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Updated: June 20, 2025
Bellines shrugged his shoulders, and observed that the air of these March mornings was sharp. The prisoner persisted, however; and with the fresh air, there came in upon him a fresh set of thoughts. Calling Bellines back, he desired, in a tone of authority, to see the Commandant.
Rubaut, eager to be busy till he could go, and to be gone as soon as possible, found fault with some long-deceased occupant of the cell, for having covered its arched ceiling with grotesque drawings in charcoal; and then with Bellines, for not having dried the floor. Truly the light gleamed over it as over a pond.
Through this apartment to the left." Toussaint, however, chose to wait for Bellines and his torch. He chose to see what he could of the passages of his prison. If this vault in which he stood were not underground, it was the dreariest apartment from which the daylight had ever been built out.
In the moment's pause occasioned by his not moving on when desired, he heard the dripping of water as in a well. Bellines appeared, and his torch showed the stone walls of the vault shining with the trickling of water. A cold steam appeared to thicken the air, oppress the lungs, and make the torch burn dim. "To what apartment can this be the passage?" thought Toussaint.
"Very well. Get lights, and I will visit him." Lights were brought. A boy, who carried a lantern, shivered as he saw how ghastly Bellines' face looked in the yellow gleam, in the dark vault on the way to the cell, and was not sorry to be told to stay behind, till called to light the Commandant back again. "Have you heard anything?" asked Rubaut of the soldier, in a low voice. "Not for many hours.
On his return, he summoned Bellines, and said, in the presence of several soldiers "How is the prisoner there?" pointing in the direction of Toussaint's cell. "He has been very quiet this morning, sir." "Very quiet? Do you suppose he is ill?" "He was as well as usual the last time I went to him." "He has had plenty of everything, I suppose?" "Oh, yes, sir. Wood, candle, food, water everything."
"The grave is warm compared with this." A glance of wretchedness from Mars Plaisir, seen in the torchlight, as Bellines passed on to the front, showed that the poor fellow's spirits, and perhaps some visions of a merry life among the soldiers, had melted already in the damps of this vault. Rubaut gave him a push, which showed that he was to follow the torch-bearer.
No one had remembered, or had chosen to make his fire; and he was shivering, as in an ague fit, when, late in the afternoon, Bellines brought in his second meal, and some fuel. "The Commandant?" "The Commandant is not in the castle. He is absent to-day." "Where?" "They say the First Consul has business with him." "With me rather," thought Toussaint.
He said aloud, "Then he is gone with my servant?" "May be so. They went the same road; but that road leads to many places." "The road from Pontarlier?" "Any road all our roads here lead to many places," said Bellines, as he went out. "Poor Mars Plaisir!" thought Toussaint, as he carefully placed the wood so as to tempt the feeble blaze.
No wonder he is dead." "Well, I never knew we had a black here!" "Don't say I told you, then." "I have no doubt yes, we found his fire burning," said Bellines to the inquirers round him. "They will find it apoplexy, or some such thing, I have no doubt of it." And so they did, to the entire satisfaction of the First Consul.
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