THE SKILFUL THIEF

A BRETON STORY

THERE was once upon a time a poor man who had two children, a boy and a girl, Efflam and Hénori.

One day the father said to Efflam: “My son, now that you are grown up, you should be able to get your own living and take care of yourself. Suppose you go to Paris and seek your fortune.”

“Very well, father,” said Efflam; “I will go to Paris and seek my fortune.”

And so the next day Efflam set out for Paris. He traveled and traveled, always on foot. Once night surprised him in the midst of a deep forest. He got up in a tree to wait for the morning, and to keep himself safe from the wild beasts. Soon three robbers laden with booty stopped under the tree. They lifted a large stone and deposited their booty in a cavern whose entrance the stone had concealed. Then they seated themselves under the tree to eat and drink, meanwhile talking of their adventures. Efflam listened, and this is what he heard:—

“I,” said one of the robbers, “have a marvelous cloak which carries me through the air, wherever I wish to go.”

“I,” said the second, “have a hat which renders me invisible, and when I have it on my head I can go everywhere without being seen by any one.”

“And I,” said the third, “have some boots with which I can walk as swiftly as the wind blows.”

“If I could have the cloak, the hat, and the boots, or only one of the three,” said Efflam to himself, “that would easily make my fortune; but how can I manage it?” Then he turned it over in his head, and hit upon this plan: that, by letting himself down through the leafy branches, he would fall into the midst of the robbers and shout, “Stop, thief!” so as to make them believe that the devil or the police were at their heels. No sooner said than done, and the three robbers, seized with fright, ran off as fast as they could, leaving on the ground the cloak, the hat, and the boots.

Efflam seized the three talismans, and, having put on the boots, he soon found himself in Paris. As he was walking along the streets, astonished at the beautiful things he saw on all sides, he noticed a jeweler’s shop which seemed finer and richer than the others, and was tempted to take from it a few articles of value. He put on his magic hat, made his way into the shop without being perceived by any one, and took everything he pleased. Afterward, in order to get ready money, he sold in another shop the articles he had obtained in this way. Meeting a soldier from his own country, he led him a gay life for several days. When the money was all gone, Efflam was at no loss to know how to get more. One day he saw at a market a vender of earthen vases who was doing a good business, and put his money, as he received it, into a wooden chest beside him. “I must take away his chest,” said Efflam to himself, and putting on his hat, he easily carried off the chest, took it where no one could see him, broke it open, took the money which was in it, and once more lived a gay life while it lasted.

Another day, as he was taking a walk through one of the squares of the city, he overheard three men talking together about the king’s treasure. They were saying that they thought it a needless piece of caution on the king’s part to place sentinels near the tower which contained his treasure, because, since there were neither doors nor windows to this tower, and the walls were so thick and solid, it was impossible to make the slightest breach in it. “Very good,” said Efflam to himself; “now I know where the king’s treasure is.” Then, addressing the three men, he said, “So you think it impossible to steal the king’s treasure?” “Why, yes,” they answered. “Well, I, for one, do not think so.” And with that he left them. When night had come, he repaired to the foot of the tower, and having spread his magic cloak on the ground, he seated himself on it, put on his hat, and said, “Cloak, do your duty, and bear me immediately into the king’s treasure-chamber.” This was immediately done without being perceived by the guards or any one else. He went out in the same manner, with his pockets filled with gold and silver. The next night, and the next, and every night after that, he returned to the attack, and always with the same success. Having now become rich in a short time, he bought a palace, and sent for his father and sister. On the day on which they were to arrive he went to meet them with a fine carriage drawn by two horses. When he had got about three miles from the city, seeing his father and sister coming along the road on foot, and poorly clad, he ordered his coachman to return to his house with one of the horses, and bring him a box which he had forgotten and left on the table in his chamber, and which he wanted very much. He would wait for him, he said, in a certain house by the roadside.

The coachman unhitched one of the horses and set off. Efflam then took his father and sister into the house by the roadside, gave them changes of rich garments that he had brought for them in the carriage, and also to each of them a purse filled with gold, so that the coachman, on his return, should not take them for poor peasants, as they really were. The coachman returned, and said to his master, “I did not find the box in your chamber.” “Oh! I had it with me in my carriage and did not know it.” Then they returned to the city.

One day the father asked his son how he had managed to get so rich, and Efflam acknowledged to him that he had stolen the king’s treasure. “If you wish,” said the old man, “I will go with you, and between us we can bring away a larger sum.” “Very well,” said Efflam.

When night had come, they both placed themselves on the magic cloak, put both their heads in the magic hat, and were transported into the treasure-chamber; then they returned in the same manner, each bearing his load of money.

