. J. 
 
INTRODUCTION 
 
 It is probably safe to say that most English-speak- 
 ing people are more familiar with the winter-sports 
 of Switzerland than with its literature. Even those 
 who are vaguely conscious of the Swiss birth of 
 Rousseau, Vinet, Benjamin Constant, and Amiel, 
 have never thought of them as part of a national 
 Swiss literature. Nor have the writers of modern 
 French Switzerland emerged any more clearly from 
 the mainstream of French literature. A few read- 
 ers may remember the nationality of Edouard Rod, 
 which prevented his election to the French Academy. 
 But how many living Swiss writers are known? 
 When one has explored for many years a bypath of 
 letters and made some interesting discoveries, it is 
 at once gratifying and embarrassing to be called 
 upon to justify one's weakness for adventuring out- 
 side the main-travelled roads of European literature. 
 That is the position in which I find myself as I try 
 
vi INTRODUCTION 
 
 to enlist interest in the work of C. F. Ramuz, whose 
 name, I think, had never been publicly mentioned in 
 English until I seized the excuse of his increasing 
 fame in France within recent years to draw atten- 
 tion to this remarkable Swiss novelist. Like Anglo^* 
 Irish literature, the literature of Switzerland has in- 
 evitably been overshadowed by that of the more 
 powerful neighbour whose language it used. It was 
 when I sought out that literature, whose counter- 
 part in Ireland I knew, not the expatriate but the au- 
 tochthonous writers, that I entered upon a pleasant 
 voyage of discovery. 
 
 Charles Ferdinand Ramuz, who was born at Lau- 
 sanne in 1878, is one of the group of young French 
 Swiss intellectuals who founded the Voile laiine 
 movement at Geneva in the autumn of 1904. At 
 that time Edouard Rod was the only Swiss author; 
 of more than local fame, and his reputation, like 
 that of Cherbuliez before him, was essentially 
 French, although in his later years he returned to 
 Switzerland and associated himself more closely 
 with the intellectual life of his own country. Ramuz 
 and his friends, while agreeing with Rod's frank 
 
INTRODUCTION vii 
 
 criticism of Swiss literature for its dullness, its pro- 
 vincialify, and its incurable moralising, could not 
 accept hJm as their leader, for he was precisely the 
 type of Pg,risianised Swiss against which the Voile 
 latine group protested. Their avowed task was 
 very similar to that of W. B. Yeats and his associates 
 in Ireland thirty years ago. They wanted the art 
 of Switzerland to be national, and they wished to 
 set up aesthetic standards in place of the facile judg- 
 ments of a public which accepted local celebrities 
 for moral and patriotic reasons, but always looked 
 to Paris for serious work. 
 
 The first number of the Voile latine appeared 
 in October, 1904, shortly after Ramuz had published 
 his first book, a sheaf of poems collected under 
 the title of Le Petit Village. Amongst the other 
 contributors who have since become well-known 
 were Gonzague de Reynold, the critic of the move- 
 ment and recent biographer of Baudelaire, and 
 Henry Spiess, a distinguished and delicate poet, 
 whose work, with that of Ramuz, is the chief accom- 
 plishment of this renaissance of French Swiss liter- 
 ature. Very soon the review attracted all the best 
 
viii INTRODUCTION 
 
 talents, Louis Dumur, Madame Burnat-Provins, and 
 Robert de Traz, who now edits La Revue de Geneve. 
 It ran until the end of 1910, and in 1914 its place 
 was taken by Les Cahiers vaudois, designed after 
 the plan of Charles Peguy's Cahiers de la quinzaine. 
 This publication is now valuable and important, for 
 in it Ramuz published all his work during several 
 years: Raison d'etre, essays half critical, half bio- 
 graphical; Chansons, a collection of poems; three 
 major works of fiction, La Guerre dans le Haut 
 Pays; Le Rhgne de I'Esprit Malin; La Guerison des 
 Maladies; and Le Grand Printemps, reflections upon 
 the war. Most of these works have not been issued 
 in any other form. The purpose of the VoUe latine 
 was to satisfy "the need of a renaissance which a 
 few young writers of French Switzerland have felt, 
 and to give complete freedom of self-expression to 
 every individual." During the seven years of its 
 existence La Voile latine represented a definite 
 movement in the direction of national tradition in 
 art and literature, a tradition at once Helvetian and 
 Latin, classical and modern, above all, Swiss. It 
 turned the creative and critical impulse towards 
 
INTRODUCTION ix 
 
 the sources of nationality, and aimed at an art 
 which, in all its branches, would be as truly of the 
 soil as the mountains and chalets of Switzerland. 
 
 Although C. F. Ramuz began with the traditional 
 little book of poems, to which he has since added 
 La Grande Guerre du Sondrebund and Chansons, 
 his fame rests entirely upon his work in prose fic- 
 tion. His first novel, Aline, was published in 1905, 
 and was followed by Les Circonstances de la vie 
 (1907), Jean-Luc persecute (1909), Aim& Pache, 
 'peintre vaudois (191 1), and La Vie de Samuel Belet 
 (19 13). These represent a definite period in his 
 development which seems to have terminated with 
 the war, for since then his work has entered upon 
 a new phase, of which Le Rtgne de I'Esprit Malin 
 ("The Reign of the Evil One") is the most brilliant 
 illustration. His first period was one of realism, in 
 which it appeared as if a successor to Rod had been 
 found whose genius was wholly Swiss. In an early 
 number of the Voile latine, when the eternal ques- 
 tion was being debated as to whether there could 
 really be a distinctively Swiss literature, Ramuz 
 formulated the point of view from which his own 
 
X INTRODUCTION 
 
 position must be estimated. He reduced the role of 
 French culture to one of pure aesthetics, looking to 
 France, not for ideas but for models in the art 
 of writing French. His novels and stories are as 
 indigenous as the strongest nationalist could wish. 
 He is not just another French author who happened 
 to be born in Lausanne instead of Paris. He is 
 more intensely and exclusively Swiss than Rod; 
 at the same time he is not a mere parochial celebrity 
 of the chocolate and Swiss milk variety, several of 
 whom, it so happens, have long ago been translated 
 into English! M. Ramuz is a writer in the same 
 category as J. M. Synge and James Joyce, an artist 
 whose appeal is universal, though the form and con- 
 tent of his work bear the deepest imprint of purely 
 local and immediate circumstance. 
 
 There is, indeed, a suggestion of Synge in the 
 method of M. Ramuz, at least in the earlier novels of 
 his realistic period from Aline to La Vie de Samtiel 
 Belet. They spring from the very soil of the coun- 
 try in which the scene is laid, and are the creations 
 of a mind which has adapted itself with great skill 
 to the simplicity of the folk manner. As he sits 
 
INTRODUCTION xi 
 
 in the village inn of some Swiss hamlet, his ear notes 
 the turns of phrase, the savoury idioms of the coun- 
 try people. The slow rhj^ms of this speech pos- 
 sess him, and in this close contact with man and 
 nature he gradually learns some half-forgotten leg- 
 end, the fragment of an idyll or the vague tradi- 
 tion of a rustic tragedy. Then he has the theme of 
 a novel, which he will proceed to elaborate in the 
 deliberate, naive style of the narrators, reconstruct- 
 ing the fable piece by piece, with a scrupulous no- 
 tation of every detail of time and place. The limi- 
 tations of this method are obvious. There is a lack 
 of spaciousness, of perspective, in these pictures 
 filled with ' scarcely articulate figures, and where 
 every detail is recorded with the same minute care. 
 The art of M. Ramuz is essentially narrative and 
 plastic, and his canvasses have the charm of the 
 Primitives. Aline is a little peasant romance with 
 a tragic denouement; Jean^Ltic persecute tells the 
 story of drama of infidelity in a mountain village. 
 In themselves they are trifles, but the author has 
 recaptured the movement of life in them. 
 
 While those two books, together with Nouvelles 
 
xii INTRODUCTION 
 
 et Morceaux, are peasant studies, pure and simple, 
 revealing in their brevity the author's method, it 
 is in his three long novels, Les Cir Constances de la 
 Vie (1906), Aime Pache, peintre vaudois (1911), 
 and La Vie de Samuel Belet, that M. Ramuz first 
 showed his greatest power. Here the technique is 
 the same, but it is applied to the richer material of 
 provincial manners, in a country where the small 
 town is nearer to the village than to the city, and 
 where the absence of large cities makes it possible 
 to contain the whole panorama of a people's life in 
 this framework. Les Circonstances de la vie may 
 be called the history of a Swiss Charles Bovary, the 
 ignominious defeat of a mediocre individual by the 
 force of circumstances as ignoble as they are im- 
 placable. Emile Magnenat, the good, respectable, 
 commonplace notary, is the central figure. With 
 meticulous care M. Ramuz sets this character upon 
 the stage, describes his social backgroimd, his wed- 
 ding, his family, the family clergyman, and the 
 rest. The German Swiss servant Frieda Henneberg 
 is the instrument of the katharsis which destroys all 
 the secondhand morality and smug security of the 
 
INTRODUCTION xiii 
 
 family, when she establishes her domination over 
 the man and finally ruins him. In Aimi Pache the 
 same social stratum is examined, but the yoimg artist 
 is a more powerful character than poor Emile, his 
 pursuit of his destiny is conscious and deliberate and 
 he succeeds in mastering his own fate. The struggle 
 of the artist, first against the bourgeois suspicions 
 of his own people, his career as a student in Paris, 
 and his painful groping towards the discovery that 
 only by conforming to the deeper, racial impulse, 
 by returning to the soil of his fathers, can he fully 
 realise himself — such is the story. 
 
 What is of great interest in the work of C. F. 
 Ramuz is its analysis of the French Protestant mind, 
 and the expression in literature of an element whose 
 absence from the literature of France must always 
 seem a loss to English readers. M. Andre Gide, 
 it is true, betrays his Huguenot origins in his writ- 
 ings, but only the Swiss have produced a literature 
 in which Protestantism is an influence as all per- 
 vading as in English. M. Ramuz has admirably pre- 
 served the Protestant note which, coupled with the 
 familiar idiom of the country people in which he 
 
xiv INTRODUCTION 
 
 writes, lends a piquant contrast to his novels as 
 compared with the very different atmosphere of 
 French fiction. If the desires of the flesh are by 
 no means a negligible part of his drama of Swiss 
 life, how subdued and uneasy these sinners are! 
 They have none of the abandon, or the frank ani- 
 mality, or the self-conscious ecstasy, of the people 
 described by Maupassant, Flaubert, and the Gon- 
 courts. Aline, and Aime Pache, and Emile Mag- 
 nenat have the inhibitions of the Calvinistic tradition 
 in their souls. They take their pleasure as sadly 
 as the traditional Englishman. The puritan suspi- 
 cion of joy pervades the communities of town and 
 country of which M. Ramuz has made himself the 
 interpreter. The rhythm of folk-speech alternates 
 with that of the Bible, In Les Circonstances we 
 read: 
 
 "On va longtemps dans une vallee, et marcher est peut- 
 6tre dur; toutefois il y a des pentes couvertes d'arbres, 
 de la mousse, des sources fraiches, on peut se dire: 'ce 
 sera plus beau de I'autre cote.' De sorte qu'il reste 
 quand meme un peu de joie au fond du coeur, laquelle 
 excite a.avancer. Mais on sort, on trouve ime plaine de 
 sel, et on sait qu'aussi loin qu'on pourra aller, ce sera 
 
INTRODUCTION xv 
 
 toujours cette plaine, cette meme sterilite; qu'est-ce 
 qui nous reste? Plus rien." 
 
 The same Biblical note is heard in Aimi Pache, 
 in a love scene which is quite the farthest removed 
 from all that we are accustomed to expect in French 
 fiction: 
 
 "D'autres sent entres dans la ttiort; moi j'en sors, et 
 je me leve avec elle a la vie. Comme au temps d'Eve, 
 avant la faute, — car, toute idee de faute etait ecartee 
 d'eux, et toute possibilite de faute etait ecartee d'eux. 
 Ce fut comme au temps d'Eve couchee sous le palmier, 
 et Adam est couche pres d'elle, et ils n'avaient point 
 la notion du mal. Les biches venaient boire, elles etaient 
 sans crainte. II disait: 'Es-tu la?' Elle repondait, 'Je 
 suis la.' Et il reprenait: 'Es-tu la?, et je sais bien que 
 tu es la, mais repete-le-moi quand meme, pour que ta 
 voix soit aussi avec moi.' Et elle disait: 'Je suis la.' " 
 
 The style of M. Ramuz is coloured by this inevitable 
 Protestant influence which is so unlike the move- 
 ment of the French prose of France. Add to that 
 his deliberate cultivation of popular Swiss speech, 
 which has a harshness and a lack of grace at times 
 intolerable to the ear accustomed to the finely pol- 
 ished instrument of cultured French. His critics 
 
xvi INTRODUCTION 
 
 have not hesitated to warn M. Ramuz of the risk 
 he incurs of forgetting the definite limitations of 
 his method, and passages of great slovenliness 
 have been cited against him. In this respect his 
 last four volumes show him to be impenitent, but 
 they have marked a new phase in his development. 
 Le Rbgne de VEsprit Malin, Les Signes parmi nous, 
 and La Guirison des Maladies, were all three pub- 
 lished by the group of Les Cahiers vatidois, and to 
 them may be added his last novel, Terre du del 
 ( 192 1 ) , which is in the same manner. These stories 
 are of a mystical rather than a realistic character, 
 and suggest at times the apparently ubiquitous in- 
 fluence of Claudel. But M. Ramuz is faithful to 
 his Swiss peasants, and what he gives us, for instance 
 in La Guirison is a sort of Protestant Claudelism. 
 One prefers the human tragedy of Aline to the mys- 
 tico-religious study of the miracle-working Marie, 
 who takes to herself the diseases of the village, imtil 
 the uns3mipathetic authorities remove her to hos- 
 pital. In Les Signes the author essays to give the 
 air of mysterious portents to the threat of two 
 sinister events, which throw their shadow over a 
 
INTRODUCTION xviT 
 
 prosperous community in war time. The one, which 
 is never named, is an epidemic of "Spanish influ- 
 enza," the other is "bolshevism." M. Ramuz gives 
 a vigorous and graphic description of the outbreak 
 of industrial warfare, but, in the end, he rolls the 
 clouds by most conveniently, and leaves his com- 
 munity in the happiest of circumstances. 
 
 Terre du del is a characteristic novel of his later 
 manner in its combination of scrupulous realism in 
 the portrayal of manners with a charming element 
 of legend and folk-lore, testifying once more to his 
 preoccupation with the spirit of the Vaudois country- 
 side. Ever since The Reign of the Evil One an ele- 
 ment of satire has been perceptible in his work, and 
 here it peeps forth at the very basis of his story. 
 The whole fable is essentially a legend, whether 
 drawn from actual folk-lore or conceived out of 
 the author's own imagination, telling how paradise- 
 seems to the rustic adventurers who suddenly find. 
 themselves in heaven, and deriving a peculiar savour 
 from the style in which it is cast. C. F. Ramuz: 
 has always written a remarkable French, com- 
 pounded of archaisms, folk-speech, and the idiom 
 
xviii INTRODUCTION 
 
 of his country, which differs markedly in rhythm and 
 phrase from that of France. Terre du del is a 
 typical piece of his prose, awkward and lumbering, 
 I)ut powerful, with the movement of bodies that 
 have been bent over the plough and are no longer 
 supple. It is the writing of one who seems pecul- 
 iarly fitted to express the mind and interpret the 
 imagination of the peasant, who has never been com- 
 pletely expressed in French literature. The Reign 
 of the Evil One is a rural fantasia comparable to 
 Synge's Playboy of the Western World. I hope in 
 its English form it may be the means of bringing a 
 new public to the work of the greatest Swiss novel- 
 ist, who is, at the same time, one of the most orig- 
 inal writers in the French language now living. 
 
 Ernest Boyd. 
 New York, August, 1922. 
 
THE REIGN OF THE EVIL ONE 
 
CHAPTER I 
 
 The man came about seven o'clock. It was 
 summer, and therefore still broad daylight. He was 
 a little thin man, limping slightly, and carrying a 
 coarse grey canvas bag upon his back. 
 
 His arrival caused no comment among the women 
 chatting in the village street, and the men wha 
 were busy in gardens or barns scarcely looked up 
 from their work. Just a stray labourer, looking 
 for a job. They were to be seen every day. One 
 would be carrying a scythe with his bundle attached 
 to its handle; another would have just a bundle 
 slung about his neck. Old or young; tall, short 
 or middling; thin or fat; whatever they were or 
 wherever they came from, one knew they weren't 
 worth much. Always the same bad lot: heavy 
 drinkers, lazy, quarrelsome, difficult to get on with, 
 and generally unsatisfactory — the shame of honest, 
 
 3 
 
4 THE REIGN OF THE EVIL ONE 
 
 hard-working people. He was just another of them, 
 that was all. 
 
 The sun was reddening now, and a peaceful glow 
 was upon the village; contentment filled every heart. 
 Except for the fact that the dry weather seemed 
 to be set, the year promised to be a good one: the 
 vines below were coming on well, there had been 
 plenty of grass for the beasts and a fine hay harvest 
 as well. As to the corn, now just beginning to 
 change colour, seldom had any been seen so well 
 formed, so heavy with grain and with such fine 
 strong stalks. These were reasons to rejoice, weren't 
 they? Still it was not a good thing to be too cock- 
 sure, but the opposite would be worse, for to be 
 always doubting was a gloomy business. 
 
 Mfen came back from the fields together, smoking 
 pipes and shouting jokes to each other across the 
 hedges, while bursts of gay laughter came from the 
 women gathered round the drinking-fountain. 
 
 Little clouds floated across the evening sky; one 
 hundred and fifty or perhaps two hundred houses 
 pressed closely about the square-towered church, in 
 a sort of landing on the mountain-side. Seven or 
 
THE REIGN OF THE EVIL ONE 5 
 
 eight hundred people; rather high up, if you like, 
 but well sheltered from the north and south winds, 
 for there were two parallel ranges between whose 
 protecting arms stretched a peaceful valley. Each 
 village therein had its president, three or four muni- 
 cipal guards, a district council with a secretary, a 
 schoolmaster, and a priest. There were shops and 
 an Inn, and, in front of the church, an open square 
 where the men collected after Mass on Sundays. 
 
 Smoke rose from all the chimneys, and a rosy 
 light gleamed upon the rocks along the mountain 
 ridge above, so that one knew the dinner hour was 
 not far off. And there were other signs of the ap- 
 proaching meal. All the roads leading in from the 
 fields were full of people and mules; the joy of 
 living over-flowed in this radiant hour, and even 
 the wooden fences around the little gardens seemed 
 to come to life. The smell of dinner came out of 
 opened doors, and women bent over their fires with- 
 in. 
 
 The man entered the Inn. It was empty, and 
 he sat down at one of the tables at the far end of 
 the big room. He put his canvas bag on a bench 
 
6 THE REIGN OF THE EVIL ONE 
 
 and sat with his elbows on the table, waiting to be 
 served. Before long Simon, the inn-keeper, ap- 
 peared and asked: 
 
 "What would you like?" 
 
 "A glass of wine. And something to eat too, 
 please." 
 
 No ceremony on the part of either; Simon went 
 ito fetch bread and cheese, which he brought back 
 on a plate, with the glass of wine. 
 
 A big copper lamp, still unlit, hung from the 
 ceiling, and the dusk gathered in the corners of the 
 room. The man ate slowly, as though he had no 
 appetite; he was obliged to eat; it was dinner-time, 
 and nourishment was a necessity. He had a cold, 
 and a slight cough disturbed the regular movement 
 of his jaws under a short beard covering his cheeks 
 and chin with hairs of equal length. One couldn't 
 quite tell what colour his beard was. He seemed 
 to have grey eyes, but this wasn't certain, for they 
 were little eyes and very deep-set. It was clear 
 that he had a crooked nose, and also that his skin 
 fitted loosely about his face, hands, and neck, and 
 it looked more like some kind of garment than 
 
THE REIGN OF THE EVIL ONE 7 
 
 skin, — something that he could take off like a coat. 
 
 There was a kind of anxiety in his expression, 
 but he appeared to be completely at his ease and 
 free from shyness. In fact he was perfectly calm 
 and acted as though he were quite sure of him- 
 self. He was one of those men who make them- 
 selves at home wherever they are, who give one the 
 impression of having said finally, "I must be taken 
 as I am." 
 
 He kept on drinking and eating until his glass 
 and his plate were empty; then he filled his pipe. 
 Outside, night had come. 
 
 At that moment Simon entered the room, and, 
 dragging a stool from beneath one of the tables, he 
 stood upon it and lit a match on his trousers. A 
 tiny flame began to creep slowly round the dirty 
 wick. Congo lamps, they were called; the villages 
 all had them; shades of cheap white china and brass 
 containers with holes up through them to create a 
 draught for the flame. 
 
 "You haven't got electricity here yet?" 
 
 Simon blew upon the chimney before putting it 
 in place again. 
 
8 THE REIGN OF THE EVIL ONE 
 
 "No— not yet; no need of it." 
 
 "That's true," said the man. "All these inven- 
 tions complicate life uselessly. Just like the rail- 
 ways. I like my legs better, and it doesn't cost 
 so much." 
 
 He began to laugh, but Simon didn't, being of a 
 distrustful nature. He was slow at making friends, 
 especially with unknown people. Anyhow, the door 
 opened at that moment, and three men came in. 
 They saw that some one was there, but pretended 
 not to, and, after greeting Simon, they sat down at 
 a table as far away as possible from the stranger. 
 Simon had gone to the cellar without waiting for 
 their orders, for he knew their wants from long 
 habit. The atmosphere was already blue and get- 
 ting thicker, so that the flame of the lamp became 
 fainter and fainter until it finally looked like a little 
 eye. Other men had come in, and a large volume 
 of smoke rose from pipef uls of strong, coarse tobacco 
 from the village shops: two sous a packet, labelled 
 with a picture of a soldier with a breast-plate, and 
 the trade mark beneath. 
 
 Conversation soon became animated; Simon, hav- 
 
•THE REIGN OF THE EVIL ONE 9. 
 
 ing served the latest arrivals, joined one of the 
 groups and drank with them. Soon it was impos- 
 sible to hear single voices, and discussions passed 
 into wrangles; every now and then fists struck 
 the tables, and each time there followed a short 
 period of silence, after which the noise began 
 again. 
 
 The man profited by one of these silences: 
 
 "Excuse me, gentlemen!" and every one turned 
 to see who had spoken. They had forgotten him, 
 but he had the floor at once, in no way embarrassed 
 at seeing the attention of every one fixed upon 
 him: 
 
 "Excuse me for disturbing you, but I'd like to 
 ask a question." 
 
 One saw immediately that he was used to people; 
 shyness was unknown to him. And his audience 
 would have remained speechless had not Lhote, the 
 farrier, been there. He was, fortunately, able to 
 express himself easily and clearly. He answered for 
 them. 
 
 "You have only to say what it is you want and 
 we'll try to answer you." 
 
lo THE REIGN OF THE EVIL ONE 
 
 "Thank you," the man said. Then, after a short 
 silence, he went on: 
 
 ^'This is what I have to say, and it's likely to 
 surprise you. I've come a long way and you don't 
 know who I am. I've been so long on the road that 
 I don't remember all the places I've been to. And I 
 usually leave a place very soon after getting there, 
 but this evening, as I came up here, — I don't know 
 what it was, — but I found myself saying: 'What 
 if you stopped and rested awhile? You've been 
 wandering about enough; you're beginning to be 
 short of breath, and you're getting on in years. 
 Why not settle down here?' " 
 
 He spoke carefully, choosing his words as though 
 he were selecting pieces of money to pay a bill : 
 "Are you in need of a shoemaker here?" 
 This question took everybody by surprise, and 
 there was a silence. How extraordinary that a 
 mere passer-by should suddenly declare his intention 
 of settling down to live in your village! One didn't 
 know these people, or their fathers, or their mothers; 
 not even their names. When one of them walked 
 through the high street, one turned aside and spat. 
 
THE REIGN OF THE EVIL ONE ii 
 
 They passed on and one had spat, that was all. But 
 there was something about this man that his pre- 
 decessors had lacked. "Why not?" they thought. 
 "Why not, after all?" And they looked at each 
 other while they waited for Lhote to speak. 
 
 If he had followed his habit, Lhote would un- 
 doubtedly have said — "You'd better go your way." 
 But he said just the contrary. 
 
 "It's strange how things fall out. We might 
 have sent for you, your arrival is so well-planned. 
 Old Porte died only three days ago; he was buried 
 yesterday. And we were anxious to know who was 
 going to fill his place. He was a shoemaker like 
 yourself and his shop is vacant now. Only" (here 
 Lhote seemed to hesitate), "only, a sum of money 
 would be . . . oh, not very much . . . but at least 
 fifty francs; you see, there are his tools and some 
 back rent to pay." 
 
 The man said: "That's my look-out. . . ." 
 
 Then he was silent a moment, but went on in a 
 low voice as though talking to himself: 
 
 "I know it will cost something; I've thought of 
 that; I've got . . ." 
 
lia THE REIGN OF THE EVIL ONE 
 
 Then he spoke aloud: 
 
 "And when can I see the house?" 
 
 "To-morrow morning," Lhote said. 
 
 And the rest joined in: 
 
 "Yes, to-morrow morning." 
 
 Everybody spoke at once; they had now lost their 
 shyness and mistrust: 
 
 "And it's a good shop too," said one, "and a fine 
 location. . . ." 
 
 "And a nice lot of customers, too," said another. 
 
 "And you've got to be rich," said a third, "for 
 you have to pay cash." 
 
 "Thank you, gentlemen!" He touched the brim 
 of his hat. "And thanks especially, you over there 
 with the black beard," he pointed to Lhote. 
 
 "My name is Lhote. I'm the blacksmith." 
 
 "Well, Mr. Lhote . . ." and he tapped the table 
 with the bottom of his glass — "I say, Mr. Inn- 
 keeper . . ." 
 
 How was it that the atmosphere had changed so 
 quickly? One could see what they thought of the 
 man already by the speed with which Simon came 
 at his call. 
 
THE REIGN OF THE EVIL ONE 13 
 "Three litres for these gentlemen, and of your 
 best!" 
 
