The National Republican And Ohio Political Register

From My Grandmother's Guests and their Tales.

La Mort a tue les Vivans.

The scene is in Switzerland, between Chamounix and Geneva. A Cure attends a traveller, to have a view of Mount Blanc, and sees at a chalet a matronly beauty, of whom he gives the following account to his companion:-

The chalet, under the roof of which we are now sitting, was built by Pierre Boisset, a peasant of the neighboring valley.- He was at that period about forty years of age, and bore the character of one of the most honest and good-tempered men of his district. He had been married early; but his wife had died, leaving him one son, who, after vexing his father with all the wickedness of a wayward boy, had quitted his home; and, no tidings having been heard of him for some years, it was supposed he was dead. Pierre, after living unmarried for some time, was captivated by the charms of a youthful daughter of a peasant of Balme; and, although his age was no recommendation to his suit, yet his reputation for a kind and manly disposition gave his pretensions the advantage over wooers of greater personal attractions; and notwithstanding the disparity between 18 and 40, he made the blooming Catharine his wife. Immediately before his marriage, having obtained a grant of the land upon which this dwelling is situated, he built it for the reception of his bride. After the performance of the nuptial ceremony, he conveyed her hither; and here he dwelt in a state of tranquil happiness which is equally beyond the reach and comprehension of the rich and proud. One daughter was the only fruit of this marriage; and the beauty of her person and the amiability of her temper rendered her the pride of her parents, and more than counterbalanced the pain which the misconduct of his son occasioned to Pierre.

'Time rolled on unmarked by any other occurrences than the change of the seasons, and the progression of the lovely Marie to blooming womanhood. She was now nearly 18 years old; and although the place of her abode was so remote, she was celebrated for beauty and goodness throughout the valley. Those bad passions, which flourish so luxuriantly in the rank soil of cities, find no place, or at least no encouragement, in these simple regions. In the little church, which I pointed out at the foot of the mountain, Marie was the most beautiful of the young peasants; and I believe that, notwithstanding all the common-place sayings about female envy, not one of them could have been found to dispute her title to that distinction.

Her hand had been sought by Jacques, the son of the richest man in the commune: you may smile when I tell you that he was the Croesus of the neighborhood, because he possessed a comfortable chalet and half a score of cows. In point of wealth, Marie, too, was by no means a contemptible match: the heiress of old Pierre, who, although he had no cows, had an extensive stock of goats-and whose chalet though not remarkable for the facility of its access, was sheltered and substantial-- might, without any great advantages of person, have looked among the best of her neighbors for a husband. The attachment of the lovers was approved of by their parents, and they waited only for the arrival of the spring time to consummate their happiness.

During the winter, however, Pierre, who had enjoyed that uninterrupted health which is ever the consequence of temperance, happened, in descending the mountain, to slip and fracture one of his legs.— This accident, though by no means so serious in itself as to have endangered his life, yet, owing to the difficulty of obtaining surgical assistance, soon put on alarming appearances; and upon the arrival of a medical practitioner, three days afterwards, he pronounced his patient to be in considerable danger.

'My services, (continued the good priest,) were then required; and I was summoned to administer those consolations which are most eagerly sought when human remedies appear to fail. Previous to my setting out I was surprised by a visit from a soldier in the uniform of the Austrian service. He was in a state of considerable intoxication; but he informed me as intelligibly as he could, that he was the son of Pierre Boisset, and that, having obtained leave of absence from his regiment, he had come hither to see his father. I was grieved for the afflicting intelligence I had to impart, and still more to see the condition into which this young man's excess had reduced him. He received the news of his father's danger with the most perfect apathy, proposing, however, to accompany me on my visit. On our way I found, from his narrative, that, since he had quitted the valley, his life had been passed in riot and bloodshed, and all those vices which though not necessarily the consequences of the military profession, are too often its accompaniments. Those irregularities, which in a boy might have been amended, I saw had now ripened into serious and irreclaimable vices.

