Commemoration of the water ferryman - Remouchamps

This place is reminiscent of the time when there was no bridge here and ferrymen took passengers to the other side in a boat.

There used to be two crosses not far from the Amblève, along the path that has today been replaced by a beautiful road. One, made of local limestone, was of the usual shape and bore the following words: “ Here, on February 17, 1785, Jean-Baptiste Piret, from Sougnez, died at the age of 49. Pray to God for his soul. » The other, of black slate, was very low, the horizontal line extending excessively in the direction from east to west.

From 1772 to 1785 it was the brothers Jean-Baptiste and Pierre Piret to whom the water passage was rented.

One day in February, 1784 : For a whole week the river had looked so swollen that the old men did not remember seeing it in this state; and not even a day had the Piret brothers ceased to make themselves available to those who needed their services. The number was admittedly very small, because the crossing was dangerous and the two skippers were well paid under these exceptional circumstances.

One evening a strange man of about forty years old appeared at the inn, dark-skinned, frizzy-haired, shabby, strangely dressed, and carrying a leather bag on his back. A fortune teller!

- comrade, do you want to cross the water? Jean-Baptiste asked the stranger.
“ Yes, and you would make me very happy ,” he continued, with an accent that betrayed his foreign origins.
— But it's half past eight and the river looks like a sea: it's dangerous and expensive. How much can you give?
At these words, the traveler's face was covered with a hint of sadness.
“ I am but a poor man ,” he said; I am coming out of my illness, I have a wife and children to whom I have to visit and for whom I cannot even bring a piece of bread.

- If he is a fortune teller, he should have foreseen this! Let him speak to the devil, so that the devil can carry him on his back. Satan will do this for one of his servants. Jan-Baptiste replied.

The stranger straightened up and, on his way to the door, uttered these words with a dignity that had something impressive in it: – Well! your inhuman refusal will not restrain me, but whether I succumb or whether I survive the danger I am about to face, you will not escape the punishment that sooner or later falls on those who have no charity.

The next morning all the inhabitants of Sougnez gathered at the crossing and in this crowd the most confused rumors circulated. Of the two gondolas of the Piret brothers, one was missing, although it was firmly attached to an iron ring in the cemetery wall. After some searching, the body of the strange man was found. He was buried on the banks of the Amblève.

From that moment on, Jean-Baptiste Piret underwent a major change: he was no longer his usual cheerful self and was often seen pensive. Some said it was due to the loss of his boat, pieces of which had been seen on the side of the Douxflamme; others claimed that the stranger's death was the main cause of his grief, that he used to drown with drink.

On February 17, 1785, exactly one year after the Gypsy's death , Jean-Baptiste and Pierre were drinking in the same inn at about 9 in the evening. Suddenly the cry “A l'aiw!” sounded in the distance. . Everyone listened attentively. Much against their thoughts, the brothers went outside to see who was in need...

The two ferrymen had not been outside for more than fifteen minutes when pitiful cries were heard, spreading fear throughout the village.
-Help! Help!" shouted two voices that seemed to come from the depths of the water.
And in the dim light of the moon they saw an overturned gondola floating downstream, with two men wrestling in the middle of the river. Soon one of them had disappeared while they anxiously followed the movements of the other, who eventually miraculously managed to reach the shore. It was Pierre Piret, but he immediately fainted, followed by delirium that lasted until the next day.

What had happened? Pierre related that when they had reached the middle of the river, they had clearly seen a human figure on the other bank; but as they approached, this figure seemed to wish to withdraw itself from their view by taking its place behind a bush; they had continued on nevertheless, and just as the gondola was about to land they came face to face with the gypsy who had died the year before.

Terror drove the gaffs and oars from their hands. The ghost , with his eyes full of fire, sprang onto the bow of the boat and capsized it , breaking out into hellish laughter, while a flock of night birds seemed to leave the shore and head for the woods of Mont Jardin. Pierre saw nothing anymore, but he heard Baptiste calling to him in a dying voice :
- Goodbye, brother! That's it... he's dragging me along...
And as Pierre Piret finished his story, they realized that Jean-Baptiste's body was thrown by the water onto the shore, exactly where the fortuneteller was buried.

Poor Pierre, in accordance with the old rural custom of erecting a pious monument in memory of every death, had a cross erected for his brother on the spot where the drowned man had been found. But a few days later an unknown hand also placed a monument on the grave of the fortuneteller, and this particular monument, the object of superstitious terror, was respected for more than half a century.

The two crosses , erected at the same time and recalling disasters so strangely linked, disappeared when the road from Louveigné to Aywaille was built.

Willem Vandenameele