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+*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 41509 ***
+
+Note: Project Gutenberg also has an HTML version of this
+      file which includes the original illustration.
+      See 41509-h.htm or 41509-h.zip:
+      (http://www.gutenberg.org/files/41509/41509-h/41509-h.htm)
+      or
+      (http://www.gutenberg.org/files/41509/41509-h.zip)
+
+
+      Images of the original pages are available through
+      the the Google Books Library Project. See
+      http://www.google.com/books?id=fAMtAAAAMAAJ
+
+
+
+
+
+THE MYSTERY OF THE LOST DAUPHIN
+
+(Louis XVII)
+
+by
+
+EMILIA PARDO BAZÁN
+
+Translated from the Spanish by Annabel Hord Seeger
+
+Frontispiece Illustration by Raphael Bodé
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+Funk & Wagnalls Company
+New York and London
+1906
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration: "When the world salutes me King, I will admit I am your
+brother."]
+
+
+
+
+EMILIA PARDO BAZÁN
+
+
+While Provençal literature blossomed in chivalric splendor along the
+northern shore of the Mediterranean and rare pastoral music in madrigals
+and roundelays rang through France and Italy, there sounded from the
+sea-girt province of Galicia wonderful songs which rivalled the sweetest
+strains of the troubadours, making kings to weep and warriors to smile,
+thrilling, by their wit and pathos and lyrical beauty, the brilliant
+courts of Castile and Leon.
+
+It is an ethnographical phenomenon that, in Great Britain, France and
+Spain, the Celt has been pushed to the northwest. Galicia corresponds in
+position to Brittany and her people are characterized by the powerful
+imagination, infinite delicacy, concentration of feeling and devotion to
+nature which are the salient attributes of Gaelic and Cymric genius.
+
+The Modern Literary Renaissance of Galicia, a superb outburst of
+Gallegan exuberance, has a noble and eloquent exponent in Emilia Pardo
+Bazán, gifted child of this poetic soil.
+
+Senora Pardo Bazán has been called the creator and protagonist of
+Spanish Realism. It has been claimed that she bears to Spain such a
+relation as Turgénieff to Russia and Zola to France. She herself says
+somewhere that she is skeptical regarding the existence of Realistic,
+Idealistic and Romantic writers, averring, in her trenchant style, that
+authors constitute but two classes, _good_ and _poor_. "Certain critics
+would affirm," she remarks, "that, as simple as the cleaving in twain of
+an orange is the operation of separating writers into Realistic and
+Idealistic camps."
+
+One biographer claims that our author sacrifices sex to art and that the
+result warrants the sacrifice. I would insist that 'tis a lady's hand
+wielding the mailed gauntlet and that reading Pardo Bazán helps one to
+understand why Great Brahm is described as partaking of the feminine
+principle.
+
+Castelar has remarked that: "In Belles Lettres we have the illustrious
+Celt, Emilia Pardo Bazán, whom, living, we count among the immortals,
+and whose works, though of yesterday, are already denominated Spanish
+classics." Garcia, in his History of Spanish Literature, calls her the
+Spanish de Staël. Rollo Ogden writes: "No masculine pen promises more
+than that of Pardo Bazán. Her equipment is admirable; it is based on
+exhaustive historical and philosophical studies, from which she passed
+on to the novel. In this transition does she resemble George Eliot,
+whom, however, she surpasses in many respects."
+
+G. Cunninghame Graham remarks: "We have not in England, no, nor in
+Europe, so illustrious a woman in letters as Pardo Bazán." Goran
+Bjorkman declares that "Among Spanish writers, Pardo Bazán most resemble
+Turgénieff, excelling him, however, in the sane gayety of her
+temperament."
+
+Senora Pardo Bazán is descended from a noble and illustrious family, in
+whose genealogy Victor Hugo sought the characters of his Ruy Blas. An
+only daughter, her childhood was passed amid her father's extensive
+library. When scarcely sixteen she was married to the scholarly
+gentleman, Don José Quiroga. Several subsequent years were occupied in
+European travels and study, at the conclusion of which she consecrated
+herself to the literary labors which have yielded so rich a harvest. To
+enumerate these masterpieces of contemporaneous Spanish letters would be
+superfluous. They have been translated into every European tongue.
+
+Doña Emilia, as she is affectionately called by the Spanish people,
+passes her winters in Madrid, her salon being the rendezvous of the
+literary, political and diplomatic world. The author smacks not of the
+bas bleu; she is a simple woman in the truest sense of the word, and a
+regal grande dame as well.
+
+Annabel Hord Seeger.
+
+
+
+
+A GREAT GRANDSON OF LOUIS XVI
+
+
+Over one hundred and thirteen years ago, in Paris, at ten in the morning
+of the twenty-first day of January, seventeen hundred and ninety-three,
+Louis Seize bowed his head beneath the guillotine's blade, as the Abbé
+Edgeworth called aloud, "Son of Saint Louis, ascend into heaven!" and as
+the surging multitude sent up the wild shout, "Vive la République!"
+
+A few months ago, in Paris, at ten in the morning of the twenty-first
+day of January, nineteen hundred and six, two automobiles drew up before
+the parish church, Saint-Denis de la Chapelle, whose historic walls,
+fifteen centuries since, enclosed during life the intrepid and holy
+patroness of France, Geneviève de Nanterre; before whose shrine, five
+centuries since, the glorious virgin Savior of the realm, Jeanne d'Arc,
+passed an entire day in prayer; whose sacred aisles were ever the
+avenues for the royal feet in ancient times, on the termination of the
+coronation ceremony.
+
+From these automobiles alights a party headed by a slender grave-looking
+young man of simple charming manners whose light grey eyes smile often.
+He is accompanied by a graceful young matron leading by the hand a
+handsome little fellow of some six years who wears a Louis Dix-Sept
+coiffure and long auburn curls on his shoulders.
+
+An elderly lady of patrician countenance stands near me. I turn
+inquiring eyes into hers. With the grace and courtesy of a salon dame,
+she beckons me closer, whispering in my ear:
+
+"His Majesty Jean III, Her Majesty Marie Madelaine and His Royal
+Highness the Dauphin, Henri-Charles-Louis."
+
+My companion reverently and profoundly inclines her body, as the
+procession rushes past us. I do likewise, albeit with an unpleasant
+consciousness of an absence of the grace which envelops this member of
+the "Survivance" at my side.
+
+As we raise our heads, a man of distinguished appearance and of a
+pronounced Bourbon type hurries past us, to join the advancing party.
+
+"'Tis Monsieur," observes the lady. "'Tis the Prince Charles-Louis. He
+is the soul of the cause."
+
+We follow his elegant person past the kneeling congregation which fills
+the central nave. The royal family approach the chancel until reaching
+the group of crimson prie-Dieus and velvet cushions. The sanctuary is
+crimson-draped; the white-haired venerable prelate is crimson-robed; the
+altar blazes with the crimson tongues of wax tapers: for 'tis a _Messe
+Rouge_ that is to be celebrated today, in honor of the royal victim of
+one hundred and thirteen years ago.
+
+"Explain to me the genealogy," I say to my guide, when we have taken
+seats.
+
+"The slender dark-haired gentleman and Monsieur are the great grandsons
+of Louis Seize."
+
+"In what manner are they descended?"
+
+"Their father was Charles-Edmond Naundorff, fifth child of Charles
+William Naundorff, the Prussian watch-maker, who claimed the French
+crown during the reign of his uncle, known in history as Louis XVIII."
+
+"Tell me more of these gentlemen."
+
+"Jean III, whose entire name is Auguste-Jean-Charles-Emmanuel de
+Bourbon, was born in Maestricht, Holland, in 1872. He and Monsieur were
+adopted in early childhood by their father's sister, Amélie, the wife of
+Monsieur Laprade of Poictiers--the beautiful, imperious Amélie whose
+face was the reincarnation in feature and expression of the ill-fated
+martyr queen, Marie Antoinette."
+
+"Was not that resemblance accepted as corroborating evidence of her
+father's integrity?"
+
+"Madame," said my aristocratic companion, turning upon me wonderful
+glowing eyes that seemed to reflect a throne transformed into a
+scaffold, "Madame, the face of Amélie Naundorff convulsed the government
+of the Restoration to such an extent that even the palsied limbs of the
+man called Louis XVIII, grew rigid in terror. During one crucial moment
+the usurper summoned the strength to stand upon his bandaged feet and
+shatter with one blow the ascendancy of his nephew, Charles William
+Naundorff."
+
+"What arm did he employ?"
+
+"That arm which the iniquitous ever use against the upright; the
+rectitude and tenderness of a noble nature."
+
+"Explain."
+
+"Naundorff's despoilers turned upon him the only effectual weapon at
+their disposal: they turned, rather they bade him turn upon himself, the
+greatness and simplicity of his own heart."
+
+I cast my eyes upon the group before the altar, upon the dark grave man,
+all simplicity, candor and earnestness; upon the gentle comely lady
+beside him, and the little fellow in the Louis Dix-Sept coiffure....
+Just then Monsieur turned his superb head and the fine Bourbon features
+irradiated the old charm which history and tradition have sought to
+transmit, but which only the blood of Henri de Navarre can make glowing
+with life.
+
+The lady placed her elegantly gloved hand upon my arm.
+
+"From their earliest years, the boys were cautioned not to reveal their
+real name. Under the appellation of Lisbois they were successively
+placed in several schools. Their identity was more than once discovered,
+whereupon they were removed. On leaving college, they spent several
+years in Brittany and Paris, completing their education. Jean III lived
+on the estate of Monsieur Gabaudan from 1893 to 1898. Monsieur Gabaudan
+manages an extensive wine business. Jean III, with the shrewd common
+sense of his grandfather and with the mechanical instinct of his
+great-grandfather, mastered the details of this business. Only one road
+seemed to lie before him. He resolutely followed it. In 1900 he removed
+to Paris. Under the name of De Lisbois, he was connected with a
+petroleum house. During the last two years, he has, under his true
+name, been the director of a drilling and sounding company in the
+interest of which he has made several voyages to Algeria."
+
+"What are Monseigneur's ideas with regards to royal pretensions and
+claims?"
+
+"Jean III has declared that he will never conspire to be placed upon a
+throne. 'Circumstances,' says he, 'will decide my destiny.'"
+
+"Has he adherents among the nobility?"
+
+"His following is from all classes. The grandfathers of the present
+nobility well knew that Jean de Bourbon's grandfather was the rightful
+King of France."
+
+"What of men of letters?"
+
+"Many eloquent pens are consecrated to his cause. Eloquence, however, is
+no requisite in the presentations of his claim. The Naundorffists demand
+only to tell the plain truth."
+
+"What is the official organ of the party?"
+
+"La Légitimité, edited in Bordeaux, now in its twenty-third year."
+
+"I have never seen a copy."
+
+"C'est bien facile, Madame. You tell me you are leaving for New York.
+The Salmagundi Club contains on file numbers of interesting books and
+magazines having reference to Louis XVII. But, if you have the time
+today, I will gladly accompany you to the official headquarters of the
+party, namely, the office of Monsieur Daragon, the accomplished editor
+of Le Revue Historique de la Question Louis XVII."
+
+Monsieur Daragon is a true Frenchman, amiable, courteous, charming. His
+office is the rendezvous of notable personages pertaining to the cause
+and his bookshelves are laden with volumes of Louis XVII literature. I
+purchased the scholarly memoirs of Otto Freidrichs entitled
+"Correspondance de Louis XVII" and Osmond's "Fleur de Lys," a most
+interesting and convincing work.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+In the February number of the Critic of New York, Mr. J. Sanford Saltus
+asks:
+
+"The next King of France--who will he be? A question often put by the
+adherents of the Due d'Orleans, Don Carlos, Victor Napoleon and Jean de
+Bourbon.
+
+"Jean de Bourbon is the youngest of the 'Pretenders' and his claim is
+based upon the assumption that his grandfather, Charles William
+Naundorff was the Dauphin, the son of Louis XVI, who according to
+popular rumor, died in prison June 8, 1795, and was buried at night in
+an unmarked grave by the church yard of Sainte-Marguerite, in an obscure
+Paris quarter. That the Dauphin did _not_ die in prison, but that, with
+the assistance of friends, he escaped therefrom,--a sick child being
+left in his stead,--is now the almost universally accepted belief of
+historians. It is thought that his escape was known to Fouché and
+Josephine Beaubarnais and that, beside the sick child, several other
+children, whose names were respectively, Tardif Leminger, de Jarjages,
+and Gornhaut, were used as blinds, while the real Louis XVII was being
+helped out of the country by the Royalists."
+
+Mr. Saltus continues further on:
+
+"At Delft, Holland, August 10, 1845, ended the adventurous life of the
+exile Charles William Naundorff. His grave, by official permission, bore
+his true name. On June 8, 1904, the remains were exhumed and re-interred
+in the new cemetery at Delft and once more, by official permission, the
+same inscription appears.
+
+"King William II, King William III and Queen Wilhelmina have allowed
+this inscription to remain unmolested. Why? On the coming of age of the
+Naundorffs, the Dutch government gives them permission to assume their
+real name."
+
+Annabel Hord Seeger.
+
+
+
+
+Book I MARTIN, THE SEER
+
+
+
+The Lost Dauphin
+
+
+
+
+Chapter I
+
+THE LOVERS
+
+
+In a London quarter near the Thames, little frequented by day and almost
+deserted by night, there is a house with a small garden facing an
+extensive park from whose centre majestically rise groups of trees that
+have stood for a century or more, those trees of the old English soil
+which constant moisture nourishes and develops into colossal
+proportions. The memories attaching to this modest structure would be
+well worth exploitation by the historian, but Clio has chosen to avert
+her face from this, the scene of the most dismal historical drama whose
+narration was ever stifled into silence.
+
+The tragedy which for a while was bounded by the walls of that pygmy
+house will forever remain in shadow, for such has been the decree of
+Destiny,--rather, such has been the will of certain powerful men in high
+places.
+
+On the evening when this narrative opens, the prolonged spring twilight
+had lost every trace of the sunset afterglow when an aristocratic,
+stalwart young man enveloped in a gray cloak which did not conceal the
+symmetry of his form, approached the grating at the rear of the house
+and knocked on the iron bars with his cane four times at regular
+intervals. A moment later a white skirt gleamed amid the shrubbery and
+the face of its young possessor shone back of the grating. A dainty hand
+glided through the bars and the visitor clasped it ardently.
+Affectionate greetings followed and anxious questionings, too, for these
+plighted hearts could but claim Love's arrears after their long
+separation.
+
+"Did you arrive today?"
+
+"I have but just come, not even taking time to change my clothes. The
+letter which I sent preceded me but half an hour."
+
+"Do _they_ know you are here?"
+
+"No. They think I am hunting on my Picmort estate."
+
+A brief silence followed. The woman--the girl, rather, for she was
+scarcely more than sixteen--contracted the arch of her perfect brow.
+
+"I do not understand the reason for the deception, René. Why should you
+be ashamed of loving me?"
+
+He seemed at a loss for an answer and then with an effort, said:
+
+"Amélie, my own, I have taken this journey for the sole purpose of
+giving you the reason. It is eight months since we were separated, and
+during that time I have written you seldom because you warned me that
+letters directed to your family either arrive unsealed or else fail to
+arrive. Besides, Amélie, there is something I ought to say to you, but
+I--give me both your adored hands, for only so can I speak. Courage,
+courage, Amélie. Trust me; I shall be constant. Oh, my love," he
+suddenly broke off, "do not ask me to speak, but believe that whatever I
+should now attempt toward the realization of our union would fail
+utterly--"
+
+"Would fail utterly," she repeated scornfully. "You, a man, speak such
+words! What, then, did your vows signify?"
+
+Her beautiful face gleamed like a cameo against the darkness.
+
+"In God's name, Amélie, listen and be not so harsh. I came from France
+to ask you to believe in me and not force me to speak. May I not be
+silent for the present?"
+
+"No. I demand the truth, be that what it may."
+
+René's attitude revealed the struggle through which he was passing, and
+when his words came, it was as if they were hammered out of him.
+
+"Amélie, since we were together at the mill of Adhemar, I have thought
+only of you. I had been a madcap; I became serious and high-minded. I
+had cared only for Parisian follies and wild hunts in the forests; these
+I renounced, for they ceased to charm me. My mother had arranged for me
+a brilliant marriage. You know of Germaine de Marigny whose lineage
+includes crusader knights. Well, I broke the troth, regardless of
+consequences. I asked you not whence you came nor whither you went. You
+had said that your father was a mechanic in London and that your life
+had been passed almost in indigence. When I thought of my rank and
+estates, 'twas to reflect with pride that I should surround my wife with
+every luxury. I knew that my mother would execrate and my uncle
+disinherit me. Nevertheless, I was determined to overleap all barriers
+and disregard almost everything that claimed my allegiance."
+
+"But having had time for reflection," Amélie remarked coldly, "you have
+concluded that you had almost committed a signal folly. I admit that
+you have decided wisely, and bid you now consider yourself free."
+
+She half turned from the grating, but he seized one of her hands, then
+her soft white wrist and passionately kissed it.
+
+"No, no! You are unjust, Amélie. You force me now to say what I would
+withhold. Listen. When my mother vehemently declared that a de Brezé
+should never give his name to a woman of humble origin, I replied that
+the most illustrious ladies of France could not outrival you, and that
+beauty and goodness are entitled to the very highest social
+distinction."
+
+"But your mother has at length convinced you that you uttered but the
+enthusiastic hyperboles of a too ardent lover."
+
+She felt him tremble as he grasped her hands tightly and continued:
+
+"I know not what deity established the code of honor. We hold honor to
+be even more sacredly binding than religion. A gentleman may sin a
+hundred times daily, but not once does he violate the obligations
+bequeathed him by his fathers. Life and happiness are worth much less
+than honor, Amélie."
+
+"Well?" she asked, trying to speak calmly, but in vain.
+
+"O my Love," cried the man, "forgive me, forgive me, for I am about to
+wound you cruelly. My mother, who had of late refrained from opposing my
+attachment to you, called me to her yesterday and shut the door upon us.
+Then she said: 'René, after vainly striving for months to change your
+purpose, I withdrew my opposition, fearing that I was unduly imposing my
+maternal authority. You were free, in possession of your patrimony and
+twenty-seven years of age. So I resigned myself to the mésalliance and
+began to interest myself in the antecedents of your idol. I wrote to
+Spandau, the sometime residence of her people, with the result--"
+
+He could not continue, but Amélie haughtily commanded:
+
+"Go on!"
+
+Hurriedly, almost despairingly, he concluded: "With the result that I
+have received the information, corroborated by these documents, that the
+girl's father has served a twenty months' sentence at hard labor in
+Alstadt, Silesia, having been convicted as a counterfeiter and
+incendiary."
+
+"What more?" demanded the girl.
+
+"O Amélie, is not that enough?"
+
+"Enough, indeed," she answered, wrenching away her hands. "Farewell,
+Monsieur Marquis de Brezé. We have exchanged our last words." And she
+sped into the house before he could detain her.
+
+
+
+
+Chapter II
+
+MEMORIES
+
+
+The Marquis remained at the grating, hoping that Amélie would return.
+When night closed in and she showed no signs of relenting, he wandered
+aimlessly through the streets, walking slowly, abstractedly, his mind
+absorbed with the beautiful imperious girl he so loved and between whom
+and himself had been thrust the proofs of her father's felony. He became
+oblivious of even the need of food, though he had eaten nothing since
+reaching England and putting up at the Hotel Douglas, a fourth-class
+tavern selected with the object of concealment from chance compatriots.
+
+His wanderings conducted him back to the Thames, from whose turbid
+surface towered the masts of many vessels as they rocked at their
+moorings, His eyes rested vacantly on the waters, spangled with
+reflections of the stars overhead, as he recalled the history of his
+passion for this unknown woman and his first meeting with her in the
+home of Elois Adhemar, the miller on the de Brezé estate.
+
+René had been in the habit of stopping for a glass of beer or warm milk
+at the mill, on returning from hunts on his fertile and extensive
+domains, and sundry pretty gallantries did he whisper into the ear of
+his host's winsome daughter, Geneviève--village beauty and rustic
+coquette--with a deep bosom and gleaming teeth.
+
+When during the Revolution the de Brezé castle was fired, a torch was
+simultaneously applied to the Adhemar mill, for these loyal servitors
+were stanch legitimists. The Marquis de Brezé and the Count de Lestrier,
+father and uncle respectively to René, were at the time in exile with
+the royal family. Elois Adhemar had fled to Switzerland, serving as a
+hand at the great mill of Berne, from which city he returned as an
+expert miller to France while the revolutionary ferment was quieting
+down. He repaired the mill and awaited the arrival of the de Brezé
+family, which was to regain possession of its estates with the advent of
+the Restoration. René was the head of the family, for his father had
+died in foreign lands. His mother, the Duchess de Rousillon, rebuilt the
+castle with increased magnificence, and it was during her occupation of
+it with her son that the latter contracted the habit of visiting the
+faithful Adhemar.
+
+One day he met at the miller's house a young girl whom the family
+called Mademoiselle Amélie. She had come to renew her broken health in
+the fresh country air. René, standing now by the river, recalled his
+first vision of her, and fairylike memories flitted through his brain
+like a swarm of golden butterflies. Was she more beautiful than
+Geneviève? He could not answer, but he knew well that thoughts
+associated with the personality of Geneviève were impossible in the
+atmosphere of Amélie, for not only was she different from the miller's
+daughter, but from all women he had known. Only on cameos, medallions,
+rare miniatures and enamelled boxes had he beheld her patrician type of
+beauty. Her eyes, tenderly imperious and her lips of regal sweetness
+never failed to quicken in him an adoring mood.
+
+So great was his infatuation that he did not seek to ascertain her
+origin, for she seemed to have descended from heaven. One circumstance,
+however, forced itself on his attention, namely that while the miller's
+daughter treated Amélie as a companion, Adhemar himself evinced toward
+her a deference which closely approached reverence.
+
+"She is the daughter," he would say, "of persons who protected me during
+my exile."
+
+How sweet had been those days! He recalled the walks during the summer
+along the river bank fringed with lilies and reeds and shaded by the
+languid foliage of willows, her arm intertwined in his, their feet
+moving rhythmically together; and then the return home in the moonlight
+with the perfume of honey-suckle and wild mint in their faces. In his
+ravishment he failed to note the satirical remarks and jealous glances
+of Geneviève. His eyes were for Amélie only who, pale at first like a
+wilted rose, rapidly recovered health and animation. What most
+captivated him was her air of distinction, her native dignity, her
+manners of a _grande dame_, so unaccountable in a girl of obscure
+origin. He said to himself that, compared with Amélie, the arrogant
+Duchess de Rousillon, his mother, was a woman most ordinary, almost
+vulgar.
+
+It was not long before the news spread throughout the district that the
+Marquis de Brezé, the best match in the country, was to wed a young
+foreign girl of low extraction who had, in charity, been given an asylum
+at the mill. The Duchess de Rousillon was absent in Paris at the time,
+for the purpose of securing from the government of the Restoration the
+return of properties confiscated during the Reign of Terror.
+
+One morning as the young Marquis was tranquilly sleeping, dreaming,
+perhaps, of his fair Dulcinea, his arm was roughly shaken and he opened
+his eyes upon the angry countenance of his mother, who held toward him
+an open letter. There was no signature, but René recognized the coarse
+scrawls and crude expressions of Geneviève. It was addressed to the
+Duchess and announced the intended marriage of her son to an adventuress
+who had found refuge at the mill.
+
+"I suppose," said the lady disdainfully, "that this is only a
+half-truth. Whether your gallantries relate to this girl or to some
+other is a matter having no interest for me. What I demand to know is
+this: Have you pledged your word?"
+
+René raised himself on his elbow and answered: "If Amélie consents, we
+shall be married."
+
+The tempest following this announcement and the ensuing days of conflict
+still lived vividly in the mind of the Marquis as the bitterest
+experience of his life, especially that occasion when the Duchess
+ordered her carriage for the purpose of interviewing Amélie. She took
+this resolution after receiving from Court a letter which seemed to
+throw her into a violent agitation. On reaching the mill, she demanded
+to see Amélie, who appeared with a quiet air of unconcern. The Duchess
+stared at her and seemed almost petrified, not mentioning her son. After
+some incoherent phrases, she stammered that the object of her visit was
+to look upon so beautiful a girl. On taking leave, she bowed
+obsequiously, her customary aplomb having been transformed into
+something very like the confusion of a raw peasant. The miller was
+ordered to accompany her home and, on reaching the castle, they were
+closeted together for over two hours. On leaving the apartment, Adhemar
+staggered like one drunk with wine and the Duchess flung herself in rage
+into a chair. That afternoon two journeys were begun; Adhemar
+accompanied Amélie to Calais and the Duchess forced her son to go with
+her to Paris.
+
+O those first days of separation! The Marquis shut the door upon the
+friends who had been his life-long associates. He wished only to be in
+London, reunited to Amélie, but, not knowing her address, to find her
+would be impossible. At last a letter from her, forwarded by Adhemar,
+gave him the needed information. He was about to set out when a slow
+fever fastened upon him and kept him in bed for three months. He did not
+tell Amélie of his condition, fearing to alarm her. His letters were
+brief, but they breathed an unswerving devotion. When returning health
+sent the impetuous blood of youth through his veins, he declared to his
+mother an unalterable determination to persist in his love for the
+stranger girl. Then it was that, like a bomb exploding at his feet,
+these ominous words fell from the lips of the Duchess:
+
+"It would be insanity in the Marquis de Brezé to bestow his name on the
+daughter of a mechanic by occupation, a vagabond without lineage, of
+tainted blood, an adventurer who has roamed over Europe, supported in
+his youth by a woman of middle age whom there is good reason to suppose
+was his mistress. I knew well these particulars, dear son of mine, and
+you may imagine how they harassed me, but I rebuked myself, saying that
+dignity and morality might exist in the humblest rank. Still, as those
+who are not blinded by love must ascertain facts, I investigated the
+situation and obtained these corroborating documents. You will admit
+that my course has not been one of capricious obstinacy. Listen. The
+father of your idol, by name Naundorff, seems to be of Jewish
+extraction. His past is sullied by grave felonies. Here is the
+deposition of the burgomaster of Spandau and letters from other Prussian
+authorities--a formal conviction, in fact. As an incendiary, he set fire
+to the city theatre, as a counterfeiter, he manufactured sackfuls of
+coins, which, when caught in the act, he flung into the river Spree. He
+expiated his flagitious acts by serving in the penitentiary of Alstadt
+the sentence imposed by a German court. Now you know the truth and if
+you still desire to unite the Naundorff blazonry with the unblemished
+arms of Brezé, glorious with crusader trophies, you are free to do so. I
+cannot restrain you. If I could, I should. I have discharged my duty in
+warning you. You cannot allege ignorance. And now, René, leave me. I
+trust soon to know whether the heir of Rousillon lives or whether I must
+mourn his passing."
+
+This was the speech which the young Marquis had, earlier in the evening,
+abridged and modified before Amélie. And now, living over again the
+scene at the trellis, he felt that she would not forgive him and,
+nevertheless, that he could not live without her. Knightly honor, family
+pride, the obligations of nobility--all were impotent in combating his
+love for the fascinating, imperious girl.
+
+
+
+
+Chapter III
+
+THE ASSAULT
+
+
+Telling himself that he was reprehensively weak in failing to resist his
+passion, René gazed out upon the river. He reflected that its dark
+surface had closed over many human sorrows and perplexities which seemed
+beyond alleviation. A chill crept over him, then a dizziness, as he
+gazed into the glistening, alluring current of the Thames.
+
+In such situations, the slightest whisper is enough to break the spell.
+The Marquis started on beholding two men emerge from a noisome alley,
+conversing in French. When abroad, our native tongue always claims our
+attention, especially when one using it happens to pronounce a familiar
+name. These men twice spoke the name of Amélie's father, whereupon René
+stealthily followed the pair. He could not distinguish the topic of
+their conversation but was quite close enough to study the physical type
+of each of the suspicious characters, one of whom was close-shaven,
+coarse and short of stature, the other tall, full-bearded, alert and
+enveloped in a huge overcoat which concealed half his face. They walked
+slowly, peering at intervals in all directions. On perceiving René, they
+nudged each other, for the Marquis's fine clothes were out of keeping
+with the place, which was the thoroughfare of dissolute and disorderly
+sailors. They ceased talking and, a few moments later, suddenly turned a
+corner and disappeared in the labyrinth of malodorous, ill-lighted
+alleys. René realized that they had eluded him, but his hunter's scent
+and nimble legs put him again upon their trail. Why this espionage? He
+could scarcely have answered had he been questioned.
+
+When he next perceived them, they were standing beneath the yellow
+lantern of a tavern. He saw them enter the filthy place, order some
+glasses of beer, which they gulped down like genuine Londoners and make
+their exit. Guardedly he followed them into the wider and better-lighted
+streets, through which rolled an occasional cab. Again they described a
+capricious curve, descended towards the river and emerged upon the park
+which faced the small house and garden--the scene of René's colloquy
+with Amélie. On noting the coincidence, his heart beat fast and the
+movement was quickened when he perceived that the wily couple were
+ambuscading back of the great trees in the centre of the square.
+Connecting the name he had twice heard spoken by the ruffians--for so he
+classified them--with the place of their concealment, he conjectured
+that an act was about to be perpetrated which would affect Amélie, an
+act in which he must interpose, whether impelled by fate or chance. He
+crept into the zone of shade cast by the dense foliage, his gray cloak
+blending in color with the walls and making him almost invisible.
+
+The park remained deserted. The night grew darker each moment and the
+silence was broken only by the solemn striking of the church clock or
+the impatient step of a laborer returning homeward. Just as the hour of
+nine struck, a man appeared from that side of the park opposite the spot
+where René was watching. As he entered, walking leisurely, the two
+concealed men stepped forth and with a preconcerted movement placed
+themselves, the one on the stranger's right, the other on his left. René
+had scarcely realized what had occurred when the assault began. A few
+vigorous leaps brought him quickly to the assistance of the victim just
+as the assailants were about to deliver their blows. He seized the
+uplifted arm of the more threatening one, the tall man with the great
+coat, whose intended cudgel-blow was thereby made harmless.
+
+The stranger, having no other weapon than a cane, rained blows upon the
+enemy until he wrenched himself loose and fled. René then turned upon
+the accomplice, seized him by the throat with both hands and gradually
+tightened his hold until the man's face was purple from strangulation.
+Then he released him, but, suddenly feeling a sharp sensation in his
+shoulder, he renewed his grasp, maintaining the pressure until the
+villain fell inert, dropping his weapon. The assaulted man quickly
+seized the Marquis by the arm and dragged him toward the house, saying
+in a voice full of emotion:
+
+"Come, let us hasten. If the police detect us, we are lost."
+
+He spoke in French with a German accent.
+
+"I cannot," said René staggering. "I am wounded and too weak to walk."
+
+Throwing his arms around René in order to sustain him, the stranger
+conducted him to his home, rapping three times in a peculiar manner upon
+the door, which was then opened by a woman of attractive form and
+features and apparently about thirty-five years of age. She shrieked on
+beholding the condition of the two men.
+
+"'Tis a wounded gentleman, Jeanne--wounded in defending me," said the
+stranger in an authoritative voice. "Close the door securely and help me
+to examine his wounds."
+
+The woman obeyed, leaving her lamp on a stand, and aided her husband in
+placing René upon a lounge in the room next the entrance. Not till then
+did she dare to whisper:
+
+"And you, Charles Louis; has any ill befallen you?"
+
+"Nothing but a slight scratch on the elbow. Quickly bring some water,
+ether, balsam and court-plaster and linen. Call Amélie. She is
+courageous."
+
+While Jeanne hastened to execute these commands, Charles Louis
+unfastened René's outer garments, also his close-fitting jacket,
+removing the lace-trimmed shirt soaked in blood and disclosing a wound
+near the left shoulder-blade, the ruffian's dagger having been aimed for
+a dangerous lung thrust. His weakness was due entirely to loss of blood,
+which, continuing to flow, had left a dark, clotted stain on his white
+skin. When Jeanne returned with the restoratives, René was smiling
+tranquilly. A girl in white entered the apartment, holding a wax taper
+and, upon recognizing René, pale, blood-stained and nude to the waist,
+she uttered a cry of terror and dropped the light.
+
+"What is the matter, Amélie?" asked her father. "Do not be alarmed, my
+daughter. Thank God that our unknown friend is no longer in danger. Come
+nearer and hold the light still a moment. Now the bandage. Bring one of
+my shirts, also my great-coat and a glass of cognac or a little coffee."
+
+"Do not trouble yourselves further. I am doing well," declared the
+wounded man. "At the Hotel Douglas I have changes of clothing."
+
+René's eyes passionately sought those of Amélie, which, dilated with
+terror, could not unfasten themselves from his face.
+
+The host insisted: "It is too late to go to the Hotel. The streets, as
+we have seen, are dangerous. Accept, then, for a little while the
+clothes of a humble artisan, Monsieur--?"
+
+"René de Giac, Marquis de Brezé."
+
+"Charles Louis Naundorff," said the host introducing himself. "And these
+are my wife and daughter. Will you believe me when I say that I knew you
+were a Frenchman when you sprang to my defense?"
+
+On hearing that René had protected her father, Amélie approached her
+lover and gave him a look that was all radiance, an abandon of the soul,
+an unconditional surrender. It lasted but a moment. Had it been
+prolonged, it would have melted the heart of the man who, not long
+before, meditated a leap into the Thames.
+
+"To be a Frenchman and to be a hero from choice are mutual corollaries.
+You did not know me. Why, then, should you risk your life? Thus is my
+debt; of gratitude to you increased," said Naundorff, smiling.
+
+Amélie had brought René a cup of coffee which, having the effect of a
+cordial, made him talkative.
+
+"A half hour since, the bandits and I were concealed in the park; an
+hour since, I started on their trail."
+
+"Is it possible?"
+
+"It is indeed. Listen and judge. I wandered aimlessly along the river
+bank and soon overheard two men speaking French. They were
+suspicious-looking characters and they spoke your name twice. On
+perceiving that I followed, they fled. I caught up with them and again
+followed cautiously. On reaching the park, they ambuscaded. The rest you
+know."
+
+Naundorff gazed attentively at his guest who, having clothed himself in
+the borrowed garments, was fast recovering his strength. He strove to
+read René's face. At last he said:
+
+"Why, then, you knew me?"
+
+"Yes, Monsieur, I knew you by name, and now that I look at you closely,
+I feel that I know your face also. You have one of those countenances
+which always seem familiar and linger in the memory. I cannot say when
+or where I have seen you, but I believe it has been not once but a
+thousand times. When I opened my eyes and looked upon your face, it
+seemed to me that long ago I had known you well."
+
+On first beholding his fiancée's father, de Brezé had experienced a
+feeling that now returned with renewed force. Although love confiscates
+all sentiments, in order to focus them on the adored one, René gazed
+beyond Amélie as he spoke, having eyes only for Charles Louis. The
+father's age seemed near forty, his head was of spacious front with
+arched brow and blond hair, somewhat silvered and curling naturally. An
+infantile dimple marked his chin, his breast-bone was high and a slight
+obesity marred his form which still, however, preserved graceful
+outlines; his hands were finely patrician; his expression was a mingling
+of dignity, bitterness and deep distrust. Great sorrows must have been
+the lot of this man, for his face seemed furrowed by torrents of tears.
+His likeness to Amélie seemed to consist more in what is usually called
+family resemblance than in physical similitude. The father and daughter
+were of distinct types and yet it seemed impossible to disjoin them
+mentally. More and more perplexed, René said to himself, "Where have I
+seen this man? Where have I seen him and Amélie together?"
+
+
+
+
+Chapter IV
+
+AMÉLIE
+
+
+Naundorff, seated near the sofa where René rested, had become pensive.
+René's eyes were fastened querulously upon him. The young man scarcely
+knew what to say, yet his good breeding impelled him to end the enforced
+visit.
+
+"I have almost recovered. I therefore beg of my kind host permission to
+depart. I shall take a cab near by in Wellington street and so reach my
+hotel in twenty minutes. Tomorrow, unless fever seizes me, I shall give
+myself the pleasure of calling upon you to learn how you fare after our
+rough experience. There remains now only to inquire whether you deem it
+advisable to report this assault, Monsieur Naundorff, in order that the
+scoundrels may receive their just deserts."
+
+This very natural query was disquieting to the host, and with contracted
+lips, he objected:
+
+"Make report? No, no. I would suffer everything rather than appeal to
+human justice. Leave human justice to her caverns, her lairs. I prefer
+to deal with the malefactors who all but made off with us. At least," he
+added excitedly in a hoarse voice, "at least they strike blows and
+dispatch their victims. Oh, deliver me from prolonged martyrdom, from
+shredding of flesh fibre by fibre Let the end come speedily and
+then--rest. The justice of God is retributive, infallible."
+
+At this point Amélie arose and threw herself into her father's arms,
+while Jeanne buried her face in her hands. René observed that the wife
+was not really included in the demonstration and that Naundorff and
+Amélie constituted a group of attuned souls. As she drew herself from
+her father who kissed her fair forehead, she turned to René and said
+serenely:
+
+"Monsieur Marquis de Brezé, we have complied to the extent of our power
+with the obligations of hospitality and gratitude. We owe you an eternal
+debt. On leaving, you shall carry with you my father's pistols, which he
+imprudently refuses to carry himself, notwithstanding numerous evidences
+of treachery. But before you leave, I wish to hear my father vindicate
+himself."
+
+She made a significant gesture to Naundorff, who then said gently to his
+wife:
+
+"Jeanne, my own, go and see if the children are sleeping. Don't let
+them know what has happened to-night."
+
+Jeanne complied with a smile. Amélie then resumed the conversation with
+her usual vivacity.
+
+"Without detracting from our gratitude, Marquis, permit me to say that
+friendship must be based upon esteem. If you do not esteem my father
+according to his deserts; if, on saving his life through a noble
+impulse, you fail to profess for him a respect which is his due, we
+shall perpetuate our gratitude but withhold our hospitality in the
+future, unless some day you call upon us, to demand the life to which
+your conduct tonight entitles you. This is my attitude, Monsieur, and my
+father's also."
+
+"What do you mean, my daughter?" interposed Naundorff.
+
+"The Marquis understands me," replied the girl, lowering her eyes. "He
+will admit that I speak with warrant."
+
+Naundorff, with unfeigned amazement gazed from one to the other. The
+heightened color in both young faces revealed the truth.
+
+"Monsieur le Marquis, have you had previous acquaintance with my
+daughter?"
+
+"I have had that honor, Monsieur Naundorff, at the house of Elois
+Adhemar, miller on my patrimonial estate."
+
+"What has been the nature of the friendship which you have entertained
+for the Marquis?" asked Naundorff of Amélie. "I do not need to urge you
+to speak the truth."
+
+"Indeed you do not my father. René de Giac was my lover, pledged to be
+my husband. He is," she observed, as though the detail were of extreme
+importance, "a scion of the first nobility of France."
+
+"Compose yourself, my daughter," said Naundorff, for her voice had
+suddenly quavered with emotion. "To love is law. Your father has loved
+intensely. Your lover is worthy of you."
+
+"That is what remains to be proved," she replied haughtily. "That is
+what Monsieur le Marquis will demonstrate without delay. We wait--"
+
+René was amazed at her intrepidity and he answered with some vehemence:
+
+"Mademoiselle wounds but does not offend. She will testify that I have
+reverenced her honor, that it has been as sacred to me as that of a
+beloved sister. And in vindication, I now improve the present occasion
+to address my plea to her father. Monsieur Naundorff, the Marquis de
+Brezé asks for the hand of your daughter."
+
+Astounded, then thrilled with happiness, Naundorff turned to his
+daughter, who interrupting, calmly said:
+
+"Do not concede it, my father, until the Marquis retracts."
+
+René understood. His fealty indicated his line of procedure. Turning to
+Naundorff, he said:
+
+"I retract, not because Amélie demands that I should but because my
+conscience so dictates. In France I had been assured that you had been
+imprisoned as an incendiary and counterfeiter and that you had served
+your term in Silesia at hard labor. Two hours since, I said this to
+Amélie. Since meeting you, I am convinced that the charge is false.
+Forgive me and take my hand."
+
+A melancholy cloud settled upon Naundorffs face and a spasm of pain
+convulsed his features. From his eyes darted a lustre like that of
+congealed tears. Losing all control of himself, he shrieked:
+
+"Do not take my hand. What they told you in France is true. I have been
+dragged before tribunals under the accusation of firing a theatre and
+counterfeiting money. Yes, I have ground gypsum in the prison of
+Alstadt. You have not been deceived, Monsieur le Marquis."
+
+Amélie, sobbing and on her knees, caressed her father passionately. René
+vacillated for a moment and then intuition vanquished reason.
+
+"Your hand, Monsieur Naundorff," he said, extending his own. "If you
+refuse, it is because you doubt me. I feel convinced that those
+accusations are part of an iniquitous scheme. My heart so speaks and my
+heart does not lie. The Marquis de Brezé, of immaculate honor, responds
+for the honor of Naundorff."
+
+Not his hand but both of his arms did Naundorff extend to this new
+friend whom he embraced impetuously.
+
+"Not only are you innocent of felony," said René, "but, moreover, a man
+persecuted, calumniated, victimized. From today you have at your side an
+unconditional friend. I will make your reputation to shine as the sun.
+Trust yourself to me."
+
+Naundorff shook his head sadly.
+
+"'Tis not in you power to change my fate. Tired of long suffering, I
+determined to leave everything to chance. Living obscurely, humbly,
+poorly, I thought that, being forgotten, tranquillity was at last to be
+permitted me. What evil had I done? Of what might I be accused? May I
+not even enjoy the love of my family and the peace of the laborer's
+hearth? No, they have decreed my assassination as they decreed my
+dishonor. Today you have saved me, my friend, but you will not always be
+near and if you dare to place yourself between me and my fate, alas for
+you! A voice prophetic and awful pronounced to me, one day, these words
+in the darkness of my dungeon: 'Your friends shall perish.'"
+
+Amélie fell into an armchair, sobbing.
+
+"Do not weep, rose of heaven," said Naundorff, leading her toward René.
+"Divine providence permits at last that you shall be happy. My dream was
+to see you the wife of a French nobleman. He whom you love is noble in
+birth and noble in soul. Love one another. Charles Louis blesses you."
+
+"No," protested René. "We shall not marry until you are rehabilitated.
+Amélie would not consent." Amélie extended her hand in approval.
+
+"Not until my father recovers his name and honor may we be happily
+married, René."
+
+"Do as you will," murmured Naundorff. "I will not again buffet Fate,
+knowing in advance that I shall fall a victim."
+
+He made a signal to the Marquis, who followed him into the basement of
+the house. It was a species of work-shop, illumined by the dim light of
+a lantern hanging from the smoky ceiling. On benches were scattered the
+implements of a watch-maker--springs, pincers, bridges, wires, minute
+tongs, unmounted watches, others in cases, machinery of various kinds
+and firearms. Naundorff double-locked the door and then, removing one of
+the tables, counted the bricks in the wall and, reaching the fifteenth
+numbering from the floor, he pried it out. A secret compartment was now
+revealed from which he took a yellow parchment and a small square box
+with a gold key hanging from it.
+
+"René de Giac," said Naundorff solemnly, "I confide this treasure to
+your unblemished honor. Herein is contained the last gleam of hope for
+me and my children. To no one have I delivered this manuscript and
+casket because my misfortunes have driven away all my friends, a result
+to be expected from the prediction heard within my prison walls. There
+have been moments in which I have thought to throw these proofs into the
+fire, for they seemed valueless, but tonight's episode has put an end to
+such an inclination. As I do not attain peace by living obscurely; as a
+dagger continues to be suspended over my head; as my sorrows flood the
+life of Amélie, my best-loved child--the only being who knows my
+secret; since, contrary to my desire, I am compelled to defend my
+rights, I resume the struggle. I shall secretly go to France and if you
+consider that the testimonials enclosed in that box constitute a solid
+basis for my claims before a French tribunal, or even before a human
+tribunal, then I shall proceed to my demands. No longer will I remain
+silent. But listen to my warning. From the very moment you possess the
+box and parchment, do not consider yourself safe on earth. Tremble, keep
+vigils, start in your sleep, trust no man. Treachery will bristle on all
+sides and spies will track you, to despoil you of the treasure. You look
+at me amazed and, perhaps, doubt my sanity, but reflect on the assault
+of this night. You will not wonder at my warnings when you read the
+manuscript. It is a plea addressed to a woman, to her whom I have most
+loved on earth, excepting my mother and daughter--a woman upon whom may
+God have pity! After you have read it, judge whether or no it should be
+placed in her hands and, if it should, be you the bearer, that the woman
+may not say she sinned through ignorance.
+
+"As for this casket containing the important documents," he added,
+"conceal it in a crypt beneath French soil or in the bowels of the
+earth. A time will come when we shall have need of it. Until then, let
+not your right hand know where the left has hidden it."
+
+"I swear!" said de Brezé, "that no man shall track me."
+
+"Transform yourself, René. He who becomes my friend must adjust to his
+face a mask, must envelop himself in mystery--for I am a mystery, an
+abysmal mystery. Here are my pistols--they are loaded. And now farewell,
+for you must find a place of safety for these things which in my hands
+incur grave danger. I shall see you again in Calais where Amélie and I
+shall be one week from today, if all goes satisfactorily, at the Red
+Fish Inn. Let us not meet again in London, for we are watched."
+
+"No divining rod shall indicate the cavity beneath French soil where I
+conceal this treasure," said de Brezé. "Permit me now, on leaving, to
+kiss my lady's hand."
+
+"Go seek her. She is yours."
+
+At eleven, René again crossed the solitary park. He approached the
+square, curious to see if there still remained evidences of the
+struggle. All was deserted, but a blade gleamed at the foot of a tree,
+and he took it up in his hand. It was a short, wide knife such as
+mariners use for cutting fish. As he stooped, the casket dropped from
+his bosom and struck on the tree. Much alarmed, he replaced it inside
+his jacket which he securely buttoned and, pressing his hand to the
+treasure, he proceeded along Wellington street.
