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diff --git a/1678.txt b/1678.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..b52ed28 --- /dev/null +++ b/1678.txt @@ -0,0 +1,8744 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of An Historical Mystery, by Honore de Balzac + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: An Historical Mystery + +Author: Honore de Balzac + +Translator: Katharine Prescott Wormeley + +Release Date: March, 1998 [Etext #1678] +Posting Date: February 28, 2010 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK AN HISTORICAL MYSTERY *** + + + + +Produced by John Bickers, Dagny, and Bonnie Sala + + + + + +AN HISTORICAL MYSTERY + +(The Gondreville Mystery) + + +By Honore De Balzac + + + +Translated by Katharine Prescott Wormeley + + + + + DEDICATION + + To Monsieur de Margone. + + In grateful remembrance, from his guest at the Chateau de Sache. + + De Balzac. + + + + + +AN HISTORICAL MYSTERY + + + + +PART I + + + + +CHAPTER I. JUDAS + +The autumn of the year 1803 was one of the finest in the early part of +that period of the present century which we now call "Empire." Rain had +refreshed the earth during the month of October, so that the trees were +still green and leafy in November. The French people were beginning to +put faith in a secret understanding between the skies and Bonaparte, +then declared Consul for life,--a belief in which that man owes part of +his prestige; strange to say, on the day the sun failed him, in 1812, +his luck ceased! + +About four in the afternoon on the fifteenth of November, 1803, the sun +was casting what looked like scarlet dust upon the venerable tops of +four rows of elms in a long baronial avenue, and sparkling on the sand +and grassy places of an immense _rond-point_, such as we often see in +the country where land is cheap enough to be sacrificed to ornament. The +air was so pure, the atmosphere so tempered that a family was sitting +out of doors as if it were summer. A man dressed in a hunting-jacket of +green drilling with green buttons, and breeches of the same stuff, and +wearing shoes with thin soles and gaiters to the knee, was cleaning a +gun with the minute care a skilful huntsman gives to the work in his +leisure hours. This man had neither game nor game-bag, nor any of the +accoutrements which denote either departure for a hunt or the return +from it; and two women sitting near were looking at him as though beset +by a terror they could ill-conceal. Any one observing the scene taking +place in this leafy nook would have shuddered, as the old mother-in-law +and the wife of the man we speak of were now shuddering. A huntsman does +not take such minute precautions with his weapon to kill small game, +neither does he use, in the department of the Aube, a heavy rifled +carbine. + +"Shall you kill a roe-buck, Michu?" said his handsome young wife, trying +to assume a laughing air. + +Before replying, Michu looked at his dog, which had been lying in the +sun, its paws stretched out and its nose on its paws, in the charming +attitude of a trained hunter. The animal had just raised its head and +was snuffing the air, first down the avenue nearly a mile long which +stretched before them, and then up the cross road where it entered the +_rond-point_ to the left. + +"No," answered Michu, "but a brute I do not wish to miss, a lynx." + +The dog, a magnificent spaniel, white with brown spots, growled. + +"Hah!" said Michu, talking to himself, "spies! the country swarms with +them." + +Madame Michu looked appealingly to heaven. A beautiful fair woman +with blue eyes, composed and thoughtful in expression and made like an +antique statue, she seemed to be a prey to some dark and bitter grief. +The husband's appearance may explain to a certain extent the evident +fear of the two women. The laws of physiognomy are precise, not only in +their application to character, but also in relation to the destinies +of life. There is such a thing as prophetic physiognomy. If it were +possible (and such a vital statistic would be of value to society) to +obtain exact likenesses of those who perish on the scaffold, the science +of Lavatar and also that of Gall would prove unmistakably that the heads +of all such persons, even those who are innocent, show prophetic signs. +Yes, fate sets its mark on the faces of those who are doomed to die a +violent death of any kind. Now, this sign, this seal, visible to the eye +of an observer, was imprinted on the expressive face of the man with the +rifled carbine. Short and stout, abrupt and active in his motions as a +monkey, though calm in temperament, Michu had a white face injected +with blood, and features set close together like those of a Tartar,--a +likeness to which his crinkled red hair conveyed a sinister expression. +His eyes, clear and yellow as those of a tiger, showed depths behind +them in which the glance of whoever examined the man might lose itself +and never find either warmth or motion. Fixed, luminous, and rigid, +those eyes terrified whoever gazed into them. The singular contrast +between the immobility of the eyes and the activity of the body +increased the chilling impression conveyed by a first sight of Michu. +Action, always prompt in this man, was the outcome of a single thought; +just as the life of animals is, without reflection, the outcome of +instinct. Since 1793 he had trimmed his red beard to the shape of a fan. +Even if he had not been (as he was during the Terror) president of a +club of Jacobins, this peculiarity of his head would in itself have +made him terrible to behold. His Socratic face with its blunt nose was +surmounted by a fine forehead, so projecting, however, that it overhung +the rest of the features. The ears, well detached from the head, had the +sort of mobility which we find in those of wild animals, which are ever +on the qui-vive. The mouth, half-open, as the custom usually is among +country-people, showed teeth that were strong and white as almonds, but +irregular. Gleaming red whiskers framed this face, which was white and +yet mottled in spots. The hair, cropped close in front and allowed to +grow long at the sides and on the back of the head, brought into relief, +by its savage redness, all the strange and fateful peculiarities of this +singular face. The neck which was short and thick, seemed to tempt the +axe. + +At this moment the sunbeams, falling in long lines athwart the group, +lighted up the three heads at which the dog from time to time glanced +up. The spot on which this scene took place was magnificently fine. The +_rond-point_ is at the entrance of the park of Gondreville, one of the +finest estates in France, and by far the finest in the departments of +the Aube; it boasts of long avenues of elms, a castle built from designs +by Mansart, a park of fifteen hundred acres enclosed by a stone wall, +nine large farms, a forest, mills, and meadows. This almost regal +property belonged before the Revolution to the family of Simeuse. +Ximeuse was a feudal estate in Lorraine; the name was pronounced +Simeuse, and in course of time it came to be written as pronounced. + +The great fortune of the Simeuse family, adherents of the House of +Burgundy, dates from the time when the Guises were in conflict with +the Valois. Richelieu first, and afterwards Louis XIV. remembered their +devotion to the factious house of Lorraine, and rebuffed them. Then +the Marquis de Simeuse, an old Burgundian, old Guiser, old leaguer, old +_frondeur_ (he inherited the four great rancors of the nobility against +royalty), came to live at Cinq-Cygne. The former courtier, rejected at +the Louvre, married the widow of the Comte de Cinq-Cygne, younger branch +of the famous family of Chargeboeuf, one of the most illustrious names +in Champagne, and now as celebrated and opulent as the elder. The +marquis, among the richest men of his day, instead of wasting his +substance at court, built the chateau of Gondreville, enlarged the +estate by the purchase of others, and united the several domains, solely +for the purposes of a hunting-ground. He also built the Simeuse mansion +at Troyes, not far from that of the Cinq-Cygnes. These two old houses +and the bishop's palace were long the only stone mansions at Troyes. The +marquis sold Simeuse to the Duc de Lorraine. His son wasted the father's +savings and some part of his great fortune under the reign of Louis +XV., but he subsequently entered the navy, became a vice-admiral, and +redeemed the follies of his youth by brilliant services. The Marquis +de Simeuse, son of this naval worthy, perished with his wife on the +scaffold at Troyes, leaving twin sons, who emigrated and were, at the +time our history opens, still in foreign parts following the fortunes of +the house of Conde. + +The _rond-point_ was the scene of the meet in the time of the +"Grand Marquis"--a name given in the family to the Simeuse who built +Gondreville. Since 1789 Michu lived in the hunting lodge at the entrance +to the park, built in the reign of Louis XIV., and called the pavilion +of Cinq-Cygne. The village of Cinq-Cygne is at the end of the forest of +Nodesme (a corruption of Notre-Dame) which was reached through the fine +avenue of four rows of elms where Michu's dog was now suspecting spies. +After the death of the Grand Marquis this pavilion fell into disuse. The +vice-admiral preferred the court and the sea to Champagne, and his son +gave the dilapidated building to Michu for a dwelling. + +This noble structure is of brick, with vermiculated stone-work at the +angles and on the casings of the doors and windows. On either side is +a gateway of finely wrought iron, eaten with rust and connected by a +railing, beyond which is a wide and deep ha-ha, full of vigorous trees, +its parapets bristling with iron arabesques, the innumerable sharp +points of which are a warning to evil-doers. + +The park walls begin on each side of the circumference of the +_rond-point_; on the one hand the fine semi-circle is defined by slopes +planted with elms; on the other, within the park, a corresponding +half-circle is formed by groups of rare trees. The pavilion, therefore, +stands at the centre of this round open space, which extends before it +and behind it in the shape of two horseshoes. Michu had turned the rooms +on the lower floor into a stable, a kitchen, and a wood-shed. The only +trace remaining of their ancient splendor was an antechamber paved with +marble in squares of black and white, which was entered on the park side +through a door with small leaded panes, such as might still be seen at +Versailles before Louis-Philippe turned that Chateau into an asylum +for the glories of France. The pavilion is divided inside by an old +staircase of worm-eaten wood, full of character, which leads to the +first story. Above that is an immense garret. This venerable edifice +is covered by one of those vast roofs with four sides, a ridgepole +decorated with leaden ornaments, and a round projecting window on each +side, such as Mansart very justly delighted in; for in France, the +Italian attics and flat roofs are a folly against which our climate +protests. Michu kept his fodder in this garret. That portion of the park +which surrounds the old pavilion is English in style. A hundred feet +from the house a former lake, now a mere pond well stocked with fish, +makes known its vicinity as much by a thin mist rising above the +tree-tops as by the croaking of a thousand frogs, toads, and other +amphibious gossips who discourse at sunset. The time-worn look of +everything, the deep silence of the woods, the long perspective of the +avenue, the forest in the distance, the rusty iron-work, the masses of +stone draped with velvet mosses, all made poetry of this old structure, +which still exists. + +At the moment when our history begins Michu was leaning against a +mossy parapet on which he had laid his powder-horn, cap, handkerchief, +screw-driver, and rags,--in fact, all the utensils needed for his +suspicious occupation. His wife's chair was against the wall beside the +outer door of the house, above which could still be seen the arms of the +Simeuse family, richly carved, with their noble motto, "Cy meurs." The +old mother, in peasant dress, had moved her chair in front of Madame +Michu, so that the latter might put her feet upon the rungs and keep +them from dampness. + +"Where's the boy?" said Michu to his wife. + +"Round the pond; he is crazy about the frogs and the insects," answered +the mother. + +Michu whistled in a way that made his hearers tremble. The rapidity with +which his son ran up to him proved plainly enough the despotic power of +the bailiff of Gondreville. Since 1789, but more especially since 1793, +Michu had been well-nigh master of the property. The terror he inspired +in his wife, his mother-in-law, a servant-lad named Gaucher, and the +cook named Marianne, was shared throughout a neighborhood of twenty +miles in circumference. It may be well to give, without further delay, +the reasons for this fear,--all the more because an account of them will +complete the moral portrait of the man. + +The old Marquis de Simeuse transferred the greater part of his property +in 1790; but, overtaken by circumstances, he had not been able to put +the estate of Gondreville into sure hands. Accused of corresponding with +the Duke of Brunswick and the Prince of Cobourg, the marquis and his +wife were thrust into prison and condemned to death by the revolutionary +tribunal of Troyes, of which Madame Michu's father was then president. +The fine domain of Gondreville was sold as national property. The +head-keeper, to the horror of many, was present at the execution of +the marquis and his wife in his capacity as president of the club of +Jacobins at Arcis. Michu, the orphan son of a peasant, showered with +benefactions by the marquise, who brought him up in her own home and +gave him his place as keeper, was regarded as a Brutus by excited +demagogues; but the people of the neighborhood ceased to recognize him +after this act of base ingratitude. The purchaser of the estate was a +man from Arcis named Marion, grandson of a former bailiff in the Simeuse +family. This man, a lawyer before and after the Revolution, was afraid +of the keeper; he made him his bailiff with a salary of three thousand +francs, and gave him an interest in the sales of timber; Michu, who was +thought to have some ten thousand francs of his own laid by, married +the daughter of a tanner at Troyes, an apostle of the Revolution in that +town, where he was president of the revolutionary tribunal. This tanner, +a man of profound convictions, who resembled Saint-Just as to character, +was afterwards mixed up in Baboeuf's conspiracy and killed himself to +escape execution. Marthe was the handsomest girl in Troyes. In spite of +her shrinking modesty she had been forced by her formidable father to +play the part of Goddess of Liberty in some republican ceremony. + +The new proprietor came only three times to Gondreville in the course +of seven years. His grandfather had been bailiff of the estate under the +Simeuse family, and all Arcis took for granted that the citizen Marion +was the secret representative of the present Marquis and his twin +brother. As long as the Terror lasted, Michu, still bailiff of +Gondreville, a devoted patriot, son-in-law of the president of the +revolutionary tribunal of Troyes and flattered by Malin, representative +from the department of the Aube, was the object of a certain sort +of respect. But when the Mountain was overthrown and after his +father-in-law committed suicide, he found himself a scape-goat; +everybody hastened to accuse him, in common with his father-in-law, of +acts to which, so far as he was concerned, he was a total stranger. The +bailiff resented the injustice of the community; he stiffened his back +and took an attitude of hostility. He talked boldly. But after the +18th Brumaire he maintained an unbroken silence, the philosophy of the +strong; he struggled no longer against public opinion, and contented +himself with attending to his own affairs,--wise conduct, which led his +neighbors to pronounce him sly, for he owned, it was said, a fortune of +not less than a hundred thousand francs in landed property. In the first +place, he spent nothing; next, this property was legitimately acquired, +partly from the inheritance of his father-in-law's estate, and partly +from the savings of six-thousand francs a year, the salary he derived +from his place with its profits and emoluments. He had been bailiff of +Gondreville for the last twelve years and every one had estimated the +probable amount of his savings, so that when, after the Consulate was +proclaimed, he bought a farm for fifty thousand francs, the suspicions +attaching to his former opinions lessened, and the community of Arcis +gave him credit for intending to recover himself in public estimation. +Unfortunately, at the very moment when public opinion was condoning +his past a foolish affair, envenomed by the gossip of the country-side, +revived the latent and very general belief in the ferocity of his +character. + +One evening, coming away from Troyes in company with several peasants, +among whom was the farmer at Cinq-Cygne, he let fall a paper on the main +road; the farmer, who was walking behind him, stooped and picked it up. +Michu turned round, saw the paper in the man's hands, pulled a pistol +from his belt and threatened the farmer (who knew how to read) to blow +his brains out if he opened the paper. Michu's action was so sudden and +violent, the tone of his voice so alarming, his eyes blazed so savagely, +that the men about him turned cold with fear. The farmer of Cinq-Cygne +was already his enemy. Mademoiselle de Cinq-Cygne, the man's employer, +was a cousin of the Simeuse brothers; she had only one farm left for her +maintenance and was now residing at her chateau of Cinq-Cygne. She lived +for her cousins the twins, with whom she had played in childhood at +Troyes and at Gondreville. Her only brother, Jules de Cinq-Cygne, who +emigrated before the twins, died at Mayence, but by a privilege which +was somewhat rare and will be mentioned later, the name of Cinq-Cygne +was not to perish through lack of male heirs. + +This affair between Michu and the farmer made a great noise in the +arrondissement and darkened the already mysterious shadows which seemed +to veil him. Nor was it the only circumstance which made him feared. +A few months after this scene the citizen Marion, present owner of the +Gondreville estate, came to inspect it with the citizen Malin. Rumor +said that Marion was about to sell the property to his companion, who +had profited by political events and had just been appointed on the +Council of State by the First Consul, in return for his services on +the 18th Brumaire. The shrewd heads of the little town of Arcis now +perceived that Marion had been the agent of Malin in the purchase of the +property, and not of the brothers Simeuse, as was first supposed. The +all-powerful Councillor of State was the most important personage in +Arcis. He had obtained for one of his political friends the prefecture +of Troyes, and for a farmer at Gondreville the exemption of his son from +the draft; in fact, he had done services to many. Consequently, the sale +met with no opposition in the neighborhood where Malin then reigned, and +where he still reigns supreme. + +The Empire was just dawning. Those who in these days read the histories +of the French Revolution can form no conception of the vast spaces which +public thought traversed between events which now seem to have been so +near together. The strong need of peace and tranquillity which every +one felt after the violent tumults of the Revolution brought about a +complete forgetfulness of important anterior facts. History matured +rapidly under the advance of new and eager interests. No one, therefore, +except Michu, looked into the past of this affair, which the community +accepted as a simple matter. Marion, who had bought Gondreville for six +hundred thousand francs in assignats, sold it for the value of a couple +of million in coin; but the only payments actually made by Malin were +for the costs of registration. Grevin, a seminary comrade of Malin, +assisted the transaction, and the Councillor rewarded his help with +the office of notary at Arcis. When the news of the sale reached the +pavilion, brought there by a farmer whose farm, at Grouage, was situated +between the forest and the park on the left of the noble avenue, Michu +turned pale and left the house. He lay in wait for Marion, and finally +met him alone in one of the shrubberies of the park. + +"Is monsieur about to sell Gondreville?" asked the bailiff. + +"Yes, Michu, yes. You will have a man of powerful influence for your +master. He is the friend of the First Consul, and very intimate with all +the ministers; he will protect you." + +"Then you were holding the estate for him?" + +"I don't say that," replied Marion. "At the time I bought it I was +looking for a place to put my money, and I invested in national property +as the best security. But it doesn't suit me to keep an estate once +belonging to a family in which my father was--" + +"--a servant," said Michu, violently. "But you shall not sell it! I want +it; and I can pay for it." + +"You?" + +"Yes, I; seriously, in good gold,--eight hundred thousand francs." + +"Eight hundred thousand francs!" exclaimed Marion. "Where did you get +them?" + +"That's none of your business," replied Michu; then, softening his +tone, he added in a low voice: "My father-in-law saved the lives of many +persons." + +"You are too late, Michu; the sale is made." + +"You must put it off, monsieur!" cried the bailiff, seizing his master +by the hand which he held as in a vice. "I am hated, but I choose to be +rich and powerful, and I must have Gondreville. Listen to me; I don't +cling to life; sell me that place or I'll blow your brains out!--" + +"But do give me time to get off my bargain with Malin; he's troublesome +to deal with." + +"I'll give you twenty-four hours. If you say a word about this matter +I'll chop your head off as I would chop a turnip." + +Marion and Malin left the chateau in the course of the night. Marion was +frightened; he told Malin of the meeting and begged him to keep an eye +on the bailiff. It was impossible for Marion to avoid delivering the +property to the man who had been the real purchaser, and Michu did not +seem likely to admit any such reason. Moreover, this service done by +Marion to Malin was to be, and in fact ended by being, the origin of the +former's political fortune, and also that of his brother. In 1806 Malin +had him appointed chief justice of an imperial court, and after +the creation of tax-collectors his brother obtained the post of +receiver-general for the department of the Aube. The State Councillor +told Marion to stay in Paris, and he warned the minister of police, who +gave orders that Michu should be secretly watched. Not wishing to push +the man to extremes, Malin kept him on as bailiff, under the iron rule +of Grevin the notary of Arcis. + +From that moment Michu became more absorbed and taciturn than ever, and +obtained the reputation of a man who was capable of committing a crime. +Malin, the Councillor of State (a function which the First Consul raised +to the level of a ministry), and a maker of the Code, played a great +part in Paris, where he bought one of the finest mansions in the +Faubuorg Saint-Germain after marrying the only daughter of a rich +contractor named Sibuelle. He never came to Gondreville; leaving all +matters concerning the property to the management of Grevin, the Arcis +notary. After all, what had he to fear?--he, a former representative of +the Aube, and president of a club of Jacobins. And yet, the unfavorable +opinion of Michu held by the lower classes was shared by the +bourgeoisie, and Marion, Grevin, and Malin, without giving any reason or +compromising themselves on the subject, showed that they regarded him as +an extremely dangerous man. The authorities, who were under instructions +from the minister of police to watch the bailiff, did not of course +lessen this belief. The neighborhood wondered that he kept his place, +but supposed it was in consequence of the terror he inspired. It is easy +now, after these explanations, to understand the anxiety and sadness +expressed in the face of Michu's wife. + +In the first place, Marthe had been piously brought up by her mother. +Both, being good Catholics, had suffered much from the opinions and +behavior of the tanner. Marthe could never think without a blush of +having marched through the street of Troyes in the garb of a goddess. +Her father had forced her to marry Michu, whose bad reputation was +then increasing, and she feared him too much to be able to judge him. +Nevertheless, she knew that he loved her, and at the bottom of her heart +lay the truest affection for this awe-inspiring man; she had never known +him to do anything that was not just; never did he say a brutal word, +to her at least; in fact, he endeavored to forestall her every wish. The +poor pariah, believing himself disagreeable to his wife, spent most +of his time out of doors. Marthe and Michu, distrustful of each other, +lived in what is called in these days an "armed peace." Marthe, who +saw no one, suffered keenly from the ostracism which for the last seven +years had surrounded her as the daughter of a revolutionary butcher, and +the wife of a so-called traitor. More than once she had overheard the +laborers of the adjoining farm (held by a man named Beauvisage, greatly +attached to the Simeuse family) say as they passed the pavilion, "That's +where Judas lives!" The singular resemblance between the bailiff's head +and that of the thirteenth apostle, which his conduct appeared to carry +out, won him that odious nickname throughout the neighborhood. It was +this distress of mind, added to vague but constant fears for the future, +which gave Marthe her thoughtful and subdued air. Nothing saddens so +deeply as unmerited degradation from which there seems no escape. A +painter could have made a fine picture of this family of pariahs in +the bosom of their pretty nook in Champagne, where the landscape is +generally sad. + +"Francois!" called the bailiff, to hasten his son. + +Francois Michu, a child of ten, played in the park and forest, and +levied his little tithes like a master; he ate the fruits; he chased +the game; he at least had neither cares nor troubles. Of all the family, +Francois alone was happy in a home thus isolated from the neighborhood +by its position between the park and the forest, and by the still +greater moral solitude of universal repulsion. + +"Pick up these things," said his father, pointing to the parapet, "and +put them away. Look at me! You love your father and your mother, don't +you?" The child flung himself on his father as if to kiss him, but Michu +made a movement to shift the gun and pushed him back. "Very good. You +have sometimes chattered about things that are done here," continued the +father, fixing his eyes, dangerous as those of a wild-cat, on the boy. +"Now remember this; if you tell the least little thing that happens here +to Gaucher, or to the Grouage and Bellache people, or even to Marianne +who loves us, you will kill your father. Never tattle again, and I will +forgive what you said yesterday." The child began to cry. "Don't cry; +but when any one questions you, say, as the peasants do, 'I don't know.' +There are persons roaming about whom I distrust. Run along! As for you +two," he added, turning to the women, "you have heard what I said. Keep +a close mouth, both of you." + +"Husband, what are you going to do?" + +Michu, who was carefully measuring a charge of powder, poured it into +the barrel of his gun, rested the weapon against the parapet and said to +Marthe:-- + +"No one knows I own that gun. Stand in front of it." + +Couraut, who had sprung to his feet, was barking furiously. + +"Good, intelligent fellow!" cried Michu. "I am certain there are spies +about--" + +Man and beast feel a spy. Couraut and Michu, who seemed to have one and +the same soul, lived together as the Arab and his horse in the desert. +The bailiff knew the modulations of the dog's voice, just as the dog +read his master's meaning in his eyes, or felt it exhaling in the air +from his body. + +"What do you say to that?" said Michu, in a low voice, calling his +wife's attention to two strangers who appeared in a by-path making for +the _rond-point_. + +"What can it mean?" cried the old mother. "They are Parisians." + +"Here they come!" said Michu. "Hide my gun," he whispered to his wife. + +The two men who now crossed the wide open space of the _rond-point_ were +typical enough for a painter. One, who appeared to be the subaltern, +wore top-boots, turned down rather low, showing well-made calves, and +colored silk stockings of doubtful cleanliness. The breeches, of ribbed +cloth, apricot color with metal buttons, were too large; they were baggy +about the body, and the lines of their creases seemed to indicate a +sedentary man. A marseilles waistcoat, overloaded with embroidery, open, +and held together by one button only just above the stomach, gave to the +wearer a dissipated look,--all the more so, because his jet black hair, +in corkscrew curls, hid his forehead and hung down his cheeks. Two steel +watch-chains were festooned upon his breeches. The shirt was adorned +with a cameo in white and blue. The coat, cinnamon-colored, was a +treasure to caricaturists by reason of its long tails, which, when seen +from behind, bore so perfect a resemblance to a cod that the name of +that fish was given to them. The fashion of codfish tails lasted ten +years; almost the whole period of the empire of Napoleon. The cravat, +loosely fastened, and with numerous small folds, allowed the wearer +to bury his face in it up to the nostrils. His pimpled skin, his long, +thick, brick-dust colored nose, his high cheek-bones, his mouth, lacking +half its teeth but greedy for all that and menacing, his ears adorned +with huge gold rings, his low forehead,--all these personal details, +which might have seemed grotesque in many men, were rendered terrible in +him by two small eyes set in his head like those of a pig, expressive +of insatiable covetousness, and of insolent, half-jovial cruelty. These +ferreting and perspicacious blue eyes, glassy and glacial, might be +taken for the model of that famous Eye, the formidable emblem of the +police, invented during the Revolution. Black silk gloves were on his +hands and he carried a switch. He was certainly some official personage, +for he showed in his bearing, in his way of taking snuff and ramming it +into his nose, the bureaucratic importance of an office subordinate, +one who signs for his superiors and acquires a passing sovereignty by +enforcing their orders. + +The other man, whose dress was in the same style, but elegant and +elegantly put on and careful in its smallest detail, wore boots _a la_ +Suwaroff which came high upon the leg above a pair of tight trousers, +and creaked as he walked. Above his coat he wore a spencer, an +aristocratic garment adopted by the Clichiens and the young bloods of +Paris, which survived both the Clichiens and the fashionable youths. In +those days fashions sometimes lasted longer than parties,--a symptom of +anarchy which the year of our Lord 1830 has again presented to us. This +accomplished dandy seemed to be thirty years of age. His manners were +those of good society; he wore jewels of value; the collar of his shirt +came to the tops of his ears. His conceited and even impertinent air +betrayed a consciousness of hidden superiority. His pallid face seemed +bloodless, his thin flat nose had the sardonic expression which we see +in a death's head, and his green eyes were inscrutable; their glance was +discreet in meaning just as the thin closed mouth was discreet in words. +The first man seemed on the whole a good fellow compared with this +younger man, who was slashing the air with a cane, the top of which, +made of gold, glittered in the sunshine. The first man might have cut +off a head with his own hand, but the second was capable of entangling +innocence, virtue, and beauty in the nets of calumny and intrigue, and +then poisoning them or drowning them. The rubicund stranger would have +comforted his victim with a jest; the other was incapable of a smile. +The first was forty-five years old, and he loved, undoubtedly, both +women and good cheer. Such men have passions which keep them slaves +to their calling. But the young man was plainly without passions and +without vices. If he was a spy he belonged to diplomacy, and did such +work from a pure love of art. He conceived, the other executed; he was +the idea, the other was the form. + +"This must be Gondreville, is it not, my good woman?" said the young +man. + +"We don't say 'my good woman' here," said Michu. "We are still simple +enough to say 'citizen' and 'citizeness' in these parts." + +"Ah!" exclaimed the young man, in a natural way, and without seeming at +all annoyed. + +Players of ecarte often have a sense of inward disaster when some +unknown person sits down at the same table with them, whose manners, +look, voice, and method of shuffling the cards, all, to their fancy, +foretell defeat. The instant Michu looked at the young man he felt an +inward and prophetic collapse. He was struck by a fatal presentiment; he +had a sudden confused foreboding of the scaffold. A voice told him that +that dandy would destroy him, although there was nothing whatever in +common between them. For this reason his answer was rude; he was and he +wished to be forbidding. + +"Don't you belong to the Councillor of State, Malin?" said the younger +man. + +"I am my own master," answered Malin. + +"Mesdames," said the young man, assuming a most polite air, "are we not +at Gondreville? We are expected there by Monsieur Malin." + +"There's the park," said Michu, pointing to the open gate. + +"Why are you hiding that gun, my fine girl?" said the elder, catching +sight of the carbine as he passed through the gate. + +"You never let a chance escape you, even in the country!" cried his +companion. + +They both turned back with a sense of distrust which the bailiff +understood at once in spite of their impassible faces. Marthe let them +look at the gun, to the tune of Couraut's bark; she was so convinced +that her husband was meditating some evil deed that she was thankful for +the curiosity of the strangers. + +Michu flung a look at his wife which made her tremble; he took the +gun and began to load it, accepting quietly the fatal ill-luck of this +encounter and the discovery of the weapon. He seemed no longer to care +for life, and his wife fathomed his inward feeling. + +"So you have wolves in these parts?" said the young man, watching him. + +"There are always wolves where there are sheep. You are in Champagne, +and there's a forest; we have wild-boars, large and small game both, a +little of everything," replied Michu, in a truculent manner. + +"I'll bet, Corentin," said the elder of the two men, after exchanging a +glance with his companion, "that this is my friend Michu--" + +"We never kept pigs together that I know of," said the bailiff. + +"No, but we both presided over Jacobins, citizen," replied the old +cynic,--"you at Arcis, I elsewhere. I see you've kept your Carmagnole +civility, but it's no longer in fashion, my good fellow." + +"The park strikes me as rather large; we might lose our way. If you are +really the bailiff show us the path to the chateau," said Corentin, in a +peremptory tone. + +Michu whistled to his son and continued to load his gun. Corentin looked +at Marthe with indifference, while his companion seemed charmed by +her; but the young man noticed the signs of her inward distress, which +escaped the old libertine, who had, however, noticed and feared the gun. +The natures of the two men were disclosed in this trifling yet important +circumstance. + +"I've an appointment the other side of the forest," said the bailiff. "I +can't go with you, but my son here will take you to the chateau. How did +you get to Gondreville? did you come by Cinq-Cygne?" + +"We had, like yourself, business in the forest," said Corentin, without +apparent sarcasm. + +"Francois," cried Michu, "take these gentlemen to the chateau by the +wood path, so that no one sees them; they don't follow the beaten +tracks. Come here," he added, as the strangers turned to walk away, +talking together as they did so in a low voice. Michu caught the boy +in his arms, and kissed him almost solemnly with an expression which +confirmed his wife's fears; cold chills ran down her back; she glanced +at her mother with haggard eyes, for she could not weep. + +"Go," said Michu; and he watched the boy until he was entirely out +of sight. Couraut was barking on the other side of the road in the +direction of Grouage. "Oh, that's Violette," remarked Michu. "This is +the third time that old fellow has passed here to-day. What's in the +wind? Hush, Couraut!" + +A few moments later the trot of a pony was heard approaching. + + + + +CHAPTER II. A CRIME RELINQUISHED + +Violette, mounted on one of those little nags which the farmers in the +neighborhood of Paris use so much, soon appeared, wearing a round hat +with a broad brim, beneath which his wood-colored face, deeply wrinkled, +appeared in shadow. His gray eyes, mischievous and lively, concealed +in a measure the treachery of his nature. His skinny legs, covered with +gaiters of white linen which came to the knee, hung rather than rested +in the stirrups, seemingly held in place by the weight of his hob-nailed +shoes. Above his jacket of blue cloth he wore a cloak of some coarse +woollen stuff woven in black and white stripes. His gray hair fell in +curls behind his ears. This dress, the gray horse with its short legs, +the manner in which Violette sat him, stomach projecting and shoulders +thrown back, the big chapped hands which held the shabby bridle, all +depicted him plainly as the grasping, ambitious peasant who desires +to own land and buys it at any price. His mouth, with its bluish lips +parted as if a surgeon had pried them open with a scalpel, and the +innumerable wrinkles of his face and forehead hindered the play of +features which were expressive only in their outlines. Those hard, fixed +lines seemed menacing, in spite of the humility which country-folks +assume and beneath which they conceal their emotions and schemes, as +savages and Easterns hide theirs behind an imperturbable gravity. First +a mere laborer, then the farmer of Grouage through a long course of +persistent ill-doing, he continued his evil practices after conquering a +position which surpassed his early hopes. He wished harm to all men +and wished it vehemently. When he could assist in doing harm he did it +eagerly. He was openly envious; but, no matter how malignant he might +be, he kept within the limits of the law,--neither beyond it nor behind +it, like a parliamentary opposition. He believed his prosperity depended +on the ruin of others, and that whoever was above him was an enemy +against whom all weapons were good. A character like this is very common +among the peasantry. + +Violette's present business was to obtain from Malin an extension of the +lease of his farm, which had only six years longer to run. Jealous of +the bailiff's means, he watched him narrowly. The neighbors reproached +him for his intimacy with "Judas"; but the sly old farmer, wishing +to obtain a twelve years' lease, was really lying in wait for an +opportunity to serve either the government or Malin, who distrusted +Michu. Violette, by the help of the game-keeper of Gondreville and +others belonging to the estate, kept Malin informed of all Michu's +actions. Malin had endeavored, fruitlessly, to win over Marianne, the +Michus' servant-woman; but Violette and his satellites heard everything +from Gaucher,--a lad on whose fidelity Michu relied, but who betrayed +him for cast-off clothing, waistcoats, buckles, cotton socks and +sugar-plums. The boy had no suspicion of the importance of his gossip. +Violette in his reports blackened all Michu's actions and gave them +a criminal aspect by absurd suggestions,--unknown, of course, to the +bailiff, who was aware, however, of the base part played by the farmer, +and took delight in mystifying him. + +"You must have a deal of business at Bellache to be here again," said +Michu. + +"Again! is that meant as a reproach, Monsieur Michu?--Hey! I did not +know you had that gun. You are not going to whistle for the sparrows on +that pipe, I suppose--" + +"It grew in a field of mine which bears guns," replied Michu. "Look! +this is how I sow them." + +The bailiff took aim at a viper thirty feet away and cut it in two. + +"Have you got that bandit's weapon to protect your master?" said +Violette. "Perhaps he gave it to you." + +"He came from Paris expressly to bring it to me," replied Michu. + +"People are talking all round the neighborhood of this journey of his; +some say he is in disgrace and has to retire from office; others that he +wants to see things for himself down here. But anyway, why does he +come, like the First Consul, without giving warning? Did you know he was +coming?" + +"I am not on such terms with him as to be in his confidence." + +"Then you have not seen him?" + +"I did not know he was here till I got back from my rounds in the +forest," said Michu, reloading his gun. + +"He has sent to Arcis for Monsieur Grevin," said Violette; "they are +scheming something." + +"If you are going round by Cinq-Cygne, take me up behind you," said the +bailiff. "I'm going there." + +Violette was too timid to have a man of Michu's strength on his crupper, +and he spurred his beast. Judas slung his gun over his shoulder and +walked rapidly up the avenue. + +"Who can it be that Michu is angry with?" said Marthe to her mother. + +"Ever since he heard of Monsieur Malin's arrival he has been gloomy," +replied the old woman. "But it is getting damp here, let us go in." + +After the two women had settled themselves in the chimney corner they +heard Couraut's bark. + +"There's my husband returning!" cried Marthe. + +Michu passed up the stairs; his wife, uneasy, followed him to their +bedroom. + +"See if any one is about," he said to her, in a voice of some emotion. + +"No one," she replied. "Marianne is in the field with the cow, and +Gaucher--" + +"Where is Gaucher?" he asked. + +"I don't know." + +"I distrust that little scamp. Go up in the garret, look in the +hay-loft, look everywhere for him." + +Marthe left the room to obey the order. When she returned she found +Michu on his knees, praying. + +"What is the matter?" she said, frightened. + +The bailiff took his wife round the waist and drew her to him, saying in +a voice of deep feeling: "If we never see each other again remember, my +poor wife, that I loved you well. Follow minutely the instructions which +you will find in a letter buried at the foot of the larch in that copse. +It is enclosed in a tin tube. Do not touch it until after my death. +And remember, Marthe, whatever happens to me, that in spite of man's +injustice, my arm has been the instrument of the justice of God." + +Marthe, who turned pale by degrees, became white as her own linen; she +looked at her husband with fixed eyes widened by fear; she tried to +speak, but her throat was dry. Michu disappeared like a shadow, having +tied Couraut to the foot of his bed where the dog, after the manner of +all dogs, howled in despair. + +Michu's anger against Monsieur Marion had serious grounds, but it was +now concentrated on another man, far more criminal in his eyes,--on +Malin, whose secrets were known to the bailiff, he being in a better +position than others to understand the conduct of the State Councillor. +Michu's father-in-law had had, politically speaking, the confidence of +the former representative to the Convention, through Grevin. + +Perhaps it would be well here to relate the circumstances which +brought the Simeuse and the Cinq-Cygne families into connection with +Malin,--circumstances which weighed heavily on the fate of Mademoiselle +de Cinq-Cygne's twin cousins, but still more heavily on that of Marthe +and Michu. + +The Cinq-Cygne mansion at Troyes stands opposite to that of Simeuse. +When the populace, incited by minds that were as shrewd as they were +cautious, pillaged the hotel Simeuse, discovered the marquis and +marchioness, who were accused of corresponding with the nation's +enemies, and delivered them to the national guards who took them to +prison, the crowd shouted, "Now for the Cinq-Cygnes!" To their minds the +Cinq-Cygnes were as guilty as other aristocrats. The brave and worthy +Monsieur de Simeuse in the endeavor to save his two sons, then eighteen +years of age, whose courage was likely to compromise them, had confided +them, a few hours before the storm broke, to their aunt, the Comtesse de +Cinq-Cygne. Two servants attached to the Simeuse family accompanied the +young men to her house. The old marquis, who was anxious that his name +should not die out, requested that what was happening might be concealed +from his sons, even in the event of dire disaster. Laurence, the only +daughter of the Comtesse de Cinq-Cygne, was then twelve years of age; +her cousins both loved her and she loved them equally. Like other twins +the Simeuse brothers were so alike that for a long while their mother +dressed them in different colors to know them apart. The first comer, +the eldest, was named Paul-Marie, the other Marie-Paul. Laurence de +Cinq-Cygne, to whom their danger was revealed, played her woman's part +well though still a mere child. She coaxed and petted her cousins and +kept them occupied until the very moment when the populace surrounded +the Cinq-Cygne mansion. The two brothers then knew their danger for the +first time, and looked at each other. Their resolution was instantly +taken; they armed their own servants and those of the Comtesse de +Cinq-Cygne, barricaded the doors, and stood guard at the windows, after +closing the wooden blinds, with the five men-servants and the Abbe +d'Hauteserre, a relative of the Cinq-Cygnes. These eight courageous +champions poured a deadly fire into the crowd. Every shot killed or +wounded an assailant. Laurence, instead of wringing her hands, loaded +the guns with extraordinary coolness, and passed the balls and powder to +those who needed them. The Comtesse de Cinq-Cygne was on her knees. + +"What are you doing, mother?" said Laurence. + +"I am praying," she answered, "for them and for you." + +Sublime words,--said also by the mother of Godoy, prince of the Peace, +in Spain, under similar circumstances. + +In a moment eleven persons were killed and lying on the ground among a +number of wounded. Such results either cool or excite a populace; either +it grows savage at the work or discontinues it. On the present occasion +those in advance recoiled; but the crowd behind them were there to kill +and rob, and when they saw their own dead, they cried out: "Murder! +Murder! Revenge!" The wiser heads went in search of the representative +to the Convention, Malin. The twins, by this time aware of the +disastrous events of the day, suspected Malin of desiring the ruin +of their family, and of causing the arrest of their parents, and the +suspicion soon became a certainty. They posted themselves beneath the +porte-cochere, gun in hand, intending to kill Malin as soon as he made +his appearance; but the countess lost her head; she imagined her house +in ashes and her daughter assassinated, and she blamed the young men for +their heroic defence and compelled them to desist. It was Laurence who +opened the door slightly when Malin summoned the household to admit +him. Seeing her, the representative relied upon the awe he expected to +inspire in a mere child, and he entered the house. To his first words +of inquiry as to why the family were making such a resistance, the girl +replied: "If you really desire to give liberty to France how is it that +you do not protect us in our homes? They are trying to tear down this +house, monsieur, to murder us, and you say we have no right to oppose +force to force!" + +Malin stood rooted to the ground. + +"You, the son of a mason employed by the Grand Marquis to build his +castle!" exclaimed Marie-Paul, "you have let them drag our father to +prison--you have believed calumnies!" + +"He shall be released at once," said Malin, who thought himself lost +when he saw each youth clutch his weapon convulsively. + +"You owe your life to that promise," said Marie-Paul, solemnly. "If it +is not fulfilled to-night we shall find you again." + +"As to that howling populace," said Laurence, "If you do not send them +away, the next blood will be yours. Now, Monsieur Malin, leave this +house!" + +The Conventionalist did leave it, and he harangued the crowd, dwelling +on the sacred rights of the domestic hearth, the habeas corpus and +the English "home." He told them that the law and the people were +sovereigns, that the law _was_ the people, and that the people could +only act through the law, and that power was vested in the law. The +particular law of personal necessity made him eloquent, and he managed +to disperse the crowd. But he never forgot the contemptuous expression +of the two brothers, nor the "Leave this house!" of Mademoiselle de +Cinq-Cygne. Therefore, when it was a question of selling the estates of +the Comte de Cinq-Cygne, Laurence's brother, as national property, the +sale was rigorously made. The agents left nothing for Laurence but the +chateau, the park and gardens, and one farm called that of Cinq-Cygne. +Malin instructed the appraisers that Laurence had no rights beyond her +legal share,--the nation taking possession of all that belonged to her +brother, who had emigrated and, above all, had borne arms against the +Republic. + +The evening after this terrible tumult, Laurence so entreated her +cousins to leave the country, fearing treachery on the part of Malin, +or some trap into which they might fall, that they took horse that night +and gained the Prussian outposts. They had scarcely reached the forest +of Gondreville before the hotel Cinq-Cygne was surrounded; Malin came +himself to arrest the heirs of the house of Simeuse. He dared not lay +hands on the Comtesse de Cinq-Cygne, who was in bed with a nervous +fever, nor on Laurence, a child of twelve. The servants, fearing the +severity of the Republic, had disappeared. The next day the news of the +resistance of the brothers and their flight to Prussia was known to the +neighborhood. A crowd of three thousand persons assembled before the +hotel de Cinq-Cygne, which was demolished with incredible rapidity. +Madame de Cinq-Cygne, carried to the hotel Simeuse, died there from the +effects of the fever aggravated by terror. + +Michu did not appear in the political arena until after these events, +for the marquis and his wife remained in prison over five months. During +this time Malin was away on a mission. But when Monsieur Marion sold +Gondreville to the Councillor of State, Michu understood the latter's +game,--or rather, he thought he did; for Malin was, like Fouche, one of +those personages who are of such depth in all their different aspects +that they are impenetrable when they play a part, and are never +understood until long after their drama is ended. + +In all the chief circumstances of Malin's life he had never failed to +consult his faithful friend Grevin, the notary of Arcis, whose judgment +on men and things was, at a distance, clear-cut and precise. This +faculty is the wisdom and makes the strength of second-rate men. Now, in +November, 1803, a combination of events (already related in the "Depute +d'Arcis") made matters so serious for the Councillor of State that a +letter might have compromised the two friends. Malin, who hoped to be +appointed senator, was afraid to offer his explanations in Paris. He +came to Gondreville, giving the First Consul only one of the reasons +that made him wish to be there; that reason gave him an appearance of +zeal in the eyes of Bonaparte; whereas his journey, far from concerning +the interests of the State, related to his own interests only. On this +particular day, as Michu was watching the park and expecting, after +the manner of a red Indian, a propitious moment for his vengeance, +the astute Malin, accustomed to turn all events to his own profit, was +leading his friend Grevin to a little field in the English garden, +a lonely spot in the park, favorable for a secret conference. There, +standing in the centre of the grass plot and speaking low, the friends +were at too great a distance to be overheard if any one were lurking +near enough to listen to them; they were also sure of time to change the +conversation if others unwarily approached. + +"Why couldn't we have stayed in a room in the chateau?" asked Grevin. + +"Didn't you take notice of those two men whom the prefect of police has +sent here to me?" + +Though Fouche made himself in the matter of the Pichegru, Georges, +Moreau, and Polignac conspiracy the soul of the Consular cabinet, he +did not at this time control the ministry of police, but was merely a +councillor of State like Malin. + +"Those men," continued Malin, "are Fouche's two arms. One, that dandy +Corentin, whose face is like a glass of lemonade, vinegar on his lips +and verjuice in his eyes, put an end to the insurrection at the West +in the year VII. in less than fifteen days. The other is a disciple of +Lenoir; he is the only one who preserves the great traditions of the +police. I had asked for an agent of no great account, backed by some +official personage, and they send me those past-masters of the business! +Ah, Grevin, Fouche wants to pry into my game. That's why I left those +fellows dining at the chateau; they may look into everything for all I +care; they won't find Louis XVIII. nor any sign of him." + +"But see here, my dear fellow, what game are you playing?" cried Grevin. + +"Ha, my friend, a double game is a dangerous one, but this, taking +Fouche into account, is a triple one. He may have nosed the fact that I +am in the secrets of the house of Bourbon." + +"You?" + +"I," replied Malin. + +"Have you forgotten Favras?" + +The words made an impression on the councillor. + +"Since when?" asked Grevin, after a pause. + +"Since the Consulate for life." + +"I hope there's no proof of it?" + +"Not that!" said Malin, clicking his thumb-nail against his teeth. + +In few words the Councillor of State gave a clear and succinct account +of the critical position in which Bonaparte was about to hold England, +by threatening her with invasion from the camp at Boulogne; he explained +to Grevin the bearings of that project, which was unobserved by France +and Europe