Suite Francaise (40 page)

Whenever she couldn’t sleep, she would walk through the grounds reciting poetry or rush to the henhouse and examine the three enormous locks that protected the door; she kept an eye on the cows (since the war had started, no one grew flowers on the lawns any more, the cattle slept there), and in the soft moonlight she would stroll through the vegetable garden and count the maize. She was being robbed. Before the war it was almost unheard of to grow maize in this rich area where poultry was fed on wheat and oats. Now, though, the requisitioning agents searched the lofts for sacks of wheat and the housewives had no grain to feed their hens. People had come to the château to ask for feed, but the Montmorts were hoarding it, mainly for themselves, but also for all their friends and acquaintances in the area. The farmers were angry. “We’d be happy to pay,” they said. She wouldn’t have charged them anything actually, but that wasn’t the issue and they sensed it. They could tell they were up against a kind of brotherhood, like the Freemasons, a closing of ranks that meant that they and their money were insignificant compared to the satisfaction the Montmorts got from doing a favour for the Baron de Montrefaut or the Countess de Pignepoule. Since they weren’t allowed to buy, they simply took. There were no longer any gamekeepers at the château; they’d been taken prisoner and there weren’t enough men in the area to replace them. It was also impossible to find workmen or the materials to rebuild the crumbling walls. The farmers got in through the gaps, poached whatever they wanted, fished in the lake, stole hens, corn or tomato plants—just helped themselves to anything, in fact.

Monsieur de Montmort’s situation was complicated. On the one hand, he was the Mayor and didn’t want to upset his constituents. On the other, he naturally cared about his estate. Nevertheless, he would have chosen to turn a blind eye to it all if it hadn’t been for his wife, who rejected any compromise or show of weakness on principle. “All you want is a quiet life,” she said sharply to her husband. “Our Lord Himself said: ‘I have not come to bring peace but the sword.’ ”

“You’re not Jesus Christ,” Amaury replied grumpily, but it had long ago been accepted in the family that the Viscountess had the soul of an apostle and that her opinions were prophetic. What was more, Amaury was even more inclined to adopt the Viscountess’s judgements since she was the one with the family fortune and she kept her purse strings tightly closed. He therefore loyally supported her and waged a bitter war against the poachers, the thieves, the teacher who didn’t go to Mass and the postman, who was suspected of being a member of the “Popular Front” even though he had ostentatiously hung a picture of Maréchal Pétain on the door of the telephone booth in the Post Office.

And so the Viscountess walked through her grounds on a beautiful June evening and recited the poetry she intended her protégées from the school to recite on Mother’s Day. She would have liked to have composed a poem herself; however, her talent was really for prose (when she wrote, she felt the deluge of ideas so powerfully that she often had to put down her pen and run her hands under cold water to force back into them the blood that had rushed to her head). The obligation to make things rhyme was unbearable. Perhaps, therefore, instead of the poem to the glory of the French Mother she would so like to compose, she would write an incantation in prose: “O Mother!” would exclaim one of the youngest pupils, dressed all in white and holding a bouquet of wild flowers in her hand. “O Mother! Let me see your sweet face above my little bed while the storm rages outside. The sky darkens the earth, but a radiant dawn approaches. Smile, O kind Mother! See how your child is following the Maréchal who holds peace and happiness in his hands. Join me and all the children, all the mothers in France, to form a blissful circle around the venerable Wise One who restores hope in our hearts!”

Madame de Montmort spoke these words out loud and they echoed in the silent grounds. When inspiration took hold of her, she lost all control. She strode back and forth, then collapsed on to the damp moss and sat in meditation for a long time, her fur wrap pulled tight round her thin shoulders. Whenever she reflected in this way her thoughts quickly led to passionate resentment. Why, when she was so gifted, wasn’t she surrounded by love or even the warmth of admiration? Why had her husband married her for her money? Why wasn’t she popular? When she walked through the village the children would hide or laugh behind her back. She knew they called her “the madwoman.” It was very hard being hated, yet look at how much she’d done for the local people! The library (how lovingly she had chosen the books, good books to elevate the soul but which left them cold; the girls wanted her to get novels by Maurice Dekobra, these young people . . .), educational films (just as unpopular as the books), a village fête every year in the grounds, with a show put on by the schoolchildren. Yet she had not been oblivious to the harsh criticisms bandied about. They held it against her that the chairs had been set up in the garage because the bad weather had made it impossible to enjoy being outside. What did these people want? Did they expect her to invite them into the château? They’d be the ones who felt embarrassed if she did. Ah, this deplorable new way of thinking that was sweeping through France! She alone could recognise it and give it a name. The people were becoming Bolsheviks. She had thought the defeat would be a lesson to them, that they would see the errors of their ways and be forced to show respect for their leaders. But no: they were worse than ever.

