tf
ME MOIRS OF A PHYSICIAN.
65
not wish to inconvenience us," said he to Thrse, who
had warmly applauded th resolution It was there.
tore decided that Gilbert should be instantly installed
in the attic he preferred.
Towards tiie middle of the day, Rousseau came to
cass the hours he usually spent in collecting his favor-
ite niants by the bedside of his disciple ; and the young
man feeling a little better, related to him, in a low
and almost inaudible voice, the details of the catas-
troohe But he did not mention the real cause why he
went to see the fireworks. Curiosity alone, he said,
led him to tlie Place Louis XV. Rousseau could not
euspect anything farther, unless he had been a sor-
cerer and he therefore expressed no surprise at Gil-
bert's story, but contented himself with the questions
he had already put, and only recommended patience.
He did not speak either of the fragment of muslin
which had been found in Gilbert's hand, and of which
Philip had taken possession.                                     .
Nevertheless, this conversation, which, on both sides,
Inrdered so narrowly on the real feelings of each, was
no less attractive on that account; and they were still
deeply absorbed in it, when, all at once. Therese's step
was heard upon the landing.
"Jacquesl" said she, "Jacques!
" Well, what is it?"              . .           .                      ,.
" Some prince coming to visit me, in my turn, said
Gilbert, with a feeble smile.                    .
"Jacques!" cried Thrse, advancing, and still
calling.                                   ,     .,,        .,,
" Well !   What do you want with me?
Thrse entered.                                 _,   ,       , ,,   .
"M de Jussieu is below," said she; "He heard that
you were in the crowd during that night, and he has
come to see if you have been hurt."
"The good Jussieu!" said Rousseau.    "Excellent
man, like all those who, from taste or from necessity,
commune with nature, the source of all good!   Be
calm, do not move.   Gilbert, I will return.
"Yes, thank you," said the young man.
Rousseau left the room.                                ..
But scarcely was he gone when Gilbert, raising him-
self as well as he could, dragged himself towards the
skvli-ht from which Andree's window could be seen
Itwas a most painful effort for a young man without
strength, almost without the power of thought, to raise
himself upon the stool, lift the sash of the skylight,
and prop himself upon the edge of the roof. Gilbert,
nevertheless, succeeded in effecting this But once
there his eyes swam, his hand shook, the blood rushed
to his'lips, and he fell heavily to the floor
At that moment the door of the garret was opened,
and Rousseau entered, followed by Jussieu, to whom
he"^ak?caregmyedeaCr philosopher, stoop a little here,"
said Rousseau. ^ There is a step there-we are not en-
te"1Thlikayout I have good eyes and stout limbs," re-
plied the learned botanist.
V " Here is some one come to visit you, my little Gil-
bert " said Rousseau, looking towards the bed. Oh 1
good heavens i where is he ?   He has got up, the unf or-
tU\nd6Rousseau, seeing the window open, commenced
to'vent his displeasure in affectionate grumblings Gil-
bert raised himself with difficulty, and said, in an almost
inaudible voice, "I wanted air."                        .
It was impossible to scold him, for suffering was
n'airlv demoted in his pale and altered features.
"In fact," interrupted M. de Jussieu, "it is dread-
fully warm here. Come, young man, let me feel your
pulse; I am also a doctor."                   ...             -j
" And better than many regular physicians, said
Housseau,  ' for you are a healer of the mind as well as
f-*tetetoo"much honor," murmured Gilbert feebly,
eudeavering to shroud himself from view m his humble
^Xtf' de Jussieu insisted on visiting you," said Rous-
   his offer.   Well, dear doctor,
seau, " and I ace...
what do you think of his chest?
The skilful anatomist felt the bones, and sounded the
cavity by an attentive auscultation.
" The vital parts are uninjured," said he But who
has pressed you in his arms with so much force?
"Alas! Sir, it was death!" said Gilbert.
Rousseau looked at the young man with astomsh-
m"rOh ! vou are bruised, my child, greatly bruised; but
-tonics air leisurewill make all that disappear.
"No' leisure-][cannot afford it," said the young
man, looking at Rousseau.                  .
" What does he mean?" asked Jussieu.
"Gilbert is a determined worker, my dear Sir," re
Tilied Rousseau.                            ..,          ,   .         ,
"Agreed; but he cannot possibly work for a day or
tW'?Toet'obtain a livelihood," said Gilbert, "one must
work every day ; for every day one eats !'
