St. Ives, Being the Adventures of a French Prisoner in England , livre ebook

Pub One Info - Stevenson Robert Louis

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171 pages

English

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pubOne.info thank you for your continued support and wish to present you this new edition. IT was in the month of May 1813 that I was so unlucky as to fall at last into the hands of the enemy. My knowledge of the English language had marked me out for a certain employment. Though I cannot conceive a soldier refusing to incur the risk, yet to be hanged for a spy is a disgusting business; and I was relieved to be held a prisoner of war. Into the Castle of Edinburgh, standing in the midst of that city on the summit of an extraordinary rock, I was cast with several hundred fellow-sufferers, all privates like myself, and the more part of them, by an accident, very ignorant, plain fellows. My English, which had brought me into that scrape, now helped me very materially to bear it. I had a thousand advantages. I was often called to play the part of an interpreter, whether of orders or complaints, and thus brought in relations, sometimes of mirth, sometimes almost of friendship, with the officers in charge. A young lieutenant singled me out to be his adversary at chess, a game in which I was extremely proficient, and would reward me for my gambits with excellent cigars

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Publié par	Pub One Info
Date de parution	23 octobre 2010
Nombre de lectures	0
EAN13	9782819917182
Langue	English

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CHAPTER I - A TALE OF A LION RAMPANT
IT was in the month of May 1813 that I was sounlucky as to fall at last into the hands of the enemy. Myknowledge of the English language had marked me out for a certainemployment. Though I cannot conceive a soldier refusing to incurthe risk, yet to be hanged for a spy is a disgusting business; andI was relieved to be held a prisoner of war. Into the Castle ofEdinburgh, standing in the midst of that city on the summit of anextraordinary rock, I was cast with several hundredfellow-sufferers, all privates like myself, and the more part ofthem, by an accident, very ignorant, plain fellows. My English,which had brought me into that scrape, now helped me verymaterially to bear it. I had a thousand advantages. I was oftencalled to play the part of an interpreter, whether of orders orcomplaints, and thus brought in relations, sometimes of mirth,sometimes almost of friendship, with the officers in charge. Ayoung lieutenant singled me out to be his adversary at chess, agame in which I was extremely proficient, and would reward me formy gambits with excellent cigars. The major of the battalion tooklessons of French from me while at breakfast, and was sometimes soobliging as to have me join him at the meal. Chevenix was his name.He was stiff as a drum-major and selfish as an Englishman, but afairly conscientious pupil and a fairly upright man. Little did Isuppose that his ramrod body and frozen face would, in the end,step in between me and all my dearest wishes; that upon thisprecise, regular, icy soldier-man my fortunes should so nearlyshipwreck! I never liked, but yet I trusted him; and though it mayseem but a trifle, I found his snuff-box with the bean in it comevery welcome.
For it is strange how grown men and seasonedsoldiers can go back in life; so that after but a little while inprison, which is after all the next thing to being in the nursery,they grow absorbed in the most pitiful, childish interests, and asugar biscuit or a pinch of snuff become things to follow after andscheme for!
We made but a poor show of prisoners. The officershad been all offered their parole, and had taken it. They livedmostly in suburbs of the city, lodging with modest families, andenjoyed their freedom and supported the almost continual eviltidings of the Emperor as best they might. It chanced I was theonly gentleman among the privates who remained. A great part wereignorant Italians, of a regiment that had suffered heavily inCatalonia. The rest were mere diggers of the soil, treaders ofgrapes or hewers of wood, who had been suddenly and violentlypreferred to the glorious state of soldiers. We had but the oneinterest in common: each of us who had any skill with his fingerspassed the hours of his captivity in the making of little toys andARTICLES OF PARIS; and the prison was daily visited at certainhours by a concourse of people of the country, come to exult overour distress, or - it is more tolerant to suppose - their ownvicarious triumph. Some moved among us with a decency of shame orsympathy. Others were the most offensive personages in the world,gaped at us as if we had been baboons, sought to evangelise us totheir rustic, northern religion, as though we had been savages, ortortured us with intelligence of disasters to the arms of France.Good, bad, and indifferent, there was one alleviation to theannoyance of these visitors; for it was the practice of almost allto purchase some specimen of our rude handiwork. This led, amongstthe prisoners, to a strong spirit of competition. Some were neat ofhand, and (the genius of the French being always distinguished)could place upon sale little miracles of dexterity and taste. Somehad a more engaging appearance; fine features were found to do aswell as fine merchandise, and an air of youth in particular (as itappealed to the sentiment of pity in our visitors) to be a sourceof profit. Others again enjoyed some acquaintance with thelanguage, and were able to recommend the more agreeably topurchasers such trifles as they had to sell. To the first of theseadvantages I could lay no claim, for my fingers were all thumbs.Some at least of the others I