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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Wandering Jew, Book III., by Eugene Sue
+
+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: The Wandering Jew, Book III.
+
+Author: Eugene Sue
+
+Release Date: October 25, 2004 [EBook #3341]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE WANDERING JEW, BOOK III. ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by David Widger and Pat Castevens
+
+
+
+
+
+THE WANDERING JEW
+
+By Eugene Sue
+
+
+
+BOOK III.
+
+
+XXXVI.    A Female Jesuit
+XXXVII.   The Plot
+XXXVIII.  Adrienne's  Enemies
+XXXIX.    The Skirmish
+XL.       The Revolt
+XLI.      Treachery
+XLII.     The Snare
+XLIII.    A False Friend
+XLIV.     The Minister's Cabinet
+XLV.      The Visit
+XLVI.     Presentiments
+XLVII.    The Letter
+XLVIII.   The Confessional
+XLIX.     My Lord and Spoil-sport
+L.        Appearances
+LI.       The Convent
+LII.      The Influence of a Confessor
+LIII.     The Examination
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXVI.
+
+A FEMALE JESUIT.
+
+During the preceding scenes which occurred in the Pompadour rotunda,
+occupied by Miss de Cardoville, other events took place in the residence
+of the Princess Saint-Dizier. The elegance and sumptuousness of the
+former dwelling presented a strong contrast to the gloomy interior of the
+latter, the first floor of which was inhabited by the princess, for the
+plan of the ground floor rendered it only fit for giving parties; and,
+for a long time past, Madame de Saint-Dizier had renounced all worldly
+splendors. The gravity of her domestics, all aged and dressed in black;
+the profound silence which reigned in her abode, where everything was
+spoken, if it could be called speaking, in an undertone; and the almost
+monastic regularity and order of this immense mansion, communicated to
+everything around the princess a sad and chilling character. A man of the
+world, who joined great courage to rare independence of spirit, speaking
+of the princess (to whom Adrienne de Cardoville went, according to her
+expression, to fight a pitched battle), said of her as follows: "In order
+to avoid having Madame de Saint-Dizier for an enemy, I, who am neither
+bashful nor cowardly, have, for the first time in my life, been both a
+noodle and a coward." This man spoke sincerely. But Madame de
+Saint-Dizier had not all at once arrived at this high degree of
+importance.
+
+Some words are necessary for the purpose of exhibiting distinctly some
+phases in the life of this dangerous and implacable woman who, by her
+affiliation with the Order of Jesuits, had acquired an occult and
+formidable power. For there is something even more menacing than a
+Jesuit: it is a Jesuits; and, when one has seen certain circles, it
+becomes evident that there exist, unhappily, many of those affiliated,
+who, more or less, uniformly dress (for the lay members of the Order call
+themselves "Jesuits of the short robe").
+
+Madame de Saint-Dizier, once very beautiful, had been, during the last
+years of the Empire, and the early years of the Restoration, one of the
+most fashionable women of Paris, of a stirring, active, adventurous, and
+commanding spirit, of cold heart, but lively imagination. She was greatly
+given to amorous adventures, not from tenderness of heart, but from a
+passion for intrigue, which she loved as men love play--for the sake of
+the emotions it excites. Unhappily, such had always been the blindness or
+the carelessness of her husband, the Prince of Saint-Dizier (eldest
+brother of the Count of Rennepont and Duke of Cardoville, father of
+Adrienne), that during his life he had never said one word that could
+make it be thought that he suspected the actions of his wife. Attaching
+herself to Napoleon, to dig a mine under the feet of the Colossus, that
+design at least afforded emotions sufficient to gratify the humor of the
+most insatiable. During some time, all went well. The princess was
+beautiful and spirited, dexterous and false, perfidious and seductive.
+She was surrounded by fanatical adorers, upon whom she played off a kind
+of ferocious coquetry, to induce them to run their heads into grave
+conspiracies. They hoped to resuscitate the Fonder party, and carried on
+a very active secret correspondence with some influential personages
+abroad, well known for their hatred against the emperor and France. Hence
+arose her first epistolary relations with the Marquis d'Aigrigny, then
+colonel in the Russian service and aide-de-camp to General Moreau. But
+one day all these petty intrigues were discovered. Many knights of Madame
+de Saint-Dizier were sent to Vincennes; but the emperor, who might have
+punished her terribly, contented himself with exiling the princess to one
+of her estates near Dunkirk.
+
+Upon the Restoration, the persecutions which Madame de Saint-Dizier had
+suffered for the Good Cause were entered to her credit, and she acquired
+even then very considerable influence, in spite of the lightness of her
+behavior. The Marquis d'Aigrigny, having entered the military service of
+France, remained there. He was handsome, and of fashionable manners and
+address. He had corresponded and conspired with the princess, without
+knowing her; and these circumstances necessarily led to a close
+connection between them.
+
+Excessive self-love, a taste for exciting pleasures, aspirations of
+hatred, pride, and lordliness, a species of evil sympathy, the perfidious
+attraction of which brings together perverse natures without mingling
+them, had made of the princess and the Marquis accomplices rather than
+lovers. This connection, based upon selfish and bitter feelings, and upon
+the support which two characters of this dangerous temper could lend to
+each other against a world in which their spirit of intrigue, of
+gallantry, and of contempt had made them many enemies, this connection
+endured till the moment when, after his duel with General Simon, the
+Marquis entered a religious house, without any one understanding the
+cause of his unexpected and sudden resolution.
+
+The princess, having not yet heard the hour of her conversion strike,
+continued to whirl round the vortex of the world with a greedy, jealous,
+and hateful ardor, for she saw that the last years of her beauty were
+dying out.
+
+An estimate of the character of this woman may be formed from the
+following fact:
+
+Still very agreeable, she wished to close her worldly and volatile career
+with some brilliant and final triumph, as a great actress knows the
+proper time to withdraw from the stage so as to leave regrets behind.
+Desirous of offering up this final incense to her own vanity, the
+princess skillfully selected her victims. She spied out in the world a
+young couple who idolized each other; and, by dint of cunning and
+address, she succeeded in taking away the lover from his mistress, a
+charming woman of eighteen, by whom he was adored. This triumph being
+achieved, Madame Saint-Dizier retired from the fashionable world in the
+full blaze of her exploit. After many long conversations with the Abbe
+Marquis d'Aigrigny, who had become a renowned preacher, she departed
+suddenly from Paris, and spent two years upon her estate near Dunkirk, to
+which she took only one of her female attendants, viz., Mrs. Grivois.
+
+When the princess afterwards returned to Paris, it was impossible to
+recognize the frivolous, intriguing, and dissipated woman she had
+formerly been. The metamorphosis was as complete as it was extraordinary
+and even startling. Saint-Dizier House, heretofore open to the banquets
+and festivals of every kind of pleasure, became gloomily silent and
+austere. Instead of the world of elegance and fashion, the princess now
+received in her mansion only women of ostentatious piety, and men of
+consequence, who were remarkably exemplary by the extravagant rigor of
+their religious and monarchial principles. Above all, she drew around her
+several noted members of the higher orders of the clergy. She was
+appointed patroness of a body of religious females. She had her own
+confessor, chaplin, almoner, and even spiritual director; but this last
+performed his functions in partibus. The Marquis-Abbe d'Aigrigny
+continued in reality to be her spiritual guide; and it is almost
+unnecessary to say that for a long time past their mutual relations as to
+flirting had entirely ceased.
+
+This sudden and complete conversion of a gay and distinguished woman,
+especially as it was loudly trumpeted forth, struck the greater number of
+persons with wonder and respect. Others, more discerning, only smiled.
+
+A single anecdote, from amongst a thousand, will suffice to show the
+alarming influence and power which the princess had acquired since her
+affiliation with the Jesuits. This anecdote will also exhibit the deep,
+vindictive, and pitiless character of this woman, whom Adrienne de
+Cardoville had so imprudently made herself ready to brave.
+
+Amongst the persons who smiled more or less at the conversion of Madame
+de Saint-Dizier were the young and charming couple whom she had so
+cruelly disunited before she quitted forever the scenes of revelry in
+which she had lived. The young couple became more impassioned and devoted
+to each other than ever; they were reconciled and married, after the
+passing storm which had hurled them asunder; and they indulged in no
+other vengeance against the author of their temporary infelicity than
+that of mildly jesting at the pious conversion of the woman who had done
+them so much injury.
+
+Some time after, a terrible fatality overtook the loving pair. The
+husband, until then blindly unsuspicious, was suddenly inflamed by
+anonymous communications. A dreadful rupture ensued, and the young wife
+perished.
+
+As for the husband, certain vague rumors, far from distinct, yet pregnant
+with secret meanings, perfidiously contrived, and a thousand times more
+detestable than formal accusations, which can, at least, be met and
+destroyed, were strewn about him with so much perseverance, with a skill
+so diabolical, and by means and ways so very various, that his best
+friends, by little and little, withdrew themselves from him, thus
+yielding to the slow, irresistible influence of that incessant whispering
+and buzzing, confused as indistinct, amounting to some such results as
+this-"Well! you know!" says one.
+
+"No!" replies another.
+
+"People say very vile things about him."
+
+"Do they? really! What then?"
+
+"I don't know! Bad reports! Rumors grievously affecting his honor!"
+
+"The deuce! That's very serious. It accounts for the coldness with which
+he is now everywhere received!"
+
+"I shall avoid him in future!"
+
+"So will I," etc.
+
+Such is the world, that very often nothing more than groundless surmises
+are necessary to brand a man whose very, happiness may have incurred
+envy. So it was with the gentleman of whom we speak. The unfortunate man,
+seeing the void around him extending itself,--feeling (so to speak) the
+earth crumbling from beneath his feet, knew not where to find or grasp
+the impalpable enemy whose blows he felt; for not once had the idea
+occurred to him of suspecting the princess, whom he had not seen since
+his adventure with her. Anxiously desiring to learn why he was so much
+shunned and despised, he at length sought an explanation from an old
+friend; but he received only a disdainfully evasive answer; at which,
+being exasperated, he demanded satisfaction. His adversary replied--"If
+you can find two persons of our acquaintance, I will fight you!" The
+unhappy man could not find one!
+
+Finally, forsaken by all, without having ever obtained an explanation of
+the reason for forsaking him--suffering keenly for the fate of the wife
+whom he had lost, he became mad with grief, rage, and despair, and killed
+himself.
+
+On the day of his death, Madame de Saint-Dizier remarked that it was fit
+and necessary that one who had lived so shamefully should come to an
+equally shameful end, and that he who had so long jested at all laws,
+human and divine, could not seemly otherwise terminate his wretched life
+than by perpetrating a last crime--suicide! And the friends of Madame de
+Saint-Dizier hawked about and everywhere repeated these terrible words
+with a contrite air, as if beatified and convinced! But this was not all.
+Along with chastisements there were rewards.
+
+Observant people remarked that the favorites of the religious clan of
+Madame de Saint-Dizier rose to high distinction with singular rapidity.
+The virtuous young men, such as were religiously attentive to tiresome
+sermons, were married to rich orphans of the Sacred Heart Convents, who
+were held in reserve for the purpose; poor young girls, who, learning too
+late what it is to have a pious husband selected and imposed upon them by
+a set of devotees, often expiated by very bitter tears the deceitful
+favor of thus being admitted into a world of hypocrisy and falsehood, in
+which they found themselves strangers without support, crushed by it if
+they dared to complain of the marriages to which they had been condemned.
+
+In the parlor of Madame de Saint-Dizier were appointed prefects,
+colonels, treasurers, deputies, academicians, bishops and peers of the
+realm, from whom nothing more was required in return for the all-powerful
+support bestowed upon them, but to wear a pious gloss, sometimes publicly
+take the communion, swear furious war against everything impious or
+revolutionary,--and above all, correspond confidentially upon "different
+subjects of his choosing" with the Abbe d'Aigrigny,--an amusement,
+moreover, which was very agreeable; for the abbe was the most amiable man
+in the world, the most witty, and above all, the most obliging. The
+following is an historical fact, which requires the bitter and vengeful
+irony of Moliere or Pascal to do it justice.
+
+During the last year of the Restoration, there was one of the mighty
+dignitaries of the court a firm and independent man, who did not make
+profession (as the holy fathers call it), that is, who did not
+communicate at the altar. The splendor amid which he moved was calculated
+to give the weight of a very injurious example to his indifference. The
+Abbe-Marquis d'Aigrigny was therefore despatched to him; and he knowing
+the honorable and elevated character of the non communicant, thought that
+if he could only bring him to profess by any means (whatever the means
+might be) the effect would be what was desired. Like a man of intellect,
+the abbe prized the dogma but cheaply himself. He only spoke of the
+suitableness of the step, and of the highly salutary example which the
+resolution to adopt it would afford to the public.
+
+"M. Abbe," replied the person sought to be influenced, "I have a greater
+respect for religion than you have. I should consider it an infamous
+mockery to go to the communion table without feeling the proper
+conviction."
+
+"Nonsense! you inflexible man! you frowning Alcestes," said the Marquis
+Abbe, smiling slyly. "Your profits and your scruples will go together,
+believe me, by listening to me. In short, we shall manage to make it a
+BLANK COMMUNION for you; for after all, what is it that we ask?--only the
+APPEARANCE!"
+
+Now, a BLANK COMMUNION means breaking an unconsecrated wafer!
+
+The Abbe-Marquis retired with his offers, which were rejected with
+indignation;--but then, the refractory man was dismissed from his place
+at court. This was but a single isolated fact. Woe to all who found
+themselves opposed to the interest and principles of Madame de Saint
+Dizier or her friends! Sooner or later, directly or indirectly, they felt
+themselves cruelly stabbed, generally immediately--some in their dearest
+connections, others in their credit, some in their honor; others in their
+official functions; and all by secret action, noiseless, continuous, and
+latent, in time becoming a terrible and mysterious dissolvent, which
+invisibly undermined reputations, fortunes, positions the most solidly
+established, until the moment when all sunk forever into the abyss, amid
+the surprise and terror of the beholders.
+
+It will now be conceived how under the Restoration the Princess de Saint
+Dizier had become singularly influential and formidable. At the time of
+the Revolution of July (1830) she had "rallied," and, strangely enough,
+by preserving some relation of family and of society with persons
+faithful to the worship of decayed monarchy, people still attributed to
+the princess much influence and power. Let us mention, at last, that the
+Prince of Saint-Dizier, having died many years since, his very large
+personal fortune had descended to his younger brother, the father of
+Adrienne de Cardoville; and he, having died eighteen months ago, that
+young lady found herself to be the last and only representative of that
+branch of the family of the Renneponts.
+
+The Princess of Saint-Dizier awaited her niece in a very large room,
+rendered dismal by its gloomy green damask. The chairs, etc., covered
+with similar stuff, were of carved ebony. Paintings of scriptural and
+other religious subjects, and an ivory crucifix thrown up from a
+background of black velvet, contributed to give the apartment a
+lugubrious and austere aspect.
+
+Madame de Saint-Dizier, seated before a large desk, has just finished
+putting the seals on numerous letters; for she had a very extensive and
+very diversified correspondence. Though then aged about forty-five she
+was still fair. Advancing years had somewhat thickened her shape, which
+formerly of distinguished elegance, was still sufficiently handsome to be
+seen to advantage under the straight folds of her black dress. Her
+headdress, very simple, decorated with gray ribbons, allowed her fair
+sleek hair to be seen arranged in broad bands. At first look, people were
+struck with her dignified though unassuming appearance; and would have
+vainly tried to discover in her physiognomy, now marked with repentant
+calmness, any trace of the agitations of her past life. So naturally
+grave and reserved was she, that people could not believe her the heroine
+of so many intrigues and adventures and gallantry. Moreover, if by chance
+she ever heard any lightness of conversation, her countenance, since she
+had come to believe herself a kind of "mother in the Church," immediately
+expressed candid but grieved astonishment, which soon changed into an air
+of offended chastity and disdainful pity.
+
+For the rest, her smile, when requisite, was still full of grace, and
+even of the seducing and resistless sweetness of seeming good-nature. Her
+large blue eyes, on fit occasions, became affectionate and caressing. But
+if any one dared to wound or ruffle her pride, gainsay her orders or harm
+her interests, her countenance, usually placid and serene, betrayed a
+cold but implacable malignity. Mrs. Grivois entered the cabinet, holding
+in her hand Florine's report of the manner in which Adrienne de
+Cardoville had spent the morning.
+
+Mrs. Grivois had been about twenty years in the service of Madame de
+Saint-Dizier. She knew everything that a lady's-maid could or ought to
+have known of her mistress in the days of her sowing of wild (being a
+lady) flowers. Was it from choice that the princess had still retained
+about her person this so-well-informed witness of the numerous follies of
+her youth? The world was kept in ignorance of the motive; but one thing
+was evident, viz., that Mrs. Grivois enjoyed great privileges under the
+princess, and was treated by her rather as a companion than as a tiring
+woman.
+
+"Here are Florine's notes, madame," said Mrs. Grivois, giving the paper
+to the princess.
+
+"I will examine them presently," said the princess; "but tell me, is my
+niece coming? Pending the conference at which she is to be present, you
+will conduct into her house a person who will soon be here, to inquire
+for you by my desire."
+
+"Well, madame?"
+
+"This man will make an exact inventory of everything contained in
+Adrienne's residence. You will take care that nothing is omitted; for
+that is of very great importance."
+
+"Yes, madame. But should Georgette or Hebe make any opposition?"
+
+"There is no fear; the man charged with taking the inventory is of such a
+stamp, that when they know him, they will not dare to oppose either his
+making the inventory, or his other steps. It will be necessary not to
+fail, as you go along with him, to be careful to obtain certain
+peculiarities destined to confirm the reports which you have spread for
+some time past."
+
+"Do not have the slightest doubt, madame. The reports have all the
+consistency of truth."
+
+"Very soon, then, this Adrienne, so insolent and so haughty, will be
+crushed and compelled to pray for pardon; and from me!"
+
+An old footman opened both of the folding doors, and announced the
+Marquis-Abbe d'Aigrigny.
+
+"If Miss de Cardoville present herself," said the princess to Mrs.
+Grivois, "you will request her to wait an instant."
+
+"Yes, madame," said the duenna, going out with the servant.
+
+Madame de Saint-Dizier and D'Aigrigny remained alone.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXVII.
+
+THE PLOT.
+
+The Abbe-Marquis d'Aigrigny, as the reader has easily divined, was the
+person already seen in the Rue du Milieu-des-Ursins; whence he had
+departed from Rome, in which city he had remained about three months. The
+marquis was dressed in deep mourning, but with his usual elegance. His
+was not a priestly robe; his black coat, and his waistcoat, tightly
+gathered in at the waist, set off to great advantage the elegance of his
+figure: his black cassimere pantaloons disguised his feet, exactly fitted
+with lace boots, brilliantly polished. And all traces of his tonsure
+disappeared in the midst of the slight baldness which whitened slightly
+the back part of his head. There was nothing in his entire costume, or
+aspect, that revealed the priest, except, perhaps, the entire absence of
+beard, the more remarkable upon so manly a countenance. His chin, newly
+shaved, rested on a large and elevated black cravat, tied with a military
+ostentation which reminded the beholder, that this abbe-marquis this
+celebrated preacher--now one of the most active and influential chiefs of
+his order, had commanded a regiment of hussars upon the Restoration, and
+had fought in aid of the Russians against France.
+
+Returned to Paris only this morning, the marquis had not seen the
+princess since his mother, the Dowager Marchioness d'Aigrigny, had died
+near Dunkirk, upon an estate belonging to Madame de Saint-Dizier, while
+vainly calling for her son to alleviate her last moments; but the order
+to which M. d'Aigrigny had thought fit to sacrifice the most sacred
+feeling and duties of nature, having been suddenly transmitted to him
+from Rome, he had immediately set out for that city; though not without
+hesitation, which was remarked and denounced by Rodin; for the love of M.
+d'Aigrigny for his mother had been the only pure feeling that had
+invariably distinguished his life.
+
+When the servant had discreetly withdrawn with Mrs. Grivois, the marquis
+quickly approached the princess, held out his hand to her, and said with
+a voice of emotion:
+
+"Herminia, have you not concealed something in your letters. In her last
+moments did not my mother curse me?"
+
+"No, no, Frederick, compose yourself. She had anxiously desired your
+presence. Her ideas soon became confused. But in her delirium it was
+still for you that she called."
+
+"Yes," said the marquis, bitterly; "her maternal instinct doubtless
+assured her that my presence could have saved her life."
+
+"I entreat you to banish these sad recollections," said the princess,
+"this misfortune is irreparable."
+
+"Tell me for the last time, truly, did not my absence cruelly affect my
+mother? Had she no suspicion that a more imperious duty called me
+elsewhere?"
+
+"No, no, I assure you. Even when her reason was shaken, she believed that
+you had not yet had time to come to her. All the sad details which I
+wrote to you upon this painful subject are strictly true. Again, I beg of
+you to compose yourself."
+
+"Yes, my conscience ought to be easy; for I have fulfilled my duty in
+sacrificing my mother. Yet I have never been able to arrive at that
+complete detachment from natural affection, which is commanded to us by
+those awful words: 'He who hates not his father and his mother, even with
+the soul, cannot be my disciple.'"[9]
+
+"Doubtless, Frederick," said the princess, "these renunciations are
+painful. But, in return, what influence, what power!"
+
+"It is true," said the marquis, after a moment's silence. "What ought not
+to be sacrificed in order to reign in secret over the all-powerful of the
+earth, who lord it in full day? This journey to Rome, from which I have
+just returned, has given me a new idea of our formidable power. For,
+Herminia, it is Rome which is the culminating point, overlooking the
+fairest and broadest quarters of the globe, made so by custom, by
+tradition, or by faith. Thence can our workings be embraced in their full
+extent. It is an uncommon view to see from its height the myriad tools,
+whose personality is continually absorbed into the immovable personality
+of our Order. What a might we possess! Verily, I am always swayed with
+admiration, aye, almost frightened, that man once thinks, wishes,
+believes, and acts as he alone lists, until, soon ours, he becomes but a
+human shell; its kernel of intelligence, mind, reason, conscience, and
+free will, shrivelled within him, dry and withered by the habit of
+mutely, fearingly bowing under mysterious tasks, which shatter and slay
+everything spontaneous in the human soul! Then do we infuse in such
+spiritless clay, speechless, cold, and motionless as corpses, the breath
+of our Order, and, lo! the dry bones stand up and walk, acting and
+executing, though only within the limits which are circled round them
+evermore. Thus do they become mere limbs of the gigantic trunk, whose
+impulses they mechanically carry out, while ignorant of the design, like
+the stonecutter who shapes out a stone, unaware if it be for cathedral or
+bagnio."
+
+In so speaking, the marquis's features wore an incredible air of proud
+and domineering haughtiness.
+
+"Oh, yes! this power is great, most great," observed the princess; "and
+the more formidable because it moves in a mysterious way over minds and
+consciences."
+
+"Aye, Herminia," said the marquis: "I have had under my command a
+magnificent regiment. Very often have I experienced the energetic and
+exquisite enjoyment of command! At my word my squadrons put themselves in
+action; bugles blared, my officers, glittering in golden embroidery,
+galloped everywhere to repeat my orders: all my brave soldiers, burning
+with courage, and cicatrized by battles, obeyed my signal; and I felt
+proud and strong, holding as I did (so to speak) in my hands, the force
+and valor of each and all combined into one being of resistless strength
+and invincible intrepidity,--of all of which I was as much the master, as
+I mastered the rage and fire of my war-horse! Aye! that was greatness.
+But now, in spite of the misfortunes which have befallen our Order, I
+feel myself a thousand times more ready for action, more authoritative,
+more strong and more daring, at the head of our mute and black-robed
+militia, who only think and wish, or move and obey, mechanically,
+according to my will. On a sign they scatter over the surface of the
+globe, gliding stealthily into households under the guise of confessing
+the wife or teaching the children, into family affairs by hearing the
+dying avowals,--up to the throne through the quaking conscience of a
+credulous crowned coward;--aye, even to the chair of the Pope himself,
+living manifesto of the Godhead though he is, by the services rendered
+him or imposed by him. Is not this secret rule, made to kindle or glut
+the wildest ambition, as it reaches from the cradle to the grave, from
+the laborer's hovel to the royal palace, from palace to the papal chair?
+What career in all the world presents such splendid openings? what
+unutterable scorn ought I not feel for the bright butterfly life of early
+days, when we made so many envy us? Don't you remember, Herminia?" he
+added, with a bitter smile.
+
+"You are right, perfectly right, Frederick!" replied the princess
+quickly. "How little soever we may reflect, with what contempt do we not
+think upon the past! I, like you, often compare it with the present; and
+then what satisfaction I feel at having followed your counsels! For,
+indeed, without you, I should have played the miserable and ridiculous
+part which a woman always plays in her decline from having been beautiful
+and surrounded by admirers. What could I have done at this hour? I should
+have vainly striven to retain around me a selfish and ungrateful world of
+gross and shameful men, who court women only that they may turn them to
+the service of their passions, or to the gratification of their vanity.
+It is true that there would have remained to me the resource of what is
+called keeping an agreeable house for all others,--yes, in order to
+entertain them, be visited by a crowd of the indifferent, to afford
+opportunities of meeting to amorous young couples, who, following each
+other from parlor to parlor, come not to your house but for the purpose
+of being together; a very pretty pleasure, truly, that of harboring those
+blooming, laughing, amorous youths, who look upon the luxury and
+brilliancy with which one surrounds them, as if they were their due upon
+bonds to minister to their pleasure, and to their impudent amours!"
+
+Her words were so stinging, and such hateful envy sat upon her face, that
+she betrayed the intense bitterness of her regrets in spite of herself.
+
+"NO, no; thanks to you, Frederick," she continued, "After a last and
+brilliant triumph, I broke forever with the world, which would soon have
+abandoned me, though I was so long its idol and its queen. And I have
+only changed my queendom. Instead of the dissipated men whom I ruled with
+a frivolity superior to their own, I now find myself surrounded by men of
+high consideration, of redoubtable character, and all-powerful, many of
+whom have governed the state; to them I have devoted myself, as they have
+devoted themselves to me! It is now only that I really enjoy that
+happiness, of which I ever dreamt. I have taken an active part and have
+exercised a powerful influence over the greatest interests of the world;
+I have been initiated into the most important secrets; I have been able
+to strike, surely, whosoever scoffed at or hated me; and I have been able
+to elevate beyond their hopes those who have served or respected and
+obeyed me."
+
+"There are some madmen, and some so blind, that they imagine that we are
+struck down, because we ourselves have had to struggle against some
+misfortunes," said M. d'Aigrigny, disdainfully, "as if we were not, above
+all others, securely founded, organized for every struggle, and drew not
+from our very struggles a new and more vigorous activity. Doubtless the
+times are bad. But they will become better; and, as you know, it is
+nearly certain that in a few days (the 13th of February), we shall have
+at our disposal a means of action sufficiently powerful for re
+establishing our influence which has been temporarily shaken."
+
+"Yes, doubtless this affair of the medals is most important," said the
+princess.
+
+"I should not have made so much haste to return hither," resumed the
+abbe, "were it not to act in what will be, perhaps, for us, a very great
+event."
+
+"But you are aware of the fatality which has once again overthrown
+projects the most laboriously conceived and matured?"
+
+"Yes; immediately on arriving I saw Rodin."
+
+"And he told you--?"
+
+"The inconceivable arrival of the Indian, and of General Simon's
+daughters at Cardoville Castle, after a double shipwreck, which threw
+them upon the coast of Picardy; though it was deemed certain that the
+young girls were at Leipsic, and the Indian in Java. Precautions were so
+well taken, indeed," added the marquis in vexation, "that one would think
+an invisible power protects this family."
+
+"Happily, Rodin is a man of resources and activity," resumed the princess.
+"He came here last night, and we had a long conversation."
+
+"And the result of your consultation is excellent," added the marquis:
+"the old soldier is to be kept out of the way for two days; and his
+wife's confessor has been posted; the rest will proceed of itself. To
+morrow, the girls need no longer be feared; and the Indian remains at
+Cardoville, wounded dangerously. We have plenty of time for action."
+
+"But that is not all," continued the princess: "there are still, without
+reckoning my niece, two persons, who, for our interests, ought not to be
+found in Paris on the 13th of February."
+
+"Yes, M. Hardy: but his most dear and intimate friend has betrayed him;
+for, by means of that friend, we have drawn M. Hardy into the South,
+whence it is impossible for him to return before a month. As for that
+miserable vagabond workman, surnamed 'Sleepinbuff!'"
+
+"Fie!" exclaimed the princess, with an expression of outraged modesty.
+
+"That man," resumed the marquis, "is no longer an object of inquietude.
+Lastly, Gabriel, upon whom our vast and certain hope reposes, will not be
+left by himself for a single minute until the great day. Everything
+seems, you see, to promise success; indeed, more so than ever; and it is
+necessary to obtain this success at any price. It is for us a question of
+life or death; for, in returning, I stopped at Forli, and there saw the
+Duke d'Orbano. His influence over the mind of the king is all
+powerful--indeed, absolute; and he has completely prepossessed the royal
+mind. It is with the duke alone, then, that it is possible to treat."
+
+"Well?"
+
+"D'Orbano has gained strength; and he can, I know it, assure to us a
+legal existence, highly protected, in the dominions of his master, with
+full charge of popular education. Thanks to such advantages, after two or
+three years in that country we shall become so deeply rooted, that this
+very Duke d'Orbano, in his turn, will have to solicit support and
+protection from us. But at present he has everything in his power; and he
+puts an absolute condition upon his services."
+
+"What is the condition?"
+
+"Five millions down; and an annual pension of a hundred thousand francs."
+
+"It is very much."
+
+"Nay, but little if it be considered that our foot once planted in that
+country, we shall promptly repossess ourselves of that sum, which, after
+all, is scarcely an eighth part of what the affair of the medals, if
+happily brought to an issue, ought to assure to the Order."
+
+"Yes, nearly forty millions," said the princess, thoughtfully.
+
+"And again: these five millions that Orbano demands will be but an
+advance. They will be returned to us in voluntary gifts, by reason even
+of the increase of influence that we shall acquire from the education of
+children; through whom we have their families. And yet, the fools
+hesitate! those who govern see not, that in doing our own business, we do
+theirs also;--that in abandoning education to us (which is what we wish
+for above all things) we mold the people into that mute and quiet
+obedience, that servile and brutal submission, which assures the repose
+of states by the immobility of the mind. They don't reflect that most of
+the upper and middle classes fear and hate us; don't understand that
+(when we have persuaded the mass that their wretchedness is an eternal
+law, that sufferers must give up hope of relief, that it is a crime to
+sigh for welfare in this world, since the crown of glory on high is the
+only reward for misery here), then the stupefied people will resignedly
+wallow in the mire, all their impatient aspirations for better days
+smothered, and the volcano-blasts blown aside, which made the future of
+rulers so horrid and so dark? They see not, in truth, that this blind and
+passive faith which we demand from the mass, furnishes their rulers with
+a bridle with which both to conduct and curb them; whilst we ask from the
+happy of the world only some appearances which ought, if they had only
+the knowledge of their own corruption, to give an increased stimulant to
+their pleasures.
+
+"It signifies not," resumed the princess; "since, as you say, a great day
+is at hand, bringing nearly forty millions, of which the Order can become
+possessed by the happy success of the affair of the medals. We certainly
+can attempt very great things. Like a lever in your hands, such a means
+of action would be of incalculable power, in times during which all men
+buy and sell one another."
+
+"And then," resumed M. d'Aigrigny, with a thoughtful air, "here the
+reaction continues: the example of France is everything. In Austria and
+Holland we can rarely maintain ourselves; while the resources of the
+Order diminish from day to day. We have arrived at a crisis; but it can
+be made to prolong itself. Thus, thanks to the immense resource of the
+affair of the medals, we can not only brave all eventualities, but we can
+again powerfully establish ourselves, thanks to the offer of the Duke
+d'Orbano, which we accept; and then, from that inassailable centre, our
+radiations will be incalculable. Ah! the 13th of February!" added M.
+d'Aigrigny, after a moment of silence, and shaking his head: "the 13th of
+February, a date perhaps fortunate and famous for our power as that of
+the council which gave to us (so to say) a new life!"
+
+"And nothing must be spared." resumed the princess, "in order to succeed
+at any price. Of the six persons whom we have to fear, five are or will
+be out of any condition to hurt us. There remains then only my niece; and
+you know that I have waited but for your arrival in order to take my last
+resolution. All my preparations are completed; and this very morning we
+will begin to act."
+
+"Have your suspicions increased since your last letter?"
+
+"Yes, I am certain that she is more instructed than she wishes to appear;
+and if so, we shall not have a more dangerous enemy."
+
+"Such has always been my opinion. Thus it is six month: since I advised
+you to take in all cases the measures which you have adopted, in order to
+provoke, on her part, that demand of emancipation, the consequences of
+which now render quite easy that which would have been impossible without
+it."
+
+"At last," said the princess, with an expression of joy, hateful and
+bitter, "this indomitable spirit will be broken. I am at length about to
+be avenged of the many insolent sarcasms which I have been compelled to
+swallow, lest I should awaken her suspicions. I! I to have borne so much
+till now! for this Adrienne has made it her business (imprudent as she
+is!) to irritate me against herself!"
+
+"Whosoever offends you, offends me; you know it," said D'Aigrigny, "my
+hatreds are yours."
+
+"And you yourself!" said the princess, "how many times have you been the
+butt of her poignant irony!"
+
+"My instincts seldom deceive me. I am certain that this young girl may
+become a dangerous enemy for us," said the marquis, with a voice
+painfully broken into short monosyllables.
+
+"And, therefore, it is necessary that she may be rendered incapable of
+exciting further fear," responded Madame de Saint-Dizier, fixedly
+regarding the marquis.
+
+"Have you seen Dr. Baleinier, and the sub-guardian, M. Tripeaud?" asked
+he.
+
+"They will be here this morning. I have informed them of everything."
+
+"Did you find them well disposed to act against her?"
+
+"Perfectly so--and the best is, Adrienne does not at all suspect the
+doctor, who has known how, up to a certain point, to preserve her
+confidence. Moreover, a circumstance which appears to me inexplicable has
+come to our aid."
+
+"What do you allude to?"
+
+"This morning, Mrs. Grivois went, according to my orders, to remind
+Adrienne that I expected her at noon, upon important business. As she
+approached the pavilion, Mrs. Grivois saw, or thought she saw, Adrienne
+come in by the little garden-gate."
+
+"What do you tell me? Is it possible? Is there any positive proof of it?"
+cried the marquis.
+
+"Till now, there is no other proof than the spontaneous declaration of
+Mrs. Grivois: but whilst I think of it," said the Princess, taking up a
+paper that lay before her, "here is the report, which, every day, one of
+Adrienne's women makes to me."
+
+"The one that Rodin succeeded in introducing into your niece's service?"
+
+"The same; as this creature is entirely in Rodin's hands, she has
+hitherto answered our purpose very well. In this report, we shall perhaps
+find the confirmation of what Mrs. Grivois affirms she saw."
+
+Hardly had the Princess glanced at the note, than she exclaimed almost in
+terror: "What do I see? Why, Adrienne is a very demon!"
+
+"What now?"
+
+"The bailiff at Cardoville, having written to my niece to ask her
+recommendation, informed her at the same time of the stay of the Indian
+prince at the castle. She knows that he is her relation, and has just
+written to her old drawing-master, Norval, to set out post with Eastern
+dresses, and bring Prince Djalma hither--the man that must be kept away
+from Paris at any cost."
+
+The marquis grew pale, and said to Mme. de Saint-Dizier: "If this be not
+merely one of her whims, the eagerness she displays in sending for this
+relation hither, proves that she knows more than you even suspected. She
+is 'posted' on the affair of the medals. Have a care--she may ruin all."
+
+"In that case," said the princess, resolutely, "there is no room to
+hesitate. We must carry things further than we thought, and make an end
+this very morning."
+
+"Yes, though it is almost impossible."
+
+"Nay, all is possible. The doctor and M. Tripeaud are ours," said the
+princess, hastily.
+
+"Though I am as sure as you are of the doctor, or of M. Tripeaud, under
+present circumstances, we must not touch on the question of acting--which
+will be sure to frighten them at first--until after our interview with
+your niece. It will be easy, notwithstanding her cleverness, to find out
+her armor's defect. If our suspicions should be realized--if she is
+really informed of what it would be so dangerous for her to know--then we
+must have no scruples, and above all no delay. This very day must see all
+set at rest. The time for wavering is past."
+
+"Have you been able to send for the person agreed on?" asked the
+princess, after a moment's silence.
+
+"He was to be here at noon. He cannot be long."
+
+"I thought this room would do very well for our purpose. It is separated
+from the smaller parlor by a curtain only behind which your man may be
+stationed."
+
+"Capital!"
+
+"Is he a man to be depended on?"
+
+"Quite so--we have often employed him in similar matters. He is as
+skillful as discreet."
