第一百二十五章 第七卷 黑暗中的一些剪影
第七卷 黑暗中的一些剪影
一八一九年至一八二五年间，小比克布斯修道院的院长是德·勃勒梅尔小姐，她在宗教界的称号是纯真嬷嬷。她出身于圣伯努瓦修会圣女传作者玛格丽特·德·勃勒梅尔家族。她曾再次当选。她是一位约六十岁的妇人，身材矮胖，据我们已摘引过的那封信中所说，"唱歌像破罐子"，而且她是整个修道院中唯一的快乐的人，因此深受爱戴。她学识渊博，博学多识，精明能干，对历史有着奇特的精通，满腹拉丁文，饱读希腊文，通晓希伯来文，与其说是本笃会的修女，不如说更像本笃会的修士。
副院长是一位年迈的西班牙修女，名为西内雷斯嬷嬷，她几乎双目失明。
最受敬重的唱诗班嬷嬷中有圣奥诺里娜嬷嬷（司库）、圣热尔特吕德嬷嬷（见习修女的首席导师）、圣安日嬷嬷（助理导师）、圣告嬷嬷（祭衣管理员）、圣奥古斯丁嬷嬷（医护嬷嬷，修道院中唯一心肠不善之人）；还有圣梅克蒂尔德嬷嬷（戈万小姐），她非常年轻，声音甜美；圣安琪嬷嬷（德鲁埃小姐），她曾在上帝之女修道院和宝藏修道院（位于吉索尔和马尼之间）生活过；圣约瑟夫嬷嬷（科戈柳多小姐）；圣阿德莱德嬷嬷（多维尔内小姐）；慈悲嬷嬷（西富恩特斯小姐，她受不了苦修）；怜悯嬷嬷（拉米蒂埃小姐，年届六十破例被接纳，非常富有）；天意嬷嬷（洛迪尼埃小姐）；献堂嬷嬷（西根萨小姐，她于一八四七年成为院长）；最后还有圣塞利涅嬷嬷（雕刻家塞拉基的妹妹），她后来疯了；圣尚塔尔嬷嬷（苏松小姐），她也疯了。
在最漂亮的修女中，有一位二十三岁的迷人姑娘，她来自波旁岛，是骑士罗兹的后裔，原名罗兹小姐，后来被称为升天嬷嬷。
圣梅克蒂尔德嬷嬷负责唱诗班，她喜欢从寄宿生中挑选人来协助。她通常挑选一组完整的音阶，即七个人，年龄从十岁到十六岁，各有不同的嗓音和身材，让她们站成一排，按年龄从小到大并肩而立，由她带领着唱歌。这给人的视觉印象，就像一支由少女组成的芦笛管，一架由天使构成的有生命的排箫。
在勤务修女中，学生们最喜欢的是厄弗拉西嬷嬷、圣玛格丽特嬷嬷、圣玛尔大嬷嬷（她已经老糊涂了），以及圣米歇尔嬷嬷（她的长鼻子常逗得她们发笑）。
所有这些女人都对孩子们和蔼可亲。修女们只对自己严厉。只有教室里生火，饮食也比修道院里的要好。此外，她们对学生们关怀备至。只是，当一个孩子走近一位修女并跟她说话时，修女从不回答。
这种沉默的规矩产生了这样的效果：在整个修道院里，言语从人类身上被剥夺，转而赋予了无生命的物体。时而，是教堂的钟在说话，有时，是园丁的铃在说话。一个非常响亮的铃铛，挂在门房旁边，整个房子都能听到，它用各种不同的敲击声（形成了一种声音电报），指示出所有需要完成的物质生活行为，并在必要时召唤房子里某个特定的人到会客室去。每个人和每件事物都有自己特定的敲钟方式。院长是一下接一下，副院长是一下接两下。六下接五下表示上课，因此学生们从不说"去上课"，而说"去六五"。四下接四下是让利斯夫人的信号。这个信号经常能听到。"这是四重魔鬼在作怪，"心存不善的人说。十下接九下宣布一件大事。这是"隔离之门"打开的象征，那是一扇可怕的铁门，布满门闩，只有在总主教在场时才会在铰链上转动。
除了总主教和园丁，没有男人进入修道院，这一点我们已经说过了。女学生们还能见到另外两个男人：一个是神父，巴内斯神父，又老又丑，她们被允许在唱诗班里，隔着格子栅栏看他；另一个是绘画老师，安西奥先生，我们在前面读到过几行的那封信称他为"安西奥先生"，并形容他是"一个丑陋的老驼背"。
由此可见，所有这些男人都是经过精心挑选的。
这就是这座奇特房子的面貌。
During the six years which separate 1819 from 1825, the prioress of the
Petit-Picpus was Mademoiselle de Blemeur, whose name, in religion, was
Mother Innocente. She came of the family of Marguerite de Blemeur,
author of _Lives of the Saints of the Order of Saint-Benoît_. She had
been re-elected. She was a woman about sixty years of age, short,
thick, “singing like a cracked pot,” says the letter which we have
already quoted; an excellent woman, moreover, and the only merry one in
the whole convent, and for that reason adored. She was learned,
erudite, wise, competent, curiously proficient in history, crammed with
Latin, stuffed with Greek, full of Hebrew, and more of a Benedictine
monk than a Benedictine nun.
