Before Day

Jean Cantel (1675–1708)

Lying on my back, I think about the road I have travelled. About the day when, still very young, I enlisted in the Tessé Regiment under the command of Field Marshal Charles-Auguste Goyon de Matignon, Count of Gacé and Baron of Briquebec, La Houlette and Orglandes. Quite a title! He was born in Normandy and, so they say, came from a great lineage. As a matter of fact, I never saw him on a battlefield.

Alongside the army doctors, I learned how to heal and mend comrades wounded at the front. Blood and entrails do not turn my stomach. My name is Jean Cantel, and I was born around the year 1675. I no longer know exactly; birthdays were never celebrated in my family. I am a surgeon. I am nicknamed “the Probe,” and I truly wonder why. Well, I do know — I am gifted at placing them, wherever they may be needed. But still, let us not exaggerate: have I really earned a nickname that will follow me to my grave?! The war is over for me now, yet I shall never forget the cries of pain and the final breaths of my fellow sufferers. I have seen many lands: Holland, Flanders and Germany, but I remember only the smell of blood and the countryside ravaged by fire and bombs. I am going to settle in this beautiful region of France.

We have been stationed for several months in Coulogne, a village on the edge of Calais (62). It was there that I met my beloved Marie Marguerite. She was born there. With a smile, she makes me forget the torments of war. She is around twenty years old, though she is a teasing one; she may be eighteen today and twenty-two tomorrow, whenever it pleases her. Marie Marguerite Lefranc, sister of Manon and friend to many, Marie Marguerite Lefranc shall become my wife today, on this 15th day of December, 1698. I know nothing about her family. With a wave of her hand, she dismisses my questions, two little dimples appear on her cheeks and melt my heart, and I change the subject. I settle onto my side and pull the blanket up to my chin. I shall let myself drift into sleep and dream of my sweetheart, even though I know this before dawn will be short-lived.

Jean Cantel is my maternal ancestor of the ninth generation.