but suspected by Pitt; also the critical position in which +England was about to put Bonaparte. A powerful coalition, Prussia, +Austria, and Russia, paid by English gold, was pledged to furnish +seven hundred thousand men under arms. At the same time a formidable +conspiracy was throwing a network over the whole of France, including +among its members montagnards, chouans, royalists, and their princes. + +"Louis XVIII. held that as long as there were three Consuls anarchy was +certain, and that he could at some opportune moment take his revenge +for the 13th Vendemiaire and the 18th Fructidor," said Malin, "but the +Consulate for life has unmasked Bonaparte's intentions--he will soon be +emperor. The late sub-lieutenant means to create a dynasty! This time +his life is in actual danger; and the plot is far better laid than that +of the Rue Saint-Nicaise. Pichegru, Georges, Moreau, the Duc d'Enghien, +Polignac and Riviere, the two friends of the Comte d'Artois are in it." + +"What an amalgamation!" cried Grevin. + +"France is being silently invaded; no stone is left unturned; the thing +will be carried with a rush. A hundred picked men, commanded by Georges, +are to attack the Consular guard and the Consul hand to hand." + +"Well then, denounce them." + +"For the last two months the Consul, his minister of police, the prefect +and Fouche, hold some of the clues of this vast conspiracy; but they +don't know its full extent, and at this particular moment they are +leaving nearly all the conspirators free, so as to discover more about +it." + +"As to rights," said the notary, "the Bourbons have much more right to +conceive, plan, and execute a scheme against Bonaparte, than Bonaparte +had on the 18th Brumaire against the Republic, whose product he was. He +murdered his mother on that occasion, but these royalists only seek to +recover what was theirs. I can understand that the princes and +their adherents, seeing the lists of the _emigres_ closed, mortgages +suppressed, the Catholic faith restored, anti-revolutionary decrees +accumulating, should begin to see that their return is becoming +difficult, not to say impossible. Bonaparte being the sole obstacle now +in their way, they want to get rid of him--nothing simpler. Conspirators +if defeated are brigands, if successful, heroes; and your perplexity +seems to me very natural." + +"The matter now is," said Malin, "to make Bonaparte fling the head of +the Duc d'Enghien at the Bourbons, just as the Convention flung the head +of Louis XVI. at the kings, so as to commit him as fully as we are to +the Revolution; _or else_, we must upset the idol of the French people +and their future emperor, and seat the true throne upon his ruins. I am +at the mercy of some event, some fortunate pistol-shot, some infernal +machine which does its work. Even I don't know the whole conspiracy; +they don't tell me all; but they have asked me to call the Council +of State at the critical moment and direct its action towards the +restoration of the Bourbons." + +"Wait," said the notary. + +"Impossible! I am compelled to make my decision at once." + +"Why?" + +"Well, the Simeuse brothers are in the conspiracy; they are here in +the neighborhood; I must either have them watched, let them compromise +themselves, and so be rid of them, or else I must privately protect +them. I asked the prefect for underlings and he has sent me lynxes, who +came through Troyes and have got the gendarmerie to support them." + +"Gondreville is your real object," said Grevin, "and this conspiracy +your best chance of keeping it. Fouche, Talleyrand, and those two +fellows have nothing to do with that. Therefore play fair with +them. What nonsense! those who cut Louis XVI.'s head off are in the +government; France is full of men who have bought national property, +and yet you talk of bringing back those who would require you to give up +Gondreville! If the Bourbons were not imbeciles they would pass a sponge +over all we have done. Warn Bonaparte, that's my advice." + +"A man of my rank can't denounce," said Malin, quickly. + +"Your rank!" exclaimed Grevin, smiling. + +"They have offered to make me Keeper of the Seals." + +"Ah! Now I understand your bewilderment, and it is for me to see clear +in this political darkness and find a way out for you. Now, it is quite +impossible to foresee what events may happen to bring back the Bourbons +when a General Bonaparte is in possession of eighty line of battle +ships and four hundred thousand men. The most difficult thing of all in +expectant politics is to know when a power that totters will fall; but, +my old man, Bonaparte's power is not tottering, it is in the ascendant. +Don't you think that Fouche may be sounding you so as to get to the +bottom of your mind, and then get rid of you?" + +"No; I am sure of my go-between. Besides, Fouche would never, under +those circumstances, send me such fellows as these; he would know they +would make me suspicious." + +"They alarm me," said Grevin. "If Fouche does not distrust you, and is +not seeking to probe you, why does he send them? Fouche doesn't play +such a trick as that without a motive; what is it?" + +"What decides me," said Malin, "is that I should never be easy with +those two Simeuse brothers in France. Perhaps Fouche, who knows how I am +placed towards them, wants to make sure they don't escape him, and hopes +through them to reach the Condes." + +"That's right, old fellow; it is not under Bonaparte that the present +possessor of Gondreville can be ousted." + +Just then Malin, happening to look up, saw the muzzle of a gun through +the foliage of a tall linden. + +"I was not mistaken, I thought I heard the click of a trigger," he said +to Grevin, after getting behind the trunk of a large tree, where the +notary, uneasy at his friend's sudden movement, followed him. + +"It is Michu," said Grevin; "I see his red beard." + +"Don't let us seem afraid," said Malin, who walked slowly away, saying +at intervals: "Why is that man so bitter against the owners of this +property? It was not you he was covering. If he overheard us he had +better ask the prayers of the congregation! Who the devil would have +thought of looking up into the trees!" + +"There's always something to learn," said the notary. "But he was a good +distance off, and we spoke low." + +"I shall tell Corentin about it," replied Malin. + + + + +CHAPTER III. THE MASK THROWN OFF + +A few moments later Michu returned home, his face pale, his features +contracted. + +"What is the matter?" said his wife, frightened. + +"Nothing," he replied, seeing Violette whose presence silenced him. + +Michu took a chair and sat down quietly before the fire, into which +he threw a letter which he drew from a tin tube such as are given to +soldiers to hold their papers. This act, which enabled Marthe to draw +a long breath like one relieved of a great burden, greatly puzzled +Violette. The bailiff laid his gun on the mantel-shelf with admirable +composure. Marianne the servant, and Marthe's mother were spinning by +the light of a lamp. + +"Come, Francois," said the father, presently, "it is time to go to bed." + +He lifted the boy roughly by the middle of his body and carried him off. + +"Run down to the cellar," he whispered, when they reached the stairs. +"Empty one third out of two bottles of the Macon wine, and fill them up +with the Cognac brandy which is on the shelf. Then mix a bottle of white +wine with one half brandy. Do it neatly, and put the three bottles on +the empty cask which stands by the cellar door. When you hear me open +the window in the kitchen come out of the cellar, run to the +stable, saddle my horse, mount it, and go and wait for me at +Poteaudes-Gueux--That little scamp hates to go to bed," said Michu, +returning; "he likes to do as grown people do, see all, hear all, and +know all. You spoil my people, pere Violette." + +"Goodness!" cried Violette, "what has loosened your tongue? I never +heard you say as much before." + +"Do you suppose I let myself be spied upon without taking notice of it? +You are on the wrong side, pere Violette. If, instead of serving those +who hate me, you were on my side I could do better for you than renew +that lease of yours." + +"How?" said the peasant, opening wide his avaricious eyes. + +"I'll sell you my property cheap." + +"Nothing is cheap when we have to pay," said Violette, sententiously. + +"I want to leave the neighborhood, and I'll let you have my farm of +Mousseau, the buildings, granary, and cattle for fifty thousand francs." + +"Really?" + +"Does that suit you?" + +"Hang it! I must think--" + +"We'll talk about it--I shall want earnest money." + +"I have no money." + +"Well, a note." + +"Can't give it." + +"Tell me who sent you here to-day." + +"I am on my way back from where I spent this afternoon, and I only +stopped in to say good-evening." + +"Back without your horse? What a fool you must take me for! You are +lying, and you shall not have my farm." + +"Well, to tell you the truth, it was monsieur Grevin who sent me. He +said 'Violette, we want Michu; do you go and get him; if he isn't at +home, wait for him.' I saw I should have to stay here all this evening." + +"Are those sharks from Paris still at the chateau?" + +"Ah! that I don't know; but there were people in the salon." + +"You shall have my farm; we'll settle the terms now. Wife, go and get +some wine to wash down the contract. Take the best Roussillon, the wine +of the ex-marquis,--we are not babes. You'll find a couple of bottles on +the empty cask near the door, and a bottle of white wine." + +"Very good," said Violette, who never got drunk. "Let us drink." + +"You have fifty thousand francs beneath the floor of your bedroom under +your bed, pere Violette; you will give them to me two weeks after we +sign the deed of sale before Grevin--" Violette stared at Michu and grew +livid. "Ah! you came here to spy upon a Jacobin who had the honor to be +president of the club at Arcis, and you imagine he will let you get the +better of him! I have eyes, I saw where your tiles have been freshly +cemented, and I concluded that you did not pry them up to plant wheat +there. Come, drink." + +Violette, much troubled, drank a large glass of wine without noticing +the quality; terror had put a hot iron in his stomach, the brandy was +not hotter than his cupidity. He would have given many things to be +safely home and able to change the hiding-place of his treasure. The +three women smiled. + +"Do you like that wine?" said Michu, refilling his glass. + +"Yes, I do." + +After a good half-hour's decision on the time when the buyer might take +possession, and on the various punctilios which the peasantry bring +forward when concluding a bargain,--in the midst of assertions and +counter-assertions, the filling and emptying of glasses, the giving of +promises and denials, Violette suddenly fell forward with his head on +the table, not tipsy, but dead-drunk. The instant that Michu saw his +eyes blur he opened the window. + +"Where's that scamp, Gaucher?" he said to his wife. + +"In bed." + +"You, Marianne," said the bailiff to his faithful servant, "stand in +front of his door and watch him. You, mother, stay down here, and keep +an eye on this spy; keep your eyes and ears open and don't unfasten the +door to any one but Francois. It is a question of life or death," he +added, in a deep voice. "Every creature beneath my roof must remember +that I have not quitted it this night; all of you must assert that--even +though your heads were on the block. Come," he said to Marthe, +"come, wife, put on your shoes, take your coat, and let us be off! No +questions--I go with you." + +For the last three quarters of an hour the man's demeanor and glance +were of despotic authority, all-powerful, irresistible, drawn from the +same mysterious source from which great generals on fields of battle who +inflame an army, great orators inspiring vast audiences, and (it must be +said) great criminals perpetrating bold crimes derive their inspiration. +At such times invincible influence seems to exhale from the head and +issue from the tongue; the gesture even can inject the will of the one +man into others. The three women knew that some dreadful crisis was at +hand; without warning of its nature they felt it in the rapid actions of +the man, whose countenance shone, whose forehead spoke, whose brilliant +eyes glittered like stars; they saw it in the sweat that covered his +brow to the roots of his hair, while more than once his voice vibrated +with impatience and fury. Marthe obeyed passively. Armed to the teeth +and with his gun over his shoulder Michu dashed into the avenue, +followed by his wife. They soon reached the cross-roads where Francois +was in waiting hidden among the bushes. + +"The boy is intelligent," said Michu, when he caught sight of him. + +These were his first words. His wife had rushed after him, unable to +speak. + +"Go back to the house, hide in a thick tree, and watch the country +and the park," he said to his son. "We have all gone to bed, no one is +stirring. Your grandmother will not open the door until you ask her to +let you in. Remember every word I say to you. The life of your father +and mother depends on it. No one must know we did not sleep at home." + +After whispering these words to the boy, who instantly disappeared in +the forest like an eel in the mud, Michu turned to his wife. + +"Mount behind me," he said, "and pray that God be with us. Sit firm, +the beast may die of it." So saying he kicked the horse with both heels, +pressing him with his powerful knees, and the animal sprang forward with +the rapidity of a hunter, seeming to understand what his master wanted +of him, and crossed the forest in fifteen minutes. Then Michu, who had +not swerved from the shortest way, pulled up, found a spot at the +edge of the woods from which he could see the roofs of the chateau of +Cinq-Cygne lighted by the moon, tied his horse to a tree, and followed +by his wife, gained a little eminence which overlooked the valley. + +The chateau, which Marthe and Michu looked at together for a moment, +makes a charming effect in the landscape. Though it has little extent +and is of no importance whatever as architecture, yet archaeologically +it is not without a certain interest. This old edifice of the fifteenth +century, placed on an eminence, surrounded on all sides by a moat, +or rather by deep, wide ditches always full of water, is built in +cobble-stones buried in cement, the walls being seven feet thick. +Its simplicity recalls the rough and warlike life of feudal days. The +chateau, plain and unadorned, has two large reddish towers at either +end, connected by a long main building with casement windows, the +stone mullions of which, being roughly carved, bear some resemblance to +vine-shoots. The stairway is outside the house, at the middle, in a sort +of pentagonal tower entered through a small arched door. The interior +of the ground-floor together with the rooms on the first storey +were modernized in the time of Louis XIV., and the whole building is +surmounted by an immense roof broken by casement windows with carved +triangular pediments. Before the castle lies a vast green sward the +trees of which had recently been cut down. On either side of the +entrance bridge are two small dwellings where the gardeners live, +connected across the road by a paltry iron railing without character, +evidently modern. To right and left of the lawn, which is divided in +two by a paved road-way, are the stables, cow-sheds, barns, wood-house, +bakery, poultry-yard, and the offices, placed in what were doubtless +the remains of two wings of the old building similar to those that were +still standing. The two large towers, with their pepper-pot roofs which +had not been rased, and the belfry of the middle tower, gave an air of +distinction to the village. The church, also very old, showed near by +its pointed steeple, which harmonized well with the solid masses of the +castle. The moon brought out in full relief the various roofs and towers +on which it played and sparkled. + +Michu gazed at this baronial structure in a manner that upset all his +wife's ideas about him; his face, now calm, wore a look of hope and also +a sort of pride. His eyes scanned the horizon with a glance of defiance; +he listened for sounds in the air. It was now nine o'clock; the moon +was beginning to cast its light upon the margin of the forest and to +illumine the little bluff on which they stood. The position struck him +as dangerous and he left it, fearful of being seen. But no suspicious +noise troubled the peace of the beautiful valley encircled on this side +by the forest of Nodesme. Marthe, exhausted and trembling, was awaiting +some explanation of their hurried ride. What was she engaged in? Was she +to aid in a good deed or an evil one? At that instant Michu bent to his +wife's ear and whispered:-- + +"Go the house and ask to speak to the Comtesse de Cinq-Cygne; when you +see her beg her to speak to you alone. If no one can overhear you, say +to her: 'Mademoiselle, the lives of your two cousins are in danger, and +he who can explain the how and why is waiting to speak to you.' If +she seems afraid, if she distrusts you, add these words: 'They are +conspiring against the First Consul and the conspiracy is discovered.' +Don't give your name; they distrust us too much." + +Marthe raised her face towards her husband and said:-- + +"Can it be that you serve them?" + +"What if I do?" he said, frowning, taking her words as a reproach. + +"You don't understand me," cried Marthe, seizing his large hand and +falling on her knees beside him as she kissed it and covered it with her +tears. + +"Go, go, you shall cry later," he said, kissing her vehemently. + +When he no longer heard her step his eyes filled with tears. He had +distrusted Marthe on account of her father's opinions; he had hidden the +secrets of his life from her; but the beauty of her simple nature had +suddenly appeared to him, just as the grandeur of his had, as suddenly, +revealed itself to her. Marthe had passed in a moment from the deep +humiliation caused by the degradation of the man whose name she bore, +to the exaltation given by a sense of his nobleness. The change was +instantaneous, without transition; it was enough to make her tremble. +She told him later that she went, as it were, through blood from the +pavilion to the edge of the forest, and there was lifted to heaven, in +a moment, among the angels. Michu, who had known he was not appreciated, +and who mistook his wife's grieved and melancholy manner for lack of +affection, and had left her to herself, living chiefly out of doors +and reserving all his tenderness for his boy, instantly understood the +meaning of her tears. She had cursed the part which her beauty and her +father's will had forced her to take; but now happiness, in the midst of +this great storm, played, with a beautiful flame like a vivid lightning +about them. And it was lightning! Each thought of the last ten years of +misconception, and they blamed themselves only. Michu stood motionless, +his elbow on his gun, his chin on his hand, lost in deep reverie. Such +a moment in a man's life makes him willing to accept the saddest moments +of a painful past. + +Marthe, agitated by the same thoughts as those of her husband, was also +troubled in heart by the danger of the Simeuse brothers; for she now +understood all, even the faces of the two Parisians, though she still +could not explain to herself her husband's gun. She darted forward like +a doe, and soon reached the road to the chateau. There she was surprised +by the steps of a man following behind her; she turned, with a cry, and +her husband's large hand closed her mouth. + +"From the hill up there I saw the silver lace of the gendarmes' hats. +Go in by the breach in the moat between Mademoiselle's tower and the +stables. The dogs won't bark at you. Go through the garden and call the +countess by the window; order them to saddle her horse, and ask her to +come out through the breach. I'll be there, after discovering what the +Parisians are planning, and how to escape them." + +Danger, which seemed to be rolling like an avalanche upon them, gave +wings to Marthe's feet. + + + + +CHAPTER IV. LAURENCE DE CINQ-CYGNE + +The old Frank name of the Cinq-Cygnes and the Chargeboeufs was Duineff. +Cinq-Cygne became that of the younger branch of the Chargeboeufs after +the defence of a castle made, during their father's absence, by five +daughters of that race, all remarkably fair, and of whom no one expected +such heroism. One of the first Comtes de Champagne wished, by bestowing +this pretty name, to perpetuate the memory of their deed as long as the +family existed. Laurence, the last of her race, was, contrary to Salic +law, heiress of the name, the arms, and the manor. She was therefore +Comtesse de Cinq-Cygne in her own right; her husband would have to take +both her name and her blazon, which bore for device the glorious answer +made by the elder of the five sisters when summoned to surrender the +castle, "We die singing." Worthy descendant of these noble heroines, +Laurence was fair and lily-white as though nature had made her for a +wager. The lines of her blue veins could be seen through the delicate +close texture of her skin. Her beautiful golden hair harmonized +delightfully with eyes of the deepest blue. Everything about her +belonged to the type of delicacy. Within that fragile though active +body, and in defiance as it were of its pearly whiteness, lived a +soul like that of a man of noble nature; but no one, not even a close +observer, would have suspected it from the gentle countenance and +rounded features which, when seen in profile, bore some slight +resemblance to those of a lamb. This extreme gentleness, though noble, +had something of the stupidity of the little animal. "I look like a +dreamy sheep," she would say, smiling. Laurence, who talked little, +seemed not so much dreamy as dormant. But, did any important +circumstance arise, the hidden Judith was revealed, sublime; and +circumstances had, unfortunately, not been wanting. + +At thirteen years of age, Laurence, after the events already related, +was an orphan living in a house opposite to the empty space where +so recently had stood one of the most curious specimens in France +of sixteenth-century architecture, the hotel Cinq-Cygne. Monsieur +d'Hauteserre, her relation, now her guardian, took the young heiress to +live in the country at her chateau of Cinq-Cygne. That brave provincial +gentleman, alarmed at the death of his brother, the Abbe d'Hauteserre, +who was shot in the open square as he was about to escape in the dress +of a peasant, was not in a position to defend the interests of his +ward. He had two sons in the army of the princes, and every day, at the +slightest unusual sound, he believed that the municipals of Arcis were +coming to arrest him. Laurence, proud of having sustained a siege and of +possessing the historic whiteness of her swan-like ancestors, despised +the prudent cowardice of the old man who bent to the storm, and dreamed +only of distinguishing herself. So, she boldly hung the portrait of +Charlotte Corday on the walls of her poor salon at Cinq-Cygne, and +crowned it with oak-leaves. She corresponded by messenger with her +twin cousins, in defiance of the law, which punished the act, when +discovered, with death. The messenger, who risked his life, brought back +the answers. Laurence lived only, after the catastrophes at Troyes, +for the triumph of the royal cause. After soberly judging Monsieur and +Madame d'Hauteserre (who lived with her at the chateau de Cinq-Cygne), +and recognizing their honest, but stolid natures, she put them outside +the lines of her own life. She had, moreover, too good a mind and too +sound a judgment to complain of their natures; always kind, amiable, +and affectionate towards them, she nevertheless told them none of her +secrets. Nothing forms a character so much as the practice of constant +concealment in the bosom of a family. + +After she attained her majority Laurence allowed Monsieur d'Hauteserre +to manage her affairs as in the past. So long as her favorite mare was +well-groomed, her maid Catherine dressed to please her, and Gothard +the little page was suitably clothed, she cared for nothing else. Her +thoughts were aimed too high to come down to occupations and interests +which in other times than these would doubtless have pleased her. Dress +was a small matter to her mind; moreover her cousins were not there to +see her. She wore a dark-green habit when she rode, and a gown of some +common woollen stuff with a cape trimmed with braid when she walked; +in the house she was always seen in a silk wrapper. Gothard, the little +groom, a brave and clever lad of fifteen, attended her wherever she +went, and she was nearly always out of doors, riding or hunting over the +farms of Gondreville, without objection being made by either Michu or +the farmers. She rode admirably well, and her cleverness in hunting was +thought miraculous. In the country she was never called anything but +"Mademoiselle" even during the Revolution. + +Whoever has read the fine romance of "Rob Roy" will remember that +rare woman for whose making Walter Scott's imagination abandoned its +customary coldness,--Diana Vernon. The recollection will serve to make +Laurence understood if, to the noble qualities of the Scottish huntress +you add the restrained exaltation of Charlotte Corday, surpassing, +however, the charming vivacity which rendered Diana so attractive. The +young countess had seen her mother die, the Abbe d'Hauteserre shot down, +the Marquis de Simeuse and his wife executed; her only brother had died +of his wounds; her two cousins serving in Conde's army might be killed +at any moment; and, finally, the fortunes of the Simeuse and the +Cinq-Cygne families had been seized and wasted by the Republic without +being of any benefit to the nation. Her grave demeanor, now lapsing into +apparent stolidity, can be readily understood. + +Monsieur d'Hauteserre proved an upright and most careful guardian. Under +his administration Cinq-Cygne became a sort of farm. The good man, who +was far more of a close manager than a knight of the old nobility, had +turned the park and gardens to profit, and used their two hundred acres +of grass and woodland as pasturage for horses and fuel for the family. +Thanks to his severe economy the countess, on coming of age, had +recovered by his investments in the State funds a competent fortune. +In 1798 she possessed about twenty thousand francs a year from those +sources, on which, in fact, some dividends were still due, and twelve +thousand francs a year from the rentals at Cinq-Cygne, which had lately +been renewed at a notable increase. Monsieur and Madame d'Hauteserre +had provided for their old age by the purchase of an annuity of three +thousand francs in the Tontines Lafarge. That fragment of their former +means did not enable them to live elsewhere than at Cinq-Cygne, and +Laurence's first act on coming to her majority was to give them the use +for life of the wing of the chateau which they occupied. + +The Hauteserres, as niggardly for their ward as they were for +themselves, laid up every year nearly the whole of their annuity for the +benefit of their sons, and kept the young heiress on miserable fare. +The whole cost of the Cinq-Cygne household never exceeded five thousand +francs a year. But Laurence, who condescended to no details, was +satisfied. Her guardian and his wife, unconsciously ruled by the +imperceptible influence of her strong character, which was felt even in +little things, had ended by admiring her whom they had known and treated +as a child,--a sufficiently rare feeling. But in her manner, her deep +voice, her commanding eye, Laurence held that inexplicable power which +rules all men,--even when its strength is mere appearance. To vulgar +minds real depth is incomprehensible; it is perhaps for that reason that +the populace is so prone to admire what it cannot understand. Monsieur +and Madame d'Hauteserre, impressed by the habitual silence and erratic +habits of the young girl, were constantly expecting some extraordinary +thing of her. + +Laurence, who did good intelligently and never allowed herself to be +deceived, was held in the utmost respect by the peasantry although +she was an aristocrat. Her sex, name, and great misfortunes, also the +originality of her present life, contributed to give her authority over +the inhabitants of the valley of Cinq-Cygne. She was sometimes absent +for two days, attended by Gothard, but neither Monsieur nor Madame +d'Hauteserre questioned her, on her return, as to the reasons of +her absence. Please observe, however, that there was nothing odd or +eccentric about Laurence. What she was and what she did was masked, as +it were, by a feminine and even fragile appearance. Her heart was full +of extreme sensibility, though her head contained a stoical firmness +and the virile gift of resolution. Her clear-seeing eyes knew not how to +weep; but no one would have imagined that the delicate white wrist with +its tracery of blue veins could defy that of the boldest horseman. Her +hand, so noble, so flexible, could handle gun or pistol with the ease of +a practised marksman. She always wore when out of doors the coquettish +little cap with visor and green veil which women wear on horseback. Her +delicate fair face, thus protected, and her white throat tied with a +black cravat, were never injured by her long rides in all weathers. + +Under the Directory and at the beginning of the Consulate, Laurence had +been able to escape the observation of others; but since the government +had become a more settled thing, the new authorities, the prefect of the +Aube, Malin's friends, and Malin himself had endeavored to undermine +her in the community. Her preoccupying thought was the overthrow of +Bonaparte, whose ambition and its triumphs excited the anger of her +soul,--a cold, deliberate anger. The obscure and hidden enemy of a man +at the pinnacle of glory, she kept her gaze upon him from the depths +of her valley and her forests, with relentless fixity; there were +times when she thought of killing him in the roads about Malmaison or +Saint-Cloud. Plans for the execution of this idea may have been the +cause of many of her past actions, but having been initiated, after the +peace of Amiens, into the conspiracy of the men who expected to make +the 18th Brumaire recoil upon the First Consul, she had thenceforth +subordinated her faculties and her hatred to their vast and well +laid scheme, which was to strike at Bonaparte externally by the vast +coalition of Russia, Austria, and Prussia (vanquished at Austerlitz) and +internally by the coalition of men politically opposed to each other, +but united by their common hatred of a man whose death some of them +were meditating, like Laurence herself, without shrinking from the word +assassination. This young girl, so fragile to the eye, so powerful to +those who knew her well, was at the present moment the faithful guide +and assistant of the exiled gentlemen who came from England to take part +in this deadly enterprise. + +Fouche relied on the co-operation of the _emigres_ everywhere beyond +the Rhine to lure the Duc d'Enghien into the plot. The presence of that +prince in the Baden territory, not far from Strasburg, gave much weight +later to the accusation. The great question of whether the prince really +knew of the enterprise, and was waiting on the frontier to enter France +on its success, is one of those secrets about which, as about several +others, the house of Bourbon has maintained an unbroken silence. As the +history of that period recedes into the past, impartial historians +will declare the imprudence, to say the least, of the Duc d'Enghien in +placing himself close to the frontier at a time when a vast conspiracy +was about to break forth, the secret of which was undoubtedly known to +every member of the Bourbon family. + +The caution which Malin displayed in talking with Grevin in the open +air, Laurence applied to her every action. She met the emissaries and +conferred with them either at various points in the Nodesme forest, or +beyond the valley of the Cinq-Cygne, between the villages of Sezanne +and Brienne. Often she rode forty miles on a stretch with Gothard, +and returned to Cinq-Cygne without the least sign of weariness or +pre-occupation on her fair young face. + +Some years earlier, Laurence had seen in the eyes of a little cow-boy, +then nine years old, the artless admiration which children feel for +everything that is out of the common way. She made him her page, and +taught him to groom a horse with the nicety and care of an Englishman. +She saw in the lad a desire to do well, a bright intelligence, and a +total absence of sly motives; she tested his devotion and found he had +not only mind but nobility of character; he never dreamed of reward. The +young girl trained this soul that was still so young; she was good to +him, good with dignity; she attached him to her by attaching herself +to him, and by herself polishing a nature that was half wild, without +destroying its freshness or its simplicity. When she had sufficiently +tested the almost canine fidelity she had nurtured, Gothard became her +intelligent and ingenuous accomplice. The little peasant, whom no one +could suspect, went from Cinq-Cygne to Nancy, and often returned before +any one had missed him from the neighborhood. He knew how to practise +all the tricks of a spy. The extreme distrust and caution his mistress +had taught him did not change his natural self. Gothard, who possessed +all the craft of a woman, the candor of a child, and the ceaseless +observation of a conspirator, hid every one of these admirable qualities +beneath the torpor and dull ignorance of a country lad. The little +fellow had a silly, weak, and clumsy appearance; but once at work he was +active as a fish; he escaped like an eel; he understood, as the dogs do, +the merest glance; he nosed a thought. His good fat face, both round and +red, his sleepy brown eyes, his hair, cut in the peasant fashion, his +clothes, and his slow growth gave him the appearance of a child of ten. + +The two young d'Hauteserres and the twin brothers Simeuse, under the +guidance of their cousin Laurence, who had been watching over their +safety and that of the other _emigres_ who accompanied them from +Strasburg to Bar-sur-Aube, had just passed through Alsace and Lorraine, +and were now in Champagne while other conspirators, not less bold, +were entering France by the cliffs of Normandy. Dressed as workmen the +d'Hauteserres and the Simeuse twins had walked from forest to forest, +guided on their way by relays of persons, chosen by Laurence during +the last three months from among the least suspected of the Bourbon +adherents living in each neighborhood. The _emigres_ slept by day and +travelled by night. Each brought with him two faithful soldiers; one +of whom went before to warn of danger, the other behind to protect a +retreat. Thanks to these military precautions, this valuable detachment +had at last reached, without accident, the forest of Nodesme, which +was chosen as the rendezvous. Twenty-seven other gentlemen had entered +France from Switzerland and crossed Burgundy, guided towards Paris with +the same caution. + +Monsieur de Riviere counted on collecting five hundred men, one hundred +of whom were young nobles, the officers of this sacred legion. Monsieur +de Polignac and Monsieur de Riviere, whose conduct as chiefs of this +advance was most remarkable, afterwards preserved an impenetrable +secrecy as to the names of those of their accomplices who were not +discovered. It may be said, therefore, now that the Restoration has made +matters clearer, that Bonaparte never knew the extent of the danger he +then ran, any more than England knew the peril she had escaped from +the camp at Boulogne; and yet the police of France was never more +intelligently or ably managed. + +At the period when this history begins, a coward--for cowards are always +to be found in conspiracies which are not confined to a small number +of equally strong men--a sworn confederate, brought face to face with +death, gave certain information, happily insufficient to cover the +extent of the conspiracy, but precise enough to show the object of the +enterprise. The police had therefore, as Malin told Grevin, left the +conspirators at liberty, though all the while watching them, hoping to +discover the ramifications of the plot. Nevertheless, the government +found its hand to a certain extent forced by Georges Cadoudal, a man +of action who took counsel of himself only, and who was hiding in +Paris with twenty-five _chouans_ for the purpose of attacking the First +Consul. + +Laurence combined both hatred and love within her breast. To destroy +Bonaparte and bring back the Bourbons was to recover Gondreville and +make the fortune of her cousins. The two sentiments, one the counterpart +of the other, were sufficient, more especially at twenty-three years of +age, to excite all the faculties of her soul and all the powers of her +being. So, for the last two months, she had seemed to the inhabitants +of Cinq-Cygne more beautiful than at any other period of her life. +Her cheeks became rosy; hope gave pride to her brow; but when old +d'Hauteserre read the Gazette at night and discussed the conservative +course of the First Consul she lowered her eyes to conceal her +passionate hopes of the coming fall of that enemy of the Bourbons. + +No one at the chateau had the faintest idea that the young countess had +met her cousins the night before. The two sons of Monsieur and Madame +d'Hauteserre had passed the preceding night in Laurence's own room, +under the same roof with their father and mother; and Laurence, after +knowing them safely in bed had gone between one and two o'clock in the +morning to a rendezvous with her cousins in the forest, where she hid +them in the deserted hut of a wood-dealer's agent. The following day, +certain of seeing them again, she showed no signs of her joy; nothing +about her betrayed emotion; she was able to efface all traces of +pleasure at having met them again; in fact, she was impassible. +Catherine, her pretty maid, daughter of her former nurse, and Gothard, +both in the secret, modelled their behavior upon hers. Catherine was +nineteen years old. At that age a girl is a fanatic and would let +her throat be cut before betraying a thought of one she loves. As for +Gothard, merely to inhale the perfume which the countess used in her +hair and among her clothes he would have born the rack without a word. + + + + +CHAPTER V. ROYALIST HOMES AND PORTRAITS UNDER THE CONSULATE + +At the moment when Marthe, driven by the imminence of the peril, was +gliding with the rapidity of a shadow towards the breach of which +Michu had told her, the salon of the chateau of Cinq-Cygne presented a +peaceful sight. Its occupants were so far from suspecting the storm that +was about to burst upon them that their quiet aspect would have roused +the compassion of any one who knew their situation. In the large +fireplace, the mantel of which was adorned with a mirror with +shepherdesses in paniers painted on its frame, burned a fire such as +can be seen only in chateaus bordering on forests. At the corner of +this fireplace, on a large square sofa of gilded wood with a magnificent +brocaded cover, the young countess lay as it were extended, in an +attitude of utter weariness. Returning at six o'clock from the confines +of Brie, having played the part of scout to the four gentlemen whom she +guided safely to their last halting-place before they entered Paris, she +had found Monsieur and Madame d'Hauteserre just finishing their dinner. +Pressed by hunger she sat down to table without changing either her +muddy habit or her boots. Instead of doing so at once after dinner, +she was suddenly overcome with fatigue and allowed her head with its +beautiful fair curls to drop on the back of the sofa, her feet being +supported in front of her by a stool. The warmth of the fire had dried +the mud on her habit and on her boots. Her doeskin gloves and the little +peaked cap with its green veil and a whip lay on the table where she had +flung them. She looked sometimes at the old Boule clock which stood on +the mantelshelf between the candelabra, perhaps to judge if her four +conspirators were asleep, and sometimes at the card-table in front of +the fire where Monsieur and Madame d'Hauteserre, the cure of Cinq-Cygne, +and his sister were playing a game of boston. + +Even if these personages were not embedded in this drama, their +portraits would have the merit of representing one of the aspects of +the aristocracy after its overthrow in 1793. From this point of view, +a sketch of the salon at Cinq-Cygne has the raciness of history seen in +dishabille. + +Monsieur d'Hauteserre, then fifty-two years of age, tall, spare, +high-colored, and robust in health, would have seemed the embodiment of +vigor if it were not for a pair of porcelain blue eyes, the glance of +which denoted the most absolute simplicity. In his face, which ended +in a long pointed chin, there was, judging by the rules of design, +an unnatural distance between his nose and mouth which gave him a +submissive air, wholly in keeping with his character, which harmonized, +in fact, with other details of his appearance. His gray hair, flattened +by his hat, which he wore nearly all day, looked much like a skull-cap +on his head, and defined its pear-shaped outline. His forehead, much +wrinkled by life in the open air and by constant anxieties, was flat and +expressionless. His aquiline nose redeemed the face somewhat; but the +sole indication of any strength of character lay in the bushy eyebrows +which retained their blackness, and in the brilliant coloring of his +skin. These signs were in some respects not misleading, for the worthy +gentlemen, though simple and very gentle, was Catholic and monarchical +in faith, and no consideration on earth could make him change his views. +Nevertheless he would have let himself be arrested without an effort +at defence, and would have gone to the scaffold quietly. His annuity of +three thousand francs kept him from emigrating. He therefore obeyed the +government _de facto_ without ceasing to love the royal family and to +pray for their return, though he would firmly have refused to compromise +himself by any effort in their favor. He belonged to that class of +royalists who ceaselessly remembered that they were beaten and robbed; +and who remained thenceforth dumb, economical, rancorous, without +energy; incapable of abjuring the past, but equally incapable of +sacrifice; waiting to greet triumphant royalty; true to religion and +true to the priesthood, but firmly resolved to bear in silence +the shocks of fate. Such an attitude cannot be considered that of +maintaining opinions, it becomes sheer obstinacy. Action is the essence +of party. Without intelligence, but loyal, miserly as a peasant yet +noble in demeanor, bold in his wishes but discreet in word and +action, turning all things to profit, willing even to be made mayor of +Cinq-Cygne, Monsieur d'Hauteserre was an admirable representative of +those honorable gentlemen on whose brow God Himself has written the +word _mites_,--Frenchmen who burrowed in their country homes and let the +storms of the Revolution pass above their heads; who came once more to +the surface under the Restoration, rich with their hidden savings, +proud of their discreet attachment to the monarchy, and who, after 1830, +recovered their estates. + +Monsieur d'Hauteserre's costume, expressive envelope of his distinctive +character, described to the eye both the man and his period. He always +wore one of those nut-colored great-coats with small collars which the +Duc d'Orleans made the fashion after his return from England, and which +were, during the Revolution, a sort of compromise between the hideous +popular garments and the elegant surtouts of the aristocracy. His velvet +waistcoat with flowered stripes, the style of which recalled those of +Robespierre and Saint-Just, showed the upper part of a shirt-frill in +fine plaits. He still wore breeches; but his were of coarse blue cloth, +with burnished steel buckles. His stockings of black spun-silk defined +his deer-like legs, the feet of which were shod in thick shoes, held +in place by gaiters of black cloth. He retained the former fashion of +a muslin cravat in innumerable folds fastened by a gold buckle at the +throat. The worthy man had not intended an act of political eclecticism +in adopting this costume, which combined the styles of peasant, +revolutionist, and aristocrat; he simply and innocently obeyed the +dictates of circumstances. + +Madame d'Hauteserre, forty years of age and wasted by emotions, had a +faded face which seemed to be always posing for its portrait. A lace +cap, trimmed with bows of white satin, contributed singularly to give +her a solemn air. She still wore powder, in spite of a white kerchief, +and a gown of puce-colored silk with tight sleeves and full skirt, the +sad last garments of Marie-Antoinette. Her nose was pinched, her chin +sharp, the whole face nearly triangular, the eyes worn-out with weeping; +but she now wore a touch of rouge which brightened their grayness. She +took snuff, and each time that she did so she employed all the pretty +precautions of the fashionable women of her early days; the details of +this snuff-taking constituted a ceremony which could be explained by one +fact--she had very pretty hands. + +For the last two years the former tutor of the Simeuse twins, a friend +of the late Abbe d'Hauteserre, named Goujet, Abbe des Minimes, had +taken charge of the parish of Cinq-Cygne out of friendship for the +d'Hauteserres and the young countess. His sister, Mademoiselle Goujet, +who possessed a little income of seven hundred francs, added that sum to +the meagre salary of her brother and kept his house. Neither church nor +parsonage had been sold during the Revolution on account of their small +value. The abbe and his sister lived close to the chateau, for the wall +of the parsonage garden and that of the park were the same in places. +Twice a week the pair dined at the chateau, but they came every evening +to play boston with the d'Hauteserres; for Laurence, unable to play a +game, did not even know one card from another. + +The Abbe Goujet, an old man with white hair and a face as white as that +of an old woman, endowed with a kindly smile and a gentle and persuasive +voice, redeemed the insipidity of his rather mincing face by a fine +intellectual brow and a pair of keen eyes. Of medium height, and +very well made, he still wore the old-fashioned black coat, silver +shoe-buckles, breeches, black silk stockings, and a black waistcoat +on which lay his clerical bands, giving him a distinguished air which +detracted nothing from his dignity. This abbe, who became bishop of +Troyes after the Restoration, had long made a study of young people +and fully understood the noble character of the young countess; he +appreciated her at her full value, and had shown her, from the first, +a respectful deference which contributed much to her independence at +Cinq-Cygne, for it led the austere old lady and the kind old gentleman +to yield to the young girl, who by rights should have yielded to them. +For the last six months the abbe had watched Laurence with the intuition +peculiar to priests, the most sagacious of men; and although he did +not know that this girl of twenty-three was thinking of overturning +Bonaparte as she lay there twisting with slender fingers the frogged +lacing of her riding-habit, he was well aware that she was agitated by +some great project. + +Mademoiselle Goujet was one of those unmarried women whose portrait can +be drawn in one word which will enable the least imaginative mind to +picture her; she was ungainly. She knew her own ugliness and was the +first to laugh at it, showing her long teeth, yellow as her complexion +and her bony hands. She was gay and hearty. She wore the famous short +gown of former days, a very full skirt with pockets full of keys, a cap +with ribbons and a false front. She was forty years of age very early, +but had, so she said, caught up with herself by keeping at that age for +twenty years. She revered the nobility; and knew well how to preserve +her own dignity by giving to persons of noble birth the respect and +deference that were due to them. + +This little company was a god-send to Madame d'Hauteserre, who had not, +like her husband, rural occupations, nor, like Laurence, the tonic of +hatred, to enable her to bear the dulness of a retired life. Many things +had happened to ameliorate that life within the last six years. The +restoration of Catholic worship allowed the faithful to fulfil their +religious duties, which play more of a part in country life than +elsewhere. Protected by the conservative edicts of the First Consul, +Monsieur and Madame d'Hauteserre had been able to correspond with their +sons, and no longer in dread of what might happen to them could even +hope for the erasure of their names from the lists of the proscribed and +their consequent return to France. The Treasury had lately made up +the arrearages and now paid its dividends promptly; so that the +d'Hauteserres received, over and above their annuity, about eight +thousand francs a year. The old man congratulated himself on the +sagacity of his foresight in having put all his savings, amounting to +twenty thousand francs, together with those of his ward, in the public +Funds before the 18th Brumaire, which, as we all know, sent those stocks +up from twelve to eighteen francs. + +The chateau of Cinq-Cygne had long been empty and denuded of furniture. +The prudent guardian was careful not to alter its aspect during the +revolutionary troubles; but after the peace of Amiens he made a journey +to Troyes and brought back various relics of the pillaged mansions which +he obtained from the dealers in second-hand furniture. The salon was +furnished for the first time since their occupation of the house. +Handsome curtains of white brocade with green flowers, from the hotel de +Simeuse, draped the six windows of the salon, in which the family were +now assembled. The walls of this vast room were entirely of wood, with +panels encased in beaded mouldings with masks at the angles; the whole +painted in two shades of gray. The spaces over the four doors were +filled with those designs, painted in cameo of two colors, which were +so much in vogue under Louis XV. Monsieur d'Hauteserre had picked up +at Troyes certain gilded pier-tables, a sofa in green damask, a crystal +chandelier, a card-table of marquetry, among other things that served +him to restore the chateau. In 1792 all the furniture of the house had +been taken or destroyed, for the pillage of the mansions in town was +imitated in the valley. Each time that the old man went to Troyes he +returned with some relic of the former splendor, sometimes a fine carpet +for the floor of the salon, at other times part of a dinner service, or +a bit of rare old porcelain of either Sevres or Dresden. During the last +six months he had ventured to dig up the family silver, which the cook +had buried in the cellar of a little house belonging to him at the end +of one of the long faubourgs in Troyes. + +That faithful servant, named Durieu, and his wife had followed the +fortunes of their young mistress. Durieu was the factotum of the +chateau, and his wife was the housekeeper. He was helped in the cooking +by the sister of Catherine, Laurence's maid, to whom he was teaching his +art and who gave promise of becoming an excellent cook. An old gardener, +his wife, a son paid by the day, and a daughter who served as a +dairy-woman, made up the household. Madame Durieu had lately and +secretly had the Cinq-Cygne liveries made for the gardener's son and for +Gothard. Though blamed for this imprudence by Monsieur d'Hauteserre, +the housekeeper took great pleasure in seeing the dinner served on the +festival of Saint-Laurence, the countess's fete-day, with almost as much +style as in former times. + +This slow and difficult restoration of departed things was the delight +of Monsieur and Madame d'Hauteserre and the Durieus. Laurence smiled +at what she thought nonsense. But the worthy old d'Hauteserre did not +forget the more solid matters; he repaired the buildings, put up the +walls, planted trees wherever there was a chance to make them grow, and +did not leave an inch of unproductive land. The whole valley regarded +him as an oracle in the matter of agriculture. He had managed to recover +a hundred acres of contested land, not sold as national property, being +in some way confounded with that of the township. This land he had +turned into fields which afforded good pasturage for his horses and +cattle, and he planted them round with poplars, which now, at the end +of six years, were making a fine growth. He intended to buy back some of +the lost estate, and to utilize all the out-buildings of the chateau by +making a second farm and managing it himself. + +Life at the chateau had thus become during the last two years prosperous +and almost happy. Monsieur d'Hauteserre was off at daybreaks to overlook +his laborers, for he employed them in all weathers. He came home to +breakfast, mounted his farm pony as soon as the meal was over, and +made his rounds of the estate like a bailiff,--getting home in time for +dinner, and finishing the day with a game of boston. All the inhabitants +of the chateau had their stated occupations; life was as closely +regulated there as in a convent. Laurence alone disturbed its even +tenor by her sudden journeys, her uncertain returns, and by what Madame +d'Hauteserre called her pranks. But with all this peacefulness there +existed at Cinq-Cygne conflicting interests and certain causes of +dissension. In the first place Durieu and his wife were jealous of +Catherine and Gothard, who lived in greater intimacy with their young +mistress, the idol of the household, than they did. Then the two +d'Hauteserres, encouraged by Mademoiselle Goujet and the abbe, wanted +their sons as well as the Simeuse brothers to take the oath and return +to this quiet life, instead of living miserably in foreign countries. +Laurence scouted the odious compromise and stood firmly for the +monarchy, militant and implacable. The four old people, anxious that +their present peaceful existence should not be risked, nor their spot +of refuge, saved from the furious waters of the revolutionary torrent, +lost, did their best to convert Laurence to their cautious views, +believing that her influence counted for much in the unwillingness of +their sons and