"Oh! vou will not consume much food for a short
time, and your medicine will not cost much."
"However little they cost, Sir," said Gilbert, " I never
receive alms."                 _                       ,
"You are mad," said Rousseau, "and you exagger-
ate. I tell you that you must be governed by M. de
Jussieu's orders, who will be your doctor m spite of
yourself Would you believe it," continuedhe, address-
ing M. de Jussieu, " he had begged me not to send for
ene?"
"Because it would have cost me money, and he is
Pr"But'" replied M. de Jussieu, gazing at Gilbert's fine
expressive features with growing interest, no matter
howrfroXd be is. he cannot accomplish impossibilities.
Do you think yourself capable of working when you
fell down with the mere exertion of going to the win-
^Xt'is true " sighed Gilbert, "I am weak: I know it"
"Well  then, tike repose, and above all, mentally.
You are the guest of a man whom all men obey, ex-
^^^diWtetlattWsdeftte>ccropltae_t *m
so a-reat a man, took his hand and pressed it.
'^And then "continued M. de Jussieu, ' you will be-
come an object of particular care to the king and the
princes."
"!'" exclaimed Gilbert.                 _   ,
"You a poor victim of that unfortunate evening.
The dauphin, when he heard the news, uttered cries
of grief ; and the dauphiness, who was going to Marly
'*',   iX..,------i be more within reach of the
"Yes, ray dear philosopher, and nothing is spoken of
but the letter written by the dauphin to M. de Sar-
tines."
" I have not heard of it"
" It is at once simple and touching. The dauphin
his favor- i receives a monthly pension of two thousand crowns.
- This morning his month's income had not been paid.
The prince walked to and fro quite alarmed, asked for
the treasurer several times, and as soon as the latter
brought him the money, sent it instantly to Paris,
with two charming lines to M. de Sartines, who has just
shown them to me."  *
" Ah, then you have seen M. de Sartines to-day?
said Rousseau, with a kind of uneasiness, or rather
distrust.                                        .,               y_
"Yes, I have just left him," replied M. Jussieu,
rather embarrassed. " I had to ask him for some seeds.
So that," added he quickly, "the dauphiness remained
at Versailles to tend her sick and wounded."
" Her sick and wounded?" asked Rousseau.
"Yes; Monsieur Gilbert is not the only one who has
suffered. This lime the lower classes have only paid
a partial quota to the accident; it is said that there
are many noble persons among the wounded."
Gilbert listened with inexpressible eagerness and
anxiety. It seemed to him that every moment the
name of Andre would be pronounced by the illustrious
naturalist. But M. de Jussieu rose.
"So our consultation is over?" said Rousseau.
"And henceforward our science will be useless with
regard to this young invalid; air, moderate exercise,
the woodsah i by-the-bye, I was forgetting-----"
" What?"
" Next Sunday I am to make a botanical excursion
to the forest of Marly; wiil you accompany me, my
illustrious fellow-laborer?"
"Ohl" replied Rousseau, "say rather your unworthy
admirer."
"Parbleu! that will be a fine opportunity forgiving
our invalid a walk.   Bring him."
"So far?"
"The distance is nothing: besides, my carnage takes
me as far as Bougival, and I can give you a seat. W e
will go by the Princess' Road to Luciennes, and from
thence proceed to Marly. Botanists stop every mo-
ment; our invalid will carry our camp-stools; you and
I will gather samples, he will gather health."
" What an amiable man you are, my dear Jussieu!"
said Rousseau.
' Never mind; it is for my own interest. You have,
I know, a great work ready upon mosses, and as I am
feeling my way a little on the same subject, you will
guide me."                                                  . 
"Ohl" exclaimed Rousseau, whose satisfaction was
apparent in spite of himself.
''And when there," added the botanist, "we shall
have a little breakfast in the open air, and shall enjoy
the shade and the beautiful flowers.   It is settled ?"
"Oh, certainly."
" For Sunday, then?"
"Delightful. It seems to me as if I were fifteen
again. I revel beforehand in all the pleasure I have
in prospect," replied Rousseau, with almost childish
satisfaction.
" And you, my young friend, must get stronger on
your legs in the meantime."
Gilbert stammered out some words of thanks, which
M. Jussieu did not hear, and tlie two botanists leit
Gilbert alone with his thoughts, and above all with his
Chapter LXIX.Life Returns.
