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+Project Gutenberg's The Maid of Honour  (Vol. 3 of 3), by Lewis Wingfield
+
+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 Maid of Honour  (Vol. 3 of 3)
+       A Tale of the Dark Days of France
+
+Author: Lewis Wingfield
+
+Release Date: February 13, 2012 [EBook #38854]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE MAID OF HONOUR  (VOL. 3 OF 3) ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Charles Bowen, from page scans provided by Google Books
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+Transcriber's Notes:
+
+   1. Page scan source:
+      http://books.google.com/books?id=hxFLAAAAIAAJ
+
+   2. The diphthong oe is represented by [oe].
+
+   3. Errata listed at the end of the printed edition have been
+      inserted at the appropriate place in all volumes.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+                          THE MAID OF HONOUR
+
+
+
+
+
+
+                          THE MAID OF HONOUR
+
+
+                  A Tale of the Dark Days of France
+
+
+                                  BY
+
+                       THE HON. LEWIS WINGFIELD
+
+                              AUTHOR OF
+
+         "LADY GRIZEL," "THE LORDS OF STROGUE," "ABIGEL ROWE"
+
+                                 ETC.
+
+
+
+
+
+                          _IN THREE VOLUMES_
+                              VOL. III.
+
+
+
+
+                                LONDON
+                       RICHARD BENTLEY AND SON
+           Publishers in Ordinary to Her Majesty the Queen.
+
+                                 1891
+
+                       [_All Rights Reserved_]
+
+
+
+
+
+
+                                  TO
+
+                        WILLIAM HENRY WELDON.
+
+                              A TRIBUTE
+
+                          OF OLD FRIENDSHIP.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+                               CONTENTS
+
+
+                             CHAPTER XX.
+
+       Diplomacy.
+
+
+                             CHAPTER XXI.
+
+       The Spiders Spin.
+
+
+                            CHAPTER XXII.
+
+       Domestic Cookery.
+
+
+                            CHAPTER XXIII.
+
+       A Passage of Arms.
+
+
+                            CHAPTER XXIV.
+
+       Madame de Brèze is Nervous.
+
+
+                             CHAPTER XXV.
+
+       Will the Sword Fall?
+
+
+                            CHAPTER XXVI.
+
+       Will Jean Boulot Come?
+
+
+                            CHAPTER XXVII.
+
+       The Decks are Cleared for Action.
+
+
+                           CHAPTER XXVIII.
+
+       The Baron is Energetic.
+
+
+                            CHAPTER XXIX.
+
+       Noblesse Oblige.
+
+
+
+
+                         THE MAID OF HONOUR.
+
+
+
+
+                             CHAPTER XX.
+
+                              DIPLOMACY.
+
+
+It was a matter of imperative necessity to beat down at once the
+protecting barriers within which the victim had ensconced herself, and
+here was the first difficulty to be conquered. It was evident that
+Gabrielle's written ultimatum called for a reply. At the suggestion,
+Clovis fairly winced. Was he to grovel in the mud, and accept her
+humiliating terms? Never! And in writing, too! He would rather cut off
+his hand. What did Providence mean by creating marquises unfurnished
+with necessary adjuncts? Are not fowls provided with plumes and polar
+bears with fur? Why for years had the purse yawned for him, and then
+suddenly shut itself up? Not the purse exactly, for there existed that
+hateful allowance, which he would never, never soil his fingers with;
+but the marital authority and position which go with unstinted means!
+They had both shrivelled away, and the Marquis de Gange smarted as if
+he had been tarred and feathered. What would people say when the last
+whimsey of the chatelaine leaked out? She posed as a martyr, but took
+good care to protect herself against martyrdom. And what was the awful
+grievance? That the exigencies of his scientific studies (of which she
+was too ignorant and stupid to know aught) required the professional
+assistance of a diplomaed disciple of the prophet, and that the adept
+selected by the prophet chanced to be a woman! Was ever anything so
+low and paltry as this ridiculous assumption of jealousy? Had he,
+Clovis, ever made love to Mademoiselle Brunelle? Never. Delighting in
+like pursuits, they were dear and trusted friends after the manner of
+male friendship, and none but a base nature could take umbrage at such
+an alliance.
+
+Judging from her absurd precautions of changed locks and newly-opened
+doors, the martyr seemed to consider herself in peril--evidently meant
+the country to suppose so. Her husband was an ogre--a roaring
+Fee-fo-fum--would by and by serve up her tender limbs on toast, with
+rich and luscious gravy. The abbé might argue till he was black in the
+face, but if Mistress Gabrielle could be haughty, so could he. He
+declined to answer the letter.
+
+"Dear me! a scandal!" objected the abbé in distress, "an inevitable
+scandal! Might his attached and ever-devoted brother go forth and play
+the ambassador?"
+
+Pharamond might do what he deemed right, on the clear understanding
+that the head of the house would not consent to anything that should
+hold him up to ridicule.
+
+Armed thus with maimed powers, Pharamond went on his mission. He had
+almost traversed the length of the long saloon, ere Gabrielle, looking
+up from her embroidery, beheld the intruder. The blood rushed to her
+face, then slowly ebbed. They would not accept her terms, then, but
+would force their presence on her?
+
+Bidding the girl and boy who were romping on the floor, to retire to
+their school-room, she laid her work upon the table, and with crossed
+hands waited.
+
+"Madame must try and pardon this intrusion," began the abbé, meekly,
+"because it could not be avoided. I am here to speak, for my brother
+would not write, and it is rude not to answer a letter. Will madame be
+so courteous as to hear me out?"
+
+Gabrielle, after a moment's reflection, pointed to a seat, but
+Pharamond shook his head.
+
+"Madame does not accept me as a friend," he observed, drily, "so I
+have no desire to stay a moment more than I'm obliged."
+
+"A friend? Who has never done me anything but harm!"
+
+"Are we to discuss all that again?" he replied. "You have yourself
+admitted, more than once, that you owed much to me, and yet you
+compelled me by your own conduct reluctantly to withdraw what I had
+given."
+
+"You do well to remind me!" returned Gabrielle, swelling with
+contempt. "Your terms of peace were that your brother's wife was to
+become your mistress! You are right to stand. Say what you have to
+say, and quickly."
+
+"I have, in the first place, to point out to Madame la Marquise the
+result of her present course of action. Does a wife, think you, gain
+in the world's esteem by constantly insulting her husband?"
+
+"I have never insulted my husband."
+
+"Not by making a fool of him before all his class--by treating him
+like an ill-bred child, that may not be trusted? By driving him from
+beneath the roof which should be his?"
+
+"What?" ejaculated Gabrielle, amazed.
+
+"That is what you have done, and, believe me, the world will be
+against you, however plausible a tale you may invent."
+
+"Is he going away?" faltered the marquise, beginning to see the
+position in another light.
+
+"Is it probable that so proud a man would stay to be made the
+laughing-stock of all Touraine? Of course not. Beggary were better
+than such deep disgrace as that. His name is yours, and yet to your
+own shame you wilfully drag it in the mire. We are all going away, so
+you will have your chateau to yourself, and when we arrive in Paris it
+is you who will be the laughing-stock."
+
+"Going away! How will you all live?" asked the marquise, pondering.
+
+"Expelled from the home that should have been our brother's, the
+chevalier and I will return to Montpelier. The marquis will retreat to
+Spa, and take service with the mesmerists. He will be happy there in
+congenial society, for though very poor, he will be freed from dread
+of insult."
+
+Gabrielle was bewildered. She was being held up to herself in the most
+natural manner possible, as a tyrant, an insulter of the poor, in whom
+dwelt neither justice nor compassion. It was not true, she knew that
+right well; but perhaps without intent, she had been harsh. Yet
+no--with a remembrance of the crowning outrage of that woman's return,
+came renewed courage.
+
+The abbé concluded he had gained a point and followed it swiftly with
+another thrust.
+
+"Madame will excuse me, if I remark that she is given to
+hallucinations, such as are common in hysterical subjects. She suffers
+from delusions, invents charges against her sorely-stricken husband,
+which at expense of his private feelings must be rebutted. His
+position having been rendered untenable by his wealthy wife, he is
+compelled to leave her house, and in doing so refrains from the one
+punishment which lies within easy reach. If he chose, he could remove
+his children, but he will not, for he has learned with pain that one
+of madame's chief delusions is that she has herself been divided from
+her offspring. That he may not be placed in the wrong, by any more
+such idle fancies, he consents to sacrifice himself, and will leave
+them with madame _for the present_. I think I have followed all my
+instructions, and with madame's permission will retire."
+
+The abbé who had spoken with dispassionate calm, made a low reverence,
+and without looking at the lady moved slowly down the saloon. Would
+she call him back? No. Better to leave her to chew the cud of bitter
+and perplexing thought. The arrow was planted, and now would fester.
+Toinon would surely appear with another letter in the evening. His
+fingers were on the door handle when a low, sad voice called, "Abbé!"
+
+Did he hear aright? He turned with manifest reluctance. "Madame
+deigned to speak?"
+
+"Yes. Come back, I pray you."
+
+With a slight but eloquent shoulder shrug of deprecation, the cunning
+churchman moved up the saloon again, very slowly, as if under protest.
+
+"Madame would wish to know," he asked, "how soon she will be quit of
+us? Alas! we must crave indulgence, for my brother's scientific
+instruments will take long to pack. They are brittle and expensive
+articles which, under the new conditions, he could never afford to
+replace."
+
+The marquise was visibly troubled, and the abbé had some ado to keep
+his countenance. The man was a human chameleon, and poor Gabrielle had
+not the weapons wherewith to smite such animals. His manner was so
+staid and stern, yet meek withal, that she could scarce believe that
+it was over this same passionless face that she had seen pass and fade
+dissolving views of such deep-dyed iniquity. Was this the satyr who
+had inflicted scorching kisses; who had by turns cajoled and brutally
+threatened her--the man of whom she had grown to be mortally afraid?
+He had just held up for contemplation a portrait of herself, which,
+though hideously distorted, was like. But was it? It was, and yet it
+was not. He had made her out a monster.
+
+So they were going away and would leave her in peace with the
+children? How unexpected a _dénouement_. It never entered the simple
+head of Gabrielle to suspect that the man was lying. Proud as she was
+herself, she could understand and appreciate, and even applaud the
+feeling which preferred independent poverty to gilded bondage. And she
+had meant so well in what she had done! But put as it had just been,
+it did seem wrong to make a husband--even a bad one--so dependent. A
+man dependent on a woman is always a subject for ridicule. Woman
+governed by her feelings is so easily misled!
+
+Ah me! Permit me to moralize for just a minute. Why is it that the
+more angelic we are--the more ready to moult our earthy plumage--we
+should be the less fit to combat those of earth? The more guileless
+and innocent a woman is--quite fit to soar aloft with newly-sprouted
+wings--the more abjectly pitiable a victim. Perhaps it means that
+earth should be left to the earthy, and that angels have no business
+here at all.
+
+The marquise, while arranging bolts and barriers was quite under the
+impression that she was a martyr, that a menacing sword was dangling
+overhead which would fall and pierce her skull, and now she was
+told--and there seemed some truth in it--that she had been carried
+away by imagination. According to the abbé she stood convicted of
+hysteria! If their method of showing displeasure took the form of
+retreat with bag and baggage, leaving her the solitary mistress of the
+field, how could she be in danger? They would leave presently,
+declaring that the heiress had flung her money in their faces in so
+vulgar a fashion that self-respect compelled departure. Draped in the
+picturesque dignity of rags, they, not she, would wear the auriole of
+martyrdom--a consideration as new as disconcerting. It was
+satisfactory to find that Clovis, bad as she knew him to be, could be
+so proud. There must be much latent good in a selfish man who, to
+shield his manhood from smirching, will cheerfully abandon flesh-pots.
+His wife had calculated (and justly, too) that though he might whine
+and grumble, he would accept any conditions which did not withdraw the
+comforts which made life worth living. His wife fully intended that he
+should have ample means to play ducks and drakes with, but, surrounded
+as he was by a bad _entourage_, he must not be permitted to be master.
+And, lo and behold, he snapped his fingers at the money, and elected
+to wear the rags!
+
+Rapidly reviewing the situation, Gabrielle's heart warmed in a tepid
+manner to the man whom she had wrongly read. She approved the attitude
+he had assumed, but could not allow him to retain it.
+
+The abbé had rightly appraised the exceeding generosity of her nature
+and had played on it. When she called him back he was pleased to mark
+how clouded was her brow, how shaken was her fixed resolve.
+
+"Clovis has judged me harshly," she observed. "I never wished to drive
+him from his home."
+
+Things were going well. The outraged one was apologizing for her
+conduct.
+
+"Que voulez-vous!" replied the abbé with a shrug. "He has my full
+approval. It is not well to place an honourable man in a false
+position."
+
+"Nor an honourable woman either," aptly retorted the marquise.
+
+"That brings us to the burning question," said the abbé, drawing a
+step nearer, in his earnestness. "The fault, if fault it was, was
+mine, not Clovis's, and I am prepared to bear the blame of my own
+actions. A little more blame or less," he added, lightly, "cannot make
+much difference, since I know you consider me a demon. That is all
+dead and buried--blown away and done with." By a graceful gesture the
+churchman blew away the past. "It was I who brought back Mademoiselle
+Brunelle for prudential reasons, which I admit humbly now were
+unjustifiable. I thought your objection to the lady was founded on her
+interference in the nursery and nothing more, and, as you know, she
+quite understands that in future she has no place there. If your
+memory serves you, you will remember my pointing out once that a man
+like Clovis requires to be led by a woman. You could not or would not
+lead him--that is your affair; and I felt convinced that we were
+fortunate in his having a leader whose relations with him were
+platonic. What if, deprived of her, he had pitched on an affinity of
+exactly the opposite stamp?"
+
+This was true also. Gabrielle felt that it was.
+
+"As it is by your line of action you lead the world to suppose that
+you deem them guilty, and you know as well as I do that although she
+once talked nonsense in bravado, they are innocent. You drive us from
+the house and we go. Need I remark that mademoiselle goes with us?
+Thus you accentuate the suggestion of impropriety which you are aware
+does not exist, instead of showing by your behaviour that you are
+satisfied of the innocence of both."
+
+"Do you think to persuade me," asked the marquise, with sad wonder, in
+which was a tinge of bitterness, "to accept the woman's presence? The
+son of the Church calls for too lavish a display of Christian
+charity."
+
+"I call on you for nothing," returned the abbé, meekly, "since in a
+week we shall be gone. The scandal of disruption will lie with you; we
+are not responsible."
+
+So the man persisted in proving her to be in the wrong!
+
+"I do not desire that you should go away, and I will admit that I have
+been precipitate. What does Clovis want? I am ready to do all I can to
+meet his views, but he must not suppose that I will accept that
+woman."
+
+The marquise's barriers were tottering. Even the abbé had not expected
+that she would show such feebleness of purpose. His point of
+refraining to strike at her through her offspring, by removing them,
+was cleverly imagined, and had told. Would it be prudent to administer
+another stroke now, to attempt by a vigorous charge to carry the
+citadel at once, or would it be wiser to wait? It would not do to
+present the appearance of taking too much upon himself. Clovis must be
+forced to come forward and play his part. The ground was well
+prepared. The wife felt compunctious visitings, and so the husband
+might say his say without loss of dignity. The abbé resolved,
+therefore, that it was time for him to retire into shadow. So he
+echoed quietly, "What does he want? Nothing, since as you yourself
+wrote, 'all is over.' When you first propounded the notion to me, I
+knew he would not forgive that testament."
+
+So that was at the bottom of it all. Who could have guessed that a
+dreamy man, wrapped in scientific mists, should so hotly resent an
+infringement of marital authority? She appeared to have wandered
+unwittingly so far into the thicket of error, that it seemed vain to
+grope after the right; and yet, as she repeated to herself again and
+again, she had meant so extremely well!
+
+The presentiment was proved to be idle wind, since they were all ready
+to go without a struggle. Had not M. Galland declared it to be due to
+morbid fancy? The scandal of an open separation must be avoided for
+the children's sake. What answer could she make to Victor when, grown
+to manhood, he asked why his father was a beggar? The proposed exodus
+must be stopped at all hazards. What if the white-robed marquise were
+to dabble the hem of her skirt in the mire of deception for a little,
+or, to put it more nicely, make use of diplomatic arts? Supposing that
+she were to allow herself to be persuaded into cancelling the will,
+had she not arranged for the contingency? The unlucky will had somehow
+produced the worst of effects upon the marquis, and there could be no
+possibility of peace till that question was set at rest. The idea of
+so deceiving her husband, brought a guilty tingle to her cheek, but
+there seemed no other way to cut the knot. Infatuated as he was with
+the woman who had behaved so abominably, and had made her life so
+wretched, she would never really consent to leave the future of the
+darlings in his hands; but might she not pretend to do so? A signature
+with a cross appended would speak for itself. For the sake of future
+harmony, it might be judicious to appear to give way. Though it is
+naughty to do wrong, we all know that the naughtiness becomes a virtue
+when it is clear that it will result in good. Raising her deep blue
+eyes to meet the abbé's, she remarked that she would consider all that
+he had said, and let him know her decision later.
+
+Pharamond bowed. "Decision--on what point?" he inquired.
+
+"Oblige me," replied the marquise, "by requesting M. le Marquis to
+leave things as they are until he hears again from me."
+
+The interview had been most satisfactory, and Pharamond's face beamed
+as he went down the staircase. What an admirable inspiration that had
+been about their enforced departure, with bag and baggage--and with
+Aglaé! And how easily the poor soul had tumbled into the specious
+snare. And then he laughed aloud at the fancied picture of Clovis in
+his poverty. That he of all men should sacrifice his comforts! Before
+his marriage with the heiress, he had been used to a measure of it,
+but since he had lain on roses, their perfume had become a necessity.
+Moreover, his own heavily-cumbered estates were in one of the most
+turbulent provinces, where landlords might whistle for their rents.
+Were he in sober earnest to resign his position of prince consort,
+black bread and a garret would be his fate. To think that Gabrielle
+should be so hoodwinked! What was she going to consider? and how long
+would she be about it?
+
+As Clovis listened to his brother's report, he rubbed his nose in
+perplexity, glancing askance at Algaé, who nodded her head in
+approval.
+
+"She will come to her senses, and all will be well," declared that
+lady. "She will know that the vulgar _intriguante_ is a poor,
+harmless, humble friend of milord's, who only asks for the opportunity
+to forgive. Va! I bear no malice to jealous mad women. She hunted me
+away with ignominy, yet did I not clasp her to me afterwards? It was
+for monsieur's sake, for whom he knows I would spill my blood, I
+forced myself to do so. What is she to me? Except for your sake,
+nothing!"
+
+Clovis bit his nails to the quick as he walked about the room. That
+she had changed her mind was well, but would she not insist upon some
+conditions which he could not, as a man, accept? He was not going to
+kneel in the dust. They must all make up their minds to that. He was
+ready to meet her half-way if she would promise to behave better in
+the future, but as to any more school-boy treatment, he would submit
+to nothing of the kind.
+
+It was pitiable to see the weak, unstable man fluttering in borrowed
+plumes, blown out with a proud conviction in his heroic strength of
+character.
+
+"Monsieur!" cried Algaé, in her rolling tones of thunder, "oblige me
+by sitting down. Since I was so disgraced here, my nerves are not what
+they were. Clovis, I was going to say--" she added, with a great roar,
+clapping her large hands together in guileless glee--"Monsieur le
+Marquis and I," she went on needlessly to explain to the abbé, "are
+such _bons camarades_ that if I was not conscious of lowly descent,
+and in terror of the jealous mad woman, I should almost think I was
+his sister! But, oh! mon Dieu, what rashness! If the servants were to
+hear me call him Clovis, and report the awful delinquency to the pale
+nun upstairs, what shrieks and screams! When saints condescend to
+human frailties, they are very much like other mortals."
+
+"Always call me Clovis. I insist on it," observed, with benign
+authority, the bird in borrowed plumes.
+
+Algaé, with one of those impulsive movements, which in so massive a
+woman were charming, because unexpected, jumped up and kissed the
+marquis's hand, and pressed it to her bosom. "Clovis. To me always
+Clovis--when we are alone with the abbé," she murmured, gratefully,
+"but not in public--for your sake. Since you are so kind--so
+kind--cannot I put up with annoyance from the nun? So far as I am
+concerned, accept all, and any of her conditions. If she drives me
+forth again, I can take up my residence at Blois, which is not so very
+far, and you will sometimes come and see me."
+
+Algaé was vastly improved. With delighted admiration Clovis had, since
+her return, become assured of it. Her spirits were more airy, her
+humour more refined; and she fairly bubbled over with good nature, and
+she never made remarks now that were unpleasantly pithy. What an
+advantage large women have over small ones! It is given to the small
+to be querulous and vixenish. The large and stout ones are conspicuous
+for indulgent charity, You rarely find them speaking ill of their
+neighbours. Clovis was quite convinced that Algaé was a dusky pearl,
+and blamed himself severely for mistrusting her at the time of the
+attempted suicide.
+
+Gabrielle was not long in coming to a decision. Having been admittedly
+precipitate, and having looked at things from their worst point of
+view, it was her place to show generosity. What could she lose by
+falling in with the wishes of the men, and making a new will to please
+them, which, in the event of her death, would be no better than
+waste-paper? Since Clovis could show a proper pride, such as became
+his rank, it would not be well to torment him. It had been a noble
+trait that in the same breath, he should have proposed to retire from
+the scene, and yet not distress her about the children. Supposing he
+had gone, along with Algaé, and had taken the dear ones with him?
+Legally, she would have had no remedy. It never should be said that he
+could be more generous than she. The baleful woman whose evil spells
+had wrecked her content must go, of course; but she should be allowed
+to take her time, and not be expelled violently, as before.
+Ostensibly, she had come on a visit. Let her remain for a week or two
+longer, and quietly withdraw. No harm would be done. No scandal would
+arise. The acute incident would be closed, giving way to a prospect of
+tranquillity.
+
+His wife sent a short note to the marquis, begging his attendance in
+the boudoir. He made a wry face, for it was terribly like a
+schoolboy's summons to receive a flogging.
+
+But Algaé, the large-hearted, placed her brown hands upon his
+shoulders and shook him amicably. "You are indeed a child, my Clovis,
+and deserve the flogging!" she said, cheerily. "Fi donc! A gentleman
+obeys a lady's bidding. Would you have her come down here and sing
+peccavi before me, whom she detests? Infant! go to her and make it up,
+and if she proposes stipulations about me, be sure to accede to them
+all."
+
+Clovis obeyed with a bad grace, and entered his wife's boudoir with
+the sorry air of a malefactor who pleads guilty--a condition that was
+not improved by the dignified courtesy of his reception. With a serene
+smile, Gabrielle bade him sit by her side.
+
+"We seem doomed to have misunderstandings," she sighed; "and I am fain
+to confess that the blame is equally divided. I unwittingly offended
+you on a money question. I often wish that there was no such thing as
+money."
+
+The exordium was promising, and Clovis plucked up his spirits. With a
+polite bow he remained silent.
+
+"What would you have me do?" she asked.
+
+"Release me from the possible prospect of being held up to ridicule by
+my children."
+
+"It shall be done--upon conditions."
+
+Ah! There were to be conditions then? The anger of the marquis rose.
+His face assumed so sullen an expression that Gabrielle felt less
+compunction as to her pious fraud. Such men as her husband and his
+brother were not fit to have the custody of children; as to that she
+had no doubt. When she proceeded to explain that he might send for a
+notary, and she would sign another will on condition that a certain
+person undertook to withdraw from the circle, Clovis could scarce
+contain his passion.
+
+When the maréchal's solicitors had forced him to obedience it was bad
+enough--but now--to receive peremptory orders from his wife! He was
+not such a ninny as to be taken in by the little sop. That Algaé was
+to be allowed to stay on for a week or two just to keep up appearances
+made no difference. He had chosen to engage a female secretary and
+helper concerning whose relations with himself there could be no
+suspicion in any healthy mind, and he was to be deprived of her
+assistance in his work through a morbid and unworthy suspicion.
+
+"What if I refuse?" he said, sulkily. "You will play the martyr, I
+suppose?"
+
+"I will place the matter before the Seigneurie and magistrates of
+Blois," Gabrielle quietly replied. "The line they counsel I will
+take."
+
+The wrath of the marquis boiled over. His hands shook, and his fingers
+twitched as though he would like to strike her.
+
+"You will do that?" he muttered, harshly. "You will wash our linen in
+public to make me a fool before the province? You will deliberately
+create a public _esclandre_ at so dangerous a moment?"
+
+"Alas!" returned his wife, mournfully, "the scandal is made by you.
+All I ask is to be treated with respect. Rid me for ever of her who
+has been the shadow across our path, and I will carry out your wishes.
+Refuse, and I will seek the protection of the Seigneurie, who shall
+arbitrate between us."
+
+"I will return you a written answer," Clovis said, abruptly rising and
+making for the door. He could not and would not be ordered thus to
+part with Algaé; and yet he was sorely anxious for the cancelling of
+the hateful document. He was not capable of steering his bark alone
+among rocks and shallows, but must seek counsel from the others. They
+were awaiting him, and in a white heat of vexation he poured out to
+them his woes.
+
+Mademoiselle Brunelle laughed merrily, directing sly looks of
+intelligence at the abbé, who frowned over his brother's shoulder, and
+pursed his lips.
+
+Appeal to the Seigneurie, indeed! It was well to know of such a
+project in order to circumvent it. Clovis had been awkward and
+unskilful; and he, the abbé, must assume henceforth more openly the
+command of operations. Inopportune stiff necks are productive of no
+end of worry. Why could not the silly zany have done as he was bid,
+have accepted every suggestion, leaving further action to the others?
+The all-important object was to secure a proper will, and that point
+gained, both Pharamond and Algaé were well aware of what the next step
+would have to be. Clovis, the shilly-shally, must henceforth be
+excluded from a hand in the management of affairs. The lucky fellow
+should reap his share of profit by and by without the sweat of labour.
+His abortive interview with his wife had produced one good result. He
+was more than ever exasperated against her, and swore, with needless
+oaths, that he would never look on her or speak to her again.
+
+"In that he must please himself," Pharamond remarked with
+indifference; "but he must take up his pen and write. If he would
+cease fretting and fidgeting, and sit down, his obliging brother would
+dictate, and the epistle should be of the shortest. Would mademoiselle
+kindly listen and suggest, since for her there were no secrets?"
+
+The letter placed an hour later in the hand of Gabrielle ran thus:--
+
+
+"Madame,--Your instructions shall be obeyed. I have sent to Blois for
+a notary.
+
+       "Your affectionate husband,
+
+                                   "Clovis."
+
+
+
+
+
+                             CHAPTER XXI.
+
+                          THE SPIDERS SPIN.
+
+
+How provoking and how unfair to be called upon to drag out the years
+of our earthly pilgrimage during so stormy a period as this one! With
+unexpected bombshells exploding at one's feet, what was the use of
+sketching elaborate schemes which accident would most likely shiver?
+The abbé had already been obliged to change his tactics several times
+in consequence of untoward circumstances, and now from a clearing
+heaven there rained down missiles whose unexpected proximity sharpened
+his ire. "Why was I born so late?" he asked himself with muttered
+curses. "Under Louis XV., _le Bien-Aimé_, everybody did what they
+liked, provided that his majesty smiled. And if his own fancy was not
+thwarted, that monarch must have been much addicted to smiling, for he
+found the world a pleasant place. And now, just a few years later,
+there seemed to be not such a thing as a smile left anywhere. They had
+been so lavishly showered by the _bien-aimé_ and his lotus-eating
+coterie that the stock was completely exhausted, and humanity had to
+put up with execrations as a substitute."
+
+Each time that a courier arrived with intelligence of what was passing
+in the capital, the male occupants of Lorge shuddered, guessing that
+the news was bad. Bad, forsooth! The ball set a rolling was tearing
+down the hillside with such velocity that the sight thereof took away
+the breath.
+
+Old de Vaux, grateful ever to the marquis and his affinity for their
+treatment of his sciatic nerve, came riding over with crumpled
+gazettes in his pocket, his eyes goggling in his head. If the whitened
+locks upon his pate had not been artificial, they would have stood up
+on end. "What are we all coming to?" was the burthen of his wail. If
+the world was coming to an abrupt conclusion, why did it not perform a
+dignified smash and vanish into vacuum in smoke, instead of first
+permitting that over-rated creation, man, to show what a base thing he
+was?
+
+Smash! Paris, beautiful Paris, had come to smash. From a paradise it
+was become a pandemonium where all that was best and noblest was torn
+by devils' pincers.
+
+Sciatica? Oh, yes. It was charming well, thanks to the delightful and
+indefatigable pupil of Mesmer and the enlightened marquis. A pair so
+good as they would certainly be canonized--so would the prophet.
+Madame and Angelique were as disgusted as the baron, but sent kindest
+messages to all. Would they allow their patient to unfold the latest
+budget?
+
+Then the old gentleman would drone out before a long-suffering but
+apparently appreciative audience the result of his private
+lucubrations, and pour forth as well those of his lady and of
+Angelique. The seigneurs, he declared, must select the strongest
+fortress in the province, arm and victual it, and thus secure from the
+scum, look out for better times.
+
+Of course, the crescendo of Parisian sinfulness found its echo, of
+fluctuating intensity, in the provinces. The timorous old baroness and
+her daughter preferred their garden to possible insult on the roads.
+Moreover, there was little to be gained by visiting at Lorge now. The
+marquise since her return from the capital, had been vastly frigid and
+stand-off--a stuck-up piece of goods. It was certain, now that she had
+her fabulous possessions in her hands, that a mere country noble's
+family were too contemptible to touch. It was equally clear that the
+oaf who was called chevalier had no honourable intentions, and that it
+would be more than imprudent to place so chaste a specimen as
+Angelique within reach of his brandy-laden breath. And so it came
+about that the only neighbours of the fair sex in the vicinity visited
+less and less at Lorge, and that the old baron when he trotted over on
+his prad, looked as a matter of course for the society of the
+mesmerists to whom he owed so much, and ceased to ask to see the
+chatelaine.
+
+Not understanding her, the baron had always been frightened of
+Gabrielle--one shade less than of the abbé. Strange! When that
+gentleman first came among them, the baron and all the booby squires
+voted him the most charming of acquisitions. Now, somehow, he was to
+be avoided as much as might be, for his tongue was sharp and his wit
+scathing, and he was no respecter of persons. The abbé would sometimes
+take up the old gentleman in his claws, as it were, toy with him as
+cat does with a mouse, till he was bewildered and breathless; then
+turn him inside out with a gesture of contempt, and fling him aside.
+This was terribly disrespectful to a Vaux of Vaux, but it certainly
+was a fact, whose enormity was only revealed by slow degrees, that the
+abbé was not averse to treating a Vaux de Vaux (with a thousand
+quarterings) as if he were no more than a puppet. Having arrived at
+and digested this stupendous fact, it stood to reason that the baron
+disliked the abbé as much as he dared; but, at the same time, the
+counsel of that ghostly man was so worldly-wise; he was so respected
+by the mesmerists, appealed to by them on every occasion as an oracle,
+that in moments of startling difficulty such as were now of frequent
+occurrence, it was only natural that the baron should amble over from
+Montbazon to crave the oracle's advice.
+
+A budget, indeed! Almost every day was stamped by some inconceivable
+event. History was making up for casual napping by a spell of feverish
+haste. A catalogue of years was crowded into weeks. The poor old globe
+was spinning round so rapidly that it would certainly be shot out of
+its orbit, to the annihilation of the insects on its surface.
+
+When, six weeks after their arrival in the country, the incidents of
+the tenth of August reached far Touraine, the cunning abbé had the
+gazette wherein they were chronicled laid on the table of the
+marquise, whom he justly calculated would be frozen with horror. That
+her innocent benefactress should be summoned by destiny in fulfilment
+of prophecy, to drain so full a cup of bitterness was appalling, and
+naturally set her friend reflecting upon the darkness of her own
+horoscope.
+
+The sensitive and haughty queen was indeed humbled; her defenders
+massacred, her home converted into a shambles.
+
+After the storming of the Tuileries, the populace, blood-drunk,
+wreaked their insensate fury upon all alike, irrespective of age or
+sex. The gentlemen-ushers, pages, doorkeepers, even the lowly
+scullions of the kitchen were, without distinction, butchered. It was
+impossible to move a yard over the polished floors without treading on
+a corpse, stripped and horribly mutilated. Every corner of the palace
+was plundered, its furniture flung out of the window. When there were
+no more Royalists to kill, the rioters turned upon each other, making
+the fatal day the fête of carnage and devastation. The mangled bodies
+of the seven hundred murdered Swiss were covered with those of
+_sans-culottes_. It was a carnival of slaughter. On the Place Louis
+XV., groups of men and women amused themselves by severing the heads
+of the slain and tearing their flesh like tigers. It was a relief to
+know that the royal family were safe within the Temple; and yet, for
+what further suffering had they been rescued? The situation was so
+alarming that foreign ambassadors left Paris in a body, the last to go
+milady Sutherland, who stood by Marie Antoinette in her travail till
+the prison gates were closed on her.
+
+Then came the incident, so often repeated in history, of a hopeless
+combat with a spirit which, easily raised, it is found impossible to
+lay. General Lafayette, perceiving, with distress, the results of his
+own teaching, implored his army to rise in defence of king and
+constitution, and being met with laughter, fled.
+
+On the second of September--a Sunday, whereon time hung heavy on the
+hands--the brilliant idea occurred to certain zealous citizens, headed
+by one Maillard, that it would be fine fun to make hay in the prisons.
+Were there not the Abbaye, the Carmelites, the Chatelet, La Force,
+Salpétrière, Bicêtre, all crammed with wicked people who did not
+approve of _sans-culottes?_ What a delicious amusement would it be for
+the dull Sunday to teach them how bad they were. With yells, a throng,
+increasing in volume at each street corner, swept towards the
+Abbaye--men naked to the waist, with foaming lips and rolling eyes,
+and arms clotted with gore. Knives and sharp pikes made short but
+merry work. Recalcitrant maidens who refused to shout "Vive la
+Nation!" were compelled to drink the blood of their relations. The
+massacre continued all day and through the night. But why go into the
+full details of the hideous story? France was become a dangerous
+lunatic who had beaten and trampled on her keepers.
+
+It was a desperate shock to Gabrielle when she read of the fate of her
+friend, Louise, Princesse de Lamballe. That ill-starred lady had, as
+she knew, been imprisoned in La Force; and it was with a thrill that
+chilled her blood that she perused the details of her murder. Sure so
+horrible and ferocious a deed had never been done before! The marquise
+read, in the gazettes cunningly placed by the abbé, with blanched
+cheek, of how the beautiful favourite of the stricken queen had been
+dragged to the prison threshold, there to be slain by inches; of how
+her body was stripped and mutilated and flung in derision on a
+dung-heap, while her head was borne on a pike with auburn tresses
+flying, and flourished at the Temple under the window of the royal
+prisoners. Unhappy Louise! Unfortunate Marie Antoinette! Concerning
+one the sinister prophecy was accomplished; concerning the other it
+would be soon. What of the third, which concerned the Marquise de
+Gange? Morbid fancy, forsooth! No, indeed. Her fate was sealed, like
+theirs. What must be, must. She had lulled herself in false security.
+
+Since Fate had decreed that the present occupants of Lorge were to
+live in so unsavoury an era, it behoved the ruling spirit of the
+group, Monsieur l'Abbé, to extract what advantage he could out of the
+disadvantages. In the first place, outside events were so terribly
+engrossing that local gossip and tittle-tattle for the time had lost
+their charm. The general feeling of insecurity, too, was such that the
+marquise could be taught without difficulty that this was not the
+moment for aristocrats to appeal to the Seigneurie. What was a petty
+bit of jealousy, or even a family misunderstanding, by the side of a
+massacre of thousands? A protest at such a crisis on so paltry a
+subject would be justly met with contempt.
+
+Then as History kept plying her shuttle with lightning speed, the abbé
+shook his head and marvelled, congratulating himself that the great
+obstacle to his plan had been removed, since time was becoming
+precious.
+
+For the new will was now an accomplished fact, and lay safe in yonder
+desk which bore the cypher of the marquis.
+
+Mademoiselle Brunelle had intimated to the chatelaine, with a heavenly
+resignation worthy of all praise, that for appearance' sake she would
+accept the permission to linger on a week or two and then disappear
+for ever. Her note, penned in a small and irreproachable caligraphy,
+both relieved and troubled the marquise. That she had consented to
+depart without a struggle was a relief, but her mild and simple
+expressions of gratitude for past favours caused Gabrielle a twinge of
+conscience. Of course it was inevitable that the woman should be made
+to go, but the marquise would have felt more satisfied with herself if
+the creature had been vulgar and played the termagant instead of
+assuming the seraph. It was a million pities that she could not have
+gone on behaving as at first, when her mistress, finding her useful,
+had welcomed and tried to make a friend of her. The social earthquake
+had so far shaken the city of Blois that professors began to find it
+dangerous to cultivate aristocratic blossoms, preferring, with an eye
+to a whole skin, the discharging of declamatory fireworks at clubs and
+political assemblies. Of course there could be no question ever again
+of bringing mademoiselle and her late charges together; and yet it was
+a pity that it must be so, since the minds of the dear ones were lying
+fallow.
+
+News arrived of changes, legislative and warlike, such as would
+transform the map of France. The jewels appertaining to the crown were
+annexed. The National Convention, just sprung into being, decreed the
+abolition of Royalty; proclaimed a Republic. The republican armies
+were, contrary to expectation, crowned with victory. They conquered
+Savoy, occupied Nice; swept from French territory the forces of the
+Allies. The small remaining scraps of the property of emigrants, long
+threatened and plucked at now and again, were actually seized _en
+bloc_. A list of pains and penalties of the severest kind was launched
+at such bad citizens as were gangrened with royalism.
+
+At the present rate of progress the country would soon be no safer
+than the towns. Aristocrats would be dragged from their retreats,
+consigned to local jails, finished off in batches by a _noyade_ or a
+_fusillade_--be drowned or shot in droves. Clearly, there was no time
+for palaver or parleying, or the days would pass away when it would be
+possible to emigrate. What a mercy--the abbé never wearied of
+repeating the refrain--that the Maréchal de Brèze should have
+transferred his wealth to Geneva, and that his obstinate and
+stiff-necked daughter should have been induced to change her will!
+
+Mademoiselle Brunelle was equally convinced with the abbé that there
+was no time to squander. If she were to remain too long, the marquise
+would become suspicious and insist on her departure Of course she need
+not travel further than Blois, but it is well to be on the spot when
+something important is to take place, especially when your coadjutor
+is so double-faced as was the abbé. The susceptibilities of Clovis
+must be respected. What the schemers had to do must be done speedily,
+silently, and neatly. When she thought of it all the low laughter of
+Algaé rumbled. How surprised and mortified would the abbé be when in
+the end he found himself circumvented! She was to put out her paw for
+the chestnuts and keep half the booty for her trouble? So Pharamond
+had picturesquely put it. Not so. Unwittingly it was his own paw that
+was to be protruded, and in his case the fable would be realized. The
+excellent lady had graduated in his own school, and it is given to
+clever pupils ofttimes to outstrip the master.
+
+Sure, now that they held the necessary document, their task was of the
+most infantine simplicity. It had been ascertained by cautious probing
+that Clovis could be counted on not to defend his wife. He would be
+politely invited to bury his head in the sand until that which must be
+was accomplished. By skilful manipulation his loathing for his better
+half was increasing as steadily in volume as a rolling snowball, and
+was assuming the proportions of a fixed idea. Gabrielle had decreed
+the banishment of the dear affinity. With many a groan he had
+acquiesced, being assured by two whisperers as he wrote to their
+dictation, that it was but a matter of form. "If she conquers, after
+all," he had said as he flung down the pen, "I will never forgive
+either of you. You have some project in your minds for the arrangement
+of the situation. What it may be I cannot guess, but I would have you
+know that if you fail I shall hate you both quite as much as her."
+
+Algaé and the abbé had exchanged a glance of scorn over his shoulder,
+in that they were forced to work with such a sorry tool. No matter. If
+we paddle in thick mud, a little elbow-grease and water will make us
+clean again. Both began from opposite points of view to understand
+that the removal of Clovis might perchance have to follow his
+wife's. After her removal they would journey to Geneva, divide the
+fortune--hush the remorseful groans which so pusillanimous an object
+as Clovis was certain to indulge in--possibly drive him to drink, the
+natural corollary of remorse--and so into his grave. This was the
+abbé's view. Algaé went further. Arrived at Geneva, she would speedily
+become the marquise, and certain of dominion over her spouse--so long
+as his life was allowed to last--would secure to herself the reversion
+of her predecessors' fortune, and politely dismiss the brothers.
+
+All that, however, was as yet in the clouds, and there was no time to
+lose. To a certain extent, the marquis must now be admitted to the
+council, but the cautious finger of the governess must be kept upon
+his pulse, to ascertain how far he could be trusted not to scream and
+make an uproar. Such a task was exactly suited to a lady of such tact
+and discretion as mademoiselle, and she gladly undertook the office.
+
+Toinon, mightily displeased at the way things were going, was racked
+by apprehension. It seemed to her as if she and her mistress were
+being gradually enwrapped in the glutinous film of spiders, which
+uncomely creatures by and by would quietly devour them. Such a
+_ménage_ as that of Lorge, despite its outward calm, was abnormal. Her
+dear mistress dwelt in strict retirement in her own house. A band of
+harpies (among which, I regret to say, she reckoned her master) were
+secretly conspiring, and the result of their machinations could not
+but be harmful. They whispered in corners, deliberated with closed
+doors, discussed and argued something earnestly at all times and
+seasons, and if somebody approached them, they suddenly grew silent.
+What could they be conspiring? For two pins, popping her insulted
+vanity into her pocket, she would write to the truant Jean, of whom
+she vaguely heard sometimes as being quite of importance at Blois. If
+he had grown out of his love for Toinon, his blindness was to be
+deplored; but righteously indignant as that damsel felt at his
+neglect, she never for a moment doubted his honesty, however
+deplorable his opinions. Jean respected both the marquise and her
+foster-sister, and if carried away from his allegiance by politics,
+she felt none the less certain that, were she to summon him, he would
+come. But how could she summon him? He would laugh at her fears, and,
+on the principle of "Wolf, wolf," would not obey a second summons. All
+she could report was that madame was unhappy and neglected, that the
+objectionable ex-governess had come and was on the point of going, and
+that, meanwhile, she and the brothers were given to whispering in
+corners. It was absurd, and Jean would be justified in laughing at
+her. He had left his dog behind him in her care, as an unfit companion
+for a deputy at Blois, and as the faithful beast followed her about,
+gazing into her eyes with canine sympathy, she would suddenly
+sometimes sink upon the floor, and clasping his woolly head in her
+comely arms, whisper to him, "Oh, my dear! I am so sorely troubled.
+How I wish you could tell me what to do!"
+
+As to her master, he was quite different from what he used to be. In
+old days, who so spick and span, so punctiliously prim in his attire?
+His face used then to wear a dreamy expression of philanthropical
+beatitude, which, if somewhat trying, was free of blame. Now he
+neglected his dress, his shoulders were rounded. He muttered between
+his teeth, as he wandered with bent head, and when he raised it, his
+eyes were bloodshot, his features convulsed by passion--torn by some
+secret dread. He was always brooding, and on some subject which
+stirred the lees, erstwhile so undisturbed, of evil thoughts. The
+marquis was changing a _vue d'[oe]il_, and the change was not for the
+better.
+
+Toinon, with her dog behind her, was slowly mounting the stair one
+day, revolving for the thousandth time the pros and cons of her
+perplexity, when she perceived that the outer door of the abbé's
+sanctum was open--an unusual circumstance, for had he not taken to
+himself this tiny chamber by reason of its double doors? The abigail
+hesitated. Should she descend to prying? If she did it would be for
+the best motives, and if she heard anything that concerned her not it
+might as well be consigned to a tomb. She could detect the mellifluous
+accents of the abbé, apparently in remonstrance, then the voice of
+mademoiselle, very low and earnest, broken by something smothered from
+the marquis, who spoke in tones of pain. What could they be discussing
+so earnestly? Raising her finger to caution the dog to silence, she
+stole down a-tiptoe, and holding her breath, listened.
+
+Not for long, however, for the marquis of a sudden cried out, "I will
+never consent to such strong measures--never--never--never. They are
+too full of risk;" and was evidently moving towards the door when his
+progress was arrested by the abbé.
+
+"Leave it to us, dear brother; leave it to us," the latter was
+repeating, soothingly. "If not your poor brother and your devoted
+friend, who else in the wide world are you to trust? It is as plain as
+daylight that we must leave France ere long, and your obstinate wife
+will never consent to go with us. Well, well; she doubtless will be
+safe here if we are not, and if we get into trouble, she will be
+rather pleased than otherwise. Do as you are advised. Take yonder
+document and raise on it at Blois or Tours a little money for present
+expenses. We are out of cash, as you know, since you so properly stood
+out against the allowance. You can easily raise money on that paper.
+Is not everybody scraping together all they can in order to be off
+while there is time? Go, dear lad, perform your portion of the task,
+and leave the rest to us."
+
+"What of her, then?" Clovis inquired in doubt.
+
+"Meddle, meddle, meddle--why will you meddle?" retorted Pharamond,
+laughing. "I daresay she will live on here for many years, or perhaps
+not--who knows? Suffice it for the moment that we men must fly across
+the border."
+
+Then came something more from mademoiselle, which the eavesdropper
+could not catch, and Toinon had but time to flee with all her speed to
+the upper storey, ere the marquis opened the door. He was sighing and
+moaning and muttering in most extraordinary fashion.
+
+Peeping from the landing above she could see that he trembled like a
+leaf, and did not fail to mark the abbé's sneer of triumph as he
+looked after his departing brother.
+
+"He has been sent away from Lorge," she murmured, with wrinkles on her
+brow. "He is to go, and to take madame's testament along with him.
+Those two demons are victorious, and we are at their mercy. What do
+they intend to do? Nothing that bodes good to us."
+
+
+
+
+                            CHAPTER XXII.
+
+                          DOMESTIC COOKERY.
+
+
+That Clovis should have thought proper to leave Lorge without notice,
+or any hint of his intentions, was not a subject for vexation now to
+Gabrielle. She saw the carriage disappear round the corner with a
+valet and a valise in the rumble, and the eyes of the occupant fixed
+steadily upon the postilion. No smile, or nod, or wave of a hand for
+her to whom he owed so much. She could contemplate him now without a
+wince or heartache, as calmly as we examine uncanny specimens of
+beetledom in a glass case. She prayed Heaven that her son, the dear
+Victor, should not grow up too like his father. One good point about
+the marquis's going was that he was separated from that woman. Then
+she began to wonder a little that he should have prematurely torn
+himself away before the moment of her flitting. That was good. Perhaps
+he had acted thus on purpose to keep up the show of appearances which
+all agreed was to be maintained. Be that as it might, it was not
+probable that the woman would linger on in a false position--_pour les
+beaux yeux de l'abbé_--and so the chatelaine, sitting with the dear
+ones in the moat garden, was prepared at any moment to witness the
+departure of another carriage. And after that? Would Clovis return
+when the coast was clear, or remain at a distance in dudgeon, leaving
+her to the tender mercies of his brothers? What then? She had given
+way, or seemed to do so, for peace' sake. They could require no more
+of her, and would doubtless respect her seclusion. It was curious to
+think though of the whimsicality of the situation. She, Gabrielle de
+Gange, erstwhile the reigning belle, with all at her feet that the
+world had to give, was living now with unruffled equanimity under the
+same roof as sheltered the man whom she had learned to look on as a
+devil.
+
+It was October, and the leaves were circling over the grass in
+whispering eddies. The mournful days of late autumn have a charm of
+their own, as nature still peeps forth half-chilled from under the
+closing slab of the tomb. The monotony of mundane existence is in tune
+with the scene, and as all that is pleasant of the year slowly
+vanishes, we dream and moralize in a regretful way, which is not
+discontent.
+
+Nature is dying, but will live again anon. Ah! what of us who gaze
+ahead striving to peer into the unknown? Have we not learned to know
+too well that the Future is the grave in which all our poor puny
+ambitions are to lie, never to arise any more, and yet we would fain
+examine the resting-place where Hope is to play chief mourner! Most of
+us who have reached middle age have had ambition crushed out of us
+long since, and we can smile with quiet amusement at the vaulting
+aspirations of our youth.
+
+Gabrielle, while tranquilly embroidering, was not averse to recalling
+the past, summoning on the disc of memory the pageants of Versailles,
+the innocent bucolics of Trianon, the magnificent fêtes at the
+Tuileries. Where were all the gaily gilded puppets now? The Tuileries
+was a Golgotha, Trianon a nest for owls. The lovely Lamballe had been
+hacked to pieces by demons; their majesties were doing gruesome
+penance for the sins of others; even the saintly and immaculate
+Elizabeth, one of the purest and noblest women who ever trod the
+earth, was also enduring long-drawn and excruciating pangs of
+martyrdom.
+
+Laying down her embroidery as she reviewed these things, Gabrielle
+would clasp her hands behind her head, and marvel, as others in
+similarly incongruous situations have done, whether Providence is not
+a myth. Every fibre of the human soul revolts against the monstrous
+doctrine that the innocent shall suffer for the guilty, and yet every
+day we see that it obtains, and always has obtained from the time of
+Adam downwards. Such gloomy reflections should not perplex young and
+pretty heads, and yet the marquise was unable to conquer melancholy.
+Perhaps it was induced by the season, perhaps by the germs of illness.
+She must have dreamed too long in the moat garden without being
+provided with sufficient wraps. Certainly she had caught a chill, for
+when Toinon brought her as usual her morning chocolate, a few days
+after the marquis's departure, she found her shivering and feverish,
+with chattering teeth and laboured breath. Drawing aside the heavy
+curtains of the ancestral bed, Toinon gazed long and anxiously at her
+mistress, who said, turning impatiently, "You stare as if I were a
+ghost!"
+
+"Madame thinks she has caught cold?" Toinon agreed quietly. "Madame
+was always too fond of sitting in the open air."
+
+"I knew I was going to be unwell," her mistress observed drowsily,
+"for last night I could scarce touch my supper. When the palate is
+affected, things taste quite differently. The good Bertrand sent up
+some of my favourite cakes, as light as if made by fairies, and
+somehow they seemed quite coppery. Do something, Toinon; give them to
+your dog, for the dish is scarcely touched, and I would not have
+Bertrand think I am ungrateful."
+
+"And you were always so partial to those cakes!" drily remarked
+Toinon, with a peculiar smile. "Yes, I will give them to the dog."
+
+"First make me some tisane," entreated Gabrielle. "I am languid and
+feverish, and my throat is parched and burning."
+
+Toinon slowly shook her head and went straight into the adjoining
+boudoir, where the light refection described as supper was always laid
+out on a low table. Her movement was so abrupt that had she not been
+much preoccupied, she could not have failed to perceive the whisk of a
+black coat-tail, as it disappeared into the long saloon. Had she
+opened the door four minutes earlier, she would have seen a dapper
+figure clad in black leaning over the plate that held the
+confectionery, and have heard a soft voice mutter, "Only half a cake.
+It must have had a peculiar taste."
+
+As it was, Toinon saw nothing of this, but finding the room empty,
+moved swiftly to the tray, took up a cake and smelt it. A thin, pale
+face was watching her through a door-chink with gleaming eyes.
+
+She again shook her head, and murmuring, "Can they be so wicked?"
+carried the plate away.
+
+Along the corridor she sped, and down the stairs, unconscious of a
+dark shadow moving noiselessly, till she reached her own apartment. At
+sound of the well-known footstep, an animal within, hitherto
+quiescent, began to whine and yelp, and beat itself against the door.
+
+"Patience, patience--poor hound," Toinon said aloud. "Is it wise to be
+in so great a hurry? Even now, I cannot believe it!"
+
+She turned the handle and the boisterous dog dashed the plate from her
+hand with its great paws. She picked up two of the cakes which had
+remained whole, and with the same peculiar smile of meaning she had
+worn above, watched the hound as he ravenously devoured the fragments.
+There was still a piece left--a large one--and she pushed it towards
+him with her foot.
+
+"Poor dog! Forgive me, Jean," she said, "if what I think is true."
+
+The shadow without gazed in on the scene with craning neck. "She
+suspects," the abbé muttered. "What will she do with the others?"
+
+As though in direct answer to the question, Toinon turned rapidly from
+the animal which she had been eyeing with a suspicious frown, and
+carefully taking up the remaining pieces of confectionery wrapped them
+in paper. Then she stood stroking her chin irresolute. The dog
+approached and wagged his tail, rubbing his muzzle in her hand, as his
+way was when he wanted something. "What is it, poor fellow?" she
+enquired, stroking his head. "Water! I thought as much!" Filling a
+basin, she placed it on the floor, and the dog drank eagerly till the
+last drop was drained, then curled himself up to sleep.
+
+Starting, the abigail took up the parcel, went to a cupboard, selected
+a bottle from a row and mixed some of its contents with water.
+
+"Mustard," murmured the abbé, slinking into the shade. "That stupid
+woman said there was no especial taste. See what it is to have to deal
+with bunglers."
+
+Wearing his most unpleasant scowl, and grinding his sharp teeth, he
+stole along the corridor, and moving up a step or two turned and came
+down again humming a blythesome stave, just as Toinon appeared at the
+bottom, holding the parcel and a glass.
+
+"Our pretty Toinon is vastly occupied," he laughed, merrily. "But for
+fear of the stalwart arm of burly Jean, I would steal a kiss from
+those sweet lips."
+
+"Maybe you will feel that arm sooner than you expect," she said,
+scarce able to steady her voice; "make way, and if you dare to touch
+me, I will spit in your villain's face."
+
+This was clearly not the moment for persiflage, so with a careless
+shrug of indulgence for the coarse manners of the lower classes, the
+abbé stood aside. "What a dear darling little vixen," he shouted up
+the stairs. "I pity poor Jean Boulot, despite his thews and sinews."
+
+The first attempt was a failure, an egregiously contemptible and
+inartistic failure, and all due to that inveterate bungler. Had not
+mademoiselle's coadjutor suggested that liquid is preferable to solid,
+for the purpose they both had at heart, since you only munch a
+biscuit, whereas you take a preliminary sip at a liquid and then, your
+mouth feeling a trifle dry, take a longer gulp before remarking that
+the taste is peculiar? And the execrable Algaé had insisted on the
+cakes, declaring that if you are fond of a particular cake, you will
+indulge in several before any little peculiarity can manifest itself.
+And the fool--the hopelessly obstinate and self-sufficient idiot--had
+perpetrated another bungle, a worse one than before, since Gabrielle
+had only bitten into one of her favourites, while the others had been
+gobbled by the dog. The dog would die; no doubt of it, and Toinon's
+suspicions would be justified. What would she do with that tell-tale
+parcel? An extremely awkward mistake of mademoiselle's. There was one
+way out of the dilemma. The abbé must be taken ill as well as the lady
+of the house; complain of a taste of copper, make an outcry in the
+kitchen, and discover that the careless cook had spread his materials
+upon a copper-plate that had not been cleared of verdigris.
+
+Toinon was busy all day with her mistress, whom she found in a half
+lethargy, with burning palms and widely distended pupils. She had some
+ado to force the mustard down her throat; but, this done, she soon had
+the pleasure of seeing the patient revive. By evening, Gabrielle was
+calm, but exhausted, and when Toinon descended to the kitchen to fetch
+some bouillon (which Bertrand would have first to taste) she was
+astonished to hear that the abbé was screaming with agony, kicking in
+frightful convulsions.
+
+Toinon smiled her peculiar smile again, and uttered a few common-place
+words of sympathy.
+
+"Badly played," she said to herself, "he might as well have bethought
+him that the symptoms should be lethargy and coma."
+
+M. Bertrand, the cook, was in high dudgeon. How dared anybody hint
+that he had poisoned madame's biscuits? It was all owing to that oaf
+of a scullion, who had laid the large square copper-plate on the
+confectionery table, without remembering that it had been unused for a
+week. Was he, a _cordon bleu_, a chef _de premier caliber_, to be
+blamed for the stupidity of a scullion? He would be expected to clean
+his own saucepans next. When the marquis returned--who always
+appreciated efforts to please--he would give warning and leave this
+_sale maison_, which was only fit for cockroaches and rats.
+
+"Go back to Paris!" gibed Toinon. "Safer where you are, believe me. A
+chef with so splendid a reputation for pampering the palates of the
+gangrened aristocracy, would surely be strung up to a lantern! This
+bouillon looks excellent," she added saucily; "but M. Bertrand will be
+good enough to sip two spoonfuls, lest the scullion should have dipped
+his fingers in it."
+
+Next day, thanks to Toinon's vigilant solicitude, the marquise was
+sufficiently recovered to sit at her embroidery as usual. Holding out
+a hand to the abigail while tears rose to the eyes of both, "My
+sister," she said, "it is worth while to be a little ill just to learn
+how much we are beloved."
+
+Alas! beloved! Poor lady. Hated by four persons without consciences,
+who were panting and thirsting for her death! A target for poisoned
+arrows!
+
+After sagely considering the matter, Toinon made up her mind that if
+she did not interfere, she might become in some sort an accessary to a
+tragedy. In whom was faith to be placed? Honest Jean? What could he
+do, if he were to come, in the face of such diabolical ingenuity? He
+would learn that his favourite dog--companion of many trudgings
+through the woods at all times and seasons--had died of poisoned
+cakes. But then was it not admitted in the household, that the abbé as
+well as the marquise had accidentally partaken, and that the abbé of
+the two had been the most sick? Had not varlets and kitchen wenches
+cowered and clung together at sound of his piercing screams? He was
+well again, for he had had the presence of mind to swallow mustard.
+The marquise had recovered, thanks to a like precaution. Toinon had
+been cunning enough to keep two cakes which, when the time came should
+be examined, and if the abbé were foolish enough to declare that he
+had been poisoned by similar articles, it would be easy to prove that
+his agonies were sham, as they were not the natural results of such a
+poison as had been administered to Gabrielle.
+
+Meanwhile, something must be done, and the question that troubled
+Toinon was what that something was to be. At last she made up her mind
+and broke the ice.
+
+"Will madame pardon me for what may appear an act of presumption," she
+inquired, gently rearranging the wraps about the invalid. "I have
+taken something on myself which may anger madame, who will, I know,
+believe that if I was guilty of an error it was made through excess of
+zeal."
+
+There was a pause, unbroken by Gabrielle, who glanced at her
+foster-sister with a wan and wearied look that was full of pathos.
+
+Presently she raised the fingers of the waiting maid to her face, and
+stroked her cheek with them.
+
+"What is this grand effort of the intellect?" she asked, cheerily. "I
+know it is something well intentioned."
+
+"I have written a letter in madame's name and sent it off by special
+courier."
+
+"Not to the marquis?" cried Gabrielle, the colour flushing over her
+face and neck.
+
+Poor soul! The marquis! Much good would it be to write to him, unless
+to request him to order a coffin.
+
+"No," Toinon said, quietly. "It cuts me to the heart to see madame so
+solitary, and during a convalescence too, a time when we always brood
+and consider the least pleasant subjects. I have written to the
+Maréchale de Brèze, stating that you have been ill, but are out of
+danger, and would be glad of a visit from your mother."
+
+Gabrielle remained thoughtful, still stroking Toinon's fingers. Why
+not? The maréchale owed a visit, and the absence of her husband on
+business would account for the seclusion of his wife. Moreover, it
+would be a splendid thing to lure the old dame from dangerous Paris,
+where Mother Guillotine was commencing to display a Catholic taste in
+the way of food. Yes; from all points of view it was an admirable idea
+to induce Madame de Brèze to visit Lorge. Why! it was a thousand years
+at least since she had set eyes upon the darlings! Her own and only
+grandchildren! How shockingly reprehensible. How she would joy in
+marking each trait of genius, and how proud their mother would be to
+show how cultured were their minds! The maréchale's mind was
+considerably less stored than her daughter's, but she would appreciate
+with greater awe the progress of their climb up Parnassus. Did they
+not write each other poems and moral essays, after the manner of the
+Scuderi, and of the encyclopædist ladies!--such prodigiously clever
+verses, and such heavenly prose sermons! The more she considered it
+the more enchanted was she that Toinon should have taken this move
+upon herself. Had it been left to her, she would have doubted, have
+written a dozen letters only to tear them up, weighing in that tender
+and over-scrupulous conscience of hers whether it was right or wrong
+to drag an old lady to the wilds of Touraine at such a troublous
+moment. She would have considered whether it was not her duty to have
+unselfishly exhorted the ancient dame never to stir out of her modest
+abode; never even to open her window, lest by the act she should be
+drawn into the maw of Mother Guillotine.
+
+The more she thought over it the more delighted was she with the idea,
+and, opening her arms, clasped Toinon to her breast.
+
+"My dear, my dear," she murmured, fondly, "what should I do without
+you? Let the dear mother come. Together we will make her welcome."
+
+
+
+
+                            CHAPTER XXIII.
+
+                          A PASSAGE OF ARMS.
+
+
+Mademoiselle Algaé Brunelle was not on a bed of roses, and her growing
+impatience took the form of tartness. If Clovis could have looked on
+his affinity in his absence her prospects of becoming some day
+Marquise de Gange might have been less promising. In truth, she was
+very cross, and took no trouble to conceal her mood from Pharamond or
+Phebus. It was not her fault, but that of the silly Bertrand, that the
+cakes should have had a metallic flavour. She therefore soundly rated
+that worthy for his clumsiness, and threatened him with pains and
+penalties. The chef glanced at her with two pig's-eyes set close
+together, and replied, "I was engaged in Paris by Monsieur l'Abbé, not
+by mademoiselle, who should undertake her dirty work herself." He had
+no personal feeling against the recluse upstairs, but man must live,
+and with the present he was to receive he intended to escape from the
+French caldron, and make up for a trifling lapsus in another land by a
+future of exemplary virtue.
+
+Energetic mademoiselle was all for taking the bull by the horns and
+acting with decision. Why beat about the bush in this provoking way,
+she argued, since the chatelaine was completely in their power? The
+domestics were the abbé's creatures, drafted one by one, and dropped
+each into his place. Madame de Vaux and Angelique were too much
+alarmed to leave their own precincts; and now that the marquis was
+gone, the old gentleman had no motive for ambling over from Montbazon,
+since he had never understood Gabrielle, and instinctively disliked
+the brothers. He was grateful to Algaé in that matter of the sciatic
+nerve, but it was not his place as a seigneur to make morning calls on
+a dependant. To prevent prying from without, it was easy to spread a
+report that Madame la Marquise de Gange had been attacked by typhus
+fever. The rustics of Touraine had a wholesome dread of the disease.
+Madame had none on whom she could rely except her faithful abigail.
+Would it not be the most natural thing in the world if the devoted
+foster-sister were likewise to succumb to the malady? There was
+nothing whatever to stop the prosecution of their plans, and it has
+long been an axiom that what has to be done is best done quickly.
+There was nothing to cause the delay but the abbé's tortuous method.
+It is said that each of us has been an animal in a previous phase, and
+that a shade of likeness, physical or moral, or both, yet clings to us
+in this. Mademoiselle was convinced that in his last existence the
+abbé had been a serpent. It was his nature to wriggle and twist, and
+he could not for the life of him move straight. If he beheld a dove
+upon a branch he must needs coil himself elaborately to fascinate it,
+instead of protruding a tongue and gobbling it up at once.
+
+These and other views, did she propound to Pharamond, marching up and
+down the room as her wont was, when much in earnest, with elephantine
+tread, while the chevalier blinked at her in fear. A wonderful woman,
+an awful and terrible woman! It was not surprising that Clovis should
+have sunk under her thrall. She dared to beard, and even flout the
+still more awful Pharamond, and the two crossed swords sometimes with
+such a clash of arms that Phebus shivered in alarm. What two such
+strong ones willed, would certainly take place. No doubt about it. The
+poor thing upstairs was doomed. No effort that he, Phebus, could make,
+might stay her doom. Why, then, make any effort? He could only shed
+maudlin tears and wish her well through her misery. He quite agreed
+with Algaé, that the inevitable should take place at once.
+
+Now lecturing and advice that looked too like command, was by no means
+palatable to Pharamond, and he had much ado to maintain the suavity of
+his temper. The idea of typhus was not bad, but it would entail
+certain consequences. Nearly everybody at this time, both in France
+and England, was seamed with smallpox, and dreadful as the scourge
+was, familiarity had paled its terrors. The report of a spread of
+typhus, on the other hand, was enough to depopulate a district.
+Happily, since the period which occupies us, advancing science has
+done much to mitigate its horrors, but in the eighteenth century, the
+sickening details of its course were enough to appal the bravest. The
+Marquise de Gange and her abigail having succumbed to the scourge, the
+inmates of the chateau must flee, or endure ostracism--they would be
+banned like lepers.
+
+Though by the terms of the new will, the marquis would quietly
+inherit, it would not do for him and his brothers, after assisting at
+a typhus deathbed, to stay at Blois to transact necessary business.
+Unluckily the unstable legatee could not be trusted to do much
+unaided. As had been decided he was to raise money on his
+expectations, sufficient to waft the party to Geneva, and keep them in
+proper style during tedious but necessary negociations. It was
+obvious, therefore, that mademoiselle's impatience was vexatious and
+ill-advised. When Clovis wrote to say that the sum was raised, then
+they would perform their one act drama, and, bowing, retire behind the
+scenes.
+
+"Surely there ought to be no difficulty about raising the necessary
+sum," grumbled Algaé, with arms crossed, and moody brow. "Clovis is so
+reprehensibly tardy. What can he be doing all this while! I would have
+settled the matter myself in half-an-hour, if the mission could have
+been confided to me."
+
+Phebus blinked more than usual. Oh! A wonderful woman, who appeared to
+him as a vision of fate in a violent hurry. Could she who had been
+sprightly and kittenish, be so athirst for another woman's blood?
+
+"You deem yourself vastly clever," sneered Pharamond, waxing wroth.
+"Can you not remember that every mistake has been due to your
+stupidity? Half-an-hour, forsooth! Do you not know that bullion is as
+rare a commodity as diamonds? that to refuse payment in assignats is
+to risk the guillotine, and that beyond the border, such things are
+but dirty paper? A pretty figure we should cut if we rattled into the
+courtyard of the Etoile d'Or, and attempted to pay the Swiss
+postilions with dead leaves! One cannot, of course, expect common
+sense from a woman, any more than grapes from thistles. Your querulous
+importunity is wearying. You must keep your promise and be content to
+be led by me."
+
+Even Pharamond was disconcerted, and Phebus cowered, when Algaé dashed
+into the breakfast-room one day like a whirlwind, her eyes aflame, her
+dusky visage black with fury. She moved swiftly up and down, unable to
+articulate, upsetting the chairs in her career. What could have
+happened to enrage her thus? Verily, she was becoming a deplorable,
+insufferable nuisance, and it would be well to make an end of it.
+
+"Patience," she blurted out at last, thumping into her accustomed
+seat, and scattering the glasses. "You never weary of exhorting me to
+patience. Perhaps you will yourself remember the elementary fact that
+events will not stand still while you are parleying."
+
+"What now?" Pharamond asked calmly.
+
+"This now," retorted mademoiselle. "The Maréchale de Brèze has just
+arrived with an army of domestics, and is closeted upstairs with her
+daughter."
+
+This was news; unwelcome and unexpected news. Had the old lady arrived
+on an errand similar to that of the family solicitor? Hardly. If
+Gabrielle had again secretly sought protection, M. Galland would have
+come himself. And an army of servants, too! Servants are argus-eyed
+and uncharitable in their conclusions. These people could not be
+wheedled or cajoled like those selected by the abbé. Algaé's wrath,
+though coarsely expressed, was justified. The irruption of a foreign
+element, just at this juncture, was unfortunate.
+
+"We must frighten them away," Pharamond observed, quietly peeling a
+pear.
+
+Mademoiselle snorted in scorn, while the abbé sat wrapped in thought.
+Why was the maréchale here now? Had anything fresh occurred in Paris,
+which had impelled flight? If that had been so, she would not have
+travelled with a retinue. She was timid and nervous, and fearful of
+bandits on the road. She could scarcely have been summoned by
+Gabrielle, since the latter had no suspicion of the cakes. Pharamond
+had satisfied himself of that, by knocking humbly and inserting a
+head, while ostentatiously remaining on the threshold. "Pardon my
+intrusion," he had meekly purred, "but anxiety compels me to ask after
+your health. In Clovis's absence I feel responsible. Tell me that you
+have recovered, as I have, from the untoward incident due to a stupid
+cook?"
+
+Gabrielle politely declared herself to be well, deplored the abbé's
+illness, and intimated with a slight inclination that the interview
+was over. Chilly, not to say icy. But there was no symptom of
+suspicion in her clear blue eyes. She declined to say more than was
+necessary to a man whom she detested, that was all. But Toinon, the
+abbé was convinced, knew all about it. Why had she kept her knowledge
+from her mistress? What had she done with the parcel? She had allowed
+him clearly to understand, that she was not taken in by his comedy.
+Did she not always make a parade, to the scandal of the household, of
+having every article tasted that was to be consumed by her mistress or
+herself?
+
+He had seen her wrap up the cakes which the dog had not devoured--to
+what end? It would be well to have those cakes and to destroy them;
+was it worth the trouble of finding and purloining them? It had been
+generally admitted that through carelessness there had been an
+accident which was not followed by a fatal result. In every household
+such accidents occur since the culinary genius is not infallible. Were
+the things to be analysed, it might transpire that the quantity of
+verdigris or subacetate on the copper plate had been excessive, so
+great as to look like deliberate purpose. Did Toinon propose to open a
+judicial inquiry under the presidency of Madame La Maréchale; produce
+her _pieces de conviction_; accuse a respectable ghostly man of
+attempted murder? The idea was so ludicrous that Pharamond laughed
+aloud. Let her do as she liked. Bother the cakes! The inquiry would be
+very funny. He quite hoped that she would ventilate her suspicions for
+the amusement of the assembled household, and give him the chance of
+victory.
+
+It behoved a son of the Church, brought up in a good school, to pay
+due and ceremonious respect to the mother of their chatelaine. He
+accordingly indited a sweet note expressive of joyous surprise, and
+requesting the honour of an interview.
+
+Gabrielle was about to seize the note and tear it into fragments, but
+the hand impulsively raised fell by her side, and the words she would
+have spoken died upon her lips. Why worry the venerable dame with her
+own peck of troubles? She had gone through such paroxysms of terror on
+the journey that she was still all of a twitter. "You've not the
+smallest idea! My pet--" she began in her high treble, "what the
+villages and towns were like. Where such crowds of forbidding
+tatterdemalions could have sprung from I cannot understand. And when
+they saw my coach and armed servants, they pursued us with yells and
+stones, actually flints! A sharp one nearly struck me in the face. I
+was so indignant that I felt inclined to stop and say, 'You curs! Do
+you know I am the widow of one who spilt his best blood for his
+country and his king?' but now I am rather glad I did not."
+
+"Dearest mother!" the marquise murmured, clasping the old lady to her
+bosom, "I am so glad you did not! Alas! even to name our martyr king
+is to rouse a volley of curses."
+
+And then the old lady, enchanted to have found a listener who would
+not interrupt her flow, gabbled on interminably about the condition of
+the capital. Before daring to decide on a journey she had called in
+good M. Galland who, contrary to her own views, had considered it an
+admirable suggestion that the mother should visit the daughter. "If I
+had known all, wild horses would not have moved me. The threatening
+attitude of your rustics is more menacing than our mob at home." She
+failed to add that as she rarely stepped outside the door, she knew
+but little of the Paris rabble.
+
+"The abbé--how nice it must be to have him," she went off at a
+tangent. "A most engaging man. I remember that when he visited us
+in Paris I said to your dear father--ah, deary me--he's with the
+blessed--that it was a miracle to find such breeding in a provincial.
+You must excuse me, pet, if I seem rude to your husband's brother, but
+he was brought up in the south somewhere, he told me, where they
+cannot be expected to assume the polish of the capital. Well, well--he
+must be a very clever and cultivated man as well as a most delightful
+one!"
+
+How could the marquise divulge what she knew of the abbé to this
+garrulous and purblind old woman? Toinon, who hung about the room and
+knew more than did her mistress could scarce contain herself. Had it
+been worth while to summon such a silly harridan? Her contingent of
+domestics, however, was a safeguard, during whose stay a taster could
+be dispensed with. Suffice it, she was here, and must be detained as
+long as possible, though she always detested Lorge. Toinon had made up
+her mind what steps she intended to take--the very steps which the
+abbé had guessed. She intended formally to impeach the abbé and
+Mademoiselle Brunelle; to unveil the past and the present for the
+shocked old lady's benefit, and solemnly adjure her on her return to
+the capital, to take steps for her daughter's safety, or make up her
+mind till her dying day to be persecuted by vengeful ghosts. In face
+of such an impeachment, and on the production of the cakes, the guilty
+abbé would quail. At any rate, his claws would be cut, so far as
+extreme measures were concerned.
+
+The reception of the brothers by the maréchale was most cordial. The
+chevalier quite won her heart, for his watery gaze would remain fixed
+on her for hours, while, knitting in hand, she furbished up for him
+the legends of the chateau. He was like a wistful eyed, cosy,
+lapdog--with an ever-wagging tail. If he spoke little, he was an
+excellent listener, and when she grew weary of chattering, the abbé
+could talk enough for both. On the whole, much as she disliked the
+place, she was quite glad to have come, for the house in the suburbs
+of Paris was deadly dull; there was no society at present, since her
+old friends were in prison or had emigrated.
+
+It was charming, too, with Gabrielle and the cherubs, to forget the
+hurly-burly of the Revolution. The perfect peace and majestic repose
+of the chateau were soothing to the nerves, while there was sufficient
+liveliness to prevent boredom. There never was so attentive a cavalier
+as that delightful abbé who seemed to guess everything by intuition.
+Was she chilly, the devoted soul was sure to come round the corner in
+answer to a wish, armed with a wrap and an umbrella. For her he
+selected the choicest pears and apples at breakfast, indited
+complimentary sonnets--as though she were not silver-haired and
+wrinkled. As the evenings were drawing in he would improvise games and
+pastimes to pass the hours in which the children could join, and made
+himself so agreeable to all that the guest was enchanted. "Really,
+pet, it is quite arcadian," the worthy dame would remark to her
+daughter. "I'd no notion this horrid place could be made so nice. I
+can imagine myself at Trianon again in the good old days. Ah, well,
+well, well!" And then with a big sigh she would burst into tears,
+remembering what had been and what was.
+
+The individual who did not at all appreciate the sudden _volte-face_
+was, as may be imagined, Mademoiselle Brunelle. Fortune was in an
+elfish mood. For her mother's sake the marquise had tacitly permitted
+the brothers to resume the place they had once occupied, promising
+herself--when the visit was over--to hold them at arms' length again;
+but with Algaé it was different. On no pretence could she be permitted
+to join the circle. Indeed, it was hinted to her in a politely worded
+note that she was delaying her departure over long.
+
+The abbé had declared that the marplot must be frightened away, and
+yet he was sparing no pains to make the visit pleasant. It was evident
+that he and his brother avoided their ally lest she should fall on
+them with just upbraiding. If she beheld them in the distance, it was
+but to see them whisking round a corner. Oblivious of feelings she was
+left alone to brood and mope; her meals were served apart as though
+she were infectious; and now she had received the curtest of summonses
+to make herself scarce forthwith. Oh! how she hated the lot of them!
+
+In truth she was in a dilemma, and did not know what to do. Clovis had
+been got rid of while something was being done which might revolt his
+squeamish nature; and though he said nothing, she was certain that he
+had more than a vague suspicion of what was going forward. But
+supposing that nothing were to take place after all? Supposing that
+when he had raised the necessary sum, and called on the others to join
+him, they were to do so, and cross the frontier, leaving Gabrielle
+behind? What he was able to raise could not be very much, and one
+cannot live in luxury at Geneva or elsewhere on expectations. They
+would have to report that the marquise was charming well, instead of
+dead, and that, unmolested, she might live on for years. Why should
+she not, in their absence, make another will, or a dozen others,
+whereby even the shadowy expectations would be reduced to thinnest
+air?
+
+Was the abbé scheming to gain time? It struck Algaé with a gush of
+impotent wrath that perchance the coming of the maréchale had been his
+own device, arranged so as to tide over the days until mademoiselle
+should have no excuse for lingering, that he might then have the
+heiress to himself! Perhaps his recently developed hatred of her was a
+snare to deceive the governess? If it turned out that this was so,
+what course would it behove her to pursue? Should she seem to accept
+her fate, drive quietly away, and joining Clovis, unfold the
+machinations of his brother? Would Clovis believe, and if he did, how
+would he act--he who had fullest confidence in his brother? Were the
+suspicions that racked her justified or not? Meanwhile, she was
+treated like a social Pariah, and the precious hours waned.
+
+The abbé guessed her thoughts, and laughed. Women are so nimble witted
+that when they enter the labyrinth of scheming they frequently wander
+too far and lose themselves. Pharamond was quite as anxious to be rid
+of the old lady as the younger one could be, but he was far-seeing and
+cautious, while his coadjutor was culpably impatient.
+
+It was one night when the family sat at supper in the boudoir that
+Toinon struck her blow. There had been a splendid bout of blind man's
+buff in the grand saloon. The cherubs had been seized by Toinon and
+carried off to bed, flushed, out of breath, and happy. The pursy
+chevalier, who had been very active, puffed and blew, and looked like
+to have a fit. Madame la Maréchale had been frisking after a fashion
+that surprised herself. The abbé mopped his face with a dainty
+kerchief, and flung himself at Gabrielle's feet, as in the departed
+days.
+
+"You are our prisoner, maréchale," he cried gaily--"a prisoner for
+life in this ancient fortress, and shall never go hence alive. You add
+such a charm to our circle that we positively can't do without you. Is
+it not so, dear Gabrielle? Tell our mother that she is here for good."
+
+Pharamond glanced up, with a yellow light glinting through half-closed
+lids, and lips drawn tightly over teeth: attitude and expression
+recalled vividly scenes she would gladly have forgotten, and
+Gabrielle, she knew not why, was frightened.
+
+Toinon, re-entering, marked his familiar gesture and her lady's fear,
+and her gorge rose till she felt choking. A venomous, slimy snake was
+coiling itself about the feet of the marquise, fouling her with its
+tainted breath. The abnormal, loathsome reptile! Was he slowly to
+enwrap her in his glittering coils and crush her bones, while Toinon
+stood by, unaiding? Her brain in a whirl of indignation, the abigail
+blurted out, "For good or evil, which? You dare not poison _her_--that
+is a comfort--lest her domestics should report the fact."