 That was the grand climax, — three litres! No 
 one was prepared for it; in fact so great was their 
 surprise that no one dreamed of saying thanks, not 
 even Lhote. Could they have mistaken his words? 
 Three litres! There were only eight people, and 
 they had done nothing yet! Was he rich or merely 
 generous? Anyhow they didn't waste much time 
 ■^jondering that, and when the Inn-keeper returned 
 with the three litres they found words. They all 
 spoke at once. Some: "Ah, thanks!" Others: 
 "That's fine!" And Lhote once more voiced senti- 
 ments that every one subscribed to: 
 
 "We aren't very good at expressing ourselves, 
 but we are delighted to have you drinking with 
 us." 
 
 As he said this he turned to his friends and they 
 all took, up his phrase: 
 
 "That's it, come along, we'll be delighted!" 
 The man didn't hesitate: "The pleasure is mine," 
 he said, as he rose from his chair and sat down 
 next to Lhote. So they pressed in closely around 
 
14 THE REIGN OF THE EVIL ONE 
 
 one table; it is always pleasant to touch elbows 
 
 during certain moments of expansion. 
 
 Glasses were refilled and the talk was general 
 — they were ten, counting the Inn-keeper, and they 
 soon began to feel warm from the wine, a delicious 
 melting warmth, — a ray of winter sim falling on. 
 frozen ground. The man began to speak of the 
 country round about and of how he had liked it at 
 once, and his companions' pride was tickled. Of 
 course they all complained of it bitterly among 
 themselves, but just the same deep in their hearts 
 they loved it because it was their own. There was 
 love in their hatred of it; none of them ever left 
 it unless obliged to, and then only with the idea of 
 returning at the earliest opportunity. 
 
 "Then it's true that you like it here? We shall 
 be glad to have you with us." 
 
 Then the man asked further questions: 
 
 "How many people?" 
 
 "Seven or eight hundred." 
 
 "What trades?" 
 
 "Hardly any. We're all peasants here." 
 
 Who was the priest, who the President of the 
 
THE REIGN OF THE EVIL ONE 15 
 
 Parish, and so on? They were kept busy answer- 
 ing. Then the inevitable second phase of coarse 
 stories set in and it was soon ten o'clock. 
 
 The man asked if he coxild have a room for the 
 night; Simon told him there was one and went off 
 to make the bed. While he was upstairs Lhote 
 asked the question that had long been on the tip 
 of his tongue: "Excuse the indiscretion, but we'd 
 all like to know who it is who's given us this pleas- 
 ant evening, for it has been pleasant, really; I'm 
 not just talking." 
 
 "If I rightly understand you, it's my name you'd 
 like to know?" the man said. 
 
 "If it wouldn't be indiscreet." 
 
 "My father's name was Branchu; an easy one to 
 remember. . . . Branchu, as you would say Cornu." 
 
 It was indeed an easy name to remember, though 
 it was an unusual one. 
 
 They met by arrangement the following morning, 
 and the affair went off without difficulty. The house 
 
i6 THE REIGN OF THE EVIL ONE 
 was in a little street, leading away from the church, 
 that followed a wide semi-circle to the north and 
 rejoined the high street that cut the village in two. 
 It had only one floor and looked like a cube of 
 stone. 
 
 Lhote met Branchu and they knocked at a door 
 near by, where the old man lived who owned the late 
 shoemaker's dwelling. He soon stuck his head out 
 and looked at Branchu, coughing violently. 
 
 "So it's you wanting to rent it! What a time 
 I had with the last tenant!" 
 
 Complaints began to pour forth. Porte was 
 drinking up all his earnings, and the trouble was 
 that when he came home drunk he made such a 
 noise with his sighing and groaning that everybody 
 in the village knew what had happened. He used 
 to go on like this: 
 
 "Porte, Porte, confoimd you; there's a poison in 
 you that's eating up everything, you can't enjoy 
 yourself any more and you are himting pleasure 
 through drink, but you can't see that you'll soon 
 be beyond pleasure and there'll be nothing left but 
 trouble. Poor old Porte, you're being poisoned. 
 
THE REIGN OF THE EVIL ONE 17 
 
 You must stop the drink, but you haven't got the 
 strength to do it. Oh, dear! Oh, dear! . . ." 
 
 He used to go on like this for hours, and then 
 he sighed and beat his chest. No one could close 
 an eye. His death was a relief to every one. 
 
 "So you see," continued the garrulous old man, 
 "what I want this time is a peaceful tenant. And 
 another thing is that Porte owed me three months' 
 rent. . . . And then" (here he tilted his head a 
 little) "I would like to have a year's rent in ad- 
 vance; otherwise I'll keep the house empty. That 
 would be a hundred francs for the year, and then 
 the twenty-five francs back rent. A hundred and 
 then twenty-five; that would be a hundred and 
 twenty-five. . . ." He had begun to stutter. 
 
 Branchu was splendid. The rent was being 
 doubled, for Porte had paid only five francs a month. 
 He took out his wallet and drew from it three notes. 
 
 "There's a hundred and fifty francs." 
 
 The old man stretched out his hand, then with- 
 drew it again, and one saw that it trembled; money 
 was scarce, and these notes with figures engraved 
 on them were hardly ever seen. The old man held 
 
1 8 THE REIGN OF THE EVIL ONE 
 
 out his hand again, and again withdrew it. But 
 
 Branchu said: 
 
 "Wait a moment! You can tell by looking at me 
 that I'll be a quiet tenant." 
 
 This time the old fellow made up his mind. He 
 took the three notes, counted them three times, 
 folded them in half and put them in his pocket. 
 Then he said regretfully: 
 
 "Then I owe you .... I owe you twenty-five 
 francs." 
 
 But Branchu replied— "Keep it!" 
 
 Of course in such circumstances the business 
 went off without a hitch; the key was produced 
 immediately and the door was opened for Branchu. 
 The landlord hurried in past him to open the shut- 
 ters: 
 
 "There you are, and it's all yours. I hope you'll 
 be comfortable; it's just the place for you, and 
 there's no better location for a man in your trade." 
 
 Comfortable was hardly the word: a biggish room 
 in front and a tiny one behind it. Porte might at 
 least have left his mattress and his tools behind 
 him, but there was no sign of either. Complete 
 
THE REIGN OF THE EVIL ONE 19 
 
 emptiness except for some useless objects: a broken 
 packing case, some bottles and bits of leather, a 
 brimless hat, an old pair of braces, and a terrific 
 smell. Lhote was a little ashamed, but Branchu 
 did not seem in the least disappointed. 
 
 "Just what I wanted," he said. 
 
 The proprietor was relieved: 
 
 "It's still in rather a mess; all it needs is a 
 good sweeping out." 
 
 This was all that happened; Branchu took Lhote 
 for a drink, and then set out in search of a mason. 
 He did the sweeping-up himself with a broom bor- 
 rowed from the proprietor. The latter offered his 
 help in the operation, but Branchu refused it, and 
 the mason soon arrived. He distempered the walls 
 within and without, and gave the front door and 
 the two ceilings a coat of paint. Upon the mud 
 floors he laid down a thin layer of cement. 
 
 But the wonder of wonders was to come a few 
 days later, on Saturday afternoon. The villagers 
 walked past to see what he was doing to the house, 
 and they saw a beautiful, freshly-painted sign fixed 
 to the wall above the window, — ^yellow letters on 
 
20 THE REIGN OF THE EVIL ONE 
 a blue background: BRANCHU, Shoemaker. To 
 the left a woman's shoe with a red top, and at the 
 right a man's black shoe with a tree inside it. The 
 villagers' admiration was unbounded; never before 
 had they beheld such a splendid sign in the village. 
 Branchu must have painted it himself, and secretly, 
 too, for no one had seen him doing it. Undoubtedly 
 he had a weakness for surprising people. What an 
 extraordinary fellow, and where on earth had he 
 gotten all that money! 
 
 These things were being discussed when Branchu 
 appeared in front of the Iim. He was still lodging 
 there, for the carpenter from whom he had ordered 
 his furniture had not yet finished it. Some of the 
 people started to move away when they saw that 
 he was coming towards them; others pretended not 
 to see him, but several stepped forward to meet him. 
 He held out his hand, and when they had congrat- 
 ulated him he said: 
 
 "I thought a long time about the colour. Per- 
 haps it would have been better to have a red back- 
 ground, — flame-colour is my favourite shade." 
 
 For the first time, he laughed. 
 
THE REIGN OF THE EVIL ONE ai 
 
 m 
 
 Some days later the carpenter delivered the fur- 
 niture. On Monday morning Branchu went away, 
 and no one saw him go. The following Saturday 
 he returned bringing another man who led a mule 
 by the bridle. The beast was covered with sweat, 
 and its bit was white with foam. 
 
 Branchu helped the man to unload parcels from 
 the pack-saddle. First came two big bags, then a 
 fiat leather saddle-bag that must have contained 
 bits of iron, to judge by the noise it made. Every- 
 thing was taken into the front room where a bench 
 had already been put up, and Branchu (he was 
 known to everybody by this name now) paid the 
 man with the mule 15 francs and 30 centimes, 
 whereupon he departed; not, however, until he had 
 stopped for a drink at the Inn and told of his having 
 come from Borne-Dessous, a little town in the val- 
 ley. And he did not conceal the fact that his mule 
 had that day carried a supply of all kinds of leather 
 and every sort of thing needed by a shoemaker 
 establishing himself in his trade. 
 
22 THE REIGN OF THE EVIL ONE 
 
 The truth of his remarks was evident the follow- 
 ing day when Branchu opened his shop to the public. 
 Skins hung from all the walls, and rows of new tools 
 shone from the bench: hammers, paring-knives, and 
 awls, a pot of wax, and boxes of nails and pegs. The 
 shoemaker himself was sitting on a low chair with- 
 out a back, tapping upon the little round-ended anvil 
 that he had fixed before him. 
 
 The sun had just appeared above the moxmtain 
 top; the day would be a perfect one. Little roimd 
 clouds came up over the ridge and sailed higher, 
 leaving the sun behind them. Most people would 
 have shaded their eyes against the light, but it made 
 no difference to Branchu. His clothes were all new: 
 a fine new green canvas apron and a striped flannel 
 shirt with the cuffs turned up. There he was, a first- 
 rate shoemaker, in good spirits; not very young, 
 but what difference did that make? And after all 
 not very old either. He looked in the best of health 
 and seemed keen about his job. People passing by 
 thought: "Such a relief after old Porte! What a 
 dreadful old thing he was!" 
 
 The little street was one of the most used in 
 
THE REIGN OF THE EVIL ONE 23 
 the village; men, women, and children passed 
 through it continually, and by the time twelve 
 o'clock had struck, there was no one who did not 
 know that Branchu had begun to work. 
 
 Four or five days "went by before any business 
 came his way. They wanted to see what he could 
 do, and the backing of public opinion was necessary 
 for even the tiniest order. Shall we call it prudence? 
 And so it was that Branchu had plenty of time to 
 make a fine pair of lady's shoes with varnished 
 flaps, which he hung just inside the window. These 
 were the envy of all the girls who saw them, but 
 they remained on the hook in the window frame 
 until Lhote came one morning with a pair of his 
 own shoes, saying: 
 
 "These must be resoled." 
 
 He was the first customer (politeness had brought 
 him), but he had no cause for regret. Before eve- 
 ning his shoes were'ready. He asked what he owed. 
 Two francs. It was just half what he was used to 
 paying, and he hurried anxiously away in order to 
 examine the work carefully. The leather was of the 
 finest quality, and he could hardly believe his eyes. 
 
24 THE REIGN OF THE EVIL ONE 
 And when he put the shoes on they were even more 
 comfortable than before. It was astonishing to have 
 paid so little and got such good value! A pair of 
 shoes he had worn for four years, and now they 
 looked like new ones; and they shone so brightly 
 with the waxing they had been given that he could 
 hardly look at them. He wondered what sort of wax 
 liad been used. 
 
 A customer's advertisement is the best, clearly, 
 and the following morning many followed Lhote's 
 example. Before the end of the week the shoes 
 with varnished flaps no longer himg inside the win- 
 dow. It was Virginie Poudret who had bought 
 them; the desire to make others jealous was strong 
 in her and it would soon be Sunday. 
 
 "It will be better for no one to know," she said 
 to herself. "My friends haven't the courage — 
 well, I have, that's all, and the man won't eat 
 me." 
 
 She went to the shop about noon when there was 
 no one in the streets. . . . 
 
 "How much are they?" repeated Branchu. 
 "Have you looked at me. Mademoiselle?" Then 
 
THE REIGN OF THE EVIL ONE 25 
 
 be went on: "I'm not a Jew. And when one is as 
 pretty as you are . . . I'll make you a present of 
 them." 
 
 Virginie got very red, but there they were being 
 held out to her; she had to take them. Branchu 
 wanted to try them on her himself, and he knelt 
 before her to remove her slippers. And what poor 
 shabby old things they were! Stained brown with 
 dew and grey with dust, and a string for lacing. 
 What a change for Virginie! The new shoes fitted 
 her perfectly; as Branchu said, they might have been 
 made for her. , 
 
 When she got home with her parcel under her 
 arm, she seemed oddly enough to have acquired an 
 added self-respect. She felt proud of herself, but 
 she spoke of the shoes to no one. On Sunday she 
 went to Mass with the other girls, but no one had 
 the faintest idea what had occurred until afterwards 
 when they all went out into the square and gathered 
 beneath an old lime-tree (said to be three hundred 
 years old) which offered a pleasant escape from the 
 hot sun. It was there that the full glory of Vir- 
 ginie's new shoes burst upon her friends. She had 
 
26 THE REIGN OF THE EVIL ONE 
 
 only to lift her skirt, and they all turned to gaze 
 
 and exclaim: 
 
 "Will you look at that!" 
 
 "It's not possible!" 
 
 "Does she imagine she's pretty?" 
 
 "It's a pity her face doesn't match her feet!" 
 And they laughed at her, but you felt it was hollow 
 laughter. Some were so angry that they shrugged 
 their shoulders and looked away, but most of them 
 being more curious than jealous began to ask ques- 
 tions: 
 
 "How much did you pay? Tell us." 
 
 "Are they the ones we saw hanging in the win- 
 dow?" 
 
 "What pretty feet they give you!" 
 
 "Aren't they too small?" 
 
 "Don't they hurt just a tiny bit?" 
 
 While Virginie was satisfying her questioners, 
 Lhote was drawing admiration from another group. 
 
 "Two francs, I said; not a sou more!" 
 
 It was easy to guess from this that it did not take 
 Branchu many days to establish himself; he soon 
 had more work than three ordinary shoemakers 
 
THE REIGN OF THE EVIL ONE 27 
 
 could handle. How on earth did he manage it? 
 But he did, though to most people it seemed an 
 impossibility. No one could find the slightest 
 ground for complaint. Always the same ridiculous 
 prices. 
 
 "Naturally," they said, "he makes up on the 
 quantity of work, but how quickly he must have 
 to work!" He soon became the admiration of all; 
 it was splendid of him, and most people knew how 
 to appreciate good workmanship. 
 
 Branchu, on his side, knew how to make 
 friends; hardly a week passed without his taking 
 one or two of his customers for a drink at the 
 Inn. Free drinks never go unappreciated. Also 
 he knew that it would never do, in the long run, 
 to expect people to be satisfied if he divulged no 
 details of his past life, so he set about telling his 
 story little by little: He was born of parents he had 
 never known, far away somewhere dojvn the valley. 
 He was brought up by some wicked people who had 
 made him sleep on a pile of shavings. One day 
 when he could endure his life with them no longer, 
 he ran away; then his wandering had begun. When 
 
28 THE REIGN OF THE EVIL ONE 
 he earned a franc, he bought things here and there 
 that he could sell for one franc twenty, and after 
 a while he found he had saved up a tidy little sum. 
 But he had earned it well, and honestly too, because 
 this wandering life of his was a very hard one; 
 "and my feet are worn away from walking," he 
 said, "a good half inch all roimd, as though some 
 one had sand-papered them." 
 
 It wasn't surprising that he finally came to the 
 end of his wanderings, and "here, I'm quite happy 
 because I am among friends." 
 
 "That's true!" And then some one asked: 
 "Where did you learn your shoemaking?" 
 "Ah, yes," he said. "I forgot to tell you that. 
 It was in Germany." 
 "In Germany!" 
 
 IV 
 
 There was one man in the village who kept saying: 
 "Be on your guard!" 
 
 It is true that this man, Luc, had always been 
 considered off his head. Sometimes he pretended 
 
THE REIGN OF THE EVIL ONE 29 
 
 to see the Virgin or one of the Saints, and often 
 it was Jesus himself who appeared to him. He had 
 studied for the priesthood, then he had tried to 
 make himself a notary, but he never got to be a 
 priest or a notary; no one had ever known him to 
 be anything. His sister took him in to live with 
 her, else he would have died of hunger. He spent 
 days on end reading ponderous books, and when 
 he was not reading he walked the streets, stopping 
 in front of people's houses to remind them of the 
 Commandments. His big, tangled beard seemed to 
 spring out just beneath a shabby bowler hat, drawn 
 down to his ears, and his long-tailed coat was worn 
 and frayed at the edges. The children in the streets 
 threw stones at him, but he only turned and shook 
 his fist at them. There are many men like him, 
 — men who, finding nothing to do in life, give them- 
 selves up to dreaming. They seldom face actuali- 
 ties and they keep muttering strange phrases and 
 making crazy gestures. They do not frighten any 
 one, and they end by not even causing surprise. 
 The only purpose they serve is to make people 
 laugh. 
 
30 THE REIGN OF THE EVIL ONE 
 
 So it was that when Luc began to attack Branchu, 
 people simply shrugged their shoulders and told him 
 to go away. But it only made him talk louder. 
 
 Now there was another shoemaker in the village, 
 named Jacques Musy; he was always ill, poor fel- 
 low, and it made him melancholy. His cheeks had 
 fallen in, and he was hollow-chested, and sometimes 
 his shop was closed for several days running because 
 he could not work. Naturally there were times 
 when you had to wait a long time for work to be 
 done, but he had never been in want of it because 
 people pitied him. Still, pity with most people is 
 a Sunday affair; it is like a fine suit of clothes not 
 worn every day. When Branchu became known as 
 a clever and a cheap shoemaker, Jacques Musy was 
 abandoned. It was no use his remaining in his 
 shop, seated on his low work-chair, for he saw 
 clearly what it was that threatened him. No one 
 ever came to him now. He looked out of his win- 
 dow; some little girls were playing "Heaven and 
 Hell" with a flat stone which they kicked about 
 upon a design of squares marked on the earth with 
 a stick. The clock struck, — in an hour it struck 
 
THE REIGN OF THE EVIL ONE 31 
 again; not a single pair of slippers to mend, and 
 when he thought of the row of them there used to 
 be on his bench ... 1 For a fortnight he was 
 patient, even for three weeks; and then people 
 began to wonder how he kept alive. 
 
 One fine morning he did not open his shop, and no 
 one thought anything of it; no doubt he was ill. 
 Two or three days passed like this, and it was only 
 by chance that a neighbour found his body on the 
 fourth morning hanging from the back of his front 
 door. There was a horrible smell and his face was 
 quite black. 
 
 No bells were rung for him, and he was buried in 
 a corner like an animal. People would soon have 
 forgotten him and the way he died (such things 
 happened too often), if Luc had not taken this op- 
 portunity to shout louder than ever in the streets: 
 
 "Now, you seel" 
 
 "What do we see?" they said to him. 
 
 "Whether I was wrong or not, when I told you 
 to be on your guard. There you are, Jacques Musy 
 is deadl" j 
 
 "He is. And what of it? The good fortune of 
 
32 THE REIGN OF THE EVIL ONE . 
 
 some is the misfortune of others. It's always like 
 that and always will be." 
 
 That was one way of looking at things, and per- 
 haps it was the wisest, but Luc shouted just as 
 loudly as before, wandering the streets and shaking 
 his head. 
 
CHAPTER II 
 
 It was at least three or four months after Branchu 
 had installed himself in the village that signs began 
 to be apparent. One October morning Baptiste's 
 gun went off in his hands, while he was out after 
 rabbits. He sat on a pile of faggots in front of 
 his cottage and some women went to fetch a pail 
 of water; in a jiffy the water was red, and when he 
 saw his blood flowing into it he was sick at his 
 stomach. 
 
 "Heavens," the women said, "he is getting it 
 badly!" And all the time the heart-pump inside 
 him sent forth a thin jet which could not be stopped 
 until a thick layer of cobweb was applied to the 
 wound. 
 
 Three days later, a man called Mudry, Baptiste's 
 cousin, fell almost a hundred yards from the top 
 of a cliff and split his head in two. And little Louise, 
 
 33 
 
34 THE REIGN OF THE EVIL ONE 
 fhe bell-ringer's daughter, got the croup. Two 
 beasts died that same night in the same cattle-shed; 
 and a brand new loft of hay was destroyed by fire. 
 
 All those things were or might have been coin- 
 cidences; there is a proverb that says, "Misfortunes 
 never come singly." But much the most disquiet- 
 ing thing of all was the change in the people them- 
 selves; they were changing rapidly, and for the 
 worse. 
 
 There was, for instance, Trente-et-Quarante, who 
 had had a child of a woman not his wife. He was 
 too poor to pay the baby's keep, and as he no longer 
 cared for its mother, he put it in a bag one evening 
 when she had left it asleep and had gone to fetch 
 water from the fountain. He carried the bag down 
 into the valley, tied a big stone to it, and threw it 
 into the river. He watched it sinking and was 
 happy at what he had done. 
 
 Then there was that fight among the village boys 
 one night as they came from the vineyards. A troop 
 of them were climbing up to the village, — ^a little 
 drunk it must be admitted, but, though new wine is 
 always tricky, it wasn't possible to blame it all on 
 
THE REIGN OF THE EVIL ONE 35 
 
 that. So far as one could tell from the accounts 
 of it later, the trouble was about a girl; one of them 
 boasted of having kissed her when he had not. 
 Therefore what was there to boast of? It is all 
 very well to pull a person's leg but it must stop if 
 taken too seriously. Bernard did just the oppo- 
 site, and the other chap, Jean, who really cared 
 for the girl, could not bear it. 
 
 "Chuck it, or I'll . . ." 
 
 "You'll what?" asked Bernard. 
 
 There were fifteen of them, and it was pitch dark 
 on the last grassy short-cut into the village. Two 
 voices came up through the stillness, and then the 
 two combatants made for each other. The others, 
 instead of trying to separate them as they should 
 have done, divided into two shouting bands of sup- 
 porters. "At him, Bernard!" "At him, Jean!" 
 But neither of them needed the slightest encourage- 
 ment, for they were both furious. 
 
 Three times they rose up and three times they 
 went down again; the moon sailed clear of the 
 clouds. Moon, you are witness; it was night and 
 they were coming back from the vineyards with too 
 
36 THE REIGN OF THE EVIL ONE 
 much new wine in them, but that doesn't explain 
 why those two lay there on the ground, the one 
 on the top pounding the face of the one beneath him. 
 And even now, does one understand why it hap- 
 pened? . . . Those two were not the only ones fight- 
 ing. The rest of them soon joined in, and their 
 shouts brought people to the windows. Men came 
 out with lanterns saying, "What's going on?" And 
 when they saw that the moon was shining: "Good 
 Heavens, look up there!" And the women: "Oh, 
 dear — oh, dear!" Women, children in their night- 
 clothes; how cold it was standing there with the 
 north wind blowing down from the mountain! 
 
 Some of the men went bravely forward with sticks 
 and tried to put an end to the combat, but they 
 had to wait for it to peter out for lack of fighters. 
 
 Four of the boys lay motionless on the groimd, 
 and in the morning the puddles of blood had not 
 dried up; for a long time a kind of brown crust was 
 to be seen there, but the wind blew it away in 
 flakes, little by little, until there was none of it left. 
 
 As for Jean he was in bed for six weeks. It was 
 astonishing that he, the one who had really been 
 
THE REIGN OF THE EVIL ONE 37 
 
 t 
 
 in the right, had had so much the worst of it; Ber- 
 nard escaped without injury. Jean's jaw was 
 broken, his, forehead cut open, one ankle sprained, 
 and he had wounds all over his body. A high fever 
 came soon, and he had to be carefully nursed; the 
 doctor who was called in said at first that his skull 
 had been fractured, and for a, while they thought he 
 would not recover. 
 
 And all this time Bernard swaggered about the 
 village, saying: "He knows what I am now; he won't 
 come meddling in my affairs any more." And he 
 laughed as he walked about the streets holding his 
 nose high in the air. Then the expected happened; 
 he took Jean's sweetheart from him without really 
 intending to. She simply came up to him one day, 
 and putting her arms about his neck, said: "I love 
 you because you're the strongest." 
 
 That seemed hardly fair, but she ended by having 
 to leave that part of the country. 
 
 Clinche's household came next. He had always 
 been a most reasonable and sweet-natured man; his 
 wife was a good woman and the children were well- 
 behaved and their bringing-up had been quite easy. 
 
38 THE REIGN OF THE EVIL ONE 
 
 Suddenly a change came over Clinche, and every 
 evening when he came in, he was full of hard words 
 and reproaches. First it was the soup, too cold or 
 too hot; then there was a smell in the kitchen and 
 it made him cough. Sometimes he complained that 
 everything was in a mess, and if all was tidy he told 
 his wife she was wasting her time. He was always 
 on the look-out for something to quarrel about, and, 
 alas, it soon came to beating. 
 
 At first she said nothing to his accusations, for 
 she was mystified by his treatment of her, and her 
 sweetness and easy obedience prevented her from 
 replying. She well knew that men sometimes 
 changed and therefore she was patient. But her 
 patience was of no avail, and he became fussier and 
 more brutal as time went on. 
 
 "Oh, Jean," she said one day, unable to keep 
 silence longer — "how can you forget eversrthing? 
 Don't you remember the time when you came to me 
 first? You didn't use such hard words then! It 
 was I who said No, but when you wept at night 
 beneath my window, I pitied you. . . . And now 
 you don't want me any longer. . . ." 
 
THE REIGN OF THE EVIL ONE 39 
 
 "Leave me alone," he said. "See how much time 
 you're wasting. Get that broom, I tell you, — 
 quicker than that — or else I'll . . ." 
 
 He lifted his fist and the children started to cry. 
 
 It was Hell in that house; you could hear little 
 Henri pleading with his father — "Papa, please, 
 please don't hit me." Clinche paid no heed to the 
 little boy's entreaties, and beat him as he had beaten 
 his wife, and the whole village would have heard 
 his cries if the wind had not blown them away, down 
 into the valley. Then the wind fell and the tiny 
 voice rose out of the silence and the shadows, to die 
 away Httle by little in a long moan like the wind 
 itself coming in through a crack in the wall. 
 
 n 
 
 Lude went out that same evening without know- 
 ing why, or where he wanted to go. The desire to 
 walk somewhere had taken possession of him. His 
 wife asked if he would be back soon, and he an- 
 swered: 
 
 "Mind your own business!" 
 