+
+At this moment a low knock was heard at the door.
+
+"Come in," said the princess.
+
+"Dr. Baleinier wishes to know if her Highness the Princess can receive
+him," asked the valet-de-chambre.
+
+"Certainly. Beg him to walk in."
+
+"There is also a gentleman that M. l'Abbe appointed to be here at noon,
+by whose orders I have left him waiting in the oratory."
+
+"'Tis the person in question," said the marquis to the princess. "We must
+have him in first. 'Twould be useless for Dr. Baleinier to see him at
+present."
+
+"Show this person in first," said the princess; "next when I ring the
+bell, you will beg Dr. Baleinier to walk this way: and, if Baron Tripeaud
+should call, you will bring him here also. After that, I am at home to no
+one, except Mdlle. Adrienne." The servant went out.
+
+[9] With regard to this text, a commentary upon it will be found in the
+Constitutions of the Jesuits, as follows: "In order that the habit of
+language may come to the help of the sentiments, it is wise not to say,
+'I have parents, or I have brothers;' but to say, 'I had parents; I had
+brothers.'"--General Examination, p. 29; Constitutions.--Paulin; 1843.
+Paris.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXVIII.
+
+ADRIENNE'S ENEMIES.
+
+The Princess de Saint-Dizier's valet soon returned, showing in a little,
+pale man, dressed in black, and wearing spectacles. He carried under his
+left arm a long black morocco writing-case.
+
+The princess said to this man: "M. l'Abbe, I suppose, has already
+informed you of what is to be done?"
+
+"Yes, your highness," said the man in a faint, shrill, piping voice,
+making at the same time a low bow.
+
+"Shall you be conveniently placed in this room?" asked the princess,
+conducting him to the adjoining apartment, which was only separated from
+the other by a curtain hung before a doorway.
+
+"I shall do nicely here, your highness," answered the man in spectacles,
+with a second and still lower bow.
+
+"In that case, sir, please to step in here; I will let you know when it
+is time."
+
+"I shall wait your highness's order."
+
+"And pray remember my instructions," added the marquis, as he unfastened
+the loops of the curtain.
+
+"You may be perfectly tranquil, M. l'Abbe." The heavy drapery, as it
+fell, completely concealed the man in spectacles.
+
+The princess touched the bell; some moments after, the door opened, and
+the servant announced a very important personage in this work.
+
+Dr. Baleinier was about fifty years of age, middling size, rather plump,
+with a full shining, ruddy countenance. His gray hair, very smooth and
+rather long, parted by a straight line in the middle, fell flat over his
+temples. He had retained the fashion of wearing short, black silk
+breeches, perhaps because he had a well-formed leg; his garters were
+fastened with small, golden buckles, as were his shoes of polished
+morocco leather; his coat, waistcoat, and cravat were black, which gave
+him rather a clerical appearance; his sleek, white hand was half hidden
+beneath a cambric ruffle, very closely plaited; on the whole, the gravity
+of his costume did not seem to exclude a shade of foppery.
+
+His face was acute and smiling; his small gray eye announced rare
+penetration and sagacity. A man of the world and a man of pleasure, a
+delicate epicure, witty in conversation, polite to obsequiousness,
+supple, adroit, insinuating, Baleinier was one of the oldest favorites of
+the congregational set of the Princess de Saint-Dizier. Thanks to this
+powerful support, its cause unknown, the doctor, who had been long
+neglected, in spite of real skill and incontestable merit, found himself,
+under the Restoration, suddenly provided with two medical sinecures most
+valuable, and soon after with numerous patients. We must add, that, once
+under the patronage of the princess, the doctor began scrupulously to
+observe his religious duties; he communicated once a week, with great
+publicity, at the high mass in Saint Thomas Aquinas Church.
+
+At the year's end, a certain class of patients, led by the example and
+enthusiasm of Madame de Saint-Dizier's followers, would have no other
+physician than Doctor Baleinier, and his practice was now increased to an
+extraordinary degree. It may be conceived how important it was for the
+order, to have amongst its "plain clothes members" one of the most
+popular practitioners of Paris.
+
+A doctor has in some sort a priesthood of his own. Admitted at all hours
+to the most secret intimacy of families, he knows, guesses, and is able
+to effect much. Like the priest, in short, he has the ear of the sick and
+the dying. Now, when he who cares for the health of the body, and he who
+takes charge of the health of the soul, understands each other, and
+render mutual aid for the advancement of a common interest, there is
+nothing (with certain exceptions), which they may not extract from the
+weakness and fears of a sick man at the last gasp--not for themselves
+(the laws forbid it)--but for third parties belonging more or less to the
+very convenient class of men of straw. Doctor Baleinier was therefore one
+of the most active and valuable assistant members of the Paris Jesuits.
+
+When he entered the room, he hastened to kiss the princess's hand with
+the most finished gallantry.
+
+"Always punctual, my dear M. Baleinier."
+
+"Always eager and happy to attend to your highness's orders." Then
+turning towards the marquis, whose hand he pressed cordially, he added:
+"Here we have you then at last. Do you know, that three months' absence
+appears very long to your friends?"
+
+"The time is as long to the absent as to those who remain, my dear
+doctor. Well! here is the great day, Mdlle. de Cardoville is coming."
+
+"I am not quite easy," said the princess; "suppose she had any suspicion?"
+
+"That's impossible," said M. Baleinier; "we are the best friends in the
+world. You know, that Mdlle. Adrienne has always had great confidence in
+me. The day before yesterday, we laughed a good deal, and as I made some
+observations to her, as usual, on her eccentric mode of life, and on the
+singular state of excitement in which I sometimes found her--"
+
+"M. Baleinier never fails to insist on these circumstances, in appearance
+so insignificant," said Madame de Saint-Dizier to the marquis with a
+meaning look.
+
+"They are indeed very essential," replied the other.
+
+"Mdlle. Adrienne answered my observations," resumed the doctor, "by
+laughing at me in the gayest and most witty manner; for I must confess,
+that this young lady has one of the aptest and most accomplished minds I
+know."
+
+"Doctor, doctor!" said Madame de Saint-Dizier, "no weakness!"
+
+Instead of answering immediately, M. Baleinier drew his gold snuff-box
+from his waistcoat pocket, opened it, and took slowly a pinch of snuff,
+looking all the time at the princess with so significant an air, that she
+appeared quite reassured. "Weakness, madame?" observed he at last,
+brushing some grains of snuff from his shirt-front with his plump white
+hand; "did I not have the honor of volunteering to extricate you from
+this embarrassment?"
+
+"And you are the only person in the world that could render us this
+important service," said D'Aigrigny.
+
+"Your highness sees, therefore," resumed the doctor, "that I am not
+likely to show any weakness. I perfectly understand the responsibility of
+what I undertake; but such immense interests, you told me, were at
+stake--"
+
+"Yes," said D'Aigrigny, "interests of the first consequence."
+
+"Therefore I did not hesitate," proceeded M. Baleinier; "and you need not
+be at all uneasy. As a man of taste, accustomed to good society, allow me
+to render homage to the charming qualities of Mdlle. Adrienne; when the
+time for action comes, you will find me quite as willing to do my work."
+
+"Perhaps, that moment may be nearer than we thought," said Madame de
+Saint-Dizier, exchanging a glance with D'Aigrigny.
+
+"I am, and will be, always ready," said the doctor. "I answer for
+everything that concerns myself. I wish I could be as tranquil on every
+other point."
+
+"Is not your asylum still as fashionable--as an asylum can well be?"
+asked Madame de Saint-Dizier, with a half smile.
+
+"On the contrary. I might almost complain of having too many boarders. It
+is not that. But, whilst we are waiting for Mdlle. Adrienne, I will
+mention another subject, which only relates to her indirectly, for it
+concerns the person who, bought Cardoville Manor, one Madame de la
+Sainte-Colombe, who has taken me for a doctor, thanks to Rodin's able
+management."
+
+"True," said D'Aigrigny; "Rodin wrote to me on the subject--but without
+entering into details."
+
+"These are the facts," resumed the doctor. "This Madame de la Sainte
+Colombe, who was at first considered easy enough to lead, has shown
+herself very refractory on the head of her conversion. Two spiritual
+directors have already renounced the task of saving her soul. In despair,
+Rodin unslipped little Philippon on her. He is adroit, tenacious, and
+above all patient in the extreme--the very man that was wanted. When I
+got Madame de la Sainte-Colombe for a patient, Philippon asked my aid,
+which he was naturally entitled to. We agreed upon our plan. I was not to
+appear to know him the least in the world; and he was to keep me informed
+of the variations in the moral state of his penitent, so that I might be
+able, by the use of very inoffensive medicines--for there was nothing
+dangerous in the illness--to keep my patient in alternate states of
+improvement or the reverse, according as her director had reason to be
+satisfied or displeased--so that he might say to her: 'You see, madame,
+you are in the good way! Spiritual grace acts upon your bodily health,
+and you are already better. If, on the contrary, you fall back into evil
+courses, you feel immediately some physical ail, which is a certain proof
+of the powerful influence of faith, not only on the soul, but on the body
+also?'"
+
+"It is doubtless painful," said D'Aigrigny, with perfect coolness, "to be
+obliged to have recourse to such means, to rescue perverse souls from
+perdition--but we must needs proportion our modes of action to the
+intelligence and the character of the individual."
+
+"By-the-bye, the princess knows," resumed the doctor, "that I have often
+pursued this plan at St. Mary's Convent, to the great advantage of the
+soul's peace and health of some of our patients, being extremely
+innocent. These alternations never exceed the difference between 'pretty
+well,' and 'not quite so well.' Yet small as are the variations, they act
+most efficaciously on certain minds. It was thus with Madame de la
+Sainte-Colombe. She was in such a fair way of recovery, both moral and
+physical, that Rodin thought he might get Philippon to advise the country
+for his penitent, fearing that Paris air might occasion a relapse. This
+advice, added to the desire the woman had to play 'lady of the parish,'
+induced her to buy Cardoville Manor, a good investment in any respect.
+But yesterday, unfortunate Philippon came to tell me, that Madame de la
+Sainte-Colombe was about to have an awful relapse--moral, of course--for
+her physical health is now desperately good. The said relapse appears to
+have been occasioned by an interview she has had with one Jacques
+Dumoulin, whom they tell me you know, my dear abbe; he has introduced
+himself to her, nobody can guess how."
+
+"This Jacques Dumoulin," said the marquis, with disgust, "is one of those
+men, that we employ while we despise. He is a writer full of gall, envy,
+and hate, qualities that give him a certain unmercifully cutting
+eloquence. We pay him largely to attack our enemies, though it is often
+painful to see principles we respect defended by such a pen. For this
+wretch lives like a vagabond--is constantly in taverns--almost always
+intoxicated--but, I must own, his power of abuse is inexhaustible, and he
+is well versed in the most abstruse theological controversies, so that he
+is sometimes very useful to us."
+
+"Well! though Madame de la Sainte-Colombe is hard upon sixty, it appears
+that Dumoulin has matrimonial views on her large fortune. You will do
+well to inform Rodin, so that he may be on his guard against the dark
+designs of this rascal. I really beg a thousand pardons for having so
+long occupied you with such a paltry affair--but, talking of St. Mary's
+Convent," added the doctor, addressing the princess, "may I take the
+liberty of asking if your highness has been there lately?"
+
+The princess exchanged a rapid glance with D'Aigrigny, and answered: "Oh,
+let me see! Yes, I was there about a week ago."
+
+"You will find great changes then. The wall that was next to my asylum
+has been taken down, for they are going to build anew wing and a chapel,
+the old one being too small. I must say in praise of Mdlle. Adrienne"
+continued the doctor with a singular smile aside, "that she promised me a
+copy of one of Raphael's Madonnas for this chapel."
+
+"Really? very appropriate!" said the princess. "But here it is almost
+noon, and M. Tripeaud has not come."
+
+"He is the deputy-guardian of Mdlle. de Cardoville, whose property he has
+managed, as former agent of the count-duke," said the marquis, with
+evident anxiety, "and his presence here is absolutely indispensable. It
+is greatly to be desired that his coming should precede that of Mdlle. de
+Cardoville, who may be here at any moment."
+
+"It is unlucky that his portrait will not do as well," said the doctor,
+smiling maliciously, and drawing a small pamphlet from his pocket.
+
+"What is that, doctor?" asked the princess.
+
+"One of those anonymous sheets, which are published from time to time. It
+is called the 'Scourge,' and Baron Tripeaud's portrait is drawn with such
+faithfulness, that it ceases to be satire. It is really quite life like;
+you have only to listen. The sketch is entitled: 'TYPE OF THE LYNX
+SPECIES.'
+
+"'The Baron Tripeaud.--This man, who is as basely humble towards his
+social superiors, as he is insolent and coarse to those who depend upon
+him--is the living, frightful incarnation of the worst pardon of the
+moneyed and commercial aristocracy--one of the rich and cynical
+speculators, without heart, faith or conscience, who would speculate for
+a rise or fall on the death of his mother, if the death of his mother
+could influence the price of stocks.
+
+"'Such persons have all the odious vices of men suddenly elevated, not
+like those whom honest and patient labor has nobly enriched, but like
+those who owe their wealth to some blind caprice of fortune, or some
+lucky cast of the net in the miry waters of stock-jobbing.
+
+"'Once up in the world, they hate the people--because the people remind
+them of a mushroom origin of which they are ashamed. Without pity for the
+dreadful misery of the masses, they ascribe it wholly to idleness or
+debauchery because this calumny forms an excuse for their barbarous
+selfishness.
+
+"'And this is not all. On the strength of his well-filled safe, mounted
+on his right of the candidate, Baron Tripeaud insults the poverty and
+political disfranchisement--of the officer, who, after forty years of
+wars and hard service, is just able to live on a scanty pension--Of the
+magistrate, who has consumed his strength in the discharge of stern and
+sad duties, and who is not better remunerated in his litter days--Of the
+learned man who has made his country illustrious by useful labors; or the
+professor who has initiated entire generations in the various branches of
+human knowledge--Of the modest and virtuous country curate, the pure
+representative of the gospel, in its charitable, fraternal, and
+democratic tendencies, etc.
+
+"'In such a state of things, how should our shoddy baron of in-dust-ry
+not feel the most sovereign contempt for all that stupid mob of honest
+folk, who, having given to their country their youth, their mature age,
+their blood, their intelligence, their learning, see themselves deprived
+of the rights which he enjoys, because he has gained a million by unfair
+and illegal transactions?
+
+"'It is true, that your optimists say to these pariahs of civilization,
+whose proud and noble poverty cannot be too much revered and honored:
+"Buy an estate and you too may be electors and candidates!"
+
+"'But to come to the biography of our worthy baron--Andrew Tripeaud, the
+son of an ostler, at a roadside inn.'"
+
+At this instant the folding-doors were thrown open, and the valet
+announced: "The Baron Tripeaud!"
+
+Dr. Baleinier put his pamphlet into his pocket, made the most cordial bow
+to the financier, and even rose to give him his hand. The baron entered
+the room, overwhelming every one with salutations. "I have the honor to
+attend the orders of your highness the princess. She knows that she may
+always count upon me."
+
+"I do indeed rely upon you, M. Tripeaud, and particularly under present
+circumstances."
+
+"If the intentions of your highness the princess are still the same with
+regard to Mdlle. de Cardoville--"
+
+"They are still the same, M. Tripeaud, and we meet to-day on that
+subject."
+
+"Your highness may be assured of my concurrence, as, indeed, I have
+already promised. I think that the greatest severity must at length be
+employed, and that even if it were necessary."
+
+"That is also our opinion," said the marquis, hastily making a sign to
+the princess, and glancing at the place where the man in spectacles was
+hidden; "we are all perfectly in harmony. Still, we must not leave any
+point doubtful, for the sake of the young lady herself, whose interests
+alone guides us in this affair. We must draw out her sincerity by every
+possible means."
+
+"Mademoiselle has just arrived from the summer-house and wishes to see
+your highness," said the valet, again entering, after having knocked at
+the door.
+
+"Say that I wait for her," answered the princess; "and now I am at home
+to no one--without exception. You understand me; absolutely to no one."
+
+Thereupon, approaching the curtain behind which the man was concealed,
+Mme. de Saint-Dizier gave him the cue--after which she returned to her
+seat.
+
+It is singular, but during the short space which preceded Adrienne's
+arrival, the different actors in this scene appeared uneasy and
+embarrassed, as if they had a vague fear of her coming. In about a
+minute, Mdlle. de Cardoville entered the presence of her aunt.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXIX.
+
+THE SKIRMISH.
+
+On entering, Mdlle. de Cardoville threw down upon a chair the gray beaver
+hat she had worn to cross the garden, and displayed her fine golden hair,
+falling on either side of her face in long, light ringlets, and twisted
+in a broad knot behind her head. She presented herself without boldness,
+but with perfect ease: her countenance was gay and smiling; her large
+black eyes appeared even more brilliant than usual. When she perceived
+Abbe d'Aigrigny, she started in surprise, and her rosy lips were just
+touched with a mocking smile.
+
+After nodding graciously to the doctor, she passed Baron Tripeaud by
+without looking at him, and saluted the princess with stately obeisance,
+in the most fashionable style.
+
+Though the walk and bearing of Mdlle. de Cardoville were extremely
+elegant, and full of propriety and truly feminine grace, there was about
+her an air of resolution and independence by no means common in women,
+and particularly in girls of her age. Her movements, without being
+abrupt, bore no traces of restraint, stiffness, or formality. They were
+frank and free as her character, full of life, youth, and freshness; and
+one could easily divine that so buoyant, straightforward, and decided a
+nature had never been able to conform itself to the rules of an affected
+rigor.
+
+Strangely enough, though he was a man of the world, a man of great
+talent, a churchman distinguished for his eloquence, and, above all, a
+person of influence and authority. Marquis d'Aigrigny experienced an
+involuntary, incredible, almost painful uneasiness, in presence of
+Adrienne de Cardoville. He--generally so much the master of himself, so
+accustomed to exercise great power--who (in the name of his Order) had
+often treated with crowned heads on the footing of an equal, felt himself
+abashed and lowered in the presence of this girl, as remarkable for her
+frankness as for her biting irony. Now, as men who are accustomed to
+impose their will upon others generally hate those who, far from
+submitting to their influence, hamper it and make sport of them, it was
+no great degree of affection that the marquis bore towards the Princess
+de Saint-Dizier's niece.
+
+For a long time past, contrary to his usual habit, he had ceased to try
+upon Adrienne that fascinating address to which he had often owed an
+irresistible charm; towards her he had become dry, curt, serious, taking
+refuge in that icy sphere of haughty dignity and rigid austerity which
+completely hid all those amiable qualities with which he was endowed and
+of which, in general, he made such efficient use. Adrienne was much
+amused at all this, and thereby showed her imprudence--for the most
+vulgar motives often engender the most implacable hatreds.
+
+From these preliminary observations, the reader will understand the
+divers sentiments and interests which animated the different actors in
+the following scene.
+
+Madame de Saint-Dizier was seated in a large arm-chair by one side of the
+hearth. Marquis d'Aigrigny was standing before the fire. Dr. Baleinier
+seated near a bureau, was again turning over the leaves of Baron
+Tripeaud's biography, whilst the baron appeared to be very attentively
+examining one of the pictures of sacred subjects suspended from the wall.
+
+"You sent for me, aunt, to talk upon matters of importance?" said
+Adrienne, breaking the silence which had reigned in the reception-room
+since her entrance.
+
+"Yes, madame," answered the princess, with a cold and severe mien; "upon
+matters of the gravest importance."
+
+"I am at your service, aunt. Perhaps we had better walk into your
+library?"
+
+"It is not necessary. We can talk here." Then, addressing the marquis,
+the doctor, and the baron, she said to them, "Pray, be seated,
+gentlemen," and they all took their places round the table.
+
+"How can the subject of our interview interest these gentlemen, aunt?"
+asked Mdlle. de Cardoville, with surprise.
+
+"These gentlemen are old family friends; all that concerns you must
+interest them, and their advice ought to be heard and accepted by you
+with respect."
+
+"I have no doubt, aunt, of the bosom friendship of M. d'Aigrigny for our
+family: I have still less of the profound and disinterested devotion of
+M. Tripeaud; M. Baleinier is one of my old friends; still, before
+accepting these gentlemen as spectators, or, if you will, as confidants
+of our interview, I wish to know what we are going to talk of before
+them."
+
+"I thought that, among your many singular pretensions, you had at least
+those of frankness and courage."
+
+"Really, aunt," said Adrienne, smiling with mock humility, "I have no
+more pretensions to frankness and courage than you have to sincerity and
+goodness. Let us admit, once for all, that we are what we are--without
+pretension."
+
+"Be it so," said Madame de Saint-Dizier, in a dry tone; "I have long been
+accustomed to the freaks of your independent spirit. I suppose, then,
+that, courageous and frank as you say you are, you will not be afraid to
+speak before such grave and respectable persons as these gentlemen what
+you would speak to me alone?"
+
+"Is it a formal examination that I am to submit to? if so, upon what
+subject?"
+
+"It is not an examination: but, as I have a right to watch over you, and
+as you take advantage of my weak compliance with your caprices, I mean to
+put an end to what has lasted too long, and tell you my irrevocable
+resolutions for the future, in presence of friends of the family. And,
+first, you have hitherto had a very false and imperfect notion of my
+power over you."
+
+"I assure you, aunt, that I have never had any notion, true or false, on
+the subject--for I have never even dreamt about it."
+
+"That is my own fault; for, instead of yielding to your fancies, I should
+have made you sooner feel my authority; but the moment has come to submit
+yourself; the severe censures of my friends have enlightened me in time.
+Your character is self-willed, independent, stubborn; it must
+change--either by fair means or by force, understand me, it shall
+change."
+
+At these words, pronounced harshly before strangers, with a severity
+which did not seem at all justified by circumstances, Adrienne tossed her
+head proudly; but, restraining herself, she answered with a smile: "You
+say, aunt, that I shall change. I should not be astonished at it. We hear
+of such odd conversions."
+
+The princess bit her lips.
+
+"A sincere conversion can never be called odd, as you term it, madame,"
+said Abbe d'Aigrigny, coldly. "It is, on the contrary, meritorious, and
+forms an excellent example."
+
+"Excellent?" answered Adrienne: "that depends! For instance, what if one
+converts defects into vices?"
+
+"What do you mean, madame?" cried the princess.
+
+"I am speaking of myself, aunt; you reproach me of being independent and
+resolute--suppose I were to become hypocritical and wicked? In truth, I
+prefer keeping my dear little faults, which I love like spoiled children.
+I know what I am; I do not know what I might be."
+
+"But you must acknowledge, Mdlle. Adrienne," said Baron Tripeaud, with a
+self-conceited and sententious air, "that a conversion--"
+
+"I believe," said Adrienne, disdainfully, "that M. Tripeaud is well
+versed in the conversion of all sorts of property into all sorts of
+profit, by all sorts of means--but he knows nothing of this matter."
+
+"But, madame," resumed the financier, gathering courage from a glance of
+the princess, "you forget that I have the honor to be your deputy
+guardian, and that--"
+
+"It is true that M. Tripeaud has that honor," said Adrienne, with still
+more haughtiness, and not even looking at the baron; "I could never tell
+exactly why. But as it is not now the time to guess enigmas, I wish to
+know, aunt, the object and the end of this meeting?"
+
+"You shall be satisfied, madame. I will explain myself in a very clear
+and precise manner. You shall know the plan of conduct that you will have
+henceforth to pursue; and if you refuse to submit thereto, with the
+obedience and respect that is due to my orders, I shall at once see what
+course to take."
+
+It is impossible to give an idea of the imperious tone and stern look of
+the princess, as she pronounced these words which were calculated to
+startle a girl, until now accustomed to live in a great measure as she
+pleased: yet, contrary perhaps to the expectation of Madame de Saint
+Dizier, instead of answering impetuously, Adrienne looked her full in the
+face, and said, laughing: "This is a perfect declaration of war. It's
+becoming very amusing."
+
+"We are not talking of declarations of war," said the Abbe d'Aigrigny,
+harshly, as if offended by the expressions of Mdlle. de Cardoville.
+
+"Now, M. l'Abbe!" returned Adrienne, "for an old colonel, you are really
+too severe upon a jest!--you are so much indebted to 'war,' which gave
+you a French regiment after fighting so long against France--in order to
+learn, of course, the strength and the weakness of her enemies."
+
+On these words, which recalled painful remembrances, the marquis colored;
+he was going to answer, but the princess exclaimed: "Really, madame, your
+behavior is quite intolerable!"
+
+"Well, aunt, I acknowledge I was wrong. I ought not to have said this is
+very amusing--for it is not so, at all; but it is at least very
+curious--and perhaps," added the young girl, after a moment's silence,
+"perhaps very audacious and audacity pleases me. As we are upon this
+subject, and you talk of a plan of conduct to which I must conform
+myself, under pain of (interrupting herself)--under pain of what, I
+should like to know, aunt?"
+
+"You shall know. Proceed."
+
+"I will, in the presence of these gentlemen, also declare, in a very
+plain and precise manner, the determination that I have come to. As it
+required some time to prepare for its execution, I have not spoken of it
+sooner, for you know I am not in the habit of saying, 'I will do so and
+so!' but I do it."
+
+"Certainly; and it is just this habit of culpable independence of which
+you must break yourself."
+
+"Well, I had intended only to inform you of my determination at a later
+period; but I cannot resist the pleasure of doing so to-day, you seem so
+well disposed to hear and receive it. Still, I would beg of you to speak
+first: it may just so happen, that our views are precisely the same."
+
+"I like better to see you thus," said the princess. "I acknowledge at
+least the courage of your pride, and your defiance of all authority. You
+speak of audacity--yours is indeed great."
+
+"I am at least decided to do that which others in their weakness dare
+not--but which I dare. This, I hope, is clear and precise."
+
+"Very clear, very precise," said the princess, exchanging a glance of
+satisfaction with the other actors in this scene. "The positions being
+thus established, matters will be much simplified. I have only to give
+you notice, in your own interest, that this is a very serious
+affair--much more so than you imagine--and that the only way to dispose
+me to indulgence, is to substitute, for the habitual arrogance and irony
+of your language, the modesty and respect becoming a young lady."
+
+Adrienne smiled, but made no reply. Some moments of silence, and some
+rapid glances exchanged between the princess and her three friends,
+showed that these encounters, more or less brilliant in themselves, were
+to be followed by a serious combat.
+
+Mdlle. de Cardoville had too much penetration and sagacity, not to
+remark, that the Princess de Saint-Dizier attached the greatest
+importance to this decisive interview. But she could not understand how
+her aunt could hope to impose her absolute will upon her: the threat of
+coercive measures appearing with reason a mere ridiculous menace. Yet,
+knowing the vindictive character of her aunt, the secret power at her
+disposal, and the terrible vengeance she had sometimes exacted
+--reflecting, moreover, that men in the position of the marquis and the
+doctor would not have come to attend this interview without some weighty
+motive--the young lady paused for a moment before she plunged into the
+strife.
+
+But soon, the very presentiment of some vague danger, far from weakening
+her, gave her new courage to brave the worst, to exaggerate, if that were
+possible, the independence of her ideas, and uphold, come what might, the
+determination that she was about to signify to the Princess de Saint
+Dizier.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XL.
+
+THE REVOLT.
+
+"Madame," said the princess to Adrienne de Cardoville, in a cold, severe
+tone, "I owe it to myself, as well as to these gentlemen, to
+recapitulate, in a few words, the events that have taken place for some
+time past. Six months ago, at the end of the mourning for your father,
+you, being eighteen years old, asked for the management of your fortune,
+and for emancipation from control. Unfortunately, I had the weakness to
+consent. You quitted the house, and established yourself in the
+extension, far from all superintendence. Then began a train of
+expenditures, each one more extravagant than the last. Instead of being
+satisfied with one or two waiting-women, taken from that class from which
+they are generally selected, you chose governesses for lady-companions,
+whom you dressed in the most ridiculous and costly fashion. It is true,
+that, in the solitude of your pavilion, you yourself chose to wear, one
+after another, costumes of different ages. Your foolish fancies and
+unreasonable whims have been without end and without limit: not only have
+you never fulfilled your religious duties, but you have actually had the
+audacity to profane one of your rooms, by rearing in the centre of it a
+species of pagan altar, on which is a group in marble representing a
+youth and a girl"--the princess uttered these words as if they would burn
+her lips--"a work of art, if you will, but a work in the highest degree
+unsuitable to a person of your age. You pass whole days entirely secluded
+in your pavilion, refusing to see any one; and Dr. Baleinier, the only
+one of my friends in whom you seem to have retained some confidence,
+having succeeded by much persuasion in gaining admittance, has frequently
+found you in so very excited a state, that he has felt seriously uneasy
+with regard to your health. You have always insisted on going out alone,
+without rendering any account of your actions to any one. You have taken
+delight in opposing, in every possible way, your will to my authority. Is
+all this true?"
+
+"The picture of my past is not much flattered," said Adrienne; smiling,
+"but it is not altogether unlike."
+
+"So you admit, madame," said Abbe d'Aigrigny, laying stress on his words,
+"that all the facts stated by your aunt are scrupulously true?"
+
+Every eye was turned towards Adrienne, as if her answer would be of
+extreme importance.
+
+"Yes, M. l'Abbe," said she; "I live openly enough to render this question
+superfluous."
+
+"These facts are therefore admitted," said Abbe d'Aigrigny, turning
+towards the doctor and the baron.
+
+"These facts are completely established," said M. Tripeaud, in a pompous
+voice.
+
+"Will you tell me, aunt," asked Adrienne, "what is the good of this long
+preamble?"
+
+"This long preamble, madame," resumed the princess with dignity, "exposes
+the past in order to justify the future."
+
+"Really, aunt, such mysterious proceedings are a little in the style of
+the answers of the Cumaean Sybil. They must be intended to cover
+something formidable."
+
+"Perhaps, mademoiselle--for to certain characters nothing is so
+formidable as duty and obedience. Your character is one of those inclined
+to revolt--"
+
+"I freely acknowledge it, aunt--and it will always be so, until duty and
+obedience come to me in a shape that I can respect and love."
+
+"Whether you respect and love my orders or not, madame," said the
+princess, in a curt, harsh voice, "you will, from to-day, from this
+moment, learn to submit blindly and absolutely to my will. In one word,
+you will do nothing without my permission: it is necessary, I insist upon
+it, and so I am determined it shall be."
+
+Adrienne looked at her aunt for a second, and then burst into so free and
+sonorous a laugh, that it rang for quite a time through the vast
+apartment. D'Aigrigny and Baron Tripeaud started in indignation. The
+princess looked angrily at her niece. The doctor raised his eyes to
+heaven, and clasped his hands over his waistcoat with a sanctimonious
+sigh.
+
+"Madame," said Abbe d'Aigrigny, "such fits of laughter are highly
+unbecoming. Your aunt's words are serious, and deserve a different
+reception."
+
+"Oh, sir!" said Adrienne, recovering herself, "it is not my fault if I
+laugh. How can I maintain my gravity, when I hear my aunt talking of
+blind submission to her orders? Is the swallow, accustomed to fly upwards
+and enjoy the sunshine, fledged to live with the mole in darkness?"
+
+At this answer, D'Aigrigny affected to stare at the other members of this
+kind of family council with blank astonishment.
+
+"A swallow? what does she mean?" asked the abbe of the baron making a
+sign, which the latter understood.
+
+"I do not know," answered Tripeaud, staring in his turn at the doctor.
+"She spoke too of a mole. It 'is quite unheard-of--incomprehensible."
+
+"And so, madame," said the princess, appearing to share in the surprise
+of the others, "this is the reply that you make to me?"
+
+"Certainly," answered Adrienne, astonished herself that they should
+pretend not to understand the simile of which she had made use,
+accustomed as she was to speak in figurative language.
+
+"Come, come, madame," said Dr. Baleinier, smiling good-humoredly, "we
+must be indulgent. My dear Mdlle. Adrienne has naturally so uncommon and
+excitable a nature! She is really the most charming mad woman I know; I
+have told her so a hundred times, in my position of an old friend, which
+allows such freedom."
+
+"I can conceive that your attachment makes you indulgent--but it is not
+the less true, doctor," said D'Aigrigny, as if reproaching him for taking
+the part of Mdlle. de Cardoville, "that such answers to serious questions
+are most extravagant."
+
+"The evil is, that mademoiselle does not seem to comprehend the serious
+nature of this conference," said the princess, harshly. "She will perhaps
+understand it better when I have given her my orders."
+
+"Let us hear these orders, aunt," replied Adrienne as, seated on the
+other side of the table, opposite to the princess, she leaned her small,
+dimpled chin in the hollow of her pretty hand, with an air of graceful
+mockery, charming to behold.
+
+"From to-morrow forward," resumed the princess, "you will quit the
+summer-house which you at present inhabit, you will discharge your women,
+and come and occupy two rooms in this house, to which there will be no
+access except through my apartment. You will never go out alone. You will
+accompany me to the services of the church. Your emancipation terminates,
+in consequence of your prodigality duly proven. I will take charge of all
+your expenses, even to the ordering of your clothes, so that you may be
+properly and modestly dressed. Until your majority (which will be
+indefinitely postponed, by means of the intervention of a
+family-council), you will have no money at your own disposal. Such is my
+resolution."
+
+"And certainly your resolution can only be applauded, madame," said Baron
+Tripeaud; "we can but encourage you to show the greatest firmness, for
+such disorders must have an end."
+
+"It is more than time to put a stop to such scandal," added the abbe.
+
+"Eccentricity and exaltation of temperament--may excuse many things,"
+ventured to observe the smooth-tongued doctor.
+
+"No doubt," replied the princess dryly to Baleinier, who played his part
+to perfection; "but then, doctor, the requisite measures must be taken
+with such characters."
+
+Madame de Saint-Dizier had expressed herself in a firm and precise
+manner; she appeared convinced of the possibility of putting her threats
+into execution. M. Tripeaud and D'Aigrigny had just now given their full
+consent to the words of the princess. Adrienne began to perceive that
+something very serious was in contemplation, and her gayety was at once
+replaced by an air of bitter irony and offended independence.
+
+She rose abruptly, and colored a little; her rosy nostrils dilated, her
+eyes flashed fire, and, as she raised her head, she gently shook the
+fine, wavy golden hair, with a movement of pride that was natural to her.
+After a moment's silence, she said to her aunt in a cutting tone: "You
+have spoken of the past, madame; I also will speak a few words concerning
+it, since you force me to do so, though I may regret the necessity. I
+quitted your dwelling, because it was impossible for me to live longer in
+this atmosphere of dark hypocrisy and black treachery."
+
+"Madame," said D'Aigrigny, "such words are as violent as they are
+unreasonable."
+
+"Since you interrupt me, sir," said Adrienne, hastily, as she fixed her
+eyes on the abbe, "tell me what examples did I meet with in my aunt's
+house?"
+
+"Excellent, examples, madame."
+
+"Excellent, sir? Was it because I saw there, every day, her conversion
+keep pace with your own?"
+
+"Madame, you forget yourself!" cried the princess, becoming pale with
+rage.
+
+"Madame, I do not forget--I remember, like other people; that is all. I
+had no relation of whom I could ask an asylum. I wished to live alone. I
+wished to enjoy my revenues--because I chose rather to spend them myself,
+than to see them wasted by M. Tripeaud."
+
+"Madame," cried the baron, "I cannot imagine how you can presume--"
+
+"Sir!" said Adrienne, reducing him to silence by a gesture of
+overwhelming lordliness, "I speak of you--not to you. I wished to spend
+my income," she continued, "according to my own tastes. I embellished the
+retreat that I had chosen. Instead of ugly, ill-taught servants, I
+selected girls, pretty and well brought up, though poor. Their education
+forbade their being subjected to any humiliating servitude, though I have
+endeavored to make their situation easy and agreeable. They do not serve
+me, but render me service--I pay them, but I am obliged to them--nice
+distinctions that your highness will not understand, I know. Instead of
+seeing them badly or ungracefully dressed, I have given them clothes that
+suit their charming faces well, because I like whatever is young and
+fair. Whether I dress myself one way or the other, concerns only my
+looking-glass. I go out alone, because I like to follow my fancy. I do
+not go to mass--but, if I had still a mother, I would explain to her my
+devotions, and she would kiss me none the less tenderly. It is true, that
+I have raised a pagan altar to youth and beauty, because I adore God in
+all that He has made fair and good, noble and grand--because, morn and
+evening, my heart repeats the fervent and sincere prayer: 'Thanks, my
+Creator! thanks!'--Your highness says that M. Baleinier has often found
+me in my solitude, a prey to a strange excitement: yes, it is true; for
+it is then that, escaping in thought from all that renders the present
+odious and painful to me, I find refuge in the future--it is then that
+magical horizons spread far before me--it is then that such splendid
+visions appear to me, as make me feel myself rapt in a sublime and
+heavenly ecstasy, as if I no longer appertained to earth!"
