The castle courtyard

This excerpt from Michel de Galzain’s “En passant par Rochefort-en-Terre” portrays a strange and astonishing character: “The doctor consulted in a huge room, filled with retorts, physics objects, jars, glass balls, and at the corner of the fireplace stood impassively two living owls asleep in an inner dream. His maid was a black maid (…) and his helper a strange, lame, hunchbacked character; Dr. Juhel called him “the devil”, and he was called “Dr. Faust”. “Perhaps he was referring to the melodramatic adventures that had brought him to the brink of death on several occasions under unbelievable conditions. A naval surgeon, taken prisoner by an Indian tribe after a shipwreck off the coast of Brazil, he had escaped and arrived in Martinique, only to fall victim to a dreadful yellow fever epidemic. On the verge of returning to France, at the last minute he gave up his place on the outbound frigate La Doris to a colleague. The frigate capsized in Brest harbor. The entire crew perished. The doctor’s family, unaware of his transfer, held a service for him on the day of his return. The maid who opened the door for him while his family were in church nearly died of emotion!