Right of Way — 17 - Chapters 54, 55, 56, & 57

“I have never been deceived,” she said aloud.

“I love him--love him--love him.

” CHAPTER LIV. M. ROSSIGNOL SLIPS THE LEASH

It was the last day of the Passion Play, and the great dramatic mission was drawing to a close.

The confidence of the Cure and the Seigneur was restored.

The prohibition against strangers had had its effect, and for three whole days the valley had been at rest again.

Apparently there was not a stranger within its borders, save the Seigneur’s brother, the Abbe Rossignol, who had come to see the moving spectacle.

The Abbe, on his arrival, had made inquiries concerning the tailor of Chaudiere and Jo Portugais, as persistently about the one as the other.

Their secrets had been kept inviolate by him.

It was disconcerting to hear the tales people told of the tailor’s charity and wisdom.

It was all dangerous, for what was, accidentally, no evil in this particular instance, might be the greatest disaster in another case.

Principle was at stake.

He heard in stern silence the Cure’s happy statement that Jo Portugais had returned to the bosom of the Church, and attended Mass regularly.

“So it may be, my dear Abbe,” said M. Loisel, “that the friendship between him and our ‘infidel’ has been the means of helping Portugais.

I

hope their friendship will go on unbroken for years and years.

” “I have no idea that it will,” said the Abbe grimly.

“That rope of friendship may snap untimely.

” “Upon my soul, you croak like a raven!

” testily broke in M. Rossignol, who was present.

“I didn’t know there was so much in common between you and my surly-jowled groom.

He gets his pleasure out of croaking.

‘Wait, wait, you’ll see--you’ll see!

Death, death, death--every man must die!

The devil has you by the hair--death--death--death!

’ Bah!

I’m heartily sick of croakers.

I suppose, like my grunting groom, you’ll say about the Passion Play, ‘No good will come of it--wait--wait--wait!

’ Bah!

” “It may not be an unmixed good,” answered the ascetic.

“Well, and is there any such thing on earth as an unmixed good?

The play yesterday was worth a thousand sermons.

It was meant to serve Holy Church, and it will serve it.

Was there ever anything more real--and touching--than Paulette Dubois as Mary Magdalene yesterday?

” “I do not approve of such reality.

For that woman to play the part is to destroy the impersonality of the scene.

” “You would demand that the Christus should be a good man, and the St. John blameless--why shouldn’t the Magdalene be a repentant woman?

” “It might impress the people more, if the best woman in your parish were to play the part.

The fall of virtue, the ruin of innocence, would be vividly brought home.

It does good to make the innocent feel the terror and shame of sin.

That is the price the good pay for the fall of man--sorrow and shame for those who sin.

” The Seigneur, rising quickly from the table, and kicking his chair back, said angrily: “Damn your theories!

” Then, seeing the frozen look on his brother’s face, continued, more excitedly: “Yes, damn, damn, damn your theories!

You always took the crass view.

I beg your pardon, Cure--I beg your pardon.

” He then went to the window, threw it open, and called to his groom.

“Hi, there, coffin-face,” he said, “bring round the horses--the quietest one in the stable for my brother--you hear?

He can’t ride,” he added maliciously.

This was his fiercest stroke, for the Abbe’s secret vanity was the belief that he looked well on a horse, and rode handsomely.

CHAPTER LV. ROSALIE PLAYS A PART

From a tree upon a little hill rang out a bell--a deep-toned bell, bought by the parish years before for the missions held at this very spot.

Every day it rang for an instant at the beginning of each of the five acts.

It also tolled slowly when the curtain rose upon the scene of the Crucifixion.

In this act no one spoke save the abased Magdalene, who knelt at the foot of the cross, and on whose hair red drops fell when the Roman soldier pierced the side of the figure on the cross.

This had been the Cure’s idea.

The Magdalene should speak for mankind, for the continuing world.

She should speak for the broken and contrite heart in all ages, should be the first-fruits of the sacrifice, a flower of the desert earth, bedewed by the blood of the Prince of Peace.

So, in the long nights of the late winter and early spring, the Cure had thought and thought upon what the woman should say from the foot of the cross.

At last he put into her mouth that which told the whole story of redemption and deliverance, so far as his heart could conceive it--the prayer for all sorts and conditions of men and the general thanksgiving of humanity.

During the last three days Paulette Dubois had taken the part of Mary Magdalene.

As Jo Portugais had confessed to the Abbe that notable day in the woods at Vadrome Mountain, so she had confessed to the Cure after so many years of agony--and the one confession fitted into the other: Jo had once loved her, she had treated him vilely, then a man had wronged her, and Jo had avenged her--this was the tale in brief.