+
+On passing a corner to call a cab, he caught sight of two men, those of
+the assault, shadowed in a great doorway and watching his movements.
+
+"There goes the throttler," said the thickset fellow, who still wheezed
+from the pressure of René's fingers.
+
+"He carries a box," said the other. "It has a metallic sound and cannot
+be empty. Shall we fall on him and seize it?"
+
+"Fool! he must be armed. If not, do you think I should let him pass?"
+
+"He goes toward Wellington."
+
+"Let's follow him now as he followed us. Let's find out who this young
+aristocrat is that drops from the skies into other men's fights."
+
+And the two ruffians, creeping along in the shadow of the walls, tracked
+de Brezé until he leaped into a cab, giving directions which they
+overheard. The listeners did not need to incur the expense of another
+cab.
+
+René had failed to heed the warning of Naundorff regarding
+circumspection. Just from the arms of Amélie, he floated like one in a
+trance; his thoughts were all of love.
+
+
+
+
+Chapter V
+
+THE FIRST THREADS OF THE NET
+
+
+The office of the Superintendent of Police, Baron Lecazes, was an
+apartment severely sumptuous and furnished in the purest Imperialistic
+style. The power of the great Napoleon, laid low forever after the
+ephemeral sway of the Hundred Days, lived still in art. How could the
+suite of Lecazes be furnished otherwise, when it had been the official
+headquarters of Fouché, Napoleon's chief minister, the "Great Second" in
+power and, perhaps, behind the throne's draperies, the "Great First." He
+had occupied it during the stirring period in which the power of the
+police department attained its zenith,--Fouché, the only man who in
+reality knew the history of the epoch.
+
+Lecazes was said to have reaped the harvest of his predecessor's
+ingenious policy--tangled labyrinths of tunnels, secret passages, back
+stairways, hidden closets, dungeons wherein dangerous citizens kept
+gloomy vigils while gagged and fettered, awaiting presentation before
+the all-potent superintendent. There were chiffoniers and garde-robes
+whose compartments held every variety of disguises. Smothered
+voices, could they have become audible again, might have told of
+torture-galleries consummately fitted up, containing indented wheels,
+Austrian steel-blocks, English pricking-forks, Spanish weights and
+cords, Prussian metal helmets and other devices no less terrifying. The
+truth of these rumors cannot be vouched for but it is enough to say that
+they were disseminated by the Carbonari, whose society was then
+starting. It has also been said, perhaps rashly, that under the eye of
+Fouché there existed a chemical laboratory in which a turbaned doctor
+from the Orient, envoy from the Great Turk, concocted distillations of
+herbs which induced stupor, insanity or death. However legendary some of
+these statements may seem, however rash it may be to gainsay the erudite
+historians who give credit only to what is found in the records, it is
+well to recognize the fact that some of the most dramatic and highly
+significant happenings are among those of which all trace has been
+obliterated.
+
+The private office of Lecazes was reached from the outside by an
+antechamber with apparently but one entry, that of the rear, leading to
+the hall and before which hung a green silk portière brocaded in
+yellow palms. The walls of the office were covered with green silk laid
+on in squares and retained in place by carved gilt-edged mahogany
+strips. The floor was a mosaic of rare and variegated woods which in
+their natural tints formed a Grecian fret encircling a serpent-locked
+head of Medusa. There were swan-formed sofas and chairs and stools of
+artistically wrought brass, depicting processions of nymphs with airy
+coiffures, slender necks and beribboned sandals, or groups of cupids
+bearing hymeneal torches. A splendid bronze railing surrounded the desk
+on which stood an inkstand with the figure of Laocoön struggling in the
+coils of serpents. The Laocoön and the Medusa, strongly suggestive of
+martyrdom and despair, could not be more fittingly placed. Above the
+baron's seat, a canopy overhung the portrait of the reigning king, Louis
+XVIII. Lecazes was seated and although many papers lay before him, he
+was not busy. His attitude was meditative, his head resting in the left
+hand, while his right fingered a silver pen tipped with steel. It would
+have been difficult to classify the quality of his meditation--to
+determine whether it was artful or idle. His face was keenly intelligent
+and in public it expressed an ingenious frankness, with an affability
+too unremitting to be sincere, and a smile half abstracted and half
+mellow, which, when in solitude was replaced by lines of astute and
+tenacious determination. It was the expression of a man who travels
+without deviation to his ends.
+
+As superintendent of the restored monarch, he was impelled to display
+greater vigor than as the superintendent of the great Corsican. In the
+latter capacity he was guided by a superior genius; in the former he
+stood back of the throne to guard the government--including himself.
+
+"What would become of them without me?" Lecazes asked himself, on the
+successful termination of a coup. "It is often necessary to act without
+consulting. There are questions which must not be asked. I am the
+contriver. I direct the play and they are the audience. Much cause for
+congratulation is it if I can prevent them and their vengeful partisans
+of the south from spoiling the plot."
+
+The baron's reflections were not those of one who seeks a path amid
+thorns and thistles. They had, rather, to do with the balancing of
+probabilities and the best way to carry out his purpose. Suddenly he
+began to arrange the documents, some of which he tied together. After
+extracting and reading a letter over and over, he placed that important
+paper in his pocket-book.
+
+A project of much consequence agitated his mind, for his hand shook
+nervously as he took up his pen, and deep furrows lined his brow. Two
+clocks, standing upon artistic brackets at his right and left
+respectively, joined their crystalline voices in musical precision. It
+was two o'clock in the afternoon--time to stop reflecting and go to
+acting. He struck the bell and inquired of the attendant, who
+immediately appeared:
+
+"What person waits?"
+
+"Professor Beauliège is in the anteroom."
+
+"Show him in."
+
+A moment later there appeared a man who was a type of the
+literary-scientific proletariat, such as may always be found in Parisian
+bookstores, lingering before shelves containing antique works marked at
+extravagant prices. A greasy looking hat, uncombed hair, coat collar
+soiled with dandruff, tattered gloves pierced by dirty fingernails, a
+faded portfolio (apparently full of manuscripts) beneath his arm; a
+shaven face with a peaked nose and myopic eyes which seemed to peer
+through a dusty web--such were the unpleasing features of Monsieur
+Beauliège's exterior.
+
+The baron, scarcely looking up, motioned him to a seat. Active and
+practical himself, he professed for litterateurs a disdain which he made
+no effort to conceal.
+
+"How does the book come on?" he asked.
+
+"Monsieur le Baron," faltered the poor old fellow, "I make little
+advance because, as you are well aware, I absolutely lack basis. I have
+no corroborating documents for establishing the boy's demise. I am in
+ignorance of what transpired during the latter part of his imprisonment
+and my labor is most arduous since, thanks to the spirit of the age,
+history seems to be taking on new methods and insisting on indisputable
+evidences. When I received your summons, I jumped for joy, for I thought
+you had important documents to entrust to me."
+
+"Monsieur Beauliège" replied Lecazes, in slightly repressed irony, "if
+we possessed the papers that you wish, we should have no need of you. Le
+diable! In that case I should transfer them to the columns of Le
+Moniteur. What I expect of your genius and erudite pen is a
+compilation--do you follow me?--a compilation of, well, of materials
+conjectural and plausible, tender, affecting, poetic, descriptive of the
+unhappy prince's life in prison. The theme is pregnant. You have a
+virgin field and an ample horizon. You are not asked for a romance.
+Beware! You must bring forth a historic revelation to serve as a beacon
+for the future. 'Tis an enterprise which, above all, if believed to have
+been spontaneously undertaken, will redound to your literary glory. A
+seat in the Academy shall not be deemed too lofty an honor by way of
+reward for your distinguished merit."
+
+The word "Academy" caused the savant to leap from his seat and grasp the
+railing. Lecazes eyed him astutely. This man was not purchasable in
+money. He had wisely held to him the bait of literary eminence.
+
+"A book of your writing, Monsieur Professeur, does not require much help
+from documentary evidence, since your personal authority is sufficient.
+It might, if you were one of those fools who invent narratives having
+neither head nor tail, but the fact of your being a scholar and a
+collector of historical manuscripts imparts the strength of credibility
+to your productions. The test of your ability shall consist in imparting
+stability to a monument without a pedestal. We have unfortunately lost
+the pedestal."
+
+"I am told," said the professor, "that there exists in the Hospital for
+Incurables a woman capable of throwing light on this chapter of
+history. She is the widow of the shoemaker who tortured the wretched
+little prince. I have decided to interview this woman."
+
+The baron's fist dealt the table a fearful blow.
+
+"With what instrument must I inject into your brain the idea that you
+are to interview nobody except the person or persons to whom I direct
+you? Is your book to be the recital of old women's garrulities or a
+dignified exposition?"
+
+The savant drooped his head. The magic charm of membership in the
+Academy constrained him into a meek submission. Nevertheless, he timidly
+stammered:
+
+"If only I might possess the death certificate! Resting upon that
+solitary document, the book would have a basis of adamant. It would
+suffice to refute conclusively those vile impostors, the cobbler of
+Rouen, the lackey of Versailles, and the mechanic of Prussia."
+
+Lecazes again assumed his habitual smile in order to restrain himself
+from flinging the Laocoön inkstand at the savant's head,--the old
+imbecile, seeking Jerusalem artichokes in the depths of the sea! Then he
+amiably remonstrated:
+
+"Refrain, my dear Professor, from desiring such evidence, or--renounce
+your seat in the Academy. You must convince yourself that the aforesaid
+death certificate has not yet been unearthed, and that it is not yet
+expedient to record the facsimile. But what does this matter to a sage
+like yourself?"
+
+Gliding his hand into his pocket, the superintendent extracted a roll of
+banknotes.
+
+"This insignificant sum is not intended as payment for your labor but
+only as a reimbursement for expenses incidental to the mechanical part
+of your task. In two weeks I shall expect the manuscript, may I not?"
+
+An authoritative gesture dismissed the Professor, who retired in an
+absorbed mental condition, for already he had begun framing his
+initiatory address on entering the Academy. Lecazes glanced, at the
+clock. The hands indicated twenty-five minutes of three.
+
+"Volpetti has doubtless arrived," he said to himself and then rising, he
+took up the package of papers which had recently been collected and
+pressed a finger upon a hidden spring back of his chair, whereupon one
+of the panels swung open, revealing a dark, narrow passageway, at the
+farther end of which there was an iron shutter. Entering, he touched
+this lightly with his knuckles and no sooner had it rolled upward than a
+man's voice hoarsely whispered from the opened room:
+
+"I am here, Excellency."
+
+The chamber which the baron entered was furnished in mahogany, the walls
+painted to match, and the floor was covered with a cheap carpet. It
+lacked windows and was ventilated only by the stovepipe. A lantern was
+suspended from the ceiling and he quickly turned it upon the individual
+who had announced himself.
+
+"Lower the shutter," ordered the baron, and the man obeyed, closing the
+chamber's only exit.
+
+"Now bring cup and salver."
+
+The man took from the cupboard a deep bronze cup with handles
+representing two sirens of protruding bosom. Unstopping a bottle, he
+emptied its contents into the cup and then, striking a flint, ignited a
+taper which he applied to the liquid. He then placed the cup on the
+stove. A blue flame arose, and in it the baron lighted, one by one, the
+documents he had just been handling at his desk. He watched the burning
+sheets as they turned to black crumpled shapes and then to shapeless
+ashes upon the metal salver. The odor from the burning seals was wafted
+to his face and a slight shiver came over him. He was enjoying his power
+of obliterating history, cunningly causing past happenings to seem as
+though they had not been. Feeling relieved at the destruction of the
+papers, he said amiably to Volpetti:
+
+"When you are again here, 'twill be because _that_ has been
+accomplished."
+
+
+
+
+Chapter VI
+
+THE BAILIFF
+
+
+The man to whom those significant words A were addressed, and whom the
+baron called Volpetti, appeared to have just arrived after a long
+journey. Much dust whitened his clothes, his shoes and his abundant dark
+hair, which last was in a disorderly condition. He seemed somewhat over
+thirty, of a southern type, having tanned skin and a heavy beard which
+extended almost to his eyes. His answer was formal:
+
+"_That_ shall be accomplished tonight."
+
+"Are you certain?"
+
+"Infallibly so. The fool is in clever hands. I am just from London,
+bringing two boxes of steel implements, scissors and knives, which have
+served to corroborate my commercial character. Beyond the Channel I was
+Albert Serra, a Catalan, making purchases in London to smuggle through
+Gibraltar. Not the devil himself could have spotted me."
+
+"Come to the point," commanded the superintendent. "You are skillful in
+disguises. I myself hardly recognize you in that beard and mop of hair."
+
+"I have taken these precautions, Excellency, because the Carbonari and
+the police are on my scent. They are making shrewd guesses and 'twould
+be very awkward for me to enter London in handcuffs, on the charge of
+being party to an assault upon that puzzling personage. One must be on
+the qui vive. I picked out two hardy fellows and gave them only such
+information as was required for the performance of their parts. Besides,
+the plan was as simple as sucking eggs. The personage lives in an
+obscure quarter and opposite his house is a park which is always
+deserted after nightfall. A Methodist church stands on one side of this
+park and a college on another. In the centre is a group of big trees
+which cast a deep shade; indeed, everything was arranged to suit us. The
+personage takes an evening stroll after his day's work, for he has been
+warned that failure to take the air will be bad for his eyes which he
+uses hard all day, looking at the fine mechanism of the watches and
+machines which he repairs. How have I found all this out? Therein lies
+my genius, Excellency. I can answer every question concerning that
+house. The personage, after wandering through certain streets, and
+visiting his friends, the Prussian mechanic, Hartzenbaume, returns home
+regularly at a given hour. He is very punctual in his habits and whoever
+passes through the square at that time is almost sure to meet him."
+
+The superintendent shook his head. The faint creases upon his brow
+deepened.
+
+"And if they are captured?"
+
+"If they are captured? but they will _not_ be captured. They know just
+what to do. If they are arrested, 'twill be for assault with intent to
+rob, something that occurs every day. And even though Albert Serra is
+named as accomplice, what of that? The English police will look for a
+Catalan smuggler--not for me. The fellows know only half the story and
+you may be certain that the net is well laid. Has your Excellency
+further orders for me?"
+
+"Await me here and arrange a new make-up. I shall return."
+
+The bailiff bowed and, at a signal, raised the iron shutter through
+which the autocrat passed back to his private office. On reaching it, he
+felt in his pocket for the letter which he had placed there not long
+since, and said to the usher:
+
+"Has not her Grace, the Duchess de Rousillon, arrived?"
+
+"She has been waiting some time for your Excellency."
+
+"Ask her to be good enough to enter."
+
+The baron gallantly advanced to place a chair for the lady. She
+approached boldly, trying to smile, but her pale face and the reddened
+semi-circles beneath her blue eyes revealed acute suffering. The duchess
+must have been beautiful in her prime and her style of dressing showed
+that she had not given up her claim to attractiveness. Her skirt was of
+taffeta silk ornamented with narrow lace ruffles. She wore an exquisite
+dulleta of rare green velvet, bordered with white embroidery mingled
+with gold and chenille, a large silk English bonnet of such shape as to
+permit the escape on each side of clusters of curls still golden. A
+parasol like that which had been last graced by the hand of the Duchess
+de Barri, of white satin embroidered in violets, completed her outfit.
+From her left wrist hung a reticule of pearls over satin with a jeweled
+clasp. She made a court bow to Lecazes and seated herself in the
+proffered chair with somewhat more than her usual aristocratic manner.
+
+"In what can I serve your Grace?"
+
+"If you but knew what has happened," she began in an agonized voice. To
+his querulous look, she resumed: "You had appointed today for the
+conference which we were to hold regarding the Montereux mines, which
+form part of the ducal estate of Rousillon. The possession of this
+property is disputed by the municipality of Montereux on the pretext of
+prior occupation, and I desire to place my claim in your hands for
+enforcement, even though it be a matter that does not concern you
+officially. But if it were not for this engagement with you, I should
+have come today to earnestly solicit an audience."
+
+The baron noted her agitation from the trembling of the rich jewels on
+her bosom.
+
+"Compose yourself," he said almost affectionately, taking in his own one
+of her gloved hands "Your trouble may not be as serious as you imagine."
+
+"You consider me capable of being afflicted over a trifle!" she
+exclaimed. "Listen; my son has escaped to England."
+
+"To England!" ejaculated Lecazes, starting in his seat.
+
+"Ah! so you see my distraction is not over a small matter. Yes, to
+London and slyly, too, for he told me that he was going hunting on
+Picmort. But as I have eyes, I discovered that the clothes which he had
+taken were hardly appropriate to the chase and that the guns and bags
+which were left behind satirically grinned at each other. I then hurried
+to our bankers and indifferently inquired whether René had ordered money
+to be sent to him. On being told that a large credit had been placed for
+him in London, I concluded that my presentiments were well founded."
+
+"When did the Marquis leave?"
+
+"Four days ago. He should reach London tonight."
+
+The baron was not in the habit of showing his feelings, and only a
+slight contraction of the mouth could be detected as the effect of his
+chagrin.
+
+"You know well," proceeded the lady, "that the girl is there. When I
+revealed the truth to him and proved it by the documents which you
+kindly procured for me--showing her father's criminal record--René
+seemed overwhelmed with sadness. After some grieving over his ruined
+hopes, he appeared to be cured of his absurd passion. But now I realize
+that the chains are not broken."
+
+The superintendent brusquely inquired:
+
+"Why did you not notify me the moment that your son started on his
+trip?"
+
+"I blundered," she mournfully admitted. "I did not realize that
+precautions are unavailing when one contends with intrigants of low
+breed. Why do you not have that monstrous impostor put in prison? He
+should be deprived of his mischief-making power. I trust to you, Baron,
+to dispel from his Majesty's mind any notion that I am implicated in
+this conspiracy. Assure him of my loyalty, of my condemnation of René's
+perversity. How iniquitous so to exploit a resemblance, a freak of
+Nature! 'Tis truly an amazing likeness. On seeing the girl I was almost
+petrified. She has the air, the face, the eyes, the mouth and even the
+gait of the martyr-queen. Mountebanks of that stripe always attract
+followers. Adhemar, for one, believes in him to the death. I shall
+banish him from the mill for his treason! O Baron, rescue René! If my
+son were to become a partisan of this impostor, I could not endure his
+Majesty's displeasure. Were I treated coldly at court, I should die of
+mortification. Reverence for my liege is my chief sentiment. My beloved
+husband used often to say to me, 'Matilde, let your first care be to
+please the king!'"
+
+"That is not the question at present," drily rejoined the
+superintendent. "Your fidelity is evident to me. But what a mistake you
+made in not keeping me better posted."
+
+"Do you fear, as do I, a clandestine marriage--one of those
+entanglements--?"
+
+"Like that of his Highness, Duke Ferdinand, with the sentimental Amy
+Brown?" interposed Lecazes.
+
+"Mon Dieu, no!" protested the duchess. "That was a vicious calumny."
+
+"Well, your Grace, I shall try to nullify your mistakes. Compose
+yourself and depart. Pardon my abruptness. I require time to formulate
+plans and to prevent further trouble. Trust to me. The Marquis de Brezé
+will not rush headlong into marriage with a culprit's daughter. Such
+acts are not perpetrated in real life, impromptu, as in Cimarosa's
+operas. We shall find preventives for such an awkward faux pas."
+
+The lady rose, drawing across her eyes a perfumed lace handkerchief.
+
+"You are my protector," she said, clasping the baron's hand. To herself
+she said, "Trickster! Newly manufactured noble! Renegade Bonapartist!"
+
+As soon as the duchess had departed, Lecazes clenched his fist and shook
+it vigorously in her direction. Then again placing a finger on the
+secret spring, he glided through the paneled door and passageway into
+the room where he had burned the documents. He called, in a low voice,
+to Volpetti.
+
+Some moments later, the bailiff appeared in immaculate dress of the
+correct style, blue coat with gilded buttons, nankeen breeches,
+riding-boots and in his hand a fancy whip with carnelian handle. He wore
+a white muslin cravat which with his pale face made a pleasing contrast
+with the dark brown whiskers. His head was fringed with chestnut
+ringlets, amid which rose, on the left, the romantic tupé, the
+Chateaubriand coiffure. And Volpetti did strikingly resemble the author
+of the Genius of Christianity.
+
+"You certainly have an amazing facility in transforming yourself," said
+the superintendent. "There now remains only a cloak for the road. Take
+two passports and make use of that which is the more appropriate. Spare
+no expense and reach London without losing a moment."
+
+"Will your Excellency be so good as to give me definite instructions? Am
+I sent to spy upon my agents?"
+
+"Your business is to dog the steps of the Marquis de Brezé and to
+discover his lodging, his acts, his thoughts and even the frequency of
+his heart-beats. This young gentleman is enamored of Naundorff's
+daughter and he reaches London this evening. He will doubtless, on
+arriving, take the road leading to his mistress. He may be Naundorff's
+ally, yes, he may be his rescuer this very night. We did not count on
+his presence and, to say the least, it complicates matters. Volpetti,
+there is no need to give you further instructions."
+
+The bailiff bowed and departed, while the superintendent unfastened his
+coat, took out the letter which he had withheld from the flames,
+leisurely unfolded it and again lost himself in its perusal as though he
+were committing it to memory.
+
+
+
+
+Chapter VII
+
+THE EPICUREAN
+
+
+Were the superintendent's office compared with the monarch's sanctum,
+the former would appear to be more ostentatious, but on deliberately
+examining the latter, much that was admirable, indicating the cultured
+tastes of the occupant, would be found. The windows opened toward the
+royal gardens which spread before the eye, like a rich tapestry, its
+beds of rare flowers and shrubbery, among which could be seen alabaster
+statues of Grecian deities glistening in the sunlight. Within, the walls
+were covered with paintings both modern and antique, and splendid
+armorial trophies from the East. Among the paintings were a nude in
+pearly tints by Titian, a Bacchante by Rubens, an Odalisque by
+Delacroix, and a Jupiter and Ganymede by Prudhon. There were fancy
+china-pieces of Saxon ware encased in glass, Grecian statuettes, bas
+reliefs in which consummate skill triumphed over crudity of subject,
+silver-plate ornately engraved, medallions, coins, pottery and jewels,
+many of these rarities being the treasures of an antiquarian
+connoisseur.
+
+Back of the armchair and desk, which were superb specimens of Louis
+Quinze furniture, stood a book-case richly paneled and containing among
+its choicest volumes, editions of Plantin and Manuce, bound in morocco
+and Spanish-American calf. On the right, back of the screen, which
+concealed it was a costly piano awaiting the touch of fingers that were
+wont to interpret its enchanting secrets.
+
+Before the desk and at the feet of the armchair was spread--a present
+from the Countess Cayla--a white bearskin, upon which lay a diminutive
+dog with black mouth and silken hair, one of those cunning miniatures
+which today are a fad in France, but at that time were rarely seen.
+
+It was near five o'clock when a side door opened and the king entered,
+supported, almost carried, by two attendants. The dog leaped for joy and
+covered the monarch's feet with caresses. Sighing deeply, his Majesty
+dropped into an easy-chair near a window. He suffered from a life-long
+malady, in spite of which an active spirit stirred within him. To look
+upon him made one quickly see the force of Marquis de Semonville's
+remark: "How could one expect his Majesty to forgive his brother for
+walking?"
+
+Having settled himself in the easy-chair, his bandaged legs and swollen
+feet propped with cushions, he took a pinch of snuff from a jeweled case
+and said: "Summon Baron Lecazes."
+
+Awaiting the execution of his order, the king cast his eyes over the
+enchanting view from the open window. The western sky was like molten
+gold and, against this brilliant background the sombre trees took on the
+look of bronze bas reliefs. The spraying fountains tossed up in dazzling
+glee myriads of fantastic aquiform flower-petals, charming the eye and
+cooling the atmosphere. A sweet, voluptuous peace pervaded the
+apartment, the garden perfume mingling with that of unfolding
+narcissuses and springtide hyacinths in jardinieres. It was with
+unfeigned delight that the royal personage sated his esthetic nature
+amidst these rich and varied offerings to the senses, and on such
+occasions he was given to saying to himself, as though he might never
+enjoy its like again:
+
+"'Tis an elysian hour. Let us lose none of its nectar."
+
+Always lurking behind this sentiment was the conviction: "Life is brief,
+whatever the number of its days. A breathing, a striving, a sighing,
+and then--who can tell? Eternal mystery."
+
+Giving himself up to the play of his imagination, the king seemed to
+hear the onrushing and receding of the tides of human destiny through
+the centuries, now holding high, then sweeping to their fall, the
+splendors of earth's thrones and dynasties. Was he also to be soon
+submerged in those merciless tides and dashed about like a straw? O,
+before sinking into the deeps, how he wished to live and feel the
+complete man!--to have health and a day--and laugh to scorn all the
+fears of frail humanity.
+
+"Were I but strong!" he at times exclaimed in rage. "Might I but love,
+suffer, weave into my life the thread of a romantic adventure. But this
+despicable body!--this diseased and impotent flesh!--"
+
+His eyes wandered from the garden view to the objects of art around him.
+He enjoyed in them the fruition of artistic beauty rescued from
+voracious Time. They seemed to smile to him like the choicest friends.
+In these and such as these he found more real contentment than in aught
+else.
+
+"I am very like an Athenian, or a Roman contemporary of Horace," he
+assured himself complacently. Correct lines and classic symmetry
+transported him so much that the vision was at times inspired within him
+of his own person restored to health, with rich and virile blood
+coursing through his veins.
+
+Suddenly his face grew haggard and his head fell on the back of the
+chair, a shadow obscuring his Bourbonic countenance, so like that of his
+decapitated brother, though it lacked the placid benevolence of that
+unfortunate monarch's face encircled in curls which terminated in a cue.
+In the reigning Louis's face that benevolent look was replaced by an
+expression of sordid indifference or of caustic irony.
+
+The king's collapse had been caused by the sight of a man standing in
+the garden opposite the window, near the statue: "A wrestler preparing
+for the Combat." The man's keen eye was fixed upon the monarch. He was
+of a weazened type and might be of any age between eighty and ninety,
+for there is a limit beyond which the passage of time is not apparent in
+the human form. His head shone like burnished silver, his bristly
+eye-brows surmounted prophetic eyes and his knotty hands, upon which his
+chin was leaning, rested on a rough staff. His garb was that of the
+provinces--where tradition and superstition held sway and druids still
+sharpened the ax beneath the trees--loose gaskins, wooden shoes, woolen
+scarf and embroidered jacket over a white vest. As a whole the attire
+was picturesque and the passers-by turned to gaze attentively at the old
+man, an ideal model for a painter wishing to personify the past.
+
+The king, attracted by the strange figure, prolonged his stare, then
+suddenly turned his eyes upon the pompous usher and the Superintendent
+of Police, who advanced making a profound salutation.
+
+After taking the seat designated by the monarch, Lecazes inquired
+solicitously:
+
+"Does your Majesty improve in health?"
+
+"The vulture does not tire of preying upon me. Believe me, Baron, the
+lives of all men make up equal totals. To reign, having disabled limbs,
+or to break stone, having nimble ones--'tis a balance. No, I am in
+error. To break stone, under such conditions, is preferable. After all,
+the breakers of stone can make love and be merry, while an invalid like
+me--Poor Zoe! poor Countess! 'Tis true that she and I adore genius and
+beauty. Who can deprive us of those joys?"
+
+The baron's facial muscles assented.
+
+"What of the English doctor?" he asked.
+
+"Bah! the English doctor? Another instance of the Anglomania enslaving
+us! Have you ever witnessed inanity so grotesque as this servile
+imitation? And the claim that 'tis the English who have imparted to the
+world the ideas of cleanliness and hygiene! The reign of the water,
+indeed! Have we forgotten the ablutions of the Greeks and Romans, their
+cult of health, their purifying hot baths? And the fad of eating meat
+raw bloody! I tell you it was the eating of beefsteak that set my gout
+rampant. The only commendable thing about the English is that they
+kicked the Corsican off the throne. But what is the news, Monsieur
+Superintendent?"
+
+"The news is good, your Majesty. We have succeeded in collecting the
+rest of the dispersed documents pertaining to the creole. All of these
+we have burned, in compliance with your Majesty's instructions. And a
+wise precaution it was, for they contained much that should be
+suppressed, such as letters from the Russian emperor and from Barras
+relating to the impostor--noxious papers, all of them."
+
+"And what writing, except good poetry, is not noxious?" disdainfully
+inquired the king. "A perpetual conflagration should exist for the
+consuming of all private letters and documents. Continue the
+destruction. My desire is well known to you, namely, that only purely
+official documents remain after me. Spare not a page of confidences,
+intrigues or anything calculated to embroil historians or encourage
+romanticists. To ashes with the whole! While the verses of the great
+poets, the Latins especially, exist, what matters it about other
+writing? Here is a Petrarch in antique vignettes which I secured
+yesterday. Crude, is it? Why, the devil, Excellency! There was no mock
+modesty in those days."
+
+Lecazes smiled, remembering Talleyrand's epigram: "The King reads Horace
+in public and yellow-backs when alone."
+
+"Your Majesty," said he, "ever discourses on the intellectual and the
+artistic--"
+
+"Ever, ever," rejoined the flattered monarch. "It is this diversion
+alone that buoys me up in supporting the weight of the crown, for 'tis
+heavy, so heavy! Lecazes, I do not lie on roses. If 'twere not for
+madrigals--eh? The prettiest madrigal ever written to my sister-in-law,
+Marie Antoinette, was from my pen. Do you remember it? 'Twas of the
+zephyr and love. Not even Voltaire surpassed it. I ought to have devoted
+my life to the art of verse and not been obliged to desert the Muse in
+order to treat with those devilish emigrants who return from exile as
+they left, having learned nothing, forgotten nothing. The importunate
+creatures wish to obliterate the Red Terror with the White. They would
+return to '86, and the guillotine, hang, drown, seeking only a fierce
+revenge. Such imbecility! One may take vengeance on an individual, but
+never on a nation. Do you follow me, Lecazes? The fools! They would be
+better royalists than the King himself."
+
+The Superintendent was pleased at this apt epigram, heard then for the
+first time.
+
+"They must be restrained," he said. "Between them and the Carbonari the
+throne totters."
+
+The King turned his face with a look half quizzical, half contemptuous.
+
+"Lecazes, you talk inanities. Do you think we are to last long enough
+for that? Do you believe in a future for us? Better that I repeat with
+my great-grandfather and Pompadour, 'After us, the deluge.' Had I
+ambition--You well know how foreign 'tis to my nature--"
+
+Again Lecazes assumed the mellow expression, and again came to his mind
+words of Talleyrand, uttered many years earlier before Revolutions were
+dreamed of: "A king loves his crown."
+
+"Were I ambitious," resumed the monarch, "I should now be contented. But
+ambition is puerile. I was not born for the throne but for art--highest
+art! Beauty sways my soul. Poetic art rather than the prerogatives of
+supreme rank should have filled my life. You, who are also an artist,
+can understand how I am starved in my exalted station, not filled.
+Happiness is found in the refined pleasures of the imagination rather
+than in state-craft and pomp. What memory is my reign to perpetuate? I
+have been despoiled of the nation's conquests. I have acquired the crown
+by giving up thirty-six strong-holds and ten thousand cannon. Glory has
+turned her face and fled from me. Is the fault my own?"
+
+The baron failed to reply and the King resumed:
+
+"I do not know--not even _you_ know--how great is my joy in discovering
+an antique cameo, a rare edition or an Italo-Grecian vase to add to my
+Iliad collection. But the exercise of power does not permit me to enjoy
+such pleasures tranquilly. Perhaps some day I shall enjoy reigning, but
+at the present time I long to seclude myself in the country, surrounded
+by my art collections and a few witty, erudite friends--above all,
+writers of verse. Those melodious youths adoring the moon from Our
+Lady's tower would be most entertaining if they were more deferential to
+the classics. I should indeed be happy in such a retreat. O how the
+pastoral life, eclogues and idyls allure me! I was born for the society
+of pagan philosophers beneath a Grecian sky and mine is a plain case of
+the error of Destiny. Baron, commiserate me. I am most unfortunate."
+
+"Is Your Majesty greatly tormented by your ailments?" inquired Lecazes
+with aptly simulated solicitude.
+
+"Greatly so. I suffer the pains of one condemned to torture. How I am
+racked! As I said before, Baron, to break stone is preferable."
+
+Lowering his voice, he added:
+
+"You know that one of the calumnies floating here and there for my
+discomfiture is that I am satirical and given to discharging arrows of
+cynicism, quite indiscriminately, too. They say this because I am an
+appreciator of Voltaire and his expose of the hypocrites of his day. I a
+cynic!--an unbeliever! Would that they could know what depths of faith
+and of tenderness are in my heart! It is not easy to be a pagan. Modern
+life stultifies the attempt. Behold in me an instance--"
+
+The King suddenly ceased talking and motioned to the aged peasant
+outside who had not averted his piercing gaze.
+
+"That man--"
+
+"Yes, Your Majesty, what of that man?" answered Lecazes, with a frown.
+"That beggar? Does Your Majesty wish alms given him?"
+
+"No, Baron. How does it happen that you, from whom nothing is hidden, do
+not know who that man is and what he wants?"
+
+The superintendent's shoulders shrugged indifferently.
+
+"Your Majesty, I _do_ know. That man has been watched from the moment he
+set foot in Paris. It has been found that he is inoffensive and probably
+idiotic. He prays much and aloud. In times past he was a partisan of the
+good cause and he now prophecies strangely concerning Your Majesty. Such
+visionaries are plentiful during this tumultuous time. Are we to heed
+them all? He doubtless has some favor to ask."
+
+"No, Baron, your sagacity is not up to the mark in this case. That man
+is not to be despised. I must see and hear him. Perhaps my fears are
+groundless, but they are so persistent that only reality can dissipate
+them. How persevering he is! Daily, almost hourly, he fixes his greenish
+eyes upon the palace. I see him from whatever window I look. He
+mesmerizes me. Call it caprice if you will, but I wish you to send for
+this man. I _must_ see him. He has stood there for a fortnight. Perhaps
+he is a poor unfortunate wishing to have a word with the king."
+
+"Does Your Majesty ask my advice in the matter or am I receiving a
+command?"
+
+"A command."
+
+"Then I leave Your Majesty, in order to execute the command."
+
+"No, remain. I shall send for him myself. You are to listen to our
+interview and give me your opinion. If he be really daft, 'twill amuse
+us. He is sure to be interesting."
+
+"He will no doubt wish to be left alone with Your Majesty."
+
+"Perhaps so. Well, place yourself back of that screen. The dear Countess
+de Cayla often listens from there to fatuities which greatly amuse her.
+Do not reveal yourself, unless I call or foul play be attempted."
+
+
+
+
+Chapter VIII
+
+THE SEER
+
+
+A few minutes later, the door opened to admit the imposing figure of the
+octogenarian, Martin. The king graciously motioned him to advance. He
+approached diffidently, a pale ray from the setting sun shining upon his
+face and lighting up a flaming mark across his breast. This was the red
+flannel scapula of the Heart of Jesus stamped with the words: "I shall
+reign."
+
+"Come forward, my friend. Ask what you wish. We have seen you so often
+opposite the palace that we decided to attend to your request. Take a
+seat and do not be timid."
+
+The monarch pointed to a tabouret, but the peasant did not heed the
+invitation. Glancing around the apartment, he suddenly noticed the
+voluptuous Pompeian lamp and then turned indignantly, almost
+threateningly, upon the king who, somewhat disconcerted--though he
+scarcely knew why--repeated:
+
+"Ask what you wish."
+
+"I ask for nothing," said the old man with emphasis. "I come not to
+implore from the king either honors or riches. I am sent by God to speak
+to your Royal Highness certain truths, to remind you of the past and to
+reveal to you the future. I come not of myself. I am the obscurest
+laborer in France, by name Martin. I live in a village of but twelve
+cottages. I am a Christian. I believe in our holy religion and our holy
+monarchy. When evil men rebelled against God and His earthly agent, my
+sword remained sheathed because to shed blood is forbidden. But I placed
+on my breast this Heart, that men might know that with my life I would
+maintain my faith."
+
+"Good man, be seated," insisted the monarch.
+
+"I have too great a reverence for your person to remain otherwise than
+standing. I should be kneeling, for so should I choose to honor the
+uncle and heir of my king."
+
+"What do you mean? Am I not the king, himself?" And Louis XVIII smiled
+indulgently.
+
+"Your Royal Highness well knows that I am of no importance," Martin
+calmly replied. "My custom has been to hold my tongue, work my team and
+pay my rent. My life has been passed in hard and constant labor, and I
+have wronged no man. My arms are still strong and my head steady, so I
+plow my own fields. But a month since I stopped working and left home
+and family to expose myself to the raillery of the foolish and the
+contempt of the powerful. The people jest at me in the streets and your
+Royal Highness probably considers me demented."
+
+"My good fellow," said the king, "we always overlook much in the aged--"
+
+"Your Royal Highness, if I offend, it is because I know not the usages
+of courts. Consign me to punishment if I deserve it, but let me first
+deliver my message."
+
+"Say what you will, Martin. We listen."
+
+"'Tis not Martin who speaks. Of himself, Martin would not dare. My words
+are from heaven."
+
+"From heaven!" mockingly echoed, in refined irony, the admirer of
+Voltaire. "Perchance from God himself."
+
+"Praised ever be his name!" reverently exclaimed the peasant, upon whom
+the sarcasm was lost. "Let me now begin. Be it known to your Royal
+Highness that on the sixteenth of January while ploughing in my field, I
+noted that the oxen were seized with fright. I marveled and asked myself
+the reason of it. Turning, I beheld at my side a beautiful boy in
+court-dress, with long curls falling upon his shoulders. A chill seized
+me while I was wondering how he came there. The boy laid his hand upon
+me, saying: 'Martin, go to him who sits upon the throne' and, without
+further words, he vanished. All this occurred so rapidly that I regarded
+the apparition as due to my advanced age. 'Bah!' said I to myself, ''tis
+because of the fog. One sees all sorts of strange things in a fog.' Two
+days later, in the twilight, while returning home, I saw the boy again
+at the cross-roads. He said: 'Martin, go to him' and again he vanished.
+I then fell kneeling. On the following day I saw him amid the willows,
+near the edge of the river. Finally, on the twenty-first of January I
+saw him on the border of the woods, leaning upon the trunk of an oak
+which we call the witch's tree. He said many things that I could not
+understand, some of which I have forgotten. Others are in my mind now
+but just as though they were shut in a box. When I open the lid and
+speak them, they will fly away like released birds and I shall no longer
+remember them. But until I speak them, they are in here as though red
+branded," and he motioned toward his forehead.
+
+The date _January twenty-first_ made the monarch shudder.
+
+"Describe the boy's appearance and do not be afraid to tell me all."
+
+"I do not fear," declared the peasant. "What could be done to me? Might
+my life be taken? I am over eighty-five, a dry trunk awaiting the ax. An
+open grave already yawns for me. The apparition, your Royal Highness,
+was a beautiful creature and, excepting the dress, like the figure of
+the archangel Raphael in the parish church. For this reason and in order
+to set my conscience at rest, I consulted our priest, but he, not daring
+to give advice, sent me to the bishop, by whom I was told that I related
+only delusions. I then resolved to keep silent, but the spectre came
+again, pale, terrible, saying, 'Martin! Martin!' 'Twas night and I in my
+cot, but, in spite of the late hour, I seized my pouch and staff and,
+begging my bread along the roadside, journeyed to Paris."
+
+"Go on, go on--The king awaits Martin's revelations."
+
+"Martin's revelations? Here is one, your Royal Highness: _The throne is
+usurped_."
+
+"I do not follow your line of reason. Do you mean that there are two
+kings?" inquired the Bourbon, laughing and remembering Lecazes back of
+the screen. "Did not my brother die and his son also? Am I not,
+therefore, the heir to the throne?"
+
+"Your Royal Highness, the apparition giving warning that you should say
+these words to me, bade me reply: '_All the dead are not in their
+tombs_.'"
+
+The effect of these words upon the king was like a blow from an
+invisible power and he would have started from his chair had his
+bandaged legs permitted. But disabled as he was, he half raised himself,
+his hands cleaved the air and his pupils dilated while his face grew
+crimson.
+
+"Does your Royal Highness require proofs of what I say?" exclaimed the
+old man, his green eyes darting fire. "Well, then, listen. I will reveal
+to you a secret thought which you have never imparted to man. Does your
+Royal Highness remember the morning when you accompanied his late
+Majesty to the chase and the fearful temptation which assailed you in
+the woods of Saint Humbert? The king was a dozen steps ahead of you.
+Your finger was already on the trigger. A branch impeded your arm--"
+
+The alarmed monarch held his throbbing head in his hands while the
+merciless indictment grew more and more ominous.
+
+"From your earliest years you coveted the throne. The ill-fated king
+was the obstacle and you sought to remove him. Unremitting were your
+fratricidal schemes. You scrupled not to encourage the discontented and
+to instigate the seditious. What obloquy to have made pacts with the
+violators of the crown and compromises with the destroyers of churches!
+Providence permitting, the monarchy would perish. It _shall_ perish! I
+am chosen to announce its fall. Not through the sword of an enemy but by
+its own hand shall it come to its end."
+
+The screen seemed to move and a rushing was audible, but the king
+remained silent, terrified and incapable of speech or motion.
+
+"Your cousin, the Duke of Orleans, interposed between your Royal
+Highness and your partisans. Another crime,--was it? You continued to
+plot the destruction of your brother and the dishonor of the queen. Does
+your Royal Highness remember who wrote those scurrilous verses and the
+words dropped at the baptism of the king's daughter? What ferocious joy
+the first Dauphin's death caused you! Who notified the Convention that
+the royal family might be detained on the frontier--the mission of
+Valory? To what end was Favras sacrificed? Who burned the documents?
+Those ashes appeal! Blood, blood has been spilled! but only the first
+blood. More is to follow!"
+
+As Martin paused, the only sound to be heard in the apartment was the
+chattering of the king's teeth. The screen creaked repeatedly as though
+to suggest and to warn, but the king remained speechless and the
+implacable peasant resumed:
+
+"Your Royal Highness was not brave enough to head the Revolution which
+you had incited. You fled, notwithstanding your offer to your august
+brother to share his fate. While abroad, you disregarded his orders and
+intrigued for the foreign invasion of your country and for the erection
+of your brother's scaffold. Have you forgotten the king's letter to the
+Prince of Condé? He disclaimed all responsibility for the invasion. 'Let
+there be no war!' he entreated 'Behead me rather.' But there _was_ war
+and his head fell besides. Oh the blood!--in pools, in puddles, in the
+air, on the guillotine! a deluge of blood,--reeking, sickening,
+revolting! Do you not see it now? Look! It trickles from the ceiling and
+stains these walls!"
+
+With frenzied indignation the old man continued to gaze at a vision that
+no other eyes beheld. His arm was thrust forward and his forefinger
+almost touched the king's forehead.
+
+"The wretched queen, bleeding and headless, speaks through me. Listen
+to her, shrieking 'Cain, Cain!'"
+
+The screen creaked as though animated by furious protests and the king
+remonstrated with what strength he could muster, while the affrighted
+dog barked timidly and hid himself in the bearskin under his master's
+bandaged feet.
+
+"For a time the crime was sterile and the Corsican star lighted the
+French sky. During that period the innocent boy lived concealed,
+unknown. Your Royal Highness was the hope of many who were ignorant of
+the boy's existence. I placed faith in you. We believed that the feet of
+the Corsican colossus were of clay and must soon sink into the earth.
+And they did sink. Your Royal Highness seized the crown. But why do you
+even today contrive pitfalls for the orphaned heir and place arms in the
+hands of the iniquitous?"
+
+The king, with folded and almost supplicating hands, seemed like a
+criminal imploring clemency, while tremors shook his head and convulsive
+breathing agitated his breast. Martin suddenly changed his attitude of
+pitiless accuser and dropped on his knees, saying gently:
+
+"The archangel declares that it is not yet too late for repentance, but
+that the time is brief and fleeting. Oh, your Highness, I adjure you to
+refrain from being anointed. Let not the oil from the holy vials be
+poured sacrilegiously upon your head. Dare not desecrate the sacred
+altars by requiem masses for those who have not yet died! No crime is so
+great as profanation. The tree is accursed, and it shall be uprooted!"
+
+In a prophetic frenzy, he continued:
+
+"It shall be swept away! It shall perish! Uprooted in Italy, uprooted in
+Spain, uprooted shall it be in France and everywhere!--The canker
+spreads, rises from limbs to heart--The corroded flesh--Pray God for
+mercy!"
+
+The king no longer listened. His head fell upon the back of his chair,
+his face became purple and foam covered his lips as he lay a victim to
+syncope, which at times overcame him. Martin turned and addressed the
+screen.
+
+"Concealed fox, come to your master's aid." And slowly he walked toward
+the door while the baron, in a panic ran to unfasten the monarch's
+neckpiece and fan him with a music sheet. Louis XVIII opened his
+terror-stricken eyes and stammered:
+
+"Let the man go in peace. See that no harm is done him."
+
+
+
+
+Book II
+
+
+THE CASKET
+
+
+
+
+Chapter I
+
+THE MINIATURE
+
+
+In the long colloquy which Amélie and her father held with their
+unexpected guest, they planned a voyage to France which should be a
+tentative effort to master the paths and places leading to their
+proposed goal. As a matter of precaution, they arranged to have no
+further meetings in London and to join one another in Dover on a day
+which should be previously designated.
+
+Before leaving, the young Marquis said to his host:
+
+"If you wish to make a generous return for a trifling service--give me
+this picture."
+
+His eyes were riveted upon a medallion displaying the face of a lady of
+patrician beauty, which, with other miniatures, was set in a framing of
+diminutive chrysolites, stones much used during the eighteenth century
+and which imitate in a marvelous manner the brilliancy of diamonds. The
+lady's hair rose in curls above a splendid forehead, enclosed her cheeks
+and fell upon her shoulders. Roses and feathers surmounted the graceful
+coiffure and white laces opened at the neck to reveal a perfect throat.
+
+"Which of the pictures?"
+
+"Amélie's," said René.
+
+Naundorff gravely removed the image and pressed it reverently to his
+lips. Then he handed it to de Brezé, saying in a broken voice:
+
+"'Tis not Amélie, but my unhappy, my adored mother."