+
+As Adrienne pronounced these last words with enthusiasm, her countenance
+appeared transfigured, so resplendent did it become. In that moment, she
+had lost sight of all that surrounded her.
+
+"It is then," she resumed, with spirit soaring higher and higher, "that I
+breathe a pure air, reviving and free--yes, free--above all, free--and so
+salubrious, so grateful to the soul!--Yes, instead of seeing my sisters
+painfully submit to a selfish, humiliating, brutal dominion, which
+entails upon them the seductive vices of slavery, the graceful fraud, the
+enchanting perfidy, the caressing falsehood, the contemptuous
+resignation, the hateful obedience--I behold them, my noble sisters!
+worthy and sincere because they are free, faithful and devoted because
+they have liberty to choose--neither imperious not base, because they
+have no master to govern or to flatter--cherished and respected, because
+they can withdraw from a disloyal hand their hand, loyally bestowed. Oh,
+my sisters! my sisters! I feel it. These are not merely consoling
+visions--they are sacred hopes."
+
+Carried away, in spite of herself, by the excitement of her feelings,
+Adrienne paused for a moment, in order to return to earth; she did not
+perceive that the other actors in this scene were looking at each other
+with an air of delight.
+
+"What she says there is excellent," murmured the doctor in the princess's
+ear, next to whom he was seated; "were she in league with us, she would
+not speak differently."
+
+"It is only by excessive harshness," added D'Aigrigny, "that we shall
+bring her to the desired point."
+
+But it seemed as if the vexed emotion of Adrienne had been dissipated by
+the contact of the generous sentiments she had just uttered. Addressing
+Baleinier with a smile, she said: "I must own, doctor, that there is
+nothing more ridiculous, than to yield to the current of certain
+thoughts, in the presence of persons incapable of understanding them.
+This would give you a fine opportunity to make game of that exaltation of
+mind for which you sometimes reproach me. To let myself be carried away
+by transports at so serious a moment!--for, verily, the matter in hand
+seems to be serious. But you see, good M. Baleinier, when an idea comes
+into my head, I can no more help following it out, than I could refrain
+from running after butterflies when I was a little girl."
+
+"And heaven only knows whither these brilliant butterflies of all
+colors," said M. Baleinier, smiling with an air of paternal indulgence,
+"that are passing through your brain, are likely to lead you. Oh, madcap,
+when will she be as reasonable as she is charming?"
+
+"This very instant, my good doctor," replied Adrienne. "I am about to
+cast off my reveries for realities, and speak plain and positive
+language, as you shall hear."
+
+Upon which, addressing her aunt, she continued: "You have imparted to me
+your resolution, madame; I will now tell you mine. Within a week, I shall
+quit the pavilion that I inhabit, for a house which I have arranged to my
+taste, where I shall live after my own fashion. I have neither father nor
+mother, and I owe no account of my actions to any but myself."
+
+"Upon my word, mademoiselle," said the princess, shrugging her shoulders,
+"you talk nonsense. You forget that society has inalienable moral rights,
+which we are bound to enforce. And we shall not neglect them, depend upon
+it."
+
+"So madame, it is you, and M. d'Aigrigny, and M. Tripeaud, that represent
+the morality of society! This appears to me very fine. Is it because M.
+Tripeaud has considered (I must acknowledge it) my fortune as his own? Is
+it because--"
+
+"Now, really, madame," began Tripeaud.
+
+"In good time, madame," said Adrienne to her aunt, without noticing the
+baron, "as the occasion offers, I shall have to ask you for explanations
+with regard to certain interests, which have hitherto, I think, been
+concealed from me."
+
+These words of Adrienne made D'Aigrigny and the princess start, and then
+rapidly exchange a glance of uneasiness and anxiety. Adrienne did not
+seem to perceive it, but thus continued: "To have done with your demands,
+madame, here is my final resolve. I shall live where and how I please. I
+think that, if I were a man, no one would impose on me, at my age, the
+harsh and humiliating guardianship you have in view, for living as I have
+lived till now--honestly, freely, and generously, in the sight of all."
+
+"This idea is absurd! is madness!" cried the princess. "To wish to live
+thus alone, is to carry immorality and immodesty to their utmost limits."
+
+"If so, madame," said Adrienne, "what opinion must you entertain of so
+many poor girls, orphans like myself, who live alone and free, as I wish
+to live? They have not received, as I have, a refined education,
+calculated to raise the soul, and purify the heart. They have not wealth,
+as I have, to protect them from the evil temptations of misery; and yet
+they live honestly and proudly in their distress."
+
+"Vice and virtue do not exist for such tag-rag vermin!" cried Baron
+Tripeaud, with an expression of anger and hideous disdain.
+
+"Madame, you would turn away a lackey, that would venture to speak thus
+before you," said Adrienne to her aunt, unable to conceal her disgust,
+"and yet you oblige me to listen to such speeches!"
+
+The Marquis d'Aigrigny touched M. Tripeaud with his knee under the table,
+to remind him that he must not express himself in the princess's parlors
+in the same manner as he would in the lobbies of the Exchange. To repair
+the baron's coarseness, the abbe thus continued: "There is no comparison,
+mademoiselle, between people of the class you name, and a young lady of
+your rank."
+
+"For a Catholic priest, M. l'Abbe, that distinction is not very
+Christian," replied Adrienne.
+
+"I know the purport of my words, madame," answered the abbe, dryly;
+"besides the independent life that you wish to lead, in opposition to all
+reason, may tend to very serious consequences for you. Your family may
+one day wish to see you married--"
+
+"I will spare my family that trouble, sir, if I marry at all, I will
+choose for myself, which also appears to me reasonable enough. But, in
+truth, I am very little tempted by that heavy chain, which selfishness
+and brutality rivet for ever about our necks."
+
+"It is indecent, madame," said the princess, "to speak so lightly of such
+an institution."
+
+"Before you, especially, madame, I beg pardon for having shocked your
+highness! You fear that my independent planner of living will frighten
+away all wooers; but that is another reason for persisting in my
+independence, for I detest wooers. I only hope that they may have the
+very worst opinion of me, and there is no better means of effecting that
+object, than to appear to live as they live themselves. I rely upon my
+whims, my follies, my sweet faults, to preserve me from the annoyance of
+any matrimonial hunting."
+
+"You will be quite satisfied on that head," resumed Madame de Saint
+Dizier, "if unfortunately the report should gain credit, that you have
+carried the forgetfulness of all duty and decency, to such a height, as
+to return home at eight o'clock in the morning. So I am told is the case
+but I cannot bring myself to believe such an enormity."
+
+"You are wrong, madame, for it is quite true."
+
+"So you confess it?" cried the princess.
+
+"I confess all that I do, madame. I came home this morning at eight
+o'clock."
+
+"You hear Gentlemen?" ejaculated the princess.
+
+"Oh!" said M. d'Aigrigny, in a bass voice.
+
+"Ah!" said the baron, in a treble key.
+
+"Oh!" muttered the doctor, with a deep sigh.
+
+On hearing these lamentable exclamations, Adrienne seemed about to speak,
+perhaps to justify herself; but her lip speedily assumed a curl of
+contempt, which showed that she disdained to stoop to any explanation.
+
+"So it is true," said the princess. "Oh, wretched girl, you had
+accustomed me to be astonished at nothing; but, nevertheless, I doubted
+the possibility of such conduct. It required your impudent and audacious
+reply to convince the of the fact."
+
+"Madame, lying has always appeared to be more impudent than to speak the
+truth."
+
+"And where had you been, madame? and for what?"
+
+"Madame," said Adrienne, interrupting her aunt, "I never speak false--but
+neither do I speak more than I choose; and then again, it were cowardice
+to defend myself from a revolting accusation. Let us say no more about
+it: your importunities on this head will be altogether vain. To resume:
+you wish to impose upon me a harsh and humiliating restraint; I wish to
+quit the house I inhabit, to go and live where I please, at my own fancy.
+Which of us two will yield, remains to be seen. Now for another matter:
+this mansion belongs to me! As I am about to leave it, I am indifferent
+whether you continue to live here or not; but the ground floor is
+uninhabited. It contains, besides the reception-rooms, two complete sets
+of apartments; I have let them for some time."
+
+"Indeed!" said the princess, looking at D'Aigrigny with intense surprise.
+"And to whom," she added ironically, "have you disposed of them?"
+
+"To three members of my family."
+
+"What does all this mean?" said Mme. de Saint-Dizier, more and more
+astonished.
+
+"It means, madame, that I wish to offer a generous hospitality to a young
+Indian prince, my kinsman on my mother's side. He will arrive in two or
+three days, and I wish to have the rooms ready to receive him."
+
+"You hear, gentlemen?" said D'Aigrigny to the doctor and Tripeaud, with
+an affectation of profound stupor.
+
+"It surpasses all one could imagine!" exclaimed the baron.
+
+"Alas!" observed the doctor, benignantly, "the impulse is generous in
+itself--but the mad little head crops out?"
+
+"Excellent!" said the princes. "I cannot prevent you madame, from
+announcing the most extravagant designs but it is presumable that you
+will not stop short in so fair a path. Is that all?"
+
+"Not quite, your highness. I learned this morning, that two of my female
+relations, also on my mother's side--poor children of fifteen--orphan
+daughters of Marshal Simon arrived yesterday from a long journey, and are
+now with the wife of the brave soldier who brought them to France from
+the depths of Siberia."
+
+At these words from Adrienne, D'Aigrigny and the princess could not help
+starting suddenly, and staring at each other with affright, so far were
+they from expecting that Mdlle. de Cardoville was informed of the coming
+of Marshal Simon's daughters. This discovery was like a thunder-clap to
+them.
+
+"You are no doubt astonished at seeing me so well informed," said
+Adrienne; "fortunately, before I have done, I hope to astonish you still
+more. But to return to these daughters of Marshal Simon: your highness
+will understand, that it is impossible for me to leave them in charge of
+the good people who have afforded them a temporary asylum. Though this
+family is honest, and hard-working, it is not the place for them. I shall
+go and fetch them hither, and lodge them in apartments on the
+ground-floor, along with the soldier's wife, who will do very well to
+take care of them."
+
+Upon these words, D'Aigrigny and the baron looked at each other, and the
+baron exclaimed: "Decidedly, she's out of her head."
+
+Without a word to Tripeaud, Adrienne continued: "Marshal Simon cannot
+fail to arrive at Paris shortly. Your highness perceives how pleasant it
+will he, to be able to present his daughters to him, and prove that they
+have been treated as they deserve. To-morrow morning I shall send for
+milliners and mantua makers, so that they may want for nothing. I desire
+their surprised father, on his return, to find them every way beautiful.
+They are pretty, I am told, as angels--but I will endeavor to make little
+Cupids of them."
+
+"At last, madame, you must have finished?" said the princess, in a
+sardonic and deeply irritated tone, whilst D'Aigrigny, calm and cold in
+appearance, could hardly dissemble his mental anguish.
+
+"Try again!" continued the princess, addressing Adrienne. "Are there no
+more relations that you wish to add to this interesting family-group?
+Really a queen could not act with more magnificence."
+
+"Right! I wish to give my family a royal reception--such as is due to the
+son of a king, and the daughters of the Duke de Ligny. It is well to
+unite other luxuries of life with the luxury of the hospitable heart."
+
+"The maxim is assuredly generous," said the princess, becoming more and
+more agitated; "it is only a pity that you do not possess the mines of El
+Dorado to make it practicable."
+
+"It was on the subject of a mine, said to be a rich one, that I also
+wished to speak to your highness. Could I find a better opportunity?
+Though my fortune is already considerable, it is nothing to what may come
+to our family at any moment. You will perhaps excuse, therefore, what you
+are pleased to call my royal prodigalities."
+
+D'Aigrigny's dilemma became momentarily more and more thorny. The affair
+of the medals was so important, that he had concealed it even from Dr.
+Baleinier, though he had called in his services to forward immense
+interests. Neither had Tripeaud been informed of it, for the princess
+believed that she had destroyed every vestige of those papers of
+Adrienne's father, which might have put him on the scent of this
+discovery. The abbe, therefore was not only greatly alarmed that Mdlle.
+de Cardoville might be informed of this secret, but he trembled lest she
+should divulge it.
+
+The princess, sharing the alarms of D'Aigrigny, interrupted her niece by
+exclaiming: "Madame, there are certain family affairs which ought to be
+kept secret, and, without exactly understanding to what you allude, I
+must request you to change the subject."
+
+"What, madame! are we not here a family party? Is that not sufficiently
+evident by the somewhat ungracious things that have been here said?"
+
+"No matter, madame! when affairs of interest are concerned, which are
+more or less disputable, it is perfectly useless to speak of them without
+the documents laid before every one."
+
+"And of what have we been speaking this hour, madame, if not of affairs
+of interest? I really do not understand your surprise and embarrassment."
+
+"I am neither surprised nor embarrassed, madame; but for the last two
+hours, you have obliged me to listen to so many new and extravagant
+things, that a little amaze is very permissible."
+
+"I beg your highness's pardon, but you are very much embarrassed," said
+Adrienne, looking fixedly at her aunt, "and M. d'Aigrigny also--which
+confirms certain suspicions that I have not had the time to clear up.
+Have I then guessed rightly?" she added, after a pause. "We will see--"
+
+"Madame, I command you to be silent," cried the princess, no longer
+mistress of herself.
+
+"Oh, madame!" said Adrienne, "for a person who has in general so much
+command of her feelings, you compromise yourself strangely."
+
+Providence (as some will have it) came to the aid of the princess and the
+Abbe d'Aigrigny at this critical juncture. A valet entered the room; his
+countenance bore such marks of fright and agitation, that the princess
+exclaimed as soon as she saw him: "Why, Dubois! what is the matter?"
+
+"I have to beg pardon, your highness, for interrupting you against your
+express orders, but a police inspector demands to speak with you
+instantly. He is below stairs, and the yard is full of policemen and
+soldiers."
+
+Notwithstanding the profound surprise which this new incident occasioned
+her, the princess, determining to profit by the opportunity thus
+afforded, to concert prompt measures with D'Aigrigny on the subject of
+Adrienne's threatened revelations, rose, and said to the abbe: "Will you
+be so obliging as to accompany me, M. d'Aigrigny, for I do not know what
+the presence of this commissary of police may signify."
+
+D'Aigrigny followed the speaker into the next room.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XLI.
+
+TREACHERY.
+
+The Princess de Saint-Dizier, accompanied by D'Aigrigny, and followed by
+the servants, stopped short in the next room to that in which had
+remained Adrienne, Tripeaud and the doctor.
+
+"Where is the commissary?" asked the princess of the servant, who had
+just before announced to her the arrival of that magistrate.
+
+"In the blue saloon, madame."
+
+"My compliments, and beg him to wait for me a few moments."
+
+The man bowed and withdrew. As soon as he was gone Madame de Saint Dizier
+approached hastily M. d'Aigrigny, whose countenance, usually firm and
+haughty, was now pale and agitated.
+
+"You see," cried the princess in a hurried voice, "Adrienne knows all.
+What shall we do?--what?"
+
+"I cannot tell," said the abbe, with a fixed and absent look. "This
+disclosure is a terrible blow to us."
+
+"Is all, then, lost?"
+
+"There is only one means of safety," said M. d'Aigrigny;--"the doctor."
+
+"But how?" cried the princess. "So, sudden? this very day?"
+
+"Two hours hence, it will be too late; ere then, this infernal girl will
+have seen Marshal Simon's daughters."
+
+"But--Frederick!--it is impossible! M. Baleinier will never consent. I
+ought to have been prepared before hand as we intended, after to-day's
+examination."
+
+"No matter," replied the abbe, quickly; "the doctor must try at any
+hazard."
+
+"But under what pretext?"
+
+"I will try and find one."
+
+"Suppose you were to find a pretext, Frederick, and we could act
+immediately--nothing would be ready down there."
+
+"Be satisfied: they are always ready there, by habitual foresight."
+
+"How instruct the doctor on the instant?" resumed the princess.
+
+"To send for him would be to rouse the suspicions of your niece," said M.
+d'Aigrigny, thoughtfully; "and we must avoid that before everything."
+
+"Of course," answered the princess; "her confidence in the doctor is one
+of our greatest resources."
+
+"There is a way," said the abbe quickly; "I will write a few words in
+haste to Baleinier: one of your people can take the note to him, as if it
+came from without--from a patient dangerously ill."
+
+"An excellent idea!" cried the princess. "You are right. Here--upon this
+table--there is everything necessary for writing. Quick! quick--But will
+the doctor succeed?"
+
+"In truth, I scarcely dare to hope it," said the marquis, sitting down at
+the table with repressed rage. "Thanks to this examination, going beyond
+our hopes, which our man, hidden behind the curtain, has faithfully taken
+down in shorthand--thanks to the violent scenes, which would necessarily
+have occurred to-morrow and the day after--the doctor, by fencing himself
+round with all sorts of clever precautions, would have been able to act
+with the most complete certainty. But to ask this of him to-day, on the
+instant!--Herminia--it is folly to think of!"--The marquis threw down the
+pen which he held in his hand; then he added, in a tone of bitter and
+profound irritation: "At the very moment of success--to see all our hopes
+destroyed!--Oh, the consequences of all this are incalculable. Your niece
+will be the cause of the greatest mischief--oh! the greatest injury to
+us."
+
+It is impossible to describe the expression of deep rage and implacable
+hatred with which D'Aigrigny uttered these last words.
+
+"Frederick," cried the princess with anxiety, as she clasped her hands
+strongly around the abbe's, "I conjure you, do not despair!--The doctor
+is fertile in resources, and he is so devoted to us. Let us at least,
+make the attempt."
+
+"Well--it is at least a chance," said the abbe, taking up the pen again.
+
+"Should it come to the worst." said the princess, "and Adrienne go this
+evening to fetch General Simon's daughters, she may perhaps no longer
+find them.
+
+"We cannot hope for that. It is impossible that Rodin's orders should
+have been so quickly executed. We should have been informed of it."
+
+"It is true. Write then to the doctor; I will send you Dubois, to carry
+your letter. Courage, Frederick! we shall yet be too much for that
+ungovernable girl." Madame de Saint-Dizier added, with concentrated rage:
+"Oh, Adrienne! Adrienne! you shall pay dearly for your insolent sarcasms,
+and the anxiety you have caused us."
+
+As she went out, the princess turned towards M. d'Aigrigny, and said to
+him: "Wait for me here. I will tell you the meaning of this visit of the
+police, and we will go in together."
+
+The princess disappeared. D'Aigrigny dashed off a few words, with a
+trembling hand.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XLII.
+
+THE SNARE.
+
+After the departure of Madame de Saint-Dizier and the marquis, Adrienne
+had remained in her aunt's apartment with M. Baleinier and Baron
+Tripeaud.
+
+On hearing of the commissary's arrival, Mdlle. de Cardoville had felt
+considerable uneasiness; for there could be no doubt that, as Agricola
+had apprehended, this magistrate was come to search the hotel and
+extension, in order to find the smith, whom he believed to be concealed
+there.
+
+Though she looked upon Agricola's hiding-place as a very safe one,
+Adrienne was not quite tranquil on his account; so in the event of any
+unfortunate accident, she thought it a good opportunity to recommend the
+refugee to the doctor, an intimate friend, as we have said, of one of the
+most influential ministers of the day. So, drawing near to the physician,
+who was conversing in a low voice with the baron, she said to him in her
+softest and most coaxing manner: "My good M. Baleinier, I wish to speak a
+few words with you." She pointed to the deep recess of one of the
+windows.
+
+"I am at your orders, madame," answered the doctor, as he rose to follow
+Adrienne to the recess.
+
+M. Tripeaud, who, no longer sustained by the abbe's presence, dreaded the
+young lady as he did fire, was not sorry for this diversion. To keep up
+appearances, he stationed himself before one of the sacred pictures, and
+began again to contemplate it, as if there were no bounds to his
+admiration.
+
+When Mdlle. de Cardoville was far enough from the baron, not to be
+overheard by him, she said to the physician, who, all smiles and
+benevolence, waited for her to explain: "My good doctor, you are my
+friend, as you were my father's. Just now, notwithstanding the difficulty
+of your position, you had the courage to show yourself my only partisan."
+
+"Not at all, madame; do not go and say such things!" cried the doctor,
+affecting a pleasant kind of anger. "Plague on't! you would get me into a
+pretty scrape; so pray be silent on that subject. Vade retro
+Satanas!--which means: Get thee behind me, charming little demon that you
+are!"
+
+"Do not be afraid," answered Adrienne, with a smile; "I will not
+compromise you. Only allow me to remind you, that you have often made me
+offers of service, and spoken to me of your devotion."
+
+"Put me to the test--and you will see if I do not keep my promises."
+
+"Well, then! give me a proof on the instant," said Adrienne, quickly.
+
+"Capital! this is how I like to be taken at my word. What can I do for
+you?"
+
+"Are you still very intimate with your friend the minister?"
+
+"Yes; I am just treating him for a loss of voice, which he always has,
+the day they put questions to him in the house. He likes it better."
+
+"I want you to obtain from him something very important for me."
+
+"For you? pray, what is it?"
+
+At this instant, the valet entered the room, delivered a letter to M.
+Baleinier, and said to him: "A footman has just brought this letter for
+you, sir; it is very pressing."
+
+The physician took the letter, and the servant went out.
+
+"This is one of the inconveniences of merit," said Adrienne, smiling;
+"they do not leave you a moment's rest, my poor doctor."
+
+"Do not speak of it, madame," said the physician, who could not conceal a
+start of amazement, as he recognized the writing of D'Aigrigny; "these
+patients think we are made of iron, and have monopolized the health which
+they so much need. They have really no mercy. With your permission,
+madame," added M. Baleinier, looking at Adrienne before he unsealed the
+letter.
+
+Mdlle. de Cardoville answered by a graceful nod. Marquis d'Aigrigny's
+letter was not long; the doctor read it at a single glance, and,
+notwithstanding his habitual prudence, he shrugged his shoulders, and
+said hastily: "Today! why, it's impossible. He is mad."
+
+"You speak no doubt of some poor patient, who has placed all his hopes in
+you--who waits and calls for you at this moment. Come, my dear M.
+Baleinier, do not reject his prayer. It is so sweet to justify the
+confidence we inspire."
+
+There was at once so much analogy, and such contradiction, between the
+object of this letter, written just before by Adrienne's most implacable
+enemy, and these words of commiseration which she spoke in a touching
+voice, that Dr. Baleinier himself could not help being struck with it. He
+looked at Mdlle. de Cardoville with an almost embarrassed air, as he
+replied: "I am indeed speaking of one of my patients, who counts much
+upon me--a great deal too much--for he asks me to do an impossibility.
+But why do you feel so interested in an unknown person?"
+
+"If he is unfortunate, I know enough to interest me. The person for whom
+I ask your assistance with the minister, was quite as little known to me;
+and now I take the deepest interest in him. I must tell you, that he is
+the son of the worthy soldier who brought Marshal Simon's daughters from
+the heart of Siberia."
+
+"What! he is--"
+
+"An honest workman, the support of his family; but I must tell you all
+about it--this is how the affair took place."
+
+The confidential communication which Adrienne was going to make to the
+doctor, was cut short by Madame Saint-Dizier, who, followed by M.
+d'Aigrigny, opened abruptly the door. An expression of infernal joy,
+hardly concealed beneath a semblance of extreme indignation, was visible
+in her countenance.
+
+M. d'Aigrigny threw rapidly, as he entered the apartment, an inquiring
+and anxious glance at M. Baleinier. The doctor answered by a shake of the
+head. The abbe bit his lips with silent rage; he had built his last hopes
+upon the doctor, and his projects seemed now forever annihilated,
+notwithstanding the new blow which the princess had in reserve for
+Adrienne.
+
+"Gentlemen," said Madame de Saint-Dizier, in a sharp, hurried voice, for
+she was nearly choking with wicked pleasure, "gentlemen, pray be seated!
+I have some new and curious things to tell you, on the subject of this
+young lady." She pointed to her niece, with a look of ineffable hatred
+and disdain.
+
+"My poor child, what is the matter now?" said M. Baleinier, in a soft,
+wheedling tone, before he left the window where he was standing with
+Adrienne. "Whatever happens, count upon me!"--And the physician went to
+seat himself between M. d'Aigrigny and M. Tripeaud.
+
+At her aunt's insolent address, Mdlle. de Cardoville had proudly lined
+her head. The blood rushed to her face, and irritated at the new attacks
+with which she was menaced, she advanced to the table where the princess
+was seated, and said in an agitated voice to M. Baleinier: "I shall
+expect you to call on me as soon as possible, my dear doctor. You know
+that I wish particularly to speak with you."
+
+Adrienne made one step towards the arm-chair, on which she had left her
+hat. The princess rose abruptly, and exclaimed: "What are you doing,
+madame?"
+
+"I am about to retire. Your highness has expressed to me your will, and I
+have told you mine. It is enough."
+
+She took her hat. Madame de Saint-Dizier, seeing her prey about to
+escape, hastened towards her niece, and, in defiance of all propriety,
+seized her violently by the arm with a convulsive grasp, and bade her,
+"Remain!"
+
+"Fie, madame!" exclaimed Adrienne, with an accent of painful contempt,
+"have we sunk so low?"
+
+"You wish to escape--you are afraid!" resumed Madame de Saint-Dizier,
+looking at her disdainfully from head to foot.
+
+With these words "you are afraid," you could have made Adrienne de
+Cardoville walk into a fiery furnace. Disengaging her arm from her aunt's
+grasp, with a gesture full of nobleness and pride, she threw down the hat
+upon the chair, and returning to the table, said imperiously to the
+princess: "There is something even stronger than the disgust with which
+all this inspires me--the fear of being accused of cowardice. Go on,
+madame! I am listening!"
+
+With her head raised, her color somewhat heightened, her glance half
+veiled by a tear of indignation, her arms folded over her bosom, which
+heaved in spite of herself with deep emotion, and her little foot beating
+convulsively on the carpet, Adrienne looked steadily at her aunt. The
+princess wished to infuse drop by drop, the poison with which she was
+swelling, and make her victim suffer as long as possible, feeling certain
+that she could not escape. "Gentlemen," said Madame de Saint-Dizier, in a
+forced voice, "this has occurred: I was told that the commissary of
+police wished to speak with me: I went to receive this magistrate; he
+excused himself, with a troubled air, for the nature of the duty he had
+to perform. A man, against whom a warrant was out, had been seen to enter
+the garden-house."
+
+Adrienne started, there could be no doubt that Agricola was meant. But
+she recovered her tranquillity, when she thought of the security of the
+hiding-place she had given him.
+
+"The magistrate," continued the princess, "asked my consent to search the
+hotel and extension, to discover this man. It was his right. I begged him
+to commence with the garden-house, and accompanied him. Notwithstanding
+the improper conduct of Mademoiselle, it never, I confess, entered my
+head for a moment, that she was in any way mixed up with this police
+business. I was deceived."
+
+"What do you mean, madame?" cried Adrienne.
+
+"You shall know all, madame," said the princess, with a triumphant air,
+"in good time. You were in rather too great a hurry just now, to show
+yourself so proud and satirical. Well! I accompanied the commissary in
+his search; we came to the summer-house; I leave you to imagine the
+stupor and astonishment of the magistrate, on seeing three creatures
+dressed up like actresses. At my request, the fact was noted in the
+official report; for it is well to reveal such extravagances to all whom
+it may concern."
+
+"The princess acted very wisely," said Tripeaud, bowing; "it is well that
+the authorities should be informed of such matters."
+
+Adrienne, too much interested in the fate of the workman to think of
+answering Tripeaud or the princess, listened in silence, and strove to
+conceal her uneasiness.
+
+"The magistrate," resumed Madame de Saint-Dizier, "began by a severe
+examination of these young girls; to learn if any man had, with their
+knowledge, been introduced into the house; with incredible effrontery,
+they answered that they had seen nobody enter."
+
+"The true-hearted, honest girls!" thought Mademoiselle de Cardoville,
+full of joy; "the poor workman is safe! the protection of Dr. Baleinier
+will do the rest."
+
+"Fortunately," continued the princess, "one of my women, Mrs. Grivois,
+had accompanied me. This excellent person, remembering to have seen
+Mademoiselle return home at eight o'clock in the morning, remarked with
+much simplicity to the magistrate, that the man, whom they sought, might
+probably have entered by the little garden gate, left open, accidentally,
+by Mademoiselle."
+
+"It would have been well, madame," said Tripeaud, "to have caused to be
+noted also in the report, that Mademoiselle had returned home at eight
+o'clock in the morning."
+
+"I do not see the necessity for this," said the doctor, faithful to his
+part: "it would have been quite foreign to the search carried on by the
+commissary."
+
+"But, doctor," said Tripeaud.
+
+"But, baron," resumed M. Baleinier, in a firm voice, "that is my
+opinion."
+
+"It was not mine, doctor," said the princess; "like M. Tripeaud, I
+considered it important to establish the fact by an entry in the report,
+and I saw, by the confused and troubled countenance of the magistrate,
+how painful it was to register the scandalous conduct of a young person
+placed in so high a position in society."
+
+"Certainly, madame," said Adrienne, losing patience, "I believe your
+modesty to be about equal to that of this candid commissary of police;
+but it seems to me, that your mutual innocence was alarmed a little too
+soon. You might, and ought to have reflected, that there was nothing
+extraordinary in my coming home at eight o'clock, if I had gone out at
+six."
+
+"The excuse, though somewhat tardy, is at least cunning," said the
+princess, spitefully.
+
+"I do not excuse myself, madame," said Adrienne; "but as M. Baleinier has
+been kind enough to speak a word in my favor, I give the possible
+interpretation of a fact, which it would not become me to explain in your
+presence."
+
+"The fact will stand, however, in the report," said Tripeaud, "until the
+explanation is given."
+
+Abbe d'Aigrigny, his forehead resting on his hand, remained as if a
+stranger to this scene; he was too much occupied with his fears at the
+consequences of the approaching interview between Mdlle. de Cardoville
+and Marshal Simon's daughters--for there seemed no possibility of using
+force to prevent Adrienne from going out that evening.
+
+Madame de Saint-Dizier went on: "The fact which so greatly scandalized
+the commissary is nothing compared to what I yet have to tell you,
+gentlemen. We had searched all parts of the pavilion without finding any
+one, and were just about to quit the bed-chamber, for we had taken this
+room the last, when Mrs. Grivois pointed out to us that one of the golden
+mouldings of a panel did not appear to come quite home to the wall. We
+drew the attention of the magistrate to this circumstance; his men
+examined, touched, felt--the panel flew open!--and then--can you guess
+what we discovered? But, no! it is too odious, too revolting; I dare not
+even--"
+
+"Then I dare, madame," said Adrienne, resolutely, though she saw with the
+utmost grief the retreat of Agricola was discovered; "I will spare your
+highness's candor the recital of this new scandal, and yet what I am
+about to say is in nowise intended as a justification."
+
+"It requires one, however," said Madame de Saint-Dizier, with a
+disdainful smile; "a man concealed by you in your own bedroom."
+
+"A man concealed in her bedroom!" cried the Marquis d'Aigrigny, raising
+his head with apparent indignation, which only covered a cruel joy.
+
+"A man! in the bedroom of Mademoiselle!" added Baron Tripeaud. "I hope
+this also was inserted in the report."
+
+"Yes, yes, baron," said the princess with a triumphant air.
+
+"But this man," said the doctor, in a hypocritical tone, "must have been
+a robber? Any other supposition would be in the highest degree
+improbable. This explains itself."
+
+"Your indulgence deceives you, M. Baleinier," answered the princess,
+dryly.
+
+"We knew the sort of thieves," said Tripeaud; "they are generally young
+men, handsome, and very rich."
+
+"You are wrong, sir," resumed Madame de Saint-Dizier. "Mademoiselle does
+not raise her views so high. She proves that a dereliction from duty may
+be ignoble as well as criminal. I am no longer astonished at the sympathy
+which was just now professed for the lower orders. It is the more
+touching and affecting, as the man concealed by her was dressed in a
+blouse."
+
+"A blouse!" cried the baron, with an air of extreme disgust; "then he is
+one of the common people? It really makes one's hair stand on end."
+
+"The man is a working smith--he confessed it," said the princess; "but
+not to be unjust--he is really a good-looking fellow. It was doubtless
+that singular worship which Mademoiselle pays to the beautiful--"
+
+"Enough, madame, enough!" said Adrienne suddenly, for, hitherto
+disdaining to answer, she had listened to her aunt with growing and
+painful indignation; "I was just now on the point of defending myself
+against one of your odious insinuations--but I will not a second time
+descend to any such weakness. One word only, madame; has this honest and
+worthy artisan been arrested?"
+
+"To be sure, he has been arrested and taken to prison, under a strong
+escort. Does not that pierce your heart?" sneered the princess, with a
+triumphant air. "Your tender pity for this interesting smith must indeed
+be very great, since it deprives you of your sarcastic assurance."
+
+"Yes, madame; for I have something better to do than to satirize that
+which is utterly odious and ridiculous," replied Adrienne, whose eyes
+grew dim with tears at the thought of the cruel hurt to Agricola's
+family. Then, putting her hat on, and tying the strings, she said to the
+doctor: "M. Baleinier, I asked you just now for your interest with the
+minister."
+
+"Yes, madame; and it will give me great pleasure to act on your behalf."
+
+"Is your carriage below?"
+
+"Yes, madame," said the doctor, much surprised.
+
+"You will be good enough to accompany me immediately to the minister's.
+Introduced by you, he will not refuse me the favor, or rather the act of
+justice, that I have to solicit."
+
+"What, mademoiselle," said the princess; "do you dare take such a course,
+without my orders, after what has just passed? It is really quite
+unheard-of."
+
+"It confounds one," added Tripeaud; "but we must not be surprised at
+anything."
+
+The moment Adrienne asked the doctor if his carriage was below,
+D'Aigrigny started. A look of intense satisfaction flashed across his
+countenance, and he could hardly repress the violence of his delight,
+when, darting, a rapid and significant glance at the doctor, he saw the
+latter respond to it by trace closing his eyelids in token of
+comprehension and assent.
+
+When therefore the princess resumed, in an angry tone, addressing herself
+to Adrienne: "Madame, I forbid you leaving the house!"--D'Aigrigny said
+to the speaker, with a peculiar inflection of the voice: "I think, your
+highness, we may trust the lady to the doctor's care."
+
+The marquis pronounced these words in so significant a manner, that the
+princess, having looked by turns at the physician and D'Aigrigny,
+understood it all, and her countenance grew radiant with joy.
+
+Not only did this pass with extreme rapidity, but the night was already
+almost come, so that Adrienne, absorbed in painful thoughts with regard
+to Agricola, did not perceive the different signals exchanged between the
+princess, the doctor, and the abbe. Even had she done so, they would have
+been incomprehensible to her.
+
+Not wishing to have the appearance of yielding too readily, to the
+suggestion of the marquis, Madame de Saint-Dizier resumed: "Though the
+doctor seems to me to be far too indulgent to mademoiselle, I might not
+see any great objection to trusting her with him; but that I do not wish
+to establish such a precedent, for hence forward she must have no will
+but mine."
+
+"Madame," said the physician gravely, feigning to be somewhat shocked by
+the words of the Princess de Saint-Dizier, "I do not think I have been
+too indulgent to mademoiselle--but only just. I am at her orders, to take
+her to the minister if she wishes it. I do not know what she intends to
+solicit, but I believe her incapable of abusing the confidence I repose
+in her, or making me support a recommendation undeserved."
+
+Adrienne, much moved, extended her hand cordially to the doctor, and said
+to him: "Rest assured, my excellent friend, that you will thank me for
+the step I am taking, for you will assist in a noble action."
+
+Tripeaud, who was not in the secret of the new plans of the doctor and
+the abbe in a low voice faltered to the latter, with a stupefied air,
+"What! will you let her go?"
+
+"Yes, yes," answered D'Aigrigny abruptly, making a sign that he should
+listen to the princess, who was about to speak. Advancing towards her
+niece, she said to her in a slow and measured tone, laying a peculiar
+emphasis on every word: "One moment more, mademoiselle--one last word in
+presence of these gentlemen. Answer me! Notwithstanding the heavy charges
+impending over you, are you still determined to resist my formal
+commands?"
+
+"Yes, madame."
+
+"Notwithstanding the scandalous exposure which has just taken place, you
+still persist in withdrawing yourself from my authority?"
+
+"Yes, madame."
+
+"You refuse positively to submit to the regular and decent mode of life
+which I would impose upon you?"
+
+"I have already told you, madame, that I am about to quit this dwelling
+in order to live alone and after my own fashion."
+
+"Is that your final decision?"
+
+"It is my last word."
+
+"Reflect! the matter is serious. Beware!"
+
+"I have given your highness my last word, and I never speak it twice."
+
+"Gentlemen, you hear all this?" resumed the princess; "I have tried in
+vain all that was possible to conciliate. Mademoiselle will have only
+herself to thank for the measures to which this audacious revolt will
+oblige me to have recourse."