40 THE REIGN OF THE EVIL ONE 
 
 She was astonished at those words, for her hus- 
 band loved her. But in this household, too, a 
 change had come. Something unusual was going 
 on in Lude's mind, and even he did not know what 
 it was. He was conscious of an inner burden of 
 uneasiness that he wanted to get rid of, that obliged 
 him to set forth that evening like a beast whose pack 
 is too heavy and who wants to drop it by the road- 
 side. Since the day before, the sky had been over- 
 cast; it was only a change in the direction of the 
 wind, — a small matter, but it gave everything a 
 different aspect. Golden-yellow leaves were no 
 more, and the trees stretched out bare arms against 
 the greyness. The close-cropped grass had lost its 
 brilliance and the sky rested heavily upon the moun- 
 tains. Life seemed as difficult for people as for 
 things. Jean Lude felt this, and he wondered how 
 he had been able to endure such a life of misery. 
 As a matter of fact, one might say he had never 
 suffered at all till now; few people had had such 
 happiness, and he was always pointed out as the 
 model husband of the parish. He was tall and 
 thin, and he had a long neck with a very prominent 
 
THE REIGN OF THE EVIL ONE 41 
 
 Adam's apple. His features betrayed a charming 
 disposition and he had the look of a person who 
 accepts life as it is. 
 
 Now he accepted it no longer. He swallowed hard 
 and his Adam's apple rose up towards his chin. 
 His mouth was dry, as though he were sickening, and 
 he wondered what could be the matter with him, but 
 no solution offered itself, and he climbed farther 
 up the mountain side. The road split in two at a 
 little plateau, and he stood for a moment looking, 
 down towards the village. A thick mist, like a cov- 
 ering of white linen, had hidden everything down 
 there except the church tower, which was sticking 
 up through a tear in it. When the wind blew, 
 a slight movement coiild be seen like a wavelet 
 passing over a lake, and every now and then a frag- 
 ment detached itself and was blown slowly up to- 
 wards him, — he thought of an old man sitting close 
 to a wall smoking a pipe, — the first puff glided hor- 
 izontally away beneath him, then a second came 
 nearer, followed by many others in quick succession. 
 
 He had seen the mist rise like that often enough, 
 but when the obscurity folded him in he felt lonely, 
 
42 THE REIGN OF THE EVIL ONE 
 
 being cut off from his fellow men, quite alone at 
 the fall of night, up there at the forking roads. 
 
 One of them led higher up the mountain; the 
 other went along upon the same level, and after 
 hesitating a moment he took the level road, but he 
 did not know yet what his destination was to be. He 
 felt he had to keep moving; he had stopped just now 
 because he had felt like stopping. Now he was 
 walking again. Finally, he came to a place called 
 Prezimes, but he kept thinking the same thoughts: 
 fourteen hours of work in summer, six hours of 
 sleep; nothing but soup with bread in it, one room 
 for the three of us; is that fair? Other people 
 have all they want; we have nothing. When they 
 want a new suit of clothes they have only to open 
 their purses; we have to wear the same clothes all 
 our lives, and even after life, for we are buried in 
 them. 
 
 "God!" He raised a clenched fist above his 
 head. 
 
 He stopped again and found himself exactly oppo- 
 site one of his own fields; it sank away from the 
 road that formed its upper boundary and seemed 
 
THE REIGN OF THE EVIL ONE 43 
 
 to be stitched on to the slope. There were no trees 
 in the fields, nor bushes, nor even a ditch to show 
 the divisions; only three or four pointed stones on 
 end to mark out the bits of worked land in more 
 or less equal parts. 
 
 He stared fixedly, but he was not really looking 
 at anything; he was searching his mind for a solu- 
 tion, and suddenly it came: 
 
 "I would only have to move those stones a little 
 and my troubles would be over." 
 
 Five or six square feet more isn't much, but it 
 would be a beginning and that was what he wanted. 
 Not to be poor any longer. So much the worse 
 if he went about it dishonestly. Of what use to be 
 stupid; much more sensible to be clever 1 
 
 He looked all about him again; then he went down 
 into the field and took hold of the first stone he 
 came to. A crow cawed over his head, and far away 
 he heard the wheels of a farm-wagon creaking. . . . 
 
 It was dark when he got home and his wife was 
 preparing dinner. He kissed her and seemed like 
 the old Jean Lude again. When his little girl came 
 up to him, he said: 
 
44 THE REIGN OF THE EVIL ONE 
 
 "Come along, Marie," and he took her upon his 
 lap. "Do you love your daddy?" 
 
 "Oh, yes!" she said eagerly. 
 
 It was pleasantly warm in the kitchen. How cosy 
 to be in a comfortable room with the night and a. 
 high wind outside! One sat beneath the rows of 
 sausages in the wide chimney corner. Quarters of 
 bacon hung there too, for the pig had just been 
 killed. 
 
 "Food is there," he said to himself. "This is my 
 home, and here is my wife, and my little girl." 
 
 The warmth began to do its work and he felt 
 as though his heart were resting in cotton, — ^like 
 a bird that has come back to its nest in bad weather, 
 — ^he wanted nothing more. Dinner was soon ready, 
 and his appetite was better than it had been for 
 days. 
 
 Adele went off to put little Marie to bed, then 
 she came back and Lude made her sit down near 
 him. Her eyes shone now with the joy and well- 
 being that had come to her again. 
 
 "Ah, you bashful little thing, come closer so I can 
 kiss you on the neck where you like it. Pretty, 
 
THE REIGN OF THE EVIL ONE 45 
 
 too, what? after the twelve years we've been mar- 
 ried!" 
 
 Then again: 
 
 "Oh, well, come along anyway." 
 
 She only had to move a little closer. . . . 
 
 He was silent for a long time and then, suddenly; 
 
 "Listen, what would you say if we got rich?" 
 
 She sat up quickly. 
 
 "Aren't you going to say anything?" 
 
 "I don't understand." 
 
 "What? You don't understand? I asked if you 
 would be glad if we got rich. There's a chance for 
 it." (He struck the table with his fist.) "It's no 
 more than our rights. We've been poor long 
 enough; it's our turn now." 
 
 Again Adele was afraid. 
 
 m 
 
 Many women were now being taken with epilepsy, 
 — suddenly in the streets they fell backwards, a, 
 kind of foam appeared at their mouths, and their 
 faces turned deathly pale. 
 
46 THE REIGN OF THE EVIL ONE 
 
 One could hardly help noticing that a great num- 
 ber of misfortunes were occurring all at once, and 
 when people began to hunt for the cause of them 
 there were many differences of opinion: some blamed 
 it on the air; others said something had gone wrong 
 with the water, still others that it was the changing 
 season. There were a few who maintained it was 
 only an acute epidemic of influenza, and Luc was 
 alone in his explanation — always the same one: 
 
 "He's got a treacherous face, and there's some- 
 thing deceitful about the swiftness of his hands!" 
 He continued to walk through the streets shout- 
 ing these words at the top of his voice; people be- 
 came excited by his cries, but no one thought of 
 blaming the new shoemaker. On the contrary, his 
 shop was never empty; it was pleasant to go in there 
 and chat with him. He always had some tale to 
 tell you or would listen to yours. There were d- 
 ways at least five or six people in the shop, while 
 he pounded a piece of leather or drew waxed thread 
 through it, completely oblivious of the talk that 
 was going the rounds about him. His face always 
 wore a look of alertness; his little grey eyes shone 
 
THE REIGN OF THE EVIL ONE 47 
 
 and his tongue kept pace with those clever hands, 
 and the amount of work that he got through in a 
 few hours was positively incredible. He knew so 
 well how to amuse people that they almost forgot 
 he was there. And then suddenly Luc's voice could 
 be heard outside, faintly at first as though stified, 
 but gradually gaining in volume. The words could 
 be distinguished now: "Blind fools; curses and dis- 
 aster upon you!" and the rest of it. It was im- 
 possible not to listen, and some lost their patience: 
 "God, if that stupid old idiot would only keep 
 still I" 
 
 Branchu was the only one who paid no attention. 
 His little hammer with its rounded end kept on 
 tapping: 
 
 "What can he matter to you?" he said. "Why da 
 his words trouble you?" 
 
 He placed a finger upon his forehead: "He'^s; 
 nothing but a poor wretch out of his senses." 
 
 "Of course," they answered; "he doesn't bother 
 us, but you . . ." 
 
 "Oh, me . . ." Branchu shrugged his shoulderss 
 and took up his work again. Luc appeared, at this 
 
48 THE REIGN OF THE EVIL ONE 
 moment, and no one could say he was a coward. 
 They were eight and he one, but he stood there in 
 front of the shop, his head thrown back, his beard 
 sticking out towards them, and fire darting from his 
 eyes. 
 
 "Have you no shame, you in there? The others 
 are simply deaf and blind. But you can hear and 
 see. . . . You're traitors, I tell you; cowards . . . 
 deliberately planning your own destruction!" 
 
 His voice grew louder but came to a sudden stop. 
 Some one had just opened a window — a huge stone 
 fell into the gutter. Luc hurried away covered with 
 mud, and laughter filled the shop. Branchu laughed 
 too, but his laughter was spontaneous. 
 
 A few mornings later, about eleven o'clock, Lhote 
 came down the street towards his house and saw 
 some people gathered on the landing at his door, 
 — ^women gesturing and talking. As he drew near 
 they fell silent, and one of them ran towards him: 
 
 "Lhote, Lhote, don't come any nearer; don't, it's 
 too sad." She stretched out her hands trying to 
 iStop him. "Leave us to take care of her; you wait 
 till she's better! If you don't, — if you don't . . ." 
 
THE REIGN OF THE EVIL ONE 49 
 
 He pushed her aside roughly and ran up the steps 
 to the landing. Inside he found his mother lying 
 motionless upon the kitchen table. She was not 
 dead, for it was evident that she could see; perhaps 
 she saw and heard everything. But she made no 
 movement whatever. Her brain was buried alive 
 in the tomb of her body. 
 
 Lhote fell upon his knees beside her: 
 
 "Mother," he cried, "Mother! Don't you hear? 
 It's me." He spoke like a little child. He rose up 
 and bent over her, but she did not move, nor did 
 her eyes turn towards him. -She was like one of 
 those images that lie upon the flagstones of a church, 
 except that her heart was beating. And what grief 
 in that heart if she could hear her son calling her! 
 
 The women who had crowded into the kitchen 
 whispered to each other: "Nobody can do any- 
 thing. It's total paralysis!" 
 
 This is common enough among old people when 
 they come to the end of their strength; something 
 snaps inside, and every one knows there is no doctor 
 who can cure an illness like that. It is something 
 beyond the reach of human power. So when Lhote 
 
so THE REIGN OF THE EVIL ONE 
 
 suggested sending for the doctor the women shook 
 their heads, and one of them said: 
 
 "My poor Lhote, really, the doctor can't do any- 
 thing, and you'll have to pay at least twenty francs." 
 
 He evidently saw that they were right and gave 
 up the idea. Then, drawing a stool close to the 
 table, he sat upon it and crossed his arms. His 
 mother still lay motionless; her old face was like 
 carved wood, her lips were drawn, and her big 
 crooked nose rose up between two sunken eyes. 
 Some one had put a plaid covered cushion beneath 
 her white capped head. She seemed to have stopped 
 breathing, so slight was the rise and fall of her 
 breast, and one wondered whether her heart could 
 really be beating, and if it were beating, how long 
 it would last. 
 
 People came in to look and went out again. 
 Some spoke a word or two, others were silent, but 
 nothing seemed to matter, and Lhote sat upon his 
 stool without moving. A long time passed like this; 
 night began to fall, and people in wooden-soled 
 shoes kept clacking up the stone steps and pushing 
 open the door. Outside there was just enough light 
 
THE REIGN OF THE EVIL ONE s* 
 to see that it was snowing a little. In the low- 
 ceilinged room there was an overwhelming smell of 
 wet clothes. 
 
 At the stroke of four the door opened again and 
 Branchu came in. No one was surprised to see him, 
 for his friendship with Lhote was well known, and 
 they stood back to let him pass. He went up to 
 the table where the old woman lay and put his hand 
 upon his friend's shoulder. Lhote looked up at 
 him with troubled eyes that seemed to ask what 
 was expected of him. 
 
 "Lhote," said Branchu, "don't you know me?" 
 He nodded and then let his head fall back upoa 
 his breast. Then Branchu turned to the old woman^ 
 he took her hand and lifted it up and held it for 
 a moment without speaking, lost in thought. When 
 his voice broke the stillness again, hardly any one 
 recognised it. 
 
 "Lhote, what would you say if I cured her?" 
 
 Lhote still did not reply, but his eyes never left 
 
 those of Branchu who now moved even closer to 
 
 the table. He stretched out his arms, opened his 
 
 hands wide and slowly lowered them until they 
 
52 THE REIGN OF THE EVIL ONE 
 rested upon the old woman's breast. He moved 
 them to the right and to the left, barely touching 
 at first, then pressing more and more. They went 
 all over her body, rising and falling, now resting 
 over her heart, now gliding from her neck to her 
 cheeks and forehead. Suddenly he bent forward, 
 weighing down with his hands; they saw his chest 
 sink and then his breath escaped with a rush. 
 
 "There — ^it wasn't so hard to do!" he said, and 
 then for the second time he broke into a fit of laugh- 
 ter (he had laughed like this before when telling 
 the first visitor to his shop that he wished he had 
 used red paint for his sign), and the tension in the 
 room was broken. 
 
 Every one pushed forward, and, in the centre of 
 the circle, they saw old Marguerite's face beginning 
 to change colour. Her eyes moved, and her hands 
 groped weakly for her skirt. She seemed to be try- 
 ing to speak, for her lips were moving. Suddenly 
 the words came: 
 
 "Where am I?" 
 
 She was trying to sit up. 
 
 "Can this be possible?" cried the people encircling 
 
THE REIGN OF THE EVIL ONE 53 
 her. "She has come back! Lhote, don't you hear? 
 She has spoken!" 
 
 Lhote alone seemed to have heard nothing; they 
 helped him to stand up, and mother and son looked 
 at one another. A smile fluttered over the old 
 toothless mouth like a butterfly preparing to settle, 
 and then she stretched out her arms to him. Lhote 
 now understood what had happened. No one could 
 doubt it any longer. She was cured. Her arms 
 were about his neck: 
 
 "Is it you? Is it really you?" 
 
 Tongues were loosed, and the women nearest all 
 spoke at once, telling her what had occurred: 
 
 "You fell and we came and lifted you on to the 
 table. You lay there as though dead. And it's a 
 good thing Branchu. . . ." 
 
 They would have gone on to say that he had 
 only had to. . . . But Lhote stood up and raising 
 his hand: 
 
 "I know who he_is! He's Jesus!" 
 
 The door flew open and struck against the wall. 
 Too many people; the room wouldn't hold them. 
 Nevertheless they crowded in; curiosity had to be 
 
r 
 
 54 THE REIGN OF THE EVIL ONE 
 satisfied. Every one shouted, "Is it true?" and the 
 old u-oaian answered, "You can see for yourselves." 
 
 She seemed absolutely herself now and perfectly 
 happy, looking even younger than before. Her 
 colour was better and her eyes had a new bright- 
 ness. Some one brought her a cup of coffee, and 
 she drank it sitting in an old wicker chair by the 
 fire; she was surrounded by her friends, who told 
 the whole story, with suitable gestures, to each new- 
 comer. And so it happened that Lhote was for- 
 gotten for a moment. Branchu had been gone a 
 long time. 
 
 Then suddenly Lhote's voice rose above the others 
 in the gathering darkness; it had a hollow sound, 
 for he had long been deep in thought: "Jesus has 
 come back to us!" 
 
 Some one stood up on a bench to light the lamp, 
 and Lhote came forward to the middle of the room: 
 
 "Do you all realise what has happened? Our 
 troubles will soon be over!" His pale face beneath 
 his black beard made them wonder whether he could 
 be the man they had once known, — a jovial fellow 
 standing in his leather apron, while he drew smoke 
 
THE REIGN OF THE EVIL ONE 55 
 
 from a mule's hoof and exchanged jokes with the 
 man who held its head. 
 
 He raised his hand again: 
 
 "Listen to me! I tell you that Christ is among 
 us. He was a carpenter; he's a shoemaker now, but 
 it doesn't matter if his trade has changed. We 
 know who he is because he cures the sick and causes 
 the dead to stand up in their grave clothes." 
 
 Many of his listeners were inclined to think as 
 he did; others could not bring themselves to believe 
 it. But, after all, it was difficult to deny that they 
 had witnessed a miracle. What if there were going 
 to be others! 
 
 So many people entered the open door that one 
 hardly knew where they could have come from. 
 Then they all went out into the night because 
 Lhote went out. Even some sick people were there, 
 and they knew the star that drew them, for Lh6te 
 walked in front. "Perhaps," they said to them- 
 selves, "but is one ever sure of anything?" There 
 is always, within, a great desire to believe, and 
 Lhote was leading the way. 
 
 He turned to the left at the first corner. It was 
 
56 THE REIGN OF THE EVIL ONE 
 
 still snowing a little, — ^tiny flakes that seemed to 
 come not only from the sky, but from ever3rwhere. 
 The wind blew softly, and little cold needles melted 
 on people's eye-lashes. No star shone in the sky, 
 but suddenly that other bright star of the earth 
 could be seen. It was the shop where he was, — ^the 
 gleam from his window. They all went towards it. 
 
 Lhote knocked at the door; it was opened and 
 quickly shut again. Every one pressed forward so 
 as to see in through the window, since it was im- 
 possible to enter the house. The sick ones asked: 
 
 "Won't he cure us to-day? It's hard to have to 
 wait." 
 
 Some were coughing, and one poor little boy, 
 walking on crutches, had to sit down in the mud be- 
 cause he could not stand up any longer. 
 
 IV 
 
 Branchu's door remained closed and they could 
 not enter. It was explained that he could only cure 
 certain diseases. Lhote alone had been allowed to 
 go in. 
 
THE REIGN OF THE EVIL ONE 57 
 
 It was almost eight o'clock and the village was 
 generally asleep by that time. In winter there was 
 nothing to do in the evenings, so instead of burning 
 oil they went to bed, and silence reigned above those 
 little roofs that clustered together sometimes in 
 moonlight and often in mist, and there was nothing 
 to be heard but the fountain, which sounded like 
 tiny muffled drum-taps. But, on that evening, voices 
 sounded faintly in the streets; some had stayed to 
 talk in spite of the snow. Suddenly a cry rose up, 
 and the occupants of the shop (several others had 
 been allowed to join Lhote) listened to these words 
 of warning: 
 
 "Hear me before it is too late. He has played the ] 
 opposite role in order to deceive you more easily. [ 
 It's like putting honey on a plate for flies. . . ." 
 
 "It's easy to say who that is," some one said, 
 "and he must be made to hold his tongue." 
 
 "Leave that to me," Lhote said, but Branchu 
 held him back and the voice was soon inaudible. 
 No doubt poor Luc was making another round of 
 the village, stopping before the houses to cry his 
 warning: 
 
58 THE REIGN OF THE EVIL ONE 
 
 "It's the last chance." 
 
 An awkward silence was broken suddenly by 
 Branchu: 
 
 "Don't let's stay here. I know what we'll do." 
 And he took them to the Inn as he had often done 
 before. 
 
 There was more light there and it was warmer. 
 Wine would make conversation far easier. They 
 sat down, and the customary atmosphere was re- 
 stored again. Some people came in and asked 
 Branchu: 
 
 "Is it true that you perform miracles?" And 
 Branchu shrugged his shoulders. 
 
 "I, perform miracles! Alas, no, my friend; nor is 
 there any one in this world who can. I've learned 
 a little medicine, and I can be of service every now 
 and then." 
 
 Others arrived then and asked: 
 
 "Are you Jesus, or the Devil himself?" 
 
 Branchu replied laughing: 
 
 "Neither Jesus nor the Devil. I'm between them." 
 •And at this Lhote looked at him strangely. 
 
 It was easy to see that no one knew what to be- 
 
THE REIGN OF THE EVIL ONE 59 
 
 lieve; their minds had not had time to grasp the sit- 
 uation. In any case they considered him now in a 
 new light, and they respected him. The middle 
 course was the one to follow: "he's a very wise man 
 who's hiding his light under a bushel," and people 
 like that were difficult to manage. 
 
 Branchu was a perfect host; never had wine 
 flowed more freely. What was his idea? Every new 
 arrival was given a drink at once. A comfortable 
 warm feeling prevailed, and pipes glowed and smoke 
 rose up. They were all his friends 'or friends of his 
 friends and he seemed delighted that they were there, 
 and endeavoured to keep them by means of a con- 
 tinual filling of glasses — Lhote alone did not drink. 
 Later on in the evening the voice was heard again 
 outside. It grew louder and louder: 
 
 "It's the last chance to escape. The door down 
 there is open now, — ^he's leading you on with soft 
 words, but I'm telling you where it is he's taking 
 you, — ^you can get away from him if you like. . . ." 
 
 Some of them burst out laughing. Lhotp stood 
 up, but Branchu signed to him to sit down again. 
 Lhote shook his head, sa5dng: 
 
6o THE REIGN OF THE EVIL ONE 
 
 "No, no! It isn't right, it isn't right. I obey be- 
 cause it's you, but the thing isn't right!" 
 
 "Come, come," said Branchu, "remember what I 
 told you." Then he went on, tr3dng to pacify the 
 minds of his friends: 
 
 "After all, he hasn't done harm to any one; and 
 least of all to me. Naturally for the good of the 
 village it would be well to have him locked up, but 
 there's no hurry." 
 
 Those were his last words, and how he managed to 
 disappear so suddenly, no one ever knew. There 
 was a lot of smoke in the room and several men had 
 risen during the heat of the discussion about Luc,— 
 perhaps in the disorder Branchu had taken his 
 chance. . . . 
 
 Luc was now standing just outside the Inn: 
 
 "Hey, up there can you hear me? It's for you 
 that I've come and particularly for you, Lhote, be- 
 cause, though your heart is pure, it's been led 
 astray. Listen to me: your mother would be better 
 dead, yes, much better, Lhote, for there is some- 
 • thing more important than the body." 
 
THE REIGN OF THE EVIL ONE 61 
 
 Lhote was at the window before any one could 
 stop him. He leaned out: 
 
 "Say that again!" 
 
 "I will!" replied Luc. 
 
 "And what if I came out?" 
 
 "I would say it just the same, for it's the 
 truth." 
 
 Lhote was in the street before Luc had finished 
 his last declaration. Every one followed, and in the 
 darkness they could just see the two men talking 
 down each other's throats: 
 
 "It's you who are Satan, not him! " shouted Lhote, 
 and a noise was heard Uke that of a falling body. 
 Then Lhote turned to the others: 
 
 "Well, you people. . . ." 
 
 They had come to see what was going to happen. 
 
 "Get hold of him by the feet," said Lhote. Loud 
 laughter burst forth, — ^Lhote alone did not join in 
 it, — and they harnessed themselves to the body like 
 so many horses to a wagon. But the wagon was 
 very light, for a body slips easily on melting snow. 
 
 "Where shall we go? To the fountain?" It was 
 
62 THE REIGN OF THE EVIL ONE 
 
 quite near, and beneath it was a wooden tank, broad 
 and deep. 
 
 On the ninth day after that, pneumonia carried 
 off the man who perhaps alone had understood what 
 was going on. He had not been numbered among 
 the intelligent people of the village, but it is often 
 the eyes of others who see most clearly. 
 
CHAPTER III 
 
 The days after that were peaceful ones, because 
 Christmas was drawing near. There was happiness 
 in the Amphion household, and while the chimes 
 sent forth the glad tidings, Joseph and Heloise sat 
 by their fire talking of the good fortune that had 
 come to them. Heloise's waist was certainly getting 
 larger, and it was not surprising, for she was six 
 months gone. Joseph could scarcely believe anj^ing 
 was going to happen. He had been waiting for this 
 for three years and they had tried everj^ing; they 
 had even made a pilgrimage, the spring before, to 
 Sainte-Claire. 
 
 "Ah, Heloise, I had already begun to curse you 
 for being barren, and, you know, if this hadn't hap- 
 pened I wouldn't have been able to keep on loving 
 you. It wouldn't have been possible! Give me a 
 kiss, quickly." 
 
 63 
 
64 THE REIGN OF THE EVIL ONE 
 
 He threw a log on the fire and the flames leapt 
 high against the chimney back, lighting up little stars 
 of soot. She had kissed him not only once but 
 twice, and they sat listening to the notes of the 
 carol that poured out of the bell tower into the still 
 night like children racing out of school. 
 
 They talked of the past three years; useless years 
 but for the fact that they had loved each other. 
 But when something is lacking it often seems that 
 all is lacking. Fortunately all that was over now, 
 otherwise their love would have come to an end. 
 
 "It's true," he said, looking into her eyes, "it did 
 no good for me to clench my fists and throw back 
 my head; I felt that I was giving in. It's a hard 
 job to climb the path of discontent, but now you've 
 pulled me up from the depths with the bigness of 
 your waist. Another kiss!" 
 
 That one made ten, if not more. 
 
 They had often spent cosy evenings together in 
 front of the fire — two long beech logs, with the bark 
 on, crossed. A pleasant gleam enabled them to see 
 each other. That was all they wanted. Another 
 log. August, September, October, November, De- 
 
THE REIGN OF THE EVIL ONE 65 
 
 cember. Five months ... to those five months 
 they had only to add four more: January, February, 
 March, April. Almost a whole year; and the great 
 moment would be when the birds began to sing and 
 points of green appeared like little finger nails on 
 the hedges. 
 
 Their happiness lay in the fact that they looked 
 ahead and thus got outside themselves. They could 
 turn their backs upon daily events, for they had so 
 many plans and projects that they never got to 
 the end of them. Would it, for example, be a boy or 
 a girl? 
 
 "I naturally would rather have a boy; still, if 
 it's a girl, I'll be quite content." 
 
 And she replied, "Whatever pleases you will be 
 the best for me. If you are satisfied I shall be too." 
 
 They laughed then, and he said, "Is it true, 
 Heloise?" She threw her head back and he re- 
 peated: "Is it true, Heloise, really? ... All right, 
 then, if it's a boy, what are we going to call him?" 
 
 "We'll have to look in the calendar." 
 
 He went to get it, and they talked of the actual 
 date. Finally she said: 
 
66 THE REIGN OF THE EVIL ONE 
 
 "Look from the isth to the 2Sth." 
 