+
+As René, through delicacy, made a movement of refusal, the mechanic
+said:
+
+"To only the Marquis de Brezé would I give this medallion. Farewell,
+loved image, that has so often rested on my heart. I am almost glad to
+part with you, for who knows how soon my house will for the hundredth
+time be rifled and I deprived of the last evidences of my personality,
+my dearest memories, my real life. I am more tranquil when other hands
+than mine guard my treasures. Watch over them, René, and over all that I
+have confided to your keeping. This face will bring Amélie to your eyes,
+for the resemblance is so remarkable, in spite of the difference in
+dress, that I do not wonder at your mistake."
+
+On reaching the Hotel Douglas, René's first act was to take the
+miniature from his breast and cover it with kisses. Then, as he gazed
+upon the face of the dame of 1780, he murmured:
+
+"How, in heaven's name, have I taken this face for Amélie! Why 'tis the
+wretched queen, Marie Antoinette, whom it resembles amazingly."
+
+He became thoughtful, and then suddenly felt himself growing weak,
+almost fainting. The loss of blood began to have effect and he hastened
+to his bed. Even his curiosity ebbed away. He had not the strength to
+turn the leaves of the manuscript. Instinct moved him to place it and
+the casket beneath the mattress.
+
+Hardly had he stretched his limbs, when a fever overcame him. A
+disturbed sleep, in which incoherent and fantastic ideas surged,
+oppressed his brain. The extraordinary events of the previous night were
+grotesquely reproduced. Amélie, in her white dress, broke through the
+garden trellis and threw herself into his arms, imploring him to carry
+her away from London; the Duchess de Rousillon, erect and haughty,
+barred the passage to Naundorff's door; Naundorff, himself, lay upon the
+pavement of the square, gashed and bloody; the streets were red torrents
+rushing toward the Thames, and he, René, battled for his life in the
+river of blood.
+
+With parched throat and tongue, he tossed through the night, to
+welcome, at last, the dawn gleaming through his window curtains. He
+vainly tried to raise himself and so lay helplessly until the entry of a
+servant, whom he immediately dispatched for a doctor. The doctor
+prescribed quiet and rest, forbidding his patient to leave his bed
+during four days. On the fifth, with clearer head and diminished thirst,
+René closed his eyes in a sweet sleep.
+
+During the morning a travelling coach drew up before the Hotel upon
+whose front seat valises and handsome wallets bore a count's heraldric
+blazonry. A valet de chambre, thickset and awkward, preceded an elegant
+gentleman whose dress harmonized with the sumptuous equipage. His cloak
+and gray felt hat eminently merited the adjective _fashionable_ which
+was an English term then beginning to be applied in France to whatever
+was distinguished by good taste.
+
+"Attend the gentleman! Bring in his baggage!" called out the host, whose
+patrons consisted usually of impecunious Scotch lairds and shabby
+Glasgow tradesmen, and rarely numbered such distinguished guests as the
+invalid French marquis and this newly arrived nobleman so showy and
+immaculate, bearing no marks of his recent journey. The irreproachable
+traveler ordered a suite. The valet superintended the conveying of the
+baggage, his purple face and red whiskers gleaming above the folds of an
+ample cravat. As soon as the master and servant were alone in the
+count's sleeping chamber, they drew close together and the valet
+whispered:
+
+"We have caught the bird in his cage. What are we to do now?"
+
+"Find out all that has happened to the precious Marquis. Show some
+brains in this business since you played the fool in the square." And,
+as he concluded this speech, Volpetti removed his hat, arranged his
+Chateaubriand tuft of hair, viewed himself in the mirror and extracted
+from his pockets a variety of toilet appurtenances,--files, pincers,
+scissors, etc., which doubtless pertained to the collection which
+Alberto Serra was to pass through Gibraltar.
+
+The valet was absent about twenty minutes, during which he introduced
+himself in the kitchen by the name of Brosseur and began a chat with the
+cook. He was holding in one hand a steaming jug when his master called
+out in an infuriated tone:
+
+"Well, rascal, how long am I to wait? Do you want your head broken?"
+
+Brosseur hurried to Volpetti's chamber, locked the door, set down the
+jug and gleefully rubbed his hands together, saying:
+
+"Wonderful news! Just what I expected! I did not play such a great fool
+after all. The Marquis has been ill in bed four days from his wounds and
+has seen only his physician."
+
+"Are you telling the truth?"
+
+"The gospel truth."
+
+"Have letters come to him?"
+
+"Not one. I played the greenhorn, asking questions. I stumbled on a
+steward whose tongue is a jewel."
+
+"Is the wound serious?"
+
+"I believe not. It has produced a fever. The knife missed the lung by
+half a centimeter,--cursed be the devil! Why, we saw him leave
+Naundorff's house afoot and take a cab for Wellington street."
+
+"Very well! Now, repeat to me in detail all that occurred after the
+Marquis left the house."
+
+"After remaining within a long time, he came forth, lighted to the door
+by a woman. Then he started off alone and, on reaching the centre of the
+square, picked up the knife which we had there forgotten. In doing so,
+he dropped an object which he carried beneath his arm. This he quickly
+recovered. It looked rectangular in shape and had a metallic sound on
+striking the trunk of the tree."
+
+"Did he have the box during the scuffle in the square?"
+
+"I swear he did not, for his movements were most free. No; he received
+that box in Naundorff's house."
+
+On hearing these words, Volpetti could not restrain an exclamation of
+joy, and passing his patrician hand over his Chateaubriand tuft, he
+said, motioning toward the baggage and the bath:
+
+"Make arrangements for the changing of my clothes. I wish an embroidered
+shirt, silk stockings, violet coat and grey breeches. And, using the
+greatest caution, find out the number of the Marquis's chamber and
+sketch me a plan of the hotel. Remember well the entrances and exits.
+Secure for yourself, if possible, a room next that of the Marquis, and
+'twould be most fortunate that it have a fireplace. Well, later, I shall
+give you further instructions. Be diligent and discreet."
+
+The valet, with malignant flashing eyes, hastened away to carry out
+these instructions.
+
+
+
+
+Chapter II
+
+THE DAUPHIN'S SISTER
+
+
+René, on feeling stronger, resolved to read the manuscript which
+awakened his interest more and more deeply. The enigma of Naundorff's
+obscure life, the cause of the attack in the square, Amélie's startling
+resemblance to the medallion--all would be explained by that roll of
+paper in the cylindrical case.
+
+He rose and breakfasted on tea and toast, after which, fortified and
+resolute, he examined his pistols and placed them within reach. Then he
+stretched himself upon a lounge near the table and broke the seal, which
+represented a tuberose and sarcophagus,--a symbolic emblem causing him
+to start. His eyes next fell upon the dedicatory words at the head of
+the manuscript: TO HER.
+
+"Is this a love history?" he asked himself, recalling Naundorff's
+beautiful countenance and indefinable charm. With feverish anxiety, he
+turned the leaf and read:
+
+"This is the recital of my misfortunes which you alone can assuage.
+Remember that you must at last stand before God."
+
+Then the text continued:
+
+Since my tireless enemies and malevolent fate are combined for the
+purpose of forcing me to die beneath a spurious name and destitute of
+the rights to which my birth entitles me; since you, yourself (in whom I
+had faith because it seemed monstrous to doubt you), have discredited my
+claim: I hold up to you a mirror reflecting the insistent memories of
+which you are so great a part, that your remorse may hereafter be the
+greater, if this appeal I make softens not your heart and if the
+impositions of royalty outweigh the supplications of blood.
+
+A day shall come, Thérèse, when posterity, marveling at my abandoned
+condition, will indignantly ask why the powers of Europe made no protest
+at the iniquity practised upon me. But that posterity should consider
+the fate of our parents,--yours and mine, Thérèse,--the fate of the
+ignominious journey to the guillotine as well as the indifference before
+that spectacle of those who should have burned their last cartridge in
+defence of the victims! Ah, Thérèse! In vain do you seek to restore THE
+PRINCIPLE,--to use the expression you of the Court employ--in vain do
+you seek to restore THE PRINCIPLE which is the basis of our national
+glory. Our country's weakness at the present time consists in the
+repudiation of that PRINCIPLE.
+
+Perhaps I seem a dreamer or a lunatic, but, nevertheless, 'tis by the
+light of my unparalleled misfortunes that I perceive the impending
+cataclysm. The PRINCIPLE has suicided and the INSTITUTION has received
+its death blow. What life remains to it will be puerile and despicable.
+Trampled by its enemies, humiliated, scourged, manacled, crowned in
+mockery, buffeted, its purple mantle in shreds, it shall at last be
+crucified, not to await a glorious resurrection but to crumble to dust
+in a fleur de lis cemetery.
+
+Fools are those who build above a raging torrent. Lay not the flattering
+unction to your soul, Thérèse, that you have saved the dynasty by
+sacrificing your brother. God is no Moloch to be propitiated by such
+holocausts. Sterile has been your womb as a warning to you, and other
+lessons, tremendous and desolating, have you yet to learn. As for me, my
+descendants will toil and sweat over labors as arduous as my own, and so
+shall the ages expiate.
+
+How dreadful is my fate, Thérèse! I live, I breathe, but _I_, as _I_, do
+not exist; that _I_ has been buried in an empty coffin, in the angle of
+two walls of a cemetery. At times I doubt my very senses and all that I
+am about to relate to you seems the very fabric of a dream,--but then no
+dream has ever been so long and fearful. 'Tis only my anguish that
+convinces me of reality. I co-ordinate my memories and perceive that I
+am _not_ a deluded fool. Once I described my misgivings to a physician
+in Germany, saying that in believing myself to be another I feared at
+times that I was demented. He said he had known similar cases and
+advised me to summon all my mental strength and hold a powerful light to
+the mirror of my consciousness.
+
+"Impostors have there been who were not liars," said the doctor fixing
+upon me a penetrating look. "Those impostors have believed their
+asseverations." Thérèse, I appeal to you to rescue me from this
+appalling phenomenon.
+
+And as I am opening my heart to you,--the heart which throbs, not the
+inert heart which was offered you with the assurance that it had been
+taken from my dead body and which you refused to accept,--since I
+conceal nothing from you, Thérèse, O listen! I implore you to convince
+me that I am a wretched dupe of the Revolution, for perhaps 'twould be
+best that I should be persuaded that my reason is diseased. Be pitiful,
+Thérèse, even tho you refuse me love.
+
+And now, whether I rave or speak truth, I summon my life's memories even
+from infancy. I stand in that incomparable summer palace in which we
+lived before the bursting forth of the Revolution. I walk through the
+magnificent salons adorned by rare artists, and amid those marvelous
+gardens wherein the skill of Le Nôtre surpassed itself. But more vivid
+still than the memories of these splendors is the image of the charming
+villa of diminutive blue lakes and rustic kiosks and the verdant farm
+where our mother in simple muslin (how beautiful she was, Thérèse!)
+delighted to drink fresh milk, gather wild flowers and scatter grain to
+the birds. How gay we were, you and I, participating in these innocent
+amusements, in our straw hats and cool white dresses. One day an artist
+painted us so, and, as I grew restive and troublesome during the
+sitting, my mother said gently, "Charles Louis, I shall soon know
+whether or not you love me." This sweet remonstrance quieted me. I so
+loved my mother that the sound of her voice in singing always brought
+tears to my eyes.
+
+But the roaring tempest broke,--the Revolution. Our father did not
+realize the peril; he _could_ not believe that he was hated; he
+expected daily a reconciliation with his people. But our mother's virile
+spirit perceived from the first that not only the throne but the royal
+heads as well were in danger. I was too young to understand causes but I
+realized that the atmosphere was transformed into something strained and
+dolorous. Accustomed as I was to all manner of attentions, to hear
+laughing applause after my youthful sallies, to behold only approving
+and smiling countenances, I suddenly realized that no one had the time
+or the inclination to caress me and that grave anxiety seemed the reason
+for my neglect. Rumors of contentions, abrupt alarms, hurried changing
+of apartments, enforced awakenings in the early morning, terrorized
+prayers dictated by our good aunt, our father's sister, who, joining our
+hands, would bid us kneel and beg God for mercy--all this filled even my
+child-mind with the consciousness of impending danger. One night a
+furious multitude surrounded the palace. Some one snatched me from bed
+and carried me away to concealment, and my mother, _our_ mother,
+stripped herself of a lace gown and flung it around me, that I should be
+somewhat protected. You were near, Thérèse, sobbing affrightedly and
+waiting to be carried away to a place of security.
+
+Do you remember the morning on which the inebriated multitude forced us
+to return to Paris? Our carriage was advancing slowly; the heat and dust
+almost asphyxiated us; our throats were parched with thirst, but none of
+us dared ask for a drop of water. Brawny fellows rode ahead of us,
+howling and brandishing pikes surmounted by bleeding human heads. One of
+these men, whose wide-open mouth in the midst of a long matted beard
+resembled a cavern, came to the window. Terror-stricken, I buried my
+face in our mother's bosom and so remained during the entire journey.
+
+After this journey,--how long after, I know not--we made that other
+journey, ill-timed and inauspicious, which sealed our fate. And now
+appeared my uncle's form, our father's brother, whom, of late, we had
+scarcely seen, for since our misfortunes he had frequented the camps of
+the disaffected and abetted our parents' calumniators. But on this
+occasion he seemed solicitous for our deliverance and co-operated in our
+arrangements for escape. Against our mother's judgment, had our father
+confided the project to his brother, who advised that the iniquitous
+Valory, a creature possessed body and soul by the Count of Provence,
+should be entrusted with the details of the flight.
+
+A program was mapped out whose happy exit seemed assured. To what
+purpose all the minute precautions? Why was I disguised as a girl and
+told I should say my name was 'Amélie,' were I asked: Amélie, a name to
+me eternal and which I have given to the daughter of my soul. Reflect,
+Thérèse, upon that sinister journey, and decide who profited thereby.
+There is a sentence in Hamlet running thus: The serpent that did sting
+my father's life now wears his crown.
+
+I shall always believe that our mother suspected the hand that detained
+us. Valory, who preceded us, was but the agent of those who with the
+kiss of betrayal delivered us shackled. The ambush was prepared with
+infernal adroitness. The detention occurred when we had almost reached
+the frontier that greater obloquy might be heaped upon the royal family
+than if it had been surprised near Paris.
+
+Valory rode mounted ahead of our carriage and took so little pains to
+dissemble as to disappear near the last change of horses, causing our
+mother mortal terror. She made her suspicions known to our father, who,
+displeased and pained, rejected them. Our father's faith in his brother
+was implicit. Our mother never succeeded in combating it, not even after
+the farce accomplished by the notorious Drouet, who today enjoys the
+favor and protection of the usurper.
+
+You, Thérèse, have accepted his protection, also. 'Tis we who make
+history and not revolutions caused by currents of ideas. Believe,
+rather, in human passions, in the ambitions of the mighty which carry in
+their train the faith of a confiding and bewildered multitude. And
+believe, also, in a Nemesis of expiation, though 'tis at times the
+innocent who wash away the stains of the guilty.
+
+You remember the termination of that flight. On our return I was
+exceedingly fatigued and ill at ease. My girl's dress added to my
+discomfort and I was at last relieved of it by our faithful valet, who
+put me to bed, on this first night in Paris after our capture.
+
+Several officers of the National Guard remained near my bed and
+affectionately bade me sleep tranquilly. While I dozed, they smoked and
+chatted and their voices soothed me; even the clanking of their spurs
+was pleasant reassurance. I sank into a lethargy, of what length I know
+not. Suddenly my eyes seemed opening on a startling spectacle. The Guard
+surrounded me. They laughed and spoke words which I could not
+understand. By degrees their human outlines became blurred and they were
+covered with hair. Their hands grew into long grey paws terminating in
+sharp nails, their faces projected into snouts, their eyes glowed as
+live coals and their voices howled fearfully. Wolves! wolves! famishing,
+frantic wolves. Their hot breathing was stifling as they leaned to
+devour me--
+
+I must have screamed, for I waked in my mother's arms, as she snatched
+me from bed, covering my face with kisses. Those kisses are still on my
+face, Thérèse, and I feel now the passionate embrace with which she
+clasped me to her, and I see the terrible dread on her beautiful pale
+face.
+
+
+
+
+Chapter III
+
+THE EMPTY COFFIN
+
+
+Thérèse, do you remember how we were taken to the Assembly, there to
+pass the day within a grated tribunal and led thence to prison? How from
+that prison we were afterwards transferred to another more gloomy still?
+O the tower, the tower! The impressions of sorrow are deeper than those
+of happiness. Tell me, Thérèse, my companion in that captivity, has
+greater suffering ever been endured than in that tower? If those walls,
+so soon after demolished, (for all traces of my history have been
+obliterated), if those stones that once were walls had a voice, that
+voice would be a sob. If they might writhe, they would wring out tears.
+Even their name is a wail. There is no elegy so sad as the towers.
+
+The agonies of our family,--you know them as well as I, for they are
+your own. But what you do _not_ know are mine,--a child torn from his
+mother's arms as she was led to the guillotine. And though you seek to
+drive them from your knowledge, you _shall_ hear them.
+
+Let me describe this prison to you, that you may realize 'tis your
+brother who speaks. What detail could I forget of that damp tower
+flanked by four smaller ones of arched roofs? The roof of the first was
+sustained in the centre by a heavy pillar and its doors were of strong
+boards fastened together by nails and guarded by heavy bolts; the
+interior door was of cast iron; the walls were grey and black, in
+imitation of a tomb; the white border was garnished with the tricolor on
+which were traced the words: RIGHTS OF MAN. This was the only decoration
+of the filthy apartment wherein vulgar and malevolent people constantly
+watched us.
+
+On first entering the tower, I believed myself to be dreaming and that
+soon I should be rescued from the nightmare, as my mother had snatched
+me from the wolves. This conviction was doubtless due to the contrast
+between my past and present condition. My childhood had glided by so
+sweetly and placidly; my senses had been stimulated by such great beauty
+and elegance; the epoch upon which my mother stamped her refinement was
+so poetic and artistic; the gardens in which I had played were so
+beautiful; my material wants anticipated with so much adulation, that I
+had grown to comprehend only smiles and beauty. It was considered an
+honor to touch me, to be near me. No wonder, then, that the transition
+from palace to prison affected my nervous system to the extent of
+causing the obsession to possess me that I was two persons in one.
+
+I might describe our incarceration to the minutest particular; I might
+tell you the exact position of your bed and mine and the armchair of
+white-painted wood in which our father dozed before dinner. Only listen
+to me, Thérèse, and you will open your arms.
+
+You will remember that I was taken away from our father and mother after
+their condemnation to death, and delivered to two creatures who scarcely
+seemed to pertain to the human species,--a pair of brutes who had
+doubtless received instructions to render me idiotic through vile
+treatment. But I must tell the truth. My guardians were indeed cruel,
+but not to the extent which is usually believed. The inhumanity of that
+cobbler and his wife has been greatly exaggerated, possibly with the
+object of establishing my supposed death. Were the account true which
+has obtained currency, I should not have survived. No child could have
+withstood an unremitting martyrdom of hunger, blows, nakedness, and
+deprivation of sleep. These hardships, indeed, I endured, but with
+intervals of respite. Husband and wife were not equally brutal; he was
+crafty and cruel, she gross and stupid, but possessing a heart of some
+tenderness. Unhappy woman! I caused her ruin among that of many others.
+For maintaining that I was not dead, she was declared insane and placed
+in confinement. In her clumsy manner, she had protected me and often
+smuggled into my couch candy and cheap toys.
+
+On being taken from the custody of this couple, I was placed in the cell
+in which our father's valet had been imprisoned. Here my condition was
+worse than ever before. The windows, always closed, shut out light and
+air. The doors opened only to those who, in silence, brought me food.
+The furniture consisted of a table, a jug of water and the bed,--shelf,
+rather,--on which I slept. Noxious odors slowly poisoned my blood.
+
+While I here languished, the Revolution continued to rage fiercely,
+though the period of delirium had passed and a species of authority
+obtained. You and I, the hapless remnants of an ill-starred dynasty,
+seemed relegated to oblivion, but there were some who thought of us with
+pity. The friends who had futilely sought to save our parents' lives
+formed plans for rescuing me. She who was my most zealous champion and
+spent much money in my behalf was the charming creole, native of the
+island of Martinique, and wife of a Revolutionary general. Of this lady
+a negress in her native land had predicted that she should be Empress
+and experience glory and sorrow without limit. She was at heart a
+legitimist. Anarchy prevailed in all departments of governments,
+skeptics had succeeded fanatics and the public voice denounced the
+Directory. The first indication which reached me of the termination of
+this era of tigers and hyenas was the receiving of clean clothes, the
+entry of fresh air through the windows which were opened at last, and
+the replacing of my daily mess of lentils by decent food.
+
+My friends did not find it a simple task to accomplish my rescue. A new
+wave of public ferocity seemed imminent. To bribe my custodians,
+themselves under unceasing surveillance, was most difficult. The
+Municipal Council had agents stationed at the entrance and exit of the
+tower. Had it been a question of heroic sacrifice only, there would have
+lacked not noble partisans of our House to dash themselves against even
+invincible obstacles.
+
+Would that I had died within those walls, permeated with the atmosphere
+of our immolated mother. I should have perished, as you have expressed
+my supposed fate, 'like a blighted flower.' For my greater sorrow,
+generous abnegation and political malevolence combined to remove me from
+this living tomb. The account of my flight is an incoherent one. I
+myself can scarcely co-ordinate its episodes, for I was too feeble to
+comprehend them clearly. My true history will never be historically
+known, for an oligarchy, such as once existed in Venice, suppressed what
+suited its purpose. No corroborating documents exist to verify even my
+fragmentary recital.
+
+The Revolution smouldered and the fall of the government was predicted.
+Astute ambitions of various kinds combined to effect my freedom.
+Unbridled lust for power grew rank. Our uncle, your present protector,
+Thérèse, rallied around him, by employing my name as a summons, the
+elements of the Restoration, meanwhile secretly paralyzing the efforts
+directed toward my liberation. This he accomplished by procrastination
+and discouragement. He was trusting to my prison life to attain the
+desired consummation. But notwithstanding his efforts to double-bar my
+cell, and even tho he would have thrown the weight of his body against
+the door to insure its security, he was thwarted by a man who had
+temporarily seized the reins of authority,--a voluptuary, destitute of
+genuine energy--who realized that the possession of my person would
+constitute an imposing arm. He planned to place me in concealment from
+which to produce me when it should suit him to declare me among the
+living. By this subtlety he might dominate even our uncle with whom he
+maintained (as did other revolutionists who were deemed incorruptible) a
+secret intercourse, avowedly with the end of establishing a moderate
+Restoration,--which should concede what had been already acquired by the
+Revolution. I, kept in hiding, would be a double-edged sword, a menace
+to the arrogance of my uncle in his claim to the regency and a guarantee
+to the loyal troops who were giving battle in the far East. Behold the
+stratagem forced by the ingenious and base-born Barras. As instruments,
+he selected the charming creole (wife of the adventurer who later
+subjugated Europe) and two military men attached to the royal cause.
+
+Thus it happened that men, who in the midst of anarchy and
+administrative chaos, held the reins of power, wove, by their audacity
+and wit, the complicated plot of my rescue and made current the report
+of my death. Tho it was impossible to remove me bodily from my cell, a
+simple matter it proved to thrust me into the loft above my bed. A boy
+who had been smuggled in a basket of clean clothes replaced me. This
+substitute was a deaf-mute and so the imitation was perfect, for I had
+during my imprisonment maintained a constant silence.
+
+I do not remember how the transition was effected. I had been given a
+dose of drugged sweetened water. During my stupor I was placed in the
+loft. As I awoke, the voices of my two deliverers implored me to remain
+perfectly still. Shivering with cold and almost fainting from hunger,
+never did I attempt approaching the door. Food was brought me with the
+greatest irregularity, which I would devour and then huddle into a
+corner. While I lay in this stifling hole, the rumor of my escape was
+disseminated; spies were set on the frontier to watch for me by
+governmental officers not in the plot.
+
+Meanwhile, Barras gleefully rubbed his hands and in order to further
+mystify the public he doubled the guard about my prison, while I
+groveled, shuddering, in my filthy covert.
+
+Barras realized that my mock death and burial would alone complete the
+strategy; he visited the cell and gave instructions for the replacing of
+the deaf-mute by a dying boy to be procured at a hospital. This hapless
+child succumbed in my name and poets sang dirges over him, queens and
+princesses robed themselves in crepe, priests held aloft thousands of
+times the sacred host in sacrifice. That boy dead in rags and squalor,
+Thérèse, is often in my mind as I reflect on the vanity of royalty.
+
+Physicians who had never beheld me testified to the Dauphin's demise,
+after witnessing the death of my substitute,--the death which was the
+signal for my release. When the autopsy was completed, a surgeon
+extracted the boy's heart and sent it to you, the Dauphin's sister,
+Thérèse. You rejected that heart. Why?
+
+And now I listen to the culminating horror! The body of that boy was
+taken from the coffin at night and buried in the tower's garden, whence,
+years later, the skeleton was exhumed, and that coffin was the sinister
+vehicle which bore me from my prison. In that coffin I was taken along
+the road leading to the cemetery. During the journey I was removed and
+weights placed within. And these weights were found to be the contents
+when subsequently an attempt was made to recover my body. The coffin was
+buried with suspicious dispatch after the manner of deeds which fear the
+light. The public voice clamored that an imposture had been practised,
+whereupon the Government speedily dispatched a commission which
+disinterred the coffin, fastened the lid on more securely and placed it
+in another cemetery. This incident is so well known that I shall call it
+history.
+
+
+
+
+Chapter IV
+
+MARIE
+
+
+I was placed in the home of a lady, who was the widow of a Swiss officer
+who had been beheaded on the memorable tenth of August. In her country
+place I was screened from curious eyes. Being overcome by a languid
+illness, I remained indoors for eight months. My hostess dared not call
+in a physician, for strange children awakened suspicion, inasmuch as the
+lost Dauphin was being eagerly sought by spies. She fed me on milk and
+arranged that I should have unlimited repose and fresh air. These simple
+restoratives at length effected a cure. On leaving my bed, I was again
+overpowered by the consciousness of a dual personality. I at times felt
+convinced that I had always lived in that fair green villa and that my
+insistent past was a delusion. My guardian spoke French brokenly, and
+we, therefore, conversed in German, which had been my mother's native
+tongue. I had therefore become habituated to its use. Later in life I
+was obliged to employ it constantly.
+
+During my convalescence, and while walking one morning in the fields, I
+was captured by the police and dragged back to prison. What prison? I
+know not. With equal swiftness was I snatched thither by deputies of my
+vigilant protectress, the gentle creole, and placed in the home of a
+noble family who received me with respect, almost reverence. The head of
+the family was the Marquis de Bray, a partisan of our House. There it
+was that I formed the first friendship of my life, that with the Count
+of Montmorin, a youth older than I and who, like myself, was in
+concealment, being disguised as a hunter. Montmorin's life had been
+miraculously saved during one of the ferocious tides that swept our
+country, and that life he generously consecrated to me. Subterfuges,
+manoeuvres, almost witch-craft did he employ for the deluding of my
+persecutors, and to that end valued not his own security and happiness.
+
+Under the protection of de Bray and Montmorin, I lived tranquilly and
+the spectre of political ambition seemed no longer to haunt me. But my
+friends feared, owing to the waxing power of Napoleon, that France was
+no appropriate refuge for me and we removed for a season to Venice,
+thence to Trieste and finally to Rome, where I enjoyed the gentle
+protection of Pope Pius VI. My former hostess and nurse, the Swiss lady,
+had in the interval married a compatriot of her own, who was an expert
+watch-maker. It chanced that they became our neighbors and so gave me
+the opportunity to learn the craft of which my father was so fond. The
+minute and prolix labor enchanted me and, following the advice of Jean
+Jacques, I mastered it.
+
+A friend of the Pontiff offered me for residence a villa near Rome. How
+beautiful were the lemon and fig groves! In the garden's centre was a
+marble pillar surmounted by a nymph which had stood there since the
+Roman Empire. Amid the fragrance of those flowers were passed the
+dearest days of my youth. Marie, daughter of Bray and fiancée of
+Montmorin, a gentle girl, five years my senior--a trifle it seemed to
+me--accompanied me often with affectionate solicitude.
+
+Her white hands smoothed my golden curls, fastened my lace collar and
+rested on my shoulder, during our rambles. Montmorin, on seeing us
+together, would turn away and re-enter the house. My head, resting upon
+Marie's breast, seemed again to repose in the sweet nest from which the
+Revolution had torn me. Once when Marie flung a flower in my face, the
+image of my mother rose so vividly to my eyes, as she appeared when
+romping with us in the royal gardens, that my emotion overcame me and I
+threw myself into the arms of Montmorin's fiancée. I kissed her lips and
+asked: "Marie, what have they done to my mother?"--for since the
+terrible day when I was separated from her, I had never spoken her name,
+nor received intelligence of her fate. I pictured her still as a pale,
+worn prisoner and my duty seemed to be to deliver her. This sudden
+tempest of passion transformed me from boy to man. Marie wept softly in
+my arms.
+
+"My mother,--where is she?" I insisted.
+
+"She is dead," said Marie gently.
+
+"O my mother!" I cried out, falling senseless to the ground.
+
+On regaining consciousness, I saw Marie at my pillow.
+
+"O die with me," I said. "Let us be with my mother."
+
+When I was strong enough to leave my bed, I noticed that Marie, under
+numerous pretexts, absented herself from me. Our rambles ceased and she
+was often with Montmorin. This at first enraptured her lover but he soon
+discovered that she was preoccupied and sad, while I, jealous and
+melancholy, walked alone in the woods. I wandered near the margins of
+pestilential lakes, in the hope that, being overcome by malaria, Marie
+would again sit by my bed.
+
+Montmorin's generous heart divined the cause of my sadness and of
+Marie's enforced fidelity to him. He said:
+
+"Marie, our first duty is to make Augustus" (for so he called me)
+"happy. I shall go to France in his interests."
+
+And he left us. Consider Montmorin's action, Thérèse, and realize to
+what a generous and absurd height a loyal soul is raised by the
+principle symbolized in royalty. Montmorin renounced his plighted wife
+as later on he renounced his life in devotion to the PRINCIPLE. And
+Marie, beholding in me not a hapless castaway but the incarnation of the
+PRINCIPLE, erected like a second Lavallière an altar whereon she
+radiantly idealized me, after having vainly sought to idealize her
+betrothed.
+
+On the day after Montmorin's departure, we walked through the fields
+scarcely touching the ground. Reaching the border of the pestilential
+lake, we seated ourselves near the verdant fringe of delicate flowers.
+My head rested on her breast and our eyes promised what our lips could
+not utter, for very happiness.
+
+On returning home, Marie complained of feeling cold. The next day she
+lay shivering in bed. The malaria was having its effect. Her clear eyes
+grew clouded and after some days her dear form became emaciated.
+Montmorin was summoned, but she could scarcely greet him. The bells from
+the Capuchin convent near by were pealing out into the air and we knelt
+by her bed as she said:
+
+"Eugene, brother of my soul, forgive me."
+
+For answer, Montmorin took my hand in his.
+
+"Watch over him, Eugene."
+
+Montmorin, shedding hot streaming tears, promised. Together we watched
+beside her until she died.
+
+
+
+
+Chapter V
+
+A COURTEOUS MAN
+
+
+So far had René read. The revelations were so startling that he could
+but ask himself if he were the victim of a madman's delusion.
+
+"Am I reading a romance or a sincere autobiography? Before going
+further, I should look at the documents within the box. I must not
+espouse this man's cause while a shadow of doubt disturbs me. And
+Amélie? If these pages speak the truth, who am I to look upon Amélie?"
+
+The daylight was fading and a servant appeared bearing a candelabrum
+which he placed upon a stand, saying:
+
+"Monsieur, a French gentleman asks to be admitted to you."
+
+René placed the manuscript beneath the sofa pillow and said:
+
+"How did the French gentleman learn that I am here? What is his name?"
+
+The man handed him a card bearing these words: The Count de Keller.
+
+"Who may this be?" murmured René to himself.
+
+Then aloud:
+
+"Bid him enter."
+
+When alone, the Marquis concealed the manuscript in his traveling bag
+which also contained the casket or box. He awaited the visitor,
+remembering Naundorff's words: You have trusted men; in future beware of
+them. You have been frank; in future be astute and reticent.
+
+Then an elegantly appareled gentleman entered in a coat of violet cloth
+ornamented with gold buttons and a close-fitting pair of grey cashmere
+breeches. The many folds in his white cravat made him hold his head high
+indeed. On his finely shaped thigh dangled resplendently the chain and
+ornaments of the Sullivan, the latest fad. His appearance was
+prepossessing and he recalled vividly the famous Chateaubriand type.
+
+"I arrived here but this morning, Marquis de Brezé, and permit me to
+confide to you that I find the hotel execrable," and the Count inclined
+his body gracefully before René. "I cannot forgive my friend, Captain
+MacGreagor for recommending such a hole to me. When my valet complained
+of the service, he was told that another French gentleman in the hotel
+was well satisfied with the accommodations. I asked your name and, as
+it is one so well known, I hastened to comply with the pleasing duty of
+compatriots when in foreign parts. I regret to learn that you have been
+wounded."
+
+René, motioning his visitor to a seat, replied with reserve:
+
+"A thousand thanks. I am almost entirely restored. Monsieur, permit me
+to observe that your title is unknown to me."
+
+"Not all of us may proudly trace descent from Crusader knights, like the
+Marquis de Brezé. My father's brother, a resident of Munich, received
+his title from the King of Bavaria, to whom he rendered a service,"
+obsequiously replied the Count de Keller.
+
+"What is this fool trying to say?" René asked himself, mentally, while
+the other continued:
+
+"What detestable lodgings have fallen to your lot, Marquis." And his
+keen eyes swept the chamber. "Why, they have given you no desk! not even
+a bureau or closet; only that miserable bed and this sofa--Confound
+their impertinence! Were you not ill--though you do not appear so--was
+it an attack, Marquis?"
+
+"I scarcely know," replied René indifferently. "Some rogues sought to
+relieve me of my pocket-book and I played the fool in attempting to
+resist them. One of them scratched my shoulder; the police interfered
+and prevented further injury."
+
+"London is a dangerous place, indeed!" ejaculated the Count. "One is at
+the mercy of pickpockets. I have been here before and should have known
+better than to be ensnared into putting up at the Hotel Douglas. But I
+rejoice that my presence here has enabled me to pay my compliments to
+your lordship. Do you contemplate changing your lodgings? If so, permit
+me to recommend The Crown, to which I am about to remove. That hotel is
+patronized by the aristocracy and we shall there be in our element."
+
+"I have no plans," replied René indifferently. "I am here in the
+interest of my mother, the Duchess de Rousillon. It is possible I shall
+soon return to France. I thank you for the information. I crave your
+pardon for my seeming lack of courtesy in failing to return your visit,
+but I am pressed for time." And he bowed his visitor out of the door and
+again threw himself upon his couch.
+
+Volpetti--for it was he--returned to Brosseur whom he found inspecting
+the fireplace, in which a bright coke fire was burning. The valet drew a
+paper from his pocket on which was a diagram in pencil, saying:
+
+"This is the plan of the house. Here is No. 23, which is our bird's
+cage. Your apartments are 13 and 15, so that four rooms intervene
+between yours and his. I have engaged 21 for myself. I had hard work
+getting it, for these people have a mighty reverence for the aristocracy
+and were loathe to place me so near the Marquis. I therefore protested
+that my master the Count would be furious at my being placed at a great
+distance from him."
+
+"Has your chamber a fireplace?' asked Volpetti.
+
+"Do you think I should otherwise have taken it?" demanded Brosseur.
+
+"Well, I am just from the Marquis's chamber and there is no object there
+beneath which he could conceal even a key. The box must be in either his
+traveling bags or underneath his mattress. If once you enter the room,
+'twill be a moment's work to find it. If the bags are unlocked, take out
+the box; if locked, carry them off. And beware of blundering. I don't
+want the English police to mix up into what is none of their business.
+You must play the role of an ordinary thief who has stolen from even his
+master. If you are caught, I will rescue you, but beware how you
+implicate me. And now I leave under pretence of going to the Hotel
+Crown, while you remain behind apparently to arrange the baggage, but in
+reality to get the box. Use prudence and cunning. You will then come to
+me. We have already arranged our place of meeting."
+
+Volpetti threw on an elegant grey traveling cloak which reached almost
+to his feet, drew on gloves and carefully placed a hat upon his handsome
+head. René, meanwhile, relieved of his unwelcome visitor, continued
+reading the manuscript, as reproduced in the following chapter.
+
+
+
+
+Chapter VI
+
+TORTURE
+
+
+Marie's death brought me such sorrow that another great misfortune was
+necessary to rouse me from my apathy and desolation. During Napoleon's
+invasion of Italy our villa was sacked and fired. Montmorin and I
+managed to escape, carrying with us a small quantity of money and
+certain documents which we deposited in a place of security. We reached
+Rome and passed on to Civita Vecchia, from which we embarked on a
+merchant brig for England. We boarded the vessel during threatening
+weather. Hardly had we put to sea when the waves and wind rose high,
+sweeping the deck and breaking one of the masts. Then we were driven
+pitilessly toward the French coast and seemed about to break upon the
+reefs. Montmorin and I were dismayed at the prospect of landing in
+France. The captain perceived our terror and observed that we must have
+an ugly secret. We disembarked at Dieppe and were examined by the
+Marine and Quarantine Commissions, to which the captain communicated his
+suspicions regarding us. We were, nevertheless, dismissed, and hastened
+to conceal ourselves in an obscure inn, with the intention of seizing
+the first opportunity of leaving for Spain or England. But the police
+followed us. I was alone when the officers entered. I hastily pressed
+some money into a servant-maid's hand, bidding her stand at the street
+corner and warn Montmorin of the danger on his return. I was conducted
+to what was known as the Delegation and subjected to a series of
+questions. Being inexperienced, I compromised myself. I was placed,
+during the night, on a coasting barge. We landed at a little port whose
+name I never learned, and entered a carriage there in waiting. We
+started on a journey which lasted four days, at the end of which I was
+placed in a Paris prison, where I remained six days. On the seventh a
+young man of affable manners, whom I later learned went by the name of
+Volpetti, entered my cell. He spoke German. I was almost too weak to
+reply.
+
+"Friend," he said, "I know your history. You are playing a role which
+providence has not assigned you. Your friends have inoculated you with
+the virus of royal ambition. I come to offer you salvation from this
+induced mania. Swear to me by the memory of your mother that you will
+not seek to escape from the monastery to which I shall conduct you. In
+return, you will be promised that not a hand shall be raised against
+you. Buried beneath a religious name in Belgium or Italy, your life will
+pass serenely."
+
+Thérèse, the blood that courses through your body and mine, the blood of
+the Hapsburgs and Bourbons, rose imperious against the indignity of the
+proposition.
+
+"I fling your offer in your teeth, Monsieur!" I cried.
+
+Volpetti looked disappointed. He disliked violent measures. In choicest
+German and softest voice he sought to persuade me. My head turned to the
+wall, I made no further answer. Then, slowly approaching the door, he
+gave an order, whereupon two muscular brutes entered. Supposing they
+were my murderers, I delivered my soul to God and spoke three names--my
+mother's, Marie's and--O Thérèse, yours!
+
+The ruffians dragged me from my wretched bed, bound me with cords which
+cut into my flesh and tied me in a rough chair. I thought they were
+preparing to torture me and in terror I shrieked:
+
+"Unbind me! I consent."
+
+Volpetti approached, saying:
+
+"Do you wish to be released?"
+
+My pride flared up and I disdained to answer.
+
+Then they gagged me and passed over my face an instrument which seemed
+to riddle the flesh with sharp needles. I tried to cry out and break the
+cords, whereupon one of the fellows thrust his iron fingers, like
+pincers, into my side. The violent pressure caused a swoon. When I
+recovered consciousness, a great heat overpowered me, for my torturers
+were moistening my face with a liquid which stung fiercely. I swooned
+again from the intense pain.
+
+On awakening, I carried my hand to my eyes but failed to find them. I
+touched, instead, two lumps of swollen, throbbing flesh. I lay on a
+filthy bed, freed from the cords. Some one gave me a plate of broth
+which I managed to swallow. I asked my jailor if it was dawn.
+
+"The noon sun shines brightly," he answered.
+
+"I am blind!" I wailed. At that moment the concept of Expiation broke
+upon my mind,--the heinous sins which my suffering was effacing.
+
+"Bring me some warm water," I entreated. The man brought it and, after
+applying it to my face, I fell asleep.
+
+
+
+
+Chapter VII
+
+THE BLACK HOLE
+
+
+I lived in darkness for two weeks. Then the inflammation began to
+subside and a ray of light penetrated my eyes and heart and I wept in
+gratitude for the joy of looking upon the filthy walls of my dungeon. I
+started in horror upon beholding in one of the window panes the image of
+my distorted and swollen face. I realized that an attempt had been made
+to efface all vestige of lineage from my countenance. But with the
+passing of time much of the disfigurement disappeared.
+
+One morning soldiers entered my cell and carried me into a close
+carriage, which, after several hours of travel, stopped before that grim
+fortress whose very name freezes the blood,--Vincennes.
+
+It had been decreed by my captors that I should here end my days. But
+what of the creole, my protectress? She was living her days of
+brilliancy. The Empire--such an Empire!--was being hatched amid the
+folds of the Consulate. The creole was absorbed by one great fear,--the
+fear of failing to furnish an heir to that adumbrating Empire. Thérèse,
+let us smile together at the endurance of thrones. Why, a crown scarcely
+seems worth the commission of a crime. It cannot even bring sleep to
+eyes that stare widely during whole nights.
+
+Europe resounded with the blare of trumpets and clarions, the
+reverberations of cannon and the clashing of swords, while skilful
+needle-women embroidered a purple mantle for the creole's graceful
+shoulders.
+
+On descending the carriage opposite the embattled tower, I was conducted
+beneath an armored postern, through three gates, along a circuitous
+route which lay between damp gray walls, down two stairways, reaching at
+length an iron door through which I was pushed into a windowless
+dungeon, known as The Black Hole and destined as a vestibule to my
+grave.
+
+I dared not move, fearing to fall into a pit. The only sound I heard was
+the loud beating of my heart. At last my jailer,--a man having but one
+eye,--entered the cell. A lantern hung about his neck beneath a sullen
+countenance. With his rough hand he thrust at me a plate of repulsive
+food. The light of his lantern illumined the floor. Speedily glancing
+around, I ascertained that it was free of pitfalls. My enclosure was a
+damp, moldy, black tomb. In one corner was some straw and a tattered
+blanket; in another a bench and jug.
+
+The next day my keeper brought me a loaf of hard bread and a jug of
+water. I ate part of the bread and went to sleep. On awaking, I failed
+to find the remainder. I shuddered. Who was with me? Who had stolen my
+bread? I was wrought up to a state of frenzy which the entrance of my
+jailer subdued. I asked him who had taken my bread. He did not answer.
+Leaving more bread and water, he departed. I ate half my bread and went
+to sleep. I awoke hungry and sought the remainder. It was gone. The next
+day I put some bread underneath the straw and lay upon it pretending
+sleep. A light pattering of feet and shrill attenuated noises seemed to
+indicate a troop of tiny creatures in the darkness. A hairy coat swept
+my cheek and O the sickening horror of it!--the sharp teeth of a rat
+pierced my fingers. With staring sightless eyes, I understood. Rats
+raced over my body pushed beneath me in search for food, swept their
+cold tails over my sore face and grunted contentedly while eating the
+crumbs. I was often roused from the sleep of exhaustion by their shrill
+disputes or their nibbling my ears and fingers.
+
+
+
+
+Chapter VIII
+
+THE EXECUTION
+
+
+It has been said that our family were the martyrs of the Revolution. Our
+parents suffered but they had previously known happiness. But I? What
+earthly fruit of good had passed my lips? What wrong had I, an innocent
+boy, committed? As I daily sat in darkness awaiting my bread and water,
+what a world was revealed to me, Thérèse! Retributive justice demanding
+an eye for an eye stood in my dungeon. I was called upon to balance the
+accounts of my delinquent ancestry.
+
+Man is a creature of habit. My senses daily grew more accustomed to the
+pestilential cavern. I began to distinguish the objects in my dungeon.
+Light seemed to gleam faintly through the joinings of the stones. My
+pupils dilated like those of nocturnal birds. My hearing grew more acute
+and recognized the jailer's footfall long before he reached my door. I
+could dimly hear the call of the sentinels and the tramping of the
+guard.
+
+One night in spring I distinguished voices in the ditch outside my cell
+and the dull sound of spades. Some one said, "Make it deeper and wider
+that it may hold the body." A platoon of soldiers halted and struck the
+breeches of their guns upon the ground. They were arranging an
+execution!
+
+Only the wall separated us as a voice which was harsh yet timid, almost
+apologetic, pronounced a death sentence. The name of the condemned made
+me start: Louis Antoine Henri de Bourbon, Conte. Our family blood was
+about to spatter those walls erected by our ancestors. A sweet sonorous
+voice penetrated the stones. The Count was asking an officer to be the
+bearer of a death memento.
+
+"For the Princesse de Rohan," he said, placing in his hands a letter, a
+ring and a lock of hair.
+
+"Hang a lantern around his neck," was the brutal order that interrupted
+the prisoner. "No aim can be taken in this darkness."
+
+Then followed a cruel fateful moment; then the order; then the
+rebounding of the balls from the outer wall of my dungeon; then the thud
+of the falling body; then suppressed oaths and stern commands; then the
+noise of spades. As the platoon of soldiers marched away, I said to
+myself, "My cousin, the Duke d'Enghien has been keeping me company, and
+now he lies very close."
+
+No clothes had been given me during my imprisonment and I was in
+tatters. I shivered, wrapped in my filthy blanket. My hair hung on my
+shoulders in long matted curls; my face--beardless on entering the
+tower--was half covered with a tangled crop, my nails so long that they
+tore off in great shreds unless I gnawed them close with my teeth. I
+could not calculate the duration of my captivity. I seemed losing the
+power of thought. I lived over and over my cousin's execution until it
+seemed to have been my own. I assured myself that I was awakening after
+death and I felt the bullet wounds in my head. I refused nourishment,
+saying feebly that dead men required no food. On the third day of my
+self-imposed starvation the hinges of my door creaked at an unaccustomed
+hour and my jailer was communicative for the first time.