the Simeuse twins to return to France. The superb disdain +with which she met the project frightened these poor people, who were +not mistaken in their fears that she was meditating what they called +knight-errantry. This jarring of opinion came to the surface after the +explosion of the infernal machine in the rue Saint-Nicaise, the first +royalist attempt against the conqueror of Marengo after his refusal +to treat with the house of Bourbon. The d'Hauteserres considered +it fortunate that Bonaparte escaped that danger, believing that the +republicans had instigated it. But Laurence wept with rage when she +heard he was safe. Her despair overcame her usual reticence, and she +vehemently complained that God had deserted the sons of Saint-Louis. + +"I," she exclaimed, "I could have succeeded! Have we no right," she +added, seeing the stupefaction her words produced on the faces about +her, and addressing the abbe, "no right to attack the usurper by every +means in our power?" + +"My child," replied the abbe, "the Church has been greatly blamed by +philosophers for declaring in former times that the same weapons might +be employed against usurpers which the usurpers themselves had employed +to succeed; but in these days the Church owes far too much to the First +Consul not to protect him against that maxim,--which, by the by, was due +to the Jesuits." + +"So the Church abandons us!" she answered, gloomily. + +From that day forth whenever the four old people talked of submitting +to the decrees of Providence, Laurence left the room. Of late, the abbe, +shrewder than Monsieur d'Hauteserre, instead of discussing principles, +drew pictures of the material advantages of the consular rule, less to +convert the countess than to detect in her eyes some expression +which might enlighten him as to her projects. Gothard's frequent +disappearances, the long rides of his mistress, and her evident +preoccupation, which, for the last few days, had appeared in her face, +together with other little signs not to be hidden in the silence and +tranquillity of such a life, had roused the fears of these submissive +royalists. Still, as no event happened, and perfect quiet appeared to +reign in the political atmosphere, the minds of the little household +were soothed into peace, and the countess's long rides were one more +attributed to her passion for hunting. + +It is easy to imagine the deep silence which reigned at nine o'clock in +the evening in the park, courtyards, and gardens of Cinq-Cygne, where at +that particular moment the persons we have described were harmoniously +grouped, where perfect peace pervaded all things, where comfort and +abundance were again enjoyed, and where the worthy and judicious old +gentleman was still hoping to convert his late ward to his system of +obedience to the ruling powers by the argument of what we may call the +continuity of prosperous results. + +These royalists continued to play their boston, a game which spread +ideas of independence under a frivolous form over the whole of France; +for it was first invented in honor of the American insurgents, its very +terms applying to the struggle which Louis XVI. encouraged. While making +their "independences" and "poverties," the players kept an eye on the +countess, who had fallen asleep, overcome by fatigue, with a singular +smile on her lips, her last waking thought having been of the terror two +words could inspire in the minds of the peaceful company by informing +the d'Hauteserres that their sons had passed the preceding night under +that roof. What young girl of twenty-three would not have been, as +Laurence was, proud to play the part of Destiny? and who would not have +felt, as she did, a sense of compassion for those whom she felt to be so +far below her in loyalty? + +"She sleeps," said the abbe. "I have never seen her so wearied." + +"Durieu tells me her mare is almost foundered," remarked Madame +d'Hauteserre. "Her gun has not been fired; the breech is clean; she has +evidently not hunted." + +"Oh! that's neither here nor there," said the abbe. + +"Bah?" cried Mademoiselle Goujet; "when I was twenty-three and saw I +should be an old maid all my life, I rushed about and fatigued myself +in a dozen ways. I understand how the countess can scour the country for +hours without thinking of the game. It is nearly twelve years now since +she has seen her cousins, and you know she loves them. Well, if I +were she, if I were as young and pretty, I'd make a straight line for +Germany! Poor darling, perhaps she is thinking of the frontier, and that +may be the reason why she rides so far towards it." + +"You are rather giddy, Mademoiselle Goujet," said the abbe, smiling. + +"Not at all," she replied. "I see you all uneasy about the goings on of +a young girl, and I am explaining them to you." + +"Her cousins will submit and return soon; they will all be rich, and she +will end by calming down," said old d'Hauteserre. + +"God grant it!" said his wife, taking out a gold snuff-box which had +again seen the light under the Consulate. + +"There is something stirring in the neighborhood," remarked Monsieur +d'Hauteserre to the abbe. "Malin has been two days at Gondreville." + +"Malin!" cried Laurence, roused by the name, though her sleep was sound. + +"Yes," replied the abbe, "but he leaves to-night; everybody is +conjecturing the motive of this hasty visit." + +"That man," said Laurence, "is the evil genius of our two houses." + +The countess had been dreaming of her cousins and the young Hauteserres; +she saw them in peril. Her beautiful eyes grew fixed and glassy as her +mind thus warned dwelled on the dangers they were about to incur in +Paris. She rose suddenly and went to her bedroom without speaking. Her +bedroom was the best in the house; next came a dressing-room and an +oratory, in the tower which faced towards the forest. Soon after she +had left the salon the dogs barked, the bell of the small gate rang, +and Durieu rushed into the salon with a frightened face. "Here is the +mayor!" he said. "Something is the matter." + + + + +CHAPTER VI. A DOMICILIARY VISIT + +The mayor, a former huntsman of the house of Simeuse, came occasionally +to the chateau, where the d'Hauteserres showed him out of policy, a +deference to which he attached great value. His name was Goulard; he had +married a rich woman of Troyes, whose property, which was in the commune +of Cinq-Cygne, he had further increased by the purchase of a fine abbey +and its lands, in which he invested all his savings. The vast abbey of +Val-des-Preux, standing about a mile from the chateau, he had turned +into a dwelling that was almost as splendid as Gondreville; in it his +wife and he were now living like rats in a cathedral. "Ah! Goulard, you +have been greedy," Mademoiselle had said to him with a laugh the first +time she received him at Cinq-Cygne. Though greatly attached to the +Revolution and coldly received by the countess, the mayor always felt +himself bound by ties of respect to the Cinq-Cygne and Simeuse families. +He therefore shut his eyes to what went on at the chateau. He called +shutting his eyes not seeing the portraits of Louis XVI., Marie +Antoinette, and the royal children, and those of Monsieur, the Comte +d'Artois, Cazales and Charlotte Corday, which filled the various panels +of the salon; not resenting either the wishes freely expressed in his +presence for the ruin of the Republic, or the ridicule flung at the five +directors and all the other governmental combinations of that time. +The position of this man, who, like many parvenus, having once made his +fortune, reverted to his early faith in the old families, and sought to +attach himself to them, was now being made use of by the two members of +the Paris police whose profession had been so quickly guessed by Michu, +and who, before going to Gondreville had reconnoitred the neighborhood. + +The worthy described as the depositary of the best traditions of the old +police, and Corentin phoenix of spies, were in fact employed on a secret +mission. Malin was not mistaken in attributing a double purpose to those +stars of tragic farces. But, before seeing them at work, it is advisable +to show the head of which they were the arms. When Bonaparte became +First Consul he found Fouche at the head of the police. The Revolution +had frankly and with good reason made the management of the police into +a special ministry. But after his return from Marengo, Bonaparte created +the prefecture of police, placed Dubois in charge of it, and called +Fouche to the Council of State, naming as his successor in the ministry +a conventional named Cochon, since known as Comte de Lapparent. Fouche, +who considered the ministry of police as by far the most important in a +government of broad ideas and fixed policy, saw disgrace or at any +rate distrust in the change. After Napoleon became aware of the immense +superiority of this great statesman, as evidenced in the affair of the +infernal machine and in the conspiracy with which we are now concerned, +he returned him to the ministry of police. Later still, becoming alarmed +at the powers Fouche displayed during his absence at the time of the +affair at Walcheren, the Emperor gave that ministry to the Duc de +Rovigo, and sent Fouche (Duc d'Otrante) as governor to the Illyrian +provinces,--an appointment which was in fact an exile. + +The singular genius of this man, Fouche, which had the power of +inspiring Napoleon with a sort of fear, did not reveal itself all at +once. This obscure conventional, one of the most extraordinary men +of our time, and the most misjudged, was moulded, as it were, by the +whirlwind of events. He raised himself under the Directory to the height +from which men of genius could see the future and judge the past, and +then, like certain commonplace actors who suddenly become admirable +through the light of some vivid perception, he gave proofs of his +dexterity during the rapid revolution of the 18th Brumaire. This man +with the pallid face, educated to monastic dissimulation, possessing +the secrets of the _montagnards_ to whom he belonged, and those of the +royalists to whom he ended by belonging, had slowly and silently studied +the men, the events, and the interests on the political stage; he +penetrated Napoleon's secrets, he gave him useful counsel and precious +information. Satisfied with having proven his capacity and his +usefulness, Fouche was careful not to disclose himself completely. He +wished to remain at the head of affairs, but the Emperor's restless +uneasiness about him cost him his place. + +The ingratitude or rather the distrust shown by Napoleon after the +affair at Walcheren, gives the key-note to the character of a man who, +unfortunately for himself, was not a great _seigneur_, and whose conduct +was modelled on that of Talleyrand. At that time neither his former +colleagues nor his present ones had suspected the amplitude of his +genius, which was purely ministerial, essentially governmental, just +in its forecasts and incredibly sagacious. To-day, every impartial +historian perceives that Napoleon's inordinate self-love was among +the chief causes of his fall, a punishment which cruelly expiated his +wrong-doing. In the mind of that distrustful sovereign lurked a constant +jealousy for his own rising power, which influenced all his actions, and +caused his secret hatred for men of talent, the precious legacy of the +Revolution, with whom he might have made himself a cabinet capable of +being a true repository for his thoughts. Talleyrand and Fouche were not +the only ones who gave him umbrage. The misfortune of usurpers is that +those who have given them a crown are as much their enemies as those +from whom they snatch it. Napoleon's sovereignty was never convincingly +felt by those who were once his superiors or his equals, nor by those +who still held to the doctrine of rights; none of them regarded their +oath of allegiance to him as binding. + +Malin, an inferior man, incapable of comprehending Fouche's hidden +genius, or of distrusting his own perceptions, burned himself, like +a moth in a candle, by asking him confidentially to send agents to +Gondreville, where, he said, he hoped to obtain certain clues to the +conspiracy. Fouche, without alarming his friend by any questions, +asked himself why Malin was going to Gondreville, and why he did not +immediately and without loss of time, give the information he already +possessed. The ex-Oratorian, fed from his youth up on trickery, and well +aware of the double part played by a good many of the conventionals, +said to himself: "From whom is Malin likely to obtain information when +we ourselves know little or nothing?" Fouche concluded therefore that +there was some either latent or prospective collusion, and took care to +say nothing about it to the First Consul. He preferred to make Malin +his instrument rather than destroy him. It was Fouche's habit to keep to +himself a good part of the secrets he detected, and he thus obtained +for his own purposes a power over those concerned which was even greater +than that of Bonaparte. This duplicity was one of the Emperor's charges +against his minister. + +Fouche knew of the swindling transaction by which Malin became possessed +of Gondreville and which led him to keep his eyes so anxiously on the +Simeuse brothers. These gentlemen were now serving in the army of Conde; +Mademoiselle de Cinq-Cygne was their cousin; possibly they were in +her neighborhood, and were sharers in the conspiracy; if so, it would +implicate the house of Conde to which they were devoted. Talleyrand +and Fouche were bent on casting light into this dark corner of the +conspiracy of 1803. All these considerations Fouche saw at a glance, +rapidly and with great clearness. But between Malin, Talleyrand, +and himself there were strong ties which forced him to the utmost +circumspection, and made him anxious to know the exact state of things +within the walls of Gondreville. Corentin was unreservedly attached to +Fouche, just as Monsieur de la Besnardiere was to Talleyrand, Gentz to +Monsieur de Metternich, Dundas to Pitt, Duroc to Napoleon, Chavigny to +Cardinal Richelieu. Corentin was not the counsellor of his master, but +his instrument, the Tristan to this Louis XI. of low estate. Fouche had +kept him in the ministry of the police when he himself left it, so as to +still keep an eye and a finger in it. It was said that Corentin belonged +to Fouche by some unavowed relationship, for he rewarded him lavishly +after every service. Corentin had a friend in Peyrade, the old pupil of +the last lieutenant of police; but he kept a good many of his secrets +from him. Fouche gave Corentin an order to explore the chateau of +Gondreville, to get the plan of it into his memory, and to know every +hiding-place within its walls. + +"We may be obliged to return there," said the ex-minister, precisely +as Napoleon told his lieutenants to explore the field of Austerlitz on +which he intended to fall back. + +Corentin was also to study Malin's conduct, discover what influence +he had in the neighborhood, and observe the men he employed. Fouche +regarded it as certain that the Simeuse brothers were in that part of +the country. By cautiously watching the two officers, who were closely +allied with the Prince de Conde, Peyrade and Corentin could obtain +precious light on the ramifications of the conspiracy beyond the Rhine. +In any case, however, Corentin received the means, the orders, and +the agents, to surround the chateau of Cinq-Cygne and watch the whole +region, from the forest of Nodesme into Paris. Fouche insisted on the +utmost caution, and would only allow a domiciliary visit to Cinq-Cygne +in case Malin gave them positive information which made it necessary. By +way of instructions he explained to Corentin the otherwise inexplicable +personality of Michu, who had been watched by the police for the last +three years. Corentin's idea was that of his master: "Malin knows all +about the conspiracy--But," he added to himself, "perhaps Fouche does, +too; who knows?" + +Corentin, having started for Troyes before Malin, had made arrangements +with the commandant of the gendarmerie in that town, who picked out a +number of his most intelligent men and placed them under orders of an +able captain. Corentin chose Gondreville as the place of rendezvous, +and directed the captain to send some of his men at night in four +detachments to different points of the valley of Cinq-Cygne at +sufficient distance from each other to cause no alarm. These four +pickets were to form a square and close in around the chateau of +Cinq-Cygne. By leaving Corentin alone at Gondreville during his +consultation in the fields with Grevin, Malin had enabled him to fulfil +part of Fouche's orders and explore the house. When the Councillor of +State returned home he told Corentin so positively that the d'Hauteserre +and Simeuse brothers were in the neighborhood and probably at Cinq-Cygne +that the two agents despatched the captain with the rest of his company, +who, fortunately for the four gentlemen, crossed the forest on their +way to the chateau during the time when Michu was making Violette drunk. +Malin had told Corentin and Peyrade of the escape he had from lying in +wait for him. The two agents related the incident of the gun they +had seen the bailiff load, and Grevin had sent Violette to obtain +information as to what was going on at Michu's house. Corentin advised +the notary to take Malin to his own house in the little town of Arcis, +and let him sleep there as a measure of precaution. At the moment when +Michu and his wife were rushing through the forest on their way to +Cinq-Cygne, Peyrade and Corentin were starting from Gondreville for +Cinq-Cygne in a shabby wicker carriage, drawn by one post-horse driven +by the corporal of Arcis, one of the shrewdest men in the Legion, whom +the commandant at Troyes advised them to employ. + +"The surest way to seize them all is to warn them," said Peyrade to +Corentin. "At the moment when they are well frightened and are trying to +save their papers or to escape we'll fall upon them like a thunderbolt. +The gendarmes surround the chateau now and are as good as a net. We +sha'n't lose one of them!" + +"You had better send the mayor to warn them," said the corporal. "He +is friendly to them and wouldn't like to see them harmed; they won't +distrust him." + +Just as Goulard was preparing to go to bed, Corentin, who stopped +the vehicle in a little wood, went to his house and told him, +confidentially, that in a few moments an emissary from the government +would require him to enter the chateau of Cinq-Cygne and arrest +the brothers d'Hauteserre and Simeuse; and in case they had already +disappeared he would have to ascertain if they had slept there the +night before, search Mademoiselle de Cinq-Cygne's papers, and, possibly, +arrest both the masters and servants of the household. + +"Mademoiselle de Cinq-Cygne," said Corentin, "is undoubtedly protected +by some great personages, for I have received private orders to warn +her of this visit, and to do all I can to save her without compromising +myself. Once on the ground, I shall no longer be able to do so, for I am +not alone; go to the chateau yourself and warn them." + +The mayor's visit at that time of night was all the more bewildering to +the card-players when they saw the agitation of his face. + +"Where is the countess?" were his first words. + +"She has gone to bed," said Madame d'Hauteserre. + +The mayor, incredulous, listened to noises that were heard on the upper +floor. + +"What is the matter with you, Goulard?" said Monsieur d'Hauteserre. + +Goulard was dumb with surprise as he noted the tranquil ease of the +faces about him. Observing the peaceful and innocent game of cards which +he had thus interrupted, he was unable to imagine what the Parisian +police meant by their suspicions. + +At that moment Laurence, kneeling in her oratory, was praying fervently +for the success of the conspiracy. She prayed to God to send help and +succor to the murderers of Bonaparte. She implored Him ardently to +destroy that fatal being. The fanaticism of Harmodius, Judith, Jacques +Clement, Ankarstroem, of Charlotte Corday and Limoelan, inspired this +pure and virgin spirit. Catherine was preparing the bed, Gothard was +closing the blinds, when Marthe Michu coming under the windows flung a +pebble on the glass and was seen at once. + +"Mademoiselle, here's some one," said Gothard, seeing a woman. + +"Hush!" said Marthe, in a low voice. "Come down and speak to me." + +Gothard was in the garden in less time than a bird would have taken to +fly down from a tree. + +"In a minute the chateau will be surrounded by the gendarmerie. Saddle +mademoiselle's horse without making any noise and take it down through +the breach in the moat between the stables and this tower." + +Marthe quivered when she saw Laurence, who had followed Gothard, +standing beside her. + +"What is it?" asked Laurence, quietly. + +"The conspiracy against the First Consul is discovered," replied Marthe, +in a whisper. "My husband, who seeks to save your two cousins, sends me +to ask you to come and speak to him." + +Laurence drew back and looked at Marthe. "Who are you?" she said. + +"Marthe Michu." + +"I do not know what you want of me," replied the countess, coldly. + +"Take care, you will kill them. Come with me, I implore you in the +Simeuse name," said Marthe, clasping her hands and stretching them +towards Laurence. "Have you papers here which may compromise you? If so, +destroy them. From the heights over there my husband has just seen the +silver-laced hats and the muskets of the gendarmerie." + +Gothard had already clambered to the hay-loft and seen the same sight; +he heard in the stillness of the evening the sound of their horses' +hoofs. Down he slipped into the stable and saddled his mistress's mare, +whose feet Catherine, at a word from the lad, muffled in linen. + +"Where am I to go?" said Laurence to Marthe, whose look and language +bore the unmistakable signs of sincerity. + +"Through the breach," she replied; "my noble husband is there. You shall +learn the value of a 'Judas'!" + +Catherine went quickly into the salon, picked up the hat, veil, whip, +and gloves of her mistress, and disappeared. This sudden apparition and +action were so striking a commentary on the mayor's inquiry that +Madame d'Hauteserre and the abbe exchanged glances which contained the +melancholy thought: "Farewell to all our peace! Laurence is conspiring; +she will be the death of her cousins." + +"But what do you really mean?" said Monsieur d'Hauteserre to the mayor. + +"The chateau is surrounded. You are about to receive a domiciliary +visit. If your sons are here tell them to escape, and the Simeuse +brothers too, if they are with them." + +"My sons!" exclaimed Madame d'Hauteserre, stupefied. + +"We have seen no one," said Monsieur d'Hauteserre. + +"So much the better," said Goulard; "but I care too much for the +Cinq-Cygne and Simeuse families to let any harm come to them. Listen to +me. If you have any compromising papers--" + +"Papers!" repeated the old gentleman. + +"Yes, if you have any, burn them at once," said the mayor. "I'll go and +amuse the police agents." + +Goulard, whose object was to run with the royalist hare and hold with +the republican hounds, left the room; at that moment the dogs barked +violently. + +"There is no longer time," said the abbe, "here they come! But who is to +warn the countess? Where is she?" + +"Catherine didn't come for her hat and whip to make relics of them," +remarked Mademoiselle Goujet. + +Goulard tried to detain the two agents for a few moments, assuring them +of the perfect ignorance of the family at Cinq-Cygne. + +"You don't know these people!" said Peyrade, laughing at him. + +The two agents, insinuatingly dangerous, entered the house at once, +followed by the corporal from Arcis and one gendarme. The sight of them +paralyzed the peaceful card-players, who kept their seats at the table, +terrified by such a display of force. The noise produced by a dozen +gendarmes whose horses were stamping on the terrace, was heard without. + +"I do not see Mademoiselle de Cinq-Cygne," said Corentin. + +"She is probably asleep in her bedroom," said Monsieur d'Hauteserre. + +"Come with me, ladies," said Corentin, turning to pass through the +ante-chamber and up the staircase, followed by Mademoiselle Goujet and +Madame d'Hauteserre. "Rely upon me," he whispered to the old lady. "I am +in your interests. I sent the mayor to warn you. Distrust my colleague +and look to me. I can save every one of you." + +"But what is it all about?" said Mademoiselle Goujet. + +"A matter of life and death; you must know that," replied Corentin. + +Madame d'Hauteserre fainted. To Mademoiselle Goujet's great astonishment +and Corentin's disappointment, Laurence's room was empty. Certain that +no one could have escaped from the park or the chateau, for all the +issues were guarded, Corentin stationed a gendarme in every room and +ordered others to search the farm buildings, stables, and sheds. Then he +returned to the salon, where Durieu and his wife and the other servants +had rushed in the wildest excitement. Peyrade was studying their faces +with his little blue eye, cold and calm in the midst of the uproar. Just +as Corentin reappeared alone (Mademoiselle Goujet remaining behind to +take care of Madame d'Hauteserre) the tramp of horses was heard, and +presently the sound of a child's weeping. The horses entered by the +small gate; and the general suspense was put an end to by a corporal +appearing at the door of the salon pushing Gothard, whose hands were +tied, and Catherine whom he led to the agents. + +"Here are some prisoners," he said; "that little scamp was escaping on +horseback." + +"Fool!" said Corentin, in his ear, "why didn't you let him alone? You +could have found out something by following him." + +Gothard had chosen to burst into tears and behave like an idiot. +Catherine took an attitude of artless innocence which made the old agent +reflective. The pupil of Lenoir, after considering the two prisoners +carefully, and noting the vacant air of the old gentleman whom he took +to be sly, the intelligent eye of the abbe who was still fingering the +cards, and the utter stupefaction of the servants and Durieu, approached +Corentin and whispered in his ear, "We are not dealing with ninnies." + +Corentin answered with a look at the card-table; then he added, "They +were playing at boston! Mademoiselle's bed was just being made for the +night; she escaped in a hurry; it is a regular surprise; we shall catch +them." + + + + +CHAPTER VII. A FOREST NOOK + +A breach has always a cause and a purpose. Here is the explanation of +how the one which led from the tower called that of Mademoiselle and the +stables came to be made. After his installation as Laurence's guardian +at Cinq-Cygne old d'Hauteserre converted a long ravine, through which +the water of the forest flowed into the moat, into a roadway between two +tracts of uncultivated land belonging to the chateau, by merely planting +out in it about a hundred walnut trees which he found ready in the +nursery. In eleven years these trees had grown and branched so as to +nearly cover the road, hidden already by steep banks, which ran into a +little wood of thirty acres recently purchased. When the chateau had its +full complement of inhabitants they all preferred to take this covered +way through the breach to the main road which skirted the park walls and +led to the farm, rather than go round by the entrance. By dint of thus +using it the breach in the sides of the moat had gradually been widened +on both sides, with all the less scruple because in this nineteenth +century of ours moats are no longer of the slightest use, and Laurence's +guardian had often talked of putting this one to some other purpose. The +constant crumbling away of the earth and stones and gravel had ended by +filling up the ditch, so that only after heavy rains was the causeway +thus constructed covered. But the bank was still so steep that it was +difficult to make a horse descend it, and even more difficult to get him +up upon the main road. Horses, however, seem in times of peril to share +their masters' thought. + +While the young countess was hesitating to follow Marthe, and asking +explanations, Michu, from his vantage-ground watched the closing in of +the gendarmes and understood their plan. He grew desperate as time +went by and the countess did not come to him. A squad of gendarmes were +marching along the park wall and stationing themselves as sentinels, +each man being near enough to communicate with those on either side of +them, by voice and eye. Michu, lying flat on his stomach, his ear to +earth, gauged, like a red Indian, by the strength of the sounds the time +that remained to him. + +"I came too late!" he said to himself. "Violette shall pay dear for +this! what a time it took to make him drunk! What can be done?" + +He heard the detachment that was coming through the forest reach the +iron gates and turn into the main road, where before long it would meet +the squad coming up from the other direction. + +"Still five or six minutes!" he said. + +At that instant the countess appeared. Michu took her with a firm hand +and pushed her into the covered way. + +"Keep straight before you! Lead her to where my horse is," he said to +his wife, "and remember that gendarmes have ears." + +Seeing Catherine, who carried the hat and whip, and Gothard leading the +mare, the man, keen-witted in presence of danger, bethought himself of +playing the gendarmes a trick as useful as the one he had just played +Violette. Gothard had forced the mare to mount the bank. + +"Her feet muffled! I thank thee, boy," exclaimed the bailiff. + +Michu let the mare follow her mistress and took the hat, gloves, and +whip from Catherine. + +"You have sense, boy, you'll understand me," he said. "Force your own +horse up here, jump on him, and draw the gendarmes after you across the +fields towards the farm; get the whole squad to follow you--And you," +he added to Catherine, "there are other gendarmes coming up on the road +from Cinq-Cygne to Gondreville; run in the opposite direction to the one +Gothard takes, and draw them towards the forest. Manage so that we shall +not be interfered with in the covered way." + +Catherine and the boy, who were destined to give in this affair such +remarkable proofs of intelligence, executed the manoeuvre in a way to +make both detachments of gendarmes believe that they held the game. The +dim light of the moon prevented the pursuers from distinguishing the +figure, clothing, sex, or number of those they followed. The pursuit was +based on the maxim, "Always arrest those who are escaping,"--the folly +of which saying was, as we have seen, energetically declared by Corentin +to the corporal in command. Michu, counting on this instinct of +the gendarmes, was able to reach the forest a few moments after the +countess, whom Marthe had guided to the appointed place. + +"Go home now," he said to Marthe. "The forest is watched and it is +dangerous to remain here. We need all our freedom." + +Michu unfastened his horse and asked the countess to follow him. + +"I shall not go a step further," said Laurence, "unless you give me some +proof of the interest you seem to have in us--for, after all, you are +Michu." + +"Mademoiselle," he answered, in a gentle voice; "the part I am playing +can be explained to you in two words. I am, unknown to the Marquis de +Simeuse and his brother, the guardian of their property. On this subject +I received the last instructions of their late father and their dear +mother, my protectress. I have played the part of a virulent Jacobin to +serve my dear young masters. Unhappily, I began this course too late; +I could not save their parents." Here, Michu's voice broke down. "Since +the young men emigrated I have sent them regularly the sums they needed +to live upon." + +"Through the house of Breintmayer of Strasburg?" asked the countess. + +"Yes, mademoiselle; the correspondents of Monsieur Girel of Troyes, a +royalist who, like me, made himself for good reasons, a Jacobin. The +paper which your farmer picked up one evening and which I forced him +to surrender, related to the affair and would have compromised your +cousins. My life no longer belongs to me, but to them, you understand. I +could not buy in Gondreville. In my position, I should have lost my head +had the authorities known I had the money. I preferred to wait and +buy it later. But that scoundrel of a Marion was the slave of another +scoundrel, Malin. All the same, Gondreville shall once more belong +to its rightful masters. That's my affair. Four hours ago I had Malin +sighted by my gun; ha! he was almost gone then! Were he dead, the +property would be sold and you could have bought it. In case of my death +my wife would have brought you a letter which would have given you the +means of buying it. But I overheard that villain telling his accomplice +Grevin--another scoundrel like himself--that the Marquis and his brother +were conspiring against the First Consul, that they were here in the +neighborhood, and that he meant to give them up and get rid of them so +as to keep Gondreville in peace. I myself saw the police spies; I laid +aside my gun, and I have lost no time in coming here, thinking that you +must be the one to know best how to warn the young men. That's the whole +of it." + +"You are worthy to be a noble," said Laurence, offering her hand to +Michu, who tried to kneel and kiss it. She saw his motion and prevented +it, saying: "Stand up!" in a tone of voice and with a look which made +him amends for all the scorn of the last twelve years. + +"You reward me as though I had done all that remains for me to do," he +said. "But don't you hear them, those huzzars of the guillotine? Let us +go elsewhere." + +He took the mare's bridle, and led her a little distance. + +"Think only of sitting firm," he said, "and of saving your head from the +branches of the trees which might strike you in the face." + +Then he mounted his own horse and guided the young girl for half an +hour at full gallop; making turns and half turns, and striking into +wood-paths, so as to confuse their traces, until they reached a spot +where he pulled up. + +"I don't know where I am," said the countess looking about her,--"I, who +know the forest as well as you do." + +"We are in the heart of it," he replied. "Two gendarmes are after us, +but we are quite safe." + +The picturesque spot to which the bailiff had guided Laurence was +destined to be so fatal to the principal personages of this drama, and +to Michu himself, that it becomes our duty, as an historian, to describe +it. The scene became, as we shall see hereafter, one of noted interest +in the judiciary annals of the Empire. + +The forest of Nodesme belonged to the monastery of Notre-Dame. That +monastery, seized, sacked, and demolished, had disappeared entirely, +monks and property. The forest, an object of much cupidity, was taken +into the domain of the Comtes de Champagne, who mortgaged it later and +allowed it to be sold. In the course of six centuries nature covered +its ruins with her rich and vigorous green mantle, and effaced them +so thoroughly that the existence of one of the finest convents was no +longer even indicated except by a slight eminence shaded by noble trees +and circled by thick, impenetrable shrubbery, which, since 1794, Michu +had taken great pains to make still more impenetrable by planting the +thorny acacia in all the slight openings between the bushes. A pond was +at the foot of the eminence and showed the existence of a hidden stream +which no doubt determined in former days the site of the monastery. +The late owner of the title to the forest of Nodesme was the first +to recognize the etymology of the name, which dated back for eight +centuries, and to discover that at one time a monastery had existed in +the heart of the forest. When the first rumblings of the thunder of the +Revolution were heard, the Marquis de Simeuse, who had been forced to +look into his title by a lawsuit and so learned the above facts as +it were by chance, began, with a secret intention not difficult to +conceive, to search for some remains of the former monastery. The +keeper, Michu, to whom the forest was well known, helped his master +in the search, and it was his sagacity as a forester which led to the +discovery of the site. Observing the trend of the five chief roads of +the forest, some of which were now effaced, he saw that they all ended +either at the little eminence or by the pond at the foot of it, to which +points travellers from Troyes, from the valley of Arcis and that of +Cinq-Cygne, and from Bar-sur-Aube doubtless came. The marquis wished +to excavate the hillock but he dared not employ the people of the +neighborhood. Pressed by circumstances, he abandoned the intention, +leaving in Michu's mind a strong conviction that the eminence had either +the treasure or the foundations of the former abbey. He continued, +all alone, this archaeological enterprise; he sounded the earth and +discovered a hollowness on the level of the pond between two trees, at +the foot of the only craggy part of the hillock. + +One fine night he came to the place armed with a pickaxe, and by the +sweat of his brow uncovered a succession of cellars, which were entered +by a flight of stone steps. The pond, which was three feet deep in the +middle, formed a sort of dipper, the handle of which seemed to come from +the little eminence, and went far to prove that a spring had once issued +from the crags, and was now lost by infiltration through the forest. The +marshy shores of the pond, covered with aquatic trees, alders, willow, +and ash, were the terminus of all the wood-paths, the remains of former +roads and forest by-ways, now abandoned. The water, flowing from a +spring, though apparently stagnant, was covered with large-leaved +plants and cresses, which gave it a perfectly green surface almost +indistinguishable from the shores, which were covered with fine close +herbage. The place is too far from human habitations for any animal, +unless a wild one, to come there. Convinced that no game was in the +marsh and repelled by the craggy sides of the hills, keepers and hunters +had never explored or visited this nook, which belonged to a part of the +forest where the timber had not been cut for many years and which Michu +meant to keep in its full growth when the time came round to fell it. + +At the further end of the first cellar was a vaulted chamber, clean +and dry, built with hewn stone, a sort of convent dungeon, such as they +called in monastic days the _in pace_. The salubrity of the chamber and +the preservation of this part of the staircase and of the vaults were +explained by the presence of the spring, which had been enclosed at some +time by a wall of extraordinary thickness built in brick and cement +like those of the Romans, and received all the waters. Michu closed the +entrance to this retreat with large stones; then, to keep the secret of +it to himself and make it impenetrable to others, he made a rule never +to enter it except from the wooded height above, by clambering down the +crag instead of approaching it from the pond. + +Just as the fugitives arrived, the moon was casting her beautiful +silvery light on the aged tree-tops above the crag, and flickering on +the splendid foliage at the corners of the several paths, all of which +ended here, some with one tree, some with a group of trees. On all +sides the eye was irresistibly led along their vanishing perspectives, +following the curve of a wood-path or the solemn stretch of a forest +glade flanked by a wall of verdure that was nearly black. The moonlight, +filtering through the branches of the crossways, made the lonely, +tranquil waters, where they peeped between the crosses and the +lily-pads, sparkle like diamonds. The croaking of the frogs broke the +deep silence of this beautiful forest-nook, the wild odors of which +incited the soul to thoughts of liberty. + +"Are we safe?" said the countess to Michu. + +"Yes, mademoiselle. But we have each some work to do. Do you go and +fasten our horses to the trees at the top of the little hill; tie a +handkerchief round the mouth of each of them," he said, giving her his +cravat; "your beast and mine are both intelligent, they will understand +they are not to neigh. When you have done that, come down the crag +directly above the pond; but don't let your habit catch anywhere. You +will find me below." + +While the countess hid the horses and tied and gagged them, Michu +removed the stones and opened the entrance to the caverns. The countess, +who thought she knew the forest by heart, was amazed when she descended +into the vaulted chambers. Michu replaced the stones above them with the +dexterity of a mason. As he finished, the sound of horses' feet and the +voices of the gendarmes echoed in the darkness; but he quietly struck +a match, lighted a resinous bit of wood and led the countess to the _in +pace_, where there was still a piece of the candle with which he had +first explored the caves. An iron door of some thickness, eaten in +several places by rust, had been put in good order by the bailiff, and +could be fastened securely by bars slipping into holes in the wall on +either side of it. The countess, half dead with fatigue, sat down on a +stone bench, above which there still remained an iron ring, the staple +of which was embedded in the masonry. + +"We have a salon to converse in," said Michu. "The gendarmes may prowl +as much as they like; the worst they could do would be to take our +horses." + +"If they do that," said Laurence, "it would be the death of my cousins +and the Messieurs d'Hauteserre. Tell me now, what do you know?" + +Michu related what he had overheard Malin say to Grevin. + +"They are already on the road to Paris; they were to enter it to-morrow +morning," said the countess when he had finished. + +"Lost!" exclaimed Michu. "All persons entering or leaving the barriers +are examined. Malin has strong reasons to let my masters compromise +themselves; he is seeking to get them killed out of his way." + +"And I, who don't know anything of the general plan of the affair," +cried Laurence, "how can I warn Georges, Riviere, and Moreau? Where are +they?--However, let us think only of my cousins and the d'Hauteserres; +you must catch up with them, no matter what it costs." + +"The telegraph goes faster than the best horse," said Michu; "and of +all the nobles concerned in this conspiracy your cousins are the closest +watched. If I can find them, they must be hidden here and kept here till +the affair is over. Their poor father may have had a foreboding when he +set me to search for this hiding-place; perhaps he felt that his sons +would be saved here." + +"My mare is from the stables of the Comte d'Artois,--she is the daughter +of his finest English horse," said Laurence; "but she has already gone +sixty miles, she would drop dead before you reached them." + +"Mine is in good condition," replied Michu; "and if you did sixty miles +I shall have only thirty to do." + +"Nearer forty," she said, "they have been walking since dark. You will +overtake them beyond Lagny, at Coupvrai, where they expected to be at +daybreak. They are disguised as sailors, and will enter Paris by the +river on some vessel. This," she added, taking half of her mother's +wedding-ring from her finger, "is the only thing which will make them +trust you; they have the other half. The keeper of Couvrai is the father +of one of their soldiers; he has hidden them tonight in a hut in the +forest deserted by charcoal-burners. They are eight in all, Messieurs +d'Hauteserre and four others are with my cousins." + +"Mademoiselle, no one is looking for the others! let them save +themselves as they can; we must think only of the Messieurs de Simeuse. +It is enough just to warn the rest." + +"What! abandon the Hauteserres? never!" she said. "They must all perish +or be saved together!" + +"Only petty noblemen!" remarked Michu. + +"They are only chevaliers, I know that," she replied, "but they are +related to the Cinq-Cygne and Simeuse blood. Save them all, and advise +them how best to regain this forest." + +"The gendarmes are here,--don't you hear them? they are holding a +council of war." + +"Well, you have twice had luck to-night; go! bring my cousins here and +hide them in these vaults; they'll be safe from all pursuit--Alas! I am +good for nothing!" she cried, with rage; "I should be only a beacon to +light the enemy--but the police will never imagine that my cousins are +in the forest if they see me at my ease. So the question resolves itself +into this: how can we get five good horses to bring them in six hours +from Lagny to the forest,--five horses to be killed and hidden in some +thicket." + +"And the money?" said Michu, who was thinking deeply as he listened to +the young countess. + +"I gave my cousins a hundred louis this evening," she replied. + +"I'll answer for them!" cried Michu. "But once hidden here you must not +attempt to see them. My wife, or the little one, shall bring them +food twice a week. But, as I can't be sure of what may happen to me, +remember, mademoiselle, in case of trouble, that the main beam in my +hay-loft has been bored with an auger. In the hole, which is plugged +with a bit of wood, you will find a plan showing how to reach this spot. +The trees which you will find marked with a red dot on the plan have a +black mark at their foot close to the earth. Each of these trees is a +sign-post. At the foot of the third old oak which stands to the left +of each sign-post, two feet in front of it and buried seven feet in the +ground, you will find a large metal tube; in each tube are one +hundred thousand francs in gold. These eleven trees--there are only +eleven--contain the whole fortune of the Simeuse brothers, now that +Gondreville has been taken from them." + +"It will take a hundred years for the nobility to recover from such +blows," said Mademoiselle de Cinq-Cygne, slowly. + +"Is there a pass-word?" asked Michu. + +"'France and Charles' for the soldiers, 'Laurence and Louis' for the +Messieurs d'Hauteserre and Simeuse. Good God! to think that I saw them +yesterday for the first time in eleven years, and that now they are in +danger of death--and what a death! Michu," she said, with a melancholy +look, "be as prudent during the next fifteen hours as you have been +grand and devoted during the last twelve years. If disaster were to +overtake my cousins now I should die of it--No," she added, quickly, "I +would live long enough to kill Bonaparte." + +"There will be two of us to do that when all is lost," said Michu. + +Laurence took his rough hand and wrung it warmly, as the English do. +Michu looked at his watch; it was midnight. + +"We must leave here at any cost," he said. "Death to the gendarme who +attempts to stop me! And you, madame la comtesse, without presuming +to dictate, ride back to Cinq-Cygne as fast as you can. The police are +there by this time; fool them! delay them!" + +The hole once opened, Michu flung himself down with his ear to the +earth; then he rose precipitately. "The gendarmes are at the edge of the +forest towards Troyes!" he said. "Ha, I'll get the better of them yet!" + +He helped the countess to come out, and replaced the stones. When this +was done he heard her soft voice telling him she must see him mounted +before mounting herself. Tears came to the eyes of the stern man as +he exchanged a last look with his young mistress, whose own eyes were +tearless. + +"Fool them! yes, he is right!" she said when she heard him no longer. +Then she darted towards Cinq-Cygne at full gallop. + + + + +CHAPTER VIII. TRIALS OF THE POLICE + +Madame d'Hauteserre, roused by the danger of her sons, and not believing +that the Revolution was over, but still fearing its summary justice, +recovered her senses by the violence of the same distress which made +her lose them. Led by an agonizing curiosity she returned to the salon, +which presented a picture worthy of the brush of a genre painter. The +abbe, still seated at the card-table and mechanically playing with the +counters, was covertly observing Corentin and Peyrade, who were standing +together at a corner of the fireplace and speaking in a low voice. +Several times Corentin's keen eye met the not less keen glance of the +priest; but, like two adversaries who knew themselves equally strong, +and who return to their guard after crossing their weapons, each averted +his eyes the instant they met. The worthy old d'Hauteserre, poised on +his long thin legs like a heron, was standing beside the stout form of +the mayor, in an attitude expressive of utter stupefaction. The mayor, +though dressed as a bourgeois, always looked like a servant. Each gazed +with a bewildered eye at the gendarmes, in whose clutches Gothard was +still sobbing, his hands purple and swollen from the tightness of the +cord that bound them. Catherine maintained her attitude of artless +simplicity, which was quite impenetrable. The corporal, who, according +to Corentin, had committed a great blunder in arresting these smaller +fry, did not know whether to stay where he was or to depart. He stood +pensively in the middle of the salon, his hand on the hilt of his sabre, +his eye on the two Parisians. The Durieus, also stupefied, and the +other servants of the chateau made an admirable group of expressive +uneasiness. If it had not been for Gothard's convulsive snifflings those +present could have heard the flies fly. + +When Madame d'Hauteserre, pale and terrified, opened the door and +entered the room, almost carried by Mademoiselle Goujet, whose red eyes +had evidently been weeping, all faces turned to her at once. The two +agents hoped as much as the household feared to see Laurence enter. This +spontaneous movement of both masters and servants seemed produced by +the sort of mechanism which makes a number of wooden figures perform the +same gesture or wink the same eye. + +Madame d'Hauteserre advanced by three rapid strides towards Corentin and +said, in a broken voice but violently: "For pity's sake, monsieur, +tell me what my sons are accused of. Do you really think they have been +here?" + +The abbe, who seemed to be saying to himself when he saw the old lady, +"She will certainly commit some folly," lowered his eyes. + +"My duty and the mission I am engaged in forbid me to tell you," +answered Corentin, with a gracious but rather mocking air. + +This refusal, which the detestable politeness of the vulgar fop seemed +to make all the more emphatic, petrified the poor mother, who fell into +a chair beside the Abbe Goujet, clasped her hands and began to pray. + +"Where did you arrest that blubber?" asked Corentin, addressing the +corporal and pointing to Laurence's little henchman. + +"On the road that leads to the farm along the park walls; the little +scamp had nearly reached the Closeaux woods," replied the corporal. + +"And that girl?" + +"She? oh, it was Oliver who caught her." + +"Where was she going?" + +"Towards Gondreville." + +"They were going in opposite directions?" said Corentin. + +"Yes," replied the gendarme. + +"Is that boy the groom, and the girl the maid of the citizeness +Cinq-Cygne?" said Corentin to the mayor. + +"Yes," replied Goulard. + +After Corentin had exchanged a few words with Peyrade in a whisper, the +latter left the room, taking the corporal of gendarmes with him. + +Just then the corporal of Arcis made his appearance. He went up to +Corentin and spoke to him in a low voice: "I know these premises well," +he said; "I have searched everywhere; unless those young fellows are +buried, they are not here. We have sounded all the floors and walls with +the butt end of our muskets." + +Peyrade, who presently returned, signed to Corentin to come out, and +then took him to the breach in the moat and showed him the sunken way. + +"We have guessed the trick," said Peyrade. + +"And I'll tell you how it was done," added Corentin. "That little scamp +and the girl decoyed those idiots of gendarmes and thus made time for +the game to escape." + +"We can't know the truth till daylight," said Peyrade. "The road is +damp; I have ordered two gendarmes to barricade it top and bottom. We'll +examine it after daylight, and find out by the footsteps who went that +way." + +"I see a hoof-mark," said Corentin; "let us go to the stables." + +"How many horses do you keep?" said Peyrade, returning to the salon with +Corentin, and addressing Monsieur d'Hauteserre and Goulard. + +"Come, monsieur le maire, you know, answer," cried Corentin, seeing that +that functionary hesitated. + +"Why, there's the countess's mare, Gothard's horse, and Monsieur +d'Hauteserre's." + +"There is only one in the stable," said Peyrade. + +"Mademoiselle is out riding," said Durieu. + +"Does she often ride about at this time of night?" said the libertine +Peyrade, addressing Monsieur d'Hauteserre. + +"Often," said the good man, simply. "Monsieur le maire can tell you +that." + +"Everybody knows she has her freaks," remarked Catherine; "she looked at +the sky before she went to bed, and I think the glitter of your bayonets +in the moonlight puzzled her. She told me she wanted to know if there +was going to be another revolution." + +"When did she go?" asked Peyrade. + +"When she saw your guns." + +"Which road did she take?" + +"I don't know." + +"There's another horse missing," said Corentin. + +"The gendarmes--took it--away from me," said Gothard. + +"Where were you going?" said one of them. + +"I was--following--my mistress to the farm," sobbed the boy. + +The gendarme looked towards Corentin as if expecting an order. But +Gothard's speech was evidently so true and yet so false, so perfectly +innocent and so artful that the two Parisians again looked at each other +as if to echo Peyrade's former words: "They are not ninnies." + +Monsieur d'Hauteserre seemed incapable of a word; the mayor was +bewildered; the mother, imbecile from maternal fears, was putting +questions to the police agents that were idiotically innocent; the +servants had been roused from their sleep. Judging by these trifling +signs, and these diverse characters, Corentin came to the conclusion +that his only real adversary was Mademoiselle de Cinq-Cygne. Shrewd +and dexterous as the police may be, they are always under certain +disadvantages. Not only are they forced to discover all that is known +to a conspirator, but they must also suppose and test a great number +of things before they hit upon the right one. The conspirator is always +thinking of his own safety, whereas the police is only on duty at +certain hours. Were it not for treachery and betrayals, nothing would +be easier than to conspire successfully. The conspirator has more mind +concentrated upon himself than the police can bring to bear with all its +vast facilities of action. Finding themselves stopped short morally, +as they might be physically by a door which they expected to find open +being shut in their faces, Corentin and Peyrade saw they were tricked +and misled, without knowing by whom. + +"I assert," said the corporal of Arcis, in their ear, "that if the four +young men slept here last night it must have been in the beds of their +father and mother, and Mademoiselle de Cinq-Cygne, or those of the +servants; or they must have spent the night in the park. There is not a +trace of their presence." + +"Who could have warned them?" said Corentin, to Peyrade. "No one but the +First Consul, Fouche, the ministers, the prefect of police, and Malin +knew anything about it." + +"We must set spies in the neighborhood," whispered Peyrade. + +"And watch the spies," said the abbe, who smiled as he overheard the +word and guessed all. + +"Good God!" thought Corentin, replying to the abbe's smile with one of +his own; "there is but one intelligent being here,--he's the one to come +to an understanding with; I'll try him." + +"Gentlemen--" said the mayor, anxious to give some proof of devotion to +the First Consul and addressing the two agents. + +"Say 'citizens'; the Republic still exists," interrupted Corentin, +looking at the priest with a quizzical air. + +"Citizens," resumed the mayor, "just as I entered this salon and before +I had opened my mouth Catherine rushed in and took her mistress's hat, +gloves, and whip." + +A low murmur of horror came from the breasts of all the household except +Gothard. All eyes but those of the agent and the gendarmes were turned +threateningly on Goulard, the informer, seeming to dart flames at him. + +"Very good, citizen mayor," said Peyrade. "We see it all plainly. Some +one" (this with a glance of evident distrust at Corentin) "warned the +citizeness Cinq-Cygne in time." + +"Corporal, handcuff that boy," said Corentin, to the gendarme, "and take +him away by himself. And shut up that girl, too," pointing to Catherine. +"As for you, Peyrade, search for papers," adding in his ear, "Ransack +everything, spare nothing.