 "The 15th," he said, "is Saint-Paterne." 
 
 "Oh, not Paterne!" 
 
 "Well, the 1 6th is Saint-Fructueux." 
 
 She shook her head. 
 
 "The 17th, Saint-Anicat. The i8th, Saint-Par- 
 fait. The 19th, la Quasimodo. The 20th, Saint 
 Gaspard. . . ." He said to himself — "Shall I go 
 on like this all evening?" But on the 21st came 
 Saint-Anselme. 
 
 "There," she cried — "that's a name I like. He 
 must be born on the 21st." 
 
 "Suits me well enough, but what if it's a girl?" 
 
 Again she was silent and could suggest nothing. 
 He tried to think of a way out: 
 
 "We'll have to look in another Calendar. They 
 don't all have the same Saints." 
 
 They kissed each other and laughed, and then 
 started to talk of names again, but soon they were 
 silent — no need to talk when she was sitting on hi^ 
 lap. 
 
 Happiness filled their hearts and all the rest of 
 life seemed unimportant. The words they spoke, the 
 
THE REIGN OF THE EVIL ONE 67 
 
 little bursts of laughter, gestures, even kisses, — all 
 those were surface things. They looked beneath it 
 all and saw a beautiful baby with a high forehead 
 and big fat cheeks. That was the true foundation 
 upon which they were building — the comer stone of 
 everything. Even if he were a tiny mite, it all 
 rested on him, and when one builds a house one 
 must be in earnest. Suddenly Heloise became sad; 
 Joseph asked what was wrong; did she even know 
 herself what these things were? A shadow had 
 fallen across her face like a cloud over the sun. 
 
 Fortunately Joseph was beginning to recognise 
 the little ills that come to women, so he made her 
 go to bed. The next day, the one before Christ- 
 mas, she was quite well again. They went to mid- 
 night Mass, and afterwards their relations came in 
 to drink warmed wine, with sugar, cinnamon, cloves, 
 and even a pinch of pepper in it. 
 
 Christmas passed and the New Year was ap- 
 proaching. 
 
 n 
 
 At this season of the year, all the roads about 
 these villages are impassable. The little houses 
 
68 THE REIGN OF THE EVIL ONE 
 
 are like prisons, and the mountain rises sadly into 
 the grey sky. Of course there is Christmas Day, 
 when a sort of light seems to descend upon every- 
 thing, but when it has passed the little rooms are 
 gloomy again and the /air is heavy under the low 
 ceilings. Outside, the mists hang low, and if a bit 
 of fine weather comes it is soon cold and wet again. 
 There is no work out of doors, except for those who 
 go after wood in the forest with ropes and axes, and 
 the best thing to do is to stay indoors and try to kill 
 the long hours. The only regular occupation one 
 has is to look after the animals. There are repairs 
 to do: a new hinge for one of the shutters, a new 
 handle for the fork or the rake; but one is always 
 lazy about such things. What hurry is there? One 
 wears a sweater with sleeves made of coarse brown 
 wool; looks out of the window, sits by the fire, or 
 tries to read a newspaper. The children cry con- 
 tinually during these dreary winter months, and 
 many of them have handkerchiefs tied about their 
 heads because they have the toothache. 
 
 Things began to go wrong again; there was more 
 fighting, and Clinche's household went from bad to 
 
THE REIGN OF THE EVIL ONE 69 
 
 worse. It was in vain that his wife made conces- 
 sions; the more she tried to smooth over difficulties 
 the harder she found it to please her husband. 
 Baptiste's thumb started to discharge when it had 
 been thought cured; he complained of pains in his 
 arm, and a lump began to form in his arm-pit. 
 Constant Martin, the shop-keeper, failed. Lude had 
 moved all his boundary stones and had thereby al- 
 most doubled the area of his ground, but he did not 
 feel satisfied. He had the fever for gain. One is 
 never too rich to imagine oneself richer still. And 
 then after being land rich, there is money to ac- 
 quire. Crowns and pieces of gold. 
 
 And so it was that on the 6th of January he went 
 up to Essaims again, his top field, — a large one, 
 but the grass on it was thin, for it was too high. It 
 seemed to him that he had been very generous to 
 himself, because, by moving the boundary stones, 
 he had absorbed at least a good third of the two 
 neighbouring fields. Undoubtedly some one would 
 notice it, but this did not disturb him; in fact for a 
 secondior two he felt it would be a good thing if it 
 were discovered. He made a detour on account of 
 
70 THE REIGN OF THE EVIL ONE 
 
 the lately fallen snow, and all his footsteps remained 
 in black, like letters that make words and phrases. 
 But once he had-taken this precaution, he made no 
 further attempt at concealment. His personality 
 was a comic mixture, almost like a barrel contain- 
 ing every sort of wine: pride, shame, false assur- 
 ance, fear, heartiness, discouragement — a terrific 
 mixture. He was wearing high gaiters, his eyes 
 shone beneath a hat pulled down over his ears, and 
 in spite of the biting cold, his long neck rose up 
 from his woollen waistcoat without a scarf of any 
 sort. On his way home he stretched it forward, 
 plunging through the quickly forming drifts, some- 
 times almost up to his waist. What would he need 
 to make him happy? Ten francs a day? No; make 
 it fifteen; and it wouldn't do to have to earn them; 
 ■ they ought to come of their own accord at fixed 
 times like rich people's dividends: money that is 
 considerate, that presents itself to you, hat in hand. 
 "Then I would feel myself a man," he thought. 
 
 He did not notice that night was approaching, but 
 he was not far from the village. Suddenly every- 
 thing changed colour. The greyness behind the eve- 
 
THE REIGN OF THE EVIL ONE 71 
 
 ning clouds gave place to a mysterious green light 
 that he could not explain on account of the fact that 
 there were neither stars nor moon. The snow had 
 become transparent in it and the hills and boulders 
 were great black ill-defined masses. Further down, 
 the roofs of the village rocked in his vision. They 
 looked like an enormous pile of pebbles, and the 
 church steeple like a stick emerging from it. Lude 
 could see quite well enough to find his way, but 
 everything seemed strange, and every now and then 
 he drew his hand across his eyes. "Surely all this 
 is in my head, all this rocking back and forth." 
 He laughed and did not recognise the sound of it, 
 but he soon got to his house. 
 
 A lamp was lit in the kitchen; his wife would be 
 waiting for him, but somehow he could not bring 
 himself to go in. He went up to the window, and 
 flattening himself against the wall, he peered in. 
 Little Marie was sitting at the end of the table with 
 a book before her, and he could see her lips moving. 
 It was undoubtedly one of her school books; she 
 was studying her lesson, and he could see that she 
 was carefully spelling out each word. When she 
 
72 THE REIGN OF THE EVIL ONE 
 
 had got to the end of a phrase she bent over with 
 her eyes shut, said it to herself, and sat up straight 
 again. The lamp hanging from the ceiling shed a 
 pleasant light upon her round forehead and her 
 drawn-back hair. Everything in there was perfectly 
 calm. The fire burned on the hearth and the plates 
 were on the table round the porridge bowl. Adele 
 appeared at that moment with a faggot and broke 
 some sticks across her knees. Jean Lude saw all 
 this, but he could not bring himself to go in. 
 
 He jumped back as his wife entered the room, 
 fearing that she would see him. Then he saw the 
 green light again, but it was dimmer now because his 
 eyes had become used to the bright light at the 
 kitchen window. He could not stay there, but 
 where should he go? He thought of the shed; there 
 at least no one would see him. First of all he had to 
 decide what to do; he had no plans for the night, 
 so he walked around the house, and that gave him 
 time to think. He came to the door of the shed, 
 entered, and sat down on an old plough. His knees 
 came up to the level of his face, and it was not long 
 
THE REIGN OF THE EVIL ONE 73 
 
 before his head fell forward and rested upon them. 
 "May the good Lord deliver me even if I have to 
 keep on in my evil ways to be delivered. When I'm 
 in a tunnel the direction I move in doesn't matter 
 so much as the getting out." He ground his teeth 
 together, and desperate projects rose up in his mind: 
 breaking into houses at night; taking off one's shoes; 
 an old woman sleeping, hardly necessary to disturb 
 the bed; who would imagine she had not died a nat- 
 ural death? In a cupboard near by, beneath a pile 
 of sheets, a wallet swelling with bank notes! . . . 
 "Good, that's it." He felt better, lifted up his head, 
 and took some deep breaths. Then he discovered 
 that there was no old woman, no wallet. Only the 
 darkness coming in through the half-open door. 
 He let his head fall forward again. 
 
 Thus it was that he did not notice the sound of 
 approaching steps. It was only the creaking of the 
 door that caused him to look up. He saw a vaguely 
 outlined figure squeeze in through the opening and 
 he heard a voice: 
 
 "Ah, I thought I'd find you in here." 
 
74 THE REIGN OF THE EVIL ONE 
 
 The figure seemed to draw closer to him, but it was 
 so dark in the shed that it was only the sound of the 
 voice which enabled Lude to discover who it was. 
 Shivers ran down his back, but he said to himself it 
 was only the cold, and anyhow he had nothing to 
 fear from the person who had entered the shed. It 
 was Criblet, whom they called Serpent on account 
 of his long thin body and his deceit. He did not 
 count for much because drink had carried him to 
 the depths. 
 
 "What do you want?" asked Lude 
 
 "Nothing," replied Serpent. 
 
 Then came a silence; perhaps Serpent was going 
 away. "What a funny idea to hunt for me in this 
 shed," thought Lude. "No one saw me come in 
 here! It's on the end of my tongue to ask — ^how 
 shall I keep it back? Oh, well, so much the worse 
 for me if I risk it." 
 
 "Tell me, Criblet." 
 
 "What?" 
 
 "How did you know I was here?" 
 
 "By having two eyes in my head," Criblet replied, 
 then he laughed and went on. "I'm glad you asked 
 
THE REIGN OF THE EVIL ONE 75 
 that question, now I can go on. I like walking, and 
 I've just been up to look, at the stones. . . ." 
 
 "What! " interrupted Lude breathlessly. 
 
 The other man noticed nothing and went on: 
 
 "There are all kinds up there, big and little. Some 
 are too heavy, but there are some that can be lifted. 
 . . . One can take them like this with one's hands 
 and pull them. . . ." 
 
 "Shut up," shouted Lude. 
 
 "So you see," rejoined Serpent, and he began to 
 laugh softly, "it's like clock-work. No need to be 
 frightened when one sjjeaks the truth. Some stones 
 are light enough to move. Now I can speak freely. 
 How much money have you got in there?" 
 
 Lude did not try to protect himself; he did not 
 even think of lying. 
 
 "I've got about a hundred francs." 
 
 "Go and get them." 
 
 The Bible says the last shall be first, and Lude 
 walked unsteadily into the house. Adele wanted to 
 say something, but he told her to keep still. He 
 went into the bedroom and she tried to follow him, 
 but he pushed her from him. He came out again, 
 
76 THE REIGN OF THE EVIL ONE 
 
 she looked at him, and he told her not to follow. 
 With the key that hung on a nail he locked the front 
 door behind him. 
 
 He walked back to the shed, his legs weak be- 
 neath him, and Criblet, moving about in the dark- 
 ness, was coughing a little as though he were catch- 
 ing a cold. Lude took the money from his pocket 
 and said to Criblet: 
 
 "It's a hundred francs." 
 
 "Good," muttered Criblet as he took them from 
 Lude's hand in the darkness. Lude tried to see 
 Criblet, but he heard only his voice. Then the long 
 sinuous body was vaguely apparent at the doorway. 
 It stopped and turned slightly. 
 
 "Thanks," and Lude heard another little cough, 
 "when this is gone, I'll come back." 
 
 The footsteps died away, and Lude wondered 
 whether it had been a dream: "No, not a dream! 
 He's got me all right. He knows my secret, and 
 he can do what he likes with me, because he knows 
 what I've done." He collapsed on the floor of the 
 shed as though his legs had been cut off, but stood 
 upright almost at once. Anger gave him fresh 
 
THE REIGN OF THE EVIL ONE 77 
 
 strength and his blood began to boil. The anger 
 caused by Criblet's injustice propelled him swiftly. 
 He could not have got very far away yet. The only 
 thing was to follow him. "I'll get him," he thought; 
 no one was about, and in the green light Lude fol- 
 lowed Criblet. From beneath his hat he would be 
 able to see the exact spot to aim at; he would have 
 to strike quickly like a cat. He had been right a 
 while ago. He could not stay in that tunnel. He 
 was getting on well now, and he knew that the more 
 he indulged in evil methods the easier it became to 
 forget what evil was. One made use of them with- 
 out regret, 
 
 Lude was now very close to Criblet, strangely 
 close, he thought, and Criblet did not seem to notice 
 him at all. The blow was struck just in time, and 
 the shock of it caused Criblet to fall forward on his 
 face with Lude on top of him. 
 
 "I've got him, I've got him," he cried, but he had 
 not really. How could it have happened? 
 
 It was Lude who was on his back now, and 
 Criblet had his hands round his neck and his knee 
 on his chest. They rolled over and over, and there 
 
78 THE REIGN OF THE EVIL ONE 
 
 was a big hole in the snow where they had fallen;^ 
 Criblet smiled out of one corner of his mouth. 
 
 "You're done for now, my poor Lude." 
 
 Criblet shook himself like a dog coming out of 
 water, and little pellets of snow dropped out of his 
 ears; then: "I mean you can't get along that way 
 any longer." 
 
 Then raising his voice, so that each word was 
 echoed back to him in the stillness that hung over 
 the village, he shouted: "And the rest of you come 
 and see if you like. Come and see what happens 
 when a man cares too much about living upon other 
 people!" 
 
 And he would have continued his shouting, but 
 Lude at that moment got to his feet, and before 
 Criblet could catch him, made his escape. 
 
 m 
 
 The next morning the sim shone; during the night 
 
 the moon had been dispersing the clouds; they now 
 
 • vanished quickly, and the sun took possession of th© 
 
THE REIGN OF THE EVIL ONE 79 
 
 blue sky, almost causing the pale round moon to 
 disappear. 
 
 Joseph arose early, for he had work to do in the 
 woods; Heloise got. up with him, though Joseph had 
 said to her: 
 
 "In your condition you would have done better to 
 stay in bed." 
 
 And she answered as though jealous: 
 
 "That would be the last straw." 
 
 She was an industrious little woman, and in spite 
 of all he could say she lit the fire, filled the kettle, 
 ground the coffee, and put out the cups. Joseph 
 was packing his lunch into a knapsack, and soon 
 they were sitting at table with the metal coffee pot 
 between them, the little drops falling into the con- 
 tainer beneath the filter. 
 
 The lamp was lit, and Joseph could see the blue 
 veins in his wife's cheeks. He got up from the 
 table: 
 
 "Listen, you must promise to go back to bed when 
 I've gone." 
 
 She promised, and he went off with an easy 
 
8o THE REIGN OF THE EVIL ONE 
 mind. A group of men were waiting for him at the 
 Cross, and they started up the road together. 
 
 She watched them from the window for a long 
 time, -then she remembered her promise to go back 
 to bed. How could she do that when the sun was 
 shining; who would do her work? And anyhow, 
 she thought, Joseph wouldn't need to know. So she 
 did not keep her promise. She felt full of energy 
 and good spirits. She began to sing, and the baby 
 kept her from feeling lonely. Sometimes he kicked 
 and she straightened up frowning, but soon a smile 
 spread over her face. What if he did turn and 
 twist and hurt her; it was only a sign that he was 
 there. The more she suffered for him the more she 
 would love him. She looked at herself, wondering: 
 "Poor little thing! I wonder if he has room enough. 
 He can't breathe or see; he can't hear or eat. No 
 wonder he takes it out on me ! " She was filled with 
 pity and great happiness at the same time. She 
 had only to be patient for a while: "Kick me thirty 
 times if you want to. I won't complain." 
 
 This was why she liked to be alone just now; 
 the neighbours complained that she was getting 
 
THE REIGN OF THE EVIL ONE 8i 
 
 proud. "But," as she said to herself, "I've got some 
 one to keep me company now, and the time passes 
 too quickly for me to waste it chatting with every- 
 body as I used to do." 
 
 It was soon ten o'clock; she took off her apron, 
 hung it on a nail, and made herself tidy. Then she 
 set forth to do her marketing. She wrapped herself 
 in a shawl and wound a woollen scarf — ^black with 
 a brown border — about her head. 
 
 In the brilliant sunlight the snowy streets shone 
 like the dented surface of a caldron, and all the fence 
 rails carried fringes of tiny icicles. The roofs each 
 had one silver slope and one blue. 
 
 A lot of people were collected about the fountain, 
 and she was afraid some one would stop her, so she 
 kept on her way taking careful little steps. But the 
 women had seen her and came running up to tell her 
 that Lude had gone away. This was the great piece 
 of news that had gone the rounds of the village that 
 morning. Think of it, Lude had disappeared! His 
 wife could not find him, and, according to Criblet, 
 he had done well to go: at night he had been mov- 
 ing his boundary stones. Criblet had seen him, and 
 
82 THE REIGN OF THE EVIL ONE 
 
 Lude had been afraid. Criblet had thought him 
 possessed, and declared that he had smelled sulphur, 
 
 Heloise kept aloof from it all. Her life was full 
 of another thing just now, wasn't it? She had soon 
 got clear of the women and was approaching the shop 
 where Brouque, the grocer, was awaiting her; he 
 had a long black beard, hardly ever sf)oke at all, 
 and he weighed out her salt quickly, then the flour. 
 That made two parcels, two pounds each, and they 
 went into her basket. She gave him seventy cen- 
 times and walked out into the sunlight. 
 
 At the fountain they were still discussing the event 
 of the night before, so she went back by another 
 way in order not to have to stop again. It was 
 quieter there; no one was about except the people 
 who lived in the street. There were some hay-sheds, 
 two or three houses, and then Branchu's shop at a 
 sharp turning. The snow was thick and frozen hard, 
 and Heloi'se had to be careful. One of her friends, 
 named Julie, saw her coming and the two stopped 
 for a moment's chat. 
 
 "It's unbelievable, just the same," Julie said. 
 "No one has ever known anything against him. A 
 
THE REIGN OF THE EVIL ONE 83 
 nice fellow, too! Happy and in love with his 
 wife. What can he be thinking of to go away like 
 that!" 
 
 "Yes, yes; I know. . . ." said Heloise, and they 
 parted. But instead of going indoors, Julie stayed 
 in the street, and later on she told the others: 
 
 "I stayed to watch her because it was fun to see 
 her walking like that, and I was cross with her for 
 not talking to me. She is changed, I said to myself, 
 and we knew each other when we were kids. ■ I 
 stood there wondering and I thought I would never 
 have recognised her. A fine show there beneath her 
 skirt; the flap of her apron wouldn't button. And 
 it was freezing so hard; that was why she had to 
 walk slowly with one hand held up to keep her bal- 
 ance. Some put stockings on outside their shoes. 
 She walked on for about five minutes, and just in 
 front of Branchu's shop — I remember perfectly — 
 she turned to look in through the window. At that 
 moment she stopped and straightened up just as if 
 she was going to fall on her back, and then she gave 
 a scream, one that still sounds in my ears. Then 
 she bent forward holding her stomach with her hands. 
 
84 THE REIGN OF THE EVIL ONE 
 
 I started to run, and by the time I got to her she 
 had fallen. . . ." 
 
 w 
 
 They put her on a stretcher, covered her with a 
 sheet, and she was carried, two in front and two 
 behind, to her bed. Some one went at once for the 
 mid-wife and the priest, but they came too late. 
 And it was a fine boy after all. They looked and 
 were astonished to find him so big and well formed. 
 "What a pity," they said; "another month or two 
 and he could have been saved." But could he really 
 have been saved? He was already dead when he 
 left his mother's womb. 
 
 Happily Heloise knew nothing about it. The 
 women bustling about, their high voices, their con- 
 coctions of herbs, the hot linen, — she was conscious 
 of none of these things. She was far away from 
 them, far off in another world; she was laughing 
 gaily now, and they said: "Much better that she 
 does!" and in the same breath, "Isn't it sad? She 
 •jvas so happy over what was coming to her. She'd 
 waited so long." 
 
THE REIGN OF THE EVIL ONE 83 
 
 The talking and discussing was everyTvhere, in- 
 doors and outside in the street. Little groups were 
 collected here and there, and ope heard: 
 
 "Impossible!" 
 
 "I've got eyes, haven't I?" 
 
 "How did it happen?" 
 
 "We know nothing about it." 
 
 "But she was strong and well." 
 
 "Of course she was!" 
 
 "And she wasn't ilJ?" 
 
 "She'd never been so well before." 
 
 "Perhaps her basket was too heavy? Or maybe 
 she was tired out with walking so carefully?" 
 
 They shook their heads. No, it wasn't that. 
 
 Tronchet, the baker, a little round man, came roll- 
 ing out of his door like a white ball; the clock said 
 noon and the big bell tolled. Etienne, son of 
 Etienne and grandson of a third Etienne, was bell- 
 ringer and the two other Etiennes had been bell- 
 ringers too. When one is son of a bell-ringer and 
 grandson of a bell-ringer, one has bells in one's stom- 
 ach, and he understood his business. There was a 
 woman cutting pickled beetroot in a salad bowl, and 
 
86 THE REIGN OF THE EVIL ONE 
 
 her hands were red; she shouted something from her 
 window to a neighbour who shouted back at her. 
 And a great uneasiness, came over them. Had not 
 any one noticed the ugly cloud that had risen up 
 from the horizon quite two hours ago and still 
 blotted out the sun? 
 
 For a long time people had been wondering — ^put- 
 ting things together in their minds. The total was 
 frightening: Musy hung, Baptiste's thumb, the chil- 
 dren with croup, the women with epilepsy, the beasts 
 that had died, the boys' fight, and Lude, and now 
 Heloise. Things didn't happen like that; it wasn't 
 natural. 
 
 Meanwhile Joseph came down from the forest and 
 asked to see him first. They hardly dared to, but 
 gave in when he became angry. He kept his hat on, 
 and the odour of moss and bark had come down 
 from the mountain with him. Little puffs of cold 
 £iir were caught in the folds of his clothes. Some 
 one lifted the sheet that covered the baby, and 
 Joseph's head fell forward. 
 • After a moment of silence, he asked: 
 
 "Did the priest come in time?" 
 
THE REIGN OF THE EVIL ONE 87 
 
 "No, he was too late." 
 
 "Then my boy's soul won't go up there." 
 
 In a hollow voice Joseph continued: 
 
 "Not even that! . . . Not even that! . . . Poor 
 little chap! What harm could he have done to be 
 punished like this? Or have we ourselves sinned in 
 some way?" 
 
 There was no answer to his questionings, and they 
 saw him sink down upon a chair, his body gradually 
 crumpling like earth falling away from a bank in a 
 thaw. 
 
 He remained motionless for a moment, and then 
 suddenly asked: 
 
 "Where is she?" 
 
 They took him into the bedroom, and Heloise 
 began to laugh when she saw him at the door, but 
 they had told him she had a high temperature. 
 
 No one could tell whether or not he had under- 
 stood. She was not looking at him; her eyes were 
 gazing into another world and the fever had blotched 
 them with white. She was quite still now, and her 
 arms lay at her sides as though they did not belong 
 to her. She said nothing; she only laughed and 
 
88 THE REIGN OF THE EVIL ONE 
 
 laughed. What would he do? Would he burst into 
 
 tears? Would he throw himself upon her to make 
 
 her stop laughing? Would he take hold of her hand? 
 
 — ^He did none of these things. He simply looked 
 
 at her and said: 
 
 . "It isn't Heloi'se any longer; some orfe's changed 
 
 her." 
 
 Then he turned away shaking his head slowly as 
 though he had never been in the room before: 
 
 "Who is it that's changed her?" 
 
 There was anger in his voice now: 
 
 "Who is it that's changed her?" 
 
 He stamped his foot and shut his jaws tight. 
 
 Some one took him by the shoulders: 
 
 "Joseph, be calm." 
 
 But he kept on asking angrily: 
 
 "Who's changed her? Who's changed her?" 
 
 He went into the kitchen with the rest and sank 
 down upon a bench; his clothes seemed suddenly to 
 be too large for him. His friends spoke to him, but 
 he did not seem to hear; they questioned, but he did 
 • not answer. Big Commimier came and put his hand 
 on his shoulder. 
 
THE REIGN OF THE EVIL ONE 89 
 
 "Look here, Joseph; you're not being a man. 
 Perhaps your wife needs you." 
 
 Joseph raised two unseeing eyes and a closed 
 mouth to him and simply shrugged his shoulders as 
 if to say: "What can I do? There is nothing left of 
 me either." And the change that suddenly came 
 over him was the more noticeable on accoimt of his 
 first bewilderment. He straightened up and ex- 
 claimed: 
 
 "Listen, Communier! I would like to know how 
 this happened." 
 
 Communier was glad: 
 
 "We'll tell you as much as you want to know." 
 And he began to tell it all; how Heloise had gone out 
 at about ten o'clock to do some shopping, and how 
 she had stopped to talk at the fountain. All that 
 had been seen was related to him. 
 
 "She took a back street on her way home. . . ." 
 
 At this point Joseph looked up quickly. 
 
 "She stopped again and spoke to Julie. Just after 
 that it happened." 
 
 "Where was it?" Joseph asked. 
 
 "Just in front of the new shoemaker's shop." 
 
go THE REIGN OF THE EVIL ONE 
 
 Joseph stood up and said: "I knew it perfectly 
 well." He was not at all like the Joseph of a few 
 moments before; there had been a strained ex- 
 pression then, but now his features fell back into 
 place, his complexion regained its colour, and his 
 eyes shone: 
 
 "I thought so!" He raised a hand and continued 
 speaking in a determined voice: 
 
 "We are punished for not having listened before. 
 He saw the truth of it, and now he's dead." 
 
 "Who do you mean?" 
 
 "Luc, of course!" 
 
 They did not understand at first, but little by little 
 they began to remember Luc's prophecies. Perhaps 
 he had been right. Thus the idea took form and the 
 six men with Joseph were soon of his mind: Com- 
 munier, Mes^ru, Brandon, Tonnerre, and the two 
 Jan brothers. 
 
 "We'll come with you," they declared, and Jo- 
 seph said: 
 
 "We must keep our heads at first, but if he doesn't 
 say what we expect him to, if he should hesitate, 
 ever so little! . . ." 
 
THE REIGN OF THE EVIL ONE 91 
 
 He said no more but raised a clenched fist, and 
 they felt he had taken a terrible resolution. 
 
