The Flood
E >>
Emile Zola >> The Flood
This eBook was produced by Michael Castelluccio
THE FLOOD
I.
My name is Louis Roubien. I am seventy years old. I was born in the
village of Saint-Jory, several miles up the Garonne from Toulouse.
For fourteen years I battled with the earth for my daily bread. At last,
prosperity smiled on we, and last month I was still the richest farmer
in the parish.
Our house seemed blessed, happiness reigned there. The sun was our
brother, and I cannot recall a bad crop. We were almost a dozen on the
farm. There was myself, still hale and hearty, leading the children to
work; then my young brother, Pierre, an old bachelor and retired sergeant;
then my sister, Agathe, who came to us after the death of her husband.
She was a commanding woman, enormous and gay, whose laugh could be heard
at the other end of the village. Then came all the brood: my son, Jacques;
his wife, Rosie, and their three daughters, Aimee, Veronique, and Marie.
The first named was married to Cyprica Bouisson, a big jolly fellow, by
whom she had two children, one two years old and the other ten months.
Veronique was just betrothed, and was soon to marry Gaspard Rabuteau. The
third, Marie, was a real young lady, so white, so fair, that she looked as
if born in the city.
That made ten, counting everybody. I was a grandfather and a great-grandfather.
When we were at table I had my sister, Agathe, at my right, and my brother,
Pierre, at my left. The children formed a circle,seated according to age,
with the heads diminishing down to the baby of ten months, who already ate
his soup like a man. And let me tell you that the spoons in the plates made a
clatter. The brood had hearty appetites. And what gayety between the mouthfuls!
I was filled with pride and joy when the little ones held out their hands
toward me, crying:
"Grandpa, give us some bread! A big piece, grandpa!"
Oh! the good days! Our farm sang from every corner. In the evening, Pierre
invented games and related stories of his regiment. On Sunday Agathe made
cakes for the girls. Marie knew some canticles, which she sang like a
chorister.
She looked like a saint, with her blond hair falling on her neck and her
hands folded on her apron.
I had built another story on the house when Aimee had married Cyprien; and
I said laughingly that I would have to build another after the wedding of
Veronique and Gaspard. We never cared to leave each other. We would sooner
have built a city behind the farm, in our enclosure. When families are united,
it is so good to live and die where one has grown up!
The month of May had been magnificent that year. It was long since the
crops gave such good promise. That day precisely, I had made a tour of
inspection with my son, Jacques. We started at about three o'clock.
Our meadows on the banks of the Garonne were of a tender green. The
grass was three feet high, and an osier thicket, planted the year before,
had sprouts a yard high. From there we went to visit our wheat and our
vines, fields bought one by one as fortune came to us. The wheat was
growing strong; the vines, in full flower, promised a superb vintage. And
Jacques laughed his good laugh as he slapped me on the shoulder.
"Well, father, we shall never want for bread nor for wine. You must
be a friend of the Divine Power to have silver showered upon your land
in this way."
We often joked among ourselves of our past poverty. Jacques was right.
I must have gained the friendship of some saint or of God himself,
for all the luck in the country was for us. When it hailed the hail
ceased on the border of our fields. If the vines of our neighbors fell
sick, ours seemed to have a wall of protection around them. And in the
end I grew to consider it only just. Never doing harm to any one, I
thought that happiness was my due.
As we approached the house, Rose gesticulated, calling out:
"Hurry up!"
One of our cows had just had a calf, and everybody was excited. The
birth of that little beast seemed one more blessing. We had been obliged
recently to enlarge the stables, where we had nearly one hundred head
of animals--cows and sheep, without counting the horses.
"Well, a good day's work!" I cried. "We will drink to-night a bottle of
ripened wine."
Meanwhile, Rose took us aside and told us that Gaspard, Veronique's
betrothed, had come to arrange the day for the wedding. She had invited
him to remain for dinner.
Gaspard, the oldest son of a farmer of Moranges, was a big boy of twenty
years, known throughout the country for his prodigious strength. During
a festival at Toulouse he had vanquished Martial, the "Lion of the Midi."
With that, a nice boy, with a heart of gold. He was even timid, and
he blushed when Veronique looked him squarely in the face.
I told Rose to call him. He was at the bottom of the yard, helping our
servants to spread out the freshly-washed linen. When he entered the
dining room, where we were, Jacques turned toward me, saying:
"You speak, father."