In the meantime, whilst Rousseau believed his invalid
to be on the high road to health, and whilst Thrse in-
formed all her neighbors that, thanks to the prescrip-
tions of il learned doctor, M. de Jussieu, Gilbert was
entirely out of dangerduring this period of general
confidence the young man incurred the worst danger
he bad yet run, by his obstinacy and his perpetual
reveries Rousseau could not be so confident, but that
he entertained in his inmost thoughts a distrust sohdly
founded on philosophical reasonings.
Knowing Gilbert to be in love, and having caught
him in open rebellion to medical authority, be judged
that he would again commit the same faults if he gave
him too much libertv. Therefore, like a good father,
he had closed the padlock of Gilbert's attic more care-
f ullv than ever, tacitly permitting him meanwhile to go
to the window, but carefully preventing his crossing
the threshold. It may easily be imagined what rage
this solicitude, which changed his garret into a prison,
aroused in Gilbert's breast, and what hosts ot projects
crowded his teeming brain. To many minds constraint
is fruitful in invertions. G ilbert now thought only of
Andre, of the happiness of seeing and watching over
the progress of her convalescence, even from afar; but
Andree did not appear at the windows of the pavilion,
and Gilbert, when he fixed his ardent and searching
looks on the opposite apartments, or surveyed every
nook and corner of the building, could only, see Nicole
carrying the invalid's draught on a porcelain plate, or
M He Taverney surveying the garden and vigorously
taktag snuff"as if to clelr and refresh his intellect
Stmtbese details tranquilized him, for they betokened
"'"TL^-'tought he, "beyond that door, behind
that blind, breathes, sighs, and suffers she whom 1
aclore? whom I idolize-she whose very sight would
cause the perspiration to stand upon my forehead and
make my limbs tremble-she to whose existence mine
"forever riveted-she for whom alone I breathe and
llVAnd then, leaning forward out of his window-so
that the inquisitive Chon thought, twenty Mines in an
.,   that    h   would   throw   himself    outGilbert
Between the formation of a wish and its accomplish-
ment there is a wide gulf; but fertile imaginations can
throw a bridge across. They can find the real in the
impossiblethey know how to cross the broadest rivers
and scale the highest mountains, by a plan peculiarly
their own.
For the first few days Gilbert contented himself with
wishing. Then he reflected that these much envied,
happy beings, were simple mortals, endowed as he was,
with limbs to tread the soil of the garden, and with
arms to open the doors. Then, by degrees, he pictured
to himself the happiness there would be in secretly glid-
ing into this forbidden bousein pressing his ears
against the Venetian blinds through which the sounds
from the interior were, as it were, filtered. With Gil-
bert wishing did not long suffice ; the fulfillment must
be immediate.
Besides, his strength returned rapidly: youth Is fruit-
ful and rich. At the end of three days, his veins still
throbbing with feverish excitement, Gilbert felt himself
as strong as he had ever been in his life.
He calculated that, as Rosseau had locked him in,
one of the greatest difficultiesthat of obtaining an
entrance into the hotel of the Taverneys by the street-
doorwas placed out of the question; for, as the
entrance-door opened upon the Rue Coq-Heron, and as
Gilbert was locked up in the Rue Plastriere, he could
not of course reach any street, and had therefore no
need to open any doors. There remained the windows.
That of his garret looked down upon a perpendicular
wall of forty-eight feet in depth.
No one, unless he were drunk or mad, would venture
to descend it. "Oh! those doors are happy inventions
after all." thought he, clenching his hands "and yet
Monsieur Rousseau, a philosopher, locks them!"
To break the padlock! That would be easily done;
but if so, adieu to the hospitable roof which had shel-
tered him.
To escape from Luciennes, from the Rue Piastnere,
from Taverneyalways to escape, would be to render
himself unable to look a single creature in the face
without fearing to meet the reproach of ingratitude.
"No!" thought he, "Monsieur Rousseau shall know
nothing of it."
Leaning out of his window, Gilbert continued :
"With my hands and my legs, those instruments
granted to free men by nature, I will creep along the
tiles, and, keeping in the spoutwhich is narrow in-
deed, but straight, and therefore the direct road from
one end to the otherI shall arrive, if I get on so far,
at the skylight parallel to this. Now, this skylight be-
longs to the stairs. If I do not reach so far, I shall fall
into the garden: that will make a noise, people will
hasten from the pavilion, will raise me up, will recog-
nize n>e, and I die nobly, poetically, pitied I That would
be glorious !