She it was who laughed in the gallery of the court-room the day that Joseph Nadeau was acquitted.

It had pained and shocked the Cure more than any he had ever heard, but he urged for her no penalty as Portugais had set for himself with the austere approval of the Abbe.

Paulette’s presence as the Magdalene had had a deep effect upon the people, so that she shared with Mary the Mother the painfully real interest of the vast audience.

Five times had the bell rung out in the perfect spring air, upon which the balm of the forest and the refreshment of the ardent sun were poured.

The quick anger of M. Rossignol had passed away long before the Cure, the Abbe, and himself had reached the lake and the great plateau.

Between the acts the two brothers walked up and down together, at peace once more, and there was a suspicious moisture in the Seigneur’s eyes.

The demeanour of the people had been so humble and rapt that the place and the plateau and the valley seemed alone in creation with the lofty drama of the ages.

The Cure’s eyes shone when he saw on a little knoll in the trees, apart from the worshippers and spectators, Charley and Jo Portugais.

His cup of content was now full.

He had felt convinced that if the tailor had but been within these bounds during the past three days, a work were begun which should end only at the altar of their parish church.

To-day the play became to him the engine of God for the saving of a man’s soul.

Not long before the last great tableau was to appear he went to his own little tent near the hut where the actors prepared to go upon the stage.

As he entered, some one came quickly forward from the shadow of the trees and touched him on the arm.

“Rosalie!

” he cried in amazement, for she wore the costume of Mary Magdalene.

“It is I, not Paulette, who will appear,” she said, a deep light in her eyes.

“You, Rosalie?

” he asked dumfounded.

“You are distrait.

Trouble and sorrow have put this in your mind.

You must not do it.

” “Yes, I am going there,” she said, pointing towards the great stage.

“Paulette has given me these to wear”--she touched the robe--“and I only ask your blessing now.

Oh, believe, believe me, I can speak for those who are innocent and those who are guilty; for those who pray and those who cannot pray; for those who confess and those who dare not!

I can speak the words out of my heart with gladness and agony, Monsieur,” she urged, in a voice vibrating with feeling.

A luminous look came into the Cure’s face.

A thought leapt up in his heart.

Who could tell!

--this pure girl, speaking for the whole sinful, unbelieving, and believing world, might be the one last conquering argument to the man.

He could not read the agony of spirit which had driven Rosalie to this--to confess through the words of Mary Magdalene her own woe, to say it out to all the world, and to receive, as did Paulette Dubois, every day after the curtain came down, absolution and blessing.

She longed for the old remembered peace.

The Cure could not read the struggle between her love for a man and the ineradicable habit of her soul; but he raised his hand, made the sacred gesture over leer, and said: “Go, my child, and God be with you.

” He could not see her for tears as she hurried away to where Paulette Dubois awaited her--the two at peace now.

At the hands of the lately despised and injurious woman Rosalie was made ready to play the part in the last act, none knowing save the few who appeared in the final tableau, and they at the last moment only.

The bell began to toll.

A thousand people fell upon their knees, and with fascinated yet abashed and awe-struck eyes saw the great tableau of Christendom: the three crosses against the evening sky, the Figure in the centre, the Roman populace, the trembling Jews, the pathetic groups of disciples.

A cloud passed across the sky, the illusion grew, and hearts quivered in piteous sympathy.

There was no music now--not a sound save the sob of some overwrought woman.

The woe of an oppressed world absorbed them.

Even the stolid Indians, as Roman soldiers, shrank awe-stricken from the sacred tragedy.

Now the eyes of all were upon the central Figure, then they shifted for a moment to John the Beloved, standing with the Mother.

“Pauvre Mere!

Pauvre Christ!

” said a weeping woman aloud.

A Roman soldier raised a spear and pierced the side of the Hero of the World.

Blood flowed, and hundreds gasped.

Then there was silence--a strange hush as of a prelude to some great event.

“It is finished.

Father, into Thy hands I commend my spirit,” said the Figure.

The hush was broken by such a sound as one hears in a forest when a wind quivers over the earth, flutters the leaves, and then sinks away--neither having come nor gone, but only lived and died.

Again there was silence, and then all eyes were fixed upon the figure at the foot of the cross-Mary the Magdalene.

Day after day they had seen this figure rise, come forward a step, and speak the epilogue to this moving miracle-drama.

For the last three days Paulette Dubois had turned a sorrowful face upon them, and with one hand upraised had spoken the prayer, the prophecy, the thanksgiving, the appeal of humanity and the ages.