+
+The suddenness of the attack startled even Pharamond, while the
+maréchale stared bewildered, and Gabrielle turned a shade more
+pale. With anxious and surprised inquiry the marquise gazed at her
+foster-sister. What was this? Full well she knew of what the abbé was
+capable, and that her maid would not bring false charges.
+
+The ice broken, Toinon felt better, refreshed as by a douche of
+water. Leaning against the door, hands firmly planted upon hips, she
+turned to the amazed maréchale and plainly told her tale. She told of
+the marquise's symptoms, of her own suspicion but too soon verified;
+of how she had found Jean's dog stretched dead upon the floor, with a
+green liquor running from its mouth; how by prompt action she had
+saved her mistress, who had luckily taken but a mouthful; how she had
+found the abbé in perfect health some hours after (if his tale were
+true), he had swallowed a strong dose of poison; how she, Toinon, had
+then sent for Madame de Brèze, that in the future she might shield her
+daughter.
+
+Never in her whole life before had the poor old woman been placed
+in a position of responsibility, and she could only murmur in angry
+fear--"Why me--why send for me?" Indeed she was a ludicrous example of
+the broken reed, and the abbé waved airy thanks to Toinon with white
+fingers, in that she was so kindly playing into his hands.
+
+"Why, indeed," he echoed, "if half were true of what that naughty minx
+accuses me. I poison our darling Gabrielle! The idea would be
+intensely comic if it were not offensive. It is a fact, madame, of
+which Gabrielle is well aware, that an accident occurred, owing to a
+scullion's carelessness. I myself nearly succumbed, for I had a
+desperate battle for life, and when I recovered, sent up a hymn of
+thanks to Heaven in that Gabrielle should have but suffered slightly."
+
+"You knew so little of your poison that you assumed wrong symptoms!"
+remarked Toinon, in disdain.
+
+"Not so. It is you who know not the poison," retorted Pharamond, with
+a malignant flash that was instantly suppressed. "Spite and fatuous
+ignorance misled you. The symptoms vary according to quantity imbibed.
+I unluckily ate a cake and half before I was aware of anything
+peculiar, and any doctor will tell you that whereas a small dose of
+subacetate of copper will produce coma, a large one will bring about
+griping pains and tetanic convulsions, which, without aid from above,
+lead to paralysis and death."
+
+"A large dose acts on the system quickly--within an hour," scoffed the
+abigail. "When I told you that the cakes were poisoned you were in
+perfect health."
+
+"I had but just partaken----"
+
+"A clumsy liar! I asked Bertrand if he had more of his confectionery,
+and he answered with a searching look of suspicious inquiry that all
+he had made were served to the marquise."
+
+"Upon my word, the wench is very erudite," laughed the abbé, lightly.
+"How come you to know so much?"
+
+"There was an ancient book on poisons in the library. I turned up the
+article 'Copper,' and studied it."
+
+"Was?"
+
+"Yes, was. The book is hidden now where you will never find it."
+
+There was a pause, during which the combatants studied each other
+warily. Then the abbé, shrugging his shoulders, in disgust drawled
+out, "Have we not had enough of this low comedy?"
+
+"I ascertained," pursued the undaunted maiden, "that the necessary
+quantity of verdigris so to affect one little cake out of many as
+almost to produce coma in one who had taken a single bite must be so
+large that a copper cooking-plate would have to be thickly buttered
+with it. Now Bertrand excused himself on the plea that the plate in
+use was found to be 'not quite clean.' If he had buttered it then was
+your 'accident' not due to inadvertence."
+
+"What proof have you that the cakes were so heavily loaded?"
+
+"The fact that the dog died within half-an-hour; that I retained two
+which I intend presenting to madame that she may have them analysed in
+Paris."
+
+"A pretty story, ingenious as wicked. No one saw the dog perish but
+yourself. What evidence is there, except your own, that the cakes in
+your possession are in the same condition as when placed on the table?
+Are you sure you have any cakes at all?"
+
+There was such an air of mischievous satisfaction underlying the tone
+of banter that Toinon's heart stood still. "How are you sure--" she
+began, then sped swiftly from the room, to return in a few moments
+white as a sheet and breathless.
+
+"They are gone," she panted, "gone! You discovered where they were
+concealed, you wicked man, and have destroyed them!"
+
+The abbé rose leisurely from the floor and broke into a shout of
+laughter. "Dear ladies," he apologised, "you must forgive so vulgar a
+display of merriment, but the jest is too, too good. What subtle
+forms, nowadays, will not the malice of the enemy assume! Unfortunate
+noblesse! Unjust and cruel age! The inscrutable powers permit us to be
+hauled to prison, conducted to the shambles, but allow us to leave the
+world with characters unstained. The mob would trump up charges
+against us now to justify their deeds; but the charges are so shallow
+and so foolish that they defeat their ends. Poisoned cakes! Pah!
+Unhappy girl, you who have received a superior education should have
+soared above such folly. It was the rumour that spread from Paris
+about the king and queen and the poisoned food at the Tuileries that
+put this absurd notion in your head. Madame de Brèze, I grieve that so
+untoward an incident as this should have occurred during your stay
+among us, which we have all striven to make a pleasant one. We have
+kept it from you, but it is true, to our misfortune, that the spirit
+of the province is menacing. There is nothing that the peasants will
+not believe against an aristo. If you sallied forth and announced that
+I, the Abbé Pharamond, am specially partial to boiled baby, served
+_aux choux_, there is not one who would not believe you. This girl is
+betrothed to Jean Boulot, the gamekeeper, who deliberately left a
+respectable service to make himself notorious at Blois as the most
+rabid of all the Jacobins, and it is obvious that she acts now under
+his influence, regardless of long service under the marquise and of
+the many benefits received. Alack! the ingratitude of those who rend
+the hand that caresses them is very hard to bear."
+
+"Madame, you do not believe him?" cried Toinon, throwing herself at
+Gabrielle's feet and anxiously searching her face. "You know that the
+man is lying!"
+
+"Yes, I know," Gabrielle whispered as she bent to kiss her brow. "I
+know you have spoken truth, but we are powerless."
+
+She leaned back, supporting her head wearily upon her arm, perfectly
+composed in demeanour, while Toinon, her face buried in her lap,
+sobbed as if her heart were breaking.
+
+The aged Madame de Brèze turned from one to the other of the group,
+utterly mystified, with a growing grudge against some one, at present
+she could not tell whom. A gulf had suddenly yawned in front, and from
+its depths arose a faint sickening fume of death. Although she had a
+foot in the grave she mightily objected to the smell of death. Which
+of these two spoke truth? The dear delightful abbé could not have--oh,
+no, that was absurd and ridiculous, and yet why should Gabrielle sit
+so stonily with that woful look of pain? It was plainly her place to
+rise up and take his part, exonerate him at once from even the
+slightest shadow of this dreadful thing; at least to declare her
+conviction that the abigail was mad, was suffering from some unhealthy
+fancy. It was not the poor girl's fault. Were not current events a
+more than sufficient excuse for any amount of hysteria? And yet,
+Gabrielle was plainly not of her opinion. There was the accuser
+nestling her head upon her lap, and the gentle hand was stroking it in
+caress and not in chiding. Did Gabrielle--could Gabrielle be keeping
+secrets from her parent? Was it the old story of the unappreciated
+mentor?
+
+The blessed maréchal, who was to be congratulated as out of the
+turmoil, had established a deplorable precedent in the matter of
+Madame de Brèze as an oracle. One of the pleasantest points of the
+present _séjour_ was the consideration in which her words were held.
+Her views and opinions were treasured up, as they should be, like
+flies in amber. Could it--oh, no, horrid thought, it could not
+be--that Virginie, Maréchale de Brèze, aged, never mind how much, _was
+deliberately being made a fool of?_ Much as she was disinclined to
+believe anything so preposterous, it did look extremely like it. The
+husband away, the brother-in-law was openly accused of attempting to
+murder his brother's wife, and that lady being present, made no sign
+except by affectionately caressing the accuser. Madame de Brèze did
+not like this new complexion of things at all. How she did and always
+had hated mysteries! Why will people be mysterious? Unless conscious
+of guilt, there is no cause for crawling in shadow. There could not be
+anything between Gabrielle and the abbé? Shocking idea! And yet in
+Paris such things often were. Could there also be something between
+the abbé and Toinon which rendered the latter jealous? Just like a
+woman, Madame de Brèze ambled off into the labyrinth of conjecture.
+growing each moment more involved in prickly briars, plunging about
+and tumbling down in pursuit of Will-o'-the-wisp.
+
+When--Toinon's agitation calmed--everybody went to bed, and Gabrielle
+impressed on her mother's brow the chilly kiss of a statue, the
+maréchale shivered, and there and then resolved that Lorge was a
+hateful place fit only for owls and ghouls.
+
+
+
+
+                            CHAPTER XXIV.
+
+                  MADAME DE BRÈZE IS NERVOUS.
+
+
+That night Gabrielle and her foster-sister slept together, or rather
+lay in the same bed, for Toinon had much to tell and Gabrielle to
+hear. In the morning, the chatelaine looked much the same as usual,
+but for the circle of bistre round her eyes, which had grown deeper,
+giving an air of lassitude.
+
+Virginie, Maréchale de Brèze, never slept a wink; but groaned and
+tossed in a fever, mumbling Ave Marias, and when she appeared at
+déjeuner, the abbé shook a reproachful finger at her. "Yellow!" he
+declared, mournfully, "absolutely and undeniably yellow! How dare you,
+after all our care, look so jaded, when yesterday you were as blooming
+as a rose? I know what it is. Try this pear--it absolutely melts in
+the mouth. No. I won't offer it, for I am afraid it smells of copper.
+Or is it brimstone? How provoking! I have tucked my hoofs and tail
+under my chair, but I cannot conceal the brimstone! Look at your
+lovely daughter. She knows better than to believe _cancans_, and has
+slept the sleep of the angels. Alas--dearest mother--you have
+permitted me to call you mother--I shall have to administer a severe
+and terrible lecture. I told you last night you were our prisoner, but
+I won't have birds that injure their delightful plumage. If you beat
+your wings against the bars I shall open the cage-door, I warn you,
+and dismiss you into space!"
+
+Turned out into space among the ravening wolves without, or kept in
+the gilded cage to be slowly done to death? What an alternative! Why
+could not somebody tell her what to do, instead of leaving her all
+night stretched upon the rack of her uncertainty? Evidently, unless
+candidates for an asylum, they must all have some motive for acting in
+the odd way they did, but what was it? It was so rude and
+inconsiderate to be plotting, and scheming, and lying, and charging
+each other with all kinds of horrible offences, under the nose of an
+innocent stranger, of whom they were making a butt. Madame made up her
+mind to upbraid Gabrielle severely for her inhuman and unfilial
+conduct. If there was any nasty skeleton about, she had no business to
+summon an aged parent to contemplate it.
+
+Toinon, plunged into a slough of anguish, could only wring her hands
+and moan. It is not every David who can get the better of Goliath; and
+is it not wiser to flee before the great towering monster, instead of
+hurling our puny stone at him--only to be trodden in a trice under his
+ponderous splay foot?
+
+The abigail had got the worst of the encounter, her proofs as well as
+her accusation were rendered ridiculous, even in her own eyes,
+although she knew the accusation to be true. She was held up to
+obloquy as a Jacobin, one of the anarchists steeped to the lips in
+crime, ready to destroy by false witness the family to which she owed
+everything. Next, she would develop into a tricoteuse, sitting under
+shadow of the guillotine. It was intolerable. Toinon was not meek and
+lowly as some of her betters were. On the contrary, there ran through
+her veins a current of pugnacity of which honest Jean had tasted. She
+was not prepared to sit down like Gabrielle, wearing a crown of thorns
+and bearing a cross, the while pretending to enjoy them. Certainly
+not. She was one of those who have no respect for crowns of thorns,
+and consider crosses irksome wear. But what could she do to unwind her
+mistress and herself from the present tangle? The maréchale was an
+imbecile old doll. The abject terror of her mien last night had
+something about it that was full of pathos. It is pitiful to see so
+battered and helpless a thing as that in the bubbling whirlpool of our
+world. Jean--Jean Boulot was the one rock to which the two women might
+cling in their danger. Jean must leave his Jacobin clubs and come to
+them. Would it be well for Toinon herself to proceed to Blois, seek
+him out, and explain? He would not think her forward and unmaidenly,
+for she would find words to convince him as she had her mistress. No.
+The maréchale having proved herself to be a broken reed, it would not
+do to go to Blois, for her mistress would be left with no rampart,
+however unsatisfactory and weak, between herself and the insidious
+foe. What if, on her return, she were to find that the deed was
+accomplished? Jean must be written to, and implored by the past to
+come to the rescue of two women in grievous peril. And they were in
+extreme danger; he would see that for himself when he arrived. Toinon
+knew it full well. She had read the abbé's eyes last night, and was as
+much aware as Gabrielle, that for those who stood athwart his path,
+there was no more mercy within his breast than conscience or religion.
+
+Poor Madame de Brèze! Yellow, forsooth! The more she pondered the more
+troubled she became. Her wrinkled old face was turning green. Was the
+abbé a monster or an angel? If only somebody would clear up this
+point. He made her blood run cold with his facetiousness, for is it
+not creepy to be openly informed by a person, that he wears a tail and
+hoofs, and to be more than half assured that it is true? He danced
+round her fears with elfin gambols, till she felt her frail wits
+tottering; and then, grown of a sudden serious, he would relate what
+he called facts, which only increased her terrors. Why had no one
+informed her before that Madame de Vaux hardly, and her daughter
+Angelique, were practically in a state of siege; that various chateaux
+in the neighbourhood had been demolished, their inhabitants drowned
+or strangled; that she had not been wrong on her way thither, as to
+the threatening attitude of the peasantry? Of course, she had been
+right--was she not always right though people would not believe her?
+She had been lured hither to this dismal fortalice to perish like a
+rat in a trap. Danger from without and from within. Goodness gracious!
+What if that story of the cakes were true? Gabrielle, strangely
+enough, seemed to consider that it was neither new nor surprising that
+her life should be in peril. What should they want to kill her for?
+Was it something connected with money? All evil springs from that.
+Then a thrill of horror surged over the selfish heart of the unlucky
+dame, when she remembered her daughter's will. To her, the old mother,
+the money was bequeathed--in trust, it is true; but to her. If they
+wished to compass Gabrielle's death, of course, her own would follow.
+What a silly will it was. She protested at the time, but had been
+overruled by M. Galland. It was an absurd thing for a young woman to
+bequeath a fortune to an old one--worse--it was a cruel and dastardly
+thing to do, if unscrupulous schemers were after it. Why must they mix
+up a harmless and venerable and justly respected lady in their plots
+and squabbles? Madame de Brèze worked herself up into a white heat of
+indignation, and set herself to see how she could get out of the trap
+with promptitude, and such decency as might be.
+
+She propounded her views to Gabrielle, who gravely and calmly
+aquiesced. "Nothing detains you here, dear mother," she kept
+repeating, with monotonous persistency, "except your own fancy. I
+hoped you had taken to our quiet life; but if not, it is better you
+should go."
+
+"I have so few years left to live, you know," apologetically whimpered
+the maréchale, "that I grudge the time away from entrancing Paris."
+
+When her daughter elected courteously to consider that this was
+natural, her conscience pricked, and she was annoyed at feeling
+ashamed. Indeed, the excuse was of the lamest, since the beloved
+capital was, at this juncture, a prey to devils whose goddess was
+Mother Guillotine. In the retirement of her secluded dwelling,
+however, she could feel comparatively safe. She quite longed for the
+little house, which she was always complaining of as dismal. At all
+events, she could nibble a cake there without dread of poison.
+
+"I will stay, of course, if you say you really wish it," she went on,
+plaintively, as salve to the inner monitor, "but the air of Touraine
+never did agree with me any more than with your blessed father; and if
+I were to be taken ill, I should only be an extra worry."
+
+A smile flitted over the sad face of the marquise, as she took her
+mother's hands and kissed them. "My dear," she said, "I would not have
+you stay for worlds a moment longer than you fancy. Go back to Paris,
+and I will pray Heaven that your journey may be prosperous. I would
+like you to go at once, because I am sure it is for the best, since
+you are nervous, and at the same time I would beg of you a favour.
+Take the children with you, for I should feel happier if they were
+safe under your care. I will give orders now," she added, rising
+briskly, "in order that they may be ready by to-morrow."
+
+The old lady ruefully rubbed her nose with her spectacles, being
+ashamed to speak her thoughts. It occurred to her that if the abbé
+really was nourishing designs of a nefarious nature, he might
+endeavour to prevent her from departing. If she proposed to remove the
+children, there would be extra inducement to interfere, considering
+the uncomfortable prominence given to all three by that deplorably
+ill-advised testament. Gabrielle had kept her lips sealed with regard
+to the second document. Indeed, she was unaccountably and provokingly
+reticent on most points in her dealings with the maréchale, who
+resented her silence hotly. She never could be got to talk of her
+affairs--to give an opinion as to the characters of Pharamond or of
+Phebus; declined to discuss the absence of her husband, or to explain
+the presence of the quondam governess, who, from time to time, was
+meteorically visible, hovering. Under the circumstances, what object
+would be gained by lingering at Lorge, since all seemed alike agreed
+to withhold from the sage their confidence? If she were allowed, she
+would gladly turn her back on the ill-omened place, and thank her
+stars when quit of it.
+
+The marquise saved her from the trouble of displaying her own
+diplomacy by boldly announcing to the abbé that Madame la Maréchale de
+Brèze would return on the morrow to the capital, and, being lonely
+there, would borrow, for a period, the society of her grandchildren.
+The abbé glanced keenly in her face, but could read nothing there.
+What curious fancy was this? She who so adored the cherubs, had
+decided on a separation! Why? What motive could underly so unexpected
+a project? The more the abbé reflected, the less could he fathom it,
+but after looking at it from every point, he made up his mind that it
+was some feminine whim which concerned him not. And yet it did in this
+much. From the moment that the second will was executed, the children
+were safe from any machinations of the conspirators. What happened to
+them was of no importance. If Algaé chose to be burthened with them,
+she was welcome so to do, as far as her fellow-schemer was concerned.
+It would be a convenience, though, to have them out of the way just
+now. When _it_ was over, and the family was comfortably established at
+Geneva, there would be plenty of time to consider what was to be done
+with the infants. Perhaps it would be a harmless sop to Clovis to have
+them with him there, in order that he might make up for the shadiness
+of his marital past by systematic parental indulgence. There certainly
+was no possible reason why they should not journey with their
+grandmother to Paris on a visit, and the heart of the latter, on
+finding there was no opposition to the plan, was relieved of a weight
+as ponderous as a nether millstone.
+
+Long before the hasty preparations were complete, Madame la Maréchale
+had satisfactorily convinced herself that the abbé's place was among
+the angelic host. It must be mischievous fudge about those cakes; a
+silly tittle-tattle of ignorant servants, to which Gabrielle, mopish
+and morbid, had given too willing an ear. Far from throwing barriers
+in the way of an exodus, both brothers were almost too obliging. The
+chevalier, who was a past master in farriery, examined the horses'
+shoes with minute care, while his brother superintended the inner
+economy of the berline. In the boot were books, and a few bottles of
+the choicest wines and samples of comforting cordials, wherewith an
+elderly traveller might be sustained under fatigue. There were pillows
+and cushions galore, and cunning wraps deftly-stowed in corners.
+
+"Our dear mother," he explained, laughingly, "shall carry away with
+her a favourable impression of Lorge, though she is so ungrateful as
+to leave us with too evident alacrity. Never mind. It becomes the
+Church to be forgiving, and, returned to the capital, she will reward
+us with remembrance in her prayers."
+
+As at last she drove away, with a darling wedged in on either side,
+like panniers on a donkey, the maréchale blamed herself bitterly for
+her unjust suspicions. How could the man have evil intentions, since
+he was so ready to speed upon their road those whom, if suspicions
+were true, it was his direct interest to keep under control? And
+if--as was clearly proven--he had evolved no base scheme with regard
+to the children and their guardian--why should he be scheming to
+injure Gabrielle? What could he possibly gain by injuring Gabrielle,
+since, after her death, her possessions would pass at once far
+out of his reach? It was all preposterous--impossible rather than
+improbable--and it behoved a wise and experienced lady of mature years
+to scold an hysterical daughter for nourishing injurious fancies. The
+nearer she was to Paris, the more jubilant did the old dame become,
+the more rosy grew her cogitations. It was certainly nice to have the
+cherubs' society in a shut-up house in the suburbs, whose safety lay
+in its blankness; but it was improper to be selfish. If there was a
+vice against which the maréchale was fond of tilting, it was
+selfishness. She loathed and abhorred the disfiguring leprosy. No one
+should ever say that she was selfish. She would keep the little ones
+for a few months, then pack them home again. In her odd state, it was
+not quite wise to leave the marquise moping. By and by she would
+receive them in her arms, delighted with the good that change of
+scene had done them, grateful for the grandmother's care. As for M.
+Galland--the estimable and upright, but somewhat square-toed,
+solicitor, to whose acumen the late maréchal had been misguided enough
+to trust, rather than to the wisdom of his singularly clear-brained
+wife, she would be able to report most favourably. He had urged,
+almost compelled, the journey to Touraine, being oppressed by some
+indefinite apprehension. Madame la Marquise, he had explained, wrote
+so seldom and so little, that he began to think there must be some
+reason for her reticence. Regardless of self, or plaguey pains and
+aches, the devoted mother had travelled that weary distance, and in
+late autumn, too, when east winds are so unpleasantly familiar. Martyr
+to duty and an irrepressibly conscientious solicitor, she had been,
+and she had come back. The tiresomely apprehensive Galland would be
+delighted with the assurance that the Marquise de Gange was well; that
+the marquis, temporarily absent on business, was likewise well; that
+two of the most charming and devotedly attentive men on earth were his
+half-brothers, on whose backs the wings were already sprouting, that
+they might join the hierarchy of heaven. As for the cherubs, she had
+brought them as specimens of the results of Touraine air. The arms of
+the darlings were healthily brown, and prematurely developed by
+boating exercise on the Loire. They were quite bursting with health
+and spirits, and would very likely be insulted in the streets as
+aggressive and reproachful examples of country versus town. M.
+Galland's apprehensions, clearly demonstrated to be of the most idle
+description, would vanish; he would sleep on his two ears, as the
+saying hath it; and worry the grandmother no more.
+
+On the evening of her arrival, the solicitor dined with her, anxious
+for a report as to the doings in Touraine. He hearkened to her wisdom,
+nor strove to stem the ocean of her prate, which babbled on
+unceasingly. She was provoked to observe that he was absent, and that
+his moody brow remained clouded despite the rosiness of her report. Of
+course, he did not believe her. Nobody ever had, worse luck for the
+world in general; but it was really just a shade too insolent to have
+sent her all that distance in a ram-shackle old shanderydan, and, the
+pilgrimage completed, to treat the result of her observations as mere
+draught whistling through a keyhole. The old lady was so hurt that she
+was unable to control her vexation. "Of course, I'm a fool," she
+gurgled. "If I'm so incurably imbecile, why did you not go yourself?
+These children, I suppose, are no evidence, with their gladsome eyes
+and ruddy faces!"
+
+M. Galland did not reply at once, for he was thinking.
+
+"It might have been as well, perhaps, madame, if I had accompanied
+you," he slowly said at last. "The children, thank goodness! are in
+perfect health. The marquis, you admit, was absent; his brothers
+practically in possession. One lady and two gentlemen--a cosy party of
+three."
+
+"Wrong!" cried the maréchale in triumph. "Always the same. You
+interrupt and jump at conclusions without having the decent civility
+to hear me out. Some men are insufferably rude."
+
+"How wrong?" enquired the solicitor, anxiously.
+
+"There were two ladies in the house; but the second held so much aloof
+that I was hardly aware of her presence. That struck me as a little
+odd, for she was an invited guest--a Mademoiselle Brunelle, at one
+time governess to the little ones."
+
+M. Galland started, and the cloud on his brow deepened.
+
+That woman again! She whom he had himself expelled by the express
+orders of De Brèze. How had she wormed herself into the house a second
+time. And she held aloof, too--was not one of the family circle--sure
+sign that her presence there was contrary to the wish of the marquise.
+
+"Of a certainty," reflected the solicitor, "I should have done well to
+go down myself. Strange as it may seem, it looks very much as if the
+forebodings of madame were to be realized."
+
+M. Galland muffled himself to the eyes in his roquelaure, and preceded
+by a trusty servant with a lantern, walked rapidly home, exceedingly
+disturbed in mind. "If aught happens to her," he kept murmuring, "it
+will be a cause of acutest self-reproach as long as I live. And yet
+how could a steady-going old lawyer take a woman's romantic
+presentiments into account? She declared when she left Paris, that she
+was going to her death. A fear without solid basis founded upon fancy.
+And that declaration that she made before the magistrate. Did she see
+with prophetic vision? I've heard of such cases, but never credited
+them. Have I unwittingly betrayed my trust? If anything happens,
+how, in the next world, shall I dare to meet her father? It is
+strange--extremely strange."
+
+Proceeding to his study, M. Galland took up an open letter, and with
+gathering frown, perused it carefully for the fourth time. It was a
+letter from a brother solicitor at Blois, formally enquiring for
+information. The Marquis de Gange, the stranger explained, was anxious
+to emigrate secretly with his family, and to that end desired to raise
+money. All Touraine knew that the beautiful marquise, his wife, was
+the money-bag, and it had struck him, the solicitor, as irregular that
+the marquise should not herself have made the request, if not in
+person, at least in writing. M. le Marquis had explained her absence
+by frankly confessing that she knew nothing of his move, she being in
+so nervous and over-wrought a condition through terror, that it would
+be dangerous to consult her on the subject. It was solely on her
+account that he was anxious to leave France in secret and without
+delay, for she was in so precarious a state of nervous prostration
+that only in a peaceful land could it be hoped that she would rally.
+As security for the sum required--nothing very considerable--the
+marquis had produced his wife's testament, showing that even if,
+unfortunately, her health succumbed on the journey, her sorrowing
+widower would be in condition to repay the loan.
+
+The matter was nothing very extraordinary. In these ticklish times,
+much stranger requests were being made each day, but it had struck the
+provincial firm that before complying, it would be only regular and
+courteous to inform the family solicitor.
+
+"Regular and courteous, indeed!" sighed M. Galland, as he folded and
+locked away the letter. "It is all too plain. She has been forced, as
+she feared, to make another will. Her husband is trying to raise money
+on it. Meanwhile, she is left in the custody of his brothers and that
+woman. Is it coercion, or has she changed her mind? I should dearly
+like to know if there is a cross after the signature. Perhaps she has
+really changed her mind, and I am an over-anxious old donkey. Her
+mother declared that she is well and happy, and a mother ought to be a
+judge. But such a mother! cackling, silly goose. And what could have
+induced madame to send away the children? If well enough to deceive a
+mother's eye, the marquis has deliberately lied. There is a mystery
+that looks mighty black, and must forthwith be fathomed. This raising
+of funds without her knowledge shall be nipped in the bud at once; and
+if I turn out to be wrong, I can afford to accept the responsibility.
+Yes. I will fire a random shot and inform the firm at Blois by special
+courier that their will is mere waste paper."
+
+
+
+
+                             CHAPTER XXV.
+
+                         WILL THE SWORD FALL?
+
+
+Perchance that well-meaning, but mole-like, person, Madame de Brèze,
+would have felt less comfortable if she had been aware of her
+daughter's attitude as the carriage rolled away. She stood at an upper
+window and strained her eyes, striving to follow the casket which
+contained her treasures, long after it was out of sight. Tears were
+streaming down her cheeks, and, turning away at length with a
+convulsive sob, she murmured, "They at least are safe, thank Heaven
+for that mercy," and retired to weep in her chamber. Toinon, entering
+soon after, found her mistress lying on her face upon the bed in
+strong hysterics, with fingers tightly clasped about her neck. Honest
+Toinon was unable to solve the riddle of such singular behaviour. Her
+mistress seemed to be under some spell, her power of volition
+suspended, acting like a marionnette in obedience to invisible wires.
+If it was such agony to part from her children, why have done so? When
+she put the question, the answer staggered Toinon. With her head on
+her foster-sister's breast, her emotion calmed by contact of a loving
+hand, Gabrielle replied simply, "What greater anguish than to part
+from dear ones whom you know you will never see again?"
+
+Exhorted to courage and hope, she only sighed and murmured, "Even my
+mother has deserted me in my extremity. I look beyond the world and
+fix my faith in God."
+
+He or she who can bid a genuine farewell to hope is forlorn indeed. If
+this mental condition was to continue, the conspirators had nought to
+do but to sit with idle hands and wait. Either their victim would
+become insane, or fade and die without assistance from them. It is
+said that the fascinated bird feels neither pain nor fear, but looks
+forward with complacency to being swallowed. Toinon, being wrought of
+stronger stuff, had no idea of abandoning hope. She boiled with
+healthy wrath against the selfish old hag who was gone, and anger was
+a fillip to her energy. The abigail had laid herself out to be
+particularly agreeable during the last few days, had permitted a
+certain lacquey of the maréchale's sundry liberties, had even kissed
+him in the dark, and vowed to be his alone. This reprehensible levity
+served various ends. It kept up her spirits, and was a satisfactory
+revenge on absent Jean; passed time agreeably, and made of the man her
+slave. Having settled to eat humble pie with regard to the
+recalcitrant Boulot, and condone his enormities, a difficulty arose as
+to how he was to be communicated with. She knew that since the
+accusation about the cakes her steps had been dogged, her movements
+watched; and were she to openly indite epistles to the Jacobin, they
+would surely be intercepted by the conspirators. Gracefully grouped
+together on the stairs after the household were abed, the abigail and
+her admirer whispered fervid vows, and embraced each other tenderly.
+She could not leave her lady's service just at present, she explained,
+but would seek the earliest opportunity if the swain would promise to
+be true. She was full of crotchets. Never, no never, would she give
+her hand without the consent of her dearest brother, who was at Blois.
+He loved his little sister too well, however, to withhold consent
+where her heart was entirely given. But his consent must be obtained,
+and till it came, there must be no further dallying. How was his
+consent to be speedily obtained? She would indite a little letter to
+her brother, and, lest there should be delays she would not put her
+letter in the post. The invaluable missive should be confided to the
+swain, and money with it, that at the first posthouse on the road,
+when the maréchale's party left Lorge, he should transmit it by the
+hand of a horseman. Toinon was not above taking a lesson from her
+mistress and sending a summons to Jean on the sly, as the marquise had
+to her father. The old lady was gone, and the swain was gone, and
+naughty Toinon felt not the least compunction for fooling the simple
+fellow. If some day he were to make inconvenient claims, was not Jean
+Boulot burly enough to protect her? She had adjured the latter in the
+most solemn manner to leave all and come at once if he ever felt a
+spark of love for her or a scintilla of respect for her mistress.
+
+"France has sufficient champions without you," she concluded; "and you
+will never regret having been the means of saving two innocent
+helpless women."
+
+Though she chose to gibe and be mighty indignant over Jean's
+defection, she never felt the smallest doubt that, the political fever
+past, he would return to his allegiance. She had despatched an urgent
+summons, and she knew that he would come; and this being so, she was
+inclined to be cheerful, keeping a wary eye on the conspirators.
+
+Now it was a grievous thing that her mistress should collapse, commend
+her soul to Heaven, await the impending stroke with the air of a
+sacrificial lamb. Resignation is the attribute of slaves unendowed
+with the holy birthright of freedom. Our natural condition is that of
+contest, the form of which but varies according to the thickness of
+the civilized veneer. He who cannot gird his loins for the fray goes
+to the wall, and he who has gone to the wall is a deserving object for
+contempt. Toinon could fight, and would, with teeth and nails if need
+were, and she was prepared to do battle with the conspirators whilst
+awaiting the advent of Jean.
+
+It behoved her to show that she was not afraid of them, and she
+accordingly tripped into the kitchen on the day of the maréchale's
+departure, and scornfully announced that, considering what wretches
+they all were, former precautions must be resumed. Madame would take
+her meals in her apartments. Toinon would carry the plateau with her
+own hands, and M. Bertrand would be good enough to taste of every dish
+under her close inspection before confiding it to her care. Vainly
+that worthy blew himself out and beat his chest, and gesticulated, and
+talked of honour.
+
+"Pooh!" scoffed the abigail, "you may spare your breath. I choose to
+take the precaution, though I have no dread of your attempting to
+poison us. A dirty cooking-plate may serve as an excuse for once. A
+second mistake of the sort would go hard with you, for I would have
+you remember that the maréchale and all her servants know the story of
+the cakes, and a secluded lady is not poisoned twice _by accident!_"
+
+Toinon prattled gaily of these things to the marquise, but could not
+succeed in raising her spirits. The latter, to please her devoted
+friend, summoned up a ghostly smile, which resembled moonlight on a
+tomb.
+
+"Fate is fate," she sighed. "For some inscrutable reason we are
+doomed. Madame de Lamballe first; the queen or I, who knows which of
+us will be the second?"
+
+It is hard work being always cheery when others groan in the
+doldrums. It is not easy to shake off the grip of fatalism in the
+society of a fatalist. Toinon, despite her efforts, receiving no
+encouragement--feeding as it were on her own fuel--in spite of brave
+resolutions, grew jaded and despondent. Flirtations were not to be
+thought of with any members of the existing household. Firstly,
+because the doughty Jean was to be expected at any moment, and
+untoward consequences might ensue; secondly, because the young lady
+knew, for certain, that many of the domestics were creatures of the
+abbé, if not all of them. There are few feelings less pleasant than a
+conviction that you are surrounded by spies, that you are always under
+observation like a struggling insect under a microscope. Common rough
+malefactors in gaol suffer more from unsleeping surveillance than
+would be supposed possible in persons with low-strung nerves.
+
+The weather grew too cold for sitting-out, even if wrapped in furs,
+and Toinon had much ado to coax her wan mistress to take the air at
+all, for was not the favourite pleasaunce, called the moat-garden,
+redolent of distracting memories; did not each flower-bed recall some
+prank of the absent ones, each bush re-echo with the laughter, which
+was to be heard no more at Lorge? It was even disagreeable to gaze
+from the balconies of the long saloon, for the Loire flowed on in
+silent placidity, its bosom no longer ruffled by the eccentric
+movements of the wherry propelled by infant hands. The wherry swung in
+the tide, a useless bit of lumber, for no one dreamed of using it, of
+unknotting its rusty chain.
+
+Gabrielle sat day by day in a low _causeuse_, intent on some
+embroidery like a fading Penelope, who works on and weaves, a dull
+machine, though she has learned that Ulysses is no more. The earth is
+steady underfoot, the sky above; the soul yet beats against its
+chain--how long? Some kind of mechanical occupation is imperative to
+keep overwrought nerves from twanging--to maintain on the lips the bit
+of silence, and hold back the wailing of despair. When all illusions
+are gone--every one--when, search as carefully as we will, there is no
+grain of comfort left to make existence bearable, we long for death in
+any hideous shape, well knowing that if the Pilgrim came, we should
+involuntarily shrink from him. Love of life, for the sake of living,
+is a phenomenon which orientals do not share with the white races,
+happily for them; whether they go or stay is a matter of indifference,
+from which they may thank their faith, since death means to them but a
+change of envelope, a single stage upon a journey.
+
+It is not uncommon in the east for men who are cast for execution to
+sit by the wayside, almost unguarded, awaiting the advent of the
+executioner, while the ease and cheapness with which a substitute may
+be bought in China is notorious. By a strange paradox, it is reserved
+for the disciples of Christ, the Prince of Peace, to live in terror of
+death. No doubt there are many whose burthens are so disproportionate
+to their strength that, _coûte que coûte_, they are impelled to shake
+them off, but students of statistics are surprised at the small number
+of sane suicides, slowly and deliberately carried out, compared to
+those brought about by passion.
+
+Gabrielle knew, or thought she knew, as surely as that night follows
+day, that the frayed string which held the sword was worn almost
+through, and that at any moment it might fall.
+
+When on waking she saw Toinon fling back the heavy curtains of a
+morning to let in the light, she wondered that she should be alive and
+well. What object did her existence fulfil upon the earth? Why was she
+spared to crawl on aimlessly? Without husband, without children,
+without a friend in the world except this simple foster-sister, why
+did she linger thus? Surely her fitting place was in the fragrant
+earth, sheltered by waving grass from carking cares. The string was
+worn through, and yet it would not break. Day followed day, night
+followed night, nothing new occurred. She went her dismal way, and no
+one troubled her or seemed to know or care whether she were alive or
+dead, or well or dying. Algaé was still in the chateau, but made no
+sign. Toinon looked forth in vain for Jean Boulot. He neither wrote
+nor came; what if the letter had miscarried?
+
+The conspirators were quiescent because they were in a quandary. There
+was no news of Clovis, or of what he was doing at Blois. His continued
+silence was incomprehensible. Had any hitch occurred in the
+negociations? Surely not, or he would have communicated with his
+brother. Kept in suspense, the latter knew not what course to adopt,
+and had much ado to endure the persistent girding of Algaé. The
+ex-governess found the situation quite intolerable, and was for
+grappling with it at all hazards, and at once. Clovis had made some
+muddle, which might place the heads of all of them in jeopardy. He was
+not a man to be despatched on any mission requiring delicacy or tact.
+What he was pleased to call his feelings (mere pusillanimity) had been
+too much considered. _It_ should have been carried out to the end, if
+not actually in his presence, at least while he was dwelling in the
+chateau. What was to prevent him now, supposing that anything went
+wrong, from declaring that his brothers had acted entirely without his
+knowledge or consent? It was a grand mistake to have let him fly off
+alone, and the abbé, who plumed himself so much on his astuteness, and
+who was for ever finding fault with others, had been guilty of the
+biggest blunder of all.
+
+Thus mademoiselle querulously droning with increasing fretfulness, and
+the wrath of her fellow-conspirator was kindled against her. In his
+heart he could admit that there had been a grave mistake, but was that
+a reason for bearing taunts from Algaé? She had been called in to act
+as conscience keeper to the marquis, and a pretty way she had carried
+out the task. Instead of bringing him round to active co-operation,
+she had only so far blinded him as to procure the tacit consent of
+convenient temporary absence. It had been a foolish plan, too, to
+raise money on the will, during the marquise's life. Better far to
+have announced her sudden and much-to-be-regretted demise, to have
+performed decorous obsequies, and then quietly have taken possession.
+But then Clovis was so untrustworthy. He was just the sort of
+provoking man to veer round suddenly, to place obstacles instead of
+adding all his weight to keep the wheel revolving. Then the visit of
+the Marplot Maréchale had so altered the complexion of affairs, and
+swallowed precious time. Were the marquise to succumb suddenly, the
+story of the unlucky cakes might be raked up again, unpleasant
+questions be asked. The schemers must fall back upon the idea of
+typhus, and that brought the scheme round in a circle to the original
+starting point--the providing of necessary funds in specie to tide
+over a period of months.
+
+The complaints and jeremiads of Algaé overshot their mark, and so
+stirred the ire of the abbé that his active mind went off at a
+tangent, and his wits began to weave another pattern. Oh! if by some
+cunning device it were possible to circumvent that odious woman--alone
+to carry off the prize, leaving her and her weak-kneed admirer to
+gnash their teeth in vain. How sweet a vengeance--how savoury a
+triumph! Revolving the matter in a brain quickened to activity by
+spite, Pharamond made up his mind once more, at the eleventh hour, to
+attempt to carry the citadel. The mental and physical condition of the
+marquise was vastly different now from what it was when last he failed
+to storm the outworks. To mark her listless movements, her hopeless
+heaviness of gait, was to be assured that the ramparts were crumbling,
+that the walls were insufficiently manned. The armour of the warrior
+was worn into holes, through which it would surely be possible to
+insert an arrow. At all events it was worth trying, for success would
+mow down the hopes of Algaé, and thus punish her presumption and
+impertinence.
+
+Having decided to try again, the abbé donned his most becoming suit of
+violet silk with gold embroidered buttonholes, arranged his hair with
+extreme nicety, and placed a patch close to his favourite dimple. This
+done, he surveyed himself in the mirror, contemplated with approval
+the harmonious contour of his leg, and sallied forth satisfied, armed
+_cap-à-pie_ for conquest. Swiftly he sped up the stairs, and meeting
+Toinon on the landing, well-nigh choked that damsel with indignation
+by playfully chucking her chin. "It is too bad," he cried, "that so
+ripe a cherry should yet hang upon the bough. You must leave this dull
+house and seek more congenial society. There are sweethearts galore
+waiting for you beyond the frontier."
+
+"Are you in such a hurry to get rid of me?" gasped Toinon. "Whatever
+happens to us, my place is beside my mistress."
+
+"Of course it is, you suspicious little fool!" laughed René. "If she
+travels, you will not wish to be left behind?"
+
+If she travels! What new phase of the complication was this? It was
+distracting. Whatever it might be she was sure it boded injury to both
+the foster-sisters.
+
+"Travel, poor soul!" the abigail observed, sourly. "It was a long
+journey the other day that you strove to send her on!"
+
+Pharamond frowned, then seizing the buxom figure before him, he
+pressed upon the lips a kiss. "There!" he said; "that is your
+punishment for unworthy and unjust suspicions of one who means you
+well. I promise that the dose shall be repeated twentyfold if you
+presume to talk such nonsense any more."
+
+Toinon struggled and recoiled, crimson to the roots of her hair, her
+dark eyes flashing. "How dare you--how dare you!" she panted. "Two
+helpless women are a fit butt for outrage. I am not so friendless as
+you think. Jean Boulot shall know of this."
+
+"Oho! Jean Boulot, the terrible Jacobin. Are we to be threatened with
+that bugbear? You can have but little pride, mistress, to prate of one
+who toyed with and then deserted you."
+
+Scalding tears welled into the eyes of Toinon, and rolled in great
+drops upon her cheeks. Alas! it was too true. He was an idle bugbear,
+a stuffed bogey to frighten babes withal. Had she not sacrificed her
+vanity and besought him to come at once, and he had never deigned to
+answer? The abbé might do what he chose, the two women were indeed
+defenceless.
+
+"I wish to speak to the marquise upon an urgent matter. Go and say
+that I await her pleasure," commanded Pharamond.
+
+Toinon glanced askance at him, and answered shortly, "She will not see
+you."
+
+"Will she not? If you will not take a civil message, I will enter her
+boudoir unannounced."
+
+What was to prevent him? Nothing. Reluctantly the abigail obeyed, and
+while he stood waiting, the abbé considered her words. "Jean Boulot!
+Remembered still? If she sent for him it might prove awkward. I must
+see that they do not communicate."
+
+Toinon earnestly begged for permission to tell the abbé that the
+marquise refused to see him; but the latter shook her head and smiled
+her dreary smile. "Go to," she sighed, "if the man wishes me evil how
+shall I protect myself? If he has aught to say it is better that I
+should hear it."
+
+The visitor found Gabrielle sitting on a low sofa, and as, unbidden,
+he sank into the place by her side, a thrill passed along his nerves,
+for the statuesque composure of her mien was exactly suited to her
+beauty.
+
+"Dear Gabrielle," he murmured, "you are more beautiful than ever."
+
+"You have intruded here to-day to tell me so?" she inquired, coldly.
+
+"Take care! You burn and freeze at the same time. Such loveliness as
+yours may account for any rashness."
+
+Alas! how ghastly a mockery had this same beauty been! The
+fairest woman of her time--her affections withered, her heart
+broken--deserted, friendless, desolate. At thought of it Gabrielle
+smiled, and the abbé considered himself encouraged.
+
+"Gabrielle," he said, taking her unwilling hand, "in what I am about
+to say you must not deem me harsh. It is sometimes for the best to
+speak quite openly. I am a very forgiving man, as you shall have cause
+to know. You flouted, scorned, insulted me, and yet, though you
+deliberately chose my hate, I have nothing but deep love for you."
+
+Again! The marquise wondered in a hazy way what could be the motive
+for this comedy.
+
+"Love," she observed, reflecting, quite unruffled. "A strange form of
+love, is it not, which injures the object that is adored? Wherein lies
+the difference betwixt such love and the hate you promised?"
+
+"An ardent, hot-headed man may be goaded by desperation to acts that
+he afterwards deplores in sackcloth and in ashes."
+
+"An odd form of love that kills and crushes!"
+
+"Hear me out quietly, and you will be convinced that I have striven in
+vain to hate you--that my carefully barbed darts have fallen blunted.
+Your position here is desperate. It is, believe me; and yet, though
+you are walled about by triple barriers, against which it would be
+idle to buffet, yet there is a loophole by which you may escape."
+
+Gabrielle turned her deep blue eyes upon the speaker, and raised her
+brows inquiringly.
+
+"Your case is desperate because all are combined against you; all are
+resolved upon your death--all, except me, and why? Because my love
+stands between you and them, a saving plank in the approaching
+hurricane. Your husband and his friend are bent on your destruction.
+He has left the house until it is accomplished. You are hemmed about
+with foes. Every servant in this household is suborned. They are men,
+carefully selected, who know no pity--on whose shoulders, were they
+bared, you would see the galleys-brand--men who would one and all look
+on your death struggle with indifference--as callous as the bravo of
+romance. I have before told you, and it is more true than ever now,
+that my love is your only safeguard. I hold the door ajar to Hope.
+Yield to my suit and grant me the boon I ask, and I swear that the
+shackles will fall from off your limbs; that your troubles will cease,
+for you'll be free. Free to depart with me to a distant land where in
+freshly-flowing happiness, the past shall be as a dream. Sorceress!
+What is this witchcraft that you exert over me? I love you all the
+more ardently for the long siege. Be mine the grateful task to rescue
+you from the clutches of these wretches. Say the word. We will quit
+France secretly together, and leave _them_ to the fate which they
+deserve."
+
+In the eagerness of his pleading, the abbé had edged close to
+Gabrielle. She could feel his hot breath--the beating of his heart
+against her arm--and she shivered from top to toe, as Toinon outside
+was shivering, her eyes distended by alarm.
+
+The frayed string was about to snap. The long-expected moment was
+come. Thank God that suspense was over.
+
+"I thank you for your engaging candour," Gabrielle said in a voice
+that was clear and steady. "I had learned to know you for a villain,
+but had not gauged the deeps of your rascality. False to the core.
+True to nothing but your own devilish passions. A Judas even to your
+confederates!"
+
+There was so sharp a ring of scorn in the tone in which she spoke--a
+flash of such unmeasurable contempt in the dark blue eyes--that
+Pharamond, though he had smarted under the lash before, felt his
+withers wrung, while Toinon without was torn by fear and admiration.
+Was he, before whose fascinations many a fair dame had willingly
+succumbed, so vile a reptile as to warrant the storm of disgust that
+racked this haughty woman? She loathed him worse than death since,
+seeing her impending fate with crystalline vision, she cheerfully
+preferred its chill embrace to his ardent one. And now with eyes
+flashing and delicately chiselled nostrils distended, and a tinge of
+rose on either pallid cheek, her beauty had gained once more the
+animation that it so frequently lacked. She was lovelier at this
+moment than he had ever seen her--and in her direful plight she shrank
+from his touch as though he were hideously diseased. It was written
+then, that he was never to attain the full measure of revenue for the
+rebuffs he had endured at her hands? He was not to sully this fair
+form, suck the orange dry then fling its rind into the gutter? What a
+pity! How complete the triumph would have been if she, at this
+eleventh hour could have been persuaded to seek safety with him in
+flight. He would have carried off for his own use alone the goose that
+laid golden eggs. How he would have snapped his fingers at Clovis and
+Algaé--mean grovelling worms--with their ridiculous testament which
+was not to be the last! What a refined pleasure it would have been,
+when sated, and weary of the toy, to break it slowly! He would have
+carried the maréchal's heiress to some secure and distant spot, have
+forced her by famine or other torment to execute yet another will--in
+his sole favour this time--and then he would have gloated over her
+suffering and degradation as he compelled her to sink to the lowest
+depths of female infamy and shame, ere, drop by drop, he squeezed away
+her life! And it was not to be--actually might never be, this
+exhilarating programme--he realized that now as he gazed in her proud
+face, each string of his evil nature tingling. Baffled and
+disappointed, he must even be content to share with the others, to
+carry out the plan as previously arranged, to sweep her from the path.
+Oh, what a grievous pity, for the other arrangement would have been
+deliciously complete and satisfactory.
+
+There was nothing to be gained by continuing the interview, since it
+had fallen to his lot to play the _rôle ridicule_. He rose, therefore,
+flinging the hand from him which he had so ardently been pressing with
+a movement of muffled fury.
+
+"On your own head be the consequences," he growled. "You have spoken
+your own sentence. Amen!"
+
+"My life," replied Gabrielle, drearily, "has been fraught with pain
+and overlong, although I'm not five and twenty! The death you threaten
+me withal, I will accept with thanks as a release."
+
+"You shall be released, nor will you have long to wait," the abbé
+remarked with a dry laugh. "You, who are alive, may count yourself as
+dead and buried." With that he left her to her reflections, banging
+the door behind him.
+
+
+
+
+                            CHAPTER XXVI.
+
+                        WILL JEAN BOULOT COME?
+
+
+Two persons, from entirely opposite motives, were thinking about
+Jean Boulot. Toinon, her wits sharpened by eavesdropping, saw plainly
+that not a moment must be lost if she and her mistress were to be
+saved. It stood to reason that if the marquise was doomed, so was her
+foster-sister, in order that the voice of the accuser might be
+silenced. The daring of the poor harassed lady had been admirable--she
+had conspicuously shown the moral courage which in extreme peril goes
+with breeding; but it would have been more prudent to have temporised.
+What use is there in making of oneself a sublime spectacle of defiant
+virtue if there is no public to applaud? How many malefactors have
+made "fine exits" sustained by the murmurs of a sympathetic mob, who,
+if executed in private, would have died screeching? Truth is a nice
+thing in theory, but the practice of it in our sinful sphere too often
+leads to complications which would be avoided by appropriate
+mendacity.
+
+Toinon, much as she adored her mistress, had frequently deplored her
+blunt and uncompromising truthfulness. Knowing that she had a noose
+about her neck, which only required a pull from the abbé to tighten to
+strangulation point, it was vastly foolish to cry out, "Do your
+worst." She ought to have pondered and asked for time, have argued and
+implored, have even shown signs of yielding, have trembled and
+blushed--have murmured in one breath that she would, yet wouldn't.
+Where is the man, however cunning, who cannot be hoodwinked by a woman
+if she seriously sets about the operation? Precious hours might thus
+have been gained--nay, days, by a skilful display of comedy. Boulot
+might be even now upon the road, and arrive too late to be of use,
+owing to the inopportune sublimity of the too artless chatelaine.
+Having defied the arch-conspirator, he would certainly act promptly.
+If Jean Boulot was to come to the aid of the two women, it must be at
+once, or there was no use in his coming at all. The anxious abigail
+felt that they were in precisely the same harrowing position as Sister
+Anne and Fatima. Was there nobody coming? The sand in the glass was
+dripping all too swiftly. Was there no sound of approaching hoofs, no
+curl of dust upon the way? Quite idly, in obedience to a whimsical
+fancy due to restlessness, Toinon put on her hood, resolved to take a
+stroll upon the road that led to Blois. She would see the cloud of
+dust and rush towards it, cry out to honest Jean to use his spurs,
+chide him for his culpable delay.
+
+But Toinon, while deploring the mistakes of her mistress, was unaware
+that she had herself been guilty of an error. It had been an act of
+gross imprudence to threaten the abbé with Boulot as she had done when
+she met him on the landing. It set the abbé thinking of Boulot, whose
+existence he had well-nigh forgotten. Though there had been a tiff or
+an estrangement, the gamekeeper and the abigail were lovers. They had
+been, and possibly still were, betrothed. It struck the abbé as not at
+all improbable that Mademoiselle Toinon had written to him anent the
+cake fiasco, and that her lover might inopportunely arrive to look
+after her safety. It was most obliging of the young woman to have
+vouchsafed a hint suggestive of such a contingency, and he would be
+guilty of gross ingratitude if he failed to act on it forthwith.
+Hence, when in pursuance of her fancy she moved across the yard to the
+archway, where of old a portcullis used to hang, she was surprised to
+perceive that the ponderous entrance gates were closed, and that the
+key had been removed from the lock. The concierge was leaning against
+the stonework smoking pensively, his hands plunged deep into his
+breeches pockets.
+
+"What does this mean?" cried the abigail, with an imperious frown
+which served to mask a new-born terror.
+
+"It means that the gates are locked, and will remain so," was the
+composed answer.
+
+"But I want to go out--I have a mission from madame to one of the
+cottagers hard by."
+
+"So sorry," returned the concierge, smiling roguishly. "Mademoiselle
+must remain within--a pretty little bird within a cage. Nay, I but
+obey my orders. If mademoiselle will deign to discuss the point,
+yonder is the porter's room. We shall be quite alone and undisturbed,
+and I will make myself agreeable to mademoiselle."
+
+There was a studied insolence about the man's manner--he had been
+engaged quite recently--which made Toinon tremble. The fowler's net
+was closing in; she already fluttered in the toils, but would attempt
+another struggle to make assurance sure.
+
+"This castle is the property of the Marquise de Gange," she said,
+haughtily, "and the lacqueys who dwell therein eat her bread. I have
+warned you that I am sent by her. Open that door immediately."
+
+The man puffed slowly at his pipe and gave a long reflective whistle
+that spoke volumes. "Bread? Ah yes," he observed, abstractedly. "The
+bread is excellent, but it is not hers. Such, at least, are my
+instructions."
+
+"Impudent brute!" cried Toinon, stamping her foot. "I will report you
+instantly to our mistress, and you will be dismissed at once. A pretty
+pass, indeed! when I, her confidential maid, am to stand by and hear
+her insulted."
+
+"What is all this about?" demanded a big base voice behind, at sound
+of which the man put away his pipe and assumed an obsequious attitude.
+
+"It means, Mademoiselle Brunelle," retorted Toinon, trembling with
+ire, "that Madame la Marquise is reaping the earthly reward of divine
+forbearance. But you can goad even her too far, as you had cause to
+know when you were ignominiously expelled from the chateau."
+
+The dusky face of Algaé darkened a shade, and her heavy mobile brows
+lowered over her eyes with menace. She crossed her arms over her chest
+and gave vent to a rumbling laugh.
+
+"Circumstances alter cases," she observed, with exasperating
+composure. "You always did me the honour to dislike me. When I am
+mistress here, it is you who will be expelled. You are silent?
+Come--that is better. Go to your room and mind your business, and
+perhaps no harm will come to you."
+
+"I will send over to Montbazon," returned Toinon, striving hard to
+conceal her growing terror. "M. de Vaux and the Seigneurie will
+interfere for madame's protection."
+
+"Do you think so?" inquired Algaé, with interest. "The de Vaux are
+nice people, if timid, who were always kind to me. I hardly think they
+are likely to interfere."
+
+"What have you done?" asked Toinon, her heart sinking within her.
+
+"I had the honour to send a messenger to Montbazon this morning to
+announce with deep regret that Madame la Marquise de Gange had been
+seized with a malignant fever."
+
+"You did that?" gasped the abigail. "You know, you wicked woman, that
+the marquise is in perfect health."
+
+The concierge had withdrawn discreetly out of hearing, and with sturdy
+legs straddled apart, was softly whistling.
+
+No help was to be hoped for from that quarter, or from any other,
+apparently. The possibility of a casual visit from the inhabitants of
+Montbazon had been skilfully prevented. The household was on the side
+of the conspirators, just as this concierge was, no doubt of it.
+
+What sound was that? A horse's hoofs. Jean Boulot at last! The heart
+of the abigail gave such a leap that she staggered and would have
+fallen but for Algaé's sustaining hand.
+
+The latter had also heard the ominous ring of hoofs, and seizing
+Toinon roughly, began to push her towards the house.
+
+"Go in, you little fool," she hissed. "Cannot you see that you are a
+prisoner, and that your treatment depends upon your conduct."
+
+"I will not go," Toinon cried, tussling with all her strength against
+the iron grip of Algaé. "It is Jean, by the goodness of Heaven, sent
+to succour us in time. Jean, Jean," she shouted; "it is I, Toinon. We
+are alive, but in sorest peril."
+
+The cries of the luckless waiting maid died away in a gurgle. She was
+rapidly pushed along by the ex-governess, who hurriedly unwound a
+scarf and twisted it tight about her mouth. Toinon was fainting and
+half-stifled when Mademoiselle Brunelle flung her within a door,
+closed it, and turned the key.
+
+With a supreme effort, Toinon freed herself from the scarf, and rising
+to her knees, applied an ear to the keyhole. Oh for a sound of the
+welcome voice of Jean! Would he be deceived by a plausible tale and go
+as he had come? Surely not. After what she had told him in her letter,
+the fact of the closed gates would make suspicion certainty. He would
+demand admittance or depart to rouse the neighbourhood. Perhaps he had
+heard her outcry before she was gagged. Toinon crouched down in
+profound thankfulness, and as she prayed glad tears poured down her
+face. Till this moment she had not quite realised the imminence of the
+danger, and now that she fully knew it it was past, for Jean would
+demand to see his betrothed and the marquise. He was a great man now,
+and a powerful leader of the dominant party at Blois; always fearless
+and honest, not now a man to dally with. Would the conspirators give
+way at once, confess themselves beaten, sue for mercy? or would he be
+compelled to rouse the country and storm the grim fortalice as the
+other day the Bastille had been stormed? And then Toinon wondered what
+would come of that. Would he climb over the smoking ruins to find the
+two women murdered? No, no. Toinon's prayers had been answered
+tardily, but they had been answered. The decree of Heaven had gone
+forth, and the wicked were to be discomfited.
+
+Vainly she strained her hearing to catch a sound of the dear voice,
+dearer, far dearer than she had ever dreamed. She could hear a leaf of
+the ponderous gate revolve on its rusty hinges, a horseman ride into
+the courtyard. There was a colloquy in low tones. Heavens! what if she
+had been mistaken! Yet who could the horseman be but Jean Boulot, the
+deputy, or some one sent by him? She heard Mademoiselle Brunelle bid
+some one, in commanding tones, to go in search of the abbé. "Tell him
+there is important news," she said. "Here is a letter despatched in
+haste from Blois. M. le Marquis de Gange intends to come home
+to-morrow."
+
+Not Jean, then? The marquis home to-morrow! How by his arrival would
+the position of the prisoners be bettered? Why was he coming home
+to-morrow? Had something fresh transpired? He was a tacit accessory to
+the villainous plot of the schemers. He was led in leash, a willing
+slave, by that wicked man and woman.
+
+No hope! No hope! Heaven had abandoned the victims. Overwhelmed by the
+quick revulsion from nascent hope to hopelessness, Toinon gave a moan,
+and sank swooning on the marble floor.
+
+
+
+
+                            CHAPTER XXVII.
+
+                  THE DECKS ARE CLEARED FOR ACTION.
+
+
+Gabrielle maintained her attitude of uncompromising dignity, until the
+boudoir door clanged to, and, left alone, sank back upon the cushions
+numbed. The sword had fallen. She had herself severed the last frayed
+strands. What form would the abbé's vengeance take now that he had
+wakened to the fact that under no circumstances whatever would she
+submit herself to his desires? What mattered it, so that the end was
+swift? The dear ones were safe in distant Paris. No cause to fear for
+them. Their mother had been careful in signing the second will to add
+the tell-tale cross. On the whole, she was to be congratulated on the
+approaching change, for her worldly affairs were in order, there was
+no motive left for lingering. To one placed as she was, death, as she
+truly said, would be release. Victor and Camille would grow up under
+the care of grandmamma, secure from the machinations of their father
+and the crew by which he was surrounded. Her death would be an
+advantage to them, for the tale of the two wills and the precautionary
+declaration would become public property, and a barrier be raised
+under the scrutiny of public opinion, which would protect the dear
+ones from her husband.
+
+And yet how whimsical the situation was! In the course of charitable
+wanderings among the poor, she had looked with amaze on creatures
+lying upon their rotten straw with scarce a rag to cover them, who
+clung to their wretched existence with a pertinacity that was both
+weird and ludicrous, considering that it was but a step, and such an
+easy one, into the peaceful grave. Now she herself was within distance
+of that step, and could look calmly into the chasm, contemplate the
+precise spot beneath whose crust she was to sleep for ever. But was it
+for ever? Ah! If she only knew. She had long ago learned to smile at
+the mediæval absurdities, invented by naïve, ignorant churchmen, of
+flames and pitchforks, and demons with red-hot tongs; but now that she
+stood so near to Death, that she could feel the chill rustle of his
+garments, she felt herself drawn into the sea of idle and abortive
+speculation.
+
+Why is it, amusing paradox, that the virtuous--those, that is, who
+have somehow succeeded, to a creditable extent, in avoiding the rugged
+but fascinating path of temptation--should be tossed by doubts and
+shadowy tremors, while those who have wallowed in enormosities are
+snugly complacent as to the end? It is nearly always so. The more
+hopelessly heinous the crime of the murderer, the more abominably
+abandoned the criminal, the more glibly will the monster prate of his
+salvation; the more sure will he be of sleeping on Abraham's bosom.
+Verily, in the long course of globe-rolling, so much vermin of
+nauseous kind has tumbled off, vowing, as it fell, that its destiny
+was the bosom of Abraham, that that patriarch must by this time
+somewhat regret the flattering prominence of his position. The
+sublimely compassionate declaration, "To-day shalt thou be with Me in
+Paradise," has been so largely and freely rendered into a conviction
+of immunity from the results of sin by the worst of scoundrels, that a
+premium is offered to crime. The scarce discoloured soul goes
+tremulously off, conscious of tiny spots, wondering and fearing as to
+its reception in its next resting-place, while that one which is black
+and ulcered, soars aloft singing a seraphic pæan. Brethren, it is easy
+to cultivate contrition. There is nothing more easy than to repent
+when there are no more sins to commit. Let us all commit crimes of
+abnormal horror, that the parson may assure us on the scaffold that
+purged with hyssop we are clean.
+
+Such reflections as these passed vaguely through the mind of Gabrielle
+as she strove to nerve herself to endure, with becoming composure, the
+coming ordeal. She recalled and contemplated her peccadilloes. The
+various naughtinesses of her brief life swept past in procession as
+distinct and rapid as the last vision of the drowning man. Her
+conscience kept whispering that she could have little to fear if God
+were just, for the small sins of which she could accuse herself must
+be balanced against her earthly woes. And then she chided herself
+bitterly for presumption. How dared she to conclude that she was not a
+terrible sinner, considering that as a chit, her father confessor had
+imposed fearsome pains and penalties, as punishment for childish
+transgressions? She was bad, very bad indeed. Had she not impiously
+endeavoured once to cut the thread and escape? And now that thread was
+to be cut for her by an alien hand. Why did she not feel the same
+eagerness to be away, as on that night, when she leapt out of the
+wherry?
+
+It always came back to this. The same refrain was singing in her ears.
+So young, so rich, so beautiful--to be put away, crushed under the
+heel, like the rat that cumbers the earth. It was hard, very hard, and
+somehow the joyous careless days of Versailles and Trianon, would
+glitter up out of the mirage to dazzle and disturb her vision.
+
+Some one knocked and entered with a tray.
+
+"Madame, supper," the servant said.
+
+Her supper! Not brought by faithful Toinon? Why? Was the episode of
+the cakes to be repeated?
+
+"Where is my maid?" she asked.
+
+"Very ill in bed--delirious," the servant answered with respect.
+
+"Ill! Delirious! What has happened? I will go to her at once."
+
+"As madame wishes," the lacquey replied. "I was to inform madame that
+Mademoiselle Brunelle has undertaken to cure the invalid, and is with
+her now."
+
+Words of enquiry rose and died on Gabrielle's lips. The servant bowed
+and retired. Mademoiselle Brunelle closeted with Toinon? The marquise
+had endured overmuch, and just now could not cope with that woman.
+
+The baleful Algaé had taken the faithful waiting-maid in hand, who
+under her manipulation was ill and delirious? Her last friend was
+taken away from her. She was alone now, quite, quite alone. They
+wished her also to become ill and delirious? She glanced at the
+supper-tray and smiled at the dainties thereon set out. No. She would
+not perish that way. If only she could see Toinon! To what end? The
+devoted girl was paying the penalty of faithfulness. If she went now
+to see her she could do no good; would probably not be allowed to see
+her at all; would be rudely turned away by that woman, as in old times
+she had been from the nursery.
+
+But it was hard to bear--oh, hard, very hard to bear; thus to be left
+without a friend--without a tender hand, the crisis past, lovingly to
+close her eyes! And yet how pitifully foolish to be disturbed about
+such petty details! When the soul is freed, what matters if the glassy
+eyes whose glory has faded away are closed or not; and if they are, by
+whom they are closed? What childish folly to care, and yet, as
+Gabrielle sought her gloomy bedchamber, she felt more solitary than
+ever before in her existence. The dingy ancestors peering down from
+out their dusty frames--they who had long passed the rubicon and knew
+the secret, if secret there be to know--seemed in the fitful glare of
+the smouldering fire to laugh and mow at her folly. What a pother
+over a few years of suffering. The dead only are at peace--the dead
+only enjoy rest. Oh, blessed dead and fortunate! And here was a
+storm-tossed mortal on the very threshold of freedom, clinging to and
+hugging her chains. Oh, pitiable and laughter-moving spectacle! Poor,
+silly, straining little shallop on the immeasurable ocean of destiny!
+Summon thy waning courage, oh, nerve racked atom of humanity, tossed
+on the waves of time. Courage, shrinking coward, and be thankful that
+thy corroding gyves will so soon be broken.
+
+The marquise, though faint from lack of food and many emotions,
+refused to eat. How cruel of Toinon to fall ill at such a time! and
+yet not so; for it must be the band of wretches who had made her ill.
+Her mistress would go to bed and forget her misery in sleep. Sleep!
+With nerves stretched to tightest tension, how could she hope to
+sleep? Wearily she threw herself upon the bed, dressed as she was, and
+gnawed the pillow in her travail.
+
+It has been mercifully ordered that the human organism cannot endure
+more than a given strain. Either we go mad and forget, or drop
+exhausted and unconscious. Ere the smouldering logs had whitened to
+ashes, Gabrielle had forgotten her troubles, plunged in dreamless
+slumber. Such sleep as this brings no refreshment, though it serves as
+anodyne--a filter of short-lived oblivion. She must have slept long
+and heavily, for, waking with leaden lids and throbbing brow, she was
+aware of a shadowy woman drawing back the window curtains to let in
+the day.
+
+Toinon had recovered then. That was fortunate.
+
+"Toinon," she murmured; "thank Heaven, you are well again, my only
+friend!"
+
+The woman stood at the foot of the bed with crossed arms, slowly
+wagging a head shrouded in a silken handkerchief. Her robust figure
+loomed preternaturally large, her laughter was low and muffled.
+
+"Your only friend," she remarked gaily, "is safe under lock and key."
+
+The marquise sat up and surveyed the intruder with a look of fear,
+vaguely dreading something that was imminent.
+
+"Mademoiselle Brunelle!" she exclaimed, with a shudder. "You have
+dared to force your way into my bed-chamber?"
+
+"That have I," returned the ex-governess, affably; "for I have
+business here. There is a little account to settle."
+
+"An account?"
+
+"Oh! not money. There will be plenty of money by and by, no thanks to
+generosity of yours. I offered you the hand of friendship and you
+scorned it--I, who am the stronger, though for a time you obtained the
+mastery. You chased me with ignominy from the house--insulted and
+humiliated me by striving to drive me hence a second time. Do you
+think I am one to forgive? You made my life wretched, treating me as
+if I were a leper, out of jealousy of your nincompoop husband, as if I
+ever cared a fig for him! Now my turn has come. Insult for insult
+shall you have again. Vainly--you craven--will you implore mercy.
+There shall be none for you. I have made up my mind to take your
+place. You cumber the earth, you useless bit of trumpery, and this day
+shall rid us of your presence."
+
+"I never did you wrong. You know it!" Gabrielle said, slowly. Her own
+voice seemed strange, deadened by a singing in the ears. "On that
+score I stand acquitted." A curious fancy flitted through her brain
+and faded. In how brief a while might she be standing before another
+tribunal, to answer for the manner of her life?
+
+Mademoiselle Brunelle was provoked in that the arrows of her spite
+fell short. The craven did not sue for mercy. By the waxen pallor of
+her cheeks and lips, and the deep circles round her dark blue eyes, it
+was evident that the marquise was in mortal terror. Her aspen fingers
+twitched the bedclothes nervously; but she gave vent to no reproach or
+outcry.
+
+There was an impatient tapping at the door. Algaé moved swiftly across
+the room and opened it.
+
+"You may come in, gentlemen," she said. "Madame la Marquise is fully
+dressed, prepared to receive company."
+
+The abbé and the chevalier entered, the latter unsteady in his gait,
+and cowed. His dress was dusty and disordered; his hair and linen
+rumpled. It was evident that he had spent the night in drinking; for
+his bloated visage was flushed and inflamed with wine, while his mouth
+was convulsively contracted. His glassy eyes were red and swollen.
+Their whites showed yellow and bloodshot, as he turned them with
+wistful apprehension on his brother.
+
+Gabrielle saw in the abbé a new and altered man. There was about his
+aspect a steely look of uncompromising determination--a gleam of
+triumph, as of one who has toiled long, but sees his goal at last--a
+curl of cruelty about his thin tight lips, that stirred the hair upon
+her head. If the devil ever peered out of human windows he was looking
+down upon her now--so close, so close--looking down on the victim tied
+and bound, whose sacrifice he was here to consummate.
+
+"Dear Gabrielle!" Pharamond said with a diabolical grin. "How nice of
+you to be up and dressed, and so save our precious time. See here what
+we have brought you."
+
+The chevalier, who bore in one hand a silver chalice, had drawn his
+sword and ranged himself beside his brother in sullen silence, while
+Mademoiselle Brunelle remained by the door and turned the key in the
+lock.
+
+The abbé flourished a pistol, which he playfully pointed at the
+trembling figure on the bed.
+
+"Did you ever read English history?" he inquired. "No! The education
+of great ladies is sadly neglected. Know that there was once a fair
+creature as beautiful even as you, whose name was Rosamond, and a
+queen called Eleanor. The queen visited the fair one in her bower, and
+said. 'Here is a cup and here is a dagger, choose, for your time is
+come and you must die.' How sensible and to the purpose. See how
+generous am I, for I offer you three alternatives instead of two. The
+pistol, the sword, the poison. Make your selection quickly."
+
+"Die!" gasped Gabrielle, pressing her fingers to her burning brow, as
+she looked at each, turning restlessly from one to the other of the
+trio, seeking for a gleam of compassion, and finding none. "Wherefore?
+of what crime have I been guilty? You decree my death, and you inflict
+it--why?"
+
+"Choose," repeated the abbé with impatience, dropping his tone of
+banter. "Sodden oaf and fool, give me the chalice," he added,
+fiercely. "Your palsied hand will drop it."
+
+Indeed the chevalier seemed to be losing the control of his muscles,
+for he swayed to and fro, as one far gone in liquor. In his agitation
+his sword-hilt clattered against the metal buttons on his coat,
+perceiving which the marquise seeming to see a faint ray of hope,
+turned her pleading face to him in agonized remonstrance.
+
+"Phebus," she murmured, earnestly, "you once said you loved me, and
+tempted me to sin, and afterwards repented. You are not bad at heart.
+Your nature is not cruel and inexorable, and I am yet so young! Think
+of the memories you are raising now--a nightmare of unavailing
+remorse. Think before it is too late, of the clinging shirt of fire,
+which as the years progress will send you raving, and never may be
+shaken off!"
+
+"Enough, enough! It is settled," cried the abbé, "choose, or I will
+make the choice. In this goblet is no copper draught, since it appears
+you object to copper--a soothing decoction of delicious herbs, that
+grow beside the river. You are no botanist, I fear, or would have
+admired the pretty spotted leaf of the _[oe]nanthe crocata_, a useful
+plant without taste or smell, which possesses the additional
+advantage, when its work is done, of leaving no trace behind. You are
+so deplorably slow and undecided that I must choose for you. The
+[oe]nanthe, let it be, then, for it will neither stain your flesh nor
+mar your incomparable skin. You will lie with a peaceful smile, as of
+a pure unsullied babe who sleeps well and pleasantly, and drift gently
+on the stream of Lethe. Socrates, of whom, maybe you've heard, once
+quaffed a delicate tisane made of this self-same plant, and history
+avers that he enjoyed it very much."
+
+The abbé approached a step nearer, and held forth the goblet. The
+marquise recoiled, and half-numbed by a wind that seemed to blow from
+out of her open grave, clasped her hands wildly, crying, "Phebus, save
+me!"
+
+"You waste your breath," the abbé remarked, sternly. "His power of
+volition's gone, he is an automaton worked by me. Waste no more time,
+for we have much to do to-day. Drink, or he shall use his sword."
+
+Gabrielle, under the scrutiny of six pitiless eyes, took the chalice
+in her hands and drank.
+
+The abbé--determined this time to do his work effectually--perceiving
+a sediment left, gathered it carefully in a spoon, and bringing it to
+the goblet's brim, offered it once more with a courteous smile to the
+quivering lips of his victim. Then, remembering, he withdrew the
+spoon, and said, "No! the stalks and fibres can be traced."
+
+The victim lay panting on her pillows. The executioner remarked with a
+low bow, "We will leave you to make your peace with Heaven," and was
+preparing to withdraw when the marquise gasped out, "In Heaven's name,
+do not destroy my soul. Send for a confessor that I may die as a
+Christian should."
+
+"You forgot I am a priest," returned the abbé, smiling, "and now, as
+ever, at your service."
+
+Perceiving that she did not appreciate his merry conceit, for she
+covered her face with shuddering hands, he motioned to his brother to
+follow, and bade Algaé remain with the victim.
+
+"There will be much to see to," he observed, "for those who
+unfortunately perish of malignant fevers, must be speedily put away.
+Within an hour there will be delirium and giddiness, followed by coma
+and death. Keep the patient quiet, and make her comfortable. We will
+leave for Blois at midday, and meet the marquis on the road." With
+this he playfully executed another deep reverence, and dragging the
+chevalier after him, left the room.
+
+Mademoiselle Brunelle was enchanted that matters should at last have
+been brought to a satisfactory pass with becoming decorum. No
+ungenteel screaming, no bloodshed; only a palatable tisane which
+tasted a little like celery. In a few hours they would intercept the
+marquis on his ill-judged return, and when he knew that he was a
+widower, he would be as anxious as they to leave the neighbourhood.
+Events that seem untoward are often for the best. His sudden change of
+plans had driven the conspirators to promptitude. The tortuous and
+shilly-shally abbé had been compelled to action, and he had really
+acted very well.
+
+She glanced now and then at the figure on the bed, who lay as
+motionless as if all were already over, and walked up and down
+reflecting. What a provoking man the marquis was, who had to be served
+despite himself. Left alone, unpropped, he had tumbled down, the
+unstable creature; had repented, and was coming back to whine and to
+entreat and bite his nails in indecision. Well. No excuse for whining
+now. The die was cast. In a few days they would have crossed the
+frontier never to revisit Lorge. The jewels. They must not be left
+behind, since they were of exceeding value--love gifts from the doting
+maréchal, who deemed naught too good for his darling. There was a
+diamond parure somewhere, of purest water, which would become the new
+marquise amazingly. With greedy hands Algaé dived into drawers,
+ferreted in the cabinet of ebony, searched the silver knickknacks on
+the toilet table. Where were the jewels kept? Doubtless, in the
+garderobe on the opposite side of the corridor. Yes. Here was the
+bunch of keys labelled. Mademoiselle would be a veritable ninny were
+she to neglect her chance of reaping all that could be reaped. As the
+prospective wife of Clovis the jewels were her own or soon would be,
+and with this plaguy revolution going on, to leave France was to be
+condemned to exile. The property of _emigrés_ was confiscated. When it
+became known that the Marquise de Gange was dead, and the marquise
+flown, the state would pounce upon the chateau, and take possession of
+everything within it. It clearly behoved the second wife to rummage in
+the cupboards of the first. There was no time to lose. Casting one
+hasty glance at the bed, and perceiving no change, Mademoiselle
+hastily left the room in search of treasure.
+
+With fingers still clasped over her eyes Gabrielle lay still, each
+minute passage in her melancholy life flitting across her brain. She
+had distinctly heard the brutal fiat of the abbé. Giddiness, delirium,
+coma, death. Within an hour the symptoms would commence--to last how
+long? No sign as yet of giddiness. On the contrary, that cold gust
+from out the grave appeared to have stimulated her mind, quickening
+its action, magnifying each thought in crystal clearness. It would
+soon be over. The release for which she had prayed so long and
+earnestly was close at hand. Her fretted spirit would find peace--she
+would be freed from the corroding bonds of harsh humanity. Not five
+and twenty, and the world was beautiful. Now, that she stood on the
+threshold, on the point of closing the door which may never be
+re-opened, Gabrielle found herself filled with a strange longing and
+regret. She knew not that it was the force of young and healthy life
+that was bubbling up in protest. Hope would not thus be slain. An
+overwhelming desire to live arose and possessed her being. An idea
+that was new and draught with horror flooded her mind, and she sat up
+panting. Her children! Why had she not thought of it before? A reason
+for welcoming death had been that they would be the better protected
+by her flitting. But was it indeed so? Had not her mother deserted her
+in a grievous plight through selfish cowardice? Alarmed for herself
+she had fled with a pretence that all was well. A fitting guardian for
+two children, truly. How clear it was--how dreadfully clear! The
+conspirators would work upon her fears--obtain possession of Victor
+and Camille. By securing their fortune she had imperilled their lives,
+for those who could do her to death with such cold barbarity, would
+stick at nothing when they found themselves foiled by her precautions.
+She must not die. No, she must live--for their sakes! To stand between
+them and the fate they had prepared for her. She sprang from the bed,
+a prey to violent agitation. There was a singing in her ears--her
+temples throbbed as though they would crack in sunder. She reeled and
+clung to the curtain. Her throat was parched with thirst. Were these
+the first symptoms of the fatal draught? No. It was excess of emotion
+and anxiety that made her giddy. She would live--live--live--in spite
+of the executioners, and God would help, for her cause was holy!
+
+She was alone. Mademoiselle Brunelle for some reason had left her
+post. The marquise stole to the door, turned the key, gently shot the
+bolt into its socket. Then, grasping her long hair she forced it down
+her throat, inducing by irritation a violent sickness, which relieved
+her. But how to effect escape? Some one was already rattling the
+handle without--the deep voice of Algaé was shouting in imperious
+accents, "Open! Let me in!" Despair gave strength and courage.