+
+"Get up and follow me," he said.
+
+I remained motionless, for was I not a corpse? The man raised me roughly
+and placed an arm around my shoulders. Then I comprehended that I lived
+and concluded that execution was about to take place. A great peace
+followed this conviction. When we reached daylight, the air asphyxiated
+me like a powerful gas and when my guide opened a door, saying, "Here!"
+I fell on the floor in a swoon.
+
+
+
+
+Chapter IX
+
+THE ESCAPE
+
+
+I regained consciousness upon a real bed. Some people were near me. My
+jailer, with a softened expression, was handing me a cup of soup. I
+closed my eyes and realized that some one raised the sheet covering me
+and searched over my almost nude body for a birthmark. A voice said,
+"Thank God, it is he!" and human lips pressed my cadaverous hands.
+
+The tower's warden said affably as he took his leave:
+
+"Assure the Empress that he shall be well cared for."
+
+A man near me murmured "Courage, courage, your Majesty."
+
+My eyes opened and I clasped Montmorin in my arms.
+
+"Your Majesty,"--he began, and I interrupted:
+
+"Do not address me so, Eugene. Do not apply titles to a wretched
+outcast. I wish to strip myself of the personality which has caused my
+martyrdom."
+
+"Well, then, Charles," said Montmorin "I have sought you for four
+years."
+
+"Four years!" I exclaimed. "Did I remain four years in the Black Hole?"
+
+"I had no clue," said my friend. "I believed you dead, and through
+indifference concerning my own life, I enlisted in Napoleon's army. The
+execution of the Due d'Enghien and the conspiracy of Cadouval (of which
+I shall presently tell you) filled me with such indignation that I
+resolved to present my resignation. Just then the Empress sent for me.
+In a secret interview she informed me that you were in Vincennes dungeon
+and commissioned me to rescue you. Her hand pushed aside the obstacles
+between us."
+
+"Blessed be the creole!" I cried.
+
+"Not so fast, Charles. She seeks only her security. Her lord, who is
+also the lord of Europe, seems to be considering the advisability of
+relegating her to some corner of his Babylonic Empire, because of her
+barrenness. She looks upon you as a fine card to play at the opportune
+moment. Napoleon has forgotten your existence. He is too busy with his
+conquests to even think of you. Here in prison, your name is No. 86.
+Josephine pretends that you are the nephew of a Martinique woman with
+whom she has a friendship. She does not desire your liberty because it
+is preferable that you should be where she may at any time lay a hand
+upon you. But I shall free you, though that must be postponed, as you
+are now so weak."
+
+I was bathed and cleanly clad. Nourishing and abundant food was given me
+daily and I was gently tended by Armande, the jailer's excellent
+daughter. Montmorin cut off my long hair and tangled beard, and, on
+viewing myself in the mirror, I realized that the cruel operation, whose
+object had been to disfigure me, had been frustrated by the darkness of
+the dungeon. I should, otherwise, have been marked as with the pits of
+that dreadful malady, the smallpox, and been changed past all
+recognition.
+
+I was born again. The pure blood of Austria and Lorraine had
+successfully combated what appeared invincible obstacles. Montmorin, who
+through motives of caution, visited me only twice during my
+convalescence, was one day overjoyed on seeing my hard rounded flesh and
+observed that it was time to discuss our flight. I was on the second
+floor of one of the four towers which flank the historic castle. The
+windows facing toward the fort were not very high from the ground. If
+the grating were filed, 'twould be a simple matter to swing down to the
+bridge spanning the ditch over which the soldiers walked in leaving the
+fortress. This route of exit was chosen by the soldiers in order to
+avoid the trouble of raising the portcullis, and it existed through the
+culpable negligence of the chief; otherwise, I should never have been
+able to have accomplished my escape. The only necessary precaution was
+that of selecting an auspicious hour of the night in which to swing down
+to the ditch, cross the narrow plank and join Montmorin in the woods
+beyond, awaiting me with a pair of good horses. I had an English file
+for the severing of my iron bars, also a rope and a dagger. All these I
+kept upon my body during the day and in my bed at night. I anxiously
+counted the hours that must pass before my escape and constantly
+developed my muscles by gymnastic exercises. Each night I cut through
+one bar of the grating. I feared that Armande, who was as kind to me as
+her father was indifferent, might suspect my intention. I therefore
+adopted toward her the most affectionate demeanor. I praised her beauty
+and then I realized that she was indeed beautiful. The wine of youth
+rose in me like a splendid springtide and when Armande trembled in my
+arms I regretted that I must so soon leave her.
+
+Thérèse, I know that your austere virtue makes no capitulation to what
+you would call the sentimental delinquencies of the heart. But to me a
+woman's breast is more necessary than bread or water. That simple girl
+loved me in the abandonment of her feminine pity, which is, my chaste
+sister, the holiest passion of humanity.
+
+One day she responded to my caresses with the words:
+
+"I know you are preparing to escape. I will help you, and if a cannon
+were to announce your flight, I should crawl into its mouth to retard
+the explosion."
+
+When at last arrived the moment, preconcerted with Montmorin, she clung
+to me affectionately until the whistle of our accomplice sounded across
+the ditch. Then, securing the rope securely, she watched me descend, her
+low sweet voice bidding me Godspeed. I ran in a frenzy to Montmorin. We
+sprang into our saddles and sped away.
+
+
+
+
+Chapter X
+
+PRUSSIA
+
+
+René was here seized with a fit of coughing.
+
+He looked toward the windows; they were closed; at the fireplace; the
+coke burned brightly. Putting down the manuscript, he soliloquized:
+
+"I ought to examine the documents in the box and find out whether
+Naundorff is a martyr or a visionary."
+
+But the narrative fascinated him and he resumed:
+
+The aggregate terms of my prison life amount to seventeen years.
+
+I said to Montmorin, as we slackened our speed, in order to find a path
+which led to an obscure hut wherein we were to pass the night:
+
+"O that I might live among men, daring to breathe! That I might no
+longer be hunted down as a criminal. Let me cast away the fatal name and
+obliterate the race forever. Montmorin, renounce political schemes and
+help me only in this,--to forget the dungeons that have been my
+dwelling places."
+
+My friend put his arms around me and said: "I promise."
+
+We slept soundly and started the next morning for Prussia, which we
+safely entered, under passports held by Montmorin. We put up at a small
+inn, exhausted from our rapid traveling. Just as we were dropping off to
+sleep, an officer entered, roughly ordering us from bed. He brought
+orders to arrest us as spies. He delivered us to a detachment of troops
+pertaining to the division under the command of the Duke of Brunswick.
+
+When we had journeyed a short distance, we were surrounded by a body of
+French, treble our number, and I viewed a battle, for the first time in
+my life; by the irony of fate, I stood in ranks opposing my countrymen.
+Montmorin and I were ordered to fight and we had no choice but that of
+obeying. Our detachment was overpowered. The enemy cried, "No quarter!"
+Montmorin's horse was better than mine.
+
+"Change with me!" he cried. I could not reply, for we all fell back
+together. My noble friend placed himself before me and sought to ward
+off the sabre-strokes. My horse fell pierced by a bullet and I could not
+extricate myself. Montmorin stooped to disentangle my foot and a French
+soldier with a tremendous blow cut his head in twain. Another sabre
+descended on my neck and I lost consciousness.
+
+I awoke in a hospital, amid the fearful groans of the other wounded.
+Thérèse, does not my narrative seem destitute of those shades of gay and
+grave intermingled which constitute the charm of a personal history? Do
+you not long for a comic foil to this interminable tragedy? I shall
+abridge and hurry on.
+
+I was carried in a straw-loaded wagon to the fortress Wessel and there
+placed with other prisoners destined to imprisonment in Toulon. I
+protested unavailingly, declaring that I was a Frenchman. I marched with
+bleeding feet into France. But falling on the ground in my inability to
+continue, I was abandoned by the guard and should have died but for the
+care of a peasant woman who carried me to a hospital. In a fellow
+patient, I recognized a former companion in arms, by name Fritz. Later
+on, we made our way back into Germany. To sustain life during our
+journey, we became common thieves and stole fruit, bread,
+chickens,--anything we could lay our hands on. Do you hear, Thérèse?
+Your brother has been a common thief. Fritz remarked: "We do on a small
+scale what kings do on a great one." One day, leaving me his coat as
+hostage, he started off on a foraging expedition. He was captured by the
+German league known as the Strickreiter. An old peasant with whom we had
+become associated, advised that I should go to Saxony where the
+Strickreiter were not powerful. He gave me what food and money he could
+spare, and, carrying Fritz's coat, in which I found six hundred francs,
+I resolved to join the Prussian army, it seeming my only choice. I
+started for Berlin. On the journey a fellow traveller evinced great
+cordiality, to the extent of lending me his passport, bearing the name
+"William Naundorff." He declared he did not require it, being well
+known. I looked at this new friend intently. I had seen his face
+before.
+
+
+
+
+Chapter XI
+
+NAUNDORFF
+
+
+What was this new mystery? Why should this man give me his name, for I
+was forced to retain it? When we reached Weimar, my benefactor
+disappeared. The freedom I breathed inebriated me and I ceased
+wondering. On reaching Berlin, I put up at an inn, where I was soon
+visited by the police who asked how long I intended to remain in the
+capital. I referred them to the passport which I had delivered to the
+city's authorities and thus did I imbue myself forever with the
+personality of my fellow passenger. On filing an application for
+admission into the army, I was coldly informed that His Majesty did not
+receive foreigners into the Prussian ranks.
+
+Discouraged and almost destitute, I bethought me of my knowledge of
+watchmaking and so it came to pass that I established myself in this
+humble business. Thérèse, this is the sign I displayed outside my door:
+Schutzenstrasse, 52. I was well patronized and lived contentedly until
+an officer called to see my license. He asked me many questions,
+demanded to be shown my baptismal certificate and a testimonial of good
+conduct from the last parish in which I had lived. Having no such
+documents, I was in great perplexity. At this juncture, a woman who
+called herself Naundorff's sister, advised me to apply to Monsieur Le
+Coq, Superintendent of the Prussian Police and a Frenchman by birth.
+Before proceeding, I must explain that this woman, whose devotion to me
+was as genuine as it was unremitting, had some time previous come from
+some mysterious quarter to live in my house. Her industry made my
+slender income yield me some comfort. Following her advice, I wrote to
+Le Coq, revealing to him my entire history. He came to visit me and
+demanded to see the proofs of my identity. I showed him some of my
+documents,--those which had been sewed by Montmorin in the collar of the
+ragged coat which I had worn during my vagrancy. They included letters
+belonging to our mother and our father's seal. Le Coq was amazed and
+remarked that he could give me no advice until after consulting with the
+King. On the following day, he came to say that I must relinquish the
+documents. I was forced to obey, saving only a portion of the seal.
+From that moment, I was dogged by the police and finally driven out of
+Berlin.
+
+"You are in danger here," said Le Coq. "The magistracy has not forgotten
+that no corroborating documents rendered your passport valid. Go to some
+little town and be there known by the name of Naundorff."
+
+A guard was furnished for my protection. I was admonished to observe the
+strictest reserve, for the eye of Napoleon was keen. Prussia dared not
+incur his enmity.
+
+"When you are asked for your papers," said Le Coq, as I was departing,
+"answer that they are with the Court."
+
+I went to Spandau in the search of peace, there to live in a coffin more
+effectual than the one which had enclosed me as I left the Tower, that
+is to say, the name "Naundorff." This spurious term was entered on the
+village registers. There is not another instance in Prussian annals of
+the right of citizenship being conferred upon a man in consequence of
+the arbitrary adjustment of an official, in the absence of documentary
+evidence.
+
+I put out my sign. The faithful woman--the so-called sister of
+Naundorff--was with me still. However the arrangement had originated,
+whether or not she acted as an instrument of my enemies, her devotion
+was genuine. To silence malicious tongues, I called her sister.
+
+Europe was convulsed with war. "Is the Corsican's power to be broken?" I
+would ask myself. And then a wild hope of recovering my name and rank
+would take possession of me, in spite of the injunctions regarding
+caution from Le Coq, who visited me about this period. Then came the
+news of Napoleon's overthrow, followed by our uncle's ascending the
+throne and of your marriage, Thérèse, to our cousin, the Duke of
+Orleans. Thus did you become an accomplice in the usurpation. From many
+sources you and our uncle had tidings of my misfortunes, and these
+rumors were corroborated by documents found in the belongings of
+Josephine, Barras, Pichegru and even Napoleon. I at the time wrote
+letters to you both, letters which I know reached your hands. You, whose
+lips so often speak the name of God, dare not deny that you read my
+messages.
+
+
+
+
+Chapter XII
+
+THE DAUPHIN'S WIFE
+
+
+About this time my companion and reputed sister died. Poor woman! She
+was no grande dame, not even a spotless matron. In her past there had
+been hours of anguish, despair and shame. An unremitting train of
+misfortunes had dried the sources of her tears. It was misfortune which
+had united our lives and welded my youth to her maturity. Despised by
+the world, she found an asylum in me, and I, in my isolation, found pity
+and kindness only in her. And I solemnly declare that she was gold
+hidden beneath mire, for she gave me the shelter and warmth of a human
+heart, without which I cannot live.
+
+When she died in my arms, blessing me for my ministrations, I regretted
+that I had written to you, for it seemed the most fitting consummation
+of my life to pass the remainder of it as a Spandau watch-maker. In my
+loneliness, I married a beautiful girl, daughter of a mechanic as
+obscure as I. Having failed to receive an answer from you, I thought to
+accomplish the extinction of a royal race by an alliance with this woman
+of the people. A frenzy of vengeance and shame mastered me as I cemented
+what I considered the pollution of your race and mine, by marrying this
+pure, gentle girl.
+
+To-day I realize my sin in refusing to thank God for the finding in my
+path of the sweet blossom of love. Jeanne's affection should have been
+more grateful than Marie's for it came in consequence of the sublime law
+that merges one life into another and contained no element of reverence
+for royalty. But I trampled on the tender fragrance of her devotion
+during the beginning of our married life, in the arrogance of what I
+considered my fallen state in being her companion. For hours would I sit
+in gloomy silence. I could not smother the puerile vanity of earthly
+grandeur which even in the Black Hole inflated me. Between me and the
+gentle girl rose the high wall of ancestry, that destroyer of happiness,
+which seeks to make us unlike other men. I kept from her the gloomy
+secret of my origin and she shrank from me, almost seeking to ask my
+forgiveness for being my wife.
+
+When I knew the joy which you will never experience, Thérèse--that of
+parenthood,--I called my daughter by the name which I had borne during
+that ill-fated journey which cost our parents their crown and
+life,--"Amélie." My mother seemed to live again in the child, and I
+assured myself that the blood of Austria and Lorraine rose, asserting
+its purity and protesting against admixture with a plebeian strain.
+
+
+
+
+Chapter XIII
+
+THE INCENDIARY
+
+
+Here René raised his head and realized that his chamber was full of
+smoke. The atmosphere was growing dense, insufferable. The mirror over
+the mantel broke into pieces with a sharp explosion and great tongues of
+flame licked the sides of the chimney. A stout man with red whiskers put
+his head in the door, shouting "Fire!"
+
+Thrusting the manuscript into his bosom, René ran out, amid the
+bewildered servants and guests. Pails of water were brought from the
+kitchen and uproar reigned.
+
+"Keep your wits!" he shouted. "Shut the windows and wet the blankets
+from the beds."
+
+He turned to some one near and asked how the fire had started. The man
+replied that Count Keller's valet was to blame. Brosseur standing in the
+passage way seemed inconsolable.
+
+"I shall lose my place!" he almost sobbed. "My master will discharge me
+for this carelessness."
+
+René was everywhere at once, encouraging, urging, advising. Brosseur,
+meanwhile ran into the Marquis's room, returning with the bed blankets.
+At last the fire was extinguished and the proprietor grasped René's
+hand, thanking him for his services. The guests pressed near with
+praises for his conduct. Even the cook brandished his colossal fists in
+fury at the stupidity of the fellow who had caused the mischief.
+
+"I shall find him and break that heavy head of his!" he roared, darting
+toward Brosseur's chamber. A moment later he returned in a rage,
+exclaiming: "The rascal has escaped, leaving his baggage behind."
+
+René shuddered, scarcely knowing why. He ran to his room in search for
+his wallet. It was broken open and the box gone.
+
+"The villain has robbed me," he muttered, as the plot became clear to
+him. "I felt that I had seen his face before. Ah, Count Keller,--better
+said, Count Scoundrel--I know now whence you came. Have I indeed undone
+Amélie's father? Naundorff, watch-maker, I am henceforth your staunch
+partisan! This piece of villainy confirms your claim."
+
+He placed his hand in his breast in search for the manuscript and
+breathed more easily on feeling it.
+
+
+
+
+Book III THE KNIGHTS OF LIBERTY
+
+
+
+Chapter I
+
+LYING IN WAIT
+
+
+Opposite the Dover wharf was an inn bearing the sign: The Red Fish. The
+frequenters of this inn were usually sailors, wharf-hands, etc....
+Sometimes passengers from a recently arrived vessel stayed over a short
+while for the purpose of recovering from seasickness. At eleven in the
+forenoon of a day following soon after that described at the close of
+Book II, Kate, niece of the proprietor, displayed her rounded arms to
+the admiring eyes of the guests seated in the dingy dining hall, as she
+deposited on the tables bottles of beer and dishes of smoked salmon
+stewed with potatoes. One of the young men was so absorbed in gazing
+through a window out toward the wharf that he scarcely knew what he ate.
+He seemed waiting for some one and in so doing attracted the attention
+of two others seated in an obscure corner of the apartment, one of whom
+was apparently of some thirty years of age, of contracted lips, keen
+eyes and a nervous attitude. His general make-up was that of a man who
+vibrates to the suggestions of an idea. He scarcely ate and his glass of
+ale stood untasted. His companion had a very good appetite--a handsome
+young man somewhat coarse in type, of splendid proportions, ruddy
+cheeks, black whiskers, gleaming teeth and gay alert eyes full of
+directness and candor.
+
+The two men conversed in low tones. The younger always interrupted the
+talk on the approach of Kate, for the purpose of making sweet speeches
+in her ear.
+
+"Indeed I recognize him," declared the elder. "I have seen him in Paris
+and his title is Marquis de Brezé. His family is ultramonarchical and
+its loyalty has been paid in gold, for its confiscated property has been
+restored."
+
+"I wonder why he is here."
+
+"I cannot guess, Giacinto. Men in our position must always expect the
+worst. Many Frenchmen, await their vessels in this inn, but the
+Marquis's attitude arouses suspicion. He awaits some one. The fact that
+he comes from _There_ should put us on our guard."
+
+"Bah!" exclaimed Giacinto, with a flash of his perfect teeth, "'tis some
+piece of gallantry--a question of petticoats."
+
+"Or of politics. We must not lose sight of him, for holding on to the
+end of a thread sometimes leads to a bobbin. This inn, in which _our_
+Volpetti is in the habit of stopping, is so suspicious a place that even
+the air is infected. If the Marquis awaits a lady, luck to him! But if
+not--"
+
+"I swear 'tis love," asserted Giacinto, failing to comprehend the
+other's indifference to the romantic.
+
+"Well, now let us get to business. If our brother knights have correctly
+informed us, Volpetti will reach the inn today. Are you sure you will
+recognize him? You know the fox is clever in disguises."
+
+"Do you think he can escape me?" cried Giacinto, his face distorted with
+a spasm of hatred. "Not even if he comes as the devil, his brother. Why
+we are both Sicilians from Catania. I remember him when he walked
+barefoot recruiting victims for the gambling houses. Later on he entered
+the novitiate of a monastery. Then, I witnessed his initiation as
+spy--under the direction--well in reality, in the employ of Queen
+Caroline. O he is an adept, a born spy and happy only when exercising
+his profession. He was Fouché's most dangerous agent and now performs
+the same office to Lecazes. But to every man his hour! There are many
+accounts pending between Volpetti and me! First, my brother Raphael's
+long imprisonment; secondly, the ill treatment of Grazia, that
+unfortunate girl; thirdly, the splendid Romeldi's death on the gibbet;
+fourthly, the conspiracy of the 19th of August. Why has this mission
+been assigned me? Because the Knights know well that Volpetti will not
+escape me."
+
+"Contain yourself" said the other. "To accomplish your purpose, calmness
+is essential."
+
+"Fear nothing," answered Giacinto, "I shall seem ice."
+
+"Does Volpetti know you by sight?"
+
+"As well as he does his own shirt, and his claws must have fastened into
+me at Trieste, if the Knights had not protected me. Set a thief to catch
+a thief. But here in England he and I are man to man."
+
+"Even in England spies are aided by other spies. Change your tactics,
+Giacinto. The devil! Lecazes snaps his fingers at scruples. The League
+must learn that the enemy is full of insidious perfidy. We no longer
+fight on the open as in the times of Napoleon. But the duel between
+Revolution and Reaction is raging none the less fiercely. The hour is
+ripe for blows and are we, the Knights of Liberty, to content ourselves
+with Platonic phrases? Are we not to wreak vengeance at last? We are so
+numerous as scarcely to know one another and yet so little is
+accomplished. 'Tis a competent leader that we need."
+
+"Platonism is dead," cried Giacinto. "Our business is to grapple with
+the police. Volpetti's fate will soon be a warning to Lecazes and those
+who are his masters. Every English Carbonaro will soon see that events
+are at last shaping themselves--"
+
+"What do you know?" eagerly demanded the other.
+
+"I scent the critical moment approaching. I read men's thoughts upon
+their foreheads. My friend, societies do much, but at times one man
+arises who by a swift stroke accomplishes what societies are only
+meditating."
+
+"You assume the air of a prophet."
+
+"Well, time will tell. Now to our work. Volpetti will soon arrive,
+either alone or with a companion. He is to embark from Dover. When he
+reaches this inn, you and I shall enter his room and dispatch him before
+he has time to say 'Amen.' The Polipheme awaits us in the harbor. The
+captain is our brother and confederate. I trust Volpetti will come
+alone for so he will fall to me; but if he be accompanied, both of us
+shall be implicated."
+
+"And why not both of us even if he come alone? Should one waste honor on
+dogs?"
+
+Here Giacinto interrupted, saying:
+
+"Did I not tell you it was a love affair? Behold the lady!"
+
+The Marquis de Brezé had just hurried to meet two new comers, a man of
+middle age and a young girl. Both wore shabby traveling garments and had
+the appearance of Irish peasants. But in spite of her clothes, the
+beautiful imperious face of the girl immediately excited admiration
+while the man's grace and dignity revealed the aristocrat.
+
+Giacinto grasped his friend's hand, and the other whispered:
+
+"How remarkable!"
+
+"What?" asked Giacinto.
+
+"The resemblance."
+
+"What resemblance?"
+
+"Why the man and girl are reproductions of the guillotined king and
+queen."
+
+"I have seen them only in pictures; but by the devil! they are indeed
+before us."
+
+The Carbonari gazed at each other in amazement.
+
+
+
+
+Chapter II
+
+THE TRAPPED FOX
+
+
+Naundorff and Amélie followed de Brezé toward the stairway and, in so
+doing, passed the two Carbonari, who, pretending absorption in their ale
+and salmon, did not raise their eyes.
+
+René led his friends to the chambers he had engaged for them and when
+the doors were closed, he threw himself upon his knees before the father
+exclaiming:
+
+"Forgive me!"
+
+"What is it, René?"
+
+"I have been robbed of your papers."
+
+Naundorff turned pale and fell against the wall. But quickly recovering
+himself, he said:
+
+"René, you have lost my name, but you first saved my life," and with
+simple dignity he drew the Marquis to his breast while Amélie trembled
+and dropped tears from her beautiful eyes.
+
+"And the manuscript?"
+
+"I have it with me."
+
+"How were you robbed of the box?"
+
+René explained.
+
+"That Count de Keller is my evil genius. He is none other than the
+Volpetti who under the alias 'Naundorff' bestowed that name upon me in
+Prussia. He represents the police who like a web envelop me. 'Twas the
+police that directed the blows from which you rescued me in London. And
+that police will now pursue you, René. I regret that we have undertaken
+this voyage, for how are we to succeed in this difficult undertaking,
+having lost my certificates of identity? Let us renounce the project and
+return, I to exile and you to your country. I am not safe in England;
+therefore I shall remove to Holland. In that land of liberty and
+justice, I may find the happiness I seek, the simple happiness of family
+life. René, I seem to hear again the words spoken to me in my dungeon:
+_Your friends shall perish_."
+
+René looked at Amélie. Her tears were dry and her lofty countenance
+expressed only resolution. His discouragement was swept away and he
+turned to the father, saying:
+
+"I shall never give up the fight. And what of the knave who robbed me?
+Is he to laugh in my face? Listen. Volpetti will soon be here. I also
+have become a spy. I have tracked him by pouring out torrents of money."
+
+"Bravo, my René!" said Amélie, giving him her hand.
+
+"Girl," sighed Naundorff, "you have inherited the intrepidity of your
+grandmother, Marie Antoinette and great-grandmother, Marie Thérèse,
+combined; I, the stoicism and passivity of my father. While I am with
+you, my blood rises and I believe in the impossible; my fears vanish, my
+dual personality merges into one and I assure myself that I am not a
+self-duped fool--God bless you!"
+
+"Father," she exclaimed, "you have not the right to surrender claims
+which your children inherit. Do you think that the iniquitous regime on
+the French throne will last indefinitely? Has not that wonderful
+colossus, Napoleon, rolled on the ground from his pedestal? Another
+usurper today rules our country. Is his hour never to come?"
+
+She was a picture of splendid anger and sublime indignation.
+
+"Amélie, you frighten me," said Naundorff.
+
+"Cast away your fears," she cried. "René will save us. Defenders will
+spring out of the earth. Courage, my father; calmness, my husband," and
+she gave a hand to each of the men. "We are a council of war. Let us
+plan our course of action."
+
+Naundorff kissed her forehead, saying: "I follow you," fascinated by her
+spirit.
+
+"Our two aims," she proceeded, "are to recover the papers and enter
+France secretly."
+
+"Regarding the first," said René, "trust to me. The spy shall not return
+to France enriched by his spoils."
+
+"Beware of the spilling of blood!" said Naundorff. "Our cause is else
+lost."
+
+René and Amélie made no rejoinder.
+
+"Concerning the voyage to France," continued the Marquis, "we must first
+dispose of Volpetti. Were he to precede us, our fate should be
+imprisonment. In the meanwhile, Mr. and Miss O'Ranleigh," and he made
+his companions a mock bow, "must not forget their role of musicians
+journeying across the channel in search of employment. A happy
+circumstance favors our project. A French merchant vessel, the
+Polipheme, lies in the harbor. The captain is indebted to me for favors.
+I met him on the wharf this morning and observed that I might have need
+of him later. I can count upon his loyalty."
+
+"Father, the sky grows clear!" cried Amélie.
+
+"God grant it may!" said Naundorff.
+
+"See!" exclaimed René. "There is the Polipheme."
+
+He drew his companions toward the window, and as they looked out, his
+face grew dark and he stammered:
+
+"There--he--comes!"
+
+Volpetti, alias the Count de Keller, in elegant traveling dress which
+accentuated his aristocratic Chateaubriand air, approached the Red Fish,
+followed by Brosseur.
+
+"They are coming here!" exclaimed René, and he dragged Amélie and
+Naundorff into concealment, returning himself to continue his scrutiny.
+"The devil turns him over to me at last."
+
+
+
+
+Chapter III
+
+RENÉ WAITS
+
+
+The Marquis's elation was equalled by that of the Carbonari below on
+beholding the entry of Volpetti and his servant.
+
+"We have him," whispered Giacinto.
+
+"And his confederate, also," answered Louis Pierre, which was the name
+of the other.
+
+"He seems quite a muscular fellow."
+
+"Leave him to me."
+
+Kate was selecting chambers for the newly arrived. Giacinto, continuing
+the rude gallantry he had begun at the table, followed her from room to
+room, whispering love speeches and pinching her round arms. Volpetti and
+Brosseur were drinking Malaga below.
+
+"Leave me alone!" cried Kate, pretending anger.
+
+"Darling, don't be so hard on me."
+
+"But I have work to do. These rooms must be got ready, and I have not
+been able to find them yet for the house is as full as an egg."
+
+"Let me walk with you until we find them, then."
+
+She could not resist this gallant offer, and together they promenaded
+through corridors and apartments. At last she said:
+
+"Well, I must give No. 10 to the master and 39 to the valet. They are
+not close together, but 'tis not my fault."
+
+"Who is in No. 8?" asked Giacinto, idly.
+
+"'Tis a double apartment, occupied by two Irish people who look like
+beggars. But a French Monsieur here has his eye on the girl. He spent a
+long time with them today."
+
+"Let them love each other. So do you and I."
+
+As the pair descended the stairway, Volpetti and his valet were coming
+up to their chambers. Giacinto kept well in the shade and hastened to
+join Louis Pierre beside whom a pleasant-faced man stood, dispatching a
+glass of rum.
+
+This was the captain of the Polipheme.
+
+"Do you wish to leave tonight?" asked the captain.
+
+"Or at dawn," replied Louis Pierre. "Be prepared to draw in anchor and
+have the sloop in readiness guarded by but one sailor."
+
+The captain hesitated. He drew his fingers through his hair as if about
+to object.
+
+"Well--" he began.
+
+"Captain Soliviac, do you realize that you _cannot_ refuse?"
+
+"Refuse? Impossible! I was about to say that there are some people in
+this inn wishing also to go to France. Do you object to their presence?"
+
+"Who are these people for whom you have so high a regard, Captain?"
+
+"Well one of them is the Marquis de Brezé."
+
+The Carbonari started.
+
+"What bond unites you to that sympathizer of the government?"
+
+"No political bond. My father was befriended by the elder Marquis and
+the young man has been my protector. Important matters urge his return
+to France."
+
+"Indeed! Well, the son of the Duchess de Rousillon is a strange
+companion for you, Captain."
+
+"Pshaw!" answered Soliviac. "He does not meddle with politics. His time
+is occupied in hunting and love making. He is doubtless hurrying to
+France to be reunited with some fair friend; or more likely still, the
+lady accompanies him now, for he said that two Irish travelers, an uncle
+and niece, were with him."
+
+The Carbonari exchanged a look; then Giacinto said:
+
+"Well, tell the Marquis he and his party may come."
+
+"I have received another application for passage," said the captain,
+"which I have refused."
+
+"From whom?"
+
+"From a gentleman bearing a marvelous resemblance to our countryman, the
+Viscount Chateaubriand. He has a stout fellow with him who must be his
+valet."
+
+The Carbonari flashed a look at one another.
+
+"How long since did he ask you?"
+
+"Not five minutes ago; I was jumping from my sloop. He wears a long
+traveling cloak and a broad winged hat."
+
+"Well, run up to number 10," said Giacinto. "He is there. Call out
+roughly, saying that two passengers have failed you at the eleventh hour
+and that you may now carry him and his servant. Demand a high price and
+simulate avarice. Be cautious. The man is a reader of faces."
+
+"Suppose he asks which is to be the first landing place?"
+
+"Say Dieppe, adding that he may be put off at Calais, Havre or Cherbourg
+if he prefer and pay well for the privilege. Act as tho your object
+were to exploit him." And Giacinto's face glowed with hatred. "And if
+he asks the hour of departure, say midnight and that he must be at the
+wharf by eleven, where the sloop will await him."
+
+"I shall do as you say. Is that all?"
+
+"I think not, indeed. Is your crew to be trusted?"
+
+"In what sense?" asked the astonished captain.
+
+"Will they keep mum about whatever takes place on board?"
+
+"My men are absolutely to be trusted."
+
+"Very well," said Louis Pierre, "I shall board the sloop at dusk and
+remain upon her until the gentleman and his servant arrive. You must
+have a sailor's dress ready for me, for I shall help run the sloop. You
+must be there also, Captain."
+
+"Very well," said Soliviac.
+
+"Are you ready to go all lengths?" asked Giacinto.
+
+The captain's frank, genial countenance became clouded. Corsair as he
+was and accustomed to bloody adventures, he hesitated before the
+executive justice of the Knights of Liberty, for he knew their vengeance
+to be terrible. But raising his head, he said:
+
+"All lengths."
+
+"Captain," said Giacinto, "the man we track is worse than a wolf. He
+merits a thousand deaths and we shall give him only one. If you desert
+us, we shall consider that you cease to be a Knight. Nevertheless, we
+shall take the matter into our own hands and trust you not to betray
+us."
+
+"Do you think I have joined the Knights to play the coward at the first
+test? I unconditionally agree to your proposition. And now, what of the
+other passengers?"
+
+"Arrange that they board before or after Volpetti."
+
+Soliviac bowed.
+
+Meanwhile, the Marquis's eye was applied to the keyhole of Volpetti's
+chamber, and watched that gentleman arrange his belongings. His wallet
+and toilet case lay near. René reflected that his treasure might be in
+either. Soon he was undeceived for he heard Volpetti say to Brosseur:
+
+"Where is it?"
+
+"Around my neck," and the valet pointed to a cord just visible above his
+collar. René could scarcely contain himself as a prospect of swift
+vengeance seemed near and he clutched Amélie's hand as she stood back of
+him, erect and self-possessed.
+
+
+
+
+Chapter IV
+
+MINE AND COUNTERMINE
+
+
+A more circumspect man than René would have retired from the keyhole
+after ascertaining this information, but he was transported into
+remaining. Just then Soliviac entered by the main door offering to take
+the Count and his valet to France on the Polipheme. His intention was to
+land at Dieppe, he remarked, unless Monsieur preferred some other port,
+in which case--
+
+He played his part well. Volpetti fell into the snare and requested to
+be put off at Havre, offering a good sum for the privilege.
+
+"Providence has delivered this man into my hands," exclaimed René,
+overjoyed.
+
+Volpetti agreed to be aboard by midnight, and on the departure of
+Soliviac, continued his preparations for the journey. He instructed
+Brosseur to have supper brought up to him, adding:
+
+"Keep your ears open to what is said in the kitchen."
+
+Soliviac was, meanwhile, being instructed by the Carbonari to take the
+Marquis and his friends aboard at an early hour. The captain accordingly
+sought René, informing him of what time he was expected. The Marquis
+answered:
+
+"The Irish gentleman and lady will be at the ship by that hour,
+Soliviac. But I am not certain of going. If I do, I shall get to your
+vessel by means of a small skiff."
+
+The Carbonari frowned when Soliviac repeated these words to them. Louis
+Pierre remarked:
+
+"Deeper springs than love move the Marquis."
+
+"I warned him," said Soliviac, "that he must be on time, else the
+Polipheme would sail without him, and he answered that he did not
+imagine that the vessel would leave before midnight."
+
+The Carbonari exchanged a keen glance, and Giacinto said:
+
+"Let him do as he is minded, but keep your eyes open. This is to be our
+program: I remain ashore to track Volpetti and his servant. You,
+Captain, and Louis Pierre will be aboard the sloop. If Brezé happens to
+see us and asks to be taken aboard, he must be refused, on pretext of
+lack of room. Now, each man to his business."
+
+A half hour later, René descended the stairway accompanied by Miss
+O'Ranleigh, her face hidden by a large bonnet. Mr. O'Ranleigh followed,
+his hat pulled well over his forehead, and his coat collar high over his
+neck. But the keen eyes of Louis Pierre again perceived the resemblance
+and he muttered:
+
+"Accursed race!--Race which has brought reproach and invasion to
+France!--But who is this pair? And why does that young aristocrat pay
+them court?"
+
+As the two Carbonari walked down the wharf later in the evening, Louis
+Pierre said:
+
+"I am more strongly convinced that this is no love adventure. Be
+cautious, Giacinto. You stay behind to strike the blow."
+
+Following them came the Marquis and the two Irish passengers. René bade
+his friends farewell for a brief while, saying to the girl in a low
+voice:
+
+"Fear nothing. I shall succeed."
+
+"I wonder if this is a countermine, a cord set to entangle our own net,"
+meditated Giacinto.
+
+He followed the Marquis to the inn, which reached, the latter ran
+immediately to his own room. Giacinto concluded to await René's exit
+before carrying out his own plan, namely to hide in the apartment next
+to Volpetti's and which had been that of the Irish guests. Just as he
+was about to realize this scheme, the Marquis stepped in before him. For
+fifteen years he had awaited this moment of revenge. He had entered the
+ranks of the Knights of Liberty, the nucleus of the Carbonari, for the
+sole purpose of wreaking vengeance on his countryman. A formidable power
+was back of him, transforming him from an ordinary homicide into the
+avenger of a cause. And now he was being cheated out of his due by this
+unforeseen complication. He stood in the passage a half hour waiting for
+the Marquis to come forth. At last he went down to supper and Kate
+hurried to wait upon him. She marveled at his abstraction and tried
+coquettishly to rouse him.
+
+"Have you seen a black cat's shadow?" she asked, alluding to a local
+superstition.
+
+Giacinto abstractedly caressed her coarse hand.
+
+"Tell me," he said, "does the French gentleman leave tonight? I mean the
+one who first arrived."
+
+"What business is that of yours?" she asked, annoyed at her lover's
+coldness.
+
+"Because," said the Sicilian in a passionate tone, "if he goes I must
+leave you, my darling, for we sail together."
+
+"He leaves tonight and the other also, No. 10. But, if you prefer to
+stay, other vessels will leave tomorrow."
+
+Giacinto gazed into her eyes with promise. Then, dashing off the
+Chianti, he ran to his room, smiling at the credulity of servant maids.
+He threw on his cloak, tied a sash around his waist, into which he
+thrust a pair of pistols, grasped a thick stick, glided out of the hotel
+and was soon lost in the mist.
+
+
+
+
+Chapter V
+
+THE CREAKING BOOTS
+
+
+The night grew darker, and the mist denser. At half past eleven,
+Volpetti, followed by Brosseur, took the road leading to the wharf, the
+latter carrying the traveling bags and other baggage. Volpetti had the
+box of documents and Brosseur grumbled at the heaviness of his own load,
+which prevented his keeping up with his master. Being scarcely able to
+see him, he followed by listening to the creaking of his boots. But he
+was obliged to walk so slowly that the creaking became fainter and
+fainter, seeming finally to die out altogether. Suddenly, he heard boots
+again and hurried on, succeeding at last in overtaking the owner of
+them; just then this owner turned and, with no warning, dealt Brosseur a
+blow on the head so effective that the valet rolled over into the mud,
+emitting only a smothered bellow. René leaned over his victim, turning
+on the light from his lantern. A stream of blood tricked down his face
+and he seemed insensible. Thrusting his hand into Brosseur's breast and
+pockets, he extracted a bunch of keys. With these he opened the wallets,
+but no box did he find. Then, shaking the fellow, to convince himself
+that he was still unconscious, René hurried after Volpetti. A moment
+later Giacinto stumbled upon the wounded man.
+
+"The Marquis knows how to strike!" he exclaimed. "But he has yet to
+learn how to remove his victims." And the Sicilian flung the baggage out
+into the sea. Then, with the greatest difficulty, he pushed the half
+living body of his enemy over the embankment into the water.
+
+"Santa Maria be praised! The danger is over," and, crossing himself, he
+hurried on.
+
+When Volpetti heard, instead of Brosseur's heavy tread, light feet very
+near him, he instinctively clasped the box to his breast and clutched
+his dagger. Then he turned, calling out:
+
+"Brosseur! Rascal! Where are you?"
+
+For answer, a heavy blow descended on his head. Volpetti grasped his
+pistol and turned, but his adversary flung his strong arms around him,
+seized the pistol, which he pressed to the other's head, saying:
+
+"Give me the box or I shall blow your brains out."
+
+Volpetti struggled and tried to reach his dagger, but René twisted the
+refractory arm until it snapped in the socket, making its owner roar
+with pain. Louis Pierre had just leaped ashore, and, guided by the
+commotion of the struggle, he ran to the group, which he expected to
+consist of the two Italians.
+
+Just then Giacinto ran up, crying gleefully:
+
+"Aha! Do you recognize Giacinto Palli? Let us throw him into the sea."
+
+"Not here," said Louis Pierre, binding his hands and feet. "He might
+save himself."
+
+"We can hang weights to him."
+
+"Where is the servant?"
+
+"The fat fellow? He is saying his prayers with the fish."
+
+"Are you two men the enemies of this spy?" asked René.
+
+"To the death," replied Giacinto, gagging his enemy with a pocket
+handkerchief.
+
+"Mine also. He has robbed me like a dog. I must leave Dover tonight for
+this deed."
+
+"Do you promise to maintain absolute secrecy concerning what occurs
+aboard the Polipheme tonight?"
+
+"I give you a gentleman's word," replied René.
+
+The three men lifted the never so helpless, but still lucky, Volpetti
+down the stairway aboard the sloop in waiting.
+
+
+
+
+Chapter VI
+
+THE PARDON
+
+
+Naundorff and Amélie, from the Polipheme's deck, watched the men
+carrying Volpetti to the sloop. They trembled and clasped hands. The
+vessel was anchored in deep water and the waves rocked her from side to
+side. The night was cold and damp. Amélie shivered, chilled by the
+spray. Just then the guard announced the arrival of the sloop and René's
+voice triumphantly called across the waters:
+
+"Amélie! Amélie!"
+
+She ran to the vessel's side as the rope ladder was thrown down and saw
+what seemed to be a dead body, borne by her lover and his companion. On
+reaching deck, René rapturously kissed Amélie's hand and then
+triumphantly handed Naundorff the box.
+
+"Drop anchor!" called out the captain, and the Polipheme rode away from
+the English coast. Meanwhile Amélie, Naundorff, René, the captain, and
+the two Carbonari gathered in the cabin. Punch was ordered, for they
+were all soaking wet and had need of a stimulant. The liquor sparkled
+with the tossing of the vessel and a sense of good fellowship diffused
+itself among the ship's company, some of whom a few hours earlier were
+unknown to one, another. With her customary resolution, Amélie took the
+initiative:
+
+"Gentlemen, we must understand each other. My father and I are not Irish
+travelers seeking employment in France. We are French outlaws, the
+police on our trail, and a mighty party seeking to exterminate us. The
+man lying bound on deck is a villain who robbed us of our certificates,
+the documents entitling us to our inheritance. The Marquis de Brezé, my
+affianced lover, has recovered these papers. Am I correct in inferring
+that you have aided him?"
+
+"Mademoiselle," replied Giacinto, "the veriest coincidence has united
+our projects. The Marquis has a strong arm but lacks caution. I cast his
+first victim into the sea or we should not now be securely riding away
+from Dover. O royal punch!" he cried, draining his glass.
+
+"The second victim," remarked Louis Pierre, "will also sleep in the
+water, but we are first to extract his secrets. What think you,
+Captain?"
+
+"'Tis the only solution, my friend," replied Soliviac gravely.
+
+"'Tis a lamentable necessity," added René.
+
+"Say, rather, a mild retaliation," insisted Giacinto.
+
+Amélie's glance was of an avenging archangel.
+
+Naundorff rose to his feet and towered above them all. His voice rose in
+an appeal, a supplication: "No blood! No blood! Let us forgive!"
+
+"Forgive that unscrupulous creature?--that instrument of tyrants?"
+exclaimed Louis Pierre.
+
+"He has betrayed and tortured the innocent," said Soliviac solemnly.
+
+"He brought my brother to the scaffold" cried Giacinto.
+
+"He sought the death of my father," said Amélie.
+
+Then, in chorus, they cried:
+
+"He must die!"
+
+Silence followed. The captain poured out another glass of punch. Amélie
+and René drew apart from the group and engaged in a lover's colloquy.
+The three Carbonari talked animatedly of the accomplishment of their
+plans. When, later, Amélie turned her eyes in search of her father and
+failed to find him, she concluded he had gone to rest or that he chose
+to protest by his absence against the general sentiment regarding
+Volpetti.
+
+Meanwhile, Naundorff was staggering along the vessel's deck, as she
+tossed roughly, in the direction of the bound spy, who lay near a heap
+of cordage where he had been deposited by his captors. His handsome face
+was contracted with rage, which increased as he saw the watch-maker
+approach. He believed that his last hour had arrived. Naundorff bent
+over him, saying in a low voice:
+
+"I have come to set you free."
+
+Volpetti's eyes flashed amazement.
+
+"Listen!" said his liberator, cutting the cords with his pen knife. "I
+forgive you that God may forgive me. Your life has been a series of
+iniquities. You have made me suffer so greatly that I have almost
+doubted the existence of God. When you are free, change your mode of
+life. Here you will surely be killed. Cast yourself overboard, for you
+may be rescued by some other vessel. Do not stir yet. Be very quiet."
+
+He had already freed Volpetti's hands. He now cut the cords binding his
+legs and feet. The spy muttered:
+
+"Harebrained imbecile!"
+
+During this critical moment his past life rose before him. _He_ change?
+Impossible! He was a spy by nature. When a school boy, he had spied
+upon and delivered up his playfellows. While a novice in the monastery,
+he had spied upon his brothers. Turned out of the monastery by the
+Revolution, he had spied upon the revolutionists. His education and
+inclinations fitted him for the life, and the present atmosphere was
+auspicious, or 'twas the golden age of the secret police. The true
+history of that epoch will never be written because certain knaves
+carried it with them to the grave. When Volpetti entered the ranks of
+the secret police, he displayed signal talent. According to a remark
+made at the time by a prominent official, he was not only the eyes and
+ears but also the arm of the government. The swift eye of Vidocq early
+discerned the wonderful gifts of this king among spies: his art in
+ingratiating himself into the good graces of his employers; his genius
+at disguises and every species of simulation; his alertness in forming
+intimacies with the familiars of those who were his predestined victims.
+In short, he was a born spy and his machinations were labors of love. He
+was furnished money, agents and whatever other auxiliaries he demanded.
+His astuteness had discovered countless plots, effected the capture of a
+multitude of conspirators, among these General Doyenne, who suicided in
+prison, rather than submit to the ignominy of picket torture.
