She began to cry, and said: “It is not
my fault! It is not my fault!” He grew
rather more gentle when he heard that, and added:
“I do not say that it is, but it is very provoking,
all the same.”
From that day forward she had only one thought:
to have a child another child; she confided her wish
to everybody, and, in consequence of this, a neighbor
told her of an infallible method. This was, to
make her husband drink a glass of water with a pinch
of ashes in it every evening. The farmer consented
to try it, but without success; so they said to each
other: “Perhaps there are some secret ways?”
And they tried to find out. They were told of
a shepherd who lived ten leagues off, and so Vallin
one day drove off to consult him. The shepherd
gave him a loaf on which he had made some marks; it
was kneaded up with herbs, and each of them was to
eat a piece of it, but they ate the whole loaf without
obtaining any results from it.
Next, a schoolmaster unveiled mysteries and processes
of love which were unknown in the country, but infallible,
so he declared; but none of them had the desired effect.
Then the priest advised them to make a pilgrimage
to the shrine at Fecamp. Rose went with the crowd
and prostrated herself in the abbey, and, mingling
her prayers with the coarse desires of the peasants
around her, she prayed that she might be fruitful a
second time; but it was in vain, and then she thought
that she was being punished for her first fault, and
she was seized by terrible grief. She was wasting
away with sorrow; her husband was also aging prematurely,
and was wearing himself out in useless hopes.
Then war broke out between them; he called her names
and beat her. They quarrelled all day long, and
when they were in their room together at night he
flung insults and obscenities at her, choking with
rage, until one night, not being able to think of
any means of making her suffer more he ordered her
to get up and go and stand out of doors in the rain
until daylight. As she did not obey him, he seized
her by the neck and began to strike her in the face
with his fists, but she said nothing and did not move.
In his exasperation he knelt on her stomach, and with
clenched teeth, and mad with rage, he began to beat
her. Then in her despair she rebelled, and flinging
him against the wall with a furious gesture, she sat
up, and in an altered voice she hissed: “I
have had a child, I have had one! I had it by
Jacques; you know Jacques. He promised to marry
me, but he left this neighborhood without keeping
his word.”
The man was thunderstruck and could hardly speak,
but at last he stammered out: “What are
you saying? What are you saying?” Then she
began to sob, and amid her tears she continued:
“That was the reason why I did not want to marry
you. I could not tell you, for you would have
left me without any bread for my child. You have
never had any children, so you cannot understand,
you cannot understand!”