"Well," I said, "you have come, my boy, to have us set the great day?"
"Yes, that is it, Father Roubien," he answered, very red.
"You mustn't blush, my boy," I continued. "It will be, if you wish, on Saint-
Felicite day, the 10th of July. This is the 23rd of June, so you
will have only twenty days to wait. My poor dead wife was called Felicite,
and that will bring you happiness. Well? Is it understood?"
"Yes, that will do--Sainte-Felicite day. Father Roubien."
And he gave each of us a grip that made us wince. Then he embraced Rose,
calling her mother. This big boy with the terrific fists loved Veronique
to the point of losing his appetite.
Now," I continued, "you must remain for dinner. Well, everybody to the table.
I have a thundering appetite, I have."
That evening we were eleven at table. Gaspard was placed next to Veronique,
and he sat looking at her, forgetting his plate, so moved at the thought
of her belonging to him that, at times, the tears sprang to his eyes. Cyprien
and Aimee, married only three years, smiled. Jacques and Rose, who
had had twenty-five years of married life, were more serious, but,
surreptitiously, they exchanged tender glances. As for me, I seemed to relive
in those two sweethearts, whose happiness seemed to bring a corner
of Paradise to our table. What good soup we had that evening! Aunt Agathe,
always ready with a witticism, risked several jokes. Then that honest
Pierre wanted to relate his love affair with a young lady of Lyons.
Fortunately, we were at the dessert, and every one was talking at once. I
had brought two bottles of mellowed wine from the cellar. We drank to the
good fortune of Gaspard and Veronique. Then we had singing. Gaspard knew some
love songs in dialect. We also asked Marie for a canticle. She stood up and
sang in a flute-like voice that tickled one's ears.
I went to the window, and Gaspard joined me there.
"Is there no news up your way?" I asked him.
"No," he answered. "There is considerable talk about the heavy rains of the
last few days. Some seem to think that they will cause trouble."
In effect, it had rained for sixty hours without stopping. The Garonne was
very much swollen since the preceding day, but we had confidence in it, and,
as long as it did not overflow its banks, we could not look on it as a bad
neighbor.
"Bah!" I exclaimed, shrugging my shoulders. "Nothing will happen. It is the
same every year. The river puts up her back as if she were furious, and she
calms down in a night. You will see, my boy, that it will amount to nothing
this time. See how beautiful the weather is!"
And I pointed to the sky. It was seven o'clock; the sun was setting. The sky
was blue, an immense blue sheet of profound purity, in which the rays of the
setting sun were like a golden dust. Never had I seen the village drowsing in
so sweet a peace. Upon the tiled roofs a rosy tint was fading. I heard a
neighbor's laugh, then the voices of children at the turn in the road in front
of our place. Farther away and softened by the distance, rose the sounds of
flocks entering their sheds. The great voice of the Garonne roared continually;
but it was to me as the voice of the silence, so accustomed
to it was I.
Little by little the sky paled; the village became more drowsy. It was the
evening of a beautiful day; and I thought that all our good fortune--the big
harvests, the happy house, the betrothal of Veronique--came to us from above
in the purity of the dying light. A benediction spread over us with the
farewell of the evening.
Meanwhile I had returned to the center of the room. The girls were chattering.
We listened to them, smiling. Suddenly, across the serenity of the country,
a terrible cry sounded, a cry of distress and death:
"The Garonne! The Garonne!"
II.
We rushed out into the yard.
Saint-Jory is situated at the bottom of a
slope at about five hundred yards from the Garonne. Screens of tall poplars
that divide the meadows, hide the river completely.
We could see nothing. And still the cry rang out:
"The Garonne! The Garonne!"
Suddenly, on the wide road before us, appeared two men and three women,
one of them holding a child in her arms. It was they who were crying out,
distracted, running with long strides. They turned at times, looking behind
with terrified faces, as if a band of wolves was pursuing them.
"What's the matter with them?" demanded Cyprien. "Do you see anything,
grandfather?"
"No," I answered. "The leaves are not even moving."
I was still talking when an exclamation burst from us. Behind the fugitives
there appeared, between the trunks of the poplars, amongst the large tufts
of grass, what looked like a pack of gray beasts speckled with yellow. They
sprang up from all directions, waves crowding waves, a helter-skelter of
masses of foaming water, shaking the sod with the rumbling gallop of their
hordes.