+
+"Be it so, madame," replied Adrienne. Then, addressing M. Baleinier, she
+said quickly to him: "Come, my dear doctor; I am dying with impatience.
+Let us set out immediately. Every minute lost may occasion bitter tears
+to an honest family."
+
+So saying, Adrienne left the room precipitately with the physician. One
+of the servants called for M. Baleinier's carriage. Assisted by the
+doctor, Adrienne mounted the step, without perceiving that he said
+something in a low whisper to the footman that opened the coach-door.
+
+When, however, he was seated by the side of Mdlle. de Cardoville, and the
+door was closed upon them, he waited for about a second, and then called
+out in a loud voice to the coachman: "To the house of the minister, by
+the private entrance!" The horses started at a gallop.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XLIII.
+
+A FALSE FRIEND.
+
+Night had set in dark and cold. The sky, which had been clear till the
+sun went down, was now covered with gray and lurid clouds; a strong wind
+raised here and there, in circling eddies, the snow that was beginning to
+fall thick and fast.
+
+The lamps threw a dubious light into the interior of Dr. Baleinier's
+carriage, in which he was seated alone with Adrienne de Cardoville. The
+charming countenance of the latter, faintly illumined by the lamps
+beneath the shade of her little gray hat, looked doubly white and pure in
+contrast with the dark lining of the carriage, which was now filled with
+that, sweet, delicious, and almost voluptuous perfume which hangs about
+the garments of young women of taste. The attitude of the girl, seated
+next to the doctor, was full of grace. Her slight and elegant figure,
+imprisoned in her high-necked dress of blue cloth, imprinted its wavy
+outline on the soft cushion against which she leaned; her little feet,
+crossed one upon the other, and stretched rather forward, rested upon a
+thick bear-skin, which carpeted the bottom of the carriage. In her hand,
+which was ungloved and dazzlingly white, she held a magnificently
+embroidered handkerchief, with which, to the great astonishment of M.
+Baleinier, she dried her eyes, now filled with tears.
+
+Yes; Adrienne wept, for she now felt the reaction from the painful scenes
+through which she had passed at Saint-Dizier House; to the feverish and
+nervous excitement, which had till then sustained her, had succeeded a
+sorrowful dejection. Resolute in her independence, proud in her disdain,
+implacable in her irony, audacious in her resistance to unjust
+oppression, Adrienne was yet endowed with the most acute sensibility,
+which she always dissembled, however, in the presence of her aunt and
+those who surrounded her.
+
+Notwithstanding her courage, no one could have been less masculine, less
+of a virago, than Mdlle. Cardoville. She was essentially womanly, but as
+a woman, she knew how to exercise great empire over herself, the moment
+that the least mark of weakness on her part would have rejoiced or
+emboldened her enemies.
+
+The carriage had rolled onwards for some minutes; but Adrienne, drying
+her tears in silence, to the doctor's great astonishment, had not yet
+uttered a word.
+
+"What, my dear Mdlle. Adrienne?" said M. Baleinier, truly surprised at
+her emotion; "what! you, that were just now so courageous, weeping?"
+
+"Yes," answered Adrienne, in an agitated voice; "I weep in presence of a
+friend; but, before my aunt--oh! never."
+
+"And yet, in that long interview, your stinging replies--"
+
+"Ah me! do you think that I resigned myself with pleasure to that war of
+sarcasm? Nothing is more painful to me than such combats of bitter irony,
+to which I am forced by the necessity of defending myself from this woman
+and her friends. You speak of my courage: it does not consist, I assure
+you, in the display of wicked feelings--but in the power to repress and
+hide all that I suffer, when I hear myself treated so grossly--in the
+presence, too, of people that I hate and despise--when, after all, I have
+never done them any harm, and have only asked to be allowed to live
+alone, freely and quietly, and see those about me happy."
+
+"That's where it is: they envy your happiness, and that which you bestow
+upon others."
+
+"And it is my aunt," cried Adrienne, with indignation, "my aunt, whose
+whole life has been one long scandal that accuses me in this revolting
+manner!--as if she did not know me proud and honest enough never to make
+a choice of which I should be ashamed! Oh! if I ever love, I shall
+proclaim it, I shall be proud of it: for love, as I understand it, is the
+most glorious feeling in the world. But, alas!" continued Adrienne, with
+redoubled bitterness, "of what use are truth and honor, if they do not
+secure you from suspicions, which are as absurd as they are odious?" So
+saying, she again pressed her handkerchief to her eyes.
+
+"Come, my dear Mdlle. Adrienne," said M. Baleinier, in a voice full of
+the softest unction, "becalm--it is all over now. You have in me a
+devoted friend." As he pronounced these last words, he blushed in spite
+of his diabolical craft.
+
+"I know you are my friend," said Adrienne: "I shall never forget that, by
+taking my part to-day, you exposed yourself to the resentment of my
+aunt--for I am not ignorant of her power, which is very great, alas! for
+evil."
+
+"As for that," said the doctor, affecting a profound indifference, "we
+medical men are pretty safe from personal enmities."
+
+"Nay, my dear M. Baleinier! Mme. de Saint-Dizier and her friends never
+forgive," said the young girl, with a shudder. "It needed all my
+invincible aversion, my innate horror for all that is base, cowardly, and
+perfidious, to induce me to break so openly with her. But if death itself
+were the penalty, I could not hesitate and yet," she added, with one of
+those graceful smiles which gave such a charm to her beautiful
+countenance, "yet I am fond of life: if I have to reproach myself with
+anything, it is that I would have it too bright, too fair, too
+harmonious; but then, you know, I am resigned to my faults."
+
+"Well, come, I am more tranquil," said the doctor, gayly; "for you
+smile--that is a good sign."
+
+"It is often the wisest course; and yet, ought I smile, after the threats
+that my aunt has held out to me? Still, what can she do? what is the
+meaning of this kind of family council? Did she seriously think that the
+advice of a M. D'Aigrigny or a M. Tripeaud could have influenced me? And
+then she talked of rigorous measures. What measures can she take; do you
+know?"
+
+"I think, between ourselves, that the princess only wished to frighten
+you, and hopes to succeed by persuasion. She has the misfortune to fancy
+herself a mother of the Church, and dreams of your conversion," said the
+doctor, maliciously, for he now wished to tranquillize Adrienne at any
+cost; "but let us think no more about it. Your fire eyes must shine with
+all their lustre, to fascinate the minister that we are going to see."
+
+"You are right, dear doctor; we ought always avoid grief, for it has the
+disadvantage of making us forget the sorrows of others. But here am I,
+availing myself of your kindness, without even telling you what I
+require."
+
+"Luckily, we shall have plenty of time to talk over it, for our statesman
+lives at some distance."
+
+"In two words, here's the mystery," answered Adrienne. "I told you what
+reasons I had to interest myself in that honest workman. This morning he
+came to me in great grief, to inform me that he was compromised by some
+songs he had written (for he is a poet), and that, though innocent, he
+was threatened with an arrest; and if they put him into prison, his
+family, whose sole support he is, would die of hunger. Therefore he came
+to beg me to procure bail for him, so that he might be left at liberty to
+work: I promised immediately, thinking of your interest with the
+minister; for, as they were already in pursuit of the poor lad, I chose
+to conceal him in my residence, and you know how my aunt has twisted that
+action. Now tell me, do you think, that, by means of your recommendation,
+the minister will grant me the freedom of this workman, bail being given
+for the same?"
+
+"No doubt of it. There will not be the shadow of a difficulty--especially
+when you have explained the facts to him, with that eloquence of the
+heart which you possess in perfection."
+
+"Do you know, my dear Dr. Baleinier, why I have taken the resolution
+(which is perhaps a strange one) to ask you to accompany me to the
+minister's?"
+
+"Why, doubtless, to recommend your friend in a more effective manner."
+
+"Yes--but also to put an end, by a decisive step, to the calumnies which
+my aunt will be sure to spread with regard to me, and which she has
+already, you know, had inserted in the report of the commissary of
+police. I have preferred to address myself at once, frankly and openly,
+to a man placed in a high social position. I will explain all to him, who
+will believe me, because truth has an accent of its own."
+
+"All this, my dear Mdlle. Adrienne, is wisely planned. You will, as the
+saw says, kill two birds with one stone--or rather, you will obtain by
+one act of kindness two acts of justice; you will destroy a dangerous
+calumny, and restore a worthy youth to liberty."
+
+"Come," said Adrienne, laughing, "thanks to this pleasing prospect, my
+light heart has returned."
+
+"How true that in life," said the doctor, philosophically, "everything
+depends on the point of view."
+
+Adrienne was so completely ignorant of the forms of a constitutional
+government, and had so blind a confidence in the doctor, that she did not
+doubt for an instant what he told her. She therefore resumed with joy:
+"What happiness it will be! when I go to fetch the daughters of Marshal
+Simon, to be able to console this workman's mother, who is now perhaps in
+a state of cruel anxiety, at not seeing her son return home!"
+
+"Yes, you will have this pleasure," said M. Baleinier, with a smile; "for
+we will solicit and intrigue to such purpose, that the good, mother may
+learn from you the release of her son before she even knows that he has
+been arrested."
+
+"How kind, how obliging you are!" said Adrienne. "Really, if the motive
+were not so serious, I should be ashamed of making you lose so much
+precious time, my dear M. Baleinier. But I know your heart."
+
+"I have no other wish, than to prove to you my profound devotion, my
+sincere attachment," said the doctor inhaling a pinch of snuff. But at
+the same time, he cast an uneasy glance through the window, for the
+carriage was just crossing the Place de l'Odeon, and in spite of the
+snow, he could see the front of the Odeon theatre brilliantly
+illuminated. Now Adrienne, who had just turned her head towards that
+side, might perhaps be astonished at the singular road they were taking.
+
+In order to draw off her attention by a skillful diversion, the doctor
+exclaimed suddenly: "Bless me! I had almost forgotten."
+
+"What is the matter, M. Baleinier?" said Adrienne, turning hastily
+towards him.
+
+"I had forgotten a thing of the highest importance, in regard to the
+success of our petition."
+
+"What is it, please?" asked the young girl, anxiously.
+
+M. Baleinier gave a cunning smile. "Every man," said he, "has his
+weakness--ministers even more than others. The one we are going to visit
+has the folly to attach the utmost importance to his title, and the first
+impression would be unfavorable, if you did not lay great stress on the
+Minister."
+
+"Is that all, my dear M. Baleinier?" said Adrienne, smiling in her turn.
+"I will even go so far as Your Excellency, which is, I believe, one of
+his adopted titles."
+
+"Not now--but that is no matter; if you could even slide in a My Lord or
+two, our business would be done at once."
+
+"Be satisfied! since there are upstart ministers as well as City-turned
+gentlemen, I will remember Moliere's M. Jourdain, and feed full the
+gluttonous vanity of your friend."
+
+"I give him up to you, for I know he will be in good hands," replied the
+physician, who rejoiced to see that the carriage had now entered those
+dark streets which lead from the Place de l'Odeon to the Pantheon
+district; "I do not wish to find fault with the minister for being proud,
+since his pride may be of service to us on this occasion."
+
+"These petty devices are innocent enough," said Mdlle. de Cardoville,
+"and I confess that I do not scruple to have recourse to them." Then,
+leaning towards the door-sash, she added: "Gracious! how sad and dark are
+these streets. What wind! what snow! In which quarter are we?"
+
+"What! are you so ungrateful, that you do not recognize by the absence of
+shops, your dear quarter of the Faubourg Saint Germain?"
+
+"I imagine we had quitted it long ago."
+
+"I thought so too," said the physician, leaning forward as if to
+ascertain where they were, "but we are still there. My poor coachman,
+blinded by the snow, which is beating against his face, must have gone
+wrong just now--but we are all right again. Yes, I perceive we are in the
+Rue Saint Guillaume--not the gayest of streets by the way--but, in ten
+minutes, we shall arrive at the minister's private entrance, for intimate
+friends like myself enjoy the privilege of escaping the honors of a grand
+reception."
+
+Mdlle. de Cardoville, like most carriage-people, was so little acquainted
+with certain streets of Paris, as well as with the customs of men in
+office, that she did not doubt for a moment the statements of Baleinier,
+in whom she reposed the utmost confidence.
+
+When they left the Saint-Dizier House, the doctor had upon his lips a
+question which he hesitated to put, for fear of endangering himself in
+the eyes of Adrienne. The latter had spoken of important interests, the
+existence of which had been concealed from her. The doctor, who was an
+acute and skillful observer, had quite clearly remarked the embarrassment
+and anxiety of the princess and D'Aigrigny. He no longer doubted, that
+the plot directed against Adrienne--one in which he was the blind agent,
+in submission to the will of the Order--related to interests which had
+been concealed from him, and which, for that very reason, he burned to
+discover; for every member of the dark conspiracy to which he belonged
+had necessarily acquired the odious vices inherent to spies and
+informers--envy, suspicion, and jealous curiosity.
+
+It is easy to understand, therefore, that Dr. Baleinier, though quite
+determined to serve the projects of D'Aigrigny, was yet very anxious to
+learn what had been kept from him. Conquering his irresolution, and
+finding the opportunity favorable, and no time to be lost, he said to
+Adrienne, after a moment's silence: "I am going perhaps to ask you a very
+indiscreet question. If you think it such, pray do not answer."
+
+"Nay--go on, I entreat you."
+
+"Just now--a few minutes before the arrival of the commissary of police
+was announced to your aunt--you spoke, I think, of some great interests,
+which had hitherto been concealed from you."
+
+"Yes, I did so."
+
+"These words," continued M. Baleinier, speaking slowly and emphatically,
+"appeared to make a deep impression on the princess."
+
+"An impression so deep," said Adrienne, "that sundry suspicions of mine
+were changed to certainty."
+
+"I need not tell you, my charming friend," resumed M. Baleinier, in a
+bland tone, "that if I remind you of this circumstance, it is only to
+offer you my services, in case they should be required. If not--and there
+is the shadow of impropriety in letting me know more--forget that I have
+said a word."
+
+Adrienne became serious and pensive, and, after a silence of some
+moments, she thus answered Dr. Baleinier: "On this subject, there are
+some things that I do not know--others that I may tell you--others again
+that I must keep from you: but you are so kind to-day, that I am happy to
+be able to give you a new mark of confidence."
+
+"Then I wish to know nothing," said the doctor, with an air of humble
+deprecation, "for I should have the appearance of accepting a kind of
+reward; whilst I am paid a thousand times over, by the pleasure I feel in
+serving you."
+
+"Listen," said Adrienne, without attending to the delicate scruples of
+Dr. Baleinier; "I have powerful reasons for believing that an immense
+inheritance must, at no very distant period, be divided between the
+members of my family, all of whom I do not know--for, after the
+Revocation of the Edict of Nantes, those from whom we are descended were
+dispersed in foreign countries, and experienced a great variety of
+fortunes."
+
+"Really!" cried the doctor, becoming extremely interested. "Where is this
+inheritance, in whose hands?"
+
+"I do not know."
+
+"Now how will you assert your rights?"
+
+"That I shall learn soon."
+
+"Who will inform you of it?"
+
+"That I may not tell you."
+
+"But how did you find out the existence of this inheritance?"
+
+"That also I may not tell you," returned Adrienne, in a soft and
+melancholy tone, which remarkably contrasted with the habitual vivacity
+of her conversation. "It is a secret--a strange secret--and in those
+moments of excitement, in which you have sometimes surprised me, I have
+been thinking of extraordinary circumstances connected with this secret,
+which awakened within me lofty and magnificent ideas."
+
+Adrienne paused and was silent, absorbed in her own reflections.
+Baleinier did not seek to disturb her. In the first place, Mdlle. de
+Cardoville did not perceive the direction the coach was taking; secondly,
+the doctor was not sorry to ponder over what he had just heard. With his
+usual perspicuity, he saw that the Abbe d'Aigrigny was concerned in this
+inheritance, and he resolved instantly to make a secret report on the
+subject; either M. d'Aigrigny was acting under the instructions of the
+Order, or by his own impulse; in the one event, the report of the doctor
+would confirm a fact; in the other, it would reveal one.
+
+For some time, therefore, the lady and Dr. Baleinier remained perfectly
+silent, no longer even disturbed by the noise of the wheels, for the
+carriage now rolled over a thick carpet of snow, and the streets had
+become more and more deserted. Notwithstanding his crafty treachery,
+notwithstanding his audacity and the blindness of his dupe, the doctor
+was not quite tranquil as to the result of his machinations. The critical
+moment approached, and the least suspicion roused in the mind of Adrienne
+by any inadvertence on his part, might ruin all his projects.
+
+Adrienne, already fatigued by the painful emotions of the day, shuddered
+from time to time, as the cold became more and more piercing; in her
+haste to accompany Dr. Baleinier, she had neglected to take either shawl
+or mantle.
+
+For some minutes the coach had followed the line of a very high wall,
+which, seen through the snow, looked white against a black sky. The
+silence was deep and mournful. Suddenly the carriage stopped, and the
+footman went to knock at a large gateway; he first gave two rapid knocks,
+and then one other at a long interval. Adrienne did not notice the
+circumstance, for the noise was not loud, and the doctor had immediately
+begun to speak, to drown with his voice this species of signal.
+
+"Here we are at last," said he gayly to Adrienne; "you must be very
+winning--that is, you must be yourself."
+
+"Be sure I will do my best," replied Adrienne, with a smile; then she
+added, shivering in spite of herself: "How dreadfully cold it is! I must
+confess, my dear Dr. Baleinier, that when I have been to fetch my poor
+little relations from the house of our workman's mother, I shall be truly
+glad to find myself once more in the warmth and light of my own cheerful
+rooms, for you know my aversion to cold and darkness."
+
+"It is quite natural," said the doctor, gallantly; "the most charming
+flowers require the most light and heat."
+
+Whilst the doctor and Mdlle. de Cardoville exchanged these few words, a
+heavy gate had turned creaking upon its hinges, and the carriage had
+entered a court-yard. The physician got down first, to offer his arm to
+Adrienne.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XLIV.
+
+THE MINISTER'S CABINET.
+
+The carriage had stopped before some steps covered with snow, which led
+to a vestibule lighted by a lamp. The better to ascend the steps, which
+were somewhat slippery, Adrienne leaned upon the doctor's arm.
+
+"Dear me! how you tremble," said he.
+
+"Yes," replied she, shuddering, "I feel deadly cold. In my haste, I came
+out without a shawl. But how gloomy this house appears," she added,
+pointing to the entrance.
+
+"It is what you call the minister's private house, the sanctum sanctorum,
+whither our statesman retires far from the sound of the profane," said
+Dr. Baleinier, with a smile. "Pray come in!" and he pushed open the door
+of a large hall, completely empty.
+
+"They are right in saying," resumed Dr. Baleinier, who covered his secret
+agitation with an appearance of gayety, "that a minister's house is like
+nobody else's. Not a footman--not a page, I should say--to be found in
+the antechamber. Luckily," added he, opening the door of a room which
+communicated with the vestibule,
+
+"'In this seraglio reared, I know the secret ways.'"
+
+Mdlle. de Cardoville was now introduced into an apartment hung with green
+embossed paper, and very simply furnished with mahogany chairs, covered
+with yellow velvet; the floor was carefully polished, and a globe lamp,
+which gave at most a third of its proper light, was suspended (at a much
+greater height than usual) from the ceiling. Finding the appearance of
+this habitation singularly plain for the dwelling of a minister,
+Adrienne, though she had no suspicion, could not suppress a movement of
+surprise and paused a moment on the threshold of the door. M. Baleinier,
+by whose arm she held, guessed the cause of her astonishment, and said to
+her with a smile:
+
+"This place appears to you very paltry for 'his excellency,' does it not?
+If you knew what a thing constitutional economy is!--Moreover, you will
+see a 'my lord,' who has almost as little pretension as his furniture.
+But please to wait for me an instant. I will go and inform the minister
+you are here, and return immediately."
+
+Gently disengaging himself from the grasp of Adrienne, who had
+involuntarily pressed close to him, the physician opened a small side
+door, by which he instantly disappeared. Adrienne de Cardoville was left
+alone.
+
+Though she could not have explained the cause of her impression, there
+was something awe-inspiring to the young lady in this large, cold, naked,
+curtainless room; and as, by degrees, she noticed certain peculiarities
+in the furniture, which she had not at first perceived, she was seized
+with an indefinable feeling of uneasiness.
+
+Approaching the cheerless hearth, she perceived with surprise that an
+iron grating completely enclosed the opening of the chimney, and that the
+tongs and shovel were fastened with iron chains. Already astonished by
+this singularity, she was about mechanically to draw towards her an
+armchair placed against the wall, when she found that it remained
+motionless. She then discovered that the back of this piece of furniture,
+as well as that of all the other chairs, was fastened to the wainscoting
+by iron clamps. Unable to repress a smile, she exclaimed: "Have they so
+little confidence in the statesman in whose house I am, that they are
+obliged to fasten the furniture to the walls?"
+
+Adrienne had recourse to this somewhat forced pleasantry as a kind of
+effort to resist the painful feeling of apprehension that was gradually
+creeping over her; for the most profound and mournful silence reigned in
+this habitation, where nothing indicated the life, the movement and the
+activity, which usually surround a great centre of business. Only, from
+time to time, the young lady heard the violent gusts of wind from
+without.
+
+More than a quarter of an hour had elapsed, and M. Baleinier did not
+return. In her impatient anxiety, Adrienne wished to call some one to
+inquire about the doctor and the minister. She raised her eyes to look
+for a bell-rope by the side of the chimney-glass; she found none, but she
+perceived, that what she had hitherto taken for a glass, thanks to the
+half obscurity of the room, was in reality a large sheet of shining tin.
+Drawing nearer to it, she accidentally touched a bronzed candlestick; and
+this, as well as a clock, was fixed to the marble of the chimney-piece.
+
+In certain dispositions of mind, the most insignificant circumstances
+often assume terrific proportions. This immovable candlestick, this
+furniture fastened to the wainscot, this glass replaced by a tin sheet,
+this profound silence, and the prolonged absence of M. Baleinier, had
+such an effect upon Adrienne, that she was struck with a vague terror.
+Yet such was her implicit confidence in the doctor, that she reproached
+herself with her own fears, persuading herself that the causes of them
+were after all of no real importance, and that it was unreasonable to
+feel uneasy at such trifles.
+
+Still, though she thus strove to regain courage, her anxiety induced her
+to do what otherwise she would never have attempted. She approached the
+little door by which the doctor had disappeared, and applied her ear to
+it. She held her breath, and listened, but heard nothing.
+
+Suddenly, a dull, heavy sound, like that of a falling body, was audible
+just above her head; she thought she could even distinguish a stifled
+moaning. Raising her eyes, hastily, she saw some particles of the plaster
+fall from the ceiling, loosened, no doubt, by the shaking of the floor
+above.
+
+No longer able to resist the feeling of terror, Adrienne ran to the door
+by which she had entered with the doctor, in order to call some one. To
+her great surprise, she found it was fastened on the outside. Yet, since
+her arrival, she had heard no sound of a key turning in the lock.
+
+More and more alarmed, the young girl flew to the little door by which
+the physician had disappeared, and at which she had just been listening.
+This door also was fastened on the outside.
+
+Still, wishing to struggle with the terror which was gaining invincibly
+upon her, Adrienne called to her aid all the firmness of her character,
+and tried to argue away her fears.
+
+"I must have been deceived." she said; "it was only a fall that I heard.
+The moaning had no existence, except in my imagination. There are a
+thousand reasons for believing that it was not a person who fell down.
+But, then, these locked doors? They, perhaps, do not know that I am here;
+they may have thought that there was nobody in this room."
+
+As she uttered these words, Adrienne looked round with anxiety; then she
+added, in a firm voice: "No weakness! it is useless to try to blind
+myself to my real situation. On the contrary, I must look it well in the
+face. It is evident that I am not here at a minister's house; no end of
+reasons prove it beyond a doubt; M. Baleinier has therefore deceived me.
+But for what end? Why has he brought me hither? Where am I?"
+
+The last two questions appeared to Adrienne both equally insoluble. It
+only remained clear, that she was the victim of M. Baleinier's perfidy.
+But this certainly seemed so horrible to the young girl's truthful and
+generous soul, that she still tried to combat the idea by the
+recollection of the confiding friendship which she had always shown this
+man. She said to herself with bitterness: "See how weakness and fear may
+lead one to unjust and odious suspicions! Yes; for until the last
+extremity, it is not justifiable to believe in so infernal a
+deception--and then only upon the clearest evidence. I will call some
+one: it is the only way of completely satisfying these doubts." Then,
+remembering that there was no bell, she added: "No matter; I will knock,
+and some one will doubtless answer." With her little, delicate hand,
+Adrienne struck the door several times.
+
+The dull, heavy sound which came from the door showed that it was very
+thick. No answer was returned to the young girl. She ran to the other
+door. There was the same appeal on her part, the same profound silence
+without--only interrupted from time to time by the howling of the wind.
+
+"I am not more timid than other people," said Adrienne, shuddering; "I do
+not know if it is the excessive cold, but I tremble in spite of myself. I
+endeavor to guard against all weakness; yet I think that any one in my
+position would find all this very strange and frightful."
+
+At this instant, loud cries, or rather savage and dreadful howls, burst
+furiously from the room just above, and soon after a sort of stamping of
+feet, like the noise of a violent struggle, shook the ceiling of the
+apartment. Struck with consternation, Adrienne uttered a loud cry of
+terror became deadly pale, stood for a moment motionless with affright,
+and then rushed to one of the windows, and abruptly threw it open.
+
+A violent gust of wind, mixed with melted snow, beat against Adrienne's
+face, swept roughly into the room, and soon extinguished the flickering
+and smoky light of the lamp. Thus, plunged in profound darkness, with her
+hands clinging to the bars that were placed across the window, Mdlle. de
+Cardoville yielded at length to the full influence of her fears, so long
+restrained, and was about to call aloud for help, when an unexpected
+apparition rendered her for some minutes absolutely mute with terror.
+
+Another wing of the building, opposite to that in which she was, stood at
+no great distance. Through the midst of the black darkness, which filled
+the space between, one large, lighted window was distinctly visible.
+Through the curtainless panes, Adrienne perceived a white figure, gaunt
+and ghastly, dragging after it a sort of shroud, and passing and
+repassing continually before the window, with an abrupt and restless
+motion. Her eyes fixed upon this window, shining through the darkness,
+Adrienne remained as if fascinated by that fatal vision: and, as the
+spectacle filled up the measure of her fears, she called for help with
+all her might, without quitting the bars of the window to which she
+clung. After a few seconds, whilst she was thus crying out, two tall
+women entered the room in silence, unperceived by Mdlle. de Cardoville,
+who was still clinging to the window.
+
+These women, of about forty to fifty years of age, robust and masculine,
+were negligently and shabbily dressed, like chambermaids of the lower
+sort; over their clothes they wore large aprons of blue cotton, cut
+sloping from their necks, and reaching down to their feet. One of them,
+who held a lamp in her hand, had a broad, red, shining face, a large
+pimpled nose, small green eyes, and tow hair, which straggled rough and
+shaggy from beneath her dirty white cap. The other, sallow, withered, and
+bony, wore a mourning-cap over a parchment visage, pitted with the
+small-pox, and rendered still more repulsive by the thick black eyebrows,
+and some long gray hairs that overshadowed the upper lip. This woman
+carried, half unfolded in her hand, a garment of strange form, made of
+thick gray stuff.
+
+They both entered silently by the little door, at the moment when
+Adrienne, in the excess of her terror, was grasping the bars of the
+window, and crying out: "Help! help!"
+
+Pointing out the young lady to each other, one of them went to place the
+lamp on the chimney-piece, whilst the other (she who wore the mourning
+cap) approached the window, and laid her great bony hand upon Mdlle. de
+Cardoville's shoulder.
+
+Turning round, Adrienne uttered a new cry of terror at the sight of this
+grim figure. Then, the first moment of stupor over, she began to feel
+less afraid; hideous as was this woman, it was at least some one to speak
+to; she exclaimed, therefore, in an agitated voice: "Where is M.
+Baleinier?"
+
+The two women looked at each other, exchanged a leer of mutual
+intelligence, but did not answer.
+
+"I ask you, madame," resumed Adrienne, "where is M. Baleinier, who
+brought me hither? I wish to see him instantly."
+
+"He is gone," said the big woman.
+
+"Gone!" cried Adrienne; "gone without me!--Gracious heaven! what can be
+the meaning of all this?" Then, after a moment's reflection, she resumed,
+"Please to fetch me a coach."
+
+The two women looked at each other, and shrugged their shoulders. "I
+entreat you, madame," continued Adrienne, with forced calmness in her
+voice, "to fetch me a coach since M. Baleinier is gone without me. I wish
+to leave this place."
+
+"Come, come, madame," said the tall woman, who was called "Tomboy,"
+without appearing to listen to what Adrienne asked, "it is time for you
+to go to bed."
+
+"To go to bed!" cried Mdlle. Cardoville, in alarm. "This is really enough
+to drive one mad." Then, addressing the two women, she added: "What is
+this house? where am I? answer!"
+
+"You are in a house," said Tomboy, in a rough voice, "where you must not
+make a row from the window, as you did just now."
+
+"And where you must not put out the lamp as you have done," added the
+other woman, who was called Gervaise, "or else we shall have a crow to
+pick with you."
+
+Adrienne, unable to utter a word, and trembling with fear, looked in a
+kind of stupor from one to the other of these horrible women; her reason
+strove in vain to comprehend what was passing around her. Suddenly she
+thought she had guessed it, and exclaimed: "I see there is a mistake
+here. I do not understand how, but there is a mistake. You take me for
+some one else. Do you know who I am? My name is Adrienne de Cardoville
+You see, therefore, that I am at liberty to leave this house; no one in
+the world has the right to detain me. I command you, then, to fetch me a
+coach immediately. If there are none in this quarter, let me have some
+one to accompany me home to the Rue de Babylone, Saint-Dizier House. I
+will reward such a person liberally, and you also."
+
+"Well, have you finished?" said Tomboy. "What is the use of telling us
+all this rubbish?"
+
+"Take care," resumed Adrienne, who wished to try every means; "if you
+detain me here by force, it will be very serious. You do not know to what
+you expose yourselves."
+
+"Will you come to bed; yes or no?" said Gervaise, in a tone of harsh
+impatience.
+
+"Listen to me, madame," resumed Adrienne, precipitately, "let me out this
+place, and I will give each of you two thousand francs. It is not enough?
+I will give you ten--twenty--whatever you ask. I am rich--only let me out
+for heaven's sake, let me out!--I cannot remain here--I am afraid." As
+she said this, the tone of the poor girl's voice was heartrending.
+
+"Twenty thousand francs!--that's the usual figure, ain't it, Tomboy?"
+
+"Let be, Gervaise! they all sing the same song."
+
+"Well, then? since reasons, prayers, and menaces are all in vain," said
+Adrienne gathering energy from her desperate position, "I declare to you
+that I will go out and that instantly. We will see if you are bold enough
+to employ force against me."
+
+So saying, Adrienne advanced resolutely towards the door. But, at this
+moment, the wild hoarse cries, which had preceded the noise of the
+struggle that had so frightened her, again resounded; only, this time
+they were not accompanied by the movement of feet.
+
+"Oh! what screams!" said Adrienne, stopping short, and in her terror
+drawing nigh to the two women. "Do you not hear those cries? What, then,
+is this house, in which one hears such things? And over there, too,"
+added she almost beside herself, as she pointed to the other wing where
+the lighted windows shone through the darkness, and the white figure
+continued to pass and repass before it; "over there! do you see? What is
+it?"
+
+"Oh! that 'un," said Tomboy; "one of the folks who, like you, have not
+behaved well."
+
+"What do you say?" cried Mdlle. de Cardoville, clasping her hands in
+terror. "Heavens! what is this house? What do they do to them?"
+
+"What will be done to you, if you are naughty, and refuse to come to
+bed," answered Gervaise.
+
+"They put this on them," said Tomboy, showing the garment that she had
+held under her arm, "they clap 'em into the strait-waistcoast."
+
+"Oh!" cried Adrienne, hiding her face in her hands with horror. A
+terrible discovery had flashed suddenly upon her. She understood it all.
+
+Capping the violent emotions of the day, the effect of this last blow was
+dreadful. The young girl felt her strength give way. Her hands fell
+powerless, her face became fearfully pale, all her limbs trembled, and
+sinking upon her knees, and casting a terrified glance at the strait
+waistcoat she was just able to falter in a feeble voice, "Oh, no:--not
+that--for pity's sake, madame. I will do--whatever you wish." And, her
+strength quite failing, she would have fallen upon the ground if the two
+women had not run towards her, and received her fainting into their arms.
+
+"A fainting fit," said Tomboy; "that's not dangerous. Let us carry her to
+bed. We can undress her, and this will be all nothing."
+
+"Carry her, then," said Gervaise. "I will take the lamp."
+
+The tall and robust Tomboy took up Mdlle. de Cardoville as if she had
+been a sleeping child, carried her in her arms, and followed her
+companion into the chamber through which M. Baleinier had made his exit.
+
+This chamber, though perfectly clean, was cold and bare. A greenish paper
+covered the walls, and a low, little iron bedstead, the head of which
+formed a kind of shelf, stood in one corner; a stove, fixed in the
+chimney-place, was surrounded by an iron grating, which forbade a near
+approach; a table fastened to the wall, a chair placed before this table,
+and also clamped to the floor, a mahogany chest of drawers, and a rush
+bottomed armchair completed the scanty furniture. The curtainless window
+was furnished on the inside with an iron grating, which served to protect
+the panes from being broken.
+
+It was into this gloomy retreat, which formed so painful a contrast with
+the charming little summer-house in the Rue de Babylone, that Adrienne
+was carried by Tomboy, who, with the assistance of Gervaise, placed the
+inanimate form on the bed. The lamp was deposited on the shelf at the
+head of the couch. Whilst one of the nurses held her up, the other
+unfastened and took off the cloth dress of the young girl, whose head
+drooped languidly on her bosom. Though in a swoon, large tears trickled
+slowly from her closed eyes, whose long black lashes threw their shadows
+on the transparent whiteness of her cheeks. Over her neck and breast of
+ivory flowed the golden waves of her magnificent hair, which had come
+down at the time of her fall. When, as they unlaced her satin corset,
+less soft, less fresh, less white than the virgin form beneath, which lay
+like a statue of alabaster in its covering of lace and lawn, one of the
+horrible hags felt the arms and shoulders of the young girl with her
+large, red, horny, and chapped hands. Though she did not completely
+recover the use of her senses, she started involuntarily from the rude
+and brutal touch.
+
+"Hasn't she little feet?" said the nurse, who, kneeling down, was
+employed in drawing off Adrienne's stockings. "I could hold them both in
+the hollow of my hand." In fact, a small, rosy foot, smooth as a child's,
+here and there veined with azure, was soon exposed to view, as was also a
+leg with pink knee and ankle, of as pure and exquisite a form as that of
+Diana Huntress.
+
+"And what hair!" said Tomboy; "so long and soft!--She might almost walk
+upon it. 'Twould be a pity to cut it off, to put ice upon her skull!" As
+she spoke, she gathered up Adrienne's magnificent hair, and twisted it as
+well as she could behind her head. Alas! it was no longer the fair, light
+hand of Georgette, Florine, or Hebe that arranged the beauteous locks of
+their mistress with so much love and pride!
+
+And as she again felt the rude touch of the nurse's hand, the young girl
+was once more seized with the same nervous trembling, only more
+frequently and strongly than before. And soon, whether by a sort of
+instinctive repulsion, magnetically excited during her swoon, or from the
+effect of the cold night air, Adrienne again started and slowly came to
+herself.
+
+It is impossible to describe her alarm, horror, and chaste indignation,
+as, thrusting aside with both her hands the numerous curls that covered
+her face, bathed in tears, she saw herself half-naked between these
+filthy hags. At first, she uttered a cry of shame and terror; then to
+escape from the looks of the women, by a movement, rapid as thought, she
+drew down the lamp placed on the shelf at the head of her bed, so that it
+was extinguished and broken to pieces on the floor. After which, in the
+midst of the darkness, the unfortunate girl, covering herself with the
+bed-clothes, burst into passionate sobs.
+
+The nurses attributed Adrienne's cry and violent actions to a fit of
+furious madness. "Oh! you begin again to break the lamps--that's your
+partickler fancy, is it?" cried Tomboy, angrily, as she felt her way in
+the dark. "Well! I gave you fair warning. You shall have the strait
+waistcoat on this very night, like the mad gal upstairs."
+
+"That's it," said the other; "hold her fast, Tommy, while I go and fetch
+a light. Between us, we'll soon master her."
+
+"Make haste, for, in spite of her soft look, she must be a regular fury.
+We shall have to sit up all night with her, I suppose."