+Gabrielle tore open the casement and got out upon the ledge. Below was
+a stone-paved courtyard; opposite, the outer wall, with the postern
+that gave on the pleasaunce. Was it locked? No matter. She wore the
+key of the new lock upon a bracelet. No time to think. With an
+agonized cry to Heaven for succour she leapt, but was held up for a
+moment by two strong hands, while close to hers was the face of Algaé,
+black and convulsed with fury. Mademoiselle, hearing a noise within,
+had rushed round by the boudoir, whose door the marquise had forgotten
+in her haste to lock. And now began a fierce and desperate tussle
+between the women, which, though neither knew it, was of infinite
+service to the victim, for it kept off drowsiness. Strong as she was,
+Algaé could not, cramped and strained, sustain the struggling weight,
+which escaped from her grasp and fell, while she loudly called for
+help. The patient was delirious--in madness had flung herself from the
+window and broken her bones upon the pavement. No. She rolled over and
+over, and was up again; and Algaé, grinding her teeth, seized one of
+the sculptured flower-pots of bronze and dashed it down at her. Sure
+the intended victim must bear a charmed life! She sped across the
+courtyard, succeeded in unlocking the postern, and emerged upon the
+garden moat.
+
+"Well!" muttered Algaé, with a philosophic headshake, "she is in a
+trap, for beyond the moat is a wall she cannot pass, and the gates are
+closed and guarded. It was stupid of me not to wait, and the abbé will
+be angry. Yet the fault is his, for he distinctly said 'an hour.'"
+
+Meanwhile, refreshed by the air and movement, the frenzied Gabrielle
+seemed to have wings upon her feet, as she clenched her hands and kept
+repeating with laboured breath, "I will live--live--live." Her mind
+was preternaturally clear--she could see with prophetic vision, and
+grapple with contingencies. She saw the wall and knew she could not
+pass it; guessed that the gates were guarded; but remembering a
+certain night, which seemed a century ago, when she had wickedly
+attempted suicide, she made with all speed for the end of the moat, at
+the spot where it joined the river. The wherry was there, swinging
+loosely and idly on its chain. She leapt into the boat and loosed the
+knotted links, and, accustomed to use the oars, impelled it across the
+river. By this happy thought she gained precious time, could take a
+short cut to Montbazon, and might yet be saved; for her pursuers,
+deprived of the boat, would have to make a circuit of a mile or more
+in order to reach the bridge. She would be saved--she knew she would
+be saved--and then there fell on her a cold and sickening fear.
+Her limbs were trembling. She was growing giddy; her sight was
+wavering--the sky looked brown and dark. Was she doomed to sink down
+and perish when escape was all but certain?
+
+She tottered along the path, and groping on for a few steps with
+outstretched arms like one struck blind, reeled and fell, moaning. The
+singing in her ears was deafening--like the howling of a hurricane
+through some dense forest; but through it she all at once heard
+something--a voice that was once familiar. Raising with an effort her
+heavy eyelids, she was aware of a man with a horse's bridle on his
+arm, who was supporting her and sprinkling water on her face. She was
+certainly growing blind as well as giddy. The man loomed unnaturally
+large, and seemed at one instant crushingly close, at another a league
+away.
+
+Grasping the strands of memory which, crystalline no more, was
+slipping, slipping, she knitted her brows in a wild effort to remember
+him.
+
+"As I'm a living sinner, 'tis the marquise," the man said, when he had
+recovered from his amazement. "Poor soul! In so terrible a plight.
+Only just in time, it seems."
+
+Jean! Jean Boulot! Gabrielle suddenly remembered, and tightly clutched
+his hand. "Jean--dear Jean!" she gasped. "Save me! I am poisoned, but
+I will not die; I must not, cannot die. They are in pursuit--will kill
+us both. Quick--for love of the dear saints--take me at once to
+Montbazon!"
+
+Jean pursed his lips, and frowned. "How like the wickedness of
+aristos!" he muttered. "It is time their evil brood was banished from
+off the world. Poisoned, you say, madame. What was it?"
+
+"Hemlock," she answered, faintly; "but I have got rid of most of it."
+
+"Hemlock," Jean echoed; "the children hereabouts often eat it, and are
+saved by tea and charcoal. Courage, madame, all will yet be well. One
+word more. What of Toinon?"
+
+"She is under lock and key," returned Gabrielle, "but safe, for in the
+hue and cry for me, her existence will be forgotten."
+
+Sturdy Jean Boulot mounted his horse, and supporting the marquise in
+front of him, made with all speed by the bridle path for Montbazon.
+
+He was as surprised as shocked, and blamed himself unreasoningly. He
+of all men should know the depth of enormity of which the noblesse
+were capable, for was he not always making speeches thereanent for the
+behoof of less enlightened lieges? Knowing how bad they were, he had
+abandoned the post of duty, for it was his duty to protect his love
+and the heiress of the family whose bread he had eaten from childhood.
+Why, knowing what she must know, had Toinon so long delayed to write
+to him? By an unlucky circumstance he had been sent on a mission to
+Tours. Hence, he had not got her letter till after many days; but,
+having read it, had started off forthwith. And Toinon was locked up by
+those miscreants! Perhaps they had murdered her as they had attempted
+to murder her mistress. First he must obey madame, and carry her to
+Montbazon. That was his plain duty. Then he would raise the peasantry,
+who were ready and trained to arms, and, if need were, storm the
+chateau. And woe to all of them if Toinon indeed had perished!
+
+
+
+
+                           CHAPTER XXVIII.
+
+                       THE BARON IS ENERGETIC.
+
+
+The wonder of the timorous inmates of Montbazon knew no bounds when
+they beheld Boulot--once gamekeeper, now formidable and obnoxious
+deputy of Blois--careering into their courtyard with a fainting woman
+in his arms; and astonishment was merged in dismay when Madame de Vaux
+recognzied the Marquise de Gange, who had been stricken down,
+according to report, by a virulent and malignant malady.
+
+Since, for some time past, the Seigneurie by common consent had dwelt
+in a condition of siege, it was only owing to the lucky circumstance
+of its being Angelique's fête-day that Jean found the gate unguarded.
+
+Things having quieted down somewhat--though not for long, as the
+Seigneurie knew too well, for public opinion was ever on the ebb and
+flow of mischief--it occurred to old De Vaux that this was the
+propitious moment to go a hunting. It was on the cards that the noble
+pastime of the chase might be stopped altogether shortly, and so he
+seized the opportunity to give a little party in his daughter's
+honour. Was it not unfeeling, then, to the last degree, that a
+neighbour who was not invited because she was infectious, should
+choose this precise moment for a morning call? The gentlemen were
+away, the ladies were sipping tea, _a l'Anglaise_, and munching
+biscuits, discussing the while the all-important topic of dress. Of
+course they would not demean themselves by donning the ridiculous
+garments of the Republic. The queen, poor martyr, was sitting in
+sackcloth and ashes while quaffing the cup of bitterness, and it
+behoved faithful subjects to don mourning. But then money was so
+dreadfully tight, and nobody had any mourning; and, besides, the
+truculent and abominable upstarts who ruled the roast might take
+umbrage at such eccentricity and be disagreeable; and when everyone's
+tenure of property and even life, was so precarious, it was as well to
+wear coats that would turn.
+
+This proposition had been put and unanimously carried, and everyone
+was getting on as nicely as possible, when, all of a sudden, killjoy,
+Jean Boulot, dropped from the clouds with his unconscious and
+fever-stricken burthen.
+
+Too anxious, and too full of contempt for the company to be polite, he
+strode sternly into the salon, and gently laying the marquise on the
+sofa, took summary possession of the teapot, while the frightened
+ladies stared.
+
+"There is charcoal, no doubt, in the kitchen," he said, quietly, "send
+for some, please, directly."
+
+Charcoal? Was the man crazy? Infectious, too, perhaps. How shocking!
+But it was not politic to offend one of the rising stars. Madame de
+Vaux rang the bell for charcoal, and waited for an explanation.
+
+Jean ground a piece of it with a poker, on the hearth, and dribbled
+the powder into the tea-pot. What devil's broth was he brewing? The
+man must be very mad. If the gentlemen would only return. Having
+satisfied himself with regard to the decoction, the deputy, instead of
+insisting that the baroness should drink it, carefully poured a few
+drops down the throat of the marquise, and presently she sighed deeply
+and opened her weary eyes.
+
+"She is saved!" he cried with satisfaction. "Now, ladies, if you can
+think of anyone except yourselves, complete the work. Ply her with
+draughts of this, and see that she does not sleep. She has been
+poisoned by two miscreants; but God has protected the innocent against
+their villainy."
+
+"Poisoned!" exclaimed Angelique, interested; "we were told it was a
+fever."
+
+"Villains who murder innocent women can also lie," retorted Jean in
+scorn. "This lady, I tell you, after undergoing endless outrage at
+their hands, which is noted above in detail, has been cruelly poisoned
+by the two half-brothers of her husband. Providence, in its
+inscrutable wisdom, has chosen me as the humble instrument of
+rescue--and also of revenge. As there are stars above us, those
+wretches shall be terribly punished. I go now to execute their
+sentence."
+
+The habit of leading others had made another man of Jean. He spoke
+simply, but with a stern native dignity that enforced respect. The
+ladies looked with awe on his tall retreating figure, about which
+there were none of the petty airs of courtliness, and never for a
+moment doubted that he spoke the truth.
+
+This poor, pitiful, dishevelled heap of soiled clothing was not
+infectious. The Marquise de Gange had been singled out as victim of an
+appalling tragedy, which, had it been consummated, would have set the
+whole province aflame with fury. What was he about to do, this
+formidable deputy? Pray Heaven he would not raise such a tornado about
+their ears as would bring ruin on an entire class. Given that many of
+the class had sinned grievously and often, that was no reason for
+confounding the guiltless with the guilty. The peasantry were so
+crassly ignorant and so oafishly benighted--so ready in these days to
+believe the worst--that they might choose to look on old De Vaux as an
+accomplice of the Lorge people, and wreak vengeance on him and his. It
+had not been his business to interfere in the private affairs of other
+persons, and had, moreover, been deliberately misinformed.
+
+His wife, as she turned it all over, grew very much alarmed and gave
+vent to shrillest jeremiads. What a stroke of ill-luck it was that the
+baron should have chosen this especial morning to sally forth on a
+fool's errand, leaving his family to be fooled by fickle Fortune! The
+baroness felt convinced that there was something dreadful imminent,
+and there was not a single male upon the premises. Even the tottering
+old domestics had gone forth to act as _piqueurs_. If the gentlemen
+would only return and settle what was to be done; but if they met with
+success in sport they would not be back till nightfall. Meanwhile, it
+was evident that the orders of the obnoxious Jean must be obeyed, and
+that the ladies must succour the marquise.
+
+Hark! What was that? Voices in altercation in the passage, and a
+screaming of terror-stricken maids.
+
+Hatless, with dress disordered and wild mien, Pharamond and Phebus
+dashed into the room.
+
+"Where is our darling Gabrielle?" the former cried in agitation,
+undisguised. "Poor soul! Poor suffering angel! She has gone mad;
+escaped raging through a window, distraught by the delirium of fever."
+
+Madame de Vaux was speechless from fright. The abbé whom she had been
+accustomed to see all smiles and compliments, wore the aspect of some
+malignant demon, as he eagerly scanned the company. His lips were
+bloodless, his pale face convulsed, while his brother mechanically
+followed his lead, like one under influence of Mesmer.
+
+Angelique, who was bending with solicitude over Gabrielle, turned on
+the pair, no whit afraid. "The Marquise de Gange," she said, "has been
+committed to our custody, and for the present will remain under our
+care."
+
+"Not so, not so!" replied the abbé, in vehement haste, "We will
+bear her home to the chateau. It would be unseemly to permit our
+sorely-stricken relative to be looked on by the curiosity of
+strangers. The poor soul raves, suffers from distracting delusions.
+You can see for yourselves that she is mad."
+
+"Mad or sane," returned Angelique, bluntly, "here the marquise stays
+until my father and the gentlemen return. She is exhausted and unfit
+to travel."
+
+Prudence! It would not do to offer too obstinate a resistance. Time
+must be gained by parley that the potion might do its work. Resuming
+with an effort something of his other self, the abbé bowed and bit his
+lip and scrutinized the patient.
+
+Why, what was this? The victim exhibited none of the symptoms that
+were to be expected. Yet the poison must have circulated long ago.
+Surrounded by ministering women, Gabrielle had recovered
+consciousness, and lay, clinging for protection to Angelique, gazing
+with dread upon her butcher. Inert and numb, her limbs, half
+paralysed, were moved with difficulty; but it was plain that the
+intellect was clear. Ere now, she should have been foaming in frenzy,
+or, that phase past, be plunged in the stertorous slumber from which
+she would wake no more.
+
+Intelligence shone from the haggard eyes of the victim. Had Providence
+worked a miracle on her behalf? Was she to escape him after all? A
+vapour as of blood swam before the sight of Pharamond and drenched his
+brain. With a fierce curse he drew a pistol from his breast, The women
+shrieked and implored mercy. Angelique, who was nearest to him struck
+the weapon up and the bullet lodged in the ceiling. In a whirl of
+frantic unreason he unsheathed his sword, and reckless now of
+consequences to himself, battled towards the marquise through the
+group of cowering women. There was that about him which suggested the
+red-eyed rat at bay that springs at the throat of his tormentor,
+inflicts what harm he can before he is crushed himself. Pharamond knew
+he was undone, and cared not, provided he might hack and slash that
+tender body which never might be his. The brave Angelique closed with
+him, and her fingers were cut to the bone in the effort to wrest away
+the sword. At the sight of her daughter bleeding, her aged mother sent
+up a scream and attacked the abbé with her nails.
+
+A hubbub in the courtyard--a clatter of many hoofs--a confused babble
+of voices. The hunters had returned in haste, for a rumour was
+speeding with swift wings, bearing over the land the fiery cross of
+vengeance--shouting of a tragedy at Lorge, which concerned the White
+Chatelaine.
+
+A woman's scream of agony--here at quiet Montbazon! What could have
+happened. M. de Vaux staggered, and dreading he knew not what, made
+for the salon as fast as his old legs would carry him, while a posse
+of country gentlemen remained on their horses irresolute. But not for
+long. Two frantic men with hair untied and streaming, and bloody
+swords in their hands, dashed from the salon window and endeavoured to
+escape out of the gate. Though it was hopeless to struggle against
+overwhelming numbers, they fought with clenched teeth the fight of
+desperation, but speedily found themselves disarmed, tied roughly back
+to back.
+
+"Grand Dieu! It must be true then!" exclaimed a booby round-eyed
+squire, for here was the suave and polished churchman by whose
+condescensions he had been wont to be flattered, torn by the passions
+of the beast, soiled with dirt and blood.
+
+The game was up--no doubt of it--but the abbé was not one to bow under
+adverse fate and play the penitent. How to explain away an onslaught
+upon women. The situation was awkward, but might even yet be brazened
+out, if the devil would only help, since, while there is life there is
+hope.
+
+"She is mad--quite mad--poor suffering soul," he mechanically
+murmured; "we came to take her home."
+
+Danger past, Madame de Vaux did what many a worthy dame has done
+before. She sank on a seat and fainted, while Angelique rapidly
+related the tragical details of the last half-hour.
+
+The baron's brow grew cloudy as he listened. A terrible scandal this,
+such as in more halcyon days would have caused a violent commotion,
+but which at a critical moment like the present might start an
+overwhelming conflagration.
+
+The hunting party had come upon a howling mob armed with such bucolic
+weapons as were handy, running along the road with incoherent threats.
+One who lagged behind was stopped, and being questioned, declared that
+he knew not what had chanced, but stout Jean Boulot was back again and
+furious, and that was enough for him. Under the circumstances it was
+prudent to return to Montbazon and resume the state of siege.
+
+M. de Vaux was a gentleman to the backbone, if not endowed with wits,
+and could in a moment of peril prove as calmly firm and quietly
+undaunted as the procession of Parisian nobles who were wearing out
+with steady and unflinching footfall the steps of the guillotine. He
+recognized the gravity of his position, but accepted it without a
+murmur, for it never should be said that the last baron of the house
+of de Vaux had blenched in face of duty. The Marquis de Gange and
+his villainous brothers had happily been baulked in an attempted
+crime--that the absent marquis was less guilty than the rest he was
+not prepared to believe; and if he, the baron, could help it, they
+should not escape their punishment.
+
+It was unlucky for him and his that the scene should have been
+transferred to his own tranquil hearth, for no good would accrue to
+the inhabitants of Montbazon by the sheltering of unsavoury company.
+Two of the peccant brothers were here, and here they should remain,
+_advienne que pourra_, until their unwilling host could hand them to
+the myrmidons of justice. If it could be prevented, there should be no
+lynch law at Montbazon. The miscreants had earned their doom, which,
+doubtless would be breaking on the wheel; and yet, who could tell what
+would be the lot of persons who were reckoned amongst the gangrened,
+and who were guilty of such heinous sin?
+
+The mob would learn ere long the facts of the case, and their fury
+would not be lessened by the discovery that the one member of the
+hated class whom they all revered for her goodness had been chosen as
+the intended victim.
+
+There would be a rush to Lorge, which would be found to be an open and
+empty cage, and after that there would be a scouring of the country in
+all directions in search of the dastardly criminals. They would be
+found here at Montbazon; there was no help for it, and the lord of
+Montbazon would loyally do his best to protect them from mob violence.
+But Montbazon was not a strong fortress like Lorge, which could afford
+to smile grimly down on a crowd of excited pigmies. The gates must be
+closed, and if the mob did come he would explain his just intentions,
+parley with and endeavour to persuade them.
+
+Cheerfully determined to obey orders, the young men of the hunt were
+closing the gates when a horseman dashed in at a gallop, and the
+exhausted beast sank panting on the stones. M. de Vaux looked up and
+sighed, and again commanded that the doors should be closed and
+locked.
+
+Here was the missing scoundrel, the marquis himself, as agitated as
+the other two. Verily the will of Heaven was startlingly clear, for
+the missing culprit had, of his own free will, delivered himself into
+the net.
+
+The eyes of Clovis fell on a group in the angle of the courtyard, and,
+blushing, he hung his head. His brothers, unkempt and bound, none the
+better for rough usage, tied back to back like common malefactors,
+while a young seigneur whom all three knew well was mounting guard on
+them.
+
+"M. de Vaux," he stammered, "things look black, I know, but I implore
+you not to condemn me in your mind unheard. I swear to you that I did
+not know of this. I was coming home from an absence due to business,
+and was as horrified as you could be when I was informed of the
+terrible story."
+
+"You will all three be broken on the wheel," was the pithy answer of
+the baron.
+
+The chevalier, with chin sunk upon his breast, saw and heard nothing;
+his weak brain was in a daze. But the abbé glanced quickly at the
+marquis and smiled with profound disdain. He had always felt for his
+elder brother a contempt so deep that it approached near to loathing.
+Worldly prudence alone had cloaked his feelings, for he knew him to be
+of the mean sort that, too feeble for independent action, will, while
+prating virtue, glibly accept the fruit of another's wickedness, or
+denounce him in case of failure. The aspect of this sorry apologetic
+craven acted on the abbé's nerves like a dash of refreshing spray. The
+old gleam glittered for a moment from under half-closed lids. He shook
+himself, raised his head proudly, and pointing a finger at Clovis,
+harshly laughed aloud--
+
+"Remember that, unluckily, we are related," he sneered; "and spare me
+this humiliating spectacle. We have all three played our game and
+lost, and must pay the stakes with resignation."
+
+"I assure you, Monsieur le Baron, that he lies malignantly," the
+hapless Clovis began; but his words died away in confusion, for his
+flesh quivered under the abbé's words and scathing looks as under a
+whip.
+
+"Believe him not," scoffed Pharamond. "We are guilty of lamentable
+failure, for which I am honestly ashamed, due in part to the
+pusillanimity of yonder cur; and failure, as we all know, is the one
+sin that never may hope for pardon. He knew perfectly well the
+intended programme, and having given his tacit consent was despatched
+on a mission, which he apparently has bungled, that we might not be
+hampered by his cowardice. We failed, as better and stronger men have
+failed, and I am sorry for the mistake. It would have been shorter and
+safer to have made away with him as well as his puling wife. Speak,
+chevalier--you are a drunken sot, but not a craven--is not this the
+truth?"
+
+Urged by the sharp elbow of his brother, lustily applied, Phebus
+raised his head and looked dreamily around; then saying simply "Yes;
+what you say is truth," relapsed into stupid reverie.
+
+The abbé was growing lively, for now, thanks to Clovis's ineptitude,
+he no longer played the ridiculous role. The marquis hoped to
+whitewash himself by steady lying at the expense of his more brilliant
+confederate. That should never be. None but a fool would have deemed
+such a _denouément_ possible. But for the advent of the new-comer,
+Pharamond might have stuck to his guns, and have adroitly wriggled out
+of the meshes of the law, delightfully pure and unsullied, though for
+a moment stained by calumny; for though the marquise had for some
+unaccountable reason recovered, there was nothing but her word for the
+absurd story of the goblet, sword, and pistol. Even had she died no
+trace of the herb would have been found. Mademoiselle Brunelle and the
+servants of the chateau would with one accord have sworn--as they
+aspired to an edifying end and a cosy seat in Heaven--that madame had
+suffered from a serious complaint, accompanied by delirious
+hallucination. That she was better now was in the nature of things,
+due partly to tenderest solicitude on the part of her affectionate
+family, and an additional proof, if any still were wanting, that the
+story of the poison was a dream. But Clovis, by his own dastardly and
+execrable meanness, had cut the ground from under the feet of the
+suspected trio; for the abbé had been goaded for once to forget
+himself and his own interests in order, with a pretty display of
+scornful protest, to inflict revenge upon another. In sober truth, the
+abbé felt outraged in his best feelings by the move of Clovis.
+
+Pharamond had confessed with easy nonchalance to an attempt of
+superior wickedness, and was rather flattered than otherwise by the
+silent horror depicted on the bovine countenances of the Seigneurie.
+They appeared to gaze, face to face, on the Satanic one, and were
+abashed by his unexpected propinquity.
+
+It was time the painful scene should end, for nothing could come of it
+but unworthy recrimination. Two had freely and publicly confessed, the
+third stood cowering like a beaten hound that dares not even whine. In
+every curved line of his bent figure there was confession.
+
+The baron observed gravely to the company assembled, "We are
+responsible, gentlemen, for the guarding of these persons, till they
+can be safely removed to Blois. For the present, if you please, we
+will lock them in the dining-hall, as the strongest and safest room."
+
+"By all means," exclaimed the abbé, heartily, "and I hope there will
+be something on the board. The good baron was always hospitable. Owing
+to press of _business_, hem! I had no time for breakfast, and vow I am
+plaguy hungry."
+
+It was a day of ill-luck and penance for our esteemed churchman, for
+no single wish of his was to be gratified, even in so small a matter
+as a meal. The three brothers were pushed with scant ceremony into the
+one imposing chamber of the chateau, whose walls were tolerably thick
+and windows placed too high for escape to be possible, and there they
+were left, gruesomely to contemplate one another, uncomely spectacle
+enough, for in truth, they looked like boon companions, whose night
+had been spent in orgies. The abbé was so blythe in the knowledge that
+his fate was sealed, and that he had in his recklessness given himself
+as it were with his own foot, the final kick out of the world, that he
+overflowed with amiability.
+
+To behold Clovis, the selfish and heartless, the superficially
+plausible scientific humbug, sobbing like a woman, with tears
+showering through dirty fingers, was a joy and a triumph, for whatever
+might befall the abbé though only a half brother with no prospect of
+ever blossoming into a full-blown marquis, he never, no, never, under
+any stress whatever, could fall so low as this grovelling male Niobe,
+who had been privileged by Destiny to wear the glittering thing called
+coronet. Not that that particular covering was in vogue as a
+fashionable hat just now, but the absurd era of topsyturvydom, would
+no doubt be smothered shortly by somebody with an uncompromising will
+and iron fist, and the saturnalia of plebeian folly be suppressed.
+Then coronets would rise in the market again, and this gibbering thing
+would come strutting back from exile--a worm on end--with other
+emigrants, to enjoy again the sweets of life. He would be free and
+rich, while his brothers bore the brunt. He would possibly speak now
+and again with reticence of his unfortunately shady family
+connections, who had tried to commit murder in his absence, and swear
+with seraphic gaze fixed upon æther, that he was well quit of such
+surroundings. Ah! It was a satisfaction to think that a sturdy spoke
+had been placed in the wheel of the heaven-bound chariot, which had
+brought it down to earth with a thump, as helpless as a hamstrung
+horse. If the half-brothers were to bear the burthen of their
+misdeeds, so should the elder one. He should not escape scot-free.
+"If," swore the abbé to himself, "we are to be broken on the wheel, as
+de Vaux so genially suggests, the only boon I will crave shall be that
+Clovis the coward shall suffer first, and that I may be present as eye
+witness." Such being his somewhat decided views with regard to the
+head of the family, it was rather odd that he should be so agreeable
+and frolicsome and, metaphorically, skip around his brother.
+
+After a while, the contemplation of the weeping Clovis and the dazed
+Phebus became irksome, and there being no signs of prospective
+breakfast, Pharamond turned his attention to another matter.
+
+"Tell me," he demanded of a sudden, "why did you delay at Blois so
+long, and what brought you so quickly home?"
+
+"The testament was useless," answered Clovis, sulkily. "While we were
+yet in Paris, she saw through your plans and took measures to render
+them abortive. Such plans! We are undone--I, too--through your
+presuming and insensate folly."
+
+"She did!" exclaimed Pharamond, clasping his hands in admiration.
+
+"She solemnly declared that she knew her life to be in peril--that if
+ever she made another will, it would be under compulsion, and arranged
+for some private mark to show that this was so. Justice was put on the
+alert, and I came back in hottest haste to stop your action, but
+arrived, alas! too late."
+
+"She did that? the crafty, cunning baby-face!" cried Pharamond.
+
+"I ought to have known," growled Clovis, with rueful self-reproach,
+"that reserved baby-faced women are always cunning. But I trusted
+so much in you as to allow myself to be persuaded, and now I am
+undone--undone!"
+
+In spite of his discomfiture, the artistic instinct of the abbé could
+not but keenly appreciate the still long-suffering woman who had
+braved and circumvented him. And they had all been stupid enough to
+look upon her as a foe unworthy of their steel. That they should have
+done so was due to one of the many errors in judgment of the
+abominable Algaé. Well, well--she was a wondrous creature, as well as
+a beautiful. Gifted with second sight, had she been able to foresee
+what precise poison he would employ and provide herself with an
+antidote? Hardly. Therein lay a mystery.
+
+Meanwhile, conjectures fill no stomachs, and nature was beginning to
+assert herself aggressively. It was brutal of the baron to starve his
+cage-birds. To play with his brother, or to snarl and gird at him was
+mighty well as a pastime, but it grew more than annoying that, after
+the hints that had been thrown out, the baron should be so
+disgustingly inhospitable.
+
+By dint of straining and muscular artfulness, the two, who had been
+unwillingly made one with ropes, managed to escape from their bonds;
+and the abbé persuasively arguing through the keyhole, endeavoured to
+coax the guardian marching without to discuss the question of food. It
+was barbarous to lock three men in a room and leave them to starve,
+specially when it had been pointed out that there had been no time
+that morning to partake of even the lightest refection. Is not
+_déjeuner_ the most important meal in France--now as in the past; and
+is it not deliberately fiendish to place famishing humanity in a
+dining-hall without the necessary and expected adjuncts? It had
+nothing to do with the case that the engrossing _business_ which had
+engrossed the early hours had been to supply a lady with a special
+breakfast for which she had no appetite. At any rate, she had been
+provided with a breakfast of a sort, and that she didn't like it was
+beside the question, for is it not well known that capricious ladies
+affect to live on butterfly wings and flower nectar--rare victuals
+that cannot always be supplied--while here were three ravenous men who
+had gone through much emotion and were proportionately empty, and who
+would be content--nay, grateful--for a commonplace, vulgar,
+substantial paté and a bottle of sound Burgundy. Thus the sportive
+abbé through the keyhole, whose sallies received no response.
+
+By and by the monotonous tramp in the stone passage ceased; hasty
+footsteps hurried away--there were muffled cries and exclamations,
+followed by--it could be nothing else--a volley of musketry. There was
+something going forward, then, that was serious. The abbés humour
+changed from banter to gloomy wrath, and a sensation came over him
+akin to that which Gabrielle had experienced in her bedchamber. He
+would not die--no--he would live! But how? He ground his teeth and
+gnawed his fingers with a baffled sense of degrading helplessness.
+Here was he, an unappreciated genius, whose wits were as nimble as
+ever, who was prepared to start off at a tangent on any project which
+promised to bring grist to his mill, incarcerated in a place intended
+for festivity, from which there was no outlet, and in which could be
+found no crust of bread or glass of water. The windows were
+inaccessible, the oaken door locked without. But the sentry was
+withdrawn, which was something; and three men, strong and young,
+should shame to lie down content to wallow in the mud and groan.
+Something of a serious and important nature was going on outside, as
+could be judged by the noise. If the door could be forced in the
+confusion, the muffled sounds of which were evident to acute ears,
+what should prevent successful evasion even at this eleventh hour?
+Clovis was strongly built, the thews and broad shoulders of Phebus had
+ofttimes been a subject for sport--and there the two sat like waxen
+effigies, both refusing to be roused. In his exasperation Pharamond
+seized Phebus by the shoulders and shook him like a sack, but the
+latter merely opened his watery eyes for a moment and then blinked
+them to again like one who has done with daylight. As for Clovis, the
+gorge of his brother rose, and he exhaled himself in ingenious curses.
+If there was a hell, to which both were bound, a large item of his
+punishment would consist in his brother's presence as a neighbour.
+
+Oh! It was too bad--too bad! There was some commotion going on
+outside--a rush of feet, a shouting, a calling out of names--something
+or another that occupied the entire attention of the garrison. The
+three of them, if they would exert united strength, could, with a
+portion of yonder massive dining-table, easily force the door, since
+the hubbub outside was sufficient to distract attention from any noise
+within. The door forced, they could lose themselves in the crowd. The
+smiling world would be open. Life--precious life--would commence
+again. And there the two idiots crouched--the one in a daze, the other
+drowned in unavailing grief--while the golden moments dripped. At
+thought of what ought to be, and that which loomed as more likely to
+obtain, Pharamond was devoured by an access of the old frenzy, which
+earlier in the day had toppled over reason, and tore in idle impotence
+at the ponderous table with his delicate white hands till the blood
+gushed from beneath the nails and his lips were white with foam.
+
+
+
+
+                            CHAPTER XXIX.
+
+                           NOBLESSE OBLIGE.
+
+
+The baron's apprehensions were soon justified. Having placed his
+prisoners under lock and key, he hastily assembled the gentlemen in a
+council of war, explaining his fears and difficulties. The peasantry
+would, of course, be wild with indignation, and, all things
+considered, there was plenty of excuse for excess. It was as though
+some one had deliberately flung a lighted fuse into an open barrel of
+gunpowder. Montbazon could not withstand a serious assault, for it
+consisted of an agglomeration of clustering rooms, chiefly built of
+wood and plaster around a small stone pleasure house in the centre. Of
+course, there was a courtyard with imposing gates, necessary adjuncts
+to the dignity of a dwelling that called itself a chateau, but, in
+sooth, the walls were thin and tottery--more suitable for the support
+of pear trees _en espalier_ than for withstanding an armed attack.
+Duty must be done, however. The Seigneurie of Touraine would one and
+all be smirched with the disgrace, if members of their order were
+handed over without a struggle to the vengeance of bucolic bumpkins.
+No doubt, no doubt--all the gentlemen agreed, but those who had
+brought their womenfolk over with them to enjoy this ill-omened fête
+day were unable to mask their anxiety. The peasantry all over France
+had, during the last few years, been guilty of raids upon the
+chateaux, had pillaged some, burnt others, inflicted outrages on the
+inhabitants. Was it likely that, though their province had hitherto
+been quieter than most, the people, justly exasperated by a dreadful
+crime, would hearken to the voice of reason? It was, of course,
+right and proper that the marquis and his brethren should be fairly
+tried and sentenced, but really---at least, so thought one of the
+assembly--it would be better to abandon them to their fate than risk
+the safety of the ladies.
+
+His neighbour, who was given to seeing things in an unpleasant light,
+shook his pate and sighed. "You forget," he said, "that these
+mooncalves neither think nor reason. They are buffeted by impulse, led
+by the nose by the first comer. Whether we give up the culprits or no,
+they will want to retaliate on all of us. It is class against class,
+and has been all along." This was true enough, and gloom descended on
+the company.
+
+"What they will do," suggested one of the party, "will depend upon the
+man who is their leader."
+
+There was the case in a nutshell. When the people arrived at
+Montbazon, the Baron de Vaux must interpellate the leader, and be
+guided by that person's attitude.
+
+The distance between the two dwellings was so short; the rustics had
+spread helter-skelter in so many directions, that the movements of
+their betters were rapidly ascertained. One party, which had made for
+Lorge, found the gates wide open, the mansion apparently deserted, and
+were about to prosecute the search elsewhere, when Jean Boulot
+appeared upon the scene, declaring that his love was a prisoner. A
+further search was made, and lying in her bed they found Toinon, a
+prey to stony despair. Brave girl as she was, she had given way to
+despondency, for what could two women do against such a close and
+small-meshed network of foes--absolutely friendless and forlorn?
+
+But here was Jean at last, faithful and true, at the head of a
+rabblement. With a cry she fell upon his breast, and sobbed there as
+if her heart were broken, while he thanked Heaven for her safety.
+
+The servants had one and all decamped with such valuables as were
+easily carried. There was no sign of Mademoiselle Brunelle. To linger
+here was wasting time. Somebody had seen the abbé and the chevalier
+spurring like maniacs in the direction of Montbazon. "To Montbazon--to
+Montbazon," was the general shout, and as the crowd moved rapidly
+thitherward, its numbers were each moment augmented by newcomers armed
+with scythes and staves, who each had something to tell. The Marquis
+de Gange had been seen galloping to Montbazon, the baron and many of
+the Seigneurie also. Montbazon, by will of avenging Providence, had
+become a vermin trap which was full, and, please Heaven, not one
+should escape.
+
+Deputy Jean Boulot did not approve of such sentiments. To yell "Ça
+Ira" in discordant chorus--to gambol in the mazes of a dance which
+bore some distorted rustic resemblance to the Carmagnole--these were
+safe and harmless outlets for feverish activity. But honest Jean had
+the cause of the people too deeply at heart to allow his adherents to
+disgrace it. Before reaching Montbazon, therefore, he got on a great
+stone in the middle of a field, and harangued his little army. He
+would have no unnecessary violence, he roundly declared. Whatever the
+conduct of the towns had been, the country parts of Touraine had been
+conspicuous for decency. Unless his hearers promised to obey, he would
+shake the dust from off his feet and leave them. The three wretches
+had been delivered by God into their hands. The sovereign people
+should do what they chose with the at-present-offending vermin, but
+the innocent should be protected. The de Vaux family knew nothing of
+the tragedy, had instantly succoured the suffering marquise, when he,
+Jean, had placed her under their protection, and it would be an evil
+and disgraceful thing if their reward was to be the destruction of
+their property. The people hearkened and applauded. Brave Jean, honest
+clearheaded Jean, an honour to the province, and to France! Of course
+he should be obeyed, provided he did not strive to shelter his late
+master. "Ça ira, Ça ira! Quick, quick, no more delay." Jean looking
+round was satisfied, for with Heaven's help, he saw his way to save
+Montbazon from pillage.
+
+It was with some relief that on mounting by means of a ladder to the
+top of the gateway, and surveying the vast seething sea of heads
+below, and the forest of glinting scythes, the baron beheld a man come
+forward whom he had personally known for years. He had disliked the
+man, and somewhat dreaded him for his treasonable preachings to the
+rustics. "A dangerous firebrand," he had always declared, "who will do
+a deal of mischief;" but as the sanguinary chronicle of history
+unrolled itself, marked with many smears, he had been compelled to
+admit that the whilom gamekeeper in authority at Blois had shown both
+discretion and forbearance. A Collot d'Herbois or a Marat might have
+headed this vast concourse. There was hope in the fact that the
+presiding chief was one who could listen to reason.
+
+"I am sorry to see you, Jean Boulot," the baron began, curtly, "at the
+head of a menacing throng. Are you here as a patron of grave-diggers?"
+
+"You know what we are here for, and what we justly demand," returned
+Boulot, as shortly.
+
+The sturdy knave! A queer dignity sat upon him like that which is worn
+by a successful general who has risen from the ranks.
+
+"Demand! H'm!" echoed the baron. "A strange word as addressed by you
+to me."
+
+"Citizen! You are foolishly playing with the lives of all within your
+walls," Jean said, earnestly. "Do you think to terrify us by striking
+an attitude draped in the ragged frippery of your rank? A word from
+me, and a thousand scythes will cut your baron's robe to ribbons. Look
+around. The news is still spreading. The indignant people are rushing
+hitherward. If in your folly you delay too long, they may pass beyond
+control."
+
+"Do you war with your thousand scythes against a bevy of innocent
+women?"
+
+"No. We protect them when we can against the wickedness of the
+Touraine nobility."
+
+The baron bit his lip. He was not gaining ground.
+
+"Speak plainly. Tell me what you want."
+
+"I demand the instant delivery to me of the three miscreants you are
+harbouring."
+
+Some of the gentlemen who had crowded up the ladder to hear the
+colloquy began to shift uneasily and murmur. "The man is right," one
+whispered--"far more sensible than I expected."
+
+But the baron had no intention of giving way--of bending before a
+rustic.
+
+"You ask what I cannot grant," he replied, haughtily. "I cannot
+deliver nobles to the canaille."
+
+The clustering throng that pressed about Boulot were losing patience.
+"These aristos are infatuated," one yelled, with threatening fist.
+"You are wasting breath, Boulot. The vile insects must be crushed
+wholesale."
+
+"Have a care!" Jean cried, in warning. "If innocent blood is spilled,
+Baron de Vaux, the crime will be on your head. Insolent vaunting words
+fall back on those who launch them. We are honest men, and----"
+
+"Are you?" scoffed the baron. "You said just now that you protected
+women. You prate now of innocent blood; the blood of our ladies is
+destined, I presume, to join that of the Princesse de Lamballe and the
+rest?"
+
+"I did not think that even the Seigneurie would seek to shelter behind
+petticoats!" cried Jean, with rising choler.
+
+"Impudent varlet!" cried the baron, losing temper. "I would fain
+shield a bevy of women from massacre. Does the canaille decree their
+slaughter?"
+
+Toinon had kept close to Jean, at whom she gazed with gladsome eyes,
+and a hectic spot of excitement upon either cheek.
+
+"If you love me, Jean," she whispered, "let the women pass. Our
+chatelaine, remember, is among them."
+
+Boulot reflected for a moment, and the advice seemed good. "I made a
+demand just now," he said, "which I see that those behind you consider
+just, and you treat me and this assembly with insult. Learn that the
+canaille can teach such as you a salutory lesson in behaviour. That
+the lives of many ladies are at stake gives us an immense advantage,
+but more generous than you we are prepared to waive it. Bring forth
+your women folk. Under my own charge they shall be conducted to a
+place of safety, the chateau of Lorge hard by. After that I will
+return, and man to man, repeat my just demand. If you then persist in
+refusing it, I shall wash my hands of the results."
+
+An important point was gained, and there was a movement of relief
+among the gentlemen. But stiff-necked old De Vaux could not bring
+himself civilly to accept a boon from what he considered the low scum.
+
+"I rejoice," he said, gruffly, "that you should save yourself from the
+stigma of slaying women. We take your word that your mob will remain
+without and that the ladies shall pass unharmed. But I suppose you are
+not such a fool as to expect that I shall give up the marquis and his
+brothers?"
+
+"This man who stands beside me, alas, is right," Jean replied,
+sternly. "Your vulture class is infatuated and doomed to ruin, and
+calls down its own destruction. The besotted arrogant nobles must
+indeed be crushed--trodden down wholesale."
+
+"Sir, you forget yourself," stiffly remarked the baron.
+
+"A last warning! You are playing with both property and life."
+
+"Advice from you? Merci! A peasant Jack in office!"
+
+"I would save you if I could, but you are as vapouring and saucy as
+the rest."
+
+The gentlemen within disapproved highly of the conduct of old De Vaux.
+What he deemed heroic--worthy of a Bayard or a Conde--they considered
+stupid and imprudent. What was to be gained by angering this man with
+so vast a concourse at his back? Some of the country squires, audibly
+expostulating, pulled at his legs and coat tails, to end a foolish
+colloquy.
+
+The baron, therefore, brought his ill-timed taunts to an undignified
+conclusion, and declared that if the mob would make a way the ladies
+were ready to come forth.
+
+Boulot removed his hat and bowed, and the baron, not to be outdone in
+the outward forms of courtesy, removed his own with a flourish and
+performed a low obeisance.
+
+Meanwhile those at the back of the far-spreading throng who, unable to
+hear, considered that there was too much parleying, waxed savage. Was
+an hour to be wasted over a simple negociation which should not occupy
+six minutes? The deputy from Blois was being cozened, was not
+displaying sufficient firmness, was reprehensively lacking in
+decision. The women backed up the men, and, convinced by their own
+cackle, were garrulous. They were unanimous as to storming the place,
+displaying to the world by a signal example that the people were the
+real masters whose will was to be obeyed. Then there was a sway, and a
+scuffle, and a hubbub, as those in front were pushed back as those
+behind, and the wooden gates revolved upon their hinges. The
+miscreants at last! Ah! Now for it! Every hand was eager to take part
+in the coming vengeance--the trio should be torn into such tiny shreds
+that they should seem to have vanished into air. There was a forward
+rush which recoiled upon itself. Those who pushed behind could not
+comprehend what was passing. Some twenty trembling women of the
+superior class, judging by their flaunting garments, were being
+marshalled two and two, and Jean Boulot at their head on horseback was
+exhorting the people to make way. A long, low, growl of angry
+disappointment swept like a wind over the concourse, which might have
+swelled into a menacing roar, followed by the mischief of a hurricane,
+if a diversion had not been caused by the forlorn appearance of the
+White Chatelaine of Lorge, moving with obvious effort supported by her
+faithful foster-sister. How changed she was--how sadly wrecked her
+beauty. Her big long-lashed blue eyes wore the startled look of one
+who has seen a horror--the pupils were prominent and fixed--her motion
+was that of an old old woman partly paralysed. Her haggard features
+bore an eloquent impress of what she had undergone, and there was a
+pathos in her wandering groping movement that drew sobs from many a
+breast.
+
+"There she is--there she is," passed from one to another in an
+awe-stricken whisper. "God bless her, poor martyr! The kindest,
+noblest woman in all the country round!"
+
+Some, remembering kindly acts, stooped to kiss her robe as she
+tottered by--a mother whose dying infant she had saved by timely
+help--a wife whose husband she had tended.
+
+It was well that Jean headed the cortège, exerting all his wit and his
+authority to force a safe passage for the timid cohort. There was a
+rough fellow with a cart of firewood, who, from his eminence,
+contemplated the spectacle, broadly grinning. He and his cart Jean
+requisitioned, and packed the more weakly in it, for it occurred to
+him that the progress to Lorge would be far from rapid, and that he
+was leaving a dangerous element behind.
+
+What an odd scene the open space in front of Montbazon presented when
+Jean and his cortège were out of sight.
+
+Being fairly pulled down from his heroic eminence by disapproving
+hands, De Vaux had mopped his brow, though the weather was chilly,
+observing, "For a peasant, he's remarkably advanced. If all were so
+reasonable--but no--that is ridiculous."
+
+The ladies gone, their husbands and brothers asked their host what he
+proposed to do. Sentiment was sentiment, and all that, and duty,
+doubtless, was duty; but then there are a variety of ways of reading
+duty, which is not to be confounded with Quixotism.
+
+Stout-souled De Vaux, who, in his excitement, felt quite young--wholly
+oblivious of a sciatic nerve--declared doggedly that he would not give
+up the miscreants. That peasant fellow was so amenable to argument on
+the part of a superior, that, on his return, he, the superior, would
+condescend to illuminate the situation. He would affably deign to
+explain that he could not for a moment pretend to approve of the trio.
+The point of their dreadful wickedness was conceded. But he, De Vaux,
+could not, and would not, hand them over to lynch law, and it was,
+without a shadow of doubt, the duty of the Deputy of Blois to assist
+him in upholding the law. He, Jean Boulot, being so amenable to
+sensible argument, would at once fall in with his views. As he had
+escorted the ladies to Lorge, so would he succeed in piloting the
+baron and his prisoners to Blois, where, with decorum and order, the
+latter would be delivered to the authorities, that Justice might
+fulfil her office. To the baron it was as clear as ditchwater, and he
+was as steadfast as obstinacy could make him, ignoring the remark of a
+seigneur that this particularly enlightened peasant had made it a
+_sine quâ non_ that the culprits should be handed to him.
+
+"Oh, pooh! pooh!" laughed De Vaux, quite enchanted with the success of
+his diplomacy. "When I insisted that the women should go out, he gave
+way at once, and will again."
+
+It did not occur to him that the idea was Toinon's, and that Jean had
+given way to her.
+
+"It may be necessary," went on the baron, "to make a show of force--to
+make it understood, I mean, that we are not to be terrorised by
+that useful implement, the scythe. You will please load your
+fowling-pieces, gentlemen, and we will let them understand that we
+have gunpowder."
+
+And so it came about that when the doors opened for the ladies'
+exodus, a glint was seen of muskets which fairly exasperated the
+crowd. If muskets, why not concealed cannon? The firebrands who had
+stood near to him during the colloquy, were dissatisfied by Jean's
+moderate tone and perfect temper. He had said a harsh thing or two,
+certainly; but should not have allowed that pouter-pigeon fool to
+suppose that he had made a score. The latter had retired in somewhat
+undignified fashion, pulled by leg and coat; but his feathers were all
+out notwithstanding, and he assumed the airs of a cock that was master
+of his dunghill. Now this was manifestly absurd. The mob had but to
+raise its myriad horny hands, and over would go the dunghill burying
+the cock. Why that display of firearms? The baron had without a doubt
+got the better of honest Jean; he had cheated him and achieved thereby
+an invaluable period of delay, during which his domestics were
+probably throwing up earthworks or doing something nefarious to baulk
+the sovereign people.
+
+If this was the feeling in the front how much more did it dominate the
+rear. Jean's strong personality withdrawn--the White Chatelaine's
+piteous figure gone--those who had wept tears became the most frantic
+for vengeance.
+
+The females became m[oe]nads, and loudly taunted the males. Reports
+filtered from the front with the usual distortion, to the effect that
+the garrison had gained time by shrewd diplomacy, for running up works
+of defence; that Jean on his return would be laughed at; that the wily
+baron would snap his fingers in his face. A rumour even rose, nobody
+knew how, that there was a secret subway leading somewhere, and that
+the miscreants were at this very moment effecting an escape, laughing
+in their sleeves at the pursuers. And the sovereign people was to
+remain inactive to be fooled before all Europe? How the fugitive
+_emigrés_ would laugh when the three ruffians joined them, and
+explained their clever ruse!
+
+"Jean Boulot is too straight and upright," some one declared "to deal
+with such slippery cattle. When he returns anon, let him find the work
+accomplished. If he does not approve, he can say with truth, that he
+had nothing to do with the matter; but, if I mistake not, right sorry
+will he be to be deprived of his share of vengeance."
+
+A squire was unlucky enough at this juncture to crawl up to the
+ladder-top, drawn thither by idle curiosity, and to miss his footing
+there. The fowling-piece in his hand struck the coping of the gateway
+and went off. A yell as of two thousand maniacs pealed heavenward.
+"They have fired on the sovereign people," rose in a mighty shout; and
+with one accord the sea that had been lashing quietly towered in a
+huge wave, encompassed the chateau and overwhelmed it. It was one of
+those sudden things which, like the phenomena of earth, strangles the
+breath and leaves men palsied. When the ground rocks and yawns in
+fissures, and the mountains tumble and the forests fall in heaps,
+lookers on can only marvel. The luckless denizens of Montbazon had
+scarcely time for that. The gun discharged by accident acted as a
+signal. For an instant the gates groaned and rattled under a rain of
+missiles. The walls were black with human atoms who swarmed and buzzed
+like flies, coming on and on in myriads. The seigneurs huddled
+mechanically together in a small knot, and fired one futile volley ere
+they were trodden under foot. A young fellow, bleeding from a deep
+gash inflicted by a scythe, leaned for support against an angle, and
+in answer to a question as to the brothers' whereabouts, pointed in
+the direction of the dining-hall. Ere his life-blood ebbed away, he
+saw with dimmed sight three wavering figures tossed hither and
+thither, like corks upon a boiling stream--was aware of a whirl of
+feet ascending a winding stair, amid yells of "à la lanterne,"--of
+three writhing human creatures dangling at the ends of ropes.
+
+Jean Boulot, hieing back from Lorge, was alarmed by a strange light
+and a curious sound of menace like the distant shouting of vast
+crowds. When he reached the open, from whence the chateau was visible,
+he pulled his horse up sharply. The concourse he had left so
+quiescent, were dancing like fiends around a mighty bonfire. Montbazon
+was aflame from end to end. Its wooden tenements had caught, and
+blazed like touchwood. As he gazed tranquilly upon the lurid
+spectacle, the ropes that held three black masses swinging aloft in
+space were licked by forked flames and parted, and the figures dropped
+into the furnace that seethed white hot below.
+
+"God's will be done!" Jean muttered. "They have well merited their
+fate."
+
+
+Winter and spring went by. The king was dead; the queen lingered yet
+in the Conciergerie. Jocund summer-time had come round again, and a
+quiet group clad in deep mourning enjoyed the balmy air in the
+secluded moat-garden of Lorge.
+
+A tall lady on whose still beautiful face were ploughed hard lines of
+suffering, was contemplating with a subdued smile of settled sadness,
+the romps of two children on the green.
+
+"Angelique!" she called in mild reproof, "you must not let them tire
+you;" whereupon an old lady sitting close at hand leaning on an ebony
+crutch said, "Let be. It does me good to hear Angelique laugh again
+after that awful day."
+
+"Hush!" replied Madame de Gange, "you must not brood over that
+misfortune. The baron died as a French noble should, in doing what he
+believed to be his duty. Montbazon is rising from its ashes, a much
+more commodious dwelling."
+
+"Thanks to your liberality," sighed Madame de Vaux, "but I can never
+endure to live in it."
+
+"Nor shall you," returned Gabrielle, quickly. "We settled long ago
+that you and Angelique were to make your home with me."
+
+There was a silence, while the ladies reviewed the past, which had
+been so terrible a nightmare to both. Then Madame de Vaux, drying her
+eyes, observed, "How strange it is that the baleful woman was never
+after heard of."
+
+"Nor my jewel-case," replied Gabrielle, slyly. "I doubt if those
+stolen gems will bring good fortune to the thief!"
+
+
+
+                               THE END.
+
+
+
+                          *   *   *   *   *
+         SIMMONS & BOTTEN, PRINTERS, LONDON.   _G. C. & Co_.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
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+<title>Maid of Honour. A Tale of the Dark Ages. Vol. III.</title>
+<meta name="Author" content="The Hon. Lewis Wingfield">
+
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+
+Project Gutenberg's The Maid of Honour  (Vol. 3 of 3), by Lewis Wingfield
+
+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 Maid of Honour  (Vol. 3 of 3)
+       A Tale of the Dark Days of France
+
+Author: Lewis Wingfield
+
+Release Date: February 13, 2012 [EBook #38854]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE MAID OF HONOUR  (VOL. 3 OF 3) ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Charles Bowen, from page scans provided by Google Books
+
+
+
+
+
+</pre>
+
+
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<p class="hang1">Transcriber's Notes:<br>
+<br>
+1. Page scan source:<br>
+http://books.google.com/books?id=hxFLAAAAIAAJ<br>
+<br>
+2. Errata listed at the end of the printed edition have been inserted at the
+appropriate place in all volumes.</p>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<h2>THE MAID OF HONOUR</h2>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<h1>THE MAID OF HONOUR</h1>
+<br>
+<br>
+<h2>A Tale of the Dark Days of France</h2>
+<br>
+<br>
+<h5>BY</h5>
+
+<h2>THE HON. LEWIS WINGFIELD</h2>
+
+<h5>AUTHOR OF<br>
+
+&quot;LADY GRIZEL,&quot; &quot;THE LORDS OF STROGUE,&quot; &quot;ABIGEL ROWE&quot;<br>
+
+ETC.</h5>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<h4><i>IN THREE VOLUMES</i></h4>
+<h4>VOL. III.</h4>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<h4>LONDON</h4>
+<h3>RICHARD BENTLEY AND SON</h3>
+<h3>Publishers in Ordinary to Her Majesty the Queen.</h3>
+
+<h3>1891</h3>
+<br>
+<h5>[<i>All Rights Reserved</i>]</h5>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<h5>TO</h5>
+
+<h2>WILLIAM HENRY WELDON.</h2>
+<br>
+<h3>A TRIBUTE</h3>
+
+<h3>OF OLD FRIENDSHIP.</h3>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<div style="margin-left:25%; margin-right:25%">
+<h2>CONTENTS</h2>
+<br>
+
+<h3>CHAPTER XX.</h3>
+
+<p class="normal"><a name="div1Ref_20" href="#div1_20"><span class="sc">Diplomacy.</span></a></p>
+<br>
+
+<h3>CHAPTER XXI.</h3>
+
+<p class="normal"><a name="div1Ref_21" href="#div1_21"><span class="sc">The Spiders Spin.</span></a></p>
+<br>
+
+<h3>CHAPTER XXII.</h3>
+
+<p class="normal"><a name="div1Ref_22" href="#div1_22"><span class="sc">Domestic Cookery.</span></a></p>
+<br>
+
+<h3>CHAPTER XXIII.</h3>
+
+<p class="normal"><a name="div1Ref_23" href="#div1_23"><span class="sc">A Passage of Arms.</span></a></p>
+<br>
+
+<h3>CHAPTER XXIV.</h3>
+
+<p class="normal"><a name="div1Ref_24" href="#div1_24"><span class="sc">Madame de Brèze is Nervous.</span></a></p>
+<br>
+
+<h3>CHAPTER XXV.</h3>
+
+<p class="normal"><a name="div1Ref_25" href="#div1_25"><span class="sc">Will the Sword Fall?</span></a></p>
+<br>
+
+<h3>CHAPTER XXVI.</h3>
+
+<p class="normal"><a name="div1Ref_26" href="#div1_26"><span class="sc">Will Jean Boulot Come?</span></a></p>
+<br>
+
+<h3>CHAPTER XXVII.</h3>
+
+<p class="normal"><a name="div1Ref_27" href="#div1_27"><span class="sc">The Decks are Cleared for Action.</span></a></p>
+<br>
+
+<h3>CHAPTER XXVIII.</h3>
+
+<p class="normal"><a name="div1Ref_28" href="#div1_28"><span class="sc">The Baron is Energetic.</span></a></p>
+<br>
+
+<h3>CHAPTER XXIX.</h3>
+
+<p class="normal"><a name="div1Ref_29" href="#div1_29"><span class="sc">Noblesse Oblige.</span></a></p>
+</div>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<h1>THE MAID OF HONOUR.</h1>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<h2>CHAPTER XX.</h2>
+
+<h3><a name="div1_20" href="#div1Ref_20">DIPLOMACY.</a></h3>
+<br>
+
+<p class="normal">It was a matter of imperative necessity to beat down at once the
+protecting barriers within which the victim had ensconced herself, and
+here was the first difficulty to be conquered. It was evident that
+Gabrielle's written ultimatum called for a reply. At the suggestion,
+Clovis fairly winced. Was he to grovel in the mud, and accept her
+humiliating terms? Never! And in writing, too! He would rather cut off
+his hand. What did Providence mean by creating marquises unfurnished
+with necessary adjuncts? Are not fowls provided with plumes and polar
+bears with fur? Why for years had the purse yawned for him, and then
+suddenly shut itself up? Not the purse exactly, for there existed that
+hateful allowance, which he would never, never soil his fingers with;
+but the marital authority and position which go with unstinted means!
+They had both shrivelled away, and the Marquis de Gange smarted as if
+he had been tarred and feathered. What would people say when the last
+whimsey of the chatelaine leaked out? She posed as a martyr, but took
+good care to protect herself against martyrdom. And what was the awful
+grievance? That the exigencies of his scientific studies (of which she
+was too ignorant and stupid to know aught) required the professional
+assistance of a diplomaed disciple of the prophet, and that the adept
+selected by the prophet chanced to be a woman! Was ever anything so
+low and paltry as this ridiculous assumption of jealousy? Had he,
+Clovis, ever made love to Mademoiselle Brunelle? Never. Delighting in
+like pursuits, they were dear and trusted friends after the manner of
+male friendship, and none but a base nature could take umbrage at such
+an alliance.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Judging from her absurd precautions of changed locks and newly-opened
+doors, the martyr seemed to consider herself in peril--evidently meant
+the country to suppose so. Her husband was an ogre--a roaring
+Fee-fo-fum--would by and by serve up her tender limbs on toast, with
+rich and luscious gravy. The abbé might argue till he was black in the
+face, but if Mistress Gabrielle could be haughty, so could he. He
+declined to answer the letter.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Dear me! a scandal!&quot; objected the abbé in distress, &quot;an inevitable
+scandal! Might his attached and ever-devoted brother go forth and play
+the ambassador?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Pharamond might do what he deemed right, on the clear understanding
+that the head of the house would not consent to anything that should
+hold him up to ridicule.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Armed thus with maimed powers, Pharamond went on his mission. He had
+almost traversed the length of the long saloon, ere Gabrielle, looking
+up from her embroidery, beheld the intruder. The blood rushed to her
+face, then slowly ebbed. They would not accept her terms, then, but
+would force their presence on her?</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Bidding the girl and boy who were romping on the floor, to retire to
+their school-room, she laid her work upon the table, and with crossed
+hands waited.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Madame must try and pardon this intrusion,&quot; began the abbé, meekly,
+&quot;because it could not be avoided. I am here to speak, for my brother
+would not write, and it is rude not to answer a letter. Will madame be
+so courteous as to hear me out?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Gabrielle, after a moment's reflection, pointed to a seat, but
+Pharamond shook his head.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Madame does not accept me as a friend,&quot; he observed, drily, &quot;so I
+have no desire to stay a moment more than I'm obliged.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;A friend? Who has never done me anything but harm!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Are we to discuss all that again?&quot; he replied. &quot;You have yourself
+admitted, more than once, that you owed much to me, and yet you
+compelled me by your own conduct reluctantly to withdraw what I had
+given.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;You do well to remind me!&quot; returned Gabrielle, swelling with
+contempt. &quot;Your terms of peace were that your brother's wife was to
+become your mistress! You are right to stand. Say what you have to
+say, and quickly.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I have, in the first place, to point out to Madame la Marquise the
+result of her present course of action. Does a wife, think you, gain
+in the world's esteem by constantly insulting her husband?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I have never insulted my husband.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Not by making a fool of him before all his class--by treating him
+like an ill-bred child, that may not be trusted? By driving him from
+beneath the roof which should be his?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;What?&quot; ejaculated Gabrielle, amazed.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;That is what you have done, and, believe me, the world will be
+against you, however plausible a tale you may invent.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Is he going away?&quot; faltered the marquise, beginning to see the
+position in another light.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Is it probable that so proud a man would stay to be made the
+laughing-stock of all Touraine? Of course not. Beggary were better
+than such deep disgrace as that. His name is yours, and yet to your
+own shame you wilfully drag it in the mire. We are all going away, so
+you will have your chateau to yourself, and when we arrive in Paris it
+is you who will be the laughing-stock.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Going away! How will you all live?&quot; asked the marquise, pondering.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Expelled from the home that should have been our brother's, the
+chevalier and I will return to Montpelier. The marquis will retreat to
+Spa, and take service with the mesmerists. He will be happy there in
+congenial society, for though very poor, he will be freed from dread
+of insult.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Gabrielle was bewildered. She was being held up to herself in the most
+natural manner possible, as a tyrant, an insulter of the poor, in whom
+dwelt neither justice nor compassion. It was not true, she knew that
+right well; but perhaps without intent, she had been harsh. Yet
+no--with a remembrance of the crowning outrage of that woman's return,
+came renewed courage.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The abbé concluded he had gained a point and followed it swiftly with
+another thrust.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Madame will excuse me, if I remark that she is given to
+hallucinations, such as are common in hysterical subjects. She suffers
+from delusions, invents charges against her sorely-stricken husband,
+which at expense of his private feelings must be rebutted. His
+position having been rendered untenable by his wealthy wife, he is
+compelled to leave her house, and in doing so refrains from the one
+punishment which lies within easy reach. If he chose, he could remove
+his children, but he will not, for he has learned with pain that one
+of madame's chief delusions is that she has herself been divided from
+her offspring. That he may not be placed in the wrong, by any more
+such idle fancies, he consents to sacrifice himself, and will leave
+them with madame <i>for the present</i>. I think I have followed all my
+instructions, and with madame's permission will retire.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The abbé who had spoken with dispassionate calm, made a low reverence,
+and without looking at the lady moved slowly down the saloon. Would
+she call him back? No. Better to leave her to chew the cud of bitter
+and perplexing thought. The arrow was planted, and now would fester.
+Toinon would surely appear with another letter in the evening. His
+fingers were on the door handle when a low, sad voice called, &quot;Abbé!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Did he hear aright? He turned with manifest reluctance. &quot;Madame
+deigned to speak?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Yes. Come back, I pray you.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">With a slight but eloquent shoulder shrug of deprecation, the cunning
+churchman moved up the saloon again, very slowly, as if under protest.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Madame would wish to know,&quot; he asked, &quot;how soon she will be quit of
+us? Alas! we must crave indulgence, for my brother's scientific
+instruments will take long to pack. They are brittle and expensive
+articles which, under the new conditions, he could never afford to
+replace.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The marquise was visibly troubled, and the abbé had some ado to keep
+his countenance. The man was a human chameleon, and poor Gabrielle had
+not the weapons wherewith to smite such animals. His manner was so
+staid and stern, yet meek withal, that she could scarce believe that
+it was over this same passionless face that she had seen pass and fade
+dissolving views of such deep-dyed iniquity. Was this the satyr who
+had inflicted scorching kisses; who had by turns cajoled and brutally
+threatened her--the man of whom she had grown to be mortally afraid?
+He had just held up for contemplation a portrait of herself, which,
+though hideously distorted, was like. But was it? It was, and yet it
+was not. He had made her out a monster.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">So they were going away and would leave her in peace with the
+children? How unexpected a <i>dénouement</i>. It never entered the simple
+head of Gabrielle to suspect that the man was lying. Proud as she was
+herself, she could understand and appreciate, and even applaud the
+feeling which preferred independent poverty to gilded bondage. And she
+had meant so well in what she had done! But put as it had just been,
+it did seem wrong to make a husband--even a bad one--so dependent. A
+man dependent on a woman is always a subject for ridicule. Woman
+governed by her feelings is so easily misled!</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Ah me! Permit me to moralize for just a minute. Why is it that the
+more angelic we are--the more ready to moult our earthy plumage--we
+should be the less fit to combat those of earth? The more guileless
+and innocent a woman is--quite fit to soar aloft with newly-sprouted
+wings--the more abjectly pitiable a victim. Perhaps it means that
+earth should be left to the earthy, and that angels have no business
+here at all.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The marquise, while arranging bolts and barriers was quite under the
+impression that she was a martyr, that a menacing sword was dangling
+overhead which would fall and pierce her skull, and now she was
+told--and there seemed some truth in it--that she had been carried
+away by imagination. According to the abbé she stood convicted of
+hysteria! If their method of showing displeasure took the form of
+retreat with bag and baggage, leaving her the solitary mistress of the
+field, how could she be in danger? They would leave presently,
+declaring that the heiress had flung her money in their faces in so
+vulgar a fashion that self-respect compelled departure. Draped in the
+picturesque dignity of rags, they, not she, would wear the auriole of
+martyrdom--a consideration as new as disconcerting. It was
+satisfactory to find that Clovis, bad as she knew him to be, could be
+so proud. There must be much latent good in a selfish man who, to
+shield his manhood from smirching, will cheerfully abandon flesh-pots.
+His wife had calculated (and justly, too) that though he might whine
+and grumble, he would accept any conditions which did not withdraw the
+comforts which made life worth living. His wife fully intended that he
+should have ample means to play ducks and drakes with, but, surrounded
+as he was by a bad <i>entourage</i>, he must not be permitted to be master.
+And, lo and behold, he snapped his fingers at the money, and elected
+to wear the rags!</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Rapidly reviewing the situation, Gabrielle's heart warmed in a tepid
+manner to the man whom she had wrongly read. She approved the attitude
+he had assumed, but could not allow him to retain it.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The abbé had rightly appraised the exceeding generosity of her nature
+and had played on it. When she called him back he was pleased to mark
+how clouded was her brow, how shaken was her fixed resolve.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Clovis has judged me harshly,&quot; she observed. &quot;I never wished to drive
+him from his home.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Things were going well. The outraged one was apologizing for her
+conduct.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Que voulez-vous!&quot; replied the abbé with a shrug. &quot;He has my full
+approval. It is not well to place an honourable man in a false
+position.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Nor an honourable woman either,&quot; aptly retorted the marquise.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;That brings us to the burning question,&quot; said the abbé, drawing a
+step nearer, in his earnestness. &quot;The fault, if fault it was, was
+mine, not Clovis's, and I am prepared to bear the blame of my own
+actions. A little more blame or less,&quot; he added, lightly, &quot;cannot make
+much difference, since I know you consider me a demon. That is all
+dead and buried--blown away and done with.&quot; By a graceful gesture the
+churchman blew away the past. &quot;It was I who brought back Mademoiselle
+Brunelle for prudential reasons, which I admit humbly now were
+unjustifiable. I thought your objection to the lady was founded on her
+interference in the nursery and nothing more, and, as you know, she
+quite understands that in future she has no place there. If your
+memory serves you, you will remember my pointing out once that a man
+like Clovis requires to be led by a woman. You could not or would not
+lead him--that is your affair; and I felt convinced that we were
+fortunate in his having a leader whose relations with him were
+platonic. What if, deprived of her, he had pitched on an affinity of
+exactly the opposite stamp?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">This was true also. Gabrielle felt that it was.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;As it is by your line of action you lead the world to suppose that
+you deem them guilty, and you know as well as I do that although she
+once talked nonsense in bravado, they are innocent. You drive us from
+the house and we go. Need I remark that mademoiselle goes with us?
+Thus you accentuate the suggestion of impropriety which you are aware
+does not exist, instead of showing by your behaviour that you are
+satisfied of the innocence of both.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Do you think to persuade me,&quot; asked the marquise, with sad wonder, in
+which was a tinge of bitterness, &quot;to accept the woman's presence? The
+son of the Church calls for too lavish a display of Christian
+charity.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I call on you for nothing,&quot; returned the abbé, meekly, &quot;since in a
+week we shall be gone. The scandal of disruption will lie with you; we
+are not responsible.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">So the man persisted in proving her to be in the wrong!</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I do not desire that you should go away, and I will admit that I have
+been precipitate. What does Clovis want? I am ready to do all I can to
+meet his views, but he must not suppose that I will accept that
+woman.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The marquise's barriers were tottering. Even the abbé had not expected
+that she would show such feebleness of purpose. His point of
+refraining to strike at her through her offspring, by removing them,
+was cleverly imagined, and had told. Would it be prudent to administer
+another stroke now, to attempt by a vigorous charge to carry the
+citadel at once, or would it be wiser to wait? It would not do to
+present the appearance of taking too much upon himself. Clovis must be
+forced to come forward and play his part. The ground was well
+prepared. The wife felt compunctious visitings, and so the husband
+might say his say without loss of dignity. The abbé resolved,
+therefore, that it was time for him to retire into shadow. So he
+echoed quietly, &quot;What does he want? Nothing, since as you yourself
+wrote, 'all is over.' When you first propounded the notion to me, I
+knew he would not forgive that testament.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">So that was at the bottom of it all. Who could have guessed that a
+dreamy man, wrapped in scientific mists, should so hotly resent an
+infringement of marital authority? She appeared to have wandered
+unwittingly so far into the thicket of error, that it seemed vain to
+grope after the right; and yet, as she repeated to herself again and
+again, she had meant so extremely well!</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The presentiment was proved to be idle wind, since they were all ready
+to go without a struggle. Had not M. Galland declared it to be due to
+morbid fancy? The scandal of an open separation must be avoided for
+the children's sake. What answer could she make to Victor when, grown
+to manhood, he asked why his father was a beggar? The proposed exodus
+must be stopped at all hazards. What if the white-robed marquise were
+to dabble the hem of her skirt in the mire of deception for a little,
+or, to put it more nicely, make use of diplomatic arts? Supposing that
+she were to allow herself to be persuaded into cancelling the will,
+had she not arranged for the contingency? The unlucky will had somehow
+produced the worst of effects upon the marquis, and there could be no
+possibility of peace till that question was set at rest. The idea of
+so deceiving her husband, brought a guilty tingle to her cheek, but
+there seemed no other way to cut the knot. Infatuated as he was with
+the woman who had behaved so abominably, and had made her life so
+wretched, she would never really consent to leave the future of the
+darlings in his hands; but might she not pretend to do so? A signature
+with a cross appended would speak for itself. For the sake of future
+harmony, it might be judicious to appear to give way. Though it is
+naughty to do wrong, we all know that the naughtiness becomes a virtue
+when it is clear that it will result in good. Raising her deep blue
+eyes to meet the abbé's, she remarked that she would consider all that
+he had said, and let him know her decision later.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Pharamond bowed. &quot;Decision--on what point?&quot; he inquired.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Oblige me,&quot; replied the marquise, &quot;by requesting M. le Marquis to
+leave things as they are until he hears again from me.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The interview had been most satisfactory, and Pharamond's face beamed
+as he went down the staircase. What an admirable inspiration that had
+been about their enforced departure, with bag and baggage--and with
+Aglaé! And how easily the poor soul had tumbled into the specious
+snare. And then he laughed aloud at the fancied picture of Clovis in
+his poverty. That he of all men should sacrifice his comforts! Before
+his marriage with the heiress, he had been used to a measure of it,
+but since he had lain on roses, their perfume had become a necessity.
+Moreover, his own heavily-cumbered estates were in one of the most
+turbulent provinces, where landlords might whistle for their rents.
+Were he in sober earnest to resign his position of prince consort,
+black bread and a garret would be his fate. To think that Gabrielle
+should be so hoodwinked! What was she going to consider? and how long
+would she be about it?</p>
+
+<p class="normal">As Clovis listened to his brother's report, he rubbed his nose in
+perplexity, glancing askance at Algaé, who nodded her head in
+approval.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;She will come to her senses, and all will be well,&quot; declared that
+lady. &quot;She will know that the vulgar <i>intriguante</i> is a poor,
+harmless, humble friend of milord's, who only asks for the opportunity
+to forgive. Va! I bear no malice to jealous mad women. She hunted me
+away with ignominy, yet did I not clasp her to me afterwards? It was
+for monsieur's sake, for whom he knows I would spill my blood, I
+forced myself to do so. What is she to me? Except for your sake,
+nothing!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Clovis bit his nails to the quick as he walked about the room. That
+she had changed her mind was well, but would she not insist upon some
+conditions which he could not, as a man, accept? He was not going to
+kneel in the dust. They must all make up their minds to that. He was
+ready to meet her half-way if she would promise to behave better in
+the future, but as to any more school-boy treatment, he would submit
+to nothing of the kind.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">It was pitiable to see the weak, unstable man fluttering in borrowed
+plumes, blown out with a proud conviction in his heroic strength of
+character.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Monsieur!&quot; cried Algaé, in her rolling tones of thunder, &quot;oblige me
+by sitting down. Since I was so disgraced here, my nerves are not what
+they were. Clovis, I was going to say--&quot; she added, with a great roar,
+clapping her large hands together in guileless glee--&quot;Monsieur le
+Marquis and I,&quot; she went on needlessly to explain to the abbé, &quot;are
+such <i>bons camarades</i> that if I was not conscious of lowly descent,
+and in terror of the jealous mad woman, I should almost think I was
+his sister! But, oh! mon Dieu, what rashness! If the servants were to
+hear me call him Clovis, and report the awful delinquency to the pale
+nun upstairs, what shrieks and screams! When saints condescend to
+human frailties, they are very much like other mortals.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Always call me Clovis. I insist on it,&quot; observed, with benign
+authority, the bird in borrowed plumes.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Algaé, with one of those impulsive movements, which in so massive a
+woman were charming, because unexpected, jumped up and kissed the
+marquis's hand, and pressed it to her bosom. &quot;Clovis. To me always
+Clovis--when we are alone with the abbé,&quot; she murmured, gratefully,
+&quot;but not in public--for your sake. Since you are so kind--so
+kind--cannot I put up with annoyance from the nun? So far as I am
+concerned, accept all, and any of her conditions. If she drives me
+forth again, I can take up my residence at Blois, which is not so very
+far, and you will sometimes come and see me.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Algaé was vastly improved. With delighted admiration Clovis had, since
+her return, become assured of it. Her spirits were more airy, her
+humour more refined; and she fairly bubbled over with good nature, and
+she never made remarks now that were unpleasantly pithy. What an
+advantage large women have over small ones! It is given to the small
+to be querulous and vixenish. The large and stout ones are conspicuous
+for indulgent charity, You rarely find them speaking ill of their
+neighbours. Clovis was quite convinced that Algaé was a dusky pearl,
+and blamed himself severely for mistrusting her at the time of the
+attempted suicide.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Gabrielle was not long in coming to a decision. Having been admittedly
+precipitate, and having looked at things from their worst point of
+view, it was her place to show generosity. What could she lose by
+falling in with the wishes of the men, and making a new will to please
+them, which, in the event of her death, would be no better than
+waste-paper? Since Clovis could show a proper pride, such as became
+his rank, it would not be well to torment him. It had been a noble
+trait that in the same breath, he should have proposed to retire from
+the scene, and yet not distress her about the children. Supposing he
+had gone, along with Algaé, and had taken the dear ones with him?
+Legally, she would have had no remedy. It never should be said that he
+could be more generous than she. The baleful woman whose evil spells
+had wrecked her content must go, of course; but she should be allowed
+to take her time, and not be expelled violently, as before.
+Ostensibly, she had come on a visit. Let her remain for a week or two
+longer, and quietly withdraw. No harm would be done. No scandal would
+arise. The acute incident would be closed, giving way to a prospect of
+tranquillity.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">His wife sent a short note to the marquis, begging his attendance in
+the boudoir. He made a wry face, for it was terribly like a
+schoolboy's summons to receive a flogging.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">But Algaé, the large-hearted, placed her brown hands upon his
+shoulders and shook him amicably. &quot;You are indeed a child, my Clovis,
+and deserve the flogging!&quot; she said, cheerily. &quot;Fi donc! A gentleman
+obeys a lady's bidding. Would you have her come down here and sing
+peccavi before me, whom she detests? Infant! go to her and make it up,
+and if she proposes stipulations about me, be sure to accede to them
+all.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Clovis obeyed with a bad grace, and entered his wife's boudoir with
+the sorry air of a malefactor who pleads guilty--a condition that was
+not improved by the dignified courtesy of his reception. With a serene
+smile, Gabrielle bade him sit by her side.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;We seem doomed to have misunderstandings,&quot; she sighed; &quot;and I am fain
+to confess that the blame is equally divided. I unwittingly offended
+you on a money question. I often wish that there was no such thing as
+money.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The exordium was promising, and Clovis plucked up his spirits. With a
+polite bow he remained silent.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;What would you have me do?&quot; she asked.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Release me from the possible prospect of being held up to ridicule by
+my children.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;It shall be done--upon conditions.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Ah! There were to be conditions then? The anger of the marquis rose.
+His face assumed so sullen an expression that Gabrielle felt less
+compunction as to her pious fraud. Such men as her husband and his
+brother were not fit to have the custody of children; as to that she
+had no doubt. When she proceeded to explain that he might send for a
+notary, and she would sign another will on condition that a certain
+person undertook to withdraw from the circle, Clovis could scarce
+contain his passion.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">When the maréchal's solicitors had forced him to obedience it was bad
+enough--but now--to receive peremptory orders from his wife! He was
+not such a ninny as to be taken in by the little sop. That Algaé was
+to be allowed to stay on for a week or two just to keep up appearances
+made no difference. He had chosen to engage a female secretary and
+helper concerning whose relations with himself there could be no
+suspicion in any healthy mind, and he was to be deprived of her
+assistance in his work through a morbid and unworthy suspicion.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;What if I refuse?&quot; he said, sulkily. &quot;You will play the martyr, I
+suppose?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I will place the matter before the Seigneurie and magistrates of
+Blois,&quot; Gabrielle quietly replied. &quot;The line they counsel I will
+take.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The wrath of the marquis boiled over. His hands shook, and his fingers
+twitched as though he would like to strike her.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;You will do that?&quot; he muttered, harshly. &quot;You will wash our linen in
+public to make me a fool before the province? You will deliberately
+create a public <i>esclandre</i> at so dangerous a moment?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Alas!&quot; returned his wife, mournfully, &quot;the scandal is made by you.
+All I ask is to be treated with respect. Rid me for ever of her who
+has been the shadow across our path, and I will carry out your wishes.
+Refuse, and I will seek the protection of the Seigneurie, who shall
+arbitrate between us.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I will return you a written answer,&quot; Clovis said, abruptly rising and
+making for the door. He could not and would not be ordered thus to
+part with Algaé; and yet he was sorely anxious for the cancelling of
+the hateful document. He was not capable of steering his bark alone
+among rocks and shallows, but must seek counsel from the others. They
+were awaiting him, and in a white heat of vexation he poured out to
+them his woes.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Mademoiselle Brunelle laughed merrily, directing sly looks of
+intelligence at the abbé, who frowned over his brother's shoulder, and
+pursed his lips.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Appeal to the Seigneurie, indeed! It was well to know of such a
+project in order to circumvent it. Clovis had been awkward and
+unskilful; and he, the abbé, must assume henceforth more openly the
+command of operations. Inopportune stiff necks are productive of no
+end of worry. Why could not the silly zany have done as he was bid,
+have accepted every suggestion, leaving further action to the others?