It was our turn to send forth the despairing cry:
"The Garonne! The Garonne!"
The two men and the three women were still running on the road. They heard
the terrible gallop gaining on them. Now the waves arrived in a single line,
rolling, tumbling with the thunder of a charging battalion. With their first
shock they had broken three poplars; the tall foliage sank and disappeared.
A wooden cabin was swallowed up, a wall was demolished; heavy carts were
carried away like straws. But the water seemed, above all, to pursue the
fugitives. At the bend in the road, where there was a steep slope, it fell
suddenly in an immense sheet and cut off retreat. They continued to run,
nevertheless, splashing through the water, no longer shouting, mad
with terror. The water swirled about their knees. An enormous wave felled
the woman who was carrying the child. Then all were engulfed.
"Quick! Quick!" I cried. "We must get into the house. It is solid--we have
nothing to fear."
We took refuge upstairs. The house was built on a hillock above the road.
The water invaded the yard, softly, with a little rippling noise. We were
not much frightened.
"Bah!" said Jacques, to reassure every one, "this will not amount to
anything. You remember, father, in '55, the water came up into the yard.
It was a foot deep. Then it receded."
"It is disastrous for the crops, just the same," murmured Cyprien.
"No, it will not be anything," I said, seeing the large questioning eyes
of our girls.
Aimee had put her two children into the bed. She sat beside them, with
Veronique and Marie. Aunt Agathe spoke of heating some wine she had brought
up, to give us courage.
Jacques and Rose were looking out of a window. I was at the other, with my
brother Pierre, Cyprien and Gaspard.
"Come up!" I cried to our two servants, who were wading in the yard. "Don't
stay there and get all wet."
"But the animals?" they asked. "They are afraid. They are killing each other
in the barn."
"No, no; come up! After a while we'll see to them."
The rescue of the animals would be impossible, if the disaster was to attain
greater proportions. I thought it unnecessary to frighten the family. So I
forced myself to appear hopeful. Leaning on the windowsill, I indicated the
progress of the flood. The river, after its attack on the village, was in
possession even to the narrowest streets. It was no longer a galloping
charge, but a slow and invincible strangulation. The hollow in the bottom
of which Saint-Jory is built was changed into a lake. In our yard the water
was soon three feet deep. But I asserted that it remained stationary--I even
went so far as to pretend that it was going down.
"Well, you will be obliged to sleep here to-night, my boy," I said, turning
to Gaspard. "That is, unless the roads are free in a couple of hours--which
is quite possible."
He looked at me without answering, his face quite pale; and I saw him look
at Veronique with an expression of anguish.
It was half-past eight o'clock. It was still daylight--a pale, sad light
beneath the blanched sky. The servants had had the forethought to bring up
two lamps with them. I had them lighted, thinking that they would brighten
up the somber room. Aunt Agathe, who had rolled a table to the middle of the
room, wished to organize a card party. The worthy woman, whose eyes sought
mine momentarily, thought above all of diverting the children. Her good humor
kept up a superb bravery; and she laughed to combat the terror that she felt
growing around her. She forcibly placed Aimee, Veronique, and Marie at the
table. She put the cards into their hands, took a hand herself with an air of
intense interest, shuffling, cutting, dealing with such a flow of talk that
she almost drowned the noise of the water. But our girls could not be diverted;
they were pale, with feverish hands, and ears on the alert. Every few moments
there was a pause in the play. One of them would turn to me, asking in a low
voice:
"Grandpa, is it still rising?"
"No, no. Go on with the game. There is no danger."
Never had my heart been gripped by such agony. All the men placed themselves
at the windows to hide the terrifying sight. We tried to smile, turned toward
the peaceful lamps that threw discs of light upon the table. I recalled our
winter evenings, when we gathered around the table. It was the same quiet
interior, filled with the warmth of affection. And while peace was there I
heard behind me the roaring of the escaped river, that was constantly rising.
"Louis," said my brother Pierre, "the water is within three feet of the window.
We ought to tell them."
I hushed him up by pressing his arm. But it was no longer possible to hide
the peril. In our barns the animals were killing each other. There were
bleatings and bellowings from the crazed herds; and the horses gave the harsh
cries that can be heard at great distances when they are in danger of death.
"My God! My God!" cried Aimee, who stood up, pressing her hands to her temples.