They looked to see the same figure now, and waited.

But as the Magdalene turned, there was a great stir in the multitude, for the face bent upon them was that of Rosalie Evanturel.

Awe and wonder moved the people.

Apart from the crowd, under a clump of trees, knelt a woodsman from Vadrome Mountain, and the tailor of Chaudiere stood beside him.

When Charley, touched by the heavy scene, saw the figure of the Magdalene rise, he felt a curious thrill of fascination.

When she turned, and he saw the face of Rosalie, the blood rushed to his face;

then his heart seemed to stand still.

Pain and shame travelled to the farthest recesses of his nature.

Jo Portugais rose to his feet with a startled exclamation.

Rosalie began to speak.

“This is the day of which the hours shall never cease--in it there shall be no night.

He whom ye have crucified hath saved you from the wrath to come.

He hath saved others, Himself He would not save.

Even for such as I, who have secretly opened, who have secretly entered, the doors of sin--” With a gasp of horror and a mad desire to take her away from the sight of this gaping, fascinated crowd, Charley made to rush forward, but Jo Portugais held him back.

“Be still.

You will ruin her, M’sieu’!

” said Jo.

“--even for such as I am,” the beautiful voice went on, “hath He died.

And in the ages to come, women such as I, and all women who sorrow, and all men who err and are deceived, and all the helpless world, will know that this was the Friend of the human soul.

” Not a gesture, not a movement, only that slight, pathetic figure, with pale, agonised face, and eyes that looked--looked--looked beyond them, over their heads to the darkening east, the clouded light of evening behind her.

Her voice rang out now valiant and clear, now searching and piteous, yet reaching to where the farthermost person knelt, and was lost upon the lake and in the spreading trees.

“What ye have done may never be undone; what He hath said shall never be unsaid.

His is the Word which shall unite all languages, when ye that are Romans shall be no more Romans, and ye that are Jews shall still be Jews, reproached and alone.

No longer shall men faint in the glare--the shadow of the Cross shall screen them.

No more shall woman bear her black sorrows, alone; the Light of the World shall cheer her.

” As she spoke, the cloud drew back from the sunset, and the saffron glow behind lighted the cross, and shone upon her hair, casting her face in a gracious shadow.

Her voice rose higher.

“I, the Magdalene, am the first-fruits of this sacrifice: from the foot of the cross I come.

I

have sinned more than all.

I have shamed all women.

But I have confessed my sin, and He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

” Her voice now became lower, but clear and even, pathetically exulting: “O world, forgive, as He hath forgiven you!

Fall, dark curtain, and hide this pain, and rise again upon forgiven sin and a redeemed people!

” She stood still, with her eyes upraised, and the curtain came slowly down.

For a long time no one in all the gathered multitude stirred.

Far over under the trees a man sat upon the ground, his head upon his arms, and his arms upon his knees, in a misery unmeasurable.

Beside him stood a woodsman, who knew of no word to say that might comfort him.

A girl, in the garb of the Magdalene, entered the tent of the Cure, and, speaking no word, knelt and received absolution of her sins.

CHAPTER LVI. MRS.

FLYNN SPEAKS

CHARLEY left Jo Portugais behind, and went home alone.

He watched at a window till he saw Rosalie return.

As she passed quickly down the street with Mrs. Flynn to her own door, he observed that her face was happier than he had seen it for many a day.

Her step was lighter, there was a freedom in her air, a sense of confidence in her carriage.

She bore herself as one who had done a thing which relaxed a painful tension.

There was a curious glow in her eyes and face, and this became deeper as, showing himself at the door, she saw him, smiled, and stood still.

He came across the street and took her hand.

“You have been away,” she said softly.

“For a few days,” he answered.

“Far?

” “At Vadrome Mountain.

” “You have missed these last days of the Passion Play,” she said, a shadow in her eyes.

“I was present to-day,” he answered.

She turned away her head quickly, for the look in his eyes told her more than any words could have done, and Mrs. Flynn said: “‘Tis a day for everlastin’ mimory, sir.

For the part she played this day, the darlin’, only such as she could play!

‘Tis the innocent takin’ the shame o’ the guilty, and the tears do be comin’ to me eyes.

‘Tis not ould Widdy Flynn’s eyes alone that’s wet this day, but hearts do be weepin’ for the love o’ God.

” Rosalie suddenly opened the door, and, without another look at Charley, entered the house.

“‘Tis one in a million!

” said Mrs. Flynn, in a confidential tone, for she had a fixed idea that Rosalie loved Charley and that he loved her, and that the only thing that stood in the way of their marriage was religion.