But the king perceived that his treasure was being stolen, and was very much astonished at it, for he never trusted any one with the key. Moreover, he saw no traces of any attempt to break in. Then he set traps around the vases which contained the silver and the gold, in order to catch the thief. And sure enough, the next night the father was caught. Finding he could not get away, and hoping at least to save his son, he said to him, “Cut off my head and take it away from here, with my clothes, so that I may not be recognized.” Efflam took his advice, cut off his head, and took it away to bury it in his garden. When the king came the next day to the treasure-chamber, he cried out with joy, on seeing there the lifeless body: “Aha! my thief is taken at last. Let us see who he is.” But neither he nor any one else could identify the body without a head, so that he was even more puzzled than ever. Then he published through the city that the thief had been caught, and that his body would be dragged on a hurdle through all the streets of the town. This was accordingly done, and four soldiers, two before and two behind, accompanied the body, with orders to listen attentively, and look well about them to see if any one cried or groaned or appeared distressed as they passed along. Efflam ordered his carriage early in the morning, and before setting out he told his neighbors and all in his house, that he was going to take his father to his own country, since he wished very much to return. This was to explain the disappearance of the old man. On getting about a mile from the city, he said to his servant as before, “Take one of the horses and return with all speed to the city, and bring my father his purse which he forgot when he came away.” The coachman took one of the horses and departed. Then Efflam saw a postman coming along down the road, and asked him if he was not very tired. “Not yet,” replied the man; “but I shall be before I have made my rounds, for I have a long way to go.” “If you wish,” said Efflam, “I will give you my horse and carriage.” “You are joking with me, my lord.” “I am not joking with you, and to prove it—here—take them.” Then Efflam got down from his carriage and almost forced the postman to mount, while he returned to the city quietly on foot. When he met his coachman coming again, he said: “Again I gave you a useless ride: my father had his purse in his pocket, and did not know it: at his age memory begins to fail. I have given him my carriage and horse that he may return to his own country, and I am hurrying back, for I have just remembered that I ought to be at the house to-day.” Accordingly he mounted the horse the coachman had ridden, and set off at a gallop. On reaching home he told his sister the whole affair, and advised her not to cry, or groan, or appear sad, nor even to remain out of sight, when the mutilated body of her father should pass by on the hurdle; for if she showed the slightest sign of grief, he would be lost, and she too. Soon the crowd was heard crying, “Here is the thief who stole the king’s treasure!” All the people ran to the doors of the houses, and a great crowd followed the headless body, and no one could say who he was. When they passed by Efflam’s house, he also was on his doorsteps, with his sister by his side. But Hénori, not being able to endure the sight, uttered a cry and ran into the house. Efflam followed her, and drawing his dagger he wounded her hand with it. Two soldiers presented themselves and said, “We have heard cries of grief in this house.” “Yes,” said Efflam; “it was my sister, who had just cut herself with my knife, and was crying out; see how it is bleeding.” And true enough, there was the poor girl all bleeding and crying. The soldiers withdrew.

This plan not having succeeded, the king thought of another. He had the body of the thief hung up on a nail fixed in the wall of his palace, and set guards to watch near by, feeling sure that when night came the friends and relatives of the thief would try to carry off his body. When Efflam saw this, he disguised himself as a wine merchant, loaded an ass with leather bottles of wine mixed with a narcotic, and went with it, accompanied by his sister, along under that side of the palace wall where the body of his father was suspended. With a movement of his shoulder, he made the bottles fall off, and one of them, which he had prepared for that purpose, came unstopped. He and his sister began to cry and call for help. The guards ran to them, helped them to reload their ass, and received for reward the bottle which had become unstopped in falling, but which, nevertheless, was still more than half full. Efflam and his sister then continued on their way. But they retraced their steps about a half-hour later, and found the guards stretched upon the ground and sleeping as soundly as if they were dead. “All right,” said they. Then they went to a monastery near by and pretended to sell them some excellent wine very cheap. By means of the wine they made the monks all sleep soundly, from the abbot to the porter, and took advantage of the opportunity to bury their father’s body in holy ground in the cemetery of the monastery. Then they changed the clothing of the monks and soldiers, so that the monks were dressed as soldiers, and the soldiers as monks. Next morning, when the hour for matins came, the monks dragged themselves to the chapel, only half awake and not seeing very clearly. The first one who perceived the singular dress of the abbot was at first utterly confounded. He rubbed his eyes, thinking he did not see well. But as he continued to see before him a soldier and not a monk, he touched his next neighbor with his elbow and said, “Do you see how our abbot is dressed? What does it mean?” The monk next him was in turn also greatly astonished, but, looking at those who stood on each side of the abbot, they discovered that they too were dressed like soldiers; then they looked at the whole line of monks opposite them on the other side of the choir; and at last they looked at each other, and found that all were in soldiers’ uniform. What could it mean? It was doubtless the work of the evil spirit! Then the chant and prayers ceased, and they began trying to unravel the mystery.

On the other hand, when the captain came in the morning to inspect the soldiers set to guard the body of the thief, he also was greatly astonished to find them all sleeping profoundly, and habited as monks. Worse still, the body of the thief was gone. He flew into a great passion, swore and raged, and kicked the soldiers till they awaked. The report spread rapidly through the city that the body of the thief who stole the king’s treasure had been carried off, and that the soldiers set to guard it had been found in the morning dead drunk, and disguised as monks; while the monks of the neighboring monastery, equally drunk, wore the uniform of the soldiers. It was undoubtedly a fresh trick of an accomplice of the thief who had been caught. It made a great stir in the city, and every one laughed heartily.