They all ran to the windows. There they remained, mute, their hair rising
with fear. A dim light floated above the yellow sheet of water. The pale sky
looked like a white cloth thrown over the earth. In the distance trailed some
smoke. Everything was misty. It was the terrified end of a day melting into a
night of death. And not a human sound, nothing but the roaring of that sea
stretching to infinity; nothing but the bellowings and the neighings of the
animals.
"My God! My God!" repeated the women, in low voices, as if they feared to
speak aloud.
A terrible cracking silenced the exclamations. The maddened animals had
burst open the doors of the stables. They passed in the yellow flood, rolled
about, carried away by the current. The sheep were tossed about like dead
leaves, whirling in bands in the eddies. The cows and the horses struggled,
tried to walk, and lost their footing. Our big gray horse fought long for
life. He stretched his neck, he reared, snorting like a forge. But the enraged
waters took him by the crupper, and we saw him, beaten, abandon himself.
Then we gave way for the first time. We felt the need of tears. Our hands
stretched out to those dear animals that were being borne away, we lamented,
giving vent to the tears and the sobs that we had suppressed. Ah! what ruin!
The harvests destroyed, the cattle drowned, our fortunes changed in a few
hours! God was not just! We had done nothing against Him, and He was taking
everything from us! I shook my fist at the horizon. I spoke of our walk that
afternoon, of our meadows, our wheat and vines that we had found so full of
promise. It was all a lie, then! The sun lied when he sank, so sweet and
calm, in the midst of the evening's serenity.
The water was still rising. Pierre, who was watching it, cried:
"Louis, we must look out! The water is up to the window!"
That warning snatched us from our spell of despair. I was once more myself.
Shrugging my shoulders, I said:
"Money is nothing. As long as we are all saved, there need be no regrets.
We shall have to work again--that is all!"
"Yes, yes; you are right, father," said Jacques, feverishly. "And we run
no danger--the walls are good and strong. We must get up on the roof."
That was the only refuge left us. The water, which had mounted the stairs
step by step, was already coming through the door. We rushed to the attic
in a group, holding close to each other. Cyprien had disappeared. I called
him, and I saw him return from the next room, his face working with emotion.
Then, as I remarked the absence of the servants, for whom I was waiting,he
gave me a strange look, then said, in a suppressed voice:
"Dead! The corner of the shed under their room caved in."
The poor girls must have gone to fetch their savings from their trunks. I
told him to say nothing about it. A cold shiver had passed over me. It was
Death entering the house.
When we went up, in our turn, we did not even think of putting out the lights.
The cards remained spread upon the table. There was already a foot of water in
the room.
III.
Fortunately, the roof was vast and sloped gently. We reached it through a lid-
like window, above which was a sort of platform. It was there that we took
refuge. The women seated themselves. The men went over the tiles to
reconnoitre.
From my post against the dormer window through which we had climbed, I
examined the four points of the horizon.
"Help cannot fail to arrive," I said, bravely. "The people of Saintin have
boats; they will come this way. Look over there! Isn't that a lantern on the
water?"
But no one answered me. Pierre had lighted his pipe, and he was smoking so
furiously that, at each puff, he spit out pieces of the stem. Jacques and
Cyprien looked into the distance, with drawn faces; while Gaspard, clenching
his fists, continued to walk about, seeking an issue. At our feet the women,
silent and shivering, hid their faces to shut out the sight. Yet Rose raised
her head, glanced about her and demanded:
"And the servants? Where are they? Why, aren't they here?"
I avoided answering. She then questioned me, her eyes on mine.
"Where are the servants?"
I turned away, unable to lie. I felt that chill that had already brushed me
pass over our women and our dear girls. They had understood. Marie burst into
tears. Aimee wrapped her two children in her skirt, as if to protect them.
Veronique, her face in her hands, did not move. Aunt Agathe, very pale, made
the sign of the cross, and mumbled Paters and Aves.
Meanwhile the spectacle about us became of sovereign grandeur. The night
retained the clearness of a summer night. There was no moon, but the sky
was sprinkled with stars, and was of so pure a blue that it seemed to fill
space with a blue light. And the immense sheet of water expanded beneath the
softness of the sky. We could no longer see any land.
"The water is rising; the water is rising!" repeated my brother Pierre, still
crunching the stem of his pipe between his teeth.
