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diff --git a/old/30300.txt b/old/30300.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..bb9ed32 --- /dev/null +++ b/old/30300.txt @@ -0,0 +1,4929 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Orphans of the Storm, by Henry MacMahon + +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: Orphans of the Storm + +Author: Henry MacMahon + +Release Date: October 20, 2009 [EBook #30300] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ORPHANS OF THE STORM *** + + + + +Produced by Roger Frank and the Online Distributed +Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net + + + + + + + + + +ORPHANS OF THE STORM + + + + +[Illustration: LILLIAN AND DOROTHY GISH AS THE TWO ORPHANS IN D. W. +GRIFFITH'S ORPHANS OF THE STORM. _Frontispiece_.] + + + + +ORPHANS OF THE STORM + +A COMPLETE NOVEL + +FROM D. W. GRIFFITH'S MOTION PICTURE EPIC ON THE IMMORTAL THEME OF + +THE TWO ORPHANS + +NOVELIZED BY + +HENRY MacMAHON + +ILLUSTRATED WITH SCENES FROM THE PHOTO-PLAY + +GROSSET & DUNLAP + +PUBLISHERS--NEW YORK + +Made in the United States of America + + + + +Copyright 1922 + +BY HENRY MacMAHON + +All rights reserved, including those of translation into +foreign languages. + + + + +CONTENTS + + I. TWO GIRLS OF NORMANDY 1 + II. THE JOURNEY TO PARIS 5 + III. WHAT HAPPENED AT THE COACH HOUSE 12 + IV. THE FETE OF BEL-AIR 20 + V. BEL-AIR--(CONTINUED) 27 + VI. IN THE FROCHARDS' DEN 33 + VII. TANGLED SKEINS 38 + VIII. THE HONOR OF THE FAMILY 46 + IX. FRIENDS OF THE PEOPLE 54 + X. THE ATTACK ON DANTON 61 + XI. LOUISE BEFORE NOTRE DAME 67 + XII. LOVE, MASTER OF HEARTS 72 + XIII. THE RECOGNITION 76 + XIV. DOWN IN THE DEPTHS 84 + XV. LIGHT RAYS IN THE DARKNESS 91 + XVI. REVOLUTION IS HERE! 100 + XVII. PRISON DELIVERY--AND AN ENCOUNTER 108 + XVIII. "THERE IS NO LAW--" 114 + XIX. KNIFE DUEL AND ESCAPE 124 + XX. THE NEW TYRANNY 129 + XXI. ADVENTURES OF A PILGRIM 136 + XXII. ADVENTURES OF A PILGRIM (CONTINUED) 142 + XXIII. BEFORE THE DREAD TRIBUNAL 149 + XXIV. VENGEANCE COME TO JUDGMENT 156 + XXV. THE VOICE OF DANTON 160 + XXVI. REPRIEVE OR AGONY 169 + XXVII. THE FAREWELL 173 + XXVIII. MANIAC WITH A DAGGER 178 + XXIX. DANTON'S RIDERS 184 + XXX. THE AFTERMATH 191 + + + + +ORPHANS OF THE STORM + + +CHAPTER I + +TWO GIRLS OF NORMANDY + + +In all the countryside of Evreux, nay in all the beauteous old-time +Normandy of the period of 1789, there were no lovelier _filles du +peuple_ than Henriette and Louise Girard. + +Their romantic story was often whispered by country gossips. In +infancy foundlings on the church steps of Notre Dame, then brought to +this quiet Norman backwater by the Girards and raised as sisters, they +had lost both their protectors by death. The same visitation of the +dread plague had cost poor little Louise her eyesight. + +Since the orphaning and especially since the blindness of Louise, +Henriette cared for her with a love overwhelming as that of a mother +for her helpless baby. She looked forward eagerly to the day when they +might leave the kinswoman's where they were staying and go to Paris. + +A local doctor had imparted a precious ray of hope. + +"As for me, voila! I can do nothing," he said. "Mais, is it not that +there are learned faculties in Paris--men skilled in chirurgery even +to the taking off of cataracts and the restoration of sight? Of a +truth, yes! En avant, mes enfants! Let Monsieur Martin, your ancient +cousin in Paris, have the care of you whilst the chirurgeons exert +their skill--presto! if all goes well, the little one shall yet see!" + +Henriette's heart thumped with joy o'er the cheering prospect. She +kissed and fondled Louise and even teased her. Reading or chatting to +the blind girl, sewing her frocks or performing a thousand and one +kindly services, her sole thought was to distract and enliven the +prisoned soul behind the darkened windows. + +And so a broad smile crossed the lovely sightless features and even +the dulled orbs radiated a little as Henriette excitedly told the +details of the proposed trip, and teased: + +"--And, oh, yes--I forgot--when Miss Baby's eyes are quite well, I +shall sit down like a lady--and you'll do all the work!" + +They were quite in a fever of delighted ardor over the preparations +for the journey. + +Elder sister, attending to everything, pronounced it perfect with gay +little pats of quaint panniered costumes, fitting of banded sailor +hats o'er white coifs, recurling of ringlets, and dainty polishing of +slippers. The graceful little figures seemed elfin and fairy-like in +the half sleeves and low corsages of tight bodices from which depended +enormously full skirts set off by cute pinafores. + +Round boxes, baskets or bags on either arm and even the rainy-day +umbrella, they waited in delicious expectancy the serving man fetching +the brass-studded cowhide trunk, to the very last moment when to +Henriette's surprise the blind girl pouted and drew back! + +She groped until her fingers touched a chair, then sat down--kerplump! + +"I won't go!" announced Louise firmly. "Y-you'll meet somebody or +other in Paris--get married--and--and--I'll be left _all alone_!" + +The little general of the expedition paced hurriedly up and down the +floor like a Napoleon at Elba. Shocked surprise at Louise's awful +insinuation struggled with panic fear. At last Henriette faced her +sister squarely. She came over and knelt beside her chair, raising a +small hand to high Heaven. + +"Desert you for a Man!" said Henriette, breathlessly. "Why, the very +idea that I could ever think such a thing. Dear, here is my right +hand; take it and bear witness: I solemnly swear _never to marry till +you yourself can see and approve my husband_!" + +The left hand of Louise traveled up till it met and lay flat on the +other's upraised palm. An expression of happiness overspread the blind +girl's face. She leaned over and kissed her sister. The two girls rose +and left the old home of Evreux. + + + + +CHAPTER II + +THE JOURNEY TO PARIS + +Locomotion in those pre-railroad days was by stage coach except for +the rich and noble who rode in their chaises. The way of the diligence +led past winding streams and bright meadows busy with haymakers; past +picturesque water mills and stone chateaux, anon along tree-shaded +avenues grateful in their coolness. + +Hard as the leathern seats were and however wearisome the ride, the +girls forgot discomfort in Henriette's description of the sights and +scenes and Louise's just as eager listening. Then at the stops the +young women would get out and stretch their weary limbs whereof they +suddenly became aware as the motion ceased. They were the only +passengers, with unlimited time for the naive confidences which +girlhood loves. + +"Are you sure that Cousin Martin will really meet us at the Paris +coach house?" asked the blind sister anxiously. + +"I wrote him that we were coming," replied Henriette simply. "Of +course he will be there and awaiting our arrival." + +"But if he should not--" + +"Then, we have his address and will go to his house. Never fear, +little sister, it will be all right...." + +The lumbering coach-and-six did its hundred miles a day, bad roads or +good roads. But within a few miles of Paris a whiffletree broke, the +ungainly vehicle stopped, and the men jumped off to hold the horses +and repair the damage. Henriette and Louise soon left the hard seats +for a few minutes too. + +Down the other side of the narrow turn of the road where the accident +had occurred, thundered the beautiful carved and gilded chaise of a +famous nobleman, Marquis de Praille, accompanied by gallant outriders +and backed by liveried footmen on the high rear seats. Inside the +equipage were the Marquis and his commissionaire La Fleur. + +The black and dusty old stage coach blocked the way. + +As the aristocrat's journey rudely stopped, with the chaise horses +thrown back on their haunches, a bewigged and powdered head was thrust +out of the window, roaring: + +"What is the meaning of this?" + +Descending presently with his follower to survey the scene, the noble +Marquis enraged at the blocking of his day's pleasuring belabored the +chief ostler with his cane. Smartly the blows rained down on the +cowering sufferer, alternate right and left in rhythmic strokes that +touched each and several part of the canaille anatomy. + +This gentle exercise finished, the Marquis espied around the corner of +the coach the two young passengers. Another side of the Grand +Seigneur's nature disclosed itself. + +Mon Dieu, what a vision! Blue eyes, yellow ringlets framing most +kissable features, dainty form, twinkling feet, flower-like +elegance--a rustic Psyche far more to be desired than the ladies of +the Court! The Marquis hardly looked twice at the blind girl. All his +glances were for Henriette. + +Self-conscious, the noble gentleman plumed and preened. Patting down +his somewhat ruffled apparel, adjusting his fashionable wig and +peruke, and touching up his mouth with the lipstick that the dandies +of that age carried, he advanced elegantly upon the young women, cane +in one hand and the other toying delicately with a hand muff. + +Henriette curtsied and smiled, and bade Louise do the same. They +knew not the ways of Courts, but native courtesy and naive simplicity +were theirs. Presently the elder girl found herself telling the +distinguished personage all the details of their trip, the appointment +with M. Martin, and the hope of curing Louise by a visit to the +Faculty. + +The gallant de Praille, all bows and smirks, was offering them the +hospitality of the chaise. What a grand stranger, truly! A regal +caress of Henriette's fingers in the handclasp. Most patronizing (or +was it odious familiarity?) his dainty touch of her bare arms; the +jeweled hand that toyed with her ringlets; the dexterous move as if to +encircle her waist; the playing--in the airiest, most fluttering +manner imaginable--with the lace that draped her adorable little +bosom! + +Quietly Henriette replied to his overtures: + +"No, monsieur, I think it is best that we go in our own coach!" + +The chastiser of canaille and charmer of ladies did not seem a whit +abashed. Paying them ceremonious farewell, he withdrew and repaired to +his equipage, the road for which was now clear. The girls stood a +minute giggling at his mannerisms, as Henriette described his finery +and imitated his peacock airs. + +The girls would not have smiled had they understood. La Fleur, whom +they had scarcely noticed, was the pander of the Marquis's vices. The +two were deep in plot. 'Twas whispered talk, but a chance bystander +might at least have overheard the words: + +"... At my fete of Bel-Air--make no mistake, La Fleur--I rely on you. +One hundred louis, the reward...." + +Or another scene that marked de Praille's entry into Paris, might have +interested them. Driving recklessly to make up time lost in the +blockade, the nobleman's equipage knocked down and ran over a luckless +denizen of the faubourgs. Carelessly flinging out gold to the +relatives of the dead woman who were sobbing or cursing him, he leaned +forward and inquired most solicitously of the driver: + +"_But--are the horses hurt?_" + +Indeed the nobles of that time regarded the masses as little if any +superior to cattle or any other of their possessions. + +In the country the common man toiled a serf without wages, for his +master; while in Paris itself, the centre of gayety and fashion, the +fruit of his toil was expended by the aristocrats in prodigal luxury. + +The bourgeoisie or middle class bore the brunt of the taxes. A gay +parasitic element, the demi-monde, ministered to the nobles' +pleasures. Below, the "submerged tenth" of the thievish and begging +classes plied their questionable trades, with a large margin of the +city's population on the very verge of starvation. + +It hints eloquently of the terrible conditions that there were no less +than _thirty thousand professional beggars in Paris at this time_. +Their wan, pinched faces, gaunt forms and palsied vitality were an +outstanding reproach to a flower-like but decadent aristocratic +culture founded on the muck of cruelty and oppression. + +Nothing had the girls (or the simpleminded country Doctor who sped +them) known of the dangers or pitfalls of the city. Vile gallantry or +viler underworld was looking for just such prey.... + + + + +CHAPTER III + +WHAT HAPPENED AT THE COACH HOUSE + + +The Normandy-Paris stage swung into the city as the shades of evening +were falling and deposited our heroines at journey's end in a little +square beyond the Pont Neuf where the coach house was situated. As +they alighted, cries of "Sedan! Sedan chair!" were heard. Brawling +chairmen "mixed it" with pummeling fists and kicking legs to be in the +front lines for the passengers' custom. + +'Twas a terrifying scene from which they were glad to escape to a side +bench whence they watched the homeward hurrying throngs and looked +vainly for Monsieur Martin. As in the country, Henriette tried to pass +the time of day with divers and sundry folk, but it was no use. They +gave her queer looks or hurried on, as if stone deaf. + +"They simply pay no attention to you here!" she complained to Louise, +"but never mind! Cousin Martin will come soon, and take us to his +home." + +Presently the city lamplighter was lighting the street lantern above +them; he went his way and the Place was deserted. + +There _was_ a man lurking in the shadows of a portico nearby, though +'twould somewhat strain credulity to imagine him the elderly tradesman +Martin. He was a powerful and burly figure, black habited, of impudent +visage quite unlike a gentle relative's. In the deeper shadows back of +him crouched two fellows, one of whom bore in his hand a black cloth. + +"Oh, why does not Monsieur Martin come?" said Henriette to herself +softly, with a little gesture of half-despair. + +"I am your cousin Martin!" said the man, advancing upon them with a +smirk that was like a leer. + +Henriette involuntarily drew back, withdrawing Louise a few steps with +her. Relief and fear of the strange "cousin" struggled within her. The +man laid a hand on the elder girl's arm and at the same time signalled +the ruffians. A sudden impulse moved Henriette to wrench herself +free. + +In a twinkling the three were upon her. While the burly leader tore +away her grasp of the blind Louise, the fellow with the cloth threw it +over her face and shoulders, stifling her screams. + +Not a passer-by in sight! + +Fiercely Henriette struggled, twice lifting the cloth from her face, +and fiercely Louise sought to twine herself around the body of her +lovely guide and protector. But the big man again had thrown the blind +girl off, and the fellows, having tied the black cloth, lifted +Henriette between them and carried her into a waiting fiacre. + +"We've got her safe now, La Fleur," said the kidnappers. + +"Drive your hardest to Bel-Air, the Marquis's fete begins at nine +o'clock!" said the villain addressed, who was none other than the +famous nobleman's pander.... + +What cared the Marquis and La Fleur about the blind one's misfortunes. +As La Fleur had said: + +"Never fear--blindness is ever a good stock in trade. She'll find her +career--in the streets of Paris!" + +Louise stopped, and listened for the retreating footsteps. The noise +of the kidnappers' melee was quite stilled. Instead, the diminishing +sound of hoofbeats and crunching wheels woke the echoes of the silent +street; mingled with it--perhaps not even actually, but the memory of +an earlier outcry--the muffled cry, "Louise! Louise!" + +Louise listened again, but no familiar sound met her ear--only the +rushing of the water, or the footsteps of some pedestrian in the +distance. + +"I hear nothing," she said, in a terrified whisper. Hoping against +hope, and in a voice trembling with fear, she spoke as it were to the +empty winds: + +"Henriette! Speak to me, speak one word. Answer me, Henriette!" No +answer, no reply! + +"Louise!" sounded faintly on the far-off wind, or perhaps her poor +brain conjured it. The blind girl knew now that her sister was beyond +reach, and in the power of cruel men who knew no mercy. + +"They have dragged her away to some hiding," sensed the poor blind +brain, "or perhaps that carriage is bearing her away from me forever. +Oh, what shall I do?" she cried aloud, in tones that would have +thrilled a hearer's heart with pity. "Alone--alone! Abandoned!" + +With the last word the full horror of her situation surged upon her, +and she burst into a torrent of tears. Alone in Paris! Blind and +alone, without relatives or friends. + +You who sit in a cozy home, surrounded by safeguards and comforts, can +have no idea of the blind foundling's utter dependence or the terrible +meaning conveyed by the one word "abandoned." + +"What will become of me?" she cried, between the sobs. "Alone in this +great city; helpless and blind--my God, what _shall_ I do? Where am I +to go? I do not know which way to turn!" + +Self-preservation, and the piteous hope that the house fronts might +give her some clue to her bearings, caused the girl to stagger from +the centre of the square to the sides. Along one of them she picked +her way, moaning for help and having not even a stick to guide her. +Slowly, painfully she groped around the Place until unwittingly she +approached the railing or wall which served as a guard to the steep +bank that descended to the river. + +Along this she felt her way until suddenly her hands met the empty +air. What, now? Should she return as she had come? No, she thought; +the flagging beneath her feet was heavy and substantial: 'twas +probably the intersection of another street, and a few steps would +bring her to house fronts again. + +Louise walked down the flags and stepped into nothingness--thirty feet +sheer precipice into the river Seine! + +In the instant horror of falling to death off the stone pier, she +found herself saved by being clasped in a man's arms. + +"Great heavens!" this individual exclaimed as he bore her to the +centre of the square. "What were you going to do?" + +"Nothing--nothing--what was it?" cried Louise incoherently, realizing +only that she had been pulled back from death's door. + +"Another moment," said the man in horror-stricken accents, "and you +would have been drowned in the Seine! I leaped up the steps and just +managed to catch you. Lucky that five minutes ago I had to go down to +the river to fill my water can. You--" + +The tones of the voice, which struck Louise as young-old in its +timbre, were soft and kind with a refined and even plaintive quality +albeit not cultured. Here was a good soul and a friend, she sensed at +once. But could she suddenly have won her sight, Louise would have +been astonished at the actual vision. + +Pale narrow spirituelle features, lit by beautiful eyes and surmounted +by a wealth of straight black hair; a form haggard, weazened by +deformity, yet evidencing muscular toil; delicate hands and feet that +like the features bespoke the poesy of soul within mis-shapen +shell,--the hunchback scissors-grinder Pierre Frochard presented a +remarkable aspect which, once seen, no one could ever forget! + +Wonder and awe were writ on the pale face as he looked at the lovely +angel he had rescued. Pierre shuddered again over the escape. Better +that he should have suffered myriad deaths than that a hair of that +lovely head were injured. As for himself--poor object of the world's +scorn and his family's revilings--was he worthy e'en to kiss the hem +of her garment? + +Pierre looked yet again. The angelic little creature was blind! +Wide-open yet sightless orbs whereof the cataracts blackened the view +of all Life's perils, as they had of the imminent river. A surge of +self-abnegating, celestial love, mingled with divine pity, filled the +hunchback's soul. + +Tenderly he inquired about her misfortune, and she told him the sad +tale of the journey and Henriette's kidnapping.... Their talk was +broken in upon by the entry of the hag Mere Frochard and her elder +son. + +Alas, poor Louise! In finding a friend thou hast likewise found the +bitter bread of the stranger and the slavery of the Frochard clan! The +wretched hunchback is himself in thrall. Little dreams he the woe that +shall attend ye both, the while Henriette is the victim of far +mightier pomps and powers. + +Though Henriette shall not know thy fate for many a day, though she +shall search long and frantically and not meet the beloved until +within the shadow of the guillotine, it may give the reader what +comfort it will that the blind sister still lives--a lost mite in the +vast ocean of Paris! + + + + +CHAPTER IV + +THE FETE OF BEL-AIR + + +Henrietta had swooned in the vehicle which was being rapidly driven +into open country. + +Gradually color came back into wan cheeks. The blue orbs and Cupid +lips fluttered and half opened; the dazed little brain tried vainly to +sense what had happened. + +Quickly the man La Fleur took out a small phial and poured some few +drops of a dark liquid on the girl's tongue. Half consciously +swallowing it, she sank back again--this time, into a deeper nirvana. + +They were coming now to a large estate, the grounds of which were +brightly illuminated. Outside the iron palings a crowd of beggars +shrieked and gesticulated. Within, all was gayety. La Fleur and his +fellows dismounted with their burden. They laid the inanimate form of +the Norman girl on a litter and covered it with a white canopy. As +this strange pallet awaits the Master's wishes in anteroom, let us +take a peep at the celebrated Sunken Gardens. + +Bel-Air had been beautified in the lovely exedra style for which Petit +Trianon is noted. Art blended so cunningly with Nature one might +almost mistake marble Venus for live goddess or flesh-and-blood naiads +of the lake for carved caryatides. The very musicians seemed children +of Pan as they tuned their lyres and fiddles in woodland nook. + +Before the splashing fountain supported by little naked Loves in +marble--flanked by balustrades and bordered by screens of myriad +crystalline glass drops--a cool white pavement invited the gay minuet. +Beyond, a huge banquet table groaned with delicacies and wines the +cost of which would have gone far to rationing the thirty thousand +hungry of the nearby City. Indeed, enough was wasted to have fed many. +With bizarre and often gross entertainment Marquis de Praille amused +his guests who themselves presented a wanton and amorous scene that +seemed itself a part of the elaborately staged revels. + +What gallantry, what passion, what low asides and snatched kisses! as +the squirming dancers intoxicated the spectators' sense or gauzily +draped coryphees plunged in the pool now converted into a fountain of +wine. The elegant gentlemen and the audacious women guests--themselves +miracles of bold costuming and sixty-inch snow-white coiffures--knew +the play foretold the coarser revels that all would indulge in after +midnight. + +Around the banqueting tables a number of ladies and gentlemen were +seated, some still toying with the savory viands and drinking rare +vintages of Champagne, whilst others idly watched the dancers or +discussed the latest court news and high life scandal. + +"Well, what do you think of my retreat from the whirl and bustle of +Paris?" asked Marquis de Praille of his vis-a-vis, who was a dashing +sort of beauty. + +"My dear Marquis," replied that lady, "I am delighted. It is a +satisfaction to find a gentleman who maintains the customs of his +rank." + +"And yet there are fools who want to change them," exclaimed a young +nobleman from the opposite table. + +"You are right--fools--fools," answered de Praille, as he motioned to +the servants for more wine. + +[Illustration: I WON'T GO ANNOUNCED LOUISE FIRMLY. YOU'LL MEET SOMEBODY, +GET MARRIED AND I'LL BE LEFT ALL ALONE.] + +"By the way," asked the lady who had first spoken, "you