+The all-important object was to secure a proper will, and that point
+gained, both Pharamond and Algaé were well aware of what the next step
+would have to be. Clovis, the shilly-shally, must henceforth be
+excluded from a hand in the management of affairs. The lucky fellow
+should reap his share of profit by and by without the sweat of labour.
+His abortive interview with his wife had produced one good result. He
+was more than ever exasperated against her, and swore, with needless
+oaths, that he would never look on her or speak to her again.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;In that he must please himself,&quot; Pharamond remarked with
+indifference; &quot;but he must take up his pen and write. If he would
+cease fretting and fidgeting, and sit down, his obliging brother would
+dictate, and the epistle should be of the shortest. Would mademoiselle
+kindly listen and suggest, since for her there were no secrets?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The letter placed an hour later in the hand of Gabrielle ran thus:--</p>
+<br>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;<span class="sc">Madame</span>,--Your instructions shall be obeyed. I have sent to Blois for
+a notary.</p>
+
+
+<p style="text-indent:20%">&quot;Your affectionate husband,</p>
+
+<p style="text-indent:30%">&quot;<span class="sc">Clovis.</span>&quot;</p>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<h2>CHAPTER XXI.</h2>
+
+<h3><a name="div1_21" href="#div1Ref_21">THE SPIDERS SPIN.</a></h3>
+<br>
+
+<p class="normal">How provoking and how unfair to be called upon to drag out the years
+of our earthly pilgrimage during so stormy a period as this one! With
+unexpected bombshells exploding at one's feet, what was the use of
+sketching elaborate schemes which accident would most likely shiver?
+The abbé had already been obliged to change his tactics several times
+in consequence of untoward circumstances, and now from a clearing
+heaven there rained down missiles whose unexpected proximity sharpened
+his ire. &quot;Why was I born so late?&quot; he asked himself with muttered
+curses. &quot;Under Louis XV., <i>le Bien-Aimé</i>, everybody did what they
+liked, provided that his majesty smiled. And if his own fancy was not
+thwarted, that monarch must have been much addicted to smiling, for he
+found the world a pleasant place. And now, just a few years later,
+there seemed to be not such a thing as a smile left anywhere. They had
+been so lavishly showered by the <i>bien-aimé</i> and his lotus-eating
+coterie that the stock was completely exhausted, and humanity had to
+put up with execrations as a substitute.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Each time that a courier arrived with intelligence of what was passing
+in the capital, the male occupants of Lorge shuddered, guessing that
+the news was bad. Bad, forsooth! The ball set a rolling was tearing
+down the hillside with such velocity that the sight thereof took away
+the breath.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Old de Vaux, grateful ever to the marquis and his affinity for their
+treatment of his sciatic nerve, came riding over with crumpled
+gazettes in his pocket, his eyes goggling in his head. If the whitened
+locks upon his pate had not been artificial, they would have stood up
+on end. &quot;What are we all coming to?&quot; was the burthen of his wail. If
+the world was coming to an abrupt conclusion, why did it not perform a
+dignified smash and vanish into vacuum in smoke, instead of first
+permitting that over-rated creation, man, to show what a base thing he
+was?</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Smash! Paris, beautiful Paris, had come to smash. From a paradise it
+was become a pandemonium where all that was best and noblest was torn
+by devils' pincers.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Sciatica? Oh, yes. It was charming well, thanks to the delightful and
+indefatigable pupil of Mesmer and the enlightened marquis. A pair so
+good as they would certainly be canonized--so would the prophet.
+Madame and Angelique were as disgusted as the baron, but sent kindest
+messages to all. Would they allow their patient to unfold the latest
+budget?</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Then the old gentleman would drone out before a long-suffering but
+apparently appreciative audience the result of his private
+lucubrations, and pour forth as well those of his lady and of
+Angelique. The seigneurs, he declared, must select the strongest
+fortress in the province, arm and victual it, and thus secure from the
+scum, look out for better times.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Of course, the crescendo of Parisian sinfulness found its echo, of
+fluctuating intensity, in the provinces. The timorous old baroness and
+her daughter preferred their garden to possible insult on the roads.
+Moreover, there was little to be gained by visiting at Lorge now. The
+marquise since her return from the capital, had been vastly frigid and
+stand-off--a stuck-up piece of goods. It was certain, now that she had
+her fabulous possessions in her hands, that a mere country noble's
+family were too contemptible to touch. It was equally clear that the
+oaf who was called chevalier had no honourable intentions, and that it
+would be more than imprudent to place so chaste a specimen as
+Angelique within reach of his brandy-laden breath. And so it came
+about that the only neighbours of the fair sex in the vicinity visited
+less and less at Lorge, and that the old baron when he trotted over on
+his prad, looked as a matter of course for the society of the
+mesmerists to whom he owed so much, and ceased to ask to see the
+chatelaine.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Not understanding her, the baron had always been frightened of
+Gabrielle--one shade less than of the abbé. Strange! When that
+gentleman first came among them, the baron and all the booby squires
+voted him the most charming of acquisitions. Now, somehow, he was to
+be avoided as much as might be, for his tongue was sharp and his wit
+scathing, and he was no respecter of persons. The abbé would sometimes
+take up the old gentleman in his claws, as it were, toy with him as
+cat does with a mouse, till he was bewildered and breathless; then
+turn him inside out with a gesture of contempt, and fling him aside.
+This was terribly disrespectful to a Vaux of Vaux, but it certainly
+was a fact, whose enormity was only revealed by slow degrees, that the
+abbé was not averse to treating a Vaux de Vaux (with a thousand
+quarterings) as if he were no more than a puppet. Having arrived at
+and digested this stupendous fact, it stood to reason that the baron
+disliked the abbé as much as he dared; but, at the same time, the
+counsel of that ghostly man was so worldly-wise; he was so respected
+by the mesmerists, appealed to by them on every occasion as an oracle,
+that in moments of startling difficulty such as were now of frequent
+occurrence, it was only natural that the baron should amble over from
+Montbazon to crave the oracle's advice.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">A budget, indeed! Almost every day was stamped by some inconceivable
+event. History was making up for casual napping by a spell of feverish
+haste. A catalogue of years was crowded into weeks. The poor old globe
+was spinning round so rapidly that it would certainly be shot out of
+its orbit, to the annihilation of the insects on its surface.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">When, six weeks after their arrival in the country, the incidents of
+the tenth of August reached far Touraine, the cunning abbé had the
+gazette wherein they were chronicled laid on the table of the
+marquise, whom he justly calculated would be frozen with horror. That
+her innocent benefactress should be summoned by destiny in fulfilment
+of prophecy, to drain so full a cup of bitterness was appalling, and
+naturally set her friend reflecting upon the darkness of her own
+horoscope.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The sensitive and haughty queen was indeed humbled; her defenders
+massacred, her home converted into a shambles.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">After the storming of the Tuileries, the populace, blood-drunk,
+wreaked their insensate fury upon all alike, irrespective of age or
+sex. The gentlemen-ushers, pages, doorkeepers, even the lowly
+scullions of the kitchen were, without distinction, butchered. It was
+impossible to move a yard over the polished floors without treading on
+a corpse, stripped and horribly mutilated. Every corner of the palace
+was plundered, its furniture flung out of the window. When there were
+no more Royalists to kill, the rioters turned upon each other, making
+the fatal day the fête of carnage and devastation. The mangled bodies
+of the seven hundred murdered Swiss were covered with those of
+<i>sans-culottes</i>. It was a carnival of slaughter. On the Place Louis
+XV., groups of men and women amused themselves by severing the heads
+of the slain and tearing their flesh like tigers. It was a relief to
+know that the royal family were safe within the Temple; and yet, for
+what further suffering had they been rescued? The situation was so
+alarming that foreign ambassadors left Paris in a body, the last to go
+milady Sutherland, who stood by Marie Antoinette in her travail till
+the prison gates were closed on her.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Then came the incident, so often repeated in history, of a hopeless
+combat with a spirit which, easily raised, it is found impossible to
+lay. General Lafayette, perceiving, with distress, the results of his
+own teaching, implored his army to rise in defence of king and
+constitution, and being met with laughter, fled.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">On the second of September--a Sunday, whereon time hung heavy on the
+hands--the brilliant idea occurred to certain zealous citizens, headed
+by one Maillard, that it would be fine fun to make hay in the prisons.
+Were there not the Abbaye, the Carmelites, the Chatelet, La Force,
+Salpétrière, Bicêtre, all crammed with wicked people who did not
+approve of <i>sans-culottes?</i> What a delicious amusement would it be for
+the dull Sunday to teach them how bad they were. With yells, a throng,
+increasing in volume at each street corner, swept towards the
+Abbaye--men naked to the waist, with foaming lips and rolling eyes,
+and arms clotted with gore. Knives and sharp pikes made short but
+merry work. Recalcitrant maidens who refused to shout &quot;Vive la
+Nation!&quot; were compelled to drink the blood of their relations. The
+massacre continued all day and through the night. But why go into the
+full details of the hideous story? France was become a dangerous
+lunatic who had beaten and trampled on her keepers.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">It was a desperate shock to Gabrielle when she read of the fate of her
+friend, Louise, Princesse de Lamballe. That ill-starred lady had, as
+she knew, been imprisoned in La Force; and it was with a thrill that
+chilled her blood that she perused the details of her murder. Sure so
+horrible and ferocious a deed had never been done before! The marquise
+read, in the gazettes cunningly placed by the abbé, with blanched
+cheek, of how the beautiful favourite of the stricken queen had been
+dragged to the prison threshold, there to be slain by inches; of how
+her body was stripped and mutilated and flung in derision on a
+dung-heap, while her head was borne on a pike with auburn tresses
+flying, and flourished at the Temple under the window of the royal
+prisoners. Unhappy Louise! Unfortunate Marie Antoinette! Concerning
+one the sinister prophecy was accomplished; concerning the other it
+would be soon. What of the third, which concerned the Marquise de
+Gange? Morbid fancy, forsooth! No, indeed. Her fate was sealed, like
+theirs. What must be, must. She had lulled herself in false security.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Since Fate had decreed that the present occupants of Lorge were to
+live in so unsavoury an era, it behoved the ruling spirit of the
+group, Monsieur l'Abbé, to extract what advantage he could out of the
+disadvantages. In the first place, outside events were so terribly
+engrossing that local gossip and tittle-tattle for the time had lost
+their charm. The general feeling of insecurity, too, was such that the
+marquise could be taught without difficulty that this was not the
+moment for aristocrats to appeal to the Seigneurie. What was a petty
+bit of jealousy, or even a family misunderstanding, by the side of a
+massacre of thousands? A protest at such a crisis on so paltry a
+subject would be justly met with contempt.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Then as History kept plying her shuttle with lightning speed, the abbé
+shook his head and marvelled, congratulating himself that the great
+obstacle to his plan had been removed, since time was becoming
+precious.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">For the new will was now an accomplished fact, and lay safe in yonder
+desk which bore the cypher of the marquis.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Mademoiselle Brunelle had intimated to the chatelaine, with a heavenly
+resignation worthy of all praise, that for appearance' sake she would
+accept the permission to linger on a week or two and then disappear
+for ever. Her note, penned in a small and irreproachable caligraphy,
+both relieved and troubled the marquise. That she had consented to
+depart without a struggle was a relief, but her mild and simple
+expressions of gratitude for past favours caused Gabrielle a twinge of
+conscience. Of course it was inevitable that the woman should be made
+to go, but the marquise would have felt more satisfied with herself if
+the creature had been vulgar and played the termagant instead of
+assuming the seraph. It was a million pities that she could not have
+gone on behaving as at first, when her mistress, finding her useful,
+had welcomed and tried to make a friend of her. The social earthquake
+had so far shaken the city of Blois that professors began to find it
+dangerous to cultivate aristocratic blossoms, preferring, with an eye
+to a whole skin, the discharging of declamatory fireworks at clubs and
+political assemblies. Of course there could be no question ever again
+of bringing mademoiselle and her late charges together; and yet it was
+a pity that it must be so, since the minds of the dear ones were lying
+fallow.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">News arrived of changes, legislative and warlike, such as would
+transform the map of France. The jewels appertaining to the crown were
+annexed. The National Convention, just sprung into being, decreed the
+abolition of Royalty; proclaimed a Republic. The republican armies
+were, contrary to expectation, crowned with victory. They conquered
+Savoy, occupied Nice; swept from French territory the forces of the
+Allies. The small remaining scraps of the property of emigrants, long
+threatened and plucked at now and again, were actually seized <i>en
+bloc</i>. A list of pains and penalties of the severest kind was launched
+at such bad citizens as were gangrened with royalism.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">At the present rate of progress the country would soon be no safer
+than the towns. Aristocrats would be dragged from their retreats,
+consigned to local jails, finished off in batches by a <i>noyade</i> or a
+<i>fusillade</i>--be drowned or shot in droves. Clearly, there was no time
+for palaver or parleying, or the days would pass away when it would be
+possible to emigrate. What a mercy--the abbé never wearied of
+repeating the refrain--that the Maréchal de Brèze should have
+transferred his wealth to Geneva, and that his obstinate and
+stiff-necked daughter should have been induced to change her will!</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Mademoiselle Brunelle was equally convinced with the abbé that there
+was no time to squander. If she were to remain too long, the marquise
+would become suspicious and insist on her departure Of course she need
+not travel further than Blois, but it is well to be on the spot when
+something important is to take place, especially when your coadjutor
+is so double-faced as was the abbé. The susceptibilities of Clovis
+must be respected. What the schemers had to do must be done speedily,
+silently, and neatly. When she thought of it all the low laughter of
+Algaé rumbled. How surprised and mortified would the abbé be when in
+the end he found himself circumvented! She was to put out her paw for
+the chestnuts and keep half the booty for her trouble? So Pharamond
+had picturesquely put it. Not so. Unwittingly it was his own paw that
+was to be protruded, and in his case the fable would be realized. The
+excellent lady had graduated in his own school, and it is given to
+clever pupils ofttimes to outstrip the master.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Sure, now that they held the necessary document, their task was of the
+most infantine simplicity. It had been ascertained by cautious probing
+that Clovis could be counted on not to defend his wife. He would be
+politely invited to bury his head in the sand until that which must be
+was accomplished. By skilful manipulation his loathing for his better
+half was increasing as steadily in volume as a rolling snowball, and
+was assuming the proportions of a fixed idea. Gabrielle had decreed
+the banishment of the dear affinity. With many a groan he had
+acquiesced, being assured by two whisperers as he wrote to their
+dictation, that it was but a matter of form. &quot;If she conquers, after
+all,&quot; he had said as he flung down the pen, &quot;I will never forgive
+either of you. You have some project in your minds for the arrangement
+of the situation. What it may be I cannot guess, but I would have you
+know that if you fail I shall hate you both quite as much as her.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Algaé and the abbé had exchanged a glance of scorn over his shoulder,
+in that they were forced to work with such a sorry tool. No matter. If
+we paddle in thick mud, a little elbow-grease and water will make us
+clean again. Both began from opposite points of view to understand
+that the removal of Clovis might perchance have to follow his
+wife's. After her removal they would journey to Geneva, divide the
+fortune--hush the remorseful groans which so pusillanimous an object
+as Clovis was certain to indulge in--possibly drive him to drink, the
+natural corollary of remorse--and so into his grave. This was the
+abbé's view. Algaé went further. Arrived at Geneva, she would speedily
+become the marquise, and certain of dominion over her spouse--so long
+as his life was allowed to last--would secure to herself the reversion
+of her predecessors' fortune, and politely dismiss the brothers.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">All that, however, was as yet in the clouds, and there was no time to
+lose. To a certain extent, the marquis must now be admitted to the
+council, but the cautious finger of the governess must be kept upon
+his pulse, to ascertain how far he could be trusted not to scream and
+make an uproar. Such a task was exactly suited to a lady of such tact
+and discretion as mademoiselle, and she gladly undertook the office.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Toinon, mightily displeased at the way things were going, was racked
+by apprehension. It seemed to her as if she and her mistress were
+being gradually enwrapped in the glutinous film of spiders, which
+uncomely creatures by and by would quietly devour them. Such a
+<i>ménage</i> as that of Lorge, despite its outward calm, was abnormal. Her
+dear mistress dwelt in strict retirement in her own house. A band of
+harpies (among which, I regret to say, she reckoned her master) were
+secretly conspiring, and the result of their machinations could not
+but be harmful. They whispered in corners, deliberated with closed
+doors, discussed and argued something earnestly at all times and
+seasons, and if somebody approached them, they suddenly grew silent.
+What could they be conspiring? For two pins, popping her insulted
+vanity into her pocket, she would write to the truant Jean, of whom
+she vaguely heard sometimes as being quite of importance at Blois. If
+he had grown out of his love for Toinon, his blindness was to be
+deplored; but righteously indignant as that damsel felt at his
+neglect, she never for a moment doubted his honesty, however
+deplorable his opinions. Jean respected both the marquise and her
+foster-sister, and if carried away from his allegiance by politics,
+she felt none the less certain that, were she to summon him, he would
+come. But how could she summon him? He would laugh at her fears, and,
+on the principle of &quot;Wolf, wolf,&quot; would not obey a second summons. All
+she could report was that madame was unhappy and neglected, that the
+objectionable ex-governess had come and was on the point of going, and
+that, meanwhile, she and the brothers were given to whispering in
+corners. It was absurd, and Jean would be justified in laughing at
+her. He had left his dog behind him in her care, as an unfit companion
+for a deputy at Blois, and as the faithful beast followed her about,
+gazing into her eyes with canine sympathy, she would suddenly
+sometimes sink upon the floor, and clasping his woolly head in her
+comely arms, whisper to him, &quot;Oh, my dear! I am so sorely troubled.
+How I wish you could tell me what to do!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">As to her master, he was quite different from what he used to be. In
+old days, who so spick and span, so punctiliously prim in his attire?
+His face used then to wear a dreamy expression of philanthropical
+beatitude, which, if somewhat trying, was free of blame. Now he
+neglected his dress, his shoulders were rounded. He muttered between
+his teeth, as he wandered with bent head, and when he raised it, his
+eyes were bloodshot, his features convulsed by passion--torn by some
+secret dread. He was always brooding, and on some subject which
+stirred the lees, erstwhile so undisturbed, of evil thoughts. The
+marquis was changing a <i>vue d'&#339;il</i>, and the change was not for the
+better.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Toinon, with her dog behind her, was slowly mounting the stair one
+day, revolving for the thousandth time the pros and cons of her
+perplexity, when she perceived that the outer door of the abbé's
+sanctum was open--an unusual circumstance, for had he not taken to
+himself this tiny chamber by reason of its double doors? The abigail
+hesitated. Should she descend to prying? If she did it would be for
+the best motives, and if she heard anything that concerned her not it
+might as well be consigned to a tomb. She could detect the mellifluous
+accents of the abbé, apparently in remonstrance, then the voice of
+mademoiselle, very low and earnest, broken by something smothered from
+the marquis, who spoke in tones of pain. What could they be discussing
+so earnestly? Raising her finger to caution the dog to silence, she
+stole down a-tiptoe, and holding her breath, listened.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Not for long, however, for the marquis of a sudden cried out, &quot;I will
+never consent to such strong measures--never--never--never. They are
+too full of risk;&quot; and was evidently moving towards the door when his
+progress was arrested by the abbé.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Leave it to us, dear brother; leave it to us,&quot; the latter was
+repeating, soothingly. &quot;If not your poor brother and your devoted
+friend, who else in the wide world are you to trust? It is as plain as
+daylight that we must leave France ere long, and your obstinate wife
+will never consent to go with us. Well, well; she doubtless will be
+safe here if we are not, and if we get into trouble, she will be
+rather pleased than otherwise. Do as you are advised. Take yonder
+document and raise on it at Blois or Tours a little money for present
+expenses. We are out of cash, as you know, since you so properly stood
+out against the allowance. You can easily raise money on that paper.
+Is not everybody scraping together all they can in order to be off
+while there is time? Go, dear lad, perform your portion of the task,
+and leave the rest to us.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;What of her, then?&quot; Clovis inquired in doubt.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Meddle, meddle, meddle--why will you meddle?&quot; retorted Pharamond,
+laughing. &quot;I daresay she will live on here for many years, or perhaps
+not--who knows? Suffice it for the moment that we men must fly across
+the border.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Then came something more from mademoiselle, which the eavesdropper
+could not catch, and Toinon had but time to flee with all her speed to
+the upper storey, ere the marquis opened the door. He was sighing and
+moaning and muttering in most extraordinary fashion.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Peeping from the landing above she could see that he trembled like a
+leaf, and did not fail to mark the abbé's sneer of triumph as he
+looked after his departing brother.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;He has been sent away from Lorge,&quot; she murmured, with wrinkles on her
+brow. &quot;He is to go, and to take madame's testament along with him.
+Those two demons are victorious, and we are at their mercy. What do
+they intend to do? Nothing that bodes good to us.&quot;</p>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<h2>CHAPTER XXII.</h2>
+
+<h3><a name="div1_22" href="#div1Ref_22">DOMESTIC COOKERY.</a></h3>
+<br>
+
+<p class="normal">That Clovis should have thought proper to leave Lorge without notice,
+or any hint of his intentions, was not a subject for vexation now to
+Gabrielle. She saw the carriage disappear round the corner with a
+valet and a valise in the rumble, and the eyes of the occupant fixed
+steadily upon the postilion. No smile, or nod, or wave of a hand for
+her to whom he owed so much. She could contemplate him now without a
+wince or heartache, as calmly as we examine uncanny specimens of
+beetledom in a glass case. She prayed Heaven that her son, the dear
+Victor, should not grow up too like his father. One good point about
+the marquis's going was that he was separated from that woman. Then
+she began to wonder a little that he should have prematurely torn
+himself away before the moment of her flitting. That was good. Perhaps
+he had acted thus on purpose to keep up the show of appearances which
+all agreed was to be maintained. Be that as it might, it was not
+probable that the woman would linger on in a false position--<i>pour les
+beaux yeux de l'abbé</i>--and so the chatelaine, sitting with the dear
+ones in the moat garden, was prepared at any moment to witness the
+departure of another carriage. And after that? Would Clovis return
+when the coast was clear, or remain at a distance in dudgeon, leaving
+her to the tender mercies of his brothers? What then? She had given
+way, or seemed to do so, for peace' sake. They could require no more
+of her, and would doubtless respect her seclusion. It was curious to
+think though of the whimsicality of the situation. She, Gabrielle de
+Gange, erstwhile the reigning belle, with all at her feet that the
+world had to give, was living now with unruffled equanimity under the
+same roof as sheltered the man whom she had learned to look on as a
+devil.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">It was October, and the leaves were circling over the grass in
+whispering eddies. The mournful days of late autumn have a charm of
+their own, as nature still peeps forth half-chilled from under the
+closing slab of the tomb. The monotony of mundane existence is in tune
+with the scene, and as all that is pleasant of the year slowly
+vanishes, we dream and moralize in a regretful way, which is not
+discontent.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Nature is dying, but will live again anon. Ah! what of us who gaze
+ahead striving to peer into the unknown? Have we not learned to know
+too well that the Future is the grave in which all our poor puny
+ambitions are to lie, never to arise any more, and yet we would fain
+examine the resting-place where Hope is to play chief mourner! Most of
+us who have reached middle age have had ambition crushed out of us
+long since, and we can smile with quiet amusement at the vaulting
+aspirations of our youth.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Gabrielle, while tranquilly embroidering, was not averse to recalling
+the past, summoning on the disc of memory the pageants of Versailles,
+the innocent bucolics of Trianon, the magnificent fêtes at the
+Tuileries. Where were all the gaily gilded puppets now? The Tuileries
+was a Golgotha, Trianon a nest for owls. The lovely Lamballe had been
+hacked to pieces by demons; their majesties were doing gruesome
+penance for the sins of others; even the saintly and immaculate
+Elizabeth, one of the purest and noblest women who ever trod the
+earth, was also enduring long-drawn and excruciating pangs of
+martyrdom.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Laying down her embroidery as she reviewed these things, Gabrielle
+would clasp her hands behind her head, and marvel, as others in
+similarly incongruous situations have done, whether Providence is not
+a myth. Every fibre of the human soul revolts against the monstrous
+doctrine that the innocent shall suffer for the guilty, and yet every
+day we see that it obtains, and always has obtained from the time of
+Adam downwards. Such gloomy reflections should not perplex young and
+pretty heads, and yet the marquise was unable to conquer melancholy.
+Perhaps it was induced by the season, perhaps by the germs of illness.
+She must have dreamed too long in the moat garden without being
+provided with sufficient wraps. Certainly she had caught a chill, for
+when Toinon brought her as usual her morning chocolate, a few days
+after the marquis's departure, she found her shivering and feverish,
+with chattering teeth and laboured breath. Drawing aside the heavy
+curtains of the ancestral bed, Toinon gazed long and anxiously at her
+mistress, who said, turning impatiently, &quot;You stare as if I were a
+ghost!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Madame thinks she has caught cold?&quot; Toinon agreed quietly. &quot;Madame
+was always too fond of sitting in the open air.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I knew I was going to be unwell,&quot; her mistress observed drowsily,
+&quot;for last night I could scarce touch my supper. When the palate is
+affected, things taste quite differently. The good Bertrand sent up
+some of my favourite cakes, as light as if made by fairies, and
+somehow they seemed quite coppery. Do something, Toinon; give them to
+your dog, for the dish is scarcely touched, and I would not have
+Bertrand think I am ungrateful.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;And you were always so partial to those cakes!&quot; drily remarked
+Toinon, with a peculiar smile. &quot;Yes, I will give them to the dog.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;First make me some tisane,&quot; entreated Gabrielle. &quot;I am languid and
+feverish, and my throat is parched and burning.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Toinon slowly shook her head and went straight into the adjoining
+boudoir, where the light refection described as supper was always laid
+out on a low table. Her movement was so abrupt that had she not been
+much preoccupied, she could not have failed to perceive the whisk of a
+black coat-tail, as it disappeared into the long saloon. Had she
+opened the door four minutes earlier, she would have seen a dapper
+figure clad in black leaning over the plate that held the
+confectionery, and have heard a soft voice mutter, &quot;Only half a cake.
+It must have had a peculiar taste.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">As it was, Toinon saw nothing of this, but finding the room empty,
+moved swiftly to the tray, took up a cake and smelt it. A thin, pale
+face was watching her through a door-chink with gleaming eyes.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">She again shook her head, and murmuring, &quot;Can they be so wicked?&quot;
+carried the plate away.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Along the corridor she sped, and down the stairs, unconscious of a
+dark shadow moving noiselessly, till she reached her own apartment. At
+sound of the well-known footstep, an animal within, hitherto
+quiescent, began to whine and yelp, and beat itself against the door.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Patience, patience--poor hound,&quot; Toinon said aloud. &quot;Is it wise to be
+in so great a hurry? Even now, I cannot believe it!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">She turned the handle and the boisterous dog dashed the plate from her
+hand with its great paws. She picked up two of the cakes which had
+remained whole, and with the same peculiar smile of meaning she had
+worn above, watched the hound as he ravenously devoured the fragments.
+There was still a piece left--a large one--and she pushed it towards
+him with her foot.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Poor dog! Forgive me, Jean,&quot; she said, &quot;if what I think is true.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The shadow without gazed in on the scene with craning neck. &quot;She
+suspects,&quot; the abbé muttered. &quot;What will she do with the others?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">As though in direct answer to the question, Toinon turned rapidly from
+the animal which she had been eyeing with a suspicious frown, and
+carefully taking up the remaining pieces of confectionery wrapped them
+in paper. Then she stood stroking her chin irresolute. The dog
+approached and wagged his tail, rubbing his muzzle in her hand, as his
+way was when he wanted something. &quot;What is it, poor fellow?&quot; she
+enquired, stroking his head. &quot;Water! I thought as much!&quot; Filling a
+basin, she placed it on the floor, and the dog drank eagerly till the
+last drop was drained, then curled himself up to sleep.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Starting, the abigail took up the parcel, went to a cupboard, selected
+a bottle from a row and mixed some of its contents with water.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Mustard,&quot; murmured the abbé, slinking into the shade. &quot;That stupid
+woman said there was no especial taste. See what it is to have to deal
+with bunglers.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Wearing his most unpleasant scowl, and grinding his sharp teeth, he
+stole along the corridor, and moving up a step or two turned and came
+down again humming a blythesome stave, just as Toinon appeared at the
+bottom, holding the parcel and a glass.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Our pretty Toinon is vastly occupied,&quot; he laughed, merrily. &quot;But for
+fear of the stalwart arm of burly Jean, I would steal a kiss from
+those sweet lips.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Maybe you will feel that arm sooner than you expect,&quot; she said,
+scarce able to steady her voice; &quot;make way, and if you dare to touch
+me, I will spit in your villain's face.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">This was clearly not the moment for persiflage, so with a careless
+shrug of indulgence for the coarse manners of the lower classes, the
+abbé stood aside. &quot;What a dear darling little vixen,&quot; he shouted up
+the stairs. &quot;I pity poor Jean Boulot, despite his thews and sinews.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The first attempt was a failure, an egregiously contemptible and
+inartistic failure, and all due to that inveterate bungler. Had not
+mademoiselle's coadjutor suggested that liquid is preferable to solid,
+for the purpose they both had at heart, since you only munch a
+biscuit, whereas you take a preliminary sip at a liquid and then, your
+mouth feeling a trifle dry, take a longer gulp before remarking that
+the taste is peculiar? And the execrable Algaé had insisted on the
+cakes, declaring that if you are fond of a particular cake, you will
+indulge in several before any little peculiarity can manifest itself.
+And the fool--the hopelessly obstinate and self-sufficient idiot--had
+perpetrated another bungle, a worse one than before, since Gabrielle
+had only bitten into one of her favourites, while the others had been
+gobbled by the dog. The dog would die; no doubt of it, and Toinon's
+suspicions would be justified. What would she do with that tell-tale
+parcel? An extremely awkward mistake of mademoiselle's. There was one
+way out of the dilemma. The abbé must be taken ill as well as the lady
+of the house; complain of a taste of copper, make an outcry in the
+kitchen, and discover that the careless cook had spread his materials
+upon a copper-plate that had not been cleared of verdigris.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Toinon was busy all day with her mistress, whom she found in a half
+lethargy, with burning palms and widely distended pupils. She had some
+ado to force the mustard down her throat; but, this done, she soon had
+the pleasure of seeing the patient revive. By evening, Gabrielle was
+calm, but exhausted, and when Toinon descended to the kitchen to fetch
+some bouillon (which Bertrand would have first to taste) she was
+astonished to hear that the abbé was screaming with agony, kicking in
+frightful convulsions.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Toinon smiled her peculiar smile again, and uttered a few common-place
+words of sympathy.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Badly played,&quot; she said to herself, &quot;he might as well have bethought
+him that the symptoms should be lethargy and coma.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">M. Bertrand, the cook, was in high dudgeon. How dared anybody hint
+that he had poisoned madame's biscuits? It was all owing to that oaf
+of a scullion, who had laid the large square copper-plate on the
+confectionery table, without remembering that it had been unused for a
+week. Was he, a <i>cordon bleu</i>, a chef <i>de premier caliber</i>, to be
+blamed for the stupidity of a scullion? He would be expected to clean
+his own saucepans next. When the marquis returned--who always
+appreciated efforts to please--he would give warning and leave this
+<i>sale maison</i>, which was only fit for cockroaches and rats.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Go back to Paris!&quot; gibed Toinon. &quot;Safer where you are, believe me. A
+chef with so splendid a reputation for pampering the palates of the
+gangrened aristocracy, would surely be strung up to a lantern! This
+bouillon looks excellent,&quot; she added saucily; &quot;but M. Bertrand will be
+good enough to sip two spoonfuls, lest the scullion should have dipped
+his fingers in it.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Next day, thanks to Toinon's vigilant solicitude, the marquise was
+sufficiently recovered to sit at her embroidery as usual. Holding out
+a hand to the abigail while tears rose to the eyes of both, &quot;My
+sister,&quot; she said, &quot;it is worth while to be a little ill just to learn
+how much we are beloved.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Alas! beloved! Poor lady. Hated by four persons without consciences,
+who were panting and thirsting for her death! A target for poisoned
+arrows!</p>
+
+<p class="normal">After sagely considering the matter, Toinon made up her mind that if
+she did not interfere, she might become in some sort an accessary to a
+tragedy. In whom was faith to be placed? Honest Jean? What could he
+do, if he were to come, in the face of such diabolical ingenuity? He
+would learn that his favourite dog--companion of many trudgings
+through the woods at all times and seasons--had died of poisoned
+cakes. But then was it not admitted in the household, that the abbé as
+well as the marquise had accidentally partaken, and that the abbé of
+the two had been the most sick? Had not varlets and kitchen wenches
+cowered and clung together at sound of his piercing screams? He was
+well again, for he had had the presence of mind to swallow mustard.
+The marquise had recovered, thanks to a like precaution. Toinon had
+been cunning enough to keep two cakes which, when the time came should
+be examined, and if the abbé were foolish enough to declare that he
+had been poisoned by similar articles, it would be easy to prove that
+his agonies were sham, as they were not the natural results of such a
+poison as had been administered to Gabrielle.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Meanwhile, something must be done, and the question that troubled
+Toinon was what that something was to be. At last she made up her mind
+and broke the ice.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Will madame pardon me for what may appear an act of presumption,&quot; she
+inquired, gently rearranging the wraps about the invalid. &quot;I have
+taken something on myself which may anger madame, who will, I know,
+believe that if I was guilty of an error it was made through excess of
+zeal.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">There was a pause, unbroken by Gabrielle, who glanced at her
+foster-sister with a wan and wearied look that was full of pathos.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Presently she raised the fingers of the waiting maid to her face, and
+stroked her cheek with them.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;What is this grand effort of the intellect?&quot; she asked, cheerily. &quot;I
+know it is something well intentioned.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I have written a letter in madame's name and sent it off by special
+courier.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Not to the marquis?&quot; cried Gabrielle, the colour flushing over her
+face and neck.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Poor soul! The marquis! Much good would it be to write to him, unless
+to request him to order a coffin.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;No,&quot; Toinon said, quietly. &quot;It cuts me to the heart to see madame so
+solitary, and during a convalescence too, a time when we always brood
+and consider the least pleasant subjects. I have written to the
+Maréchale de Brèze, stating that you have been ill, but are out of
+danger, and would be glad of a visit from your mother.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Gabrielle remained thoughtful, still stroking Toinon's fingers. Why
+not? The maréchale owed a visit, and the absence of her husband on
+business would account for the seclusion of his wife. Moreover, it
+would be a splendid thing to lure the old dame from dangerous Paris,
+where Mother Guillotine was commencing to display a Catholic taste in
+the way of food. Yes; from all points of view it was an admirable idea
+to induce Madame de Brèze to visit Lorge. Why! it was a thousand years
+at least since she had set eyes upon the darlings! Her own and only
+grandchildren! How shockingly reprehensible. How she would joy in
+marking each trait of genius, and how proud their mother would be to
+show how cultured were their minds! The maréchale's mind was
+considerably less stored than her daughter's, but she would appreciate
+with greater awe the progress of their climb up Parnassus. Did they
+not write each other poems and moral essays, after the manner of the
+Scuderi, and of the encyclopædist ladies!--such prodigiously clever
+verses, and such heavenly prose sermons! The more she considered it
+the more enchanted was she that Toinon should have taken this move
+upon herself. Had it been left to her, she would have doubted, have
+written a dozen letters only to tear them up, weighing in that tender
+and over-scrupulous conscience of hers whether it was right or wrong
+to drag an old lady to the wilds of Touraine at such a troublous
+moment. She would have considered whether it was not her duty to have
+unselfishly exhorted the ancient dame never to stir out of her modest
+abode; never even to open her window, lest by the act she should be
+drawn into the maw of Mother Guillotine.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The more she thought over it the more delighted was she with the idea,
+and, opening her arms, clasped Toinon to her breast.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;My dear, my dear,&quot; she murmured, fondly, &quot;what should I do without
+you? Let the dear mother come. Together we will make her welcome.&quot;</p>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<h2>CHAPTER XXIII.</h2>
+
+<h3><a name="div1_23" href="#div1Ref_23">A PASSAGE OF ARMS.</a></h3>
+<br>
+
+<p class="normal">Mademoiselle Algaé Brunelle was not on a bed of roses, and her growing
+impatience took the form of tartness. If Clovis could have looked on
+his affinity in his absence her prospects of becoming some day
+Marquise de Gange might have been less promising. In truth, she was
+very cross, and took no trouble to conceal her mood from Pharamond or
+Phebus. It was not her fault, but that of the silly Bertrand, that the
+cakes should have had a metallic flavour. She therefore soundly rated
+that worthy for his clumsiness, and threatened him with pains and
+penalties. The chef glanced at her with two pig's-eyes set close
+together, and replied, &quot;I was engaged in Paris by Monsieur l'Abbé, not
+by mademoiselle, who should undertake her dirty work herself.&quot; He had
+no personal feeling against the recluse upstairs, but man must live,
+and with the present he was to receive he intended to escape from the
+French caldron, and make up for a trifling lapsus in another land by a
+future of exemplary virtue.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Energetic mademoiselle was all for taking the bull by the horns and
+acting with decision. Why beat about the bush in this provoking way,
+she argued, since the chatelaine was completely in their power? The
+domestics were the abbé's creatures, drafted one by one, and dropped
+each into his place. Madame de Vaux and Angelique were too much
+alarmed to leave their own precincts; and now that the marquis was
+gone, the old gentleman had no motive for ambling over from Montbazon,
+since he had never understood Gabrielle, and instinctively disliked
+the brothers. He was grateful to Algaé in that matter of the sciatic
+nerve, but it was not his place as a seigneur to make morning calls on
+a dependant. To prevent prying from without, it was easy to spread a
+report that Madame la Marquise de Gange had been attacked by typhus
+fever. The rustics of Touraine had a wholesome dread of the disease.
+Madame had none on whom she could rely except her faithful abigail.
+Would it not be the most natural thing in the world if the devoted
+foster-sister were likewise to succumb to the malady? There was
+nothing whatever to stop the prosecution of their plans, and it has
+long been an axiom that what has to be done is best done quickly.
+There was nothing to cause the delay but the abbé's tortuous method.
+It is said that each of us has been an animal in a previous phase, and
+that a shade of likeness, physical or moral, or both, yet clings to us
+in this. Mademoiselle was convinced that in his last existence the
+abbé had been a serpent. It was his nature to wriggle and twist, and
+he could not for the life of him move straight. If he beheld a dove
+upon a branch he must needs coil himself elaborately to fascinate it,
+instead of protruding a tongue and gobbling it up at once.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">These and other views, did she propound to Pharamond, marching up and
+down the room as her wont was, when much in earnest, with elephantine
+tread, while the chevalier blinked at her in fear. A wonderful woman,
+an awful and terrible woman! It was not surprising that Clovis should
+have sunk under her thrall. She dared to beard, and even flout the
+still more awful Pharamond, and the two crossed swords sometimes with
+such a clash of arms that Phebus shivered in alarm. What two such
+strong ones willed, would certainly take place. No doubt about it. The
+poor thing upstairs was doomed. No effort that he, Phebus, could make,
+might stay her doom. Why, then, make any effort? He could only shed
+maudlin tears and wish her well through her misery. He quite agreed
+with Algaé, that the inevitable should take place at once.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Now lecturing and advice that looked too like command, was by no means
+palatable to Pharamond, and he had much ado to maintain the suavity of
+his temper. The idea of typhus was not bad, but it would entail
+certain consequences. Nearly everybody at this time, both in France
+and England, was seamed with smallpox, and dreadful as the scourge
+was, familiarity had paled its terrors. The report of a spread of
+typhus, on the other hand, was enough to depopulate a district.
+Happily, since the period which occupies us, advancing science has
+done much to mitigate its horrors, but in the eighteenth century, the
+sickening details of its course were enough to appal the bravest. The
+Marquise de Gange and her abigail having succumbed to the scourge, the
+inmates of the chateau must flee, or endure ostracism--they would be
+banned like lepers.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Though by the terms of the new will, the marquis would quietly
+inherit, it would not do for him and his brothers, after assisting at
+a typhus deathbed, to stay at Blois to transact necessary business.
+Unluckily the unstable legatee could not be trusted to do much
+unaided. As had been decided he was to raise money on his
+expectations, sufficient to waft the party to Geneva, and keep them in
+proper style during tedious but necessary negociations. It was
+obvious, therefore, that mademoiselle's impatience was vexatious and
+ill-advised. When Clovis wrote to say that the sum was raised, then
+they would perform their one act drama, and, bowing, retire behind the
+scenes.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Surely there ought to be no difficulty about raising the necessary
+sum,&quot; grumbled Algaé, with arms crossed, and moody brow. &quot;Clovis is so
+reprehensibly tardy. What can he be doing all this while! I would have
+settled the matter myself in half-an-hour, if the mission could have
+been confided to me.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Phebus blinked more than usual. Oh! A wonderful woman, who appeared to
+him as a vision of fate in a violent hurry. Could she who had been
+sprightly and kittenish, be so athirst for another woman's blood?</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;You deem yourself vastly clever,&quot; sneered Pharamond, waxing wroth.
+&quot;Can you not remember that every mistake has been due to your
+stupidity? Half-an-hour, forsooth! Do you not know that bullion is as
+rare a commodity as diamonds? that to refuse payment in assignats is
+to risk the guillotine, and that beyond the border, such things are
+but dirty paper? A pretty figure we should cut if we rattled into the
+courtyard of the Etoile d'Or, and attempted to pay the Swiss
+postilions with dead leaves! One cannot, of course, expect common
+sense from a woman, any more than grapes from thistles. Your querulous
+importunity is wearying. You must keep your promise and be content to
+be led by me.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Even Pharamond was disconcerted, and Phebus cowered, when Algaé dashed
+into the breakfast-room one day like a whirlwind, her eyes aflame, her
+dusky visage black with fury. She moved swiftly up and down, unable to
+articulate, upsetting the chairs in her career. What could have
+happened to enrage her thus? Verily, she was becoming a deplorable,
+insufferable nuisance, and it would be well to make an end of it.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Patience,&quot; she blurted out at last, thumping into her accustomed
+seat, and scattering the glasses. &quot;You never weary of exhorting me to
+patience. Perhaps you will yourself remember the elementary fact that
+events will not stand still while you are parleying.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;What now?&quot; Pharamond asked calmly.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;This now,&quot; retorted mademoiselle. &quot;The Maréchale de Brèze has just
+arrived with an army of domestics, and is closeted upstairs with her
+daughter.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">This was news; unwelcome and unexpected news. Had the old lady arrived
+on an errand similar to that of the family solicitor? Hardly. If
+Gabrielle had again secretly sought protection, M. Galland would have
+come himself. And an army of servants, too! Servants are argus-eyed
+and uncharitable in their conclusions. These people could not be
+wheedled or cajoled like those selected by the abbé. Algaé's wrath,
+though coarsely expressed, was justified. The irruption of a foreign
+element, just at this juncture, was unfortunate.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;We must frighten them away,&quot; Pharamond observed, quietly peeling a
+pear.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Mademoiselle snorted in scorn, while the abbé sat wrapped in thought.
+Why was the maréchale here now? Had anything fresh occurred in Paris,
+which had impelled flight? If that had been so, she would not have
+travelled with a retinue. She was timid and nervous, and fearful of
+bandits on the road. She could scarcely have been summoned by
+Gabrielle, since the latter had no suspicion of the cakes. Pharamond
+had satisfied himself of that, by knocking humbly and inserting a
+head, while ostentatiously remaining on the threshold. &quot;Pardon my
+intrusion,&quot; he had meekly purred, &quot;but anxiety compels me to ask after
+your health. In Clovis's absence I feel responsible. Tell me that you
+have recovered, as I have, from the untoward incident due to a stupid
+cook?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Gabrielle politely declared herself to be well, deplored the abbé's
+illness, and intimated with a slight inclination that the interview
+was over. Chilly, not to say icy. But there was no symptom of
+suspicion in her clear blue eyes. She declined to say more than was
+necessary to a man whom she detested, that was all. But Toinon, the
+abbé was convinced, knew all about it. Why had she kept her knowledge
+from her mistress? What had she done with the parcel? She had allowed
+him clearly to understand, that she was not taken in by his comedy.
+Did she not always make a parade, to the scandal of the household, of
+having every article tasted that was to be consumed by her mistress or
+herself?</p>
+
+<p class="normal">He had seen her wrap up the cakes which the dog had not devoured--to
+what end? It would be well to have those cakes and to destroy them;
+was it worth the trouble of finding and purloining them? It had been
+generally admitted that through carelessness there had been an
+accident which was not followed by a fatal result. In every household
+such accidents occur since the culinary genius is not infallible. Were
+the things to be analysed, it might transpire that the quantity of
+verdigris or subacetate on the copper plate had been excessive, so
+great as to look like deliberate purpose. Did Toinon propose to open a
+judicial inquiry under the presidency of Madame La Maréchale; produce
+her <i>pieces de conviction</i>; accuse a respectable ghostly man of
+attempted murder? The idea was so ludicrous that Pharamond laughed
+aloud. Let her do as she liked. Bother the cakes! The inquiry would be
+very funny. He quite hoped that she would ventilate her suspicions for
+the amusement of the assembled household, and give him the chance of
+victory.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">It behoved a son of the Church, brought up in a good school, to pay
+due and ceremonious respect to the mother of their chatelaine. He
+accordingly indited a sweet note expressive of joyous surprise, and
+requesting the honour of an interview.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Gabrielle was about to seize the note and tear it into fragments, but
+the hand impulsively raised fell by her side, and the words she would
+have spoken died upon her lips. Why worry the venerable dame with her
+own peck of troubles? She had gone through such paroxysms of terror on
+the journey that she was still all of a twitter. &quot;You've not the
+smallest idea! My pet--&quot; she began in her high treble, &quot;what the
+villages and towns were like. Where such crowds of forbidding
+tatterdemalions could have sprung from I cannot understand. And when
+they saw my coach and armed servants, they pursued us with yells and
+stones, actually flints! A sharp one nearly struck me in the face. I
+was so indignant that I felt inclined to stop and say, 'You curs! Do
+you know I am the widow of one who spilt his best blood for his
+country and his king?' but now I am rather glad I did not.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Dearest mother!&quot; the marquise murmured, clasping the old lady to her
+bosom, &quot;I am so glad you did not! Alas! even to name our martyr king
+is to rouse a volley of curses.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">And then the old lady, enchanted to have found a listener who would
+not interrupt her flow, gabbled on interminably about the condition of
+the capital. Before daring to decide on a journey she had called in
+good M. Galland who, contrary to her own views, had considered it an
+admirable suggestion that the mother should visit the daughter. &quot;If I
+had known all, wild horses would not have moved me. The threatening
+attitude of your rustics is more menacing than our mob at home.&quot; She
+failed to add that as she rarely stepped outside the door, she knew
+but little of the Paris rabble.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;The abbé--how nice it must be to have him,&quot; she went off at a
+tangent. &quot;A most engaging man. I remember that when he visited us
+in Paris I said to your dear father--ah, deary me--he's with the
+blessed--that it was a miracle to find such breeding in a provincial.
+You must excuse me, pet, if I seem rude to your husband's brother, but
+he was brought up in the south somewhere, he told me, where they
+cannot be expected to assume the polish of the capital. Well, well--he
+must be a very clever and cultivated man as well as a most delightful
+one!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">How could the marquise divulge what she knew of the abbé to this
+garrulous and purblind old woman? Toinon, who hung about the room and
+knew more than did her mistress could scarce contain herself. Had it
+been worth while to summon such a silly harridan? Her contingent of
+domestics, however, was a safeguard, during whose stay a taster could
+be dispensed with. Suffice it, she was here, and must be detained as
+long as possible, though she always detested Lorge. Toinon had made up
+her mind what steps she intended to take--the very steps which the
+abbé had guessed. She intended formally to impeach the abbé and
+Mademoiselle Brunelle; to unveil the past and the present for the
+shocked old lady's benefit, and solemnly adjure her on her return to
+the capital, to take steps for her daughter's safety, or make up her
+mind till her dying day to be persecuted by vengeful ghosts. In face
+of such an impeachment, and on the production of the cakes, the guilty
+abbé would quail. At any rate, his claws would be cut, so far as
+extreme measures were concerned.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The reception of the brothers by the maréchale was most cordial. The
+chevalier quite won her heart, for his watery gaze would remain fixed
+on her for hours, while, knitting in hand, she furbished up for him
+the legends of the chateau. He was like a wistful eyed, cosy,
+lapdog--with an ever-wagging tail. If he spoke little, he was an
+excellent listener, and when she grew weary of chattering, the abbé
+could talk enough for both. On the whole, much as she disliked the
+place, she was quite glad to have come, for the house in the suburbs
+of Paris was deadly dull; there was no society at present, since her
+old friends were in prison or had emigrated.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">It was charming, too, with Gabrielle and the cherubs, to forget the
+hurly-burly of the Revolution. The perfect peace and majestic repose
+of the chateau were soothing to the nerves, while there was sufficient
+liveliness to prevent boredom. There never was so attentive a cavalier
+as that delightful abbé who seemed to guess everything by intuition.
+Was she chilly, the devoted soul was sure to come round the corner in
+answer to a wish, armed with a wrap and an umbrella. For her he
+selected the choicest pears and apples at breakfast, indited
+complimentary sonnets--as though she were not silver-haired and
+wrinkled. As the evenings were drawing in he would improvise games and
+pastimes to pass the hours in which the children could join, and made
+himself so agreeable to all that the guest was enchanted. &quot;Really,
+pet, it is quite arcadian,&quot; the worthy dame would remark to her
+daughter. &quot;I'd no notion this horrid place could be made so nice. I
+can imagine myself at Trianon again in the good old days. Ah, well,
+well, well!&quot; And then with a big sigh she would burst into tears,
+remembering what had been and what was.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The individual who did not at all appreciate the sudden <i>volte-face</i>
+was, as may be imagined, Mademoiselle Brunelle. Fortune was in an
+elfish mood. For her mother's sake the marquise had tacitly permitted
+the brothers to resume the place they had once occupied, promising
+herself--when the visit was over--to hold them at arms' length again;
+but with Algaé it was different. On no pretence could she be permitted
+to join the circle. Indeed, it was hinted to her in a politely worded
+note that she was delaying her departure over long.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The abbé had declared that the marplot must be frightened away, and
+yet he was sparing no pains to make the visit pleasant. It was evident
+that he and his brother avoided their ally lest she should fall on
+them with just upbraiding. If she beheld them in the distance, it was
+but to see them whisking round a corner. Oblivious of feelings she was
+left alone to brood and mope; her meals were served apart as though
+she were infectious; and now she had received the curtest of summonses
+to make herself scarce forthwith. Oh! how she hated the lot of them!</p>
+
+<p class="normal">In truth she was in a dilemma, and did not know what to do. Clovis had
+been got rid of while something was being done which might revolt his
+squeamish nature; and though he said nothing, she was certain that he
+had more than a vague suspicion of what was going forward. But
+supposing that nothing were to take place after all? Supposing that
+when he had raised the necessary sum, and called on the others to join
+him, they were to do so, and cross the frontier, leaving Gabrielle
+behind? What he was able to raise could not be very much, and one
+cannot live in luxury at Geneva or elsewhere on expectations. They
+would have to report that the marquise was charming well, instead of
+dead, and that, unmolested, she might live on for years. Why should
+she not, in their absence, make another will, or a dozen others,
+whereby even the shadowy expectations would be reduced to thinnest
+air?</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Was the abbé scheming to gain time? It struck Algaé with a gush of
+impotent wrath that perchance the coming of the maréchale had been his
+own device, arranged so as to tide over the days until mademoiselle
+should have no excuse for lingering, that he might then have the
+heiress to himself! Perhaps his recently developed hatred of her was a
+snare to deceive the governess? If it turned out that this was so,
+what course would it behove her to pursue? Should she seem to accept
+her fate, drive quietly away, and joining Clovis, unfold the
+machinations of his brother? Would Clovis believe, and if he did, how
+would he act--he who had fullest confidence in his brother? Were the
+suspicions that racked her justified or not? Meanwhile, she was
+treated like a social Pariah, and the precious hours waned.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The abbé guessed her thoughts, and laughed. Women are so nimble witted
+that when they enter the labyrinth of scheming they frequently wander
+too far and lose themselves. Pharamond was quite as anxious to be rid
+of the old lady as the younger one could be, but he was far-seeing and
+cautious, while his coadjutor was culpably impatient.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">It was one night when the family sat at supper in the boudoir that
+Toinon struck her blow. There had been a splendid bout of blind man's
+buff in the grand saloon. The cherubs had been seized by Toinon and
+carried off to bed, flushed, out of breath, and happy. The pursy
+chevalier, who had been very active, puffed and blew, and looked like
+to have a fit. Madame la Maréchale had been frisking after a fashion
+that surprised herself. The abbé mopped his face with a dainty
+kerchief, and flung himself at Gabrielle's feet, as in the departed
+days.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;You are our prisoner, maréchale,&quot; he cried gaily--&quot;a prisoner for
+life in this ancient fortress, and shall never go hence alive. You add
+such a charm to our circle that we positively can't do without you. Is
+it not so, dear Gabrielle? Tell our mother that she is here for good.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Pharamond glanced up, with a yellow light glinting through half-closed
+lids, and lips drawn tightly over teeth: attitude and expression
+recalled vividly scenes she would gladly have forgotten, and
+Gabrielle, she knew not why, was frightened.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Toinon, re-entering, marked his familiar gesture and her lady's fear,
+and her gorge rose till she felt choking. A venomous, slimy snake was
+coiling itself about the feet of the marquise, fouling her with its
+tainted breath. The abnormal, loathsome reptile! Was he slowly to
+enwrap her in his glittering coils and crush her bones, while Toinon
+stood by, unaiding? Her brain in a whirl of indignation, the abigail
+blurted out, &quot;For good or evil, which? You dare not poison <i>her</i>--that
+is a comfort--lest her domestics should report the fact.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The suddenness of the attack startled even Pharamond, while the
+maréchale stared bewildered, and Gabrielle turned a shade more
+pale. With anxious and surprised inquiry the marquise gazed at her
+foster-sister. What was this? Full well she knew of what the abbé was
+capable, and that her maid would not bring false charges.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The ice broken, Toinon felt better, refreshed as by a douche of
+water. Leaning against the door, hands firmly planted upon hips, she
+turned to the amazed maréchale and plainly told her tale. She told of
+the marquise's symptoms, of her own suspicion but too soon verified;
+of how she had found Jean's dog stretched dead upon the floor, with a
+green liquor running from its mouth; how by prompt action she had
+saved her mistress, who had luckily taken but a mouthful; how she had
+found the abbé in perfect health some hours after (if his tale were
+true), he had swallowed a strong dose of poison; how she, Toinon, had
+then sent for Madame de Brèze, that in the future she might shield her
+daughter.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Never in her whole life before had the poor old woman been placed
+in a position of responsibility, and she could only murmur in angry
+fear--&quot;Why me--why send for me?&quot; Indeed she was a ludicrous example of
+the broken reed, and the abbé waved airy thanks to Toinon with white
+fingers, in that she was so kindly playing into his hands.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Why, indeed,&quot; he echoed, &quot;if half were true of what that naughty minx
+accuses me. I poison our darling Gabrielle! The idea would be
+intensely comic if it were not offensive. It is a fact, madame, of
+which Gabrielle is well aware, that an accident occurred, owing to a
+scullion's carelessness. I myself nearly succumbed, for I had a
+desperate battle for life, and when I recovered, sent up a hymn of
+thanks to Heaven in that Gabrielle should have but suffered slightly.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;You knew so little of your poison that you assumed wrong symptoms!&quot;
+remarked Toinon, in disdain.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Not so. It is you who know not the poison,&quot; retorted Pharamond, with
+a malignant flash that was instantly suppressed. &quot;Spite and fatuous
+ignorance misled you. The symptoms vary according to quantity imbibed.
+I unluckily ate a cake and half before I was aware of anything
+peculiar, and any doctor will tell you that whereas a small dose of
+subacetate of copper will produce coma, a large one will bring about
+griping pains and tetanic convulsions, which, without aid from above,
+lead to paralysis and death.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;A large dose acts on the system quickly--within an hour,&quot; scoffed the
+abigail. &quot;When I told you that the cakes were poisoned you were in
+perfect health.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I had but just partaken----&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;A clumsy liar! I asked Bertrand if he had more of his confectionery,
+and he answered with a searching look of suspicious inquiry that all
+he had made were served to the marquise.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Upon my word, the wench is very erudite,&quot; laughed the abbé, lightly.
+&quot;How come you to know so much?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;There was an ancient book on poisons in the library. I turned up the
+article 'Copper,' and studied it.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Was?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Yes, was. The book is hidden now where you will never find it.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">There was a pause, during which the combatants studied each other
+warily. Then the abbé, shrugging his shoulders, in disgust drawled
+out, &quot;Have we not had enough of this low comedy?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I ascertained,&quot; pursued the undaunted maiden, &quot;that the necessary
+quantity of verdigris so to affect one little cake out of many as
+almost to produce coma in one who had taken a single bite must be so
+large that a copper cooking-plate would have to be thickly buttered
+with it. Now Bertrand excused himself on the plea that the plate in
+use was found to be 'not quite clean.' If he had buttered it then was
+your 'accident' not due to inadvertence.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;What proof have you that the cakes were so heavily loaded?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;The fact that the dog died within half-an-hour; that I retained two
+which I intend presenting to madame that she may have them analysed in
+Paris.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;A pretty story, ingenious as wicked. No one saw the dog perish but
+yourself. What evidence is there, except your own, that the cakes in
+your possession are in the same condition as when placed on the table?
+Are you sure you have any cakes at all?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">There was such an air of mischievous satisfaction underlying the tone
+of banter that Toinon's heart stood still. &quot;How are you sure--&quot; she
+began, then sped swiftly from the room, to return in a few moments
+white as a sheet and breathless.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;They are gone,&quot; she panted, &quot;gone! You discovered where they were
+concealed, you wicked man, and have destroyed them!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The abbé rose leisurely from the floor and broke into a shout of
+laughter. &quot;Dear ladies,&quot; he apologised, &quot;you must forgive so vulgar a
+display of merriment, but the jest is too, too good. What subtle
+forms, nowadays, will not the malice of the enemy assume! Unfortunate
+noblesse! Unjust and cruel age! The inscrutable powers permit us to be
+hauled to prison, conducted to the shambles, but allow us to leave the
+world with characters unstained. The mob would trump up charges
+against us now to justify their deeds; but the charges are so shallow
+and so foolish that they defeat their ends. Poisoned cakes! Pah!
+Unhappy girl, you who have received a superior education should have
+soared above such folly. It was the rumour that spread from Paris
+about the king and queen and the poisoned food at the Tuileries that
+put this absurd notion in your head. Madame de Brèze, I grieve that so
+untoward an incident as this should have occurred during your stay
+among us, which we have all striven to make a pleasant one. We have
+kept it from you, but it is true, to our misfortune, that the spirit
+of the province is menacing. There is nothing that the peasants will
+not believe against an aristo. If you sallied forth and announced that
+I, the Abbé Pharamond, am specially partial to boiled baby, served
+<i>aux choux</i>, there is not one who would not believe you. This girl is
+betrothed to Jean Boulot, the gamekeeper, who deliberately left a
+respectable service to make himself notorious at Blois as the most
+rabid of all the Jacobins, and it is obvious that she acts now under
+his influence, regardless of long service under the marquise and of
+the many benefits received. Alack! the ingratitude of those who rend
+the hand that caresses them is very hard to bear.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Madame, you do not believe him?&quot; cried Toinon, throwing herself at
+Gabrielle's feet and anxiously searching her face. &quot;You know that the
+man is lying!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Yes, I know,&quot; Gabrielle whispered as she bent to kiss her brow. &quot;I
+know you have spoken truth, but we are powerless.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">She leaned back, supporting her head wearily upon her arm, perfectly
+composed in demeanour, while Toinon, her face buried in her lap,
+sobbed as if her heart were breaking.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The aged Madame de Brèze turned from one to the other of the group,
+utterly mystified, with a growing grudge against some one, at present
+she could not tell whom. A gulf had suddenly yawned in front, and from
+its depths arose a faint sickening fume of death. Although she had a
+foot in the grave she mightily objected to the smell of death. Which
+of these two spoke truth? The dear delightful abbé could not have--oh,
+no, that was absurd and ridiculous, and yet why should Gabrielle sit
+so stonily with that woful look of pain? It was plainly her place to
+rise up and take his part, exonerate him at once from even the
+slightest shadow of this dreadful thing; at least to declare her
+conviction that the abigail was mad, was suffering from some unhealthy
+fancy. It was not the poor girl's fault. Were not current events a
+more than sufficient excuse for any amount of hysteria? And yet,
+Gabrielle was plainly not of her opinion. There was the accuser
+nestling her head upon her lap, and the gentle hand was stroking it in
+caress and not in chiding. Did Gabrielle--could Gabrielle be keeping
+secrets from her parent? Was it the old story of the unappreciated
+mentor?</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The blessed maréchal, who was to be congratulated as out of the
+turmoil, had established a deplorable precedent in the matter of
+Madame de Brèze as an oracle. One of the pleasantest points of the
+present <i>séjour</i> was the consideration in which her words were held.
+Her views and opinions were treasured up, as they should be, like
+flies in amber. Could it--oh, no, horrid thought, it could not
+be--that Virginie, Maréchale de Brèze, aged, never mind how much, <i>was
+deliberately being made a fool of?</i> Much as she was disinclined to
+believe anything so preposterous, it did look extremely like it. The
+husband away, the brother-in-law was openly accused of attempting to
+murder his brother's wife, and that lady being present, made no sign
+except by affectionately caressing the accuser. Madame de Brèze did
+not like this new complexion of things at all. How she did and always
+had hated mysteries! Why will people be mysterious? Unless conscious
+of guilt, there is no cause for crawling in shadow. There could not be
+anything between Gabrielle and the abbé? Shocking idea! And yet in
+Paris such things often were. Could there also be something between
+the abbé and Toinon which rendered the latter jealous? Just like a
+woman, Madame de Brèze ambled off into the labyrinth of conjecture.
+growing each moment more involved in prickly briars, plunging about
+and tumbling down in pursuit of Will-o'-the-wisp.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">When--Toinon's agitation calmed--everybody went to bed, and Gabrielle
+impressed on her mother's brow the chilly kiss of a statue, the
+maréchale shivered, and there and then resolved that Lorge was a
+hateful place fit only for owls and ghouls.</p>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<h2>CHAPTER XXIV.</h2>
+
+<h3><a name="div1_24" href="#div1Ref_24">MADAME DE BRÈZE IS NERVOUS.</a></h3>
+<br>
+
+<p class="normal">That night Gabrielle and her foster-sister slept together, or rather
+lay in the same bed, for Toinon had much to tell and Gabrielle to
+hear. In the morning, the chatelaine looked much the same as usual,
+but for the circle of bistre round her eyes, which had grown deeper,
+giving an air of lassitude.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Virginie, Maréchale de Brèze, never slept a wink; but groaned and
+tossed in a fever, mumbling Ave Marias, and when she appeared at
+déjeuner, the abbé shook a reproachful finger at her. &quot;Yellow!&quot; he
+declared, mournfully, &quot;absolutely and undeniably yellow! How dare you,
+after all our care, look so jaded, when yesterday you were as blooming
+as a rose? I know what it is. Try this pear--it absolutely melts in
+the mouth. No. I won't offer it, for I am afraid it smells of copper.
+Or is it brimstone? How provoking! I have tucked my hoofs and tail
+under my chair, but I cannot conceal the brimstone! Look at your
+lovely daughter. She knows better than to believe <i>cancans</i>, and has
+slept the sleep of the angels. Alas--dearest mother--you have
+permitted me to call you mother--I shall have to administer a severe
+and terrible lecture. I told you last night you were our prisoner, but
+I won't have birds that injure their delightful plumage. If you beat
+your wings against the bars I shall open the cage-door, I warn you,
+and dismiss you into space!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Turned out into space among the ravening wolves without, or kept in
+the gilded cage to be slowly done to death? What an alternative! Why
+could not somebody tell her what to do, instead of leaving her all
+night stretched upon the rack of her uncertainty? Evidently, unless
+candidates for an asylum, they must all have some motive for acting in
+the odd way they did, but what was it? It was so rude and
+inconsiderate to be plotting, and scheming, and lying, and charging
+each other with all kinds of horrible offences, under the nose of an
+innocent stranger, of whom they were making a butt. Madame made up her
+mind to upbraid Gabrielle severely for her inhuman and unfilial
+conduct. If there was any nasty skeleton about, she had no business to
+summon an aged parent to contemplate it.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Toinon, plunged into a slough of anguish, could only wring her hands
+and moan. It is not every David who can get the better of Goliath; and
+is it not wiser to flee before the great towering monster, instead of
+hurling our puny stone at him--only to be trodden in a trice under his
+ponderous splay foot?</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The abigail had got the worst of the encounter, her proofs as well as
+her accusation were rendered ridiculous, even in her own eyes,
+although she knew the accusation to be true. She was held up to
+obloquy as a Jacobin, one of the anarchists steeped to the lips in
+crime, ready to destroy by false witness the family to which she owed
+everything. Next, she would develop into a tricoteuse, sitting under
+shadow of the guillotine. It was intolerable. Toinon was not meek and
+lowly as some of her betters were. On the contrary, there ran through
+her veins a current of pugnacity of which honest Jean had tasted. She
+was not prepared to sit down like Gabrielle, wearing a crown of thorns
+and bearing a cross, the while pretending to enjoy them. Certainly
+not. She was one of those who have no respect for crowns of thorns,
+and consider crosses irksome wear. But what could she do to unwind her
+mistress and herself from the present tangle? The maréchale was an
+imbecile old doll. The abject terror of her mien last night had
+something about it that was full of pathos. It is pitiful to see so
+battered and helpless a thing as that in the bubbling whirlpool of our
+world. Jean--Jean Boulot was the one rock to which the two women might
+cling in their danger. Jean must leave his Jacobin clubs and come to
+them. Would it be well for Toinon herself to proceed to Blois, seek
+him out, and explain? He would not think her forward and unmaidenly,
+for she would find words to convince him as she had her mistress. No.
+The maréchale having proved herself to be a broken reed, it would not
+do to go to Blois, for her mistress would be left with no rampart,
+however unsatisfactory and weak, between herself and the insidious
+foe. What if, on her return, she were to find that the deed was
+accomplished? Jean must be written to, and implored by the past to
+come to the rescue of two women in grievous peril. And they were in
+extreme danger; he would see that for himself when he arrived. Toinon
+knew it full well. She had read the abbé's eyes last night, and was as
+much aware as Gabrielle, that for those who stood athwart his path,
+there was no more mercy within his breast than conscience or religion.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Poor Madame de Brèze! Yellow, forsooth! The more she pondered the more
+troubled she became. Her wrinkled old face was turning green. Was the
+abbé a monster or an angel? If only somebody would clear up this
+point. He made her blood run cold with his facetiousness, for is it
+not creepy to be openly informed by a person, that he wears a tail and
+hoofs, and to be more than half assured that it is true? He danced
+round her fears with elfin gambols, till she felt her frail wits
+tottering; and then, grown of a sudden serious, he would relate what
+he called facts, which only increased her terrors. Why had no one
+informed her before that Madame de Vaux hardly, and her daughter
+Angelique, were practically in a state of siege; that various chateaux
+in the neighbourhood had been demolished, their inhabitants drowned
+or strangled; that she had not been wrong on her way thither, as to
+the threatening attitude of the peasantry? Of course, she had been
+right--was she not always right though people would not believe her?
+She had been lured hither to this dismal fortalice to perish like a
+rat in a trap. Danger from without and from within. Goodness gracious!
+What if that story of the cakes were true? Gabrielle, strangely
+enough, seemed to consider that it was neither new nor surprising that
+her life should be in peril. What should they want to kill her for?
+Was it something connected with money? All evil springs from that.
+Then a thrill of horror surged over the selfish heart of the unlucky
+dame, when she remembered her daughter's will. To her, the old mother,
+the money was bequeathed--in trust, it is true; but to her. If they
+wished to compass Gabrielle's death, of course, her own would follow.
+What a silly will it was. She protested at the time, but had been
+overruled by M. Galland. It was an absurd thing for a young woman to
+bequeath a fortune to an old one--worse--it was a cruel and dastardly
+thing to do, if unscrupulous schemers were after it. Why must they mix
+up a harmless and venerable and justly respected lady in their plots
+and squabbles? Madame de Brèze worked herself up into a white heat of
+indignation, and set herself to see how she could get out of the trap
+with promptitude, and such decency as might be.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">She propounded her views to Gabrielle, who gravely and calmly
+aquiesced. &quot;Nothing detains you here, dear mother,&quot; she kept
+repeating, with monotonous persistency, &quot;except your own fancy. I
+hoped you had taken to our quiet life; but if not, it is better you
+should go.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I have so few years left to live, you know,&quot; apologetically whimpered
+the maréchale, &quot;that I grudge the time away from entrancing Paris.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">When her daughter elected courteously to consider that this was
+natural, her conscience pricked, and she was annoyed at feeling
+ashamed. Indeed, the excuse was of the lamest, since the beloved
+capital was, at this juncture, a prey to devils whose goddess was
+Mother Guillotine. In the retirement of her secluded dwelling,
+however, she could feel comparatively safe. She quite longed for the
+little house, which she was always complaining of as dismal. At all
+events, she could nibble a cake there without dread of poison.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I will stay, of course, if you say you really wish it,&quot; she went on,
+plaintively, as salve to the inner monitor, &quot;but the air of Touraine
+never did agree with me any more than with your blessed father; and if
+I were to be taken ill, I should only be an extra worry.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">A smile flitted over the sad face of the marquise, as she took her
+mother's hands and kissed them. &quot;My dear,&quot; she said, &quot;I would not have
+you stay for worlds a moment longer than you fancy. Go back to Paris,
+and I will pray Heaven that your journey may be prosperous. I would
+like you to go at once, because I am sure it is for the best, since
+you are nervous, and at the same time I would beg of you a favour.
+Take the children with you, for I should feel happier if they were
+safe under your care. I will give orders now,&quot; she added, rising
+briskly, &quot;in order that they may be ready by to-morrow.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The old lady ruefully rubbed her nose with her spectacles, being
+ashamed to speak her thoughts. It occurred to her that if the abbé
+really was nourishing designs of a nefarious nature, he might
+endeavour to prevent her from departing. If she proposed to remove the
+children, there would be extra inducement to interfere, considering
+the uncomfortable prominence given to all three by that deplorably
+ill-advised testament. Gabrielle had kept her lips sealed with regard
+to the second document. Indeed, she was unaccountably and provokingly
+reticent on most points in her dealings with the maréchale, who
+resented her silence hotly. She never could be got to talk of her
+affairs--to give an opinion as to the characters of Pharamond or of
+Phebus; declined to discuss the absence of her husband, or to explain
+the presence of the quondam governess, who, from time to time, was
+meteorically visible, hovering. Under the circumstances, what object
+would be gained by lingering at Lorge, since all seemed alike agreed
+to withhold from the sage their confidence? If she were allowed, she
+would gladly turn her back on the ill-omened place, and thank her
+stars when quit of it.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The marquise saved her from the trouble of displaying her own
+diplomacy by boldly announcing to the abbé that Madame la Maréchale de
+Brèze would return on the morrow to the capital, and, being lonely
+there, would borrow, for a period, the society of her grandchildren.
+The abbé glanced keenly in her face, but could read nothing there.
+What curious fancy was this? She who so adored the cherubs, had
+decided on a separation! Why? What motive could underly so unexpected
+a project? The more the abbé reflected, the less could he fathom it,
+but after looking at it from every point, he made up his mind that it
+was some feminine whim which concerned him not. And yet it did in this
+much. From the moment that the second will was executed, the children
+were safe from any machinations of the conspirators. What happened to
+them was of no importance. If Algaé chose to be burthened with them,
+she was welcome so to do, as far as her fellow-schemer was concerned.
+It would be a convenience, though, to have them out of the way just
+now. When <i>it</i> was over, and the family was comfortably established at
+Geneva, there would be plenty of time to consider what was to be done
+with the infants. Perhaps it would be a harmless sop to Clovis to have
+them with him there, in order that he might make up for the shadiness
+of his marital past by systematic parental indulgence. There certainly
+was no possible reason why they should not journey with their
+grandmother to Paris on a visit, and the heart of the latter, on
+finding there was no opposition to the plan, was relieved of a weight
+as ponderous as a nether millstone.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Long before the hasty preparations were complete, Madame la Maréchale
+had satisfactorily convinced herself that the abbé's place was among
+the angelic host. It must be mischievous fudge about those cakes; a
+silly tittle-tattle of ignorant servants, to which Gabrielle, mopish
+and morbid, had given too willing an ear. Far from throwing barriers
+in the way of an exodus, both brothers were almost too obliging. The
+chevalier, who was a past master in farriery, examined the horses'
+shoes with minute care, while his brother superintended the inner
+economy of the berline. In the boot were books, and a few bottles of
+the choicest wines and samples of comforting cordials, wherewith an
+elderly traveller might be sustained under fatigue. There were pillows
+and cushions galore, and cunning wraps deftly-stowed in corners.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Our dear mother,&quot; he explained, laughingly, &quot;shall carry away with
+her a favourable impression of Lorge, though she is so ungrateful as
+to leave us with too evident alacrity. Never mind. It becomes the
+Church to be forgiving, and, returned to the capital, she will reward
+us with remembrance in her prayers.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">As at last she drove away, with a darling wedged in on either side,
+like panniers on a donkey, the maréchale blamed herself bitterly for
+her unjust suspicions. How could the man have evil intentions, since
+he was so ready to speed upon their road those whom, if suspicions
+were true, it was his direct interest to keep under control? And
+if--as was clearly proven--he had evolved no base scheme with regard
+to the children and their guardian--why should he be scheming to
+injure Gabrielle? What could he possibly gain by injuring Gabrielle,
+since, after her death, her possessions would pass at once far
+out of his reach? It was all preposterous--impossible rather than
+improbable--and it behoved a wise and experienced lady of mature years
+to scold an hysterical daughter for nourishing injurious fancies. The
+nearer she was to Paris, the more jubilant did the old dame become,
+the more rosy grew her cogitations. It was certainly nice to have the
+cherubs' society in a shut-up house in the suburbs, whose safety lay
+in its blankness; but it was improper to be selfish. If there was a
+vice against which the maréchale was fond of tilting, it was
+selfishness. She loathed and abhorred the disfiguring leprosy. No one
+should ever say that she was selfish. She would keep the little ones
+for a few months, then pack them home again. In her odd state, it was
+not quite wise to leave the marquise moping. By and by she would
+receive them in her arms, delighted with the good that change of
+scene had done them, grateful for the grandmother's care. As for M.
+Galland--the estimable and upright, but somewhat square-toed,
+solicitor, to whose acumen the late maréchal had been misguided enough
+to trust, rather than to the wisdom of his singularly clear-brained
+wife, she would be able to report most favourably. He had urged,
+almost compelled, the journey to Touraine, being oppressed by some
+indefinite apprehension. Madame la Marquise, he had explained, wrote
+so seldom and so little, that he began to think there must be some
+reason for her reticence. Regardless of self, or plaguey pains and
+aches, the devoted mother had travelled that weary distance, and in
+late autumn, too, when east winds are so unpleasantly familiar. Martyr
+to duty and an irrepressibly conscientious solicitor, she had been,
+and she had come back. The tiresomely apprehensive Galland would be
+delighted with the assurance that the Marquise de Gange was well; that
+the marquis, temporarily absent on business, was likewise well; that
+two of the most charming and devotedly attentive men on earth were his
+half-brothers, on whose backs the wings were already sprouting, that
+they might join the hierarchy of heaven. As for the cherubs, she had
+brought them as specimens of the results of Touraine air. The arms of
+the darlings were healthily brown, and prematurely developed by
+boating exercise on the Loire. They were quite bursting with health
+and spirits, and would very likely be insulted in the streets as
+aggressive and reproachful examples of country versus town. M.
+Galland's apprehensions, clearly demonstrated to be of the most idle
+description, would vanish; he would sleep on his two ears, as the
+saying hath it; and worry the grandmother no more.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">On the evening of her arrival, the solicitor dined with her, anxious
+for a report as to the doings in Touraine. He hearkened to her wisdom,
+nor strove to stem the ocean of her prate, which babbled on
+unceasingly. She was provoked to observe that he was absent, and that
+his moody brow remained clouded despite the rosiness of her report. Of
+course, he did not believe her. Nobody ever had, worse luck for the
+world in general; but it was really just a shade too insolent to have
+sent her all that distance in a ram-shackle old shanderydan, and, the
+pilgrimage completed, to treat the result of her observations as mere
+draught whistling through a keyhole. The old lady was so hurt that she
+was unable to control her vexation. &quot;Of course, I'm a fool,&quot; she
+gurgled. &quot;If I'm so incurably imbecile, why did you not go yourself?
+These children, I suppose, are no evidence, with their gladsome eyes
+and ruddy faces!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">M. Galland did not reply at once, for he was thinking.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;It might have been as well, perhaps, madame, if I had accompanied
+you,&quot; he slowly said at last. &quot;The children, thank goodness! are in
+perfect health. The marquis, you admit, was absent; his brothers
+practically in possession. One lady and two gentlemen--a cosy party of
+three.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Wrong!&quot; cried the maréchale in triumph. &quot;Always the same. You
+interrupt and jump at conclusions without having the decent civility
+to hear me out. Some men are insufferably rude.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;How wrong?&quot; enquired the solicitor, anxiously.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;There were two ladies in the house; but the second held so much aloof
+that I was hardly aware of her presence. That struck me as a little
+odd, for she was an invited guest--a Mademoiselle Brunelle, at one
+time governess to the little ones.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">M. Galland started, and the cloud on his brow deepened.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">That woman again! She whom he had himself expelled by the express
+orders of De Brèze. How had she wormed herself into the house a second
+time. And she held aloof, too--was not one of the family circle--sure
+sign that her presence there was contrary to the wish of the marquise.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Of a certainty,&quot; reflected the solicitor, &quot;I should have done well to
+go down myself. Strange as it may seem, it looks very much as if the
+forebodings of madame were to be realized.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">M. Galland muffled himself to the eyes in his roquelaure, and preceded
+by a trusty servant with a lantern, walked rapidly home, exceedingly
+disturbed in mind. &quot;If aught happens to her,&quot; he kept murmuring, &quot;it
+will be a cause of acutest self-reproach as long as I live. And yet
+how could a steady-going old lawyer take a woman's romantic
+presentiments into account? She declared when she left Paris, that she
+was going to her death. A fear without solid basis founded upon fancy.