+
+No need to say that in the heart of Volpetti there was no room for
+gratitude or remorse. He held goodness to be weakness, and forgiveness
+imbecility. That Naundorff should forgive the many years of persecution
+suffered at his hands, was to him incomprehensible. Why, the tracking of
+Naundorff had been his specialty for half a lifetime, his supreme title
+to glory. He viewed him now with Satanic disdain as he loosed his bonds.
+
+Volpetti's only gods were Destiny and Fatality. Since leaving London,
+Fatality had seemed to be in the atmosphere. When earlier he was carried
+on deck, bound and gagged, he had in a rage called himself a fool for
+being trapped. But now Fatality seemed to be on the side of Naundorff
+and Volpetti reflected:
+
+"This man has been overtaken a thousand times. He is a bright mark for
+the arrows of Fate."
+
+Naundorff, meanwhile, repeated the regal formula of pardon;
+
+"_I forgive you that God, who is over you and me and all men, may extend
+to me his mercy,--God who sees us and to whom your evil deeds are known
+as well as the moment in which his hand will reduce you to naught_. I
+forgive you because it is my destiny to forgive and to expiate, and I am
+ready to fulfil it; but I warn you to tempt Providence no longer."
+
+Volpetti felt his limbs free and his blood resume its normal
+circulation. He commenced to remove his clothes, Naundorff, meanwhile,
+concealing him. Crawling to the edge of the vessel, he leaped into the
+water and the deck guard sang out, "Man overboard!"
+
+
+
+
+Chapter VII
+
+THE REVELATION
+
+
+This cry always throws crew and passengers into wild excitement, all of
+whom now appeared as if by magic on deck. The fog was beginning to break
+but the water still dashed madly against the sides of the vessel. In the
+general confusion no one asked how the accident had occurred, but the
+mate beckoned the captain aside and whispered:
+
+"'Tis the prisoner who is overboard and that passenger," pointing toward
+Naundorff, "unloosed him. I did not interfere because I did not realize
+what he was about."
+
+Muttering a curse, Soliviac approached Naundorff.
+
+"What do you mean, Monsieur? In the devil's name, how have you dared to
+set the prisoner free? Pernies, are you sure that this gentleman--Well,
+however that be, bind him securely. Now, cock your guns, and if that
+scoundrel swims near us, send him to the bottom with a bullet through
+his head."
+
+The sailors leaned over the edge, seeking to distinguish the floating
+body among the waves which rose more and more furiously. The wind,
+increasing with the fury of the waves, swept away the clouds and the
+surface of the sea gleamed almost white. One of the Breton sailors, a
+kind of wild-cat fellow, with green eyes which saw by night, cried out
+that a man was floating near the vessel, whereupon four bullets were
+sent in that direction. Two youths, by name Yvon and Hoel, lowered a
+canoe and were after the fugitive within ten minutes.
+
+Naundorff, guarded, almost a prisoner, calmly awaited results. René and
+Amélie stood near him for the purpose of defending him, were it
+necessary, but they could not conceal their terror and anger at the
+spy's escape.
+
+"You have undone us, father," said Amélie.
+
+"We struggle vainly," said René. "If that man saves his life, may the
+sea swallow the rest of us, for we should have a fate more terrible than
+death. No country of earth could afford a refuge. To what end have I
+recovered the documents? I, a de Brezé, a Giac, performing the office of
+a common murderer!"
+
+Naundorff remained silent. Just then there rang out from the watchman a
+cry: "Ship to the larboard."
+
+The encounter with another vessel is always an important occurrence at
+sea. At that period the memory was fresh of combats with corsairs,
+English, French, and Spanish. But the proximity of this ship was a
+consideration of greater than ordinary gravity, for it signified the
+probable salvation of the fugitive, whose body now gleamed on the
+surface.
+
+Soliviac growled:
+
+"I wager that the rascal will be picked up."
+
+Then the ship hove in sight like a black bird, now skimming, now flying,
+now keeling. She was a schooner somewhat larger than the Polipheme. She
+could be perfectly discerned, for the night had become clear. The
+floating man cried out and she slackened speed and flung out a cable.
+The sailors were about to fire. Soliviac restrained them saying, that
+they would surely miss their aim and alarm the other vessel. Impotent
+and raging, the Knights of Liberty beheld the spy's salvation as his
+nude body gleamed against the schooner's dark side.
+
+"He is saved!" they almost wailed.
+
+"He is receiving a welcome!" growled the sailors as they turned
+menacingly upon Naundorff, Soliviac the most infuriated of the group.
+Clutching the watch-maker by the collar, he roared:
+
+"Who are you to liberate prisoners aboard my vessel? Are you that
+villain's accomplice? Well, by God, you shall suffer the fate reserved
+for him."
+
+"He deserves it," cried Giacinto. "This man, a stranger to us has been
+entrusted with our secret. This serves us right for letting others
+meddle in our business."
+
+Amélie flung herself before her father and de Brezé stood beside her.
+Soliviac motioned to certain sailors and they immediately overpowered
+René, tho he struggled hard to free himself.
+
+Up to this time Naundorff had remained silent, but, fearing the
+consequences to his friend, he advanced, saying:
+
+"Captain, release the Marquis. I shall explain my action. I beg to be
+heard in the cabin, with only these gentlemen as witnesses," motioning
+towards the Carbonari. The captain ordered René's release and the party
+descended the stairway, Soliviac following Naundorff. On reaching the
+cabin, Louis Pierre and Giacinto stood on each side of the captain, as
+tho forming a court.
+
+"You are," said Soliviac, addressing Naundorff, "a culprit. On my
+vessel, I administer justice and hold myself accountable only to God.
+You have constituted yourself the accomplice of a man condemned to
+death. As you have set him free, 'tis only justice that you should take
+his place, for his freedom means the death of the rest of us. But before
+passing sentence, I shall listen to your defence."
+
+"Permit me to say--" interposed René, but Soliviac interrupted with
+firmness:
+
+"It is the prisoner who must answer."
+
+Naundorff raised his head and replied: "I neither explain my conduct nor
+excuse myself, I liberated Volpetti because I had the right to do so."
+
+"The right!" exclaimed the astounded Carbonari, thinking they heard a
+lunatic.
+
+"Yes, the right," insisted Naundorff. "The right to forgive belongs to
+the most grievously offended and to none of you has that man brought
+such evil as to me. Were I to describe what he has made me suffer, you
+would comprehend the extent of human baseness. But there are no words in
+which to describe that suffering. He buried me in a dungeon during the
+best years of my youth; he took my name from me and almost my life; only
+a few days since he directed the arms of assassins upon me. 'Tis I have
+the right to forgive him,--I and none other. Be it known to you, Captain
+Soliviac, that were forgiveness banished from the earth, it should find
+asylum in my breast. My mission is to forgive; my duty, to prevent, even
+at the loss of my life, the spilling of a drop of blood. I have
+finished. Do with me as you will."
+
+The Carbonari exchanged looks; in spite of their resentment, Naundorff
+awed them. At last, Soliviac, somewhat nonplussed exclaimed:
+
+"The devil, Monsieur! That speech is very fine, but there are times when
+forgiveness of one man is condemnation to many others. That man's life
+costs our death."
+
+"And mine also," said Naundorff, tears trickling down his face, "and
+that of my children."
+
+"He raves!" exclaimed Giacinto. "Have we not listened sufficiently long
+to the drivelings of a madman? I am sorry for this fine young lady, but
+our business must be dispatched."
+
+Soliviac assented and then addressed Naundorff:
+
+"We shall believe your story, Monsieur, through an excess of credulity,
+tho who will assure us that you are not a spy yourself, ingeniously
+disguised? The case is this: that scoundrel owes you his liberty. How
+are you to explain that?"
+
+Naundorff moved back, and, with deliberate, majestic dignity, removed
+his hat, cast off his cloak and stepped into the full light of the
+cabin's lamp. The three Carbonari, completely taken back, uttered a cry
+of amazement and uncovered in deference to royalty.
+
+
+
+
+Chapter VIII
+
+THE CAPTAIN
+
+
+An hour later Naundorff sat surrounded by the three Carbonari, to whom
+he had related his entire history. Pity and amazement were upon their
+faces; Louis Pierre seemed stirred out of his taciturnity. On the table
+lay the open box from which had been taken the documents corroborating
+the recital. But these papers had scarcely been necessary, for the
+Carbonari believed Naundorff blindly.
+
+"What a blow is tyranny to receive!" exclaimed Louis Pierre. "'Tis the
+man who sits upon the throne today that invited foreign troops into our
+country. Now shall we brand his forehead with the blister of usurpation
+and fraud. When I longed to inflict upon the House a terrible
+punishment, I little dreamed that God reserved one so complete, and that
+I--_we_ should be the instruments."
+
+Then Giacinto spoke:
+
+"_We_, who are an invincible force, make the cause of Naundorff our own
+cause. We shall be its defenders even against himself, if he should
+again seek to overthrow it. What say you, Soliviac? I answer for it that
+our brothers shall as one stand by him. Ah, we carry on the Polipheme a
+revelation to our country. To the believing we carry faith; to the
+incredulous proofs," and he motioned toward the documents.
+
+Amélie's clear voice interposed:
+
+"Gentlemen, formulate no plans, foster no hopes. Are you counting on
+disembarking on French soil? That spy living and free, there is not a
+safe spot in Europe."
+
+"Mademoiselle speaks the truth," assented Giacinto, who gazed fascinated
+upon her imperious beauty and splendid poise. "Our danger is great."
+
+"Until now," she continued, "no one has suspected the existence of these
+papers, which are of a nature to turn the tide of history. My father had
+no intention of making use of them. He wished to owe his success to the
+generosity of his sister, and he still trusts to that generosity. But
+Volpetti knows our secret and he will set forces in motion to wrest this
+last guarantee from us. He will not scruple as to means, even though our
+lives be the price. Instead, therefore, of dreaming of splendid
+victories and dashing revenges, let us think of a refuge. Captain
+Soliviac, head the vessel toward Dunkirk, for any other spot of France
+would be our sepulchre. Not even in Holland should we be safe."
+
+Naundorff buried his face in his hands. The reproach implied in Amélie's
+words cut him deeply. Tho his heart approved his extravagant
+magnanimity, he realized that in freeing Volpetti he shut in his own
+face the doors of France and lost the opportunity of an interview with
+the sister whom he was so anxious to convince.
+
+"Our fate is in God's hands, Amélie," he said with an imposing gesture,
+"Volpetti is under superhuman control."
+
+"That superhuman control," observed Giacinto sarcastically, "sent a
+vessel to rescue him. That vessel at this moment carries him to France.
+Heart of the Madonna! we require genius now to escape with our lives. Am
+I not right, brothers?" and he turned solemnly toward the other
+Carbonari.
+
+"Gentlemen," said Amélie, "a secret merits a secret. Of what force do
+you speak?"
+
+"Mademoiselle," replied the Italian, "we are not permitted to reveal the
+key of our society. But this much may I say: We are the mines which, in
+annihilating the present, shall become the basis of the future. Though
+having the appearance of pygmies, we are loosening the foundations of
+the columns which support giants. Our aim is to protect the weak."
+
+René listened with knitted brow and uneasy expression.
+
+Louis Pierre added:
+
+"We are vital reaction manifesting itself through convulsions. We are
+creating by destroying. Our program is to undo the done."
+
+"The program of Satan," murmured Naundorff involuntarily.
+
+"No one can speak those words with so little reason as you,
+Monseigneur," replied the other. "Did you not say just now that justice
+is realized in violence? Did you not speak of expiation? and of the
+iniquities of the past?"
+
+"Yes," answered Naundorff. "I am effacing the sins of a dynasty--its
+abuses, cruelties and indifference to human suffering."
+
+"Father," said Amélie, "we are effacing also its frailties and
+apostasies. Therefore, we must not temporize nor vacillate in critical
+moments. O, can you not comprehend that justice would be on our side at
+this moment if we might deal the usurpation a deadly blow?" "We are
+ready to serve your cause," said Giacinto. "Naundorff and his daughter
+may count upon our loyalty and we are those who walk by night through
+the bowels of the earth. The soles of our shoes are cork that our
+footsteps may not reach men's ears. Captain Soliviac," he concluded,
+suddenly turning toward the seaman, "you are commanding aboard this
+vessel. What route are we to take?"
+
+Soliviac's green Celtic eyes flashed. So far he had taken no part in the
+discussion, but now resolution stamped itself upon his face and his
+voice vibrated with authority, that authority of supreme moments when
+the ship ran great danger.
+
+"We are to take the route which the other ship has taken; we are to
+overtake her before she reaches France and capture her. She shall not
+touch French soil while Camille Soliviac is Captain of the Polipheme."
+
+The others were silent, comprehending the danger. No war raged on the
+seas; corsairs and pirates were restrained severely.
+
+"What other suggestion can you offer?" asked Soliviac.
+
+"None," replied Giacinto and Louis Pierre.
+
+"Such being the case--," and he turned to descend the stairway.
+
+"Captain," interrupted Louis Pierre, "the schooner is lighter and
+swifter than our brig. She has an enormous advantage."
+
+"No," replied Soliviac. "She is going at ordinary speed and is
+unconscious of our intention. Besides, she seems to be traveling
+backward while we have increased speed since the lulling of the storm.
+As soon as she is within reach of our cannon, we will salute and watch
+the effect. Therefore, let us drink each other good luck in another
+punch, after which Mademoiselle may retire to her state-room and pray
+for us."
+
+"I to my state-room?" demanded Amélie, her eyes flashing. "How little
+you know me, Captain."
+
+Naundorff clutched Soliviac by the sleeve, and, almost kneeling,
+entreated:
+
+"Renounce force, for in that renunciation is the secret of life. It has
+been written: I took your cause in my hands and your grievance have I
+avenged. O forbear to spill blood, forbear to destroy life."
+
+The Captain, respectfully but with evident displeasure, moved away,
+saying:
+
+"There is no alternative."
+
+"But what right have you, Captain, to attack that vessel for performing
+a charitable deed?"
+
+"What right?" retorted the Breton. "Tell me first by what right the
+innocent boy-king was tortured, imprisoned, buried? When that schooner
+and its crew sleep on the floor of ocean, no man will arise to speak to
+me about rights. Ho there! to business." And he ran down the stairs,
+followed by René and the Carbonari. Amélie flung her arms around her
+father's neck as he fell on his knees in prayer. The pale blue morning
+light filtered through the cabin windows and gleamed over the water.
+
+
+
+
+Chapter IX
+
+THE SCHOONER
+
+
+The Polipheme with outstretched sails sped swiftly after the schooner.
+Soliviac turned the telescope upon her, remarking to the mate:
+
+"She seems to be lying to."
+
+The mate took the instrument and looked also.
+
+"Not only lying to," he said, "but she is also drawing in sails."
+
+"What can that mean?" mused the captain.
+
+"It means good luck to us, for within another quarter of an hour she
+will be within our reach. Then we may send her a salute. There is no
+necessity of announcing our intentions to the high seas: therefore,
+lower the French flag and hoist the Dutch, in case there be witnesses to
+our fray."
+
+These orders were silently executed. The crew never commented upon the
+captain's acts. Besides, having been habituated by their long campaigns
+against England to piracy and lust for booty, they chafed at the
+restrictions of a normally organized commerce and enthusiastically
+welcomed the approaching struggle. The schooner's graceful form,
+floating the English flag, was easily discernible. Her crew appeared
+like ants, moving to and fro.
+
+"Captain," exclaimed the pilot, "do you not see them signal? They have
+just fired off a sky rocket."
+
+"Let us give them a sample of _our_ rockets!" answered Soliviac.
+
+"Let us demand the spy," whispered Giacinto.
+
+"Are you crazy?" asked Louis Pierre. "What if the fellow leave them a
+letter for the government? No. The vessel that has rescued Volpetti must
+perish. Are you trembling? Have you contracted the scruples of the man
+who is praying on his knees in the cabin? I also believe in divine
+justice. I believe that 'tis we who accomplish it."
+
+"Captain," called out the mate, "do you see that thin column of smoke
+rising from her right side?"
+
+Soliviac dropped the telescope, for his eyes served him better at that
+distance than the instrument. He saw that the vessel was burning.
+
+"She is afire!" he called out.
+
+"Fire!" shouted the three Carbonari.
+
+"The divine justice of which Naundorff spoke," said René.
+
+"Nevertheless, inasmuch as a few buckets of water may extinguish that
+justice, let us send a salute to the English flag, Captain," ironically
+remarked Louis Pierre.
+
+Soliviac gave the order and four little cannon, with a simultaneous
+precision which revealed practice, sent their load into the schooner's
+side.
+
+"Load again!" shouted Soliviac. "At the masts and spars!"
+
+Aboard the schooner, the unexpected attack produced panic. The crew ran
+back and forth in consternation and the smoke grew denser.
+
+"Louis Pierre!" called out Giacinto in ferocious joy, "I see Volpetti
+aboard."
+
+The Polipheme's second discharge broke the mizzen mast, which, falling,
+caught beneath it two of the sailors. The smoke rose in great columns
+and 'twas impossible to see what further happened.
+
+"Where are we?" asked Soliviac of the pilot.
+
+"Opposite the isle of Jersey, but nearer the shore than they. Those who
+count on swimming ashore have slim chance."
+
+"Keep an eye on the skiffs," called the captain. "Now they are trying to
+save themselves."
+
+Red tongues of flame shot out amid the smoke. The captain commanded.
+
+"Another salute! Let water in to quench their fire."
+
+Again the cannons' load was poured into the schooner's side. She
+attempted no defence, for all her energy was directed to fighting the
+fire aboard. One of the Polipheme's balls went into her bow, and the
+water roared through the aperture.
+
+"Now she goes to the bottom!" shouted Giacinto, wild with joy.
+
+Just then the crew lowered a skiff. The tiny craft dropped to the water
+and floated like a shell, and several persons cast themselves therein.
+Two seized the oars and, to the astonishment of the spectators, started
+toward the Polipheme, whose sailors would gladly have fired upon them
+had not Louis Pierre interposed. The skiff came within hailing distance.
+Two men, a woman and a child of some five years were visible.
+
+"Save us!" they entreated wildly. "We have not harmed you!"
+
+Amélie shudderingly grasped the captain's arm.
+
+"Have mercy on them!" she said.
+
+"It cannot be," he answered.
+
+"At least the child," she insisted.
+
+"Hello there!" he called to a sailor. "Cast them a cable and hoist up
+the boy."
+
+"And the others?"
+
+A look and gesture from Soliviac answered the I question. The skiff drew
+nearer and some moments later the child, almost dead with fright, was
+drawn up to the deck. Amélie gathered him in her arms and covered his
+face with kisses.
+
+"Mamma! mamma!" wailed the little fellow in English.
+
+Notwithstanding her natural courage, Amélie took refuge in a heap of
+cables and clasped the child tightly to her breast. She did not wish to
+see or hear, but the shrieks of the skiff's inmates sounded on her ears
+even tho she covered them close.
+
+She clasped the child tightly. Suddenly she I screamed aloud, for she
+felt the vessel beneath her tremble amid a deafening explosion. The
+child ceased sobbing through fright. The schooner's magazine had
+exploded, casting her into the air. The detonation was followed by a
+terrible silence while pieces of broken timber and mutilated bodies
+floated on the surface of the water.
+
+Naundorff raised the almost inanimate form of his daughter from the
+deck, and then exclaimed in broken tones that seemed to presage naught
+but a hopeless future:
+
+"Blood has been spilled for our cause; God is against us!"
+
+
+
+
+Book IV
+
+
+PICMORT
+
+
+
+Chapter I
+
+THE CASTLE
+
+
+At the foot of a mountain-chain which crosses Brittany, continues
+through Normandy and terminates in Cherbourg, stands the castle of
+Picmort. It pertains to the de Brezé patrimony, through the Guyornarch
+fief, which was the avenue through which the illustrious family claimed
+descent from the royal house of Brittany. Notwithstanding political
+vicissitudes and the invasion of new ideas, the de Brezés continued to
+exercise a veritable sovereignty in that corner of France. There lived
+not in the valley a shepherd nor a long-haired peasant who failed to
+acknowledge the dominion of the House de Brezé and render the tribute of
+a reverence approaching divine honors. René during his hunting journeys
+to Picmort received proofs of the extraordinary attachment which the
+Bretons evinced to their master.
+
+One evening as the setting sun gilded the lichens on the rough Celtic
+rocks, there traveled toward the thicket a woman and a man,--the latter
+carrying a child in his arms. They journeyed laboriously, as tho greatly
+fatigued, especially the woman, who with the greatest difficulty lifted
+her small feet, clad in rude sabots, which were in keeping with her
+peasant's dress and the white coif covering her blond hair. At last,
+heaving a sigh, she sank upon the ground. The man came to her saying
+warningly and gently:
+
+"Mademoiselle, it will soon be night and if we do not hurry, we shall
+have to sleep here with the child. Can you not make an effort?"
+
+"The sabots have bruised my feet," she complained, her beautiful young
+face full of pain. "But no matter, I shall start again."
+
+She tried to walk, but failed, saying:
+
+"O I cannot, I cannot! What will become of us?"
+
+Louis Pierre did not dare to insist further. He placed the sleeping
+child on the ground and wiped his wet forehead with a nervous hand.
+Suddenly, the barking of a dog came to them, followed by the appearance
+of a great mastiff, springing through the thicket. The child awoke and
+began to cry, and the woman,--girl, rather--half rose. Then the
+approaching tread of a horse was heard and a splendid voice called to
+the dog:
+
+"Here Silvano!" and the horseman sprang lightly to earth. Turning to the
+travelers, he said:
+
+"A good and holy evening to you."
+
+He was a tall, young, finely proportioned peasant of beautiful beardless
+face and abundant hair.
+
+"Are you the people we await at Picmort?"
+
+"We are," answered Louis Pierre. "Are you Jean Vilon?"
+
+"My name is Jean Vilon, servant of God and my master, the Marquis de
+Brezé. My letter of instruction reads that there will arrive a woman, a
+child and two men."
+
+"Our companion remained on the coast," replied Louis Pierre evasively.
+"He will be here later."
+
+"He shall be welcome when he arrives," replied Jean Vilon with grave
+courtesy. "In the meantime I shall carry out my master's orders. He
+wishes that no one in the village know of your presence. Prepare then to
+follow my instructions."
+
+"We shall obey you, Jean Vilon. I know you are a valued and trusted
+servant of the Marquis."
+
+The Breton made no rejoinder to the praise. He stooped and raised the
+tired girl to the saddle, caressed the child and seated him on his
+shoulder. Then, taking the reins in his hands, he led the horse into
+the thicket. Night was almost upon them and the darkness was rapidly
+increasing. The horse, had he not been preceded by Silvano and led by
+Vilon, would have many times stumbled upon the stumps of trees hidden
+beneath the grass and leaves. The child clung confidingly to Vilon,
+asking incessantly, "Are we almost there?" After a three hours' journey,
+they halted in an open which led to a species of natural bower. Here
+Vilon aided Amélie to descend. He placed the child on the earth, tied
+the horse to a tree and took from his pocket a small lantern which he
+lighted from a flint. Then turning its beams full upon Louis Pierre's
+face, he asked in the cautious tone of a peasant-warrior:
+
+"The watch-word?"
+
+"Giac and Saint Ann," Amélie hastened to answer.
+
+"Correct," answered the young Breton. "Henceforth we are friends. My
+master has written a letter of instructions, which he commands me to
+burn after reading. Bear witness that I comply," and he took from his
+belt a folded paper which he lighted with a flint. When it had crumbled
+to ashes, he followed the mastiff for some distance. On reaching a great
+stone, he halted, the removal of which disclosed an aperture which
+resembled the opening of a wild beast's cave. He signaled the others to
+follow, entering first himself, bearing the child in his arms. The
+little fellow commenced to cry, whereupon Amélie drew near, whispering:
+
+"Baby Dick, do you want to live with me or away from me?"
+
+"With you, with you!" he cried.
+
+"Well then," and she smiled sweetly into Jean Vilon's face, "go with
+this good man, and he will take you where you will always be with me."
+
+The peasant stared at her transported. Amélie took off her sabots and
+followed him into the tunnel, Louis Pierre accompanying them. At first
+they had almost to crawl, for the passage was so narrow, but soon they
+were able to walk upright. After a while they reached a circular
+apartment whose roof was sustained by granite pillars and whose floor
+was strewn with dry herbs. Here Jean Vilon presented his charges with a
+basket of provisions there awaiting them. Bread, wine, cheese and milk
+constituted the refreshment, and their hunger made these seem delicious.
+Their guide was silent during the meal, tho his eyes of changeful hue
+were fixed from time to time on Amélie, in wonder and admiration. The
+white Breton coif on her head intensified the girl's great beauty.
+
+When the frugal repast was over, Jean Vilon cast the lantern's light
+upon the wall; a rusty grating appeared, which he unfastened with a
+rusty key. Back of the grating they beheld another passageway, narrower
+still, high, inclined upward, and winding to the right, after ascending
+which they passed through several galleries, reaching at last an oaken
+door barred with iron. Jean applied a key to this, and it swung upon its
+hinges. They entered an octagonal salon, through which they passed on to
+another apartment wherein began a stairway which seemed interminable.
+Amélie, notwithstanding her exhaustion, resolutely moved on; but there
+came a moment when she tottered, for the lack of fresh air almost
+asphyxiated her. Jean hastened to support her and with the gentlest
+reverence, completed the ascent, his arm around her shoulders.
+
+At the landing a current of fresh air revived her. They stood on the
+floor of an empty cistern. Stars shone overhead. Amélie realized that
+the arrangement was a military precaution for enabling the besieged to
+escape. Jean explained that there existed a tunnel from the cistern to a
+mine. They walked for a while along a subterranean passage. Suddenly
+Jean seemed to pass through the wall. He had but leaned heavily against
+it and thus disclosed a lane, so narrow that they had to push themselves
+sidewise through it. At length they stood in a large yard, near the foot
+of several tall gray towers overgrown with ivy. Amélie and Louis Pierre
+looked back for a last sight of the passageway which had conducted them
+thither. It had disappeared. No exit was visible and Jean smiled
+demurely at their amazement.
+
+Then he placed a finger on his lips and, bidding Louis Pierre go ahead
+with the lantern, he approached one of the towers and pushed against the
+postern, which yielded. Then, with the air of a host, he preceded them
+up a winding stairway, across an antechamber and into a sumptuously
+furnished salon, brilliantly lighted with wax tapers in porcelain
+candelabra of crystal pendants. The apartment was an example of highly
+refined Louis Quinze taste; the caprice of a Marquise de Brezé, removed
+by a wildly jealous husband from court and incarcerated in the gloomy
+towers of Picmort. This most capricious Marquise had adorned her prison
+walls with the refinements and exquisite fantasies of Versailles, until
+death came at last to her amid flowers, satins and laces. The boudoir
+remained ever after untenanted, with its mythological paintings, gilded
+screens, voluptuous couches, blue celadon jars, silver, ivory and
+enameled ornaments. Even the Marquise's lace handkerchief remained where
+the dying lady's feverish hand had crushed it.
+
+"My master has written that this apartment is to be occupied by you,
+Mademoiselle," said Jean. "It is called the Boudoir of the Marquise and
+the windows are always closed. There is a belief among the peasants to
+the effect that death should visit the castle if the windows be opened.
+You had best, therefore, in order to avoid comment, remain during the
+daytime in the rooms above. If you are seen from below, 'twill be
+thought that you are a servant-maid or my sister from Saint Brieuc."
+
+"You are a prudent man, Jean Vilon," said Louis Pierre.
+
+"A prudent and faithful man," said Amélie, smiling sweetly upon the
+Breton, as with the gentle dignity that so well became her, she seated
+herself in an armchair.
+
+"And now, Jean," she said, "provide my fellow-traveler with a bed and
+room. I see my own here. Have a little mattress brought for the boy, as
+he does not wish to leave me," and she caressed Baby Dick's blond head
+as she added an assurance that she would be very comfortable.
+
+As the two men retired, the light of dawn silvered the stern turrets of
+Picmort.
+
+
+
+
+Chapter II
+
+
+BAD NEWS
+
+
+On the following day, Amélie and Louis Pierre had a serious talk.
+
+"I do not consider," remarked the girl, "that René has reason to complain
+of my compliance with his instructions. I have obeyed him blindly, and
+that is not so easy a thing for me to do. But now I demand to know why,
+instead of accompanying my father to Paris and of hearing our faithful
+adherents acclaim him King, I am banished as tho I were a prisoner and
+enjoined to remain in a peasant's dress behind closed windows. In order
+to breathe fresh air, I must ascend the dizzy heights of a tower."
+
+Louis Pierre did not at once reply. He sat for a few moments in that
+gloomy attitude which he so often assumed.
+
+"Mademoiselle," he said after a few moments, "courage!"
+
+"Speak the truth," demanded Amélie imperiously. "I am no weakling."
+
+And her face was so gloriously brave that the Knight of Liberty spoke
+with more than his accustomed frankness.
+
+"Your father did not go immediately to Paris, for we are watched and
+caution is necessary. Our original plan has been abandoned, namely, that
+your father intercede with his sister and the Marquis reunite the
+families attached to the cause. Were that program in progress, your
+presence in Paris would be of inestimable value. The father and daughter
+together would present a picture calculated to quiet all lingering
+doubt. The impression you both produced upon Giacinto and me in the Red
+Fish would be repeated upon all beholders. But as matters stand today,
+your very faces would be your condemnation."
+
+Amélie fixed her brave eyes on the knight's dark face.
+
+"You mean," she said, "that Volpetti has been saved."
+
+"He has, that is to say some of the sailors reached the shore. How they
+survived fire, explosion, cannon, bullets and shipwreck I cannot say--"
+
+Amélie buried her face in her hands, but the springs of her wonderful
+iron will soon recovered their tension.
+
+"And how has this been discovered?" she asked. "I mean that some have
+been saved?"
+
+"You know, that on reaching French soil, we arranged to travel
+separately and by circuitous routes until we should reach some
+neighboring port, from which each on a different day should take the
+diligence. At Dinan, we spent our first night.
+
+"Yes," said Amélie.
+
+"At Dinan, Giacinto visited inns and taverns, conversed with sailors and
+fishermen and from them learned the story he too well knew, the tragedy
+in which he had played so prominent a part. He was told that two or
+three sailors had floated ashore at Pleneuf, been given shelter by
+fishermen and were now recovering."
+
+"If that be all," said the girl, with a look of relief, "why conjecture
+the worst? Volpetti was not in the best condition for swimming."
+
+"God grant your wish."
+
+"When René left me after our landing, he assured me that an inviolable
+asylum awaited me here and a faithful guardian in Jean Vilon. 'From
+father to son have the Vilons served the de Brazes,' he said. The
+present steward's father was executed for his adhesion to the throne and
+altar. The castle contains places of concealment known only to Jean and
+myself. If the attempt were made to seize you, 'twould be impossible
+while breath remains in Jean's body. He thinks that you are an unhappy
+girl, distantly related to me whom I have rescued from enforced entry
+into a convent."
+
+"Louis Pierre, I know that you and Giacinto stand for ideas widely at
+variance with those of which my father is a symbol; nevertheless, my
+faith in you is absolute. You are now my guardian angel," and she
+extended her hand to him.
+
+He did not dare touch, much less to kiss it. His face was transfigured,
+beautified, as he solemnly said:
+
+"The daughter of France may trust the sons of the Revolution. She may
+place faith in the enemy of the institutions which the Bourbon
+symbolizes. No man more than I hates the dynasty which, in committing
+treason against the country, became the cause of that country's woes,
+the woes of a foreign invasion. Mortal, eternal, inextinguishable hatred
+has Louis Pierre sworn against the House. This hate has guided his feet
+and been the spring of his actions until a few days since. Now I give
+the Bourbons a chance to prove that they have profited by adversity,
+that they are capable of being animated by an impulse of justice, that
+they repent them of their iniquities. I give the usurper a chance to
+voluntarily abdicate the throne and acknowledge the union of royalty
+with the strong, pure blood of the people. If this miracle be performed,
+if the sister open her arms to the brother, Louis Pierre will retract
+his malediction and forgive the House of Bourbon."
+
+These extravagant words caused Amélie's expression to become graver and
+loftier.
+
+"Who doubts, Louis Pierre," she said in almost affectionate effusion, as
+from a queen to a subject, "that my father will accomplish his mission?
+The recital of his unparalleled suffering, his atrocious martyrdom, the
+refuge he sought and obtained among the people, his children born of a
+daughter of those people; all this will speak for him eloquently.
+Humanity has suffered too greatly to remain unmoved before such woes. To
+my father is reserved the sublime office of reconciling the people and
+royalty."
+
+Her eyes and cheeks glowed and the Carbonaro ejaculated:
+
+"Blessed be the day when that light shines in France."
+
+"It will shine!" she cried. "Victory is almost ours. My father is secure
+beneath René's protection. He possesses proofs which, were it necessary
+to appeal to a tribunal, would win the cause instantly. O even tho
+Volpetti be risen from hell, what harm could he do?"
+
+"What could he do?" repeated the Carbonaro. "He can do everything to
+accomplish our ruin. Do not deceive yourself, Mademoiselle. If that man
+lives, we are lost. He holds the strings of our enterprise, he knows the
+entire history of the mechanic Naundorff. 'Tis he enveloped him in that
+name as in a winding sheet. If Volpetti be living, woe to your father,
+woe to you, woe to us all and to Soliviac, who has been of so great
+service. 'Tis a question of life and death, and we are not sleeping upon
+the danger, Mademoiselle," he concluded sombrely.
+
+"What do you mean?" she demanded almost sternly.
+
+"I mean that Giacinto is with Soliviac, and that they are exploring
+every shoal, creek and cape, interviewing every fisherman. Their
+destination is Pleneuf. Their project may have a startling effect," and
+Louis Pierre's voice rang out almost stridently.
+
+
+
+
+Chapter III
+
+GIACINTO'S RETURN
+
+
+Amélie was forced to resign herself patiently to await the news. Life
+tends to normalize itself, whatever the given conditions, and she wisely
+accommodated herself to the inevitable. During the mornings she roamed
+over the great castle, in company with Vilon and Baby Dick. They would
+ascend towers and descend into subterranean passages, rearranging the
+salons and adorning the altars. The only inmates of the lofty feudal
+edifice, besides Vilon, Amélie, Louis Pierre and the child were two
+maid-servants, one of whom was in charge of the kitchen. At dawn both
+maids went into the fields for fruit and vegetables or to take the cows
+to pasture, so that Amélie, free from importunate eyes, walked about
+freely. They were curious to see the Marquis's relative, she who slept
+in the Marquise's boudoir, but they made no impertinent inquiries
+through fear of Jean Vilon, who alone waited upon the guest. During the
+afternoon, Louis Pierre would come up from his room and play dominoes
+or discuss the future with her. The Carbonaro had read many books. His
+brain had received certain ideas as though they had been graven thereon
+with a corrosive. He was visionary, mystical and a dreamer, and
+pertained to the sect known as Theophilanthropists; he believed himself
+destined by Providence to accomplish some high mission requiring great
+valor and abnegation. His chief characteristic was a contempt for life,
+and this secured him Amélie's esteem.
+
+With Jean Vilon, Amélie conversed less than with Louis Pierre and her
+treatment always displayed an air of affectionate patronage. She was a
+woman, very much of a woman, and fully conscious of her effect upon men.
+She used no coquetry toward the fine peasant for in no particular did
+her feminine artifices approach familiarity. The homage she loved to
+receive was that of the soul, the adoration of chivalry; she longed for
+the devotion which illustrious unhappy queens had inspired, such as Mary
+Stuart, or Marie Antoinette. The attachment of Jean Vilon, each day more
+apparent, was such as a youth of medieval ages paid the holy relics. He
+divined and filled her every wish. On warm nights he escorted her
+through the woods that she might breathe the fresh, pure air. They took
+long walks which brought the roses back to her cheeks and the litheness
+to her limbs. These clandestine rambles, which seemed at first so risky,
+soon became a custom.
+
+But her chief delight was the child, the unfortunate waif, torn from the
+arms of his drowning mother and cast into hers. When asked his name, he
+would answer "Baby, baby!"
+
+"Only Baby?" Amélie would ask.
+
+One day the little fellow fixed his blue eyes, full of candor, on her
+face, and added:
+
+"Baby Dick."
+
+"His name is Richard, then," said Amélie. "This is some information
+gained," and with that much she had to content herself. The child had
+either forgotten or did not know his family name. Of his father he
+remembered nothing; of his mother he knew that she lived in a cottage
+near the beach, amid many flowers and with a large dog, as large as
+Silvano. Amélie began to think that he was a child born out of wedlock
+and she felt for him a greater attachment than ever. From the first
+moment of being with her, he had called her "Mamma." Her eyes would fill
+with tears as she placed him at night in his little bed and clasped his
+tiny hands in prayer. "He has no mother but me," she would say with
+trembling lips.
+
+One afternoon Louis Pierre read aloud to her from Rousseau's Emile while
+she held Baby Dick on her knees. Suddenly Jean Vilon appeared.
+
+"A man has just arrived," he said "bringing my master's watch-word. He
+came by the road of Saint Brieuc. Shall I open to him?"
+
+Louis exchanged a lightning glance with Amélie.
+
+"Is he dark, handsome, with curly black hair and in sailor's clothes?"
+she asked.
+
+"Yes, and he seems very tired."
+
+"Bring him through the subterranean passage, no matter how great is his
+fatigue. The servants must not see a stranger enter."
+
+Jean Vilon withdrew, and it was night when, almost fainting with
+exhaustion, and covered with dust, Giacinto appeared before them. Amélie
+ordered Vilon to retire. There was no need to ask questions. The
+Italian's face, with terrible eloquence, revealed the truth.
+Nevertheless Louis Pierre inquired:
+
+"Bad news?"
+
+"The worst."
+
+"Volpetti is saved?"
+
+"Saved and on the road to Paris."
+
+Louis Pierre's voice uttered an inarticulate growl, but the girl
+recovered sufficient courage to say:
+
+"Come, take heart! How did he save himself?"
+
+"He and three others swam ashore. The waves dashed them against the
+rocks, wounding and bruising them seriously. One of the men died from
+the effects; two others are lying on their backs in a fisherman's
+hut, and the only other of the party--was ever misfortune equal to
+this?--the only other,--he whose bruises amounted only to pinches
+and who speedily recovered sufficient strength to write a number of
+letters,--each of which is a dagger thrust in our sides--is that--cursed
+dog,--that--fiend--Volpetti!"
+
+Giacinto clutched his fine black hair and tore a handful from his head.
+
+"Fate is against us," said Louis Pierre gloomily. "And Soliviac?"
+
+"Aboard the Polipheme, on the sea, coasting toward Cherbourg. He would
+gladly sail away to Hamburg, out of danger's way, were he not a knight.
+He stays because we may have need of him."
+
+"So you have accomplished nothing?"
+
+"Nothing. After Volpetti communicated with the prefect, a guard of
+soldiers surrounded the hut in which he was recovering. 'Tis a wonder
+that I was not captured for I have been chased like a wild beast. A
+bullet pierced my cap and I have reached you by miracle."
+
+Louis Pierre interrupted:
+
+"You and I must leave for Paris at once. If one of us be killed, the
+other may reach the city and warn Naundorff. We shall take separate
+routes."
+
+"Very well, but we need horses and money."
+
+"Mademoiselle," said Louis Pierre, "you will be safe, here. Danger
+cannot reach you with Vilon as a guard. Otherwise, I should not leave
+you. You know the secret passages and are safe from all the spies and
+European cabinets in existence. As for us, we are burning our last
+cartridge in going to Paris. Volpetti has unlimited resources:
+gendarmerie, regular troops, magistrates, spies and those fellows who go
+by the name of 'Partisans of the Order.' What a tremendous mistake it
+was to let Volpetti go. If we today considered our own safety, we should
+immediately board the Polipheme and depart forever from the coasts of
+France."
+
+Amélie rose and stretched a hand to each Carbonaro:
+
+"Defenders of a cause you espoused through generosity, friends,
+brothers, you shall live always in my heart. If my father's act in
+freeing Volpetti bring evil to you, O forgive him! I implore you on my
+knees." And the beautiful girl was sinking to the floor, when the
+Knights interposed and raised her. They pressed their lips upon her
+white hands, as though she were a queen. They left without a word, for
+their voices were full of tears. From a window, she watched them leave
+and her brave spirit sank within her.
+
+After their departure, she seemed to fall into a lethargy. She missed
+the long colloquies with Louis Pierre. Alone in the sumptuous apartments
+whose dust-covered portraits of ladies and paladins seemed to look upon
+her with cold disdain, she suffered the inevitable effect of isolation.
+No letters reached her, for René trusted nothing to the mails. She
+tortured herself with surmises; she seemed to see her father in the
+hands of the police or in a dungeon; René the victim of some political
+snare, and the Carbonari prisoners on an indictment of piracy. And she
+told herself over and over that her father's absurd magnanimity had
+caused all the trouble.
+
+Her only consolation was the companionship of Baby Dick, and the little
+fellow was never separated from her. Hours and hours they would sit
+together at the window which looked over the deep entrenchments, Amélie
+sewing, but with frequent interruptions, for she could not refrain from
+stroking Baby's soft curls or taking him on her knees. He, meanwhile,
+asked questions incessantly and, when she failed to reply promptly,
+covered her face with kisses. Silvano would lay his splendid head in her
+lap and look into her face with his great intelligent eyes.
+
+
+
+
+Chapter IV
+
+NIGHT
+
+
+In the midst of her anxiety, a new trouble broke upon her,--the
+transformation taking place in her guardian, Jean. Not that the Breton
+permitted himself liberties; the deference he paid her was daily more
+marked and his attitude--that of devoté before an image--was more
+intensified; but the devoté had eyes and the eyes would light up on
+beholding his mistress; he had hands and those hands would tremble in
+placing food on the table. She felt that he loved her with a wild, deep
+love which only his iron will controlled.
+
+She instinctively accentuated the difference in their ranks; she no
+longer walked with him through the woods. Her fear of him increased
+daily until she entered none of the castle's apartments, remaining
+constantly in the boudoir or in Baby's little chamber which adjoined her
+own.
+
+"This misfortune," she soliloquized, for as such she designated Vilon's
+passion, "has its cause in my disguise. Had I appeared to him in my
+proper character he would never have dared. My God, help me! At the
+mercy of a man whose eyes dart lightning, and from whom I must conceal
+my fears, I have need of all my self-possession. If I falter, this
+splendid animal will grip me."
+
+One night she lay awake listening to Vilon's furtive footfalls in the
+antechamber where, in his impassioned fidelity, he kept guard. Such
+vigilance, far from tranquilizing the girl, filled her with ever
+increasing terror. She tossed upon the gilded Pompadour bed, whose
+woodwork was carved in capricious and elegant mythological designs. The
+Marquise's pale shade seemed to be near. The child's tranquil breathing
+came to her from his little low bed, back of the embroidered Chinese
+screen. A tiny lamp, whose light was softened by a green glass globe,
+projected unsteady rays, which magnified shadows and increased her
+terror. She was fast becoming a victim to insomnia. Her lids closed but
+the light shining through them wrought figures of fantastic dragons and
+pale oblique-eyed damsels and mandarins with drooping mustaches who
+first became animated and then disappeared. When these grotesque visions
+vanished, there glowed on the silken background goddesses and nymphs of
+Watteau pattern, who, descending from amid the bed carvings, danced
+gayly on with clattering satin shoes and gleaming bosoms. Their laughs
+rang shrill as they too vanished and there arose from the depths of the
+tangled forest the tanned countenance and blond hair of Jean Vilon. He
+seized one of the nymphs around the waist; the nymph was herself; she
+struggled vainly; he clasped his rude hands around her delicate neck and
+compressed it with gradually increasing force, almost extinguishing
+life. In order to assure herself that all was delusion she opened wide
+her eyes just as the brass enameled clock pealed forth midnight.
+
+In an effort to sleep, she turned on her side and drew the pillow over
+her face, but she continued to hear inexplicable noises. People seemed
+to be walking through the castle. Suddenly a wild hope filled her.
+Perhaps her father, having triumphed, had summoned her to join him.
+Perhaps René was the bearer of the good tidings. She raised herself on
+her elbow. No longer was there any question. Footsteps sounded through
+the vestibules, the antechambers, the salons; light gleamed under the
+door. Suddenly the lock was noisily forced and a lady in traveling
+costume, followed by two servants wearing the de Brezé livery, walked
+swiftly toward the bed.
+
+Amélie became speechless with amazement. Seated upright, she stared at
+the lady with wide eyes, who, in turn, fastened on the girl a hostile,
+terrible look. The two recognized each other. Amélie beheld again the
+arrogant faded beauty of the face so wonderfully like René's in feature
+and so different in expression. And the lady gazed again awestruck upon
+the facsimile of the countenance which in miniatures, pastels,
+oil-paintings, engravings, lithographs, snuff boxes, etc., was the
+object of compassionate adoration. The resemblance was at that moment so
+striking that the Duchess de Rousillon remained motionless, dominated by
+an involuntary reverence. Quickly recovering her sang froid, she said:
+
+"Leave the bed!"
+
+"Why are you here?" demanded Amélie. "Why have you forced an entrance
+into my room at such an hour?"
+
+The girl's indignation momentarily disconcerted the lady, but very soon
+she laughed disdainfully:
+
+"I might ask with what shadow of a right you have taken up quarters in
+my castle?"
+
+"This castle, madam, appertains to René de Giac, Marquis de Brezé."
+
+"I am his mother. I come in his name and with full authority from him.
+Rise at once if you have a sense of decency that we may talk in a
+suitable manner."
+
+"René has given you no authority," protested the girl.
+
+"My authority will soon be manifest," replied the Duchess.
+
+"Jean Vilon! Jean Vilon!" called Amélie.
+
+"Jean Vilon will not come. He is my slave. Do not become hysterical. And
+rise, I repeat. 'Twill be a pleasanter method than having my servants
+pull you out of bed."
+
+"In order that I should rise, madam, these servants must retire. I am
+not accustomed to dressing in the presence of men."