--Monsieur l'abbe," he said, confidentially, +"I have an important communication to make to you"; and he took him into +the garden. + +"Listen to me attentively, monsieur," he went on; "you seem to have the +mind of a bishop, and (no one can hear us) you will understand me. I +have no longer any hope except through you of saving these families, +who, with the greatest folly, are letting themselves roll down a +precipice where no one can save them. The Messieurs Simeuse and +d'Hauteserre have been betrayed by one of those infamous spies whom +governments introduce into all conspiracies to learn their objects, +means, and members. Don't confound me, I beg of you, with the wretch who +is with me. He belongs to the police; but I am honorably attached to +the Consular cabinet, I am therefore behind the scenes. The ruin of the +Simeuse brothers is not desired. Though Malin would like to see them +shot, the First Consul, if they are here and have come without evil +intentions, wishes them to be warned out of danger, for he likes +good soldiers. The agent who accompanies me has all the powers, I, +apparently, am nothing. But I see plainly what is hatching. The agent +is pledged to Malin, who has doubtless promised him his influence, an +office, and perhaps money if he finds the Simeuse brothers and delivers +them up. The First Consul, who is a really great man, never favors +selfish schemes--I don't want to know if those young men are here," he +added, quickly, observing the abbe's gesture, "but I wish to tell you +that there is only one way to save them. You know the law of the 6th +Floreal, year X., which amnestied all the _emigres_ who were still in +foreign countries on condition that they returned home before the 1st +Vendemiaire of the year XI., that is to say, in September of last year. +But the Messieurs Simeuse having, like the Messieurs d'Hauteserre, +served in the army of Conde, they come into the category of exceptions +to this law. Their presence in France is therefore criminal, and +suffices, under the circumstances in which we are, to make them +suspected of collusion in a horrible plot. The First Consul saw the +error of this exception which has made enemies for his government, and +he wishes the Messieurs Simeuse to know that no steps will be taken +against them, if they will send him a petition saying that they have +re-entered France intending to submit to the laws, and agreeing to take +oath to the Constitution. You can understand that the document ought to +be in my hands before they are arrested, and be dated some days earlier. +I would then be the bearer of it--I do not ask you where those young men +are," he said again, seeing another gesture of denial from the priest. +"We are, unfortunately, sure of finding them; the forest is guarded, the +entrances to Paris and the frontiers are all watched. Pray listen to me; +if these gentlemen are between the forest and Paris they must be taken; +if they are in Paris they will be found; if they retreat to the frontier +they will still be arrested. The First Consul likes the _ci-devants_, +and cannot endure the republicans--simple enough; if he wants a throne +he must needs strangle Liberty. Keep the matter a secret between us. +This is what I will do; I will stay here till to-morrow and _be blind_; +but beware of the agent; that cursed Provencal is the devil's own valet; +he has the ear of Fouche just as I have that of the First Consul." + +"If the Messieurs Simeuse are here," said the abbe, "I would give ten +pints of my blood and my right arm to save them; but if Mademoiselle de +Cinq-Cygne is in the secret she has not--and this I swear on my eternal +salvation--betrayed it in any way, neither has she done me the honor to +consult me. I am now very glad of her discretion, if discretion there +be. We played cards last night as usual, at boston, in almost complete +silence, until half-past ten o'clock, and we neither saw nor heard +anything. Not a child can pass through this solitary valley without the +whole community knowing it, and for the last two weeks no one has come +from other places. Now the d'Hauteserre and the Simeuse brothers would +make a party of four. Old d'Hauteserre and his wife have submitted to +the present government, and they have made all imaginable efforts +to persuade their sons to return to France; they wrote to them again +yesterday. I can only say, upon my soul and conscience, that your visit +has alone shaken my firm belief that these young men are living in +Germany. Between ourselves, there is no one here, except the young +countess, who does not do justice to the eminent qualities of the First +Consul." + +"Fox!" thought Corentin. "Well, if those young men are shot," he said, +aloud; "it is because their friends have willed it--I wash my hands of +the affair." + +He had led the abbe to a part of the garden which lay in the moonlight, +and as he said the last words he looked at him suddenly. The priest +was greatly distressed, but his manner was that of a man surprised and +wholly ignorant. + +"Understand this, monsieur l'abbe," resumed Corentin; "the right of +these young men to the estate of Gondreville will render them doubly +criminal in the eyes of the middle class. I'd like to see them put faith +in God and not in his saints--" + +"Is there really a plot?" asked the abbe, simply. + +"Base, odious, cowardly, and so contrary to the generous spirit of +the nation," replied Corentin, "that it will meet with universal +opprobrium." + +"Well! Mademoiselle de Cinq-Cygne is incapable of baseness," cried the +abbe. + +"Monsieur l'abbe," replied Corentin, "let me tell you this; there is for +us (meaning you and me) proof positive of her guilt; but there is not +enough for the law. You see she took flight when we came; I sent the +mayor to warn her." + +"Yes, but for one who is so anxious to save them, you followed rather +closely on his heels," said the abbe. + +At those words the two men looked at each other, and all was said. +Each belonged to those profound anatomists of thought to whom a mere +inflexion of the voice, a look, a word suffices to reveal a soul, just +as the Indians track their enemies by signs invisible to European eyes. + +"I expected to draw something out of him, and I have only betrayed +myself," thought Corentin. + +"Ha! the sly rogue!" thought the priest. + +Midnight rang from the old church clock just as Corentin and the abbe +re-entered the salon. The opening and shutting of doors and closets +could be heard from the bedrooms above. The gendarmes pulled open the +beds; Peyrade, with the quick perception of a spy, handled and sounded +everything. Such desecration excited both fear and indignation among +the faithful servants of the house, who still stood motionless about the +salon. Monsieur d'Hauteserre exchanged looks of commiseration with his +wife and Mademoiselle Goujet. A species of horrible curiosity kept every +one on the qui vive. Peyrade at length came down, holding in his hand a +sandal-wood box which had probably been brought from China by Admiral +de Simeuse. This pretty casket was flat and about the size of a quarto +volume. + +Peyrade made a sign to Corentin and took him into the embrasure of a +window. + +"I've an idea!" he said, "that Michu, who was ready to pay Marion eight +hundred thousand francs in gold for Gondreville, and who evidently +meant to shoot Malin yesterday, is the man who is helping the Simeuse +brothers. His motive in threatening Marion and aiming at Malin must +be the same. I thought when I saw him that he was capable of ideas; +evidently he has but one; he discovered what was going on and he must +have come here to warn them." + +"Probably Malin talked about the conspiracy to his friend the notary, +and Michu from his ambush overheard what was said," remarked Corentin, +continuing the inductions of his colleague. "No doubt he has only +postponed his shot to prevent an evil he thinks worse than the loss of +Gondreville." + +"He knew what we were the moment he laid eyes on us," said Peyrade. "I +thought then that he was amazingly intelligent for a peasant." + +"That proves that he is always on his guard," replied Corentin. "But, +mind you, my old man, don't let us make a mistake. Treachery stinks in +the nostrils, and primitive folks do scent it from afar." + +"But that's our strength," said the Provencal. + +"Call the corporal of Arcis," cried Corentin to one of the gendarmes. "I +shall send him at once to Michu's house," he added to Peyrade. + +"Our ear, Violette, is there," said Peyrade. + +"We started without getting news from him. Two of us are not enough; +we ought to have had Sabatier with us--Corporal," he said, when the +gendarme appeared, taking him aside with Peyrade, "don't let them fool +you as they did the Troyes corporal just now. We think Michu is in this +business. Go to his house, put your eye on everything, and bring word of +the result." + +"One of my men heard horses in the forest just as they arrested the +little groom; I've four fine fellows now on the track of whoever is +hiding there," replied the gendarme. + +He left the room, and the gallop of his horse which echoed on the paved +courtyard died rapidly away. + +"One thing is certain," said Corentin to himself, "either they have gone +to Paris or they are retreating to Germany." + +He sat down, pulled a note-book from the pocket of his spencer, wrote +two orders in pencil, sealed them, and made a sign to one of the +gendarmes to come to him. + +"Be off at full gallop to Troyes, wake up the prefect, and tell him to +start the telegraph as soon as there's light enough." + +The gendarme departed. The meaning of this movement and Corentin's +intentions were so evident that the hearts of the household sank within +them; but this new anxiety was additional to another that was now +martyrizing them; their eyes were fixed on the sandal-wood box! All the +while the two agents were talking together they were each taking note of +those eager looks. A sort of cold anger stirred the unfeeling hearts of +these men who relished the power of inspiring terror. The police man has +the instincts and emotions of a hunter: but where the one employs his +powers of mind and body in killing a hare, a partridge, or a deer, the +other is thinking of saving the State, or a king, and of winning a large +reward. So the hunt for men is superior to the other class of hunting +by all the distance that there is between animals and human beings. +Moreover, a spy is forced to lift the part he plays to the level and +the importance of the interests to which he is bound. Without looking +further into this calling, it is easy to see that the man who follows +it puts as much passionate ardor into his chase as another man does into +the pursuit of game. Therefore the further these men advanced in their +investigations the more eager they became; but the expression of their +faces and their eyes continued calm and cold, just as their ideas, +their suspicions, and their plans remained impenetrable. To any one who +watched the effects of the moral scent, if we may so call it, of these +bloodhounds on the track of hidden facts, and who noted and understood +the movements of canine agility which led them to strike the truth in +their rapid examination of probabilities, there was in it all something +actually horrifying. How and why should men of genius fall so low when +it was in their power to be so high? What imperfection, what vice, what +passion debases them? Does a man become a police-agent as he becomes +a thinker, writer, statesmen, painter, general, on the condition of +knowing nothing but how to spy, as the others speak, write, govern, +paint, and fight? The inhabitants of the chateau had but one wish,--that +the thunderbolts of heaven might fall upon these miscreants; they were +athirst for vengeance; and had it not been for the presence, up to this +time, of the gendarmes there would undoubtedly have been an outbreak. + +"No one, I suppose, has the key of this box?" said the cynical Peyrade, +questioning the family as much by the movement of his huge red nose as +by his words. + +The Provencal noticed, not without fear, that the guards were no longer +present; he and Corentin were alone with the family. The younger man +drew a small dagger from his pocket, and began to force the lock of the +box. Just then the desperate galloping of a horse was heard upon the +road and then upon the pavement by the lawn; but most horrible of all +was the fall and sighing of the animal, which seemed to drop all at +once at the door of the middle tower. A convulsion like that which +a thunderbolt might produce shook the spectators when Laurence, the +trailing of whose riding-habit announced her coming, entered the room. +The servants hastily formed into two lines to let her pass. + +In spite of her rapid ride, the girl had felt the full anguish the +discovery of the conspiracy must needs cause her. All her hopes were +overthrown! she had galloped through ruins as her thoughts turned to the +necessity of submission to the Consular government. Were it not for the +danger which threatened the four gentlemen, and which served as a tonic +to conquer her weariness and her despair, she would have dropped +asleep on the way. The mare was almost killed in her haste to reach the +chateau, and stand between her cousins and death. As all present looked +at the heroic girl, pale, her features drawn, her veil aside, her whip +in her hand, standing on the threshold of the door, whence her burning +glance grasped the whole scene and comprehended it, each knew from the +almost imperceptible motion which crossed the soured and bittered face +of Corentin, that the real adversaries had met. A terrible duel was +about to begin. + +Noticing the box, now in the hands of Corentin, the countess raised her +whip and sprang rapidly towards him. Striking his hands with so violent +a blow that the casket fell to the ground, she seized it, flung it into +the middle of the fire, and stood with her back to the chimney in a +threatening attitude before either of the agents recovered from their +surprise. The scorn which flamed from her eyes, her pale brow, her +disdainful lips, were even more insulting than the haughty action which +treated Corentin as though he were a venomous reptile. Old d'Hauteserre +felt himself once more a cavalier; all his blood rushed to his face, and +he grieved that he had no sword. The servants trembled for an instant +with joy. The vengeance they had called down upon these men had come. +But their joy was driven back within their souls by a terrible fear; the +gendarmes were still heard coming and going in the garrets. + +The _spy_--noun of strength, under which all shades of the police are +confounded, for the public has never chosen to specify in language the +varieties of those who compose this dispensary of social remedies so +essential to all governments--the spy has this curious and magnificent +quality: he never becomes angry; he possesses the Christian humility of +a priest; his eyes are stolid with an indifference which he holds as +a barrier against the world of fools who do not understand him; his +forehead is adamant under insult; he pursues his ends like a reptile +whose carapace is fractured only by a cannonball; but (like that +reptile) he is all the more furious when the blow does reach him, +because he believed his armor invulnerable. The lash of the whip upon +his fingers was to Corentin, pain apart, the cannonball that cracked +the shell. Coming from that magnificent and noble girl, this action, +emblematic of her disgust, humiliated him, not only in the eyes of the +people about him, but in his own. + +Peyrade sprang to the hearth, caught Laurence's foot, raised it, and +compelled her, out of modesty, to throw herself on the sofa, where she +had lately lain asleep. The scene, like other contrasts in human things, +was burlesque in the midst of terror. Peyrade scorched his hand as he +dashed it into the fire to seize the box; but he got it, threw it on the +floor and sat down upon it. These little actions were done with great +rapidity and without a word being uttered. Corentin, recovering from the +pain of the blow, caught Mademoiselle de Cinq-Cygne by both hands, and +held her. + +"Do not compel me to use force against you," he said, with withering +politeness. + +Peyrade's action had extinguished the fire by the natural process of +suppressing the air. + +"Gendarmes! here!" he cried, still occupying his ridiculous position. + +"Will you promise to behave yourself?" said Corentin, insolently, +addressing Laurence, and picking up his dagger, but not committing the +great fault of threatening her with it. + +"The secrets of that box do not concern the government," she answered, +with a tinge of melancholy in her tone and manner. "When you have read +the letters it contains you will, in spite of your infamy, feel ashamed +of having read them--that is, if you can still feel shame at anything," +she added, after a pause. + +The abbe looked at her as if to say, "For God's sake, be calm!" + +Peyrade rose. The bottom of the box, which had been nearly burned +through, left a mark upon the floor; the lid was scorched and the sides +gave way. The grotesque Scaevola, who had offered to the god of the +Police and Terror the seat of his apricot breeches, opened the two sides +of the box as if it had been a book, and slid three letters and two +locks of hair upon the card-table. He was about to smile at Corentin +when he perceived that the locks were of two shades of gray. Corentin +released Mademoiselle de Cinq-Cygne's hands and went up to the table to +read the letter from which the hair had fallen. + +Laurence rose, moved to the table beside the spies, and said:--"Read it +aloud; that shall be your punishment." + +As the two men continued to read to themselves, she herself read out the +following words:-- + + Dear Laurence,--My husband and I have heard of your noble conduct + on the day of our arrest. We know that you love our dear twins as + much, almost, as we love them ourselves. Therefore it is with you + that we leave a token which will be both precious and sad to them. + The executioner has come to cut our hair, for we are to die in a + few moments; he has promised to put into your hands the only + remembrance we are able to leave to our beloved orphans. Keep + these last remains of us and give them to our sons in happier + days. We have kissed these locks of hair and have laid our + blessing upon them. Our last thought will be of our sons, of you, + and of God. Love them, Laurence. + +Berthe de Cinq-Cygne. Jean de Simeuse. + + +Tears came to the eyes of all the household as they listened to the +letter. + +Laurence looked at the agents with a petrifying glance and said, in a +firm voice:-- + +"You have less pity than the executioner." + +Corentin quietly folded the hair in the letter, laid the letter aside on +the table, and put a box of counters on the top of it as if to prevent +its blowing away. His coolness in the midst of the general emotion was +horrible. + +Peyrade unfolded the other letters. + +"Oh, as for those," said Laurence, "they are very much alike. You hear +the will; you can now hear of its fulfilment. In future I shall have no +secrets from any one." + + + 1794, Andernach. Before the battle. + + My dear Laurence,--I love you for life, and I wish you to know it. + But you ought also to know, in case I die, that my brother, + Paul-Marie, loves you as much as I love you. My only consolation in + dying would be the thought that you might some day make my brother + your husband without being forced to see me die of jealousy--which + must surely happen if, both of us being alive, you preferred him + to me. After all, that preference seems natural, for he is, + perhaps, more worthy of your love than I-- + + Marie-Paul. + + +"Here is the other letter," she said, with the color in her cheeks. + + + Andernach. Before the battle. + + My kind Laurence,--My heart is sad; but Marie-Paul has a gayer + nature, and will please you more than I am able to do. Some day + you will have to choose between us--well, though I love you + passionately-- + + +"You are corresponding with _emigres_," said Peyrade, interrupting +Laurence, and holding the letters between himself and the light to +see if they contained between the lines any treasonable writing with +invisible ink. + +"Yes," replied Laurence, folding the precious letters, the paper of +which was already yellow with time. "But by virtue of what right do you +presume to violate my dwelling and my personal liberty?" + +"Ah, that's the point!" cried Peyrade. "By what right, indeed!--it +is time to let you know it, beautiful aristocrat," he added, taking a +warrant from his pocket, which came from the minister of justice and +was countersigned by the minister of the interior. "See, the authorities +have their eye upon you." + +"We might also ask you," said Corentin, in her ear, "by what right you +harbor in this house the assassins of the First Consul. You have applied +your whip to my hands in a manner that authorizes me to take my revenge +upon your cousins, whom I came here to save." + +At the mere movement of her lips and the glance which Laurence cast upon +Corentin, the abbe guessed what that great artist was saying, and he +made her a sign to be distrustful, which no one intercepted but Goulard. +Peyrade struck the cover of the box to see if there were a double top. + +"Don't break it!" she exclaimed, taking the cover from him. + +She took a pin, pushed the head of one of the carved figures, and the +two halves of the top, joined by a spring, opened. In the hollow half +lay miniatures of the Messieurs de Simeuse, in the uniform of the army +of Conde, two portraits on ivory done in Germany. Corentin, who felt +himself in presence of an adversary worthy of his efforts, called +Peyrade aside into a corner of the room and conferred with him. + +"How could you throw _that_ into the fire?" said the abbe, speaking to +Laurence and pointing to the letter of the marquise which enclosed the +locks of hair. + +For all answer the young girl shrugged her shoulders significantly. The +abbe comprehended then that she had made the sacrifice to mislead the +agents and gain time; he raised his eyes to heaven with a gesture of +admiration. + +"Where did they arrest Gothard, whom I hear crying?" she asked him, loud +enough to be overheard. + +"I don't know," said the abbe. + +"Did he reach the farm?" + +"The farm!" whispered Peyrade to Corentin. "Let us send there." + +"No," said Corentin; "that girl never trusted her cousins' safety to a +farmer. She is playing with us. Do as I tell you, so that we mayn't have +to leave here without detecting something, after committing the great +blunder of coming here at all." + +Corentin stationed himself before the fire, lifting the long pointed +skirts of his coat to warm himself and assuming the air, manner, and +tone of a gentleman who was paying a visit. + +"Mesdames, you can go to bed, and the servants also. Monsieur le maire, +your services are no longer needed. The sternness of our orders does +not permit us to act otherwise than as we have done; but as soon as the +walls, which seem to me rather thick, have been thoroughly examined, we +shall take our departure." + +The mayor bowed to the company and retired; but neither the abbe nor +Mademoiselle Goujet stirred. The servants were too uneasy not to watch +the fate of their young mistress. Madame d'Hauteserre, who, from the +moment of Laurence's entrance, had studied her with the anxiety of a +mother, rose, took her by the arm, led her aside, and said in a low +voice, "Have you seen them?" + +"Do you think I could have let your sons be under this roof without +your knowing it?" replied Laurence. "Durieu," she added, "see if it is +possible to save my poor Stella; she is still breathing." + +"She must have gone a great distance," said Corentin. + +"Forty miles in three hours," she answered, addressing the abbe, who +watched her with amazement. "I started at half-past nine, and it was +well past one when I returned." + +She looked at the clock which said half-past two. + +"So you don't deny that you have ridden forty miles?" said Corentin. + +"No," she said. "I admit that my cousins, in their perfect innocence, +expected not to be excluded from the amnesty, and were on their way to +Cinq-Cygne. When I found that the Sieur Malin was plotting to injure +them, I went to warn them to return to Germany, where they will be +before the telegraph can have guarded the frontier. If I have done wrong +I shall be punished for it." + +This answer, which Laurence had carefully considered, was so probable in +all its parts that Corentin's convictions were shaken. In that decisive +moment, when every soul present hung suspended, as it were, on the faces +of the two adversaries, and all eyes turned from Corentin to Laurence +and from Laurence to Corentin, again the gallop of a horse, coming from +the forest, resounded on the road and from there through the gates to +the paved courtyard. Frightful anxiety was stamped on every face. + +Peyrade entered, his eyes gleaming with joy. He went hastily to Corentin +and said, loud enough for the countess to hear him: "We have caught +Michu." + +Laurence, to whom the agony, fatigue, and tension of all her +intellectual faculties had given an unusual color, turned white and fell +back almost fainting on a chair. Madame Durieu, Mademoiselle Goujet, +and Madame d'Hauteserre sprang to help her, for she was suffocating. She +signed to cut the frogging of her habit. + +"Duped!" said Corentin to Peyrade. "I am certain now they are on their +way to Paris. Change the orders." + +They left the room and the house, placing one gendarme on guard at the +door of the salon. The infernal cleverness of the two men had gained +a terrible advantage by taking Laurence in the trap of a not uncommon +trick. + + + + +CHAPTER IX. FOILED + +At six o'clock in the morning, as day was dawning, Corentin and Peyrade +returned. Having explored the covered way they were satisfied that +horses had passed through it to reach the forest. They were now awaiting +the report of the captain of gendarmerie sent to reconnoitre the +neighborhood. Leaving the chateau in charge of a corporal, they went +to the tavern at Cinq-Cygne to get their breakfast, giving orders that +Gothard, who never ceased to reply to all questions with a burst of +tears, should be set at liberty, also Catherine, who still continued +silent and immovable. Catherine and Gothard went to the salon to kiss +the hands of their mistress, who lay exhausted on the sofa; Durieu also +went in to tell her that Stella would recover, but needed great care. + +The mayor, uneasy and inquisitive, met Peyrade and Corentin in the +village. He declared that he could not allow such important officials to +breakfast in a miserable tavern, and he took them to his own house. The +abbey was only three quarters of a mile distant. On the way, Peyrade +remarked that the corporal of Arcis had sent no news of Michu or of +Violette. + +"We are dealing with very able people," said Corentin; "they are +stronger than we. The priest no doubt has a finger in all this." + +Just as the mayor's wife was ushering her guests into a vast dining-room +(without any fire) the lieutenant of gendarmes arrived with an anxious +air. + +"We met the horse of the corporal of Arcis in the forest without his +master," he said to Peyrade. + +"Lieutenant," cried Corentin, "go instantly to Michu's house and find +out what is going on there. They must have murdered the corporal." + +This news interfered with the mayor's breakfast. Corentin and Peyrade +swallowed their food with the rapidity of hunters halting for a meal, +and drove back to the chateau in their wicker carriage, so as to be +ready to start at the first call for any point where their presence +might be necessary. When the two men reappeared in the salon into which +they had brought such trouble, terror, grief, and anxiety, they found +Laurence, in a dressing-gown, Monsieur d'Hauteserre and his wife, the +abbe and his sister, sitting round the fire, to all appearance tranquil. + +"If they had caught Michu," Laurence told herself, "they would have +brought him with them. I have the mortification of knowing that I was +not the mistress of myself, and that I threw some light upon the matter +for those wretches; but the harm can be undone--How long are we to be +your prisoners?" she asked sarcastically, with an easy manner. + +"How can she know anything about Michu? No one from the outside has got +near the chateau; she is laughing at us," said the two agents to each +other by a look. + +"We shall not inconvenience you long," replied Corentin. "In three hours +from now we shall offer our regrets for having troubled your solitude." + +No one replied. This contemptuous silence redoubled Corentin's inward +rage. Laurence and the abbe (the two minds of their little world) had +talked the man over and drawn their conclusions. Gothard and Catherine +had set the breakfast-table near the fire and the abbe and his sister +were sharing the meal. Neither masters nor servants paid the slightest +attention to the two spies, who walked up and down the garden, the +courtyard or the lawn, returning every now and then to the salon. + +At half-past two the lieutenant reappeared. + +"I found the corporal," he said to Corentin, "lying in the road which +leads from the pavilion of Cinq-Cygne to the farm at Bellache. He has +no wound, only a bad contusion of the head, caused, apparently, by his +fall. He told me he had been lifted suddenly off his horse and flung +so violently to the ground that he could not discover how the thing was +done. His feet left the stirrups, which was lucky, for he might have +been killed by the horse dragging him. We put him in charge of Michu and +Violette--" + +"Michu! is Michu in his own house?" said Corentin, glancing at Laurence. + +The countess smiled ironically, like a woman obtaining her revenge. + +"He is bargaining with Violette about the sale of some land," said the +lieutenant. "They seemed to me drunk; and it's no wonder, for they have +been drinking all night and discussing the matter, and they haven't come +to terms yet." + +"Did Violette tell you so?" cried Corentin. + +"Yes," said the lieutenant. + +"Nothing is right if we don't attend to it ourselves!" cried Peyrade, +looking at Corentin, who doubted the lieutenant's news as much as the +other did. + +"At what hour did you get to Michu's house?" asked Corentin, noticing +that the countess had glanced at the clock. + +"About two," replied the lieutenant. + +Laurence covered Monsieur and Madame d'Hauteserre and the abbe and his +sister in one comprehensive glance, which made them fancy they were +wrapped in an azure mantle; triumph sparkled in her eyes, she blushed, +and the tears welled up beneath her lids. Strong under all misfortunes, +the girl knew not how to weep except from joy. At this moment she was +all glorious, especially to the priest, who was sometimes distressed +by the virility of her character, and who now caught a glimpse of the +infinite tenderness of her woman's nature. But such feelings lay in her +soul like a treasure hidden at a great depth beneath a block of granite. + +Just then a gendarme entered the salon to ask if he might bring in +Michu's son, sent by his father to speak to the gentlemen from Paris. +Corentin gave an affirmative nod. Francois Michu, a sly little chip of +the old block, was in the courtyard, where Gothard, now at liberty, got +a chance to speak to him for an instant under the eyes of a gendarme. +The little fellow managed to slip something into Gothard's hand without +being detected, and the latter glided into the salon after him till he +reached his mistress, to whom he stealthily conveyed both halves of +the wedding-ring, a sure sign, she knew, that Michu had met the four +gentlemen and put them in safety. + +"My papa wants to know what he's to do with the corporal, who ain't +doing well," said Francois. + +"What's the matter with him?" asked Peyrade. + +"It's his head--he pitched down hard on the ground," replied the boy. +"For a gindarme who knows how to ride it was bad luck--I suppose the +horse stumbled. He's got a hole--my! as big as your fist--in the back of +his head. Seems as if he must have hit some big stone, poor man! He may +be a gindarme, but he suffers all the same--you'd pity him." + +The captain of the gendarmerie now arrived and dismounted in the +courtyard. Corentin threw up the window, not to lose time. + +"What has been done?" + +"We are back like the Dutchmen! We found nothing but five dead horses, +their coats stiff with sweat, in the middle of the forest. I have kept +them to find out where they came from and who owns them. The forest is +surrounded; whoever is in it can't get out." + +"At what hour do you suppose those horsemen entered the forest?" + +"About half-past twelve." + +"Don't let a hare leave that forest without your seeing it," whispered +Corentin. "I'll station Peyrade at the village to help you; I am going +to see the corporal myself--Go to the mayor's house," he added, still +whispering, to Peyrade. "I'll send some able man to relieve you. We +shall have to make use of the country-people; examine all faces." He +turned towards the family and said in a threatening tone, "Au revoir!" + +No one replied, and the two agents left the room. + +"What would Fouche say if he knew we had made a domiciliary visit +without getting any results?" remarked Peyrade as he helped Corentin +into the osier vehicle. + +"It isn't over yet," replied the other, "those four young men are in the +forest. Look there!" and he pointed to Laurence who was watching them +from a window. "I once revenged myself on a woman who was worth a dozen +of that one and had stirred my bile a good deal less. If this girl comes +in the way of my hatchet I'll pay her for the lash of that whip." + +"The other was a strumpet," said Peyrade; "this one has rank." + +"What difference is that to me? All's fish that swims in the sea," +replied Corentin, signing to the gendarme who drove him to whip up. + +Ten minutes later the chateau de Cinq-Cygne was completely evacuated. + +"How did they get rid of the corporal?" said Laurence to Francois Michu, +whom she had ordered to sit down and eat some breakfast. + +"My father told me it was a matter of life and death and I mustn't let +anybody get into our house," replied the boy. "I knew when I heard the +horses in the forest that I'd got to do with them hounds of gindarmes, +and I meant to keep 'em from getting in. So I took some big ropes that +were in my garret and fastened one of 'em to a tree at the corner of +the road. Then I drew the rope high enough to hit the breast of a man +on horseback, and tied it to the tree on the opposite side of the way in +the direction where I heard the horses. That barred the road. It didn't +miss fire, I can tell you! There was no moon, and the corporal just +pitched!--but he wasn't killed; they're tough, them gindarmes! I did +what I could." + +"You have saved us!" said Laurence, kissing him as she took him to +the gate. When there, she looked about her and seeing no one she said +cautiously, "Have they provisions?" + +"I have just taken them twelve pounds of bread and four bottles of +wine," said the boy. "They'll be snug for a week." + +Returning to the salon, the girl was beset with mute questions in the +eyes of all, each of whom looked at her with as much admiration as +eagerness. + +"But have you really seen them?" cried Madame d'Hauteserre. + +The countess put a finger on her lips and smiled; then she left the room +and went to bed; her triumph sure, utter weariness had overtaken her. + +The shortest road from Cinq-Cygne to Michu's lodge was that which led +from the village past the farm at Bellache to the _rond-point_ where +the Parisian spies had first seen Michu on the preceding evening. The +gendarme who was driving Corentin took this way, which was the one the +corporal of Arcis had taken. As they drove along, the agent was on the +look-out for signs to show why the corporal had been unhorsed. He blamed +himself for having sent but one man on so important an errand, and he +drew from this mistake an axiom for the police Code, which he afterwards +applied. + +"If they have got rid of the corporal," he said to himself, "they have +done as much by Violette. Those five horses have evidently brought +the four conspirators and Michu from the neighborhood of Paris to the +forest. Has Michu a horse?" he inquired of the gendarme who was driving +him and who belonged to the squad from Arcis. + +"Yes, and a famous little horse it is," answered the man, "a hunter +from the stables of the ci-devant Marquis de Simeuse. There's no better +beast, though it is nearly fifteen years old. Michu can ride him fifty +miles and he won't turn a hair. He takes mighty good care of him and +wouldn't sell him at any price." + +"What does the horse look like?" + +"He's brown, turning rather to black; white stockings above the hoofs, +thin, all nerves like an Arab." + +"Did you ever see an Arab?" + +"In Egypt--last year. I've ridden the horses of the mamelukes. We have +to serve twelve years in the cavalry, and I was on the Rhine under +General Steingel, after that in Italy, and then I followed the First +Consul to Egypt. I'll be a corporal soon." + +"When I get to Michu's house go to the stable; if you have served twelve +years in the cavalry you know when a horse is blown. Let me know the +condition of Michu's beast." + +"See! that's where our corporal was thrown," said the man, pointing to a +spot where the road they were following entered the _rond-point_. + +"Tell the captain to come and pick me up at Michu's, and I'll go with +him to Troyes." + +So saying Corentin got down, and stood about for a few minutes examining +the ground. He looked at the two elms which faced each other,--one +against the park wall, the other on the bank of the _rond-point_; then +he saw (what no one had yet noticed) the button of a uniform lying in +the dust, and he picked it up. Entering the lodge he saw Violette and +Michu sitting at the table in the kitchen and talking eagerly. Violette +rose, bowed to Corentin, and offered him some wine. + +"Thank you, no; I came to see the corporal," said the young man, who saw +with half a glance that Violette had been drunk all night. + +"My wife is nursing him upstairs," said Michu. + +"Well, corporal, how are you?" said Corentin who had run up the stairs +and found the gendarme with his head bandaged, and lying on Madame +Michu's bed; his hat, sabre, and shoulder-belt on a chair. + +Marthe, faithful in her womanly instincts, and knowing nothing of her +son's prowess, was giving all her care to the corporal, assisted by her +mother. + +"We expect Monsieur Varlet the doctor from Arcis," she said to Corentin; +"our servant-lad has gone to fetch him." + +"Leave us alone for a moment," said Corentin, a good deal surprised at +the scene, which amply proved the innocence of the two women. "Where +were you struck?" he asked the man, examining his uniform. + +"On the breast," replied the corporal. + +"Let's see your belt," said Corentin. + +On the yellow band with a white edge, which a recent regulation had +made part of the equipment of the guard now called National, was a metal +plate a good deal like that of the foresters, on which the law required +the inscription of these remarkable words: "Respect to persons and +to properties." Francois's rope had struck the belt and defaced it. +Corentin took up the coat and found the place where the button he had +picked up upon the road belonged. + +"What time did they find you?" asked Corentin. + +"About daybreak." + +"Did they bring you up here at once?" said Corentin, noticing that the +bed had not been slept in. + +"Yes." + +"Who brought you up?" + +"The women and little Michu, who found me unconscious." + +"So!" thought Corentin: "evidently they didn't go to bed. The corporal +was not shot at, nor struck by any weapon, for an assailant must have +been at his own height to strike a blow. Something, some obstacle, was +in his way and that unhorsed him. A piece of wood? not possible! an iron +chain? that would have left marks. What did you feel?" he said aloud. + +"I was knocked over so suddenly--" + +"The skin is rubbed off under your chin," said Corentin quickly. + +"I think," said the corporal, "that a rope did go over my face." + +"I have it!" cried Corentin; "somebody tied a rope from tree to tree to +bar the way." + +"Like enough," replied the corporal. + +Corentin went downstairs to the kitchen. + +"Come, you old rascal," Michu was saying to Violette, "let's make an end +of this. One hundred thousand francs for the place, and you are master +of my whole property. I shall retire on my income." + +"I tell you, as there's a God in heaven, I haven't more than sixty +thousand." + +"But don't I offer you time to pay the rest? You've kept me here since +yesterday, arguing it. The land is in prime order." + +"Yes, the soil is good," said Violette. + +"Wife, some more wine," cried Michu. + +"Haven't you drunk enough?" called down Marthe's mother. "This is the +fourteenth bottle since nine o'clock yesterday." + +"You have been here since nine o'clock this morning, haven't you?" said +Corentin to Violette. + +"No, beg your pardon, since last night I haven't left the place, and +I've gained nothing after all; the more he makes me drink the more he +puts up the price." + +"In all markets he who raises his elbow raises a price," said Corentin. + +A dozen empty bottles ranged along the table proved the truth of the old +woman's words. Just then the gendarme who had driven him made a sign to +Corentin, who went to the door to speak to him. + +"There is no horse in the stable," said the man. + +"You sent your boy on horseback to the chateau, didn't you?" said +Corentin, returning to the kitchen. "Will he be back soon?" + +"No, monsieur," said Michu, "he went on foot." + +"What have you done with your horse, then?" + +"I have lent him," said Michu, curtly. + +"Come out here, my good fellow," said Corentin; "I've a word for your +ear." + +Corentin and Michu left the house. + +"The gun which you were loading yesterday at four o'clock you meant to +use in murdering the Councillor of State; but we can't take you up for +that--plenty of intention, but no witnesses. You managed, I don't know +how, to stupefy Violette, and you and your wife and that young rascal +of yours spent the night out of doors to warn Mademoiselle de Cinq-Cygne +and save her cousins, whom you are hiding here,--though I don't as +yet know where. Your son or your wife threw the corporal off his horse +cleverly enough. Well, you've got the better of us just now; you're a +devil of a fellow. But the end is not yet, and you won't have the last +word. Hadn't you better compromise? your masters would be the better for +it." + +"Come this way, where we can talk without being overheard," said Michu, +leading the way through the park to the pond. + +When Corentin saw the water he looked fixedly at Michu, who was no doubt +reckoning on his physical strength to fling the spy into seven feet of +mud below three feet of water. Michu replied with a look that was +not less fixed. The scene was absolutely as if a cold and flabby boa +constrictor had defied one of those tawny, fierce leopards of Brazil. + +"I am not thirsty," said Corentin, stopping short at the edge of the +field and putting his hand into his pocket to feel for his dagger. + +"We shall never come to terms," said Michu, coldly. + +"Mind what you're about, my good fellow; the law has its eye upon you." + +"If the law can't see any clearer than you, there's danger to every +one," said the bailiff. + +"Do you refuse?" said Corentin, in a significant tone. + +"I'd rather have my head cut off a thousand times, if that could be +done, than come to an agreement with such a villain as you." + +Corentin got into his vehicle hastily, after one more comprehensive look +at Michu, the lodge, and Couraut, who barked at him. He gave certain +orders in passing through Troyes, and then returned to Paris. All the +brigades of gendarmerie in the neighborhood received secret instructions +and special orders. + +During the months of December, January, and February the search was +active and incessant, even in remote villages. Spies were in all the +taverns. Corentin learned some important facts: a horse like that of +Michu had been found dead in the neighborhood of Lagny; the five horses +burned in the forest of Nodesme had been sold, for five hundred francs +each, by farmers and millers to a man who answered to the description of +Michu. When the decree against the accomplices and harborers of Georges +was put in force Corentin confined his search to the forest of Nodesme. +After Moreau, the royalists, and Pichegru were arrested no strangers +were ever seen about the place. + +Michu lost his situation at that time; the notary of Arcis brought him a +letter in which Malin, now made senator, requested Grevin to settle all +accounts with the bailiff and dismiss him. Michu asked and obtained a +formal discharge and became a free man. To the great astonishment of the +neighborhood he went to live at Cinq-Cygne, where Laurence made him +the farmer of all the reserved land about the chateau. The day of his +installation as farmer coincided with the fatal day of the death of the +Duc d'Enghien, when nearly the whole of France heard at the same time +of the arrest, trial, condemnation, and death of the prince,--terrible +reprisals, which preceded the trial of Polignac, Riviere, and Moreau. + + + + + +PART II. + +CHAPTER X. ONE AND THE SAME, YET A TWO-FOLD LOVE + +While the new farm-house was being built Michu the Judas, so-called, and +his family occupied the rooms over the stables at Cinq-Cygne on the side +of the chateau next to the famous breach. He bought two horses, one +for himself and one for Francois, and they both joined Gothard in +accompanying Mademoiselle de Cinq-Cygne in her many rides, which had for +their object, as may well be imagined, the feeding of the four gentlemen +and perpetual watching that they were still in safety. Francois and +Gothard, assisted by Couraut and the countess's dogs, went in front and +beat the woods all around the hiding-place to make sure that there was +no one within sight. Laurence and Michu carried the provisions which +Marthe, her mother, and Catherine prepared, unknown to the other +servants of the household so as to restrict the secret to themselves, +for all were sure that there were spies in the village. These +expeditions were never made oftener than twice a week and on different +days and at different hours, sometimes by day, sometimes by night. + +These precautions lasted until the trial of Riviere, Polignac, and +Moreau ended. When the senatus-consultum, which called the dynasty of +Bonaparte to the throne and nominated Napoleon as Emperor of the French, +was submitted to the French people for acceptance Monsieur d'Hauteserre +signed the paper Goulard brought him. When it was made known that +the Pope would come to France to crown the Emperor, Mademoiselle de +Cinq-Cygne no longer opposed the general desire that her cousins and the +young d'Hauteserres should petition to have their names struck off +the list of _emigres_, and be themselves reinstated in their rights +as citizens. On this, old d'Hauteserre went to Paris and consulted the +ci-devant Marquis de Chargeboeuf who knew Talleyrand. That minister, +then in favor, conveyed the petition to Josephine, and Josephine gave it +to her husband, who was addressed as Emperor, Majesty, Sire, before the +result of the popular vote was known. Monsieur de Chargeboeuf, Monsieur +d'Hauteserre, and the Abbe Goujet, who also went to Paris, obtained an +interview with Talleyrand, who promised them his support. Napoleon had +already pardoned several of the principal actors in the great royalist +conspiracy; and yet, though the four gentlemen were merely suspected of +complicity, the Emperor, after a meeting of the Council of State, called +the senator Malin, Fouche, Talleyrand, Cambaceres, Lebrun, and Dubois, +prefect of police, into his cabinet. + +"Gentlemen," said the future Emperor, who still wore the dress of +the First Consul, "we have received from the Sieurs de Simeuse and +d'Hauteserre, officers in the army of the Prince de Conde, a request to +be allowed to re-enter France." + +"They are here now," said Fouche. + +"Like many others whom I meet in Paris," remarked Talleyrand. + +"I think you have not met these gentlemen," said Malin, "for they are +hidden in the forest of Nodesme, where they consider themselves at +home." + +He was careful not to tell the First Consul and Fouche how he himself +had given them warning, by talking with Grevin within hearing of Michu, +but he made the most of Corentin's reports and convinced Napoleon that +the four gentlemen were sharers in the plot of Riviere and Polignac, +with Michu for an accomplice. The prefect of police confirmed these +assertions. + +"But how could that bailiff know that the conspiracy was discovered?" +said the prefect, "for the Emperor and the council and I were the only +persons in the secret." + +No one paid attention to this remark. + +"If they have been hidden in that forest for the last seven months and +you have not been able to find them," said the Emperor to Fouche, "they +have expiated their misdeeds." + +"Since they are my enemies as well," said Malin, frightened by the +Emperor's clear-sightedness, "I desire to follow the magnanimous example +of your Majesty; I therefore make myself their advocate and ask that +their names be stricken from the list of _emigres_." + +"They will be less dangerous to you here than if they are exiled; for +they will now have to swear allegiance to the Empire and the laws," said +Fouche, looking at Malin fixedly. + +"In what way are they dangerous to the senator?" asked Napoleon. + +Talleyrand spoke to the Emperor for some minutes in a low voice. The +reinstatement of the Messieurs de Simeuse and d'Hauteserre appeared to +be granted. + +"Sire," said Fouche, "rely upon it, you will hear of those men again." + +Talleyrand, who had been urged by the Duc de Grandlieu, gave the Emperor +pledges in the name of the young men on their honor as gentlemen (a term +which had great fascination for Napoleon), to abstain from all attacks +upon his Majesty and to submit themselves to his government in good +faith. + +"Messieurs d'Hauteserre and de Simeuse are not willing to bear arms +against France, now that events have taken their present course," he +said, aloud; "they have little sympathy, it is true, with the Imperial +government, but they are just the men that your Majesty ought to +conciliate. They will be satisfied to live on French soil and obey the +laws." + +Then he laid before the Emperor a letter he had received from the +brothers in which these sentiments were expressed. + +"Anything so frank is likely to be sincere," said the Emperor, returning +the letter and looking at Lebrun and Cambaceres. "Have you any further +suggestions?" he asked of Fouche. + +"In your Majesty's interests," replied the future minister of police, "I +ask to be allowed to inform these gentlemen of their reinstatement--when +it is _really granted_," he added, in a louder tone. + +"Very well," said Napoleon, noticing an anxious look on Fouche's face. + +The matter did not seem positively decided when the Council rose; but it +had the effect of putting into Napoleon's mind a vague distrust of the +four young men. Monsieur d'Hauteserre, believing that all was gained, +wrote a letter announcing the good news. The family at Cinq-Cygne were +therefore not surprised when, a few days later, Goulard came to inform +the countess and Madame d'Hauteserre that they were to send the four +gentlemen to Troyes, where the prefect would show them the decree +reinstating them in their rights and administer to them the oath of +allegiance to the Empire and the laws. Laurence replied that she would +send the notification to her cousins and the Messieurs d'Hauteserre. + +"Then they are not here?" said Goulard. + +Madame d'Hauteserre looked anxiously after Laurence, who left the room +to consult Michu. Michu saw no reason why the young men should not be +released at once from their hiding-place. Laurence, Michu, his son, and +Gothard therefore started as soon as possible for the forest, taking +an extra horse, for the countess resolved to accompany her cousins to +Troyes and return with them. The whole household, made aware of the +good news, gathered on the lawn to witness the departure of the