Chapter 6 Four

After a pause, Bernard added that the story of Patience's philosophical career is written by people today; it is difficult for me to recall the very different impression that people at that time had when they met the wizard in the tower of Gazzo.However, I will endeavor to faithfully relive my memory. It was a summer evening, and several peasant children accompanied me to catch birds with the bird flute. When I returned, I passed the Garzo Tower for the first time.I was then about thirteen years old, and compared with my companions I was the largest and strongest, and over them I abused the authority of my lord's privilege.In private, it's a mixture of gracious and rather eccentric etiquette.Sometimes, when their interest in hunting and the weariness of the day outweighed mine, I was compelled to yield to their opinion, and I had learned to act like a despot, lest it seemed necessary; but I saw a chance of revenge, and soon I I saw them trembling with fear when they heard my family's hateful name.

As night fell, we were walking merrily, whistling, knocking down rowan with stones, imitating the sound of birds, when the man at the head stopped abruptly, stepped back, and declared that he did not want to pass The path to the Garzo Tower, but through the woods.The other two seconded.A third objected that if one left the path, one would be in danger of being lost, and that night was approaching, and the wolves would be on the way. "Ah, rascal!" I cried, in a princely voice, pushing my guide, "follow the path, and don't do your foolishness." "I don't," said the boy, "I saw the wizard muttering at his door just now, and I don't want to have a fever all year long."

"Come!" said another boy, "he's not mean to anybody. He's not mean to the children; what will he do to us if we just pass by quietly and don't say anything to him?" "Oh! that's fine," said the first child, "if there is no one else! . . . But M. Bernard is with us, and we must change into magic." "What does that mean, fool?" I cried, raising my fist. "It's not my fault, my lord," the boy went on. "The old skinny man doesn't like Mr. Sir. He said he would like to see Mr. Tristan hanged from the same branch as all his children."

"He said that? Well!" said I. "Go on, you see. Whoever loves me will follow me; whoever leaves me is a coward." Two of my companions, out of vanity, were willing to follow, and the rest pretended to follow them, but after a few steps they all slipped away into the undergrowth.I walked on with great pomp, escorted by two of my followers.Little Sylvain was in the lead, taking off his hat as soon as he saw Patience from afar; and when we came up to Patience, though he bowed his head and seemed not to notice us at all, the boy Terrified, he said to him in a trembling voice:

"Good night, Master Patience!" The wizard awoke from his contemplation with a shudder like those who wake up.I saw his dark face half exposed in the thick gray beard, revealing a trace of excitement.His large head was completely bald, and his smooth forehead was in contrast to his bushy eyebrows, under which his round eyes, sunken in their sockets, shone like a scene seen through the whitish leaves in late summer.He was short, broad-shouldered, and built like a gladiator.He was dressed in rags, filthy but haughty.The face was so short and inconspicuous that it was so Socratic that I could not have recognized the sparks of genius that had shone in his sharp features.He seemed to me like a beast, a nasty animal.Hate seized me, and determined to avenge his offense to my name, I placed the stone in the slingshot and hurled it without warning.

Patience was answering the child's greeting when the stone flew out. "Good night, boys, God be with you..." he said to us, as the stone whizzed past his ear and hit a falcon kept by Patience, which Hiance brings joy, always wakes on the ivy over the lintel as the night comes. The owl uttered a shriek, and fell bloodied at the feet of its master, who responded with a roar, stunned for a few seconds with rage and amazement.He picked up the rioting injured bird from the ground abruptly, walked towards us holding up the bird's feet, and shouted in a thunderous voice: "You bastards, who popped this rock?"

My companion who was walking behind fled like the wind; but Sylvain was seized by the great hand of the wizard, fell to his knees, and swore in the name of the Virgin and Saint Solange, patron saint of Berry, that he would kill the bird. There is no responsibility for his son's victimization.I admit, I desperately wanted him to get out of the way and run off into the woods.I had expected to see a weak old troubadour in the hands of a strong foe; but pride kept me. "If this is you," said Patience to my trembling companion, "let misfortune befall you, for you are a wicked child, and you will be a wicked man! You have done a A bad thing, you make an old man who has never done you any harm, and enjoy yourself, and you do mean, cowardly, sneaky things, while you say good night to him politely. You're a liar, a mean fellow; you Took away my only connection to society, my only wealth, and gloated. God bless you if you keep doing it."

"Oh, Mr. Patience!" cried the boy, clasping his hands together, "don't curse me, don't read me magic, don't make me sick; I didn't do it! If it's me, let God destroy me! ..." "If it's not you, then this one!" said Patience, grabbing me by the collar, shaking me like a young tree by its roots. "Yes, it's me," I replied proudly. "If you want to know my name, remember that my name is Bernard Maupra; a commoner who dares to touch a nobleman should die." "Die! You, you want me to die, Maupra!" cried the old man, dazed with rage and astonishment. "If a hairy kid like you has the right to threaten a man my age, what the hell is God doing? Die! Ah! You are a Maupra, indeed, the dragon begets the dragon, the wind begets the phoenix, the mouse begets the child Burrow, you cursed dog! Say you want someone else's life, at least he should be born! Death, my wolf's breath? You know it is you who are to die, not because of what you just did, but Since you are your father's son and your uncles' nephew? Ah! I'm glad to have one of the Mauprats in my hand, and know whether a noble bastard is as much a Christian as a Christian."