+
+The Duchess was constrained into making a signal. The liveried
+attendants placed the wax tapers on the mantel and left the apartment
+and Amélie deftly and modestly made a hasty toilet. Then she turned to
+the Duchess, saying:
+
+"Will you now be good enough to explain your conduct?"
+
+The Duchess advanced upon her in fury.
+
+"I dare say," she hissed, "that you can guess I have come to break the
+cords by which you hold my son,--you and that imposter, your father. The
+scales have at last dropped from René's eyes; he is disillusioned and
+repentant. He revealed to me your hiding place. In his name I come."
+
+"You lie, madam. May my soul be banished forever from God if René knows
+you are here. Did he know it, he would stand before me now and shield me
+from you."
+
+"Impertinent, intriguing adventuress! I tear away your mask. Believe
+what you choose regarding my son, but prepare to obey my orders."
+
+"And I remind you that I am your son's betrothed wife."
+
+"That pretence is the most amusing proof of your ingenuity. The wife of
+my son! So great an honor, Mademoiselle Naundorff, would overwhelm our
+family. The de Brezé contract an alliance with the daughter of the
+convict Prussian watch-maker!--Let us talk rationally; you are the
+sweetheart of a good man who loves you devotedly. My steward, Jean
+Vilon, is ready to marry you at this moment."
+
+"What!" shrieked Amélie. "What do you say of Jean Vilon?"
+
+"That he is to be your excellent husband. The dear fellow is wild with
+joy in knowing that I have brought the chaplain in my chaise to bless
+the couple. You have made him lose his head about you. Ah, do not play
+the innocent. You have understood each other very well for some time. I
+shall stand sponsor and bestow a dot upon you. As for Jean? I shall give
+him the Plouret farm. In short you shall be consoled for not being the
+Marquise de Brezé. The wife of an honest man is a more suitable position
+for your station--"
+
+"Is this a nightmare?" cried Amélie. Then with supreme disdain, she
+added, "Not even René, himself, could obtain from me what you propose.
+My life is in your hands, the life of the woman whom your son loves. But
+my will you cannot conquer. Drag me to the altar I will say no with my
+last breath."
+
+The Duchess seemed taken aback at the emphasis with which the refusal
+was spoken. She revealed her true character, that of a pompous
+impertinent woman, performing awkwardly an assigned role. With an angry
+gesture, she passed into the adjoining apartment, and held for ten
+minutes or more a whispered conference with others. She' returned
+accompanied by her two attendants, one of whom looked at Amélie in a
+peculiar manner. Both approached the bed whereon Baby was lying and
+lifted him up. The frightened child commenced to cry and Amélie ran to
+him, but they snatched him from her arms and disappeared.
+
+"If you love the child so greatly," observed the Duchess, "you may have
+the happiness of his company by consenting to marry Jean Vilon. He is
+pretty badly spoilt, owing to the manner in which you have brought him
+up. Jean is willing to adopt him. Is he really your own? Well, we shall
+soon be able to judge of that."
+
+The Duchess retired and the doors were barred and bolted after her.
+Amélie realized that she was indeed a prisoner.
+
+
+
+
+Chapter V
+
+THE CHILD
+
+
+Imprisonment could not subdue her. She would have died rather than
+yield. Her father's fate, her lover's fate and the fate of dear little
+Dick, weighed each moment more heavily on her heart. The Duchess's visit
+to Picmort signified much; it indicated that the police had discovered
+their plans.
+
+"If my father," she thought during the long sleepless hours, "had been
+received by his sister, if his rights had been recognized, the Duchess
+would not have dared to outrage me with this proposition. Can René be
+imprisoned? He must be living, or his mother would not seek to marry me
+to Jean Vilon. In this plot, I see the hand of Volpetti. I wonder if the
+spy was not one of the servants. I think I recognized him. O they would
+be rid of me, and, not daring to kill me, they think to marry me basely.
+For so could the Duchess free her son and they have one more pretext for
+disclaiming my father's pretensions--But Baby Dick? What is to become
+of him?"
+
+Terror stricken she walked the floor. She began to comprehend how great
+was the love which bound her to the frail being to whom she had been
+playing the role of mother. She reproached herself cruelly for having
+contributed to orphan the little fellow. His beauty, his grief at being
+separated from her, his caresses, his cunning little ways, all these
+surged to her mind and seemed to obliterate her other griefs.
+
+"What does this mean? I know not my father's whereabouts; René is likely
+in grave danger; but my thoughts are absorbed with this child who is
+joined to me by no tie, whom chance placed in my arms and violence
+removed."
+
+Morning dawned and she had not closed her eyes. The birth of day brought
+calmness as it does to all human souls. She had no longer need of
+concealment, so, running to the windows, she flung them wide open,
+heedless of the warning that death would ensue, which Vilon had given
+her when she arrived in the Castle. The light streamed into the
+Marquise's boudoir. The capricious antiquated draperies became
+illuminated like a stage setting, contrasting with the desolate
+magnificence of the exterior and the sombre massiveness of the towers
+which the sun began to brighten. Amélie looked out through those windows
+for the first time.
+
+"What will they do to Baby?" she asked herself. "What can they do?
+Nothing more than separate him from me I suppose. But he has become so
+dear to me--Still that shall not break my will. _I_ the wife of Jean
+Vilon?--What is the meaning of this? How has he dared lend himself to
+the scheme? Why has he let the Duchess in? O his passion explains it
+all. How repellent!--Better death a thousand times."
+
+She gazed vacantly upon the faded silken hangings, the sumptuous
+furniture and elegant old laces; she caught her image in the mirrors of
+magnificent frames wherein the Marquise had so often beheld her pallid
+wasted features. Suddenly, she started, listening affrightedly to Baby
+Dick's cry in the next room.
+
+"Mamma 'Mélie! Mamma 'Mélie!" he called. "Come! Give me breakfast. It is
+very late."
+
+With passion of which she had not deemed herself capable, she ran to the
+door and shook it violently, crying:
+
+"My little heart, I can't come to you. Wait. Be very patient."
+
+"My pretty mamma, I am alone. That bad lady shut me in. O break the
+door, mamma."
+
+"I can't Baby," she answered, pushing with all her strength against the
+panels. And giving way to her grief, she dropped into a chair and
+sobbed. For the first time, despair seized her. Woman's tenderest
+attribute--the maternal instinct--vanquished her strong heart, even tho
+her attachment was for another woman's child. Perhaps, on that very
+account, 'twas more highly idealized.
+
+Baby Dick continued to call to her in his sweet, pleading tones and she
+hid her face in the satin cushions, in a longing to drown his voice. But
+though she heard his wails more faintly, they seemed on that account
+more plaintive. She jumped into bed, drew the clothes over her head and
+sobbed in time to his moaning.
+
+"O if I might break down that door and clasp his little body in my arms,
+I should fling away every ambitious project, even happiness with René.
+My love and pity outweigh every other consideration."
+
+At eight o'clock breakfast was brought her by the two men who had come
+with the Duchess during the night. She asked several questions, to which
+no answer whatever was given. The morning seemed interminable. At noon
+the same attendants brought a lunch which, like the others, passed in
+silence. Amélie could not eat more than a morsel of bread, for the
+child's cries were incessant. She refrained from talking to him, for
+doing so seemed to increase his suffering; but at length she could
+contain herself no longer, and tapping on the panels, she called
+affectionately:
+
+"Baby! Baby! This is your Mamma 'Mélie."
+
+"I am hungry, mamma!" he cried.
+
+"Hungry, darling?" she exclaimed, a frightful suspicion crossing her
+mind. "Have they given you nothing to eat? Have you had no broth? Even
+tho you are not in my arms, eat everything they give you, Baby; I am
+close by. It is just as though I were with you."
+
+"But Mamma 'Mélie, they give me nothing, no broth, no milk. O give me
+something, mamma!"
+
+A chill of horror ran through her veins. O were they capable of such
+cruelty? It must be that they had forgotten to take food to little Dick.
+Who would deliberately starve a child? But to think that he had been a
+whole day unfed! She wrung her hands and threw herself against the
+walls. With difficulty she repressed herself from screaming aloud. She
+shook the door with all her strength, though she well knew that that
+strength was impotent. Her temples seemed bursting. She felt on the
+verge of dementia. She recalled her father's imprisonment and the
+numerous historical crimes related. But O to starve a child! This too
+was possible. Depravity is boundless when it possesses a human heart.
+
+When evening at last came and the same speechless attendant brought her
+supper, she darted a withering look at him, saying:
+
+"Order food taken to the child at once! If you are not tigers, have pity
+on him. Starve me if you will. What has he to do with this miserable
+plot?"
+
+The man made no answer, whatever. He fixed his eyes upon her and she
+knew that he was Volpetti indeed.
+
+The night was terrible. During the first part Baby sobbed incessantly,
+tho his voice grew fainter and fainter. At last it died out altogether.
+She grew frantic and running to the windows, called aloud:
+
+"Jean Vilon! Jean Vilon! Wretch! Is it thus you obey your master?"
+
+Then, as silence followed:
+
+"René! René!"
+
+Then:
+
+"Silvano! Silvano!"
+
+But no answer came. Picmort, the grim giant, was silent. Again she ran
+to the door separating her from Dick. He was speaking to her but in a
+voice so faint that it was scarcely more than a murmur.
+
+"He will die! he will die!" she wailed. "No child can resist such
+treatment. God have mercy on us both. What have I done to bring such
+suffering on this baby?--But I might save him; yes, if I renounce René
+forever. No, no! Rather perish the entire world. These fiends would
+defeat me through my sense of pity. Well, they shall not. I shall be
+stone. What is this child to me? Have I not once saved his
+life?--Perhaps my father was right. We have spilt blood--O no, no! My
+father you were weak and that weakness is my undoing--And now my pity
+for this child is making me also a weakling."
+
+She broke into bitter weeping. Dick was calling:
+
+"Mamma! Mamma!"
+
+She crept to the door and whispered:
+
+"My heaven, be patient. Very soon you shall have food and be with me."
+
+With an air of a somnambulist did Amélie comb out her long blond hair
+and arrange it in its accustomed style. Then she performed her entire
+toilet, laughing stridently from time to time. Sometimes tears would
+trickle fast down her beautiful face, so pale and worn with its great
+anxiety. When at noon the silent attendant brought the meal, she said
+to him:
+
+"Tell the Duchess de Rousillon that I shall comply with her wishes,
+provided she has the door opened immediately which separates me from the
+child."
+
+
+
+
+Chapter VI
+
+THE MARRIAGE
+
+
+An hour later, Baby sat in Amélie's lap. She had given him milk and soup
+and he was covering her face with kisses,--this child whom she loved
+more than ever since renouncing for him what was dearer to her than
+life. Suddenly the doors were thrown wide open and the Duchess entered
+accompanied by the two liveried attendants, bearing handsome clothes,
+jewels and laces. Amélie did not raise her eyes. Two girls, the
+maid-servants who had been so curious to see her, approached eagerly and
+began to deck the bride. They fastened a velvet petticoat beneath an
+embroidered silk jacket and pinned the veil and flowers in her beautiful
+hair. Soon she was transformed into a lovely Breton bride. Then the
+Duchess summoned Jean Vilon, who, in gala costume, a spray of wild
+flowers on his breast tied with many colored ribbons, made a brilliant
+handsome picture. He was pale, ecstatic, scarcely sensible of what was
+in preparation. Things had happened in so bewildering a manner that he
+could not co-ordinate his thoughts; he remembered that the Duchess had
+unexpectedly arrived and imposed her authority as René's mother to force
+entrance into the castle; then she had ordered him in her son's name to
+prepare to marry the girl above, who was under the family's special
+protection, adding that her misfortunes were the consequence of being
+abandoned by a man who had betrayed her. Jean, tho wild with joy,
+hesitated and the Duchess added that Amélie came from his class and was
+unconnected with the de Brezé family.
+
+"Be a good husband to her, Jean, and you will lack nothing. Be a good
+father to the child, and I will give you the Plouret farm."
+
+O what did the farm matter to him! He trembled in a rapture of love. The
+husband of Amélie! He enveloped her now in a glance that was a wave of
+flame and then, intimidated by the prize he longed to grasp, he turned
+interrogating eyes upon the Duchess.
+
+At length they went into the chapel. Two tenants of the de Brezés served
+as witnesses. The altar was adorned with gorgeous pots, holding paper
+flowers, and the chaplain stood ready to perform the ceremony. The two
+serving-maids pressed near the bride, according to the custom of Breton
+girls, in eagerness to touch her so as to hasten their own marriage.
+Amélie seemed more a statue than an animate body. She recalled René's
+words: "In Picmort are the tombs of my ancestors, the ashes of my
+fathers; in Picmort I was baptized; in Picmort we shall receive heaven's
+blessing on our union." Since living in the castle she had often
+pictured their marriage in that chapel. She gazed on the long row of
+sepulchral arches to right and left and on the tombs with slabs
+supporting the prone forms of Crusader-paladins, hands crossed on
+breast; on the superb crucifix surmounting the altar; on the colored
+oblong windows. This was the chapel in which she was to have been united
+to René de Giac, but there stood now at her side a peasant, a rustic, a
+servant of the House of Brezé.
+
+"But I must keep my word," she told herself. "I have promised this for
+the child's life."
+
+When she realized that no miracle was forthcoming to liberate her, she
+was near screaming:
+
+"Help! help! Violence is being enacted. I do not wish to marry."
+
+But she knew that such appeal would be futile. She would be called
+hysterical and the child's martyrdom recommenced. Her story was so
+extraordinary, her claims so pretentious, that the witnesses would think
+she raved. Raising her eyes to the face of the crucified, she seemed to
+hear these words:
+
+"Suffer now, for the hour of your expiation has arrived."
+
+The chaplain put the questions to which the groom replied in a
+passionate tremor; Amélie's well-nigh inarticulate assent made her the
+wife of Jean Vilon. Almost swooning, she left the chapel. As the bridal
+pair reached the salon, the Duchess approached with an affectionate
+greeting and holding a diamond brooch which she sought to place in the
+girl's bosom. Amélie drew back, as from the sting of a venomous reptile,
+refusing the Judas kiss which the lady would have sounded upon her
+cheek. But the Duchess continued to smile in insolent triumph. At last
+did an insuperable obstacle exist between her son and this impertinent
+girl. This union to a peasant made the pretentions of Naundorff seem
+more extravagant than ever. The liveried attendants smiled also in joy
+at the diabolical victory. Then the Duchess addressed this speech to the
+groom:
+
+"Jean, you are a faithful servant and it has made me happy to divine
+your wishes and give you the wife you desired. She is suitable to you,
+being of your class. Her father is a watch-maker and her mother a
+seamstress. May God give you long life. The castle of Picmort remains in
+your custody, it being the property of my son, the powerful Marquis de
+Brezé, whom I on this occasion represent. The farm of Plouret is yours
+and thither may you retire when you are minded to do so."
+
+Amélie heard the words and thought she must be dreaming; such duplicity
+bewildered her. Indignant protests rose to her lips but her helplessness
+and disdain smothered the words. Casting upon the Duchess a look of
+regal scorn, she left the salon and re-entered the Marquise's boudoir.
+
+Very soon after, the Duchess with her two liveried attendants and the
+chaplain was driven away from the castle. Jean Vilon carried the lady's
+belongings to the chaise and bowed in profound respect and gratitude as
+she departed. Amélie, having locked herself in, wept bitterly, the child
+clasped to her breast. Was all this true, great God? Was she indeed the
+wife of Jean Vilon? Absurd! Heaven would yet guide her out of this
+dilemma. O rather than submit, she would fling herself from that window
+into the pit below.
+
+Baby covered her with kisses and childish coaxings which seemed in a
+measure to console her for what she had endured on his account, and he
+was dearer to her than ever. No real mother, she reflected, could love
+more deeply than she this child. Evening fell upon the grim castle and
+shadows darkened the Marquise's boudoir. Amélie, folding Baby's hands
+bade him pray, after which she placed him in bed. She barricaded the
+doors by drawing pieces of furniture against them and prepared to pass
+the night in vigil.
+
+Suddenly a slight noise filled her with terror. It came from the
+mythologically wrought panels adorning the walls. It sounded like the
+gnawing of a mouse. The gnawing grew louder, the panel moved, revealing
+a door whose edges were the gilded framing, and Jean Vilon in his bridal
+clothes, the nuptial flowers in his breast, stood before her. He was a
+handsome man, the finest "gars" in that part of Brittany. Happiness made
+his dark face beautiful. She repelled her husband with a look of scorn
+which made him stand motionless.
+
+"How dare you enter, Jean?" she demanded advancing upon him with a
+threatening look. "How dare you enter without my permission? Did you
+not see that I had locked myself in? You come like a thief through a
+secret entrance which only you know. Wretch! Leave me this instant and
+never return. Do you hear? _Never!_"
+
+Jean advanced in his turn, stammering:
+
+"Mademoiselle, what do you mean? Are we not husband and wife? I have
+known the secret of that door since I was a boy, but I have never used
+it. You were safe under my protection. But now! By God and Saint
+Anne!--the priest has joined us!--"
+
+Amélie, taking courage at his moderation, said still more scornfully:
+
+"You say we are joined together? Idiot! Do you consider that service
+valid? Are you pretending innocence? Are you a fool or a knave? Are you
+the Duchess's creature or her victim? Do you not know how they have
+wrested from me my consent? Has no one told you that I married you to
+save the child's life?"
+
+Jean stared at her in speechless amazement, and Amélie perceiving his
+ignorance, breathed more freely.
+
+"Mademoiselle," he said at last, "I am neither a murderer nor a
+hypocrite."
+
+"Then why have you married me, wretch?" His eyes changed hue, resembling
+the sea water which beats against the Coast of Brittany emitting at
+night phosphoric light.
+
+"Because I love you, because I love you!" he cried, coming close to her,
+so close that she felt his breath. "Because my mistress told me that you
+were not as I had been told, a relative of the family. She said you were
+a peasant like myself, who had suffered misfortune and been abandoned by
+a scoundrel. Even knowing this," he concluded affectionately, "I loved
+you and was wild with happiness when she offered to marry us."
+
+"Vile calumniator!" hissed Amélie with flaming cheeks.
+
+"My mistress also said that your father had rendered a service to her
+husband, the late Marquis, during the exile, giving that as the motive
+for your having been received in the castle. 'I wish now to further
+befriend the girl,' said she, 'by giving her a good husband. Are you
+ready to marry her? I will give her a dot of 75,000 francs,' But
+Mademoiselle, I agreed not because of the dot or the farm,--God confound
+me if I lie--but because I love you. Since you came, I have not slept a
+single night. If I closed my eyes I dreamed of you. I was like one
+bewitched." And he knelt at her feet, sobbing like a little child.
+
+She was moved to pity and said:
+
+"Jean, I see that you are a victim of the serpent also. Listen to the
+truth. I have married you because I was forced to, brutally forced. They
+were starving,--_starving_ to death--do you hear?--that little child,
+who is no child of mine.' Our marriage is a sacrilege in the eyes of
+God. By considering yourself my husband, you damn your own soul. Jean,
+beware of what you do!"
+
+He rose and folded his arms across his breast.
+
+"What you say may be true, Mademoiselle, and it hurts me to believe my
+mistress guilty of such conduct. But be the cause what it may, we are
+married. I am your husband; you are my wife; no power in heaven or earth
+can separate us. Whether the child is yours or not, matters little to
+me. Your life before I knew you concerns me not; I ask no questions.
+From today you are mine. Today you have been born anew, purer than water
+that falls from the clouds. I should defend you and the child to the
+death--I love you so much. You shall never again suffer, for now you
+belong to me. O if my mistress had not come to marry us, I should have
+killed you. You are holy to me, but my love is terrible. At last you are
+mine! O happiness!"
+
+The Breton flung his arms around her.
+
+
+
+
+Chapter VII
+
+DEATH
+
+
+Amélie sprang back, preparing for the struggle which the strength of the
+bridegroom would have rendered futile. The enameled clock rang out the
+hour of seven. The mythologically wrought panel opened again and a man
+entered.
+
+Jean loosed his hold and stood petrified. The man advanced and asked in
+a terrible voice:
+
+"What does this mean? What is going on in my house?"
+
+"René!" cried Amélie, running to her lover who clasped her in his arms,
+regardless of the fire in Jean's eyes.
+
+"Jean Vilon," said the master, "render an account of yourself. What has
+taken place in this castle? Unfaithful servant, how have you guarded
+this trust?"
+
+Vilon trembled and knelt before René.
+
+"Your lordship," he stammered, "your mother--the orders she brought
+me--from you."
+
+"Orders? Were they not to refuse entrance to anyone not giving the
+watch-word? Did my mother speak it, imbecile? Do I call you imbecile? I
+mean scoundrel. How have you treated this woman,--this woman who should
+be as holy to you as the Virgin?"
+
+"Your lordship, it was the Duchess, the wife of my late master whose
+ashes rest in the chapel"--incoherently articulated Vilon. "Should I
+refuse her?--close the door in her face?"
+
+"Certainly, beast!" cried René, losing all control of himself. "You owe
+obedience to me and to me only, though you die for it."
+
+He clenched his fists and advanced upon Vilon, who, making no
+resistance, prepared to receive the blow. But Amélie, with the
+generosity of her upright character, interposed.
+
+"René, do not debase yourself. Jean Vilon is in no wise to blame. He has
+believed your mother, thinking he honored you. When you sent him
+instructions, you could not foresee this possibility. Fate brought her.
+Jean is upright and faithful."
+
+Her persuasive voice brought calmness to René, but a monstrous doubt
+seemed to find lodgment in his mind.
+
+"Very well; now let us come to the point. What has happened here? Under
+what pretext has my mother come with pretended messages from me? She
+surely has not foregone three days of frivolous court life for the
+pleasure of viewing country scenery. When I (for I have transformed
+myself into a professional spy) learned in Paris that she had taken the
+road to Brittany, I hastened after her, feeling sure that she was coming
+to Picmort. I met her just now on the road, unperceived by her party. I
+have entered the castle with my secret key and chosen this method of
+surprising you,--the same employed by the jealous Marquis who imprisoned
+his wife in this salon. Now, tell me what has happened. Come! the
+truth!"
+
+Amélie remained silent, for not until that moment had she realized the
+extremity of the case, the nature of the confession she must make to her
+lover. Her customary valor forsook her.
+
+"René," she faltered, "do not reproach me; forgive me, rather. Why have
+you delayed so long in coming? Why have you left me here defenceless?
+Why have you abandoned me?"
+
+"Defenceless? Abandoned? And that fellow? Has he not protected you? He
+has orders to die for you. Tell me quickly what has been done. Answer,
+each of you. What does this mean?"
+
+Amélie covered her face with her hands and turning to the wall, burst
+into bitter weeping. René seized Vilon by the collar, shaking him
+violently and saying:
+
+"Traitor, what have you done? Answer or I will choke you."
+
+The Breton freed himself with so lithe a movement that the superiority
+of his physical strength was evident. Folding his arms on his breast, he
+said quietly:
+
+"The Duchess arrived in a post chaise accompanied by the chaplain and
+two attendants. I opened wide the gate through which the lords of
+Picmort have always entered. I kissed her hand in respect. She spent
+three days here, giving orders and being obeyed. On the third, she
+decreed that I should marry this young lady--"
+
+René leaped in rage.
+
+"And--you married--her?" he shrieked.
+
+"Yes."
+
+"When--when?"
+
+"Today, at four o'clock in the Picmort chapel."
+
+"Devil!" roared René. "And you, Amélie, have you consented?"
+
+"Yes," she wailed.
+
+"This is superb!" and he laughed in fury. "Explain yourself, that I may
+then kill you. Did you fall in love with this fellow?"
+
+"René!" she implored, sinking to his feet, "Have pity on me. I consented
+because your mother was starving to death before my eyes that little
+child we saved from the ship. O René, never call her mother again."
+
+"Is that what she did?" stammered the Marquis, clasping his hands.
+
+"Yes," she replied. "René, my father was right; the crimes of the mighty
+are expiated by the innocent. How can one hear a little child cry for
+bread and not save him? Yes, I have taken vows at the altar. I am the
+wife of your steward."
+
+"Why did you marry her?" demanded René, turning furiously on Vilon.
+
+"Because your mother said you wished it."
+
+"Did you know of the child's starvation?"
+
+"By the cross, I did not."
+
+"And you dared to love her?"
+
+"From the moment I saw her," he cried with impetuous sincerity.
+
+"Aha! I find the motive. Obedience to the devil! So you loved her?"
+
+"Your lordship, that was not the motive. I could never have dreamed of
+marriage had it not been for the Duchess--"
+
+"Dog, only _I_ am your master. Only _I_--"
+
+"True, but here we are not accustomed to distinguish between the orders
+of your lordship and his mother. Parents represent God on earth."
+
+"Jean is innocent. Another in his place would have acted likewise. Be
+just, René," said Amélie.
+
+The steward looked on her in deep gratitude.
+
+"René, your mother is the only culprit,--she and that fatality which
+dogs all who aid our cause. We carry misfortune with us. We should have
+told Jean our secret to begin with; we should have treated him as a
+friend, not as a menial. Then our enemies could not have deceived him.
+But how could we suspect that your mother had a suspicion of my presence
+here? René, a vicious womb has borne you--the womb of a hyena."
+
+"Amélie," he groaned, "I do not attempt to defend my mother's conduct.
+She has acted like a fiend. But she is mentally incapable of planning
+the villainy. She was the instrument of the police. O Amélie, 'tis our
+parents who accomplish our ruin. Your father sets Volpetti free and my
+mother delivers you to another man. O I rave! You are mine, mine! No
+other man exists."
+
+He clasped her hands and she gazed passionately up into his face,
+forgetful of Vilon, who frowningly beheld his honor as bridegroom
+affronted. At length René remembered the importunate presence, and
+sternly said:
+
+"Begone!"
+
+"You bid me go!" said the Breton, roused at length. "If I go my wife
+comes with me."
+
+"Your wife!" laughed René scornfully. "This woman is not your wife,
+fool."
+
+"The priest has joined us," insisted the peasant.
+
+"Through a fraud,--a crime."
+
+"That matters not. She has said 'Yes' at the altar. We are husband and
+wife before God."
+
+René turned threateningly upon him and Vilon lowered his head. The idea
+of resistance never entered his brain, but neither could he entertain
+the idea of resigning Amélie. In body and soul he belonged to his
+master, the Marquis de Brezé; in body and soul she belonged to him, Jean
+Vilon.
+
+Amélie placed herself beside her husband.
+
+"Jean is right," she said. "He is indeed, my master. Happiness has died
+and love also. Like you, I sought at first to break this bond--but I
+cannot,--we cannot. I expiate."
+
+Tears flowed fast over her cheeks. Wild passion shot from Vilon's eyes.
+He longed to kneel before her and clasp her in his arms. He dug his
+nails into the palms to restrain himself. He hoarsely asked:
+
+"Is this the woman your lordship has loved?"
+
+"She was my promised wife. You have undone me by one act, Jean Vilon,"
+answered René in a voice of deep sadness.
+
+Jean's mouth contracted. He suffered terribly, but he did not yield. He
+kept assuring himself that Amélie was his, his treasure. Only death
+could separate them.
+
+René clutched the Breton's wrist and pressed it till the bones almost
+cracked.
+
+"I repeat, Jean, you are the undoing of my life. But you shall not save
+your soul, if you persist, for a dreadful crime would follow. You refuse
+to give her up? Well, let me tell you who the woman is that you continue
+to call your wife. She is sacred, poor fool, and as inaccessible to you
+as the saints. Listen, dust of the earth. _She is of the race of
+kings_--do you hear?--you must never forget this fact--_of our kings_!"
+
+Terror and wonder contorted the peasant's face. He transfixed Amélie
+with a look of superstitious, reverence. The revelation exceeded his
+power of comprehension.
+
+"The blood of the king martyred by the revolutionists is in her
+body,--the king for whom your father bore arms and fought hand to hand
+so often,--the king for whom he lay concealed in the woods and for
+whom,--do you remember, Jean?--he was shot, his body lying unburied
+during seven days. If your father should now awake he would behold his
+son attempting to profane the daughter of that king! This is the crime
+to which you have lent yourself."
+
+"Is this true?" asked Jean, turning upon Amélie a face contorted with
+fear and pain.
+
+"Yes, Jean," she answered, her voice full of compassion. "I swear by my
+soul it is true."
+
+"And the honor of Brezé confirms the oath," added René. "Retain the
+fruit of your iniquity. I leave you your wife. You no longer have a
+master. I shall go away forever."
+
+"No," entreated Jean. "Rather I, rather I."
+
+He crossed himself and grasped the amulets which hung around his neck.
+Then, swiftly approaching Amélie, he kissed her on the forehead. His
+lips burned and she shrieked in horror. He walked rapidly out of the
+boudoir. His heavy feet sounded for a moment in the antechamber, then on
+the stairway, the narrow winding stairway leading to the tower's highest
+story. René and Amélie listened. Suddenly divining his intention, they
+ran after him. The tiny room was dark when they reached it, the window
+was curtained by a heavy obstruction which they realized was Jean. They
+darted to clutch him, but he rolled out before their eyes. Deeply
+affected, they looked down and beheld at the base of the tower the
+lifeless body of the grief-crazed Breton, with face upturned to the sky
+and glassy eyes gleaming amid the heavy blond hair. Silvano, the
+faithful mastiff, sat beside him, howling despairingly.
+
+
+
+
+Book V
+
+
+THE SISTER
+
+
+
+
+Chapter I
+
+PORTENTS
+
+
+The apartments of the royal palace which we now enter are those farthest
+removed from the stir and distractions of the court. The perennial
+austerity of their august occupant seems to have imparted to them a
+religious gloom. Owners bestow themselves upon their belongings. The
+human soul leaves back of itself its peculiar track, either luminous or
+sombre.
+
+The first impression made upon one entering the salons is of absolute
+silence. Noise would seem there a trespasser, a deep breath an
+infringing of etiquette. Servants and courtiers smother their voices and
+footfalls, suppress smiles and even dim the brightness of their eyes on
+addressing the Duchess,--the sad Duchess, who daily resembles more and
+more those rigid supplicating forms which guard sepulchres. After
+passing through a succession of reception rooms, screened from the
+sunlight by heavy draperies, and of appointments so symmetrically and
+solemnly arranged that it seems impossible they should ever be moved
+from their places, we come to the Duchess's boudoir. Passing the
+dormitory and visitors' room, we lift a tapestry portière and enter the
+small apartment which is her oratory.
+
+A richly wrought silver lamp is the only ornament, wherein float two
+burning wicks in perfumed oil. By the pale rays is discernible against a
+black velvet screen, a large marble figure of the Christ. He is
+represented at the moment of expiring, just when his head falls on his
+shoulder and he cries: "It is finished!" At the foot of the altar kneels
+a woman in fervent prayer. She rests on a crimson prie-Dieu and her eyes
+are raised to the Christ. The light falls full on her face and we see it
+is the Duchess.
+
+Beautiful had that face been in youth, but suffering has obliterated all
+trace of beauty. The hair once pale yellow,--the family color,--and so
+abundant that it was whispered she wore a wig, has now an ashen, almost
+a cobwebby look; the skin is yellow and marked with wrinkles; the dry
+eyes are inflamed with tears that do not flow. The lips are drawn
+tight,--the lips that neither laugh nor kiss. The clasped hands are
+emaciated and of waxen whiteness. Bitter thoughts seem to hover around
+the pale forehead,--cruel doubt and insistent remorse. An expression of
+appalling incertitude, the terror of faith stripped of celestial
+consolation are there. Incoherent, rebellious words come from the lips.
+
+At last, heaving a deep sigh, she arose, unclasped her hands and passed
+the right one over her forehead as though in an effort to banish her
+thoughts. Approaching the lamp, she unfastened two buttons of her waist
+and took from her bosom a roll of paper,--a letter. She glanced around,
+as if to assure herself that she was alone, and then began to read:
+
+"My sister, well beloved: I live, I live; the hand of your brother
+directs these words; disregarding court etiquette, I assure you of my
+love--"
+
+Here two timid raps sounded on the door and a gentle voice called: "Your
+Grace!"
+
+The lady hastily replaced the paper and buttoned her bodice with an
+unsteady hand. By a strong effort of the will, she assumed the
+impenetrable mask she put on habitually and opened the door, with a look
+of cold surprise on her face. The attendant apologized profusely for the
+interruption.
+
+"His--his--Royal Highness wishes urgently to speak with you. He has
+ordered me to--"
+
+Without moving a muscle of her face, the Duchess bowed in assent and,
+with the gait of an automaton, passed on to meet her husband, who
+awaited her in the visitors' room, a small apartment, containing a desk,
+some books of devotion and a few classics.
+
+On her entry, the Duke saluted gravely as tho at an official ceremony.
+She seated herself, but he continued standing. He was tall and of
+patrician and martial bearing. She addressed him a mute interrogatory.
+The absence of cordiality between them was at once apparent.
+
+"Thérèse, I come to trouble you and this I regret infinitely. But 'tis
+indispensable. I come to talk of state matters, that is of matters
+closely related to the state. Some time ago we banished this topic from
+our conversation, Thérèse, because--we happen to differ in our views.
+You find me somewhat--what phrase shall I use?--well, liberal. I find
+you obstinate,--opposed to making concessions and blind to the
+exigencies of the times. I am inclined to adopt the opinion of the King
+and Ferdinand; you, like our good father--but Thérèse, think as we
+individually may, we both desire the same accomplishment. At bottom
+there is harmony between us. I could not bear to believe otherwise."
+
+"At bottom there is indeed harmony," she answered. "Neither could I
+bear to believe otherwise. We are united, as is the entire family, in
+the faith that the Restoration is genuine--a victory over the dragon of
+the Revolution. You employ hidden weapons; I am less astute; I fight
+unarmed, or, as better said, I do not fight. I resist the foe, arms
+folded on my breast, and I should not retreat. I should face him to the
+last tho he advanced upon me with an overpowering host."
+
+"The Corsican did not err when he said you were the only man of the
+family."
+
+"Do not repeat that absurd speech. Each prince of the House is a man, a
+paladin, worthy of the race. Neither you nor your brother Ferdinand,
+notwithstanding his delinquencies respecting women, has given the lie to
+the proud blood which flows through your veins. I am a weak woman, whose
+only refuge, in hours of trial, is religion--the religion which has
+taught me to suffer resignedly, but never to yield. Much have I
+suffered; much am I yet to suffer."
+
+A trembling convulsed her bosom and passed over her entire body,
+rustling the violet silk gown which she wore in half mourning. The Duke
+suppressed his annoyance. His wife's gloomy disposition had, from the
+first days of their marriage de convenance been a killjoy--that
+marriage, consummated for political reasons and in compliance with the
+dying request of her parents. Somewhat of warmth, somewhat of human
+tenderness would have mingled those two souls, had not constraint been
+characteristic of both.
+
+"Thérèse," he replied, "in every life there is a cup of bitterness. Each
+thinks that his chalice contains the most gall. Each knows but his own
+sorrow. God has tried us indeed, but have courage! I come with another
+sorrow to your heart already bleeding. Your strength must sustain you."
+
+"Of what do you speak?" she asked, endeavoring to seem calm.
+
+"Of the impostors, who have, in succession, exploited favorable
+circumstances in personating the unhappy prince who perished in
+captivity."
+
+A deathlike pallor spread over her face.
+
+"This is the reason you have come?" she murmured.
+
+"Yes, this is the reason. The iniquitous farce grows of sufficient
+consequence to threaten the throne."
+
+"Be explicit," she said, recovering command of herself.
+
+"I am come for that purpose," he replied. "The king has entrusted me
+with messages for you. He is fearful lest these spurious pretensions
+leave an ill effect upon you."
+
+The Duchess drew a handkerchief across her eyes. Her husband and cousin
+continued:
+
+"The fate of the young prince has brought sorrow to many. It has also
+been the cause of numerous schemes, and served as basis for ambitious
+delirium. An Austrian drummer declares before a council of war that he
+is your brother; another, whose brain has become addled from a bullet
+wound, is so insistent in his claims that it has been found necessary to
+incarcerate him in Bicetre; a servant in this asylum disputes with him
+the honor, by name Fontolive; a hunch-back assistant to a notary follows
+suit and he will likely end his career in Bicetre; there is a Dufresne
+who displays on his right calf a fleur de lis. There are others too
+numerous to mention, including one who dresses like a woman. To
+enumerate them all would be to number the sands of the seashore. I shall
+speak only of the most audacious among them, of those who have succeeded
+in investing their ridiculous pretensions with the semblance of truth,
+namely a certain Fruchard, a man of brains and resolution; Hervagault,
+the son of a tailor who plays his cards well indeed; Maturino Bruneau
+of Vezins, a most popular impostor; Baron Richemont, the most dangerous
+of them all, for he is a man of education, a profound student of
+history, and of irreproachable morals. Several gentlemen, formerly
+staunch royalists, have placed themselves in his ranks--"
+
+The Duchess listened with attention, fixing upon her husband her
+inquisitorial eyes which cut like a keen knife. The Duke hesitated and
+she asked coldly:
+
+"And what more? Is the list of farceurs ended?"
+
+"No," he replied, making a visible effort to compose himself.
+
+"There is another, Thérèse--He is seconded--O 'tis incredible!--by such
+men as René de Giac, whom we considered so devoted to the throne. His
+mother is inconsolable and no longer permits him to visit her. Besides
+René, there are La Rochefoucauld, Madame de Rambeau, who was the
+Dauphin's guardian during infancy, the family Saint Hilaire, the Marquis
+Feuillade, the Marquis de Broglio Solari--a legion, indeed."
+
+"But you do not tell me this impostor's name," she asked in a bitter
+voice. "Whence comes he?"
+
+"His name is William Naundorff and he comes from England, though he has
+been brought up in Prussia."
+
+The Duchess seemed about to swoon. Her head dropped upon the chair back
+and swayed from side to side. The Duke hastened to revive her by holding
+to her nose a flask of English smelling salts.
+
+
+
+
+Chapter II
+
+THE QUESTION
+
+
+More through an effort of her strong will than because of the
+efficaciousness of the smelling salts, the Duchess sat upright and fixed
+upon the Duke her keen eyes.
+
+"Why," she asked, "does the King desire that; I should be so minutely
+informed? Why not settle the matter in those departments wherein the
+governmental thunderbolts are forged, since it is a question pertaining
+to statecraft? Can I not be left in peace, I the desolate survivor of
+the shipwreck?--I who ask only for solitude in which to pray."
+
+"It is natural that we should consult you when THE PRINCIPLE is
+involved. Moreover, we depend upon your firmness and energy. You can
+offer us valuable suggestions, for no one has so imposing a conception
+of the royal dignity."
+
+"That is because no one else has endured so much for the royal cause. I
+am the unhappiest woman on earth--" and her tears fell. "I wrote so
+upon the walls of my prison and it is still the truth."
+
+"Thérèse, what memories! What a tragedy!"
+
+"In that prison," she exclaimed, "in that horrible prison, while we
+underwent the Via Crucis of outrages, there arose like a beautiful star,
+illuminating even the prisons and scaffolds,--there arose the PRINCIPLE.
+Only the PRINCIPLE is of moment; individuals are as nothing. What matter
+our sufferings or the blood that was spilled, or all the heads that fell
+if the principle remain the centre of life? But one head fell which
+incarnated the PRINCIPLE and it has cried for vengeance to God."
+
+A fire glowed in her faded eyes, her heart beat so rapidly that the
+paper beneath the dress rustled. The Duke drew closer but made no effort
+to touch even her hands. No sweet transport had united these souls.
+
+"I rejoice to see you thus, Thérèse," he murmured. "What has made the
+King fear your attitude on this question?"
+
+"As the King has not suffered, he has no comprehension of the PRINCIPLE.
+I pray much for the King. He is a weakling."
+
+"Not so today, Thérèse," the Duke interposed. "His Majesty's tastes
+differ, perhaps, from yours, from ours; but when he beholds the ship of
+state in danger, then does he recover his spirit, rather then does he
+seem to, for in reality he never loses it. Because of his artistic and
+philosophical pre-occupations and of his adherence to certain
+doctrines--which, to be frank, are not to my liking,--because of these,
+he regards at times indifferently what he eventually realizes to be of
+supreme importance. There are times when his imagination dominates him,
+but he has too great a mind to permit such impressions to be more than
+transitory. Do you remember the recent episode of the visionary Martin?
+Well, for a while the King was greatly troubled. He believed his end to
+be near."
+
+"It is," she observed with no trace of emotion. "His infirmities
+increase rapidly."
+
+"All the more reason," he rejoined, "that we should live cautiously. His
+Majesty's ill health may cause complications."
+
+"And how does that fear affect your attitude with regard to--imposters?"
+
+"Very closely. Old Martin insisted that one of the imposters was in
+reality your brother. May God preserve us from beholding the King a
+victim to that illusion. All imposters shall be rebuffed if we stand our
+ground. Their multitude and diverse origins destroy whatever advantage
+any one of them may have gained. Tho human credulity is infinite, it
+seems to me impossible that they should make a lasting impression on the
+public or cause any of the European Cabinets to lose confidence in the
+government. This last consideration is of the greatest importance.
+Europe is at enmity with France, but the Holy Alliance has sustained us,
+teas steadied the tottering throne, because we are the principle.
+Insidious rumors regarding your brother are being carried to the ears of
+European sovereigns. It is insistently claimed that he lives. The
+intervention of some foreign cabinet is imminent, which would carry in
+train disastrous results. Can we contemplate another invasion of France?
+How avoid it if the stigma of usurpers be attached to us?"
+
+The Duchess's eyes were riveted on the carpet.
+
+"Let us thank God," continued the Duke, "that amid the cohort of
+adventurers, charlatans and self-deluded fools which is recruited from
+all quarters, there is not one whose ability and certificates
+differentiate him sufficiently from the others to claim the attention of
+Europe. Should such a one arise and triumph over us, the Revolution
+which we have crushed would break forth with redoubled fury. Thérèse,
+to outward appearance, we lie on a bed of roses; in reality, a volcano
+rumbles beneath our feet. We have to act with the greatest
+circumspection. We are watched, we are hounded. We, the men and women of
+the House Regnant of France, must be wise as the serpent and gentle as
+the dove; we must even make compromises. That is why I spoke (in my
+proclamation of Saint Jean de Lumière) of crushing tyranny and breaking
+chains. That is why I have through the columns of the Meridien prescribed
+limits to the zeal of our partizans, who demand blood in the celebration
+of our triumph. The King, therefore, would warn you that a false step,
+an impulse of generosity from your noble heart might--"
+
+"Do I constitute so great a peril?" she sardonically asked.
+
+"An immense peril,--that of your generous nature, your excessive,--no, I
+should not say excessive,--conscientiousness; but, Thérèse, it is so
+easy to be misled by our rectitude. Will you believe that my brother
+Ferdinand, in whom our hopes of succession lie, (here the Duchess
+winced)--for although his children have been girls, a boy may be born to
+him,--I repeat that Ferdinand inclines favorably toward the
+impostors--that is to say, not all of them, but one in particular."
+
+She revealed her displeasure. Nothing so much irritated her as allusion
+to her sterility.
+
+"Ferdinand," she began aimlessly.
+
+"Yes, Ferdinand, following the generous impulses of his heart--or--for
+some reason--which--Well, Ferdinand cannot think and act as we
+do--because he has lived--has been the slave of his passions. Indeed,
+his life resembles, in certain respects that of the impostor whom he
+supports. He also lived for a period obscurely and in London, forming
+there ties with a woman of the people. You remember Amy Brown and the
+children she bore him. When one's antecedents have not been of a licit
+character, one is predisposed to make extraordinary excuses for others.
+You and I are not of that kind, Thérèse. We may proudly hold up our
+heads. Ferdinand has decided to believe that your brother lives, and, in
+consequence, places faith in whatever impostor raises his head, saying
+that one among them is Charles Louis."
+
+The Duchess trembled, notwithstanding her attempted impassivity.
+
+"My father," resumed the Duke, "alarmed at his attitude, has
+remonstrated with him but to no purpose other than that of prevailing
+upon him to cease making public display of his opinions. He therefore
+no longer proclaims them from the house-top. You, Thérèse, employing the
+influence with which your virtues invest you, must caution Ferdinand and
+his wife, Caroline, against indiscretions. Insist that the members of
+the royal family must act in harmony. What would be the consequence of
+the slightest admission?" And, as she remained silent, he added, "You do
+not answer."
+
+"Yes, yes, I am about to answer. For three nights I have not slept and
+for three days I have prayed continually. O, if among those who assume
+my brother's name, there be one who presents proofs,--do you
+hear?--irrefutable proofs, to such a one we have no right to apply the
+epithet impostor. If he bear incontestable documentary evidence, should
+we longer doubt? You know well that Charles Louis's death certificate
+has never been found. The copy which exists is not authentic."
+
+Lowering her voice still more, even though aware that they could not be
+overheard, she continued:
+
+"You know also that I went incognito to the Hospital of Incurables and
+interviewed the cobbler's wife. Notwithstanding my disguise, the
+unfortunate woman knew me and said: 'I am not insane. They have placed
+me here to silence me. The boy lives.'"
+
+The Duke paced feverishly up and down.
+
+"There are a thousand testimonials and asseverations by conscientious
+persons who have recognized this claimant. He says things which only my
+brother can say. And as the time has come to speak the whole truth, I
+shall tell you that he has written to me. His letter has rested here
+three days; it burns like a live coal. It burns my fingers and my
+heart."
+
+She pulled the paper from her bosom and placed it before him.
+
+"I had thought myself incapable of tears. I had wept so much that it
+seemed impossible to weep always. But this letter has unsealed my tear
+ducts. This man knows only what my brother would know. He entreats an
+interview. He wishes me to decide his claim. He asks that my heart be
+judge, though he offers to bring documentary proofs which any court
+would sustain. Why do we refuse to hear him?"
+
+The Duke's perturbation increased.
+
+"Thérèse," he said at length, "your affection for your dead brother is
+so well known that these pretenders seek to exploit that affection.
+Beware! An imprudent act may blight the dynasty and France; be the ruin
+of us all. It rests with you to avert this impending disaster."
+
+"With me? Why with me?"