possessed; and finding muchentertainment in our commerce, I did not suffer my advantages torust. I have never despised the social arts, in which it is anational boast that every Frenchman should excel. For the approachof particular sorts of visitors, I had a particular manner ofaddress, and even of appearance, which I could readily assume andchange on the occasion rising. I never lost an opportunity toflatter either the person of my visitor, if it should be a lady,or, if it should be a man, the greatness of his country in war. Andin case my compliments should miss their aim, I was always ready tocover my retreat with some agreeable pleasantry, which would oftenearn me the name of an 'oddity' or a 'droll fellow.' In this way,although I was so left-handed a toy-maker, I made out to be rathera successful merchant; and found means to procure many littledelicacies and alleviations, such as children or prisonersdesire.
I am scarcely drawing the portrait of a verymelancholy man. It is not indeed my character; and I had, in acomparison with my comrades, many reasons for content. In the firstplace, I had no family: I was an orphan and a bachelor; neitherwife nor child awaited me in France. In the second, I had neverwholly forgot the emotions with which I first found myself aprisoner; and although a military prison be not altogether a gardenof delights, it is still preferable to a gallows. In the third, Iam almost ashamed to say it, but I found a certain pleasure in ourplace of residence: being an obsolete and really mediaevalfortress, high placed and commanding extraordinary prospects, notonly over sea, mountain, and champaign but actually over thethoroughfares of a capital city, which we could see blackened byday with the moving crowd of the inhabitants, and at night shiningwith lamps. And lastly, although I was not insensible to therestraints of prison or the scantiness of our rations, I rememberedI had sometimes eaten quite as ill in Spain, and had to mount guardand march perhaps a dozen leagues into the bargain. The first of mytroubles, indeed, was the costume we were obliged to wear. There isa horrible practice in England to trick out in ridiculous uniforms,and as it were to brand in mass, not only convicts but militaryprisoners, and even the children in charity schools. I think somemalignant genius had found his masterpiece of irony in the dresswhich we were condemned to wear: jacket, waistcoat, and trousers ofa sulphur or mustard yellow, and a shirt or blue-and-white stripedcotton. It was conspicuous, it was cheap, it pointed us out tolaughter - we, who were old soldiers, used to arms, and some of usshowing noble scars, - like a set of lugubrious zanies at a fair.The old name of that rock on which our prison stood was (I haveheard since then) the PAINTED HILL. Well, now it was all painted abright yellow with our costumes; and the dress of the soldiers whoguarded us being of course the essential British red rag, we madeup together the elements of a lively picture of hell. I have againand again looked round upon my fellow-prisoners, and felt my angerrise, and choked upon tears, to behold them thus parodied. The morepart, as I have said, were peasants, somewhat bettered perhaps bythe drill-sergeant, but for all that ungainly, loutish fellows,with no more than a mere barrack-room smartness of address: indeed,you could have seen our army nowhere more discreditably representedthan in this Castle of Edinburgh. And I used to see myself infancy, and blush. It seemed that my more elegant carriage would butpoint the insult of the travesty. And I remembered the days when Iwore the coarse but honourable coat of a soldier; and rememberedfurther back how many of the noble, the fair, and the gracious hadtaken a delight to tend my childhood.. .. But I must not recallthese tender and sorrowful memories twice; their place is furtheron, and I am now upon another business. The perfidy of theBritannic Government stood nowhere more openly confessed than inone particular of our discipline: that we were shaved twice in theweek. To a man who has loved all his life to be fresh shaven, can amore irritating indignity be devised? Monday and Thursday were thedays. Take the Thursday, and conceive the picture I must present bySunday evening! And Saturday, which was almost as bad, was thegreat day for visitors.
Those who came to our market were of all qualities,men and women, the lean and the stout, the plain and the fairlypretty. Sure, if people at all understood the power of beauty,there would be no prayers addressed except to Venus; and the mereprivilege of beholding a comely woman is worth paying for. Ourvisitors, upon the whole, were not much to boast of; and yet,sitting in a corner and very much ashamed of myself and my absurdappearance, I have again and again tasted the finest, the rarest,and the most ethereal pleasures in a glance of an eye that I shouldnever see again - and never wanted to. The flower of the hedgerowand the star in heaven satisfy and delight us: how much more thelook of that exquisite being who was created to bear and rear, tomadden and rejoice, mankind!
There was one young lady in particular, abouteighteen or nineteen, tall, of a gallant carriage, and with aprofusion of hair in which the sun found threads of gold. As soonas she came in the courtyard (and she was a rather frequentvisitor) it seemed I was aware of it. She had an air of angeliccandour, yet of a high spirit; she stepped like a Diana, everymovement was noble and free. One day there was a strong east wind;the banner was straining at the flagstaff; below us the smoke ofthe city chimneys blew hither and thither in a thousand crazyvariations; and away out on the Forth we could see the ships lyingdown to it and scudding. I was thinking what a vile day it was,wh