+
+Sad and painful contrast! That morning, Adrienne had risen free, smiling,
+happy, in the midst of all the wonders of luxury and art, and surrounded
+by the delicate attentions of the three charming girls whom she had
+chosen to serve her. In her generous and fantastic mood, she had prepared
+a magnificent and fairy-like surprise for the young Indian prince, her
+relation; she had also taken a noble resolution with regard to the two
+orphans brought home by Dagobert; in her interview with Mme. de
+Saint-Dizier, she had shown herself by turns proud and sensitive,
+melancholy and gay, ironical and serious, loyal and courageous; finally,
+she had come to this accursed house to plead in favor of an honest and
+laborious artisan.
+
+And now, in the evening delivered over by an atrocious piece of treachery
+to the ignoble hands of two coarse-minded muses in a madhouse--Mdlle. de
+Cardoville felt her delicate limbs imprisoned in that abominable garment,
+which is called a strait-waistcoat.
+
+Mdlle. de Cardoville passed a horrible night in company with the two
+hags. The next morning, at nine o'clock, what was the young lady's stupor
+to see Dr. Baleinier enter the room, still smiling with an air at once
+benevolent and paternal.
+
+"Well, my dear child?" said he, in a bland, affectionate voice; "how have
+we spent the night?"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XLV.
+
+THE VISIT.
+
+The keepers, yielding to Mdlle. de Cardoville's prayers, and, above all,
+to her promises of good behavior, had only left on the canvas jacket a
+portion of the time. Towards morning, they had allowed her to rise and
+dress herself, without interfering.
+
+Adrienne was seated on the edge of her bed. The alteration in her
+features, her dreadful paleness, the lurid fire of fever shining in her
+eyes, the convulsive trembling which ever and anon shook her frame,
+showed already the fatal effects of this terrible night upon a
+susceptible and high-strung organization. At sight of Dr. Baleinier, who,
+with a sign, made Gervaise and her mate leave the room, Adrienne remained
+petrified.
+
+She felt a kind of giddiness at the thought of the audacity of the man,
+who dared to present himself to her! But when the physician repeated, in
+the softest tone of affectionate interest: "Well, my poor child! how have
+we spent the night?" she pressed her hands to her burning forehead, as if
+in doubt whether she was awake or sleeping. Then, staring at the doctor,
+she half opened her lips; but they trembled so much that it was
+impossible for her to utter a word. Anger, indignation, contempt, and,
+above all, the bitter and acutely painful feeling of a generous heart,
+whose confidence has been basely betrayed, so overpowered Adrienne that
+she was unable to break the silence.
+
+"Come, come! I see how it is," said the doctor, shaking his head
+sorrowfully; "you are very much displeased with me--is it not so? Well! I
+expected it, my dear child."
+
+These words, pronounced with the most hypocritical effrontery, made
+Adrienne start up. Her pale cheek flushed, her large eyes sparkled, she
+lifted proudly her beautiful head, whilst her upper lip curled slightly
+with a smile of disdainful bitterness; then, passing in angry silence
+before M. Baleinier, who retained his seat, she directed her swift and
+firm steps towards the door. This door, in which was a little wicket, was
+fastened on the outside. Adrienne turned towards the doctor, and said to
+him, with an imperious gesture; "Open that door for me!"
+
+"Come, my dear Mdlle. Adrienne," said the physician, "be calm. Let us
+talk like good friends--for you know I am your friend." And he inhaled
+slowly a pinch of snuff.
+
+"It appears, sir," said Adrienne, in a voice trembling with indignation,
+"I am not to leave this place to-day?"
+
+"Alas! no. In such a state of excitement--if you knew how inflamed your
+face is, and your eyes so feverish, your pulse must be at least eighty to
+the minute--I conjure you, my dear child, not to aggravate your symptoms
+by this fatal agitation."
+
+After looking fixedly at the doctor, Adrienne returned with a slow step,
+and again took her seat on the edge of the bed. "That is right," resumed
+M. Baleinier: "only be reasonable; and, as I said before, let us talk
+together like good friends."
+
+"You say well, sir," replied Adrienne, in a collected and perfectly calm
+voice; "let us talk like friends. You wish to make me pass for mad--is it
+not so?"
+
+"I wish, my dear child, that one day you may feel towards me as much
+gratitude as you now do aversion. The latter I had fully foreseen--but,
+however painful may be the performance of certain duties, we must resign
+ourselves to it."
+
+M. Baleinier sighed, as he said this, with such a natural air of
+conviction, that for a moment Adrienne could not repress a movement of
+surprise; then, while her lip curled with a bitter laugh, she answered:
+"Oh, it's very clear, you have done all this for my good?"
+
+"Really, my dear young lady--have I ever had any other design than to be
+useful to you?"
+
+"I do not know, sir, if your impudence be not still more odious than your
+cowardly treachery!"
+
+"Treachery!" said M. Baleinier, shrugging his shoulders with a grieved
+air; "treachery, indeed! Only reflect, my poor child--do you think, if I
+were not acting with good faith, conscientiously, in your interest, I
+should return this morning to meet your indignation, for which I was
+fully prepared? I am the head physician of this asylum, which belongs to
+me--but I have two of my pupils here, doctors, like myself--and might
+have left them to take care of you but, no--I could not consent to it--I
+knew your character, your nature, your previous history, and (leaving out
+of the question the interest I feel for you) I can treat your case better
+than any one."
+
+Adrienne had heard M. Baleinier without interrupting him; she now looked
+at him fixedly, and said: "Pray, sir, how much do they pay you to make me
+pass for mad?"
+
+"Madame!" cried M. Baleinier, who felt stung in spite of, himself.
+
+"You know I am rich," continued Adrienne, with overwhelming disdain; "I
+will double the sum that they give you. Come, sir--in the name of
+friendship, as you call it, let me have the pleasure of outbidding them."
+
+"Your keepers," said M. Baleinier, recovering all his coolness, "have
+informed me, in their report of the night's proceedings, that you made
+similar propositions to them."
+
+"Pardon me, sir; I offered them what might be acceptable to poor women,
+without education, whom misfortune has forced to undertake a painful
+employment--but to you, sir a man of the world, a man of science, a man
+of great abilities--that is quite different--the pay must be a great deal
+higher. There is treachery at all prices; so do not found your refusal on
+the smallness of my offer to those wretched women. Tell me--how much do
+you want?"
+
+"Your keepers, in their report of the night, have also spoken of
+threats," resumed M. Baleinier, with the same coolness; "have you any of
+those likewise to address me? Believe me, my poor child, you will do well
+to exhaust at once your attempts at corruption, and your vain threats of
+vengeance. We shall then come to the true state of the case."
+
+"So you deem my threats vain!" cried Mdlle. de Cardoville, at length
+giving way to the full tide of her indignation, till then restrained. "Do
+you think, sir, that when I leave this place--for this outrage must have
+an end--that I will not proclaim aloud your infamous treachery? Do you
+think chat I will not denounce to the contempt and horror of all, your
+base conspiracy with Madame de Saint-Dizier? Oh! do you think that I will
+conceal the frightful treatment I have received! But, mad as I may be, I
+know that there are laws in this country, by which I will demand a full
+reparation for myself, and shame, disgrace, and punishment, for you, and
+for those who have employed you! Henceforth, between you and me will be
+hate and war to the death; and all my strength, all my intelligence--"
+
+"Permit me to interrupt you, my dear Mdlle. Adrienne," said the doctor,
+still perfectly calm and affectionate: "nothing can be more unfavorable
+to your cure, than to cherish idle hopes: they will only tend to keep up
+a state of deplorable excitement: it is best to put the facts fairly
+before you, that you may understand clearly your position.
+
+"1. It is impossible for you to leave this house. 2. You can have no
+communication with any one beyond its walls. 3. No one enters here that I
+cannot perfectly depend upon. 4. I am completely indifferent to your
+threats of vengeance because law and reason are both in my favor."
+
+"What! have you the right to shut me up here?"
+
+"We should never have come to that determination, without a number of
+reasons of the most serious kind."
+
+"Oh! there are reasons for it, it seems."
+
+"Unfortunately, too many."
+
+"You will perhaps inform me of them?"
+
+"Alas! they are only too conclusive; and if you should ever apply to the
+protection of the laws, as you threatened me just now, we should be
+obliged to state them. The fantastical eccentricity of your manner of
+living, your whimsical mode of dressing up your maids, your extravagant
+expenditure, the story of the Indian prince, to whom you offered a royal
+hospitality, your unprecedented resolution of going to live by yourself,
+like a young bachelor, the adventure of the man found concealed in your
+bed-chamber; finally, the report of your yesterday's conversation, which
+was faithfully taken down in shorthand, by a person employed for that
+purpose."
+
+"Yesterday?" cried Adrienne, with as much indignation as surprise.
+
+"Oh, yes! to be prepared for every event, in case you should misinterpret
+the interest we take in you, we had all your answers reported by a man
+who was concealed behind a curtain in the next room; and really, one day,
+in a calmer state of mind, when you come to read over quietly the
+particulars of what took place, you will no longer be astonished at the
+resolution we have been forced to adopt."
+
+"Go on, sir," said Adrienne, with contempt.
+
+"The facts I have cited being thus confirmed and acknowledged, you will
+understand, my dear Mdlle. Adrienne, that your friends are perfectly free
+from responsibility. It was their duty to endeavor to cure this
+derangement of mind, which at present only shows itself in idle whims,
+but which, were it to increase, might seriously compromise the happiness
+of your future life. Now, in my opinion, we may hope to see a radical
+cure, by means of a treatment at once physical and moral; but the first
+condition of this attempt was to remove you from the scenes which so
+dangerously excited your imagination; whilst a calm retreat, the repose
+of a simple and solitary life combined with my anxious, I may say,
+paternal care, will gradually bring about a complete recovery--"
+
+"So, sir," said Adrienne, with a bitter laugh, "the love of a noble
+independence, generosity, the worship of the beautiful, detestation of
+what is base and odious, such are the maladies of which you wish to cure
+me; I fear that my case is desperate, for my aunt has long ago tried to
+effect that benevolent purpose."
+
+"Well, we may perhaps not succeed; but at least we will attempt it. You
+see, then, there is a mass of serious facts, quite enough to justify the
+determination come to by the family-council, which puts me completely at
+my ease with regard to your menaces. It is to that I wish to return; a
+man of my age and condition never acts lightly--in such circumstances,
+and you can readily understand what I was saying to you just now. In a
+word, do not hope to leave this place before your complete recovery, and
+rest assured, that I am and shall ever be safe from your resentment. This
+being once admitted, let us talk of your actual state with all the
+interest that you naturally inspire."
+
+"I think, sir, that, considering I am mad, you speak to me very
+reasonably."
+
+"Mad! no, thank heaven, my poor child, you are not mad yet--and I hope
+that, by my care, you will never be so. It is to prevent your becoming
+mad, that one must take it in time; and believe me, it is full time. You
+look at me with such an air of surprise--now tell me, what interest can I
+have in talking to you thus? Is it the hatred of your aunt that I wish to
+favor? To what end, I would ask? What can she do for me or against me? I
+think of her at this moment neither more nor less than I thought
+yesterday. Is it a new language that I hold to yourself? Did I not speak
+to you yesterday many times, of the dangerous excitement of mind in which
+you were, and of your singular whims and fancies? It is true, I made use
+of stratagem to bring you hither. No doubt, I did so. I hastened to avail
+myself of the opportunity, which you yourself offered, my poor, dear
+child; for you would never have come hither with your own good will. One
+day or the other, we must have found some pretext to get you here: and I
+said to myself; 'Her interest before all! Do your duty, let whatever will
+betide!'--"
+
+Whilst M. Baleinier was speaking, Adrienne's countenance, which had
+hitherto expressed alternately indignation and disdain, assumed an
+indefinable look of anguish and horror. On hearing this man talk in such
+a natural manner, and with such an appearance of sincerity, justice and
+reason, she felt herself more alarmed than ever. An atrocious deception,
+clothed in such forms, frightened her a hundred times more than the
+avowed hatred of Madame de Saint-Dizier. This audacious hypocrisy seemed
+to her so monstrous, that she believed it almost impossible.
+
+Adrienne had so little the art of hiding her emotions, that the doctor, a
+skillful and profound physiognomist, instantly perceived the impression
+he had produced. "Come," said he to himself, "that is a great step.
+Fright has succeeded to disdain and anger. Doubt will come next. I shall
+not leave this place, till she has said to me: 'Return soon, my good M.
+Baleinier!'" With a voice of sorrowful emotion, which seemed to come from
+the very depths of his heart, the doctor thus continued: "I see, you are
+still suspicious of me. All I can say to you is falsehood, fraud,
+hypocrisy, hate--is it not so?--Hate you? why, in heaven's name, should I
+hate you? What have you done to me? or rather--you will perhaps attach
+more value to this reason from a man of my sort," added M. Baleinier,
+bitterly, "or rather, what interest have I to hate you?--You, that have
+only been reduced to the state in which you are by an over abundance of
+the most generous instincts--you, that are suffering, as it were, from an
+excess of good qualities--you can bring yourself coolly and deliberately
+to accuse an honest man, who has never given you any but marks of
+affection, of the basest, the blackest, the most abominable crime, of
+which a human being could be guilty. Yes, I call it a crime; because the
+audacious deception of which you accuse me would not deserve any other
+name. Really, my poor child, it is hard--very hard--and I now see, that
+an independent spirit may sometimes exhibit as much injustice and
+intolerance as the most narrow mind. It does not incense me--no--it only
+pains me: yes, I assure you--it pains me cruelly." And the doctor drew
+his hand across his moist eyes.
+
+It is impossible to give the accent, the look, the gesture of M.
+Baleinier, as he thus expressed himself. The most able and practiced
+lawyer, or the greatest actor in the world, could not have played this
+scene with more effect than the doctor--or rather, no one could have
+played it so well--M. Baleinier, carried away by the influence of the
+situations, was himself half convinced of what he said.
+
+In few words, he felt all the horror of his own perfidy but he felt also
+that Adrienne could not believe it; for there are combinations of such
+nefarious character, that pure and upright minds are unable to comprehend
+them as possible. If a lofty spirit looks down into the abyss of evil,
+beyond a certain depth it is seized with giddiness, and no longer able to
+distinguish one object from the other.
+
+And then the most perverse of men have a day, an hour, a moment, in which
+the good instincts, planted in the heart of every creature, appear in
+spite of themselves. Adrienne was too interesting, was in too cruel a
+position, for the doctor mot to feel some pity for her in his heart; the
+tone of sympathy, which for some time past he had been obliged to assume
+towards her, and the sweet confidence of the young girl in return, had
+become for this man habitual and necessary ratifications. But sympathy
+and habit were now to yield to implacable necessity.
+
+Thus the Marquis d'Aigrigny had idolized his mother; dying, she called
+him to her--and he turned away from the last prayer of a parent in the
+agony of death. After such an example, how could M. Baleinier hesitate to
+sacrifice Adrienne? The members of the Order, of which he formed a part,
+were bound to him--but he was perhaps still more strongly bound to them,
+for a long partnership in evil creates terrible and indissoluble ties.
+
+The moment M. Baleinier finished his fervid address to Mdlle. de
+Cardoville, the slide of the wicket in the door was softly pushed back,
+and a pair of eyes peered attentively into the chamber, unperceived by
+the doctor.
+
+Adrienne could not withdraw her gaze from the physician's, which seemed
+to fascinate her. Mute, overpowered, seized with a vague terror, unable
+to penetrate the dark depths of this man's soul, moved in spite of
+herself by the accent of sorrow, half feigned and half real--the young
+lady had a momentary feeling of doubt. For the first time, it came into
+her mind, that M. Baleinier might perhaps be committing a frightful
+error--committing it in good faith.
+
+Besides, the anguish of the past night, the dangers of her position, her
+feverish agitation, all concurred to fill her mind with trouble and
+indecision. She looked at the physician with ever increasing surprise,
+and making a violent effort not to yield to a weakness, of which she
+partly foresaw the dreadful consequences, she exclaimed: "No, no, sir; I
+will not, I cannot believe it. You have too much skill, too much
+experience, to commit such an error."
+
+"An error!" said M. Baleinier, in a grave and sorrowful tone. "Let me
+speak to you in the name of that skill and experience, which you are
+pleased to ascribe to me. Hear me but for a moment, my dear child; and
+then I will appeal to yourself."
+
+"To me!" replied the young girl, in a kind of stupor; "you wish to
+persuade me, that--" Then, interrupting herself, she added, with a
+convulsive laugh: "This only is wanting to your triumph--to bring me to
+confess that I am mad--that my proper place is here--that I owe you--"
+
+"Gratitude. Yes, you do owe it me, even as I told you at the commencement
+of this conversation. Listen to me then; my words may be cruel, but there
+are wounds which can only be cured with steel and fire. I conjure you, my
+dear child--reflect--throw back one impartial glance at your past
+life--weigh your own thoughts--and you will be afraid of yourself.
+Remember those moments of strange excitement, during which, as you have
+told me, you seemed to soar above the earth--and, above all, while it is
+yet time--while you preserve enough clearness of mind to compare and
+judge--compare, I entreat, your manner of living with that of other
+ladies of your age? Is there a single one who acts as you act? who thinks
+as you think? unless, indeed, you imagine yourself so superior to other
+women, that, in virtue of that supremacy, you can justify a life and
+habits that have no parallel in the world."
+
+"I have never had such stupid pride, you know it well," said Adrienne,
+looking at the doctor with growing terror.
+
+"Then, my dear child, to what are we to attribute your strange and
+inexplicable mode of life? Can you even persuade yourself that it is
+founded on reason? Oh, my child! take care?--As yet, you only indulge in
+charming originalities of conduct, poetical eccentricities, sweet and
+vague reveries--but the tendency is fatal, the downward course
+irresistible. Take care, take care!--the healthful, graceful, spiritual
+portion of your intelligence has yet the upper hand, and imprints its
+stamp upon all your extravagances; but you do not know, believe me, with
+what frightful force the insane portion of the mind, at a given moment,
+develops itself and strangles up the rest. Then we have no longer
+graceful eccentricities, like yours, but ridiculous, sordid, hideous
+delusions."
+
+"Oh! you frighten me," said the unfortunate girl, as she passed her
+trembling hands across her burning brow.
+
+"Then," continued M. Baleinier, in an agitated voice, "then the last rays
+of intelligence are extinguished; then madness--for we must pronounce the
+dreaded word--gets the upper hand, and displays itself in furious and
+savage transports."
+
+"Like the woman upstairs," murmured Adrienne, as, with fixed and eager
+look, she raised her finger towards the ceiling.
+
+"Sometimes," continued the doctor, alarmed himself at the terrible
+consequences of his own words, but yielding to the inexorable fatality of
+his situation, "sometimes madness takes a stupid and brutal form; the
+unfortunate creature, who is attacked by it, preserves nothing human but
+the shape--has only the instincts of the lower animals--eats with
+voracity, and moves ever backwards and forwards in the cell, in which
+such a being is obliged to be confined. That is all its life--all."
+
+"Like the woman yonder." cried Adrienne, with a still wilder look, as she
+slowly raised her arm towards the window that was visible on the other
+side of the building.
+
+"Why--yes," said M. Baleinier. "Like you, unhappy child, those women were
+young, fair, and sensible, but like you, alas! they had in them the fatal
+germ of insanity, which, not having been destroyed in time, grew, and
+grew, larger and ever larger, until it overspread and destroyed their
+reason."
+
+"Oh, mercy!" cried Mdlle. de Cardoville, whose head was getting confused
+with terror; "mercy! do not tell me such things!--I am afraid. Take me
+from this place--oh! take me from this place!" she added, with a
+heartrending accent; "for, if I remain here, I shall end by going mad!
+No," added she, struggling with the terrible agony which assailed her,
+"no, do not hope it! I shall not become mad. I have all my reason. I am
+not blind enough to believe what you tell me. Doubtless, I live
+differently from others; think differently from others; am shocked by
+things that do not offend others; but what does all this prove? Only that
+I am different from others. Have I a bad heart? Am I envious or selfish?
+My ideas are singular, I knew--yes, I confess it--but then, M. Baleinier,
+is not their tendency good, generous, noble!--Oh!" cried Adrienne's
+supplicating voice, while her tears flowed abundantly, "I have never in
+my life done one malicious action; my worst errors have arisen from
+excess of generosity. Is it madness to wish to see everybody about one
+too happy? And again, if you are mad, you must feel it yourself--and I do
+not feel it--and yet--I scarcely know--you tell me such terrible things
+of those two women! You ought to know these things better than I. But
+then," added Mdlle, de Cardoville, with an accent of the deepest despair,
+"something ought to have been done. Why, if you felt an interest for me,
+did you wait so long? Why did you not take pity on me sooner? But the
+most frightful fact is, that I do not know whether I ought to believe
+you--for all this may be a snare--but no, no! you weep--it is true,
+then!--you weep!" She looked anxiously at M. Baleinier, who,
+notwithstanding his cynical philosophy, could not restrain his tears at
+the sight of these nameless tortures.
+
+"You weep over me," she continued; "so it is true! But (good heaven!)
+must there not be something done? I will do all that you wish--all--so
+that I may not be like those women. But if it should be too late? no, it
+is not too late--say it is not too late, my good M. Baleinier! Oh, now I
+ask your pardon for what I said when you came in--but then I did not
+know, you see--I did not know!"
+
+To these few broken words, interrupted by sobs, and rushing forth in a
+sort of feverish excitement, succeeded a silence of some minutes, during
+which the deeply affected physician dried his tears. His resolution had
+almost failed him. Adrienne hid her face in her hands. Suddenly she again
+lifted her head; her countenance was calmer than before, though agitated
+by a nervous trembling.
+
+"M. Baleinier," she resumed, with touching dignity, "I hardly know what I
+said to you just now. Terror, I think, made me wander; I have again
+collected myself. Hear me! I know that I am in your power; I know that
+nothing can deliver me from it. Are you an implacable enemy? or are you a
+friend? I am not able to determine. Do you really apprehend, as you
+assure me, that what is now eccentricity will hereafter become
+madness--or are you rather the accomplice in some infernal machination?
+You alone can answer. In spite of my boasted courage, I confess myself
+conquered. Whatever is required of me--you understand, whatever it may
+be, I will subscribe to, I give you my word and you know that I hold it
+sacred--you have therefore no longer any interest to keep me here. If, on
+the contrary, you really think my reason in danger--and I own that you
+have awakened in my mind vague, but frightful doubts--tell it me, and I
+will believe you. I am alone, at your mercy, without friends, without
+counsel. I trust myself blindly to you. I know not whether I address
+myself to a deliverer or a destroyer--but I say to you--here is my
+happiness--here is my life--take it--I have no strength to dispute it
+with you!"
+
+These touching words, full of mournful resignation and almost hopeless
+reliance, gave the finishing stroke to the indecision of M. Baleinier.
+Already deeply moved by this scene, and without reflecting on the
+consequences of what he was about to do, he determined at all events to
+dissipate the terrible and unjust fears with which he had inspired
+Adrienne. Sentiments of remorse and pity, which now animated the
+physician, were visible in his countenance.
+
+Alas! they were too visible. The moment he approached to take the hand of
+Mdlle. de Cardoville, a low but sharp voice exclaimed from behind the
+wicket: "M. Baleinier!"
+
+"Rodin!" muttered the startled doctor to himself; "he's been spying on
+me!"
+
+"Who calls you?" asked the lady of the physician.
+
+"A person that I promised to meet here this morning." replied he, with
+the utmost depression, "to go with him to St. Mary's Convent, which is
+close at hand."
+
+"And what answer have you to give me?" said Adrienne with mortal anguish.
+
+After a moment's solemn silence, during which he turned his face towards
+the wicket, the doctor replied, in a voice of deep emotion: "I am--what I
+have always been--a friend incapable of deceiving you."
+
+Adrienne became deadly pale. Then, extending her hand to M. Baleinier,
+she said to him in a voice that she endeavored to render calm: "Thank
+you--I will have courage--but will it be very long?"
+
+"Perhaps a month. Solitude, reflection, a proper regimen, my attentive
+care, may do much. You will be allowed everything that is compatible with
+your situation. Every attention will be paid you. If this room displeases
+you, I will see you have another."
+
+"No--this or another--it is of little consequence," answered Adrienne,
+with an air of the deepest dejection.
+
+"Come, come! be of good courage. There is no reason to despair."
+
+"Perhaps you flatter me," said Adrienne with the shadow of a smile.
+"Return soon," she added, "my dear M. Baleinier! my only hope rests in
+you now."
+
+Her head fell upon her bosom, her hands upon her knees and she remained
+sitting on the edge of the bed, pale, motionless, overwhelmed with woe.
+
+"Mad!" she said when M. Baleinier had disappeared. "Perhaps mad!"
+
+We have enlarged upon this episode much less romantic than it may appear.
+Many times have motives of interest or vengeance or perfidious
+machination led to the abuse of the imprudent facility with which inmates
+are received in certain private lunatic asylums from the hands of their
+families or friends.
+
+We shall subsequently explain our views, as to the establishment of a
+system of inspection, by the crown or the civil magistrates, for the
+periodical survey of these institutions, and others of no less
+importance, at present placed beyond the reach of all superintendence.
+These latter are the nunneries of which we will presently have an
+example.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XLVI.
+
+PRESENTIMENTS.
+
+Whilst the preceding events took place in Dr. Baleinier's asylum, other
+scenes were passing about the same hour, at Frances Baudoin's, in the Rue
+Brise-Miche.
+
+Seven o'clock in the morning had just struck at St. Mary church; the day
+was dark and gloomy, and the sleet rattled against the windows of the
+joyless chamber of Dagobert's wife.
+
+As yet ignorant of her son's arrest, Frances had waited for him the whole
+of the preceding evening, and a good part of the night, with the most
+anxious uneasiness; yielding at length to fatigue and sleep, about three
+o'clock in the morning, she had thrown herself on a mattress beside the
+bed of Rose and Blanche. But she rose with the first dawn of day, to
+ascend to Agricola's garret, in the very faint hope that he might have
+returned home some hours before.
+
+Rose and Blanche had just risen, and dressed themselves. They were alone
+in the sad, chilly apartment. Spoil-sport, whom Dagobert had left in
+Paris, was stretched at full length near the cold stove; with his long
+muzzle resting on his forepaws, he kept his eye fixed on the sisters.
+
+Having slept but little during the night, they had perceived the
+agitation and anguish of Dagobert's wife. They had seen her walk up and
+down, now talking to herself, now listening to the least noise that came
+up the staircase, and now kneeling before the crucifix placed at one
+extremity of the room. The orphans were not aware, that, whilst she
+brayed with fervor on behalf of her son, this excellent woman was praying
+for them also. For the state of their souls filled her with anxiety and
+alarm.
+
+The day before, when Dagobert had set out for Chartres, Frances, having
+assisted Rose and Blanche to rise, had invited them to say their morning
+prayer: they answered with the utmost simplicity, that they did not know
+any, and that they never more than addressed their mother, who was in
+heaven. When Frances, struck with painful surprise, spoke to them of
+catechism, confirmation, communion, the sisters opened widely their large
+eyes with astonishment, understanding nothing of such talk.
+
+According to her simple faith, terrified at the ignorance of the young
+girls in matters of religion, Dagobert's wife believed their souls to be
+in the greatest peril, the more so as, having asked them if they had ever
+been baptized (at the same time explaining to them the nature of that
+sacrament), the orphans answered they did not think they had, since there
+was neither church nor priest in the village where they were born, during
+their mother's exile in Siberia.
+
+Placing one's self in the position of Frances, you understand how much
+she was grieved and alarmed; for, in her eyes, these young girls, whom
+she already loved tenderly, so charmed was she with their sweet
+disposition, were nothing but poor heathens, innocently doomed to eternal
+damnation. So, unable to restrain her tears, or conceal her horrors, she
+had clasped them in her arms, promising immediately to attend to their
+salvation, and regretting that Dagobert had not thought of having them
+baptized by the way. Now, it must be confessed, that this notion had
+never once occurred to the ex-grenadier.
+
+When she went to her usual Sunday devotions, Frances had not dared to
+take Rose and Blanche with her, as their complete ignorance of sacred
+things would have rendered their presence at church, if not useless,
+scandalous; but, in her own fervent prayers she implored celestial mercy
+for these orphans, who did not themselves know the desperate position of
+their souls.
+
+Rose and Blanche were now left alone, in the absence of Dagobert's wife.
+They were still dressed in mourning, their charming faces seeming even
+more pensive than usual. Though they were accustomed to a life of
+misfortune, they had been struck, since their arrival in the Rue Brise
+Miche, with the painful contrast between the poor dwelling which they had
+come to inhabit, and the wonders which their young imagination had
+conceived of Paris, that golden city of their dreams. But, soon this
+natural astonishment was replaced by thoughts of singular gravity for
+their age. The contemplation of such honest and laborious poverty made
+the orphans have reflections no longer those of children, but of young
+women. Assisted by their admirable spirit of justice and of sympathy for
+all that is good, by their noble heart, by a character at once delicate
+and courageous, they had observed and meditated much during the last
+twenty-four hours.
+
+"Sister," said Rose to Blanche, when Frances had quitted the room,
+"Dagobert's poor wife is very uneasy. Did you remark in the night, how
+agitated she was? how she wept and prayed?"
+
+"I was grieved to see it, sister, and wondered what could be the cause."
+
+"I am almost afraid to guess. Perhaps we may be the cause of her
+uneasiness?"
+
+"Why so, sister? Because we cannot say prayers, nor tell if we have ever
+been baptized?"
+
+"That seemed to give her a good deal of pain, it is true. I was quite
+touched by it, for it proves that she loves us tenderly. But I could not
+understand how we ran such terrible danger as she said we did."
+
+"Nor I either, sister. We have always tried not to displease our mother,
+who sees and hears us."
+
+"We love those who love us; we are resigned to whatever may happen to us.
+So, who can reproach us with any harm?"
+
+"No one. But, perhaps, we may do some without meaning it."
+
+"We?"
+
+"Yes, and therefore I thought: We may perhaps be the cause of her
+uneasiness."
+
+"How so?"
+
+"Listen, sister! yesterday Madame Baudoin tried to work at those sacks of
+coarse cloth there on the table."
+
+"Yes; but in about an half-hour, she told us sorrowfully, that she could
+not go on, because her eyes failed her, and she could not see clearly."
+
+"So that she is not able to earn her living."
+
+"No--but her son, M. Agricola, works for her. He looks so good, so gay,
+so frank, and so happy to devote himself for his mother. Oh, indeed! he
+is the worthy brother of our angel Gabriel!"
+
+"You will see my reason for speaking of this. Our good old Dagobert told
+us, that, when we arrived here, he had only a few pieces of money left."
+
+"That is true."
+
+"Now both he and his wife are unable to earn their living; what can a
+poor old soldier like him do?"
+
+"You are right; he only knows how to love us, and take care of us, like
+his children."
+
+"It must then be M. Agricola who will have to support his father; for
+Gabriel is a poor priest, who possesses nothing, and can render no
+assistance to those who have brought him up. So M. Agricola will have to
+support the whole family by himself."
+
+"Doubtless--he owes it to father and mother--it is his duty, and he will
+do it with a good will."
+
+"Yes, sister--but he owes us nothing."
+
+"What do you say, Blanche?"
+
+"He is obliged to work for us also, as we possess nothing in the world."
+
+"I had not thought of that. True."
+
+"It is all very well, sister, for our father to be Duke and Marshal of
+France, as Dagobert tells us, it is all very well for us to hope great
+things from this medal, but as long as father is not here, and our hopes
+are not realized, we shall be merely poor orphans, obliged to remain a
+burden to this honest family, to whom we already owe so much, and who
+find it so hard to live, that--"
+
+"Why do you pause, sister?"
+
+"What I am about to say would make other people laugh; but you will
+understand it. Yesterday, when Dagobert's wife saw poor Spoil-sport at
+his dinner, she said, sorrowfully: 'Alas! he eats as much as a man!'--so
+that I could almost have cried to hear her. They must be very poor, and
+yet we have come to increase their poverty."
+
+The sisters looked sadly at each other, while Spoil-sport pretended not
+to know they were talking of his voracity.
+
+"Sister, I understand," said Rose, after a moment's silence. "Well, we
+must not be at the charge of any one. We are young, and have courage.
+Till our fate is decided, let us fancy ourselves daughters of workmen.
+After all, is not our grandfather a workman? Let us find some employment,
+and earn our own living. It must be so proud and happy to earn one's
+living!"
+
+"Good little sister," said Blanche, kissing Rose. "What happiness! You
+have forestalled my thought; kiss me!"
+
+"How so?"
+
+"Your project is mine exactly. Yesterday, when I heard Dagobert's wife
+complain so sadly that she had lost her sight. I looked into your large
+eyes, which reminded me of my own, and said to myself: 'Well! this poor
+old woman may have lost her sight, but Rose and Blanche Simon can see
+pretty clearly'--which is a compensation," added Blanche, with a smile.
+
+"And, after all," resumed Rose, smiling in her turn, "the young ladies in
+question are not so very awkward, as not to be able to sew up great sacks
+of coarse cloth--though it may chafe their fingers a little."
+
+"So we had both the same thought, as usual; only I wished to surprise
+you, and waited till we were alone, to tell you my plan."
+
+"Yes, but there is something teases me."
+
+"What is that?"
+
+"First of all, Dagobert and his wife will be sure to say to us: 'Young
+ladies, you are not fitted for such work. What, daughters of a Marshal of
+France sewing up great ugly bags!' And then, if we insist upon it, they
+will add: 'Well, we have no work to give you. If you want any, you must
+hunt for it.' What would Misses Simon do then?"
+
+"The fact is, that when Dagobert has made up his mind to anything--"
+
+"Oh! even then, if we coax him well--"
+
+"Yes, in certain things; but in others he is immovable. It is just as
+when upon the journey, we wished to prevent his doing so much for us."
+
+"Sister, an idea strikes me," cried Rose, "an excellent idea!"
+
+"What is it? quick!"
+
+"You know the young woman they call Mother Bunch, who appears to be so
+serviceable and persevering?"
+
+"Oh yes! and so timid and discreet. She seems always to be afraid of
+giving offence, even if she looks at one. Yesterday, she did not perceive
+that I saw her; but her eyes were fixed on you with so good and sweet an
+expression, that tears came into mine at the very sight of it."
+
+"Well, we must ask her how she gets work, for certainly she lives by her
+labor."
+
+"You are right. She will tell us all about it; and when we know, Dagobert
+may scold us, or try to make great ladies of us, but we will be as
+obstinate as he is."
+
+"That is it; we must show some spirit! We will prove to him, as he says
+himself, that we have soldier's blood in our veins."
+
+"We will say to him: 'Suppose, as you say, we should one day be rich, my
+good Dagobert, we shall only remember this time with the more pleasure."
+
+"It is agreed then, is it not, Rose? The first time we are alone with
+Mother Bunch, we must make her our confidant, and ask her for
+information. She is so good a person, that she will not refuse us."
+
+"And when father comes home, he will be pleased, I am sure, with our
+courage."
+
+"And will approve our wish to support ourselves, as if we were alone in
+the world."
+
+On these words of her sister, Rose started. A cloud of sadness, almost of
+alarm, passed over her charming countenance, as she exclaimed: "Oh,
+sister, what a horrible idea!"
+
+"What is the matter? your look frightens me."
+
+"At the moment I heard you say, that our father would approve our wish to
+support ourselves, as if we were alone in the world--a frightful thought
+struck me--I know not why--but feel how my heart beats--just as if some
+misfortune were about to happen us."
+
+"It is true; your poor heart beats violently. But what was this thought?
+You alarm me."
+
+"When we were prisoners, they did not at least separate us, and, besides,
+the prison was a kind of shelter--"
+
+"A sad one, though shared with you."
+
+"But if, when arrived here, any accident had parted us from Dagobert--if
+we had been left alone, without help, in this great town?"
+
+"Oh, sister! do not speak of that. It would indeed be terrible. What
+would become of us, kind heaven?"
+
+This cruel thought made the girls remain for a moment speechless with
+emotion. Their sweet faces, which had just before glowed with a noble
+hope, grew pale and sad. After a pretty long silence, Rose uplifted her
+eyes, now filled with tears, "Why does this thought," she said,
+trembling, "affect us so deeply, sister? My heart sinks within me, as if
+it were really to happen to us."
+
+"I feel as frightened as you yourself. Alas! were we both to be lost in
+this immense city, what would become of us?"
+
+"Do not let us give way to such ideas, Blanche! Are we not here in
+Dagobert's house, in the midst of good people?"
+
+"And yet, sister," said Rose, with a pensive air, "it is perhaps good for
+us to have had this thought."
+
+"Why so?"
+
+"Because we shall now find this poor lodging all the better, as it
+affords a shelter from all our fears. And when, thanks to our labor, we
+are no longer a burden to any one, what more can we need until the
+arrival of our father?"
+
+"We shall want for nothing--there you are right--but still, why did this
+thought occur to us, and why does it weigh so heavily on our minds?"
+
+"Yes, indeed--why? Are we not here in the midst of friends that love us?