+
+"Yes, with you," he said almost harshly. "Why did you refuse the
+embalmed heart sent you by the physician who performed the autopsy on
+the dead boy in the tower? It was a mistake,--a terrible mistake. The
+public got wind of it--"
+
+"You say I should have received that offering?--that heart which never
+beat in my brother's breast? You dare reproach me with that refusal?
+Answer me this: why has the King refused up to this day to be anointed?
+Why has the Pope forbidden us to celebrate Charles Louis's funeral
+rites? Have you forgotten the singular proceeding of suspending the
+mortuary ceremony after the church has been draped in black and the
+clergy vested? Have you forgotten the Nuncio's announcement: 'The Church
+offers up requiem masses only for the dead?'"
+
+The Duke was dumb.
+
+"Listen," she continued. "Last night as I lay awake the voice of my
+mother came to me softly and full of tears. She said only: 'Marie
+Thérèse! Marie Thérèse!'"
+
+Losing control of herself, the Duchess sobbed aloud, her face in her
+hands.
+
+"We must restore the stolen crown, descend from the usurper's throne.
+Ferdinand is right. Why fight an unworthy battle? There are proofs
+before which we must recede. You say I am the only man of the family.
+'Tis that I am the only member of the family who looks the situation in
+the face. Tell the King that there is but one way of demonstrating his
+courage; to deliver up his ill gotten goods and make restitution."
+
+The Duke unable to find his voice, mutely rose. Saluting his wife with
+the same reverential air he had employed on entering, he passed out of
+the door.
+
+
+
+
+Chapter III
+
+REASONS OF STATE
+
+
+The interior of the King's cabinet contrasted strikingly with the
+apartment we have just left. Here we find a veritable museum arranged by
+an intelligent hand which has collected something of the most beautiful
+in each esthetic epoch.
+
+The Monarch stretched upon his invalid's couch, surrounded by cushions,
+his limbs bandaged, converses with his Minister of Police. A fire glows
+on the hearth, notwithstanding the warmth of the apartment, all the
+windows and doors being closed. 'Tis the loving heart of the young
+Countess Cayla that has designed the arrangement of furniture, etc.,
+with the effect of securing the greatest comfort.
+
+Disease makes noticeable ravages in the royal countenance, which, though
+still expressing a keen intellectual and reflective penetration, even a
+repressed enthusiasm, begins to become bloated by an insidious edema.
+The eyes, back of their swollen lids, betray blood decomposition. When
+the King changes his position, a medicinal odor floats through the
+elegant apartment, notwithstanding the profusion of rare flowers in
+alabaster Pompeian vases,--prodigies of antique art,--flowers, brought
+by the Countess to her invalid friend.
+
+The King economized his conversational forces, replying only when
+necessity compelled: his words were always affluent and opportune. He
+listened attentively to the Minister, who was saying:
+
+"Greater danger has never threatened the monarchy. I have long foreseen
+the evil. 'Tis of many years' standing. My predecessors--I must do them
+justice--took every precaution to obviate the result. Le Coq in Berlin
+endeavored to prevent what today seems imminent."
+
+Lecazes took a pinch of snuff, and resumed:
+
+"Your Majesty cannot doubt my zeal and activity. My devotion to the
+cause has been demonstrated. I have never vacillated in critical
+moments, never weakly yielded to circumstances. But in spite of my
+efforts and circumspection, a catastrophe stares us in the face."
+
+The King listened attentively and the Minister went on.
+
+"I have endeavored to spare your Majesty the annoyance of listening to
+these alarms. I come now to appeal for your help, for only you may avert
+the danger.
+
+"One of my deputies, the most resourceful of all, my right hand, indeed,
+by name Volpetti, who for a time was in the service of Caroline, Queen
+of Sicily;--this Volpetti has for years tracked that--that dangerous
+creature. So far he has subjected him to living in a position in which
+mischief was impossible of accomplishment. He has been incapacitated for
+the attaining of any real advantage--This Volpetti was bequeathed me by
+Fouché. He was employed in the surveillance of the individual in
+question when I became Minister. During Napoleon's ascendancy, Volpetti
+kept this individual well concealed in a Vincennes dungeon; but the
+Empress Josephine, with the end of employing him as a weapon in view of
+the contingent divorce, adopted the policy of befriending and, finally
+of liberating him. After leaving Vincennes, our individual turns up in
+Prussia. As he had no civil status, he could give no trouble. He was
+nobody. At that time, Volpetti conceived a brilliant idea, that of
+playing the friend. He lent him a passport bearing a fictitious name and
+authorizing him to reside in Spandau. The individual has never been able
+to shuffle off his name. O there is no prison so secure as a name."
+
+"Nevertheless," interposed the King, "when one possesses documents
+proving one's identity--"
+
+"I am coming to that," said the Minister, waving his hand in order to
+dispel apprehension.
+
+"The preservation of those documents, thro all these years of
+vicissitudes is the knot which I cannot unravel. Whence come they? I
+conjecture they procede from Barras (with his mania for collections),
+and that he gave them to Josephine. She in turn placed them with
+Montmorin, who planned his escape and who was subsequently killed in a
+skirmish. Those papers constituted an infernal magazine which threatened
+to explode at any moment. Volpetti rested not in his search for them,
+but they were skilfully concealed. As a last resort, he insinuated into
+the life of the individual a woman, excellent hearted and who was
+persuaded that she rendered a veritable service by advising him to
+deliver the papers to Le Coq."
+
+"And did he?" inquired the King in graceful irony. "I wager that the
+woman attained her ends."
+
+"Yes, your Majesty, he delivered certain papers, but the most important
+ones he kept--the devil knows where. He preserves them to this day in a
+casket."
+
+"Next to woman, the gravest perils to man are documents," murmured the
+King in persistent irony.
+
+"Realizing the impossibility of recovering the papers from Le Coq, the
+individual subsided. He is of a pacific temperament, tending to inaction
+and retirement. He married and devoted himself to his trade of
+watch-making--"
+
+"'Tis a family proclivity," observed the King.
+
+"I was saying he is devoted to watch-making and the care of his several
+children, among whom there is a daughter, who as a contrast to her
+father's impassivity, is action and energy incarnate. It was his ill
+fortune to be indicted as an incendiary and counterfeiter and to serve
+sentence at hard labor in Silesia--"
+
+"Did this ill fortune come to him in consequence of the cautious policy
+of my astute friend and Minister, Lecazes? Let us have no figures of
+rhetoric here."
+
+"Your Majesty, when matters arrange themselves in favorable
+combinations, a wise man loses no time in hesitation. The sentence
+passed was so favorable to our cause, was so strong a card to reserve,
+should the individual carry his claims before a tribunal. Think of it!
+Counterfeiter, incendiary!--sufficient, I should think, to deter members
+of the nobility from advocating his cause, should they be inclined to do
+so. Should we complain if hams be rained into our mouths? Shall we
+bewail the great number of impostors and dupes who have appeared from
+all quarters, finally occasioning so much skepticism among the people
+that one more or less makes no difference to them?"
+
+Again the King smiled.
+
+"Come," said he, delighting to pierce the diplomatic artifices of his
+minister, "I agree that we have no reason to complain; above all when it
+appears that among the horde of spurious Dauphins there is one bearing
+marks not unknown to us. Let us talk as men who have learned to vanquish
+their conscience; surely we shall not display such bad taste as to
+become pedantic moralists."
+
+Lecazes smiled in his turn.
+
+"I do not think," continued the royal invalid in whimsical banter, "that
+you class me among the abettors of my nephew; Ferdinand's ardent wish is
+to embrace his recovered cousin. Lecazes, prepare to hand in your
+resignation on the day of my death."
+
+"Happily for us, your Majesty is much stronger than you yourself
+believe. Long life and long reign have you in prospect."
+
+Having delivered himself of this flattery, he resumed:
+
+"It is stated in the court records that the chief cause of the
+individual's condemnation was the indignation produced by his absurd
+pretensions. He was not proved guilty. He stated that he had been born a
+prince and this lost him the respect of the court. My complaint of the
+proceedings is that the sentence was for so brief a term. To imprison a
+man for a season is only to make him more set in his convictions. When
+liberated he is more dangerous than ever. If your Majesty were to ask my
+opinion of this man, I should say he was less knave than visionary.
+Owing to the stupidity of the Prussian police, it has been impossible to
+discover a trace of his ancestry or place of birth. He claims that this
+failure to produce confuting evidence proves his claim, and he speaks
+logically there."
+
+"He does indeed."
+
+"Well, our--maniac left prison more than ever determined to sustain his
+pretensions. To the children that were successively born to him he gave
+such names as Amélie (in memory of the flight); Marie Antoinette,
+Charles, Edward. This may seem inoffensive, but 'tis far from being so.
+Persistency in this fixed idea has continued to envelop him more and
+more in a tattered purple mantle. His sceptre is a reed in truth, but it
+gives him, nevertheless, the appearance of a persecuted martyr. Your
+Majesty will agree that our individual is not to be placed in the same
+category as the multitude whom, after disproving, we have endeavored to
+construct into a parapet serving as a blockade to effectually shut out
+possible pretenders bearing credentials having the appearance of
+genuiness."
+
+"I agree with you that this is a grave matter."
+
+"That aureole of martyrdom elicits faith and devotion. For example, when
+the individual on leaving prison established himself in Crossen, with
+not a sou in his purse, he found there a magistrate who gave him a large
+sum of money and became a champion of his cause. His enthusiasm became
+so pronounced that the prince of Coralath's secretary was obliged to
+observe to the fellow that Prussia contained dungeons for the reception
+of those who meddle in what does not concern them. The remark having no
+effect, the magistrate soon received in heaven the reward for his
+devotion to the cause."
+
+"Did he die?" inquired the King.
+
+"He did, your Majesty, from a sudden illness. We have reason to believe
+that he and no other was the guardian of the cursed documents, those
+explosives. When dying, he spoke incoherently of the prince's papers."
+
+"Why was the opportunity not improved?"
+
+"Unfortunately I was not on hand. The police got wind of the death and
+confiscated what papers they could lay their hands on, but those desired
+were evidently well concealed. The German police have leaden feet and
+heads of straw. Was it not childish to search for evidences in the house
+of the suspected man? A fool indeed would he have been to hide them
+there. Not less than ten times has the impostor's house been raided,
+under pretext of fire or burglary or what not, but to no purpose. They
+have not been near him. But lately since his residence in England he has
+kept them, for in England we have not so free a field--"
+
+"He has lived in England?"
+
+"Yes, your Majesty, he moved there from Prussia, realizing that a
+country whose cabinet was not on friendly terms with ours and in which
+respect for the home is carried to great lengths, was a more appropriate
+habitat for him than Prussia. In England our individual, ceasing to
+write letters to influential personages of Europe and failing to
+receive the desired recognition, devoted himself to watch-making and
+chemistry. He is said to have invented a new explosive."
+
+"Why then has he been molested? When a man lives inoffensively--"
+
+"Your Majesty, he was not disturbed, tho we continued to watch him. Our
+suspicions were aroused when we learned that he had sent his eldest
+daughter to France. This girl is an able strategist, a second edition of
+La Mothe. She caught in her net no less a nobleman than the Marquis de
+Brezé."
+
+"Eve enters the garden," piquantly observed the King.
+
+"Matters became complicated indeed. The girl sought nothing less than
+the undermining of the throne. I tried to sever the cords by making the
+Duchess of Rousillon--"
+
+"That inflated hen? Competent agent indeed!"
+
+"I commissioned her to reveal the antecedents of the girl's father to
+the infatuated Marquis. But Love was blind as usual, and the Marquis
+slipped through our hands and arrived in England just in time to save
+his prospective father-in-law's life."
+
+"His life? Who threatened his life?"
+
+"Oh, pickpockets! one of those nocturnal encounters so common in London
+streets. That is an unimportant detail in our narrative. We are
+reaching the heart of the matter. The girl had captured the Marquis with
+the aim of establishing in the very camp of French aristocracy a
+following for her father. The precious documents were confided to René
+and a journey to France arranged, the three to meet in Dover."
+
+"And how have you ascertained these particulars, Baron?"
+
+"Should I be doing my duty, did I not gather every particular? My
+business is to know all things regarding this infernal plot. Volpetti no
+sooner learned where the confederates were to meet than he arranged to
+put up at the same inn. He possessed himself of the papers by the
+cleverest strategy--"
+
+The King, unmindful of his disabled limbs, half jumped from the couch.
+
+"Then we are saved!" he cried. "For Volpetti surely destroyed them at
+once."
+
+"Your Majesty, I never trust my agents implicitly. I spy upon my spies.
+Fruits of research I require to be always delivered into my hands.
+Otherwise, they might report to me that damning testimony has been
+destroyed, and meanwhile retain the deadly weapon, to turn it at any
+moment against me. No, they have express orders to destroy nothing."
+
+"You were saying that Volpetti obtained possession of the papers."
+
+"Yes; now the imbroglio becomes more complicated. A new power intervenes
+in the individual's behalf. Can your Majesty guess whom I mean?"
+
+"The Carbonari."
+
+"Precisely; the Carbonari,--the association which plants mines under our
+feet, and which carries on the Revolution beneath the earth. They have
+written on their statutes: 'The Bourbons have been brought back by
+foreigners; the Carbonari will restore to France freedom of choice.'
+Your Majesty, this society has members in every department of
+government; they are numerous in the army; they exist even in the Royal
+Council. They make it impossible for us to obliterate devotion to
+Napoleon; they constitute an incessant protest against the established
+régime."
+
+"How the devil did the Carbonari become the champions of this
+pretender?"
+
+"A countermine, your Majesty. It happened that in Dover at the same inn
+were two members of the order having unsettled scores from old Italian
+days against Jacome Volpetti."
+
+"My friend, the spy who was set upon the individual should have had no
+unsettled scores pending with members of the Carbonari."
+
+Lecazes winced, tho he was well aware that the words had for their sole
+object giving annoyance to him. He continued:
+
+"Well, the Carbonari succeeded in murdering the police agent who
+accompanied our spy. They then despoiled Volpetti of the papers, after
+which they carried him, tied and gagged, aboard a French vessel, whose
+captain was also a member of the association. He would have been
+murdered also, had he not succeeded in freeing himself and leaping into
+the sea, from which he was rescued by an English schooner. The French
+vessel gave chase and so riddled the other by cannon balls, that, unable
+to defend herself, and being moreover the victim of a fire which--"
+
+"Bravo, Lecazes, redoubtable romancer!" exclaimed the King mockingly.
+
+"Your Majesty, I relate history, beside which romancing is a tame art.
+Weil, to resume: in spite of piracy and conflagration, Volpetti reached
+the coast near Pleneuf. At the same time, unaware of their enemy's
+salvation, the two Carbonari, de Brezé, Naundorff and his daughter
+disembarked also on French soil."
+
+"How do you explain the coalition of the Carbonari and the pretender?"
+
+"Your Majesty is well aware that, provided they work against the present
+administration, the association has carte blanche to make such
+combinations as are considered best. In that branch of the Carbonari
+known as Knights of Liberty, each member is free to follow his own
+judgment, to take risks and accept consequences. The Knights of Liberty
+constitute the germinating centre of crime. Notwithstanding the dispatch
+with which Volpetti issued warnings that the party be denied entry into
+Paris, he was outwitted. They arrived. The individual is _here_, beneath
+the powerful shelter of the association. The documents are doubtless
+well guarded. All efforts to obtain them by violence would be in vain. I
+have not the slightest clue to their place of concealment."
+
+"Is de Brezé with the pretender?"
+
+"Yes, and one of the Carbonari, an Italian."
+
+"Where is the girl?"
+
+"She has been placed for security in the Castle of Picmort. She was
+guarded by one of the Carbonari, but this man has started on one of
+those journeys which are characteristic of the society."
+
+"Do you not consider it possible that the girl carries the documents?"
+
+"I do not think so. In the first place, de Brezé through chivalry,--and
+he is a Paladin--would never give her a charge of grave peril; besides,
+the place for those papers is Paris."
+
+"Then peace and happiness to the maiden in her Picmort refuge!" sighed
+the King.
+
+"The Duchess informs me that the steward of the castle may prove a
+formidable rival to the Marquis in the affections of the fascinating
+intriguante."
+
+"My blessing on the sylvan pair! An eclogue, indeed! A peasant lover!"
+remarked the King with a Voltairian laugh, after which he hummed:
+
+    "In the lap of Phillis
+    Damon streweth flowers
+    Wet with dews of morning."
+
+Lecazes, not heeding the poetical interruption, continued:
+
+"With regard to the documents, your Majesty, a subject which seems to
+bore you, I affirm that they are in Paris, because, among other reasons,
+the individual would have need of them in order to convince Madame the
+Duchess, whom it is his intention of addressing--"
+
+"Also Ferdinand, I suppose--"
+
+"Ferdinand is already convinced. Is your Majesty, perchance, ignorant
+that he recognizes the pretender? But his action is of no moment
+compared to that of Madame, the Dauphin's prison companion. Madame
+should be warned."
+
+"What plan do you propose, Lecazes? As for me, I confess myself
+incompetent to forge methods of outwitting a woman."
+
+"Listen, then. If we might arrange that Madame shall receive the
+individual--"
+
+"What!" exclaimed the King.
+
+"If she will grant him this secret interview and exact that he deliver
+to her the documents, in order that she may become convinced of his
+identity--"
+
+The King applauded, cordially, sonorously, as tho he were a spectator at
+a theatrical representation,--the only character, he used to say, that
+suited him. He rendered homage to his Minister's genius.
+
+"Enough!" he exclaimed. "I comprehend."
+
+"Your Majesty divines the rest?"
+
+"I divine, my friend, but--"
+
+Lecazes radiantly took a pinch of aromatic snuff, and asked:
+
+"But what?"
+
+"But who is to tie the bell on the cat's neck? Who is to persuade my
+niece--"
+
+"Her husband may convince her."
+
+"Her husband? Lecazes, you and I are not children. My good nephew Louis
+is unacquainted with the art of influencing his wife. He treats her with
+such profound respect that--well, they fail utterly to understand each
+other. Whence comes this awkwardness in the second generation in dealing
+with women? Louis is my reproach, though I must admit that Ferdinand
+does me honor. Besides, Lecazes, you know well that I have instructed
+Louis to advise his wife to act as tho no such impostor exists."
+
+Steps sounded in the adjoining apartment.
+
+"Silence!" said the King. "Tis Ferdinand or Louis."
+
+A moment later, the elegant martial figure of the Duke appeared in the
+door.
+
+"You arrive opportunely, nephew," said Louis XVIII, as the Duke
+respectfully kissed his hand. "Be seated and give us news. What says
+Marie Thérèse?"
+
+"Sire, I do not bring you pleasant news. Madame is strangely exalted.
+She has received a letter from that--man, which she carries over her
+heart."
+
+"Repress your jealousy," replied the King in banter.
+
+"I experience only sadness," replied the Duke with sincerity, "She
+suffers greatly and I suffer with her. She has not slept for three
+nights nor eaten for three days. She passes hours in prayer--"
+
+"That is your fault!"
+
+"Mine, sire?" exclaimed the Duke.
+
+"Emphatically so, my little Louis. When a woman, such as is your wife, a
+woman who would die rather than even look at another man,--when she
+becomes fad, 'tis that her husband is indifferent. Listen; the time has
+come when I must speak the truth: you have behaved like a simpleton. You
+have never won her heart. You have treated her with a veneration such as
+the devote evinces toward the marble statues of saints."
+
+"Sire, you know well that I am more in my element at the head of a
+regiment than with women. I do not understand them."
+
+"The devil! This cursed generation seems to have been born blasé,
+destitute even of a sense of beauty. The reason that I love your brother
+Ferdinand is that he is the living reproduction of our ancestor, Henry
+of Navarre. The 'ultras' are scandalized at his romance with the English
+girl. Well, we must beautify our life with illusion or we should become
+stone. I have kept my heart in its place always, even though I have
+been a wretched invalid. Not that I have given myself up to material
+joys. We become divine through that exaltation evoked by the presence of
+woman. The Countess is the intermediary between soul and faith,--faith
+in the beautiful. You know that here there is no possibility of descent
+into matter--An old man in ruined health!"
+
+The Duke frowned, struggling between respect for his uncle and
+repugnance towards his theories.
+
+"In short, Louis, my aching limbs are already in the grave. I have done
+ail in my power to protect the institutions in my charge. I have
+subjugated my convictions, my reason, my skepticism, in order to be true
+to the trust confided to me. With my right hand I have restrained the
+Revolution; with my left the excesses of an imbecile and sanguinary
+Reaction. Lecazes has aided me and aids me. But Louis, my heir, if you
+falter, I shall contend no longer, even tho the monarchy perish. In vain
+will you have combatted at the pass of Ivon, at Ravenheim and
+afterwards, beside the unfortunate Eugene. Bah! The hardest battles are
+these of state, my son."
+
+The Duke was moved. When the King discarded his habitual raillery, he
+evinced genuine majesty. Almost subjugated, he knelt at his uncle's
+feet, saying:
+
+"What can I do for the monarchy, for God? I am willing to give my life,
+if necessary."
+
+"Much less than that is required," replied the King, affectionately.
+"All that I ask is that you act the part of an affectionate husband,
+which you are; that you treat your wife tenderly, passionately--"
+
+"To what end, Sire?"
+
+"Lecazes will inform you, for I am greatly fatigued. I must be careful
+of my forces, as tomorrow will be Wednesday and the Countess Cayla will
+be here to make some hours heaven to me."
+
+
+
+
+Chapter IV
+
+CONJUGAL LOVE
+
+
+That evening at the customary hour for lighting the lamps in the various
+apartments of the royal palace, the ladies in waiting to Madame the
+Duchess were surprised to see her accompanied by her husband on leaving
+the table. As the august pair entered the Duchess's apartments, the
+attendants discreetly withdrew and the lady motioned the Duke to a seat;
+but he, with unaccustomed gallantry, hastened to place himself beside
+her on the sofa and with the precipitation characteristic of a limited
+experience in conjugal affectionate demonstration, seized both her hands
+and effusively began:
+
+"Thérèse, do you remember what anniversary it is tomorrow? The tenth of
+June, our marriage day?"
+
+"Indeed?" she replied. "How slowly time passes."
+
+"To me it seems as tho we had been married yesterday. 'Twas in the
+little chapel of Mittau. Listen, Thérèse: I fear at times that I have
+not made you happy. Am I mistaken? You treat me so distantly."
+
+"I have been--happy," she stammered. "You know that it is not in my
+nature to be violently so."
+
+"The time of mourning has passed," he said, kissing her slender
+patrician hands. "Look back no longer. Those who have suffered as much
+as we have a right to happiness."
+
+Her face flushed as his warmth increased.
+
+"To live and rejoice!" she sighed. "That is not my destiny, nor yours,
+Louis. We have greater trials in store. I feel their approach. I told
+you this morning that we have not sufficiently expiated."
+
+"My Thérèse, you who are so good a Christian should not impugn the
+justice of God. Have you not suffered sufficiently to appease Him? Have
+you not even the right to breathe? Do you experience no emotion now that
+your husband is at your side? Were the reasons of state which prescribed
+our marriage not in accord with your sentiment? Would you choose me
+again if you were free? Can you not love?"
+
+She blushed to hear these extraordinary words. His transformation was
+wonderful and seemed to be changing her, the austere Duchess, into a
+girl of twenty.
+
+"Louis," she answered with noble simplicity, "since the death of my
+parents, I have loved only you. I fear at times that God will punish
+this excessive devotion to a creature."
+
+"Cousin, wife," he ardently exclaimed, "'tis God's will that we love
+each other. You know well that tho at times I seem absorbed and cold, I
+am never even in thought unfaithful. Have you any complaint, any
+accusation?"
+
+"I have believed," she replied, "that you did not love me. But I have
+never doubted you. That would have been unendurable."
+
+He clasped her to his breast.
+
+"Since you are so well convinced of my love," he whispered, "you will
+grant a request, you will permit me to influence that upright
+conscience, that noble heart."
+
+She drew herself away instinctively, but he clasped her more closely,
+and she remained a happy prisoner.
+
+"My wife," he pursued, "you are under the domination of a great sorrow.
+This morning you were almost hysterical. I suffered in seeing you so
+troubled. Now, we must be absolutely frank with one another. I fear for
+your reason if you continue to torment yourself about an ambitious fool.
+Listen to me and listen tranquilly. Your clear intelligence has become
+temporarily clouded. Your mind will soon recover its lucidity. You are
+now of the opinion that the man is being victimized, whereas he is
+nothing more than a keen-witted impostor, bolder and armed with more
+formidable documents than his predecessors."
+
+"Do you really believe that the writer of this letter is an impostor?"
+
+"Well: not precisely an impostor, Thérèse,--a dupe, rather, believing
+himself to be the prince. 'Tis a frequent phenomenon. Our reason is
+subject to such fluctuations that one is capable of confusing even his
+own individuality with that of another. You doubtless remember the case
+of the Spanish pie-vender who believed himself King Sebastian; or
+Pougatchef of Russia who under the name of Demetrius claimed the
+throne."
+
+"What of the documents mentioned in the letter which he maintains would
+confirm his claim before any French tribunal?"
+
+"Little by little. To begin with, we are not certain that they exist.
+Have you seen them? Doubt, then, of their existence, until you have them
+in your hands for examination. Let us suppose that the documents are
+genuine, does it therefore follow that the possessor is the prince? So
+great has been the confusion caused by the Revolution, unscrupulous
+persons have acquired such unrestricted power, our family secrets have
+been so profanely exploited, that 'twould be no wonder indeed that the
+papers should be in the hands of the veriest adventurer."
+
+She remained silent, but the voice she loved so well opened an ever
+widening breach in her faith.
+
+"Reflect," he continued, "how the Revolution has scattered important
+papers. Great frauds have stood upon stolen or spurious documents. But
+in this instance 'tis evident that the entire plot has for its object
+the exploitation of your credulity and tender memories. In order to
+prove whether his claim be true or false, subject your correspondent to
+a test."
+
+"Louis," she said, clasping her hands, "on listening to you, my reason
+vacillates. My God, what shall I do?"
+
+"Bid the man come to you."
+
+"Did you not this morning express disapproval of my receiving him?"
+
+"I have changed my mind. You must grant him a secret interview. You must
+discover the nature of those documents. Require him to bring them to
+you. You surely do not intend to take his word for it that they exist.
+Get possession of his proofs and then we shall be able to judge.--Now,
+let me tell you something of this man's past life. You know nothing of
+his history, tho he is proposing to throw himself into your arms. He
+belongs to the lowest class of Prussian people. His father was a
+mechanic, son of a kettle-mender. Until very recently he has been a
+watch-maker. He has been convicted of two grave crimes,--counterfeiting
+and arson. He has served a sentence at hard labor in a Silesia prison.
+What say you, Thérèse, to the seating upon the throne of Saint Louis a
+felon whose wrists and ankles have borne infamous manacles?"
+
+She looked affrightedly at her husband.
+
+"You are horrified? Well, you have heard but the beginning. This man was
+the victim of misery owing, in all probability, to his vices. He was
+rescued by a woman. This woman, many years his senior, was for a long
+period his--Thérèse I dare not explain the relation to you. I respect
+you too highly to pronounce the revolting words. But what do you say to
+the artifice of calling this woman his sister? Can you longer believe it
+probable that his body holds the royal blood?"
+
+The blow was well aimed. The color mounted to the Duchess's face and she
+assumed an indignant attitude. The Duke caressed her consolingly:
+
+"After that unsavory episode, he contracted matrimony. His wife is a
+woman of the lowest origin, vulgar, insignificant. But, in compensation,
+he has an ambitious daughter, a veritable phenomenon indeed. 'Tis not an
+ordinary spectacle, that of a girl of eighteen or nineteen occupying
+herself with vaulting schemes--"
+
+"Perhaps not with vaulting schemes," rejoined the Duchess meditatively.
+"Nevertheless at eighteen there exists a clear comprehension of duty and
+expediency--"
+
+"O Thérèse, _you_, you were early matured through suffering."
+
+"And perhaps this young girl also."
+
+The Duke was silent. He regretted the turn their conversation had taken.
+He sought not to awaken pity, so he suddenly faced his battery in
+another direction.
+
+"Your would-be brother, the Prussian mechanic, seeks to found a new
+religion. He is therefore a heretic, which is reason sufficient for
+excommunication and deprivation of the Church's sacraments."
+
+These words produced an extraordinary effect upon the Duchess. She was a
+fervent Catholic devotee, intensified by the Revolution. Her cheeks
+burned and her eyes shot anger.
+
+"Not only does he profess heresy," resumed the Duke, "but he proclaims
+and propagates his doctrines. He has written a book entitled 'The
+Heavenly Doctrine.' It contains an arraignment of the Church and
+interprets arbitrarily the Holy Scriptures. 'Tis clear that his motive
+in attacking Catholicity is retaliation, the Pope having refused to
+indorse his absurd pretensions. His marriage was according to Protestant
+rites. It is claimed that he reckons as a saint that old Martin who
+pretends revelations from the archangel Raphael."
+
+"The King has received that old man," remarked the Duchess. "It is said
+that he spoke dreadful prophecies. The hand of God weighs heavily upon
+us!"
+
+"Thérèse, it is unworthy a strong intelligence to attach importance to
+such nonsense. The old idiot would today be in a mad-house but for the
+indulgence of the King."
+
+"Well," said she, making a great effort, "am I to grant this interview,
+then?"
+
+"Certainly, that your mind may be at rest. Light drives away phantoms.
+The King desires you to receive the man. Make it a condition that he
+bring the documents. Arrange that the conference be secret, for 'tis
+necessary to proceed with the greatest caution. Our enemies are
+vigilant. Thérèse, I hold forth both arms to sustain the tottering
+throne, but shall be powerless unless you help me. Have I in you an
+ally? You and I must not work at cross purposes."
+
+He clasped his wife in his arms, uttering endearing words which seemed a
+promise of new days, full of happiness, and of a perfect union. The
+Duchess listened rapturously to the husband whom the state and church
+had given her. Her smothered youth rose in a strong tide. She realized
+that the grief which had really oppressed her through so many years was
+the glacial attitude which she and the Duke had maintained towards; each
+other. Closing her eyes, she leaned upon his; breast. He folded her in
+his arms and led her into the adjoining apartment, her dormitory,
+through which they passed into the oratory. They walked to the crimson
+prie-Dieu and knelt together upon; the velvet cushion. Holding her hand
+tightly, he solemnly said:
+
+"Before God, who hears us, Thérèse,--sole woman that exists on earth for
+me,--and He knows I speak the truth,--promise me that you will save the
+royal House of France from perishing, that you will not permit the
+impious to rejoice nor the enemies of the cause to triumph, that you
+will prevent the sacred oil from being poured upon the head of this
+counterfeiter, this incendiary, this heretic. If he be an impostor,
+'twould be sacrilegious; if he be not an impostor (to state an
+impossible case) his accession to the throne would let loose again
+license and unbridled passions which would precipitate a second
+Revolution. Promise, Thérèse. Swear!"
+
+She raised her eyes to the crucifix. The thorn-crowned face against the
+dark background seemed, in a sublime melancholy, to murmur: "Father
+forgive them--" The oath died on her lips.
+
+"Swear, Thérèse, my love, my wife!" repeated the Duke.
+
+Tears coursed down her face as she groaned: "I swear, my God, I swear,"
+and sank in a nervous paroxysm into her husband's arms. He had
+triumphed. Sustaining her, he led the Duchess from the oratory.
+
+
+
+
+Chapter V
+
+THE SISTER
+
+
+In the sitting-room of a small inn whose sign reads "Hotel d'Orleans"
+sat the five persons whom the Polipheme brought to France. Amélie, no
+longer a fresh radiant girl, and in deep mourning for her husband, Jean
+Vilon, sits beside René who whispers:
+
+"When shall I see you light-hearted, Amélie? I am jealous of the dead.
+He robs me of you."
+
+"What else may I do than wear black? He was a great heart. Do not wonder
+at my grief, René."
+
+Naundorff's face was almost transfigured. He looked twenty years
+younger. He seemed to have lost consciousness of his past sufferings.
+Joy obliterated sorrow and his lips were wreathed in smiles.
+
+"My friends," he was saying, "I reproach myself for having doubted of
+human justice. Early or late, the human heart turns to good as the body
+to earth. This is the happiest moment of my unhappy life. I am about to
+receive a great consolation and greatly did I require it, for on
+reaching Paris, my old wounds were re-opened. To return here after so
+many years and with such a record fastened to my name! I have visited my
+parents' prison. Yes, I have had the courage to do so. I am a man of
+memories. The tower has already been demolished. What haste to
+obliterate my past! In the remainder of the building a convent has been
+established, to which I have been refused admittance. I was brave enough
+to walk on the bloody ground whereon my mother--"
+
+Amélie rose and threw her arms around her father's neck.
+
+"Why do I dwell on this theme?" he asked, resuming his radiant
+expression. "Has not my destiny changed aspect? In spite of what we have
+suffered on the voyage, in spite of what you, my loved Amélie, have
+suffered, I say: 'Blessed be the hour in which I left London! Blessed
+the inspiration whereby I saved that wretch! These things have been
+registered to my credit. Blessed the faith I had in the one person who
+can save me and whose heart throbs at the sound of my name!'"
+
+He fervently crossed his hands in an attitude of prayer.
+
+"It is my duty to announce to you the secret of my happiness. You have
+cast your lives into my cause and braved even death. But danger has at
+last ceased; and the sun has chased away the clouds. I am happy, happy.
+O how strange that word sounds on my lips!"
+
+Louis Pierre fixed on Naundorff a penetrating look and said:
+
+"Monseigneur, we are waiting to know in what that happiness consists--"
+
+"Listen, listen. This morning at about eleven o'clock a most affable
+gentleman brought me a message in answer to a letter I had written,--can
+you guess to whom?"
+
+Then with his heart in his voice, he added:
+
+"My sister, my sister!"
+
+There was a moment of silence. Then Amélie asked almost sharply:
+
+"Are we to infer that Madame does not Know how to write?"
+
+"My dear child, what more can she do than send me word she will receive
+me--"
+
+"Receive _us_?" asked the girl.
+
+"No, myself only. Amélie, consider that you are a stranger to her,
+whereas I am the companion of her childhood, the boy who wept and
+suffered with her during captivity. She consents to see me. Do you
+think this little? I asked only that much, for I know that once
+together, she will run to embrace me. O that embrace!"
+
+"Does she summon you to the Palace?"
+
+"No--not to the palace--"
+
+"Aha! the meeting is to be clandestine!"
+
+"My God!" groaned Naundorff. "How you poison the first happiness I have
+tasted! Can you not read the state of my soul? Ambition! 'Tis an
+illusive folly. I long only for those arms to be opened to me in which
+as a little child I slept. What are a crown and sceptre worth? Such
+baubles do not allure me. I wish above all things to recover my name and
+to feel my sister's kisses. Those kisses will banish the spectre back of
+my forehead. Am I mad? Have I dreamed my past life? _She_, _she_ will
+tell me the truth."
+
+"But father," remonstrated Amélie, "why do you permit such doubts to
+overpower you? Do you not possess proofs? Have you not cited many
+corroborating circumstances? Have you not been recognized by your
+father's faithful servitors? By Madame Rambaud who rocked you in your
+cradle? Did you not remind her that the blue velvet dress you were to
+wear to Versailles was tight in the sleeves and that it was in
+consequence removed? Did she not exclaim on hearing you: 'This is my
+prince and my king?"
+
+"Well, Amélie, in spite of these testimonials, I, myself falter in
+faith. My past seems too extraordinary to fit within the bounds of the
+possible. Perhaps I _am_ a visionary, one of the many in the ranks of
+spurious Dauphins who have emerged from every corner of France. 'Tis
+true that I possess genuine documentary proof; of that I am certain. But
+these papers may have been placed in my hands for an end
+incomprehensible to me. Montmorin, himself, that hero of loyalty, may
+have been duped. This is the terrible suspicion which seizes me always
+at the moment when I most require confidence and courage."
+
+Amélie sent René a look almost of anguish. Naundorff continued:
+
+"_She_ is the only cure for this unbearable incertitude. _She_ is all
+that remains of my past. Her voice calling me 'Brother' will sweep the
+cobwebs from my brain and restore my faith forever."
+
+"Are we to understand, Monseigneur," asked René, "that you may not enter
+the Palace? Is Madame to visit you here?"
+
+"No; we have agreed to meet in Versailles park, the place where as
+children we so often played together. My sister is accustomed to visit
+Versailles occasionally that she may be undisturbed in her religious
+devotions and perform works of charity among the poor. Ah! my sister is
+an angel. In the midst of the brilliant court life, she is an angel.
+They have sought to harden her and weaken her clear judgment, but such
+effort has been futile. Yes, 'tis Versailles where we shall meet in six
+days, next Thursday. I am to be just without the garden. We are to meet
+in the grove of Apollo, from which the public is excluded; she visits
+the park only on festival days. All these details have been
+explained.--I know so well that our first act will be to cast ourselves
+into each other's arms and mingle our tears. We have not yet mourned our
+mother together!"
+
+Louis Pierre contracted his thin lips in a bitter smile and caustically
+remarked:
+
+"So this is to be all, Monseigneur? Only a fraternal embrace?"
+
+"No, indeed. She wishes to see the documents. I shall therefore take
+them to her and also the manuscript--"
+
+If a bomb had exploded in their midst, not more consternation could have
+been evinced. They exclaimed in chorus:
+
+"The papers!"
+
+"Never!" protested Amélie.
+
+"'Tis an infernal trap!" exclaimed Louis Pierre.
+
+"Bandits! The snare is well laid," added Giacinto.
+
+"Monseigneur!" implored de Brezé. "Those papers are of inestimable value
+to us; they should be exhibited only before a court of justice. Our
+enemies seek to obtain possession of these papers, and, if they succeed,
+our cause is lost. The watch-maker Naundorff will be without proofs of
+his identity."
+
+Naundorff became tremulous with anger.
+
+"Dare not impute such infamy to my sister or I shall attribute villainy
+to yourselves. In this matter, I accept suggestions from no one. 'Tis an
+affair between God and myself. This is not a question for man to settle,
+for what value have the misleading judgments of earth? _I_ alone decide.
+_I_ am the State! _I_ am the King. These papers pertain to myself only,
+even as my life is my exclusive property. If my sister, on seeing me,
+shall waive material proofs, how happy I shall be! But if she doubt or
+repulse me, what a joy, what a Satanic joy 'twill be to fling these
+testimonials in her face and say, 'Farewell forever. Our mother curses
+you!'"
+
+He broke into a mocking laugh, such a laugh as terminates in nervous
+hysteria, while the others with saddened faces remained silent. Then he
+rose to leave, saying to de Brezé:
+
+"René, I trust to you to bring me the papers Thursday morning. If you do
+not accede to this request, you will force me to violence."
+
+As he passed out, Amélie said entreatingly to her lover:
+
+"Save him in spite of himself. Keep them in their place of concealment,
+for there they are secure."
+
+"Most secure," replied de Brezé. "They are with a friend, Gontran de
+Lome. He thinks them a compromising love correspondence of mine. Who
+would suspect that amiable Lovelace? Nevertheless, in spite of his
+dissipations, he is a man of honor and discretion. I guarantee the
+security of the papers while they remain with Gontran. But should your
+father demand them, Amélie, I cannot refuse. He is the arbiter of his
+fate and of our own as well."
+
+The Carbonari meanwhile conversed in low tones. After a while Louis
+Pierre advanced saying:
+
+"There lives in Versailles a sister of mine, who terminated her vagrant
+peddling existence by the establishment of a little shop. Giacinto and I
+have formulated a plan which we shall explain to you. We cannot fold
+our arms in the moment of danger."
+
+"Noble friends!" said Amélie, extending her hands to the two men.
+
+"No, Mademoiselle; you are entitled to our lives. You were made in
+heaven and the mourning you wear for that unfortunate peasant testifies
+to the greatness of your soul. I would let myself be torn to pieces for
+you. Our danger is grave. From the moment the papers are delivered to
+our enemies, our necks will be in danger. Louis Pierre and I are
+endeavoring to counteract the blunder which--pardon me,--was committed
+in consequence of your father's generosity. I take an oath that 'tis the
+man whom I have vowed to kill that has woven the net which has caught
+your father. Has not your father suffered enough to destroy the
+impression that all men are to be trusted?"
+
+"My opinion," said Louis Pierre, "is that the hands that have woven the
+snare are whiter and more patrician than the spy's, however much he love
+and care for them. An iniquitous plot has been hatched at the Duchess's
+shoulders, for the securing of the papers. If we find it impossible to
+prevent the catastrophe, why vengeance remains," he concluded, his face
+taking on a tragic grandeur.
+
+
+
+
+Chapter VI
+
+LOUIS PIERRE'S SISTER
+
+
+Those to whom the gardens and parks of Versailles are not familiar can
+form no idea of the manner in which aristocratic dignity imparts
+elegance to rural, sites. The impression is not that of sweet melancholy
+so often produced by country scenes but rather of a lofty magnificence,
+which weighs upon the soul and becomes even a solemn ennui, which
+proceeds from the very regularity and grandeur of the royal domain,
+wherein one still involuntarily looks for powder-headed dames and
+cavaliers in embroidered waist-coats.
+
+On Sundays it was permitted the public to enjoy the park, which during
+the week was deserted save for the gardeners and guard, who, wearing
+bandoliers and holding rifles, watched over the safety of whatever
+members of the royal family happened to be in the Palace.
+
+Nazario Patin, sergeant of the guard, was quite taken aback on receiving
+orders to retire the soldiers on Thursday from the avenue leading to
+the Great lawn, from the Latona pond, the Columnata wood and the Apollo
+grove. A second order, no less explicit, followed to the effect that he
+was to hold these guards in waiting in the assembly hall, in case they
+should be needed.
+
+On Wednesday evening the Duchess arrived at the Palace. Patin
+soliloquized:
+
+"She wishes to promenade tomorrow and look on no human countenance, so
+greatly is she given to prayer and meditation. But that the guard should
+be retired! Hum! I can't understand."
+
+On Thursday four men wearing the simple uniform of the ordinary guard,
+bearing rifles and in their belts hunting knives, arrived in the
+deserted park from the Ville d'Avray road and approached one of the
+little gates opening towards les Trianones which Marie Antoinette,
+discarding pompous ceremonial, used to frequent. Cautiously they opened
+the gate, using a key carried by him who seemed the leader. They held a
+conference in low tones, as tho fearful of disturbing the birds in the
+trees. The leader's southern type revived recollections of the Catalan
+smuggler, Albert Serra, a gentleman whom we met in the apartments of
+Baron Lecazes, just returned from London and professing to have
+successfully lightered a ship of a cargo of cutlery. This was
+Volpetti's disguise when he wished to represent a man of the lower
+classes.
+
+"Beware!" he was saying to the others. "Listen well and execute even
+better. A false step will be fatal to our object. You, Lestrade, are to
+guide him into the garden. He comes by the route we have taken and will
+travel on foot from this side Le Chesnay. As for you, Sec and La Grive,
+remain without, near the gate. I only shall remain inside the park. When
+he leaves the garden, I shall follow him; and if I signal you by raising
+my arm, throw yourselves upon him, gagging and binding him. Whatever you
+find upon his person is to be taken to my superior, the Minister of
+Police. No matter what happens save the booty. Your lives, my life, are
+worth nothing in comparison. Whoever carries the prize to the Minister
+will be a lucky man, I pledge my word."
+
+Making motions of assent, the party dispersed. A deep quiet spread over
+the park, along whose paths the Duchess was even now walking. Her dress
+of violet silk embroidered in passementerie, betokened mourning. She
+held her hand on her heart to still its beating. At about the same time,
+Patin, sergeant of the guard, his services not being required, turned
+his steps in the direction of a lady friend, a certain laundress, in
+whose kitchen, so gossip had it, there was never lack of savory dishes
+and pleasant chitchat for the handsome sergeant. On ascending the
+stairway, he met a girl whose face seemed glorified by the splendor
+light of yellow hair, arranged in curls, according to the style of the
+period. As he drew back to make room for her, he muttered to himself:
+
+"The picture of the beheaded Queen!"
+
+Some moments later he was asking the laundress, as she stood at her
+table ironing a dainty garment:
+
+"Who is that young girl in mourning that has just left your neighbor's
+apartment?"
+
+"I do not know. I have never spoken with her but I scent a mystery.
+There is a cat in a bag, several cats, rather. You know my neighbor
+well."
+
+"I should say I did. I have known her and her brother Louis Pierre
+Louvel a lifetime. Such a sullen silent fellow! I wonder where he is
+now. No one seems to have heard of him since the banishment of his
+beloved Emperor."
+
+"Why he is here, my boy. He has been here for three days. He brought
+with him to his sister's house that young girl and a handsome young man.
+They came stealthily and they have all kept as quiet as mice. I have not
+seen even Louis Pierre's sister. She must however go out at night to
+buy provisions. But through a window I have seen the f aces of Louis
+Pierre and the handsome gentleman."
+
+"Has he been casting eyes at you?" jealously inquired Patin, whereupon
+his mistress boxed his ears, and so diverted his thoughts from this
+trend of suspicion regarding the new comers.
+
+"I could swear that these people are conspiring," remarked the
+laundress.
+
+"You are dreaming, my dear. I have but just met the girl on the stairs.
+Why should you become suspicious because a brother visits his sister?"
+
+"That a brother should visit a sister causes me no surprise, but there
+are queer kinds of brothers and queer ways of paying visits. Will you
+believe that the sister denied to me yesterday that her brother was with
+her?"
+
+"Rosa, that is indeed strange," remarked the sergeant pensively.
+
+"I do not like Louis Pierre. He is capable of anything."
+
+"Well, my little Rosa, stop your gossip. I don't suppose danger is being
+plotted. Neither the King nor Princes are in the castle; as for the
+Duchess, she is a saint whom no one would harm. What amazes me is the
+resemblance of the girl to the dead Queen."
+
+"She is a live bird, I'll warrant," answered the woman.
+
+While this dialogue was in progress, the blond girl in black rapidly
+crossed several streets and reached a deserted square shaded by elm
+trees. She was almost immediately joined by a man with whom she walked
+for some distance, entering at last the beginning of a park by a path
+which skirted the wall. The man consulted from time to time a paper plan
+which he carried in his hands. He stopped suddenly and examined a breach
+in the wall.