From the first Charley had conquered Mrs. Flynn.

That he was a tailor was a pity and a shame, but love was love, and the man had a head on him and a heart in him; and love was love!

So Mrs. Flynn said: “‘Tis one that a man that’s a man should do annything for, was it havin’ the heart cut out uv him, or givin’ the last drop uv his blood.

Shure, for such as her, murder, or false witness, or givin’ up the last wish or thought a man hugged to his boosom, would be as aisy as aisy.

” Charley laughed to himself, her purpose was so obvious, but his heart went out to her, for she was a friend, and, whatever came to him, Rosalie would not be alone.

“I believe every word of yours,” he said, shaking her hand, “and we’ll see, you and I, that no man marries her who isn’t ready to do what you say.

” “Would you do it yourself--if it was you?

” she asked, flushing for her boldness.

“I would,” he answered.

“Then do it,” she said, and fled inside the house and shut the door.

“Mrs. Flynn--good Mrs. Flynn!

” he said, and went back sadly to his house, and shut himself up with his thoughts.

When night drew on he went to bed, but he could not sleep.

He got up after a time, and taking pen and paper, wrote for a long time.

Having finished, he took what he had written, and placing it with the two packets-of money and pearls--which he had brought from his old home, he addressed it to the Cure, and going to the safe in the wall of the shop, placed them inside and locked the door.

Then he went to bed, and slept soundly--the deep sleep of the just.

CHAPTER LVII. A BURNING FIERY FURNACE

Every man within the limits of the parish was in his bed, save one.

He was a stranger who, once before, had visited Chaudiere for one brief day, when he had been saved from death at the Red Ravine, and had fled the village that night because, as he thought, he had heard the voice of his old friend’s ghost in the trees.

Since that time he had travelled in many parishes, healing where he could, entertaining where he might, earning money as the charlatan.

He was now on his way back through the parishes to Montreal, and his route lay through Chaudiere.

He had hoped to reach Chaudiere before nightfall--he remembered with fear the incident from which he had fled many months before; but his horse had broken its leg on a corduroy bridge, a few miles out from the parish in the hills, and darkness came upon him before he could hide his wagon in the woods and proceed afoot to Chaudiere.

He had shot his horse, and rolled it into the swift torrent beneath the bridge.

Travelling the lonely road, he drank freely from the whiskey-horn he carried, to keep his spirits up, so that by the time he came to the outskirts of Chaudiere he was in a state of intoxication, and reeled impudently along with the “Dutch courage” the liquor had given him.

Arrived at the first cluster of houses in the place, he paused uncertain.

Should he knock here or go on to the tavern?

He shivered at thought of the tavern, for it was near it he had heard Charley Steele’s voice calling to him out of the trees.

If he knocked here, would the people admit him in his present state?

--he had sense enough to know that he was very drunk.

As he shook his head in owlish gravity, he saw the church on the hill not far away.

He chuckled to himself.

The carpet in the chancel and the hassocks at the altar would make a good bed.

No fear of Charley’s ghost coming inside the church--it wouldn’t be that kind of a ghost.

As he travelled the intervening space, shrugging his shoulders, staggering serenely, he told himself in confidence that he would leave the church at dawn, go to the tavern, purchase a horse as soon as might be, and get back to his wagon.

The church door was unlocked, and he entered and made his way to the chancel, found surplices in the vestry and put a hassock inside one for a pillow.

Then he sat down and drew the loose rug of the chancel-floor over him, and took another drink from the whiskey horn.

Lighting his pipe, he smoked for a while, but grew drowsy, and his pipe fell into his lap.

With eyes nearly shut he struck another match, made to light his pipe again, but threw the match away, still burning.

As he did so the pipe dropped again from his mouth, and he fell back on the hassock-pillow he had made.

The lighted match fell on a surplice which had dropped from his arms as he came from the vestry, and set it afire.

In five minutes the whole chancel was burning, and the sleeping man waked in the midst of smoke and flame.

He staggered to his feet with a terror-stricken cry, stumbled down the aisle, through the front door, and out into the night.

Reaching the road, he turned his face again to the hill where his wagon lay hid.

If he could reach that, he would be safe; nobody would suspect him.

He clutched the whiskey-horn tight and broke into a run.

As he passed beyond the village his excited imagination heard Charley Steele’s ghost calling after him.

He ran harder.

The voice kept calling from Chaudiere.

Not Charley’s voice, but the voices of many people in Chaudiere were calling.

Some wakeful person had seen the glare in the church windows and had given the alarm, and now there rang through the streets the call-“Fire!