 So these seven men set forth, and the women 
 stayed with Heloise. The men had not far to go, — a 
 hundred yards at the most. When they reached the 
 sharp turning in the street the fine blue signboard 
 confronted them. 
 
 Joseph, stepped up to the window of the shop and 
 knocked on the pane. Branchu was there, and the 
 others were afraid that Joseph might not be able to 
 contain his anger, that he might insult him or even 
 knock him down. But the expected did not happen. 
 Branchu opened the window and asked Joseph what 
 he could do for him; Joseph had no answer to 
 make. * 
 
 It was all because the shop was so quiet. Its oc- 
 cupant had been peacefully waxing his thread, and 
 at the knock he had turned towards them the face 
 of a man who was only thinking of his job. He 
 had put down his hammer and placed his work 
 upon a chair. Was that how a man with something 
 on his conscience would behave? 
 
 "Please come in," said Branchu to Joseph, and 
 
92 THE REIGN OF THE EVIL ONE 
 
 seeing the others, "and your friends too, if they will 
 give me that pleasure." 
 
 Perhaps he thought they wanted to order some- 
 thing — ^Joseph on his side was completely at a loss; 
 he was speechless, and could only shake his head. 
 In a moment or two they were all in the street again, 
 and Branchu watched them go, leaning on the win- 
 dow sill. He too seemed not to have understood, 
 and he looked as though he were saying to himself 
 that undoubtedly there had been some mistake. A 
 rosy light glowed everywhere as foiu: o'clock struck;' 
 the big cloud was still blotting out the sim, for it 
 moved in the sky at the sun's pace and covered it 
 like an eye-lid. Some rays, however, struck down 
 through the fringes of the cloud and fell upon the 
 mist that himg over the village, just below the level 
 of the bell-tower. Behind the village the steep 
 ascent reared itself up in obscurity, and finally ended 
 in a peak that overlooked the surrounding country. 
 At the very top was a cross — a real Calvary. It 
 was easy to imagine the soldiers climbing up to it by 
 the little winding roads, then there would be the 
 people impelled by curiosity, and then the holy 
 
THE REIGN OF THE EVIL ONE 93 
 
 women. But somehow He whom these had fol- 
 lowed was not there, in spite of what Lhote had de- 
 clared. 
 
 Poor abandoned souls that they were! There was 
 no Presence with them. Nothing but the under- 
 tone of anxiety everj^where in the village: a lamp 
 shone in Joseph's house; Heloi'se's fever went higher; 
 and Joseph sat alone in the kitchen. Her laughing 
 and the endless talk of the women in her room were 
 too much for him. The fire went out because no one 
 thought of keeping it up. 
 
 He held out a few moments longer and then came 
 a tingling in his eyes. He breathed two deep 
 breaths, and tears fell at last — a man's silent tears. 
 He did not even think of trying to stop them, and 
 they rolled down over his cheeks and fell one by one 
 on to his trousers. 
 
CHAPTER IV 
 
 The President was a very prudent man and sel- 
 dom allowed himself to be disturbed, but he was 
 forced into taking steps now. Towards the middle 
 of March one of the prettiest chalets of the parish 
 was carried away by an avalanche, and a few days 
 later the hamlet of Essertes was completely de- 
 stroyed by fire. 
 
 The President began to perceive that people 
 thought it strange of him to do nothing; what was 
 there to do? But they came to him saying: 
 
 "We can't go on like this any longer." And 
 then: "It's your duty to think of something to do." 
 So he finally decided upon a course of action, and 
 after reflecting at great length, he went to see the 
 only man he thought could help them — the priest. 
 
 The priest's house was close to the church; it was 
 grey and three stories high, and had a granite porch, 
 
 94 
 
THE REIGN OF THE EVIL ONE 95 
 
 approached by two flights of steps, in the centre of 
 the bare fagade. Just as the President was mount- 
 ing the steps, the thing which he was least expect- 
 ing happened. The door opened and Branchu, of 
 all people, appeared. It was difficult to believe but 
 impossible not to, for it was he, and there was a 
 large parcel under his arm. 
 
 The President stood stock still, but Branchu 
 seemed in no way embarrassed. He looked in excel- 
 lent spirits and smilingly doffed his hat to him. He 
 might even have stopped to chat if the President 
 had not turned his head away. 
 
 So Branchu went on, and the President mounted 
 the steps. Alas, he had to! A wide arched stair- 
 way led to the second floor, and he climbed it slowly, 
 tr3dng, as he went, to collect his thoughts. But he 
 did not succeed, and anyway there was not time. 
 The priest made him sit down at once; otherwise he 
 would have fallen. What could it have been? The 
 heat, or the thick tobacco smoke? He thought he 
 saw empty glasses and a bottle on the disordered 
 table; then everything swam before his eyes. 
 
 A big, deep voice restored his equilibrium: 
 
96 THE REIGN OF THE EVIL ONE 
 
 "Well, Mr. President, what brings me the pleasure 
 of this visit?" 
 
 There were no longer any glasses or a bottle on the 
 table; only the priest looking at him — a big man with 
 a red face and neck. He had enormous shoulders, 
 and the size of his stomach showed a weakness for 
 food and wine rather than for prayers and saj^g 
 Mass. He kept looking at the poor President with 
 impatience, and had to repeat his question before 
 any reply could be dragged out of him. Suddenly 
 words came pouring forth: 
 
 "You must excuse me, Father; but we need you 
 so badly, so badly. We don't understand what it is 
 that is happening to us. Misfortunes, of course, but 
 they never cease! Still, it isn't so much that. It's 
 something I hardly know how to explain — ^like a 
 power being exercised over us. It's like a fever that 
 makes the good people among us bad, and the bad 
 worse. And now the Chalet des Entraigues has been 
 carried away, and Essertes entirely wiped out by 
 fire; men, women, and children are dying; every 
 kind of sickness is breaking out. And we fear the 
 future, for things are getting worse. We don't know 
 
THE REIGN OF THE EVIL ONE 97 
 
 what to do. . . . It isn't natural! We wondered, 
 Father, whether you wouldn't come to our assistance 
 because. . . ." He could say no more. 
 
 "All this doesn't surprise me!" said the priest. 
 Then he struck the table with his fist. He was no 
 longer red but purple. 
 
 "These deaths, all this mourning, these diseases, 
 the beasts dying; don't you deserve it? Well, I 
 should say so, and you may well pity yourselves." 
 He struck the table again. "Have I not warned 
 you? Liars and fornicators that you are! The 
 strange thing is that your punishment is not more 
 terrible. God is more patient than I am. And when 
 misfortunes come to you, you don't seem to under- 
 stand why." He took a quick breath and then held 
 his nose: "I tell you that you smell horribly; you 
 smell of corpses. Listen, there is only one way out, 
 and that is to change your habits. Let the liars lie 
 no more and let the blasphemers cease their blas- 
 phemy. You see it's a simple method." He burst 
 out laughing, and then: "You might as well expect 
 a river to flow towards its source, or snow in the 
 summer time. Why, confound. . . ." He stopped 
 
98 THE REIGN OF THE EVIL ONE 
 
 abruptly, remembering perhaps a little late that he 
 owed a certain reverence to the garments he wore. 
 He calmed himself and mopped his forehead, seem- 
 ing now to be greatly embarrassed. The President 
 had not moved from his chair. A moment of silence 
 followed, and then the priest arose. From the corner 
 of the room he took up his gun: "Look at this, Mr. 
 President, isn't it a fine weapon? . . . Ah, I forgot, 
 you are not a sportsman." 
 
 The President got up too, and shook his head. 
 
 "A hammerless," continued the priest, "worth at 
 least five hundred francs. I got it for a song. Just 
 look at it!" He turned it over and worked the 
 spring. "It's as carefully made as a clock, and 
 I can't say that of my parishioners." 
 
 He laughed again, a mocking laugh, and the 
 President looked at him, without understanding 
 what he said, and weighed down by the reproaches 
 that he personally did not.deserve. He had had a 
 good impulse, and this was how it had been repaid. 
 "Another time," he said to himself, "I won't bother 
 • to come." 
 
 Just as he arrived at his own door, the biggest 
 
THE REIGN OF THE EVIL ONE 99 
 
 bell in the Church Tower sent forth a muffled peal; 
 its bronze rim was struck by the end of the clapper 
 and the sound seemed to come up out of the earth 
 itself. It was like a deep moan. Then another, and' 
 another; and the people in the streets, in the woods, 
 digging potatoes, cutting back the hedges, the goat- 
 herd watching his goats, and the old woman making 
 a fire of dead-wood — all asked the same question: 
 
 "Who is it now?" And they crossed themselves. 
 
 Boom! There is grief in men's hearts. Wherever 
 they are, whatever they do, they are always look- 
 ing into the face of Death. A moment of forget- 
 fulness and She comes before them. 
 
 Boom! My grandfather and my grandmother are 
 dead, my Aunt Fridoline is dead, my little brother 
 Jean is dead, ray little brother Pierre is dead, my 
 sister Martine is dying, and I shall die too. 
 
 Boom! Father in Heaven, help us in our afflic- 
 tion; without You we are nothing; we need You ter- 
 ribly; Father in Heaven, pity us in our sorrow. 
 
 Boom! I didn't know any one was so ill. I 
 didn't see the Holy Sacrament go by. Maybe it's 
 for old Borchat. He had to have blood drawn. 
 
lOO THE REIGN OF THE EVIL ONE 
 
 Boom], The day was cold and grey. A hundred 
 men and a hundred women were black against the 
 snow. The men walked ahead of the women, and 
 the bier was covered by a black cloth with orna- 
 ments of silver that represented a death's head and 
 two crossed bones. The pall bearers kept step so as 
 not to shake the body. The procession passed the 
 fountain. Little beards of ice hung from the eaves 
 of the houses; the big lime-tree was leafless, and 
 looked as though it were made of wire. There was 
 no sound save that of iron-spudded shoes striking 
 the frozen street, and the deep crushing note of the 
 big bell. They went into the church; up to the 
 screen supported by the low wall. There were 
 wooden crosses, painted blue, from which hung 
 pearl crowns and beneath each of these was a bell- 
 glass covering a bouquet with an inscription and 
 two joined hands. The procession advanced towards 
 the altar; Joseph was in the first group and he had 
 already to be supported. At the grave there were 
 two men, each holding him by an arm. Had he 
 'been to the church? He did not know; he knew 
 nothing now; he felt nothing. Between the two 
 
THE REIGN OF THE EVIL ONE lot 
 
 men he swayed like a tree sawn nearly through at 
 its base, sideways, forward and backward, but he 
 went through it all, — ^he had to go through every- 
 thing! He saw his past, his hopes, his very reason 
 for existence descending into the earth: "My God, 
 it isn't possible! My backbone has gone; she was 
 my heart of hearts, the centre of my thoughts." 
 He groaned and wrung his hands, and they, told 
 him to try to be calm, but he kept on groaning as 
 though some one had plunged a knife into his stom- 
 ach to turn and twist it. Poor Joseph Amphion! 
 He had been promised a baby, but now it was 
 dead and his wife too. Then he began to think: 
 "Wasn't I always good to her; didn't I act towards 
 her as I promised to act the day I put the ring on 
 her finger? And when she was writhing on her 
 bed and I was sashing unjustly, 'She is no longer 
 herself,' if I had gone to her and kissed her might 
 she have been saved by love? Might she have rec- 
 ognised me and said, 'You are there, Joseph'? Oh, 
 she was better than me, my beautiful Heloi'se, and 
 now she's gone. It's my fault, all my fault!" 
 The earth fell upon the coffin, and he was led 
 
I02 THE REIGN OF THE EVIL ONE 
 
 away. The rest of the procession followed and went 
 into their houses hardly less miserable than Joseph. 
 They were speechless because there was nothing to 
 say. Silence hung over the village, and the big bell 
 had stopped ringing. The dull sky descended till 
 it almost touched the roofs; it seemed to enter the 
 houses and remind the people of the desolation that 
 enveloped them. They came out again like animals 
 from their holes, and stood with bowed heads in 
 little groups in the street. 
 
 n 
 
 Other tragedies followed quickly. In less than 
 two weeks three women on three successive days 
 suffered the same misfortune as Heloise. Branchu 
 was there on all three occasions. Then came Her- 
 minie's turn. 
 
 About ten men were standing at the turning of 
 
 the street. They saw Herminie coming towards 
 
 them, and at that moment Branchu emerged from 
 
 • his shop. He turned to look at Herminie with his 
 
 hands in his pockets and a strange smile upon his 
 
THE REIGN OF THE EVIL ONE 103 
 
 face. It was said afterwards that his eyes changed 
 colour, but the one certain thing was that Herminie's 
 attack of pain came at the very moment when 
 Branchu's eyes were upon her. She too cried out; 
 she too raised her arms; and she fell down as 
 though her legs had melted under her. Branchu 
 began to laugh (so it was said) and he spoke at 
 the top of his voice (so it was said) : 
 
 "That makes five, not bad? , . ." 
 
 The astonishing thing was that the men never 
 thought of going for him. It was all over so 
 quickly! During their bewilderment, Branchu had 
 time to escape. 
 
 Excitement spread through the village; the first 
 thing was to carry Herminie to her bed, and four 
 of the men attended to this. The others ran 
 through the streets stopping at each door to knock 
 or push it wide open and shout, "Are you coming?" 
 to which the reply was — "What's the matter?" 
 But they passed on quickly to the other houses. 
 The gathering occurred in front of the church, and 
 weapons had been snatched up: forks, sticks, guns, 
 scythes. Late arrivals asked, "What's it all about?" 
 
104 THE REIGN OF THE EVIL ONE 
 and the news bad to be told over again. Arms were 
 lifted up, heads were shaken, and several bursts of 
 hysterical laughter rose above the excited voices. 
 "Why did we let it go on? How was it that we 
 didn't guess sooner? Poor souls! A little longer 
 and they would all have gone like that." 
 
 In spite of the unheard-of things that had hap- 
 pened, no one tried to discover by what means 
 Branchu had been able to bring them about. Don't 
 let's bother about that now, they decided; we know 
 what he has done. That was what had brought them 
 all together. To deal with such a man, the more 
 people the better. The open space before the church 
 soon became too small, and all they needed now 
 was some one to lead them. Communier was the 
 tallest, and every one shouted: "Are we ready? 
 Come on, say the word, you're in command!" 
 
 Communier, though taken unawares, raised his 
 arm to silence them for a moment: 
 
 "We'll go first to make sure he's not at his 
 shop." 
 
 Then off they started; some by the street and 
 others behind the houses. There were not only men 
 
THE REIGN OF THE EVIL ONE los 
 
 in the prime of life, but the old and crippled too; 
 women and children poured out into the street, or 
 shouted from the windows and doorways. Some of 
 the girls laughed because they were at the age when 
 one laughs at everything, and under their lifted 
 skirts, bright-coloured woollen stockings were 
 visible. 
 
 Communier knocked at the door: 
 
 "Is any one there?" Then he grasped his gun 
 by the barrel and struck the door with the butt-end. 
 One or two others joined him and it soon fell back. 
 In they rushed, but no Branchu! It made no dif- 
 ference; they entered the house anyway. The win- 
 dow panes flew into bits. The beautiful blue sign- 
 board hung by one end, then it fell to the pavement 
 and split in two. Meanwhile the roof was being 
 dealt with from within by means of long poles, and 
 heavy flat slates came tumbling down, leaving the 
 rafters bare. 
 
 From the window of a house near by came a tiny 
 quavering voice: "What the devil are you doing?" 
 It was the old landlord, and nobody paid any atten- 
 tion. He could have piped his complaint all night 
 
io6 THfe REIGN OF THE EVIL ONE 
 
 long. Never was work so quickly or so neatly done;' 
 and when it was finished, they were breathless and 
 pouring with sweat. 
 
 This accomplishment delighted them. They 
 had been made fools of, and the desire to assert 
 themselves was satisfied; not however until they had 
 gone into the house again as though to re-destroy 
 the destruction they had wrought, and had kicked 
 about among the rubbish. After this their energy 
 flagged, for there was nothing more to do and they 
 were very tired. 
 
 Some one suggested searching the forest above 
 the village, where the man was now believed to be 
 hiding, but their number had diminished and their 
 spirits were ebbing. 
 
 They started to climb the slope back of the village 
 in order to discover tracks, but there were none 
 visible upon the smooth white surface. In the road 
 they were too numerous and too confused to pick 
 out those of a single person; several chance clues 
 were followed along different roads, and finally the 
 whole party reached the forest. There was much 
 careful searching, but without trace of any one 
 
THE REIGN OF THE EVIL ONE 107 
 
 having entered it. Every now and then large grey- 
 feathered birds rose up, frightened, to the security 
 of the tangled branches above. They started a 
 hare, but failed to catch it. Nothing else, nothing! 
 And the further they climbed, the more thickly 
 they found the wood populated by the tall white 
 ghosts of tree trunks and boulders. It was diffi- 
 cult to make any progress, and the afternoon drew 
 to a close, leaving the men discouraged and weary. 
 The first wood was finally crossed; they came out 
 on to a bit of level open ground and counted their 
 number. The fact was soon evident that to cross 
 the next wood would be too great an effort. It 
 was much steeper than the first and ran all the 
 way up to the ridge. 
 
 The men stood about for a few moments and 
 then some one said: "If we're to get back before 
 dark, we'd better be starting." 
 
 m 
 
 They were ashamed to return without having 
 accomplished anything, but there was hot coffee 
 
io8 THE REIGN OF THE EVIL ONE 
 
 awaiting them, and big fires blazed in the kitchens. 
 When they sat down to get warm, steam, rose up 
 from their clothes: 
 
 "We did what we could. One thing's certain; 
 there's an Evil Spell working against us." 
 
 There was a lot of whispering from ear to ear; 
 indeed there were some things that could not be 
 spoken aloud, and in this way every one heard 
 the rumour that Lhote had not been seen since 
 Branchu's disappearance. Later, this was verified: 
 Lhote had been away all day, and old Marguerite 
 awaited him anxiously. She was greatly troubled by 
 all that had happened, for this man had saved her 
 life. She had been at death's door, and he had come 
 to her. Simply by taking her hand he had led her 
 back to life. Was it not a debt? She could give 
 all she possessed and still be under an obligation 
 to this man who was being called wicked by every 
 one. They had destroyed his shop and had gone 
 into the woods after him. 
 
 She was alone in the house, listening to the 
 noises that still came to her from the village. 
 Though it was late no one seemed to want to go 
 
THE REIGN OF THE EVIL ONE 109 
 
 to bed. It was like another Christinas night. The 
 clock in the tower struck midnight, and she kept 
 hearing people passing and repassing her door; she 
 could hear talking in the neighbouring houses, and 
 every time she heard a footstep or a voice, she said 
 to herself: "This time it's him." 
 
 But he did not come, and still she sat there by 
 the fire in her old flat black bodice and full skirt. 
 Little by little silence fell upon the village; one 
 o'clock had struck and it was getting on toward 
 two. She went into her bedroom and started to 
 undress. At that moment she thought she heard 
 some one groping to find the key-hole. Yes, there 
 was some one trying to open the door. It was an 
 old complicated lock with a secret latch; at last 
 she heard the accustomed click. Without further 
 hesitation she ran half-dressed into the kitchen and 
 saw the door open slowly and noiselessly. Her son 
 came in and put his finger to his lips. He then 
 closed the door as carefully as he had opened it 
 and came towards her. 
 
 "Mother," he said, whispering rapidly, "get me 
 some bread, cheese, dried meat, and a bottle of 
 
no THE REIGN OF THE EVIL ONE 
 
 wine. And I'll want some covers too, wann ones. 
 The ones from my bed will do." 
 
 His last words caused her to ask: 
 
 "And you . . .?" 
 
 He went on without answering: 
 
 "Please, Mother, hurry. It's late, and the dark- 
 ness won't last much longer." 
 
 She stood mdtionless, so he went to the shelf 
 and took down some food that he found there. 
 
 "Andre!" 
 
 He turned to her. 
 
 "Andre, you are my son; tell me everyr 
 thing. . . ." 
 
 "What is there to tell?" 
 
 "Tell me what . . ." 
 
 "Don't you really understand, Mother?" 
 
 He straightened up and in the CEindle light she 
 saw that his fine black eyes were shining. She 
 looked at her big handsome son standing there in 
 his soaking clothes. Then she went up to him and 
 put her arms about his neck: 
 
 "Andre, don't forget that we have always lived 
 together; it's cold out there and you'll catch your 
 
THE REIGN OF THE EVIL ONE iir 
 
 death. Stay with me! No one will know about it. 
 . . . He won't know it . . . and they say he's a 
 wicked man, too. . . ." 
 
 He pushed her away and spoke aloud: 
 
 "Mother, you're the one that's forgetting. You 
 were lying on this table and they said, 'She's lost!' 
 That's not long ago, Mother. I haven't forgotten 
 it!" 
 
 Her arms fell to her sides; there was nothing 
 she could say. 
 
 "Let's do it quickly!" he said, but the old woman 
 could hardly stand on her feet. He got a large 
 basket and put the necessary provisions in it: bread, 
 meat, and cheese. Then he folded up the covers 
 from his bed and laid them on top. And his 
 mother fidgeted about him, but her hands would 
 not obey her, and she only succeeded in hindering 
 his preparations. He had to do without her help. 
 Just as he was going out he said: 
 
 "I'll come back to-morrow night; try and have 
 everything ready for me." 
 
 He had gone some minutes before she realised! 
 he had not kissed her. 
 
112 THE REIGN OF THE EVIL ONE 
 
 The next night he came again and the three 
 nights following; on the fourth it was freezing 
 harder than ever and he was coughing violently 
 ■when he came in. She felt she could endure it no 
 longer, and when he had gone she said to herself: 
 
 "It's all that man; perhaps he'll die on account 
 of him. It's true that he cured me, but if this is 
 to go on I'd rather be dead." A heart could not be 
 cut in two; the old woman understood this and she 
 knew where her son's was. So on that fourth night 
 in the moonlight she followed him secretly and dis- 
 covered where the hiding-place was. She came 
 down into the village again, and went to find 
 Communier. 
 
 "I'll tell you this," she said, "but you must prom- 
 ise not to harm my son if he is with him. He's 
 not bad himself, only this man has fooled him." 
 
 Communier replied that the bargain would be 
 kept. 
 
 IV 
 
 The next morning they started before daylight; 
 two groups had been formed in order to surround 
 
THE REIGN OF THE EVIL ONE 113 
 the place where the man was hiding. According 
 to old Marguerite this place was beneath a thick 
 hedge that ran along the top boundary of a field 
 called Les Moilles; just above it there was a rocky 
 slope falling all but perpendicularly into the valley 
 beyond. 
 
 A thick fog almost prevented the second row of 
 men from seeing the first, and it was as though the 
 former were casting their shadows before them. 
 Their only thought was to reach the spot undiscov- 
 ered, and the fog, though confusing, was much bet- 
 ter for their purpose than sunlight. They were 
 careful to move noiselessly, and the snow made this 
 fairly easy. It was like walking on cotton-wool or 
 thick feathers. Silently they advanced, as though 
 after partridges — the red-legged sort, that must be 
 taken unawares. They were armed with poles, 
 forks, and fork-handles, and to those with guns 
 Communier had said: "If he tries to get away, fire 
 on him." 
 
 Now they were climbing up the steep field; there 
 were bare patches every now and then, where the 
 snow had been blown away or had slipped down 
 
114 THE REIGN OF THE EVIL ONE 
 
 the slope, and they had to walk with great care upon 
 the frozen ground. All this was easy for mountain- 
 eers, and it was not the first time they had climbed 
 the slopes in winter. After all there was always 
 wood to bring down, and also a good many of them 
 were hunters. Finally they came close beneath the 
 place where they had been told the man was hiding: 
 the field called Les MoUles. The fog was still 
 thick, and the slope was so steep that they had to 
 use both hands and legs to climb it. 
 
 At that moment the wind began to blow, making 
 caverns in the fog. These grew larger and larger, 
 until at last the soft white ceiling started to break 
 up. What had seemed a moment before to be a 
 solid mass now looked like a lot of big white boul- 
 ders sailing about and bumping each other gently. 
 And then all of them rolled away down the sky. 
 
 Nothing could have been worse for the search 
 party. The men flattened themselves out on the 
 ground and crawled along for some minutes like 
 that. Then, suddenly, a broad patch of sunlight 
 fell upon them, and by craning their necks they 
 could see the whole extent of Les Moilles and the 
 
THE REIGN OF THE EVIL ONE 115 
 woods beyond. The remains of the fog — little 
 cushions of it — rested here and there, caught among 
 the branches of the trees, but what interested them 
 most was the high thorny hedge running across the 
 top of the field, just beneath a high bank. The 
 snow upon the hedge weighed down the upper 
 branches of it, and formed a kind of roof beneath 
 which were many deep recesses. In front of one 
 of these the snow was beaten down and tram- 
 pled. 
 
 The significance of this was perceived at once, 
 and they began to run towards it, spreading out into 
 a semi-circle. Just at this moment the other group 
 appeared at the edge of the wood. No movement 
 under the hedge! They drew near, and in the re- 
 cess, roofed by thickly woven branches, Branchu 
 slept. 
 
 The opportunity was too easy to be made use of, 
 so they said: "We'll settle him later. At present 
 we can be satisfied with stopping him from defend- 
 ing himself." And three of the more daring among 
 them went for him. One got him by the neck, an- 
 other by the arms, and another by the legs. A 
 
ii6 THE REIGN OF THE EVIL ONE 
 
 scuffle ensued, and Branchu was soon dragged out 
 of his nook, and securely tied up. 
 
 He seemed neither to have thought of escaping 
 nor even of defending himself; he did not even 
 struggle, and he lay now on his back with his arms 
 tied to his waist and a smile upon his face. 
 
 The men were no longer anxious, not caring 
 whether he was smiling or not, now that they had 
 him. Their spirits revived quickly, and pressing 
 closely in around him, they shouted their jibes in 
 his face. "We'll form a procession. Communier, 
 you're not in command any more. He is the leader 
 now." 
 
 They formed a column, two by two, and a place 
 ■was arranged half way along for Branchu. It was 
 the proper one for him, because, they said, "We 
 who go before can tell who it is that is coming, 
 and those who follow are the King's escort." 
 
 "King of Misfortune, we've got you in our power 
 now." Two men lifted him up, and amid shouts of 
 laughter they placed him on their shoulders. 
 
 "A King should sit like that, — on a throne." 
 