+
+"Louis Pierre was right," he said.
+
+He vaulted the fence and held forth his arms for the girl, who, crawling
+along the ruins, came within his reach. Taking her by the waist, he held
+her for a moment against his breast and spoke passionate words of love.
+
+"Amélie!" he whispered, "when will you become mine for all time? I adore
+you more than ever."
+
+"René, I long for it as much as you. But O the saddest of presentiments
+weighs upon me. My father's mind seems giving way beneath the weight of
+his sorrows. His reason is clouded and confused. If his sister does not
+open her arms today, alas for him, alas for us! And she will not; this
+interview is part of an infernal plot--"
+
+"Amélie, you express my fears also. But none of your father's friends
+are sleeping on their oars. Louis Pierre knows every inch of ground on
+this place. We are here to defend the cause, he, Giacinto and I. 'Twould
+have been better had you not come."
+
+"Perhaps so, René, but I wanted so much to be near you. Do not heed my
+seeming coldness of the last few days. How could I fail in mourning for
+that innocent, noble man,--victim of low intrigues and his own loyalty?
+He typifies the people, the people sacrificed to the classes."
+
+"I have been jealous of your devotion, your gratitude. I have longed to
+be the dead. Had I died, what should you have done?"
+
+"Died with you, René."
+
+He stooped and kissed her eyes, holding her close in his arms.
+
+
+
+
+Chapter VII
+
+THE INTERVIEW
+
+
+On reaching the appointed place, the Duchess fell upon a garden seat,
+seemingly very tired. Taking a lace handkerchief from the reticule which
+hung at her wrist, she wiped the perspiration from her forehead. She
+consulted the watch at her belt and found it lacked ten minutes of the
+time set. She sighed, resigning herself to wait.
+
+At last she heard the approach of footsteps; some moments later a man
+with uncovered head stood before her. Marie Thérèse de Bourbon uttered
+no cry. She was stricken dumb. After so many years, she beheld standing
+before her against the crimson background of the sky, which looked like
+a nimbus of blood, the Past, the terrible, tragic Past. It surged again
+to overwhelm her, that Past, the sorrows of which seemed to have been
+calmed by time; the terrors of the prison; the flaring up of frail hopes
+destined to be dashed to earth; the incertitude of the fate of loved
+ones; ardent prayers to heaven to work miracles; entreaties; outrages;
+infinite despair: all these rose again out of that terrible Past and
+stood before her.
+
+She could not speak; she could scarcely see; but she felt hot tears
+through her silk skirt and trembling arms clasp her knees while a
+heart-rending voice cried:
+
+"Marie Thérèse! Marie Thérèse!"
+
+"Rise," she said at last, almost inaudibly. "Be seated."
+
+He staggered to the stone bench beside her. She averted her head in
+order to avoid seeing his grief-stricken face. A silence followed which
+the lady at last broke:
+
+"You perceive, Sir, that I have complied with your request. What do you
+wish?"
+
+"To remind you that I am your brother, the brother whom your mother
+bore."
+
+"My brother--died," she faltered.
+
+"He lives and speaks to you. Dare you look upon me and deny it? I carry
+on my face the marks of royal baptism and of prison torture."
+
+"My God!" she groaned.
+
+"Why do you not acknowledge me?" he cried with waxing indignation. "I
+believed that on receiving me you would take me to your heart. I thought
+you felt the great thirst that devours me. I thought that you and I
+should mourn our mother in each other's arms. Why did you receive me, if
+you had already decided to treat me as an impostor? Are you about to
+turn me out of your palace gates along with the dogs and beggars? After
+all that I have suffered?"
+
+Making a terrible effort, she said:
+
+"You have spoken of proofs, irrefutable proofs."
+
+"Miserable woman, until today I thought that the wall which separates us
+should be demolished on our meeting. But I see it is of iron. Listen,
+then. You ask me for the documents. Well, those documents shall be
+presented at a French tribunal, and you with the others shall be brushed
+off the usurped throne. You refuse to acknowledge me; well, when the
+world salutes me King, you will admit I am your brother. Europe will
+proclaim what no court can deny. Until then, farewell."
+
+She trembled and softly spoke his name:
+
+"Charles Louis!"
+
+Her voice seemed to come from an immense distance. He cried out almost
+in delirium:
+
+"Thérèse, Thérèse, my adored sister!"
+
+He caught the Duchess in his arms almost strangling her. He wept and
+laughed together for at last his overmastering desire was filled. He
+felt a wild longing to dance. Scarcely realizing the craftiness of her
+thoughts, she assured herself with feminine complacency that she should
+now do with him as she chose.
+
+"You know me at last,--do you, Thérèse? You no longer repulse me? O how
+happy I am! Only thro you do I believe in myself, for tho I told you
+with so much assurance just now that I was your brother, I doubted my
+own words. Are you surprised that much suffering seems to have clouded
+my brain? On leaving prison, you found friends and shelter and affection
+and at last a throne; you returned to our father's palace amid
+acclamations and festivities. How can you divine my suffering? See, I
+have written them that you may read."
+
+He took from his pocket an oblong case of yellow calf.
+
+"I intended that the Marquis de Brezé, whom I regard as my son should
+bring you this. But perhaps 'tis better that you receive it from me.
+When you read my via crucis, you will not marvel that my past life seems
+to me a dream, a forgery of a madman's delirium. Only you can relieve me
+of this intolerable fear and restore me to faith in myself. You have
+called me Charles Louis, my name in infancy and early childhood. Those
+who now call me Louis do not know this. Ah, Thérèse, God bless you!"
+
+Again he embraced her and together they recalled incidents of the past.
+
+"Do you remember," he asked, "how in prison a wall separated us and we
+were never permitted to speak together? Well, I used to place my ear to
+the wall and listen for your footsteps."
+
+"Charles Louis," she said with a great effort, "if love of your sister
+has caused you to seek me, prove that love by granting a request."
+
+"Ask my life if you will."
+
+"What I ask may be more difficult to give. I am going to beg
+you,--listen!--to renounce what you have so long desired. Be very calm.
+The Revolution submerged the throne, the altar and whatever our family
+represented and supported. Providence has replaced us on the throne; the
+great days of the monarchy have returned; the churches have been
+re-opened; our country has been reconciled to its monarchs and its
+God,--the God who has placed the crown upon our uncle's head rather than
+upon yours. God has perhaps selected you as the victim, innocent tho you
+be. He has required your sacrifice and he continues to require it. To
+what do you aspire today? Are you thinking of placing arms in the hands
+of our father's executioners? Have you come, Charles Louis, to win the
+applause of hell?"
+
+He could not answer for gazing upon her.
+
+"Your duty is to retire to peace and quietude. Whatever be your rights,
+your duty is to stifle your pretensions. I assure you this is true."
+
+"And my children, Thérèse? My sons? I have the sons which have been
+denied to both you and Ferdinand. No one but me can present an heir. My
+seed has fallen upon blessed ground in being mingled with the people."
+
+The Duchess experienced great anger, as she always did at any allusion
+to her sterility, and she retorted harshly:
+
+"The heir whom you present is from a woman of low extraction, the fruit
+of a union unsanctioned by the Catholic Church. And you dare aspire to
+the throne? Remember the Corsican! He also sought to improvise a
+dynasty. All that survives of that farce is the daughter of a real
+emperor and the son of the adventurer, sheltered by that emperor's
+throne. If you believed yourself a king, why did you marry a plebeian?
+Why did you not restrain your passions? And you complain of your fate?
+As for your heart, you have followed its impulses. I married my cousin
+because the state required the union--Ferdinand separated from his
+loved Amy Brown and abandoned his children, one of them a son, in order
+to marry Caroline. Are you willing to do likewise? I know well you are
+not. Believe me, believe me, Charles Louis, life is not what we would
+wish but as God ordains it to be. Your fate has been to live far from
+the throne--Resign yourself to the decree. Do not violate the most holy
+PRINCIPLE, the PRINCIPLE for which our father died. He adjures you from
+the tomb to accept your lot."
+
+Her eloquence subjugated him, for she spoke from her heart's conviction.
+
+"God was God, yet he lived and died a man," she continued. "Live then
+and die a man, my brother. Will you?--a man of the people."
+
+In a transport of abnegation, he kissed her cheeks and said:
+
+"I will."
+
+In confirmation of his promise, he drew the casket of documents from his
+breast and held them toward her.
+
+"Here they are," he said. "Here are the papers which sustain my claims.
+They are of such a nature, especially the testimony of the unhappy
+Pichegru, Charette, Hoche and Josephine that I could demand the throne
+by presenting them in a court. I despoil myself of my personality, of
+my strength. I become again Naundorff, the obscure mechanic, the
+impostor, the convict, the outlaw! Take the papers, Marie Thérèse, I
+give them to you. The sacrifice is accomplished. Have you more to ask of
+me? And now, sister, holy love of my life, all that remains to me of my
+mother,--call me once more Charles Louis--let me rest my forehead on
+your breast."
+
+She was scarcely able to control herself. He attracted and repelled her
+by turns. She was about to extend her hand for the papers when, by the
+light of the setting sun, intense and red, he so greatly resembled her
+father that she dared not accomplish her purpose. With involuntary
+reverence, she said:
+
+"No, Charles Louis, the papers are yours. Keep them. Promise me, only,
+that you will not misuse them. I shall be satisfied with your word. I
+ask this of you because I must. Accept your fate, as I accept mine.
+Accept it as you would a cross. O Charles Louis, the Past is
+irrevocable, your Past and mine, and who knows which of us has suffered
+the more greatly? Farewell, farewell, my brother. Do not forget your
+oath."
+
+"I shall remember it, my sister. God bless you! I have received all that
+I expected from you. I count this day happy. I shall remove with my
+family to Holland. May my children never suffer the pangs of poverty! I
+trust that no further assaults will be made upon my life. And now, for
+one moment--"
+
+He laid his head upon the lady's shoulder and wept.
+
+
+
+
+Chapter VIII
+
+THE AMBUSH
+
+
+As Naundorff left the garden, a man, hidden amid the shrubbery advanced
+cautiously and reached the little gate holding there a short
+conversation with one of the spies, La Grive.
+
+"He carries a casket which must be captured. I reiterate my previous
+instructions. That casket must be seized. Where are Sec and Lestrade?"
+
+"Within two steps. Shall I call them?"
+
+"Keep very quiet. Remember to make no use of firearms. If he make no
+resistance, do not harm him. Run. Find the others. He is almost here."
+
+"Very well."
+
+The two spies, disguised as guards, separated. Volpetti waited back of
+the gate and on Naundorff's arrival, he solicitously held it open.
+Naundorff did not look toward the other, but even had he, the black hair
+and beard of Albert Serra would have misled him completely. He was
+surrounded by the party of spies, who were in turn surrounded by de
+Brezé and the Carbonari. The latter were concealed by the foliage, from
+a height dominating the path. Like the spies, they had planned to use
+firearms only in case of an extremity.
+
+Naundorff passed through the gate, deep in thought. His sister's voice
+was in his ears; he felt again her caresses. His mind was at peace and
+the incertitude regarding his individuality set at rest. Had she not
+called him brother? Now he was tranquil, free from tormenting doubts.
+Despoiled of his rights, perhaps, but impostor or maniac never! He
+thought of Amélie, dreading to tell her the result of the interview.
+Suddenly a hand was placed over his mouth, his arms were pinned to his
+sides and he could neither cry nor defend himself. Volpetti searched him
+and possessed himself of the case of papers with a triumphant laugh.
+There was no need to employ force; nevertheless, through an excess of
+precaution the spies gagged their victim and tied his hands.
+
+All this was accomplished with the utmost celerity. Naundorff had been
+reduced to immobility when de Brezé and the two Carbonari ran up. Using
+cudgels, they stunned Lestrade and disabled La Grive. De Brezé then
+devoted himself to Sec, and Giacinto turned, infuriated, on Volpetti.
+This king of spies held the papers, determined to keep them at the cost
+of his life, and was for this reason unable to handle his hunting knife
+with his accustomed dexterity. The Sicilian dealt him a vigorous blow on
+the collar bone which caused him to drop the case of papers. Lights
+danced in his eyes and he felt as tho about to swoon. With a great
+effort he recovered his senses sufficiently to aim a blow at Giacinto's
+neck, as the Sicilian stooped to grasp the case. The wound would have
+been fatal had not Giacinto evaded it by a rapid movement which
+resembled the spring of a tiger. All the evil which his family had
+suffered from Volpetti flashed thro lis mind and outweighed Naundorffs
+interests; he forgot the papers for his own grievances, especially his
+brother's body hanging from the gibbet. Clinching his white teeth, he
+dashed upon the enemy, knocked the knife out of his hand and jerked the
+false beard from his face. Volpetti lacked neither courage nor coolness,
+but he was a constructive intelligence rather than a physical force.
+Giacinto was much the younger and just now impelled by a homicidal
+vertigo. Volpetti sought to rise, but Giacinto pushed his head back and
+knelt with one knee upon his breast. In an access of savage joy, he cut
+through his neck, accompanying the action with dreadful oaths and
+invocations to the Madonna.
+
+While the Sicilian satiated his thirst for vengeance, one of the other
+spies, La Grive, regained his footing and fought desperately with Louis
+Pierre, whom he quickly so battered with fist blows that the Knight of
+Liberty lay prone upon the grass. La Grive next turned his attention
+upon Giacinto and Volpetti. The latter lay dead in a pool of blood. The
+case of papers was near. He remembered the leader's injunction: 'The
+casket must be saved, at all costs.' Seizing his opportunity, while
+Giacinto feasted his eyes upon his dead enemy, he grasped the papers and
+ran off, soon being lost among the trees. So vanished the last proofs of
+Naundorff's identity.
+
+The defeat was complete. It was the culmination of the lengthy drama
+initiated in prison and developed in London, Dover, Picmort and Paris.
+While La Grive possessed himself of the papers René was engaged in
+combat with the brutal and athletic Sec. At length he dispossessed him
+of his hunting knife and threw him senseless, as he thought, to the
+ground. Then he ran swiftly to Naundorff and cut his cords. Sec watched
+his opportunity. Gliding noiselessly toward his vanquisher, he aimed a
+bullet which made René spin around and fall lifeless to the ground. It
+had pierced his heart.
+
+Meanwhile, the Duchess, motionless on her garden seat, was powerless to
+summon the courage to return to the castle. Scarcely could she restrain
+herself from running after Naundorff, calling, "Brother, brother!" The
+sun no longer reddened the sky. The evening was chill. Suddenly a shot
+rang out. She shuddered but remained paralyzed, in the throes of
+conflicting emotions. The branches rustled and swift footsteps hurried
+along the path. Was this an apparition? A young girl in black, her face
+framed in a glory of golden hair, her hands raised menacingly and
+dropping blood! It was the image of her mother, her eyes gleaming, her
+mouth livid and mutely pronouncing maledictions and her forefinger held
+prophetically and accusingly in the Duchess's face.
+
+Marie Thérèse de Bourbon fell upon the ground, writhing and groaning:
+"Mother, mother!"
+
+
+
+
+Chapter IX
+
+GIACINTO'S FATE
+
+
+Soliviac nimbly leaped to the wharf from a skiff and held out his hands
+to Louis Pierre and Giacinto. He uncovered respectfully to Naundorff and
+Amélie and caressed Baby Dick's head, as the little fellow clung to his
+adoptive mother's hand.
+
+Amélie, in deep mourning, was the shadow of her former self. Wasted
+away, almost blue in her pallor, her sunken eyes surrounded by red
+circles, and of an agonized expression, she was indeed the picture of
+the unhappy queen; not the queen in faces and crowned with roses, but
+the queen of the prison and the guillotine. Like unto Marie Antoinette,
+sorrow only augmented her grace and dignity. When she held her hand to
+Soliviac to be kissed, no court might show so regal a movement.
+
+Naundorff opened his arms to Soliviac, both shedding tears.
+
+"When do we start?" the former asked, as though longing to be off.
+
+"At once, if Monseigneur wishes."
+
+"Do not call me 'Monseigneur.' That is over, Captain. I am only
+Naundorff, the mechanic, the chemist. You are taking me from a land
+where I have known only sorrow to a country of peace and liberty. In
+Holland my good wife and little children await me. There shall I forget
+my insensate dreams, the cause of my ills. Because of my refusal to
+accept the decrees of fate, I have been punished in whom I most love,
+this daughter. A widow twice, never having been a wife, her life is
+blighted forever. The prison walls did not lie in speaking to me the
+terrible words: 'Your friends shall perish.'"
+
+Amélie laid her hand on her father's shoulder. Her eyes were dry. She
+seemed to forgive him all that she had suffered.
+
+"My friends," added Naundorff, turning to the Carbonari, "let us give
+the lie to the prison prophecy. Since I am given respite and my
+persecutors seem to be satiated from having rifled me of my
+certificates; since they ignore my interview with the woman--whom I have
+forgiven (may my mother in heaven forgive her also)--; friends, return
+to a quiet life and cease to combat, cease to conspire, cease to avenge!
+A clear light illumines my mind and heart. I see what I would impart to
+you. Listen: Resist not evil; rather return good for evil. He who
+uproots the hedge will be bitten by the serpent, say the words of
+eternal wisdom. Forgive that you may be forgiven."
+
+Louis Pierre turned his face away that Naundorff might not see the keen
+light in his eyes.
+
+"Farewell, farewell!" repeated the outlaw. "I am a simple man,
+henceforth. My only title is that of Man. I go to earn my bread by the
+sweat of my brow. I go to die obscurely. Embrace me again."
+
+The two Carbonari folded their arms around him, Giacinto shedding tears.
+Naundorff said gently:
+
+"Thanks, thanks! Peace descend upon you both. Cease to struggle, claim
+not your dues. And you, Giacinto, do penance. Your hands are stained
+with blood."
+
+The Sicilian involuntarily looked upon those members. Just then they
+were seized by Amélie, who whispered in his ear:
+
+"O Giacinto, do not reproach yourself! 'Twas simple justice. Listen. She
+who prepared the ambuscade shall herself leave France in banishment, or
+else there is no God."
+
+Some moments later the sloop glided out of port. Erect and majestic,
+like unto a dethroned queen, Amélie waved an adieu to the Knights of
+Liberty.
+
+Giacinto and Louis Pierre stood motionless on the wharf which now began
+to be covered with fishermen, sailors and venders. Their eyes were
+riveted upon the sloop as she reached the schooner Polipheme. They could
+still distinguish the black form of Amélie and her father's grave
+outlines. The Polipheme weighed anchor, spread sails and gracefully
+cleaved the waves red with the morning sun.
+
+The gay voices of the crowd ashore awaiting the arrival of the fishing
+smacks constituted so brilliant a tout ensemble that Giacinto,
+notwithstanding the sad parting from his friends, felt new life rushing
+through his veins and joy tugging at his heart strings. He looked at
+Louis Pierre. That face wore an expression recalling vengeance and the
+scaffold. Shuddering, the Sicilian returned to reality.
+
+"They are gone, Louis Pierre," said he, in order to break the silence.
+"They are gone,--those royal personages whom history will fail to
+enumerate."
+
+"Giacinto, you should have gone to Holland with them. I advise you as a
+friend, for in Versailles you have a mistress whom you have filched from
+a guard,--a dangerous experiment. O, I know all about it; she lives on
+our floor. Do you think the bird worth the risking of your neck? Yes,
+it was best for our friends to go. The police pretend to have forgotten
+us. 'Tis a trap. They will not forget to square accounts with the man
+who sent Volpetti to his brother Satan.--You are a child, Giacinto, and
+may be led to any pasture by a petticoat string--"
+
+"Bah!" interrupted the other. "Were it not for petticoats, what savor
+would remain to life? My dear little laundress has set me quite crazy
+with love and the sergeant is dying with jealousy. Will you believe that
+here also I have discovered a jewel of a woman?--the daughter of a
+tinker. And I am either a fool or this night--"
+
+"So you remain? You are indeed a fool, Giacinto. I shall work out my
+ends, henceforth, without your aid. Tho I be sought, I shall not be
+found; even tho I be found, I shall not be caught, and even tho I be
+caught, I shall not be retained. In this enigma I speak the truth."
+
+Giacinto's superstitious nature was aroused.
+
+"Why do you say these words, friend?" he asked.
+
+"Because no man is overcome until he has performed his assigned task,"
+serenely replied the Knight of Liberty. "Was the Other One overcome
+before he had subjugated Europe? Today he is chained to Saint Helena,
+but he first demonstrated the might of the Revolution. Before he could
+demonstrate the might of Despotism, he was overpowered, for this the
+Fates would not permit."
+
+"We are not the Other One."
+
+"Each man is the Other One. Each man may change the world if he acts of
+himself."
+
+"Bah!" retorted Giacinto. "We are pawns on a chess-board. Poor devils,
+we but play our part. What matters it to me that it be primary or
+secondary? I have sent to hell the devil who killed my brother. For the
+rest, a fig!--I feel his warm blood on my hands now!"
+
+His nostrils dilated at the ghastly memory, his lips smacked with savage
+joy, his handsome face glowed with exultation.
+
+"Yes," answered Louis Pierre in a solemn voice. "Your work is
+accomplished. Fear, Giacinto, for you are now a hollow shell. Remember
+how the dastardly Volpetti was given life only to accomplish his
+mission. Volpetti was delivered to you when he had secured the documents
+for Lecazes. But my work is as yet unfulfilled. For that reason I am
+secure. My history is as yet unwritten."
+
+"And it shall remain unwritten, my friend. What have two poor devils
+such as you and I to do with history, especially since we no longer
+accompany royalty?"
+
+"I am a man," retorted Louis Pierre Louvel. "Have you measured the power
+of a man? Giacinto, the birth of an individual is of transcendent
+importance. Remember Him who was born in Judea. Consider the
+significance of a male child to the House of France! This rotten dynasty
+which the Cossack has forced us to again endure may yet sprout forth
+fresh and green, and all because of a child's birth."
+
+By this time the two Carbonari had reached their lodgings. They ascended
+to their humble apartments. Louis Pierre took up his knapsack and,
+according to the French custom, kissed his companion on the cheek.
+
+"Are we not to breakfast together?" asked Giacinto.
+
+"By breakfast time, I shall be far away from this place. You should be
+also," replied Louis Pierre.
+
+"What would the tinker's daughter think of her sweetheart? She has this
+morning peeped from her window five times. She has thrown me a flower
+and waved her hand--"
+
+The fatalist remonstrated no further. Carrying his light equipage, he
+descended the rickety stairs. Naundorff had paid the bills. He might,
+therefore, depart, without seeking the host. His rickety form took the
+direction of the woods and was soon lost to view.
+
+An hour later Giacinto sat before a succulent repast of stewed fish. A
+girl held to his lips a glass of foamy beer. Just then steps and the
+clanking of muskets sounded on the stairway. The officer heading the
+soldiers laid a hand on the Sicilian's shoulder, saying:
+
+"Manacle his hands."
+
+
+
+
+Chapter X
+
+A DESCENDANT OF HENRI OF NAVARRE
+
+
+In a human existence there may be a culminating moment,--a moment in
+which ambitions are realized and reality adapts itself to the dreamed-of
+ideal. The maneuvers of a subterranean state-craft during that epoch of
+incessant conspiracy had raised Lecazes to the pinnacle of glory. The
+Police was in its apogee, holding triumphantly in its hands the warp
+whose reverse side was espionage, provocation, indictment, torture, and
+whose obverse consisted of brilliant court ceremonials, stormy
+discussions in Councils and diplomatic strife in the royal coterie,
+wherein conservative and reactionary parties contended bitterly.
+Dominating the maneuvers from his cabinet, the genial Minister
+reigned,--the arbiter of the nation. He was the real master. He held the
+reins and guided the King with well dissembled strategy, as well as the
+other members of the royal family and the courtiers and officials,--all
+of whom complacently obeyed him, in their solicitude for the
+maintenance of the legitimate government.
+
+Nevertheless, to use his own expression, "his life flowed between two
+walls of paper." He was accustomed to say that Paper was his worst
+enemy, adding, "You may rid yourself of a man but not of a piece of
+written paper." Excepting those retained as future shields, he tore all
+such sheets into bits, and compromising documents he burned.
+
+It was the month of February. Lecazes sat in the same closet in which he
+had received the Duchess de Rousillon. A cloud was upon his face and an
+expression at once stealthy and rapacious, such as characterizes the
+countenances of all selfishly ambitious men, when alone. The cause of
+his preoccupation was a letter just received. It was anonymous and
+contained only these brief clauses:
+
+"Naundorff is despoiled, de Brezé murdered, Giacinto executed. They
+shall be avenged. Guard the trunk; as for the limbs they are
+despicable."
+
+Such communications seldom troubled the Minister, accustomed as he was
+to the language of charlatans. He usually destroyed the epistles,
+smiling a Machiavellian smile. But this letter troubled him, for it was
+not the first of the series; others had periodically preceded it,
+giving no clue to the writer and seeming to have for object a warning to
+the intended victim.
+
+"There is not a thread of the net which I may not snap at will," he
+soliloquized. "They are not indeed thinking of avenging de Brezé or
+Naundorff--nor even that insignificant Carbonaro whom I have had to
+execute. I did not do so as retaliation for Volpetti's death. However
+much I miss him, I can not replace him. He was my hands and feet. But
+pshaw! in state-craft we waive vengeance and travel direct to our
+ends,--the Carbonari to the demolishing of the throne, I to the
+sustaining of it. To sustain it I have wrought miracles. Had I not
+obtained the papers which have cost me Volpetti, alas for the dynasty!
+The happy exit must console me for the loss of my best man."
+
+Re-reading the anonymous sheet, his attention was arrested by the phrase
+"Guard the trunk."
+
+"Who is the trunk?" he asked himself. "I should overestimate even my own
+importance to suppose they mean me. Can it be the King? Poor decayed
+trunk, soon to fall beneath the great woodman's ax! Can it be his
+brother? Impossible!--that hollow reactionary, incorrigible trunk. He is
+the Carbonari's best ally. I know not what will be the outcome of the
+King's succumbing to gout. Can it be the Duke Louis? Sterile trunk! No,
+if any one in particular is signified, 'tis Ferdinand,--the destined
+perpetuator of the race. Let us see! Lecazes, imagine yourself a
+conspirator. Whom would you attack? Why Ferdinand! Ferdinand the
+debonnaire, the well-loved, the generator of heirs. May this writing be
+the effusion of some fool? Or is it a conspirator's dash of romantic
+honor in warning the intended victim? However that be, I must warn the
+Prince. He is as unsuspicious and gay and heroic as his ancestor, Henry
+of Navarre. Flatterers assure him that he is that great monarch's
+prototype. He and his wife go about so freely and to every kind of
+diversion. During one of these sky-larkings--Ah! kings may not live as
+other men. Naundorff little realizes the good turn I did him and his
+family by barring his approach to the throne, nor she either, the
+audacious little intriguante. She has ample opportunity now to devote
+her energies to the weaving of Flemish laces."
+
+These thoughts still occupied him when he that afternoon entered the
+royal cabinet. Before the monarch stood a table whose draperies were
+arranged to conceal the swollen feet, for the gout grew daily worse.
+Nevertheless, in frequent carriage rides and an incessant sortie of fine
+classic raillery from his patrician lips, Louis XVIII demonstrated an
+increased activity.
+
+When Lecazes entered, the valetudinarian smiled piquantly, as one might
+in slipping manacles on the wrists of an astute diplomat. Handing the
+Minister a threatening letter, he vehemently asked:
+
+"What does this mean, Baron? I am asked for an audience. I am told that
+some one possesses knowledge of impending evil to the royal family. I am
+warned that the refusing of this interview will be the cause of disaster
+to those dearest to me. It follows that some one is better informed than
+I concerning our interests. Is not this a humiliating position for a
+King?"
+
+As Lecazes was about to answer, there entered unannounced a man in the
+prime of life. He had a prepossessing nonchalant impetuous manner. This
+was Prince Ferdinand, second son of the King's brother Charles, sole
+hope of the race's continuation. He was not handsome but he possessed in
+a high manner the simple frankness and graceful address characteristic
+of certain members of the Bourbon family, which was so captivating as to
+create around them, even in times of popular discontent, an atmosphere
+of loyalty. Ferdinand was short of stature and irregular in feature, but
+his bright glance and irradiating vitality acted always as a great
+jubilant wave enveloping all near him. A generous and cordial nature,
+rising spontaneously to heroism, was revealed in his face, mingled with
+a noble energy.
+
+"Sire," he said, kissing his uncle's hand, "I pray you to pardon my
+intrusion. I have an urgent communication which must not be delayed a
+moment."
+
+Lecazes made a discreet movement of withdrawal.
+
+"No, no, Baron," interposed Ferdinand. "I pray you to remain. I expected
+to find you here. I know, besides, that His Majesty has no secrets from
+you. Indeed, I suppose you are better informed concerning this tangle
+than I, for your fingers it is that have woven the mesh."
+
+"To what does your Royal Highness allude?" asked Lecazes guardedly.
+
+"To letters which I constantly receive," replied Ferdinand sharply.
+"Letters which have kept me awake more than one night."
+
+"Love letters?" ironically inquired Lecazes. "Your Royal Highness
+inspires innumerable passions. 'Tis no marvel that these letters rain
+upon you. What I find amusing is your simplicity in taking them
+seriously."
+
+The Prince's frank countenance darkened. His brow contracted and his
+lips curled disdainfully as he replied:
+
+"Baron, I am not accustomed to discuss such questions with
+others,--least of all with the police! The matter concerns,--bah! why
+should I relate this to you?--the matter concerns a member of our family
+who has been rifled of personal documents and forced into exile, in
+order to avoid even more barbarous treatment."
+
+"Will Your Royal Highness be good enough to mention the name
+of--this--member of the royal House?"
+
+"You know his name better than I, since 'twas you who prepared the
+villainous ambuscade and the other iniquities which I shall not
+enumerate."
+
+"Who is Your Royal Highness's informant?" asked Lecazes, turning livid.
+
+"One who knows whereof he speaks," replied the Prince producing a packet
+of letters.
+
+"But Ferdinand, my son, why do you credit such calumniators?" interposed
+the King.
+
+"Sire, these are not calumnies. If you consider them such, why not turn
+upon them the light of day? To me they have ample confirmation in the
+face of Monsieur the Superintendent of Police, or in your own, Sire, or
+in that of Madame my cousin and sister-in-law. I have seen her swoon on
+hearing the name of the man whose personal history contains the tragic
+episodes enacted last summer in Versailles park. The life of that true
+knight and gentleman, my dear friend, René de Giac, there paid the
+penalty for his loyalty--he, the son of one of the most valiant of
+Condé's officers--"
+
+"Ferdinand," stammered the King, his face growing paler and paler, "your
+words are audacious and unwarranted. From any other than you, I should
+pronounce them the ravings of a madman. What inference is to be drawn
+from your asseverations? None other than that we are a usurper, that the
+Restoration was a robbery and that as restitution, we must deliver up
+the throne, after having played the role of thief, and retire into
+private life amid the jeers of the spectators. What would follow then,
+think you? Nothing less than an armed intervention of Europe to restore
+order in France a second time and clear the bandit caves of their
+booty."
+
+"We are not speaking of an impostor," insisted Ferdinand bravely.
+
+"Dare you call us usurper, then?" shrieked the King.
+
+The smile on Lecazes's lips was a discharge of gall and the gleam in his
+eyes was Satanic.
+
+"For my part, Sire," retorted the nephew, "I believe you to be such. I
+refuse--O more than the glory of thrones and crowns do I cherish honor
+and the religion of Knighthood. I may or may not have a right to the
+tide Royal Highness, but beyond question I am a soldier, and
+notwithstanding certain gallantries, a Christian. I do not proclaim my
+virtue as does my brother Louis, but neither do I ravish another man of
+his rights. I will not longer live this life. I have tried to make light
+of these letters. Does Your Majesty know why? Because in all of them
+breathes a threat, and no man shall think me coward. If God gives me
+life and France wars,'twill be demonstrated whether or not I am such. My
+coming to you now has for object that of declaring to your Majesty that
+if this matter be not adjudicated according to law and justice and in a
+manner befitting our family dignity, I shall be forced to the
+alternative of going to Holland and offering my services to my cousin,
+as a partial reparation for the iniquity practised upon him."
+
+"And I should not be surprised at your extravagance, my dear nephew,"
+replied the King, irate and sarcastic. "Your action would be in keeping
+with the conduct of a man who never considers the consequences of his
+acts, a man who married a London woman of base extraction,--the plebeian
+Amy Brown, a man who disregards court etiquette so far as to imitate the
+Corsican in his policy of acquiring popularity with the army, a man
+whose language in public is such as to undermine the established regime.
+You would be more satisfactory nephew, were you to fulfill your office,
+of furnishing France with a male heir of whom we stand in so great
+need."
+
+Ferdinand, far from evincing annoyance at the burst of wrath, answered
+serenely:
+
+"Sire, I scarcely think you hold me accountable for failing to
+counteract the decrees of Providence regarding the birth of an heir. As
+for the matter which brings me here, I declare that my regard for Your
+Majesty cannot prevent my speaking my mind. I have considered that it
+was due you to make you a party to the knowledge of the iniquity, that
+you might have the opportunity of seconding my resolution. But if our
+strength is to have its foundation in infamy, a sad future has the
+House! I ask for but my commission in the army or to be a soldier in the
+ranks. Your Majesty accuses me of imitating the Corsican. I reply that
+the only glory I seek is the glory of arms and of a fearless heart."
+
+"Is this all you would say, nephew?" asked the King, white with rage.
+
+"Your Majesty is offended? Your Majesty dismisses me?"
+
+"His Majesty's strength is unequal to such shocks," interposed Lecazes.
+
+"My Lord Baron," said the Prince, "you are right. I retire. Henceforth,
+Ferdinand de Bourbon has no guide but his conscience."
+
+Saluting the monarch gravely and the Minister with mock respect, he
+departed.
+
+Lecazes followed him with a smile. As his footsteps died away, the Baron
+shrugged his shoulders.
+
+"What do you think of this Lecazes?" inquired the King.
+
+"That we must let the Prince continue the road he has chosen. Place no
+obstacles in his way--and do not trouble your mind about him.--Many
+important historical events have just such origins as this.--I shall not
+meddle in the affairs of His Royal Highness."
+
+In the minister's mind there was formed the picture of a young vigorous
+tree felled at a blow.
+
+
+
+
+Chapter XI
+
+FERDINAND'S FATE
+
+
+Two days later a tumultuous carnival animated Paris. Crowds jostled each
+other in the streets and gazed upon the procession of the Bull crowned
+with flowers and the triumphal car freighted with maidens in gala
+clothes and singing their applause. One of these maidens, a Versailles
+laundress, was a shining mark, by reason of the brilliancy of her
+complexion and the gleaming of her hair. On passing the Gate of
+Saint-Denis, seeing a small man of puny frame and bilious skin she
+called merrily out to him:
+
+"Hello, Louis Pierre, old owl, de profundis face, don't you want to sup
+tonight with some happy people at the Inn Mariscale?"
+
+The masks and students near laughed to split their throats, and the
+interrogated man hastened to conceal himself amid the crowd. He took
+refuge in his lodgings and devoured his dinner with an almost savage
+hunger, a strange action, for he was usually abstemious. Then he went
+out again and mingled with the crowd. He leaned against the glass
+windows of the royal theatre and watched the brilliant concourse within.
+A great festival was in progress. The program announced the "Carnival of
+Venice" and "The Marriage of Camacho." Carriages rolled, torches
+gleamed, the crowd surged. The Court was arriving. Louis Pierre felt his
+head swim. "Now, now!" a voice seemed mockingly to whisper. But in spite
+of the mandate, he remained inert. Action refused to travel from brain
+to hands.
+
+"What ails me?" he asked himself. "Is it fear? Is it that I should not?
+Am I about to perpetrate an act of justice or a crime? Have not my
+warnings remained unheeded? I could do no more than I have done, unless,
+indeed, I should deliver myself into their hands--"
+
+While thus he vacillated, Prince Ferdinand and his wife the Princess
+Caroline descended from their carriage and entered the theatre.
+
+"Another opportunity lost! Vacillations, scruples, absurd perplexities,
+culpable weaknesses! Have not these people given entrance to the
+Cossacks and oppressed and rifled the innocent Naundorff? De Brezé's
+blood cries for vengeance. This besotted city steeped in a Carnival
+orgie! What is the Association doing? The Knights seem to sleep on
+their arms. But Brutus keeps vigil--. Notwithstanding my numerous
+letters, they have set no watch on me. 'Tis that Destiny protects me. I
+was born to put my project into execution.--Let us wait, and then--the
+ax to the trunk."
+
+He walked away objectless through the royal gardens, stumbling at every
+moment upon groups who sang bacchanalian refrains and prurient couplets
+from Beranger. Women, with painted faces wearing flowers and greens,
+flung cynical jests in his face. A drunkard insulted him. He heeded
+nothing, thirsting only for the fresh night air, which in his feverish
+condition he inhaled voraciously. Incoherent words rumbling through his
+brain seemed to urge him to the deed.
+
+"I must obey, I must obey!" he kept saying. "Then I shall find rest.
+Indecision and torture will be over."
+
+He computed the moments with burning anxiety.
+
+"It must be tonight. When again shall I have the opportunity? Tomorrow I
+must return to Versailles."
+
+He walked stealthily back and forth, between the garden and the theatre.
+The night advanced and the streets were growing deserted; the taverns
+were being emptied of their occupants; the great clock sounded two, then
+the half hour; the royal carriages drew up. The Carbonaro glided along
+the solitary street of Louvois and made his way amid a group of lackeys.
+His insignificant stature enabled him to remain there unmolested. He was
+supposed to be some hackney coachman or an assistant placed there for
+the purpose of guarding horses. Louis Pierre stood motionless close to
+the wall.
+
+He had not long to wait. Prince Ferdinand descended the steps,
+accompanying his wife, who was leaving early, being fatigued from a ball
+which she had attended the previous night. The Prince intended remaining
+longer,--perchance to hover around some fair face. But, in order to
+forestall any jealous pangs, he whispered to her gallantly and
+affectionately, according to his winning nature:
+
+"I shall be with you very soon."
+
+The suspicious, ardent Italian wife and the impulsive, gallant husband
+were a happy devoted pair. Caroline had warned him, as they left the
+box, not to remain late.
+
+"Don't wait for the sun to chase you home," she had said, half
+playfully, half seriously. "I must go now, myself, in order to--be
+careful of--our secret--the heir we are to give to France."
+
+He reassured her tenderly, solicitously, pressing her arm to his side.
+On reaching the carriage, he spoke the words we have already reproduced
+and which are recorded in history as the last words of Ferdinand: "I
+shall be with you very soon."
+
+She stepped lightly into the carriage and turned her head at the window
+to have a last look at her husband as he started towards the theatre. He
+was walking along the pavement of Rameau street, beneath the gay
+buntings. Louis Pierre stood among the lackeys and sentinels. When
+later, in the solitude of the dungeon, he lived again the tragic moments
+of his deed,--he could not understand how he accomplished with such
+admirable dexterity that which a half hour earlier seemed so difficult
+of execution. An invisible hand seemed to have guided him and sent his
+own hand unflinchingly to its task. That powerful man, surrounded by
+courtiers, friends and sentinels, who, drawn up on each side, presented
+arms; that man whose splendid physique was revealed through his elegant
+dress and who with one hand could have hurled to earth the puny creature
+inflicting death:--that man, Louis Pierre assured himself, had been
+delivered helpless and unsuspicious into his hands by Fate. He was no
+longer overpowered by the consciousness of his insignificance; no longer
+did he regard himself a despicable atom; within him was a species of
+lucid inebriation, a glorious wave of pride and confidence. His moment
+shone. The obscure plebeian had written his page of history.
+
+"Before that moment, my life had amounted to naught. My latent self
+suddenly sprang into being. To be satisfied with killing a spy! What
+puerility! So little sufficed the inferior nature of Giacinto."
+
+Thus communed Pierre Louis, as the imperious face of Amélie, her mouth
+drawn in bitter disdain, with a terrible frown as of an avenging
+archangel, came to his mind's eye. She stood for the feminine suggestion
+there is in all tragedy. Great souls are lonely. They so love their
+ideals that they cannot compromise nor forgive. It seemed to him that
+the splendid eyes of Naundorff's daughter had fearlessly and
+unhesitatingly shown him the way to the Prince. As a somnambulist moves,
+he had accomplished the deed. With his small dagger, he had dealt a
+marvelously dexterous blow, rapid and to the spot. Ferdinand felt no
+wound, not even the coldness of the blade; he thought some one chanced
+to strike against him; suddenly he realized he was about to fall. None
+of the others suspected the truth. Meanwhile the assailant disappeared.
+On reaching the corner of Richelieu street, Louis Pierre nonchalantly
+slackened his speed and started toward the dark arcades, today in ruins,
+opposite the stupendous edifice of the library. He was safe from
+pursuit. None of those near whom he had stood before the theatre knew
+him. He told himself that his life had trembled on the edge of a blade.
+
+Just then he passed an inn wherein coffee was being served. Fate
+ordained that a waiter carrying a tray upon which the fragrant beverage
+steamed should step out of the door and stumble against him, an accident
+occasioning the breaking of the dishes. The waiter turned infuriated
+upon the causer of the damage, and, chasing him into the darkness of an
+alley, caught him by the collar and shook him soundly. The Carbonaro was
+such a weakling! He seemed to hear an interior voice saying:
+
+"You have wrought. Now 'tis this man's turn."
+
+When Ferdinand reached the vestibule, he involuntarily put his hand to
+his side, over the unsuspected wound. He felt the projecting hilt of the
+dagger. The entire blade was buried in his body. He cried out in pain as
+the fine triangular weapon was extracted. The Princess Caroline hurried
+back from her carriage and threw her arms around him and those bare
+round arms were bathed in blood. Then followed tender heart-rending
+adieux. The dying Prince poured out his soul during his last hours even
+as his body delivered up its life. He spoke of glory, of patriotism, of
+Christian faith, of love, of past faults; but more insistently than
+ought else, did he plead for the assassin's pardon. As the King bent
+over him, his lips, livid with the approach of death, implored:
+
+"Forgive him, forgive him! We are all sinners, having need of
+forgiveness. Sire and uncle, say yes!"
+
+As the King maintained silence, he groaned:
+
+"O my God, do you deny me this dying consolation?"
+
+In his agony, as fever consumed his ebbing life, this descendant of
+Henry of Navarre, so like that glorious ancestor, even in the manner of
+his death, murmured:
+
+"Forgive him, forgive him!"
+
+Lecazes, meanwhile, amazed at the swiftness with which the trunk had
+fallen, approached Louis Pierre, who was a prisoner in one of the lower
+apartments, and whispered, as he drew him aside:
+
+"Did you do this for money? Have you accomplices"
+
+The Carbonaro cast upon the Minister a look of scorn, saying:
+
+"Do men do these things for money? I am the avenger of my country and of
+Naundorff and his daughter. The race perishes. There will be no heir."
+
+"Fool," replied the Minister, gloating over that somber soul's
+discomfiture, "the Princess is promised an heir."
+
+Louis Pierre turned pale as the futility of the crime overwhelmed him.
+
+"No matter," said he. "I did the deed and I would repeat it a thousand
+times."
+
+Again he assumed the stoical air and supreme command of self which
+characterized him in such a high degree both during his trial and upon
+the scaffold.
+
+The whispered dialogue between Lecazes and the assassin was remarked by
+the other occupants in the apartment and became the basis of the charge
+of complicity brought against the Baron, and was the cause of his
+removal and fall. It was said of him that:
+
+"He slipped in the puddle of blood and fell."
+
+
+FINIS.
+
+
+     CONTENTS
+
+     EMILIA PARDO BAZÁN
+
+     A GREAT GRANDSON OF LOUIS XVI
+
+     Book I MARTIN, THE SEER
+     Chapter I--THE LOVERS
+     Chapter II--MEMORIES
+     Chapter III--THE EMPTY COFFIN
+     Chapter IV--AMÉLIE
+     Chapter V--THE FIRST THREADS OF THE NET
+     Chapter VI--THE BAILIFF
+     Chapter VII--THE EPICUREAN
+     Chapter VIII--THE SEER
+
+     Book II--THE CASKET
+     Chapter I--THE MINIATURE
+     Chapter II--THE DAUPHIN'S SISTER
+     Chapter III--THE EMPTY COFFIN
+     Chapter IV--MARIE
+     Chapter V--A COURTEOUS MAN
+     Chapter VI--TORTURE
+     Chapter VII--THE BLACK HOLE
+     Chapter VIII--THE EXECUTION
+     Chapter IX--THE ESCAPE
+     Chapter X--PRUSSIA
+     Chapter XI--NAUNDORFF
+     Chapter XII--THE DAUPHIN'S WIFE
+     Chapter XIII--THE INCENDIARY
+
+     Book III THE KNIGHTS OF LIBERTY
+     Chapter I--LYING IN WAIT
+     Chapter II--THE TRAPPED FOX
+     Chapter III--RENÉ WAITS
+     Chapter IV--MINE AND COUNTERMINE
+     Chapter V--THE CREAKING BOOTS
+     Chapter VI--THE PARDON
+     Chapter VII--THE REVELATION
+     Chapter VIII--THE CAPTAIN
+     Chapter IX--THE SCHOONER
+
+     Book IV PICMORT
+     Chapter I--THE CASTLE
+     Chapter II--BAD NEWS
+     Chapter III--GIACINTO'S RETURN
+     Chapter IV--NIGHT
+     Chapter V--THE CHILD
+     Chapter VI--THE MARRIAGE
+     Chapter VII--DEATH
+
+     Book V THE SISTER
+     Chapter I--PORTENTS
+     Chapter II--THE QUESTION
+     Chapter III--REASONS OF STATE
+     Chapter IV--CONJUGAL LOVE
+     Chapter V--THE SISTER
+     Chapter VI--LOUIS PIERRE'S SISTER
+     Chapter VII--THE INTERVIEW
+     Chapter VIII--THE AMBUSH
+     Chapter IX--GIACINTO'S FATE
+     Chapter X--A DESCENDANT OF HENRI OF NAVARRE
+     Chapter XI--FERDINAND'S FATE
+
+*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 41509 ***