Fire!

Fire!

” Charley and Jo were among the last to wake, for both had slept soundly, but Jo was roused by a handful of gravel thrown at his window and a warning cry, and a few moments later he and Charley were in the street with a hurrying crowd.

Over all the village was a red glare, lighting up the sky, burnishing the trees.

The church was a mass of flames.

Charley was as pale as the rest of the crowd; for he thought of the Cure, he thought of this people to whom their church meant more than home and vastly more than friend and fortune.

His heart was with them all: not because it was their church that was burning, but because it was something dear to them.

Reaching the hill, he saw the Cure coming from the vestry of the burning church, bearing some vessels of the altar.

Depositing them in the arms of his weeping sister, he turned again towards the door.

People clung to him, and would not let him go.

“See, it is all inflames,” they cried.

“Your cassock is singed.

You shall not go.

” At that moment Charley and Portugais came up.

A hurried question to the Cure from Charley, a key handed over, a nod from Jo, and before the Cure could prevent them the two men had rushed through the smoke and flame into the vestry, Portugais holding Charley’s hand.

The crowd outside waited in a terrible anxiety.

The timbers of the chancel portion of the building seemed about to fall, and still the two men did not appear.

The people called; the Cure clinched his hands at his side--he was too fearful even to pray.

But now the two men appeared, loaded with the few treasures of the church.

They were scorched and singed, and the beards of both were burned, but, stumbling and exhausted, they brought their loads to the eager arms of the waiting habitants.

Then from the other end of the church came a cry: “The little cross--the little iron cross!

” Then another cry: “Rosalie Evanturel!

Rosalie Evanturel!

” Some one came running to the Cure.

“Rosalie Evanturel has gone inside for the little cross on the pillar.

She is in the flames; the door has fallen in.

She can’t get out again.

” With a hoarse cry, Charley darted back inside the vestry door.

A cry of horror went up.

It was only a minute and a half, but it seemed like years, and then a man in flames appeared in the fiery porch--and not alone.

He carried a girl in his arms.

He wavered even at the threshold with the timbers swaying overhead, but, with a last effort, he plunged forward through the furnace, and was caught by eager hands on the margin of endurable heat.

The two were smothered in quilts brought from the Cure’s house, and carried swiftly to the cool safety of the grass and trees beyond.

The woman had fainted in the flame of the church; the man dropped insensible as they caught her from his arms.

As they tore away Charley’s coat muffling his face, and opened his shirt, they stared in awe.

The cross which Rosalie had torn from the pillar, Charley had thrust into his bosom, and there it now lay on the red scar made by itself in the hands of Louis Trudel.

M.

Loisel waved the people back.

He raised Charley’s head.

The Abbe Rossignol, who had just arrived with the Seigneur, lifted the cross from the insensible man’s breast.

He started when he saw the scar.

Then he remembered the tale he had heard.

He turned away gravely to his brother.

“Was it the cross or the woman he went for?

” he asked.

“Great God--do you ask!

” the Seigneur said indignantly.

“And he deserves her,” he muttered under his breath.

Charley opened his eyes.

“Is she safe?

” he asked, starting up.

“Unscathed, my son,” the Cure said.

Was this tailor-man not his son?

Had he not thirsted for his soul as a hart for the water-brooks?

“I am very sorry for you, Monsieur,” said Charley.

“It is God’s will,” was the reply, in a choking voice.

“It will be years before we have another church--many, many years.

” The roof gave way with a crash, and the spire shot down into the flaming debris.

The people groaned.

“It will cost sixty thousand dollars to build it up again,” said Filion Lacasse.

“We have three thousand dollars from the Passion Play,” said the Notary.

“That could go towards it.

” “We have another two thousand in the bank,” said Maximilian Cour.

“But it will take years,” said the saddler disconsolately.

Charley looked at the Cure, mournful and broken but calm.

He saw the Seigneur, gloomy and silent, standing apart.

He saw the people in scattered groups, looking more homeless than if they had no homes.

Some groups were silent; others discussed angrily the question, who was the incendiary--that it had been set on fire seemed certain.

“I said no good would come of the play-acting,” said the Seigneur’s groom, and was flung into the ditch by Filion Lacasse.

Presently Charley staggered to his feet, purpose in his face.

These people, from the Cure and Seigneur to the most ignorant habitant, were hopeless and inert.

The pride of their lives was gone.

“Gather the people together,” he said to the Notary and Filion Lacasse.

Then he turned to the Cure and the Seigneur.

“With your permission, messieurs,” he said, “I will do a harder thing than I have ever done.