have heard the +news?" + +As no one had heard anything particularly new for the last two hours, +she continued by saying: + +"They say that the new minister of police is as hard as a stone, and +cold as a fish. He is going to put a stop to all our amusements, and, +Marquis, this may be the last entertainment you will give at +Bel-Air." + +"Nonsense!" exclaimed the host. "I'd like to see the minister of +police who would dare to interfere with the pleasures of a French +nobleman. Who and what is he?" + +"He is from Touraine; is called the Count de Linieres, and is the +uncle of the Chevalier Maurice de Vaudrey." + +"Where is the Chevalier?" suddenly asked one of the ladies, as she was +thus reminded of one whom report had described as rather eccentric, +and on whom she wished to exercise her charms. "You promised me I +should see him, Marquis." + +"So I did, and I expect him, as well as another guest. I warn you, +ladies, that she will be the rival to you all." + +"Who is the other guest?" was the question which assailed him from all +quarters. + +"A young lady," answered the Marquis as if enraptured at the thought. +"Sweet sixteen, beautiful as a rose, and innocent as an angel." + +"Where did you find such a pearl?" asked one of the ladies banteringly. + +"In Normandy." + +This announcement was followed by a titter from the feminine members +of the group. + +"Yes, I know these Normandy beauties!" scorned one of the ladies, +betraying in spite of herself a tinge of jealousy. + +"Rustics! Quite unpolished and de trop," chimed in another fair one, +cat-like in her verbal claws. + +"Laugh away, ladies," said de Praille gayly. "You shall see a real +Norman beauty, and then see how jealous you will all become at sight +of her." + +At this moment a noise was heard from the outside, and in the midst of +some confusion a rather singular voice was heard saying: + +"I tell you I must go in, and I will. I must speak to your master." + +On hearing this the Marquis went toward the entrance, and demanded of +the servants who this was who was so importunate. + +"Picard," answered the owner of the singular voice. "Picard, valet to +the Chevalier de Vaudrey." + +The Marquis immediately gave orders that he be admitted, and a sharp, +wiry-looking fellow, wearing the de Vaudrey livery, stood before the +gay party. + +"Most excellent Marquis and most beautiful ladies," he said to the +general mirth as he curtsied low and executed a neat pas seul, "my +master the Chevalier is very late, but he will surely appear." + +"Late?" protested one of the young blades who knew the Prefect's +nephew. "Why, he told me he expected to be here early." + +"Alas, detained by business--" replied Picard in a melancholy tone. + +"Business! A young nobleman has no business!" + +"It is so, gentlemen. Some nights, I grant you, he devotes to +pleasure, as a young aristocrat should; but his days--how do you +suppose he spends his days?" + +"Sleeps, of course," said the Marquis, in a positive tone. + +"Gentlemen, allow me to tell you confidentially," said the valet +mysteriously as the gentlemen gathered around him, fully expecting to +hear of some treason. "He works! actually works! He sits down and +reads and writes as though he were an advocate." + + + + +CHAPTER V + +BEL-AIR--(CONTINUED) + + +"Bah!" exclaimed one. "You don't expect us to believe that?" + +"Yes, and more, too," answered Picard, who enjoyed immensely being +able to impart some information to his superiors. "Why, how do you +suppose he acts to the common people who want to see him? His +creditors, for instance?" + +"Why, if they are importunate, he beats them, I suppose," answered de +Praille, who often "settled" bills thus. + +"Yes, he beats them," sneered Picard; "he pays them! Yes, gentlemen, +he pays his tradespeople." And the valet surveyed the group, enjoying +the surprise he had given them. + +"Oh, the poor fellow is lost!" exclaimed one of the party, who at the +age of twenty had spent a large fortune and was now living on his +wits. + +"Completely," affirmed Picard, "and all owing to the company he keeps. +He won't be guided by me--" + +"The Chevalier Maurice de Vaudrey!" + +Picard's further revelations were cut short by the entry of his master +who dismissed the valet and presented his apologies to the company. + +In any assemblage the young Chevalier of twenty-two might have been +remarked for his Greek God features and the occasional smile that made +him look, from time to time, a veritable bright Phoebus Apollo. + +He was far handsomer, far more attractive than the host, but a +young-old cynic about these goings-on. Nephew of the police prefect of +Paris, he had been specially invited to forestall--by reason of his +presence--any Governmental swooping down on Praille's wild party. +Evidently he was not thinking of morals or of license, but his +thoughts were far other. + +"The people cry out for bread," said the Chevalier, looking at the +board and thinking of the shrieking beggars. + +Marquis de Praille raised his fashionable lorgnette, contemplating a +vast chateau-like confection on the table, and sprung his little +joke. + +"Why don't they eat cake?" he replied airily, with a cackling laugh. + +De Vaudrey smiled fleetingly, then half-serious, half-smiling, raised +a hand in polite protest. Two fair ones carried him off eagerly to +retail to the distinguished visitor a morsel of gossip. + +"The Marquis has made another conquest!" whispered one to him behind +her fan, to which the other added: "Yes, he found a _marvelously +beautiful_ Norman peasant journeying to Paris in a stage coach, so he +had La Fleur take her and fetch her here--a mere rustic, to outvie us +all!" + +"Yes, 'twill be good sport," replied the cynic. "These country girls +that his excellency abducts are willing victims." + +They were interrupted by a procession of servants bringing in the +covered pallet. + +The spread was thrown off, a restorative administered to the recumbent +figure--Henriette sat up and gazed in blank stupefaction at the +crowding revelers. + +She staggered to her feet, looking for a friendly face somewhere. + +Of a sudden, the mental image of her lost sister shot her as with a +violent agony. + +"My sister Louise--where is she?" she pleaded. "Quick! Please let me +go to her--don't you understand? She is BLIND!" Sobs almost choked the +little voice. "She cannot take a SINGLE STEP without me!" + +De Vaudrey looked up to see the tiny creature running hither and yon, +asking the laughing gentlemen for help, repulsing Praille's embraces, +fending off the other satyr who would drown her sorrows in fizz. If +this were play-acting, it excelled the finest efforts of Adrienne +Lecouvreur! De Praille had now grasped her firmly by the waist and +shoulders, his sensual breath was on her cheek, a last cry escaped +her: + +"Among all these noblemen, is there not ONE MAN OF HONOR?" + +The despairing outcry pierced the Chevalier's shallow cynicism, +touching the finer feelings that had lain dormant. + +He sprang to her side, dashed de Praille's arms from her exquisite +form. Then, facing his bewildered host, he said in calm even tones to +the girl: + +"Come, Mademoiselle, we will leave this place." + +Suiting the word to the action, he offered his arm to Henriette and +started to go. With a fury restrained only by conventional usages, de +Praille was across their path and barred the way with his wand. + +"This is my house," he said hoarsely, "and I will not permit this +insult!" As he spoke, the chimes sounded midnight. "Do you hear? After +twelve o'clock, no one ever leaves Bel-Air!" + +For answer de Vaudrey dashed aside the extended wand, escorted the +kidnapped girl to the foot of the staircase. De Praille was upon them +again. This time he drew his sword. Fascinated, the courtiers and +their women companions watched the outcome. + +Gently shielding Henriette behind him, de Vaudrey drew. Stroke and +counterstroke and parry of rapiers and lightning-like motion glinted +in the air. Henriette was the affrighted center of the fashionable +group that, according to the custom of that time, awaited the issue of +the duel without intervening. + +Glory be! her protector was parrying the Marquis' wild thrusts while +he himself bided an opening. It came with a suddenness as dramatic as +the duel itself. A lunge of the villain had left his own side exposed. +De Vaudrey sidestepped and as he did so plunged his rapier between the +ribs of the owner of Bel-Air. + +The mortally stricken de Praille sank back against a marble bench. De +Vaudrey scarcely glanced at him. Taking Henriette by the hand, he +rushed with her up the staircase and out to liberty. + +Before the Grand Seigneur's cronies thought to avenge their master, +they had passed the astonished servants, passed the minatory beggars +at the gates, and hailing a fiacre were on their way to Paris. + + + + +CHAPTER VI + +IN THE FROCHARDS' DEN + + +One hundred and fifty years of outlawry had made the Frochard +clan a wolfish breed; battening on crime, thievery and beggary. The +head of the house had suffered the extreme penalty meted out to +highwaymen. The precious young hopeful, Jacques, was a chip of +the old block--possibly a shade more drunken and a shade less +enterprising. + +But the real masterful figure was the Widow Frochard, his mother, a +hag whose street appearance nurses used to frighten naughty children. +Hard masculine features, disheveled locks and piercing black eyes gave +her a fearsome look enhanced by a very vigorous moustache, a huge wart +near the mouth, the ear-hoops and tobacco pipe that she sported, and +the miscellaneous mass of rags that constituted her costume. + +In this menage of the begging Frochards, the crippled scissors-grinder +Pierre was the only individual worth his salt, and he was heartily +despised by his brother Jacques and his mother. + +The hag's black eyes snapped as she saw Louise whom the hunchback had +saved from the water. + +"Pretty--blind--she'll beg us lots of money!" she said gleefully to +Jacques. But to the girl she pretended aid, and her leathern, +liquor-coated voice proclaimed: + +"No friends, eh, Dearie? Then I'll take care of you!" + +Only poor Pierre sympathized with Louise's awful grief in being thrown +adrift on Paris through the violent disappearance of her beloved +sister. He trembled to think what knavery his wicked kinsfolk meant, +though he himself was their helpless slave; the target of kicks, +cuffs, and the robbery of all his earnings. + +La Frochard led the way to their dank and noisome den, opening from a +street trap-door and giving at the other extremity on a sort of +water-rat exit underneath the pier. She handed Louise down the steps +and taking her things remarked in a self-satisfied tone: "Here are +your lodgings, Dearie!" + +The old woman arrayed herself in Louise's shawl, and grinned as she +tried on the girl's widespread garden hat. She flung the girl about +roughly, even choking her. To heighten the rosy picture of great +wealth to accrue, she took a deep draught of cognac from her loved +black bottle. Poor Louise sank down to deep slumber, from which +neither the noisy potations of La Frochard and Jacques, nor their +cursing and abuse of the hunchback Pierre, sufficed to awaken her. + +Next morning the hag pulled the blind girl out of the rough bed and +dressed her in beggar's garments. + +"You must go out now on the street with us and sing!" she said. + +"... But you promised to help me find Henriette...." said the poor +girl, piteously. + +"We'll find her for you one of these days, but in the meantime you +must earn your keep. No--I don't mean, actually beg! You do the +singing, and I'll do the begging." + +"Never!" cried Louise. "You may kill me if you will, but I'll not be a +street beggar. Why, the very first person we meet, I'll ask to save me +and inform the police!" + +"I'll fix you, my fine lady!" screamed La Frochard, throwing her from +her. "Come, Jacques," she said to her ruffian son, "we'll trying a +means of making her mind!" Together they seized and started dragging +her to the steps of a sub-cellar. Tremblingly Pierre urged them to +desist, but they cast him aside. + +Louise was thrust into the dungeon and the trap closed. Black bread +and a cup of water was to be her prison fare. Still moaning +"Henriette! Henriette!" she groped along the slimy walls and tried the +footing of the mingled mud and straw. + +Horrors! What were the creeping things she sensed, though sightless? +Two raced under her petticoat, one nibbled at her shoe. She jumped +high in air and screamed outright. + +Rats! They were upon her again, almost swarming. She fled to a corner, +leaped on a pile of rags, literally fought them off with both hands! +Her screams echoed through the upper den, to the anguish of Pierre and +the mocking laughter of La Frochard and Jacques.... + +Pitiably broken, Louise was pulled out of the vile sink a few hours +later, pledging wildly to obey the least of the hag's commands. + +La Frochard knew that her conquest was complete. + +Henceforth the girl would be but as a clay figure in her hands--a +decoy to lure the golden charity of the rich and sympathetic. + +As for Jacques, that ruffian was now eyeing the blind lass closely, +and muttering: + +"Not bad-looking--I'll see to it no other man gets her!" + +He slapped his knife villainously. + + + + +CHAPTER VII + +TANGLED SKEINS + + +Henriette Girard had not only been saved from dishonor by Chevalier de +Vaudrey, but she had won a devoted friend. Through his connections, +the Chevalier knew much that was passing in the half-world. The +mystery of the happenings at the coach house was cleared by him. + +"Your cousin M. Martin," he said, "was found drugged in a wineshop to +which presumably the man La Fleur had enticed him. It was easy then +for La Fleur to pose as Martin and kidnap you. + +"I grieve to say it, abductions of the poor and friendless are common +with the roues of fashion. Their families are of such influence that +the police rarely interfere. + +"But there will be an end of this--if I mistake not," said the +Chevalier, "the people mean to put an end to these seignorial +'privileges'!" + +[Illustration: THE MARQUIS DE PRAILLE IS ENRAPTURED BY THE LITTLE VISION +FROM THE STAGE COACH (HENRIETTE PLAYED BY LILLIAN GISH.)] + +It was in one of his frequent talks at the simple lodgings to which he +had conducted her the night of Bel-Air. Swiftly they had retraced the +steps of the stricken Louise even to the pier edge over the darkling +Seine. Horrified and trembling, Henriette feared the worst. + +"It is not likely she was drowned," said the Chevalier gravely. +"Someone must have been about, to save her. Do not be discouraged, +Mademoiselle, if our search for Louise takes several days. We are +without a clew--groping, like her, in the dark. But we shall find her, +never fear!" + +The confident words gave tiny comfort to the elder girl as he bade his +adieux in the parlor of the respectable lodging house he had found for +her--the same caravansary (had they but known it) that housed the then +obscure Maximilien Robespierre. + +She strove to thank him for his kindness when he interrupted her: +"Don't thank _me_, Mademoiselle, I owe _you_ a debt of gratitude, for +you have restored to me ideals sweet as childhood!" + +Unconsciously the young people standing there, drew closer to one +another until their lips met. Each was almost too astonished for +words. Fine breeding came to de Vaudrey's aid. He apologized--and +promised not to let it happen again! + +Sincerity spoke in the young man's earnest eyes and his respectful +kiss of her small hand at parting. + +Was indeed this youthful cynic transformed by the flower-like +influence of the girl? + +He went away all eagerness to pursue the lost sister's quest, +promising that no stone--police or other--should be left unturned in +the search. + + * * * * * + +And here--where the orphans' eventful epoch becomes entwined with the +lives of the great and with the darkening storm and impending passion +of the Revolution--it is well to acquaint our readers further with the +de Vaudreys. + +Count de Linieres of Touraine had been married--many years before the +date of this story--to Mlle. de Vaudrey, the heiress of a great +fortune. A skeleton ('twas rumored) rattled in the Vaudrey closet. +Certainly there was heritage of hates as well as gold. + +A tenant Jean Setain, who came to the Paris mansion to pay his rent, +made a scene. He told of the cruelties long ago inflicted on his +father by the Countess' father--for some trifling trespass on +seigniorage, _boiling lead in the unfortunate's veins_--and the angry +Count, after a stern rebuke, had him ejected. Jacques-Forget-Not (such +was his queer nickname) departed, vowing vengeance. + +Having ample wealth, the Count desired preferment. The post of +Minister of Police was a steppingstone. He accepted it whilst visions +of a grand alliance for his nephew, Chevalier de Vaudrey, pointed to +dukedom or even princely rank as the family's goal. It thus vexed +Linieres exceedingly that the Chevalier should have been mixed up in a +duel about an unknown girl. He believed it a clever stroke to hire +Picard, the Chevalier's own valet, to spy upon him. + +"How is your master's conduct?" asked the Count. + +"Scandalous, perfectly scandalous!" replied Picard in a tone of deep +dejection. "Once indeed he had a few gentleman associates and went to +gay parties, but now he is quite moral, and just as studious as a +lawyer's clerk. Really I must leave the Chevalier," continued Picard, +"his principles are such as I cannot accept!" + +"Then I will re-engage you--on one condition. That is, that you remain +a while with my nephew and tell me everything he does. I have heard, +on the contrary, that--" + +Picard almost danced a pas seul. "Oh, that is the way the wind lies! +The sly dog!--And I thought of leaving him. She must be a saucy and +jaunty little minx, whoever she is! Oh, yes, I will find out +everything that you require." + +With eye to keyhole the valet reporter saw the frequent innocent +parleys of Maurice and Henriette, which he construed as an intrigue. +He was quite ecstatic with happiness now. The police Prefect, finding +his suspicions privately confirmed, bluntly refused police aid to the +Chevalier's hunt for Louise. He spoke pointedly and (as he hoped) with +effect: + +"Monsieur, you must give up your association with these common people. +I have other plans for you that will shortly mature." + +The angry Count could not be crossed. De Vaudrey's sole hope lay in +his Aunt. + + * * * * * + +Ceaselessly Henriette spent her days in trying to trace Louise. Her +quest became the neighborhood gossip. Strangers interested themselves +and offered clues to herself and the Chevalier--clues that proved +quite futile. + +To her doorstep a great pock-marked man, bushy-browed and of knob-like +visage, was walking one day with her finicky dandified neighbor M. +Robespierre. As he passed, the titan turned and inquired kindly: + +"Are you the little girl who lost her sister?" + +He spoke with a gentle sympathy that touched her and even his cursing +reference to the abductions: "Damned aristocrats! The people are going +to stop that sort of thing!" did not phase her, for she looked up into +his face and trustfully replied: + +"You are such a big man I should think you could do almost anything!" + +Robespierre was pawing at the pock-marked one's coat, and finally +succeeded in yanking him around. The broad back of the giant being +turned to her, our little sparrow of a Henriette noiselessly +departed--to the evident disappointment of the big man who looked yet +again and found her place empty! + +The big man had run across Chevalier de Vaudrey also, and the two had +struck up a friendship. Moved by the pitiful sight of a starveling +crowd gazing into a bakery, Maurice had rushed in and bought an armful +of loaves which he distributed, adding gold louis for the wretched +mothers of families. The pock-marked one had been a spectator. He +stopped the Chevalier, shook his hand warmly, and remarked: "If more +of the aristocrats were like _you_, things would be different!" + + * * * * * + +From these scenes of low life, let the reader pass for a few moments +to the Salon de la Paix at Versailles, where King Louis XVI received +petitioners. + +We in America who have no awe of royalty perceive that the luckless +King was simply a square peg in a round hole. He loved locksmithy, +hunting, and home; would have been a successful inventor, pioneer, or +bourgeois parent. In the chair of State, on this day of petitions, his +head and hand busied themselves with a wonderful new doorlock he had +devised. + +"Sire," said the suppliant de Linieres, "in the matter of the grand +alliance betwixt my nephew Chevalier de Vaudrey and your ward +Princesse de Acquitaine--" + +The monarch nodded absentmindedly. + +"Oh, yes, yes! Of course. As you say--" With a courtly wave of the +hand, the monarch indicated the waiting heiress on his right. She +curtsied low in acceptance of the royal command. + +"Let the young man marry her, and accept a place in my royal +entourage--But now that this little matter is settled," continued the +King with a return to his former animation, "I invite you to examine +my latest invention, an unpickable lock, which I have here!" + +The grave comedy of eulogy on the royal locksmithing was played by the +delighted suppliant according to all the rules. + + + + +CHAPTER VIII + +THE HONOR OF THE FAMILY + + +Daily the young Chevalier developed a warmer interest in the sweet and +pure young girl at the faubourg lodgings. Always his visits brought a +little delicious heart-flutter to Henriette, though not unmixed with +mourning o'er lost sister. And as a result of these idyllic meetings, +ambitious plans appeared to him abhorrent. + +About this time the Countess de Linieres, calling one day at her +husband's ministerial offices, learned of his purposes. + +"I was about to come to you," said the Count, "but you have +anticipated me. I desire to speak with you on the subject of your +nephew, the Chevalier de Vaudrey, and to ask you to prepare him for +the marriage which the King--" + +"Wishes to impose on him," interrupted the Countess bitterly. + +"Impose on him?" repeated de Linieres. "It is a magnificent alliance, +which will complete the measure of the distinguished honors with which +His Majesty deigns to favor us." + +"Have you spoken to the Chevalier yet?" + +"No, but I am expecting him every moment, and I wished to talk with +him in your presence." + +As if this conversation had some influence over him, de Vaudrey +entered at this moment. + +"Ah, Chevalier!" exclaimed the Count. "I am glad to see you. The +Countess and myself have an important communication to make to you." + +De Vaudrey looked at his uncle in surprise. The latter was positively +beaming. Big with the prospective grandeur of his house, he hesitated +momentarily over the manner of delivering it. + +"My dear Maurice," said the Count finally, "the King did me the honor +to receive me yesterday, and he spoke of you." + +"Of me?" asked de Vaudrey in surprise. + +"He takes a great interest in you," continued de Linieres, now +speaking quickly. "He wishes you to accept a position at court, and +desires at the same time that you should marry." + +"Marry?" asked de Vaudrey, as though he could not believe his uncle +really meant what he said. + +The Countess waited as anxiously for de Vaudrey's answer as did her +husband, though for a different reason. She loved the young man before +her, and his happiness and well-being were very dear to her. + +"My dear nephew," she said kindly, "I see that this news surprises +you. Yet there is no fear that the King's choice will do violence to +your feelings. The lady whom His Majesty has chosen, has youth, beauty +and fortune." + +"In proof of which I have only to tell you that his choice is +Princesse--" the Count attempted to say, but was interrupted by the +Chevalier. + +"Do not name her," he said excitedly. + +"Why not?" asked his uncle in astonishment. + +"Because I refuse to marry!" + +The effect of these momentous words was quite diverse upon the uncle +and the aunt of the young man. + +For the moment the haughty nobleman could not understand why his +nephew-by-marriage should reject the flattering proposal, such an easy +and agreeable road to place and fortune. Soon rising anger got the +better of his surprise, and minding Picard's reports on the +Chevalier's conduct, his thought was: + +"Ah, that's the secret--he prefers his libertine courses to assured +fortune!" + +But the Aunt, with a woman's ready wit, understood there could be but +one reason to such a decided refusal, and knew that he must be already +in love. + +Countess de Linieres loved the Chevalier as if he were her own son. +Quickly she shot the youth a warning look to prevent if possible a +verbal passage of arms. But it was already too late. + +"You dare to disobey the King--" thundered Count de Linieres, in +righteous wrath, backed (as the others well knew) by the triple +authority of household, police and royal cachet. + +"My sword is my King's," flashed the handsome youth resolutely, "but +my will must remain my own! + +"I will go to His Majesty," he continued passionately. "I will thank +him for his goodness, place my services at his disposal. My devotion, +my life are his, but my affections are my own, and I wish to +remain--free!" + +"Free!" exclaimed the Count scornfully. "Free to lead a life of +dissipation which you may not always be able to hide from the world." + +These words, which implied so much, stung the noble-hearted de Vaudrey +more than any words of anger or reproach could have done. + +"There is nothing in my life to hide," he said proudly but impatiently, +"nothing for which I have reason to blush." + +"Are you sure of that, Chevalier?" asked the Count, in a tone that +plainly said the speaker knew differently. Conscious of his own +uprightness, this doubt cast upon his word was more than the Chevalier +could bear, and he advanced toward his uncle with a menacing air. + +"Monsieur!" he began, boldly, "I cannot--" + +"Maurice! my husband!" exclaimed the Countess, as she stepped between +the two men to prevent those words being spoken which would have led +to an encounter. "Defer the conversation for the present. Permit me to +speak to Maurice." + +"Very well," said de Linieres sternly. Then turning to the Chevalier +he said, in a voice which he had never before used to his nephew: "We +will return to this another time. You will remember that as head of +the family its honor is confided to my care, and I will not suffer any +one to sully it with a stain." + +De Vaudrey had nearly lost all control of his temper. In a moment the +outbreak which the Countess was so anxious to avoid would have broken +forth, had not the Count without giving his nephew time to speak said +quickly: + +"I leave you with the Countess. I hope that your respect and affection +for her will cause you to lend more weight to her counsels than you +are disposed to give to mine." + +As if fearing that he might have tried the young man's temper too far, +or that he did not wish to prolong a useless scene, the Count left the +room. De Vaudrey was alone with his Aunt. + +The Countess went up to the noble-looking young man, and taking his +hand in hers, asked in a sweet, winning voice: + +"Who is this woman you love? What obstacle prevents the avowal of your +passion? If it is only a matter of fortune, take mine; it is all at +your disposal, and I will give it to you cheerfully." + +"Ah, where shall I find a heart like yours?" exclaimed the Chevalier +in a voice trembling with emotion. "You have divined my secret. I +adore a young girl as charming as she is pure. Yet never have I dared +to whisper my passion!" + +"Her name--her family?" asked the Countess eagerly. + +"She was born of the people," said de Vaudrey proudly, yet tenderly. +"She is an orphan and lives by the labor of her hands." + +The Countess, who had never for a moment imagined such an answer to +her question, was surprised, and she showed plainly that grief was +mingled with her surprise. + +"And you would make such a woman your wife?" she asked reproachfully. + +"Do not judge her until you have seen her," entreated the Chevalier. +"Consent to see her, and then advise me." + +The young man took the Countess's hands in his, and looked imploringly +into her face. + +But his Aunt turned away from him with a gesture of sorrow. + +"In such a marriage," she said sadly, "there can be no happiness for +you, and for her, only misery. Alas! I know too well the result of +those unequal unions. You must renounce her. You owe obedience to your +family and your King." She burst into a flood of tears. + +Diffidently the young man sought to comfort the Countess whose emotion +seemed to have its spring in some hidden sorrow. He promised at last +for her sake to consider again the horribly odious proposal of a State +marriage, and drying her tears as well as he could, went his way, a +victim of torn desires and intensest anguish.... + + + + +CHAPTER IX + +FRIENDS OF THE PEOPLE + + +The giant stranger who had talked to Henriette and made friends with +de Vaudrey was Jacques Danton. He and his colleague, Maximilien +Robespierre, were destined to be the outstanding figures of the French +Revolution. It is worth while to stop here for a little and consider +these two men in their historical aspects and for the profound +influence which they exerted on the lives of our characters. + +As the storm clouds blacken the sky and the sullen sea (not yet lashed +to fury) is ridged in deep, advancing breakers, the mariner's eye +discerns these stormy petrels flying about or momentarily perched on +the masts of the Ship of State. + +Mark them well--Danton and Robespierre: today, merely "esurient +advocates," petty men of law come up from the provinces to win their +fortunes in Paris; tomorrow, leaders of faction; some months or years +later, the rulers of France! + +[Illustration: PIERRE BECOMES THE DEVOTED WORSHIPPER OF LOUISE WHOM HE +HAS SAVED FROM THE RIVER] + +Danton--"the huge, brawny figure, through whose black brows and rude +flattened face there looks a waste energy as of Hercules not yet +furibund." + +Robespierre--aptly described as the meanest man of the Tiers Estat: +"that anxious, slight, ineffectual-looking man, under thirty, in +spectacles; his eyes, troubled, careful; with upturned face, snuffing +dimly the uncertain future-time; complexion of a multiplex atrabiliar +color, the final shade of which may be the pale sea-green!" + +Such were they, afterwards to be known respectively as "the +pock-marked Thunderer" and the "sea-green Incorruptible" of the +Revolution. The slight, fox-like man had got himself elected to the +States-General which in May, 1789, convened at Versailles to take up +the troubled state of the country, whilst the lion-like and fiery +Danton was the president of the Cordeliers electoral district of +Paris--the head of a popular faubourg faction, not yet of power in the +State. + +The new helmsmen of the State, headed by Mirabeau, steered with +considerable success among waters as yet but partly roiled. At +Versailles an outward and visible Liberalism triumphed. The Third +Estate or Commons, consolidating its authority as a permanent +assembly, took measures to end the national bankruptcy and tried to +cope with the awful menace of starvation. It was a bourgeois body, +thinly sprinkled with members of the nobility and clergy; its aim, to +abolish the worst seigniorial abuses, restore prosperity, and support +the throne by a system of constitutional guarantees. + +But when the Storm broke, it was not at Versailles where these +lawgiving Six Hundred debated the state of the Nation, but at Paris +that the group known as "Friends of the People" lashed the popular +discontents to unmeasured and ungovernable fury. + +It begins in the Palais Royal where "there has been erected, apparently +by subscription, a kind of Wooden Tent, most convenient--where select +Patriotism can now redact resolutions, deliver harangues, with +comfort, let the weather be as it will. Lively is that Satan-at-Home! +On his table, on his chair, in every cafe, stands a patriotic +orator; a crowd round him within; a crowd listening from without, +open-mouthed, through open door and window; with 'thunders of +applause for every sentiment of more than common hardiness.'" + +Strange that in a Royalist garden should sprout the seeds of a great +Revolution! Stranger the crowds that gathered there, and the leaders +both popular and Royalist--among the former, our fiery friend Danton, +our cautious, snuffling Robespierre, and the boy of genius Camille +Desmoulins, Danton's "slight-built comrade and craft-brother, he with +the long curling locks, with the face of dingy blackguardism, +wondrously irradiated with genius!" + +General Lafayette and Minister from America Thomas Jefferson came +there too now and again, to watch the crowds and hear the speeches. +Symbols of America's newly won freedom, they were objects of almost +superstitious veneration to the agitators for an enfranchised France. +Danton, Desmoulins and the rest crowded around them, eager to shake +their hands and listen to their comments. In particular, Lafayette's +sword--the gift of the American Congress a decade before, excited +their admiration. + +"From America's Congress!" repeated Danton fervently as he eyed the +inscription on the scabbard. "Why, that's the kind of Government we +want over here!" Tears came into the Frenchman's eyes, to think of the +Liberty that Lafayette had helped to win. + +The Palais Royal gardens were the property of the King's cousin, Louis +Phillipe. Disgusted with not being in the councils of the monarch and +leaning to democracy, he permitted the place to be used for public +promenades, lovers' meetings--and popular harangues. Friends of the +People, Friends of Phillipe, and Friends of the King freely rubbed +elbows. The popular tide set so strongly that none dared openly oppose +the demagogic orators. A bread famine had descended upon Paris. The +scarcity of wheat and flour was an ever-present theme; the oppression +of autocracy and seigniorage, another. The cry for direct action +always woke echo in the popular breast, sick over the delays of the +Versailles lawgivers, and nourishing the hope of seizing pelf and +power, rescuing their kinsfolk from the prisons, and beating down the +Kingship and aristocracy to relinquish privileges and abate the +hardships of the Common Man! + +Plain, embittered envy stalked abroad, too--envy of the aristocrats' +grand homes and unparalleled luxury, their fine equipages and +clothing, costly foods and wines, their trains of lackeys and menials, +the beauty and joie-de-vivre of their sons and daughters! The +mechanic, the storekeeper, the unskilled laborer, the ranks of +unemployed, and the submerged tenth obliged to live by their wits or +starve, were as fuel to the spark of the orators' lightning. + +'Twas unlike a well-ordered land wherein each one receives the +well-merited reward of toil. Justice was not in the body politic. +Tyranny, extravagance and bankruptcy on the part of the ruling class +had wiped out the margin of plenty. Black ruin seemed to impend for +all. It was a case of starve--or unite against the rulers and +oppressors of society. Danton, the thunderer of mighty speech, +dominated these gatherings, aided and abetted by the eagle-like +Desmoulins and the crafty Robespierre. + +"With the People's government," his swelling periods resounded, "there +shall be no common man, no aristocrat--no rich nor poor--but all +brothers--brothers--brothers!" Imagine if you can the fire-drama of +his recital of generations of cruelties and wrongs--his picture of +their miserable lot and of the envied aristocrats' pleasures--and then +consider the pitch of frenzied republicanism to which this wonderful +fraternal climax uplifted them! With crash of thunder and wrack of the +elements the Storm must break, directly the popular feeling found +immediate object of its ire. + + + + +CHAPTER X + +THE ATTACK ON DANTON + + +But the royalists were not idle. Their spies attended the meetings. +Their swordsmen provoked street encounters with popular leaders. + +They had always coped with popular ferments by picking off the +individual leaders, and they did not doubt their ability to do the +same thing now. As Danton spoke, an influential Royalist, pretending +to handclap his sentiments, privately signaled to a number of these +"spadassins" or killers. + +On his way home from the meeting Danton was attacked in the lonely +street. He backed up to a house porch, quickly drew his own sword, and +with herculean strength managed to cut down five or six spadassins of +the advance party. + +Then he fled to the house where Henriette and also Robespierre lodged, +rushed in and up the stairs. The following company were almost upon +him. Their shouts and cries could be heard below. + +Danton plumped into the first door at the left of the stair-head. He +was there when Henriette, who had been momentarily away, returned to +her room. + +"The spies--spadassins--they would take my life--" He was wounded. It +was with a difficult hoarseness that he spoke. + +The little homekeeper put a warning finger to mouth. Running past him +to the door, she slipped out and closed it. She withdrew to the back +of the hall, and came forward nonchalantly as the assassins reached +the hallway. + +Rapier at her throat, the leader put the silent but terrible question. +Henriette's heart jumped. She managed not to show her terror. + +"I saw a man going up those stairs three steps at a time!" she lied +superbly, pointing to the floor above. + +The company ran up the third-floor stairs on the double jump. As they +vanished, she was inside her rooms again and with the quarry. + +Minutes passed. The spadassins searched the top garrets. They sought +the roof, saw escape was impossible that way. Then they clattered down +the stairs. The leader hesitated at Henriette's door. + +"Faugh!" he said. "The girl is just a simpleton, she couldn't have +tricked us!" + +At his command the men marched down--to encounter unexpectedly a +company of national gendarmes that had been hurriedly summoned to the +scene of the disturbance. + +In the porch melee Danton's side had been painfully slashed. Despite +the pain, he recognized his little preserver and thanked her. Still +holding his hand to his side and half-reeling, he moved to go. Now +that all seemed quiet, he proposed to rid her of the compromising +presence of a man in her room. + +Henriette seized him with her little arms. + +"No, no, you can't go!" she said with a little smile of divine pity. +"Better a little gossip about me than that you should lose your life." +Henriette locked the door! + +She strove to carry the disabled giant to the nearest chair. Leaning +heavily on her, he walked with an effort and plumped down on it. One +of his arms was around her. She tried to free it, but it clung. With +hands and knees she crawled out backward from the unconscious +embrace. + +It was the work of but a few minutes to wash and bind his wound. Next +she spread a pallet on the floor, assisted him to it, wrapped him +warmly, and with a kind "Good night!" left him to go to her little +boudoir.... + +That same night the spadassins were met and disarmed by the gendarmes +who (largely owing to Danton's eloquence) espoused the people's side. +And that is why Monsieur Robespierre, his confrere, was abroad very +early, without fear of assassins, and nosing for news. + +"I hear Danton was in a little trouble last night!" gossiped the slick +citizen with his landlady. "The fight was in this very house, was it +not?" + +The landlady, it seemed, was ignorant of Danton's refuge. But +Robespierre suspected. He decided to investigate, being a stickler for +propriety. Mounting the stairs stealthily, he knocked at Henriette's +door. + +The girl and the man were at their leave-taking. Few words were +spoken. The giant clasped both her little hands in his great paws. + +"What you have done for me I shall never forget!" he was saying. + +"Oh, if I had a great kind brother like this!" was her sudden +thought. + +"Whisht!" she whispered vocally as the knock was heard. Again the +little gesture of warning finger to mouth. + +She stole to the keyhole and thought she recognized the habiliments of +her neighbor the dandy. Motioning Danton back out of sight she opened +the door on the crack, closed it as she slipped through, and +encountered the bowing and smirking Robespierre. + +"A man escaped from the spadassins here last night-did he find refuge +with you?" + +"You are mistaken, Monsieur. I am quite alone." + +"May I just see? Very intimate friend of mine, I am sure." + +"No, you _may not_!" Henriette quickly reentered, and slammed and +locked the door on the future Dictator of France. 'Twas only a little +door slam, but it re-echoed later, even at the Gates of Death! Rubbing +his long nose Robespierre took snuff. + +"Sh-h, he is still there!" whispered the girl to Danton, with another +look through keyhole. Presently steps were heard going downstairs. + +"I think he is gone!" she said, verifying her statement by again +opening the door and finding the coast clear. + +Danton, with a final good-by, went his way. + +The sneak, however, had retraced his downstairs steps with cat-like +tread. In an alcove of the back hall he had found a hiding post. + +As Danton's broad back descended down the steps, a vulpine head peered +out of the alcove, and Robespierre's cunning, self-satisfied look +showed that he recognized Henriette's visitant. + + + + +CHAPTER XI + +LOUISE BEFORE NOTRE DAME + + +In the days following her immurement in the dreadful sub-cellar, +Louise became the Frochards' breadwinner. Her pathetic blindness, +lovely face and form, and sweet young voice attracted sympathy from +each passer-by. The offerings all went into the capacious pocket of La +Frochard, whence indeed most of them were stolen or cajoled by her +worthless scamp of a Jacques. + +The old hag feared only lest she lose her precious acquisition of the +blind girl. She guarded her ceaselessly, and warded off dangerous +questioners. + +It was not easy, however, to avoid the good Doctor from La Force, who +gave them a donative and looked at the girl with deep professional +interest. Despite the beggar's tactics, he insisted on examining the +pupils, then called La Frochard aside. + +"Don't encourage her too much," said the old gentlemen kindly, "but +bring her to me. I am quite sure that she can be cured." + +Rejoining Louise and smiling her wheedling beggar's smile at the +departing Doctor, the features of Widow Frochard suddenly contorted in +black rage--she shook her fist at the physician directly his back was +turned. Monstrous--to restore sight, and thus make the girl worthless +as object of charity! La Frochard felt she had good reason for her +rage. + +"Can the Doctor do anything?" ventured Louise to the hag, timidly. + +"No, he said your case is hopeless." + +They were standing now near the snowy steps of Notre Dame, awaiting +worshippers whose pity would be stirred by the girl's misfortune. +Half-drunken Jacques had reeled out of a cabaret to exact his +share of the plunder. Mother and first-born cursed heartily the +scissors-grinder Pierre who came limping up, saying he could get no +jobs on account of the bitter cold, wintry day. Kicking the cripple +and twisting Louise's arm were the favorite pastimes of Jacques and +the Widow. + +On this occasion the hag snatched the covering from the wretched +girl's shoulders and put it around her own. "You'll shiver better +without that shawl!" she said, brutally setting the scene for the +worshippers' charity. + +"Jacques and I," she continued, "are going to get a little drink to +warm our frozen bodies. + +"Guard her there, you good-for-nothing Pierre, or I'll break every +bone of your body!" They departed to spend the Doctor's gold-piece. + +Pierre tried vainly to comfort the girl. He could but find her a seat +in a pile of snow! He warmed her hands with his own, strove to speak +cheering words. But teeth were chattering, and her frail form was +quivering as with the ague. + +A great wave of pity and love overwhelmed the cripple. He peeled off +his coat, beneath which were but the thinnest rags. He wrapped it +around her, saying: + +"There, there! this will help you keep warm. I really do not need +it--I--I-am-not-c-c-cold!" + +His own teeth were chattering now, and his pinched features were +purple. + +The blind girl touched his icy arm, half exposed by his ragged shirt, +as she rose to sing for the charity of those who attended mass. + +"No, no, Pierre," she cried, removing the coat from her shoulders, "I +will not let you freeze. Oh, how selfish I am to permit you to suffer, +who have been so kind to me!" + +Rejecting his entreaties, she made him put it on again, hiding her own +suffering. + +"Hearken! there sounds the organ for the recessional!" she continued. +"Soon the people will be coming out. I will sing the same songs that +my sister Henriette and I used to sing. Perhaps some one will +recognize the melody, and lead me back to her!" + +A beautifully majestic, ermined figure stepped graciously out of the +church, as La Frochard rejoined Louise and began whining: "Charity! In +the name of God, Charity!" whilst the girl's voice lifted up in an old +plaintive melody. + +The lady was the Countess de Linieres, returning from her devotions. + +The song evoked memories of a bitter past and of a long lost daughter +snatched from her in infancy. Bending over poor Louise, she asked: "My +child, can you not see me?" + +"No, Madame, I am blind," was the low, sad answer. + +[Illustration: MARQUIS DE PRAILLE PLYING HIS ART WITH THE LADIES.] + +A strange sympathy stirred in the Countess for this girl. There seemed +to be some hidden link between them, the nature of which baffled her. +She felt the impulse to protect and cherish--was it the voice of +Mother Love obscurely speaking? + +"Alas!" said Louise. "Blindness is not the worst of my misfortunes. +I--I--" + +La Frochard administered a terrible pinch that pulled Louise away, +then "mothered" her cutely. "We are starving, my beautiful lady," she +whined, "and the poor girl is out of her head. What is that you say? +_Not my daughter?_ Yes, indeed she is--the precious--and the youngest +of seven. Charity, charity! In the name of God, charity!" she +sniffled. + +Reluctantly Countess de Linieres stifled the impulse to mother this +kindred and hapless young being, averred to be the beggar's daughter. +She placed a golden louis on the palm of the singer, saying: + +"Give this to your mother, child." + + + + +CHAPTER XII + +LOVE, MASTER OF HEARTS + + +The Count's demands brought to a head a resolve that had taken +possession of Chevalier de Vaudrey's heart and soul. Always the +picture of the sweet Norman girl he had saved from de Praille's foul +clutches was in his waking thoughts, of nights he dreamed a blessed +romance! He recked not of the Count's displeasure, sorrowed that he +must displease his Aunt as sorely. The only bar was that a vision of +the lost Louise stood, as it were, between him and his beloved +Henriette. + +Now that he had come to her to speak of his proposal, the little heart +still quested for the lost sister. + +"Don't you ever think of anyone but her?" he asked. + +A negative shake of the golden head and ringleted curls was the +answer, though the cupid mouth and the blue eyes smiled with +tenderness. They stood very close to another, like poles of a magnet +twixt which a spark flashes. + +Silently Maurice drew from his pocket a ring. 