Upon my arrival at the chalet, I had become tired and disgusted with my companion, and could not help entertaining a suspicion that his visit to his father had some interested motive. I found old Pierre in such a state as convinced me he had a very short time to live; and having discharged the duties of my sacred calling by administering the last ceremonies of religion, I informed him of his son's arrival.

'The good old man, who was perfectly aware that his dissolution was about to take place, signified a wish that he should approach. He reached out his hands to give him his blessing, which the son received with an air of stupid insensibility.

'In a sad hour are you returned, my son,' said the expiring parent; 'and yet it is a consolation to me to see you once more before I die. I trust that time and experience have eradicated those faults which were the cause of your misery and of mine; and while my last prayer is, that your death-bed, though far distant, may be as tranquil as mine, remember that integrity and piety alone can make you happy in this world, and in that to which I am hastening.'?

He sank upon his pillow as he finished speaking, and, his strength gradually declining, his eyes at length closed, and he died without the precise moment of his dissolution being perceived. His wife and daughter were overcome with their emotions, and remained kneeling by the bedside. The soldier alone stood unmoved, and, muttering something about having arrived only just in time, he coolly lighted his pipe at a lamp which hung in the room, and sat down among us.

When the females were in some degree recovered, I intimated to the son that it would be better for him to retire.- He grumbled, and seemed reluctant; but at length arose, and, without taking the slightest notice of his mother and sister-in-law, he walked out.

'After offering such consolation as was in my power to the widow and her daughter, and leaving them in the care of some humane neighbors, I prepared to return home. I soon overtook the son of the deceased Pierre, whom I found complaining of the difficulty of the descent, interlarding his speech with the most vulgar imprecations. With the exception of this occasional blasphemy, he preserved a sullen silence, and, on arriving at the turning which led to my dwelling, he quitted me abruptly.

'It is the custom in this country to bury the dead very shortly after their decease, and I learned that the next day but one was fixed for the interment of the remains of old Pierre. I attended, as was my duty, to accompany the corpse, and found the little chalet filled with the neighbors and friends of the family. The coffin lay in the midst, and the mourners were seated round it. The disconsolate widow sat overwhelmed with grief; and her daughter beside her, endeavoring to comfort her, looked like an angel. The saddened tone of her features, and the tears which dimmed the brightness without diminishing the beauty of her eyes, rendered her still more engaging. They waited as I understood, for the son, who had intimated his intention of bearing his father's coffin to the grave.

'At length he arrived, bringing with him a companion.

This was a man who lived in the neighboring town of Cluse, of notoriously bad character: every one shunned him, and, altho' their dealings sometimes led them into contact with him, it was with reluctance they spake together. He was a cheat and a liar; and generally believed to have some indirect methods of acquiring money. He had long previously proposed himself as a suitor to the fair Marie, but had been indignantly rejected.

The son soon manifested symptoms of drunkenness; and looking round him with a rude stare, he at length went up to the widow, and, accosting her, said, I am come to bury my father; but, before we set out you must know that you cannot return to this chalet. It is mine; that is to say, it was; and I have sold it to my honest friend here,' pointing to his companion.

The widow looked up, but seemed incapable of speaking. At length she said, You will not, surely, have the cruelty to turn me out of my house.'

Your house!' he replied with a sneer; 'I tell you it's mine! It was my father's, he died, and I am his heir. As to turning you out, that is not my affair; if you can persuade this gentleman,' pointing again to the man who stood beside him, 'to let you stay, I'm sure I have no objection.

' At this moment I thought proper to interfere. Young man,' I said, 'I charge you by the respect which you owe to the memory of him whose mortal remains lie before you, and whose spirit is at this moment witnessing your deeds, to forbear your wicked purpose. If you are entitled, as you say, and as I fear is true, to this house, at least postpone your claim until your father's widow and his daughter have some other dwelling. Would you at this season turn them upon the desolate mountain, homeless, and without the means of sustenance? At this season, when the very beasts of the field cannot bide the inclemency of the weather?'

