L'homme qui rit. English Read online

  II.

  Homo was no ordinary wolf. From his appetite for medlars and potatoes hemight have been taken for a prairie wolf; from his dark hide, for alycaon; and from his howl prolonged into a bark, for a dog of Chili. Butno one has as yet observed the eyeball of a dog of Chili sufficiently toenable us to determine whether he be not a fox, and Homo was a realwolf. He was five feet long, which is a fine length for a wolf, even inLithuania; he was very strong; he looked at you askance, which was nothis fault; he had a soft tongue, with which he occasionally lickedUrsus; he had a narrow brush of short bristles on his backbone, and hewas lean with the wholesome leanness of a forest life. Before he knewUrsus and had a carriage to draw, he thought nothing of doing his fiftymiles a night. Ursus meeting him in a thicket near a stream of runningwater, had conceived a high opinion of him from seeing the skill andsagacity with which he fished out crayfish, and welcomed him as anhonest and genuine Koupara wolf of the kind called crab-eater.

  As a beast of burden, Ursus preferred Homo to a donkey. He would havefelt repugnance to having his hut drawn by an ass; he thought too highlyof the ass for that. Moreover he had observed that the ass, afour-legged thinker little understood by men, has a habit of cocking hisears uneasily when philosophers talk nonsense. In life the ass is athird person between our thoughts and ourselves, and acts as arestraint. As a friend, Ursus preferred Homo to a dog, considering thatthe love of a wolf is more rare.

  Hence it was that Homo sufficed for Ursus. Homo was for Ursus more thana companion, he was an analogue. Ursus used to pat the wolf's emptyribs, saying: "I have found the second volume of myself!" Again hesaid, "When I am dead, any one wishing to know me need only study Homo.I shall leave a true copy behind me."

  The English law, not very lenient to beasts of the forest, might havepicked a quarrel with the wolf, and have put him to trouble for hisassurance in going freely about the towns: but Homo took advantage ofthe immunity granted by a statute of Edward IV. to servants: "Everyservant in attendance on his master is free to come and go." Besides, acertain relaxation of the law had resulted with regard to wolves, inconsequence of its being the fashion of the ladies of the Court, underthe later Stuarts, to have, instead of dogs, little wolves, calledadives, about the size of cats, which were brought from Asia at greatcost.

  Ursus had communicated to Homo a portion of his talents: such as tostand upright, to restrain his rage into sulkiness, to growl instead ofhowling, etc.; and on his part, the wolf had taught the man what _he_knew--to do without a roof, without bread and fire, to prefer hunger inthe woods to slavery in a palace.

  The van, hut, and vehicle in one, which traversed so many differentroads, without, however, leaving Great Britain, had four wheels, withshafts for the wolf and a splinter-bar for the man. The splinter-barcame into use when the roads were bad. The van was strong, although itwas built of light boards like a dove-cot. In front there was a glassdoor with a little balcony used for orations, which had something of thecharacter of the platform tempered by an air of the pulpit. At the backthere was a door with a practicable panel. By lowering the three stepswhich turned on a hinge below the door, access was gained to the hut,which at night was securely fastened with bolt and lock. Rain and snowhad fallen plentifully on it; it had been painted, but of what colour itwas difficult to say, change of season being to vans what changes ofreign are to courtiers. In front, outside, was a board, a kind offrontispiece, on which the following inscription might once have beendeciphered; it was in black letters on a white ground, but by degreesthe characters had become confused and blurred:--

  "By friction gold loses every year a fourteen hundredth part of itsbulk. This is what is called the Wear. Hence it follows that on fourteenhundred millions of gold in circulation throughout the world, onemillion is lost annually. This million dissolves into dust, flies away,floats about, is reduced to atoms, charges, drugs, weighs downconsciences, amalgamates with the souls of the rich whom it rendersproud, and with those of the poor whom it renders brutish."

  The inscription, rubbed and blotted by the rain and by the kindness ofnature, was fortunately illegible, for it is possible that itsphilosophy concerning the inhalation of gold, at the same time bothenigmatical and lucid, might not have been to the taste of the sheriffs,the provost-marshals, and other big-wigs of the law. English legislationdid not trifle in those days. It did not take much to make a man afelon. The magistrates were ferocious by tradition, and cruelty was amatter of routine. The judges of assize increased and multiplied.Jeffreys had become a breed.