+And that declaration that she made before the magistrate. Did she see
+with prophetic vision? I've heard of such cases, but never credited
+them. Have I unwittingly betrayed my trust? If anything happens,
+how, in the next world, shall I dare to meet her father? It is
+strange--extremely strange.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Proceeding to his study, M. Galland took up an open letter, and with
+gathering frown, perused it carefully for the fourth time. It was a
+letter from a brother solicitor at Blois, formally enquiring for
+information. The Marquis de Gange, the stranger explained, was anxious
+to emigrate secretly with his family, and to that end desired to raise
+money. All Touraine knew that the beautiful marquise, his wife, was
+the money-bag, and it had struck him, the solicitor, as irregular that
+the marquise should not herself have made the request, if not in
+person, at least in writing. M. le Marquis had explained her absence
+by frankly confessing that she knew nothing of his move, she being in
+so nervous and over-wrought a condition through terror, that it would
+be dangerous to consult her on the subject. It was solely on her
+account that he was anxious to leave France in secret and without
+delay, for she was in so precarious a state of nervous prostration
+that only in a peaceful land could it be hoped that she would rally.
+As security for the sum required--nothing very considerable--the
+marquis had produced his wife's testament, showing that even if,
+unfortunately, her health succumbed on the journey, her sorrowing
+widower would be in condition to repay the loan.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The matter was nothing very extraordinary. In these ticklish times,
+much stranger requests were being made each day, but it had struck the
+provincial firm that before complying, it would be only regular and
+courteous to inform the family solicitor.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Regular and courteous, indeed!&quot; sighed M. Galland, as he folded and
+locked away the letter. &quot;It is all too plain. She has been forced, as
+she feared, to make another will. Her husband is trying to raise money
+on it. Meanwhile, she is left in the custody of his brothers and that
+woman. Is it coercion, or has she changed her mind? I should dearly
+like to know if there is a cross after the signature. Perhaps she has
+really changed her mind, and I am an over-anxious old donkey. Her
+mother declared that she is well and happy, and a mother ought to be a
+judge. But such a mother! cackling, silly goose. And what could have
+induced madame to send away the children? If well enough to deceive a
+mother's eye, the marquis has deliberately lied. There is a mystery
+that looks mighty black, and must forthwith be fathomed. This raising
+of funds without her knowledge shall be nipped in the bud at once; and
+if I turn out to be wrong, I can afford to accept the responsibility.
+Yes. I will fire a random shot and inform the firm at Blois by special
+courier that their will is mere waste paper.&quot;</p>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<h2>CHAPTER XXV.</h2>
+
+<h3><a name="div1_25" href="#div1Ref_25">WILL THE SWORD FALL?</a></h3>
+<br>
+
+<p class="normal">Perchance that well-meaning, but mole-like, person, Madame de Brèze,
+would have felt less comfortable if she had been aware of her
+daughter's attitude as the carriage rolled away. She stood at an upper
+window and strained her eyes, striving to follow the casket which
+contained her treasures, long after it was out of sight. Tears were
+streaming down her cheeks, and, turning away at length with a
+convulsive sob, she murmured, &quot;They at least are safe, thank Heaven
+for that mercy,&quot; and retired to weep in her chamber. Toinon, entering
+soon after, found her mistress lying on her face upon the bed in
+strong hysterics, with fingers tightly clasped about her neck. Honest
+Toinon was unable to solve the riddle of such singular behaviour. Her
+mistress seemed to be under some spell, her power of volition
+suspended, acting like a marionnette in obedience to invisible wires.
+If it was such agony to part from her children, why have done so? When
+she put the question, the answer staggered Toinon. With her head on
+her foster-sister's breast, her emotion calmed by contact of a loving
+hand, Gabrielle replied simply, &quot;What greater anguish than to part
+from dear ones whom you know you will never see again?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Exhorted to courage and hope, she only sighed and murmured, &quot;Even my
+mother has deserted me in my extremity. I look beyond the world and
+fix my faith in God.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">He or she who can bid a genuine farewell to hope is forlorn indeed. If
+this mental condition was to continue, the conspirators had nought to
+do but to sit with idle hands and wait. Either their victim would
+become insane, or fade and die without assistance from them. It is
+said that the fascinated bird feels neither pain nor fear, but looks
+forward with complacency to being swallowed. Toinon, being wrought of
+stronger stuff, had no idea of abandoning hope. She boiled with
+healthy wrath against the selfish old hag who was gone, and anger was
+a fillip to her energy. The abigail had laid herself out to be
+particularly agreeable during the last few days, had permitted a
+certain lacquey of the maréchale's sundry liberties, had even kissed
+him in the dark, and vowed to be his alone. This reprehensible levity
+served various ends. It kept up her spirits, and was a satisfactory
+revenge on absent Jean; passed time agreeably, and made of the man her
+slave. Having settled to eat humble pie with regard to the
+recalcitrant Boulot, and condone his enormities, a difficulty arose as
+to how he was to be communicated with. She knew that since the
+accusation about the cakes her steps had been dogged, her movements
+watched; and were she to openly indite epistles to the Jacobin, they
+would surely be intercepted by the conspirators. Gracefully grouped
+together on the stairs after the household were abed, the abigail and
+her admirer whispered fervid vows, and embraced each other tenderly.
+She could not leave her lady's service just at present, she explained,
+but would seek the earliest opportunity if the swain would promise to
+be true. She was full of crotchets. Never, no never, would she give
+her hand without the consent of her dearest brother, who was at Blois.
+He loved his little sister too well, however, to withhold consent
+where her heart was entirely given. But his consent must be obtained,
+and till it came, there must be no further dallying. How was his
+consent to be speedily obtained? She would indite a little letter to
+her brother, and, lest there should be delays she would not put her
+letter in the post. The invaluable missive should be confided to the
+swain, and money with it, that at the first posthouse on the road,
+when the maréchale's party left Lorge, he should transmit it by the
+hand of a horseman. Toinon was not above taking a lesson from her
+mistress and sending a summons to Jean on the sly, as the marquise had
+to her father. The old lady was gone, and the swain was gone, and
+naughty Toinon felt not the least compunction for fooling the simple
+fellow. If some day he were to make inconvenient claims, was not Jean
+Boulot burly enough to protect her? She had adjured the latter in the
+most solemn manner to leave all and come at once if he ever felt a
+spark of love for her or a scintilla of respect for her mistress.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;France has sufficient champions without you,&quot; she concluded; &quot;and you
+will never regret having been the means of saving two innocent
+helpless women.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Though she chose to gibe and be mighty indignant over Jean's
+defection, she never felt the smallest doubt that, the political fever
+past, he would return to his allegiance. She had despatched an urgent
+summons, and she knew that he would come; and this being so, she was
+inclined to be cheerful, keeping a wary eye on the conspirators.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Now it was a grievous thing that her mistress should collapse, commend
+her soul to Heaven, await the impending stroke with the air of a
+sacrificial lamb. Resignation is the attribute of slaves unendowed
+with the holy birthright of freedom. Our natural condition is that of
+contest, the form of which but varies according to the thickness of
+the civilized veneer. He who cannot gird his loins for the fray goes
+to the wall, and he who has gone to the wall is a deserving object for
+contempt. Toinon could fight, and would, with teeth and nails if need
+were, and she was prepared to do battle with the conspirators whilst
+awaiting the advent of Jean.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">It behoved her to show that she was not afraid of them, and she
+accordingly tripped into the kitchen on the day of the maréchale's
+departure, and scornfully announced that, considering what wretches
+they all were, former precautions must be resumed. Madame would take
+her meals in her apartments. Toinon would carry the plateau with her
+own hands, and M. Bertrand would be good enough to taste of every dish
+under her close inspection before confiding it to her care. Vainly
+that worthy blew himself out and beat his chest, and gesticulated, and
+talked of honour.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Pooh!&quot; scoffed the abigail, &quot;you may spare your breath. I choose to
+take the precaution, though I have no dread of your attempting to
+poison us. A dirty cooking-plate may serve as an excuse for once. A
+second mistake of the sort would go hard with you, for I would have
+you remember that the maréchale and all her servants know the story of
+the cakes, and a secluded lady is not poisoned twice <i>by accident!</i>&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Toinon prattled gaily of these things to the marquise, but could not
+succeed in raising her spirits. The latter, to please her devoted
+friend, summoned up a ghostly smile, which resembled moonlight on a
+tomb.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Fate is fate,&quot; she sighed. &quot;For some inscrutable reason we are
+doomed. Madame de Lamballe first; the queen or I, who knows which of
+us will be the second?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">It is hard work being always cheery when others groan in the
+doldrums. It is not easy to shake off the grip of fatalism in the
+society of a fatalist. Toinon, despite her efforts, receiving no
+encouragement--feeding as it were on her own fuel--in spite of brave
+resolutions, grew jaded and despondent. Flirtations were not to be
+thought of with any members of the existing household. Firstly,
+because the doughty Jean was to be expected at any moment, and
+untoward consequences might ensue; secondly, because the young lady
+knew, for certain, that many of the domestics were creatures of the
+abbé, if not all of them. There are few feelings less pleasant than a
+conviction that you are surrounded by spies, that you are always under
+observation like a struggling insect under a microscope. Common rough
+malefactors in gaol suffer more from unsleeping surveillance than
+would be supposed possible in persons with low-strung nerves.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The weather grew too cold for sitting-out, even if wrapped in furs,
+and Toinon had much ado to coax her wan mistress to take the air at
+all, for was not the favourite pleasaunce, called the moat-garden,
+redolent of distracting memories; did not each flower-bed recall some
+prank of the absent ones, each bush re-echo with the laughter, which
+was to be heard no more at Lorge? It was even disagreeable to gaze
+from the balconies of the long saloon, for the Loire flowed on in
+silent placidity, its bosom no longer ruffled by the eccentric
+movements of the wherry propelled by infant hands. The wherry swung in
+the tide, a useless bit of lumber, for no one dreamed of using it, of
+unknotting its rusty chain.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Gabrielle sat day by day in a low <i>causeuse</i>, intent on some
+embroidery like a fading Penelope, who works on and weaves, a dull
+machine, though she has learned that Ulysses is no more. The earth is
+steady underfoot, the sky above; the soul yet beats against its
+chain--how long? Some kind of mechanical occupation is imperative to
+keep overwrought nerves from twanging--to maintain on the lips the bit
+of silence, and hold back the wailing of despair. When all illusions
+are gone--every one--when, search as carefully as we will, there is no
+grain of comfort left to make existence bearable, we long for death in
+any hideous shape, well knowing that if the Pilgrim came, we should
+involuntarily shrink from him. Love of life, for the sake of living,
+is a phenomenon which orientals do not share with the white races,
+happily for them; whether they go or stay is a matter of indifference,
+from which they may thank their faith, since death means to them but a
+change of envelope, a single stage upon a journey.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">It is not uncommon in the east for men who are cast for execution to
+sit by the wayside, almost unguarded, awaiting the advent of the
+executioner, while the ease and cheapness with which a substitute may
+be bought in China is notorious. By a strange paradox, it is reserved
+for the disciples of Christ, the Prince of Peace, to live in terror of
+death. No doubt there are many whose burthens are so disproportionate
+to their strength that, <i>coûte que coûte</i>, they are impelled to shake
+them off, but students of statistics are surprised at the small number
+of sane suicides, slowly and deliberately carried out, compared to
+those brought about by passion.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Gabrielle knew, or thought she knew, as surely as that night follows
+day, that the frayed string which held the sword was worn almost
+through, and that at any moment it might fall.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">When on waking she saw Toinon fling back the heavy curtains of a
+morning to let in the light, she wondered that she should be alive and
+well. What object did her existence fulfil upon the earth? Why was she
+spared to crawl on aimlessly? Without husband, without children,
+without a friend in the world except this simple foster-sister, why
+did she linger thus? Surely her fitting place was in the fragrant
+earth, sheltered by waving grass from carking cares. The string was
+worn through, and yet it would not break. Day followed day, night
+followed night, nothing new occurred. She went her dismal way, and no
+one troubled her or seemed to know or care whether she were alive or
+dead, or well or dying. Algaé was still in the chateau, but made no
+sign. Toinon looked forth in vain for Jean Boulot. He neither wrote
+nor came; what if the letter had miscarried?</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The conspirators were quiescent because they were in a quandary. There
+was no news of Clovis, or of what he was doing at Blois. His continued
+silence was incomprehensible. Had any hitch occurred in the
+negociations? Surely not, or he would have communicated with his
+brother. Kept in suspense, the latter knew not what course to adopt,
+and had much ado to endure the persistent girding of Algaé. The
+ex-governess found the situation quite intolerable, and was for
+grappling with it at all hazards, and at once. Clovis had made some
+muddle, which might place the heads of all of them in jeopardy. He was
+not a man to be despatched on any mission requiring delicacy or tact.
+What he was pleased to call his feelings (mere pusillanimity) had been
+too much considered. <i>It</i> should have been carried out to the end, if
+not actually in his presence, at least while he was dwelling in the
+chateau. What was to prevent him now, supposing that anything went
+wrong, from declaring that his brothers had acted entirely without his
+knowledge or consent? It was a grand mistake to have let him fly off
+alone, and the abbé, who plumed himself so much on his astuteness, and
+who was for ever finding fault with others, had been guilty of the
+biggest blunder of all.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Thus mademoiselle querulously droning with increasing fretfulness, and
+the wrath of her fellow-conspirator was kindled against her. In his
+heart he could admit that there had been a grave mistake, but was that
+a reason for bearing taunts from Algaé? She had been called in to act
+as conscience keeper to the marquis, and a pretty way she had carried
+out the task. Instead of bringing him round to active co-operation,
+she had only so far blinded him as to procure the tacit consent of
+convenient temporary absence. It had been a foolish plan, too, to
+raise money on the will, during the marquise's life. Better far to
+have announced her sudden and much-to-be-regretted demise, to have
+performed decorous obsequies, and then quietly have taken possession.
+But then Clovis was so untrustworthy. He was just the sort of
+provoking man to veer round suddenly, to place obstacles instead of
+adding all his weight to keep the wheel revolving. Then the visit of
+the Marplot Maréchale had so altered the complexion of affairs, and
+swallowed precious time. Were the marquise to succumb suddenly, the
+story of the unlucky cakes might be raked up again, unpleasant
+questions be asked. The schemers must fall back upon the idea of
+typhus, and that brought the scheme round in a circle to the original
+starting point--the providing of necessary funds in specie to tide
+over a period of months.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The complaints and jeremiads of Algaé overshot their mark, and so
+stirred the ire of the abbé that his active mind went off at a
+tangent, and his wits began to weave another pattern. Oh! if by some
+cunning device it were possible to circumvent that odious woman--alone
+to carry off the prize, leaving her and her weak-kneed admirer to
+gnash their teeth in vain. How sweet a vengeance--how savoury a
+triumph! Revolving the matter in a brain quickened to activity by
+spite, Pharamond made up his mind once more, at the eleventh hour, to
+attempt to carry the citadel. The mental and physical condition of the
+marquise was vastly different now from what it was when last he failed
+to storm the outworks. To mark her listless movements, her hopeless
+heaviness of gait, was to be assured that the ramparts were crumbling,
+that the walls were insufficiently manned. The armour of the warrior
+was worn into holes, through which it would surely be possible to
+insert an arrow. At all events it was worth trying, for success would
+mow down the hopes of Algaé, and thus punish her presumption and
+impertinence.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Having decided to try again, the abbé donned his most becoming suit of
+violet silk with gold embroidered buttonholes, arranged his hair with
+extreme nicety, and placed a patch close to his favourite dimple. This
+done, he surveyed himself in the mirror, contemplated with approval
+the harmonious contour of his leg, and sallied forth satisfied, armed
+<i>cap-à-pie</i> for conquest. Swiftly he sped up the stairs, and meeting
+Toinon on the landing, well-nigh choked that damsel with indignation
+by playfully chucking her chin. &quot;It is too bad,&quot; he cried, &quot;that so
+ripe a cherry should yet hang upon the bough. You must leave this dull
+house and seek more congenial society. There are sweethearts galore
+waiting for you beyond the frontier.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Are you in such a hurry to get rid of me?&quot; gasped Toinon. &quot;Whatever
+happens to us, my place is beside my mistress.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Of course it is, you suspicious little fool!&quot; laughed René. &quot;If she
+travels, you will not wish to be left behind?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">If she travels! What new phase of the complication was this? It was
+distracting. Whatever it might be she was sure it boded injury to both
+the foster-sisters.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Travel, poor soul!&quot; the abigail observed, sourly. &quot;It was a long
+journey the other day that you strove to send her on!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Pharamond frowned, then seizing the buxom figure before him, he
+pressed upon the lips a kiss. &quot;There!&quot; he said; &quot;that is your
+punishment for unworthy and unjust suspicions of one who means you
+well. I promise that the dose shall be repeated twentyfold if you
+presume to talk such nonsense any more.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Toinon struggled and recoiled, crimson to the roots of her hair, her
+dark eyes flashing. &quot;How dare you--how dare you!&quot; she panted. &quot;Two
+helpless women are a fit butt for outrage. I am not so friendless as
+you think. Jean Boulot shall know of this.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Oho! Jean Boulot, the terrible Jacobin. Are we to be threatened with
+that bugbear? You can have but little pride, mistress, to prate of one
+who toyed with and then deserted you.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Scalding tears welled into the eyes of Toinon, and rolled in great
+drops upon her cheeks. Alas! it was too true. He was an idle bugbear,
+a stuffed bogey to frighten babes withal. Had she not sacrificed her
+vanity and besought him to come at once, and he had never deigned to
+answer? The abbé might do what he chose, the two women were indeed
+defenceless.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I wish to speak to the marquise upon an urgent matter. Go and say
+that I await her pleasure,&quot; commanded Pharamond.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Toinon glanced askance at him, and answered shortly, &quot;She will not see
+you.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Will she not? If you will not take a civil message, I will enter her
+boudoir unannounced.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">What was to prevent him? Nothing. Reluctantly the abigail obeyed, and
+while he stood waiting, the abbé considered her words. &quot;Jean Boulot!
+Remembered still? If she sent for him it might prove awkward. I must
+see that they do not communicate.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Toinon earnestly begged for permission to tell the abbé that the
+marquise refused to see him; but the latter shook her head and smiled
+her dreary smile. &quot;Go to,&quot; she sighed, &quot;if the man wishes me evil how
+shall I protect myself? If he has aught to say it is better that I
+should hear it.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The visitor found Gabrielle sitting on a low sofa, and as, unbidden,
+he sank into the place by her side, a thrill passed along his nerves,
+for the statuesque composure of her mien was exactly suited to her
+beauty.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Dear Gabrielle,&quot; he murmured, &quot;you are more beautiful than ever.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;You have intruded here to-day to tell me so?&quot; she inquired, coldly.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Take care! You burn and freeze at the same time. Such loveliness as
+yours may account for any rashness.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Alas! how ghastly a mockery had this same beauty been! The
+fairest woman of her time--her affections withered, her heart
+broken--deserted, friendless, desolate. At thought of it Gabrielle
+smiled, and the abbé considered himself encouraged.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Gabrielle,&quot; he said, taking her unwilling hand, &quot;in what I am about
+to say you must not deem me harsh. It is sometimes for the best to
+speak quite openly. I am a very forgiving man, as you shall have cause
+to know. You flouted, scorned, insulted me, and yet, though you
+deliberately chose my hate, I have nothing but deep love for you.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Again! The marquise wondered in a hazy way what could be the motive
+for this comedy.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Love,&quot; she observed, reflecting, quite unruffled. &quot;A strange form of
+love, is it not, which injures the object that is adored? Wherein lies
+the difference betwixt such love and the hate you promised?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;An ardent, hot-headed man may be goaded by desperation to acts that
+he afterwards deplores in sackcloth and in ashes.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;An odd form of love that kills and crushes!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Hear me out quietly, and you will be convinced that I have striven in
+vain to hate you--that my carefully barbed darts have fallen blunted.
+Your position here is desperate. It is, believe me; and yet, though
+you are walled about by triple barriers, against which it would be
+idle to buffet, yet there is a loophole by which you may escape.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Gabrielle turned her deep blue eyes upon the speaker, and raised her
+brows inquiringly.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Your case is desperate because all are combined against you; all are
+resolved upon your death--all, except me, and why? Because my love
+stands between you and them, a saving plank in the approaching
+hurricane. Your husband and his friend are bent on your destruction.
+He has left the house until it is accomplished. You are hemmed about
+with foes. Every servant in this household is suborned. They are men,
+carefully selected, who know no pity--on whose shoulders, were they
+bared, you would see the galleys-brand--men who would one and all look
+on your death struggle with indifference--as callous as the bravo of
+romance. I have before told you, and it is more true than ever now,
+that my love is your only safeguard. I hold the door ajar to Hope.
+Yield to my suit and grant me the boon I ask, and I swear that the
+shackles will fall from off your limbs; that your troubles will cease,
+for you'll be free. Free to depart with me to a distant land where in
+freshly-flowing happiness, the past shall be as a dream. Sorceress!
+What is this witchcraft that you exert over me? I love you all the
+more ardently for the long siege. Be mine the grateful task to rescue
+you from the clutches of these wretches. Say the word. We will quit
+France secretly together, and leave <i>them</i> to the fate which they
+deserve.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">In the eagerness of his pleading, the abbé had edged close to
+Gabrielle. She could feel his hot breath--the beating of his heart
+against her arm--and she shivered from top to toe, as Toinon outside
+was shivering, her eyes distended by alarm.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The frayed string was about to snap. The long-expected moment was
+come. Thank God that suspense was over.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I thank you for your engaging candour,&quot; Gabrielle said in a voice
+that was clear and steady. &quot;I had learned to know you for a villain,
+but had not gauged the deeps of your rascality. False to the core.
+True to nothing but your own devilish passions. A Judas even to your
+confederates!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">There was so sharp a ring of scorn in the tone in which she spoke--a
+flash of such unmeasurable contempt in the dark blue eyes--that
+Pharamond, though he had smarted under the lash before, felt his
+withers wrung, while Toinon without was torn by fear and admiration.
+Was he, before whose fascinations many a fair dame had willingly
+succumbed, so vile a reptile as to warrant the storm of disgust that
+racked this haughty woman? She loathed him worse than death since,
+seeing her impending fate with crystalline vision, she cheerfully
+preferred its chill embrace to his ardent one. And now with eyes
+flashing and delicately chiselled nostrils distended, and a tinge of
+rose on either pallid cheek, her beauty had gained once more the
+animation that it so frequently lacked. She was lovelier at this
+moment than he had ever seen her--and in her direful plight she shrank
+from his touch as though he were hideously diseased. It was written
+then, that he was never to attain the full measure of revenue for the
+rebuffs he had endured at her hands? He was not to sully this fair
+form, suck the orange dry then fling its rind into the gutter? What a
+pity! How complete the triumph would have been if she, at this
+eleventh hour could have been persuaded to seek safety with him in
+flight. He would have carried off for his own use alone the goose that
+laid golden eggs. How he would have snapped his fingers at Clovis and
+Algaé--mean grovelling worms--with their ridiculous testament which
+was not to be the last! What a refined pleasure it would have been,
+when sated, and weary of the toy, to break it slowly! He would have
+carried the maréchal's heiress to some secure and distant spot, have
+forced her by famine or other torment to execute yet another will--in
+his sole favour this time--and then he would have gloated over her
+suffering and degradation as he compelled her to sink to the lowest
+depths of female infamy and shame, ere, drop by drop, he squeezed away
+her life! And it was not to be--actually might never be, this
+exhilarating programme--he realized that now as he gazed in her proud
+face, each string of his evil nature tingling. Baffled and
+disappointed, he must even be content to share with the others, to
+carry out the plan as previously arranged, to sweep her from the path.
+Oh, what a grievous pity, for the other arrangement would have been
+deliciously complete and satisfactory.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">There was nothing to be gained by continuing the interview, since it
+had fallen to his lot to play the <i>rôle ridicule</i>. He rose, therefore,
+flinging the hand from him which he had so ardently been pressing with
+a movement of muffled fury.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;On your own head be the consequences,&quot; he growled. &quot;You have spoken
+your own sentence. Amen!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;My life,&quot; replied Gabrielle, drearily, &quot;has been fraught with pain
+and overlong, although I'm not five and twenty! The death you threaten
+me withal, I will accept with thanks as a release.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;You shall be released, nor will you have long to wait,&quot; the abbé
+remarked with a dry laugh. &quot;You, who are alive, may count yourself as
+dead and buried.&quot; With that he left her to her reflections, banging
+the door behind him.</p>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<h2>CHAPTER XXVI.</h2>
+
+<h3><a name="div1_26" href="#div1Ref_26">WILL JEAN BOULOT COME?</a></h3>
+<br>
+
+<p class="normal">Two persons, from entirely opposite motives, were thinking about
+Jean Boulot. Toinon, her wits sharpened by eavesdropping, saw plainly
+that not a moment must be lost if she and her mistress were to be
+saved. It stood to reason that if the marquise was doomed, so was her
+foster-sister, in order that the voice of the accuser might be
+silenced. The daring of the poor harassed lady had been admirable--she
+had conspicuously shown the moral courage which in extreme peril goes
+with breeding; but it would have been more prudent to have temporised.
+What use is there in making of oneself a sublime spectacle of defiant
+virtue if there is no public to applaud? How many malefactors have
+made &quot;fine exits&quot; sustained by the murmurs of a sympathetic mob, who,
+if executed in private, would have died screeching? Truth is a nice
+thing in theory, but the practice of it in our sinful sphere too often
+leads to complications which would be avoided by appropriate
+mendacity.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Toinon, much as she adored her mistress, had frequently deplored her
+blunt and uncompromising truthfulness. Knowing that she had a noose
+about her neck, which only required a pull from the abbé to tighten to
+strangulation point, it was vastly foolish to cry out, &quot;Do your
+worst.&quot; She ought to have pondered and asked for time, have argued and
+implored, have even shown signs of yielding, have trembled and
+blushed--have murmured in one breath that she would, yet wouldn't.
+Where is the man, however cunning, who cannot be hoodwinked by a woman
+if she seriously sets about the operation? Precious hours might thus
+have been gained--nay, days, by a skilful display of comedy. Boulot
+might be even now upon the road, and arrive too late to be of use,
+owing to the inopportune sublimity of the too artless chatelaine.
+Having defied the arch-conspirator, he would certainly act promptly.
+If Jean Boulot was to come to the aid of the two women, it must be at
+once, or there was no use in his coming at all. The anxious abigail
+felt that they were in precisely the same harrowing position as Sister
+Anne and Fatima. Was there nobody coming? The sand in the glass was
+dripping all too swiftly. Was there no sound of approaching hoofs, no
+curl of dust upon the way? Quite idly, in obedience to a whimsical
+fancy due to restlessness, Toinon put on her hood, resolved to take a
+stroll upon the road that led to Blois. She would see the cloud of
+dust and rush towards it, cry out to honest Jean to use his spurs,
+chide him for his culpable delay.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">But Toinon, while deploring the mistakes of her mistress, was unaware
+that she had herself been guilty of an error. It had been an act of
+gross imprudence to threaten the abbé with Boulot as she had done when
+she met him on the landing. It set the abbé thinking of Boulot, whose
+existence he had well-nigh forgotten. Though there had been a tiff or
+an estrangement, the gamekeeper and the abigail were lovers. They had
+been, and possibly still were, betrothed. It struck the abbé as not at
+all improbable that Mademoiselle Toinon had written to him anent the
+cake fiasco, and that her lover might inopportunely arrive to look
+after her safety. It was most obliging of the young woman to have
+vouchsafed a hint suggestive of such a contingency, and he would be
+guilty of gross ingratitude if he failed to act on it forthwith.
+Hence, when in pursuance of her fancy she moved across the yard to the
+archway, where of old a portcullis used to hang, she was surprised to
+perceive that the ponderous entrance gates were closed, and that the
+key had been removed from the lock. The concierge was leaning against
+the stonework smoking pensively, his hands plunged deep into his
+breeches pockets.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;What does this mean?&quot; cried the abigail, with an imperious frown
+which served to mask a new-born terror.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;It means that the gates are locked, and will remain so,&quot; was the
+composed answer.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;But I want to go out--I have a mission from madame to one of the
+cottagers hard by.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;So sorry,&quot; returned the concierge, smiling roguishly. &quot;Mademoiselle
+must remain within--a pretty little bird within a cage. Nay, I but
+obey my orders. If mademoiselle will deign to discuss the point,
+yonder is the porter's room. We shall be quite alone and undisturbed,
+and I will make myself agreeable to mademoiselle.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">There was a studied insolence about the man's manner--he had been
+engaged quite recently--which made Toinon tremble. The fowler's net
+was closing in; she already fluttered in the toils, but would attempt
+another struggle to make assurance sure.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;This castle is the property of the Marquise de Gange,&quot; she said,
+haughtily, &quot;and the lacqueys who dwell therein eat her bread. I have
+warned you that I am sent by her. Open that door immediately.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The man puffed slowly at his pipe and gave a long reflective whistle
+that spoke volumes. &quot;Bread? Ah yes,&quot; he observed, abstractedly. &quot;The
+bread is excellent, but it is not hers. Such, at least, are my
+instructions.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Impudent brute!&quot; cried Toinon, stamping her foot. &quot;I will report you
+instantly to our mistress, and you will be dismissed at once. A pretty
+pass, indeed! when I, her confidential maid, am to stand by and hear
+her insulted.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;What is all this about?&quot; demanded a big base voice behind, at sound
+of which the man put away his pipe and assumed an obsequious attitude.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;It means, Mademoiselle Brunelle,&quot; retorted Toinon, trembling with
+ire, &quot;that Madame la Marquise is reaping the earthly reward of divine
+forbearance. But you can goad even her too far, as you had cause to
+know when you were ignominiously expelled from the chateau.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The dusky face of Algaé darkened a shade, and her heavy mobile brows
+lowered over her eyes with menace. She crossed her arms over her chest
+and gave vent to a rumbling laugh.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Circumstances alter cases,&quot; she observed, with exasperating
+composure. &quot;You always did me the honour to dislike me. When I am
+mistress here, it is you who will be expelled. You are silent?
+Come--that is better. Go to your room and mind your business, and
+perhaps no harm will come to you.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I will send over to Montbazon,&quot; returned Toinon, striving hard to
+conceal her growing terror. &quot;M. de Vaux and the Seigneurie will
+interfere for madame's protection.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Do you think so?&quot; inquired Algaé, with interest. &quot;The de Vaux are
+nice people, if timid, who were always kind to me. I hardly think they
+are likely to interfere.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;What have you done?&quot; asked Toinon, her heart sinking within her.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I had the honour to send a messenger to Montbazon this morning to
+announce with deep regret that Madame la Marquise de Gange had been
+seized with a malignant fever.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;You did that?&quot; gasped the abigail. &quot;You know, you wicked woman, that
+the marquise is in perfect health.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The concierge had withdrawn discreetly out of hearing, and with sturdy
+legs straddled apart, was softly whistling.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">No help was to be hoped for from that quarter, or from any other,
+apparently. The possibility of a casual visit from the inhabitants of
+Montbazon had been skilfully prevented. The household was on the side
+of the conspirators, just as this concierge was, no doubt of it.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">What sound was that? A horse's hoofs. Jean Boulot at last! The heart
+of the abigail gave such a leap that she staggered and would have
+fallen but for Algaé's sustaining hand.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The latter had also heard the ominous ring of hoofs, and seizing
+Toinon roughly, began to push her towards the house.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Go in, you little fool,&quot; she hissed. &quot;Cannot you see that you are a
+prisoner, and that your treatment depends upon your conduct.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I will not go,&quot; Toinon cried, tussling with all her strength against
+the iron grip of Algaé. &quot;It is Jean, by the goodness of Heaven, sent
+to succour us in time. Jean, Jean,&quot; she shouted; &quot;it is I, Toinon. We
+are alive, but in sorest peril.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The cries of the luckless waiting maid died away in a gurgle. She was
+rapidly pushed along by the ex-governess, who hurriedly unwound a
+scarf and twisted it tight about her mouth. Toinon was fainting and
+half-stifled when Mademoiselle Brunelle flung her within a door,
+closed it, and turned the key.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">With a supreme effort, Toinon freed herself from the scarf, and rising
+to her knees, applied an ear to the keyhole. Oh for a sound of the
+welcome voice of Jean! Would he be deceived by a plausible tale and go
+as he had come? Surely not. After what she had told him in her letter,
+the fact of the closed gates would make suspicion certainty. He would
+demand admittance or depart to rouse the neighbourhood. Perhaps he had
+heard her outcry before she was gagged. Toinon crouched down in
+profound thankfulness, and as she prayed glad tears poured down her
+face. Till this moment she had not quite realised the imminence of the
+danger, and now that she fully knew it it was past, for Jean would
+demand to see his betrothed and the marquise. He was a great man now,
+and a powerful leader of the dominant party at Blois; always fearless
+and honest, not now a man to dally with. Would the conspirators give
+way at once, confess themselves beaten, sue for mercy? or would he be
+compelled to rouse the country and storm the grim fortalice as the
+other day the Bastille had been stormed? And then Toinon wondered what
+would come of that. Would he climb over the smoking ruins to find the
+two women murdered? No, no. Toinon's prayers had been answered
+tardily, but they had been answered. The decree of Heaven had gone
+forth, and the wicked were to be discomfited.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Vainly she strained her hearing to catch a sound of the dear voice,
+dearer, far dearer than she had ever dreamed. She could hear a leaf of
+the ponderous gate revolve on its rusty hinges, a horseman ride into
+the courtyard. There was a colloquy in low tones. Heavens! what if she
+had been mistaken! Yet who could the horseman be but Jean Boulot, the
+deputy, or some one sent by him? She heard Mademoiselle Brunelle bid
+some one, in commanding tones, to go in search of the abbé. &quot;Tell him
+there is important news,&quot; she said. &quot;Here is a letter despatched in
+haste from Blois. M. le Marquis de Gange intends to come home
+to-morrow.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Not Jean, then? The marquis home to-morrow! How by his arrival would
+the position of the prisoners be bettered? Why was he coming home
+to-morrow? Had something fresh transpired? He was a tacit accessory to
+the villainous plot of the schemers. He was led in leash, a willing
+slave, by that wicked man and woman.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">No hope! No hope! Heaven had abandoned the victims. Overwhelmed by the
+quick revulsion from nascent hope to hopelessness, Toinon gave a moan,
+and sank swooning on the marble floor.</p>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<h2>CHAPTER XXVII.</h2>
+
+<h3><a name="div1_27" href="#div1Ref_27">THE DECKS ARE CLEARED FOR ACTION.</a></h3>
+<br>
+
+<p class="normal">Gabrielle maintained her attitude of uncompromising dignity, until the
+boudoir door clanged to, and, left alone, sank back upon the cushions
+numbed. The sword had fallen. She had herself severed the last frayed
+strands. What form would the abbé's vengeance take now that he had
+wakened to the fact that under no circumstances whatever would she
+submit herself to his desires? What mattered it, so that the end was
+swift? The dear ones were safe in distant Paris. No cause to fear for
+them. Their mother had been careful in signing the second will to add
+the tell-tale cross. On the whole, she was to be congratulated on the
+approaching change, for her worldly affairs were in order, there was
+no motive left for lingering. To one placed as she was, death, as she
+truly said, would be release. Victor and Camille would grow up under
+the care of grandmamma, secure from the machinations of their father
+and the crew by which he was surrounded. Her death would be an
+advantage to them, for the tale of the two wills and the precautionary
+declaration would become public property, and a barrier be raised
+under the scrutiny of public opinion, which would protect the dear
+ones from her husband.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">And yet how whimsical the situation was! In the course of charitable
+wanderings among the poor, she had looked with amaze on creatures
+lying upon their rotten straw with scarce a rag to cover them, who
+clung to their wretched existence with a pertinacity that was both
+weird and ludicrous, considering that it was but a step, and such an
+easy one, into the peaceful grave. Now she herself was within distance
+of that step, and could look calmly into the chasm, contemplate the
+precise spot beneath whose crust she was to sleep for ever. But was it
+for ever? Ah! If she only knew. She had long ago learned to smile at
+the mediæval absurdities, invented by naïve, ignorant churchmen, of
+flames and pitchforks, and demons with red-hot tongs; but now that she
+stood so near to Death, that she could feel the chill rustle of his
+garments, she felt herself drawn into the sea of idle and abortive
+speculation.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Why is it, amusing paradox, that the virtuous--those, that is, who
+have somehow succeeded, to a creditable extent, in avoiding the rugged
+but fascinating path of temptation--should be tossed by doubts and
+shadowy tremors, while those who have wallowed in enormosities are
+snugly complacent as to the end? It is nearly always so. The more
+hopelessly heinous the crime of the murderer, the more abominably
+abandoned the criminal, the more glibly will the monster prate of his
+salvation; the more sure will he be of sleeping on Abraham's bosom.
+Verily, in the long course of globe-rolling, so much vermin of
+nauseous kind has tumbled off, vowing, as it fell, that its destiny
+was the bosom of Abraham, that that patriarch must by this time
+somewhat regret the flattering prominence of his position. The
+sublimely compassionate declaration, &quot;To-day shalt thou be with Me in
+Paradise,&quot; has been so largely and freely rendered into a conviction
+of immunity from the results of sin by the worst of scoundrels, that a
+premium is offered to crime. The scarce discoloured soul goes
+tremulously off, conscious of tiny spots, wondering and fearing as to
+its reception in its next resting-place, while that one which is black
+and ulcered, soars aloft singing a seraphic pæan. Brethren, it is easy
+to cultivate contrition. There is nothing more easy than to repent
+when there are no more sins to commit. Let us all commit crimes of
+abnormal horror, that the parson may assure us on the scaffold that
+purged with hyssop we are clean.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Such reflections as these passed vaguely through the mind of Gabrielle
+as she strove to nerve herself to endure, with becoming composure, the
+coming ordeal. She recalled and contemplated her peccadilloes. The
+various naughtinesses of her brief life swept past in procession as
+distinct and rapid as the last vision of the drowning man. Her
+conscience kept whispering that she could have little to fear if God
+were just, for the small sins of which she could accuse herself must
+be balanced against her earthly woes. And then she chided herself
+bitterly for presumption. How dared she to conclude that she was not a
+terrible sinner, considering that as a chit, her father confessor had
+imposed fearsome pains and penalties, as punishment for childish
+transgressions? She was bad, very bad indeed. Had she not impiously
+endeavoured once to cut the thread and escape? And now that thread was
+to be cut for her by an alien hand. Why did she not feel the same
+eagerness to be away, as on that night, when she leapt out of the
+wherry?</p>
+
+<p class="normal">It always came back to this. The same refrain was singing in her ears.
+So young, so rich, so beautiful--to be put away, crushed under the
+heel, like the rat that cumbers the earth. It was hard, very hard, and
+somehow the joyous careless days of Versailles and Trianon, would
+glitter up out of the mirage to dazzle and disturb her vision.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Some one knocked and entered with a tray.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Madame, supper,&quot; the servant said.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Her supper! Not brought by faithful Toinon? Why? Was the episode of
+the cakes to be repeated?</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Where is my maid?&quot; she asked.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Very ill in bed--delirious,&quot; the servant answered with respect.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Ill! Delirious! What has happened? I will go to her at once.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;As madame wishes,&quot; the lacquey replied. &quot;I was to inform madame that
+Mademoiselle Brunelle has undertaken to cure the invalid, and is with
+her now.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Words of enquiry rose and died on Gabrielle's lips. The servant bowed
+and retired. Mademoiselle Brunelle closeted with Toinon? The marquise
+had endured overmuch, and just now could not cope with that woman.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The baleful Algaé had taken the faithful waiting-maid in hand, who
+under her manipulation was ill and delirious? Her last friend was
+taken away from her. She was alone now, quite, quite alone. They
+wished her also to become ill and delirious? She glanced at the
+supper-tray and smiled at the dainties thereon set out. No. She would
+not perish that way. If only she could see Toinon! To what end? The
+devoted girl was paying the penalty of faithfulness. If she went now
+to see her she could do no good; would probably not be allowed to see
+her at all; would be rudely turned away by that woman, as in old times
+she had been from the nursery.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">But it was hard to bear--oh, hard, very hard to bear; thus to be left
+without a friend--without a tender hand, the crisis past, lovingly to
+close her eyes! And yet how pitifully foolish to be disturbed about
+such petty details! When the soul is freed, what matters if the glassy
+eyes whose glory has faded away are closed or not; and if they are, by
+whom they are closed? What childish folly to care, and yet, as
+Gabrielle sought her gloomy bedchamber, she felt more solitary than
+ever before in her existence. The dingy ancestors peering down from
+out their dusty frames--they who had long passed the rubicon and knew
+the secret, if secret there be to know--seemed in the fitful glare of
+the smouldering fire to laugh and mow at her folly. What a pother
+over a few years of suffering. The dead only are at peace--the dead
+only enjoy rest. Oh, blessed dead and fortunate! And here was a
+storm-tossed mortal on the very threshold of freedom, clinging to and
+hugging her chains. Oh, pitiable and laughter-moving spectacle! Poor,
+silly, straining little shallop on the immeasurable ocean of destiny!
+Summon thy waning courage, oh, nerve racked atom of humanity, tossed
+on the waves of time. Courage, shrinking coward, and be thankful that
+thy corroding gyves will so soon be broken.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The marquise, though faint from lack of food and many emotions,
+refused to eat. How cruel of Toinon to fall ill at such a time! and
+yet not so; for it must be the band of wretches who had made her ill.
+Her mistress would go to bed and forget her misery in sleep. Sleep!
+With nerves stretched to tightest tension, how could she hope to
+sleep? Wearily she threw herself upon the bed, dressed as she was, and
+gnawed the pillow in her travail.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">It has been mercifully ordered that the human organism cannot endure
+more than a given strain. Either we go mad and forget, or drop
+exhausted and unconscious. Ere the smouldering logs had whitened to
+ashes, Gabrielle had forgotten her troubles, plunged in dreamless
+slumber. Such sleep as this brings no refreshment, though it serves as
+anodyne--a filter of short-lived oblivion. She must have slept long
+and heavily, for, waking with leaden lids and throbbing brow, she was
+aware of a shadowy woman drawing back the window curtains to let in
+the day.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Toinon had recovered then. That was fortunate.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Toinon,&quot; she murmured; &quot;thank Heaven, you are well again, my only
+friend!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The woman stood at the foot of the bed with crossed arms, slowly
+wagging a head shrouded in a silken handkerchief. Her robust figure
+loomed preternaturally large, her laughter was low and muffled.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Your only friend,&quot; she remarked gaily, &quot;is safe under lock and key.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The marquise sat up and surveyed the intruder with a look of fear,
+vaguely dreading something that was imminent.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Mademoiselle Brunelle!&quot; she exclaimed, with a shudder. &quot;You have
+dared to force your way into my bed-chamber?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;That have I,&quot; returned the ex-governess, affably; &quot;for I have
+business here. There is a little account to settle.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;An account?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Oh! not money. There will be plenty of money by and by, no thanks to
+generosity of yours. I offered you the hand of friendship and you
+scorned it--I, who am the stronger, though for a time you obtained the
+mastery. You chased me with ignominy from the house--insulted and
+humiliated me by striving to drive me hence a second time. Do you
+think I am one to forgive? You made my life wretched, treating me as
+if I were a leper, out of jealousy of your nincompoop husband, as if I
+ever cared a fig for him! Now my turn has come. Insult for insult
+shall you have again. Vainly--you craven--will you implore mercy.
+There shall be none for you. I have made up my mind to take your
+place. You cumber the earth, you useless bit of trumpery, and this day
+shall rid us of your presence.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I never did you wrong. You know it!&quot; Gabrielle said, slowly. Her own
+voice seemed strange, deadened by a singing in the ears. &quot;On that
+score I stand acquitted.&quot; A curious fancy flitted through her brain
+and faded. In how brief a while might she be standing before another
+tribunal, to answer for the manner of her life?</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Mademoiselle Brunelle was provoked in that the arrows of her spite
+fell short. The craven did not sue for mercy. By the waxen pallor of
+her cheeks and lips, and the deep circles round her dark blue eyes, it
+was evident that the marquise was in mortal terror. Her aspen fingers
+twitched the bedclothes nervously; but she gave vent to no reproach or
+outcry.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">There was an impatient tapping at the door. Algaé moved swiftly across
+the room and opened it.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;You may come in, gentlemen,&quot; she said. &quot;Madame la Marquise is fully
+dressed, prepared to receive company.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The abbé and the chevalier entered, the latter unsteady in his gait,
+and cowed. His dress was dusty and disordered; his hair and linen
+rumpled. It was evident that he had spent the night in drinking; for
+his bloated visage was flushed and inflamed with wine, while his mouth
+was convulsively contracted. His glassy eyes were red and swollen.
+Their whites showed yellow and bloodshot, as he turned them with
+wistful apprehension on his brother.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Gabrielle saw in the abbé a new and altered man. There was about his
+aspect a steely look of uncompromising determination--a gleam of
+triumph, as of one who has toiled long, but sees his goal at last--a
+curl of cruelty about his thin tight lips, that stirred the hair upon
+her head. If the devil ever peered out of human windows he was looking
+down upon her now--so close, so close--looking down on the victim tied
+and bound, whose sacrifice he was here to consummate.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Dear Gabrielle!&quot; Pharamond said with a diabolical grin. &quot;How nice of
+you to be up and dressed, and so save our precious time. See here what
+we have brought you.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The chevalier, who bore in one hand a silver chalice, had drawn his
+sword and ranged himself beside his brother in sullen silence, while
+Mademoiselle Brunelle remained by the door and turned the key in the
+lock.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The abbé flourished a pistol, which he playfully pointed at the
+trembling figure on the bed.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Did you ever read English history?&quot; he inquired. &quot;No! The education
+of great ladies is sadly neglected. Know that there was once a fair
+creature as beautiful even as you, whose name was Rosamond, and a
+queen called Eleanor. The queen visited the fair one in her bower, and
+said. 'Here is a cup and here is a dagger, choose, for your time is
+come and you must die.' How sensible and to the purpose. See how
+generous am I, for I offer you three alternatives instead of two. The
+pistol, the sword, the poison. Make your selection quickly.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Die!&quot; gasped Gabrielle, pressing her fingers to her burning brow, as
+she looked at each, turning restlessly from one to the other of the
+trio, seeking for a gleam of compassion, and finding none. &quot;Wherefore?
+of what crime have I been guilty? You decree my death, and you inflict
+it--why?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Choose,&quot; repeated the abbé with impatience, dropping his tone of
+banter. &quot;Sodden oaf and fool, give me the chalice,&quot; he added,
+fiercely. &quot;Your palsied hand will drop it.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Indeed the chevalier seemed to be losing the control of his muscles,
+for he swayed to and fro, as one far gone in liquor. In his agitation
+his sword-hilt clattered against the metal buttons on his coat,
+perceiving which the marquise seeming to see a faint ray of hope,
+turned her pleading face to him in agonized remonstrance.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Phebus,&quot; she murmured, earnestly, &quot;you once said you loved me, and
+tempted me to sin, and afterwards repented. You are not bad at heart.
+Your nature is not cruel and inexorable, and I am yet so young! Think
+of the memories you are raising now--a nightmare of unavailing
+remorse. Think before it is too late, of the clinging shirt of fire,
+which as the years progress will send you raving, and never may be
+shaken off!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Enough, enough! It is settled,&quot; cried the abbé, &quot;choose, or I will
+make the choice. In this goblet is no copper draught, since it appears
+you object to copper--a soothing decoction of delicious herbs, that
+grow beside the river. You are no botanist, I fear, or would have
+admired the pretty spotted leaf of the <i>&#339;nanthe crocata</i>, a useful
+plant without taste or smell, which possesses the additional
+advantage, when its work is done, of leaving no trace behind. You are
+so deplorably slow and undecided that I must choose for you. The
+&#339;nanthe, let it be, then, for it will neither stain your flesh nor
+mar your incomparable skin. You will lie with a peaceful smile, as of
+a pure unsullied babe who sleeps well and pleasantly, and drift gently
+on the stream of Lethe. Socrates, of whom, maybe you've heard, once
+quaffed a delicate tisane made of this self-same plant, and history
+avers that he enjoyed it very much.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The abbé approached a step nearer, and held forth the goblet. The
+marquise recoiled, and half-numbed by a wind that seemed to blow from
+out of her open grave, clasped her hands wildly, crying, &quot;Phebus, save
+me!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;You waste your breath,&quot; the abbé remarked, sternly. &quot;His power of
+volition's gone, he is an automaton worked by me. Waste no more time,
+for we have much to do to-day. Drink, or he shall use his sword.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Gabrielle, under the scrutiny of six pitiless eyes, took the chalice
+in her hands and drank.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The abbé--determined this time to do his work effectually--perceiving
+a sediment left, gathered it carefully in a spoon, and bringing it to
+the goblet's brim, offered it once more with a courteous smile to the
+quivering lips of his victim. Then, remembering, he withdrew the
+spoon, and said, &quot;No! the stalks and fibres can be traced.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The victim lay panting on her pillows. The executioner remarked with a
+low bow, &quot;We will leave you to make your peace with Heaven,&quot; and was
+preparing to withdraw when the marquise gasped out, &quot;In Heaven's name,
+do not destroy my soul. Send for a confessor that I may die as a
+Christian should.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;You forgot I am a priest,&quot; returned the abbé, smiling, &quot;and now, as
+ever, at your service.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Perceiving that she did not appreciate his merry conceit, for she
+covered her face with shuddering hands, he motioned to his brother to
+follow, and bade Algaé remain with the victim.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;There will be much to see to,&quot; he observed, &quot;for those who
+unfortunately perish of malignant fevers, must be speedily put away.
+Within an hour there will be delirium and giddiness, followed by coma
+and death. Keep the patient quiet, and make her comfortable. We will
+leave for Blois at midday, and meet the marquis on the road.&quot; With
+this he playfully executed another deep reverence, and dragging the
+chevalier after him, left the room.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Mademoiselle Brunelle was enchanted that matters should at last have
+been brought to a satisfactory pass with becoming decorum. No
+ungenteel screaming, no bloodshed; only a palatable tisane which
+tasted a little like celery. In a few hours they would intercept the
+marquis on his ill-judged return, and when he knew that he was a
+widower, he would be as anxious as they to leave the neighbourhood.
+Events that seem untoward are often for the best. His sudden change of
+plans had driven the conspirators to promptitude. The tortuous and
+shilly-shally abbé had been compelled to action, and he had really
+acted very well.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">She glanced now and then at the figure on the bed, who lay as
+motionless as if all were already over, and walked up and down
+reflecting. What a provoking man the marquis was, who had to be served
+despite himself. Left alone, unpropped, he had tumbled down, the
+unstable creature; had repented, and was coming back to whine and to
+entreat and bite his nails in indecision. Well. No excuse for whining
+now. The die was cast. In a few days they would have crossed the
+frontier never to revisit Lorge. The jewels. They must not be left
+behind, since they were of exceeding value--love gifts from the doting
+maréchal, who deemed naught too good for his darling. There was a
+diamond parure somewhere, of purest water, which would become the new
+marquise amazingly. With greedy hands Algaé dived into drawers,
+ferreted in the cabinet of ebony, searched the silver knickknacks on
+the toilet table. Where were the jewels kept? Doubtless, in the
+garderobe on the opposite side of the corridor. Yes. Here was the
+bunch of keys labelled. Mademoiselle would be a veritable ninny were
+she to neglect her chance of reaping all that could be reaped. As the
+prospective wife of Clovis the jewels were her own or soon would be,
+and with this plaguy revolution going on, to leave France was to be
+condemned to exile. The property of <i>emigrés</i> was confiscated. When it
+became known that the Marquise de Gange was dead, and the marquise
+flown, the state would pounce upon the chateau, and take possession of
+everything within it. It clearly behoved the second wife to rummage in
+the cupboards of the first. There was no time to lose. Casting one
+hasty glance at the bed, and perceiving no change, Mademoiselle
+hastily left the room in search of treasure.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">With fingers still clasped over her eyes Gabrielle lay still, each
+minute passage in her melancholy life flitting across her brain. She
+had distinctly heard the brutal fiat of the abbé. Giddiness, delirium,
+coma, death. Within an hour the symptoms would commence--to last how
+long? No sign as yet of giddiness. On the contrary, that cold gust
+from out the grave appeared to have stimulated her mind, quickening
+its action, magnifying each thought in crystal clearness. It would
+soon be over. The release for which she had prayed so long and
+earnestly was close at hand. Her fretted spirit would find peace--she
+would be freed from the corroding bonds of harsh humanity. Not five
+and twenty, and the world was beautiful. Now, that she stood on the
+threshold, on the point of closing the door which may never be
+re-opened, Gabrielle found herself filled with a strange longing and
+regret. She knew not that it was the force of young and healthy life
+that was bubbling up in protest. Hope would not thus be slain. An
+overwhelming desire to live arose and possessed her being. An idea
+that was new and draught with horror flooded her mind, and she sat up
+panting. Her children! Why had she not thought of it before? A reason
+for welcoming death had been that they would be the better protected
+by her flitting. But was it indeed so? Had not her mother deserted her
+in a grievous plight through selfish cowardice? Alarmed for herself
+she had fled with a pretence that all was well. A fitting guardian for
+two children, truly. How clear it was--how dreadfully clear! The
+conspirators would work upon her fears--obtain possession of Victor
+and Camille. By securing their fortune she had imperilled their lives,
+for those who could do her to death with such cold barbarity, would
+stick at nothing when they found themselves foiled by her precautions.
+She must not die. No, she must live--for their sakes! To stand between
+them and the fate they had prepared for her. She sprang from the bed,
+a prey to violent agitation. There was a singing in her ears--her
+temples throbbed as though they would crack in sunder. She reeled and
+clung to the curtain. Her throat was parched with thirst. Were these
+the first symptoms of the fatal draught? No. It was excess of emotion
+and anxiety that made her giddy. She would live--live--live--in spite
+of the executioners, and God would help, for her cause was holy!</p>
+
+<p class="normal">She was alone. Mademoiselle Brunelle for some reason had left her
+post. The marquise stole to the door, turned the key, gently shot the
+bolt into its socket. Then, grasping her long hair she forced it down
+her throat, inducing by irritation a violent sickness, which relieved
+her. But how to effect escape? Some one was already rattling the
+handle without--the deep voice of Algaé was shouting in imperious
+accents, &quot;Open! Let me in!&quot; Despair gave strength and courage.
+Gabrielle tore open the casement and got out upon the ledge. Below was
+a stone-paved courtyard; opposite, the outer wall, with the postern
+that gave on the pleasaunce. Was it locked? No matter. She wore the
+key of the new lock upon a bracelet. No time to think. With an
+agonized cry to Heaven for succour she leapt, but was held up for a
+moment by two strong hands, while close to hers was the face of Algaé,
+black and convulsed with fury. Mademoiselle, hearing a noise within,
+had rushed round by the boudoir, whose door the marquise had forgotten
+in her haste to lock. And now began a fierce and desperate tussle
+between the women, which, though neither knew it, was of infinite
+service to the victim, for it kept off drowsiness. Strong as she was,
+Algaé could not, cramped and strained, sustain the struggling weight,
+which escaped from her grasp and fell, while she loudly called for
+help. The patient was delirious--in madness had flung herself from the
+window and broken her bones upon the pavement. No. She rolled over and
+over, and was up again; and Algaé, grinding her teeth, seized one of
+the sculptured flower-pots of bronze and dashed it down at her. Sure
+the intended victim must bear a charmed life! She sped across the
+courtyard, succeeded in unlocking the postern, and emerged upon the
+garden moat.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Well!&quot; muttered Algaé, with a philosophic headshake, &quot;she is in a
+trap, for beyond the moat is a wall she cannot pass, and the gates are
+closed and guarded. It was stupid of me not to wait, and the abbé will
+be angry. Yet the fault is his, for he distinctly said 'an hour.'&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Meanwhile, refreshed by the air and movement, the frenzied Gabrielle
+seemed to have wings upon her feet, as she clenched her hands and kept
+repeating with laboured breath, &quot;I will live--live--live.&quot; Her mind
+was preternaturally clear--she could see with prophetic vision, and
+grapple with contingencies. She saw the wall and knew she could not
+pass it; guessed that the gates were guarded; but remembering a
+certain night, which seemed a century ago, when she had wickedly
+attempted suicide, she made with all speed for the end of the moat, at
+the spot where it joined the river. The wherry was there, swinging
+loosely and idly on its chain. She leapt into the boat and loosed the
+knotted links, and, accustomed to use the oars, impelled it across the
+river. By this happy thought she gained precious time, could take a
+short cut to Montbazon, and might yet be saved; for her pursuers,
+deprived of the boat, would have to make a circuit of a mile or more
+in order to reach the bridge. She would be saved--she knew she would
+be saved--and then there fell on her a cold and sickening fear.
+Her limbs were trembling. She was growing giddy; her sight was
+wavering--the sky looked brown and dark. Was she doomed to sink down
+and perish when escape was all but certain?</p>
+
+<p class="normal">She tottered along the path, and groping on for a few steps with
+outstretched arms like one struck blind, reeled and fell, moaning. The
+singing in her ears was deafening--like the howling of a hurricane
+through some dense forest; but through it she all at once heard
+something--a voice that was once familiar. Raising with an effort her
+heavy eyelids, she was aware of a man with a horse's bridle on his
+arm, who was supporting her and sprinkling water on her face. She was
+certainly growing blind as well as giddy. The man loomed unnaturally
+large, and seemed at one instant crushingly close, at another a league
+away.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Grasping the strands of memory which, crystalline no more, was
+slipping, slipping, she knitted her brows in a wild effort to remember
+him.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;As I'm a living sinner, 'tis the marquise,&quot; the man said, when he had
+recovered from his amazement. &quot;Poor soul! In so terrible a plight.
+Only just in time, it seems.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Jean! Jean Boulot! Gabrielle suddenly remembered, and tightly clutched
+his hand. &quot;Jean--dear Jean!&quot; she gasped. &quot;Save me! I am poisoned, but
+I will not die; I must not, cannot die. They are in pursuit--will kill
+us both. Quick--for love of the dear saints--take me at once to
+Montbazon!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Jean pursed his lips, and frowned. &quot;How like the wickedness of
+aristos!&quot; he muttered. &quot;It is time their evil brood was banished from
+off the world. Poisoned, you say, madame. What was it?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Hemlock,&quot; she answered, faintly; &quot;but I have got rid of most of it.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Hemlock,&quot; Jean echoed; &quot;the children hereabouts often eat it, and are
+saved by tea and charcoal. Courage, madame, all will yet be well. One
+word more. What of Toinon?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;She is under lock and key,&quot; returned Gabrielle, &quot;but safe, for in the
+hue and cry for me, her existence will be forgotten.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Sturdy Jean Boulot mounted his horse, and supporting the marquise in
+front of him, made with all speed by the bridle path for Montbazon.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">He was as surprised as shocked, and blamed himself unreasoningly. He
+of all men should know the depth of enormity of which the noblesse
+were capable, for was he not always making speeches thereanent for the
+behoof of less enlightened lieges? Knowing how bad they were, he had
+abandoned the post of duty, for it was his duty to protect his love
+and the heiress of the family whose bread he had eaten from childhood.
+Why, knowing what she must know, had Toinon so long delayed to write
+to him? By an unlucky circumstance he had been sent on a mission to
+Tours. Hence, he had not got her letter till after many days; but,
+having read it, had started off forthwith. And Toinon was locked up by
+those miscreants! Perhaps they had murdered her as they had attempted
+to murder her mistress. First he must obey madame, and carry her to
+Montbazon. That was his plain duty. Then he would raise the peasantry,
+who were ready and trained to arms, and, if need were, storm the
+chateau. And woe to all of them if Toinon indeed had perished!</p>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<h2>CHAPTER XXVIII.</h2>
+
+<h3><a name="div1_28" href="#div1Ref_28">THE BARON IS ENERGETIC.</a></h3>
+<br>
+
+<p class="normal">The wonder of the timorous inmates of Montbazon knew no bounds when
+they beheld Boulot--once gamekeeper, now formidable and obnoxious
+deputy of Blois--careering into their courtyard with a fainting woman
+in his arms; and astonishment was merged in dismay when Madame de Vaux
+recognzied the Marquise de Gange, who had been stricken down,
+according to report, by a virulent and malignant malady.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Since, for some time past, the Seigneurie by common consent had dwelt
+in a condition of siege, it was only owing to the lucky circumstance
+of its being Angelique's fête-day that Jean found the gate unguarded.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Things having quieted down somewhat--though not for long, as the
+Seigneurie knew too well, for public opinion was ever on the ebb and
+flow of mischief--it occurred to old De Vaux that this was the
+propitious moment to go a hunting. It was on the cards that the noble
+pastime of the chase might be stopped altogether shortly, and so he
+seized the opportunity to give a little party in his daughter's
+honour. Was it not unfeeling, then, to the last degree, that a
+neighbour who was not invited because she was infectious, should
+choose this precise moment for a morning call? The gentlemen were
+away, the ladies were sipping tea, <i>a l'Anglaise</i>, and munching
+biscuits, discussing the while the all-important topic of dress. Of
+course they would not demean themselves by donning the ridiculous
+garments of the Republic. The queen, poor martyr, was sitting in
+sackcloth and ashes while quaffing the cup of bitterness, and it
+behoved faithful subjects to don mourning. But then money was so
+dreadfully tight, and nobody had any mourning; and, besides, the
+truculent and abominable upstarts who ruled the roast might take
+umbrage at such eccentricity and be disagreeable; and when everyone's
+tenure of property and even life, was so precarious, it was as well to
+wear coats that would turn.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">This proposition had been put and unanimously carried, and everyone
+was getting on as nicely as possible, when, all of a sudden, killjoy,
+Jean Boulot, dropped from the clouds with his unconscious and
+fever-stricken burthen.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Too anxious, and too full of contempt for the company to be polite, he
+strode sternly into the salon, and gently laying the marquise on the
+sofa, took summary possession of the teapot, while the frightened
+ladies stared.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;There is charcoal, no doubt, in the kitchen,&quot; he said, quietly, &quot;send
+for some, please, directly.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Charcoal? Was the man crazy? Infectious, too, perhaps. How shocking!
+But it was not politic to offend one of the rising stars. Madame de
+Vaux rang the bell for charcoal, and waited for an explanation.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Jean ground a piece of it with a poker, on the hearth, and dribbled
+the powder into the tea-pot. What devil's broth was he brewing? The
+man must be very mad. If the gentlemen would only return. Having
+satisfied himself with regard to the decoction, the deputy, instead of
+insisting that the baroness should drink it, carefully poured a few
+drops down the throat of the marquise, and presently she sighed deeply
+and opened her weary eyes.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;She is saved!&quot; he cried with satisfaction. &quot;Now, ladies, if you can
+think of anyone except yourselves, complete the work. Ply her with
+draughts of this, and see that she does not sleep. She has been
+poisoned by two miscreants; but God has protected the innocent against
+their villainy.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Poisoned!&quot; exclaimed Angelique, interested; &quot;we were told it was a
+fever.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Villains who murder innocent women can also lie,&quot; retorted Jean in
+scorn. &quot;This lady, I tell you, after undergoing endless outrage at
+their hands, which is noted above in detail, has been cruelly poisoned
+by the two half-brothers of her husband. Providence, in its
+inscrutable wisdom, has chosen me as the humble instrument of
+rescue--and also of revenge. As there are stars above us, those
+wretches shall be terribly punished. I go now to execute their
+sentence.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The habit of leading others had made another man of Jean. He spoke
+simply, but with a stern native dignity that enforced respect. The
+ladies looked with awe on his tall retreating figure, about which
+there were none of the petty airs of courtliness, and never for a
+moment doubted that he spoke the truth.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">This poor, pitiful, dishevelled heap of soiled clothing was not
+infectious. The Marquise de Gange had been singled out as victim of an
+appalling tragedy, which, had it been consummated, would have set the
+whole province aflame with fury. What was he about to do, this
+formidable deputy? Pray Heaven he would not raise such a tornado about
+their ears as would bring ruin on an entire class. Given that many of
+the class had sinned grievously and often, that was no reason for
+confounding the guiltless with the guilty. The peasantry were so
+crassly ignorant and so oafishly benighted--so ready in these days to
+believe the worst--that they might choose to look on old De Vaux as an
+accomplice of the Lorge people, and wreak vengeance on him and his. It
+had not been his business to interfere in the private affairs of other
+persons, and had, moreover, been deliberately misinformed.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">His wife, as she turned it all over, grew very much alarmed and gave
+vent to shrillest jeremiads. What a stroke of ill-luck it was that the
+baron should have chosen this especial morning to sally forth on a
+fool's errand, leaving his family to be fooled by fickle Fortune! The
+baroness felt convinced that there was something dreadful imminent,
+and there was not a single male upon the premises. Even the tottering
+old domestics had gone forth to act as <i>piqueurs</i>. If the gentlemen
+would only return and settle what was to be done; but if they met with
+success in sport they would not be back till nightfall. Meanwhile, it
+was evident that the orders of the obnoxious Jean must be obeyed, and
+that the ladies must succour the marquise.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Hark! What was that? Voices in altercation in the passage, and a
+screaming of terror-stricken maids.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Hatless, with dress disordered and wild mien, Pharamond and Phebus
+dashed into the room.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Where is our darling Gabrielle?&quot; the former cried in agitation,
+undisguised. &quot;Poor soul! Poor suffering angel! She has gone mad;
+escaped raging through a window, distraught by the delirium of fever.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Madame de Vaux was speechless from fright. The abbé whom she had been
+accustomed to see all smiles and compliments, wore the aspect of some
+malignant demon, as he eagerly scanned the company. His lips were
+bloodless, his pale face convulsed, while his brother mechanically
+followed his lead, like one under influence of Mesmer.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Angelique, who was bending with solicitude over Gabrielle, turned on
+the pair, no whit afraid. &quot;The Marquise de Gange,&quot; she said, &quot;has been
+committed to our custody, and for the present will remain under our
+care.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Not so, not so!&quot; replied the abbé, in vehement haste, &quot;We will
+bear her home to the chateau. It would be unseemly to permit our
+sorely-stricken relative to be looked on by the curiosity of
+strangers. The poor soul raves, suffers from distracting delusions.
+You can see for yourselves that she is mad.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Mad or sane,&quot; returned Angelique, bluntly, &quot;here the marquise stays
+until my father and the gentlemen return. She is exhausted and unfit
+to travel.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Prudence! It would not do to offer too obstinate a resistance. Time
+must be gained by parley that the potion might do its work. Resuming
+with an effort something of his other self, the abbé bowed and bit his
+lip and scrutinized the patient.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Why, what was this? The victim exhibited none of the symptoms that
+were to be expected. Yet the poison must have circulated long ago.
+Surrounded by ministering women, Gabrielle had recovered
+consciousness, and lay, clinging for protection to Angelique, gazing
+with dread upon her butcher. Inert and numb, her limbs, half
+paralysed, were moved with difficulty; but it was plain that the
+intellect was clear. Ere now, she should have been foaming in frenzy,
+or, that phase past, be plunged in the stertorous slumber from which
+she would wake no more.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Intelligence shone from the haggard eyes of the victim. Had Providence
+worked a miracle on her behalf? Was she to escape him after all? A
+vapour as of blood swam before the sight of Pharamond and drenched his
+brain. With a fierce curse he drew a pistol from his breast, The women
+shrieked and implored mercy. Angelique, who was nearest to him struck
+the weapon up and the bullet lodged in the ceiling. In a whirl of
+frantic unreason he unsheathed his sword, and reckless now of
+consequences to himself, battled towards the marquise through the
+group of cowering women. There was that about him which suggested the
+red-eyed rat at bay that springs at the throat of his tormentor,
+inflicts what harm he can before he is crushed himself. Pharamond knew
+he was undone, and cared not, provided he might hack and slash that
+tender body which never might be his. The brave Angelique closed with
+him, and her fingers were cut to the bone in the effort to wrest away
+the sword. At the sight of her daughter bleeding, her aged mother sent
+up a scream and attacked the abbé with her nails.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">A hubbub in the courtyard--a clatter of many hoofs--a confused babble
+of voices. The hunters had returned in haste, for a rumour was
+speeding with swift wings, bearing over the land the fiery cross of
+vengeance--shouting of a tragedy at Lorge, which concerned the White
+Chatelaine.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">A woman's scream of agony--here at quiet Montbazon! What could have
+happened. M. de Vaux staggered, and dreading he knew not what, made
+for the salon as fast as his old legs would carry him, while a posse
+of country gentlemen remained on their horses irresolute. But not for
+long. Two frantic men with hair untied and streaming, and bloody
+swords in their hands, dashed from the salon window and endeavoured to
+escape out of the gate. Though it was hopeless to struggle against
+overwhelming numbers, they fought with clenched teeth the fight of
+desperation, but speedily found themselves disarmed, tied roughly back
+to back.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Grand Dieu! It must be true then!&quot; exclaimed a booby round-eyed
+squire, for here was the suave and polished churchman by whose
+condescensions he had been wont to be flattered, torn by the passions
+of the beast, soiled with dirt and blood.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The game was up--no doubt of it--but the abbé was not one to bow under
+adverse fate and play the penitent. How to explain away an onslaught
+upon women. The situation was awkward, but might even yet be brazened
+out, if the devil would only help, since, while there is life there is
+hope.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;She is mad--quite mad--poor suffering soul,&quot; he mechanically
+murmured; &quot;we came to take her home.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Danger past, Madame de Vaux did what many a worthy dame has done
+before. She sank on a seat and fainted, while Angelique rapidly
+related the tragical details of the last half-hour.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The baron's brow grew cloudy as he listened. A terrible scandal this,
+such as in more halcyon days would have caused a violent commotion,
+but which at a critical moment like the present might start an
+overwhelming conflagration.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The hunting party had come upon a howling mob armed with such bucolic
+weapons as were handy, running along the road with incoherent threats.
+One who lagged behind was stopped, and being questioned, declared that
+he knew not what had chanced, but stout Jean Boulot was back again and
+furious, and that was enough for him. Under the circumstances it was
+prudent to return to Montbazon and resume the state of siege.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">M. de Vaux was a gentleman to the backbone, if not endowed with wits,
+and could in a moment of peril prove as calmly firm and quietly
+undaunted as the procession of Parisian nobles who were wearing out
+with steady and unflinching footfall the steps of the guillotine. He
+recognized the gravity of his position, but accepted it without a
+murmur, for it never should be said that the last baron of the house
+of de Vaux had blenched in face of duty. The Marquis de Gange and
+his villainous brothers had happily been baulked in an attempted
+crime--that the absent marquis was less guilty than the rest he was
+not prepared to believe; and if he, the baron, could help it, they
+should not escape their punishment.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">It was unlucky for him and his that the scene should have been
+transferred to his own tranquil hearth, for no good would accrue to
+the inhabitants of Montbazon by the sheltering of unsavoury company.
+Two of the peccant brothers were here, and here they should remain,
+<i>advienne que pourra</i>, until their unwilling host could hand them to
+the myrmidons of justice. If it could be prevented, there should be no
+lynch law at Montbazon. The miscreants had earned their doom, which,
+doubtless would be breaking on the wheel; and yet, who could tell what
+would be the lot of persons who were reckoned amongst the gangrened,
+and who were guilty of such heinous sin?</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The mob would learn ere long the facts of the case, and their fury
+would not be lessened by the discovery that the one member of the
+hated class whom they all revered for her goodness had been chosen as
+the intended victim.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">There would be a rush to Lorge, which would be found to be an open and
+empty cage, and after that there would be a scouring of the country in
+all directions in search of the dastardly criminals. They would be
+found here at Montbazon; there was no help for it, and the lord of
+Montbazon would loyally do his best to protect them from mob violence.
+But Montbazon was not a strong fortress like Lorge, which could afford
+to smile grimly down on a crowd of excited pigmies. The gates must be
+closed, and if the mob did come he would explain his just intentions,
+parley with and endeavour to persuade them.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Cheerfully determined to obey orders, the young men of the hunt were
+closing the gates when a horseman dashed in at a gallop, and the
+exhausted beast sank panting on the stones. M. de Vaux looked up and
+sighed, and again commanded that the doors should be closed and
+locked.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Here was the missing scoundrel, the marquis himself, as agitated as
+the other two. Verily the will of Heaven was startlingly clear, for
+the missing culprit had, of his own free will, delivered himself into
+the net.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The eyes of Clovis fell on a group in the angle of the courtyard, and,
+blushing, he hung his head. His brothers, unkempt and bound, none the
+better for rough usage, tied back to back like common malefactors,
+while a young seigneur whom all three knew well was mounting guard on
+them.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;M. de Vaux,&quot; he stammered, &quot;things look black, I know, but I implore
+you not to condemn me in your mind unheard. I swear to you that I did
+not know of this. I was coming home from an absence due to business,
+and was as horrified as you could be when I was informed of the
+terrible story.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;You will all three be broken on the wheel,&quot; was the pithy answer of
+the baron.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The chevalier, with chin sunk upon his breast, saw and heard nothing;
+his weak brain was in a daze. But the abbé glanced quickly at the
+marquis and smiled with profound disdain. He had always felt for his
+elder brother a contempt so deep that it approached near to loathing.
+Worldly prudence alone had cloaked his feelings, for he knew him to be
+of the mean sort that, too feeble for independent action, will, while
+prating virtue, glibly accept the fruit of another's wickedness, or
+denounce him in case of failure. The aspect of this sorry apologetic
+craven acted on the abbé's nerves like a dash of refreshing spray. The
+old gleam glittered for a moment from under half-closed lids. He shook
+himself, raised his head proudly, and pointing a finger at Clovis,
+harshly laughed aloud--</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Remember that, unluckily, we are related,&quot; he sneered; &quot;and spare me
+this humiliating spectacle. We have all three played our game and
+lost, and must pay the stakes with resignation.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I assure you, Monsieur le Baron, that he lies malignantly,&quot; the
+hapless Clovis began; but his words died away in confusion, for his
+flesh quivered under the abbé's words and scathing looks as under a
+whip.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Believe him not,&quot; scoffed Pharamond. &quot;We are guilty of lamentable
+failure, for which I am honestly ashamed, due in part to the
+pusillanimity of yonder cur; and failure, as we all know, is the one
+sin that never may hope for pardon. He knew perfectly well the
+intended programme, and having given his tacit consent was despatched
+on a mission, which he apparently has bungled, that we might not be
+hampered by his cowardice. We failed, as better and stronger men have
+failed, and I am sorry for the mistake. It would have been shorter and
+safer to have made away with him as well as his puling wife. Speak,
+chevalier--you are a drunken sot, but not a craven--is not this the
+truth?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Urged by the sharp elbow of his brother, lustily applied, Phebus
+raised his head and looked dreamily around; then saying simply &quot;Yes;
+what you say is truth,&quot; relapsed into stupid reverie.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The abbé was growing lively, for now, thanks to Clovis's ineptitude,
+he no longer played the ridiculous role. The marquis hoped to
+whitewash himself by steady lying at the expense of his more brilliant
+confederate. That should never be. None but a fool would have deemed
+such a <i>denouément</i> possible. But for the advent of the new-comer,
+Pharamond might have stuck to his guns, and have adroitly wriggled out
+of the meshes of the law, delightfully pure and unsullied, though for
+a moment stained by calumny; for though the marquise had for some
+unaccountable reason recovered, there was nothing but her word for the
+absurd story of the goblet, sword, and pistol. Even had she died no
+trace of the herb would have been found. Mademoiselle Brunelle and the
+servants of the chateau would with one accord have sworn--as they
+aspired to an edifying end and a cosy seat in Heaven--that madame had
+suffered from a serious complaint, accompanied by delirious
+hallucination. That she was better now was in the nature of things,
+due partly to tenderest solicitude on the part of her affectionate
+family, and an additional proof, if any still were wanting, that the
+story of the poison was a dream. But Clovis, by his own dastardly and
+execrable meanness, had cut the ground from under the feet of the
+suspected trio; for the abbé had been goaded for once to forget
+himself and his own interests in order, with a pretty display of
+scornful protest, to inflict revenge upon another. In sober truth, the
+abbé felt outraged in his best feelings by the move of Clovis.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Pharamond had confessed with easy nonchalance to an attempt of
+superior wickedness, and was rather flattered than otherwise by the
+silent horror depicted on the bovine countenances of the Seigneurie.
+They appeared to gaze, face to face, on the Satanic one, and were
+abashed by his unexpected propinquity.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">It was time the painful scene should end, for nothing could come of it
+but unworthy recrimination. Two had freely and publicly confessed, the
+third stood cowering like a beaten hound that dares not even whine. In
+every curved line of his bent figure there was confession.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The baron observed gravely to the company assembled, &quot;We are
+responsible, gentlemen, for the guarding of these persons, till they
+can be safely removed to Blois. For the present, if you please, we
+will lock them in the dining-hall, as the strongest and safest room.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;By all means,&quot; exclaimed the abbé, heartily, &quot;and I hope there will
+be something on the board. The good baron was always hospitable. Owing
+to press of <i>business</i>, hem! I had no time for breakfast, and vow I am
+plaguy hungry.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">It was a day of ill-luck and penance for our esteemed churchman, for
+no single wish of his was to be gratified, even in so small a matter
+as a meal. The three brothers were pushed with scant ceremony into the
+one imposing chamber of the chateau, whose walls were tolerably thick
+and windows placed too high for escape to be possible, and there they
+were left, gruesomely to contemplate one another, uncomely spectacle
+enough, for in truth, they looked like boon companions, whose night
+had been spent in orgies. The abbé was so blythe in the knowledge that
+his fate was sealed, and that he had in his recklessness given himself
+as it were with his own foot, the final kick out of the world, that he
+overflowed with amiability.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">To behold Clovis, the selfish and heartless, the superficially
+plausible scientific humbug, sobbing like a woman, with tears
+showering through dirty fingers, was a joy and a triumph, for whatever
+might befall the abbé though only a half brother with no prospect of
+ever blossoming into a full-blown marquis, he never, no, never, under
+any stress whatever, could fall so low as this grovelling male Niobe,
+who had been privileged by Destiny to wear the glittering thing called
+coronet. Not that that particular covering was in vogue as a
+fashionable hat just now, but the absurd era of topsyturvydom, would
+no doubt be smothered shortly by somebody with an uncompromising will
+and iron fist, and the saturnalia of plebeian folly be suppressed.