 The procession moved forward by an unbeaten 
 
THE REIGN OF THE EVIL ONE 117 
 
 road, but it was easy for so many men to clear a 
 way. Sticks and guns were shouldered, and a steady 
 roar of laughter and shouting rose up from the 
 marching column. Jokes passed back and forth, 
 and the white expanse of snow gleamed and melted 
 in the full sunlight. 
 
 "Even the sun is with us, on this festive day, 
 as we escort our King. We carry him; it is the 
 right of Kings to be carried; they always sit on 
 thrones; and let us weave him a crown, and give 
 him the rod of leadership to hold." They talked 
 and scoffed, but did not slacken their pace, so that 
 the village soon came into sight, rolled up tightly 
 in its niche like a cat trying to keep warm. 
 
 Almost immediately the procession was seen, and 
 people began to run up to meet it. An old woman 
 was the first to join them, in spite of the fact that 
 she was all bent over and stiffened with age. In 
 the middle of the road she stopped and asked: 
 
 "Is he with you?" 
 
 The procession kept moving and so great was 
 the noise of shouting and laughter that her question 
 was not heard. They saw that it was old Marguer- 
 
ii8 THE REIGN OF THE EVIL ONE 
 
 ite, and guessed what she had come for, so some 
 one shouted to her: 
 
 "No, we didn't see him." 
 
 They passed on quickly; she raised her arms 
 and shook her head: 
 
 "What was the use? I've betrayed the man 
 who saved me, and they didn't find my son. Ah, 
 God, they've got the man who saved me!" 
 
 She saw they were carrying him and stretched 
 out her hands, crying: "What's he done to you? 
 What's he done to you?" She pushed in and tried 
 to pull him down from their shoulders; but they 
 threw her aside, and her cries were lost in the 
 tumult of voices: "We're bringing our King. Hon- 
 our him; he deserves it." 
 
 A woman stepped out of the crowd and spat in 
 his face, then another, then a third. His carriers 
 lowered him a little so that he was within reach, 
 and more women did the same thing. 
 
 Joseph appeared at the door of his house as 
 they passed it. He came out and struck the man's 
 •face with a branch of thorn until the blood flowed 
 freely. 
 
THE REIGN OF THE EVIL ONE 119 
 
 The procession moved on down the winding 
 street past the fountain, and came to a halt in the 
 crowded square. The column was replaced by a 
 surging mass of people, and above the heads the 
 man's body was borne along in the current, his face 
 defiled, his eyes bleeding. 
 
 "What are you going to do with him?" cried the 
 people. 
 
 "Cut off his head," came the reply. 
 
 "What are you going to do before that?" 
 
 "Tear out his finger-nails and his toe-nails; dig 
 out his eyes; cut out his tongue; stick a red hot 
 poker into his ears." 
 
 "And then what?" shouted some one. 
 
 "We'll nail him by the hands and feet to the 
 barn door like a screech owl." 
 
 "That's the thing — nail him up." 
 
 A crowd of girls was standing on the bench that 
 circled the big lime tree, and the ledges in front 
 of the church windows^ were packed with little boys. 
 The girls held their heads with both hands, and the 
 boys craned their necks to see better what was going 
 ipn. A huge circle was formed, and Branchu, in the 
 
I20 THE REIGN OF THE EVIL ONE 
 
 middle of it, turned and twisted, leaned forward, 
 then straightened up, and sank from view. At that 
 moment, two men pushed their way through to the 
 centre. One carried a long pointed stick, and the 
 other a blacksmith's hanmier. The space in the 
 middle grew larger; people drew back and then 
 closed in around Branchu who was still invisible to 
 all except those in front. The man carrjdng the 
 stick raised it. Some one shouted: 
 
 "You're going to do it?" 
 
 "Of course," was the reply. Then the stick came 
 down, again and again. 
 
 "They're going to kill him first!" 
 
 "No, no! Nail him to the door alive!" Others 
 joined in: 
 
 "Yes, yes, nail him up alive!" 
 
 "Like a screech-owl." 
 
 "Like a filthy night-bird." 
 
 The man with the hammer started to laugh. His 
 mouth was wide open but his laughter was inaudible. 
 The man with the stick should have finished his 
 work, for he had had help from those near him, 
 but he kept on and called for more help. It was 
 
THE REIGN OF THE EVIL ONE I2l 
 
 impossible to see, but Branchu was evidently being 
 dragged along the ground towards a blue door in 
 the church wall. The man with the hammer 
 jumped on to the shoulders of some men near him, 
 and a grey object was lifted up and placed against 
 the blue door. Another man holding a knife 
 mounted the crowding shoulders; then a sudden sil- 
 ence followed, during which Branchu's arms were 
 freed from his body. His head was hanging over 
 his breast; they stretched out his arms and the 
 hammer was raised to drive in the nails. . . . 
 
 Suddenly his laugh rang out, but no one waited 
 long enough to notice that he had raised his head; 
 his captors abandoned him and the men with ham- 
 mer and knife jumped to the ground. To fly from 
 the place was all they could think of; the square 
 emptied; the streets emptied, and the noise of shut- 
 ting doors could be heard throughout the village; 
 then nothing but the sound of his 'laughing; and 
 then — absolute silence. Silence and emptiness, save 
 for the Man standing upright in the middle of the 
 square in the sunlight. The ropes had fallen from 
 his body, and upon his face there was no trace of 
 
122 THE REIGN OF THE EVIL ONE 
 
 blood or filth. His complexion was as fresh as 
 though he had just risen from his bed, and his eyes 
 shone brightly. No derangement of his clothes, not 
 a spot or a tear ansrwhere, and he laughed again as 
 he looked about him. 
 
 He took out his pipe, filled it, and was just light- 
 ing it when some one came running up to him: 
 
 "I've seen it all, and here I am." Lhote fell on 
 his knees before him, and continued: 
 
 "They spat on your face and tore your flesh with 
 thorns." 
 
 Lhote's voice sank lower and lower: 
 
 "They wanted to crucify you, but your power 
 was revealed to them, for it is written — 'He will re- 
 veal His power' . . ." 
 
 The Man looked at Lhote silently; every now and 
 then a puff of blue smoke issued from his mouth. 
 
 Then the old woman who had been watching 
 for her son came towards them. 
 
 "Do what you like with me," she cried. "I think 
 as you do and I love the One you love." 
 
 She was on her knees, but Lhote drew himself up: 
 
 "Go away. I don't know you any more." 
 
THE REIGN OF THE EVIL ONE 123 
 The old woman fell forward with her face in 
 the snow, and the others heard a chuckling behind 
 them, some one spat and coughed gently. The 
 third and last arrival was Criblet. He zigzagged 
 across the square to join them. He never walked 
 straight. 
 
 "I don't care whether you're Jesus or the Devil, 
 but I know I'll be better off with you." He would 
 have raised his arm, but did not dare to for fear of 
 falling. He coughed again and wiped his mouth: 
 
 "I've alreadj^ made a hundred francs, thanks to 
 you. So — so I thought perhaps you'd see that I 
 made the same amount again some time." 
 
CHAPTER V 
 
 A short time before this, Adele (whose husband, 
 Lude, had gone away) called her little girl into the 
 kitchen one morning, and asked her: 
 
 "Do you love me?" 
 
 "Oh, yesl" Marie assured her. 
 
 Adele wanted to, go on talking, but she had to 
 stop. She stared vacantly before her. She looked 
 like an old woman, though in reality only thirty- 
 four, and what she had to tell Marie was a difficult 
 thing to say to a little girl. It made her very 
 unhappy, but after a few moments' silence she made 
 a fresh start: 
 
 "If you love me then, Marie, will you come away 
 with me?" 
 
 "Yes, mother," she replied. 
 
 "But I haven't told you where we're going yet. 
 We'll be all alone and you'll have to stop going to 
 
 124 
 
THE REIGN OF THE EVIL ONE 125 
 
 school. You won't have any more friends to play 
 with." 
 
 "But you're a nicer friend than all the others." 
 
 Marie was a neatly dressed little girl with pretty 
 eyes and tightly drawn-back hair. Her forehead 
 shone and her face was rather pale. 
 
 Adele took her on her knees. What a sweet 
 consolation she was after all! All was quiet except 
 for a cracking noise every now and then, as though 
 some one were walking on the roof; the frozen cap 
 of snow was beginning to melt. 
 
 "Don't you see, darling, we can't stay here. I 
 thought of the little house up in the mountains. Up 
 there we'll be away from everything, all alone. But 
 I never feel lonely with you, dear." 
 
 "I don't feel lonely with you either," Marie re- 
 plied. 
 
 Adele kissed her, and it was with difficulty that 
 she drew her lips away from the little girl's mouth. 
 The cracking sound on the roof was heard again; 
 lumps of snow began to fall from the eaves. 
 
 Suddenly Marie asked: "Will father come too?" 
 
 "Oh, yes, he'll come." 
 
126 THE REIGN OF THE EVIL ONE 
 
 "When will he come?" 
 
 "Not yet," said Adele, "because he's gone on a 
 long journey, but of course he'll come back." She 
 lowered her head to hide the tears that trembled at 
 her eyelids. She had to be brave and cheerful; 
 that was her duty and it was the hardest of all. 
 Since the departure of her husband she had had 
 to take all the punishment for his wrong doing, 
 and bear with the ill will of her neighbours. They 
 were always asking: 
 
 "Have you heard anything from that robber hus- 
 band of yours?" 
 
 Many people had begun to cut her, and others 
 talked to her with a sham sjmipathy that made her 
 suffer more than if they had refused to notice her 
 at all. It had not taken her long to understand 
 that she would have to give in. 
 
 But there can be no real loneliness when one has 
 given one's heart. A gap is soon bridged over by 
 love; it gradually rebuilds shattered foundations 
 and fills in empty spaces. Adele had accepted the 
 situation and a new courage came to her. The 
 preparations for their departure were soon com- 
 
THE REIGN OF THE EVIL ONE 127 
 
 pleted, and at dawn the mule stood waiting at the 
 door. One grey linen bag held their provisions, 
 another their clothes; and the big iron saucepan, 
 with its feet upwards, was tied to the saddle. 
 
 They locked the door, and there were tears in 
 Adele's eyes: "Take a good look, Marie. Heaven 
 knows when we'll see our house again." 
 
 "Don't cry, darling," Marie said as she took 
 charge of the goat. Adele wiped her eyes and 
 grasped the mule's bridle. 
 
 A good half of the village had to be crossed, but 
 they met no one, though it was the time when people 
 were usually in the streets for a breath of air and 
 gossip. The village was soon left behind, and the 
 road began to rise up steeply, winding its way past 
 the fields to the woods above. Every now and then 
 they saw big grey birds with red heads start up 
 from the snow-powdered hedges. 
 
 n 
 
 The Man installed himself at the Inn. Simon 
 with his wife and children had abandoned it hastily 
 when they saw him coming. 
 
128 THE REIGN OF THE EVIL ONE 
 
 The Inn had four bedrooms in it as well as a 
 wine room, a big kitchen, and a full cellar, — and 
 Criblet was there, for it now cost him little to 
 drink, eat, and sleep. There were two or three 
 cases of macaroni, a big bag of rice, a cask of her- 
 rings, and plenty of sausages and hams were hang- 
 ing in the fireplace. He made a visit to the cellar 
 and tapped all the kegs one after the other, and 
 when he emerged he wore a look of great satisfac- 
 tion. 
 
 The Man and Lhote and Criblet got on well to- 
 gether, and ever)rthing was peaceful. The Man 
 seemed to be quite happy; Lhote did not talk much 
 and kept to himself a good deal. Criblet descended 
 into the cellar with his jug empty and came up with 
 it full to sit quietly .by the window. Ten or twelve 
 glasses caused nothing extraordinary, but the thir- 
 teenth acted like a penny pushed into a musical-box, 
 and a song twenty-five couplets long would com- 
 mence to pour out of him, accompanied by a silly 
 wagging of his head. Hours would pass like this, 
 — no movement except his wagging head and his 
 
THE REIGN OF THE EVIL ONE 129 
 hand performing the pleasant task of raising the 
 glass to his lips. It was an easy life, but the ar- 
 rival of Clinche was upsetting. 
 
 Clinche was the first of the village people to come 
 to the Inn. He arrived one day towards evening, 
 and they told him to come in and have a drink. 
 
 "My wife is making my life impossible. I've 
 tried to get her to stop it, but nothing is any good. 
 I've done with her, and I said I was going to clear 
 out." He drew in a long breath and seemed to en- 
 joy it. 
 
 "It's much nicer here with you; if these gentle- 
 men wouldn't mind. . . ." 
 
 The Man simply said: 
 
 "There's room." 
 
 So Clinche became the fourth, and did not regret 
 it. 
 
 They felt that from now on the Man woidd be 
 able to do as he liked. The village streets were 
 always empty; none of the villagers dared to emerge 
 without being sure that the Man was not in sight. 
 To see him was a signal to run for dear life and close 
 
I30 THE REIGN OF THE EVIL ONE 
 
 the door behind. Fortunately he hardly ever left the 
 Inn, so that it was generally possible for them to slink 
 out to their stables or to go for water at the foun- 
 tain, but nothing more than this could be attempted. 
 They always returned from these short errands run- 
 ning, and stayed behind closed doors, for, as they 
 said, "He might come and plant Himself on us as 
 he did on Simon." 
 
 An astonishing sort of underground existence im- 
 posed itself upon the village. There had never been 
 anything like it. Even the smoke from the chim- 
 neys seemed heavier than usual, and it clxmg to 
 the roofs as though afraid to rise up and drift away 
 on the wind. Life slackened pace in every way, 
 and horrible diseases began to break out, one of 
 which attacked the beasts. The cows got softening 
 of the udder; and when they were milked, their 
 teats tore off in one's hands. There was plenty 
 of milk, but they suffered terribly, for it was im- 
 possible to take it from them. Day and night they 
 could be heard mooing to each other from stable to 
 • stable. 
 
 The most surprising thing was that some people's 
 
THE REIGN OF THE EVIL ONE 131 
 
 cows escaped the disease; there was a kind of in- 
 verted justice about it. The more exemplary the 
 lives of the owners, the worse they were punished; 
 and those who gave themselves up to evil passions, 
 covetousness, greed, laziness, and drunkenness suf- 
 fered no loss. Some stables were empty, and in 
 others not a single cow was touched by the disease. 
 It was like the Bible story of the Angel who marked 
 certain doors with blood and passed the others by. 
 
 Old Marguerite had lost her two goats; there 
 was nothing to eat in her cupboard. Again she 
 went to her son at the Inn, and again he said: 
 
 "Go away, I don't know you any longer." 
 
 And it was the same with the village people when 
 she appealed to them: 
 
 "Why didn't you come to us first?" 
 
 She went back to sit before her dying fire; she 
 knew the end was near, .so she took her old shawl 
 and wrapped it about her head. It was snowing, 
 and she walked until she reached the quarry where 
 the road came to an end. There she hesitated and 
 seemed to be tr3dng to decide whether to go on or 
 to return to the village, — a tiny, wizened, disconso- 
 
132 THE REIGN OF THE EVIL ONE 
 
 late figure. The big snowflakes whirled around her. 
 Finally she made up her mind. Why not make 
 one more attempt? She went back into the village; 
 night had come now, and she heard singing at the 
 Inn. The shutters were closed so she went to the 
 door and struck it with both hands, calling out to 
 him. No reply came and she called again; still no 
 answer. They had no need of her there. She met 
 one or two hurrjdng figures in the streets, but when 
 she tried to stop them they only quickened their 
 pace.. No one needed her, no one in the whole vil- 
 lage, and she listened to the sound of the last door 
 being bolted. 
 
 She thought of her dead fire and her empty cup- 
 board, and this time there was no hesitation in her 
 mind, so she set forth again, left the village, passed 
 the quarry, and entered the pin& forest. She walked 
 resolutely through the snow, saying to herself, 
 "I'll keep going as long as I can, and when I have 
 to stop, then I can do it." It was quite dark, and 
 she kept bumping into the tree trunks; many times 
 ^ she slipped on the frozen ground and barely escaped 
 
THE REIGN OF THE EVIL ONE 133 
 
 falling. "What difference does it make whether I 
 fall or not, whether I go straight or not, or slowly 
 or quickly? All roads lead where I want to go, and 
 one is as good as another." 
 
 A great indifference came to her, but one question 
 still remained unanswered: 
 
 "Why did he cure me if this was to happen? My 
 God, why did he cure me?" And she walked on 
 and on in the darkness. 
 
 The way became steeper, the snow piled higher, 
 and the night got darker and colder; soon her legs 
 refused to obey her, and her head felt thick and 
 numb. It seemed to her that she had got out of 
 the forest now, but she was not quite sure. One 
 step sideways, one backwards, and then she saw 
 that the ground rose slightly on her right, "Why 
 not here?" she said, and all she had to do was to 
 let herself fall sideways towards the bank into some- 
 thing very soft. She drew up her knees, like a 
 little baby in its cradle; then she clasped her hands 
 around them, and her head fell forward. 
 
 And. it snowed faster and faster. 
 
134 THE REIGN OF THE EVIL ONE 
 
 in 
 
 The people themselves now began to suffer from 
 a skin disease; they scratched themselves until 
 the blood came. Then black ulcers appeared on 
 their faces, and these spread little by little over their 
 foreheads, cheeks, mouths, and chins, until the vic- 
 tims looked as though they were wearing masks for 
 a carnival. 
 
 For the most part the disease attacked tall 
 people; the children were taken in a different way. 
 Their arms and legs were all twisted up by it. The 
 healthiest and best fed among them went into con- 
 vulsions and came out of them in a pitiful state: 
 their little backs bent, their legs in semi-circles, 
 and the palms of their hands turned outwards. 
 
 They cried and cried, and the sound of their cry- 
 ing mingled with the mooing from the stables and 
 the groaning and grumbling of their parents. 
 People fled from each other, hating to 'look upon 
 what they were themselves, or fearing further 
 contagion. 
 
THE REIGN OF THE EVIL ONE 135 
 
 They understood that life would soon be impos- 
 sible. All the neighbouring villages had been asked 
 for assistance, but the news of their misfortunes 
 had gone ever)rwhere; no one would come to help, 
 and they soon saw that assistance would have to 
 come to them from above. A meeting was 
 arranged to talk about it. They hardly dared 
 to look at each other; several had their heads 
 wrapped in linen, and some concealed their hands 
 in their sleeves, for the disease had not confined it- 
 self to people's heads. 
 
 It was decided that another visit should be paid 
 to the priest, though no one had seen him for a 
 long time and he seemed not to care in the least 
 -what happened to the village. They waited until 
 evening, and then five or six of them, amongst 
 whom were Communier and a pious little man named 
 Jean-Pierre, the oldest inhabitant of the village, 
 went to the priest's house by a back street so as to 
 avoid passing the Inn. They knocked for some 
 time without success, but finally a noise of furni- 
 ture being pushed about was heard; then an inside 
 
136 THE REIGN OF THE EVIL ONE 
 
 door opened and shut, and he stood before them. 
 
 "There are more of you this time," said the priest. 
 Then he burst out laughing and continued: 
 
 "Oh, I know why you've come, but you're too late. 
 Punishment must take its course; no one can inter- 
 fere with that." 
 
 He laughed again and the delegation entered. It 
 was too dark in the room to see an5rthing clearly, 
 and they felt a strange uneasiness. Several moments 
 of silence followed, after which Commimier spoke: 
 
 "We're in such a terrible state. Father, that you 
 must help us to . . ." 
 
 Some one interrupted:; 
 
 "This man keeps on . . ." 
 
 "What man?" asked the priest in a troubled 
 voice. 
 
 A third voice joined in — a tiny voice like a child's, 
 except that it trembled slightly. It was old Jean- 
 Pierre: 
 
 "Ah, Father, that's just the trouble. Nobody 
 knows who he is. If we only knew, it would be dif- 
 •ferent. We haven't lost our faith, Father, and 
 that's why we're here now. We thought, maybe, 
 
THE REIGN OF THE EVIL ONE 137 
 that if we offered a prayer to God, He would hear 
 it — a prayer from us all, I mean, for He never lis- 
 tens to one voice." 
 
 There was a general shaking of heads. They 
 waited, but the priest made no answer. He strode 
 up and down the room, and all they could see was 
 his tall black figure moving swiftly in the obscurity. 
 Then suddenly he spoke again: 
 
 "The first thing is to mend your ways!" He 
 spoke at the top of his lungs; he almost shouted. 
 "That will find more favour with God! Don't you 
 understand? To sin against Him and then proceed 
 to the Church, with banners flying — that's far too 
 easy. You must repent first, I tell you!" 
 
 Uneasiness grew upon them. Was it because of 
 the brut£ility in his voice and his strange tone of in- 
 sincerity? Perhaps he was right, after all. But 
 then he was their only chance of salvation. So they 
 stuck to their guns. No one moved; and when 
 Jean-Pierre began his entreaties again, they all 
 joined in, mumbling indistinctly: 
 
 "Please, Father, please." 
 
 The priest sat down at the table, and so far as 
 
138 THE REIGN OF THE EVIL ONE 
 
 they could tell, he was holding his head in his hands. 
 Then he spoke to them in a low trembling voice: 
 
 "You are right. It is my business to help you, 
 and I must do so." 
 
 Just what happened then no one knew exactly, 
 except that everybody had stood up, and the priest 
 too. When they hurried away, the thing had been 
 arranged for the following Sunday. 
 
 Days of suffering followed, days that seemed 
 three times their usual length, and Sunday seemed 
 as though it would never come. Every minute 
 brought fresh agonies, and the worst of it was that 
 Time could not be managed like one's beasts when 
 they stopped to drink or to crop grass. Alas, it 
 was not possible to beat Time with a stick. 
 
 However, the prospect of the procession seemed 
 to give the people courage. "Perhaps," they said. 
 "Who knows?" 
 
 Every one who was physically able joined it, and 
 the church was three-quarters full. People had 
 come singly, or in little groups, threading the dark 
 ^alleys with hands stretched forward into the obscur- 
 ity. Above; the roofs could be seen the church 
 
THE REIGN OF THE EVIL ONE 139 
 
 steeple surmounted by the cross, a v£igue shadowy 
 cross against the sky, but a clear enough guide to 
 follow. Every now and then the rough breatWng of 
 a beast, or the wail of a suffering child, or the sigh- 
 ing of some one in the agony of death could be 
 heard behind a door. Never was there a moment of 
 the day or night when the people's afflictions could 
 be forgotten. 
 
 The gathering in the church was quickly acconv- 
 plished, and a faint grey light began to filter 
 through the little panes of the lofty windows. First 
 came Mass, with the organ, voices, and chimes, and 
 there was a visible security there within the walls 
 of the Church. But another and a more effectual 
 security that could not be seen reassured the peo- 
 ple's hearts, so that, when the last words were said 
 and the last response given, they left the church 
 with a firm conviction that their troubles would 
 soon be over. 
 
 It had been arranged that all the bells should be 
 rung, and Etienne, son of Etienne, son of a third 
 Etienne, went up into the tower. But he was not 
 alone, for on that day there was more work than 
 
I40 THE REIGN OF THE EVIL ONE 
 usual. Big Marie-Madeleine was to be rung, and 
 she required three men to manage her. First of all 
 a tiny clear voice with vivid silvery notes came 
 down to them from the heavens, like the song of a 
 sky-lark. A man in a surplice carried the cross out 
 of the church; he was one of the white-robed ones, 
 and the women and the girls of the white robe 
 would follow him. The cross had to be tilted for- 
 ward for a moment because of the low portal, but it 
 was soon upright again, and at that moment the lit- 
 tle silvery note in the sky burst like a pod of ripe 
 seeds: a thousand new notes poured forth and 
 streamed downwards until they seemed to come out 
 of the very air itself, above and beneath, rising 
 and falling, approaching and receding. 
 
 The cross turned at the corner of the cemetery, 
 followed by the white-robed men and the white- 
 robed women, and four young girls carr5dng a 
 beautiful wax Virgin in silk robes. Then, as the 
 people themselves began to come out of the Church, 
 Big Marie-Madeleine's voice was heard. All the 
 • little chimes seemed to have fled helter-skelter, 
 leaving her to hover alone in the sky, flapping her 
 
THE REIGN OF THE EVIL ONE 141 
 
 wings from time to time like one of those great 
 leisurely birds that drift high up under the sun. 
 The steep slope to the Calvary was composed 
 of meadows of poor grass and ledges of rock. The 
 path wound around the rocks. The colours in spring 
 and summer were grey and green, but on that day 
 white and black. The ground was white and the 
 little pine wood that circled the peak was black. 
 Above the woods they saw the summit; it was bare 
 but for the Cross, towards which the procession 
 was moving. The little chimes joined Marie-Made- 
 leine again, and now another sound could be heard. 
 Timidly at first, then with more and more confi- 
 dence, rose up the voices of the people climbing 
 towards the cross. They asked; they appealed; 
 they beseeched. "Aren't there three hundred of us? 
 Surely our voices will be heard!" The priest, walk- 
 ing beneath a canopy, the white-robed men, the 
 women reading from prayer books, other women 
 leading children by the hand, old and crippled 
 people who could scarcely walk, people with band- 
 aged heads and some who were hiding their hands, 
 — every one who could walk had joined the pro- 
 
142 THE REIGN OF THE EVIL ONE 
 
 cession. No one was ashamed before God, not even 
 those who had sores. 
 
 The procession slowly mounted the path that 
 wound its way up the slope among snow-covered 
 fields and rocks. Every now and then the progress 
 of the cross was arrested because of the frozen snow, 
 but it always moved on again resolutely, drawing 
 the narrow stream of people after it. The energy 
 to keep moving did not come from behind; the im- 
 portant thing was to look ahead, not backwards, and 
 to climb higher and higher, one step after another. 
 Then the sun rose and shone full upon them. 
 
 From there on the ascent was easy; in spite of 
 themselves they seemed to be carried joyfully up 
 the last bit of road and through the little pine wood. 
 The cross was placed beneath the one already there, 
 the canopy came to a halt and the people formed 
 a circle. 
 
 They realised that they were alone in the pres- 
 ence of God. So high had they climbed that the 
 loftiest peaks on the horizon seemed to be below 
 them, and the neighbouring fields and villages were 
 swallowed up in the depths. Their own village 
 
THE REIGN OF THE EVIL ONE 143 
 
 could scarcely be distinguished down behind them, 
 its little grey roofs were so flat against the earth. 
 In front opened out another valley so deep that 
 nothing at all was visible, only a great misty empti- 
 ness. And the sky was everywhere, around and 
 above them, and there was God in it, and the Son, 
 and the Holy Ghost, and the Saints who had once 
 been men and would understand them the better 
 for that. 
 
