The Châtelet Apprentice (5 page)

The Lieutenant General of Police ordered him to attend criminal hearings and to give him a written summary of the sessions. One day, he instructed him to report back on the arrest of a man who had circulated letters of exchange with disputed signatures. Nicolas saw the officers of the watch grab an individual in the middle of the street. He had bright eyes and a striking face, and he spoke French with a strong Italian accent. The man called out to him:

‘Monsieur, you look like an honest person, look how they treat a citizen of Venice. They are seizing the noble Casanova. Bear witness to the injustice being done. It's a crime against someone who lives and writes as a philosopher.'

Nicolas followed him as far as For-l'Evêque prison. When he gave Sartine his report the Lieutenant General began to swear under his breath and exclaimed:

‘He'll be free by tomorrow: Monsieur de Choiseul protects this scoundrel. He's an agreeable fellow, for all that.'

The apprentice policeman drew various conclusions from this episode.

On another occasion he had to offer to purchase some jewellery from a dealer in clocks and watches. The man was awaiting delivery of a large number of precious items before reselling them but he was also expected to go bankrupt. Nicolas was to pass himself off as an envoy of Monsieur Dudoit, a police commissioner from the district of Sainte-Marguerite, whom Monsieur de Sartine suspected of being in league with the dealer. The Paris Chief of Police kept his staff closely in check, wishing to avoid a repeat of the popular unrest of 1750, when there had been protests against the dishonesty of some commissioners. Even the world of gambling was no longer a mystery to Nicolas and he was soon able to distinguish between its recruiters, procurers, keepers, touts and lottery receivers, and the whole world of betting and card sharps.

Everything in Paris, in the world of crime, revolved around gaming, prostitution and theft, and these three worlds were interconnected in countless ways.

In fifteen months Nicolas learnt his trade. He knew the price of silence and of secrecy. He had matured and was now better able to control his feelings by restraining his imagination, which was still too wild for his liking. He was no longer the adolescent whom Père Grégoire had welcomed on his arrival in Paris. It was a different Nicolas who received a letter from Guérande informing him of the desperate state of health of his guardian. The sombre and stern silhouette standing at the prow of the barge, facing the raging Loire, on this cold January morning in 1761 was already that of a man.  

The Loire was kind as far as Angers. Rain which sometimes turned to snow had fallen incessantly and during the overnight stay in Tours the river level had continued to rise. Sometimes, through a break in the fog, a ghost town emerged, grey and lifeless. The banks slipped by unseen. On reaching Angers the barge was caught up in an eddying current. It struck the pier of a bridge, spun around several times and then, out of control and breaking up, it ran aground on a sand bank. The passengers and crew were able to reach the riverbank in a punt.

After reviving himself with some mulled wine at an inn for boatmen, Nicolas made enquiries about possible ways of getting to Nantes. He had been on the barge for several days. Would he reach Guérande in time to see his guardian again? He anxiously
assessed the further delays that threatened to build up. The river was becoming less and less navigable and no boat would risk going downstream for the time being. The road seemed no better for the carriages and he gave up the idea of waiting for the next mail-coach.

Confident in his riding ability, Nicolas decided to get hold of a horse and to continue his journey at full gallop. He now had money saved up from the wages paid him by Lardin. He was about forty leagues away from his destination and planned to take the most direct route from Angers to Guérande. Nicolas felt capable of facing up to highwaymen. At this time of year he also had to reckon with the packs of ravenous wolves that roamed around in search of prey and would not hesitate to attack him. But nothing could shake his determination to get there as soon as possible. So he chose a horse, which cost him a king's ransom – the postmaster was reluctant to risk his precious animals in such weather – and he spurred it on as soon as he was beyond the city walls.

That same evening he slept in Ancenis and the following day headed off into the countryside. He reached the abbey of
Saint-Gildas
-des-Marais without mishap and was greeted with curiosity by the monks, who were delighted by this unexpected diversion. Near the monastic buildings, some wolves were tearing at pieces of dead flesh; they took no notice of him.

By daybreak he had reached the forest of La Bretesche. This was where his godfather, a friend of the Boisgelin family, used to hunt wild boar every autumn. Only the base of the castle towers could be glimpsed in the distance. He was entering a landscape familiar to him.

During the night the wind had turned into a gale, as often happens in these parts. His horse was struggling. The storm raged so loudly that it almost deafened Nicolas. The sodden track, which bordered a peat bog, was strewn with broken branches. The clouds were so low in the sky that the tips of the tall pine trees seemed to be ripping through them.

Sometimes the fury of the elements would suddenly abate. All was still, and in the restored silence the piercing cry of huge seabirds that had been driven inland could be heard as they hovered over the countryside.