At the same time, he lifted me from the ground like a hare. "Little man," he said to my companion, "go home, and don't be afraid. Patience is not angry with such a man as you, and he forgives his brothers, who are as ignorant as he is, Don't know what I'm doing; and a Maupra, you see, who can read and write, is more vicious. Go... no, you stay, I want you to see a noble for a once in your life A commoner's whip. You'll see, and I beg you not to forget, little one, and tell your parents." My face was white with rage, and my teeth were crumbling in my mouth; I resisted desperately.With astonishing composure, Patience tied me to a tree with a branch.He can bend me like a reed, but he has only to play with his big hands full of courage, but I am very strong and strong though I am young.He hung an owl on a branch above my head, and the bird's blood dripped on me, and terror seized me; there was a common physical punishment in those days, executed with hounds wont to bite the prey, and my mind was raged I got confused with the cries of my companions, despair, and my companions, and thought at first that some dreadful sorcery was about to be performed; but, I thought, if he had transformed me into an owl, I would have endured his physical punishment with ease. many.It is useless to threaten him, nor is it useless to swear and swear revenge. My little friend knelt there in vain and begged:

"Monsieur Patience, in the name of God's love and self-respect, don't make him suffer; the Maupras will kill you." He shrugged his shoulders and laughed, and grabbed a handful of holly leaves and beat me, not hard, I must admit, but humiliating; Dropping the branches, I even noticed a mutation in his countenance and voice, as if he regretted his harshness. "Maupra," he said to me, with his arms folded on his breast, staring at me, "you have been punished, you have been insulted, my lord, that is enough for me. You see, I only want Take your breath away with a finger, and bury you under the stone at my door, and you will stop you from harming me. Who would have thought to come to Mr. Patience's house to find you, a handsome nobleman? You see, I don't love revenge, because the first cry of pain from you stops me. I don't love to cause pain, I'm not a Maupra. It's good for you to experience what it's like to be a victim .May it make you loathe the executioner's profession passed down from father to son in your family! Good night, you go, I hate you no more, the justice of the merciful God is satisfied. You can ask some of your uncles to put me in the roast on the rack; they'll take a hard bite and swallow a piece of flesh that will revive in their throats and suffocate them."

He picked up the dead owl, and watching it gloomily, said: "A farmer's boy would not do such a thing. This is a nobleman's pleasure." He retreated to the door and let out a festive cheer, which was exactly the two words of his nickname: "Patience, patience! According to the good woman, it was a kind of incantation in his mouth that called out ghosts, and every time he heard him shout like this, it brought misfortune to anyone who had offended him.Sylvain draws a sign of the cross to drive away ghosts.Horrible voices echoed under the dome of the tower Patience had just entered, and the door slammed shut on him. My partner was so eager to slip away that he almost left me without untying me.As soon as he was gone, he said to me: "Cross the cross, for the love of the merciful God, make the cross! If you will not cross yourself, you will be bewitched: we will be eaten by wolves on the way, or we will meet wild beasts." "Fool!" I said to him, "it's you! Look, if you're unlucky enough to tell anybody what just happened, I'll strangle you." "Oh, sir, why is this?" he said innocently and slyly, "the wizard told me to tell my parents." I raised my arm to hit him, but I had no strength.What happened to me just now made me speechless with anger, and almost fainted, Sylvain took the opportunity to slip away. When I recovered, I was alone, I didn't know this part of Varenna; I had never been here, and it was terribly desolate.All day long I have seen waves and wild boar tracks in the sand.Night is now over the land; I still have two leagues to go before I reach Maupra Rock.Every door must be shut and the drawbridge raised; if I don't get there by nine o'clock I'll be shot.Needless to say, I could not travel two leagues an hour, owing to my ignorance of the way.But I would rather die a thousand times than ask the occupant of Gazzo Tower for shelter, even if he would gladly grant it.My self-esteem was hurt more than my physical body. I was running around.The trails are winding and criss-crossing.I came from a fenced pasture to a plain.The trail is gone.I walked through the fence at random and came to a field.The night is so dark that you can't see your fingers; even in the daytime, there is no way to cross the small farm surrounded by thorns on the slope.At last I saw bushes, then woods, and my fear, having subsided a little, rose again; frankly, I was scared to death.I used to be trained to be as brave as a hound, and to be calm in the eyes of others.Vanity bred me, and I was very daring in company; but alone in the dark of night, tired and hungry, though I had no desire to eat, the excitement just now disturbed me, and I was sure my uncles would come home when I got home. Hitting me, but still determined to go home, as if I could find a paradise on earth in Maupra Rock, I wandered until dawn in indescribable troubles.The howling of wolves, fortunately in a remote place, struck my eardrums more than once and made my blood freeze in my veins; A grotesque picture.Patience is known as a wolf hunter.You know, it's a ghostly specialty that's trusted everywhere.And so I imagined this devilish little old man, surrounded by a pack of hungry wolves, with his own half-wolf face, chasing me through the undergrowth.Several times the rabbit ran past my crotch, and I almost fell to the ground in shock.Since I was sure no one would see, I made the sign of the cross with all my might; though I pretended to be unbelieving, deep down I must have grown superstitious from fear. Finally, after dawn, I returned to Mopra Rock.I waited in the trench for the gate to open, and slipped into the room unseen.It just so happened that people didn't pay constant attention to me, I was gone all night and no one noticed; I met Uncle John on the stairs and told him I had just woken up; I went to sleep in the cave for a whole day.