One day, while I was studying in a chamber contiguous to the
kitchen, the maid set some of Miss Lambercier's combs to dry by the
fire, and on coming to fetch them some time after, was surprised to
find the teeth of one of them broken off. Who could be suspected of
this mischief? No one but myself had entered the room: I was
questioned, but denied having any knowledge of it. Mr. and Miss
Lambercier consult, exhort, threaten, but all to no purpose; I
obstinately persist in the denial; and, though this was the first time
I had been detected in a confirmed falsehood, appearances were so
strong that they overthrew all my protestations. This affair was
thought serious; the mischief, the lie, the obstinacy, were considered
equally deserving of punishment, which was not now to be
administered by Miss Lambercier. My uncle Bernard was written to; he
arrived; and my poor cousin being charged with a crime no less
serious, we were conducted to the same execution, which was
inflicted with great severity. If finding a remedy in the evil itself,
they had sought ever to allay my depraved desires, they could not have
chosen a shorter method to accomplish their designs, and, I can assure
my readers, I was for a long time freed from the dominion of them.
As this severity could not draw from me the expected acknowledgment,
which obstinacy brought on several repetitions, and reduced me to a
deplorable situation, yet I was immovable, and resolutely determined
to suffer death rather than submit. Force, at length, was obliged to
yield to the diabolical infatuation of a child, for no better name was
bestowed on my constancy, and I came out of this dreadful trial, torn,
it is true, but triumphant. Fifty years have expired since this
adventure- the fear of punishment is no more. Well, then, I aver, in
the face of Heaven, I was absolutely innocent: and, so far from
breaking, or even touching the comb, never came near the fire. It will
be asked, how did this mischief happen? I can form no conception of
it, I only know my own innocence.
Let any one figure to himself a character whose leading traits
were docility and timidity, but haughty, ardent, and invincible, in
its passions; a child, hitherto governed by the voice of reason,
treated with mildness, equity, and complaisance, who could not even
support the idea of injustice, experiencing, for the first time, so
violent an instance of it, inflicted by those he most loved and
respected. What perversion of ideas! What confusion in the heart,
the brain, in all my little being, intelligent and moral!- let any
one, I say, if possible, imagine all this, for I am incapable of
giving the least idea of what passed in my mind at that period.
My reason was not sufficiently established to enable me to put
myself in the place of others, and judge how much appearances
condemned me, I only beheld the rigor of a dreadful chastisement,
inflicted for a crime I had not committed; yet I can truly affirm, the
smart I suffered, though violent, was inconsiderable to what I felt
from indignation, rage, and despair. My cousin, who was almost in
similar circumstances, having been punished for an involuntary
fault, as guilty of a premeditated crime, became furious by my
example. Both in the same bed, we embraced each other with
