登陆注册
15483800000075

第75章 CHAPTER XI(3)

In that mansion were held all the splendid feasts of the Grand Serment des Arbaletriers. The master-archer lived there constantly, in order to be ever at hand to render his services to the guild. The great saloon was also used for the court balls and festivals, when the archers were not admitted. The Infanta caused other and smaller houses to be built in her new street, to serve as residences for her "garde noble;" and for her "garde bourgeoise," a small habitation each, some of which still remain, to remind us of English almshouses. The "great mansion," with its quadrangular form; the spacious saloon--once used for the archducal balls, where the dark, grave Spaniards mixed with the blond nobility of Brabant and Flanders--now a school-room for Belgian girls; the cross-bow men's archery-ground--all are there--the pensionnat of Madame Heger.

This lady was assisted in the work of instruction by her husband--a kindly, wise, good, and religious man--whose acquaintance I am glad to have made, and who has furnished me with some interesting details, from his wife's recollections and his own, of the two Miss Bronte during their residence in Brussels. He had the better opportunities of watching them, from his giving lessons in the French language and literature in the school. A short extract from a letter, written to me by a French lady resident in Brussels, and well qualified to judge, will help to show the estimation in which he is held.

"Je ne connais pas personnellement M. Heger, mais je sais qu'il est peu de caracteres aussi nobles, aussi admirables que le sien.

Il est un des membres les plus zeles de cette Societe de S.

Vincent de Paul dont je t'ai deje parle, et ne se contente pas de servir les pauvres et les malades, mais leur consacre encore les soirees. Apres des journees absorbees tout entieres par les devoirs que sa place lui impose, il reunit les pauvres, les ouvriers, leur donne des cours gratuits, et trouve encore le moyen de les amuser en les instruisant. Ce devouement te dira assez que M. Heger est profondement et ouvertement religieux. Il a des manieres franches et avenantes; il se fait aimer de tous ceux qui l'approchent, et surtout des enfants. Il a la parole facile, et possde e un haut degre l'eloquence du bon sens et du coeur. Il n'est point auteur. Homme de zele et de conscience, il vient de se demettre des fonctions elevees et lucratives qu'il exercait e l'Athenee, celles de Prefet des Etudes, parce qu'il ne peut y realiser le bien qu'il avait espere, introduire l'enseignement religieux dans le programme des etudes. J'ai vu une fois Madame Heger, qui a quelque chose de froid et de compasse dans son maintien, et qui previent peu en sa faveur. Je la crois pourtant aimee et appreciee par ses eleves."There were from eighty to a hundred pupils in the pensionnat, when Charlotte and Emily Bronte entered in February 1842.

M. Heger's account is that they knew nothing of French. I suspect they knew as much (or as little), for all conversational purposes, as any English girls do, who have never been abroad, and have only learnt the idioms and pronunciation from an Englishwoman. The two sisters clung together, and kept apart from the herd of happy, boisterous, well-befriended Belgian girls, who, in their turn, thought the new English pupils wild and scared-looking, with strange, odd, insular ideas about dress; for Emily had taken a fancy to the fashion, ugly and preposterous even during its reign, of gigot sleves, and persisted in wearing them long after they were "gone out." Her petticoats, too, had not a curve or a wave in them, but hung down straight and long, clinging to her lank figure. The sisters spoke to no one but from necessity. They were too full of earnest thought, and of the exile's sick yearning, to be ready for careless conversation or merry game. M.

Heger, who had done little but observe, during the few first weeks of their residence in the Rue d'Isabelle, perceived that with their unusual characters, and extraordinary talents, a different mode must be adopted from that in which he generally taught French to English girls. He seems to have rated Emily's genius as something even higher than Charlotte's; and her estimation of their relative powers was the same. Emily had a head for logic, and a capability of argument, unusual in a man, and rare indeed in a woman, according to M. Heger. Impairing the force of this gift, was a stubborn tenacity of will, which rendered her obtuse to all reasoning where her own wishes, or her own sense of right, was concerned. "She should have been a man--a great navigator," said M. Heger in speaking of her. "Her powerful reason would have deduced new spheres of discovery from the knowledge of the old;and her strong imperious will would never have been daunted by opposition or difficulty; never have given way but with life."And yet, moreover, her faculty of imagination was such that, if she had written a history, her view of scenes and characters would have been so vivid, and so powerfully expressed, and supported by such a show of argument, that it would have dominated over the reader, whatever might have been his previous opinions, or his cooler perceptions of its truth. But she appeared egotistical and exacting compared to Charlotte, who was always unselfish (this is M. Heger's testimony); and in the anxiety of the elder to make her younger sister contented she allowed her to exercise a kind of unconscious tyranny over her.