But the storm soon resumed. The ground was covered with scudding shreds of white foam which stopped and then moved on. Some became caught in thickets or in the hollows of tree stumps, like sea snow. Others slid along the still-frozen surface of the marshes. A few leagues away the waves deposited white mounds flecked with yellow onto the beach which the storm tore and broke up, thinning out the remains which it carried inland. Nicolas could taste the salty trace of the ocean on his lips.

The old medieval town appeared through a clump of trees. It stood amidst the marshes like an island cut off from the black and white patchwork of land that surrounded it. Nicolas urged his horse on and galloped up to the walls that ringed the town.

He entered Guérande through the gateway of Sainte-Anne. The town seemed to have been deserted by its inhabitants, and the sound of his horse's hooves echoing off the ancient stones reverberated through the streets.

In the old market square he stopped in front of a granite house, tied his mount to a ring on the wall and with trembling
legs stepped inside. He bumped into Fine, who, on hearing a noise, had hurried to the door to greet him.

‘Oh, it's you, Monsieur Nicolas! Thank God!'

She embraced him tearfully. Beneath her white coiffe, the wrinkled old face of the woman he had cuddled up to for comfort as a child became tense, her cheekbones purplish.

‘What a terrible misfortune, Jesus, Mary and Joseph! Our good master fell ill at Mass, on Christmas night. Two days later he caught a cold when he went to relight the Holy Lamp. Since then, everything has got worse, and now there's the gout as well. The doctor says it's started to affect his insides. There's no hope. His mind's gone. He was given the last rites yesterday.'

Nicolas's gaze fell on the chest upon which his guardian's cloak, hat and cane lay. The sight of these familiar objects brought a lump to his throat.

‘Fine, let's go to him,' he said, in a voice choking with emotion.

Small and slight, Fine put her arm around the tall horseman's waist as they went upstairs. The canon's bedroom was in
semi-darkness
, lit only by flames from the fireplace. He lay motionless, his breathing irregular and rasping, with both hands clutching the top of the sheet. Nicolas fell on his knees and whispered:

‘Father, I am here. Can you hear me? I am here.'

He had always addressed his guardian in this way. In truth it really was his father who lay dying there, the person who had taken him in, who had looked after him devotedly and always shown him great affection, whatever the circumstances.

In his despair Nicolas became aware of the love he had always felt for the canon, a love that he had never spoken of
because he had taken it so much for granted. Never again would he have the chance to express it. He heard again the canon's voice say to him gently – and, he now realised, with such tenderness – ‘My dear ward.'

Nicolas took the old man's hand and kissed it. They remained like this for a long while.

Four o'clock was striking when the canon opened his eyes. A tear formed in the corner of one eye and rolled down his hollow cheek. His lips quivered, he attempted to speak, gave a long sigh and then died. Nicolas's hand, guided by Fine's, closed his eyes. His face was serene.

The faithful housekeeper took things in hand with a sort of stubborn determination. As was the custom in her native Cornouaille, the area from which the canon also came, she made the sign of the cross above the dead man's head, then flung the window wide open to help the soul escape from the body. Then she lit a candle at the head of the bed and sent the maid off to inform the chapter and the banner-bearer's wife, who was well versed in these ceremonies. When she arrived, the church bell was tolling the death knell. The two women laid out the body, placed one palm against the other and tied the hands together with a rosary. They put a chair at the foot of the bed and placed on it a bowl of holy water and a sprig of laurel.

To Nicolas the hours that followed seemed interminable. Chilled to the bone, he had no awareness of what was going on around him. He had to respond to the greetings of all those who came to pay their last respects at the deathbed. Priests and nuns took it in turn to recite the litany for the dead. As was the
custom, Fine served cider and pancakes to the visitors, many of whom remained in the large room, talking quietly.

Monsieur de Ranreuil was among the first to arrive, without Isabelle. Her absence had further stirred Nicolas's emotions on seeing his godfather again. Beneath his cavalier tone, the marquis had difficulty in disguising his sorrow at the loss of an old friend and, with it, thirty years of companionship. In the throng he scarcely had time to tell Nicolas that Monsieur de Sartine had written to say that he was pleased with him. It was agreed that the young man would go to Ranreuil after the funeral, which was to take place on Sunday.

As the hours slipped slowly by, Nicolas watched the changes to the face of the dead man. The waxen complexion of the early hours had gradually turned copper-coloured, then black, and the shrunken flesh had now hardened into the outlines of a death mask. His feelings of tenderness were disappearing before this decomposing object that could no longer be his guardian. He had to collect himself in order to put aside this impression, but it came back to him several times before the body was placed in its coffin on Saturday morning.

