第477章

Rodin did not answer, but clasped his hands over his head, closed his eyes, and presented his chest.It was a strange, lugubrious, almost fantastic spectacle.The three priests, in their long black gowns, leaned over this body, which almost resembled a corpse, and blowing through their tubes into the chest of the patient, seemed as if pumping up his blood by some magic charm.A sickening odor of burnt flesh began to spread through the silent chamber, and each assistant heard a slight crackling beneath the smoking trivet; it was the skin of Rodin giving way to the action of fire, and splitting open in four different parts of his chest.The sweat poured from his livid face, which it made to shine; a few locks of his gray hair stood up stiff and moist from his temples.

Sometimes the spasms were so violent, that the veins swelled on his stiffened arms, and were stretched like cords ready to break.

Enduring this frightful torture with as much intrepid resignation as the savage whose glory consists in despising pain, Rodin gathered his strength and courage from the hope--we had almost said the certainty--of life.Such was the make of this dauntless character, such the energy of this powerful mind, that, in the midst of indescribable torments, his one fixed idea never left him.During the rare intervals of suffering--for pain is equal even at this degree of intensity--Rodin still thought of the Rennepont inheritance, and calculated his chances, and combined his measures, feeling that he had not a minute to lose.Dr.Baleinier watched him with extreme attention, waiting for the effects of the reaction of pain upon the patient, who seemed already to breathe with less difficulty.

Suddenly Rodin placed his hand on his forehead, as if struck with some new idea, and turning his head towards Dr.Baleinier, made a sign to him to suspend the operation.

"I must tell you, reverend father," answered the doctor."that it is not half finished, and, if we leave off, the renewal will be more painful--"

Rodin made a sign that he did not care, and that he wanted to write.

"Gentlemen, stop a moment," said Dr.Baleinier; "keep down your moxas, but do not blow the fire."

So the fire was to burn slowly, instead of fiercely, but still upon the skin of the patient.In spite of this pain, less intense, but still sharp and keen, Rodin, stretched upon his back, began to write, holding the paper above his head.On the first sheet he traced some alphabetic signs, part of a cipher known to himself alone.In the midst of the torture, a luminous idea had crossed his mind; fearful of forgetting it amidst his sufferings, he now took note of it.On another paper he wrote the following, which was instantly delivered to Father d'Aigrigny: "Send B.immediately to Faringhea, for the report of the last few days with regard to Djalma, and let B.bring it hither on the instant." Father d'Aigrigny went out to execute this new order.The cardinal approached a little nearer to the scene of the operation, for, in spite of the bad odor of the room, he took delight in seeing the Jesuit half roasted, having long cherished against him the rancor of an Italian and a priest.

"Come, reverend father," said the doctor to Rodin, "continue to be admirably courageous, and your chest will free itself.You have still a bitter moment to go through--and then I have good hope."

The patient resumed his former position.The moment Father d'Aigrigny returned, Rodin questioned him with a look, to which the reverend father replied by a nod.At a sign from the doctor, the four assistants began to blow through the tubes with all their might.This increase of torture was so horrible, that, in spite of his self-control, Rodin gnashed his teeth, started convulsively, and so expanded his palpitating chest, that, after a violent spasm, there rose from his throat and lungs a scream of terrific pain--but it was free, loud, sonorous.

"The chest is free!" cried the doctor, in triumph."The lungs have play-

-the voice returns--he is saved!--Blow, gentlemen, blow; and, reverend father, cry out as much as you please: I shall be delighted to hear you, for it will give you relief.Courage! I answer for the result.It is a wonderful cure.I will publish it by sound of trumpet."

"Allow me, doctor," whispered Father d'Aigrigny, as he approached Dr.

Baleinier; "the cardinal can witness, that I claimed beforehand the publication of this affair--as a miraculous fact."

"Let it be miraculous then," answered Dr.Baleinier, disappointed--for he set some value on his own work.

On hearing he was saved, Rodin though his sufferings were perhaps worse than ever, for the fire had now pierced the scarf-skin, assumed almost an infernal beauty.Through the painful contraction of his features shone the pride of savage triumph; the monster felt that he was becoming once more strong and powerful, and he seemed conscious the evils that his fatal resurrection was to cause.And so, of still writhing beneath the flames, he pronounced these words, the first that struggled from his chest: "I told you I should live!"

"You told us true," cried the doctor, feeling his pulse; "the circulation is now full and regular, the lungs are free.The reaction is complete.

You are saved."

At this moment, the last shreds of cotton had burnt out.The trivets were withdrawn, and on the skeleton trunk of Rodin were seen four large round blisters.The skin still smoked, and the raw flesh was visible beneath.In one of his sudden movements, a lamp had been misplaced, and one of these burns was larger than the other, presenting as it were to the eye a double circle.Rodin looked down upon his wounds.After some seconds of silent contemplation, a strange smile curled his lips.

Without changing his position, he glanced at Father d'Aigrigny with an expression impossible to describe, and said to him, as he slowly counted the wounds touching them with his flat and dirty nail: "Father d'Aigrigny, what an omen!--Look here! one Rennepont--two Renneponts--

three Renneponts--four Renneponts--where is then the fifth!--Ah! here--

this wound will count for two.They are twins."[41] And he emitted a little dry, bitter laugh.Father d'Aigrigny, the cardinal, and Dr.

Baleinier, alone understood the sense of these mysterious and fatal words, which Rodin soon completed by a terrible allusion, as he exclaimed, with prophetic voice, and almost inspired air: "Yes, I say it.

The impious race will be reduced to ashes, like the fragments of this poor flesh.I say it, and it will be so.I said I would live--and I do live!"

[41] Jacques Rennepont being dead, and Gabriel out of the field, in consequence of his donation, there remained only five persons of the family--Rose and Blanche, Djalma, Adrienne, and Hardy.