+Then coronets would rise in the market again, and this gibbering thing
+would come strutting back from exile--a worm on end--with other
+emigrants, to enjoy again the sweets of life. He would be free and
+rich, while his brothers bore the brunt. He would possibly speak now
+and again with reticence of his unfortunately shady family
+connections, who had tried to commit murder in his absence, and swear
+with seraphic gaze fixed upon æther, that he was well quit of such
+surroundings. Ah! It was a satisfaction to think that a sturdy spoke
+had been placed in the wheel of the heaven-bound chariot, which had
+brought it down to earth with a thump, as helpless as a hamstrung
+horse. If the half-brothers were to bear the burthen of their
+misdeeds, so should the elder one. He should not escape scot-free.
+&quot;If,&quot; swore the abbé to himself, &quot;we are to be broken on the wheel, as
+de Vaux so genially suggests, the only boon I will crave shall be that
+Clovis the coward shall suffer first, and that I may be present as eye
+witness.&quot; Such being his somewhat decided views with regard to the
+head of the family, it was rather odd that he should be so agreeable
+and frolicsome and, metaphorically, skip around his brother.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">After a while, the contemplation of the weeping Clovis and the dazed
+Phebus became irksome, and there being no signs of prospective
+breakfast, Pharamond turned his attention to another matter.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Tell me,&quot; he demanded of a sudden, &quot;why did you delay at Blois so
+long, and what brought you so quickly home?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;The testament was useless,&quot; answered Clovis, sulkily. &quot;While we were
+yet in Paris, she saw through your plans and took measures to render
+them abortive. Such plans! We are undone--I, too--through your
+presuming and insensate folly.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;She did!&quot; exclaimed Pharamond, clasping his hands in admiration.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;She solemnly declared that she knew her life to be in peril--that if
+ever she made another will, it would be under compulsion, and arranged
+for some private mark to show that this was so. Justice was put on the
+alert, and I came back in hottest haste to stop your action, but
+arrived, alas! too late.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;She did that? the crafty, cunning baby-face!&quot; cried Pharamond.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I ought to have known,&quot; growled Clovis, with rueful self-reproach,
+&quot;that reserved baby-faced women are always cunning. But I trusted
+so much in you as to allow myself to be persuaded, and now I am
+undone--undone!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">In spite of his discomfiture, the artistic instinct of the abbé could
+not but keenly appreciate the still long-suffering woman who had
+braved and circumvented him. And they had all been stupid enough to
+look upon her as a foe unworthy of their steel. That they should have
+done so was due to one of the many errors in judgment of the
+abominable Algaé. Well, well--she was a wondrous creature, as well as
+a beautiful. Gifted with second sight, had she been able to foresee
+what precise poison he would employ and provide herself with an
+antidote? Hardly. Therein lay a mystery.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Meanwhile, conjectures fill no stomachs, and nature was beginning to
+assert herself aggressively. It was brutal of the baron to starve his
+cage-birds. To play with his brother, or to snarl and gird at him was
+mighty well as a pastime, but it grew more than annoying that, after
+the hints that had been thrown out, the baron should be so
+disgustingly inhospitable.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">By dint of straining and muscular artfulness, the two, who had been
+unwillingly made one with ropes, managed to escape from their bonds;
+and the abbé persuasively arguing through the keyhole, endeavoured to
+coax the guardian marching without to discuss the question of food. It
+was barbarous to lock three men in a room and leave them to starve,
+specially when it had been pointed out that there had been no time
+that morning to partake of even the lightest refection. Is not
+<i>déjeuner</i> the most important meal in France--now as in the past; and
+is it not deliberately fiendish to place famishing humanity in a
+dining-hall without the necessary and expected adjuncts? It had
+nothing to do with the case that the engrossing <i>business</i> which had
+engrossed the early hours had been to supply a lady with a special
+breakfast for which she had no appetite. At any rate, she had been
+provided with a breakfast of a sort, and that she didn't like it was
+beside the question, for is it not well known that capricious ladies
+affect to live on butterfly wings and flower nectar--rare victuals
+that cannot always be supplied--while here were three ravenous men who
+had gone through much emotion and were proportionately empty, and who
+would be content--nay, grateful--for a commonplace, vulgar,
+substantial paté and a bottle of sound Burgundy. Thus the sportive
+abbé through the keyhole, whose sallies received no response.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">By and by the monotonous tramp in the stone passage ceased; hasty
+footsteps hurried away--there were muffled cries and exclamations,
+followed by--it could be nothing else--a volley of musketry. There was
+something going forward, then, that was serious. The abbés humour
+changed from banter to gloomy wrath, and a sensation came over him
+akin to that which Gabrielle had experienced in her bedchamber. He
+would not die--no--he would live! But how? He ground his teeth and
+gnawed his fingers with a baffled sense of degrading helplessness.
+Here was he, an unappreciated genius, whose wits were as nimble as
+ever, who was prepared to start off at a tangent on any project which
+promised to bring grist to his mill, incarcerated in a place intended
+for festivity, from which there was no outlet, and in which could be
+found no crust of bread or glass of water. The windows were
+inaccessible, the oaken door locked without. But the sentry was
+withdrawn, which was something; and three men, strong and young,
+should shame to lie down content to wallow in the mud and groan.
+Something of a serious and important nature was going on outside, as
+could be judged by the noise. If the door could be forced in the
+confusion, the muffled sounds of which were evident to acute ears,
+what should prevent successful evasion even at this eleventh hour?
+Clovis was strongly built, the thews and broad shoulders of Phebus had
+ofttimes been a subject for sport--and there the two sat like waxen
+effigies, both refusing to be roused. In his exasperation Pharamond
+seized Phebus by the shoulders and shook him like a sack, but the
+latter merely opened his watery eyes for a moment and then blinked
+them to again like one who has done with daylight. As for Clovis, the
+gorge of his brother rose, and he exhaled himself in ingenious curses.
+If there was a hell, to which both were bound, a large item of his
+punishment would consist in his brother's presence as a neighbour.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Oh! It was too bad--too bad! There was some commotion going on
+outside--a rush of feet, a shouting, a calling out of names--something
+or another that occupied the entire attention of the garrison. The
+three of them, if they would exert united strength, could, with a
+portion of yonder massive dining-table, easily force the door, since
+the hubbub outside was sufficient to distract attention from any noise
+within. The door forced, they could lose themselves in the crowd. The
+smiling world would be open. Life--precious life--would commence
+again. And there the two idiots crouched--the one in a daze, the other
+drowned in unavailing grief--while the golden moments dripped. At
+thought of what ought to be, and that which loomed as more likely to
+obtain, Pharamond was devoured by an access of the old frenzy, which
+earlier in the day had toppled over reason, and tore in idle impotence
+at the ponderous table with his delicate white hands till the blood
+gushed from beneath the nails and his lips were white with foam.</p>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<h2>CHAPTER XXIX.</h2>
+
+<h3><a name="div1_29" href="#div1Ref_29">NOBLESSE OBLIGE.</a></h3>
+<br>
+
+<p class="normal">The baron's apprehensions were soon justified. Having placed his
+prisoners under lock and key, he hastily assembled the gentlemen in a
+council of war, explaining his fears and difficulties. The peasantry
+would, of course, be wild with indignation, and, all things
+considered, there was plenty of excuse for excess. It was as though
+some one had deliberately flung a lighted fuse into an open barrel of
+gunpowder. Montbazon could not withstand a serious assault, for it
+consisted of an agglomeration of clustering rooms, chiefly built of
+wood and plaster around a small stone pleasure house in the centre. Of
+course, there was a courtyard with imposing gates, necessary adjuncts
+to the dignity of a dwelling that called itself a chateau, but, in
+sooth, the walls were thin and tottery--more suitable for the support
+of pear trees <i>en espalier</i> than for withstanding an armed attack.
+Duty must be done, however. The Seigneurie of Touraine would one and
+all be smirched with the disgrace, if members of their order were
+handed over without a struggle to the vengeance of bucolic bumpkins.
+No doubt, no doubt--all the gentlemen agreed, but those who had
+brought their womenfolk over with them to enjoy this ill-omened fête
+day were unable to mask their anxiety. The peasantry all over France
+had, during the last few years, been guilty of raids upon the
+chateaux, had pillaged some, burnt others, inflicted outrages on the
+inhabitants. Was it likely that, though their province had hitherto
+been quieter than most, the people, justly exasperated by a dreadful
+crime, would hearken to the voice of reason? It was, of course,
+right and proper that the marquis and his brethren should be fairly
+tried and sentenced, but really---at least, so thought one of the
+assembly--it would be better to abandon them to their fate than risk
+the safety of the ladies.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">His neighbour, who was given to seeing things in an unpleasant light,
+shook his pate and sighed. &quot;You forget,&quot; he said, &quot;that these
+mooncalves neither think nor reason. They are buffeted by impulse, led
+by the nose by the first comer. Whether we give up the culprits or no,
+they will want to retaliate on all of us. It is class against class,
+and has been all along.&quot; This was true enough, and gloom descended on
+the company.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;What they will do,&quot; suggested one of the party, &quot;will depend upon the
+man who is their leader.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">There was the case in a nutshell. When the people arrived at
+Montbazon, the Baron de Vaux must interpellate the leader, and be
+guided by that person's attitude.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The distance between the two dwellings was so short; the rustics had
+spread helter-skelter in so many directions, that the movements of
+their betters were rapidly ascertained. One party, which had made for
+Lorge, found the gates wide open, the mansion apparently deserted, and
+were about to prosecute the search elsewhere, when Jean Boulot
+appeared upon the scene, declaring that his love was a prisoner. A
+further search was made, and lying in her bed they found Toinon, a
+prey to stony despair. Brave girl as she was, she had given way to
+despondency, for what could two women do against such a close and
+small-meshed network of foes--absolutely friendless and forlorn?</p>
+
+<p class="normal">But here was Jean at last, faithful and true, at the head of a
+rabblement. With a cry she fell upon his breast, and sobbed there as
+if her heart were broken, while he thanked Heaven for her safety.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The servants had one and all decamped with such valuables as were
+easily carried. There was no sign of Mademoiselle Brunelle. To linger
+here was wasting time. Somebody had seen the abbé and the chevalier
+spurring like maniacs in the direction of Montbazon. &quot;To Montbazon--to
+Montbazon,&quot; was the general shout, and as the crowd moved rapidly
+thitherward, its numbers were each moment augmented by newcomers armed
+with scythes and staves, who each had something to tell. The Marquis
+de Gange had been seen galloping to Montbazon, the baron and many of
+the Seigneurie also. Montbazon, by will of avenging Providence, had
+become a vermin trap which was full, and, please Heaven, not one
+should escape.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Deputy Jean Boulot did not approve of such sentiments. To yell &quot;Ça
+Ira&quot; in discordant chorus--to gambol in the mazes of a dance which
+bore some distorted rustic resemblance to the Carmagnole--these were
+safe and harmless outlets for feverish activity. But honest Jean had
+the cause of the people too deeply at heart to allow his adherents to
+disgrace it. Before reaching Montbazon, therefore, he got on a great
+stone in the middle of a field, and harangued his little army. He
+would have no unnecessary violence, he roundly declared. Whatever the
+conduct of the towns had been, the country parts of Touraine had been
+conspicuous for decency. Unless his hearers promised to obey, he would
+shake the dust from off his feet and leave them. The three wretches
+had been delivered by God into their hands. The sovereign people
+should do what they chose with the at-present-offending vermin, but
+the innocent should be protected. The de Vaux family knew nothing of
+the tragedy, had instantly succoured the suffering marquise, when he,
+Jean, had placed her under their protection, and it would be an evil
+and disgraceful thing if their reward was to be the destruction of
+their property. The people hearkened and applauded. Brave Jean, honest
+clearheaded Jean, an honour to the province, and to France! Of course
+he should be obeyed, provided he did not strive to shelter his late
+master. &quot;Ça ira, Ça ira! Quick, quick, no more delay.&quot; Jean looking
+round was satisfied, for with Heaven's help, he saw his way to save
+Montbazon from pillage.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">It was with some relief that on mounting by means of a ladder to the
+top of the gateway, and surveying the vast seething sea of heads
+below, and the forest of glinting scythes, the baron beheld a man come
+forward whom he had personally known for years. He had disliked the
+man, and somewhat dreaded him for his treasonable preachings to the
+rustics. &quot;A dangerous firebrand,&quot; he had always declared, &quot;who will do
+a deal of mischief;&quot; but as the sanguinary chronicle of history
+unrolled itself, marked with many smears, he had been compelled to
+admit that the whilom gamekeeper in authority at Blois had shown both
+discretion and forbearance. A Collot d'Herbois or a Marat might have
+headed this vast concourse. There was hope in the fact that the
+presiding chief was one who could listen to reason.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I am sorry to see you, Jean Boulot,&quot; the baron began, curtly, &quot;at the
+head of a menacing throng. Are you here as a patron of grave-diggers?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;You know what we are here for, and what we justly demand,&quot; returned
+Boulot, as shortly.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The sturdy knave! A queer dignity sat upon him like that which is worn
+by a successful general who has risen from the ranks.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Demand! H'm!&quot; echoed the baron. &quot;A strange word as addressed by you
+to me.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Citizen! You are foolishly playing with the lives of all within your
+walls,&quot; Jean said, earnestly. &quot;Do you think to terrify us by striking
+an attitude draped in the ragged frippery of your rank? A word from
+me, and a thousand scythes will cut your baron's robe to ribbons. Look
+around. The news is still spreading. The indignant people are rushing
+hitherward. If in your folly you delay too long, they may pass beyond
+control.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Do you war with your thousand scythes against a bevy of innocent
+women?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;No. We protect them when we can against the wickedness of the
+Touraine nobility.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The baron bit his lip. He was not gaining ground.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Speak plainly. Tell me what you want.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I demand the instant delivery to me of the three miscreants you are
+harbouring.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Some of the gentlemen who had crowded up the ladder to hear the
+colloquy began to shift uneasily and murmur. &quot;The man is right,&quot; one
+whispered--&quot;far more sensible than I expected.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">But the baron had no intention of giving way--of bending before a
+rustic.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;You ask what I cannot grant,&quot; he replied, haughtily. &quot;I cannot
+deliver nobles to the canaille.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The clustering throng that pressed about Boulot were losing patience.
+&quot;These aristos are infatuated,&quot; one yelled, with threatening fist.
+&quot;You are wasting breath, Boulot. The vile insects must be crushed
+wholesale.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Have a care!&quot; Jean cried, in warning. &quot;If innocent blood is spilled,
+Baron de Vaux, the crime will be on your head. Insolent vaunting words
+fall back on those who launch them. We are honest men, and----&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Are you?&quot; scoffed the baron. &quot;You said just now that you protected
+women. You prate now of innocent blood; the blood of our ladies is
+destined, I presume, to join that of the Princesse de Lamballe and the
+rest?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I did not think that even the Seigneurie would seek to shelter behind
+petticoats!&quot; cried Jean, with rising choler.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Impudent varlet!&quot; cried the baron, losing temper. &quot;I would fain
+shield a bevy of women from massacre. Does the canaille decree their
+slaughter?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Toinon had kept close to Jean, at whom she gazed with gladsome eyes,
+and a hectic spot of excitement upon either cheek.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;If you love me, Jean,&quot; she whispered, &quot;let the women pass. Our
+chatelaine, remember, is among them.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Boulot reflected for a moment, and the advice seemed good. &quot;I made a
+demand just now,&quot; he said, &quot;which I see that those behind you consider
+just, and you treat me and this assembly with insult. Learn that the
+canaille can teach such as you a salutory lesson in behaviour. That
+the lives of many ladies are at stake gives us an immense advantage,
+but more generous than you we are prepared to waive it. Bring forth
+your women folk. Under my own charge they shall be conducted to a
+place of safety, the chateau of Lorge hard by. After that I will
+return, and man to man, repeat my just demand. If you then persist in
+refusing it, I shall wash my hands of the results.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">An important point was gained, and there was a movement of relief
+among the gentlemen. But stiff-necked old De Vaux could not bring
+himself civilly to accept a boon from what he considered the low scum.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I rejoice,&quot; he said, gruffly, &quot;that you should save yourself from the
+stigma of slaying women. We take your word that your mob will remain
+without and that the ladies shall pass unharmed. But I suppose you are
+not such a fool as to expect that I shall give up the marquis and his
+brothers?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;This man who stands beside me, alas, is right,&quot; Jean replied,
+sternly. &quot;Your vulture class is infatuated and doomed to ruin, and
+calls down its own destruction. The besotted arrogant nobles must
+indeed be crushed--trodden down wholesale.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Sir, you forget yourself,&quot; stiffly remarked the baron.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;A last warning! You are playing with both property and life.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Advice from you? Merci! A peasant Jack in office!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I would save you if I could, but you are as vapouring and saucy as
+the rest.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The gentlemen within disapproved highly of the conduct of old De Vaux.
+What he deemed heroic--worthy of a Bayard or a Conde--they considered
+stupid and imprudent. What was to be gained by angering this man with
+so vast a concourse at his back? Some of the country squires, audibly
+expostulating, pulled at his legs and coat tails, to end a foolish
+colloquy.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The baron, therefore, brought his ill-timed taunts to an undignified
+conclusion, and declared that if the mob would make a way the ladies
+were ready to come forth.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Boulot removed his hat and bowed, and the baron, not to be outdone in
+the outward forms of courtesy, removed his own with a flourish and
+performed a low obeisance.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Meanwhile those at the back of the far-spreading throng who, unable to
+hear, considered that there was too much parleying, waxed savage. Was
+an hour to be wasted over a simple negociation which should not occupy
+six minutes? The deputy from Blois was being cozened, was not
+displaying sufficient firmness, was reprehensively lacking in
+decision. The women backed up the men, and, convinced by their own
+cackle, were garrulous. They were unanimous as to storming the place,
+displaying to the world by a signal example that the people were the
+real masters whose will was to be obeyed. Then there was a sway, and a
+scuffle, and a hubbub, as those in front were pushed back as those
+behind, and the wooden gates revolved upon their hinges. The
+miscreants at last! Ah! Now for it! Every hand was eager to take part
+in the coming vengeance--the trio should be torn into such tiny shreds
+that they should seem to have vanished into air. There was a forward
+rush which recoiled upon itself. Those who pushed behind could not
+comprehend what was passing. Some twenty trembling women of the
+superior class, judging by their flaunting garments, were being
+marshalled two and two, and Jean Boulot at their head on horseback was
+exhorting the people to make way. A long, low, growl of angry
+disappointment swept like a wind over the concourse, which might have
+swelled into a menacing roar, followed by the mischief of a hurricane,
+if a diversion had not been caused by the forlorn appearance of the
+White Chatelaine of Lorge, moving with obvious effort supported by her
+faithful foster-sister. How changed she was--how sadly wrecked her
+beauty. Her big long-lashed blue eyes wore the startled look of one
+who has seen a horror--the pupils were prominent and fixed--her motion
+was that of an old old woman partly paralysed. Her haggard features
+bore an eloquent impress of what she had undergone, and there was a
+pathos in her wandering groping movement that drew sobs from many a
+breast.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;There she is--there she is,&quot; passed from one to another in an
+awe-stricken whisper. &quot;God bless her, poor martyr! The kindest,
+noblest woman in all the country round!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Some, remembering kindly acts, stooped to kiss her robe as she
+tottered by--a mother whose dying infant she had saved by timely
+help--a wife whose husband she had tended.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">It was well that Jean headed the cortège, exerting all his wit and his
+authority to force a safe passage for the timid cohort. There was a
+rough fellow with a cart of firewood, who, from his eminence,
+contemplated the spectacle, broadly grinning. He and his cart Jean
+requisitioned, and packed the more weakly in it, for it occurred to
+him that the progress to Lorge would be far from rapid, and that he
+was leaving a dangerous element behind.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">What an odd scene the open space in front of Montbazon presented when
+Jean and his cortège were out of sight.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Being fairly pulled down from his heroic eminence by disapproving
+hands, De Vaux had mopped his brow, though the weather was chilly,
+observing, &quot;For a peasant, he's remarkably advanced. If all were so
+reasonable--but no--that is ridiculous.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The ladies gone, their husbands and brothers asked their host what he
+proposed to do. Sentiment was sentiment, and all that, and duty,
+doubtless, was duty; but then there are a variety of ways of reading
+duty, which is not to be confounded with Quixotism.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Stout-souled De Vaux, who, in his excitement, felt quite young--wholly
+oblivious of a sciatic nerve--declared doggedly that he would not give
+up the miscreants. That peasant fellow was so amenable to argument on
+the part of a superior, that, on his return, he, the superior, would
+condescend to illuminate the situation. He would affably deign to
+explain that he could not for a moment pretend to approve of the trio.
+The point of their dreadful wickedness was conceded. But he, De Vaux,
+could not, and would not, hand them over to lynch law, and it was,
+without a shadow of doubt, the duty of the Deputy of Blois to assist
+him in upholding the law. He, Jean Boulot, being so amenable to
+sensible argument, would at once fall in with his views. As he had
+escorted the ladies to Lorge, so would he succeed in piloting the
+baron and his prisoners to Blois, where, with decorum and order, the
+latter would be delivered to the authorities, that Justice might
+fulfil her office. To the baron it was as clear as ditchwater, and he
+was as steadfast as obstinacy could make him, ignoring the remark of a
+seigneur that this particularly enlightened peasant had made it a
+<i>sine quâ non</i> that the culprits should be handed to him.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Oh, pooh! pooh!&quot; laughed De Vaux, quite enchanted with the success of
+his diplomacy. &quot;When I insisted that the women should go out, he gave
+way at once, and will again.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">It did not occur to him that the idea was Toinon's, and that Jean had
+given way to her.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;It may be necessary,&quot; went on the baron, &quot;to make a show of force--to
+make it understood, I mean, that we are not to be terrorised by
+that useful implement, the scythe. You will please load your
+fowling-pieces, gentlemen, and we will let them understand that we
+have gunpowder.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">And so it came about that when the doors opened for the ladies'
+exodus, a glint was seen of muskets which fairly exasperated the
+crowd. If muskets, why not concealed cannon? The firebrands who had
+stood near to him during the colloquy, were dissatisfied by Jean's
+moderate tone and perfect temper. He had said a harsh thing or two,
+certainly; but should not have allowed that pouter-pigeon fool to
+suppose that he had made a score. The latter had retired in somewhat
+undignified fashion, pulled by leg and coat; but his feathers were all
+out notwithstanding, and he assumed the airs of a cock that was master
+of his dunghill. Now this was manifestly absurd. The mob had but to
+raise its myriad horny hands, and over would go the dunghill burying
+the cock. Why that display of firearms? The baron had without a doubt
+got the better of honest Jean; he had cheated him and achieved thereby
+an invaluable period of delay, during which his domestics were
+probably throwing up earthworks or doing something nefarious to baulk
+the sovereign people.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">If this was the feeling in the front how much more did it dominate the
+rear. Jean's strong personality withdrawn--the White Chatelaine's
+piteous figure gone--those who had wept tears became the most frantic
+for vengeance.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The females became m&#339;nads, and loudly taunted the males. Reports
+filtered from the front with the usual distortion, to the effect that
+the garrison had gained time by shrewd diplomacy, for running up works
+of defence; that Jean on his return would be laughed at; that the wily
+baron would snap his fingers in his face. A rumour even rose, nobody
+knew how, that there was a secret subway leading somewhere, and that
+the miscreants were at this very moment effecting an escape, laughing
+in their sleeves at the pursuers. And the sovereign people was to
+remain inactive to be fooled before all Europe? How the fugitive
+<i>emigrés</i> would laugh when the three ruffians joined them, and
+explained their clever ruse!</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Jean Boulot is too straight and upright,&quot; some one declared &quot;to deal
+with such slippery cattle. When he returns anon, let him find the work
+accomplished. If he does not approve, he can say with truth, that he
+had nothing to do with the matter; but, if I mistake not, right sorry
+will he be to be deprived of his share of vengeance.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">A squire was unlucky enough at this juncture to crawl up to the
+ladder-top, drawn thither by idle curiosity, and to miss his footing
+there. The fowling-piece in his hand struck the coping of the gateway
+and went off. A yell as of two thousand maniacs pealed heavenward.
+&quot;They have fired on the sovereign people,&quot; rose in a mighty shout; and
+with one accord the sea that had been lashing quietly towered in a
+huge wave, encompassed the chateau and overwhelmed it. It was one of
+those sudden things which, like the phenomena of earth, strangles the
+breath and leaves men palsied. When the ground rocks and yawns in
+fissures, and the mountains tumble and the forests fall in heaps,
+lookers on can only marvel. The luckless denizens of Montbazon had
+scarcely time for that. The gun discharged by accident acted as a
+signal. For an instant the gates groaned and rattled under a rain of
+missiles. The walls were black with human atoms who swarmed and buzzed
+like flies, coming on and on in myriads. The seigneurs huddled
+mechanically together in a small knot, and fired one futile volley ere
+they were trodden under foot. A young fellow, bleeding from a deep
+gash inflicted by a scythe, leaned for support against an angle, and
+in answer to a question as to the brothers' whereabouts, pointed in
+the direction of the dining-hall. Ere his life-blood ebbed away, he
+saw with dimmed sight three wavering figures tossed hither and
+thither, like corks upon a boiling stream--was aware of a whirl of
+feet ascending a winding stair, amid yells of &quot;à la lanterne,&quot;--of
+three writhing human creatures dangling at the ends of ropes.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Jean Boulot, hieing back from Lorge, was alarmed by a strange light
+and a curious sound of menace like the distant shouting of vast
+crowds. When he reached the open, from whence the chateau was visible,
+he pulled his horse up sharply. The concourse he had left so
+quiescent, were dancing like fiends around a mighty bonfire. Montbazon
+was aflame from end to end. Its wooden tenements had caught, and
+blazed like touchwood. As he gazed tranquilly upon the lurid
+spectacle, the ropes that held three black masses swinging aloft in
+space were licked by forked flames and parted, and the figures dropped
+into the furnace that seethed white hot below.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;God's will be done!&quot; Jean muttered. &quot;They have well merited their
+fate.&quot;</p>
+<br>
+
+<p class="normal">Winter and spring went by. The king was dead; the queen lingered yet
+in the Conciergerie. Jocund summer-time had come round again, and a
+quiet group clad in deep mourning enjoyed the balmy air in the
+secluded moat-garden of Lorge.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">A tall lady on whose still beautiful face were ploughed hard lines of
+suffering, was contemplating with a subdued smile of settled sadness,
+the romps of two children on the green.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Angelique!&quot; she called in mild reproof, &quot;you must not let them tire
+you;&quot; whereupon an old lady sitting close at hand leaning on an ebony
+crutch said, &quot;Let be. It does me good to hear Angelique laugh again
+after that awful day.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Hush!&quot; replied Madame de Gange, &quot;you must not brood over that
+misfortune. The baron died as a French noble should, in doing what he
+believed to be his duty. Montbazon is rising from its ashes, a much
+more commodious dwelling.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Thanks to your liberality,&quot; sighed Madame de Vaux, &quot;but I can never
+endure to live in it.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Nor shall you,&quot; returned Gabrielle, quickly. &quot;We settled long ago
+that you and Angelique were to make your home with me.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">There was a silence, while the ladies reviewed the past, which had
+been so terrible a nightmare to both. Then Madame de Vaux, drying her
+eyes, observed, &quot;How strange it is that the baleful woman was never
+after heard of.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Nor my jewel-case,&quot; replied Gabrielle, slyly. &quot;I doubt if those
+stolen gems will bring good fortune to the thief!&quot;</p>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<h3>THE END.</h3>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<hr class="W20">
+<h5>SIMMONS &amp; BOTTEN, PRINTERS, LONDON. <i>G. C. &amp; Co</i>.</h5>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+<pre>
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Maid of Honour  (Vol. 3 of 3), by 
+Lewis Wingfield
+
+*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE MAID OF HONOUR  (VOL. 3 OF 3) ***
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diff --git a/38854.txt b/38854.txt
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..f9315c2
--- /dev/null
+++ b/38854.txt
@@ -0,0 +1,4820 @@
+Project Gutenberg's The Maid of Honour  (Vol. 3 of 3), by Lewis Wingfield
+
+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 Maid of Honour  (Vol. 3 of 3)
+       A Tale of the Dark Days of France
+
+Author: Lewis Wingfield
+
+Release Date: February 13, 2012 [EBook #38854]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE MAID OF HONOUR  (VOL. 3 OF 3) ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Charles Bowen, from page scans provided by Google Books
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+Transcriber's Notes:
+
+   1. Page scan source:
+      http://books.google.com/books?id=hxFLAAAAIAAJ
+
+   2. The diphthong oe is represented by [oe].
+
+   3. Errata listed at the end of the printed edition have been
+      inserted at the appropriate place in all volumes.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+                          THE MAID OF HONOUR
+
+
+
+
+
+
+                          THE MAID OF HONOUR
+
+
+                  A Tale of the Dark Days of France
+
+
+                                  BY
+
+                       THE HON. LEWIS WINGFIELD
+
+                              AUTHOR OF
+
+         "LADY GRIZEL," "THE LORDS OF STROGUE," "ABIGEL ROWE"
+
+                                 ETC.
+
+
+
+
+
+                          _IN THREE VOLUMES_
+                              VOL. III.
+
+
+
+
+                                LONDON
+                       RICHARD BENTLEY AND SON
+           Publishers in Ordinary to Her Majesty the Queen.
+
+                                 1891
+
+                       [_All Rights Reserved_]
+
+
+
+
+
+
+                                  TO
+
+                        WILLIAM HENRY WELDON.
+
+                              A TRIBUTE
+
+                          OF OLD FRIENDSHIP.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+                               CONTENTS
+
+
+                             CHAPTER XX.
+
+       Diplomacy.
+
+
+                             CHAPTER XXI.
+
+       The Spiders Spin.
+
+
+                            CHAPTER XXII.
+
+       Domestic Cookery.
+
+
+                            CHAPTER XXIII.
+
+       A Passage of Arms.
+
+
+                            CHAPTER XXIV.
+
+       Madame de Breze is Nervous.
+
+
+                             CHAPTER XXV.
+
+       Will the Sword Fall?
+
+
+                            CHAPTER XXVI.
+
+       Will Jean Boulot Come?
+
+
+                            CHAPTER XXVII.
+
+       The Decks are Cleared for Action.
+
+
+                           CHAPTER XXVIII.
+
+       The Baron is Energetic.
+
+
+                            CHAPTER XXIX.
+
+       Noblesse Oblige.
+
+
+
+
+                         THE MAID OF HONOUR.
+
+
+
+
+                             CHAPTER XX.
+
+                              DIPLOMACY.
+
+
+It was a matter of imperative necessity to beat down at once the
+protecting barriers within which the victim had ensconced herself, and
+here was the first difficulty to be conquered. It was evident that
+Gabrielle's written ultimatum called for a reply. At the suggestion,
+Clovis fairly winced. Was he to grovel in the mud, and accept her
+humiliating terms? Never! And in writing, too! He would rather cut off
+his hand. What did Providence mean by creating marquises unfurnished
+with necessary adjuncts? Are not fowls provided with plumes and polar
+bears with fur? Why for years had the purse yawned for him, and then
+suddenly shut itself up? Not the purse exactly, for there existed that
+hateful allowance, which he would never, never soil his fingers with;
+but the marital authority and position which go with unstinted means!
+They had both shrivelled away, and the Marquis de Gange smarted as if
+he had been tarred and feathered. What would people say when the last
+whimsey of the chatelaine leaked out? She posed as a martyr, but took
+good care to protect herself against martyrdom. And what was the awful
+grievance? That the exigencies of his scientific studies (of which she
+was too ignorant and stupid to know aught) required the professional
+assistance of a diplomaed disciple of the prophet, and that the adept
+selected by the prophet chanced to be a woman! Was ever anything so
+low and paltry as this ridiculous assumption of jealousy? Had he,
+Clovis, ever made love to Mademoiselle Brunelle? Never. Delighting in
+like pursuits, they were dear and trusted friends after the manner of
+male friendship, and none but a base nature could take umbrage at such
+an alliance.
+
+Judging from her absurd precautions of changed locks and newly-opened
+doors, the martyr seemed to consider herself in peril--evidently meant
+the country to suppose so. Her husband was an ogre--a roaring
+Fee-fo-fum--would by and by serve up her tender limbs on toast, with
+rich and luscious gravy. The abbe might argue till he was black in the
+face, but if Mistress Gabrielle could be haughty, so could he. He
+declined to answer the letter.
+
+"Dear me! a scandal!" objected the abbe in distress, "an inevitable
+scandal! Might his attached and ever-devoted brother go forth and play
+the ambassador?"
+
+Pharamond might do what he deemed right, on the clear understanding
+that the head of the house would not consent to anything that should
+hold him up to ridicule.
+
+Armed thus with maimed powers, Pharamond went on his mission. He had
+almost traversed the length of the long saloon, ere Gabrielle, looking
+up from her embroidery, beheld the intruder. The blood rushed to her
+face, then slowly ebbed. They would not accept her terms, then, but
+would force their presence on her?
+
+Bidding the girl and boy who were romping on the floor, to retire to
+their school-room, she laid her work upon the table, and with crossed
+hands waited.
+
+"Madame must try and pardon this intrusion," began the abbe, meekly,
+"because it could not be avoided. I am here to speak, for my brother
+would not write, and it is rude not to answer a letter. Will madame be
+so courteous as to hear me out?"
+
+Gabrielle, after a moment's reflection, pointed to a seat, but
+Pharamond shook his head.
+
+"Madame does not accept me as a friend," he observed, drily, "so I
+have no desire to stay a moment more than I'm obliged."
+
+"A friend? Who has never done me anything but harm!"
+
+"Are we to discuss all that again?" he replied. "You have yourself
+admitted, more than once, that you owed much to me, and yet you
+compelled me by your own conduct reluctantly to withdraw what I had
+given."
+
+"You do well to remind me!" returned Gabrielle, swelling with
+contempt. "Your terms of peace were that your brother's wife was to
+become your mistress! You are right to stand. Say what you have to
+say, and quickly."
+
+"I have, in the first place, to point out to Madame la Marquise the
+result of her present course of action. Does a wife, think you, gain
+in the world's esteem by constantly insulting her husband?"
+
+"I have never insulted my husband."
+
+"Not by making a fool of him before all his class--by treating him
+like an ill-bred child, that may not be trusted? By driving him from
+beneath the roof which should be his?"
+
+"What?" ejaculated Gabrielle, amazed.
+
+"That is what you have done, and, believe me, the world will be
+against you, however plausible a tale you may invent."
+
+"Is he going away?" faltered the marquise, beginning to see the
+position in another light.
+
+"Is it probable that so proud a man would stay to be made the
+laughing-stock of all Touraine? Of course not. Beggary were better
+than such deep disgrace as that. His name is yours, and yet to your
+own shame you wilfully drag it in the mire. We are all going away, so
+you will have your chateau to yourself, and when we arrive in Paris it
+is you who will be the laughing-stock."
+
+"Going away! How will you all live?" asked the marquise, pondering.
+
+"Expelled from the home that should have been our brother's, the
+chevalier and I will return to Montpelier. The marquis will retreat to
+Spa, and take service with the mesmerists. He will be happy there in
+congenial society, for though very poor, he will be freed from dread
+of insult."
+
+Gabrielle was bewildered. She was being held up to herself in the most
+natural manner possible, as a tyrant, an insulter of the poor, in whom
+dwelt neither justice nor compassion. It was not true, she knew that
+right well; but perhaps without intent, she had been harsh. Yet
+no--with a remembrance of the crowning outrage of that woman's return,
+came renewed courage.
+
+The abbe concluded he had gained a point and followed it swiftly with
+another thrust.
+
+"Madame will excuse me, if I remark that she is given to
+hallucinations, such as are common in hysterical subjects. She suffers
+from delusions, invents charges against her sorely-stricken husband,
+which at expense of his private feelings must be rebutted. His
+position having been rendered untenable by his wealthy wife, he is
+compelled to leave her house, and in doing so refrains from the one
+punishment which lies within easy reach. If he chose, he could remove
+his children, but he will not, for he has learned with pain that one
+of madame's chief delusions is that she has herself been divided from
+her offspring. That he may not be placed in the wrong, by any more
+such idle fancies, he consents to sacrifice himself, and will leave
+them with madame _for the present_. I think I have followed all my
+instructions, and with madame's permission will retire."
+
+The abbe who had spoken with dispassionate calm, made a low reverence,
+and without looking at the lady moved slowly down the saloon. Would
+she call him back? No. Better to leave her to chew the cud of bitter
+and perplexing thought. The arrow was planted, and now would fester.
+Toinon would surely appear with another letter in the evening. His
+fingers were on the door handle when a low, sad voice called, "Abbe!"
+
+Did he hear aright? He turned with manifest reluctance. "Madame
+deigned to speak?"
+
+"Yes. Come back, I pray you."
+
+With a slight but eloquent shoulder shrug of deprecation, the cunning
+churchman moved up the saloon again, very slowly, as if under protest.
+
+"Madame would wish to know," he asked, "how soon she will be quit of
+us? Alas! we must crave indulgence, for my brother's scientific
+instruments will take long to pack. They are brittle and expensive
+articles which, under the new conditions, he could never afford to
+replace."
+
+The marquise was visibly troubled, and the abbe had some ado to keep
+his countenance. The man was a human chameleon, and poor Gabrielle had
+not the weapons wherewith to smite such animals. His manner was so
+staid and stern, yet meek withal, that she could scarce believe that
+it was over this same passionless face that she had seen pass and fade
+dissolving views of such deep-dyed iniquity. Was this the satyr who
+had inflicted scorching kisses; who had by turns cajoled and brutally
+threatened her--the man of whom she had grown to be mortally afraid?
+He had just held up for contemplation a portrait of herself, which,
+though hideously distorted, was like. But was it? It was, and yet it
+was not. He had made her out a monster.
+
+So they were going away and would leave her in peace with the
+children? How unexpected a _denouement_. It never entered the simple
+head of Gabrielle to suspect that the man was lying. Proud as she was
+herself, she could understand and appreciate, and even applaud the
+feeling which preferred independent poverty to gilded bondage. And she
+had meant so well in what she had done! But put as it had just been,
+it did seem wrong to make a husband--even a bad one--so dependent. A
+man dependent on a woman is always a subject for ridicule. Woman
+governed by her feelings is so easily misled!
+
+Ah me! Permit me to moralize for just a minute. Why is it that the
+more angelic we are--the more ready to moult our earthy plumage--we
+should be the less fit to combat those of earth? The more guileless
+and innocent a woman is--quite fit to soar aloft with newly-sprouted
+wings--the more abjectly pitiable a victim. Perhaps it means that
+earth should be left to the earthy, and that angels have no business
+here at all.
+
+The marquise, while arranging bolts and barriers was quite under the
+impression that she was a martyr, that a menacing sword was dangling
+overhead which would fall and pierce her skull, and now she was
+told--and there seemed some truth in it--that she had been carried
+away by imagination. According to the abbe she stood convicted of
+hysteria! If their method of showing displeasure took the form of
+retreat with bag and baggage, leaving her the solitary mistress of the
+field, how could she be in danger? They would leave presently,
+declaring that the heiress had flung her money in their faces in so
+vulgar a fashion that self-respect compelled departure. Draped in the
+picturesque dignity of rags, they, not she, would wear the auriole of
+martyrdom--a consideration as new as disconcerting. It was
+satisfactory to find that Clovis, bad as she knew him to be, could be
+so proud. There must be much latent good in a selfish man who, to
+shield his manhood from smirching, will cheerfully abandon flesh-pots.
+His wife had calculated (and justly, too) that though he might whine
+and grumble, he would accept any conditions which did not withdraw the
+comforts which made life worth living. His wife fully intended that he
+should have ample means to play ducks and drakes with, but, surrounded
+as he was by a bad _entourage_, he must not be permitted to be master.
+And, lo and behold, he snapped his fingers at the money, and elected
+to wear the rags!
+
+Rapidly reviewing the situation, Gabrielle's heart warmed in a tepid
+manner to the man whom she had wrongly read. She approved the attitude
+he had assumed, but could not allow him to retain it.
+
+The abbe had rightly appraised the exceeding generosity of her nature
+and had played on it. When she called him back he was pleased to mark
+how clouded was her brow, how shaken was her fixed resolve.
+
+"Clovis has judged me harshly," she observed. "I never wished to drive
+him from his home."
+
+Things were going well. The outraged one was apologizing for her
+conduct.
+
+"Que voulez-vous!" replied the abbe with a shrug. "He has my full
+approval. It is not well to place an honourable man in a false
+position."
+
+"Nor an honourable woman either," aptly retorted the marquise.
+
+"That brings us to the burning question," said the abbe, drawing a
+step nearer, in his earnestness. "The fault, if fault it was, was
+mine, not Clovis's, and I am prepared to bear the blame of my own
+actions. A little more blame or less," he added, lightly, "cannot make
+much difference, since I know you consider me a demon. That is all
+dead and buried--blown away and done with." By a graceful gesture the
+churchman blew away the past. "It was I who brought back Mademoiselle
+Brunelle for prudential reasons, which I admit humbly now were
+unjustifiable. I thought your objection to the lady was founded on her
+interference in the nursery and nothing more, and, as you know, she
+quite understands that in future she has no place there. If your
+memory serves you, you will remember my pointing out once that a man
+like Clovis requires to be led by a woman. You could not or would not
+lead him--that is your affair; and I felt convinced that we were
+fortunate in his having a leader whose relations with him were
+platonic. What if, deprived of her, he had pitched on an affinity of
+exactly the opposite stamp?"
+
+This was true also. Gabrielle felt that it was.
+
+"As it is by your line of action you lead the world to suppose that
+you deem them guilty, and you know as well as I do that although she
+once talked nonsense in bravado, they are innocent. You drive us from
+the house and we go. Need I remark that mademoiselle goes with us?
+Thus you accentuate the suggestion of impropriety which you are aware
+does not exist, instead of showing by your behaviour that you are
+satisfied of the innocence of both."
+
+"Do you think to persuade me," asked the marquise, with sad wonder, in
+which was a tinge of bitterness, "to accept the woman's presence? The
+son of the Church calls for too lavish a display of Christian
+charity."
+
+"I call on you for nothing," returned the abbe, meekly, "since in a
+week we shall be gone. The scandal of disruption will lie with you; we
+are not responsible."
+
+So the man persisted in proving her to be in the wrong!
+
+"I do not desire that you should go away, and I will admit that I have
+been precipitate. What does Clovis want? I am ready to do all I can to
+meet his views, but he must not suppose that I will accept that
+woman."
+
+The marquise's barriers were tottering. Even the abbe had not expected
+that she would show such feebleness of purpose. His point of
+refraining to strike at her through her offspring, by removing them,
+was cleverly imagined, and had told. Would it be prudent to administer
+another stroke now, to attempt by a vigorous charge to carry the
+citadel at once, or would it be wiser to wait? It would not do to
+present the appearance of taking too much upon himself. Clovis must be
+forced to come forward and play his part. The ground was well
+prepared. The wife felt compunctious visitings, and so the husband
+might say his say without loss of dignity. The abbe resolved,
+therefore, that it was time for him to retire into shadow. So he
+echoed quietly, "What does he want? Nothing, since as you yourself
+wrote, 'all is over.' When you first propounded the notion to me, I
+knew he would not forgive that testament."
+
+So that was at the bottom of it all. Who could have guessed that a
+dreamy man, wrapped in scientific mists, should so hotly resent an
+infringement of marital authority? She appeared to have wandered
+unwittingly so far into the thicket of error, that it seemed vain to
+grope after the right; and yet, as she repeated to herself again and
+again, she had meant so extremely well!
+
+The presentiment was proved to be idle wind, since they were all ready
+to go without a struggle. Had not M. Galland declared it to be due to
+morbid fancy? The scandal of an open separation must be avoided for
+the children's sake. What answer could she make to Victor when, grown
+to manhood, he asked why his father was a beggar? The proposed exodus
+must be stopped at all hazards. What if the white-robed marquise were
+to dabble the hem of her skirt in the mire of deception for a little,
+or, to put it more nicely, make use of diplomatic arts? Supposing that
+she were to allow herself to be persuaded into cancelling the will,
+had she not arranged for the contingency? The unlucky will had somehow
+produced the worst of effects upon the marquis, and there could be no
+possibility of peace till that question was set at rest. The idea of
+so deceiving her husband, brought a guilty tingle to her cheek, but
+there seemed no other way to cut the knot. Infatuated as he was with
+the woman who had behaved so abominably, and had made her life so
+wretched, she would never really consent to leave the future of the
+darlings in his hands; but might she not pretend to do so? A signature
+with a cross appended would speak for itself. For the sake of future
+harmony, it might be judicious to appear to give way. Though it is
+naughty to do wrong, we all know that the naughtiness becomes a virtue
+when it is clear that it will result in good. Raising her deep blue
+eyes to meet the abbe's, she remarked that she would consider all that
+he had said, and let him know her decision later.
+
+Pharamond bowed. "Decision--on what point?" he inquired.
+
+"Oblige me," replied the marquise, "by requesting M. le Marquis to
+leave things as they are until he hears again from me."
+
+The interview had been most satisfactory, and Pharamond's face beamed
+as he went down the staircase. What an admirable inspiration that had
+been about their enforced departure, with bag and baggage--and with
+Aglae! And how easily the poor soul had tumbled into the specious
+snare. And then he laughed aloud at the fancied picture of Clovis in
+his poverty. That he of all men should sacrifice his comforts! Before
+his marriage with the heiress, he had been used to a measure of it,
+but since he had lain on roses, their perfume had become a necessity.
+Moreover, his own heavily-cumbered estates were in one of the most
+turbulent provinces, where landlords might whistle for their rents.
+Were he in sober earnest to resign his position of prince consort,
+black bread and a garret would be his fate. To think that Gabrielle
+should be so hoodwinked! What was she going to consider? and how long
+would she be about it?
+
+As Clovis listened to his brother's report, he rubbed his nose in
+perplexity, glancing askance at Algae, who nodded her head in
+approval.
+
+"She will come to her senses, and all will be well," declared that
+lady. "She will know that the vulgar _intriguante_ is a poor,
+harmless, humble friend of milord's, who only asks for the opportunity
+to forgive. Va! I bear no malice to jealous mad women. She hunted me
+away with ignominy, yet did I not clasp her to me afterwards? It was
+for monsieur's sake, for whom he knows I would spill my blood, I
+forced myself to do so. What is she to me? Except for your sake,
+nothing!"
+
+Clovis bit his nails to the quick as he walked about the room. That
+she had changed her mind was well, but would she not insist upon some
+conditions which he could not, as a man, accept? He was not going to
+kneel in the dust. They must all make up their minds to that. He was
+ready to meet her half-way if she would promise to behave better in
+the future, but as to any more school-boy treatment, he would submit
+to nothing of the kind.
+
+It was pitiable to see the weak, unstable man fluttering in borrowed
+plumes, blown out with a proud conviction in his heroic strength of
+character.
+
+"Monsieur!" cried Algae, in her rolling tones of thunder, "oblige me
+by sitting down. Since I was so disgraced here, my nerves are not what
+they were. Clovis, I was going to say--" she added, with a great roar,
+clapping her large hands together in guileless glee--"Monsieur le
+Marquis and I," she went on needlessly to explain to the abbe, "are
+such _bons camarades_ that if I was not conscious of lowly descent,
+and in terror of the jealous mad woman, I should almost think I was
+his sister! But, oh! mon Dieu, what rashness! If the servants were to
+hear me call him Clovis, and report the awful delinquency to the pale
+nun upstairs, what shrieks and screams! When saints condescend to
+human frailties, they are very much like other mortals."
+
+"Always call me Clovis. I insist on it," observed, with benign
+authority, the bird in borrowed plumes.
+
+Algae, with one of those impulsive movements, which in so massive a
+woman were charming, because unexpected, jumped up and kissed the
+marquis's hand, and pressed it to her bosom. "Clovis. To me always
+Clovis--when we are alone with the abbe," she murmured, gratefully,
+"but not in public--for your sake. Since you are so kind--so
+kind--cannot I put up with annoyance from the nun? So far as I am
+concerned, accept all, and any of her conditions. If she drives me
+forth again, I can take up my residence at Blois, which is not so very
+far, and you will sometimes come and see me."
+
+Algae was vastly improved. With delighted admiration Clovis had, since
+her return, become assured of it. Her spirits were more airy, her
+humour more refined; and she fairly bubbled over with good nature, and
+she never made remarks now that were unpleasantly pithy. What an
+advantage large women have over small ones! It is given to the small
+to be querulous and vixenish. The large and stout ones are conspicuous
+for indulgent charity, You rarely find them speaking ill of their
+neighbours. Clovis was quite convinced that Algae was a dusky pearl,
+and blamed himself severely for mistrusting her at the time of the
+attempted suicide.
+
+Gabrielle was not long in coming to a decision. Having been admittedly
+precipitate, and having looked at things from their worst point of
+view, it was her place to show generosity. What could she lose by
+falling in with the wishes of the men, and making a new will to please
+them, which, in the event of her death, would be no better than
+waste-paper? Since Clovis could show a proper pride, such as became
+his rank, it would not be well to torment him. It had been a noble
+trait that in the same breath, he should have proposed to retire from
+the scene, and yet not distress her about the children. Supposing he
+had gone, along with Algae, and had taken the dear ones with him?
+Legally, she would have had no remedy. It never should be said that he
+could be more generous than she. The baleful woman whose evil spells
+had wrecked her content must go, of course; but she should be allowed
+to take her time, and not be expelled violently, as before.
+Ostensibly, she had come on a visit. Let her remain for a week or two
+longer, and quietly withdraw. No harm would be done. No scandal would
+arise. The acute incident would be closed, giving way to a prospect of
+tranquillity.
+
+His wife sent a short note to the marquis, begging his attendance in
+the boudoir. He made a wry face, for it was terribly like a
+schoolboy's summons to receive a flogging.
+
+But Algae, the large-hearted, placed her brown hands upon his
+shoulders and shook him amicably. "You are indeed a child, my Clovis,
+and deserve the flogging!" she said, cheerily. "Fi donc! A gentleman
+obeys a lady's bidding. Would you have her come down here and sing
+peccavi before me, whom she detests? Infant! go to her and make it up,
+and if she proposes stipulations about me, be sure to accede to them
+all."
+
+Clovis obeyed with a bad grace, and entered his wife's boudoir with
+the sorry air of a malefactor who pleads guilty--a condition that was
+not improved by the dignified courtesy of his reception. With a serene
+smile, Gabrielle bade him sit by her side.
+
+"We seem doomed to have misunderstandings," she sighed; "and I am fain
+to confess that the blame is equally divided. I unwittingly offended
+you on a money question. I often wish that there was no such thing as
+money."
+
+The exordium was promising, and Clovis plucked up his spirits. With a
+polite bow he remained silent.
+
+"What would you have me do?" she asked.
+
+"Release me from the possible prospect of being held up to ridicule by
+my children."
+
+"It shall be done--upon conditions."
+
+Ah! There were to be conditions then? The anger of the marquis rose.
+His face assumed so sullen an expression that Gabrielle felt less
+compunction as to her pious fraud. Such men as her husband and his
+brother were not fit to have the custody of children; as to that she
+had no doubt. When she proceeded to explain that he might send for a
+notary, and she would sign another will on condition that a certain
+person undertook to withdraw from the circle, Clovis could scarce
+contain his passion.
+
+When the marechal's solicitors had forced him to obedience it was bad
+enough--but now--to receive peremptory orders from his wife! He was
+not such a ninny as to be taken in by the little sop. That Algae was
+to be allowed to stay on for a week or two just to keep up appearances
+made no difference. He had chosen to engage a female secretary and
+helper concerning whose relations with himself there could be no
+suspicion in any healthy mind, and he was to be deprived of her
+assistance in his work through a morbid and unworthy suspicion.
+
+"What if I refuse?" he said, sulkily. "You will play the martyr, I
+suppose?"
+
+"I will place the matter before the Seigneurie and magistrates of
+Blois," Gabrielle quietly replied. "The line they counsel I will
+take."
+
+The wrath of the marquis boiled over. His hands shook, and his fingers
+twitched as though he would like to strike her.
+
+"You will do that?" he muttered, harshly. "You will wash our linen in
+public to make me a fool before the province? You will deliberately
+create a public _esclandre_ at so dangerous a moment?"
+
+"Alas!" returned his wife, mournfully, "the scandal is made by you.
+All I ask is to be treated with respect. Rid me for ever of her who
+has been the shadow across our path, and I will carry out your wishes.
+Refuse, and I will seek the protection of the Seigneurie, who shall
+arbitrate between us."
+
+"I will return you a written answer," Clovis said, abruptly rising and
+making for the door. He could not and would not be ordered thus to
+part with Algae; and yet he was sorely anxious for the cancelling of
+the hateful document. He was not capable of steering his bark alone
+among rocks and shallows, but must seek counsel from the others. They
+were awaiting him, and in a white heat of vexation he poured out to
+them his woes.
+
+Mademoiselle Brunelle laughed merrily, directing sly looks of
+intelligence at the abbe, who frowned over his brother's shoulder, and
+pursed his lips.
+
+Appeal to the Seigneurie, indeed! It was well to know of such a
+project in order to circumvent it. Clovis had been awkward and
+unskilful; and he, the abbe, must assume henceforth more openly the
+command of operations. Inopportune stiff necks are productive of no
+end of worry. Why could not the silly zany have done as he was bid,
+have accepted every suggestion, leaving further action to the others?
+The all-important object was to secure a proper will, and that point
+gained, both Pharamond and Algae were well aware of what the next step
+would have to be. Clovis, the shilly-shally, must henceforth be
+excluded from a hand in the management of affairs. The lucky fellow
+should reap his share of profit by and by without the sweat of labour.
+His abortive interview with his wife had produced one good result. He
+was more than ever exasperated against her, and swore, with needless
+oaths, that he would never look on her or speak to her again.
+
+"In that he must please himself," Pharamond remarked with
+indifference; "but he must take up his pen and write. If he would
+cease fretting and fidgeting, and sit down, his obliging brother would
+dictate, and the epistle should be of the shortest. Would mademoiselle
+kindly listen and suggest, since for her there were no secrets?"
+
+The letter placed an hour later in the hand of Gabrielle ran thus:--
+
+
+"Madame,--Your instructions shall be obeyed. I have sent to Blois for
+a notary.
+
+       "Your affectionate husband,
+
+                                   "Clovis."
+
+
+
+
+
+                             CHAPTER XXI.
+
+                          THE SPIDERS SPIN.
+
+
+How provoking and how unfair to be called upon to drag out the years
+of our earthly pilgrimage during so stormy a period as this one! With
+unexpected bombshells exploding at one's feet, what was the use of
+sketching elaborate schemes which accident would most likely shiver?
+The abbe had already been obliged to change his tactics several times
+in consequence of untoward circumstances, and now from a clearing
+heaven there rained down missiles whose unexpected proximity sharpened
+his ire. "Why was I born so late?" he asked himself with muttered
+curses. "Under Louis XV., _le Bien-Aime_, everybody did what they
+liked, provided that his majesty smiled. And if his own fancy was not
+thwarted, that monarch must have been much addicted to smiling, for he
+found the world a pleasant place. And now, just a few years later,
+there seemed to be not such a thing as a smile left anywhere. They had
+been so lavishly showered by the _bien-aime_ and his lotus-eating
+coterie that the stock was completely exhausted, and humanity had to
+put up with execrations as a substitute."
+
+Each time that a courier arrived with intelligence of what was passing
+in the capital, the male occupants of Lorge shuddered, guessing that
+the news was bad. Bad, forsooth! The ball set a rolling was tearing
+down the hillside with such velocity that the sight thereof took away
+the breath.
+
+Old de Vaux, grateful ever to the marquis and his affinity for their
+treatment of his sciatic nerve, came riding over with crumpled
+gazettes in his pocket, his eyes goggling in his head. If the whitened
+locks upon his pate had not been artificial, they would have stood up
+on end. "What are we all coming to?" was the burthen of his wail. If
+the world was coming to an abrupt conclusion, why did it not perform a
+dignified smash and vanish into vacuum in smoke, instead of first
+permitting that over-rated creation, man, to show what a base thing he
+was?
+
+Smash! Paris, beautiful Paris, had come to smash. From a paradise it
+was become a pandemonium where all that was best and noblest was torn
+by devils' pincers.
+
+Sciatica? Oh, yes. It was charming well, thanks to the delightful and
+indefatigable pupil of Mesmer and the enlightened marquis. A pair so
+good as they would certainly be canonized--so would the prophet.
+Madame and Angelique were as disgusted as the baron, but sent kindest
+messages to all. Would they allow their patient to unfold the latest
+budget?
+
+Then the old gentleman would drone out before a long-suffering but
+apparently appreciative audience the result of his private
+lucubrations, and pour forth as well those of his lady and of
+Angelique. The seigneurs, he declared, must select the strongest
+fortress in the province, arm and victual it, and thus secure from the
+scum, look out for better times.
+
+Of course, the crescendo of Parisian sinfulness found its echo, of
+fluctuating intensity, in the provinces. The timorous old baroness and
+her daughter preferred their garden to possible insult on the roads.
+Moreover, there was little to be gained by visiting at Lorge now. The
+marquise since her return from the capital, had been vastly frigid and
+stand-off--a stuck-up piece of goods. It was certain, now that she had
+her fabulous possessions in her hands, that a mere country noble's
+family were too contemptible to touch. It was equally clear that the
+oaf who was called chevalier had no honourable intentions, and that it
+would be more than imprudent to place so chaste a specimen as
+Angelique within reach of his brandy-laden breath. And so it came
+about that the only neighbours of the fair sex in the vicinity visited
+less and less at Lorge, and that the old baron when he trotted over on
+his prad, looked as a matter of course for the society of the
+mesmerists to whom he owed so much, and ceased to ask to see the
+chatelaine.
+
+Not understanding her, the baron had always been frightened of
+Gabrielle--one shade less than of the abbe. Strange! When that
+gentleman first came among them, the baron and all the booby squires
+voted him the most charming of acquisitions. Now, somehow, he was to
+be avoided as much as might be, for his tongue was sharp and his wit
+scathing, and he was no respecter of persons. The abbe would sometimes
+take up the old gentleman in his claws, as it were, toy with him as
+cat does with a mouse, till he was bewildered and breathless; then
+turn him inside out with a gesture of contempt, and fling him aside.
+This was terribly disrespectful to a Vaux of Vaux, but it certainly
+was a fact, whose enormity was only revealed by slow degrees, that the
+abbe was not averse to treating a Vaux de Vaux (with a thousand
+quarterings) as if he were no more than a puppet. Having arrived at
+and digested this stupendous fact, it stood to reason that the baron
+disliked the abbe as much as he dared; but, at the same time, the
+counsel of that ghostly man was so worldly-wise; he was so respected
+by the mesmerists, appealed to by them on every occasion as an oracle,
+that in moments of startling difficulty such as were now of frequent
+occurrence, it was only natural that the baron should amble over from
+Montbazon to crave the oracle's advice.
+
+A budget, indeed! Almost every day was stamped by some inconceivable
+event. History was making up for casual napping by a spell of feverish
+haste. A catalogue of years was crowded into weeks. The poor old globe
+was spinning round so rapidly that it would certainly be shot out of
+its orbit, to the annihilation of the insects on its surface.
+
+When, six weeks after their arrival in the country, the incidents of
+the tenth of August reached far Touraine, the cunning abbe had the
+gazette wherein they were chronicled laid on the table of the
+marquise, whom he justly calculated would be frozen with horror. That
+her innocent benefactress should be summoned by destiny in fulfilment
+of prophecy, to drain so full a cup of bitterness was appalling, and
+naturally set her friend reflecting upon the darkness of her own
+horoscope.
+
+The sensitive and haughty queen was indeed humbled; her defenders
+massacred, her home converted into a shambles.
+
+After the storming of the Tuileries, the populace, blood-drunk,
+wreaked their insensate fury upon all alike, irrespective of age or
+sex. The gentlemen-ushers, pages, doorkeepers, even the lowly
+scullions of the kitchen were, without distinction, butchered. It was
+impossible to move a yard over the polished floors without treading on
+a corpse, stripped and horribly mutilated. Every corner of the palace
+was plundered, its furniture flung out of the window. When there were
+no more Royalists to kill, the rioters turned upon each other, making
+the fatal day the fete of carnage and devastation. The mangled bodies
+of the seven hundred murdered Swiss were covered with those of
+_sans-culottes_. It was a carnival of slaughter. On the Place Louis
+XV., groups of men and women amused themselves by severing the heads
+of the slain and tearing their flesh like tigers. It was a relief to
+know that the royal family were safe within the Temple; and yet, for
+what further suffering had they been rescued? The situation was so
+alarming that foreign ambassadors left Paris in a body, the last to go
+milady Sutherland, who stood by Marie Antoinette in her travail till
+the prison gates were closed on her.
+
+Then came the incident, so often repeated in history, of a hopeless
+combat with a spirit which, easily raised, it is found impossible to
+lay. General Lafayette, perceiving, with distress, the results of his
+own teaching, implored his army to rise in defence of king and
+constitution, and being met with laughter, fled.
+
+On the second of September--a Sunday, whereon time hung heavy on the
+hands--the brilliant idea occurred to certain zealous citizens, headed
+by one Maillard, that it would be fine fun to make hay in the prisons.
+Were there not the Abbaye, the Carmelites, the Chatelet, La Force,
+Salpetriere, Bicetre, all crammed with wicked people who did not
+approve of _sans-culottes?_ What a delicious amusement would it be for
+the dull Sunday to teach them how bad they were. With yells, a throng,
+increasing in volume at each street corner, swept towards the
+Abbaye--men naked to the waist, with foaming lips and rolling eyes,
+and arms clotted with gore. Knives and sharp pikes made short but
+merry work. Recalcitrant maidens who refused to shout "Vive la
+Nation!" were compelled to drink the blood of their relations. The
+massacre continued all day and through the night. But why go into the
+full details of the hideous story? France was become a dangerous
+lunatic who had beaten and trampled on her keepers.
+
+It was a desperate shock to Gabrielle when she read of the fate of her
+friend, Louise, Princesse de Lamballe. That ill-starred lady had, as
+she knew, been imprisoned in La Force; and it was with a thrill that
+chilled her blood that she perused the details of her murder. Sure so
+horrible and ferocious a deed had never been done before! The marquise
+read, in the gazettes cunningly placed by the abbe, with blanched
+cheek, of how the beautiful favourite of the stricken queen had been
+dragged to the prison threshold, there to be slain by inches; of how
+her body was stripped and mutilated and flung in derision on a
+dung-heap, while her head was borne on a pike with auburn tresses
+flying, and flourished at the Temple under the window of the royal
+prisoners. Unhappy Louise! Unfortunate Marie Antoinette! Concerning
+one the sinister prophecy was accomplished; concerning the other it
+would be soon. What of the third, which concerned the Marquise de
+Gange? Morbid fancy, forsooth! No, indeed. Her fate was sealed, like
+theirs. What must be, must. She had lulled herself in false security.
+
+Since Fate had decreed that the present occupants of Lorge were to
+live in so unsavoury an era, it behoved the ruling spirit of the
+group, Monsieur l'Abbe, to extract what advantage he could out of the
+disadvantages. In the first place, outside events were so terribly
+engrossing that local gossip and tittle-tattle for the time had lost
+their charm. The general feeling of insecurity, too, was such that the
+marquise could be taught without difficulty that this was not the
+moment for aristocrats to appeal to the Seigneurie. What was a petty
+bit of jealousy, or even a family misunderstanding, by the side of a
+massacre of thousands? A protest at such a crisis on so paltry a
+subject would be justly met with contempt.
+
+Then as History kept plying her shuttle with lightning speed, the abbe
+shook his head and marvelled, congratulating himself that the great
+obstacle to his plan had been removed, since time was becoming
+precious.
+
+For the new will was now an accomplished fact, and lay safe in yonder
+desk which bore the cypher of the marquis.
+
+Mademoiselle Brunelle had intimated to the chatelaine, with a heavenly
+resignation worthy of all praise, that for appearance' sake she would
+accept the permission to linger on a week or two and then disappear
+for ever. Her note, penned in a small and irreproachable caligraphy,
+both relieved and troubled the marquise. That she had consented to
+depart without a struggle was a relief, but her mild and simple
+expressions of gratitude for past favours caused Gabrielle a twinge of
+conscience. Of course it was inevitable that the woman should be made
+to go, but the marquise would have felt more satisfied with herself if
+the creature had been vulgar and played the termagant instead of
+assuming the seraph. It was a million pities that she could not have
+gone on behaving as at first, when her mistress, finding her useful,
+had welcomed and tried to make a friend of her. The social earthquake
+had so far shaken the city of Blois that professors began to find it
+dangerous to cultivate aristocratic blossoms, preferring, with an eye
+to a whole skin, the discharging of declamatory fireworks at clubs and
+political assemblies. Of course there could be no question ever again
+of bringing mademoiselle and her late charges together; and yet it was
+a pity that it must be so, since the minds of the dear ones were lying
+fallow.
+
+News arrived of changes, legislative and warlike, such as would
+transform the map of France. The jewels appertaining to the crown were
+annexed. The National Convention, just sprung into being, decreed the
+abolition of Royalty; proclaimed a Republic. The republican armies
+were, contrary to expectation, crowned with victory. They conquered
+Savoy, occupied Nice; swept from French territory the forces of the
+Allies. The small remaining scraps of the property of emigrants, long
+threatened and plucked at now and again, were actually seized _en
+bloc_. A list of pains and penalties of the severest kind was launched
+at such bad citizens as were gangrened with royalism.
+
+At the present rate of progress the country would soon be no safer
+than the towns. Aristocrats would be dragged from their retreats,
+consigned to local jails, finished off in batches by a _noyade_ or a
+_fusillade_--be drowned or shot in droves. Clearly, there was no time
+for palaver or parleying, or the days would pass away when it would be
+possible to emigrate. What a mercy--the abbe never wearied of
+repeating the refrain--that the Marechal de Breze should have
+transferred his wealth to Geneva, and that his obstinate and
+stiff-necked daughter should have been induced to change her will!
+
+Mademoiselle Brunelle was equally convinced with the abbe that there
+was no time to squander. If she were to remain too long, the marquise
+would become suspicious and insist on her departure Of course she need
+not travel further than Blois, but it is well to be on the spot when
+something important is to take place, especially when your coadjutor
+is so double-faced as was the abbe. The susceptibilities of Clovis
+must be respected. What the schemers had to do must be done speedily,
+silently, and neatly. When she thought of it all the low laughter of
+Algae rumbled. How surprised and mortified would the abbe be when in
+the end he found himself circumvented! She was to put out her paw for
+the chestnuts and keep half the booty for her trouble? So Pharamond
+had picturesquely put it. Not so. Unwittingly it was his own paw that
+was to be protruded, and in his case the fable would be realized. The
+excellent lady had graduated in his own school, and it is given to
+clever pupils ofttimes to outstrip the master.
+
+Sure, now that they held the necessary document, their task was of the
+most infantine simplicity. It had been ascertained by cautious probing
+that Clovis could be counted on not to defend his wife. He would be
+politely invited to bury his head in the sand until that which must be
+was accomplished. By skilful manipulation his loathing for his better
+half was increasing as steadily in volume as a rolling snowball, and
+was assuming the proportions of a fixed idea. Gabrielle had decreed
+the banishment of the dear affinity. With many a groan he had
+acquiesced, being assured by two whisperers as he wrote to their
+dictation, that it was but a matter of form. "If she conquers, after
+all," he had said as he flung down the pen, "I will never forgive
+either of you. You have some project in your minds for the arrangement
+of the situation. What it may be I cannot guess, but I would have you
+know that if you fail I shall hate you both quite as much as her."
+
+Algae and the abbe had exchanged a glance of scorn over his shoulder,
+in that they were forced to work with such a sorry tool. No matter. If
+we paddle in thick mud, a little elbow-grease and water will make us
+clean again. Both began from opposite points of view to understand
+that the removal of Clovis might perchance have to follow his
+wife's. After her removal they would journey to Geneva, divide the
+fortune--hush the remorseful groans which so pusillanimous an object
+as Clovis was certain to indulge in--possibly drive him to drink, the
+natural corollary of remorse--and so into his grave. This was the
+abbe's view. Algae went further. Arrived at Geneva, she would speedily
+become the marquise, and certain of dominion over her spouse--so long
+as his life was allowed to last--would secure to herself the reversion
+of her predecessors' fortune, and politely dismiss the brothers.
+
+All that, however, was as yet in the clouds, and there was no time to
+lose. To a certain extent, the marquis must now be admitted to the
+council, but the cautious finger of the governess must be kept upon
+his pulse, to ascertain how far he could be trusted not to scream and
+make an uproar. Such a task was exactly suited to a lady of such tact
+and discretion as mademoiselle, and she gladly undertook the office.
+
+Toinon, mightily displeased at the way things were going, was racked
+by apprehension. It seemed to her as if she and her mistress were
+being gradually enwrapped in the glutinous film of spiders, which
+uncomely creatures by and by would quietly devour them. Such a
+_menage_ as that of Lorge, despite its outward calm, was abnormal. Her
+dear mistress dwelt in strict retirement in her own house. A band of
+harpies (among which, I regret to say, she reckoned her master) were
+secretly conspiring, and the result of their machinations could not
+but be harmful. They whispered in corners, deliberated with closed
+doors, discussed and argued something earnestly at all times and
+seasons, and if somebody approached them, they suddenly grew silent.
+What could they be conspiring? For two pins, popping her insulted
+vanity into her pocket, she would write to the truant Jean, of whom
+she vaguely heard sometimes as being quite of importance at Blois. If
+he had grown out of his love for Toinon, his blindness was to be
+deplored; but righteously indignant as that damsel felt at his
+neglect, she never for a moment doubted his honesty, however
+deplorable his opinions. Jean respected both the marquise and her
+foster-sister, and if carried away from his allegiance by politics,
+she felt none the less certain that, were she to summon him, he would
+come. But how could she summon him? He would laugh at her fears, and,
+on the principle of "Wolf, wolf," would not obey a second summons. All
+she could report was that madame was unhappy and neglected, that the
+objectionable ex-governess had come and was on the point of going, and
+that, meanwhile, she and the brothers were given to whispering in
+corners. It was absurd, and Jean would be justified in laughing at
+her. He had left his dog behind him in her care, as an unfit companion
+for a deputy at Blois, and as the faithful beast followed her about,
+gazing into her eyes with canine sympathy, she would suddenly
+sometimes sink upon the floor, and clasping his woolly head in her
+comely arms, whisper to him, "Oh, my dear! I am so sorely troubled.
+How I wish you could tell me what to do!"
+
+As to her master, he was quite different from what he used to be. In
+old days, who so spick and span, so punctiliously prim in his attire?
+His face used then to wear a dreamy expression of philanthropical
+beatitude, which, if somewhat trying, was free of blame. Now he
+neglected his dress, his shoulders were rounded. He muttered between
+his teeth, as he wandered with bent head, and when he raised it, his
+eyes were bloodshot, his features convulsed by passion--torn by some
+secret dread. He was always brooding, and on some subject which
+stirred the lees, erstwhile so undisturbed, of evil thoughts. The
+marquis was changing a _vue d'[oe]il_, and the change was not for the
+better.
+
+Toinon, with her dog behind her, was slowly mounting the stair one
+day, revolving for the thousandth time the pros and cons of her
+perplexity, when she perceived that the outer door of the abbe's
+sanctum was open--an unusual circumstance, for had he not taken to
+himself this tiny chamber by reason of its double doors? The abigail
+hesitated. Should she descend to prying? If she did it would be for
+the best motives, and if she heard anything that concerned her not it
+might as well be consigned to a tomb. She could detect the mellifluous
+accents of the abbe, apparently in remonstrance, then the voice of
+mademoiselle, very low and earnest, broken by something smothered from
+the marquis, who spoke in tones of pain. What could they be discussing
+so earnestly? Raising her finger to caution the dog to silence, she
+stole down a-tiptoe, and holding her breath, listened.
+
+Not for long, however, for the marquis of a sudden cried out, "I will
+never consent to such strong measures--never--never--never. They are
+too full of risk;" and was evidently moving towards the door when his
+progress was arrested by the abbe.
+
+"Leave it to us, dear brother; leave it to us," the latter was
+repeating, soothingly. "If not your poor brother and your devoted
+friend, who else in the wide world are you to trust? It is as plain as
+daylight that we must leave France ere long, and your obstinate wife
+will never consent to go with us. Well, well; she doubtless will be
+safe here if we are not, and if we get into trouble, she will be
+rather pleased than otherwise. Do as you are advised. Take yonder
+document and raise on it at Blois or Tours a little money for present
+expenses. We are out of cash, as you know, since you so properly stood
+out against the allowance. You can easily raise money on that paper.
+Is not everybody scraping together all they can in order to be off
+while there is time? Go, dear lad, perform your portion of the task,
+and leave the rest to us."
+
+"What of her, then?" Clovis inquired in doubt.
+
+"Meddle, meddle, meddle--why will you meddle?" retorted Pharamond,
+laughing. "I daresay she will live on here for many years, or perhaps
+not--who knows? Suffice it for the moment that we men must fly across
+the border."
+
+Then came something more from mademoiselle, which the eavesdropper
+could not catch, and Toinon had but time to flee with all her speed to
+the upper storey, ere the marquis opened the door. He was sighing and
+moaning and muttering in most extraordinary fashion.
+
+Peeping from the landing above she could see that he trembled like a
+leaf, and did not fail to mark the abbe's sneer of triumph as he
+looked after his departing brother.
+
+"He has been sent away from Lorge," she murmured, with wrinkles on her
+brow. "He is to go, and to take madame's testament along with him.
+Those two demons are victorious, and we are at their mercy. What do
+they intend to do? Nothing that bodes good to us."
+
+
+
+
+                            CHAPTER XXII.
+
+                          DOMESTIC COOKERY.
+
+
+That Clovis should have thought proper to leave Lorge without notice,
+or any hint of his intentions, was not a subject for vexation now to
+Gabrielle. She saw the carriage disappear round the corner with a
+valet and a valise in the rumble, and the eyes of the occupant fixed
+steadily upon the postilion. No smile, or nod, or wave of a hand for
+her to whom he owed so much. She could contemplate him now without a
+wince or heartache, as calmly as we examine uncanny specimens of
+beetledom in a glass case. She prayed Heaven that her son, the dear
+Victor, should not grow up too like his father. One good point about
+the marquis's going was that he was separated from that woman. Then
+she began to wonder a little that he should have prematurely torn
+himself away before the moment of her flitting. That was good. Perhaps
+he had acted thus on purpose to keep up the show of appearances which
+all agreed was to be maintained. Be that as it might, it was not
+probable that the woman would linger on in a false position--_pour les
+beaux yeux de l'abbe_--and so the chatelaine, sitting with the dear
+ones in the moat garden, was prepared at any moment to witness the
+departure of another carriage. And after that? Would Clovis return
+when the coast was clear, or remain at a distance in dudgeon, leaving
+her to the tender mercies of his brothers? What then? She had given
+way, or seemed to do so, for peace' sake. They could require no more
+of her, and would doubtless respect her seclusion. It was curious to
+think though of the whimsicality of the situation. She, Gabrielle de
+Gange, erstwhile the reigning belle, with all at her feet that the
+world had to give, was living now with unruffled equanimity under the
+same roof as sheltered the man whom she had learned to look on as a
+devil.
+
+It was October, and the leaves were circling over the grass in
+whispering eddies. The mournful days of late autumn have a charm of
+their own, as nature still peeps forth half-chilled from under the
+closing slab of the tomb. The monotony of mundane existence is in tune
+with the scene, and as all that is pleasant of the year slowly
+vanishes, we dream and moralize in a regretful way, which is not
+discontent.
+
+Nature is dying, but will live again anon. Ah! what of us who gaze
+ahead striving to peer into the unknown? Have we not learned to know
+too well that the Future is the grave in which all our poor puny
+ambitions are to lie, never to arise any more, and yet we would fain
+examine the resting-place where Hope is to play chief mourner! Most of
+us who have reached middle age have had ambition crushed out of us
+long since, and we can smile with quiet amusement at the vaulting
+aspirations of our youth.
+
+Gabrielle, while tranquilly embroidering, was not averse to recalling
+the past, summoning on the disc of memory the pageants of Versailles,
+the innocent bucolics of Trianon, the magnificent fetes at the
+Tuileries. Where were all the gaily gilded puppets now? The Tuileries
+was a Golgotha, Trianon a nest for owls. The lovely Lamballe had been
+hacked to pieces by demons; their majesties were doing gruesome
+penance for the sins of others; even the saintly and immaculate
+Elizabeth, one of the purest and noblest women who ever trod the
+earth, was also enduring long-drawn and excruciating pangs of
+martyrdom.
+
+Laying down her embroidery as she reviewed these things, Gabrielle
+would clasp her hands behind her head, and marvel, as others in
+similarly incongruous situations have done, whether Providence is not
+a myth. Every fibre of the human soul revolts against the monstrous
+doctrine that the innocent shall suffer for the guilty, and yet every
+day we see that it obtains, and always has obtained from the time of
+Adam downwards. Such gloomy reflections should not perplex young and
+pretty heads, and yet the marquise was unable to conquer melancholy.
+Perhaps it was induced by the season, perhaps by the germs of illness.
+She must have dreamed too long in the moat garden without being
+provided with sufficient wraps. Certainly she had caught a chill, for
+when Toinon brought her as usual her morning chocolate, a few days
+after the marquis's departure, she found her shivering and feverish,
+with chattering teeth and laboured breath. Drawing aside the heavy
+curtains of the ancestral bed, Toinon gazed long and anxiously at her
+mistress, who said, turning impatiently, "You stare as if I were a
+ghost!"
+
+"Madame thinks she has caught cold?" Toinon agreed quietly. "Madame
+was always too fond of sitting in the open air."
+
+"I knew I was going to be unwell," her mistress observed drowsily,
+"for last night I could scarce touch my supper. When the palate is
+affected, things taste quite differently. The good Bertrand sent up
+some of my favourite cakes, as light as if made by fairies, and
+somehow they seemed quite coppery. Do something, Toinon; give them to
+your dog, for the dish is scarcely touched, and I would not have
+Bertrand think I am ungrateful."
+
+"And you were always so partial to those cakes!" drily remarked
+Toinon, with a peculiar smile. "Yes, I will give them to the dog."
+
+"First make me some tisane," entreated Gabrielle. "I am languid and
+feverish, and my throat is parched and burning."
+
+Toinon slowly shook her head and went straight into the adjoining
+boudoir, where the light refection described as supper was always laid
+out on a low table. Her movement was so abrupt that had she not been
+much preoccupied, she could not have failed to perceive the whisk of a
+black coat-tail, as it disappeared into the long saloon. Had she
+opened the door four minutes earlier, she would have seen a dapper
+figure clad in black leaning over the plate that held the
+confectionery, and have heard a soft voice mutter, "Only half a cake.