On Sunday the weather was fine and cold. In the afternoon the coffin was borne on a stretcher to the nearby collegiate church. In vain Nicolas looked for Isabelle in the crowd gathered there.

He followed the hymns and prayers without thinking, withdrawing into himself. He examined the stained-glass window above the high altar which portrayed the miracles performed by Saint Aubin, the patron saint of this holy place. The great Gothic arch of predominantly blue glass and stone
gradually lost its radiance as the winter shadows lengthened. The sun had disappeared. In the morning it had revealed itself in the glow of sunrise; it had shone in splendour in the glory of midday and now it was declining.

Every man, thought Nicolas, has to go through the cycle of life like this. His gaze fell once more on the coffin draped in a black cloth decorated with silver flames that shimmered in the dim flicker of the candles around the catafalque. He felt overcome once more with sorrow and loneliness.

The church was by now smothered in darkness. Inside, as happens in winter, the granite was weeping. The smoke from the incense and the candles mingled with the moisture oozing from the dark walls. The
Dies Irae
rang out like a final cry of despair. Shortly, pending a permanent burial place, the sad remains would be set down in the crypt near the twin recumbent figures of Tristan de Carné and his wife.

Nicolas reflected that it was precisely here that he had been abandoned; almost twenty-two years previously Canon Le Floch had found him and taken him in. The idea that his guardian was returning to the earth at this very spot was in some mysterious way a consolation.

Monday was bleak and Nicolas felt the after-effects of the journey and his grief. He could not decide whether to visit the marquis who, after the service, had repeated his desire to see him.

Fine, oblivious to her own suffering, tried her best to take his mind off things. Yet despite all her efforts to cook him his favourite childhood dishes he would not touch them, making do
with a piece of bread. He spent part of the day wandering through the marshes, staring at the sea-line merging into the pale horizon. He was overcome with a desire to go away and forget. He even went as far as the village of Batz, climbing up to the top of the church spire, as he always used to with Isabelle. He felt better up there, cut off from the world, looking out over the marshes and the ocean far below.

When he came home, soaked through, he found Master Guiart, the notary, waiting for him with his back to the fire. He asked Nicolas and Fine to listen to the reading of a very short will, the main provisions of which lay in the final section: ‘I die without wealth, having always given to the poor the surplus that God was willing to grant me. The house I dwell in belongs to the chapter. I pray that providence sees to the needs of my ward. To him shall be given my gold repeater watch, to replace the one stolen from him recently in Paris. As to my possessions proper – clothes, furniture, silverware, paintings and books, he will understand that they be sold to procure an annuity at the rate of one in twenty for Mademoiselle Joséphine Pelven, my housekeeper, who for more than thirty years has devoted herself to my service.'

Fine was crying and Nicolas attempted to console her. The notary reminded them that the young man had to pay the servant's wages, and the doctor's and apothecary's fees, as well as for the hangings, chairs and candles for the funeral. Nicolas's savings were fast diminishing.

After the notary had left he felt like a stranger in his own house and could not bear to see Fine sitting there, grief-stricken. They stayed talking for a long time. She would return to where she came from, as she still had a sister in a village near Quimper,
but she was worried above all about what would become of the person she had brought up. One by one the ties linking Nicolas to Guérande were snapping and he was drifting like a boat that had broken its moorings, carried away by swirling currents.

On Tuesday Nicolas at last made up his mind to respond to his godfather's invitation. He wanted to get away from the house on the old market square; Master Guiart had begun the inventory and valuation appraisement of the deceased's possessions, and Fine was finishing her packing.

He rode slowly and pensively, keeping his horse at walking pace. The weather was fine again but a hoar frost covered the moorland with white latticework. The ice in the ruts crackled beneath the horse's hooves.

As he neared Herbignac he remembered the traditional games of
soule
. This violent and rustic sport, which was as old as the hills, required physical strength, courage, a good pair of lungs and unfailing resilience as kicks and blows rained down on the players. Nicolas's body still bore the marks. An injury to his right eyebrow had left a scar that was still visible and his left leg, broken when he was kicked with a clog, still caused him pain when the weather turned wet.

Nevertheless he felt a certain elation at the memory of these frenzied runs in which the
soulet
, a pig's bladder stuffed with sawdust and rags, had to be carried to the goal. The difficulty was that the playing area had no limits and the person carrying the
soulet
could be pursued anywhere, even into ponds and streams, and there were many of those in this part of the countryside. Also, punching, butting and hitting the players
with a stick was allowed and even encouraged. At the end of every match the exhausted and bloodied combatants came together for some friendly feasting after a trip to a washtub had removed the caking of clay or mud which covered them. Sometimes the chase even continued as far as the banks of the River Vilaine.