“I am mocked again,” said the king, when he heard what had taken place. “It must be acknowledged that this is a very skilful thief; but all the same, I mean to find out how far his skill goes, for I hope soon to foil it.” Then he caused notice to be given through the city that he would the next day exhibit in the public square before his palace a beautiful white goat of which he was very fond, and that if the thief could succeed in taking it away, it should be his.

“That’s good,” said Efflam to himself when he heard the notice. “The king’s white goat will be mine to-morrow before the sun goes down.”

Next day the white goat was in fact exhibited on the square in front of the king’s palace, and a great crowd gathered, curious to know how the thief would manage to take it away in spite of the soldiers who guarded it. The king himself was on the balcony with the queen, and surrounded by princes, generals, and courtiers.

Efflam put his magic hat on his head, and carried off the goat as easily as possible, and without any one’s seeing or knowing anything about it.

“I am mocked again!” cried the king, in vexation, when he saw that the goat had disappeared. “But who can this man be? He must be a great magician, for there is magic in all this. Never mind; I will not acknowledge myself beaten, and I propose to know how far this will go.”

Efflam had killed the king’s goat as soon as he reached home, and told his sister to use it for their own table as long as there was any of it, advising her to cook it in the greatest secrecy, and not to give the smallest portion of it to any other person, not even to a beggar.

Meanwhile the king thought of another means of testing the skill and cunning of the thief. He sent for a blind beggar, and told him to go and ask alms at the door of every house in the city, and to beg at each door for a bit of meat, which he should taste as soon as he received it. If any bit of goat’s flesh was given him, he should, with a piece of white chalk, make a cross on the door of the house where he had received it, and come at once and tell the king.

The beggar at once began his rounds. When he came to Efflam’s house, Hénori, who had doubtless forgotten her brother’s warning, or had no fear of being accused by a blind man who knew neither her nor her house, gave him a morsel of the king’s goat. The blind man recognized it as soon as he had tasted it, and, unknown to the young girl, who had gone back into the house as soon as she had ministered to his need, he marked the door with a white cross, and hastened at once to inform the king. The latter sent four soldiers to search the house, the door of which was marked with a white cross in chalk, with orders to bring to him immediately the inmates of the house. But Efflam had noticed the white cross on his door, and questioned his sister, to see if she had disobeyed him in anything. Hénori told him she had indeed given the remnant of their last meal to an old beggar who had excited her pity, but there was nothing to be feared from him, for he was blind. Efflam, without waiting to hear another word, got a bit of chalk and went all about the city drawing crosses on all the doors. The soldiers stopped at the first door where they saw a cross, exclaiming, “Here it is!” They entered and found two old people, husband and wife, and requested them to accompany them to the king’s palace. “What does the king want with us?” they asked, filled with astonishment. “You have stolen his treasure and his goat.” “How could we do it,” they cried, overcome with fright, “old and feeble as we are? It is more than six months since we have set foot out of our house.” The soldiers, seeing them so old and so helpless, looked at each other, and said, “These are not the right ones; that is evident: come, let us see if we do not find a cross on some other door.” So they went out, and found with surprise that the doors of all the houses in that quarter of the city were marked with similar crosses; so they went and told the king.

“What a man this thief is!” said the king; and began to devise at once some other means of catching him. The next day he caused notice to be given throughout the city that he would expose his royal crown on the public square in front of the palace, and that it should belong to the person who could steal it without being caught. When Efflam heard that, he said to himself, “His crown shall be mine as well as his goat.”

The royal crown was exhibited at the appointed time and place. A considerable crowd had assembled on the square, curious to see if the thief would succeed in carrying off this also. The king and his court were on the balcony of the palace, and a large number of soldiers mounted guard, with drawn swords, around the velvet cushion on which the crown set. But all these precautions were vain; and Efflam, wearing his magic hat, bore off the king’s crown as easily as he had carried away the goat. The old monarch, perceiving at last that he had to contend with the most cunning thief in his kingdom, who was evidently a great magician besides, perceived that it was useless to contend against him, and that it would be better to win him over and attach him to himself, than to persecute him. He then proclaimed that he would set his only daughter in the same place in the square where the white goat and the royal crown had been exposed, and that if the thief should succeed equally well in stealing her, he would give her to him for his wife.

He was by this time quite certain that the thief would stand this last test as well as all the others.

And true enough, Efflam bore off the princess in the same mysterious fashion, without any one knowing what had become of her.

Then when the king had returned to his palace, Efflam repaired thither also, accompanied by the princess, and reminded the old monarch of his promise. The latter did not hesitate to keep his word, and the marriage of Efflam and the princess was celebrated with pomp and solemnity.

Moreover, the king, who was a widower, took for his wife Hénori, the sister of his son-in-law, and for a whole month there were holidays and games and magnificent banquets every day.

Related in Breton, by Vincent Coat, a workman in a tobacco factory in Morlaix, Aug. 20, 1876.