Sometimes she—a passionate patriot, yes she—was actually glad the enemy was there, she thought, listening to the German guards keeping watch on the road alongside the grounds. They patrolled the village and the surrounding countryside all night long, in groups of four; you could hear the sound of church bells ringing, a sweet, familiar sound that gently lulled people as they slept, and at the same time the hammering of boots, the rattling of weapons, as in a prison courtyard. Yes, the Viscountess de Montmort had reached the point where she wondered if she shouldn’t thank the Good Lord for the German occupation of France. Not that she actually liked them, Lord no! She couldn’t stand them, but without them . . . who knew? It was all very well for Amaury to say “Communists? The people around here? But they’re richer than you are . . .” It wasn’t simply a question of money or land, it was also, especially, a question of zeal. She vaguely sensed this without being able to explain it. Perhaps they didn’t really understand the idea of Communism, but it appealed to their desire for equality, a desire so powerful that even having money and land became frustrating rather than satisfying. It was an insult, as they put it, to own livestock worth a fortune, to be able to send their sons to private school, buy silk stockings for their daughters, and in spite of all that, still feel inferior to the Montmorts.

The farmers felt they were never given enough respect, especially since the Viscount was made Mayor . . . The old farmer who had been Mayor before him had been warm and friendly to everyone; he might have been greedy, vulgar, harsh and insulting to his constituents . . . he got away with it! Yet they reproached the Viscount de Montmort for being haughty. What did they expect? For him to stand up when they came into the Mayor’s office? To see them to the door or something? They couldn’t bear any hint of superiority, anyone wealthier or anyone who came from a better family. No matter what people said, the Germans had good qualities. They were a disciplined race, docile, thought Madame de Montmort as she listened, almost with pleasure, to the rhythmical footsteps fading away, the harsh voices shouting
Achtung
in the distance. It must be very nice to own a lot of property in Germany, whereas here . . .

She was consumed by anxiety. It was getting darker and she was about to go back into the house when she saw—or thought she saw—a shadowy figure moving along the wall. Head down, it disappeared into the vegetable garden. Finally, she was going to catch one of these thieves. She quivered with pleasure. It was typical of her not to be afraid. Amaury was always worried about confrontations, but not she. Danger aroused the huntress in her. She hid behind some trees and followed the shadowy figure, holding the pair of shoes she had found hidden in the moss at the foot of the wall (the thief was walking in his socks to make less noise). She worked her way round so that he ran straight into her as he was coming out of the vegetable garden. He jumped back and tried to run away, but she shouted at him contemptuously, “I’ve got your shoes, my friend. The police will soon find out whose they are.”

The man stopped and started walking towards her; it was Benoît Sabarie. They stood staring at each other without saying a word.

“Well, that’s a fine thing to do,” the Viscountess said finally, her voice trembling with hatred.

She despised him. Of all the farmers, he was the most insolent, the most stubborn; whether it was about the hay, the livestock, the fences, everything and nothing, the château and the farm waged silent, interminable guerrilla warfare against each other.

“Well!” she said indignantly. “Now I know who the thief is and I’m going to tell the Mayor immediately. You’ll live to regret this!”

“Tell me, do I talk to you like that, do I? Take your plants,” said Benoît, throwing them down on the ground where they lay scattered in the moonlight. “Didn’t we offer to pay for them? Do you think we don’t have enough money to buy them? But every time we ask you for a favour—not that it would cost you anything—no! You’d rather see us starve to death!”

“Thief, thief, thief!” the Viscountess kept shrieking as he talked. “The Mayor . . .”

“I don’t give a damn about the Mayor! Go and get him then. I’ll say it to his face.”

“How dare you speak to me like that!”