'Twas of pure gold, a +lovely and exquisite bauble, whereof the two little claws clasped a +golden heart. He handed it to Henriette, who took it with a happy +smile till she realized its meaning as betrothal. + +A wave of color overspread her cheek. The heir of the de Vaudreys to +give himself to her! Pride and love mingled in her thoughts. + +Yes, to throw himself away on a Commoner girl--he meant it. Flashed +the picture on her mental retina of the little solemn oath to Louise. +What he asked was impossible--for him and for her. + +Henriette handed back the ring. + +"Marry you--an aristocrat! Why, that would ruin you in the eyes of +_all the world_!" + +He was down on his knees, pleading, agonized, distressed, looking for +some sign of relentment from the beauteous little head that seemed +rigidly to repress emotion. + +"Then you d-o-n-'t l-o-v-e m-e?" he faltered at last, rising. + +"No!" was the reply, in a firm but very small voice. + +The broken Chevalier started slowly for the door. He turned slightly +and caught the sound of sobs. + +Wheeling around, he saw her arms half stretched towards him. He +bounded back. + +He was now kissing the hem of her garments, her gloves, her roses, her +fingertips, and crying extravagantly, almost shouting the words: "You +DO love me!" + +Gently Henriette imparted a maiden's delicate kiss on his cheek. +"When Louise is found--" she was half sobbing in his arms, +"--dreams--yes--perhaps you might find a way to bring them true!" + +But the gallant gentleman jumps forward to the end of the dream. +Youthfully swearing that Louise will soon be found, he visions their +exquisite happiness as of tomorrow or the day after. He holds her +delightedly, then draws her closer. The kindred magnets are one. + +Lips meet lips in soul-kiss that cause the maidenly head to hide under +elbow in confusion. Kissing almost every part and furnishing of that +dear second self--vowing never to rest till he brings Louise and takes +Henriette--the ecstatic cavalier is gone! + +Alas for the quickly visioned dream-facts of twenty-four! Full long +shall be the interval betwixt the bright Utopia and the heavenly +reality:--the dungeon, the Storm, the death chamber and e'en the +shining axe shall intervene. + +A great Nation shall have thrown off its old tyrants and weltered in +the blood of new tyranny. What matter? The souls of the girl and the +man are one, they shall be faithful unto the End! + + + + +CHAPTER XIII + +THE RECOGNITION + + +The Chevalier de Vaudrey sought his Aunt and begged her to see his +beloved before finally siding with the Count against him. The incident +of the chance encounter with the blind girl had stirred the Countess, +awakened renewed pity for hapless love such as she herself had once +experienced. She decided to visit Henriette, if only to divert her +from the seemingly mad project of a union with the Chevalier. + +Meantime Count Linieres had decided to exercise the power of the dread +lettres de cachet. In the France of that day, personal rights were +unknown. Subject only to the King's will, no other warrant than the +Prefect's signature was required to send anyone into exile or to life +imprisonment. The means that Linieres now had in mind were often used +to quell rebellious lovers. + +He would brand this inconvenient, presumptuous Henriette Girard as a +fallen woman, imprison her at La Salpetriere, and then ship her as a +convict to Louisiana. That would get rid of her, truly! + +In the meanwhile the Chevalier, if disobedient, could cool his heels +in the prison tower of the royal fortress at Caen. After a while, he +might indeed see reason and think better of marrying the Princesse de +Acquitaine! + +He summoned the Chevalier. The autocratic Count brooked no words; he +commanded marriage with the State heiress--or exile! + +His nephew refusing, the guards were summoned, the young man gave up +his sword, and under their escort he was presently on his way to Caen +prison. + +Then, summoning a detail of military police, the Count moved to carry +out the other part of his plan. + + * * * * * + +"You are Mademoiselle Henriette Girard?" inquired the Countess kindly +on entering the girl's lodgings. + +Henriette greeted the distinguished and aristocratic lady with due +respect. Making her comfortable in a guest chair, she resumed her +sewing and listened. + +"I am the aunt of the Chevalier Maurice de Vaudrey." The girl, +startled, looked up from her work. "Marriage between you and the +Chevalier is impossible." + +"I love him, Madame," replied Henriette, simply. + +"Then it is your duty to give him up, since it is the will of the King +that he marry Princesse de Acquitaine--" + +Henriette paled. For an instant the blue eyes looked near-tigerish, +with green and yellow lights. Yet she must save Maurice from the +King's wrath. + +"If you will make this sacrifice," continued the Countess, "I shall +not prove ungrateful with any reward that is in my power." + +"Oh, yes, there is!" replied Henriette earnestly. She showed the +Countess her sampler, on which she was working the word-- + + LOUISE + +"Louise--that name is very dear to me," replied the Lady softly. She +visioned a scene of long ago when an infant Louise had been snatched +from her young arms--the arms of a mother deprived of her offspring. + +"She is my sister," resumed Henriette--"lost, wandering and alone, on +the streets of Paris. Oh, help me find her, and I--I will do anything +you say!" The poor creature sobbed in her double misery. + +She pointed to her own eyes in gesture to portray Louise's misfortune: +"Blind--so helpless--it was just like taking care of a baby." She told +the story of her abduction and the loss of her sister, then of +Chevalier de Vaudrey's vain efforts and hers to trace her. + +The Countess de Linieres leaned forward in intense sympathy conjoined +with a certain weird premonition. + +"She isn't really my sister," went on Henriette, "but I owe her the +love of a mother and sister combined. She saved us from want and +death. My father found her on the steps of Notre Dame--" + +A low cry escaped the Countess. + +"--where he was about to put me as a foundling, there not being a +morsel of food in our wretched home. This other baby was half buried +under the snow. He warmed the little bundle against his body and +mine--and, rather than let us perish there of the cold, returned +homeward with both infants in his arms. Suspended from the other +baby's neck were a bag of gold and this locket--" + +The Countess gasped. She put a hand to her heart and seemed about to +faint before recovering strength to examine the locket that Henriette +handed to her. + +It was a miniature that the Prefect's wife recognized as her own! + +Opened, it disclosed an aged and yellowed bit of paper, on which the +writing was still visible: + + HER NAME IS LOUISE + SAVE HER + +"My child! My own Louise!" she cried, "--lost, wandering and blind in +Paris. Tell me, tell me--" She had almost fainted. The floodgate of +tears relieved her pent heart. + +Henriette was bending over her now, her arm around her shoulders, +trying to comfort. + +But the girl herself was near the breaking point. The voice of the +loved and absent one seemed to sound in her ears. + +Was it an hallucination? + +"Singing,--don't you hear?" said Henriette, softly, to the Mother. + +The girl brushed a hand across her eyes and tapped her temple. + +"In my dreams oft I hear it, my sister's voice. I must be losing my +reason!" + +Again swelled the notes of the Norman melody, and this time the Mother +heard too. + +The two sprang to their feet. + +Henriette dashed to balcony window. At the end of the street she saw a +figure clad in beggar's rags that she thought she knew. + +"LOUISE!" + +Henriette's cry echoed down the street and impinged on the blind +beggar's brain. The outcast ran groping and stumbling forward, no +longer singing, but calling "Henriette!" Her keeper, Widow Frochard, +was not in sight. + +The blind girl came nearer. Frochard emerged from a ginshop and tried +to head her off. The Mother followed Henriette to the window. The +latter encouraged Louise with little cries: + +"Don't get excited!" + +"It's all right!" + +"Wait there!" + +"I'll be down in one instant!" + +She rushed past the Countess across the room and flung wide the door, +on the very brink of happiness. + +But a troop of guards stood there to her astonished gaze. The Count de +Linieres, standing at their head, pronounced her name as if reading a +warrant: "Henrietta Girard!" + +The girl drew back, then charged like a little fury on the gunstocks +and bosoms of the troopers, pounding them with her fists. + +Unable to move this granite-like wall, she dashed back to the balcony +eyrie, imploring Louise with both hands. + +"Arrest her!" said de Linieres to the soldiers. + +Brawny troopers pulled her back as she would have jumped out of the +window to the flagging below--and her Louise. Vainly the Countess de +Linieres entreated for mercy. They dragged the girl downstairs. + +Here again she made a frantic appeal and wild effort to join her blind +charge, who was being hurried away in the vise-like grip of La +Frochard. + +"Oh, for Heaven's sake, have pity--let me go to my sister, or I shall +lose her again!" + +Deaf to her entreaties, they took her to La Salpetriere, this +loveliest of virgins, to be immured among the foul characters there! + +END OF PART ONE + + + + +PART II + + +CHAPTER XIV + +DOWN IN THE DEPTHS + + +With Henrietta condemned to the cruel fate of immurement in a prison +for the fallen, the Chevalier trussed up in royal Caen, and his aunt +the Countess prostrated by the hag's recapture of and disappearance +with the noblewoman's long-lost daughter, blind Louise, 'twould seem +as if our characters faced indeed blank walls of ruin, misery and +despair, from which no power could rescue them. + +In those times, the utter vanishing of persons who incurred police +disfavor was no uncommon incident. Often no public charge was made; +merely the gossiped whisper that So-and-So lay in Bastille or La +Salpetriere "at the royal pleasure," kept the unfortunate faintly in +memory till the lapse of years caused him or her to be forgotten. And, +sometimes, even, at the prison gate, identity vanished. Did not the +celebrated and mysterious Man in the Iron Mask carry his baffling +secret through decades of dungeon death-in-life to the prisoner's dark +grave? + +Others were silently transported to exile overseas. As England had her +Botany Bay, so France had Louisiana. Let us take a glance at La +Salpetriere (as Henriette is being dragged there by Count de Linieres' +troopers) to look at the sights and scenes of the famous female +prison, and contemplate what the inmates had in store. + +There was no interesting toil to relieve their unhappy lot, and no +distinction was made of the insane, the law-breaking criminal, and the +wretched streetwalker or demimondaine. In the courtyard, during the +exercise periods, the only talk was of the terms of imprisonment and +of the chances of Louisiana. In that gray monotony the ministrations +of the charitable Sisters, headed by the saintly Sister Genevieve (who +had been born within the walls of the prison), furnished the one +bright spot. + +"Do not grieve so!" said one of the older inmates who had begged a +little needlework, to a novice who was seated on a bench, weeping +convulsively with her head in her arms. + +"Oh, I can never live such a life as this!" replied the poor girl, +giving way to new grief. + +"Try to do something or other, 'twill make you forget your troubles." + +"I've never done anything in my life--except amuse myself!" replied +the ex-grisette. + +"That would be precious hard work in this place," said a third +speaker, who had passed several years of the dreary inactions of +prison life. + +"Well, anyhow, I've had my fling!" remarked the newcomer, drying her +eyes. "Scores of admirers crowded around me, willing to ruin +themselves for my amusement--" she said in a vivacious manner, as she +recalled her past triumphs. + +"And it all peters down to prison, eating gruel with a wooden spoon," +said the cynical old-timer; "then, some day, we shall be treated as +those poor creatures were yesterday--hurried off with a guard of +soldiers to see us safe on our weary exile--" + +"Does the idea of exile frighten you?" + +[Illustration: ONE OF THE BEAUTIES OF THE GARDEN FETE OF BEL-AIR.] + +"Who would not be frightened at the idea of being led off amid +insults and jeers--condemned to a two months' voyage in the vilest +company--and at the end of it be landed in a wild country to face +the alternatives of slavery or a runaway into the savage swamps?" + +"Plenty of work to relieve monotony--" + +"They say women are scarce out there in Louisiana. Perhaps I shall get +a husband, and revenge myself on the male creation that way--" + +Their speculations were cut short by the entry of a squad of troopers +literally dragging tiny Henriette Girard within the prison walls. Cold +and unfeeling at best, these men had no sympathy with their young +charge whom they naturally believed to be one of the harpies or +half-wits caught in the police dragnet. They thrust her mid the crowd +in the courtyard and departed. The great iron doors clanged shut. The +gatekeeper turned the massive key. Henriette--without a friend in the +world to appeal to--was an inmate of dread La Salpetriere! + +Like a flock of magpies the imprisoned demi-mondaines, petty thieves, +and grosser criminals for love or for hate, crowded around the girl, +inquiring what offence had brought her amongst them. + +"I am innocent!" + +Her little sobbing cry of self-justification was received with jibes +and winks. Was not such the formula of every prisoner? They pressed +her for her story. Looking at these ignoble spirits, the girl could +not bear to acquaint them with her pure and holy romance. + +As she turned away, a new shock met her gaze. + +Faugh! What was this physical weakness, this nausea-like repulsion, +but the bodily reaction from the tense spiritual agony she had +suffered? + +Courage! She must look again. That wild woman--hair down, breath +gasping, arms weaving threateningly--was coming at her like a +murderess. Momentarily Henriette expected the long arms to seize her, +the steel-like hands and wrists to choke her. + +She looked yet a third time. The crazy "murderess" had veered her +course, but what was that other object nearby? A Niobe weeping for her +own and the world's sorrows! Or this one over here--a shrieking maniac +calling on all Hell's legions for vengeance on fancied enemies! +Beyond, gibbering victims of paresis, white-haired idiots, wasted +sufferers from senile dementia. + +Not a friendly face, not a kind look nor an understanding eye! Crime, +passion, foulness, insanity. The sheer horror of her situation +mercifully blotted out consciousness. She sank, a crumpled heap to the +floor. + +"The girl is sick," said Sister Genevieve, who had entered at this +moment and was presently bending over her. "Here, two of you lift her +and carry her into the hospital--we shall have the good Doctor from La +Force attend her!" Two of the sturdier prisoners bore her away.... + +Beautiful, pitiful Henriette! + +The horrors of the madwomen thou facest in Salpetriere; the obscene +shouts and curses of the fallen; the fury of the female criminal; the +misery of the poor distracted half-wits, where mad and sane are given +the same cell:--these shall be but confused phantasmagoria projected +on thy sick brain during this prison time before the awful Storm +breaks--the lightning strikes--the thunder crashes, and the sharp +female called La Guillotine holds thee in its embrace. + +From the tumbril shalt thou find and kiss the blind girl, and Maurice +de Vaudrey shall accompany thee into the Valley of the Shadow! + + + + +CHAPTER XV + +LIGHT RAYS IN THE DARKNESS + + +Henriette was nursed through a severe mental and bodily illness by +Sister Genevieve directed by the visiting prison Doctor, none other +than him who had examined the eyes of Louise before Notre Dame. + +During this period it was quite impossible for the attendants to get +her story. She herself in lucid moments could hardly realize her +situation, nor in any wise remember how she had come to it. + +But one day new strength seemed to be hers. Feverish and with hair +unbound and a wild light in her eyes, she sprang out of her cot, +sought Genevieve in the main prison, and knelt before her. + +"Oh, Madame!" cried Henriette in imploring accents, "if you are the +mistress here, have pity on me, and order them to set me free. I ask +you on my knees!" + +"You are still ill, my child," said Sister Genevieve tenderly, +stroking Henriette's, long hair with a gentle, loving touch. + +"Certainly you are," confirmed the Doctor, who was just then on his +way to the hospital ward. "Why have you left your bed without my +permission?" + +"Oh, monsieur!" said the poor girl, turning to the gentle-voiced, +pleasant-faced man who spoke so kindly, "have you attended me in my +illness? Look--thanks to your care--I have recovered!" she affirmed +confidently, though her hectic features and weak motions belied it. + +"They left me alone for a few moments, and I arose and dressed myself. +Now that you see I am quite well, you will tell them to let me go, +will you not?" + +The Doctor gazed at her compassionately before answering: + +"That is impossible. To release you from this place requires a far +greater power than mine." + +"This place?" asked the young girl in surprise. "Why, what is it? Is +it not a hospital?" + +"A hospital and a prison," replied the physician gravely. + +"A prison!" exclaimed Henriette in terror, striving to remember how +she came to be in such a place. + +At last the events that preceded her illness gradually came back to +her mind, until she understood all. + +"Ah, I remember," she said at length. "Yes, I remember the soldiers +who dragged me here, and him who commanded.... And Maurice--was he too +condemned? Alas, poor Louise--my last sight of her showed her in the +power of vile, unscrupulous wretches! Oh, dear God, what have I done +to be crushed like this!" + +She dropped, weeping and wailing, to the floor. + +"Sister," said the Doctor, turning away to hide his tears, "this is +not a case for my care. You must be the physician here." + +"I know virtue and innocence when I see it, surely this child has done +nothing worthy of a term at Salpetriere!" replied the kind Genevieve +softly, lifting up the stricken girl and embracing her. + +"Come, dear, you must rest yet a little longer in order to acquire the +full strength so as to be able to tell me everything. Assuredly we +will help you!" + + * * * * * + +In the course of convalescence Henriette told her complete story to +Sister Genevieve. The narrative included the girls' journey to Paris, +her kidnapping and rescue, the disappearance of Louise, de Vaudrey's +suit and the objections of his family, the recognition of her sister +as the Countess's long-lost daughter, Louise's recapture by the +beggars, and the peremptory act of the Police Prefect whereby mother +and daughter, and beloved foster-sisters, were cruelly parted, and +Henriette branded with the mark of the fallen woman by incarceration +in La Salpetriere. + +Sister Genevieve was strangely moved by it, as was the Doctor to whom +she repeated it. + +"Against the will of the Police Prefect we can do nothing!" said the +Doctor, soberly. "If only his wrath has cooled, we may possibly get +her term shortened--" + +"What monstrous wickedness!" interrupted the Sister, ordinarily mild +and loyal, but worked up to near-democracy by these and other +injustices. "To imprison a pure girl--her only offence a nobleman's +honorable suit and her own ceaseless search for her blind sister, lost +in the streets of Paris!" + +"This girl Henriette was her blind sister's sole support," suggested a +nurse. + +"I had found her--Louise--at the moment when they arrested me," +exclaimed Henriette sorrowfully. "I heard her voice. I saw her. She +was covered with rags. Her beautiful golden hair fell in disorder on +her shoulders. She was being dragged along by a horrible old woman, +who I know ill-treats her--beats her, perhaps, and they would not let +me go to her. Now I have lost her forever--forever!" + +"Wait a minute, my child," exclaimed the physician, as a sudden +thought flashed over him. "I believe I have met that very same girl." + +"You, monsieur?" exclaimed Henriette in surprise. + +"Yes--yes, a young girl led by an old woman who calls her Louise--" + +"Yes--yes, that's her name," and the young girl became breathless with +excitement. + +"I know the old woman, too," continued the Doctor. "She is called La +Frochard--an old hag who goes about whining for alms in the name of +Heaven and seven small children. + +"Where did I last see them?" he mused. Suddenly he recollected a +little scene on the steps of Notre Dame one morning before mass. "Oh, +yes," he continued, "they were begging for charity of the churchgoers +at Notre Dame. I noticed that the young girl was blind--professionally +interested, I examined her pupils and discovered she was merely +suffering from cataracts which could be readily removed. I told the +old woman so, asked her to bring the girl for treatment to La Force, +but they have never shown up--" + +"Quick! Quick!" cried Henriette. "Tell me, Doctor, where Mere Frochard +lives?" + +"Oh, they inhabit an old boathouse at the end of the Rue de Brissac +down on the banks of the river Seine. There's a cellar entrance to +their hovel near the Paris-Normandy coach house. But what would you +do?" he inquired solicitously. + +"Oh, Sir," said Henriette piteously, "if you could use your influence +to get me out of here some way, I would--would run there and recover +my little lost sister! You don't know how I love her, nor my fears +that they will kill her. Please, please--" The little voice broke off +in sobs. + +Patting the girl's shoulder and smiling at her as if to try to impart +confidence in a very difficult matter, the good Doctor drew apart with +Sister Genevieve and conferred earnestly for a few moments. On their +return, the physician spoke again: + +"'Twould be of no use to invoke the police, as the Count has probably +instructed them not to hunt for Louise. Nor is it in our power to +release you from here. But we shall get up a petition signed by all of +us for your reprieve, very likely Count de Linieres will not venture +to refuse it--" + +Henriette was overjoyed even with this slender resource, and warmly +thanked them. At once her busy little brain laid plans for invading +the lair of the Frochards. And then--a most unexpected ray in the +darkness--arrived at Salpetriere the quaint valet Picard and brought +her comfort too. + +No longer a spy for the Count, he had been converted from base +suspicion by the Chevalier's honorable suit and the exile the latter +had suffered. He now delivered this little message from his master at +Caen: + + Dearest, never will I marry anyone but you, my heart's desire! + Should I escape, it will be to your arms. Picard knows my secret + plan and will tell you--until then, courage! A thousand kisses + from your Maurice. + +Henriette kissed the little paper fervently. + +Countess de Linieres decided to make a clean breast of her wretched +past to her husband. "It was not that I--I sinned," she sobbed, +kneeling at his feet, "In the sight of God I am innocent, though +erring! + +"In early girlhood," she continued, "I loved and was loved by a +Commoner, a man of the people. The good Cure married us secretly. We +were blessed by an infant daughter. + +"The family pride of the de Vaudreys was outraged by the so-called +dishonor. Two of the clan found our hiding-place and slew my husband, +then took my baby Louise from my helpless arms. I was brought back to +the chateau and given in marriage to you, after threats of death if I +should ever divulge the secret! Twenty years after, I