+It must have had a peculiar taste."
+
+As it was, Toinon saw nothing of this, but finding the room empty,
+moved swiftly to the tray, took up a cake and smelt it. A thin, pale
+face was watching her through a door-chink with gleaming eyes.
+
+She again shook her head, and murmuring, "Can they be so wicked?"
+carried the plate away.
+
+Along the corridor she sped, and down the stairs, unconscious of a
+dark shadow moving noiselessly, till she reached her own apartment. At
+sound of the well-known footstep, an animal within, hitherto
+quiescent, began to whine and yelp, and beat itself against the door.
+
+"Patience, patience--poor hound," Toinon said aloud. "Is it wise to be
+in so great a hurry? Even now, I cannot believe it!"
+
+She turned the handle and the boisterous dog dashed the plate from her
+hand with its great paws. She picked up two of the cakes which had
+remained whole, and with the same peculiar smile of meaning she had
+worn above, watched the hound as he ravenously devoured the fragments.
+There was still a piece left--a large one--and she pushed it towards
+him with her foot.
+
+"Poor dog! Forgive me, Jean," she said, "if what I think is true."
+
+The shadow without gazed in on the scene with craning neck. "She
+suspects," the abbe muttered. "What will she do with the others?"
+
+As though in direct answer to the question, Toinon turned rapidly from
+the animal which she had been eyeing with a suspicious frown, and
+carefully taking up the remaining pieces of confectionery wrapped them
+in paper. Then she stood stroking her chin irresolute. The dog
+approached and wagged his tail, rubbing his muzzle in her hand, as his
+way was when he wanted something. "What is it, poor fellow?" she
+enquired, stroking his head. "Water! I thought as much!" Filling a
+basin, she placed it on the floor, and the dog drank eagerly till the
+last drop was drained, then curled himself up to sleep.
+
+Starting, the abigail took up the parcel, went to a cupboard, selected
+a bottle from a row and mixed some of its contents with water.
+
+"Mustard," murmured the abbe, slinking into the shade. "That stupid
+woman said there was no especial taste. See what it is to have to deal
+with bunglers."
+
+Wearing his most unpleasant scowl, and grinding his sharp teeth, he
+stole along the corridor, and moving up a step or two turned and came
+down again humming a blythesome stave, just as Toinon appeared at the
+bottom, holding the parcel and a glass.
+
+"Our pretty Toinon is vastly occupied," he laughed, merrily. "But for
+fear of the stalwart arm of burly Jean, I would steal a kiss from
+those sweet lips."
+
+"Maybe you will feel that arm sooner than you expect," she said,
+scarce able to steady her voice; "make way, and if you dare to touch
+me, I will spit in your villain's face."
+
+This was clearly not the moment for persiflage, so with a careless
+shrug of indulgence for the coarse manners of the lower classes, the
+abbe stood aside. "What a dear darling little vixen," he shouted up
+the stairs. "I pity poor Jean Boulot, despite his thews and sinews."
+
+The first attempt was a failure, an egregiously contemptible and
+inartistic failure, and all due to that inveterate bungler. Had not
+mademoiselle's coadjutor suggested that liquid is preferable to solid,
+for the purpose they both had at heart, since you only munch a
+biscuit, whereas you take a preliminary sip at a liquid and then, your
+mouth feeling a trifle dry, take a longer gulp before remarking that
+the taste is peculiar? And the execrable Algae had insisted on the
+cakes, declaring that if you are fond of a particular cake, you will
+indulge in several before any little peculiarity can manifest itself.
+And the fool--the hopelessly obstinate and self-sufficient idiot--had
+perpetrated another bungle, a worse one than before, since Gabrielle
+had only bitten into one of her favourites, while the others had been
+gobbled by the dog. The dog would die; no doubt of it, and Toinon's
+suspicions would be justified. What would she do with that tell-tale
+parcel? An extremely awkward mistake of mademoiselle's. There was one
+way out of the dilemma. The abbe must be taken ill as well as the lady
+of the house; complain of a taste of copper, make an outcry in the
+kitchen, and discover that the careless cook had spread his materials
+upon a copper-plate that had not been cleared of verdigris.
+
+Toinon was busy all day with her mistress, whom she found in a half
+lethargy, with burning palms and widely distended pupils. She had some
+ado to force the mustard down her throat; but, this done, she soon had
+the pleasure of seeing the patient revive. By evening, Gabrielle was
+calm, but exhausted, and when Toinon descended to the kitchen to fetch
+some bouillon (which Bertrand would have first to taste) she was
+astonished to hear that the abbe was screaming with agony, kicking in
+frightful convulsions.
+
+Toinon smiled her peculiar smile again, and uttered a few common-place
+words of sympathy.
+
+"Badly played," she said to herself, "he might as well have bethought
+him that the symptoms should be lethargy and coma."
+
+M. Bertrand, the cook, was in high dudgeon. How dared anybody hint
+that he had poisoned madame's biscuits? It was all owing to that oaf
+of a scullion, who had laid the large square copper-plate on the
+confectionery table, without remembering that it had been unused for a
+week. Was he, a _cordon bleu_, a chef _de premier caliber_, to be
+blamed for the stupidity of a scullion? He would be expected to clean
+his own saucepans next. When the marquis returned--who always
+appreciated efforts to please--he would give warning and leave this
+_sale maison_, which was only fit for cockroaches and rats.
+
+"Go back to Paris!" gibed Toinon. "Safer where you are, believe me. A
+chef with so splendid a reputation for pampering the palates of the
+gangrened aristocracy, would surely be strung up to a lantern! This
+bouillon looks excellent," she added saucily; "but M. Bertrand will be
+good enough to sip two spoonfuls, lest the scullion should have dipped
+his fingers in it."
+
+Next day, thanks to Toinon's vigilant solicitude, the marquise was
+sufficiently recovered to sit at her embroidery as usual. Holding out
+a hand to the abigail while tears rose to the eyes of both, "My
+sister," she said, "it is worth while to be a little ill just to learn
+how much we are beloved."
+
+Alas! beloved! Poor lady. Hated by four persons without consciences,
+who were panting and thirsting for her death! A target for poisoned
+arrows!
+
+After sagely considering the matter, Toinon made up her mind that if
+she did not interfere, she might become in some sort an accessary to a
+tragedy. In whom was faith to be placed? Honest Jean? What could he
+do, if he were to come, in the face of such diabolical ingenuity? He
+would learn that his favourite dog--companion of many trudgings
+through the woods at all times and seasons--had died of poisoned
+cakes. But then was it not admitted in the household, that the abbe as
+well as the marquise had accidentally partaken, and that the abbe of
+the two had been the most sick? Had not varlets and kitchen wenches
+cowered and clung together at sound of his piercing screams? He was
+well again, for he had had the presence of mind to swallow mustard.
+The marquise had recovered, thanks to a like precaution. Toinon had
+been cunning enough to keep two cakes which, when the time came should
+be examined, and if the abbe were foolish enough to declare that he
+had been poisoned by similar articles, it would be easy to prove that
+his agonies were sham, as they were not the natural results of such a
+poison as had been administered to Gabrielle.
+
+Meanwhile, something must be done, and the question that troubled
+Toinon was what that something was to be. At last she made up her mind
+and broke the ice.
+
+"Will madame pardon me for what may appear an act of presumption," she
+inquired, gently rearranging the wraps about the invalid. "I have
+taken something on myself which may anger madame, who will, I know,
+believe that if I was guilty of an error it was made through excess of
+zeal."
+
+There was a pause, unbroken by Gabrielle, who glanced at her
+foster-sister with a wan and wearied look that was full of pathos.
+
+Presently she raised the fingers of the waiting maid to her face, and
+stroked her cheek with them.
+
+"What is this grand effort of the intellect?" she asked, cheerily. "I
+know it is something well intentioned."
+
+"I have written a letter in madame's name and sent it off by special
+courier."
+
+"Not to the marquis?" cried Gabrielle, the colour flushing over her
+face and neck.
+
+Poor soul! The marquis! Much good would it be to write to him, unless
+to request him to order a coffin.
+
+"No," Toinon said, quietly. "It cuts me to the heart to see madame so
+solitary, and during a convalescence too, a time when we always brood
+and consider the least pleasant subjects. I have written to the
+Marechale de Breze, stating that you have been ill, but are out of
+danger, and would be glad of a visit from your mother."
+
+Gabrielle remained thoughtful, still stroking Toinon's fingers. Why
+not? The marechale owed a visit, and the absence of her husband on
+business would account for the seclusion of his wife. Moreover, it
+would be a splendid thing to lure the old dame from dangerous Paris,
+where Mother Guillotine was commencing to display a Catholic taste in
+the way of food. Yes; from all points of view it was an admirable idea
+to induce Madame de Breze to visit Lorge. Why! it was a thousand years
+at least since she had set eyes upon the darlings! Her own and only
+grandchildren! How shockingly reprehensible. How she would joy in
+marking each trait of genius, and how proud their mother would be to
+show how cultured were their minds! The marechale's mind was
+considerably less stored than her daughter's, but she would appreciate
+with greater awe the progress of their climb up Parnassus. Did they
+not write each other poems and moral essays, after the manner of the
+Scuderi, and of the encyclopaedist ladies!--such prodigiously clever
+verses, and such heavenly prose sermons! The more she considered it
+the more enchanted was she that Toinon should have taken this move
+upon herself. Had it been left to her, she would have doubted, have
+written a dozen letters only to tear them up, weighing in that tender
+and over-scrupulous conscience of hers whether it was right or wrong
+to drag an old lady to the wilds of Touraine at such a troublous
+moment. She would have considered whether it was not her duty to have
+unselfishly exhorted the ancient dame never to stir out of her modest
+abode; never even to open her window, lest by the act she should be
+drawn into the maw of Mother Guillotine.
+
+The more she thought over it the more delighted was she with the idea,
+and, opening her arms, clasped Toinon to her breast.
+
+"My dear, my dear," she murmured, fondly, "what should I do without
+you? Let the dear mother come. Together we will make her welcome."
+
+
+
+
+                            CHAPTER XXIII.
+
+                          A PASSAGE OF ARMS.
+
+
+Mademoiselle Algae Brunelle was not on a bed of roses, and her growing
+impatience took the form of tartness. If Clovis could have looked on
+his affinity in his absence her prospects of becoming some day
+Marquise de Gange might have been less promising. In truth, she was
+very cross, and took no trouble to conceal her mood from Pharamond or
+Phebus. It was not her fault, but that of the silly Bertrand, that the
+cakes should have had a metallic flavour. She therefore soundly rated
+that worthy for his clumsiness, and threatened him with pains and
+penalties. The chef glanced at her with two pig's-eyes set close
+together, and replied, "I was engaged in Paris by Monsieur l'Abbe, not
+by mademoiselle, who should undertake her dirty work herself." He had
+no personal feeling against the recluse upstairs, but man must live,
+and with the present he was to receive he intended to escape from the
+French caldron, and make up for a trifling lapsus in another land by a
+future of exemplary virtue.
+
+Energetic mademoiselle was all for taking the bull by the horns and
+acting with decision. Why beat about the bush in this provoking way,
+she argued, since the chatelaine was completely in their power? The
+domestics were the abbe's creatures, drafted one by one, and dropped
+each into his place. Madame de Vaux and Angelique were too much
+alarmed to leave their own precincts; and now that the marquis was
+gone, the old gentleman had no motive for ambling over from Montbazon,
+since he had never understood Gabrielle, and instinctively disliked
+the brothers. He was grateful to Algae in that matter of the sciatic
+nerve, but it was not his place as a seigneur to make morning calls on
+a dependant. To prevent prying from without, it was easy to spread a
+report that Madame la Marquise de Gange had been attacked by typhus
+fever. The rustics of Touraine had a wholesome dread of the disease.
+Madame had none on whom she could rely except her faithful abigail.
+Would it not be the most natural thing in the world if the devoted
+foster-sister were likewise to succumb to the malady? There was
+nothing whatever to stop the prosecution of their plans, and it has
+long been an axiom that what has to be done is best done quickly.
+There was nothing to cause the delay but the abbe's tortuous method.
+It is said that each of us has been an animal in a previous phase, and
+that a shade of likeness, physical or moral, or both, yet clings to us
+in this. Mademoiselle was convinced that in his last existence the
+abbe had been a serpent. It was his nature to wriggle and twist, and
+he could not for the life of him move straight. If he beheld a dove
+upon a branch he must needs coil himself elaborately to fascinate it,
+instead of protruding a tongue and gobbling it up at once.
+
+These and other views, did she propound to Pharamond, marching up and
+down the room as her wont was, when much in earnest, with elephantine
+tread, while the chevalier blinked at her in fear. A wonderful woman,
+an awful and terrible woman! It was not surprising that Clovis should
+have sunk under her thrall. She dared to beard, and even flout the
+still more awful Pharamond, and the two crossed swords sometimes with
+such a clash of arms that Phebus shivered in alarm. What two such
+strong ones willed, would certainly take place. No doubt about it. The
+poor thing upstairs was doomed. No effort that he, Phebus, could make,
+might stay her doom. Why, then, make any effort? He could only shed
+maudlin tears and wish her well through her misery. He quite agreed
+with Algae, that the inevitable should take place at once.
+
+Now lecturing and advice that looked too like command, was by no means
+palatable to Pharamond, and he had much ado to maintain the suavity of
+his temper. The idea of typhus was not bad, but it would entail
+certain consequences. Nearly everybody at this time, both in France
+and England, was seamed with smallpox, and dreadful as the scourge
+was, familiarity had paled its terrors. The report of a spread of
+typhus, on the other hand, was enough to depopulate a district.
+Happily, since the period which occupies us, advancing science has
+done much to mitigate its horrors, but in the eighteenth century, the
+sickening details of its course were enough to appal the bravest. The
+Marquise de Gange and her abigail having succumbed to the scourge, the
+inmates of the chateau must flee, or endure ostracism--they would be
+banned like lepers.
+
+Though by the terms of the new will, the marquis would quietly
+inherit, it would not do for him and his brothers, after assisting at
+a typhus deathbed, to stay at Blois to transact necessary business.
+Unluckily the unstable legatee could not be trusted to do much
+unaided. As had been decided he was to raise money on his
+expectations, sufficient to waft the party to Geneva, and keep them in
+proper style during tedious but necessary negociations. It was
+obvious, therefore, that mademoiselle's impatience was vexatious and
+ill-advised. When Clovis wrote to say that the sum was raised, then
+they would perform their one act drama, and, bowing, retire behind the
+scenes.
+
+"Surely there ought to be no difficulty about raising the necessary
+sum," grumbled Algae, with arms crossed, and moody brow. "Clovis is so
+reprehensibly tardy. What can he be doing all this while! I would have
+settled the matter myself in half-an-hour, if the mission could have
+been confided to me."
+
+Phebus blinked more than usual. Oh! A wonderful woman, who appeared to
+him as a vision of fate in a violent hurry. Could she who had been
+sprightly and kittenish, be so athirst for another woman's blood?
+
+"You deem yourself vastly clever," sneered Pharamond, waxing wroth.
+"Can you not remember that every mistake has been due to your
+stupidity? Half-an-hour, forsooth! Do you not know that bullion is as
+rare a commodity as diamonds? that to refuse payment in assignats is
+to risk the guillotine, and that beyond the border, such things are
+but dirty paper? A pretty figure we should cut if we rattled into the
+courtyard of the Etoile d'Or, and attempted to pay the Swiss
+postilions with dead leaves! One cannot, of course, expect common
+sense from a woman, any more than grapes from thistles. Your querulous
+importunity is wearying. You must keep your promise and be content to
+be led by me."
+
+Even Pharamond was disconcerted, and Phebus cowered, when Algae dashed
+into the breakfast-room one day like a whirlwind, her eyes aflame, her
+dusky visage black with fury. She moved swiftly up and down, unable to
+articulate, upsetting the chairs in her career. What could have
+happened to enrage her thus? Verily, she was becoming a deplorable,
+insufferable nuisance, and it would be well to make an end of it.
+
+"Patience," she blurted out at last, thumping into her accustomed
+seat, and scattering the glasses. "You never weary of exhorting me to
+patience. Perhaps you will yourself remember the elementary fact that
+events will not stand still while you are parleying."
+
+"What now?" Pharamond asked calmly.
+
+"This now," retorted mademoiselle. "The Marechale de Breze has just
+arrived with an army of domestics, and is closeted upstairs with her
+daughter."
+
+This was news; unwelcome and unexpected news. Had the old lady arrived
+on an errand similar to that of the family solicitor? Hardly. If
+Gabrielle had again secretly sought protection, M. Galland would have
+come himself. And an army of servants, too! Servants are argus-eyed
+and uncharitable in their conclusions. These people could not be
+wheedled or cajoled like those selected by the abbe. Algae's wrath,
+though coarsely expressed, was justified. The irruption of a foreign
+element, just at this juncture, was unfortunate.
+
+"We must frighten them away," Pharamond observed, quietly peeling a
+pear.
+
+Mademoiselle snorted in scorn, while the abbe sat wrapped in thought.
+Why was the marechale here now? Had anything fresh occurred in Paris,
+which had impelled flight? If that had been so, she would not have
+travelled with a retinue. She was timid and nervous, and fearful of
+bandits on the road. She could scarcely have been summoned by
+Gabrielle, since the latter had no suspicion of the cakes. Pharamond
+had satisfied himself of that, by knocking humbly and inserting a
+head, while ostentatiously remaining on the threshold. "Pardon my
+intrusion," he had meekly purred, "but anxiety compels me to ask after
+your health. In Clovis's absence I feel responsible. Tell me that you
+have recovered, as I have, from the untoward incident due to a stupid
+cook?"
+
+Gabrielle politely declared herself to be well, deplored the abbe's
+illness, and intimated with a slight inclination that the interview
+was over. Chilly, not to say icy. But there was no symptom of
+suspicion in her clear blue eyes. She declined to say more than was
+necessary to a man whom she detested, that was all. But Toinon, the
+abbe was convinced, knew all about it. Why had she kept her knowledge
+from her mistress? What had she done with the parcel? She had allowed
+him clearly to understand, that she was not taken in by his comedy.
+Did she not always make a parade, to the scandal of the household, of
+having every article tasted that was to be consumed by her mistress or
+herself?
+
+He had seen her wrap up the cakes which the dog had not devoured--to
+what end? It would be well to have those cakes and to destroy them;
+was it worth the trouble of finding and purloining them? It had been
+generally admitted that through carelessness there had been an
+accident which was not followed by a fatal result. In every household
+such accidents occur since the culinary genius is not infallible. Were
+the things to be analysed, it might transpire that the quantity of
+verdigris or subacetate on the copper plate had been excessive, so
+great as to look like deliberate purpose. Did Toinon propose to open a
+judicial inquiry under the presidency of Madame La Marechale; produce
+her _pieces de conviction_; accuse a respectable ghostly man of
+attempted murder? The idea was so ludicrous that Pharamond laughed
+aloud. Let her do as she liked. Bother the cakes! The inquiry would be
+very funny. He quite hoped that she would ventilate her suspicions for
+the amusement of the assembled household, and give him the chance of
+victory.
+
+It behoved a son of the Church, brought up in a good school, to pay
+due and ceremonious respect to the mother of their chatelaine. He
+accordingly indited a sweet note expressive of joyous surprise, and
+requesting the honour of an interview.
+
+Gabrielle was about to seize the note and tear it into fragments, but
+the hand impulsively raised fell by her side, and the words she would
+have spoken died upon her lips. Why worry the venerable dame with her
+own peck of troubles? She had gone through such paroxysms of terror on
+the journey that she was still all of a twitter. "You've not the
+smallest idea! My pet--" she began in her high treble, "what the
+villages and towns were like. Where such crowds of forbidding
+tatterdemalions could have sprung from I cannot understand. And when
+they saw my coach and armed servants, they pursued us with yells and
+stones, actually flints! A sharp one nearly struck me in the face. I
+was so indignant that I felt inclined to stop and say, 'You curs! Do
+you know I am the widow of one who spilt his best blood for his
+country and his king?' but now I am rather glad I did not."
+
+"Dearest mother!" the marquise murmured, clasping the old lady to her
+bosom, "I am so glad you did not! Alas! even to name our martyr king
+is to rouse a volley of curses."
+
+And then the old lady, enchanted to have found a listener who would
+not interrupt her flow, gabbled on interminably about the condition of
+the capital. Before daring to decide on a journey she had called in
+good M. Galland who, contrary to her own views, had considered it an
+admirable suggestion that the mother should visit the daughter. "If I
+had known all, wild horses would not have moved me. The threatening
+attitude of your rustics is more menacing than our mob at home." She
+failed to add that as she rarely stepped outside the door, she knew
+but little of the Paris rabble.
+
+"The abbe--how nice it must be to have him," she went off at a
+tangent. "A most engaging man. I remember that when he visited us
+in Paris I said to your dear father--ah, deary me--he's with the
+blessed--that it was a miracle to find such breeding in a provincial.
+You must excuse me, pet, if I seem rude to your husband's brother, but
+he was brought up in the south somewhere, he told me, where they
+cannot be expected to assume the polish of the capital. Well, well--he
+must be a very clever and cultivated man as well as a most delightful
+one!"
+
+How could the marquise divulge what she knew of the abbe to this
+garrulous and purblind old woman? Toinon, who hung about the room and
+knew more than did her mistress could scarce contain herself. Had it
+been worth while to summon such a silly harridan? Her contingent of
+domestics, however, was a safeguard, during whose stay a taster could
+be dispensed with. Suffice it, she was here, and must be detained as
+long as possible, though she always detested Lorge. Toinon had made up
+her mind what steps she intended to take--the very steps which the
+abbe had guessed. She intended formally to impeach the abbe and
+Mademoiselle Brunelle; to unveil the past and the present for the
+shocked old lady's benefit, and solemnly adjure her on her return to
+the capital, to take steps for her daughter's safety, or make up her
+mind till her dying day to be persecuted by vengeful ghosts. In face
+of such an impeachment, and on the production of the cakes, the guilty
+abbe would quail. At any rate, his claws would be cut, so far as
+extreme measures were concerned.
+
+The reception of the brothers by the marechale was most cordial. The
+chevalier quite won her heart, for his watery gaze would remain fixed
+on her for hours, while, knitting in hand, she furbished up for him
+the legends of the chateau. He was like a wistful eyed, cosy,
+lapdog--with an ever-wagging tail. If he spoke little, he was an
+excellent listener, and when she grew weary of chattering, the abbe
+could talk enough for both. On the whole, much as she disliked the
+place, she was quite glad to have come, for the house in the suburbs
+of Paris was deadly dull; there was no society at present, since her
+old friends were in prison or had emigrated.
+
+It was charming, too, with Gabrielle and the cherubs, to forget the
+hurly-burly of the Revolution. The perfect peace and majestic repose
+of the chateau were soothing to the nerves, while there was sufficient
+liveliness to prevent boredom. There never was so attentive a cavalier
+as that delightful abbe who seemed to guess everything by intuition.
+Was she chilly, the devoted soul was sure to come round the corner in
+answer to a wish, armed with a wrap and an umbrella. For her he
+selected the choicest pears and apples at breakfast, indited
+complimentary sonnets--as though she were not silver-haired and
+wrinkled. As the evenings were drawing in he would improvise games and
+pastimes to pass the hours in which the children could join, and made
+himself so agreeable to all that the guest was enchanted. "Really,
+pet, it is quite arcadian," the worthy dame would remark to her
+daughter. "I'd no notion this horrid place could be made so nice. I
+can imagine myself at Trianon again in the good old days. Ah, well,
+well, well!" And then with a big sigh she would burst into tears,
+remembering what had been and what was.
+
+The individual who did not at all appreciate the sudden _volte-face_
+was, as may be imagined, Mademoiselle Brunelle. Fortune was in an
+elfish mood. For her mother's sake the marquise had tacitly permitted
+the brothers to resume the place they had once occupied, promising
+herself--when the visit was over--to hold them at arms' length again;
+but with Algae it was different. On no pretence could she be permitted
+to join the circle. Indeed, it was hinted to her in a politely worded
+note that she was delaying her departure over long.
+
+The abbe had declared that the marplot must be frightened away, and
+yet he was sparing no pains to make the visit pleasant. It was evident
+that he and his brother avoided their ally lest she should fall on
+them with just upbraiding. If she beheld them in the distance, it was
+but to see them whisking round a corner. Oblivious of feelings she was
+left alone to brood and mope; her meals were served apart as though
+she were infectious; and now she had received the curtest of summonses
+to make herself scarce forthwith. Oh! how she hated the lot of them!
+
+In truth she was in a dilemma, and did not know what to do. Clovis had
+been got rid of while something was being done which might revolt his
+squeamish nature; and though he said nothing, she was certain that he
+had more than a vague suspicion of what was going forward. But
+supposing that nothing were to take place after all? Supposing that
+when he had raised the necessary sum, and called on the others to join
+him, they were to do so, and cross the frontier, leaving Gabrielle
+behind? What he was able to raise could not be very much, and one
+cannot live in luxury at Geneva or elsewhere on expectations. They
+would have to report that the marquise was charming well, instead of
+dead, and that, unmolested, she might live on for years. Why should
+she not, in their absence, make another will, or a dozen others,
+whereby even the shadowy expectations would be reduced to thinnest
+air?
+
+Was the abbe scheming to gain time? It struck Algae with a gush of
+impotent wrath that perchance the coming of the marechale had been his
+own device, arranged so as to tide over the days until mademoiselle
+should have no excuse for lingering, that he might then have the
+heiress to himself! Perhaps his recently developed hatred of her was a
+snare to deceive the governess? If it turned out that this was so,
+what course would it behove her to pursue? Should she seem to accept
+her fate, drive quietly away, and joining Clovis, unfold the
+machinations of his brother? Would Clovis believe, and if he did, how
+would he act--he who had fullest confidence in his brother? Were the
+suspicions that racked her justified or not? Meanwhile, she was
+treated like a social Pariah, and the precious hours waned.
+
+The abbe guessed her thoughts, and laughed. Women are so nimble witted
+that when they enter the labyrinth of scheming they frequently wander
+too far and lose themselves. Pharamond was quite as anxious to be rid
+of the old lady as the younger one could be, but he was far-seeing and
+cautious, while his coadjutor was culpably impatient.
+
+It was one night when the family sat at supper in the boudoir that
+Toinon struck her blow. There had been a splendid bout of blind man's
+buff in the grand saloon. The cherubs had been seized by Toinon and
+carried off to bed, flushed, out of breath, and happy. The pursy
+chevalier, who had been very active, puffed and blew, and looked like
+to have a fit. Madame la Marechale had been frisking after a fashion
+that surprised herself. The abbe mopped his face with a dainty
+kerchief, and flung himself at Gabrielle's feet, as in the departed
+days.
+
+"You are our prisoner, marechale," he cried gaily--"a prisoner for
+life in this ancient fortress, and shall never go hence alive. You add
+such a charm to our circle that we positively can't do without you. Is
+it not so, dear Gabrielle? Tell our mother that she is here for good."
+
+Pharamond glanced up, with a yellow light glinting through half-closed
+lids, and lips drawn tightly over teeth: attitude and expression
+recalled vividly scenes she would gladly have forgotten, and
+Gabrielle, she knew not why, was frightened.
+
+Toinon, re-entering, marked his familiar gesture and her lady's fear,
+and her gorge rose till she felt choking. A venomous, slimy snake was
+coiling itself about the feet of the marquise, fouling her with its
+tainted breath. The abnormal, loathsome reptile! Was he slowly to
+enwrap her in his glittering coils and crush her bones, while Toinon
+stood by, unaiding? Her brain in a whirl of indignation, the abigail
+blurted out, "For good or evil, which? You dare not poison _her_--that
+is a comfort--lest her domestics should report the fact."
+
+The suddenness of the attack startled even Pharamond, while the
+marechale stared bewildered, and Gabrielle turned a shade more
+pale. With anxious and surprised inquiry the marquise gazed at her
+foster-sister. What was this? Full well she knew of what the abbe was
+capable, and that her maid would not bring false charges.
+
+The ice broken, Toinon felt better, refreshed as by a douche of
+water. Leaning against the door, hands firmly planted upon hips, she
+turned to the amazed marechale and plainly told her tale. She told of
+the marquise's symptoms, of her own suspicion but too soon verified;
+of how she had found Jean's dog stretched dead upon the floor, with a
+green liquor running from its mouth; how by prompt action she had
+saved her mistress, who had luckily taken but a mouthful; how she had
+found the abbe in perfect health some hours after (if his tale were
+true), he had swallowed a strong dose of poison; how she, Toinon, had
+then sent for Madame de Breze, that in the future she might shield her
+daughter.
+
+Never in her whole life before had the poor old woman been placed
+in a position of responsibility, and she could only murmur in angry
+fear--"Why me--why send for me?" Indeed she was a ludicrous example of
+the broken reed, and the abbe waved airy thanks to Toinon with white
+fingers, in that she was so kindly playing into his hands.
+
+"Why, indeed," he echoed, "if half were true of what that naughty minx
+accuses me. I poison our darling Gabrielle! The idea would be
+intensely comic if it were not offensive. It is a fact, madame, of
+which Gabrielle is well aware, that an accident occurred, owing to a
+scullion's carelessness. I myself nearly succumbed, for I had a
+desperate battle for life, and when I recovered, sent up a hymn of
+thanks to Heaven in that Gabrielle should have but suffered slightly."
+
+"You knew so little of your poison that you assumed wrong symptoms!"
+remarked Toinon, in disdain.
+
+"Not so. It is you who know not the poison," retorted Pharamond, with
+a malignant flash that was instantly suppressed. "Spite and fatuous
+ignorance misled you. The symptoms vary according to quantity imbibed.
+I unluckily ate a cake and half before I was aware of anything
+peculiar, and any doctor will tell you that whereas a small dose of
+subacetate of copper will produce coma, a large one will bring about
+griping pains and tetanic convulsions, which, without aid from above,
+lead to paralysis and death."
+
+"A large dose acts on the system quickly--within an hour," scoffed the
+abigail. "When I told you that the cakes were poisoned you were in
+perfect health."
+
+"I had but just partaken----"
+
+"A clumsy liar! I asked Bertrand if he had more of his confectionery,
+and he answered with a searching look of suspicious inquiry that all
+he had made were served to the marquise."
+
+"Upon my word, the wench is very erudite," laughed the abbe, lightly.
+"How come you to know so much?"
+
+"There was an ancient book on poisons in the library. I turned up the
+article 'Copper,' and studied it."
+
+"Was?"
+
+"Yes, was. The book is hidden now where you will never find it."
+
+There was a pause, during which the combatants studied each other
+warily. Then the abbe, shrugging his shoulders, in disgust drawled
+out, "Have we not had enough of this low comedy?"
+
+"I ascertained," pursued the undaunted maiden, "that the necessary
+quantity of verdigris so to affect one little cake out of many as
+almost to produce coma in one who had taken a single bite must be so
+large that a copper cooking-plate would have to be thickly buttered
+with it. Now Bertrand excused himself on the plea that the plate in
+use was found to be 'not quite clean.' If he had buttered it then was
+your 'accident' not due to inadvertence."
+
+"What proof have you that the cakes were so heavily loaded?"
+
+"The fact that the dog died within half-an-hour; that I retained two
+which I intend presenting to madame that she may have them analysed in
+Paris."
+
+"A pretty story, ingenious as wicked. No one saw the dog perish but
+yourself. What evidence is there, except your own, that the cakes in
+your possession are in the same condition as when placed on the table?
+Are you sure you have any cakes at all?"
+
+There was such an air of mischievous satisfaction underlying the tone
+of banter that Toinon's heart stood still. "How are you sure--" she
+began, then sped swiftly from the room, to return in a few moments
+white as a sheet and breathless.
+
+"They are gone," she panted, "gone! You discovered where they were
+concealed, you wicked man, and have destroyed them!"
+
+The abbe rose leisurely from the floor and broke into a shout of
+laughter. "Dear ladies," he apologised, "you must forgive so vulgar a
+display of merriment, but the jest is too, too good. What subtle
+forms, nowadays, will not the malice of the enemy assume! Unfortunate
+noblesse! Unjust and cruel age! The inscrutable powers permit us to be
+hauled to prison, conducted to the shambles, but allow us to leave the
+world with characters unstained. The mob would trump up charges
+against us now to justify their deeds; but the charges are so shallow
+and so foolish that they defeat their ends. Poisoned cakes! Pah!
+Unhappy girl, you who have received a superior education should have
+soared above such folly. It was the rumour that spread from Paris
+about the king and queen and the poisoned food at the Tuileries that
+put this absurd notion in your head. Madame de Breze, I grieve that so
+untoward an incident as this should have occurred during your stay
+among us, which we have all striven to make a pleasant one. We have
+kept it from you, but it is true, to our misfortune, that the spirit
+of the province is menacing. There is nothing that the peasants will
+not believe against an aristo. If you sallied forth and announced that
+I, the Abbe Pharamond, am specially partial to boiled baby, served
+_aux choux_, there is not one who would not believe you. This girl is
+betrothed to Jean Boulot, the gamekeeper, who deliberately left a
+respectable service to make himself notorious at Blois as the most
+rabid of all the Jacobins, and it is obvious that she acts now under
+his influence, regardless of long service under the marquise and of
+the many benefits received. Alack! the ingratitude of those who rend
+the hand that caresses them is very hard to bear."
+
+"Madame, you do not believe him?" cried Toinon, throwing herself at
+Gabrielle's feet and anxiously searching her face. "You know that the
+man is lying!"
+
+"Yes, I know," Gabrielle whispered as she bent to kiss her brow. "I
+know you have spoken truth, but we are powerless."
+
+She leaned back, supporting her head wearily upon her arm, perfectly
+composed in demeanour, while Toinon, her face buried in her lap,
+sobbed as if her heart were breaking.
+
+The aged Madame de Breze turned from one to the other of the group,
+utterly mystified, with a growing grudge against some one, at present
+she could not tell whom. A gulf had suddenly yawned in front, and from
+its depths arose a faint sickening fume of death. Although she had a
+foot in the grave she mightily objected to the smell of death. Which
+of these two spoke truth? The dear delightful abbe could not have--oh,
+no, that was absurd and ridiculous, and yet why should Gabrielle sit
+so stonily with that woful look of pain? It was plainly her place to
+rise up and take his part, exonerate him at once from even the
+slightest shadow of this dreadful thing; at least to declare her
+conviction that the abigail was mad, was suffering from some unhealthy
+fancy. It was not the poor girl's fault. Were not current events a
+more than sufficient excuse for any amount of hysteria? And yet,
+Gabrielle was plainly not of her opinion. There was the accuser
+nestling her head upon her lap, and the gentle hand was stroking it in
+caress and not in chiding. Did Gabrielle--could Gabrielle be keeping
+secrets from her parent? Was it the old story of the unappreciated
+mentor?
+
+The blessed marechal, who was to be congratulated as out of the
+turmoil, had established a deplorable precedent in the matter of
+Madame de Breze as an oracle. One of the pleasantest points of the
+present _sejour_ was the consideration in which her words were held.
+Her views and opinions were treasured up, as they should be, like
+flies in amber. Could it--oh, no, horrid thought, it could not
+be--that Virginie, Marechale de Breze, aged, never mind how much, _was
+deliberately being made a fool of?_ Much as she was disinclined to
+believe anything so preposterous, it did look extremely like it. The
+husband away, the brother-in-law was openly accused of attempting to
+murder his brother's wife, and that lady being present, made no sign
+except by affectionately caressing the accuser. Madame de Breze did
+not like this new complexion of things at all. How she did and always
+had hated mysteries! Why will people be mysterious? Unless conscious
+of guilt, there is no cause for crawling in shadow. There could not be
+anything between Gabrielle and the abbe? Shocking idea! And yet in
+Paris such things often were. Could there also be something between
+the abbe and Toinon which rendered the latter jealous? Just like a
+woman, Madame de Breze ambled off into the labyrinth of conjecture.
+growing each moment more involved in prickly briars, plunging about
+and tumbling down in pursuit of Will-o'-the-wisp.
+
+When--Toinon's agitation calmed--everybody went to bed, and Gabrielle
+impressed on her mother's brow the chilly kiss of a statue, the
+marechale shivered, and there and then resolved that Lorge was a
+hateful place fit only for owls and ghouls.
+
+
+
+
+                            CHAPTER XXIV.
+
+                  MADAME DE BREZE IS NERVOUS.
+
+
+That night Gabrielle and her foster-sister slept together, or rather
+lay in the same bed, for Toinon had much to tell and Gabrielle to
+hear. In the morning, the chatelaine looked much the same as usual,
+but for the circle of bistre round her eyes, which had grown deeper,
+giving an air of lassitude.
+
+Virginie, Marechale de Breze, never slept a wink; but groaned and
+tossed in a fever, mumbling Ave Marias, and when she appeared at
+dejeuner, the abbe shook a reproachful finger at her. "Yellow!" he
+declared, mournfully, "absolutely and undeniably yellow! How dare you,
+after all our care, look so jaded, when yesterday you were as blooming
+as a rose? I know what it is. Try this pear--it absolutely melts in
+the mouth. No. I won't offer it, for I am afraid it smells of copper.
+Or is it brimstone? How provoking! I have tucked my hoofs and tail
+under my chair, but I cannot conceal the brimstone! Look at your
+lovely daughter. She knows better than to believe _cancans_, and has
+slept the sleep of the angels. Alas--dearest mother--you have
+permitted me to call you mother--I shall have to administer a severe
+and terrible lecture. I told you last night you were our prisoner, but
+I won't have birds that injure their delightful plumage. If you beat
+your wings against the bars I shall open the cage-door, I warn you,
+and dismiss you into space!"
+
+Turned out into space among the ravening wolves without, or kept in
+the gilded cage to be slowly done to death? What an alternative! Why
+could not somebody tell her what to do, instead of leaving her all
+night stretched upon the rack of her uncertainty? Evidently, unless
+candidates for an asylum, they must all have some motive for acting in
+the odd way they did, but what was it? It was so rude and
+inconsiderate to be plotting, and scheming, and lying, and charging
+each other with all kinds of horrible offences, under the nose of an
+innocent stranger, of whom they were making a butt. Madame made up her
+mind to upbraid Gabrielle severely for her inhuman and unfilial
+conduct. If there was any nasty skeleton about, she had no business to
+summon an aged parent to contemplate it.
+
+Toinon, plunged into a slough of anguish, could only wring her hands
+and moan. It is not every David who can get the better of Goliath; and
+is it not wiser to flee before the great towering monster, instead of
+hurling our puny stone at him--only to be trodden in a trice under his
+ponderous splay foot?
+
+The abigail had got the worst of the encounter, her proofs as well as
+her accusation were rendered ridiculous, even in her own eyes,
+although she knew the accusation to be true. She was held up to
+obloquy as a Jacobin, one of the anarchists steeped to the lips in
+crime, ready to destroy by false witness the family to which she owed
+everything. Next, she would develop into a tricoteuse, sitting under
+shadow of the guillotine. It was intolerable. Toinon was not meek and
+lowly as some of her betters were. On the contrary, there ran through
+her veins a current of pugnacity of which honest Jean had tasted. She
+was not prepared to sit down like Gabrielle, wearing a crown of thorns
+and bearing a cross, the while pretending to enjoy them. Certainly
+not. She was one of those who have no respect for crowns of thorns,
+and consider crosses irksome wear. But what could she do to unwind her
+mistress and herself from the present tangle? The marechale was an
+imbecile old doll. The abject terror of her mien last night had
+something about it that was full of pathos. It is pitiful to see so
+battered and helpless a thing as that in the bubbling whirlpool of our
+world. Jean--Jean Boulot was the one rock to which the two women might
+cling in their danger. Jean must leave his Jacobin clubs and come to
+them. Would it be well for Toinon herself to proceed to Blois, seek
+him out, and explain? He would not think her forward and unmaidenly,
+for she would find words to convince him as she had her mistress. No.
+The marechale having proved herself to be a broken reed, it would not
+do to go to Blois, for her mistress would be left with no rampart,
+however unsatisfactory and weak, between herself and the insidious
+foe. What if, on her return, she were to find that the deed was
+accomplished? Jean must be written to, and implored by the past to
+come to the rescue of two women in grievous peril. And they were in
+extreme danger; he would see that for himself when he arrived. Toinon
+knew it full well. She had read the abbe's eyes last night, and was as
+much aware as Gabrielle, that for those who stood athwart his path,
+there was no more mercy within his breast than conscience or religion.
+
+Poor Madame de Breze! Yellow, forsooth! The more she pondered the more
+troubled she became. Her wrinkled old face was turning green. Was the
+abbe a monster or an angel? If only somebody would clear up this
+point. He made her blood run cold with his facetiousness, for is it
+not creepy to be openly informed by a person, that he wears a tail and
+hoofs, and to be more than half assured that it is true? He danced
+round her fears with elfin gambols, till she felt her frail wits
+tottering; and then, grown of a sudden serious, he would relate what
+he called facts, which only increased her terrors. Why had no one
+informed her before that Madame de Vaux hardly, and her daughter
+Angelique, were practically in a state of siege; that various chateaux
+in the neighbourhood had been demolished, their inhabitants drowned
+or strangled; that she had not been wrong on her way thither, as to
+the threatening attitude of the peasantry? Of course, she had been
+right--was she not always right though people would not believe her?
+She had been lured hither to this dismal fortalice to perish like a
+rat in a trap. Danger from without and from within. Goodness gracious!
+What if that story of the cakes were true? Gabrielle, strangely
+enough, seemed to consider that it was neither new nor surprising that
+her life should be in peril. What should they want to kill her for?
+Was it something connected with money? All evil springs from that.
+Then a thrill of horror surged over the selfish heart of the unlucky
+dame, when she remembered her daughter's will. To her, the old mother,
+the money was bequeathed--in trust, it is true; but to her. If they
+wished to compass Gabrielle's death, of course, her own would follow.
+What a silly will it was. She protested at the time, but had been
+overruled by M. Galland. It was an absurd thing for a young woman to
+bequeath a fortune to an old one--worse--it was a cruel and dastardly
+thing to do, if unscrupulous schemers were after it. Why must they mix
+up a harmless and venerable and justly respected lady in their plots
+and squabbles? Madame de Breze worked herself up into a white heat of
+indignation, and set herself to see how she could get out of the trap
+with promptitude, and such decency as might be.
+
+She propounded her views to Gabrielle, who gravely and calmly
+aquiesced. "Nothing detains you here, dear mother," she kept
+repeating, with monotonous persistency, "except your own fancy. I
+hoped you had taken to our quiet life; but if not, it is better you
+should go."
+
+"I have so few years left to live, you know," apologetically whimpered
+the marechale, "that I grudge the time away from entrancing Paris."
+
+When her daughter elected courteously to consider that this was
+natural, her conscience pricked, and she was annoyed at feeling
+ashamed. Indeed, the excuse was of the lamest, since the beloved
+capital was, at this juncture, a prey to devils whose goddess was
+Mother Guillotine. In the retirement of her secluded dwelling,
+however, she could feel comparatively safe. She quite longed for the
+little house, which she was always complaining of as dismal. At all
+events, she could nibble a cake there without dread of poison.
+
+"I will stay, of course, if you say you really wish it," she went on,
+plaintively, as salve to the inner monitor, "but the air of Touraine
+never did agree with me any more than with your blessed father; and if
+I were to be taken ill, I should only be an extra worry."
+
+A smile flitted over the sad face of the marquise, as she took her
+mother's hands and kissed them. "My dear," she said, "I would not have
+you stay for worlds a moment longer than you fancy. Go back to Paris,
+and I will pray Heaven that your journey may be prosperous. I would
+like you to go at once, because I am sure it is for the best, since
+you are nervous, and at the same time I would beg of you a favour.
+Take the children with you, for I should feel happier if they were
+safe under your care. I will give orders now," she added, rising
+briskly, "in order that they may be ready by to-morrow."
+
+The old lady ruefully rubbed her nose with her spectacles, being
+ashamed to speak her thoughts. It occurred to her that if the abbe
+really was nourishing designs of a nefarious nature, he might
+endeavour to prevent her from departing. If she proposed to remove the
+children, there would be extra inducement to interfere, considering
+the uncomfortable prominence given to all three by that deplorably
+ill-advised testament. Gabrielle had kept her lips sealed with regard
+to the second document. Indeed, she was unaccountably and provokingly
+reticent on most points in her dealings with the marechale, who
+resented her silence hotly. She never could be got to talk of her
+affairs--to give an opinion as to the characters of Pharamond or of
+Phebus; declined to discuss the absence of her husband, or to explain
+the presence of the quondam governess, who, from time to time, was
+meteorically visible, hovering. Under the circumstances, what object
+would be gained by lingering at Lorge, since all seemed alike agreed
+to withhold from the sage their confidence? If she were allowed, she
+would gladly turn her back on the ill-omened place, and thank her
+stars when quit of it.
+
+The marquise saved her from the trouble of displaying her own
+diplomacy by boldly announcing to the abbe that Madame la Marechale de
+Breze would return on the morrow to the capital, and, being lonely
+there, would borrow, for a period, the society of her grandchildren.
+The abbe glanced keenly in her face, but could read nothing there.
+What curious fancy was this? She who so adored the cherubs, had
+decided on a separation! Why? What motive could underly so unexpected
+a project? The more the abbe reflected, the less could he fathom it,
+but after looking at it from every point, he made up his mind that it
+was some feminine whim which concerned him not. And yet it did in this
+much. From the moment that the second will was executed, the children
+were safe from any machinations of the conspirators. What happened to
+them was of no importance. If Algae chose to be burthened with them,
+she was welcome so to do, as far as her fellow-schemer was concerned.
+It would be a convenience, though, to have them out of the way just
+now. When _it_ was over, and the family was comfortably established at
+Geneva, there would be plenty of time to consider what was to be done
+with the infants. Perhaps it would be a harmless sop to Clovis to have
+them with him there, in order that he might make up for the shadiness
+of his marital past by systematic parental indulgence. There certainly
+was no possible reason why they should not journey with their
+grandmother to Paris on a visit, and the heart of the latter, on
+finding there was no opposition to the plan, was relieved of a weight
+as ponderous as a nether millstone.
+
+Long before the hasty preparations were complete, Madame la Marechale
+had satisfactorily convinced herself that the abbe's place was among
+the angelic host. It must be mischievous fudge about those cakes; a
+silly tittle-tattle of ignorant servants, to which Gabrielle, mopish
+and morbid, had given too willing an ear. Far from throwing barriers
+in the way of an exodus, both brothers were almost too obliging. The
+chevalier, who was a past master in farriery, examined the horses'
+shoes with minute care, while his brother superintended the inner
+economy of the berline. In the boot were books, and a few bottles of
+the choicest wines and samples of comforting cordials, wherewith an
+elderly traveller might be sustained under fatigue. There were pillows
+and cushions galore, and cunning wraps deftly-stowed in corners.
+
+"Our dear mother," he explained, laughingly, "shall carry away with
+her a favourable impression of Lorge, though she is so ungrateful as
+to leave us with too evident alacrity. Never mind. It becomes the
+Church to be forgiving, and, returned to the capital, she will reward
+us with remembrance in her prayers."
+
+As at last she drove away, with a darling wedged in on either side,
+like panniers on a donkey, the marechale blamed herself bitterly for
+her unjust suspicions. How could the man have evil intentions, since
+he was so ready to speed upon their road those whom, if suspicions
+were true, it was his direct interest to keep under control? And
+if--as was clearly proven--he had evolved no base scheme with regard
+to the children and their guardian--why should he be scheming to
+injure Gabrielle? What could he possibly gain by injuring Gabrielle,
+since, after her death, her possessions would pass at once far
+out of his reach? It was all preposterous--impossible rather than
+improbable--and it behoved a wise and experienced lady of mature years
+to scold an hysterical daughter for nourishing injurious fancies. The
+nearer she was to Paris, the more jubilant did the old dame become,
+the more rosy grew her cogitations. It was certainly nice to have the
+cherubs' society in a shut-up house in the suburbs, whose safety lay
+in its blankness; but it was improper to be selfish. If there was a
+vice against which the marechale was fond of tilting, it was
+selfishness. She loathed and abhorred the disfiguring leprosy. No one
+should ever say that she was selfish. She would keep the little ones
+for a few months, then pack them home again. In her odd state, it was
+not quite wise to leave the marquise moping. By and by she would
+receive them in her arms, delighted with the good that change of
+scene had done them, grateful for the grandmother's care. As for M.
+Galland--the estimable and upright, but somewhat square-toed,
+solicitor, to whose acumen the late marechal had been misguided enough
+to trust, rather than to the wisdom of his singularly clear-brained
+wife, she would be able to report most favourably. He had urged,
+almost compelled, the journey to Touraine, being oppressed by some
+indefinite apprehension. Madame la Marquise, he had explained, wrote
+so seldom and so little, that he began to think there must be some
+reason for her reticence. Regardless of self, or plaguey pains and
+aches, the devoted mother had travelled that weary distance, and in
+late autumn, too, when east winds are so unpleasantly familiar. Martyr
+to duty and an irrepressibly conscientious solicitor, she had been,
+and she had come back. The tiresomely apprehensive Galland would be
+delighted with the assurance that the Marquise de Gange was well; that
+the marquis, temporarily absent on business, was likewise well; that
+two of the most charming and devotedly attentive men on earth were his
+half-brothers, on whose backs the wings were already sprouting, that
+they might join the hierarchy of heaven. As for the cherubs, she had
+brought them as specimens of the results of Touraine air. The arms of
+the darlings were healthily brown, and prematurely developed by
+boating exercise on the Loire. They were quite bursting with health
+and spirits, and would very likely be insulted in the streets as
+aggressive and reproachful examples of country versus town. M.
+Galland's apprehensions, clearly demonstrated to be of the most idle
+description, would vanish; he would sleep on his two ears, as the
+saying hath it; and worry the grandmother no more.
+
+On the evening of her arrival, the solicitor dined with her, anxious
+for a report as to the doings in Touraine. He hearkened to her wisdom,
+nor strove to stem the ocean of her prate, which babbled on
+unceasingly. She was provoked to observe that he was absent, and that
+his moody brow remained clouded despite the rosiness of her report. Of
+course, he did not believe her. Nobody ever had, worse luck for the
+world in general; but it was really just a shade too insolent to have
+sent her all that distance in a ram-shackle old shanderydan, and, the
+pilgrimage completed, to treat the result of her observations as mere
+draught whistling through a keyhole. The old lady was so hurt that she
+was unable to control her vexation. "Of course, I'm a fool," she
+gurgled. "If I'm so incurably imbecile, why did you not go yourself?
+These children, I suppose, are no evidence, with their gladsome eyes
+and ruddy faces!"
+
+M. Galland did not reply at once, for he was thinking.
+
+"It might have been as well, perhaps, madame, if I had accompanied
+you," he slowly said at last. "The children, thank goodness! are in
+perfect health. The marquis, you admit, was absent; his brothers
+practically in possession. One lady and two gentlemen--a cosy party of
+three."
+
+"Wrong!" cried the marechale in triumph. "Always the same. You
+interrupt and jump at conclusions without having the decent civility
+to hear me out. Some men are insufferably rude."
+
+"How wrong?" enquired the solicitor, anxiously.
+
+"There were two ladies in the house; but the second held so much aloof
+that I was hardly aware of her presence. That struck me as a little
+odd, for she was an invited guest--a Mademoiselle Brunelle, at one
+time governess to the little ones."
+
+M. Galland started, and the cloud on his brow deepened.
+
+That woman again! She whom he had himself expelled by the express
+orders of De Breze. How had she wormed herself into the house a second
+time. And she held aloof, too--was not one of the family circle--sure
+sign that her presence there was contrary to the wish of the marquise.
+
+"Of a certainty," reflected the solicitor, "I should have done well to
+go down myself. Strange as it may seem, it looks very much as if the
+forebodings of madame were to be realized."
+
+M. Galland muffled himself to the eyes in his roquelaure, and preceded
+by a trusty servant with a lantern, walked rapidly home, exceedingly
+disturbed in mind. "If aught happens to her," he kept murmuring, "it
+will be a cause of acutest self-reproach as long as I live. And yet
+how could a steady-going old lawyer take a woman's romantic
+presentiments into account? She declared when she left Paris, that she
+was going to her death. A fear without solid basis founded upon fancy.
+And that declaration that she made before the magistrate. Did she see
+with prophetic vision? I've heard of such cases, but never credited
+them. Have I unwittingly betrayed my trust? If anything happens,
+how, in the next world, shall I dare to meet her father? It is
+strange--extremely strange."
+
+Proceeding to his study, M. Galland took up an open letter, and with
+gathering frown, perused it carefully for the fourth time. It was a
+letter from a brother solicitor at Blois, formally enquiring for
+information. The Marquis de Gange, the stranger explained, was anxious
+to emigrate secretly with his family, and to that end desired to raise
+money. All Touraine knew that the beautiful marquise, his wife, was
+the money-bag, and it had struck him, the solicitor, as irregular that
+the marquise should not herself have made the request, if not in
+person, at least in writing. M. le Marquis had explained her absence
+by frankly confessing that she knew nothing of his move, she being in
+so nervous and over-wrought a condition through terror, that it would
+be dangerous to consult her on the subject. It was solely on her
+account that he was anxious to leave France in secret and without
+delay, for she was in so precarious a state of nervous prostration
+that only in a peaceful land could it be hoped that she would rally.
+As security for the sum required--nothing very considerable--the
+marquis had produced his wife's testament, showing that even if,
+unfortunately, her health succumbed on the journey, her sorrowing
+widower would be in condition to repay the loan.
+
+The matter was nothing very extraordinary. In these ticklish times,
+much stranger requests were being made each day, but it had struck the
+provincial firm that before complying, it would be only regular and
+courteous to inform the family solicitor.
+
+"Regular and courteous, indeed!" sighed M. Galland, as he folded and
+locked away the letter. "It is all too plain. She has been forced, as
+she feared, to make another will. Her husband is trying to raise money
+on it. Meanwhile, she is left in the custody of his brothers and that
+woman. Is it coercion, or has she changed her mind? I should dearly
+like to know if there is a cross after the signature. Perhaps she has
+really changed her mind, and I am an over-anxious old donkey. Her
+mother declared that she is well and happy, and a mother ought to be a
+judge. But such a mother! cackling, silly goose. And what could have
+induced madame to send away the children? If well enough to deceive a
+mother's eye, the marquis has deliberately lied. There is a mystery
+that looks mighty black, and must forthwith be fathomed. This raising
+of funds without her knowledge shall be nipped in the bud at once; and
+if I turn out to be wrong, I can afford to accept the responsibility.
+Yes. I will fire a random shot and inform the firm at Blois by special
+courier that their will is mere waste paper."
+
+
+
+
+                             CHAPTER XXV.
+
+                         WILL THE SWORD FALL?
+
+
+Perchance that well-meaning, but mole-like, person, Madame de Breze,
+would have felt less comfortable if she had been aware of her
+daughter's attitude as the carriage rolled away. She stood at an upper
+window and strained her eyes, striving to follow the casket which
+contained her treasures, long after it was out of sight. Tears were
+streaming down her cheeks, and, turning away at length with a
+convulsive sob, she murmured, "They at least are safe, thank Heaven
+for that mercy," and retired to weep in her chamber. Toinon, entering
+soon after, found her mistress lying on her face upon the bed in
+strong hysterics, with fingers tightly clasped about her neck. Honest
+Toinon was unable to solve the riddle of such singular behaviour. Her
+mistress seemed to be under some spell, her power of volition
+suspended, acting like a marionnette in obedience to invisible wires.
+If it was such agony to part from her children, why have done so? When
+she put the question, the answer staggered Toinon. With her head on
+her foster-sister's breast, her emotion calmed by contact of a loving
+hand, Gabrielle replied simply, "What greater anguish than to part
+from dear ones whom you know you will never see again?"
+
+Exhorted to courage and hope, she only sighed and murmured, "Even my
+mother has deserted me in my extremity. I look beyond the world and
+fix my faith in God."
+
+He or she who can bid a genuine farewell to hope is forlorn indeed. If
+this mental condition was to continue, the conspirators had nought to
+do but to sit with idle hands and wait. Either their victim would
+become insane, or fade and die without assistance from them. It is
+said that the fascinated bird feels neither pain nor fear, but looks
+forward with complacency to being swallowed. Toinon, being wrought of
+stronger stuff, had no idea of abandoning hope. She boiled with
+healthy wrath against the selfish old hag who was gone, and anger was
+a fillip to her energy. The abigail had laid herself out to be
+particularly agreeable during the last few days, had permitted a
+certain lacquey of the marechale's sundry liberties, had even kissed
+him in the dark, and vowed to be his alone. This reprehensible levity
+served various ends. It kept up her spirits, and was a satisfactory
+revenge on absent Jean; passed time agreeably, and made of the man her
+slave. Having settled to eat humble pie with regard to the
+recalcitrant Boulot, and condone his enormities, a difficulty arose as
+to how he was to be communicated with. She knew that since the
+accusation about the cakes her steps had been dogged, her movements
+watched; and were she to openly indite epistles to the Jacobin, they
+would surely be intercepted by the conspirators. Gracefully grouped
+together on the stairs after the household were abed, the abigail and
+her admirer whispered fervid vows, and embraced each other tenderly.
+She could not leave her lady's service just at present, she explained,
+but would seek the earliest opportunity if the swain would promise to
+be true. She was full of crotchets. Never, no never, would she give
+her hand without the consent of her dearest brother, who was at Blois.
+He loved his little sister too well, however, to withhold consent
+where her heart was entirely given. But his consent must be obtained,
+and till it came, there must be no further dallying. How was his
+consent to be speedily obtained? She would indite a little letter to
+her brother, and, lest there should be delays she would not put her
+letter in the post. The invaluable missive should be confided to the
+swain, and money with it, that at the first posthouse on the road,
+when the marechale's party left Lorge, he should transmit it by the
+hand of a horseman. Toinon was not above taking a lesson from her
+mistress and sending a summons to Jean on the sly, as the marquise had
+to her father. The old lady was gone, and the swain was gone, and
+naughty Toinon felt not the least compunction for fooling the simple
+fellow. If some day he were to make inconvenient claims, was not Jean
+Boulot burly enough to protect her? She had adjured the latter in the
+most solemn manner to leave all and come at once if he ever felt a
+spark of love for her or a scintilla of respect for her mistress.
+
+"France has sufficient champions without you," she concluded; "and you
+will never regret having been the means of saving two innocent
+helpless women."
+
+Though she chose to gibe and be mighty indignant over Jean's
+defection, she never felt the smallest doubt that, the political fever
+past, he would return to his allegiance. She had despatched an urgent
+summons, and she knew that he would come; and this being so, she was
+inclined to be cheerful, keeping a wary eye on the conspirators.
+
+Now it was a grievous thing that her mistress should collapse, commend
+her soul to Heaven, await the impending stroke with the air of a
+sacrificial lamb. Resignation is the attribute of slaves unendowed
+with the holy birthright of freedom. Our natural condition is that of
+contest, the form of which but varies according to the thickness of
+the civilized veneer. He who cannot gird his loins for the fray goes
+to the wall, and he who has gone to the wall is a deserving object for
+contempt. Toinon could fight, and would, with teeth and nails if need
+were, and she was prepared to do battle with the conspirators whilst
+awaiting the advent of Jean.
+
+It behoved her to show that she was not afraid of them, and she
+accordingly tripped into the kitchen on the day of the marechale's
+departure, and scornfully announced that, considering what wretches
+they all were, former precautions must be resumed. Madame would take
+her meals in her apartments. Toinon would carry the plateau with her
+own hands, and M. Bertrand would be good enough to taste of every dish
+under her close inspection before confiding it to her care. Vainly
+that worthy blew himself out and beat his chest, and gesticulated, and
+talked of honour.
+
+"Pooh!" scoffed the abigail, "you may spare your breath. I choose to
+take the precaution, though I have no dread of your attempting to
+poison us. A dirty cooking-plate may serve as an excuse for once. A
+second mistake of the sort would go hard with you, for I would have
+you remember that the marechale and all her servants know the story of
+the cakes, and a secluded lady is not poisoned twice _by accident!_"
+
+Toinon prattled gaily of these things to the marquise, but could not
+succeed in raising her spirits. The latter, to please her devoted
+friend, summoned up a ghostly smile, which resembled moonlight on a
+tomb.
+
+"Fate is fate," she sighed. "For some inscrutable reason we are
+doomed. Madame de Lamballe first; the queen or I, who knows which of
+us will be the second?"
+
+It is hard work being always cheery when others groan in the
+doldrums. It is not easy to shake off the grip of fatalism in the
+society of a fatalist. Toinon, despite her efforts, receiving no
+encouragement--feeding as it were on her own fuel--in spite of brave
+resolutions, grew jaded and despondent. Flirtations were not to be
+thought of with any members of the existing household. Firstly,
+because the doughty Jean was to be expected at any moment, and
+untoward consequences might ensue; secondly, because the young lady
+knew, for certain, that many of the domestics were creatures of the
+abbe, if not all of them. There are few feelings less pleasant than a
+conviction that you are surrounded by spies, that you are always under
+observation like a struggling insect under a microscope. Common rough
+malefactors in gaol suffer more from unsleeping surveillance than
+would be supposed possible in persons with low-strung nerves.
+
+The weather grew too cold for sitting-out, even if wrapped in furs,
+and Toinon had much ado to coax her wan mistress to take the air at
+all, for was not the favourite pleasaunce, called the moat-garden,
+redolent of distracting memories; did not each flower-bed recall some
+prank of the absent ones, each bush re-echo with the laughter, which
+was to be heard no more at Lorge? It was even disagreeable to gaze
+from the balconies of the long saloon, for the Loire flowed on in
+silent placidity, its bosom no longer ruffled by the eccentric
+movements of the wherry propelled by infant hands. The wherry swung in
+the tide, a useless bit of lumber, for no one dreamed of using it, of
+unknotting its rusty chain.
+
+Gabrielle sat day by day in a low _causeuse_, intent on some
+embroidery like a fading Penelope, who works on and weaves, a dull
+machine, though she has learned that Ulysses is no more. The earth is
+steady underfoot, the sky above; the soul yet beats against its
+chain--how long? Some kind of mechanical occupation is imperative to
+keep overwrought nerves from twanging--to maintain on the lips the bit
+of silence, and hold back the wailing of despair. When all illusions
+are gone--every one--when, search as carefully as we will, there is no
+grain of comfort left to make existence bearable, we long for death in
+any hideous shape, well knowing that if the Pilgrim came, we should
+involuntarily shrink from him. Love of life, for the sake of living,
+is a phenomenon which orientals do not share with the white races,
+happily for them; whether they go or stay is a matter of indifference,
+from which they may thank their faith, since death means to them but a
+change of envelope, a single stage upon a journey.
+
+It is not uncommon in the east for men who are cast for execution to
+sit by the wayside, almost unguarded, awaiting the advent of the
+executioner, while the ease and cheapness with which a substitute may
+be bought in China is notorious. By a strange paradox, it is reserved
+for the disciples of Christ, the Prince of Peace, to live in terror of
+death. No doubt there are many whose burthens are so disproportionate
+to their strength that, _coute que coute_, they are impelled to shake
+them off, but students of statistics are surprised at the small number
+of sane suicides, slowly and deliberately carried out, compared to
+those brought about by passion.
+
+Gabrielle knew, or thought she knew, as surely as that night follows
+day, that the frayed string which held the sword was worn almost
+through, and that at any moment it might fall.
+
+When on waking she saw Toinon fling back the heavy curtains of a
+morning to let in the light, she wondered that she should be alive and
+well. What object did her existence fulfil upon the earth? Why was she
+spared to crawl on aimlessly? Without husband, without children,
+without a friend in the world except this simple foster-sister, why
+did she linger thus? Surely her fitting place was in the fragrant
+earth, sheltered by waving grass from carking cares. The string was
+worn through, and yet it would not break. Day followed day, night
+followed night, nothing new occurred. She went her dismal way, and no
+one troubled her or seemed to know or care whether she were alive or
+dead, or well or dying. Algae was still in the chateau, but made no
+sign. Toinon looked forth in vain for Jean Boulot. He neither wrote
+nor came; what if the letter had miscarried?
+
+The conspirators were quiescent because they were in a quandary. There
+was no news of Clovis, or of what he was doing at Blois. His continued
+silence was incomprehensible. Had any hitch occurred in the
+negociations? Surely not, or he would have communicated with his
+brother. Kept in suspense, the latter knew not what course to adopt,
+and had much ado to endure the persistent girding of Algae. The
+ex-governess found the situation quite intolerable, and was for
+grappling with it at all hazards, and at once. Clovis had made some
+muddle, which might place the heads of all of them in jeopardy. He was
+not a man to be despatched on any mission requiring delicacy or tact.
+What he was pleased to call his feelings (mere pusillanimity) had been
+too much considered. _It_ should have been carried out to the end, if
+not actually in his presence, at least while he was dwelling in the
+chateau. What was to prevent him now, supposing that anything went
+wrong, from declaring that his brothers had acted entirely without his
+knowledge or consent? It was a grand mistake to have let him fly off
+alone, and the abbe, who plumed himself so much on his astuteness, and
+who was for ever finding fault with others, had been guilty of the
+biggest blunder of all.
+
+Thus mademoiselle querulously droning with increasing fretfulness, and
+the wrath of her fellow-conspirator was kindled against her. In his
+heart he could admit that there had been a grave mistake, but was that
+a reason for bearing taunts from Algae? She had been called in to act
+as conscience keeper to the marquis, and a pretty way she had carried
+out the task. Instead of bringing him round to active co-operation,
+she had only so far blinded him as to procure the tacit consent of
+convenient temporary absence. It had been a foolish plan, too, to
+raise money on the will, during the marquise's life. Better far to
+have announced her sudden and much-to-be-regretted demise, to have
+performed decorous obsequies, and then quietly have taken possession.
+But then Clovis was so untrustworthy. He was just the sort of
+provoking man to veer round suddenly, to place obstacles instead of
+adding all his weight to keep the wheel revolving. Then the visit of
+the Marplot Marechale had so altered the complexion of affairs, and
+swallowed precious time. Were the marquise to succumb suddenly, the
+story of the unlucky cakes might be raked up again, unpleasant
+questions be asked. The schemers must fall back upon the idea of
+typhus, and that brought the scheme round in a circle to the original
+starting point--the providing of necessary funds in specie to tide
+over a period of months.
+
+The complaints and jeremiads of Algae overshot their mark, and so
+stirred the ire of the abbe that his active mind went off at a
+tangent, and his wits began to weave another pattern. Oh! if by some
+cunning device it were possible to circumvent that odious woman--alone
+to carry off the prize, leaving her and her weak-kneed admirer to
+gnash their teeth in vain. How sweet a vengeance--how savoury a
+triumph! Revolving the matter in a brain quickened to activity by
+spite, Pharamond made up his mind once more, at the eleventh hour, to
+attempt to carry the citadel. The mental and physical condition of the
+marquise was vastly different now from what it was when last he failed
+to storm the outworks. To mark her listless movements, her hopeless
+heaviness of gait, was to be assured that the ramparts were crumbling,
+that the walls were insufficiently manned. The armour of the warrior
+was worn into holes, through which it would surely be possible to
+insert an arrow. At all events it was worth trying, for success would
+mow down the hopes of Algae, and thus punish her presumption and
+impertinence.
+
+Having decided to try again, the abbe donned his most becoming suit of
+violet silk with gold embroidered buttonholes, arranged his hair with
+extreme nicety, and placed a patch close to his favourite dimple. This
+done, he surveyed himself in the mirror, contemplated with approval
+the harmonious contour of his leg, and sallied forth satisfied, armed
+_cap-a-pie_ for conquest. Swiftly he sped up the stairs, and meeting
+Toinon on the landing, well-nigh choked that damsel with indignation
+by playfully chucking her chin. "It is too bad," he cried, "that so
+ripe a cherry should yet hang upon the bough. You must leave this dull
+house and seek more congenial society. There are sweethearts galore
+waiting for you beyond the frontier."
+
+"Are you in such a hurry to get rid of me?" gasped Toinon. "Whatever
+happens to us, my place is beside my mistress."
+
+"Of course it is, you suspicious little fool!" laughed Rene. "If she
+travels, you will not wish to be left behind?"
+
+If she travels! What new phase of the complication was this? It was
+distracting. Whatever it might be she was sure it boded injury to both
+the foster-sisters.
+
+"Travel, poor soul!" the abigail observed, sourly. "It was a long
+journey the other day that you strove to send her on!"
+
+Pharamond frowned, then seizing the buxom figure before him, he
+pressed upon the lips a kiss. "There!" he said; "that is your
+punishment for unworthy and unjust suspicions of one who means you
+well. I promise that the dose shall be repeated twentyfold if you
+presume to talk such nonsense any more."
+
+Toinon struggled and recoiled, crimson to the roots of her hair, her
+dark eyes flashing. "How dare you--how dare you!" she panted. "Two
+helpless women are a fit butt for outrage. I am not so friendless as
+you think. Jean Boulot shall know of this."
+
+"Oho! Jean Boulot, the terrible Jacobin. Are we to be threatened with
+that bugbear? You can have but little pride, mistress, to prate of one
+who toyed with and then deserted you."
+
+Scalding tears welled into the eyes of Toinon, and rolled in great
+drops upon her cheeks. Alas! it was too true. He was an idle bugbear,
+a stuffed bogey to frighten babes withal. Had she not sacrificed her
+vanity and besought him to come at once, and he had never deigned to
+answer? The abbe might do what he chose, the two women were indeed
+defenceless.
+
+"I wish to speak to the marquise upon an urgent matter. Go and say
+that I await her pleasure," commanded Pharamond.
+
+Toinon glanced askance at him, and answered shortly, "She will not see
+you."
+
+"Will she not? If you will not take a civil message, I will enter her
+boudoir unannounced."
+
+What was to prevent him? Nothing. Reluctantly the abigail obeyed, and
+while he stood waiting, the abbe considered her words. "Jean Boulot!
+Remembered still? If she sent for him it might prove awkward. I must
+see that they do not communicate."
+
+Toinon earnestly begged for permission to tell the abbe that the
+marquise refused to see him; but the latter shook her head and smiled
+her dreary smile. "Go to," she sighed, "if the man wishes me evil how
+shall I protect myself? If he has aught to say it is better that I
+should hear it."
+
+The visitor found Gabrielle sitting on a low sofa, and as, unbidden,
+he sank into the place by her side, a thrill passed along his nerves,
+for the statuesque composure of her mien was exactly suited to her
+beauty.
+
+"Dear Gabrielle," he murmured, "you are more beautiful than ever."
+
+"You have intruded here to-day to tell me so?" she inquired, coldly.
+
+"Take care! You burn and freeze at the same time. Such loveliness as
+yours may account for any rashness."
+
+Alas! how ghastly a mockery had this same beauty been! The
+fairest woman of her time--her affections withered, her heart
+broken--deserted, friendless, desolate. At thought of it Gabrielle
+smiled, and the abbe considered himself encouraged.
+
+"Gabrielle," he said, taking her unwilling hand, "in what I am about
+to say you must not deem me harsh. It is sometimes for the best to
+speak quite openly. I am a very forgiving man, as you shall have cause
+to know. You flouted, scorned, insulted me, and yet, though you
+deliberately chose my hate, I have nothing but deep love for you."
+
+Again! The marquise wondered in a hazy way what could be the motive
+for this comedy.
+
+"Love," she observed, reflecting, quite unruffled. "A strange form of
+love, is it not, which injures the object that is adored? Wherein lies
+the difference betwixt such love and the hate you promised?"
+
+"An ardent, hot-headed man may be goaded by desperation to acts that
+he afterwards deplores in sackcloth and in ashes."
+
+"An odd form of love that kills and crushes!"
+
+"Hear me out quietly, and you will be convinced that I have striven in
+vain to hate you--that my carefully barbed darts have fallen blunted.
+Your position here is desperate. It is, believe me; and yet, though
+you are walled about by triple barriers, against which it would be
+idle to buffet, yet there is a loophole by which you may escape."
+
+Gabrielle turned her deep blue eyes upon the speaker, and raised her
+brows inquiringly.
+
+"Your case is desperate because all are combined against you; all are
+resolved upon your death--all, except me, and why? Because my love
+stands between you and them, a saving plank in the approaching
+hurricane. Your husband and his friend are bent on your destruction.
+He has left the house until it is accomplished. You are hemmed about
+with foes. Every servant in this household is suborned. They are men,
+carefully selected, who know no pity--on whose shoulders, were they
+bared, you would see the galleys-brand--men who would one and all look
+on your death struggle with indifference--as callous as the bravo of
+romance. I have before told you, and it is more true than ever now,
+that my love is your only safeguard. I hold the door ajar to Hope.
+Yield to my suit and grant me the boon I ask, and I swear that the
+shackles will fall from off your limbs; that your troubles will cease,
+for you'll be free. Free to depart with me to a distant land where in
+freshly-flowing happiness, the past shall be as a dream. Sorceress!
+What is this witchcraft that you exert over me? I love you all the
+more ardently for the long siege. Be mine the grateful task to rescue
+you from the clutches of these wretches. Say the word. We will quit
+France secretly together, and leave _them_ to the fate which they
+deserve."
+
+In the eagerness of his pleading, the abbe had edged close to
+Gabrielle. She could feel his hot breath--the beating of his heart
+against her arm--and she shivered from top to toe, as Toinon outside
+was shivering, her eyes distended by alarm.
+
+The frayed string was about to snap. The long-expected moment was
+come. Thank God that suspense was over.
+
+"I thank you for your engaging candour," Gabrielle said in a voice
+that was clear and steady. "I had learned to know you for a villain,
+but had not gauged the deeps of your rascality. False to the core.
+True to nothing but your own devilish passions. A Judas even to your
+confederates!"
+
+There was so sharp a ring of scorn in the tone in which she spoke--a
+flash of such unmeasurable contempt in the dark blue eyes--that
+Pharamond, though he had smarted under the lash before, felt his
+withers wrung, while Toinon without was torn by fear and admiration.
+Was he, before whose fascinations many a fair dame had willingly
+succumbed, so vile a reptile as to warrant the storm of disgust that
+racked this haughty woman? She loathed him worse than death since,
+seeing her impending fate with crystalline vision, she cheerfully
+preferred its chill embrace to his ardent one. And now with eyes
+flashing and delicately chiselled nostrils distended, and a tinge of
+rose on either pallid cheek, her beauty had gained once more the
+animation that it so frequently lacked. She was lovelier at this
+moment than he had ever seen her--and in her direful plight she shrank
+from his touch as though he were hideously diseased. It was written
+then, that he was never to attain the full measure of revenue for the
+rebuffs he had endured at her hands? He was not to sully this fair
+form, suck the orange dry then fling its rind into the gutter? What a
+pity! How complete the triumph would have been if she, at this
+eleventh hour could have been persuaded to seek safety with him in
+flight. He would have carried off for his own use alone the goose that
+laid golden eggs. How he would have snapped his fingers at Clovis and
+Algae--mean grovelling worms--with their ridiculous testament which
+was not to be the last! What a refined pleasure it would have been,
+when sated, and weary of the toy, to break it slowly! He would have
+carried the marechal's heiress to some secure and distant spot, have
+forced her by famine or other torment to execute yet another will--in
+his sole favour this time--and then he would have gloated over her
+suffering and degradation as he compelled her to sink to the lowest
+depths of female infamy and shame, ere, drop by drop, he squeezed away
+her life! And it was not to be--actually might never be, this
+exhilarating programme--he realized that now as he gazed in her proud
+face, each string of his evil nature tingling. Baffled and
+disappointed, he must even be content to share with the others, to
+carry out the plan as previously arranged, to sweep her from the path.
+Oh, what a grievous pity, for the other arrangement would have been
+deliciously complete and satisfactory.
+
+There was nothing to be gained by continuing the interview, since it
+had fallen to his lot to play the _role ridicule_. He rose, therefore,
+flinging the hand from him which he had so ardently been pressing with
+a movement of muffled fury.
+
+"On your own head be the consequences," he growled. "You have spoken
+your own sentence. Amen!"
+
+"My life," replied Gabrielle, drearily, "has been fraught with pain
+and overlong, although I'm not five and twenty! The death you threaten
+me withal, I will accept with thanks as a release."
+
+"You shall be released, nor will you have long to wait," the abbe
+remarked with a dry laugh. "You, who are alive, may count yourself as
+dead and buried." With that he left her to her reflections, banging
+the door behind him.
+
+
+
+
+                            CHAPTER XXVI.
+
+                        WILL JEAN BOULOT COME?
+
+
+Two persons, from entirely opposite motives, were thinking about
+Jean Boulot. Toinon, her wits sharpened by eavesdropping, saw plainly
+that not a moment must be lost if she and her mistress were to be
+saved. It stood to reason that if the marquise was doomed, so was her
+foster-sister, in order that the voice of the accuser might be
+silenced. The daring of the poor harassed lady had been admirable--she
+had conspicuously shown the moral courage which in extreme peril goes
+with breeding; but it would have been more prudent to have temporised.
+What use is there in making of oneself a sublime spectacle of defiant
+virtue if there is no public to applaud? How many malefactors have
+made "fine exits" sustained by the murmurs of a sympathetic mob, who,
+if executed in private, would have died screeching? Truth is a nice
+thing in theory, but the practice of it in our sinful sphere too often
+leads to complications which would be avoided by appropriate
+mendacity.
+
+Toinon, much as she adored her mistress, had frequently deplored her
+blunt and uncompromising truthfulness. Knowing that she had a noose
+about her neck, which only required a pull from the abbe to tighten to
+strangulation point, it was vastly foolish to cry out, "Do your
+worst." She ought to have pondered and asked for time, have argued and
+implored, have even shown signs of yielding, have trembled and
+blushed--have murmured in one breath that she would, yet wouldn't.
+Where is the man, however cunning, who cannot be hoodwinked by a woman
+if she seriously sets about the operation? Precious hours might thus
+have been gained--nay, days, by a skilful display of comedy. Boulot
+might be even now upon the road, and arrive too late to be of use,
+owing to the inopportune sublimity of the too artless chatelaine.
+Having defied the arch-conspirator, he would certainly act promptly.
+If Jean Boulot was to come to the aid of the two women, it must be at
+once, or there was no use in his coming at all. The anxious abigail
+felt that they were in precisely the same harrowing position as Sister
+Anne and Fatima. Was there nobody coming? The sand in the glass was
+dripping all too swiftly. Was there no sound of approaching hoofs, no
+curl of dust upon the way? Quite idly, in obedience to a whimsical
+fancy due to restlessness, Toinon put on her hood, resolved to take a
+stroll upon the road that led to Blois. She would see the cloud of
+dust and rush towards it, cry out to honest Jean to use his spurs,
+chide him for his culpable delay.