“Because we’ve all had enough around here, if you want to know the truth! You have everything and you keep everything! Your wood, your fruit, your fish, your game, your hens, you wouldn’t sell any of it, you wouldn’t give any of it away for all the money in the world. Your husband the Mayor makes fancy speeches about helping one another and the rest of it. You must be bloody joking! Your château’s crammed full of stuff, from the cellar to the attic, everyone knows that, they’ve seen. Are we asking for charity? No! But that’s exactly what bothers you, isn’t it? You’d be happy to do it as charity because you like humiliating poor people, but when it comes to doing a favour, as equals—‘I’m paying for what I take’—you’re off like a shot. Why wouldn’t you sell me your plants?”

“That’s my business and this is my house, I believe, you insolent . . .”

“That corn wasn’t even for me, I swear! I’d rather die than ask people like you for anything. It was for Louise, ’cause her husband’s a prisoner and I wanted to help her out.
I
help people!”

“By stealing?”

“Well, what else are we supposed to do? You’re heartless and stingy with it! What else are we supposed to do?” he repeated furiously. “And I’m not the only one to help myself here. Everything you refuse to give away without a good reason, everything you keep out of pure spite, we’re going to take. And it’s not over yet. Just wait until autumn! Your husband the Mayor will be hunting with the Germans . . .”

“That’s not true! That’s a lie! He’s never gone hunting with the Germans.”

She stamped her foot angrily, wild with rage. Again that stupid slander! The Germans did invite them both to one of their hunts last winter, it was true. They had declined, but they couldn’t refuse to attend the dinner in the evening. Whether they liked it or not, they had to follow the government’s orders. And besides, these German officers were cultured men, after all! What separates or unites people is not their language, their laws, their customs, their principles, but the way they hold their knife and fork.

“When it’s autumn,” Benoît continued, “he’ll be hunting with the Germans, but I’ll be back, I will, back to your grounds and I won’t care if it’s rabbits or foxes I get. You can have your groundsmen, your gamekeepers and your dogs chase after me as much as you want; they won’t be as clever as Benoît Sabarie! They’ve been running after me plenty all winter without catching me!”

“I won’t go and get the groundsman or the gamekeepers, I’ll get the Germans. They scare you, don’t they? You can show off all you like, but when you see a German uniform, you keep your head down.”

“Listen, I’ve seen them Boches up close, I have, in Belgium and at the Somme. I’m not like your husband. Where was
he
during the war? In an office, where he could treat everyone like shit.”

“You vulgar little man!”

“In Chalon-sur-Saône, that’s where he was, your husband, from September ’til the day the Germans arrived. Then he cleared off. That’s his idea of war.”

“You are . . . you are repulsive. Get out of here or I’ll scream. Get out of here or I’ll call them!”

“That’s it, call the Boches. You must be really glad they’re here, eh? They’re like the police, they watch your property. You’d better pray to the Good Lord that they stay a long time because the day they leave . . .”

He left his sentence unfinished. Quickly grabbing his shoes, the evidence, from her hands, he put them on, climbed over the wall and disappeared. Almost immediately she heard the sound of German footsteps getting closer.

“Oh, I really hope they caught him. I really hope they’ve killed him,” the Viscountess said to herself as she ran towards the château. “What a man! What a species! What vile people! That’s what Bolshevism is, exactly that. My God, what has happened to everyone? When Papa was alive, if you caught a poacher in the woods he’d cry and beg for forgiveness. Naturally he’d be forgiven. Papa, who was goodness personified, would shout, make a scene, then give him a glass of wine in the kitchen. I saw that happen more than once when I was a child. But then the farmers were poor. Since they’ve got money, it’s as if all their worst instincts have resurfaced. ‘The château’s crammed full of stuff, from the cellar to the attic,’ ” she repeated furiously. “Well! And what about his house? They’re richer than we are. What exactly do they want? It’s envy. They’re being eaten up by base feelings. That Sabarie is dangerous. He bragged about how he came to hunt here. So he’s kept his rifle. He’s capable of anything. If he gets up to mischief, if he kills a German, the entire region will be held responsible and especially the Mayor. It’s people like him that cause all our problems. It’s my duty to denounce him. I’ll make Amaury see reason, and . . . if I have to, I’ll go to German Headquarters myself. He prowls the woods at night, in complete breach of the rules, with a weapon—he’s had it!”