After consulting with his wife, M. Heger told them that he meant to dispense with the old method of grounding in grammar, vocabulary, &c., and to proceed on a new plan--something similar to what he had occasionally adopted with the elder among his French and Belgian pupils. He proposed to read to them some of the master-pieces of the most celebrated French authors (such as Casimir de la Vigne's poem on the "Death of Joan of Arc," parts of Bossuet, the admirable translation of the noble letter of St.

同类推荐
热门推荐
  • TFBOYS之和你相遇很幸运

    TFBOYS之和你相遇很幸运

    和你们相遇,很幸运。可是为什么,这一切的一切,只是假象罢了?当初那株四叶草,你还留着?现实还是梦?是不是你?不管了,只要是你,就好……那天,他们一起牵着手,说是要回家去,夕阳将他们的影子拉得很长很长……
  • 战龙星辰

    战龙星辰

    遭灭门之祸,从此决心复仇,强吞幻文,半龙半人之身,脚踏数亿天才,走向神的道路,却发现一切皆是假象,灭神,灭人,灭龙,问苍茫天地,何人敢与我一战。
  • 魔力澎湃

    魔力澎湃

    以独特视角,带你一睹魔法绚烂奇观东方穿越男,降临西方异界。面对强敌环侍,迷雾重重有多少强者并起大陆山河锦绣我怎奈一身魔力澎湃
  • 梦想攀登

    梦想攀登

    一个人为了自己的梦想一定要坚持,不能轻言放弃!这句话送给那些正在为梦想努力的人们。加油!
  • 超品透视

    超品透视

    父亲离奇失踪,妹妹又要读书,夏雷含泪撕掉了大学录取通知书去工地打工。人生逆境里,处在社会最低层的他活得像一条狗。五年后,一次突然的事故让他的左眼获得了神奇的能力,透视、过目不忘、超远视距,他的人生从此不同。锦绣前程,美人多娇,他注定要成为这个时代的主角!
  • 火澜

    火澜

    当一个现代杀手之王穿越到这个世界。是隐匿,还是崛起。一场血雨腥风的传奇被她改写。一条无上的强者之路被她踏破。修斗气,炼元丹,收兽宠,化神器,大闹皇宫,炸毁学院,打死院长,秒杀狗男女,震惊大陆。无止尽的契约能力,上古神兽,千年魔兽,纷纷前来抱大腿,惊傻世人。她说:在我眼里没有好坏之分,只有强弱之分,只要你能打败我,这世间所有都是你的,打不败我,就从这世间永远消失。她狂,她傲,她的目标只有一个,就是凌驾这世间一切之上。三国皇帝,魔界妖王,冥界之主,仙界至尊。到底谁才是陪着她走到最后的那个?他说:上天入地,我会陪着你,你活着,有我,你死,也一定有我。本文一对一,男强女强,强强联手,不喜勿入。
  • 福妻驾到

    福妻驾到

    现代饭店彪悍老板娘魂穿古代。不分是非的极品婆婆?三年未归生死不明的丈夫?心狠手辣的阴毒亲戚?贪婪而好色的地主老财?吃上顿没下顿的贫困宭境?不怕不怕,神仙相助,一技在手,天下我有!且看现代张悦娘,如何身带福气玩转古代,开面馆、收小弟、左纳财富,右傍美男,共绘幸福生活大好蓝图!!!!快本新书《天媒地聘》已经上架开始销售,只要3.99元即可将整本书抱回家,你还等什么哪,赶紧点击下面的直通车,享受乐乐精心为您准备的美食盛宴吧!)
  • 用你的手解我的锁

    用你的手解我的锁

    幻一梦大道存兴,行性化清两仪浅。缘起点醒影中光,来做那空传虚话。
  • 林邱莫晚

    林邱莫晚

    大概,你是我会永远记得却不再拾起的好,是我小心翼翼爱过又小心翼翼藏起的秘密,是我的你好却不再见的年少。
  • 快穿:宿主与系统那些事

    快穿:宿主与系统那些事

    当单纯清冷系统遇上超污宿主怎么办?简单啊,凉拌。当木夏遇上重生,遇上姜珏时,她就知道,以后好玩了。