 It was true that they had sinned, but were there 
 any men on earth who had not? The thought of 
 their sufferings filled them with self-pity; they fell 
 on their knees and gazed up at the two crosses, 
 the Virgin, and the banners. Then the praying 
 began, the priest's voice mingling with their own. 
 With some it took the form of silent supplication, 
 but they all knelt on the stony ground with hands 
 joined across their breasts and heads bent. They 
 prayed a long time and felt that their words would 
 be heard above. 
 
 "We had forgotten Thee, O Lord, but now our 
 thoughts have come back to Thee. We know now 
 why Thy hand has fallen so heavily upon us. It is 
 
144 THE REIGN OF THE EVIL ONE 
 
 because we deserve Thy punishment, and we thank 
 Thee, O Lord, if this is Thy way of awakening in 
 us a fitting respect for Thy Holy Name." 
 
 The bells were still ringing in the village below, 
 and happiness filled the hearts of all as they rose 
 up and turned to descend the winding path. They 
 did not believe they were the same people who had 
 just climbed it. They looked without fear at the 
 village, and on entering it they had the impression 
 that it too had been kneeling. Their common enemy 
 was there, but he would no longer harm them, and 
 as they approached the open square many curious 
 eyes looked in the direction of the Inn. First came 
 the cemetery with its newly-made graves, so close 
 to each other that they looked hke successions of 
 little white waves. Alas, this sight was only too 
 well remembered. Too many places filled here, and 
 too many empty ones at firesides, in beds, and at 
 kitchen tables, too many pairs of strong arms so 
 desperately needed ! All this they saw, and regretted 
 still, but it was not important now; one coidd rise 
 above it. 
 
 They left the cemetery and turned the comer 
 
THE REIGN OF THE EVIL ONE 145 
 of the church. A song of joy burst from their lips 
 as they advanced: first the cross, then the Virgin, 
 the banners, and the canopy. 
 
 The square was deserted and the Inn closed, as 
 they had expected. The curtains were drawn inside 
 the windows and no smoke rose from the chimney. 
 It had the look of a house long abandoned. 
 
 But the Man had only to open the door. 
 
 He simply lifted the latch, and the Host, whose 
 golden ornaments shone behind its tiny crystal win- 
 dow, fell from hands that were no longer worthy 
 to carry it. The next moment, the canopy, the 
 cross, and the banners, and the silk-robed Virgin 
 fell to the ground. The sky turned black, and 
 the pigeons sailed down from the bell-tower on 
 spread wings and flew away towards the valley. 
 
CHAPTER VI 
 
 Spring came too quickly that year and there were 
 floods and snow-slips. A general thaw brought this 
 fresh misfortune; there was destruction every- 
 where. The water dug enormous gullies, walls fell 
 in, and dams were overrun. From the top of the 
 bell-tower, the sight was terrif3dng. Instead of the 
 new green of spring and the little flower gardens full 
 of crocuses and anemctaes, great, stretches of gravel 
 met the eye. The village looked as though a huge 
 plough had been dragged through it, and the sluices 
 of the pond had given away, so that its vase-shaped 
 bottom now looked like old crackle-ware. But the 
 most astonishing thing was the absence of living 
 things, — ^not even a cat creeping under a barn door, 
 or a hen tilting her red-combed head. The bright 
 April sun that usually fell upon quickly budding 
 bushes now only accentuated the frightful desola- 
 
 146 
 
THE REIGN OF THE EVIL ONE 147 
 
 tion of it all. What emptiness! What a desert! 
 Not only were the streets empty but the fields 
 as well, and at this of all times in the year, when 
 sowing has to be done, and fences mended, and the 
 fields harrowed or rolled; a time when little girls 
 make bouquets and when lovers begin to go out 
 together on Sunday evenings. Everywhere on the 
 hillsides something is going on. You can imagine 
 yourself alone but sooner or later a head appears 
 from behind a hedge; you go into the woods and 
 suddenly a man appears leading a cow harnessed 
 to a farm-cart. Now there was none of this sort 
 of thing; a terrible silence was ever5rwhere. Down 
 below in the valley and on the other side of the 
 mountain, life went on as usual, but this afflicted 
 village was wrapped in the silence of death. Im- 
 passable roads, fields cut by deep gorges, and fallen 
 trees marked the point beyond which it was not safe 
 to venture. These boundaries had to be observed, 
 for a curse had fallen on the village and the rumour 
 had spread through the neighbourhood that it was 
 the plague. Messengers were sent again to get 
 help but the reply was: "One step nearer and we'll 
 
148 THE REIGN OF THE EVIL ONE 
 
 shoot!" So they were prisoners, all save the priest 
 who had not been seen since the day of the pro- 
 cession. 
 
 The cawing of crows and other birds like them 
 was the only sound to be heard now (all the little 
 hedge birds had been devoured long ago) except 
 for the unearthly bursts of laughter, snatches of 
 song, and dance music that came from the Inn at 
 night. There all was gaiety; more than a dozen 
 men had now installed themselves where food and 
 drink and women were plentiful. When a wine 
 cask ran dry, the Man had only to touch it and 
 it was full again. A big ham was taken down from 
 the chimney and eaten to the bone. The Man 
 stretched out his hand and immediately it had more 
 meat on it than before. Money, though quite un- 
 necessary because ever3rthing could be had for 
 nothing, was to be acquired for the mere asking. 
 The Man said, "Look at your purse." It was 
 full of gold. Life was very pleasant, for this man 
 j who had been called Branchu and who now was 
 1 The Master, could make whatever he liked out of 
 nothing, as God could. He satisfied every need, 
 
THE REIGN OF THE EVIL ONE 149 
 
 he even created needs in order to satisfy them. 
 The prettiest women in the village were there for 
 the pleasure of the occupants of the Inn. 
 
 n 
 
 Meanwhile a struggle with death went on in the 
 village. A man, his wife and children, all in one 
 bed! What was the use of getting up? It would 
 only be a waste of the little strength they possessed, 
 and that strength had to be carefully preserved. 
 Pretty soon there would be no more to eat. What 
 a pity the crops had been so good the year 
 before, jaelding such a plentiful supply of every- 
 thing! Now the hay was spoiling, and the flour 
 was mouldy in the bins. Almost all the beasts 
 had died. 
 
 "Catherine!" It was Tronchet speaking, the 
 richest land-owner in the parish, "Catherine, how 
 much have we in the bank now?" 
 
 "Fifty-thousand francs!" 
 
 "Even that won't save us from starvation if this 
 keeps up much longer." He looked at his wife 
 
ISO THE REIGN OF THE EVIL ONE 
 
 lying beside him under the covers, and she turned 
 her ashen grey face towards him, smiling a queer 
 crazy smile. Fifty-thousand francs, and worth so 
 many pebbles! 
 
 Old Jean-Pierre was sitting in his kitchen before 
 a little fire of rubbish, when his wife called out to 
 him: 
 
 "What's the matter?" he said. 
 
 "D'ypu think it's going to last much longer?" 
 
 "Can't tell. ..." A short silence followed. 
 
 "Jean-Pierre, why don't you say any more? I'm 
 afraid, and you keep on sitting there, and not a 
 word out of you." 
 
 "What's the use of being afraid? Faith's the 
 thing." This was Jean-Pierre's favourite argument. 
 His wife began to sob, for her faith was a feeble 
 thing, and she wondered whether He, in whom she 
 had put what faith she had, could possibly know 
 of her existence. 
 
 Everywhere people were weeping. There was 
 Clinche's wife and the five children whom he had 
 abandoned. He had beaten her horribly, but when 
 
THE REIGN OF THE EVIL ONE 151 
 he had come in that night and said: "I'll be better 
 off there than here with you," everything had been 
 forgotten. Everything, if only he wouldn't go. 
 He had laughed, sajdng, "Ah, that's it, you're 
 jealous. Well, this'll be a lesson to you. You can 
 starve for all I care. They've got plenty of food 
 where I'm going." 
 
 She had dropped to her knees clinging to him: 
 "Oh, please, Clinche, for God's sake don't go there! 
 Anywhere else, but not there! " It had not done any 
 good, and now she was alone with her five children 
 and nothing to eat. The youngest was just awake; 
 he was only two, and she sat down on the bed 
 where she had put them all. It was the only way 
 she could keep them warm, for there was no more 
 wood. 
 
 "What's the matter, my pet?" she asked, clasp- 
 ing him in her arms. 
 
 "Hungry," said the little voice. So she groped 
 her way (there was no oil in her lamp) into the 
 kitchen. In the cupboard there was only a half a bag 
 of spoiled flour; she mixed some of it with water and 
 
152 THE REIGN OF THE EVIL ONE 
 
 took a cup of pap to the little fellow, but he refused 
 to touch it and began to cry. The other children 
 in the bed woke up and began to cry for bread. 
 
 "What am I going to do?" she asked despair- 
 ingly. "Must I go and sell myself as he did?" 
 Then she went on resolutely: "No, not that! I'd 
 rather they'd die. I'll make them lie close to me 
 and I'll hold their hands in mine and breathe on 
 their faces. God! If only they could die peace- 
 fully, then I would be alone and I could die too 
 with them dead all around me." 
 
 Farther down the street was Baptiste's house. 
 He was the one whose thumb had become infected. 
 The disease had gone up into his shoulder and now 
 his body was a mass of putrefaction. There were 
 green spots all over his stomach, but he laughed, 
 saying to himself, "I thought I knew what disease 
 would carry me off, but I was wrong. So much 
 the worse for gangrene if hunger is winning the 
 race. Gangrene would only have had to hurry a 
 little." 
 
 In a hundred other houses it was the same. 
 Many had to crawl on their hands and knees, being 
 
THE REIGN OF THE EVIL ONE 153 
 
 unable to stand. Their mouths were like the mouths 
 of beasts; saliva ran down over their chins. Some 
 bit into the floor-boards and tried to live on saw- 
 dust. Cats, dogs, and even mice had been killed; 
 they had to be eaten raw for there was no fire- 
 wood. Soon there were no animals left for them 
 to kill, and the days of their existence could be 
 counted. Eating raw flesh (it was almost like eat- 
 ing their own) doubled the violence of the disease: 
 malignant ulcers in the case of grown-ups, and 
 twisted arms and legs with children. There was 
 not a house in the village that did not contain at 
 least one corpse, for no one dared to go as far as 
 the cemetery. A beloved father lies dead in a comer 
 of the kitchen on the bare earthen floor; all that 
 can be done is to put a cushion beneath his head. 
 His family look the other way when passing so as 
 not to see him. Little Julien, scarcely two years 
 old, was put in a cardboard box. His father fetched 
 a pot of paint and painted it blue. Perhaps he was 
 tr)dng to cheat Time in this way, unless indeed he 
 was trying to cheat himself, for it did not take much 
 thinking to realise how soon his own death would 
 
154 THE REIGN OF THE EVIL ONE 
 follow his son's. And there would probably be 
 no coffin for him; to die unknown in some corner 
 would be his fate. 
 
 Sounds of music and loud laughter still came 
 from the Inn. Some of the village people peeped 
 out, but only when it was quite dark, for they were 
 ashamed. They slipped out through half-opened 
 doors and made for the Inn. 
 
 A pleasant glow from its windows filled the square. 
 All the windows were open and they hid in corners 
 and behind walls, poking their heads out from 
 time to time to gaze greedily into the bright interior. 
 They saw tables covered with bottles and men sit- 
 ting at the tables. Whenever the door opened, a 
 warm puff of delicious smells came out, smells of 
 meat and good things to eat. The outsiders could 
 only bite into the food-laden air, but it was too 
 much for them and a force they could not control 
 dragged them by the shoulders and pushed them 
 in at the Inn door. They burst into the wine room 
 with arms raised, fell down on the floor, and rolled 
 under the tables. 
 
THE REIGN OF THE EVIL ONE 155 
 
 Some one shouted: 
 
 "Here come some more of them!" 
 
 But they saw nothing, heard nothing, and it was 
 only when food and drink were brought that they 
 regained the power to understand what had hap- 
 pened. They devoured what was before them like 
 starving dogs. 
 
 in 
 
 That night there was a fete at the Inn, After 
 the drinking came dancing, but the wine room was 
 too small for it. One of the boys, called Labre, 
 got out his mouth-organ and played a dance tune, 
 but when the couples began to whirl about they 
 bumped into the tables. 
 
 No one had any idea of the time, but the night 
 must have been pretty well advanced. They were 
 a bad lot, sleeping the day through and making 
 day out of night; for them the moon took the place 
 of the sun, and when there was no moon they always 
 had the lamps to fall back upon. Their pleasure 
 was of the sort that could best be enjoyed when 
 
156 THE REIGN OF THE EVIL ONE 
 
 curtained in by darkness. Thus the world was 
 shut out; they were at cross purposes with it and 
 felt that they had acquired a kind of topsy-turvy 
 salvation. There were no prohibitions, and what 
 they enjoyed most of all was freedom to do things 
 hitherto impossible. And so when they had had 
 more than their fill of food and drink (they only 
 enjoyed over-eating and over-drinking now) they 
 began to think of other distractions. 
 
 Some one suggested: 
 
 "Let's go over to the church." 
 
 An excellent idea! Why hadn't that been 
 thought of before? There would be plenty of 
 room, and the idea of amusing themselves in a 
 church, of all places, was one that appealed very 
 strongly. 
 
 All they had to do was to cross the square; the 
 door was open and they crowded in, pushing and 
 elbowing each other, and pinching the women who 
 screamed with delight. 
 
 "How are we going to see anything?" some one 
 , asked. 
 
 "By God, we'll light the candles." 
 
THE REIGN OF THE EVIL ONE IS7 
 
 One of the men climbed up on to the altar 
 holding a lantern. The tabernacle and the mon- 
 strance fell to the floor, and that contributed to their 
 pleasure. Matches were produced and the man on 
 the altar struck one on his trousers. A tiny flame 
 trembled at the top of one of the wax columns cov- 
 ered with golden traceries, and before long a whole 
 row was burning brightly. Then they wanted to 
 light the lamp of perpetual adoration, symbolic of 
 the spirit that watched over them; it was hanging 
 by a little chain from the high arched ceiling, but 
 though there was plenty of oil in it their efforts 
 were of no avail, and they ended by breaking it to 
 bits upon the flagstones. 
 
 "That's the way to do it!" shouted Criblet who 
 was leaning against one of the colimms. "I stand 
 aside from all this. Whoever it was who put me 
 upon this earth (it must have been some one) said 
 to one of my predecessors: 'You'll be a gardener,' 
 to another, 'You'll be an Emperor,' to another, 
 'You'll be a beggar,' but when my turn came he 
 didn't know what to tell me, so he said, 'You'll be 
 Criblet, the others will do things and you'll just 
 
158 THE REIGN OF THE EVIL ONE 
 
 watch.' And he gave me a bottle to keep me from 
 boring myself." 
 
 He produced this bottle from a pyocket and there 
 was a sound like water bubbling down the waste- 
 hole in a drinking fountain. The chairs were 
 thrown into one of the chapels and the dancing 
 began. All went well except that Labre's mouth- 
 organ was not loud enough. It was a small pocket 
 one, meant only to be used in some one's kitchen 
 when six or eight boys and girls wanted to dance 
 on winter evenings, Sunday afternoons or holidays. 
 It was loud enough for that, but in the lofty nave 
 of the Church no one could hear it. Gentizon 
 slipped out into the darkness. 
 
 Some one shouted, "Louder!" and Labre 
 answered, "I'll bust my cheeks if I keep on like 
 this! " Shoulders were shrugged and no further com- 
 plaints were heard. In a few moments Gentizon 
 appeared; he was not alone and they greeted him 
 and his companion with cheers: 
 
 "Bravo! He's brought old Creux with him; 
 just the thing!" 
 
 Gentizon was holding a little old man by the arm: 
 
THE REIGN OF THE EVIL ONE 159 
 
 "I told him to bring his accordion along, that 
 I was taking him to see some friends, and he must 
 watch his step." 
 
 A burst of laughter followed this last remark, 
 for old Creux was blind. He wagged his head comi- 
 cally, and when he smiled he bared his gums which 
 were as pink as a little child's. 
 
 "Ye don't need to tell me to go to it; can't you 
 see I'm glad to be here? Just keep on dancing." 
 
 They all crowded round him without his having 
 the faintest idea how numerous the company was. 
 He imagined himself in a barn or a dwelling house 
 where he was usually taken and paid fifty centimes 
 for his services. He grasped the accordion by the 
 two ends with their brass keys. Between w£is the 
 green leather bellows and old Creux pulled out two 
 chords: "Are you ready?" He wore an old cap 
 of rabbit skin and there was a smile upon his 
 wrinkled face: "It's good to be at it again after so 
 long." 
 
 A chair had been placed for him at the foot of 
 one of the columns and there was a bottle at his 
 disposal. He turned and lowered his head till his 
 
i6o THE REIGN OF THE EVIL ONE 
 
 ear almost touched the instrument, and his old 
 fingers did their work so rapidly that it was almost 
 impossible to see them. His foot beat time, his 
 head swayed to and fro over his twinkling fingers, 
 and the smile on his face came and went according 
 to the difficulty of the passage he was playing. But 
 the pleated leather bellows was never still, — it 
 stretched, contracted and twisted; and the couples 
 whirled round and round. 
 
 There were almost as many women as men, and 
 they clasped each other tightly; faces got redder 
 and redder and the sound of quickly drawn breath 
 could be heard. No one understood the reason for 
 such furious dancing. None of the quiet old-fash- 
 ioned steps were even thought of, — ^those dances 
 where, after a figure was over, a kiss wjis sought 
 in a dark corner and generally refused. They held 
 each other so closely that they had the appearance 
 of having grown together, and some of the couples 
 looked as though they were writhing in agony. 
 
 Old Creux kept smiling and his music flowed on 
 steadily, except during the few seconds it took him 
 to swallow some drink and start a fresh tune. 
 
THE REIGN OF THE EVIL ONE i6i 
 
 There were polkas and mazurkas, and fast waltzes 
 that made the interlacing legs of the dancers look 
 like branches blowing in the wind. Candles were 
 knocked over from time to time, and when a draught 
 blew in through the broken windows, the flames on 
 the ones left standing bent over sideways, causing 
 tears of hot wax to run down upon the altar. The 
 people shouted and laughed: "Let's take the lid 
 off!" 
 
 "Come on, Felicie, I'm tired waiting." 
 
 "All right, Louis, I'm ready. Buzz me around 
 hard." 
 
 Shirts, collars, and vests were torn off; every 
 one was hot; some came to a sudden stop and 
 threw out their arms laughing hysterically, and now 
 it was hard to tell whether they laughed or sobbed. 
 
 It was unmixed happiness, and they felt like little 
 birds that had just broken out of their shells. They 
 had known slavery, but all that was past now. They 
 indulged their absolute freedom: 
 
 "What is there to stop me from taking you in 
 my arms before everybody, Felicie? Just think 
 what trouble it used to be even to speak to you. 
 
i62 THE REIGN OF THE EVIL ONE 
 
 I was always afraid some one would see us to- 
 gether. What stops me from picking up this chair 
 and throwing it at the window?" 
 
 They felt the need to destroy things, and before 
 long the need was satisfied; so much so that it was as 
 if they had wished to bring about their own destruc- 
 tion. Many sank to the floor completely exhausted. 
 A few managed to get on to chairs where they sat 
 with their mouths hanging open and their hands 
 pressed against their chests. In a few moments, 
 however, things began to move again, and there 
 was soon another whirling of hugging and kissing 
 couples. Sweat poured down from their faces and 
 a shout for more drink resulted in a fresh cask of 
 wine. It was rolled across the nave and placed 
 upon an overturned confessional. Then a tap was 
 inserted and dry throats were refreshed. After 
 touching glasses they formed a circle around the 
 cask, and old Creux, though tired of his accordion, 
 was, prepared to keep going. "Are you through?" 
 he asked suddenly. "Come along; I'll play another 
 one — the best of all." So they began again with 
 
THE REIGN OF THE EVIL ONE 163 
 
 new vigour, and one of the women defciched her- 
 self from the crowd and stood near the altar with 
 her hands on her hips. It was Lucie, a big red- 
 cheeked girl, and she laughed a coarse laugh, 
 standing there in the dim light of the few remain- 
 ing candles: 
 
 "I'm tired of the whole lot of you. I'd like a 
 change. I've danced with 'em all and they've all 
 kissed me. Do I have to start over again?" She 
 was only a little too fond of pleasure; she simply 
 followed her physical desires blindly, and this was 
 why she had been among the first to go to the Inn. 
 Now she was beginning to be bored; she had expe- 
 rienced all these things before and she yawned: 
 
 "It's nothing but the same thing over and over 
 again! What shall I do?" She pushed all the men 
 away: "No, not you, or you, or you." She stretched 
 out her arms slowly, then drew them in and cov- 
 ered her face with her hands. 
 
 "I'll tell you, Lucie," some one said, "if you 
 don't think we're good enough for you. . . ." 
 
 He pointed: "That'll be just the thing! A woman 
 
i64 THE REIGN OF THE EVIL ONE 
 
 hard to please should be given a new partner who 
 hasn't been dancing." 
 
 "Do you want him?" they asked. 
 
 She held out her arms and there was a rush to- 
 wards the wall where a tall Crucifix was hanging. 
 The figure was yellow with red marks on the hands 
 and feet. The head rested on one shoulder and the 
 stomach fell inwards beneath the ribs. The nails 
 were soon drawn out of the hands and feet, and the 
 Christ was lifted down, and placed upright upon the 
 floor. Lucie walked towards it and they asked her: 
 
 "Will he do?" 
 
 She threw back her head and her eyes flashed, but 
 then she hid her face with her arm as though 
 ashamed. It was a gesture of great desire mingled 
 with timidity. They called to Creux: "Is it your 
 best that you're playing now?" Creux did not an- 
 swer, but a cascade of little clear notes poured away 
 from his nimble fingers and the dancing recom- 
 menced, with Lucie and her partner leading off. 
 
 The day dawned, but no one noticed it until a 
 
 • strong light filled the church. The music stopped 
 
 and every one turned instinctively to look at Lucie; 
 
THE REIGN OF THE EVIL ONE 165 
 
 she was l3dng stretched out upon the floor where she 
 had fallen beneath the weight of the Christ. She 
 seemed powerless to regain her feet, either because 
 of the weight of the figure or because her legs would 
 no longer support her. Every time she tried to 
 get up she fell back again, and her hysterical laugh- 
 ing rang through the church. 
 
 Though every one's legs were very unsteady, 
 Lucie was lifted up and given support, for the mom- 
 ent of departure had arrived. It was the light of 
 day that drove them from the church. There was 
 nothing breakable that had not been broken; the 
 pictures of the Saints and those showing the Way 
 of the Cross had been torn from the walls and kicked 
 into shreds. Here and there the debris was knee- 
 high. The walls alone were undamaged, except for 
 a crevice in the eastern one. 
 
 Traces of the festivities were ever5rwhere; the last 
 wine-cask was staved in and its contents had covered 
 the floor with slippery pools. 
 
 Lucie and the Christ were placed upon a stretcher 
 formed of shoulders and uplifted hands. A feeling 
 of bravado took possession of them all as they ap- 
 
1 66 THE REIGN OF THE EVIL ONE 
 
 proached the church door; they would show the 
 powers above what kind of people they were, that 
 they had done what it had pleased them to do. Two 
 or three village people met them as they emerged into 
 the square, and asked for food and drink, but they 
 were told to go to the Inn; and the procession moved 
 onwards, def jang the daylight with its double burden. 
 The sky was cloudless and hardly a breath of wind 
 was stirring; for them it seemed to be a sign that 
 nothing was forbidden, or ever would be, after that. 
 The calm blue was above them, and the stillness of 
 death was upon the earth. Silence everywhere; not 
 a sound; nothing . . . except the Man at the door 
 of the Inn. He asked them: "Everything all right?" 
 Then, "I can see it is. Well, all you have to do is 
 to begin over again." And he laughed while speak- 
 ing these last words. 
 
 IV 
 
 So they began again. But in the village, people 
 who were able prayed before their cruci&xes all day 
 
THE REIGN OF THE EVIL ONE 167 
 
 long. In spite of their recent failure to obtain assist- 
 ance from above, they persisted in praying, for it was 
 the only thing left for them to do — the only thing 
 they could do. And they said to themselves that it 
 would perhaps be wiser to do singly what they had 
 done together. A prayer might be more easily heard 
 if it were spoken by one person. So they got out 
 their rosaries and told them with long emaciated 
 fingers. 
 
 Old Jean-Pierre was the most diligent of them all. 
 He knelt by his bed from morning until evening and 
 often all through the night. His clasped hands were 
 stretched towards the statue on the wall and the 
 spray of box in its pewter vessel, and every prayer 
 that he knew issued from his lips. When he came 
 to the end, he began all over again, and when his wife 
 asked him for water he did not hear her. She was 
 unable to move and death hovered about her. One 
 could almost hear its rattle as she called out, and her 
 finger nails scratched the bed clothes. Jean-Pierre 
 heard nothing but his own vain words; his wife died 
 a few days later, and he was barely conscious of the 
 
i68 THE REIGN OF THE EVIL ONE 
 
 fact. His obstinate praying kept everything else 
 out of his mind. And in all the other little rooms, 
 dark and evil-smelling, it was the same thing. 
 Joseph, alone, said, "What can it matter now?" 
 They wondered how he had escaped death, and they 
 soon began to wonder how it was that any of them 
 had escaped. Every day it got worse, and a 
 pedlar, coming down from the hills with the in- 
 tention of making a roimd of the village, said to a 
 friend: 
 
 "What a good thing I stopped in time! The place 
 has turned into a cemetery full of crows and other 
 birds who live on spoiled meat. The infection will 
 spread if we're not careful." But no one went there, 
 and in the neighbourhood people wondered if all the 
 inhabitants were dead. 
 
 They were not all dead, but something worse was 
 happening. Every day more people gave in. At 
 first they had presented themselves at the Inn singly, 
 now they went in groups. The temptation was too 
 great; their physical and moral resistance had 
 vanished. In the beginning they had said, "We 
 must be true to the great Law-giver even at the ex- 
 
THE REIGN OF THE EVIL ONE 169 
 
 pense of our lives." Now it was: "Perhaps life is 
 the most precious thing we have." 
 