+How could we suppose that we should ever be left alone in Paris? It is
+impossible that such a misfortune should happen to us--is it not, my dear
+sister?"
+
+"Impossible!" said Rose, shuddering. "If the day before we reached that
+village in Germany, where poor Jovial was killed, any one had said to us:
+'To-morrow, you will be in prison'--we should have answered as now: 'It
+is impossible. Is not Dagobert here to protect us; what have we to fear?'
+And yet, sister, the day after we were in prison at Leipsic."
+
+"Oh! do not speak thus, my dear sister! It frightens me."
+
+By a sympathetic impulse, the orphans took one another by the hand, while
+they pressed close together, and looked around with involuntary fear. The
+sensation they felt was in fact deep, strange, inexplicable, and yet
+lowering--one of those dark presentiments which come over us, in spite of
+ourselves--those fatal gleams of prescience, which throw a lurid light on
+the mysterious profundities of the future.
+
+Unaccountable glimpses of divination! often no sooner perceived than
+forgotten--but, when justified by the event, appearing with all the
+attributes of an awful fatality!
+
+The daughters of Marshal Simon were still absorbed in the mournful
+reverie which these singular thoughts had awakened, when Dagobert's wife,
+returning from her son's chamber, entered the room with a painfully
+agitated countenance.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XLVII.
+
+THE LETTER.
+
+Frances' agitation was so perceptible that Rose could not help
+exclaiming: "Good gracious, what is the matter?"
+
+"Alas, my dear young ladies! I can no longer conceal it from you," said
+Frances, bursting into tears. "Since yesterday I have not seen him. I
+expected my son to supper as usual, and he never came; but I would not
+let you see how much I suffered. I continued to expect him, minute after
+minute; for ten years he has never gone up to bed without coming to kiss
+me; so I spent a good part of the night close to the door, listening if I
+could hear his step. But he did not come; and, at last, about three
+o'clock in the morning, I threw myself down upon the mattress. I have
+just been to see (for I still had a faint hope), if my son had come in
+this morning--"
+
+"Well, madame!"
+
+"There is no sign of him!" said the poor mother, drying her eyes.
+
+Rose and Blanche looked at each other with emotion; the same thought
+filled the minds of both; if Agricola should not return, how would this
+family live? would they not, in such an event, become doubly burdensome?
+
+"But, perhaps, madame," said Blanche, "M. Agricola remained too late at
+his work to return home last night."
+
+"Oh! no, no! he would have returned in the middle of the night, because
+he knew what uneasiness he would cause me by stopping out. Alas! some
+misfortune must have happened to him! Perhaps he has been injured at the
+forge, he is so persevering at his work. Oh, my poor boy! and, as if I
+did not feel enough anxiety about him, I am also uneasy about the poor
+young woman who lives upstairs."
+
+"Why so, madame?"
+
+"When I left my son's room, I went into hers, to tell her my grief, for
+she is almost a daughter to me; but I did not find her in the little
+closet where she lives, and the bed had not even been slept in. Where can
+she have gone so early--she, that never goes out?"
+
+Rose and Blanche looked at each other with fresh uneasiness, for they
+counted much upon Mother Bunch to help them in the resolution they had
+taken. Fortunately, both they and Frances were soon to be satisfied on
+this head, for they heard two low knocks at the door, and the
+sempstress's voice, saying: "Can I come in, Mrs. Baudoin?"
+
+By a spontaneous impulse, Rose and Blanche ran to the door, and opened it
+to the young girl. Sleet and snow had been falling incessantly since the
+evening before; the gingham dress of the young sempstress, her scanty
+cotton shawl, and the black net cap, which, leaving uncovered two thick
+bands of chestnut hair, encircled her pale and interesting countenance,
+were all dripping wet; the cold had given a livid appearance to her thin,
+white hands; it was only in the fire of her blue eyes, generally so soft
+and timid, that one perceived the extraordinary energy which this frail
+and fearful creature had gathered from the emergency of the occasion.
+
+"Dear me! where do you come from, my good Mother Bunch?" said Frances.
+"Just now, in going to see if my son had returned, I opened your door,
+and was quite astonished to find you gone out so early."
+
+"I bring you news of Agricola."
+
+"Of my son!" cried Frances, trembling all over. "What has happened to
+him? Did you see him?--Did you speak to him?--Where is he?"
+
+"I did not see him, but I know where he is." Then, perceiving that
+Frances grew very pale, the girl added: "He is well; he is in no danger."
+
+"Blessed be God, who has pity on a poor sinner!--who yesterday restored
+me my husband, and to-day, after a night of cruel anguish, assures me of
+the safety of my child!" So saying, Frances knelt down upon the floor,
+and crossed herself with fervor.
+
+During the moment of silence, caused by this pious action, Rose and
+Blanche approached Mother Bunch, and said to her in a low voice, with an
+expression of touching interest: "How wet you are! you must be very cold.
+Take care you do not get ill. We did not venture to ask Madame Frances to
+light the fire in the stove, but now we will do so."
+
+Surprised and affected by the kindness of Marshal Simon's daughters, the
+hunchback, who was more sensible than others to the least mark of
+kindness, answered them with a look of ineffable gratitude: "I am much
+obliged to you, young ladies; but I am accustomed to the cold, and am
+moreover so anxious that I do not feel it."
+
+"And my son?" said Frances, rising after she had remained some moments on
+her knees; "why did he stay out all night? And could you tell me where to
+find him, my good girl? Will he soon come? why is he so long?"
+
+"I assure you, Agricola is well; but I must inform you, that for some
+time--"
+
+"Well?"
+
+"You must have courage, mother."
+
+"Oh! the blood runs cold in my veins. What has happened? why shall I not
+see him?"
+
+"Alas, he is arrested."
+
+"Arrested!" cried Rose and Blanche, with affright.
+
+"Father! Thy will be done!" said Frances; "but it is a great misfortune.
+Arrested! for what? He is so good and honest, that there must be some
+mistake."
+
+"The day before yesterday," resumed Mother Bunch, "I received an
+anonymous letter, by which I was informed that Agricola might be arrested
+at any moment, on account of his song. We agreed together that he should
+go to the rich young lady in the Rue de Babylone, who had offered him her
+services, and ask her to procure bail for him; to prevent his going to
+prison. Yesterday morning he set out to go to the young lady's."
+
+"And neither of you told me anything of all this--why did you hide it
+from me?"
+
+"That we might not make you uneasy, mother; for, counting on the
+generosity of that young lady, I expected Agricola back every moment.
+When he did not come yesterday evening. I said to myself: 'Perhaps the
+necessary formalities with regard to the bail have detained him.' But the
+time passed on, and he did not make his appearance. So, I watched all
+night, expecting him."
+
+"So you did not go to bed either, my good girl?"
+
+"No, I was too uneasy. This morning, not being able to conquer my fears,
+I went out before dawn. I remembered the address of the young lady in the
+Rue de Babylone, and I ran thither."
+
+"Oh, well!" said Frances, with anxiety; "you were in the right. According
+to what my son told us, that young lady appeared very good and generous."
+
+Mother Bunch shook her head sorrowfully; a tear glittered in her eyes, as
+she continued: "It was still dark when I arrived at the Rue de Babylone;
+I waited till daylight was come."
+
+"Poor child! you, who are so weak and timid," said Frances, with deep
+feeling, "to go so far, and in this dreadful weather!--Oh, you have been
+a real daughter to me!"
+
+"Has not Agricola been like a brother to me!" said Mother Bunch, softly,
+with a slight blush.
+
+"When it was daylight," she resumed: "I ventured to ring at the door of
+the little summer-house; a charming young girl, but with a sad, pale
+countenance, opened the door to me. 'I come in the name of an unfortunate
+mother in despair,' said I to her immediately, for I was so poorly
+dressed that I feared to be sent away as a beggar; but seeing, on the
+contrary, that the young girl listened to me with kindness, I asked her
+if, the day before, a young workman had not come to solicit a great favor
+of her mistress. 'Alas! yes,' answered the young girl; 'my mistress was
+going to interest herself for him, and, hearing that he was in danger of
+being arrested, she concealed him here; unfortunately, his retreat was
+discovered, and yesterday afternoon, at four o'clock, he was arrested and
+taken to prison.'"
+
+Though the orphans took no part in this melancholy conversation, the
+sorrow and anxiety depicted in their countenances, showed how much they
+felt for the sufferings of Dagobert's wife.
+
+"But the young lady?" cried Frances. "You should have tried to see her,
+my good Mother Bunch, and begged her not to abandon my son. She is so
+rich that she must have influence, and her protection might save us from
+great calamities."
+
+"Alas!" said Mother Bunch, with bitter grief, "we must renounce this last
+hope."
+
+"Why?" said Frances. "If this young lady is so good, she will have pity
+upon us, when she knows that my son is the only support of a whole
+family, and that for him to go to prison is worse than for another,
+because it will reduce us all to the greatest misery."
+
+"But this young lady," replied the girl, "according to what I learned
+from her weeping maid, was taken last evening to a lunatic asylum: it
+appears she is mad."
+
+"Mad! Oh! it is horrible for her, and for us also--for now there is no
+hope. What will become of us without my son? Oh, merciful heaven!" The
+unfortunate woman hid her face in her hands.
+
+A profound silence followed this heart-rending outburst. Rose and Blanche
+exchanged mournful glances, for they perceived that their presence
+augmented the weighty embarrassments of this family. Mother Bunch, worn
+out with fatigue, a prey to painful emotions, and trembling with cold in
+her wet clothes, sank exhausted on a chair, and reflected on their
+desperate position.
+
+That position was indeed a cruel one!
+
+Often, in times of political disturbances, or of agitation amongst the
+laboring classes, caused by want of work, or by the unjust reduction of
+wages (the result of the powerful coalition of the capitalists)--often
+are whole families reduced, by a measure of preventive imprisonment, to
+as deplorable a position as that of Dagobert's household by Agricola's
+arrest--an arrest, which, as will afterwards appear, was entirely owing
+to Rodin's arts.
+
+Now, with regard to this "precautionary imprisonment," of which the
+victims are almost always honest and industrious mechanics, driven to the
+necessity of combining together by the In organization of Labor and the
+Insufficiency of Wages, it is painful to see the law, which ought to be
+equal for all, refuse to strikers what it grants to masters--because the
+latter can dispose of a certain sum of money. Thus, under many
+circumstances, the rich man, by giving bail, can escape the annoyance and
+inconveniences of a preventive incarceration; he deposits a sum of money,
+pledges his word to appear on a certain day, and goes back to his
+pleasures, his occupations, and the sweet delights of his family. Nothing
+can be better; an accused person is innocent till he is proved guilty; we
+cannot be too much impressed with that indulgent maxim. It is well for
+the rich man that he can avail himself of the mercy of the law. But how
+is it with the poor?
+
+Not only has he no bail to give, for his whole capital consists of his
+daily labor; but it is upon him chiefly that the rigors of preventive
+measures must fall with a terrible and fatal force.
+
+For the rich man, imprisonment is merely the privation of ease and
+comfort, tedious hours, and the pain of separation from his
+family--distresses not unworthy of interest, for all suffering deserves
+pity, and the tears of the rich man separated from his children are as
+bitter as those of the poor. But the absence of the rich man does not
+condemn his family to hunger and cold, and the incurable maladies caused
+by exhaustion and misery.
+
+For the workman, on the contrary, imprisonment means want, misery,
+sometimes death, to those most dear to him. Possessing nothing, he is
+unable to find bail, and he goes to prison. But if he have, as it often
+happens, an old, infirm father or mother, a sick wife, or children in the
+cradle? What will become of this unfortunate family? They could hardly
+manage to live from day to day upon the wages of this man, wages almost
+always insufficient, and suddenly this only resource will be wanting for
+three or four months together.
+
+What will this family do? To whom will they have recourse?
+
+What will become of these infirm old men, these sickly wives, these
+little children, unable to gain their daily bread? If they chance to have
+a little linen and a few spare clothes, these will be carried to the
+pawnbroker's, and thus they will exist for a week or so--but afterwards?
+
+And if winter adds the rigors of the season to this frightful and
+inevitable misery?
+
+Then will the imprisoned artisan see in his mind's eyes, during the long
+and sleepless nights, those who are dear to him, wan, gaunt, haggard,
+exhausted, stretched almost naked upon filthy straw, or huddled close
+together to warm their frozen limbs. And, should he afterwards be
+acquitted, it is ruin and desolation that he finds on his return to his
+poor dwelling.
+
+And then, after that long cessation from labor, he will find it difficult
+to return to his old employers. How many days will be lost in seeking for
+work! and a day without employment is a day without bread!
+
+Let us repeat our opinion, that if, under various circumstances, the law
+did not afford to the rich the facility of giving bail, we could only
+lament over all such victims of individual and inevitable misfortune. But
+since the law does provide the means of setting provisionally at liberty
+those who possess a certain sum of money, why should it deprive of this
+advantage those very persons, for whom liberty is indeed indispensable,
+as it involves the existence of themselves and families?
+
+Is there any remedy for this deplorable state of things? We believe there
+is.
+
+The law has fixed the minimum of bail at five hundred francs. Now five
+hundred francs represent, upon the average, six months' labor of an
+industrious workman.
+
+If he have a wife and two children (which is also about the average), it
+is evidently quite impossible for him to have saved any such sum.
+
+So, to ask of such a man five hundred francs, to enable him to continue
+to support his family, is in fact to put him beyond the pale of the law,
+though, more than any one else, he requires its protection, because of
+the disastrous consequences which his imprisonment entails upon others.
+
+Would it not be equitable and humane, a noble and salutary example, to
+accept, in every case where bail is allowed (and where the good character
+of the accused could be honorably established), moral guarantees, in the
+absence of material ones, from those who have no capital but their labor
+and their integrity--to accept the word of an honest man to appear upon
+the day of trial? Would it not be great and moral, in these days to raise
+the value of the lighted word, and exalt man in his own eyes, by showing
+him that his promise was held to be sufficient security?
+
+Will you so degrade the dignity of man, as to treat this proposition as
+an impossible and Utopian dream? We ask, how many prisoners of war have
+ever broken their parole, and if officers and soldiers are not brothers
+of the workingman?
+
+Without exaggerating the virtue of promise-keeping in the honest and
+laborious poor, we feel certain, that an engagement taken by the accused
+to appear on the day of trial would be always fulfilled, not only with
+fidelity, but with the warmest gratitude--for his family would not have
+suffered by his absence, thanks to the indulgence of the law.
+
+There is also another fact, of which France may well be proud. It is,
+that her magistrates (although miserably paid as the army itself) are
+generally wise, upright, humane, and independent; they have the true
+feeling of their own useful and sacred mission; they know how to
+appreciate the wants and distresses of the working classes, with whom
+they are so often brought in contact; to them might be safely granted the
+power of fixing those cases in which a moral security, the only one that
+can be given by the honest and necessitous man, should be received as
+sufficient.[10]
+
+Finally, if those who make the laws have so low an opinion of the people
+as to reject with disdain the suggestions we have ventured to throw out,
+let them at least so reduce the minimum of bail, as to render it
+available for those who have most need to escape the fruitless rigors of
+imprisonment. Let them take as their lowest limit, the month's wages of
+an artisan--say eighty francs.
+
+This sum would still be exorbitant; but, with the aid of friends, the
+pawnbroker's, and some little advances, eighty francs might perhaps be
+found--not always, it is true--but still sometimes--and, at all events,
+many families would be rescued from frightful misery.
+
+Having made these observations, let us return to Dagobert's family, who,
+in consequence of the preventive arrest of Agricola, were now reduced to
+an almost hopeless state.
+
+The anguish of Dagobert's wife increased, the more she reflected on her
+situation, for, including the marshal's daughters, four persons were left
+absolutely without resource. It must be confessed, however, that the
+excellent mother thought less of herself, than of the grief which her son
+must feel in thinking over her deplorable position.
+
+At this moment there was a knock at the door.
+
+"Who is there?" said Frances.
+
+"It is me--Father Loriot."
+
+"Come in," said Dagobert's wife.
+
+The dyer, who also performed the functions of a porter, appeared at the
+door of the room. This time, his arms were no longer of a bright apple
+green, but of a magnificent violet.
+
+"Mrs. Baudoin," said Father Loriot, "here is a letter that the giver of
+holy water at Saint Merely's has just brought from Abbe Dubois, with a
+request that I would bring it up to you immediately, as it is very
+pressing."
+
+"A letter from my confessor?" said Frances, in astonishment; and, as she
+took it, added: "Thank you, Father Loriot."
+
+"You do not want anything?"
+
+"No, Father Loriot."
+
+"My respects to the ladies!" and the dyer went out.
+
+"Mother Bunch, will you read this letter for me?" said Frances, anxious
+to learn the contents of the missive in question.
+
+"Yes, mother,"--and the young girl read as follows:
+
+"'MY DEAR MADAME BAUDOIN,--I am in the habit of hearing you Tuesday and
+Saturday, but I shall not be at liberty either to-morrow or the last day
+of the week; you must then come to me this morning, unless you wish to
+remain a whole week without approaching the tribunal of penance.'"
+
+"Good heavens! a week!" cried Dagobert's wife. "Alas! I am only too
+conscious of the necessity of going there today, notwithstanding the
+trouble and grief in which I am plunged."
+
+Then, addressing herself to the orphans, she continued: "Heaven has heard
+the prayers that I made for you, my dear young ladies; this very day I
+shall be able to consult a good and holy man with regard to the great
+dangers to which you are exposed. Poor dear souls, that are so innocent,
+and yet so guilty, without any fault of your own! Heaven is my witness,
+that my heart bleeds for you as much as for my son."
+
+Rose and Blanche looked at each other in confusion; they could not
+understand the fears with which the state of their souls inspired the
+wife of Dagobert. The latter soon resumed, addressing the young
+sempstress:
+
+"My good girl, will you render me yet another service?"
+
+"Certainly."
+
+"My husband took Agricola's week's wages with him to pay his journey to
+Chartres. It was all the money I had in the house; I am sure that my poor
+child had none about him, and in prison he will perhaps want some.
+Therefore take my silver cup, fork, and spoon, the two pair of sheets
+that remain over, and my wadded silk shawl, that Agricola gave me on my
+birthday, and carry them all to the pawnbroker's. I will try and find out
+in which prison my son is confined, and will send him half of the little
+sum we get upon the things; the rest will serve us till my husband comes
+home. And then, what shall we do? What a blow for him--and only more
+misery in prospect--since my son is in prison, and I have lost my sight.
+Almighty Father!" cried the unfortunate mother, with an expression of
+impatient and bitter grief, "why am I thus afflicted? Have I not done
+enough to deserve some pity, if not for myself, at least for those
+belonging to me?" But immediately reproaching herself for this outburst,
+she added, "No, no! I ought to accept with thankfulness all that Thou
+sandiest me. Forgive me for these complaints, or punish only myself!"
+
+"Be of good courage, mother!" said Mother Bunch. "Agricola is innocent,
+and will not remain long in prison."
+
+"But now I think of it," resumed Dagobert's wife, "to go to the
+pawnbroker's will make you lose much time, my poor girl."
+
+"I can make up that in the night, Madame Frances; I could not sleep,
+knowing you in such trouble. Work will amuse me."
+
+"Yes, but the candles--"
+
+"Never mind, I am a little beforehand with my work," said the poor girl,
+telling a falsehood.
+
+"Kiss me, at least," said Frances, with moist eyes, "for you are the very
+best creature in the world." So saying, she hastened cut of the room.
+
+Rose and Blanche were left alone with Mother Bunch; at length had arrived
+the moment for which they had waited with so much impatience. Dagobert's
+wife proceeded to St. Merely Church, where her confessor was expecting to
+see her.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XLVIII:
+
+THE CONFESSIONAL
+
+Nothing could be more gloomy than the appearance of St. Merely Church, on
+this dark and snowy winter's day. Frances stopped a moment beneath the
+porch, to behold a lugubrious spectacle.
+
+While a priest was mumbling some words in a low voice, two or three dirty
+choristers, in soiled surplices, were charting the prayers for the dead,
+with an absent and sullen air, round a plain deal coffin, followed only
+by a sobbing old man and a child, miserably clad. The beadle and the
+sacristan, very much displeased at being disturbed for so wretched a
+funeral, had not deigned to put on their liveries, but, yawning with
+impatience, waited for the end of the ceremony, so useless to the
+interests of the establishment. At length, a few drops of holy water
+being sprinkled on the coffin, the priest handed the brush to the beadle,
+and retired.
+
+Then took place one of those shameful scenes, the necessary consequence
+of an ignoble and sacrilegious traffic, so frequent with regard to the
+burials of the poor, who cannot afford to pay for tapers, high mass, or
+violins--for now St. Thomas Aquinas' Church has violins even for the
+dead.
+
+The old man stretched forth his hand to the sacristan to receive the
+brush. "Come, look sharp!" said that official, blowing on his fingers.
+
+The emotion of the old man was profound, and his weakness extreme; he
+remained for a moment without stirring, while the brush was clasped
+tightly in his trembling hand. In that coffin was his daughter, the
+mother of the ragged child who wept by his side--his heart was breaking
+at the thought of that last farewell; he stood motionless, and his bosom
+heaved with convulsive sobs.
+
+"Now, will you make haste?" said the brutal beadle. "Do you think we are
+going to sleep here?"
+
+The old man quickened his movements. He made the sign of the cross over
+the corpse, and, stooping down, was about to place the brush in the hand
+of his grandson, when the sacristan, thinking the affair had lasted long
+enough, snatched the sprinkling-brush from the child, and made a sign to
+the bearers to carry away the coffin--which was immediately done.
+
+"Wasn't that old beggar a slow coach?" said the beadle to his companion,
+as they went back to the sacristy. "We shall hardly have time to get
+breakfast, and to dress ourselves for the bang-up funeral of this
+morning. That will be something like a dead man, that's worth the
+trouble. I shall shoulder my halberd in style!"
+
+"And mount your colonel's epaulets, to throw dust in the eyes of the
+women that let out the chairs--eh, you old rascal!" said the other, with
+a sly look.
+
+"What can I do, Capillare? When one has a fine figure, it must be seen,"
+answered the beadle, with a triumphant air. "I cannot blind the women to
+prevent their losing their hearts!"
+
+Thus conversing; the two men reached the sacristy. The sight of the
+funeral had only increased the gloom of Frances. When she entered the
+church, seven or eight persons, scattered about upon chairs, alone
+occupied the damp and icy building. One of the distributors of holy
+water, an old fellow with a rubicund, joyous, wine-bibbing face, seeing
+Frances approach the little font, said to her in a low voice: "Abbe
+Dubois is not yet in his box. Be quick, and you will have the first wag
+of his beard."
+
+Though shocked at this pleasantry, Frances thanked the irreverent
+speaker, made devoutly the sign of the cross, advanced some steps into
+the church, and knelt down upon the stones to repeat the prayer, which
+she always offered up before approaching the tribunal of penance. Having
+said this prayer, she went towards a dark corner of the church, in which
+was an oaken confessional, with a black curtain drawn across the grated
+door. The places on each side were vacant; so Frances knelt down in that
+upon the right hand, and remained there for some time absorbed in bitter
+reflections.
+
+In a few minutes, a priest of tall stature, with gray hair and a stern
+countenance, clad in a long black cassock, stalked slowly along one of
+the aisles of the church. A short, old, misshapen man, badly dressed,
+leaning upon an umbrella, accompanied him, and from time to time
+whispered in his ear, when the priest would stop to listen with a
+profound and respectful deference.
+
+As they approached the confessional, the short old man, perceiving
+Frances on her knees, looked at the priest with an air of interrogation.
+"It is she," said the clergyman.
+
+"Well, in two or three hours, they will expect the two girls at St.
+Mary's Convent. I count upon it," said the old man.
+
+"I hope so, for the sake of their souls," answered the priest; and,
+bowing gravely, he entered the confessional. The short old man quitted
+the church.
+
+This old man was Rodin. It was on leaving Saint Merely's that he went to
+the lunatic asylum, to assure himself that Dr. Baleinier had faithfully
+executed his instructions with regard to Adrienne de Cardoville.
+
+Frances was still kneeling in the interior of the confessional. One of
+the slides opened, and a voice began to speak. It was that of the priest,
+who, for the last twenty years had been the confessor of Dagobert's wife,
+and exercised over her an irresistible and all-powerful influence.
+
+"You received my letter?" said the voice.
+
+"Yes, father.
+
+"Very well--I listen to you."
+
+"Bless me, father--for I have sinned!" said Frances.
+
+The voice pronounced the formula of the benediction. Dagobert's wife
+answered "amen," as was proper, said her confider to "It is my fault,"
+gave an account of the manner in which she had performed her last
+penance, and then proceeded to the enumeration of the new sins, committed
+since she had received absolution.
+
+For this excellent woman, a glorious martyr of industry and maternal
+love, always fancied herself sinning: her conscience was incessantly
+tormented by the fear that she had committed some incomprehensible
+offence. This mild and courageous creature, who, after a whole life of
+devotion, ought to have passed what time remained to her in calm serenity
+of soul, looked upon herself as a great sinner, and lived in continual
+anxiety, doubting much her ultimate salvation.
+
+"Father," said Frances, in a trembling voice, "I accuse myself of
+omitting my evening prayer the day before yesterday. My husband, from
+whom I had been separated for many years, returned home. The joy and the
+agitation caused by his arrival, made me commit this great sin."
+
+"What next?" said the voice, in a severe tone, which redoubled the poor
+woman's uneasiness.
+
+"Father, I accuse myself of falling into the same sin yesterday evening.
+I was in a state of mortal anxiety, for my son did not come home as
+usual, and I waited for him minute after minute, till the hour had passed
+over."
+
+"What next?" said the voice.
+
+"Father, I accuse myself of having told a falsehood all this week to my
+son, by letting him think that on account of his reproaching me for
+neglecting my health, I had taken a little wine for my dinner--whereas I
+had left it for him, who has more need of it, because he works so much."
+
+"Go on!" said the voice.
+
+"Father, I accuse myself of a momentary want of resignation this morning,
+when I learned that my poor son was arrested; instead of submitting with
+respect and gratitude to this new trial which the Lord hath sent
+me--alas! I rebelled against it in my grief--and of this I accuse
+myself."
+
+"A bad week," said the priest, in a tone of still greater severity, "a
+bad week--for you have always put the creature before the Creator. But
+proceed!"
+
+"Alas, father!" resumed Frances, much dejected, "I know that I am a great
+sinner; and I fear that I am on the road to sins of a still graver kind."
+
+"Speak!"
+
+"My husband brought with him from Siberia two young orphans, daughters of
+Marshal Simon. Yesterday morning, I asked them to say their prayers, and
+I learned from them, with as much fright as sorrow, that they know none
+of the mysteries of our holy faith, though they are fifteen years old.
+They have never received the sacrament, nor are they even baptized,
+father--not even baptized!"
+
+"They must be heathens!" cried the voice, in a tone of angry surprise.
+
+"That is what so much grieves me, father; for, as I and my husband are in
+the room of parents to these young orphans, we should be guilty of the
+sins which they might commit--should we not, father?"
+
+"Certainly,--since you take the place of those who ought to watch over
+their souls. The shepherd must answer for his flock," said the voice.
+
+"And if they should happen to be in mortal sin, father, I and my husband
+would be in mortal sin?"
+
+"Yes," said the voice; "you take the place of their parents; and fathers
+and mothers are guilty of all the sins which their children commit when
+those sins arise from the want of a Christian education."
+
+"Alas, father! what am I to do? I address myself to you as I would to
+heaven itself. Every day, every hour, that these poor young girls remain
+heathens, may contribute to bring about their eternal damnation, may it
+not, father?" said Frances, in a tone of the deepest emotion.
+
+"Yes," answered the voice; "and the weight of this terrible
+responsibility rests upon you and your husband; you have the charge of
+souls!"
+
+"Lord, have mercy upon me!" said Frances weeping.
+
+"You must not grieve yourself thus," answered the voice, in a softer
+tone; "happily for these unfortunates, they have met you upon the way.
+They, will have in you and your husband good and pious examples--for I
+suppose that your husband, though formerly an ungodly person, now
+practices his religious duties!"
+
+"We must pray for him, father," said Frances, sorrowfully; "grace has not
+yet touched his heart. He is like my poor child, who has also not been
+called to holiness. Ah, father!" said Frances, drying her tears, "these
+thoughts are my heaviest cross."
+
+"So neither your husband nor your son practises," resumed the voice, in a
+tone of reflection; "this is serious--very serious. The religious
+education of these two unfortunate girls has yet to begin. In your house,
+they will have ever before them the most deplorable examples. Take care!
+I have warned you. You have the charge of souls--your responsibility is
+immense!"
+
+"Father, it is that which makes me wretched--I am at a loss what to do.
+Help me, and give me your counsels: for twenty years your voice has been
+to me as the voice of the Lord."
+
+"Well! you must agree with your husband to send these unfortunate girls
+to some religious house where they may be instructed."
+
+"We are too poor, father, to pay for their schooling, and unfortunately
+my son has just been put in prison for songs that he wrote."
+
+"Behold the fruit of impiety," said the voice, severely; "look at
+Gabriel! he has followed my counsels, and is now the model of every
+Christian virtue."
+
+"My son, Agricola, has had good qualities, father; he is so kind, so
+devoted!"
+
+"Without religion," said the voice, with redoubled severity, "what you
+call good qualities are only vain appearances; at the least breath of the
+devil they will disappear--for the devil lurks in every soul that has no
+religion."
+
+"Oh! my poor son!" said Frances, weeping; "I pray for him every day, that
+faith may enlighten him."
+
+"I have always told you," resumed the voice, "that you have been too weak
+with him. God now punishes you for it. You should have parted from this
+irreligious son, and not sanctioned his impiety by loving him as you do.
+'If thy right hand offend thee, cut it off,' saith the Scripture."
+
+"Alas, father! you know it is the only time I have disobeyed you; but I
+could not bring myself to part from my son."
+
+"Therefore is your salvation uncertain--but God is merciful. Do not fall
+into the same fault with regard to these young girls, whom Providence has
+sent you, that you might save them from eternal damnation. Do not plunge
+them into it by your own culpable indifference."
+
+"Oh, father! I have wept and prayed for them."
+
+"That is not sufficient. These unfortunate children cannot have any
+notion of good or evil. Their souls must be an abyss of scandal and
+impurity--brought up as they have been, by an impious mother, and a
+soldier devoid of religion."
+
+"As for that, father," said Frances, with simplicity, "they are gentle as
+angels, and my husband, who has not quitted them since their birth,
+declares they have the best hearts in the world."
+
+"Your husband has dwelt all his life in mortal sin," said the voice,
+harshly; "how can he judge of the state of souls? I repeat to you, that
+as you represent the parents of these unfortunates, it is not to-morrow,
+but it is today, and on the instant, that you must labor for their
+salvation, if you would not incur a terrible responsibility."
+
+"It is true--I know it well, father--and I suffer as much from this fear
+as from grief at my son's arrest. But what is to be done? I could not
+instruct these young girls at home--for I have not the knowledge--I have
+only faith--and then my poor husband, in his blindness, makes game of
+sacred things, which my son, at least, respects in my presence, out of
+regard for me. Then, once more, father, come to my aid, I conjure you!
+Advise me: what is to be done?"
+
+"We cannot abandon these two young souls to frightful perdition," said
+the voice, after a moment's silence: "there are not two ways of saving
+them: there is only one, and that is to place them in a religious house,
+where they may be surrounded by good and pious examples."
+
+"Oh, father! if we were not so poor, or if I could still work, I would
+try to gain sufficient to pay for their board, and do for them as I did
+for Gabriel. Unfortunately, I have quite lost my sight; but you, father,
+know some charitable souls, and if you could get any of them to interest
+them, selves for these poor orphans--"
+
+"Where is their father?"
+
+"He was in India; but, my husband tells me, he will soon be in France.
+That, however, is uncertain. Besides, it would make my heart bleed to see
+those poor children share our misery--which will soon be extreme--for we
+only live by my son's labor."
+
+"Have these girls no relation here?" asked the voice.
+
+"I believe not, father."
+
+"It was their mother who entrusted them to your husband, to bring them to
+France?"
+
+"Yes, father; he was obliged to set out yesterday for Chartres, on some
+very pressing business, as he told me."
+
+It will be remembered that Dagobert had not thought fit to inform his
+wife of the hopes which the daughters of Marshall Simon founded on the
+possession of the medal, and that he had particularly charged them not to
+mention these hopes, even to Frances.
+
+"So," resumed the voice, after a pause of some moments' duration, "your
+husband is not in Paris."
+
+"No, father; but he will doubtless return this evening or to-morrow
+morning."
+
+"Listen to me," said the voice, after another pause. "Every minute lost
+for those two young girls is a new step on the road to perdition. At any
+moment the hand of God may smite them, for He alone knows the hour of our
+death; and were they to die in the state in which they now are, they
+would most probably be lost to all eternity. This very day, therefore,
+you must open their eyes to the divine light, and place them in a
+religious house. It is your duty--it should be your desire!"
+
+"Oh, yes, father; but, unfortunately, I am too poor, as I have already
+told you."
+
+"I know it--you do not want for zeal or faith--but even were you capable
+of directing these young girls, the impious examples of your husband and
+son would daily destroy your work. Others must do for these orphans, in
+the name of Christian charity, that which you cannot do, though you are
+answerable for them before heaven."
+
+"Oh, father! if, thanks to you, this good work could be accomplished, how
+grateful I should be!"
+
+"It is not impossible. I know the superior of a convent, where these
+young girls would be instructed as they ought. The charge for their board
+would be diminished in consideration of their poverty; but, however
+small, it must be paid and there would be also an outfit to furnish. All
+that would be too dear for you."
+
+"Alas! yes, father."
+
+"But, by taking a little from my poor-box, and by applying to one or two
+generous persons, I think I shall be able to complete the necessary sum,
+and so get the young girls received at the convent."
+
+"Ah, father! you are my deliverer, and these children's."
+
+"I wish to be so--but, in the interest of their salvation, and to make
+these measures really efficacious, I must attach some conditions to the
+support I offer you."
+
+"Name them, father; they are accepted beforehand. Your commands shall be
+obeyed in everything."
+
+"First of all, the children must be taken this very morning to the
+convent, by my housekeeper, to whom you must bring them almost
+immediately."
+
+"Nay, father; that is impossible!" cried Frances.
+
+"Impossible? why?"
+
+"In the absence of my husband--"
+
+"Well?"
+
+"I dare not take a such a step without consulting him."
+
+"Not only must you abstain from consulting him, but the thing must be
+done during his absence."
+
+"What, father? should I not wait for his return?"
+
+"No, for two reasons," answered the priest, sternly: "first, because his
+hardened impiety would certainly lead him to oppose your pious
+resolution; secondly, because it is indispensable that these young girls
+should break off all connection with your husband, who, therefore, must
+be left in ignorance of the place of their retreat."
+
+"But, father," said Frances, a prey to cruel doubt and embarrassment, "it
+is to my husband that these children were entrusted--and to dispose of
+them without his consent would be--"
+
+"Can you instruct these children at your house--yes or no?" interrupted
+the voice.
+
+"No, father, I cannot."
+
+"Are they exposed to fall into a state of final impenitence by remaining
+with you--yes or no?"
+
+"Yes, father, they are so exposed."
+
+"Are you responsible, as you take the place of their parents, for the
+mortal sins they may commit--yes or no?"
+
+"Alas, father! I am responsible before God."
+
+"Is it in the interest of their eternal salvation that I enjoin you to
+place them this very day in a convent?"
+
+"It is for their salvation, father."
+
+"Well, then, choose!"
+
+"But tell me, I entreat you, father if I have the right to dispose of
+them without the consent of my husband?"
+
+"The right! you have not only the right, but it is your sacred duty.
+Would you not be bound, I ask you, to rescue these unfortunate creatures
+from a fire, against the will of your husband, or during his absence?
+Well! you must now rescue them, not from a fire that will only consume
+the body, but from one in which their souls would burn to all eternity."
+
+"Forgive me, I implore you, father," said the poor woman, whose
+indecision and anguish increased every minute; "satisfy my doubts!--How
+can I act thus, when I have sworn obedience to my husband?"
+
+"Obedience for good--yes--but never for evil. You confess, that, were it
+left to him, the salvation of these orphans would be doubtful, and
+perhaps impossible."
+
+"But, father," said Frances, trembling, "when my husband returns, he will
+ask me where are these children? Must I tell him a falsehood?"
+
+"Silence is not falsehood; you will tell him that you cannot answer his
+question."
+
+"My husband is the kindest of men; but such an answer will drive him
+almost mad. He has been a soldier, and his anger will be terrible,
+father," said Frances, shuddering at the thought.
+
+"And were his anger a hundred times more terrible, you should be proud to
+brave it in so sacred a cause!" cried the voice, with indignation. "Do
+you think that salvation is to be so easily gained on earth? Since when
+does the sinner, that would walk in the way of the Lord, turn aside for
+the stones and briars that may bruise and tear him?"