+
+But Toinon, while deploring the mistakes of her mistress, was unaware
+that she had herself been guilty of an error. It had been an act of
+gross imprudence to threaten the abbe with Boulot as she had done when
+she met him on the landing. It set the abbe thinking of Boulot, whose
+existence he had well-nigh forgotten. Though there had been a tiff or
+an estrangement, the gamekeeper and the abigail were lovers. They had
+been, and possibly still were, betrothed. It struck the abbe as not at
+all improbable that Mademoiselle Toinon had written to him anent the
+cake fiasco, and that her lover might inopportunely arrive to look
+after her safety. It was most obliging of the young woman to have
+vouchsafed a hint suggestive of such a contingency, and he would be
+guilty of gross ingratitude if he failed to act on it forthwith.
+Hence, when in pursuance of her fancy she moved across the yard to the
+archway, where of old a portcullis used to hang, she was surprised to
+perceive that the ponderous entrance gates were closed, and that the
+key had been removed from the lock. The concierge was leaning against
+the stonework smoking pensively, his hands plunged deep into his
+breeches pockets.
+
+"What does this mean?" cried the abigail, with an imperious frown
+which served to mask a new-born terror.
+
+"It means that the gates are locked, and will remain so," was the
+composed answer.
+
+"But I want to go out--I have a mission from madame to one of the
+cottagers hard by."
+
+"So sorry," returned the concierge, smiling roguishly. "Mademoiselle
+must remain within--a pretty little bird within a cage. Nay, I but
+obey my orders. If mademoiselle will deign to discuss the point,
+yonder is the porter's room. We shall be quite alone and undisturbed,
+and I will make myself agreeable to mademoiselle."
+
+There was a studied insolence about the man's manner--he had been
+engaged quite recently--which made Toinon tremble. The fowler's net
+was closing in; she already fluttered in the toils, but would attempt
+another struggle to make assurance sure.
+
+"This castle is the property of the Marquise de Gange," she said,
+haughtily, "and the lacqueys who dwell therein eat her bread. I have
+warned you that I am sent by her. Open that door immediately."
+
+The man puffed slowly at his pipe and gave a long reflective whistle
+that spoke volumes. "Bread? Ah yes," he observed, abstractedly. "The
+bread is excellent, but it is not hers. Such, at least, are my
+instructions."
+
+"Impudent brute!" cried Toinon, stamping her foot. "I will report you
+instantly to our mistress, and you will be dismissed at once. A pretty
+pass, indeed! when I, her confidential maid, am to stand by and hear
+her insulted."
+
+"What is all this about?" demanded a big base voice behind, at sound
+of which the man put away his pipe and assumed an obsequious attitude.
+
+"It means, Mademoiselle Brunelle," retorted Toinon, trembling with
+ire, "that Madame la Marquise is reaping the earthly reward of divine
+forbearance. But you can goad even her too far, as you had cause to
+know when you were ignominiously expelled from the chateau."
+
+The dusky face of Algae darkened a shade, and her heavy mobile brows
+lowered over her eyes with menace. She crossed her arms over her chest
+and gave vent to a rumbling laugh.
+
+"Circumstances alter cases," she observed, with exasperating
+composure. "You always did me the honour to dislike me. When I am
+mistress here, it is you who will be expelled. You are silent?
+Come--that is better. Go to your room and mind your business, and
+perhaps no harm will come to you."
+
+"I will send over to Montbazon," returned Toinon, striving hard to
+conceal her growing terror. "M. de Vaux and the Seigneurie will
+interfere for madame's protection."
+
+"Do you think so?" inquired Algae, with interest. "The de Vaux are
+nice people, if timid, who were always kind to me. I hardly think they
+are likely to interfere."
+
+"What have you done?" asked Toinon, her heart sinking within her.
+
+"I had the honour to send a messenger to Montbazon this morning to
+announce with deep regret that Madame la Marquise de Gange had been
+seized with a malignant fever."
+
+"You did that?" gasped the abigail. "You know, you wicked woman, that
+the marquise is in perfect health."
+
+The concierge had withdrawn discreetly out of hearing, and with sturdy
+legs straddled apart, was softly whistling.
+
+No help was to be hoped for from that quarter, or from any other,
+apparently. The possibility of a casual visit from the inhabitants of
+Montbazon had been skilfully prevented. The household was on the side
+of the conspirators, just as this concierge was, no doubt of it.
+
+What sound was that? A horse's hoofs. Jean Boulot at last! The heart
+of the abigail gave such a leap that she staggered and would have
+fallen but for Algae's sustaining hand.
+
+The latter had also heard the ominous ring of hoofs, and seizing
+Toinon roughly, began to push her towards the house.
+
+"Go in, you little fool," she hissed. "Cannot you see that you are a
+prisoner, and that your treatment depends upon your conduct."
+
+"I will not go," Toinon cried, tussling with all her strength against
+the iron grip of Algae. "It is Jean, by the goodness of Heaven, sent
+to succour us in time. Jean, Jean," she shouted; "it is I, Toinon. We
+are alive, but in sorest peril."
+
+The cries of the luckless waiting maid died away in a gurgle. She was
+rapidly pushed along by the ex-governess, who hurriedly unwound a
+scarf and twisted it tight about her mouth. Toinon was fainting and
+half-stifled when Mademoiselle Brunelle flung her within a door,
+closed it, and turned the key.
+
+With a supreme effort, Toinon freed herself from the scarf, and rising
+to her knees, applied an ear to the keyhole. Oh for a sound of the
+welcome voice of Jean! Would he be deceived by a plausible tale and go
+as he had come? Surely not. After what she had told him in her letter,
+the fact of the closed gates would make suspicion certainty. He would
+demand admittance or depart to rouse the neighbourhood. Perhaps he had
+heard her outcry before she was gagged. Toinon crouched down in
+profound thankfulness, and as she prayed glad tears poured down her
+face. Till this moment she had not quite realised the imminence of the
+danger, and now that she fully knew it it was past, for Jean would
+demand to see his betrothed and the marquise. He was a great man now,
+and a powerful leader of the dominant party at Blois; always fearless
+and honest, not now a man to dally with. Would the conspirators give
+way at once, confess themselves beaten, sue for mercy? or would he be
+compelled to rouse the country and storm the grim fortalice as the
+other day the Bastille had been stormed? And then Toinon wondered what
+would come of that. Would he climb over the smoking ruins to find the
+two women murdered? No, no. Toinon's prayers had been answered
+tardily, but they had been answered. The decree of Heaven had gone
+forth, and the wicked were to be discomfited.
+
+Vainly she strained her hearing to catch a sound of the dear voice,
+dearer, far dearer than she had ever dreamed. She could hear a leaf of
+the ponderous gate revolve on its rusty hinges, a horseman ride into
+the courtyard. There was a colloquy in low tones. Heavens! what if she
+had been mistaken! Yet who could the horseman be but Jean Boulot, the
+deputy, or some one sent by him? She heard Mademoiselle Brunelle bid
+some one, in commanding tones, to go in search of the abbe. "Tell him
+there is important news," she said. "Here is a letter despatched in
+haste from Blois. M. le Marquis de Gange intends to come home
+to-morrow."
+
+Not Jean, then? The marquis home to-morrow! How by his arrival would
+the position of the prisoners be bettered? Why was he coming home
+to-morrow? Had something fresh transpired? He was a tacit accessory to
+the villainous plot of the schemers. He was led in leash, a willing
+slave, by that wicked man and woman.
+
+No hope! No hope! Heaven had abandoned the victims. Overwhelmed by the
+quick revulsion from nascent hope to hopelessness, Toinon gave a moan,
+and sank swooning on the marble floor.
+
+
+
+
+                            CHAPTER XXVII.
+
+                  THE DECKS ARE CLEARED FOR ACTION.
+
+
+Gabrielle maintained her attitude of uncompromising dignity, until the
+boudoir door clanged to, and, left alone, sank back upon the cushions
+numbed. The sword had fallen. She had herself severed the last frayed
+strands. What form would the abbe's vengeance take now that he had
+wakened to the fact that under no circumstances whatever would she
+submit herself to his desires? What mattered it, so that the end was
+swift? The dear ones were safe in distant Paris. No cause to fear for
+them. Their mother had been careful in signing the second will to add
+the tell-tale cross. On the whole, she was to be congratulated on the
+approaching change, for her worldly affairs were in order, there was
+no motive left for lingering. To one placed as she was, death, as she
+truly said, would be release. Victor and Camille would grow up under
+the care of grandmamma, secure from the machinations of their father
+and the crew by which he was surrounded. Her death would be an
+advantage to them, for the tale of the two wills and the precautionary
+declaration would become public property, and a barrier be raised
+under the scrutiny of public opinion, which would protect the dear
+ones from her husband.
+
+And yet how whimsical the situation was! In the course of charitable
+wanderings among the poor, she had looked with amaze on creatures
+lying upon their rotten straw with scarce a rag to cover them, who
+clung to their wretched existence with a pertinacity that was both
+weird and ludicrous, considering that it was but a step, and such an
+easy one, into the peaceful grave. Now she herself was within distance
+of that step, and could look calmly into the chasm, contemplate the
+precise spot beneath whose crust she was to sleep for ever. But was it
+for ever? Ah! If she only knew. She had long ago learned to smile at
+the mediaeval absurdities, invented by naive, ignorant churchmen, of
+flames and pitchforks, and demons with red-hot tongs; but now that she
+stood so near to Death, that she could feel the chill rustle of his
+garments, she felt herself drawn into the sea of idle and abortive
+speculation.
+
+Why is it, amusing paradox, that the virtuous--those, that is, who
+have somehow succeeded, to a creditable extent, in avoiding the rugged
+but fascinating path of temptation--should be tossed by doubts and
+shadowy tremors, while those who have wallowed in enormosities are
+snugly complacent as to the end? It is nearly always so. The more
+hopelessly heinous the crime of the murderer, the more abominably
+abandoned the criminal, the more glibly will the monster prate of his
+salvation; the more sure will he be of sleeping on Abraham's bosom.
+Verily, in the long course of globe-rolling, so much vermin of
+nauseous kind has tumbled off, vowing, as it fell, that its destiny
+was the bosom of Abraham, that that patriarch must by this time
+somewhat regret the flattering prominence of his position. The
+sublimely compassionate declaration, "To-day shalt thou be with Me in
+Paradise," has been so largely and freely rendered into a conviction
+of immunity from the results of sin by the worst of scoundrels, that a
+premium is offered to crime. The scarce discoloured soul goes
+tremulously off, conscious of tiny spots, wondering and fearing as to
+its reception in its next resting-place, while that one which is black
+and ulcered, soars aloft singing a seraphic paean. Brethren, it is easy
+to cultivate contrition. There is nothing more easy than to repent
+when there are no more sins to commit. Let us all commit crimes of
+abnormal horror, that the parson may assure us on the scaffold that
+purged with hyssop we are clean.
+
+Such reflections as these passed vaguely through the mind of Gabrielle
+as she strove to nerve herself to endure, with becoming composure, the
+coming ordeal. She recalled and contemplated her peccadilloes. The
+various naughtinesses of her brief life swept past in procession as
+distinct and rapid as the last vision of the drowning man. Her
+conscience kept whispering that she could have little to fear if God
+were just, for the small sins of which she could accuse herself must
+be balanced against her earthly woes. And then she chided herself
+bitterly for presumption. How dared she to conclude that she was not a
+terrible sinner, considering that as a chit, her father confessor had
+imposed fearsome pains and penalties, as punishment for childish
+transgressions? She was bad, very bad indeed. Had she not impiously
+endeavoured once to cut the thread and escape? And now that thread was
+to be cut for her by an alien hand. Why did she not feel the same
+eagerness to be away, as on that night, when she leapt out of the
+wherry?
+
+It always came back to this. The same refrain was singing in her ears.
+So young, so rich, so beautiful--to be put away, crushed under the
+heel, like the rat that cumbers the earth. It was hard, very hard, and
+somehow the joyous careless days of Versailles and Trianon, would
+glitter up out of the mirage to dazzle and disturb her vision.
+
+Some one knocked and entered with a tray.
+
+"Madame, supper," the servant said.
+
+Her supper! Not brought by faithful Toinon? Why? Was the episode of
+the cakes to be repeated?
+
+"Where is my maid?" she asked.
+
+"Very ill in bed--delirious," the servant answered with respect.
+
+"Ill! Delirious! What has happened? I will go to her at once."
+
+"As madame wishes," the lacquey replied. "I was to inform madame that
+Mademoiselle Brunelle has undertaken to cure the invalid, and is with
+her now."
+
+Words of enquiry rose and died on Gabrielle's lips. The servant bowed
+and retired. Mademoiselle Brunelle closeted with Toinon? The marquise
+had endured overmuch, and just now could not cope with that woman.
+
+The baleful Algae had taken the faithful waiting-maid in hand, who
+under her manipulation was ill and delirious? Her last friend was
+taken away from her. She was alone now, quite, quite alone. They
+wished her also to become ill and delirious? She glanced at the
+supper-tray and smiled at the dainties thereon set out. No. She would
+not perish that way. If only she could see Toinon! To what end? The
+devoted girl was paying the penalty of faithfulness. If she went now
+to see her she could do no good; would probably not be allowed to see
+her at all; would be rudely turned away by that woman, as in old times
+she had been from the nursery.
+
+But it was hard to bear--oh, hard, very hard to bear; thus to be left
+without a friend--without a tender hand, the crisis past, lovingly to
+close her eyes! And yet how pitifully foolish to be disturbed about
+such petty details! When the soul is freed, what matters if the glassy
+eyes whose glory has faded away are closed or not; and if they are, by
+whom they are closed? What childish folly to care, and yet, as
+Gabrielle sought her gloomy bedchamber, she felt more solitary than
+ever before in her existence. The dingy ancestors peering down from
+out their dusty frames--they who had long passed the rubicon and knew
+the secret, if secret there be to know--seemed in the fitful glare of
+the smouldering fire to laugh and mow at her folly. What a pother
+over a few years of suffering. The dead only are at peace--the dead
+only enjoy rest. Oh, blessed dead and fortunate! And here was a
+storm-tossed mortal on the very threshold of freedom, clinging to and
+hugging her chains. Oh, pitiable and laughter-moving spectacle! Poor,
+silly, straining little shallop on the immeasurable ocean of destiny!
+Summon thy waning courage, oh, nerve racked atom of humanity, tossed
+on the waves of time. Courage, shrinking coward, and be thankful that
+thy corroding gyves will so soon be broken.
+
+The marquise, though faint from lack of food and many emotions,
+refused to eat. How cruel of Toinon to fall ill at such a time! and
+yet not so; for it must be the band of wretches who had made her ill.
+Her mistress would go to bed and forget her misery in sleep. Sleep!
+With nerves stretched to tightest tension, how could she hope to
+sleep? Wearily she threw herself upon the bed, dressed as she was, and
+gnawed the pillow in her travail.
+
+It has been mercifully ordered that the human organism cannot endure
+more than a given strain. Either we go mad and forget, or drop
+exhausted and unconscious. Ere the smouldering logs had whitened to
+ashes, Gabrielle had forgotten her troubles, plunged in dreamless
+slumber. Such sleep as this brings no refreshment, though it serves as
+anodyne--a filter of short-lived oblivion. She must have slept long
+and heavily, for, waking with leaden lids and throbbing brow, she was
+aware of a shadowy woman drawing back the window curtains to let in
+the day.
+
+Toinon had recovered then. That was fortunate.
+
+"Toinon," she murmured; "thank Heaven, you are well again, my only
+friend!"
+
+The woman stood at the foot of the bed with crossed arms, slowly
+wagging a head shrouded in a silken handkerchief. Her robust figure
+loomed preternaturally large, her laughter was low and muffled.
+
+"Your only friend," she remarked gaily, "is safe under lock and key."
+
+The marquise sat up and surveyed the intruder with a look of fear,
+vaguely dreading something that was imminent.
+
+"Mademoiselle Brunelle!" she exclaimed, with a shudder. "You have
+dared to force your way into my bed-chamber?"
+
+"That have I," returned the ex-governess, affably; "for I have
+business here. There is a little account to settle."
+
+"An account?"
+
+"Oh! not money. There will be plenty of money by and by, no thanks to
+generosity of yours. I offered you the hand of friendship and you
+scorned it--I, who am the stronger, though for a time you obtained the
+mastery. You chased me with ignominy from the house--insulted and
+humiliated me by striving to drive me hence a second time. Do you
+think I am one to forgive? You made my life wretched, treating me as
+if I were a leper, out of jealousy of your nincompoop husband, as if I
+ever cared a fig for him! Now my turn has come. Insult for insult
+shall you have again. Vainly--you craven--will you implore mercy.
+There shall be none for you. I have made up my mind to take your
+place. You cumber the earth, you useless bit of trumpery, and this day
+shall rid us of your presence."
+
+"I never did you wrong. You know it!" Gabrielle said, slowly. Her own
+voice seemed strange, deadened by a singing in the ears. "On that
+score I stand acquitted." A curious fancy flitted through her brain
+and faded. In how brief a while might she be standing before another
+tribunal, to answer for the manner of her life?
+
+Mademoiselle Brunelle was provoked in that the arrows of her spite
+fell short. The craven did not sue for mercy. By the waxen pallor of
+her cheeks and lips, and the deep circles round her dark blue eyes, it
+was evident that the marquise was in mortal terror. Her aspen fingers
+twitched the bedclothes nervously; but she gave vent to no reproach or
+outcry.
+
+There was an impatient tapping at the door. Algae moved swiftly across
+the room and opened it.
+
+"You may come in, gentlemen," she said. "Madame la Marquise is fully
+dressed, prepared to receive company."
+
+The abbe and the chevalier entered, the latter unsteady in his gait,
+and cowed. His dress was dusty and disordered; his hair and linen
+rumpled. It was evident that he had spent the night in drinking; for
+his bloated visage was flushed and inflamed with wine, while his mouth
+was convulsively contracted. His glassy eyes were red and swollen.
+Their whites showed yellow and bloodshot, as he turned them with
+wistful apprehension on his brother.
+
+Gabrielle saw in the abbe a new and altered man. There was about his
+aspect a steely look of uncompromising determination--a gleam of
+triumph, as of one who has toiled long, but sees his goal at last--a
+curl of cruelty about his thin tight lips, that stirred the hair upon
+her head. If the devil ever peered out of human windows he was looking
+down upon her now--so close, so close--looking down on the victim tied
+and bound, whose sacrifice he was here to consummate.
+
+"Dear Gabrielle!" Pharamond said with a diabolical grin. "How nice of
+you to be up and dressed, and so save our precious time. See here what
+we have brought you."
+
+The chevalier, who bore in one hand a silver chalice, had drawn his
+sword and ranged himself beside his brother in sullen silence, while
+Mademoiselle Brunelle remained by the door and turned the key in the
+lock.
+
+The abbe flourished a pistol, which he playfully pointed at the
+trembling figure on the bed.
+
+"Did you ever read English history?" he inquired. "No! The education
+of great ladies is sadly neglected. Know that there was once a fair
+creature as beautiful even as you, whose name was Rosamond, and a
+queen called Eleanor. The queen visited the fair one in her bower, and
+said. 'Here is a cup and here is a dagger, choose, for your time is
+come and you must die.' How sensible and to the purpose. See how
+generous am I, for I offer you three alternatives instead of two. The
+pistol, the sword, the poison. Make your selection quickly."
+
+"Die!" gasped Gabrielle, pressing her fingers to her burning brow, as
+she looked at each, turning restlessly from one to the other of the
+trio, seeking for a gleam of compassion, and finding none. "Wherefore?
+of what crime have I been guilty? You decree my death, and you inflict
+it--why?"
+
+"Choose," repeated the abbe with impatience, dropping his tone of
+banter. "Sodden oaf and fool, give me the chalice," he added,
+fiercely. "Your palsied hand will drop it."
+
+Indeed the chevalier seemed to be losing the control of his muscles,
+for he swayed to and fro, as one far gone in liquor. In his agitation
+his sword-hilt clattered against the metal buttons on his coat,
+perceiving which the marquise seeming to see a faint ray of hope,
+turned her pleading face to him in agonized remonstrance.
+
+"Phebus," she murmured, earnestly, "you once said you loved me, and
+tempted me to sin, and afterwards repented. You are not bad at heart.
+Your nature is not cruel and inexorable, and I am yet so young! Think
+of the memories you are raising now--a nightmare of unavailing
+remorse. Think before it is too late, of the clinging shirt of fire,
+which as the years progress will send you raving, and never may be
+shaken off!"
+
+"Enough, enough! It is settled," cried the abbe, "choose, or I will
+make the choice. In this goblet is no copper draught, since it appears
+you object to copper--a soothing decoction of delicious herbs, that
+grow beside the river. You are no botanist, I fear, or would have
+admired the pretty spotted leaf of the _[oe]nanthe crocata_, a useful
+plant without taste or smell, which possesses the additional
+advantage, when its work is done, of leaving no trace behind. You are
+so deplorably slow and undecided that I must choose for you. The
+[oe]nanthe, let it be, then, for it will neither stain your flesh nor
+mar your incomparable skin. You will lie with a peaceful smile, as of
+a pure unsullied babe who sleeps well and pleasantly, and drift gently
+on the stream of Lethe. Socrates, of whom, maybe you've heard, once
+quaffed a delicate tisane made of this self-same plant, and history
+avers that he enjoyed it very much."
+
+The abbe approached a step nearer, and held forth the goblet. The
+marquise recoiled, and half-numbed by a wind that seemed to blow from
+out of her open grave, clasped her hands wildly, crying, "Phebus, save
+me!"
+
+"You waste your breath," the abbe remarked, sternly. "His power of
+volition's gone, he is an automaton worked by me. Waste no more time,
+for we have much to do to-day. Drink, or he shall use his sword."
+
+Gabrielle, under the scrutiny of six pitiless eyes, took the chalice
+in her hands and drank.
+
+The abbe--determined this time to do his work effectually--perceiving
+a sediment left, gathered it carefully in a spoon, and bringing it to
+the goblet's brim, offered it once more with a courteous smile to the
+quivering lips of his victim. Then, remembering, he withdrew the
+spoon, and said, "No! the stalks and fibres can be traced."
+
+The victim lay panting on her pillows. The executioner remarked with a
+low bow, "We will leave you to make your peace with Heaven," and was
+preparing to withdraw when the marquise gasped out, "In Heaven's name,
+do not destroy my soul. Send for a confessor that I may die as a
+Christian should."
+
+"You forgot I am a priest," returned the abbe, smiling, "and now, as
+ever, at your service."
+
+Perceiving that she did not appreciate his merry conceit, for she
+covered her face with shuddering hands, he motioned to his brother to
+follow, and bade Algae remain with the victim.
+
+"There will be much to see to," he observed, "for those who
+unfortunately perish of malignant fevers, must be speedily put away.
+Within an hour there will be delirium and giddiness, followed by coma
+and death. Keep the patient quiet, and make her comfortable. We will
+leave for Blois at midday, and meet the marquis on the road." With
+this he playfully executed another deep reverence, and dragging the
+chevalier after him, left the room.
+
+Mademoiselle Brunelle was enchanted that matters should at last have
+been brought to a satisfactory pass with becoming decorum. No
+ungenteel screaming, no bloodshed; only a palatable tisane which
+tasted a little like celery. In a few hours they would intercept the
+marquis on his ill-judged return, and when he knew that he was a
+widower, he would be as anxious as they to leave the neighbourhood.
+Events that seem untoward are often for the best. His sudden change of
+plans had driven the conspirators to promptitude. The tortuous and
+shilly-shally abbe had been compelled to action, and he had really
+acted very well.
+
+She glanced now and then at the figure on the bed, who lay as
+motionless as if all were already over, and walked up and down
+reflecting. What a provoking man the marquis was, who had to be served
+despite himself. Left alone, unpropped, he had tumbled down, the
+unstable creature; had repented, and was coming back to whine and to
+entreat and bite his nails in indecision. Well. No excuse for whining
+now. The die was cast. In a few days they would have crossed the
+frontier never to revisit Lorge. The jewels. They must not be left
+behind, since they were of exceeding value--love gifts from the doting
+marechal, who deemed naught too good for his darling. There was a
+diamond parure somewhere, of purest water, which would become the new
+marquise amazingly. With greedy hands Algae dived into drawers,
+ferreted in the cabinet of ebony, searched the silver knickknacks on
+the toilet table. Where were the jewels kept? Doubtless, in the
+garderobe on the opposite side of the corridor. Yes. Here was the
+bunch of keys labelled. Mademoiselle would be a veritable ninny were
+she to neglect her chance of reaping all that could be reaped. As the
+prospective wife of Clovis the jewels were her own or soon would be,
+and with this plaguy revolution going on, to leave France was to be
+condemned to exile. The property of _emigres_ was confiscated. When it
+became known that the Marquise de Gange was dead, and the marquise
+flown, the state would pounce upon the chateau, and take possession of
+everything within it. It clearly behoved the second wife to rummage in
+the cupboards of the first. There was no time to lose. Casting one
+hasty glance at the bed, and perceiving no change, Mademoiselle
+hastily left the room in search of treasure.
+
+With fingers still clasped over her eyes Gabrielle lay still, each
+minute passage in her melancholy life flitting across her brain. She
+had distinctly heard the brutal fiat of the abbe. Giddiness, delirium,
+coma, death. Within an hour the symptoms would commence--to last how
+long? No sign as yet of giddiness. On the contrary, that cold gust
+from out the grave appeared to have stimulated her mind, quickening
+its action, magnifying each thought in crystal clearness. It would
+soon be over. The release for which she had prayed so long and
+earnestly was close at hand. Her fretted spirit would find peace--she
+would be freed from the corroding bonds of harsh humanity. Not five
+and twenty, and the world was beautiful. Now, that she stood on the
+threshold, on the point of closing the door which may never be
+re-opened, Gabrielle found herself filled with a strange longing and
+regret. She knew not that it was the force of young and healthy life
+that was bubbling up in protest. Hope would not thus be slain. An
+overwhelming desire to live arose and possessed her being. An idea
+that was new and draught with horror flooded her mind, and she sat up
+panting. Her children! Why had she not thought of it before? A reason
+for welcoming death had been that they would be the better protected
+by her flitting. But was it indeed so? Had not her mother deserted her
+in a grievous plight through selfish cowardice? Alarmed for herself
+she had fled with a pretence that all was well. A fitting guardian for
+two children, truly. How clear it was--how dreadfully clear! The
+conspirators would work upon her fears--obtain possession of Victor
+and Camille. By securing their fortune she had imperilled their lives,
+for those who could do her to death with such cold barbarity, would
+stick at nothing when they found themselves foiled by her precautions.
+She must not die. No, she must live--for their sakes! To stand between
+them and the fate they had prepared for her. She sprang from the bed,
+a prey to violent agitation. There was a singing in her ears--her
+temples throbbed as though they would crack in sunder. She reeled and
+clung to the curtain. Her throat was parched with thirst. Were these
+the first symptoms of the fatal draught? No. It was excess of emotion
+and anxiety that made her giddy. She would live--live--live--in spite
+of the executioners, and God would help, for her cause was holy!
+
+She was alone. Mademoiselle Brunelle for some reason had left her
+post. The marquise stole to the door, turned the key, gently shot the
+bolt into its socket. Then, grasping her long hair she forced it down
+her throat, inducing by irritation a violent sickness, which relieved
+her. But how to effect escape? Some one was already rattling the
+handle without--the deep voice of Algae was shouting in imperious
+accents, "Open! Let me in!" Despair gave strength and courage.
+Gabrielle tore open the casement and got out upon the ledge. Below was
+a stone-paved courtyard; opposite, the outer wall, with the postern
+that gave on the pleasaunce. Was it locked? No matter. She wore the
+key of the new lock upon a bracelet. No time to think. With an
+agonized cry to Heaven for succour she leapt, but was held up for a
+moment by two strong hands, while close to hers was the face of Algae,
+black and convulsed with fury. Mademoiselle, hearing a noise within,
+had rushed round by the boudoir, whose door the marquise had forgotten
+in her haste to lock. And now began a fierce and desperate tussle
+between the women, which, though neither knew it, was of infinite
+service to the victim, for it kept off drowsiness. Strong as she was,
+Algae could not, cramped and strained, sustain the struggling weight,
+which escaped from her grasp and fell, while she loudly called for
+help. The patient was delirious--in madness had flung herself from the
+window and broken her bones upon the pavement. No. She rolled over and
+over, and was up again; and Algae, grinding her teeth, seized one of
+the sculptured flower-pots of bronze and dashed it down at her. Sure
+the intended victim must bear a charmed life! She sped across the
+courtyard, succeeded in unlocking the postern, and emerged upon the
+garden moat.
+
+"Well!" muttered Algae, with a philosophic headshake, "she is in a
+trap, for beyond the moat is a wall she cannot pass, and the gates are
+closed and guarded. It was stupid of me not to wait, and the abbe will
+be angry. Yet the fault is his, for he distinctly said 'an hour.'"
+
+Meanwhile, refreshed by the air and movement, the frenzied Gabrielle
+seemed to have wings upon her feet, as she clenched her hands and kept
+repeating with laboured breath, "I will live--live--live." Her mind
+was preternaturally clear--she could see with prophetic vision, and
+grapple with contingencies. She saw the wall and knew she could not
+pass it; guessed that the gates were guarded; but remembering a
+certain night, which seemed a century ago, when she had wickedly
+attempted suicide, she made with all speed for the end of the moat, at
+the spot where it joined the river. The wherry was there, swinging
+loosely and idly on its chain. She leapt into the boat and loosed the
+knotted links, and, accustomed to use the oars, impelled it across the
+river. By this happy thought she gained precious time, could take a
+short cut to Montbazon, and might yet be saved; for her pursuers,
+deprived of the boat, would have to make a circuit of a mile or more
+in order to reach the bridge. She would be saved--she knew she would
+be saved--and then there fell on her a cold and sickening fear.
+Her limbs were trembling. She was growing giddy; her sight was
+wavering--the sky looked brown and dark. Was she doomed to sink down
+and perish when escape was all but certain?
+
+She tottered along the path, and groping on for a few steps with
+outstretched arms like one struck blind, reeled and fell, moaning. The
+singing in her ears was deafening--like the howling of a hurricane
+through some dense forest; but through it she all at once heard
+something--a voice that was once familiar. Raising with an effort her
+heavy eyelids, she was aware of a man with a horse's bridle on his
+arm, who was supporting her and sprinkling water on her face. She was
+certainly growing blind as well as giddy. The man loomed unnaturally
+large, and seemed at one instant crushingly close, at another a league
+away.
+
+Grasping the strands of memory which, crystalline no more, was
+slipping, slipping, she knitted her brows in a wild effort to remember
+him.
+
+"As I'm a living sinner, 'tis the marquise," the man said, when he had
+recovered from his amazement. "Poor soul! In so terrible a plight.
+Only just in time, it seems."
+
+Jean! Jean Boulot! Gabrielle suddenly remembered, and tightly clutched
+his hand. "Jean--dear Jean!" she gasped. "Save me! I am poisoned, but
+I will not die; I must not, cannot die. They are in pursuit--will kill
+us both. Quick--for love of the dear saints--take me at once to
+Montbazon!"
+
+Jean pursed his lips, and frowned. "How like the wickedness of
+aristos!" he muttered. "It is time their evil brood was banished from
+off the world. Poisoned, you say, madame. What was it?"
+
+"Hemlock," she answered, faintly; "but I have got rid of most of it."
+
+"Hemlock," Jean echoed; "the children hereabouts often eat it, and are
+saved by tea and charcoal. Courage, madame, all will yet be well. One
+word more. What of Toinon?"
+
+"She is under lock and key," returned Gabrielle, "but safe, for in the
+hue and cry for me, her existence will be forgotten."
+
+Sturdy Jean Boulot mounted his horse, and supporting the marquise in
+front of him, made with all speed by the bridle path for Montbazon.
+
+He was as surprised as shocked, and blamed himself unreasoningly. He
+of all men should know the depth of enormity of which the noblesse
+were capable, for was he not always making speeches thereanent for the
+behoof of less enlightened lieges? Knowing how bad they were, he had
+abandoned the post of duty, for it was his duty to protect his love
+and the heiress of the family whose bread he had eaten from childhood.
+Why, knowing what she must know, had Toinon so long delayed to write
+to him? By an unlucky circumstance he had been sent on a mission to
+Tours. Hence, he had not got her letter till after many days; but,
+having read it, had started off forthwith. And Toinon was locked up by
+those miscreants! Perhaps they had murdered her as they had attempted
+to murder her mistress. First he must obey madame, and carry her to
+Montbazon. That was his plain duty. Then he would raise the peasantry,
+who were ready and trained to arms, and, if need were, storm the
+chateau. And woe to all of them if Toinon indeed had perished!
+
+
+
+
+                           CHAPTER XXVIII.
+
+                       THE BARON IS ENERGETIC.
+
+
+The wonder of the timorous inmates of Montbazon knew no bounds when
+they beheld Boulot--once gamekeeper, now formidable and obnoxious
+deputy of Blois--careering into their courtyard with a fainting woman
+in his arms; and astonishment was merged in dismay when Madame de Vaux
+recognzied the Marquise de Gange, who had been stricken down,
+according to report, by a virulent and malignant malady.
+
+Since, for some time past, the Seigneurie by common consent had dwelt
+in a condition of siege, it was only owing to the lucky circumstance
+of its being Angelique's fete-day that Jean found the gate unguarded.
+
+Things having quieted down somewhat--though not for long, as the
+Seigneurie knew too well, for public opinion was ever on the ebb and
+flow of mischief--it occurred to old De Vaux that this was the
+propitious moment to go a hunting. It was on the cards that the noble
+pastime of the chase might be stopped altogether shortly, and so he
+seized the opportunity to give a little party in his daughter's
+honour. Was it not unfeeling, then, to the last degree, that a
+neighbour who was not invited because she was infectious, should
+choose this precise moment for a morning call? The gentlemen were
+away, the ladies were sipping tea, _a l'Anglaise_, and munching
+biscuits, discussing the while the all-important topic of dress. Of
+course they would not demean themselves by donning the ridiculous
+garments of the Republic. The queen, poor martyr, was sitting in
+sackcloth and ashes while quaffing the cup of bitterness, and it
+behoved faithful subjects to don mourning. But then money was so
+dreadfully tight, and nobody had any mourning; and, besides, the
+truculent and abominable upstarts who ruled the roast might take
+umbrage at such eccentricity and be disagreeable; and when everyone's
+tenure of property and even life, was so precarious, it was as well to
+wear coats that would turn.
+
+This proposition had been put and unanimously carried, and everyone
+was getting on as nicely as possible, when, all of a sudden, killjoy,
+Jean Boulot, dropped from the clouds with his unconscious and
+fever-stricken burthen.
+
+Too anxious, and too full of contempt for the company to be polite, he
+strode sternly into the salon, and gently laying the marquise on the
+sofa, took summary possession of the teapot, while the frightened
+ladies stared.
+
+"There is charcoal, no doubt, in the kitchen," he said, quietly, "send
+for some, please, directly."
+
+Charcoal? Was the man crazy? Infectious, too, perhaps. How shocking!
+But it was not politic to offend one of the rising stars. Madame de
+Vaux rang the bell for charcoal, and waited for an explanation.
+
+Jean ground a piece of it with a poker, on the hearth, and dribbled
+the powder into the tea-pot. What devil's broth was he brewing? The
+man must be very mad. If the gentlemen would only return. Having
+satisfied himself with regard to the decoction, the deputy, instead of
+insisting that the baroness should drink it, carefully poured a few
+drops down the throat of the marquise, and presently she sighed deeply
+and opened her weary eyes.
+
+"She is saved!" he cried with satisfaction. "Now, ladies, if you can
+think of anyone except yourselves, complete the work. Ply her with
+draughts of this, and see that she does not sleep. She has been
+poisoned by two miscreants; but God has protected the innocent against
+their villainy."
+
+"Poisoned!" exclaimed Angelique, interested; "we were told it was a
+fever."
+
+"Villains who murder innocent women can also lie," retorted Jean in
+scorn. "This lady, I tell you, after undergoing endless outrage at
+their hands, which is noted above in detail, has been cruelly poisoned
+by the two half-brothers of her husband. Providence, in its
+inscrutable wisdom, has chosen me as the humble instrument of
+rescue--and also of revenge. As there are stars above us, those
+wretches shall be terribly punished. I go now to execute their
+sentence."
+
+The habit of leading others had made another man of Jean. He spoke
+simply, but with a stern native dignity that enforced respect. The
+ladies looked with awe on his tall retreating figure, about which
+there were none of the petty airs of courtliness, and never for a
+moment doubted that he spoke the truth.
+
+This poor, pitiful, dishevelled heap of soiled clothing was not
+infectious. The Marquise de Gange had been singled out as victim of an
+appalling tragedy, which, had it been consummated, would have set the
+whole province aflame with fury. What was he about to do, this
+formidable deputy? Pray Heaven he would not raise such a tornado about
+their ears as would bring ruin on an entire class. Given that many of
+the class had sinned grievously and often, that was no reason for
+confounding the guiltless with the guilty. The peasantry were so
+crassly ignorant and so oafishly benighted--so ready in these days to
+believe the worst--that they might choose to look on old De Vaux as an
+accomplice of the Lorge people, and wreak vengeance on him and his. It
+had not been his business to interfere in the private affairs of other
+persons, and had, moreover, been deliberately misinformed.
+
+His wife, as she turned it all over, grew very much alarmed and gave
+vent to shrillest jeremiads. What a stroke of ill-luck it was that the
+baron should have chosen this especial morning to sally forth on a
+fool's errand, leaving his family to be fooled by fickle Fortune! The
+baroness felt convinced that there was something dreadful imminent,
+and there was not a single male upon the premises. Even the tottering
+old domestics had gone forth to act as _piqueurs_. If the gentlemen
+would only return and settle what was to be done; but if they met with
+success in sport they would not be back till nightfall. Meanwhile, it
+was evident that the orders of the obnoxious Jean must be obeyed, and
+that the ladies must succour the marquise.
+
+Hark! What was that? Voices in altercation in the passage, and a
+screaming of terror-stricken maids.
+
+Hatless, with dress disordered and wild mien, Pharamond and Phebus
+dashed into the room.
+
+"Where is our darling Gabrielle?" the former cried in agitation,
+undisguised. "Poor soul! Poor suffering angel! She has gone mad;
+escaped raging through a window, distraught by the delirium of fever."
+
+Madame de Vaux was speechless from fright. The abbe whom she had been
+accustomed to see all smiles and compliments, wore the aspect of some
+malignant demon, as he eagerly scanned the company. His lips were
+bloodless, his pale face convulsed, while his brother mechanically
+followed his lead, like one under influence of Mesmer.
+
+Angelique, who was bending with solicitude over Gabrielle, turned on
+the pair, no whit afraid. "The Marquise de Gange," she said, "has been
+committed to our custody, and for the present will remain under our
+care."
+
+"Not so, not so!" replied the abbe, in vehement haste, "We will
+bear her home to the chateau. It would be unseemly to permit our
+sorely-stricken relative to be looked on by the curiosity of
+strangers. The poor soul raves, suffers from distracting delusions.
+You can see for yourselves that she is mad."
+
+"Mad or sane," returned Angelique, bluntly, "here the marquise stays
+until my father and the gentlemen return. She is exhausted and unfit
+to travel."
+
+Prudence! It would not do to offer too obstinate a resistance. Time
+must be gained by parley that the potion might do its work. Resuming
+with an effort something of his other self, the abbe bowed and bit his
+lip and scrutinized the patient.
+
+Why, what was this? The victim exhibited none of the symptoms that
+were to be expected. Yet the poison must have circulated long ago.
+Surrounded by ministering women, Gabrielle had recovered
+consciousness, and lay, clinging for protection to Angelique, gazing
+with dread upon her butcher. Inert and numb, her limbs, half
+paralysed, were moved with difficulty; but it was plain that the
+intellect was clear. Ere now, she should have been foaming in frenzy,
+or, that phase past, be plunged in the stertorous slumber from which
+she would wake no more.
+
+Intelligence shone from the haggard eyes of the victim. Had Providence
+worked a miracle on her behalf? Was she to escape him after all? A
+vapour as of blood swam before the sight of Pharamond and drenched his
+brain. With a fierce curse he drew a pistol from his breast, The women
+shrieked and implored mercy. Angelique, who was nearest to him struck
+the weapon up and the bullet lodged in the ceiling. In a whirl of
+frantic unreason he unsheathed his sword, and reckless now of
+consequences to himself, battled towards the marquise through the
+group of cowering women. There was that about him which suggested the
+red-eyed rat at bay that springs at the throat of his tormentor,
+inflicts what harm he can before he is crushed himself. Pharamond knew
+he was undone, and cared not, provided he might hack and slash that
+tender body which never might be his. The brave Angelique closed with
+him, and her fingers were cut to the bone in the effort to wrest away
+the sword. At the sight of her daughter bleeding, her aged mother sent
+up a scream and attacked the abbe with her nails.
+
+A hubbub in the courtyard--a clatter of many hoofs--a confused babble
+of voices. The hunters had returned in haste, for a rumour was
+speeding with swift wings, bearing over the land the fiery cross of
+vengeance--shouting of a tragedy at Lorge, which concerned the White
+Chatelaine.
+
+A woman's scream of agony--here at quiet Montbazon! What could have
+happened. M. de Vaux staggered, and dreading he knew not what, made
+for the salon as fast as his old legs would carry him, while a posse
+of country gentlemen remained on their horses irresolute. But not for
+long. Two frantic men with hair untied and streaming, and bloody
+swords in their hands, dashed from the salon window and endeavoured to
+escape out of the gate. Though it was hopeless to struggle against
+overwhelming numbers, they fought with clenched teeth the fight of
+desperation, but speedily found themselves disarmed, tied roughly back
+to back.
+
+"Grand Dieu! It must be true then!" exclaimed a booby round-eyed
+squire, for here was the suave and polished churchman by whose
+condescensions he had been wont to be flattered, torn by the passions
+of the beast, soiled with dirt and blood.
+
+The game was up--no doubt of it--but the abbe was not one to bow under
+adverse fate and play the penitent. How to explain away an onslaught
+upon women. The situation was awkward, but might even yet be brazened
+out, if the devil would only help, since, while there is life there is
+hope.
+
+"She is mad--quite mad--poor suffering soul," he mechanically
+murmured; "we came to take her home."
+
+Danger past, Madame de Vaux did what many a worthy dame has done
+before. She sank on a seat and fainted, while Angelique rapidly
+related the tragical details of the last half-hour.
+
+The baron's brow grew cloudy as he listened. A terrible scandal this,
+such as in more halcyon days would have caused a violent commotion,
+but which at a critical moment like the present might start an
+overwhelming conflagration.
+
+The hunting party had come upon a howling mob armed with such bucolic
+weapons as were handy, running along the road with incoherent threats.
+One who lagged behind was stopped, and being questioned, declared that
+he knew not what had chanced, but stout Jean Boulot was back again and
+furious, and that was enough for him. Under the circumstances it was
+prudent to return to Montbazon and resume the state of siege.
+
+M. de Vaux was a gentleman to the backbone, if not endowed with wits,
+and could in a moment of peril prove as calmly firm and quietly
+undaunted as the procession of Parisian nobles who were wearing out
+with steady and unflinching footfall the steps of the guillotine. He
+recognized the gravity of his position, but accepted it without a
+murmur, for it never should be said that the last baron of the house
+of de Vaux had blenched in face of duty. The Marquis de Gange and
+his villainous brothers had happily been baulked in an attempted
+crime--that the absent marquis was less guilty than the rest he was
+not prepared to believe; and if he, the baron, could help it, they
+should not escape their punishment.
+
+It was unlucky for him and his that the scene should have been
+transferred to his own tranquil hearth, for no good would accrue to
+the inhabitants of Montbazon by the sheltering of unsavoury company.
+Two of the peccant brothers were here, and here they should remain,
+_advienne que pourra_, until their unwilling host could hand them to
+the myrmidons of justice. If it could be prevented, there should be no
+lynch law at Montbazon. The miscreants had earned their doom, which,
+doubtless would be breaking on the wheel; and yet, who could tell what
+would be the lot of persons who were reckoned amongst the gangrened,
+and who were guilty of such heinous sin?
+
+The mob would learn ere long the facts of the case, and their fury
+would not be lessened by the discovery that the one member of the
+hated class whom they all revered for her goodness had been chosen as
+the intended victim.
+
+There would be a rush to Lorge, which would be found to be an open and
+empty cage, and after that there would be a scouring of the country in
+all directions in search of the dastardly criminals. They would be
+found here at Montbazon; there was no help for it, and the lord of
+Montbazon would loyally do his best to protect them from mob violence.
+But Montbazon was not a strong fortress like Lorge, which could afford
+to smile grimly down on a crowd of excited pigmies. The gates must be
+closed, and if the mob did come he would explain his just intentions,
+parley with and endeavour to persuade them.
+
+Cheerfully determined to obey orders, the young men of the hunt were
+closing the gates when a horseman dashed in at a gallop, and the
+exhausted beast sank panting on the stones. M. de Vaux looked up and
+sighed, and again commanded that the doors should be closed and
+locked.
+
+Here was the missing scoundrel, the marquis himself, as agitated as
+the other two. Verily the will of Heaven was startlingly clear, for
+the missing culprit had, of his own free will, delivered himself into
+the net.
+
+The eyes of Clovis fell on a group in the angle of the courtyard, and,
+blushing, he hung his head. His brothers, unkempt and bound, none the
+better for rough usage, tied back to back like common malefactors,
+while a young seigneur whom all three knew well was mounting guard on
+them.
+
+"M. de Vaux," he stammered, "things look black, I know, but I implore
+you not to condemn me in your mind unheard. I swear to you that I did
+not know of this. I was coming home from an absence due to business,
+and was as horrified as you could be when I was informed of the
+terrible story."
+
+"You will all three be broken on the wheel," was the pithy answer of
+the baron.
+
+The chevalier, with chin sunk upon his breast, saw and heard nothing;
+his weak brain was in a daze. But the abbe glanced quickly at the
+marquis and smiled with profound disdain. He had always felt for his
+elder brother a contempt so deep that it approached near to loathing.
+Worldly prudence alone had cloaked his feelings, for he knew him to be
+of the mean sort that, too feeble for independent action, will, while
+prating virtue, glibly accept the fruit of another's wickedness, or
+denounce him in case of failure. The aspect of this sorry apologetic
+craven acted on the abbe's nerves like a dash of refreshing spray. The
+old gleam glittered for a moment from under half-closed lids. He shook
+himself, raised his head proudly, and pointing a finger at Clovis,
+harshly laughed aloud--
+
+"Remember that, unluckily, we are related," he sneered; "and spare me
+this humiliating spectacle. We have all three played our game and
+lost, and must pay the stakes with resignation."
+
+"I assure you, Monsieur le Baron, that he lies malignantly," the
+hapless Clovis began; but his words died away in confusion, for his
+flesh quivered under the abbe's words and scathing looks as under a
+whip.
+
+"Believe him not," scoffed Pharamond. "We are guilty of lamentable
+failure, for which I am honestly ashamed, due in part to the
+pusillanimity of yonder cur; and failure, as we all know, is the one
+sin that never may hope for pardon. He knew perfectly well the
+intended programme, and having given his tacit consent was despatched
+on a mission, which he apparently has bungled, that we might not be
+hampered by his cowardice. We failed, as better and stronger men have
+failed, and I am sorry for the mistake. It would have been shorter and
+safer to have made away with him as well as his puling wife. Speak,
+chevalier--you are a drunken sot, but not a craven--is not this the
+truth?"
+
+Urged by the sharp elbow of his brother, lustily applied, Phebus
+raised his head and looked dreamily around; then saying simply "Yes;
+what you say is truth," relapsed into stupid reverie.
+
+The abbe was growing lively, for now, thanks to Clovis's ineptitude,
+he no longer played the ridiculous role. The marquis hoped to
+whitewash himself by steady lying at the expense of his more brilliant
+confederate. That should never be. None but a fool would have deemed
+such a _denouement_ possible. But for the advent of the new-comer,
+Pharamond might have stuck to his guns, and have adroitly wriggled out
+of the meshes of the law, delightfully pure and unsullied, though for
+a moment stained by calumny; for though the marquise had for some
+unaccountable reason recovered, there was nothing but her word for the
+absurd story of the goblet, sword, and pistol. Even had she died no
+trace of the herb would have been found. Mademoiselle Brunelle and the
+servants of the chateau would with one accord have sworn--as they
+aspired to an edifying end and a cosy seat in Heaven--that madame had
+suffered from a serious complaint, accompanied by delirious
+hallucination. That she was better now was in the nature of things,
+due partly to tenderest solicitude on the part of her affectionate
+family, and an additional proof, if any still were wanting, that the
+story of the poison was a dream. But Clovis, by his own dastardly and
+execrable meanness, had cut the ground from under the feet of the
+suspected trio; for the abbe had been goaded for once to forget
+himself and his own interests in order, with a pretty display of
+scornful protest, to inflict revenge upon another. In sober truth, the
+abbe felt outraged in his best feelings by the move of Clovis.
+
+Pharamond had confessed with easy nonchalance to an attempt of
+superior wickedness, and was rather flattered than otherwise by the
+silent horror depicted on the bovine countenances of the Seigneurie.
+They appeared to gaze, face to face, on the Satanic one, and were
+abashed by his unexpected propinquity.
+
+It was time the painful scene should end, for nothing could come of it
+but unworthy recrimination. Two had freely and publicly confessed, the
+third stood cowering like a beaten hound that dares not even whine. In
+every curved line of his bent figure there was confession.
+
+The baron observed gravely to the company assembled, "We are
+responsible, gentlemen, for the guarding of these persons, till they
+can be safely removed to Blois. For the present, if you please, we
+will lock them in the dining-hall, as the strongest and safest room."
+
+"By all means," exclaimed the abbe, heartily, "and I hope there will
+be something on the board. The good baron was always hospitable. Owing
+to press of _business_, hem! I had no time for breakfast, and vow I am
+plaguy hungry."
+
+It was a day of ill-luck and penance for our esteemed churchman, for
+no single wish of his was to be gratified, even in so small a matter
+as a meal. The three brothers were pushed with scant ceremony into the
+one imposing chamber of the chateau, whose walls were tolerably thick
+and windows placed too high for escape to be possible, and there they
+were left, gruesomely to contemplate one another, uncomely spectacle
+enough, for in truth, they looked like boon companions, whose night
+had been spent in orgies. The abbe was so blythe in the knowledge that
+his fate was sealed, and that he had in his recklessness given himself
+as it were with his own foot, the final kick out of the world, that he
+overflowed with amiability.
+
+To behold Clovis, the selfish and heartless, the superficially
+plausible scientific humbug, sobbing like a woman, with tears
+showering through dirty fingers, was a joy and a triumph, for whatever
+might befall the abbe though only a half brother with no prospect of
+ever blossoming into a full-blown marquis, he never, no, never, under
+any stress whatever, could fall so low as this grovelling male Niobe,
+who had been privileged by Destiny to wear the glittering thing called
+coronet. Not that that particular covering was in vogue as a
+fashionable hat just now, but the absurd era of topsyturvydom, would
+no doubt be smothered shortly by somebody with an uncompromising will
+and iron fist, and the saturnalia of plebeian folly be suppressed.
+Then coronets would rise in the market again, and this gibbering thing
+would come strutting back from exile--a worm on end--with other
+emigrants, to enjoy again the sweets of life. He would be free and
+rich, while his brothers bore the brunt. He would possibly speak now
+and again with reticence of his unfortunately shady family
+connections, who had tried to commit murder in his absence, and swear
+with seraphic gaze fixed upon aether, that he was well quit of such
+surroundings. Ah! It was a satisfaction to think that a sturdy spoke
+had been placed in the wheel of the heaven-bound chariot, which had
+brought it down to earth with a thump, as helpless as a hamstrung
+horse. If the half-brothers were to bear the burthen of their
+misdeeds, so should the elder one. He should not escape scot-free.
+"If," swore the abbe to himself, "we are to be broken on the wheel, as
+de Vaux so genially suggests, the only boon I will crave shall be that
+Clovis the coward shall suffer first, and that I may be present as eye
+witness." Such being his somewhat decided views with regard to the
+head of the family, it was rather odd that he should be so agreeable
+and frolicsome and, metaphorically, skip around his brother.
+
+After a while, the contemplation of the weeping Clovis and the dazed
+Phebus became irksome, and there being no signs of prospective
+breakfast, Pharamond turned his attention to another matter.
+
+"Tell me," he demanded of a sudden, "why did you delay at Blois so
+long, and what brought you so quickly home?"
+
+"The testament was useless," answered Clovis, sulkily. "While we were
+yet in Paris, she saw through your plans and took measures to render
+them abortive. Such plans! We are undone--I, too--through your
+presuming and insensate folly."
+
+"She did!" exclaimed Pharamond, clasping his hands in admiration.
+
+"She solemnly declared that she knew her life to be in peril--that if
+ever she made another will, it would be under compulsion, and arranged
+for some private mark to show that this was so. Justice was put on the
+alert, and I came back in hottest haste to stop your action, but
+arrived, alas! too late."
+
+"She did that? the crafty, cunning baby-face!" cried Pharamond.
+
+"I ought to have known," growled Clovis, with rueful self-reproach,
+"that reserved baby-faced women are always cunning. But I trusted
+so much in you as to allow myself to be persuaded, and now I am
+undone--undone!"
+
+In spite of his discomfiture, the artistic instinct of the abbe could
+not but keenly appreciate the still long-suffering woman who had
+braved and circumvented him. And they had all been stupid enough to
+look upon her as a foe unworthy of their steel. That they should have
+done so was due to one of the many errors in judgment of the
+abominable Algae. Well, well--she was a wondrous creature, as well as
+a beautiful. Gifted with second sight, had she been able to foresee
+what precise poison he would employ and provide herself with an
+antidote? Hardly. Therein lay a mystery.
+
+Meanwhile, conjectures fill no stomachs, and nature was beginning to
+assert herself aggressively. It was brutal of the baron to starve his
+cage-birds. To play with his brother, or to snarl and gird at him was
+mighty well as a pastime, but it grew more than annoying that, after
+the hints that had been thrown out, the baron should be so
+disgustingly inhospitable.
+
+By dint of straining and muscular artfulness, the two, who had been
+unwillingly made one with ropes, managed to escape from their bonds;
+and the abbe persuasively arguing through the keyhole, endeavoured to
+coax the guardian marching without to discuss the question of food. It
+was barbarous to lock three men in a room and leave them to starve,
+specially when it had been pointed out that there had been no time
+that morning to partake of even the lightest refection. Is not
+_dejeuner_ the most important meal in France--now as in the past; and
+is it not deliberately fiendish to place famishing humanity in a
+dining-hall without the necessary and expected adjuncts? It had
+nothing to do with the case that the engrossing _business_ which had
+engrossed the early hours had been to supply a lady with a special
+breakfast for which she had no appetite. At any rate, she had been
+provided with a breakfast of a sort, and that she didn't like it was
+beside the question, for is it not well known that capricious ladies
+affect to live on butterfly wings and flower nectar--rare victuals
+that cannot always be supplied--while here were three ravenous men who
+had gone through much emotion and were proportionately empty, and who
+would be content--nay, grateful--for a commonplace, vulgar,
+substantial pate and a bottle of sound Burgundy. Thus the sportive
+abbe through the keyhole, whose sallies received no response.
+
+By and by the monotonous tramp in the stone passage ceased; hasty
+footsteps hurried away--there were muffled cries and exclamations,
+followed by--it could be nothing else--a volley of musketry. There was
+something going forward, then, that was serious. The abbes humour
+changed from banter to gloomy wrath, and a sensation came over him
+akin to that which Gabrielle had experienced in her bedchamber. He
+would not die--no--he would live! But how? He ground his teeth and
+gnawed his fingers with a baffled sense of degrading helplessness.
+Here was he, an unappreciated genius, whose wits were as nimble as
+ever, who was prepared to start off at a tangent on any project which
+promised to bring grist to his mill, incarcerated in a place intended
+for festivity, from which there was no outlet, and in which could be
+found no crust of bread or glass of water. The windows were
+inaccessible, the oaken door locked without. But the sentry was
+withdrawn, which was something; and three men, strong and young,
+should shame to lie down content to wallow in the mud and groan.
+Something of a serious and important nature was going on outside, as
+could be judged by the noise. If the door could be forced in the
+confusion, the muffled sounds of which were evident to acute ears,
+what should prevent successful evasion even at this eleventh hour?
+Clovis was strongly built, the thews and broad shoulders of Phebus had
+ofttimes been a subject for sport--and there the two sat like waxen
+effigies, both refusing to be roused. In his exasperation Pharamond
+seized Phebus by the shoulders and shook him like a sack, but the
+latter merely opened his watery eyes for a moment and then blinked
+them to again like one who has done with daylight. As for Clovis, the
+gorge of his brother rose, and he exhaled himself in ingenious curses.
+If there was a hell, to which both were bound, a large item of his
+punishment would consist in his brother's presence as a neighbour.
+
+Oh! It was too bad--too bad! There was some commotion going on
+outside--a rush of feet, a shouting, a calling out of names--something
+or another that occupied the entire attention of the garrison. The
+three of them, if they would exert united strength, could, with a
+portion of yonder massive dining-table, easily force the door, since
+the hubbub outside was sufficient to distract attention from any noise
+within. The door forced, they could lose themselves in the crowd. The
+smiling world would be open. Life--precious life--would commence
+again. And there the two idiots crouched--the one in a daze, the other
+drowned in unavailing grief--while the golden moments dripped. At
+thought of what ought to be, and that which loomed as more likely to
+obtain, Pharamond was devoured by an access of the old frenzy, which
+earlier in the day had toppled over reason, and tore in idle impotence
+at the ponderous table with his delicate white hands till the blood
+gushed from beneath the nails and his lips were white with foam.
+
+
+
+
+                            CHAPTER XXIX.
+
+                           NOBLESSE OBLIGE.
+
+
+The baron's apprehensions were soon justified. Having placed his
+prisoners under lock and key, he hastily assembled the gentlemen in a
+council of war, explaining his fears and difficulties. The peasantry
+would, of course, be wild with indignation, and, all things
+considered, there was plenty of excuse for excess. It was as though
+some one had deliberately flung a lighted fuse into an open barrel of
+gunpowder. Montbazon could not withstand a serious assault, for it
+consisted of an agglomeration of clustering rooms, chiefly built of
+wood and plaster around a small stone pleasure house in the centre. Of
+course, there was a courtyard with imposing gates, necessary adjuncts
+to the dignity of a dwelling that called itself a chateau, but, in
+sooth, the walls were thin and tottery--more suitable for the support
+of pear trees _en espalier_ than for withstanding an armed attack.
+Duty must be done, however. The Seigneurie of Touraine would one and
+all be smirched with the disgrace, if members of their order were
+handed over without a struggle to the vengeance of bucolic bumpkins.
+No doubt, no doubt--all the gentlemen agreed, but those who had
+brought their womenfolk over with them to enjoy this ill-omened fete
+day were unable to mask their anxiety. The peasantry all over France
+had, during the last few years, been guilty of raids upon the
+chateaux, had pillaged some, burnt others, inflicted outrages on the
+inhabitants. Was it likely that, though their province had hitherto
+been quieter than most, the people, justly exasperated by a dreadful
+crime, would hearken to the voice of reason? It was, of course,
+right and proper that the marquis and his brethren should be fairly
+tried and sentenced, but really---at least, so thought one of the
+assembly--it would be better to abandon them to their fate than risk
+the safety of the ladies.
+
+His neighbour, who was given to seeing things in an unpleasant light,
+shook his pate and sighed. "You forget," he said, "that these
+mooncalves neither think nor reason. They are buffeted by impulse, led
+by the nose by the first comer. Whether we give up the culprits or no,
+they will want to retaliate on all of us. It is class against class,
+and has been all along." This was true enough, and gloom descended on
+the company.
+
+"What they will do," suggested one of the party, "will depend upon the
+man who is their leader."
+
+There was the case in a nutshell. When the people arrived at
+Montbazon, the Baron de Vaux must interpellate the leader, and be
+guided by that person's attitude.
+
+The distance between the two dwellings was so short; the rustics had
+spread helter-skelter in so many directions, that the movements of
+their betters were rapidly ascertained. One party, which had made for
+Lorge, found the gates wide open, the mansion apparently deserted, and
+were about to prosecute the search elsewhere, when Jean Boulot
+appeared upon the scene, declaring that his love was a prisoner. A
+further search was made, and lying in her bed they found Toinon, a
+prey to stony despair. Brave girl as she was, she had given way to
+despondency, for what could two women do against such a close and
+small-meshed network of foes--absolutely friendless and forlorn?
+
+But here was Jean at last, faithful and true, at the head of a
+rabblement. With a cry she fell upon his breast, and sobbed there as
+if her heart were broken, while he thanked Heaven for her safety.
+
+The servants had one and all decamped with such valuables as were
+easily carried. There was no sign of Mademoiselle Brunelle. To linger
+here was wasting time. Somebody had seen the abbe and the chevalier
+spurring like maniacs in the direction of Montbazon. "To Montbazon--to
+Montbazon," was the general shout, and as the crowd moved rapidly
+thitherward, its numbers were each moment augmented by newcomers armed
+with scythes and staves, who each had something to tell. The Marquis
+de Gange had been seen galloping to Montbazon, the baron and many of
+the Seigneurie also. Montbazon, by will of avenging Providence, had
+become a vermin trap which was full, and, please Heaven, not one
+should escape.
+
+Deputy Jean Boulot did not approve of such sentiments. To yell "Ca
+Ira" in discordant chorus--to gambol in the mazes of a dance which
+bore some distorted rustic resemblance to the Carmagnole--these were
+safe and harmless outlets for feverish activity. But honest Jean had
+the cause of the people too deeply at heart to allow his adherents to
+disgrace it. Before reaching Montbazon, therefore, he got on a great
+stone in the middle of a field, and harangued his little army. He
+would have no unnecessary violence, he roundly declared. Whatever the
+conduct of the towns had been, the country parts of Touraine had been
+conspicuous for decency. Unless his hearers promised to obey, he would
+shake the dust from off his feet and leave them. The three wretches
+had been delivered by God into their hands. The sovereign people
+should do what they chose with the at-present-offending vermin, but
+the innocent should be protected. The de Vaux family knew nothing of
+the tragedy, had instantly succoured the suffering marquise, when he,
+Jean, had placed her under their protection, and it would be an evil
+and disgraceful thing if their reward was to be the destruction of
+their property. The people hearkened and applauded. Brave Jean, honest
+clearheaded Jean, an honour to the province, and to France! Of course
+he should be obeyed, provided he did not strive to shelter his late
+master. "Ca ira, Ca ira! Quick, quick, no more delay." Jean looking
+round was satisfied, for with Heaven's help, he saw his way to save
+Montbazon from pillage.
+
+It was with some relief that on mounting by means of a ladder to the
+top of the gateway, and surveying the vast seething sea of heads
+below, and the forest of glinting scythes, the baron beheld a man come
+forward whom he had personally known for years. He had disliked the
+man, and somewhat dreaded him for his treasonable preachings to the
+rustics. "A dangerous firebrand," he had always declared, "who will do
+a deal of mischief;" but as the sanguinary chronicle of history
+unrolled itself, marked with many smears, he had been compelled to
+admit that the whilom gamekeeper in authority at Blois had shown both
+discretion and forbearance. A Collot d'Herbois or a Marat might have
+headed this vast concourse. There was hope in the fact that the
+presiding chief was one who could listen to reason.
+
+"I am sorry to see you, Jean Boulot," the baron began, curtly, "at the
+head of a menacing throng. Are you here as a patron of grave-diggers?"
+
+"You know what we are here for, and what we justly demand," returned
+Boulot, as shortly.
+
+The sturdy knave! A queer dignity sat upon him like that which is worn
+by a successful general who has risen from the ranks.
+
+"Demand! H'm!" echoed the baron. "A strange word as addressed by you
+to me."
+
+"Citizen! You are foolishly playing with the lives of all within your
+walls," Jean said, earnestly. "Do you think to terrify us by striking
+an attitude draped in the ragged frippery of your rank? A word from
+me, and a thousand scythes will cut your baron's robe to ribbons. Look
+around. The news is still spreading. The indignant people are rushing
+hitherward. If in your folly you delay too long, they may pass beyond
+control."
+
+"Do you war with your thousand scythes against a bevy of innocent
+women?"
+
+"No. We protect them when we can against the wickedness of the
+Touraine nobility."
+
+The baron bit his lip. He was not gaining ground.
+
+"Speak plainly. Tell me what you want."
+
+"I demand the instant delivery to me of the three miscreants you are
+harbouring."
+
+Some of the gentlemen who had crowded up the ladder to hear the
+colloquy began to shift uneasily and murmur. "The man is right," one
+whispered--"far more sensible than I expected."
+
+But the baron had no intention of giving way--of bending before a
+rustic.
+
+"You ask what I cannot grant," he replied, haughtily. "I cannot
+deliver nobles to the canaille."
+
+The clustering throng that pressed about Boulot were losing patience.
+"These aristos are infatuated," one yelled, with threatening fist.
+"You are wasting breath, Boulot. The vile insects must be crushed
+wholesale."
+
+"Have a care!" Jean cried, in warning. "If innocent blood is spilled,
+Baron de Vaux, the crime will be on your head. Insolent vaunting words
+fall back on those who launch them. We are honest men, and----"
+
+"Are you?" scoffed the baron. "You said just now that you protected
+women. You prate now of innocent blood; the blood of our ladies is
+destined, I presume, to join that of the Princesse de Lamballe and the
+rest?"
+
+"I did not think that even the Seigneurie would seek to shelter behind
+petticoats!" cried Jean, with rising choler.
+
+"Impudent varlet!" cried the baron, losing temper. "I would fain
+shield a bevy of women from massacre. Does the canaille decree their
+slaughter?"
+
+Toinon had kept close to Jean, at whom she gazed with gladsome eyes,
+and a hectic spot of excitement upon either cheek.
+
+"If you love me, Jean," she whispered, "let the women pass. Our
+chatelaine, remember, is among them."
+
+Boulot reflected for a moment, and the advice seemed good. "I made a
+demand just now," he said, "which I see that those behind you consider
+just, and you treat me and this assembly with insult. Learn that the
+canaille can teach such as you a salutory lesson in behaviour. That
+the lives of many ladies are at stake gives us an immense advantage,
+but more generous than you we are prepared to waive it. Bring forth
+your women folk. Under my own charge they shall be conducted to a
+place of safety, the chateau of Lorge hard by. After that I will
+return, and man to man, repeat my just demand. If you then persist in
+refusing it, I shall wash my hands of the results."
+
+An important point was gained, and there was a movement of relief
+among the gentlemen. But stiff-necked old De Vaux could not bring
+himself civilly to accept a boon from what he considered the low scum.
+
+"I rejoice," he said, gruffly, "that you should save yourself from the
+stigma of slaying women. We take your word that your mob will remain
+without and that the ladies shall pass unharmed. But I suppose you are
+not such a fool as to expect that I shall give up the marquis and his
+brothers?"
+
+"This man who stands beside me, alas, is right," Jean replied,
+sternly. "Your vulture class is infatuated and doomed to ruin, and
+calls down its own destruction. The besotted arrogant nobles must
+indeed be crushed--trodden down wholesale."
+
+"Sir, you forget yourself," stiffly remarked the baron.
+
+"A last warning! You are playing with both property and life."
+
+"Advice from you? Merci! A peasant Jack in office!"
+
+"I would save you if I could, but you are as vapouring and saucy as
+the rest."
+
+The gentlemen within disapproved highly of the conduct of old De Vaux.
+What he deemed heroic--worthy of a Bayard or a Conde--they considered
+stupid and imprudent. What was to be gained by angering this man with
+so vast a concourse at his back? Some of the country squires, audibly
+expostulating, pulled at his legs and coat tails, to end a foolish
+colloquy.
+
+The baron, therefore, brought his ill-timed taunts to an undignified
+conclusion, and declared that if the mob would make a way the ladies
+were ready to come forth.
+
+Boulot removed his hat and bowed, and the baron, not to be outdone in
+the outward forms of courtesy, removed his own with a flourish and
+performed a low obeisance.
+
+Meanwhile those at the back of the far-spreading throng who, unable to
+hear, considered that there was too much parleying, waxed savage. Was
+an hour to be wasted over a simple negociation which should not occupy
+six minutes? The deputy from Blois was being cozened, was not
+displaying sufficient firmness, was reprehensively lacking in
+decision. The women backed up the men, and, convinced by their own
+cackle, were garrulous. They were unanimous as to storming the place,
+displaying to the world by a signal example that the people were the
+real masters whose will was to be obeyed. Then there was a sway, and a
+scuffle, and a hubbub, as those in front were pushed back as those
+behind, and the wooden gates revolved upon their hinges. The
+miscreants at last! Ah! Now for it! Every hand was eager to take part
+in the coming vengeance--the trio should be torn into such tiny shreds
+that they should seem to have vanished into air. There was a forward
+rush which recoiled upon itself. Those who pushed behind could not
+comprehend what was passing. Some twenty trembling women of the
+superior class, judging by their flaunting garments, were being
+marshalled two and two, and Jean Boulot at their head on horseback was
+exhorting the people to make way. A long, low, growl of angry
+disappointment swept like a wind over the concourse, which might have
+swelled into a menacing roar, followed by the mischief of a hurricane,
+if a diversion had not been caused by the forlorn appearance of the
+White Chatelaine of Lorge, moving with obvious effort supported by her
+faithful foster-sister. How changed she was--how sadly wrecked her
+beauty. Her big long-lashed blue eyes wore the startled look of one
+who has seen a horror--the pupils were prominent and fixed--her motion
+was that of an old old woman partly paralysed. Her haggard features
+bore an eloquent impress of what she had undergone, and there was a
+pathos in her wandering groping movement that drew sobs from many a
+breast.
+
+"There she is--there she is," passed from one to another in an
+awe-stricken whisper. "God bless her, poor martyr! The kindest,
+noblest woman in all the country round!"
+
+Some, remembering kindly acts, stooped to kiss her robe as she
+tottered by--a mother whose dying infant she had saved by timely
+help--a wife whose husband she had tended.
+
+It was well that Jean headed the cortege, exerting all his wit and his
+authority to force a safe passage for the timid cohort. There was a
+rough fellow with a cart of firewood, who, from his eminence,
+contemplated the spectacle, broadly grinning. He and his cart Jean
+requisitioned, and packed the more weakly in it, for it occurred to
+him that the progress to Lorge would be far from rapid, and that he
+was leaving a dangerous element behind.
+
+What an odd scene the open space in front of Montbazon presented when
+Jean and his cortege were out of sight.
+
+Being fairly pulled down from his heroic eminence by disapproving
+hands, De Vaux had mopped his brow, though the weather was chilly,
+observing, "For a peasant, he's remarkably advanced. If all were so
+reasonable--but no--that is ridiculous."
+
+The ladies gone, their husbands and brothers asked their host what he
+proposed to do. Sentiment was sentiment, and all that, and duty,
+doubtless, was duty; but then there are a variety of ways of reading
+duty, which is not to be confounded with Quixotism.
+
+Stout-souled De Vaux, who, in his excitement, felt quite young--wholly
+oblivious of a sciatic nerve--declared doggedly that he would not give
+up the miscreants. That peasant fellow was so amenable to argument on
+the part of a superior, that, on his return, he, the superior, would
+condescend to illuminate the situation. He would affably deign to
+explain that he could not for a moment pretend to approve of the trio.
+The point of their dreadful wickedness was conceded. But he, De Vaux,
+could not, and would not, hand them over to lynch law, and it was,
+without a shadow of doubt, the duty of the Deputy of Blois to assist
+him in upholding the law. He, Jean Boulot, being so amenable to
+sensible argument, would at once fall in with his views. As he had
+escorted the ladies to Lorge, so would he succeed in piloting the
+baron and his prisoners to Blois, where, with decorum and order, the
+latter would be delivered to the authorities, that Justice might
+fulfil her office. To the baron it was as clear as ditchwater, and he
+was as steadfast as obstinacy could make him, ignoring the remark of a
+seigneur that this particularly enlightened peasant had made it a
+_sine qua non_ that the culprits should be handed to him.
+
+"Oh, pooh! pooh!" laughed De Vaux, quite enchanted with the success of
+his diplomacy. "When I insisted that the women should go out, he gave
+way at once, and will again."
+
+It did not occur to him that the idea was Toinon's, and that Jean had
+given way to her.
+
+"It may be necessary," went on the baron, "to make a show of force--to
+make it understood, I mean, that we are not to be terrorised by
+that useful implement, the scythe. You will please load your
+fowling-pieces, gentlemen, and we will let them understand that we
+have gunpowder."
+
+And so it came about that when the doors opened for the ladies'
+exodus, a glint was seen of muskets which fairly exasperated the
+crowd. If muskets, why not concealed cannon? The firebrands who had
+stood near to him during the colloquy, were dissatisfied by Jean's
+moderate tone and perfect temper. He had said a harsh thing or two,
+certainly; but should not have allowed that pouter-pigeon fool to
+suppose that he had made a score. The latter had retired in somewhat
+undignified fashion, pulled by leg and coat; but his feathers were all
+out notwithstanding, and he assumed the airs of a cock that was master
+of his dunghill. Now this was manifestly absurd. The mob had but to
+raise its myriad horny hands, and over would go the dunghill burying
+the cock. Why that display of firearms? The baron had without a doubt
+got the better of honest Jean; he had cheated him and achieved thereby
+an invaluable period of delay, during which his domestics were
+probably throwing up earthworks or doing something nefarious to baulk
+the sovereign people.
+
+If this was the feeling in the front how much more did it dominate the
+rear. Jean's strong personality withdrawn--the White Chatelaine's
+piteous figure gone--those who had wept tears became the most frantic
+for vengeance.
+
+The females became m[oe]nads, and loudly taunted the males. Reports
+filtered from the front with the usual distortion, to the effect that
+the garrison had gained time by shrewd diplomacy, for running up works
+of defence; that Jean on his return would be laughed at; that the wily
+baron would snap his fingers in his face. A rumour even rose, nobody
+knew how, that there was a secret subway leading somewhere, and that
+the miscreants were at this very moment effecting an escape, laughing
+in their sleeves at the pursuers. And the sovereign people was to
+remain inactive to be fooled before all Europe? How the fugitive
+_emigres_ would laugh when the three ruffians joined them, and
+explained their clever ruse!
+
+"Jean Boulot is too straight and upright," some one declared "to deal
+with such slippery cattle. When he returns anon, let him find the work
+accomplished. If he does not approve, he can say with truth, that he
+had nothing to do with the matter; but, if I mistake not, right sorry
+will he be to be deprived of his share of vengeance."
+
+A squire was unlucky enough at this juncture to crawl up to the
+ladder-top, drawn thither by idle curiosity, and to miss his footing
+there. The fowling-piece in his hand struck the coping of the gateway
+and went off. A yell as of two thousand maniacs pealed heavenward.
+"They have fired on the sovereign people," rose in a mighty shout; and
+with one accord the sea that had been lashing quietly towered in a
+huge wave, encompassed the chateau and overwhelmed it. It was one of
+those sudden things which, like the phenomena of earth, strangles the
+breath and leaves men palsied. When the ground rocks and yawns in
+fissures, and the mountains tumble and the forests fall in heaps,
+lookers on can only marvel. The luckless denizens of Montbazon had
+scarcely time for that. The gun discharged by accident acted as a
+signal. For an instant the gates groaned and rattled under a rain of
+missiles. The walls were black with human atoms who swarmed and buzzed
+like flies, coming on and on in myriads. The seigneurs huddled
+mechanically together in a small knot, and fired one futile volley ere
+they were trodden under foot. A young fellow, bleeding from a deep
+gash inflicted by a scythe, leaned for support against an angle, and
+in answer to a question as to the brothers' whereabouts, pointed in
+the direction of the dining-hall. Ere his life-blood ebbed away, he
+saw with dimmed sight three wavering figures tossed hither and
+thither, like corks upon a boiling stream--was aware of a whirl of
+feet ascending a winding stair, amid yells of "a la lanterne,"--of
+three writhing human creatures dangling at the ends of ropes.
+
+Jean Boulot, hieing back from Lorge, was alarmed by a strange light
+and a curious sound of menace like the distant shouting of vast
+crowds. When he reached the open, from whence the chateau was visible,
+he pulled his horse up sharply. The concourse he had left so
+quiescent, were dancing like fiends around a mighty bonfire. Montbazon
+was aflame from end to end. Its wooden tenements had caught, and
+blazed like touchwood. As he gazed tranquilly upon the lurid
+spectacle, the ropes that held three black masses swinging aloft in
+space were licked by forked flames and parted, and the figures dropped
+into the furnace that seethed white hot below.
+
+"God's will be done!" Jean muttered. "They have well merited their
+fate."
+
+
+Winter and spring went by. The king was dead; the queen lingered yet
+in the Conciergerie. Jocund summer-time had come round again, and a
+quiet group clad in deep mourning enjoyed the balmy air in the
+secluded moat-garden of Lorge.
+
+A tall lady on whose still beautiful face were ploughed hard lines of
+suffering, was contemplating with a subdued smile of settled sadness,
+the romps of two children on the green.
+
+"Angelique!" she called in mild reproof, "you must not let them tire
+you;" whereupon an old lady sitting close at hand leaning on an ebony
+crutch said, "Let be. It does me good to hear Angelique laugh again
+after that awful day."
+
+"Hush!" replied Madame de Gange, "you must not brood over that
+misfortune. The baron died as a French noble should, in doing what he
+believed to be his duty. Montbazon is rising from its ashes, a much
+more commodious dwelling."
+
+"Thanks to your liberality," sighed Madame de Vaux, "but I can never
+endure to live in it."
+
+"Nor shall you," returned Gabrielle, quickly. "We settled long ago
+that you and Angelique were to make your home with me."
+
+There was a silence, while the ladies reviewed the past, which had
+been so terrible a nightmare to both. Then Madame de Vaux, drying her
+eyes, observed, "How strange it is that the baleful woman was never
+after heard of."
+
+"Nor my jewel-case," replied Gabrielle, slyly. "I doubt if those
+stolen gems will bring good fortune to the thief!"
+
+
+
+                               THE END.
+
+
+
+                          *   *   *   *   *
+         SIMMONS & BOTTEN, PRINTERS, LONDON.   _G. C. & Co_.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
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