 A choice had to be made. How could they think 
 about their souls now? Their bodies' need was too 
 urgent. The failure of the procession had almost 
 convinced them that they were abandoned by God, 
 and they wondered whether it was worth while 
 praying to him any more. And if they had been 
 abandoned by God, would it not be better to put 
 themselves under the protection of another? If they 
 did not, what was left but loneliness and a hideous 
 death? Every mind was filled with thoughts like 
 these. The miser wondered what good his money 
 was to him; lazy persons said to themselves that 
 there would be no more work to avoid; those who 
 were dependent upon bodily pleasures and had long 
 been deprived of them felt the need more bitterly 
 every day. The greedy had visions of delicious food, 
 the drunkard of drink, and the temptations of the 
 flesh increased in violence until men groaned with the 
 desire for satisfaction. They were like cows lowing 
 for grass in winter. Anger flamed up in the hearts 
 of some; there were blasphemous accusations of the 
 
I70 THE REIGN, OF THE EVIL ONE 
 
 Heavenly Throne, and dissension arose among them. 
 Other diseases began to appear, — ^black lumps at 
 people's necks that ended by killing them. Always 
 more deaths, more bodies unburied, and less and less 
 flour in the bins. 
 
 In the streets the Inn people could be heard sing- 
 ing. They knocked at doors and shouted: 
 
 "Hey, in there, can't you make up your minds? 
 Is it pleasant to die like that, when you can come 
 along with us and be happier than you ever were in 
 ( the old days? The price isn't high, — only the sign 
 j of the cross backwards. You enter and the Master 
 says: 'Do that.' And you do it. Then you get as 
 fait and rosy as we are." 
 
 They did have a well-fed look, and the slightest 
 crack in the curtains enabled those behind them to 
 see men and women wearing good clothes, — a. round- 
 faced, full-lipped, bright-eyed gathering. They 
 knocked a second time, and the door usually re- 
 mained shut, but sometimes it was opened. 
 
 "Bravo, another one!" they would shout as the 
 
 . shrinking recruit joined the ranks. And this was 
 
 what happened to Amelie. She heard the voices of 
 
THE REIGN OF THE EVIL ONE 171 
 
 some men she used to dance with. They had come 
 to get her. 
 
 "You remember us, don't you, Amelie? Aren't 
 you going to dance with us any more? It's different _ 
 now from what it was before. We can do what we 
 want. Come along, be a good girl." 
 
 She had been Ij^ng on the floor, and she raised her 
 head and listened. Her parents were in the same 
 room, but her father was out of his mind and barely 
 able to breathe. Her mother was motionless and 
 silent. Amelie sat up now; she remembered the 
 man who was calling to her, for she had often danced 
 with him, and on many a Sunday evening they had 
 walked home in the moonlight together from a party. 
 These memories filled her mind with indecision. 
 "What if I go with them?" she thought. "It hasn't 
 hurt him at all." 
 
 She argued therefore that it would be all right for 
 her, and to be in his company would be so nice. For 
 a moment more she hesitated like a ripe apple about 
 to drop from the tree, then she made up her mind 
 and got upon her knees. She could see that her 
 father had not moved, and her mother looked as 
 
172 THE REIGN OF THE EVIL ONE 
 
 though she were asleep. Outside the voice kept on 
 calling; she stood up with an effort, turned toward 
 the door, and, passing the mirror, she was terrified 
 at the deep black circles around her eyes. "Ah, 
 well," she thought, "he'll understand." In a moment 
 she had arranged her hair, but nothing more, for the 
 voice was still calling. She found the door locked 
 with a double turn, and, whUe trying to manipulate 
 the big key that had rusted in the lock, she suddenly 
 heard another sound, a wail out of the heavy silence 
 of death; at that moment the voice in the street be- 
 came silent. 
 
 "Don't go! Don't go!" And again, "Don't go! 
 Don't go!" 
 
 Then there was silence but for the sound of bare 
 footsteps upon the floor behind her. She could not 
 open the door and the possessor of the beseeching 
 voice behind her laid her hands on her daughter's 
 shoulders. She stood there for a moment in her 
 chemise, an old, thin, wizened woman; then she 
 spoke: 
 
 "Amelie, please, you know what's waiting for you 
 there. Think of the tortures and the punishment 
 
THE REIGN OF THE EVIL ONE 173 
 
 you will have to suffer afterwards, — the fire and 
 brimstone. They last forever ! " 
 
 Amelie freed herself violently from the old 
 woman's embrace, breaking the bonds of flesh and 
 blood, and the key turned in the lock. Her mother 
 lay on the floor now, so she slid back the bolt. She 
 felt hands clutching at her feet and, turning abruptly, 
 she clenched her fist and struck the upturned face 
 beneath tangled strands of grey hair . . . she could 
 hear the voice in the street: 
 
 "Some one's opened the door; it's her — dhurry up, 
 my little pet. You'll see how we'll look after you." 
 
 The crowd moved off in the direction of the Inn 
 and another gang came out of another street. A 
 son called to his mother, a husband to his wife, 
 sisters to sisters, brothers to brothers, and finally a 
 whole family came out to join them: Father, mother, 
 and five children. They approached with bowed 
 heads, holding one another by the hand. The 
 father spoke to one of the second gang in low tones: 
 
 "We stuck it out as long as we could, but look at 
 them; they're too little to die yet. Do what you 
 like with us." 
 
174 THE REIGN OF THE EVIL ONE 
 
 They were taken like the others to the Inn and the 
 father was told to cross himself backwards. This 
 he did, and his wife, and the children too, but they 
 did not understand what they had done. Food was 
 brought, and what joy it was for them! Soup, 
 macaroni, meat, and then every description of cake 
 which they hardly dared to touch. There were 
 chocolate cakes, vanilla cream-cakes, and some with 
 little stars of candied fruit on them. They hesitated, 
 but were told to eat whichever they liked. Little 
 hands stretched out and bright eyes shone with 
 pleasure. 
 
 How nice it was to get away from stuffy rooms full 
 of foul air into this gay crowd seated aroimd the big 
 table. There was nothing to worry about, full bot- 
 tles were plentiful, and some one was playing a 
 mouth-organ. 
 
 Criblet was installed in a corner with Clinche, but 
 they did not seem to be hitting it off very well. 
 
 "Keep still," grumbled Clinche; "you talk too 
 much." He had been drinking a lot and this always 
 made him melancholy. Criblet, on the contrary, be- 
 came more and more cheerful: 
 
THE REIGN OF THE EVIL ONE 175 
 
 "I'm free, anyway," he cried. "You're tied up 
 with a wife and children." 
 
 "I was," replied Clinche, "but now I'm like you." 
 Criblet shrugged his shoulders. This was the way 
 all their squabbles began; Clinche pretended he was 
 like Criblet and Criblet always put him in his place. 
 
 Clinche struck the table with his fist: 
 
 "After all's said and done, what are you? What 
 did you ever do? Suppose you had to support some 
 one. You haven't any money nor any way to earn 
 money, so cut out the big talk." He tried to laugh, 
 but Criblet replied coolly, as was his custom: 
 
 "You don't know really anything about me." 
 
 Clinche got up and it looked as though he were 
 about to let fly at Criblet, but the Man knew how to 
 keep order. He had only to raise his hand. 
 
 They were there to enjoy one another's company 
 peaceably. The sun was shining outside and it fell 
 upon the plates on the table, and the wine in the 
 glasses gleamed a brighter yellow. Every one talked 
 gaily, telling stories and experiences. They boasted 
 of things they used to be ashamed of, and concealed 
 what they had always spoken of with pride. 
 
176 THE REIGN OF THE EVIL ONE 
 
 "I've robbed my father." 
 
 "I've deceived my mother." 
 
 A farmer put water in his milk, or gave bad weight 
 of' hay. A miller mixed his flour with plaster. 
 They invented crimes they had not committed in 
 order not to look ridiculous, but they especially en- 
 joyed boasting. 
 
 Trente-et-Quarante was there too and this was his 
 contribution: 
 
 "He was ten months old and one day he smiled at 
 me. One of his cheeks was red and the other was 
 white because he had just been sucking. His face 
 looked like an apple; red and white and smiling. I 
 put him in a strong linen bag and he screamed and 
 kicked when I started off. I had his head under my 
 arm and I held his feet with my hand. I felt some- 
 thing breaking, but I had to hurry. It had all been 
 thought out; I went to the middle of the bridge where 
 the water looked pretty in the moonlight. Clouc! 
 That's what it sounded like and the stone took it 
 down quickly; I only saw it for a minute in the 
 water. The bag with the kid inside it sank, and my 
 thirty francs rose up, — it cost me that much a month 
 
THE REIGN OF THE EVIL ONE 177 
 
 to keep him. Now, wasn't I right to do it? Wasn't 
 it a good job?" 
 
 He emptied his glass in one gulp and every one 
 followed his example; they were really getting drunk. 
 Things began to have strange colours: blue, green, 
 orange, and red. Little bits of sunlight like pieces 
 of ripe fruit whirled in and out of their vision. The 
 table collapsed, and the glasses and bottles rolled on 
 to the floor, but the laughter was so loud that no 
 one heard anything, and in the confusion the fallen 
 table was hardly noticed. 
 
 In front of the Inn, men were stretched upon the 
 ground sound asleep. Too much food and drink 
 and other pleasures! Some lay on their sides; some 
 on their stomachs; and others on their backs with 
 their eyes shaded from the sun. Big Lucie was. 
 completely exhausted and her clothes were barely 
 hanging on her. The church, a few steps away, was, 
 a frightening thing to look at. The great door was. 
 torn from its hinges; the walls were cracked; andi 
 the bell-tower was leaning. But the village was a. 
 far more terrifying sight, with its caved-in' roofs, up- 
 turned streets and corpses thrown out like garbage-- 
 
178 THE REIGN OF THE EVIL ONE 
 
 Another troupe came down by one of the steep 
 mountain roads: "We've got three more." They 
 were being carried because they could not walk: two 
 men and a woman. At the Inn they were received 
 by the Man, and they crossed themselves backwards 
 as the others had done: 
 
 "Do you know who I am?" he laughed. "There is 
 no longer any good or evil. You must obey the 
 powers of earth now, and renounce the powers 
 above." All of them there had done this, and the 
 Man laughed again and repeated: 
 
 "There is no longer any good or evil." Every 
 one but Lhote laughed with him because slaves fol- 
 low their master. Lhote had been silent for dajrs. 
 He seemed to be out of everjrthing, and his face was 
 pale; his eyes had grown larger and his beard blacker 
 and longer. 
 
 The Man called to him: 
 
 "And you, Lhote, what do you think?" Lhote 
 looked up. "Who do you think I am, Lhote?" 
 
 "I think you are Christ," he answered gravely, 
 "and you manifest yourself in ways that seem right 
 to you." 
 
THE REIGN OF THE EVIL ONE 179 
 
 "My poor Lhote, you've made a mistake. Watch 
 now." He went to the window and raised his hand; 
 a black cloud rapidly stretched itself across the sky 
 and a clap of thunder was heard, "You see!" 
 
 Lhdte shook his head: 
 
 "I tell you that you are Christ all the same, 
 because the dead obeyed you." 
 
CHAPTER VII 
 
 They said little Marie Lude was able to do 
 what she did now because she alone was free 
 from fear. She went away with her mother, 
 if you remember, at the beginning of the winter. 
 The people treated them badly, and one day when 
 it was snowing they left the village. The mule 
 carried their belongings, and those big red-headed 
 birds flew out of the hedges. They went to their 
 little house far up above the village, and they 
 knew nothing of what had happened. There they 
 had been, the two of them quite alone, away 
 from everjrthing. The winter came and went, and 
 they stayed on in ignorance of all the misfortunes 
 below in the village. Lude, the third member 
 of the family, the father, was forced to leave 
 the village before they did, because he had moved 
 
 i8o 
 
THE REIGN OF THE EVIL ONE i8i 
 
 his boundary stones. The spring found him still 
 wandering about near the place where he had known 
 happiness and where there would never be happiness 
 for him again. His crime enforced a restless ex- 
 istence upon him; it deprived him of his home and at 
 the same time he found he had not the courage to go 
 away altogether. He was continually on the move, 
 skirting the village, approaching and stopping, al- 
 ways at a certain distance from it, for he thought, 
 "How could I ever be forgiven?" 
 
 No one ever knew how he had kept alive during 
 that time, for he was always hesitating between two 
 things: to go away altogether, which he could not 
 bring himself to do, or to come back, which was im- 
 possible. 
 
 Weeks and months passed, and one day he was 
 sitting beneath a big red-trunked fir tree. His beard 
 had grown down to his waist, and his hair hung down 
 just as far in back. He sat and waited. But what 
 did he expect would happen after all these months? 
 It was time to get up and move on, but he did not get 
 up, and his head bent farther and farther forward. 
 Suddenly he threw it back, and, being unable to en- 
 
1 82 THE REIGN OF THE EVIL ONE 
 
 dure the silence any longer, he called out, and his 
 voice echoed again and again through the forest. 
 
 That same morning Marie was sitting on a green 
 slope while the goat cropped grass near her. It was 
 just another day in the long chain of time. The 
 winter had come and gone and the soft round note 
 of the cuckoo could be heard in the woods near by. 
 The grass was growing fast and there were flowers 
 scattered through it. It was a long day, — the long- 
 est of the year. 
 
 Suddenly while Marie sat watching her goat, she 
 thought she heard some one calling her. She looked 
 up, but saw only the goat pulling out tufts of grass 
 and shaking its white beard. At the top of the green 
 slope came the sky like a blue painted veiling. She 
 wondered if she had been mistaken, but no, there it 
 was again — 
 
 "Marie!" 
 
 And again: 
 
 "Marie 1 Marie 1" 
 
THE REIGN OF THE EVIL. ONE 183 
 
 The great moment for her had arrived, and she 
 did not hesitate. She had heard the call, and now 
 she must go. But still she could see no one; she 
 looked everywhere but . . . nobody. "It must be 
 him," she said to herself resolutely. In a moment 
 she had thought it out: the goat could be left quite 
 well and her mother would worry about her, but that 
 didn't matter, for wouldn't she bring him back with 
 her? 
 
 Off she went down the long mountain path. It 
 was a difficult path to follow, but she knew it by 
 heart, through all its turnings, its risings, and its 
 descents. A wood had to be crossed, then a wide 
 meadow, then another wood. Often there was no 
 path at all beneath the trees, but she could always 
 see where it began again. From time to time she 
 stopped for an instant, and the voice urged her for- 
 ward. 
 
 Traces of the tragedy she was approaching began 
 to appear, and they would have frightened her had 
 she noticed them. Some white oaks that had fallen 
 across the road caused her no astonishment and she 
 did not even slacken her pace. All she had to do was 
 
i84 THE REIGN OF THE EVIL ONE 
 
 to creep under them. Then the light changed and 
 the very air became empty and soundless; no more 
 birds singing; no church bells tolling in the village or 
 cow-bells tinkling in the fields. 
 
 She kept on without noticing an}^ing until the 
 last ridge above the village was climbed; then the 
 full horror of it came to her, A smell of putrefac- 
 tion rose to her nostrils as from open graves, and 
 there was not only the smell but the appearance of 
 open graves: debris of walls torn from their foun- 
 dations and huge piles of upturned earth. Grey 
 deathlike silence was everywhere; she was conscious 
 of it, but did not hesitate. 
 
 The first sign of life was when she passed the 
 miller's house; its walls were cracked and the moss- 
 covered mill wheel had ceased to turn. A voice 
 questioned her: 
 
 "Where are you going?" 
 
 Marie looked up and saw that it was the miller's 
 wife leaning from a window; the woman was so 
 changed that she hardly recognised her. 
 
 "Don't go any farther or it'll be the end of you!" 
 
 "Have you seen him?" 
 
THE REIGN OF THE EVIL ONE 185 
 
 The miller's wife shook her head and Marie 
 went on into the village. Windows were thrown 
 open and people cried out: 
 
 "Stop, don't go any farther! You don't know 
 what it's like." 
 
 Marie paid no heed to these warnings for she had 
 just caught sight of a head peering out from behind 
 a wall. She thought he was watching her, but that 
 he had not the courage to show himself. The head 
 was withdrawn and she said, "I'll go as far as our 
 house anyhow." It was therefore necessary for her 
 to cross the square and this she did in spite of 
 further warnings. A few people were courageous 
 enough to come out into the street; was it because 
 they wanted to stop her, or had they perceived the 
 light that seemed to cling about her and felt the 
 puffs of fresh air that had begun to blow down from 
 the hills? 
 
 m 
 
 In the square, meanwhile, those who had been 
 lying asleep began to wake up. One after another 
 
1 86 THE REIGN OF THE EVIL ONE 
 
 raised a sleepy head, yawned, and let it fall again. 
 They had slept out upon the ground because it was 
 suffocating indoors. Beneath the big lime-tree they 
 were lying higgledy-piggledy, just where sleep had 
 overtaken them the night before. And now pleasure 
 had come again to find them. 
 
 Another day had dawned like all the others, and 
 the great stark tree which looked as though it had 
 been carved with a chisel out of black stone, still 
 stretched its motionless branches over them. Some 
 were l3ang upon bundles of straw like animals, others 
 upon the bare ground. There were more than a 
 hundred and fifty of them; men, women and chil- 
 dren, — Criblet, Clinche, Big Lucie, the man with his 
 wife and five children, Trente-et-Quarante, Labre, 
 Gentizon, and Lhote too, though he kept himself 
 away from the others. 
 
 Candles still burned in the wine-room, and upon 
 the tables little shining pools of wine dripped through 
 the cracks on to the floor, making a sound like clocks 
 ticking in the emptiness. And every now and then 
 one of the candles crackled, spluttered, and went out. 
 
 Outside, where people lay about like the killed on 
 
THE REIGN OF THE EVIL ONE 187 
 
 a battlefield, arms began to stretch, knees were 
 pulled up, and bodies turned over with sighs and 
 yawns. Even in sleep they began to make ready for 
 a day of pleasure as others might prepare for 
 work, 
 
 "Where's your accordion. Father Creux? A little 
 music, please. We make it our business to enjoy 
 life, and we like to see your old face bending over till 
 it almost touches the bellows and your fingers danc- 
 ing over the keys. Only you'll have to wait for us to 
 wake up." 
 
 They were still half asleep when Marie drew near, 
 and at first no one saw her; it would have been quite 
 easy had they been capable of seeing anything, and 
 they must have heard windows opening and warn- 
 ings being shouted at her: "Don't go any farther! 
 Stop! Stop!" The village began to rouse itself, 
 and the silence that had rested upon it for so long 
 was broken. 
 
 Marie drew near, and it was Gentizon who saw her 
 first. He propped up his head on his elbow and 
 poked Labre who lay next to him. At first they did 
 not recognise her and Gentizon simply remarked: 
 
1 88 THE REIGN OF THE EVIL ONE 
 "Here comes another," But when she was close to 
 them he cried: 
 
 "It's impossible! Marie I Lude's daughter 1 
 But it is Marie. Ages since we saw her, and Lude, 
 he's not been seen again." 
 
 Then he added: 
 
 "How pretty she is now!" 
 
 The thing started like that. Labre and Gentizon 
 looked at each other and silently agreed to act to- 
 gether. The truth was that neither of them could 
 get to his feet alone, so they lifted each other up and 
 laughed as they stood there before her; but what 
 they hoped would come next made them laugh louder 
 still. 
 
 Marie watched them walk a few steps and was 
 astonished at their height. Swaying back and forth, 
 like trees detached from their roots, they stretched 
 out their arms to her and she noticed their decayed 
 teeth and puffy red eyes. 
 
 "Come on, Marie," they said, "you've been away 
 for such a long time!" 
 
 She hesitated, unable to make out what the pecul- 
 iar expression on their faces meant. The others sat 
 
THE REIGN OF THE EVIL ONE 189 
 
 up, rubbed their eyes and looked at her. They 
 looked queer too, and laughed the same laugh. She 
 was frightened and hurried on. 
 
 Labre and Gentizon shouted, "Bravo!" and, being 
 the only ones standing, they had the lead on the 
 others. They followed Marie with long awkward 
 steps, but were unable somehow to get anywhere 
 near her. The others followed her too, and Labre 
 and Gentizon understood that they had no time to 
 lose. Gentizon made a lunge but missed his mark 
 and rolled into the gutter. Labre followed her 
 closely and every one said, "He'll get her." He 
 seemed steadier and to have better calculated his 
 movements, but at the moment of overtaking her he 
 fell backwards as though he had encoimtered a stone 
 wall. 
 
 The others stood still; silence fell upon the square, 
 and the sound of voices in the village could be heard 
 again. 
 
 Did they fear Marie, or was it pity? Perhaps it 
 was just curiosity, but whatever the cause, it was 
 evident that the village had stirred from its death- 
 like silence. The good news spread mysteriously 
 
igo THE REIGN OF THE EVIL ONE 
 
 through the streets. Could it be true? Was it pos- 
 sible? People came out fearlessly into the open, 
 and there was no more furtive peeping through 
 cracks and half-drawn curtains. 
 
 In the square they began to be impatient, es- 
 pecially the women: "Go and find the Master," they 
 cried; ' "she's making fun of us, but she'll soon 
 see . . . ." 
 
 They were surprised that he did not appear, and 
 while some one went into the Inn to get him, Criblet 
 leaned from one of the windows: "I'm just watch- 
 ing. I'm out of all this." 
 
 A knock at the door brought the Man to the thres- 
 hold. 
 
 "You'll see! You'll see!" the women shouted to 
 Marie. Then the Man came forward a few steps, 
 hesitated, then a few steps more. He seemed to 
 have lost some of his assurance and he wore a forced 
 smile. He moved very slowly and a little unsteadily, 
 to the astonishment of those who watched him. 
 Then his skin began to wrinkle, seeming to detach 
 itself from his face and neck and arms; it hung 
 
THE REIGN OF THE EVIL ONE 191 
 
 about him, loosely, like a garment that would soon 
 fall from his body. 
 
 Now he stood quite still; Marie walked up to him 
 and all she had to do was to cross herself — to make 
 the true sign. A crash of thunder tore through the 
 silence. . . . 
 
 A real glow spread over the sky, it was afterwards 
 related, and the earth shook so violently that the 
 houses were in danger of complete destruction. 
 Then, silence again, and looking from their windows 
 the people could scarcely believe their eyes. But 
 there it was, and the sunlight poured down brightly 
 upon it: a new village, with walls and roofs mended, 
 and fresh paint everywhere. The brightest sun that 
 had been seen for months and a prettier village than 
 ever, — a village in its Sunday clothes! 
 
 For a long time their amazement kept them from 
 thinking, but at last they understood: 
 
 "It's Marie!" 
 
 Every one wanted to see her, and the living rose up 
 from amongst the dead. The streets began to fill 
 
192 THE REIGN OF THE EVIL ONE 
 
 with people. Some of them could not walk and were 
 carried, others used crutches, and there were still 
 others who crawled along on their knees. It did not 
 matter how they went; to get there was the 
 thing. Already the diseases they were suffering from 
 had begun to disappear, and their bodies, like the 
 houses, became strong and healthy again. Those 
 who had been bent over stood upright once more; 
 eruptions, black ulcers and open sores vanished, 
 and fresh clear-eyed faces drank in the glistening 
 sunlight. 
 
 They were astonished to find no one in the square, 
 — not even the bodies of those whom they expected 
 to see. It was quite empty and no signs of disorder 
 were visible; no doubt the earth had opened and 
 swallowed them up. Another surprise, and a far 
 greater one, awaited them: she whom they had come 
 to find was nowhere to be seen. 
 
 Vainly they searched for her and asked each other 
 where she could be; no one knew. And a great un- 
 easiness took possession of them; it was as though 
 they had been abandoned a second time. 
 
 At that moment some one cried out: "There she 
 
THE REIGN OF THE EVIL ONE 193, 
 is!" and all was forgotten. There was a rush to- 
 wards the narrow street where she had appeared^ 
 She was coming from her house and the people surged 
 around her, longing to speak, but not daring to 
 utter a word. Still, it did not matter; they could at 
 least look at her and touch her. 
 
 But now another surprise: she herself seemed 
 anxious about something, and she asked hopelessly, 
 "Haven't you seen him, either? Haven't any of you 
 met him anywhere? I've been to our house, but 
 ... he wasn't there." 
 
 The people fell on their knees, and the women 
 nearest her kissed the edge of her skirt. 
 
 He had, alas, never dared to show himself, and 
 even now when the village had come to life again 
 and every one had been forgiven, he still hesitated, 
 sajnng to himself, "Perhaps they deserve to be for- 
 given, but I don't." 
 
 So they went to find him, and, when he was 
 brought to where Marie stood, he threw himself face 
 downwards upon the ground before her. 
 
 "Is it you, father? Is it really you?" 
 
 He could not answer, and covering his face with 
 
194 THE REIGN OF THE EVIL ONE 
 
 his hands he wept bitterly. Marie knelt down and 
 
 leaned over him, taking his hands in hers. 
 
 At that moment Big Marie-Madeleine was heard; 
 there was no one in the bell-tower, but the air 
 vibrated with the deep-toned music of her voice, 
 and the little bells sent forth cascades of silvery 
 notes. After weeks of silence they were ringing now 
 of their own accord: first Marie-Madeleine, then the 
 little ones, mounting higher and higher towards the 
 sun. 
 
 Marie helped him to his feet. 
 
 "She's waiting for us, Father," she said, and he 
 told her he was ready, that he had the courage to go 
 now. So Marie and her father set forth. The 
 sound of the chimes preceded them and the people 
 followed, but it was not a procession like the other 
 one, because peace had come to them and gladness 
 filled their hearts in spite of the sorrow and affliction 
 they had passed through. It was a smaller proces- 
 sion this time, but their troubles were all forgotten; 
 indeed it was as though they had risen from death. 
 The President came first, then Communier, old Jean- 
 Pierre, and the rest. The way led past meadows 
 
THE REIGN OF THE EVIL ONE 195 
 
 dotted with flowers and they threw back their heads 
 and stretched wide their arms for joy. Even 
 Joseph Amphion was comforted, for while gazing 
 into the sky, he thought he saw the beloved one he 
 had lost. They were just entering the forest, and 
 raising his eyes, he had seen her figure floating in 
 the blue just above the tree tops. 
 
 IV 
 
 They were so oblivious to everything but their 
 happiness that they had not noticed poor Lhote when, 
 passing the Church. He had been spared because he 
 alone had been innocent of evil. He was lying in a 
 comer of the churchyard with his face hidden in his 
 hands. 
 
 One day, the following autumn, while hunting, 
 Bonvin found the priest at the bottom of a ravine. 
 He was hanging from the branch of a larch tree, and 
 he had neither eyes, nose, nor mouth. His whole 
 face had gone, for crows had come and had known 
 what to do. 
 
 THE END 
 
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