happy +cavalcade. The four young men issued from their long confinement, +mounted their horses, and took the road to Troyes, accompanied by +Mademoiselle Cinq-Cygne. Michu, with the help of his son and Gothard, +closed the entrance to the cellar, and started to return home on foot. +On the way he recollected that he had left the forks and spoons and a +silver cup, which the young men had been using, in the cave, and he +went back for them alone. When he reached the edge of the pond he +heard voices, and went straight to the entrance of the cave through the +brushwood. + +"Have you come for your silver?" said Peyrade, showing his big red nose +through the branches. + +Without knowing why, for at any rate his young masters were safe, Michu +felt a sharp agony in all his joints, so keen was the sense of vague, +indefinable coming evil which took possession of him; but he went +forward at once, and found Corentin on the stairs with a taper in his +hand. + +"We are not very harsh," he said to Michu; "we might have seized +your ci-devants any day for the last week; but we knew they were +reinstated--You're a tough fellow to deal with, and you gave us too +much trouble not to make us anxious to satisfy our curiosity about this +hiding-place of yours." + +"I'd give something," cried Michu, "to know how and by whom we have been +sold." + +"If that puzzles you, old fellow," said Peyrade, laughing, "look at your +horses' shoes, and you'll see that you betrayed yourselves." + +"Well, there need be no rancor!" said Corentin, whistling for the +captain of gendarmerie and their horses. + +"So that rascally Parisian blacksmith who shoed the horses in the +English fashion and left Cinq-Cygne only the other day was their spy!" +thought Michu. "They must have followed our tracks when the ground was +damp. Well, we're quits now!" + +Michu consoled himself by thinking that the discovery was of no +consequence, as the young men were now safe, Frenchmen once more, and at +liberty. Yet his first presentiment was a true one. The police, like the +Jesuits, have the one virtue of never abandoning their friends or their +enemies. + +Old d'Hauteserre returned from Paris and was more than surprised not to +be the first to bring the news. Durieu prepared a succulent dinner, +the servants donned their best clothes, and the household impatiently +awaited the exiles, who arrived about four o'clock, happy,--and yet +humiliated, for they found they were to be under police surveillance for +two years, obliged to present themselves at the prefecture every month +and ordered to remain in the commune of Cinq-Cygne during the said two +years. "I'll send you the papers for signature," the prefect said to +them. "Then, in the course of a few months, you can ask to be relieved +of these conditions, which are imposed on all of Pichegru's accomplices. +I will back your request." + +These restrictions, fairly deserved, rather dispirited the young men, +but Laurence laughed at them. + +"The Emperor of the French," she said, "was badly brought up; he has not +yet acquired the habit of bestowing favors graciously." + +The party found all the inhabitants of the chateau at the gates, and a +goodly proportion of the people of the village waiting on the road to +see the young men, whose adventures had made them famous throughout the +department. Madame d'Hauteserre held her sons to her breast for a long +time, her face covered with tears; she was unable to speak and remained +silent, though happy, through a part of the evening. No sooner had the +Simeuse twins dismounted than a cry of surprise arose on all sides, +caused by their amazing resemblance,--the same look, the same voice, +the same actions. They both had the same movement in rising from their +saddles, in throwing their leg over the crupper of their horses when +dismounting, in flinging the reins upon the animal's neck. Their dress, +precisely the same, contributed to this likeness. They wore boots _a la_ +Suwaroff, made to fit the instep, tight trousers of white leather, green +hunting-jackets with metal buttons, black cravats, and buckskin gloves. +The two young men, just thirty-one years of age, were--to use a term in +vogue in those days--charming cavaliers, of medium height but well set +up, brilliant eyes with long lashes, floating in liquid like those of +children, black hair, noble brows, and olive skin. Their speech, gentle +as that of a woman, fell graciously from their fresh red lips; their +manners, more elegant and polished than those of the provincial +gentlemen, showed that knowledge of men and things had given them that +supplementary education which makes its possessor a man of the world. + +Not lacking money, thanks to Michu, during their emigration, they had +been able to travel and be received at foreign courts. Old d'Hauteserre +and the abbe thought them rather haughty; but in their present position +this may have been the sign of nobility of character. They possessed all +the eminent little marks of a careful education, to which they added a +wonderful dexterity in bodily exercises. Their only dissimilarity was +in the region of ideas. The youngest charmed others by his gaiety, the +eldest by his melancholy; but the contrast, which was purely spiritual, +was not at first observable. + +"Ah, wife," whispered Michu in Marthe's ear, "how could one help +devoting one's self to those young fellows?" + +Marthe, who admired them as a wife and mother, nodded her head prettily +and pressed her husband's hand. The servants were allowed to kiss their +new masters. + +During their seven months' seclusion in the forest (which the young +men had brought upon themselves) they had several times committed the +imprudence of taking walks about their hiding-place, carefully guarded +by Michu, his son, and Gothard. During these walks, taken usually on +starlit nights, Laurence, reuniting the thread of their past and present +lives, felt the utter impossibility of choosing between the brothers. A +pure and equal love for each divided her heart. She fancied indeed +that she had two hearts. On their side, the brothers dared not speak to +themselves of their impending rivalry. Perhaps all three were trusting +to time and accident. The condition of her mind on this subject acted +no doubt upon Laurence as they entered the house, for she hesitated a +moment, and then took an arm of each as she entered the salon followed +by Monsieur and Madame d'Hauteserre, who were occupied with their sons. +Just then a cheer burst from the servants, "Long live the Cinq-Cygne +and the Simeuse families!" Laurence turned round, still between the +brothers, and made a charming gesture of acknowledgement. + +When these nine persons came to actually observe each other,--for in +all meetings, even in the bosom of families, there comes a moment when +friends observe those from whom they have been long parted,--the first +glance which Adrien d'Hauteserre cast upon Laurence seemed to his +mother and to the abbe to betray love. Adrien, the youngest of the +d'Hauteserres, had a sweet and tender soul; his heart had remained +adolescent in spite of the catastrophes which had nerved the man. Like +many young heroes, kept virgin in spirit by perpetual peril, he was +daunted by the timidities of youth. In this he was very different +from his brother, a man of rough manners, a great hunter, an intrepid +soldier, full of resolution, but coarse in fibre and without activity +of mind or delicacy in matters of the heart. One was all soul, the other +all action; and yet they both possessed in the same degree that sense of +honor which is the vital essence of a gentleman. Dark, short, slim +and wiry, Adrien d'Hauteserre gave an impression of strength; whereas +Robert, who was tall, pale and fair, seemed weakly. Adrien, nervous in +temperament, was stronger in soul; while his brother though +lymphatic, was fonder of bodily exercise. Families often present these +singularities of contrast, the causes of which it might be interesting +to examine; but they are mentioned here merely to explain how it was +that Adrien was not likely to find a rival in his brother. Robert's +affection for Laurence was that of a relation, the respect of a +noble for a girl of his own caste. In matters of sentiment the elder +d'Hauteserre belonged to the class of men who consider woman as +an appendage to man, limiting her sphere to the physical duties of +maternity; demanding perfection in that respect, but regarding her +mentally as of no account. To such men the admittance of woman as an +actual sharer in society, in the body politic, in the family, meant the +subversion of the social system. In these days we are so far removed +from this theory of primitive people that almost all women, even those +who do not desire the fatal emancipation offered by the new sects, will +be shocked in merely hearing of it; but it must be owned that Robert +d'Hauteserre had the misfortune to think in that way. Robert was a man +of the middle-ages, Adrien a man of to-day. These differences instead of +hindering their affection had drawn its bonds the closer. On the first +evening after the return of the young men these shades of character +were caught and understood by the abbe, Mademoiselle Goujet, and Madame +d'Hauteserre, who, while playing their boston, were secretly foreseeing +the difficulties of the future. + +At twenty-three years of age, having passed through the many reflections +of a long solitude and the anguish of a defeated enterprise, Laurence +had become a woman, and felt within her an absorbing desire for +affection. She now put forth all her graces of her mind and was +charming; she revealed the hidden beauties of her tender heart with the +simple candor of a child. For the last thirteen years she had been a +woman only through suffering; she longed to obtain amends for it, and +she showed herself as loving and winning as she had been, up to this +time, strong and great. + +The four elders, who were the last to leave the salon that night, +admitted to each other that they felt uneasy at the new position of this +charming girl. What power might not passion have on a young woman of +her character and with her nobility of soul? The twin brothers loved her +with one and the same love and a blind devotion; which of the two would +Laurence choose? To choose one was to kill the other. Countess in her +own right, she could bring her husband a title and certain prerogatives, +together with a long lineage. Perhaps in thinking of these advantages +the elder of the twins, the Marquis de Simeuse, would sacrifice himself +to give Laurence to his brother, who, according to the old laws, was +poor and without a title. But would the younger brother deprive the +elder of the happiness of having Laurence for a wife? At a distance, +this strife of love and generosity might do no harm,--in fact, so long +as the brothers were facing danger the chances of war might end +the difficulty; but what would be the result of this reunion? When +Marie-Paul and Paul-Marie reached the age when passions rise to their +greatest height could they share, as now, the looks and words and +attentions of their cousin? must there not inevitably arise a jealousy +between them the consequences of which might be horrible? What would +then become of the unity of those beautiful lives, one in heart though +twain in body? To these questionings, passed from one to another as they +finished their game, Madame d'Hauteserre replied that in her opinion +Laurence would not marry either of her cousins. The poor lady had +experienced that evening one of those inexplicable presentiments which +are secrets between the mother's heart and God. + +Laurence, in her inward consciousness, was not less alarmed at finding +herself tete-a-tete with her cousins. To the active drama of conspiracy, +to the dangers which the brothers had incurred, to the pain and +penalties of their exile, was now succeeding another sort of drama, of +which she had never thought. This noble girl could not resort to the +violent means of refusing to marry either of the twins; and she was too +honest a woman to marry one and keep an irresistible passion for the +other in her heart. To remain unmarried, to weary her cousins' love by +no decision, and then to take the one who was faithful to her in spite +of her caprices, was a solution of the difficulty not so much sought +for by her as vaguely admitted. As she fell asleep that night she told +herself the wisest course to follow was to let things take their chance. +Chance is, in love, the providence of women. + +The next morning Michu went to Paris, whence he returned a few days +later with four fine horses for his new masters. In six weeks' time the +hunting would begin, and the young countess sagely reflected that +the violent excitements of that exercise would be a help against the +tete-a-tetes of the chateau. At first, however, an unexpected result +surprised the spectators of these strange loves and roused their +admiration. Without any premeditated agreement the brothers rivalled +each other in attentions to Laurence, with a sense of pleasure in so +doing which appeared to suffice them. The relation between themselves +and Laurence was just as fraternal as that between themselves. What +could be more natural? After so long an absence they felt the necessity +of studying her, of knowing her well and letting her know them, leaving +to her the right of choice. They were sustained in this first trial by +the mutual affection which made their double life one and the same life. + +Love, like their own mother, was unable to distinguish between the +brothers. Laurence was obliged (in order to know them apart and make no +mistakes) to give them different cravats--to the elder a white one, to +the younger black. Without this perfect resemblance, this identity of +life, which misled all about them, such a situation would be justly +thought impossible. It can, indeed, be explained only by the fact +itself, which is one of those which men do not believe in unless they +see them; and then the mind is more bewildered by having to explain them +than by the actual sight which caused belief. If Laurence spoke, her +voice echoed in two hearts equally faithful and loving with one tone. +Did she give utterance to an intelligent, or witty, or noble thought, +her glance encountered the delight expressed in two glances which +followed her every movement, interpreted her slightest wish, and +beamed upon her ever with a new expression, gaiety in the one, tender +melancholy in the other. In any matter that concerned their mistress +the brothers showed an admirable quick-wittedness of heart coupled with +instant action which (to use the abbe's own expression) approached the +sublime. Often, if something had to be fetched, if it was a question of +some little attention which men delight to pay to a beloved woman, the +elder would leave that pleasure to the younger with a look at Laurence +that was proud and tender. The younger, on the other hand, put all his +own pride into paying such debts. This rivalry of noble natures in a +feeling which leads men often to the jealous ferocity of the beasts +amazed the old people who were watching it, and bewildered their ideas. + +Such little details often drew tears to the eyes of the countess. +A single sensation, which is perhaps all-powerful in some rare +organizations, will give an idea of Laurence's emotions; it may be +perceived by recalling the perfect unison of two fine voices (like those +of Malibran and Sontag) in some harmonious _duo_, or the blending of +two instruments touched by the hand of genius, their melodious tones +entering the soul like the passionate sighing of one heart. Sometimes, +seeing the Marquis de Simeuse buried in an arm-chair and glancing from +time to time with deepest melancholy at his brother and Laurence who +were talking and laughing, the abbe believed him capable of making the +great sacrifice; presently, however, the priest would see in the young +man's eyes the flash of an unconquerable passion. Whenever either of the +brothers found himself alone with Laurence he might reasonably suppose +himself the one preferred. + +"I fancy then that there is but one of them," explained the countess to +the abbe when he questioned her. That answer showed the priest her total +want of coquetry. Laurence did not conceive that she was loved by two +men. + +"But, my dear child," said Madame d'Hauteserre one evening (her own son +silently dying of love for Laurence), "you must choose!" + +"Oh, let us be happy," she replied; "God will save us from ourselves." + +Adrien d'Hauteserre buried within his breast the jealousy that was +consuming him; he kept the secret of his torture, aware of how little +he could hope. He tried to be content with the happiness of seeing the +charming woman who during the few months this struggle lasted shone in +all her brilliancy. In one sense Laurence had become coquettish, taking +that dainty care of her person which women who are loved delight in. +She followed the fashions, and went more than once to Paris to deck her +beauty with _chiffons_ or some choice novelty. Desirous of giving her +cousins a sense of home and its every enjoyment, from which they had so +long been severed, she made her chateau, in spite of the remonstrances +of her late guardian, the most completely comfortable house in +Champagne. + +Robert d'Hauteserre saw nothing of this hidden drama; he never noticed +his brother's love for Laurence. As to the girl herself, he liked to +tease her about her coquetry,--for he confounded that odious defect +with the natural desire to please; he was always mistaken in matters +of feeling, taste, and the higher ethics. So, whenever this man of +the middle-ages appeared on the scene, Laurence immediately made him, +unknown to himself, the clown of the play; she amused her cousins by +arguing with Robert, and leading him, step by step, into some bog of +ignorance and stupidity. She excelled in such clever mischief, which, +to be really successful, must leave the victim content with himself. +And yet, though his nature was a coarse one, Robert never, during those +delightful months (the only happy period in the lives of the three +young people) said one virile word which might have brought matters to +a crisis between Laurence and her cousins. He was struck with the +sincerity of the brothers; he saw how the one could be glad at the +happiness of the other and yet suffer anguish in the depths of his +heart, and he did perceive how a woman might shrink from showing +tenderness to one which would grieve the other. This perception on +Robert's part was a just one; it explains a situation which, in times +of faith, when the sovereign pontiff had power to intervene and cut +the Gordian knot of such phenomena (allied to the deepest and most +impenetrable mysteries), would have found its solution. The Revolution +had deepened the Catholic faith in these young hearts, and religion now +rendered this crisis in their lives the more severe, because nobility of +character is ever heightened by the grandeur of circumstances. A sense +of this truth kept Monsieur and Madame d'Hauteserre and the abbe from +the slightest fear of any unworthy result on the part of the brothers or +of Laurence. + +This private drama, secretly developing within the limits of the family +life where each member watched it silently, ran its course so rapidly +and withal so slowly, it carried with it so many unhoped-for pleasures, +trifling jars, frustrated fancies, hopes reversed, anxious waitings, +delayed explanations and mute avowals that the dwellers at Cinq-Cygne +paid no attention to the public drama of the Emperor's coronation. At +times these passions made a truce and sought distraction in the violent +enjoyment of hunting, when weariness of body took from the soul all +occasions to wander in the dangerous meadows of reverie. Neither +Laurence nor her cousins had a thought now for public affairs; each day +brought its palpitating and absorbing interests for their hearts. + +"Really," said Mademoiselle Goujet one evening, "I don't know which of +all the lovers loves the most." + +Adrien, who happened to be alone in the salon with the four +card-players, raised his eyes and turned pale. For the last few days +his only hold on life had been the pleasure of seeing Laurence and of +listening to her. + +"I think," said the abbe, "that the countess, being a woman, loves with +the greater abandonment to love." + +Laurence, the twins, and Robert entered the room soon after. The +newspapers had just arrived. England, seeing the failure of all +conspiracies attempted within the borders of France, was now arming +all Europe against their common enemy. The disaster at Trafalgar +had overthrown one of the most amazing plans which human genius ever +conceived; by which, if it had succeeded, the Emperor would have paid +the nation for his election by the ruin of the British power. The camp +at Boulogne had just been raised. Napoleon, whose solders were, as +always, inferior in numbers to the enemy, was about to carry the war +into parts of Europe where he had not before waged it. The whole world +was breathless, awaiting the results of the campaign. + +"He'll surely be defeated this time," said Robert, laying down the +paper. + +"The armies of Austria and of Russia are before him," said Marie-Paul. + +"He has never fought in Germany," added Paul-Marie. + +"Of whom are you speaking?" asked Laurence. + +"The Emperor," answered the three gentlemen. + +The jealous girl threw a disdainful look at her twin lovers, which +humiliated them while it rejoiced the heart of Adrien, who made a +gesture of admiration and gave her one proud look, which said plainly +that _he_ thought only of her,--of Laurence. + +"I told you," said the abbe in a low voice, "that love would some day +cause her to forget her animosity." + +It was the first, last, and only reproach the brothers ever received +from her; but certainly at that moment their love, which could still be +distracted by national events, was inferior to that of Laurence, which, +absorbed her mind so completely that she only knew of the amazing +triumph at Austerlitz by overhearing a discussion between Monsieur +d'Hauteserre and his sons. + +Faithful to his ideas of submission, the old man wished both Robert and +Adrien to re-enter the French army and apply for service; they could, +he thought, be reinstated in their rank and soon find an opening +to military honors. But royalist opinions were now all-powerful at +Cinq-Cygne. The four young men and Laurence laughed at their prudent +elder, who seemed to foresee a coming evil. Possibly, prudence is less +virtue than the exercise of some instinct, or _sense_ of the mind (if it +is allowable to couple those two words). A day will come, no doubt, when +physiologists and philosophers will both admit that the senses are, in +some way, the sheath or vehicle of a keen and penetrative active power +which issues from the mind. + + + + +CHAPTER XI. WISE COUNSEL + +After peace was concluded between France and Austria, towards the end +of the month of February, 1806, a relative, whose influence had been +employed for the reinstatement of the Simeuse brothers, and who was +destined later to give them signal proofs of family attachment, the +ci-devant Marquis de Chargeboeuf, whose estates extended from the +department of the Seine-et-Marne to that of the Aube, arrived one +morning at Cinq-Cygne in a species of caleche which was then named in +derision a _berlingot_. When this shabby carriage was driven past the +windows the inhabitants of the chateau, who were at breakfast, were +convulsed with laughter; but when the bald head of the old man was +seen issuing from behind the leather curtain of the vehicle Monsieur +d'Hauteserre told his name, and all present rose instantly to receive +and do honor to the head of the house of Chargeboeuf. + +"We have done wrong to let him come to us," said the Marquis de Simeuse +to his brother and the d'Hauteserres; "we ought to have gone to him and +made our acknowledgements." + +A servant, dressed as a peasant, who drove the horses from a seat on a +level with the body of the carriage, slipped his cartman's whip into a +coarse leather socket, and got down from the box to assist the marquis +from the carriage; but Adrien and the younger de Simeuse prevented him, +unbuttoned the leather apron, and helped the old man out in spite of his +protestations. This gentleman of the old school chose to consider his +yellow _berlingot_ with its leather curtains a most convenient and +excellent equipage. The servant, assisted by Gothard, unharnessed the +stout horses with shining flanks, accustomed no doubt to do as much duty +at the plough as in a carriage. + +"In spite of this cold weather! Why, you are a knight of the olden +time," said Laurence, to her visitor, taking his arm and leading him +into the salon. + +"What has he come for?" thought old d'Hauteserre. + +Monsieur de Chargeboeuf, a handsome old gentleman of sixty-six, +in light-colored breeches, his small weak legs encased in colored +stockings, wore powder, pigeon-wings and a queue. His green cloth +hunting-coat with gold buttons was braided and frogged with gold. His +white waistcoat glittered with gold embroidery. This apparel, still in +vogue among old people, became his face, which was not unlike that of +Frederick the Great. He never put on his three-cornered hat lest he +should destroy the effect of the half-moon traced upon his cranium by +a layer of powder. His right hand, resting on a hooked cane, held both +cane and hat in a manner worthy of Louis XIV. The fine old gentleman +took off his wadded silk pelisse and seated himself in an armchair, +holding the three-cornered hat and the cane between his knees in an +attitude the secret of which has never been grasped by any but the roues +of Louis XV.'s court, an attitude which left the hands free to play with +a snuff-box, always a precious trinket. Accordingly the marquis drew +from the pocket of his waistcoat, which was closed by a flap embroidered +in gold arabesques, a sumptuous snuff-box. While fingering his own +pinch and offering the box around him with another charming gesture +accompanied with kindly smiles, he noticed the pleasure which his visit +gave. He seemed then to comprehend why these young _emigres_ had been +remiss in their duty towards him, and to be saying to himself, "When we +are making love we can't make visits." + +"You will stay with us some days?" said Laurence. + +"Impossible," he replied. "If we were not so separated by events (for as +to distance, you go farther than that which lies between us) you would +know, my dear child, that I have daughters, daughters-in-law, and +grand-children. All these dear creatures would be very uneasy if I did +not return to them to-night, and I have forty-five miles to go." + +"Your horses are in good condition," said the Marquis de Simeuse. + +"Oh! I am just from Troyes, where I had business yesterday." + +After the customary polite inquiries for the Marquise de Chargeboeuf and +other matters really uninteresting but about which politeness assumes +that we are keenly interested, it dawned on Monsieur d'Hauteserre +that the old gentleman had come to warn his young relatives against +imprudence. He remarked that times were changed and no one could tell +what the Emperor might now become. + +"Oh!" said Laurence, "he'll make himself God." + +The Marquis spoke of the wisdom of concession. When he stated, with more +emphasis and authority than he put into his other remarks, the necessity +of submission, Monsieur d'Hauteserre looked at his sons with an almost +supplicating air. + +"Would you serve that man?" asked the Marquis de Simeuse. + +"Yes, I would, if the interests of my family required it," replied +Monsieur de Chargeboeuf. + +Gradually the old man made them aware, though vaguely, of some +threatened danger. When Laurence begged him to explain the nature of +it, he advised the four young men to refrain from hunting and to keep +themselves as much in retirement as possible. + +"You treat the domain of Gondreville as if it were your own," he said to +the Messieurs de Simeuse, "and you are keeping alive a deadly hatred. I +see, by the surprise upon your faces, that you are quite unaware of +the ill-will against you at Troyes, where your late brave conduct is +remembered. They tell of how you foiled the police of the Empire; some +praise you for it, but others regard you as enemies of the Emperor; +partisans declare that Napoleon's clemency is inexplicable. That, +however, is nothing. The real danger lies here; you foiled men who +thought themselves cleverer than you; and low-bred men never forgive. +Sooner or later justice, which in your department emanates from your +enemy, Senator Malin (who has his henchmen everywhere, even in the +ministerial offices),--_his_ justice will rejoice to see you involved in +some annoying scrape. A peasant, for instance, will quarrel with you +for riding over his field; your guns are in your hands, you are +hot-tempered, and something happens. In your position it is absolutely +essential that you should not put yourselves in the wrong. I do +not speak to you thus without good reason. The police keep this +arrondissement under strict surveillance; they have an agent in that +little hole of Arcis expressly to protect the Imperial senator Malin +against your attacks. He is afraid of you, and says so openly." + +"It is a calumny!" cried the younger Simeuse. + +"A calumny,--I am sure of it myself, but will the public believe it? +Michu certainly did aim at the senator, who does not forget the danger +he was in; and since your return the countess has taken Michu into her +service. To many persons, in fact to the majority, Malin will seem to +be in the right. You do not understand how delicate the position of an +_emigre_ is towards those who are now in possession of his property. The +prefect, a very intelligent man, dropped a word to me yesterday about +you which has made me uneasy. In short, I sincerely wish you would not +remain here." + +This speech was received in dumb amazement. Marie-Paul rang the bell. + +"Gothard," he said, to the little page, "send Michu here." + +"Michu, my friend," said the Marquis de Simeuse when the man appeared, +"is it true that you intended to kill Malin?" + +"Yes, Monsieur le marquis; and when he comes here again I shall lie in +wait for him." + +"Do you know that we are suspected of instigating it, and that our +cousin, by taking you as her farmer is supposed to be furthering your +scheme?" + +"Good God!" cried Michu, "am I accursed? Shall I never be able to rid +you of that villain?" + +"No, my man, no!" said Paul-Marie. "But we will always take care of you, +though you will have to leave our service and the country too. Sell your +property here; we will send you to Trieste to a friend of ours who has +immense business connections, and he'll employ you until things are +better in this country for all of us." + +Tears came into Michu's eyes; he stood rooted to the floor. + +"Were there any witnesses when you aimed at Malin?" asked the Marquis de +Chargeboeuf. + +"Grevin the notary was talking with him, and that prevented my killing +him--very fortunately, as Madame la Comtesse knows," said Michu, looking +at his mistress. + +"Grevin is not the only one who knows it?" said Monsieur de Chargeboeuf, +who seemed annoyed at what was said, though none but the family were +present. + +"That police spy who came here to trap my masters, he knew it too," said +Michu. + +Monsieur de Chargeboeuf rose as if to look at the gardens, and said, +"You have made the most of Cinq-Cygne." Then he left the house, followed +by the two brothers and Laurence, who now saw the meaning of his visit. + +"You are frank and generous, but most imprudent," said the old man. "It +was natural enough that I should warn you of a rumor which was certain +to be a slander; but what have you done now? you have let such weak +persons as Monsieur and Madame d'Hauteserre and their sons see that +there was truth in it. Oh, young men! young men! You ought to keep Michu +here and go away yourselves. But if you persist in remaining, at least +write a letter to the senator and tell him that having heard the rumors +about Michu you have dismissed him from your employ." + +"We!" exclaimed the brothers; "what, write to Malin,--to the murderer of +our father and our mother, to the insolent plunderer of our property!" + +"All true; but he is one of the chief personages at the Imperial court, +and the king of your department." + +"He, who voted for the death of Louis XVI. in case the army of Conde +entered France!" cried Laurence. + +"He, who probably advised the murder of the Duc d'Enghien!" exclaimed +Paul-Marie. + +"Well, well, if you want to recapitulate his titles of nobility," cried +Monsieur de Chargeboeuf, "say he who pulled Robespierre by the skirts +of his coat to make him fall when he saw that his enemies were stronger +than he; he who would have shot Bonaparte if the 18th Brumaire had +missed fire; he who manoeuvres now to bring back the Bourbons if +Napoleon totters; he whom the strong will ever find on their side to +handle either sword or pistol and put an end to an adversary whom they +fear! But--all that is only reason the more for what I urge upon you." + +"We have fallen very low," said Laurence. + +"Children," said the old marquis, taking them by the hand and going to +the lawn, then covered by a slight fall of snow; "you will be angry at +the prudent advice of an old man, but I am bound to give it, and here +it is: If I were you I would employ as go-between some trustworthy old +fellow--like myself, for instance; I would commission him to ask Malin +for a million of francs for the title-deeds of Gondreville; he would +gladly consent if the matter were kept secret. You will then have +capital in hand, an income of a hundred thousand francs, and you can +buy a fine estate in another part of France. As for Cinq-Cygne, it can +safely be left to the management of Monsieur d'Hauteserre, and you +can draw lots as to which of you shall win the hand of this dear +heiress--But ah! I know the words of an old man in the ears of the young +are like the words of the young in the ears of the old, a sound without +meaning." + +The old marquis signed to his three relatives that he wished no answer, +and returned to the salon, where, during their absence, the abbe and his +sister had arrived. + +The proposal to draw lots for their cousin's hand had offended the +brothers, while Laurence revolted in her soul at the bitterness of the +remedy the old marquis counselled. All three were now less gracious to +him, though they did not cease to be polite. The warmth of their feeling +was chilled. Monsieur de Chargeboeuf, who felt the change, cast +frequent looks of kindly compassion on these charming young people. +The conversation became general, but the old marquis still dwelt on +the necessity of submitting to events, and he applauded Monsieur +d'Hauteserre for his persistence in urging his sons to take service +under the Empire. + +"Bonaparte," he said, "makes dukes. He has created Imperial fiefs, +he will therefore make counts. Malin is determined to be Comte de +Gondreville. That is a fancy," he added, looking at the Simeuse +brothers, "which might be profitable to you--" + +"Or fatal," said Laurence. + +As soon as the horses were put-to the marquis took leave, accompanied to +the door by the whole party. When fairly in the carriage he made a sign +to Laurence to come and speak to him, and she sprang upon the foot-board +with the lightness of a swallow. + +"You are not an ordinary woman, and you ought to understand me," he said +in her ear. "Malin's conscience will never allow him to leave you in +peace; he will set some trap to injure you. I implore you to be careful +of all your actions, even the most unimportant. Compromise, negotiate; +those are my last words." + +The brothers stood motionless behind their cousin and watched the +_berlingot_ as it turned through the iron gates and took the road to +Troyes. Laurence repeated the old man's last words. But sage experience +should not present itself to the eyes of youth in a _berlingot_, colored +stockings, and a queue. These ardent young hearts had no conception +of the change that had passed over France; indignation crisped their +nerves, honor boiled with their noble blood through every vein. + +"He, the head of the house of Chargeboeuf!" said the Marquis de Simeuse. +"A man who bears the motto _Adsit fortior_, the noblest of warcries!" + +"We are no longer in the days of Saint-Louis," said the younger Simeuse. + +"But 'We die singing,'" said the countess. "The cry of the five young +girls of my house is mine!" + +"And ours, 'Cy meurs,'" said the elder Simeuse. "Therefore, no quarter, +I say; for, on reflection, we shall find that our relative had pondered +well what he told us--Gondreville to be the title of a Malin!" + +"And his seat!" said the younger. + +"Mansart designed it for noble stock, and the populace will get their +children in it!" exclaimed the elder. + +"If that were to come to pass, I'd rather see Gondreville in ashes!" +cried Mademoiselle Cinq-Cygne. + +One of the villagers, who had entered the grounds to examine a calf +Monsieur d'Hauteserre was trying to sell him, overheard these words as +he came from the cow-sheds. + +"Let us go in," said Laurence, laughing; "this is very imprudent; we are +giving the old marquis a right to blame us. My poor Michu," she added, +as she entered the salon, "I had forgotten your adventure; as we are +not in the odor of sanctity in these parts you must be careful not +to compromise us in future. Have you any other peccadilloes on your +conscience?" + +"I blame myself for not having killed the murderer of my old masters +before I came to the rescue of my present ones--" + +"Michu!" said the abbe in a warning tone. + +"But I'll not leave the country," Michu continued, paying no heed to +the abbe's exclamation, "till I am certain you are safe. I see fellows +roaming about here whom I distrust. The last time we hunted in the +forest, that keeper who took my place at Gondreville came to me and +asked if we supposed we were on our own property. 'Ho! my lad,' I said, +'we can't get rid in two weeks of ideas we've had for centuries.'" + +"You did wrong, Michu," said the Marquis de Simeuse, smiling with +satisfaction. + +"What answer did he make?" asked Monsieur d'Hauteserre. + +"He said he would inform the senator of our claims," replied Michu. + +"Comte de Gondreville!" repeated the elder Simeuse; "what a masquerade! +But after all, they say 'your Majesty' to Bonaparte!" + +"And to the Grand Duc de Berg, 'your Highness!'" said the abbe. + +"Who is he?" asked the Marquis de Simeuse. + +"Murat, Napoleon's brother-in-law," replied old d'Hauteserre. + +"Delightful!" remarked Mademoiselle de Cinq-Cygne. "Do they also say +'your Majesty' to the widow of Beauharnais?" + +"Yes, mademoiselle," said the abbe. + +"We ought to go to Paris and see it all," cried Laurence. + +"Alas, mademoiselle," said Michu, "I was there to put Francois at +school, and I swear to you there's no joking with what they call the +Imperial Guard. If the rest of the army are like them, the thing may +last longer than we." + +"They say many of the noble families are taking service," said Monsieur +d'Hauteserre. + +"According to the present law," added the abbe, "you will be compelled +to serve. The conscription makes no distinction of ranks or names." + +"That man is doing us more harm with his court than the Revolution did +with its axe!" cried Laurence. + +"The Church prays for him," said the abbe. + +These remarks, made rapidly one after another, were so many commentaries +on the wise counsel of the old Marquis de Chargeboeuf; but the young +people had too much faith, too much honor, to dream of resorting to a +compromise. They told themselves, as all vanquished parties in all times +have declared, that the luck of the conquerors would soon be at an end, +that the Emperor had no support but that of the army, that the power _de +facto_ must sooner or later give way to the Divine Right, etc. So, in +spite of the wise counsel given to them, they fell into the pitfall, +which others, like old d'Hauteserre, more prudent and more amenable +to reason, would have been able to avoid. If men were frank they might +perhaps admit that misfortunes never overtake them until after they have +received either an actual or an occult warning. Many do not perceive the +deep meaning of such visible or invisible signs until after the disaster +is upon them. + +"In any case, Madame la comtesse knows that I cannot leave the country +until I have given up a certain trust," said Michu in a low voice to +Mademoiselle de Cinq-Cygne. + +For all answer she made him a sign of acquiescence, and he left the +room. + + + + +CHAPTER XII. THE FACTS OF A MYSTERIOUS AFFAIR + +Michu sold his farm at once to Beauvisage, a farmer at Bellache, but he +was not to receive the money for twenty days. A month after the Marquis +de Chargeboeuf's visit, Laurence, who had told her cousins of their +buried fortune, proposed to them to take the day of the Mi-careme to +disinter it. The unusual quantity of snow which fell that winter had +hitherto prevented Michu from obtaining the treasure, and it now +gave him pleasure to undertake the operation with his masters. He was +determined to leave the neighborhood as soon as it was over, for he +feared himself. + +"Malin has suddenly arrived at Gondreville, and no one knows why," +he said to his mistress. "I shall never be able to resist putting the +property into the market by the death of its owner. I feel I am guilty +in not following my inspirations." + +"Why should he leave Paris at this season?" said the countess. + +"All Arcis is talking about it," replied Michu; "he has left his family +in Paris, and no one is with him but his valet. Monsieur Grevin, the +notary of Arcis, Madame Marion, the wife of the receiver-general, and +her sister-in-law are staying at Gondreville." + +Laurence had chosen the mid-lent day for their purpose because it +enabled her to give her servants a holiday and so get them out of the +way. The usual masquerade drew the peasantry to the town and no one +was at work in the fields. Chance made its calculations with as much +cleverness as Mademoiselle de Cinq-Cygne made hers. The uneasiness of +Monsieur and Madame d'Hauteserre at the idea of keeping eleven hundred +thousand francs in gold in a lonely chateau on the borders of a forest +was likely to be so great that their sons advised they should know +nothing about it. The secret of the expedition was therefore confined to +Gothard, Michu, Laurence, and the four gentlemen. + +After much consultation it seemed possible to put forty-eight thousand +francs in a long sack on the crupper of each of their horses. Three +trips would therefore bring the whole. It was agreed to send all the +servants, whose curiosity might be troublesome, to Troyes to see the +shows. Catherine, Marthe, and Durieu, who could be relied on, stayed +at home in charge of the house. The other servants were glad of their +holiday and started by daybreak. Gothard, assisted by Michu, saddled the +horses as soon as they were gone, and the party started by way of the +gardens to reach the forest. Just as they were mounting--for the park +gate was so low on the garden side that they led their horses until they +were through it--old Beauvisage, the farmer at Bellache, happened to +pass. + +"There!" cried Gothard, "I hear some one." + +"Oh, it is only I," said the worthy man, coming toward them. "Your +servant, gentleman; are you off hunting, in spite of the new decrees? +_I_ don't complain of you; but do take care! though you have friends you +have also enemies." + +"Oh, as for that," said the elder Hauteserre, smiling, "God grant that +our hunt may be lucky to-day,--if so, you will get your masters back +again." + +These words, to which events were destined to give a totally different +meaning, earned a severe look from Laurence. The elder Simeuse was +confident that Malin would restore Gondreville for an indemnity. These +rash youths were determined to do exactly the contrary of what the +Marquis de Chargeboeuf had advised. Robert, who shared these hopes, was +thinking of them when he gave utterance to the fatal words. + +"Not a word of this, old friend," said Michu to Beauvisage, waiting +behind the others to lock the gate. + +It was one of those fine mornings in March when the air is dry, the +earth pure, the sky clear, and the atmosphere a contradiction to the +leafless trees; the season was so mild that the eye caught glimpses here +and there of verdure. + +"We are seeking treasure when all the while you are the real treasure of +our house, cousin," said the elder Simeuse, gaily. + +Laurence was in front, with a cousin on each side of her. The +d'Hauteserres were behind, followed by Michu. Gothard had gone forward +to clear the way. + +"Now that our fortune is restored, you must marry my brother," said the +younger in a low voice. "He adores you; together you will be as rich as +nobles ought to be in these days." + +"No, give the whole fortune to him and I will marry you," said Laurence; +"I am rich enough for two." + +"So be it," cried the Marquis; "I will leave you, and find a wife worthy +to be your sister." + +"So you really love me less than I thought you did?" said Laurence +looking at him with a sort of jealousy. + +"No; I love you better than either of you love me," replied the marquis. + +"And therefore you would sacrifice yourself?" asked Laurence with a +glance full of momentary preference. + +The marquis was silent. + +"Well, then, I shall think only of you, and that will be intolerable to +my husband," exclaimed Laurence, impatient at his silence. + +"How could I live without you?" said the younger twin to his brother. + +"But, after all, you can't marry us both," said the marquis, replying to +Laurence; "and the time has come," he continued, in the brusque tone of +a man who is struck to the heart, "to make your decision." + +He urged his horse in advance so that the d'Hauteserres might not +overhear them. His brother's horse and Laurence's followed him. When +they had put some distance between themselves and the rest of the party +Laurence attempted to speak, but tears were at first her only language. + +"I will enter a cloister," she said at last. + +"And let the race of Cinq-Cygne end?" said the younger brother. "Instead +of one unhappy man, would you make two? No, whichever of us must be your +brother only, will resign himself to that fate. It is the knowledge +that we are no longer poor that has brought us to explain ourselves," +he added, glancing at the marquis. "If I am the one preferred, all this +money is my brother's. If I am rejected, he will give it to me with +the title of de Simeuse, for he must then take the name and title of +Cinq-Cygne. Whichever way it ends, the loser will have a chance of +recovery--but if he feels he must die of grief, he can enter the army +and die in battle, not to sadden the happy household." + +"We are true knights of the olden time, worthy of our fathers," cried +the elder. "Speak, Laurence; decide between us." + +"We cannot continue as we are," said the younger. + +"Do not think, Laurence, that self-denial is without its joys," said the +elder. + +"My dear loved ones," said the girl, "I am unable to decide. I love you +both as though you were one being--as your mother loved you. God will +help us. I cannot choose. Let us put it to chance--but I make one +condition." + +"What is it?" + +"Whichever one of you becomes my brother must stay with me until I +suffer him to leave me. I wish to be sole judge of when to part." + +"Yes, yes," said the brothers, without explaining to themselves her +meaning. + +"The first of you to whom Madame d'Hauteserre speaks to-night at table +after the Benedicite, shall be my husband. But neither of you must +practise fraud or induce her to answer a question." + +"We will play fair," said the younger, smiling. + +Each kissed her hand. The certainty of some decision which both could +fancy favorable made them gay. + +"Either way, dear Laurence, you create a Comte de Cinq-Cygne--" + +"I believe," thought Michu, riding behind them, "that mademoiselle will +not long be unmarried. How gay my masters are! If my mistress makes her +choice I shall not leave; I must stay and see that wedding." + +Just then a magpie flew suddenly before his face. Michu, superstitious +like all primitive beings, fancied he heard the muffled tones of a +death-knell. The day, however, began brightly enough for lovers, who +rarely see magpies when together in the woods. Michu, armed with his +plan, verified the spots; each gentleman had brought a pickaxe, and the +money was soon found. The part of the forest where it was buried was +quite wild, far from all paths or habitations, so that the cavalcade +bearing the gold returned unseen. This proved to be a great misfortune. +On their way from Cinq-Cygne to fetch the last two hundred thousand +francs, the party, emboldened by success, took a more direct way than +on their other trips. The path passed an opening from which the park of +Gondreville could be seen. + +"What is that?" cried Laurence, pointing to a column of blue flame. + +"A bonfire, I think," replied Michu. + +Laurence, who knew all the by-ways of the forest, left the rest of the +party and galloped towards the pavilion, Michu's old home. Though the +building was closed and deserted, the iron gates were open, and traces +of the recent passage of several horses struck Laurence instantly. The +column of blue smoke was rising from a field in what was called the +English park, where, as she supposed, they were burning brush. + +"Ah! so you are concerned in it, too, are you, mademoiselle?" cried +Violette, who came out of the park at top speed on his pony, and pulled +up to meet Laurence. "But, of course, it is only a carnival joke? They +surely won't kill him?" + +"Who?" + +"Your cousins wouldn't put him to death?" + +"Death! whose death?" + +"The senator's." + +"You are crazy, Violette!" + +"Well, what are you doing here, then?" he demanded. + +At the idea of a danger which was threatening her cousins, Laurence +turned her horse and galloped back to them, reaching the ground as the +last sacks were filled. + +"Quick, quick!" she cried. "I don't know what is going on, but let us +get back to Cinq-Cygne." + +While the happy party were employed in recovering the fortune saved +by the old marquis, and guarded for so many years by Michu, an +extraordinary scene was taking place in the chateau of Gondreville. + +About two o'clock in the afternoon Malin and his friend Grevin were +playing chess before the fire in the great salon on the ground-floor. +Madame Grevin and Madame Marion were sitting on a sofa and talking +together at a corner of the fireplace. All the servants had gone to see +the masquerade, which had long been announced in the arrondissement. The +family of the bailiff who had replaced Michu had gone too. The senator's +valet and Violette were the only persons beside the family at the +chateau. The porter, two gardeners, and their wives were on the place, +but their lodge was at the entrance of the courtyards at the farther end +of the avenue to Arcis, and the distance from there to the chateau +is beyond the sound of a pistol-shot. Violette was waiting in the +antechamber until the senator and Grevin could see him on business, to +arrange a matter relating to his lease. At that moment five men, masked +and gloved, who in height, manner, and bearing strongly resembled +the Simeuse and d'Hauteserre brothers and Michu, rushed into the +antechamber, seized and gagged the valet and Violette, and fastened them +to their chairs in a side room. In spite of the rapidity with which this +was done, Violette and the servant had time to utter one cry. It was +heard in the salon. The two ladies thought it a cry of fear. + +"Listen!" said Madame Grevin, "can there be robbers?" + +"No, nonsense!" said Grevin, "only carnival cries; the masqueraders must +be coming to pay us a visit." + +This discussion gave time for the four strangers to close the doors +towards the courtyards and to lock up Violette and the valet. Madame +Grevin, who was rather obstinate, insisted on knowing what the noise +meant. She rose, left the room, and came face to face with the five +masked men, who treated her as they had treated the farmer and the +valet. Then they rushed into the salon, where the two strongest seized +and gagged Malin, and carried him off into the park, while the three +others remained behind to gag Madame Marion and Grevin and lash them to +their armchairs. The whole affair did not take more than half an hour. +The three unknown men, who were quickly rejoined by the two who had +carried off the senator, then proceeded to ransack the chateau from +cellar to garret. They opened all closets and doors, and sounded the +walls; until five o'clock they were absolute masters of the place. By +that time the valet had managed to loosen with his teeth the rope that +bound Violette. Violette, able then to get the gag from his mouth, +began to shout for help. Hearing the shouts the five men withdrew to +the gardens, where they mounted horses closely resembling those at +Cinq-Cygne and rode away, but not so rapidly that Violette was unable to +catch sight of them. After releasing the valet, the two ladies, and the +notary, Violette mounted his pony and rode after help. When he reached +the pavilion he was amazed to see the gates open and Mademoiselle de +Cinq-Cygne apparently on the watch. + +Directly after the young countess had ridden off, Violette was overtaken +by Grevin and the forester of the township of Gondreville, who had taken +horses from the stables at the chateau. The porter's wife was on her way +to summon the gendarmerie from Arcis. Violette at once informed Grevin +of his meeting with Laurence and the sudden flight of the daring girl, +whose strong and decided character was known to all of them. + +"She was keeping watch," said Violette. + +"Is it possible that those Cinq-Cygne people have done this thing?" +cried Grevin. + +"Do you mean to say you didn't recognize that stout Michu?" exclaimed +Violette. "It was he who attacked me; I knew his fist. Besides, they +rode the Cinq-Cygne horses." + +Noticing the hoof-marks on the sand of the _rond-point_ and along the +park road the notary stationed the forester at the gateway to see to +the preservation of these precious traces until the justice of peace +of Arcis (for whom he now sent Violette) could take note of them. +He himself returned hastily to the chateau, where the lieutenant +and sub-lieutenant of the Imperial gendarmerie at Arcis had arrived, +accompanied by four men and a corporal. The lieutenant was