saw my daughter +as Louise the blind singer--the girl Henriette, whom you sent to +Salpetriere, is her foster-sister. Oh, forgive, forgive--put me away +if you wish, but consider what I have suffered!..." + +The strong man, whom neither the fate of Maurice nor of Henriette had +melted, was crying. Gently he lifted up the Countess and clasped her +sobbing in his arms. + +"If you had only told me before--" was the only word to which he could +give utterance. + +The hellish aspect of his persecutions now stood revealed. Count de +Linieres, in the act of divine forgiveness, resolved to undo wrongs. + +But History struck faster. + +The avenger Jacques-Forget-Not annihilated pardons. The Linieres and +the other aristocrats were soon to flee for their lives. + + + + +CHAPTER XVI + +REVOLUTION IS HERE! + + +The ex-retainer nicknamed "Forget-Not" bore a baleful grudge because +of the cruelties inflicted on his own father many years before by the +Countess's father--the cruel punishment of pouring boiling lead into +the unfortunate tenant's veins: a procedure on which the boy Chevalier +had been taught to look approvingly. + +In fact ever since the elder Jean Setain displeased the then Seigneur +of the de Vaudrey estate, the affairs of the tenant family had gone to +wrack and ruin until the middle-aged son was little more than a +landless beggar and an embodied voice calling for vengeance. + +The original parties of the quarrel were dead. But the feud (on the +part of Jacques-Forget-Not) had taken on a more personal aspect, +because his own sufferings were involved as well as the memory of his +father's. He had determined to kill the Chevalier, the Countess and +the Count. + +In normal times the monomaniac's designs would never have reached +fruition. Now the vast public discontents converted the cringing +ex-tenant or shrieking beggar into a gaunt, long-haired, ferocious +agitator--one of the outstanding crazy figures of Great Crises! + +For the Storm--long brewing in seditious Palais Royal or seething +faubourg, in the heart and conscience of patriot Dantons, the cunning +of Robespierres, the wildness of Desmoulins fire-eaters, the +starvation and misery of the people--struck the doomed country with +full force. + +In the outcome the fat King Louis XVI, the hapless royal family, and +the whole supporting system of parasitic aristocracy, were hurled down +into black nothingness! The upset released our characters from the +horrors of prison immurement, only to plunge them in the more awful +tyranny of the New Terror. + + * * * * * + +Early in midsummer the wildest rumors reached Paris that the +Versailles government intended to put down the discontents by weight +of sword. Armies were advancing on the city, 'twas averred--cannon and +arms were being parked in the commanding squares; the King's faithful +Allemands and Swiss were about to attack the representatives of the +people and mow them down. + +As a beehive, stirred by over-curious bear or by an invader's stick, +seethes and swarms in milling fury before the myriads of angry +occupants attack and overwhelm the intruder with their stings, so the +seething populace mills in widening and ever widening circles, out to +destroy--burn--slay. The ominous drum murmurs to the people of their +ancient wrongs. Artisans pick up their nearest implements, the butcher +his axe, the baker his rolling pin, the joiner his saw, the iron +worker his mallet or crowbar, rushing to join the homicidal throngs. +Vengeful leaders like Forget-Not urge them on, directing the milling +masses to the central places of the city. + +At the Palais Royal gardens, later from the Cafe de Foy, Camille +Desmoulins is in his glory. See him rushing out, sibylline in face; +his hair streaming, in each hand a pistol! He springs to a table: the +police satellites are eyeing him; alive they shall not take him; not +they alive, him alive. + +[Illustration: DANTON WELCOMES LAFAYETTE AND JEFFERSON, THE +REPRESENTATIVES OF AMERICA'S NEW-WON FREEDOM.] + +"'Friends, shall we die like hunted hares? Us, meseems, only one cry +befits: To arms! Let universal Paris, universal France, as with the +throat of the whirlwind, resound: To arms! Friends (continues Camille) +some rallying sign! Cockades, green one; the color of hope!' As with +the flight of locusts, these green leaves; green ribands from the +neighboring shops; all green things are snatched and made cockades +of.... And now to Curtius' image shop there; to the boulevards; to the +four winds, and rest not until France be on fire!" + +Ancient flint-locks, pikes and lances are replevined, and dance high, +minatory, over the heads of the mob. Storerooms of powder and musketry +are broken into and swept clean. Behold, now, a still more astonishing +sight; a rushing tide of women, impetuous, all-devouring, equipped +with brooms and household tools, descending like a snowbreak from all +directions upon the Hotel de Ville. "And now doors fly under hatchets; +the Judiths have broken the armory; have seized guns and cannon, three +money-bags," and have fired the beautiful City Hall of King Henry the +Fourth's time! + +... And where the Storm breaks fiercest and the cry "Down with +Tyrants!" most loudly sounds, there Danton the revolutionist, the +pock-marked Thunderer, leads the way, whipping up new fury and moulding +them to his will with his appeal 'gainst "Starvation--oppression--ages +of injustice--vile prisons where innocent ones die under autocracy!" + +Danton's voice shakes the world. + +Thousands upon thousands of commoners gather for the attack on the +hated symbol of royal authority, the prison fortress of Bastille. + +Look! His impassioned eloquence touches the popular sympathies of the +common soldiers who constitute the royal guard. They lower their +opposing bayonets, identify their cause with the people's, the +exultant throng rushes past. + +Hurrah! The Revolution shall sweep on. The King's foreign soldiery are +the only loyal ones now. At the side of the Place de Greve the +populace throw up barricades. The conflict twixt Kingship and +democracy has begun. + +The people have won more cannon and more small arms. They rake the +loyalist Swiss and Germans with a murderous fire. The foreign troops +fight to the last. They are killed or overwhelmed as the victorious +commonalty take possession of the Square. Danton who has directed the +proletariat is the popular hero. + +Forget-Not has his share of the triumph too. "Come, my men," he yells. +"On to the Police Prefect's palace--let us avenge the wrongs of police +tyranny!" For in this dreadful hour the baleful Jacques-Forget-Not +remembers a private vengeance--his followers need no second urging to +haste with him to sack and slaughter.... + +Fox-like, Maximilien Robespierre, the "people's advocate," has watched +from a safe recess the issue of the battle. Not for him, the risking +of his precious skin! Later, in the councils of the new democratic +State, he shall sway men to his purposes.... + +And now the mob, re-enforced by many of the popular soldiery, seeks +the Bastille. Our previous description of the system of lettres de +cachet and the wholesale imprisonments without warrant of law, will +have given readers some idea of the hate with which this fortress of +injustice was commonly regarded. Many of the attackers, no doubt, had +friends or relatives immured there. 'Twas the monstrous and visible +crime of the Kingship--the object all had immediately in view when +crying "Down with tyranny!" + +In less than a day the Bastille falls. 'Tis but feebly defended by a +few aged veterans and a handful of valiant Swiss. Their first fire +kills some of the commoners and lashes the mob to fury. Up on the +walls, bastions and parapets, away from the guns at the port +holes, crawl some of the more daring attackers. Others bring +cannon, preparing to carry the siege by cannonade, investiture and +starvation. + +The governor, seeing that it is a losing fight, parleys and yields. +But, instead of observing the terms of the honorable surrender and +safe-conduct, the inrushing mob slays and mutilates a number of the +officers and defenders--the first inkling of what murder and rapine +the Wild Beast of the Proletariat will commit! + +"Set free the victims of the tyrants!" is the sole thought after the +lust of blood is satiated. The dungeons are opened, the prisoners +brought forth, joy of reunion or pathos of sorrow is the result of +these strange meetings, many of the victims being but the wrecks or +shadows of their old selves. + +"Set free the victims of tyranny!" + +After the Bastille La Salpetriere, the famous female prison, is +summoned. Already the inmates are on the qui vive of expectation. Mad +and sane are flying about from cells to courtyard, and courtyard to +barred windows, like birds in storm-flight. + +Impatient, restless little Henriette, between the bars of her cage, is +looking out wonderingly on a re-made world. What does it mean? +Release? the easy path to her lost Louise? + +Pray Heaven it does-- + + + + +CHAPTER XVII + +PRISON DELIVERY--AND AN ENCOUNTER + + +The jailers deliver the keys; the mob pours tumultuously into the +female prison. What cries of joy, what sobs of relief from the saner +inmates, as they try to _think_ their new, almost incredible jail +delivery! What stony, uncomprehending glances or what wild shrieks +from the maniacal! Amid this confused throng Picard, who has entered +with the crowd to wait upon his mistress, presents a comic figure. He +has arrayed himself in the red-and-white striped garb of the +proletariat, is trying his best to look a Revolutionary, though all he +gets for it are kicks and wallops! + +Sense and nonsense mix strangely in the proceedings of the mob. They +set up a rude court headed by two horny-handed butchers, the object of +which is to separate the innocent from the guilty. But the new +red-and-white cockade--superseding the green cockades of the first +battle--is the best passport to their favor. Inmates whose friends +have provided them with these Revolutionary badges, are generally +turned loose. Shouting and laughing in their glee, they dance out of +the prison. + +Picard has provided Henriette with his badge, whilst Sister Genevieve +and the Doctor vouch to her good character. Henriette kisses the +cockade as a sign of fealty to the new order. The brawny judges let +her pass. She runs merrily out past the harmless gauntlet of the +friendly pikes and lances. + +Not so Picard--That luckless valet tries to sneak out past the big +chopper of the brawny butcher-judge. + +Whir-r! The chopper descends in front of him, almost taking his head +off! + +Picard executes a strategic retirement to the rear. There! Isn't there +seemingly a good chance to crawl out between the other guardian's +legs, and thus escape? + +Picard tries it. + +Alas! the first butcher catches sight of Picard's be-tufted head +protruding in this strange manner from under the crotch of his fellow. +The Man of Meat grasps Picard firmly by the collar and pulls him +forth. + +With the other hand he raises the axe to chop the offender's head off, +thinks better of it, twirls Picard swiftly around, and using the flat +of the chopper spanks the rear of the Picard anatomy, sending him +sprawling into the limbo. + +So that little Henriette's excursion into Freedom is unattended and +alone. It is quite unlikely that she bothers about Picard at all. +"Louise! Rue de Brissac!" is the sole thought of her whirling little +brain, as she speeds on. + +Just where is the Frochards' cellar door? Certainly she has never +noticed it in her frequent searches of the Pont Neuf district. But +perhaps some one can tell her--She is in the Rue de Brissac now, +almost at the spot where she herself was kidnapped and Louise was +lost. + +A good-looking daughter of the people comes hurrying by. + +"Can you tell me where the Frochards live?" inquires Henriette +eagerly. + +The girl points to an almost indistinguishable trap-door, nearly +covered with straw, in front of one of the houses. "There!" she says. +Henriette presses the newcomer to accompany her. "Sorry, I haven't a +minute!" negatives the other, hastening off in spite of Henriette's +efforts to detain her. + + * * * * * + +Henriette opens the trap-door of the cellar where the Frochards +lodged, and peers within. Courageously she goes down the steps. +Sympathy and horror struggle in the thought of Louise being an inmate +of this foul place. + +What is her disgust then to encounter the wart-faced and moustachioed +hag who is its proprietor! Quickly Henriette tells La Frochard of her +information, and demands Louise. + +"I don't know any such person," the hag lies, with ready effrontery. +"You must be mistaken!" + +But Henriette's eyes are gazing at the Frochard's neck, sensing +something or other vaguely familiar. The old woman, who has been +drinking, has unloosened her nondescript rig. The girl's gaze sees a +well-remembered object. + +"My sister's shawl!" + +The blue eyes are gleaming now in astonishment--with a hint of coming +fury. She snatches the shawl from La Frochard's shoulders, fondles and +caresses it. Then like a small tigress robbed of whelp she advances on +the beggar, shaking her in paroxysmal rage. + +It would have been a comical sight if not so very serious a one; the +tiny Henrietta shaking a woman twice her size, pummeling her, +brow-beating her till La Frochard sinks to her knees and begs for +mercy. + +"You have been lying, and that shawl proves it," cries Henriette. +"Where is she?" + +The old woman gets up. She changes her tone to a whine, and tries to +pat Henriette in pretended sympathy. "Well, if you must know the +truth--" + +"Yes, yes," cries Henriette, "go on!" + +"--she _was_ with us, but alas!--poor thing--with the hard life we +have to lead--she--she died!" + +The searcher for Louise reels as if about to faint. + +She collects herself with difficulty, and stares at La Frochard. A +distraught look is on the girl's face. + +It is a look of utter misery, compounded with mistrustfulness of the +deceiving hag. + +She leaves the cellar, fully resolved to invoke the Law--if Law--in +this wild time--there can be found... + +A bundle of rags, on which Henrietta has almost stepped in passing, +moves very slightly. + + + + +CHAPTER XVIII + +"THERE IS NO LAW--" + + +The wild and drunken madness of the triumphant people expended itself +in many strange forms, of which none was stranger, more awesome, more +ludicrous and yet more tragic than the Carmagnole. + +This was a dance that seized whole multitudes in its rhythmic, swaying +clutch. The tune was "Ca Ira!" that mad measure of the sansculottes, +meaning roughly-- + + "Here it goes-- + + "And there it goes!" + +--and go forever it did till all the world of Paris seemed a heaving, +throbbing vortex of werewolves and witches, things lower than animals +in their topsyturvydom, drunken frenzy and frequent obscenity. + +The throng through which Henriette now directed her steps was verging +on this madness, though not yet at the pitch of it. + +Henriette managed to find her way to two sansculotte troopers +stationed in the centre of the Place, to whom she told her story. +Reasonable fellows they seemed, offering to conduct her presently to +the new authorities and get a search warrant for the Frochard clan. +But the madder swirl of the Carmagnole came along, and presto! +swallowed them up. It happened on this wise: + +As the locust swarms of the dancers enveloped them in shortening +circles, two young and attractive maenads broke from the throng and +literally entwined themselves with the troopers. Military dignity, +assaulted in burlesque, tried to keep its post. But the bold nymphs +were clinging, not to be "shaken"; as the mad whirl of the dancers +touched the centre, the troopers and their female captors were borne +away in the ricocheting, plunging motions, disappearing thenceforward +from our story. Little Henriette dived to a place of safety, the side +wall of the nearest building. Straightening herself after the +unexpected knocks and bruises, she looked aghast at the scene before +her. + +Whole streets of them, plazas of them, these endlessly gyrating male +and female loons; swirls of gayety, twisting, upsetting passers-by +like a cyclone;--arms, bodies and legs frantically waving, as at the +very brink of Dante's Inferno! + +Strange little dramas of lust and conquest punctuated the cyclonic +panorama. Here, a girl's snapping black eyes, winking devilishly, and +pursed-up Cupid mouth invited a new swain to master her. There, a +short-skirted beauty, whose sways and kicks revealed bare thighs, was +dancing wildly a solo intended to infatuate further two rival +admirers. Again, a half-crazed sansculotte had won a girl and in token +of triumph was spinning her body horizontally around like a top, +upheld by the open palm of his huge right arm. + +But what might be this comic figure, quite unpartnered--knocked and +shoved from human pillar to human post--winning the deep curses of the +dancers, and their hearty wallops when not o'er-busied with +Terpsichore? + +Picard, the ex-valet of aristocracy, finally let out from the +Salpetriere mock-court, had stumbled into this bedlam of sansculotte +craziness, the rhythm and procedure of which were as foreign to him as +a proposition in Euclid. + +But the Jolly Baker, from the Ile de Paris, was his match. The +bare-armed, lean-legged pleasurer had equipped himself (by way of +disguise) with a large false moustache, and evading the close watch of +his hatchet-faced, middle-aged spouse, had come forth to celebrate. +Neither dancer nor vocalist, the Jolly Baker had other little +entertaining ways all his own. + +As the foolscap-crowned, white-and-red-trousered Picard bumped the +pave, he saw squatting opposite him a figure whose gleaming eyes, +ferocious whiskerage and lean-wiry frame suggested the canine rather +than the human species. The Jolly Baker was a bum werewolf, but a "hot +dog." + +The gleaming eyes never left Picard's face, the dog-like body jumped +whichever way he did, Picard half expected the dog-man to bite or snap +the next instant and take a chunk out of him. Both had got to their +feet now; the stranger still silent and nosey, Picard looking out of +the corner of his eye for a way of escape. But just then the Baker +spied a maenad with a drum. + +One could beat drum in celebration, if naught else. Lo and behold, the +posterior of the foolscapped one would serve for a drum very nicely! +The Jolly Baker twisted Picard around, bending him half double as he +did so. + +With a rear thrust and firm shoulder grip, the Jolly Baker leaped upon +Picard's back. Emulating the young woman's beating of the drum, he +rained a shower of blows on the valet's hind quarters. + +The new "drum"-beater was now quite the cynosure of admiring +attention. He had captured the centre of the stage. He gloried +in it. With a more elaborate, fanciful and complexive +"rat-tat-tat-rat-a-tat-tat-tat-tat-tat--" + +He suddenly lost his grip of the "human drum," Picard wriggled out +from under, and the drummer bumped his own posterior on the pave. + +Calmly, quite undisturbed, the foolish Baker continued to "rat-tat-tat" +with a stick on the curb, then as the "Ca Ira" beats resounded above +him, his own squatting body began to sway with the music in a +heightened absurdity. Picard had run off. He was convinced these people +were crazier than any of those in the mad cells of Salpetriere.... + +[Illustration: JACQUES FORGET-NOT, SWEARS VENGEANCE ON THE FAMILY OF THE +DE VAUDREYS. THE COUNT DE LINIERES AND THE CHEVALIER DE VAUDREY HEAR HIS +THREATS.] + +Long since Henriette had evaded the worse sights and sounds by +creeping as best she could along the side walls of the buildings, +watching her chance to get away from the revelers. Again, at the +street corner, another swirl passed over her, knocking her down. +Ruefully she picked herself up again. + +The throng had passed by completely, leaving but a drunken fool +prancing here and there, or a scant winrow of half-prostrate figures. +Henriette ran with all her might to the only refuge she knew--her old +faubourg lodgings. + +The middle-aged landlady who in days agone had fetched the guard +to subdue Danton's would-be assassins, and who likewise had +resented Robespierre's prying as to the identity of Henriette's +visitor, studied the girl at first a bit quizzically. Released +from Salpetriere, eh? Was she the same sweet, pure Henriette she +knew? Yes, the little Girard--la petite Girard--looked to be the +same hard-working, respectable seamstress person of yore, only that +she seemed very weak and about to collapse! + +The landlady folded Henriette within one stout arm. + +She pointed with her free hand to the bedchamber immediately above. + +"Your old room up there awaits you," she remarked kindly. "As soon as +you have recovered strength a bit, I have no doubt the old sewing job +will be yours too!" + + * * * * * + +... Jacques-Forget-Not and his men arrived too late at the Prefect's +palace for complete vengeance on the de Vaudreys. + +Around the historic Fourteenth of July, there was a pell-mell exodus +of aristocrats from the city. A panic-stricken servant brought the +Count de Linieres tidings of the people's victory. + +"Fly, monsieur! Fly, madame!" he cried. "The troops are overthrown, +the Bastille surrounded, before nightfall the mob will surely attack +here and try to kill your excellencies. Fly, I implore you!" + +Other messengers confirmed the news, and thus it happened that the +erstwhile proud and arrogant Minister of Police who but yesterday had +ruled France was reduced to making the most hurried preparations for +flight, aided by the distracted Countess. + +The latter realized with a pang that the hegira meant farewell, +perhaps forever, to the chance of recovering her lost daughter Louise +from this welter of Paris. How mysterious the ways of the Higher +Power! Her beloved nephew the Chevalier, at least, was safe in the +distant fortress to which the Count her husband had condemned him. +Pray God Louise might be saved--, yes! and her foster-sister +Henrietta, beloved of the Chevalier--Henriette whom her husband had +branded by unjust accusation.... + +The de Linieres party succeeded in evading the fate of numbers of the +runaway aristocrats, who were bodily pulled out of their coaches and +trampled upon or strung up by the infuriated mobs. They managed to +make their way to the northeastern borders of France. There thousands +of emigres were received under the protection of foreign powers, +awaiting the ripe moment for the impact of foreign armies on French +soil and the hoped-for reconquest of the monarchists.... + +That night the beautiful Hotel de Vaudrey--home of the Vaudrey and +Linieres family and fortune--was given up to sack and pillage. Enraged +that the objects of his vengeance had fled, the leader Forget-Not +ordered a general demolition. + +Priceless works of art were hurled about and destroyed. The cellars of +old wines were quickly emptied by drunken revelers. The kitchen and +pantries catered to the mob's gluttony. Wenches arrayed themselves in +the Countess's costly silks and linens; perfumed, powdered and painted +with the cosmetics; preened and perked in the cheval mirrors. + +Among the motley crew of destroyers, drunkards, gluttons, satyrs and +sirens, our friend the Jolly Baker was on the job--unfortunately for +him, accompanied this time by his hatchet-faced spouse. + +He started a flirtation with a new-made vamp, all tricked out in +stolen finery. The Jolly Baker had found a new use for his eyes and +eyebrows, i.e., to convey love messages. He was making the most +alarming motions and succeeding most prodigiously in evoking the new +vamp's answering smiles when-- + +"Ker-plunk!" + +--Dame Baker fetched him a tremendous slap directly on the face that +caused him to see innumerable little stars. + +Gradually coming back to this