+
+"Pardon, father, pardon!" said Frances, with the resignation of despair.
+"Permit me to ask one more question, one only. Alas! if you do not guide
+me, how shall I find the way?"
+
+"Speak!"
+
+"When Marshal Simon arrives, he will ask his children of my husband. What
+answer can he then give to their father?"
+
+"When Marshal Simon arrives, you will let me know immediately, and
+then--I will see what is to be done. The rights of a father are only
+sacred in so far as he make use of them for the salvation of his
+children. Before and above the father on earth, is the Father in heaven,
+whom we must first serve. Reflect upon all this. By accepting what I
+propose to you, these young girls will be saved from perdition; they will
+not be at your charge; they will not partake of your misery; they will be
+brought up in a sacred institution, as, after all, the daughters of a
+Marshal of France ought to be--and, when their father arrives at Paris,
+if he be found worthy of seeing them again, instead of finding poor,
+ignorant, half savage heathens, he will behold two girls, pious, modest,
+and well informed, who, being acceptable with the Almighty, may invoke
+His mercy for their father, who, it must be owned, has great need of
+it--being a man of violence, war, and battle. Now decide! Will you, on
+peril of your soul, sacrifice the welfare of these girls in this world
+and the next, because of an impious dread of your husband's anger?"
+
+Though rude and fettered by intolerance, the confessor's language was
+(taking his view of the case) reasonable and just, because the honest
+priest was himself convinced of what he said; a blind instrument of
+Rodin, ignorant of the end in view, he believed firmly, that, in forcing
+Frances to place these young girls in a convent, he was performing a
+pious duty. Such was, and is, one of the most wonderful resources of the
+order to which Rodin belonged--to have for accomplices good and sincere
+people, who are ignorant of the nature of the plots in which they are the
+principal actors.
+
+Frances, long accustomed to submit to the influence of her confessor,
+could find nothing to object to his last words. She resigned herself to
+follow his directions, though she trembled to think of the furious anger
+of Dagobert, when he should no longer find the children that a dying
+mother had confided to his care. But, according to the priest's opinion,
+the more terrible this anger might appear to her, the more she would show
+her pious humility by exposing herself to it.
+
+"God's will be done, father!" said she, in reply to her confessor.
+"Whatever may happen, I wilt do my duty as a Christian--in obedience to
+your commands."
+
+"And the Lord will reward you for what you may have to suffer in the
+accomplishment of this meritorious act. You promise then, before God,
+that you will not answer any of your husband's questions, when he asks
+you for the daughters of Marshal Simon?"
+
+"Yes, father, I promise!" said Frances, with a shudder.
+
+"And will preserve the same silence towards Marshal Simon himself, in
+case he should return, before his daughters appear to me sufficiently
+grounded in the faith to be restored to him?"
+
+"Yes, father," said Frances, in a still fainter voice.
+
+"You will come and give me an account of the scene that takes place
+between you and your husband, upon his return?"
+
+"Yes, father; when must I bring the orphans to your house?"
+
+"In an hour. I will write to the superior, and leave the letter with my
+housekeeper. She is a trusty person, and will conduct the young girls to
+the convent."
+
+After she had listened to the exhortations of her confessor, and received
+absolution for her late sins, on condition of performing penance,
+Dagobert's wife left the confessional.
+
+The church was no longer deserted. An immense crowd pressed into it,
+drawn thither by the pomp of the grand funeral of which the beadle had
+spoken to the sacristan two hours before. It was with the greatest
+difficulty that Frances could reach the door of the church, now hung with
+sumptuous drapery.
+
+What a contrast to the poor and humble train, which had that morning so
+timidly presented themselves beneath the porch!
+
+The numerous clergy of the parish, in full procession, advanced
+majestically to receive the coffin covered with a velvet pall; the
+watered silks and stuffs of their copes and stoles, their splendid
+silvered embroideries, sparkled in the light of a thousand tapers. The
+beadle strutted in all the glory of his brilliant uniform and flashing
+epaulets; on the opposite side walked in high glee the sacristan,
+carrying his whalebone staff with a magisterial air; the voice of the
+choristers, now clad in fresh, white surplices, rolled out in bursts of
+thunder; the trumpets' blare shook the windows; and upon the countenances
+of all those who were to have a share in the spoils of this rich corpse,
+this excellent corpse, this first-class corpse, a look of satisfaction
+was visible, intense and yet subdued, which suited admirably with the air
+and attitude of the two heirs, tall, vigorous fellows with florid
+complexions, who, without overstepping the limits of a charming modesty
+of enjoyment, seemed to cuddle and hug themselves most comfortably in
+their mourning cloaks.
+
+Notwithstanding her simplicity and pious faith, Dagobert's wife was
+painfully impressed with this revolting difference between the reception
+of the rich and the poor man's coffin at the door of the house of
+God--for surely, if equality be ever real, it is in the presence of death
+and eternity!
+
+The two sad spectacles she had witnessed, tended still further to depress
+the spirits of Frances. Having succeeded with no small trouble in making
+her way out of the church, she hastened to return to the Rue Brise-Miche,
+in order to fetch the orphans and conduct them to the housekeeper of her
+confessor, who was in her turn to take them to St. Mary's Convent.
+situated, as we know, next door to Dr. Baleinier's lunatic-asylum, in
+which--Adrienne de Cardoville was confined.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XLIX.
+
+MY LORD AND SPOIL-SPORT.
+
+The wife of Dagobert, having quitted the church, arrived at the corner of
+the Rue Brise-Miche, when she was accosted by the distributor of holy
+water; he came running out of breath, to beg her to return to Saint
+Mery's, where the Abbe Dubois had yet something of importance to say to
+her.
+
+The moment Frances turned to go back, a hackney-coach stopped in front of
+the house she inhabited. The coachman quitted his box to open the door.
+
+"Driver," said a stout woman dressed in black, who was seated in the
+carriage, and held a pug-dog upon her knees, "ask if Mrs. Frances Baudoin
+lives in this house."
+
+"Yes, ma'am," said the coachman.
+
+The reader will no doubt have recognized Mrs. Grivois, head waiting-woman
+to the Princess de Saint-Dizier, accompanied by My Lord, who exercised a
+real tyranny over his mistress. The dyer, whom we have already seen
+performing the duties of a porter, being questioned by the coachman as to
+the dwelling of Frances, came out of his workshop, and advanced gallantly
+to the coach-door, to inform Mrs. Grivois, that Frances Baudoin did in
+fact live in the house, but that she was at present from home.
+
+The arms, hands, and part of the face of Father Loriot were now of a
+superb gold-color. The sight of this yellow personage singularly provoked
+My Lord, and at the moment the dyer rested his hand upon the edge of the
+coach-window, the cur began to yelp frightfully, and bit him in the
+wrist.
+
+"Oh! gracious heaven!" cried Mrs. Grivois, in an agony, whilst Father
+Loriot, withdrew his hand with precipitation; "I hope there is nothing
+poisonous in the dye that you have about you--my dog is so delicate!"
+
+So saying, she carefully wiped the pug-nose, spotted with yellow. Father
+Loriot, not at all satisfied with this speech, when he had expected to
+receive some apology from Mrs. Grivois on account of her dog's behavior,
+said to her, as with difficulty he restrained his anger: "If you did not
+belong to the fair sex, which obliges me to respect you in the person of
+that wretched animal I would have the pleasure of taking him by the tail,
+and making him in one minute a dog of the brightest orange color, by
+plunging him into my cauldron, which is already on the fire."
+
+"Dye my pet yellow!" cried Mrs. Grivois, in great wrath, as she descended
+from the hackney-coach, clasping My Lord tenderly to her bosom, and
+surveying Father Loriot with a savage look.
+
+"I told you, Mrs. Baudoin is not at home," said the dyer, as he saw the
+pug-dog's mistress advance in the direction of the dark staircase.
+
+"Never mind; I will wait for her," said Mrs. Grivois tartly. "On which
+story does she live?"
+
+"Up four pair!" answered Father Loriot, returning abruptly to his shop.
+And he added to himself, with a chuckle at the anticipation: "I hope
+Father Dagobert's big prowler will be in a bad humor, and give that
+villainous pug a shaking by the skin of his neck."
+
+Mrs. Grivois mounted the steep staircase with some difficulty, stopping
+at every landing-place to take breath, and looking about her with
+profound disgust. At length she reached the fourth story, and paused an
+instant at the door of the humble chamber, in which the two sisters and
+Mother Bunch then were.
+
+The young sempstress was occupied in collecting the different articles
+that she was about to carry to the pawnbroker's. Rose and Blanche seemed
+happier, and somewhat less uneasy about the future; for they had learned
+from Mother Bunch, that, when they knew how to sew, they might between
+them earn eight francs a week, which would at least afford some
+assistance to the family.
+
+The presence of Mrs. Grivois in Baudoin's dwelling was occasioned by a
+new resolution of Abbe d'Aigrigny and the Princess de Saint-Dizier; they
+had thought it more prudent to send Mrs. Grivois, on whom they could
+blindly depend, to fetch the young girls, and the confessor was charged
+to inform Frances that it was not to his housekeeper, but to a lady that
+would call on her with a note from him, that she was to deliver the
+orphans, to be taken to a religious establishment.
+
+Having knocked at the door, the waiting-woman of the Princess de Saint
+Dizier entered the room, and asked for Frances Baudoin.
+
+"She is not at home, madame," said Mother Bunch timidly, not a little
+astonished at so unexpected a visit, and casting down her eyes before the
+gaze of this woman.
+
+"Then I will wait for her, as I have important affairs to speak of,"
+answered Mrs. Grivois, examining with curiosity and attention the faces
+of the two orphans, who also cast down their eyes with an air of
+confusion.
+
+So saying, Madame Grivois sat down, not without some repugnance, in the
+old arm-chair of Dagobert's wife, and believing that she might now leave
+her favorite at liberty, she laid him carefully on the floor.
+Immediately, a low growl, deep and hollow, sounding from behind the
+armchair, made Mrs. Grivois jump from her seat, and sent the pug-dog,
+yelping with affright, and trembling through his fat, to take refuge
+close to his mistress, with all the symptoms of angry alarm.
+
+"What! is there a dog here?" cried Mrs. Grivois, stooping precipitately
+to catch up My Lord, whilst, as if he wished himself to answer the
+question, Spoil-sport rose leisurely from his place behind the arm-chair,
+and appeared suddenly, yawning and stretching himself.
+
+At sight of this powerful animal, with his double row of formidable
+pointed fangs, which he seemed to take delight in displaying as he opened
+his large jaws, Mrs. Grivois could not help giving utterance to a cry of
+terror. The snappish pug had at first trembled in all his limbs at the
+Siberian's approach; but, finding himself in safety on the lap of his
+mistress, he began to growl insolently, and to throw the most provoking
+glances at Spoil-sport. These the worthy companion of the deceased Jovial
+answered disdainfully by gaping anew; after which he went smelling round
+Mrs. Grivois with a sort of uneasiness, turned his back upon My Lord, and
+stretched himself at the feet of Rose and Blanche, keeping his large,
+intelligent eyes fixed upon them, as if he foresaw that they were menaced
+with some danger.
+
+"Turn out that beast," said Mrs. Grivois, imperiously; "he frightens my
+dog, and may do him some harm."
+
+"Do not be afraid, madame," replied Rose, with a smile; "Spoil-sport will
+do no harm, if he is not attacked."
+
+"Never mind!" cried Mrs. Grivois; "an accident soon happens. The very
+sight of that enormous dog, with his wolf's head and terrible teeth, is
+enough to make one tremble at the injuries he might do one. I tell you to
+turn him out."
+
+Mrs. Grivois had pronounced these last words in a tone of irritation,
+which did not sound at all satisfactory in Spoil-sport's ears; so he
+growled and showed his teeth, turning his head in the direction of the
+stranger.
+
+"Be quiet, Spoil-sport!" said Blanche sternly.
+
+A new personage here entered the room, and put an end to this situation,
+which was embarrassing enough for the two young girls. It was a
+commissionaire, with a letter in his hand.
+
+"What is it, sir?" asked Mother Bunch.
+
+"A very pressing letter from the good man of the house; the dyer below
+stairs told me to bring it up here."
+
+"A letter from Dagobert!" cried Rose and Blanche, with a lively
+expression of pleasure. "He is returned then? where is he?"
+
+"I do not know whether the good man is called Dagobert or not," said the
+porter; "but he is an old trooper, with a gray moustache, and may be
+found close by, at the office of the Chartres coaches."
+
+"That is he!" cried Blanche. "Give me the letter."
+
+The porter handed it to the young girl, who opened it in all haste.
+
+Mrs. Grivois was struck dumb with dismay; she knew that Dagobert had been
+decoyed from Paris, that the Abbe Dubois might have an opportunity to act
+with safety upon Frances. Hitherto, all had succeeded; the good woman had
+consented to place the young girls in the hands of a religious
+community--and now arrives this soldier, who was thought to be absent
+from Paris for two or three days at least, and whose sudden return might
+easily ruin this laborious machination, at the moment when it seemed to
+promise success.
+
+"Oh!" said Blanche, when she had read the letter. "What a misfortune!"
+
+"What is it, then, sister?" cried Rose.
+
+"Yesterday, half way to Chartres, Dagobert perceived that he had lost his
+purse. He was unable to continue his journey; he took a place upon
+credit, to return, and he asks his wife to send him some money to the
+office, to pay what he owes."
+
+"That's it," said the porter; "for the good man told me to make haste,
+because he was there in pledge."
+
+"And nothing in the house!" cried Blanche. "Dear me! what is to be done?"
+
+At these words, Mrs. Grivois felt her hopes revive for a moment, they
+were soon, however, dispelled by Mother Bunch, who exclaimed, as she
+pointed to the parcel she had just made up: "Be satisfied, dear young
+ladies! here is a resource. The pawnbroker's, to which I am going, is not
+far off, and I will take the money direct to M. Dagobert: in half an
+hour, at latest, he will be here."
+
+"Oh, my dear friend! you are right," said Rose. "How good you are! you
+think of everything."
+
+"And here," said Blanche, "is the letter, with the address upon it. Take
+that with you."
+
+"Thank you," answered Mother Bunch: then, addressing the porter, she
+added: "Return to the person who sent you, and tell him I shall be at the
+coach-office very shortly."
+
+"Infernal hunchback!" thought Mrs. Grivois, with suppressed rage, "she
+thinks of everything. Without her, we should have escaped the plague of
+this man's return. What is to be done now? The girls would not go with
+me, before the arrival of the soldier's wife; to propose it to them would
+expose me to a refusal, and might compromise all. Once more, what is to
+be done?"
+
+"Do not be uneasy, ladies," said the porter as he went out; "I will go
+and assure the good man, that he will not have to remain long in pledge."
+
+Whilst Mother Bunch was occupied in tying her parcel, in which she had
+placed the silver cup, fork, and spoon, Mrs. Grivois seemed to reflect
+deeply. Suddenly she started. Her countenance, which had been for some
+moments expressive of anxiety and rage, brightened up on the instant. She
+rose, still holding My Lord in her arms, and said to the young girls: "As
+Mrs. Baudoin does not come in, I am going to pay a visit in the
+neighborhood, and will return immediately. Pray tell her so!"
+
+With these words Mr. Grivois took her departure, a few minutes before
+Mother Bunch left.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER L.
+
+APPEARANCES.
+
+After she had again endeavored to cheer up the orphans, the sewing-girl
+descended the stairs, not without difficulty, for, in addition to the
+parcel, which was already heavy, she had fetched down from her own room
+the only blanket she possessed--thus leaving herself without protection
+from the cold of her icy garret.
+
+The evening before, tortured with anxiety as to Agricola's fate, the girl
+had been unable to work; the miseries of expectation and hope delayed had
+prevented her from doing so; now another day would be lost, and yet it
+was necessary to live. Those overwhelming sorrows, which deprive the poor
+of the faculty of labor, are doubly dreaded; they paralyze the strength,
+and, with that forced cessation from toil, want and destitution are often
+added to grief.
+
+But Mother Bunch, that complete incarnation of holiest duty, had yet
+strength enough to devote herself for the service of others. Some of the
+most frail and feeble creatures are endowed with extraordinary vigor of
+soul; it would seem as if, in these weak, infirm organizations, the
+spirit reigned absolutely over the body, and knew how to inspire it with
+a factitious energy.
+
+Thus, for the last twenty-four hours, Mother Bunch had neither slept nor
+eaten; she had suffered from the cold, through the whole of a frosty
+night. In the morning she had endured great fatigue, in going, amid rain
+and snow, to the Rue de Babylone and back, twice crossing Paris and yet
+her strength was not exhausted--so immense is the power of the human
+heart!
+
+She had just arrived at the corner of the Rue Saint Mery. Since the
+recent Rue des Prouvaires conspiracy, there were stationed in this
+populous quarter of the town a much larger number of police-officers than
+usual. Now the young sempstress, though bending beneath the weight of her
+parcel, had quickened her pace almost to a run, when, just as she passed
+in front of one of the police, two five-franc pieces fell on the ground
+behind her, thrown there by a stout woman in black, who followed her
+closely.
+
+Immediately after the stout woman pointed out the two pieces to the
+policeman, and said something hastily to him with regard to Mother Bunch.
+Then she withdrew at all speed in the direction of the Rue Brise-Miche.
+
+The policeman, struck with what Mrs. Grivois had said to him ( for it was
+that person), picked up the money, and, running after the humpback, cried
+out to her: "Hi, there! young woman, I say--stop! stop!"
+
+On this outcry, several persons turned round suddenly and, as always
+happens in those quarters of the town, a nucleus of five or six persons
+soon grew to a considerable crowd.
+
+Not knowing that the policeman was calling to her, Mother Bunch only
+quickened her speed, wishing to get to the pawnbroker's as soon as
+possible, and trying to avoid touching any of the passers-by, so much did
+she dread the brutal and cruel railleries, to which her infirmity so
+often exposed her.
+
+Suddenly, she heard many persons running after her, and at the same
+instant a hand was laid rudely on her shoulder. It was the policeman,
+followed by another officer, who had been drawn to the spot by the noise.
+Mother Bunch turned round, struck with as much surprise as fear.
+
+She found herself in the centre of a crowd, composed chiefly of that
+hideous scum, idle and in rags, insolent and malicious, besotted with
+ignorance, brutalized by want, and always loafing about the corners.
+Workmen are scarcely ever met with in these mobs, for they are for the
+most part engaged in their daily labors.
+
+"Come, can't you hear? you are deaf as Punch's dog," said the policeman,
+seizing Mother Bunch so rudely by the arm, that she let her parcel fall
+at her feet.
+
+When the unfortunate girl, looking round in terror, saw herself exposed
+to all those insolent, mocking, malicious glances, when she beheld the
+cynical and coarse grimace on so many ignoble and filthy countenances,
+she trembled in all her limbs, and became fearfully pale. No doubt the
+policeman had spoken roughly to her; but how could he speak otherwise to
+a poor deformed girl, pale and trembling, with her features agitated by
+grief and fear--to a wretched creature, miserably clad, who wore in
+winter a thin cotton gown, soiled with mud, and wet with melted snow--for
+the poor sempstress had walked much and far that morning. So the
+policeman resumed, with great severity, following that supreme law of
+appearances which makes poverty always suspected: "Stop a bit, young
+woman! it seems you are in a mighty hurry, to let your money fall without
+picking it up."
+
+"Was her blunt hid in her hump?" said the hoarse voice of a match-boy, a
+hideous and repulsive specimen of precocious depravity.
+
+This sally was received with laughter, shouts, and hooting, which served
+to complete the sewing-girl's dismay and terror. She was hardly able to
+answer, in a feeble voice, as the policeman handed her the two pieces of
+silver: "This money, sir, is not mine."
+
+"You lie," said the other officer, approaching; "a respectable lady saw
+it drop from your pocket."
+
+"I assure you, sir, it is not so," answered Mother Bunch, trembling.
+
+"I tell you that you lie," resumed the officer; "for the lady, struck
+with your guilty and frightened air, said to me: 'Look at yonder little
+hunchback, running away with that large parcel, and letting her money
+fall without even stopping to pick it up--it is not natural.'"
+
+"Bobby," resumed the match-vendor in his hoarse voice, "be on your guard!
+Feel her hump, for that is her luggage-van. I'm sure that you'll find
+boots, and cloaks, and umbrellas, and clocks in it--for I just heard the
+hour strike in the bend of her back."
+
+Then came fresh bursts of laughter and shouts and hooting, for this
+horrible mob has no pity for those who implore and suffer. The crowd
+increased more and more, and now they indulged in hoarse cries, piercing
+whistles, and all kinds of horse play.
+
+"Let a fellow see her; it's free gratis."
+
+"Don't push so; I've paid for my place!"
+
+"Make her stand up on something, that all may have a look."
+
+"My corns are being ground: it was not worth coming."
+
+"Show her properly--or return the money."
+
+"That's fair, ain't it?"
+
+"Give it us in the 'garden' style."
+
+"Trot her out in all her paces! Kim up!"
+
+Fancy the feelings of this unfortunate creature, with her delicate mind,
+good heart, and lofty soul, and yet with so timid and nervous a
+character, as she stood alone with the two policemen in the thick of the
+crowd, and was forced to listen to all these coarse and savage insults.
+
+But the young sempstress did not yet understand of what crime she was
+accused. She soon discovered it, however, for the policeman, seizing the
+parcel which she had picked up and now held in her trembling hands, said
+to her rudely: "What is there in that bundle?"
+
+"Sir--it is--I am going--" The unfortunate girl hesitated--unable, in her
+terror, to find the word.
+
+"If that's all you have to answer," said the policeman, "it's no great
+shakes. Come, make haste! turn your bundle inside out."
+
+So saying, the policeman snatched the parcel from her, half opened it,
+and repeated, as he enumerated the divers articles it contained: "The
+devil!--sheets--a spoon and fork--a silver mug--a shawl--a
+blanket--you're a downy mot! it was not so bad a move. Dressed like a
+beggar, and with silver plate about you. Oh, yes! you're a deep 'un."
+
+"Those articles do not belong to you," said the other officer.
+
+"No, sir," replied Mother Bunch, whose strength was failing her; "but--"
+
+"Oh, vile hunchback! you have stolen more than you are big!"
+
+"Stolen!" cried Mother Bunch, clasping her hands in horror, for she now
+understood it all. "Stolen!"
+
+"The guard! make way for the lobsters!" cried several persons at once.
+
+"Oh, ho! here's the lobsters!"
+
+"The fire-eaters!"
+
+"The Arab devourers!"
+
+"Come for their dromedary!"
+
+In the midst of these noisy jests, two soldiers and a corporal advanced
+with much difficulty. Their bayonets and the barrels of their guns were
+alone visible above the heads of this hideous and compact crowd. Some
+officious person had been to inform the officer at the nearest guard
+house, that a considerable crowd obstructed the public way.
+
+"Come, here is the guard--so march to the guard-house!" said the
+policeman, taking Mother Bunch by the arm.
+
+"Sir," said the poor girl, in a voice stifled by sobs, clasping her hands
+in terror, and sinking upon her knees on the pavement; "sir,--have
+pity--let me explain--"
+
+"You will explain at the guard-house; so come on!"
+
+"But, sir--I am not a thief," cried Mother Bunch, in a heart-rending
+tone; "have pity upon me--do not take me away like a thief, before all
+this crowd. Oh! mercy! mercy!"
+
+"I tell you, there will be time to explain at the guard-house. The street
+is blocked up; so come along!" Grasping the unfortunate creature by both
+her hands, he set her, as it were, on her feet again.
+
+At this instant, the corporal and his two soldiers, having succeeded in
+making their way through the crowd, approached the policeman. "Corporal,"
+said the latter, "take this girl to the guard-house. I am an officer of
+the police."
+
+"Oh, gentlemen!" cried the girl, weeping hot tears, and wringing her
+hands, "do not take me away, before you let me explain myself. I am not a
+thief--indeed, indeed, I am not a thief! I will tell you--it was to
+render service to others--only let me tell you--"
+
+"I tell you, you should give your explanations at the guard-house; if you
+will not walk, we must drag you along," said the policeman.
+
+We must renounce the attempt to paint this scene, at once ignoble and
+terrible.
+
+Weak, overpowered, filled with alarm, the unfortunate girl was dragged
+along by the soldiers, her knees sinking under her at every step. The two
+police-officers had each to lend an arm to support her, and mechanically
+she accepted their assistance. Then the vociferations and hootings burst
+forth with redoubled fury. Half-swooning between the two men, the hapless
+creature seemed to drain the cup of bitterness to the dregs.
+
+Beneath that foggy sky, in that dirty street, under the shadow of the
+tall black houses, those hideous masses of people reminded one of the
+wildest fancies of Callot and of Goya: children in rags, drunken women,
+grim and blighted figures of men, rushed against each other, pushed,
+fought, struggled, to follow with howls and hisses an almost inanimate
+victim--the victim of a deplorable mistake.
+
+Of a mistake! How one shudders to think, that such arrests may often take
+place, founded upon nothing but the suspicion caused by the appearance of
+misery, or by some inaccurate description. Can we forget the case of that
+young girl, who, wrongfully accused of participating in a shameful
+traffic, found means to escape from the persons who were leading her to
+prison, and, rushing up the stairs of a house, threw herself from a
+window, in her despair, and was crushed to death upon the paving-stones?
+
+Meanwhile, after the abominable denunciation of which Mother Bunch was
+the victim, Mrs. Grivois had returned precipitately to the Rue Brise
+Miche. She ascended in haste to the fourth story, opened the door of
+Frances Baudoin's room, and saw--Dagobert in company with his wife and
+the two orphans!
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER LI.
+
+THE CONVENT.
+
+Let us explain in a few words the presence of Dagobert. His countenance
+was impressed with such an air of military frankness that the manager of
+the coach-office would have been satisfied with his promise to return and
+pay the money; but the soldier had obstinately insisted on remaining in
+pledge, as he called it, till his wife had answered his letter. When,
+however, on the return of the porter, he found that the money was coming,
+his scruples were satisfied, and he hastened to run home.
+
+We may imagine the stupor of Mrs. Grivois, when, upon entering the
+chamber, she perceived Dagobert (whom she easily recognized by the
+description she had heard of him) seated beside his wife and the orphans.
+The anxiety of Frances at sight of Mrs. Grivois was equally striking.
+Rose and Blanche had told her of the visit of a lady, during her absence,
+upon important business; and, judging by the information received from
+her confessor, Frances had no doubt that this was the person charged to
+conduct the orphans to a religious establishment.
+
+Her anxiety was terrible. Resolved to follow the counsels of Abbe Dubois,
+she dreaded lest a word from Mrs. Grivois should put Dagobert on the
+scent--in which case all would be lost, and the orphans would remain in
+their present state of ignorance and mortal sin, for which she believed
+herself responsible.
+
+Dagobert, who held the hands of Rose and Blanche, left his seat as the
+Princess de Saint-Dizier's waiting-woman entered the room and cast an
+inquiring glance on Frances.
+
+The moment was critical--nay, decisive; but Mrs. Grivois had profited by
+the example of the Princess de Saint-Dizier. So, taking her resolution at
+once, and turning to account the precipitation with which she had mounted
+the stairs, after the odious charge she had brought against poor Mother
+Bunch, and even the emotion caused by the unexpected sight of Dagobert,
+which gave to her features an expression of uneasiness and alarm--she
+exclaimed, in an agitated voice, after the moment's silence necessary to
+collect her thoughts: "Oh, madame! I have just been the spectator of a
+great misfortune. Excuse my agitation! but I am so excited--"
+
+"Dear me! what is the matter?" said Frances, in a trembling voice, for
+she dreaded every moment some indiscretion on the part of Mrs. Grivois.
+
+"I called just now," resumed the other, "to speak to you on some
+important business; whilst I was waiting for you, a poor young woman,
+rather deformed, put up sundry articles in a parcel--"
+
+"Yes," said Frances; "it was Mother Bunch, an excellent, worthy
+creature."
+
+"I thought as much, madame; well, you shall hear what has happened. As
+you did not come in, I resolved to pay a visit in the neighborhood. I go
+out, and get as far as the Rue St. Mery, when--Oh, madame!"
+
+"Well?" said Dagobert, "what then?"
+
+"I see a crowd--I inquire what is the matter--I learn that a policeman
+has just arrested a young girl as a thief, because she had been seen
+carrying a bundle, composed of different articles which did not appear to
+belong to her--I approached--what do I behold?--the same young woman that
+I had met just before in this room."
+
+"Oh! the poor child!" exclaimed Frances, growing pale, and clasping her
+hands together. "What a dreadful thing!"
+
+"Explain, then," said Dagobert to his wife. "What was in this bundle?"
+
+"Well, my dear--to confess the truth--I was a little short, and I asked
+our poor friend to take some things for me to the pawnbroker's--"
+
+"What! and they thought she had robbed us!" cried Dagobert; "she, the
+most honest girl in the world! it is dreadful--you ought to have
+interfered, madame; you ought to have said that you knew her."
+
+"I tried to do so, sir; but, unfortunately, they would not hear me. The
+crowd increased every moment, till the guard came up, and carried her
+off."
+
+"She might die of it, she is so sensitive and timid!" exclaimed Frances.
+
+"Ah, good Mother Bunch! so gentle! so considerate!" said Blanche, turning
+with tearful eyes towards her sister.
+
+"Not being able to help her," resumed Mrs. Grivois "I hastened hither to
+inform you of this misadventure--which may, indeed, easily be
+repaired--as it will only be necessary to go and claim the young girl as
+soon as possible."
+
+At these words, Dagobert hastily seized his hat, and said abruptly to
+Mrs. Grivois: "Zounds, madame! you should have begun by telling us that.
+Where is the poor child? Do you know?"
+
+"I do not, sir; but there are still so many excited people in the street
+that, if you will have the kindness to step out, you will be sure to
+learn."
+
+"Why the devil do you talk of kindness? It is my duty, madame. Poor
+child!" repeated Dagobert. "Taken up as a thief!--it is really horrible.
+I will go to the guard-house, and to the commissary of police for this
+neighborhood, and, by hook or crook, I will find her, and have her out,
+and bring her home with me."
+
+So saying, Dagobert hastily departed. Frances, now that she felt more
+tranquil as to the fate of Mother Bunch, thanked the Lord that this
+circumstance had obliged her husband to go out, for his presence at this
+juncture caused her a terrible embarrassment.
+
+Mrs. Grivois had left My Lord in the coach below, for the moments were
+precious. Casting a significant glance at Frances she handed her Abbe
+Dubois' letter, and said to her, with strong emphasis on every word: "You
+will see by this letter, madame, what was the object of my visit, which I
+have not before been able to explain to you, but on which I truly
+congratulate myself, as it brings me into connection with these two
+charming young ladies." Rose and Blanche looked at each other in
+surprise. Frances took the letter with a trembling hand. It required all
+the pressing and threatening injunctions of her confessor to conquer the
+last scruples of the poor woman, for she shuddered at the thought of
+Dagobert's terrible indignation. Moreover, in her simplicity, she knew
+not how to announce to the young girls that they were to accompany this
+lady.
+
+Mrs. Grivois guessed her embarrassment, made a sign to her to be at her
+ease, and said to Rose, whilst Frances was reading the letter of her
+confessor: "How happy your relation will be to see you, my dear young
+lady!'
+
+"Our relation, madame?" said Rose, more and more astonished.
+
+"Certainly. She knew of your arrival here, but, as she is still suffering
+from the effects of a long illness, she was not able to come herself
+to-day, and has sent me to fetch you to her. Unfortunately," added Mrs.
+Grivois, perceiving a movement of uneasiness on the part of the two
+sisters, "it will not be in her power, as she tells Mrs. Baudoin in her
+letter, to see you for more than a very short time--so you may be back
+here in about an hour. But to-morrow or the next day after, she will be
+well enough to leave home, and then she will come and make arrangements
+with Mrs. Baudoin and her husband, to take you into her house--for she
+could not bear to leave you at the charge of the worthy people who have
+been so kind to you."
+
+These last words of Mrs. Grivois made a favorable impression upon the two
+sisters, and banished their fears of becoming a heavy burden to
+Dagobert's family. If it had been proposed to them to quit altogether the
+house in the Rue Bris-Miche, without first asking the consent of their
+old friend, they would certainly have hesitated; but Mrs. Grivois had
+only spoken of an hour's visit. They felt no suspicion, therefore, and
+Rose said to Frances: "We may go and see our relation, I suppose, madame,
+without waiting for Dagobert's return?"
+
+"Certainly," said Frances, in a feeble voice, "since you are to be back
+almost directly."
+
+"Then, madame, I would beg these dear young ladies to come with me as
+soon as possible, as I should like to bring them back before noon.
+
+"We are ready, madame," said Rose.
+
+"Well then, young ladies, embrace your second mother, and come," said
+Mrs. Grivois, who was hardly able to control her uneasiness, for she
+trembled lest Dagobert should return from one moment to the other.
+
+Rose and Blanche embraced Frances, who, clasping in her arms the two
+charming and innocent creatures that she was about to deliver up, could
+with difficulty restrain her tears, though she was fully convinced that
+she was acting for their salvation.
+
+"Come, young ladies," said Mrs. Grivois, in the most affable tone, "let
+us make haste--you will excuse my impatience, I am sure--but it is in the
+name of your relation that I speak."
+
+Having once more tenderly kissed the wife of Dagobert, the sisters
+quitted the room hand in hand, and descended the staircase close behind
+Mrs. Grivois, followed (without their being aware of it), by Spoil-sport.
+The intelligent animal cautiously watched their movements, for, in the
+absence of his master, he never let them out of his sight.
+
+For greater security, no doubt, the waiting-woman of Madame de Saint
+Dizier had ordered the hackney-coach to wait for her at a little distance
+from the Rue Brise-Miche, in the cloister square. In a few seconds, the
+orphans and their conductress reached the carriage.
+
+"Oh, missus!" said the coachman, opening the door; "no offence, I
+hope--but you have the most ill-tempered rascal of a dog! Since you put
+him into my coach, he has never ceased howling like a roasted cat, and
+looks as if he would eat us all up alive!" In fact, My Lord, who detested
+solitude, was yelling in the most deplorable manner.
+
+"Be quiet, My Lord! here I am," said Mrs. Grivois; then addressing the
+two sisters, she added: "Pray, get in, my dear young ladies."
+
+Rose and Blanche got into the coach. Before she followed them, Mrs.
+Grivois was giving to the coachman in a low voice the direction to St.
+Mary's Convent, and was adding other instructions, when suddenly the pug
+dog, who had growled savagely when the sisters took their seats in the
+coach, began to bark with fury. The cause of this anger was clear enough;
+Spoil-sport, until now unperceived, had with one bound entered the
+carriage.
+
+The pug, exasperated by this boldness, forgetting his ordinary prudence,
+and excited to the utmost by rage and ugliness of temper, sprang at his
+muzzle, and bit him so cruelly, that, in his turn, the brave Siberian
+dog, maddened by the pain, threw himself upon the teaser, seized him by
+the throat, and fairly strangled him with two grips of his powerful
+jaws--as appeared by one stifled groan of the pug, previously half
+suffocated with fat.
+
+All this took place in less time than is occupied by the description.
+Rose and Blanche had hardly opportunity to exclaim twice: "Here, Spoil
+sport! down!"
+
+"Oh, good gracious!" said Mrs. Grivois, turning round at the noise.
+"There again is that monster of a dog--he will certainly hurt my love.
+Send him away, young ladies--make him get down--it is impossible to take
+him with us."
+
+Ignorant of the degree of Spoil-sport's criminality, for his paltry foe
+was stretched lifeless under a seat, the young girls yet felt that it
+would be improper to take the dog with them, and they therefore said to
+him in an angry tone, at the same time slightly touching him with their
+feet: "Get down, Spoil-sport! go away!"
+
+The faithful animal hesitated at first to obey this order. Sad and
+supplicatingly looked he at the orphans, and with an air of mild
+reproach, as if blaming them for sending away their only defender. But,
+upon the stern repetition of the command, he got down from the coach,
+with his tail between his legs, feeling perhaps that he had been somewhat
+over-hasty with regard to the pug.
+
+Mrs. Grivois, who was in a great hurry to leave that quarter of the town,
+seated herself with precipitation in the carriage; the coachman closed
+the door, and mounted his box; and then the coach started at a rapid
+rate, whilst Mrs. Grivois prudently let down the blinds, for fear of
+meeting Dagobert by the way.
+
+Having taken these indispensable precautions, she was able to turn her
+attention to her pet, whom she loved with all that deep, exaggerated
+affection, which people of a bad disposition sometimes entertain for
+animals, as if then concentrated and lavished upon them all those
+feelings in which they are deficient with regard to their fellow
+creatures. In a word. Mrs. Grivois was passionately attached to this
+peevish, cowardly, spiteful dog, partly perhaps from a secret sympathy
+with his vices. This attachment had lasted for six years, and only seemed
+to increase as My Lord advanced in age.
