My father, embittered by misfortune, cherished in the depths of his heart a longing to be revenged upon the man who had stolen his property from him. He lived in a small cabin in the midst of the woods; he took me there and kept me with him. I was six years old when my father retired into that solitude. I was bold, enterprising, brave, wilful, and even then determined in my resolutions. The almost savage life which I led for several years did not help to soften my nature. I constantly roamed about the forests, and climbed mountains and steep cliffs; I leaped torrents and ravines; and when I returned home to my father, he would rehearse the story of his misfortune; he taught me to curse men whose injustice had revolted his heart; he urged me to distrust the whole world, and never to rely upon the equity or gratitude of my fellowmen; and to prove what he said, he told me of the services he had rendered when he was rich, all of which had been repaid with ingratitude; he told me of the unjust lawsuit which he had lost only through fraud and bad faith; and finally made me swear to avenge him upon the man who had ruined him.
My father's words readily found a lodging in my memory. Perhaps other advice might have led me to protect and defend those whom I swore to despise and to hate; but first impressions are all-powerful upon an inexperienced mind, and the independence of my tastes inclined me to crush without examination all the obstacles which thwarted my desires.
An episode which I witnessed served to intensify my aversion for mankind. I was then thirteen years old, and I had just taken a lesson in reading from my father; for he had told me that education was essential to my best interests, and that reason alone had induced me to learn something. I was walking in the woods when I heard two shots very near me. I ran in the direction from which the reports came, and I saw two young men, who had been arrested because they were hunting in the nobleman's forest.
One was a well-dressed young man, of aristocratic manners and bearing; the other was a poor peasant, covered with rags and apparently in the last stages of want. The first had killed a kid, the other a rabbit, and yet the young man from the city was laughing and singing among the keepers, while the peasant, pale-faced and trembling, had hardly strength enough to stand.