mundane world, the Jolly Baker resolved +to devote his strict attention to the bottle.... + + + + +CHAPTER XIX + +KNIFE DUEL AND ESCAPE + + +The bundle on the cellar floor of the Frochards den stirred again, +this time more actively. + +The crippled knife-grinder Pierre had entered. His mother was again +busied with her potations. Under the half-lifted rags showed the +tear-stained face of Louise. The heavy fatigue of street mendicancy +had wrapped her in deep sleep, from which she woke with a start to her +wretched surroundings. The misery of it all overwhelmed her. She +sobbed, and the big tears descended from her blind eyes. + +"Don't cry, Louise!" begged the almost equally wretched Pierre. "There +may yet be escape and the finding of your sister. Oh!" he said to +himself. "If I had but the courage to lay down my life that I might +make her happy!" + + * * * * * + +The ruffian Jacques Frochard was exhibiting a sinister interest in the +blind girl. He had forbidden Pierre to speak to her or come near her, +and now as he entered, the crippled brother shrank away. "Get up and +go to work!" said Mother Frochard to the girl roughly, yanking her to +her feet. + +"I'll find a way to make her work!" laughed Jacques with fiendish +coarseness. "You'll slave for me, eh, my pretty? Yes, for you, no one +but Jacques!" + +He leered at her as he appropriated the coins of her singing. + +Huddled in the corner, the silent cripple bit his finger knuckles +until they bled.... + + * * * * * + +Inflamed with liquor and lust, Jacques soon decided to carry out his +purpose. + +"Come with me, my little beauty!" + +Mother Frochard chuckled at the sight of him mastering her. Struggle +wildly as the poor blind creature would to avoid his grip, he was +dragging her slowly to the stair while her screams were stifled by one +rough hand over her mouth. + +But as he was doing this, the huddled figure rose. "I have been a +coward long enough," said Pierre. "Don't touch her!" laying a +restraining hand on Jacques' arm. + +Astonished, Jacques turned. "Who'll stop me?" He flung his brother +prostrate half way across the room. + +The cripple had risen again. A dirk gleamed in his extended hand. His +eyes blazed like coals. Fury distorted his features which were craned +forward in hideous ugliness parallel with the knife. + +"I will!" + +"You misbegotten hunchback!" roared Jacques, letting loose of the girl +and drawing his own knife. "She is mine. I tell you I will kill anyone +who interferes with me!" + +La Frochard tried to throw herself between the brothers. Louise groped +away, and as by instinct found refuge behind Pierre. Jacques pushed +the hag aside, saying savagely: "Let me look after this!" + +Each brother stripped off his coat, holding it as a buckler whilst the +right hand gripped a knife. + +"You are right, Jacques," said the frenzied cripple. "We Frochards +come of a race that kills!" + +The adversaries feinted around each other in circles, in the Latin +mode of fighting that was their heritage. Coats or sidesteps parried +or evaded blows. The knives gleamed, but did not go quickly home. + +If Jacques had the superior strength, Pierre was the more cat-like. +His frail body was a slight target, so that the other's great lunges +missed. Then, leaping like a puma, he was behind and under Jacques' +guard, and stabbed him in the back. + +The great hulk of a man fell back into La Frochard's arms, the blood +oozing from a cut that was not mortal though fearsome. The hag-mother +wailed and crooned as if he were in death agony. + +"Quick!" cried the hunchback to Louise, "the road to liberty is open." +Taking Louise by the hand, he ran with her up the steps out of the +cellar.... + +But Henriette did not meet--not until one fateful hour--the itinerant +grinder and her loved sister whom he protected. They were in many of +the scenes of the later Revolution. Louise ate off the de Vaudrey +plate, and Pierre perforce sharpened the knives of the September +Massacre. Tramps of the boiling, tempestuous City, spectators but not +participants of the great events, they looked ceaselessly for her. + +Nor did the wicked Frochards abide in the den of Louise's imprisonment +and sufferings. They too were swallowed up in the vast maelstrom--to +reappear at one ludicrous moment of tragic times. + + + + +CHAPTER XX + +THE NEW TYRANNY + + +Before telling you how the Chevalier de Vaudrey got out of Caen and +how he fared forth to his love, it is meet that the reader should +understand the rapidly changing conditions that converted the New +France into a veritable Hell on earth. + +After the Fall of the Bastille, and even after the mob's sortie on +Versailles which enforced the royal family's return to Paris where +they lived in the Tuileries, it was the hope of the moderate patriots +that constitutional monarchy might prevail. + +These hopes were dashed, first, by royalty's intrigues and double-dealing, +and, secondly, through the pressure of the revolting emigres and the +threat of foreign invasion that welded all the defenders of France, +willy-nilly, into a traitor-crushing and invader-defying Republic. + +Of all the personages of that unhappy time, the locksmithing King +Louis XVI least understood what was going on about him. + +A true Bourbon with an ancestry of nearly a thousand years' possession +of the French throne, he never learned anything and never forgot +anything. He played at being a limited monarch but his sympathies were +naturally with the riffled aristocrats--the nobility whose privileges +had been taken away, their estates commandeered, their chateaux fired +or sacked, and themselves obliged to flee for their lives to the +protection of the foreigner. + +Not comprehending the nature of the Storm that wiped out old tyranny, +Louis dangerously rode the Storm, he could not guide it. His lack of +understanding is sadly shown in the closing scene at Versailles when +they brought him news of the people's coming. + +"Mais, c'est une revolte. Why, that is a revolt!" exclaimed the +bewildered monarch. + +"No, Sire," replied the Minister gravely, "'tis not a revolt. It is a +revolution!" + +Within a few hours the yelling maenads and bold satyrs of the +sansculottes possessed the gorgeous Salon de la Paix, whilst the King +and his family were on their way to Paris.... + +Then followed many weary months of royalist intrigue, plot and counter +plot, secret dickers with foreign Powers, attempts at escape, fresh +indignities by the mob, until at last Royalty is suspended from its +function, becomes the prisoner instead of the ruler. Turned out of the +Tuileries, Louis and Marie Antoinette are no longer King and +Queen--henceforth Citizen and Citizeness Capet. At the end of dreadful +imprisonments, looms for the hapless pair the dread Scaffold.... + +A real Republic teeters for a short period on the crest of the +Revolutionary wave. Men are mad with the joy over the new thought of +universal brotherhood. Little do Danton and the other Utopians realize +that the Pageant of Brotherhood is but the prelude of a new +Despotism. + +For a dark ring of foes--spurred to invasion by the King's +misfortunes--surrounds France on every side. Within, the cry +re-echoes: "The traitors to the prisons!" and all the aristocrats as +yet at large are hunted down and put in durance. + +As Minister of Justice, Danton, the idol of the people, acts quickly +to subdue aristocracy, and ceaselessly organizes--organizes--organizes +the raw republican levies into troops fit to resist the advancing +Prussians, Austrians and Savoyards. + +Lashed to uncontrollable rage by the preliminary successes of the +invading Prussians, the Paris proletariat break into the prisons and +massacre the unfortunate members of the nobility there immured. Few +are spared. Young equally with the old--girls and women no less than +the sterner sex--the noble, the wise, the cultivated, the beautiful, +are murdered in cold blood. The September Massacres shock moderates +everywhere with the feeling that France is at last running amuck--the +mad dog of the Nations. + +Yes, France now is running amuck--'ware of her when she strikes! +Lafayette and other moderates--indeed, several of the Generals +commanding the patriot armies have fled over the border, disgusted +with the national rabies, utterly unable to quench it. + +The patriot ranks close up. The wilder element of the sansculottes +grasps the helm of State. In the desperate need of a dictatorship to +cope against the foreign invasion, Danton procures from the +Legislature absolute power for a little inner group, the Committee of +Public Safety. + +Working on the passions of the people, worming himself into favor +by denouncing moderate suspects and advocating the extremest +measures, our sly acquaintance of the faubourg lodgings--Maximilien +Robespierre--becomes the head of this Committee--thereby the Tyrant of +France. + +The foreign foe is indeed driven back, but at what a cost! The rule of +Robespierre's fanatical minority that has seized the State, +inaugurates the dreadful Reign of Terror. The great Revolutionary +leader Danton--Minister of Justice in the earlier time--has himself +caused to be established the Revolutionary Tribunal for the quick +trial of the public's foes, and the guillotine for the guilty. +Robespierre uses it as a ready forged weapon for destroying all who do +not think as he does. + +In this storm-wracked world Jacques-Forget-Not is now a great judge +and a most fanatical patriot. The avenger of the de Vaudreys heads the +Revolutionary Tribunal. He is in his glory now, for the aristocrats +that the mobs overlooked are sent in batches to the guillotine--on the +most trifling charges, or finally without accusation at all. The mere +fact of being an aristocrat is a capital offence! + +And in and among these slaughters is intermixed the destruction of +Robespierre's personal and political rivals--a work in which the +vengeful Jacques-Forget-Not studies and obeys every whim of his +master, for does not Jacques also have private grudges as yet unpaid? + +... But Danton remains a popular hero. For his work in driving back +the foreign foe, he is upraised in chair of state by the multitudes, +heading a huzzaing procession and preceded by young girls strewing +flowers. + +None of the bloody butchery has been Danton's. He has been too busy +fighting Prussia, Austria and Savoy. Today, as he sits in the chair of +state acknowledging the acclamations, his heart wells in gratitude to +Henriette who had once saved his life--no face of treasured memory so +dear as hers! + +[Illustration: LOVE, MASTER OF HEARTS.] + +Confessedly, under the New Tyranny, there is nothing to engage the +great heart and soul. Sick of the murderous scramble for pelf and +power, he withdraws from most political activity, though still able to +exert a wide influence. + + * * * * * + +About this time twenty-two political rivals of Robespierre--the +Girondists--were sent by one decree to the guillotine. Danton, vainly +pleading for mercy, saw that the Committee of Safety machine was being +made an instrument of slaughter. "France must be purged of all vice!" +was Robespierre's sanctimonious reply to his passionate protest. Not +long after, the rival masters of France faced one another in the hall +of the Revolutionary Tribunal, whereof Jacques-Forget-Not was +President. + +"Well works this Tribunal you established, Danton!" said Robespierre, +in glee at the increasing number of executions. + +"It was established," replied the pock-marked man solemnly, "to punish +the enemies of the people. Now through you--Robespierre--France rivers +with innocent blood!" + +... God help our hero and heroine if they should encounter its dread +fury! + + + + +CHAPTER XXI + +ADVENTURES OF A PILGRIM + + +Some parts of France continued to be held by the royalists after the +establishment of the Republic. + +Insurrectionary war raged in the provinces, particularly the stubborn +war of La Vendee, and certain loyal fortresses like Caen managed to +resist capture. + +It was thus as a prisoner of the royalist faction, and quite out of +touch with worldshaking events, that our young hero Chevalier Maurice +de Vaudrey lived through the earlier period of the Revolution. + +A love-message from him through Picard to Henriette--an unsuccessful +attempt to escape; a glimpse of the still handsomely frizzed and +powdered head gazing through trefoil Gothic window on the outer +sunshine and liberty:--such is all that we may see of de Vaudrey's +strangely trussed up life during this time. + +He was still enshrined in the heart of the little seamstress in the +Paris faubourg, still dear to his aunt the Countess who with her +husband was an emigre beyond the borders. Otherwise, no hermit nor +solitary was more completely effaced from the world. + +The first light of hope was brought to Caen by a messenger from the +Countess, who had managed to smuggle through a letter or two and a +small box of gold. + +"I dare not advise you," his kind Aunt wrote. "Escape into France +would invite your death as an aristocrat. On the other hand, if you +make use of the accompanying pardon signed by your uncle the Count, +the Governor of Caen will probably enroll you for the inhuman and +useless war of La Vendee. Take the money, my dear Nephew, and use it +as you deem best--the messenger will secure it for you outside the +prison until you need it!" + +De Vaudrey pondered, as his Aunt advised. But, really, there was but +the one course for him! To win through, disguised, at whatever peril, +to Henriette; to find her and Louise; to save them from that black +welter of the Revolution, and guide them out of the country to the +loving care of the Countess and the repentant Count: yes, such was the +course that both Love and Duty dictated. He would begin it that night, +aided by his faithful friend the messenger. + +"Hand part of the gold," he whispered the Countess's agent, "to some +rustic carter on whom you can rely. Bring another part here and give +it to a keeper whom I shall point out to you!" + +The impromptu little plot worked perfectly. The friendly keeper, +having gotten a peep at the ex-Police Prefect's letter of pardon, +needed but the clincher argument of the gold in order to aid de +Vaudrey's escape. A rope over the wall, and even a plank across the +moat, were mysteriously provided. In the last silent watch of the +night, the go-between (who had been waiting) conducted the escaped +prisoner to the carter's cavern. Already the East was showing the +ghostly light of the first faint streaks of dawn. + +Having breakfasted in the cave and put his few belongings into a pack, +de Vaudrey with the two others stepped out of the dark hole into the +growing light. + +The carter pointed to the Chevalier's frizzled locks and elegant if +faded dress. "They would take you up at the first village crossing on +that!" he remarked. "Your get-up gives you away." + +The Chevalier retired to a new toilette. Within, were the primitive +resources of rustic wardrobe. As he emerged again from the cavern, old +boon companions would indeed have been startled by the guise he now +wore. + +Beautiful apparel, cane, wig, lorgnette and snuffbox were in the +discard. The frizzled locks were gone, revealing long straight black +hair which was crowned by a shabby tricorne hat. The Chevalier's +elegant form was covered by an ill-fitting ragged black suit, which a +pair of dusty shoes well matched. Across one shoulder he carried a +pack stick, to which a thoroughly disreputable-looking small black +bundle was fastened. + +"You'll do now," said the rustic. "Remember you're only a helper on a +carter's journey to Paris." + +Rustic and helper took their leave of the go-between by plunging +through a wide but shallow stream. When they had emerged at the +farther bank, they felt secure that their steps could not be traced. +Waving good-byes to the other, the rustic and his man hastened to a +stable where they loaded a provision wagon and attached a country +Dobbin to the thills. Presently de Vaudrey, in his new character of +the carter's assistant, was on the first stage of the long journey to +the storm-wracked metropolis. + +The carter's load was of so little value, the whole outfit so +poverty-stricken, that neither country Royalist nor provincial +Revolutionary saw fit to bother them. + +Gradually the carter sold his wares in the smaller villages en route. +They wisely avoided the larger towns. The cart was nearly empty now. +Saleables had all been disposed of except a few apples. + +"How are you and I going to get into Paris?" said the distinguished +young aristocrat, whose respect for the Reuben had increased daily. + +"Trust me!" said the other. His broad, moon-faced physiognomy masked +the cunning of the fox. "I have this apple here--" + +The carter eyed his assistant intently and winked solemnly as if to +say: "That will do the trick!" + +As they leave the open country behind and jog through the better +settled regions immediately north of Paris, let us take our stand +beside the "barrier" or outer gate which they are slowly approaching. + +Judge Forget-Not and his fellows are inspecting the barriers. The +voice of the Chief is heard speaking. + +"Watch strictly that no aristocrats escape. Our new _law_ also +condemns to death all who harbor an aristocrat." + +The Inquisitor's face assumes a yet harsher expression as he addresses +the guards: "Beware lest you yourselves be suspect!--Remember the +sharp female 'Guillotine'!" + +Forget-Not draws a significant hand across the throat. A shudder +passes through the more timid folk. + +The coarse-faced guards applaud and promise to use the utmost +precautions. The judges move on, inspecting another part of the +barrier. + + + + +CHAPTER XXII + +ADVENTURES OF A PILGRIM (CONTINUED) + + +The farmer's cart nears the gate. The moon-faced Reuben is as +impassive as ever. Though the tall assistant manages to keep his +expression fairly immobile too, 'tis evident to us who know him that +he labors under suppressed excitement. For the prize of his Great +Quest is Henriette; the penalty of discovery and capture, Death! + +The gallant young man does not hesitate, however. He has never shrunk +from Danger's bright face, least of all would he shrink now when the +passing of a brief ordeal may well mean reunion with his beloved and +her rescue from the welter of Paris. The Pilgrim's soul hungers and +thirsts for her. After the great Sahara of imprisoned loneliness, how +near the Oasis of love and rapture! How beautiful the prospect, if not +indeed Mirage! + +The rustic's helper dismounts with the farmer at the gate, and follows +him into the office of the registrar. The farmer presents a pass. + +"This is for one only," says the registrar at the gate, roughly. "The +other cannot go through," he says, pointing to de Vaudrey, who tries +to look as stupid and uncomprehending as possible. + +The farmer hands a big red apple to the functionary. But the latter +makes a gesture of refusal. + +"Bite into it!" says the Rustic ingratiatingly. + +The official bites at the top which comes off--a smooth and even +slice. The centre of the apple is hollow. Within it are several gold +coins. + +Quickly the gatekeeper covers the golden apple with his hairy paw. +"Your papers are all right," he says gruffly, rapidly converting the +figure 1 into a 2, and viseing the pass for two. He motions for both +the man and the youth to go through. + +The farmer and his follower drive in and mix with the crowd on the +inside of the barrier. At this stage the farmer disappears from our +history. But the face of the youth is noted by an eagle eye and +recognized by a brain that does not forget! + +The prowling Judge sees the Chevalier, though the Chevalier does not +see him. + +"Follow that man!" he says quietly to his deputies. "We shall catch +him red-handed in some plot!" + + * * * * * + +Our little heroine had lived quietly for many months in the faubourg +lodgings to which, perforce, she had to return after her vain visit to +the Frochard cellar and her rough handling by the Carmognole rioters. +The little sparrow of a seamstress was quite undisturbed by the great +events of the French Revolution, except as they had put everything at +sixes and sevens and whirled away her own intimates in the mad +whirligig. + +The pock-marked man (whom she had sheltered overnight in this very +place) was the Savior of the Country; the prying lodger Robespierre +was the Chief of State. Of course she never saw them now, her small +self would hardly dare address them! Sister Genevieve and the Doctor, +who had told her about the Frochards' den, were no longer within her +ken. + +The weary months had dragged along. Notwithstanding the cheering +message conveyed by Picard, her knight the Chevalier--so far as she +knew--was still a prisoner of Caen. And the weary months had dragged +their ball and chain of silence and despair still more wearingly in +the failure of her many renewed attempts to find Louise. The blind +sister was again swallowed up in the devouring city--the Frochards +were fled. + +Whither was Henriette to look--whither to turn? + +A ray of light from the window glinted on the holy Book of books that +the girl treasured. She opened it. A line read at random comforted +her. Clasping the volume in her hands, she knelt in prayer, addressing +God softly: + +"Thou who hast said: 'I am the Light!' oh, show me the way!" + +At the sound of a knock at the door, the girl rose from her +supplications. Entered sad and dusty pilgrim, carrying his few +belongings in bag suspended from shoulder stick. Now they dropped +sharply to the floor, and the disguised Chevalier gazed long and +earnestly upon his love. + +Her eyes in turn were riveted on his sad, lean apparition, how +terribly changed from the old debonair days! Kind sympathy spoke in +her look and mien till the radiance of love, beginning in little +ghosts of welcoming smiles at the corners of her mouth, broke into +clear effulgence. + +The Chevalier tottered forward. He collapsed into the nearest chair. + +She put her arms around him and hovered there, comforting him with +affectionate little hand pats and soft kisses. + +Jacques-Forget-Not, the avenger of the de Vaudreys, had not been far +behind during the pilgrim's tramp across the city. He had in fact +sneaked back of him, seen the wanderer enter Henriette's door. +Standing at the head of the stair, he could almost overhear stray +phrases of their talk, knew that they were quite within his power. + +The shaggy-haired one fairly gloated in his triumph. "Number One!" he +hissed, raising a forefinger in token that de Vaudrey--the first of +his Trinity of Hate--was in the net. "Two and Three shall come next!" +he whispered savagely, knuckling down two other fingers to mark his +vengeance on the Count and Countess. + +The shaggy-haired Forget-Not hurried down the stairs, his gaunt +features baleful with unholy glee. Pointing significantly overhead, he +ordered a detail of his guards: + +"Arrest de Vaudrey and all in that room!" The men at once proceeded to +carry out the order. + + * * * * * + +The guard captain would have been equally at home in a pirate crew or +at a land massacre. Enormous black brows and heavy moustache +accentuated his ferocity, the particolored Revolutionary garb and in +particular the red-and-white striped pantaloons gave him a bizarre +appearance like a pirate chief. + +The detail were armed with muskets and bayonets. They clattered up the +stairs and burst into Henriette's room. + +The lovers seemed dazed rather than affrighted. They clasped each +other again. With a little warning gesture Henriette bade Maurice say +nothing when the captain addressed him as de Vaudrey. + +The villain laid a heavy hand on his victim while two of the soldiers +seized and pinioned his arms. "You are under arrest as a returned +emigre!" the head pirate said. + +Then he turned his attention to Henriette who