"If I arrive, as everything leads me to believe I
shall, I will creep in under tbe skylight over the stairs,
and descend barefooted to the first story, the window
of which also opens in the garden, at fifteen feet from
the ground. 1 jump. Alas my strength, my activity
are gone! It is true that there is an espalier to assist
me. Yes, but this espalier with its rotten frame work
will break, I shall tumble down, not killed nobly and
poetically, but whitened with plaster, my clothes torn,
ashamed, and looking as if I had come to rob the or-
chard ! Odious thought 1 M. de Taverney will order the
porter to flog me, or La Brie to pull my ears.
"No! I have here twenty packthreads, which-
twisted together, will make a rope, according to Men,
sieur Rousseau's definition that many straws make a
sheaf. I shall borrow all these packthreads iicm
Madame Thrse for one night. I shall knot them
together, and when I have reached the window on the
first floor, I shall tie the rope to the little balcony, or
even to the lead, and slip down into the garden."
When Gilbert had inspected the spout, attached and
measured the cords, and calculated the height by his
remained at Trianon, to
unfortunate sufferers. '
"Oh, indeed!" said Rousseau,
our t " he would throw himself
with' his practised eye took the measure of. the par-
titions of the floors, of the depth of the pavilion and
constructed an exact plan of them in his brain There
M de Taverney slept; there must be the kitchen,
there Philip's apartments; there the cabinet occupied
bv Nicole- and.' Inst of all. there must be^ Andree's
chamb7r7the, sanctuary at the door of which he would
have given his life to remain for one day kneeling.
ThufsTnctuary, according to Gilbert's plan was a
large apartment on the ground floor, guarded by an
ante-chamber, from which opened a small cabinet with
a XsdoorTwhich, agreeably to Gilbert's arrangement,
served as Nicole's sleeping-chamber.
" Oh '" exclaimed the excited youth in his fits of
iealons'fury, "how happy are the beings who are
privilegedI to walk in the garden on which my window
and those of the stair-case look! How happy those
tbSightless mortals who tread the grave of the
Parterre ! for there, during the silence of night, may
6e heard Mademoiselle Andree's plaints and sighs.
He twisted the pieces of twine together, and mad a
tolerably strong rope of them, then tried his strength
bv hanging to a beam in his garret, and, happy to find
that he had only spat blood once during his efforts, he
decided upon the noctural expedition.
The better to hoodwink Monsieur Jacques and
Tlierese he counterfeited illness, and kept his bed
until two o'clock, at which time Rousseau went out for
his dinner walk and did not return till the evening.
When Rousseau paid a visit to his attic, before setting
out Gilbert announced to him his wish of sleeping
until the next morning; to which Rousseau replied
that as he had made an engagement to sup from home
that evening he was happy to find' Gilbert inclined to
With these mutual explanations they separated.
When Rousseau was gone, Gilbert brought ^out his
packthreads again, and this time he twisted them per-
Heeagain examined the spout and the tiles;- then
placed himself at the window to keep watch on the
garden until evening.
Chapter LXX.The JErul Trip.
Gilbert was now prepared for his entrance into the
enemy's camp, for thus he mentally termed M. de
Taverney's grounds, and from his window he explored
the garden with tbe care>nd attention of a skilful strate-
gist who is about to give battle, when in his calm
and' motionless mansion, an incident occurred which
attracted the philosopher's attention.
A stone flew over the garden wall and struck against
the angle of the house. Gilbert, who had already
learned that there can be no effect without a cause,
determined to discover  the  cause, having  seen th
6 But' although he leaned out as far as possible, he
could not discover the person in the street who bad
thrown the stone. However, he immediately compre-
hended that this manuvre had reference to an event
which just then took place; one ofthe outside shutters
of the ground floor opened cautiously, and through the
opening appeared Nicole's head.                  ___,_.
On seeing Nicole Gilbert made a plunge back in his
garret, but without losing sight of the nimble young
girl The latter, after throwing a stealthy glance at all
the windows, particularly at those of the pavilion,
emerged from her hiding-place and ran towards the
garden, as if going to the espalier where some laoe was
drying in the sun. It was on the path which led to-
wards the espalier that the stone had fallen, and neither
Nicole nor Gilbert lost sight of it. Gilbert saw her
kick this stone, which, for the moment, became of
such great importance, before her several times, and
she continued this manuvre until she reached the
flower border, in which the espalier stood.   Onoe there.