+
+We have laid some stress on this apparently puerile detail, because the
+most trifling causes have often disastrous effects, and because we wish
+the reader to understand what must have been the despair, fury, and
+exasperation of this woman, when she discovered the death of her dog--a
+despair, a fury, and an exasperation, of which the orphans might yet feel
+the cruel consequences.
+
+The hackney-coach had proceeded rapidly for some seconds, when Mrs.
+Grivois, who was seated with her back to the horses, called My Lord. The
+dog had very good reasons for not replying.
+
+"Well, you sulky beauty!" said Mrs. Grivois, soothingly; "you have taken
+offence, have you? It was not my fault if that great ugly dog came into
+the coach, was it, young ladies? Come and kiss your mistress, and let us
+make peace, old obstinate!"
+
+The same obstinate silence continued on the part of the canine noble.
+Rose and Blanche began to look anxiously at each other, for they knew
+that Spoil-sport was somewhat rough in his ways, though they were far
+from suspecting what had really happened. But Mrs. Grivois, rather
+surprised than uneasy at her pug-log's insensibility to her affectionate
+appeals, and believing him to be sullenly crouching beneath the seat,
+stooped clown to take him up, and feeling one of his paws, drew it
+impatiently towards her whilst she said to him in a half-jesting, half
+angry tone: "Come, naughty fellow! you will give a pretty notion of your
+temper to these young ladies."
+
+So saying, she took up the dog, much astonished at his unresisting
+torpor; but what was her fright, when, having placed him upon her lap,
+she saw that he was quite motionless.
+
+"An apoplexy!" cried she. "The dear creature ate too much--I was always
+afraid of it."
+
+Turning round hastily, she exclaimed: "Stop, coachman! stop!" without
+reflecting that the coachman could not hear her. Then raising the cur's
+head, still thinking that he was only in a fit, she perceived with horror
+the bloody holes imprinted by five or six sharp fangs, which left no
+doubt of the cause of his deplorable end.
+
+Her first impulse was one of grief and despair. "Dead!" she exclaimed;
+"dead! and already cold! Oh, goodness!" And this woman burst into tears.
+
+The tears of the wicked are ominous. For a bad man to weep, he must have
+suffered much; and, with him, the reaction of suffering, instead of
+softening the soul, inflames it to a dangerous anger.
+
+Thus, after yielding to that first painful emotion, the mistress of My
+Lord felt herself transported with rage and hate--yes, hate--violent hate
+for the young girls, who had been the involuntary cause of the dog's
+death. Her countenance so plainly betrayed her resentment, that Blanche
+and Rose were frightened at the expression of her face, which had now
+grown purple with fury, as with agitated voice and wrathful glance she
+exclaimed: "It was your dog that killed him!"
+
+"Oh, madame!" said Rose; "we had nothing to do with it."
+
+"It was your dog that bit Spoil-sport first," added Blanche, in a
+plaintive voice.
+
+The look of terror impressed on the features of the orphans recalled Mrs.
+Grivois to herself. She saw the fatal consequences that might arise from
+yielding imprudently to her anger. For the very sake of vengeance, she
+had to restrain herself, in order not to awaken suspicion in the minds of
+Marshal Simon's daughters. But not to appear to recover too soon from her
+first impression, she continued for some minutes to cast irritated
+glances at the young girls; then, little by little, her anger seemed to
+give way to violent grief; she covered her face with her hands, heaved a
+long sigh, and appeared to weep bitterly.
+
+"Poor lady!" whispered Rose to Blanche. "How she weeps!--No doubt, she
+loved her dog as much as we love Spoil-sport."
+
+"Alas! yes," replied Blanche. "We also wept when our old Jovial was
+killed."
+
+After a few minutes, Mrs. Grivois raised her head, dried her eyes
+definitively, and said in a gentle, and almost affectionate voice:
+"Forgive me, young ladies! I was unable to repress the first movement of
+irritation, or rather of deep sorrow--for I was tenderly attached to this
+poor dog he has never left me for six years."
+
+"We are very sorry for this misfortune, madame," resumed Rose; "and we
+regret it the more, that it seems to be irreparable."
+
+"I was just saying to my sister, that we can the better fancy your grief,
+as we have had to mourn the death of our old horse, that carried us all
+the way from Siberia."
+
+"Well, my dear young ladies, let us think no more about it. It was my
+fault; I should not have brought him with me; but he was always so
+miserable, whenever I left him. You will make allowance for my weakness.
+A good heart feels for animals as well as people; so I must trust to your
+sensibility to excuse my hastiness."
+
+"Do not think of it, madame; it is only your grief that afflicts us."
+
+"I shall get over it, my dear young ladies--I shall get over it. The joy
+of the meeting between you and your relation will help to console me. She
+will be so happy. You are so charming! and then the singular circumstance
+of your exact likeness to each other adds to the interest you inspire."
+
+"You are too kind to us, madame."
+
+"Oh, no--I am sure you resemble each other as much in disposition as in
+face."
+
+"That is quite natural, madame," said Rose, "for since our birth we have
+never left each other a minute, whether by night or day. It would be
+strange, if we were not like in character."
+
+"Really, my dear young ladies! you have never left each other a minute?"
+
+"Never, madame." The sisters joined hands with an expressive smile.
+
+"Then, how unhappy you would be, and how much to be pitied, if ever you
+were separated."
+
+"Oh, madame! it is impossible," said Blanche, smiling.
+
+"How impossible?"
+
+"Who would have the heart to separate us?"
+
+"No doubt, my dear young ladies, it would be very cruel."
+
+"Oh, madame," resumed Blanche, "even very wicked people would not think
+of separating us."
+
+"So much the better, my dear young ladies--pray, why?"
+
+"Because it would cause us too much grief."
+
+"Because it would kill us."
+
+"Poor little dears!"
+
+"Three months ago, we were shut up in prison. Well when the governor of
+the prison saw us, though he looked a very stern man, he could not help
+saying: 'It would be killing these children to separate them;' and so we
+remained together, and were as happy as one can be in prison."
+
+"It shows your excellent heart, and also that of the persons who knew how
+to appreciate it."
+
+The carriage stopped, and they heard the coachman call out "Any one at
+the gate there?"
+
+"Oh! here we are at your relation's," said Mrs. Grivois. Two wings of a
+gate flew open, and the carriage rolled over the gravel of a court-yard.
+
+Mrs. Grivois having drawn up one of the blinds, they found themselves in
+a vast court, across the centre of which ran a high wall, with a kind of
+porch upon columns, under which was a little door. Behind this wall, they
+could see the upper part of a very large building in freestone. Compared
+with the house in the Rue Brise-Miche, this building appeared a palace;
+so Blanche said to Mrs. Grivois, with an expression of artless
+admiration: "Dear me, madame, what a fine residence!"
+
+"That is nothing," replied Madame Grivois; "wait till you see the
+interior, which is much finer."
+
+When the coachman opened the door of the carriage, what was the rage of
+Mrs. Grivois, and the surprise of the girls, to see Spoil-sport, who had
+been clever enough to follow the coach. Pricking up his ears, and wagging
+his tail, he seemed to have forgotten his late offences, and to expect to
+be praised for his intelligent fidelity.
+
+"What!" cried Mrs. Grivois, whose sorrows were renewed at the sight; "has
+that abominable dog followed the coach?"
+
+"A famous dog, mum," answered the coachman "he never once left the heels
+of my horses. He must have been trained to it. He's a powerful beast, and
+two men couldn't scare him. Look at the throat of him now!"
+
+The mistress of the deceased pug, enraged at the somewhat unseasonable
+praises bestowed upon the Siberian, said to the orphans, "I will announce
+your arrival, wait for me an instant in the coach."
+
+So saying, she went with a rapid step towards the porch, and rang the
+bell. A woman, clad in a monastic garb, appeared at the door, and bowed
+respectfully to Mrs. Grivois, who addressed her in these few words, "I
+have brought you the two young girls; the orders of Abbe d'Aigrigny and
+the princess are, that they be instantly separated, and kept apart in
+solitary cells--you understand, sister--and subjected to the rule for
+impenitents."
+
+"I will go and inform the superior, and it will be done," said the
+portress, with another bend.
+
+"Now, will you come, my dear young ladies?" resumed Mrs. Grivois,
+addressing the two girls, who had secretly bestowed a few caresses upon
+Spoil sport, so deeply were they touched by his instinctive attachment;
+"you will be introduced to your relation, and I will return and fetch you
+in half an hour. Coachman keep that dog back."
+
+Rose and Blanche, in getting out of the coach, were so much occupied with
+Spoil-sport, that they did not perceive the portress, who was half hidden
+behind the little door. Neither did they remark, that the person who was
+to introduce them was dressed as a nun, till, taking them by the hand,
+she had led them across the threshold, when the door was immediately
+closed behind them.
+
+As soon as Mrs. Grivois had seen the orphans safe into the convent, she
+told the coachman to leave the court-yard, and wait for her at the outer
+gate. The coachman obeyed; but Spoil-sport, who had seen Rose and Blanche
+enter by the little door, ran to it, and remained there.
+
+Mrs. Grivois then called the porter of the main entrance, a tall,
+vigorous fellow and said to him: "Here are ten francs for you, Nicholas,
+if you will beat out the brains of that great dog, who is crouching under
+the porch."
+
+Nicholas shook his head, as he observed Spoil-sport's size and strength.
+"Devil take me, madame!" said he; "'tis not so easy to tackle a dog of
+that build."
+
+"I will give you twenty francs; only kill him before me."
+
+"One ought to have a gun, and I have only an iron hammer."
+
+"That will do; you can knock him down at a blow."
+
+"Well, madame--I will try--but I have my doubts." And Nicholas went to
+fetch his mallet.
+
+"Oh! if I had the strength!" said Mrs. Grivois.
+
+The porter returned with his weapon, and advanced slowly and
+treacherously towards Spoil-sport, who was still crouching beneath the
+porch. "Here, old fellow! here, my good dog!" said Nicholas striking his
+left hand on his thigh, and keeping his right behind him, with the
+crowbar grasped in it.
+
+Spoil-sport rose, examined Nicholas attentively, and no doubt perceiving
+by his manner that the porter meditated some evil design, bounded away
+from him, outflanked the enemy, saw clearly what was intended, and kept
+himself at a respectful distance.
+
+"He smells a rat," said Nicholas; "the rascal's on his guard. He will not
+let me come near him. It's no go."
+
+"You are an awkward fellow," said Mrs. Grivois in a passion, as she threw
+a five-franc piece to Nicholas: "at all events, drive him away."
+
+"That will be easier than to kill him, madame," said the porter. Indeed,
+finding himself pursued, and conscious probably that it would be useless
+to attempt an open resistance, Spoil-sport fled from the court-yard into
+the street; but once there, he felt himself, as it were, upon neutral
+ground, and notwithstanding all the threats of Nicholas, refused to
+withdraw an inch further than just sufficient to keep out of reach of the
+sledge-hammer. So that when Mrs. Grivois, pale with rage, again stepped
+into her hackney-coach, in which were My Lord's lifeless remains, she saw
+with the utmost vexation that Spoil-sport was lying at a few steps from
+the gate, which Nicholas had just closed, having given up the chase in
+despair.
+
+The Siberian dog, sure of finding his way back to the Rue Brise-Miche,
+had determined, with the sagacity peculiar to his race, to wait for the
+orphans on the spot where he then was.
+
+Thus were the two sisters confined in St. Mary's Convent, which, as we
+have already said, was next door to the lunatic asylum in which Adrienne
+de Cardoville was immured.
+
+We now conduct the reader to the dwelling of Dagobert's wife, who was
+waiting with dreadful anxiety for the return of her husband, knowing that
+he would call her to account for the disappearance of Marshal Simon's
+daughters.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER LII.
+
+THE INFLUENCE OF A CONFESSOR.
+
+Hardly had the orphans quitted Dagobert's wife, when the poor woman,
+kneeling down, began to pray with fervor. Her tears, long restrained, now
+flowed abundantly; notwithstanding her sincere conviction that she had
+performed a religious duty in delivering up the girl's she waited with
+extreme fear her husband's return. Though blinded by her pious zeal, she
+could not hide from herself, that Dagobert would have good reason to be
+angry; and then this poor mother had also, under these untoward
+circumstances, to tell him of Agricola's arrest.
+
+Every noise upon the stairs made Frances start with trembling anxiety;
+after which, she would resume her fervent prayers, supplicating strength
+to support this new and arduous trial. At length, she heard a step upon
+the landing-place below, and, feeling sure this time that it was
+Dagobert, she hastily seated herself, dried her tears, and taking a sack
+of coarse cloth upon her lap, appeared to be occupied with sewing--though
+her aged hands trembled so much, that she could hardly hold the needle.
+
+After some minutes the door opened, and Dagobert appeared. The soldier's
+rough countenance was stern and sad; as he entered, he flung his hat
+violently upon the table, so full of painful thought, that he did not at
+first perceive the absence of the orphans.
+
+"Poor girl!" cried he. "It is really terrible!"
+
+"Didst see Mother Bunch? didst claim her?" said Frances hastily,
+forgetting for a moment her own fears.
+
+"Yes, I have seen her--but in what a state--twas enough to break one's
+heart. I claimed her, and pretty loud too, I can tell you; but they said
+to me, that the commissary must first come to our place in order--" here
+Dagobert paused, threw a glance of surprise round the room, and exclaimed
+abruptly: "Where are the children?"
+
+Frances felt herself seized with an icy shudder. "My dear," she began in
+a feeble voice--but she was unable to continue.
+
+"Where are Rose and Blanche! Answer me then! And Spoil-sport, who is not
+here either!"
+
+"Do not be angry."
+
+"Come," said Dagobert, abruptly, "I see you have let them go out with a
+neighbor--why not have accompanied them yourself, or let them wait for
+me, if they wished to take a walk; which is natural enough, this room
+being so dull. But I am astonished that they should have gone out before
+they had news of good Mother Bunch--they have such kind hearts. But how
+pale you are?" added the soldier looking nearer at Frances; "what is the
+matter, my poor wife? Are you ill?"
+
+Dagobert took Frances's hand affectionately in his own but the latter,
+painfully agitated by these words, pronounced with touching goodness,
+bowed her head and wept as she kissed her husband's hand. The soldier,
+growing more and more uneasy as he felt the scalding tears of his wife,
+exclaimed: "You weep, you do not answer--tell me, then, the cause of your
+grief, poor wife! Is it because I spoke a little loud, in asking you how
+you could let the dear children go out with a neighbor? Remember their
+dying mother entrusted them to my care--'tis sacred, you see--and with
+them, I am like an old hen after her chickens," added he, laughing to
+enliven Frances.
+
+"Yes, you are right in loving them!"
+
+"Come, then--becalm--you know me of old. With my great, hoarse voice, I
+am not so bad a fellow at bottom. As you can trust to this neighbor,
+there is no great harm done; but, in future, my good Frances, do not take
+any step with regard to the children without consulting me. They asked, I
+suppose, to go out for a little stroll with Spoil-sport?"
+
+"No, my dear!"
+
+"No! Who is this neighbor, to whom you have entrusted them? Where has she
+taken them? What time will she bring them back?"
+
+"I do not know," murmured Frances, in a failing voice.
+
+"You do not know!" cried Dagobert, with indignation; but restraining
+himself, he added, in a tone of friendly reproach: "You do not know? You
+cannot even fix an hour, or, better still, not entrust them to any one?
+The children must have been very anxious to go out. They knew that I
+should return at any moment, so why not wait for me--eh, Frances? I ask
+you, why did they not wait for me? Answer me, will you!--Zounds! you
+would make a saint swear!" cried Dagobert, stamping his foot; "answer me,
+I say!"
+
+The courage of Frances was fast failing. These pressing and reiterated
+questions, which might end by the discovery of the truth, made her endure
+a thousand slow and poignant tortures. She preferred coming at once to
+the point, and determined to bear the full weight of her husband's anger,
+like a humble and resigned victim, obstinately faithful to the promise
+she had sworn to her confessor.
+
+Not having the strength to rise, she bowed her head, allowed her arms to
+fall on either side of the chair, and said to her husband in a tone of
+the deepest despondency: "Do with me what you will--but do not ask what
+is become of the children--I cannot answer you."
+
+If a thunderbolt had fallen at the feet of the soldier, he would not have
+been more violently, more deeply moved; he became deadly pale; his bald
+forehead was covered with cold sweat; with fixed and staring look, he
+remained for some moments motionless, mute, and petrified. Then, as if
+roused with a start from this momentary torpor, and filled with a
+terrific energy, he seized his wife by the shoulders, lifted her like a
+feather, placed her on her feet before him, and, leaning over her,
+exclaimed in a tone of mingled fury and despair: "The children!"
+
+"Mercy! mercy!" gasped Frances, in a faint voice.
+
+"Where are the children?" repeated Dagobert, as he shook with his
+powerful hands that poor frail body, and added in a voice of thunder:
+"Will you answer? the children!"
+
+"Kill me, or forgive me, I cannot answer you," replied the unhappy woman,
+with that inflexible, yet mild obstinacy, peculiar to timid characters,
+when they act from convictions of doing right.
+
+"Wretch!" cried the soldier; wild with rage, grief, despair, he lifted up
+his wife as if he would have dashed her upon the floor--but he was too
+brave a man to commit such cowardly cruelty, and, after that first burst
+of involuntary fury, he let her go.
+
+Overpowered, Frances sank upon her knees, clasped her hands, and, by the
+faint motion of her lips, it was clear that she was praying. Dagobert had
+then a moment of stunning giddiness; his thoughts wandered; what had just
+happened was so sudden, so incomprehensible that it required some minutes
+to convince himself that his wife (that angel of goodness, whose life had
+been one course of heroic self-devotion, and who knew what the daughters
+of Marshal Simon were to him) should say to him: "Do not ask me about
+them--I cannot answer you."
+
+The firmest, the strongest mind would have been shaken by this
+inexplicable fact. But, when the soldier had a little recovered himself,
+he began to look coolly at the circumstances, and reasoned thus sensibly
+with himself: "My wife alone can explain to me this inconceivable
+mystery--I do not mean either to beat or kill her--let us try every
+possibly method, therefore, to induce her to speak, and above all, let me
+try to control myself."
+
+He took a chair, handed another to his wife, who was still on her knees,
+and said to her: "Sit down." With an air of the utmost dejection, Frances
+obeyed.
+
+"Listen to me, wife," resumed Dagobert in a broken voice, interrupted by
+involuntary starts, which betrayed the boiling impatience he could hardly
+restrain. "Understand me--this cannot pass over in this manner--you know.
+I will never use violence towards you--just now, I gave way to a first
+moment of hastiness--I am sorry for it. Be sure, I shall not do so again:
+but, after all, I must know what has become of these children. Their
+mother entrusted them to my care, and I did not bring them all the way
+from Siberia, for you to say to me: 'Do not ask me--I cannot tell you
+what I have done with them.' There is no reason in that. Suppose Marshal
+Simon were to arrive, and say to me, 'Dagobert, my children?' what answer
+am I to give him? See, I am calm--judge for yourself--I am calm--but just
+put yourself in my place, and tell me--what answer am I to give to the
+marshal? Well--what say you! Will you speak!"
+
+"Alas! my dear--"
+
+"It is of no use crying alas!" said the soldier wiping his forehead, on
+which the veins were swollen as if they would burst; "what am I to answer
+to the marshal?"
+
+"Accuse me to him--I will bear it all--I will say--"
+
+"What will you say?"
+
+"That, on going out, you entrusted the two girls to me, and that not
+finding them on return you asked be about them--and that my answer was,
+that I could not tell you what had become of them."
+
+"And you think the marshal will be satisfied with such reasons?" cried
+Dagobert, clinching his fists convulsively upon his knees.
+
+"Unfortunately, I can give no other--either to him or you--no--not if I
+were to die for it."
+
+Dagobert bounded from his chair at this answer, which was given with
+hopeless resignation. His patience was exhausted; but determined not to
+yield to new bursts of anger, or to spend his breath in useless menaces,
+he abruptly opened one of the windows, and exposed his burning forehead
+to the cool air. A little calmer, he walked up and down for a few
+moments, and then returned to seat himself beside his wife. She, with her
+eyes bathed in tears, fixed her gaze upon the crucifix, thinking that she
+also had to bear a heavy cross.
+
+Dagobert resumed: "By the manner in which you speak, I see that no
+accident has happened, which might endanger the health of the children."
+
+"No, oh no! thank God, they are quite well--that is all I can say to
+you."
+
+"Did they go out alone?"
+
+"I cannot answer you."
+
+"Has any one taken them away?"
+
+"Alas, my dear! why ask me these questions? I cannot answer you."
+
+"Will they come back here?"
+
+"I do not know."
+
+Dagobert started up; his patience was once more exhausted. But, after
+taking a few turns in the room, he again seated himself as before.
+
+"After all," said he to his wife, "you have no interest to conceal from
+me what is become of the children. Why refuse to let me know?"
+
+"I cannot do otherwise."
+
+"I think you will change your opinion, when you know something that I am
+now forced to tell you. Listen to me well!" added Dagobert, in an
+agitated voice; "if these children are not restored to me before the 13th
+of February--a day close at hand--I am in the position of a man that
+would rob the daughters of Marshal Simon--rob them, d'ye understand?"
+said the soldier, becoming more and more agitated. Then, with an accent
+of despair which pierced Frances's heart, he continued: "And yet I have
+done all that an honest man could do for those poor children--you cannot
+tell what I have had to suffer on the road--my cares, my anxieties--I, a
+soldier, with the charge of two girls. It was only by strength of heart,
+by devotion, that I could go through with it--and when, for my reward, I
+hoped to be able to say to their father: 'Here are your children!--'" The
+soldier paused. To the violence of his first emotions had succeeded a
+mournful tenderness; he wept.
+
+At sight of the tears rolling slowly down Dagobert's gray moustache,
+Frances felt for a moment her resolution give way; but, recalling the
+oath which she had made to her confessor, and reflecting that the eternal
+salvation of the orphans was at stake, she reproached herself inwardly
+with this evil temptation, which would no doubt be severely blamed by
+Abbe Dubois. She answered, therefore, in a trembling voice: "How can they
+accuse you of robbing these children?"
+
+"Know," resumed Dagobert, drawing his hand across his eyes, "that if
+these young girls have braved so many dangers, to come hither, all the
+way from Siberia, it is that great interests are concerned--perhaps an
+immense fortune--and that, if they are not present on the 13th
+February--here, in Paris, Rue Saint Francois--all will be lost--and
+through my fault--for I am responsible for your actions."
+
+"The 13th February? Rue Saint Francois?" cried Frances, looking at her
+husband with surprise. "Like Gabriel!"
+
+"What do you say about Gabriel?"
+
+"When I took him in (poor deserted child!), he wore a bronze medal about
+his neck."
+
+"A bronze medal!" cried the soldier, struck with amazement; "a bronze
+medal with these words, 'At Paris you will be, the 13th of February,
+1832, Rue Saint Francois?"
+
+"Yes--how do you know?"
+
+"Gabriel, too!" said the soldier speaking to himself. Then he added
+hastily: "Does Gabriel know that this medal was found upon him?"
+
+"I spoke to him of it at some time. He had also about him a portfolio,
+filled with papers in a foreign tongue. I gave them to Abbe Dubois, my
+confessor, to look over. He told me afterwards, that they were of little
+consequence; and, at a later period, when a charitable person named M.
+Rodin, undertook the education of Gabriel, and to get him into the
+seminary, Abbe Dubois handed both papers and medal to him. Since then, I
+have heard nothing of them."
+
+When Frances spoke of her confessor a sudden light flashed across the
+mind of the soldier, though he was far from suspecting the machinations
+which had so long been at work with regard to Gabriel and the orphans.
+But he had a vague feeling that his wife was acting in obedience to some
+secret influence of the confessional--an influence of which he could not
+understand the aim or object, but which explained, in part at least,
+Frances's inconceivable obstinacy with regard to the disappearance of the
+orphans.
+
+After a moment's reflection, he rose, and said sternly to his wife,
+looking fixedly at her: "There is a priest at the bottom of all this."
+
+"What do you mean, my dear?"
+
+"You have no interest to conceal these children. You are one of the best
+of women. You see that I suffer; if you only were concerned, you would
+have pity upon me."
+
+"My dear--"
+
+"I tell you, all this smacks of the confessional," resumed Dagobert. "You
+would sacrifice me and these children to your confessor; but take care--I
+shall find out where he lives--and a thousand thunders! I will go and ask
+him who is master in my house, he or I--and if he does not answer," added
+the soldier, with a threatening expression of countenance, "I shall know
+how to make him speak."
+
+"Gracious heaven!" cried Frances, clasping her hands in horror at these
+sacrilegious words; "remember he is a priest!"
+
+"A priest, who causes discord, treachery, and misfortune in my house, is
+as much of a wretch as any other; whom I have a right to call to account
+for the evil he does to me and mine. Therefore, tell me immediately where
+are the children--or else, I give you fair warning, I will go and demand
+them of the confessor. Some crime is here hatching, of which you are an
+accomplice without knowing it, unhappy woman! Well, I prefer having to do
+with another than you."
+
+"My dear," said Frances, in a mild, firm voice, "you cannot think to
+impose by violence on a venerable man, who for twenty years has had the
+care of my soul. His age alone should be respected."
+
+"No age shall prevent me!"
+
+"Heavens! where are you going? You alarm me!"
+
+"I am going to your church. They must know you there--I will ask for your
+confessor--and we shall see!"
+
+"I entreat you, my dear," cried Frances, throwing herself in a fright
+before Dagobert, who was hastening towards the door; "only think, to what
+you will expose yourself! Heavens! insult a priest? Why, it is one of the
+reserved cases!"
+
+These last words, which appeared most alarming to the simplicity of
+Dagobert's wife, did not make any impression upon the soldier. He
+disengaged himself from her grasp, and was going to rush out bareheaded,
+so high was his exasperation, when the door opened, and the commissary of
+police entered, followed by Mother Bunch and a policeman, carrying the
+bundle which he had taken from the young girl.
+
+"The commissary!" cried Dagobert, who recognized him by his official
+scarf. "Ah! so much the better--he could not have come at a fitter
+moment."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER LIII.
+
+THE EXAMINATION.
+
+"Mistress Frances Baudoin?" asked the magistrate.
+
+"Yes, sir--it is I," said Frances. Then, perceiving the pale and
+trembling sewing-girl, who did not dare to come forward, she stretched
+out her arms to her. "Oh, my poor child!" she exclaimed, bursting into
+tears; "forgive--forgive us--since it is for our sake you have suffered
+this humiliation!"
+
+When Dagobert's wife had tenderly embraced the young sempstress, the
+latter, turning towards the commissary, said to him with an expression of
+sad and touching dignity: "You see, sir, that I am not a thief."
+
+"Madame," said the magistrate, addressing Frances, "am I to understand
+that the silver mug, the shawl, the sheets contained in this bundle--"
+
+"Belong to me, sir. It was to render me a service that this dear girl,
+who is the best and most honest creature in the world, undertook to carry
+these articles to the pawnbroker's."
+
+"Sir," said the magistrate sternly to the policeman, "you have committed
+a deplorable error. I shall take care to report you, and see that you are
+punished. You may go, sir." Then, addressing Mother Bunch, with an air of
+real regret, he added: "I can only express my sorrow for what has
+happened. Believe me, I deeply feel for the cruel position in which you
+have been placed."
+
+"I believe it, sir," said Mother Bunch, "and I thank you." Overcome by so
+many emotions, she sank upon a chair.
+
+The magistrate was about to retire, when Dagobert, who had been seriously
+reflecting for some minutes, said to him in a firm voice: "Please to hear
+me, Sir; I have a deposition to make."
+
+"Speak, Sir."
+
+"What I am about to say is very important; it is to you, in your quality
+of a magistrate, that I make this declaration."
+
+"And as a magistrate I will hear you, sir."
+
+"I arrived here two days ago, bringing with me from Russia two girls who
+had been entrusted to me by their mother--the wife of Marshal Simon."
+
+"Of Marshal Simon, Duke de Ligny?" said the commissary, very much
+surprised.
+
+"Yes, Sir. Well, I left them here, being obliged to get out on pressing
+business. This morning, during my absence, they disappeared--and I am
+certain I know the man who has been the cause of it."
+
+"Now, my dear," said Frances, much alarmed.
+
+"Sir," said the magistrate, "your declaration is a very serious one.
+Disappearance of persons--sequestration, perhaps. But are you quite
+sure?"
+
+"These young ladies were here an hour ago; I repeat, sir, that during my
+absence, they have been taken away."
+
+"I do not doubt the sincerity of your declaration, sir; but still it is
+difficult to explain so strange an abduction. Who tells you that these
+young girls will not return? Besides, whom do you suspect? One word,
+before you make your accusation. Remember, it is the magistrate who hears
+you. On leaving this place, the law will take its course in this affair."
+
+"That is what I wish, Sir; I am responsible for those young ladies to
+their father. He may arrive at any moment, and I must be prepared to
+justify myself."
+
+"I understand all these reasons, sir; but still have a care you are not
+deceived by unfounded suspicions. Your denunciation once made, I may have
+to act provisionally against the person accused. Now, if you should be
+under a mistake, the consequences would be very serious for you; and,
+without going further," said the magistrate, pointing to Mother Bunch,
+with emotion, "you see what are the results of a false accusation."
+
+"You hear, my dear," cried Frances, terrified at the resolution of
+Dagobert to accuse Abbe Dubois; "do not say a word more, I entreat you."
+
+But the more the soldier reflected, the more he felt convinced that
+nothing but the influence of her confessor could have induced Frances to
+act as she had done; so he resumed, with assurance: "I accuse my wife's
+confessor of being the principal or the accomplice in the abduction of
+Marshal Simon's daughters."
+
+Frances uttered a deep groan, and hid her face in her hands; while Mother
+Bunch, who had drawn nigh, endeavored to console her. The magistrate had
+listened to Dagobert with extreme astonishment, and he now said to him
+with some severity: "Pray, sir, do not accuse unjustly a man whose
+position is in the highest degree respectable--a priest, sir?--yes, a
+priest? I warned you beforehand to reflect upon what you advanced. All
+this becomes very serious, and, at your age, any levity in such matters
+would be unpardonable."
+
+"Bless me, sir!" said Dagobert, with impatience; "at my age, one has
+common sense. These are the facts. My wife is one of the best and most
+honorable of human creatures--ask any one in the neighborhood, and they
+will tell you so--but she is a devotee; and, for twenty years, she has
+always seen with her confessor's eyes. She adores her son, she loves me
+also; but she puts the confessor before us both."
+
+"Sir," said the commissary, "these family details--"
+
+"Are indispensable, as you shall see. I go out an hour ago, to look after
+this poor girl here. When I come back, the young ladies have disappeared.
+I ask my wife to whom she has entrusted them, and where they are; she
+falls at my feet weeping, and says: 'Do what you will with me, but do not
+ask me what has become of the children. I cannot answer you.'"
+
+"Is thus true, madame?" cried the commissary, looking at Frances with
+surprise.
+
+"Anger, threats, entreaties, had no effect," resumed Dagobert; "to
+everything she answered as mildly as a saint: 'I can tell you nothing!'
+Now, sir, I maintain that my wife has no interest to take away these
+children; she is under the absolute dominion of her confessor; she has
+acted by his orders and for his purposes; he is the guilty party."
+
+Whilst Dagobert spoke, the commissary looked more and more attentively at
+Frances, who, supported by the hunchback, continued to weep bitterly.
+After a moment's reflection, the magistrate advanced towards Dagobert's
+wife, and said to her: "Madame, you have heard what your husband has just
+declared."
+
+"Yes, sir."
+
+"What have you to say in your justification?"
+
+"But, sir," cried Dagobert, "it is not my wife that I accuse--I do not
+mean that; it is her confessor."
+
+"Sir, you have applied to a magistrate; and the magistrate must act as he
+thinks best for the discovery of the truth. Once more, madame," he
+resumed, addressing Frances, "what have you to say in your
+justification?"
+
+"Alas! nothing, sir."
+
+"Is it true that your husband left these young girls in your charge when
+he went out?"
+
+"Yes, sir."
+
+"Is it true that, on his return, they were no longer to be found?"
+
+"Yes, sir."
+
+"Is it true that, when he asked you where they were, you told him that
+you could give him no information on the subject?"
+
+The commissary appeared to wait for Frances' reply with kind of anxious
+curiosity.
+
+"Yes, sir," said she, with the utmost simplicity, "that was the answer I
+made my husband."
+
+"What, madame!" said the magistrate, with an air of painful astonishment;
+"that was your only answer to all the prayers and commands of your
+husband? What! you refused to give him the least information? It is
+neither probable nor possible."
+
+"It is the truth, sir."
+
+"Well, but, after all, madame, what have you done with the young ladies
+that were entrusted to your care?"
+
+"I can tell you nothing about it, sir. If I would not answer my poor
+husband, I certainly will not answer any one else."
+
+"Well, sir," resumed Dagobert, "was I wrong? An honest, excellent woman
+like that, who was always full of good sense and affection, to talk in
+this way--is it natural? I repeat to you, sir that it is the work of her
+confessor; act against him promptly and decidedly, we shall soon know
+all, and my poor children will be restored to me."
+
+"Madame," continued the commissary, without being able to repress a
+certain degree of emotion, "I am about to speak to you very severely. My
+duty obliges me to do so. This affair becomes so serious and complicated,
+that I must instantly commence judicial proceedings on the subject. You
+acknowledge that these young ladies have been left in your charge, and
+that you cannot produce them. Now, listen to me: if you refuse to give
+any explanation in the matter, it is you alone that will be accused of
+their disappearance. I shall be obliged, though with great regret, to
+take you into custody."
+
+"Me!" cried Frances, with the utmost alarm.
+
+"Her!" exclaimed Dagobert; "never! It is her confessor that I accuse, not
+my poor wife. Take her into custody, indeed!" He ran towards her, as if
+he would protect her.
+
+"It is too late, sir," said the commissary. "You have made your charge
+for the abduction of these two young ladies. According to your wife's own
+declaration, she alone is compromised up to this point. I must take her
+before the Public Prosecutor, who will decide what course to pursue."
+
+"And I say, sir," cried Dagobert, in a menacing tone, "that my wife shall
+not stir from this room."
+
+"Sir," said the commissary coolly, "I can appreciate your feelings; but,
+in the interest of justice, I would beg you not to oppose a necessary
+measure--a measure which, moreover, in ten minutes it would be quite
+impossible for you to prevent."
+
+These words, spoken with calmness, recalled the soldier to himself. "But,
+sir," said he, "I do not accuse my wife."'
+
+"Never mind, my dear--do not think of me!" said Frances, with the angelic
+resignation of a martyr. "The Lord is still pleased to try me sorely; but
+I am His unworthy servant, and must gratefully resign myself to His will.
+Let them arrest me, if they choose; I will say no more in prison than I
+have said already on the subject of those poor children."
+
+"But, sir," cried Dagobert, "you see that my wife is out of her head. You
+cannot arrest her."
+
+"There is no charge, proof, or indication against the other person whom
+you accuse, and whose character should be his protection. If I take your
+wife, she may perhaps be restored to you after a preliminary examination.
+I regret," added the commissary, in a tone of pity, "to have to execute
+such a mission, at the very moment when your son's arrest--"
+
+"What!" cried Dagobert, looking with speechless astonishment at his wife
+and Mother Bunch; "what does he say? my son?"
+
+"You were not then aware of it? Oh, sir, a thousand pardons!" said the
+magistrate, with painful emotion. "It is distressing to make you such a
+communication."
+
+"My son!" repeated Dagobert, pressing his two hands to his forehead. "My
+son! arrested!"
+
+"For a political offence of no great moment," said the commissary.
+
+"Oh! this is too much. All comes on me at once!" cried the soldier,
+falling overpowered into a chair, and hiding his face with his hands.
+
+After a touching farewell, during which, in spite of her terror, Frances
+remained faithful to the vow she had made to the Abbe Dubois--Dagobert,
+who had refused to give evidence against his wife, was left leaning upon
+a table, exhausted by contending emotions, and could not help explaining:
+"Yesterday, I had with me my wife, my son, my two poor orphans--and
+now--I am alone--alone!"
+
+The moment he pronounced these words, in a despairing tone, a mild sad
+voice was heard close behind him, saying timidly: "M. Dagobert, I am
+here; if you will allow me, I will remain and wait upon you."
+
+It was Mother Bunch!
+
+Trusting that the reader's sympathy is with the old soldier thus left
+desolate, with Agricola in his prison, Adrienne in hers, the madhouse,
+and Rose and Blanche Simon in theirs, the nunnery; we hasten to assure
+him (or her, as the case may be), that not only will their future steps
+be traced, but the dark machinations of the Jesuits, and the thrilling
+scenes in which new characters will perform their varied parts, pervaded
+by the watching spirit of the Wandering Jew, will be revealed in Part
+Second of this work, entitled: THE CHASTISEMENT.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+End of Project Gutenberg's The Wandering Jew, Book III., by Eugene Sue
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