Chapter VIII: The Fire

Just as I had gone to sleep one evening, I was awakened by cries of “fire! fire!” Startled and terrified I endeavored to rid myself of the leather strap that held me fast, but in vain did I pull at it, and roll on the ground, the strap would not break. At last the happy idea occurred to me of cutting it with my teeth, and this I succeeded in doing after several efforts. My poor stable was lighted up with the reflexion of the fire; the cries, the noise increased; I heard the lamentations of the servants, the crash of falling walls, the giving way of floors, the roaring of flames; the smoke had already reached my stable, and no one thought of me, no one had had charity enough just to open my door and let me out. The flames increased in violence, already I began to experience a feeling of great heat and suffocation.

“It is all over for me,” said I, “I am condemned to be burned alive! what a frightful death! Oh! Pauline, my dear mistress, you have forgotten your poor Cadichon!”

Scarcely had I, not pronounced, but thought these words, when my door was opened violently, and I heard the terrified voice of Pauline calling me. Happy at being saved, I darted towards her, and we were just on the threshold, when a frightful crash made us recoil. A building directly opposite my stable had tumbled down, and every passage was choked up with the ruins; my poor mistress must now perish for having attempted to save me! We were nearly suffocated with the smoke, the dust of the fallen building, and the heat. Pauline dropped down beside me. Suddenly, I took a dangerous resolution, but the only one that could save us. Seizing my little mistress’s dress in my teeth, she being partly unconscious from fright, I darted across the burning beams that strewed the ground. Being fortunate enough to get through without her clothing taking fire, I now stopped to see whither I must direct my steps; everything around us was in flames. Discouraged and almost in despair, I was going to lay Pauline, now utterly unconscious, on the ground, when perceiving an open cave; I rushed in, (knowing full well that in one of these vaults under the castle we were in absolute safety,) and I laid Pauline near a tub of water, so that she could bathe her forehead and temples on awaking from her swoon. It did not last very long, and when she awoke to consciousness and found herself out of danger, she threw herself upon her knees, and in a touching prayer thanked God for having so mercifully preserved her. Then, after thanking me with a tenderness and gratitude quite affecting, she drank a few mouthfuls of water from the tub and listened. The fire continued its ravages, everything was burning; we still heard a few voices, but so indistinctly that we could not recognize them.

“Poor mama and papa!” said Pauline, “they think I have perished in disobeying them, by going to Cadichon’s rescue. We must now wait till the fire is extinguished. No doubt, we shall spend the night in the vault. Good Cadichon!” she added, “I owe my life to you.”

She said no more, but took her seat on an upturned chest, and leaning her head upon an empty barrel, was soon asleep. I felt tired and hungry, so I drank from the tub, and stretching myself out near the door, I was not long in following her example.

I awoke very early. Pauline still slept. I arose softly and went to the door, which I opened; everything was burned and the flames extinguished, and I saw that one could easily pick his way through the ruins to the castle yard. I gave a light hi! han! to awaken my mistress, who opened her eyes, and seeing me near the door, she ran towards it and gazed around her.

“All burned up! all gone!” said she sadly, “I shall never see the castle any more. I shall be dead before it is rebuilt, I feel it; I am weak and sick, very sick, although mama says—”

“Come, my Cadichon,” she continued after remaining pensive and motionless for a few minutes, “come, let us go now, I must find mama and papa to console them, they think me dead.”

She lightly threaded her way among the fallen stones, the crumbled walls, the still smoking beams. I followed her, and we soon reached the lawn, where she got on my back. Directing my steps towards the village, we lost no time in finding the house where her parents had taken refuge. Believing their child lost, they were plunged in the deepest affliction.

At sight of her, they uttered an exclamation of joy and rushed out to clasp her in their arms. She recounted to them with what intelligence and courage I had saved her life; but instead of thanking and caressing me, the mother surveyed me with an air of indifference, and the father never deigned to look at me at all.

“He nearly caused your death, my poor child,” said the mother. “If you had not been so foolish as to think of opening the stable, and setting him at liberty, your father and I would not have passed such a night of desolation.”

“But,” said Pauline earnestly, “it is he who—”

“Hush, hush,” replied the mother interrupting her, “say no more to me about this animal which I detest, for he has almost caused your death.”

Pauline sighed, looked sorrowfully at me and was silent.

From that day I never saw her more. The terrible fright, the fatigue of a night passed out of bed, but especially the low temperature of the vault, all increased the disease from which she had suffered a long time. In the morning she was taken with a fever that never left her. The chill of the preceding night finished what sadness and weariness had commenced; her chest already weak, could not stand the shock, and she died at the end of a month, neither regretting life nor fearing death. She often spoke of me and called me in her delirium. No one thought of me now. I ate what I could find, and I slept unsheltered in cold and rain. When I saw the coffin which contained the body of my poor, little mistress carried out of the house, my grief was so intense that I left that part of the country, and have never been there since.