made futile little +efforts like a tiny mother wren. + +"You are also under arrest, Citizeness," said the captain harshly, +"for the crime of sheltering a returned aristocrat." + +"She cannot be blamed," interrupted de Vaudrey. "I entered this place, +uninvited." + +"Silence!" roared the Captain. "Your plea, if any, must be made to the +Revolutionary Tribunal." + + + + +CHAPTER XXIII + +BEFORE THE DREAD TRIBUNAL + + +That awful Tribunal sat daily. During the height of the Terror, no +time was allowed to prisoners for the preparation of their cases--no +interval elapsed between the prisoners' arrest and their arraignment. +Dispatch--_dispatch_--DISPATCH was the essence of the bloody business, +the purpose being to strike terror upon all that opposed the little +fanatical minority then in power. + +Therefore the guard brought Henriette and Maurice directly from +their arrest to their trial, and they gazed upon a sight for Gods +and men--a travesty on the sacred name of justice. Such scenes +would seem unbelievable to us but for the recent events of the +Russian Revolution, which prove that in our age also a proletarian +dictatorship can be senselessly wicked and cruel. + +The trials--beside their Terror function of upholding a minority +government--were great public shows for the howling rabble and +leering sansculottes, the hoodlums of Paris whom even the masters +dared not offend. The riff-raff acted exactly as at any of their own +celebrations and feastings. + +Along the side benches and up on the "Mountain," flirtation and +sweethearting went on, of a rough-and-ready order. Some spectators +coolly munched their dinners. Others, having brought along their +bottles, indulged in drinking bouts. Everyone's ideas of a good time +cannot be the same. There was our eccentric acquaintance the Jolly +Baker, for instance. The height of bliss for him, at one of these +capital trials, was to lean far, far back with open mouth whilst a +tilted bottle, held by a ministering Hebe, spilled ecstatic drops of +damp and ruby "happiness" upon his "open-face" physiognomy. + +Another misfit of the grotesque crowds was Picard, foolishly trying to +discover what 'twas all about, gazing soulful-eyed into hoodlum "mugs" +that gave him the merry "ha! ha!" or sickened him with the likeness of +the First Murderer. But "crime," in one instance at least, was +followed by "punishment," for as the murderous citizen suddenly thrust +out his roaring raucous mouth, Picard inadvertently leaned back. + +[Illustration: LOUISE AND LA FROCHARD TRYING TO KEEP PIERRE, THE CRIPPLE, +FROM FIGHTING HIS BROTHER JACQUES.] + +The huge sansculotte, to his own surprise, was eating the bushy +horse-hair pigtail of Picard's bobbing queue! The ex-valet made a +quick duck. His murderous-looking neighbor, with a full swing, +walloped the countenance of the sansculotte beyond.... + +On this day of our characters' trial, the side benches and balconies +of the great hall quickly fill with the howling, leering mobs--the +fierce and grotesque chorus of the grim tragedy. + +Interspersed with the rabid Jacobins are other--less partisan--spectators, +and among the hurrying throngs a close observer might have noticed the +luckless Pierre Frochard and the blind girl Louise entering. They found +seats on a front bench. + +"The judges are taking their places now," said Pierre. "You will soon +hear the trials. Over on their right sits Robespierre, the dictator of +France!" + +The judges, so-called, are five villainous individuals, wearing +dirty-looking plumed hats, black jerkins and breeches, and tall jack +boots. The shaggy-haired Jacques-Forget-Not presides. + +A frowsy public prosecutor--red, white and blue cockade affixed to his +tousled hat plume--calls the names of the accused and presents the +charge. From the background, the stripe-panted soldiery are bringing +the victims up. + +"They are arraigning them in batches," says Pierre. "The judges make +quick work!" Louise shudders, lays hold of his arm. + +There is something horrible in the sound of the advancing footsteps; the +harsh accusations and weak replies, oft drowned by the sansculottes' +roar; the sentences of doom, and the final scuffling of feet as the +soldiers seize their prey and bear it off. + +Innocence and guilt often go up together. + +Unfortunate women of the street are arraigned next high-bred +aristocrats, or moderates whose only crime has been to denounce such +horrors. A gallant gentleman pleads vainly to the judges who are also +the jury: "We have had no trial!" The mob howls "Guillotine!" and +"Guillotine!" is Jacques-Forget-Not's brief sentence ! + +A young Corsican lieutenant of artillery looks on meditatively. His +silent thought is sensed by a bystander who remarks: "I suppose, +Napoleon, you think you could manage things better!" The man grins. +But Napoleon Bonaparte--he who snuffed out Revolution later by whiff +of grapeshot--nods gravely yes. + +As the prisoners from the faubourg are brought in, Henriette sees the +loved and long lost face of her dreams among the front row of the +sansculottes. + +Stupefied, unbelieving, she looks again and again. Yes, it is +she--none other! Her own peril and that of Maurice are unthought of. +Protective love of the blind one tides back in resistless strength. + +She is trying now to escape from the guards, run to her sister--even +to pantomime her love, gesticulate it with funny little motions and +confidential fingers on lips--forgetting that the other cannot see! +And then her wild, excited cry rings through the great hall: + +"LOUISE! LOUISE!" + +Louise jumps to her feet, groping wildly towards the cry. Her blind +features are strained in agonized expectancy. Pierre has located the +frenzied Henriette. He guides the groping blind girl from the benches +to her sister. + +In this council chamber of hates and cruelty, rulers and attendants +alike are steeled against shrieks of suffering or the outbursts of the +accused. A fence of locked bayonets stops each advancing sister. +Paying rather less heed to the incident than if it were a request for +a drink of water, the soldiery push back Pierre and Louise to the +seats and make ready to obey the prosecutor's call. + +"Citizen de Vaudrey and Henriette Girard to the bar!" + +The Chevalier faces the dread quintet. The prosecutor reads the +charge, demands the death penalty on the returned aristocrat. Poor +Henriette is divided between her frenzied wish to clasp her sister and +her horror about Maurice. + +The young man defends himself. + +"An emigre, yes!" he acknowledges, "but not an enemy of the people." + +Many a spectator of the scenes--even the wicked judges--could bear +witness (did not prejudice blind!) to his kindness for the afflicted +and fallen. Is there an undercurrent of sympathy for him even amongst +hard sansculottes? + +But this is Jacques-Forget-Not's great moment. + +Vengeance's hour has struck. + +The wickedness of the old de Vaudreys is to be expiated at last! + + + + +CHAPTER XXIV + +VENGEANCE COME TO JUDGMENT + + +"I myself accuse you, Citizen de Vaudrey!" says the Judge, rising and +pointing to the culprit. + +"I accuse your family and all aristocrats of oppression and murder +through countless generations!" + +A yell of approval--the savage howl of the Mob Beast--resounds from +the rabble whose passion is played upon. It is followed by the general +roar: + +"Guillotine! _Guillotine!_ GUILLOTINE!" + +With a smile Forget-Not records the death sentence given by his +compliant fellow judges, in his book. Chevalier de Vaudrey is hustled +back to the rear of the hall. + +Poor trembling Henriette is next. The horrors of Maurice's condemnation +and the thought of her little lost sister nearby, rack her with a +stinging pain in which is commingled little thought of self. + +"You sheltered this aristocrat?" questions the Judge. + +"Of course--I--love him!" + +"The penalty for sheltering an emigre is death!" replies Forget-Not +shrilly, again playing to the Jacobins. + +But Henriette is thinking of the suffering Louise. She strives to +direct the Judge's attention to the blind girl. + +"She might hear!" says Henriette softly. "Please--not so loud!" + +The Judge turns the pages of his book in studied indifference. + +"Please--my sister--we have just met after a long time--she--she is +blind!" The little voice breaks off in sobs. + +The idea strikes her that, if they can only see the helpless creature, +they will have pity. She calls: + +"Louise, stand up--they want to see you!" + +The cripple Pierre aids Louise to her feet. She stands there alone, a +picture of abject misery. + +"You see!" cries Henriette. "Blind--no one to care for her!" + + * * * * * + +The dandified dictator of France fixes fishy eyes on the little person +in the dock. One affected hand has raised a double lorgnette through +which he peers at her. He muses, strokes a long nostril with his +forefinger, recollects something which causes him to curl his lip: + +Henriette's door slam on the obscure Maximilian Robespierre finds its +re-echo to day at the gates of Death. Ah, yes, he has placed the girl +of the Faubourg lodging now! + +"You were an inmate of the prison for fallen women?" he asks coldly. + +The clear, unashamed blue eyes would have told innocence if the words +had not. + +"Yes, Monsieur, but I was not guilty." + +Robespierre's delicate hand passes in the faintest movement across his +throat and toys with the neck ruffle underneath it. + +His lips frame a dreadful word though he does not speak it. A nod to +Jacques-Forget-Not completes the by-play. + +The servant imitates the master's gesture. This time, the drawing of +the hand across the throat is more decisive. + +Jacques speaks the word that his master did not vocalize. The other +judges confirm it. + +"GUILLOTINE!" + +Henriette is borne shrieking out to the death chamber--"One hour with +her--only one hour--then I will go with him!" + +But she and the Vaudrey are already being taken out together by the +attendants. + + + + +CHAPTER XXV + +THE VOICE OF DANTON + + +We have explained that Danton took little part in the Government after +the repelling of the foreign foe and the commencement of the Terror. +He had no sympathy with the excesses of his former colleagues, but on +the other hand was subject to strange lassitudes or inhibitions that +oft paralyzed his spirit except at the supreme hour. + +Saving France had been his real job. + +Among these petty and mean minds seeking power or pelf or the +repayment of some ancient grudge, Danton had nothing to do! He loved +his frontier fighters--men who, the same as himself, dared all for +France. + +They were somewhat like our cowboys of the Western plains. Born to the +saddle; recruited for the northern cavalry; supremely successful in +whirlwind charges and harassing flank attacks that drove back +Brunswick's legions, they were now quartered on well-deserved furlough +within the city. + +The old lion of Danton's nature woke again, his indomitable spirit +reasserted itself whenever he went to their yard and roused them by +his patriotic eloquence. + +Alas! within the tribunal and on the execution place at the other side +of the city, was that going on which shamed patriotism and mocked +liberty. + +"La Guillotine"--that fiendish beheading instrument that a deputy +named Doctor Guillotin had devised--was become Robespierre's private +engine to tyrannize France. + +It stood in a great suburban place, on a scaffolding led up to by a +flight of steps: a tall massive upright with high cross piece--uglier +than the gallows. A brightly gleaming, triangular knife, about the +size of a ploughshare, worked up and down in the channels. + +The knife was first raised to the top of the upright, and held there +by a lever. The master of the ceremonial raised right hand in token to +the executioners to be ready. + +As he dropped his hand in a down-sweeping gesture, one of these +villains pulled the rope which released the lever. Down fell the heavy +knife across the neck opening of a body board to which the victim was +strapped. Below the contraption was a huge basket. + +A cordon of soldiery guarded the place, keeping back the crowds. The +brawny executioners--naked to the waist, like butchers in a +stockyard--daily performed their office. + +On this day of Henriette and Maurice's sentence, they were giving it a +preliminary trial. "The trigger's been slipping--not working well," +the head fellow explained to the master of ceremonies. Back and forth +the terrible guillotine knife hissed and whistled until they +pronounced its action perfect.... + +Danton and three of his friends had an errand at the Government that +day that took them past the death chamber. A little frightened face +amongst the condemned drew his notice. + +"Killing aristocrats, yes!" he was thinking. "But these poor huddled +folk are not the public foe. Would I might summon the legions to put +an end to slaughter--but that Robespierre has inflamed all France with +the lust of blood!" + +He was startled from the reflection by the woe-begone, distrait little +thing who seemed hypnotized by terror. The tall man bent down and +peered at the girl. + +Like the other condemned, her hands had just been pinioned behind her. +She stood forlorn and helpless. + +Horror froze him.... The Child who had saved his life from the +spadassins--the dear little face the memory of which he had always +treasured! He asked her a mute question, she mutely nodded. + +So black-hearted murder was to snuff her out too--yes, and that young +man nearby, Maurice de Vaudrey whom he knew. + +Not if Danton could protect and save! + +Stern was his voice as he said to the jailer: + +"There is some mistake. Keep her--and her friend--until I return!" He +was on his heel and striding to the courtroom. + +A follower sensed his purpose. He laid hand on Danton's shoulder, +saying: "No, Danton--you endanger your own life!" + +"What if I do? She must be saved." + +As we see him pass into the Tribunal, let us stop for a moment and +watch the procedure in the death chamber. Outside, the tumbrils of +death clatter up to receive their load. A functionary calls the names +of the condemned whilst a court officer identifies them. Each in turn +is bundled off to the carts. The men hesitate over Henriette and +Maurice. + +"The ex-Minister of Justice," said one, "asked that this case be +delayed." + +"Her name is here," said the master functionary, a creature of the +Dictator. "She goes--" + +"We might as well take the other too," said the court officer, +pointing to de Vaudrey.... + + * * * * * + +Superbly the Lion of the Revolution faced the judges and the mob, and +demanded a hearing. Robespierre uplifted eyebrows and half-smiled, +vulpinely. His rapid exchange of looks with the Court seemed to say: +"Well, we have got to listen to this crazy man, but be on guard!" + +The president, Jacques-Forget-Not, took the cue and acceded to +Danton's request. + +"A great injustice has been done," cried Danton, "to the innocent and +helpless. I ask the lives of Henriette Girard and Citizen de +Vaudrey!" + +The judges did not need to answer. + +A savage cry of "No! No!" swelled from the infuriated "Mountain." + +The sansculottes half rose from their benches, shaking minatory fists, +yelling, gesticulating. Faces were contorted in fury. The mob--the +same that had once acclaimed Danton in chair of state--was not to be +balked of blood. + +The orator continued: "These sufferers are friends of you who demand +their death. The girl once saved _me_--the organizer of your +victory--from spadassins. The boy was ever known as the people's +benefactor--I have seen him buy loaves to keep you from starving! Now +through trumped-up charges they are to be hurried away to death--" + +"You question the justice of the people's Tribunal?" interrupted Judge +Forget-Not shrilly, with obvious play at the mob. + +"Hell's bells!" replied the indignant Thunderer. "I established this +Tribunal. Did not I as Minister of Justice set it in being, and shall +I not speak when crimes are done in its name!" + +... In the death chamber Henriette and Maurice were trying to kiss +each other good-by. The guards had separated them. Vaudrey was going +in one death cart, Henriette in another.... + +He had silenced the querulous Forget-Not, was waking the echoes with +the same thunders that had nerved France to resist the foe. "I ask for +their lives not only, but for MERCY and JUSTICE to wipe out the +tyranny and cruelty that are befouling all of us. I ask for a +regenerated nation, purged of these vile offences." + +Robespierre was sinisterly serious now. + +The group of judges sat amazed. + +"Give Danton a hearing!" was the murmur among the sansculottes, half +awed by his old witchery. + +The impassioned orator swung upon them, his old supporters. + +"My heart--my brain--my soul--my very life! Do they mean anything to +you--to France?" + +"YES! YES!" shouted the answering mob, caught by the personal appeal. + +Alarmed at the swiftly changing tide, the Chief Judge sought the +Dictator's eye. The orator's eyes were far away, his frame was +convulsed by emotion as he cried: "My very life--everything--I owe to +one of these victims!" The mob identified its cause with Danton's, +submerged their personalities with his own! + +[Illustration: DANTON AND MEN RIDE TO THE RESCUE PAST THE CORRUPT AND +DEGENERATE ORGY OF THE "FEAST OF REASON."] + +Robespierre answered Forget-Not's look. He indicated the speaker by a +slight motion of the head, then drew his right hand across the throat, +played with the lace ruffles--and smiled! Forget-Not understood. Not +then--but later, only a little later--would come the time to snuff out +this disturber! + +Danton turned from the mob, swinging the peroration to the judges in +the one impassioned cry of "JUSTICE!" Lion-like he glanced from those +mean, denying souls to the rabble, and held out his hands. + +Like an avalanche, the "Mountain" swept down from benches to hall and +on, on toward the judges. Murder was in their eyes. A word from the +Thunderer would have sealed Forget-Not's fate. + +"His wish! Give Danton his wish!" they roared. + +Like a monkey the man Forget-Not leaped and cowered behind his bar, +imploring Robespierre for a sign. The Dictator nodded to yield. But +again was there not the very slightest motion of hand past neck, the +eyes side-glancing at the Thunderer? + +Danton stilled the tempest as Chief Judge Forget-Not wrote the +reprieve and the other affrighted Judges confirmed it. + +... Outside, the tumbrils were already on their way to the +guillotine. Henrietta and de Vaudrey were approaching the gates of +death.... + + + + +CHAPTER XXVI + +REPRIEVE OR AGONY + + +The man Forget-not, directly the paper was signed, rushed past the +speaker and out of the hall into the lobbies. He was followed +presently by the Court's messenger. There was here some trickery or +other that Danton sensed. + +He could not stop the Chief Judge leaving, but he pounced on the +messenger and yanked the reprieve out of his hand. "I will deliver +it!" said Danton. The people applauded the act. Everyone knew that he +dared greatly. + +Quick as he had been, Jacques-Forget-Not had already given his +orders. + +"Stop Danton if you can!" had been Jacques' word to the outer guard. +To his inspectors of defences, he had said: "The barriers to the +guillotine--close them!" He ran forth to see that the orders were +obeyed. None of Robespierre's party wanted to see Danton achieve his +errand of mercy--least of all, the vengeful Jacques-Forget-Not!.... + +The pock-marked Thunderer wasn't stopped beyond the door. His giant +strength threw off the minions who would have blocked him. He hastened +to the yard where his beloved troopers were quartered. + + * * * * * + +Henriette and Maurice's route lay past an obscene and sacrilegious +rite. + +Mocking at religion, the more fanatical had thrown off every vestige +of decency and indulged in Bacchanalian worship of a so-called +"Goddess of Reason." This was a lewd female from the Paris half-world, +flower-chapleted, flimsily draped, prancing in drunken frenzy atop a +table surrounded by her "worshippers." + +The Feast of Reason included hundreds of revelers grouped around the +open-air tables for the "supper of Liberty, Equality and Fraternity," +and between long lines of these they were obliged to pass. + +"Drink a toast to the Goddess!" cried the revelers, offering the +winecup to the victims. + +"Curses on them!" said others. "Death is too good for vile aristocrats." + +"Tra-la-la-la!" sang drunken wenches, "La Guillotine will soon hold ye +in her sharp embrace--" + +The blasphemy of burlesquing a far greater Scene of Sorrows occurred +to drunken Carmagnole dancers. The notion was applauded, carried into +effect at once. + +A tall sansculotte reached over betwixt the guards and placed a Crown +of Thorns on the girl's brow. Another dashed a cupful of vinegar in +the girl's face. + +"Can't you see she's helpless?" said a centurion, pointing to her +pinioned arms. He yanked off the chaplet and threw it back in the +crowd. They roared with merriment at the farce.... + +But, in the stable yard of the Northern cavalry, Danton from a +horseblock was addressing the fiery spirits who knew and loved him. + +"Will you dare with Danton?" he cried. "Will you risk Death to open a +Nation's eyes?" + +The head Cavalryman embraced the Thunderer and kissed him on both +cheeks. + +"We are with you to the last man--to the last ounce of our strength to +save this girl and boy!" he said while the others cheered. + +Danton had got a gallant white mount, the Captain was on a noble black +Arabian charger; the others had leaped astride their ever ready army +steeds--the ride with the reprieve was in full course! + + + + +CHAPTER XXVII + +THE FAREWELL + + +Louise, guided by her faithful attendant Pierre, had left the +courtroom directly after the condemnation. Leaning heavily upon him, +the blind girl had staggered out, or pressed by the awful knowledge +that her sister Henriette was doomed to die. "Oh, take me to her!" she +had cried. + +There was only one thing to do: to follow the route of the death +tumbrils, in the slight hope of overtaking her. The crippled Pierre +could not walk fast, and the steps of Louise had to be most carefully +directed. Now and again Pierre could see the death carts a long way +ahead, he tried to hasten their steps, but presently the transports of +death were out of sight again. + +A traffic tie-up and street delay that halted the tumbrils just beyond +the scene of the bacchanalian Feast of Reason, gave them their +opportunity. Here the revelers had burlesqued Henriette as the "Woman +of Sorrows," and here the guardsman had thrown off the chaplet and +rebuked the crowd. + +During the halt Pierre and his companion came up with what speed they +could; he led Louise to the back of the death cart, and placed her +hands on the bound and standing figure of poor little Henriette. + +"It is your sister!" said Pierre softly. + +Gently the blind girl's fingers traveled up to the wet face of her +little foster-mother, now bending towards her. With a handkerchief +Louise tenderly wiped it, her fingers gave loving little pats of the +heaving neck and bosom, she kissed the stained cheeks, and then the +girls' lips met--met long and passionately! No words were spoken, none +was needed for a reunion that was also a farewell. + +The cart moved. The loving lips were parted. Now one might see +Louise's imploring arms still held out toward the sad receding little +figure. + + * * * * * + +It was indeed a busy day for the executioners. Batches of men and +women preceded Henriette and Maurice. Two of these were beautiful +young girls who, in default of priest, were saying the last offices of +the Church as they knelt on the bare ground. In tragic glory Faith's +clear credo rang out: "_I am the Resurrection and the Life; he that +believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live!