Produced by David WidgerGERFAUTBy CHARLES DE BERNARDWith a Preface by JULES CLARETIE of the French AcademyCHARLES DE BERNARDPIERREMARIECHARLES DE BERNARD DU GRAIL DE LA VILLETTE better known bythe name of Charles de Bernard was born in Besancon February 24 1804He came from a very ancient family of the Vivarais was educated atthe college of his native city and studied for the law in Dijon andat Paris He was awarded a prize by the Jeux floraux for hisdithyrambics Une fete de Neron in 1829 This first success inliterature did not prevent him aspiring to the Magistrature when theRevolution of 1830 broke out and induced him to enter politics Hebecame one of the founders of the Gazette de FrancheComte and anarticle in the pages of this journal about Peau de chagrin earned himthe thanks and the friendship of BalzacThe latter induced him to take up his domicile in Paris and initiatedhim into the art of novelwriting Bernard had published a volume ofodes Plus Deuil que Joie 1838 which was not much noticed but aseries of stories in the same year gained him the reputation of a genialconteur They were collected under the title Le Noeud Gordien andone of the tales Une Aventure du Magistrat was adapted by Sardou forhis comedy Pommes du voisin Gerfaut his greatest work crowned bythe Academy appeared also in 1838 then followed Le Paravent anothercollection of novels 1839 Les Ailes dIcare 1840 La Peau du Lionand La Chasse aux Amants 1841 LEcueil 1842 Un Beaupere 1845and finally Le Gentilhomme campagnard in 1847 Bernard died onlyfortyeight years old March 6 1850Charles de Bernard was a realist a pupil of Balzac He surpasses hismaster nevertheless in energy and limpidity of composition His styleis elegant and cultured His genius is most fully represented in a scoreor so of delightful tales rarely exceeding some sixty or seventy pagesin length but perfect in proportion full of invention and originalityand saturated with the purest and pleasantest essence of the spiritwhich for six centuries in tableaux farces tales in prose and versecomedies and correspondence made French literature the delight andrecreation of Europe Gerfaut is considered De Bernards greatestwork The plot turns on an attachment between a married woman and thehero of the story The book has nothing that can justly offend theincomparable sketches of Marillac and Mademoiselle de Corandeuil areadmirable Gerfaut and Bergenheim possess pronounced originality andthe author is so to speak incarnated with the hero of his romanceThe most uncritical reader can not fail to notice the success withwhich Charles de Bernard introduces people of rank and breeding into hisstories Whether or not he drew from nature his portraits of this kindare exquisitely natural and easy It is sufficient to say that he isthe literary Sir Joshua Reynolds of the postrevolution vicomtes andmarquises We can see that his portraits are faithful we must feel thatthey are at the same time charming Bernard is an amiable and spiritedconteur who excels in producing an animated spectacle for a refinedand selected public whether he paints the ridiculousness or the miseryof humanityThe works of Charles de Bernard in wit and urbanity and in the peculiarcharm that wit and urbanity give are of the best French type To anyelevation save a lofty place in fiction they have no claim but in thatphase of literature their worth is undisputed and from many testimoniesit would seem that those whom they most amuse are those who are bestworth amusingThese novels well enough as they are known to professed students ofFrench literature have by the mere fact of their age rather slippedout of the list of books known to the general reader The general readerwho reads for amusement can not possibly do better than proceed totransform his ignorance of them into knowledge                    JULES CLARETIE                  de lAcademie FrancaiseGERFAUTBOOK 1CHAPTER I THE TRAVELLERDuring the first days of the month of September 1832 a young man aboutthirty years of age was walking through one of the valleys in Lorraineoriginating in the Vosges mountains A little river which after a fewleagues of its course flows into the Moselle watered this wild basinshut in between two parallel lines of mountains The hills in thesouth became gradually lower and finally dwindled away into the plainAlongside the plateau arranged in amphitheatres large square fieldsstripped of their harvest lay here and there in the primitive forest inother places innumerable oaks and elms had been dethroned to giveplace to plantations of cherrytrees whose symmetrical rows promised anabundant harvestThis contest of nature with industry is everywhere but is morepronounced in hilly countries The scene changed however as onepenetrated farther and little by little the influence of the soilgained ascendancy As the hills grew nearer together enclosing thevalley in a closer embrace the clearings gave way to the naturalobduracy of the soil A little farther on they disappeared entirely Atthe foot of one of the bluffs which bordered with its granite bands thehighest plateau of the mountain the forest rolled victoriously down tothe banks of the riverNow came patches of forest like solid battalions of infantry sometimessolitary trees appeared as if distributed by chance upon the grassyslopes or scaling the summit of the steepest rocks like a body of boldsharpshooters A little unfrequented road if one can judge from thescarcity of tracks ran alongside the banks of the stream climbing upand down hills overcoming every obstacle it stretched out in almost astraight line One might compare it to those strong characters who markout a course in life and imperturbably follow it The river on thecontrary like those docile and compliant minds that bend to agreeableemergencies described graceful curves obeying thus the caprices of thesoil which served as its bedAt a first glance the young man who was walking alone in the midst ofthis picturesque country seemed to have nothing remarkable in his dressa straw hat a blue blouse