The water was within a yard of the roof. It was losing its tranquility;
currents were being formed. In less than an hour the water became threatening,
dashing against the house, bearing drifting barrels, pieces of wood, clumps
of weeds. In the distance there were attacks upon walls, and we could hear
the resounding shocks. Poplar trees fell, houses crumbled, like a cartload of
stones emptied by the roadside.
Jacques, unnerved by the sobs of the women, cried:
"We can't stay here. We must try something. Father, I beg of you, try to
do something."
I stammered after him:
"Yes, yes; let us try to do something."
And we knew of nothing. Gaspard offered to take Veronique on his back and
swim with her to a place of safety. Pierre suggested a raft. Cyprien finally
said:
"If we could only reach the church!"
Above the waters the church remained standing, with its little square
steeple. We were separated from it by seven houses. Our farmhouse, the first
of the village, adjoined a higher building, which, in turn, leaned against
the next. Perhaps, by way of the roofs, we would be able to reach the
parsonage. A number of people must have taken refuge there already, for the
neighboring roofs were vacant, and we could hear voices that surely came
from the steeple. But what dangers must be run to reach them!
"It is impossible," said Pierre. "The house of the Raimbeaus is too high;
we would need ladders."
"I am going to try it," said Cyprien. "I will return if the way is
impracticable. Otherwise, we will all go and we will have to carry the girls."
I let him go. He was right. We had to try the impossible. He had succeeded,
by the aid of an iron hook fixed in a chimney, in climbing to the next house,
when his wife, Aimee, raising her head, noticed that he was no longer with us.
She screamed:
"Where is he? I don't want him to leave me! We are together, we shall die
together!"
When she saw him on the top of the house she ran over the tiles, still
holding her children. And she called out:
"Cyprien, wait for me! I am going with you. I am going to die with you."
She persisted. He leaned over, pleading with her, promising to come back,
telling her that he was going for the rescue of all of us. But, with a wild
air, she shook her head, repeating "I am going with you! I am going with
you!"
He had to take the children. Then he helped her up. We could follow them
along the crest of the house. They walked slowly. She had taken the children
again, and at every step he turned and supported her.
"Get her to a safe place, and return!" I shouted.
I saw him wave his hand, but the roaring of the water prevented my hearing
his answer. Soon we could not see them. They had descended to the roof of
the next house. At the end of five minutes they appeared upon the third roof,
which must have been very steep, for they went on hands and knees along the
summit. A sudden terror seized me. I put my hands to my mouth and shouted:
"Come back! Come back!"
Then all of us shouted together. Our voices stopped them for a moment, but
they continued on their way. They reached the angle formed by the street upon
which faced the Raimbeau house, a high structure, with a roof at least ten
feet above those of the neighboring houses. For a moment they hesitated. Then
Cyprien climbed up a chimney pipe, with the agility of a cat. Aimee, who must
have consented to wait for him, stood on the tiles. We saw her plainly, black
and enlarged against the pale sky, straining her children to her bosom. And
it was then that the horrifying trouble began.
The Raimbeau house, originally intended for a factory, was very flimsily
built. Besides, the facade was exposed to the current in the street. I thought
I could see it tremble from the attacks of the water; and, with a contraction
of the throat, I watched Cyprien cross the roof. Suddenly a rumbling was
heard. The moon rose, a round moon, whose yellow face lighted up the immense
lake. Not a detail of the catastrophe was lost to us. The Raimbeau house
collapsed. We gave a cry of terror as we saw Cyprien disappear. As the house
crumbled we could distinguish nothing but a tempest, a swirling of waves
beneath
the debris of the roof. Then calm was restored, the surface became smooth; and
out of the black hole of the engulfed house projected the skeleton of its
framework. There was a mass of entangled beams, and, amongst them, I seemed to
see a body moving, something living making superhuman efforts.
"He lives!" I cried. "Oh, God be praised! He lives!"
We laughed nervously; we clapped our hands, as if saved ourselves.
"He is going to raise himself up," said Pierre.
"Yes, yes," said Gaspard, "he is trying to seize the beam on his left."
But our laugh ceased. We had just realized the terrible situation in which
Cyprien was placed. During the fall of the house his feet had been caught
between two beams, and he hung head downward within a few inches of the
water. On the roof of the next house Aimee was still standing, holding her
two children. A convulsive tremor shook her. She did not take her eyes from
her husband, a few yards below her. And, mad with horror, she emitted
without cessation a lamentable sound like the howling of a dog.