_" + +Their lovely heads dropped in the basket as the knitting women clicked +their needles and cried "Two!" Henriette, with a physical retch at the +sight, fell back half-fainting on Maurice. Roughly the soldiers yanked +them asunder. + +"Citizeness, your time is come!" said one of the brawny butchers. He +half led, half supported her up the steps of the guillotine.... + +The Chief executioner turned Henriette about, inspecting her fine +points as an equine connoisseur would inspect a filly. He gloated over +her not yet budded form, the swan-like neck, unlined piquant features, +the golden head-curls that fell in ringlets. + +"A pretty one--eh, Jean?" he commented to his assistant. + +Between the two, they had strapped her unresisting on the board. They +lowered it below the razor edge of the knife, so that she lay prone +with her neck directly underneath. The finale was to fasten on the +neck piece, a round-holed cross board which prevented the head from +drawing back.... + +Alas! what avails it that five miles away--in the heart of the +city--the hoofbeats of a company of cavalry resound rhythmically over +the flagstones? + +Danton and his Northern riders are straining every nerve, galloping +their steeds furiously--eyes fixed on the seeming-impossible goal. +Rather are they modern centaurs, each rider and steed a unit of +undivisible will and energy: Danton a furious resistless hippogriff, +fire-striking, fire-exhaling, in unity with his white charger; the +lean-jawed, sternly set Captain on his lean galloping Arabian, +cyclonic, onrushing like some Spectral Horseman; the rest riding like +the Valkyries--as it were, twixt Heaven and earth--their galloping +beats scorning the ground as they rush by to the hissing of the +cleaved and angry winds. + +But what avails it?... + +Even on the straightway 'twere a quarter-hour ride to the outer-suburban +locality where the guillotine does its dreadful work. Ancient Paris with +its tortuous streets delays them. Ahead, are Jacques-Forget-Not--Jacobin +troops--barriers--gates. + +Poor little Henriette's golden head! + +Is it not fated to drop in the basket long, long before they can +appear? + + + + +CHAPTER XXVIII + +MANIAC WITH A DAGGER + + +A sansculotte soldier, less brutal than his fellows, had allowed +Louise and Pierre to approach one side of the scaffold. They were more +privileged than the frantic Picard, who could not get near his young +master and mistress. Revolutionary infantry guarded every side of the +public square. Intermingled among them were the favored hoodlums of +the Jacobin party, execrating the victims and howling with glee +whenever the dread axe fell. + +Among the riff-raff, Mere Frochard and her precious son Jacques +Frochard were conspicuous. For no particular reason they were gloating +over the cutting-off of aristocrats, whilst indulging in rough +horseplay at the expense of the friends of the condemned. Picard's +quaint look of helpless sympathy excited ready mirth. + +"Sniveling over those good-for-nothings, eh?" La Frochard curled her +heavy moustachioed lip in scorn. + +"We'll find a way to make that sensitive young man feel something--" +she confided to Jacques. A moment later she had pulled over a +sansculotte's bayonet, with which she executed a neat jab into +Picard's anatomy. + +Picard leaped in the air like a jumping jack. When he descended to +earth and turned to survey the cause of his torment, he faced but an +impassive trooper with weapon at parade rest and the grinning +countenances of Mere and Jacques Frochard, convulsed with laughter. + +Picard decided the vicinity of the guillotine was almost as dangerous +for him as for his master. He edged out of range, biding the occasion +for a counter-thrust.... + +Pierre and Louise stood on the other side of the scaffold, the heavy +structure of which quite hid the ruffian Frochards and their horseplay +with Picard. + +Henriette had been borne up the steps of the guillotine a few moments +before Pierre and Louise reached the scene. The cripple, terribly +excited, was telling Louise of Henriette's being strapped to the board +and shoved toward the knife vent. + +"That big murderer is going to kill her!" hissed Pierre. + +Louise's blind features became contorted with agony. Large tear drops +fell from her eyes. Both arms were extended toward her sister above, +then clawed convulsively at Pierre. + +"They-have-put-her-head-in-the crossboard-and--oh, oh!--fastened-it-down! + +"The-executioner-is-all-ready." Pierre was gesticulating like a +madman. He seemed to be raising despairing hands to high Heaven, in +token of helplessness. + +Above--around--everywhere, he looked for succor; found none. A glance +from Henriette's doomed form to Louise's bitter anguish converts him +into a maniac. + +"HE'S ASKING THE MASTER FOR THE SIGNAL TO PULL THE ROPE!" + +Pierre shouts the words in a fury that is rapidly growing uncontrollable. +Spectators for the first time notice his strange actions. But neither +the expectant executioner nor the self-important master of ceremonial +looks down, or distinguishes the cry in the babel of savage sounds. + +The wild youth now disengages himself from Louise's clutch. With his +right hand he pulls a dagger from his hip pocket. Look! As the +master's signalling hand is upraised high and begins to lower, the boy +leaps up the steps of the guillotine, and attacks the executioner +whose fingers are already on the death rope.... + +Ride on yet more fiercely, O Danton and ye fierce Cavalrymen--ride on, +e'en past the barrier, if Jacques-Forget-Not and his men do not stay +thee. Yes, thank God! there may yet be time, should this maniac with +the dagger provide sufficient respite! + +... The brawny butcher is too astonished to defend himself. His +nerveless fingers are no longer on the rope; he stands like a stalled +ox in front of his homicidal assailant. With the rapidity of lightning +Pierre plunges his long Provencal dirk in the executioner's side. The +butchered butcher falls with a single bawling outcry and a groan. The +crowd is thunderstruck, and the pinioned de Vaudrey is wild with joy. +Though bound and helpless, he tries to leap up to his prostrate +Henriette. + +But the master of ceremonial, at first too panic-stricken to +intervene, now summons the sansculotte guards from the ground below. +Up the steps on the double-quick they rush with fixed bayonets. As the +huge victim falls back into the arms of his assistant, the bayoneting +soldiers corner the dirk-waving Pierre. + +The brief contest is quite unequal. In less time than it takes to tell +it, one of the men plunges his bright, long steel in Pierre's side. +The latter falls like a lump of clay on the scaffold flooring. Several +of the bayonets speed toward the inert lump, with the intent on the +part of their owners to fling the body contemptuously from the +scaffold to the floor. + +But a more refined cruelty speaks: "Save him for the guillotine!" The +soldiers leave the crumpled-up, desperately wounded Pierre, dooming +him yet to taste La Guillotine's embrace. They subdue de Vaudrey and +truss him up anew. + +The roars of the crowd die down. Comparative order is again restored. +The master of ceremonial, having recovered the habit of command, +orders Jean, the remaining executioner, to complete the stricken one's +job. + +[Illustration: HENRIETTE SAVED FROM THE GUILLOTINE'S KNIFE.] + +Fortunately for our heroine under the knife, the second executioner is +slow and awkward. He has seen butchery come quite too close to his own +flesh! Still somewhat unnerved, he prepares himself for the task with +clumsy movements and halting fingers. The master bids him hurry--Jean +takes his time, he's not going to bungle the job.... + +As the supreme moment nears, it is well that we should note what is +happening with Danton and his Centaurs-- + + + + +CHAPTER XXIX + +DANTON'S RIDERS + + +About half way of the journey through the City, Jacques-Forget-Not and +his men take up a stand in front of the onrushing cavalry. + +They wave orders and prohibitions. + +They yell to the horsemen to draw rein. + +Resistlessly the troopers keep their careering course--the talk and +gestures are but as the East Wind to tensed Danton, stern-set Captain, +and the rest. + +Forget-Not's tribe escape the deadly horse hoofs by quick side jumps. + +Within the next few minutes--even while the head executioner is making +the little victim ready--Danton and his riders reach the barrier on +the Guillotine side of Paris. Orders had already been received to +close the gates at the cavalry's approach. + +"Quick! there is not a moment to lose," yells the Jacobin commander as +he sights the oncoming host. He hastens to deploy his soldiers with +spears and pikes across the barrier, whilst the keepers bring the +heavy gates to. + +The barred gates and the opposing fighters threaten to dash Danton's +every hope of saving by reprieve his "dear one of treasured memory." +Indeed, as we have seen, but for frenzied Pierre's maniacal slaughter +of the headsman, the fatal blow would now be falling! Neither Danton +nor his men, of course, know that. Theirs to struggle on, to confront +and conquer fortune, never to despair! Within those iron souls is no +such thought as "Defeat." + +Hurrah! + +One foremost rider has managed to squeeze through the mighty gates +before they clang. Danton and the rest of his men face a small army on +the closed barrier's City side. + +The superb horses would charge against a stone wall if bade to! They +charge against the living wall of foot soldiers; kicking, pounding, +trampling in the narrow space, while the riders strike. + +Some footmen perish under the hoofs. Others save themselves by +leaping, scrambling out over the side parapets. The attack becomes a +rout. Hip-hip-hurrah! The lone rider on the guillotine side has +succeeded in unloosing the bar. The gates fly open. Danton's cavalry +dash madly down the straight and unobstructed road that leads to the +Place de la Execution, still a few furlongs distant! + +Can they even yet save her? For now it would appear as if the +supremely tragical moment might anticipate them--by seconds! + +During the final furlongs--the executioner now in readiness--Henriette +looks up with gaping mouth at the awful knife edge. A terrible cry +escapes her. Wracked with agony, she gazes about at the sea of hostile +faces--not one stray iota of sympathy in that Dark Hour. Missing is de +Vaudrey, missing the loved blind sister! As the down-dropping gesture +of Death is again begun by the grim master of ceremonial, Henriette +with a low cry of "Louise!" shuts eyes and drops head to receive the +stroke! + +But the clatter of myriad hoofbeats assails the Master's ears; the +hoarse cries of Danton's riders, and the astonished roars of the +populace. His hand falters. He turns to look at the tumult. The +executioner takes his hand off the rope. + +The cavalrymen are dashing down the roadway, from which quick +clearance has been made by the sansculotte guards and the loaferish +spectators. At their head gallops Danton, the Thunderer of old, +thundering at the officials, waving in his free hand a State paper! + +In front of the death machine he halts and dismounts--then taking the +steps in two bounds, puts the reprieve of Henriette and Maurice in the +hands of the master of ceremonial! + +The Savior of France--the Organizer of Victory--brings such a show of +power at his back and compels such respect that none dare question +him. He strides to the guillotine, bades the trembling executioner +release Henriette--himself personally unstraps her from the death +board. So ensues a scene that would wring even a heart of stone: the +delivery of a demented girl from Death's very passion and utmost +pang! + +Danton takes the little form in his arms, looks in her eyes, kisses +her and tries to make her understand. + +"For the honor of France," he cries to the assembled multitude, as he +still upholds her swaying figure, "a monstrous injustice is righted. +This girl, and that young patriot," signifying to the attendants that +de Vaudrey should be unloosed, "are reprieved by the order of the +Revolutionary Tribunal!" The multitude--caught by Danton's tensely +dramatic announcement--applauds, even as it had jeered and mocked a +few moments since. + +But the girl, kept from falling by his protective left arm, still +gazes upon him idiotically. She had died, was it not true ? How then, +she lives? What are these crowds, and who is this stranger? The +gallant rescuer fears that her reason is gone! + +"Release that boy!" + +He has seen the wounded Pierre trussed in the far corner of the +scaffold, guessed that some wild deed of the lad's stayed the judicial +murder. His tones to the officials are sharp, imperative. The outraged +superior of the hacked executioner looks around the assemblage for +some prop of resistance--finds none--trembles--and is all bows and +scrapes to do Danton's will. Pierre crawls painfully across the +platform. He kisses the hem of his Savior's garment. + +Danton has brought Henriette to the ground. He is looking for her +friends now. Catching sight of blind Louise starting up the steps, he +brings her around and puts the loved sisters in front of one +another.... Slowly the light of understanding comes into the eyes of +her who had most loved and most suffered. She embraces Louise.... +Danton is looking for yet another figure, the affianced of Henriette. +He draws over de Vaudrey, places the latter's right hand within the +free hand of Henriette. + +"Take her," he says kindly to de Vaudrey. "It is enough for me that I +have saved France from this foul blot!..." + +... Down in the crowd, too, the fortunes of war have changed. The +wicked Frochards, who have been egging on the crowds to jeer the +victims, have become distinctly unpopular. It is Picard's turn to jest +the Frochards now. + +A grenadier offers a little friendly assistance with the bayonet, +pricking the old hag in a tender part as if by accident. She jumps and +squeals. Sly Picard watches another chance, shoves forward his +friend's bayonet to prick her again. + +... Both she and her precious Jacques the Good-for-Nothing take it on +the run, enduring the buffets of the railing soldiery. Yes, +Picard--our genial rogue of a body servant--gets in the last bayonet +pricks and body wallops of this story! + + + + +CHAPTER XXX + +THE AFTERMATH + + +Danton later suffered the dark hour and the snapping of Life's thread +through Robespierre's cruelty, but the glory of that valiant soul is +eternal. + +His plea for the ways of Mercy--his gallant deeds (like this +particular one) of risking all for the life of a friend--were as +signposts to bewildered humanity. He foresaw the precipice down which +the Terrorists were headed for the pit: + +"This time twelvemonth I was moving the creation of that same +Revolutionary Tribunal. I crave pardon for it of God and man. They are +all Brothers Cain--I leave the whole business in a frightful welter. +Robespierre will follow me; I drag down Robespierre!" + +Of a verity, the following Thermidor or hot July saw the fate come +true. Universally execrated, the Tyrant was himself dragged down and +guillotined. Fell with him the rest of the murdering crew. Black +hatred--foul suspicion--wicked vengeance vanished like departing +plagues. + +There dawned happier days wherein justice bore sway, and little +gardens of flowers and love and happiness again sprang up and +flourished. Among these blooming gardens let us seek the refuge of +Count and Countess de Linieres after the Storm has abated and the +kinsfolk it has sundered are united. The sisters of our story are +their especial care, daughter and foster-daughter of the exquisite +chatelaine. + +Young Maurice de Vaudrey is their pride. The old gentleman has +reconciled himself to the passing of the Ancient Regime, and through +his nephew's good office has made his peace with the State. + +On a bright and beautiful day as Henriette is flitting about the +garden, the Doctor--none other than our old friend of La Force--comes +with a precious gift. + +"The removal of the cataract has been successful," he says, presenting +Louise. "Is it not a joy that she can see?" + +The girls intertwine arms and laugh happily. The parents approach. +Henriette and Louise embrace the Count, now their foster parent and +protector. Back of the Count limps the devoted Pierre, now fully +restored from his old hurt of the bayonet thrust. Pierre is to be the +Countess's especial care. + +That lovely lady has received her daughter Louise within her arms, a +daughter who for the first time can look upon the mother of whose +loving care she was deprived for a score of years. In a few moments +Henriette summons her sister to her side as a young man, whom we +should all recognize, joins the little company. + +"Allow me to present to your new eyes Monsieur Maurice de Vaudrey--" +then with a shy smile and a glance back and forth, Henriette adds: + +"_Do you approve of him?_" + +Recurs the memory of that almost forgotten incident in the Normandy +home--Henriette's promise to stay single till the blind sister should +win sight and approve the suitor. Louise is so happy that she decides +to tease. She is about to shake her small head and her lips to frame +"NO!" But in another moment she uses her new gift to inspect the +marvelous young man of whose perfections she had so often heard. + +She looks at Maurice from top to toe; the shapely head covered with +luxuriant locks, the fine brown eyes, the Apollo features comely yet +sensitive, the elegant form, small hands and feet, the graceful and +chivalrous carriage--the MAN who is looking at her with a kindly +affectionate smile. Really, Henriette hadn't told her half enough! She +clasps her sister with one hand, Maurice with the other, cries: +"YES!" + +We may leave our hero and heroine there--as Louise and the oldsters +presently left them--to taste the exquisite happiness of mutual love. +For Love is stronger than Death, and must prevail. And the kisses of +Maurice and Henriette blotted out all the wrack and nightmare of the +"Orphans of the Storm!" + + +THE END + + + + +EDGAR RICE BURROUGH'S NOVELS + +May be had wherever books are sold. Ask for Grosset & Dunlap's list. + +TARZAN THE UNTAMED + +Tells of Tarzan's return to the life of the ape-man in his search for +vengeance on those who took from him his wife and home. + +JUNGLE TALES OF TARZAN + +Records the many wonderful exploits by which Tarzan proves his right +to ape kingship. + +A PRINCESS OF MARS + +Forty-three million miles from the earth--a succession of the +weirdest and most astounding adventures in fiction. John Carter, +American, finds himself on the planet Mars, battling for a beautiful +woman, with the Green Men of Mars, terrible creatures fifteen feet +high, mounted on horses like dragons. + +THE GODS OF MARS + +Continuing John Carter's adventures on the Planet Mars, in which he +does battle against the ferocious "plant men," creatures whose +mighty tails swished their victims to instant death, and defies +Issus, the terrible Goddess of Death, whom all Mars worships and +reveres. + +THE WARLORD OF MARS + +Old acquaintances, made in the two other stories, reappear, Tars +Tarkas, Tardos Mors and others. There is a happy ending to the story +in the union of the Warlord, the title conferred upon John Carter, +with Dejah Thoris. + +THUVIA, MAID OF MARS + +The fourth volume of the series. The story centers around the +adventures of Carthoris, the son of John Carter and Thuvia, daughter +of a Martian Emperor. + +GROSSET & DUNLAP, Publishers, NEW YORK + + + + +FLORENCE L. BARCLAY'S NOVELS + +May be had wherever books are sold. Ask for Grosset & Dunlap's list. + +THE WHITE LADIES OF WORCESTER + +A novel of the 12th Century. The heroine, believing she had lost her +lover, enters a convent. He returns, and interesting developments +follow. + +THE UPAS TREE + +A love story of rare charm. It deals with a successful author and his +wife. + +THROUGH THE POSTERN GATE + +The story of a seven day courtship, in which the discrepancy in ages +vanished into insignificance before the convincing demonstration of +abiding love. + +THE ROSARY + +The story of a young artist who is reputed to love beauty above all +else in the world, but who, when blinded through an accident, gains +life's greatest happiness. A rare story of the great passion of two +real people superbly capable of love, its sacrifices and its +exceeding reward. + +THE MISTRESS OF SHENSTONE + +The lovely young Lady Ingleby, recently widowed by the death of a +husband who never understood her, meets a fine, clean young chap who +is ignorant of her title and they fall deeply in love with each +other. When he learns her real identity a situation of singular power +is developed. + +THE BROKEN HALO + +The story of a young man whose religious belief was shattered in +childhood and restored to him by the little white lady, many years +older than himself, to whom he is passionately devoted. + +THE FOLLOWING OF THE STAR + +The story of a young missionary, who, about to start for Africa, +marries wealthy Diana Rivers, in order to help her fulfill the +conditions of her uncle's will, and how they finally come to love +each other and are reunited after experiences that soften and purify. + +Grosset & Dunlap, Publishers, New York + + + + +ETHEL M. DELL'S NOVELS + +May be had wherever books are sold. Ask for Grosset & Dunlap's list. + +THE LAMP IN THE DESERT + +The scene of this splendid story is laid in India and tells of the +lamp of love that continues to shine through all sorts of +tribulations to final happiness. + +GREATHEART + +The story of a cripple whose deformed body conceals a noble soul. + +THE HUNDREDTH CHANCE + +A hero who worked to win even when there was only "a hundredth +chance." + +THE SWINDLER + +The story of a "bad man's" soul revealed by a woman's faith. + +THE TIDAL WAVE + +Tales of love and of women who learned to know the true from the +false. + +THE SAFETY CURTAIN + +A very vivid love story of India. The volume also contains four other +long stories of equal interest. + +Grosset & Dunlap, Publishers, New York + + + + +ELEANOR H. PORTER'S NOVELS + +May be had wherever books are sold. Ask for Grosset & Dunlap's list. + +JUST DAVID + +The tale of a loveable boy and the place he comes to fill in the +hearts of the gruff farmer folk to whose care he is left. + +THE ROAD TO UNDERSTANDING + +A compelling romance of love and marriage. + +OH, MONEY! MONEY! + +Stanley Fulton, a wealthy bachelor, to test the dispositions of his +relatives, sends them each a check for $100,000, and then as plain +John Smith comes among them to watch the result of his experiment. + +SIX STAR RANCH + +A wholesome story of a club of six girls and their summer on Six Star +Ranch. + +DAWN + +The story of a blind boy whose courage leads him through the gulf of +despair into a final victory gained by dedicating his life to the +service of blind soldiers. + +ACROSS THE YEARS + +Short stories of our own kind and of our own people. Contains some of +the best writing Mrs. Porter has done. + +THE TANGLED THREADS + +In these stories we find the concentrated charm and tenderness of all +her other books. + +THE TIE THAT BINDS + +Intensely human stories told with Mrs. Porter's wonderful talent for +warm and vivid character drawing. + +Grosset & Dunlap, Publishers, New York + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Orphans of the Storm, by Henry MacMahon + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ORPHANS OF THE STORM *** + +***** This file should be named 30300.txt or 30300.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/3/0/3/0/30300/ + +Produced by Roger Frank and the Online Distributed +Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net + + +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 copyright royalties. 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