the same +man whose head Francois Michu had broken two years earlier, and who had +heard from Corentin the name of his mischievous assailant. This man, +whose name was Giguet (his brother was in the army, and became one of +the finest colonels of artillery), was an extremely able officer +of gendarmerie. Later he commanded the squadron of the Aube. The +sub-lieutenant, named Welff, had formerly driven Corentin from +Cinq-Cygne to the pavilion, and from the pavilion to Troyes. On the +way, the spy had fully informed him as to what he called the trickery +of Laurence and Michu. The two officers were therefore well inclined to +show, and did show, great eagerness against the family at Cinq-Cygne. + + + + +CHAPTER XIII. THE CODE OF BRUMAIRE, YEAR IV. + +Malin and Grevin had both, the latter working for the former, taken part +in the construction of the Code called that of Brumaire, year IV., the +judicial work of the National Convention, so-called, and promulgated by +the Directory. Grevin knew its provisions thoroughly, and was able to +apply them in this affair with terrible celerity, under a theory, now +converted into a certainty, of the guilt of Michu and the Messieurs +de Simeuse and d'Hauteserre. No one in these days, unless it be some +antiquated magistrates, will remember this system of justice, which +Napoleon was even then overthrowing by the promulgation of his own +Codes, and by the institution of his magistracy under the form in which +it now rules France. + +The Code of Brumaire, year IV., gave to the director of the jury of +the department the duty of discovering, indicting, and prosecuting the +persons guilty of the delinquency committed at Gondreville. Remark, by +the way, that the Convention had eliminated from its judicial vocabulary +the word "crime"; _delinquencies_ and _misdemeanors_ were alone +admitted; and these were punished with fines, imprisonment, and +penalties "afflictive or infamous." Death was an afflictive punishment. +But the penalty of death was to be done away with after the restoration +of peace, and twenty-four years of hard labor were to take its place. +Thus the Convention estimated twenty-four years of hard labor as +the equivalent of death. What therefore can be said for a code which +inflicts the punishment of hard labor for life? The system then in +process of preparation by the Napoleonic Council of State suppressed the +function of the directors of juries, which united many enormous powers. +In relation to the discovery of delinquencies and their prosecution the +director of the jury was, in fact, agent of police, public prosecutor, +municipal judge, and the court itself. His proceedings and his +indictments were, however, submitted for signature to a commissioner of +the executive power and to the verdict of eight jurymen, before whom +he laid the facts of the case, and who examined the witnesses and the +accused and rendered the preliminary verdict, called the indictment. The +director was, however, in a position to exercise such influence over the +jurymen, who met in his private office, that they could not well avoid +agreeing with him. These jurymen were called the jury of indictment. +There were others who formed the juries of the criminal tribunals +whose duty it was to judge the accused; these were called, in +contradistinction to the jury of indictment, the judgment jury. The +criminal tribunal, to which Napoleon afterwards gave the name of +criminal court, was composed of one President or chief justice, four +judges, the public prosecutor, and a government commissioner. + +Nevertheless, from 1799 to 1806 there were special courts (so-called) +which judged without juries certain misdemeanors in certain departments; +these were composed of judges taken from the civil courts and formed +into a special court. This conflict of special justice and criminal +justice gave rise to questions of competence which came before the +courts of appeal. If the department of the Aube had had a special court, +the verdict on the outrage committed on a senator of the Empire would no +doubt have been referred to it; but this tranquil department had +never needed unusual jurisdiction. Grevin therefore despatched the +sub-lieutenant to Troyes to bring the director of the jury of that town. +The emissary went at full gallop, and soon returned in a post-carriage +with the all-powerful magistrate. + +The director of the Troyes jury was formerly secretary of one of the +committees of the Convention, a friend of Malin, to whom he owed his +present place. This magistrate, named Lechesneau, had helped Malin, as +Grevin had done, in his work on the Code during the Convention. Malin in +return recommended him to Cambaceres, who appointed him attorney-general +for Italy. Unfortunately for him, Lechesneau had a liaison with a +great lady in Turin, and Napoleon removed him to avoid a criminal trial +threatened by the husband. Lechesneau, bound in gratitude to Malin, felt +the importance of this attack upon his patron, and brought with him a +captain of gendarmerie and twelve men. + +Before starting he laid his plans with the prefect, who was unable +at that late hour, it being after dark, to use the telegraph. They +therefore sent a mounted messenger to Paris to notify the minister of +police, the chief justice and the Emperor of this extraordinary crime. +In the salon of Gondreville, Lechesneau found Mesdames Marion and +Grevin, Violette, the senator's valet, and the justice of peace with his +clerk. The chateau had already been examined; the justice, assisted by +Grevin, had carefully collected the first testimony. The first thing +that struck him was the obvious intention shown in the choice of the +day and hour for the attack. The hour prevented an immediate search for +proofs and traces. At this season it was nearly dark by half-past five, +the hour at which Violette gave the alarm, and darkness often means +impunity to evil-doers. The choice of a holiday, when most persons had +gone to the masquerade at Arcis, and the senator was comparatively alone +in the house, showed an obvious intention to get rid of witnesses. + +"Let us do justice to the intelligence of the prefecture of police," +said Lechesneau; "they have never ceased to warn us to be on our guard +against the nobles at Cinq-Cygne; they have always declared that sooner +or later those people would play us some dangerous trick." + +Sure of the active co-operation of the prefect of the Aube, who sent +messengers to all the surrounding prefectures asking them to search +for the five abductors and the senator, Lechesneau began his work by +verifying the first facts. This was soon done by the help of two such +legal heads as those of Grevin and the justice of peace. The latter, +named Pigoult, formerly head-clerk in the office where Malin and Grevin +had first studied law in Paris, was soon after appointed judge of the +municipal court at Arcis. In relation to Michu, Lechesneau knew of the +threats the man had made about the sale of Gondreville to Marion, and +the danger Malin had escaped in his own park from Michu's gun. These +two facts, one being the consequence of the other, were no doubt +the precursors of the present successful attack, and they pointed so +obviously to the late bailiff as the instigator of the outrage that +Grevin, his wife, Violette, and Madame Marion declared that they had +recognized among the five masked men one who exactly resembled Michu. +The color of the hair and whiskers and the thick-set figure of the man +made the mask he wore useless. Besides, who but Michu could have opened +the iron gates of the park with a key? The present bailiff and his wife, +now returned from the masquerade, deposed to have locked both gates +before leaving the pavilion. The gates when examined showed no sign of +being forced. + +"When we turned him off he must have taken some duplicate keys with +him," remarked Grevin. "No doubt he has been meditating a desperate +step, for he has lately sold his whole property, and he received the +money for it in my office day before yesterday." + +"The others have followed his lead!" exclaimed Lechesneau, struck with +the circumstances. "He has been their evil genius." + +Moreover, who could know as well as the Messieurs de Simeuse the ins and +outs of the chateau. None of the assailants seemed to have blundered in +their search; they had gone through the house in a confident way which +showed that they knew what they wanted to find and where to find it. +The locks of none of the opened closets had been forced; therefore the +delinquents had keys. Strange to say, however, nothing had been taken; +the motive, therefore, was not robbery. More than all, when Violette +had followed the tracks of the horses as far as the _rond-point_, he +had found the countess, evidently on guard, at the pavilion. From such a +combination of facts and depositions arose a presumption as to the guilt +of the Messieurs de Simeuse, d'Hauteserre, and Michu, which would have +been strong to unprejudiced minds, and to the director of the jury had +the force of certainty. What were they likely to do to the future Comte +de Gondreville? Did they mean to force him to make over the estate for +which Michu declared in 1799 he had the money to pay? + +But there was another aspect of the cast to the knowing criminal lawyer. +He asked himself what could be the object of the careful search made of +the chateau. If revenge were at the bottom of the matter, the assailants +would have killed the senator. Perhaps he had been killed and buried. +The abduction, however, seemed to point to imprisonment. But why keep +their victim imprisoned after searching the castle? It was folly to +suppose that the abduction of a dignitary of the Empire could long +remain secret. The publicity of the matter would prevent any benefit +from it. + +To these suggestions Pigoult replied that justice was never able to make +out all the motives of scoundrels. In every criminal case there +were obscurities, he said, between the judge and the guilty person; +conscience had depths into which no human mind could enter unless by the +confession of the criminal. + +Grevin and Lechesneau nodded their assent, without, however, relaxing +their determination to see to the bottom of the present mystery. + +"The Emperor pardoned those young men," said Pigoult to Grevin. "He +removed their names from the list of _emigres_, though they certainly +took part in that last conspiracy against him." + +Lechesneau make no delay in sending his whole force of gendarmerie to +the forest and to the valley of Cinq-Cygne; telling Giguet to take with +him the justice of peace, who, according to the terms of the Code, would +then become an auxiliary police-officer. He ordered them to make +all preliminary inquiries in the township of Cinq-Cygne, and to take +testimony if necessary; and to save time, he dictated and signed a +warrant for the arrest of Michu, against whom the charge was evident on +the positive testimony of Violette. After the departure of the gendarmes +Lechesneau returned to the important question of issuing warrants for +the arrest of the Simeuse and d'Hauteserre brothers. According to +the Code these warrants would have to contain the charges against the +delinquents. + +Giguet and the justice of peace rode so rapidly to Cinq-Cygne that +they met Laurence's servants returning from the festivities at Troyes. +Stopped, and taken before the mayor where they were interrogated, they +all stated, being ignorant of the importance of the answer, that their +mistress had given them permission to spend the whole day at Troyes. +To a question put by the justice of the peace, each replied that +Mademoiselle had offered them the amusement which they had not thought +of asking for. This testimony seemed so important to the justice of the +peace that he sent back a messenger to Gondreville to advise Lechesneau +to proceed himself to Cinq-Cygne and arrest the four gentlemen, while +he went to Michu's farm, so that the five arrests might be made +simultaneously. + +This new element was so convincing that Lechesneau started at once for +Cinq-Cygne. He knew well what pleasure would be felt in Troyes at such +proceedings against the old nobles, the enemies of the people, now +become the enemies of the Emperor. In such circumstances a magistrate +is very apt to take mere presumptive evidence for actual proof. +Nevertheless, on his way from Gondreville to Cinq-Cygne, in the +senator's own carriage, it did occur to Lechesneau (who would certainly +have made a fine magistrate had it not been for his love-affair, and the +Emperor's sudden morality to which he owed his disgrace) to think the +audacity of the young men and Michu a piece of folly which was not in +keeping with what he knew of the judgment and character of Mademoiselle +de Cinq-Cygne. He imagined in his own mind some other motives for the +deed than the restitution of Gondreville. In all things, even in the +magistracy, there is what may be called the conscience of a calling. +Lechesneau's perplexities came from this conscience, which all men put +into the proper performance of the duties they like--scientific men into +science, artists into art, judges into the rendering of justice. Perhaps +for this reason judges are really greater safeguards for persons accused +of wrong-doing than are juries. A magistrate relies only on reason and +its laws; juries are floated to and fro by the waves of sentiment. The +director of the jury accordingly set several questions before his mind, +resolving to find in their solution satisfactory reasons for making the +arrests. + +Though the news of the abduction was already agitating the town of +Troyes, it was still unknown at Arcis, where the inhabitants were +supping when the messenger arrived to summon the gendarmes. No one, of +course, knew it in the village of Cinq-Cygne, the valley and the chateau +of which were now, for the second time, encircled by gendarmes. + +Laurence had only to tell Marthe, Catherine, and the Durieus not to +leave the chateau, to be strictly obeyed. After each trip to fetch the +gold, the horses were fastened in the covered way opposite to the breach +in the moat, and from there Robert and Michu, the strongest of the +party, carried the sacks through the breach to a cellar under the +staircase in the tower called Mademoiselle's. Reaching the chateau with +the last load about half-past five o'clock, the four gentlemen and Michu +proceeded to bury the treasure in the floor of the cellar and then to +wall up the entrance. Michu took charge of the matter with Gothard to +help him; the lad was sent to the farm for some sacks of plaster left +over when the new buildings were put up, and Marthe went with him to +show him where they were. Michu, very hungry, made such haste that by +half-past seven o'clock the work was done; and he started for home at +a quick pace to stop Gothard, who had been sent for another sack of +plaster which he thought he might want. The farm was already watched +by the forester of Cinq-Cygne, the justice of peace, his clerk and four +gendarmes who, however, kept out of sight and allowed him to enter the +house without seeing them. + +Michu saw Gothard with the sack on his shoulder and called to him from a +distance: "It is all finished, my lad; take that back and stay and dine +with us." + +Michu, his face perspiring, his clothes soiled with plaster and covered +with fragments of muddy stone from the breach, reached home joyfully and +entered the kitchen where Marthe and her mother were serving the soup in +expectation of his coming. + +Just as Michu was turning the faucet of the water-pipe intending to wash +his hands, the justice of peace entered the house accompanied by his +clerk and the forester. + +"What have you come for, Monsieur Pigoult?" asked Michu. + +"In the name of the Emperor and the laws, I arrest you," replied the +justice. + +The three gendarmes entered the kitchen leading Gothard. Seeing the +silver lace on their hats Marthe and her mother looked at each other in +terror. + +"Pooh! why?" asked Michu, who sat down at the table and called to his +wife, "Give me something to eat; I'm famished." + +"You know why as well as we do," said the justice, making a sign to his +clerk to begin the _proces-verbal_ and exhibiting the warrant of arrest. + +"Well, well, Gothard, you needn't stare so," said Michu. "Do you want +some dinner, yes or no? Let them write down their nonsense." + +"You admit, of course, the condition of your clothes?" said the justice +of peace; "and you can't deny the words you said just now to Gothard?" + +Michu, supplied with food by his wife, who was amazed at his coolness, +was eating with the avidity of a hungry man. He made no answer to +the justice, for his mouth was full and his heart innocent. Gothard's +appetite was destroyed by fear. + +"Look here," said the forester, going up to Michu and whispering in his +ear: "What have you done with the senator? You had better make a clean +breast of it, for if we are to believe these people it is a matter of +life or death to you." + +"Good God!" cried Marthe, who overheard the last words and fell into a +chair as if annihilated. + +"Violette must have played us some infamous trick," cried Michu, +recollecting what Laurence had said in the forest. + +"Ha! so you do know that Violette saw you?" said the justice of peace. + +Michu bit his lips and resolved to say no more. Gothard imitated him. +Seeing the uselessness of all attempts to make them talk, and knowing +what the neighborhood chose to call Michu's perversity, the justice +ordered the gendarmes to bind his hands and those of Gothard, and take +them both to the chateau, whither he now went himself to rejoin the +director of the jury. + + + + +CHAPTER XIV. THE ARRESTS + +The four young men and Laurence were so hungry and the dinner so +acceptable that they would not delay it by changing their dress. They +entered the salon, she in her riding-habit, they in their white leather +breeches, high-top boots and green-cloth jackets, where they found +Monsieur d'Hauteserre and his wife, not a little uneasy at their long +absence. The goodman had noticed their goings and comings, and, above +all, their evident distrust of him, for Laurence had been unable to get +rid of him as she had of her servants. Once when his own sons evidently +avoided making any reply to his questions, he went to his wife and said, +"I am afraid that Laurence may still get us into trouble!" + +"What sort of game did you hunt to-day?" said Madame d'Hauteserre to +Laurence. + +"Ah!" replied the young girl, laughing, "you'll hear some day what a +strange hunt your sons have joined in to-day." + +Though said in jest the words made the old lady tremble. Catherine +entered to announce dinner. Laurence took Monsieur d'Hauteserre's arm, +smiling for a moment at the necessity she thus forced upon her cousins +to offer an arm to Madame d'Hauteserre, who, according to agreement, was +now to be the arbiter of their fate. + +The Marquis de Simeuse took in Madame d'Hauteserre. The situation was so +momentous that after the Benedicite was said Laurence and the young +men trembled from the violent palpitation of their hearts. Madame +d'Hauteserre, who carved, was struck by the anxiety on the faces of +the Simeuse brothers and the great alteration that was noticeable in +Laurence's lamb-like features. + +"Something extraordinary is going on, I am sure of it!" she exclaimed, +looking at all of them. + +"To whom are you speaking?" asked Laurence. + +"To all of you," said the old lady. + +"As for me, mother," said Robert, "I am frightfully hungry, and that is +not extraordinary." + +Madame d'Hauteserre, still troubled, offered the Marquis de Simeuse a +plate intended for his brother. + +"I am like your mother," she said. "I don't know you apart even by your +cravats. I thought I was helping your brother." + +"You have helped me better than you thought for," said the youngest, +turning pale; "you have made him Comte de Cinq-Cygne." + +"What! do you mean to tell me the countess has made her choice?" cried +Madame d'Hauteserre. + +"No," said Laurence; "we left the decision to fate and you are its +instrument." + +She told of the agreement made that morning. The elder Simeuse, watching +the increasing pallor of his brother's face, was momentarily on the +point of crying out, "Marry her; I will go away and die!" Just then, as +the dessert was being served, all present heard raps upon the window of +the dining-room on the garden side. The eldest d'Hauteserre opened it +and gave entrance to the abbe, whose breeches were torn in climbing over +the walls of the park. + +"Fly! they are coming to arrest you," he cried. + +"Why?" + +"I don't know yet; but there's a warrant against you." + +The words were greeted with general laughter. + +"We are innocent," said the young men. + +"Innocent or guilty," said the abbe, "mount your horses and make for +the frontier. There you can prove your innocence. You could overcome +a sentence by default; you will never overcome a sentence rendered +by popular passion and instigated by prejudice. Remember the words of +President de Harlay, 'If I were accused of carrying off the towers of +Notre-Dame the first thing I should do would be to run away.'" + +"To run away would be to admit we were guilty," said the Marquis de +Simeuse. + +"Don't do it!" cried Laurence. + +"Always the same sublime folly!" exclaimed the abbe, in despair. "If I +had the power of God I would carry you away. But if I am found here +in this state they will turn my visit against you, and against me too; +therefore I leave you by the way I came. Consider my advice; you have +still time. The gendarmes have not yet thought of the wall which adjoins +the parsonage; but you are hemmed in on the other sides." + +The sound of many feet and the jangle of the sabres of the gendarmerie +echoed through the courtyard and reached the dining-room a few moments +after the departure of the poor abbe, whose advice had met the same fate +as that of the Marquis de Chargeboeuf. + +"Our twin existence," said the younger Simeuse, speaking to Laurence, +"is an anomaly--our love for you is anomalous; it is that very quality +which was won your heart. Possibly, the reason why all twins known to +us in history have been unfortunate is that the laws of nature are +subverted in them. In our case, see how persistently an evil fate +follows us! your decision is now postponed." + +Laurence was stupefied; the fatal words of the director of the jury +hummed in her ears:--"In the name of the Emperor and the laws, I +arrest the Sieurs Paul-Marie and Marie-Paul Simeuse, Adrien and Robert +d'Hauteserre--These gentlemen," he added, addressing the men who +accompanied him and pointing to the mud on the clothing of the +prisoners, "cannot deny that they have spent the greater part of this +day on horseback." + +"Of what are they accused?" asked Mademoiselle de Cinq-Cygne, haughtily. + +"Don't you mean to arrest Mademoiselle?" said Giguet. + +"I shall leave her at liberty under bail, until I can carefully examine +the charges against her," replied the director. + +The mayor offered bail, asking the countess to merely give her word of +honor that she would not escape. Laurence blasted him with a look which +made him a mortal enemy; a tear started from her eyes, one of those +tears of rage which reveal a hell of suffering. The four gentlemen +exchanged a terrible look, but remained motionless. Monsieur and Madame +d'Hauteserre, dreading lest the young people had practised some deceit, +were in a state of indescribable stupefaction. Clinging to their chairs +these unfortunate parents, finding their sons torn from them after +so many fears and their late hopes of safety, sat gazing before them +without seeing, listening without hearing. + +"Must I ask you to bail me, Monsieur d'Hauteserre?" cried Laurence to +her former guardian, who was roused by the cry, clear and agonizing to +his ear as the sound of the last trumpet. + +He tried to wipe the tears which sprang to his eyes; he now understood +what was passing, and said to his young relation in a quivering voice, +"Forgive me, countess; you know that I am yours, body and soul." + +Lechesneau, who at first was much struck by the evident tranquillity in +which the whole party were dining, now returned to his former opinion +of their guilt as he noticed the stupefaction of the old people and the +evident anxiety of Laurence, who was seeking to discover the nature of +the trap which was set for them. + +"Gentlemen," he said, politely, "you are too well-bred to make a useless +resistance; follow me to the stables, where I must, in your presence, +have the shoes of your horses taken off; they afford important proof of +either guilt or innocence. Come, too, mademoiselle." + +The blacksmith of Cinq-Cygne and his assistant had been summoned by +Lechesneau as experts. While the operation at the stable was going on +the justice of peace brought in Gothard and Michu. The work of detaching +the shoes of each horse, putting them together and ticketing them, so as +to compare them with the hoof-prints in the park, took time. Lechesneau, +notified of the arrival of Pigoult, left the prisoners with the +gendarmes and returned to the dining-room to dictate the indictment. +The justice of peace called his attention to the condition of Michu's +clothes and related the circumstances of his arrest. + +"They must have killed the senator and plastered the body up in some +wall," said Pigoult. + +"I begin to fear it," answered Lechesneau. "Where did you carry that +plaster?" he said to Gothard. + +The boy began to cry. + +"The law frightens him," said Michu, whose eyes were darting flames like +those of a lion in the toils. + +The servants, who had been detained at the village by order of the +mayor, now arrived and filled the antechamber where Catherine and +Gothard were weeping. To all the questions of the director of the jury +and the justice of peace Gothard replied by sobs; and by dint of weeping +he brought on a species of convulsion which alarmed them so much that +they let him alone. The little scamp, perceiving that he was no longer +watched, looked at Michu with a grin, and Michu signified his approval +by a glance. Lechesneau left the justice of peace and returned to the +stables. + +"Monsieur," said Madame d'Hauteserre, at last, addressing Pigoult; "can +you explain these arrests?" + +"The gentlemen are accused of abducting the senator by armed force and +keeping him a prisoner; for we do not think they have murdered him--in +spite of appearances," replied Pigoult. + +"What penalties are attached to the crime?" asked Monsieur d'Hauteserre. + +"Well, as the old law continues in force, and they are not amenable +under the Code, the penalty is death," replied the justice. + +"Death!" cried Madame d'Hauteserre, fainting away. + +The abbe now came in with his sister, who stopped to speak to Catherine +and Madame Durieu. + +"We haven't even seen your cursed senator!" said Michu. + +"Madame Marion, Madame Grevin, Monsieur Grevin, the senator's valet, and +Violette all tell another tale," replied Pigoult, with the sour smile of +magisterial conviction. + +"I don't understand a thing about it," said Michu, dumbfounded by his +reply, and beginning now to believe that his masters and himself were +entangled in some plot which had been laid against them. + +Just then the party from the stables returned. Laurence went up to +Madame d'Hauteserre, who recovered her senses enough to say: "The +penalty is death!" + +"Death!" repeated Laurence, looking at the four gentlemen. + +The word excited a general terror, of which Giguet, formerly instructed +by Corentin, took immediate advantage. + +"Everything can be arranged," he said, drawing the Marquis de Simeuse +into a corner of the dining-room. "Perhaps after all it is nothing but a +joke; you've been a soldier and soldiers understand each other. Tell me, +what have you really done with the senator? If you have killed him--why, +that's the end of it! But if you have only locked him up, release him, +for you see for yourself your game is balked. Do this and I am certain +the director of the jury and the senator himself will drop the matter." + +"We know absolutely nothing about it," said the marquis. + +"If you take that tone the matter is likely to go far," replied the +lieutenant. + +"Dear cousin," said the Marquis de Simeuse, "we are forced to go to +prison; but do not be uneasy; we shall return in a few hours, for there +is some misunderstanding in all this which can be explained." + +"I hope so, for your sakes, gentlemen," said the magistrate, signing to +the gendarmes to remove the four gentlemen, Michu, and Gothard. "Don't +take them to Troyes; keep them in your guardhouse at Arcis," he said to +the lieutenant; "they must be present to-morrow, at daybreak, when we +compare the shoes of their horses with the hoof-prints in the park." + +Lechesneau and Pigoult did not follow until they had closely questioned +Catherine, Monsieur and Madame d'Hauteserre, and Laurence. The Durieus, +Catherine, and Marthe declared they had only seen their masters at +breakfast-time; Monsieur d'Hauteserre said he had seen them at three +o'clock. + +When, at midnight, Laurence found herself alone with Monsieur and Madame +d'Hauteserre, the abbe and his sister, and without the four young men +who for the last eighteen months had been the life of the chateau and +the love and joy of her own life, she fell into a gloomy silence which +no one present dared to break. No affliction was ever deeper or more +complete than hers. At last a deep sigh broke the stillness, and all +eyes turned towards the sound. + +Marthe, forgotten in a corner, rose, exclaiming, "Death! They will kill +them in spite of their innocence!" + +"Mademoiselle, what is the matter with you?" said the abbe. + +Laurence left the room without replying. She needed solitude to recover +strength in presence of this terrible unforeseen disaster. + + + + +CHAPTER XV. DOUBTS AND FEARS OF COUNSEL + +At a distance of thirty-four years, during which three great revolutions +have taken place, none but elderly persons can recall the immense +excitement produced in Europe by the abduction of a senator of the +French Empire. No trial, if we except that of Trumeaux, the grocer of +the Place Saint-Michel, and that of the widow Morin, under the Empire; +those of Fualdes and de Castaing, under the Restoration; those of Madame +Lafarge and Fieschi, under the present government, ever roused so much +curiosity or so deep an interest as that of the four young men accused +of abducting Malin. Such an attack against a member of his Senate +excited the wrath of the Emperor, who was told of the arrest of the +delinquents almost at the moment when he first heard of the crime and +the negative results of the inquiries. The forest, searched throughout, +the department of the Aube, ransacked from end to end, gave not the +slightest indication of the passage of the Comte de Gondreville nor +of his imprisonment. Napoleon sent for the chief justice, who, after +obtaining certain information from the ministry of police, explained to +his Majesty the position of Malin in regard to the Simeuse brothers +and the Gondreville estate. The Emperor, at that time pre-occupied +with serious matters, considered the affair explained by these anterior +facts. + +"Those young men are fools," he said. "A lawyer like Malin will escape +any deed they may force him to sign under violence. Watch those nobles, +and discover the means they take to set the Comte de Gondreville at +liberty." + +He ordered the affair to be conducted with the utmost celerity, +regarding it as an attack on his own institutions, a fatal example of +resistance to the results of the Revolution, an effort to open the great +question of the sales of "national property," and a hindrance to that +fusion of parties which was the constant object of his home policy. +Besides all this, he thought himself tricked by these young nobles, who +had given him their promise to live peaceably. + +"Fouche's prediction has come true," he cried, remembering the words +uttered two years earlier by his present minister of police, who said +them under the impressions conveyed to him by Corentin's report as to +the character and designs of Mademoiselle de Cinq-Cygne. + +It is impossible for persons living under a constitutional government, +where no one really cares for that cold and thankless, blind, deaf Thing +called public interest, to imagine the zeal which a mere word of the +Emperor was able to inspire in his political or administrative machine. +That powerful will seemed to impress itself as much upon things as upon +men. His decision once uttered, the Emperor, overtaken by the coalition +of 1806, forgot the whole matter. He thought only of new battles to +fight, and his mind was occupied in massing his regiments to strike the +great blow at the heart of the Prussian monarchy. His desire for prompt +justice in the present case found powerful assistance in the great +uncertainty which affected the position of all magistrates of the +Empire. Just at this time Cambaceres, as arch-chancellor, and Regnier, +chief justice, were preparing to organize _tribunaux de premiere +instance_ (lower civil courts), imperial courts, and a court of appeal +or supreme court. They were agitating the question of a legal garb or +costume; to which Napoleon attached, and very justly, so much importance +in all official stations; and they were also inquiring into the +character of the persons composing the magistracy. Naturally, therefore, +the officials of the department of the Aube considered they could have +no better recommendation than to give proofs of their zeal in the matter +of the abduction of the Comte de Gondreville. Napoleon's suppositions +became certainties to these courtiers and also to the populace. + +Peace still reigned on the continent; admiration for the Emperor was +unanimous in France; he cajoled all interests, persons, vanities, and +things, in short, everything, even memories. This attack, therefore, +directed against his senator, seemed in the eyes of all an assault upon +the public welfare. The luckless and innocent gentlemen were the objects +of general opprobrium. A few nobles living quietly on their estates +deplored the affair among themselves but dared not open their lips; +in fact, how was it possible for them to oppose the current of public +opinion. Throughout the department the deaths of the eleven persons +killed by the Simeuse brothers in 1792 from the windows of the hotel +Cinq-Cygne were brought up against them. It was feared that other +returned and now emboldened _emigres_ might follow this example of +violence against those who had bought their estates from the "national +domain," as a method of protesting against what they might call an +unjust spoliation. + +The unfortunate young nobles were therefore considered as robbers, +brigands, murderers; and their connection with Michu was particularly +fatal to them. Michu, who was declared, either he or his father-in-law, +to have cut off all the heads that fell under the Terror in that +department, was made the subject of ridiculous tales. The exasperation +of the public mind was all the more intense because nearly all the +functionaries of the department owed their offices to Malin. No generous +voice uplifted itself against the verdict of the public. Besides all +this, the accused had no legal means with which to combat prejudice; for +the Code of Brumaire, year IV., giving as it did both the prosecution of +a charge and the verdict upon it into the hands of a jury, deprived the +accused of the vast protection of an appeal against legal suspicion. + +The day after the arrest all the inhabitants of the chateau of +Cinq-Cygne, both masters and servants, were summoned to appear before +the prosecuting jury. Cinq-Cygne was left in charge of a farmer, +under the supervision of the abbe and his sister who moved into it. +Mademoiselle de Cinq-Cygne, with Monsieur and Madame d'Hauteserre, went +to Troyes and occupied a small house belonging to Durieu in one of the +long and wide faubourgs which lead from the little town. Laurence's +heart was wrung when she at last comprehended the temper of the +populace, the malignity of the bourgeoisie, and the hostility of the +administration, from the many little events which happened to them as +relatives of prisoners accused of criminal wrong-doing and about to +be judged in a provincial town. Instead of hearing encouraging or +compassionate words they heard only speeches which called for vengeance; +proofs of hatred surrounded them in place of the strict politeness or +the reserve required by mere decency; but above all they were conscious +of an isolation which every mind must feel, but more particularly those +which are made distrustful by misfortune. + +Laurence, who had recovered her vigor of mind, relied upon the innocence +of the accused, and despised the community too much to be frightened by +the stern and silent disapproval they met with everywhere. She sustained +the courage of Monsieur and Madame d'Hauteserre, all the while thinking +of the judicial struggle which was now being hurried on. She was, +however, to receive a blow she little expected, which, undoubtedly, +diminished her courage. + +In the midst of this great disaster, at the moment when this afflicted +family were made to feel themselves, as it were, in a desert, a man +suddenly became exalted in Laurence's eyes and showed the full beauty of +his character. The day after the indictment was found by the jury, +and the prisoners were finally committed for trial, the Marquis de +Chargeboeuf courageously appeared, still in the same old caleche, to +support and protect his young cousin. Foreseeing the haste with which +the law would be administered, this chief of a great family had already +gone to Paris and secured the services of the most able as well as the +most honest lawyer of the old school, named Bordin, who was for ten +years counsel of the nobility in Paris, and was ultimately succeeded by +the celebrated Derville. This excellent lawyer chose for his assistant +the grandson of a former president of the parliament of Normandy, whose +studies had been made under his tuition. This young lawyer, who was +destined to be appointed deputy-attorney-general in Paris after the +conclusion of the present trial, became eventually one of the most +celebrated of French magistrates. Monsieur de Grandville, for that was +his name, accepted the defence of the four young men, being glad of +an opportunity to make his first appearance as an advocate with +distinction. + +The old marquis, alarmed at the ravages which troubles had wrought in +Laurence's appearance, was charmingly kind and considerate. He made no +allusion to his neglected advice; he presented Bordin as an oracle whose +counsel must be followed to the letter, and young de Grandville as a +defender in whom the utmost confidence might be placed. + +Laurence held out her hand to the kind old man, and pressed his with an +eagerness which delighted him. + +"You were right," she said. + +"Will you now take my advice?" he asked. + +The young countess bowed her head in assent, as did Monsieur and Madame +d'Hauteserre. + +"Well, then, come to my house; it is in the middle of town, close to +the courthouse. You and your lawyers will be better off there than here, +where you are crowded and too far from the field of battle. Here, you +would have to cross the town twice a day." + +Laurence, accepted, and the old man took her with Madame d'Hauteserre +to his house, which became the home of the Cinq-Cygne household and the +lawyers of the defence during the whole time the trial lasted. After +dinner, when the doors were closed, Bordin made Laurence relate every +circumstance of the affair, entreating her to omit nothing, not the most +trifling detail. Though many of the facts had already been told to him +and his young assistant by the marquis on their journey from Paris +to Troyes, Bordin listened, his feet on the fender, without obtruding +himself into the recital. The young lawyer, however, could not help +being divided between his admiration for Mademoiselle de Cinq-Cygne, and +the attention he was bound to give to the facts of his case. + +"Is that really all?" asked Bordin when Laurence had related the events +of the drama just as the present narrative has given them up to the +present time. + +"Yes," she answered. + +Profound silence reigned for several minutes in the salon of the +Chargeboeuf mansion where this scene took place,--one of the most +important which occur in life. All cases are judged by the counsellors +engaged in them, just as the death or life or a patient is foreseen by +a physician, before the final struggle which the one sustains +against nature, the other against law. Laurence, Monsieur and Madame +d'Hauteserre, and the marquis sat with their eyes fixed on the swarthy +and deeply pitted face of the old lawyer, who was now to pronounce the +words of life or death. Monsieur d'Hauteserre wiped the sweat from his +brow. Laurence looked at the younger man and noted his saddened face. + +"Well, my dear Bordin?" said the marquis at last, holding out his +snuffbox, from which the old lawyer took a pinch in an absent-minded +way. + +Bordin rubbed the calf of his leg, covered with thick stockings of +black raw silk, for he always wore black cloth breeches and a coat made +somewhat in the shape of those which are now termed _a la Francaise_. +He cast his shrewd eyes upon his clients with an anxious expression, the +effect of which was icy. + +"Must I analyze all that?" he said; "am I to speak frankly?" + +"Yes; go on, monsieur," said Laurence. + +"All that you have innocently done can be converted into proof against +you," said the old lawyer. "We cannot save your friends; we can only +reduce the penalty. The sale which you induced Michu to make of his +property will be taken as evident proof of your criminal intentions +against the senator. You sent your servants to Troyes so that you might +be alone; that is all the more plausible because it is actually true. +The elder d'Hauteserre made an unfortunate speech to Beauvisage, which +will be your ruin. You yourself, mademoiselle, made another in your +own courtyard, which proves that you have long shown ill-will to +the possessor of Gondreville. Besides, you were at the gate of the +_rond-point_, apparently on the watch, about the time when the abduction +took place; if they have not arrested you, it is solely because they +fear to bring a sentimental element into the affair." + +"The case cannot be successfully defended," said Monsieur de Grandville. + +"The less so," continued Bordin, "because we cannot tell the whole +truth. Michu and the Messieurs de Simeuse and d'Hauteserre must hold to +the assertion that you merely went for an excursion into the forest and +returned to Cinq-Cygne for luncheon. Allowing that we can show you were +in the house at three o'clock (the exact hour at which the attack was +made), who are our witnesses? Marthe, the wife of one of the accused, +the Durieus, and Catherine, your own servants, and Monsieur and Madame +d'Hauteserre, father and mother of two of the accused. Such testimony +is valueless; the law does not admit it against you, and commonsense +rejects it when given in your favor. If, on the other hand, you were to +say you went to the forest to recover eleven hundred thousand francs in +gold, you would send the accused to the galleys as robbers. Judge, jury, +audience, and the whole of France would believe that you took that gold +from Gondreville, and abducted the senator that you might ransack his +house. The accusation as it now stands is not wholly clear, but tell +the truth about the matter and it would become as plain as day; the jury +would declare that the robbery explained the mysterious features,--for +in these days, you must remember, a royalist means a thief. This very +case is welcomed as a legitimate political vengeance. The prisoners are +now in danger of the death penalty; but that is not dishonoring under +some circumstances. Whereas, if they can be proved to have stolen money, +which can never be made to seem excusable, you lose all benefit of +whatever interest may attach to persons condemned to death for other +crimes. If, at the first, you had shown the hiding-places of the +treasure, the plan of the forest, the tubes in which the gold was +buried, and the gold itself, as an explanation of your day's work, it is +possible you might have been believed by an impartial magistrate, but as +it is we must be silent. God grant that none of the prisoners may reveal +the truth and compromise the defence; if they do, we must rely on our +cross-examinations." + +Laurence wrung her hands in despair and raised her eyes to heaven with +a despondent look, for she saw at last in all its depths the gulf into +which her cousins had fallen. The marquis and the young lawyer agreed +with the dreadful view of Bordin. Old d'Hauteserre wept. + +"Ah! why did they not listen to the Abbe Goujet and fly!" cried Madame +d'Hauteserre, exasperated. + +"If they could have escaped, and you prevented them," said Bordin, +"you have killed them yourselves. Judgment by default gains time; time +enables the innocent to clear themselves. This is the most mysterious +case I have ever known in my life, in the course of which I have +certainly seen and known many strange things." + +"It is inexplicable to every one, even to us," said Monsieur de +Grandville. "If the prisoners are innocent some one else has committed +the crime. Five persons do not come to a place as if by enchantment, +obtain five horses shod precisely like those of the accused, imitate the +appearance of some of them, and put Malin apparently underground for the +sole purpose of casting suspicion on Michu and the four gentlemen. The +unknown guilty parties must have had some strong reason for wearing the +skin, as it were, of five innocent men. To discover them, even to get +upon their traces, we need as much power as the government itself, as +many agents and as many eyes as there are townships in a radius of fifty +miles." + +"The thing is impossible," said Bordin. "There's no use thinking of it. +Since society invented law it has never found a way to give an innocent +prisoner an equal chance against a magistrate who is pre-disposed +against him. Law is not bilateral. The defence, without spies or +police, cannot call social power to the rescue of its innocent clients. +Innocence has nothing on her side but reason, and reasoning which may +strike a judge is often powerless on the narrow minds of jurymen. The +whole department is against you. The eight jurors who have signed the +indictment are each and all purchasers of national domain. Among the +trial jurors we are certain to have some who have either sold or bought +the same property. In short, we can get nothing but a Malin jury. You +must therefore set up a consistent defence, hold fast to it, and perish +in your innocence. You will certainly be condemned. But there's a court +of appeal; we will go there and try to remain there as long as possible. +If in the mean time we can collect proofs in your favor you must apply +for pardon. That's the anatomy of the business, and my advice. If we +triumph (for everything is possible in law) it will be a miracle; but +your advocate Monsieur de Grandville is the most likely man among all I +know to produce that miracle, and I'll do my best to help him." + +"The senator has the key to the mystery," said Monsieur de Grandville; +"for a man knows his enemies and why they are so. Here we find him +leaving Paris at the close of the winter, coming to Gondreville alone, +shutting himself up with his notary, and delivering himself over, as one +might say, to five men who seize him." + +"Certainly," said Bordin, "his conduct seems inexplicable. But how +could we, in the face of a hostile community, become accusers when we +ourselves are the accused? We should need the help and good-will of the +government and a thousand times more proof than is wanted in ordinary +circumstances. I am convinced there was premeditation, and subtle +premeditation, on the part of our mysterious adversaries, who must have +known the situation of Michu and the Messieurs de Simeuse towards Malin. +Not to utter one word; not to steal one thing!