I tell you again,' said the apathetic ruffian, whom drunkenness had made still more brutal, that I have no voice in the business: the house was mine, and I have sold it, with all that belongs to it. You had better try to persuade the man who has bought them.'

'The person to whom he alluded stepped forward as he spoke. He was about fifty years old; thin, with a hook nose and small eyes; and of a most forbidding aspect. The people in the neighborhood said he was a Jew, and I believe they were right in their conjecture. He approached the distressed widow.

Madam,' said he 'there is a very ready method by which you may retain possession of your dwelling: if the offer which I made to Marie, your fair daughter, and which I now repeat, shall be received with less scorn.'

The gentle Marie, who, upon ordinary occasions had seemed of so mild a temper that the slightest exertion was foreign to her nature, started from her seat, her eyes glancing with indignation.

'Monster!' she cried, 'you shall find that the base and cruel plan you have laid shall be defeated. Not for worlds would I marry you; begging and starvation would be happiness compared to the disgrace of being united to a shameless and unmanly wretch, who has thus sought to increase the load of a widow's affliction in her most trying agony.' She flung her arms around her mother's neck. ' We may be poor and desolate, my dear mother; but we shall, at least, have the satisfaction of not deserving our misfortunes.

'The hardened villain shrunk back abashed at the rebuke of the young mountain deer. The bystanders murmured, and proposed to put him out by force; but I checked them. My friends,' said I, 'do not let any violence on your part lead to the outrage which has this day been offered to the dead. It is only for a time that the wicked appear to prosper; their own guilt shall one day bear them down, and bitterly repent the daring impiety which they have now committed. In the mean while remember that they carry with them the contempt of every honest man; and successful as they appear to be in their wicked designs, which of you would not rather be this houseless and bereaved widow and orphan, than the men who stand before you.'?

They were calmed: some of the elder villagers who had known the son had now gathered round him, and were endeavoring to persuade him to undo the disgraceful contract he had made. It was in vain; he listened at first indifferently, and at length impatiently to their representations, till with a volley of imprecations, he asked why they did not proceed with the funeral. Finding that all remonstrance was useless, they at length set out. 'The only road to the churchyard lay down that path by which we arrived here to-day. The alleged purchaser of the chalet went off some yards before; and the son and three of the deceased's relatives bore the coffin.- The widow, leaning on her daughter's arm, and accompanied by those friends and neighbors who had assembled on the occasion, followed at some distance. It was in the middle of winter, and the difficulties of the road had increased by the lodgments of ice in various parts of the rocky path. The son, who was in front, according to that practice which even the solemnity of the occasion could not make him lay aside, swore loudly and often as he descended. The worst part of the road had now been passed, and the procession had reached a turn in the rock, when the son, with a movement of levity, took a long step: his foot slipped, and falling upon his face, the coffin was loosened from the hold of the other bearers by the violence of the shock:-it fell upon his head and the blow produced instant death!

The impulse thus given to the coffin was so great that it turned over on one side, and continued to roll towards the intruder, who had preceded the company, and who had now gained the lower portion of the rock. He saw it coming, and earnestly, but vainly tried to escape: the coffin struck him on the legs, and he was hurled over into the deep abyss! when the trunk of a pine tree prevented the further descent of the corpse. A cry of surprise and horror burst from the following mourners. The body of the son was taken up totally lifeless; that of the other man was not found until the next day-so mutilated and disfigured that it would have been impossible to have recognized it but by his dress.

When the consternation caused by this event had in some measure subsided, the coffin was recovered, and was borne without further accident to the church yard, where it was quietly interred. There being now no persons to dispute the right of the widow and Marie to their chalet, they returned thither; and, having addressed the assembled villagers upon the fearfully mysterious event which had just happened, I retired to my own home, to meditate upon the awful and righteous dispensations of Providence. The female whom you have just seen, is the Marie of the tale I have related to you, and from this circumstance the mountain path is still called by the peasants ' La Mort a tue les Vivans.'