The sub-prioress was an old Spanish nun, Mother Cineres, who was almost
blind.
The most esteemed among the vocal mothers were Mother Sainte-Honorine;
the treasurer, Mother Sainte-Gertrude, the chief mistress of the
novices; Mother-Saint-Ange, the assistant mistress; Mother
Annonciation, the sacristan; Mother Saint-Augustin, the nurse, the only
one in the convent who was malicious; then Mother Sainte-Mechtilde
(Mademoiselle Gauvain), very young and with a beautiful voice; Mother
des Anges (Mademoiselle Drouet), who had been in the convent of the
Filles-Dieu, and in the convent du Trésor, between Gisors and Magny;
Mother Saint-Joseph (Mademoiselle de Cogolludo), Mother Sainte-Adélaide
(Mademoiselle d’Auverney), Mother Miséricorde (Mademoiselle de
Cifuentes, who could not resist austerities), Mother Compassion
(Mademoiselle de la Miltière, received at the age of sixty in defiance
of the rule, and very wealthy); Mother Providence (Mademoiselle de
Laudinière), Mother Présentation (Mademoiselle de Siguenza), who was
prioress in 1847; and finally, Mother Sainte-Céligne (sister of the
sculptor Ceracchi), who went mad; Mother Sainte-Chantal (Mademoiselle
de Suzon), who went mad.
There was also, among the prettiest of them, a charming girl of three
and twenty, who was from the Isle de Bourbon, a descendant of the
Chevalier Roze, whose name had been Mademoiselle Roze, and who was
called Mother Assumption.
Mother Sainte-Mechtilde, intrusted with the singing and the choir, was
fond of making use of the pupils in this quarter. She usually took a
complete scale of them, that is to say, seven, from ten to sixteen
years of age, inclusive, of assorted voices and sizes, whom she made
sing standing, drawn up in a line, side by side, according to age, from
the smallest to the largest. This presented to the eye, something in
the nature of a reed-pipe of young girls, a sort of living Pan-pipe
made of angels.
Those of the lay-sisters whom the scholars loved most were Sister
Euphrasie, Sister Sainte-Marguérite, Sister Sainte-Marthe, who was in
her dotage, and Sister Sainte-Michel, whose long nose made them laugh.
All these women were gentle with the children. The nuns were severe
only towards themselves. No fire was lighted except in the school, and
the food was choice compared to that in the convent. Moreover, they
lavished a thousand cares on their scholars. Only, when a child passed
near a nun and addressed her, the nun never replied.
This rule of silence had had this effect, that throughout the whole
convent, speech had been withdrawn from human creatures, and bestowed
on inanimate objects. Now it was the church-bell which spoke, now it
was the gardener’s bell. A very sonorous bell, placed beside the
portress, and which was audible throughout the house, indicated by its
varied peals, which formed a sort of acoustic telegraph, all the
actions of material life which were to be performed, and summoned to
the parlor, in case of need, such or such an inhabitant of the house.
Each person and each thing had its own peal. The prioress had one and
one, the sub-prioress one and two. Six-five announced lessons, so that
the pupils never said “to go to lessons,” but “to go to six-five.”
Four-four was Madame de Genlis’s signal. It was very often heard.
“C’est le diable a quatre,”—it’s the very deuce—said the uncharitable.
Tennine strokes announced a great event. It was the opening of _the
door of seclusion_, a frightful sheet of iron bristling with bolts
which only turned on its hinges in the presence of the archbishop.
With the exception of the archbishop and the gardener, no man entered
the convent, as we have already said. The schoolgirls saw two others:
one, the chaplain, the Abbé Banés, old and ugly, whom they were
permitted to contemplate in the choir, through a grating; the other the
drawing-master, M. Ansiaux, whom the letter, of which we have perused a
few lines, calls _M. Anciot_, and describes as _a frightful old
hunchback_.
It will be seen that all these men were carefully chosen.
Such was this curious house.