--remarkable prudence! +I see something very different from ordinary evil-doers behind those +masks. But what would be the use of saying so to the sort of jurors we +shall have to face?" + +This insight into hidden matters which gives such power to certain +lawyers and certain magistrates astonished and confounded Laurence; her +heart was wrung by that inexorable logic. + +"Out of every hundred criminal cases," continued Bordin, "there are not +ten where the law really lays bare the truth to its full extent; and +there is perhaps a good third in which the truth is never brought to +light at all. Yours is one of those cases which are inexplicable to all +parties, to accused and accusers, to the law and to the public. As for +the Emperor, he has other fish to fry than to consider the case of these +gentlemen, supposing even that they had not conspired against him. But +who the devil _is_ Malin's enemy? and what has really been done with +him?" + +Bordin and Monsieur de Grandville looked at each other; they seemed in +doubt as to Laurence's veracity. This evident suspicion was the most +cutting of all the many pangs the girl had suffered in the affair; and +she turned upon the lawyers a look which effectually put an end to their +distrust. + +The next day the indictment was handed over to the defence, and the +lawyers were then enabled to communicate with the prisoners. +Bordin informed the family that the six accused men were "well +supported,"--using a professional term. + +"Monsieur de Grandville will defend Michu," said Bordin. + +"Michu!" exclaimed the Marquis de Chargeboeuf, amazed at the change. + +"He is the pivot of the affair--the danger lies there," replied the old +lawyer. + +"If he is more in danger than the others, I think that is just," cried +Laurence. + +"We see certain chances," said Monsieur de Grandville, "and we shall +study them carefully. If we are able to save these gentlemen it will be +because Monsieur d'Hauteserre ordered Michu to repair one of the stone +posts in the covered way, and also because a wolf has been seen in +the forest; in a criminal court everything depends on discussions, and +discussions often turn on trivial matters which then become of immense +importance." + +Laurence sank into that inward dejection which humiliates the soul of +all thoughtful and energetic persons when the uselessness of thought +and action is made manifest to them. It was no longer a matter +of overthrowing a usurper, or of coming to the help of devoted +friends,--fanatical sympathies wrapped in a shroud of mystery. She now +saw all social forces full-armed against her cousins and herself. There +was no taking a prison by assault with her own hands, no deliverance of +prisoners from the midst of a hostile population and beneath the eyes of +a watchful police. So, when the young lawyer, alarmed at the stupor of +the generous and noble girl, which the natural expression of her face +made still more noticeable, endeavored to revive her courage, she turned +to him and said: "I must be silent; I suffer,--I wait." + +The accent, gesture, and look with which the words were said made this +answer one of those sublime things which only need a wider stage to make +them famous. + +A few moments later old d'Hauteserre was saying to the Marquis de +Chargeboeuf: "What efforts I have made for my two unfortunate sons! I +have already laid by in the Funds enough to give them eight thousand +francs a year. If they had only been willing to serve in the army they +would have reached the higher grades by this time, and could now have +married to advantage. Instead of that, all my plans are scattered to the +winds!" + +"How can you," said his wife, "think of their interests when it is a +question of their honor and their lives?" + +"Monsieur d'Hauteserre thinks of everything," said the marquis. + + + + +CHAPTER XVI. MARTHE INVEIGLED + +While the masters of Cinq-Cygne were waiting at Troyes for the opening +of the trial before the Criminal court and vainly soliciting permission +to see the prisoners, an event of the utmost importance had taken place +at the chateau. + +Marthe returned to Cinq-Cygne as soon as she had given her testimony +before the indicting jury. This testimony was so insignificant that it +was not thought necessary to summon her before the Criminal court. Like +all persons of extreme sensibility, the poor woman sat silent in the +salon, where she kept company with Mademoiselle Goujet, in a pitiable +state of stupefaction. To her, as to the abbe, and indeed to all others +who did not know how the accused had been employed on that day, their +innocence seemed doubtful. There were moments when Marthe believed +that Michu and his masters and Laurence had executed vengeance on the +senator. The unhappy woman now knew Michu's devotion well enough to +be certain that he was the one who would be most in danger, not only +because of his antecedents, but because of the part he was sure to have +taken in the execution of the scheme. + +The Abbe Goujet and his sister and Marthe were bewildered among the +possibilities to which this opinion gave rise; and yet, in the process +of thinking them over, their minds insensibly took hold of them in a +certain way. The absolute doubt which Descartes demands can no more +exist in the brain of a man than a vacuum can exist in nature, and the +mental operation required to produce it would, like the effect of a +pneumatic machine, be exceptional and anomalous. Whatever a case may +be, the mind believes in something. Now Marthe was so afraid that the +accused were guilty that her fear became equivalent to belief; and this +condition of her mind proved fatal to her. + +Five days after the arrests, just as she was in the act of going to bed +about ten o'clock at night, she was called from the courtyard by her +mother, who had come from the farm on foot. + +"A laboring man from Troyes wants to speak to you; he is sent by Michu, +and is waiting in the covered way," she said to Marthe. + +They passed through the breach so as to take the shortest path. In the +darkness it was impossible for Marthe to distinguish anything more than +the form of a person which loomed through the shadows. + +"Speak, madame; so that I may be certain you are really Madame Michu," +said the person, in a rather anxious voice. + +"I am Madame Michu," said Marthe; "what do you want of me?" + +"Very good," said the unknown, "give me your hand; do not fear me. I +come," he added, leaning towards her and speaking low, "from Michu +with a note for you. I am employed at the prison, and if my superiors +discover my absence we shall all be lost. Trust me; your good father +placed me where I am. For that reason Michu counted on my helping him." + +He put the letter into Marthe's hand and disappeared toward the forest +without waiting for an answer. Marthe trembled at the thought that she +was now to hear the secret of the mystery. She ran to the farm with her +mother and shut herself up to read the following letter:-- + + My dear Marthe,--You can rely on the discretion of the man who + will give you this letter; he does not know how to read or to + write. He is a stanch Republican, and shared in Baboeuf's + conspiracy; your father often made use of him, and he regards the + senator as a traitor. Now, my dear wife, attend to my directions. + The senator has been shut up by us in the cave where our masters + were hidden. The poor creature had provisions for only five days, + and as it is our interest that he should live, I wish you, as soon + as you receive this letter, to take him food for at least five + days more. The forest is of course watched; therefore take as many + precautions as we formerly did for our young masters. Don't say a + word to Malin; don't speak to him; and put on one of our masks + which you will find on the steps which lead down to the cave. + Unless you wish to compromise our heads you must be absolutely + silent about this letter and the secret I have now confided to + you. Don't say a word to Mademoiselle de Cinq-Cygne, who might + tell of it. Don't fear for me. We are certain that the matter will + turn out well; when the time comes Malin himself will save us. I + don't need to tell you to burn this letter as soon as you have + read it, for it would cost me my head if a line of it were seen. I + kiss you for now and always, + + + Michu. + + +The existence of the cave was known only to Marthe, her son, Michu, the +four gentlemen, and Laurence; or rather, Marthe, to whom her husband +had not related the incident of his meeting with Peyrade and Corentin, +believed it was known only to them. Had she consulted her mistress and +the two lawyers, who knew the innocence of the prisoners, the shrewd +Bordin would have gained some light upon the perfidious trap which was +evidently laid for his clients. But Marthe, acting like most women under +a first impulse, was convinced by this proof which came to her own eyes, +and flung the letter into the fire as directed. Nevertheless, moved by +a singular gleam of caution, she caught a portion of it from the flames, +tore off the five first lines, which compromised no one, and sewed them +into the hem of her dress. Terrified at the thought that the prisoner +had been without food for twenty-four hours, she resolved to carry +bread, meat, and wine to him at once; curiosity was well as humanity +permitting no delay. Accordingly, she heated her oven and made, with +her mother's help, a _pate_ of hare and ducks, a rice cake, roasted two +fowls, selected three bottles of wine, and baked two loaves of bread. +About two in the morning she started for the forest, carrying the load +on her back, accompanied by Couraut, who in all such expeditions +showed wonderful sagacity as a guide. He scented strangers at immense +distances, and as soon as he was certain of their presence he returned +to his mistress with a low growl, looking at her fixedly and turning his +muzzle in the direction of the danger. + +Marthe reached the pond about three in the morning, and left the dog +as sentinel on the bank. After half an hour's labor in clearing the +entrance she came with a dark lantern to the door of the cave, her face +covered with a mask, which she had found, as directed, on the steps. +The imprisonment of the senator seemed to have been long premeditated. +A hole about a foot square, which Marthe had never seen before, was +roughly cut in the upper part of the iron door which closed the cave; +but in order to prevent Malin from using the time and patience all +prisoners have at their command in loosening the iron bar which held the +door, it was securely fastened with a padlock. + +The senator, who had risen from his bed of moss, sighed when he saw the +masked face and felt that there was no chance then of his deliverance. +He examined Marthe, as much as he could by the unsteady light of her +dark lantern, and he recognized her by her clothes, her stoutness, and +her motions. When she passed the _pate_ through the door he dropped it +to seize her hand and then, with great swiftness, he tried to pull the +rings from her fingers,--one her wedding-ring, the other a gift from +Mademoiselle de Cinq-Cygne. + +"You cannot deny that it is you, my dear Madame Michu," he said. + +Marthe closed her fist the moment she felt his fingers, and gave him a +vigorous blow in the chest. Then, without a word, she turned away and +cut a stick, at the end of which she held out to the senator the rest of +the provisions. + +"What do they want of me?" he asked. + +Marthe departed giving him no answer. By five o'clock she had reached +the edge of the forest and was warned by Couraut of the presence of +strangers. She retraced her steps and made for the pavilion where she +had lived so long; but just as she entered the avenue she was seen from +afar by the forester of Gondreville, and she quickly reflected that her +best plan was to go straight up to him. + +"You are out early, Madame Michu," he said, accosting her. + +"We are so unfortunate," she replied, "that I am obliged to do a +servant's work myself. I am going to Bellache for some grain." + +"Haven't you any at Cinq-Cygne?" said the forester. + +Marthe made no answer. She continued on her way and reached the farm at +Bellache, where she asked Beauvisage to give her some seed-grain, saying +that Monsieur d'Hauteserre advised her to get it from him to renew her +crop. As soon as Marthe had left the farm, the forester went there to +find out what she asked for. + +Six days later, Marthe, determined to be prudent, went at midnight with +her provisions so as to avoid the keepers who were evidently patrolling +the forest. After carrying a third supply to the senator she suddenly +became terrified on hearing the abbe read aloud the public examination +of the prisoners,--for the trial was by that time begun. She took the +abbe aside, and after obliging him to swear that he would keep the +secret she was about to reveal as though it was said to him in the +confessional, she showed him the fragments of Michu's letter, told him +the contents of it, and also the secret of the hiding-place where the +senator then was. + +The abbe at once inquired if she had other letters from her husband that +he might compare the writing. Marthe went to her home to fetch them and +there found a summons to appear in court. By the time she returned to +the chateau the abbe and his sister had received a similar summons on +behalf of the defence. They were obliged therefore to start for Troyes +immediately. Thus all the personages of our drama, even those who were +only, as it were, supernumeraries, were collected on the spot where the +fate of the two families was about to be decided. + + + + +CHAPTER XVII. THE TRIAL + +There are but few localities in France where Law derives from outward +appearance the dignity which ought always to accompany it. Yet it +surely is, after religion and royalty, the greatest engine of society. +Everywhere, even in Paris, the meanness of its surroundings, the +wretched arrangement of the courtrooms, their barrenness and want of +decoration in the most ornate and showy nation upon earth in the matter +of its public monuments, lessens the action of the law's mighty power. +At the farther end of some oblong room may be seen a desk with a green +baize covering raised on a platform; behind it sit the judges on +the commonest of arm-chairs. To the left, is the seat of the public +prosecutor, and beside him, close to the wall, is a long pen filled with +chairs for the jury. Opposite to the jury is another pen with a bench +for the prisoners and the gendarmes who guard them. The clerk of the +court sits below the platform at a table covered with the papers of the +case. Before the imperial changes in the administration of justice were +instituted, a commissary of the government and the director of the jury +each had a seat and a table, one to the right, the other to the left of +the baize-covered desk. Two sheriffs hovered about in the space left in +front of the desk for the station of witnesses. Facing the judges and +against the wall above the entrance, there is always a shabby gallery +reserved for officials and for women, to which admittance is granted +only by the president of the court, to whom the proper management of the +courtroom belongs. The non-privileged public are compelled to stand in +the empty space between the door of the hall and the bar. This normal +appearance of all French law courts and assize-rooms was that of the +Criminal court of Troyes. + +In April, 1806, neither the four judges nor the president (or +chief-justice) who made up the court, nor the public prosecutor, the +director of the jury, the commissary of the government, nor the sheriffs +or lawyers, in fact no one except the gendarmes, wore any robes or +other distinctive sign which might have relieved the nakedness of the +surroundings and the somewhat meagre aspect of the figures. The crucifix +was suppressed; its example was no longer held up before the eyes of +justice and of guilt. All was dull and vulgar. The paraphernalia +so necessary to excite social interest is perhaps a consolation to +criminals. On this occasion the eagerness of the public was what it has +ever been and ever will be in trials of this kind, so long as France +refuses to recognize that the admission of the public to the courts +involves publicity, and that the publicity given to trials is a terrible +penalty which would never have been inflicted had legislators reflected +on it. Customs are often more cruel than laws. Customs are the deeds of +men, but laws are the judgment of a nation. Customs in which there is +often no judgment are stronger than laws. + +Crowds surrounded the courtroom; the president was obliged to station +squads of soldiers to guard the doors. The audience, standing below the +bar, was so crowded that persons suffocated. Monsieur de Grandville, +defending Michu, Bordin, defending the Simeuse brothers, and a lawyer +of Troyes who appeared for the d'Hauteserres, were in their seats before +the opening of the court; their faces wore a look of confidence. When +the prisoners were brought in, sympathetic murmurs were heard at the +appearance of the young men, whose faces, in twenty days' imprisonment +and anxiety, had somewhat paled. The perfect likeness of the twins +excited the deepest interest. Perhaps the spectators thought that Nature +would exercise some special protection in the case of her own anomalies, +and felt ready to join in repairing the harm done to them by destiny. +Their noble, simple faces, showing no signs of shame, still less of +bravado, touched the women's hearts. The four gentlemen and Gothard wore +the clothes in which they had been arrested; but Michu, whose coat and +trousers were among the "articles of testimony," so-called, had put +on his best clothes,--a blue surtout, a brown velvet waistcoat _a la_ +Robespierre, and a white cravat. The poor man paid the penalty of his +dangerous-looking face. When he cast a glance of his yellow eye, so +clear and so profound upon the audience, a murmur of repulsion answered +it. The assembly chose to see the finger of God bringing him to the dock +where his father-in-law had sacrificed so many victims. This man, truly +great, looked at his masters, repressing a smile of scorn. He seemed to +say to them, "I am injuring your cause." Five of the prisoners exchanged +greetings with their counsel. Gothard still played the part of an idiot. + +After several challenges, made with much sagacity by the defence under +advice of the Marquis de Chargeboeuf, who boldly took a seat beside +Bordin and de Grandville, the jury were empanelled, the indictment was +read, and the prisoners were brought up separately to be examined. They +answered every question with remarkable unanimity. After riding about +the forest all the morning they had returned to Cinq-Cygne for breakfast +at one o'clock. After that meal, from three to half-past five in the +afternoon, they had returned to the forest. That was the basis of each +testimony; any variations were merely individual circumstances. When +the president asked the Messieurs de Simeuse why they had ridden out so +early, they both declared that wishing, since their return, to buy back +Gondreville and intending to make an offer to Malin who had arrived the +night before, they had gone out early with their cousin and Michu to +make certain examinations of the property on which to base their offer. +During that time the Messieurs d'Hauteserre, their cousin, and Gothard +had chased a wolf which was reported in the forest by the peasantry. If +the director of the jury had sought for the prints of their horses' feet +in the forest as carefully as in the park of Gondreville, he would have +found proof of their presence at long distances from the house. + +The examination of the Messieurs d'Hauteserre corroborated this +testimony, and was in harmony with their preliminary dispositions. The +necessity of some reason for their ride suggested to each of them the +excuse of hunting. The peasants had given warning, a few days earlier, +of a wolf in the forest, and on that they had fastened as a pretext. + +The public prosecutor, however, pointed out a discrepancy between the +first statements of the Messieurs d'Hauteserre, in which they mentioned +that the whole party hunted together, and the defence now made by the +Messieurs de Simeuse that their purpose on that day was the valuation of +the forest. + +Monsieur de Grandville here called attention to the fact that as the +crime was not committed until after two o'clock in the afternoon, the +prosecution had no ground to question their word when they stated the +manner in which they had employed their morning. + +The prosecutor replied that the prisoners had an interest in concealing +their preparations for the abduction of the senator. + +The remarkable ability of the defence was now felt. Judges, jurors, and +audience became aware that victory would be hotly contested. Bordin and +Monsieur de Grandville had studied their ground and foreseen everything. +Innocence is required to render a clear and plausible account of its +actions. The duty of the defence is to present a consistent and probable +tale in opposition to an insufficient and improbable accusation. To +counsel who regard their client as innocent, an accusation is false. +The public examination of the four gentlemen sufficiently explained the +matter in their favor. So far all was well. But the examination of Michu +was more serious; there the real struggle began. It was now clear to +every one why Monsieur de Grandville had preferred to take charge of the +servant's defence rather than that of his masters. + +Michu admitted his threats against Marion; but denied that he had made +them violently. As for the ambush in which he was supposed to have +watched for his enemy, he said he was merely making his rounds in his +park; the senator and Monsieur Grevin might perhaps have been alarmed at +the sight of his gun and have thought his intentions hostile when they +were really inoffensive. He called attention to the fact that in the +dusk a man who was not in the habit of hunting might easily fancy a gun +was pointed at him, whereas, in point of fact, it was held in his hand +at half-cock. To explain the condition of his clothes when arrested, he +said he had slipped and fallen in the breach on his way home. "I could +scarcely see my way," he said, "and the loose stones slipped from under +me as I climbed the bank." As for the plaster which Gothard was bringing +him, he replied as he had done in all previous examinations, that he +wanted it to secure one of the stone posts of the covered way. + +The public prosecutor and the president asked him to explain how he +could have been at the top of the covered way engaged in mending a +stone post and at the same time in the breach of the moat leading to the +chateau; more especially as the justice of peace, the gendarmes and the +forester all declared they had heard him approach them from the lower +road. To this Michu replied that Monsieur d'Hauteserre had blamed him +for not having mended the post,--which he was anxious to have finished +because there were difficulties about that road with the township,--and +he had therefore gone up to the chateau to report that the work was +done. + +Monsieur d'Hauteserre had, in fact, put up a fence above the covered way +to prevent the township from taking possession of it. Michu seeing +the important part which the state of his clothes was likely to play, +invented this subterfuge. If, in law, truth is often like falsehood, +falsehood on the other hand has a very great resemblance to truth. +The defence and the prosecution both attached much importance to this +testimony, which became one of the leading points of the trial +on account of the vigor of the defence and the suspicions of the +prosecution. + +Gothard, instructed no doubt by Monsieur de Grandville, for up to that +time he had only wept when they questioned him, admitted that Michu had +told him to carry the plaster. + +"Why did neither you nor Gothard take the justice of peace and the +forester to the stone post and show them your work?" said the public +prosecutor, addressing Michu. + +"Because," replied the man, "I didn't believe there was any serious +accusation against us." + +All the prisoners except Gothard were now removed from the courtroom. +When Gothard was left alone the president adjured him to speak the truth +for his own sake, pointing out that his pretended idiocy had come to an +end; none of the jurors believed him imbecile; if he refused to answer +the court he ran the risk of serious penalty; whereas by telling the +truth at once he would probably be released. Gothard wept, hesitated, +and finally ended by saying that Michu had told him to carry several +sacks of plaster; but that each time he had met him near the farm. He +was asked how many sacks he had carried. + +"Three," he replied. + +An argument hereupon ensued as to whether the three sacks included the +one which Gothard was carrying at the time of the arrest (which reduced +the number of the other sacks to two) or whether there were three +without the last. The debate ended in favor of the first proposition, +the jury considering that only two sacks had been used. They appeared +to have a foregone conviction on that point, but Bordin and Monsieur de +Grandville judged it best to surfeit them with plaster, and weary them +so thoroughly with the argument that they would no longer comprehend the +question. Monsieur de Grandville made it appear that experts ought to +have been sent to examine the stone posts. + +"The director of the jury," he said, "has contented himself with merely +visiting the place, less for the purpose of making a careful examination +than to trap Michu in a lie; this, in our opinion, was a failure of +duty, but the blunder is to our advantage." + +On this the Court appointed experts to examine the posts and see if one +of them had been really mended and reset. The public prosecutor, on his +side, endeavored to make capital of the affair before the experts could +testify. + +"You seem to have chosen," he said to Michu, who was now brought +back into the courtroom, "an hour when the daylight was waning, from +half-past five to half-past six o'clock, to mend this post and to cement +it all alone." + +"Monsieur d'Hauteserre had blamed me for not doing it," replied Michu. + +"But," said the prosecutor, "if you used that plaster on the post you +must have had a trough and a trowel. Now, if you went to the chateau +to tell Monsieur d'Hauteserre that you had done the work, how do you +explain the fact that Gothard was bringing you more plaster. You +must have passed your farm on your way to the chateau, and you would +naturally have left your tools at home and stopped Gothard." + +This overwhelming argument produced a painful silence in the courtroom. + +"Come," said the prosecutor, "you had better admit at once that what you +buried was _not a stone post_." + +"Do you think it was the senator?" said Michu, sarcastically. + +Monsieur de Grandville hereupon demanded that the public prosecutor +should explain his meaning. Michu was accused of abduction and the +concealment of a person, but not of murder. Such an insinuation was +a serious matter. The code of Brumaire, year IV., forbade the public +prosecutor from presenting any fresh count at the trial; he must keep +within the indictment or the proceedings would be annulled. + +The public prosecutor replied that Michu, the person chiefly concerned +in the abduction and who, in the interests of his masters, had taken the +responsibility on his own shoulders, might have thought it necessary to +plaster up the entrance of the hiding-place, still undiscovered, where +the senator was now immured. + +Pressed with questions, hampered by the presence of Gothard, and brought +into contradiction with himself, Michu struck his fist upon the edge of +the dock with a resounding blow and said: "I have had nothing whatever +to do with the abduction of the senator. I hope and believe his enemies +have merely imprisoned him; when he reappears you'll find out that the +plaster was put to no such use." + +"Good!" said de Grandville, addressing the public prosecutor; "you have +done more for my client's cause than anything I could have said." + +The first day's session ended with this bold declaration, which +surprised the judges and gave an advantage to the defence. The lawyers +of the town and Bordin himself congratulated the young advocate. The +prosecutor, uneasy at the assertion, feared that he had fallen into some +trap; in fact he was really caught in a snare that was cleverly set for +him by the defence and admirably played off by Gothard. The wits of the +town declared that he had white-washed the affair and splashed his own +cause, and had made the accused as white as the plaster itself. France +is the domain of satire, which reigns supreme in our land; Frenchmen +jest on a scaffold, at the Beresina, at the barricades, and some will +doubtless appear with a quirk upon their lips at the grand assizes of +the Last Judgment. + + + + +CHAPTER XVIII. TRIAL CONTINUED: CRUEL VICISSITUDES + +On the morrow the witnesses for the prosecution were examined,--Madame +Marion, Madame Grevin, Grevin himself, the senator's valet, and +Violette, whose testimony can readily be imagined from the facts +already told. They all identified the five prisoners, with more or less +hesitation as to the four gentlemen, but with absolute certainty as to +Michu. Beauvisage repeated Robert d'Hauteserre's speech when he met +them at daybreak in the park. The peasant who had bought Monsieur +d'Hauteserre's calf testified to overhearing that of Mademoiselle de +Cinq-Cygne. The experts, who had compared the hoof-prints with the shoes +on the horses ridden by the five prisoners and found them absolutely +alike, confirmed their previous depositions. This point was naturally +one of vehement contention between Monsieur de Grandville and the +prosecuting officer. The defence called the blacksmith at Cinq-Cygne +and succeeded in proving that he had sold several horseshoes of the same +pattern to strangers who were not known in the place. The blacksmith +declared, moreover, that he was in the habit of shoeing in this +particular manner not only the horses of the chateau de Cinq-Cygne, but +those from other places in the canton. It was also proved that the horse +which Michu habitually rode was always shod at Troyes, and the mark of +that shoe was not among the hoof-prints found in the park. + +"Michu's double was not aware of this circumstance, or he would have +provided for it," said Monsieur de Grandville, looking at the jury. +"Neither has the prosecution shown what horses our clients rode." + +He ridiculed the testimony of Violette so far as it concerned a +recognition of the horses, seen from a long distance, from behind, and +after dusk. Still, in spite of all his efforts, the body of the evidence +was against Michu; and the prosecutor, judge, jury, and audience were +impressed with a feeling (as the lawyers for the defence had foreseen) +that the guilt of the servant carried with it that of the masters. So +the vital interest centred on all that concerned Michu. His bearing +was noble. He showed in his answers the sagacity with which nature had +endowed him; and the public, seeing him on his mettle, recognized his +superiority. And yet, strange to say, the more they understood him the +more certainty they felt that he was the instigator of the outrage. + +The witnesses for the defence, always less important in the eyes of a +jury and of the law than the witnesses for the prosecution, seemed to +testify as in duty bound, and were listened to with that allowance. In +the first place neither Marthe, nor Monsieur and Madame d'Hauteserre +took the oath. Catherine and the Durieus, in their capacity as servants, +did not take it. Monsieur d'Hauteserre stated that he had ordered Michu +to replace and mend the stone post which had been thrown down. The +deposition of the experts sent to examine the fence, which was now read, +confirmed his testimony; but they helped the prosecution by declaring +they could not fix the exact time at which the repairs had been made; it +might have been several weeks or no more than twenty days. + +The appearance of Mademoiselle de Cinq-Cygne excited the liveliest +curiosity; but the sight of her cousins in the prisoners' dock after +three weeks' separation affected her so much that her emotions gave +the audience an impression of guilt. She felt an overwhelming desire to +stand beside the twins, and was obliged, as she afterwards admitted, to +use all her strength to repress the longing that came into her mind +to kill the prosecutor so as to stand in the eyes of the world as a +criminal beside them. She testified, with simplicity, that riding from +Cinq-Cygne and seeing smoke in the park of Gondreville, she had supposed +there was a fire; at first she thought they were burning weeds or brush; +"but later," she added, "I observed a circumstance which I offer to the +attention of the Court. I found in the frogging of my habit and in the +folds of my collar small fragments of what appeared to be burned paper +which were floating in the air." + +"Was there much smoke?" asked Bordin. + +"Yes," replied Mademoiselle de Cinq-Cygne, "I feared a conflagration." + +"This is enough to change the whole inquiry," remarked Bordin. "I +request the Court to order an immediate examination of that region of +the park where the fire occurred." + +The president ordered the inquiry. + +Grevin, recalled by the defence and questioned on this circumstance, +declared he knew nothing about it. But Bordin and he exchanged looks +which mutually enlightened them. + +"The gist of the case is there," thought the old notary. + +"They've laid their finger on it," thought the notary. + +But each shrewd head considered the following up of this point useless. +Bordin reflected that Grevin would be silent as the grave; and Grevin +congratulated himself that every sign of the fire had been effaced. + +To settle this point, which seemed a mere accessory to the trial and +somewhat puerile (but which is really essential in the justification +which history owes to these young men), the experts and Pigoult, who +were despatched by the president to examine the park, reported that they +could find no traces of a bonfire. + +Bordin summoned two laborers, who testified to having dug over, under +the direction of the forester, a tract of ground in the park where +the grass had been burned; but they declared they had not observed the +nature of the ashes they had buried. + +The forester, recalled by the defence, said he had received from the +senator himself, as he was passing the chateau of Gondreville on his way +to the masquerade at Arcis, an order to dig over that particular piece +of ground which the senator had remarked as needing it. + +"Had papers, or herbage been burned there?" + +"I could not say. I saw nothing that made me think that papers had been +burned there," replied the forester. + +"At any rate," said Bordin, "if, as it appears, a fire was kindled on +that piece of ground some one brought to the spot whatever was burned +there." + +The testimony of the abbe and that of Mademoiselle Goujet made a +favorable impression. They said that as they left the church after +vespers and were walking towards home, they met the four gentlemen +and Michu leaving the chateau on horseback and making their way to +the forest. The character, position, and known uprightness of the Abbe +Goujet gave weight to his words. + +The summing up of the public prosecutor, who felt sure of obtaining a +verdict, was in the nature of all such speeches. The prisoners were the +incorrigible enemies of France, her institutions and laws. They thirsted +for tumult and conspiracy. Though they had belonged to the army of Conde +and had shared in the late attempts against the life of the Emperor, +that magnanimous sovereign had erased their names from the list of +_emigres_. This was the return they made for his clemency! In short, all +the oratorical declamations of the Bourbons against the Bonapartists, +which in our day are repeated against the republicans and the +legitimists by the Younger Branch, flourished in the speech. These trite +commonplaces, which might have some meaning under a fixed government, +seem farcical in the mouth of administrators of all epochs and opinions. +A saying of the troublous times of yore is still applicable: "The label +is changed, but the wine is the same as ever." The public prosecutor, +one of the most distinguished legal men under the Empire, attributed +the crime to a fixed determination on the part of returned _emigres_ to +protest against the sale of their estates. He made the audience shudder +at the probable condition of the senator; then he massed together +proofs, half-proofs, and probabilities with a cleverness stimulated by +a sense that his zeal was certain of its reward, and sat down tranquilly +to await the fire of his opponents. + +Monsieur de Grandville never argued but this one criminal case; and it +made his reputation. In the first place, he spoke with the same glowing +eloquence which to-day we admire in Berryer. He was profoundly convinced +of the innocence of his clients, and that in itself is a most powerful +auxiliary of speech. The following are the chief points of his defence, +which was reported in full by all the leading newspapers of the period. +In the first place he exhibited the character and life of Michu in its +true light. He made it a noble tale, ringing with lofty sentiments, and +it awakened the sympathies of many. When Michu heard himself vindicated +by that eloquent voice, tears sprang from his yellow eyes and rolled +down his terrible face. He appeared then for what he really was,--a man +as simple and as wily as a child; a being whose whole existence had +but one thought, one aim. He was suddenly explained to the minds of all +present, more especially by his tears, which produced a great effect +upon the jury. His able defender seized that moment of strong interest +to enter upon a discussion of the charges:-- + +"Where is the body of the person abducted? Where is the senator?" he +asked. "You accuse us of walling him up with stones and plaster. If so, +we alone know where he is; you have kept us twenty-three days in prison, +and the senator must be dead by this time for want of food. We are +therefore murderers, but you have not accused us of murder. On the other +hand, if he still lives, we must have accomplices. If we have them, and +if the senator is living, we should assuredly have set him at liberty. +The scheme in relation to Gondreville which you attribute to us is a +failure, and only aggravates our position uselessly. We might perhaps +obtain a pardon for an abortive attempt by releasing our victim; instead +of that we persist in detaining a man from whom we can obtain no +benefit whatever. It is absurd! Take away your plaster; the effect is +a failure," he said, addressing the public prosecutor. "We are either +idiotic criminals (which you do not believe) or the innocent victims of +circumstances as inexplicable to us as they are to you. You ought rather +to search for the mass of papers which were burned at Gondreville, which +will reveal motives stronger far than yours or ours and put you on the +track of the causes of this abduction." + +The speaker discussed these hypotheses with marvellous ability. He dwelt +on the moral character of the witnesses for the defence, whose religious +faith was a living one, who believed in a future life and in eternal +punishment. He rose to grandeur in this part of his speech and moved his +hearers deeply:-- + +"Remember!" he said; "these criminals were tranquilly dining when told +of the abduction of the senator. When the officer of gendarmes intimated +to them the best means of ending the whole affair by giving up the +senator, they refused, for they did not understand what was asked of +them!" + +Then, reverting to the mystery of the matter, he declared that its +solution was in the hands of time, which would eventually reveal the +injustice of the charge. Once on this ground, he boldly and ingeniously +supposed himself a juror; related his deliberations with his colleagues; +imagined his distress lest, having condemned the innocent, the error +should be known too late, and drew such a picture of his remorse, +dwelling on the grave doubts which the case presented, that he brought +the jury to a condition of intense anxiety. + +Juries were not in those days so blase to this sort of allocution as +they are now; Monsieur de Grandville's appeal had the power of things +new, and the jurors were evidently shaken. After this passionate +outburst they had to listen to the wily and specious prosecutor, who +went over the whole case, brought out the darkest points against the +prisoners and made the rest inexplicable. His aim was to reach the +minds and the reasoning faculties of his hearers just as Monsieur de +Grandville had aimed at the heart and the imagination. The latter, +however, had seriously entangled the convictions of the jury, and the +public prosecutor found his well-laid arguments ineffectual. This was +so plain that the counsel for the Messieurs d'Hauteserre and Gothard +appealed to the judgment of the jury, asking that the case against their +clients be abandoned. The prosecutor demanded a postponement till the +next day in order that he might prepare an answer. Bordin, who saw +acquittal in the eyes of the jury if they deliberated on the case at +once, opposed the delay of even one night by arguments of legal right +and justice to his innocent clients; but in vain,--the court allowed it. + +"The interests of society are as great as those of the accused," said +the president. "The court would be lacking in equity if it denied a like +request when made by the defence; it ought therefore to grant that of +the prosecution." + +"All is luck or ill-luck!" said Bordin to his clients when the session +was over. "Almost acquitted tonight you may be condemned to-morrow." + +"In either case," said the elder de Simeuse, "we can only admire your +skill." + +Mademoiselle de Cinq-Cygne's eyes were full of tears. After the doubts +and fears of the counsel for the defence, she had not expected this +success. Those around her congratulated her and predicted the acquittal +of her cousins. But alas! the matter was destined to end in a startling +and almost theatrical event, the most unexpected and disastrous +circumstance which ever changed the face of a criminal trial. + +At five in the morning of the day after Monsieur de Grandville's +speech, the senator was found on the high road to Troyes, delivered from +captivity during his sleep, unaware of the trial that was going on or +of the excitement attaching to his name in Europe, and simply happy in +being once more able to breathe the fresh air. The man who was the pivot +of the drama was quite as amazed at what was now told to him as +the persons who met him on his way to Troyes were astounded at his +reappearance. A farmer lent him a carriage and he soon reached the house +of the prefect at Troyes. The prefect notified the director of the jury, +the commissary of the government, and the public prosecutor, who, after +a statement made to them by Malin, arrested Marthe, while she was still +in bed at the Durieu's house in the suburbs. Mademoiselle de Cinq-Cygne, +who was only at liberty under bail, was also snatched from one of the +few hours of slumber she had been able to obtain at rare intervals in +the course of her ceaseless anxiety, and taken to the prefecture to +undergo an examination. An order to keep the accused from holding any +communication with each other or with their counsel was sent to the +prison. At ten o'clock the crowd which assembled around the courtroom +were informed that the trial was postponed until one o'clock in the +afternoon of the same day. + +This change of hour, following on the news of the senator's deliverance, +Marthe's arrest, and that of Mademoiselle de Cinq-Cygne, together with +the denial of the right to communicate with the prisoners carried terror +to the hotel de Chargeboeuf. The whole town and the spectators who had +come to Troyes to be present at the trial, the short-hand writers +for the daily journals, even the populace were in a ferment which can +readily be imagined. The Abbe Goujet came at ten o'clock to see Monsieur +and Madame d'Hauteserre and the counsel for the defence, who were +breakfasting--as well as they could under the circumstances. The abbe +took Bordin and Monsieur Grandville apart, told them what Marthe had +confided to him the day before, and gave them the fragment of the letter +she had received. The two lawyers exchanged a look, after which Bordin +said to the abbe: "Not a word of all this! The case is lost; but at any +rate let us show a firm front." + +Marthe was not strong enough to evade the cross-questioning of the +director of the jury and the public prosecutor. Moreover the proof +against her was too overwhelming. Lechesneau had sent for the under +crust of the last loaf of bread she had carried to the cavern, also for +the empty bottles and various other articles. During the senator's long +hours of captivity he had formed conjectures in his own mind and had +looked for indications which might put him on the track of his enemies. +These he now communicated to the authorities. Michu's farmhouse, lately +built, had, he supposed, a new oven; the tiles or bricks on which the +bread was baked would show their jointed lines on the bottom of the +loaves, and thus afford a proof that the bread supplied to him was baked +on that particular oven. So with the wine brought in bottles sealed with +green wax, which would probably be found identical with other bottles in +Michu's cellar. These shrewd observations, which Malin imparted to the +justice of peace, who made the first examination (taking Marthe with +him), led to the results foreseen by the senator. + +Marthe, deceived by the apparent friendliness of Lechesneau and the +public prosecutor, who assured her that complete confession could alone +save her husband's life, admitted that the cavern where the senator had +been hidden was known only to her husband and the Messieurs de Simeuse +and d'Hauteserre, and that she herself had taken provisions to the +senator on three separate occasions at midnight. + +Laurence, questioned about the cavern, was forced to acknowledge that +Michu had discovered it and had shown it to her at the time when the +four young men evaded the police and were hidden in it. + +As soon as these preliminary examinations were ended, the jury, lawyers, +and audience were notified that the trial would be resumed. At three +o'clock the president opened the session by announcing that the case +would be continued under a new aspect. He exhibited to Michu three +bottles of wine and asked him if he recognized them as bottles from his +own cellar, showing him at the same time the identity between the green +wax on two empty bottles with the green wax on a full bottle taken from +his cellar that morning by the justice of peace in presence of his wife. +Michu refused to recognize anything as his own. But these proofs for +the prosecution were understood by the jurors, to whom the president +explained that the empty bottles were found in the place where the +senator was imprisoned. + +Each prisoner was questioned as to the cavern or cellar beneath the +ruins of the old monastery. It was proved by all witnesses for the +prosecution, and also for the defence, that the existence of this +hiding-place discovered by Michu was known only to him and his wife, and +to Laurence and the four gentlemen. We may judge of the effect in the +courtroom when the public prosecutor made known the fact that this +cavern, known only to the accused and to their two witnesses, was the +place where the senator had been imprisoned. + +Marthe was summoned. Her appearance caused much excitement among the +spectators and keen anxiety to the prisoners. Monsieur de Grandville +rose to protest against the testimony of a wife against her husband. +The public prosecutor replied that Marthe by her own confession was an +accomplice in the outrage; that she had neither sworn nor testified, and +was to be heard solely in the interests of truth. + +"We need only submit her preliminary examination to the jury," remarked +the president, who now ordered the clerk of the court to read the said +testimony aloud. + +"Do you now confirm your own statement?" said the president, addressing +Marthe. + +Michu looked at his wife, and Marthe, who saw her fatal error, fainted +away and fell to the floor. It may be truly said that a thunderbolt had +fallen upon the prisoners and their counsel. + +"I never wrote to my wife from prison, and I know none of the persons +employed there," said Michu. + +Bordin passed to him the fragments of the letter Marthe had received. +Michu gave but one glance at it. "My writing has been imitated," he +said. + +"Denial is your last resource," said the public prosecutor. + +The senator was introduced into the courtroom with all the ceremonies +due to his position. His entrance was like a stage scene. Malin (now +called Comte de Gondreville, without regard to the feelings of the late +owners of the property) was requested by the president to look at the +prisoners, and did so with great attention and for a long time. He +stated that the clothing of his abductors was exactly like that worn +by the four gentlemen; but he declared that the trouble of his mind had +been such that he could not be positive that the accused were really the +guilty parties. + +"More than that," he said, "it is my conviction that these four +gentlemen had nothing to do with it. The hands that blindfolded me in +the forest were coarse and rough. I should rather suppose," he added, +looking at Michu, "that my old enemy took charge of that duty; but I beg +the gentlemen of the jury not to give too much weight to this remark. My +suspicions are very slight, and I feel no certainty whatever--for this +reason. The two men who seized me put me on horseback behind the man who +blindfolded me, and whose hair was red like Michu's. However singular +you may consider the observation I am about to make, it is necessary +to make it because it is the ground of an opinion favorable to the +accused--who, I hope, will not feel offended by it. Fastened to the +man's back I would naturally have been affected by his odor--yet I +did not perceive that which is peculiar to Michu. As to the person who +brought me provisions on three several occasions, I am certain it was +Marthe, the wife of Michu. I recognized her the first time she came by +a ring she always wore, which she had forgotten to remove. The Court and +jury will please allow for the contradictions which appear in the facts +I have stated, which I myself am wholly unable to reconcile." + +A murmur of approval followed this testimony. Bordin asked permission of +the Court to address a few questions to the witness. + +"Does the senator think that his abduction was due to other causes than +the interests respecting property which the prosecution attributes to +the prisoners?" + +"I do," replied the senator, "but I am wholly ignorant of what the real +motives were; for during a captivity of twenty days I saw and heard no +one." + +"Do you think," said the public prosecutor, "that your chateau at +Gondreville contains information, title-deeds, or other papers of value +which would induce a search on the part of the Messieurs de Simeuse?" + +"I do not think so," replied Malin; "I believe those gentlemen to be +incapable of attempting to get possession of such papers by violence. +They had only to ask me for them to obtain them." + +"You burned certain papers in the park, did you not?" said Monsieur de +Gondreville, abruptly. + +Malin looked at Grevin. After exchanging a rapid glance with the notary, +which Bordin intercepted, he replied that he had not burned any papers. +The public prosecutor having asked him to describe the ambush to which +he had so nearly fallen a victim two years earlier, the senator replied +that he had seen Michu watching him from the fork of a tree. This +answer, which agreed with Grevin's testimony, produced a great +impression. + +The four gentlemen remained impassible during the examination of their +enemy, who seemed determined to overwhelm them with generosity. Laurence +suffered horrible agony. From time to time the Marquis de Chargeboeuf +held her by the arm, fearing she might dart forward to the rescue. The +Comte de Gondreville retired from the courtroom and as he did so he +bowed to the four gentlemen, who did not return the salutation. This +trifling matter made the jury indignant. + +"They are lost now," whispered Bordin to the Marquis de Chargeboeuf. + +"Alas, yes! and always through the nobility of their sentiments," +replied the marquis. + +"My task is now only too easy, gentlemen," said the prosecutor, rising +to address the jury. + +He explained the use of the cement by the necessity of securing an iron +frame on which to fasten a padlock which held the iron bar with which +the gate of the cavern was closed; a description of which was given in +the _proces-verbal_ made that morning by Pigoult. He put the falsehoods +of the accused into the strongest light, and pulverized the arguments +of the defence with the new evidence so miraculously obtained. In 1806 +France was still too near the Supreme Being of 1793 to talk about divine +justice; he therefore spared the jury all reference to the intervention +of heaven; but he said that earthly justice would be on the watch for +the mysterious accomplices who had set the senator at liberty, and he +sat down, confidently awaiting the verdict. + +The jury believed there was a mystery, but they were all persuaded that +it came from the prisoners, who were probably concealing some matter of +a private interest of great importance to them. + +Monsieur de Grandville, to whom a plot or machination of some kind was +quite evident, rose; but he seemed discouraged,--less, however, by the +new evidence than by the manifest opinion of the jury. He surpassed, +if anything, his speech of the previous evening; his argument was more +compact and logical; but he felt his fervor repelled by the coldness of +the jury; he spoke ineffectually, and he knew it,--a chilling situation +for an advocate. He called attention to the fact that the release of +the senator, as if by magic and clearly without the aid of any of the +accused or of Marthe, corroborated his previous argument. Yesterday the +prisoners could most surely rely on acquittal, and if they had, as the +prosecution claimed, the power to hold or to release the senator, they +certainly would not have released him until after their acquittal. He +endeavored to bring before the minds of the Court and jury the fact that +mysterious enemies, undiscovered as yet, could alone have struck the +accused this final blow. + +Strange to say, the only minds Monsieur de Grandville reached with this +argument were those of the public prosecutor and the judges. The jury +listened perfunctorily; the audience, usually so favorable to prisoners, +were convinced of their guilt. In a court of justice the sentiments +of the crowd do unquestionably weigh upon the judges and the jury, and +_vice versa_. Seeing this condition of the minds about him, which could +be felt if not defined, the counsel uttered his last words in a tone of +passionate excitement caused by his conviction:-- + +"In the name of the accused," he cried, "I forgive you for the fatal +error you are about to commit, and which nothing can repair! We are the +victims of some mysterious and Machiavellian power. Marthe Michu was +inveigled by vile perfidy. You will discover this too late, when the +evil you now do will be irreparable." + +Bordin simply claimed the acquittal of the prisoners on the testimony of +the senator himself. + +The president summed up the case with all the more impartiality because +it was evident that the minds of the jurors were already made up. He +even turned the scales in favor of the prisoners by dwelling on the +senator's evidence. This clemency, however, did not in the least +endanger the success of the prosecution. At eleven o'clock that night, +after the jury had replied through their foreman to the usual questions, +the Court condemned Michu to death, the Messieurs de Simeuse to +twenty-four years' and the Messieurs d'Hauteserre to ten years, penal +servitude at hard labor. Gothard was acquitted. + +The whole audience was eager to observe the bearing of the five guilty +men in this supreme moment of their lives. The four gentlemen looked +at Laurence, who returned them, with dry eyes, the ardent look of the +martyrs. + +"She would have wept had we been acquitted," said the younger de Simeuse +to his brother. + +Never did convicted men meet an unjust fate with serener brows or +countenances more worthy of their manhood than these five victims of a +cruel plot. + +"Our counsel has forgiven you," said the eldest de Simeuse to the Court. + + * * * * * + +Madame d'Hauteserre fell ill, and was three months in her bed at the +hotel de Chargeboeuf. Monsieur d'Hauteserre returned patiently to +Cinq-Cygne, inwardly gnawed by one of those sorrows of old age which +have none of youth's distractions; often he was so absent-minded that +the abbe, who watched him, knew the poor father was living over again +the scene of the fatal verdict. Marthe passed away from all blame; she +died three weeks after the condemnation of her husband, confiding her +son to Laurence, in whose arms she died. + +The trial once over, political events of the utmost importance effaced +even the memory of it, and nothing further was discovered. Society is +like the ocean; it returns to its level and its specious calmness +after a disaster, effacing all traces of it in the tide of its eager +interests. + +Without her natural firmness of mind and her knowledge of her cousins' +innocence, Laurence would have succumbed; but she gave fresh proof of +the grandeur of her character; she astonished Monsieur de Grandville and +Bordin by the apparent serenity which these terrible misfortunes called +forth in her noble soul. She nursed Madame d'Hauteserre and went daily +to the prison, saying openly that she would marry one of the cousins +when they were taken to the galleys. + +"To the galleys!" cried Bordin, "Mademoiselle! our first endeavor must +be to wring their pardon from the Emperor." + +"Their pardon!--_from a Bonaparte_?" cried Laurence in horror. + +The spectacles of the old lawyer jumped from his nose; he caught them +as they fell and looked at the young girl who was now indeed a woman; he +understood her character at last in all its bearings; then he took the +arm of the Marquis de Chargeboeuf, saying:-- + +"Monsieur le Marquis, let us go to Paris instantly and save them without +her!" + +The appeal of the Messieurs de Simeuse and d'Hauteserre and that +of Michu was the first case to be brought before the new court. Its +decision was fortunately delayed by the ceremonies attending its +installation. + + + + +CHAPTER XIX. THE EMPEROR'S BIVOUAC + +Towards the end of September, after three sessions of the Court +of Appeals in which the lawyers for the defence pleaded, and the +attorney-general Merlin himself spoke for the prosecution, the appeal +was rejected. The Imperial Court of Paris was by this time instituted. +Monsieur de Grandville was appointed assistant attorney-general, and the +department of the Aube coming under the jurisdiction of this court, it +became possible for him to take certain steps in favor of the convicted +prisoners, among them that of importuning Cambaceres, his protector. +Bordin and Monsieur de Chargeboeuf came to his house in the Marais the +day after the appeal was rejected, where they found him in the midst of +his honeymoon, for he had married in the interval. In spite of all these +changes in his condition, Monsieur de Chargeboeuf saw very plainly that +the young lawyer was faithful to his late clients. Certain lawyers, the +artists of their profession, treat their causes like mistresses. This is +rare, however, and must not be depended on. + +As soon as they were alone in his study, Monsieur de Grandville said to +the marquis: "I have not waited for your visit; I have already employed +all my influence. Don't attempt to save Michu; if you do, you cannot +obtain the pardon of the Messieurs de Simeuse. The law will insist on +one victim." + +"Good God!" cried Bordin, showing the young magistrate the three +petitions for mercy; "how can I take upon myself to withdraw the +application for that man. If I suppress the paper I cut off his head." + +He held out the petition; de Grandville took it, looked it over, and +said:-- + +"We can't suppress it; but be sure of one thing, if you ask all you will +obtain nothing." + +"Have we time to consult Michu?" asked Bordin. + +"Yes. The order for execution comes from the office of the +attorney-general; I will see that you have some days. We kill men," he +said with some bitterness, "but at least we do it formally, especially +in Paris." + +Monsieur de Chargeboeuf had already received from the chief justice +certain information which added weight to these sad words of Monsieur de +Grandville. + +"Michu is innocent, I know," continued the young lawyer, "but what can +we do against so many? Remember, too, that my present influence depends +on my keeping silent. I must order the scaffold to be prepared, or my +late client is certain to be beheaded." + +Monsieur de Chargeboeuf knew Laurence well enough to be certain she +would never consent to save her cousins at the expense of Michu; he +therefore resolved on making one more effort. He asked an audience of +the minister of foreign affairs to learn if salvation could be looked +for through the influence of the great diplomat. He took Bordin with +him, for the latter knew the minister and had done him some service. +The two old men found Talleyrand sitting with his feet stretched out, +absorbed in contemplation of his fire, his head resting on his hand, his +elbow on the table, a newspaper lying at his feet. The minister had just +read the decision of the Court of Appeals. + +"Pray sit down, Monsieur le marquis," said Talleyrand, "and you, +Bordin," he added, pointing to a place at the table, "write as +follows:--" + + Sire,--Four innocent gentlemen, declared guilty by a jury have + just had their condemnation confirmed by your Court of Appeals. + + Your Imperial Majesty can now only pardon them. These gentlemen + ask this pardon of your august clemency, in the hope that they may + enter your army and meet their death in battle before your eyes; + and thus praying, they are, of your Imperial and Royal Majesty, + with reverence, etc. + +"None but princes can do such prompt and graceful kindness," said the +Marquis de Chargeboeuf, taking the precious draft of the petition from +the hands of Bordin that he might have it signed by the four gentlemen; +resolving in his own mind that he would also obtain the signatures of +several august names. + +"The life of your young relatives, Monsieur le marquis," said the +minister, "now depends on the turn of a battle. Endeavor to reach the +Emperor on the morning after a victory and they are saved." + +He took a pen and himself wrote a private and confidential letter to the +Emperor, and another of ten lines to Marechal Duroc. Then he rang the +bell, asked his secretary for a diplomatic passport, and said tranquilly +to the old lawyer, "What is your honest opinion of that trial?" + +"Do you know, monseigneur, who was at the bottom of this cruel wrong?" + +"I presume I do; but I have reasons to wish for certainty," replied +Talleyrand. "Return to Troyes; bring me the Comtesse de Cinq-Cygne, +here, to-morrow at the same hour, but secretly; ask to be ushered +into Madame de Talleyrand's salon; I will tell her you are coming. If +Mademoiselle de Cinq-Cygne, who shall be placed where she can see a man +who will be standing before me, recognizes that man as an individual who +came to her house during the conspiracy of de Polignac and Riviere, tell +her to remember that, no matter what I say or what he answers me, she +must not utter a word nor make a gesture. One thing more, think only +of saving the de Simeuse brothers; don't embarrass yourself with that +scoundrel of a bailiff--" + +"A sublime man, monseigneur!" exclaimed Bordin. + +"Enthusiasm! in you, Bordin! The man must be remarkable. Our sovereign +has an immense self-love, Monsieur le marquis," he said, changing the +conversation. "He is about to dismiss me that he may commit follies +without warning. The Emperor is a great soldier who can change the +laws of time and distance, but he cannot change men; yet he persists in +trying to run them in his own mould! Now, remember this; the young men's +pardon can be obtained by one person only--Mademoiselle de Cinq-Cygne." + +The marquis went alone to Troyes and told the whole matter to Laurence. +She obtained permission from the authorities to see Michu, and the +marquis accompanied her to the gates of the prison, where he waited for +her. When she came out her face was bathed in tears. + +"Poor man!" she said; "he tried to kneel to me, praying that I would +not think of him, and forgetting the shackles that were on his feet! +Ah, marquis, I _will_ plead his cause. Yes, I'll kiss the boot of their +Emperor. If I fail--well, the memory of that man shall live eternally +honored in our family. Present his petition for mercy so as to gain +time; meantime I am resolved to have his portrait. Come, let us go." + +The next day, when Talleyrand was informed by a sign agreed upon that +Laurence was at her post, he rang the bell; his orderly came to him, and +received orders to admit Monsieur Corentin. + +"My friend, you are a very clever fellow," said Talleyrand, "and I wish +to employ you." + +"Monsiegneur--" + +"Listen. In serving Fouche you will get money, but never honor nor any +position you can acknowledge. But in serving me, as you have lately done +at Berlin, you can win credit and repute." + +"Monseigneur is very good." + +"You displayed genius in that late affair at Gondreville." + +"To what does Monseigneur allude?" said Corentin, with a manner that was +neither too reserved nor too surprised. + +"Ah, Monsieur!" observed the minister, dryly, "you will never make a +successful man; you fear--" + +"What, monseigneur?" + +"Death!" replied Talleyrand, in his fine, deep voice. "Adieu, my good +friend." + +"That is the man," said the Marquis de Chargeboeuf entering the room +after Corentin was dismissed; "but we have nearly killed the countess." + +"He is the only man I know capable of playing such a trick," replied the +minister. "Monsieur le marquis, you are in danger of not succeeding +in your mission. Start ostensibly for Strasburg; I'll send you double +passports in blank to be filled out. Provide yourself with substitutes; +change your route and above all your carriage; let your substitutes +go on to Strasburg, and do you reach Prussia through Switzerland and +Bavaria. Not a word--prudence! The police are against you; and you do +not know what the police are--" + +Mademoiselle de Cinq-Cygne offered the then celebrated Robert Lefebvre a +sufficient sum to induce him to go to Troyes and take Michu's portrait. +Monsieur de Grandville promised to afford the painter every possible +facility. Monsieur de Chargeboeuf then started in the old _berlingot_, +with Laurence and a servant who spoke German. Not far from Nancy they +overtook Mademoiselle Goujet and Gothard, who had preceded them in an +excellent carriage, which the marquis took, giving them in exchange the +_berlingot_. + +Talleyrand was right. At Strasburg the commissary-general of police +refused to countersign the passport of the travellers, and gave them +positive orders to return. By that time the marquis and Laurence were +leaving France by way of Besancon with the diplomatic passport. + +Laurence crossed Switzerland in the first days of October, without +paying the slightest attention to that glorious land. She lay back in +the carriage in the torpor which overtakes a criminal on the eve of his +execution. To her eyes all nature was shrouded in a seething vapor; even +common things assumed fantastic shapes. The one thought, "If I do not +succeed they will kill themselves," fell upon her soul with reiterated +blows, as the bar of the executioner fell upon the victim's members when +tortured on the wheel. She felt herself breaking; she lost her energy in +this terrible waiting for the cruel moment, short and decisive, when she +should find herself face to face with that man on whom the fate of the +condemned depended. She chose to yield to her depression rather +than waste her strength uselessly. The marquis, who was incapable of +understanding this resolve of firm minds, which often assumes quite +diverse aspects (for in such moments of tension certain superior minds +give way to surprising gaiety), began to fear that he might never bring +Laurence alive to the momentous interview, solemn to them only, and yet +beyond the ordinary limits of private life. To Laurence, the necessity +of humiliating herself before that man, the object of her hatred and +contempt, meant the sacrifice of all her noblest feelings. + +"After this," she said, "the Laurence who survives will bear no likeness +to her who is now to perish." + +The travellers could not fail to be aware of the vast movement of men +and material which surrounded them the moment they entered Prussia. The +campaign of Jena had just begun. Laurence and the marquis beheld the +magnificent divisions of the French army deploying and parading as if +at the Tuileries. In this display of military power, which can be +adequately described only with the words and images of the Bible, the +proportions of the Man whose spirit moved these masses grew gigantic to +Laurence's imagination. Soon, the cry of victory resounded in her ears. +The Imperial arms had just obtained two signal advantages. The Prince +of Prussia had been killed the evening before the day on which the +travellers arrived at Saalfeld on their endeavor to overtake Napoleon, +who was marching with the rapidity of lightning. + +At last, on the 13th of October (date of ill-omen) Mademoiselle de +Cinq-Cygne was skirting a river in the midst of the Grand Army, seeing +nought but confusion, sent hither and thither from one village to +another, from division to division, frightened at finding herself +alone with one old man tossed about in an ocean of a hundred and fifty +thousand armed men facing a hundred and fifty thousand more. Weary of +watching the river through the hedges of the muddy road which she was +following along a hillside, she asked its name of a passing soldier. + +"That's the Saale," he said, showing her the Prussian army, grouped in +great masses on the other side of the stream. + +Night came on. Laurence beheld the camp-fires lighted and the glitter +of stacked arms. The old marquis, whose courage was chivalric, drove +the horses himself (two strong beasts bought the evening before), his +servant sitting beside him. He knew very well he should find neither +horses nor postilions within the lines of the army. Suddenly the bold +equipage, an object of great astonishment to the soldiers, was stopped +by a gendarme of the military gendarmerie, who galloped up to the +carriage, calling out to the marquis: "Who are you? where are you going? +what do you want?" + +"The Emperor," replied the Marquis de Chargeboeuf; "I have an important +dispatch for the Grand-marechal Duroc." + +"Well, you can't stay here," said the gendarme. + +Mademoiselle de Cinq-Cygne and the marquis were, however, compelled to +remain where they were on account of the darkness. + +"Where are we?" she asked, stopping two officers whom she saw passing, +whose uniforms were concealed by cloth overcoats. + +"You are among the advanced guard of the French army," answered one of +the officers. "You cannot stay here, for if the enemy makes a movement +and the artillery opens you will be between two fires." + +"Ah!" she said, with an indifferent air. + +Hearing that "Ah!" the other officer turned and said: "How did that +woman come here?" + +"We are waiting," said Laurence, "for a gendarme who has gone to find +General Duroc, a protector who will enable us to speak to the Emperor." + +"Speak to the Emperor!" exclaimed the first officer; "how can you think +of such a thing--on the eve of a decisive battle?" + +"True," she said; "I ought to speak to him on the morrow--victory would +make him kind." + +The two officers stationed themselves at a little distance and sat +motionless on their horses. The carriage was now surrounded by a mass +of generals, marshals, and other officers, all extremely brilliant in +appearance, who appeared to pay deference to the carriage merely because +it was there. + +"Good God!" said the marquis to Mademoiselle de Cinq-Cygne; "I am afraid +you spoke to the Emperor." + +"The Emperor?" said a colonel, beside them, "why there he is!" pointing +to the officer who had said, "How did that woman get here?" He was +mounted on a white horse, richly caparisoned, and wore the celebrated +gray top-coat over his green uniform. He was scanning with a field-glass +the Prussian army massed beyond the Saale. Laurence understood then why +the carriage remained there, and why the Emperor's escort respected it. +She was seized with a convulsive tremor--the hour had come! She heard +the heavy sound of the tramp of men and the clang of their arms as they +arrived at a quick step on the plateau. The batteries had a language, +the caissons thundered, the brass glittered. + +"Marechal Lannes will take position with his whole corps in the advance; +Marechal Lefebvre and the Guard will occupy this hill," said the other +officer, who was Major-general Berthier. + +The Emperor dismounted. At his first motion Roustan, his famous +mameluke, hastened to hold his horse. Laurence was stupefied with +amazement; she had never dreamed of such simplicity. + +"I shall pass the night on the plateau," said the Emperor. + +Just then the Grand-marechal Duroc, whom the gendarme had finally +found, came up to the Marquis de Chargeboeuf and asked the reason of his +coming. The marquis replied that a letter from the Prince de Talleyrand, +of which he was the bearer, would explain to the marshal how urgent +it was that Mademoiselle de Cinq-Cygne and himself should obtain an +audience of the Emperor. + +"His Majesty will no doubt dine at his bivouac," said Duroc, taking the +letter, "and when I find out what your object is, I will let you know +if you can see him. Corporal," he said to the gendarme, "accompany this +carriage, and take it close to that hut at the rear." + +Monsieur de Chargeboeuf followed the gendarme and stopped his horses +behind a miserable cabin, built of mud and branches, surrounded by a few +fruit-trees, and guarded by pickets of infantry and cavalry. + +It may be said that the majesty of war appeared here in all its +grandeur. From this height the lines of the two armies were visible in +the moonlight. After an hour's waiting, the time being occupied by the +incessant coming and going of the aides-de-camp, Duroc himself came for +Mademoiselle de Cinq-Cygne and the marquis, and made them enter the hut, +the floor of which was of battened earth like that of a stable. + +Before a table with the remains of dinner, and before a fire made of +green wood which smoked, Napoleon was seated in a clumsy chair. His +muddy boots gave evidence of a long tramp across country. He had taken +off the famous top-coat; and his equally famous green uniform, crossed +by the red cordon of the Legion of honor and heightened by the white of +his kerseymere breeches and of his waistcoat, brought out vividly +his pale and terrible Caesarian face. One hand was on a map which lay +unfolded on his knees. Berthier stood near him in the brilliant uniform +of the vice-constable of the Empire. Constant, the valet, was offering +the Emperor his coffee from a tray. + +"What do you want?" said Napoleon, with a show of roughness, darting his +eye like a flash through Laurence's head. "You are no longer afraid to +speak to me before the battle? What is it about?" + +"Sire," she said, looking at him with as firm an eye, "I am Mademoiselle +de Cinq-Cygne." + +"Well?" he replied, in an angry voice, thinking her look braved him. + +"Do you not understand? I am the Comtesse de Cinq-Cygne, come to ask +mercy," she said, falling on her knees and holding out to him the +petition drawn up by Talleyrand, endorsed by the Empress, by Cambaceres +and by Malin. + +The Emperor raised her graciously, and said with a keen look: "Have you +come to your senses? Do you now understand what the French Empire is and +must be?" + +"Ah! at this moment I understand only the Emperor," she said, vanquished +by the kindly manner with which the man of destiny had said the words +that foretold to her ears success. + +"Are they innocent?" asked the Emperor. + +"Yes, all of them," she said with enthusiasm. + +"All? No, that bailiff is a dangerous man, who would have killed my +senator without taking your advice." + +"Ah, Sire," she said, "if you had a friend devoted to you, would you +abandon him? Would you not rather--" + +"You are a woman," he said, interrupting her in a faint tone of +ridicule. + +"And you, a man of iron!" she replied with a passionate sternness which +pleased him. + +"That man has been condemned to death by the laws of his country," he +continued. + +"But he is innocent!" + +"Child!" he said. + +He took Mademoiselle de Cinq-Cygne by the hand and led her from the hut +to the plateau. + +"See," he continued, with that eloquence of his which changed even +cowards to brave men, "see those three hundred thousand men--all +innocent. And yet to-morrow thirty thousand of them will be lying dead, +dead for their country! Among those Prussians there is, perhaps, some +great mathematician, a man of genius, an idealist, who will be mown +down. On our side we shall assuredly lose many a great man never known +to fame. Perhaps even I shall see my best friend die. Shall I blame God? +No. I shall bear it silently. Learn from this, mademoiselle, that a +man must die for the laws of his country just as men die here for her +glory." So saying, he led her back into the hut. "Return to France," he +said, looking at the marquis; "my orders shall follow you." + +Laurence believed in a commutation of Michu's punishment, and in her +gratitude she knelt again before the Emperor and kissed his hand. + +"You are the Marquis de Chargeboeuf?" said Napoleon, addressing the +marquis. + +"Yes, Sire." + +"You have children?" + +"Many children." + +"Why not give me one of your grandsons? he shall be my page." + +"Ah!" thought Laurence, "there's the sub-lieutenant after all; he wants +to be paid for his mercy." + +The marquis bowed without replying. Happily at this moment General Rapp +rushed into the hut. + +"Sire, the cavalry of the Guard, and that of the Grand-duc de Berg +cannot be set up before midday to-morrow." + +"Never mind," said Napoleon, turning to Berthier, "we, too, get our +reprieves; let us profit by them." + +At a sign of his hand the marquis and Laurence retired and again entered +their carriage; the corporal showed them their road and accompanied them +to a village where they passed the night. The next day they left +the field of battle behind them, followed by the thunder of the +cannon,--eight hundred pieces,--which pursued them for ten hours. While +still on their way they learned of the amazing victory of Jena. + +Eight days later, they were driving through the faubourg of Troyes, +where they learned that an order of the chief justice, transmitted +through the _procureur imperial_ of Troyes, commanded the release of +the four gentlemen on bail during the Emperor's pleasure. But Michu's +sentence was confirmed, and the warrant for his execution had been +forwarded from the ministry of police. These orders had reached Troyes +that very morning. Laurence went at once to the prison, though it was +two in the morning, and obtained permission to stay with Michu, who was +about to undergo the melancholy ceremony called "the toilet." The good +abbe, who had asked permission to accompany him to the scaffold, had +just given absolution to the man, whose only distress in dying was his +uncertainty as to the fate of his young masters. When Laurence entered +his cell he uttered a cry of joy. + +"I can die now," he said. + +"They are pardoned," she said; "I do not know on what conditions, but +they are pardoned. I did all I could for you, dear friend--against the +advice of others. I thought I had saved you; but the Emperor deceived me +with his graciousness." + +"It was written above," said Michu, "that the watch-dog should be killed +on the spot where his old masters died." + +The last hour passed rapidly. Michu, at the moment of parting, asked +to kiss her hand, but Laurence held her cheek to the lips of the noble +victim that he might sacredly kiss it. Michu refused to mount the cart. + +"Innocent men should go afoot," he said. + +He would not let the abbe give him his arm; resolutely and with dignity +he walked alone to the scaffold. As he laid his head on the plank he +said to the executioner, after asking him to turn down the collar of his +coat, "My clothes belong to you; try not to spot them." + + * * * * * + +The four gentlemen had hardly time to even see Mademoiselle de +Cinq-Cygne. An orderly of the general commanding the division to which +they were assigned, brought them their commissions as sub-lieutenants in +the same regiment of cavalry, with orders to proceed at once to Bayonne, +the base of supplies for its particular army-corps. After a scene of +heart-rending farewells, for they all foreboded what the future should +bring forth, Mademoiselle de Cinq-Cygne returned to her desolate home. + +The two brothers were killed together under the eyes of the Emperor at +Sommo-Sierra, the one defending the other, both being already in command +of their troop. The last words of each were, "Laurence, _cy meurs_!" + +The elder d'Hauteserre died a colonel at the attack on the redoubt at +Moscow, where his brother took his place. + +Adrien d'Hauteserre, appointed brigadier-general at the battle of +Dresden, was dangerously wounded there and was sent to Cinq-Cygne +for proper nursing. While endeavoring to save this relic of the four +gentlemen who for a few brief months had been so happy around her, +Laurence, then thirty-two years of age, married him. She offered him a +withered heart, but he accepted it; those who truly love doubt nothing +or doubt all. + +The Restoration found Laurence without enthusiasm. The Bourbons returned +too late for her. Nevertheless, she had no cause for complaint. Her +husband, made peer of France with the title of Marquis de Cinq-Cygne, +became lieutenant-general in 1816, and was rewarded with the blue ribbon +for the eminent services which he then performed. + +Michu's son, of whom Laurence took care as though he were her own child, +was admitted to the bar in 1817. After practising two years he was +made assistant-judge at the court of Alencon, and from there he became +_procureur-du-roi_ at Arcis in 1827. Laurence, who had also taken +charge of Michu's property, made over to the young man on the day of his +majority an investment in the public Funds which yielded him an income +of twelve thousand francs a year. Later, she arranged a marriage for him +with Mademoiselle Girel, an heiress at Troyes. + +The Marquis de Cinq-Cygne died in 1829, in the arms of his wife, +surrounded by his father and mother, and his children who adored him. +At the time of his death no one had ever fathomed the mystery of the +senator's abduction. Louis XVIII. did not neglect to repair, as far as +possible, the wrongs done by that affair; but he was silent as to the +causes of the disaster. From that time forth the Marquise de Cinq-Cygne +believed him to have been an accomplice in the catastrophe. + + + + +CHAPTER XX. THE MYSTERY SOLVED + +The late Marquis de Cinq-Cygne had used his savings, as well as those +of his father and mother, in the purchase of a fine house in the rue +de Faubourg-du-Roule, entailing it on heirs male for the support of +the title. The sordid economy of the marquis and his parents, which had +often troubled Laurence, was then explained. After this purchase the +marquise, who lived at Cinq-Cygne and economized on her own account +for her children, spent her winters in Paris,--all the more willingly +because her daughter Berthe and her son Paul were now of an age when +their education required the resources of Paris. + +Madame de Cinq-Cygne went but little into society. Her husband could not +be ignorant of the regrets which lay in her tender heart; but he showed +her always the most exquisite delicacy, and died having loved no other +woman. This noble soul, not fully understood for a period of time but +to which the generous daughter of the Cinq-Cygnes returned in his last +years as true a love as that he gave to her, was completely happy in +his married life. Laurence lived for the joys of home. No woman has ever +been more cherished by her friends or more respected. To be received in +her house is an honor. Gentle, indulgent, intellectual, above all things +simple and natural, she pleases choice souls and draws them to her in +spite of her saddened aspect; each longs to protect this woman, inwardly +so strong, and that sentiment of secret protection counts for much in +the wondrous charm of her friendship. Her life, so painful during her +youth, is beautiful and serene towards evening. Her sufferings are +known, and no one asks who was the original of that portrait by Lefebvre +which is the chief and sacred ornament of her salon. Her face has the +maturity of fruits that have ripened slowly; a hallowed pride dignifies +that long-tried brow. + +At the period when the marquise came to Paris to open the new house, her +fortune, increased by the law of indemnities, gave her some two hundred +thousand francs a year, not counting her husband's salary; besides this, +Laurence had inherited the money guarded by Michu for his young masters. +From that time forth she made a practice of spending half her income and +of laying by the rest for her daughter Berthe. + +Berthe is the living image of her mother, but without her warrior nerve; +she is her mother in delicacy, in intellect,--"more a woman," Laurence +says, sadly. The marquise was not willing to marry her daughter until +she was twenty years of age. Her savings, judiciously invested in the +Funds by old Monsieur d'Hauteserre at the moment when consols fell in +1830, gave Berthe a dowry of eighty thousand francs a year in 1833, when +she was twenty. + +About that time the Princesse de Cadignan, who was seeking to marry her +son, the Duc de Maufrigneuse, brought him into intimate relations with +Madame de Cinq-Cygne. Georges de Maufrigneuse dined with the marquise +three times a week, accompanied the mother and daughter to the Opera, +and curvetted in the Bois around their carriage when they drove out. It +was evident to all the world of the Faubourg Saint-Germain that Georges +loved Berthe. But no one could discover to a certainty whether Madame +de Cinq-Cygne was desirous of making her daughter a duchess, to become a +princess later, or whether it was only the princess who coveted for +her son the splendid dowry. Did the celebrated Diane court the noble +provincial house? and was the daughter of the Cinq-Cygnes frightened +by the celebrity of Madame de Cadignan, her tastes and her ruinous +extravagance? In her strong desire not to injure her son's prospects the +princess grew devout, shut the door on her former life, and spent the +summer season at Geneva in a villa on the lake. + +One evening there were present in the salon of the Princesse de +Cadignan, the Marquise d'Espard, and de Marsay, then president of the +Council (on this occasion the princess saw her former lover for the +last time, for he died the following year), Eugene de Rastignac, +under-secretary of State attached to de Marsay's ministry, two +ambassadors, two celebrated orators from the Chamber of Peers, the old +dukes of Lenoncourt and de Navarreins, the Comte de Vandenesse and his +young wife, and d'Arthez,--who formed a rather singular circle, the +composition of which can be thus explained. The princess was anxious to +obtain from the prime minister of the crown a permit for the return +of the Prince de Cadignan. De Marsay, who did not choose to take upon +himself the responsibility of granting it came to tell the princess the +matter had been entrusted to safe hands, and that a certain political +manager had promised to bring her the result in the course of that +evening. + +Madame and Mademoiselle de Cinq-Cygne were announced. Laurence, whose +principles were unyielding, was not only surprised but shocked to see +the most illustrious representatives of Legitimacy talking and laughing +in a friendly manner with the prime minister of the man whom she never +called anything but Monsieur le Duc d'Orleans. De Marsay, like an +expiring lamp, shone with a last brilliancy. He laid aside for the +moment his political anxieties, and Madame de Cinq-Cygne endured him, as +they say the Court of Austria endured de Saint-Aulaire; the man of the +world effaced the minister of the citizen-king. But she rose to her feet +as though her chair were of red-hot iron when the name was announced of +"Monsieur le Comte de Gondreville." + +"Adieu, madame," she said to the princess in a curt tone. + +She left the room with Berthe, measuring her steps to avoid encountering +that fatal being. + +"You may have caused the loss of Georges' marriage," said the princess +to de Marsay, in a low voice. "Why did you not tell me your agent's +name?" + +The former clerk of Arcis, former Conventional, former Thermidorien, +tribune, Councillor of State, count of the Empire and senator, peer of +the Restoration, and now peer of the monarchy of July, made a servile +bow to the princess. + +"Fear nothing, madame," he said; "we have ceased to make war on princes. +I bring you an assurance of the permit," he added, seating himself +beside her. + +Malin was long in the confidence of Louis XVIII., to whom his varied +experience was useful. He had greatly aided in overthrowing Decazes, and +had given much good advice to the ministry of Villele. Coldly received +by Charles X., he had adopted all the rancors of Talleyrand. He was now +in high favor under the twelfth government he had served since 1789, and +which in turn he would doubtless betray. For the last fifteen months he +had broken the long friendship which had bound him for thirty-six years +to our greatest diplomat, the Prince de Talleyrand. It was in the course +of this very evening that he made answer to some one who asked why the +Prince showed such hostility to the Duc de Bordeaux, "The Pretender is +too young!" + +"Singular advice to give young men," remarked Rastignac. + +De Marsay, who grew thoughtful after Madame de Cadignan's reproachful +speech, took no notice of these jests. He looked askance at Gondreville +and was evidently biding his time until that now old man, who went to +bed early, had taken leave. All present, who had witnessed the abrupt +departure of Madame de Cinq-Cygne (whose reasons were well-known to +them), imitated de Marsay's conduct and kept silence. Gondreville, +who had not recognized the marquise, was ignorant of the cause of the +general reticence, but the habit of dealing with public matters had +given him a certain tact; he was moreover a clever man; he saw that his +presence was embarrassing to the company and he took leave. De Marsay, +standing with his back to the fire, watched the slow departure of the +old man in a manner which revealed the gravity of his thoughts. + +"I did wrong, madame, not to tell you the name of my negotiator," said +the prime minister, listening for the sound of Malin's wheels as they +rolled away. "But I will redeem my fault and give you the means of +making your peace with the Cinq-Cygnes. It is now thirty years since the +affair I am about to speak of took place; it is as old to the present +day as the death of Henri IV. (which between ourselves and in spite +of the proverb is still a mystery, like so many other historical +catastrophes). I can, however, assure you that even if this affair did +not concern Madame de Cinq-Cygne it would be none the less curious and +interesting. Moreover, it throws light on a celebrated exploit in our +modern annals,--I mean that of the Mont Saint-Bernard. Messieurs les +Ambassadeurs," he added, bowing to the two diplomats, "will see that in +the element of profound intrigue the political men of the present day +are far behind the Machiavellis whom the waves of the popular will +lifted, in 1793, above the storm,--some of whom have 'found,' as the old +song says, 'a haven.' To be anything in France in these days a man must +have been tossed in those tempests." + +"It seems to me," said the princess, smiling, "that from that point of +view the present state of things under your regime leaves nothing to be +desired." + +A well-bred laugh went round the room, and even the prime minister +himself could not help smiling. The ambassadors seemed impatient for the +tale; de Marsay coughed dryly and silence was obtained. + +"On a June night in 1800," began the minister, "about three in the +morning, just as daylight was beginning to pale the brilliancy of the +wax candles, two men tired of playing at _bouillotte_ (or who were +playing merely to keep others employed) left the salon of the ministry +of foreign affairs, then situated in the rue du Bac, and went apart into +a boudoir. These two men, of whom one is dead and the other has _one_ +foot in the grave, were, each in his own way, equally extraordinary. +Both had been priests; both had abjured religion; both were married. One +had been merely an Oratorian, the other had worn the mitre of a bishop. +The first was named Fouche; I shall not tell you the name of the +second;[*] both were then mere simple citizens--with very little +simplicity. When they were seen to leave the salon and enter the +boudoir, the rest of the company present showed a certain curiosity. A +third person followed them,--a man who thought himself far stronger than +the other two. His name was Sieyes, and you all know that he too +had been a priest before the Revolution. The one who _walked with +difficulty_ was then the minister of foreign affairs; Fouche was +minister of police; Sieyes had resigned the consulate. + + [*] Talleyrand was still living when de Marsay related these + circumstances. + + +"A small man, cold and stern in appearance, left his seat and followed +the three others, saying aloud in the hearing of the person from whom I +have the information, 'I mistrust the gambling of priests.' This man was +Carnot, minister of war. His remark did not trouble the two consuls who +were playing cards in the salon. Cambaceres and Lebrun were then at the +mercy of their ministers, men who were infinitely stronger than they. + +"Nearly all these statesmen are dead, and no secrecy is due to +them. They belong to history; and the history of that night and its +consequences has been terrible. I tell it to you now because I alone +know it; because Louis XVIII. never revealed the truth to that poor +Madame de Cinq-Cygne; and because the present government which I serve +is wholly indifferent as to whether the truth be known to the world or +not. + +"All four of these personages sat down in the boudoir. The lame man +undoubtedly closed the door before a word was said; it is even thought +that he ran the bolt. It is only persons of high rank who pay attention +to such trifles. The three priests had the livid, impassible faces which +you all remember. Carnot alone was ruddy. He was the first to speak. +'What is the point to be discussed?' he asked. 'France,' must have been +the answer of the Prince (whom I admire as one of the most extraordinary +men of our time). 'The Republic,' undoubtedly said Fouche. 'Power,' +probably said Sieyes." + +All present looked at each other. With voice, look, and gesture de +Marsay had wonderfully represented the three men. + +"The three priests fully understood one another," he continued, resuming +his narrative. "Carnot no doubt looked at his colleagues and the +ex-consul in a dignified manner. He must, however, have felt bewildered +in his own mind. + +"'Do you believe in the success of the army?' Sieyes said to him. + +"'We may expect everything from Bonaparte,' replied the minister of war; +'he has crossed the Alps.' + +"'At this moment,' said the minister of foreign affairs, with deliberate +slowness, 'he is playing his last stake.' + +"'Come, let's speak out,' said Fouche; 'what shall we do if the First +Consul is defeated? Is it possible to collect another army? Must we +continue his humble servants?' + +"'There is no republic now,' remarked Sieyes; 'Bonaparte is consul for +ten years.' + +"'He has more power than ever Cromwell had,' said the former bishop, +'and he did not vote for the death of the king.' + +"'We have a master,' said Fouche; 'the question is, shall we continue to +keep him if he loses the battle or shall we return to a pure republic?' + +"'France,' replied Carnot, sententiously, 'cannot resist except she +reverts to the old Conventional _energy_.' + +"'I agree with Carnot,' said Sieyes; 'if Bonaparte returns defeated we +must put an end to him; he has let us know him too well during the last +seven months.' + +"'The army is for him,' remarked Carnot, thoughtfully. + +"'And the people for us!' cried Fouche. + +"'You go fast, monsieur,' said the Prince, in that deep bass voice which +he still preserves and which now drove Fouche back into himself. + +"'Be frank,' said a voice, as a former Conventional rose from a corner +of the boudoir and showed himself; 'if Bonaparte returns a victor, we +shall adore him; if vanquished, we'll bury him!' + +"'So you were there, Malin, were you?' said the Prince, without +betraying the least feeling. 'Then you must be one of us; sit down'; and +he made him a sign to be seated. + +"It is to this one circumstance that Malin, a Conventional of small +repute, owes the position he afterwards obtained and, ultimately, that +in which we see him at the present moment. He proved discreet, and +the ministers were faithful to him; but they made him the pivot of the +machine and the cat's-paw of the machination. To return to my tale. + +"'Bonaparte has never yet been vanquished,' cried Carnot, in a tone of +conviction, 'and he has just surpassed Hannibal.' + +"'If the worst happens, here is the Directory,' said Sieyes, artfully, +indicating with a wave of his hand the five persons present. + +"'And,' added the Prince, 'we are all committed to the maintenance +of the French republic; we three priests have literally unfrocked +ourselves; the general, here, voted for the death of the king; and +you,' he said, turning to Malin, 'have got possession of the property of +_emigres_.' + +"'Yes, we have all the same interests,' said Sieyes, dictatorially, 'and +our interests are one with those of the nation.' + +"'A rare thing,' said the Prince, smiling. + +"'We must act,' interrupted Fouche. 'In all probability the battle is +now going on; the Austrians outnumber us; Genoa has surrendered; Massena +has committed the great mistake of embarking for Antibes; it is very +doubtful if he can rejoin Bonaparte, who will then be reduced to his own +resources.' + +"'Who gave you that news?' asked Carnot. + +"'It is sure,' replied Fouche. 'You will have the courier when the +Bourse opens.' + +"Those men didn't mince their words," said de Marsay, smiling, and +stopping short for a moment. + +"'Remember,' continued Fouche, 'it is not when the news of a disaster +comes that we can organize clubs, rouse the patriotism of the people, +and change the constitution. Our 18th Brumaire ought to be prepared +beforehand.' + +"'Let us leave the care of that to the minister of police,' said the +Prince, bowing to Fouche, 'and beware ourselves of Lucien.' (Lucien +Bonaparte was then minister of the interior.) + +"'I'll arrest him,' said Fouche. + +"'Messieurs!' cried Sieyes, 'our Directory ought not to be subject to +anarchical changes. We must organize a government of the few, a Senate +for life, and an elective chamber the control of which shall be in our +hands; for we ought to profit by the blunders of the past.' + +"'With such a system, there would be peace for me,' remarked the +ex-bishop. + +"'Find me a sure man to negotiate with Moreau; for the Army of the +Rhine will be our sole resource,' cried Carnot, who had been plunged in +meditation. + +"Ah!" said de Marsay, pausing, "those men were right. They were grand +in this crisis. I should have done as they did"; then he resumed his +narrative. + +"'Messieurs!' cried Sieyes, in a grave and solemn tone. + +"That word 'Messieurs!' was perfectly understood by all present; all +eyes expressed the same faith, the same promise, that of absolute +silence, and unswerving loyalty to each other in case the First Consul +returned triumphant. + +"'We all know what we have to do,' added Fouche. + +"Sieyes softly unbolted the door; his priestly ear had warned him. +Lucien entered the room. + +"'Good news!' he said. 'A courier has just brought Madame Bonaparte a +line from the First Consul. The campaign has opened with a victory at +Montebello.' + +"The three ministers exchanged looks. + +"'Was it a general engagement?' asked Carnot. + +"'No, a fight, in which Lannes has covered himself with glory. The +affair was bloody. Attacked with ten thousand men by eighteen thousand, +he was only saved by a division sent to his support. Ott is in full +retreat. The Austrian line is broken.' + +"'When did the fight take place?' asked Carnot. + +"'On the 8th,' replied Lucien. + +"'And this is the 13th,' said the sagacious minister. 'Well, if that is +so, the destinies of France are in the scale at the very moment we are +speaking.'" + +(In fact, the battle of Marengo did begin at dawn of the 14th.) + +"'Four days of fatal uncertainty!' said Lucien. + +"'Fatal?' said the minister of foreign affairs, coldly and +interrogatively. + +"'Four days,' echoed Fouche. + +"An eye-witness told me," said de Marsay, continuing the narrative in +his own person, "that the consuls, Cambaceres and Lebrun, knew nothing +of this momentous news until after the six personages returned to the +salon. It was then four in the morning. Fouche left first. That man +of dark and mysterious genius, extraordinary, profound, and little +understood, but who undoubtedly had the gifts of a Philip the Second, a +Tiberius and a Borgia, went at once to work with an infernal and secret +activity. His conduct at the time of the affair at Walcheren was that of +a consummate soldier, a great politician, a far-seeing administrator. He +was the only real minister that Napoleon ever had. And you all know how +he then alarmed him. + +"Fouche, Massena and the Prince," continued de Marsay, reflectively, +"are the three greatest men, the wisest heads in diplomacy, war, and +government, that I have ever known. If Napoleon had frankly allied them +with his work there would no longer be a Europe, only a vast French +Empire. Fouche did not finally detach himself from Napoleon until he saw +Sieyes and the Prince de Talleyrand shoved aside. + +"He now went to work, and in three days (all the while hiding the hand +that stirred the ashes of the Montagne) he had organized that general +agitation which then arose all over France and revived the republicanism +of 1793. As it is necessary that I should explain this obscure corner of +our history, I must tell you that this agitation, starting from Fouche's +own hand (which held the wires of the former Montagne), produced +republican plots against the life of the First Consul, which was in +peril from this cause long after the victory of Marengo. It was Fouche's +sense of the evil he had thus brought about which led him to warn +Napoleon, who held a contrary opinion, that republicans were more +concerned than royalists in the various conspiracies. + +"Fouche was an admirable judge of men; he relied on Sieyes because of +his thwarted ambition, on Talleyrand because he was a great _seigneur_, +on Carnot for his perfect honesty; but the man he dreaded was the one +whom you have seen here this evening. I will now tell how he entangled +that man in his meshes. + +"Malin was only Malin in those days,--a secret agent and correspondent +of Louis XVIII. Fouche now compelled him to reduce to writing all the +proclamations of the proposed revolutionary government, its warrants and +edicts against the factions of the 18th Brumaire. An accomplice against +his own will, Malin was required to have these documents secretly +printed, and the copies held ready in his own house for distribution +if Bonaparte were defeated. The printer was subsequently imprisoned and +detained two months; he died in 1816, and always believed he had been +employed by a Montagnard conspiracy. + +"One of the most singular scenes ever played by Fouche's police was +caused by the blunder of an agent, who despatched a courier to a famous +banker of that day with the news of a defeat at Marengo. Victory, you +will remember, did not declare itself for Napoleon until seven o'clock +in the evening of the battle. At midday the banker's agent, considering +the day lost and the French army about to be annihilated, hastened to +despatch the courier. On receipt of that news Fouche was about to put +into motion a whole army of bill-posters and cries, with a truck full +of proclamations, when the second courier arrived with the news of the +triumph which put all France beside itself with joy. There were heavy +losses at the Bourse, of course. But the criers and posters who were +gathered to announce the political death of Bonaparte and to post up +the new proclamations were only kept waiting awhile till the news of the +victory could be struck off! + +"Malin, on whom the whole responsibility of the plot of which he had +been the working agent was likely to fall if it ever became known, was +so terrified that he packed the proclamations and other papers in carts +and took them down to Gondreville in the night-time, where no doubt they +were hidden in the cellars of that chateau, which he had bought in +the name of another man--who was it, by the bye? he had him made +chief-justice of an Imperial court--Ah! Marion. Having thus disposed +of these damning proofs he returned to Paris to congratulate the First +Consul on his victory. Napoleon, as you know, rushed from Italy to Paris +after the battle of Marengo with alarming celerity. Those who know the +secret history of that time are well aware that a message from Lucien +brought him back. The minister of the interior had foreseen the attitude +of the Montagnard party, and though he had no idea of the quarter from +which the wind really blew, he feared a storm. Incapable of suspecting +the three ministers and Carnot, he attributed the movement which stirred +all France to the hatred his brother had excited by the 18th Brumaire, +and to the confident belief of the men of 1793 that defeat was certain +in Italy. + +"The battle of Marengo detained Napoleon on the plains of Lombardy until +the 25th of June, but he reached Paris on the 2nd of July. Imagine +the faces of the five conspirators as they met the First Consul at the +Tuileries, and congratulated him on the victory. Fouche on that very +occasion at the palace told Malin to have patience, for _all was not +over yet_. The truth was, Talleyrand and Fouche both held that Bonaparte +was not as much bound to the principles of the Revolution as they were, +and as he ought to be; and for this reason, as well as for their own +safety, they subsequently, in 1804, buckled him irrevocably, as they +believed, to its cause by the affair of the Duc d'Enghien. The execution +of that prince is connected by a series of discoverable ramifications +with the plot which was laid on that June evening in the boudoir of the +ministry of foreign affairs, the night before the battle of Marengo. +Those who have the means of judging, and who have known persons who were +well-informed, are fully aware that Bonaparte was handled like a +child by Talleyrand and Fouche, who were determined to alienate him +irrevocably from the House of Bourbon, whose agents were even then, at +the last moment, endeavoring to negotiate with the First Consul." + +"Talleyrand was playing whist in the salon of Madame de Luynes," said a +personage who had been listening attentively to de Marsay's narrative. +"It was about three o'clock in the morning, when he pulled out his +watch, looked at it, stopped the game, and asked his three companions +abruptly and without any preface whether the Prince de Conde had any +other children than the Duc d'Enghien. Such an absurd inquiry from the +lips of Talleyrand caused the utmost surprise. 'Why do you ask us what +you know perfectly well yourself?' they said to him. 'Only to let +you know that the House of Conde comes to an end at this moment.' +Now Monsieur de Talleyrand had been at the hotel de Luynes the entire +evening, and he must have known that Bonaparte was absolutely unable to +grant the pardon." + +"But," said Eugene de Rastignac, "I don't see in all this any connection +with Madame de Cinq-Cygnes and her troubles." + +"Ah, you were so young at that time, my dear fellow; I forgot to explain +the conclusion. You all know the affair of the abduction of the Comte de +Gondreville, then senator of the Empire, for which the Simeuse brothers +and the two d'Hauteserres were condemned to the galleys,--an affair +which did, in fact, lead to their death." + +De Marsay, entreated by several persons present to whom the +circumstances were unknown, related the whole trial, stating that the +mysterious abductors were five sharks of the secret service of the +ministry of the police, who were ordered to obtain the proclamations of +the would-be Directory which Malin had surreptitiously taken from his +house in Paris, and which he had himself come to Gondreville for the +express purpose of destroying, being convinced at last that the Empire +was on a sure foundation and could not be overthrown. "I have no doubt," +added de Marsay, "that Fouche took the opportunity to have the house +searched for the correspondence between Malin and Louis XVIII., which +was always kept up, even during the Terror. But in this cruel affair +there was a private element, a passion of revenge in the mind of the +leader of the party, a man named Corentin, who is still living, and who +is one of those subaltern agents whom nothing can replace and who +makes himself felt by his amazing ability. It appears that Madame, then +Mademoiselle de Cinq-Cygne, had ill-treated him on a former occasion +when he attempted to arrest the Simeuse brothers. What happened +afterwards in connection with the senator's abduction was the result of +his private vengeance. + +"These facts were known, of course, to Malin, and through him to Louis +XVIII. You may therefore," added de Marsay, turning to the Princesse de +Cadignan, "explain the whole matter to the Marquise de Cinq-Cygne, and +show her why Louis XVIII. thought fit to keep silence." ADDENDUM + +The following personages appear in other stories of the Human Comedy. + +Beauvisage The Member for Arcis + + Berthier, Alexandre + The Chouans + + Bonaparte, Lucien + The Vendetta + + Bordin + The Seamy Side of History + The Commission in Lunacy + Jealousies of a Country Town + + Cinq-Cygne, Laurence, Comtesse (afterwards Marquise de) + The Secrets of a Princess + The Seamy Side of History + The Member for Arcis + + Corentin + The Chouans + Scenes from a Courtesan's Life + The Middle Classes + + Derville + Gobseck + A Start in Life + Father Goriot + Colonel Chabert + Scenes from a Courtesan's Life + + Duroc, Gerard-Christophe-Michel + A Woman of Thirty + + Espard, Jeanne-Clementine-Athenais de Blamont-Chauvry, Marquise d' + The Commission in Lunacy + A Distinguished Provincial at Paris + Scenes from a Courtesan's Life + Letters of Two Brides + Another Study of Woman + The Secrets of a Princess + A Daughter of Eve + Beatrix + + Fouche, Joseph + The Chouans + Scenes from a Courtesan's Life + + Giguet, Colonel + The Member for Arcis + + Gondreville, Malin, Comte de + A Start in Life + Domestic Peace + The Member for Arcis + + Gothard + The Member for Arcis + + Goujet, Abbe + The Member for Arcis + + Grandlieu, Duc Ferdinand de + The Thirteen + A Bachelor's Establishment + Modeste Mignon + Scenes from a Courtesan's Life + + Granville, Vicomte de + A Second Home + Farewell (Adieu) + Cesar Birotteau + Scenes from a Courtesan's Life + A Daughter of Eve + Cousin Pons + + Grevin + A Start in Life + The Member for Arcis + + Hauteserre, D' + The Member for Arcis + + Lefebvre, Robert + Cousin Betty + + Lenoncourt, Duc de + The Lily of the Valley + Cesar Birotteau + Jealousies of a Country Town + Beatrix + + Louis XVIII., Louis-Stanislas-Xavier + The Chouans + The Seamy Side of History + Scenes from a Courtesan's Life + The Ball at Sceaux + The Lily of the Valley + Colonel Chabert + The Government Clerks + + Marion (of Arcis) + The Member for Arcis + + Marion (brother) + The Member for Arcis + + Marsay, Henri de + The Thirteen + The Unconscious Humorists + Another Study of Woman + The Lily of the Valley + Father Goriot + Jealousies of a Country Town + Ursule Mirouet + A Marriage Settlement + Lost Illusions + A Distinguished Provincial at Paris + Letters of Two Brides + The Ball at Sceaux + Modeste Mignon + The Secrets of a Princess + A Daughter of Eve + + Maufrigneuse, Duchesse de + The Secrets of a Princess + Modeste Mignon + Jealousies of a Country Town + The Muse of the Department + Scenes from a Courtesan's Life + Letters of Two Brides + Another Study of Woman + The Member for Arcis + + Maufrigneuse, Georges de + The Secrets of a Princess + Beatrix + The Member for Arcis + + Maufrigneuse, Berthe de + Beatrix + The Member for Arcis + + Michu, Francois + Jealousies of a Country Town + The Member for Arcis + + Michu, Madame Francois + The Member for Arcis + + Murat, Joachim, Prince + The Vendetta + Colonel Chabert + Domestic Peace + The Country Doctor + + Navarreins, Duc de + A Bachelor's Establishment + Colonel Chabert + The Muse of the Department + The Thirteen + Jealousies of a Country Town + The Peasantry + Scenes from a Courtesan's Life + The Country Parson + The Magic Skin + The Secrets of a Princess + Cousin Betty + + Peyrade + Scenes from a Courtesan's Life + + Rapp + The Vendetta + + Rastignac, Eugene de + Father Goriot + A Distinguished Provincial at Paris + Scenes from a Courtesan's Life + The Ball at Sceaux + The Commission in Lunacy + A Study of Woman + Another Study of Woman + The Magic Skin + The Secrets of a Princess + A Daughter of Eve + The Firm of Nucingen + Cousin Betty + The Member for Arcis + The Unconscious Humorists + + Regnier, Claude-Antoine + A Second Home + + Simeuse, Admiral de + Beatrix + Jealousies of a Country Town + + Steingel + The Peasantry + + Talleyrand-Perigord, Charles-Maurice de + The Chouans + The Thirteen + Letters of Two Brides + Gaudissart II. + + Vandenesse, Comte Felix de + The Lily of the Valley + Lost Illusions + A Distinguished Provincial at Paris + Cesar Birotteau + Letters of Two Brides + A Start in Life + The Marriage Settlement + The Secrets of a Princess + Another Study of Woman + A Daughter of Eve + + Varlet + The Gondreville Mystery + The Member for Arcis + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's An Historical Mystery, by Honore de Balzac + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK AN HISTORICAL MYSTERY *** + +***** This file should be named 1678.txt or 1678.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/1/6/7/1678/ + +Produced by John Bickers, Dagny, and Bonnie Sala + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying 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